Ethan Made the Travel Basketball Team!!!

Since last winter Ethan has been talking about wanting to join the Bethel travel basketball team this year...  As try outs approached he practiced outside and prayed that he would make the team during his bedtime prayers.  As most parents in similar situations, Sean and I were a little nervous - not about his skill, but just in the off-chance that he didn't make the team and how upset he would be.

So we signed up for him to go to both days of try-outs (even though the players only had to go to one) and he gave it his 'all.'  I was so proud of him for trying out!  We have been anxiously waiting for nearly two weeks to find out if he made it or not.  Today when I got the mail 'the letter' had arrived.  Oh, how I wanted to rip it open right there and find out!!  But I patiently waited until Ethan got home from school.

Shortly after he got home I showed it to him and I watched as he ripped it open.  He read it out loud and as soon as he got passed the "Congratulations you have made the..." He looked at me with the biggest, happiest smile I have ever seen and threw his arms around me!!!  It was one of the best 'Mom' moments ever!!  We hugged and we both shed a couple of tears in pure happiness.  We immediately called Greemie and texted Dad (he is in New Orleans for a presentation for work) and Poppy and asked them to call us when they got a chance.  They both quickly did everyone is so proud of Ethan!!

Let the basketball fun begin!!!  :)

Sean Passed!!!!

Just a couple of days before we headed to the Outer Banks, Sean found out that he passed the C.F.A. Level 1 exam!!!  Not only did he pass, but he received the highest scores in each section of the test.  This is huge - only 42% of the people who took the test passed!  Yes, I married a genius:)

I am SO proud of him!!!  Now the studying for the Level 2 exam begins....

Prince Family Reunion - OBX 2014

Sean's parents finally came back to the States from serving as mission presidents in Cali, Columbia!!  For three years we have been planning a family vacation with all of Sean's siblings and their families upon their return... and the day finally came!!  During the week of August 2-9 we rented a beautiful home on Corolla, NC and had a fantastic time!  It was the first time Sean's dad was able to meet (aside from via Skype) five of his new grandchildren!  (His mom came back to Utah in November for Marcie's wedding, so she was able to meet all of the new grandchildren then, except for baby Katherine, who was born in March).  It was great seeing everyone again and watching all of the kids have so much fun together.  (Oh, how we wish we lived closer so that the cousins could play together more often!).

The week was filled with pool time, wave riding, sand castle making, yummy food, relaxing, Prince Family Olympics, Wiffle ball games, family pictures on the beach, Family Night, Uno (and other card games), and a wonderful church service at the local ward.

I took some pictures (unfortunately not many) but I will post them soon:)

Life Update

Sean:  Took the C.F.A. (Chartered Financial Analyst) exam at the beginning of June after spending a year studying for it.  Now playing the waiting game to find out test results.  Whether he passed or not I am so proud of his dedication and love for learning!  Starting this week, Sean is traveling Monday-Thursday (this week was Monday-Friday, but it should mostly be Monday-Thursdays) every week until around September.  One positive thing about this is that he is able to get a lot of Marriott points - which means free vacations for us:)  But boy do we miss having Daddy home!

Ethan:   Ethan's last day of 4th grade is on Monday (June 23rd) - I can't believe that he will be in FIFTH GRADE!!!  Time is flying by way too fast.  He loves playing Minecraft, Pixolmon, reading, playing the trumpet, drawing, and writing.  He will be participating in a basketball camp this summer, in addition to going back to Camp Jamison for 5 days in July, then spending two weeks at the beach!!  He has a fun summer ahead:)

Owen:  Oh, little O!!!  He continues to keep us all laughing.  He LOVES playing swords, chase (also known as "Roar!"), and playing with our neighbors - Joey and Sammie.  Every Monday morning we go to the Learning Center and he loves it.  Just this past Monday night while I was putting him to bed he told me that 'the learning center is fun!'  His favorite book is The Red, Ripe Strawberry, The Mouse, and the Big Hungry Bear.  He has memorized most of it, but still loves to sit in my lap and read it together... again and again:)  He absolutely LOVES playing with legos...  not the big duplo legos, but 'real' legos.  He is actually really good with playing with them - it is so cute watching those little fingers play with those little pieces and make some pretty fun creations!

Ben:  Ben's personality continues to grow each day.  He is becoming quite feisty, but is also very sensitive.  If Owen starts crying, Ben will also start crying.  He's our little Chubba Choo!!!  He absolutely loves to dance and will start to dance almost every time he hears music.  Whenever he starts to dance I say, "Ben's feelin' the beat!" and Owen will say "mommy, I'm feeling the beat, too!" and he will join in the dancing party.  Ben is at the stage where he rips books... Owen never went through this stage so it is new to us, and we aren't big fans of him tearing up books, but we are trying to encourage him not to rip books... however, quite a few of our books have become victims... thank goodness for clear masking tape.  Ben also really enjoys cooking.  He will pull out some of my pots (he has two that are his favorite), then ask for the canister that has my wooden spoons, spatulas, etc. and he will pick out which one he wants to use.  He then will find something (whether it be a Mr. Monkey, a random lego piece, or something, and stir it up!  Our little chef:)

Me:  I am now teaching the 9 and 10 year olds in primary at church.  I am enjoying it, but I forgot how much preparation is needed when you teach primary!  I enjoy being able to spend so much time studying the scriptures, though, and getting to know the stories in the Old Testament better.  I'm still doing family history work, and since the church has just given us free access to ancestry.com and two other genealogy sites, I have been having fun doing more research.  It's just hard trying to find the time to do family history research (now that most of my 'free' time is spent preparing for my primary lessons).

Family History!

I absolutely LOVE learning about my ancestors.  About 9 years ago I started working on my family tree with hopes to make a "Heritage Album."  I got in touch with my great aunt, as well as a distant relative - both were in their 70's and they gave me so much information and shared stories and pictures.  Then life got in the way of my research - I was very busy with taking 15 credits per semester at GMU, working part-time, and raising a 1-2 year old, so all of the information I gathered was put away in a drawer.

Throughout the years the 'tug' to do research was always there, but I just thought it wasn't the right season in my life to start it again.  Then a couple of weeks ago I was reading the Ensign and told Sean that I felt I should start doing it again and expressed my concerns.  The next day was General Conference and one of the speakers said something that I felt he was saying directly to me... I can't remember exactly what it was, but in essence, I need to do my family history now!

So I pulled out everything from my drawer and have been busy typing it all into Family Search and the stories, etc into a Google doc (so I can have everything all together and also it will make it easier to eventually make a real "heritage album."  It has been so amazing to learn about my ancestors - I really, really love it.  Although I have hit some brick walls, I hope that with the help of ancestry.com I will be able to finally get more generations filled in!

Anyway, here is one ancestor of mine that I admire...

Meet Rosalia Hartman Hirn, born on September 13, 1862 in Germany.  According to the 1920 census she immigrated to NY in 1888.  I'm not sure if she and John Hirn were married in Germany or in NY, but I do know that she had 8 children, and 5 other babies who were either still-born or died as infants.  I can't imagine the sorrow she must have felt each time she had to lay one of her children to rest.  

She passed away in 1945 from a combination of old age, diabetes, and Alzheimer's.  I wish she could tell me her story-I would love to hear it.  

Rosalia and John Hirn

Rosalia and Dolores, her grand-daughter

I'm so glad that I started this project when I did... as the wonderful women who took so much time in writing me a lot of different stories that they remembered, sharing pictures (like the ones above) aren't able to do so anymore.  I believe that one of them has since passed away and the other one now gets extremely confused.  I am also so happy that I have started 'digging in' again and I really want to ultimately make a scrapbook of everything I am learning so that I can share it with my children, grand children, and (gasp!) great grand children.  

Our 2013 Family Yearbook is DONE!

I finished it a couple of months ago but just not got around to ordering it.  So here it is!!  Enjoy:)

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=1Abs2rhu4csnfg&cid=SFLYOCWIDGET

Oh, What An Evening...

Yesterday evening was too funny not to post about, so here you go...

Sean and I have been talking about joining the YMCA, so we decided that we would go yesterday evening to sign up and work out.  So I cleaned up dinner and then ran around getting diapers, jammies, Sean's work out clothes, swim trunks, etc into the gym bag.  As we were literally running out the door, Ben spilled Josie's water all over himself.  So I put all of the bags I was carrying down, changed him, and finally loaded everyone (and everything) into the van.

We pulled up to the Y just as I remembered that I had completely forgotten to grab Sean's sneakers!  He even put them in big capital letters and said "VERY IMPORTANT" next to them in the email he sent of the things he wanted me to pack for him to work out in.  Opps.  So I tried calling him and then texted to let him know.  I later learned that he was less than 5 minutes from the Y when he got my text, so he had to turn around and come home to get them.

The boys and I went in and as I was filling out the paperwork Ethan accidentally bumped into Ben, causing Ben to fall face first onto the hard floor.  Yup, he immediately got a nice goose-egg on his forehead.  Sean came in a little later and we were finally able to take Owen and Ben to the daycare and work out.  (which, by the way, it was awesome to run again!)  Since I forgot to pack towels we couldn't go swimming, but it was getting late for Owen and Ben anyway, so we got them from the daycare, changed them into their jammies and headed home.

As I was getting Owen out of the van I noticed one of Sean's black work shoes on the top of the van... I carried it in and told him...  He realized then that he put his work shoes on top of the van when he was buckling Owen in.  Obviously one had fallen off somewhere on the way home...  So he quickly left to go to DSW before they closed to get another pair while I put everyone to bed.

Whew - what a couple of hours it was! :)