I have an 8 year old!!

My oldest, Derek, just turned 8 years old! Crazy how fast he grew up!! I'm so lucky to have such a great kid.

We had a "Minute to Win It" party for him. I think the kids loved it.

Juniors vs. Misses

So I have never been a fashion icon of any sort, which I have blogged about before. I have always had troubles when it comes to clothing, and knowing what looks good. My brothers teased me about always dressing older than my age during my school years. Nowadays I usually tend to gravitate toward the younger-ish clothing in the misses/womens depts. and older-ish clothing in the Junior styles. However, I must admit that it feels better putting on a Medium size women's shirt than fitting into a snug Junior size XL.

A few months ago some ladies in my ward, both of which are a few years older than me, asked me if I wanted to go shopping in Ogden with them. During the course of the evening we went to clothing stores and they only looked at items in the Juniors sections of the department stores. So I decided maybe I AM just clueless and I should try to look "trendier". I have bought a few "junior" items of clothing since then, but I always feel a little silly when I'm wearing the same shirt as the thirteen-year-old next door.

So..... while shopping for school clothes for the boys last week, I come across this top in the middle of the isle between the Juniors and Misses sections. Sweet! Looks good..
It's not a style I've tried before, but I think it looks cute and stylish on the mannequin, so I buy it. Today I wear it to church. And as I sit down and look around, I notice that a 60-ish grandma one isle over is wearing the same shirt. I had to laugh. I point it out to Tom, and he chuckles and says "Well, I always thought Shirley had a sense of style". Then the only other comment I received was when I walked into the library and the four elderly librarians mentioned how nice I looked today. He, He, He.

So where do you guys shop (all 2-3 people who read my blog)?

Bi-Lingual Dallan

Found this treasure in my videos. Dallan, it seems, knows some sign language, or at least the word "weirdo" I think. You have to enlarge it for the full effect. Love him!

Favorite Things

It's been a while since I posted a list of some of my favorite things. I've found a couple treasures in the last few weeks so of course I might as well share. :o)

-My Chi gave out on me after 5 years, so being the cheap person I am, I decided to read online and see if any of the retail straighteners have improved vastly in the last five years. I was very skeptical, but I found this one for $40 that had amazing reviews on Amazon and Walmart.com, even from previous Chi users. So I crossed my fingers and bought it. Guess what? It works just as fast as my Chi, and my hair stays straight just as long. Love saving money!

-I don't love exercising, especially in the summer. So I have to find movies on Netflix Instant Play to keep my attention long enough to get me through 30-40 minutes of elliptical blah. Guess what I found? The old TV series of Beauty and the Beast that I watched when I was little. Cheesy plots, cheesy music, cheesy effects, rediculous villians, and a hero who looks like he's wearing a midevil spacesuit most of the time. PERFECT, entertainment for exercising! Haven't missed a day. Thank you Netflix!

-Bubba's brand Whole Wheat Honey Bagels. I usually don't like bagels, but these are better than most and are something whole wheat that I actually like. The kids like them toasted with PB&J and I like whipped cream cheese.

-On the same note...Whole wheat white flour. My kids actually like when I make pancakes, waffles, and muffins with this stuff. It took me a long time to attempt it but I found a bag at Walmart that wasn't too expensive and decided to try it. Glad I did.

Summertime

So it's almost August and I don't want summer to be over yet. Although the kids might do well with a little break from each other. :o) We have taken a few day trips so far: Spiral Jetty, Bear Lake, Reunions, Lagoon, but no big vacations yet. We're going to head to Denver this weekend and see Tom's dad and step-mom, and we'll probably hit Water World while we're there (an AMAZING water park for kids of all ages if you're ever in Denver) At the start of the year we really wanted to plan a Disneyland trip this fall, but too many other things have come up to spend money on.... so maybe in a year or two.

Here are some random things going on with us:

Tom is a full time Drivers Ed. Teacher this summer, so he hasn't been home a lot. I'll admit the job scares me and I'm EXTREMELY proud of him for doing it, and for not complaining about having to do it. The extra money is very nice too. :o)

Tom also found time to build the boys a fort in the backyard. They LOVE it. It has two stories and the second story has a gate they can open to jump down on to our high jump mat. They have a blast and it only scares me a little bit. I'll post pics when it's all the way completed.

Derek is turning eight this month! Crazy how time flies.

Dallan is finally warming up to swimming lessons and no longer seems terrified, which is a big step for him.

Jace is doing well and getting better and better. Still OBSESSED with everything to do with trains.

I am planning my first piano recital. Should be fun. My students seem to be excited, so I hope it goes well. I have eight students now, plus my own kids.

Jaceee pants

My baby is almost 2! He's already turning into a little boy. A very independent little boy. :o)

Happy Birthday to Jace!

Soccer challenges

So this year Derek and Dallan are playing soccer (AYSO). It took a few games to get them back in the swing of things, but they are doing really well and liking it a lot. However, I am struggling with Dallan's coach quite a bit. I realize that he is a volunteer and I really try never to criticize volunteers, especially when it's something I'm not willing to volunteer to do. His son is amazing and I am proud of the kid's skills, but the dad(coach) is SOOO overly proud of the kid that it is embarrassing. He forgets about everyone else on the team, which is sad since they are 5 years old and this is likely their very first experience. Much of practices are spent on ridiculous things like juggling the ball, since his kid has clearly mastered all the basic skills. The kid will literally get the ball every play and go for a goal. I never hear any mention of passing, letting others have a chance, etc.... Ball goes into play, "Wyatt" (I'll change the name for the kid's sake) gets the ball, takes it down for a goal, coach yells something like "YEAYYY WYATT, your a SUPERSTAR!!!", "WOW, you make this game so fun to watch!", and my personal favorite is when he instructs the kids on the other team, which he always does, "you need to make sure and stay on Wyatt, because if he gets the ball he'll get a goal every time." I think the other coaches and parents all want to strangle him. Last week Tom finally had had enough. Smart little Dallan decided to post himself in front of our own goal and assist Wyatt's goal so at least he could feel like he was playing. After Wyatt's 10th goal against a team that was clearly struggling, Tom stood up and made some sarcastically loud cheers that I think MAY have gotten the coach's attention. I was a little embarrassed, but also a little proud since it seemed to have gone on long enough. Next week is the last game, thank goodness. Maybe in the future I'll sign up to be a soccer coach after all. :o)

New Stuff

So I have a new calling (a few months ago). I am a den leader in cub scouts. I have the wolves, which is the youngest group. I must say I wasn't super-excited, because scouts is somewhat of an alien world to me. But, I have enjoyed it so far, and I work with great people and have a group of cute boys. Derek will be in my group at the end of summer. So hopefully I can be organized enough to help a few boys earn a few badges and all will be well.

Also, guess what! My parents decided to buy a house in Brigham City! Crazy, I know. My mom has lived in the Uintah Basin for her whole life, and I thought she would never consider moving. But I guess having all their children so far away has changed things. They will not retire for a few more years, but they found a great house with a lot of potential and beautiful yard and figured it was a good time to buy. They will rent it out for a couple more years until they move up. It will be really fun to have family closer!

Socially Handicapped?

Do you suppose there is such thing as a social handicap? If so, I think I have it. :o) I tend to be a little bit introverted, or maybe it's just selfishness, or shyness, who knows. I genuinely like almost everyone and yet I tend to avoid many social interactions simply because I'm not GOOD at being social. But I have been trying for some time to change this about myself. To make a conscious effort to look around me and see how I can be more outwardly friendly. Sometimes it works, other times I feel pretty dumb. BUT-- I'm going to keep plugging because I think it's a worthwhile goal.

Is this something you can become better at? Is there a class for this? Hmm... I think that's what kindergarten was for. :o)

Goodbyes

#1 - Goodbye to Young Womens. My time in Young Women's has finally come to an end. I was released recently and I have to admit, it was both very sad and a big relief. No more scrambling for activity preparations or trying to find babysitters when Tom can't be home. But the calling came at a time when Heavenly Father knew EXACTLY what I needed at that time in my life, and I believe it has changed me for the better. I really learned to love the girls and will miss getting to hear all about their lives all the time. I will also miss working so closely with the wonderful ladies that I worked with in YW. It served as a nice outlet for me to be more social and outgoing, since sadly I don't tend to seek out those things on my own.

#2 - Goodbye to all sweets - for the present. My new years goals haven't gone so well, so I am going to do something drastic that I have never done and ban myself from candy and desserts altogether. My goal is to make it at least until my birthday in three weeks, where I plan to eat whatever I want, and then re-evaluate from there. :o)

South Dakota

Another delayed post......

For fall break we took a road trip to South Dakota to visit Tom's sister and her family. They were great and we had a lot of fun with their cute kids, but overall, the vacation itself was a little bit of a disaster. In Rawlins, WY (about half way) we found out we had left Jace's bag at home, including all his diapers, clothes, shoes, etc... So we had to stop and get him all new stuff. When we got to Rapid City, within minutes of being at the McLaw's house, Dallan started having some serious trouble breathing. Fortunately we had found a cheap hotel and didn't have to sleep at their house. We couldn't figure out what he was having a reaction to but it got pretty scary a couple times and I had to get him a prescription breathing treatment. As soon as we got back home he was fine, but he's had a few small episodes since. I'm worried it's something that he might have to deal with throughout his life (asthma??). We still can't figure out the cause, but the two other times, he's started to get it while we were in Walmart. Weird.

Then, the second to last day, Tom got really sick to his stomach, which I think might have been food poisoning from a restaurant, and he was miserable all night.

We've had quite a busy year and gone on 3 long road trips (Vegas, Texas, and South Dakota) The kids have been amazing during all the long rides, especially Jace. The next trip I'm hoping will be to California. :o)

Halloween thru Christmas

Halloween pics....yes, I know they are a few months too late. :o)
Jace did NOT like getting in his costume, but after we let him run around in the leaves for a while he decided it wasn't so bad.
Dallan was a doctor, but, because he's Dallan he had to spice it up a little. He wore the Sombrero to the Halloween Carnival so people would know he was a Mexican doctor. :o) Derek wanted to be Harry Potter really bad, so I ordered a cape online and he looked really cute. He is reading Harry Potter and I have to ground him from taking it to school so he doesn't read through recess. I was very pleased the other day when he came home and told me that he had spent recess pretending to be a brain sucking alien like the other boys. :o)

Spinach and Carrot Smoothie??

So my favorite Christmas gift this year was a Ninja personal blender that Tom got me. Since I am not a fan of raw vegetables, I have for a while been making a smoothie that I drink every morning, and I actually think it tastes pretty good. My kids like it too. I am lucky to live in Brigham because we have great friends and neighbors that give us free fruit that I can freeze and use all year!!

Here is my basic recipe for one serving:

small handful of fresh spinach (I use bagged baby spinach)
3 baby carrots
a cup or so of frozen peaches
4-6 frozen raspberries
1/4 green apple, chopped (galas or braeburns are good too)
1/2 cup (approx.) orange juice
milk (maybe 1/2 cup - 1 cup?)
small section of a banana (optional)

I don't add any sugar at all. And sometimes it's a little tart, so I add just a small amount of banana and it's perfect. The key I think is to have a good blender and let it blend long enough so you can't even tell the spinach is there. I also think the O.J. is vital. At first I didn't add it, and it wasn't nearly as good.

I even told my kids there was spinach in it and they still wanted more, they couldn't even tell. And the raspberries make it a nice pink color so it doesn't look green.

I think if you were a yogurt person that might be good too, but as I'm not, I haven't tried it.

September Happenings

This summer we made a reading goal for Derek and the big reward was a trip to Lagoon. Well, he did really well so I gave him a little extension on the time and we went to Lagoon last Saturday. It was just Derek, Dallan, and myself. We had a blast! I hadn't been there since I was 18, and everything was so different. It's much prettier and cleaner than I remember, with a lot more options for kids. Derek fell in love with a couple rides, and we got Dallan to go on 5 kiddie rides so I considered that quite a large victory.
And a friend invited me to go to a Jazzercise class last night. It was a lot of fun! Although, nobody was wearing cool leotards like these ladies, that would have been even cooler. :o) I would love to keep going regularly, but that might have to wait for another time and place in my life. And that's OK. At least now I know that I like it and it can be an option in the future when things aren't so busy.

And I know I just posted about this, but I decided to try and take some quality portrait-type pics of my kids. I made them pose around the yard and give me their best smiles. I think they turned out really well. If anyone wants me to practice on them, let me know. I won't even make you pay an arm and a leg. :o)

New Camera Pics

So Tom got sick of all the terrible cameras we have and decided to get a nice camera. He has been having fun taking a million pictures. One of these days I want to figure out how to use it too. Here are some of my favorites of the kids

Goods and Bads

Things I am loving right now.....

#1 I love this time of year. I'm not crazy about the heat, but I just love having my flowers in full bloom and vegetables ready to pick. I love going to the grocery stores and fruit stands and getting lots of fresh produce. I love the anticipation of a new school year and making new goals to get organized (and believing that this year I might actually do them). :o)

#2 My new carpet! For anyone who's been to my house in the past. Just a note that it is now safe to put your children down on my floors. The carpet was way past due and is finally here! I hope the new carpet smell with hold on for a long time.

#3 My family! Okay, I love my family all the time and I should've probably listed them first, but I talk about them in every post, so....

#4 I love having Tom home in the mornings and I can go out walking early. Something about getting out first thing in the morning while it's still cool, with your favorite songs playing on your ipod and the sun not quite peaking through the mountains yet, it's so refreshing and a great way to start the day. I will miss when Tom goes back to work (for many reasons, by the way), and I have to go back to my elliptical or else push a stroller around with me. Oh well. I'm still very lucky, I know.


OK - Things I do NOT love right now.....

Note: I consider myself a pretty easy-going person. Maybe some people could argue with that, but I try to understand both sides of any argument, and I pride myself in the fact that I don't get offended too easily. With that said, I do have some things that are driving me crazy:

#1 People who treat their dogs better than their children or their grandchildren. I have seen this in several cases and it drives me nuts. Dogs are very trendy right now, and everyone knows I'm not a dog lover (not even a little bit), but I do appreciate the fact that many people do love them. I know they have their good qualities. I just hate when I see people Oooh and Aaahh over the dog, talk to it in a lovey dovey voice, and then turn to their kids and bark some mean command or comment. Or people who pay no attention when their kids or grandkids are talking to them, but every bark and move the dog makes gets some wonderful response. Arghh....

#2 I am a little tired of being asked to sign up for store credit cards everywhere I shop. Do people really have cards for every different store they shop in? Sad. I guess I could save a lot of money on those initial sales, but I just hate the idea of credit cards and would like to check out without getting a sales pitch every time I do.

#3 I'll probably get some negative feedback on this one, but what the heck! I'm tired of all the little comments people make and emails that are sent around with jokes about how they wish our president would be assassinated. I think it's rediculous. I don't consider myself a democrat, nor do I think that Obama is making the best decisions for our country, but I'm really sick of good, Christian people wishing that the president of our own country would die. He was elected by a fair process and from that point on our focus as a country should always be work together to find ways to make our country better. Too much of politics seems focused on the competition of the two parties and it seems very counter-productive.

End of rant. :o) At least I have 4 good and 3 bad!

Texas trip

So we decided to get brave and take a road trip down to Estillene, Texas to go to the Davidson family reunion.  I’ll be honest, I was VERY hesitant to go, since Jace has not been very content in his carseat on much shorter trips.  But all the boys were so good!  We stayed with cousins, Mike and Susan, who were very good to put up with our boys and all their craziness and messes.  As you can see, there was plenty of playing in the dirt.

         This is our niece, Katie, who came over from Mississippi.  She was wonderful with Jace and packed him around a lot of the time, which was a very nice break for me.

Here is Mike with the boys.  He was great with them, and let them ride in the tractor and the bulldozer.  

I’m really glad we went, and it was really fun to see everyone again.   I don’t know if we will be going down every year, but we hope to make it down again sometime.

Awesome Girl's Camp

We just had THE BEST Girls' Camp. OK, it wasn't really a traditional "camp" at all. We called it "urban" camp and stayed in Salt Lake for three days. Our camp leader, Valene, did an amazing job and I think the girls will never forget it.

The first morning we went down in our dresses and started right off doing baptisms for the dead in the SL Temple. It was so beautiful and a first for most of our girls. Afterward we walked over and had a light lunch at the Lion House, and then gathered on the lawn in front of the temple for a talk about temple marriage from one of the newly married sister's in our ward. Then we watched the Joseph Smith movie (which made me cry several times) at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building, then walked through that building and the Beehive House, where Brigham Young and a couple other prophets lived. Then we went back to the place we were staying, had dinner and a game, and got our hiking clothes on for a hike up Ensign Peak. To the girls' surprise, our camp leader's daughter was waiting up at the top with some gold, helium-filled balloons. She gave a talk on virtue from Brother Uchtdorf's "Happily Ever After" talk, and then let the girls write some goals on their balloons with ideas on how they would be virtuous. Then we said the YW Theme and let the balloons go. It was VERY cool.

The next day we started by going to President Hinckley's gravesite at the Salt Lake Cemetary. We all stood around the grave and took turns telling memories and things that we learned and appreciated about President Hinckley. We found some other prophets graves also, as well as some other graves from people in church history. Then we headed up to the This is the Place Monument, where one of our leaders told a pioneer story. After we went home for lunch and had a demonstration on making cinnamon rolls and homemade taffy. Then we headed to the Humanitarian Center and took a tour there. It was so neat for the girls to see where all the money and donated goods are going and how the church works in that way. We went back for dinner and ended with a very nice testimony meeting outside.

The last day we let the girls play and we all went swimming at a local water park. It was a lot of fun and a great end to a great camp.