Talks and scriptures in Primary

So our kids have the opportunity a couple times of year to give talks or read scriptures in front of their Primary, that is 20 or so kids their age at church.  Aaron had the opportunity to read the scripture last month.  Anson has the opportunity to give a talk on having good friends help you choose the right today.  Aaron had a hard time practicing the week of his scripture, he just couldn't be pulled away from playing.  SO he had the consequence of reading the scripture all the way to church.  Our church is 15-20 minutes away so one can read a few verses many times in that amount of time.  By the time we arrived he was very fluent with his scripture and did a great job in front of his peers. 

So how will Anson do?  Is he going to practice before church or many times on the way to church?  He's talking about Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and those are tricky names to rattle off in front of people.  I'm sure he'll CTR, choose the right, and practice and do a great job today.

from Anson:
It is a little long.

from Mom:
But I know you can do it!

from Anson:
I know I can do it too.

from Mom:
kiss on your cheek

This is a real dialogue Anson wrote on this blog. :)

The new ride!

So we've said goodbye to our first family car and a big hello to our new van.  We were hopeful that our Grand Caravan would stick with us for a few more years but this year has been expensive on repairs, one of which was a transmission line.  The transmission would be going in the next year or two and with a few long driving trips coming up we decided to make the change now instead of breaking down in the mountains in the middle of who knows where. 

We were thrilled to get a new Honda Odyssey.   The kids especially love the new DVD.  We took it on our first trip we just returned from to Gatlinburg, TN and it worked great.  Here are the cooperating kids hanging out the window.

4th of July

The past 4 years Rick has been in charge of our church's 4th of July picnic.  It has been a great activity for the ward to look forward to every year.  Each year, no matter the heat, more and more people have shown up.  This year even with Chicago's HOT summer we had about 130 people there. 

(It was about 115 outside.) 

We invited our Grandpa Somers to join us this year as Grandma was traveling.  He was a great extra hand as Rick was busy keeping everything going.

 

Bishop Kosiek wanted to have a kite flying activity and even in the heat it was fun to see the wind could get them high.

Rachel, in the blue skirt, was flying one of the Bishop's kites since ours was broken.

 

Way to go Rick!  Another successful picnic!

Anson and Aaron play Tee-ball

This spring/summer the boys signed up for tee-ball, Rick's heart flipped a beat.  Because of the boys being 6 months apart they were in different leagues.  Anson was in coached pitched and Aaron was in tee-ball, huge differences between the two.  Aaron was the oldest on his team and loved going to everything from practices to games.  Because every kid hit off a tee the games were looooonnggg. 

Anson on the other hand was one of the smallest and it made it very difficult to pitch the ball in his tiny strike zone.  For Anson's league each kid was pitched 6 balls and there were no strikes.  They just had to hit one or they were out, so it was pretty hard for Anson.  At the beginning of the season both boys were going strong and I bounced between them in practices and games.  About half way through Anson was discouraged and it was a long last half of the season.  I heard him once say he like baseball and his favorite position was on the bench.  But had an excellent coach, who spent half of each practice helping him and the other half with him doing a drill right by his side. 

 
Amazingly we had 8 of the 10 games at the same time at the same complex so we could go from one game to the next depending on who was playing or at bat or just stand between the two fields and watch both. It really helped not having 2 practices and 1 game for each boy at different times during the week. 

It was a busy season but when the season was over it was bitter sweet.  Aaron loved every minute of his team and even Anson was disappointed his team didn't continue on in their playoffs. Go Mud Hens (Aaron) and Cubs (Anson)!

Rachel's princess class

So this summer I realized I was running my kids lives and wasn't giving them much vote on activities they were involved in.  My son asked to try Tae Kwon Do and I stopped myself when I realized it would be 8 months before I had it in my schedule to let him take it.  So this summerI told the kids they had to take swimming lessons but then they could each pick one activity.  Rachel picked a Princess, Fairies and Castles class from the Park District.  It is in her new Preschool class room and with one of her teachers so I felt a little bit better about paying someone to teach her about Cinderella.  It turned out pretty cute.  It met 4 times, once per week, and they learned about a different princess and made a craft about her each week.  The last day they met they had a tea party.  Here is Rachel all dressed up for her tea party at her princess class.

She loved every class and what 4 year old girl wouldn't! 

Spring Break at Branson,MO and Kansas City, MO

So going through my pictures I realized I never blogged about Spring Break.  We drove down to Missouri this year and stay in Branson for almost a week.  After our week there we drove back via Kansas City to see my cousin, Rick Blackham, his wife Andy and their 3 boys.  We took advantage of their wonderful hospitality and also were able to see the Kansas City Temple Open House.

We had a wonderful time in Branson.  We invited Rick's parents, Diane and Dennis, to come with us.  There is so much to do there and it is all family friendly.  Branson really strives to have a Christian family environment so everyone can enjoy every activity together.  We stayed in a huge home on the lake.  Everyone loved the theatre room in the basement where we watched movies and played Wii to our hearts content.  When we got out of the home we had so much to see and do.  Here are some pictures.

 We went on a dinner/show cruise on the Branson Belle, a big steam boat.  Andrew loved the geese outside the ship.  Excitedly he yelled, "quack, quack" at them all night.

 Us talking to the Belle's captain.

 Andrew and I on the loading deck before we load.

 The boys on the Belle's deck.

 Our family enjoying the Belle's ride.  They had an amazing show of comedy, magic, a men's quartet, and the world's only air flying-violinist/soprano (she was amazing).

 Here we are enjoying the hot tub at the house.

We visited the Titanic Museum there in Branson.  We couldn't take pictures inside but it was pretty amazing.  We all got to take part as we were assigned people who were on the ship.  Most of our people survived.

We visited the Table Rock Damn and fish hatchery.  They grow a million trout every year! 

There was a mini golf place at our resort that ended with the ball being swallowed by the fish!

Rick, Diane and I went to zipline one afternoon while the kids were taking naps.  It was so much fun! We enjoyed a lot of shopping and so much more in Branson.  We look forward to going back soon.

We went back home going through Kansas City, MO where my cousin lives.  Here we are with Rick Blackham's family, Andy, Connor, Daniel, Rick and Garrett.

 We took the opportunity to go through the open house with the older kids.  Our temples are sacred places in our faith.  Once they are dedicated we only allow those with recommends to go inside.  This is to maintain a high level of reverence throughout the temple.  Anson and Aaron went inside the Chicago temple when Anson was sealed to us as a baby but that was so long ago they don't remember.  Because this temple hasn't been dedicated we were able to take them through were able to show them similar rooms to where we were sealed and talk to them about how important temples are.  We believe families are meant to be together forever, not until death do us part.  Once a husband and wife are sealed they will be together forever and all of their children born to them after will automatically be with them.  Since Anson was adopted this additional step was necessary so that he will be our son now as well as after we die.  A heaven would not be much of a heaven without all of us there.  We rejoice that temples are near by us so we can make these bonds and covenants and teach our children about them.

Our church has a lot of history in Missouri.  One location is Liberty Jail where the Prophet Joseph Smith was wrongfully imprisoned for several months.  Once they realized they could not hold him wrongly forever they let him so.  The months were very difficult for Joseph as Liberty Jail in winter was very harsh.  He did a lot of praying and received important revelations during this time.  Here Rachel is in the reconstructed jail with Joseph in the background.

 On the way out of town we stopped by Adam-ondi-ahman.  It is a special field where we believe the Garden of Eden once was and where the Savior will come again.

It was a wonderful week with family and we all had a wonderful time being together and seeing wonderful things in Missouri!

Andrew turns 2!

Well our cute little Andrew is a two year old.  Ugh, I mean yeah!  The terrible twos and threes are not my favorite but maybe this time around will be different.  Anyway our little guy has had an explosion of words and new skills.  The best of which was learning the word "cheese" right before his birthday.  This helped with picture taking immensely. 

 What do you get the third boy, he got Winnie the Pooh figures and a book from Grandma and Grandpa Blackham.

 He got a car track/slide toy from Tia Medalith and Uncle Alex.

 He wasn't so sure about the slippers he got from Grandma and Grandpa DeMille until this moment when he figured out what they really were.  Now he leaves them on all day.

We gave Andrew a magazine style bookcase, which he loves.  He is rediscovering all of his books since he can now see them lined up.  The kids gave him some cars.

 We love our little guy.  He loves to play with his siblings, play outside and all things boy.  His first tune he sung was Star Wars.  He loves to have "sissy" and the boys read him books, wrestle, play light sabors, cars, legos, anything they are willing to share, including princesses.  

We love our little Andrew!