HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHARITY!!

She had her big day!  It was a nice one!  This was her first year of having life interfere with her day.  It was a good opportunity for a reality check and to kind of push her into real life.  She had to have an early morning choir practice the DAY OF!  So she hurried through her crepes and went to school an hour early.  Kelly and Luke decorated her locker with balloons and sticky notes covered in nice things said by family and friends.  She had to do a graded run as well.  And had to turn in a pretty big assignment all on her birthday.  It was a good thing she had Pretzelmaker to look forward to.  Right after school we took her, Kelly, Ellison and Levi to get some Prezel Bites.  So yummy.  So fun.  When we got home we had to hurry and get Charity out of the house so that Emily could come decorate her bedroom!  This was cool!  One of the coolest things I've ever seen a friend do for another on their birthday!  It made me so happy to see all the thought and work that went into it!  Charity was pleasantly surprised!  Then we got the kitchen cleaned for YW.

Looking at this cake makes me mad at it all over again.  It was such a naughty cake!  Probably last year when we were trying to help Jack choose something other than a Princess Sophia cake, we came across this cute baby Mikey one and even though Charity doesn't remember it, she asked me if I would make her a baby Mikey cake for her birthday :).  She was probably joking because she likes the ice cream ones better of course (which we did have at Applebee's and I never got a picture of it).  So I don't think she was serious, but I thought it would be fun to make for her anyway.  I even put it in my phone so I wouldn't forget.  I used Rice Krispie treat instead of cake because we are anti-cake right now, also thinking about how easy it would be to make that way and well.... this cake was NOT easy!!  Nothing about it went smoothly or "easy"!!!!  I didn't even have enough frosting- so it's good you can't see the back!  The dumb fondant for Mikey was totally dropping the whole time, no matter how long I left it in the freezer, it still drooped.  The frosting was some weird consistency... just everything! So frustrating!  But anyway.  That's that.  I was happy to attempt to do something to surprise Charity and I think she was pleasantly surprised :).  Confused as to why I made baby Mikey, but pleasantly surprised :). Hahaha.  I tried.

After YW we had Charity's Rice Krispie Treat Baby Mikey cake and then FINALLY opened presents!

Even Luke is surprised by her reaction :)

Our kids love the whole guessing who it is with the disguised voice thing when they open presents.  Super fun :)

She'll love me for this one later.

I'm loving that she used the Victoria's Secret bag

We got a little lazy and just printed off a picture of the Jazz logo... nothing else, so I think Charity wasn't sure what she was getting :)

And then her date with Mom card :).

 It was a lot of fun.  I think she had a good day.  I loved thinking about her all day and remembering all that occurred 14 years ago today.  She really is such a blessing in my life and such a sweet part of our family.  I loved hearing what everyone said about her tonight when we did our "what's special" thing.  Bradley likes that she will play basketball with him.  Jack likes that she opened the present he gave her.  Erika likes that she always comes to her aid when she gets hurt.  Noah pointed out how Charity always wants to say a prayer when we go anywhere.  I cannot remember Luke's.  Kelly likes that Charity's personality stands out.  Nate said that he's proud of how she tries new things.  I pointed out how good she is at changing her mood for the better.  She really does!  So quickly!  I think she felt the love :).  Happy Birthday to my beautiful little lady.  14 years goes by so fast!  3-9-16

CHARITY'S FAMILY PARTY

Charity's birthday, like so many this year, falls on a Wednesday so we knew we needed to celebrate before.  Couldn't do it Tuesday either so Monday it was!  We  really miss FHE when we do parties on Monday, but it was okay.  She chose to go to Applebee's for her birthday party.  This ended up being the lesser chaotic of all three parties we've had this year!  I was pleasantly surprised!  They were so accommodating of our pretty large group (16 people).  They put our ice cream cake in the freezer, even brought out extra plates and forks when we served it and basically ran themselves ragged the entire evening just for our dinner!  Even sang to her!  It was a lot of fun.  I wish only that I could have sat closer to everyone especially Heidi and Grandma Ruthie and Grandpa Russ.  But ya can't win 'em all, right?!  I did get to sit by Nate and my Dad- it was fun to play with Molly with him and feed her everything in sight (not really feeding her because she usually dropped it before she could get a real bite).  Charity seemed to enjoy all the attention and had a good time.  I think she feels like a big girl lately.  I didn't get to sit real close to her either, so I don't know all that went on on her end of the table, but it was fun to watch her beam even from a distance.  I hope she knows how much we love her and that she has a lot of support from a lot of people.  3-7-16

Brad #14 /Luke #3

We had such a fun time this basketball season.  It's too bad we struck out so much.  The one win we had was a pretty awesome one and most of our games we only lost by a few points in the last few minutes.  So each game was really intense.  I thought we had really great defense and that our guys were such troopers!  They never gave up!  There were a lot of times they completely shut down the other team!  Not letting them score more than a few points during the second half.  It was really cool that they were so good.  Bradley was really great at the fast breaks, he was usually right there on top of the ball as soon as we got down to the other side. Luke is an amazing strategizer and is able to set up some serious screens!  He's ALWAYS blocking someone!  So cool.  They both relied on each other a lot this year and they both made a LOT of points!  Unfortunately a lot of the guys on their team were not that good, could barely even dribble, but they all had improved so much by the end of the season!  I think we can give most of the credit for that to their amazing coach.  He really is a hottie... I mean, great coach!  He did such a great job and was so good for the boys.  He is able to keep it high intensity without making it painful.  They usually looked like they were enjoying themselves and WANTED to keep playing.  Pretty cool.  Here are all the pics we got at one of their games.  I wish they were better, but with that kind of lighting...

Vee Girls

I totally forgot I took these!  While Annie was here her cute girls wanted to hold Molly.  I just never anticipated the day when Annie's kids would hold one of mine :).  It makes my heart smile :).

Cute that Molly was totally content with them too- no fussing.

Things to Remember Week of 3-13-16

SUNDAY
Got our new Beehive Presidency set apart. Kelly is still the First Counselor which I think she likes because she gets to keep her same folder :). It was nice that Nate was able to stay for a bit and help set apart Kelly. Charity had her first Sunday in Mia Maids and I think she liked it :).  Which is awesome.  I know she will once she gets in there for a few weeks.  It's just always a little hard to make the switch to a new class dynamic.  Things went well at the Training meeting tonight as well.  I think we're making a lot of progress with the Young Women as far as the "youth lead" stuff goes.  It's nice to see them learning and growing with it.  3-13-16

MONDAY
I am loving my new Monday routine.  It is going so well!  I've had off weeks, but it's been life changing.  Sound dramatic?  It's true!!  My bathroom has been clean for 3 weeks straight!  Never happens!  I've been keeping up on the laundry!!  No more piles and baskets full of clothes laying around!  (well, with the exception of a couple dirty ones for sorting, which I'm hoping to come up with a solution for that soon)  It's just been amazing though!  I love it!  I feel so accomplished and proud of myself at the end of the day.  I really don't think anyone else has noticed :) haha, but it's been life changing for me.  Today even with Nate inviting us to go to the Red Cross while he took blood leave (Fun Fact: if you donate blood on Brent's birthday, the next possible day you can donate is my Dad's birthday!  May 9th!... I thought it was cool :) )  I was still able to get everything on my list done.  Feels good.  And to top it off- Nate changed our break pads!!!  He's so awesome!  I"m so proud of his hard work and the things he has learned how to do over the years.  Just awesome.  3-14-16 (Happy Birthday, Brent!)



TTM
Well, we made it!  Columbia Elementary is in the Final Four!!  Unbelievable that our cute little small town school could beat 13,000ish schools!!  Pretty awesome.  I'm loving Mr. Flynn's enthusiasm and all of his kind remarks about Luke.  I should post some of them on here... I think I will...
Here they are:

"Go to the Davis School District home page.  This is a picture about our school and TTM.  Click on the photo and the link has a small article and more photos.  There is a great photo with Luke in the front and other classmates.  I don't know who did the article.  But I am glad there is a photo with some of our class."

"In thinking about all of this, I have come to the conclusion that we are the Utah champions, top sixteen, and elite eight in the country because of one person...Luke Maynes.  Luke's desire to do his best, to excel, showed me and showed his classmates what was possible.  Regardless of the outcome Sunday night, I am very grateful for Luke's example."

 I seem to have misplaced the one where he called Luke the inspiration and motivatino to the whole class.  I loved it.  I don't know what happened to it!  ANyway though, you get the point.  It's been a lot of fun for Luke and for all of us to see him get so into it and be so proud of himself.  He's gotten to such a high level math wise, he's not able to pass off more than four or five at a time, so that's been a little discouraging during these last few weeks of competition, but he's still going in to the TTM Cafe and working hard.  Bradley too, they've both been sacrificing a lot of their time to make this happen!  How cool would it be to win!!  I just think it's too cool that we're even in the final four, so yeah.  Good times.  3-14-16

RAINY DAY
Driving to school we were covered in beautiful gray clouds!  It was so awesome.  I just love rain clouds.  I knew it was going to be rainy and got all excited.  Everyone was going to school early this week different things for Charity and Kelly and then TTM for Bradley and Luke so with the carpools that I still had to drive, I made over 30 trips to the school this week! I'll be glad when all the early stuff is over.  I thoroughly enjoyed the rain that day though.  I tried my new "floor day" and came out with a very clean house!  I only didn't make it down to the boys' room which wouldn't have happened anyway because I am not in the bedroom cleaning business.  Just kidding.  I am thinking about doing their roomf or one of our deep clean fridays, but that's way down the road.  They are going to have to clean up all their stuff before floor day so I can vacuum in the future.  I got SO MUCH done though!  It was very gratifying!  Not to mention I was able to get up early a lot of days this week and do my workout before even starting on the day.  Feels good.  Lacrosse was cancelled today for the rain. 3-15-16

PLAYGROUP
Still not loving playgroup as much as I should.  The social exprience of it all just wears me out.  I came home completely drained and exhausted emotionally and ended up taking a nap.  Luckily Nate was there and woke up in time to take care of everyone.  It is so hard for me to be social right now.  I wish I could just change.  I'm not sure what to do.  So many things just bother me or frustrate me to the point that I am almost crying.  I had to leave when Lisa brought up the pain in her hips because I was about to start crying about my own pain in my hips.  This pain really is debilitating.  I wish I had a solution and could work it back to normal or something.  I can't even find any exercises that work.  I keep praying for my own little miracle but in the meantime it's almost impossible to talk about it.  I'm really happy with the fact that Jack is cooperating with me when it's time to go to playgroup and that we are able to go wihtout too much drama from him.  Ultimately I know it's a good place for us to be, it's just hard.  3-16-16

CHOIR FESTIVAL
Charity had her festival finally!  Lots of early morning rehearsals for that lately, so it was nice to have that over with. They did really great!  Getting mostly 1's on each category!  Including audience which was surprising to her since someone's phone alarm had gone off.  Surprising since phones were supposed to be left home, which was REALLY annoying since I had to be at YW that night and needed to be able to communicate with Charity.  Funny how much we rely on cell phones right now with our busy schedules.  I really don't know what we'd do without them!  Oh, wait, I do know- I'd probably leave Charity at her festival too long, try to pick her up at KJH, get frustrated, find out that she's actually at Davis, find her at Davis outside, in the dark, completely unsupervised, and pick her up WAY too late.  Let's just say I"m glad we have cell phones.  Charity was bummed because she had been asked to remove her bracelet and put it in a mom's purse and then couldn't find the mom afterwards.  Kind of annoying.  Oh well.  Only a couple more months of Mrs. Woodfield.  Is it bad that I'm sad my kids probably won't do the choir thing since the teacher stinks?  3-16-16

VIDEO SCAVENGER HUNT
I just loved our combined activity this week.  The YW and YM did a video scavenger hunt.  I drove six kids and we had a total blast!  I loved watching them race up to the spot they needed a picture of and then pose for a millisecond and then race back to the car :).  We totally won though!  So fun.  Kelly had had a much different experience, but learned that it's not about what you're doing, or how you're doing it, but who you are with that counts.  She was a good sport.  3-16-16

DEEP CLEAN FRIDAY- LIVING ROOM EDITION
We did the Living room this week..  I'm not sure why I think I will want to read updates on this stuff later, but I guess I can always delete it when I make my book.  Nate and I deep cleaned the Living room this week.  It took a lot longer and was a lot more work than we had expected.  WE took all the covers off the pillows and cushions on the couches, washed those, cleaned the piano, washed the walls and organized the shoes.  Cleaning under and in the couches took Nate about 30 trips up and down the stairs.  He's not a big fan of cleaning up STUFF.  He's more of the grunt work kind of cleaner.  So it was a change.  WE didn't get the spots on the floor unfortunately, but it looks so nice right now!  I'm loving it!  3-18-16

BIRTHDAY DATE WITH CHARITY
Only nine days after her birthday, Charity and I went on our date!  She planned manicures and dinner at Panda Express!  I was so excited for our date!  She even turned down a babysitting job for this, so we knew it was going to be good :).  Lots of fun conversation while we got our nails done.  Even the cute lady doing them got in on it all.  She was so nice and seemed to really enjoy Charity and her fun sense of humor :).  Charity got purple and blue nails and I got blue.  We then stuffed our faces in the crowded Panda Express.  Charity got Honey Walnut shrimp for the first time- mmmmmmm.  We got a lot of talking done and then on the way home listened to Brian Regan :).  I just love spending time with Charity.  She's a fun girl.  IT's fun to see who she is becoming.  I really look up to her and admire her for her strong moral character and her ability to stand up for what she knows is right NO MATTER WHAT!  She's such a good girl.  She is sweet to me and very polite whe we are out together too.  Makes it that much more fun :).  3-18-16

KICK BALL
You know it's almost spring when the Maynes family is back at the park playing Kickball!  WE all went over there Friday night (except Kelz she was tending the Maughan's).  It ended up being a lot of fun and pretty drama free which was a surprise since only 1 minute in Erika had fallen and hurt her knee pretty bad.  The rest of the time was pleasant.  I did something to my hips when I jumped to dodge the ball, that was a bummer.  But we had a lot of laughs and a lot of fun.  Good times.  We came home and played Clue with the whole family.  I can't help but picture Grandma Mottishaw smiling down on us all as we play her (probably 50 year old) game.  So cool.  She was the best Grandma, always playing games with us.  I never remember her turning us down for a game of Clue :).  Or Sorry :).  Or Uno :).  3-18-16

SATURDAY WAS INTERESTING
Nate ended up trading shifts so that he could have the evening off to go to Brian Regan with me, so during the day he worked and because of that- it felt SO WEIRD!!  The kids and I were all in a bit of a funk.  Almost felt like a day off from school or something.  So it felt like we were supposed to be doing something special.  It was weird.  We played a few rounds of Clue, Bradley won them all. Luke and I worked on his Utah County report which ended up being VERY frustrating with random problems on the computer, too much fighting all through the house, and a tired Molly screaming.  I think I lost it one too many times, I made Jack sad, and then it was all over.  I think Luke settled on building a model of the Y on the mountain- we will work on that later. We did get all the stuff printed off for his poster though!  Phew!   Everyone played outside for a while, then inside.  We were all just killing time until Dad gets home.

BRIAN REGAN
When Nate bought Charity's Jazz tickets there was a deal for tickets to see Brian Regan as well so he got them :). We grabbed some Costa Vida on our way there (had to make it quick because we forgot the tickets and didn't realize it until Centerville so we lost a little time :) ). This was our second time seeing him in person and he did not disappoint!  It's so much fun to be there and hear him in person.  He's so hilarious!  It's a bummer ya can't record it all and listen to it over and over again like the others.  He was very funny. It was Molly's second comedy show and she did great!  Thanks to Kelly for watching everyone else for us... it was a nice date night.  3-19-16