Party (POTTY)Time!

We have been working on two things lately with our Nathan---getting him to go to school and getting him potty trained! Both are quite challenging to say the least!

First off, he has missed 17 days this year so far since January, yeah, that's bad, and it's not like you can drag that kid out of bed because he is way to strong for either one of us. So we try lots of incentives to try to get him to go. The latest is we leave the house around 7:20 and drop off Ashley at Highland High and then go to Sugarhouse Park. Nathan then proceeds to gather the ducks by our car(while we 3 remain inside warm)and calls them with Joe's duck call. He then starts feeding the ducks, geese, pidgeons, and seagulls.

It is THE BEST way to start out the day! Joe and I are together, we get to see our sweet son smiling, and then at the very end he'll throw out a few cheetos that only the seagulls will take. They fly up and catch them in the air and Nathan yells,"Touchdown!"

He has been doing great the past month with potty training. Never thought I'd be potty training a 12 year old but hey, life is full of surprises, right? He just hasn't gotten the whole number 2 thing down, unfortunately. I will spare you any details though considering he is 12 and all, let's just say that I will be VERY GLAD when he is completely house trained!

His teacher at school has been SUPER at helping with this, in fact, the first day that he went number 2 at school she went and got him a kid's meal at McDonald's, and she bought the other kids in his class fries! Right now he is working toward a sandbox (course we don't want him to be like a kitty and go in it either).

As I mentioned earlier, Nathan did indeed turn 12 a couple of weeks ago. What an amazing kid he is. We talked with our Bishop and decided that it was right to have him advance to Young Mens despite him not being baptized yet. He was so excited and that day he called it "his priesthood" and "my boys". It's amazing how the men and young men in our ward have taken to him and have shown him so much love. It really brought us to tears that first Sunday, you could barely see Nathan in the circle of boys because he is so short and then he had to hug EVERY one of them after.

One of the leaders (the guy that set up him being honorary football captain in the fall) shared his testimony a few weeks ago and said that a hug from Nathan is as close to heaven as he can get here.

Nathan definitely has his days, let me tell you. Like when he pours a whole bottle of bleach in the washing machine and half lands on the clothes, or he steals my debit card out of my wallet so when I go to pay for my groceries at the store I can't...

But his name means Gift from God and that is just what he has been for us these past 12 years and will be for eternity. I wasn't sure if this was something I could handle but Heavenly Father knew I could. I am grateful for challenges that turn out to be such blessings.