Family Pictures 2019

 We took some family pictures while in Destin

My hair looked cute and curly in the house. At the beach with the wind and salty air, I wondered why I spent an hour on my hair....

Thanksgiving in Destin

Aside from camping, we have never traveled for Thanksgiving. This year we decided to change it up!

We rented a house for 5 days with cousins near the beach in Destin, Florida. Mornings consisted of using the neighborhood tennis courts, bike riding, and working out.

Austin and Morgan playing at the neighborhood park.

The view at the beach

The water was chilly, but that didn't stop these guys.

Wednesday it warmed up to 73 degrees so we spent a good 5 hours at the beach playing.

We did have one scare with Carter that is actually very difficult for me to write about. When we first got to the beach on Wednesday, Matt ran in with all the kids. Then he left them close to shore and took Drew out further with a boogie board. I was supervising Austin and Bryson playing in the sand. When I looked up at the kids in the water, I noticed that Carter was separated from the rest of the group; he had gone further out trying to follow Matt and Drew before realizing it was getting deep and decided to turn around. From my vantage point, he did not look too deep, a little over waist deep, but I wasn't comfortable that he was by himself so I moved towards the kids and motioned and yelled for Carter to come in. Carter is the daring one in the family--climbs the highest in the trees, loves the scariest roller coaster rides, etc. From my perspective, I saw him jumping in the waves crying out, "Whee! Whee!" as if trying to show off that he was having so much fun and wanted the other kids to come join him. I continued to motion him in and a woman came up to me on the beach and asked if Carter was okay. Her husband also expressed concern about Matt and Drew being so far out because there was a bad undertow that day. I told the woman that Carter was fine, just being disobedient. I explained to the husband that Matt and Drew had a boogie board but also that I didn't like them being so far out. When Carter still didn't come in, I started going in the water after him. As I got closer, I realized that Carter's jumping in the waves was actually very frantic. Nervous about going after him myself, I turned around to the husband, whom I didn't realize had followed me into the water, and asked him if he could help Carter. He said, "I got this," and covered the last half of the distance to save Carter. He took Carter to shore, with me following. Carter was visibly shaking. As I asked Carter if he was okay, he responded, "I was yelling for help. Why didn't you come save me?"

Carter's side of the story is that he was trying to come back into shore but realized he was stuck. The waves kept pulling him further away and to the side. He didn't think his swimming was strong enough to fight the waves and swim towards the shore. The only option he had was to jump the waves to stay above them and yell for help. When he could see no one was coming and that he was getting weaker, he then turned to prayer. Sometimes the waves went over him and he felt like he was under the water for a whole minute before he could find his footing and breathe again. He was swallowing water with some waves and realized that he might die because he could only last so long and no one seemed to understand he was in trouble. 

I suffered so much Mom guilt that I completely misread the situation; if I had to guess, I would say Carter was out jumping waves in survival mode for around 7-10 minutes. I have asked myself over and over where was my connection to the Holy Ghost that I didn't realize what was happening sooner. Despite the agony I experienced for days thinking about what could have happened, I still draw so much comfort from the fact that Heavenly Father put people in place that realized what I didn't: Carter needed help. We found out later that the very tall man that saved Carter is actually a marine diver; he was on vacation with his family. He knew and understood the situation with the undertow better than I did, and he was the one that expressed his concerns with his wife who approached me. Matt and I both said thank you more than once to the marine diver and his wife, and I have thanked Heavenly Father many times for putting this couple on the beach that day.

Carter bore his testimony the following Sunday expressing his gratitude for prayer, for putting people in our lives to help us, and recognizing that God knows and loves him. It was powerful as he shared his experience. I shared my testimony with Primary in relation to a sentence in a song I was teaching, "Although I can't remember that Christmas long ago, I still can sing His praises and tell the world I know that Jesus is my Savior, who gave His life for me." I shared how I struggled the next several days. I had trouble enjoying the rest of the vacation and had difficulty sleeping as the scene seemed to replay in my mind over and over. Talking through everything with Matt more than once helped, but it took getting on my knees and asking for healing through Christ's atonement before I could move past it. Not that I wanted to forget it, because this experience had a huge impact on me, but I needed to find peace and happiness and live in the present each day. 

As the man held Carter to his side and carried him to shore, he reassured Carter that he was okay.  He also told Carter to not let this experience prevent him from going in the water again. After Carter's near-drowning, we both clung to each other, relieved that he was safe. Carter said he needed some water because the salt had scratched his throat so we walked to the car to get some of my cold water, and that's when he shared more of his side of the situation with me. Matt had come in by that point and I filled him in. He immediately set to work to help Carter forget about the scare and have fun. 

This picture was taken soon after the incident; Matt is burying Carter in the sand. In this picture, I can read how shaken up Carter still is about what he went through.

Carter then buried Matt

Matt created so much fun for the kids both at the beach and at the swimming pool in the backyard of the house we rented. In this picture, he gave everyone a mission to build a wall to protect the sand castle they had built.

Swimming in the backyard

Bellyflop contest--ouch!

On Thursday we saw Frozen 2. I loved it!

It was a fun, relaxing week of games and lots of cousin time. In terms of more "fun" that Matt created, Matt pulled off an epic prank. All the boys shared a room upstairs above the garage. They expressed their frustration that the attic door wouldn't stay shut in their room and that it would sometimes open on its own, which freaked them out. Matt was able to fix the door the first night, which just needed to be pushed in and lifted up to allow the door to align in place in order to stay closed. A few nights later, Matt decided to hide up in that attic right before the boys headed up to bed. He ended up hiding in there for about 45 minutes because Caleb and Drew each took their individual showers before bed. Finally when they were all laying down, Caleb and Drew were the only ones still awake when Matt started scratching on the door from inside the attic. They both heard it and were able to ignore it until the door handle started turning back and forth. Drew got really wigged out and was telling Caleb to text his dad to get up here right away. Caleb texted and then took a video of the door and the movements. A few minutes later Matt opened the door and gave them a good scare. Kari and I were standing on the stairs right outside their bedroom door and came in the room laughing at that point. Needless to say, we had some very unhappy boys!

I also have to note that I felt like I had my husband back on this trip--having fun and being his true silly self (not pretending to be himself). Matt went to the doctor a few days before vacation and learned that he had extremely high blood pressure from the stresses in his life; work is quite stressful most of the time and there is a lack of sleep due to teaching seminary. He was able to get some blood pressure medicine and told that he needs to focus on getting more sleep. He was able to sleep well on vacation. Hopefully we can keep his stress-level down and he can get more rest! It really was so rewarding to see the man I married. He created so much fun on this trip and played hard with the kids!!

First Time Accompanying a Choir

Absolutely terrifying experience but a huge growing one. Caleb accompanied his choir last night at their Winter concert. He did very well! I thought he was rushing because it was much faster than when he practiced with the metronome at the given speed at home, but apparently the director wanted to go that fast, according to Caleb and his friend. He did have one slip-up, but everything else was right on!
(There are supposed to be no video recordings during the performance, but I couldn't resist capturing this one for the memory books.)

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.

Ribbon Festival 2019

Caleb participated in a Suzuki piano ribbon festival again this year. He played two memorized Suzuki songs in front of an audience while a judge commented on things he did well and needed to improve on. He performed very well!

He played Minuet I and II by Bach, which aren't showy pieces, but very tricky technically. They are songs at the end of book 4. He will be having his book 4 party soon after he finishes the last song and fine tunes the songs in the book--likely January. 

He wore gloves to keep his fingers warm while he waited for his turn to play, then decided to put them on again after.

Bryson's 7th Birthday

To celebrate Bryson's birthday, I met him at school on Friday to eat a Chick Fil-A lunch. On Saturday, we celebrated with donuts for breakfast. Grandma and Grandpa met up with Bryson mid-day and gave him a few presents. Later in the afternoon, we picked up two of his best friends and went to an indoor trampoline park for a few hours. We came home for pizza and cupcakes. Papa also dropped off his trademark gift of $10 in quarters.

The next week during the school book fair, I met Bryson so he could pick out a few books for his birthday.

Bryson at 7 years old
Favorite color: blue
Favorite food: honey lime enchiladas
Favorite subject at school: P.E.
Favorite things to do: play games with his family
Best friends: Dax, Odette, Brenner

Bryson is excelling in 1st grade. He's turning into a great reader and hard worker at school. He and Austin can be the best of friends a lot of the time and disappear for over an hour playing nice together, but they also fight often. Bryson is still doing piano lessons and is about to finish the primer level. (He could be further if I sat down with him more consistently--that one is on me. I'm less and less motivated with each child it seems as it's another thing to stay on top of.) He really took to baseball and wants to continue. He is typically not a morning person, and we have to tiptoe around him on school mornings so that he doesn't blow up and yell, "Well, I'm not going to school today!" It happens less this year than last year. He loves riding his bike, and when he rides to school, I hear he is all business. He ignores any of my friends that pass him and say "hi," focused solely on getting to school, whereas Carter is all smiles and warm greetings for any of the adults he knows from church.