Matthew's the big 18!!

My little boy is all grown up and away from home for his big 18th birthday.  So I won't get to hug him and tell him how much we love him and are grateful he's a part of our family.  Thankfully, he has two sisters, a brother-in-law, and a cousin to be there for him.  

Love you buddy!!

Hope you're enjoying being an adult!

Happy Birthday!

Who is this kid?

Who is that? 

Who is hiding behind those cool Ray-Bans?

Why, I think it's Matthew!

(He would be totally mortified, as any teenage boy would, that his mother is making him the center of attention by talking about him, but...I'm going to do it anyway.  Cause, in the end, I want him to know that I think he's fantastic!)

I've had the privilege of getting to know him these last 17 years and have come to
recognize greatness in him.
He tries to hide it through teasing, joking and heavy sarcasm, but he's really got a big heart and he feels deeply the connections he makes with others and God.
He's also become quite persuasive, clever and focused (or should I say, more so).
This will be his last year at home before he heads off to college and a life away from us.
Exciting and new experiences await, so I'm grateful for the past 17 years,
 and hope the 18th is a great one!
Happy Birthday Matthew!
Love you!!

Matthew's robot came in 3rd!

I was going through old posts when I came across drafts that never got posted.

For some reason, I thought I had posted about Matthew's robotics competition but it turns out

I had started but didn't finish.

I just can't let this great experience go unnoticed!

Last year, Matthew's robotics team went to competition and boy were they good.

Matthew was one of the driver's for the robot.

It's great for team building because the task at hand cannot be done by one person.

Matthew's team did a great job and almost won!

The competitions were so close.  

It won't be long and we'll be starting the robotics season again.

Hopefully this  year they can go all the way!!

Grandma P got to be there too!!

Their school makes an alliance with two other teams and their robots to make a team.

Go Panthers!!!

Matthew's a sweet 16!!

September is a big month for birthdays in our house.

All three of our boys have birthdays.

This week, it's my "Sweetie Petey's" turn.

I don't know why Petey other than it rhymed with sweetie.

Sweetie was the real nick name because he was such a sweet baby.

But now he's "SWEET 16" today!!! 

He tries to hide his sweetness with his coolness, but he's not fooling me.

Matthew has a heart of gold.  Growing up, he was one of my most generous children, always thinking of others.  Although it's tough to be a sweet teenage boy, Matthew does 

nice things for others without trying to be caught or will make a joke about it.

 

I just want you to know Matthew that I still see my sweet boy.

I'm so grateful that you were sent to our family!

I hope you enjoy being 16 and everything that comes with it!!

Happy Birthday!!

I love you!!

A different kind of first day at school

Just like a lot of people today, I'm posting pictures of my kiddos first day of school.

Matthew 11th grade, Abby 3rd, and Esther 8th

Only 3 left at home!!! 

For the first time, we have more kids out of the house than in it!

Notice anything different?

Yep, Esther isn't donning a backpack ready to get in the car.

She's sitting at our kitchen table ready to do her schooling at home!

That's right, after 10 years of public school, we decided to venture back into the world of homeschooling.  I would love to have Matthew and Abby back home too but here in CA Matthew wouldn't be able to be on the Robotics team unless he was registered in the school district.  And Abby needs the attention at school for the time being.  I haven't ruled out bringing her home in the future.

I actually loved homeschooling all my kids before (9 years).  For multiple reasons, we put them all in public school and I spent several years trying to figure out what to do with myself while they were all gone.  Abby came along and solved that!

I must admit that I've been feeling a little nostalgic for the 'good ole days' but really excited for doing something new this time.  Esther is enrolled at a school in Utah called American Heritage School , with an LDS based curriculum.  I watched it from a distance when we home-schooled before and wished we lived close to it.  But now with technology, we have access via the internet.  She participates in class webinars and turns in her work online.  But best of all, she and I get to have discussions connecting  spiritual beliefs with academics.   I'm so excited for Esther to have this experience this year!!

Matthew turned 15 today!!

The boys of September, #2...

We have three boys and all three of them were born in September.

Last week it was our missionary Jacob.

This week is our only boy left at home, Matthew and 

finally our oldest Joseph is at the end of the month.

Today at 6:36 pm this cute little toe-head came into our lives.

He was an instant hit with the other kids and continues to be the center of attention.

His disposition has always been sweet and generous.

I even used to call him my "Sweetie Peatie".

As he got older, we certainly noticed he has a lot of energy and have

wished we could bottle some of it up for the rest of us.

I love what a good sport he is and how considerate he is of others.

He's brilliant too!!

Happy 15th Matthew!!

I love you!!

Matthew's robotics video

I've finally managed to get this video up.

Matthew's robotics team did a demonstration at the mall

to show off what they did this year.

Each of the STEM groups had something to show.

You'll see in the video, Matthew driving the robot from behind the counter.

I remember as a kid, watching robot competitions on PBS with my Dad,

so it's pretty cool that my son is actually doing it.

14 yrs but a lot of firsts

This fantastic kid turned 14 this week!!

This certainly has been an eventful month for him.

He not only started high school, but he got braces and his first cell phone.  I'll also add that he

smiled for this photo, a first, which I usually have to beg and plead for.  It must be the

affect of the phone.

Now that he's 14 he'll also get to start going to church dances.

I can tell he is actually looking forward to this because he asked if he could

fudge the rules a little and go the dance last weekend before his birthday on Tues.

But we're rule followers around here so he'll just have to wait till the dance in October.

We sure enjoy having Matthew in our family!!

He's a great example to us all about being a good sport and letting things roll off your back.

And I certainly appreciate his willingness to do whatever Dad and I ask of him

without complaining.  He often drops what he is doing and runs through the task.

He's just a great kid!

Happy Birthday Matthew!!

The end of summer

I bet you were wondering if I was ever coming back.  These last days of summer have been busy.  Mostly just trying to enjoy what freedom from schedules we have left.  Honestly though, I am just a teensy weensy bit excited for some structure to bring everything back into balance.

Well of course, to end the summer, we had to go to Disney.  Our friend Natalie came too.

I know you've seen just about all you could see of us at the "happiest place on earth", but this picture below is a first.  We went to meet the "lost friends".  You know, the characters from movies without a princess, because "the ladies" tend to monopolize all the attention.

We not only got to see a lot of characters, we were surprised to see Tarzan in his real skin

and not some fake foam shirt with painted muscles (I don't think the girls were too disappointed).

What is Disney coming to?

Next, an afternoon at the beach was in order.

They say that this time of year, the water is actually warm.

I beg to differ.

The cold water still doesn't seem to bother the kids much.

Finally, the first day of school came on Tues.

Bekah and Matthew left before I could get a picture but the girls were all smiles.

 There are four 1st grade classes this year, so they had to shuffle the teachers.

Abby now has Mrs. Donahoe who was Esther's 5th grade social science teacher last year.

It should be a good year!

This is Abby on her first day of school . . .

 and this is Abby on what should be her second day of school.

I guess she became allergic to structure.

Camp week

I can't tell you how many times Abby has given me a hug for signing her up for pony camp.  

Today was her first day.

The teacher, Jan Ball, had a trunk full of boots to choose from.  After putting her's on, Abby jumped up and said, "look at the heels!!"  Oh my! She's had great ambitions lately to have heels 

so those boots were a thrill.

Riding will come tomorrow, but today they learned basic horse tid bits and how to stay safe.

Abby learned so much from her show on TV called Horseland that she answered almost all the questions by herself.

I just love her enthusiasm.

Matthew also has camp but he's been going for a week now.

He had his first game on Thurs against the rival school.

It was a close game and Matthew even made a basket, but they lost their game.

Unlike Abby's week long camp, his will go on for another month.

More games to come.

3 graduates in a week and 1 on the way

Schools out!!

And we have 3 new graduates!

The first was Matthew on Wednesday afternoon.

We weren't sure what to expect since we've not been to many large middle

school graduations.  Most of them in the past were in gyms and very simple.

But here, nothing is simple and there isn't anything big enough for the large crowd that comes. So

we sat in rented chairs on the soccer field behind the school.  The biggest

question was what to wear.  You would think that June would mean summer dresses and 

strappy shoes but the "marine layer" had been bringing breezes off the ocean 

and fog blocking the sunshine.  

Well, we should have worn parkas because by the end of the ceremony we were popsicles.

I guess you have to be raised here to enjoy it because there actually were ladies without sleeves

and girls in mini-skirts.  Crazy!!

But since we are wimps and just live down the street, we sent Rachel home to get blankets. 

Doesn't Matthew look sharp!!  He's such a great kid!!

The next morning was Esther's "graduation".  

We used to just get our report card saying that we could go to middle school, but today

the kids get certificates and a special ceremony.

We were more than happy to honor our Esther's accomplishments

Thankfully, it was all inside!

Then later that day we attended Rachel's big day.  

As you can imagine she's been so excited for this.  You could just see the stress of school melt

away as the day got closer.  I loved seeing her smiley and laughing out loud.

As for the rest of us, we went a little better prepared with warmer clothes and blankets.

Nevertheless, Abby thought she was dying and became a puddle of tears.

So after Rachel walked, we took shelter at ground level by the bleachers.

I have such wonderful kids!

We've had a wonderful week with family around

and celebrating the kids accomplishing their goals.

I know it should be old hat having a child graduate from high school

and plan on leaving home especially since I've done it 3 times already.

But part of me feels kind of weird.

Our house is going to be so different without Rachel.

We get a taste of it this week because she's flown across country to visit her old friends

in North Carolina for a week.  They are all going to the beach there to celebrate

their graduation.  It sure is comforting to have faith in your children to go places,

but it's not comforting to think of all the crazy people they may come in contact with.

But I guess if my Joseph can go to China, and Sarah can go to Europe (in the fall), then I

guess Rachel can go to NC.

Graduation #4 is coming soon.  In July, Sarah will be our first college graduate!

It's hard to believe but she will be done!

More on that later this summer . . . 

Off to bed I go so that I be prepared for our plumbing to be fixed in the morning

4 toilets - 3 toilets + 15 people = Aaahhhhh!!!!!

Mormon Helping Hands weekend

Over the weekend, we had the opportunity to work along side other Mormons as we served our community.  It was a day of "Mormon Helping Hands" across the church.

You might have seen the bright yellow vests here or there.  Each community, where ever they may

be, had a service project for the members of the church to participate in.  

Ours has become a yearly cleaning of  San Pedro.

Several people asked us who we were and thanked us for helping out.

I can say we truly felt it was a pleasure to be of service.

Abby started off ready and willing to help clean.

But after about 15 minutes, the gloves came off, literally, and she became the sweeper.

Then she became the carrier of the water bottle.

Every little bit helps, right?

The only time I can get Matthew to smile for a picture is during our portraits.

What is it with boys and taking pictures!

That lady behind him sweeping her porch was one of those who was curious about who we were.

 This is one of the very interesting things we found along our way.

As a reward, we went to IHop for brunch.

This kinda funny looking clown (the kids thought he looked creepy, I think it's the hair) made the girls

some balloon animals.  Although he wasn't very chipper or funny, he was really very good

at making his shapes without popping the balloons.

We watched him for a long time at another table make Hello Kitty with a dress and all.

Pretty cool!

Matthew got another merrit badge and is getting closer to working on his Eagle for scouts.

We have just a few items left.

It's Sarah's spring break

This week, we've all been excited to have Sarah home for her spring break.

We've done some shopping, eating, playing, and relaxing.

Matthew was especially excited that he got to skip school (sshhh) 

so just he and Sarah could go to Disneyland.

Today, she and I went to the beach to eat lunch, soak up some sun and

 enjoy the sound of the pounding surf.

She even went to the temple with me and the rest of the youth from church.

                                                         It's sure nice to have her around.