Up and Onward

The Odgen Temple is being re-dedicated today. For us this means that we don't have regular church and all members ages 8 and up (with recommends) get to attend one of three dedicatory sessions broadcast to our stake center.  Adam spent a lot of time meeting with kids over 8 and youth from our ward for recommends so they would be able to attend the dedication.

 

Temple dedications are cool in and of themselves, but throw in a Sunday with Adam home all day and not having to perform normal church responsibilities and you have the makings of a GREAT day. Jameson is the only one from our family who won't be attending, but since it is right during nap time and Grandma will be here with him, I don't think he will even notice.

Jameson remembers touring the Odgen Temple and often talks about "Jesus' house".  This past summer we received the painting we had made in China that hangs in our main living area.  It is a very popular picture, but for us it is cool because it really represents our family.  There are 4 children around the savior and each one looks kind of like one of our kids.

Jameson likes to point to each of the kids in the picture and say, "That's Britton, that's Jenna, that's Korinne and that's me!"  One day he walked by it and said to Adam, "Jesus loves me."  I think he really believes he is the one in the picture.

J-mo's preschool e-mailed me a picture this week.

They said he just loves taking the other kids on rides with this tricycle and is always laughing and is loved by all.  Because it is a research program one of the teachers will make a home visit at some point during the semester and we had our home visit this past Friday.  The teacher told me about this tricycle and I told her I had received a picture and joked that he is probably the only one strong enough to take other kids on a ride and she just laughed and said, "Yes, I think you are right!" I'm glad to know he is good about sharing at school and is always happy and laughing.  If he is going to have tempter tantrums I would rather he have them at home rather than at school. :-)

Britton's 7th grade school picture.

 

Britton keeps himself busy during the school year with soccer, piano, cello, scouts, homework and READING.  I still threaten to take away books on a daily basis because sometimes (all the time) he would rather read than get other stuff done.  He has been asking to take private cello lessons for a long time so this last summer we told him he could take cello lessons for the summer but that was it.  We would pay for piano lessons but since he has an opportunity to take orchestra at school we were only going to do piano.  Well, at the end of the summer Britton wanted to continue his private cello lessons so he decided he would pay for the lessons himself with lawn mowing money from the summer.  Fortunately we have an excellent cellist in our ward who is a music major at the University and teaches cello pretty inexpensively so it works out well.

 

Jenna's 6th grade school picture.

 

I think Jenna has adjusted to life at middle school and is really enjoying it.  She has always loved school so throw in a few different teachers, lockers, more choices at lunch time and you have a happy girl.  Adam measured her this last week and she is now 5'3" tall, just an inch shorter than me.  It won't be long before she passes me up completely.

 

Last week was our primary program at church.  It was Jenna's primary program before she goes into Young Women's in February.  Korinne told me before the program that she would say her part in the microphone, but she wasn't going to look up at all.  I said that was just fine.  She has come a long way since last year when she refused to stand up to sing the songs with the rest of the kids.  It wouldn't have been so bad except she was on the front row.  In her effort to not have people look at her she had everyone looking at her. This year she understood that she just needed to do what she was supposed to do and guess what? No one would look at her when there were 100 other kids around.  Besides, we were all too busy laughing at the sunbeams to notice anyone else and I'm happy to say they did not disappoint this year! The sunbeams really make it the most entertaining sacrament meeting of the year.  If Jameson had been born just 7 days earlier he would have been in the Primary program next year. Whoa! Good thing we still have another year.  I don't think the primary program is ready for J-mo yet! 

 

I can't remember if I blogged this yet but I was called to be a Family History Consultant specifically for the youth of our ward this summer.  After I gave a 5th Sunday lesson for all of the youth several of them went home and got started.  To help these kids get going and see the excitement is fun for me.  Britton came home after my first lesson and by the end of the night had found 27 people that need temple work!  He was thrilled. Many of the youth, Britton included, have accepted Elder Neil A Anderson's Temple Challenge issued this summer to find as many names as they do baptisms in the temple.  Once these kids realize that they can find all of their aunts/uncles and thousands of cousins and not just their direct line ancestors (which have mostly been done) they get really excited and it doesn't take them too long to start finding people.