Family Newsletter April 2015

Dear Family,
Here is the update on us the last 6 months.

A Baby Girl!  As most of you know,  we will be adding a new addition to our family at the end of July. The exciting thing is that we get to experience having our first daughter.  The boys are all very excited,  even Adam is now saying that he is not the baby anymore because the baby is in Mommy's belly. Brigham can't wait to hold his little sister. He has even practiced being very sweet and gentle to another baby girl in our ward. Silas keeps wanting to save things for the baby girl (like smoothie popsicles and Easter eggs).

Spring Break Vacation: It was so awesome how the school district that Doug teaches in and Brigham's school district,  along with ISU, all had the same spring break schedule.  We just had to take a vacation!  At the moment, our favorite vacation place is Roseville, California.  It might have something to do with two very special people who live there.  We love allowing our boys to get to spend a week with their grandparents. We had a lot of fun. We visited Point Reyes National Seashore,  Muir Woods,  took bike rides, played at Folsom Lake, visited the California State Capital, and ate some yummy food.  We cherish the memories we made there.

Doug has been working on his principal internship and has completed almost 3/4 of the required hours. He continues to take master's courses at the same time he is completing his hours. He manages to do this after he has already spent a full day teaching.  Now, due to beautiful spring weather,  it is already watering time for grain. Life doesn't slow down for him.

I, on the other hand (Shar), only seem to have two things that change for me: my belly gets bigger, and the midgets I take care of get bigger. Let's move on to them.

Brigham just turned 6 and finished his first season of junior jazz.  He absolutely loved it! He made several baskets, could control his dribble,  and made for a persistent (almost annoying) defender. His team mates learned to respect his abilities even though he was younger than most of them. Now he is gearing up for soccer. He just started taking piano lessons from his grandma Bitter. He is getting better at reading every day. He is a good boy and we sure are grateful that he is our oldest.

Silas is 3 1/2. He will be 4 in June. His most awesome accomplishment a couple months ago was finally being potty trained!!! Silas is one who has to decide on his own if he is ready to do things.  That is the challenge right now as we are hoping to get him accepted as a peer model student for a developmental preschool program for this next school year.  It was such a great experience for Brigham and we would love it if Silas could be accepted.  Silas really enjoys pretending and dresses up as different super heroes every day. He gets to have a friend over every week too since I babysit a boy his age.  Silas is definitely our most mischievous musketeer.

Adam is 2 1/2. He has now caught up in weight and shoe size with Silas. We knew it would happen eventually.  For this reason we call Silas and Adam "the twins". I literally get asked if they are twins everywhere I go with them and they sure act like it too. Adam and Silas get along as the greatest of friends almost half the time. The other majority of the time they fight, wrestle, tease, and make each other cry. The times when they are getting along with each other are usually spent in some sort of mischief like painting the carpet or ripping papers. I guess I should give Adam a little personal focus in his paragraph.  Adam also likes to imagine. He pretends he is different animals all the time. He also enjoys turning his brothers into animals by saying, "poof! Your a frog!" or whatever he decides you are. He is a very grown-up talker. He has his own humor and he walks around with a hop in his step which also has a confident strut-like flair to it. He is still our baby until this little girl shows up.

We hope everyone is enjoying life and can't wait to get caught up with the rest of you!

Love, The Bitter Family: Doug, Sharlene, Brigham, Silas, Adam, and little princess bump.

Easter and Conference

I must confess something. I blurted out to my children that the Easter bunny is not real.  This last Monday I was helping Brigham with the family home evening lesson which was a lesson on the Atonement and resurrection of Jesus Christ. After we were done preparing,  Brigham asked if he should then talk about the Easter bunny.  I said immediately, "No, the Easter bunny is not real....easter is about Jesus,  not bunnies." I can't decide if I feel good or bad about that.  I do wish that there was more emphasis on the Savior instead of eggs and bunnies, although the belief of a child is something magical. (And now Silas is telling his cousin that the bunny is not real). I still don't know if that was a smart thing to do or not, but I hope everyone had a happy celebration that our Savior lives! After all, it was Elder Holland who said that "Easter is the most sacred day of the year." I hope to make it so in the coming years.

We had fun this week decorating eggs and sugar cookies, having an Easter egg hunt, searching for Easter baskets, having a wonderful breakfast with a great grandmother, enjoying being with family, and listening to the Prophet and Apostles speak to us.

I am so grateful for the opportunity we get to listen to counsel from inspired leaders. Today I am filled with love, hope, and gratitude.  I want to grow closer to my Savior. I want to be a better wife, mother, sister, friend,  daughter,  and visiting teacher. I know that my Savior lives and He loves us. I know that to have true happiness is by striving to become like the Savior and living His teachings. I hope to apply the things I learned today to be a better disciple of Jesus Christ.  I leave these thoughts in His name, amen.