Journaling

Mt. Man Rendezvous-
Back at Holbrook, the fourth grade does a thing called Mountain Man Rendezvous.  The whole field is set up with Mountain Man things.  There are a few Teepees, a pool of fish, and LOTS more, that the kids get to rotate through and learn and participate in fun activities.  It is the most anticipated day of the first 4 years of your time in that school!  Needless to say, it was a huge disappointment to Kelly that she was going to miss this activity when we found out we were moving.  Luckily! Mrs. Davis agreed to let her come back and enjoy the day with them!  Since I was signed up to help, I just went along with that, and was able to tag along with Kelly.  It was SO much fun!  We were both surprised, and bummed a little when we realized that she wasn't going to have any of her old friends in her group, but I'm almost certain that was done on purpose... I can think of a few reasons... she was still able to have a good time, and even stayed for the second half of the day, when I was not there.  We did lots of fun stuff.  Started out at the wool spinning and made our own yarn from sheeps wool.  Then went on to make our possibles bags (real fake leather!) those are so fun and she have it forever to remember her old school by.  Then it was on to Tall Tales where we got to hear a fun story about a guy who only had one bullet left and no food.  By the end of the story he had several (mostly large) animals, even 7 turkeys with only the one bullet... lots of fun!  After that Kelly got to shoot a bow and arrow... she missed all of hers, but I think she had fun.  Then we watched a guy make a fire with flint and steel, carbon paper and some bark in a matter of seconds even with some pretty heavy wind!!  Couldn't believe it!  He taught us about guns as well.  The last station she did while I was there was the fish catching.  I was SO proud of my Kelly for sticking her hands in the dirty water and grabbing the slimy fish out with her bare hands!!!  She impressed me!  She doesn't even touch chalk!  So I wasn't sure she would do it!!  Such a cool girl :).  She was bummed that she didn't get to gut it herself.  I left at that point to relieve my Mom, she was watching the littles (Jack Jack is still not taking a bottle or sippy cup, so I can't leave him too long).  I did hear a little about the tug-o-war, I saw her homemade candle that she had dipped herself, she didn't get to do the pie eating contest, but loved the candy cannon at the end.  There are a few other things, but I can't remember it all.  I need to have her write up something.  But anyway.  It was such a fun day for she and I to share, and I was SO grateful for her old teacher for letting us do it.  We didn't feel completely comfortable anymore, knowing we had moved, but it was still so fun.  5-22-13

OUR NEW YARD-
Thursday we had a LOT planned and wanted to get so much done.  We got a lot done, but not everything.  The first thing on our list though, was our flower garden in the front yard.  We did a TON of weeding!  It was SO fun!!  Nate and I have all sorts of ideas for our new yard.  It will be fun to take care of for the rest of our lives.  We're trying to be patient and want to stick out this first summer and just see what our yard has, then maybe next year (or later, if it so be), we will do some of our own changes.  It's exciting either way.  It's so fun to have a yard to care for.

That night our Bishopric was supposed to come and visit, but they had to call and cancel.  We were a little bummed, but it was all good.

Still tons of driving around to get kids to and from friends' houses... not ideal :) but I"m SO GRATEFUL that they have friends to play with at all.  Bradley seems to have a few he can ride his bike too.  Maybe once they all have bikes!
5-23-13

KELLY'S Birthday Table-
On Friday, we were invited to Kelly's birthday table at our new school.  We were glad that everyone brings fast food to this school's too, since we had our bags of Arby's in tow :).  It's hard to not know everyone like we're used to at Holbrook, but I'm sure it's just a matter of time.  We had a good time. 5-24-13

LUKE'S STAR OF THE WEEK-
After Kelly's Birthday lunch, we got to go to Luke's class to tell them about him!  He had wanted to get donuts for his class too, so we passed those out.  It was fun talking about Luke and letting his classmates ask questions.  I'm not sure they know the real Luke yet!  There's still time :) but anyway.  I think Luke approved of the things that I said.  My favorite thing was when I asked him what I should say, or what he wanted me to say, he said, "That I'm funny!"  He is super funny, so that was the perfect way to start off my presentation :).  Cute little guy.  I love Luke.  5-24-13

OZ the Great and Powerful-
We decided a trip to our new theater was in order, so even though it was a little last minute, we loaded everyone up and headed on over to the Kaysville theater for a movie night.  The place was PACKED!  There was one row in the whole theater that had enough seats for us, second to the back!  I think the movie was fun enough.  It seemed a little dark for the kids, and there were some scary parts.  Which just for the record were "not scary!" to anyone except Charity.  She cracks me up.  She actually got out of her seat and came down to get some loves when she'd had enough scary.  I LOVED it!  Any chance to snuggle with my big girl.  I love her innocence.  Everyone else is so brave when Charity's around :).  Nobody else was scared. (insert sarcasm)  It was a fun night though and Jack even slept through part of the movie.  I love watching him throw his little hands into the popcorn bucket and come out with fists of popcorn that he doesn't quite know how to control so it ends up all over me!  It's really adorable.  He seems to love popcorn.  5-24-13

TIMPANOGOS CAVE WITH THE MAYNES'-
Nate's sister planned a fun hike up to the cave for a pre-memorial day activity!  We got up bright and early and were up to the ticket office at 8:00 am!  This was the opening day for the hike, so unfortunately, we had to wait til 11:00 to start the hike!  I couldn't believe it!  Luckily there were tons of cousins to run around with and Jen kept taking the little ones on little walks all over.  I had fun chatting with Becky.  We ate our lunch before heading up there, and made the trek up.  I cannot believe how hard that hike is!!  I know it's a paved road, and shouldn't be called a "hike", but even for a walk, it's SO STEEP!!!!  It's insane!  I'm always surprised that we did that hike so much when I was growing up.  And that I was able to do that six months pregnant with Erika!  Sheesh!  I was totally dying this time.  I had Jack on my back, so little sympathy there :), jk, but it was SO HARD!!  Some of our kids went on ahead with Aunts and Uncles and cousins who apparently are in much better shape than me.  But we had Luke, Noah and Erika most of the time.  I was SO proud of them!!  Erika LOVED the hike on the way up.  She kept saying, "This is hard, but it'sawesome too!", "awesome, but hard", "hard, but awesome".  I loved it :).  Noah was a trooper too, he taught us that the reason it's called a "side walk" is because it's on the side of the mountain and has rocks! (rocks being pronounced "wocks") HA!  He's so cute!  Luke seemed bored most of the time.  He didn't look strained at all either, he had so much energy to burn at every stop, and at the end, even played all evening with his friend Carter.  He's funny.  He said the best part of the day was "the cave, I guess..."  If he had to pick something... Funny kid.  I really enjoyed the day though!  Good positive time.  It was fun to hang out with the Maynes Family.  We had a little picnic lunch afterwards too (second lunch, yes).  5-25-13

LOTS and LOTS of pictures!!! Thank you, Pappy!

So I did it!  I went up to my Dad's and uploaded all 2284 pictures from my camera onto his computer.  Then I uploaded the 101 to my blog.  Took me all afternoon, but I did it!!  

I've already spent so much time on this, I'm not breaking it up into separate posts.  So here they are, in all their long and drawn out glory :) the pictures from the last 2 months:

A FEW MORE OF THE MUSICAL:  Not sure if I put these ones on or not.

This song was always one of my favorite parts of this show.

I wish I'd gotten more of Charity IN the play... they were so blurry and didn't turn out at all... 

Jack is the cutest little Jack I've ever seen!  I love this kid's face!

This was back when he started trying to crawl.  Took him a while to really get the hang of it.

COLORING EASTER EGGS:

Nate was working, Noah was asleep, and Kelly had her friend Daphne over to participate, so a little different than normal, but we did it!  And had a great time too :)

Erika did it all on her own this year!

Brad had a lot of fun double-dipping them.  He made an Army one :).

Jack was not a happy camper.  He'll enjoy it more next year, I'm sure :).

Charity and Kelly were pros...

EASTER BUNNY MORNING:

We did all the Easter basket things the day before Easter this year.  If you have 9:00 church and know that there's no way you can do it all before church and won't have a Dad home after church, you can put in a special request with the Easter Bunny.  He was very accomodating of our situation this year.  

Consequently I found out that this is why he can reach all the kids in one day... it's really two!  

Anyway.

The kids were frustrated all morning, looking for their masterfully hidden baskets! I couldn't believe how hard they were to find!  Charity just about cried she had looked for so long.  

This was not in his Easter basket :)... just for the record :)

The morning was slightly rushed in my opinion, since we had to get off to the Maynes Family Party that morning.  But we still had our egg hunt the kids all got to search the backyard for their own color of eggs.  Charity is blue, Kelly purple, Bradley green, Luke orange, Noah yellow, and Erika pink.  This was a fun way to do the egg hunt this year.  You can only pick up your color.  Lots of fun.

The Maynes Family Party was a lot of fun.  We played a fun "Capture the Egg" game where the other team totally cheated (yep, still bitter), and then we had egg hunts, little kids separate from the big kids... 

I got some cute pictures of Jack Jack :)

MARCUS'S BIRTHDAY PARTY at DAYBREAK PARK

We were invited to Marcus's 10th birthday, up in Daybreak.  We brought our Little Caesar's Pizzas and had a pretty good time!  The kids all played like crazy!  Nate too!  They got their basketball on!  It was a very fun, comfortable evening.  Felt good.  Marcus got a cute little chiuaua puppy for his birthday, so the girls all played with her like she was a stuffed animal.  Way cute!!

This is why I love this man so much!

CHARITY'S FRIEND PARTY- A MONTH LATE!

It's been a whole month since Charity's birthday.  We had to keep rescheduling and replanning this party, and on the 12th of April, it finally happened!!!  She invited 5 friends, plus Kelly :), and they all just pretty much did what they wanted!  They spent about an hour out on the trampoline, just talking and goofing off, came in for Molten Lava cake and ice cream bar.  Then she opened her presents, that was a lot of fun, just watching the interaction of all the girls.  They were a really fun, good group of girls.  I'm going to miss them for her!!  Then they went downstairs for their movie and popcorn.  I felt bad that I didn't really get to be a part of the party, but I was so glad that Charity had it the way she wanted!  She's growing up!  Gotta get used to that I guess.  I think they all had a good time.  There were a lot of tears after everyone left.  I think Charity realized how many friends she really does have.  They'll miss her!

BRADLEY'S SHOW

Bradley's class worked long and hard on their little performance.  It was so neat to find out that Mrs. Owen had rescheduled it to have it sooner so that Bradley would be able to be there for it.  They did it on our last day at Holbrook.  They sang some pretty fun songs about safety and health.  Very cool.  Bradley was a star!

Some of Bradley's closest friends.

Bradley and Mrs. Owen

That day had been a fairly busy one for us.  With Bradley's show, then Luke's class going away party, then on to Birthday Tables, then Kelly's no-missing work party, and then making the rounds to Kelly's, Charity's, and Bradley's classes to pass out their treats and pencils and take pictures.  It was so sad.  I hate the last day of school anyway, but especially when it's the last time we'll be able to be with those friends.... anyway- 

Luke's teacher let him pass out his treats to everyone and then had him call on each person to share what they will miss most about Lukey.  I was seriously in tears.  Such sweet little kids.  They mostly said that they were going to miss him because he is a good friend.  Not a surprise to us.  He really is one of the best friends I know.  Such a good kid.  I think he enjoyed the attention.

Luke and Mrs. Buttars

After the party, we went up and got a picture of Kelly's class.  

Some of her best friends

Kelly and Mrs. Davis

Charity's class had just gotten back from walking back from Viewmont where they saw the Dance Team's show.  They were so tired and sweaty!  I couldn't believe how quiet and calm they were when I walked in the room.  Just sitting there.  But they livened things up a little for a picture...

Charity and Mrs. Thompson

Kelly with her favorite teacher, Mrs. Ashliman

MOVING DAY:

This is what our family room looked like at the end of our second moving day.  Can you believe we were able to turn the tv on and play the wii!  

First things first, I guess....

GRANDPA HATCH'S BIRTHDAY PARTY:

Dawn was so nice to help us plan a party for my Dad.  Then she pulled it all off, cooking and slaving in the kitchen for dinner.  I made his cake, a banana cream pudding poke cake- SO yummy!  I was very proud of it.  Everyone had fun and then we left before everyone lost their minds from all the chaos.

WATER SNAKE IN THE BACKYARD:

Heidi and John so kindly watched the kids for us so that we could go out for a little overnight getaway.  They did a lot of fun things with the kids while we were gone and then stayed most of the day Saturday to play as well.  It was a lot of fun!

While we were out on the rope swing, Nate caught a little water snake and everyone passed it around and then watched it as it was let go.  I can't say that I love the fact that there are snakes in our backyard, but actually, I do think it's kind of cool.  (the rats are another story!)

Nobody was all that scared of it.  Just me, Heidi and John really...

It's hard to believe that this is all in our own backyard.  I LOVE it!!!

This will be a great spot to take a picture of ALL of our kids once everyone's dressed, awake, not being goofy, and present.

Erika's a little daredevil on the rope swing, it's cute to watch her brave it out!

MOTHER'S DAY:

I already made a whole big post on Mother's day, but here are the pictures.

I took pictures of all my crazies.  Cute faces and then funny ones.  And for some reason Jack's didn't get on here... not sure how that happened...  But here's my cute LUkey!

I had asked Kelly to take pictures of the whole house, just go around and take pictures, and for some reason, every room in our brand new house was a disaster area... so I am not posting them :).  They're not always messy, so I will get some when they're not... in the meantime, here's a good one of the rope swing/stream area :)

We have a fun little park just down the street from our house, so Nate and I and the three littles stopped there on our way to the school to pick up the kids, one day.  Brought my camera :)

Does Buddy not look like he's smiling in this one?!  He knows what cameras are for!

Then we stopped and fed the ducks a little... not as many ducks as there were pelicans, so we still had one hamburger bun left at the end, but lots of fun for these two.

HE'S USING HIS CAPE!!!

I made Noah this cape for his birthday, and he is finally using it again! Made me happy :)

AS PART OF OUR "BIG PARTY" WHILE THE BOYS WERE CAMPING, Erika and I played her Cupcake Game... we LOVE that game... look how many sprinkles we earned!  Erika even shared some of hers with me...

go camera timer!

Jack Jack is truly one of a kind!

MISTY AND MIDNIGHT:

We have been telling Kelly for the past year or so, that she could get a kitten.  We had been keeping our sights on the kittens at my Dad's in his windown well, and were going to wait a few more weeks to get them out and take one home, but when we found out about these ones at Nate's friend's house, we couldn't pass them up.  They were old enough to leave their mom, box trained, very comfortable with kids, completely domesticated, living in a house... we just had to go with them instead.  

We took Kelly and Luke in with us when we went to pick it up and while we were there, Nate decided that Luke could get one too!  So we came home with TWO!  They're seriously adorable.   I'm amazed at how lower maintenance cats are than dogs.  They're so much easier!!  

The kids all love them, and play with them nonstop.  Especially Noah and Erika who are their "kittysitters" while the big kids are at school.  Erika calls Midnight "my kitty" when Luke's not around :).  Noah holds Misty all day.  It's so cute.  They're pretty good at taking care of them too... it's impressive.  

Obviously, Kelly's the one with the camera... she didn't get any pictures of Luke's kitten... I will have to get those later... 

And that's that.  Feels good to get them on here!