Halloween wear

This year for Halloween (or really, the month of October) I got the kids some fun orange and black clothes to help celebrate "the holiday of candy."

Here's the best picture I got of them all in their outfits:

And here are a few outtakes for you to enjoy:



Deja Vu

Who does this remind you of????? Hmmmm?????

Friday night football (or, Wednesday night, to be more accurate)

Tonight we had the ward trunk-or-treat, and this is how my kids were "costumed" for it. I'll blog more about it later, but I just wanted to share how incredibly adorable they were.

First Grade Rocks!

Madison had a wonderful year in 1st grade, she learned so much and made some good friends.  We absolutely LOVED her teacher, Mrs. Jett.  She was fantastic and you could tell she loved her kids to pieces.  It makes such a difference as a parent to know you are sending your kid off to someone who will love and respect your child as they learn.  I kept wishing Mrs. Jett would move up to 2nd grade with Madison (not that I don't love her 2nd grade teacher, I do.  She's fantastic.)

One of the most special things Madison got to do this year was to anchor Good Morning Smalley with another classmate.  See, the 5th graders typically get to anchor the show but I guess they weren't taking it seriously so the teacher in charge decided to teach them a lesson and let 4 1st graders anchor it for a week, and Madison was one of the 4 selected!  How random is that !?! So, she and her classmate did M,W,F and another class got to do T, TH.  Here is the show for the Friday she anchored.  It's about 6:30 minutes long and they do have some news during it, but watch it until the end, the kids get to be silly.  It is so fun!  We were so proud of her!

Look, so this is the thing.....it took me 5 hours to upload this dang video, so please be nice and watch it.

 

The other thing that Madison got to do this year was participate in the Smalley 5k and 1 mile Fun Run (or walk).  She convinced me to do it with her (because Riley was doing it with his mom--thanks a lot Lindsay) so one Saturday in April we ran for her school.  I did the entire 1 mile with her, practically dragging her the entire way....she wanted to walk but I was embarrassed to be walking it was supposed to be a run, so we'd walk and then we'd run.  I had to MAKE her run across the finish line. My rule is, you either run or crawl across the finish line, anything else is unacceptable.  Once the 1 mile run was over I did the 5K with some friends (who SMOKED me...it was a terrible run for me, but whatever, I'd been sick the week before and that is my excuse.  Plus I suck as a runner, but I did RUN across the finish line.)

And here's a picture with my girls....Congrats to Lindsay for her 1st place in the Women's division (she was 3rd overall and ALMOST beat the guy in front of her) and to Julie for her 2nd place in the Women's division.  See why I can't run with anyone????  They are way too fast for me! My only accomplishment was finishing before the stroller brigade overtook me.

Congratulations Madison for such a fantastic year!  I can't wait to see what you accomplish in 2nd grade!

It's the end of an era (sort of)

Madison played soccer for a second season this past spring.  She enjoyed it, but didn't love it so I told her that she could either play soccer again next season or do gymnastics instead.  She picked gymnastics (*gasp* shocking!) and so we said goodbye to her wonderful team after a great season.  She had such fantastic coaches and the girls were so sweet, and I actually liked the parents.  I would have loved to play with all of them again this season, but Madison put in 2 seasons and decided it wasn't for her.

Ryan and I were not sad at all.  In fact, we threw a party to celebrate not having a soccer player for 6 whole months!  Hunter will be old enough in the spring....and then my life, once again, will be taken over by soccer.

Here is a montage of Soccer 2011.  We got some fantastic pictures of Madison and we will remember soccer with fondness, but still jump for joy that she didn't love it.

Here are Presley and Hunter, hanging out during her games.  You know, just because they are so cute.

End of the year dance party

We had a really fun end of the year party for dance.  One of the families invited all of the dancers, their siblings and parents to come play, swim and BBQ.  I'm pretty sure they are crazy, but the kids had a blast!

Hunter was pretty excited to get to eat chips...we had to tell him to stop running several times.

And then he discovered the water guns and we couldn't get him out of the water.

So what, he's wearing a pink life jacket.....I'm to cheap to spend $30 dollars for something we already own.  Let's just say he's going for the "metro" look and leave it at that.  He's so stinkin' cute.

Hey, you, Mr. GQ man....you've got some brownie on your face! 

Yeah, he doesn't care. I've given up on trying to keep his face clean....he's always eating!

Poor Presley had to sit in the stroller the entire time.  I was so terrified I'd look away for a second and she'd fall in the pool.

Madison had so much fun swimming with friends that I'm pretty sure this was the only time I saw her the entire party.

We're looking forward to another fun swim party next year!

Dancin' the night away

Madison started dance with Ms. Brenda this past year and LOVED IT!  I moved her from the rec center for a few different reasons, but the biggest one being that I wanted her to have more opportunities to perform than the 2 times a year her rec center class set up.

With Ms. Brenda they do 3 or 4 parades, a Halloween show, a few different retirement homes, plus the Logandale (Clark County) fair and their end of the year extravaganza!  We stay really busy with her performances, but Madison absolutely loves them. 

This little girl adores dancing!  She dances around the house ALL. THE. TIME.  It gets a bit annoying, but I'm glad we found something that she enjoys so much.  This year I've put her in to the gymnastics class as well.  I'm getting extremely annoyed with the constant flipping, but again, she loves it so much and is really good at it.

Here's a montage of her dancing last year.  A few of the pictures came from a 2nd dance class she did last year with a neighbor that was a professional dancer (no, not that kind) before she had kids.  She focused more on technique and Madison really enjoyed getting more dance time in.

Can I just say, Madison is a born dancer, she has the sass and attitude down pat!  She has absolutely NO stage fright and seems to really love the crowds.  I may be biased, but she is for sure one of the best dancers up there!

Little stinker

Presley has discovered the drawers in Hunter's train table...every time I turn my back she crawls back up in to it. I'm a little worried she's going to break the whole thing.

"Bucket Seating"

When I have things to do around the house (in this case, folding laundry) I give Presley a bucket of toys to unpack, repack, and occassionally actually play with. She has recently decided that sitting IN the bucket with the toys makes them more fun to play with.

I'm just happy I can work on a task for 10 minutes at a time now. I only care that she's sitting in it when it falls over and she cries.

(Not quite a) Water Baby

When we went to Wisconsin this past month we spent 5 days in the water.  Presley was a tad bit hesitant at first....see, my kids don't take baths- they shower, so she just did not know what to do when we went to put her in the water.  It didn't help that the water wasn't all that warm.

I got a series of pictures with Aunna putting Presley into the water, I was cracking up.  The poor girl was having none of it!

She was much better once we took her out of the water and gave her some snuggles.

By the end of the week she couldn't get enough of the water and cried when we took her OUT.

She LOVED playing on the swing

She also loved going down the slide with Ariane

She was fascinated by the frog spitting water

She loved just getting around in the water, she crawled and walked endlessly

There were so many fun things to climb on, she had a ball



We had such a great trip! 

Maybe one of these days I'll blog about the other 2 kids, but Presley is just so stinkin' cute!



Doughnut days

My dad loves doughnuts.  That is where I have gotten my love of doughnuts. I have friends that don't like them, and all I can think is, "What is wrong with you?  How can you not love doughnuts???"  He has an uncanny ability to find a doughnut shop anywhere we go.  He can leave a hotel room in a new city, start driving or walking, and without getting lost, find the nearest bakery.  It's somewhat of a family joke to us all. 

So, obviously, his favorite thing to do with the kids is to take them to get doughnuts once each time we visit.  While we were in Wisconsin last week we did our doughnut morning the first morning we were in town, and Madison got to go along with him to help with the family doughnut run.  She LOVED it.  She got her favorite- doughnut holes. Yum!

***As a side note, when I was about Madison's age I used to go visit my dad's parents in Minnesota during the summer all by myself (when you're the oldest of 6 girls, one-on-one attention was rare, and coveted).  Over the course of the few years I got to stay there, those weeks with my grandparents became some of my most treasured memories, I would look forward for the chance to visit with them all year long.  As my anticipation of summer break started getting closer I would call my grandmother up and ask when I could come visit.  I adored my grandparents (both sides, but for some reason I went to my dad's parents alone and Alyssa went to my mom's.  Funny, huh....).  Anyway, during the week I visited my grandmother took me to work with her at the college for one day and my grandfather would take me to get a doughnut one morning.  I loved that special one-on-one time with them.  I really believe there is a special bond between grandparent and grandchild.  They are so important in children's lives.  I have beloved memories of all 4 grandparents, I miss them every day.

Anyway...back to "The Great (lame) Doughnut Story." 

So, since Presley is finally eating real food, and a bit older, I decided that she was finally old enough to participate in this family tradition.  (My family likes to eat....whatever)

She loved her doughnut...she got a plain cake doughnut, no frosting or icing (my Nazi parenting ways never truly relax) and ate every bite.

I'm pretty sure Hunter devoured 3 doughnuts before one of us caught on to him.  Little stinker!

Sometimes in life it's the little things that seem so inconsequential, that stay with you and matter the most. Seriously, who would think that being taken to get a doughnut would stick with me for 30 years?

Making (not so) beautiful music together

Madison has decided that since she is soooo good on the piano, it is time to help Presley learn.  Uh. Yeah, um-hmm, let's just say I told her that she still has to go to lessons to have a teacher help her "get better," even though she is soooo good on it now.

But I do have to say, it is so cute watching her teach the younger kids things.  She is so sweet and patient with them, she is going to be a great mom some day....way better than me. 

***Okay, so funny story...as I was typing out this post I spelled learn "lurn."  I don't know why, I'm a fantastic speller as a general rule.  I started laughing at myself, because at least I recognized how stupid that was, and Ryan looked at me weird so I had to tell him what I did.  His response?  "Glad to see that  BYU degree paying off, if BYU calls, don't answer because they might want it back."  I wouldn't blame the;, so if I don't answer your call, now you know why.

SuuuuperMaaaaan!!! & his trusty sidekick, "Hunterbear"

Hunter got to go to Build-a-Bear with his preschool class for a field trip a few months ago, he named his new bear "Hunterbear."  Which, if you've spent more than 2 minutes around Hunter and I you'll know that I call him "Hunterbear" on a really regular basis.  He's going to hate me when he is a teenager.  So I found it cute that he named his bear after himself.  Some might call it cute, others, narcissistic;  Tomato, tahmahtoe.

Anyway, his Gigi found a box of BAB outfits at a yard sale and wisely snagged it for my kids.  In the box was a Superman outfit for the bear.  A few weeks ago Hunter decided he wanted to dress up like his bear, and came downstairs like this.  I thought it was so stinkin' cute!

Madison had to get in on the action, so she somehow found her old Supergirl jammie shirt that is WAY too small for her, and came for a quick picture.

Madison's Quilt

So I finally got my act together and took a class to learn all about the art of making t-shirt quilts.  For years I have wanted to make a quilt out of all of Madison's old baby clothes, the special ones at least.  So this summer I hired the cutest little girls to come watch my kids while I was gone for 5 hours a day for one week.  The kids had the best time with the girls, and I got to learn how to put the quilt together so I could FINALLY get rid of the clothes I've been hanging on to for years.

After roughly 70 hours of work (aka ignoring my kids), here is the result

I'm so excited to make one for each of my younger kids, I have plans to make one for them once they turn 5.

I loaned all Hunter's younger clothes to in-laws for their little guys, so next time I'm in Utah I'll have to dig through and make sure to grab all the things that are special to me so nothing gets lost.  Especially now that I know for sure what I'm doing...there were some things of Madison's that just wouldn't work in a quilt, and other things that I didn't think would work but did. 

I started a bucket for Presley's stuff and it's getting pretty full already...I'm a bit worried her quilt will end up being really, really large.  Madison's ended up a queen and I kept a lot more of Presley's stuff (well, that and she has a LOT more stuff than Madison did.)

Meet Seniorita Grumpy Pants

She's been a grump all day. Every time I put her down she throws a tantrum. Every time I tell her "NO" she throws a tantrum. Every time I try and give her a toy, she throws it on the ground and then throws a tantrum.

Parenthood is fun!

Thank goodness it's finally bedtime.

Mom, help me

Hunter: Mom, help me put my underwear on. You hold my underwear and I put my legs through. That's how you help me.

Me: Bossy little thing.....

hmm, wonder where he gets that from?????

Madison, what are you doing?

Me: Madison, what are you doing?

Madison: Trying to carry Presley like a baby.

Me: Um, I think she might be a little big for that now....but hold on, let me take a picture and then PUT. HER. DOWN.  Thanks.

I'm all grown up now, mom. Geez.

So today I sat down to feed Presley breakfast and she wouldn't eat it. That's not a normal issue with her, she's my child-she's an eater.

Afte attempting to feed her about 5 times I gave up trying and let her have the spoon. Apparently that was what she wanted. 

All I can think of is the mess she'll be making.