Great "MOM" Moment

The kids and I have a really great evening/bedtime rhythm and routine when Kevin isn't home. (Tonight he's up at Brighton Camp with all our fabulous Beehives and their leaders.) After dinner, the kids ride their bikes around the block a few times so they'll get nice and worn out while I clean up the dinner dishes. When they're finally parched and exhausted, we begin the "get-ready-for-bed" portion of our day. Why this has to take HOURS to accomplish is beyond me, but it does. I start the bath water for Max and put Mia in her jumper thing in the doorway of the boys bedroom. I call Jackson and Kacie upstairs and have them start their "personal reading time" in their respective bedrooms. I get Maxwell's pj's and unders and ask him to sing the ABC Song. He always obliges and then yells for me to sing with him. Jackson's new book interest is a series called "The Bailey School Kids" and he LOVES to sit on his bunkbed and read. Kacie always complains that she doesn't know how to read and why is she so picked on anyway. I always reply that she can in fact, say the names and sounds of all the letters and she'll never learn how to read if she doesn't try. We continue on in this fashion until finally, everyone is clean, has their teeth brushed and has read for at least 20 minutes. Well, tonight I was putting away some laundry while all of this was going on, and I heard Kacie reading "Hop On Pop." At first I didn't think much of it and chalked it up to a great memory. BUT THEN......I heard her sounding out some of the words. SURE ENOUGH my little preschool girl was READING!!!! I quickly showered her with praise and kisses and walked out into the hall to see Mia's perfect grin and hear her say "MAMA." First books and first words......life just doesn't get any sweeter!!

Father's Day

Father's Day is an opportunity to reflect on how truly blessed I am for the life, crazy as it is, that I have. I have four amazing children, each unique in his or her own way, who light up my life with smiles and hugs and kisses. A beautiful, intelligent wife who has always made me want to be much more than I am. I have a kind, caring father who sacrificed much while I was growing up so that I could have a great childhood filled with many wonderful memories.

Father's Day also makes me keenly aware of many who are suffering on this day of celebration. My heart goes out to those who have lost a father. Those who are separated or estranged from their children or parents. Those who should be celebrating a very first Father's Day but instead are mourning the loss of a child.

Thoughts of those who are suffering make me want to hug my own kids a little tighter, kiss my wife a little longer, tell my dad how grateful I am for the sacrifices he made and the example that he has always been and thank my Heavenly Father for all of the wonderful blessings that he has given me.

Kevin

Still Bald

Liitle Miss Mia Evelyn, (or Mia Pia as Maxwell calls her), is already seven months old. Time is flying by for us. She can roll over, sit up, chatter up a storm, smile in a way that makes her Daddy and her Papa pick her up no matter what they're already doing and she LOVES listening to music and riding in the car. She still doesn't have any hair, but hey, I think it just makes her beautiful blue eyes stand out even more!

Graduation!!

Look out Kindergarten, HERE I COME.

First Grade goes to the Hogle Zoo!

First grade held their end of year field trip at the zoo, in the freezing cold and pouring down rain. We only stayed for about 2 hours but by the time we were done the kids were all soaking wet. Good thing it was a short day of school. Can you imagine trying to concentrate in wet socks?!?!?!

Pre-K Goes to the Aviary

During the last week of school, Kacie's class went on a field trip to the Aviary. Kacie and her classmates rode on a big, yellow bus and Maxwell, Mia and I met them there. It was a fabulous day and the perfect way to end the school year.

DIRT

Last week I finally felt well enough (and the rain stopped long enough) to get started on my flowerbeds. At our old house, I would do a little dance and hail the flower fairies every year as Spring rolled in and the daffodils and tulips poked through the dirt. I'd get up much too early everyday just to be outside digging, clipping, fertilizing and watering in the peace and quite of the morning. Come to think of it though, no matter how early I went outside my neighbor Adell always seemed to make it out before me. We'd say our "Hellos" and "Good Mornings" but never anything else to disrupt the morning and then turn back to our precious dirt. I truly loved my dirt and all the flowers and didn't even mind the weeds - UNTIL JULY! Starting on about July 4th I would curse the weeds and the expense of water and even Juleen - who planted all the flowers in the first place a gazillion years before we bought the house. I'd swear that my next house would have grass and rock beds but NO FLOWERS.

Well Spring came around here at my new house too and I had to dig. I took out a bunch of old, yucky, unrecognizable plants, extended my flower beds to (OF ALL THINGS) make room for MORE flowers, found a home for my stepping stone, planted a few of my favorites and made plans for future planting. All this for the love of dirt.



Just look at that all that dirt - waiting for more flowers.



My stepping stone. The only craft I've ever painted that actually turned out.



Blanket Flower

An added bonus - one of the fun things about buying a house from the Cummings Family (we've now done it twice) is the experience of finding long lost treasures as you work in the yard. Over the course of 5 years, I think I probably uncovered 30 bouncy balls, a dozen army men, 6 kitchen spoons and bucket full of hair ties at our old house. In one dig at the new house, I found a purple pom pom, an army guy, a shoe (maybe that belongs to the Eubanks'), an invention of some kind involving a paperclip, a magnet and a pink eraser, two hair ties and a walking stick made by Calvin. The walking stick wasn't actually in the dirt, but in the monster bush by the side of the house. For as much as I love finding buried treasure, maybe I should have been a pirate. I love dirt!