MAY

We started out this month with a Stevens’ family reunion, which is my mom’s side of the family (she and her two sisters.) It was really fun to be together with my cousins and catch up with the ones that I’m not able to see that often. My children had a wonderful time playing with their cousins and second cousins. The highlight of the night for Audrey was riding on little scooter bikes with a big cousin on the tennis court. I think she rode for a good half hour at one point. Talmage also had fun riding the bikes, jumping on the trampoline, and playing swords with his bigger boy cousins. My Grandma and Grandpa Stevens were two amazing people; a coloring book was put together about different things they did in their lives. It has been fun to have Talmage learn about them as he colors the pictures. It is a huge blessing to have such a wonderful heritage and to be able to remember it and also share it with my children. We really enjoyed ourselves.

The following week Gordon’s parents came to visit and we were all really excited to have them come. They came because Gordon’s brother Grant and his daughter Emma were in “The Wizard of Oz.” Grant was the Cowardly Lion and Emma was the Coroner (the munchkin who examined the wicked witch’s body upon being smashed by Dorothy’s house). Anyway, they both did an amazing job and it was so fun to see them in the show. Talmage enjoyed watching the show and got so excited at the end when the wicked witch died. He turned to me with his arms opened wide and excitement in his voice, “The Wicked Witch is DEAD!” – It was very cute. While Gordon’s parent’s were here we had fun playing games, being together, seeing the play, and the girls got away for a Mother’s Day pedicure; it was really nice. We wished the trip could have been longer, but we enjoyed so much having the time with them.

Mother’s Day was wonderful! Gordon’s parents came to sacrament with us before they took off back to California. Talmage sang for the first time with the primary children in Sacrament meeting. I got a little emotional seeing him up their singing; it was really sweet and very rewarding. At the end of church Audrey and Talmage had both colored me a cute watering can with a packet of seeds and they were so excited to see me, which always makes one feel so special. We came home and Gordon made lunch, we all took naps and then had a lovely dinner at my parents house. So, it was a fabulous day.

This month I had my dance recital. It was the first time that I did it at night, so we had a lot more people there, which was fun. All of my students did a wonderful job. The highlight for me was the group shape that the children made together. We had been working on the group shape for a couple of weeks, and I had just come to accept that it’s going to be what it’s going to be. So, that night I told them to get into their group shape; I helped two get in place (they were in the middle of a circle of hoola hoops) when I turned around before starting the music I was amazed! The shape had levels, depth, they had all decided to connect with one another through touching with their arms, and no one was moving; it was beautiful! I felt so validated as a teacher that they are learning the things that I’m teaching them. So, naturally we took a minute to take some pictures to remember the glorious group shape. I was very happy with how the recital went and I look forward to a break this summer and then starting back up in the fall.
Talmage did a fabulous job in the dance recital. At the beginning each of the students had a free dance to get to their X (their special place they stand). When I called Talmages name he did a big roll, cartwheel jump, and ended standing. It was really good and warmed his dance teacher / mom’s heart. He loves to move and is very agile; it is fun to have him in my dance class (most of the time.)

Talmage is big into superheros right now. One day he had his snow boots on and he told me they were his super boots, then he asked to have his cape put on, next he asked for his mask (his green sunglasses), then he looked at me and said “Mom, I’m Super Mr. T!” It was so cute. He is “Mr. T” to Grammy Thomas so that’s how he came up with his superhero name. He is very particular about his green sunglasses being a mask, so if you ask him if he wants his sunglasses, he will correct you and tell you they’re his mask.
Talmage’s favorite song to sing is “Life is a Highway” from the soundtrack Cars. He only knows the chorus, but he loves to sing it over and over. My favorite is when he sings “whoo” at the end of the chorus, before he goes right back into it.
Gordon has been playing indoor soccer lately, which has been fun. One night I was able to take the kids to watch. When I told Talmage we were going to go he asked his dad if he would score a goal for him. Gordon told him that he would try and Talmage responded back, “I know you can do it Dad.” It was so cute and Gordon didn’t let him down because he didn’t score just one goal, but three. Both of the kids just loved watching him play.

Gordon’s big news is that he is doing the musical “Oklahoma!” at the end of August with the Lehi Arts Council. He is playing the roll of Curly. He played this roll when we were engaged, so he is excited to do it again. He will be performing at the Barn at Thanksgiving Pointe, and he also gets to ride in on a horse in the first scene for “Oh, What a Beautiful Morning.” So, it should be fun; the rehearsal schedule is a lot lighter than Beauty and the Beast, so that makes me happy.

Audrey’s big news is that she is potty training herself! I think this is the best gift a child can give a parent. She tells us that she needs to go potty and we take her and she goes. She is more consistent with bowel movements, but it is really good for a 20 month old. She truly likes to be a big girl sitting on the big potty without the little child’s toilet seat; it’s so cute to see such a little thing on a big potty. She absolutely loves the praise she gets, and always makes sure that she tells her daddy about her accomplishment.

Audrey is picking up a lot of new words as of late, mainly animals. For the past month we have been reading the same animal book for nap and bedtime, (obviously not our choice) so that is why she is doing well on animal names. She says, fish, frog, bear, cow, and bird. Her new animal sound in a turkey, “gob, gob, gob” and a rooster “doldoo” it’s cute. My favorite thing she says right now is “OH, NO!” She says it whenever something falls or just isn’t right. She is also finally saying “amen” after prayers. For the longest time she would say “done” at the end of prayers instead of amen.

Audrey continues to be tough girl keeping up with her brother. She has scraped knees and bruises everywhere. She is convinced she can jump off of everything. She jumped off my aunt’s trampoline before I could get to her the other day. Luckily she didn’t break anything but she limped for a minute or two after. She is truly jumping off of things now, where before she would just kind of fall off and praises herself for jumping. She can also climb up the slide on our playhouse without help. She is one busy girl.

Well, the total for getting sick this month was once for Gordon, Talmage, and me, and twice for Audrey. I had some stool samples taken for Audrey since this was our third month of stomach sickness and I felt we couldn’t possibly all get four different stomach bugs. Initially nothing came back and then a couple days later the doctor called and told me that they found a food born illness in Audrey’s stool found only when you reheat rice (I can’t remember the name) So, apparently I need to be careful about reheating rice; I’ve never thought about it before. Most likely we had a couple of different stomach bugs and one rice related stomach thing. We are crossing our fingers that June has no stomach bugs for our family.
Thanks for reading our lengthy letter.

The Thomas’