A move, a baptism and Lighting McQueen

Lets start with Maddy - and her fascination with "lite a ma queen" (Lighting McQueen). Whenever she sees a red car she squills and jumps and says "there's lite a ma queen" and if she's on foot she rushes to the car for a hug and a kiss from the car. She is thrilled to be living with Grandma for the next half a year or so because she can visit "lite a ma queen" in the garage whenever she wants, and when "lite a ma queen" is not in the garage she makes assumptions that he has gone to Disney land for good behavior. So cute! On another note she is full of fire. I would say she is my fireyest kid but truly Ben did and does rival her - these two children keep me on my toes. They know their minds and very little will change those minds. Lately, I've begun to think that Maddy is mimicking her hero - Ben is her everything and she really does do what he does- which is also so cute and so infuriating. As for potty training, she is still fighting it but she doesn't have near as many accidents so that is progress. We recently put her in counseling because we suspected a little emotional trauma had happened as a result of the fire. -the counseling has helped me so much! And I suspect it has helped her too. She is getting better every day- and where I saw a few learning delays I see her brilliance instead. She is really a very bright girl - I hope to continue to be able to unravel her powerful personality in a helpful to herself and the rest of the world kind of way- wish us luck!

James is kinda sorta the cutest kid ever! Always with the smiles and laughter and hi fives. I love how everything he does is so exaggerated. "This is going to be the biggest, mega ultra blast" or "I'm going to jump ultra higher than spiderman." His phrases always come with sound effects and his energy for life is a breath of fresh air. He spends almost every waking moment on the trampoline - when he isn't in school. At school he is above average with academics and pretends to not like talking to girls but often does talk to them when boys aren't looking. There is a girl named Riley in his class that chases him around trying to get a hug out of him everyday- ironically enough my James doesn't really like hugs from anyone but his mom (so glad I made the cut!) As far as fitting into the sibling order he loves his brother as well and is still warming up to Maddy (I assume it's because she is a girl) but loves her tons too. He has a little bit of a screaming/crying thing going whenever one of the sibs teases him- so the noise level in the home keeps pretty high because of his vocal cords.

Let us finish with the Baptism boy. Ben was all smiles yesterday. He was so happy - I think its the most happy I have ever seen him. He couldn't sleep the night before - he was up until 12 pm. He went about his day helping and preparing. Once he got to the baptism he made sure to hug every aunt, uncle, and grandparent- there was a lot of hugging- he even doubled up on a few of them. He said the water wasn't really warm but it wasn't really cold either- just comfortable. He had asked his Aunt Cami to give a talk on baptism and she did a stellar job of talking about Zoram who when he decided to go with Nephi into the wilderness he made a lifelong covenant- and much like Zoram Ben was making a covenant today that would affect his entire life. The other speaker was for the other boy being baptized was Finn. She gifted Ben and Finn with blankets and lights to remind them of the gift of the holy ghost. We arrived home with a table full of presents- journals, a tithing bank, treats, a bookmark and a keychain. He was so excited he opened them all up before I got there and I have no idea who gave him the presents- YIKES! As for the rest of his life, he is liking school - not crazy social but can carry on a good conversation with people when he wants to. He loves comic books and reading Diary of a Wimpy Kid. He is very bright and very fun to talk to. I'm so lucky to be his mom and so happy his baptism went so well!

As for Will and I- We moved our family into my parent's basement apartment last month- it was kind of on a whim - but really I felt like it was the right place to be. It's nice to find refuge from the storms and from the burdens that come along with adulting. My parents are the perfect hosts and we love being with them. I feel fortunate to be their daughter. We really did get a great return out of our home in Kaysville and should be set up to get a little bit bigger home in the coming year. Will is going to be finishing his HIM certificate here in December and I am continuing to grow my PopcornLeads Business. We are busy - I hardly see Will during the week and long for the weekends where I get to be with him.

I think that is all she wrote. Thank you for following us on our journey. We are grateful to have such a wonderful family and to have each other.

Sincerely,

Summer Blackhurst

ps, we had to give Skips back to his original owners because mom and dad don't do dogs- we all miss him terribly! I had no idea how attached I was to the little guy :)