First Day of School

Today was the first day of school. I woke up nauseous with a raging headache (I'M NOT PREGNANT). I talked Ian into staying home so he could walk Max to his class. Because no matter how old Max seems sometimes, he still needs his mom or dad to walk him to his class on the first day of school. I hope that never changes. Xander has a later start time so I drove him. He wouldn't let me get out of the car. He wouldn't let me take a picture of him. It broke my heart just a little. I might have cried on the drive home.

When the boys got home from school we all went swimming together. Then I cooked dinner and Ian dressed up so that he could give them back to school blessings. At first Xander insisted he didn't want one but then he heard Ben's and changed his mind.
During Ben's Ian talked about Ben's kind heart. And encouraged him to befriend others and to be a good example. He also talked about Ben developing better study habits. It fit Ben perfectly.

During Max's he talked about Max having fun in school. And not being shy and being able to make friends. He encouraged Max to read and to love to learn. It was a perfect blessing for Max.

During Evan's he talked about Evan being good at pre-school. And encouraged him to learn from Ro and Josh :).

Xander's was last which was good because I got a little emotional. He talked about Xander's ability to learn things quickly. And told him to share his knowledge with others. He talked about Xander being able to handle the work load at the new school. And being able to make friends. Today was a little hard and overwhelming for Xander - even though he has at least one friend in most of his classes he feels a little lost. As a parent it's hard to listen and not be able to do much. It's just one of those things that he'll have to get through on his own. The hardest thing for me is to stand back and let him stand on his own. I have so much faith and confidence in him, but it's still hard. I think the blessing really helped him.

Ben and Max insisted on clowning around for their "First Day of School" pictures. I didn't remember to take them until after school (I was too busy upchucking in the morning). They were such good sports :)

I love my boys. I wish I could keep them home with me forever. My family makes me so happy.

Unrelated by related: During FHE tonight we let Evan pick the song. He picked "Follow the Prophet". It's his favorite song. He stood up and told us to wait and then ran into the piano. He then yelled, "SING!" and started to accompany us. The boys were giggling too much to sing. We then tried to sing a more spiritual song so that we could calm everyone down but every time we started to sing Evan would run in and started pounding on the piano. It cracked us up every time. He brings so much laughter into our home.