SICK-O!

Sorry, no pictures. I had hoped to do one of those fun elf cards that's floating around on some people's blogs, but no such luck! After about an hour of it downloading, I figured out that my modem was disconnected. I tried again later and there were errors, so I guess it's not meant to be! I am really learning to let go this Christmas! We have been nothing but sick! Sat. Elly had the stomache flu, me on Mon/Tues, Rylan and Richard on Wed/Thurs., and Addi on Sat. Also on Sat. Elly started screaming and holding her diaper. I took her to the hospital and did tests for a bladder infection. The Dr. also said it could be a yeast infection. Mon (today) I finally took Bradly to the Dr. for his ear. Last week he fell on the corner of the landing on his ear. He complains of it hurting now and then. Last night he woke up crying from pain. He ruptured his ear drum and there was a large clot in his canal. The Dr. showed me and it was amazing to see. We'll just let it heal for a few more weeks, and if there is still problems, we'll look into it further. 2 kids left to get the flu. I quite trying to make treats to pass out, and I haven't gotten my cards out yet. It'll have to happen after Christmas! I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and remember the priorities and the real reason why we celebrate it! Love to all!

Are our lives ever NOT crazy?

We've had a lot going on last week! Our Chirstmas decor is up. We've had a Santa that my SIL gave us about 9 years ago. My kids love it! It has 3 different story books that when you insert, Santa will sit and read to you. Here is a picture of Elly passing on the story tradition. She will spend 1/2 hour listening to the stories over and over.

Monday, Richard refereed 4 games that night. Tues. night Rylan had scouts and Richard reffed 4 more games. Rylan also had scouts. Wednesday was a 1/2 day for the kids and Rylan had pitching practice. We are so excited to have him working with Corey Wade; a pitcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers. It's a great opportunity for him. Because Rylan is on the Sandlot team we get an awesome discount. He practices with 2 other boys for the time slot and it was only $8.00. Rylan also had practice later that night. His pitching was at 5:30 and practice was at 8:00 so it was too far apart that he couldn't just stay at the Sandlot, so they drove back and forth.

Thursday was a big day for Morgan!! It was the day she got her braces off! The first picture is the before picture. You can barely see her braces ...

Here she is getting her braces taken off by the assistant (or whatever they all the orthodontist assistant). She got to choose a retainer that she'll have to wear all the time for 6 months and then just at night for the rest of the time. She chose a hot pink glow in the dark retainer and had a "High School Musical" sticker inside. WOW! The ways things have changed since my time!

Morgan was so happy to get them off! They gave her a "congratulations package" and filled it with all the kinds of candy that she couldn't have with her braces on. Here is her eating her first chewy candy since 7 months ago. She requested carrots for dinner. How often does that happen?!

Thursday night was also a Court of Honor for the scouts. They were really nice and presented Richard a Leatherman as a thanks for being in charge of the 11 year old scouts for year. Hmmmm .... I don't recall getting anything for being the Webelos leader for a year and making sure that each of the boys got their Arrow of Light! (While I had a baby in the middle of it ... and dragging 4 other kids every time after school.) It's ok... no bitterness! LOL

Rylan also received his 1st Class. We are very proud of him for getting this. He really needs to work on Merit Badges if he wants to get his Eagle.

Friday Richard didn't have to work since he got called in on Weekend duty. We decided to go out for lunch. Rylan had baseball practice and got done at around 10 p.m. By then Addi is coughing uncontrolably and is really laboring with her breathing. She has a pretty weak immune system and seems to decline so fast when she gets sick. It stressed me a little with her having been on a ventilitor as a baby and having RSV. I worried that it was rapidly turning into something scary. But she didn't have a fever, so at 11:00 p.m. we went to Wal Mart and bought a vaporizer. I have no idea why I've never gotten one before, but that thing is AMAZING! Everytime she gets in a coughing fit, we turn that on, and within a bit she settles down.

Saturday we woke up to SNOW!! Rylan had a clinic at the Sandlot on the mental sport of the game. It was incredible to listen to! They are having Richard help coach until he leaves so they had a clinic at night for coaches and during the day for the kids. I got to go to the one for the kids. This guy works with MLB, NFL, and the Ultimate Fighter champions. It was so fascinating and there were so many "life" lessons as well as team lessons. I think any athlete should hear this man speak!! (I took very detailed notes, so if you're interested I can give you a more specific low-down). When I got home Richard was in the shower and Elly in the bath and I was informed by 3 other frantic kids that Elayna threw up on Richard 4 different times. Whew! I'm glad I left when I did! haha! He even tried to call the Sandlot ... too bad they didn't answer their phones during the clinic! It was a loooonnnngg night with a little one that refused to throw up in the bucket!! Richard slept on the couch. He enjoyed going to his clinic that night as well. I thought it would be the same but it was totally different.

Sunday, Rylan received his first calling in the church. He has been called to be the Deacon's President. He's pretty excited and is taking it very seriously. I'll have to go to Deseret book and see if there is any good books that will help him.

So that's about it for now! This week is full of cooking goodies to pass out!! Hope I'm not passing out the flu too!! Happy Holidays to all and hope we can all slow down to actually enjoy it!

Sorry

The post below has a huge space between the title and the post ... sorry about that! I don't know what happened. Please just scroll down.

Crazy Life, as Usual!

This week has been quite crazy! Richard had work off Mon and Tues. That always throws me off schedule! I always think I can get so much more done since he's home, but I find that I just don't want to do my daily stuff when we can do so many other things! It was a beautiful day; so close to the 60's in temperature. I decided that would be the perfect day to get the outdoor Christmas stuff out. Since everything was out already and it was Monday, we put the tree up and all the decorations for Family Home Evening.

Tuesday was Richard's birthday. I ended up getting myself a present. Didn't that work out great? Michael's was having a 40% off frames sale and I had an additional 25% off so I wanted to look for frames to put our new family pictures in. I've been tired of my wall picture arrangement downstairs (we've had it for our 14 years of marriage) and I was ready for a change. So I got a beautiful frame with 6 arrangements. It is 3 dimensional and in the middle is metal leafing made into a tree. At the bottom is says Family Tree. It sounds really bad in description, so next week I'll have to post a picture! We got home just in time to pick up the kids from school. That night, after kids went to bed we went out to dinner. He chose Texas Roadhouse. It was so good, and my meal lasted me for 2 other lunches!

Morgan had a performance with her Tiger Talents. I only took her and Bradly ... it was so nice to have just 2 kids to look after! They each sat with Santa.

Saturday was the craziest day of all! We had a ward Christmas Party at 9:00 am. I volunteered to cook up sausage. Morgan was part of the "entertainment". She was Mary in the re-enactment. 5 min before we were walking out, Richard got a call that he had to go into work and fix 2 ejection seats. That was a big blow because Rylan had to be in Ogden for baseball fittings, etc. We sat and ate breakfast, Morgan moved over to another family to stay with (they took pictures for me and brought her home) and we left to take Rylan to Ogden. When we finished with Rylan we had to go to Pleasant View to pick up Poinsetta's for a fundraiser. After delivering them, we went home, had lunch and I headed to Wal-mart and the Comissary. Richard met me there when he got off work and took Elly from me. I got home and we found dinner out of the bags and I frantically got ready for Richard's squadron Christmas party. We stayed until 10:30 and even won something!! This is only the 2nd time we've own anything .... and both times it's been a bottle of wine! Oh well.

We got to be designated drivers that night! It wasn't planned, but a girl that Richard has worked with in another section lost her driver and she had 3 kids in the playroom, so she asked Richard if we could take her and her kids home. When I pulled into her driveway on base I found out that she moved into the house that my friend lived in.

Do you need a laugh for the day?! It's no secret that I have horrible perception with driving. Well ... driving a suburban has definately been a challenge, but a back up camera has helped. Guess I should have used it!! Do you see the stroller under there? That's the second one I've totaled in 3 months. Don't worry ... I won't run over a kids someday. I always check behind me, but I must have kicked this as I was walking around and it rolled behind the suburan.

I found Elly in the sink like this the other day ... she never fails to crack me up!

New Photos

My awesome brother-in-law took our photos for us. I really wanted family pictures done before Richard went to Korea, so while we went home for Thanksgiving he took time out of his schedule as a police officer and did pictures of each of us with Richard. They have their own business they do on the side: J Clayton Photography. I have a link on my blog, so if anyone in the UT, ID area want pictures done, check out their blog (they are just starting to put the blog up so it may take a while). I love how they turned out. Hope to post more of our goings on later! Kim

I have Survived!

Well, I survived the Vegas TDY! Richard got back in the afternoon on Saturday. The last week went much better than the weeks before. I guess after you get in the groove of things, it isn't so bad. I really loved not cooking for 2 1/2 weeks! Isn't it funny how you change your expectations on housework and eating when your hubby is gone?

Morgan is part of a program at the school called "Tiger Talents". They meet after school once a week and work on songs and dances. They had a performance on Tuesday.

She had a solo to sing for part of the song "Footloose". I figured out how to record a bit of video on my camera (my camcorder is way too outdated to put video on line) so here is a few seconds of her performance:

She has a performace this week for the city's tree lighting ceremony. She has really loved being part of this organization.

Wednesday, Rylan went rock climbing with the scouts. That seemed like a lot of fun. Why do the scouts get to have all the cool activities?

Thursday, Morgan had her orthodontics apt. SHE GETS HER BRACES OFF!! She's very excited to get them off in Dec. I'm a little stessed about the retainer thing. Apparantly it's not something you just wear for a period of time, but after a while, they suggest you wear them at night for the REST OF YOUR LIFE! They said that she wouldn't be ready for phase II before we moved so I think I may buy an extra retainer so that when we move and she loses it, we'll be covered. I'm really hoping she won't even need phase II since we've made room for the rest of the permanent teeth to come down straight. I'm crossing my fingers at least. She was so excited to get the braces, but she is REALLY excited to get them off!

The twins also had a fun POW WOW at school. They choose Indian names and made outfits and drums and other crafts.

Bradly's Indian name is Brave Bronco (he's a Boise State Bronco fan because of his Uncle Jered and cousin Isaac)Addi's name was Rainbow Rose

Here's there kindergarten class. Aren't they soooo cute?! I love this age!

I've been working on the downstairs bathroom and hoped to get it done before Richard came home. The shower head had not been installed right and water had ran down the wall. It curled the tape up and peeled the paint off the sheetrock, so I ripped it off, put joint compound on, re-taped, and layered the compound on top. It ended up looking great. I ran out of time and will have to paint today. We've almost got all the little "projects" done to put the house up for sale.

Sunday was a Thanksgiving dinner at my Sister in Laws. We had 38 people in her house!! It was crazy but a lot of fun. ... And good food!

That's about all. We're getting family pictures done by our awesome private photographer this week on our way to my parent's for Thanksgiving. Hope everyone has a good Thanksgiving! I'm grateful to all of you who have become our lifelong friends, and provided so many experiences for our family!

My Crazy Week

Well, it has definately been a crazy week! Monday I watched the kids that I babysit. They were picked up close to 4:00 because the little boy had a Dr.'s to see if he had Strep or not. Of course, he did. I didn't have to watch the kids Tues and Wed because they didn't want to get the baby sick. Tues. morning was a Federal Holiday, which in UT means SAVER'S sale!! I have become a true Saver's addict and find the cutest stuff for so cheap. Every federal holiday is additional 50% off. I get so many clothes for the kids and rarely pay over $3.00 for anything. I found a great deal for a Christmas present for Rylan, but he often reads my blog, so I'll tell you about it after Christmas. Tues was volleyball for Morgan and Scouts for Rylan. He is my babysitter when Richard is gone, but he really needed to go to Scouts so I took all the kids to the gym. That was definately not fun. Wednesday was a 1/2 day for the kids and Morgan complianed of her throat hurting. She's had strep before and she felt is was strep so I took her in at 10:30. I hate it when my days gets broken up like that. She didn't have strep on the rapid culture so I took her back to school (for the hour and a 1/2 that was left).

Wed. night my CO2 alarm went off. I opened the windows and it went off and I thought I would watch to see if it would go off again or not. Around 11 at night I was working on a quiet book and realized that my head was really buzzy and I had a headache. I figured that I better call a friend that works for the Fire Dpt and see if he had a tester. He was working that night and told me to call the Fire Dpt from my town. I called and told them what was going on but that I didn't want ANY firetrucks or sirens. I had 5 sleeping kids!! So they showed up in an ambulance, but thankfully with no sirens. They went through everything and it all checked out. We're thinking that the steam from the showers set off the smoke detecters (it's all the same system).

Thurs and Friday were 1/2 days as well, so I had 7 kids for both those days. Friday, I also decided to rip up some sheetrock mud and tape that was damaged by water around the downstairs shower. Hopefully I can get that re-taped and mudded before Richard gets home! Fri was also a parent's mtg for Rylan's baseball team. We decided to just get fast food for the day.

Sat. my SIL called and wanted help putting up crown molding in their dining room. Richard's brother was down for a game and brought his son. The kids had so much fun and were really good while we spent 7 hours putting up

the crown molding!

Elly really enjoyed her ice cream treat!

And here are the Bob the Builder Wanna Be's! Sorry about the picture! Rylan was taking it.

In other great news .... I saw gas below $2.00 a gallon for the first in over 4 years. YEEEEE HAAAAW! So nice with a Suburban now to fill up! Well, you can wake up now. The book is over. Sorry for such a long posting. I knew it was going to be a loooong week! Sorry you had to endure it too. See ya next week! Kim

MY NEW THEME SONG: PLEASE LISTEN

If you have internet fast enough, could you please listen to my music playing right now to get the full effect of my week. .... I will pause now for you to listen.......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Did you get it?! Yes! It's been quite the crazy week! Richard has left me for Vegas for TDY and I'm a single mom with 5 kids now. I was in charge of Super Saturday, however, somehow that ended up with me being the sole person to put together that day. I made Olive Garden soup (3 batches) the night before and ordered bread bowls. We had apple juice mixed with Sprite. I did have 3 other ladies teach classes, but I ended up being in charge of the other 4. I had to set up and take down. My oldest watched the kids alllll day long and I came home to another lovely mess to deal with. I had things broken, a closet door on the floor, and a little girl who obviously had a corn dog for lunch with ketchup and mustard, and no one bothered to clean her up afterwards. It was caked all over her hands, face, clothes, and my furniture!! Rylan had baseball try-outs a 1/2 hour after I walked in the door and then we had a church Thanksgiving dinner at 5:30. I slept sooo hard that night!

Here is a picture of some of the crafts that we did:

It actually turned out very nice and I think the ladies had a lot of fun. I'm so glad! I couldn't believe how many people in our ward had never done a Super Saturday. I had heard a lot of negative criticism before we had the event, and most people didn't want it to last very long so I thought tentatively it would be from 10-12:30 or so, but I didn't get home until 4:00. We made soap, salt dough ornaments, bracelets, quiet books, glass blocks, and Family blocks. I'm soooo glad it is done. It is a huge project to put together.

Along with my theme song, I have a crazy week this week. It is Morgan's last week of Volleyball, and the kids have 1/2 days from Wed. on due to conferences. That means that I will also have the two kids I babysit for the rest of the days, and that makes for a looooong day! Especially when I won't have some one come home to lend an extra hand!! Now you know what will be running through my head over and over and over again for the next few days. Here is a picture of Morgan at her last Volleyball practice:

Sorry it isn't a very good picture. It's hard for me to get action shots. She seems to really love it and will miss doing it, I'm sure.

In other news ... I got my haircut short. I've been thinking about this for quite some time now but I've been growing it out for about 8 years now! So I got sick of growing it out and having it the same length for the last 5 years. Here is a picture of the "new" me. I'm still getting used to it, but I like it:

Hopefully you don't end up seeing someone take my head and put it with some random pictures. I have several friends concerned with the security of these blogs. I agree, but I figure no one could care less about an image of me. So, if you see my head with a Nazi flag, or burning a bra, or on a stripper pole, please know that my image was stolen! LOL

Have a great week, ya'll! Kim

Spooky Halloween Fun!

We had a lot of fun this Halloween Week!!

First of all, it was Red Ribbon Week. There were themes for each day they could follow. Monday was Hippie Day and Tuesday was Crazy Hair Day. Don't they look crazy? The two kids in the back are the kids that I watch before and after school. Wednesday was Disco Day and Thursday was Hip Hop Day or wear you costumes. They didn't have school on Friday so they had their class parties on Thursday. I was asked to the class party with another mom for Morgan's class. It was a lot of fun. We ended up having all the 4th grade classes combined so we had 60 some odd kids to entertain for an hour and a 1/2. We ended up doing it "carnival style" and set up 8 different stations. I was in charge of Pin the bow on the Frankenstein. I was so busy with that and doing a Haunted Mad Libs story with them while they ate their treats. I didn't get any pictures of Morgan's class party. I did sneak in and get a picture of the twins in their kindergarten room.

Addi was a lion-It looks like she took off her Lion's Head

Bradly was a vampire

Elayna was Mickey Mouse; Morgan was a dancer and Rylan a baseball player. Later Morgan wanted to wear the scary make up so she decided to be a Zombie Dancer.

Here's a picture of the kids minus Rylan and including the ones I babysit for before they went to school. They look so cute!!

It's been a crazy week for us! Friday night was our Ward's trunk or treat and then we took the kids Treak or Treating. This was the first year since moving here that Richard could join me! It's so much easier having another set of hands! I'm in charge of our Super Saturday here (day of crafts) so I've been running around getting supplies for that. It will be next Saturday. Richard is leaving TDY for Vegas next week (be gone for 2 weeks) so I've got to put the finishing touches on that and put it together without his extra set of hands to help! Rylan should be able to babysit on Saturday.

Next week Rylan will be trying out for a new baseball team on Saturday. It's hard to leave our original baseball team here, but they want to participate in a tournament in New York and we just don't have the extra funds for that. Rylan's best friend's dad is putting together a team that will have some incredible opportunities (2 of the coaches played MLB) and he called to "recruit" Rylan. He promised Rylan 3rd base position and pitcher. It was a hard decision, but we decided to go with this new team and leave our old one. They will be including a membership to a baseball training center, have several clinics (one on the mental aspect of the game, one on running agility, one of hitting, etc), and participate in 5 tournaments. It will be nice for me because the coach lives a few blocks from our house and will be able to take Rylan to practice for me. Try-outs are this Sat and they start practice in Dec. Isn't that crazy?!!! It will be really good for him though.

Well, you know by now that we have orders to Rapid City, South Dakota. We are excited and trying to prioritize options for moving. We have decided to put the house up for sale in April. It could take a year to sell it with this economy!! Other than that... things are going great! November should go fast! Richard will be gone to Vegas, get home for a few days and we go to my parent's house for Thanksgiving until the end of Nov! He'll be heading to Korea faster than we'll be prepared for! Love to all! Kim

WE GOT ORDERS!!!!

So we finally got orders this last week .... mmmmm can you guess where we are going? It was a real shock, but we are very excited. It was something we had put on our dream sheet but it was in the middle of our requests. Richard's report no later is April 2010. I guess a lot depends on when we sell the house. I think I'll put it up for sale this Spring and if it sells during the summer then I will see if they have open housing for us there and if so we'll move; otherwise I'll rent somewhere here and finish out another school year and meet Richard there. I called and they said that they are only putting in-bounds in new houses. Some are getting finished this spring. They will be going to privatized next year. We left Sheppard before they went privatized, so I don't know what to think about it. Anyone with comments on their experience with privatized; please post!! We aren't ruling out buying either. So Nielson's ... here we come!! I'm getting excited now that the shock is wearing off!

Twin?!

I was putting in updated pictures in my frames and in my friends I put all their old pictures (starting from birth) in the back of the frame. I pulled out one of Rylan's and we were shocked how much Rylan and Bradly looked alike! They look more like twins then his twin and him look like twins!! hahaha

Bradly's big goal

We've finally gotten all our bikes in running order. Bradly's doesn't have training wheels, but he's so close to being able to ride it I don't really want to buy a pair. He likes to ride Addi's bike that does have training wheels, so I hoped we could just leave his off and just teach him to ride. He's sooooo close! He can do it for a few minutes until he's doing it by himself ... then he freaks out and crashes. Hopefully in the next week or two! We've been taking advantage of the awesome Fall! - Big change from the last posting of a foot of snow, huh!

Morgan's Haunted House

Mogan's class made Haunted Houses (like gingerbread houses) for an activity. They are going to take them to the Retirement Centers to enjoy. They turned out really cute!

This Week's Goings On

On Friday we went with some friends to a corn maze down the street. We went and got Little Ceasar's pizza and then down to the maze. The kids had a lot of fun playing on the slides. We went through the maze pretty fast and wanted to go through the "haunted maze" but it wasn't going to start for 45 more min. We decided to go back to their house for hot chocolate. When it was dark we went back. I was a little concerned for Bradly (my tenderheart) and Addi and they had a little one that probably wouldn't appreciate the experience either so Richard stayed in the suburban with Elly and Bradly and Brandon and watched a movie. It was pretty lame. There were just kids walking around in black with chain saws. Shari and I decided that we needed to spark things up so we asked the boys with chainsaws to follow us and then we'd move aside and they could turn them on in Rylan and Cayden's ears. The group was waiting for us since we got behind talking to the "spooks". We caught up and told them to keep going. After a few minutes we stepped aside and they snuck up on the boys and turned on the chainsaws. It was the funniest thing I had ever seen!! Carl had the girls up front and even he jumped about 2 feet high. Rylan looked like a frog with his knees about up to his chest. It was the highlight of the month for me!!

Nothing big

No major action this week! The kids had no school on Thurs and Fri. I wish I could say that I did som fun stuff with them, but I can't. I went grocery shopping and did the checkbook on Thurs and finished reading a book "The Host" (2 hours in the bath tub ... had to take advantage of kids to watch Elly!) and cleaned the house. I did take the kids to Wal-mart for them to spend their allowance money. Had to leave with a screaming baby all through the store! Saturday was beautiful. How did we take advantage? Picked grapes, pulled out the garden, weeded the flower beds, and trimmed perennials. Fun, right? We did have a great family game of kick ball in the backyard. Boys against girls ... boys won. We had an airman from Richard's shop come for dinner tonight. He's been having a hard time. We decided to play another kickball game. I think it was great birth control for him! Not much else! Kim

Well, a lot has gone on since I last posted!! Two weekends ago, we knew the first cold front was coming through. We’d been enjoying an unseasonably warm fall (in the early 80’s) and it was supposed to rain and be in the 50’s. I needed to get the Halloween decorations out anyway, so I decided now would be a great time to pull out all the clothes for the winter. Saturday was miserable and cold!! The kids won their first game and played through the pouring rain, but the second game got called. They were ahead 9-1. It was conference weekend and I got so much done!! I got all the winter clothes out, packed the summer clothes for younger kids to wear when they turned that age, and boxed up Elly and Bradly’s clothes to give away since there’s no one that needs their hand-me-downs. I was able to clean out everyone’s closets and drawers. It looks so nice now!! Many of you know that this last April I had the spiral perm that made me look like a 70’s afro, so I had Richard straighten it for me. He cut me hair for me a few weeks ago and I decided that I just can’t beat what he charges, so I had him straighten it. I had called a hairdresser earlier, and they wanted to charge $50. I just bought a box at Wal-mart for $8.00 and crossed my fingers. I’m so impressed that I think I may keep going to him. His service is great for the price!! Well worth it!! It was also our 14th Anniversary this last week. Richard’s parents were coming up anyway and he asked them to watch the kids for us while we went to Logan to the Anniversary Inn. It was so much fun. We were able to go to a session the next day. It was such a beautiful temple!! Saturday was Rylan’s last games. They won the first game and he pitched for the entire second game through the rain and snow and sleet. They won that game too. Richard umpired 4 games that day in miserable weather! This morning we woke up to snow!! I’ve never seen this much snow this early! It’s that damn global warming Gore keeps warning us about. Rylan shocked us today in sacrament by bearing his testimony. It was very nice. He sure is growing up. Well, that’s about it for now. Love to all! Kim

Fun Game

So, here's how the game works:1.As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you. If you don't want to play on your blog, or if you don't have a blog, I'll leave my memory of you in my comments.

Quite a week!

Monday night my SIL called to see if I wanted to can peaches. How could I refuse following the prophet?! Besides, all me sisters all over the states were putting me to shame. They were doing peaches, pears, tomatoes, etc. I was becoming a slacker!!



I finally got the two windows that have been broken for almost a year and a half fixed on Wed!! It was so wierd looking through them without any obstruction. There were Hobo spiders inside one and the repair guys were really freaked out. Guess I need to spray around the house!!



I want to say a huge CONGRATULATIONS to Rylan!! He got his first Progress Report of Junior High and got a 3.8 GPA. We're very proud of him. He seems to really enjoy Jr High. He loves going to all the games, regardless of the sport or if it's the girls or boys team. He also went to his first Stomp. I guess that's a dance. I didn't really realize what I was saying yes to until I was visiting teaching later that day and was talking to a mom of a high schooler. In my mind I kind of thought we'd wait until he could go to Stake dances before going to school dances (which would be age 14) but I guess it's too late for that now!! It is right after school and I guess is more of a pump it up hang out thing. His response on it, "You had to leave your shoes in your locker and it really smelled in there!" The music was "ok" I guess.



I put up a picture of him pitching this weekend with Richard umpiring in the background. Richard switches umpiring outfield and behind the plate for each game. Doesn't Richard look great?! Hard to believe he's ALMOST 40!!! (gotta rub that in when I can)



Richard came and got me from Relief Society today and said, "You've gotta come see this". Apparantly there was no one that could play piano in Priesthood so Rylan volunteered! Mind you, he would only let me teach him for the winter last year and then lost interest in "lessons". He does like to work on songs, just hate lessons.



In other news .... Elly now has mastered rattling off numbers and yelling "HIKE" and also throws her hands in the air and says "Touchdown." Bradly is doing awesome at reading!! Blown away by his reading level. Addi is getting some control over her emotions and is starting to show improvements on deep breaths. She is our awesome artist and is seeing the downfalls of being in the same class as her twin. Morgan is enjoying a program afterschool that works on performaces. They are doing a dance to "Footloose" and she tried out for a solo singing part. Should find out this week if she gets it or not. Volleyball starts Oct 7th for her. Enough for now!

Gotta get in the habit!

I have got to get in the habit of grabbing my camera with me!! I have missed so many cute candid moments this week! We had a new member of the family for a few days until I took it to the Humane Society. It was actually a very sweet kitten. It was all black (they named her Shadow) and allowed Addi to tote it everywhere OUTSIDE with her. It was taken on the trampoline and down the slide and never scratched her once. We talked about getting her spayed and feeding it but making it an outside only cat. I had hoped it could be a win/win situation. It stayed at our house for 3 days and followed the kids everywhere, but it kept going in the neighbor's garage and they were complaining. She was such a good cat that I thought she'd be better off with a family that could let her in during winter time. I didn't want to be an irresponsible animal owner and having an animal at all the neighbors. So I took it to the Humane Society. Addi went with me and did very well.

Baseball was fun this weekend. Richard umpired 5 games and Rylan had the last two games of the day. He pitched both games. They played two really tough teams. The first game they lost to the team that won first place in the spring season. They lost pretty bad. That team could really hit the ball!! (Rylan wanted me to add that part by the way! And now he's mad that I just added that!) The next game was against our rivals. We came SOOOO close!! We lost by 2 runs. Oh well. They had Rylan pitch the last two innings so they could close it up. I thought that was quite a compliment to him.

I posted pics of Richard and Elly. As you can see, she got into some of Morgan's lipstick (are you kidding me?! I woud NEVER wear that color LOL!) The next is of Richard playing on the ward's softball team. I guess there are other advantages to living in Utah!! They made it all the way through regionals. I guess we're a baseball family.

Hopefully I'll remember my camera more this week!

Rylan

No, I'm not missing a kid ... as tempting as it may have been, we didn't get rid of Rylan. He had a game that day. We're hoping our personal photographer (my brother-in-law ... doesn't he do an awesome job!!!) will get him another time on our way through Idaho.

Still Figuring this out

I'm hoping to add some more pictures on here. Thanks to my friend Sherrie, I finally learned how to put on music and change the backgrounds. I can see how this can be a bit addictive. We had a looooong weekend of baseball! Rylan had a game at 9:30 in SLC. We have to be there an hour early and then leave early enough to get there. Elayna was up from midnight until 3:00 a.m. and then I got up at 6 a.m. to get ready for the day. Richard umpired 5 games that day so we did baseball until 8:30 that night. Richard umpired Rylan's 2 games. They beat a team from South Jordan that was an all-star team, so that was exciting. I want to put on pics that my brother in law took of the kids in Twin Falls and their first day of school. I forgot the camera for the game ... I wanted to get a pic of Richard umpiring Rylan.

Am I really on?!!

I hope this works out!! This is just a test run. I have so many friends doing this, so I guess it's about time I get with the times and put one together. Hopefully I can stay on top of it!!