Have to update

Since so many things have happened in our home, I have to update our blog a little. Last time I did it was in the first part of March. Time has flown and now it is June. I meant to update this thing once a month but it hasn't happened that way. Let's go month by month:

March, Mia turned one, Hailee turned eight. Our family was healthy. That is pretty much all that I remember.

April, Hailee was baptized, which was a huge part of our April. We are so proud of her for making that decision, but even more proud of her for learning to decide for herself. We asked her to read her scriptures every night and pray for herself. She did it by herself, without any motivation from us, for ~6 months. I didn't want to motivate her because I didn't want her to think that she had to make that decision. So we showed her to way to find out and then we left it alone. She took it very seriously and made the decision to be baptized in early January after she had read and prayed for a few months. I was so surprised every night when I peeked in her room to find that she was doing it on her own. I would catch her reading almost every night and I would catch her praying by herself in her room. It was awesome to see my daughter make those steps and come to that conclusion on her own. I hope that she continues on that path. I know that she has the tools to make good decisions in life no matter what.

May was crazy. I am a constant worrier and I worry about my job, about life, about finances, etc. I give myself headaches worrying too much. May was full of that. In the end I learned a lot about myself and my surroundings in May and hope that I can slowly learn my lessons and move on. I am blessed with my family. My wife is amazing, supportive, beautiful, and everything that I have always wanted. My kids are a little wilder than I may have expected, but in the end they are the best kids that I could have ever hoped for.

Abigail has been keeping a bit of a secret from us. She is a bully. Our littler than other kids her age, sweet, innocent Abigail has bullied a few people in school. The typical stuff: You are not my friend, I don't like you, etc. Bullying none the less. She is way better now, but a phone call from the teacher was needed to prompt us to take action. She had evidently been talked to a few times at school, but we honestly never knew.

She has also been going to what they call in Kindergarten circles, "The White House". This is the cool place for kids to be, evidently, and all kids aspire to go there. A caring parent never wants to admit that their kid is behind in school, but that is what the White House is. What ends up happening, is that these kids usually just get left behind, from experience. Kim and I were obviously concerned. We took action once we heard that she was going to the White House. We started reading a few times a day with Abby and she took like a duck to water. She started reading quite well and eventually got out of the White House. She graduates from Kindergarten tomorrow. So proud.

Natalie is getting bigger. We have been involving her in prayers at night and as we ask everyone what they want to pray for, she says everything that everyone else said the night before. There are three things that she always says, McKenna (her cousin that is her age), her baby(no not a real baby, her fake, toy baby), and Grandma Dree. The fun part is that when it is her turn to read or pray she starts out and we try to tell her what to say and she will stop us by saying, " I know how" and then repeating us. She waits again for help, we try to provide it and in an annoyed tone she says, "I know how." It is so cute and we love her more and more every day. She is a huge part of our lives and we enjoy her every day. All she wants to do is please and do things that we want.

Mia is Mia and always will be. From facial contortion at some thing that is annoying, makes her laugh, etc. To whining, waking me up in the middle of the night, she is Mia. She makes life fun and she is really cute. I love her every day and she is getting more and more cute as time goes on. Mia, just like the rest of our children, has never worn shoes. She hated when we put them on her and acted like her legs were broken so we only tried a few times as she was a baby. Something always clicks in their minds that tells them that shoes are cool and that thing clicked in her mind. She suddenly wanted to wear shoes all the time. The unfortunate part is that all of our kids have progressively fatter feet. She kept trying to wear shoes that, for all intents and purposes, were her size. Her feet were just too fat. So for about a month we tried to hold her off. Kim went and bought her some sandals the other day that accomodate fat footed children and she wears them all the time. Hailee started out with jelly shoes, Abby loved flip flops, Natalie loved Crocs and Mia loves her sandals. Just like the rest of the shoes, I am sure that she will wear them till they stink. Every time our kids walk in the room, once they acquire their fascination with shoes, you can smell their stinky little feet. She will carry that tradition on with her fat little feet.

See you at the end of June. (I am committing now so that I am motivated to do it)