The Big 8

My little girl turned 8. This is a big birthday and she has been so excited for it to come. 

We started the morning with her requested breakfast of doughnuts and scrambled eggs. I woke up early to go get the doughnuts, and then, Hailey being Hailey, she didn't even eat one.The girl eats like a bird.  I guess I did actually get them and that's what counts, right?

Then that afternoon, I got her all dressed up and we went up to the temple grounds to get some pictures of her in her baptism dress to get prepared for the big day. She was so excited to be there.

We were able to get some great shots. I look at them and am amazed and how fast she is growing up.

That night Corey and I took her out for her birthday day date. She chose to eat at Olive Garden. Then we took her with to do a little shopping. Then we went back home to open her presents.

I am probably the meanest mom, but I usually make my kids wait to open their presents until Corey is home from work so she had to stare at them all day. It was almost too much.

She is into everything about wolves right now. That's all she asked for. Her stuffed wolf was even there to watch her do her unwrapping. She got a book about them and the book "white fang". She has read it at school, but now she has her own copy. I found a wolf puzzle, a wolf figurine, and even a wolf Lego set. She was thrilled with all of it. 

 When she was all done unwrapping we gave her another surprise. She has wanted to have her "own electronic" forever. I always told her that we had plenty around of them around the house, but we decided that she was old enough to have one now. She got her own kindle. We actually bought it when she was shopping with us, but still didn't suspect it was for her. She couldn't stop smiling all night.

Then of course we moved onto her birthday dessert. She wanted brownies and ice cream this year.

She had such a fun day and is so excited for her baptism. This girl is such fun to have around. She is so good and is so easy to please. That doesn't mean she doesn't have some spunk, because she certainly does, but we love her for it. We are so lucky to have her as part of our family.

Around Here

 1. My car companion. Emery is not quite as attached to her dog as she used to be, but there are some days she still needs him. One preschool day she agreed to leave him in the car with me as long as I took care of him. I'm going to miss it when he is not such a presence in our life.

2. The weather here has been really good lately. I had to deliver some stuff to a friend for a Young Women's activity. I decided to take the girls and walk there. It was too nice of a day to not enjoy it. 

3. Bubble baths are the best.

4. Emery was upset with me one day. She had really been a pill and had to spend some time in her room. She drew a picture of me, while she was doing her time, with an "X" over me. She was clearly stating I was not allowed in. 

 5. I recently changed the shower curtain, rug, and hung a new wreath in the downstairs bathroom. I love the change. 

6. Meredith, Bionicles, and Barbie all play well together in the Barbie house around here.

7. My little dancer. We are still doing a dance class once a week, while Hailey does gymnastics, and she just loves it. 

8. Another showing of Frozen. It's better to watch it when you are dressed up. That first week we bought it, I'm sure she watched it daily. It's actually one of the few movies she will watch the whole way through. Although if the kids are all home when it's playing, they will all sit and watch it, including the older boys.

9. Brendan had strep throat and was home from school for a few days. Emery loved having the company and the excuse to stay in her pajamas. Brendan was good to put up with her. Most of the time anyway.

10. Kayden came home from a Young Men's activity with a home grown cucumber. It was HUGE and he couldn't eat it all. Later I found it wrapped up in the fridge with this note attached. Nobody touched it.

11. All my kids love, love ice cream. Emery is the worst though, she literally asks for it several times a day. One day I had told her no because it was almost lunch time. I was cleaning upstairs and she was coloring downstairs. I didn't think anymore about it until we pulled the container out that night and found it like this. Spoon and all. 

12. A friend in the ward had a craft night at her house. I made this fun sign for my stairwell. I love it.

Grandparents are the best

I'm so lucky to have such great parents and grandparents for my kids. It's hard living far away from all of them, but we sure look forward to their visits when they come. 

My parents came to work at a trade show last month and spent the weekend with us. As luck would have it, the day they were arriving was also reading week at the elementary school. The teachers had been asking for guest readers to come in the classrooms and share a book with the kids. I could have done it, but I figured it would be so much better if my dad read to the kids. I arranged with Brendan and Hailey's teachers to have him come and kept it a secret from them. 

It was the best to see their faces when we showed up at school. They had no idea and were thrilled.

We started in Hailey's class. She was so excited to see us. He read the book "Scaredy Squirrel", to her class, which is one of my favorites. Then we handed out chocolate acorns (Hershey kisses) to the kids.

Then we went to Brendan's class. He was also so surprised and excited, but being that he is a 4th grader, he did his best not to show it too much. My dad read an excerpt from Uncle Si's Duck Dynasty book. It was about his brother and a snake. We handed out more Hershey kisses to the class, calling them snake poop. 

 It was one of the best suprises that I've been able to give to my kids. I'm so glad my parents were able to do this for them. So much fun and a great memory.

That afternoon my mom sat down to sew with the girls. She had bought material to make "Frozen" capes for them. That movie has caused a bit of an obsession around our house and they were beyond thrilled to have them. 

 They have already seen a lot of use.

 I told my parents that I wasn't sure they would ever be able to live up to this last visit. It sure was a great one. 

The next weekend, Corey's parents came and spent the day with us. It's nice that they are close enough to do that on occasion. We went to Brendan's lacrosse game and then had lunch at Red Robin. It was fun to be able to spend time with them too.

We really look forward to Grandparent visits regardless of what we do. We just love spend time with all of them.

Off to the store

One of the best things about Emery's preschool is all the fun field trips she has been able to go on. Surprisingly one of the funnest was a trip to Albertson's, I guess it shouldn't be too much of a surprise because Emery loves the grocery store, but the people there made it so much fun for the kids. They taught them about foods they should always eat and some that they should only eat sometimes. We toured each department and got all kinds of goodies along the way. 

 We started out with a little tour of the deli department then went to the bakery department. We watched cupcakes being decorated while eating samples.

Then we moved onto the meat department and go a close look at a crab.

 And of course who doesn't want to hold a crab leg? Well, I don't, but 4 year olds do.

 Then we took a little break. A snack was next in the break room.

 Then each child got a turn at the checkout. That was the best. A dream come true for Emery.

We ended our tour with hot chocolate from Starbucks, some pictures with our great tour guides, and left with goodie bags to take home.

Tator-Tots Preschool Field trip

Albertson's Grocery Store

March 13, 2014

Sports update

Carter finished his school basketball season a month or so ago, his NJB team finished their season last week, and church basketball ended last week too. He is already going through withdrawals. I, however, am enjoying the short break from running him all over the place. He wants to play in their spring season, so my break will probably be short lived. It's really okay, I love basketball and love that he is finally playing it.

His NJB team had a rough time at the beginning of the season, but had started to work together and play fairly well towards the end. Carter improved a lot and and it was a good experience for him. His team played an undefeated team in their second and last playoff game. And while they still lost, it was only by nine points. This same team, they played their first game of the season and were creamed. So it was something to be proud of .

I may not be shuttling Carter around, but Brendan started back up with lacrosse practices over a month ago. He practices several times a week. Their first season game was last week too. 

He really enjoys it and it is fun to watch. All I know is that they run a lot. A lot. And it's hard to keep track of him on the field. I went and bought him some neon socks for the next game to help that situation.