Labor Day Weekend

Marshall and James left Thursday of Labor Day weekend to hike King's Peak. Friday night Lynnlee and Sienna were invited to a girl's night with Ali and Katelyn. They got to eat out, watch a movie and paint nails.

 

Saturday we went to the Scera pool. Ali has a new twelve passenger van that all of the kids got to ride in to the pool.

We stayed over in Midway Sunday to Monday at Grandpa and Grandma Lowry's. Miranda's family was there so all of the cousins had fun. We were planning to go kayaking Monday but the air was smokey and the wind made it colder so we decided to go to Hang Time instead. We went straight from Midway and since we had Chewie with us I volunteered to drop them off and hang out at home. I'm not much of a fan of jumping on trampolines ever since having kids and the damage to my insides. Sorry if that is TMI. So the tricky thing about me heading home was that I was pulling the trailer with the kayaks. I have no problem driving it but I hadn't back it up successfully before so I was pretty stressed about how I would back it up by myself at home. I said a prayer and then I watched some YouTube videos with tips for backing up trailers. Then I prayed that if I couldn't do it that there would be a neighbor home who could help me. The biggest tip from the YouTube videos was to keep my hand at the bottom of the steering wheel instead of the top. That way you can remember if you want the trailer to go right you move your hand right, if you want it to go left you move your hand left. When I got home there was one neighbor out so I figured I would try it on my own first but if I couldn't do it then I would ask him. With the tip I learned I was able to successfully back up the trailer and unhook it from the car all by myself. I was so happy. Seriously though, it made my day! It's funny how such a small, silly thing can boost your confidence.

Airborne

Lynnlee's birthday was the week after the quarantine started. Everything closed down and we didn't' get to do a fun birthday activity. She really wanted to go to a trampoline park and I told her we would go once they opened. Then summer happened and we still didn't get around to it. Finally we went at the beginning of September. 

We invited her best friend Hannah to come as well as her brother Jackson who is Kaden's buddy. 

Everyone liked Wipe Out the most.

I don't know how they all had energy to jump for three house. They could have kept playing but it was dinner time and a school night so I had to pry them away from the fun.

 I'm so glad we could finally celebrate Lynnlee's birthday six months later :)

Middle School

James loves middle school. He has come classes with friends. In his other classes he is making new friends. Band has been fun so far. He is taking Creative Coding and art foundations as his other extras. "A" days are his favorite because he starts with Creative Coding, then has Science (he loves this class most out of all the required classes) and College and Career Awareness. I remember taking a class like College and Career Awareness but it wasn't until 9th grade. I think it helps to have it sooner so you can explore and think about what things interest you. 

One day he came home and told me in College and Career Awareness the teacher talked about how some students take college classes in high school and then graduate high school with their Associate's Degree. I told him that is exactly what I did. He thought that was pretty great and for a minute I felt like a cool mom.

The don't have masks on but really they usually all wear masks while there. The school has been good to enforce masks and everyone obeys. The kids don't complain about it. They are just happy to be there.

 

James's Braces

 It has been an adventure with James and his teeth. He had a button and chain surgically placed on his canine tooth last October. It straightened out his tooth and then because his braces were removed due to his allergies the button and chain didn't pull the tooth the right way. It caused a new problem with his tooth being behind all of the other teeth. The space for the tooth shrunk and the only want to correct everything was braces. We saw the other orthodontist in the practice and went over everything with him. I felt frustrated leaving the appointment because he didn't understand the level of James's allergies to nickel and latex. He just wanted to put braces back on and said it would only be short term and that James could handle the effects for a few weeks. James broke down in tears because he remembers how miserable he got last year. He has the most random, rare and unique reaction to nickel and latex. No one understands or fully believes him outside his family. 

I talked to Ali after we left the orthodontist. I was so discouraged and felt like there were no solutions. She called some people she knows and found out there are nickel free wires and brackets that would be a possibility. I called the orthodontist and basically told him if he didn't want to order in a nickel free product then we would go to their competition who is innovative and willing to help James (which they were, I called the competition and had an appointment set up). Thankfully our orthodontist was willing to help us and go the extra mile. I realize he has plenty of patients and they all follow the norm so why go out of his way for us bu this is exactly how you go from good to great. You have to do extra. 

The orthodontist ordered a special wire, to go with the ceramic brackets and the latex free elastics. James got the full set of braces put on a few days after school started. So far it's going well. I'm so relieved and grateful!

 

Kaden's Baptism

Baptisms during a pandemic look a little different. We had a few lessons on baptism as a family leading up to Kaden's special day. His primary teachers brought over some baptism activities. Kaden had his interview with the bishop/dad. 😄 Then the day before his baptism we got the white jumpsuit. His baptism wasn't until noon so it was nice to have all morning to prepare and take pictures. The amount of time spent at the stake center was limited so everything was done at home that could be done at home.

Our stake had Zoom set up and ready to go. We planned to have anyone who wanted to watch it from our house on Zoom. Family living far also watched through Zoom. A friend of Kaden's and his family came to watch the baptism to help his(the friend) anxiousness about being baptized. His primary teacher came as well. Marshall conducted the baptism. James and Lynnlee were the witnesses. We had a wonderful talk by Grandma Lowry. Betsy sang a beautiful musical number, Baptism. I got teared up which I do every time I hear her sing that song. 

I'm so grateful for the gospel and the ability to keep moving forward during a pandemic. It would be really discouraging if we had to wait for Kaden to be baptized. He was so excited to be baptized. It was a fun and happy day.

We found out the day before that Andrea and Ivy were in town taking Lily to Utah State. They were able to come to the baptism. We all adore Ivy but Kaden especially admires her.

Lynnlee made number eights for a treat at the luncheon. 

 

First Day of School!!!

 At the beginning of summer I really prayed hard about whether to send my kids back to school. They all wanted to go back but I wasn't sure what would be best for them.  Mostly I was worried about Lynnlee and how the mask would affect her oxygen saturation. She had her annual cardiology appointment scheduled but it was after the due date for declaring if my kids would be going to school in person. I decided to do my own test. One evening I had her wear a mask for about an hour. During that time I checked her oxygen saturation every 10 minutes or so. It fluctuated slightly but never went too low. So I had peace of mind about sending her to school. Most of our school shopping this year consisted of new masks.

Jameson- 7th grade

Lynnlee- 5th grade - Ms. McNeil

Kaden- 3rd grade - Mrs. Terry

Taggart and Sienna- 1st grade - Ms. Dean

Lynnlee, Kaden, Taggart and Sienna get on the bus at 7:30. Then James's bus comes at 7:44.

So the mornings are busy from the time everyone wakes up at 6:30 until they all get on the bus. We pack in breakfast, making lunches, scriptures, and doing hair. You have to stay on top of everything and not waste a second because the time just goes by so fast. 

After they all got on the bus I felt sad but also felt relief that schools were able to open and they could feel mostly back to normal. Kids need to socialize and there are so many little things learned from being at school that you just can't duplicate at home. I have been reading a lot of dog training books. One talked about the importance of socializing your puppy with other puppies/dogs at a young age. Otherwise they struggle around other dogs as they get older. The more I thought about it the more I realized how much humans are the same way. We need to be social and learn how to get along with others from a young age and then keep up those skills. I just can't duplicate that with home school.

The quarantine was bad for me because I got to be antisocial which is totally in my introverted comfort zone. It totally didn't help my New Years resolution to be more outgoing. Hopefully as things get back to normal I can work on my New Years resolution again.
 

Jameson's 12th Birthday!!!

James just wanted the biggest Lego set he could have for his birthday. Then he requested a treasure hunt to find the present to make it more fun since knew what he was getting. So we got him up that morning and the treasure hunt began. I found clues from Pinterest so there were about fifteen clues that took him all over the house.

Pause the birthday post: 

>>>Random picture of all of his stuffed animals. That morning while he was waiting for us to "wake him up" he posed all of his stuffed animals. I think he has way too many stuffed animals. <<<

The clues got harder to find as the hunt went on. The present was really hidden when he got to the last clue so it took him awhile to find it. It was fun challenging him. Since he's twelve now it couldn't be an easy peasy treasure hunt.

We were home all day so it was perfect because he had time to build the Millennium Falcon.

That night we had his favorite dinner: roast beef, mashed potatoes and gravy. Then he watched one of the Star Wars movies.

James has over come a lot in the past year. When he was diagnosed with IBS in the fall last year he was missing a lot of school and he had a lot of anxiety. He got through it and is feeling really good. Then all of his weird allergies happened during the same time but we seem to have that figured out.                              

I'm so happy he was able to go to the temple at the beginning of the year. It would have been a total bummer to turn twelve and not be able to go to the temple. It's also pretty great that he can help with the sacrament for home sacrament meeting.

He is playing competitive soccer for Arsenal. This year his friends made the team too so it's super awesome to be playing with his buddies after two years being on different teams.

Jameson's Friend Birthday Party

We have a friend party every other year or so. This was the year for Jameson. He was so excited that he had it all figured out by the beginning of summer.

We had it at Neptune Park in Saratoga Springs. It isn't too far from our house and it has plenty of open space and a really fun playground. 

We started off with nine square.

 

Then we took a break and had pizza.

 

Then we had an exciting game of Capture the Flag. They played through the playground which made it pretty interesting.

 

Next he opened presents. For dessert he didn't want cake and ice cream but instead wanted homemade oreos. That was much easier to take to a park and serve so I was grateful for that.

We finished off the night with soccer. I was so happy it all went so well. The boys all had fun, the weather was perfect and the park wasn't crowded so we had plenty of room.

Sewing Camp Part 2

Lynnlee really enjoyed sewing camp in June. She made so many fun projects so I decided to sign her up for the holiday classin August. It was three days long and each day was a different holiday theme. Monday was Thanksgiving. She made name card holders, napkin holders, center pieces. Tuesday was Halloween. She made a cat stuffed animal, trick or treat bag, and pillow case. Wednesday was Christmas and she made a stocking and decorations. It was really amazing how many things she made in three days.

There was an open house on the last day and it was fun to see all of her projects on display.