Thursday, August 28, 2008

Silly Little Girls

I sent Brooklyn to go get something to wear to school for yellow day (they are working on their colors). I waited a little while and thought that it was awfully quiet upstairs. I snuck (is that a word? cause my spell check doesn't think so) up the stairs listening to see what was going on. I heard Brooklyn and Amelia talking the laundry room, so I tiptoed over to the laundry room to see what they were doing. I walked in to the image below, the two of them laughing and sitting inside the dryer. I thought it was so funny that I had to run downstairs and get my camera. I am so sure Brooklyn thought that was what I meant when I said, go find something to wear, right?


Tuesday, August 26, 2008

On The Bus


Brooklyn rode the bus for the first time today. She was so excited to be like the big kids and ride the bus to school. It was a little nerve wracking for me since she wouldn't be riding with my 4 older kids, but I felt better knowing that she would be riding home with them. She was totally proud of herself and loves riding the bus and said that some of her primary friends ride the bus with her, including her friend Emily who is in her class. She gets on at the stop before ours, so she is on the bus waiting for Brooklyn when she gets on. I thought that was nice.

Monday, August 25, 2008

Brooklyn's First Day of School

Brooklyn was so excited to finally go to her first day of school. She was so cute and could hardly contain herself. After the big kids went to school, (she has pm kindergarten) she waited around all morning asking me when it was time to go. Finally it was time to go, and John, Amelia, Brooklyn and I drove over to the school. There were lots of kids there and she could hardly wait to go check out the kindergarten playground and visit with all the other kids. When it was time to line up, she got a little apprehensive and had to run over and love me one more time, but then she was grinning and prancing on her way in to the classroom.
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She asked me to pick her up for her first day. When I went and got her, she was so excited. She told me all about what she had done that day at school and how much fun it was and how her friend Emily from primary was in her class. I told her it was lonely without her at home, and asked her if she wanted to just stay home with me instead. She told me No Way! She said I will go to school and then I will come home and hang out with you. Well I am glad she hasn't forgotten about me so far. lol!
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Pictured Below:
1 - Brooklyn all grown up on her first day of kindergarten.
2 - Checking out the new kindergarten playground.
3 - Cute and waiting in line to go into her classroom.





At the Grave

I didn't take the camera to the funeral, cause I thought that would be weird. But John went on Sunday before we left, to put flowers on his grandma's grave, along with his sister, his mom and her step sister. I stayed at the house and watched my kids and Anastazja so they could go and have that family time together alone.
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Pictured Below;
1 - John's mom Carol putting flowers on her mom's grave.
2 - Carol (center) with her step sister Cyndia (left) and John's sister Sarah (right)
3 - Grandma Edna and her husband Paul's grave.





Visiting John's Family

It was nice getting to visit with John's family. Other than his mom, most of the people there I had never met before. It was an interesting experience cause John is the only LDS person in his family, so the whole weekend was full of swearing and smoking and drinking. Not usually thinks my kids are exposed to. But my kids seemed unfazed by it and had a blast hanging out with all their new found family members. Amelia had a blast with her cousin Anastazja, who is 3 months older than her. She and her mom used to live with us a couple years ago when we lived in Patterson. Anastazja and Ameliaa fought over Grandma Carol the whole weekend. Since Anastazja lives right by Carol, she sees her all time so she wasn't to thrilled with having to share her with someone else. I think their favorite relative of all was John's cousin Nathan, or Nate. Amelia called him " My Nate". He looks kinda scary if you don't know him, big burly dude covered in tattoos, but he is the biggest teddy bear you ever met. Such a sweetheart, probably my favorite relative of John's. A lot of the people there John hadn't seen in 14 years! I can't imaging not seeing my family for that long, but now that we all got to see each other and enjoy time together I think we will keep in touch a lot better than that. It may have been a lot different than spending time with my family, but the house was full of laughter and love. The 2 universal languages of family.
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Pictured Below:
1 - John, Amelia and I with his mom (Carol).
2 - All the cousins with Cousin Nate.
3 - The Men: Nathan, Billy and John.
4 - Carol with my kids and their cousin Anastazja (John's sister Sarah's daughter).
5 - Amelia and Anastazja laughing it up.





Visiting My Family

I am going to break down my post from our Az trip into a couple posts so that it makes it a little more mangeable for me. We did a lot of picture taking and family visiting. I am glad that I got to see my mom's family, since I was staying at my Grandma's house. The kids enjoyed spending time with both my grandparents, as well as 2 of my aunts and my cousin who live there. It was nice that even though we went down there for a sad reason, that we were able to enjoy our time with our families. I am thankful that we were both born in Phoenix, so that most of our extended families live very close together and we can visit them more easily. I love my family so much and I can't wait to see them again at Thanksgiving, and also get to see my dad's family then!
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Pictured below:
1 - My Aunt Linda (my mom's sister) with all my kids
2 -My Grandma. One of my favorite people in the whole world.
3 - My Grandpa with Amelia.
4 - Me with my Aunt Susan (left) and Aunt Linda (right).
5 -My Aunt Susan with my cousin Kim.







I'm baaaack

We got in at about 4 am (the only reason I am awake, is because my kids - who got to sleep all night in the car - had school today). The trip was good. It was nice to meet a lot of John's family that I hadn't met before. I enjoyed staying at my grandma's house and visiting with my extended family. The funeral for John's grandma was nice and I am glad that we were able to be there for that. I will post pics after I take a shower and get dressed and am really awake.
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On a happier note, today is Brooklyn's first day of kindergarten. She is so excited she can hardly contain herself, but she has pm class, so she still has another hour to wait. I will post about that too, later today.
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Well, I am off to shower and get dressed and try to be as much of a human being as you can be when you have only had maybe 4 hours of sleep. Maybe while Brooklyn is at school with the big kids I will take a nap with Amelia. Haha! People who know me, know just how unlikely that will be. I guess it will be an early night for me!

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Tyler's 10th Birthday Party

Well, since John ended up flying out to Phoenix to be with his grandma, we had Tyler's birthday today instead of last Saturday. It was a lot of fun. We had my sister Robyn and her husband and baby, Emily and her 5 kids, and my ex-inlaws and 2 of their kids. Tyler had an army themed birthday, which he was totally excited about. He had wanted that for the last 4 years, but I had never been able to find camo themed plates and tablecloths and stuff. Well this year I did, so I was so excited cause I knew he would be thrilled to finally get to have an army birthday, and he was. I only have these pics cause my camera batteries died, but I will post more once I get the ones from Robyn that I took on her camera. I can't believe we have a 10 year old! Boy time sure flies by! It has been almost 4 years since Tyler (and the rest of the boys) came into my life, and I can't remember/ imagine life without them. They drive me crazy (as only boys can do) but they are so silly and lots of fun and I am so lucky to have them. Tyler is so smart and really funny and is starting to finally gain some maturity. I am excited to see what the next year of his life holds.





Monday, August 18, 2008

Gone

John just called to say that Gma Edna passed away at about 10:50 pm (9:50 AZ time) tonight. He is helping to make arrangements and after he gets home tomorrow night we will head out this weekend for the funeral Sat. I am a little nervous about taking the kids to a funeral. If there is a open casket, there is no way the kids are going in there. I think that would traumatize them and I don't want that to be their last memory of her. I think it would freak them out.
It is a little frustrating that the kids will have to miss a day or 2 of school, but at least it is the first week so you know they aren't really learning anything. I just said that we have to come home Sunday, cause Brooklyn is not going to miss her first day of kindergarten. I guess I better go cause I have 2 days to get everything together, plus we are having Tyler's b-day party that we rescheduled Wed. night.

First Day of School

It is official. I now have 4 kids in school. (Brooklyn doesn't start kindergarten til next Monday). Tyler is in 5th grade, Hailey and Austin are in 3rd grade (diff. classes - yay) and Camren is in 1st grade. So of course I was lame, and totally forgot to take pics of the kids on their first day of school. I will make up for it by taking some cute pics of them and posting them on here.
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I took them to their first day, as is tradition. I like to see them off and kiss them goodbye. I also take them for the first week because I want to make sure that they know where they are going so when they start taking the bus, they can get to their class. They were excited to go, but Camren was the most excited since he now gets to eat lunch at school. I guess that is exciting. I just hope he can manage to not wear his lunch at school, since that is something he still has yet to accomplish at home. :)
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When I picked them up they were all full of excitement over their new classes/teachers/friends. I remember the first day of school when I was younger. Being excited about all the new school stuff ( I still love buying school supplies, and usually manage to get some for me too. lol) being excited to see my friends that I hadn't gotten to see during the summer. Talking to everyone about what they had done all summer. Running around the playground at recess and swinging on the swings or hanging out and talking in the field. I hope my kids enjoy this year and get a lot out of it. I hope they make great childhood friends. I am still friends with some of my grade school friends, including one that I have known since I was 5 and went to school with in Mesa. I hope they learn amazing things they never knew, and go on awesome field trips, and excel at their classes like they did last year. Most of all I hope they continue to grow to be fun, smart, amazing people like they are now and that I will be able to do a good job guiding them as they become the people they are going to be. After all, I'm not raising kids, I'm raising future adults.

Sunday, August 17, 2008

Goodbyes

I didn't make it to church cause Amelia wasn't feeling good. It ended up being a good thing. John called (forgetting I was supposed to be at church) and said that his grandma will probably die today. The dr. said that she has bilateral pneumonia (along with other illnesses she already has, like lupus) and her white cell count is way down. He said even if they are able to treat the pneumonia, he feels she will not survive it. Last night my Gma and Gpa Greer went to the hospital and my grandpa gave Edna a blessing. John's family isn't lds, but Edna's husband was at one point in his life. It made me happy to know that my gpa was able to go do that for them and that my gma was able to talk to her and comfort her some. I am glad that she has all her daughters there with her. She is to weak to talk or anything, but we wanted the kids to be able to talk to her. So John put his cell on speakerphone and I put the kids on one at a time to talk to her. I told them to make sure they told her that they loved her and if they wanted to tell her what they had been up to, she would probably like to hear that. It was sad hearing the kids tell her how they will miss her and how they hope she is happy in heaven, but what really broke me down was Austin telling her about starting school tomorrow and he hopes it will be fun - while bawling his eyes out. I had Amelia talk to her, even though she doesn't really get what is going on. I knew Edna would want to hear her sweet little voice. I told John I would call back later cause after listening to all the kids, I wasn't in any position to talk to anyone. After I talked to the kids for a while. I told them how we would be sad that we wouldn't get to see her anymore, but we can also be happy for her because she will get to see her husband who died a long while back and she misses a lot. She will also get to see her parents. I told them that my Gma Greer said that when she thinks about dying she is not sad because she hasn't seen her parents in a very long time and she will be so happy to see them again because she misses them. I am sad that she won't be there at Thanksgiving. We are planning on going down to Phoenix then, since we are both from there and both of our extended families live there. I wish she could have had the chance to see the kids in person one more time. I am thankful that I took pics of her with John and with the kids the last time we were there, so the kid will have those. I feel so helpless. John is so far away and I want to just hold him and comfort him, but I can't. I am just grateful that Edna has her family there with her and that we were all given the chance to talk to her before she passes. I can't imagine losing someone suddenly. Both of my sets of grandparents are still alive. I have never had a family member die. John is calling so I can talk to her so I'm going to go.

Can't Sleep

It is 2am. I have church in 9 hours and I can't sleep.
I have been invited to perform (sing) at a festival that the West Ridge Academy is doing as a fundraiser in October. It is for 4 days, and I would be doing a whole set, which is more than I have done in public so far. Scary. Don't know that I really want to do it cause it is so scary to me. But I will cause I already committed to doing it, so I know that will get me to do it anyway. Already coming up with a list of possible songs. Haven't found out the time slot yet, but I'm hoping that it will be late afternoon/ early evening so I won't have to get a babysitter since John gets home from his new job around 4.
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Can't sleep. Well back to bed to stare through the dark at the ceiling.
I hate not having John home. The house is scary without him. I am such a weenie about being home alone. I hate it. I can't wait til Tuesday.

Saturday, August 16, 2008

Sad Ends And New Beginnings.

This morning John's mom called and said that his grandma is dying - probably today. She has wasted away to 60 lbs. (that's less than Hailey) and can't move by herself anymore. It is Tyler's b-day, but I rescheduled everyone for Weds. when my husband will be here. Which worked out better for everyone anyway. I told John he should book a flight and get out there right away. He did and is there now. I feel frustrated and sad. Frustrated, cause I thought that her dr. had changed her meds and supposedly she was "eating everything in sight" according to one of her daughters. How could that be and now she is facing imminent death? I am sad because I couldn't go with him. I am glad that John was able to go and (hopefully) be able to spend time with her and tell her goodbye, but I am stuck here with kids that start school Monday. Plus we couldn't afford to fly or drive our whole family there. She is going to die and I am not even going to be able to talk to her or say goodbye. (She is too weak for the phone)
Thinking about that made me think more about my ex-husband's grandparents. I love them very, very much and they are getting old and failing in health. So, since they both live right by each other and 10 min. from the airport, I decided to stop by and spend some time with them. I want to see them as much as I can and let them have as much time with the kids as they can, while they are still here.
First I went by Anderson's house. I stayed there for a couple hours. They are the ones I am closest to. I love them so much like they were my own grandparents. I lived with them twice during my marriage to my ex husband and they have a special place in my heart. I really enjoyed talking with them and spending time with them.
While I was there I thought a lot about my ex's other grandparents. I hadn't seen or talked to them in 4 years. I was nervous about calling them, because (according to my ex) they didn't want to talk to me or anything. In fact, the last time he saw the girls (oct. 2005) he told me that gma Ensign had asked if she could call and talk to Hailey without having to talk to me. (um no, it is my house and I don't let 5 y.o. answer the phone). And that made me mad cause I had never been anything but nice to them. She had even said after our divorce that she hoped that I would continue our relationship cause my divorce was between my ex and I. So I had high hopes that things would be good. And then that. So I thought I would just drive by and see if I still remembered where they lived. I don't know. I just felt like I should. I did, and they happened to be sitting outside. I drove by, and almost kept going (if these people hate me, why do I want to talk to them?) and then I felt like I should go back. I turned around and parked across the street and went and talked to gma while she was watering. She seemed like she was glad to see me. We talked a few minutes. Then I mentioned that I had the kids in the car, and she was all excited and said to get them out. Then she called her daughter, who has a daughter 2 months younger than Hailey. So the girls also got to see their aunt and cousin. Surprisingly, the whole experience was really enjoyable and we sat there and talked and talked. The kids ran around and played with their cousin. When we had to leave, they asked me to call and visit with them again. Maybe take the kids to the park together. So I will definitely do that. Maybe this is the start of a really good relationship? I am really glad that I went over there and I hope that even though my ex is not a part of my daughters lives, that I will continue to be able to involve the rest of his family.

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Child Of Light

Cutest thing ever? Laying in bed with my 2 year old at bedtime and her asking me to sing I Am A Child Of God to her and then asking me to sing it to her again after every verse to make sure that I sang all 4 verses to her instead of being lazy and singing just one. I love how when I am singing she lays there smiling at me and rubbing my cheeks and how she likes to put her hands on my neck while I sing so she can feel me singing. She is such a cutie I can't stand it. One of her favorite songs that I have been singing to her every night is "Child of Light" off my : "The Best Of EFY: 2004-2006 " cd. That whole cd is amazing, but I love the words to this song and singing them to her.


Child of Light
Have you ever wondered who you are
Have you ever wondered as you stare into the stars
Where you began, and how you got this far
from home
Have you ever walked along the shore
Have you ever seen the water dancing back and forth
Did you look inside, to see if there was more
to life
Well there's a dream taking wing
There's a voice that wants to sing
And even in the deepest, darkest night
The torch is raised to the sky, and there are hands that hold it high
You were born to keep it burning bright
You were made to fly
You were meant to shine
Child of Light
You will never ever stand alone
You were never called to bear the burdens on your own
And where there is fear, love will take control
And lead you on
Well there's a dream taking wing
There's a voice that wants to sing
And even in the deepest, darkest night
The torch is raised to the sky, and there are hands that hold it high
You were born to keep it burning bright
You were made to fly
You were meant to shine
Child of Light

The School Schedules Are In

I have to take a minute to vent about the kids school schedules, which I got today. I had asked for my kids to have early schedules (here they have am/ pm schedules like they have in Cali for kindergarten - except they are for all the grades thru 6th) because I wanted to be able to keep going to the gym at my normal time which I couldn't do if Brooklyn had pm kindergarten. So what did they do? Gave all my kids pm schedules - except Austin. What the crap is up with that? They obviously knew he was part of the same family since you fill out all your kids on the same request sheet. So I had to go into the office and point out that I have 5 children attending their school and they need to be on the same track. Duh!! Double Duh!! Unfortunately they are going to switch Austin, cause of course it is easier to switch one than the other 4. So my kids go to school at 9:15 and Brooklyn goes at 12:30. At least they all get out at 3:30 and can ride the bus home together. I guess the one good thing is the way the kids classrooms are laid out from each other. They make a C pattern. Hailey is at the back of the school. So she will get Camren, then they will go get Austin, then they will go get Brooklyn, then they will go get Tyler. That is a rule that I have. They have to wait at their classes and get each other and no one gets on the bus unless they have everyone. I don't want only some of my kids coming home.
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The one thing that I love is the bus. At our other house, the kids had to walk about a mile to get to the bus stop (yes I am mean and made them walk, by themselves) and here the bus picks up 2 houses down from us. Yay! Well, I will take them the first week. I always drop off/ pick up my kids the first week til they are confident they can find their way to their classes themselves. Also gives me time to chat with the teachers and make sure they (and by they, I mean Tyler and Austin) are behaving themselves. Since my kids totally love the bus (something they didn't get to do in CA cause you have to pay like $300 per child. Hello! The school was around the corner from my house!! Literally 3 min. there and back to drive.) I use it as a reward. If you are behaving at school and doing all your work, you get to ride the bus. If not, you have to be taken/ picked up by mom so she can talk to your teacher. Totally works. Had waaaay less problems with Tyler last year than we did in CA. Yay for me being creative. If only they knew that them riding the bus is MY reward cause I don't have to get up early or get dressed. Haha!

Random Stuff

I am totally bored and I should be folding about 30 loads of laundry (totally NOT exaggerating!) and taking my kids to the school to find out their teachers. Hey, taking a shower and getting dressed would be progress at this point. So of course I thought I would get on the computer instead. Since I am a world class procrastinator, I have a hard time doing things I am actually supposed to be doing (which doesn't work out that well with 6 kids. Calling Captain Obvious!)
I have been thinking about all the stuff that I really need to do this week, but then I thought it would be more fun to blog about what I wish I was doing this week. Cause it is always more fun to think about the stuff you would like to be doing instead of the lame boring things you need to do. So here is what I WISH I was doing this week:
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1. Singing at a sold out concert featuring ME as the headlining artist.
I know I am nervous performing in front of people. It's not that I don't think I sound good, it is the whole everyone staring at you thing. Kinda hard to avoid if you want to sing as a profession. However, in my head I have the whole concert down. I just need to figure out a way to transfer that to my body when I'm actually performing.
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2. Having contractors finish my basement and landscape my yard.
This is one thing I hate about Utah houses. In order to give you the size house you want, at the price you want, they sell it to you with only 2 finished floors. What is up with that? Maybe I want to use all 3! We started finishing it ourselves (before my husband's really lame breaking of his hand. Which was so incredibly lame that we won't go into all the details and from now on it will just be referred to as "The Hand Incident".) and now have 2 bedrooms with walls. Walls that need to be sanded the rest of the way, textured, and painted. Did I mention that they also need carpet? It is sitting in the garage. Where it will probably continue to live. For the rest of the year. Yeah. Also, what is up with my house not coming with landscaping. I am not talking backyard. I mean front and back, nothing but the weeds God gave us cause he felt sorry for us and all the dirt. So I guess it looks like I have plants. Sort of. I have sunflowers. I would love to have the yard done so I could put up the kids swing set and tell the kids "Go outside and don't come in til dinner!". Hey, a girl can dream, right?
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3. Have a secret passage built to a secret room in the attic.
No this is not for the children. This would be for me. That way when I want to escape my children 'cause they are wanting me to do things like, say, cook dinner, I can just sneak up there and hide while I listen to them wandering through the house calling "Mom? Mom, where are you? I give up. Let's just go make peanut butter sandwiches." Mission accomplished.
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4. Have a soda fountain in the kitchen that dispenses Diet Coke.
I have already brought this idea to the attention of my husband. Several times. It went something like this:
Me: Honey, I think we should put a Diet Coke dispenser in the kitchen. Kinda like a beer tap at a bar, but with Diet Coke.
Husband: Yeah right. (keep in mind he drinks just as much Diet Coke as I do)
Me: No, I'm serious. I have thought about it and I think it would be a great thing to add to the kitchen. We could put it by the sink.
Husband: I don't see that happening.
Me: What about if I finally get signed and we make lots of money.
Husband: Well, that's another story. Talk to me then.
So now the pressure is on. Cause I am totally getting that dispenser!
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Ok, now that I got a little day dreaming in, I guess I can move on to the things I really need to do today. Like that shower. And heading over to the kids school. But I have enlisted my slaves - ahem - children, in folding the laundry. After all, I don't wear their clothes. And I washed them. So I think that's totally fair, right?

Monday, August 11, 2008

Weekly Update

Ok, so it has been a little while, so I thought I would bring you up to date.
Today is great. Why you might ask? Because today is my husband's first day of work in Utah. After living here for 10 months, my husband actually has a job in the same state we live in. Even better, his hours are really early so he will get home when the kids get home from school. No more commuting between here and Cali. No more 9 days there and 5 days home, and only seeing each other 10 days a month. He got a job at a new surgery center that they are building about 30 min. south of us. Yay! Same state and a close commute! The center won't be done til October, but they are starting him now so he can help get everything ready like setting up all the OR's and such. I think that he is glad to be back to work, and I am glad to have him back to work. No offense, but husbands and wives spending 24 hours a day together for 7 months while your husband is just sitting around until you want to strangle him. Sorry, but that is just too much togetherness for me. After spending all that time together with him and the kids, I am more than ready for work and school to commence. So I am spending the day cleaning my house spotless (almost there) and doing every load of laundry in the house (not even close), so I can get done the rest of the things I need done this week, such as:
- buy new backpacks for anyone that needs one
- go to school and find out kids teachers
- new shoes for Hailey
- get stuff together for Tyler's birthday on Sat.
- get some grocery shopping done
- schedule vocal session since teacher gets back from vacay this Wednesday.
- see what Robyn is doing for my b-i-l for his birthday Wednesday.
- probably a lot of other things I haven't thought of that will hit me at the last minute and make me want to pull my hair out!!
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Last week wasn't anything extremely exciting. Other than getting my temple recommend and hanging out with my friend Christina, I don't think I did anything. Well, til Friday. Then the fun began. Or it did for my kids anyway. John found out that the rec center near us (which has an awesome pool complete with fountains, crazy slides, a play structure and a lazy river in it) has a free trial week where you can try it out before signing up. So Friday we went swimming, and no surprise here, the kids had the time of their lives. I on the other hand was not as thrilled. Mainly for one reason, which would be wearing a bathing suit outside my house (or bathroom for that matter). But I did it anyway, because I have children and I am not going to let them miss out on anything cause I'm lame. So then they decided that they wanted to go back Saturday. We ended up being there for 5 hours. Once again the kids had the time of their life. Once again I wished I was invisible, but sucked it up for the sake of said kids. I was less thrilled about Saturday because there were WAAAAY more people there than 7pm on Friday. At least our trial is only good til Friday. So I am assuming that we will be heading back a few more times this week, since this weekend is Tyler's 10th b-day, church and then first day of school. Well for everyone except Brooklyn, cause kindergarten starts a week late so they can use that first week for testing. So I have 4 more days of everyone, and then it is back to the grind of life.
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Anyway, I better get back to laundry and stuff. I am hoping to make it over to the kids school today. They want to see if they have the same teachers as their friends from primary. I sure love that about Utah. I love that all their friends from primary go to the same school and will be in their classes. I never had that growing up. Our ward was split among 3 or 4 elementary schools, and my siblings and I were pretty much the only ones from out ward at our school.

Peanut, Peanut Butter (and Jelly!)

I thought this was so sweet. It's my 5 year old Brooklyn (in yellow) teaching my 2 year old (3 next month) Amelia (in blue) how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. This is probably their favorite thing to eat, and I thought it was so cute. Brooklyn had offered to make Amelia a sandwich when she made her own (yes I let my kids fix their own food unless it's dinner and they love it) and then decided that she wanted to teach Amelia how to do it instead. Amelia was so excited about it and is now eating it feeling pretty proud of herself, as she should .
It makes me happy to see my kids helping each other and teaching each other new things. It makes me think I must be doing something right.



Monday, August 4, 2008

Family Night Out

Tonight we had a totally fun family night. First we enjoyed cookies at home from Smart Cookie. I told you I was going to go get some for my family to try. They are on the expensive side, so they will not become a regular treat around here ($10 for 8 cookies), but they were sooo good and I thought it would be nice to have something we hadn't had before to kick off our FHE. We haven't ever managed to have FHE more than a couple times since we have been married, and I would like to change that. I like the idea of our family learning together and doing something fun and bonding as a family. So tonight we went and saw this:


Horton Hears A Who was a big hit. It was funny and the entire family enjoyed it. What made it even more enjoyable (for me and John anyway) was the fact that it was at the dollar theatre. Not only that, but on Mondays movies at the dollar theatre are 50 cents for family night. So our entire family went to the movies for $4! Yay! They are only going to continue doing that til September, so I have a feeling we will be going frequently til then. It is not often that we can afford to all go to movie. Anyway, the kids had a blast and it was nice to spend the time together as a family. I am looking forward to many more Monday nights to come.

Sunday, August 3, 2008

Sunday Happenings

Well, not a whole lot went on today. We went to church. We came home for a couple hours, then I headed back to the chapel for choir. The music it's self was easy, but they have me singing 1st soprano (which I haven't sung since high school) so that was somewhat of a challenge, but I am up for it and it is nice to sing something different for a change.
Then I went home and had a couple hours to hurry and get dinner before I had to be back at the chapel at 7 for a Relief Society leadership meeting. I had to go since I am on the Enrichment Board (TOTALLY excited about that!!!). We had fun visiting and planning out the upcoming activities for the next couple months. I was also excited to find out that my new friend Christina is my Visiting Teaching companion. Yay! We just meet this last week and totally hit it off. I told her, "See? It was meant to be for us to be friends. We just managed to do it before we got the list." Judy said that she had assigned the partners and routes a couple weeks ago, so it was before we even knew each other. We had awesome talks by Judy (the RS Pres.) and the Bishop. I really enjoyed it. The perfect ending to the evening? Cookies from Smart Cookie. They are sugar cookies with really thick frosting that are to die for! Possibly the best cookies on the face of the earth!!! I wanted to eat all of them, but restrained myself to one. (My personal trainer should be so impressed with me now!) I am totally going to get some for my family to try cause they were sooo good!! If you are in Utah, go to American Fork or Provo and eat one. If you aren't in Utah, sorry. You are REALLY missing out!!!!

Saturday, August 2, 2008

Down on the Farm

Well, today was fun. I didn't take any pics, cause my camera needs to be emptied from all the AI and Martina pics. We took the kids over to my ex's parents house. Sandy called me in the morning to tell me that one of her goats had a baby last night, cause she knew we would want to come over and see him. So we headed over this afternoon to see him. The baby goat was the cutest thing ever! I wanted to take him home, but of course John wouldn't agree to that - especially since we don't have a fenced yard yet. The kids were excited to get to go gather eggs and visit the chickens. They also jumped on the trampoline and we put the soaker hose underneath it on high. They had fun splashing around and getting drenched to the bone. Then they changed into some of grandma's t-shirts and I stuck their stuff in the dryer. After playing inside for a while, we took them outside and let them go horseback riding. Well, they only got to ride on the property surrounding the house (they have 14 acres total) cause they don't know what they are doing and I didn't want anything to happen to them. They got to take turns riding Buddy, who is a good first time rider horse. They had a blast and were really impressed with themselves. Amelia wasn't sure at first that she wanted to and took some coaxing, but once she got a taste of it, we had to pry her off the saddle. John also got to ride for a while. He had been on a horse once, a long time ago, but it was in a pen and I told him that doesn't count as actual riding. I didn't ride this time. I figured I have ridden tons of times, and I wanted to make sure that the kids got enough time. Plus I was wearing my Havaianas. Not exactly riding wear. Then it was home for dinner and bed. The kids passed out, which was no surprise since they totally wore themselves out at grandma and grandpa's house. They talked about it non stop on the way home and I am sure we will be going back soon. :)

Friday, August 1, 2008

Happy Girl

Well tonight I got to go to the Martina McBride concert at the USANA Amphitheatre. John won tickets by texting over 100,000 times. No I am not kidding. If it can be won by texting, we will win. (That's how we won the Rascal Flatts tickets back in March) Anyway, we originally had lawn seats (ie: the back 40) that would have been forever away from the stage, but John sweet talked the event worker that was policing the stairs to the area right off the stage, and she let us sit in the handicapped area. This was great for 2 reasons: it was slightly above the area in front of the stage, so it had a great view, and the handicapped seats are only 2 to a section, so we had way more room to sprawl out. There were 2 openers at the concert. The first one was Chris Young, who I hadn't heard of but was really good. The second one was Jeff Ingram, who I had heard of and was also really good. But of course, the star of the show was Martina. She is amazing. We had the opportunity to see her in concert last summer, when we lived in Cali, with a good friend of mine, Cheryl and her husband. Martina is such a great performer and an awesome singer. I was excited to see her perform again, and I was not disappointed. We rocked out and sang along to all her songs and had a great time!! Here are some pics I took: