Happy Halloween!!!

Can you guess who made the kids cry???

I think Sarah has scarred Austin for life with her face paint.  He still calls her "Scary Sarah" every time he thinks of it.  All I can say is it's a good thing he didn't see Ryan.

End of School Year Recognition

SCHOOLS OUT!!!

What comes with summer, a whole bunch of awards assemblies and graduations from whatever the kids may have been involved with that year.  

Starting off: we had Ryan's Band and Orchestra concert.  If you are ever itchin' to see some good entertainment, you might want to catch the next 5th/6th grade B&O concert, no kidding, it is some interesting stuff there.

Ryan did awesome and I think he enjoyed it alright.

Next we had our proud Pre-School Graduation.  Talk about funny, these kids were so dang cute and they were very proud of themselves.

Ali just loved her class, especially Jacob.  We did not hear a sentence about Pre-School without hearing about Jacob.  She was teased to no end about her Pre-School crush.

Miss Lisa was fabulous!!!

As well as Miss Cindy!

Next was Sarah's 4th grade awards assembly.

She got 2 awards:

* Language something or other

and

* Math (100% on Acuity)

We were so proud of her!!!

Later that night, we had an awards ceremony at Girls Scouts where she earned some more patches and pins to put on her vest.

I tried to add a photo of Ryan getting an award at school, but I am quite a bit computer challenged to be able to figure it out.  Ryan received many awards at his 6th Grade Graduation/Celebration/Awards Assembly.  He got a plaque from the Bennion Lions Club or something like that, he also received a whole bunch of awards for good grades/citizenship/CRT testing/I really don't remember all, but he did really well in school and he was definitely recognized for it.

I am so proud of all of my kids and what they did in school this year.  They make me a very proud Mamma!!!!  I just can't believe that they are all growing up and getting so big.  I love each of them so much!!!

Parents of the year

YUP!!!  Jeff and I are the not-so-proud winners of the "Parents of the Year" award.

A week ago, the kids were so being so kind to walk some of the neighbor kids home and on the way, Ali tripped and fell.  Sarah brought her back and she was sobbing.  The problem: Ali is our Drama Queen and she often seems to exaggerate most things.  After "trying" to sympathize, we had enough of her complaining and quickly told her to stop crying or complaining about her "hurt" arm and to toughen up.  She needed help getting up and down from her bed, getting dressed, making her bed, you name it, she needed help with.  She has always been one for trying really hard to get out of work and we were not going to have anything to do with that excuse.

Until this morning when I was helping her do something and I grabbed her arm and she pulled it back very quickly and started crying.  The way she reacted to my grabbing her, I thought something has got to be wrong.

I took her into the doctor and sure enough, it was broken.

So, there you have it -- our parenting skills could use a little improvement in the sympathy area.  One more proof of that, when I called Jeff to tell him Ali was not faking it, our conclusion was something like this:

"Well, if she wouldn't cry wolf all the time and complain about everything so much, maybe we would believe her."  Okay, that was my comment, so I am the insensitive one.

We really do feel bad, and hope that our kids will forgive us of all our bad parenting moments that are far from being over.

Jammie Time?

Do you think she is growing out of her pants???  

Ali -- What else can I say???

All the kids were outside playing in the sprinklers and Ali came running in the house saying she needed to go pee.  Jeff and I are in the living room looking at something and all we hear from the bathroom is: "Ohhhh, that feels so good.  Ohhhh, that feels so happy."

A little later we overheard her saying: "Doink........PBS Kids."  Do you think she has watched a little too much TV.

That girl is so funny!!!!

Spring Dance Recital

Here comes some more posts on my kids.  I guess that's just about all that is of any consequence in our lives right now.  And, this is probably only the beginning.

With that said, Saturday, we attended the spring recital for Bella and Ali.  They had so much fun this year in dance and are so excited to be able to actually wear their costumes whenever they want to (with a little discretion).  

"Under the Sea"

Ali is right in the middle with her arms in the air

"Pitter, Patter"

"6 Little Ducks"

That would be their little tooshies in the air

"Rockin' Robbin"

Ali was so mad she couldn't sit with "Scott's Family" during the whole recital.  She did have to dance for part of it though.  After she was finished with her part, she was thrilled with sitting with Scott.  She didn't stop talking the rest of the time.  Thanks to Scott, Carma, Keylee and Shay for coming from Logan to support our kids.  They were cheering and running around the house when I told them you would be coming.  I guess you are loved in T-Ville.

Also a big, huge thank you to Grandpa and Grandma Kendall for supporting our kids with so many of their activities.  They even brought Abby and Darren with them to watch the recital.  We love you all!!!

What makes a kid happy???

What would it be like to be this content with the simple things in life?

Dance Competition

Let the competitions begin!!!

Last Saturday, we had our first competition for our little girls.  Crazy!!!!!  Anyway, it was really fun and they both had a lot of fun.  I have definitely got two budding stars that really enjoy dancing.

"6 Little Ducks"

"Rockin' Robin"

"April Showers"

"Under The Sea"

I just liked the concentration on Ali's face.  

I really am enjoying this part of the whole parenting thing though.  I think this is kind of the icing on the cake.  I LOVE watching my kids get involved in these things and enjoy what they are doing.

Bike Rides and Picnics

A couple weeks ago, on the ONLY decent day until yesterday, the girls and I decided we had better go on a little bike/scooter ride and have a picnic in the park.  I just LOVE days like this.

Here we are, trying to get all of us in the picture --

After we were finished, Bella told me that we should do this everyday.  My response -- Um, let me think about that for a minute, oh wait, the answer didn't need a minute to come to me, uh -- no, that won't happen.  BUT, it was very fun, and if I were a good mom who was very, very, very devoted to making my kids 100% happy all the time, I just might do something like that, but I'm not, so I won't.

Artwork

I am just the proud Mom who is showing off her kids terrific art ability!!!

I must explain ..... The drawing on the top is Sarah's who drew this picture of Ali and gave it to her.  A little later, Ali came and showed us the next picture.  She was so proud of it and told us it is just like Sarah's except for the person paper clip in her hair.  I LOVED it.  We have gotten some pretty good laughs out of this picture.  Aren't the teeth cute too???

Pure Logic

Here is a snip-it of a conversation we, well, OK, just one person in our family had the other day.

As we were driving down I-15 coming home from a trip to Vegas Ali starts talking:

"Ryan was being rude because he was talking and sometimes talking is spitting.  I could feel his air........ Yeah, I could TOTALLY feel his air."

A breath and then:

"Cool, there's the Dinosaur Temple."  As we were passing Thanksgiving Point Dinosaur Museum.

I am going to miss these completely logical conversations we have with our kids.  We all get a big kick out of Ali right now.  She keeps us laughing.

INTRODUCING..........

Well, so I don't really know what this characters name is, but "it" caused us a lot of laughs the other night.  I just love how creative Sarah is.  She kept running up and down the stairs and here and there and then finally she came out of her room with this little guy.  

If I am not mistakin', it sure does look like the hands are kind of backwards.

The girls really got a kick out of posing with the "it".

Aren't they so dang cute together!!!  I just love times like this when there are relatively few issues and just a genuine love for each other.

Did I ever mention how much I really do love my family???

If not, there it is for you.

A trip to the Fire Station

Last week, Ali's Pre-School class took a field trip to the fire station in Murray.  I don't know how much they got out of it, except that the fire station has bedrooms and a kitchen with lots of fridges in it, and the refrigerators are just like ours (only because they have a water dispenser in the door).  They also were pointing out all the TV's they could see in the different rooms (hmmm....... I wonder what was on their mind!!!).  

Needless to say, I would be very surprised if they remember what they are suppose to do in case of a fire.  They did, however, enjoy looking at the fire engine and climbing up on it.

Officer Jake with the kids

Ali's hat would not stay on and she thought it was hilarious

The backseat of the Fire Engine

This picture makes it look like the kids were hanging on to every word that was said, but, what is really happening is that the Captain is pointing out the TV that just happens to be in the Fire Engine.

I do think they really liked it and had a lot of fun.  I just had to laugh at some of the questions and comments that the kids came up with.  I just love this age.  They are so innocent and much more observant that I would give them credit for.

I thank my Heavenly Father for kids and I am so blessed to have had four of them come into my life.  Gosh I am going to miss this stage in life!!!