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.