Thursday, May 9, 2013

APRIL RECAP

We ended April off with the saying 'April Showers Bring May flowers" coming to pass in the form of SNOW showers! Emerson could NOT get enough of that crazy snow coming down on the driveway - after it had literally been warm that same day. He kept running out and looking up into the sky and sticking his tongue out.
(Yes I can see that he is barefoot and pantless  - See earlier post about being a *leftover mom*)
So - what happened throughout April this month....let's ABC it, why don't we?

THINGS WE DID...

A: Spring Break/General Conference Quick Visit to Utah
B: Campouts for the Boys
C:  Ward Boundary Changes

HOW I FELT...

A: For the last weekend of our Spring Break, we went on a quick trip to Utah - down on friday and back on Sunday! It happened to be General Conference weekend - so Greg took Seth for his first Priesthood Session. He went with Grandpa Bailey and Landen and Seth - and a few other family members as well. They had a good time.  On Friday night we were able to have a quick visit with our dear friends, the one and only Lee and Liana Kinikini family!  They are so awesome that our two youngest children would have happily gone to live with them after only meeting them for about 5 minutes! No joke! We also had a fast visit with Greg's mom and a few of his cute sisters in Draper. It is fun to see the younger sibs and their cute babies. We also heard for the first time the story of how Greg's mom and his youngest sister were home alone during the day on April 1st, when a man escaped from Police Custody during an interrogation at the police station that is just up the street from them. Well - turns out he decided to run and hide. He did just that - running INTO my MIL's house and hiding INSIDE of her son's bedroom closet in the basement. But, never fear, the brave Paula Bailey grabbed a pair of scissors and chased the perp out of her house!! It was quite the tale and had Greg riled up for a while and wanting to press charges against the Price City Police!

Check out this link to the newspaper article about it....it's legit dude!

http://www.sunad.com/index.php?tier=1&article_id=27730

During the other sessions we mostly just hung out in Bountiful and watched them on TV. Here are a few candid shots from the morning session...
Even with Emerson on top of him, Greg was able to catch some ZZZZZ's  inspiration!

Getting some more 'deep pondering' time in!

During the break between the 2 sessions on Saturday - we made a trip to the park with all the kids and with my niece and nephew (Madeline and Paul). We played ball, set up a slack-line to walk on, and just let the kids play at the playground. The weather was beautiful - and thanks to Maddy and her camera, we got some great shots! She is just great at capturing those candid and raw moments of life....
Enjoy!
























B: Greg is really enjoying being a scoutmaster and he once again took the 12-13 year olds on another campout. They try to do them around once a month (give or take). This last one was fairly close by and Seth said he had a great time. Landen went on a biking campout with his age group where he was able to participate in a bike race. He actually took his dad's bike with him since he doesn't really have one of his own right now. Well - imagine my surprise when he came home the next day sporting this new bike.


I was shocked that he had borrowed someone's brand new bike and I was like, "Who's is that?" He just grinned really big and all proud-like and said, "It's mine! I won it!" Turns out that he took 2nd place overall in the race and since the first place was a leader - he was the first youth to cross the line and therefore he WON that brand new bike! I want to just cry sometimes at how providential life seems to be. I am so happy for him and can't think of a soul who deserves it more than he does!

A few days later I was working at the hospital and was there until 4 am.  Before he went to bed for the night, Greg called to tell me not to lock the back door when I got home that night as the boys were "camping out" in the back yard. I guess that they just don't get enough of it with all the camping they do as a Boy Scout troop that they have to forego a comfortable bed inside a warm house for even more time in a tent! Silly kids. So the next afternoon - this is what I see in the backyard....it makes me a little bit frustrated that they can't even clean up after themselves for cryin' out loud.


I was about to yell at them to come and clean it up right then! And upon close inspection of their mess, this is what I found...


So - then it just melted my heart. I felt so happy that my child would have gone to the effort of taking a little flashlight with him to read his scriptures in the tent in the backyard!

It's moments like these that I know that my kids are better than me! (Not hard to do - but still....)

C: "Ward Boundary Changes" is another way of saying that our ward was divided. In the LDS church this means 2 things - first that there is GROWTH - which is exactly how the Lord wants things to progress in His kingdom (and that is a good thing), and secondly that there is some PAIN that comes from the inherent 'separation' and 'good-byes' that accompany any changes to a Ward family. That is exactly why we call them Ward Families - because you attend church with the same people week after week after week. You have your kids play together. You go to activities during the week together. You play and worship together  - and you end up feeling a great deal of love for those in your ward family.  This change was like a 2 edged sword for me as a Primary President. When the ward changes happened - I "lost" exactly half of my Primary - including a bunch of teachers and leaders. It was sad for me to know I would not be seeing those sweet children every week at church. The other side to that sword is that it lessened the numbers which inherently makes it a more manageable group - less classes to have to staff and easier for me to get to know each child by name and to learn about and love on them even more!  I decided that the best way for me to have closure was to write each child/ teacher a little note and take it to them - so I did! I went around on my bike with kids in tow and handed them out over 3 days. I still miss them, but I have faith that they will really excell and grow in their new ward. What a wonderful thing it is to be a member of this Church! 




4 comments:

  1. You should bring the slack line to the family reunion. I will tell my mom to bring the scissors for protection. Haha!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Great post. I truly enjoyed your thoughts and your pics. You have a beautiful family. The love and the joy shines through.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Love your blog, love your little family, love you.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Cute cute pics! What a charmed life you have.

    ReplyDelete