Sharing the Love

The same weekend as Grant's eagle happened to also be Brenna's birthday.  It actually worked out well because Grandma and Grandpa McArthur were able to come and be here for it all!  Brenna chose to have a movie party this year with friends.  It was lovely-minus the epic nervous breakdown Harrison had during the the show due to the seating arrangements not being as he insisted.

Lego Movie came out just in time to take a little crew of friends.

Brenna invited Madison, Lilly, Kate, Kinley, Brinsley, Keira, Natalie and Audrey.   The movie was funny and indeed the Catchy Song was stuck in our heads for months. 

 Brenna is lucky to have a friends that can appreciate her exuberance-few can match it and few can handle it, so we are grateful for these buddies!

We got a kick out of the gift Kate gave her-she made wrapping paper out of a huge strip of butcher paper and she also typed up a poem for Brenna...

She knows her well, down to her fear of creepy dolls-those ventriloquist dummies may haunt her dreams forever.

The Sunday of Brenna's #9, Grant was ordained a teacher.  It was a jam packed day-we had the bishop over to do the ordination, because it was stake conference.  We started baking the drumstick dinner and sure enough, we set of the fire alarm, just as I warned would happen. But, no fire was started and we enjoyed the chicken as well as the chocolate strawberries and everything else she chose.

Brenna has a love for life and and intensity that does not quit.  She can out play/outlast/out talk nearly anyone and she is a gifted dancer.  

 We love having her in our family and learn a lot from her!  

 She has been asking for ages when she will get to have her room decorated, and it was finally her year!  Our neighbor extraordinaire Taryn, helped me decorate and paint and pick everything out.  

We painted one full day a week or so before her birthday and  rearranged the furniture, but we kept all the decorations as a birthday surprise.  She was definitely a happy gal!

Every person that came in would be asked to take a tour of her new room.  It did turn out really cute!

Harrison was happy because he inherited her old desk and now he has a station to display every football helmet 

and work on coloring pages from every professional sports league.

Her room was her big gift, but she still had to lay out and display every birthday item-small and large.  

Brenna girl is quite the organizer and very orderly.  We definitely appreciate that about her!

It will be so interesting and exciting to see where this girl goes in life.  This piece of art seemed fitting for her..

Of course, we have to give a small shout out to the day of love, the day Dave and I met, the day we almost had Brenna-Valentines Day.  We had our annual fancy dinner and school parties.  The last few years a boy name Bryson has asked Katelee to be his Valentine, this year someone beat him to the punch. When Jono asked her this go around, she said, "Sure"  She has had to tell someone she didn't like them 'like that' but that she liked Takkies (the spicy hot gross snack kids are eating these days).  She is totally trying to work the system.

Brenna took love into her own hands and asked Braxton to be her Valentine and Harrison made the best card in the history of cards to his 'girlfriend' Aria.

He wanted to make her a card and remembered that Charlie Brown had a pretty sweet poem he wrote to the Little Red Haired Girl, so Harrison copied it!  He prob didn't give credit to Charlie Brown when he was wooing Aria, but now we have that cleared up!  

 Katelee and I got to spend the evening together seeing Wicked.  

 I didn't want her to know the whole story so that she could be surprised with the conclusion of the production. She loved it.  I'm a clever little witch like that.  

Harrison continues to spout NFL statistics and color all helmets.  At our farewell family dinner for Blake and fam, he had some good conversations about the glory days of the NFL.  We will definitely miss Blake and his family, but are happy for them with their new adventure...and excited to have somewhere awesome to visit!!

New Year and a New Eagle

We started off 2019 with a determination to make it better than 2018...we are still going to shoot for 2020 to be exceeding 2019 because life seems to be kicking our trash! Sometimes we are just trying to stay in the boat and not be whisked away down a river of fear and circumstance.  We finished Christmas break and tried to continue life as usual-one such "usual" event is a cavity filling.  I never had any cavities growing up, so the status of our children's pearly whites never ceases to surprise me as we keep our dentist busy!

At least they have great movies and friends, what more could you ask for?!

We have had a good snowy winter thus far and Grant loved starting his Snowblitz program again.  He's becoming a great snowboarder.  We thought we'd branch out in the winter sports arena and attempt ice skating-it wasn't too shabby!

Harrison had preschool and the other peeps had the day off, so it worked out well, I don't anticipate Harrison taking to the ice so well!  

His cute preschool did have a fun field trip this month, so he still had fun times without skating.  We went to the library and did a little hunt and watched them sort books in the back room.  

While Harrison and friends were fascinated, it just gave me all the feels-someday I may just get my dream job there.  Ha! 

Because January is so bleak for many people, I guess I thought it would be a good month to be born in-just to add some color to the grey skies.  

Dave tried to have my mom make a surprise cake-my favorite angel food cake with a balloon inside that would pop when I cut through it.  It was a great attempt at a surprise/prank, but I had the last laugh because my knife just moved off the frosting and didn't slice through.  It was still a happy birthday to me!

Grant's birthday happened to fall on a day when Dave was a way on a convention.  It is the first time he has had to miss a birthday and he felt badly about it.  

Fourteen! Half way through junior high-Hallelujah!  I hear High School gets better?!  

We dined at Cheesecake Factory 

and came home for donuts and presents.  

The day itself was pretty low key, but that's partially because we had a huge celebration in honor of Mr Grant

 just a couple of days later- his eagle court of honor.

Hours of service, countless merit badge groaning, super fun camp outs and experiences and this kid did it!!

Grant has been so lucky to have the best scout leaders anyone could ever ask for-they were consistent, reliable, examples, fun and genuinely cared about him and every scout in their troop.  This is Jason Nigbur, Adam Van Leeuwen and Eric Harrison helping get his Eagle award on the newbie.

Their leadership, Jason's in particular, has influenced so many young men in our neighborhood.  There was a good handful that welcomed Grant into the Eagle's nest...

It was so fun to have so many Eagles there, this is only a portion of the line up.  It was neat having so much support from neighbors, family and friends.  

The program

was the perfect length.  We maybe gave a reminder to the grandpas to keep those prayers concise!  Haha! 

Grant's eagle project benefited the Kauri Sue Hamilton School that he has been volunteering at for a couple of years.  The Vice Principal that he has been working with came and spoke at the court of honor and was so complimentary of Grant.  We hope he never forgets that night-the leadership qualities and goodness he has inside can influence so many for good, if he chooses to continue to help in the community.  

Thank heavens for the moms who already had Eagle decor

 and Shannon who put it all together

-it looked awesome!  

One neighbor even made eagle heads to eat, so every detail was covered.  

Of course it was a proud parent moment for us.

No child can feel the depth of love you have for them.  How I wish my kids could see themselves through my eyes.  We love Grant so much and will always be here for him. My hope is he taps into his potential and makes choices so that he can have the bright future that so easily can be his. 

I had to add this pic-gotta love those goofballs in the back.  This is about when Brenna's friend Kate was telling us goodbye.  She knows all the extended family and was saying, "bye Shannon, bye Brenna's grandma."  Then she added, "Bye David James McArthur, you son of a Gun!"  Well, then!  If Dave is a Son of a Gun, I don't even want to venture what that makes Grant! Whatever he is now, we know he can and will be awesome!!!!

Holiday Cheer

It was the most wonderful time of the year!!!  December is jam packed with fun.  So much fun that it almost isn't fun, if you catch my drift.  We definitely love the Christmas festivities and traditions, more so than any other time of the year, but sometimes it is hard to enjoy it with the chaos and craziness and stress of life.  Looking back at our pictures of these events in December, we definitely had some fun.  A few highlights were: 

Going to see Santa at Scheels-and riding the Ferris Wheel afterwords.  The older kids had "better offers" so they didn't join in.  We had to pass along a message to the man in red as to what they have requested for gift suggestions.  Harrison was worried we would forget to tell Santa, but we followed through! 

Holiday music and arts were covered with Grant's choir concert-

His school choir is SO good!!  Mr Noyes is an incredible teacher and Grant has loved singing in junior high, which definitely makes this momma heart happy.  

Piano recital by the best piano students in town..

I got to go to the MoTab choir concert (amazing as always!!!) And rounding out our Christmas cultural experience were a couple of dance recitals...

tap for Katelee

And the Wizard of Oz ballet for Brenna.  She was obviously one of the munchkins...

We still tried to find time to do our annual nights out- caroling with neighbors...Harrison wore this beard from my Halloween gnome costume.  The residents at the Rehab I'm sure got a good kick out of it.  

Visiting downtown for the lights, dinner at City Creek,

 

(ok, this was actually the week after-Grant convinced Dave to stick his business card in a bowl to win free pizzas, and he tried to tell Grant there was no way.  Look who won free pizzas and went back for a second Pizza Studio dinner!)

 the Road Home donation, 

the Grand America ginger bread house

Dave wanted to try out Luminaria this year.  Unfortunately, Harrison got sick  and he and I stayed home, but it looked like it was a lot of fun! 

They all said it was pretty cool.  Maybe next year we will all go. 

While the entire month seems to go by in a blur, it can be tough for a little kid who has to be on his toes because someone knows if he is naughty or nice.  

Harrison got another visit from Santa-prob because it was necessary, but this time at preschool.  

We had to keep reminding him about being on the good list.  It's interesting that Santa has that effect on children.  I kept trying to emphasize Jesus and it would always be important to be good because Jesus always knows our hearts and what we are doing.  Harrison maybe mumbled under his breath (I don't care about Jesus)  Of course, I gave him a look of surprise and was taken back.  I asked him what he said and he looked me in the eye and told me, " You didn't hear anything."  I think he changed his ways and repented over the week because when we were taking the sacrament he drank his little water cup and then said to me, "Can you taste His blood, oh I can."  I think it's really sinking in!  Ha!  

After all the programs and plays and parties and gatherings were done, ready or not, Christmas Eve was here.  We were a little sad because Blake and Suzanne and Grace and Caitlyn are moving up to Idaho, so we realized it's our last Christmas Eve altogether.  We still had a great time with the nativity, dinner and games.  Grant's dreams came true when he opened his onesie.  He asked for one, but started laughing when he noticed his was lime green and had a little tail.  Good thing Emmalee got one too, they could look amazing together.  

Christmas morning had all of it's magic of every year past.  Harrison's whole existence right now is centered on football, so the mini helmets his siblings each gave him (from the Dollar Store coin machines) were a huge hit.  He got a bike he does not want and will refuse to ride I'm sure for a long time and football guys that are amazing to him.  

Katelee's highlights were a ukulele, a foot spa and some vans.  Grant loved his poster of a snowboarder and an air soft gun and Brenna was happy with some Barbies, doll accessories and headphones.  

  Perhaps the gift that received the most attention was an amazing little cross Harry bought me.  He explained to me it's all about Jesus-Christmas and the cross.  It really must have been on his mind this month.  When he was acting out a different time, I asked him if he should act like that.  And his random response was, "No, I have a book about Jesus."  I started to chuckle and he said, "I really do-it tells us all the things we should do."

While Jesus was really on Harrison's brain, I guess it is a matter of moving it from the book or brain to the heart and to the way of life.  It really is that way for all of us.  We often feel like we know what is true, what is right, what is moral.  When placed in the situations of life that challenge those beliefs, we all will have to see if we have what it takes to keep Jesus in our mind and in our hearts and remember what 'the book' tells us to do.  We have to remember that and DO IT.  Hopefully this year is a year of not only knowing, but doing.