Fall Happenings

Since I'm soo far behind, I frankly exhausted (hence why I haven't blogged in a while) I am going to do a recap of the fall.  Micah started back up in soccer this year.  Their team did great.  It's fun to see these boys grow and get better every year.  He scored a few goals and had a blast.  He's playing on the bigger fields this year so there is a lot more running involved.  I find it humorous that he wears the same two colors every year, either black or lime green. 

 We went up the canyon this year instead of doing our annual hike with friends we had a weiner roast.  This kids had fun doing something different, and Masie loves Doritos apparently.

 Randy had a little too much fun tending the fire.

 When we were all done and cleaned up, we headed up Squaw Peak to show the kids what a spectacular view it is from there.  It was freezing but they loved singing all of the Utah Valley.

 We also went to the BYU Homecoming parade again.  This year the Nordfelt's went with us.  After eating our blue pancakes, we headed down to the duck pond  while we waited for the parade to start.

 The kids went back for 2nds on the pancakes.

 Trying not to freeze.

 Then it started and the kids were mezmorized.

 One of the ballroom dancers wanted to show Morgan his moves.  She loved it.

 Next up was McKenzie's 1st band concert.  She started playing the flute at the beginning of the summer at a band camp and she really likes it.  She struggled at first and got really frustrated that she didn't sound like a professional right from the get go, lol.  She's learning a lot and doing great.  She wouldn't smile for the camera for me, cuz apparently that's not cool anymore.

 So I made her take another picture later. . . smiling.

Then Malia did her first Rad Kids.  We are so excited for her to participate.  She did great even if the Lobster man wasn't able to come to this one. 

 She was so excited she forgot to give her teacher a high 5.   1 down 2 more to go this year.  I'm really grateful our school has this program.  It puts my mind a little more at ease knowing that if my kids were put in a scary situation like getting abducted, they have some tools to help fight back and not become a victim.

So Far this December. . .

It's only the 12th and I feel like it should be Christmas already, not that I'm ready my any means.  It has just been so busy already.  Probably because we live so close to BYU that we have to do our Christmas stuff early in order for the students to be able to enjoy so Christmas traditions with their ward before they head off to see their families.  Regardless, it's been nuts.  The 1st weekend of Dec. was the annual BYU family Christmas party.  I can't believe this might be our last year we might go. Notice how everyone is wearing blue to support BYU except Micah.  What have we done to make him think supporting the Utes is ok?

 Malia has this weird obsession with making "crazy eyes."  Everyone decided to try and join in.

 Notice Micah's list.  He wants an Elf so that he can have him make Micah toys all year.  Where does he come up with this stuff?

 After the party we went and got ourselves a tree.  We had to wait about 4 hours to put it up though cuz Randy had a huge paper due, so we had to wait for him to finish.

 Then this weekend was our ward's Christmas party.  They decided to be a little different and go Hawaiian.  It was catered by a family in our stake from Hawaii and we even had some Polynesian dances to enjoy.

 Even Santa came dressed for the event with his shorts and lei's.  Micah asked for a robot to do his homework this time. He cracks me up.

 Malia letting know Santa she's 4.

 Morgan had a grass skirt on but kept stepping on it (since it was really mine) so she gave it up.

 Oh and another exciting thing that happened already this month is . . . Malia cut her hair.  In my 11+ years of being a mom, I have been very lucky to not have a child cut their hair.  Malia said that she didn't like it in her eyes anymore.  When she realized what she did, she started crying immediately.  We couldn't figure out why for another 5 minutes.  She looked natural with bangs, until you looked more closely at the side.Malia has always been my button pusher.  Here she goes again.  My friend Brookie cut it and blended it in, but it is still driving me crazy, so I'm going to take her back and have her butch it. 

 Here's the clump of hair McKenzie found in her room. 

Next up. . .Christmas.  Hopefully we'll be ready.

So far this summer. . .

This first picture says it all.  We have had a really busy summer so far and everyone is pretty much pooped.  This was taken right after swim lessons one morning.  The poor girl just couldn't handle it anymore.

 We did a session of swim lessons.  All the kids including Malia (she was in a parent/tot class with me) had a blast.  My kids are little fish.  I wish I could take them swimming every day, cuz they literally would live in the pool if they could.  Here's Malia with Randy (this was the only day he was able to come hence the pictures, I wouldn't have gotten any if didn't come).  Malia was having an off day. She wouldn't do anything for her daddy.

This is how we always found Micah, underwater.  We put him in a level 2, even though he technically is too young for this level, he was suppose to be 6 before getting out of the preschool levels, but he's too good so I fudged and put him in a regular level.  He did awesome.

As you can see.

Morgan was in level 3 and she is a sinker.  She's got some serious muscle on her which is awesome, but it makes it difficult for her to keep her body on top of the water.  She doesn't mind though, she still loves it.

McKenzie passed level 4 and has an amazing backstroke.  I think it is time to get her on the swim team.  She doesn't agree, but I know she will have a blast.

Oh and I almost forgot how much fun Malia had with sunscreen the last 2 weeks.  She figured she was big enough to do it herself and this is what I found.  This was also before the sunscreen got into her eyes and she cried for the next hour till the pool water rinsed it out.

Some other fun we had was going to Lagoon with my brother Billy and his family.  We have season passes but Billy's company bought their employees day passes and we decided to tag along with them to let them ride some rides.  The kids had a lot of fun with Ki-Ki (that's Malia's way of saying Kirsten)  She wasn't too enthused with the goggles.

But boy did they have some fun.

We also "helped" my in laws use some of their timeshare week up in Park City.  They weren't able to use the whole week so they let us use as much as we could.  They even came and watch the kids for a night so we could go up by ourselves.  We spent 3 of those nights up there, swimming for hours on end, eating ice cream and watching movies. 

Thanx for the fun time Grandma and Grandpa.

Right after school got out the kids started their different sports camps. I was a loser and forgot to take any pictures of my kids doing anything remotely productive, but my friend who's always more on the ball than me got shots of the kids, since her kids were in the same things mine were in, conveniently. (Thanx Michelle)McKenzie really wants to learn how to play tennis and we found this camp that was during soccer camp 2 days of the week, but since Michelle was doing it also, one of us went to tennis and the other soccer, see how smart we are.  McKenzie had a lot of fun.  I see some potential in her.  I hope that she will keep it up.

Morgan and Micah had soccer camp 2 days a week for the month of June.  They both got to be with a lot of their friends.  Next season should be great since all of their friends will be on their team.  Can't wait.

Micah loves soccer.  He told Randy that he wants to play soccer on TV like they did for the world cup.  Dream big buddy.

Some other things we were able to do that I didn't get shots of  was we went camping with some friends up in the mountains.  Like really camping.  No water, no potties, just being one with nature.  We need to do it more often cuz the kids were just out of sorts.  The girls still can't squat and they just couldn't figure out why we weren't at home.  Sad hu.  Even though it rained and thundered for some of the night, we stayed dry, somewhat warm and had a good time. 

We also got to spend an afternoon with the Jackson kids again.  Amie, my friend that used to live down the street, cam up from St. George to visit her family and gave me a call.  We went and fed the ducks at a park and just hung out for an afternoon.  It was great seeing them again.

 It was also the day of opening of "Eclipse," which of course I went to with the gang.  My friends mom bought out a theater again.  We went to Cafe Rio for dinner and went to the movie up in South Jordan.  I went up with Michelle who was a great chauffeur.  She had "New Moon" playing on her DVD player, offered us Edward and Jacob tattoos, even had complimentary waters for us if we needed, lol.  I brought my SIL's along with me, who live pretty close to the theater we went to.  All in all it was a fun, enjoyable evening, except for the girl who tried to take my seat which was assigned.  It was a good try, but she lost.

I'm sure there is more I am missing, (other than the 4th of July which will be another post).  I am glad things have calmed down quite a bit, not that it's over.  It's nice to finally have a lazy day, as lazy as it can get with 4 kids out of school.

Knight's of Mayhem

The last two weeks of school were really fun for the kids. Crazy for the parents, but the kids love it, of course. The school was able to get a jousting group to come to our school and preform for the kids. It was amazing. The kids had a blast watching the horses and the knights do tricks. This was the smaller of the two horses, "let said" he was from Ireland, but really he's from Canada.
Here was our MC, he said he was from Scotland, and even had a good accent, but he's from around here, and his horse was beautiful.
I took a lot of video, but these 2 were my favorite. the first one is quick so watch carefully. Our principal put this wooden helmet on and they put on top of his head a cantaloupe that they are suppose to slice in half. The second one, they decided to slice the smaller of the halves in half, it was really funny.

Pre Easter Craziness

Before Spring break, we had a pretty crazy week at school. So I'm just gonna do one post for it all.

I was in charge of Micah's Easter party. Very low key cuz that's I how I roll. They made baskets before Friday. Here's Micah's table eating snacks after their hunt. This is at the hunt. Micah finding his last egg.

McKenzie had a reader's theater. I was able to go and kind of listen, I mean as well as you can with a 2 year old crawling around everything. I couldn't video her, it was just too hard with the ruckus going on under my feet. I was lucky to get this shot.

Morgan also had a reader's theater on a different day about Lady Liberty. I Did get to video her, but it's long and very shaky because of the fore mention ruckus.

Morgan also had her 1st Rad Kids graduation. We were really proud of her and what she learned. It's fun having them come home after one of their classes, striking up conversations of what they've learned, reminding me to do things to be prepared. This is Morgan's teacher Mrs. Whitaker. I love this woman, she is amazing.

Morgan giving Hi-5's to all the instructors and her perpetrator.

With her gear on right after her simulation which you will see after this pic. Gotta love the helmet.

Here is her simulation with "Lobster Man". He is Big and Tall and can be kind of scary in these simulations, but a great asset to this program and is just a big teddy bear. I hope he never leaves. He's got a few daughters and uses experiences with them to help teach parents. There are a lot of scary people out there and the more knowledge and power we can give these kids, the better. Thanx Rad Kids.

Other fun that we were able to have was more work on the van, yet again. The check engine light came on Wed night, so I took it in the next morning thinking all they had to do was reset it, only to find out there was about $1000 worth of work that needed to be done on it. Arg! We are still waiting for a part to get in to finish the rest. Oh, and then Randy almost blew a tire out on his car and found out we needed to really replace all 4 tires and then, wait for it, while getting the van's studded tires off, they found that the front 2 tires (that were getting put back on) were good but cracking in the tread and so Schwab gave us a discount to get new tires since the tread was still good. So all in all we've spent give or take about 2 grand on cars in the last 2 weeks. Bring it on world, what else you got?