part 2 - read next post first

Then there's Emmy - which by the way she's still totally a dog! Just today she was jumping up and pawing my friend! Emily started soccer last Saturday for her first game. They have a 30 minute practice and then a 30 minute game against another team. She did fine - considering we haven't ever played soccer with her before! At one point she did turn into a dog and start barking at me - with me yelling "Be a girl and get the ball!". Derek was the coach and even told her, "Get the ball boy, go get it!" - I tell you, we really are going to have our kids taken away if people hear us talk like this! But she did great - and we feel like all the other millions of parents out on the soccer fields. For the next 2 weeks the kids games overlap so we really do feel like busy, kid-chasing parents.

Our Spring of Sports

Well spring has brought on a lot of sports for our family. Tyler is playing flag football for the first time. He has practice every Wednesday night and a game every Saturday. Derek is the assistant coach. He looks very serious in his mouthgaurd and official looking Redskins jersey, with his number and last name on the back. We're not sure if this is going to translate into a professional career though. Whenever he's the quarterback he snaps the ball to the running back in super slow motion. The kids can't rush the quarterback so he really can take long as wants - but it's hilarious to see the ball move that slowly. He doesn't like being the running back though - 6 kids all chasing him isn't his idea of a good time. For the first few games he just stood there and prayed they'd just take his flag and get it over with - but now we have actual forward motion - up to 15 yards! His favorite position is center - no body cares about the center! He's down to 2 games left and is certainly looking forward to baseball season!

FHE Superhero

A few weeks ago we were waiting for Emily to come to have FHE. We were calling and calling her and she just wasn't coming. After several minutes of waiting for her she finally ran it - and we immediately saw what took her so long!

Dog Days

Two weeks ago while we were in Bear Lake my kids watched Lady and the Tramp for the first time. They liked it well enough and right after the movie was over Emily announced that she was a dog -not just any dog though, she was Tramp. She was barking and panting and the whole thing was cute - here she is, being a little dog. Well, we still have a dog on our hands.
For two weeks she has only been a dog - not a girl, a dog. She wakes up barking - she gets 6 inches from my sleeping face and barks to wake me up. She's a dog all day - and all night. Whenever I call her Emmy - she yells, "I'm not Emmy, I'm Tramp!" Whenever I say, "Come on girls" she says, "You have one girl and one dog". This has led me to more embarrassing stories than I can recall - but I'll try:
We were at the store and she was getting away from me. I say, "Come back Emmy" and she yells, "I'm not Emmy!" so I have to say, in a public place, "Come here little Tramp" - is that going to have my kids taken away or what?!
At our Easter dinner at my parents she was pretending to jump up on my brother, who very seriously said, "Down dog, no jumping".
We were in Sacrament Meeting last Sunday and she starts barking, I say too loudly, "No barking in the chapel" and the lady in front of us turned around and started laughing her head off!
We were in Primary and the chorister asked her if the Easter bunny had come. Emmy says, "The dog found jelly beans and the dog ate the jelly beans." The Primary president, who knows about this dog phase had to clarify for everyone saying, "And you're the dog right?"
She came home from Primary with her lovely colored picture of Jesus with "Tramp" written on it (she's also given herself other dog names, all of which she'd told her teacher and she'd written them on her picture: Dog Boy, Scubber, and Ka-boy (not to be confused with 'cowboy' which she'll quickly correct you on!))
Tonight my friend came over and Emmy greeted her at the door barking - she also knows we're all dog all the time, just says "Hi Tramp!"
I have to tell her before dance and preschool that she has to be a girl there - which I'm pretty sure she does - because as soon as I see her she yells, "The dog is back!"
This has lasted lots longer than I would have guessed, but for right now I'm a very proud pet owner - which I never thought I'd say!

Growing Up

Tyler must be growing up because this last month he got to go on a vacation to his grandparents house all by himself! They have a tradition that when a grandchild starts kindergarten they get to go to their house for a few days all by themselves - and be completely spoiled! Tyler went home with John and Sandy from Bear Lake - just like when he got on the bus for the first time, I was the only one crying! He was so thrilled to be big enough to go home with them - ride in their car - and kiss his parents goodbye! He knew he was bigger than his sisters and this was a really neat thing just he got to do.
He got there on Wednesday, didn't come home until late Saturday night, and couldn't have had a better time. The week certainly revolved around him. All of his favorite things were crammed into 4 days and 3 nights. Here's a recap:
Frosted Flakes and Reeses Puffs for breakfast
Pizza for dinner
Lunches included Dairy Queen with Kotter, eating at Skippers to see Debbie, and having Alphabet Soup at Angey's house
He found 6 geocaches and poor Grandpa found none - which Tyler wouldn't let him forget
He went on bike rides and played at parks
He played with Kotter every day
He went to Great Harvest bread every day
Trip to Sportsmans Warehouse to see animals
Watched lots of movies we haven't seen
Slept in a sleeping bag
Played Bingo every night before bed
He coundn't have crammed more fun into several days - he just felt like he was on top of the world.
My mom was coming home from Utah so she met John in Burley to pick Tyler up and bring him home. When he got home he was bouncing off the walls telling us about his trip. He must be growing up.

Spring Break

We had our first Spring Break this year with Tyler in kindergarten. We wanted to do something to mark our first official Spring Break. We talked about going to Salt Lake and doing Temple Square, Hoagle Zoo, and Thanksgiving Point but got a much better offer from John and Sandy. We met them at their time share in Bear Lake and had a great time. We played games, read books, played outside, rode bikes, flew kites, played at the beach and had a completely kid-centered vacation. I live for those kind of vacations where I can play my 25th game of Bingo because I don't have laundry to do, dinner to cook, house to clean and all the rest. Really when the kids asked to do something - there wasn't any reason why we couldn't. It was so fun to have John and Sandy, and Kotter and Tate for some of it, there. My kids loved playing with them and are all ready asking when we can go back.
The best timing of the vacation was Allyson having her baby the week before and only 45 minutes away. We'd planned on spending one day with her family - Al having the baby before we got there was just a great bonus! One day we got to go to her house for the whole day (isn't that what everyone would want when they have a 5 day old baby - to have a family of 5 come and stay for an entire day!?!). We got to see the baby all day and have Josh's birthday party and have a great time spending time with her family.
All in all it was a great first Spring Break - we got to spend lots of time together with family and we had a great time.