LOTS AND LOTS OF PICTURES

FIFTH GRADE PROGRAM
We got to go see Luke's big program on Tuesday.  He worked so hard on memorizing his huge part!  It was fun to watch him sing- as it always is- he gets so into things and is actually quite entertaining.  I loved his and Clint's synchronized cymbals during the "Proud to be an American" song.  This program is one of my favorites for how much it reminds me of my own Patriotism.  I am so proud to be an American!  I am so grateful for the blessings we share as a country and the rights and privileges so many have fought for, for us all.  It's such a touching thing to think about.  Even though I know our country has been better off than it is right now- it is still such a blessed land.  We grabbed Luke a drink at Fiiz to celebrate :).  5-23-17

DECATHLON
It felt a lot like Christmas morning on Wednesday with the Decathlon hype :).  Bradley and Luke had been VERY anxious for this day and were feeling the butterflies!  It was very exciting.  Bradley had to go to school for choir and then we picked him up shortly after to take him and Luke up to Northridge High.  Nate, Molly, Jack and I got to watch their teams compete.  It was so much fun!!  I get way to into those things of course and found too many flaws with the system, but overall- it was really exciting.  I could have done without Jack and Molly's drama, but luckily Nate was there so he picked up a lot of the slack.  It was fun to sit by Janice Johnson and talk about the inner workings of the whole thing.  You should have seen the look on Luke's face when he heard his team announced as 5th place winners for 5th grade!  The smile!  He was THRILLED!!  I think they'd gotten it in their heads that they weren't going to place because of the few things they'd messed up on or not done their very best.  But sure enough- they did it!  We were all so excited.  Then, after much suspense- they announced that Columbia 6th graders had tied for 2nd place!!!  HOLY MOLY!!  All three of Columbia's teams had placed this year!  Hasn't happened in 6 years!  Very exciting stuff!  We had to go to Costa Vida for lunch to celebrate after :).  This was really a special thing because of how hard the boys had worked for this.  This wasn't just an accident that they made it into the Decathlon- this was hard work!  And LOTS of training!  Makes me so proud of them!!  They really did push themselves and gave it all they had.  And even with the nervousness and jitters they were able to pull off some amazing scores!  So cool!!  Love these boys!  5-24-17

Bradley telling Mrs. Horn that he used to go to Holbrook :).

And then Luke doing the same :).  Cute boys.

I just love my action photos.  Especially the shuttle run ones.

This was SO heartbreaking!!!  LOOK AT THAT TIME!!!  And the annoying thing was that one of his stacks fell AFTER he pushed the buzzer, so it totally should have counted and this would have been an INCREDIBLE SCORE!  But instead, the guy wouldn't count it and he had to take his other score (even though they were supposed to have three tries, they were only giving them two) of 9 something.  SO SAD!!  We were all bugged.  

And the other injustice (wink wink) was Brad's jump rope!  The dang thing fell apart in his hands while he was taking his turn and there was no redo!!!  I was shocked.  Kind of a drag.  But whatever.  He still did pretty good!

Bradley's pose in this one cracks me up :).

Two cool kids.  Winners :).  

DRIVING IN THE CAR :)

BRADLEY'S CHOIR CONCERT
And the last big thing for Bradley this week was his big choir concert!  He's worked so hard on this all year too, so we were happy to see the fruits of his labor.  They did a great job!  And once again with the Patriotic songs- it was really neat to focus on our country and freedoms.  Bradley wowed us with his solo.  I didn't know he could sing like that!  He's been spending so much time in choirs lately it shouldn't surprise me, but I was so proud of him!  He did great!  I loved his dance moves as well.  5-25-17

He was so embarrassed by his shirt- we'd forgotten to have him wear red, white or blue and he'd been doing DARE stuff all day.  Kind of a bummer, but really, it just made it so he stood out more for his proud momma :).  

This was awesome!  Erika got first place!  Noah got fastest in his grade, Luke got most improved, Bradley got fastest in his grade as well.  They all won drawing prizes as well.  Lots of fun!!  I just love doing those races.  I hope they keep wanting to do that each season.  

These two were fun to watch!  Noah was SO CLOSE every time.  It was a fun, friendly competition that's for sure :).

Noah splashing Bradley with water on his second lap

We went to Gailey Park for Kelly's Family Party.  A couple days early, but I don't think Kelly minded :).  Grandpa Hatch, Grandma Hatch and the Hatch kids all came to help celebrate.  It was fun to celebrate Kelly, but I feel like I was distracted by all that needed to get done this week.  Kind of a bummer, but it happens. I  think Kelly had a good time.  I brought my camera and didn't even get it out the whole time.  Realized it at the end.  Kind of lame. 

Friday: LAST DAY OF SCHOOL AND KELLY'S BIRTHDAY!  WAHOO!  This day was huge :).  We had Kelly's puffy pancake for breakfast, then rushed off to school for Brad's DARE Graduation and 6th grade promotion which ended up being really awesome!  Brad has really gone above and beyond!  Who knew?!  He's clearly done it all on his own!  No help or pushing from us.  Which makes it even cooler :).  He got several awards.  He had perfect attendance for the year and for fourth, fifth, sixth.  He got the Presidential Fitness Award (he was the only boy and there were only two kids that got it).  He got the Gold Academic Presidential Award.  He was recognized in the slide show for a lot of the cool things he's done this year: Newsletter, Decathlon, Math and Science Olympiad, Attendance, etc. But they left off a few things because there wasn't enough room :).  Funny kid.  I really am just so proud of him!  He's so self-motivated and when he wants something he does everything it takes to get it.  What a cool kid :).  We went and celebrated.  

Kelly skipped school to come to Brad's graduation :). 

I raced around the school (as usual) to snap pictures of each of the kids with their teachers.  This is always such a bittersweet day!

Came home and got ready for our little last day of school party.  The kids invited a bunch of friends over for games and projector movie.  It was a lot of fun.  Hopefully the parents and our neighbors didn't hate us for the late night.  

We surprised Kelly with her gift from us along with some Pretzel Bites she got a certificate to go on a shopping spree and dinner with mom and dad :).  Should be fun :).  That's what you get when you don't want anything.  I can't believe my little Kelz Belz is 14!!!  That is really just so old in my mind.  I remember 14!!  It was not long ago.  She's such a good girl and makes me so proud.  I don't know what I would do without Kelly in my life.  She really adds a special element that is really just irreplaceable.  I love her creativity, her organization, her artistic talent, her love for all those around her, her candid personality and fun sense of humor and the fact that she lets me tease her.  She has an amazing ability to move past things, which is a challenge for her, but she is quickly making that a strength in her life.  She is good at growing her testimony.  She lets life experiences plant seeds of faith and reaps the rewards.  She's brave enough to share her testimony regularly as well, which has truly been a blessing in my life.  She is one of my best friends.  I'm really glad we have her. Happy Birthday, Kelz!   6-2-17

KELLY'S FRIEND PARTY
Saturday was Kelly's friend party.  This was big!  Took her FOREVER to come up with the ideas, but she planned a really fun party.  Her friends came over and they all piled into our car- which was overflowing with teenagers- and went up to Adam's Canyon for a hike.  Cool idea huh!  They hiked for about four hours!  In the original plan, they were supposed to get back around 6:30, have pizza and roast marshmallows, but the hike went so long, we scratched the S'mores.  They did eat pizza, cake and ice cream and then watched Camp Rock 2 projector movie style.  I had worked so hard on the fire (and ended up babysitting it WAY longer than planned since I couldn't leave it alone) that they went down to the creek and pretended to not be dying of heat while sitting next to the flames.  They were really fun kids!  Loud, but very fun.  I was happy to see a lot of the ward kids there.  We have a good ward, I'm so glad.  They were mostly polite and well-mannered too.  It was a lot of fun to see Kelly so happy and enjoying all of their company so much.  The gifts were fun.  She ended up really liking the cake- which I was glad didn't disappoint :).  It was a fun one to make!!  It was just an overall great party!  A fun way to end a crazy/fun week!  6-3-17

Thursday Grandma brought the Hatch kids over to play.  She was tending them while Brent and Sarah were in Zion's.  They played hard!  Water balloons and all- Luke was so happy to have people to throw water balloons at!  He'd been at it a few times during the week with very little participation from anyone else.  He was slightly addicted to the balloons and couldn't think of anything else to do. ever.  Funny boy. 6-8-17

SAYING GOODBYE TO THE HATCHES
This was the last time we will see the Hatches for a while!  It was so sad to see them go and mostly because I had all this regret about not doing more while they were here.  Life is so crazy all the time, I feel like it's just flying by and I'm just hanging on for the ride.  But anyway.  I'm glad we got the time we did.  And I was glad we got to say goodbye to them before they left.  The kids all had fun together for one last time.  We took a few pictures- I'll have to post those later- and I backed the car into the neighbor's cinder block wall which was totally awesome (eye roll... HUGE eye roll!).  It was a nice time with my brother and his family.  I'm so excited for them and their new adventures!  6-12-17

This is the one I want to recreate in 10 years :).  Complete with tongues, noogies, soda cans, and Grandma Hatch coming down the stairs :).  Whadya think?

Or this one :).  With Brent

Things to Remember Week of 6-25-17

PRAYER
Just when you think you've got everything under control when it comes to Sharing time- you have a week that puts you right back in your place.  I was slightly disappointed with my lessons on Sunday.  Mostly just the noise from the kids.  Didn't feel like they were engaging and it didn't feel like anything was really sinking in.  Bummer.  Better luck in three months.  (they did like the prayer rocks.  That was the only time they were really quiet enough to hear me, so that made me happy)  6-25-17

LAGOON WITH THE MAUGHANS
We finally made it to Lagoon with the Maughans :).  It was a VERY hot day, but we managed to have a pretty good time!  I loved being able to sit and visit with Emily the whole time :).  The kids LIVE to hang out with their friends, so they had a blast.  Nate even got off work and joined us near the end.  The things that set this trip apart: Emily convincing me AND CHARITY (along with Noah and Erika who didn't need a whole lot of convincing) to go on Cannibal :).  SO FUN!  Jack got to ride on the Sky Ride again (this was his second time, but I don't think I mentioned it last week).  He LOVES that ride.  I think he feels really brave and cool when he goes on it.  I feel like it's the beginning of a new level of rides for him.  I hope to be able to convince him to go on Rattlesnake Rapids soon :).  I think I'm more scared on Sky Ride that half the rides at the place.  Poor Will's forehead!  I'll never get over Kelly's, "Emily, was this here when you left?" pointing at Will's bulging goose egg.  Poor KATE!!  I hope she was just hot and this isn't a new thing for her... that could be annoying, especially with little brothers and their wounds.  She almost passed out again!  I also loved watching ALL the kids on the Rattlesnake Rapids ride, going under the waterfall :).  So fun.  OH!  And!  Brad and Luke went on the Sky Scraper!  Another ride that terrifies me that they were brave enough to go on alone even!  I think they were a little scared too :).  It was a fun day.  We need to do that again.  Nate treated us all to Pizza Pie Cafe after.  6-26-17

FHE
Erika taught us about baptism and repentance with the water/food coloring/bleach object lesson. The kids loved it.  We counted Oreo pizza as our treat.  And we played sardines for the game- Jack's choice.  I was dying from my cramps so I missed out big time.  6-26-17

FAMILY WORKOUT
On Monday, Bradley and I did my workout together.  Nobody else joined us.  Tuesday, Bradley, Luke, Noah, Erika and I played dodge ball on the trampoline.  Wednesday, Bradley, Noah, Erika and I went over to the park and played Flies Up with the frisbee.  These workouts have been a lot of fun.  I'm loving getting up together and making time for some physical activity.  6-27-17

WARD POOL PARTY
Nate busted his butt to get the meat all smoked this last week.  This has become a bit of a tradition to have Nate cook the meat for the Pool Party.  He does such a great job.  I was worried because when I was tending it on Tuesday, trying to warm it up (even though that was supposed to be Bro. Jacox's job), I thought I'd burned it.  Thank goodness it was okay.  It got Emily's (plus a dozen others who gave such generous compliments) stamp of approval.  He did great and did it while under a lot of other stress.  So proud of him.  We had fun swimming as well.  This year it seemed colder than in past years.  I don't know if it was the water temperature or what because when we got in the car it was supposedly 84 degrees still and that was almost 9:00.  Poor little Molly just shivered the entire time!  It was crazy.  She did pretty good.  She wasn't thrilled about getting in the water- even fought me a little getting her swim suit on.  Course she did chuckle a little in the dressing room when she lifted up the wrong foot for the diaper cover- mood swing :).  She doesn't love pools yet.  We did get her to enjoy walking around by herself in the shallow end and at the end of the time she was "jumping" in to my arms, so that was fun for her.  We'll have to take her swimming more often I guess.  She was my little buddy the whole time though- lots of fun.  Jack was a little fishy!!  He just ran around like crazy the entire time!  He has gotten so comfortable in the water!  I wish I had gotten him in some swim lessons.  Maybe we could do that when school starts.  He was loving it.  Showing me all his tricks, scooting down the slide, almost drowning going too deep.  He had fun.  Erika brought her goggles and loved looking around under the water with them.  She was fun and would come hang on me once in a while.  She mostly played with Kate and Lexi.  Noah was busy, I didn't see him a whole lot, but I did catch glimpses of him jumping off the diving board every once in a while!  Pretty brave!  I'm so proud of my kids and that they have worked through some of their fears lately.  Luke was busy as well, although, he stopped to play with Molly quite a bit and dodged Donald a lot of the time :).  He seemed to be having a lot of fun as well.  Going going going.  Bradley spent the majority of his time on the diving boards.  I saw him jump off the high dive once or twice, this year without any cool stunts, but then he did several cool little flips and twists off the short diving board.  He's learned his lesson it looked like :).  He has a lot of fun though.  I loved watching him and so did Molly.  It's cute to see her admiration for her older siblings in those moments.  Kelly was off with friends the entire time.  I think I saw her once or twice.  I don't even know what she did the whole time.  I know she had fun though because she ended up staying longer and riding home with Savannah.  I did see Charity a few times, one time JUMPING OFF THE HIGH DIVE!!  That girl overcame yet another fear this week!  So cool!  She had a few little issues with the other girls, but for the most part had fun.  She loved playing with Molly at the end too.  Nate spent a lot of time talking with his friends and keeping me and Molly company.  I think this was a nice relaxing evening for all of us.  One that took a day to recover from as well :).  Good times.  6-27-17

CALENDAR
Jami and I met with Mr. Denhalter today.  Mostly to plan the calendar for the year.  It was a strange meeting.  Took two hours.  It was so interesting the way Jami was taking charge.  She hasn't shown that much interest since we decided to do this last year.  It felt like we have a lot of work to do, but that it will totally be doable.  I think the hard part will just be making sure everyone does their jobs.  I hope Jami and I can start to agree on things- it's going to be a long term if we have to keep compromising every step of the way.  I think it's going to be fun though.  I'm kind of looking forward to it all.  I'm trying to come up with some fun ideas to go with our year theme.  6-28-17

FISHING
Bradley was dying to go fishing, so Nate took him, Luke and Noah fishing Thursday morning.  They got up bright and early and took off for Weber canyon.  According to them, it wasn't a great day of fishing- they didn't have a whole lotta luck and ended up driving around quite a bit, which was a huge let down, but I think they still had a good time together.  The rest of us, at home, went out for scones at Grannie Annie's :).  6-29-17

FLOWERS
Friday we went up to Nate's Parents' house to help get things ready for the funeral.  Charity, Bradley, Luke, Noah and Erika helped roll up copies of Grandpa Russ's testimony and tied twine around those.   Nancy retaught me how to make boutineers and I made 10 Pall Bearers, 28 grandsons and 17 granddaughters and 5 great-grandkid ones with Kelly's help.  They turned out super cute with chess pieces stuck to them.  Each person who got one got to keep their chess piece to remember Grandpa by.  I also tied chess pieces to roses with ribbon for the daughters and daughter-in-laws.  We got to watch Nancy and Becky constructing their masterpiece flower arrangements.  They did such an amazing job!  I need to steal pictures from Facebook.  The casket spray had his fishing hat.  The one from the kids had a fishing pole, fishing basket filled with daisies, and several fishing lures all around- so cool!  (almost said "cute" there- I think Grandpa Russ stopped me :) haha!)  The one from the grandkids had a chess board and chess pieces throughout- again, very cool.  They made another one in a giant fishing bobble.  Then a few more in baskets.  They worked SO HARD!!  It was so impressive.  Such talent!  Such creativity.  I need to remember to consult Nancy when planning weddings and such later on... she's the best for that stuff.  The kids got to play with their cousins a little and tried to just stay out of the way of the flowers, but I think it was a good time for all of us- a constructive way to get our mind off the pain and be helpful.  6-30-17