Category: July

July 2026

After the fourth of July Emilee had girls camp. The FSY camp she went to ended up not being that fun, but she had a fun time at girls camp. She really enjoys the young women leaders, especially one named Sister Wickham. They are goofy together. Someone sent me a picture of Emilee being silly during a hair braiding session one night.

While she was at camp Ryan and I went to Arkansas for Vanitta Turnbull’s 90th birthday party. She is Ryan’s biological grandma. She is a sweet lady. It was a nice lunch at a park for a few hours, so it was short but a nice party. We also saw Bill Bertleson while we were there. That is Vanitta’s brother, so Ryan’s great uncle. Before Ryan knew who his biological family was, we met Bill through my family at a Christmas dinner in Sioux Falls South Dakota in 2002. It was 20 years later before we found out he was actually part of Ryan’s biological family. Bill’s memory isn’t great now so he doesn’t remember meeting us back then, but he remembers my family. This was the first time we had seen him since we found out they were actually related.

Screenshot

Grandma and Grandpa Jones came to visit us the week after girls camp. They haven’t been here for a few years so it was nice to see them. We relaxed together for the week, they went to visit a friend in Nebraska one day, we watched a few of my moms favorite shows. One of the days I was at work Emilee convinced them to take her to Chick-fil-A. It was nice to spend time with them for a week. They had been in Idaho with Sherri and Kenny then went to Oklahoma for Aidan’s baptism then our house to visit. My dad just retired a few months ago and they moved to Lehi Utah and live by DeAnna now. It was there first trip since they retired to visit all their kids.

I saw this joke the other day. This is a perfect joke. It has layers.

I got a picture of my cute helper when we were doing mowing the lawn the other day.

And then I got a picture of my cute cat being weird and staring at the corner of the couch.

After Ryan has dogged on country music for the last 25 years I have known him, he decided he likes it. He has been listening to a song by Zach Bryan called Burn, Burn Burn and wanted to sing it at karaoke. I like the song and he can sing it pretty good but it is a little slow and more of a niche country song that not everyone would know so I didn’t think it would be a good karaoke song. Here is a Ryan singing Burn, Burn, Burn at karaoke.😂😂

Matthew Moves to Pesqueira

Matthew was in Ibura for 18 weeks. He had three different companions while he was there including his first training companion Elder Carrera. His new mission president moved almost everyone around to a new area on the last transfer. Matthew and Elder Carrera both moved together to Pesqueira. It is about 5 hours inland from Ibura. Matthew likes the interior area of his mission a lot so he was excited to go. It has been a pretty nice place so far. He said it is one of the nicest apartments in his whole mission. He gave us a tour and it is pretty cool. It is on the top of the building and has a big outdoor porch area with a really cool view of the city. They are living with two other missionaries which Matthew also really likes. It is nice to have more people to socialize with in the evenings after their days. One down side is the bedroom they are in has a bunch of roosters that live just outside it so he had to get used to sleeping through roosters crowing at random times in the middle of the night. So he is liking his area and is doing really well still. We are super proud of him. He hit his one year mark on his mission this week. August 11th. He has dedicated the last year of his life to teaching people about the Savior. He has grown and learned a lot. We miss him A LOT but we are very proud of him.

Here is a compilation of videos that Matthew has shared with us in his new area. There is scorpions and monkeys apparently. They have gone running a few times and a goat decided to try and join them. There is a tower they climbed to see a great view of the city.

July 4th 2026

This year was a special 4th of July, it was the 250th, fourth of July for the United States! There was a lot of cool celebrations. The FIFA World Cup was also hosted by the United States this year and that was fun to watch. None of us are really big soccer fans but since it was in the United States it was everywhere and lots of news and social media about it. I thought is was cool to see the other countries from all over the world coming and posting their impressions of the United States. They were amazed by the sheer size of Walmart, Costco, Sam’s Club, Buccee’s and the quantity of food and options available in them. Unlimited “free” refills on drinks. Air conditioning being available everywhere. Kansas City hosted several games. There are some pictures from the Norway game here that show the roads/sidewalks leading to the stadium being completely full of people in orange for the few hours before and after the game. Argentina played here so we got to have the world famous Messi play in Kansas City. Brazil played here too, so Matthew watched a game from Brazil of his home. He was allowed to watch any of the Brazil games with families watching the games there.

We usually host the fourth at our house and have a BBQ and light fireworks off. This year Allison was in Utah doing a therapy program, and Matthew was in Brazil so I wanted to change it up a little bit and not do our usual thing. Emilee went to a For Strength of Youth (FSY) with a friend the week of the fourth. It was in Columbia Missouri at Mizzou. So I dropped her off at that. A few days later Ryan and I went down to the Lake of the Ozarks and spent a few days with some friends/work colleagues. One of them has a nice boat so we got to ride around the lake one of the days. We stayed at a resort called Margaritaville. On the morning of the fourth we drove to Columbia to pick Emilee up at 7am and then came back to our resort. It was a fun place, they had pools, bowling, restaurants, arcades, shopping, mini golf, lots of fun things to do. And there was supposed to be a lot of cool fireworks that night. We had a late breakfast and then checked out the shops and got ice cream and ended up in the arcade for a while. It was really hot and sunny. After we had been in the arcade for a while the power went off. We made our way to the window and there was a random crazy rain storm that was blowing through. It was like a mini hurricane on the lake. It lasted about an hour but it ripped docks out of their anchor, roofs off building, and knocked down trees that left 40,000 people out of power, including our resort. We walked around a little and there wasn’t much that worked without power- except mini golf. We decided to wait a bit and go to dinner and see if the power would come back on. We found a pizza place far enough away that was still open. After dinner the news was saying it would probably be a few days before most people got power back. We decided instead of staying in a room with no air conditioning, lights, or warm water we would head home and catch the end of the firework shows in our own neighborhood and sleep in our beds that night.

Us in the arcade after the lights went out.
Fourth of July at Lake of the Ozark’s

We made it home a little before 10pm and there were still lots of fireworks going off for us to have a good show. Our 4th didn’t turn out the way we thought it would but that seems to be the theme for 2026 so we made the most of it. Maybe next year more of us will be together. Matthew called and we realized that after the fourth he has one more of each holiday until he is home. So next 4th will be the last holiday he misses before he comes home!!

The sunset on our drive home was red white and blue. How appropriate!!

Terry Family Pictures

The whole Terry clan was here in July. It will be a few years at least before that will be possible again so we took the opportunity to update the family pictures.

I always like a good pre-picture action

I think I have the ages right on the individual pictures, the younger ones I might be off by a year. 😊

Nadia 19
Matthew 18
Ethan 17
Dalion 16
Leah 15
Jesse 15
Allison 14
Alex 13
Emilee 12
Tristan 12
Tyler 12
Jovee 12
Kiara 9
Sadie 8
Chloe 6
Kaden 3

Summer Family Vacation and Allison’s 15th Birthday!

It was a little last minute but we decided to work in one more family vacation before Matthew left. He loves the heat and the ocean so we decided to go with Gulf Shores.

Our traditional family vacation picture ❤

We left on a Friday afternoon. The Torgerson’s were in Branson at Silver Dollar City so we drove to them and spent the evening with them and doing as many rides and roller coasters as we could. After we ended the night watching the drone/firework show (which was pretty cool) we stayed in a hotel near by and then left early the next morning to get to Gulf Shores.

We headed to the beach once we got to Gulf Shores, it was great weather and the waves were really nice, but unfortunately they were having one of their worst peak jellyfish seasons. It was a bit of a bummer. We played in the water a little bit, we all got a little sting here and there but Emilee got a pretty bad sting on her arm and neck. They were sea nettles which are not lethal but extremely painful. She was mad, frustrated, sad, and hurt all at once. After that we waded in the waves and stuck pretty close to the beach instead of the water. We played catch and enjoyed relaxing but we didn’t get to spend as much time on the beach as we hoped.

We spent the next few days relaxing and enjoying each others company. We went to the movies, a waterpark, played lots of games, Matthew, Ryan and Emilee went golfing, we swam in the pool, went shopping, did icee runs at the gas station and got ice cream at our usual spot. It used to be called Matt’s Ice Cream but they changed the name to Sweet Cone. We liked the first name better for obvious reasons.

Ryan took this picture to make fun of me for wearing a sweatshirt in July-but I was nice and warm in the movie theater so jokes on him.
Getting an Icee to cool off.
Doing some golfing and golf cart driving.
Seafood at Lulu’s
Sweet Cone ice cream stop, formally known as Matt’s Ice Cream Shop

We drove home on Allison’s birthday which isn’t very fun for her so we let her pick our activity the night before we left. She went with a 3D glow in the dark dinosaur miniature golf. It was pretty fun! I think Emilee lost but the score card showed that I lost.

We got home around 10pm on Allison’s birthday. Happy 15th birthday! Her presents were at Grandma Terry’s along with her guinea pigs so we stopped there first and brought them home with us so she could open them. Friday we did her birthday cake and she went swimming with a friend. Sunday we had more birthday cake with all the family in town-including Grandma and Grandpa Jones who were here to visit. And on Monday she went to brunch with some friends and then they hung out at our house for the day. So we spread it out over a few days but she still had some good birthday celebrating.

I asked her to smile and this is what she gave me.

Summer Pictures

This is last Summer but I wanted to make sure it is in one of my books. This is from our back porch. I love our view and seeing the beautiful sky.

We went to a karaoke bar for Ryan’s birthday. They had a band playing for part of the night and the friends we were with had them announce happy birthday to Ryan. He was thrilled and loved getting to sing-If I Had A Million Dollars.

I got these pretty flowers for my porch but they blooms only lasted like a day and I kept cutting the dead ones off every morning and was frustrated they didn’t last very long. Then somewhere in the cobwebs of my brain I remembered that some flowers close up at night and then open in the day. So I waited a little longer and then went out and checked them and sure enough they had opened and looked beautiful! I’m glad I remembered before I cut off perfectly good flowers all summer.

Allison went on a youth temple trip.

Found this sign above a drinking fountain in Emilee’s softball facility. It is now one of my favorite quotes to share with my children.

Emilee went to her first church girls camp and had a great time. The food was ‘tolerable’ the weather was 80’s-AMAZING, the cabins were air conditioned and there was a lot of fun activities!

Bucket List

We didn’t make an official summer bucket list like we used to when the kids were younger but we had a few things that Matthew wanted to do that we made sure got worked in.

One was an awesome 4th of July, which we did. Awesome overalls and all. Visiting grandparents in Florida. Watching all the new summer movies. Eating lots of Costa Vida food. Things like that.

Ryan’s family was here at the beginning of July. We went to Lake Olathe with cousins while they were here. There is a small beach area to swim and a blow up water obstacle course. We usually go once a summer and Matthew specifically mentioned wanting to do it. We were there for a little over an hour before we got rained out but Matthew said it counted.

We usually do at least one if not several family Royals games. We worked that in right after the fourth. The Royals won and they hit 4-5 home runs, that always makes it an exciting game.

All the cousins played games inside and out. Matthew and Ethan organized a game of whiffle ball. That was fun to watch. We had lots of family meals, eating is one of Matthew’s favorite activities so he loves a family meal. We did smores’ a few times in Grandpa Terry’s firepit and caught fireflies.

The older cousins found a place to hide from the younger ones for a bit and play a game against each other on their phones.

Matthew was set apart as an Elder in our church and got the Melchizedek priesthood. That was one of the things he needed to do to go on his mission. His Dad, Grandpa Terry, Bishop Sirois, and Uncle Kris and Uncle Ross were able to set him apart. Kris was wearing a tie but took it off before I took the picture and I wasn’t patient enough to let him put it back on. There have been several times this summer that I just look at Matthew and feel so proud of him and thankful to him for setting a good example and being a good person. He is very kind and inclusive to everyone around him.

Playing some baseball was of course on the bucket list. There wasn’t as much as we usually put into a summer but we attended several tournaments. The team did pretty good. Everyone had fun and enjoyed it. A lot of the team is going to keep playing in college but several are done so it was time for them to enjoy their team and have fun playing ball. Matthew has played with some of them since 5th grade. Their banter with each other on and off the field is fun to see. Their last tournament was in mid-July. Matthew was in a little bit of a hitting slump but he turned it around and had some great last games. He had a triple, a few doubles, a home run, and for the very last game to win the whole tournament- he scored the walk off run. 😜🤷‍♀️ Kind of a silly way to win a tournament, but we will take it. The video is a few videos of their final huddle and walk out to the field and then the last 10 minutes or so of the game, starting with Matthew’s last at bat.

Last team dinner at Hawaiian Bros
This picture is missing Jimmy Adams, he is the head coach but missed the last tournament because they were in Canada.

And not on the summer bucket list but worthy of mentioning is saving this little guy-only about 2 inches big- we found him wandering on our sidewalk while we were doing yard work one day. Emi and I walked him over to the creek by our house and put him in it. Hopefully he is living a happy life there.

July 4th Celebrations!

Way back in January or February, Ryan found a fourth of July outfit that he ordered for me and him to wear on the 4th. He was pretty excited about it. It was overalls with the flag on it. He wanted to be festive and over the top. A few weeks before the 4th Matthew sent me a link on his phone and asked if I would help him order an outfit he wanted to wear for the 4th. It was the same overalls! Ryan was delighted, he thought it was hilarious and was very excited. When the day arrived Ryan shaved his beard and left a gross mustache and they both decided to go shirtless to make it as red-neck as they could. It was pretty funny. We went to the firework booth to get our fireworks and there was a teenage girl there wearing the same outfit. She looked pretty embarrassed that we were all wearing the same outfit she was. We had a BBQ lunch at our house and lots of Ryan’s family, some of Lauren’s, and a few friends of ours came. Fourth of July has always been one of our favorite holidays, we did it in Nebraska for years and then had to tone it down when Roger and Rhonda moved here until we had a place we could light fireworks off again. The kids love the cousin time and always look forward to it. I don’t know how much longer it will be like we are used to but it was a fun time this year!

We got three years of fireworks to make sure Matt got his fill to last the next few times he won’t be here for the 4th.
I see all 18 years of Matthew when I look at this picture.

Arkansas Family

Right before the 4th before Matthew and Emilee got back from Florida, the rest of us went to Arkansas. All of Sherrie and Dave’s kids were there and we to celebrate the 4th and they wanted to take a family picture…so we kind of ruined it by not bring all of our kids, but we didn’t know about it until they were already going to be gone. So we did our best. We got some great pictures, and it was nice to see everyone. We haven’t gotten to know Austin and Giselle and their families as well because they live in Utah. We are getting to know everyone better and better though and it is nice to spend time with them.

Family Visits

Last December, DeAnna called and said that her family was going to go on a trip and see some of the church history sites and asked if she could come and stay with us for a few days since we live by them. We said yes, of course.

When it got a little closer Sherri and Kenny decided they wanted to join in the fun so they asked to come visit too. So we had a party with the Terry, Cazier, and French families for a week in July. There were 11 kids and 6 adults. I am hosting Thanksgiving in November so it was a good practice run for when I have 14 kids and 10 adults here.

We had a good time. I was again a little nervous about the weather. July in Kansas does not usually encourage one to be outdoors due to the ridiculous heat and humidity so I was trying to think of good indoor things to do around here. The weather ended up being pretty awesome the whole time though. Seriously gorgeous 80 degree temps and low humidity. Everyone arrived on Thursday and Friday. Saturday we went to a park and played pickle ball for a few hours. There was a playground and baseball field that some of us played kick ball on too. Sunday we went to church and played games, jumped on the trampoline and hung out at the house. Ryan squeezed in as many games with John and sushi runs with Kenny as he could before he had to leave for a conference Sunday night. Monday we went to Liberty Missouri to see the Liberty Jail, where Joseph Smith and a few others were put in jail for false charges for several months. That night we went to a Royals game. It was a pretty exciting game. I think there were 4 maybe 5 home runs, a little drama with people getting hit by pitches that resulted in coaches getting kicked out. Between that and the stadium food it was a pretty fun night. Tuesday we went to the Spring Hill Aquatic center and spent a few hours at the pool. There was lots of games and activities at the house. I am glad we had the trampoline, it was a big hit. Hannah had a birthday while she was here too. We made her a cake and she picked what we had for dinner. It was a fun couple of days. I enjoy the chaos of big family gatherings. My kids do too. They love having cousins to play with from the time they wake up until they go to bed. The Cazier’s left Wednesday to go to Nauvoo Illinois and then home. The French’s left the next day.

Jake and Becky came that same week and were at Grandma Terry’s house. We saw them a little bit. The Bourne’s, grandparents, and Terry’s came to our house on Saturday and Sunday to hangout together. Ryan and I had Allison to ourselves for a week because Matthew and Emilee left the same day the Cazier’s did to spend a week with Grandma and Grandpa Jones. It will probably be the last time Matthew goes to spend a week with them since he will graduate and move on to other things this year. He loves going there. Grandma cooks him tons of good food, grandpa tells him funny stories, and he can walk out the door and fish in the ponds around them anytime he wants.

Liberty Jail
Kansas City Temple

Alli’s Trip

The kids all went to Florida this Summer to spend time with Grandma and Grandpa Jones. Allison went first. I know my mom loves it but all my kids like going to visit too, especially Allison. She can relax and not have anyone to mother. My parents always seem to find fun places or things to do while they are there too. This year they went on a swamp tour in an airboat and held some alligators. They did some school shopping. They got hooked on the show The Flash, went swimming, baked lots of cookies and treats, and did more shopping. She flew there and back on her own. I don’t love it, but I am able to take her to the gate and my mom picks her up at the gate. While she was there is was her Aunt Rachel’s birthday so they decided to make her a video with a birthday song. I will attach it to this post for your enjoyment.

https://youtu.be/6W9G-e-jnh4?list=PLBwkO01uWtw9DJu2WA-l0-1CZ6EuoK5Kl

On a sadder note, shortly before she left, her guinea pig Peanut passed away. We had him for almost 5 years. He was the first one she got and he had a very happy life. She took amazing care of him. He had a few vet check ups and the vet always said he was well taken care of. It was all Allison. We could tell he was getting pretty old and might not be around to much longer. She spent a lot of time with him the last few days swinging in the hammock with him wrapped in a towel snuggling with her. The morning we found he had passed away Allison and I went and found a nice wooden box to bury him in. Emilee painted some wooden grave markers for him, and Matthew and dad dug a hole for him. We buried him in the flower bed by Allison’s window.

That left us with Milo. Allison watched him pretty closely and thought he was getting lonely. Guinea pigs are pretty social creatures. We discussed it for a while. Milo is three years old and I didn’t want to get another baby. I didn’t want to get another one at all, but we looked around and found a lady that had a guinea pig rescue. She had a few male guinea pigs that were about the same age as Milo. Dad and Allison took Milo over to her house to meat the different ones and see if there were any that would make a good buddy for him. There were a few solid ‘No’s’ but Milo seemed to like a chubby chill guy named Oreo. Allison brought him home and over the next few days they became the best of friends and Allison renamed him Bubbles because Oreo was to basic. All is right with the guinea pigs once again.

Bringing Oreo, soon to be known as Bubbles, home for the first time

4th of July

The city of Olathe doesn’t allow fireworks. People still do, but it limits the fun a bit. That’s why we loved going to Nebraska and having a huge firework display and doing our own right from Grandpa’s drive way. Ever since Grandma and Grandpa Terry moved to Olathe we have been anticipating a July 4th celebration at our new house! Our house is not considered inside city limits so we can light off whatever we want. Last year we lit of fireworks on the road but we didn’t have a house yet. This year we had the house!

It is always such an awesome holiday. It really is one of my favorites. It is low key and minimal prep. The point is to just relax, eat and light off fireworks. For the past few years at some point during the summer we go with Terry cousins and spend the day at World’s and Ocean’s of Fun Amusement park. Last year we didn’t go because we had a family reunion at Branson and everyone went to Silver Dollar City together instead. This year my kids were really looking forward to it and the day that worked out was July 3rd. I was a little nervous in anticipation of the heat but it ended up being a great day. It was overcast so not blistering sun and humidity but still warm enough to swim. Everyone was tall enough to go on every single ride if they wanted too for the first time too! Jovee is one of the biggest roller coaster junkies in the group and up until this year there was always one or two off limits due to height for her. Emilee has had a little anxiety about a few roller coasters since going on one when she was really young that she probably shouldn’t have. Height wise she has always been as tall as kids several years older than her. She was trying to talk herself into doing the Patriot. We got in line the first time and then when it was our turn she couldn’t do it. We watched everyone else go and then she decided she would give it another shot and the second time it was our turn she did it. She loved it and was much more relaxed about going on the rest of the rides after that. Leah is not a big roller coaster fan but for Allison’s birthday she said she would go on any ride Allison wanted her to go on with her. It was a great day. We hit all the rides we wanted then ate lunch and went to the water park side. After they were all done there we headed home with a stop at chick-fil-a on the way.

The next day we had a BBQ at our place with all the KC family and my friend Dani came with her son Ethan. We played games, ate food, went and got fireworks, set of the day time ones and then repeated it all until it was dark enough to do the night time ones. We had one small incident. The kids were lighting off smoke bombs and bottle rockets and things like that. The three youngest kids like to light smoke bombs and run through the smoke. They lit what they thought was a smoke bomb and it was but it had some firework stuff in it too. So they were all standing around it and ready to start running in the smoke and it started shooting out whistlers at them. They ran pretty quick. Luckily no one was hurt. It was a good lesson to read the entire description and always stand back even if you think it is just a smoke bomb. Other than that is was just a fun time. We topped the day off with strawberry short cake and it was another successful Fourth of July!

Random…but Noteworthy

These are pictures I have that I like but didn’t really need a full post about them, or didn’t go with pictures taken at the same time that I put in other posts. So I thought I would just do a collection of them here.

This is our one and only picture from Easter 2024. As much as I love pictures and documenting events, I sometimes am horrible at taking the pictures. This was the end of the day and everyone was headed to take off their Easter clothes and I insisted on one family photo. Some of us were more willing participants than others.
Sherrie and Dave came to visit us for a weekend to watch some of Matthew’s games. We had some time to pass before a game and were right by Liberty Jail. So we went to the jail and still had time to pass. There happened to be a bazaar across the street from Liberty Jail so we walked around. They had this little selfie spot so I had them hope in for a picture.

Both of these pictures are in Utah when we were staying with DeAnna for my Grandpa’s funeral. I thought 6 people brushing their teeth in the bathroom was pretty cute. DeAnna made lots of good food while we were there too, Sherri wanted to document that ‘she can cook but chooses not to’. While we were in Utah, dad took Emilee and Matthew to their softball and baseball tournaments they had going on that weekend. They love it so much they decided to go watch a Royals game one of the nights we were gone.

I am not sure where we were coming back from…maybe the eclipse, but the girls were being a little grumpy to each other but when they fell asleep they snuggled right up to each other.

This is one of the many times we have had to rent a skid loader to do some lawn stuff. It won’t be the last either. Ryan and I take turns between freaking out about why we have so much land to take care of and someday it will be awesome.

We try and do an annual amusement park day with our cousins each year. Sometimes it ends up being in Branson and Silver Dollar City, sometimes Worlds/Oceans of Fun. It was a great time this year. Everyone is tall enough for all the rides. Jovee is the biggest adrenaline junky and finally hit the tallest minimum requirement for the rides she had been waiting to go on for years. We went on July 3rd which was begging for heat stroke, but the weather was cloudy and perfect so it was a great day.

We have had typical so hot and humid days you can barely go outside this Summer for sure but there have been a lot more than usual gorgeous beautiful weather days. This hammock is one of our favorite spots to hangout on those days.

Allison’s 13th Birthday!

After our family trip to Gulf Shores this Summer the girls went to visit my parents in Florida. The girls and Matthew if he can squeeze it in like to go spend a week or two with them each Summer. This Summer the girls went together and spent a week and a half enjoying all the fun things Florida has to offer. They spent time playing with cousins, swimming, going to the zoo, a dolphin watching cruise and late night movies.

A few days after the girls got back we celebrated Allison’s birthday #13! Welcome to your teenage years Allison! She had a sleepover with her friend they went shopping. We had a family dinner with the Kansas Terry’s on Sunday. Dad and I got her a new bike but then she decided she wanted to keep using her dads bike and just get some cool accessories for it. She has been into biking lately so she wanted a phone holder, water bottle holder, and a tracking thing that tells her how far she bikes, tracks her route, tells her how hard she was peddling, things like that. She is also trying to collect a huge collection of squishmallows so she got a few more of those for her birthday as well.

She went with a chocolate cake and right before we blew out the candles she asked me to put a turtle on it. Between Lauren, Ross, and I we were able to draw a turtle on her cake with a poop emoji (Allison’s favorite emoji) for her to blow candles out. I used sparkler candles that are harder to blow out which of course she loved.

Allison is an amazing young women and I am glad I get to have her for my daughter. She is one of the most creative people I know. She is funny and has a quick wit. We were going somewhere in the car the other day and I said I needed to grab a protein bar because I didn’t eat lunch. We started driving and I opened the bar and for some reason it was half the size they usually are and looked pretty pathetic. Allison looked at it and without missing a beat said, “Looks like your protein bar didn’t eat lunch either.”

When she does something she puts 100% of her effort into it. I love watching her grow up and developing her talents and I am excited to see what she does in the next few years. Happy Birthday Allison!

Matthew’s Baseball Pictures

We have been lucky to have a few photographers on the team over the years that take pictures of all the boys on Matthew’s baseball team. Then they share them with everyone. Will Kent is the photographer for these pictures. I didn’t take any of them, I appreciate him sharing his talent. I need to get a photographer on Allison’s gymnastics team and Emilee’s horse lessons so I can have good pictures of them too.

These are all from the 2023 club season Spring baseball tournaments.

Gulf Shores-July 2023

A few days after getting back from New York we got ready for our family Summer vacation. Matthew had a baseball tournament in Gulf Shores Alabama over the fourth of July so we invited Ross and Lauren to come with us and we found a VRBO to stay at by the beach and added a few extra days to make it our Summer trip.

On our way to drop the Guinea Pigs off and start our vacation!

It was hot! We are used to humidity in Kansas but it took a step up in Alabama. Good thing we were by the beach!

We stopped at Bass Pro in Memphis on the way home for Matthew. He loves exploring a new Bass Pro Shop.

We had several beach days and did some mini golf. We found some Outlet Stores that the girls (and everyone) really liked and spent several hours shopping there. In the evenings we played lots of board games. Ryan and Ross brought at least 30 options of games to play like they usually do and we play 2 of them over and over. Matthew played 7 baseball games. The team has been playing pretty good lately but Matthew personally has been having an amazing season. They took 2nd overall in the tournament for their age group 16U.

On the actual fourth of July we had a cookout on the beach and played in the water a little bit with the whole team. Then watched fireworks from the beach. It was a cool experience. None of us had ever seen fireworks from the beach. It is just a great place to relax and hang out. I think everyone had a nice week.

Last time we were there a few years ago we took pictures at an ice cream shop that we went to. They are some of my favorite pictures. We went back to the same place and took the pictures again in the same poses we did a few years ago. We got some souvenirs at the store and made it out without any new crabs or other living animals.

By the time we drove home I had driven through 14 states within 2 1/2 weeks. It was a busy few weeks for everyone. We squeezed a lot of fun and new memories in this Summer and there are still more to come.

Matthew and Allison’s Turn

A few weeks after Emilee got back it was Matthew and Allison’s turn to go to grandma and grandpa Jones’. They flew out together. Matthew is old enough that he can be her companion. This was also Matthew’s first time going. He only stayed a week because he had baseball. He had a very fun time. He told me to book him a trip to Grandma’s for next Summer when he got home.

Some of the highlights he has mentioned is how good grandma’s baking is. Her ginger snap and chocolate chip cookies were definitely a favorite. Being able to walk out the door and go fishing was a fun perk. Beating Sherri at pickle ball has been mentioned a few times. The beach, aquarium, zoo, lots of swimming, games, and movies. Grandma kept him busy. He was very happy to get out of Kansas and have a fun trip for the Summer. They also watched some home videos and Matthew sent this one to me. I remember filming this. Cute little stinker.

There was a tussle over who got the bed. It is a queen bed and could have been easily shared. Matthew suggested he have it for the week he was there and Allison have it for the week she stayed after he left. She said, “That is fair but that’s not how it’s going to go.” They shared the bed the first night, then Allison was demoted to the air mattress.

Just arriving at Grandma’s from the airport.
First…and only fish he caught this trip.

When he came back grandma was able to walk him to the shuttle then he was on his own. He found security and made it through (he did have his fishing pliers confiscated) then made it to the gate. Then it poured rain for a few hours and delayed his flight but he made it home. I picked him up in the passenger pick up area. He was pretty proud of himself for flying half way across the country all by himself.

Allison stayed to have one more week with Grandma after Matthew left. She was excited to upgrade back to the bed from the air mattress. Last Summer when she was there Grandma got her hooked on the Hallmark Mystery Channel so she was excited to catch up on that with her. She was there over her birthday this year. Grandma made her a chocolate cake. Matthew took a few gifts for her in his suitcase from us and left them for her to open. She had one to open when she got home too. They went bowling and swimming at Sherri’s for her birthday. Grandma made her a chocolate cake.

Happy 12th birthday Allison!!

To Grandma’s House We Go

This Summer all of the kids asked if they could go visit Grandma and Grandpa Jones in Florida for part of their Summer break. Allison has been going for a few years, then Emilee started going, then Matthew said he wanted in on the fun.

Emilee was the first to go this year. They like to go one at a time so they have Grandma to themselves. We left the house to catch her flight at 5 in the morning. Right before she got on the plane she was feeling a little nervous but she did great. She had her backpack with her favorite stuffed animals in it and an iPad to keep her busy for the two hour flight. Grandma was waiting for her as soon as she got off the plane. They got home and Grandma was surprised to find that half of her suitcase was full of stuffed animals too! After I packed her clothes I told her she could fill the rest of the space with whatever she wanted. She went with a pair of goggles and about 10 stuffed animals packed with loving care so they weren’t squishing each other.

Aubry spent the night at Grandma’s with Emilee the first night.

First night and Grandma and Grandpa’s house in Florida.

Emilee was there almost two weeks and she had a great time. Grandma took her to the zoo, the aquarium, the beach, and there was lots of swimming at Grandma’s pool or Aunt Sherri’s house. There was movie nights with popcorn and a fun July 4th celebration with lots of fireworks of course.

Emilee said grandma had lots of good food like chicken nuggets, and spaghetti and chocolate chip pancakes almost every morning. She said she had a great time. I love that she gets to make special memories with them.

Zoo
Movie night
Aquarium
Lunch at the beach

Uncle Kenny and Aubry were going on a road trip to Idaho so instead of flying home Emilee hitched a ride with them. It took a little longer than flying but after two days of driving they made it to our house. Emilee said the first thing she wanted to do when she woke up the next morning was call Grandma and tell her she made it safely.

The Next Big Adventure

Ryan and I have had our eye on some houses with a little more land around them just south of us for the last few years. It is a small neighborhood and the houses don’t go up for sale very often. We put on offer on one about a year ago but that was when bidding wars were ridiculous and houses were selling for way more then they were worth. We ended up passing on it after our bid for 20% more than asking price got out bid. This past winter they developer opened up a dozen or so more lots. After much debating and praying and thinking and more debating we decided to buy a lot and build a house.

It took several months to get the financing process, find a builder and make a plan for the house but we now have it all done. We are finally ready to move to the next step. My plan is to take a picture each month and hopefully show a significant amount of progress. If things stay on schedule (they won’t) and supply chains don’t change to drastically (they will) our builder is planning on being done in 12-14 months from July 2022.

It is exciting and stressful.

Here is the first picture. We have a three acre corner lot. If you look closely you can see the flags marking the outline of the house. Once the permits and septic system is designed they can start digging.

Summer 2022 Baseball

The Summer of 2022 is one of the hottest ones on record for Kansas. We spent most of the weekends sizzling in the heat, going through a ridiculous amount of sunscreen, ice, water, and sunflower seeds watching Matthew play baseball. Despite the heat, I enjoy a good baseball game.

Pre-Game huddle
Post Game cool down-waiting for the next game.
During Game Cheering

Amateur’s Athletic Union

Allison’s gymnastic team qualified to participate in the AAU National competition this year! She was pretty excited! It changes locations every year, this year it was in Springfield, Illinois-home of Abraham Lincoln.

It was a quick trip but we had a fun time together. After I finished work on Thursday Allison and I drove to Springfield. It was about a 5 hour drive. We ate lots of snacks and sang songs at the top of our lungs to pass the time. The last hour of the drive we saw thousands of fire flies along the road. A lot of them hit the car window too. We new it was a fire fly because the smear they made on the window glowed just like they did for about a minute after it got squashed on the window.

We made it to our hotel and got settled in. Allison had a little excitement to burn off so we explored the hotel and then she bounced all over the bed for a bit. We had to be at the convention center by 7:45 the next morning. We woke up early and made it to breakfast. They had potato squares which are one of Allison’s favorite so she took that as a good sign for the day.

We got to the convention center and once we found her coach and team mate I went and found a good seat. She did a great job! I enjoy watching her compete.

She is the Missouri Valley group when they announce where people are from.

Her scores for her events were;

Bars:8.825

Beam:8.8

Vault:8.65

Floor 9.15.

For her division she ended up placing 10th overall and took 7th on the floor. She messed up a little bit on the last run of her floor routine so she was surprised at her score a little bit. That is why you always show confidence!

warm ups
With Coach Susie
Floor Medal
Overall Medal
With team mate Lilly

After her competition and awards we headed back home. Allison spotted a Pizza Ranch Buffet- one of her favorites- so we stopped there for lunch on our way home. It was good but put me in a carb coma so I had to pull over and take a 30 minute cat nap. Allison took embarrassing videos and pictures of me while I slept.

Allison’s 11th Birthday

To help you remember, last year Allison brought me the plan for her birthday party she wanted to have when she turned 10 a few weeks before so I had plenty of time to prepare. Her original party spanned several days and two nights with several outings planned each day. After some negotiating we chiseled it down to a full 24 hour party with two outings, and just one night of sleeping over.

Usually we do a bigger party every other year and then keep it to a little smaller family party in between with a little bigger present. Allison came to me with her birthday brainstorming before getting to into her planning to determine what I considered a ‘big party’ to be. I believe she clarified by saying, “What is the number of days difference to you for a big party or a small party?” She is a funny girl. I told to keep it small and she would get some cash for her present. Nothing motivates Allison more than cash money.

She was happy to oblige and she helped me plan a pool party with a few friends. They ate pizza, opened presents, had a silly string fight, swam while listening to music, then everyone went home. Except for Leah, she spent the night. I think it was a very successful birthday for her. The next day we went to a few stores to release some of the heat from Allison’s pockets because she had money burning a hole in them. She added to her pop it and fidget collection that is getting pretty large.

  • Avery, Allie, Allison, Hailey, Leah

We had a family dinner with local Terry’s on Sunday as well, which she loved. She is now 11. Going to be starting 6th grade and ready to take on the next year of her life. Happy Birthday Allison!

Emilee

It has been awhile since I wrote about each kiddo individually so I thought I would do that. They like reading about themselves when they look through these blogs so I’ll catch up on what they are like in their lives right now.

She has changed from a little girl into a young lady the past several months. I love watching her grow up but it is also a little bitter sweet with her because each time she finishes a phase it is the last of my kids to go through it. Sometimes it is nice- like potty training. Other times it is a little sad- like losing her first tooth, or holding my hand when we go places. I can still talk her into holding my hand for now.

She is finishing her last week of a two week trip to visit Grandma and Grandpa Jones in Florida this Summer. She has been having a great time. She told me some of the highlights have been watching movies with grandma and grandpa, going to the zoo, playing with her cousin Aubry, swimming A LOT, and her cousin Hannah coming to stay too. They even had a Pioneer Primary Activity while she was there. She was a little nervous about flying on the airplane by herself to get there but she is a pro now so she isn’t worried about the flight home.

  • Grandma picking her up at the air port.
  • Hiking with Hannah
  • Zoo with Aubry
  • Sherri said the swam for 4 hours and were still going strong but they had to go.
  • Taking a selfie with Aubry.
  • Pioneer Primary activity-they were making leather bracelets.
  • Grandma and Grandpa took over shaking the butter.
  • Playing with Grandma’s animals and singing.

Emilee is 8 years old. She loves being the youngest kid and tries to take advantage of the ‘I don’t know how’ excuse any chance she gets. She is a master at getting what she wants right under your nose. I have to really watch myself or before I know it I am doing everything for her or having her brother or sister do it for her. The saying, you catch more bees with sugar than vinegar is her motto in life, if it doesn’t work she is fully prepared to back it up with crying or even the occasional tantrum. Those tactics are easier to spot because they are more annoying obviously, and she usually over does the theatrics a bit so it is almost comical. Overall she is still a happy easy going girl for the most part.

We often hear her singing either a real or made up song while she plays. She is the best at using her imagination and will entertain herself for hours with her stuffed animals or her little animal toys or legos. She has an amazing stuffed animal collection. It is almost like her journal. She remembers each of their names and where or why she got them. They rotate on her bed so they all have turns sleeping with her at night. There are 10-15 stuffed animals in her bed at any given time.

She is very tall for her age. Dad still tries to get her interested in sports. She is very fast and has a fair amount of natural athleticism. She has tried basketball, soccer, softball, gymnastics and will be trying volleyball this Fall. She could be very good at any of those but so far she hasn’t loved any of them. Her love is animals. She started riding lessons with one of her besties Reese about a year ago. She loves riding the horses and helping take care of them each week. She did a horse camp this Summer and has been telling us she wants a horse for Christmas ever since then. I am hoping she will be my kiddo that does some theater and choir in school.

She likes to color and draw. If I let her she would keep every single piece of paper from school, church, restaurants, and anywhere else she gets it. She wants to color every single space on the paper and then display it when she is done. She has a good memory and if one of her papers comes up missing she quickly checks her bed room garbage, then the kitchen garbage and the big dumpster in the garage to retrieve it. She has followed the chain of where I throw things away that she hasn’t approved. Paper is not the only thing she likes to keep. She likes to collect almost anything. She has her stuffed animals, sea shells, sunglasses, chap stick, rocks, dragons, anything she can think of. She loves collecting and prefers to have all of her collections on display, not neatly put away.

She loves having a friend to play with. Her besties are Reese Dunn, Summer Beashore, Cambrie McDonald and her cousin Jovee. If she is with any of them they can entertain themselves for hours. Reese and her share a love of animals and swimming. Summer and her love coloring together, Cambrie and her love Lego dragons and Jovee and her come up with all sorts of games to play.

Reese and Emilee playing at Reese’s house with her dog Poe after horse camp.

She has loved dragons since she was very little and still loves them. She collects all kids of dragons-stuffed, plastic, action figures, but her most favorite is Dragons out of Legos. Her and Cambrie line them up for hours and play endlessly with them. She loves the How to Train Your Dragon movies and all the spin off shows from them.

Emilee is a sweet girl and has brought joy to our home from day one. She is the best cuddler. She loves to be tucked in every night. She enjoys going to bed when she is tired and looks forward to good sleep. She does not like getting up in the morning and the thought of having to get up early stresses her out. She is the pickiest eater you will ever meet. I think the biggest culprit to her pickiness is texture but it is a constantly changing, ridiculous list of what she will and won’t eat. Her food of choice is mac n cheese, cheese quesadilla, yogurt, carrots, apples, cereal, PB and honey, bagels with brown sugar cream cheese and water (unless root beer is an option which it usually isn’t but she likes to double check). She has been slowly getting better at broadening her list of foods she will eat with the exception of berries. Strawberries in particular. She will do any chore, go to bed in the middle of the afternoon, sit at the table for hours, go without any food before she will eat a strawberry or anything she knows has a strawberry in it. With the exception of strawberry milk which she calls pink milk and doesn’t know is strawberry. Technically it is just added flavored sugar so it isn’t really strawberry. As picky as she is she has a giant sweet tooth and we have to really watch what treats we keep around the house because she will eat all of them. Don’t think her inconsistent though, her sweet tooth is pretty picky too.

Emilee is a beautiful little girl but she doesn’t overly concern herself with matters of hygiene. She used to prefer to change into the clothes she was wearing the next day the night before instead of pajamas so she could roll out of bed and be ready. She now prefers to wear her pajamas and change in the morning like the rest of the world. She grabs whatever is at the top of her drawer and puts it on. Luckily she matches most of the time. She rarely shows a preference on what to wear and is fine with me picking out clothes for her at the store. She will brush the top layer of her hair and pull it into a pony tail. If she grabs shorts and it is cold she will put on a sweatshirt and wear knee high socks. If it is warm and she grabs leggings or long sleeves she will pull or roll them up if she gets hot. She would wear tennis shoes all the time even to church if I let her. One of her nick names is ‘Dirty Pigeon’. If you haven’t read the book by Mo Willems called The Dirty Pigeon, you should. It is about a pigeon that really needs a bath but doesn’t want to take one and makes a big fuss about it. When he finally gets in the bath he is in it for hours and won’t get out. That is Emilee. She will try and go days and days without taking a shower. When she is caught and has to take one she stomps and pouts about it then gets in the showers and literally stays until all the hot water is gone, or takes a bath and keeps adding hot water and stays for hours.

Emilee will be starting 3rd grade in a few weeks. School is not her favorite. The eye doctor is wondering and keeps checking her for focusing issues because reading is not her favorite. I think it is just that reading is not her favorite. She loves being read to but isn’t a big reader on her own. She does fine in school but is much more into the hands on active learning then sitting and concentrate learning. Her biggest hang up with school is she has to get up early (her definition of get up early is waking up anytime before she wakes up naturally on her own and can’t lay in bed for 30 minutes) but once she is there she does fine. Her teachers always say she is a sweet girl and a good listener.

Well that is kind of a hodge podge of things about Emilee. She is a happy fun girl and we love her a lot. She has been a happy easy going girl from day one. I am glad she is in our family and I love watching her grow up. The 5 words that pop into my head first when I think of Emilee are happy, fun, loving, silly, and kind.

Allison is DOUBLE DIGITS

Allison had her 10th birthday. Double digits for her is a big deal! She has told us that her standing in the world is basically an adult now that she has two digits in her age. She is beyond excited to be able to say, “I am 10 years old!” Instead of the slightly less dignified, “I am basically 10.”

She originally approached me with a three day two night party plan with her closest 20 friends. After some negotiating we were able to get it narrowed down to something a little more manageable for her no fun mom. She helped plan a very good party for herself. She invited a few friends over to watch a gymnastics movie about mid afternoon and play some games. Then per her request we had Wendy’s for dinner. Of course their was blowing out candles and a cookie cake and opening presents. Then they went not just swimming, but swimming at the end of the day so it was dark and the pool lights were on. It is fun to swim in the dark.

After swimming they cleaned up and watched a movie outside in the driveway with lots of movie snacks. Then they goofed around in the basement until they fell asleep. The next morning we had donuts and juice for breakfast. After breakfast they all piled into the car for the last activity of the party, open gym at the gymnastics gym. When that was over everyone was pretty tired and went home to hopefully take a nap.

It was a fun group of girls, I think Allison had a fun time and loved celebrating herself. Her dad and I gave her a hover board which she was beyond excited about. She zips around all over the place with it.

She even got Grandpa Terry to try it.

It is STILL Summer

Since school ‘ended’ after Spring Break in March, it has been a LONG break. I started working a few days a week in May and the kids are technically old enough to watch each other but to be blunt, they aren’t very good at it. Maybe because they aren’t old enough after all, or because like me their patience with each other is low after being together 24/7 for months. Whatever the reason, it was causing me some stress to come home to arguing kids that had eaten junk food all day, a destroyed house. Ryan’s boss has a daughter who is in college that was not supposed to be home but like everyone else, her plans were canceled when COVID started. We asked her if she would come over on the days that I work and help keep the peace and sanity of the kids. It has worked out great. The kids get up and get ready and do their jobs and then she comes over from 11-5 and takes them to the pool, or does things around the house with them. Matthew is more on his own and can do things with them or go hang out with friends. The girls love her though. They ask if Claire can come over everyday. I am glad it is working out for all of us.

After two years I am signing off as the Girl Scout Leader for Emilee’s troop. She is old enough for Primary Activity Girls now and enjoys going to that. I don’t have as much free time once all the kids activities get going too. We had one last activity together this past week to celebrate the year and their hard work selling cookies. I rented a big blow up water slide, set up the slip-n-slide and they played on those for a few hours. We had pizza for dinner and played some more. Then when it got dark we watched Aladdin on an outdoor screen in the back yard. It lasted about 7 hours. It was exhausting, but the girls had a blast. They were a really good group of girls. I had fun being the leader but I am ready to pass the torch.

Girl Scouts watching a movie in the back yard.

It seemed like things were slowly getting back to normal and school was scheduled to start August 12th. Then the Kansas Governor decided to make an announcement saying that she was issuing an executive order to post phone school starting until after Labor Day. I am not going to lie. It was a big mental blow for A LOT of people, and while she had her ‘reasons’ they seemed unfounded to me. The Kansas school board voted against her executive order, which meant each school district could decide when to start for themselves. The two biggest districts around us decided to just do what the Governor said so they could be better prepared. I am not sure what that means…did they not know they were going to start school on August 12th when they made the calendar and gave it to everyone?! Everyone seems to be sitting around waiting for someone to tell them what to do instead of making a decision and moving forward. Anyway, our school district is having a meeting soon so decide when we will start. It will be Aug 12th as planned, Aug 26th to allow ‘a little more preparing time’ or September 8th. I think if they delay it once they will just continue to delay it and dig the COVID recovery hole deeper and deeper. We need to start and get society and life back on track. A regular school schedule will help with that A LOT. Unless you think I am insensitive to the pandemic, I am not, I check the numbers, I know the risks, I am just in the opinion that we mitigate the risks (reasonably) and keep life moving.

Fourth of July

We thought last year would be our final year in Lincoln Nebraska for July 4th. However, Roger and Rhonda dragged their feet and delayed long enough to get another one in. This one will be the last though because right before the weekend they bought a house in Olathe, right down the street from us actually. Then shortly after the weekend they listed their current house and it sold in less that 24 hours. They are set to move mid August and will be Kansans again.

The Fourth in Lincoln is always a great time though. I will miss our gatherings there. Neighbors all around us do amazing fireworks for hours and we get some good ones of our own. It is just a nice relaxing holiday. This year I asked Ryan to blast some patriotic music while we lit them off, that was inspiring.

It will be better to have a Grandma and Grandpa closer all year round though.

Spring Baseball 2020

Spring baseball for Matthew didn’t end up starting until June, so it was more like REALLY HOT SUMMER BASEBALL but Matthew and the rest of the boys didn’t care. They just want to play and have fun. We did lots of tournaments and played League games so we were able to get plenty of games in. The girls have a good group of friends that they run around with during the games (other players younger siblings) so they love it just as much.

  • Matthew likes to wear silly socks to games and practices. These are the best ones.
  • If they aren’t playing they are watching.
  • Lots of practice in the garage.

We had a fun tournament scheduled in Branson Missouri in June. We decided to post phone until July to have more/better competition. Then to make a long story short a few lame parents were able to manipulate the head coach into canceling it all together. Instead of Branson Missouri we went to Liberty Missouri which is not the same, but we tried to make the best of it and planned some team activities to get the boys together on the days we were supposed to be in Branson. They had a sleep over with the whole team and basically stayed up all night. We went to a baseball museum and lunch at Chicken-n-Pickle were they could play pickle ball for an hour or so. We also scheduled a parent vs player whiffle ball game but that hasn’t happened yet because of weather.

  • Negro Baseball Hall of Fame Museum
  • The boys were playing hide n seek in the hotel and we found them and told them to go to bed at 11pm.
  • Recovering from the all night sleep over.

One of the highlights of this season for Matthew was his double that ended the game with a walk off. I made a little ‘news shot’ from the Game Changer recap of the game. I was the one keeping score and I know the score would actually be 4-3 since it was a walk off hit, but since he hit a double the App recorded both runners that came in. Anyway, it was an awesome hit and the boys were pretty excited to win.

  • Matthew just his a double and they won with a walk off.
  • Team running out to celebrate.
  • Yay! Matthew!
  • Walking off the field.

The parent that takes all the awesome pictures for us is moving so this is probably the last season she will take picture for us. After this the quality of pictures will change drastically because I am the one taking them. I am trying to improve my photography skills though.

Another big change for baseball is that Ryan and Coach Jimmy Adams didn’t like the way the 14 year old program is run so they have decided to leave NBA (the academy Matthew has played for the past three years) and do their own team for at least the next year. They are combining teams with another coach and are planning on having two teams that will practice together and mix and match through the Fall then be divided into more permanent teams in the Spring. Matthew will now be on a team called FBC (Fire Birds Baseball Club). We played a tournament with some of the boys on his new team this past weekend. There were a few bloopers because they had never played together but they ended up winning the tournament. Matthew is pretty excited, they will be a pretty competitive higher end AAA team. Ryan likes to say, “They will be a really salty team.” Once they practice with each other and get to know each other. I think it will be good for Matthew because instead of being closer to the top of the team talent, he is more mid range so he will have to challenge himself more to get better and have more kids to learn from.

  • This is a tournament that his new team FBC played and won together.

Emilee and Allison have a group of friends they hang out with during the game. The younger siblings of players group. They all have a good time together. At one of the last games, the boys dugout had some weird holes in it, probably for drainage, but the girls decided to make good use of them.

The last two league games for NBA were back to back. The first game was a blow out. The final score was 18 to 3 or something like that. One of their players ended up getting hurt and they didn’t have enough so we lent them one of our just so we could keep playing. The coaches let the boys try spots they usually don’t play, one player even tried batting left handed and got a double. Matthew got a chance at pitching, which he has been begging for all season. While he was warming up the score was 17-0 us, the catcher and him were joking around that hopefully their lead was big enough Matthew didn’t blow the game. He only gave up 3 runs though.

  • Matthew takes the mound
  • So excited he gets to pitch.
  • He did a pretty good job.

The last event of our season and time with the NBA-Adams team was a parent vs player wiffle ball game. It was a lot of fun. A lot of cheating from the parents, but a lot of fun. For example, after each hit I relocated second base to give us the advantage of them not knowing were the base was to get them out.

Summer happenings.

I have some ‘random’ pictures on my phone from this summer that I thought I would put in my blog.

These first ones are a double rainbow. We have had lots of rainbows this summer! Big beautiful full ones and at least two double ones that I can remember. Pictures don’t do it justice of course but it helps you remember.

 

 

double rainbow

Then we have Joaquin, Matthew, and Jake in that order. These buddies play on the same baseball team and they clicked immediately when they met. They have a lot of fun together and work hard at baseball together. Joaquin and Matthew play short stop and second and they are fun to watch. They are both little speed demons and are athletic and make some great plays. Joaquin’s family is going to be living in the Philippines for the next three years. They will come home for a 6-8 weeks in the summer and Joaquin will play with us when he is here but it is sad to see him go. They had one last sleep over together before he left. They stayed up late, played way to much video games, had pillow fights, talked baseball, and stayed fueled with pop tarts. An incredible night in Matthew’s words. 🙂

Three Amigos

Baseball buddies sleep over.

Emilee and dad were taking silly pictures on his phone together the other night and he ended up with this one of her and him among the silly ones. He told me he loves this picture and I need to do something with it. I think that means he wants a physical copy of it. He has a picture of Matthew about a week old that he keeps in his wallet, and a favorite of Alli and him making silly faces at work. Isn’t that so sweet!?! Ryan says he isn’t the sentimental type but he is. Pictures and t-shirts, he can’t get rid of either of them. 🙂

Dad and Emi, looking way to grown up for being our little peanut.

 

Emilee usually sleeps with the clothes she is wearing the next day under her pajamas-for time saving purposes obviously. When she wakes up in the morning she takes her pajamas off then usually comes and crawls in bed with me. I woke up the other morning and she wasn’t laying next to me so I went to see who was awake and who was still sleeping. Sometimes Alli likes to sleep in her bean bag instead of her bed and when Emilee woke up she decided to snuggle Alli in her bean bag and dozed off. I sat there and watched them like a creepy person and enjoyed their positive sister interaction. We are past the mid point of summer, happy sister moments are fewer and farther between the constant fighting and picking at each other. I will take it when I can get it, even if they are not conscious.

They do like each other!

We finally made it to the Penguin Park. We invited several people to go with us but it never worked out with schedules so we decided to just go ourselves one morning. It was a 40 minute drive. The kids thought it was cool but it just isn’t as fun to not have a bunch of people to play with at the park (heaven forbid you make friends with someone already there) so after 30 minutes the last kiddo (Emilee) came and said she was done playing. I think I have decided to not do park destinations for a while.

I tried to start some creative summer fun the other day to get the kids doing something different and stop begging me to play or watch electronics. I was hoping they would take off with it and do it on their own but instead they humored me and I kind of made them do it. Allison got mad before we started filming and wouldn’t participate anymore, but she was invited. Thanks for being good sports boys!

We tried to do some service related activities this summer. One of our favorites is the Harvesters Food Service facility. Most of the time the youngest you can be in 8 to help so Emilee wasn’t able to go with us yet but Matthew and Allison love it. We were able to go three times. The first time it was just the three of us. Then after that we tried to take friends with us. This last time we went we had a full car. Five boys, two girls and one me. I felt a little out numbered with that many kids. It was a little hard to keep some of them on task the whole time but it was still fun. It is good service, way better than video games and boredom. We grabbed some lunch afterwards and took everyone home. We also found a fun project that we can do at our house whenever we have time and that everyone can do together. We decorate book marks, place mats, and lunch sacks for the Meals on Wheels program. When we have a bunch decorated we drop them off at the office and they use them for the meals. Emilee can help us do that one too so it is perfect for Sundays, FHE, or times when they are bored.

This last picture is Allison and her friend Michael Dunn. These two are two peas in a pod. They get each other that is for sure. They have known each other since they were born and they tell their parents all the time that they are going to get married someday. Our families went swimming together for one of our last days of summer. We were there all afternoon, the first little bit was a little rough for these two. They had to work their grumpiness out and get along with people. Not each other, they were both having issues with other people. This is both of them in time out taking a break until they can be nice. About two minutes after this picture was taken they went back and played just fine for three more hours.

Allison and Michael working through their emotions together.

Allison turns 8!

I remember having count downs for the next exciting thing when I was younger. Shoot, I still do it sometimes. It is different when you are a kid though. Allison’s count down for her birthday finally arrived! We only do a big party every other year or so and this year was a party year. She debated on a party at Main Event and doing bowling and laser tag, or Urban Air and doing a glow in the dark trampoline party. She decided on Urban Air. Sometimes it is a little tricky finding people home in July but we had a fun party with ten friends, lots of pizza, cake, glow sticks, presents, and fun. I think she had a great time and it was fun to see her having fun. Her friends know her well and gave her all kinds of stuff to make all different kinds of slimes. She was beyond ecstatic.

For her actual birthday Allison gave me a list of things that would make her birthday the ‘best birthday ever’ some of it was pretty specific. First up was her cousin Leah spending the night the day before her birthday and the day of her birthday. Then she had a friend with her on her birthday the moment she woke up until she went to bed.  She requested crapes for breakfast. Her and Leah like to cook together so they helped me make them. Then filled them with powdered sugar, brown sugar, and whip cream, and blueberries so they would be healthier. Their words not mine. They played with slime and makeup for a bit after breakfast, then we met the rest of the cousins at the Olathe Community Center Pool to go swimming. She has wanted to go to an indoor pool for a long time. We have four neighborhood pools that we can swim at so I am not very willing to pay to go to another pool. I gave in for her birthday though and we all went and had a great time swimming at an indoor pool. It was nice to not bake in the sun and have to worry about sun screen.

When we were done swimming we went home and had cake and ice cream, followed by opening presents. Allison requested mini chocolate bundt cakes with hot fudge so it looked like a lava cake and everyone could have their own.  She also wanted her cake to have some sort of decoration on it that was not a candle and was not laying flat on the cake. I found a happy birthday banner that she thought was perfect. By the time we got the candles and banner on the cake there wasn’t much room left. I liked her individual cake idea, great idea for birthday cakes so you don’t get a cake that is blown all over, kids especially can get a little free with their saliva when blowing out birthday candles. We opened presents after her cake. She got sequence color changing back pack and pillow, birthday money, a soap making kit, tile painting kit, squishies, and more slime stuff, oh and a whoopi cushion that she had her heart set on too. I haven’t figured out if her fascination with less appealing bodily functions is to get a rise out of me or simply extra funny to her, either way she never fails to bring up her ‘potty humor’ whenever she feels like it. Most of her gifts are probably pretty self explanatory except for the squishies. I will fill you in on an 8 year old must have. A squishy is basically really soft foam in the shape of any number of things. Food is a popular one. You squish it, and it bounces back to hits original shape. That is it. I think it originated as something to help relieve anxiety and has expanded to be a collectible toy like stuffed animals or barbies.

After presents and digesting our cake a little more Allison picked dinner at Pizza Street and invited her cousins too. She loves pizza, so the buffet is great but the reason she really likes to go to Pizza Street is their cinnamon hot rolls with icing. She loves them.  She got her fill and then we came back home her and Leah played with her new toys the rest of the night. When it was all said and done she said it was a great day and she had a fun time. Mission accomplished!

Now we are focusing on the next big part of turning 8- her baptism! We ordered her scriptures and got a white dress to wear. Aunt Lauren was really nice and took her out and took some nice pictures of her in her dress. She is growing up fast. Tonight she went to her first Activity Days activity with the girls in our ward. She is very excited to get to go to that all on her own.

A day on the beach in Kansas?!?

We did go to the beach for the day! Our cousins invited us to go to a lake with them. It was a fun day. We packed a picnic and went to the Hillsdale Lake and spent the day playing in the water and sand on a little swim beach. The girls dug a moat and built a castle. They all skipped rocks. Jumped around on the floaties. Screamed like little girls (even the ones that aren’t girls) when a dead fish floated by. Then screamed again when a live fish swam by.  They made up a game where they got a big rock and named it Timmy. Then they threw it in the lake and tried to find it. The water was a little murky so eventually they lost Timmy, but then replaced him with John, then Jacob, and I think there was a Jovee in there too. It was great just relaxing and letting them play and be silly and enjoy the day. If we hang out with the cousins to often then they get more into sibling mode and start fighting and arguing more but if it has been a little bit between seeing each other then they all get a long great and it is perfect because they all have a buddy to play with.  When we were done at the lake they asked to keep playing so Lauren kept the younger girls and the boys and the older girls came home with me.

Find the silver lining.

With Alli getting sick and being stuck home for a few days and then the not so great school supply shopping incident, we were ready for a reboot.

Luckily, the McDonalds who had been gone for over a month were finally home, and when your kids are around other people they are supposed to be on their best behavior and stop fighting. Unluckily, we have known the McDonald’s for years and years so my kids are way past impressing them with good behavior, they are more like family then friends to them-but they still fought less than usual.

We made super fun plans to pack a picnic and go check out this really cool park in North Kansas City (40 minute drive) that has GIANT animals like a penguin, giraffe, elephant, and a kangaroo to climb and play on that they kids have wanted to play at! Not so super, steady rain with intermittent down pours settles in over the entire KC area for the day and being outside isn’t going to happen.

Luckily, I remember that the Rainbow Play Ground Store lets you bring your kids in to play on all the play sets for free in hopes that your kids will love them so much you have to buy one. Unluckily, Rainbow Store has decided that you are welcome to come in and play on the play sets but they now charge $7.50 per person and Lori and I won’t pay that on the principle that we don’t go to stores that have decided to charge an entrance fee.

Luckily, we remember that the 360 Gym has open gym and we can all head over there. Unluckily open gym doesn’t start for 40 more minutes when we arrive. Luckily they have a big empty room that they let us eat our picnic lunch in on the floor while we wait for open gym to start and restrooms to use as needed, which is handy with seven kids and two adults, one of them pregnant.

Open gym is great fun and everyone loves it but only lasts an hour. That is not near long enough for the moms to catch up and the kids to be worn out. Luckily the rain looks like it is done, and even though we don’t have time to go to the original park we find a fun one close to home. We had towels in the car (we tried really hard to make the first plan work) that we used to dry the slides and basically everything else at the park off so the kids could play. Unluckily the before mentioned available restrooms were not used by the children and within minutes of arriving at the park, and emergency bathroom trip to a near by Walgreens was made, Once we returned it was smooth sailing for the next several hours and we had a great time with our friends. We are glad to have the McDonalds back in Kansas.

360 Open Gym

School supply shopping…I fall for it every year.

Not all my posts have a purpose other than for me to write something but this one does. The purpose of this post is to remind me to not take my kids school supply shopping! So to my  future self I say, “Leave the kids home to fight in peace without you. Go late at night when ‘normal’ shopping hours are long gone. And buy yourself a Kit Kat for a job well done afterwards.”

I had a brief visit to the ‘Panic Phase’ of summer this week. Next week is AUGUST! Yikes! It seems like once August gets here summer starts to get run over with activities and school stuff starting back up. I hadn’t registered the kids for school so I did that and the school supply lists where attached to registration so after three days of being stuck at home because Alli was sick, we decided to make going school supply shopping our first outing when she felt better. We went through all the stuff they brought home to see what they already had. Which was not a lot.

Emilee didn’t have anything except a backpack she has used for two years and Allison used for two before that so it was pretty sad looking so we ended chucking it, so she had no supplies to start.

Allison decided she would donate her supplies to ‘new kids’ for next year. I asked her what that meant because they do have donations at the end of the year that takes unwanted school supplies and will find ways to reuse almost anything-recover notebooks, take the middle of dried out markers out and make jump ropes with them, they even remelt crayons and make new ones from them and give them to kids that need them. It is pretty awesome. I have told my kids that if they want to donate their notebooks and crayons, markers and things like that they can, but to bring home scissors and head phones and rulers-things they will need again for the next several years. So when I asked Allison where all her stuff was she said she donated it. I asked her what exactly she put in the box and she said she didn’t put anything in a box she left EVERYTHING in her classroom for the ‘new second graders’ except for her clip board which she doesn’t really like anymore and wants a new one. I try and think that it was a sweet gesture but honestly it was more likely motivated by laziness. So besides her backpack zero supplies for Alli to start except for the clip board which I told her she can use unless she wants spend her own money on a new one. Which got a big eye roll from her.

Matthew had all the notebooks I bought last year with his name and a subject written across the cover in giant permanent marker and then…not a single page used. He had scissors and a protractor and his backpack.

Not as big of a dent in the shopping list as I hoped for. I am pretty sure I spent over a hundred dollars on supplies last year and all we have to show for it is three notebooks, a protractor and a pair of scissors.  I remind them all we are only getting what is on the list and be good listeners and help me check stuff off the list as we find it so we don’t forget anything, they all agree and we hop in the car excited about our school supply shopping adventure. I always get excited about school supply shopping and look forward to it. The preparer/organizer gets to come out in me and imagine how fun it is to go and find new folders and pencils and come home and organize it-sounds like fun right!?

About five seconds after we walk into the store Allison has already stormed off mumbling about some injustice she has endured and Emilee has already made the rounds and has an armful of things she ‘needs’ for school that have nothing to do with school. Plus the craziness of the hundred other people with their kids all doing the same thing squeezing into the same four aisles that look like they have been ransacked three times over. Then the arguing of who is copying who, who saw it first, who gets to put it in the cart, who needs a new this or a new that. Convincing them if they bring a 24 pack of crayons because the 16 pack is gone they will not be kicked out of school. Then crying over having to settle for the cheap boring regular pencils instead of the perfect $10 glitter glow in the dark forever sharp pencil. I got another eye roll when I said that even if the pencil wrote by itself and sang a song I wouldn’t spend $10 on it. Even Matthew who is usually fine, thought he was being hilarious by grabbing something ridiculous and saying “Mom I need this” ten times was driving me crazy.  Over an hour and $150 later and no Kit Kat because “No one behaved well enough to earn a treat!” I was irritated and mad walking out to the car, reliving the memory of myself saying last year (and every year before that), “Next year I am doing this without them.”

 

Hanging out with Emilee…Allison gets it done.

Emilee and I got to hang out together while Matthew and Alli were at theater camp. Just list old times. While she loves hanging out with me she likes being like her older siblings and wanted to do a camp too. I asked her what she wanted to do for her camp and she said, “Go to Ms. Sheila’s” Ms Sheila is one of the people that watches her while I work sometimes. Which sounds about right, I have tried a few different activities like soccer and basketball for Emilee and she is not a fan. She just wants a few buddies to run around and play with and do whatever their imaginations come up with. I was happy to oblige her wish so for Monday and Wednesday she went to ‘Ms Sheila Camp’ while I had two days to catch up on my to do list-and a little R & R. The other days we tried to do something different than the usual too. We invited her bestie Reese over to play one of the days. We went to Crown Center and did the 50 States Exhibit and Kaleidoscope by Hallmark with some friends. Kaleidoscope is basically an amazing room decorated for kids with tons of different stations for them to be creative at. They just let them in and they have 50 minutes to craft to their hearts content however they want. They had a great time playing together and I got to catch up with my friends too. It is nice when your kids friends are parented by your friends too. We finished off that day with a meal at the train restaurant, Fritz’s. It is a favorite for kids. It is a burger and fries place that you get to order over the telephone at your table from, and then it is delivered to your table by trains that are driving around on the tracks above you while you are eating. The food is okay at best but that doesn’t matter because they bring your food to you by train.

The last day we played at home together and did a favorite activity of both of ours ‘snuggle and a Disney movie’. We had a good week. It was nice to get a little bit of one on one time before she starts school all day in the Fall. The pictures of her in the red cape tug at my heart strings a little. She bounced out on the porch making her ‘pewpewpew’ sounds with the squirt bottle. I asked her what she was doing and she said she was a super hero so she was getting the bad guys. She has a great imagination and I love seeing her use it. It will be a sad day when she outgrows it and there are no more super hero’s, dragons, puppies, mermaids, or whatever else she comes up with running around the house.

When it was time for the showcase she was excited to cheer them on. She wanted to dress up a little so she could be like Allison. This is an irritation to Allison, but I tell her she needs to get used to it and make sure she is setting a good example for her sister because she is going to copy her a lot. Allison gave me a big eye roll and a ‘whatever’ as her and her attitude walked off. Emilee loved the show. I asked her if she would want to do it sometime and she said she would think about it. She likes to live vicariously through others it seems.

Actually she is the most shy of any of my kids.  A trait they have unfortunately inherited from Ryan and I when we were younger. Matthew is a close second but he is getting a little more confident. Allison doesn’t have a shy bone in her, anywhere…ever. Both Matthew and Emilee have been caught sending Alli to knock on a door for a lost ball, or ask an adult a question for them, and when they are together Allison does all the talking for everyone if I let her while Matthew and Emilee stand behind her and try to avoid eye contact. Allison’s boldness comes in handy for all of us. Just the other night we went to dinner with Ross and Lauren and Texas Roadhouse. We waited the 40 minutes, plus 10. Ross checked on the wait and they said it would be another 10-15. So 20 minutes later we let Allison go ask how long our table would take, I told her she had to be polite.  I don’t know if it was a coincidence or not but they buzzed us shortly after she went in to talk to them. Allison can be determined and I like letting other people besides me to have a turn sometimes. One year when we were handing out cookies for Christmas to friends, the kids were taking turns ringing the bell and handing the cookies to whoever answered the door and saying Merry Christmas. Emilee refused to get out of the car for all of them except Ms. Cristi. Matthew would ring the bell and hold the cookies out and then crank his head around as far as he could to avoid eye contact and mumble Merry Christmas and make a run for the car as soon as they took the cookies. Allison checked her hair and stance before allowing the doorbell to be rung for her. Then clear her throat and say in her loudest voice, “Merry Christmas Ho! Ho! Ho!” when they answered the door.

Ryan’s talk

It was Ryan’s turn to give a talk. He did a great job.

Discerning Truth

Last week in Priests Quorum, I told them I was speaking this week and told them my topic, and asked them what I should talk about.  The suggestions ranged from – you should start with an interesting or funny story or I’ll probably lose interest, to a suggestion of talking about fake news stories about how much ice cream Donald Trump eats after his meals.  I thought that was kinda funny and I looked into the story and it probably isn’t appropriate to talk about that particular story here, but I did think it was insightful that in today’s world we are bombarded by fake news, not just about political items, but far more importantly about spiritual things.

In reality, while fake news is a somewhat recently coined term, the pursuit of truth isn’t something new.  Sometimes I wonder why truth isn’t always easier to find for people.  The answer is actually probably simple – because the adversary doesn’t want us to know the truth.

Elder Ballard talks about the adversary’s deception in a recent conference talk, he says…Like the fly fisherman who knows that trout are driven by hunger, Lucifer knows our “hunger,” or weaknesses, and tempts us with counterfeit lures which, if taken, can cause us to be yanked from the stream of life into his unmerciful influence. And unlike a fly fisherman who catches and releases the fish unharmed back into the water, Lucifer will not voluntarily let go. His goal is to make his victims as miserable as he is

Lucifer is a clever and cunning intelligence. One of the main methods he uses against us is his ability to lie and deceive to convince us that evil is good and good is evil. Satan and his minions have their lures all around us, hoping that we will falter and take his flies so he can reel us in with counterfeit means.

In he kingdom of God, the search for truth is appreciated, encouraged, and in no way repressed or feared. Church members are strongly counseled by the Lord Himself to seek for knowledge.2 He said, “Seek ye diligently … ; yea, seek ye out of the best books words of wisdom; seek learning, even by study and also by faith.”3However, how can we recognize truth in a world that is increasingly blunt in its attacks on the things pertaining to God?

And our Heavenly Father has given us agency to grow and to learn.  But he also has given us several ways to discern truth in our lives – and I’d like to talk about a few of them.

The first way we can learn truth is through personal revelation.

The question of truth is really what spurred the restoration of the gospel and our church.  In the early 1800’s, Joseph Smith wanted to know the truth.  He struggled with the worthy question of what church to attend – in his words he described that time as “an unusual excitement on the subject of religion” in the area he lived.  He said

Joseph Smith History:  10 In the midst of this war of words and tumult of opinions, I often said to myself: What is to be done? Who of all these parties are right; or, are they all wrong together? If any one of them be right, which is it, and how shall I know it?

11 While I was laboring under the extreme difficulties caused by the contests of these parties of religionists, I was one day reading the Epistle of James, first chapter and fifth verse, which reads: If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.

12 Never did any passage of scripture come with more power to the heart of man than this did at this time to mine. It seemed to enter with great force into every feeling of my heart. I reflected on it again and again, knowing that if any person needed wisdom from God, I did; for how to act I did not know, and unless I could get more wisdom than I then had, I would never know; for the teachers of religion of the different sects understood the same passages of scripture so differently as to destroy all confidence in settling the question by an appeal to the Bible.

13 At length I came to the conclusion that I must either remain in darkness and confusion, or else I must do as James directs, that is, ask of God. I at length came to the determination to “ask of God,” concluding that if he gave wisdom to them that lacked wisdom, and would give liberally, and not upbraid, I might venture.

So Joseph Smith, before he had the First Vision, was taught by personal revelation.  Not all of us will have miraculous experiences and see visions, but we all learn truth, as Joseph did, through the personal revelation through the Holy Ghost.

2Nephi2:6-8  Wherefore, redemption cometh in and through the Holy Messiah; for he is full of grace and truth.

7 Behold, he offereth himself a sacrifice for sin, to answer the ends of the law, unto all those who have a broken heart and a contrite spirit; and unto none else can the ends of the law be answered.

8 Wherefore, how great the importance to make these things known unto the inhabitants of the earth, that they may know that there is no flesh that can dwell in the presence of God, save it be through the merits, and mercy, and grace of the Holy Messiah

I had an experience when I was a missionary in South America.  Many communities in South America have open markets… he told a story here in his own words about a lady that asked about the church. His companion started talking with her, he was a new missionary and thought they would never get anywhere talking with her in a crowded loud market. They basically gave her the first discussion (thats how missionaries taught at the time) and there was no doubt the spirit was there and confirmed the truth to her of Joseph Smith praying and having God appear and answer his question.

The second way we can discern truth is by observing it’s fruits, and experimenting on the word. During the Sermon on the Mount, the Lord said:

“Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. …

“Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.”4

In Alma 32, Alma is teaching those that had been kicked out of their places of worship because they were poor as to the things of the world.  He said…

28 Now, we will compare the word unto a seed. Now, if ye give place, that a seed may be planted in your heart, behold, if it be a true seed, or a good seed, if ye do not cast it out by your unbelief, that ye will resist the Spirit of the Lord, behold, it will begin to swell within your breasts; and when you feel these swelling motions, ye will begin to say within yourselves—It must needs be that this is a good seed, or that the word is good, for it beginneth to enlarge my soul; yea, it beginneth to enlighten my understanding, yea, it beginneth to be delicious to me.

29 Now behold, would not this increase your faith? I say unto you, Yea; nevertheless it hath not grown up to a perfect knowledge.

30 But behold, as the seed swelleth, and sprouteth, and beginneth to grow, then you must needs say that the seed is good; for behold it swelleth, and sprouteth, and beginneth to grow. And now, behold, will not this strengthen your faith? Yea, it will strengthen your faith: for ye will say I know that this is a good seed; for behold it sprouteth and beginneth to grow.

31 And now, behold, are ye sure that this is a good seed? I say unto you, Yea; for every seed bringeth forth unto its own likeness.

Thus the scriptures teach us that we can know the truth by observing its fruits or by experimenting with it personally, giving place for the word in our hearts and cultivating it like unto a seed.

The last way to discern truth is through the Gift of the Holy Ghost.

Elder Eyring, in speaking of the Holy Ghost said

During our confirmation we heard these words: “Receive the Holy Ghost.”1 From that moment, our lives changed forever.

We can, if we live worthy of it, have the blessing of the Spirit to be with us, not only now and then…but always. You know from the words of the sacrament prayer how that promise is fulfilled: “O God, the Eternal Father, we ask thee in the name of thy Son, Jesus Christ, to bless and sanctify this bread to the souls of all those who partake of it, that they may eat in remembrance of the body of thy Son, and witness unto thee, O God, the Eternal Father, that they are willing to take upon them the name of thy Son, and always remember him and keep his commandments which he has given them.”

And then comes the glorious promise: “That they may always have his Spirit to be with them” (D&C 20:77; emphasis added).

To always have the Spirit with us is to have the guidance and direction of the Holy Ghost in our daily lives. We can, for instance, be warned by the Spirit to resist the temptation to do evil.

For that reason alone, it is easy to see why the Lord’s servants have tried to increase our desire to worship God in our sacrament meetings. If we partake of the sacrament in faith, the Holy Ghost will then be able to protect us and those we love from the temptations that come with increasing intensity and frequency.

The companionship of the Holy Ghost makes what is good more attractive and temptation less compelling. That alone should be enough to make us determined to qualify for the Spirit to be with us always.

Just as the Holy Ghost strengthens us against evil, He also gives us the power to discern truth from falsehood. The truth that matters most is verified only by revelation from God. Our human reason and the use of our physical senses will not be enough. We live in a time when even the wisest will be hard-pressed to distinguish truth from clever deception.

The truths that mark the way home to God are verified by the Holy Ghost. We cannot go to the grove and see the Father and the Son speak to the young Joseph Smith. No physical evidence or any logical argument can establish that Elijah came as promised to confer the priesthood keys, now held and exercised by a living prophet.

Confirmation of truth comes to a son or daughter of God who has claimed the right to receive the Holy Ghost. Since falsehoods and lies may be presented to us at any time, we need a constant influence of the Spirit of Truth to spare us moments of doubt.

Boyd K Packer:  Tolerance is a virtue, but like all virtues, when exaggerated, it transforms itself into a vice. We need to be careful of the “tolerance trap” so that we are not swallowed up in it.

 

The Greatest Showman Showcase

Matthew and Alli did a theater camp last week. It was a day camp and they learned the songs and some choreography to several songs from “The Greatest Showman”. They practiced 9-3 everyday Monday thru Friday and then on Friday they put on their showcase.

They both had a friend to do it with. I think I have decided that when I have my kids try something new in the future I will have them do it without a friend. When they try something new with a friend sometimes the influence from the friend affects their opinions before they make their own mind up if they like it or not. Or they are so distracted talking with their friend they don’t pay attention as much. I think if they decide they like something they will make new friends with the same interests while they are doing it.

Matthew was a little skeptical about doing it. He was not interested at all on Monday because there was a birthday party he wanted to be at instead. I split the difference with him and he went to the party late and left camp early. After that though he really enjoyed it. Allison volunteered him to try out for a solo and he got one. I think he sang it a thousand times the rest of the week before he did it. He was also one of the oldest boys there and he is coordinated and has a little muscle to him so when they practiced some tricks on the silks, he was picked to do it for the show. He explained to me several times how one slip would flip him upside down and crack his head wide open. I assured him I was confident in his abilities which he agreed would not be an issue. 🙂

Allison needed a little reminding after the first day that her job was to participate and listen not hang out in the bathroom with her friend and chat all day.  She learned her parts and new the songs and dances really well but she has no interest in impressing anyone or putting in a little extra work so she just didn’t care to go the extra mile.  She did know all the ‘drama’ that went on with everyone and everything. I don’t know how she does it.

My part was dressing them both up which I had a great time with. Matthew wore whatever I bought him and looked great. Alli requested a few changes with what I originally picked out for her but was all about dressing up and having her makeup done. They were both good sports about it and looked great. Matthew nailed his solo and he and Alli didn’t miss a beat on their dancing.

When it was all said and done they said they had a fun week. Allison is the one I was hoping would love it and want to keep doing it. I have always thought that she would like to be involved in theater. She said she wants to do one with less singing. This one was all singing so I might try another one with her and see if she likes it. The have several theater classes you can take to learn and try different things. I need to look into it more. Matthew asked me on his own if I would look and see what other shows they did and depending on what they are he might be interested. He is working on being a well rounded kid. He is one of those people that is good at whatever they do. So far at least he stays humble with it and has his genuine kind personality.

Matthew is the second soloist in the video above.

That’s a wrap!

Baseball has come to a close for the season. Have no fear the brief intermission before Fall baseball starts will be full of conditioning and try-outs so there will still be plenty of baseball but the official Spring season is done. The boys had a good season, they had a lot of fun as 11 year old boys have no problem doing. They started out strong, then a little downward slide a little more than half way through the season (as a team) that continued until almost the very end.  There are a few players changing so hopefully we will be able to start strong and stay strong for Fall. Matthew did great individually. Most of the season he was leading in the stats, if not he was 2nd or 3rd at the most. He worked hard, I am proud of him. He loves it and you can tell. I love watching him play. I like watching him and Ryan doing it together too. It is a good relationship building experience. He is going to do football and baseball in the Fall. He did a football camp yesterday to start working on some skills. I could live without him playing football but he was pretty insistent on trying it so Ryan found him a team. Matthew promised me he would be fast enough to not get hurt. 🙂 I hope that is true. For the end of the year party and a send off for Joaquin who will be moving to the Philippines, we had a pizza party and then went to the drive-in and watched Ant Man and Wasp.

One of the moms on the teams takes pictures for us and then lets us have whatever ones we want so 99% of these pictures are from her. These are some of my favorite baseball pictures from this year.

 

Fourth of July!

The Fourth of July is one of my favorite holidays. I love it because it is fun and exciting and has an important meaning and it hasn’t been overly commercialized. It is just a great hang out with your family and enjoy the freedoms we have been blessed with day.

Roger officially retired the Friday before the 4th so Ryan and Ross decided to have a party for him Monday night. They invited neighbors, friends, co-workers and some people from church. They came up with a yummy menu and cleaned and decorated and had a pretty nice party. The grand kids all went to Urban Air for the party to play and have some fun so grandpa could visit easier. It was a success! Ryan and Ross did a good job!

I don’t know how many years in a row we have gone up to Lincoln for the Fourth of July but it has been a lot, and it has been awesome. Lincoln knows how to celebrate Independence Day. The first year or two we would go to the city show but then we decided there really isn’t any reason to do that. So many people do fireworks that we can sit in the driveway and watch huge basically professional firework shows 360 degrees around us while we light our own off with the kids and other neighbors down the street. It is awesome. The fireworks start at dusk and go for hours without pause on the 3rd and 4th.

Usually it is just us and the other Terry’s but the Lee’s came this year too. Things have always gone without a hitch before but this year had a few hiccups. It all worked out in the end and we all had a good time. We have always had great weather but a storm came up this year. We were having a great time lighting fireworks and noticed it was getting a little windy then all the sudden we are yelling at each other to hear over the wind and the fireworks are blowing sideways. We were still able to light off most of our fireworks. Once the rain started it was cut a little short. Fireworks and rain do not mix. We lost a few good ones that became duds trying to light them when it was just sprinkling a little. Allison had one of her temper tantrums that put a damper on the fun. Many a good times have been dampened for this reason. I hope someday it will not be an issue anymore. This year might have been our last year up there. Roger and Rhonda are talking about maybe moving down here before next year. So we will have to find other plans for fireworks next year but it will still be fun. We can light fire works off in Gardner near by but Johnson County is a little bit if a party pooper. They put up signs that say “Happy Fourth, fireworks are illegal”

The Phases of Summer

I have noticed another trend that we tend to do in our family. Or maybe phases is a better description. Each summer we cycle through the same phases. The first few phases usually occur in the same order but then depending on our schedule and how things are going the phases might vary in order of occurrence, or length of time. Eventually we pass through all of the different phases, some of them multiple times by the end of summer.

The Grandeur Phase: This phase is kind of a pre-summer phase. It is the excitement and anticipation of summer coming and the expectations of how wonderful it is going to be. It starts when Spring is finally in full swing and the weather is a perfect 70-80 degrees and the door is finally closed on winter. It peaks in May when things start to wrap up with school and the final tests, projects, performances, musicals, talent shows, field trips, field day and all the other end of the year stuff happens. My ideal expectations for summer are usually how productive and fun it will be with positive character building experiences and how well my kids will get along and be grateful and have a wonderful summer of enjoying each others company and doing things together. Of course we plan fun things and do fun activities together but I have never felt it is my job to entertain my kids. A little soap box of mine is over entertaining kids. The purpose of life is not to be entertained constantly by me or anything else. It is great to do entertaining things sometimes but it should not be the bulk of your time. I want them to learn to challenge themselves and work on developing their talents and develop habits and traits that will help them be successful for the rest of their lives. I want them to learn to be proactive and independent at these things too. We work on these things year round but summer is a great time to refocus and emphasize things with fewer distractions or other time commitments.  The result of this summer Grandeur Phase was our theme- Work Hard then Play Hard, and the discovery of the electronic ticket system.

The Freedom Phase: This is usually the first true phase of summer and is pretty self explanatory. No more school. No more homework. No more waking up every morning to get ready for school. No projects, emails, papers to sign, needed supplies to send in, deadlines, tracking or reading, practice minutes, studying etc. And this year in particular, no more obnoxious letters from the equally obnoxious principal about how to ‘properly walk home’ (only six more years to put up with her :-/ fingers crossed for early retirement). It is a wonderful feeling of being done with the now mundane routine of all things school related. It is a great few days of sleeping in, watching way to much TV and eating mostly cold cereal and Popsicles. Obviously this is one of the kids favorite phases and they would stay in it indefinitely if I didn’t move them along. I also realize it is a little bit contradictory to some of what I said in the Grandeur Phase, but this is a short lived kick off your shoes and relax phase to celebrate the end of working hard at another school year and gearing up for the next phase, which is reality. We do have occasional revisits to the Freedom Phase throughout summer though. I love sleeping in and not cooking as much as the next person.

The Reality Phase: As much as the kids love the Freedom Phase, the responsible, self motivated, contributing to society adult who wants to be a good mother in me takes over eventually and I have to call an end to it. This is when I explain whatever routine we will be adopting for summer and the plan to work on our family relationships, personal characteristics, expectations and anything else I thought of during the Grandeur Phase to make it ‘the best summer ever’. This phase is usually a little reminiscent of the Grandeur Phase. At least for me. I am usually all gun-ho about implementing and getting going with the plan. The kids can be a little less enthusiastic, but I usually have a range of mild to moderate support from 2 out of 3 of them. This phase also brings me back to reality of maybe lowering my original expectations of summer. This phase can have arguing, fighting, nagging, whining, repeating directions, and more repeating directions. It can be exhausting.

The Cruising Phase: This is when the wheels are turning, the gears are greased and everything is going great. We have a nice balance of work and play, fun and responsibility. This is a phase that on occasion the stars align and we are all in at the same time, but unfortunately this is one of the hardest phases to do that. I swear my kids draw straws each morning to see who’s turn it is to be the stinker for the day. Rarely do they decide to all be happy and pleasant at the same time but when it happens it is glorious. This phase has little arguing, lots of smiles, and happiness and contentment from parents and kids. It is still great when some of us are in this phase but not as wonderful as when the whole family is cruising together.

Laxadazical: This Phase is one of the most maddening ones for me, and the kicker is it is usually my fault most of the time that we move into it. This phase is when things start to relax to much and the meltdown of our regular structure goes to far. I let up on the reigns because they have been doing great and I give them a little leeway but don’t crack the whip soon enough if they take a mile instead of an inch. I guess I get a little lazy myself. There can be any number of causes but the classic lead ups to this phase are

  • A night or two of late bedtimes that turns into”I can stay up late everynight”
  • Five extra minutes of TV/video games that turns into”I can watch/play as long as I want”
  • You can do your chores later turns into- doing a bad job or not doing it at all.

A frusteration with this phase is that I want to give my kids more rope to start being more responsible and proactive with their choices but the amount of rope changes for every incident and it easily gets out of hand. Also, I don’t know why but usually I don’t even realize we are in this phase until explode after I am sick and tired of nagging, arguing and yelling at them to listen, to get their stuff  done, or redone because they did a crappy job the first time. I try to be on the look out for the obvious signs of this phase but it sneaks in a lot.

The Stir Crazy Phase: I thought this was just a phase I had but I think all of us get it a little bit. I love Kansas and we plan for it to be our forever home but I have to leave at least once, preferably 2-3 times in the summer. We have to pack a suitcase and drive or fly somewhere and be gone for a few days. One year we had a bigger vacation planned and it was in September in Florida with my family. We didn’t really go anywhere in the summer because we had that planned. I about went bananas. We need something to break up the regular routine on occasion throughout the summer. We usually go up to Lincoln for the 4th of July. Sometimes a trip to Utah/Idaho for a reunion, or to see my sisters or my parents. I love picking a new place none of us have been before and seeing and doing new things. We are all a little grumpy and restless if we get into the Stir Crazy Phase.

The Life Is Awesome Phase: This is going on vacation. This phase might sound a little cheesy but it is how I usually feel on vacation. If not, I am not really on vacation, or on a good vacation I guess. It is not the same as the Freedom Phase. It is more full filling and satisfying. There are still responsibilities with vacations-planning, packing, traveling, budgeting… It is just awesome to step away from regular life and enjoy doing something all together totally out of the norm. Ryan being with us is awesome, I am home with the kids most of the time so I am old news but it is a treat to have both parents 24-7. I love having the plan be nothing but enjoy time together, do fun things, experience new things, make memories, just be together. Sometimes we do bigger vacations but it doesn’t have to be. One of my favorite parts of our vacations is the driving and being all stuck in the car together. My family rolls their eyes when I get excited about a 19+ hour car ride but I do like it.  Whether they admit it or not I know they like singing ‘500 Miles’ at the top of their lungs just as much as I do.Vacations are just awesome because we get to focus on being together as a family. We get to put a pin in all other responsibilities that take time away from being a family and enjoy one of the greatest blessings we have been given when we came to earth.

The Boredom Phase: This comes and goes and is self explanatory as well. The boredom can be caused for many reasons; summer has lost its magicalness, it is ‘too hot’, friends are gone, already done that, don’t want to do that, loss of privileges, choosing to be bored, expecting to be entertained, laziness, etc. Expecting to be entertained is my cue for this phase and it might sound crazy but a lot of times the cure for my kids boredom is to take away all their electronics for awhile. This initially causes expressions of anger, panic, frustration and irritability but eventually they settle down and after a little brainstorming they figure out they do have some creativity and enjoy each others company. Before you know it they are playing tag, building forts, baking treats, making up games, riding bikes together, doing crafts, playing board games, reading books and all kinds of things. Since we have implemented no electronics on Sunday they are much better at not getting into this phase as often and getting out of it quicker when they do. The whining and complaining is much shorter lived.

The Panic Phase: It is usually about the end of July when there is a sudden realization that school is starting in just a few weeks and all the commotion that brings with it. The to-do list; register for school, school clothes, school supplies, back to school night. The worry list; have we crammed everything into summer we need/want to, who is my teacher, what friends are in my class, what do I wear the first day, what do I wear the second day, take my lunch or school lunch, who will remember me, how should I do my hair, who will I sit by (this list got way longer when Alli started school). I also have a little panic each year about sending my kids back to school. I know they are good kids and I enjoy being with them. Most of their experiences will help them learn and grow and they will be happy and successful. I know they have to learn to handle things on their own and they can (and I can still help them) but I worry and it makes me want to follow my kids around with a rubber chicken or something to smack the little turd kids that need a wake up call on the back of the head when they are mean and cruel or a bad influence. I think I do pretty good at hiding my worry from the kids so I don’t project my stress to them or give them things to worry about that they hadn’t thought of. For the most part my panic passes and is unfounded. I am pretty confident in Matthew’s confidence and moral compass and self worth. I worry for Allison a lot. She can have a hard candy coating but it is protecting a delicate fragile sweet little girl inside. I wish I could give her a confidence and self worth mega vitamin everyday. She cares way to much about what other people think. Emilee seems to be in between Matthew and Allison right now, hopefully it will grow in the positive direction with school.

The Hallelujah Phase:  This is the kids are starting school again and I can get on top of our lives a little more again phase. This phase starts at different times each year and can vary in…intensity.  Three years ago this started as soon as August hit and I was about to burst by the time school started. I couldn’t get them to school fast enough. Last year it was the last day or to before school and hardly noticeable. This year is on track to be in the middle of that somewhere but we have all of July to get through. Just like the end of the school year when the routine is a getting mundane and you just need a change, the same happens with summer. It just starts to get a little old. The Boredom Phase becomes more and more common. Everyone is less patient, fights and argues more. It is just time for a change and revamp of schedules and getting back into growing in different ways. My kids help and do a lot of things around the house but when we are all home a lot it is harder to keep up on things and some projects, jobs, and other things get set aside or slip through the cracks. When this phase comes I want to get back on top of everything and feel more organized and prepared. How well my kids are getting along is a huge factor in when this phase starts.

 

 

Good movie alert!!

I am a movie watcher. I love watching a good movie either at home or
in the theater. Lately there have been some good movies I have seen
but they are more action movies. It has been awhile since I have seen
a really good ‘feel good’ movie. I watched one this week that brought
a few tears but left me feeling happy and good after I finished it. It
is called I Can Only Imagine. It is about the story behind the song by
the same title. I have always loved that song. I may be known to sing along at the top of my lungs when I hear it. It is a favorite on my play list and I love it even more now knowing the story behind it.

 

I remember…

There was a youth fireside in Independence tonight with John Bytheway as the speaker. Matthew is a few months shy of being 12 but we had him go anyways. He said it was really good and he was glad he went. As I was driving home after I dropped him off I was thinking about the fact that I just dropped my oldest child off at a YM activity. Which got me thinking about other moments in his life. Time really does fly by. He is such an amazing kid. I am so glad that I get to be his mom. He has a good head on his shoulders and a kind heart in his chest.

I remember the day we brought him home from the hospital. I kept thinking, “I can’t believe they are just letting me take him home, I’m a mom now.” It felt so weird to be driving with a baby in the back seat. Ryan has never driven so slow and I probably looked back and checked him a million times. He was my little buddy from day one. I loved singing him to sleep, snuggling him, and just looking at him. He never really cared for a pacifier but he has a blue blanket that became ‘the blanket’ the second he touched it. He still has it today and is showing no signs of being done with it. He also loved his nightly bottle before getting ready for bed. It was a total relaxing enjoyable experience for him.

He was a happy slightly pudgy little toddler. He has had a kind little tender heart from day one. He is shy but makes friends easily and is friends with everybody. He is good at including others and making them feel welcome and is kind to everyone. I remember taking him to nursery. This wasn’t to hard for me at the time because I was the Primary President so I was in there a lot and got to see him, it wasn’t to much of a ‘my baby boy is growing up way to fast moment’. Sunbeams was much harder. I remember my little boy walking right in to class wearing his little man suit and hoping up on his chair ready to go.  I remember his first primary program. He stood tall and sang every word of the songs loudly, but when he went up to say his part he took one look at the audience and said, “Nope!” and turned right around and went back to his seat.

I remember his first little t-ball lessons when he was four years old where he chased the ball wherever it went and then a few years later crushing a home run in coach pitch. Then doing lots of other sports to pass the time until he can get back into baseball to joining the academy so he can be involved in baseball almost year round. I remember his first day of preschool. He was never a huge fan. He would have rather stayed home and been with his sister. He loved her
from day one. If he couldn’t be by her, he left his dinosaurs around her to watch her until he returned. His shyness was a big struggle for him in preschool. We practiced how to introduce yourself and make friends a lot.

I remember the first day of kindergarten, and each grade after. I thought I would be the mom doing cartwheels to send the kids to school. Instead I was the mom having a hard time leaving the class room and peaking back in several times to make sure he was ok before going home to sit around and wonder what I was going to do without him. Matthew has always been easy company and fun to have around. There is more than one mom of his friends that have told me they like having Matthew over and he is a really good friend to their son and I
can send him over anytime. Last year when we took the kids to school on the first day, I remember a little twinge in my chest realizing that it would be the last time I got to walk him to class on the first day. Next year is middle school and you get to just get dropped off. I remember another twinge in my heart when I told him that and he said I could still walk him to class if I wanted but no kiss goodbye, a hug would probably be fine though.

I remember his baptism. There was standing room only in the font room because so many friends and family came to support and see him get baptized. I remember feeling so blessed to have such a sweet, caring, loving, special boy. The gospel rests naturally with him. You can feel that he understood and knew it well before he came to earth. I remember the first time my shy little boy mustered up the courage to go up and bear his testimony. I was so proud of him and wish he would do it every month.

I remember thousands of small special little memories that I hope I will never forget. I love watching Matthew grow and develop into an even more amazing person. He is going to accomplish some great things. I wish it would just slow down. I love how he almost always has a little slight grin on his face and he is quick to turn it into a full grin when he sees someone. I love that he still snuggles me while he reads a book. I love that he randomly comes up to me and wants a hug. Sometimes it drives me crazy but I still love when he  shows his affection with poking, and nudging, and teasing. I love when he laughs and plays with his sisters, and gives them a piggy back ride, or teaches them how to throw a ball, or plays tag, or hide and seek with them. I love his sense of humor and how he cracks himself up. I love that he writes in his journal then leaves it on my pillow for me to read. I love when he tells me about his day and it takes almost as
long as the day took because he includes every single detail. I love how he decides he wants to learn something and figures it out and works at it. I love that he tries to set a good example and reflects on how to improve.  I love his company, I love him. I am a blessed momma. He is growing up so fast. Today I drop him off at a fireside, before I know it he will be driving, dating, graduating, and going on a mission. I am glad I get a front row seat at watching him grow.

The Terry’s start some new fashion trends…

Dad had to go straight from work to the baseball game this week. He takes his clothes with him when he has to do this so he can change at work. He forgot his tennis shoes. I could not stop laughing. I called him over like I had to tell him something and took the picture. When he realized what I was doing he turned around and walked off so I took the next picture. Still giggle when I think about it. Seriously, look at those pictures and try not to laugh. He said I was embarassed of him, which I was not. I wouldn’t have told everyone about it if I was embarassed. Hehehe! He lucked out though, one of the other coaches asked him if he needed some tennis shoes he had an extra pair or if he wanted to sport his current look that was cool too. Ryan took him up on his offer to borrow the extra pair of shoes he had. He isn’t the first coach on the team to have that happen either. We are lucky to have such good Dads to support their kids in their activities.

 

At our next game the fashion statements continued. Emilee came up to ask for a drink and I took stock of what she had chosen to wear and had to get a picture of it. Those are socks with water shoes. Yep, nice cozy socks with rubber water shoes, in 100+ temperatures. She thought it was a great idea. Cute little stinker. Again, I still giggle when I think about it. It isn’t her first interesting shoe choice though, Emilee is notorious for wearing inappropriate shoes for the occasion, mismatching shoes, or forgetting her shoes altogether. Lucky for her (an annoyance for me) her sister thinks the car is her personal shoe closet so there is usually a few pairs to choose from if Emilee forgets. Also as a side note. I tell my girls all the time that when they see pictures of themselves in 20 years and wonder what they are wearing I am going to remind them that I always offered ‘how to match your clothes’ advice but it was usually ignored or most likely completely scoffed at like I don’t have the slightest clue what I’m talking about. Unless it is church or family picture day or something like that, it is all them and their styling.

I haven’t mentioned Father’s Day or Ryan’s birthday yet. I have a picture that fits in great with the above pictures too. Both of his special days are usually close together if not the same day. We try to make it separate celebrations for him but this year we were leaving on our RV-cation on his birthday so there wasn’t a whole lot of time to celebrate. We did his cake on the road though. For Father’s Day the kids argued and fought and I about locked them outside for the day, but then we pulled it together and made him a nice steak dinner and played a game together. We gave him a power washer for his Father’s Day and birthday present. He has wanted one for a long time and I have been told for years how amazed I will be at how useful it will be. We also usually get him a cool new pair of pajama pants for Father’s Day. This year we decided to go with a shirt instead. I told him he was going to laugh and I had never seen this shirt before. He said he had found a shirt for his dad the other day but they didn’t have the right size so he didn’t get it but he almost bought it for himself. He told me what it said and it was the same shirt we had gotten him! I kept my game face on and didn’t give it away though.  The kids could hardly contain themselves when he started opening it. I guess potty humor never gets old.

Warning…content may engage gag reflex.

This post is keeping it real. I think I have seen it all sometimes and then I wake up in the morning and find this. BLAHHH!!!

What the heck!

So I thought someone (easy to figure Matthew since the seat was left up) had just not flushed the toilet…which is usually my girls issues not Matthew’s. But as I got closer I saw that indeed he had not flushed the toilet but was very relieved that he hadn’t because sitting at the bottom of the toilet was his T4K. What is a T4K? A T4K is a special ortho appliance that Matthew wears in his mouth every night to help correct his bite. Why was this (expensive) mouth appliance in the toilet? I called Matthew to the scene of the event to find out. He came and looked and thought I had put it in there. WHAT?!? After explaining to him that under no circumstances would I find it necessary, appropriate, funny, or any other possible reason be ok to put his T4K in the toilet full of pee. He seemed just as confused as I was as to why it was there. We fished it out with some very long BBQ tongs and while we were sterilizing the tongs, the T4K, our hands and the sink, Matthew had a partial recollection of a fuzzy memory of using the restroom early that morning and having something in his mouth that was bugging him so he spit it out. This makes a lot of sense because Matthew has had a handful of incidents over the years where he does something weird while sleep walking. So the best we can figure is that he wasn’t fully awake and spit it out while he was using the restroom. Still gross. Thank goodness he didn’t flush it!! We would have never have even guessed where it disappeared to.