Spring Break

Last years Easter party at my parents

I don't have much to say except I don't know if I like the idea of a week long spring break, I guess if you were going to go on a vacation it would be nice, but since we are at home it has seemed really long. We have tried to do fun things every day, along with doing chores and keep up on the reading through the break so we don't fall behind in our school progress, but the kids have been bickering non-stop all week so far.

The good thing has been we have adapted a new system that I am planning on using during the summer break to get chores and reading done daily. I've never been much of a fan of the idea of an "allowance", but I have found that the kids need to have some kind of an incentive to keep them going. So if they do their chores and their reading each day they get a sticker on the chart, then at the end of the week they get a quarter for each sticker. This gives them the chance to "earn" some money, have the opportunity to pay tithing, and help me to not be such a nag about getting things done. Because all I have to say is "if you don't do it you won't get a quarter for today. Enough said. This has worked well, at least this week. Hopefully it will work for the long summer ahead.

I am excited for the end of the week to celebrate all the Easter festivities. I have always loved Easter, probably because it always fell close to my birthday so there was always lots of fun during the time. Plus I love conference weekend and listening to the general authorities.

I have such fond memories as a child of Easter Egg Hunts at my Grandma Romrell's. She always made such a huge effort to get all her grandkids together and we also celebrated all the grandkids birthday's at Easter. She called it her "un-birthday party." Since she had so many grandkids, and they spent the Winter in Arizona she started just having one big birthday party and gave everyone their presents during that time. I just feel happy thinking of those parties. I feel like because of all the effort she made to have get togethers I was very close to my cousins which was so nice to know that I always had a friend in them.

Update from yesterday's post

I didn't realize that posting Savanna's bad day yesterday would upset so many people. I had many phone calls today and lots of comments posted about how bad they felt for Savanna. She had a much better day today, she found some other kids to play with and she got a special delivery at school from a "secret admirer". She came home with a big smile on her face. It is so nice to know that so many people care about our girl.

Friends come and go, but why is it so hard?

My darling girl Savanna is just about the perfect child (at least in my eyes), but the poor thing had a rough day and I felt like we had an important Mother daughter moment. Usually she is very self motivated when it comes to getting her homework and reading done, it takes very little encouragement from me for her to get the things done in the day that she needs to. But today was different, she did not want to do her reading and she was being a bit of a stinker about it. After a lecture from me about doing it she just started to cry and told me that she hated her life and wished she were dead. This came as a big suprise to me because she is usually a very happy, optimistic child. I wan't sure how to respond to this so I just let her cry for a bit while I held her. Then I asked her what was going on that would make her feel this way. She told me that she didn't have any friends at school that she could play with. I asked her specifically about some girls in her class that I know she has been friends with. She told me that they had new friends that were mean and that they didn't want to play with her anymore. This broke my heart. I remember so vividly having similar experiences in school and how painful that was. So how do you tell a 7 year old, that it will pass and not to worry about it.

I told her that instead of worrying about who she could play with during recess to look around and see if she could find any kids at the school that looked like they didn't have anyone to play with and to try and be their friend. I told her to remember how sad you feel right now, and that you don't want anyone else to feel that same way. I also told her that sometimes friends come and go, but she can always come home and know that her Mom and Dad and siblings love her no matter what, and she can have confidence that she will always have friends at home. I hope that in some way I was able to help her feel better.

I knew that my kids would have issues like this in their lives, just like everyone else, but I didn't realize that it would happen so soon. I hope that this little girl can come home tomorrow and be much happier.

Savanna's class pictures

So since I posted Mitchel's class picture I thought that I better also post Savanna's. Savanna and Mitchel have both had a really good year so far in school and I feel very lucky. I also put their Spring school pictures on. (the ones that I didn't buy- yes, I scanned them in on my computer and sent them back to school. Is that wrong?) I didn't order them and I would rather pay for pictures that are a little better. (Ok now I am feeling kind of guilty!)

What is wrong with this picture!

Seriously? Didn't the photographer look at this and say, oh we better take another one, that kids is picking his pants out of his bum. I think that Mitch looks really cute, but come on!

Fun with Roxanne and Shon

They brought some fun army men for Mitch and had fun playing "war"

Shon teaching Mitch how to shoot with a rubber band.

Savanna and Roxanne shooting Mitch and Shon's guys

Reid's sister Roxanne and her husband Shon and their little boy Cody drove all the way from Arizona to IF this weekend to spend a few quality days with the family. Shon is in the military and is getting ready to deploy to Afghanistan in June. This week was the only time that he could get leave between now and then before he leaves. I can't imagine how hard it would be for both Roxanne and Shon to have him leave. Luckily he gets to stay home long enough for them to have their 2nd baby the end of May. We are so glad that they were able to come home for a few days so that we get to see them. I am amazed at the sacrifice that our military men and women are willing to give for our country.

Naomi Ruth Beck

Beck family!

Kent, Naomi and Grandma Sargent

Me and Naomi

Savanna, Naomi and McKay

Elijah and Naomi

Elijah and McKay patiently waiting to see their baby sister

The mother and her beautiful bundle

Right after she was born.

My baby sister Ruth and her husband Kent welcomed their 3rd baby "Naomi Ruth Beck" into the world tonight. She was born at 8:15 pm and weighed 7 lbs 15 oz. She looks like she has dark brown hair (a big change from her brother's red hair). I love brand new babies so much, and going their tonight made me a little bit baby hungry (too bad I am done). The miracle of birth is just such a blessing and it is so amazing when they come into this world so perfect. How lucky are we!!! (Ok so as of 9:15 tonight they weren't sure on the middle name, but my vote is Ruth, so that is why I put that.)

Fun birthday weekend!

This weekend we went to our ward "Chili Cook-off" and cake auction. The cake auction was to benefit the cub scouts in our ward. We ended up buying this cute cake. It is two tents with trees and a camp fire. The kids were super excited about the cake we ended up with.

It was Lori's birthday this last week. We had a family birthday party for her on Sunday night. We always have fun getting together for birthday's.

Lori and the book she got from the Hamilton's and us.

It was also my Mom's birthday yesterday. We had dinner with them last night and brought her favorite Coconut Cream pie. I had to put this picture in of my Mom feeding Carolina, it is one of her favorite things to do with the grandbabies. She always feeds them their baby food, that is why the babies love her so much! I have the best Mom around, and I feel so lucky that she is such a huge part of my life and my children's life. I don't know what I would do without her!

She got a really cute bag from the William's and Beck family- don't you love it!

We have many more family birthday's coming up in the next several weeks. I was thinking that birthday season is really coming, but then I realize that when you have as many siblings and nieces and nephews as Reid and I have birthday season is all year round.

A little bit of nothing

This was a fun game for Treyton, and at first Carolina liked it, but by the time I got my camera she wasn't very amuzed. (He was pulling her around the basement in the lego wagon.)

The electric track all set up (yes it is taking up my whole front room.)

This weekend was kind of uneventfull, which I actually really enjoy. It is so fun to watch the kids play with each other and actually get along with each other.

Reid's Mom was cleaning out and found his old race track from when he was a kid, we set it up and our kids loved it!