November 2010 Update

Happy Fall! I am constantly struck by how beautiful a place Utah is. We have watched the mountains turn from summer greens to fall yellows and reds, and just barely, winter white with snow. I don't think I'm quite ready for the cold weather, but I suppose the seasons are a constant reminder to me of the passing of time and the need to cherish each season of life as we experience it.

Hugh spent a couple weeks in Germany taking care of Church business. He doesn't enjoy traveling alone, so he would have liked to have had me or one of the older kids along to see the sights and help navigate planes/trains/schedules. He happened to have training in Las Vegas a day after he returned from Germany, so he missed the end of the kids' summer vacation and the first couple weeks of school and soccer practices/games over the course of the two trips. I figured he would enjoy being away from us, but he said it was too quiet. Apparently he really meant it, because he chose to spend a big chunk of time and hard-earned money taking the family to Disneyland a couple of weeks ago. This, our second trip to Disneyland, was different in a couple of ways: the first time, we had gone with my sister, Kristen's family, and that was so much fun. We had hoped my parents and my sister Jeannie could come along, but Jeannie's health has been unstable enough that they just couldn't do it. On the plus side, we are looking forward to visits from several of our far-away siblings over the next week. Our three older boys spent most of the time at Disneyland separate from the rest of the group, taking advantage of a much faster pace and selection of rides without the younger siblings to slow them down. Some of the younger ones were grumpy enough that we had to cut our afternoons short just to get them back to the hotel room to nap and calm down. We enjoyed the four days at the park despite ill-tempered kids, and our one day at the beach even though it was overcast and chilly.

The kids have been back in school for a couple of months now. Overall, they are enjoying it and doing well. Since the Parent Council (PTA) at the school was restructured, the position in which I served was done away with and the responsibilities split up among several people. I volunteer regularly in Natalie's class and will be co-chairing the silent auction in the spring. While I miss knowing what is going on, it has been such a relief to not have so much responsibility on my shoulders.

Steven is enjoying his sophomore year of high school. Since he is taking just one math class this year, he is much more able to stay on top of things. He sure seems to spend much less time on homework than I ever did! He attends an early morning seminary class on alternating days so that he could make room in his schedule for a P.E. Conditioning class every day in preparation for soccer in the spring. He sometimes jogs the four miles down to school and attends extra seminary classes because he enjoys the class discussion. He has gone hiking several times with a good friend and some of her family. Until recently, I somehow managed to avoid the whole popular music scene, something for which I was very grateful since I don't approve of the language used in and the feelings evoked by a lot of the current music. But now the kids are constantly turning on the radio or listening to MP3's on the computer or on the MP3 players they recently purchased. They have been very conscientious about not listening to songs with questionable lyrics, and most of the stuff they like is pretty mellow. It is interesting that some of the stuff on the radio is from my time and before, and my kids aren't automatically turned off to it just because it's old! Steven spends a lot of time listening to music while working on a crossword or logic puzzle, reading a book, or occasionally talking on the phone (we won't let him chat online so that he will not forget how to carry on a conversation, a skill I hear is quickly disappearing with this generation of emailers and texters.) Though Steven finished Driver's Ed in June, I have taken him driving only once, and that was just at the church parking lot. My dad very generously offered to fix up a minivan we found in an online classifieds, so once that is ready to go we will get it licensed and insured and at least temporarily retire our stick-shift Escort so that Steven can learn to drive something a little more manageable.

We celebrated Daniel's 14th birthday on October 18th. It has been interesting to watch Daniel push himself out of his comfort zone as he participates in student government and the things that come with that: planning activities, leading the school in the pledge over the loudspeaker, helping with decorations, food, clean-up for dances. He tends to stay to himself at school despite his fun sense of humor and his kind and easy-going personality, so I hope this will help him to be more social. Like Steven, Daniel sometimes jogs four miles to or from school, which is great for the exercise but makes me (a paranoid mom) worry for his safety. Daniel decided to quit piano lessons since he reached the appointed 14 years of age, and I'm not too crushed about it since he has to keep practicing for a piano performance class he is taking. I told him he will melt the girls' hearts if he keeps playing songs like “River Flows in You” and “Comptine D'Un Autre Ete”, which was meant to encourage him to continue, but which I'm afraid had the opposite effect! He is so cute with Katelyn, and is willing to take care of her when I attend music class with Alyssa and Natalie or run quick errands. Daniel solved the 5x5 Rubik's cube he received for his birthday within one day. It is amazing to me that this kid, who doesn't hear me asking him a question because he's focused on something right in front of him even though I'm standing five feet away from him, can keep track of 150 different pieces on a cube and understand how the movements of one affect another. Really, it's mind boggling! Daniel enjoyed his Halloween hijinks just a little too much this year. He dressed himself to look like a stuffed dummy and sat very still on a chair on the front porch until the moment the trick-or-treaters reached down to take a treat from the bowl in front of him, at which point he would growl and move. Daniel and I must have the same sadistic tendencies, because I somehow couldn't stop laughing when I heard screams of surprise from inside the house where I was washing dishes. I hope he didn't permanently scar any little kids; after I was done laughing at the expense of someone else, I decided that Daniel and I deserve a taste of our own medicine and we're planning to watch “The Sixth Sense” next weekend, which I haven't dared to watch again since I first saw it ten years ago because I'm such a scaredy-cat.

Julia is enjoying her first year in the Jr. High as a 7th grader. She is so conscientious, and understands what she is being taught – she makes it so easy for us! She turned 12 in July and graduated from the Primary organization and into Young Women at church. Her skeletal age is about 1 ½ years behind her actual age, so she is tiny compared to most people her age. She will probably hit a growth spurt at some point, but it hasn't slowed her down a bit. She (as well as four others of the older kids) played fall soccer and loved it. She is enjoying taking a cooking class from someone here in our neighborhood, and I'm hoping she can teach us all the things she is learning! She is back in Orchestra this semester. I hope she will decide to make practicing a priority, because she is extraordinarily talented.

Michael is not as excited about piano since he discovered the radio and MP3 player, but I love to hear him play a new David Lanz piece (“Vesuvius”) he found. Michael is doing well academically and seems to enjoy his class and male teacher (who is big into athletics, a plus for Michael) though I never really know since he doesn't volunteer much information (like some of the other males in this family!) Michael finished out the soccer season undefeated with his Uncle James and dad as coaches. Michael has expressed an interest in playing competitive league soccer, but I won't consider it seriously until I see more commitment on his part to work hard at it while still doing his part to help around the house, and until I figure out how to make it work.

For the first time in her school career, Alyssa loves school. More specifically, she loves her teacher, Miss Seely. Alyssa is happier, and complains less often of stomachaches and headaches. Miss Seely is bright and organized and loving, and Alyssa constantly comes home with stories that the teacher tells her class. Alyssa can be very helpful about doing extra chores around the house. Her preferred form of payment is candy; I should make her a sign that says “Will work for candy”. She is also helpful with Katelyn and will play with her or take her outside to distract her while I work on dishes or dinner. She loves to draw and color and make creative things.

First I'll say the good things about Natalie. She is cute; she has such a pretty china doll face and soft features. She's very smart; as a first grader, she was initially placed in the highest 2nd grade math class, reads at a 3-4th grade competency level, and her teacher suggested she skip 1st grade. She is very responsible about doing her homework each day. Now the bad: she hates school, and has a lot of anxiety about friends (which never happened last year.) She throws fits almost daily about the smallest, silliest things despite my efforts to get to the source of the anxiety and bad behavior. Daniel thinks she needs some anger management courses. All I can say is that we have been through similar rough times with our other children, so hopefully she'll get through this soon.

Matthew will be turning five years old this month. He started preschool a couple months ago, and he loves it. One night he was so anxious for preschool to start that he went to bed with his backpack on, and woke at 7 am asking how much longer 'til preshool (five hours). He asked again at 9, and wanted me to set a timer so he could keep track of the time. Frustrated with how slowly the time was going, he exclaimed, “This timer is doing NOTHING for me!” One day after I gave him a piece of chocolate, he (knowing that I try to be health conscious) very seriously and generously offered, “If there's something that's bad for you that you don't want, just give it to me.” When the kids ask their dad how work was that day, he will usually respond, “Work-ish.” Sometimes Matthew will ask me when I get him from preschool, “How was home? Was Emily nice? How was Katelyn?” The other day when Hugh asked Matthew how preschool was, he said, “Preschool-ish.” Matthew has his own 4 year-old way of saying things, just like the main character in the book “Hooway for Wodney Wat”. When I gently tried to correct him after he asked “Who wants to go outside and wake the weaves?” He snapped back with,”I don't care if I say it wong!” Despite his intense personality and tendency toward melodrama in all things, he is a cute boy and I have to like him anyway.

After a last minute push before our Disneyland trip, Emily is potty-trained. Woo-hoo! Can you believe we're down to just one in diapers? Emily had a good time at Disneyland (when she wasn't tired and grumpy or lost.. I think we'll wait until all the kids are a bit older before we go back to Disneyland again.) Emily spends most of her time playing with Matthew or with her best friend, Lydia. Emily will not go to the nursery at church without Hugh or me even though Lydia is there with her, which makes me wonder what will happen in January when she is supposed to start attending Primary, the children's class. She has developed this peculiar habit of pronouncing “the” with a long e sound, no matter what it precedes. “Mom, are we going to thee library and thee store now?” Emily and some of the other kids love to go outside to play with a neighbor's cat which has made our yard a frequent stop. (Which reminds me... Daniel is working hard again at trying to talk me into getting a pet dog,which all the kids would love.)

Katelyn is one year old already, as of October 20th. We all enjoy our baby so much. When Katelyn wakes up, the kids gather around her to play with her and hug and greet her. She has no idea how popular she is! She started crawling at about 7½ – 8 months and figured out how to go up and down the stairs about a month later, thank goodness. Though she started walking a couple months ago, she hadn't taken off with it until right around her birthday. She still has the endearingly tentative, stiff gait of a new toddler. She is more animated and curious than she used to be, which translates into a more interesting personality and lots more messes. Multiple times every day I find drawers and cabinets emptied of their contents, which are strewn around on the floor. She delights us with waves of greeting or goodnight, and she babbles and sings as if she has lots to say, but so far doesn't say much that is understandable beyond “cuckoo” (she has a fascination with the cuckoo clock) and a barking sound. She generally goes to sleep in her crib very nicely and sleeps through the night, for which I am very grateful. I miss cuddling with her like I did when she was a smaller, more needy, nursing baby. But it is also fun to discover her personality and watch her learning new things.

We hope you are all doing well and that the upcoming holidays are a happy time for you.