Kristen Graduated High School

So the purpose of this blog post is to congratulate Kristen and my parents for graduating high school and getting 5 kids through 36 years of life.  My oldest sister Amanda was graduating high school when my mom was 9 months pregnant with Kristen.  So way to go to them for all of the years they've dealt with the highs and lows of parenting.  They've had 4 teenaged girls and 1 boy during this time.  Of course Kristen has accomplished a lot especially during the last few years.  She heads off to BYU in the fall, which we're all thrilled with.  She is a very accomplished flutist and piccolo player.  She has also been Metea High School's Drum Major the last couple years.  Here are some pictures of the weekend of her graduation.

 

My sister Ashley and her family came to town for the graduation and we got to have them at the Memorial Day parade with us.

 Here is Andrew and Kensie "sharing".

Kristen is the closer of the two Drum Majors.  This is her last parade here in Naperville. :(

We love you Kristen!  Way to go on all your accomplishments.  We are so excited for all the fun you'll have a BYU and also in the BYU Marching Band.  Good luck!

Rachel's dance recital

This year Rachel has started dance through the park district.  They had a concert last weekend to show all they have learned.  Rachel's little class did a wonderful job and were the cutest lady bugs I've ever seen.  Unfortunately, we are not able to take pictures of the performance but here a couple from before.  Way to go Rachel!

Whew!...that was a close one

One milestone kids look for is the loss of their first tooth.  The boys were no different and they've both been wiggling their teeth since each started kindergarten.  Of course Anson has a 6 month jump on Aaron so he was a little bit more determined it would happen.  Well the day finally came May 7th after putting the kids down for bed I heard from upstairs, "Mom, my tooth came out."  A very energized Anson jumped down from his bed to show everyone.  We took pictures, called Daddy, and promptly put it into a baggie for the tooth fairy.  After another "good night" I heard again, "Mommy, my other tooth came out."  Anson had pulled it out although it still had a few more days to go.  Here are a couple pictures.

 

Anson had reestablished his "oldest child" ranking in our family with this event.  Thank goodness because on May 15th Aaron brought his first lost tooth home with him from school.  Yep, they lost their first teeth about a week apart.  I have been ever so glad it happened in that order or I think Anson would have been up all that night determined to pull out a tooth at the same time as Aaron.  Having the older child smaller than the younger child, especially since they are boys, we have a bit of competition in Anson's eyes with everything they do.  Anson has to be sure he wins  and proves as the oldest child he's the first at everything.  Luckily loosing teeth first has helped Anson prove to himself that he is the oldest and peace continues in the household.  Whew!

Stake Conference

We have what is called a Stake Conference a couple times a year.  That is where all the congregations or wards in the area come together in a meeting to get counsel from our stake leaders.  Every couple of years we have the opportunity to have a leader from Utah come out.  These men from Utah are general authorities or leaders for our whole church.  One of these men came to our Stake Conference today.  His name is Dallin H Oaks.  He is a member of the Twelve Apostles.  Just like when Jesus lived on the earth we have 12 apostles who, under the direction of our prophet, go throughout the world testifying of Christ and his teachings.

 
Prior to his calling as a member of the Twelve Apostles, Elder Oaks was an attorney and eventually a member of the Supreme Court in Utah.  Being married to an attorney, I can recognize the intelligence this man has when he speaks.  These men who are apostles have the priesthood of God.  That means they have the authority to act on God's behalf where ever they are.  They do not apply for these positions, most do not study theology as a profession.  Every calling in our church is given by inspiration to ordinary people.

It is a great privilege to have one come to our stake and because of his presence there were a lot of people attending the meetings all weekend.  We went early of course so we could sit in the large room where the meeting was held.  We were toward the back but he came in 20 minutes or so early and went through every person in the chapel shaking hands with them.  I took the opportunity to take the kids up and shake his hand.  We had talked about how he works with our prophet helping people all over the world. 

He said many things in our meetings this weekend.  He truly speaks with the power of God, not just as a man.  A couple things he said I wrote down, when I wasn't wrestling the kids, were that when we are baptized we take upon ourselves the name of Christ, meaning we call ourselves Christians.  It also means we take upon ourselves the work of Christ, which was bringing people to God.  I had never thought of it that way.  Another thing he spoke on was about the Priesthood.  He said the Priesthood like like an umbrella.  It is on the earth to bless the lives of all God's children, not just those who are members of our church but everyone.  Worthy men hold this umbrella.  They have the opportunity to serve all of us with this Priesthood.  He spoke many other things and so did our other stake leaders.  It was a great conference and worth the stress of wrestling the kids for several hours.  He truly is a man of God and I'm very grateful for his service to me. 

Easter Sunday

We had a wonderful Easter Sunday a couple weeks ago.  Grandma Blackham decked the kids out in beautiful Easter clothes.  Rachel especially was very excited to wear her new dress.  We had a wonderful breakfast, which included homemade donuts.  The kids gave me a donut maker for Christmas and they loved participating in making them.  Here we are at Easter breakfast before church.

Rick was in charge of Easter pictures.  It was so nice to have him around that morning.

 And of course the promised silly picture.

 

My mom has been buying coordinating outfits for several years but this year was the first time the kids realized that they match.  They were all so excited about it.

We had a wonderful day and were able to go to my parents for Easter dinner.  We were also able to share a special Easter Family Home Evening with our Grandparents and Aunt Kristen.  We are so grateful for our Savior, Jesus Christ and for the restored gospel that gives us the knowledge that He truly does live and continues to lead us.  Because of His Atonement for us we will be able to be a family forever.

Anson and Aaron learn to ride a Bike

One of the joyous struggles of having two boys 6 months apart is learning new skills.  This winter and spring the boys learned to ride a bike.  Anson is less self confident in learning new skills.  I taught him first on one of the warm days in January.  Due to the few warm days we have at that time of year it's hard to learn a new outside skill.  It took Anson a few times to get enough confidence in himself and be successful at it.  

Aaron has always been hesitant about new experiences, whether that is eating a brownie for the first time or going down a water tube slide.  Riding a bike was no different.  He refused to do it and while I was busy teaching Anson that was okay.  Once Anson mastered it Anson and I decided to take Aaron's wheels off whether he wanted it or not.  I pushed him 2-3 times on the sidewalk and all of a sudden he was riding all the way down the street.  He just needed to be forced to do it and then he was a champ!

 

 
The boys are now enjoying riding down the street and I'm glad not to have to push them anymore.  Now we just need to get my bike tuned up so we can go on real rides!

Rachel enjoyed riding her bike behind the boys during this process.  Go brothers!

Anson's 7th Birthday!

Yes, my oldest baby was born 7 years ago.  We have a beautiful birth mom who gave us a miracle.  I will ever be grateful for a loving Heavenly Father who blessed our family so abundantly with Anson.  Anson is full of life and has really blossomed since starting school.  We always knew he would do really well in school and it has been wonderful to see that happen.  He wanted to celebrate his birthday with a friend party.  I have stopped doing friend parties every year for my sanity.  So this was his friend year and he invited 7 boys including himself and Aaron.  Everyone came!  We only had 1 church friend and the rest were from school so it was a new experience for us.  Anson is big into Ben 10, not my favorite show but he loves it; luckily Party City was clearancing out of everything we needed.  We played a few games.  The first game as kids came was just to shoot down the aliens with these disks.  The second game was a  mummy wrap up; I guess in one episode a character turns into  mummy.  Here are a few pictures.

The next game was a 4 armed relay since one of the characters has 4 arms.  It actually turned out really cute.  I cut 2 extra holes in big t-shirts and two boys fit inside.  They had to race and stack cups.  Anson's team worked out well since he is so small the bigger boy could usually stand over and work.

Our new aunt has exposed us to pinatas and again it was clearanced at the store so we had a pinata of Ben 10.

To decrease my anxiety of the event we ordered a Ben 10 cake and Anson loved it.  Overall we had a great party.  My kids' parties always seem to bomb but we had a talking to prior to the event about Anson being a host and Aaron being a host helper to smooth everything over.  It worked well and the kids all participated and got a long great!  Whew!  Another party DONE!