Well Child

I took Nolan to the doctor for his well child visit.  He was so wiggly, and I was laughing at him rolling around on the table while we waited for the doctor.  We had a good visit with the doctor, he is so nice.  Nolan is a happy, healthy boy growing right on track.  He is 4'3.21" tall (65%) and 63 lb 12.8 oz (76%).  I am thankful that Nolan is healthy, that is something that I feel like a lot of people take for granted.    

 

Easter Sunday was chilly and rained most of the afternoon and evening.  Sadly, it was not a warm and sunny Easter like we always hope for.  We were excited to wake up and see what the Easter bunny brought us in our baskets.  I was thankful JJ didn't have meetings in the morning.  He was able to be home with us and we could all drive to church together.  I was singing with a women's choir and had to be to church a little early.  It worked out fine because we were able to get a big, long row for everyone to sit together.  Lauren and her family joined us.  It was a nice church meeting and all of Laurens kids enjoyed going to primary classes.  Clara let me take her to sunbeams.  She held on tight when it was time to sit with her class.  She was a little nervous but eventually went and sat with her class.  Lauren said if she or Braden would have taken her it would have gone much different.  After church we enjoyed relaxing and preparing food for our get together later.  Clara helped me decorate the bunny cake and she did a fantastic job.  She helped put all the jellybeans on and even added some sprinkles on the ears.  When we were all done she took a picture of the finished cake for me.  It was so fun to work with her.  She has such a fun personality.  I love my kids ages but it is fun to spend time with little kids.  They are so special.  Jordan and his family and Christy and her family joined us for dinner.  We started with an egg hunt in the backyard.  All the kids were good sports and bundled up and got umbrellas for our cold and wet egg hunt.  Thankfully they didn't mind and we knew it wouldn't last long.  We enjoyed a delicious dinner that everyone helped make.  It was fun to spend time together and have the kids play.  I think Denise and Craig enjoyed all the excitement in the house as well.  I know Denise enjoyed all the little kids.  They don't get a chance to be around little ones very often and I think they enjoyed it.  It made me happy to be able to spend the holiday with several of my siblings and their families.  We had a very enjoyable day!  It was the perfect ending to a fun filled weekend for our family.  We missed dad again on Easter, he was feeling better but not well enough to come.  We sure felt so bad.  We facetimed him and he seemed so sad.  I packed up some leftovers for Jordan to take him.  I had some nice containers and packed him up two meals that he could enjoy later.  He told me Monday how thankful he was for that.  I even sent some Easter candy and treats that he said he really liked.  I know he was missing mom so much.  She would have put together a basket for him and helped make his day special.  He said he drove over to her grave and put some tulips on it.  He also got out the old home movies and watched the Easter video's of us all running around in our pretty dresses that mom would sew for us.  We look forward to hopefully all being together soon!        

Going into this weekend I had anticipated it being emotionally hard for me.  My mom missing events like this is hard.  It makes things still seem unfair, she should be here to witness and participate in special events like this.  My day got harder when my dad texted early in the morning and told me he was sick.  He would not be able to come to the baptism.  I was now not going to have any parents at the baptism and that was really hard for me.  I sat with JJ in the kitchen before heading to the gym and got emotional.  I also called Lauren on my way to the gym to see what her plans were.  She was coming in town with her family.  They were still coming but would be getting a hotel now for Saturday evening.  I cried with her on the phone.  I feel that my siblings understand me and my emotions so well.  We will all have similar experiences in life when it comes to sadness over our mom not being here.  This event was causing me to feel orphaned.  I had read about that feeling in a grief book and could recognize that is what I was experiencing.  I tried to pull it together and get to my gym class.  As I walked in, I must have still looked teary eyed.  A friend came and gave me a hug and I started to cry all over again.  She was so sweet.  She gave me a nice long hug and then said start your watch, lets workout.  I was thankful for her.  I feel that she was almost acting in place of all my out-of-town siblings who wished they could have hugged me.  I was thankful for a nice workout and it taking my mind off things.  The day was busy with the egg hunt, dying eggs, cleaning the house and all sorts of things that happened at the last minute.  I was so thankful for a nice low key baptism.  I was so thankful for my brother agreeing to give the talk at the last minute.  I was so thankful for all those who made the effort to come and support Nolan and our family.  We wanted to keep the program simple and same with everything else.  We ordered cookies for refreshments, we didn't do a program, we kept the speakers short and only had a few.  As I think of all the beautiful things that we could have done it really didn't matter.  The baptism still happened and the ordinance is really the most important part of the whole day.  All of the extra's would have taken energy that I really didn't have.  I even forgot to print off the words for the songs we were going to sing.  We made it work and had the boys write the words in their handwriting.  We printed them off and handed them out.  I think it was better then printing them off, it made it so personal and made for a fun keepsake.  Everything went perfect in the program.  We were able to send a zoom link to all my family that wasn't there.  They were able to log on and watch the whole program.  JJ baptized Nolan and gave him the Holy Ghost.  He gave him such a nice blessing.  Lucy and Garrett were able to be the witnesses when the boys were baptized.  We were thankful that Grandma and Grandpa Smith were there to be a part of Nolan's special day.  I knew that my mom was there.  I know that she will make an effort to be present for special occasions like this.  I don't know if I felt her presence for sure but during the closing song "I am a child of God" JJ and I both got a little teary.  The spirit was present, and I know that today was a special day.  I am so thankful for the spirit being there.  I almost needed to sit down and feel it.  It was an emotional day for me and being able to take a breath and realize it was ok was something I needed.  We are so proud of Nolan and his decision to be baptized.  I hope he always remembers what a special day it was.  He got to be baptized with his friend Vale and share that special day.  We picked up some Spiced Hen for dinner on our way home.  Lauren and her family joined us for dinner at the house.  They didn't stay long since they wanted to swim in the hotel swimming pool before bedtime.  I am thankful she was able to come and share today with me, same with Jordan and his family.               

 

 I am so glad our neighborhood did an Easter egg hunt.  I feel like when the older kids were younger, we were much better about finding fun things in our community.  I looked online for egg hunt events and couldn't find one with any availability.  So, our neighborhood hunt came to the rescue.  The kids were divided into groups, Lucy didn't do an egg hunt.  Nolan went first and got some eggs and then Garrett went.  JJ was with Garrett, and they realized several little kids didn't get any eggs.  They should have put a limit on how many eggs you could get.  Garrett gave his eggs away to some younger kids who didn't get any.  That was kind of him!  We also dyed our Easter eggs.  The kids had fun dying them.  We didn't do anything fancy.  Just the boring cups with dye.  I have seen so many people have the spinner and that looks fun. Maybe next year we will have to do something different.    

 

It is always hard to think another year has passed.  Especially when you are celebrating your kids' birthdays.  I always think back to the day they were born.  I can't believe Nolan is now 8! What a special age to turn.  The kids had off school and we were excited to spend the day doing something fun.  Unfortunately, JJ had to work but we were glad he would be home earlier since he was at Regional Eyecare.  It was a chilly day, and the weather wasn't ideal for a lot of outdoor things.  I spent a lot of time with Nolan trying to think of something fun he wanted to do on his birthday.  He was being kind of grumpy and didn't like any of the ideas I was listing off.  I decided to run some errands, I needed to run to Walmart for a few things.  Lucy, Craig and I ran to Walmart.  JJ came home for lunch, and we opened presents.  That made Nolan happy to open his cards and gifts.  He spent the afternoon playing with them.  Declan came over and played with him.  I was exhausted from late night volleyball games, so I slipped in my room for a quick nap.  JJ was able to get off early and so we decided to go do something fun with him.  I called down to a new place in the Chesterfield valley, the main event.  I got some pricing and we headed down there to have some fun.  Nolan was wanting some adventure and was excited to go.  We got tickets for laser tag with everyone and the ropes course for the kids.  We all had fun doing the laser tag, Nolan didn't like when he got shot.  We had to wait a little while for the ropes course, so Grandma treated Nolan to a game card for the arcade.  We all used the points on the card to play some games.  It was fun to walk around and play some games, some we played together.  Nolan played all the basketball games there.  They were his favorite.  He earned several points playing the games and was excited to pick something out in the little store.  We were almost decided on what we wanted, and a lady came in with a ring of 600 points that she gave Nolan.  We were going to have to rethink our prizes.  We were going to have to wait until after the ropes course.  The kids were brave and excited about doing the ropes course.  It was up above the arcade games.  None of them seemed nervous or scared.  There was one thing that Nolan was too nervous to do, and he just avoided that part.  It was fun for us to watch them down below.  It was fun to see them enjoying themselves.  Especially Nolan.  I think he was sad not being able to do something fun all day.  I am glad we waited to do something as a family.  I am also glad we found something that Nolan wanted to do.  We were able to pick something fun out with all of the points.  Nolan picked out a stuffed cheeseburger, a squishy ball and some candy.  It was a fun evening.  We will have to go again as a family.  We ordered some pizza at Domino's, Nolans favorite.  We stopped and got Sing 2 at Redbox to do a movie night after dinner.  Our pizza took forever, and they didn't have our order right.  It was kind of a pain because usually they are so fast.  We were all so hungry and it was getting late.  We enjoyed our pizza dinner and then had birthday cake with Nolan.  He requested an ice cream cake with cookies and cream ice cream with Oreo's around the side.  We put snickers, Reeses peanut butter cups and m&m's on top.  He helped me make it the night before.  It was fun to have him be my helper.  It was so yummy!  We enjoyed relaxing and watching a movie together after dinner and cake.  When I think about the day it was all Nolan.  It really was filled with all the things he loves.  He loves to play with Declan, loves video games, loves adventure, loves dominos and movie nights.  I hope he felt so loved and celebrated!  I know I had a fun day celebrating him and the special boy he is.