School's out!

The kids got out of school on June 3rd and we've had a blast ever since.  Actually, I think today is the first day we didn't really do anything.  So far we've been to the zoo several times, tennis lessons 4 days a week, volunteered at the North Stake humanitarian weekly projects, kids' summer movie, Kayli's last PAT program with a picnic at the park, more park time, etc.  Today we got rained out so tennis got cancelled after a few minutes which of course killed Kayli and I's zoo visit for the day.  The kids have tennis right by the zoo and playgrounds so Kayli gets to pick what she wants to do.  It's so fun.

Braden also is teaching Kayli how to be "cool" apparently.  In his mind, the funny thing he has taught her is to smack her chest, say "peace" and do the peace sign.  It is cute to watch if she forgets the first part.

"Peace!"

I took a picture the other day of Kayli wandering around in the morning with her blankie/aka sheet.  Now you all know one reason she loves it so much.  The elastic edges curl around her nicely and she loves to walk around with it like this. 

She also loves the full ghost costume.  Then she walks around the house and smacks into things, sometimes intentionally and sometimes not.

Ha! Vindication!

Barry and Braden had scouts tonight and were selling candy bars to raise money for scout camp.  (Barry is the scoutmaster for those who don't know.)  I tried to get both of them to wear scout uniforms telling them they would sell more and they wouldn't do it saying they'd be too hot. (Rolling eyes here...)  They ended up coming back to the house to drop off Barry's car and one of the other boys had his scout shirt on so I made Braden put on his.  (Way to go Allen's!)

Barry and Braden came back a few minutes ago just laughing.  Braden and Peyton teamed up, with their scout shirts on, and the other two boys went together, with no scout shirts on.  Guess who sold more?  Yup, Braden and Peyton sold three times as many candy bars!  I couldn't resist and had to tell them I told you so as I was laughing.  Then they both caved and said I was right after all and they were glad Braden had worn his shirt.  Of course, the funniest part was the other dad that went bought $20 of candy bars from Braden not knowing there was a competition going on and his son was on the other team.  Apparently it was really funny when the other boy found out his own dad had "gone against him".  Haha.  Scouts are so fun!  Ahem, and yes, I feel vindicated now thank you very much.

Karina's learned how to ride a bike!

For Memorial Day weekend, we went to Cherry Springs with Barry's family on Saturday.  Kent and Linda brought up their trailer so we'd have somewhere dry to play while it rained.  Our family really likes to bike ride so we all brought our bikes to ride the trails on.  Karina has tried several times to learn to ride a bike but didn't have any success.  I think it is because he bike is so heavy.  It is heavier than any of the other bikes we own and I didn't even clue into that until it was too late.

I took the big kids riding around while Barry worked with Karina.  When we all got back together Karina had learned to ride her bike!  Barry said she was really needing help and then all of the sudden she just took off and went.  She was SO happy!  The big parking lot worked out in our favor as she had lots of room to ride and show us.  Of course, as with anyone learning to ride she had a few good crashed and required band-aids by the end of the night but she had a good time.

On Sunday we were talking about it some more and discussing how it is about time for Karina and Tyler to move up in bike sizes.  We talked about spray painting Tyler's bike pink for Karina and he would use Braden's old one.  Then mom had an epiphany!  My old banana bike that I got when I was her age was still in Grandpa and Grandma Gallafent's storage and it's PINK.  Was being the operative word because we drove down that evening and went and picked it up from Grandpa and Grandma.

Grandpa and Grandma were so sweet and got it all ready for her.  Karina is really excited that she gets to ride mommy's old bike and it is in great condition since it was stored in a good place for so long.  The bike itself is just a little bit big for her but it will fit her for a long time at least.  I know that for a fact because I took a spin around on it and it almost wasn't even too small for me since I had the big seat to slide back on.  Ah, the good old days and the memories!  I remember riding circles and circles around Grandpa and Grandma Scott's unfinished upper addition during the winter when Angela and I got those bikes for Christmas.  I think they held off on finishing it just so we could come ride our bikes in circles for hours every Sunday at their house.  I get they loved the constant drone of that. :-)

So, our pretty princess finally learned how to ride a bike, she won a new pink bike helmet last month and she just got a new-to-her pink bike.  How much better can it possibly get for a 7-year old?  Haha. 

Merry is the Month of May....

Rain, rain, rain and more rain.  Barry and I are really liking the rain for a few reasons: it's not snow, my very few plants that made it past a dead seed are growing nicely now and lastly we don't have to water our lawn,  The latter being a definite bonus since our sprinkler system is still broke.  Our tulips are blooming (at least those that Kayli didn't pick when her dad said she could pick all the dandelions she wanted) and all four of the kids have turned into trampoline magnets again.

Our highlight for the month is Braden turning twelve and receiving the priesthood.  He looks great in his new suit and you should see how his demeanor changes when he puts it on.  It's fantastic to watch!  Haha.  I'm sure that in combination with graduating from primary has affected his attitude change at church.  All the grandparents came up to see him ordained.  Barry and Kent happily brought Braden to priesthood beforehand and I can't decide who was smiling the biggest, Barry or Braden.  I got a good laugh out of it.  He also finished up his Faith in God award and received that, too.  He did a great job passing the sacrament his first time and it was fun to watch, although Kayli was wondering where Braden went since he wasn't by us.  Braden did say the Bishop wants him to start sitting up on the stand to be a "messenger" for him.  Hopefully we won't get Kayli trying to escape up that and get her buddy.

Kayli this month has decided she REALLY likes going to grandparents houses.  She's been asking a lot lately to go to Grandpa's.  When we came home from church on Sunday she crossed her arms over her straps when I tried to unbuckle her.  She then told me, "No!  Grandpa's!" and wanted to leave right then to go.  We had to coerce her in to eat lunch first.  They was great joy when we finally headed out.  Now, whenever she doesn't get what she wants, she starts crying for Grandpa.  It's really funny to watch as she is such a drama queen. :-)

All the active boys that attend my Webelos group have graduated.  This leaves just Tyler and I until the middle of July.  I'm sure Tyler will be excited to find out he gets to pick out anything he wants to do out of the book.  This also, of course, makes him the oldest cub scout and I'm sure he'll love that. I keep calling every week for the other two and hopefully they'll start coming, too, but if not we'll have a good time.  One bonus is that since Tyler is the only one, Barry gets to take him to Webelos overnight camp instead of my going.  Haha.  Garrett, we are hoping you'll come, too, since Barry took Braden, Seth and Zach together.

Karina has been my gardening buddy this month.  She helped setup a potting bench with me, replant our strawberry plant from the store, plant all the seeds in the tray, and has dubbed herself The Waterer.  She got to pick out a new watering can and loves to make sure they all have a drink.  I'm hoping she'll get Grandma Dawn's genes for growing and not mine since she likes it so much.

Barry has started working away again on his master's paper.  I'm not sure how it is going but he seems to spend some time on it every night since summer session has started.  I'm crossing my fingers that he can still finish up in December or May at the lastest since he has to take a cumulative test on every class he's taken.

As for me, I've spent a fair amount of time at the auto mechanics this month.  I was driving the van and it started lurching and jerking on me, then acting like it was going to stall.  It's been in twice already and it is still having problems on occasion.  It was interesting trying to get us places as the truck was in the shop getting a new clutch.  Hence, we had a five-seater car with six people.  We're really grateful to Mom and Dad Hansen for letting us borrow their blue car. The mechanic and Barry keep telling me it is fine for them now so I'm not happy about looking like a silly woman who doesn't know what she is talking about.  We were out delivering phone books Saturday, though, and it started doing it again so Barry finally got to hear it and I told him, "See!  See!  It really does have problems!".  He wasn't too happy to see I was right after all.  So, those two trips plus getting a new clutch in the truck set us back about $2,000.

Barry would love to share this next funny story so I'd better include it.  We decided to try delivering phone books so Braden could earn money for scout camp.  That didn't end up working out so well as it turned into a whole family project to get it done.  We were on the last road and couldn't find it on the delivery map anywhere.  I turned to Barry like we were in luck and said, "Oh, you know?!  There is a phone book right behind my seat.  It'll have a map in it."  I meant the blue phone book from the house that was already in the van and had totally forgotten about the ton in the back.  Barry looked at me with this mocking incredulous look and in a shocked tone said, "A PHONE BOOK? WOW, REALLY?!"  Then I realized what I'd said and we just busted up laughing.  I laughed so hard I cried.  I guess you had to be there but we were all laughing hysterically at it.  For any of you ever thinking of trying this sometime, though, don't.  WAY too much time for the amount you get paid.

That's all for this month.  Everyone have a good memorial day weekend!

Moving on to bigger and better things.

Braden came home with information from Eagle Rock Junior High this week.  I am trying to reconcile myself with the fact that our oldest will be in junior high.  I HATED junior high.  (As those of you who went to school with me can attest.)  Braden is REALLY excited to be going, though.  He has a lot of friends from other schools that he has gotten to know through PACE and orchestra.  This week we get to deal with registering him for classes and he got to go on a tour of the juinor high on Tuesday.  When I asked him what he thought of the tour his comment, he responded, "Well, they told us if we went we would get cookies afterwards and then they just gave us pencils." :-)  Some of the kids apparently only agreed to go when their teachers said there would be cookies and were not happy afterwards when there weren't any.  I thought the tour would be fun for me, though, as I've never been around the school.  Apparently this parent found that idea more exciting than the actual kids going there.

While I'm not too excited to have him going he is so that is good.  He's definitely looking big enough to go unlike some of his other classmates.  Karina's is almost as big as a few of them.  And big he is.  He's almost as tall as I am and has bigger feet than I do.  He'll be outgrowing his dad's shoes in not too long.  Braden's eagerly anticipating when he'll be taller than me - in another 2 inches.  He just keeps growing up and while it's fun to watch I'd love to keep him little forever.

Every family has to have it happen once, right?

I really thought I might get off with this never happening but apparently not.  My visiting teachers came over last night and Kayli came to cheerfully visit us streaking through BUCK NAKED and dripping wet to dance for them!  She'd escaped from the bathtub while Barry was engrossed reading the paper while sitting on the bed "supervising".  The kid went right past him and he didn't even notice.  Hahaha.  I did just laugh and take her back to her daddy who then felt quite sheepish that she'd gotten away from him. :-)  Ah, you got to love kids!

All of yesterday, and half of Tuesday, Kayli has been stripping off her diaper and clothes every time her diaper is wet.  We keep finding her running around naked with a huge grin on her face.  The past two nights I'd gone in to check on her when sleeping and found she was naked with no diaper.  So, obviously she doesn't want to be wearing wet diapers.  We tried some training underpants on her after the streaking incident and she was SO excited.  Hence, I went shopping last night and got all the stuff we need to potty training and tomorrow is the day.  I'm hoping that she'll quite streaking once she gets rid of the diapers so wish me luck!

Grammie-Great and Audrey

I love this photo of my Grandma Scott holding Audrey, my sister Camille's new baby.  What sweet loving!

Kayli's First Haircut Photos

Here's our little princess with her first butch - oh, I mean haircut - that he daddy took her to get. :-)  Her bangs were down to her nose before her haircut as I could decide whether to grow them out or cut them.  Obviously her daddy decided to cut them.

I have my camera back! Yippee!!!

I accidentally left my camera at mom and dad's in February.  It took until yesterday to get it back.  I've noticed that if I don't have pictures, I don't blog usually.  (See, no pictures and no blogging since then!)  Now I can get back to sharing pictures which say a thousand words, right?  Which means I don't have to type a thousand words. :-)

The one thing I did miss having it for was the kids' ice skating lessons.  Karina and Tyler took lessons from January - March and Braden did just March.  For spring break, we all went ice skating for the first time together as a family.  Happily we found a babysitter for Kayli both days and we ended up having a blast.  She wouldn't have enjoyed it nearly as much we did.  Barry went with us the second day, his first time ever, and he only crashed once that I recall. I, on the other hand, was using hockey skates and kept forgetting I didn't have toe picks so took more tumbles than he did, as my very bruised knees can attest.  I'd love to have had the camera to take pictures that day.

The newest activity the kids are in is jump rope for heart activity at school.  They go once a week for 6 weeks and have a competition the last day.  Since Braden is in 6th grade, he is a student helper/teacher this year instead.

Kayli just keeps on growing and keeps us laughing.  I substituted in the nursery a few weeks ago and we found out who the real ring leader of trouble is in there - Kayli!  Everyone was laughing pretty hard when I told them her antics.  I saw Kayli and one other girl, who are the only ones with big brothers, were the only two girls playing trucks with the boys.  Gee, imagine that. 

Then when snack time came, I found out Kayli is the big eater of the group. I was informed that when they have sandwiches, she'll have eaten four quarters in the amount of time the rest of the kids will eat one.  She also pounded the goldfish crackers when I was there.  You'd think we never fed the kid.  I thought about and asked if she was the kid that had the most older siblings and sure enough she was.  In other words, her mentality could be "if you don't eat now somebody else is going to and you might be out of luck" where the rest of the kids don't have quite so much competition for goodies at their houses.

My favorite, though, was the wild rampage.  Some of the kids started running around being wild.  Kayli was sitting on my lap pouting (because she wanted Dad) when this started.  She promptly cheered up, got her mischevious look on her face, got the hands up in pounce mode and said "I'mmmmm gonnna get you!" and started chasing all of the kids.  Obviously this happens a lot because all of them instantly when into group mode and started running while she chased them stating she was going to "get them".  I laughed really hard and don't think I can adequately describe how funny it is, mostly because Tyler plays that game with her all the time.  It is their favorite but since he wasn't there, she turned the tables and took his normal position, chasing all the rest of the kids and getting them really wild.

That's about all that has been up in our lives since we last posted.  We've been sick, gotten better, done activities and normal life.  We hope everyone else is doing well and Happy Spring!

Kayli's first haircut

The big news at our house for last week was Kayli finally got her first haircut.  I'd been putting it off, and off, (and off some more) because I have such a hard time emotionally getting the girls' hair cut.  Their hair takes so long to grow I hate to cut it. 

Well, while I was at orchestra practice on Saturday Barry took her to get her hair cut.  Sneaky little devil.  He says he didn't think I'd mind and it needed done.  I came home and Braden promptly showed me Kayli had gotten her first haircut.  The poor thing now has hair shorter than the boys!  The lady at Walmart gave her a boy haircut and so, of course, I cried and cried on Saturday knowing it will take years to regrow her hair.  She was finally starting to let me put hair things in and now it is too short.She was finally starting to let me put hair things in and now it is too short.  I've finally resigned myself to it, though, (what choice do I have?) and even though her bangs are way too short she does look better in the back and her hair looks shinier.  Why does getting girls hair cut have to be so trauamtizing for their mommy?  (Picture coming later.)

Busy, busy...

This week has been a fun and busy week!  Wednesday night was Tyler's Pinewood Derby, Thursday was Braden's D.A.R.E graduation, Friday night was Karina's mini-cheer camp performance at the Skyline-Highland game and Saturday was an interesting date night.

Braden's graduation was at one of the jr. high school's and was really fun!  Unfortunately, Barry said he "never saw my camera" after Wednesday night so I couldn't take any pictures.  He found it yesterday hidden on his tool shelf.  Hmmm.....so, no pictures to share.  I don't remember having a cool graduation like the 6th graders here did.  Diplomas were awarded, winning essays shared and then an awesome video was presented to the kids that they had all made.  I may cave and pay the $5 for it but we'll see.  They showed clips of kids touching a real lung pumping oxygen and their faces were great!  I think the favorite, though, was the videos of the kids trying to walk with beer goggles on.  They were falling all over the place and it was a good practical lesson on why not to drink. 

The last item of the night was a surprise.  Apparently their is a band of police officers called "Police Line" and they played for the kids and were so good!  Braden must be his mother's child because he got really into it, jumping up and down with his buddies and bouncing all over.  The group ended up doing three encores the kids loved it so much.  There were a bunch of little kids Kayli's age dancing in the aisles and it was so cute to watch.  Kayli decided she was too tired to join them, though, and just hung out in my arms instead.

Friday night was Karina's mini-cheer camp performance for the girls' basketball game.  She had workshops on Tue-Thur and then they performed the next night.  She was having a great time at the game - until she fell off the band performance platform.  I kept watching for her and didn't see her get down with the other throngs of girls as I was behind her and thought she had jumped off the end to join the rest.  Apparently someone had pushed her off accidentally.  She ended up hitting her head, getting a bruise and scrap on the shoulder and banging up a knee.  She cheered up quick, though, and had fun cheerleading for the 2nd quarter and doing the half-time dance performance.

Karina's words on the night:

"I liked it when I got a blue balloon and a blue necklace.  I loved cheering in front of the people because it is so fun.  And I liked it because I got a little stamp on my hand and a cheer t-shirt."

PINEWOOD DERBY TIME!

We had our last Pinewood Derby this week with Tyler now becoming a Webelos Scout two weeks ago.  He and Barry had a fun time making the car this year.  Barry says now that he has done this for three years previous, that he thinks he's got it figured out how to make a car go faster.  He was grinding wheels with his grinder, measuring wheels and the whole nine yards.  I had a fun time teasing him while the car was being made.  Tyler did a great job picking the body style and doing his part, too, because he won 2nd place overall!  The kids had so much fun that Braden, the pack den chief, didn't have to do his little kids' activity after all and everyone, including Kayli, just watched the races.

The crew and our VERY happy Pinewood Derby racer, Tyler!

Tyler tearing up the track on his first race.

Tyler as a new Webelos Scout with his Pinewood Derby Car.

Tyler won "Best Driver" thanks to his lego creativity.

Another one bites the dust...

Well, after two weeks we have all finally gotten the stomach flu and hopefully we are done. Tyler was our last holdout. I think this is the worst stuff we've had at our house for awhile. Last fall I bought a Kirby carpet cleaner/shampooer and it turned out to be good timing. We definitely got good use out of it this week. Braden had it first and he definitely had it the easiest of the bunch and then shared with the rest of us. Does anyone else find that unfair? I am he didn't get horribly sick, though.

As a consequence of being sick, Karina and Tyler ended up missing their first day of ice skating lessons. I was rather bummed out about that but we got to do a make-up day on Thursday. They both said they loved it and had lots of fun. Yay! After doing a quick calculation of how much it cost to rent skates for all three sessions, we decided to look into buying them. We managed to find a pair for both kids that were on clearance and are adjustable, so they can wear them next year, too! I am so happy that they both enjoyed it as we need something to replace ballet for Karina and Tyler just hasn't shown much interest in sports for a couple of years now. It was great to see him so excited and find something he likes. I'm not so sure I want to mention hockey teams, though. I think that is one of the more violent sports out there.

We really enjoyed our Christmas break but I think everyone (except Barry) was glad to get back to a normal routine. Structure is nice. The kids did miss their music lessons this week since they were sick so we got to gradually work back into everything. Next week will be full bore back into activities.

You'll NEVER see this again...

Barry's coworkers had a small contest to see who could grow the best beard during the month of November and I just have to share the photo of right before he shaved. As he said, "You will NEVER see this again!" I'll admit he might have complained, ahem, a lot about how itchy it was. He came back from Thanksgiving break and everyone else had caved and shaved so apparently he won because he held out the longest. He was so happy to shave it off. He actually looked pretty good with it, though, and I was kind of sad to see it go - momentarily. I think the girls were quite happy to have it be gone, though, as then they didn't get scratchy daddy kisses anymore. I had to laugh as they had started cringing at his scratchy kisses like I used to with my Grandpa Scott.

New Year's Resolutions - hmmmm, really?

Well, it's a whole new year and that means time for New Year's resolutions. At first I didn't plan on making any and then I thought it through and decided I would.

My biggest goal is actually a family resolution. We bought the book "The Children you Want With the Kids you Have" by Marie Ricks last week. We've been to a number of her classes at BYU-I Education Week and LOVE them. If you ever get a chance to go to one of her classes, GO! We've tried her system a number of times, it works, then we fall off the band wagon as we forget exactly how it goes. Hopefully now that we have the book and the family rules in writing it will help. So basically our goal is to get on a better family contribution/cleaning schedule with the kids.

Okay, onto me! I've still got to ask Barry what his goals are. I think his foremost one is going to be to finish his Master's Degree - and then have a textbook burning party probably.

1. Participate in NaNoWriMo, a writer's challenge I found out about from one of Barry's cousins to write 50,000 words during the month of November, aka a novel. I can about 100% guarantee you it won't be great but I will at least have done it! I've always wanted to write one so hopefully this will actually get the job done.

2. Potty train Kayli. Okay, so this might not exactly qualify but it is must for this year and one I hate to do so I think it counts. I'm hoping she'll be fairly easy about it. She already likes to come and tell me about needing changed and say "Ewww, gross!". It's really funny. You should hear it.

3. Teach Karina to ride a two-wheeler. Hmm, now that I think about it, this goal should go under Barry's list and he's the one that taught the other two. Does it count if I make a goal to have Barry do it?

4. Actually update our blog. See, I'm already doing great! My goal is to update our family blog, or have kids do it (I know Barry never will) once a week. It'll be fun to read it at the end of the year and review everyone's antics.

5. Get a full 3-months worth of food storage and household items. Seriously, I am bad at keeping track of this one. We may very well have it and I don't know it because it's not kept track of. Years ago Barry got me the Food Storage Planner program and every so often I get on and use it. (Like, maybe once a year.) I'll get on, update everything we have, get gung-ho for a little bit. Theoretically every time something is bought you are supposed to add it onto your computerized inventory or remove it every time it is used. Umm, never happens. I'll totally quit because it just seems like such a big task and so long away to finish. So, I figure 3 months ought to be a lot easier, right? I'm thinking we might be realistically close to that in some areas but this way I can actually see a big fat 100% at some point in time where the other way I never will. Plus, it's nice knowing if something happens we can survive. We definitely enjoyed having it last semester while Barry was only working part-time.

You know, I think that is plenty of resolutions for this year. Here is a big Happy New Year to everyone and may you all have joy and success in your New Year's Resolutions and I'll look forward to seeing mine all done at the end of the year.