My Babes and Hubby

Jon Mark: He's hoping his injuries subside soon so that he can resume an active lifestyle. It's difficult not doing the active things you love so much because you're unable to do so without pain. He's enjoying writing his own novel. He's very talented with writing and it's a good hobby for him. I want him to write faster so that I can read more. We're walking together at night time. It's nice having Joshua a little bit older. We put the kids to bed and give him the phone. I've always wanted to go walking with my spouse. He's also serving as a coach for Joshua's speed camp and football team. And, as if that's not enough, he serves alongside the bishopric as the ward clerk. He doesn't have a lot of free time, he gives a lot of himself to others. He's selfless and loving.

Me: Life has picked up for me. I'm finding myself pretty busy. I am a taxi driver driving my kids back and forth to school and scouts and other activities. I am the Cub Committee Chairman. I wake up early to go running. I enjoy painting in my spare time and try to find ways in which my talents can help others. So, I do a lot of painting for my calling in church. As you will see, some of my paintings are ok, and others are not that great. I post them all so that I can see progress (or lack thereof :)).

Here's a watercolor painting I did of Luke. It's not great, but there are parts of it that show improvement.

A picture Luke colored and gave to a widow in our ward.

On the weekends my kids sleep like this. It warms my heart. Hopefully they're creating memories.

Hannah had me write down her testimony. She sang it to me.

A painting I did for scouts. The kids have to tell us what they learned through the canvas cowboy. The theme is a western theme on courtesy. If you can't tell, the mouth of the cowboy is cut out and the kids stick their mouth through it.

Mercedes is growing up. She's a little lady. She remembers to pray over her food at lunch time at school. She's a great big sister to Hannah, who happens to ADORE her big sister. She likes to dress Hannah up and parade her around. She loves art and is quite good at it. She is close to the spirit. She loves the third verse of the Star Spangled Banner. She gets emotional when she hears it. I asked her what was different about that verse compared to the other verses. She said, "I don't know, I just FEEL something different when I hear it." I told her that the third verse talks about Heavenly Father and the spirit is testifying to her that this land is the promised land and that Heavenly Father is the reason why it's great, He's the One preserving our nation. What makes the third verse different? It's the power of the Holy Ghost. She is feeling the spirit. Luke also loves that verse. He told me that he wants to bear his testimony in church this week about it. Here's what he told me: "I'd like to bear my testimony about the Star Spangled Banner. There are military men who we should thank. Some of them died for our country. One man, on a boat who saw the flag, he prayed to Heavenly Father that the flag would still stand. It didn't fall. Brave men held it up. I know that the third verse is different because the spirit is telling me that Heavenly Father protects us and our country. If we keep the commandments, Heavenly Father will protect us. That's why the third verse is special. I say that in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen."

Beautiful Hannah. My little sweet Banana. Those eyes.... I'll never get enough of those big, beautiful eyes. You are a sweet little girl. You love Mercedes. You want to be just like her. You want to speak like her, look like her, and act like her. You want to sleep next to her every night. And even though you are potty trained, Mercedes won't let you sleep in her bed unless you wear a pull-up. You don't have any pull-ups and I won't buy you any, so it's a surprise to me when you wake up in the morning wearing Caleb or Luke's pull-ups. Completely dry of course. That's how much you want to sleep next to Mercedes. The other day when Kevin was visiting, you had him pretend to be a doctor. You brought him a baby doll and told him to give the baby a check-up. He accidentally dropped the baby and you gasped. You're big eyes got bigger and you said, "YOU MONSTER!"

Here's a painting of Hannah. It's not great. I threw it away.

Cubby is such an exploratory child. If there's a puddle to jump in, guaranteed he'll jump in it. He throws rocks just to see if they'll bounce. He breaks TV's just to see what will happen. And... he shatters blue nail polish all over carpet and tile just because he can.

The perfect curl. Mercedes is wild about her curly hair.

Ignore the fact that he's wearing a braid. He was trying to be funny. When you ignore the braid, he's one handsome kid. He does ten perfect push-ups in a row. LOVES to rough house and wrestle ANY male who dares come near him. He's motivated, smart, and a go-getter. He's a great catch to any girl, but first he needs to grow up, so ladies... stay away! 

Caleb John, is my other boy. Caleb John, he brings me so much joy! Caleb John, every day I need, my Caleb John McAvoy with me.

Here's a painting of Jesus that I did that I really really love! I did trace the image before I painted it, but I love the way it turned out!

Of course I didn't paint this one, but I lOVE it!! 

Jon Mark eating the breakfast I made for him and enjoying the shoulder massage I gave him. He feels lucky that he has a wife who makes him breakfast and brings him things. His love language is acts of service (and physical touch--holding hands and stuff... sheesh, get your minds out of the gutter ;)) I guess it works out that he got a wife who is pretty good at service. Not to say that I'm perfect, but I like doing acts of service for him to show him I love him. That doesn't make me subservient, he gives back to me. I dare say that if men and woman in the world would be more concerned about their spouses happiness and putting their spouses needs above their own, marriages would be far happier.

Joshua LOVES school this year, I can't remember if I posted these pictures or not, so I am doing it again. He's such a smart, good, handsome, loving kid. He's been going to speed camp and has the muscles to prove it. He loves working with his hands. He enjoys building with Legos and using his microscope. He's quick-witted and funny. Caleb loves his big brother and when he's crying at night, it's usually because he wants big brother. He asks for big brother Joshua and once he climbed to the top bunk to lay next to him. I think he feels safe whenever Joshua is around. He kissed Joshua the other night, but wouldn't kiss me until Luke gave me a million kisses to be a good example. 

He's two-digits old!

My dad is 60 and the spriest, most healthy 60 year old that I know. I'm excited for them to move closer so that we can go running together again sometimes. I loved running with him in my teenage/young adult years. :)

Grandma Peterson would love this bird painting. I think of her when I see it. I painted it and I think it turned out pretty good.

This one is okay. Not my favorite, but I didn't throw it away yet, so I guess it's okay.

This kid is so funny. He gasps and has big eyes if you take something from him, and then follows the gasp up with a "HEY!" like, that's mine! He tells us he's the Boss. There's a movie called Boss Baby that the kids watch and I must say there are similarities. He even looks like him.

Hannah enjoyed taking pictures of Grandma. She had her wear sunglasses and look cool. Grandma was happy to oblige. What a fun grandma she is!

Life

This is the powdered sugar mess Cubby made.

I wrote a song for Michelle the other day. Jacob Crossly arranged the piano music. He did such a great job. The song came to me in the first hours of morning and just kind of flowed. It was a good experience for me, and for him also. I made a video for Michelle and sang the song at the end of it.

After our walk in the rain, Mercedes hair was so curly. We fawned over it and Hannah got jealous. She cried and cried because she didn't have curly hair. Both of my daughters are so beautiful.

The other morning I woke up at the crack of dawn to find Hannah had woken up at some point in the night and fell back asleep on the stairs.

Mercedes got baptized! I wrote more about it at the bottom of this post.

I was watching home videos the other day and saw Joshua's birth. Holy cow! I had forgotten how much he had looked like an alien. :) He stuck in the birth canal for so long, his poor head.

I found this book with these gold fishes on top of it. I know it was done innocently, but I'm just gonna leave that right there...

Cub is always into trouble. He makes so many messes for me to clean up like the powdered sugar mess pictured above. He loves to explore the world around him. He jumps in every puddle, he touches every pile of mud, he takes off his diaper constantly and leaves little turds around the house for me to find. I found one closed inside of a book, I found some in the tub, the other day I found one on top of the counter. The day before that I was cleaning out the car and thought I was picking up a tootsie roll.... it wasn't a tootsie roll. It's a good thing that I am super motivated to keep a clean house, otherwise we'd be living in a pig sty.

This is a beautiful sunset that Mercedes took a picture of. We have enjoyed the evening rain storms and last night the kids and I went walking in the rain. I couldn't help but rejoice in the continuation of a tradition from my childhood and I enjoyed that time so much.

Hannah falls down a lot, but she always gets back up again. She still has a positive attitude and big eyes. She has often told me that when she grows up she wants to be a butterfly. Last week, she told me that she knew she couldn't actually turn into a butterfly anymore, so when she grows up she will just wear a butterfly costume. She's growing up too fast. It nearly breaks my heart. 

We took our kids to Utah this summer and stayed with Kevin and Courtny. We had a great time even though we were only there a few days. We toured BYU and let the kids (and Kevin and Jon Mark) roll down a grassy hill over and over again. Sadly, the bookstore was closed, but it saved us the money we would have definitely spent there. We hiked the Y and all of my kids (with the exception of Caleb) hiked it super well. Including little 4 year old Hannah. Luke was super motivated to be first to the top and he was upset when I went and got him from the top of the Y and made him come back down two switch backs to the base of the Y. He said that he had worked so hard to make it to the Y first and now everyone else beat him. I reassured him that he made it further than anyone else, although Mercedes was close behind. We also went to the Alpine Slides. It was so busy and hot at first, but eventually it cooled off and the lines got short.

We also had a fun campout with my side of the family. We hiked into a canyon that had indian ruins in it. I really enjoyed the hike. :)

The kids have all been working towards filling up sticker charts. When the chart is full they get $10. But, we challenged them to earn a whole sticker chart in a week and they would get a portable video game system for the drive to Utah. They all had to earn it. Mercedes took her time and was really kind of dragging her feet. She wasn't doing extra chores and she had a bad attitude. I talked with her on a Sunday and told her quite frankly that I was done trying to encourage and beg her to fill it up. Her brothers and sister were working hard and they would be able to earn it without her, but she wouldn't be allowed to touch it until Christmas. She changed her attitude and got to work. But, on the eve before we were to leave, she looked at the sticker chart and saw that she would not be able to catch up. There was no way she was going to earn it. She sat down on the stairs and began to cry. Luke came to Jon Mark and asked him if he could earn stickers for Mercedes. He would do extra chores and put all of the stickers he earned onto her sticker chart. Joshua joined in on the cause and together the three of them were able to fill it up. There are many parallels there. Luke is a thoughtful boy. The other day, Kevin caught a big spider in a jar. He told Luke that he was either going to put the spider on him or on me but that it was going on someone, Luke would get to pick. Luke thought he was serious and without hesitating he stepped in front of me, and said, "well, you better put it on me then." He's a brave boy. 

Joshua has been working hard at speed camp and takes pride in the muscles he is getting. He really is growing up and changing. The other day he opened a jar for me because my wrists were hurting from trying. He's such a good boy. He randomly hugged me the other day and told me that he loved me. I love him so much too!

Our tv was broken again. This time by Cubby and this time it wasn't even 6 months old. The last one was 9 months old. One of these days our tv will last at least a year. We haven't replaced it. It has been kind of nice just staying up with Jon Mark talking together. I'm not sure when we will replace it.

This girl was baptized last month. What a special day it was. She was so looking forward to it. She told everyone that it was going to be the best day of her life and she wasn't disappointed. She got baptized with Sawyer and we had a little luncheon at our house following the ordinance. She received the gift of the Holy Ghost and the confirmation was such a beautiful blessing. She was told she has a tender heart and that all of her energies, emotions, and passions that she's been blessed with in this life might be tuned to righteous causes. She was blessed that the Holy Ghost might guide her along her paths in life. Sawyer was blessed to know that there were others on the other side of the veil who were concerned with him. We felt like Gavin was making his presence known. What a great day it was.