The end of June

Today is the last day of June. One more month till girls camp and two more months till school starts. It's very hot today! On Wednesday we got our family pictures taken at a farm. It was so fun to not be so formal. Ethan wanted his picture taken with every animal and every tractor. It was so great to just be playing while the photographer snapped photos. I am kind of bummed that we haven't gotten the prints back yet. I'm very excited to see if they turned out.

On Saturday we went to the city carnival. First we saw some classic cars- this was a hit for Ethan. Then we bought our tickets for the rides and all of a sudden all of the kids were complaining and whining. Ashtyn wanted to go into a pirate theme haunted house- that I thought was far to scary for our age- so then she told me just how mean I am and how I am making her have no fun. So we ignored her and went to a frog game that Whitney wanted to play. I paid for her turn and she just stood there. We asked Ethan if he wanted to play and he said yes, but as soon as he got to the line- he again just stood there. Luckily the man was nice enough to give us our tickets back. Then it was off to a really cool clown bounce ride that you sit on facing out and it goes up and down. The girls wanted to go, but Ethan didn't. We made him go because I knew that if he didn't he would want to go and he couldn't by himself. He pouted while he got on and then looked scared as it went up- so I started cheering and clapping and he smiled so big, but when I stopped then he would act scared again. After he told me that he is so brave and that that ride was not scary at all. Finally we went on the huge blow up slide- that turned out to be very hot and Ethan screamed the whole way down.

You would think that we were taking them to the dentist or forcing them to do something horrible. They actually love the dentist and apparently hate the carnival. After the slide we got them a snow cone and they perked up a little. Then we found a train and they were in heaven. We didn't stay too much after that because Whitney started to get blisters. On the way back to the car they couldn't not stop talking about how much fun they had and they started planning their own carnival to do when we got home. I just don't understand kids I guess. First they hate it then they want to start their own. Ethan was cute and said that he could use all of his Hot Wheels for the classic cars, "that will be brilliant" he says. When we got home they really did set up games and a duck pond and had treats and signs and went over and invited the neighbors to come.

Today we went down town and had lunch with daddy. Then we went to the children's museum. We got in for free so it was great. We stayed there for hours. It was pretty crowded and very hard to keep track of all of them- but they had so much fun. I forgot my camera :( This was our letter "C" activity. We even got to ride the train and they loved that.

Sweet Messages

Last night I went to our Enrichment Night and so I had turned my cell phone off. When I turned it back on I had three messages from Whitney. I wanted to share them so I can remember just how cute her conversations are. I wish I could record her sweet little voice. She is five years old. She'll be six so very soon.

"Hi Mom, I love you. I just wanted to have some fun and call you because I love to have fun and I've changed my mind that I want to go swimming with Ethan and this is Whitney and if you want to call back (then she says our phone number) bye"

"Hi mom I just wanted to tell you I miss you and I really love you so much. I hope you have a fun time. I was crying in the bathroom cause I wanted to take a bath, but dad told me it was too late. I love you. When you get back I have a surprise for you and I can take it off. So if you wanna call me you know my phone number. If you want me to remind you I will. I'm gonna remind you. My phone number is (she says our number). This is Whitney and I really super love you and I have to go play a game, so bye. I love you so much oh and there are a couple more things I want to say too. Please be careful and drive home safely and I hope you have a fun time with Cheri and I hope you get this message that I left you. This is up on the upstairs phone and dad didn't know. Oh of course he knows and just wanted to say I love you no matter what you say. No matter what you say mean I still love you and I bet this will make you cry and I hope it does. (She starts to cry) I love you very much, goodbye. Love Whitney"

"Mom could you please come home now, pretty please just leave now. Pretty pretty pretty pretty pretty please. Leave now I miss you and if I'm in bed I'm gonna cry. If I'm in bed before you get home I'm going to cry bloody murder. I love you so much and I'm crying right now and dad's in the bathroom and he said he would be in the bathroom for quite a while. Goodbye goodbye goodbye go..od..bye.. (she says our number) This is Whitney. GOODBYE! I love you so much and please come home right now!"

Olympics

We held the first Kid Olympics yesterday at our date night kid party. I am counting this activity as our letter "O" in alphabet adventures. It was one of the best times we have had!

Each family represented the nation in which their father served his mission. We had Canada, Brazil, Portugal and the United States represented. I made flags for each country to be carried in the parade of nations and to be displayed on the medals plaza. We started our opening ceremonies with the parade of nations followed by the running of the torch. Each child ran one leg with the torch. Then the oldest boy in out group read the athlete oath. Which is as follows:

"In the name of all the competitors I promise that we shall take part in these Olympic Games, respecting and abiding by the rules which govern them, committing ourselves to a sport without doping and without drugs, in the true spirit of sportsmanship, for the glory of sport and the honor of our teams." It didn't always contain the part about drugs :(

Then the games began. The events we competed in were:

Fencing (with foam swords)

Gymnastics(floor routine)

Shot putt(with water balloons)

Cycling(on our tricycle)

25 meter relay(each child had to crawl on their knees for 15 feet and then pass the baton to the next crawler)

50 yard dash(a race- that was so funny to watch because we have an age span of 2-8. The little kids kept running before we said go, then the big kids would yell "no fair"- it was hilarious- so we did this event three times)

We ended with a parade of athletes and then the medals ceremony. Each child was given a gold, silver and bronze medal that were made from candy(Butterfingers=gold, 3 Musketeers=silver, Reese's peanut butter cup=bronze).

The kids had a lot of fun!! Of course some of the time they didn't quite understand that it was for fun and not really a competition, but most of them were great sports. It has me so excited for the real summer Olympics in China. I love the Olympics. I love that no matter what, all nations come together in the spirit of peace and unity.

A few fun facts about the Olympics:

• The first modern Olympics as we know it was held in Athens in 1896, but the ancient Greeks had been competing for thousands of years before that.
• Before the 1970's the Olympics were limited to amateur athletes only- then in the 1980's it was opened to include all athletes, both professional and amateur.
• Golf use to be an Olympic sport as well as tug of war.
• The last Olympic gold medals that were made entirely out of gold were awarded in 1912.
• During the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, the procession of athletes is always led by the Greek team, followed by all the other teams in alphabetical order (in the language of the hosting country), except for the last team which is always the team of the hosting country.
• (The First Marathon)In 490 BCE, Pheidippides, a Greek soldier, ran from Marathon to Athens (about 25 miles) to inform the Athenians the outcome of the battle with invading Persians. The distance was filled with hills and other obstacles; thus Pheidippides arrived in Athens exhausted and with bleeding feet. After telling the townspeople of the Greeks' success in the battle, Pheidippides fell to the ground dead. In 1896, at the first modern Olympic Games, held a race of approximately the same length in commemoration of Pheidippides.
• Women were first allowed to participate in 1900 at the second modern Olympic Games.
• Because of World War I and World War II, there were no Olympic Games in 1916, 1940, or 1944.
• The word "gymnasium" comes from the Greek root "gymnos" meaning nude; the literal meaning of "gymnasium" is "school for naked exercise." Athletes in the ancient Olympic Games would participate in the nude.

Reusable Bags

I recently read an article in one of the many magazines I subscribe to all about reusable bags. You can buy them in any grocery store. The idea is to turn your shopping trip into an eco-friendly experience. I myself have several of these handy little bags in the trunk of my car right now.

Here's my problem- I keep them in the trunk so that they are readily available on all of my grocery trips, but I always forget to bring them inside with me. So I have yet to ever actually use one of my reusable bags. I remember my bags the second I open the trunk to unload my groceries from their plastic bags.

I have spent money on the reusable bags and so I am therefore wasting my non-reusable resources (money)on items that have found a permanent home in the trunk. Which leads me to wonder if I really want to help the environment and do my part to keep plastics out of the landfill or if I am just another enviro wannabe- who wants to look sheik and hip with my reusable bags. It's probably a little of both.

The first reusable bags I bought were skinny and brown and couldn't even hold a gallon of milk. Then I found some Green Bags that are wide and strong. Today I have been introduced to a very wide array of beautiful and functional bags. With so many fashionable choices and renewable materials, who wouldn't want to use them.

The truth about plastic bags is that we throw away about 100 billion plastic bags a year. Only .6 percent of bags are recycled. Plastics are not good for the environment at all. Check out this site for more information http://www.howgreenisyourbag.com/bigdeal.htm.

The more I research the reusable bags the more I learn about plastics and the harm they are doing the environment. I know they are bad for us, animals, etc. but I have to be honest, I like plastic bags. I like the convenience and the feel of the bags. I like that if they get leaked on or disgusting I can throw them away. I like that I can use them to put wet swimsuits into or dirty diapers before they go into the trash. But the more I read the more I realize that it's just simply not worth the centuries that it will take for one single bag to break down and the thousands of toxins that are released in the process. So I think part of my forgetfulness is really ignorance or laziness or just plain selfishness. Just posting this has lead me to more information than I even knew existed. Check it out for yourself...

Envirosax.com

http://usa.envirosax.com/index.php

They even sell a kid version

Target.com

http://www.target.com/

How Green Is Your Bag

http://store.howgreenisyourbag.com/thecollection.aspx

"D" Ducks, Donuts and Dino's

We went on our "D" adventure today. We went to a local park with a man made lake. There was a Dinosaur themed play ground for the kids so romp around on. We ate Donuts. Then we walked around the lake and fed the Ducks. It was very fun, for very little money.
It was also very hot, so we didn't stay more than an hour. Two letters down in our alphabet adventures!

Our Weekend

This weekend we played and watched more golf than we have in a lifetime- ok- actually that was Jeff- but I have had my share of watching the US Open. I have to say that golf is one of the few sports that I enjoy, so it's been fun.

Then for our date night we got our swamp cooler running- might not sound that grand- but it sure is today, when the temperatures were in the 90's. This has been such a crazy weather year- it's rained more than ever and been cold, then hot, then cold, then really hot. Hopefully summer is here to stay.

Sunday we celebrated all of the awesome fathers in our lives. Both of our dads live far away, so we sent cards to them and we celebrated Jeff all day. We made him breakfast in bed again and let him spend the day however he wished. At church the young women sponsored a luncheon for the dads after the meetings and had the primary children march through the gym singing the BYU and UTAH fight songs. I lead the BYU one and I know everyone thought I was such an awesome wife for knowing all the words. I can thank my father in law for that piece of knowledge.

Tonight we went to my grandma's 88th birthday party. She is still so beautiful and full of life. I hope that's how I am at her age. I made her a chocolate ice cream cake and some sugar cookies. Here is a tip- if you ever make an ice cream cake, put the ice cream layer on the bottom. I have made one before and I can't remember where the ice cream was. This time it was on top and we had to transport the cake to the other side of town, so by the time we got there the ice cream was starting to melt. The icing held it all in, until we cut the cake and it oozed out. It was still great and everyone ate quickly. I really love to bake. I don't think I would do it professionally because I had a huge backache after doing all the decorating and lifting the heavy layers. It was well over six inches high. It was very heavy when it was all finished.

I received a package from my awesome friend Paige with a few of her favorite things inside. One of them was a very special apron that she had sewn. I love it!! I adore aprons. I love the smell of the brand new fabric. I use to work in a fabric shop and love the feel of crisp brand new fabric and the new smell. I never wash clothes or sheets before we use them because I want that feeling to last and last. I have worn this apron all weekend and am thrilled to have it!! Thank you Paige!!!

I went to a girls night out with the Bud Wives (all of the wives of Jeffs group of highschool friends) We had a blast and I so needed some female adult conversation. I made peanut butter chocolate chip cookies from a recipe in the cute cook book that was in the package Paige sent. We talked till one in the morning!! WOW was I tired the next day! It was still a wonderful time and I can't wait to do it again!!

Things

One of the little guys in our babysitting group was baptized on the 7th. We missed it because Whitney was sick. I made him some CTR cookies and they turned out wonderful. I love baking!

I am taking my kids on an Alphabet Adventure this summer. We have an activity planned for every letter of the alphabet. So far we have only done one. We went swimming for the letter "S". The kids love to swim! They just hate their swimming lessons...LOL. Actually Ashtyn loves hers and she is doing great.

Whitney had the stomach flu for a few days so she hadn't been able to play with our neighbors little boy, who she loves. Our next door neighbors are awesome- they have three kids too and we play with them all the time. Their kids practically live at our house. We even removed a few of the slats in the fence in our backyards so that the kids can roam back and forth.

When Whitney was finally feeling a little better I let her go outside and play and I told her that if the neighbor kids asked if she could play to say no because she wasn't 100% better yet. She said "Mom I will just ignore them- One day he made me mad and was trying to say sorry and ignored him. I am very good at ignoring." Well that is a wonderful skill to have now isn't it.

This is a picture of Ethan telling me no when I asked him to go and put clothes on. He loves this shirt. My sister gave it to him for his birthday because she said he needed to dress cooler. It says Rock and Roll will Never Die on it. It is a little too big- but he wants to wear it non stop- he loves it. I don't mind other than when we are in public and he is wearing it with his camo pants and Thomas the Train slip on shoes.

Happy Birthday Jeff

Today Jeff is 32! The kids and I decorated his car this morning and made him breakfast. We also wrote little notes on the windows in the kitchen and had his presents set out for him when he came down stairs. Jeff is very very hard to buy for. He took back one of the gifts we gave him already- I knew he would- I should stick to gift cards- but that's no fun to open.

Here is a little bit about the wonderful man I call my best friend...

I met Jeff in November 1997. He had just returned from a mission in Portugal that summer. He was 21 and I was 19. We went on a blind date- purely by accident. I remember everything about that night. He was funny and charming and tall- taller than most of my boy friends. I remember sitting at dinner and how he stopped eating completely and turned and looked at me when I spoke. We went to a dance that night(Jeff HATES to dance). We dated for only four months before we got engaged. I remember going home one night-I lived with my friend Jessica- and telling her how much I loved him and crying and praying that he felt the same way too. We got engaged in April and married in August.

Jeff is the kind of person that everyone loves- he is very easy going and confident- people love to talk to him and he makes friends easily. He is an extremely hard worker when he puts his mind to something. He is amazingly smart. He was going to BYU when we got married and when he was in school- he was completely devoted to his studies- he got all A's, all the time. He had a scholarship for most of school as well.

Jeff is one of the most spiritual people I know. He still reads the scriptures in Portuguese, he gives amazing talks and blessings and can answer almost every gospel question I've ever had. He is a big goof ball with the kids. He loves to run around the back yard with them. He can always make me smile and laugh. He rarely gets mad at me and he puts up with a lot of my ups and downs and dramatics.

I love to see him- he is so so beautiful to me. Every tine I see him, I go crazy. I love holding his hand and feeling his arms wrapped around me. Even though he is not the least bit romantic- he can always surprise me if ways that I could never imagine. He hates to dance- but he knows I love it- so he has endured several dance related events. He's not perfect- but he's perfect for me. When I met him- I truly felt like I could finally be myself in every way. He knows more about me than I know about myself. The past ten years have flown by because I have so much fun when I am with him. He is amazing and I am so lucky to be his wife.

Jeff I love you more than life itself. You are my best friend. I am so thankful for every minute I get to be with you. Happy Happy Birthday!!!

Happy Birthday Jeff

Jeff's Turning 32!

Jeff's birthday is on the 12th. He'll be 32. I'll post more about that later- but I wanted to make the slide show about him, so you can all see what I get to see everyday. Jeff is my best friend! He makes me so crazy sometimes and yet so crazy in love at the same time. We like to celebrate birthdays all week at our house. He is very hard to surprise because he keeps a close eye on our finances. He'll be doing what he loves to do all this weekend- GOLF. Happy Birthday Babe!

School

Whitney on the first day of Preschool 2006

Ashtyn on the first day of Kindergarten 2006

School is officially out for summer!! YIPPEE!! Time passes so quickly now and the girls have really grown up this year. I found some pictures from the first day of school last year. They were so little.

Whitney and our friend Max with their teacher on the last day of school 2008

Ashtyn with her teacher on the last day of school 2008

Here are a few of the things we have loved about school this year:

1. Whitney learning to read

2. Ashtyn getting to eat lunch at school

3. Recess

4. Ashtyn making leaps and bounds in reading

5. Whitney becoming more confident

6. Getting to spend one on one time with Ethan

7. Field trips

8. Helping in the girls classrooms

9. More time to clean the house

10. Fun homework

11. Whitney making her first real friends

12. Ashtyn getting phone calls from her friends

13. Ashtyn learning what makes a good friend

14. The girls learning responsibility- by getting up and ready all by themselves

15. Carpooling with friends

16. More time with Whitney alone, before Ashtyn got out

17. Picking Ashtyn up everyday and seeing her cute smile

18. The wonderful teachers my girls had

19. Winning a prize for participating in the fundraiser

20. Making lots of fun art projects to decorate our home

Here are some of the things we won't miss about school this summer:

1. Having to get up at 6:45

2. Remembering to send lunch money

3. Driving to the school three times a day

4. Our carpool friends cereal all over the car because he got up too late to eat breakfast

5. Homework

6. Having my girls gone during the day

7. Having to play trains with Ethan all morning because his sisters weren't here to play with

8. Trying to find our shoes every morning and my keys because the kids moved them

This will be our life for the next 14 years. My children will see someone else more than me for 9 months out of the year. I am going to love summer!

Confessions of a first grade teacher

I don't teach first grade and I learned today that I could never teach first grade. It was field day at Ashtyn's school today and I volunteered to help. This is the first time I was able to help all year and so I was very excited. It was raining today so field day turned into classroom day. I was in charge of a game called "Froggy finds a pad". It involved bean bags (the frogs) and Frisbee's (the pads). The object is to throw your frog and land it on the pad. Cute.

There are four first grade classes at our school. Each with about 24 kids. We split them all into 8 groups of 12. There were 8 different stations to rotate to. The other stations consisted of tug of war, dodge ball, musical chairs, a huge parachute, bowling, the straw game, and crab walking with balloons.

My first group of kids started off very good and very excited- then when they discovered that the game was a little harder than it looks- the complaining began. One little girl refused to play because she couldn't win...wait let me back up...I told them to get into two lines, boys and girls. Then I said we would start off with a competition- boys vs. girls, this is where that same little girl informed me that "this is stupid and not fair" and she wouldn't play. Then a few others joined in with the "it's too hard plea". I was trying to remain happy and upbeat. I told them to join in because it was a lot more fun to play than to sit out. All the while thinking if my kid ever did this, it would not be tolerated. Now, I do understand that these are six and seven year olds, but come on games are fun- I would love to get to play eight games and not have to do the dishes.

Which leads me to my first thought- Here I had 12 children from 11 different families (two of them were triplets- their other brother was in a different class (the difficult little girl was one of them- so maybe part of her problem is that at home every thing is equal- because there are three of them)Each of these 11 families raises kids slightly different from each other. This I know- because there are no two identical parents, nor two identical kids. So of course you do what works for your family. Then I wondered why there isn't a standard of parenting, like some sort of guide that the government puts together and we all vote on that tells you certain behaviors that will not be tolerated in society. Oh wait- there is- it's called manners. We just happen to all have different ideas about what those consist of.

Back to the game..by the third group I learned that if you have them work together and not compete they are much happier and more cooperative. So we switched to a relay game where we passed the frogs around the circle until they were all safely on their pad. This was perfect- they were cheering and excited and one group got all 12 frogs around the circle in 23 seconds.

This is where I have my second thought- even at the age of seven I can see the powers of selection at work.. the kids who learn early that it is better to listen and cooperate have a lot more fun and learn the games a lot quicker than the kids who are worried about people touching them. This is where we separate the future presidents from the garbage men. This is not to say that both jobs are not important. They in fact are vital. We have to have them both to function as a society. We have to all work together to make the world go around. Children as well as adults must learn to cooperate in order to function- we can't do it alone. So I realized that in fact there is a certain underlying sense of order that governs how we raise our kids- because we want them in that game- we want them to have fun.

By the last group I was sweating and about to pass out. Two of the teachers said "Wow you are great, you should be a teacher". Yeah right, I am barely hanging on here people. I told them I could do it for a day before I was spent. I'll stick to the current three pupils I have at home.

Thank you to the teachers in this world, all of the ones I know and the future ones my children will have- they do so much more than we think and are laying the foundation for tomorrow's society.

Third thought- games with bean bags are awesome for keeping kids busy. I sewed all 12 of mine in a few hours. So next time your kids are bored- grab a froggy and find a pad.

More June

On Sunday we went to a party for our Nephew "P". He wanted a donut cake..mmmmm. He is four like Ethan. Then we hung out in their backyard and played. It was great to get to play with our cousins!

JUNE

June is a crazy month for birthdays in my family. I know eleven people that have birthdays this month!

We celebrated two birthdays this weekend for my neice and nephew. Saturday we went to a very fun party for little "H". She turned two today. Her parents had a great party for her at her grandpa's ranch. There were horses to ride, a big airplane teeter totter, wagon rides, a bounce house, games to play, pizza to eat, cake and even a juggler. It really was one of the best kid parties I have ever been to. Our kids loved every minute. Especially the horse rides. Here are a few pictures of the fun:

Daddy and Whitney

Whitney on Sunny

Ashtyn on Sunny

The amazing juggler- this guy was awesome he juggled chairs on his face, balls, swords, eggs and even fire! I gotta learn to do that!

Ethan and Aunt Malia on Sunny

The gals on a wagon ride- Notice Ashtyn's grumpy face, she was ticked at me for yelling at her to stop chasing the wagon when it was running.

Mom and Whitney having a blast!

The cute birthday girl in her adorable cowgirl hat.

H blowing out her candles.

H opening presents. She loved it!

The awesome teeter totter.