Mommy's Appreciation

You do kind acts of service for your sisters all the time.  Your heart is full of goodness and charity.

 Henry, I just have to tell you how much I am appreciating you right now.  At the beginning of this year, you had some emotional troubles and would fight with me every time I mentioned any of your home work or piano practicing but you've turned a corner and are doing so well.  I attribute some of it to the winter time and you not knowing that it's actually early when you go to bed.  You are finally waking up early and are getting some things done in the morning. 

You are such a good sport.  You put up with so much girly stuff.  You're lucky I was a tomboy growing up and can relate to your love of everything boy.  I love having you around to balance out all the babies and tea parties.  Bring on the bugs!

You are committed to reading the Book of Mormon before your baptism in about four months, even though you've neglected it for a while.  Every morning you wake up and read two chapters, mark it off on your sticker chart and then go downstairs and practice your piano.  I haven't even had to ask you to do it for a few weeks and it's changed our entire relationship!  I'm so grateful that you've decided to do it without asking(or nagging and eventually getting frustrated).  You do so well in school and I appreciate all your hard work to get good scores.  You do your homework without many problems and do well on all your tests.  You got a 90% on your last Chinese test and your teacher told me that you cried with your head down on your desk.  I was so sad to hear that you didn't think you did well, but I'm so glad you care so much about doing well in school.  I just love everything about you and I hope you can continue to be so responsible. It really makes a big difference in our home.  Love you my son!

Man of Action

Henry at Goblin Vally, helping poor scraped-nosed Violette back to the car.  You're the best brother ever!

Henry, you are a machine!  What do you make? Energy! For the first two weeks of summer I have had you in an hour of tennis, and hour of swimming lessons, playing at parks or our back yard and then two hours of basketball camp along with activities at home and you're still not tired at bed time!  We take you on bike rides and hikes and you tirelessly play family and house with your sisters.  I have never seen you act tired! 

Well, I am excited to say that you are getting really great at tennis and you are also a great little swimmer.  I wanted to put you on swim team...but I don't want to bring you to practice at 7:30am and dedicate every Saturday to swim meets.  All the girls are still asleep that early anyway.  Maybe next year.  Anyway, life is so fun during the summer.  This next week we're having our family reunion and then visits from friends.  After that you have Chinese camp and then lego camp.  You don't even know I signed you up for that.  You're going to die of excitement! 

Anyway, I love you dear boy.  You're so much fun to have around and you're such a wonderful big brother.  Thanks for playing family and house and parents and babies with Bea all the time.  You even let Vivi hit you in the head with a wooden stick toy over and over today and still gave her a hug to make up. 
You really are the best. 

Rediculously Late 7th Birthday Post

You look all grown up in your Easter outfit.  There's no sweeter boy than you(especially when you have a giant egg full of candy!)

 Oh Enrico...  You asked me the other day why I haven't read you your Birthday blog post and my heart dropped to my stomach.  It has been at the top of my list for a month and a half, but I have just been trying to survive with all my projects on the farm and elsewhere.  I know you're too young to know just how busy a person could be because for you there is endless time, but life is seriously out of control right now, but it's all good stuff, so nothing to worry about.  I really love writing your Birthday post because it gives me a chance to remember all the wonderful things about you...

You love doing fun crafts with mom

You and your Lego table I made for you for Christmas

I spent many hours making this for you! You really love playing with your Legos on your table

You love cooking with your sister

At the First Lego League convention.  Next convention.  BronyCon(look it up)

Henry...I really cannot believe that you've been a part of this world for 7 years now.  People told me the time you have kids flies by and now I'm experiencing it first hand.  Just thinking about doubling your age and you're a teenager and will soon be going on a mission makes me miss you already.  As a seven year old, you couldn't be more wonderful.  I told you a while back that many of the moms I knew said their little boys didn't want to hug and kiss their moms anymore after they turned seven because they didn't have a need for such fluff anymore and you remembered that and just the other night you said, "mom, I still love to hug and kiss you and I'll never stop wanting too".  You still can't fall asleep unless I sing to you because you got so used to it when you were little, which can be a problem because there's just so many kids to sing to sleep these days!  I do love singing you to sleep though and I will never get tired of singing to you. 

I made you this costume for Halloween.  You had orange tights too, but it was too hot on Halloween night to wear them! lol. You're with your friend Nathan here who is Captain America!

Henry, this year has been an adventure.  You started going to a new school, Lone Peak Elementary, where you are in a Chinese immersion program and spend three hours per day learning Chinese.  After a semester of 1 1/2 hours of homework given by the English teacher every night, I felt inspired to take you out of the English half of the day and do home school for that half day.  Well, what we do is more like unschool/ski school but I have felt such peace with my decision because at night we can just focus on being together as a family, eating delicious gourmet meals that you help me prepare and I never have to yell at you from the kitchen to finish your homework while I'm frantically trying to cook dinner.  You went skiing over 25 days this year and are getting really good.  I pick you up from school at 11:45 and we head up to ski two to four days a week(once we skied 5 days in one week!) You and Bea amaze me as you bomb down the hill together.  Clementine has even come with us a few times.  Your ski school teachers at the Canyons said you were one of the best 6 year olds they have seen in a long time.  After skiing we go to the hot pool and hot tubs at the Waldorf and play until it's night time and they bring out the s'mores and I have to drag you away to head home and we finally get you to bed.  You really love ski season! 

Skiing in Idaho with the family

You met the real Santa this year.  He even let you pull his beard.  This wasn't him though. 

When you're not skiing you're pretend playing with your sisters.  Henry, one great thing about home schooling is that you've developed a good friendship with your sisters.  You adore Violette above all, you and Clementine get along great and you and Bea can have your moments of fighting, but you two spend so much time playing family and planning picnics together and I hear a ton of laughing while you're playing together.  You and Bea and Clementine are always being silly and enjoy making each other laugh.  I really hope you all stay really close and always see each other as peers and playmates. 

Skiing with Bea

S'mores during your sledding Birthday party

Henry, you also love to read.  You and I are reading the Fablehaven series together at night and during the day you frequently have a book in your hands you're reading.  Your favorite books are the Geronimo Stilton series, which you can read in one or two days.  You're also reading the entire Roald Dahl collection from Costco that you got for Christmas and are already halfway done.  You've been tested at a 5th grade reading level and tested gifted in everything else (however Utah sets the bar rather low, so I'm not sure what that really means).  I'm so grateful that you have such a keen mind and absorb information so easily.  I'm really glad you're in the Chinese program because you're actually learning something new and you really love it. We love your teacher, Mrs. Bringhurst, and she says you're one of the only kids in the class who can read Chinese sentences and answer questions in Chinese even without even having her read them out loud and can answer complex questions correctly.  You usually get 100% on every test and when you don't (and get a 92%), you come home so disappointed and say you don't want to talk about what happened at school. Just know, we're not pressuring you to be perfect! 

You writing Chinese

Home school astronomy lesson

Your Chinese class on Chinese New Year/Valentine's Day

 This year you're excited because you're reading the Book of Mormon through before your 8th Birthday so you can have a testimony of the gospel before you get baptized.  You have a love of the gospel and the scriptures and your knowledge of the scriptures stories and the doctrine is growing day by day.  We study the scriptures together every day at breakfast and even though you and your sisters wiggle and giggle, you somehow hear everything I am saying and can answer any question I ask.  You talk about gaining your testimony frequently and we hope you sincerely pray to feel the spirit tell you that the scriptures and the gospel are true. 

Right before the Turkey slaughter.  You cried when I killed "Dinner"

Birthday breakfast.  You wanted a Christmas tree pancake.

Playing in the snow with your dad in the back yard

This year we have welcomed many pets and farm animals to our family including 30 chickens, 3 turkeys(one eaten), a few random barn cats, many fish(all dead), two hairless rats, many jars of insects and just recently, a lizard.  You are strangely scared of touching the rats because you think they have diseases.  I don't blame you because you're born a New Yorker and a fear of rats comes with the territory.  You love being outside on the farm, collecting eggs, finding bugs, jumping on the trampoline, and creating your fun little world on our farm. 

We had our own arch at our cool campground

Playing in the goblins at Goblin Valley

For your Birthday your dad got you a new, totally awesome mountain bike and we're looking forward to getting you out on some trails and maybe even getting you into some kid races.  Your dad has been looking forward to the day he could ride bikes together with his son for a long time.  You are so lucky to have a dad who plays with you so much.  You and your sisters ask to go camping almost every day and we took you to San Rafael Swell to climb through slot canyons and play hide-and-go-seek in the goblins at Goblin Valley.  You love living in Utah although you miss your friends in Pittsburgh. We took you on a special trip to Chicago a few weeks ago to visit your best friend and cousin Wee-o which was so fun for you and you had a blast hanging out with all your cousins. 

You on a cliff overlooking the "Little Grand Canyon"

You and your cousins(and their cousins) at the Chicago Aquarium

Me and you at the top of the Willis (Sears) Tower

You and Wee-o at the top together

Playing at the Chicago Children's Museum

Henry, you are a special boy and I will never get tired of looking into your greenish grey eyes and freckled nose.  I love everything about you and I love your tender heart and sensitive spirit.  I hope you have a wonderful year my son.  I love you with all my heart.

Love,
Mommy

Lucky Boy!

Asleep at the Lodge. Stop waking up at 6am!!

 Henry is pretty much lucky that I'm his mom because I am doing some pretty crazy and fun things with him this year.  I'm so grateful not to be pregnant at this point in time so I'm taking advantage of it and doing some amazing things like homeschooling him half day so we can do things like ski three days a week, actually go to a museum and actually do some science, which I've not heard anything about since he started school so I assume they've done no science.  Shame.  He actually reads books at his level, has time to practice piano, study Chinese, READ SCRIPTURES and actually PLAY! I remember a talk at General Conference by one of the Apostles that said that Children don't have enough unstructured play time.  I'm trying to follow that advice and let him play Legos on his new Lego table I made him for Christmas for at least 1 hour per day. Plus, Justin and I play games like Monopoly, Life, Ticket to Ride and Bohnanza with him. Some of those say you have to be 13 to play, but he's doing great! One thing he could improve on is not waking up at the crack of dawn to say goodbye to Justin before he leaves for work.  He wakes up super early after staying up kind of late since we read a book together every night after we play games and sometimes gets cranky.  Check out this photo of him taking a nap on the chairs at the ski lodge at the Canyons.  He's so tired he just fell asleep on the chairs and missed an hour of good ski time.  What a bum!  He's an awesome little skier and he and Bea are taking lessons for the next 5 weeks.  The kids are so incredible here.  He's really not even amongst the really great ones.  On his first day, they called him a "wedger" and sent him down a level.  He got mad and is now motivated to never do the wedge again. 

Henry is so much fun right now and Justin and I are living it up and enjoying every minute of our time with him.  I just love you my darling boy!