Lauren's Developing Personality

Lauren has become very mischievious lately...it's time to babyproof the house ;-)
What is it with water spray bottles, pens, hair gel, wd-40, desitin, sunblock, gum, shampoo, chapstick, coins, etc? Those are all things that Lauren has gotten her hands on in the last couple of weeks that she should not be playing with. Water sprayed all over her bed, pillows, baby dolls, and our room, pen drawn all over her body and bed sheets, half a bottle of gel on our bedroom floor, reached the wd-40 by climbing on to the front bumper of the van in the garage and spraying the can on the shelf, using desitin as toothpaste, splattering sunblock all over her bedroom floor and then trying to use a half package of wipes to clean it up, finding gum and chewing 5 pieces at a time, using shampoo as lotion all over her hands and arms, eating chapstick and sucking on coins. The list goes on. She can climb to get what she wants and then disappears quickly and quietly so nobody notices.

She is also a purse thief, so if she is around, you might want to hang onto your purse. The other night at a ward activity, she was determined that she wanted my purse. I think she was hoping to find some gum in it. Anyway, she kept coming and snatching it out from under the chair I was sitting on and I kept snatching it back and telling her she could not have my purse. Anyway, a little while later, I took Colin to the restroom and when I came back, I found my purse sitting in the middle of the gym floor, unzipped, and a bag of dum dums sitting on top. I had forgotten I even had that baggie of dum dums in my purse from a month ago, but she found them (in the bottom) and she happily helped herself to one while I wasn't looking.

This evening while we were at the boys karate class, Lauren was coloring. She decided to dump all of the crayons out of the bag onto the floor. When class was just about over, I stooped down to begin picking up the crayons. I said to Lauren, "Let's race and see who can pick up the most crayons." Oh my goodness...I did not expect the reaction I got from her at that point. She would not let me even touch the crayons and help her clean them up. She screamed at me everytime I tried to help. She had to do it completely by herself. And she did. She picked up every single crayon very quickly and declared herself the winner.

The Weekends

5/21 - I finally got some vegetables planted in hopes of enjoying some fresh, home grown vegetables this summer. I planted in pots since I don't have a good spot in our yard to put them in the ground. I am so excited because they have all pretty much sprouted now, so it is just a matter of watching them grow now. The kids were not interested in helping with the vegetable garden, but they were interested in planting some flowers, so on Thursday I took the kids to the store and we bought a bunch of flowers. They were each going to get their own pot to put their flowers in. Colin ended up choosing a pre-made pot of flowers that he just had to have. Lauren didn't really get what we were doing, so she only picked one flower. However, Jordan went overboard. He found a lot of flowers that he wanted to plant and take care of. On Saturday morning after swimming lessons, we planted the flowers in pots. The boys helped with the dirt and how we should rearrange the flowers in the pots. Jordan's flowers ended up filling up 3 pots. After that, the kids played with the hose and soaked themselves. Saturday and Sunday the kids played outside quite a bit. They rollerbladed (which is something both boys are getting quite good at) and rode bikes. They played with the neighbors and played tennis. It was a good weekend.

5/30 - For Memorial Day we spent part of the morning painting and spending time together. After lunch, we went and visited a Veterans Monument in Mill Creek. It is important to us that our children learn about and recognize those who sacrifice their lives for us and protect our country. After spending some time at the Veterans Monument, we played at the playground and then headed to the bowling alley. We each bowled two games (except Lauren who just watched). The boys bowled really well and had pretty good sportsmanship. Jordan had the high score in the first game and in the second game, Colin came in second with a score of 102, which was a little behind my score. (Yes we did bowl with the bumpers down, which may have helped the scores a little bit.) It was a fun day and we had some great family time together.

Teaching Our Children

We have had some challenges with our children over the past few months. Things have happened at school that have concerned me about whether we are teaching our children what they need to know and if we are teaching them sufficiently. I have struggled with how to deal with the situations we are facing.

While reading on tofw.com I found the following blog entry and it really made an impression on me. (http://tofw.com/story/128-teaching-healthy-sexuality) I have copied part of it here, but it is worth reading in its complete form on the tofw blog.

"Recently, I have been fascinated with Joseph Smith’s statement about the inner turmoil and uncertainty he wrestled with as an adolescent. In Joseph Smith History 1:12 he states, “…for how to act I did not know, and unless I could get more wisdom than I then had, I would never know…”

Imagine for a moment if the “would never know” part of that statement had come to pass? How would his life have been different? How would our lives be different? It is indeed a blessing that Joseph Smith was raised in a home that nurtured his spiritual sensitivities and supported his questions being directed heavenward.

While reflecting upon Joseph Smith’s process for finding answers, I began to wonder what would have happened if he had lived in today’s world and had chosen instead to Google his question rather than “ask of God”? I decided to Google a modern-day version of Joseph Smith’s question: “which religion is right and which should I join?” I was amazed to find out that in exactly 0.17 seconds I had 138,000,000 answers to my question!

As I stared at the stream of answers on my computer screen, I couldn’t help but think how completely unhelpful this process would be for an adolescent who is unsure of how to act. And, here is the punch-line: this is precisely what is happening with many of our youth who have sincere and valid questions about important areas of life, but who don’t know where to turn for answers. Sadly, the Internet has become a modern-day oracle for an entire generation of youth who are seeking answers on various topics. Some questions are appropriately handled online (e.g., “which movie has the best reviews right now?”), but others require the loving and steadying influence of direct communication with a parent, ecclesiastical leader or Heavenly Father."

When I face turmoil, where do I turn. When I have questions that I want to know, where do I turn? Unfortunately, to often, I do find myself opening the laptop and entering search criteria into Google. Sometimes I forget the best way for me to receive answers (especially ones regarding family) is to go to my Heavenly Father in prayer. I have spent a lot of time over the past couple of months praying to my Heavenly Father. Asking him for guidance and for comfort and to know how to handle the challenges we are facing. I have been comforted. I have been given some guidance. The challenges still continue, but I know my Heavenly Father is there for me when I need him and I will continue to go to my Heavenly Father, just as Joseph Smith did so many years ago.

Jordan's Baptism

Jordan was baptized on Saturday, May 7. It was a wonderful day. We had family come into town. Grandma Linda and Grandpa Ted came from Nevada. Aunt Teresa and Abby and Jonny came from Moses Lake and then all our local family, Grandma and Grandpa McKee, Aunt Valerie, Aunt Julie and Uncle David and Davyn were also able to attend.

We started the day with a family photoshoot of Tim's side of the family. After predictions of rain all week long for Saturday, we were pleasantly surprised when we woke up Saturday morning and it was not raining yet. Somehow, the rain managed to hold off until we were done with the photos. We even had some sun poking through the clouds off and on. I truly believe the Lord answered our prayers for no rain. Even though the kids were not the most cooperative, we managed to get some decent pictures and with a little photoshop touch-ups and one face replacement, we managed to get a family picture we can hang on the wall. While at the park trying to get pictures, the kids did have a great time playing outside with their cousin Davyn.

After photos we returned home, the kids played, adults talked and then it was time to get ready for the baptism. Jordan shared his baptism day with three other children in our stake, Roberto, Lindsey and Joseph. At Jordan's baptism, Grandma McKee gave the baptism talke and Lindsey's grandma gave the Holy Ghost talk. Time baptized and confirmed Jordan.

Jordan said that after he was baptized, he felt good. I did notice a different spirit about him for several days after his baptism. He was doing his best to be good and to be a good example. He seemed to be thinking about his actions a little more then usual.

After the baptism, all 16 of us headed to Olive Garden for dinner. We all had a great time and the food and service was great. After dinner, Donna's side of the family came over for dessert of brownies and ice cream.

It was a long day, but a very good day. We are so proud of Jordan for making this choice to be baptized.

I wanted to share one experience we had the week after his baptism. We were on our way to daycare one morning and we were talking about kaboom.org, which was a site that their school had submitted a video to try and win grant money to help raise funds for new playground equipment the school needs. The top ten videos were chosen and the public then got to vote. Jordan had spent some time watching these top 10 videos the day before. I think some of these videos really opened his eyes to what other kids have (or don't have). He asked me if I thought their schools old playground equipment could be donated to one of the organizations that submitted a video, but didn't win. He felt bad for the kids who only had trash to play with and no toys on their playgrounds. He sounded really passionate about helping them.