Strenghth in Prayer

 While watching General Conference both Don and I were impressed by the following talk:
Parents: The Prime Gospel Teachers of the Children by Tad R. Callister

In the talk it talks about prayer being a strength.  The spirit prompted me, telling me that our family needed to improve on prayer.  We pray at meal time and do family prayer at night.  But I felt I was in fact sending my children to battle every morning without their armor.  That one was easily fixed.  We have started family prayer before the boys march off to school every morning.  But the second thing I felt I needed to teach our boys the strength that comes through prayer.  I talked with Don about how to do this.  He suggested that when the boys come to me with a problem I tell them to pray about it.  Simple enough.
Only a day or so later Jaron came to me because Smally, his very small bear, was lost.  Here it was the moment we had been waiting for.  I told Jaron that he should pray to Heavenly Father to help him find his bear.  He was a little nervous to do it himself so I prayed.  After, I told him to just sit still a minute and wait for an answer.  I was saying a little prayer that it would work, because I knew this was a crucial moment for Jaron. Would Heavenly Father answer his prayer? I explained that answers usually come to my mind in forms of pictures, showing me where the thing is I need to find.  He said, "No Mom, he is telling my heart."  I told him that is great and asked where his heart said it was.  He shrugged as if it was still a question and replied, "Under the bed?" I said if that is where he said it was we should look there.  So we pulled things out and looked.  Sure enough THERE IT WAS!! We then thanked Heavenly Father for helping us. The other boys were there and witnessed our little family miracle.  I could tell they were just impressed with Heavenly Father as Jaron was.
This is a great story in and of itself. But a few days later Don and I left the kids with his sister Stacie.  When we came back she had a cute story.  The remote to the TV was lost and we all know how important the remote is. The boys suggested that they pray to find the remote because it had worked to find Smally.  So Bryson knelt and prayed and then listened.  Sure enough he found it.
So friends I testify that God hears and answers prayers.  Even those of little boys looking for stuffed animals or remotes.
 

Eldon Breaks His Arm . . . Again

On October 3rd I took the kids out to the park right by our apartment to give Don some quiet time.  He has been sick in the night. We were there only a few minutes.  Eldon was standing at the top of the slide and preparing to slid down on his feet, which he knows he shouldn't do and now he knows why.  He called out, "Look Mom," kind of giggling because he knew he was about to do something he shouldn't.  I looked down in defeat and missed the actual fall but in that split second I think that the following occurred. The slide was a little wet and he slipped and fell back on the slide.  He caught himself with his right arm.  I looked up and he was crying.  I immediately knew something was broken.  I quickly gathered the scooter he had rode to the park and asked him to walk home.  He did.  Landon however would not.  So I left Landon there and got Kayla (who I happened to just carry this time) and Eldon home.  I left Eldon home and literally ran back to get Landon, I figured I could get a little work out in for the day. When I got home I wasn't sure if it was broken or not.  He was pail and whimpering but not crying loud.  I woke up Don, poor Don who was suppose to be resting because he was sick. But I am grateful he was there.  Don can always do anything, I swear he has super human powers.  But that's another story. 
We decided to just watch a movie and see if it passed.  Movies make anything better.  And for the time it was completely still and he felt better, but as soon as he started moving it started hurting.  Don also was just gently pressing on his arm and that was very painful for Eldon.  He could move it just fine.  His grip strength was also weaker with the right hand. So I called the doctor to figure out if we should go in and then where we should go. We went to the KidCare/InstaCare in Bountiful. The whole time Eldon was trying to tell us he was fine and didn't need to go. Once we were there even he was very concerned about what was going to happen.  I told him we would take one step at a time.  I assured him that he was in charge of his body and I would tell him everything that was going to happen. 
They were really great there.  I let the nurse know that he was a little scared of doctors since the last time he went they asked him to sit on the table and then proceeded to cut him without the numbing stuff having worked, again another story.  But they were super awesome and got his arm taken care of.  The X-Ray clearly showed a buckle fracture on the large bone just above his wrist on the right arm. After the X-Ray was the toughest part since now it was time to splint his arm.  He was worried they were going to hurt him/cut him. He let them do it though and got a Slurpee after to make it all better. Here's to hoping that this experience eased his fear of doctors.
Our awesome Eldon didn't even take and medication, because he won't, but he has done good.  The day after was the worst, pain wise.  But we made it without any tears.
Eldon got his cast on on the 6th.  He did awesome.  He chose purple because he was Donatello for Halloween and wanted it to match.
It did so great with the whole thing and we got his cast off on the 3rd of November.  All is well with his arm.

Bryson is 7

I really can't believe Bryson is 7.  For some reason I expect Jaron to keep getting older but not the others kids.
Bryson chose to have a quit birthday.  We bought a new Wii game that he could play as much as he wanted on his birthday.  He took treats to school and had a great day there.  We went to McDonalds for dinner and then ate cake and opened presents.  He asked for his own set of Lego's so we got him Ninja Turtle Lego's so that they were easy to tell apart from all of Jaron's City Lego's.  This stayed with the theme of the cake too.  I used the modeling chocolate left from Eldon's cake and made Ninja Turtles.  They were super awesome if I say so myself. He also wanted brownie and cookie for his cake.  So it all around was a really good cake I thought.

Bryson is almost 4'3" his favorite things are:
Food ~ Taco Soup
Color ~ Red
Song ~ "I'm Coming Home"- Skylar Grey, because he likes her voice
Subject ~ P.E.
Things he likes ~ recess, Wii, build Lego's, play with action figures, play with friends

What a fun and unique kid he is.  He sure like to try to do new things and be funny. 

September 2014

So I am really quit sure that September was only a week long. We have all really gotten into the grove of school time.  Jaron gave his first of many reports in class.  They will monthly do a report on either a current event or a book.  He did great! 
Bryson had a field trip to a farm.  Bryson also is making great reading progress as HE has to read 20-30 minutes every week night. 
Eldon also is reading every day too.  Not quite a long as brothers but Eldon is the one that brings me a book every night so he can read to me.  I don't even have to ask him.  He is really determined to be as good as brothers at things.
Landon is sure a crazy kid running all over and doing great with his letter and kindergarten concepts that I am working on with Eldon.
Kayla is eating lots and moving more and more every day.  She sat up on her own around Eldon's birthday, although this isn't something she does on a consistent basis yet.
Don is working as hard as he possibly can and still doing a great job of being an awesome husband and father.  He did have to redo some management training since they have a new management program.  He was able to get that all done.
I am just loving my family and trying my best to keep everything organized and everyone fed.  But Don really has to even help with that a lot ; ) I was called to be the 1st counselor in the Primary Presidency.  That isn't as much work as I originally thought it would be so it is fitting in nicely to our family life.

Till next month!

Eldon is 5

Our Eldon Theodore Hughes turned 5 on the 19th.  He is learning to read and working on writing to get ready for kindergarten.
Eldon's favorite:
Color - Blue and Red
Food - Pizza
Song - I am a Child of God
Things to do - Play with action figures and play Wii
Eldon was super happy he got gum for his birthday.
Eldon is a big boy he is 3'11" so getting super close to 4 feet.
Eldon loves to be cuddled and still naps often.

Kayla is 5 months old

So little miss has really started grabbing for things.  She is using her hands better and better every day.  Since she can use her hands she now grabs her bows and eats them.  So bows don't last long.
She loves the few foods we have given her.  Zucchini was her first food, then peas, and oatmeal.  She didn't really like applesauce but maybe it was the texture or temperature.
Kayla rolled over on Sep. 6th from her tummy to her back.  When we lay her down she kicks and moves all over the floor.
She is chewing on everything and has started to teeth we think.  It looks like 4-6 teeth are in the race to be the first tooth.  We will see who wins within the next few months.  She is REALLY fussy now though.  We are hoping it is just the teething and not something more.

August 2014

August went by too fast.  I love having the kids home.  This year I think the boys were ready to go back so they could make some friends. Jaron’s best friend so far is Aly Anderson.  She is in our ward as well, but they have the same teacher so they make plans to play while walking home from school every day. He loves learning again and that is so great considering last year wasn’t the best for him. When I asked how he liked his teacher he said she is so nice, which is good because last year his teacher was not so nice.

 Bryson has made fast friends with Timothy Robinson. His first day of school wasn’t too great.  The school holds a big flag ceremony out back on the first day of school with all the parents there too.  Bryson was very overwhelmed by the whole thing and while I was checking on Jaron he had a melt down.  He said, “I don’t want to go to school anymore.” Luckily another little girl from the ward is in his class and is new to the school too.  So they stood together and walked off to class together.  So we were good when we had a friend to stand by. The lines they formed the first day are the line they form every day and their teachers come out get them.  So they don’t go to class when they get to school.  When Bryson got home and I asked how his day was he said, “All we do is learn.” And he wasn’t too happy about that.  His teacher is very stern but she is also very fun too.  I think it will be really good for him.

Eldon has been thriving since brothers are gone.  They tend to be a little hard on Eldon.  I was unable to put together a joy school with kids his age so he and I are just learning hear at home. We are seeking out friends so he can have the social part of things too.

Don and I celebrated out 10^th anniversary on the 13^th.  I sure love Don and I think he likes me too.  He had off a few days from work and ALL the children went to Grantsville for a few days.  Kayla was in the best care with Aunt Melynda from what I hear and Gram didn’t get much sleep caring for Landon.  But it was great to have some time together. I just love spending time with Don and we had a blast at Wicked and all our other adventures.

We went to the Ogden Temple Open house.  This is always a great experience.

The boys are doing piano lessons again.  This is Bryson’s first year and he really enjoys them.

Kayla is doing well.  She had another appointment to have her neck adjusted again.  She is doing great and I am hoping we won’t need another one. The gal that did the adjustment said that the neck muscle tightness comes from her stomach and upper digestive track.  Interesting how our whole body is connected.  I am just hoping that there aren’t issues there that need to be addressed. She has started solids and loves them.  We have tried peas, squash, and oatmeal.

Jaron has been complaining of his stomach hurting for a long while now.  We are just starting to investigate that.  I need to take him in for a blood draw, still trying to find the courage/right time to get that done.

Don is working hard as usual and we are loving him being home in the evenings a little more. 

Kayla's 4th Month

Kayla is growing up way too fast.  She was 4 months on August 15th.  Her 4th month Kayla:
~Took a bottle and spent the night at Gram's on Aug. 13th
~Started trying to grab things with her hands
~Started to sit up with support
~Smiles and Laughs often
~Weight: 14lb. 9oz.

At her 4 month appointment the Dr. said to start her on solids.
Kayla had her neck adjusted again and this time I think it is fixed.  Her doctor showed me how to stretch it out, but she hates it.  It appears that after her adjustment that she has the right amount of mobility so I only do the stretches every few days.  He also recommended that she not lay on the back of her head to promote normal shaping. So we have her sitting up most of the time when she is awake. Last he said when she sleeps to always lay her on her left side of her head since she seems to favor laying on the right side. With these modifications I have seen a great improvement in the shape of her head.  I think it is safe to say that no helmet is going to be needed.

Ogden Temple Open House

We are so blessed to live near so many temples.  We had the opportunity to go to the Ogden Temple Open House.  I just LOVE open houses because it is a great learning opportunity for the boys.  I really think that 8 years old is some sort of magic age because Jaron's mind has been working so differently since he turned 8.  He just comprehends so many things better now.  He had specific questions about where he would dress when he went to the temple and things like that. I always like to ask the boys what their favorite part of something was and their favorites of the temple are just too good not to write down.
Jaron: He liked the room that brides dress and get ready in.
Bryson: Loved all the "jewelry."  As we were walking through the sealing rooms he noticed the chandeliers but the celestial room was is favorite.
Eldon: Like the water fountain outside the temple.
Landon: Like the black (translation: the movie about temples before you start the tour.)
A really special thanks to Lynnette for getting us the tickets and her and Melynda going with us.  We simply love family and are glad they will last forever!