Last Day at Preschool

Today was Lilly's last day of preschool for this year. She went on Mondays and Wednesdays. Next year she'll go four days a week. They did a cute little program for the parents today. They sang some songs and danced and did a story for us. Her teachers have been so great this year! They made the kids their own DVD of pictures from the year and also a little framed picture of the kids in an astronaut suit that they used when they learned about space. One of the moms even provided cookies and drinks for the occasion. It was so fun to watch the kids and to look the pictures and see how much Lilly has grown since last fall.

They did 'The Hungry, Hungry Caterpillar'. Lilly was the leaf at the end. They passed the caterpillar down the line and put it through the hole in their pictures while the story was read.

Here's Lilly's picture in the astronaut suit.


Lilly and her teachers--Mrs. Rachel(left) and Ms. Sara(right)

I'm so proud of Lilly. She's learned so much this year and is so good in her class. She can't wait to go back in the Fall and learn some more!

Are we done with soccer yet?

Jonah asked me that question today. He's not really liking the soccer as much as I'd hoped he would. Nate says Jonah is just not the sports type, which is fine. I just wish I'd figured that out $40 and four weeks of freezing cold games and practices ago.
To answer the question, No, we are not done yet. He has two more games next Tuesday because of a rain out this last week. He got his participation trophy after his game today. Come Tuesday we may just "forget" we have soccer at all. =)
No, that wouldn't be teaching him the right thing. Gotta finish what you start, you know.
He's been doing progressively better at his games. There have been slightly fewer "Jonah" moments. It hasn't helped that every game but one has been played in the cold and the wind and the rain. Note to self, no more spring soccer.
Man, my parents must have been saints to sit through so many of my games. Although my dad wasn't usually sitting. He liked to kinda coach from the sidelines. I played soccer from kindergarten until 9th grade. Some years I played year round. I remember liking playing in the rain. It was more fun that way. Now I'm on the other side and watching soccer in the rain is not nearly as fun as playing soccer in the rain.
Anyway, I thought I'd post a couple pictures of our little soccer player, seeing as how he probably will never play again.

On the field. Can't you just see the joy of the sport in his expression?

Here he is with his Trophy. After he got a trophy, he went on and on about how glad he was that I signed him up for soccer because he'd never had a trophy before. I don't think he was glad when he slipped in the mud today.

Here's to trying new things and learning in the process. Maybe he'd like karate....

Release

On Sunday I was released from my calling as 1st counselor in the primary presidency of our ward. I'd served in that calling for 2 years and 5 months. It was my first church calling that wasn't related to leading the music or playing the piano.
When I was first called to the primary, I wasn't too excited about it. I really had never been comfortable around children, except my own, and I had no idea what I was doing. But it didn't take long for the kids to make me feel right at home and touch my heart forever. I've had so many amazing experiences serving in this calling. I'm grateful for the things the children taught me through their faith and their innocence and the things I learned through trial and error. I'd like to share a bit of what I learned....

• Children believe what you tell them, so you'd better make sure it's correct
• Children are quick to love and never hesitate in showing that love. We should all be more like them in accepting others and not being afraid to give a hug and say "I love you"
• No matter how much you prepare and study, the kids will always come up with a question or comment that you didn't see coming. Good luck with that.
  
• Patience....I got to practice a whole lot of patience
  
• Children are always watching. So many Sundays a child would come up to me and say that they saw me at the store or at the school. They pay attention to what we say and what we do, even when we don't realize they are. Our actions speak louder than words.
• Yes, your kids will always rat you out in primary. They love to tell us what happens at home. =)
• Good teachers and leaders are in all of us. So many of the teachers we'd call would say they didn't think they were good at teaching primary, but they all did such a great job and the kids love them.
  
• Keep it simple.
  
• Every child needs you to tell them and show them how special they are. In today's world, so many of the children are suffering because of circumstances beyond their control. A simple smile and a compliment can have a lasting impression.
  

I really didn't think that being released would affect me much. I've been feeling a bit tired and burned out lately by the responsibilities of my calling. But on Sunday I found myself fighting back tears all through our meetings. I'll miss being with the kids every Sunday and hearing about their week and visiting them in their homes and doing activities with them and watching them learn and grow and being a part of their lives that way.

Thank you children of the Parkside Ward. You have touched my life and helped grow my testimony in ways that you will probably never even realize.

Happy Birthday to Lilly!

Today is Lilly's 4th birthday. My how time flies! It seems like just yesterday we were in the hospital bringing her into this world.
Lilly was born on a sunny day, unlike today. I was about ten days from my due date. I'd had a doctor appointment the day before and my blood pressure had been really high. They'd asked me to come back the following day to check it again. When I did, it was even higher. I remember the nurse smiled at me and said "That's your ticket out!" We scheduled an induction for the next day.
She was such an easy labor and delivery; the complete opposite of how it had been with Jonah. I got my epidural before I was in any real pain and I just relaxed and watched a movie. The entire labor was only 6 hours.
Now she's four years old and full of spunk. She loves to sing! She is always singing something, whether it be church songs or sesame street or the theme song from Scooby Doo. Lilly also likes to dance, she loves preschool, and she loves being read to.
We're having a celebration with family on Sunday. Today we made chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting and had lunch at Chick-fil-A at Lilly's request. Later tonight after Nate gets home we'll open presents.
I'll finish off this post with a few of my favorite pictures of my darling Lilly girl.

2 weeks old

showing off her princess boots

Happy Birthday My Beautiful Daughter!

Tonsils, Soccer, and School

Hey all! I've been kind of absent from the blogging world for a couple of weeks. But now I'm back and get to tell you all about WHY I've been absent from the blogging world for a couple of weeks.
Let's start with the tonsils.
Nate had his tonsils removed two weeks ago. He's always had trouble with them. They were huge and always getting infected, so we finally decided to take the plunge and take 'em out! While the doctor was doing the surgery, he found a big mass of adenoidal tissue in Nate's sinuses that wasn't supposed to be there. So he took that out too. I'd always heard that a tonsilectemy is a lot harder on an adult than a child and now I KNOW what they're talking about. Nate's had a tough recovery. He started back at work this week. He's supposed to be on light duty, no heavy lifting, but I think we all know how that worked out.
Last Friday the doctor's office called to tell us that they had gotten the results of the culture they did on Nate's tonsils. Can you say "massively infected with a really nasty bacteria?" The best part is that this infection has probably been there for a long time. He's been on antibiotics several times in the last six months or so, but they obviously had no effect on this bad boy. So the doctor prescribed two Z-packs which are supposed to be stronger and wipe out the infection. The doctor said that the tonsils were so saturated with this bacteria that he's sure the bacteria is still in the rest of the tissue in Nate's throat. Poor guy has had a rough couple of weeks.
He also started his last class this week. And when I say 'last' I really mean LAST! As long as he passes with a C or better, Nate will finally be done with his BA.
Speaking of classes, guess who is officially going back to school as of May 17th? Yep. Me! I'm so excited to be finally getting back into it and finishing my Bachelor's. I'll be completing a Family Life Studies degree completely online through Utah State. I have my associates degree and about six classes of the major finished already. I'm starting out with just two classes so as not to overwhelm myself. Hooray for education!
So, what's left? Oh yeah. Soccer. I signed Jonah up to play soccer through the Magna Rec Center youth sports program. It said that the program was 8 games long, so I figured that would be about two months. Turns out that they play two games a week. So Jonah's already almost half way done. He had a hard time his first game. He would get frustrated so easily because he was not getting the ball as much as he wanted and he'd throw his little tantrums. So we had a nice long talk about how soccer is a team sport and he needs to help his team and how crying and stomping off the field was not helping his team. He finally caught on to the fact that even though he didn't score the goal his team did and that's a good thing. If the team wins, he wins. He did better the last couple games.
They have games on Tuesday nights and Saturday mornings and then practices on Thursday nights. He does better on Saturday mornings. I think because he's pretty tired by Tuesday evening. And, no I don't have any cute pictures of him in his uniform. I know, bad mother moment. I'll have to get on that.
So, there you have it. That has been our lives for the last couple of weeks. What have you been up to?