The Month of Men

Braxton has had a lot of attention lately. Appropriate attention, I might add. It is only fitting that it falls in what my older brother calls The Month of Men: February. My three older brothers were all born in February (evidently May was good for my folks). Braxton came along in The Month of Men. So did my nephew, Benjamin. Just to be fair, though, I have two nieces born in February, too. But this post is about Braxton.

It started in January when Braxton won his school spelling bee. I'd like to be all proud and say something like, "He beat out 350 6th graders to win first place!" But that would insinuate that ALL the other sixth graders cared, and that's not the case. In all reality, Randy and I were really surprised Braxton did so well. Typically, he doesn't like to stand out in a crowd (I think it has something to do with his small stature). I will tell you, though, that he did win 1st place by spelling REALLY hard words such as flannel and albatross. On to the county spelling bee which had equally hard words like repair, patio, neon, daily. But there was this one word that Braxton didn't know how to spell...Because we didn't spend any time on EASY words! We studied words from Latin, Greek, Italian, Arabic. So when the moderator gave him the word reservist, as in someone who serves with the national guard, as in his uncle who goes to Iraq on March 7, as in could be any number of people from Elko, Braxton missed it. Oh well.

While we were studying spelling words, Braxton started his science fair project. He decided to find out if families share the same germs...or something like that. It morphed several dozen times. What it did involve, that I am aware of, was petri dishes, swabbing our mouths, and multiple trips to the microbiology lab at GBC. We couldn't have done it without the help of Kara Miller (below), the lab coordinator, who was very knowledgeable. Thank you, Kara! What did we learn? Actually, I don't know, but Tanner had bacteria unrecognizable, so a word to the wise: Don't share with Tanner!

And while we are busy working on science fair projects and spelling bees, the stake held its annual Priesthood Preview for all the boys in our stake who will turn 12 this year and receive the priesthood. This is - really and truly - one of the best evenings that the stake puts on. And I'm not just saying that because I help plan it. We use the 11-year-old boys in as many capacities as we can, from prayers to leading the music. One gets to give a talk, and this year, one got to play the piano for "Love is Spoken Here."

He was nervous, but did a good job. It was a great night; the boys turning 12 this year (16 of them!) are a great group of young men.

The very next week, Braxton turned 12. We had a little birthday party. I thought that Braxton, Landon, and Sean looked great in their bowling shoes.


The very next Sunday, Braxton received the Aaronic Priesthood and was ordained a Deacon by his dad.
I did not take this picture. It's kind of a funky picture. ......

I think the month of Braxton is over now. Time to move on to the month of Trulee who is going to disappear until her capstone project is finished and the master's degree is secured.

Maybe....

On the disappearing part, not on the master's degree part. That one will happen.