Happy Birthday, Susan

Little Miss Suzy is 3!!!!! She has always been a joy and a comfort to me even as she turned from a cute sweet baby to a terrifying toddler. She is strong willed and full of fun. We love our little Susan.

This Week at Our House # 24

1. My parents rented a home at a nearby beach for the week, so we traveled back and forth and had a lot of fun at the beach. John worked a lot on the drives, at home before we left and the two days we did not make it down. Then he was just in love at the beach. It's the perfect place for exercise.
2. Our family really, really loves the beach. We spent Monday, Wednesday, Friday night and Saturday at the beach with my parents. On Monday, we spent 5 straight hours swimming. That was a mistake because most of us burned pretty badly and some were pretty sick from heat and dehydration. My favorite part was when John and I swam together alone on Monday and had a very nice conversation. The waves were gentle Monday, but by Saturday they were coming hard and fast and tall.
3. Tuesday, I drove to Raleigh for Ruth to finish the last thing she needed for her visa. She got her fingerprints done and then mailed everything in to the Church. Hopefully, everything is right and her visa will come in on time. Ruth did some family history with my mom. She is working on the English line and excited about this as her mission will be in England.
4. Kate was very sick on Tuesday. Monday, she swam for 5 hours straight and between the salt, the heat, and the sunburn, she was very dehydrated. She spent all night Monday with diarrhea and then vomiting on Tuesday while trying to rehydrate. Monday night she finally felt better, weak, but better. But because of it, she missed the beach on Wednesday.
5. Johnny stayed home with Kate on Wednesday. He got a pretty bad sunburn and after that he was careful about how much time he spent in the sun.
6. Adam loves the ocean and swimming. He has become a very strong swimmer and seems to have a lot of stamina. Our garden is growing reasonably well and Adam is the one to harvest it, He enjoys eating it too, including the turnips. I have really enjoyed the herbicide-free, pesticde-free, and non-gmo tomatoes.
7. Rachel swam with Kate without taking a break on Monday. She burned the worst and spent all day Tuesday lying on the couch moaning. After that, she was concerned about the sun. But, for the first time ever, she took my advice and wore a shirt over her swimsuit. It's not as cute, but it is much more practical. Rachel is gaining some wisdom!Oh, and Rachel finally learned to ride a bike. All the other kids picked it up between 7 and 8 and often just on their own. Rachel finally got up enough gumption to spend the time needed to learn.
8. Anya burned on her back pretty badly too. But she just doesn't ever complain much. Anya loves to swim, but she is very cautious. She will not go out very deep. It's cute to have her tell me to stop and not go further in the water because it makes her afraid. Anya loves catching minnows at the beach. Monday, they were plentiful and she had a bucket full of fish. She also caught two hermit crabs. 
9. On Monday Joseph swam in the deep water above his head the whole day, but the rest of the week, the waves were too fierce and he had to stay shallow. Joseph can swim now and he swims well. I used to think I needed to get my kids swimming lessons, but I have learned that all you really need to do is take them swimming enough and eventually they pick it up. 
10. My mom bought Joshua this really big truck to play with on the beach. He is in love!! 
11. My mom bought tons of buckets and shovels and sand toys that Arwen had a lot of fun with. 
12. On Thursday, I told Suzy that her birthday was soon. She didn't say much, but later she fetched her unwrapped birthday present out of hiding. I had no idea she knew where it was, what it was, or what her birthday is. We hid her presents in a safer place, but she is clearly ready and waiting. She will be 3 tomorrow.
13. Despite using sunscreen, a sun hat, and keeping Sam in the shade, he still got sunburnt from Saturdays beach time. Fortunately for me, he seems to sleep a little longer and deeper. I expected the opposite. 

Pictures

Adam's love for Duck Dynasty and the outdoors has led to a love for camo-- blek

Josh has been building some awesome block creations for his creative time each day.

Kate at her seminary graduation not wanting me to get a photo.

Suzy wears her old swimsuit on her head for a headband almost everyday.

Suzy has the same birthday as my mom, so my mom likes to do a mini-double-celebration every year. This year they are 70 and 3!

Fathers Day 2017

No one wanted a picture except me, and maybe that is because I wasn't in it. I told them that they didn't even have to go outside or smile... all I wanted them to do was to sit in a way that I could see everyone's faces. But that apparently was still too much to ask.

Anyway, John is a great dad. Our kids are very lucky. He is always teaching, training, talking, playing, and having fun with our kids. He is a superior gospel teacher and takes his role as patriarch of our home very seriously. We are all blessed to have him.

This Week at Our House # 23

1. The year is sure speeding by and we had another busy week. John of course worked. But he also spent a lot of time teaching our family and playing with the kids. 
2. Monday we had a 15 year old home school girl from Idaho give our kids a presentation on movies. I really liked having my kids connect with other homeschoolers and members of the church in this way.
3. Ruth went out with the missionaries twice. She really likes doing this and feels like it is helping her to prepare for her mission. The British visa computer system finally started working, so Ruth has her appointment made and will have all that stuff finished and in by the end of this week.
4. We were invited to the beach with our Bishops family. Kate and Johnny are good friends with their kids. I know that Kate had a great time. Kate had seminary graduation today and she is being told that it is time for her to attend the singles ward. That is a little problem for us because we only have one car and the two wards times make it impossible to just drop them off. Oh and I now have 17 years of seminary to go.
5. Johnny had a fun time swimming with his friends too. 
6. Adam tried riding a skin board at the beach. I think he really enjoyed that. 
7. Rachel and I had a great time swimming together at the beach. The waves were calm and the water was warm.
8. Anya caught a tiny fish at the beach and carried it up to the house in a large shell that she caught as well. It was pretty cute. She spent a lot of time trying to trap those tiny minnows.
9. Joseph has been learning to play some difficult games. He pays good attention and is enjoying learning strategy. He plays with John and Johnny now.
10. Joshua loved the beach. He does a good job staying shallow and knowing how much he can handle.
11. Arwen has grown up a lot in the last month or two. All of the little things I had worried about are no longer a problem. 
12. Potty training is not going too well for Miss Suzy. Hopefully, it won't be too much longer before she gets it.
13. Sam is 7 months and still sleeping with me. Otherwise he is just a calm, easy going little guy.

20 Years

June 7, 1997

Today John and I celebrate 20 years of marriage! We have a nursing baby, so we won't be doing anything special or overnight. We thought maybe we would next year, but both Ruth and Kate will be gone and Johnny will only be 16, so like the rest of our anniversaries, we will go out to dinner and wait until our kids are older to do something extra special. But having Samuel here makes every little sacrifice worth it.

Here's our 20 year Numbers

• 12 babies (11 living)
• weight gained: we are 50 and 75 lbs above our marriage weights (total gained and lost over 14 pregnancies would be astronomical.)
• 5 local moves
• 6 long distance moves
• 2 houses bought and sold and one expected purchase coming soon along with another local move.
• 3 cars (that's probably way below average) so that's something good.

Here's some things I know we've done right

• Monthly, bi-weekly, or weekly Temple attendance.
• Daily couple and family prayers.
• Searching the scriptures as a couple and really trying to come to an understanding of them.
• Having a large family despite difficulties.
• Making gospel teaching a priority in the home.

Hopefully, our 25 year marriage numbers will have lower weight gains as we are both hoping to take some of those extra pounds off.

Here are a few Pictures of us from the last 20 years.

These 2 Photos are from John's Birthday Oct 7, 1996 about a month after we met while attending the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. 

 These two photos are from April 2000. John had just finished all his work for his PhD and we had 2 kids. John had a post doc lined up in New York. Life was pretty exciting.

This is from February 2001. We lived in New York and I was just barely pregnant with Johnny.

 This above picture was taken in 2003. We had 3 kids and lived in Toronto, Canada. John was on his second post doc. 

This above picture was March 2006 at Ruth's baptism. I was 8.5 months pregnant with Rachel. Adam was just under a year and a half and we lived in Wichita, KS

 This picture was also 2006 when Rachel was new born. we thought we had a very big family.

The above picture is from 2007. We still had just 5 kids and lived in Kansas. The below picture is from Oct 2009. We had moved to Utah that year and we now had 7 children. Anya came in Jan 2008 and Joseph in July 2009.

The above picture was taken while we lived in Utah in the fall of 2010. Joseph was 1 and Ruth was 12 and I was about 5 months pregnant with Joshua. John had a good job and we had our lovely home in North Salt Lake. We thought life would continue to be just as blissful. We felt like we had finally made it. We were living in the state of our choice, enjoying extended family, and all was mostly as we imagined it when we got married.

This above picture was taken in November of 2013. Arwen and Josh were added to our family. John had been unemployed for 6 months and was working a job that only lasted 6 months. This was before things really got hard for us and before we ever imagined selling our house and leaving Utah.

This was taken when we were living with my parents just after we moved to North Carolina. I was pregnant with Christopher and completely unaware of what the future held. Things were really hard for our whole family at this time. 

This was just last December when Ruth came home from college for Christmas and Sam was a month old. We knew for sure that all of our kids had made it to our family. John had been working a good job for a few months and life was blissful once again.

And here we are today, June 7, 2017, 20 years of marriage and feeling grateful everyday that we married and chose to have the beautiful family that we now have. We do not know what the future holds, but we do know that with God's help and each other life will continue to be beautiful!

Ticket System

To convince my kids to read everyday during summer, I came up with a ticket system. They get one ticket each for reading, some service, scripture reading, family history work, and for doing something creative. Then they can use their tickets for certain things. I wrote up a whole page and it is taped on the fridge. Some of what they can get is an ice cream treat or one piece of candy or a game with mom for one ticket. 50 tickets will get them a lunch date with mom or dad. 100 tickets can get them a new lego set. 5 will allow them to use the hose and play outside with water. There's plenty more.

I write their names on the tickets and sign them, so they can't forge or trade or fight over whose ticket belongs to whom. And if they lose them, when they are found there is no question who they belong to.

The can get up to 5 tickets 5 days a week.

We are on week two and so far so good. Adam is the only one making an effort to save. Joseph uses his one at a time each day for treats. Rachel seems to get up to 10 and then wants an icee. Josh can't keep track of his, so he gets nothing until he finds them again. Anya may end up saving 50 because she loses them and finds them a lot. They are all reading and doing productive things instead of asking for tv or video games.

If I still like it at the end of the summer, I will do it again.

This Week at Our House # 22

1. Wow, it's June! The years are starting to go faster. John worked Memorial Day because we wanted to take the family to beach, but not on a busy beach day. So we made Wednesday his day off and went to the beach. Unfortunately, it was very windy. Johnny's glasses got buried somewhere in the sand from the wind and we never found them. But the waves were huge and strong and the water was warm. John was sad, though because we had to leave early than he wanted to because the little kids got cold and whiney. He is going to make a big kid only beach trip at some point.
2. I realized that I am just not going to get to enjoy the beach as much this summer because Sam is so little and needs me so much. I will get to go for a short swim when someone else takes him, but there will always have to be someone on the beach with him and I am the one he wants the most.
3. Ruth is reading and studying so much to prepare for her mission. She and I went shopping for her mission at a mall 2 hours from home. We originally had to go that way to get her finger prints for her visa, but the visa computer system is down over the world and none of the missionaries are able to take care of this right now. When we found out she would not have her appointment, we had already scheduled a Temple trip and time to meet my mom at the mall-- which is two hours the other direction from my mom, so a good meeting point. We brought all the girls and Sam and did our initiatory session and our mall shopping. Ruth got her suit she needed for her mission. I loved having her in the Temple with me. 
4. Kate had a busy week. She loves the beach and enjoyed that! She enjoyed seeing my mom and our girl trip to the mall and she babysat with Rachel's help outside the Temple. Then she went on an over night young womens camp out. Her friend Emma, came over to meet her bird. Kate's bird is starting to eat on it's own. It is flying well and we think it will be flying away soon.
5. Johnny had a much quieter week as all he had to do when we went shopping was keep an eye on Joseph and Joshua and play video games. Johnny is becoming a pretty strong ocean swimmer. Fortunately, Johnny got new glasses ordered Thursday morning and them in by Friday afternoon.
6. Adam loves the beach as much as Kate. He swims the whole time. Adam likes going places and will come with me on my errands. John took him and all the boys to a gun show. Adam loves that. I think he had a good week.
7. Rachel is at an inbetween stage. She desires to be a little kid and do little kid things and  she desires to be a big kid and do big kid things. Monday, Rachel stepped on a giant bumble bee and got the stinger in the bottom of her foot. The next day her foot got really swollen and hot. I had her soak it in salt water and put tea tree and lavender essential oils on it. Those helped a little, but an hour and a half spent in the ocean brought most of the swelling down, and she was able to walk again the next day when we went to the mall. 
8. Anya gets cold and complainy at the beach. She is always joined by Joshua and Arwen. But Anya was very well behaved at the mall and at the Temple.
9. Joseph actually loves the beach. He spent the whole time swimming. The waves were very strong and kept knocking him over, but he swam through them pretty well.
10. Joshua hid under a blanket at the beach because the wind was so fierce.
11. Arwen hid under a blanket at the beach too. Arwen started out acting pretty naughty at the mall, so I buckled her into a stroller for a while. After that she behaved very well. 
12. Suzy was dazzled by the mall. She hasn't been to a mall in a year and a half. She was really excited and skipped along very happily. 
13. Sam is 19 pounds and six and a half months! He can crawl, sit himself up and stand himself up. He also has 4 teeth broken through. His bottom two teeth came in only about a week before his top teeth. 

Pictures