Linked In

We had dinner over at Wayne's house today. Mel & Christian and Ethan & Bella came. Mel shared with me some of the decorations and things that Christian's mom has made. The wedding is almost a month away! I trust that things will all come together for that. I haven't been very helpful yet, sorry Mel! Recently Corey and I were in the car with her and Christian, and Corey said "Sorry to make you plan your own wedding Mel!" She said "It's ok, you two have a lot on your plate." Corey replied "We don't even have a plate! We're just shoving things in with our fingers!" I thought that was a quite clever comment, Corey is very funny. We watched Truth or Treason. Corey thought it would be good for our nephew to learn a little bit about the Holocaust cause he's been listening to Nick Fuentes, yikes. One of the main 3 guys in that movie, Rudi Wobbe, was the father of our neighbor Karen who passed away in February. Since we were watching that, we did not watch the First Presidency devotioanl, doh! I forgot about it! We haven't started making that a tradition yet, but we need to. Wayne shared with us some of his birthday treats. We enjoyed watching Alvin crawl around. 

Alvin with all of his adoring fans!

We did some arm and leg wrestling. Abi vs. Katharine ~

Wayne joined in on the leg wrestle, but I'm not sure how hard Abi tried, cause we didn't want him to get hurt! I defeated all the girls and Mel at an arm wrestle, then Wayne easily beat me. Climbing 3-4 times a week don't do jack for a girl against a man, even an 80 year old man. 

Ethan posts frequently on his Linked In profile, due to a challenge by one of his professors. I think his posts are all really good and well written (he's a great story teller, go read his mission blog for lots of examples on that). He shared that a recent post he did about our large family got a lot of traffic with 434 likes woo, 66 comments, and 2 reposts! ~

His post went as follows: 

I'm one of 13 kids

A production company from LA pitched us having our town reality TV show. 

They thought we were so fascinating. No adoptions, No twins. Same parents. "Mormon." Would make for a great story. 

I'm often asked - "How is that? DO you like having such a big family?"

Here's the honest truth: It is so lit.

It's also hard.

Growing Up all I wanted to do was get out of there. My roommates were literal toddlers. They'd raid my closet on the daily, and it drove me crazy.

But looking back, it was all just good for me. 

Even though it's not always easy, it's consistently fun. I have 12 best friends wired into my life for eternity. I was never bored. I always had someone to talk to. 

I learned people and negotiation skills (the only way to survive). I learned how to sneak food from the pantry and frame another kid for it (they eventually put locks on the pantry doors)

Growing up in a big family is one of the greatest blessings of my life, and I still continue to reap those blessings. It can be hard to explain why it's so amazing - only those who experience it can truly appreciate why it's so special. 

If you choose to have more kids than most, I don't think you'd regret it. One of my mom's favorite quotes as of late is: "I would always choose another child." 

We turned down that reality TV company for obvious reasons, but actually ended up doing it on our town terms and in our own way. 

So if you're interested in seeing how that family dynamic works with life, entrepreneurship (my dad's an entrepreneur), the gospel and so forth, check this out - (he linked to the House videos)

What questions do you have about what it's like being the third oldest of 13 kids?

I thought that was an excellent post, and all his other ones are good too, so go request to be a friend with him and you can read all his great content. Also this summer he finished putting together a "life lessons from the mission" 118 page e-book that he titled "The Baton", and that is really great too. So yeah, so learn from Ethan's fun insights on Linked In or through his Baton book.