Asher turns 16

Happy 16th birthday to my oldest!! I am dying a little because I feel like this marks the start of Asher really growing up. We'll be getting his license requirements finished up this week, so he'll be legally driving within the week! Driving will sever his time from us a little more. While I am fairly happy he no longer needs a personal chauffeur and can drive himself to his own activities at all hours, all over, in and out of the city, I have reservations about what this shift means long term.  This kid (yep, I can still call him that- I'm his mom, ha!) is awesome.  He is a great big brother, son, friend, and student.  We are so proud of who he is and who he is becoming.  He's responsible, dependable, funny, hardworking, and tries to do good things with his time.  We never have to get this kid up for early morning seminary or remind him to do his homework. He worked his first job starting last spring as a lifeguard at Valley Pool, has kept his grades stellar, made student government again this year, made the Soccer team at the High School, plays for his club team, has leadership roles at church and balances it all so well.  He plays soccer with his youngest brother, Dawson- training him in skills beyond his age level (slide tackling, keeper...yikes!), and also hangs out with Beckett- those two love to watch movies together, play basketball in Asher's room on the mini-hoop, and just hang out.  His interests are evolving all the time- he seems to love history and the constitution (and is on a competitive We The People Team this year), soccer, Marvel movies, finding names for us to take to the temple, watching sports (soccer at the top of the list, of course), nachos, and Manchester United (oh dear, sometimes he uses British words in place of our American ones- and adds an accent to boot!- a fan through and through). 

For his birthday, we celebrated by going to a Lobo Basketball game (ironically, as we went up to the ticket booth to purchase our tickets, people stopped and gave us some - we all went to the game for free!), and ate at his choice- Freddy's. On his actual birthday, we went bowling that morning, celebrated in the afternoon, and happened to get in on a temple reservation for baptisms at the temple that night.  It was so great celebrating this awesome son of ours.  Asher- Happy 16th Birthday!!  We love you so, so, so much and can't believe how fast you're growing up!

 

Asher's an Eagle!

This boy completed his Eagle Project in December of 2019, and finished up ALL the remaining requirements before the end of that year.  He was thrilled to have accomplished what seemed at the time to be a daunting task, and we were so proud of him and excited to celebrate his award. 

For his Eagle Project, he organized a Bike Rodeo for local elementary age kids.  He invited several people to teach mini classes for bike education, made up an invite to pass out, set up a fun obstacle course to ride on, and provided snacks.  He had some really awesome helpers and support for his activity, and even his Grandma and Grandpa Reitz came and helped out!  It was a success despite being a busy time of year for families, and I was so proud of all the hard things he had to do to complete it.  A job well done for sure. 

 He had his Board of Review in February, and heard we would get the paperwork, etc in the mail.  Covid hit, months went by, I called the Scout office (which had been closed and reopened), only to finally learn that they had sent his award and paperwork to our previous address, which had been updated a couple of ears ago.  They worked it out with Scout Headquarters, and we finally received it at the end of the summer.  Our restrictions in NM, being continuously strict, had prevented us from having a typical Court of Honor, and as time has gone on, we decided we just finally needed to celebrate and honor him as best we could!  We let him pick dinner.  Thinking he would choose steak, he surprised us and asked for Twisters- burritos and nachos (his fave).  I made him a fun Eagle cake,  and he reminisced on his time and best memories in scouting (on video), and gave him his award and a flag flown over the capital in his honor.  Overall it was a really fun night!  All that was missing was family and friends to join in the celebration, which was a significant hole, but a Covid style party sufficed and we are glad he finally has the award he earned!  Well done, Asher.  We're so proud of you!

 

Ordinations

These boys just keep growing up!  Gah! This month was a big one for our two oldest, as they were both worthy and willing to be ordained to new priesthood offices.  Corey gave them both beautiful blessings, and there were lots of tender feelings for us all.  Asher is now a Teacher, and Beckett is a newly minted Deacon!  The first Sunday afterwards, Asher blessed the bread for the sacrament and did great.  As a mom, I was nervous for him, but he sailed thru it nicely.  Beckett will be trained and get to pass the sacrament later this month and he is actually VERY excited about it.  He's out of primary now, and is thrilled to be in the Young Men's program.  I only have one little guy left in primary, and that's just makes me feel old!  Old and proud, though.  These boys have made great choices in their lives to get to this point and I know they won't regret it or the new responsibilities they have each been given.  Love these boys so much.  

P.S.  We hiked around the volcanoes last weekend too, and thought I'd throw in a few pics.  Obviously, nothing whatsoever to do with ordinations, except for timing!  It was freezing, but the views of the city were fantastic, and it's so close to home.