Taylor Tentout

For the last few years Jared's family has been having a mini-reunion during the Wayne County Fair. This year we decided to not just sit by and gather candy at the parade, we wanted to be in the parade. The train Jared made to be pulled behind the 4-wheeler last fall was modified a little bit to go with our theme. I'm sure to no ones surprise we had a beekeeper theme for our float. All of Jared's sisters helped out in putting the float together and we were so excited to find out that we won first place.
All of the little honeybees after riding in the parade.

A four generation picture with Jared's grandma and grandpa, parents and our little crew.

Last week we bought a little 4-wheeler for our kids so they got to spend the weekend riding it around. One of the many perks of being in a tiny town is that you can drive an ATV down the middle of the road and no one cares.We went for a ride up to the mountains and the little 4-wheeler did so good. At one point it needed some help to get up a big hill, but totally worth the work to see the amazing view from the top.

Jared's grandma is in her eighties and she spends a lot of her time crocheting. She has made a blanket for all twelve of the great-grandkids over the last few months. They are so lucky to have a blanket made just for them by her.
We had a really fun weekend hanging out with all the family and escaping the heat for a few days.

Summer in Review

Like I said in my last post, I have been horrible at blogging this summer. We really did do a lot of fun things even though I never posted anything about them. I thought I would do a "brief" overview of our summer.

*Traxton turned two. He is our little wild child. I struggle to keep up with him everyday. He loves his brother and sister and will do anything to mimic them. He also loves to be a lion and crawl around growling at everyone. We had a family party for him and he loved being the center of attention, just like always.



*We went camping at our annual Bundy Reunion in July. It is always a lot of work to pack for the long weekend of camping, but I absolutely love going. Its so fun to be around so many loved ones and there is nothing more relaxing than sitting around camp and not having to worry about getting to appointments or running errands all over town. All the grandkids in their Bundy Reunion shirts. Even the moms got matching shirts this year.
This rock pile is always amazing to keep the kids entertained for hours at a time. It also always attracts quite a few stray kids.

*We took multiple trips to Salt Lake for doctor appointments this summer. Traxton had a MRI of his temporal bone to make sure all of the anatomy in his inner ear was intact and compatible for an implant. So relieved to know everything looks good there. The fun thing about these trips is that it gives us some one-on-one time with Traxton. We learned that he is quite the little jabber box when he doesn't have to compete with his two older siblings. I don't know what we would do without family to help us out with the older kids while we travel back and forth. Thanks so much. Waking up from being sedated for the MRI. We are so thankful that he comes out of sedation so well. It's like he has just woken up from a good long nap. The only problem he had was when he found the IV still in his little arm. I had to hide it under his blanket.

*We are so lucky to have all the cousins live so close together. It makes it easy to get together and let the kids play. We took all of them to the splash pad for a few hours and they had a blast. They are all close together in ages and have also started to play together really well. Instead of fighting with each other, they protect one another and fight with other kids. All seven of them were ready to take on an older kid who wouldn't stop spraying them in the face with a squirt bottle.


*Lastly, Ashten turned six. I love having her birthday in the summer. It is fun to end off the summer by having a party before heading back to school. It's also really nice to combine her school clothes with birthday presents. She had a swimming party with some of her friends and we had a family party. I can't believe she is six! She is such a big helper and we love her so much.

It's been a pretty busy summer and now that school has started up again, we are getting back into the groove of having a schedule. I love having a schedule!!! As excited as we always are for summer to get here, it's even more exciting for it to end and for fall to arrive.

Back to School

I can't believe how bad I have been at blogging this summer. Now before I even realize it the summer is over and another year of school has started. I have so many mixed emotions about sending Ashten off to 1st grade to be apart from us all day. I feel guilty for wishing this day to come for the last two and a half months. I pretty much started counting down the days for school to get back in session since the doors opened for summer break. I longed to have the luxury of grocery shopping again without all three "helpers".

I now feel like I didn't enjoy the summer break and time with my kids like I could have. We did a lot of fun things throughout the summer, but I didn't really enjoy them like I should have. Many of my days were spent looking forward to nap time and then bed time. Some days it felt like all I could do was count the hours until I could have a break. Recently, I have been struggling a lot with feelings of inadequacy. I was feeling like I just couldn't keep up with all of the demands placed on me by others, and even myself. A lot of my feelings were stemmed from all of the responsibilities of keeping up with all of Traxton's therapy sessions and doctor appointments. We have multiple therapist come to our house throughout the week and I take him to an additional speech therapist. I just have felt like even though we are working so hard with him, I'm still not doing enough. Like I am failing him as his mother. I am his number one advocate, but I am also mainly responsible for whether or not he has success. His progress with speech and language relies on whether or not I take the time, and have the patience, to work with him. Some days we do really well, but others are rough. He gets frustrated really easy when I don't know what he wants and he can't construct a word or phrase to tell me. I admittedly, get frustrated a lot and don't take the time to figure out what he is telling me so he gets upset. Having all this responsibility has been weighing heavily on my shoulders. I have known where these feelings are coming from all along; the only person who wants me to feel like a failure. But even though I have known that, I still have had a hard time getting rid of them. My poor husband who would call to see how our day was going, would end up listening to me break down and cry. Thank you babe for being so loving and understanding. At stake conference on Sunday our stake president spoke, and although I really didn't get a lot out of the meeting thanks to my kids who seemed to have a hard time remembering that we are suppose to whisper in church, I heard one thing that I felt was directed entirely to me. He said that if we look at ourselves the way the Lord does, we will be able to love ourselves more fully and then see the potential in ourselves that the Lord sees. I really needed to hear this to put things in perspective and get out of my depressive state.

So now as I sit here after dropping Ashten off at school to be gone all day, I am seriously missing her and how much help she is to me around the house. Maybe it's because she's the oldest or maybe because she is the only girl, but I get a lot of strength from having her around. I am sad to have that stage of our life over. Ashten will always be a full-time school girl and for now I get to be outnumbered by the boys at home.
Traditional 1st day of school photo.