8.15.2014 - packer park day

The original Packer family right here. But I have to say, I quite love every addition to our family. (you can barely see mom poking her head out behind Mandi)

Two days after we rode the surrey, we headed back up to Brigham for our reunion. Due to different circumstances we ended up just having a relaxing afternoon at the park. I thought it was perfect. There was some awesome food (minus the disastrous  caramel cake that I made), laughing, fishing, cute babies, baseball, climbing on bleachers, grandpa stories, and candy-kabobs (in honor of Levi since it was his birthday that day). 

 ^^My brothers^^

 ^^two super gorgeous people right there, Jaina's tooth was so loose^^ 

 ^^ cuteness right there^^

^^and there^^

 ^^grandpa's cow and chicken stories^^

Happy birthday buddy. It was a good day indeed.

8.13.2014 - a surrey ride and awesome parents

<< I will be posting the remainder of some of our summer activities over the next week. Need to document those good times before we enter this beautiful, wonderful season coming up. >>

One of our summer bucket list items was to go on a surrey ride with Grandma Packer. We rode around my hometown and pulled up to Peach City for some lemon custard. The boys were in heaven, but they did say that we were going too slow. We told them that's how it was back in the day. To go anywhere was quite a process. And then we talked about how grateful we are for fast cars and air conditioning!

Speaking of fast cars. Dad pulled up next to us. Now there's a difference in a few years.

Afterwards we went to Grandpa's shop where he showed the boys his most recent project with his wood business. Some of my favorites from his business are the train set, bear house (patterned after the one I got for Christmas when I was a little girl), first toys, and my most favorite is the nativity. Although the airplanes we are looking at here is up pretty high on the list, for sure it is the boys new favorite. My dad is incredibly talented. 

I love when he talks with my children. They always leave with more knowledge and a hurt tummy from all the laughing.

<< Thirteen years ago I was living in my hometown getting ready to move away. I still remember my mom waking me up and telling me what had happened and running downstairs to watch the news with my dad and the moment the second plane hit, dad saying that this was definitely a terrorist attack. I will never forget that day. Lots of my thoughts from this post>>

the most best

Yesterday was one of those really good days. It rained, we made chocolate sheet cake, and I did not spend the evening nagging.

It started after school. The boys had their first piano lessons, which went really well, and while driving home the rain was coming down and we talked about how we would go home and bake our FHE treat. The boys were awesome at getting their homework done and so they got to play minecraft for a few minutes. 

Then we had spaghetti and Corbin talked about what we would be doing for our activity. He said he did not care what we did, he just wanted all of us there with no distractions. 

For our song we sang The Family is of God. That song gets me every time, and singing it last night with our whole family (even Rudger was trying to pick up a few words) was almost too much.

"Our Father has a family. It's me! It's you, all others too: we are His children. He sent each one of us to earth, through birth, To live and learn here in families." 
(I love what my sister in law had to say about this song!)

Hearing our children sing these words brings me so much happiness. They know what so many in this world don't. They know who they come from. They understand that families are the most important relationships we'll ever have.

A few weeks ago I was tucking Levi in bed and he said something to me that is so simple, yet so wise coming from a six year old. 

"We are a family, and that's the most best!"

My heart is so happy that he knows this. And that each one of our children know this. The family is of God and that really is the most best thing we can know on this earth.

(I wish I had a picture of last nights activity. Corbin decided he wanted me to read extra Harry Potter than the usual evening reading. I sat on the floor, Rudger sat on my lap, Levi sat in the chair behind me and played with my hair, Corbin and Taylor laid on the floor with their blankets, and daddy sat in his chair. And we all listened to how Harry Potter realized that Sirius Black was HIS family.)  

how we weekend - labor day weekend

I am pretty certain I have mentioned a time or two that we quite love our neighborhood. We love these good people that are influencing our children's lives. Monday morning we went for a hike with two of the families. It was happy craziness and the boys were in adventure heaven.

 

 I promise they really did have shoes on the hike.

Other events of the weekend included: preserving green beans and green peppers, canning salsa, car work all day, and dinner with family. One of our children wanted to help from start to finish. The others wanted to play and watch way too much television.

And that would explain why my kitchen looked like this.

first week and our focus

We rode our bikes today. It's two miles to our school and the boys were hot. Especially Tay. 

We did it. We made it through the first week of school. Corbin loves feeling grown up and seeing his friends again. Taylor loves all the new school supplies. Levi thinks all day is pretty long. Rudger had a couple of naughty moments the first day and then has been right by my side the rest of the week, until his brothers come home. He misses them like crazy. For me, I think this has been one of my busiest weeks of my year (if you don't count May) I'm exhausted and ready for a weekend. 

Last Sunday we had our Back to School Feast. And we introduced our focus for the year.  

School is a totally different place than home. It's easy for kids to get caught up in what is "cool", even if it is not right. I am realizing that these boys are growing at a rapid rate and my days of being their biggest influence is quickly fading as we head into these coming years. I want them to STAND FOR SOMETHING. I hope they stand up for what is right, stand up for truth and goodness, stand up for others, stand up for good values. As we go through this coming year, each month we will be focusing on 10 virtues that President Hinckley talks about in his book. I am really excited about this! I have a feeling it will be a great year!

the beginning of the 2014/2015 school year

And just like that we are back in school. All three of them, gone...all day long. My heart will be aching for them, but I am mostly worried about Rudger. That boy loves his bruders. 

 And obviously he wants to be just like them.

the last of the summer light

I took this picture a couple of evenings ago. The sun was setting and the boys had been playing together most of the day. But then it reminded me that summer is coming to an end. No more sleeping in and eating breakfast when it is almost lunch time. No more late night movie nights on a Wednesday. No more spontaneous activities. No more playing minecraft for way too long during the days. (not too sad about that one). 

We didn't do anything extravagant this year. We had a great balance of boredom, adventure, laziness, and friends. And that made it a good, memorable summer. I'm going to miss it. A lot.