Fall Birthdays and Halloween

We celebrated this 10-year-old by opening presents in the morning with Matt on the phone. The temple was closed for cleaning, so I didn't have to worry about moving my temple shift and could just meet this boy for lunch at school. I brought him Chick Fil A, and we played a game. He wanted Matt to make his birthday dinner on the weekend--steak and chicken kebabs. Austin also got a new tennis racket from Grandma and Grandpa.

Halloween 2025

The day before Bryson's birthday, we were able to have a family day at a campground that my dad volunteers at once a week. Rope swings, zip line, fishing, paddle boarding, lunch, and some archery. I forgot to take pictures!

Bryson was thrilled to turn 13, but not happy about fasting on his birthday. We had chicken and waffles for dinner with the missionaries and Grandma and Grandpa. There was no school the next two days, so he was able to invite some friends over to watch a PG-13 movie and have ice cream sundaes.

Grandma and Grandpa got him some new batting gloves.

At their well-check appointment, we learned that Bryson has 20/70 vision in his left eye. For the first time he mentioned that he has trouble reading things from the back of the classroom! Austin is in the 5th percentile for his height, and the doctor talked to us about considering growth hormones for him. (He is projected to be 5'6".)

Austin 8th Birthday and Baptism

Austin wanted a movie party for his birthday. We tried to find a movie in the theaters that he could invite a few friends to, but there was nothing good out in September. So he had several friends over for a Chick-Fil-A and movie party at his house with popcorn and box candy. 

Austin got some freeze dried strawberries, a remote control car, scriptures, and a scripture case.

It was pretty special to have Caleb baptize him, but it actually took some convincing because he really wanted his dad to do it.

Aunt Kari gave the talk on baptism and talked about sticky cotton candy and wipes for sin and repentance. Grandma and Grandpa each shared their testimonies on the Holy Ghost. Uncle Clayton played the piano and Aunt Ariane led the music. Caleb played a solo musical number, "I am a Child of God."
 

Austin Turns 7

Austin is a great caboose for our family. He is easy-going, fun, smart, creative, and a peacemaker. Bryson and Austin have a very special bond, and they are best friends. Austin helps to tame some of Bryson's moodiness. Because of this friendship and because he's the youngest, Austin is very mature for his age. Unfortunately he's also short for his age! Although he loves his brother, Austin's favorite person is Matt. He idolizes him and wants to be with him at all times. I sometimes joke to Matt that he can't walk to another part of the house without telling Austin first because I inevitably get the question, "Where's Dad?" He loves art because Matt loves art. He loves watching sports because Matt loves watching sports. He wants to play baseball because he knows Matt loves coaching baseball. Austin reads at a very high reading level and can read very challenging words but doesn't love to read. He performs well in school but doesn't like school. Austin cares about his handwriting being very neat, which I think is great! For how smart he is, Austin still struggles with reading notes in piano and so he hasn't loved learning the instrument. Once he learns a song (mostly by ear), then he loves to play and show it off to people. He is a picky eater and fights eating his dinner. His favorite foods are chicken and broccoli casserole, steak, and pasta. Austin has such a sweet temperament, and we love having him in our family!

The first time ever that I didn't make a homemade cake or dessert for a birthday! It just was a chaotic weekend!

 

Austin's 6th Birthday

Austin was counting down the days until his birthday.

Grandma and Grandpa's present to Austin

 I took Austin out of school for a lunch date followed by a well-check visit at the doctor. He was brave when he got his flu shot.

The start of school was a tougher adjustment than I anticipated; he is the oldest in his grade, so I thought it would be a breeze. He was whiny and cranky after school for the first two weeks, and he still thinks school is too long. He's a smart cookie so I assume boredom plays a big part of not wanting to be at school. I was nervous about past experiences with his teacher from other moms (she yelled at kids), but that hasn't been Austin's experience. He loves his teacher, and he lucked out by getting his best friend in his class, which has helped a lot!

Austin's 5th Birthday

This boy was SO excited for his birthday. It couldn't come fast enough! We opened presents first thing when he woke up.

He got a slip and slide, a growing dinosaur, mad matter, flarp putty, and Hi-chews.

Grandma and Grandpa gave him a Smoothie King gift card and a rock collection.

 

On our way to Smoothie King, we saw this beautiful double rainbow.

Austin also had a Dinosaur Birthday Party a few days later.

These are his preschool friends and his cousin.

We did a dinosaur craft, played Bingo, ate pizza, went on a dinosaur egg hunt, and did a dino egg relay.

Then Austin opened up presents and everyone ate rainbow cupcakes.

Austin got super confused this year thinking he turned 5 on his birthday and then turned 6 a few days later when we had his birthday party. He keeps wanting to be the same age or older than his cousin, and doesn't seem to comprehend that she will always be older than him!

Another Milestone

It feels like a big deal when your toddler learns how to pump. Another milestone to check off as my youngest gets older. I've been trying to teach him for awhile, to no avail. What finally did the trick was having him sit on Caleb's lap while Caleb was swinging. Then Austin got the "feel" of it.

During the 3-year-old year of preschool, all I hear during recess is, "Push me Ms. Haley! Higher!" over and over and over again. It gets monotonous. Now I have 2 out of the 7 kids that can pump themselves. :)

Also something that Austin feels so proud of himself for doing independently is riding on this pirate ship that actually swings pretty high at an indoor play place I've taken him to a few times. He has his arms up in this picture.

Family Update

Austin
Follow-up on Austin's tooth accident: we heard back from the oral surgeon that he was willing to pull out both the baby tooth with the cracked root and the extra permanent tooth. That was good news! I scheduled a consultation with the oral surgeon. When he looked at a 2D x-ray that the nurse took, he noticed that the broken piece of the root was hardly visible. He also examined Austin's mouth and observed his baby tooth with the broken root was more stable. With this new data, the oral surgeon decided that he needed a {very expensive} 3D x-ray to get a better look at the placement of the teeth and the damage done from the accident to see if the oral surgery was absolutely necessary. He said the longer we could wait on the surgery the better in terms of the anesthesia and his very small mouth. As long as there was no infection and his tooth was stable, he would want to postpone surgery. After the 3D x-ray, Austin and I left not knowing the results because the doctor needed time to analyze.

I got a call Friday afternoon that the oral surgeon felt safe postponing the surgery. The cracked piece of the root was all but dissolved due to the permanent tooth above it pushing down. As long as an abscess doesn't form, the tooth doesn't become more tender or change colors more than it has, then he said we could hold off on the surgery. This is such great news! We will continue to hope and pray that things stay stable and we can hold off on this surgery as long as possible!

Bryson
He is playing his first season of baseball. We signed him up with a different league than what we have done in the past. The league that Caleb and Carter have played for does machine pitch at Bryson's age (40+ mph speed). Bryson doesn't have the same natural athleticism and drive that Caleb and Carter have so we put him in a league that does coach pitch. So far we like the league and think it is a great fit for Bryson. He had his first game last Monday night. The very first play of the game, the batter hit a pop-up to Bryson in the pitcher position and he caught it! (In full disclosure, Bryson didn't even have to take a step. It was literally right to him. But he still had to stick his glove out and make the catch!) He had a strong first at-bat and hit a hard hit right over 2nd base. His 2nd at-bat he struck out. He played the pitcher position twice, catcher twice, and shortstop once. There are at least 4 kids better than him on the team that have played for 4 to 5 seasons, but Bryson definitely shows some potential. We didn't realize he would play catcher so Matt hadn't worked with him on that yet, therefore Bryson did not do well at stopping the ball. He did do well at throwing it back to the coach pitching, which not all kids can do. Bryson ended up getting the game ball for his first game! Great start to his season. Hopefully he continues to improve.

(sweaty baseball hair)

Carter

A lot of Carter's games have been rained out, so even though his league started much earlier than the other boys' leagues, he has only played 2 games. Matt is coaching his team again and says that Carter is his best defensive player. He never has to tell Carter what to do with the ball. Carter is "in" the game and knows where to throw the ball to make the play. The team is struggling with pitching this season. Carter isn't able to throw enough consistent strikes yet, but really wants to pitch so he's set a goal to practice regularly this season on his own in order to improve and earn a spot as a pitcher.

I also wanted to record one of the sweetest things that Carter has ever done. Caleb's birthday, August, 22nd, was a very stressful night with a back-to-school meeting at Caleb's school, plus I taught an hour of piano lessons after school. My parents had picked up Caleb after school to take him out to select a few books at Barnes and Noble for his birthday. After piano, I dished up the crockpot meal I had made for dinner, then ran out the door. Carter was in charge for a bit until my parents got back with Caleb, who was going to babysit. I thought the back-to-school night would be an hour. It was close to 2 hours! Matt had a late night at work so he wasn't home yet by the time I got home. When I got home, all the dishes were either in the dishwasher or washed up drying by the sink. I immediately texted my mom to thank her for doing my dishes--I assumed she had cleaned up when they brought Caleb back home. To my surprise, she said they were already done when she came back with Caleb. Carter had cleaned up all on his own! Not typical for a 9-year-old! It is one of Carter's gifts that he sees a need and steps in and helps. When Matt is out doing yard work, Carter is usually out there voluntarily helping him. A few weeks ago, Carter went out and mowed the backyard all by himself! (Well, he got about halfway done and then had to go to baseball practice.) Carter is also quite competent in the kitchen--cracking and scrambling himself an egg, putting things in and out of the oven, etc. I LOVE this side of Carter. He can be the sweetest kid....when he's not fighting with Bryson and when he and I are not on the piano together!

Caleb

Things are looking up for Caleb in terms of football in the sense that he is liking it more. He enjoys playing in the games and doesn't complain about practices anymore. (It also helps that practices are only Wednesday through Friday now.) His team has won 2 games and lost 1. He plays wideout on the kickoff line and also plays in the defensive line. We assumed he would be offensive because he's a fast runner and doesn't have experience tackling. He doesn't play a ton, there are about 35 kids on his team, but he does play a fair amount. I've seen him get a tackle and attempt another tackle on a kid two heads taller than him. :) I've been to one game and Matt went to another. 

While football may not be where he shines, he is an all-star on his soccer team. Matt is assistant coaching, and I have actually not been to any of his games yet this season. Matt says that Caleb has great ball control, speed, and touch and that he never gives up on a play. Caleb admitted that he thinks his conditioning in football has really helped him soccer. It is looking like it will be a losing season though in terms of his team. The age range for his level this year is '07 - '05 so he is playing against some very mature 9th graders. He also has some newbies on his team this year, whereas at least one of the other teams have been playing together for several seasons. Hopefully they will show improvement over the course of the season and win a game or two. 

Caleb has had some tough lessons in responsibility this year with school. He is used to relying on me to hold his hand in schoolwork--a liability I didn't mean to create. With him being the oldest and stemming from the decision to push him on to school as an August birthday instead of holding him back, I've been very involved in his schoolwork to make sure he succeeds. In my defense, I try to be involved with all my boy's schoolwork to make sure they are understanding what is being taught and supplementing at home when I need to. Caleb has been depending on me too much though so I've pulled back over the last month and told him he needs to be more independent in figuring out some things on his own. However, without me hovering, he has chosen to procrastinate his assignments, which has led to some late nights with him getting 6 or 7 hours of sleep due to waking up early for football practice. We have had many discussions about starting early on assignments or working a little each day, but it's not sinking in for some reason. He finally was grounded from his phone this past weekend because he made the choice to come home and play games on his phone for 45 minutes on Thursday, then ended up staying up till 11:30pm getting an assignment done that he had known about for almost a week! He also had a busy night with a soccer practice that night, which I wouldn't have had him attend if I had realized the extent of the assignment. Hopefully he will utilize his time better and adjust to being more responsible for his learning. 

On another note, I had plans to go do baptisms at the temple on a Friday that happened to be a day that school was cancelled due to Imelda. My friend I had previously made arrangements with took Austin + 2 more boys, and Caleb and I did baptisms together. It was a great way to start an unexpected day off of school!

Matt

Coaching baseball + assistant-coaching soccer + intense work days with helping the new-ish business be successful + seminary = a sick husband for at least the past 4 weeks with congestion and cough from not getting enough sleep and a husband that is just not himself in terms of energy, helping around the house, and yard work. I'm not going to lie. It's been tough. Year 2 of Matt teaching seminary and I now strongly think that men with long work days should NOT be called as seminary teachers or he should have a partner so he's only preparing 2 lessons a week instead of 4. The time seminary takes is hard on our marriage and hard on our family. Matt has too much on his plate. He enjoys teaching! He really does and has had some wonderful experiences with teaching/relating to the kids (freshmen again this year), but it is too much on top of his work day and the coaching that he wants to do. He loves coaching and being involved with our boys' sports and doesn't want to give that up--especially when no one else volunteers to coach. Despite his busy life, Matt has been a rock star about trying to keep up with helping with the kids at night, doing dishes, and tidying any messes. Where he has sacrificed is his sleep; he doesn't get much every night. Understandably, he falls short in getting to the bigger yard projects (mulching, re-sodding due to getting hit by cinch bug this year no matter what bug spray we used to fight it, power-washing the driveway that we've received two letters from the HOA about...all of which I'm willing to do but is dependent on using the jeep/trailer etc.). Our yard is in a sad state right now, which is something we both very much care about. 

On top of his busy schedule, Matt has also spent the last two weekends helping out for a 10-12 hour day with flood victims due to Imelda--mucking out homes and assisting people as needed. I really appreciated that the Elders Quorum president called Matt and said he could not sign up for the 2nd weekend. Instead he needed to stay home, spend time with his family, and take care of himself so he could get better. Then someone from the stake presidency called and asked Matt to be a team lead again that next weekend. So off Matt went again, making a huge difference in the lives of those who were affected by the storm.

Driving through high water in Vidor to go help--1st weekend

Orange County--2nd weekend

Me

Preschool is getting better day by day in terms of the behavior of one little sweet, but stubborn girl. I'm also teaching piano to 8 students this year including Carter and Bryson. 

Last Sunday was our primary program, which I had a huge part in as the primary music leader. My personal goal was for the kids to know the songs well enough that I didn't have to hold words up. The children sang 9 songs in the program: Come, Follow Me vs. 1, Baptism all 3 verses, Master the Tempest is Raging vs. 1, Did You Think to Pray? vs. 1, Gethsemane with hand signs, Did Jesus Really Live Again? all 3 verses, Stand for the Right/I Will Be Valiant Medley, The Church of Jesus Christ Medley, and finishing off with I Will Be What I Believe. The overall theme for the program was how different people in the New Testament were valiant and how the children can be valiant disciples of Christ too. I teared up while leading the last song as it's just so powerful and the youth stood up from the congregation and joined in on the Army of Helaman part. Unfortunately several youth (and adults) were missing the day of the program because they were helping with flood victims. I was really sad to have so many of the youth gone because it wasn't as strong without them, but overall the program went great! It's nice to have the 1st year in this calling under my belt. 

With Matt gone helping flood victims, these last two Sundays have been extra stressful. Here's how Sept. 22nd looked: entertaining the kids Sunday morning, getting to church early so I could play the organ, primary program during church, teaching primary music 2nd hour, running kids home, going back for special musical number practice for our upcoming Stake Conference, going back home, throwing a frozen pizza in the oven, eating dinner as a family, dropping my kids off at a sweet friend's house who lovingly volunteered to play games with my children until Matt got home from Imelda clean-up while I went to the first Noel Christmas stake choir practice, which I would have opted out of except I said yes to helping out on the piano during sectionals so they were depending on me. The next Sunday was similar (minus primary program) except Jared and Kari were so nice to feed my family dinner! We will see if there is a need this weekend for helping flood victims...

Other than teaching preschool and piano and my busy calling, I spend my time hanging out with Austin during the day and running kids around at night! 

This is definitely a busy time of life right now!

Austin's 4th Birthday

2 days after Austin's accident, he celebrated his birthday! 

He was so excited to open his presents after Matt got home from seminary.

 Austin got a monster truck, ice cream squishy (both things he had seen at the grocery store and wanted SO badly), fizzy bath color tablets, Paw Patrol bath puppets, and a bubblegum machine. The latter was actually to replace the one he got from Christmas and accidentally broke. He was so sad about it, and when I saw the gum ball machine was half what I paid at Christmas, we decided to get him another one.

We had a lot going on that night with baseball practices, so I decided to do Austin's cake during preschool as a special treat to share with his preschool friends.

Grandma also came and made his day by taking him out for a milkshake after preschool and giving him his present--a Paw Patrol helmet!

On Friday, I took Austin out for his birthday lunch, Chick Fil A, after his 4-year-old shots. He tried to be so brave for those but dissolved into tears after the first shot. :(

Austin's Accident

This entry hurts my heart to write. This is one of those moments that I wish I could rewind time. With that said, I know in the grand scheme of things this isn't a big deal and there are so many worse trials, but this still hurts my momma heart a lot. No parent wants to watch their child in pain.

2 Sundays ago, Austin and Bryson were taking a bath together upstairs. They typically only bathe downstairs in the large tub in our bathroom because there is more space. I'm not sure why they went upstairs to bathe, and I can't recall that they've ever taken a bath together upstairs. Our master bathroom gets the most use in the house, which I don't mind because then I don't have to do as detailed of a cleaning. The upstairs bathtub is pretty slippery though. I remembered after the accident happened that we bought a bath mat when we first moved into the house since we would bathe our babies in there, and we wanted it to be more safe. We have since thrown that bath mat out and that bathtub doesn't get used hardly at all.

I was downstairs playing a game with Caleb and Carter. Matt was up in the media room, checking in on the boys semi-often to make sure they were not splashing too much. Austin and Bryson love to take a bath together and usually spend about 30 minutes because they love to play together. Matt had asked them to get out of the bath numerous times as it was approaching bedtime. Finally they were obeying, and as Austin was getting out of the tub, he slipped and hit his mouth on the edge. There was a lot of blood, and it was difficult to ascertain the seriousness of the impact. Once Matt could finally look, he noticed a tooth was missing. The tooth fairy made an emergency visit and dropped off some money for Austin losing his first tooth. That helped a ton!

Just like Bryson, Austin was born with an extra front tooth so he and Bryson have 3 front teeth. Austin has an extra permanent front tooth in addition, while Bryson only has the extra baby tooth. The tooth that Austin knocked out was his extra baby tooth. Our next worry was if the tooth was actually knocked out or if it had been pushed up in his gum. (Bryson's best friend had that happen with his two front teeth due to a similar bathtub story.) Another worry was if the tooth broke and the root was still stuck up in his gum.

Austin calmed down pretty well. Though his mouth hurt, he said he didn't want any medicine. We thought he would wake up in the night in pain, but he slept all night. Matt got up 3 different times to check on him and make sure he was sleeping okay.

The next morning, Labor day, we called the emergency dental line. The on-call dentist took a look at the bottom picture and told us to wait a few days for the swelling to go down and then go in, so I scheduled an appointment for Wednesday. 

After looking at an x-ray, the pediatric dentist said that the tooth was completely gone (yay!) but also that his extra permanent tooth had cracked the root of the baby tooth next to it. She said to give it a week and see how it heals. She said it was possible to keep the baby tooth even though the root was cracked.

I prayed and prayed all week that it would heal well and that the gum would be strong enough to hold and keep that tooth. That may be silly to some, but I didn't want my baby to go around for the next 3 years with an even larger gap, not to mention the trauma of pulling out the tooth.

Unfortunately when we had our follow-up visit the next week, our dentist said that the crack had spread, the tooth was too wiggly, and it was starting to turn gray. It will be necessary to pull out the tooth. We are now waiting to hear back from a pediatric oral surgeon whether he will be willing to pull out the baby tooth plus the extra permanent tooth now. (We were planning on pulling out the extra permanent tooth at 6 years old.) The response will likely be that the permanent tooth is too fragile. Plan B is the dentist will pull out the baby tooth in the office with an oral sedative and laughing gas.

So more to come on this. To be continued...

About an hour after it happened--still managing a smile.

The next morning

x-ray showing the cracked root

(This is the 2nd x-ray showing how the crack had spread.)

The Start of School

1st day picture: Bryson starting 1st grade and Carter starting 4th

Caleb starting 7th grade at a junior high school

Austin starting preschool

The start of school has been a breeze for Bryson and Carter. Bryson has his best friend, Dax, in his class, plus a handful of friends from his class last year, including Camdyn who is enamored with him and vice versa. I can't tell you how many entries in his writing journal were about Camdyn at the end of last year. "Who is your favorite person and why? Camdyn because she gives me hugs." Bryson is doing well in school so far. He also has matured since last year and hasn't had the meltdowns right before school about refusing to go when something sets him off in the morning like last year. (i.e. Me telling him to hurry too many times, Carter saying something that upsets him, Austin looking at him the wrong way...)

Carter has the same homeroom teacher as Caleb did when he was in 4th grade. They have simplified some things since Caleb was in 4th grade including less homework. I'm so grateful for that! One less thing to keep on top of.

Caleb has had a tougher adjustment this year. There is a stupid rule that in order to be in Athletics instead of P.E., you have to play football. We have heard that if you are in Athletics, the coaches know you better and your chances increase of making the other sports teams. Caleb plans to try out for soccer, basketball, and tennis and wanted to increase the odds of making the teams so he is doing football for the first time this year. Caleb is athletic and fast so we knew Caleb would be able to hold his own, but the experience so far has been more than Caleb bargained for. He wakes up every morning at 6:15, eats a light breakfast, and leaves for school at 6:45. I run him to school because he has a few busier intersections to go through. He changes into his football gear and has to be on the field at 7:20. They practice football for almost 2 hours and then they have 20 minutes for 150 boys to shower and change for the rest of the school day. Caleb also uses a portion of those 20 minutes to eat more breakfast that I pack him.

The first 3 days of practice were extra hard. I can only assume that the coaches were trying to weed out the weak, and Caleb was ready to throw in the towel. It's very hot and humid still, and when the sun comes out, it is not fun to be outside exercising. (I feel bad for the 8th graders who practice after school!) The workouts were so intense that kids were throwing up their breakfast each morning. Caleb absolutely hates the mouth guard, which is too large for his mouth (and most of the boys' mouths). You can choose to have it pushed all the way in and having the ends irritate the back of your mouth or leave a portion hanging out the front of your mouth. Caleb is a germaphobe--he took all lessons about germs from school to heart. So it drives him crazy to have sweat and snot dripping into his mouth guard while he works out, not to mention the grass and dirt that get on it from the up downs. Because the morning workouts are so intense, he said he would have a headache the rest of the day and sometimes have difficulty concentrating in class. (Water is provided only by the football coaches in big huge jugs, but I'm sure a reason for the headaches is not being hydrated enough. He says the water tastes nasty so I bet he doesn't drink enough water like he should.) He definitely has not been on his game this year in terms of schoolwork. He's in all pre-AP classes this year for the core classes, and I've really had to stay on top of making sure he is keeping up with his classes. So after the first week, he didn't verbally say it, but I knew he wanted to quit. We had to talk about how 1) being labeled a quitter would do nothing to help him make the other sports teams, 2) the difficult conditioning he was doing each morning would help him be a better athlete and get in better shape, and 3) how this was an opportunity to rely on Heavenly Father to help him. 

Now that the boys are divided into 4 teams, Caleb says the practices aren't as hard as the beginning of the year. This year was a learning experience. I didn't want Caleb playing football but also wasn't strongly opposed to it if he wanted to try it out. I don't see him choosing to play again next year! He made the C team--we were warned that anyone who is a smaller 7th grade would likely make the C or D team, which I'm fine with. I don't want him going up against or getting tackled by bigger boys!

Starting preschool with Austin was a lot more difficult than I wanted to be. Austin is an angel and very smart for his age, but there are some challenges with some other students in the class. 8 days in and things are improving. Day 5 of teaching though was the hardest day of any of the 6 years I've taught preschool! A combination of one child absolutely refusing to participate in activities, having a meltdown 1st thing in the morning when she didn't get her way about something and another major meltdown for the last 20 minutes of preschool with hysterical crying, and another child throwing up all over my carpet right at the end of preschool. It was a doozy, but then it can only get better from there...I hope.