Christmas Morning

Here are the Kids with their Christmas- They first woke up at 3 and dad told them they had to wait till 4 AM. Needless to say I am still catching up on my sleep.

Christmas Eve

It is a tradition in our family to have PJs for Christmas eve. This year I also let them open the scrapbooks that I had made for 08-09- as an afternoon "you've got the house cleaned up good job" reward. Here are the pictures- Since our family have been into dress our stuffed animal mode lately I did make matching PJs for our stuffed animals too. (well didn't get Jared's finished, but we improvised)

Samantha's Birthday

We went to Build a Bear for Samantha's Birthday. This time I took pictures of the experience. We ate at the Village Inn (had a lousy waitress- though) By the time we got home the little boys were asleep so we had her cake the next day. Happy Birthday Sam.

Sarah's Baptism

I didn't take many Pictures of Sarah's Baptism- That makes me feel bad, but here are are ones I did take. later that Evening we went to SLC and to Temple Square.

Sarah's Party

Sarah's Birthday Party "who Ate the Birthday Cake?" Similar to Clue JR Game that my kids love we had Blue Balloons with clues and Yellow Balloons with Clues in various parts of the house and the idea is to Rule out Who (in my family) and the Time that it occurred. It was Chaotic and yet everyone seemed to have fun. Everyone Received Detective badges and a detective bag with gear in it. The Birthday Cupcakes had magnifying glasses in them. Later that night we Celebrated as a family. Our family cake I made it look like a magnifying glass. We went to Build a Bear and McDonald's for the Birthday dinner (chosen by the birthday girl). Happy 8th Birthday Sarah.

Finally Halloween Posts

This Year our ward had a Trick or Trunk- Samantha had a soccer game and Jordan went with Dad and Sam to it. Then we carved pumpkins and that night it snowed. Finally We went trick or treating at Mainstreet Tooele.

Sarah's Baptism Photos

Some days are like that

Ever have the days when it seems like all you end up doing is making more work for yourself? I was working on the calendar for the upcoming year. Getting pictures to put on the corresponding months, all it seemed to be that I ended up accomplishing is getting frustrated. Then I came to realize that I could have done to save myself time and aggravation, was 2 simple steps and not the 10 frustrating ones I was taking. I guess some days are like that. I guess that some days we are simply trying to hard to push through, when there is better way to get around from point A to B.

My Soccer Players

Here is Green Lightning's #5, The Golden Girls #3, & The Crushers #27.

Samantha has several coaches for her team, but one in common to Sarah's Team. Coach Casey- has a great saying that he tells the girls after he has talked to them about what things they need to do different in their playing- He'll ask what was not working and asks them what they need to be doing- His last comment is "Make the adjustment". I liked that statement so much I thought I would share it.

School Midterms already- Quarter #1

It is time for Midterms and I haven't even posted the first day of school photos- So I will correct that now.

Jordan's First day of Preschool-

Jason's birthday

It was Jason's 6th birthday here is how we celebrated: Birthday Party a week before. We had a family party at home the day of. And we had his first Soccer Game the night of his birthday. I also took treats to his school class, but I didn't take photos of that.

The Adidas Cup Tournament

It was quite the weekend for our family. Samantha's Soccer Team participated in the Adidas Cup Tournament. The first game the girls had was on Thursday- Our team won by 1-0. The second game was Friday. The game tied 1-1.

The weather forcast for Saturday was for possible rain in the morning and nice weather in the afternoon. The truth was the there was definitely rain and definitely nice weather in the afternoon. Their first game was at 8 AM and the rain ebbed off for most of the game- till a lightning strike that was too close for comfort drove everyone undercover. The game was called, they lost. However, because they won and tied they were eligible for playing the final game. They played the same team from that morning and lost under blue skies.

Here are the photos of a group hug before the last game and the their metals for "runner-up".

The County Fair

I am so proud of the girls. 10 Blue Ribbons, 1 Red- and one of the blue was an OUTSTANDING blue ribbon! I was excited and they were excited to see their hard work pay off. I am already anticipating next year. I took pictures of the display I wanted to record their efforts.

July in 4H

We have had a crazy month of July. The girls have sewn aprons and I took them to the Fair grounds for judging today. It was pretty intense for a while with our sewing. We cut out the aprons, Attached the facings, sewed ties, sewed pockets, put it all together. There was rarely enough time during meetings, so the girls would stay later,come earlier , or come back sometime later that week.

It was a continual process, some days seemed never ending other times I was having more fun than the girls. I took pictures of each girl and their "masterpiece" and will add the images just as soon as I collage them together, so I don't have to post 11 individual photos. I hope they all win blue ribbons.

In the meantime for cooking- we have been following the book pretty closely. We have made Granola bars, Fruit Kabobs and dip, Brownies, and scrambled eggs (not in that order) Some of the girls wanted to wear the aprons right away, but I prevailed in making them wait for after the fair.

Our next sewing project is making some denim square bags. I will let you know how that goes. I just hope the girls complete them before school is back in session.

The 4H ladybugs

I organized a 4H group for my ward. I was planning on just a few girls from our neighborhood, but felt later to open it up to the girls that were old enough, in our ward. So we have a group of 11. Another mother in the ward offered to help and I asked her if she would teach the cooking lessons, and I would focus on the sewing. So far so good. We are learning as we go. The first meeting we had the girls decided what projects they wanted to do (an apron and a bag) and the group name (the Ladybugs)

The next meeting we learned about how the sewing machine works and sewed thread-less on paper. The assignment was to go home and finish sewing on the lines. We also had chosen our "jobs" assignments. President, Vice President, Secretary, etc. The cooking lesson was on sanitation- keeping our hand washed.

The lesson we just had was sewing on fabric and learning of seam allowances. We may have bitten off more than we could chew when I had them sew "chill ties" for their dads for father's day. The class went much later than I had planned, but everyone had the Chance to nearly finish their project. The cooking lesson was from the workbook "6 easy bites" and they made pizza pockets.

Next week we are planning a field trip to Walmart. I plan on teaching them about different fabrics and choosing fabrics for their projects. I am also going to talk to them about Warp and weft and why straight of grain is important. For the cooking segment she is going to talk about food labels and then the girls can look at various products and compare.

Wish us luck- I think we may need it.

Let the Summer Games Begin!

Two weeks into the summer vacation and we have swimming lessons behind us now. Jason was very concerned about being in level 2. I woke up that first morning to hear him crying in the living room. It was stressing him out! He was dreading the lessons. So the first day of lessons it was decided to have him repeat level 1. It was the best choice for everyone. He did great, he warmed up to swimming lessons and is comfortable in the water again. Sarah has a few things to improve on before she moves on to level 3 and Samantha needs to practice her strokes before she moves on from level 4. Jordan doesn't like to get his face wet normally, but after the swimming lessons he's a little fish. We went to the pool a couple of times as a family and the only thing that got us out of the water was Jared who would get chilled.

Kindergarten Graduation

Jason Graduated from Kindergarten this week. Here are a few pictures of Him there.



There are also pictures of him at his Field Day- I got to go and help. We "fished" for paper fish and counted how many fish we caught in one minute. It was an adaption of what I have done sometimes for Primary. The kids thought this was fun to do.