Overdue

Tonight Porter came into my room when he should have been in bed. He’s one of the snuggliest kids at night. He had been reading some of my Instagram posts that I had made into a book. One of them listed 10 things I loved about him in celebration of his 10th birthday. He just wanted me to know how nice they all were and thanked me for writing them.
Which lead me to writing this. Sometimes I need a swift kick in the gut to realize my kids are not going to stay little long. I’ve missed writing about the things they say or do. I’m most sad that they won’t get to read about them because there’s no way I’m going to remember them. So, here’s to a possible new leaf at being a better journal keeper of this crew. I’m going to have to really rack my brain to try backtrack and get things caught up a little better than they are now.

Varsity Football

Payton has started high school and with that comes football season. This boy is built for this game. He’s had the great opportunity to play right and left guard for the offensive line. There are two boys on the team, both sophomores like Payton, that are bigger than him. Payton was looking forward to actually getting to have a little Varsity playing time subbing in for those to big guys. Well, one of them got injured and his doctors said he would be out for three weeks. The other one got a concussion so he was unable to play in the first game. The Panthers has their first game a week ago against Ridgeline High School. Todd and I left our girls with Tiffani in Hurricane and made the long 5 hour trek with Porter to watch. My mom heart was pretty dang proud of that kid. He not only played but started and didn’t sub out the whole game. He actually surprised the heck out of me because he did such a good job! (He wasn’t perfect but pretty dang good!) Pine View ended up losing by 2 points but it was so fun to yell and scream for our team.

This last Friday night game was against Highland. I had to work so we didn’t get to travel and watch him play but fortunately we could watch his game being streamed online. It was a little Frustrating because we just didn’t look as good as that opening game the week before. If could be that Highland is a better team, right now, but Payton missed a few blocks that cost us some yardage. I have to remember he’s young. He’s learning to much and he’s come a long way since last year. 

It’s going to be an exciting season and I can’t wait to see how much more he’ll improve. Just praying he stays healthy and injury free. Go Panthers!!

Jess: Eight is Great

Jess turned the ripe old age of EIGHT this year. She’s been waiting for this bday for a long time! It’s a big one around here because a few things get to happen. First, if you’re a girl, you can get your ears pierced. Second, you get to be baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
The week before Jess turned eight we had a wedding for one of my nieces (Jess’ cousin, Ashton). After the wedding and luncheon, Jess got to go to the mall with 7 of her girl cousins, her sister, two of her aunts and her mom to get those ears pierced. Emmie was getting her ears pierced too. Jess was SUPER nervous. She “let” Emmie go first. While Emmie was getting her ears done Jess kept gripping my hands and her sweaty hands couldn’t stop nervously grasping mine. When it was her turn I could tell she was super excited but still really nervous. She gripped the stuffed animal and they did two guns at a time. She had earrings before she knew what hit her. I’m still not sure how but some miracle happened and there was enough peer pressure that after 40 years of having virgin pierced ears I found myself in the chair getting mine pierced as well. That’s a story for another post, though.

A week after that we found ourselves surrounded by family to support Jess with her decision to be baptized. Payton had been trying to convince Jess that he should be the one to baptize her. She wouldn’t even consider it. Only her dad would do. She had picked out a pink dress because she “wanted to be different than everyone else” —referring to the usual white dresses that most girls choose for their baptism day. She was so excited for everyone to be there for her! Her aunt Cheri played the piano, Julia and Gma Julie gave prayers, aunt Tiffani and Kandice gave talks, and her dad baptized and confirmed her.
I loved looking at her from the top of the stairs into the baptism don’t. She looked up at her dad and I couldn’t help but smile with pride. As she walked into the dressing room to change from her wet clothes into her dress she said, “That was so awesome!” And “I loved that!” One cute thing that happened was after she had been surrounded by the priesthood family and friends who were participating with her ordination of receiving the Holy Ghost. She stood up and started to leave the circle. Uncle Randy said, “WHERE ARE YOU GOING?” She laughed but didn’t really know what she was supposed to do after that. She shook everyone’s hand in the circle (or gave them a hug) and then came and sat by me. She talked about that moment after her baptism and we get a good laugh about it now.
Following the baptism we came back to the house and had lunch. It was a great day to celebrate Jess and I hope it’s a day she’ll always remember and love to look back on!