Things to Remember Week of 5-22-16

BOYS VS GIRLS
Actually it wasn't versus, but the Deacons taught the Beehives this week for third hour.  I have to say I was pleasantly, PLEASANTLY surprised with how that went!!  The boys did such a great job!!  I wish the adult leaders would have just left it to them to teach, but whatever :).  They taught the girls about the Priesthood and their roles and such.  Very cute.  I hope we can get the Beehives to get their acts together and be able to meet the standard they just set.  Very impressive though!  5-22-16

FHE
Erika had the lesson and she and Noah had worked on a play for the past couple weeks that she was going to do for her next family night assignment.  They acted out the crucifixion and Resurrection and then Noah and the ark :).  Very cute.  They worked so hard.  Jack had us play dinosaurs for the game :)  That was so much fun!!  I loved that everyone let themselves get into it and we were all able to get down on Jack's level.  He LOVED it.  He was beamed every time we let him call another shot :).  Very cool.  He's lucky to have such awesome older siblings.  Not sure how much longer we can do those kinds of games.  5-23-16

PICNIC ON THE PLAYGROUND
We had our traditional Picnic on the Playground lunch this Friday!  That was a much anticipated event :).  I love this tradition, but mostly for the kids.  It was a lot of fun to show up with pizza and pretzel bites (our new favorite) and sit and eat together for.... two seconds... and then have everyone disperse and go play with their friends :).  I sat there with Molly perfectly entertained of course, but all by ourselves :).  I'm enough of a people watcher that it's fun to just be there with everyone.  I wasn't really in the mood to visit.  Although, Mr. Denhalter was making the rounds meeting people which I think is really cool and so I did talk to him for a bit.  I'm glad everyone got to have fun.  Ya gotta love the end of the year feel!  So exciting!  5-27-16

I'm going to attempt to get my kids to help out with the blog from now on- mostly for the book I make at the end of the year.  I want to hear about things from their perspective more.  I"m a big journal nut too, so this is good to get them in the mode of writing about things. So here's the first entry.  I might do these separately from my "Things to Remember".... we'll see.

BRADLEY (Something fun this week)
"I had such an awesome week I will tell you about it.  On Wednesday I got to help with the rendezvous [even spelled it right!] it was amazing.  I caught 30 fish with my bare hands.  on Friday my family and I went on bike rides.  we got a slurpee and a snow cone.  then I went fishing w/ noah and Erika we caught lots of fish"

KELLY (Something fun this week)
"This week I got to hang out with my friend Cassidy!  She is so much fun to hang out with!  We had an Icee and played cheese ball.  Then she showed me around her minecraft account.  Then we weeded in their garden, then we got really yummy snowcones!  It was so much fun!"

LUKE (something fun this week)
"this weekend was really fun.  first we went on a bikeride WITHOUT Charity and Kelly cause they were gone.  The next day we went on another bike ride and got slurpees."

FIXIT TICKET
So, I got a ticket.  It's been at least a year since I got that dumb crosswalk one, so this was a let down.  But I think I came out pretty lucky considering I didn't have my driver's license, proof of insurance, or a current registration.  He was a very nice cop.  5-28-16

Things to Remember Week of 5-15-16

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY
Our real anniversary was on Sunday.  We'd had such a long night and day before that we slept in.  It was Stake Conference though, so we had to hurry and get everyone ready real quickly once we finally did get up.  Unfortunately, Nate had had a meeting that morning as well.  Stake Conference was great!  I loved the talks.  I especially liked the reminder about how important the temple is.  I need to go more.  I looked down our row of hard chairs, caught a glimpse of  Nate and was overcome with gratitude for him and for all that he has brought into my life.  I'm so grateful for the family we've created together and for the love that I've felt from him and learned from our kids.  It's so exciting to think about our future together and all that we still have ahead.  I mean compared to the big scheme of things, 15 years is really nothing!  Feels like it's been a long time, and short time at the same time, but it's really nothing compared to eternity especially.  But for now, I am so pleased with how the years have gone and for all that we've experienced.  I can't wait to see what's ahead.  5-15-16

NO CARNIVAL
The kids are totally bummed- the school cancelled the carnival Monday night and rescheduled it for Friday.  When the boys have Fathers and Sons and the girls have Kelly's Lacrosse dinner thing.  Lame.  5-16-16

AWKWARD
We had the strangest Beehive Presidency meeting.  So many awkward silences and so many strange random comments.  We have a little bit of work to do in this area... 5-17-16

NEW PIANO
Nate got me a piano for our anniversary!!  I found a great deal on KSL, went and looked at it, it seemed perfect :), then Nate, Travis and Gary went and picked it up for me the next day and now I have a piano with a WORKING pedal!!!  I couldn't be happier really.  It's so crazy what a difference it makes to have a pedal.  I almost never played the other one because of that.  This piano is in awesome condition and works great!  I am actually glad that the sound isn't as "grand" as our old piano- that one was so loud and echo-y in our open layout :).  It was therapeutic to play it for hours that first day!  LOVE IT!!  Nate loves me :).  Hopefully he knows how much I love him :).  5-17-16

TWO POOPS
So, this is just kind of funny- Kelly, stop reading now- and probably shouldn't be talked about in public, but now that my blog is "private" I can say it on here right? :).  So whenever Jack goes #2 he still needs someone to help him wipe (or more like he chooses to make one of us wipe him- I think it's a power thing, but anyway).  So he goes, then sits there hollering down through the house, "MOOOOOOOOM!!!!!  WIPE MY BUUUUUUUUUUMB!!!"  or "DAAAAAAAAAAAD!!!!!  COME WIPE MY BUUUUUUUUMB!!!"  So one of us eventually gets up there :).  Whenever I go up there as I come around the stairs to the doorway he always has this look on his face like, "you gotta see this!"  And he's usually looking back down into the toilet.  We have this thing where he tells me how many poops he just made :).  Sorry, I know this is gross, but it's so adorable, I don't want to forget it.  So here's some of the things he's said recently, "Two poops, Mom! I did two poops!" or "Not two, just one. One poop." or "THREE uhv dem!!" And this one time when he had "only one" poop I looked down into the toilet to complete our routine and there was this gigantic, long poop in the toilet!!  I had to congratulate him on his poop!  I told him to tell Dad he made a foot long poop!  He was SO proud of himself :).  It was adorable!  He cracks me up!  He likes to hear my reaction.  5-17-16

CHIN RUBBING
Cute little Molly is still super sensitive under her chin :).  All you have to do is run your finger under her chin and she goes into a trance :).  It's so sweet!  She calms right down, starts breathing heavily, her eyes seem heavier... it's too cute.  And the other day I rubbed her nose with her fluffy blanket (which she LOVES- don't know if I've mentioned that- all she has to do is feel it and she gets sleepy and goes into fall asleep mode :) ) and she just konked out!  Like instantly!!  Mad me laugh!  She is SUCH a good baby!  Have I mentioned that before?  So sweet!  5-17-16

PHOTOGRAPHY PAGE
So thanks to Jami's motivation, I decided to start a photography page.  I know i"m still amateur and I know I need more practice, but I do so love to take pictures!  I feel like even looking back and all the links I posted on this newpage, that I have improved a lot over the years.  So anyway.  Check that out if you are interested.  I really have no idea who all is still reading this, but either way :).  5-17-16

WACKY WEDNESDAY
We had another wacky Wednesday.  Well, pretty much every Wednesday is, but I just hate it!  This week I raced off to a Rendezvous meeting, then home to get kids to go to Farmington Jr for Kelly's last lacrosse game, then left that early for Luke and Noah's pack meeting, then left that early to get people home so that the girls and I could go to Young Women's!  Sheesh!!  But it all happened and it all went well.  The meeting felt somewhat pointless, I don't like those meetings.  Kelly lost :(.  Noah and Luke both got awards and Luke got to do the flag.  And the S'mores night with the youth was a lot of fun.  I am still shocked at how many marshmallows and graham crackers they went through!  5-18-16

NEW BIKE
While Nate and I were pulling weeds on Thursday, my bike arrived!  I was surprised to see that it was all in pieces and wondered if Nate would be able to put it together (I didn't even know there were no instructions), but I had to leave for Centers in Erika's class, so I just ditched him with the two littles and my box of bike and when I got home it was all put together!!  Well, mostly, just a few things left, but I was SO IMPRESSED!!!  He is so awesome!  And way more handy than I give him credit :).  So we went on our bike ride we'd been planning all day!  Nate, Erika and I on our bikes, Jack and Molly in the trailer.  Nate pulled the trailer and we went on our old bike ride, slurpees at 7-11 and pizza at Gailey Park :).  So much fun!  It was fun to show the new playground to Nate and really fun to be on a bike again!  It's been at least a year.  And my hips have been miraculously healed from the bike riding (I've decided).  I couldn't hardly lift my leg up over my bike to get on it when I started and after only a few times of trying, I was able to do it!  It still hurts a little with that direct side movement, but everything else is pretty much pain-free!  I am so happy!!  I had a feeling that that movement might help a little but I had no idea how much of a difference it would make!!  I went a few days without riding and could feel it, so I just need to keep riding everyday.  Which happens to be a really great thing to me :).  And Erika :).  5-19-16

AWARDS NIGHT
Kelly's boy/girl scrimmage got cancelled because of rain so we headed over to the Farmington community center for dinner and awards.  It was so much fun!  I am so impressed with how great our coach and parents are!  It's like a big family.  I loved hearing all that coach had to say.  I loved that Kelly got the "MVP Defense Rookie" award.  Not only that, but the coach had a LOT of nice things to say about her and her willingness to play hard and how she would get off the field and then two seconds later be ready to go back in.  It was fun to hear.  I have LOVED Lacrosse for her.  It's been so great.  The dinner was fun, it was fun to watch all the girls interact.  At the end the girls presented each teammate with a fun award.  These were fun to hear about.  Kelly got the "Small but Fiesty Award- the ability to be tiny and still aggressive".  Well said :).  She loved it.  It was a good evening.  5-20-16

CARNIVAL
We finally got to have the carnival.  The kids were SO relieved that they didn't cancel it again even though there were lots of threatening gray clouds and they actually even had a few down pours.  We all went to the carnival Friday evening, but Kelly, Charity, Molly and I only got to be there for a couple minutes before having to head out for Kelly's scrimmage and dinner.  The boys and Erika all bought their own wristbands and had unlimited access to everything.  I bet they had a blast!  I did hear a bout a few of the games and all the "awesome" prizes have been all over my house ever since :).  I wish I could have been in both places at once.  5-20-16

STAKE 5K
We got up early Saturday morning to go run in the Stake 5K and not knowing if they were going to cater to the hard core runners or the families with little kids and cancel because of the rain, we went anyway.  Unfortunately they cancelled it!  It was sad to hear Luke and Bradley in the back seat totally disappointed that they weren't having it.  There have been a lot of cancel-ings lately.  Darn rain. 5-21-16

PROBABLY THE LAST TIME
We had Bro. McColley over to home teach for probably the last time :(.  He's been such a fun home teacher and so faithful.  He got ordained a High Priest so we're not sure how much longer he'll be ours.  He brought his recently returned missionary son with him and it was a nice time.  I am so grateful for the home teaching program.  We got lucky with Bro. McColley.  5-21-16

Lacrosse

Finally brought my camera- it was the perfect day for pictures.  Hopefully I can get one more game of pictures.

I just love how they do the face off it just looks so cool.

I got some awesome action photos of Kelz.  She's number 12.  (hey that almost rhymes!)

Kinda sad... this is why I need pictures of another game--- one we win instead.

TTM Awards Night

This is the lady over "Motivation" from the TTM headquarters

TTM AWARDS NIGHT!
What an exciting night that was!  I LOVED it!!  The auditorium was practically shaking with all the cheers and screams from all the students!  I LOVED all the praise they were getting for all their hard work!  I love when these kinds of things are rewarded!  So much cooler than random drawings and un-worked for praise.  I want my kids to know the difference.  Most of the speeches were pretty boring, but I loved Mr. Flynn's praise of Luke.  He so deserved that!  I was so happy he had his little moment.  I think he liked it too, even though he kept telling me how many times they said his name and how it was "kind of embarrassing" :).  He loved it :).  I could have done without Mr. Flynn mentioning us and our "18 kids"- the big stinker!- but other than that!  I was glad that Bradley and Luke both got awards.  I'm afraid the reason Bradley didn't get the main, big one for fifth grade is because Luke was for sure getting the fourth grade one and since they're brothers... because Bradley passed up the rest of the fifth graders by almost double.  But I get that they have to try to include everyone.  Just kind of a bummer for him.  Not that he didn't get recognized, and they both were in heaven with all the attention :).  Bradley riled up the crowd when they called him up to the front :).  Funny kid.  I'm just so happy for them and how hard they worked for that!  They really did push themselves and did way more than we all thought possible.  It was fun to hear Mr. Flynn bring up how "out there" his challenge to get more than 100 was :).  Then to hear him point out how Luke overcame the impossible.  Just cool.  Sounds kind of cheesy repeating it now, it's just a math program, but still!!  Such a cool experience!  Talk about unifying the school!  So much fun!!  I can't believe they even got through the whole presentation with everyone cheering every other word!  Kinda funny.  Shouldn't just let them chant T-T-M the entire evening!  They'd have been just as happy :).  Anyway, it was so much fun!!  Good times.  And we got to see Mr. Denhalter at the end!  We're so excited to have him be our principal!!  I could totally do PTA with him as the Principal :).  Maybe.  5-12-16

They escorted the "MATHletes" into the auditorium while blasting We Are The Champions... so fun :)

Bradley and Luke had special seats up near the front because they were getting special awards!

Mr. Flynn encouraging cheering and homeboy poses :)

I'm glad Nate got this picture.  I wish we'd gotten one of the totals at the end- I think there was something like 800,000 lessons passed!  SHEESH!

There's Bradley getting his award!  We were on the wrong side of the stage to get good pictures of these.  Look at that though- 544 math passoffs, I think his pass rate was 95%.  41 hours!!  Good job, Bradley!

Shaking hands with school board/math reps, principal... very official award!

Got a picture of Rachael in case her mom wants a picture of her side/back.  

Luke getting his!  1,112 math lessons (this is just for during the march madness... he actually had over 1,300), overal pass rate 99%, and 11,381 problems solved!  I love that Mr. Flynn gave him credit for doing the impossible.  Who knew he'd blow Mr. Flynn's challenge to get 100 passoffs, so completely out of the water!!  Go Luke!

Presenting the trophy!  (and a very bald head!)

Luke's class

Another one- who knows.

Bradley's class.  

Our two Mathlete champions... this is really just too cool.

It was so much fun having Mr. Flynn's motivation and competitive nature through this whole experience.  I think it took them both, but I love that Mr. Flynn gives Luke so much credit (have I mentioned that yet?).

Mother's Day!

Mother's day was, as always, the best day!!  I love Mother's day!  I love thinking about my sacred role as a mother and I love being spoiled and special treated by my cute kiddos.  This year was no different :).  I had to wake up with Molly so I decided to just hurry and take my shower before feeding her and then laying back down before breakfast in bed was ready :).  The kids all brought up my breakfast and showered me with lots of gifts, treats and sweet cards and letters.  I absolutely love seeing all the thought and work that goes into their sweet words and crafts.  Makes me smile!  Jack gave me some sidewalk chalk and a big colorful lollipop!  Erika gave me a notebook and pen with a special picture drawn inside of she and I :).  Also a sunflower she planted at school.  Hopefully the seed survived her jump from my bed :).  She gave me the sweetest picture and little flowers with things she is going to do for me too.  Noah had made me a button bracelet at Scouts and planted a flower at school as well.  Then wrote me a sweet card too.  So fun, I love the thoughtfulness that goes into these things.  Luke gave me my favorite sweetart candies and a card he made.  he knows me so well :).  Bradley made me a fun candy gram, and a cool shrinky-dink necklace at school that I wore all day, and a coupon book and card.  So sweet.  Kelly gave me a popcorn bucket full of fun pamper-y things- the fingernail clippers were extra special because she knew I needed some :).  And they already came in handy.  I love the slippers too and all the treats.  She got the right color of nail polish too, for my new skirt.  Very thoughtful and fun.  Charity made me a mug with sweet words on it (even arranged to borrow Lisa's fancy pens to pull that off!  Cool girl) and put some yummy cowtails inside.  And Nate Molly gave me a new bike!!!  Nate says it was Luke's idea though :) so he gets some credit too.  I gave my bike to Charity when hers broke, so I haven't had one for a while!  So this was a very fun surprise!!  I can't wait for it to get here, it sounds amazing!  I LOVED all the hugs and all the happy feelings.  Everyone is always so fun and happy on Mother's Day morning.  So heavenly.  We had gotten up early enough that some games were in order :).  Erika and I (and eventually, Jack, Bradley, Luke and Kelly) played the Cupcake game.  Love that game.  It never gets old :).  WE got all ready for church and made it on time, which was wonderful!  The kids sang their cute songs for me :).  I loved that Jack got to go up this time!!  So brave!  The little food for the moms thing was excellent.
We played a few games when we got home, Guess Who and something else, and then we ate Charity's wonderful dinner she made.  Then we all headed off to Grandma Hatch's to give her the scarf and then on to the Maynes Family Meeting!  It was a nice fun day!!  I couldn't be happier with my kids and my family, my life for that matter- just feels good these days!!  Makes me happy.

I got out my new portrait lens from Jami and played around a little.  One thing's for sure- so far, a great lens cannot compensate for horrible lighting.  I love my dad's flash for my indoor pictures- these two pictures show perfectly how much better my pictures look with the bounced off light of the flash.

Look how blurred the background is!!!  perfect.

apparently I need to learn how to hold the camera still... still a little blurry... but we did get some really crisp ones, so I know it's just me.

Even the length of her little leg makes a difference!  So awesome.

What do you think, Nana, related??

Again with the lighting!  These two are without the flash.

LOOK AT THAT CONTRAST!!!!  So crazy.  I have way more fun taking indoor pictures when they can turn out with this kind of lighting.  

I love being a mom to these kids.