Steve and Ann's Clan

More Pictures

2011-08-24T17:00:00.000-07:00

Don't get too excited...

2011-08-24T16:43:00.000-07:00

Melissa is working on a school project and by posting a picture in blogger, it is the only way we can get an image to upload to google docs. So whatever...

Fun Trip - Segment #2

2010-11-15T08:20:00.000-08:00

After leaving Spokane, we drove... and drove...

and drove...

To Seattle... Which I have to say, the highway right before driving into Seattle, was probably the prettiest drive I have ever been on. The trees were amazing! However, the closer we got to Seattle, the cloudier it got. But that's what they say right? It always rains there. The ONLY planned thing we had on our entire trip besides visiting my Grandpa, was to go up in the Space Needle. But what good is it going up if you can't see anything? But, we went up in it anyway. Each of the kids took turns looking out through the telescopes.

Then, they all played this game with this camera thing. There are cameras set up outside on the space needle, and you can maneuver them and zoom in and see things that are outside the space needle. Someone was in control of the camera, and they would find something and zoom in on it, then the other kids would go to the window and see if they could find it. They actually played this for quite a while.

Melissa was the first to venture outside in the rain. Then we all followed, and boy was it cold!

I guess we weren't really dressed for the weather. We just weren't quite sure what to expect. After leaving the space needle, we got in the car, and drove on to Portland, Oregon.

Fun trip! Segment #1

2010-11-12T11:06:00.000-08:00

There are just way too many pictures to post the entire trip in one shot, so you'll just have to enjoy it as we did, a piece at a time. On our quest to see all of the 50 states, we took a trip over the kids "Fall Break" and captured a bit of the Northwest. We left here bright and early Wednesday morning and drove to Spokane, WA. Of course, we hit Idaho and Montana on the way. We had to get out and take a picture of Spencer in front of an exit sign that pointed towards Spencer, Idaho. Because really, how many kids have their names as actual cities? Like Melissa said, "Some kids have all the luck." How do you like my strategic photography? I tried to get the arrow to point right at him.

At a rest stop in Montana, we figured we should get a picture of the family actually in Montana. But then, we had a bit of a dilema. Steve wanted a picture of the family with all of the trees behind, but I didn't want the road in the picture, so I suggested just a shot with some foresty stuff behind us. So, in Steve's attempt to sway me as to the road not really being in the picture, he snapped this picture of me. I know, I look fantastic don't I? Did I mention we got up REALLY early?

But other than the fact that the kids don't look all that great in my shot, I think I was right about the background. Don't you? Okay, whatever, Steve was right...

While in Spokane, we hit the highlight of our trip. We stopped to see my Grandpa who is in an assisted living center there. I about lost it when I saw his room sign.

Michelle and I bought him that hat during my Freshman year at college when we were attending BYU. I'm glad to see that it's still in use.

These are some pictures that we took while on our visit with my Grandpa. You can kind of tell in the pictures that Melissa and I were a little emotional. And just maybe perhaps, my Dad might have been a little emotional because of it (he's behind the camera), but you didn't hear it from me...

Melissa has mentioned to me that she would like to go back some time and visit him, and I actually would like to too. Before we went, I kept hearing about how he's just not himself and what not, but it seemed like there were moments where he was completely himself. He still loves good pie for one, my Aunt had mentioned that he didn't eat a good dinner the last two nights before our visit, but then during our visit ( I went over that night with just my Dad), the nurse said that for dinner that night he had eaten two pieces of pie before dinner followed by dinner and some more pie and ice cream. Then the next morning when we took the kids over, there were quite a few moments of his old personality coming out. In fact when he walked, he couldn't take very big steps, but he certainly had a little "giddy-up" in his stride. And he was constantly on the go, wanting to change where we were sitting, and wanting to go with us "somewhere". Somewhat reminiscent of his spry years. He was always doing something.

When we got home, the first thing our kids wanted to do was make him some more signs for his birthday since the old ones were all falling off the wall. I should have gotten some pictures of those, but didn't think of it before we sent them off. It was a good start to our trip!

Jenna's new passion

2010-11-03T07:57:00.000-07:00

No, not playing with Mr. Potato head, this was her prize, her new passion? Reading! She is required to read 20 min. each night as part of her homework. In September, her teacher announced a contest that they were going to see who could read the most minutes for the month. Jenna at first started to read 30 minutes each night because that was what Spencer was supposed to read. And she was in the lead for the first week, however, then the next week a kid had read quite a bit over the weekend, and was catching up to her, so then the next three days straight, instead of playing with friends after school, she read... and read... and read... Then she got so far ahead, she said she was pretty sure that she was going to win. However, then she said that just to make sure she would win, she was still going to read 30 min. each night. Surprise! Surprise! she won. I just went to Parent Teacher Conferences this past week, and her teacher was showing me that there was a reading test they took at the beginning of the year, and then the same test taken at the end of first term, and her results were amazing! She jumped up almost three grade levels in her reading ability. I guess you could say that all of her reading has paid off in more ways than one.

Melissa's bug project

2010-11-02T07:48:00.000-07:00

Melissa had to do a bug project for science this past term. They were required to find 15 different bugs, and classify them and display them the same way that scientist do.

I REALLY hate these kinds of projects. Science projects I understand. They conduct an experiment and learn about the scientific method. However, collecting bugs? Really? Let's just say I'm glad this one is over. Here she is with her final project.
Of course in order to get to this point, there was a whole lot of this...

And this...

For the past several weeks. Seriously, finding bugs isn't all that difficult, but finding 15 different kinds and in different orders and groups and what have you, that is next to impossible. Lucky for Melissa she had a bunch of Aunts helping her. Her friend even caught a bug for her as well. The prize goes to Melissa's aunt Marlene and Grandma. They caught her a Katydid. However from what I hear it was no easy task. They cornered it in the garage where it was hiding safely under the car. So they had to coax it out to where they could nab it and spent quite a bit of time on their hands and knees trying to do it. The sad thing is, Melissa had her 15 bugs by then, so she actually let it go because she thought it was too cute to kill.

Here she is with the bug right before she let it go. I hope the bug enjoys it's freedom because there were several other bugs who ended up on the board with a pin through it.

Just chillin'

2010-11-01T11:41:00.001-07:00

I know that I am WAY behind on posting, so since I have a few minutes to spare, I thought that I would create several blog posts, and then have them set to post a new one each day. Hopefully that will get me caught up at some point. So what have we been up to? September was actually a pretty relaxing month. We found lots of time to actually do some "chillin".
Jayden is perfecting his "lego ships" that he makes for his storm troopers. Melissa has had her fair share of homework. And how she can stand to do homework in this position every day is beyond me. I originally thought it would last for the first week at most, but nope, every day she is laying on her tummy doing her homework.

Spencer has spent several hours doing legos with Jayden.

And of course, Jenna seems to lose another tooth every other day. She has lost a total of six so far. And two more are loose. But let's hope that her two front teeth come in before she looses the two to the left and right of those because I don't think she will be able to eat otherwise.

This was a cute picture so I thought I would add it.

Jayden

2010-09-17T07:59:00.001-07:00

Jayden came home from Preschool yesterday with a list of things that they interviewed him about. I thought I would share his answers.

How old are you? "Free" - That is his way of saying three. But at least he was honest, usually he isists that he is four.

What is your favorite food? "Pancakes" - Not hard to please!

What is your favorite color? "White" - Whatever, I bet some other kid chose this or she gave him some options and this was the last one that he said. His favorite colors are blue and yellow.

What is your favorite Song? "I Am a Child of God"

What is your favorite movie? "I like Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, but it's at the Redbox"

What is your favorite treat? "My Mom's" - That would be a frozen chocolate zinger. That's what he wants when he says he wants my treat.

What is your favorite animal? "Rascal" - His stuffed webkins Dog.

What do you want to be when you grow up? "Me" - I hope that he stays himself too!

How many people are in your family? "Spencer, Jenna, My Dad, and Spencer" - What about me?

What does your dad always say to you? "That his air compressor is red" - Jayden is TERRIFIED of Steve's air compressor because the motor goes off at completely random times and scares the begeebies out of him. The other day, he would not step a foot into the garage until I checked and made sure that it wasn't plugged in.

What does your mom always say to you? "Gives me a treat" - Glad I could oblige.

Who is your best friend? "Melissa" - This is true. He loves to hang out with Melissa.

What is the best present you've ever had? "One minute" - I think he is meaning that every once in a while I will let him have extra minutes on the Playstation, and I guess to him that his favorite present.

What do you think about? "When my mom mows the lawn"

What does your mom do all day? "Talk to me"

What does your dad do all day? "Watch a movie" - Whenever Mom is gone and Jayden is "hanging out" with Dad, Dad usually puts a movie on and then lays there and takes a nap while Jayden watches the movie.

What was your favorite vacation? "It was blue" - I don't think he even knows what a vacation is.

Just Funny

2010-09-08T20:02:00.001-07:00

I think Jenna was trying to take a picture of herself, but didn't realize that it was on Video mode!

I actually have like six different attempts like these. Until finally!

She figured it out! Nice to know, I raise smart kids!

Back tracking

2010-08-30T10:16:00.001-07:00

Before school started I took the kids to Lagoon. The stranger there in the middle is Melissa's good friend Haley. I thought it would be a good idea of she came with us so that if Melissa wanted to go off and ride some big rides, and Spencer didn't want to, she could. Doesn't everyone look excited? (Jayden must have some intuition at this point that it won't be a fun day for him.) Marlene came with her two kids Megan and Parker, so here's the entire group!

Our first ride was the swings! Jenna loved them....

Jayden did not... He watched from the exit. I tried putting him on, but after screaming bloody murder, I had to take him off.

Jenna and Megan rode the airplanes together...

While we were looking for the next ride, we ran into Melissa Haley and Spencer waiting in line for the viking swing. So I figured I would get some pictures of them since I may not otherwise.

Here they are waiting for the ride to begin. I think Spencer is already a little nervous. He was the surprise of the day. He tried EVERYTHING. And said he liked it whether he actually did or not.

And there they are! Only Spencer isn't holding his arms in the air.

Jenna on the Dumbo ride. I thought for sure that she would want to try some of the bigger rides. She was tall enough, but was happier to be on the little rides.

Next we went on the cars.

This was by far Jayden's favorite ride.

He went on it SEVERAL times. Here he is on the blue car with Parker. Then a red car by himself...

Then a red car with Parker...

Let's just say that he went on a green one also, and the blue one again... That was until we found the bumper cars. He liked those too.

Here we are on the train...

Jayden actually liked that one too. The train basically took us through their "zoo" which was awesome. We saw all kinds of animals REALLY close up.

After that we went to the car and had lunch. After lunch we went in and went to Lagoona Beach. Which is a water park like Raging Waters. Jayden enjoyed playing in the kiddie pools with Jenna. Melissa, Haley and Spencer went around on the water slides by themselves. Later, Marlene had to get to Back to School night for Megan, so she took Jayden and dropped him off at her Mom's house. Then, Jenna and I hung around the beach for a while and then when we met up with Melissa and Spencer again, we went back to the amusement rides. Jenna and I rode several by ourselves and then when Steve was on his way home from work, he came and picked up Jenna. It was all perfect timing because as I was taking Jenna to the pick up area, Marlene got there. She had left her kids home with her husband and came back to ride the scarey rides her kids couldn't go on. So after Jenna went home, Marlene, Spencer, Melissa, Haley and I went on the big rides. It was a lot of fun!

Before Jenna left, she rode the whale ride which was the only ride she remembered from the last time we went to Lagoon. After she got off, she said, "Hmm... that wasn't as fun as I remembered it!" She was a lot littler then!

I just had to post the video from the bumper cars. The guy running the ride would just stand there and say "Turn your wheel!" over and over again so the kids could get unclogged... I like Jenna's look at the boy who bumps her!

The weed

2010-08-25T08:44:00.001-07:00

I don't normally do a post about myself, with a picture of myself in it, so let's call this a "treat" for you. I weed pretty regularly. Really I do. That having been said, can you see the weed in this picture? Me neither, but upon further inspection as to why some of the bush was a different green color, I realized this was in there.

The cray thing is, the leaves of the weed and the bush were almost the same size and shape!

Melissa's first day

2010-08-24T08:44:00.000-07:00

Melissa started her first day of Jr. High yesterday! She got a call from a friend at 7 that morning saying that they (a couple of her friends in our neighborhood) were going to walk over to one of their friends bus stop and they were asking her if she wanted to walk over with them. And rather than ride the bus without her friends, she hurried up and got ready 10 minutes early. So I quickly snapped some pictures before she left and didn't get a chance to see that I am in the reflection of the mirror and so is the flash, so you can't see her very well, but you can get a jist of how her hair was. And yes, she wore make up the first day too. I know, she's all grown up...

Here's what she looked like after school. I wanted a better picture of her clothes (seeing as how they were such a pain to get in the first place).

Is it just me or does she look a little tired? All the running from class to class will do that to you!

Notice her cute shoes? They are gold. A muted gold, so not flashy, but way cute huh? I was surprised to find that she only knew 2 or 3 kids in each class and some are from dance and not even her elementary school. I guess this is the first taste of feeling like a small fish in a big pond. I was excited however to find that her really good friend from growing up (the one that we went to Lagoon with - you'll see her in tomorrows post about Lagoon) had the same lunch that she did and she was super excited about that as well.

First Day of School

2010-08-20T10:16:00.000-07:00

School started for two of us at our house. And ONE of us is really excited! That would be Jenna. She and Spencer started a new school this year and Jenna loves meeting new people. She especially liked the fact that she got a locker this year.

This is Spencer in class. He seems nervous huh?

Here's the happy lonely boy left at home. Melissa was home this week too since school doesn't start until next week, but she wasn't about to let me take a picture of her in her jammies. Don't ask me what Jayden and I will be doing because I have no clue, the only thing that entertains him right now is video games and we won't be doing that all day, so he is in for a rude awakening.

Spencer when he was not so nervous.... The new school requires the kids to wear uniforms. The original dress code said that third graders on up had to have their shirt tucked in with a belt at all times. So that is why his shirt is tucked in. However, the newer dress code states that if the shirt has a square hem on the bottom, they don't have to tuck it in. We didn't know that on the first day of school though, so unfortunately he was a nerd the first day.

Notice how they are both carrying bags of groceries? The kids were given a list of school supplies a lot of which were things like clorox wipes, copy paper, dry erase markers, ziploc bags, etc. Stuff to stock the class room. Thank you budget cuts!

Girl uniforms are a lot cuter than what the boys can wear don't you think?

Part two will be next week when Melissa starts!

Christmas Piano Recital

2010-01-22T08:41:00.000-08:00

Last year, a friend of mine who also teaches piano told me that at Christmastime, she has little "mini" recitals in her home. I figured I would give it a try. So what I did was had three nights available for the kids to come, play their Christmas songs, have some goodies, and then go home. I was hoping that with a casual setting, they wouldn't be as nervous and it would be a good test run for their big recital in the Spring. My kids performed on Wednesday night. My Grandma was staying with us for a few days while my Mom went to help my sister with her new baby, and the kids were excited to have her there. Spencer went first and I got a little of it on film.

And then I had to help Jenna with her song so Steve took over as camera man and only got still photos, so sorry no songs.
Jenna does just fine playing, but occassionally she will look down at her hands, and then she loses her place. She played Jingle Bells.

I played a duet with Haley one of my students. We played "Carol of the Bells".

This is Jenna's friend Meigan. She didn't really need any help, but I was there, just in case.

This is Melissa's friend Erin (our next door neighbor) she played The 12 days of Christmas.

After that, she and Melissa played a duet of Up on the Housetop.

Then Melissa finished up with Fur Elise. Not really a Christmas song, but it was a piece she'd been working on since September and she had it completely memorized. I thought it would be a good idea to play it now since at the Spring recital I always have several kids who want to play it.

It was a fun night, and I think a lot of the parents enjoyed the low key affair and the goodies! Me too!

Jenna's Christmas Party

2010-01-21T08:22:00.000-08:00

In our neighborhood, there are 15 girls that are Jenna's age. If you add the boys, there are 7 more. We decided that for Christmas it would be fun to have a little (OK, big) party for the girls. I offered to host the party and the other girls Mom's either sent stuff for a craft, sent some snacks, or came and helped me with the party. We started off with making a craft. The girls decorated some foam gingerbread men or Christmas trees with stickers. What a selection huh?

When the girls were waiting for all of their friends to arrive, many of the went downstairs and played dress ups. Some of them didn't want to take their dress ups off.

A couple of the girls are in morning Kindergarten with Jenna, but the majority of the girls are in the afternoon so it was a fun thing for the girls to all play together again. Last year, most of the girls were in a playgroup together, it was quite a group.

Jayden was happy to enjoy the snack with them.

Snack consisted of various crackers, apple slices and caramel and Jenna's favorite crackers with the spreadable cheese.

Really this group of girls is quite remarkable. They all really enjoy each other, and RARELY have disagreements.

After snack, they decorated some cookies and then we had a gift exchange. Each girl brought one gift and then after doing a big switcharoo, they all went home with a gift from someone else. The funny thing about the party that we will have to remember for next year (if there is a party) is that they were just so excited to all be together that mostly all they wanted to do was play. Well, play and have snack that is!

Last Spencer B-day post

2010-01-20T20:11:00.001-08:00

It is customary at my kids' school to send a poster of pictures telling about our child on their birthday. Three weeks before Spencer's "special week" (as it is called) Spencer told me that we needed to get started making his poster. He wanted to make sure that we didn't forget and had plenty of time to get it done. I told him that there was plenty of time, and I would FOR SURE not forget. Well, I forgot. That is until the night before it was supposed to be done. I think that is supposed to be the other way around, I thought parents were supposed to get on their kids, not the other way around. But I rallied, and pulled an all nighter and this is what I came up with!

So, to explain the pictures from right to left and top to bottom it goes like this:

Professional picture taken of Spencer when he was 1
Spencer pulled out his first lost tooth
Picture of Spencer when he was 4
Spencer's favorite sport to play right now is soccer
Die cuts of all his favorite sports as well as a puzzle piece (because it is something that he REALLY likes to do and is REALLY good at)
Spencer at age 3
Spencer sledding last year
Spencer age 5
Spencer at age 4 on the lifeflight helicopter
Spencer with his brother and sisters
Spencer at age 7
Pizza is his favorite food
Spencer showing his muscles (around age 3)
Spencer and his Daddy when he was 1
Spencer at age 3 when he broke his leg (jumping on a trampoline)
Spencer at age 3 doing his GQ pose that his uncle taught him

All I have to say is it's a good thing that I scrapbook and had a bunch of pictures at my disposal!

Spencer's Baptism

2010-01-20T19:52:00.000-08:00

Turning 8 means being baptized for Spencer! He was super excited about it. It was done the day after Jayden's actual birthday, so I think that was one reason he was so agreeable to sharing a birthday party with Jayden... he wanted this day all to himself. Here he is with his Dad...

And here is all of my cute kids. I love it when they all look like they are happy and love each other. If only it was that way all the time!

Melissa wanted me to make sure she had a picture of her and Spencer together for her scrapbook, and Jayden and Jenna wanted their own picture too.

And then we took one of the whole family!

Steve did the actual baptizing and then my Dad and Steve's Dad were the witnesses. Thanks for smiling Dad.

Spencer sure was proud of his new suit.

By the end of the day, he said he was tired of smiling!

It was a snowy day, so mostly only the locals came. My parents and Grandmother came, but Lisa's family was sick and couldn't make it, and James and David didn't want to drive in the bad weather. Steve's family all came: Mark and his family, Mike and his family, Marlene and her family, and then Brooke and her two boys (Curtis works graveyards, and didn't make it). After the baptism, we came back to our house where we had a nice luncheon. Many brought salads and goodies, and we had lunch meats on rolls. I know, not all that exciting, but I want it noted for posterity's sake!

Spencer's 1st Pack Meeting

2010-01-12T20:23:00.000-08:00

Turning 8 is a big deal for Spencer. His friends have all been 8 for quite a while and they have already been attending Cub Scouts. Spencer has been WAITING for a long time. Lucky for him, the day after he turned 8 he had his first den meeting and the following week was his first pack meeting. To start it off, his den was in charge of the skit.

For those of you who can't hear, Spencer said, "Oh my!"

(maybe not with the exclamation point though)

And of course, the punch line is...

Following the skit, was awards. Spencer was all gung ho to get going on his Scout stuff, so he worked really hard from the day after he turned 8 to earn his Bobcat award by the first pack meeting. There was one other boy getting his Bobcat as well. For those of you who have never done or seen the ceremony, they have you paint some stuff on your kids' face and they represent different things in scouting. Don't ask me what those were, I was paying more attention to what I was supposed to be doing, hoping not to get it wrong.

Of course, two seconds after I went up, Jenna and Jayden had ran up to see what was going on. Steve was working late, so I was there by myself with them, and a friend of mine was taking the pictures.

You'll notice I had to watch the other Mom do hers first before I attempted to paint Spencer's face. She's done it before with her older son.

Then, Spencer got to put a pin on me (upside-down of course because then they are supposed to do a good turn/deed and then turn it around). Nice that they award the Mom's too because we have to do about as much as the scout does to earn the award.

Here's the final result:

And compare that to the other boy...

Dang! I should have put a white Y on his nose that we would be represented... Go Cougs! And Go Spencer!

Thanksgiving

2010-01-11T20:03:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving was somewhat of a quick and quiet affair. We celebrated with my side of the family this year. All but Michelle who was set to have a baby sometime in the following two weeks (from Thanksgiving - she's had the baby already). So here's the run down...
2:00 - Everyone shows up, and I am still in my PJ's. Yep that's right, you would think that where I was ONLY in charge of the Turkey, stuffing and mashed potatoes, that I would have had plenty of time to do all of the above and get a shower in, but nope, I didn't. So after a quick shower and change, we were ready to eat.
Here was the first group shot. From left to right, and front to back, it goes Melissa and Spencer (mine) then Brandon (in the blue hat, just about ready to take a bite - Lisa's oldest) then Nathan is in the back on the left (David's third). Then on the right, there is BJ (Lisa's 3rd) followed by Matthew and then Ethan (James' 1st and 2nd). [This photo cracks me up with how every is looking] Now for the cute girls table there's Brittany (Lisa's 2nd) Jenna (mine) and then Ashton (David's last)...

Table 1 from the other side: Bryson (in the high chair is Lisa's youngest - until May when she's due) then Craig (David's 2nd) Daniel (David's oldest) and then of course Melissa again.

Then for the grown - ups (mostly) there's my Mom, Cindy (David's wife) David, Lisa, Steve with Jayden, Blaine (Lisa's wife) and then a nice profile shot of James. Missing is My Dad, Grandma Moseley and Heather (James' wife). I didn't realize that they were already at the grown up table in the family room, so no picture of them.

Of course I had to get a shot of all the yummy food. Yes, we had turkey and ham, they just happen to be on the counter behind Steve, you can see Blaine on the right (or part of him at least) dishing up some ham and turkey.

I should have gotten a picture of all of the pies. There was some REALLY good choices pumpkin, apple (that Heather makes from scratch), a german chocolate, a chocolate satin, and a banana cream (yuck - no offense to who made it). There was also our signature rice-krispy treats that we have had every Thanksgiving since who knows when.

And like my Dad says, a great time was had by all!

Some Snow Fun (It's got to be good for something)

2010-01-08T07:17:00.000-08:00

These pictures were taken before Thanksgiving. It isn't unusual for it to snow before Thanksgiving, but it usually melts about as quick as it comes. However, this year it snowed and then just stayed. I can't remember it ever being this cold and snowy before Christmas. The kids were sure excited about it.
Including Jayden. Outside is one of his most favorite places to be, and even though there is snow or below freezing, he will try to brave it for at least 10 minutes.

Jenna just loves to eat the snow. I tell you, I am not sure what if anything will ever make her stop. I've tried the taking some snow from outside and melting it in a cup so that she sees just how dirty it is, but it doesn't seem to phase her. See what I mean?

Here's some other fun videos I got of the occassion:

Getting Ready

2010-01-07T09:30:00.000-08:00

Sometime in the next couple of months, the 6th grade does a science day and they have all sorts of competitions. There's speed stacking, bridge building, tower building and some others I can't remember. Melissa first heard about it in November, so one day when her friend was over, they thought that they would start practicing. Melissa's friend is quite a bit taller than Melissa, and they were excited that the tower was taller than she was.

See? Quite a bit taller.

However, as time went on, the tower started leaning more and more, but never did fall!

As a side note, Melissa's class has been practicing as well doing the other stuff and Melissa is pretty proud of the fact that she currently holds the record in her class in speed stacking.

Happy Birthday Boys

2010-01-06T09:08:00.000-08:00

Spencer and Jayden have birthdays that are only separated by a few weeks. Being as how Spencer turned 8, and therefore was only having a "family" party, and Jayden isn't old enough for a friend party, I decided to do their birthdays together. {Not to mention, Spencer was baptized the day after Jayden's actual birthday and I didn't want to deal with birthday party one day, and baptism luncheon the day after.} They didn't seem to mind sharing the day! Spencer got a game for his Nintendo DS, and we disguised it by putting some legos in a box with the game and then wrapping that. He thought that he was getting legos and Melissa was pretty proud of herself for successfully disguising it. He also got some clothes from Grandma and some cash from his other Grandma, Great-Grandma, and some aunts and uncles.

Jayden got a t-ball/pitching machine thing which he won't really be able to use until Spring, but for now, he likes watching the ball pop up into the air in the basement. Thank goodness he can't quite hit it yet or else we might have some broken windows. He also got some clothes, dinosaurs and money.

Here is the cake that I made them. It took four cake mixes! And the wheels are ding-dongs, my personal favorite. I did make sure that I had a whole box of extra ding-dongs in case more than one kid wanted a wheel.

The proud 3 year old!

And the happy 8 year old.

Melissa made the back license plate for the car. No surprise it says Jayden.

Jayden getting ready to blow the candle, only it really looks like his target is Spencer's candle.

But Spencer quickly put an end to that! Although Jayden doesn't look too happy about it because Spencer blew Jayden's candle out as well.

So, we lit it again and let Jayden do it.

Everything went so great, and was a lot less work doing the two together, I think I will give it a try for Melissa and Jenna in March. Both have even birthdays and so only get a family party. Do you think Melissa will go for a princess cake?

Fall Fun!

2010-01-04T20:59:00.000-08:00

Back in November, when the leaves fell off the ash trees in the back ( we have 4 of them) dropped their leaves, all in the time span of a few days, the kids raked some of them into a pile and then played. I got some good pictures, so I thought I would share. Spencer usually has a 'staged' smile, but leave it up to a pile of leaves to bring out one of his 'true' smiles.

Then I couldn't help but get a group shot:

They are cut kids if I do say so myself!

Pumpkin Carving

2010-01-04T11:42:00.000-08:00

{I know, you all expected Christmas. Eventually I will be caught up.}

So, WAY back in October, we carved some pumpkins. A couple of the pumpkins we got from the pumpkin patch were all squishy and rotten, so some of the kids used some of the pumpkins from our garden. Here's the end result!
Jayden was the first one done. He told me he wanted some triangles, and a mouth, so that's what he got! It was kind of fun just doing a "normal" Jack-o-lantern.

Boy he's proud!

Spencer and Melissa were able to do their pumpkins from start to finish all by themselves.

Jenna was able to hollow out her pumpkin as well as poke the design onto her pumpkin, but she needed a little help when it came to the cutting.

Close ups:

Spencer's haunted house

Jenna's horse

My mummy

Melissa's Eeyore

Jayden's Jack-o-lantern (we couldn't fit the candle in and have the top on,

so it is just tilted to keep the flame lit).

Halloween - Part 1

2009-12-09T21:53:00.000-08:00

This year, with Halloween falling on Saturday and the kids not having any school on Friday, we didn't give much thought to our costumes. I pretty much told the kids that whatever they came up with, they could be. Jayden didn't much have a choice, he was going to be what Spencer was when he was three. He was the Incredible Hulk, minus the mask. He wanted nothing to do with it. I did spike his hair all up just for the fun of it though.

Jenna's costume was the funniest of all. When I first asked her what she wanted to be for Halloween, she told me she wanted to be a Spy. Which I know means wearing one of Melissa's old dance costumes. She and her friends like to play "spies" and what that means is dressing up in dress ups and playing whatever, barbies, polly pockets, house, etc. Why they call it spies I'll never know, but that's what it is. So, people would ask her what she was, and she would say a Spy which was usually followed by puzzled looks. When her cousin Brittany asked her what she was, Jenna told her a spy and then Brittany said, "You look like a Taxi driver." So, the very next person to ask her was my Dad and she said, "I'm a taxi driver." And then at some point during the night, when people would ask her, she said, "I'm a spy, taxi driver or race car driver." Take your pick! Here's the cute girl whatever she is! I was happy to get more use out of a dance costume.

Spencer at first was going to be some Jedi from Star Wars, then he decided on Ron Weasley which is what he dressed up for at school at their "character convention", but then when Halloween came around, he ended up wearing his old costume from last year - a Skull ninja! Somewhere he got a rub-on tattoo of a skull, so that's what is on his cheek.

Melissa was a baby. She looks cute in pigtails don't you think? I should have put her in them when she was little more often.

After getting all decked out in our Halloween costumes, we headed on down to the Church for a Halloween party. There was a chili cook-off, and out of the 15 to 20 chilis that were there, we dished up 5 different kinds, and all of them were yuck - sorry. The only good things were some cupcakes that a lady in our ward made (she is opening a bake shop here in town. She's got that medical problem where she can't have gluten and sll of her wares in her shop are gluten free. And let me tell you, they are FANTASTIC. She makes these Red Velvet cupcakes that are TO DIE FOR!) and the candy corns that were used as the table decorations. In defense of all the people who made the chili that we ate, I think chili is like lasagne, you only like what you grew up with.

Jayden displaying just how good the candy corn was. His mouth is chuck full.

They had a bench set up for photo ops, and I thought this was just a cute picture of Melissa and Jayden just talking to each other.

Eating a donut on a string. From the looks of it, Melissa is going to win...

Spencer is eating his donut as neatly and politely as you can while it's hanging from a string.

Jayden tried for several minutes trying to bite the donut, then the minute he did, he walked away. Didn't want to finish it. The soda in his hand was won in a ring toss game and he would not let go of it.

Like I said, didn't let go of it until we got home and he had to go to bed.

At the face painting, Jenna had them paint a checkered flag on her cheek and Spencer had a ghost.

Jayden on the other hand got:

Go Cougs!

Halloween - Part 2

2009-12-09T21:33:00.000-08:00

So-called Trick or Treating at Grandma's with Cousins:

I say "so-called" because we went with such high hopes of a great time. Last year, I took the kids up to my Mom's on Halloween for trick or treating. She lives in a fairly small town, and they were having a fun Halloween carnival on Main Street and it sounded like fun. And it turned out to be. The kids trick or treated from shop to shop, played some fun carnival games and it was all done in the warm part of the day so the kids got to actually trick or treat in their costume without being bundled in coats.

This year however, was a dud. With the economy the way that it has been a lot of the shops were closed, and there weren't any "carnival" games. It was fun to be with cousins though and the kids were excited to show Grandma and Grandpa their costumes.

Here's Jenna with my sister Lisa's daughter Brittany. She is Ahsoka from the Star Wars Clone Wars.

Melissa and Spencer and Lisa's oldest Brandon, who is Yoda.

After our "trick or treating" was over, we headed back to Grandma and Grandpa's house, had some yummy Chili and Cornbread and then headed home to trick or treat in our own neighborhood.

Halloween - Part 3

2009-12-09T21:19:00.000-08:00

Checking out the Candy Stash!

Youwill notice in the pictures that it is fully daytime and my kids are not in their costumes. As per my quest to become the meanest Mom ever (or so my kids think - cause I make them do chores) I made them wait until the following morning to sort through their stuff. You can't tell from the picture, but Jayden came back with the most stuff. For some reason, people are a sucker for the baby in the family. Spencer was very thoughtful trying to pick out his "special" treats. I let the kids pick out their five favorites that were "off limits". Then the rest of the candy was dumped into a community bag for all to share.

Jenna is carefully sorting her candies just like Melissa and Spencer did.

Melissa went trick or treating around our neighborhood and also around her friend's neighborhood, so she had quite a haul. Most of it chocolate, which is always a good thing.

It's funny that they were so concerned about their "special" treats because I have learned that they don't even all like the same stuff. Jenna loves the laffy taffys and fruity flavored tootsie rolls that are usually the last things left in the bag at the end. Jayden saved smarties which the other kids could care less about. Melissa saved all of the sour stuff. And Spencer saved Butterfingers which besides Steve, the others would choose other stuff first. But it made it so they didn't mind dumping it all together, so all was happy.

Melissa's Pinewood Derby

2009-12-09T20:30:00.000-08:00

I know, when you hear Pinewood Derby, Cub Scouts is the first thing to come to mind. Our church group bought a pinewood derby this year for the cub scouts, and thought it would be a fun idea to have the girls have their own "derby". So, the girls jumped at the chance and we had our first ever "girls derby". Steve helped Melissa come up with an idea, and then made it. Here's the final result.
And just an FYI, the entire car is made from the original pinewood derby car kit they were given. All legit. Steve cut down the car, and made their own "pencils" and Melissa worked her magic with paint. {If you look over Melissa's shoulder, check out the tube of lipstick in the back!}

Here was Melissa's first run, she got fourth, but after that, was some smooth sailing. I didn't get more video because I was helping with the refreshments, but Steve did manage to get some pictures.

{Sorry the video won't post for some reason, but I'll try again another time!}

Getting ready for the race...

A second place finish!

Another second place finish!

All in all, it was a fun night and Melissa had a great time with her Dad!

October update...

2009-12-07T21:16:00.001-08:00

I haven't had much time for blogging lately, so I thought I would take an evening with Steve working late, and get caught up on all of our October happenings. I didn't realize I had missed so much, and will have to pick up on Halloween some other time! Needless to say, we sure were busy!

RIding a bike!

2009-12-07T21:10:00.001-08:00

In an attempt to enjoy our last bit of warmth, the kids rode bikes as much as they could.

Jenna wanted to try and learn how to ride without her training wheels, and I attempted to help her.

She was starting to get the hang of it!

But now with the snow, we'll probably have to start at square one in the spring, but I am hoping the old adage that you never forget how to ride a bike really is true!

Character Convention

2009-12-07T21:01:00.001-08:00

In second grade, they have a tradition around Halloween where the kids all dress up as their favorite character from a book. They get up in front of the class, and introduce themselves as the character and tell some interesting things about them. Spencer chose Ron Weasley (cause they share the red hair) from the Harry Potter books. At the time, Spencer had just started reading the books, and now he is halfway through the series... Here Spencer is giving a portion of his speech:

Sorry you can't hear it so well, but apparently something was funny in the end!

Jenna

2009-12-07T20:51:00.001-08:00

In October, I had Jayden in to the doctor's office with an ear infection. While there, the doctor said that they'd been seeing a lot of Croup cases and in teens no less. So, wouldn't you know that less than a week later, I have Jenna in to the doctor's office and she's got croup! He said that after the fever went away, she needed to stay home from school for 24 hours. So, to pass the time, she watched plenty of movies.... And took lots of bubble baths!

Altogether, she was out of school for 4 days. Tough for someone who had waited SO LONG just to get to go to school.

Kindred Spirits

2009-12-07T20:43:00.000-08:00

The only one in our house that loves video games as much as Spencer is Jayden. He is SO happy just to sit and watch Spencer play. Don't get me wrong, he likes to play too!

The Pumpkin Patch

2009-12-07T20:23:00.001-08:00

At school the kids got a flyer from a local nursery advertising a free hayride and a pick of any pumpkin for bringing in a can of food for the local food bank. We weren't doing anything, so we hopped in the car and drove on over. The kids had fun riding on the tractor, and even more fun picking out the perfect pumpkin. Jayden just about picked up every pumpkin he saw before settling on one...

Funny thing is, he settled on the tiniest pumpkin he could find (see photo below)...

Melissa, Spencer and Jenna searched far and wide to find their pumpkins.

Spencer settled on this one, but the bummer about it was it began to rot before he could carve it.

See? Jayden's perfect find!

Jenna of course, came home with the biggest pumpkin.

Our Fall Harvest

2009-12-07T20:06:00.001-08:00

In October, there was a threat of a frost, so the kids and I went out one Saturday and went and picked all the produce in our garden. Pretty much all that was left was the watermelons and pumpkins. The other stuff got eaten by bugs. Not our best "garden" year, but had a plentiful harvest of melons!

Jayden made sure that EVERY pumpkin was picked...

Afterwards, the kids enjoyed the fruits of our labor!

6th Grade Program

2009-11-23T07:59:00.000-08:00

It's inevitable... Every year, each grade puts on a program and it is the same one year after year. For the sixth graders, they put on a program about the ancient civilizations. Melissa was a part of the Greeks. Here she is in her cute little costume...

And this is her trio...

After a brief little speaking part...

The three of them sang:

The program was actually quite enjoyable and only lasted for 45 minutes. The perfect amount of time if you ask me.

Mr. Dibble's Garden

2009-11-04T14:12:00.000-08:00

This year, in the spirit of Fall, our school did another round of Mr. Dibble's Garden (He's the principal). My kids did it last year, and Jenna was excited to be able to join Melissa and Spencer this year in entering. Here were some of the entries from the school...

These were what my kids made...

Jenna's was two apple people in a boat...

Spencer's was just a monster face...

And Melissa's I think she called it a "simple creature". I took these pictures after they brought them home from school. They were supposed to bring them in on Monday and my kids got up bright and early before school to make them and we didn't have time to take pictures before.

Cherry Tomatoes...

2009-10-19T19:53:00.000-07:00

A while back (quite a while actually) Jayden went out back and picked some cherry tomatoes and washed them. Then he sat down at the table to "eat" them...

And don't worry, after that I made him throw them out instead of put them in the fridge with the rest of them like he wanted to do!

It's a Jungle Out There!

2009-09-21T11:33:00.001-07:00

We have somewhat of an animal problem in our backyard. The kids all think it's great because we don't have any pets. They have gone and named all of the animals. We however (Steve and I) aren't because well, you'll see. The first varmit, is a squirrel. The kids have named it Mr./Mrs. Nutterworth (aren't sure whether it's a boy or a girl). It is living in our rocks in the backyard. If you look at about the middle of the picture, amongst all the watermelon plants, you can see it sticking it's head out of the hole. The pain about the squirrel is it has burrowed a little nest behind the rocks. It has gone in and pushed all of the dirt out from behind all of the rocks and made him/herself right at home. Our concern is what happens now. Will it stay through the winter? Is it building up a food supply behind those rocks to last? Who knows. I did catch Jenna and Jayden outside with a bag of trail mix trying to leave the squirrel some nuts. Had to put an end to that one!

Here the squirrel is running back to it's home:

Our second set of "guests" in the backyard, are a family, of quail. There are twelve of them in all. And every morning they come through our backyard, and play a bit, before hopping over the back fence and leaving. It is a morning ritual though. The funny thing is we have seen the squirrel watching them in the backyard. Here they are making their exit:

Also over the summer, we had two Doves make a nest in one of our trees and then a family of Robins make a nest in another tree. Like I said the kids were really excited about the whole thing, but if it is a continual problem. I don't think Steve and I will be.

The first bus ride

2009-09-04T11:19:00.000-07:00

Finally the day we have all been waiting for arrived! And yes, we all were excited for it because now she can stop talking about it! Jenna got to ride the bus! And here is the full account:

She stood in line and waited... She waited patiently inching up to the bus, no pushing or shoving...

Then she hopped on...(I almost missed it)

And then she found her seat. I was hoping she would at least look out the window and wave, but I just had to settle for getting her head.

Whew! Melissa helped her at school get off the bus and then find the correct line to stand in until the bell rang for school to start. Which was nice for me because I didn't have to then drive to the school. After school was out, the morning bus was kind of late dropping off the Kindergartners, so when she got home, the afternoon bus was there picking up the afternoon kids. When that bus drove off, there were four cars of Moms and Dads following the bus, to help their kids when they got to school make sure they got to the right place. Which is funny because the teachers are already out there ready to greet the kids when they get to school.

Don't grow up all at once!

2009-08-25T10:34:00.001-07:00

Yesterday morning when Jenna woke up, she came in to my room and said that her tooth was bothering her. I asked her why, does it feel like something is stuck in it? She said "No, it's wiggly!" And sure enough when I stuck my finger in her mouth to check, it was a little wiggly. So then she says, "Should I pull it out?" I told her that it was only a little wiggly and it would probably take another week or so to come out. So then last night when I was checking my email when the kids were going to bed, I was surprised to see this:
Jenna: "Mom! It came out!" And upon further inspection:

Yep their was a hole. She had just yanked it out herself. She said it was bothering her and she couldn't sleep, cause she just kept wanting to wiggle it, so she just yanked it out. Just like that! If only all kids could be as easy as she is... or maybe I should say that I hope she stays so easy. {I'll keep my fingers crossed.}

So there you have it! She goes off to Kindergarten and loses a tooth all in the same day! What next?

Back to School

2009-08-24T10:44:00.001-07:00

It's back to school time in our house, and I have to admit I have mixed emotions about the whole thing. I am excited for the kids to not be so bored. I am excited for the fact that there will be less fighting in our house (during the day at least). And I am excited for a reason to be more strick on bedtime, practicing their piano and stuff like that. I am NOT excited however that I am sending one more kid off (Jenna) to school, to learn all the stuff that well, you would rather they not learn. Like those obnoxious games like jinxing each other, the what game (I'll have to explain another time), and what it means to be chicken trapped (yeah, that one I'll have to explain at another time too). They learn to be obnoxious themselves and mean, but I guess that is the trade-off to learning all the good stuff too. Like how to share, what it means to be a friend, how to respect someone of authority, following the rules, and all the educational stuff too. I am also sad 'cause it will just be Jayden at home. It's nothing new, he was home by himself when Jenna was in preschool last year, but the sad part is he's got 3 more years til kindergarten and I think he will be sad.Here's the three off to school! Do they look excited?And now, the first day shots I get of each one. I did the normal close-up and then full outfit shot, but this year I added in the shoe shot. It was such an ordeal finding them all shoes, that I figured, they needed their own picture.

First Melissa! She is starting the 6th grade this year. Scarey if you ask me. Jr. High is only a year away and THAT makes me sad. And feel a little old. Then Spencer! He will be in second grade this year. I am just hoping that we have a better year this year for him. First grade was a tough one in regards to his teacher, we {OK, mostly me} took issue with a lot of the ways that she taught, how she disciplined and her lack of organization.

And now, Jenna! The Kindergartner. She is SO excited! And yes, she will be doing morning kindergarten and so far, she was able to get up on time, but she didn't eat breakfast. Which was OK today because they only went for an hour and then she came home and ate.

And Jayden! He's not doing any sort of school, but he wanted to be included in the picture taking. No shoe shot for him though cause he was in feet.

And there you have it!

All Day, Everyday!

2009-08-12T18:20:00.001-07:00

Jayden's Grandma had two of these bikes that the kids used to be able to ride around in her unfinished basement during the winter. Although, now that her basement is being finished, she was getting rid of them and we snagged one up for Jayden. And he is on that bike all the time. He will go out and ride around on the back patio for quite a while and then come in for a bit and go right back out.Here he is putting "gas" in his bike like the big kids pretend to do...

And all he does is go around and around in a circle. I don't know how on earth he doesn't wind up completely dizzy.

Here he is on a seperate day {Just ignore that whiney/nasaly voice in the background, Of course he's having a good time!}

Like I said, All Day, Everyday!

While Michelle was here...

2009-08-11T21:46:00.000-07:00

Michelle (my older sister) and here family came for a visit in July {yes, I am behind in my posting - but you try to blog while fighting with your kids for the computer during the day and your husband at night}. They came one day and then Michelle and her husband Brett left the next day for a much needed and WAY overdue trip to Washington DC. While they were gone, I was lucky enough (for reals) to get to watch their kids. There are only three of them at the moment, she is pregnant with number 4, and they are ALL potty trained and VERY well behaved (at least for me). I even took advantage of the extra help!
Not really, I am not that mean of an aunt. They all thought that it was fun. They stayed with us for three days and then they stayed with a friend one night and then my little sister Lisa for a couple nights before Michelle and Brett got back. After that, we went up to Lisa's house and celebrated the 24th of July (it's actually a holiday here in Utah). We started out with some pizza. After that we had some s'mores! And I use the term "we" in the same way I use it when when I ask Steve if "we" took out the trash. I didn't have one, and don't know why, that was some serious oversight on my part, I LOVE s'mores.

Then, we camped in Lisa's backyard. And again, this is the "we" as in not me, I slept in a bed, in the house. And from what I've been told, it rained. All. Night. Long. But the kids were still excited and happy to have slept in a tent. Since, I don't camp. I know, sometime in my life I will have to remedy that, but I am still in the process of getting myself psyched up for that it so far, it just hasn't happened.

You can see there in the pictures a hammock between two of the tents. My brother David was going to sleep under the stars. But seeing as how there weren't any stars, only raindrops, that didn't last too long.

The following week, Brett flew back home and left Michelle and the kids here to play for the week while he worked. So play we did. Only I didn't get pictures of it all. We took the kids to a park and fed the ducks, had a picnic and played.

Melissa is the only missing in the picture below, because she was the one actually taking the picture. Actually now that I look at it again, Lisa's youngest isn't in the picture either. In the bottom row, there is BJ (Lisa's), Jayden (mine), Brandon (Lisa's), Spencer (mine), Meagan (Michelle's), Jenna (mine), and Brittany (Lisa's). And in the top row Rebecca and Tyler (both Michelle's).

Another thing we did was took all our kids to Old Navy for some back to school shopping. We took up 6 dressing rooms and it was total chaos! The kids loved it though, and so did I. We walked through the store grabbing a bunch of clothes, a putting them in the shopping cart. Then went to the dressing rooms and the kids grabbed their stack and started trying on clothes. They would go in and come out with something new on, we'd (the mom's) decide whether they worked or not, and then by the end, had a stack to purchase and left. And other than needing some shoes and Melissa needs another pair of long pants, I got everything I needed. I think we permanently scarred the dressing room workers for life, I think that it will take them a long time before they decide to have any kids, like I said, it was pure chaos to anyone watching. For me, it was totally under control. All except for Jayden finding it funny to hurry and shut the kids dressing room door so that it would lock on them and we had to get the worker to unlock it who knows how many times!

All in all, fun times! Can't wait for the NEXT time Michelle comes for a visit!

A little bit of culture (OK, it ended up being a little too much culture)

2009-08-06T21:10:00.000-07:00

In an attempt to get our kids exposed to some "culture" {read - something other than watching TV, playing video games, swimming, etc.} during the summer, we took them to a local outdoor theater, where they were putting on the show "High School Musical 2". A co-worker of Steve's went the night before and said that there were two casts, an older group and a younger group. They saw the younger one, and thought that the older group would probably do a better job, but it was still decent. We went last year with some of our neighbors and had a really good time. We showed up an hour early with a little picnic dinner and ate before the show. And the show last year ("The Music Man") was fairly decent and fun to watch, so we went with pretty good expectations. {Can you see where I am going with this?}

Yeah, it was horrible. H.O.R.R.I.B.L.E. - and that is being nice. Jayden sums it up nicely:

Don't believe me? Watch for yourself...

Excruciating I know. Now hit replay over and over again for the next hour and a half and you would just about have our experience. The guy that played Troy, was totally monotone. Not just when he was talking, but when he was singing as well. I wish I got video of the "Bet on it" number. And you thought Zac Effron did a poor job of it in the movie, well this guy did 10 times worse. My kids are still talking about it and we actually went and saw this almost a month ago. So even though we fell short in giving our kids some culture, we sure made some great memories! And you can bet we will probably do it again next year!

Kids say the darndest things...

2009-08-05T15:09:00.001-07:00

Jenna has kind of been on a funny kick as of late. Here are some things she has said lately:

When asked "Jenna, where do you live?"

Her reply? - "The Milky-Way!"

Then, the other night, she was explaining to me that Grown-ups aren't allowed to lie, because they are old enough to know better, but kids can lie because they are still learning!" {That was right after I substituted her Primary Class and we learned about 8 being the age of accountability. hmmmm.}

This was just a cute picture of Jenna with her cousin Brittany (Lisa's daughter - they were born a week apart)

Then, the other day, Melissa was starting to boss Spencer around and I said to her: "Melissa, are you Spencer's Mother?"

Her reply? - "No, but I sure like acting like it!"

Swim Lessons

2009-08-02T21:40:00.000-07:00

This summer Spencer, Jenna and Melissa have all done swimming lessons. When I was first looking to sign the kids up for swimming lessons, I was told about a place here in town that did private lessons, but I was also told they fill up fast so by the time I was calling, I was probably out of luck. At the same time, I knew my Mom's neighbor did private swim lessons and was REALLY good at it. Most kids learn to swim quick. However, my Mom lives 30 min. away, and I worried about driving back and forth every day for two weeks (you know, gas ain't cheap!) I called the first place, and they actually had two openings, however, they were only 20 min. lessons, for just one week. And I was pretty sure that Spencer and Jenna were going to need the full two weeks that my mom's neighbor was offering. So I went ahead, and signed Melissa up at the first place for just one week since she already knows how to swim, but just wanted a little help on getting her strokes better. And then signed Spencer and Jenna up with my Mom's neighbor. I figured that then I would know for future reference if the place close by would have been just fine.

Well, let me tell you, the driving 30 min. there and then 30 min. back, everyday for two weeks, was well worth it! After having watched the beginning swimmers where Melissa had lessons and then watching Jenna and Spencer's lessons, there was no contest. My Mom's neighbor was incredible and well worth every penny!

To begin with, Jenna hasn't really ever been afraid of the water. She doesn't mind her face getting wet and loves splashing around. Spencer on the other hand was terrified of the water. And when he got to where he could tolerate being IN the water, he would freak out if anyone splashed near him. So when we went to the first lesson and before they even got started. The teacher (Tracy) took him on a little "tour" of the pool (they walked around the pool, she showed him where the deep end starts, showed him the diving board, the stairs, and then where the bathroom was in her house {I told you she was a genius!}) before even getting in the water, and I could tell he was already starting to fight the tears. I thought "Oh man, here we go, two weeks of taking him to swimming kicking and screaming."

However, the first thing she does is tell them to get in the water, walk back and forth and then she tosses some rings and says "Go get em!" {She is British, so has this fabulous accent} and I'll be damned! He did it! I don't know if it was the accent, or what, but I tell you, if she told him to jump off the diving board, and swim to the side he'd do it. In fact he did! That's right on the first day. Here he was by the end of just 30 min. with Tracy:

You could tell that he was a little nervous to jump off, but then he just makes up his mind and goes for it. I was so shocked and excited for him, I cried, for reals. Of course within that 30 min. she knew that he was able to it safely. I think that he has had his dang life jacket on for so long, he knew how to swim, but just didn't realize that he could do it if he actually tried. Funny thing was I don't think he could sink if he tried. He really had a hard time doing the swim on the bottom of the pool thing because he just can't get down very far in the water.

Here he is backstroking it...

And then even diving off of the diving board by the end! By the end of the two weeks, Spencer had almost completed through level three of the Red Cross certification. Like I said, Tracy was a miracle worker!

Now on to Jenna! Jenna like I said hasn't ever been afraid of water. Here she is just enjoying the kickboard during lesson #1.

And by the end, here she is jumping off the diving board and swimming the length of the pool on her back. I didn't video it, but she also can swim 2/3 of the way across the pool underwater holding her breath!

While we watched the swimming lessons, Jayden enjoyed her trampoline!

Really I don't think I could say enough great things about Tracy. She was so patient with the kids, and also so no-nonsence, but in the nicest way. The first time Spencer jumped off the side of the pool, he kind of tried to hold onto the edge, and she simply said, "Cheater, Cheater, Pumpkin eater! We call that a cheater jump, Come on Spencer, let's try that again." She was also very encouraging, and positive. When Jenna would get tired of trying to float on her back, she would stop and stand up, and Tracy would just tell her to just catch her breath for a sec and keep trying. The kids both COULD NOT WAIT for lessons each day and were so sad when the two weeks were over.

The Dog Days of Summer

2009-07-27T21:14:00.000-07:00

A bunch has been going on so far this summer. I haven't blogged a dang thing though. Partly because for most of it I didn't have my camera with me and I haven't gotten the pictures yet from other people who were there. But here is a little of what we have been up to...

Eating otterpops in the backyard in the little bit of shade that we have. The trees we do have in the backyard, are still kind of small. Melissa has been sewing some more... One little note, that sewing machine was once my great-grandma Steinbeck's. And it still works!

I even let Jenna go somedays without making her have her hair done. I make her brush it out, but she isn't all that particular with getting a nice part on the top. But hey, she's happy, I'm happy!

The kids enjoyed painting one day.

I was surprised how careful Jayden was at it. The only bad thing is I try like mad to get my kids to color on both sides of the paper so that we aren't wasting so much. The three older all hate to do it. Jayden doesn't seem to mind. So he naturally tried to paint on both sides of the paper, but was sad to find that it just doesn't work that way. Thank goodness for washable paints though!

I have noticed that the amount of fights are beginning to escalate between the kids, and I know that I am certainly looking forward to school being back in. One funny note, is Jenna hasn't been sleeping in so much this summer. And hopefully that continues for her with morning Kindergarten.

Peekaboo!

2009-07-08T10:47:00.001-07:00

Me Yelling: "Jayden!"

Jayden: "What?"

Me: "Come here!"

Jayden: "I can't!"

Me: "Why not?"

Jayden: "I'm stuck!"

He's not really stuck, just didn't want to get out!

My oldest friend - Melany

2009-07-07T11:42:00.000-07:00

Maybe the title should actually be My Longest Friend. Because she isn't my oldest friend in the sense of age, but the friend that I have had the longest. Our Mom's met back when we were just 2 years old. They were friends, so naturally we were friends. And here we are 30 years later... Still friends. She came for a visit recently and brought her family. It was fun to see each other and talk about all the people that we used to know or still keep in touch with.

Here's the two of us:

And our 9 kids... My memories with Melany are many:

There was the time when we were in Kindergarten together and our teacher had a momentary lapse of judgement and ACTUALLY let us sit next together. We sat there SOOO quietly and SOO nicely as she was rearranging all of the kids so that she wouldn't realize what she had done. Only once she finished, the teacher saw us sitting next to each other and made me move.
There was another time also in Kindergarten where we were playing in the sandbox with another kids' toy car and buried it somewhere and then couldn't find it. The teacher made us go back out there and look until our mom's came to pick us up and we cried the entire time while sifting through piles of sand.
There were countless birthday parties, holidays, girls camps and playdates. We used to build entire Barbie cities out in the backyard with roads made from chalk and everything.
There was the time I was spending the night at her house and there was an earthquake {I'd been threw plenty of earthquakes, but experiencing an earthquake in a two-story was a whole different kind of experience}.
There was the time my Mom was driving us back to her house and Melany dropped her gum out the car window and we had to go back and get it.
I still remember having matching red T-shirts that had our names on them.
Then there was the time that I threw-up at her house after eating several packages of banana now and laters. Then I called home to tell my Mom to come get me and ended up crying on the phone to a guy who I thought was my Dad only to hear, "Look, I don't have any kids." Oops, wrong number.
There was the time that we thought about quitting going to church because they split the ward right between our two neighborhoods (we were like 6 or 7 years old).
There was the time we sat on their old couch for what seemed like 8 hours at her next door neighbors garage sale trying to sell the couch, but never did.
Camping in Yosemite and learning to rock climb. And her Dad driving the wrong way on a one-way road.

I could probably go on and on... 30 years really adds up!

Father's Day (A little past due!)

2009-07-06T07:48:00.000-07:00

The day before Father's Day, Steve and I went out and ran a few errands. While we were gone, Melissa got the other kids excited about wrapping Daddy's Father's Day gift. The only paper they could find that had enough to wrap around the gift was some left over butcher paper. However, after wrapping the majority of it, they realized they were a little short. One of the corners couldn't be covered. So they made a bunch of "Father's Day" cards to cover it.

Specer even included two of his favorite Pokemon Cards to cover the bare spot.

Don't they look proud of their gift?

Jayden was sure excited for Dad to open it!

How do you like the bow? They taped a bunch of mini butterfingers (Steve's favorite) and some Hershey's kisses to the top. However, I am not sure if Steve actually ate any of them. I think the kids and I took care of that! His gift was a new ShopVac for his workshop in the basement. He has been using our old vacuum which doesn't exactly do that great of a job. Happy Father's Day Steve! (Even if it is a little late!)

Dance Dance Revolution!

2009-06-19T07:18:00.001-07:00

For those of you who don't know what Dance, Dance, Revolution is, let me enlighten you...

The kids have a Playstation (Video Game console) and Dance, Dance Revolution is one of the games that you can play. It has a mat that you play the game with where on the screen there will be arrows that come up and you have to hit the corresponding arrow on your mat. There are different levels ranging from Beginner, to Basic, to Difficult, to Expert, and finally Challenge. She has moved on to the Basic level, which doesn't sound like much, but when you see her going, you can see that there are a lot of moves in a short period of time. This past little while, Melissa has been trying to get an A on one particular song (which isn't even in English, but it's hard and she likes it) and here is her attempt:

The amazing thing is, there are times where she will kind of stumble, but she is so focused, she gets right back into it, and hardly misses a beat!

And here is the finish...

The reason for the reaction?

You need a score of at least and 8,100,000 to get an A. And her score was 8,056,871. That is the difference between five perfects as opposed to greats. Yeah, that stinks...

{side note: I videoed this because I thought for sure she was going to get her A that time and I thought it would be fun to capture the victory. Although, her just barely missing it was a great reaction too. She did actually get an A the very next day, I just didn't get it on the video. Now, she is on to Difficult, and THAT is just plain crazy!}

Daddy's little Dude...

2009-06-10T13:29:00.001-07:00

Jayden really likes his Daddy... Whenever Steve is out working in the yard or in the garage or the basement, or you name it, and Jayden wants to be there working too. On Saturday I was doing the breakfast dishes and I looked out the window to see this... Jayden working with his Dad. What was too bad is when I looked out Steve was actually smoothing the dirt around the tree with his hands, and Jayden was laying there in the grass right next to him doing the exact same thing. By the time I ran and got the camera though, they had moved on to doing other things. Too cute!

Catching up!

2009-06-09T12:36:00.001-07:00

I am warning you now, this is kind of going to be a long post... There is always so much going on in the last month of school, and I was trying to post things one at a time so that it wasn't so long, or so hodge podge, but life is flying by too quickly, that I felt like I had to hurry and post them all together so that I don't get so far behind. So if you are up to it, here is what we've been doing...

First off was field day at the school. I only got pictures of Melissa at the field day because Spencer's group was in the afternoon and I was off with Jenna for her preschool graduation. Jenna, Jayden and I went over to school for the last hour of the field day. When we got there, Melissa looked like this... And that was after going down the water slide! That's right, the water slide! Jenna went down it, and I tried to get a video of it, but only caught the end because I thought that I had pushed the button, but didn't and then when I realized it, she was pretty much done and didn't want to go down again.

Sorry it is sideways, but I don't know how to fix that!

It was really an AMAZING activity. The ladies that planned and executed the event did a great job, and the kids had a lot of fun. There were all sorts of relays for the kids, as well as, water games, snow cones, dancing (where they taught the kids different line/group dances), balloon rockets...

And of course, my favorite, the dunking booth!

And this is what she looked like afterwards! They warned the kids to bring a change of clothes, which Melissa did, all except the shoes, so we ran home afterwards, and brought her back a dry pair of shoes. I asked a lot of the kids what their favorite parts were, and while most liked either the waterslide or the dunking booth, they all said the rest was still real fun.

Jayden and Jenna were also happy to be able just to play on the school playground.

They don't get to do that very often, and it is a real treat when they do. Jenna is already calling herself a kindergardener! And she looks the part!

At one point Jenna heard the "Macarena" song going, so she stopped to show me what she had learned at preschool.

Which leads me to the next part of our day and why we didn't get pictures of Spencer at field day. It was also Jenna's preschool graduation. And I have to say, it was a very well put together program. It just went from one part to the next. It was quick and very entertaining! When the kids arrived at the graduation, they gave each of the kids a flower necklace and had them sit in the front row. Jenna told me beforehand that she was sitting inbetween her two boyfriends. I love that at that age, boys that you play with are your boyfriends plain and simple.

Next they did a little program of some songs that they learned at preschool. This first one is called the "Hello" song and this is the very end... Get down Jenna!

Following that, they did this song about being in Pre-K:

Followed by the friend song {Which isn't exciting, but it is Jenna's favorite song, so I thought that I would include it}.

Following that they did the "Macarena" and since I pretty much already posted it, I just got a little bit of it to add here.

Following the program, they had each of the kids go across the stage where they said something nice about each kid and gave them their "diploma".

If you can't quite catch what they are saying, it says that Jenna is Miss Organization. She is always cleaning up the toys in class "just so". Making sure that all of the cups and dishes get back to where they go and in the proper way. They have told me this before. The funny thing about it is at home I have a hard time getting her to clean up. But at least I now know she knows how.

This is Jenna with her friend Grace from next door. They had a slideshow at the end, and there were several pictures of Jenna and Grace playing together. They are such cute little friends. Jenna also told me that she kind of cried during the slideshow. So I guess she unfortunately got my Dad's emotions like the rest of us!

As we head out the door, we got a picture of Jenna with her teachers. And starting in the back from right to left it is Miss Mary, Miss Jenny, Miss Katie, Jenna and Mr. Taylor. They were great people for Jenna in preschool. There wasn't ever a day when Jenna said she didn't want to go. She absolutely loved it!

The Dance Recital 2009

2009-06-04T12:24:00.001-07:00

This years Spring Dance Recital for Jenna and Melissa was a lot of fun! I think now that Jayden is getting older, and will mostly just sit and watch, it makes it easier to just sit and enjoy the show. I didn't get any close-up shots of Melissa, she had to be there early and then my camera battery was completely dead by the time we left. However, here is Jenna in her cute costume. And of course with her cute make-up and hair! {Which is one of her favorite things about the recital, that and they get a trophy at the end.}

Like I said, for the most part, Jayden was happy to sit and watch...

I know that alot of these dances you've already seen from the competitions, but I figured for posterity sake, I would include Melissa's dances here in the order that they appeared in the program. They started off with the show tune, which was titled "So you think you can dance" and was just a hodge-podge of different types of dances that the different competition groups did, and this was Melissa's group Hip Hop routine:

Jenna's first number was "Under the Sea". She is the last one in the line on the right. And like I said, Jayden was good most of the time, this just happens to not be it!

So here is a better look!

This is Melissa's Jazz number "Whine up" like I said, I've posted it before so I kept it kind of short:

Here is Melissa's Lyrical number:

This was Jenna's secong number called "Miracles" she is the third one from the left this time:

And the last number for the evening was Melissa's "Get Your Head in the Game"

Spencer's Class Program

2009-06-02T11:23:00.000-07:00

Spencer's first grade class did an end of the year program showing off all the stuff they learned this year. And it turned out to be your typical first grade program. The kids go up to the microphone and you can't understand a single word they are saying, they go through ALL sorts of random stuff and they sing songs, (some a little louder than others). And you as the parent just sit and giggle through the entire thing because they do the funniest things. And if I were a better photographer with a quick finger I could have gotten it all! But here are the highlights: Spencer got to hold the sign for the KN song. They did three of the classes favorite phonics songs they learned this year and Spencer held up a picture of a knight. {Melany do you remember singing the A is for A-choo song in kindergarten? That's what it made me think of!}

Then there was Spencer's speaking part, above is the first part and below is the second half (thanks to my camera's ability to only catch 30 seconds at a time). The poem he is doing is Shel Silverstein's poem "Smart".

This was just a funny song that they were singing... I love how at one point Spencer points at his face to smile and then he realizes that is just his teacher telling the class to smile.

And finally to finish it off, this was the last song and I thought the dancing they did was quite funny! The song is about a space worm FYI.

Good job Spencer!

Jayden's new word

2009-05-31T19:10:00.000-07:00

Steve taught Jayden a new word...

For those of you who can't understand it, it's "antidisestablishmentarianism".

Yum!

2009-05-29T13:32:00.001-07:00

Spencer and his friend made some cookies the other day. They were an 'experiment'. They took a regular chocolate chip cookie recipe and then added some extra stuff to it, and I have to say, they turned out much better than any cookie I've ever made! From the picture you can kind of see the flour all over his shirt. It took us a good hour to clean up the kitchen when they were done. And it included a good scrubbing of the floor too!

Melissa's California Report

2009-05-28T07:45:00.001-07:00

With the school year approaching the end, we have been busy at our house getting things all wrapped up. And one of the major things has been Melissa's state report. I am proud of her for doing the majority of it on her own. She would sit down at the computer figure all her stuff out, and then I would look it over when she was done. Then Steve would re-look it over because I am not so great with the proof-reading-type stuff. She did California for her report. Which was nice because I already know quite a bit about that place having lived there for my first 17 years. She was a little nervous before the presentation...
But when she got up there and got talking, she became a natural!
When she was finished, she said that she could have gone on forever, but they were only given 15 minutes and she took all of it. I tried to take some video of her power point part of the presentation, but as you can see, Jayden thinks the camera belongs to him, and it just wasn't working. Her power point was quite impressive. Things have sure come a long way!

Since you asked...

2009-05-27T08:07:00.000-07:00

Since Lisa asked what the other 61 pictures were of that I downloaded, I thought I would oblige! There were 33 like this: 18 of Spencer practicing his Piano:

Two of Melissa's old art project from the 3rd grade:

I actually think Melissa took this picture. We had her go through all her stuff again this last weekend to see if she really wanted to keep it all, and sometimes when she decides she no longer wants it, she will take a picture of it just to remember it and I will stick the picture in her scrapbook.

And then there were 8 other shots of us sitting on my Mom's couch. Our ward is putting out a directory of the families with pictures included, and we needed a picture. This was the winning shot! Thanks Heather!

And yes, that adds up to 61! Thanks for asking!

A budding Photographer

2009-05-26T07:51:00.001-07:00

I was kind of surprised when I went to download pictures from my camera and it said that there were 61 photos to download! Seeing as how I took my camera to my mom's yesterday for Memorial day and didn't take any pictures, I thought I would only find like 10 pictures. However, Jayden had gotten ahold of my camera again. Even took some pictures of Spencer practicing his piano...

Notice the great form!

Actually this picture got Spencer in trouble because he should have known better that Jayden can't play with the camera. And should have kindly gotten the camera away from Jayden. Because as much as I want a new camera right now, there are a hundred other things I would rather be buying.

Where has my baby gone?

2009-05-21T12:21:00.001-07:00

I have to admit, for as much as a pain as Jayden can be sometimes, one area that I have totally lucked out on is his easiness for taking naps. I tell you what when this kid is tired, he is tired and he wants a nap. Many times, it is Jayden who will tell me that he is ready to go night night. The other day, I set a goal to get certain things done by the time Jayden went down for a nap so that I could 'play' when he was sleeping. I usually put him down at 1:30 and for some reason that day at 1:00 he was begging to go down for a nap. I told him that I needed to get some more cleaning done first and he started to throw a fit to take a nap! And being the fantastic mom I am I told him no. He had to wait until I got the family room picked up and vacuumed. To which he said, "okay!" and helped me pick up the toys.

However, this one area that he is EASY in, does not make up for the little escape job he did in the store yesterday. We were at the grocery store and I had one of the shopping carts with the police cars in the front for the kids to drive around in. I try not to stop for too long at any one place so that he will stay in the car, however at one point he jumped out (while the cart was moving) and then went running off down the ailse pulling sale signs off of the shelves. All the while laughing and thinking it was so funny that mom was running after him and just couldn't quite catch him all that quickly. So, I think after an episode {and there's always an episode} like that I deserve this.... Followed by only a few minutes later, this...

And yes, he's still in a crib. I know that he is almost 2 and a half, but I have no need to hurry him out of the crib, (no baby in waiting that is) so why rush? I know that as soon as he gets potty trained I will sadly have to put him in a bed, but I am in no hurry to rush that either. I think that I will just enjoy the fact that he's my baby as much as I can.

Why I haven't posted in a week...

2009-05-20T08:23:00.000-07:00

Let's just put it this way.... I am a bad mom... My kids got majorly sunburned last week. You can still see a little of the rosyness under Jenna's eyes, but man, it was bad, and looking at them everyday, just made me so sad. You just don't think about sunscreen so much right at the first of the season. Jayden was probably the worst, he doesn't look as bad here, but it was so bad, his ears were blistered. I haven't posted because I didn't want to take pictures of my kids doing anything. I know, it's vanity on my part, but I could just imagine DCFS coming to my house and taking my kids their burns were THAT bad.

However, now we are in the peeling stage. And my kids are faithfully putting on sunscreen. Melissa has even been having me spray her with sunscreen before she goes to school because they are having a kickball tournament at school and they are spending a lot of time outside. So here's your friendly reminder for the summer: don't forget your sunscreen!

A late Easter post

2009-05-12T08:26:00.001-07:00

Since we were driving home from Arizona on Easter, we didn't actually go to church on Easter. However, I did get the kids some Easter outfits and here they are... Of course Jayden's shirt only stayed tucked in until the church parking lot. Jenna (I know it isn't the typical "Easter" type dress, but the pastel colors kind of wash her out)

Spencer (and yes, the boys shirts match, except Spencer's is a lighter blue than Jayden's)

Here's Melissa. Only I should have gotten a picture of here cute shoes that she had on. She's growing up so fast!

And of course the group shot! I think this just might wind up in our Christmas card!

Mother's Day

2009-05-11T12:56:00.001-07:00

For Mother's Day, the kids thought that it would be fun to make me breakfast. Spencer made brownies (THAT'S my boy!)... Melissa made some French Toast...

Jayden set the table (here he is trying to get the silverware out of the dishwasher)...

Jenna made the orange juice...

And Melissa was nice enough to wipe up the floor when Jenna was done, and Spencer spilled some of the brownie batter on the floor, but Melissa helped him clean that up too. What a great morning!

A yearly tradition

2009-05-08T07:52:00.000-07:00

Every year on Ragan's birthday we take flowers to the cemetary for Ragan's birthday. And in keeping with tradition, we take the same pictures every year. We take a picture of the headstone by itself,
Followed by a picture of all of the kids ...

And then each kid individually... First Melissa

Then Spencer

Then Jenna

And finally Jayden

Melissa really seemed to struggle all day. She came home from school and was in tears. She said that she just had a really bad day at school and proceeded to tell me all that had happened and gone wrong. And after listening to them all, I think she could would have been just fine had it been any other day. That night, she asked me why she is the only one that gets emotional like that, and I told her that's because she was alive when it all happened and remembers it being sad.

After the cemetary, we came home, had some cake and sang happy birthday. Again, Melissa struggled throughout the song, but Jayden sure loved it. Even sang it in his bed when he was going to sleep. One other tradition Melissa has is she takes one of the flowers from the bouquet and presses it and last night she had Jenna grab a flower too, and Melissa was showing Jenna how to press it.

Love Birds

2009-05-06T08:06:00.001-07:00

I know this is silly, but what kind of birds are these? The leading candidate right now is doves...

On Sunday, we had all sorts of different kinds of birds in our backyard. Melissa got all sorts of pictures of the quail that we saw. She is doing a report on California right now and that is the state bird. She was VERY excited about that. We saw a bunch while we were in Arizona, but never got around to taking any pictures. These two birds sat on the rock and sunned for quite a while. They were so fun to watch! They looked like they were taking care of each other. Which brings up another question, do birds mate for life with one partner?

Melissa's Dance Competition

2009-05-05T08:23:00.000-07:00

These past two Saturdays have been spent on very uncomfortable bleachers doing something totally worth it. It was Melissa's dance competition. She does four different group dances and so I put a little blurb of each one on this post so you could see a bit. Sometimes I don't like the fact that my camera only takes 30 second videos, but right now I am thinking that isn't such a bad thing. That way you don't have to sit through the whole song and watch it all. In the above picture, Melissa is the last girl in line in the front row. This was one of the only still shots that I took. I was running out of camera battery and wanted to make sure that I had enough battery for the videos.

This was their Hip Hop number they did the dance to the High School Musical {can't remember which number} song, "Getcha Head in the Game". I was nervous about them using balls as props because so much can go wrong with a ball for a prop, but thank goodness they all held on real tight. They got first place at both competitions for this one.

This was their lyrical number. The song is "Love Story" by Taylor Swift. They got first at both competitions for this song too. Melissa is the front middle {just in case you were wondering which girl you were supposed to be following}. As a little side note the guy in the orange hat which sometimes pops into the picture had THE WORST BO I have smelt since Jr. High. It was so bad, first I looked to find on the program to see if he would be leaving anytime soon because we had pretty good seats. However after I realized he was there for as long as we were, I gave up my good seats to just get away from the stench. And everytime he turned around to say sorry for leaning on my knees I thought his breath would make me pass out. Yeah, he was THAT bad.

This was their Jazz number it got a second place at both of the competitions. I posted two videos of this number the one is at the beginning and the other is at the end of the song. Melissa is on the far left in the front row.

This is the last one... This was their Show tune which was a hip hop number. Melissa is the point in the triangle.

It was a very fun past two weekends! I really like going to her competitions not only to see her dance, but I also like to see the other groups dance as well. Some people come up with some pretty creative stuff. There are also those groups that are just down right strange or disturbing. There was one group where the girls had eyemasks on their face and were wearing purple wigs and on the back of their heads were white masks that were kind of like the scream masks, that was disturbing. And if it weren't for my battery I would have taken a picture.

Gotta Catch Them All!

2009-05-04T13:52:00.001-07:00

In my attempt at being the fair mom... which I KNOW you can't do, but some of my kids seem to keep tabs, I did a post on Melissa, Janna and Jayden so now, I gotta do one for Spencer... Spencer's big kick right now is Pokemon cards. And with me it is a love-hate relationship BIG TIME! I love that Spencer is in to something other than video games right now, but I HATE that he carries them around with him EVERYWHERE! And if they aren't in his hands, they are in his pocket. Which I am surprised that they haven't ended up washed yet with the clothes. However, there was one night that I swore the kids were all asleep and then Spencer comes in the family room in a panic, "Mom! have you washed my shorts yet?" He was terrified that I washed his shorts and it would have ruined all his cards. Little does he know, I am not that on top of laundry that I would have already washed shorts that he took off an hour ago. Want to know where they were? In the bathroom... he put them down on the counter while he was brushing his teeth. At night before he goes to bed, he puts them in the crack between his bed frame and his mattress. Then of course in the morning he's got them in his hands at the breakfast table. I finally had to make him put them on the desk in the kitchen while he eats, just so that his hand doesn't permanently conform to the shape of holding cards in his hands. Not to mention his teacher has banned the cards from class. I am sure that if any of the other kids are like Spencer, it got to be a problem. I don't know if they actually play with the cards either, or just look through their decks and trade them. He had some friends over on Friday and they even played tag out back with their pokemon cards in their hands the entire time. I guess it's better than video games huh?

Melissa's talent

2009-04-24T09:59:00.000-07:00

Melissa's school is doing a talent show for the 4 - 6 graders. They had talent show in each of the classes, and then each class chose 4 acts that would compete in a Grade level competition and then they are going to chose 4 or 5 from each grade level to perform in the 4-6 grade talent show. Melissa was one of the 4 chosen from her class, and yesterday was the grade level competition. She finds out today if she competes in the school-wide one, but I thought I would share her "talent" from yesterday.

I thought that it was funny how the boys would react everytime she did the splits. You can see it a little bit in the 30 second spot I did above, but I really didn't notice it until after the filming and so I didn't get a real good shot of their reaction. After she performed and went back to class, I was walking back with her so that she could change and I could take her costume home, the boys kept begging her to do the splits and touch her toes. I asked her when she got home from school if she ever did it, and she told me she didn't. She did do a really good job on her performance. This was her solo from last year, and I think she a pretty good job remembering it from a year ago. Their regular dance competition for this year is tomorrow and next Saturday. I am looking forward to it. She isn't doing a solo this year (money's tight). Which I think she has been kind of sad about, but she is looking forward to doing one next year.

I can't help it!

2009-04-22T09:34:00.000-07:00

Originally, I was thinking that I could just blog something about how Jenna likes to play computer games, but I figure I would be more up front with the actual reason for the post... Her hair! Turned out cute don't you think? It helps that she's a pretty girl too!

Oh yeah, and she does like to play the computer too, but I like to do her hair more!

Classic Jayden

2009-04-16T11:40:00.001-07:00

Thought I would post another one of Jayden's self portraits. He's actually getting better at it I would say. So, here's a conversation I had with Jayden a couple of days ago.

Mommy: Jayden I think it is time to have a nap.

Jayden: I don't want to.

Mommy: But you are tired.

Jayden: No! I not ever!

Mommy: OK, good luck with that, let me know when you are tired.

Jayden: It's time to go night-night.

Like I've said before, that kid plays till he's ragged and most of the time doesn't mind going down for a nap.

Spring Break

2009-04-15T08:37:00.001-07:00

For Spring Break, I packed the kids in the car and drove down to Tucson, Arizona to visit my sister Michelle with my parents. I car ride down actually went pretty well unless you count the fact that it was snowing here when we left which made for some slow spots and then also that a couple of my kids get car sick and threw up. Although, throwing up is nothing new for my kids, so they just threw up in their little throw up bags and we just kept on driving. Then when we got to a place with a trash can, we would throw the bag away and keep on going. Jenna threw up twice and Spencer threw up once. I know, TMI, but this is my journal, so you get ALL the gory details.

We were supposed to leave at 5 in the morning, I even set my alarm so that I could get up shower and then get the kids ready. However, I must have just turned my alarm off and went back to sleep because the next thing I know, there is someone ringing my doorbell at 5 in the morning and I was thinking, "Who in the world would be ringing my doorbell at 5 in the morning?" Then it dawns on me that I overslept my alarm. It was my parents they were all ready to go. So I jumped out of bed, got dressed, and while the kids got ready with Steve's help, I packed the cooler (the rest of out stuff was already in the car) and then we were gone by 5:30.

When we first got to Michelle's house (around 5:00 we made pretty good time) Spencer was VERY excited to see that they have a Nintendo Wii.Melissa immediately changed into shorts (remember, it was snowing in Utah).And Jayden headed outside to play in the backyard. Where he continued to play for the rest of the week.We mainly just hang out at Michelle's house. It was nice not to have things scheduled all the time and just let the kids play and relax. On Wednesday, my parents went to the Grand Canyon (Thank goodness because my Mom has only been talking about it for the past SEVERAL years, and now she can understand why we haven't wanted to go with our little kids) so Michelle and I took our kids to the Desert Museum which has some animals for the kids to see. The first thing we did is took our kids to see a bird show. But man was it crowded and mostly with old people with huge cameras. I think there were several groups of senior citizens there. And they had all of the up close spots. You just stand along a trail, and so our kids could only see the birds when they were flying right above our heads and that was only for a split second.That was where Jayden has his first and only melt down. He was not happy to be standing there with a bunch of tall people all around and no clue what was going on. Not to mention, it was a little hot just standing there in the sun.So, we said bag that and just left the bird show and took our kids to see the rest of the stuff. Here's Jenna, Jayden and Meagan (Michelle's youngest looking at the Gilo Monster. Funny thing is I have a picture of Melissa, Spencer and Rebecca (Michelle's) oldest doing the same thing the last time we went like 5 years ago.
See, funny how that works!

Thursday night, we took the kids to Mesa for the Mesa Temple Easter pageant. My Dad and I had all the kids (minus Meagan) in my van. They mostly just watched movies while we drove up there. Thank goodness for portable DVD players.Here is the kids with some of the cast from the show.
We took a picnic lunch and ate that there for dinner and then when it got dark, moved over to the seats.

I think this was the ONLY time my kids were even the slightest bit cold the entire time we were there. The weather was is the 70's and 80's every day. All in all, I think that the kids all had a pretty great time while we were there. I should have taken more pictures of the kids just doing the everyday stuff, but I didn't think about it. I was too busy enjoying just doing nothing! Thanks Michelle and Brett for a great time!

Melissa's Birthday

2009-04-14T08:20:00.000-07:00

Melissa's now officially only two years from being a teen-ager. Scary huh? So, we planned a party and what a party it was too. I don't know who had more fun me and my sister Lisa, or the girls. To start off, when the girls got here (they all wore their pajamas), we had breakfast for dinner. We had french toast and waffles with either strawberry or apple topping, bacon, sausage, juice and chocolate milk. Once dinner was taken care of, the REAL party began. My sister Lisa came over and she and I did all the girls hair in some fun 'prom style' dos. In preparation, she and I probably watched several hours of "You Tube" trying to get all sorts of ideas for hair. And man, let me tell ya, there is A LOT of good stuff to learn about hair. I do pretty good when it comes to cute little girl hair dos, but the whole teen or "tween" (as I have learned is the correct term for Melissa's age group) hair is an entirely different endeavor. Lisa was majorly prepared, even came with a pad of paper full of notes. Good thinking on her part because I was kind of stumped when a new head of hair was presented in front of me. Here's Melissa's up-do (Lisa did it - and I think she outdid me on all the hair do's).

Melissa was sure excited about it. She even slept in it over night, and had it in all the next day. We used so much product (hair spray and such) in their hair, I wouldn't be surprised if all the girls could have worn their hair for several days and it look pretty much the same. I think 11 was the perfect age for this party because many of the girls were just so excited to wait to get their hair done. We had some make-up and a movie going for the girls who were waiting their turn, but most of the girls were excited to just wait and watch the other girls get their hair done.

After the hair was all done, the girls made some music videos. I will have to post those some other time because I didn't shoot the video on my camera, so getting it posted on the computer will take some time. After the videos were made, the girls had cake and sparkling cider.

That was followed by the gifts...

All in all, I think the girls had a really good time and more importantly, I think Melissa had a good time. I was glad that it all went so smoothely. We planned four hours for the party, and used every minute of it! Thanks again to Lisa for coming and helping out, we certainly couldn't have done it without her. We enjoyed doing the girls hair and listening to the girls talk about whatever. I think there is something to be said for a girl talking when she is getting her hair done. Boy, the stylist gets an ear-full but it was all great, I think I learned a lot about girls in that 4 hour time slot. I have to say that I was very impressed with all of them. They were so concerned about making sure that no one felt left out, and were so great with the compliments towards one another on their hair. It made me think that Melissa's got a good group of girls to be hanging around with.

In case you were wondering, this is what Melissa's hair looked like after we took it out the next night. Yeah, we used THAT much hair product in her hair!

The promised cake post

2009-03-24T13:12:00.000-07:00

Like I said, Jenna was sad that I forgot to have birthday cake at her birthday party. So, later that night, right before bed, we all had cake together. Which actually turned out alright because Melissa and Spencer were at school during Jenna's party and Steve was at work. So this way, they were able to celebrate a little of her birthday with her. See? All better. And in crazyland style, I let her have cake the next day for breakfast! And yes, she wore her birthday bunny ears all day. (Except for at dance, I made her take them off)

Just add sun

2009-03-19T09:06:00.000-07:00

With the weather warming up around here, we have been a lot happier. Taking FULL advantage of the nice warming trend. Which apparently will end in a few days with {gasp!} SNOW! However, while it lasts, we will be blowing bubbles... Relaxing in the grass...

Roller blading...

And loving every minute of it!

And then we will just crawl in a little hole and hibernate until it decides to warm up again...

Jenna's Birthday Party

2009-03-18T17:47:00.000-07:00

That's right, Jenna's first ever friend birthday party happened this past week. She is now the blessed age of five, which means kindergarten!!!!!!! {Excitement for Mom's and kids}

So, this year, she wanted a Bunny Party. A Bunny Party? As in cute little rabbits, not the Playboy kind right? My kids come up with the weirdest ideas sometimes. Melissa asked for a Rainbow party when she was 4, back then I was doing them in the even years, now I have switched, friend parties are only on their odd birthdays, until they are 13, then we are done.

So, I came up with the idea of a Tea Party like in Alice in Wonderland. I should take a picture of the invitations, (maybe I will some time, but right now that just sounds kind of overwhelming to get the camera, take a picture, download, etc.). I had a picture of the White Rabbit on it, and overlayed some vellum with the important info saying "Don't be Late for this very important date!"

When the girls arrived, we had these cute little Bunny Ears for the girls to wear, and I had them decorate some bags to put all their goodies in until everyone arrived...

I even got Jayden some blue ears so that they wouldn't look too girlie. After that, I had some eggs and treats hidden in the backyard for the girls to find, and they loved just running around looking for them. It was a good thing the weather was nice, because they were able to just run around and scream all they wanted.

There was one green egg that was never found (good thing I had a back up in the house). However, I wonder if someday Steve will find it when he's doing the yardwork.After that we opened presents! Jenna got lots of fun coloring stuff which lately has been her favorite thing to do. And have you ever seen these Blendy Pen things? They are way cool, you put two colors together in this little thing, and give them a twist and it will create a new color. ALL my kids have had fun coloring with them.

After the gifts, we had our Tea Party! Of course, that is just pink lemonade, but the girls had fun doing "Cheers!" with each other. After that we played some bunny-type games like Duck, Duck, Bunny! and then the Bunny hop. However, we were having so much fun that I COMPLETELY forgot about her cake {that I got up at 6 in the morning to decorate} so we didn't do that with her friends, but that gave us something to do later that night when Melissa and Spencer were home from school and Steve was home from work. I'll post the pictures of that later... Cause around here, the party never ends! {At least not in the month of March - we still have Melissa to go}

Better Late Than Never!

2009-03-17T12:15:00.000-07:00

My Birthday has already past, and I never had any time to actually make me a cake for my birthday, but my kids decided I needed a cake anyway. Between the four of them, they baked and decorated my cake. Of course, it is the traditional, Yellow Cake with Chocolate Frosting. It's been my favorite since as long as I can remember.

Not much

2009-03-09T12:58:00.001-07:00

So, about the only thing worthy of blogging around here is the following...

Spencer was yelling at Melissa (nothing new).

Jayden yells, "Spencer shut your mouth!"

I asked Melissa, "Where'd he hear that?" (Expecting her to fess up).

Melissa's reply? "He heard it from Dad!"

Yeah, I guess that's possible...

Webkinz

2009-03-05T10:09:00.001-08:00

Basically Webkinz are stuffed animals. They come with an online access code though that allows you to play games online. You can also feed and take care of your webkinz on the computer. Everytime you log in, it tells you how happy your animal is, if it's hungry, or if it is sick or whatever. You earn money called "kinzcash" by playing the different games. Then you can buy food, clothes, and even stuff to build your animal a cool house. They've got underwater homes if your animal is a fish, doghouses or should I said dogmansions, and barns. You name it and they have it. Your animal can even go to school or have a job.

Melissa will get on and see some of the cute clothes she can buy for the computer animal, and then tries to copy them for her own real stuffed animal. My kids all happen to have dogs except Jenna who also has a cat. But that's what they like. SO hopefully for those of you who have been lucky enough to have never heard of webkinz before, that's what they are. And for those of you like Michelle, who have just been introduced to them welcome to the Webkinz World!

{Just a little side note: I know that there are plenty of people that think kids play way too many video/computer games. My thought is that there are some real benefits to them that when done in the right circumstances, with the right limits, etc. they can be really great for kids.}

Lilly's Fashion update

2009-03-04T09:00:00.000-08:00

Melissa got a digital camera for her birthday. She loves it. And she's been busy. She made some more stuff for her webkins clothes store and wanted me to post them on my blog, so here they are:

I love the calculator she put there on the counter to look like a register...

In the picture above, you can't tell so well, but those things on the shelves are little shoes she made for her webkinz.

Like I said, she's been busy!

5th grade program...

2009-03-03T08:09:00.000-08:00

Last week was Melissa's 5th grade program at school. And since I was playing the piano, and Steve was running a little late, I handed the camera over to Spencer and didn't get any good pictures. He did manage to get a video of her when she was singing a little part with two other friends.

The program went well. There was one minor glitch when a video showing all of the kids at recess and in class and stuff didn't load. It was probably one of my favorite parts of the show, too bad the parents didn't get to see it.

Friday the classes had a "cast party" at the school. I volunteered at the beginning of the school year to help out. That was before I knew that I would be playing the piano. I think in hind sight I would have rather helped out during a different party at school. But anyway, I was in charge of bringing some soda for the party. We (Jayden, Jenna and I) took the soda over and then helped set out stuff for the kids. Jayden and Jenna were excited to get to sit and eat popcorn and candy with the kids while they were watching a taped version of the program and while I helped clean up.

Here they are sitting watching the show.

A little surprise

2009-02-21T15:06:00.001-08:00

I mentioned before that we went about a week without our computer. So, when I finally got around to downloading the pictures from my camera to the computer I had a nice little surprise! Someone had gotten ahold of my camera... I wonder who?

He did get a nice shot of my bed.

And his hair.

And out my bedroom door. But this last one is my personal favorite. He looks like he is just having so much fun!

How could you get mad at a face like that? This must have happened the same day that he got ahold of my cell phone and called my sister three times in two minutes!

I'm Back!!!

2009-02-19T07:30:00.000-08:00

I wish I could say that I was off on some great and wonderful vacation, but I haven't. We had to have our computer completely wiped. We got some kind of something on the computer so we had to start over. And that's no easy task (if you've ever tried). I won't go into details, but just the getting all of your stuff saved and knowing what to save and not to save, and then having the computer wiped and then reinstalling everything, well, let's just say it took some time. And then yesterday I was all ready to blog, I had my camera ready to download pictures so that I could, and realized that I needed to reinstall the camera stuff onto the computer. But I couldn't find the CD for the life of me. I checked everywhere that I thought it could be several times 'just in case' I missed it the first three times. Come to find out, it was in the most unlikely of all places. I found it last night, and then after installing it, was just so sick of it all, I went to bed and figured I would blog in the morning, so here I am. AND since I haven't blogged for a week, I am allowing myself to blog without being showered for the day. So, what has been going on around here?

First of all, Jenna has been invited to one birthday party right after the other. And I know that there are a couple of more (including hers) coming up in the next month. Who knows what we all were thinking (or doing) to have so many kids her age all right in the same neighborhood. There are 19 kids born her same year in our ward alone, but then you add the three other little girls that are on our same street, but not in our ward, and that is all just a little overwhelming when you think about it!

At one of the birthday parties she went to, she came home with this balloon. Which Jayden has enjoyed more than anyone. However, he likes to let go of the balloon and watch it float up to the ceiling. Which means when he wants it back, it is a small production to get it down. It always seems like too much effort to go down in the basement and get the ladder, so I always try and bat it down with a duster I have that has a 8 foot pole attachment. Sometimes I am lucky enough to have it only take one try, but usually, by the time I make my way across the room standing on the couches and tables, to where I have hit it and can actually grab the string, it will travel it's way back up the ceiling and I have to start all over. I did finally get smart and I tied an extension onto the balloon so that I could reach it from anywhere in the room. If I were REALLY smart though, I would have tied a string on it long enough that Jayden could grab it from anywhere in the room. However, that lasted only until Jayden decided it would be a good idea to turn on the ceiling fan, and now I have a ten foot piece of string caught up in the fan. And now I REALLY have to go down to the basement and get the ladder. SHEESH! Pop already! Who knows, maybe it will have to have an unfortunate accident when I am unwinding it from the fan. Funny side note about the balloon: I didn't realize that Melissa stuck a dart on the balloon. She had been trying to hit it with a dart and have it stick, but then realized that it would always bounce off. So she decided to stick the dart on herself and let it float to the ceiling. She wanted Spencer to think that she had actually hit the balloon.

We've also been dealing with some sickies over here at our house. Two weeks ago, Jenna had pink eye and a double ear infection. Then about a week later, she threw up. In the car on the way home from the bank. I had a plastic bag for her to throw up in (what can I say I have Spencer, so I am prepared for him to be able to throw up anytime, anywhere) only she didn't quite tuck it under her chin all the way, so it went down the front of her. Then, the next day she threw up that morning, but then felt good the rest of the day. And that was that for her. But then, Melissa woke up at 5:30 in the morning on Tuesday and threw up. Then she threw up again around 9, and that was it as far as throwing up for her.

While the girls have been dealing with throw up, the boys have been coughing, which in their case leads to throw up (because they gag). So, Tuesday night, while I was dealing with some computer stuff, I hear Jayden yell out, "I throw up!" And sure enough I went in there and yep, he threw up. So after a bath and a clean up of his room...

He wound up in my bed for a bit...

Have I ever mentioned the fact that I have some heavy sleepers? I do, Jenna was asleep in Jayden's room, and when he threw up, I had no problem, turning on the light and cleaning it all up while Jenna just slept. Here's the proof...

There was this time in our last house though where the smoke detector went off in the middle of the night, and all three (there were only three at the time) of the kids slept threw it. For like five minutes while Steve and I scrambled to find the culprit alarm that caused all the others to go off, the alarm blared and the kids slept. If only... However, maybe that isn't such a great thing afterall. I should be worried.

The one good thing about Jayden throwing up (the silver lining you might say) is that on my way to the laundry room to throw the yucky bedding into the wash I realized that my Rice Custard was still in the oven. And had been for an hour and a half. Which is probably twice what it should have been.

Rice Custard is one of those things that I grew up on in my family. We would have it everytime my parents were going out. Well either that or Pigs in a Blanket and Mac 'n cheese. The funny thing is, my siblings and I all like it, but none of our spouses do and none of our kids do. I think it is one of those things where we just acquired a taste for it, and now think its the greatest thing, but can't convince anyone else of that. I had quite a bit of rice left over from dinner, so I thought I would make this and then eat it for the next week for lunch. But once I let it cool down, I tried it (see the bite out of it?) and if I just don't eat the top bit or scrap any of the bottom it still tastes good (really Brett it tastes GOOOOODDD!).

So there you have it, my update. It is good to be back, and I have A LOT of catching up to do. Not having read blogs either for a week will do that!

My makeover...

2009-02-11T17:54:00.001-08:00

Ok, so I have been way overdue for a hair cut, color and whatnot. Like WAY OVERDUE! So I finally made this appointment over a month ago. It was the first time that would fit in both my schedule and my Sister-in-law's schedule (she does my hair).

So, here's the before picture. And now the after...

It's kind of tough to take your own picture. I took the before picture myself, and then I had Jenna take the second one. She did a pretty good job. I thought I would try and go back more towards my original color. That way when I don't get back to get it colored for a LONG time again, it won't look so bad.

And yes, I color because I have gray hair. And like I've said before I am conceited and not ready to be old. So there you go!