Our Annual Campout

As school comes to an end, it means it is time for our annual camp out. This year our camp out was minus the camping out. ;) It has been so cold and rainy that there hasn't been a dry night to do it. If it was up to the girls they would have slept out in the rain. Thank goodness Adam and I get to make that decisions! The camping out thing will have to happen at a later date. We decided that we would still do our campfire with roasted hot dogs, marshmallow's, and star burst. Adam introduced us to starburst a few years ago. He went to a fathers and sons campout and found out you can't have a campfire without starburst. Ever since then it is a must. I have wondered if this is a total Utah thing? It was so cold out that even being around the fire wasn't warm enough. Everyone had a blanket and listened to each other tell silly stories! I love that our little family has already formed special family traditions!

Softball

This is Kourtney's last year playing for the Badgers. She moves on to a new league next year. She enjoyed this year a lot more than last. This has been a difficult league since most of the other players come from an accelerated team. We have enjoyed seeing her improvement over the season!

Kaitlyn entered a new league this year and has thoroughly enjoyed it! She loved being able to hit the ball from a "regular" pitcher. Boy, can she hit the ball! She has adjusted well coming from coach pitch. It's definitely a crazy time of year for us with three of us playing, but it sure is fun!

Forever Friends!

One of the highlight's for Kourtney this year was having the opportunity to help and spend time with Juliette. She is six years old and in Kindergarten. At the beginning of the year the principal approached Kourtney and asked her if she would be willing to play with Juliette during the Kindergarten recess? Because she is so small there were many things that she would need a little help with. Kourtney was all for it! Throughout the year Kourtney has made a wonderful and lasting relationship/friendship with this little girl! She has had many struggles throughout her six years of life and has stamped a permanent mark on Kourtney's heart! One of Juliette's favorite things to do was swing. Kourtney would pick her up, sit her on her lap and spend the recess swinging together. I talked with Juliette's mom the other day and she expressed how grateful they were that Kourtney would sacrifice her time in helping their daughter. She shared how nervous she and her husband were about putting her into school but knew that it was important for her to have a normal life. It put her mind at ease when she found out that there were people who would help. She told me that they knew a lot about Kourtney from what Juliette had shared with them and that it had made such a big difference in their daughters life. On our end we feel the same way! Juliette has been the center of many of our conversations. She has such a sweet spirit! Isn't it wonderful that it doesn't matter how big or small you are or how old you are? What matters is how big your heart is!
Doesn't that smile just brighten your day?!

The End of Elementary School for Kourtney!

Elementary School has come to an end for Kourtney. It seems like yesterday I was walking this little girl through the front doors of the Elementary school for her first day of Kindergarten. There were tears then and there are tears now. Now seven years later she is now moving on to bigger and better things. As parents, we can't say enough good things and express how proud we are of Kourteny! She has put a lot of hard work and time into her school work and it has really paid off. About a month ago I received two different a phone calls (one from her principal and the other from her teacher) that Kourtney has gone above and beyond in everything she has done. They called her the perfect example of a student striving for excellence! They told us that she had been chosen and would be presented with the "Terrific Kid" award, that would be presented to her by the Rotary Club during her graduation program. We decided not to tell her, so she would be totally surprised when the representative called her name for the award! She was! She also received the Service Award, Honor Roll Award, and Student of the Year for her class. Her teacher this year, Mrs. Waite is absolutely fabulous! She is a dear friend and who I truly admire! We are so proud of you Kout!

More/better picture to come from Matt. :)

Graduating 3rd Grade!

Another year has come and gone. This year has flown by! I'm sure I say that every time, but it really has! Kaitlyn has done so well! She really enjoyed school and spending time with many of her friends. She has experienced some new things this year. She has learned how to write in cursive, multiplication & division, participated in the Hershey track meet, and had to come up with a business and sell goods. We have seen a lot of progress in Kaitlyn this year. Her report cards say the same thing! Congratulations Kaitlyn!

Kaitlyn with her friends, Shilynn & Isabel.

The garden expansion

We finally managed to get the garden planted after all the rain that has been falling. We have seen nine days of straight rain and cold wind. We are being told that the state in under major flood warnings. Thursday there was a break in the rainy weather so I went out and roto-tilled the new garden area. We realized last year that we needed more room for the garden so we took part of the play ground area and turned it into garden space. With a garden comes a lot of work, but work that can have a big pay off, and I can't wait! I love gardening and love to see what it can produce after just a few months. I wanted to make more square foot garden boxes but financially it wasn't going to happen this year. I decided to use stock fence and posts thanks to my brother to trellis my tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, and cantaloupe. I hope it works. We also planted a grapevine but I'm not sure how it will do with the birds?
List of plants and seeds:
Tomatoes (regular, Roma's & cherry)
cucumbers(reg & pickling)
summer squash
zucchini
bell peppers
jalapenos
Anaheim peppers
cantaloupe
romaine & red leaf lettuce
beans
peas
broccoli
cabbage
onions
cilantro & a rosemary bush

I hope this takes off! I am really looking forward to increase my food storage!

Joining the Circus!

So the girls had an idea that they would try and teach Harley how to do a few tricks. They gathered their hula hoop and a few of Harley's toys to entice him through the hoop. It was quite comical watching all of them. Kourtney and Kaitlyn held the hula hoop while Makell dangled the dog toy in front. After a few successful runs, Makell said, "We could be in the circus!" "Harley could jump through the ring of fire!" Oh the imagination of little ones! After thinking about it, there is really no need to join the circus, because we live in a circus! :)

Pre-School Graduation!

Makell graduated from Pre-school today! I honestly can't believe the next step for my baby will be Kindergarten! We have been so fortunate to have all our children attend Love-A-Lot Preschool. We have known Patti for a long time and she is amazing and wonderful! She has stamped a permanent mark all of our hearts! She making learning so much fun the kids. Makell has had a terrific year! She has learned so much and has enjoyed many fun field trips. I asked her what some of her favorites things she did this year at school and this was her response:
1- Morning jobs. She loved being the line leader, holding the flag, and reporting the weather.

2- Passing out snacks.

3- Going on Field Trips. (Two Jack's Pizza Factory, Fire station, Police car demonstration were her favorites)

4- Going to school with friends.

5- School work and making letter people.

Makell and her class had a graduations program which demonstrated some of the things they have learned this year. Makell memorized her parts and did a fantastic job! I love the fact they graduated in caps and gowns. Reality is that we will be doing the cap and gown thing all over again in only thirteen short years! Congratulations Makell!

Tease

We told the girls if they were really good while we were gone to San Antonio we would bring something home for them. I am one who loves to tease! While we were on the plane I leaned over to Adam and told he couldn't eat his complimentary peanuts and he needed to give them to me. I wished you could have seen his face. I'm sure some of his first thought were, boy flying must really make her hungry. ;) No, I had another plan in mind. I told him that I wanted to tease the girls and tell them that their special prize we brought back for them were airplane peanuts! He totally agreed! We spent our last connecting flight home trying to decide how to pull it off. We didn't get home until 1:00 a.m., and of course the girls were sound asleep. The next morning we told them that we had some fun things for them! They sat on the bar stools waiting with excitement and anticipation!

Adam told them to close their eyes and he would put the surprise in their hand. He then told them to open their eyes and this was there expression! No one said anything for what seemed like minutes. I love Kourtney's face! Adam told them that these weren't just any peanuts but "airline peanuts". You can't just go out and buy these! They still didn't say a thing. Adam once again told them to close their eyes because that wasn't the only thing we had brought them. He put yet another package of peanuts in their hands and had them open their eyes again! Makell didn't quite know what to think. I think Kourtney and Kaitlyn thought this was some terrible nightmare! We knew it was time to pull out the "real" surprise when our sensitive child had tears welling up. Adam and I couldn't quit giggling! It was so funny! Are we mean parents?

I later asked them why they didn't say anything after the first package of peanuts and Kaitlyn said, "I didn't want to hurt your feelings, but I 'm sure glad you brought us something beside peanuts"!

Yes of course we brought back more than just airplane peanuts! We found some fun fingernail polish that changes a totally different color when in the sun, hair clips that also change color, tote bags, and earrings.

The Alamo

Our last day in San Antonio we toured the Alamo. It was just through the street from our hotel and the weather was perfect. I didn't get many pictures because an elderly gentleman and a not so nice lady yelled at me for taking pictures. They said, "Didn't you READ the sign"? I felt terrible because I must have totally missed the sign. As I looked around everyone else was taking pictures but I was the lucky one to get singled out! I really felt like telling them what I really thought, but I held back. I didn't want to make a seen and Adam would probably never take me anywhere again. ;) It wasn't like it was in the shrine. From that point on I put may camera away and didn't pull it out again.
It must have been field trip day at the Alamo. There were school classes everywhere! We went into a building that had a mini scale replica of the battle that was unreal! It really put things into perspective. If you know Adam very well you know he loves to through out one liners from movies, make jokes about it and then ask you to name the movie. I stopped counting how many times I heard "I remember... the Alamo" in a soft spoken girly sound. Can anyone name the movie? I had no idea, and after he told me what movie it was from, I was embarrassed for him!

This was the original outer wall that was still standing after the battle between the Texans and Mexico.

San Antonio LDS Temple

We were fortunate to be fairly close to the San Antonio LDS Temple. When I was flying in, I thought I could see it from my plane window. I love the fact that no matter where you are, the temples can bee seen, even in an airplane, hundreds of miles away! After Adam's classes on Friday, we left and drove to the temple. We have wanted to do an endowment session there for a very long time and I was so excited that the opportunity finally arose! There are some amazing stories that are shared or told about the stained glass windows in this particular temple. I read about them and watched a program and wanted to see it for myself. I even asked some of the temple workers and they verified the stories! It is now my new favorite! It is one of the most beautiful places! I felt things that I have never felt before! Absolutely amazing! If you ever have the chance or opportunity to go, you need to! When we arrived we realized we should have called and put our name on a list because they only have a certain number of seats available. Lucky for us they had three seats opened and it wasn't going to be a problem. The temple is only open a few days a week and they only have three session times. We realized how lucky or "spoiled" we are to have the Provo Temple so close and are able to get into a session every twenty minutes. I realized what a small place the world really is. As I a was sitting in the temple a young lady came and sat by me. We started whispering back and forth and she said she over heard us say we were from Utah. She asked me what part of Utah we were from and quickly found out she lived in Spanish Fork before she was married and her parents still live there. Crazy. The temple was my favorite part of the trip! Nothing better than spending the evening at the temple with your hunny! I will add the link about the amazing story with the temples stained glass!

San Antonio!

Last week I had the opportunity to go to San Antonio with Adam. He had a conference and training sessions that were being held there. I found a really cheap plane ticket so I decided to join him since everything else was paid for! I actually flew into San Antonio a day after Adam. There were things at home that needed to be taken care of which prevented me from leaving a day earlier. The day I was to arrive, the city had a major rain and thunder storm and was put on a tornado watch. I don't know what it is with me flying into Texas. Second time for a tornado watch. By the time my plane landed, the storm had passed and the weather was perfect! Adam picked me up from the airport and we went sight seeing. This was the first time that we had been away from our kids longer than one day. Thanks to my mom, brother, and sister-in-law for watching the kids for us so we could spend a little alone time together. I loved San Antonio! Our hotel was located right on the famous River Walk. We went on a boat tour of the River Walk and saw and heard some really neat history. We ate at some really good restaurants there as well. While Adam was in classes I walked around the city and along the River Walk. I spent one day shopping and decided to get my first manicure. The cool thing about the River Walk is, it's like an underground world. From the city you very seldom see any of the River Walk. After you walk down a few levels, this underground world is exposed. Tree's, building, and restaurants line the river. After staying there for a while it really made me miss Utah! I have come to realize that I take a lot of things for granted. I'm grateful I can walk down town at home and not feel like I just en haled a pack of cigarettes or smell like I have. :) Adam and I also had the opportunity to do a session in the San Antonio Temple. That experience gets a post in itself! If you ever have the chance to go, GO! So awesome! We had such a good time! It was nice to spend the weekend together!

Hard Work Pays Off for Kourtney

So the other morning I received a phone call from Kourtney's Principal at school telling me that Kourtney had won a college saving scholarship. He wanted to make me aware so I could look for it when she came home. He told me they gave four scolarship throughout the school and Kourtney was one of the winners. He said this was a great start to her collage savings with many more opportunities to add to it. She was so excited! This was also an incentive for the "Read to Success Program". I hope as the girls look back on these experiences they will always have a reminder that their hard work really does pay off!

Kaitlyn's Party

Since we only do birthday parties with friends every other year, this year Kaitlyn decided to take some friends to the cosmatology school for updo's, nails, and make-up. Each girls had there own personal stall and hair stylest to fancy them up and make them feel special! I think the girls were in heaven! I had just as much fun taking pictures of them. They got to choose a color of nail polish and eyeshadow of their choice. Some of the combinations were interesting. I worried what some of their mothers would think when their daughters arrived home with bright pink eyeshadow. :) I love the before and after picture of the girls. Adam needed a hair cut pretty badly so he took advantage of the situation and managed to get a hair cut while there. After they were all fancied up, we went to get shakes and Kaitlyn opened presents. Her friends were really good to her. I am so happy Kaitlyn has so many good friends that are great examples to her! A fun girly day!

Hope of America

Once again Kourtney's choir class participated in the Hope of America concert that was held at the Marriot Center. Her class has spent several months learning and practicing songs. You can't help but leave this event feeling overwhelmed with gratatude for all those who sacrifice their time, families, and lives to make this a free country for the rest of us.