Endings and Beginnings

It was the best of times. It was the worst of times. I feel so blessed that my girls are so sweet that having them home is a joy. I know a lot of moms who are so thrilled when school starts again, but my feelings couldn't be more opposite. I was so sad when school started again. Not just because I don't see them in the day, but also because I have to turn from fun, play all summer mommy into task master mommy. There is a limited amount of time to get stuff done after school, and I hate trying to keep everyone on task. Most of the time, these girls are such good friends, and we all love being together. We started a new tradition this year. On the morning of meet the teacher night, we are all going to stay in bed and cuddle and play until noon. I like it.
Speaking of things ending, we got our house appraised and was able to get the mortage insurance taken off. If we hadn't done it ourselves it wouldn't have come off automatically for a couple of more years! That is more than $100 not being wasted every month. Wahoo!

This summer we tried a new idea of having the girls set goals to work on what they would like to each summer. Eliza worked really hard all summer and really improved her typing. Miriam worked on a bunch of different things from drawing to cartwheels. Holland had one little goal of being able to write the word "temple." She more or less achieved her goal. :) 

Then it was back to school again. I can't believe this is Eliza's last year of elementary school. It makes me a little sick. That being said, she is such an awesome girl that I know she is going to be successful and happy in whatever school she attends. 

 It was also the ended for me working in Young Womens. I was approaching 4 years of being the Laurel advisor when our whole presidency got released because the president's husband got called in to the Stake Presidency. I miss these youth and the women that I worked with. But I got a wonderful new calling now (actually 2 new callings). I get to work in Activity Days with my older girls. And I get to teach the 4 year old Primary class. It's awesome.

So now it is back to me and Holland at home, which I love love. She is such a darling girl and brings so much sunshine to our lives. We are working on preschool at home and with our preschool group. She is getting a lot better and writing and reading. We even work on basic addition and subtraction. What a cutie pie! Random thought about Holland, I love, LOVE her hair short and bouncy and adorable, but I wonder if I need to let it grow out for Kindergarten. Probably not. It is so stinkin cute!

Pearson Family Reunion

Eliza is here to help me write the post about the Pearson Family Reunion this last July. The first activity of the reunion was a nice lunch at Millie's house. Eliza: We had fruit. It was nummy. Hannah and I played outside with a bunch of the other kids. We played pirate for a little bit, and we ate on the trampoline. It was fun. Then we all gathered in the main room and watched the first few talent videos. One of my older cousins played an instrument. I know there was a piano. and I know there was, I am fairly there was a...I can't remember. 

We went to stay in a big fancy hotel later that day in Park City. We went to play in my Aunt Norma's room with Hendrix. While we were there Hendrix played with the phone and accidentally hit the emergency button, which called 911. A police officer actually showed up at the hotel room. We went out to dinner with Aunt Millie's family and Uncle Matt at Cafe Rio. It was really yummy. 

The next morning we had a very fancy breakfast at the hotel with eggs, sausage, hashbrowns, a pancake machine, yogurt, and pastries. Although Holland and  Miriam decided to have Fruit Loops for some weird reason.
Next we went up to a plaza in Park City where we took a gondola ride up the ski mountain. It was be-autiful. We stopped at the top to go see the amazing view and take a few pictures. The second time, I was with Hannah, and we had our heads out the window 7/8 of the time.

The hill where we took pictures had lots of fun morning glories and other flowers to pick. As you can see, a lot of kids made bouquets.  It was a slightly cold, overcast morning, so it was good to take pictures.

We went back later to ride a normal ski lift with Uncle Jeff and Aunt Kaylyn's family. It was even better than the gondola. We got up there and took some more pictures.

Miriam and I decided to climb down the slope a little bit and pick some more flowers. We saw a weird badger thing. It might have been a gopher.

I remember being disappointed that we weren't stuck over the ravine on the gondola ride. It was a beautiful amazing ride. Although it kind of got cold.

We saw a lot of cool trees and plants, like enormous dandelion-puffballs.

At lunch, we went to a fish place called Slapfish. Or maybe Slapjack. 

That night, we went to a fancy dinner at the hotel with the family. It was yummy. There was fun balloons with loose glitter inside them. I played with Heather and Hannah a bunch.

Holland really liked playing with Marie.  Grandma and Grandpa got two books.

We had some yummy cake for dessert, and then it was time for the Talent Show. It was so cool! A lot of people, like us, made videos. Some people, though, performed. One of the funniest ones was a way to clean your ears using recycled water. They stood in a row, and the person on one end drank some water and spit it into the person next to him's ear. Then they did the same thing to the person next to him. This continued until the last person spit reddish-brownish water into a cup.

We started a game of volleyball. We also swam in the indoor pool. It was really fun-they had a hot tub-but I couldn't see very well underwater. Holland really liked playing with Marie and Uncle Matt.

Holland, Miriam, and Evie loved playing with Haley. Haley is now one of Holland's "best cousins".

We had the whole thing because of Grandma's and Grandpa's 50th anniversery! It was awesome! We had so much fun with our family!

Mommy here. On the evening of the big dinner, I organized a group photo shoot. Whew, that is harder than it looks. I hope everyone likes them though.

Miriam's Baptism

Miriam's baptism was a bit of an event. First, this girl has been talking about her baptism for a long time. Probably for a year or so she has been saying that she wasn't sure she wanted to get baptized, or if she did, she wanted to put it off. We have been trying to help her through her questions and concerns. And happily it seems to have worked. She still had some concerns about knowing when she was feeling the Holy Ghost vs. her own feelings vs. temptations, which we tried to help her with, but frankly I still struggle with sometimes. 

Because of all the bad health with our parents right now we decided to make the baptism happen in Utah if we could. Fortunately we were able to make it work through my parents' ward. It was a bit of a scramble to find a time that would work with a member of their bishopric, but it all worked out. We had Miriam's baptism on July 24, 2019 at their Stake Center. Because it was a bit of a holiday and there was family in town for the reunion, we actually had a ton of family there. That was so kind of everyone to take time to come support us.  My whole family, plus Ella and some Armstrongs were there. And John's parents, Sarah, Millie, Joe, and Norma came with their families. 

Patti made a nice program, and we picked up cookies and milk to have after. We had a Deru dinner at Kayla's house after, which was so nice of her. It was a great day. We were a little nervous about making it in time because we were driving up from Mesquite that day and needed to make it in time to get food, change, and set up. It ended up wonderful though. I thought the talks about baptism and the Holy Ghost were some of the best I have heard at a baptism. Millie and Marc gave those. My girls sang a musical number of "I am Following My Savior." It was really sweet. Kayla made her a beautiful baptism necklace with real rubies in it. She loves it. My grandma, Miriam, and I went shopping at the end of the trip to get Miriam real scriptures. That was so nice.

4 Generations!

Miriam is such a wonderful girl. She is a deep thinker and really considers what is going on. She is smart, compassionate, a leader, brave, strong, and loving. She has always had really big emotions and I think it is amazing to see her learning and growing in ways to embrace and control those emotions. Miriam is a hard worker and when she puts her mind to something she has no trouble following through with her intentions.

One thing that I think is amazing about Miriam is how easily she makes friends. It seems like she just has the kind of personality that people are naturally drawn to. She is so fun, and I think that people can see that.

Of course with that fun, she knows that she needs to watch herself to not let herself get too riled up. I think her efforts in self-moderation are pretty amazing, and I know it isn't easy for her.

At Parent Teacher Conferences last year, Miriam told me that she wanted me to talk to the teacher about her sentence fluency and behavior. I thought that was so sweet that she was self aware enough that she wanted us to conference about that. 

She can also be so goofy, like the time she made up a song about how much she loved her tongue. 

Miriam can also give the worst burns without even realizing it. She is good at saying that something always happens even if it just has happened one time. For example, I 'always' sneak ice cream because she saw me get some once when we were playing a game. 

She also struggles with being sassy, but is working on it. One phrase that drives me crazy is when she says "or else what?" when we ask her to do something. 

But really, I can't say enough good things about my girl. She is kind, hard working, loves reading and audiobooks, loves music, and dancing. She recently tried out for student council and made it. That was a brave thing to do. I love the girl she is turning into. I am so proud of Miriam and so lucky to be her mother.  

Here is a little video she made when she got the phone. What a goofball! We love her!

Here is a little get to know you poster we made for the first week of school.