Beginnings

Every year our family has a family meeting and blessings for the coming school year.

To say it was wonderful feels limiting, really I have no words to describe it, only the desire to tell you it was special for our family.

School is fully underway and I am so relieved to know that everything for our family is in God's hands. By the sounds of things our year will be full of adventures in learning and growth... just what our family needs.

This year is strange too, for me it is time for me to prepare to watch James leave home, and Rannon become a man. I can't tell those of you still changing diapers how firmly I remember those days with my two oldest. Jaden is another matter altogether but I know you understand :)

I remember much of my own beginnings as a child, the days of summer felt like they would never end, the sun on my back the embrace of my parents when I fell and scraped my knee. Even becoming a parent for the first time, to think of James as anything but a baby was unthinkable for the first couple years, slowly, steadily he crept up tall and strong.

All the others came one at a time (thanks for that) and each one distracted me from the fact that James got taller and older until one day he was taller than me, and it felt like it was over night. Looking back I know it wasn't. My beginnings with my children are nearly over, their discoveries are opening to the world around them and they are each beginning to explore and grow on their own, like great strong trees. I planted them, tended them and nurtured them and now they are all getting taller than me, their branches spread over all I see.

Soon my little orchard will be grown, but I will always walk among them and think of them as seedlings... that is my nature, and my joy.

I can't wait to see the world through their eyes, to explore the traditions they carry with them into their own families, and to watch over their seedlings on occasion. :)

Warm thoughts sent to you all, thanks for your time, and you friendship. Stacey

A moment on my soap box

I have realized recently the drab information on my blog leaves much to be desired… Needless to say I have come to rectify the situation.
Something has come to my attention recently. Thoughts often float into my mind at the oddest times, and for those that know me, let’s just say that this one was no different. But the thought stayed with me for several days and through editing of my next block buster (small plug). Out with it then right?
Screen Door’s.
When one thinks of screen doors they are thought of as handy and somewhat unattractive things but they remain attached to our doors for their usefulness.
Recently a child was tearing mine apart, and I scolded the child and left the problem be since it was not my child and the last thing I want to do is show my ‘dragon lady’ self to someone who doesn’t know me that well… lol.
I recall having a conversation with a parent about how things such as sliding screen doors are unimportant. Well yes I agreed, children are one of a kind and therefore far more important. Aside for the cost of replacing a screen door I agree (still I would rather not have to pay for a new one just because a short person found nothing better to do...)
Well here I am listening to someone complaining about the destructiveness of their child (weeks later) and the thought came to me… what about the screen door? After all how do we teach children to respect our property and their own for that matter? So often now in our society parents buy and re-buy broken toys, lost toys, toys that get run over by daddy’s car, you get the idea. I have been called mean more than once in my life that I am not on the same train headed for continual toy renewal. (That is usually the parents, kids tend to not complain to me)
Well the screen door explained it all to me.

Ready? We need to teach our children to take care of EVERYTHING! Paper, plastic, wood, metal why should it matter? Why should our children of any age be allowed to destroy something simply because it was given to them? Near them? For that matter why should we reward them when they have broken things? most often they are quite able to understand the consequences(after the age2-3, oh yes they can…) of their actions. (ie... if you leave your bike behind daddy's car likely one of two things will happen, it will get stolen or driven over in the morning... besides isn't it a rule to put your stuff away yet?)

You are going to love this, since, an example came to mind as well. Ancient artifacts, pyramids, cathedrals. What do they all have in common? Aside from age… and they were all handmade. They were all respected for years often times centuries without abuse. Why is that? Is it possible that children were raised to respect other people’s property at a young age? What if those children were raised by the parents of today? Instead of beautiful hieroglyphs we would have graffiti all over the pyramids, temples and walls. What if these children grew tired of them, or thought it would be fun to skateboard all over the hand laid tiles, carve their names in the backs of the old church benches, or shredded the lovely paintings that now adorn our museums. (oh wait that is already happening...)
These things, these possessions are not valuable simply because of the canvas or wood they were made with. Even the tools used to create them hold no particular meaning. It is the life that created them that we value, the life that is likely no longer with us, representing the ones that have gone before.
Now I know that screen doors and dollar tree finds hardly compare to Picasso, but how do we teach our next generation to honor the people before us? It is so simple, we teach them with the small and simple things that we brake, I mean, use everyday. We explain our regret over the loss of the item and live without it long enough for the person or persons involved to realize that life without a screen door equals flies on you sandwich.
It is my particular joy then, as I swat away the fly from my own plate to remind the entire family what a real blessing a screen door can be when the ofore mentioned item is, in fact, qualified for the job title given.
More granules of wisdom coming your way when I find another brain cell to share.(LOL)
Later all, s

July

Kira and Sami

Jaden splashing mom in the river... she was in about a foot of water

Most of the boys

Jonah

Sicily, Kira, extra kid, Dalyn's head

This is after Eli was born, the kids enjoyed the sun and the sand as you can see.

Rannon

James has a way with the ladies of the family :)

Jaden and Grandma admiring Eli

Jaden giving Kira a lift, pretty cute :)

Sicily painting Uncle Jon's toes. Ya, they looked HOT, like Hot PINK! :) He was a good sport, that is for sure. :)

Jaden threw Natalia a B-day party


(Dad) Wayne and Quint talking shop :)


Note the sunburn, and keep in mind that "I don't need sunscreen, I'll be fine." :) This is after a day at the river.

Sicily

James

Rebecca and Eli

Alex

The Family

Cali


Jaden holding her cousin.

There are so many pictures to choose from and I will add more, I just wanted to share how much fun we had with all our family that has visited the last few weeks. We have gone to the lake, the river, parks, and bar-b-qued. The men have gone fishing and last night we made Catfish. It was really good stuff. We have laughed, and talked, and laughed some more until our eyes scream out at us in agony 'go to sleep already'. We are pretty tired this morning... :) But really we wouldn't have it anyother way.

This video is funny to me. We went to Lake Lowel for the ward picnic, the day was warm but odd. Now all three of the kids shown are waiting to ride the jet boat or go water skiing. Can you pick who is having the most fun waiting? Rannon, you still make me laugh so much :) S

Family moments that make us who we are, are often the ones that go unnoticed at the time.

It was recently brought to my attention (again) that I have neglected to updatte my blog... I thought I would give a few moments of our crazy selves to you. Life is made up of moments, these are a few of ours. Stacey and family.

We have times that we feel like we have it made.

We learn about things we have in common.

We have days that we just want to give up.

And we have moments that seem to make it all worth while.

Sometimes we have the occasional moment caputered that says it all. :)

Sometimes we learn no matter how hard we try we just can't do it all.

Sometimes we enjoy the simple things that make us who we are.

Sometimes we look for the fast way to do things.

Only to find that the slowest ways are always more worthwhile.

We have had our happy moments

Our moments where we help others, in this case the ducks are in need of our bread...

We have laughed about silly things...

and attended the more serious things as well.

Most of all we all have our moments where we have to make that leap of faith (you know the onewhere you jumped already and just hope that the rocks under the surface are not razor blades of death... :)

Jaden's wheelchair

So This first one you can see Jaden is not real co-operative :) That was yesterday, the second one is this morning about 7:30am and yes it was getting toasty outside... She is doing so much better, still she has a long way to go, she did run me over this morning once.

So this Is Calvin's first loose tooth :) It is both a sad and happy occasion. My baby is growing up... sort of :)

Jonah's Baptism

Family... Note Elli's grand entrance :)
Too cute

(this adorabel photo was achieved by James jumping up and down repeatedly until snapshot was achieved. I am not sure what we will do without him when he goes on his mission)
Sicily is really growing up... :(
Please take a moment to enjoy Calvin's Orange flip flops. They make the whole outfit. They had to be in the picture too. (sigh... that kid)

Excited and goofy, and wearing wet underpants, lol. Some kids just never listen do they?
As you can see in both of these James is a tad nervous, still he did a great job. Jonah's feet didn't pop out of the water (despite attempts to do just that)

Jonah was thrilled that Aunt Teri and Uncle Dustin came (with family) and that Aunt Kyersten made it. He and James sang I am a child of God in front of a semi-packed chapel, with 6 others as back up. (some were quieter than others) :)

Stacey