The Negotiator

McKay so didn't want to do the Dance Festival this year. He didn't like the dance, at all. He and his friend were wanting to go to Walkers. Yes, the gas station, because apparently there is so much to do there. I had told them "NO WAY! It's your last year. You'll feel bad if you don't do it." His friends parents told him he could, so it was just McKay. He got home, showered, put on his cologne, suit, placed a pen in his pocket and wrote a paper on 20 good reasons about letting your son go. Some of my favorites were: "Fifth tomorrow is not an educational day, and will not learn anything." "seventh is that I will try out singing lessons, and do the chorus at the jr. high next year." "Eighth will have a good attitude for the rest of the month and including during practice" "My twelfth reason is that I will do the lawn with a good attitude of course." "And fifteen you ate half of my hundred grand" At the end it had two lines; one for "You'r signature" and "My signature". I had him show me the "Dance as exhibit "A" so I could make a better judgement. ;) In the end I thought "My dad would be so proud of him". So I told him yes, but he better call Garrett to make sure before he signed it. Once it was signed it was put into place. Garrett was sick! For real sick! He came home with the flu. So McKay had a choice. Did he want to just stay home alone, or go. He...

{next post, tomorrow to find out}

Here's Exhibit "A"

Phone Import

I don't always have my camera. Those day's are long past. However, I do always have my phone so those fabulous "in the moment" memories are not lost. Here are some of my favorites:

These were gifts from Christmas, I know so long ago. But I loved them, the yarn is so different between the two, but both are so soft and wonderful to knit with. I loved the way they turned out.Josie. And yes, I let her go to school like that. When she was younger I had a sign I'd put on her back that said "I did it myself today". Since then I have embraced and love her individuality. I figure she'll be the next Oilily designer. McKay and Abby last week, were lunch servers together! They had so much fun together!Notice the piles of laundry. This is taken a couple of weeks ago after finishing my laundry day. This is after a week. The two large piles in the middle? They are Josie's, Yes she goes through several outfits a day, but it's still more then what I can ever figure out. Last week she had 12 pajamas! How?!

Can it be?!

This little guy had a very special night last night.

He graduated from PRESCHOOL! My little guy & I have searched on the web, went to our favorite science store in Orem for a potion to help him to stop growing. We haven't found anything yet, but we are determined to find something soon!

Yes this is what Gabe and Kimball did the entire time. Notice the arm (his moms who is most amazing teacher) with a quick grab to separate them. We have had so many blessing from this wonderful preschool. My aunt recommended it two years ago when we were going to go to Quail Run. Quail didn't quite work for us but this preschool was just where we were suppose to be. Kimball and Gabe have become so close. They are very similar, and both fantastic kids, love to have fun, and they are both the babies.

Ms. Barbara has been AMAZING! I don't know anyone else who would have been so good to my little allergy boy. She has truly blessed our lives.

UVYSO

(Photo by Laura Belnap)

Yes that's my little Tinkerbell with her cello. UVYSO has just finished their 2011-12 season. Their spring concert was last Monday. However, my adorable Ab's didn't make it. She was running a low-grade fever all day. Just before leaving it spiked up to 102.5. She was so upset. After talking to her about why {understanding all the work, and it being the last concert} she was so upset about missing it, she broke down and said all the songs were the same as the festival except for "The Sound of Music". She loved the piece and wanted us to hear it. So we made a deal. She would go to bed, and I'd have Laura video the piece. {THANKS LAURA!!} We are all so sad we missed hearing it live with her in it, but she wanted to share her favorites.

And her 2nd favorite recorded at the Festival:

{She's the little cellist second row)

Piano Debut

Josie had her piano debut tonight. She has been working so hard on it. She made the programs, I did type them but she chose a picture and the font, oh the font. It took us a very long time to choose the perfect font for her program. She even wrote a story to string the songs together. She is very creative.

Josie has the most amazing piano teacher, Chirsty. (She even just won a national award for music teachers!)

You might be wondering about her dress. Oh her beautiful dress that Grammie & Grandpa sent her for her 8th Birthday. They picked it up for her in Korea. Josie has been waiting for the perfect place to debut the fabulous dress as well. She thought this was the perfect occasion.

You did it Jose!

Einstein's Birthday

For home school today we celebrated Albert Einstein's birthday. Josie figured he would be 133 years old today. Off we drove for a tasty breakfast from "Einstein's Bro." When we got home we watched a 3 min documentary. She identified with the fact "at school he was mediocre at best." She was surprised that someone labeled as a genius struggled at school. She asked if that meant she could be a scientist or physicist like he was. Of course I responded with "Absolutely!" She has looked at microscope slides on and off all day, found specimens of her own and wants to make her own slides. She took the picture of him we printed off and typed up her favorite quote from him "If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales.” Taped them together and posted it up on the inside of her closet door. I don't think there could have been a more perfect lesson on day number 3!

Journal Entry

Josie and I have embarked on an adventure together. Homeschooling for core classes. She is loving her journal writing topics. We videoed her first entry to share with Grammie.

For Mr. Nolan

Okay bud, here it finally is. The trumpet playing robot with perfect pitch, from The Land of Cute.

Abby's Concert with UVYSO

Thank Goodness

Today a software update popped up on my phone. How funny is the last point on this:

What's even better is watching my Aussie hubby, who really doesn't have an accent anymore, try to talk to Siri or use any of the voice recognition features. He'll be so glad!

Greece wasn't built in a day...

Okay I know the real saying is "Rome wasn't built in a day." However, either was the Parthenon. Holy Cow. McKay is learning about Greece & Greek Mythology. So the Parthenon was recreated. This project was started General Conference weekend {first weekend in Oct}; it was just completed on Wednesday. He watched a video on the restoration that is going on; found the dimensions, made it to scale and we started to glue & sand.

The project turned out really cool. I am so glad it's over, no more sugar all over my house!

McKay and his buddy Max

Construction EVERYWHERE!!!

We went on a day trip down to the arches today. I have so much to post tomorrow, but until then I had to share what we found on our hike to Delicate Arch:

Yes CONSTRUCTION on the trail!!! I had to laugh when two teenage boys, couldn't believe it either and screamed out "construction!? it's even here!".

Dear Mom

Mom,

On my way to Special Needs Mutual, I spotted this.

We laughed so hard; we had to turn around and take a picture.

They are covering the canal and everything is ripped up. As I constantly sit in construction, I am thinking of you and your nice, clean, non-construction roads. Oh, Utah.

Birthdays

We have just concluded with the last birthday party. McKay's party was delayed due to weather. He invited just a few friends up the canyon to enjoy a afternoon zip lining down Provo Canyon. The event turned out to be AWESOME! Four, long, fast zip lines through trees, over ravines and along the river. This is an amazing group of kids.

McKay turned the big 1 2 this year!!! He was lucky enough to be ordained on his birthday!! Gramie & Grandpa bought him his first suit for it. Lonnie & Julie were so kind and we got to try them on at their house. Doesn't he look handsome! Later that week he got to attend the priesthood session in Salt Lake and was invited to the dinner with the General YM presidency prior, and ice cream after.

Kimball's party was something I've wanted to do for a long time! We had Scales & Tales come and party with us. It was awesome. From pulling web silk from tarantula, a giant tortoise named Twinkle Toes. With whom Abby danced with. McKay caught the dangerous Rosie. An anaconda, to a giant snake named Nanners. This party rocked and to top it off, Sierra came and took pictures!! It was even her birthday! Yes Kimball and Sierra are birthday buddies! {I totally forgot to tell her happy birthday! So Sierra happy belated birthday!} With so many fabulous pix, I just randomly grabbed a few to share.

{first thing Kimball did was measure himself to everyone

to see if he was bigger...he was}

Oh Abby Ba Dabby is just like her mom when it comes to parties; the poor thing. Even though it was a "friend" party year, she just wanted to have a family party. It was so great! Of course the only thing she wanted for her birthday was a toy for her best friend Larry.

Ab's also got a Kindle. She has become such a reader! In fact just the other night I went in to check on her so I could go to bed, and she was still reading! I had to take her Kindle away for the night. I brushed my teeth, got my jammies on and went to check on her again, she had found another book in her closet! So i took her light bulb from her lamp. The next night I went to tell her to grab her bulb off the counter, but when I went in there she already had one in. I asked if she had already gotten it? "no" "did you get a new one?" "no" as she looked up. My eyes followed hers. She had taken a light bulb from her chandelier! It is a nice problem to have; but this girl needs to get some sleep!

Josies party was a whirl wind of fun, kids & food. To top it off, it was the cheapest party I've ever done, with the most kids. Josie was so excited to have her first "friend" party, that she had invited everyone in her class, along with all of the kids in the neighborhood. So we got creative. We had a cooking party. We decorated chef hats, made pizza & decorated cupcakes. {We also had planned to make cookie dough, but that so didn't happen}.

Craig was teaching at the Y that night. He was so sweet. He surprised me with a drink, not just any drink, but a route 44, DC, light ice and extra limes. oh heaven.

It wasn't just a big busy day for me, it was for the little princess as well. She fell right asleep with her new friend Maximus.

untill next year!!

Couldn't Be

Remember this:

Kimball's big crash? Well the story continues. Kimball got to attend his first Father and Sons Camp Out this weekend! {And he came back alive and without having to use his Epi!} On Monday after were loading in the car, after attending the Latin American Festival, Kimball looked at Craig and said, "Dad you totally scratched the car when we were camping" as he shook his head. Craig looked totally shocked, and I couldn't help but laugh. He totally has the "Who, stole the cookies from the cookie jar...Who me? Couldn't be?" down. I guess I should be glad that he can adapt what he's learning into life.?

Back...Yuck!

Back to school....I hate it. I know, you just did an audible gasp. Don't get me wrong when I was little I loved it. The smell of new crayons, the excitement of what hot, fall/winter outfit I'm going to wear even though it's a blazing 90 degrees outside. The way the school smelled when meeting my teacher. Sitting in my desk, with my very own chair. The way the classroom was decorated. I loved it all.

Now... on top of the 3 hours of practicing instruments I get to do without hardly playing a note myself, 2 1/2 hours of reading, and reading tutor runs, music lessons, kids jobs, my house hold "duties", and some "bonding fun time", all of which I love, we then add, homework, fall activities & sports, school schedules, homework, preschool and the list goes on forever, and only some of that do I love. I feel like a chicken running around with it's head cut off. Then only to have teachers tell you that there's a lot of work that needs to be done to get to grade level. Ugh! I should defiantly not have gone to Back to School Night. I want to crawl under the covers and not surface for a long time. I wish I could be one of those "hands off" mother's. At time's I look at them and find myself daydreaming about how wonderful that would be. Then I think of an episode of My Family when the school counselor tells Susan {the mother} to release her "super parent" and that.... "maybe you'd be wiser to adopt a more hands off approach...to ignore them." They get enrolled in a parenting class and she goes crazy trying to act as if she's "chill" with what they are doing or not doing.

I love having my kids home with me, knowing what's going on, being able to head to the dinosaur museum on a hot day, or spend the day making a reading tent and having a read-a-thon equipped with treats. Or sitting and drawing on the sidewalk, and making the worlds longest hopscotch. I am ready for a holiday and it's only a week into school. I want to call the schools and say we have a rare flu that is going to last until May. I know I'm a crazy mom. Most that I've spoken with have started the conversations this last week with, "Aren't you glad schools back?" I want to scream back "NO!! ...." My darling psychologist husband would say I'm a control freak, but he already knows that I know that. So yes the kids are back to school, and I'm going to enjoy the moments I do get with them, because there aren't enough. {and learn, never go to a back to school night or a parent teacher conference, again!}

{1st day of school 2011}

A First

Josie had her very first piano recital ever! And she did awesome! She played on a 9 foot Steinway Grand Piano, that had the small price tag of $138,000!!! Needless to say I was holding my breath the entire time! She has an amazing piano teacher, who totally gets Josie. She also got an award after for completing the YouTube 50 challenge. They had a sheet of 50 different videos they had to watch and answer questions. Some of the videos were pretty amazing. One of our favorite was this video from Japan. It's a commercial for a wooden phone. {only in Japan} The question she had to answer was "How do you think they were able to make the pieces of wood sound different pitches and go different tempos?

She also wanted to share the video of Eric Whitacre's Virtual Choir

A Promise Finally Met!

I promised the kids I would take them camping this summer. I have been reminded of this promise often. Finally, we did it! And a couple of weeks to spare. We traveled up the canyon without a reserved campsite, hoping we would find something available. When we arrived at the base of the canyon, we were met by a Ranger who said the campsite was full, but that we could try a more "primitive campsite". Oh my, taking Craig camping was tricky enough when I promised a bathroom and water, now the only thing available was a "primitive campsite". I couldn't go back on my word, and all the work of getting ready. So up we drove. As we got to the campground that was "full", we saw an adorable older couple who were the campground hosts. So we pulled up and asked by any chance if anything was available. YES! One single campsite was left. And what a campsite it was. The next day we asked one of them, when we need to schedule and what campsite was the best. He thought out of all 70 something sites, ours was the best! And I full heartily agree. It was awesome! So Jan. 1st we will be on the computer clicking away!

Yes, we brought the bike.

I don't know how we fit it in but it was a must!

He did it!