The Fifth Wheelers: Summer Time!

Last Friday was the last day of school. In 11 weeks J will be starting 2nd grade and the following week our little B boy will be starting Kindergarten. It truly amazes me how fast the time goes. Wasn't it just yesterday that I was blogging about how my little baby J had rolled over for the first time? Nope, that was 7 years ago. Seven wonderful years later, two more amazing kids have joined our family and they are ALL growing up way too fast.

Yesterday we had the pleasure of Grandma and Grandpa Wheeler visiting us for dinner. The kids were very excited. J stood outside with a homemade spear (a triangle of paper stapled to a stick) and warned people to stay away because his grandparents were coming and they needed to be able to find our house. For those 10 minutes the front of our house was completely devoid of loiterers. Grandma and Grandpa found us just in time for dinner. Any guesses as to what B's first question for them was? You may have guessed it, "Do you have trains at your house?". It's a very, very important question and he received the answer he was looking for- YES! He can now safely visit Grandma and Grandpa Wheeler.....now he just needs to figure out the way to San Jose.

A few weeks ago we sat down with the boys and came up with our basic daily schedule for summer time. Because my children are early birds, our day starts at 7 AM or earlier with breakfast. After breakfast we do our morning chores- J sweeps the kitchen floor and B wipes the table. After chores we have "Learning Time". Each boy spent some time with me practicing some sign language (we use an app called "Baby Signs"). J reads on his own, I'm trying to get him to read as many chapter books as possible this summer, today he started "The Littles", he also reads one page of the Book of Mormon to me. Little B spends 20 minutes doing online preschool and I also read to him for about 20 minutes. Baby E spends this time dancing to the music from B's computer program, tending to her dollies (she likes to put them down for naps), cuddling with me and asking for "Appohs" and "Nananas" I was prepared for lots of whining and procrastinating this morning. I had done my best to prepare myself for massive amounts of cajoling. But, unexpectedly, the boys were excited to do their morning chores and learning work. YAY!

A few years ago I tried to start a monthly tradition of "Temple Picnics". I think we were able to do it twice. But I've decided that This summer we're going to start again. Today we went to the Mount Timpanogos Temple. We had jam sandwiches and juice while we watched a window washer clean the two or three story stained glass windows. Then I did my best to get a picture of the kids in front of the temple. I say it's a WIN! It shows my sweet kids. J, working hard to be a good big brother. B, interested in EVERYTHING around him. And Baby E, trying her best to assert her independence, after all, she's a big girl, she can walk!

Then we took a walk around the temple grounds.

It was just after noon when we took our walk and as we rounded the north side of the temple the sun was shining down through a cloud and you could see the sunbeams. I remember as a child thinking wherever the sunbeams were shining that must be where God was looking. Through my life I've come to know that he is watching over us night and day, sunbeam shining down on us or not. But today, as I walked behind my happy children, as I listened to my sweet B say, "Look, there's Ramoneye!" (If you ask him if he means Moroni he will say "Yeah, that's what I said" LOVE HIM!) I really did feel like these sunbeams were exactly what I believed them to be as a child. We were exactly where we needed to be today and we could see and feel heaven smiling down on us.

As we drove home the boys and I talked about why the temple is a special place, why Mommy and Daddy like to go serve and to worship there. When I was on my mission I had a very strong impression that teaching my children the principles of the gospel, teaching them about their Heavenly Father and their Savior Jesus Christ, would be the most important "Missionary Work" I could do. I love being a mother, I love my children with all my soul. I love cuddling them and reading to them and feeding them and teaching them. I love listening to them. They have beautiful souls and they really love God. They also like to make each other really mad, hey, nobody is perfect.

When we got home, baby E took her nap (have I ever mentioned that she is pretty much the best sleeper ever? because yeah, she is, she really, really likes to sleep) and the boys decided to spend a little of their piggy bank money on snow cones that our neighbors were selling. Today was a really hot day- close to 90 I think- and these kids really enjoyed their snow cones.