Dear Bret,
I thought you'd like to know some of those little, and not so little, things that have been going on while you've been gone.
We're missing you like crazy. Gavin wakes up every morning and asks if it's the morning you'll be home. When I tell him the answer he gets those puppy dog eyes of his and says, "Oh, that's so sad."
Grayson would have nothing to do with our dinner tonight. He just wanted the baby pureed stuff. We've never had a child want to eat that stuff as long as he has. I keep thinking I don't need to buy it anymore, but he keeps wanting it.
My legs are killing me! P90X legs and back. It's a great feeling.
There was a big blow up between the girls right before dinner. And I mean BIG. Slamming doors and yelling. (A picture even fell off the wall on the stairs from the door slam) Then Abby deliberately choose to stay in her room during dinner and the rest of the night. Not only did she miss dinner but she also missed chocolate chip cookies we had after scripture study.
McKenna proceeded to tell us in great detail and great length in a way that only McKenna can manage the game she and her friends imagined up at recess. She is a teacher in Australia and Emilie and Kate are her students. She even made three different "tests" for them to take tomorrow at recess. Obviously I'm missing A LOT of details, but you get the gist.
Abby is struggling with the decision to continue band or not. I've had her pray about it but she says she still doesn't know. I told her that often times we need to make a decision first and then take it to the Lord and ask Him if it is right. It would be so easy to just tell what I think she should do, but she does need to come to this decision on her own. She feels like she'll be disappointed in herself if she doesn't continue, but she is really worried about the time commitment of practicing with everything else she has on her plate. She really wanted to talk to you about it tonight and I hope you're able call before she falls asleep.
It was beautiful weather today! Zachary was mad he didn't wear shorts and McKenna said she was THE ONLY ONE in her entire grade that was wearing a long sleeve shirt. The boys played outside with the neighbors for 2 hours after school. Gray loved being outside too. He was so happy to crawl around our front porch or out in the grass. Every time the door opened he made a beeline to it in hopes to get out.
I remembered to take out the trash tonight! Zachary helped me.
Gavin, Grayson and I had lunch in town today while we were running our errands. I learned that Gavin's favorite colors are: red, blue, green, black, purple and white in that order. His favorite friend is Theo. (He said Claire teased him yesterday and that made him sad. I'm sure she'll be back to the number one spot again tomorrow.) He can't pick a favorite toy but his favorite bike is the jeep he got for Christmas. Good news is that I am his favorite mom and you are his favorite dad!
I did a "meal to go" for the missionaries that we were supposed to have over for dinner tonight. I felt bad that I also had to cancel on them back in November when we were all sick and now again with you out of town. Gavin happened to be playing the wii when they stopped by this morning to pick it up and one elder could not stop watching him. Then he noticed that I was in the middle of my work out and had paused it and started talking to me about how he did P90X before the mission and he can't wait to do it when he gets back home. He said he even tried to do it on the mission but it was too hard. The whole thing just made me feel a little odd.
Grayson is still having a hard time with his big crib. Every time I put him down he cries and cries and cries. I know I'm getting into a bad habit, but I go in and feed him a little bit of a bottle and then he easily goes down. But if I try giving him a bottle before he still cries and cries. For some reason it's the combination of crying first and then the bottle. It's hard for me not to do this, knowing how easily he has always gone down before now. Tonight I held strong, and he cried for almost an hour. I feel so bad!
I found Sadie up the street with Tango this afternoon. I didn't even know she was gone and have no idea how long she was out.
I folded and put away EIGHT loads of laundry today. (Do I need to mention that those eight loads of laundry have been piled on your side of the bed since yesterday afternoon?)
I had a really interesting and wonderful conversation with Abby yesterday. She was telling me about "popular kids" and how being athletic is what makes them popular. We had a great talk about popularity: pros, cons, why it's so sought after, popularity it terms of the worlds standards, being happy and confident with who we are as daughters of God, and the inner peace and happiness that comes from living righteous standards, and how people will always be drawn to her because of the light she radiates. She's such an amazing girl! I wish I had had thing put together as much when I was her age. She then said, "sometimes I really wish I was athletic and that it was easy for me to do sports, especially with a sister like McKenna." I asked her when it was especially hard for her and she said at night when they are talking and McKenna shares with her things that happen at recess or in P.E. and she is just lying in bed wishing that was her. It led to a great conversation about the value of practicing. But more importantly it led to me talking to her about the value and importance of her unique talents and gifts that make her who she is. All of this happened while driving in the car with off. I need to do more of that with the kids, it truly is amazing the quality of the talking that takes place in the car, especially when it's just one on one.
I've instituted "zone cleanup" every night after dinner and for at least two days it's been a beautiful thing! If you can manage not to pick it all up when you get home each night, I know you'll be big fan!
I fall asleep to the TV on every night. I really hate doing that but it's the only way I'm able to fall asleep when your gone.
We had a great scripture study tonight. We only read five verses but it led to the best discussion on the law of justice and the law of mercy, which obviously led to a wonderful discussion on the atonement. Zachary asked a great question, he asked "when we sin, does Jesus feel the weight and pain of that sin right then in that moment?" After our discussion Abby said she never really thought about the drops of blood actually being real, she just had always thought of it in terms of a metaphor to help us understand how painful it was. Everyone said it made them want to use the gift of repentance more and not let any of the suffering be in vain.
Definitely time to baby lock the kitchen cupboards when you get home.
Leo the Leopard did wonders for Gavin's bedtime tonight. There were no tears about going to bed and worry about bad dreams tonight. Say an extra little prayer for him tonight that he'll sleep peacefully. Just so you know, Leo loves chocolate chip cookies, his favorite song is Taylor Swifts "Trouble", and Gavin is his best friend. Tonight Leo wanted me to sing the Iron Man theme song before bed, after which Gavin said, "Daddy did it longer." :)
So looking forward for you to be home again. Everything and everyone is just better with you around.
Love you always,
Em
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