End of the Year Swim Party

Hello Again!

It's been so long. I totally slacked blogging the entire summer, so now with the kids back in school I wanted to get caught up. I thought I would go back to the end of the school year and work my way forward throughout the summer until I get caught up. So here we go!

Jason and I decided to throw Hannah an End of the School Year Party, you know, to celebrate her graduating from 6th grade and elementary school. Hannah loves to swim, she is on a competitive swim team, she is a little fish. So we decided to rent out the South Davis Recreation Center in Bountiful. It is a new facility that has an indoor activity pool. You can rent it out on Friday and Saturday evenings from 7-9 p.m., so this was perfect for the party. We had the party on Saturday, the day after school got out. We invited EVERY girl in the 6th grade at Hannah's elementary school. We were allowed up to 100 people, so we also let Emma invite all of the girls from her second grade class. We also invited family and neighbors and their entire family. Basically, if we knew the family, we invited the whole family including parents and other siblings.

There was a great turnout! I estimated that over 90% of the girls Hannah invited and at least 70% of the girls Emma invited came. The activity pool is great, there is a big slide, little slides, a playground, a lazy river, an olympic sized swimming pool. Also, what was really nice is that there was an adjacent "party room" which had a full kitchen, where we were able to serve snacks and drinks. Also, there were many lifeguards which the rec center provided, so even though there were many adults there and the water was for the most part shallow, it felt extra safe for the little kids.

The little kids activity playground

The big pool

Hannah with some friends

Ian with our friend and neighbor Kami Graham


Jason's brother Nate and his wife Jessica and their three youngest kids

The big slide and lazy river

What a fun night! Jason suggested that we do this at the end of every school year. I'm thinking maybe when one of the kids reaches a milestone, like graduating from junior high or elementary, which would be every couple of years. Either way, it is definitely something we would do again. Thanks to all who came and thanks for a wonderful night of fun!

Grandparents' Day and . . . tattoos?

Recently, Emma's 2nd grade class had Grandparents' Day. Both Grandma Betty and Grandpa Ray attended with Emma. She was so happy to have them both there with her. In fact in her entire class of 24 students, only 2 kids didn't have at least one grandparent attend. One was sick and the other lived out of state. So the activity was a success. The grandparents' helped make "Overnight Bags" with the kids, these are bags that the kids can take with them to sleepover at Grandma and Grandpa's house. The grandparents also shared stories of their elementary years with the kids, and they also had lunch with the kids at school.

Emma with Grandma Betty & Grandpa Ray at Grandparents Day

Yes, you read the title correctly. But you may be wondering what do Grandparents and tattoos have in common. Let me explain. If you know Emma's grandparents you would know that they would never have a tattoo, not in a million years. In fact, I'm sure the same is true of all of the other grandparents who attended Grandparents Day that day. But remember when I said the grandparents all had to share stories of their elementary years with the kids? I wasn't there, but Jason's mom Grandma Betty shared the story of several of the other grandparents with me. Many of the grandparents who grew up in the Davis County area said that when they were in elementary school (most were born during or shortly after World War II), the government wanted the kids to have their blood type tattooed on them, so that in case of an emergency, the blood type would be easy to find out. So they did just that, they tattooed their blood type in small lettering in a discreet place on their body, usually on the side of their torso, somewhat under the arm. Both Betty and I were so surprised to hear of this. Betty grew up in Salina, Utah which is a small town in central Utah, and Ray grew up in Salt Lake City, so neither of them ever had to do this or heard of this before. I had never heard of this either. So their you have it, some of the grandparents have what I am sure is their one and only tattoo they will ever have. Many of them made it clear that they are in no way in support of voluntary tattoos. I thought this was a cute and interesting story to share. For fun, depending on when and where they grew up, you may want to ask your parents or grandparents if they have a tattoo of their blood type, and the answer may surprise you.

Wicked!

Last night we went to see the musical "Wicked." It is my favorite broadway musical of all time. I've seen it twice in New York, so when it came to Salt Lake this month, I knew I wanted to go. My wonderful mother-in-law Betty arranged for tickets for the "girls" in the family. So I went with Hannah, my mother-in-law, Jason's two sisters Liz and Angela and my sister-in-law Jessica and her cute daughter Amley. Betty ordered the tickets 8 months ago in a pre-sale through the Salt Lake School District where she works. That was great, because all of the showings sold out in minutes, so it would have been impossible to get tickets later on. I had also bought a ticket for my Emma, thinking she would want to see it again, but like I said in my last post, she is so dedicated about going to bed early, she didn't want to stay up late on a school night to see the show, so we invited our neighbor and friend Hannah S. to go with us.

(Eating dinner before the show - there is our little cousing Grace in the front right who joined us for dinner only, and our 7 month cousin Olivia is in her car seat)

My mother-in-law's birthday was Monday, so she got to pick the restaurant where we ate before the show. She picked her favorite place, the Little America Cafe. There we are eating dinner.

(In front of the Capitol Theater - now you can cute little Olivia)
(Hannah S., cousin Amley and my Hannah outside the theater)

(Hannah S., my Hannah and mother-in-law Betty before the show)

A funny thing happened just before the show started. We were sitting in our seats taking pictures, I knew that you can't take pictures during the performance, but I figured it was ok to take pictures before the show started. In fact I had seen numerous other people taking pictures, so I took the picture you see above, and then I handed the camera to Betty to take a picture of me and the girls. Just as Betty was clicking the button to take the picture, an usher approached Betty and said that picture taking was not allowed. We were so startled and scared that we were in trouble, that right as the picture was being taken, we looked up at the usher and these were the looks on our faces. I think the looks on all of our faces are priceless. Afterwards, we had a good laugh by looking at this silly picture!

("Uh-Oh!")

The show was awesome! It was every bit as good as the performances I saw on Broadway in the Gershwin Theater in New York. In fact, the performance of Galinda the good witch was even better than I remember. It was so much fun, and definitely worth the wait. Even though we missed Emma, it was probably better that she wasn't there. Also, while we were at the Capitol Theater, we saw that the Lion King is coming there in September 2010. I also love The Lion King (although not as much as Wicked). Even though it seems like a long time from now, we all decided that we should do another night out to the theater together.

(Hannah, Hannah S., me and Betty - this time during intermission)

Meet Emma!

It's Emma's turn for a spotlight. This is Emma. She is 8 1/2 and is my middle child, she is definitely a middle child. Last week, we got some great news about Emma. She was asked by our school district based on last years end of the year testing scores to test for Spectrum. Spectrum is the Gifted & Talented program in our school district. They only have the program at 3 of the elementary schools in our school district, one in Bountiful, Layton and one at Burton Elementary here in Kaysville. Burton was our first choice, so I was worried a little when I heard that Burton was very hard to get into, and that we might get offered another school as a second choice. She took the Spectrum test in February, along with 100's of other kids. We just found out that she was accepted into the program! She was so excited, she is really looking forward to being pushed academically, it will be a great fit for her. Another great thing is that some of our ward goes to Burton, so she will already know some kids. Also, all of the Burton kids will be going to our junior high, whereas, at our current elementary school of Windridge, only like 10 kids from our ward will go to Kaysville junior and the rest of the school goes to Farmington junior. So we are totally happy for her.

Emma's latest picture

Now let me tell you a little about Emma. As you already know, she is super smart. But she is also multi-talented. She takes ballet and piano, and excels at both. She got a perfect score at the piano Federation Competition last month. She is very social, and she enjoys spending time with friends. She is very driven to succeed. She insists on going to bed exactly at 8 pm every school night, not because she is tired, but because she wants to do well at school and heard that getting enough sleep is important. In fact, she is so strict about her own bed time, that she chose not to go see "Wicked" with me and Hannah, and her aunts, grandma and cousins this Thursday because she heard that it didn't start until 7:30 and that we wouldn't be home until 10. I had bought the tickets months ago for her as well, and she has said she didn't want to go because it was too late, but I thought surely she would change her mind. Guess what? She didn't change her mind, so just yesterday, we invited Hannah's friend Hannah Stevenson to go with us instead. Even though I told her she could take a nap that afternoon, and that it was ok to stay up late one night, she didn't want to stay up too late. What a good girl!

Emma at her ballet recital with Grandma Betty & Grandpa Ray

Another great thing about Emma, is that ever since she was a baby, she has been so obedient and easy. She does the right thing because she knows it is right. She is also the best cuddler of any of my kids. She has these fuzzy flannel jammies, that I love to cuddle with her, she feels just like a big stuffed animal. She is my best friend, even she will tell you that I am her best friend.

Emma bowling with cousins

Emma is also very spiritual. She is the one who reminds us to have family home evening, and to say prayers and to read the scriptures. When she was 7 she asked to have her very own set of scriptures. I usually wait until the kids turn 8 to give them scriptures for their baptism, but she wanted her own set sooner, so I did. We love Emma so much and are so glad that she is in our family!

Emma on her baptism day

Earth Week Activities

This past week was Earth Week. The school must have made a big deal about it, because I had forgotten about it. Hannah and Emma and their friends took it very seriously. Every day they had a different plan about what they could do to help the environment. One day, the neighborhood girls went to the "forest" which is the vacan lot behind our house, and took garbage bags and picked up the garbage in the forest. Another day, they made an egg mulch to put in the garden as compost. Another day, they designed a picture which they wanted to put on a t-shirt. The picture had an earth and talked about helping the environment. I liked the fact that they were so involved in the project, so I wanted to encourage their take charge attitudes. I thought about taking their design to a t-shirt place, but I was at Walmart one day and saw these premade Earth Day shirts were for sale for $4. I thought there was no way I could print their shirts for less than $4, so I bought one for them and all of their girlfriends. Here they are in their cute shirts.

(Sisi, Nelly the dog, Ian, Kami, Hannah, Emma, Brie and Hannah S.)

If you can see, even Ian is wearing an Earth Day shirt, but I bought him a brown one. Also in the picture is our neighbor's puppy, Nelly. Another day, the girls drew 2 posters and hung them on the brick wall near our neighborhood. Here they are in front of one of their posters.

(Lauren, Hannah, Kami, Hannah S. Emma, Ian & Sisi)

I am so proud of the kids, and their initiative to do something that wasn't for school or church, but entirely on their own. They were so happy, and it was fun to help them accomplish their goals.

Spring Pictures

Last week was our spring break, and the weather was beautiful (for the first half of the week anyway). So I decided it was time for new pictures of the kids. Here they are at the Layton park. You can't see it in this picture, but the Ian was sitting on a tree branch which was almost horizontal while his sisters propped him up. Just moments after this picture was taken, Ian just about slid off the tree, so fortunately we got a few pictures before that happened.
Here's Ian. He was a pretty good sport through most of the session, but you could tell he was getting restless and wanted to go play. He cooperated much more because I wasn't the one taking the photos. He is really starting to warm up to the camera. We could never get him to look at the camera and smile until just recently.

Here's Emma. She is our little model. She will do any pose and any smile you ask. She loves being in front of the camera. I love her 8 year old smile, those teeth are adorable.

And last but not least, here is Hannah. She had just gotten her braces on the day before, so her mouth was still very uncomfortable, but she didn't let it show. She also is a natural in front of the camera. I love this picture because it captures her personality really well, cute and playful.

They turned out well. Thanks to my friend Melissa for being the photographer. At least that is done for a few more months anyway.

My First Baby is Almost 12!

In my church, I serve in the Young Women's, specifically, I am a Beehive Advisor. Beehives are the 12 and 13 year olds. The other night, we had our New Beginnings program, that is where all the girls who will be turning 12 during that year are invited to sort of an open house where they get to find out more about the Young Women's program. My oldest, Hannah, turns 12 in August, so she got to go with me to New Beginnings. She was so excited to go, she can't wait to turn 12 and attend Young Women's. She also found out that night that she gets to attend Girls Camp this summer, because she turns 12 before the end of the summer, she was super psyched about that. This choked me up a little bit, I am amazed that she has grown up so fast. It seems like just the other day we were taking her home from the hospital, and here she is, practically a teenager! I thought I would take turns spotlighting each of the kids, so here is Hannah:

Hannah (aka Hannah Banana) is such a good girl. If there is one word to describe Hannah, it is Funloving. She loves to have fun. She is one of the most social kids I know. She has friends of all ages. She is nice to her little cousins. Her favorite things to do are to hang out with friends, snowboard, golf and play the piano. She is such a good big sister, and a great helper to me. Here she is with her sister, Emma.

Last month she gave us a big scare. One night she complained that her tummy was hurting. The next day we took her in to the doctor, who ran several blood tests. He said if she wasn't better the next day, that she would need a CT Scan, he suspected that she might have appendicitis. When she was still in pain, the next day, I took her in for the CT Scan, and sure enough, her appendix was about to burst. We are grateful that it hadn't ruptured yet. They were able to perform the surgery laproscopically, so she just has 3 tiny incisions, and was able to go home the same day. She had to take it easy for a few weeks, but she is now back 100%. Here she is just before the surgery holding the stuffed animal the nurses gave her. She was a trooper, even though Jason and I could tell she was scared, she was very mature.

We are glad she is feeling better. We are so grateful for her and her fun spirit that she adds to our family. We love you Hannah!

The Soggiest Vacation Ever

Because I recently started this blog, I wanted to catch up on some events that happened pre-blog. Last month, from December 10 - 15, Jason and I went to Hawaii. Jason had some work there, so I tagged along. Let me just say, I have never seen more rain in my life. I think it rained more in 5 days there, than in 2 years in Utah. Our flight got in around 4 p.m., we checked into our hotel, and immediately afterwards, I had made dinner reservations at the Luau at our hotel. Here we are just before the Luau.
We stayed at the Hilton Hawaiian Village (this is a link) at Waikiki. It was a huge resort, right on the beach. It was a great hotel, great location and very pretty. Here is some of the entertainment at the Luau. Our hotel tower is in the background.

At the Luau, they had lots of yummy native Hawaiian food. They cooked a roasted pig, which you can see them pulling out of the pit in the ground. We actually ate this pig just moments later. It was really good!

After that first night, it rained pretty much constantly. Here is one of the few moments of sunshine. Our hotel is in the background. This was pretty much my only opportunity to go to the beach or wear my cute new swimsuit.

Here we are in front of our hotel.

Despite the rain we headed up to the Polynesian Cultural Center. It is a really neat museum and display of all the Polynesian Cultures, not just Hawaiian. It is near the North Shore, and is ran by the LDS Church. It is right next to BYU Hawaii. Due to the rain storms, many of the nearby homes were flooded. On the local news, we heard that the storm had been the biggest of the decade. We had about fifteen minutes before our dinner reservations at the dinner show/luau there, so we thought we would take a gondola tour around the Center. Here we are on a gondola tour of the cultural center. Our tour guide, which you can see his arm, was hilarious. He was Korean, not Polynesian, and he was very funny. Right after we took this picture, it started pouring buckets of rain, by the end of the gondola ride, we were soaked, and we ran straight to the dinner show, which you'll see below.

At the PCC, as some call it, there was a dinner show as well, which you can see below. What you don't see, is that right behind the performers, it was open to the outside, and there was more rain than I have ever seen before. Fortunately, the ampitheater was covered, so we enjoyed a nice dinner. After the dinner, we went to the other ampitheater where they had a really neat dance program in which all of the Polynesian dances were shown. Once again, fortunately this ampitheater was covered as well, because the rain continued. After the dance show was over, it was time to go back to the hotel, they made an announcement that the one and only road back was closed down due to the flooding. So that meant we had to go the long way back, and had to drive completely around the island.

Our last day, we visited the Pearl Harbor Memorial. Here is a picture of the USS Missouri in the Harbor. The Memorial was so sad, in the harbor, you can still see oil leaking out of one of the sunken ships today, over 60 years later.

Despite the rain, it was still a fun trip. At least it was still warm, almost 80 degrees, not like the freezing rain some places have. All of the rain makes me want to go back again, to see it when it is not raining. According to some of the locals we talked to, even though it rains alot in Hawaii, that amount of rain was unusual. Many of the locals apologized for the rain, as if they had anything to do with it. They warmly invited us back to enjoy their island in good weather. I'm very glad we went. When we got home, we were very happy to see our kids. They missed us, but they were in good hands. A neighbor girl, named Mandy babysat them. They loved her. She was a better mom than I am. I was so impressed that she had made the kids their own blankets, the house was spotless, she even handled Ian puking at the ward christmas party that she took them to. Sorry Mandy. A couple weeks after that, Mandy got engaged, so congratulations Mandy! You'll be a great wife and Mom someday. We then came home to a huge snowstorm, so the rain wasn't that bad after all.

Emma's Baptism

On Saturday January 3, we had Emma's Baptism. She was so excited to be baptized. Jason performed the baptism. The night before was the Sugar Bowl, where Utah stomped Alabama. We had gotten together at Jason's sister's house the night before to watch the game. The game was so exciting, that Jason (and others in his family) lost his voice from cheering. So while performing the baptism, Jason's voice was very hoarse.Our whole family came, as well as many friends and neighbors. Afterwards we had everyone over for a dinner at our house. Here is some of our family at the church afterwards.

Emma looked so beautiful in white. Here she is next to her cake which we enjoyed after dinner.

Our friend Kristin who is awesome at doing hair, braided Emma's hair into a french braid which was shaped like a heart. It looked great and was perfect for the baptism.

Walking with Dinosaurs

Last Saturday we took the kids to see "Walking with Dinosaurs" at Energy Solutions Arena. However, we didn't all go at the same time. Let me explain. Jason took Ian to the 11 o'clock showing. Ian had been asking to go see it for several weeks. We surprised him and didn't tell him that his Dad was going to take him until we arrived downtown that morning. While the boys went to the show, I took Hannah and Emma shopping, and then we all met up at The Dodo restaurant at the Gateway around 1 for lunch.

Eating lunch at The Dodo

At lunch, Jason and Ian told us how awesome the show was and that we should try to go to a later showing. So after lunch, we walked over to the box office and bought 3 tickets to the 3 p.m. show. We got front row seats, it was an amazing experience. The show was very educational and entertaining. The girls both loved it, I'm glad we went.

Hannah and Emma before the show

Slideshow of the dinosaurs

We are bloggers!

Today I have taken the plunge and learned how to blog. My friend Kelly Jones and her daughter Gabby came over to our house and Kelly helped me set up our new blog. Thanks Kelly! I had admired her family's blog ever since I saw it with their Christmas card, so I asked her to help me, and voila! I am excited to be able to share pictures and our daily happenings with family and friends who may be far away, and it will be another method of journaling, which I need to be better at.