This Week at Our House # 9

1. Work continues to go well for John as we continue to pray that it will. John's grandma died Friday, about six months after her husband. We bought John a plane ticket last night and he will join Ruth in Utah for the funeral next Saturday. She was 97 and lived a full life. I think we are little sad around here. Ruth, Kate, and Rachel had a good relationship with her.
2. We finally had Sam's baby blessing today. My parents came for the weekend and left right after Sacrament meeting. I was glad to see them and show off little Sam. 
3. Ruth's mouth and face slowly healed. Her teacher's were good to her and gave her extra time for her exams. 
4. Kate had the worst week of all. Within 24 hours Kate's great grandmother died, she started drivers ed with a horrible teacher, she got rejected from BYU, her seminary teacher is unhappy with her for the faithful and scriptural comments she's made in class, and when we went to take her to the local dairy farm for their delicious ice cream they were closed because of winter hours. Kate did have a blessing at the beginning of the school year that told her to trust in the Lord when it comes to her schooling. It said that if she got into BYU, it was the Lord's will and if she didn't, it was the Lord's will for her to go to BYUI and that she needed to trust in that. Kate has also felt like there are other things since that blessing that prepared her for this. At the end of the day, Kate did the work to save her spot at BYUI. She was assigned to the fall/spring track, which she was not happy with either, but again, she felt like she needed to trust the Lord's hand in these things. She will be rooming with her old friend from home school, years ago, and she will be staying in the same apartment complex that Ruth lives in now. In the fall, I will have another trip out to BYUI. I am beginning to think that BYUI will be the right school for our children.
5. Johnny is doing well with his school work. He is reading the 7 volume History of the Church and a history of Napoleon. His math is going well too. He started drivers ed with Kate. I am glad that they are getting to do it together as it is 30 hours of useless class time with information that could be taught and tested on in about 5 hours. Johnny and Kate now have 24 hours to go. 
6. I had to do state testing with my kids for home school. I did it this week. They all did pretty well. Adam seemed happy to have his grandpa over. He played several games including tennis with him. Adam has been enjoying gardening.
7. Rachel sat and cried during her state testing because she said it was too hard. The test was timed, so that obviously hurt her performance, but she still scored in the 78% for all 5th graders that take the California state tests.
8. Anya inherited some pretty dresses from her cousin that she is quite happy about. 
9. Joseph did the best on his state testing. He was overall in the 93rd percentile.
10. Joshua did a better job at beginning his school work when I tell him too. I bought him a new math book. He is moving into 2nd grade math as he has nearly completed the first grade math curriculum. His reading is coming along. I suspect it will be another year before he reads fluently, but he can read the books I give him, he is good at memorizing his site words, and he is getting better at sounding out small words.
11. Arwen still just quietly goes about her days. She is slowly learning her alphabet to prepare for kindergarten next year.
12. Whenever I start to worry about Susan's talking, she says something impressive. Adam was the same way. I brought him in to be tested for speech at 35 months and he tested at 34 months, but I was so worried. I think Susan is following Adam on that, including on pronunciation.
13. Sam had his baby blessing today, and he got to meet his Grandparents for the first time. He is mostly happy and sweet. But I think he will be sleeping in bed with me for some time to come. Usually by this age, I have my babies in their own bed half the night or more. Sam will not sleep in his own bed and he does not cry himself to sleep. He tenses up instead. I think Heavenly Father knew what he was doing putting Sam last. This would have been really hard if it was the 4th, 5th, or 6th baby. Sam is now playing with his little toys and grabbing things. They change so quickly at this age.

Pictures

Rachel designed this lego house for a lego building contest

Sam on his blessing day. This is the suit all of my boys got blessed in.

Sam meets his grandparents