Being Thankful for this Day

So much time has been spent on getting Peter ready for his birthday or his baptism.  The other kids have been patient with all this attention on Peter, and along the way they they have been doing awesome things.

 Little Miss Haley is successfully wearing underwear!  Yahoo!  She is such a big girl and we are so happy and proud.  She loves that she has been able to do this and is proud of herself too.

 William lost his first tooth!  And the other one is already coming in.  He was brave enough to let dad pull it out.

Caleb was up to more inventing and building last night and built himself a temporary fort in the tree.  He loved doing it all on his own and had a blast up there.  But he took it all down because he said people might try to steal the wood when we were not there.  Poor kid has learned about dishonesty the sad way.

 Peter had his last week of the countdown, he is ready to go.  He received his baptism towel and I cannot believe the big day is this Saturday!  Wow, all this preparation and work and we are finally here.  He is excited.  The week before we talked about the Holy Ghost and he received a little fabric book I made about how the Holy Ghost helps us.

Diedre's version of baptism cookies for Peter.  I looked and looked on the web for baptism cookies.  All I could find were the 8 (which I already knew about), CTR shields or catholic crosses.  So, my head came up with the gingerbread boy design.  Legs are blue for the water, white shirt for the clothing, and my Peter boy with his blond hair and sweet smile.  Simple but I like it.  I think we are ready for the big day.  I hope it is special and fun for him and the rest of us.

The rest of life

So, besides birthday preparations and getting ready for a baptism in a few weeks, day to day life just keeps happening.  We have fights about homework, cleaning the house, taking showers, going to bed on time, and trying to get ready for end-of-year testing.  We also have fun moments with legos and potions, and singing songs together and reading stories.

 Caleb's science fair project was chosen to go on to district.  We were all very happy for him.  His teacher gave him great marks on his project.  Unfortunately he did not move on but I think he learned a lot from the experience.

 Caleb (and other boys) made messes in the kitchen with mom's cooking supplies.  This particular time was an explosion of corn starch when Caleb was not ready.  Right now as I type, Peter is in the kitchen playing with about 5 different tupperwares + water + food coloring + plants + seasonings from my cooking stuff.  That will be fun to clean up.  But at least he is happy.

 William celebrated his 100th day of Kindergarten.  Yeah!

He had to do a 100 day project, so we chose rainbow colored beads that he could put on a keychain and show the class.  He was one of two kids in his class that actually did the project.  Go William!  He also came home with this cool crown and necklace with 100 fruit loops.  He really has learned so much in the last 100 days!

So, a birthday happened...

 

A BIG birthday!  # 8!  Peter was excited and happy and looking forward to this day.  He was sad to leave 7 but excited for what 8 brings.  To get on with the details, and there are a lot...

The prep-work.

I wanted this to be a fun, memorable birthday for the boy.  So, we "conjured" up a Harry Potter birthday party, with the help of Thanksgiving Point.  Then Diedre's mind went into over drive and came up with a bunch more fun details to add to the day.  #1:  Peter's big birthday present.

  A Harry Potter quilt.  It is cozy and warm and full of love for the boy.  It has the flying car and windows with Hedwig and spell books, Hagrid's hut and the Hungarian Horntail and Quidditch.  Even house colors.  It was fun to make and fun to give.

Detail #2:

 The birthday invitations were delivered by homemade felt owl.  Super fun.

Detail #3:

Chocolate frog boxes for each of the party guests inside of a custom made gift bag.  Plus a snack bag of "Honeydukes Treat Mix" for the kids on the drive to Thanksgiving Point.

Detail #4:

Pictured in the temple picture above, a Harry Potter scarf.  I crocheted one for each of my kids.  Haley did not want the Griffindor colors, she wanted pink.  So she got a pink Hermoine scarf.  Caleb crocheted part of his own Ravenclaw scarf.  And I made one for William and Peter in the Griffindor colors.   Peter wore his long enough for a picture and then he was done.  Obviously my time could have been spent more wisely on this project.

Last time being 7.  Peter's best friend Jacob saved the day.  Our plans were rudely interrupted by a siblings sick tummy and plans not going on as we wanted them to.  So, Peter went to Jacob's house and was able to have a fabulous time being a boy.  They played fooseball, soccer and football outside, just enjoyed being friends.

The big day!!!

 Of course he woke up to balloons and a yummy breakfast of pancakes.  He at least wore his eight shirt to school, but when I went to visit his class he was still wearing his hoodie over the shirt.  He took rice krispy treats to his class for a treat.  

 The party started right after school.  We crammed a bunch of boys into the truck and drove down to Thanksgiving Point.  Rob learned an important lesson on this drive, his kids are not as loud as he once thought.  

 The kids were able to design a wooden wand and then they were "sorted" into their houses.  Peter was sorted in to Hufflepuff.  Two of his other friends were also there with him so he was happy.  William was sorted into Griffindor and he was over the moon about that.  Caleb and Haley were sorted into Slytherin.  Haley did not care, but Caleb was a bit disgruntled about it.  They had a class on Herbology, a scavenger hunt and then a game of Quidditch.  It was loads of fun and the boys all came home ranting and raving about it all.

One extra I forgot to share: 

So, the morning of Peter's birthday I woke up early to get it all ready for him.  I looked at the computer and we have this post-it note thing that you can type messages on when the screen opens.  Peter had written himself a note, "dear Peter, have a happy birthday."  I hope we made it happen for him.  He is a sweet kid.

So, what would I say about this boy now that he is eight?  Peter has a saying, "grown-ups do not understand kids."  Boy is he right.  Peter can confuse me at times.  But I do know a few things about him.  He loves football and Harry Potter!!!  He can turn any game into something about Harry Potter or football.  I have seen him play Harry Potter with dinosaurs and I have seen him set up an entire game of football with stuffed animals or lego guys.  He enjoys spending time alone and thinking.  He is a very smart boy, especially at math.  He tries very hard to be a good friend and to make the right choices.  He can get frustrated very easily and has a touchy temper.  He is very specific about what he likes to eat and the clothes he likes to wear.  He has very profound questions about life and Heaven and where we are all going in this life.  And when he is in a teachable mood the spirit can be strong and it brings us closer together.  We love him and when it all comes down to it, that is what matters most.

Closer and closer to the day

We have had a few more countdown weeks since I last wrote about the baptism.  I think he might be getting more excited about  things.

 For Christmas Peter wanted a map.  I took that idea and made a cross stitch "map of a happy life."  The idea is that is starts at the day he was born.  Then along the path there are things he can do to make his life happy.  Baptism is on there.  Then church, prayer, the commandments, scriptures, the temple.... all leading up to heaven with an eternal family.  I told him that if he follows the path and does the things that it says, he will have a happy life.

 It rolls up like a scroll.

Another week we talked about the sacrament.  And this week we talked about repentance.  The analogy was that just as a pencil makes a mark on paper and the eraser takes the mark away, when we make a wrong choice or sin it puts a mark on our spirit and life but when we repent it can "erase"those marks and make us clean again.  I am so excited for this little boy and the good kid he is.  He really is a sweet boy who is trying to follow Jesus.  I hope his day will be filled with happiness and the spirit, so he can want those feelings with him forever.

Always an adventure

This weekend was full of many things.  We had a science fair project to finish up, get ready for church and teach a new song to the primary.

Caleb chose to test different vinegars to see which one produced Co2 the best.  So, we got the supplies: 5 different vinegars, baking soda, balloons, water bottles and towels.  We needed lots of them.  It was fun to watch the balloons inflate with the reaction from the baking soda and vinegar.  And I think we may have learned a few things too.

See, we needed those towels. While Caleb and I were busy filling water bottles with vinegar and balloons with baking soda; Peter, William and Haley were conducting their own "experiments."  Experiments that landed them all in the bathtub afterwards, every kitchen towel dirty and a very big mess to clean up and mop.

The mess!!!  But they had fun.

Moving on to Sunday night and one sad boy.  Caleb wanted to play balloon volleyball with me after church.  I said yes, as soon as I had dinner almost done because Steve was coming for dinner.  He sweetly waited and then we started our game.  It was fun, we were laughing and going for the balloon. I hit it to Caleb, Caleb went with one of his goalie moves to dive for the balloon...sadly his head came into contact with the very hard window sill and they both lost.  Instant blood gushing from his head and that white piece he is holding is the window sill that his head broke off on contact.  OUCH!  I ran and grabbed a towel for his head and Rob and Caleb headed for Insta-care.  Steve pulled up at that moment to watch them drive away to eventually get 5 stitches.  Poor guy!  While Caleb was waiting for the stitches he pulled the towel away and found a chunk of hair.  Seems as if that white slab of windowsill cut his hair on impact.  What a tough kid.  Also, while they were gone and the rest of us were eating dinner Haley and William were playing in the brown room and suddenly we heard the sound of breaking glass.  Seems as if they knocked over one of the table lamps and it broke.  I think that room was cursed last night.  Then this morning he woke up with a bad ear-ache.  UGH.  I still sent him to school seeing as how he had this awesome science fair project to turn in.  Bad mom, I hope not.  But one thing is for sure, Life is always an adventure.  I will try to focus on the good parts of the adventure.

The countdown begins...8 week to go

Tonight we had Pa and Betty come over and start Peter's baptism countdown.  He received his "8" shirt and Pa and Betty shared with us their baptism stories.  Then we played baptism bingo where we read over different members of the Gray Family's baptism stories.  It was a fun night and we are excited to get to his baptism day and learn all about the special things it will bring.

Happy 2014!

Fun with glow-sticks...

Yummy dinner with glowing lights.  Even the fish ate by candle light.

We built a fire in the fireplace, played with glow sticks, it was a great way to ring in the new year.  Of course there were a few fights over glow stick colors and pretty much everyone was asleep before the rest of the neighborhood started celebrating with fireworks, but we had fun.
As we were sitting by the fire I asking everyone to think of their favorite memories from the last year.

This is one of Haley's memories that she mentioned, one day after dropping the boys off at school we found this baby calf in a field near our house.  We would visit it weekly and Haley and William loved how small and soft it was.

William remembered learning how to ride his bike.

 

And being on his own soccer team!

Peter remembered all the fun he had with his best friend, Parker, at Scofield.

 

Also the time when Peter spotted the bear in Scofield.  That was exciting.

And he could not forget the game when he scored his first goal!  He also mentioned playing with his brothers as being a favorite time of 2013.

Caleb mentioned so many things that he wanted to remember from this last year.  

Scofield was at the top!  That place is the best!

Turning one decade old!  This kid is the best ever.  I love him more and more! He proves to be a stud every day.

 

Caleb also said his favorite memory was his brothers.  These boys sure know how to fight at times and get on each other's nerves, but they also know how to be good together.  Caleb also wrote down his family, Popcorn the lamb (which he named), the Buffalo calf from Yellowstone, primary and singing (which he is awesome at), music and playing his violin, smiles, books and prayer.  Like I said, he is a stud.

We all remembered the fun times that we spent together.

The baby goat, Brownie!  A definite favorite!  OH, and the lambs and horses all following us in the field and scaring Haley.  Oh, the good times that we have together.

The buffalo getting a police escort in Yellowstone!  So awesome!!!

One of Diedre's personal favorites, hiking up the mountain at Scofield, and feeling so accomplished and together as a family when we made it to the top.  Boy was that a mountain!  At least it was for the 5 of us, one of which carried little Haley the whole way and the other three which did it all on their own.  Way to go us!!!!!

 So, as I was laying there, helping Haley go to sleep, and thinking about the past year and the new year that lay ahead; I was thinking about what I desire for the new year, some of my hopes for my family.
These are just some of the most important for my family:
For Rob, to help us feel close together.
For Caleb, to help him prepare for the priesthood next year.
For Peter, (this is a biggie) to help him feel happy.  He is such a wonderful boy, but boy can he get grumpy.  I want him to feel happiness.  And I also want for him to feel such an outpouring of the spirit when he is baptized that he never wants to let it go.
For William, for him to learn to read this year.
For Haley, to continue her love of singing.
Most importantly, I want to be a part of all their lives.  For us all to grow in happiness, to work together, to serve each other, and to have a hope the good that lies ahead.  I love this family of mine!