Well Hello Ahma!!!
I am repenting and getting back to our letters! I love writing letters to you and I’ve just let life get in the way. NO MORE! I feel like life is moving so quickly, before I know it I’m going to be losing another kid to college – and that kid will be Xander!
Virginia is absolutely beautiful in spring. (Well, except today. It is down pouring rain – but I don’t mind because my flowers and grass are LOVING IT! And Nick gets to wear his rain boots – so win win!) I took the boys out for a little walk the other day and Nick yelled “Mom! It’s snowing on these trees!!!” They really do look like popcorn popping! I do singing time in primary so of course I have my kids sing that song every week, because it is literally happening outside right now. All the leaves are back on the trees and it feels like the world is coming alive again.
Ben just finished his last final yesterday. He has done
so well in school and we are so proud of him. He took some pretty hard classes
this semester. I know that because my son, who only gets “A’s” in classes said
he was thrilled to be getting a B in one class. I think college has been good
for Ben. He didn’t have to try very hard to get good grades in high school.
Things have come pretty easily to him, but in college he has had to work and
re-learn how to study!
Tomorrow he moves out of the dorms and into an apartment
with 6 other guys. It is actually one Heather manages! He is really excited for
things I know he has always taken for granted – like a washer and dryer in
unit, a garage, not walking 20 minutes to his car for a parking space, curbside
parking, and other little things you don’t realize how lucky you are to have
them until you don’t anymore. I am excited for his new adventure, but sad his
time in the dorms is already over.
Kallie has her senior prom tomorrow. I will load pictures
to your frame. I just mailed out her graduation cards! Hopefully you get that
before this letter! Her big debate right now is when to cut her hair. She made
a goal for herself (this girl is always setting goals) to grow her hair out for
one full year without cutting it. The year mark just happened, and now she is
wondering if she cuts it before graduation – or waits till after. She has a
friend who is in the cosmetology program and they have decided to let her cut
Kallie’s hair. They are doing a sleep over after prom and I wouldn’t be
surprised if she came home with shorter hair. Also, she made this yellow skirt all by herself!
Kallie is auditioning for the BYU marching band. She has to submit 5 scales, 3 etudes, and a director’s recommendation. She has already started to submit her pieces, but of course she isn’t happy with the recordings so she is re-doing them. She has until May 1 to submit everything, then she finds out on May 15th if she gets in. The BYU marching band has about 400 people apply and only 250 spots. These are not 250 new spots – the ones already in the band stay in and music majors get in automatically – so it is much much smaller than that. So Ahma, start praying she gets into marching band because she has loved it in high school!
Andrew. Oh Andrew. Andrew has decided he wants to grow
his hair out. Great. Ben went through this stage too, I’m game. Problem. Andrew
has very very thick hair and doesn’t like to do his hair. He says the messy,
just woke up style is his style. It has gotten very long and is now in his
eyes. Thankfully he has started soccer and doesn’t want to have to put it up in
a pony tail, so he asked me to trim it. I had very strict instructions. Cut the
back with a #6, trim 2 inches off the top, no blending the side. Oh Ahma, it
looks like he went in for a hair cut and left halfway through. I’m trying to be
supportive and not say anything, but it is killing me. I’ll add a few pictures.
These are him at school. Yes, dressed for the day.
I can’t complain too much though because he is such a
great kid. He just turned 15 and for his birthday Chris and Ligaya rented a u
haul trailer and brought him their lawn mower that stopped working. You’d think
he just won the lottery! Every night before I go to bed I have to make sure I open
the door into the garage to make sure I don’t accidently lock him in there
(yes, that has happened. We now have a hidden key in the garage for such events).
Andrew will lose time in the garage. He puts a show or book on his headphones
and starts to tinker around with all the projects. We have a three car garage
and can only…BARELY….fit my van into it. I swear this little hobby shop was
only supposed to be for the motorcycle we got him for his 14th
birthday to restore. Now we have 4 motorcycles, 2 lawn mowers, 7-8 weed whackers
he got for free from Facebook, and so many random tools. Did I mention none of
these things currently run or work? Again, I am supportive….I am supportive…I
am supportive (my mantra followed by “Patience is a virtue”.
Zack. I can’t quite put my finger on Zack and his
personality. He changes like the wind. One week he is all about broadway musicals
– learns every word, then the next week is all about playing the guitar, the
week after that he is into basketball, then only dirt bikes. So it is hard to
really say what Zack is up to – so I’ll tell you about his latest venture.
Zack has a friend who sits at his table at school. Zack
took his easter candy to school one day and had it out on his desk. The friend
asked if he could have a mini Hershey bar. Zack said yes, for $0.50. The kid
paid $0.50. A light bulb went off. Zack came home and worked for 3 hours in his
room on a zoom call with his business partners. They came up with a menu,
printed it out, divided who sold what, and when. The next day he took a large
lunchbox to school stuffed with chocolate candies (he was assigned chocolates,
one friend drinks, another sours). Zack came home and made over $40 in one day.
He didn’t like that he had to split his money with 2
other people, so he decided to leave the business partnership and go solo. I
took him to the dollar store where he spent $20 of his profits and restocked –
and filled orders he had written down on his school agenda. It was fun to watch
him figure out which store had the best prices and selection. Dollar tree, if
you’re curious.
The next day he stocked up on the chocolates, sours, and orders. He went to school and came home with a BAG full of cash. He had made over $50 and was over the moon! The next day he had made $20. The day after that he came home crushed. He had only made $3. Apparently, word got around that he was expensive and the kids started buying from his ex-business partner instead. He was in tears. His investment and business plan had blown up. He decided to cash in and leave the candy selling world behind.
The next day at school he didn’t take his candy stock to sell. Everyone came up to him wanting to buy because the other girl had raised her prices overnight. Zack told them he was out and now they could pay the higher price since they didn’t appreciate his good deals. He’s had several kids come up and request him to go back into business. He wasn’t going to budge….but then I found a stash of easter candy I forgot about. Mini chocolates. I told him he could have them, if he wanted them. Last night he put his ice packs in the freezer…..so I guess we might be back in business! I’ll let you know!
I have to explain how he would sell the candy though. He
wears a large sweatshirt, puts his lunch box under his sweatshirt and then
carries it out onto the playground. He sits under one tree and has his people
come find him – or they can pass him a note with an order that he will deliver
the next day. Why does this sound like drug dealing to me?
Nick is one of the loudest kids I have ever met. He
literally walks into every room and roars like a lion or yells HELLO! His quiet
switch is not properly installed. Nick is always happy, always busy, always
talking, always running (can’t walk), and always up for an adventure. He loves people,
going, and just being out in the world.
Nick goes to preschool 4 times a week for 3 hours. He is
his teachers’ golden child. He is there as a peer model for speech, and excels in
that department. His best friend is Joseph. Joseph is black. Joseph doesn’t
look anything like Nick. Nick was so worried the other day because he and Joseph
both wore a super hero shirt and he was so nervous his teacher wouldn’t be able
to tell them apart. Every day they meet in the parking lot, hold hands, and
walk in. At the end of the day it is several yellings of “BYE JOSEPH” “BYE NICK”
across the parking lot until we can finally get them buckled in their car
seats. He told his teacher he needs more pictures with Joseph. I’ll send you
one.
Nick loves primary. Last week he was sick with a fever
and couldn’t go to church. Chris and I both had to be there so he just hung in
the clerks office with Chris while he did his stuff. Nick was in tears when he
found out his couldn’t go to class with his friends. It broke my heart! Thankfully
we went and saw Chris and Ligaya that night, so life was good again.
Xander is growing and changing so quickly I just can’t keep up! He is Nick’s little shadow. Xander will parrot anything you say and asks where everyone is – by name – every morning when he wakes up. He loves to marco polo Ben and chat with him. Every time the garage door opens, a motorcycle drives by, or a lawn mower starts up he yells “ANDREW!!!”. When he asks where Andrew is he always runs to the windows that look over the backyard since Andrew is normally in the yard.
Xander is opposite of Nick, in that he HATES church and
nursery. When Chris takes him to nursery he cries so hard his little face is
all rashy. We have now worked up to a solid 10 minutes in nursery before he
needs to be taken out. Baby steps…..
My days are playing with kids, cleaning up messes so
Xander can make more messes, making food, buying food, putting away food, laundry,
cuddles, living in my car, and enjoying quiet time. I love doing singing time
in primary and hanging out with the kids there. Xander has decided he doesn’t
like how I decorate or organize things – so he has taken it upon himself to change
everything. I opened the kitchen drawer today and found diapers and wipes. Such
is just an average event of the day. I lost my glasses for over a week. Xander put
them away. In the cleaning closet. He is a very busy little man!
We had a really fun Easter this year. Nick was very excited to collect eggs – whereas Xander didn’t get the concept. He kept bringing me rocks from the dirt instead of eggs to put in his basket. It was adorable!
We hide the kids baskets each year – and each year we make it really hard on one kid. This year that kid was Andrew. Andrew can go through a roll of duck tape in a matter of minutes! He went to a birthday party the night before and actually wrapped the poor kids’ gift in white duck tape. He had some left over – so we wrapped his Easter basket in the white duck tape. I loved how much fun he had with it!
I can’t believe we have
had 2 temple open houses in the last year! What a huge blessing! First the
Washington DC open house and now we have one just south of us in Richmond. I
think we will make Richmond our home temple so we don’t have to deal with DC
traffic. It is a much smaller temple, but so beautiful. There are huge churches
on every corner (not LDS ones) so it fits right in!
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Nick was a big fan of the little stockings they put over your shoes. He loved that someone put them on his feet and was a little upset when they wanted to take them off him! Xander on the other hand just wanted to go swimming in the baptismal font. Kallie loved seeing the bridal room, and the boys thought it was funny some people thought the sealing room was actually a “ceiling” room.
This summer is going to be nuts and I’m not ready at all. While Christopher and Kallie are in Vienna I will be driving from VA to UT by myself with Andrew, Zack, Nick, and Xander. Sounds like a fair trade right? Thankfully we have tons of hotel points so I can do the drive over 4 or 5 days and make sure to get hotels with pools!
Hopefully I will find my way to California to come see you! I hear you’ve had quite a few projects done at your house! And, sadly, I don’t know any of your feral cats names – I know you must have at least a handful! We will be out west from mid June until the 20 something of July. We have to head back so Andrew can start band camp! I will fly back to Utah with Kallie and get her all set up and settled in her dorm. Crazy that I will have 2 at BYU! It feels like we were just there days ago and now I have 2 there! Crazy how fast time goes by!
I love you and think of you all the time. Every time I
see my kids with their bears or Kallie with Ahba bear it makes me smile. I love
that Ahba bear is the ultimate prize here. Very, very rarely will Kallie bestow
the honor of sleeping with Ahba bear, so when she does it is a huge deal at our
house. I’m not sure how it is going to be when she takes him to college. Xander
calls the build a bear bears you gave to the kids “babies” and needs to cuddle
with one before he goes to bed. He isn’t a fan of the snowsuit on his – so we
will have to take him shopping. Xander is obsessed with pockets – and that outfit
doesn’t have pockets!
