Grandma Aftershocks

Derek and I have been home from Orlando for 6 weeks and we are still expericencing aftershocks of my mom tending for us. Every day Bailey has a waffle for breakfast and every day since I've been home Bailey has told me to cut her waffle like Grandma does. At first I had the attitude of 'you get what you get' but after a month of hearing that I'm doing it wrong I decided to take it as a challenge to cut her waffle right. I have tried every way there is to cut a waffle - and no dice, I can't cut it like my mom and I can't cut it right.
Then there's Emmy. She came up to me a few days ago and asked if she could have a granola bar. I say 'sure' and she's off eating her granola bar. Afterwards she comes up to me and says, "When Grandma was tending me I asked her if I could have a granola bar and she said, 'help yourself' and then I asked if her if Icould have another one and she said 'yes'. So I can have another one now?". "No" was the answer her mean mom gave her.
It's really no wonder why my kids weren't happy when we came home!

Foot Loose & Passey Free

Logan is officially passey-free. I let my babies have passeys until they turn one. The day after their birthday those things hit the garbage and we embark on a transition time to be independent of pacifiers. So a few weeks ago his hit the street. Today I took him in for his one-year well baby and I told Bailey that she would need to help him be happy because he was getting 6 (!) shots. She told me she would get his passey for him. I told her they were all in the garbage and she said, "what garbage?". She was going to go get one out for him! I thought it was so funny, cute and distgusting!

Echo, Echo

For quite a while now Bailey has been such a copy cat of Emmy. No matter what Emmy does, says, or plays with - that's what Bailey will do. Every day when I do Bay's hair I say, "how do you want your hair today?" - without hesitation, she'll say, "like Emmy". If Emmy's wearing a skirt - Bay has to wear a skirt. I used to think it was just like having twins - but twins would be different, this is just like having 2 Emmys. As I've thought about what to get Bay for Christmas I can't come up with anything the just she would like - she'll only want what Emmy gets (which makes for a really good Christmas for Emmy). But today takes the cake . . . they were playing together and Emmy says, "hold on, I have to go to the bathroom", without hesitation I hear, "me too!". And off they both went!

Facebook

Last week I couldn't have told you anything about Facebook. I'd heard of it but that was it. Then I got some emails telling me to check out a few cousins Facebook pages. So I decided to check it out. To see their pages I had to register an account - the next thing I know I have an inbox FULL of emails from people telling me they'd added me as their friends on their Facebook pages - I don't even know what that means!
So back to Facebook I go. I've started to figure it out and think I might be the last person to join Facebook. You can go to some friend's page and see who they're friends with - some people have hundreds of friends (I think I might have 4!). But all of my old high school friends are on Facebook and they're all connected. It's funny to find so many old friends.
Here's the thing about Facebook though: I think it's like blogging on speed (or possibly for people with ADD). People just write one sentence on their page and then people comment. So instead of a writing a complete novel on my trip to Florida I would have written "I went to Florida." and someone would have commented, "cool". It's the epitomme of a snapshot into someone's life (or day depending on how often they post).

Logan's Birthday

Logan's Birthday

Logan turned one this week - I can't believe it's been a year since he was born. He was born the day after Thanksgiving last year - Black Friday. I had planned to go shopping with my sisters and mom that morning, but at 2:00 a.m. Derek and I were headed to the hospital instead of the mall. Logan was born at 5:13 that morning and because he was so close to being a Thanksgiving baby all of the nurses called him Butterball (it helped that he weighed 7 1/2 pounds!).
He had a fun birthday party with my parents and Lance and Megan's family. He had chocolate cake and ice cream for the first time (unfortunately the cake gagged him and the ice cream was too cold). It was a fun day for my cute one-year old.

Say No to Drugs . . . and Yes to NFL

Tyler has become obsessed with the NFL. Mainly he's obsessed with team cities, colors, mascots, and most important, rankings. He memorizes the rankings of each team every week. He is always talking about what a team is ranked, who they just played, if they won or lost, if they played at home - I'm telling ya, it's endless. He can talk about it all day, and his favorite question is "who would win between the . . . and the . . .". He loves to also consider the at-home advantage a team has. If a lesser ranked team beats a better ranked team it just blows his mind.
So what does this all have to do with drugs you ask, well here's the explanation. Monday Tyler was in health and they were talking about drugs, what they are, and what to do if anyone ever offers them some. He came home with a paper that he had to answer the following question: "Here is what I would say if someone offered me a drug." Here is what he wrote, "Did you see the Pittsburgh and Cincinnati game?" When I asked him for some further explanation he told me that he would just change the subject from drug offering to football. Then his accompanying picture was a picture of a football player from each team. Hey, whatever keeps him off drugs!

Fun in the Sun

Derek and I just got back from the best trip to Orlando. We got to spend 6 days there - without kids. Crazy eh? HP invited 500 of their employees, and spouses, for an annual program they hold and this year Derek got invited to go. It's held at one of the Disney World Resorts and is first class all the way.
We had to be at the kick-off dinner at 6:30 Wednesday night and since we couldn't get there by that time by leaving on Wednesday we got to leave Tuesday (the biggest scare of the trip came when we checked in at the airport and found out that our plane was delayed enough that we were going to miss our connecting flight, so they tried to put us on a red-eye flight that would have landed in Orlando at 6:00 Wednesday morning! Luckily a different airline had room on their flights to get us there Tuesday night at 11:30).
Because we got there Tuesday night we all day Wednesday to ourselves since the HP things didn't start until that evening. Animal Kingdom - here we come! Derek and I had heard that Animal Kingdom had a great roller coaster called Expedition Everest and an awesome safari attraction. All of Magic Kingdom could fit inside this safari. You ride in these trucks and see awesome wildlife - a giraffe came right up to our truck. It was incredible - maybe our favorite thing out of all the parks. It was so foreign to be at Disney World with no kids - everywhere I looked there were strollers and crying kids and Derek and I were empty handed! We told each other we'd only do rides that had height requirements just because we had no kids. It was sad every time we saw a character to be there without kids - I felt like I was betraying them when we just walked past Mickey and Minnie (I consoled myself with a giant roller coaster ride though).
The only HP things on Thursday were breakfast and a dinner program so Derek and I went to Hollywood Studios. Two reasons why we picked that park - Tower of Terror and Rockin' Roller Coaster (a roller coaster in the dark that takes you from 0-60 mph in 2.8 seconds!). We saw a few stunt shows and almost melted in the 80 degree, 96% humidity weather!
Friday morning we had an HP breakfast where they had as a guest speaker the first American woman to summit Mt. Everest. She was awesome as she told about climbing it. That ended our HP part of the trip and we could come home then . . . but we were all the way in Florida, so why not stay throughout the weekend eh?
Friday we went to Universal Studios and then went to see Blue Man Group that night. We were all excited to go because we got front row tickets - which was in the 'poncho section' - because paint might get splashed on you they provide ponchos for everyone in the first three rows. The downside to being so close was that they picked poor audience members to come up and be a part of their act - and lucky Derek got picked! He had to go up and be a part of it - I was laughing so hard I was crying! Blue Man Group was my favorite thing out of the trip.
Saturday we went to an indoor sky diving wind tunnel. You take a 30 minute class, put on a flight suit and helmet, and then they let you go in this wind tunnel with 1000 horsepowered fans blowing air at you. You have an instructor in there with you so it's not scary. You just stand at the doorway and fall in and the air takes you up. It was awesome! Skydivers practice all of their manuevers there because you can stay up as long as you want. Afterwards we went to a lake to go on an airboat ride and look for alligators. All we saw were two bumps out in the water that our guide said were alligator heads (I think they might have put logs out there just in case you don't see anything your guide can take all these tourists there, tell them their alligators really far away and everyone's happy). Afterwards we did get to hold a baby alligator though - and that thing was creepy! For dinner that night we went to a Pirates Dinner show - it was really fun and both Derek and I had to participate (Derek had to do the can-can with a bunch of guys!).
Sunday the vacation was over and we had to come home. I was so excited to see the kids and I thought they would come with my mom to pick us up. No, when asked who wanted to come the the airport all of my kids who can talk said 'no thanks' - Logan came to get us only because he can't voice an opinion! I couldn't believe my kids were completely indifferent to us being gone! And then that Logan . . . I was so excited to see him that I threw open the van door to see him and he burst into tears! So I unbuckle him - still bawling, give him to Derek - still bawling, he gives him to my mom - stops bawling. Can you believe it? That was quite a welcome home! But of course that only means my kids were so happy to be with their grandparents - and of course that's what I want (though coming to the airport wouldn't kill them!).
Now of course this whole trip couldn't have happened without my parents being so willing to tend my kids. My mom had to take days off of work to tend, they had to move into my house so kids could sleep in their own beds, ride the bus, go to preschool and all the rest. I had 7 pages of instructions for my mom! They took Tyler to his school concert, got kids to all the places they had to be, do naps, baths, homework, dinner, and see Logan in the middle of the night! And things at my house were better when I got home than when I left it - my mom thought one of my pans was a bit too old (and that's putting it mildly!) so I came home to new pans, fixed bumper pads on Logan's crib, and the weeks' worth of laundry done They were incredible to be so happy to tend for 6 days, they made it so easy the big joke was that we might extend our vacation a little - I promised I'd be home by Thanksgiving - and I am. We had a great trip.

Orlando

Logan's Travels

All of my kids have followed the same pattern from getting from immobile to mobile. They've all been really slow to roll, and then roll for a long time. Then they crawl - and crawl for a long time. And finally they walk. Each kid has gotten later than the previous one too. Tyler was 15 months before he walked, Emmy was 17, Bailey was 18 (and only learned the week she started nursery - I think because she was afraid of going into nursery as a crawler! Those kids would have eaten her for lunch!). So Logan has NO pressure in learning to walk - if he walks before he's 2 I'll be perfectly happy.
But he's totally into his rolling phase right now. He'll roll throughout my entire house. He'll just roll from room to room looking for what he wants. He's really careful when he rolls on the tile or hardwood to not put his head down too. I started taking his picture every time I found him in a funny place his rolling has gotten him. So here are pictures from a day in the life of Logan.

Logan's Travels

Expendable Letters

Kindergarten has heightened Emmy's sense of letter awareness. She's always asking what letters certain words start with and sounding out words to tell me what they start with. She's in love with this new knowledge, but the letter K is killing her. She thinks there is no need for the letter K when C makes the same sound. So she has decided, quite adamantly, that there should be no letter K. She finds it completely redundant and expendable. When I tell her all of the words that have K in them she simply says 'it can be a C'. When Derek told her that his name has a K she said it would be no problem to be Derec from now on (Derek thought that looked too French by the way). So just so ya know - there's no more K's at our house.

Halloween

Happy Haunting!

We had the funnest Halloween last week. Derek's parents got to come here for a 4-day weekend from their mission (it wasn't just a vacation for them though - Derek's dad had to have his annual checkup with his cardiologist - and got a clean bill of health so that was the best news of the weekend). So because his parents were in town Derek's sister came from eastern Idaho with her family and we spent the whole weekend with them, Derek's brother and his family who live here, and his parents - it was complete cousin craziness with that many kids all on a sugar high, but it was the funnest. My kids were in heaven with that many cousins 24 hours a day.
It was perfect that the kids didn't have school on Friday. Throughout the long weekend we took the kids out to eat in their costumes, went to our ward's trunk-or-treat, went trick or treating all together, played games, and had such a great time.
I love Halloween - it's so fun to get your kids dressed up - I wish it was more than just one day! For Halloween this year Tyler was Indiana Jones, Emmy was a Barbie Princess, Bailey was a cheerleader and Logan was a Tootsie Roll.
Monday afternoon Derek's parents had to fly back to California - after all, they are missionaries. What a great weekend!

Pumpkin Patch fieldtrip

Kindergarten Fieldtrip

Emmy had her first fieldtrip for the year last week. We went to the pumpkin patch (yes, the same great one where Bay went so I'll keep my gushing to myself!). She was so excited for her fieldtrip - she asked me every day for a week if it was today. I met the bus there because they won't let siblings ride the bus - all the moms as they got off the bus said, "that was a really loud bus ride!". We met there and did all the fun things at the pumpkin patch (corn maze, wagon ride, pumpkin finding, coloring, and getting popcorn for a snack). My favorite thing about Emmy's kindergarten class is that there are so many cute girls from our ward in her class. So when I go to the fieldtrip - it's just as fun for me because all of my friends are there too.
It's a tradition at our school that the night of the pumpkin patch fieldtrip they have a Father/Child Pumpkin Carving night. All the dads and kids go to the school at night and carve pumpkins. Every kid gets a ribbon for participation. It's a cute tradition. Emmy and Derek had a great time carving pumpkins. I told him to take her out for a treat afterward to make it a fun date for the two of them - he took her to a gas station to get a candy bar - heartwarming eh?

Fall

Tyler was given the assignment to write about fall at school. He brought it home today and it's share-worthy - so here you go, Tyler's fall sentiments:

Fall is so-so.

Fall is so-so because I like seeing geese.

Fall is so yucky because the frost is crunchy.

That's why fall is so weird.

A lot of people love fall, not ol' Tyler.

Election Day

Election Day is finally here - it seems likes this has been the longest election season! Ever since Bush won four years ago we've been talking about 2008. I'm glad it's here - watching the news on the candidates' every move is getting old. It doesn't seem to be issue-based any more - it seems to be more scandal-based. I'm not in love with either candidate either. I just think there's got to be better choices out there - I mean, are these two really the best our country has to offer? America's got to have better candidates.
I do love the actual Election Day - give me a news channel and their magic maps and I could watch them all day (and the SNL skit about CNN's magic map is my fave!). I've had the news on this morning enough to see long lines for voting polls throughout the country - I'm glad I voted through the mail and don't have to stand in line (though I do miss out on my "I Voted" sticker).
Today makes me feel certainly blessed to live in a country where we do get to vote - and our vote matters. Whether McCain (who I voted for) wins or not, I got a say in our country's president. We are lucky to live in a country with such freedom.

Pumpkin Patch fieldtrip

More Gushing About Neighborhood Preschool

I know I love neighborhood preschools - and I gush about them all the time. But today deserves more gushing! We just got back from the cutest field trip ever. We took our girls to the pumpkin patch to get a pumpkin. There's a big pumpkin patch that has a corn maze, petting zoo, and hay rides that all of the preschools and kindergartens around here go to. We took our little 5-girl preschool there and we were the only ones there! We had this huge place to ourselves! And the weather was so wonderful - we all went in jackets and one by one they all came off because it was so warm.
When we first got there we did the hay ride that took us past the petting the zoo (they even had a zebra - weird eh?) and all around the farm. Then the girls got to go to the pumpkin patch and pick their own pumpkin. After that they got to go through a straw bale maze - which is such a perfect height for them because you can see them the whole time. Then we got to go through a real corn maze little-kid length (under half a mile). Then they got to do a coloring page and Becca brought a ton of snacks and drinks for everyone. It was such a fun field trip.
But here is why I love these joy schools - because at any given time you could look around and find one of our little girls holding a mom's hand, not their mom's hand necessarily - just a mom's hand. I love that we just all become moms to these girls and these girls are all so loved.

Halloween party

The Joy of Neighborhood Preschool

I have always been the biggest fan of a neighborhood preschool. I did it with Tyler when he was 3 and we had 8 little kids and I loved it - sure, the week it's at your house is complete insanity, but to have 7 weeks off - makes the insanity worth it.
Bailey's in one right now and I just love it. There are 5 cute little girls in it and we rotate houses for school, have holiday parties, and go on fieldtrips. Today we went to Bay's Halloween party and it was the cutest thing. They made crafts, decorated cookies, painted pumpkins, played games ("ghost, ghost, goblin" and "pin the eyes on the ghost") and had a pinata. The girls got to wear their costumes (2 princesses, 2 cheerleaders, and a ladybug), and bring home their weight in candy - all you need for some happy preschoolers!

The Writing's on the Wall

The writing's on the wall - well, the writing's on the floor technically. Saturday something happened that's got me worried. Keep in mind Logan can only roll - there's no crawling at our house - the little guy gets to whatever he wants by rolling. Saturday he was in our family room and rolled into the kitchen. There he found a crayon on the floor - now I would have bet my house that he would have eaten that crayon. Good thing I didn't bet because right now I would be homeless. No, he colored on my floor with it! What?! How does he know how to color? I am seriously worried - rolling should be fairly innoncent - crawling . . . heaven forbid, walking . . . now those are dangerous - but look what rolling's got us. I'm telling ya, the writing's on the wall that I'm going to have my hands full.

Provo or Bust!

Friday morning Derek runs the idea of he and Tyler going to Provo for a BYU football game past me. The game on Saturday isn't until 4:00 so he can easily drive down Saturday morning in time for the game. Then a whole plan evolves . . . he calls his brother-in-law and talks him into going to the game too and bringing his 4 year old son (turned out to be an easy sell!), he plans on walking around campus, shopping the bookstore to get Tyler all decked out in BYU gear, hiking up Y mountain, and then being at the game a good couple hours early. That should all easily fit in eh? At 7:30 Saturday morning the boys are off on their football weekend.
Had we been paying attention we would have noticed the foreshadowing - Friday night it snowed here. This is the earliest in the year snow has been recorded. The foreshadowing was there - we missed it. Off they go and they get 2 1/2 hours down the road when they hit trouble - snow. Derek then drove 30 miles an hour for the next 3 hours! They finally got to Provo with only enough time to hit the bookstore and then get to the game. Luckily for them it was dry and not too cold during the game (and BYU won - bonus when it takes you 8 hours to get to Provo!).
Derek and I had discussed where they were going to spend the night - we have some good options in Provo. We had to take into account that Sunday he had a 4:00 flight to make. We decided getting a few hours closer to home that night would be the best bet. So he and Tyler get to Layton and stay in a hotel.
This morning he wakes up to more snow - so he and Tyler hurry to get on the road. They got past Snowville when the freeway gets closed! He sat there for 45 minutes before he gave up, turned around, and went all the way to Pocatello and back around. What should have taken 4 hours ended up taking 6 hours. About his flight . . . oh, he missed that by a mile. He had to take an 8:00 flight tonight that will get him to San Jose at 2 a.m. with 2 layovers!
All in all they ended up spending 17 hours driving to Provo and back. Like I said, we should have paid attention to the snow Friday night.

Women's Fitness

I did the Women's Fitness last Saturday. This is such a fun race - it's all women and they get 20,00 women doing it every year. I did it with 4 other friends - Kim, Andrea, Alison, and Stacia. As we drove downtown the rain started to fall. By the time we parked it was really coming down. By the time we parked, walked to the start line, and the race actually started we were soaked - literally water was dripping from our hair (luckily we were all wearing our pink camo hats we got for joining the radio station Mix 106 team - the Mix Chicks)! We were dying for them to start the race early - but no luck! Running in it didn't seem bad and kept us warm. It wasn't until we finished that I started to get cold. It rained every minute we were outside. When I got home I looked like a drowned rat - I told Derek there wasn't a dry spot on me and he pointed out that the knees on my pants were still dry - but that's it! That race was one to remember!

Bailey Starts School

Bailey started preschool this year. She's in a neighborhood preschool with 4 of our friends. We each take a week teaching - 2 hours, 2 days a week and then we threw in a playgroup week just to make it even better! We've planned some holiday parties and field trips throughout the year. It's the cutest group of 5 little girls. Bay loves going to school and every day asks if today she can go to school. Yesterday when I told her that she couldn't go because she was sick she cried! She loves going to school!





There's my girls before they each go to school!

I Love Cha Cha

Ok, here's my public service announcement - I love it when people share their good ideas and tips so I'm sharing mine. Derek found this service called Cha Cha. It's a texting service that lets you text them any question and in 5 minutes they text you back. It's just like having the interenet on your phone for those of us who don't have the interenet on our phones! You just text them at Cha Cha (242-242) your question. Here's a scenario: Derek and I were driving to Twin Falls and we were talking about a Saturday coming up. I was asking him what time BYU was playing (it dramatically impacts me what time BYU plays every Saturday!) and he didn't know. So I just texted Cha Cha: What time does BYU football play on Saturday? 5 minutes later I had my answer - 1:00. Awesome eh? And Cha Cha is totally free - I don't get why or how, but it is. Sometimes I use Cha Cha just because I'm lazy and I'd rather have someone else spend the time finding the answer. I wanted to know what the weather was going to be like in Florida in November - now I could have found this out for myself - but why not text them, work on dinner, and then get the answer!? So I just texted them: What is the average high temperature in Orlando in November? 5 minutes later (and my dinner closer to being done) I had my answer of high 70's. It's also become a verb at our house - if Derek asks me something I don't know my answer is now - "I don't know, Cha Cha it". It's awesome - get cha cha'ing!

Go Mavericks!

Go Mavericks!

Emmy started cheerleading last month. It is the funniest thing ever! Her squad consists of 8 girls ages 5-10. They have practices twice a week where they learn lots of cheers and dances. Who do they cheer for you ask? They cheer for a football team through Optimist. These boys are 12 years old and our girls cheer at all their games. It's so funny that Derek and I take all our kids to watch Emmy cheer at a 2 hour football game - but that is where every Saturday finds us. Poor Tyler gets so bored! We went to a cheer camp that was 2 days and had all the Optimist Cheerleaders there (think 400 cheerleaders!). We're the Mavericks and our colors are maroon and white. Emmy cheers all the time at home and Bailey and Tyler both know all the cheers - so do Derek and I (Bay's favorite is Cookies and Cream: Cookies, Cookies, Cookies and Cream - what's the matter with the other team? Nothing, nothing, nothing at all, they just know how to (clap, clap) FALL! Complete with all the cheerleaders falling down of course!). They have the whole uniform they wear, they take turns being the Cheer Captain every week, they have a Cheerleader of the Game (Emmy was it last week and she couldn't have been more clueless as to why some football player was calling her name to give her a treat!). Emmy's really liked it - way more than soccer (the worst!), gymnastics, or dance. It's been really fun - GO MAVS!

Home Sick

I've taken quite a break from blogging the last month - this wasn't a voluntary thing, we had some serious computer problems going on at our house. We bought a laptop last summer and then a month ago it started freezing up - I mean, to the point where you couldn't turn it off - that's when you know you have problems! And I'm no computer wizard so the computer would freeze and it wouldn't turn off so I would let the battery die so I could start it back up (I know that would give some respecter-of-computers a panic attack but I did it anyways). Derek was out of town and I was complaining about it and he asked me why I wasn't just taking the battery out - good point, my friend. So we limped along like this for a few weeks until it was freezing all too frequently and I made Derek call his good friends at HP and get some help. They told us we had a bad hard drive, so they mailed us a new one, Derek installed it, no improvement to the ol' computer. So the next step was to mail it into them and let them fix it - and now I am back in business.
None of this has anything to do with the reason for the post - my little Bay being sick today. In the middle of the night she woke up, went to the bathroom and threw up, and then came and got me up. She and I then spent the next 2 hours throwing up. After she'd throw up she'd say "wash it out" - and she wanted me to brush her teeth. So I'd brush her teeth, and then she'd throw that up! After brushing her teeth 3 times (and throwing up 3 times) I put an end to that and made her suffer through it.
I hate when your kids sick. They are so miserable and you're so helpless. I hate when you're up in the night with a sick kid thinking about all the things you need to cancel in the morning (I'm guessing my Visiting Teachers don't really want to come today). I hate that Derek is out of town this week and missing out on all this. I hate laying in bed . . . listening. Listening for a cough . . . a sneeze . . . worse. Listening for tiny footsteps headed your way. Listening for other kids who might be waking up sick, or just waking up.
I am so grateful though that I'm a stay-at-home mom today. I'm so glad that while I have to call my Visiting Teachers, I don't have to call some boss and explain why I can't be there. I'm so glad that I am the one taking care of Bailey today. I'm the one giving her her blanket, letting her watch Barney, and holding her. I'm so thankful a babysitter or a nanny isn't taking care of my little girl. But I am open to the idea of sharing the night shift . . .

Aren't they sweet?

Today I was getting Emmy ready for the day and I said, "let's do your hair" she responded with, "why?" and I said (in my most loving, kind, gentle, motherly way) "Because you look like an orphan". She just looked at me and said, "Orphans aren't real." Isn't that funny - what does she know about orphans anyway (or the lack thereof?!)
Then Tyler was playing Wii today (how long he'd been playing is not relevant to the story) and I asked him if he was tired of playing Wii. He told me that was impossible - he'd never get tired of it. Then he adds, "but my hands are getting sweaty". I told you they were sweet . . .

First day of School!

This week we started school. Tyler started 2nd grade and Emmy started kindergarten. We'd done the kids' "Meet and Greet" at the school earlier to meet their teachers and drop off their supplies. Everybody was excited - school starting puts such a thrill in the air - everyone's excited about it and there's so much to talk about - it's really a fun time of year. I was getting ready to back into a schedule and have things going on. I will miss our lazy days of reading and playing games - but I like the excitement of school starting. Tyler was really excited to have Emmy there this year. Emmy has afternoon kindergarten so Tyler gets on the bus at 8:30, Emmy goes at 12:30 and they come home together at 4:00. They were excited to see each other at recess and sit together on the bus. Tyler seemed a little quiet at the bus stop that morning - but never said a word about being nervous. He's got some friends from other years in his class so he's in good shape.


Now Emmy starting kindergarten is what's a killer for me. I just can't believe she's old enough to go - she is so ready though. The first day the parents had to be there for the first hour to go through some policies and things. Since I had to be there anyway I assumed I'd just take her. No, she wanted to ride the bus and meet there. The first day wasn't so bad because I practically followed her there. When I met her at the school we went into her classroom and the teacher was talking to all the parents - after about 45 minutes Emmy asked me when kindergarten was going to start! When it was time to leave I gave her a big hug and started tearing up - all she could say was "BYE". She certainly wasn't missing me! She came home with Tyler on the bus and they were both happy and excited about school.





The second day was harder for me with Emmy because she rode the bus there and left me at home. The bus came around the corner and I went to give her a hug and she couldn't be stopped on her way to the bus. The bus driver just looked at me and said, "well she's ready isn't she?"

It's weird to have 2 kids gone 5 days a week - good thing I've got 2 more at home! I hope they have good teachers and good friends.

Birthday Party!

Bay's Birthday

My little Bay turned 3 last week. I can't believe she's already 3 - she's just turned into big stuff lately. We celebrated her birthday at my parent's cabin. She has been talking about her birthday cake for a month - and all she cared about was that it was chocolate. She told everyone she saw that she was going to have a chocolate birthday cake. She picked a princess cake (though the princess was extremely secondary - it had to be chocolate!) and we had her party. In honor of her turning three here's three fun things about Bay:
1 - She asks 'why' a thousand times a day - it doesn't matter what, she'll ask you why. And there's no end to this fun game - it can just go on and on. But now Derek and I have started turning the table on her - and we ask her 'why' all day. Her standard response is "love it!". It is hilarious - why are you going to bed, eating dinner, going to the bathroom, wearing pink, - "LOVE IT!". It doesn't matter what you ask her - she loves it.
2 - Bay has a blanket she really likes. It's pink fleece and she likes to have it when she takes naps and goes to bed. One Sunday I was getting her ready for church and she asked if she could take her blanket to nursery. I asked her what Sister Long would say if she showed up with a blanket - she responded, "hello blanket!"
3 - Bailey gets into ruts - or tracks of a sort. She'll start doing something - running around the couch, going down a slide - whatever it is, and she'll just do it over and over. She gets stuck in a rut. This summer we were at the water park and she got into a rut at the kiddie pool. She'd go down a slide called Kiddie Cowabunga and then back up the hill to come down again (dragging her own tube in the process!). Every time she'd come down she'd just say, 'bunga' and off she'd go again. She must have done it for 30 minutes.
Bailey is as fun as they come - Happy Birthday Bay!

Cousin Camp

Cousin Camp 2008

Every year my mom holds Cousin Camp at her cabin. All the grandkids come if they can and we have great time every year. Parents are optional - how great is this deal?! My sister Allyson came just for the fun. It's one day and one night with tons of activties jammed into it. This year she kicked it off by taking us all to Starlight Mountain Theater to see Cinderella. She made the kids all matching Cousin Camp t-shirts that the kids wore proudly to the theater. The kids loved the show. Then we all headed back to the cabin where we tried to get kids to sleep. My mom has a big bonus room with 4 twin beds and one queen - she lovingly calls it 'the bunkhouse'. So we sent 7 of the kids in (Logan opted out of that craziness!) and told them to go to sleep - are you laughing yet? My theory on the situation was as long as they stay in there I don't care. Eventually they did go to sleep - I think . . .
The next day we started the day off with a bang, or a hiss - breakfast was snake pancakes. Then we made bird feeders, tin foil boats, water gun games, 4 wheel rides, playing in the river (of course a movie or 2 so the adults could catch our breath!) and tons of fun. That night the kids who were still there went to bed a little easier. We had a great time at Cousin Camp - and my kids are asking how long until Cousin Camp next year (hint, hint Mom).

Thanks Emmy!

Today I got pretty fancy in doing Emmy's hair for church - I did a ballet bun (braided hair in a bun) for my first time. Emmy went to primary and I heard her tell her teacher, "My mom did my hair. She did the best she could." She's totally right! Maybe it wasn't as fancy as I thought . . .

Farewell 3:00 Church!

Today my family went to our last day of having church at 3:00 - that's right . . . we've had church at 3:00 all year. It's been rough having church so late - our first day of 3:00 church in January we blessed Logan. The rough time paired up with Mother Nature to dish out some meanness that day. We had company here from Utah and Eastern Idaho who had to go home that day, 3:00 church, and a snow storm. My family had to leave right from sacrament meeting to get on the road - leaving me with one big dinner (that my mom did all the work for!) and not many eaters! Oh you're mean you 3:00 church! This 3:00 church also had us coming out of church in the dark throughout the winter - literally totally dark coming out of church. I remember being in Primary and when the kids were dismissed they were told to go home and go to bed! All we had time for was dinner before bedtime. So what glorious time did we move to?! 1:00 - normally a time I'd also complain about, but now I know it can be worse. So to you 3:00 church I say good riddance!

Twin Falls Temple

Yesterday our family took a road trip to Twin Falls to see the new temple and go through the open house. We also met my two sisters and their families. The kids had a great time meeting their cousins there. It was such a neat opportunity to take our kids through the temple - something they hear a lot about but aren't able to fully understand because they don't get to go there. The tour started with an 11 minute video about temples throughout history and their importance. Then we had a 40 minute tour of the temple. The tour was really good - I loved that everywhere you turned their was someone bearing their testimony of the gospel. This was awesome to be able to show my kids things they've heard about. They loved the baptistry (especially the oxen), the celestial room (because of the giant chandelier) and the sealing room (or the marrying room as Emmy calls it). The kids certainly noticed how beautiful it is inside the temple and what a reverent place the temple is. The Twin Falls temple is beautiful! What a great way to spend the day.

Twin Falls Temple

Dollar Store Delights

Anyone who thinks slavery was abolished in 1865 (and yes, I had to wikipedia that) is wrong. Slavery is alive and well at my house this summer. I have three little slaves who call me Mom, and I'm one mean slave driver. This summer my kids have really worked - making their beds, putting away their laundry, taking out trash, washing cabinets, cleaning windows, and watering flowers - they've really worked this summer. So of course every good slave driver has to have some sort of enticement for their little slaves. My kids have earned different things like treats, snow cones, dates with me or Derek (all three picked Derek . . . maybe that has something to do with him not being the slave driver . . .), rent a movie, and the reason for this post: going to the dollar store.
The up side to the dollar store is to hear your mom say - you can pick anything you want in this entire store. So Tyler picked a plastic mean-looking gorilla. You'll notice no picture of this gorilla because it literally broke into many pieces while we were still in the parking lot - the poor kid hadn't even buckled up yet! That's the down side to the dollar store . . . it's junk.
Well Bay and Emmy picked out something that cracks me up every time I see it their room. Emmy picked the dog - his name is Smelly (I had to ask some follow up questions on his name so I wouldn't be confused - his name is Smelly because he's good at smelling things, not because he stinks). Bay picked the cow - his name is Cow (no follow up questions were needed). So thank you Dollar Store for thrilling 2 out of 3 kids and one mean slave driver.
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Fourth of July pictures

Mutton Bustin'

Over the Fourth of July weekend we went to my brother's ward rodeo. He lives in a little town where EVERYONE has horses, cows, pickups, boots - you get the picture. So every year they have a ward party that's a rodeo. And it's a real rodeo - everyone brings their horses, sheep, bulls, and other rodeo necessities. We might have stood out as outsiders - look at Tyler in shorts and sandals - and the kid next to him. (feel free to sing 'One of these kids is not like the other . . .') Then they hold events - pole bending, barrel racing, steer riding, (I couldn't even name a rodeo event before this), and of course, mutton busting. On the way there Derek and I were asking the kids if they would want to mutton bust - we of course had to explain what that even was! Tyler says he's game, Emmy says no way, and we're all set for our family's first mutton busting.

I'm all excited for Tyler to ride this sheep as he's line with other kids. When he's 20 kids back, I'm all game for this idea. I got to see a lot of other kids go before us and they had cowboys clowns (I'm sure just Preists from their ward!) run alongside with the kids, so when they fall off the clown makes sure they don't get trampled. When he's 20 kids back, I'm all game for this idea . . .but as he inches closer I'm starting to rethink the intelligence of this. Then it's his turn. I told Derek I wanted him to run along with Tyler - trusting Derek more than cowboy clowns who don't love Tyler, but Derek assured me that he in his sandals wouldn't really work out. So Tyler mounts this sheep and is waiting in the chutes (are you proud of my rodeo terminology?). By now I'm starting to have a heart attack - I'm sure this is a bad idea now - but way too late for a mom's intution. And he's off . . .
Tyler held on so good while that sheep went the entire length of the arena. He even stayed on longer than any other kid! I was completely hyperventilating until I saw him get off his sheep and walk back to us in one piece. When he got back to us we asked him a hundred questions about how it went - all he told us was that he wondered if the ground was hard or soft if he fell off. He also told us that while he was walking back with the clown he said to Tyler, "nice work pal". Our first participation in a rodeo was a hit. Consider that mutton busted.

Fourth of July fun

We had the best Fourth of July. We headed to the mountains to my parent's cabin. We got there in the early afternoon and went straight to the river to play. The kids and Derek had a great time playing in the water. When the kids were done playing they headed to the cabin while my parents tended them and Derek and I got to float the river. Then we had a BBQ and headed into the small town for the parade. This parade is the funniest parade there is - the whole route is maybe a mile and anyone can be in it - there's lots of trucks, motorcycles, and a few horses - there aren't however many actual floats. Because it's so short the parade goes up the street, then turns around and comes back! Who's ever heard of that?! What they lack in floats they make up for in water. Everyone in the parade comes armed with water balloons, water guns, even fire hoses. The spectators also come armed and it becomes quite the town water fight. I was holding Logan so I thought it was understood that babies were off limits - apparently not . . . we were getting it from all directions until I got out my big shade umbrella for some protection. My kids kept running to our van - I'm telling ya, it was save yourself. The parade was a riot. After the parade we went back and rode the 4-wheelers, made a campfire and had s'mores, and watched the fireworks from the cabin. Saturday was a repeat with 4-wheeling, hiking, swimming, sleeping in, and eating. What a great way to spend a holiday weekend.

Happy Birthday Tyler!

Tyler turned 7 yesterday and we had such a fun day with him. We went out for breakfast (our family tradition is to go out to breakfast on everyone's birthday). Then we headed to swimming lessons - where he informed his teacher that it was his birthday. She made him be in the middle of the circle where everyone was around him, sang Happy Birthday, and then followed it up by splashing him - it was pretty funny. Derek took him to the water park in the afternoon, we had Poppy Seed Chicken - his fave - for dinner and then we had a big family party. He had a great day.
Because he turned 7 I thought I'd give you all 7 things you might not know about Tyler - here they are:
1. He is an awesome reader. The kid can read like crazy!
2. He has turned into a fish in the water. His first year in swimming lessons (probably when he was 3) he cried 9 out of 10 lessons. Now he is the last one to get out of the pool everyday and does all the big scary rides at the water park.
3. He is the most bribe-able kid there is - he'll do anything for a treat. If there is something unpleasant that has to be done and you have a bag of M&M's - he's your guy.
4. His favorite holiday is Halloween (there might be some relation between numbers 3 and 4).
5. He has a continous Star Wars battle going on in his head at all times. Out of the complete blue you can say, "So who's Darth Vadar fighting?" and he'll have a very thorough answer for you.
6. He analyzes everyhing. There isn't such a thing as just telling him something and having him take it at face value. Case in point: last weekend my sister took her family to a Burn football game and invited Tyler to go with them. At the game he asked Jen what team the Burn were playing. She told them they were playing the Fever (hot match up or what?). Tyler then asked her if sick people cheer for the Fever.
7. His favorite cereal is Reeses Puffs.

Smokin' Party

We had Tyler's birthday party last night and it really turned into a smokin' party - quite literally. He picked a pirate birthday cake so I spent most of the afternoon creating a ship suitable for the most pillaging pirates.
The first thing you need to notice is the adorable paper sails in this ship. The second thing you need to notice is how the candles go in the side of the ship to give the illusion of cannons. Very adorable idea . . . and the website where I got this idea did give me the warning that I shouldn't have anything flammable under the candles because of the melting wax - they didn't however warn me about the flame going up and having paper sails on top of my cake and the chaos that could ensue.

Now notice where Tyler is sitting - front and center for his cake. We lit the candles and started into a rousing rendition of "Happy Birthday" - we were halfway through when my mom started yelling "fire! fire!". None of us had noticed that the candles had lit the sails on fire and the pirate ship going up in flames! I start yelling, "Derek! Derek!" and Derek and Toby start blowing the fire out.

Now look at my pirate ship - you can still the smoke coming from it! It looked like it came under enemy fire - and lost! Also, notice that Tyler is nowhere to be seen -as soon as the fire started he high-tailed it into a completely different room! It really turned out to be quite hilarious. We ended our party with fireworks so it was hot all the way around!

Thumb Sucker, Thumb Sucker

I've never had a thumb sucker before. My other three kids have all been huge passey babies - they love it, I love it - then the day after their first birthday I go on a big passey round-up and throw them all away (I do it the day after their birthday because I want them to be happy on their birthday).
Then along comes Logan . . . he's certainly always liked his passeys but lately he's been trying out his thumb. At first it was cute . . . he'd suck his whole fist, or just some random fingers, and then he got good at just sucking his thumb. Then I saw him actually take out his passey and stick in his thumb - now we're scared. I have no problem with passeys because I'm ultimately in control of them - when I say they go, they go. Not so with the ol' thumb - can't throw it away, can't cut it off, that baby's got control of that thing. So whenever I see him sucking his thumb I plug him in with his passey - hopefully that works. Time will tell.

Family Campout

And the "Father of the Year" Award goes to . . .

drumroll please . . . Derek! I'm late getting this post out but Derek deserves his kudos. A few weeks ago was my family's annual campout. It started several years ago where my dad, brother, 2 brothers-in-law, and Derek took the oldest grandkids camping for one night. At the time we had more boys and it became our own version of the Fathers & Sons. Since then, the girls have caught up and now it's just turned out be a family campout. Derek took Emmy for the first time last year and this year he was undecided about Bay. I mean, who would want to take a 2 year old camping by themselves? She has to go to the bathroom every 20 minutes! The day of he decided to take her. She was so excited as she packed her own little backpack.
The weather that night was chilly so Derek packed a ton of blankets and off they went - as the weather got colder I got more nervous about this decision - but Derek was undeterred. So off they went - Derek, Tyler, Emmy, and Bay.
That just left me and Logan - now you know how great this was! My sister had come from Utah for the campout and so it was just me, Logan, Allyson, her baby, and my mom (my other sister and sister-in-law were on the campout). So we went out to dinner and hit several stores Friday night. Saturday morning we were out shopping again. The campers didn't come home until 4:00! Twenty four hours of eating out, shopping, and sleeping - hard to beat eh? My friend called and I told her where my family was and all she could say is, "wow, it's not even Mother's Day".
The campers also had a great time. They got up there for dinner (Bay ate 2 hot dogs!), had s'mores and set up camp. The next morning they hiked, rode the 4-wheeler, had lunch, and had a great time. They came home covered in dirt and exhausted - and all smiles.

Summer's Here!

Tyler has started basesball this summer again. He's an Astro this year - #3. There are 8 boys from our ward on his team (out of 10 players) so it's been a blast so far. It's coach pitch/t-ball (they get 5 coach pitches and if they don't hit any of those than they get to use the tee) this year. So we're starting to look like actual baseball - kids are hitting, kids are fielding. It's been really fun and Tyler's doing great.


















This is Logan's first swing - he was all smiles too! He can be outside forever - we can put him in a swing or bring out his bouncer and he can be there all day (comes in handy when we're outside doing yard work!).

Last Day of School

It's official now - Tyler's done with first grade and summer is here (despite the cold and wet weather!). Yesterday was his last day. At his school every year they have a family picnic on the last day. So I loaded up all the kids and we headed to school with our lunches. The atmosphere at the school was so fun - all the kids bouncing off the walls and saying their goodbyes - it was hilarious. We got to say goodbye to all his friends and his teacher. Are you ready to hear how great his teacher is? Here it is - she gave us 2 folders full of worksheets - he has to do one page from each folder every week day throughout the summer. I love it so much! I was going to make my own math worksheets for him but hers are already done, plus their are different pages - telling time, tens/ones, etc. so hers are a thousand times better. She also gave me a mug with Tyler's individual picture and his class picture on it for volunteering. But my favorite thing was this magic hammer she brought in. She tapped everyone on the head and if it beeped then you got to go to second grade. So I say to Tyler, 'did it beep for you?', he says 'yeah, but guess what! She did it to herself and it didn't beep - she has to stay in first grade!'. I think that is the cutest thing ever!
We ended up bringing our lunches home because it was so cold we didn't want to eat outside - lots easier for me. Tyler was on cloud nine to be done with school.

Camp Learn-a-Lot

Tyler's school has done the cutest thing the last week of school. All of the first graders have gone to camp - Camp Learn-a-Lot. They shuffled all of the first graders into new 'cabins' with a teacher as the camp counselor for each cabin. Each cabin got a matching tie-dyed shirt that the kids wore every day (don't think about the cleanliness of this decision). They also got wooden badges they wore every day along with bandannas. The kids got to pick a mascot (Tyler's cabin was the Wolverines). They were encouraged to wear camp clothes - hats, boots, etc. - the whole nine yards. They went to 'camp' every day for a week. I think this is such a great idea for the last week of school where the kids have got be restless in class. They did the cutest things every day - every morning started with the principal leading them in a flag raising ceremony and exercises. They had camp songs and stories before they broke into their own cabins. One day they wrote postcards home telling us what a great time they were having at camp. I'll admit, I loved getting it in the mail! Then I sent a care package to camp for Tyler full of goodies. One day all the campers rotated through stations. I was there helping in the Flubber station (and all the kids told me it was the coolest station too). It was so fun to see all the kids wear their shirts and badges. They ended the week with a BBQ for all the campers. Tyler had a great time going to camp.
I've said it before but here it is again - I love Tyler's school. I think they go above and beyond so much. Tyler's teacher this year had been so great. I've gone in on Mondays and have just loved being in her classroom. Her patience is endless - I've seen her tell the same boy to sit down 100 times and still be nice to him (I would have throttled him long before!). She brought in 20 eggs and an incubator and let the kids watch the eggs for 21 days until they hatched. Then she had a 'chick night' where families could come and see the chicks. She also brought in 20 cocoons that the kids got to see the butterflies come out of. One day when I went in to help she had a bag full of owl pellets (if you don't know what this is consider yourself lucky) and she had me dissect them for groups of kids and find mouse bones, and other delicacies. Not my favorite way to spend a Monday morning, but awesome for the kids. She has taught Tyler a ton of sign language which he loves - for a while there Tyler gave up talking and only signed (only problem, no one else signs in our house). She has been so awesome - I've just loved her. We were talking about her retiring and I told her I need her to stay until Logan has her - then feel free to retire! I'd love all of my kids to have her. We've had a great year in first grade.

First Food

Well Logan's a real boy now - eating rice cereal for his first time. The kids were so excited for him to eat food - he was practically smothered. He was excited too, it was like he could tell he was the source of excitement. I'm pretty sure after his first bite I heard him say, 'bring it on' - he loved it. The first time we fed Emmy rice cereal she burst out bawling - it was like we'd fed her lava or something, so this was much more pleasant for all of us! It won't be long until rice cereal isn't cutting it anymore!

Last days of Preschool