Luke Knows Just What To Say

Two nights ago I was leaving for a meeting at the Middle School.  I'm going to a lot of meeting these days between my church calling and school meetings and the kids felt sorry for me.  As I was getting ready to leave Luke said to me,

"Mom, you're a beautiful woman.  Remember that."

He said it so earnestly and with such conviction.  He cracks me up!  I know someday I will need to remember that I'm a beautiful woman so I'm recording it here.  Hahaha!

My Sassy Singer

At our elementary school kids can't start the school choir until they are in 2nd Grade.  Miss Claire loves to sing and this year she got to join!  She has been faithfully listening to her CD and practicing her songs and tonight was her concert  These concerts are so dang fun and I just felt pure joy watching her sing.  It's so funny because at home she is all sass and spice and in public she gets really shy.  So watching her reserved singing was interesting but her besties were flashy enough for them all!

My favorite song was when they sang the Mom Song.  They had the kids sing while they played a slideshow of all the kids with their moms.  This was our photo.

I love my Claire.

Luke's Pinewood Derby

 

The Pinewood Derby strikes fear into the hearts of parents everywhere.  Luke was thrilled when he found out about it and immediately laid plans for how his car would look and the tales of it's glory. It's times like these that I'm glad I'm mom and can hand these things off to Tim.  Thankfully we have Grandpa Hill who was willing to help them out.  Even though we call him Grandpa Hill he is not in fact Luke's or Tim's or my Grandpa.  We got in the habit of calling him Grandpa Hill so as not to confuse him with his son Brother Hill who also lives in our ward.  Lucky for us his heart is big enough to be Grandpa to non-relatives and bonus he knows all about making pinewood derby cars.

(We need a better picture of Grandpa Hill)

Tim and Luke headed to Grandpa Hill's workshop and came back with equal looks of relief and excitement.  Relief was Tim's.  The car was cut, Grandpa Hill had soldered in some weights over the back wheels and this baby was ready for it's paint job.  Luke named the car "Red Hornet" and he painted it a fantastic shade of red and gave it a black racing stripe.  Tim looked up some tips and tricks on the internet and bent the wheel axles.  I told him I thought that was a mistake, and I even said he ruined the car but Tim got the last laugh.

The night of the race the boys were sizing up each other's cars.  No one thought that Luke's unassuming wedge with wheels was competition.  Luke's car was in the first race and it was clear from the beginning he had a winner.  His car creamed the other cars.  They had some double elimination thing going and Luke just kept winning.  They had the top 4 racers race in one last race and I'm not going to lie it was a close one but Luke came out on top!

Luke was thrilled.  Gage had done some mathematical equation in his brain and had whispered his prediction in my ear of Luke's win before the final race.  Claire came up to me and said, "I'm so excited I'm shaking!" and I was desperately trying to hide my tears.  You read that right.  I cried.  It has been so long since something has gone our way that I was just so thankful that Tim and Luke had this victory together.

The man who ran the race is the Guinness World Book Record Holder for the fastest Pinewood Derby Car.  He runs these little races on the side. (coolest job ever!) Anyway, after the race he and I were talking and he was looking at Luke's car and said, "It's the right shape, the weight is in the right place and the wheels have been bent perfectly."  I guess Tim gets to tell me, "I told you so!"  

My 12 Year Old Shaves

Gage turned 12 in July and he has been working on quite the mustache for over a year.  He loved it and has dreams of growing a very long beard one day.  Once he started passing the sacrament one of the older boys noticed his stache and advised that he should shave it if he wanted to pass the sacrament.  I laughed so hard that a boy of 13 had such authority and that Gage was defiant.  He was keeping that hard earned hair!

I was fine with what was growing on his upper lip until one day I was coming up the stairs and Gage was standing at the top of the stairs and when I looked up I saw that it was turning dark!  What the Heck!  I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me but upon closer inspections I realized not only was it turning dark but it was growing so long it was curling over his upper lip!  I convinced him it needed to be shaved and my 12 year old shaved his upper lip that night.  What in the world?

The awesome hair growing abilities comes from Tim's side of the family.  Like father like son.  Gage was horrified when Tim told him to expect hair everywhere.

Gage also went to his first Priesthood Session of Conference this year.  Where is the time going?

First Day of School

What would my blog be without some first day of school photos?  Everyone was nice and comfortable this year.  We have the routine down and I was excited for them to go back.  I miss them terribly but this summer needed to end.  

Gagey started the 7th grade.

Mr. Luke started the 4th

And Miss Claire the 2nd grade.

These two love going to the same school.

Gum Surgery is Scary

After 2 1/2 years Gage got his braces off just in time for the 7th grade to start! He looks so handsome to me!  I had to take his "after" shot right there in the office because we had to leave directly from the Orthodontist to

the Peridonist for a needed gum graft and gum lasering.

He was super nervous for the surgery.  At this point he had been sitting in a dentist chair for almost 4 hours.  He was starting to look pale and then they put this dressing on his face and he kinda came unhinged.

The doctor was just about the kindest person I have ever met and he gave Gage all the time he needed to get in control again.  I asked the doctor if we could pray and he said to go ahead and that he would pray as well.  I love Utah for this reason. Gage prayed silently for like 2 minutes which doesn't seem like a long time but it is when the doctor and nurses are looking at you.  He went to the bathroom and I gave him a pep talk and when we came back he got to work.  

Without the head dress Gage felt a lot more comfortable.  His heart was beating so fast that the doctor had to keep giving him numbing shots.  I felt so bad.  I told the doctor how faithful Gage was at reading his scriptures and saying his prayers and the Doc took some time afterward to tell Gage how impressed he was with his faith.  I'm proud of him for knowing where to turn for strength when he needed it.  The Lord ALWAYS comes through in the clutch.  

I got this in the mail a few weeks ago from the Ortho.  Can't believe how much he has changed.  He is going to be a heart breaker!

This thank you note also came with the pictures. Great Orthodontist.  Great kid.  

Fears Were Overcome This Summer

Luke has had a fear of water for so long that last year I just gave up on swim lessons and slapped a life jacket on the kid.  This year he reluctantly consented to swim lessons and he banished his fear forever!  

He and Claire were in the same class which is hard on the ego but good for motivation. 

I was thrilled to see him happy while in the water, jumping in the deep end and actually asking if he 

could go off the diving board.  What?  Where is my son?  Oh, just swimming.  Squeeee.  

Cousin Lovin

My kids get to see their cousins on Tim's side of the family a lot because most of them live nearby. None of the cousins on my side live in Utah and so summers usually mean seeing their other cousins.  It's something my kids look forward to and this summer was fun because both my sister and my brother's family were in town at the same time. 

   

The older kids spent some time in the Draper Temple together.  Grandpa did confirmations and Tim performed the baptisms.  It was special.  

Claire Bear got to go hiking with the whole crew while Luke and I were at Cub Scout Camp and Gage was on his back packing trip.  

We celebrated Aunt Rachel's birthday with her favorite cake.  This is the only time in my life where I was NOT sad that I have Celiac and cannot eat this cake.  I'll never understand why she likes it so much.  Barf!

We spent the day at Jordanelle.  If you zoom in you will see a look of terror on Claire's face.  She did not love the wave runner.  Hee Hee!

But she did love playing in the water with these two.

Try as we might we never got the paddle board out.  Too windy!

For the 24th of July we went to the Days of '47 parade down town.  Thankfully Sarah's cousin's let us in their tent so we didn't die of the heat.  The parade was fun.  Will never do it again.  Gage read his book for most of it until he was stung by a bee and had a scary reaction.  He barfed everywhere and almost passed out.  A policeman came and almost wired for a ambulance but I begged him not to because, Hello, Tim doesn't have a job and ambulances are expensive.  Thankfully I prayed a ton and he pulled out of it.  Poor kid.  

We also went to see the fireworks at a park near me for Butlerville Days.  We had our spot all picked out when a fire fighter came and advised us to move a little further away.  We obeyed but only moved about 100 yards.  When the fire works started we realized we really were at ground zero.  We decided that if you don't get burned by falling debris you simply aren't close enough to the action. 

We took this group of the whole group and then realized that one kid was missing as he had obeyed his mom when she said the first time that it was time to go and was waiting in the car.  So we took it again only to realize that Gage was missing because he was at camp.

So here's one with Gage but not Nate's kids.  Yeesh this is hard.

This cutie.  Oh my.  Couldn't deny him anything if I tried.  

On my Honor I Promise to Do my Duty as a Scout Leader and a Scout Mom

My life as a Cub Scout Leader consists of telling boys to stop messing with things in my car, not to lick (fill in the blank), to hand me their pocketknife, to stop talking about poo, and going to day camp and having a blast.  Little boys are the best!  They are so energetic and easy to please.  The people who run the day camps know what boys like and it is silly, loud and a hoot.  Frankly, I would feel crazy if my Luke wasn't one of the scouts.  He LOVES that I'm his leader and I have to remember that when I have the urge to quit, yell, or just plain freak out!   

The boys leave like this and come home like this.....

 

Every boy in my car looked like this.  Crazy happy and crazy dirty.  Who wouldn't be crazy happy....

They get to dig in the dirt....

Shoot things.....

Climb on things.....

 Study dinosaur fossils...

 And go into pretend volcanoes.  Thank heaven it was just a day camp!

Part of being a scout mom is sending your newly minted 12 year old on their first backpacking trip for 4 days to the high Unitas with a backpack that weighs almost as much as he does.  I had serious anxiety about this trip but he had such a great time.  He has the best leaders who love scouts and every time I was worried I thought about them and it made me feel peaceful.  

Gage came home with a lot of card tricks.

This is Betsy Lake.  It looks so frigid.  Only boys would choose to swim!  Burrrrr

Tim got away from school for the last night and met the boys and hiked out with Gage.

 Utah is beautiful!