How are the kids???

The question I seem to hear most often from friends and family is naturally, “How are the kids?”. I thought I’d dedicate this post to giving an update on how each of them are doing. I’ll start with

Avery

When we left Colorado Avery was 5 months old! It’s kind of funny to me that Garett was about the same age when we moved to Colorado, and that when Annie was around that age we moved from an apartment to a rental house and that we moved to California from Provo when I was pregnant with Spencer. Logan was the only one of my kids that we didn’t move when I was either pregnant or had a new baby.  Hmmmmm, causes one to wonder. Thankfully since we won’t be having any more kids that means we won’t be moving anymore either! Anywho, where was I? Oh yeah, Avery….I don’t think that I could ask for a more wonderful, sweet, happy and joyful baby. She has been such an angel through all of our transition and even though we were displaced for so long, she never acted like anything had changed. She truly brings each one of us sooooo much joy. The kids still fight over who gets to get her out of bed in the morning, or who gets to play with her or hold her. It’s so sweet to watch my almost teenager’s face when he walks into a room that she is in. We love this baby and are grateful every single day that she came to our family!

Some of the milestones she reached recently are:

1-getting her two bottom front teeth when she was 6 months old

2-starting solid foods and deciding she likes to feed herself better than being fed

3-waving and saying “HI” to everyone she sees.

4-showing us “what does a snake say” by sticking her tongue out

5-crawling, standing with help and walking around furniture.

6- singing. If you hum to her, she hums right back! SOOOOO cute!

7- getting her 4 top teeth plus one of her bottom side ones all within one week! (Total teeth-=7)

8- playing with the dog by pulling her ears and following her around. (Lucy now tries to hide from Avery but when Avery finds her, sits and takes the ear pulling, hitting and “Ah” waves!)

9- will turn 11 months old next week.

Here are some pictures of her over the past few months:

DECEMBER- 5 MONHTS OLD

 

JANUARY- 6 MONTHS OLD (we lived in the hotel this month and I didn’t take any pics other than this one)

  

FEBRUARY- 7 MONTHS OLD

MARCH- 8 MONTHS OLD

 

   

APRIL- 9 MONTHS OLD

     

MAY- 10 MONTHS OLD

   

 

LOGAN

Logan is doing great! He had a few pretty rough months where we wondered if our sweet little boy would ever return and thankfully he did. Up to his return he had some rough days. He was naughty (stuffed a capri sun juice box down the toilet-yeah, like a 2 year old), threw temper tantrums in stores, yelled at his siblings, was mean to kids at school…. Definitely out of character behavior for him. As we thought about the last year of his little life, we started to understand why he was acting out so much. He had to deal with a grumpy pregnant mom, to a new baby sister, to leaving the only home he’d ever known,  to saying goodbye to all his friends, to living out of a suitcase for 2 months, to starting at a new school, to having to make new friends and finally to moving into a new house. All of those things have stressed me out, why didn’t we think they would stress Logan out too? Poor kid. I am however, happy to report that for the passed month and 1/2 or so, our sweet little Logan has returned. He’s is trying so hard to be a good boy and though his spunky little firecracker personality is still in full force, he is back to his easy to love, fun to be around happy boy! The other day we had just gotten home from church and I went into his room to help him hang up his church clothes. I found him on his knees, eyes shut tight, hands clenched together, quietly praying. When he finished and saw that I was standing there he said, “Mom, I just asked Heavenly Father to help me Choose the Right, EVVVEEEERRRRYYYYY day!”. Thank you Primary teacher!!! :-)

Between preschool, play dates with new friends, swimming lessons and driving around all of tarnation picking up and dropping off kids at all their activities with me, Logan is busy and happy as can be! Every once in a while though, when things quiet down a bit he’ll softly say “Mom, I miss my friends sooooo much! Can we move back to Colorado so I can see Soren, Londyn, Madison and all of my friends.” Pulls at my heart strings every time!

GARETT

G has probably had the easiest transition out of all of us! He has been such a positive boy through everything and I have drawn strength just from watching him. Upon moving here he instantly made friends with a little boy at school named Owen. The two have been inseparable since we moved here and the great news is that he is also in our ward! Owen’s mom has become one of my dear friends and in many ways has been an angel to me.

One of Garett’s highlights was playing on a fun basketball team. He looked soooo cute out there in his oversized uniform and carried the number 24 – Kobe Bryant on his back! He was envied by his older brother and sister because of it! Though he is not the most skilled basketball player,  he always had the “I’m just happy to be here” look on his face as he ran up and down the court! He even scored a few points this year!! Go G-man!!

School work here has been a little more challenging for Garett. If anyone tells you that California schools are not good then they haven’t ever been to school here. It was TUFF! We ended up taking him to a tutor for the last few months of school and holy cow! She was a miracle worker! G ended the year with a few 100% Math tests and improved a TON on his reading! He’s looking forward to 3rd grade at yet another new school as he’ll finally be going to our neighborhood school (woot woot, no more early morning drop off! ). We know he’ll make tons of friends and that he’ll have double the friends!

Garett has had a lot to be happy about since moving here! In addition to his recent success in school, his new friends and his basketball career, he also lost his top two front teeth and turned 8! He’ll be baptized next month and can hardly wait! We love this sweet boy more that words could ever say! He constantly keeps us laughing and brings joy to our lives everyday!

 

Annie

As some of you know this has been a difficult change for Annie. I have been in awe as I’ve watched her grow spiritually and emotionally! She is one strong lady and I admire her so  much for the courage she has shown through it all!  As a mom it is so difficult to watch your child go through something difficult, but to watch them go through multiple difficult experiences all in a row, knowing they have to go through it and I can’t fix it is almost unbearable!

Starting in January, when we got here, Annie was put to the test….

While still in Colorado, Adam and I talked about the possibility of accelerating Annie into 5th grade when we got here. We talked to Annie to see what she wanted to do and she was excited for the challenge. As we continued to talk and pray about it there were many reasons brought us to the decision that we wanted to enroll her in 5th grade when we got here. First, she gets straight A’s and then some. She had top scores on her CO State exams in 3rd grade and continued to accelerate her learning in 4th grade. We talked to both her 3rd and 4th grade teachers, as well as the Principal at her school and they all agreed she needed to be challenged and that moving her into 5th grade would be the best thing for her. On top of her excellent grades, Annie is also on the older end of her grade level. In fact, had we lived in California when she started school she would be a year ahead because the cut off date here is two months after the cut off date in Colorado. Her birthday falls between the two different dates and therefore she would have qualified for the latter.  On top of her excellent grades and her older age, many of her friends are older and socially she can hold her own with the kids a year ahead of her. Athletically she plays all her sports with the higher grade and physically she is taller and older than the other girls in her grade! For all those reasons we thought this would be the perfect time to move her up a grade! Sooooo, when we arrived in CA we set up a meeting with the new principal at the new school. This woman turned out to be a real treat. She was so cold, and so closed to the idea of accelerating Annie that she turned me off from the first moment I spoke to her. After hearing me out she finally agreed to speak to Annie’s CO teachers and principal and then asked us to come into the school so she could evaluate Annie. When we arrived at the school she proceeded to verbally quiz Annie in the middle of the front office. The things she was asking were what the 5th graders were expected to know at the END of 5th grade! Poor Annie was so flustered and upset that she completely shut down and would hardly look at the new Principal. The final thing the principal asked Annie to do was read a short story and then write a “literary response thesis statement based on theme”. I am NOT kidding! When she asked Annie that I looked at the woman and said, “I’m a college graduate with a teaching degree and I can’t even do that!”. It was AWFUL as Annie burst into tears and wouldn’t look at the woman for the rest of the time we were there! To say I was FURIOUS is an understatement! We left the school and I was bound and determined to have the woman fired! What kind of child educator humiliates a child like that? Needless to say the terrible mean principal would not let Annie start into 5th grade and then announced to us that her school was overcrowded in the 2nd and 4th grade so Spencer could start school the next day but Annie and Garett would have to be diverted to another school in the district! This brought another new challenge for Annie (and Garett) as now she would not only have to be the “new” kid once, but twice because once a spot opened up at the neighborhood school, she’d have to switch to that school! Making this long story shorter, Annie and G started at the school that was farther away and Spence started at the neighborhood school.

Annie did wonderfully in her new school and easily got back into the swing of getting good grades! She made it into the school Spelling Bee and was SOOOOO excited! She has always been an excellent speller and tested well above grade level so we weren’t surprised at all that she made it to the upper grade Bee. The night of the Spelling Bee she was extremely nervous. As we drove to the school she said, “Mom, I just don’t want to be the first one out.” I knew that would never happen but told her that no matter what we were proud of her because she’d made it so far already! When the Bee started all the kids were given words like “banana”, “slide”,  and “cliff”. Annie’s turn arrived and she was given the word “clergy”. For a little mormon girl who has a Bishop as her church leader, she had no idea what clergy was and had never heard the word before. Hearing it in a sentence didn’t help and she spelled it with an “i” instead of an e and her biggest fear came true. She was the first one out! I’ve never physically felt my heart tear in half but I think that night it did! I knew how badly she wanted to do well and to see the saddness, disappointment and hurt in her eyes broke my heart! She held it together perfectly until the whole thing was over but when she finally got to come over to where our family was sitting she literally collapsed onto my lap and all the stress, saddness, anxiety and emotions of the past few months came out. For a young girl who rarely shows emotion, it was a sad, sad night for our sweet Annie. I held her for at least 10 minutes and let her just sob into my shoulder. Though she didn’t know this, I sobbed too. Later that night after she had fallen asleep in her bed, I went to my room and cried like a baby! I was so heartbroken for her, I was angry that she was being tested and stretched SOOO much at such a young age, and I was frustrated that as her mother, in this situation, I couldn’t make it all better for her! She had to go through this herself! After I cried all of my tears and got over my anger and frustrations, I knew that Annie was going to be stronger and more valiant for the challenges she was going through. It would be good for her and I needed to let her go through it, without interfering! I knew she would be OK!

A few weeks after the spelling bee we received a phone call that there was a place for Annie at our neighborhood school. If we didn’t take the spot, her name would drop to the bottom of the list so less than 3 months after starting at  one new school, she had to start at another new school. Thankfully she was assigned to a class that had some kids from our ward as well as the little girl her age who lives across the street. After her first day as the “new” girl for the second time, I had a feeling things were on the up for our sweet girl! And I was right!

Annie played in the same Basketball program as Garett did and was one of only a few girls in the whole league. She was one of the best players on her team and by far the best girl in the league (which was 5th through 8th grade and mostly made up of boys). She also found out about a travelling girls team, emailed the coach herself and was invited to try out. She made the team and is now a happy member of a competitive travel team! This girl LOVES basketball!

For about the past 2 months, things have been on the up for Annie and she finished her 4th grade year with flying colors, excelling beyond expectation! Of course we knew she would do that and now the mean principal knows it too! In the long run, keeping her in 4th grade has turned out to be the best thing for her. She’s made some wonderful friends and has kept busy with basketball, church activity days, school and swimming in our pool. She is growing into such a wonderful, beautiful and sweet young lady! We love her so much!

SPENCER

As of Thursday, Spencer is OFFICIALLY a 7th grader! He graduated from 6th grade and could not be more excited about leaving Elementary behind! Since moving here Spence has had a great school year! He’s caught up in the things he was behind on, he’s received excellent grades, has played basketball in the same program as Annie and Garett, has started going to his new Scout troop, has gone to his first dance, and has made a ton of friends. Though he has had some hard days where he misses his CO friends, he has had a great time meeting many new people. The Young Men’s group in our ward, specifically the Deacons, are a phenomenal group of boys! One of my biggest fears about moving was Spencer leaving has group of friends and the scouting program in CO. What a pleasant surprise it has been to see that the kids his age here are wonderful kids too! He’s had so much fun on scout camps, at church activities and even at church with his new friends. They have taken him in and accepted his without question! One of the boys told his dad after a scout camp “Dad, it’s like he’s always been here”. 

A few weeks ago Spencer’s Deacons Quorum advisor challenged each of the boys in his class to bare their testimonies at the next Fast and Testimony meeting. Spencer was so excited to do it and when the day and time came he and all the deacons walked to the front of the chapel together. Spencer was the first to speak and he did such a beautiful job. I’m at awe at the strength of his testimony for such a young man! He also said that he was grateful we could move here and for all of his new friends in the Deacons Quorum. To say I was proud wouldn’t do justice to how I felt about my oldest son that day! He is such a handsome, polite and nice young man! He is also a huge example to me, Adam and all of our family! We’re lucky to have him be ours!

A few months ago our ward had a fundraiser where the entertainment was the youth performing lipsyncs. The Deacons did their own made up one called “the evolution of a deacon” and it was HILARIOUS!!! Check it out! Spencer is in the “Footloose” one and the “Thriller” one!