taking care

i found these two teenagers with their phone propped on the garbage can, timer 

set, taking pics with their little sis.  

i loved it.

they take good care of her.

...and each other, right abe?!  i've got your back;)

i have felt lately how important families are...it's where it's at.

it's worth my best effort.  

satan tries so hard to discourage, minimize, and distract families.  

i have been hard on myself lately.  i know sadie leaves in one year and what will she remember about her mom?  have i taught her all the important things?!  i fall short all the time! i don't cook well, i hate grocery shopping, but i hope at the end of the day, my kids feel loved and know that i have a strong testimony.  i trust the prophets and am striving hard to follow them completely.  i know by keeping the commandments and making good choices we are blessed and led, because i have had this happen and felt it in our family.   i am grateful that we are put in families to love and support each other-to build each other and use our faith to help each other.  

'GOD GAVE US FAMILIES, TO HELP US BECOME WHAT HE WANTS US TO BE.  THIS IS HOW HE SHARES HIS LOVE.  FOR THE FAMILY IS OF GOD.' 

-one of my favorite primary hymns

do something to take care of your family today.

peace-out.

feels like fall

sunday we drove through guardsman pass.  the leaves were beautiful. 

a few days later, the weather shifted and the cool air brought visions of colorful leaves on my table and pumpkin steamers waiting for the kids as they arrived home from school, with the excitement of the crisp, fall surrounding us.

dave took me on a drive to search for leaves.

it started pouring rain.  dave braved the wet to collect branches with beautiful colors while viv and i warmly waited in the car.

"chop me a green one dada!!"--vivian

the drive was awesome, but once we arrived home, my vision didn't go quite as expected.  one thing led to another and i didn't have time to arrange the leaves, the kids came home and i spilled the steamer all over the kitchen.  

it was a mess!  

later that afternoon, when the chaos had died down, i came into the kitchen 

and dave had arranged the leaves for me. 

 i love them.  and him.

they make my heart happy every time i look at them.

(vivian helping herself to the treat cupboard also makes me smile)

HAPPY FALL!!

it's here, and i'm excited.

it works!

about halfway through the school year last year, max started to get stomach aches and feel sick or just "too tired" to go to school.  it lasted a couple weeks and i knew something was up.  i went in for a little chat with his teacher to see if something was going on at school.  something was giving him stress and he wasn't giving me much information.  you have to understand that max likes to be optimistic.  he really does not like to complain and so when i would ask him about school, his response would be something like, "it's like 51% good and 49%bad."  

i learned a lot in the few minutes i visited with his teachers.  his english teacher thought he was doing great and didn't see any red flags in his behavior, but his spanish teacher told me she had been pushing him a bit harder the last couple weeks.  most kids in the class were speaking, but max didn't want to speak.  she said he was behind, but she knew he could understand her, so despite his timidness and some tears, she'd been pushing him a little harder to speak to her and in front of the class. ah-hah!!  this explained his behavior!  

on the way home, the thought cross my mind, 'say family prayers for max'-- i have learned when those thoughts come, it's good to listen.  i talked with max and told him what i found out about his struggles with spanish.  he opened up a little. 

 at the end of our discussion, i asked him if it would be ok if we started praying for him each morning during family prayer for help with spanish.  

he liked that idea. 

so we did... 

every morning.  

whoever said the prayer made sure to bless max specifically for help with spanish.  he would quietly remind me to include him before the prayer was said.  he liked having his family pray for him. we also came up with a doable spanish goal- every day in class he was to think of an idea, then use three spanish words to describe his idea. just three words.   

he stopped feeling sick and went to school happily.  

three weeks later, his spanish teacher stopped me in the hall and told me what a drastic improvement max made in just three weeks!  i wanted to shout,  "yay!!!!  it's because we started praying as a family for him!!"  at the end of the year, he received the highest marks possible on his report card.  his teacher once again told me how far he had come, and how much progress he made.

i'm grateful i received the prompting to pray for max as a family and i'm glad Heavenly Father answers prayers.  we experienced the strength that comes from praying for each other.  there were times when one of my kids would be praying for max and i felt the quiet power of it.  it strengthened my testimony.  i'm so glad max had faith the prayers for him would be answered, and confidence to open up--he believed Heavenly Father was going to help him.

i remember when dave was in residency, super busy and trying to survive.  it put a strain on our relationship for sure.  we had kai a few weeks after residency started and we were feeling the stress and exhaustion of it all.  we went in for tithing settlement and our bishop asked if we said prayers together as a couple.  we did family prayer, but not really just the two of us.  he told us to start- that it would make a difference in our family.  it was good counsel and we made an effort to do it.  it has made a huge difference in our marriage over the years.  i'm glad our kids walk in and see us kneeling together-vivian always snuggles under us:) i love hearing dave pray for me specifically.  it makes me feel loved and appreciated--that bishop was inspired with what we needed to hear and i'm grateful we did it, because it helped and continues to bless our relationship.  

it works!

brazil

max decided, a few years ago, to be in his school's dual immersion program and learn spanish so that one day, dave would take him to brazil.  haha!   which is a little odd, because they speak portuguese in brazil, but whatever.  i think he has always loved the idea of brazil because that is where dave served his mission and because he loves soccer.  

i don't remember ever agreeing to that deal, max learning spanish and dave taking him to brazil, but in max's mind, and the way he talked about it, it was a DONE DEAL!   

"when dad and i go to brazil...you won't have to feel bad mom, because i will take a lot of pictures so you will feel like you were there."

i guess if you act like something will happen long enough, most likely it will.

after a couple hard years of dual immersion and struggling to love learning spanish, we wanted to give max a boost, hoping it would give him the desire to keep working hard.

prices to brazil were cheaper than we had ever seen so...

we went for it! 

 they would have just enough time to get their passports and visa's before the departure date.  (dave ended up flying to california to get the visa's--kind of a long story, but things amazingly fell into place at the embassy- which i KNOW was an answer to our, and max's, prayers.)

haws family motto:  "work hard and good things happen"

(surfing lessons)

the one things max told me he wanted to do, was to give soccer balls to brazilian kids.

 they didn't know how to find kids to give the balls to, so instead they found a little soccer field and started playing...and the kids found max.

 max happily shared the soccer balls with his new friends.  

 they stayed in this house. 

max enjoyed meeting people, going to church, hanging out with a man from dave's mission, spending time with dave, a soccer game, the beautiful country, 

AND

the teenage girls who thought he was soooo cute and asked to have their picture taken with him.

i hope this trip helped max expand his horizons and realize all the great opportunities that lie ahead.

i'm grateful for a husband who likes to have a good adventure once in a while, loves other cultures and wants to share that love with our kiddos.

here we go

 haha! 

 ...never had one lesson!

kai is the proud owner of his very own clarinet.

he really eyed the band clarinet players in the swiss days parade this weekend.

lets do this!

school days

 VIVIAN IS GOING TO PRE-SCHOOL!

and she is pretty excited about it.

four wonderfully talented moms, and i, will rotate each week and have "home" pre-school.

vivi asked for days when it was her turn to start school. 

i told her she would go to school after my birthday and it couldn't come fast enough!

vivian socializes with people everywhere.  she enjoys people and friends and doing things.

it was a little strange having her gone for a few hours!  i'm used to my little side kick and i like her.

i decided to go on a walk and enjoy this beautiful world.

it was a good use of time for both of us:)

no fear

back to school!

it seemed to really creep up on us this year.  i don't think i even fully processed what was happening so the build up was pretty low key at our house and all of a sudden it was upon us.

the day before school started,

i was in the car driving to back to school night with max.  i asked him, "what's your biggest fear about school?"   he thought and said, "probably the fear that i don't know what my fear is."

ok! let's not create any anxiety here:)

i am really excited for my kids and the opportunities they have this year.  so far they have gone into this year with no fear, or at least with courage and excitement.

back to school tradition...candy bar posters before school.

starting high school together.  sadie's last year and abe's first. 

 and they are off... 

max starting 3rd grade.   

continues to work hard in dual immersion learning spanish.  

his teachers seem really great this year.

kai started a new school this year.  all the 5th and 6th graders go to an intermediate school.  he was placed in an all gifted class.  i'm excited for him to have a little more challenging setting for him academically.  he also chose to play the clarinet this year.  new adventures for kai!

 dave took kai the first day to make sure he could open his locker:)

lots of kids, it's like a mini middle school.   

vivian and i watched the opening assembly at the high school.  sadie worked really hard on the opening video and student government had a little introduction.  i'm happy i went.  fun to see them involved in good things!

(can you spot abe running down the stairs amidst the freshman class?)

  back at it!  here's to a new year!  

i cried every day of my childhood because i didn't want to go to school.  almost positive i had separation anxiety, so it's fun to watch them go (without tears usually), work hard, and create good things for themselves.

love them so much!