ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

So. . . .

Blogging, yes, it has been put on the back burner.  Basically because Facebook is so much faster, but I still feel like I'm logging the important, or not so important but I hope I remember, stuff.  But I am going to be better because this is Family History!  And Family History is becoming a central focus in our home.

Adam got a new calling--High Priest Group Leader-- and is really focusing his efforts on Family History.  Our High Priest Group is on the small (and young) side, but Adam has loved it so far.  Being released from the High Council, I get asked a lot about him being home more now.  In truth, his calling on High Council had great hours for us as a family, and so he is gone a lot more now, but we are doing good!  We just have to get a little more creative with our family time, which has actually been easy because...

Adam also got transferred to a new school!  The closest school to our home, and the school many kids from our ward go to!  This changes his weekly commute from 250 miles to 20 miles per week.  He loved his time at Westwood, but you can imagine we are very excited for this change!  It is amazing what you can get done with an extra 5 hours a week!  And me and the kids have been visiting a lot, helping him set up his classroom and visiting for lunch, making the weeknights he is gone not quite so hard.

I have been loving this summer, still teaching and adding more composition students which has inspired me to do a little writing/arranging myself.  I just finished an arrangement for the ward choir that turned out great.  I worked really hard at making it fit our choir with their abilities and numbers.  I hope it works as well in reality as it did in my head!  I am also teaching the 12-13 year olds in Sunday School and it is great, I really love it. I have learned a lot, and it has been great making friends with these fabulous youth!

Samuel won't stop growing!  But he's still the smallest baby we've ever had. . . go figure.  At almost 2, he's weighing in at 27 pounds--the same as Carlie at 1 year old!  Hopefully he will get bigger before he gets to school.  He is talking more and more every day, and starting to put two words together.  He can say Go-go, Sam, Momma, Dada, shoe, sock, ball, gum, some, two, more some, hi, bye, okay, no and bubba.  We got a cute video of him talking last night, I'll have to get that up.  He LOVES cars. . . more on that later.

Megan is becoming very good at piano, and I love listening to her practice and get better every day.  She is having a blast playing with her sisters and friends all day every day.  She continues to be an amazing helper and is usually the first to get her chores done every morning.  She is so obedient and sweet and is working on choreographing some little dances for our family reunion.

Carlie also loves summer, but hates the chores that come with it.  How do I know?  She tells me every. single. day.  But she is still making us laugh every day, and I love this girl!  She is getting excited for more preschool, but DON'T ask her about kindergarten.  Her stitches and hospital stay last year were pretty traumatic, and she has decided to not go to kindergarten so she doesn't have to get shots.  She is so smart, and loves doing her homework and reading her scriptures.  I had her come in and talk to my class about scriptures because she is so consistent on her study.

Lucy continues to love reading and is very happy that we can go to the library more than once a week, and that she can read for hours if she wants without school getting in the way.  She loves playing and swimming and just having fun.  A daily question from Lucy is, 'do we have any plans today?'  She does not like to sit still for long, she loves having structured, planned activities, even if it is just play time for an hour.  She is also becoming quite the movie lover and usually wants to spend some time watching a show.  It's different than her siblings, who usually turn to the TV if they're bored, Lucy really enjoys movies and likes to schedule time for them.

That's about it for us!  We are heading to Utah in a few weeks for a reunion and a wedding, Lagoon, an anniversary party, a roommate reunion (hopefully), and TONS of family time!  Summer is only going to get better from here!