Father's Day

One of our favorite things to do is to celebrate David, so whenever Father's Day rolls around, we are excited to make the extra effort to show him how much we love him. 

Our Father's Day budget isn't very big, but I put together a little book package to make him smile. This year I am reading Lord of the Rings and he is reading Pride and Prejudice (books picked by each other), so I gave him a bag of peach rings "Lord of the (peach) Rings" and a little tin of Mints that were branded with a pride and prejudice logo plus a couple of bookmarks sporting quotes from each of those books. It wasn't much but it made him smile. 

I also did some extra babysitting on the side and earned enough to buy him a new travel bag that has a section that unzips so you can put a suitcoat inside without it getting wrinkly. 

David is such a good dad. Just the best father I could ask for for these children. Some of the favorite things that he does with them/for them right now: 

-He is diligent about downloading the next books in the series that Caleb and Austin are working through and reading to them at night. Right now they are working through the Dragon Masters series, but they also jump back to the Jack and Annie books (Magic Treehouse). Whenever they finish one, David downloads the next. I love watching him climb up on the top bunk to lay by Caleb and read him a book at night. 

-He tells the best stories. The kids have a favorite story that he tells about Gerald the Giraffe (who is small but his herd learns to love and appreciate him anyway) and another favorite about a Panda that goes sailing down a river on a raft made of bamboo (but then gets hungry and starts eating the raft). 

-He plays "Chase the Monster" which used to be just chasing the kids around the kitchen counter and has now evolved into a complex game involving two different-sized toy balls and detailed rules about being frozen, throwing and catching the ball to win (or lose) and a line of scrimmage that can't be crossed to start. It's the kid's very favorite game, but in truth they just love playing with David. 

-He is so good about consistently reading Harry Potter to Lydia or Austin each night. I get tired and I'm like "let's just skip tonight" but he always assures us that we can "read just a little". We are finishing Book 2 with Austin right now and getting ready to start Book 6 with Lydia. This has been a neat connection to have with our kids and I'm so glad that David is invested in it and in them. 

David supports me in our homeschool endeavors. He is an equal partner when it comes to doing the dishes, sweeping the floor, caring for the laundry, putting the kids to bed, etc... When he sees something that needs doing, he just does it. He's also patient when our house is messy because we've been doing homeschool (or fun) things all day, when the magnatiles stay out on the stair landing for weeks because the kids are into playing with them, when I'm so tired at night that I fall asleep in the middle of a conversation. 

He is the best of fathers, and we love him even more because he is ours. 

Fathers Day

To write about how excellent David is as a husband and father is both a wonderful opportunity and a difficult challenge. The only challenge being that it's basically impossible to contain with words (and even words+pictures) how great he really is. Especially without getting too long-winded and sappy. So this Father's Day I thought that I'd just write about a few things that we love about David and why he is such a great husband/father.

In no particular order (other than the order that the photos were uploaded):

#1- Our kids adore him. They think he's the best dad in the world because he makes them feel like a million bucks. They each have inherited so many of his wonderful qualities and I hope that they grow up to emulate him in their own lives and to find those same qualities in the spouses they marry. They have also inherited his sun-sensitive eyes, which makes for some pretty squinty Father'sDayPhotos, but David is always willing to take (and allow me to take) photos like this that document our lives together. 

#2 - David makes time for us. It's important to him to be there to support and celebrate as often as possible. We are so grateful for his flexible job that allows him to leave work early to attend baseball games or occasional mid-day events. I'm grateful that he makes the effort toshow up even when he really doesn't have to. 

#3-He spends his time serving us and working side by side. I got it into my head that I wanted to use the leftover carnival supplies to turn our basement into a carnival tent. We laughed for a minute then David said "That's a great idea, let's do it." And we did - together. Our backyard is a disaster of home-owner nightmares, but I'm grateful to work as a team with David to mitigate the situation. 

#4-We love spending time with him and he loves spending time with us, too. 

#5 - He is the best part of our whole family. The kids beg him to stay home as he leaves for work in the morning. They cheer when he comes home. We love to adventure with him and would spend all of our minutes with him if we could. . 

He had to travel to Minnesota earlier this month and the kids stood on the porch to wave goodbye to him. They missed him while he was gone but he send home marco polo videos of the airplane and his hotel room and pictures of all the things he got to do (like this photo from a baseball game he got to go to after work). Even when he's away for work, he still manages to make us feel like he's thinking of us and that we are important to him. 


#6 - He makes fatherhood look easy, but he puts 110% into it and is determined to do all he can to be successful. We talk about how these are the years that we have to put in a LOT of effort, but that we wouldn't trade these years for anything




I came across this post on social media and it resonated with me:

"In a ‘girl power’ culture, I am a woman and a mother that has not forgotten about the boys. Our world needs good boys. We need boys to become hard working, intelligent, valiant men who love God with their whole souls and seek to love their wives and children with everything they got. My work is to prepare them to stand with woman, as equal partners, and save the family 🌱 .
My boys are lucky, they have their dad to mimic, he is a good, good man. 🌱"

“It is a wonderful aspiration for a boy to become a man--strong and capable; someone who can build and create things, run things; someone who makes a difference in the world. It is a wonderful aspiration for those of us who are older to make the vision of true manhood a reality in our lives and be models for those who look to us for an example.” - D. Todd Christofferson

I always knew that he would be an amazing father and I am grateful to again celebrate this day by his side. We love you David. 

Fathers Day

It's that time again, the time when we get to celebrate our favorite guy and gush about all the wonderful things that he does for us and how we love him so much. 

Happy Fathers Day to David (aka best dad EVER)

Of course, the morning started with breakfast in bed and messages about how much we love him. 

The rest of the day was focused on his favorite foods, special surprises for him, and spending as much time with him as we each possibly could. The kids were particularly attentive to him and it's sweet to see how much they wanted to show him their love. He means so much to all of us. 

Truly, David is such a wonderful dad. Some of my favorite things that he does right now that are particularly great are: 

-The Peaden Restaurant. David hosts this occasionally. He writes/types up a menu with loads of different food/side/dessert options (not anything fancy, just mac and cheese vs a hotdog or whatever leftovers we have in the fridge- but there are a lot of options), then he pretends to be a fancy waiter coming to take the order of each of the kids. They love it so much and it makes me smile every time. He's so fun. 

-Talking through the kids when I get stuck in a hard place with them. When I'm having a hard time reasoning with one of the kids, I can just say "Lets go talk to Dad about it". We pop in to the room he's using as a work-from-home office and he will stop what he's doing and talk to us about whatever is going on. 99.9% of the time he's able to work out a solution when I'm just not able to. He's patient and a good listener and helps the kids feel validated on the path to a solution. 

-He plays games with Austin all the time, even when I know he's exhausted. But Austin loves games and it makes him feel loved to have Daddy play with him. 

-He brushes Lydia's hair when it's particularly tangly, or even when she's just gotten out of the bath. Even though Lydia usually does it herself, you can just feel the love radiating from them when he sits cross-legged on the floor to spend that time brushing her hair. 

-He plays "Chase the Monster" with Caleb and Lucy and diligently swings Caleb into his bed whenever asked to during the bedtime routine. (Chase the Monster is a run around the house while Dad chases you game. Lydia called it that when she was little and it stuck.) The kids never get tired of playing this with him and beg for it often. 

-He teaches the Come Follow Me lesson most Sundays (I usually teach it during the week) and his lessons are always on-point and engaging. When the kids hear dad is doing the lesson, they cheer. I love David's testimony and his humble determination to teach his children of the things that are important.

-I have a pretty time-consuming calling and David takes a lot of the load while I'm in meetings on Sunday or at Saturday baptisms (plus other meetings during the week). We are such a great team together and knowing that he's there taking care of our children without complaint makes it so much easier for me to focus on fulfilling my calling. I often call him the Assistant to the President because I couldn't do what I do without him.

And I would be remiss if I didn't include a shout-out to our dads, too. The best dads we could have asked for and two of the greatest Grandpa's around. We are so grateful for their love and care throughout our childhoods and well into our adulthood. We depend on them for so much and are blessed to have them in our lives. 

Father's Day

We had a wonderful Father's Day this year. It started out bright and early in the morning, about 6:30 a.m. when one of our fire alarms decided that it's battery was too low and started to chirp at us. I got up to try to figure out which alarm it was coming from but by the time I figured out which one it was, David had gotten up, too. So much for sleeping in on Father's Day. Instead, he was a hero and changed the battery before it woke up any of the kids (and so I wouldn't have to stand precariously on a chair at 9 months pregnant). 

 It was a special Father's day for me (Shantel) because my Dad came down and stayed for the weekend. (Mom has been here for several days and Dad came to join us.) It was such a wonderful day to celebrate these two wonderful Fathers in my life. My own Father who is funny, kind, giving, faithful, and supportive. He's a fabulous Grandfather and the only thing I love more than having him as my dad is seeing him as a Grandpa. There's not much better than a dingbump from Grandpa Walker. And David, who is the best dad to our kids. He makes them laugh, he gets down on their level to teach them things, he helps them work through their emotions, and he takes 100% ownership of his role as parent, father, and leader.

I was blessed with an incredible father as I grew up and I am grateful every day for the blessing that David is to our family. I feel that Lydia, Austin, Caleb, and soon-to-be Lucy are among the luckiest kids in the entire world.

I would be remiss if I didn't add David's Dad who makes a trio of wonderful Fathers for our little family. Cal is gracious, hard-working, generous, and full of kind words. He happily gives the kids fruit snacks every time they come to his house (even when they aren't particularly patient about asking him the very second that they arrive). He reads to them, chases them around the house, and takes them out to play on the treehouse in the backyard. He raised David to be an incredible man and he continues to teach and support and love. We are so grateful for him. 

We went to church then came home for a nice relaxing afternoon, including some family study time, card games, and a little Father's Day Party.  I asked my dad to give me a blessing, and he gave me a beautiful blessing for my upcoming labor that was full of peace and love. I was grateful to receive that blessing from my Dad on Father's Day

I bought David a super-awesome jacket that turns into a backpack. It was a Shark-Tank special. We saw it on an episode and thought it was so neat and so I decided to get one for him. The day that it arrived in the mail I just couldn't get out to the mailbox, but David had had a busy day at work so I thought that he wouldn't get the mail on the way home. But he did!  I was so disappointed because David really likes surprises and I'm surprisingly bad at keeping things a surprise. Ugh. The package was marked with a big "QuickFlip" logo and there was no way he could have missed it. I was lamenting this to my mom and then decided that I would get him a second Father's Day present and really surprise him. I bought a long shelf and set up all of our Logan paraphernalia underneath a picture and our USU diplomas. We used to have the Logan stuff out on a little shelf, but it's been in storage since... well.. since we moved to this house over six years ago. I hung the pictures up a couple of months ago, but I love the way this turned out. David was surprised when he saw it on Friday (as an early FD gift) and really liked it - and then when I gave him his QuickFlip jacket on Sunday he was still surprised and so happy! He said that he didn't see the package - which I honestly think he's lying about because he doesn't want me to feel bad - but either way I feel good about getting a few small things that show David how much I love him. Because I love him, and he deserves all the things, way more than my tiny budget can afford.  

We love this David-Dad of ours. He's the best of the best - and particularly the very best for us. I pray every single day my heartfelt gratitude that he is in my life and that I'm the one that gets to travel this journey with him. 

To make this Father's day extra-special, I'd been having fairly consistent contractions all day, after all of the partying, dinner-eating/clean-up, and bedtime routine my contractions started getting closer and intense enough that we decided to head to the hospital in anticipation of the arrival of our new little Lucy-love. Although she wasn't born until the following morning, becoming a father, for the fourth time, is quite a special way to spend your Father's Day. 

Happy Father's Day, David. We all love and adore you. 

Father's Day

I know I just did sappy post for our anniversary - but I couldn't let this day go by without wishing a Happy Father's Day to my darling husband, David. He does so much for our little family, and truly is the best father I could have hoped for to raise our children together. He is kind and sweet and loving. The way he loves Lydia and our baby boy brings me such great job and makes me love him even more every single day. He's perfect for me, and an amazing and loving father for our kids. 

We started out our Sunday with some yummy bacon/sausage, egg, and cheese biscuits - slider style. Then let David open his presents. A hamburger/bacon pan for the stove and a "good for one Whiteboard" coupon for him to pick out a little whiteboard for his shelf in our bedroom. (Both things that he asked for - so nothing too exciting, but hopefully they helped show him how much we appreciate him!)  

We headed to church, where Lydia gave us both an awesome Father's Day Present and went to nursery by her self for the entire time - for the first time ever! The men got bags of chocolate chip cookies from the Relief Society, and hopefully they all felt loved and appreciated. 

I made Barbecue Ribs, garlic mashed potatoes, and corn on the cob for dinner - per David's request. It was delicious and we just enjoyed spending the rest of the evening together. Much of it consisted of this:  

Lydia would say "Swing Daddy!" and they would take turns swinging their legs up while bracing their bodies on the couch/coffee table. The words "Swing again Daddy!" were repeated probably 100 times. David was exhausted, but as a mark of what a wonderful Daddy he is - he couldn't resist and played this game with her all night. She absolutely loved it.  Want proof? Here's a video of it: 

I hope that our son grows up to be just like David, and that Lydia marries a man just as sweet and kind and caring as him. 

David and I both have wonderful fathers, and we were able to Skype/Facetime with them before dinner. I'm grateful for their examples in our lives and we wish them a very Happy Father's Day as well.