Student of the Month

Mitchell was the Student of the Month for May in his class. This is a big honour and so he was very excited. I went to the assembly to take photos of when they would call him up and give him his award. The cafeteria was so dark that the photos didn't really turn out....sorry.

The Beach....again!

A couple of weekends ago we went to the beach. We met up with my best friend from high school Laurie and her family. We had a lot of fun visiting and watching the kids play in the sand and water. Grant is doing a lot better when we go to the beach and not eating as much sand! My kids begged Laurie's husband Chris to bury them with the sand and he was happy to help.














If you look closely you can tell Paige is a Mermiad.

Making Music

Harry and Grant having fun with their friend Alissa.

New Floors!

I am so excited about our new wood floors! I have wanted them for a long time, but once we moved into our new house and realized how shot this carpet was I knew we couldn't put if off any longer.

Matt has worked so hard to lay it all down this week. We did our whole down stairs except the front room and the kids room.

Fun with Joey

We took Joey to the park twice this week. He loved it.

Warrior Wound

So for YW last night we did a 5 mile bike ride. About half way through I had to stop. When I got back on my bike I wanted to catch up with everyone so I stood up on my pedals and starting pumping fast. I got about 6 pumps in and was just about to sit down when my chain broke. My foot slipped off the pedal and I went do with a big crash. Luckily I was still in the back of the pack and no one saw me go down. How embarrassing!

But I got road rash on my arm and this sweet bruise. I am quite proud of it. My leg slammed down on the cross bar of my bike.

So here is my big, fat, white leg for the whole world to see. The flash kind of made it all even out so it looks worse in real life....but you get the idea.

Journals Rock!

From the time I was 12 until about 20 I kept a journal(s). They are funny to read now, but I am so thankful that I have them! They really do help me with insight about how my YW might be feeling about their lives right now. I stopped when I got engaged to Matt and didn't start again until Mitchell turned 1 years old. (I am really sad that I don't have those years recorded!)
Since then (2002) I have kept a "family" journal pretty consistently.
Tonight as I was helping Mitchell with his homework I pulled it all up on my computer. He has to make a time line of his life with all the important dates (born, first steps, first tooth, etc) and so I pulled out the journal and photos to help us.
As I sat and read back what has happened and how our family has changed through the last seven years I was so thankful that I had our Journal! There were so many little things that I had forgotten about. Funny things that Mitchell had said, cool things Paige had done that I had totally forgotten all about. I am so thankful that my parents instilled journal keeping in me. My Grandma Liston has also been a very big example to me about keeping a journal. Thanks G-G!
I have been keeping my journal online here now for almost 2 years! I right click and copy everything here and save it in Word. I also have other things that I didn't publish here because they were private or might embarrass my kids at the time (like the time Mitchell pulled the fire alarm at the temple...lol). I am glad my kids can all print them out and have a copy when they get older! I may not be the best at keeping a baby book or a scrapbook, but at least they will have this.

Crazy Hair

So Grant has the craziest bed-head ever. This is what his hair looks like every morning when he wakes up. I call it his "john and kate plus 8" hair do.

It take a lot of water and product to get it to lay down flat.

Harry!

My mom asked Harrison yesterday who he was going to marry when he grows up. He said (with no hesitation) Heather! She is in his little playgroup. So today while they were jumping on the trampoline I thought I would get a photo of them together. I told them to stand next to each other and Heather threw her arms around him. Too cute!!!

Mitchell is Eight!

Mitchell turned 8 today. He had a party with his friends on Friday and had 2 friends spend the night. I was pure craziness with 7 eight year old boys here. They had pizza, jumped on the tramp and played with their Pokemon cards.

Today Mitchell got a new suit and tie before church. I was sitting on the stand when he walked into Sacrament meeting. I got teary-eyed as I saw him come walking in looking so old and proud of his suit. Today after church Mimi, Papa, Tony, Traci, Papa Paul, and Megan came over. We opened gifts, had cake and ice-cream and a nice visit with everyone.

He also had his interview with Bishop Ford today to get baptized and did a great job. Mitchell is turning into such a fine young man that we are so proud of!

Harry's Photos

Grant's Birthday

Yesterday was Grant's 2nd Birthday! We had a nice relaxing day with the family. We had a nice dinner at Mimi and Papa's and then did gifts and cake. Grant LOVES monkeys lately so he got a stuffed blue Monkey. He wasn't sure about it at first but warmed up to it and loves it now. He loved all his gifts. We love you Grant!

Tax Tea Day

It was a little cold. But I am so glad we went! It is so important to me that we show our kids that we get involved and take action....not just complain.

Remember everyone to vote NO on 1A!

Pinnacles!

We went to the Pinnacles this week while the kids were out of school for Spring Break. It was a lot of fun. We love going new places with the kids and showing them new things and things they have never seen before.

There were so many wild spring flowers and the weather was perfect. Grant was scared of going into the caves at first but then did alright once we got started. I was so impressed with how well Mitchell and Paige hiked! They never complained at all. It was a great day and can't wait to go there again (next time I will bring more snacks to munch on while hiking).

Easter

Saturday

The kids had a blast doing their Easter eggs on Saturday.

Happy Easter!

Fun Blog

I love this new blog I just found. Check it out!
http://www.9thwardcartoons.com/

My YW

I Love 'em!

Thanks Mimi

Mimi (my mom) took Harry out on a "date" the other day. She took him out for ice cream and bought him this little water sprinker. The kids have having a blast with it. This is holding them over until it gets warm enough to swim.

No Sweeter Words

Very few words are sweeter for a mom to hear than when one of your kids says, "Can you turn the TV down! I am trying to read here!"

Update on Us!

I try really hard to teach my kids to say "no thanks", or "no thank you" when they are first learning how to talk. I just hate it when I hear a kid screaming NOOO at their parents. So I try to make sure I always say no thanks/no thank you to my kids when I want them to stop doing something or I don't want something they are offering me.

Grant has started to say it now which is fun. Whenever I give him something he doesn't want he says, "No cue, no cue" over and over. It is pretty cute.

He is also really into playing with Paige's baby doll. He wants to dress it and change it's diaper and put it to sleep. I am loving it cause I haven't been able to play "girl" stuff in years.

Paige is getting so tall! She is up to Mimi's shoulders already. She is back to sewing which makes me happy. She is going to start swim team soon and she is really excited about that.

We moved Mitchell to his own room last week. He is very excited about this. I have been pleasantly surprised at how clean he is keeping his room. He is my little organizer when he wants to be.

Our computer has been "broken" a lot lately. (Wink...wink) I know this is a cop-out with having to stand up to Harry and his obsession with the computer lately, but it is so much easier for me to tell him that the computer is not working and he needs to find something else to do. He takes this news just fine and runs off and plays. I really need to find a pre-school for him next year, cause he is bored being home with Grant and me all day.

Fun in the Sun

Why do kids love water so much? I swear these two could play with a hose for hours on end!

Nothing much going on.

So, I don't really have anything to report. We have just been having fun in the sun the last few days. Matt put our trampoline up so kids have been having fun rediscovering that.

Grant is talking more and more so that is fun. He now calls Mitchell: Chichell, and calls Harry: Ha-we some times and other times just we-we. It makes us all chuckle.

Matt spoke at a fireside last night and did a great job. I am very proud of him! He is quite the teacher nowadays!

Landscape Pro

The front of our house has been driving me crazy. On Saturday I decided to take advantage of the warm and sunny weather and went to town on it. It was just a bunch of dead/half-dead plants, weeds, and dirt.

So I replanted a few bushes, pulled a million weeds, laid down that black paper stuff, bought a bunch of new plants and flowers, and planted them all.

Matt went at lunch time today and bought some bark for me. I just finish putting the bark in. I know it's just a small area but I am pretty proud of myself.

Mess Maker

This photo says it all.

7 more weeks

7 more weeks until Mitchell turns 8! I can't believe I am going to have another child get baptized!
Mitchell wants to have Paige sing at his baptism and so I found a really cool song for her to sing. (The primary is going to learn a simplified version of it in 2010) It is new and kind of hard so Paige is starting to learn it now. I downloaded it to her MP3 player so that she can listen to it.
In our family when you turn 8 you get a set of new scriptures and a suit (or dress). I am happy that Mitchell is excited to get both of these...I was worried he might need some convincing but he didn't. I need to order the scriptures now because there is no where around here to buy them.
It is so fun to see our family grow and change!

lip sync!

The other night we had a skit night with the YW and YM. One of my Laurels (Ally Bj) and I did a lip-sync with me. It was pretty funny! Ally tends to be on the shy side so I was excited that she agreed to do it with me.

Thanks Ally it was fun!