The Young and the Restless

Wednesday, September 21, 2016

Little things

Playing catch up since July...we had a date night at the lake, so fun to mix up the usual dinner date nights and spend time with some great friends doing what we love.

Of course there's still plenty of the usual date nights in between. This is what I call the Mormon tri-fecta date night: temple, Cafe Rio, Walmart. It's so nice having Jayden old enough to baby-sit too, especially since Kylie usually has plans with friends every weekend.

I thought it would be a great idea to take the family to dinner and school shoe shopping. It was a good idea up until about 5 minutes into the 2nd store.

One thing I wasn't prepared for with having the kids all in school is how hard it is adjusting to the extreme contrast of having the house perfectly quiet and perfectly clean all day, to having it turned upside down 5 minutes after they tear through the door. Backpacks, shoes and papers thrown everywhere. And weekends filled with forts made out of every chair, blanket and pillow in the house. I love seeing the kids play together, but my OCD side needs to take a little chill pill.

I do love seeing scenes like this on a Saturday morning, though.

I also love seeing a good monsoon rolling in

And a good sunset capping off the night. There's lots to love.

Finally sorting through all the water damaged photo albums. It's been fun taking a trip down memory lane, and I'm glad to see there's still quite a few photos that can be salvaged. We were just babies back then, where has the time gone?!

Ryder is loving kindergarten. He has really caught on academically, thrived socially and melts the hearts of anyone who meets him. I have loved helping out in his classroom on a regular basis, this boy is too cute for his own good. They had a gingerbread scavenger hunt around the school at the beginning of the year.

I love eating lunch with the boys, although Jayden is too cool to have his mom eat lunch with him, but I understand. I'll make the most of the time with Maddox and Ryder until they're too cool for me too.

Ryder immediately connected with a boy in his class and always talked about his best friend Tucker. We finally made the connection that they used to be in our ward years ago, I love his mom but didn't realize we had these little boys the same age. Small world. I did make the mistake of standing by the swings, as soon as the other kinders saw a parent by the swings they swarmed to me like bees to a hive and I spent the rest of recess pushing kids.

I was sad that these two boys weren't in the same class, but glad they can still play together at recess. His mom snapped this picture while she was there for lunch one day.

I felt so bad the first time I went to eat lunch with Maddox and promised to bring a happy meal. I got the lunch time mixed up and instead of being 5 minutes early I barely made it for the last 5 minutes. He was sitting there at the table with no lunch just holding back tears, convinced I had forgotten. The tears poured out as soon as he saw me and my heart broke in a million pieces. The next time I was sure to be early.

I can't tell you enough how much I love my calling working with the Young Women and the other amazing leaders. We did our Daughter of God week centered around being the "Diamond in the Rough", we had some great activities that I hope were as memorable for the girls as it was for me.

Jayden got invited to the 21 Pilots concert with a friend and had a great time. It was a pretty awesome first concert for him, I wish I could have gone with him!

We bought a new tent a few months ago (after our campout at the lake where we discovered every pole was broken), but we have been too busy to try it out, so this weekend called for a back yard campout. So grateful for dads who are willing to sweat it out in the miserable heat and hard ground for the sake of their kids while I'm in a cozy bed in an air conditioned house.

Be still my heart. Nothing makes me love him more than seeing him love our kids. I love the tie tying right of passage. Maddox is over the moon excited about wearing a "real" tie.