The biggest thing for our little fam this August has been John deciding to be a big eight-year-old and all that wonderful stuff that goes with that! I personally cannot believe he is eight, and I am not sure how this all happened, but I have been enjoying seeing him grow and mature. We had his baptism last week, and were sad to have no Whiting representation there! (I only teared up for a while in the morning thinking about it!) Mom and Dad did make a video for him, which was very cool to have them be a part of everything. Jared's parents and his brother and family from Milwaukee were able to come, so that was so nice to have family there. We also invited some of our dear friends from school, so that was special to share the whole experience. After the baptism, we had a little party with brownie sundaes and homemade salsa (not together) at the house, and then John went through his second rite of passage in one day--he was party to breaking a window. He says it wasn't actually his rock, but he and his friends were tossing rocks around, so that was a little bit of a reality check. At least no kid was hurt...although that would probably cost less! :)
He had his birthday party a few weeks before, so that was fun to have that out of the way before the baptism. We took a few friends to a pool and had a ton of fun! Jared was the entertainment and I think all the kids had a ball.
The kids also started school in early August, and have totally been loving it--Sara especially loves being all day now. Michael and I miss them while they're gone, but somehow still manage to fill our days. For most of August, I still had most of my piano lessons in the morning since most of the kids don't start school till after Labor Day, so I enjoyed having my nights free to do more family stuff--including helping the kids master riding their bikes! Now I'm back to lots of afternoon lessons, but we are grateful it works as well as it does.
I was just released as YW President, so that brings mixed emotions of course. I LOVED everything about it except trying to manage having our whole family in ward council and man-handling little Mr. while trying to teach. He will be in nursery quite soon, so that will be a happy day. I haven't been given a new calling yet, so I'm totally stressed about that, but we'll see! Sara told me she wished I were still the President so that I could be it for her, which was very sweet, but since she isn't quite 7 yet, I think that would be a little nuts! I told her I could maybe be in YW again when she is in.
Sara has lost a top front tooth, and the other one is barely hanging on, so she looks very different! Here are the before and after pictures for the first loss...
Michael keeps us all laughing still--here is a funny story--yesterday I was holding him while directing my YW in a song they are singing next week. All of a sudden, I notice he has covered both of his ears and is making faces! What a turkey, huh? We all broke down laughing and had to start over, but it was awesome.
On Labor Day, we took Jared's parents and visited an airplane museum that we like. We thought it was cool that they let us even crawl around inside an old military plane, but got even more excited when Jared's dad decided to take them up on their offer to take them (Joe and Jared) up in a plane! It was a small, open air, 2-seater and that's about all the details I remember. Anyway, the pilot sat in back and only one other could go in, so Joe went up for a while and then they switched to Jared. They had a ball, and couldn't wipe the smiles off their faces, so that was fun!
Well, that is our news for now. We miss and love you all!!!
Love,
K2
