My blog needs some serious help. You know the feeling where you know just enough about something to know that you know ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about said thing? That's how I feel about my blog! Amber, HELP! I am hopeful, though. I'm reasonably intelligent and I have a great friend who is a blogger-extraordinair (I have no idea how to spell that- hopefully you get the idea). Someday.

Noelle finishes preschool!

More about time flying by! Noelle graduated from preschool at the end of May. She had a wonderful year with the best teacher ever! Noelle loved Miss Bonnie! Noelle was quite shy last year during preschool and sometimes had a hard time staying. At the first of this school year, she announced that she wasn't going to be shy anymore- and she wasn't! The mind is a powerful thing! She loved going to school everyday and came home bursting with the news of the day. She always loved to show me what she did that day, and I was amazed at the fun, creative and educational projects that came out of her backpack every day! She really grew up this year! She has had so much fun with her friends. One of her best friends has been Megan Price who moved into our cul-de-sac in September. It has been so fun to watch the two of them run back and forth between our two houses and play for hours on end. The Price's are moving this next week and we are all going to miss them soooooo much! We have become great friends and while it won't be the same as having them three doors down, we are grateful that they are only moving to Syracuse so our friendship will continue. Anyway, so back to Noelle. She is such a beautiful, fun and smart girl! I can't believe that she is going to Kindergarten this next year. She is such a good big sister to Austin, and it is really fun to see them play together so much when the other kids are at school. He is really going to miss her and so am I! She and Ashlyn both learned to ride their bikes without training wheels last week, yet another thing that makes them seem more grown up!

Ashlyn and Kayden turn 7!

I keep forgetting that these post backwards (the newest one first), so here is the next thing that has made me realize that time is flying by. However, you won't know that I am writing about that until you read the next post, but anyway, here goes! Ashlyn and Kayden turned 7 on June 15th! They got to share their day with Lanny for Father's Day. On Saturday, they each had their birthday party and WOW!! What a day that was! This was the first year that they wanted separate parties, so we decided to do the same party twice! We set up our wading pools, hooked up the sprinkler toys, filled water balloons, roasted hot dogs, sang Happy Birthday, had cupcakes, and opened presents- for Ashlyn's party from 10:30-12:30. She had 13 little girls running around having a blast in the water! When the girls were done, we emptied the pools and then set up our wading pools, hooked up the sprinkler toys, filled water balloons, roasted hot dogs, sang Happy Birthday, had cupcakes, and opened presents- this time for Kayden's party from 1:00-3:00! He had 10 little boys here being crazy and having a ton of fun! What a crazy day! And if that weren't crazy enough, Noelle was riding her bike during Kayden's party and crashed and got a Grade 1 concusion! SCARY!! We called Wendy and she walked us through the diagnosis and treatment. Thanks Wendy! Anyway, I was thinking about seven years ago and the joy of having Ashlyn and Kayden be born. I will always remember seeing those tiny, fragile bodies in their incubators with all the tubes and wires stuck on them. I remember being so sad that they weren't as healthy as we had hoped, but also feeling so grateful to have them and that they were born in this day and age so they could be treated and taken care of to get healthy! I remember holding them for the first time and being so overwhelmed- both with love and gratitude but also with wondering how in the world we were going to do TWINS! Now they are both smart and beautiful and fun kids who just finished 1st grade! How time flies by! They are so wonderful and such good kids!

How time flies!

We have had a few events this past few months that have really made me realize how fast the years are slipping by! Here are the highlights!
Emery turned 12 in April! This, of course, means that we have officially been "Mom" and "Dad" for over twelve years! She started going to Young Women's, got a cell phone, starting having "boy issues" and has just really grown up! She is a wonderful, smart and responsible girl who makes us so proud! She just graduated from 6th grade on Friday and was chosen as one of only two students to speak at graduation! She was so nervous but worked really hard on her speach and did an AMAZING job! What a happy/sad day! It is so fun to see her growing up and making such good choices! At the same time, it is sad to see her grow up. Finishing Elementary School marks the end of an era and I hope we are all ready for Jr. High! I think Emery will do great, I'm more worried about me and Lanny! A boy in Emery's class has a major crush on her and that is providing some good humored teasing as we tread into new territory! I just can't believe she's 12!

Roughin' it!

I love camping! This past weekend we went to Hyrum Reservoir for a couple of days to celebrate the kid's last day of school! We had so much fun being together. I booked our campsite over a month ago and carefully chose a site that had a lot of shade and lots of space for the kids to run around in. One of the best in the campground! However, unfortunately, the Top of Utah Triathalon also thought that the same area of the campground would be the best spot for their finish line! We had no idea that we were camping at Hyrum on the same weekend that an annual triathalon is held at Hyrum State Park! We weren't too worried or inconvienienced on Friday, but EARLY Saturday morning the fun began! I woke up to someone yelling that it was only 5:24 AM so she wasn't late yet! There ended up being about 100 race staffers, 800 athletes, all their supporters and half the population of Hyrum city in the camp sites surrounding us! So much for our quiet weekend of camping. But we survived and it was fun to see the action (or should I say BE in the action!) We took off and went to the beach area for a few hours during the most crazy part of it and when we came back for lunch it was winding down. So we still got to enjoy a quiet afternoon. And the park manager was very apologetic and even gave us a free pass to come back on another weekend when there is not a triathalon in our campsite! He said that by the time they realized how the triathalon would be laid out, we had already booked our site! So much for planning early! Oh well! We still had a good time and loved being with our family. The kids had a blast playing in the water and cooking over the fire and riding their scooters around. They all slept well and overall it was a success! The water is sooooo high! It will be interesting to see how much it goes down before our Family Reunion in July.

Kids and work

Do any of you have this problem, too? Your kids are all playing or watching TV or even not really doing anything and everyone is fine. Then you ask them to help with something or do their chores or homework and suddenly everyone is tired, hungry, hurt, sick, sad, on their death bed, permanently disabled, etc. You get the picture. I get so frustrated with this! Lanny and I are both hard workers and we are trying so hard to instill this in our kids, but most of the time I feel like we are failing miserably in this department. Even when we are trying to get ready to do something fun, they just don't like to work. But I'm not giving up! I think that teaching our kids to work is one of our greatest resposibilities and that being a good worker is one of the most vital life skills one can acquire. I know we're not alone in this dilema. But a few things have happened this week that have given me hope! Lanny and I were both at work on Monday and Emery was home tending everyone. (Why were they home? That's a whole other story which I will share sometime soon!) Everytime I called home to check on them, things were going GREAT! The kids were getting along and were happy. So I called to tell them that I was on my way home and Emery sounded so disappointed! She asked me if I could stay gone a little longer! So I ran a couple of errands and called again to say I was on my way and Emery said, "Really? Okay. But drive slow!" I heard the kids groaning in the background when they realized I was coming home. So I said I would do a couple more things before I came home. Well, when I finally got home, the kids had cleaned the whole family room! They were so excited to show me! It was so awesome to have the room clean, but what I loved the most about this surprise is that they worked together HAPPILY! Emery said that Kayden was one of the best workers which is close to a miracle! Kayden is a great worker when he makes up his mind to be, but that doesn't happen too often. Ashlyn and Emery are always great workers, and Noelle does pretty well, too. But Kayden has a much harder time. So after lots of praise and thank you's by me, I told them how proud I was that they worked together! Later, I pulled Kayden aside and thanked him again. Then on Tuesday, Ashlyn and Kayden brought home their homework for the week. Ashlyn loves to finish it all on the first day she brings it home, even though it's not due until Friday so it wasn't a surprise that she sat down and immediately started working. Kayden usually works for a while on the first day and then fights me every day until Friday morning when he has to hurry and finish before we leave for school. So I was so happy when he sat down and FINISHED all but the last page of his homework packet! Then he took a break for a couple of hours and then did the last page!! He was so happy and proud of himself for finishing it! So was I! So we talked about how if you just get in and do what needs to be done, then it doesn't take too long and you are done and free to do other things that you want to do! We have had this talk MANY times before, but it seemed to click better this time. Now I'm not saying that it is going to solve all our working issues, but it was enough encouragement that I'm willing to keep trying! If any of you have any great ideas that you do with your kids, or that your parents did when you were growing up, please let me know! I guess it's just like anything worthwhile, you don't usually get immediate results. It takes a LONG time! I read a story about that very thing not too long ago. I'll post it later because it really rang true to me! Well, I guess I'd better stop typing and get working! Example is the best teacher!
Have a good one!

Super Saturday!

I love Saturdays! Lanny worked on Saturday for the first eleven years of our marriage so it was never a favorite day of mine until last June when he started working for Cintas. He finally got a Monday thru Friday schedule and it felt like we could start playing together as a family! I am quite selfish with our Saturdays now and I just want to spend the whole day together. Well, this last Saturday we decided to do a garage sale and see if we could clean out some of our stuff, and especially some of my vinyl lettering inventory. It turned out to be so fun! Our good friends and neighbors, the Price's, did one too which made it extra fun. We started at 7:00 am, this after staying up until 1:00 am getting ready (I'm not a procrastinator, am I?). As we began dragging our junk out onto the driveway, I realized that we have WAY WAY WAY WAY too much stuff! However, very little of it actually made it to the sale! I'm also a sentimental procrastinator who loves my stuff! And I'm married to a sentimental packrat who also loves his stuff! And we have five darling, sentimental packrats who love their stuff! So, for all our grand intentions, our garage sale was quite measly! Pathetic was the word I used after we saw all our stuff outside! But we did have a lot of vinyl lettering stuff so it didn't look too bad! The lettering turned out to be the hot item of the day, but we also managed to sell most of our big stuff. The kids had a blast running back and forth between our house and the Price's and they loved finding "treasures" hidden in other people's "trash." The kids also did a lemonade/otterpop/rice krispy treat stand and had fun with that. Their mood changed dramatically and quickly depending on if each person bought a treat or not. Luckily, we had nice people come to our sale so we had very happy kids! Hence, my advice for the day: Buy lemonade from every kid that you ever see, regardless of if you want it or not. Encourage entrepenurialship (yes, I know it's spelled wrong, but I think it's phonetically correct! Speaking of phonetics, have you ever noticed that the very word PHONETIC, isn't phonetically correct? It would have to be fonetik. How ironic! But I digress, back to my advice.) Lanny is very good at stopping at lemonade stands and often says that the drinks aren't very good, but the kids sure get excited when he buys it from them. And I do need to add that our kids' lemonade was SUPER GOOD! Ice cold Countrytime! And ecstatic kids to go with it! Where else could you get all that for a dime? It's a bargain! Anyway, at about noon we pulled out the grill and cooked a bunch of hot dogs for lunch. The Prices came over and contributed yummy, homemeade cinnamon rolls to our picnic (Gee, I wonder who got the better end of that deal? That would be us!) and we drank cold, refreshing lemonade and it felt RIGHT! Being with my family and friends, enjoying the day, making a few dollars, good food and drinks, happy kids, well, you get the point. It was such a fun day! Later that night we decided to take the kids to the movies and just relax. We saw National Treasure 2 and all really liked it. Well, Austin didn't like having to be quiet and sit still, but thankfully he fell asleep about 1/3 of the way through the show. I treasure my time with my family. Maybe the ONLY good thing about Lanny's long work hours is how much we appreciate the time we actually do have together more than if he were home more. However, having said that, I will also say that I would LOVE to try having him home more and challenge ourselves to still treasure our time together. I think we would be successful at that. We are one of those couples who truly love being together and don't ever get sick of each other. What a blessing! And the kids LOVE doing things together. Especially when Lanny is around! The best time of every day is when they hear the garage door go up which means that Daddy is home. I guess that's a good indicator of what kind of Dad he is! THE BEST! Well, I guess that sums up our Super Saturday! Hope yours was Super, too!