Too Long

Leave it to a school religion assignment to bring me back to the world of blogging. I am supposed to make blog posts that defend the family, as that is what we are studying this semester. The church makes a lot of amazing videos about the family, and I will post some of them here, but not today. Today I am going to reintroduce my family to the two of you who will actually look at this. Don't worry, I'm not offended. It's been awhile, and you've probably forgotten that this thing exists. I know I did. Things tend to go oldest to youngest or vice versa, so just to mix life up a bit, I'm going to start in the middle.

Elijah Mellor: 

This boy has a huge heart! I love that he still loves to give hugs and unashamedly will confess his love for his mother. He is in seventh grade and decided that he wanted to play the clarinet in band. After summer lessons with his grandpa, he has been way ahead of the other kids and is rocking the clarinet thing. He is President of Beginning Band. I'm not exactly sure of the duties involved, but he is excited, so I am too! 

Next up: Jake:

Jake is in 8th grade and is rocking the percussion world. I am in awe of his musical talents and how quickly Jake picks up instruments. He plays the drums, piano, guitar and other percussiony stuff. He makes me laugh on a daily basis with his weird comments. I think he is hilarious. Currently, he wants to go to Stanford, so he has decided to no longer space out in class and listen. He was genuinely surprised at the effectiveness of this strategy in learning math. 

Deanne: 

I started school online at BYU-Idaho. It has been an interesting adventure. I am really excited to be actually going back to school and I will get my Associate's next semester! I am still making costumes for the elementary school, and I really enjoy it, but it also stresses me out trying to balance everything at home with school and costuming. 

Tyler: He's kind of the same. Running, music, work. He did quit the Motab this year, so that's a big change. I love, love, love having him home more though! 

Kennedy: 

Wowzers. I have a 16 year old. I don't know how that actually happened. She is a licensed driver though. I feel a little panicked that I only have a short time left with her before she is out on her own! Yikes!! She is still going strong in the drama world. She was the only sophomore girl to make the high school fall play. She was amazing. Is amazing. 

And Sophie: 

Soph is enjoying following in her sister's footsteps and is loving it. She will be Chip in Beauty and the Beast in the Spring. She is still as happy and adorable as ever!

Sophie

Ty said that if he didn't see Sophie come out of me, he would seriously wonder who her mother is.  :) She LOVES bugs.  I cannot relate to this in any way.  Ty was listening to her play with her cousin one day and she kept putting things down her shirt.  He asked her what she was doing and she said that she was playing with beetles.  She lifted her shirt to show him GIANT, BLACK BEETLES crawling all over her tummy.  She was giggling about how they tickled.  I am repulsed.  I can't even take a picture of her new "friends." The grasshoppers and ants were ok, but I firmly draw the line at beetles and stink bugs.  ICK!

It is such a contradiction too.  She is such a girly girl and LOVES dresses, princesses and dancing.  Go figure.  She loved 'So You Think You Can Dance' so much that she spent weeks doing "moves" around the house.  She used Ty as her lifting partner.  She got some pretty cool moves in, including balancing on Ty's head.  I figured that since a year ago, Ty had to have a very expensive neck surgery, he should nix that move.  I finally signed her up for dance class.  She loves to go and loves to wear leotards all around the house and talks about one day being on SYTYCD.

Eli

Eli was really excited about joining knowledge bowl this year because it was all about science.  Since he wants nothing more than to be a mad scientist one day, this was a perfect activity for him.  He learned so much about physical science studying for the competition.  Science has always been a subject that I cannot seem to understand, so I think it's neat that he knows so much.
For his birthday he got some science kits and I think it's so cute to listen to him giggle when one of the experiments work.
His team didn't make the top ten, but I was super proud of him and how much he learned.
His pinewood derby car won in his division this year, so he was uber stoked about that- and considering this families' track record in that department, it is even cooler.
Eli decided that he wants to join in the fun of acting and is going to try out for the school play tomorrow.  Ty was helping him practice his audition song and was ELATED to discover Eli is NOT tone deaf!  Yay!  He actually does pretty well, just needs a little training, which Ty is happy to provide. :)
We have been practicing not being so literal all the time.  I swear that kid is trying to make me crazy with LITERALLY everything I say being taken so literally.  It's getting better.  :)

Jake

I've often wondered how I could parent so poorly as to have one child with so much self confidence it is boarder-line narcissistic and have the next one be so self-loathing it's painful.  I wanted Jake to have a win so badly this year.  Enter Science Fair/Spelling Bee season.  Ken won the Science Fair, and then studied like mad for the Scrips Spelling Bee.  She worked so hard and knew pretty much every word on the list.  Jake studied hard too, but he is 2 years younger, so was a little more unfamiliar with some of the words and Ken has a near photographic memory.  Perhaps admitting this will make me sound like a horrible parent, but it's truthful, so here goes:
I prayed that Kennedy would lose the spelling bee and Jake would win.  Let me justify/explain myself just a little...

Ken has just had so many wins and everything seems to come so easily for her and she was just coming off of the Science Fair thing and had been a little unbearable in the "I'm so awesome" department, that I thought it would be nice for her to experience a little humility. And then there's Jake.  It has been so heartbreaking to see him feel so badly about himself and berate himself with "I'm stupid" all the time.  So, I prayed fervently that one of my children would beat the other.  Well, Ken got out in round 1 with "harsh."  In the official rules, you can't correct yourself, so if it leaves your mouth, it counts.  She misspoke and said the letter 's' and immediately knew it was over.  Jake went on to win the rest of the competition!  My prayer was answered!  Hallelujah!

 I was so elated for him.  This gave him so much confidence that he tried out for a solo in choir and his class opera and got them both!  He has a really great singing voice (it's really high too- maybe he can try out for the Vienna Boys Choir ;)).

 It has made all the difference for him this year and I'm so glad that it happened this way.  Ken has been much more manageable with her slice of humble pie, and Jake (for the most part) has stopped beating himself up.  Maybe I'm still a meanie pants of a parent, but I'm happy it worked out this way.

Jake's teacher last year was the YW's Pres. from our ward.  I have a mad crush on her.  So much so that when she asked me to be in charge of costumes for this year's play, I couldn't turn her down.  I just immediately said, "Yes!" and then regretted having no power against her awesomeness.  Hopefully, I can do ok at it.  

Kennedy

I thought I'd give each kiddo his/her own post and sum up the last year for them.  Here goes:

Kennedy in a year

Ken got the part of Gertrude McFuzz in the school play of Seussical the Musical last year.  She was AMAZING!  I know that I throw that word out a lot, but I was in awe of her.  I saw the play 4 times and it was still so great.  I've been to others that I really didn't care to sit through once even though my kid was in it, but not Seussical.  Her solos were beautiful. Because of copyright laws, there was no recording or photography allowed during the performance, and I am so sad!  She was brilliant.
The play is similar to Horton Hears a Who, with a little variation- Ken played a bird that is madly in love with Horton the Elephant, but feels that he doesn't notice her because of her one-feathered tail and his obsession with the spec with the Whos. She goes to a Dr. to give her magic pills to make her tail grow, which when it does, makes her so heavy she can't fly to save Horton or the spec.  She plucks out her feathers to save the day and gets the guy and they decide to parent an elephant bird together.  I'm sure there are some valuable life lessons to be learned through all this, but mostly I just enjoyed watching Ken shine on stage.  :)  Jake decided to try out too and was one of the Who's.  Livy got the part of Jo Jo.  They did so great!





Ken also won the school science fair.  Her project was on environmentally sound mulches.  I was especially proud because she did everything on her own.  

6th Grade was also really difficult, mostly because I messed up her world of perfection and easiness.  I suck that way.  Ken's teacher was not working out for so many reasons, so we moved her into a different class 1/2 way through the year.  This presented new challenges and made it so both teachers hated me (and Ken), but I still think it ended up being the best thing for her.  I've made some enemies at the school, but I'm ok with that.  I feel like I did the best thing for my daughter.  Ken doesn't seem too scarred by the experience either.... now.

She is in middle school, which is crazy for me to think about.  She is really enjoying it and loves her musical theater class (surprise!).

I will officially have a teenager in a little over a month, which is so nonsensical to me.  I didn't relate well to teenagers when I was one, so this should get interesting.  :)

It is harder to sum up an entire year than I thought it would be.  Blogging is so hard.

Holy Moly- Sorry Mama!

It has been a year since I posted last!  I have no idea what is wrong with me!  Mom, I am truly sorry, as I know you get pictures of the kids here.  I'm recommitted to blogging (for now).
The kids started school on the 21st of August.  I now have no kids at home during the day.  I'm entering this new chapter of my life and I'm both excited and nervous.  It's freeing to have all this time to myself, but a little scary too.  I promised myself that I'd go back to school and get my degree once all the kiddos were in school, but now that it's finally here, I'm too chicken.  I don't feel smart enough.  Ty was trying really hard to get me to go in and talk to a school counselor, but I'm too chicken to even do that.  I did sign up for piano lessons, though, which is something I've always wanted to be good at.  I'm no better at practicing than I was at 8.  Bummer.  I was really hoping that adulthood would make me more. (Yes, I intentionally left that as the end of the sentence.)
I feel more and more in love with our tiny little city every day.  I never thought I could love living out in the middle of nowhere in Utah, but here I am fighting for my neighbors to keep their goats, talking to the city about bike path issues, and just feeling all civic duty-ish. I feel so blessed to live here and I don't think I've ever felt more at peace and content.  This normally would scare me to death because I tend to start fearing and panicking for the yuck of life to bite when things are going so awesomely, but I must be evolving somewhat because I'm just enjoying this season of our lives for now.  This gives me a little dose of hope that maybe I can evolve into an educated piano player one day. :)
So, school for the kids. This is what I've gleaned so far:
Soph-

She sits at the all boy table and is slightly concerned about the "naughty boy that tells lies and pushes people and spends a lot of time staring with creepy cutesy eyes at me."  I've learned not to freak out about this as much, but I'm hoping she stops being cute pretty soon.
Eli-

Ever the easy-going, funny, quirky kid he's always been.  He likes school, but has no tolerance for any other kids that "sass" the teacher.  It is very upsetting to him.  He says that there are less people who are sassing this year, so it's definitely an improvement for him.  This amuses me to no end.  I have no idea where this comes from.  I'm pretty sure I've never even said to any of my children that they shouldn't "sass" me.  It sounds like such an antiquated phrase. ;) I'm hoping to help him adjust to not being so intolerant, but it is so cute how irrationally angry he gets.
Jake-

His teacher is really into science, so Jake is digging the experiments they do.  He is super excited to try out for the school play this year and follow in the footsteps of the older sis.
Kennedy-

She is in Jr. High.  I'm not kidding.  I don't know how this happened.  She likes all her classes and tried out for a Shakespearean Competition Team and made it!  I can't believe her crazy cool ability to memorize.  It's seriously amazing.  She is also a peer tutor this year and helps special needs kids with their work, which I think is pretty cool.  She is playing the flute in band as well.  She is much better about practicing the flute than I am the piano.

I have so much more to share, but thought it might be better if I broke it up into separate posts.  I seem to have a lot more time on my hands....

 This covers the last little bit, though.

Sophie Lou

Soph is 5!  Holy Smoly!!
I only let the kids have a "friend party" at 5, 8, and 12 (cause I'm mean that way).  Someone in our ward is starting a party planning business and I totally asked her to do it, since parties ain't my thing.
The theme was "Fairy Garden Party" and I cannot rave about Jamie Coe ENOUGH!  The party was so fantastic, and I didn't have to do ANYTHING!  I LOVED it!

Sophie loved it too.  It was super fun.  The girls got dressed as fairies and the boys were Garden Knomes.  They looked so cute!

Soph said she wanted a unicorn (check) and a toy Sam (what?) for her birthday.  Sam is her "boyfriend." Sophie is constantly telling me how much she loves him and is going to marry him.  Great.  She makes me a little nervous.  :)  When she saw this picture she said, "(Sigh) I love Sam."  We are in SERIOUS. TROUBLE.

Sophie decided that she wanted to learn how to ride a bike, so I helped her for about 10 minutes before bed one night and she took the initiative to wake up early for school so she could practice.  This is Soph after one day and for all but 10 minutes, self-taught.  Crazy girl.

Soph is loving school (most days) and turned into my most social child.  I'm beginning to believe that E.M. is the cure to all problems!