I recently printed off all my previous blog posts into books. It made me realize that while I wrote about Marcus being baptized in the future tense, I didn't post any pictures of him. I'll add a few here.
It was a lovely baptism surrounded by supportive family and friends. We are grateful for the gospel in our lives!
Marcus's life-long friend, Mason Mudrow, was baptized on the same day. These boys met each other when they were 9 months old. We don't live in the same neighborhood anymore, but when we do get together they are immediately stuck like glue again, despite how much time has gone by. I love to see their special friendship! Kellee and I tried every which way to work it out so that they could be baptized at the same church, but it didn't work out. We did manage to make it so that they could each attend the other one's baptism and that was special. Silly boys!
Update on The Botts in 2021:
Mitch got a promotion in 2021 and is now a Director I. To be honest, I can't remember all of the things he is over at work or the amount of people, I just know it stresses me out just to hear about his day and how deep the meetings go on his schedule, haha! He is almost always scheduled to be in 2-3 places at a time, which is obviously not possible, so he is constantly deciding which is most important and always feels behind. But he must be doing a good job because he was promoted to this level at a younger age than most Director I's and after only being at the previous level for less than two years, which is quite unheard of. Regardless of the stress, he is happy at work. And my favorite part is that after 12+ years of Mitch traveling constantly for work ... he doesn't have to travel at all any more! It was rough having him gone while the kids were young (we paid California state taxes for several years in a row because Mitch worked 250+ days a year there), but I'm so happy he'll be home more for their teenage years!
Mitch has enjoyed hiking with coworkers on their Fridays off and recently hiked to the top of Francis Peak by the radar domes.
I graduated with my Master's degree in School Counseling from Utah State University in December! Wahoo! We attended my graduation ceremony at the Logan campus in May with my parents. It was neat to have them all there and I was grateful for their love and support. I worked full-time at Legacy Jr. High for the 2021-22 school year and will be there again this school year. The other counselors and principal and vice-principals are superb and I truly enjoy working with them all each day. We make a good team and have fun together, too.
We had our basement finished last year and the kids moved their bedrooms down there. We love having the extra space even though it is admittedly not necessary. We put in a theater room, gym with a sauna and drinking fountain, a game room, two bedrooms and two bathrooms. Mitch did all the electrical work and built the sauna. It has been life changing to have Marcus and his posse of little boys play downstairs where I don't have to hear them or see the mess all the time, haha.
Layla is 12 now! And oscillates regularly between little girl and teenager, haha! It's fascinating, frustrating, and fun all at the same time. She decided to run for Student Body Officer for 7th grade. Mitch and I were surprised because she's not the type to normally put herself out there like that, but she did and she rocked it! She hung up a poster that she decorated, introduced herself to kids she didn't know during recess, wrote her speech all by herself, stood up in front of the entire 6th grade to give her speech while wearing a cow costume (part of her theme) and she was elected! She is beyond excited and Mitch and I are so proud of her. She will be a great SBO because she is friendly and such a rule-follower! She has already done a few things with the SBO's to prep for the upcoming school year and is anxiously awaiting the arrival of her sweater.
Layla also started young women's and attended girl's camp for the first time. They went river rafting in Moab, which is 1,000 times cooler than any girl's camp I ever went to! Lucky girl! She loved it, of course, as she loves all things water-related. I had a mix of emotions around her going: happy, excited for her, nervous that something would go wrong, sad and missing her, etc. It's hard to let your kids grow up!
Speaking of growing up, Layla registered for 7th grade and picker her classes. We had several discussions about her options, specifically about Math. Layla completed 6th and 7th grade Math while in 6th grade and then tutored other students in her class. Her wonderful 6th grade teacher, Mrs. Bean, strongly recommended that Layla take 8th grade Honors Math in 7th grade. It's a long story, but basically not enough 7th graders tested high enough to take 8th grade math, so now Layla will most likely end up attending Davis High for her Math class when she's in 9th grade. She will be one year ahead in Math each year, and then take AP Calculus her junior year and AP Statistics her senior year. We talked to her a lot about the rigor of this Math track and how it will be hard and consume much of her time, but she is capable of it. We left it 100% up to her, and she decided she wants to do it. I'm writing that here so I can refer back to it when she's a junior or senior and is mad at US for "making her" take the hardest Math classes.
You chose this, Layla Babe, and you can totally do it! And it will be so worth it!
She also chose to take Honors English, History, and Science. Between Honors classes, 3 dance classes, and SBO, she will be a busy girl! She is also the neighborhood babysitter and babysits 1-2 times per week. Right now she is running a Kids Camp for two weeks that she planned and organized with very little input from me. She is great with kids and they all adore her. So do we!
Marcus. Markie Mark, or Markie as we mostly call him these days. Markie had a big change in his little world last year: he changed schools and entered the gifted program that Layla has been in. We got to October of 3rd grade, parent teacher conferences, and heard from his French teacher what we already suspected: Marcus does NOT enjoy learning French. We could tell he wasn't happy at school and was just kind of miserable there. We had him take the required test for the gifted program called the CogAT (students who score in the 98th percentile or higher are considered gifted) and he scored in the 99th percentile, which is what Layla tested at as well. They immediately offered him a post in Mrs. Ewell's 3rd grade PAL class. Mrs. Ewell was Layla's 3rd grade teacher and while I think all of the teachers in the gifted program are top-notch, Mrs. Ewell is my favorite.
Marcus thought about it for a day and then decided to make the change. He started the next Monday, so it was a quick change! Of course Marcus adored Mrs. Ewell and fit right in with the other kids. Mrs. Ewell told me several times throughout the rest of the school year how pleased she was with Marcus joining the class and fitting right in. Marcus made new friends at school but still continued to play with neighborhood friends after school, so it all worked out for the best. He was also offered a spot in the SPECTRUM program (the same thing Layla did) for grades 4-6 and is excited to continue on, hopefully with the same teachers Layla had. Fingers crossed that none of them retire, they're all so great!
Marcus also started drum lessons this summer and is rocking it, pun intended. He seems to really enjoy it! He has learned We Will Rock You, Seven Nation Army, and Eye of the Tiger so far, and I finally learned how to read drum music, haha! I've wanted to learn that for years. We bought drum mutes for the drums, so it's not too loud when he practices. He uses the drums I bought about 14 years ago when I wanted to learn to play, but never did.
This picture sums up this goofy kid:
I should note an update on Harvey. He's still here with us ... he's 15 now. Last year we thought he had died! He went outside one day and didn't come back ... for 3 weeks and 4 days! Mitch and I were so certain he was dead, despite the kids telling us that we just needed to have faith and pray and he would come back. Long story short, we finally told the kids we were sure he had passed away, Layla bawled and bawled, we had a little ceremony in our backyard and put an engraved rock in the flowerbed that said "In Loving Memory of Harvey, 2007-2021" on it and everything! Then the animal shelter called and said that a lady had just dropped Harvey off and they found his chip and used it to call us. 3 weeks and 4 days. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry! I was excited and happy about no longer scooping a litterbox or asking someone to take care of him when we went on longer trips. Of course the kids were ecstatic and told us they had more faith than us, haha. So yeah, we still have Harvey even after we thought he was gone forever. He is getting older though and doesn't really try to get outside anymore. But he's still in good shape and will be around a while longer.
We bought a boat in 2021! It is a Moomba wakeboarding boat, but also throws an awesome wake for wakesurfing. It has taken us about a year to figure out the best set up for the wakesurf and man, is that ever fun!!! Mitch and I have thoroughly enjoyed learning to wakesurf! We bought a board for the kids too, but they have not quite mastered it yet.
We took the boat to Lake Powell with the Bells last Labor Day. We stayed in a house in Page and had a great time. We also went to Lake Pend Oreille in Northern Idaho with the Craguns and stayed in a lake house. It was amazing and had its own personal boat lift!
This year we've gone to Pineview Reservoir almost every weekend. I love boating on that beautiful lake, surrounded by that green valley, and looking up at Snowbasin where we ski in the winter. I don't think there are many places in the world where you can ski and look down on the lake that you boat on in the summer and vis a versa. We also went to Starvation Reservoir with my family last weekend and had a blast. I was glad Brock was there ... he's so naturally good at things like wakeboarding and wakesurfing and he taught me how to improve at both. (Sometimes his natural physical ability makes me jealous, but he is good to coach me when I ask).
We enjoyed skiing last winter. We finished the Learn and Earn program, which meant that we each got a private ski lesson. That helped me more than anything, haha! Mitch met his goal to ski black diamonds and has done almost every run at Snowbasin, including the women's Olympic downhill run (the men's still freaks him out, understandably so!). The kids and I have done all the green and blue runs, but I don't anticipate us doing any black runs any time soon. Someday though.
We went to Disneyland last year over fall break with my mom and that was fun. Originally she just wanted to take the kids, but I wanted to go too! Can't miss out on Disney! Then Mitch wanted to go, so we all went, haha. Mitch and I also went to Hawaii and stayed in Kona at the same resort we stayed at 5 years ago. We went to celebrate our 15 year anniversary. The original plan was to go to Italy and Switzerland. We renewed our passports and everything. But with covid travel restrictions at the time, we decided to stay stateside. We had a fabulous time in Hawaii and truly love that island!
Anyways, that's good for now. The kids have loved reading the blog books I have printed, so hopefully that will entice and remind me to update this blog more often.
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