Twelve

Dallin turned 12!!  He's officially entered his journey to man-hood with this benchmark.  Twelve is a big deal.  He's graduated from Primary...which he was actually a little sad about...and has entered the great unknown of Young Men's!!  His first activity with the youth was a movie night at the bishop's house and he had a great time.  His second activity was combined with the YW and they had a karaoke night.  So far it's been great.  He was ordained to the office of Deacon and was given the Aaronic Priesthood on October 22, 2017.  Charlie gave him a very nice blessing, it was really special.  Mom and Dad Pratt came for the occasion.  Dallin is growing up and maturing into a fine young man.  He bears his testimony every fast Sunday and loves to pass the sacrament.  He is starting to become more responsible and proving that he's trustworthy.  He has a tender heart and a funny sense of humor.  He's picked great friends to hang out with and loves to play x-box.  I'm still forcing him to take piano lessons (which he's very talented at if he'd just take it serious!) and will perform in his first official recital in December.  Love this kid!!  Can't wait to see what the future holds for him.

School's Back!

Usually I'm so ready for school to start back up again but this year I wasn't feeling strongly one way or the other.  It just kinda came upon us and we rolled right back into a new schedule.  Dallin started middle school this year (yikes!), Kenzie is in 5th grade, and Lulu is in 1st grade.  I was a little worried about Dallin starting at a new school and taking on the big middle school but he's surprised me with how well he's been able to keep up with everything and has been very responsible.  I was also a little worried about Lulu having all day school for the first time, but she too has proven I had nothing to worry about.  They've all handled the new transitions very well.  Kenzie is excited to be the oldest grade at her school and LOVES her teacher, Mrs. Curry.

Kenzie, Brykin, and Lulu

While the big kids are in school I get to hang out with these two cuties whom we affectionately call Tweedle-dee and Tweedle-dum.  They sure are cute but they are also a handful!  When they aren't fighting for my attention or fighting with each other, they are drawing on walls/furniture/floors etc, or making huge toy messes all round the house, or helping me in the kitchen, or creating lovely pieces of art.  It's weird to think that in just another year I'll have four in school and in just three years ALL of them will be in school! Sheesh!  

Dallin and Lulu

Lulu adores her big brother and wants to do everything he's doing.  Dallin usually lets her play along but 9 times out of 10 Lulu ends up crying over something.  However, she keeps going back for more every.single.time.

Dallin's 11th Birthday

It's exciting times around here.  We got to celebrate Dallin's birthday turning 11 is pretty cool.  He's such a great kid and I can't say enough good things about him.  We were excited to watch him open his presents and eat donuts for breakfast.  Later that evening he picked to eat at Olive Garden for his birthday dinner.  Happy Birthday Dal!

All the October birthday people!

Museum Fun

The museum has a special exhibit right now on extreme mammals.  After you walk through the exhibit you can get your picture taken with some extreme mammals.  We had a lot of fun planning our pose.  Gennie didn't want to take part, party pooper.  Speaking of pooper...where's Lulu? LOL!!

Fun Run

The kid's school, Canyon Creek Elementary, held it's annual fun run and the kids were excited to get out there and run and have some fun.  Lulu blew us away with the number of laps she ran, I don't think she ever stopped!  It was fun to watch and cheer them on!

Dallin Crossed Over

Since Dallin's cub master was moving and they weren't having another pack meeting before his birthday, they decided to cross Dallin over into 11-yr old scouts a few weeks early.  I think they really did it because he had completely outgrown his cub scout shirt, lol!

It was a pretty cool ceremony and I felt really proud of Dallin and his commitment to the scouting program.  He goes each week willingly and participates without complaint and he's been a good example to the other boys.  But I must admit I won't miss those pack meetings!

We got Dallin his new scout shirt and I painstakingly sewed on his new patches.  No easy task!

First Day of School

Well, here we are!!  Summer has come to a close and school is now back in session.  This year Dallin is the big man on campus in the 5th grade.  His teacher this year is Ms Clayton.  Kenzie is in 4th grade and has Mrs. Penrod.  And our Alayna is FINALLY old enough to go to Kindergarten!!  Lulu started school a few days after Dallin and Kenzie.  She attends every morning for 1/2 the day.  Her teacher is Mr. Candelarie.  She loves riding the bus with her big brother and sister.  We're excited for a new school year at Canyon Creek Elementary.

Dallin and Kenzie

Dallin and Kenzie have always been good buddies.  They have, for the most part, gotten along and have played so well together throughout the years.  I've always feared that as they get older their bond and friendship will diminish being replaced by friends and other interests.  Luckily this has not happened yet.  Kenzie still thinks every silly little thing Dallin says is the funniest thing ever and Dallin still enjoys entertaining her and playing with Kenzie.  They have such vivid imaginations.  They'll go out in the backyard and pretend all sorts of things like re-enacting The Hobbit, Star Wars, or Minecraft.  They create all sorts of characters and scenarios, it's pretty amazing.  One of their favorite things to do together is to have sleepovers in Kenzie's room and stay up late talking and laughing until Dad goes in and tells them to go to sleep.  I feel an overwhelming sense of gratitude for the children I've been entrusted with and the love we have for each other and the blessing it is for me to be sealed to them for eternity.  I'm so lucky to be their mom and to see them grow and mature and develop into these remarkable people.  These two kids, well actually all my kids, are such good kids and have good hearts and righteous desires.  I learn so much from them and I love them to the moon and back!  

Dallin's 10th Birthday

Dal turned double digits this year.  This boy is growing and growing so much in all aspects of his life.  He's growing out of his clothes, he's growing in maturity, growing in his testimony, and growing in his knowledge at school.  He has a lot of friends that love to hang out with him.  His favorites right now are Star Wars, Legos, Xbox, football, soccer, Studio C, and more Xbox.  Dallin's 4th-grade teacher is British and has the accent to go with it, consequently, Dallin has picked up on her accent and can imitate it perfectly.  It always cracks us up when he does it.  He knows how to make everyone laugh with his silly sense of humor and wild imagination.  He is doing really well on the piano and likes to play Star Wars songs.  Every Fast Sunday at church Dallin bears his testimony.  He has a simple but strong testimony that Heavenly Father is real and knows him and that the church is true.  He's starting to read the Book Of Mormon for the second time and is working on memorizing the Articles of Faith so he can earn $100 from Grandpa Foutz.

He's such a good kid and has a good heart.  He loves his sisters and they adore him.  Dallin has such great potential and I know he'll do many great things in his life.  I love this boy!

Happy Birthday, Dal!

Back to School

Well, the kids are all back in school now!  The summer went by fast but I am happy to be back on a schedule.  Kenzie is in 3rd grade with Mrs. Penrod (the same teacher Dallin had last year).  Dallin is in 4th grade with Mrs. Clayton.  And Lulu is back for another year of preschool with Miss Molly.

Last Day of School

Finally, the day has arrived!! Summer vacation has officially begun.  I'll admit I am ready for a break from the routine but I hope we can make the most of our summer.  We have a couple of trips planned and some fun playdates.  Hopefully, Dallin won't sit and play the Xbox all summer long!

Dallin Soccer

We enjoyed watching Dallin play soccer once again this spring.  His team was really good, going undefeated all season.  They won or tied all of their games.  They played on a bigger field this year with eight boys on the field.  I think at age 8/9 they are starting to really understand the concept of the game.

Bat-mobile

It's Pinewood Derby time again.  This year Dallin decided to make a bat-mobile or as Charlie said the Batman mini-van.  After lots of sanding and painting and then placing the weights in the optimum place the bat-mobile didn't disappoint.  Dallin got third place overall!  Yay!

The Truth Will Set You Free

When people ask you in passing "how are you and the kids doing?" I always say we're fine because, really, people don't want to hear anything more than that and really, I don't want to tell them more than that 99% of the time.  But I don't want life to pass by without being true to our reality.  When I look back and read old family journals I never really get what I'm hoping to find.  I don't want to hear the obligatory "everything's fine" answer.  I want to know what their lives were really like and how situations made them feel or how they handled different trials that came up.  Those are the kinds of things we can learn from and relate to and therefore making these family members more real to us.

That's what I try to do here.  I try to document real life here on this blog for my kids to read later and so that they will know what life in the Pratt family was really like.  I don't sugar-coat anything with the hope that I can formulate into words (with my pea-sized brain and no writing skills whatsoever) our struggles, triumphs, thoughts, feelings, and emotions.  My hope is that my kids will enjoy reading about their lives as children as well as the mental thoughts of their mother and how we handled this journey through this life together.

With that in mind, we've been struggling with our oldest and his troubles with telling the truth.  Charlie and I feel like we talk to him ALL THE TIME about how important it is to be truthful.  And yet, he still lies.  We aren't quite sure why because it will be a really silly thing to lie about like did you brush your teeth, or did you put your homework in your backpack?  Other times he'll do something he's not supposed to do, like playing his sister's iPod in his bedroom, and then hide it and lie about it.  Or he will go over to his friend's house to play and they end up playing video games when he's clearly been told not to.  When he's questioned about it he will lie and say they just played legos the whole time.

It's so frustrating!  We've talked to him about how important it is for Mom and Dad to be able to trust him.  We talk to him about how Heavenly Father thinks it's SO important that you can't even go into the temple if you lie.  We've talked to him about how if he's been known to lie in the past then when he does tell the truth about an important issue, we won't know when to believe him.  We've also talked about how he can pray and ask for help in reminding him to tell the truth.  We've had numerous FHE lessons on the topic.  We have read in the scriptures and in the Friend Magazine about honesty.  He, himself, has also taught a few lessons on honesty for FHE.  And yet for some reason he struggles.

Finally, the last incident of dishonesty brought me to my knees in prayer.  I had prayed before to know how to help Dallin but this time I really poured my heart out to God.  And the inspiration came.  I had a heart-to-heart talk with Dallin and he opened up to me about how hard it is for him to be honest sometimes and he doesn't want to lie, he just does it because he doesn't want to get in trouble and he doesn't want to disappoint us.  I told him that when he lies it's more disappointing than if he were to just tell the truth.  I put the responsibility of telling the truth on his shoulders.  I told him that if he wants to be perfect at telling the truth he could, he just needs to make the decision for himself.  He needs to decide for himself that he's not going to lie anymore.  I reminded him that he can pray for help and Heavenly Father will help him.

After that last talk and a two-week suspension from video games, we have not had another incident with dishonesty.  I'm not saying we're totally out of the woods because I know that there's a possibility that the issue could come up again, but I'm truly thankful for the guidance from the Holy Ghost that evening to help me know what to say to Dallin that might finally sink in for him.  I know that God knows my children way better than I do and I'm thankful that he's there to help me and give me guidance.

Black Dragons

Dallin played on a basketball team for the first time this season.  He learned A LOT!  He improved so much from the beginning of the season to the end.  I think he had a pretty good time.  They ended up tying two games, winning 2, and they lost 4.  But it was fun to watch them play and improve. Go Black Dragons!

"Nuts"

The third graders at Canyon Creek Elementary School put on a performance of "Nuts".  They sang songs about the life cycle of an acorn and how the big bad squirrels steal the nuts.  They each had a speaking part as well.  It was very well done.  Dallin was an acorn with we all agreed suited him well, he can be pretty nutty at times!