Well this is my first post on this site. Rather than Emily posting and updating the blog, I feel that this is one time that I need to share (this is Joe). On Saturday of last week I went to help a family move out of our ward. At the breakfast table we were going through trying to plan out the day and what needed to be done. When I mentioned that I needed to go to help move my children immediately asked if they could come to help. Rebecca, Savannah, and Joe all wanted to go and help this family that they didn't even know. It didn't matter who it was, they just wanted to help out. It is very rare that as punishment a parent can say - "if you don't shape up I'm not going to let you do service." They couldn't wait to get to the home and move things.
Well we showed up to the house and immediately Rebecca, Savannah, and Joe walked right into the house and started picking things up and moving them into the moving truck. All of them worked the entire time until we were all done. Everything had been moved that could be moved. They were so happy and excited that they did this. All I can say is my heart was full. How could I have been blessed with such wonderful children. I know that their Grandpa McKnight would have been so proud of them and their Grandparents that are still with us would be proud as well. They came home after moving for almost two hours and started on their work at home without complaining. It was just so wonderful.
On top of that I had asked them if they would help me with a special fast. Without hesitating all three said sure. It didn't matter to them that this week was not fast Sunday, if it would help they wanted to do it. Come Sunday they didn't need to be reminded and they never complained.
In particular I was impressed with Joe. His teacher specifically offered him candy in class and Joe said thank you and put it in his pocket. Then all of the kids went to primary and the president of primary gave smores to everyone. All of my children kept them in a baggy and didn't eat. They didn't try to go out of their way and say "hey - I'm fasting look at me" or anything. They simply said thank you and put it off to the side. It was just so amazing. I love my children so much.
It also made me realize just how lucky I was and am to have Emily as my wife. What a blessing to have such a wonderful individual shaping our children spiritually. I am so thankful that she said yes to being my eternal companion. My eyes have been opened to a whole new world in that I want to improve who I am as a father, husband, friend, and individual simply because I associate with her and want to be better for her. I'm sure that those who read this blog may feel that they are just as lucky. I'm glad that they get to feel that way. I hope you get to feel as wonderful as I do about my beautiful, spiritual, inspiring wife.
I don't feel that it would be appropriate for me to call everyone and boast about my children and my family so I figure if I put it here then whoever comes can read it and they will still understand how thankful I am for my family and know how much love I have for them and my wife specifically.
Heavenly Father truly has blessed my life.
Monday, June 29, 2009
Sunday, June 21, 2009
June Update!
On to an update! Since Mother's Day, 6 weeks ago, the kids have finished school and been on Summer vacation for a month already. Boy the time is flying by.
With the opening of a movie theater closer to home, I bought tickets to the Kids' Summer Movies. So on Tuesday mornings we get out of the house and go to the movies. Some weeks are better then others, it all depends on the movie and Kiley's mood. She has found her seat at the movies on the stairs each week but doesn't sit still for long.
For Memorial Weekend and Day we took at couple of little day outings/trips. We took the kids to the White Tank Mountains again and did the little one mile hike. These are the mountains located in our daily view. The kids seem to have a good time and they were in charge of taking pictures that day. The pictures are on Facebook. On Memorial Day we did a day trip up to the Grand Canyon. The kids have driving over the Hover Dam a couple of times on the way to Las Vegas, but we thought they would like a different view of the Grand Canyon. While it was not Joe or I thought it would be it was ok. There was a lot of walking involved before we could really see anything, but the kids were all amazed. (Again pictures they took are on Facebook.)
Since then we took a long day trip to a small mining town called Morenci. It was around a five hour drive each way. This town is located about an hour East of Thatcher/Safford. Joe applied for a teaching position there and wanted to see what it looked liked. That was on a Saturday and on the following Tuesday, Joe and I made the trip again so he could interview for the teaching position. We were able to stop in Thatcher for a little while to visit Chantel (Joe's niece) and her kids. That made the trip a lot nicer for me but it was still a long trip. As for the teaching job we have not heard anything and are not holding our breath at this point. I think we have decided that if the job was offered to Joe he would take it.
Everyone is doing ok. Joe will be finishing up his Master classes at the end of the month. Yea for him. He was the first McKnight to get a college degree and now he will have a Masters. If only he could get back into teaching so he could put that Masters to work. I am in week 23 and not sleeping well at night, but that will not last forever. The kids are all kids on summer vacation, bored and faced with the daily challenge of what to do now. Kiley is just little self. She is still working on the whole potty training thing. Some days are much better then others, but oh well what am I going to do.
That is going to have to do it for our update this far. Until next post!
With the opening of a movie theater closer to home, I bought tickets to the Kids' Summer Movies. So on Tuesday mornings we get out of the house and go to the movies. Some weeks are better then others, it all depends on the movie and Kiley's mood. She has found her seat at the movies on the stairs each week but doesn't sit still for long.
For Memorial Weekend and Day we took at couple of little day outings/trips. We took the kids to the White Tank Mountains again and did the little one mile hike. These are the mountains located in our daily view. The kids seem to have a good time and they were in charge of taking pictures that day. The pictures are on Facebook. On Memorial Day we did a day trip up to the Grand Canyon. The kids have driving over the Hover Dam a couple of times on the way to Las Vegas, but we thought they would like a different view of the Grand Canyon. While it was not Joe or I thought it would be it was ok. There was a lot of walking involved before we could really see anything, but the kids were all amazed. (Again pictures they took are on Facebook.)
Since then we took a long day trip to a small mining town called Morenci. It was around a five hour drive each way. This town is located about an hour East of Thatcher/Safford. Joe applied for a teaching position there and wanted to see what it looked liked. That was on a Saturday and on the following Tuesday, Joe and I made the trip again so he could interview for the teaching position. We were able to stop in Thatcher for a little while to visit Chantel (Joe's niece) and her kids. That made the trip a lot nicer for me but it was still a long trip. As for the teaching job we have not heard anything and are not holding our breath at this point. I think we have decided that if the job was offered to Joe he would take it.
Everyone is doing ok. Joe will be finishing up his Master classes at the end of the month. Yea for him. He was the first McKnight to get a college degree and now he will have a Masters. If only he could get back into teaching so he could put that Masters to work. I am in week 23 and not sleeping well at night, but that will not last forever. The kids are all kids on summer vacation, bored and faced with the daily challenge of what to do now. Kiley is just little self. She is still working on the whole potty training thing. Some days are much better then others, but oh well what am I going to do.
That is going to have to do it for our update this far. Until next post!
Why I Blog!
For the last few weeks I have been really trying to pinpoint why I spend so much time on the computer (either with Blogs or Facebook). If you look at my own blog I have not written anything since Mother's Day. I have never been good at Journal writing unless it was an assignment in school. I often wonder if anyone really cares what I do or what I have to say. I have never been good at writing or even expressing myself with my kid vocabulary and usually don't have anything profound to share. I think the main reason I spend the amount of time I do looking at Blogs and Facebook is because I am very lonely. (But that is a topic for another blog later.)
Why I started to blog?
I went back to my very first blog and saw this, "In attempts to improve relationships with siblings and extended family members I have joined the list of bloggers."
At the time I had been sending out almost weekly updates to Karena, who had just started college. You see my kids love Karena and they wanted to be a part of writing those updates. (If you look they have contributed some to this blog.) Short after starting I thought why am I just sending these to Karena maybe someone would like to read them. So I began sending them to all of my siblings. I then began to feel like I was adding junk to my siblings' e-mail and wondered if they ever read what I wrote. I knew a few people that were blogging at this time and I thought if I post my things here those that are interested can stop by whenever they are not busy and see what we are up to.
While I continue to wonder if this gets read by many people, I will continue to post here because of my original goal, only I will add friends to my list.
For those that do read my blog, I want you to know that you mean so much to me. For those looking for pictures, those are mainly posted other places. I can't seem to get the hang of posting pictures here. I have found it so much easier to post things to Windows Live and Facebook. (The most current pictures are on Facebook. If neither of those options work for you, I am open for suggestions.)
Why I started to blog?
I went back to my very first blog and saw this, "In attempts to improve relationships with siblings and extended family members I have joined the list of bloggers."
At the time I had been sending out almost weekly updates to Karena, who had just started college. You see my kids love Karena and they wanted to be a part of writing those updates. (If you look they have contributed some to this blog.) Short after starting I thought why am I just sending these to Karena maybe someone would like to read them. So I began sending them to all of my siblings. I then began to feel like I was adding junk to my siblings' e-mail and wondered if they ever read what I wrote. I knew a few people that were blogging at this time and I thought if I post my things here those that are interested can stop by whenever they are not busy and see what we are up to.
While I continue to wonder if this gets read by many people, I will continue to post here because of my original goal, only I will add friends to my list.
For those that do read my blog, I want you to know that you mean so much to me. For those looking for pictures, those are mainly posted other places. I can't seem to get the hang of posting pictures here. I have found it so much easier to post things to Windows Live and Facebook. (The most current pictures are on Facebook. If neither of those options work for you, I am open for suggestions.)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)