I got together with some friends to celebrate Rachels birthday.  We took her to twisted sugar and treated her to a cookie.  She loves fancy cookies and loved celebrating with friends. 

Nolan was invited to go to the city museum with some friends.  He has no memories of ever going to city museum.  He had a blast! I am so glad he was able to go and have a fun afternoon.

We have had some really hot weather but that doesn't keep the cul-de-sac kids from playing outside.  When the sun starts to go down it is bearable to be outside.  I thought it was so cute one evening to see them all enjoying ice cream cones.  One of the moms made them all ice cream cones which was so sweet.  There is usually lots of hockey and soccer playing but one night all the adults got involved and we played glow in the dark capture the flag.  We played boys vs girls and had a lot of fun!  

I took Garrett for his well child appointment and got a new sports physical done.  He has grown a lot and is on track to be tall like JJ.  He will for sure be over six feet, it will be interesting to see how tall he will be.  After his appointment I took him over to JJs office to help out.  We have been really short staffed lately and JJ appreciates any help he can get recently.  I went over with Garrett how to answer the phone on our way over.  I told him what to say and had him practice saying it back to me. I am glad I did because he answered the phone twice.  JJ later said that he was nervous that he answered the phone, and he would have liked to gone over that with him.  I told him I did, and he was like oh good!  He entered in some data and did some cleaning for him.  Lucy went up later that day and helped out with the phones too.  I think it is good for the kids to help out and I know JJ appreciated it. 

Cast comes off!

Friday morning Nolan got his cast off! Yay, such a wonderful day.  They took some new x-rays and confirmed that it was not broken.  Sometimes it is hard to tell but after two weeks they can confirm the break if they see new bone growth.  There was no new bone growth which confirms it was not broken.  It is still tender, and it might take some time to fully heal.  He must have hurt on of the ligaments pretty good!  She gave us some instructions to wear a thumb spike brace.  It was cheaper to order one from Amazon, so we did that.  We celebrated by going to the pool to swim!  He was so happy to jump in and swim with no limits.  Hopefully we can stay injury free the rest of the summer. 

It was a busy week with lots going on.  Garrett was only home Monday, and we spent some time getting him ready for young men's camp.  I took him for an allergy shot and we went to the store to pick out some snacks.  I have missed spending time with him, and it was fun to run those errands together.  

I attended moms football practice with a few friends.  They talked to us about what the boys do when they come to practice, went over the expectations they have for the boys and explained to us how practice works.  We went out to the field and ran some drills like they do in practice.  We got to play our sons positions and see how practice is for them.  It was really fun and cool to see what Garrett does with football.  His coaches are all really nice and I'm glad to know he is known as one of the Mormon boys. 

Nolan has enjoyed spending time at home with me while the older kids are away and busy.  One day I took him up to the pool to sell some popsicles.  He didn't have much luck but had fun anyways.  We went up to the pool one evening to swim with dad.  He loved swimming around in his little floaty.  We are counting down the days until his cast can come off.  He says it is so hot! I am glad we found a way for him to enjoy swimming to cool off.    

2 Years

Lucy has been keeping busy playing in the Lindenwood tournament.  I wish I could have been there to watch all of her games.  I am glad I was able to make it so some of her games.  I hope she realizes that I have to spread my time with other things during the day.  It is hard when I have to pick up the boys or take them to things during the day.  I have to give a little bit to everyone each day.  I was glad to hear that she played will and her coaches praised her for her efforts.  They told her she did a great job which I know she needed to hear.  She got hit in the face during one of the games and has a big bruise under her mouth.  Inside her mouth was bleeding pretty good and she had to be pulled from the game. 

  

Tuesday marked two years since her last injection of Methotrexate.  When she went to her appointment earlier in the month her doctor told her she should be so proud of where she is and how far she has come the past four years.  I certainly am proud of her.  I was thinking back to how hard those years on the medication were.  They were hard on Lucy and our whole family.  Our Saturday evenings always involved giving Lucy her injection.  We had to make sure we gave it to her early enough in the evening so it could wear off sooner on Sunday.  I was constantly at the pharmacy picking up her medicine and trying to stay on top of making sure we had enough.  Sundays were always hard, and I knew it was all she could do to make it through church so she could crawl back in bed.  Many Sundays, she didn't make it to church, especially when we had morning church.  I am glad that phase of our life is over, and I hope we never have to put Lucy back on that medicine.  Completing that is a big accomplishment for Lucy and I know it took a lot of will power to make it through.  We wanted to celebrate that with her and recognize how proud we are of this milestone.  Two years in remission!  We went to Sonic for a treat.  Nolan has no memory of going to a Sonic and asked me about it not too long ago.  We enjoyed our treat and then went home to spend time together on our deck.  It was a beautiful evening! We brought the Bluetooth speaker out and listened to some music and played dominos. It was a really nice evening together.  We missed Garrett, he is at young men's camp this week.  I feel like he hasn't been home much.      

 

Fathers Day

We had a nice Father's Day with JJ and hope he felt celebrated.  It was hard to plan things for him with the kids gone all week.  Garrett was gone at football camp before trek.  Nolan and I went to the store and picked some things out for JJ.  Nolan wanted to get him some candy so he could watch a movie with JJ Sunday afternoon.  I thought that was a thoughtful gift and fun that he wanted to spend time with him.  I talked with JJ and decided that we would share my Creami maker as a joint gift.  He enjoys making ice cream with me and it is something we enjoy together.  We had Jordan and his family as well as my dad over for dinner.  We grilled burgers and had a yummy dinner together.  JJ wanted a light dessert, so I made angel food cake and we put strawberries and whipped topping on top.  It was so good!  I think we will have that again sometime soon.  Jordan and his family couldn't stay long.  After they left, we played some croquette in the backyard together.  My Dad left after we were done playing our game.  The kids all have to be up early each morning for school and sports practices.  I felt bad we didn't do more for JJ to make his day more special.  I know he appreciated the small efforts we made, and I hope he knows how much we love and appreciate him.   

 

Activity day camp

Saturday Nolan was able to go to Activity Days camp.  The activity day leaders worked so hard putting together a Book of Mormon camp for the kids.  It was fun for the kids to have something to look forward to.  Many of the kids had older siblings away on trek and were happy to have something of their own.  This year the primary presidency turned it all over to the leaders and they did amazing.  JJ is working with the boys and Nolan is in his group.  JJ said the ladies did most of the planning the guys helped execute it.  JJ helped with one of the stations where the kids each put together a boat and then floated it down the creek.  They also did a tent building competition.  In other stations they went on a hike, shot arrows and wrote on their own brass plates.  It was such a fun day.  They ended with lunch and all headed home before it got to hot.  It was a really hot day and we decided to wrap Nolans arm and head to the pool.  It worked really well to wrap it and have him float around in the tube.  It was nice to cool off and relax for a little while.  After dinner we picked up the kids from Trek at the church.  It was nice to have them back.  I enjoyed talking with Lucy and hearing all about her experiences there.  Jack enjoyed snuggling with her as we talked.  It was good to have them home!      

 

Trek

Lucy and Garrett were able to participate in Trek this year with the youth from our stake. Lucy has done this before, but Garrett has not.  They both said they had a really nice time.  Lucy didn't really love her family.  She liked her Ma and Pa but didn't have any friends in her group.  Lucy got heat exhaustion and got a really bad headache while there.  They called us and told us she forgot her medicine.  We thought she forgot her nightly medicine.  We were told the wrong thing and dropped the medicine off to someone that was heading down.  She called and was wanting her migraine medicine.  It was too late at that point and all she could do was hydrate and stay in the shade.  I hope that didn't hinder her experience there.  Garrett said it was ok, he didn't seem to have any spiritual experience while he was there but had a good time.  He didn't like how people kept saying that God was giving them the power to pull the handcarts.  Garrett felt like he could pull the handcart because he was in good health and had the strength to do it on his own.  I hope that as he matures a little more, he can look back on this experience with a different view on some of the things he endured while there.  They both commented that the trails were hard and the food there was delicious!