Seminary

Nathan completed his third year of early morning seminary and Jared finished his first year.  They studied via zoom or independent lessons for most of the year, but got to start meeting in person for the last couple of months.  They met at 7:10am (school classes started at 9:00am, so it was a significantly earlier start for their day than their peers).  Both Nathan and Jared were extremely diligent in always attending and doing their independent study.  I may have mentioned this before, but they were very obedient in doing what their teachers asked them to do.  They asked them to sing aloud an opening hymn before they started their scripture study.  It was fun to hear them singing in the morning.  No one would have known if they didn't sing, but they did what was asked of them.  Nathan was in a class with juniors and seniors (this wasn't all of his class pictured below).  Jared was with the freshman and sophomores (that was most of his class, so there was a good group of them).  Their teachers were awesome, and they did a good job teaching the Doctrine & Covenants this year.  It's been nice to have our family Come Follow Me lessons coordinate with the seminary study, because the boys would sometimes bring home thoughts from seminary to share. 

One bonus for the last couple of months of in-person seminary was that Nathan was able to drive Jared over to the church.  We didn't have to drive them over there! 

JV BB

After Jared's lack of a decent cross country season, we weren't very hopeful that Nathan would get a basketball season.  We were pretty happy when the restrictions eased enough for him to play, and he got a fairly normal amount of games for the season.  They got to play 12 games - four of them were non-league games (which they lost all of those).  Of the 8 league games, they won 6 and lost 2.  Nathan's game high was 8 points for the season, but he contributed a lot to defensive play.  He still has a nice shot and usually scored at least one 3 pointer.  He says his thing is "3 and D".  He usually got about 9 to 14 minutes per game, but playing about 22 minutes in two of the games.  They only lost by 5 points to a top-notch non-league team, with an impressive come back, as they were down by 21 at half time.  The most exciting and memorable game was a win to a cross-town rival.  They were down by 8 points at half and came back to win it by 2 points.  They ended up losing by 2 points to that team the 2nd time they played each other.  It was so fun to watch him play, even though he usually didn't get a lot of time.  He worked really hard though, and he was just glad to be able to get out on the court again after covid restrictions.  He did have to get tested for Covid twice a week, so that was a little annoying, but it wasn't that big of a deal - small sacrifice to do something you love.  

We're hoping he gets to play next year - it will be tough to make varsity!  He played JV this year, but I don't think they bring seniors down to play JV.  He has 14 summer league games starting in a few weeks, so at least that will be like another season for him.  He loves it!        

 

15 years

Jared turned 15 years old - hard to believe he's approaching driving age (he'll be able to get a learner's permit in November).  We didn't do much to celebrate, but he got his requested meals and chocolate cake and ice cream.  He wanted German pancakes and bacon for breakfast and shepherd's pie and rolls for dinner.  He likes chocolate cake with vanilla frosting.  He's still a big fan of Twix.  

Jared is our very responsible and dependable kid.  One recent story about him - one Friday night we had watched a movie.  It was about 10:00pm and we were trying to decide if we were going to watch something else.  Jared piped up and said, "It's time to go to bed.  We need to go to sleep at a decent hour so we can get up tomorrow and be well-rested for the day."  We were pretty surprised that he would say that, especially on a Friday night!  He is a great example for his siblings.  He also is good about getting himself up in the mornings and doing whatever he needs to do.  We love Jared!     

 

Mother's Day 2021

Some of the young men at church participated in a special night honoring their moms.  They showed a video they had previously made of them talking about the things they love about us.  They also did little spotlights on us and gave us roses and chocolate cake.  I loved it!  Nathan talked about how patient I was with the five kids, how we both like sports and I'm always at all of his basketball games, how he likes talking about current events with me, how most of his big spiritual experiences have been with me, and how he appreciates the sacrifices I make and all the things I do around the house (that go unnoticed).  From my spotlight sheet:  

- One chore that I do exceptionally well - cleaning the living room

- Favorite animal - elephant

- One time I drove him somewhere special - basketball tournaments

- One activity we like to do together - watch basketball 

- Favorite characteristic about me - hard-working

- One thing I do that nobody thanks me for, but should - cleaning the bathroom

- One gospel principle learned from me - the importance and power of prayer

- One of my many talents - great writer    

I also got special treatment on Mother's Day with bacon, eggs, and cinnamon rolls for breakfast, Mongolian beef and egg rolls for dinner, cheesecake bars for dessert, and some chocolate and cards.  One little story about the cinnamon rolls - Alex asked the night before what I wanted for breakfast.  In my mind, I thought of cinnamon rolls, but didn't want to coach him through how to make them.  I asked for bacon, eggs, and pancakes.  About 5 minutes later, our friend called and said he was bringing some cinnamon rolls over!  How did he know I wanted those...?     

Home school science

I didn't send the kids back to school when it finally re-opened since there was only a couple months left of the school year.  I decided to finish out our home school year.  It's been a pretty good year - I hope the kids learned some things and had fun.  They did get a lot of play time they wouldn't have had at school, but they also did some fun learning at home.  For our recent science unit on water, we talked one day about capillary action, surface tension, and adhesion.  They had fun trying to see how much water they could drop on a penny or other surface.   

 

Easter 2021

 We got to try out our new fire pit in April.  It was fun to sit around it with my brother and his family on Easter weekend.  We had BBQ dinner on Saturday night and meals with them on Sunday, including some yummy favorites such as crumb cake, hard-boiled eggs, roast and chicken, scalloped potatoes, green beans, salad, rolls, pie, and cake.  Hunting for Easter eggs was a little more exciting this year, since Mike and Carrie put money in some of the eggs.  Eggs with a $20 bill in it are pretty good motivation for the older kids!  Savannah was the only one who looked cute this year for Easter.  I curled her hair and she put on a pretty dress.  The rest of us were more casually dressed since it was General Conference weekend.  We enjoyed watching that at home in the comfort of our living room.  It was fun to have cousins around, and Kai also had a buddy, since they brought their dog Benny.      

The kids got My Pillows and a pillow case of snacks from the Easter bunny.  A few of the kids colored Easter eggs.  It was a fun weekend!      

Haircuts... or the lack thereof

Everyone got haircuts in the spring except for Weston! He doesn't want to cut it yet.  It's been growing out since April of 2020.  I didn't realize how full and curly it was - I'm jealous of his volume.  He said I could cut it if I gave him $20.  I haven't caved yet, but maybe soon, because it's started to rat up, and he chews on it and messes with it all the time.

Savannah's hair was also getting lots of rats, and she is extremely sensitive to brushing it out, so I'm glad she wanted to get it cut.  After I cut hers, I decided to get mine cut.  I hadn't cut mine for a couple of years, so I went to the salon.  I didn't like the result very much, but I came home and cut a little bit more off and fixed it up.  I like it now.