First Day of School

I'm thinking a better name for my blog would be "Better Late than Never" because that's certainly how I operate! I know it's October, but I'm finally getting around to posting first day of school pictures. I can't believe I have two kids who are gone all day - Tyler in 3rd and Emmy in 1st. They get on the bus together, are gone all day, and come home together.
We got great teachers this year and everyone has settled in and is loving school. Tyler still eats hot lunch most days, and Emmy is mostly a cold lunch eater. They play together on the playground - with Emmy's friends chasing Tyler's friends.
The biggest change has been for Bailey. Poor Bay has lost her best friend - she just doesn't know what to do without Emmy. And Logan isn't cutting it in the friend department. She follows me around the house all day asking if she can go to a friend's house. We have the discussion that you can't invite yourself to someone else's house every day! So we have friends over all the time, we go to story time at the library every week, and she's in dance, but it's not enough to fill her social calendar. I have a feeling Bailey will be more than ready to start school!
On a side note, I've noticed that Emmy is transitioning into an Emily. She's writing Emily on all of her papers - whereas in kindergarten it was always Emmy. She wanted her teacher to call her Emily. "Emmy" has been my favorite - I'm starting to get sad thinking she could be done being Emmy.

Weekend in Utah

We just came back from such a fun trip to Utah. It was my Grandma's 93rd birthday Saturday - so the family threw her a big surprise party. Derek and I left Friday afternoon and drove to Allyson's house in Logan. It is always so fun to stay there - she is the ultimate host. Everything's there waiting for you even before you think to ask for it - including made beds for all 6 of us - yes, Paul had set up the pack and play for Logan complete with baby blankets. The kids had the best time playing with cousins. We never heard a complaint from anyone - they were all having such a wonderful time with each other.
Saturday morning we drove from Logan to Lehi and took the kids to Cornbellys Maze at Thanksgiving Point. This is the funnest fall place to be. They had so many activities for the kids to do: a mountain of slides, jumping pillows, mazes, cow trains, hay rides, 3D haunted houses, pig races (with actual pigs of course - Bailey even got picked to be an assistant!), and tons of other things. You could play there all day with your kids. If we lived in SLC that would be definitely be a tradition for our family.
Then late that afternoon we were off to the party. It was at my aunt's house in Lehi and she had a house full! It was fun to be there to celebrate my grandma's birthday with her. My kids sure haven't grown up with her so it was neat that we could be there for this. It was fun to see all my cousins that I don't see as much I'd like to. It was such a fun night with dinner, cake, and games. My kids came home with more prizes than they get at Christmas! I'm really glad we could make it to her big day.
Afterwards we went to Orem to spend the night at my other grandma's house. It was also great to spend time with her. I just love seeing my kids get to know their great-grandmas better. It was certainly a busy weekend - and we crammed in as much as we could - but it was wonderful.

Newest Member of the Loser Club

Emmy is the newest member of the Loser Club (lost teeth, of course!). She's had her first wiggly tooth for the past week and every day it was getting more and more wiggly. She loved showing everyone how loose it was and giving everyone updates. Then last night during FHE she turned to Derek and said, "pull my tooth out". He reached over and had it out in 2 seconds. She was grinning from ear to ear! She's showed us all the whole in her smile a thousand times already.

She was so excited to have the tooth fairy come to her room in the night. Not everyone shared her excitement though. Bailey was very nervous about sleeping in the same room that some magical fairy stranger was coming. So Bay had to go to sleep in our bed and I couldn't move her into hers' until that scary fairy was gone!

I woke up this morning to Emmy right in my face saying, "She came! She came!". She was so thrilled with the treasures the tooth fairy left her. She's already on the prowl for her next wiggly tooth.

Bad Dream for Bay

A few nights ago Bailey woke up in the night and I put her back to bed. The next morning I inquired of her why we were up:

Me. Bay, why were we up in the night?

Bay: Because I had a bad dream.

Me: What was it?

Bay: I had a dream I was wobbly.

Me: Wobbly?

Bay: Yeah, I was wobbly.

Me: What's wobbly?

This part cannot be transcribed but let me tell you the girl started

shaking like she was having a seizure. Wobbly indeed.

Look Out Mia Maids!

Ok, this post is really old - this news actually is 2 months old - but if the old adage holds true, better late than never.
I got called to be the Enrichment leader in the end of February. I did one Enrichment - couponing - and quickly got released in June. It certainly made me wonder how bad that Enrichment was - - - I'm going with really bad. I mean, to be released after one?! Not even a chance to redeem myself! Yikes. But released I was . . . and Derek loves to point out that my Enrichment legacy is couponing. Yes I'm cheap, but I don't need the ward to know it. And I was loving Enrichment - loving going to Relief Society, loving not having to worry about getting a sub for Sunday, - Enrichment is a good place to be.
Maybe the Mia Maids in my ward have a spending problem because I got called to be the Mia Maids advisor. I've never been in YW before. I've always felt I am too selfish to be in YW - Sundays and Wednesdays seem like a big time commitment. I like to be with my family at night. And it's just not Sundays and Wednesdays - it's birthdays, girls camp, firesides, fund raisers and all the rest. YW is a big calling - and I wasn't sure I'd love it. Everyone I know who's been in YW loves it - they cry when they get released and beg to get back in. I wasn't sure I'd be that kind of leader.
But I have found out in 2 months why they love it - it is the funnest place to be in the ward. Hands down -it's the funnest. The girls themselves are so fun - and they can make any activity fun. I love hearing about school registration, sports, and all the rest of their activities. It turns out YW is a good place to be too.

Tyler's Baptism

Tyler got baptized August 1st. What a day that is, to have your kid be baptized! I'd felt the pressure of having him be baptized all summer. All of our FHE's have been focused on baptism. I want Tyler to really understand what it means, what he's promising, and that ultimately it's his choice. I was so proud of him to choose to be baptized. We had a wonderful day.
We waited until August so Derek's parents, who are on a mission in California, could be there. They got a 2 week vacation at the end of July and got to stay to see Tyler be baptized.
We had so much family come - it was wonderful and very supportive. We had all 4 grandparents, my 3 siblings and their families, 2 of Derek's siblings and their families, and one of Derek's aunts from Eastern Idaho. Surely Tyler felt very loved.
I had dinner at my house before and then we all headed to the church. They'd asked me to speak at the baptism - and I had no problem staying under my 5 minutes! I had worried that with a stake baptism we could be there all night waiting for Tyler's turn for the font. There were 7 kids being baptized that night and we lucked out that Tyler got to be second - we were all loving it when they called his name!
Derek baptized him and then afterwards he was confirmed at the church in our own room. Tyler had 10 men in the circle - such a showing of love and support.
Afterwards we had our family and friends come over for dessert. It was so fun to be celebrating Tyler's decision to be baptized.

Derek's Family Reunion

At the end of July we went to Derek's family reunion. This was so fun because we got to see Derek's parents (who got a 2 week vacation from their mission! YEAH!!), and also Derek's sister and her cute family who live in Dallas. It was fun to spend a weekend with lots of family we don't see often enough.
Derek's sister organized everything and she had so much planned: frisbee golf, tie dying shirts, pin trading, letter boxing, and games. She organized all the food for 24 people - what a job that must have been! We had a great time spending time with everyone.
My kids just loved spending all the time with Grandma, Grandpa, and cousins.

Redfish Lake

In January Derek and I (more Derek than I) decided we wanted to take the kids camping. We talked Derek's sister and her family into joining us and we booked a weekend at Refish Lake. In January it seemed like a great idea, in July it seemed like a lot of work! We spent 2 nights there and had a great time. I'm so glad Angey came - it was way more fun with cousins!
We left in the afternoon and had a long drive there. We were packed to the rafters! We took out one seat in our van for more room and I still had to have firewood at my feet for the whole drive (and having stuff at my feet in a car is a huge pet peeve of mine)! To add to our insanity we took Derek, Tyler, and Emmy's bikes - which started falling off the bike rack halfway there!
We got to the campground and set up our tent and had dinner. The kids just had a great time running around, picking up sticks, and throwing rocks in the lake. The next day we went to their Junior Rangers program which was excellent. They learned all about the native animals of the area. We hiked, played in the lake, geocached, cooked s'mores, and made ice cream. The kids loved every minute.
Everyone's favorite moment was when Derek was taking things out of our van and a chipmunk jumped in. The chipmunk would hop in and out, in and out, and I kept trying to get a picture of him in our van. He finally left and I never got my picture so I shut the van door. Then, here he comes again. He jumps right into the van - completly bodyslamming himself!
Taking the bikes was really fun - this is where Emmy mastered her 2 wheeler and now she's an expert at it. Tyler and Derek would go for rides and loved it.
The kids had such a great time - it was worth packing the food, cooking outside, outhouses, bugs, and putting up with all the dirt. We had a great trip.

Tyler's Birthday

Yes, Tyler's birthday was in June. Yes, his friend party was in July. Yes, his baptism was in August. Yes, I'm blogging about it now. Yes, his birthday has taken up my summer! Nevertheless, here it is:
Turning 8 is quite the big deal - so we tried to make it lots of fun. Since he was turning 8, it was time to jump into Scouts. So for his birthday we gave him the shirt, patches, and book that he needs. He opened it and said, "huh, a Scout suit", and promptly chucked it aside! That night we had tons of cousins over for his campfire birthday cake. The funniest part of the night was when he opened presents and 3 of his aunts gave him Bionicles. They were all different colors so it worked out perfectly (2 of his aunts also gave him Reese's Peanut Butter cups - how coincidental is that?!). We had a great time celebrating his birthday.
Three weeks later (yes, 3 weeks - I'm not proud of that!) we had his friend party. He had a Batman party and we had lots games and relays. I'd filled lots of water balloons and it turned into quite a water fight - I completely lost control when the 8 boys went for the hose! I sent home very wet, very happy boys. It was lots of fun.

Childhood Dreams

Many children dream of one day being something amazing . . .

. . . an astronaut

. . . a policeman

. . . the president

. . . a doctor

. . . something impressive.

Tyler and Emmy have their own dream . . . to have a video of them on America's Funniest Home Videos.

My kids . . . the dreamers.

And just to show their dedication to their dreams, they practice falling off of everything possible and begging me to get out the video camera. That would just be such a accomplishment, wouldn't it?

Dare to dream kids.

The Funny Side of Bay

Bailey is such a crack up -here are two of my favs.

The other day she was sitting at the barstool waiting for me to make her lunch. I handed it to her, and started to make my lunch. When I was finished I was headed for the table and she said, "Mom, sit by me" - I have the thought that it won't be long until she doesnt want me to sit by her so I should take advantage of this sweet moment . . . but I'm also thinking that barstools don't have backs . . .feeling torn . . . but sentiment wins out and I sit next to her. We're both on our barstools, lunch in front of us, and now she says, "Now rub my back." Sentiment met its match that day!

Last night we were having family prayers and it was Bay's turn to pray. In her hand was a set of those colored, plastic, keys babies play with. Here's her prayer: "Father bless the day (every prayer starts that way). Help us not to hit Tyler with the keys that I am holding in my hands above my head. Amen" I guess she must have been fighting off some pretty strong temptation and praying for strength to resist - at least that's what I'll tell myself!

Ironman Conquered!

WARNING: SERIOUS DEREK GUSHING!

This last weekend Derek completed the Ironman 70.3 triathalon. This is a major accomplishment - all in all, he swam 1.2 miles, rode his bike 56 miles, and ran 13.1 miles - for a total of 70.3 miles.
He has trained like crazy for months - he registered clear back in December and knew there was no turning back. He's done several tri's before but never anything this huge. But come race day, he was totally prepared.
What was so awesome about this race was the big time-ness of this. The current world champ of Ironman 70.3 was there defending his title - and Derek was in the race with him! It was just huge - and he wasn't a spectator, he was a participant. There are only 33 of these races in the world - and Derek did it. It was amazing to be part of.
The night before we took his bike to Lucky Peak to drop it off. They had security everywhere watching the bikes throughout the night, and rows and rows of bike racks. Reality started to set in on what he'd signed up for!
The race started at 2:00, quite unusal for a race, so Derek got to Lucky Peak about 11:30 to have enough time to get his swim and bike things all ready. We have a friend in our ward who also did the race, so his wife and I went to the swim together to watch. We got there early enough to see the 1500 athletes getting everything ready for this giant race. For the swim they had lots of different waves starting 5 minutes apart. The pros went first and then they went through by age groups. Each wave had a different color swim cap given to them. Derek was in the red wave. It was awesome to see the waves start and after swimming more than a mile see them come in all intermingled. We were able to see our husbands get out of the water, rip off their wetsuits and swim gear, put on all their bike gear, and take off for a 3 hour bike ride. After they left, Alison and I headed home to pick up our kids for the finish line.
My mom tended my kids so that I could be there to cheer on Derek - she's such a cheerleader she couldn't stand the thought of no one being there cheering for him. So she took over our typical Saturday schedule - which is baseball, baseball, and more baseball! She drug all the gear to Emmy's game, took kids to the park, McDonalds for dinner, and fit in a nap for Logan. Without her I wouldn't have been able to watch Derek swim. Thanks mom!
On the bike it sprinkled, but it rained through the entire run. Derek thought he would for sure walk some of the 13 miles - but he felt so good he ran the entire thing.
My parents came me with me and the kids to watch the finish line. This was so awesome to see these people finishing something so grueling. There were so many people finishing you would never look at and think they could do something like this. The announcer said, "Determination comes in all shapes and ages." - and he was right. These people were so inspiring!
Derek had hoped to come in around 7.5 hours - but after seeing how great he'd done on the swim I knew he would be ahead of his goal. We waited in the rain for him to come across the line and right after 6 hours - here he came! He looked so great as he finished this race - with his official time being 6 hours, 19 minutes.
He really deserves to have had such a great race - he's trained so hard and for so long - and in the process, he's lost 50 pounds (fifty!). It's just amazing how much his determination paid off. It was an awesome experience.

Wonder of Wonder . . .

. . . Miracles of Miracles!

You won't believe it, but I'm here to tell you it's true: Logan walks! I know, I know, it's truly unbelievable - but true nonetheless. The kid walks!

All of my kids have been super slow walkers, so the bar for Logan was already set really low - but he hit a new record. Tyler was my fastest walker at 15 months (yes, fastest!), Emmy was 17 months, Bay was 18 months (started walking the week she started nursery - I think it was because she was scared of going in there as a crawler), but Logan felt no pressure and felt no fear about going into nursery crawling - he just crawled right in.

So we didn't know when that kid would start walking, 2, maybe 3 years old . . . he'd already let us know this was going to be his decision. Then a few weeks ago he finally started showing some intrest in walking, and would go between people. A week later he would walk between furniture without being prompted, then last week he realized walking is better than crawling! Now he wants to walk all the time. He certainly struggles in grass or bark, and he's still mastering standing up without holding onto something - but he is now convinced all of the people around him walking are onto something!

I'd forgotten how fun it is to have a new walker in the house. It is so fun to see him just walk around as his entertainment - he just walks around because he can. He doesn't want to be held nearly as much either. It is so cute to see him walk a little unbalanced, but stay upright. It's so fun to hear him coming around the corner and expect to see him crawling and he surprises me by walking.

I don't know what finally convinced him about walking - it wasn't social pressure or fear from nursery! Maybe it was my threats that crawlers can't go to the water park or camping! Whatever it was - it's a wonder of wonder, miracle of miracles at our house!

Phillies in the House!

Tyler and Emmy have both started baseball - Tyler is playing U9 and Emmy is playing U7 and coincidentally they both got put on the Phillies team. Makes it easy for us to remember who to cheer for. Tyler's level is now playing where they both get 6 coach pitches and if they don't hit it, they're out. They also play that 3 outs or the entire batting order ends the inning. Emmy gets 3 coach pitches and then they hit off the tee if they need to. Emmy doesn't have outs - just once through the batting order. They both play 3 innings or an hour - whichever comes first.
My friend, Kim, and I signed up our girls to play and we decided that if we volunteered to coach we'd get to pick when and where practice is. Deciding that control was worth it, (and having Kim talk me into it!) we agreed to coach - the first time for both of us. So Kim and I are the Phillies coaches. We don't know much about coaching - but we got a few things figured out fast: one of the dads offered to haul their equipment to every practice and game - yep, we'll take that; another dad offered to pitch at the games and practices - yep, we'll take that too. So as coaches, we're really good at delegating, and isn't that what makes good leaders anyways? :)

Go Phillies!

Our First Piano Recital

We had our first piano recital a few weeks ago. Tyler just started piano lessons in March so I was surprised we had a recital so quickly. His teacher picked the theme Movie Music Mania so all of the kids played songs from movies or TV shows. For the program she had the kids listed in the order they would play but not the songs they would play. All of the songs were listed on the other side in random order and the parents had to match the kid to the songs they played. I thought it was an ardoable idea. There were cute songs played - High School Musical, Star Wars, and lots of Disney songs.
Tyler played 2 songs - Mickey Mouse March and Winnie the Pooh. He did a great job and had both memorized. For Winnie his teacher asked me to play the duet part with him. I thought other parents or his teacher would be playing duets to other songs, but nope, we were the only duet. It was my first piano recital in 15 years! It was fun to play with Tyler, even though he was disappointed that I didn't have my part memorized.
Tate and Angey were in town so they came to hear him, along with my dad. It was great to have such a fun night celebrating Tyler's new interest.

School's Out for Summer!

Today was our last day of school! I love summer: I love having my kids home, I love slow paced mornings, I love not worrying about bedtimes, I love being outside - I love it all. It just seems right to have my kids home - call it a control issue, but I like knowing where they are, and what they're doing. It just feels like my world is right when my kids are home.
For the last day of school our school always has a family picnic the last 2 hours and then you can take your kids home whenever you're ready. I didn't drag the picnic this year - dragging kids was enough dragging for me. So I just went, we said good-bye to teachers, and we came home.
This afternoon we went to an End of the Year party at my friend's house who has a pool. She invited everyone to come and and swim. It was so fun - kids swam and moms chatted. Yes, I only had 2 swimmers with Bay in a cast and Logan but 2 in the water is enough to worry about! I bet there were 40 kids there and the pool wasn't crowded at all. It was so fun to end the school year. (In fact, Emmy is still there because she wasn't ready to come home and Logan was!)
Tyler and Emmy have both had good years and done great. Tyler's teacher sent him home with the cutest thing - she gave all the kids a postcard with her address on the front. On the back is a place to write the title and author's name of 8 books. When they've filled this all out for books they read over the summer, they can mail it to her and then sometime in the summer she's going to have an ice cream party at the school for all the kids who've sent in their postcards. Isn't that the cutest? I love our school - they do so many extra things like this.

Winning the Kindergarten Lottery

Emmy just won the kindergarten lottery. We're talking so excited we've talked about it for a week. The big prize won . . . dinner at McDonald's with her teacher. Funny eh? Her teacher told her kids that the first person to pass off 40 books would get to go to McDonald's with her for dinner. And get to bring a friend. Could it get any better?!
So the day Emmy passed off her last book her teacher told her that she would get to go to McDonald's with her. Emmy looked up at her and asked with all the sincerity a 6 year old can have and asked "Will you take care of me there?" (The teacher thought it was so funny she called to tell me!). So we booked a night where Emmy and friend would meet the teacher, and the other kindergarten teacher at the school was also meeting 2 students, at McDonald's.
When I first asked Emmy who she wanted to take with her she said she wanted Logan to go with her. Sorry babe, Logan can't go to McDonald's with you teacher. Then she wanted Bailey, again sorry.
So the anticipated day came last Tuesday and Derek dropped them off - all smiles. Then an hour later I picked them up - Happy Meals and ice cream cones in hand. I picked them up in the Play Land part and I was holding 2 unfinished Happy Meals, trying to get the girls to follow me, and was backing out the exit door . . . or so I think. All of the sudden the alarm goes off, nearly deafening everyone in the restaurant ( . . . cringe . . . ). I totally missed the giant STOP sign on the door warning you that this is an emergency exit door only. The manager had to come over and use his little key to turn it off - all the while Emmy's teacher trying to explain to him why I missed the giant sign.
Then on the way home I told Emmy how nice it was of her teacher to buy her an ice cream cone, to which Emmy says, "Well I asked her for it" ( . . . big cringe . . . ), "Emmy," I say, "you can't ask your teacher for dessert!" "I said 'please'" was all the explanation needed for her. Despite my embarrassing moments, Emmy had a fab time!

Gratitude Attitude

This weekend for Memorial Day we went to my parent's cabin. We had a great time with my parents, and Robb and Catherine. We rode 4-wheelers, had a campfire and made s'mores and played outside enjoying a beautiful long weekend. As we were leaving I said to Tyler, "Go tell Grandma and Grandpa thank you and then get in the car." He obediently went up to my mom and said, "My mom said I'm supposed to thank you but I don't know what for." There's a gratitude attitude for you!

I know . . . it's amazing!

It's amazing I'm posting pictures! I haven't done it since Christmas. Perfectly understandable reason: for Christmas we got a new camera and I didn't know how upload my pictures. So I've just been taking pictures like crazy, never knowing if they're ever going to be seen again. But today is the day - the pictures are off the camera!
These are just a bunch of random pictures that I've taken over the last 5 months: Emmy's birthday - her first friend birthday party, Easter, Derek and my last couple of races - he did the Robie Creek half marathon and I did the 5K Race for the Cure and the 10K Great Potato, Emmy's kindergarten program, including one with her saying in the microphone her part, "We are definitely ready for first grade!", and of course Bay's broken arm. Enjoy our last 5 months in a minute or less!

20 Questions

Today Derek and his friend went on a long bike ride (Derek's doing a half-Ironman triathlon in a few weeks so he logs lots of miles!) - they rode for 30 miles and ended at a nice park, where my friend and I met them, with kids and a picnic. It was a beautiful day and we all had a great time. Since I was in the car with the kids for a long time (I can't complain because I was driving, not riding a bike!) we played 20 Questions the whole way there. Here was my favorite dialogue:

Me: Ok, I'm thinking of a person.
Tyler: Is it someone we're related to?
Me: Yes
Emmy: Is it Savannah? (our next door neighbor)
Me: No
Bay: Are we going on a picnic?
Me: Yes
Tyler: Is it a girl?
Me: Yes
Emmy: Is it a horse?
Me: No
Bay: Did we bring lawn chairs?
Me: Yes
Tyler: Do they live in Idaho?
Me: Yes
Emmy: speaking gibberish
Me: No
Bay: Do we live in the temple?
Me: No
Tyler: Do they live close to us?
Me: No
Emmy: -silence- she's quit at this point
Bay: Do we walk on the sidewalk?
Me: Yes
Tyler: Is it Paisley?
Me: No
Emmy: -silence-
Bay: -silence- also quit
Tyler: Is it Johnna?
Me: Yes

Envision that going on for 40 minutes and you've got our trip!

(are you secretely glad this post had nothing to do with casts?!)

Cast Recap

Bailey got her cast last Thursday. It goes from her wrist to her shoulder and is really purple. The doctor asked her if she was going to pick pink or pink, assuming that's what she'd go with, and all she could say is, "purple". For the first few days it seemed to hurt because it was so heavy and she'd ask me to put her sling on her. We're mostly done with her sling now as she's more used lugging it around. She only has to be in it for 4 weeks -amazing how fast little bones heal.
Usually the only upside to a broken bone is how much attention the kid gets - unfortunately Bay hates all of this extra attention. Any time someone asks her about her arm or tells her how cute her cast is, she buries herself into me as much as possible. She hates it so much that when I dropped her off in Primary Sunday I told her teacher to not mention her arm because it makes her so uncomfortable.
This morning she accidentally bumped herself in the forehead with her cast - which obviously hurt. She told me it hurt when she hit her head with her cast, I agreed with her, and then she whacked me in the head with it and said, "see, it hurts." So far we haven't had to have the "your cast is not a weapon" talk, but I sense it coming soon.

Sticks & Stones may break Bay's bones . . .

. . . and so will trampolines!

I'm sad to post our first broken bone story, but here goes.

Sunday night we had a big dinner for Mother's Day. We had my parents, Jen's family, and Robb's family over. It was such a fun night with cousins all over the place, celebrating Moms. Now keep in mind, we have a rule about no jumping on the tramp on Sundays. But . . . the cousins were there, it was a beautiful day, and it was Mother's Day (nice to send those kiddos out on Mother's Day right?) . . . and keep in mind, we've only had our tramp for a month, so it's still new and exciting . . . combine all those, and you get rules thrown out the window!!
The kids had jumped and had a great time with each other and the party was just about over . . . oh so close . . .
Then I see my dad bring Bailey in from the backyard. She wasn't wailing and screaming, but she was definitely hurt. Her arm hurt and she kept it really close to her and guarded. She didn't want anyone to touch it, or look at it. It was obvious something was really wrong, how wrong I didn't know. Afer 10 minutes and a lot of diagnosis on our part, we decided she definitely needed to go to the ER. Luckily my parents were there and offered to put the other kids to bed while Derek and I ran her in.
We got to the ER a little after 8:00 and got in a room pretty quickly. The nurse who came in first gave us a lot of hope - "It's probably just dislocated and we can pop it back in. She'll imediately feel better" he said. Perfect . . . that's what we want. Then the doctor came in, equally pessimistic as the nurse was optimistic. "She might need surgery. These kind of injuries need surgery all the time." he said. "No, we don't want that option." we said.
After nurses, waiting, doctor, waiting, x-rays, waiting, doctor, waiting, follow up, and waiting we got the news - she'd fractured her elbow. Luckily it wasn't near her growth plates and luckily we didn't need surgery. He put her in a splint and a sling and sent us home. We finally got home at 11:00.
She looks pretty sad in her sling - she's just too little to have her arm in a sling! She's been feeling pretty good, as long as pain medicine is on hand! It's so sad because it's her right arm - that means she needs help eating, going to the bathroom, getting on the barstool, getting off the barstool, getting off the couch, getting in bed, getting out of bed and coloring (I have to hold down the paper while she colors with her left hand).
She goes in tomorrow for her cast. She says she wants purple. She'll probably be in it for 6 weeks. I'm hoping she gets it off before swimming lessons start!
She has been pretty spoiled - Jen brought over DVDs, coloring books, crayons, cookies, and candy, Allyson mailed her stickers, nail polish, make-up, and candy, and she's had friends bring over treats. Maybe a broken arm's not so bad after all!

Happy Tag

I got tagged to do 8 things that make me happy (besides the obvious), so here goes:

SPRING: I absolutely love spring. I love the budding trees, the flowers everywhere, and the warm weather. I love that you can just walk outside and you don't need all the outside gear: coats, gloves, hats, or sunblock! It's the one time of year I'm not yelling at my kids to shut the door to the backyard. I love that my kids come home from school now and play outside. Everything is turning green, after looking at brown for a long time. Spring has sprung!

Miralax: Now this might be too much information for a lot of people, but I found Miralax a few weeks ago and Logan is loving it! He has had consitpation issues since he went to full time table food - and I have tried all I can think of. I've put things in his diet, I've taken things out of his diet, but no success. Enter Miralax - and we are loving it!

Couponing: I am not a serious couponer by a long ways, but I am getting into this world of craziness. To show my committment - I've just gotten my first newspaper subscription. Also, today I made $2.50 from getting an ink cartridge filled (want the details: refill is usually $10, I had a 50% off coupon, making it $5, and then they had a rebate for any refill for $7.50 - paying me $2.50 to fill my cartridge!). I have my favorite sites I follow that give me all deals and usually I'm willing to run out and get them! I can totally see how this can be addictive.

Swimming lessons: I have the perfect swimming lessons situation and I love it every year. I take my kids to a city pool where this year I'll have my oldest 3 in lessons. All 3 can be at the same time - see the wonderfulness of this? I'm there for 30 minutes and get all my kids done at once. To sweeten the deal - my sister puts her daughter in Emmy's class every year - so 4 kids in lessons at the same time, and my sister and I get 30 minutes every day to chat. To sweeten the deal even more - this pool charges half the price of any other lessons I've found. The couponer in me loves that!

Matching clothes for my kids: I love it when my kids match, and luckily for me I have a very generous sister-in-law who also loves her girls to match, and her girls are 2 years older than my girls! They get the cutest matching hand-me-downs and I love it. Tyler and Logan got their first matching item this week - I found them matching sandals and Tyler was so happy that he gets to match Logan.

Eating out: I don't know how much I love eating out or how much I hate cooking and cleaning up dinner. Either way, it makes me look forward to a restuarant!

Halloween: I love this holiday with kids. I think it's so cute that they get to dress up as whatever they want. It's so telling of their personalities and leads to so many endless conversations about what they can be that magical night. My kids talk about Halloween year round.

Bookmobile: Our city Bookmobile comes to the park by our house every week. My family is religious about going to the 'library bus' (as my kids call it). We go every week and fill up on books and movies. It's so nice to be able to walk to the library. And whenever we want something specific I just go online and have it sent to the bus. Thank heavens for the library bus!

Science Day

Our school had a school wide Science Day on Monday. They asked for volunteers to teach different lessons that the classes rotated through throughout the day (fyi, they got these awesome lessons plans and all the materials through Utah State's Jr. Engineering program and a parent in our school wrote a grant to Micron and they agreed to pay all of the $1400 for the materials! So yea us!). On with the story . . .
I volunteered to teach 2 rotations to 2 2nd grade classes. The rotations lasted 40 minutes each and I got assigned the topic of 'color'. I read the lesson plan and it seemed simple enough so I didn't put much effort into it. Tyler's class was first and we went through the lesson plan. Then I repeated the same thing for the second class. All in all I thought it went fine - certainly not a homerun of a lesson, but not a train wreck either.
That afternoon Tyler came home and we were talking about Science Day. He was telling me about the different classes they went to and then he told me that at the end of the day his teacher let each kid vote for their two favorite classes. He told me that he voted for mine with his first vote, and he was pretty proud that he'd used his voting power to vote for mine. So then I asked, and I shouldn't have, who else voted for mine. "No one". "No one else voted for me with their first vote?!" "No Mom, and no one voted for you with their second vote either. But I did Mom. I voted for you because you're my Mom." So many funny things: funny that Tyler voted for me because I was his mom; funny that no one else voted for me; and funny that it was a train wreck and I didn't even know it!
To my defense, they had some really cool lessons - including small 4-wheelers that the kids got to drive on a track in the gym! How's 'color' ever going to compete with that?!

Jokes with Tyler

Convo with Tyler today:


Tyler: Mom, do you want to hear a joke?
Me: Sure
Tyler: ok, the bus driver told us this. Why is the clock in the cafeteria always slow?
Me: I don't know. Why?
Tyler: Because it's always 4 seconds slow.
Me: I don't get it.
Tyler: Me either.

We did ultimately figure it out:
Why is the cafeteria always slow?
Because it goes back 4 seconds

As a side note, Tyler and Emmy have the best bus driver. She gives them a riddle every morning on the way to school and then on the way home she asks them if anyone solved it. If someone knows the answer they get a piece of candy. I think it's cute. During the winter though she couldn't do riddles because she had to concentrate on the road - safety first!

Follow-Up

I've had a few ask what Emmy will name her resurrected cat - so I literally said the words, "Hey Emmy, what are you going to name your resurrected cat?". The answer, "cutie". So when you see Emmy with her new cat, it's Cutie now, not Shanni.

Millennial Promises

I hope it's not bad to promise things that will take place in the Millennium. If it is bad, I'm in trouble because I've done that with Emmy. Emmy, my daughter who would love a pet more than anything, and who has parents who dread a pet more than anything. Because she doesn't have a pet she has to live vicariously through others. One day while I was doing her hair she was asking me all about my cat I had as a kid (yes, my parents were nicer than me and let me have lots of pets). I was telling her about my cat Shanni - what color she was, how I got her, the fact that she's dead now, and all the rest. Then she says, "When Shanni is resurrected could I have her?" Now here's a question I can say yes to! Of course she can my resurrected cat! The girl thinks she's won the lottery and is totally thrilled with her great luck - I've made her day. Then later she says to Derek, "Guess what! Mom said I could have Shanni when she's resurrected! But I'm going to change her name." Like I said, I hope it's not bad to make millennial promises.

I've Been Released

Friday morning our 2nd counselor in the Bishopric came over and released me from my calling. I'd been the Primary chorister for almost 2 years and he told me I needed to be released. I knew it was coming so I was dreading his visit. Part of the dread was the idea of losing this calling, and part of the dread was what if I get something worse. I wondered what he would say if I said 'no' to being released - and then I quickly realized he wasn't asking if I would be released, he was simply informing me that I was being released.
I've been really sad about getting released. It really felt like the Bishop was taking away my 90 kids - they're my kids and I don't want to share them! Being the Primary chorister has been a lot of work, but because it's been so much work I think I've gotten so much satisfaction out of it. It just seems the more you put into it, the more you get out of it. There has been down sides to this calling - doing it every week takes a lot of effort (and a lot of sugardoodle.com), and getting a sub has been a pain. I can't tell you how many times I told Derek we have to be back from our weekend plans by church because it's so hard to get a sub for this calling - it's out of a lot of people's comfort zones. But this calling has had so many positives too . . . I've loved working with both presidencies I've been in for, I've loved getting to know the kids, and my favorite part has been to be able to be in Primary with my kids. Since Bay started Sunbeams this January I've gotten to be in Primary with 3 of my kids. It's so fun to see my kids take part in sharing time and singing time and it's fun to see them learn the gospel. So many times we've had FHE based on the Sharing Time we just had, because it was such a great idea or a topic I hadn't thought about teaching our kids.
Sunday was my last day in Primary and I had to tell the kids goodbye - I was so sad! I told the kids that being in Primary is my favorite place to be. I'm sure by next week the kids won't even remember what singing time with me was like, but this calling has meant a lot to me.
And of course there is the other side of being released - the new calling. I did get a new one, the Enrichment Leader. I don't know anything about Enrichment so this is certainly going to be something entirely new for me (since I've been married - 10 years - I've only had Primary callings). All I know about Enrichment is that I always go, and I always hope there's dinner! I'm sure my Enrichment I.Q. is about to increase (I have my first meeting tonight - where I'm sure I'll learn a lot, like if I want dinner at Enrichment, I have to make it!). It seems like such a big change for where I've been for so long . . . but change is good. I'm excited . . . I think.

Love is in the Air

My kids are so excited about Valentine's Day coming up. Tyler and Emily both gave me their requests for their type of Valentine's and off to Walmart I went. Emmy was so excited when she got home and couldn't wait to start picking out who would get what Valentine. She was just in heaven assigning Valentine's when I heard her say, "This one is for Russell. And it's going to say, 'To Russell, You always sit in the front row and that's not fair to the rest of us. From, Emmy". So if you see a Valentine from Emmy in your mailbox you might want to brace yourself!

There Goes the Bus!

This morning Tyler missed the bus. We were doing our regular routine (read as . . . we were having family prayer in the living room so I could have one eye reverently opened looking for the bus) when the next thing I knew the bus was there, kids loaded, and passing our house! I started yelling 'Bus! Bus!' (Derek kept praying), and I started grabbing Tyler and dragging him to the door. He seemed to be much more interested in Derek's prayer (all of the sudden), than getting himself on the bus. I was out the door, pajamas and all, trying to chase it down! All the while Tyler very methodically was putting on his coat, then his backpack - by the time that kid was ready I think the bus was out of the neighborhood!

So I'm telling Tyler I can't believe he missed the bus and he's just trying not to smile . . . for some reason this is good news to him. Because he obviously doesn't get this is bad I have to spell it out for him . . . now Derek or I have to take him! He's still just trying not to smile - he was faking being sad about this! So I had to up the ante on how this is bad - and not just for me. Since now he was home for another 15 minues - he got to do some spelling words. When that was over and we still had time he got to do math flashcards. Still, trying not to smile about his good fortune.

So Derek says he'll take him to school. Ok, that's great for me. Then Derek sees Logan sitting there and says he'll take Logan too. Ok, that's great too. It took half a second for the girls to see this happen and they both stampede for the door saying they're going too. As Derek's walking out the door with 4 kids in tow he says, "this isn't what I signed up for". All of the sudden I had 15 minutes to myself . . . and I had to try not to smile.

The Love of Captivity

For a very long time my little Emily has loved stuffed animals. She has a million, they all have names and personalities. These 'pets' are her favorite thing. But her favorite thing to do with them is to put them on leashes, put them in cages, under bowls, under laundry baskets - basically keep these little guys in captivity. She loves animals to be trapped! At any given time you can walk around my house and find yarn tied around bar stool legs, chair legs, piano bench legs, cupboard knobs, anything that an animal can be tied to, all to ensure it doesn't get away. One day last week I walked in her room and found one animal under her pillow with a cookie sheet blocking the exit. Also I found she'd pushed her doll cradle in front of her closet doors - why, I asked, so the pets in the closet couldn't get out. The girl is crazy about captivity. Don't ask me why, I don't get it. But I do know that she's not the only one, her much-loved cousin is all about captivity too - when they get together those stuffed animals don't stand a chance! Both little girls got real dog collars and leashes for Christmas just to make the animal-control issue even easier.
But I'm starting to get worried because she's taking it to a new level - her next target . . . Logan. Logan has found that stairs can be really entertaining, and I've seen him go up one step several times. I wasn't too worried about him on the stairs, because going up one stair usually took 15 minutes and I'd find him by then, or he'd lose interest. But last week I noticed I hadn't seen him in a while so I went looking for him. I found him 8 steps up and climbing. Luckily I found him before he fell, I got him down, and put him down for a nap. I told Emmy I'd have to get out the baby gate now for sure. She insisted on getting it out immediately. I kept telling her that he was asleep - he wasnt' going anywhere. This wasn't good enough for her . . . she couldn't relax until that baby gate was up and Logan was contained for good!
Then today, another disconcerting moment . . . Logan had just woken up this morning and Emmy and I went in to get him. Emmy sees him and says to me, 'get him out of his crate'. Crate? That's right, crate. She thinks her brother sleeps in a crate. And that's just as it should be!

Sad Day

Thursday was a sad for me. I went to the dentist and was told for the first time I have a cavity. I was completly shocked - I kind of thought if I'd made it 31 years I might be immune from the things or something. I'm sad that I have to give up my standard repsonse in the game where you write something true about you that no one knows - I've always been the 'never had a cavity' girl! I'm sad that I have to go back to the dentist and find people to watch my kids AGAIN. I'm sad that I have to get it filled - from what I hear that's not going to be pleasant. It's a sad day.

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!