I Often Go Walking...

One of my favorite primary songs is, "I often go walking, in meadows of clover, and I gather arm fulls, of blossoms of blue..."  And some of my favorite childhood memories include picking wildflowers-especially the Johny Jump-ups in the lower fields- with my grandpa Pugmire.  For Memorial weekend this year I decided to take my kids down and let them pick some flowers to decorate at the cemetery with.  It was a special treat when we were able to get my dad to go with us.  They enjoyed arranging their flowers in jars and then picking out rocks to put in the bottoms of them so they wouldn't tip over.  Then we picked up my mom and made the rounds to St. Charles and Garden City to visit the graves of some of our favorite people, including my grandparents, Cody, Aunt Ada, Uncle Duane and Aunt Geeg, and my great-grandma Pope.  The next day after church we headed to Lewiston with my parents for our annual get together at Steven and Vicki's and visited the cemeteries down there as well.  It's always so much fun to see our aunts, uncles, and cousins down there and buddy and sis loved playing and exploring in their yard with the little cousins.  We were able to go visit the graves of my grandma and grandpa Bodily, aunt Sue and Brandi, and Gram and Gramp (my Wheeler great grandparents).  My mom told them stories about each of them. I wish I would have taken pictures at each of the places instead of just in St. Charles... My kids love going and learning about some of our family history and also checking out some of the other headstones and names of people at each cemetery-especially the babies and the really old graves. Brandt was quick to notice all of the flags at certain graves and quickly assumed that each of those people must have been paratroopers. One of his favorite songs is 1939 by Andy Hackbarth, which talks about a paratrooper in the war. Buddy gets caught up in making sure the flowers on each grave are upright, so sometimes it is hard to get out of there, but it makes me a little proud that my kids are learning that kind of respect for those who have passed on before us.

Parent's Day

I have loved Paris Elementary since the day I started Kindergarten with Susan Dunford as my teacher way too many years ago to mention.  There is something about a small school that is special, and in our school one of the things that makes it tick is the PTO and teachers who care about the needs of the school and our kids and work hard to help involve the families in the learning process.  Today they had a parent's day and I was blessed to be able to take a couple hours off of work this morning in order to attend.  They had set up stations where the kids and parents could spend time reading and eating snacks together, doing math experiments, and looking through binders of what the students had accomplished during the year.  I have loved the time I've been able to spend in the classroom for a short amount of time each Tuesday this year, and I hope that it helps Brandt realize how much I love and support him and how much value I place in education.

We love going to the Garden City pool!  Allee got to hang out with us for the day and then Mal, Jo, and Bridger met us that evening to go to the pool.  Allee, Brandt, and Kylie were so excited to go that they got their swim stuff on an hour before it was time to leave. We took D.J. and Gabe Hillier and Tyler Bassett with us and they were AMAZING with the little kids.  They played with them and let them follow them wherever they went-especially Kylie. Brandt was excited to take his birthday money to help pay for treats after swimming and I was proud of him for sharing. We had the funnest night!! Once again it makes me so thankful to live where I do, close to cousins and friends who are such good examples to my kids.

Most mornings I feel like I've accomplished a lot if I can just get buddy out the door and on the bus, myself ready for work, and drag a sleeping Kylie out of bed in time to get her to my mom's and head to work on time.  This morning sister woke up at the same time as Brandt so I got to spend a little extra time with her before heading out for the day.  She insisted on being a princess and having braids and her tiara and wand, and it was nice to actually get to fix her hair and help her get ready for the day-something that usually only happens a couple times a week. She is a feisty little thing, but such a precious little princess as well.

Brandt and Shy

Brandt has been wanting to get a hamster for the past few months and that's what he really wanted for his birthday.  Since we've been having such a difficult time with some of his behaviors lately we decided to use that desire to our advantage and we started a sticker chart to earn a hamster.  Buddy could earn stickers for positive behaviors such as sitting in church, not running through the parking lot, making it on the bus in the mornings, settling down for bed, talking to his teachers, saying nice words and not calling names, etc.  As we looked into hamsters it became evident that they required more upkeep than we were ready to take on, so over the course of a couple months we convinced him that what he really wanted was hermit crabs.  He was super excited when he finished his chart just in time for our trip to Logan for his dentist appointment with Dr. Doug.  He was less than thrilled with having to go to the dentist and he struggled with the sedation a little bit again (although they tried a different kind this time-a combo of Demerol, Chloral hydrate, and hydroxyzine-which didn't make him as agitated or as sick but also didn't knock him out), but he knew that Logan is also the home of Pet Smart, so that was something to look forward to.  We also went to another of our favorite places, Willow Park, and spent some time looking at the animals and feeding the ducks.  Brandt picked out two Hermit crabs that were close in size and the basics that we would need to care for them such as water and food dishes, colored mineral sand, and crab food.  We still had his aquarium from when he had fish and crabs in the past, so we got it out and set everything up when we got home.  He loved helping his dad get their habitat ready for them and he very quickly became attached to them and came up with the perfect names for them on his own.  "Brandt" for the one who is the most active and "Shy" for the one who spends most of his time hiding and pulls into his shell and plays dead whenever he's picked up.  My favorite part of the day was watching a little boy who was so proud of what he had accomplished by working hard in order to earn something he wanted so badly and seeing that smile beaming from his cute little face.

Brandt's 6th Birthday-Part 2

This morning was stake conference.  President Crawford and his counselors Bruce Wallentine and Eldon Robinson were released and Shane Roberts was sustained as the new Stake President with Kam Jarmin and Bro. Wamsley as counselors.  After the kids and I got home we quickly got ready to head to Georgetown so we could celebrate buddy's birthday with the Thompson's.  Brandt has hardly taken his batting helmet off since he got it and he wore it all the way there.  He decided that he wanted to decorate his cake differently today and that he wanted to have all of his cousins help. So we baked the cake and mixed up green frosting ahead of time and he gathered up some of his horses, a tree, and brown sprinkles (for horse poop, of course) to take with.  Once we got there he had Riley, Adrie, Allee, Jolie, Bridger, Emmalea, and Kylie help with the decorations.  I was so proud of him for sharing with the other kids and letting them put the decorations where they wanted-both hard things for him to let happen with his OCD.