Logan's First Primary Talk

Logan has given the scripture in Primary 4 times, but today he gave his first talk! He was so excited to get his assignment last Sunday. His topic was "When I dress modestly I show respect for my body as a gift from God." 

Well... we expanded "dress modestly" to mean "take care of my body" :) 

Before we had even started working on his talk he chose his own outfit that he was going to wear for his talk...

We sat down Wednesday night to talk about his topic and I wrote down some of the things he said and put it all in order. Friday night we picked out pictures that went with his words.   Saturday I drew a few little pictures on the back of each picture to clue him in to what to say.

He wanted to memorize the scriptures that he gave in Primary before, but I fully expected to help him with his talk, sentence by sentence. But lo and behold when we practiced the whole thing put together Saturday night he had it pretty much memorized, and could say each idea in his own words. Great!

He ended up having diarrhea Saturday afternoon, but we thought for sure it would clear up by morning, so I thought we could at least take him to Primary for 15 minutes for opening exercises to give his talk and then go home again.  Well come Sunday morning... still diarrhea. Ug.  But he was very much his active self, so after deliberating Ben and I decided to still take him to Primary just to give his talk and then home again (to avoid being a no-show for the Primary presidency to make up for and also because it was fresh in Logan's mind and we didn't want to drag it out all week).  

Then I saw a great opportunity for a little spiritual experience and I asked Logan, "Do you think that if we pray and ask Heavenly Father to help you be able to give your talk, do you think he'll help you?" Logan said he thought so, so we knelt and he said a very simple prayer that included being nice to his brother, asking for help to be able to give his talk, and help to do good. 

And thank goodness, I was able to point out to Logan after church that Heavenly Father did indeed answer his prayer - he didn't have diarrhea since that morning and he was able to go to give his talk and he did so great!  Don't worry, he shook no hands, didn't breathe on anyone, or sneeze on anyone. He sat by me the whole time, holding my hand.

He was a lot more nervous and timid today than he was when he gave his scriptures, but when his turn to talk came, I went up and stood with him to help turn his pictures as we had planned and he did great! He spoke loud and slow and into the mic, and I only had to prompt him a couple times.

Ben brought him back home after that and had him give his talk one more time while he was in his suit still.  So cute, and I'm glad the experience of his first talk in Primary turned out so well.

Here it is for the grandmas to see:

Bittersweet

Well our house is officially for sale. I've never experienced such a large bag of mixed emotions before like I have in the past month. Ever.  There have been moments of frustration, questioning, excitement, pride, complete exhaustion, sadness, unbelief, dumbfoundedness, deep gratitude, anger, joy, reminiscing, tears, blankness, guilt of shrugging other responsibilities, and many feelings of "aren't we done with this yet?!"

I think one of the hardest parts, surprisingly, for me was packing up decorations from the boys' room. It was like tearing a piece of my heart out for some reason. 

The past 3 months have been filled with an effort to finish up our last projects: bathroom cabinetry, laundry room walls and floors, new fascia & soffit, window trim and finally exterior painting. You don't know how satisfying it was painting the house knowing that this was the last hurrah, the final energy-sucking project!

Lucky for me my energy level came back up from the 1st trimester doldrums right on time to begin packing, decluttering and cleaning, getting the house show-room worthy; a process that took two weeks longer than I thought it should have.  

And finally, I made the flyers and Ben put out the for sale sign yesterday!  We get the final appraisal report on Tuesday, so once we have our asking price finalized we'll post on KSL and other websites.  Then hopefully we'll get people walking through. Hopefully!

Here's our house-for-sale blog if you want to see the final pics:

 http://provohouseforsale.blogspot.com/

And here are a few before pics... (again, what were we thinking?)

Our room

 Lo's room

Remember how we bricked our fireplace and then tore it all out a couple years later? Awesome. 

You never know what you're gong to get when you tear up carpet - what a gem of a floor!

And remember when our roofing escapade took a terrible detour last fall? 

(3 different guys accidentally stepped through my living room ceiling in 4 different places...  I really couldn't blame them at all, though, because we were SO grateful for all the hours of help we had from friends!!)

All that loose insulation, mouse crap and asbestos all over my toys, tv and living room carpet... with my boys running around the house. Ug. 

Yes, I could look up at the sky from my living room :)

I'm laughing out loud now looking at these pictures, but really I was in tears at that point when Kaye and Riley magically showed up at my door asking how they could help. Riley went right to work salvaging and puzzle piecing my ceiling back together.

And pics from our latest and last project!!

And here's a great thanks to Dave, Jera, Desi and Kaye for all helping prep and paint the house! 

Ben ended up getting sick for a day and a half in the middle of our painting weekend. Poor guy. That was my day to push through and paint the trim.

That blasted sun was in the perfectly wrong spot that morning. 

You know how the more you serve people, the more you grow to love them? That is exactly what I feel about this house. This was quite "the little house that could" when we moved in (to put it nicely).  And It hasn't been until now, when I think about giving this sweet little home up, that I realize how attached I really have become to these walls and floors. Project, by project, hour by pain-staking hour we've grown to come to love our little place more and more.  I was just scrolling through all of our pictures in our "House" folder, looking at the before and after shots and I just remember all the hours, sweat, tears, late nights and money we've invested here and more importantly the lessons we've learned, the skills we've gained and the memories we've made. This is all sounding like a cheesy greeting card, but nevertheless it is all very, very true.

And now as Ben and I look at homes for sale that are bigger versions of our "little house that could" we quickly move on and say never again! We learned so much living here in this house from 1931... but I think those lessons really should only be learned once a lifetime. :)

"Why yes, my brother dressed me today. How could you tell?"

ps) The hand in the pocket thing is a new trend that Lincoln's been sporting and it's pretty cute... especially when he comes up to me whining, "tuh!" (stuck!)  "heh!" (help!) and gesturing that he can't get his hand out of his pocket.  And I've lost count the number of times he's been walking with both hands in pockets when he stumbles a bit, and then completely falls on his face because he can't get his hands out on time. Oh Lincoln.

Preschool Graduation

I always thought preschool graduations were pretty ridiculous... until that was my own kid up on the stage in a tiny cap and gown singing his heart out.  

Logan went to Brilliant Beginnings and I couldn't have been happier with his teachers, the program and his whole experience! He graduated last month and is movin' on to Kinder in the fall (not sure what school yet... that detail is one of a handful of balls in our life still high in the air that probably won't fall for another few months). 

Waiting to start... of course he had to stand next to his favorite friend, Tobias. He raved about Tobias all whole year long. And even raved about Tobias' older sister who can, as we've been told many times, jump on one foot and count to 100.

Lo's audience

 First the kids said the Pledge of Allegiance

Then they sand Down by the Bay and they each had a part they memorized.

Logan's part was, "Have you ever seen a  shark who's afraid of the dark?"

Then they sang a few more songs, walked to receive their diplomas, and then watched a slide show of the year. Yes, I teared up many times the whole night.

Ben had to go back to work to help with the play at Heritage so we got a family shot.

Then everyone headed outside for a balloon release

Me and Lo - I was beaming with a ridiculous amount of pride the whole time

Miss Morgan and her helpers decorated the gym SO cute... this picture doesn't really do it justice. 

And throughout the year Miss Morgan compiled little surprise boxes for the kids with their names on them, full of treats and goodies. And she also compiled journals for each student through out the year. And inside the binder she was thoughtful enough to include a program of the graduation, a DVD of class pictures of 2012, two books (Off to Kindergarten and I Knew You Could!) and a personally written card for each family. Talk about time!  

In the journal she included handprints, a page of interview questions answered by Logan, handwriting samples and an alphabet journal that included pages from A-Z.  My favorite page? "I is for ice cream!" He color, cut and pasted an ice cream cone and the page said, "If I could invent an ice cream flavor it would be called... Cowboy Chocolate."  haha  That is totally a Logan answer.  I scoured through that binder after I put the boys to bed and just cried. It was so sweet and fun to see how much he had grown over the year.

 

The students also all created pieces of art for an art show, where adults could pay $1 for each of their works of art. The money went towards the rental fee and also the elementary school library.

Logan's descriptive words were "sharp" and "energetic". Very fitting.

And of course he was more than thrilled about a cookie with his name on it. :)

I love my Logan!

We left in a hurry that night so I didn't get a picture with Logan and his teacher, Miss Morgan, but here is one from the beginning of the school year

And his class at the end of the year... yes he's standing next to Tobias again. 

 And here are videos (mostly for Nana and Pa J since they couldn't be there)












Now he's on to bigger and better - ha.  I have a knotty mix of feelings inside me when I think of Logan going into Kindergarten (well, school in general)... thrill, pride, excitement, wondering if I've done enough, hoping he'll be good at making friends, hoping he'll make great friends, hoping he won't be a bully, shock at how fast 5  years has gone, nail-biting anxiety over the public school system, nail-biting anxiety over what Lo will be learning from peers, sadness that I wont get him all day every day anymore, relief that I won't have him all day everyday, and happiness that he'll get smarter, sharper and that he'll get to fine-tune his little Logan-self even more!
 

driftless happenings and it's a girl!

Just exhausting some thoughts here that have been ruminating in my brain lately, taking up space. 

"What can I live without for a month, or two, or three... or more?" 
We've finished painting the house (wohoo!) and are done with projects on our sweet little starter home, which means it's time to list it for sale.  Now we're just packing up everything considered "extra" in our casa that doesn't need to be there taking up space so we can show it. Oh and cleaning too.  

This is before we painted all the fascia and soffit... I still haven't snapped a final shot

"How can I keep up with Logan on the trail now?"
He learned how to ride his two-wheeler and is riding everywhere. And wants to go places just so he can hop on his bike and ride.  We got rid of our single jogger last summer. We got rid of our single-child bike seat. So for now I'm just pulling the trailer behind me with just Linc-o in it. That works for now. 

He just learned one night when he wanted to ride his bike to the park and I told him he had to pedal the whole way if he wanted to "ride" his bike (rather than just push with his feet on the ground... he never wanted to use his training wheels). So he tried and tried and it just clicked for him on the way back from the park! I was super excited for him and couldn't stop cheering him on. It was so sweet to see how proud he was!

 

"Is this baby really a girl?"
Being a boy's mom has become so engrained in me that I'm really quite nervous for the high expectations that come with a baby girl and what it takes to be a girl's mom.  I naturally gravitate now towards legos, super heroes, cars, trains, diggers, dinosaurs, cowboy boots, etc. 

Lincoln on a tractor at Hee Haws

 

Lincoln spends his days lately lining up his bigger cars.  Just like his dad.

I'm pretty sure my girl will walk around with ratty hair and smeared mustard (or ketchup if she takes after Logan) on her cheeks.  I think I have taken the past 5 years of low-maintenance for granted. It's been swell never having to think of tights, or hair bows, or putting pigtails back in after naptime bed head, or Tinkerbell nail polish, or tu-tus, or little tiny bracelets, or getting the cutest swim suit possible (because heaven knows girls' swimsuits are cuter than pie. Or wait... is it "sweeter than pie"? Whatev.)  Don't get me wrong, I love little girls. It's just a lot more to think about.

And for some reason, I'm still so fearful of something being wrong (?.. maybe I should just say different) with her. I don't know... like down syndrome, or cleft pallet, or some odd heart condition that will make me nervous each time the boys go to play with her.  A person can go crazy thinking of all the things that could possibly be different with their child.  I know it's normal for a mom to slightly worry about things like this during pregnancy, then breathe a big sigh of relief when we count all 20 fingers and toes, and when we see they're eating, sleeping, breathing and pooping like normal.  But for some reason I just can't shake this thought/fear that she's different.  It just feels like a dark cloud is looming, but I can't tell if it's just typical fears or legit instinct/intuition. We'll see. 

Oh, by the way... I never announced on the blog here that we're having a girl (if you haven't caught on yet)!  At least we're pretty sure it is. At 16 weeks, we were lucky to be able to see an ultrasound student at the hospital for free and she actually did a great job, but wasn't convinced regarding the gender either way, but told us she thought it was a boy.  But the technician came and checked during the scan and confirmed at the end that it was actually a girl.  I'll start shopping after it's confirmed at 20 weeks :)

Here she is curled up with a cool shot of her vertebrae

 

 And here she is sitting on the camera

 

This whole pregnancy I've felt like it was a girl, just from certain experiences here and there, but wasn't really sure. So going into the ultrasound I was excited, hoping I was right. Then when the student said we were having another boy, my heart dropped for a millisecond then rebounded with excitement at the thought of having 3 boys around.  Then the student came back and dropped the girl-bomb on us and now I don't know what to think! 

On a lighter note, I have been feeling her move so much. I first felt her at week 14, but now I can feel her squirming in there. And last night I actually felt her kick from the outside for the first time!

And also good news, I'm on track for a typical 25-30 lb. weight gain (my goal from the beginning) rather than the former 50 or 60 lbs. Woohoo!  And it has probably made most of the difference that I'm still running ( er... more like jogging) a bit these days; another one of my goals - to run until at least 20 weeks if I can.

Anyway that's the latest, and what a load of ramblings it is. Comping up next is Logan's 5th Birthday and preschool graduation!