The New Year Started with a BANG!

Let just say the month of January was a tough one for me. There were some high points and some very low points. Over all I was definitely glad to see the month end. 

LOW POINTS 

• Friday, January 9th: I was taking Isaac to seminary at 6 am and I backed into the garage door. The ironic thing is, the day before Blake told me that he had a dream that he saw me ruining the garage with the car, to be careful...well dreams do come true. Will give credit to my husband on how he handled the whole situation. I truly have a good husband.

Let's fast forward five days later...

• Tuesday, January 13th: I was taking Mya to school in my truck on the icy roads in my neighborhood, when I hit a patch of black ice as I was turning. I slid and crashed into a oncoming truck. Thank goodness that we were all fine but my truck 's front was busted and the other car driver's door was dented and scratched up. The guy who turned out to live just up the road from me was very nice. The condition of the road was truly dangerous, I could barely walk to him. I was sliding all over the road in my tennis shoes, finally I just took them off and walked in my socks so I can speak to him. I never been in a fender bender before and neither has he. After we exchange our information, he helped me pick up the debris that my truck caused off the road. Here is the ironic thing is that both trucks were Honda Pilots. Which is a blessing, if I had hit a smaller car the damages would have most likely been worst and the other driver could have been injured.

The truck was in the auto shop for sixteen days

• Thursday, January 29th: One day after having my truck, I was picking up Isaac at his school.  I pulled along the sidewalk and parked. The car in front of me left and I thought to myself that I should move up. Well, when I went to turn the truck on it WOULDN'T TURN ON!!! NOT A THING! No power at all. The thing is that the truck never gave any indication that the battery was having problems and it didn't have any before the accident, it just STOP!!! Luckily a dad helped jumped my truck, I was able to pick up Mya from school, take Isaac to drivers school, and pick up Nathan from school. I made sure that I kept the car running but I had the feeling if I turned off the truck it wouldn't start. I was correct in my assumptions, the truck died in my garage. The auto shop did come to my house and gave me a jump. I was able to get the truck to the shop and they fixed the problem.

• Thursday, January 29th: Dropped my cell phone in the toilet. It was only two months old! Do I need to say more?

HIGH POINTS

• Saturday, January 3rd: I finally filled that empty frame. For the last five years I have had these frames hanging in the family room. As you can clearly see one frame is empty. Let me tell you the background regarding these frames. 

It just so  happened that when Isaac and Nathan were in kindergarten they both had to do a poster with pictures about their lives. With all the effort it took me to make these posters with their input, I discovered that the posters can be framed with I did and they both hung in their room in Hawaii.  Fast forward to Spokane, when we moved back to the mainland I thought it would nice to do a grouping of these posters. So there were just two frames up in the family room for two years with the intention when Mya enters kindergarten I would buy a new frame to have her poster to hang with this grouping.

When Mya entered kindergarten, I brought the new frame and hung it. Thinking for sure that sure she would be asked to do a similar project, but it didn't happen. The project was on a small 8 x 10 color paper, well that wasn't going to work. So the frame just hung there empty for five years! One of my Christmas gift to Mya was to complete this poster and finally getting fill the empty frame. But it was a gift that both of us were to do together. We search through all of her photos and had her pick her favorites. She also picked out the card stock, stickers and lettering. I wrote the descriptions about Mya and did the layout. Below was the finally product.

Finally the no more empty frame.

• Saturday, January 10th: It was Nathan Oren Beecher birthday and he became a TEENAGER! To read more about Nate's big day, click on "A Start of a New Year...Another Teenager In Our Home!"

• Tuesday, January 13th: Isaac got her learner permit and started Driver's Ed.

• Thursday, January 15th: Nate got BRACES!!!

• Tuesday, January 20th: Dove was doing a promotion on girls with curly hair, they stated that only 4 out of 10 curly haired girls think their hair is beautiful.Typically I don't normally leave comments or even a photo on businesses pages but this video truly touched me and I wanted to share with others that we all beautiful, that hair shouldn't define us but to just embrace it.

The next day I get a email from Dove and this is what they said:

Dove January 21 at 1:41pm We love this beautiful message, Leslie! Would love if you could fill out the below form so that we can share your story http://bit.ly/1sVL9YX. When it asks for your username, just use your full name instead! :)     Like     Comment

This is what they published on their site.

• Saturday, January 24th: It was Mya Isabella Beecher's 10th Birthday!!! To read more about her big day, click on "Mya Turned 10!!!!!"

• Tuesday, January 27th: Mya has really taken with the recorder (none of my boys care for it and were not very good at it). All the fourth grader in her school are learning how to play the recorder. They can chose to pass their songs either in the morning before school starts or after school to get a belt to move to the next level. Well with Mya's competitive and persistence nature, she wanted all the belts. In this photo she's got her red belt and one week later she reached the black belt. I'll be honest the recorder isn't my favorite instrument to listen to but she does play it very well.  

What I learn this month was regardless of the mishaps that many occur in life, there are truly many blessing too. I'm been so humbled with the outpouring love, comfort and service that was extended to me and my family. Had dinner brought in, a plate of cookies left at my door, had a sweet friend pick Isaac a couple of time up from Driver's Ed and brought him home, had my zumba instructor pick me up so I wouldn't miss her class and drive me back home several times and these are just some of the sweet services that was extended to us. I'm thankful and grateful for good friends that help make some of the junky stuff more bearable.

Mya TURNED 10 !!!!!

A birthday is a time to reflect over the previous year and count the ways your children have grown. Making you realize as a parent, that time is so precious. A decade ago on January 24th, my last and only daughter Mya Isabella was born. She stolen my heart and had me from the minute I felt her kick and had her nightly hiccups before I ever even saw her face. It just seems as if the past 10 years have zoomed by at warp speed I would have never thought that I would have a mini me with red hair!  She's is in fourth grade at Mullan Road Elementary. She is hula dancer and been dancing Halau Hula O' Ku'ulei for five years. She's is a soccer player and is on a U10 Development team on a competitive soccer league called Breakers. She's a Girl Scout Junior and love everything about Girl Scouts. She's sassy, thoughtful, caring, loving, determine, persistent, a go-getter, a natural leader, courageous, and very competitive. She brings joy to those who are around her. Mya has a way of making even the saddest person smile, and her ability to see good in everything is quite special. Mya has been such a blessing in our lives and our lives wouldn't be the same without her. She has taught me so much more that I have ever thought possible and I'm eternally blessed to be her mom.

So as many of you know, we do a whole day celebration of the individual on their birthday but this year it was a little different. Blake was leaving out of town very early on Mya's birthday and wanted to still be part of his daughter's birthday celebration. So it was decided that we would do the birthday's dinner, the birthday pie and some presents the day before. Mya actually struggled with this, she didn't mind the dinner or singing happy birthday to her with her birthday pie but opening her presents before her birthday was a issue. I gave her the option to open all her presents the day before her birthday so dad can be part of this but she didn't want to do this. She still wanted to open her presents on her birthday. So we compromise and she opened only the presents that dad got her. 

Funny thing that I didn't have a zero candle, which I thought I had but only had all the other numbers on hand. So one was the only candle on her pie.

 Mya share such a special bond with Nathan, they both keep me on my toes.

Mya's Birthday Meal Menu that she wrote

Mya is her mother's daughter, she wanted a Puerto Rican meal for dinner!

Birthday Morning

She's so happy with her gifts.

Manicure and Pedicure

Some reason she really wanted to take a photo with the Target dog.

She was heaven with her lunch of tacos and curly fries.

 Mya has her first indoor soccer game on her birthday and she chose to play. She did so well. I just love watching her play.

After we came home she just wanted to play video games with her brother Nate. Her birthday movie she chose for us to watch was "Earth to Echo", which a good movie. 

Since living in Hawaii we have incorporated a tradition of candy leis on birthdays with the children's favorite candies. Since Mya's birthday was on Saturday, she really wanted to have her lei on Monday at school but she also requested that I made two leis, one for her and one for her classmate Sophia. Sophia and Mya has been in the same classes since kindergarten and they both share the same birthdays. Every year she request the same thing. This thoughtfulness truly emphasize the type of person my daughter is. It is so darn hard to believe that that she has turned 10 years old!!! We love Mya and can't wait see how she would chose to navigate her future.

A Start of a New Year...Another Teenager In Our Home!

So one of my New Year's resolution is to blog again on my family's blog. Blogging my family's blog was one of my favorite hobbies but going back to school in 2011, it took the back burner in my hectic life. It's a start of a new year and I'm committed to renew one of my favorite hobbies and also to stay connected to those love ones who are not on facebook or instagram, so they can see what's happening with The Beechers in Washington.

It's OFFICIAL, we have another teenager in our home, Nathan Oren turned 13 on January 10th!!!

 I know all parents always say, "Can't believe where the time flown", well that statement is definitely so true! This redhead stolen my heart the minute he was put in my arms 13 years ago. He's the most loving and considerate person I have ever known. He has such a great gift of befriending individuals who struggle in school, that people avoid, or have a disability. His empathy to all is truly a beautiful gift. He's in 7th grade in Sacajawea middle school and loves his video games especially, Minecraft, Terrraria, and Destiny. He started karate in October 2014 and now is a yellow belt. He's a gifted artist and his love of cars is still strong. His common phases are: Turducken and Yes, I'm AWESOME! I truly can't image my life without Nathan in it...he has enhance our lives so much. So grateful that I'm his mom.I found this great quote on Pinterset (a course) that depicts what I feel about Nathan.

   Birthday Morning, in our home we open our gifts in the morning. So we can enjoy them for the rest of the day.

  He was one happy kid!!!

So on his birthday, our stake was having a temple day and he chose to go to the temple to do some work with his dad and brother. He wanted his birthday lunch at Dairy Queen not far from the temple.  Nate and I being silly at lunch.

 Also in our family, the birthday person chooses the menu for the day and shown below is what he requested.

 Playing electronics all day is a dream come true for this boy. 

Nathan, life can sometime be cruel, it can sometimes be kind. But if you remain truthful, happiness, you will eventually find. Let the voice of your innocence be heard, let it ring out like a sweet chime. Be responsible, thoughtful, stay strong in your beliefs, be an example and have fun as you become a teen, this is your life's prime.

Hoped you had a great 13th Birthday, Nate!!!