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!

family theme

my mom took me to education week at byu for my birthday.  in one of our classes, i was inspired with what i want our family to concentrate on this school year...

-MA SA LAA CH'OOL-

a presenter talked about his humanitarian trip to Guatemala and said when the Q'eqchi people greet someone, instead of asking "how are you?" they ask, "ma sa laa ch'ool" which actually means, "ARE YOU HAPPY IN YOUR HEART?"

we have decided to work on this as a family this year.  

are you happy in your heart? 

 i love the whole idea of how are you, being replaced with are you happy in your heart because really how you are and choose to be, really determines if your heart feels happy, content and joyful.

our family discussed a few things we have to be and do to allow our hearts to feel that way... gratitude, forgiveness, service, repentance, keeping the commandments, and doing things we love were a few that came up during family night.  each month i want to spend a family night focusing on one of the these things that will help us have happy hearts.  

my hope is when we have happy hearts, it can have a healing effect on those around us.  i love the story in the scriptures of the lady who knew if she just touched Jesus's robe, she would feel better.  i have been around people that their countenance alone brings comfort and peace.     

we have so much to be happy about, but sometimes i get so focused on one stressful thing and it can be a joy sucker!  i can allow my worry to take over and i lose focus of the big picture and it has been good for me to do a 'heart check' every day and see what adjustments i need to make to feel happy in my heart.  sometimes it has been to forgive, sometimes it has been compare myself to others less,
re-prioritize, serve happily, or focus on the happy things around me.

most of all, i want my children to know we have a great reason to rejoice and allow our hearts to rejoice--we have a Savior and we know Heavenly Father's plan of HAPPINESS!!!

so, here's to developing happy hearts in and around us this year!
and now, we say, "have fun at ch'ool!!"

happy birthday to me

turning forty was a day i want to remember forever.  

i told dave earlier i didn't want to be around on my birthday.
i wasn't sure how i would feel about it.  lately i have been feeling the panic of growing older and i thought it would be nice to be adventuring somewhere really cool.
 but, my birthday landed on a monday, which happened to be the day before school started, we decided to stick around and have a "regular" day.  i'm so glad this was my choice.  i thought it would be important to help everyone get prepared and most importantly have family night and priesthood blessings.

it ended up being a pretty special day.

 the kids each had something important during the day- sadie and abe needed to be at school for student government prep day, kai had a party, max had soccer practice and back to school night, and abe had late soccer practice....

we fit little celebrations in though out the day.  

dave woke me up early, before the kids, and we snuggled in our big chair where he read me the love poem he wrote.  i was really surprised, even though i requested something thoughtful and romantic for my birthday gift.  he came through!

the kids woke up and we all went to breakfast.

then everyone went their ways and dave and i took vivian to park city for a trip to the chocolate factory and some fast birthday shopping.   

we divided and conquered the rest of the night.  dave made a delicious dinner and we quickly ate, then i ran to back to school night while dave figured out soccer schedules.  

we met up around 8:30 for family night.   i had a really peaceful feeling around me all day.  maybe it was the way dave held my hand wherever we went or the way the kids treated me, or walking in on kai making me a present, or abe trying to scramble nonchalantly to figure out a gift, it was just all really loving.  i realized it was going to be a "regular" day AND that is how i wanted it.  i LOVED spending some quiet moments with dave, i LOVED sitting and reading to viv in the little book store we found,  i LOVED going to max's back to school night and coming home to a cute little cake with candles and all my kids surrounding it.   we lit the candles and i took my birthday wishing very seriously.  

even though my birthday wasn't something super adventurous or extremely cool, it was REAL and LOVING, and HAPPY and i re-realized i like my life and my life is this little family that dave and i have put so much effort into.  it is good!

the best part of the day was family night!

it started out rough!  it was late.  and whenever we are going to do priesthood blessings, it seems like things get a little crazy, just enough to make us feel like we should put it off, but we didn't.

i presented our family theme for this school year and we talked a little bit about it, then dave gave priesthood blessings to each child and to me.

it was a powerful experience.

here are a few things i remember from each blessing (without too much detail):

max:  people love to be around him and this is the first year of school that he has the gift of the Holy Ghost.  he was blessed to be able to feel it and recognize it.

kai-  he was blessed to feel courageous, but not only courageous, but comfortable as he is being courageous.  that he will be a good influence on his peers and that he will make friends that will lift him as well.  he was told his teacher will recognize quickly that he is special.  also, that this is the year for him to prepare to receive the priesthood.   he was told that he will have success and will be challenged and he will be up to the challenge as he works hard and relies on God and to recognize that we are more and stronger with Gods help and that these talents and strengths are gifts from God.

abe-  he was told a lot about reaching out and talking to people in all different groups, but that his close friends should be people that make strong, good, choices.  he was blessed to feel the joy of the atonement.  i thought that was interesting. 

vivian hurried and sat in the chair while abe was giving dave a hug, so she got to go next.

she folded her arms, bowed her head and had THE cutest, content smile on her face the WHOLE time dave had his hands on her head.

i can hardly remember what he blessed her with, i was so busy watching her face.  she loved dave's hands on her head and being blessed by her dad, whom she KNOWs loves her so much.  she felt the power of it, you could see it throughout her whole little self.

sadie-  was blessed to feel deep joy throughout the year.  she was blessed as she is making lots of decisions this year that she will end up on the right track for her and that she will also be able to enjoy the process, and through this process, she will learn new talents and skills that will help her throughout her entire life.  lots of good things.

then i got a blessing.

dave immediately blessed me to feel the deep love that he and my kids have for me...and i felt it.  powerfully.  though out my whole being. it was unexpected and real.  

he then blessed me to know that my efforts to save this little family are working and important.  that this is where i was meant to be, and that i would be able and have been able to feel prompted as to things my family needs.

i honestly couldn't have asked for a better blessing or birthday.