Our treasures

My friend took our pictures a couple of weeks ago.  I think we were done in approximately 50 minutes.....my kind of family pictures.  Thanks to Kara for doing a great job once again.

I am richly blessed!  I can't help but smile when I look at these 6 beautiful faces smiling back at me!  Yes, being a mother is the hardest thing ever but it is definetly the most rewarding.  I love my kids! 

St. Leon 1st ward 10K to the Temple!

We had a an awesome ward activity this past Saturday.  We had approximately 100 ward members participate in a 10K starting at our church building and ending at our Temple.  Some ran, some walked, and most biked, but one family pushed their son in a wheelchair the entire 6 miles.  You should've been there to hear the ward cheering as they made there way across the street to the temple grounds.  It was an absolutely gorgeous morning, in fact, the weather couldn't have been more perfect for the occasion!  I think the best part was watching all the little kids participate and seeing how excited they were about making it all the way to the temple.  Several really young kids even biked the entire way--pretty impressive.  We decided we would have our kids participate by doing a family relay, Kaleb the first mile, Jordy the 2nd mile, Morgan the 3rd mile, DJ pushing the babies in the stroller, Regan running the entire way, and me running along side the kids helping them finish their legs of the relay.  It worked out fine but Kaleb decided he wasn't going to stop at mile 1 so he kept running and made it just short of 2 miles where he tripped and skinned his knees.  I think 2 miles for a 4 year old is pretty impressive!  Morgan decided she wanted to keep running with me and ran the last 3 miles only stopping to walk a few times.  Regan ran the entire way with another girl from the ward that runs cross country and they finished in 49 minutes!  It was so much fun to run along side our kids and listen to their excitement about joining our ward members at the temple!  We belong to a great ward family--I don't think there are many as good as this one!

St. Leon 1st Ward trek to the Temple!

No, we weren't the winners--EVERYONE held this cute sign!  Hats off to Shawna for organizing such an awesome ward activity!

Temple-to-Temple Race Results!

Way to go honey!  Their team placed 7th out of 61 teams and over 400 runners.  Pretty impressive!!  Gotta love their team name, the "Waskly Wabbits"! Ha ha ha!  Team pictures are below.  This gets me excited for for the possiblity of having a husband/wife team next year.....they've changed the rules so that's in the making!!

More "Stuff"

I mentioned before that DJ participated in the Temple-to-Temple race with 4 of his friends from the college.(Rexburg Temple to Idaho Falls Temple.)  No, he didn't run the whole 36 miles, but he did run two separate legs of it totaling 7 1/2 miles.  They aren't sure of the results yet but they all ran great and were among some of the faster teams.  The kids were so excited to cheer DJ on so they made posters and waited at the top of the street for him to pass by.  Kami kept cheering, "go Dad" whenever any runners would go by. It was the cutest thing EVER! 

The team in front of the Rexburg, Idaho, Temple before the race!

In front of the Idaho Falls Temple after the race!  Way to go guys!

 

DJ running past our road!

Running is not easy--in fact, it's down right painful sometimes!

DJ's biggest fans!  Poor Morgan took a great fall off of her bike as she tried to ride down the road to cheer her dad on.  As Jordyn put it, "mom, she flew over her bike handles, right on to her stomach."  Luckily, only minor damage was done. 

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Regan had another Cross Country meet last Friday. She ran a really good race, especially the last 200 meters where she was visibly exhausted but sprinted her guts out in order to keep her 4th place slot.  

Go Rocky Mountain! (purple)

Taking off on the 1.5 mile course!

Regan with some of her teammates.  Their team has taken 1st place in most all of their meets.  I'm excited for the many years of running together to come!

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On a very different note, the babies started with nasty booger-filled eyes yesterday.  Otherwise known as grocery cart gunk.  Though it's not as bad as this.....

it's really yucky.  Luckily I had some left over Vigamox from the last bout that seems to be doing the trip.  Let's just hope the above pictures never occur again! 

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I took a little trip to the library yesterday with Kaleb, Porter, and Kamryn and was so excited to find piles and piles of new books being placed on the shelves!  They have an enormous selection of non-ripped board books now and lots of new easy readers.  I don't buy a lot of books because, well, I'm cheap, and I get totally bored of reading the same ones to my kids over and over, so, I'm a big library fan.  We came home with 32 books- 15 of which were "truck" themed, 10 of which were "pink"  and the others were random books chosen by Kaleb.  We've read approximately 20 of them so we'll be back again tomorrow, I'm sure.  

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This is random, but something I don't want to forget.  Kamryn has her own way of saying the kids names....

Jordyn- Je je or Jede

Morgan- Mo Mo

Regan- Re Re

Kaleb- La la

Porter- Po po

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Porter LOVES to call Grandma.  He hands me the phone and says, "Gamma"  Then he proceeds to say, candy, cars, toys, etc.  This is Porter and Kami happily talking to Grandma Rose.  Cute, huh?  They LOVE their grandma's (all 4 of them)  though I'm sure it's got to be confusing for the little people! 

Can you tell it's canning season by Kamryn's jewelry selection?  Another 17 jars of applesauce are sitting on the storage room shelf!  Hooray!!

Jordy is really starting to enjoy practices for Willy Wonka.  They've started working on the dances and she's starting to learn some of the music so she's been all smiles about play practice!  I'm so glad she gets to have this opportunity!

Updates and such revised! (Half the post was missing before)

Couldn't think of a better title for the following items....

*  Morgan is loving this season of soccer.  She really, really, loves soccer more than I ever thought she would.  She actually scored a goal their first game and I was a dummy and didn't capture even one stinking picture of it.  I've been really bad about taking video of my kids.  Now if I can just get Morgan to quit swinging on the goal post while playing goalie, hiking her pants up like "Urcle" while playing defender, I think we'll have it made.  She's a big goof ball!

*  Speaking of Morgan and her love for soccer- the other day she randomly said, "mom, even if none of my grandkids like soccer, I'm going to play until I'm an old lady! 

*  Regan did not win her election but was chosen as the Student-at-Large Rep.  Meaning she was selected by the teachers so she came home super excited and not bummed...and for that I was proud of her.

*   She has a few weeks of Cross Country left and has had a really great season.  She has improved so much as a runner and I love watching her determination.  She's taken either 2nd or 3rd at each meet thus far so we'll see what happens tomorrow. 

* The babies have been climbing out of their cribs occasionally--I'm annoyed.  Seconds after them to bed last night, Porter opened the door saying, "MOMMY, OUT"  Thankfully I convinced him it was night-night time and he agreed to get back in his crib. 
* Porter is slightly obsessed with school buses only he has a little trouble saying it correctly. It comes out, "mommy, butt, mommy 2 stool butts"  (school bus, 2 school buses)  It makes me laugh out loud every time!  So, today we walked Kaleb to the bus and Porter had a bag of pringles in his hand and he was ticked that he couldn't get on the bus for "stool."  So, throwing a little templer tantrum, he smashed all of his chips and then realizing what he had done, threw an even bigger tantrum.  Gotta love 2 year olds!  Actually, I'm loving this age with the babies.  They are just cute and funny and pretty good despite the occasional tantrum.
*  I've been canning a bit here and there.  Nothing like last year.  I just couldn't wrap my mind around the idea of doing 7 boxes of pears amongst other things so I've done around 24 qts. of peaches, 21 qts of applesauce, 14 qts of applesauce, some beans and some corn.  My friend and I just picked a ton more apples today so I'll be up to my eyeballs in applesauce and pie filling for the next few days.  I love canning, hate the mess and clean up, but love the outcome of beautiful filled bottles on the shelf.  I need to expand and try new things though, that's bugging me.  Maybe next year!
* The other day I asked Kaleb if he was making new friends at school and jokingly told him he should go up to some of the kids and say, "Howdy Partner" and he quickly replied, "no mom, then they'd look at me and say, Hey Wierdo"  Nice observation, huh?
*  Jordyn is in her 2nd week of play practice for Willy Wonka.  She is a squirrel and is part of the chorus and the chocolate river.  She's been a little emotional about the whole thing because play practices are from 7-9 several times a week and that 7:30-8:00 happens to be her bedtime.  But, she came home happy the other night because they started talking about costumes and makeup and that changed her whole attitude.  If there is anything that will push her through the end, it's knowing that she'll be wearing lots of makeup on stage:)  Speaking of Jordyn, I caught her in my bathroom the other night applying deodorant....he he, she just looked at me and smiled.  Hmmmm.. I wonder just how many times she's actually done this.
* DJ runs in the Temple-to-Temple race tomorrow.  He's stressed today but I know he'll do great! The kids are excited to cheer him on since one of the legs he runs goes right past our street.  Pictures of the event to come!
* Today while driving home from town, Kaleb asked me a question about a dollar bill he was holding.  I gave him the best answer I could think of and he said, "mom, do you know everything?"  Boy does he make me feel smart. Anyway, he proceeded to tell me that he doesn't know lots of stuff but he just knows a bunch of funny stories about his dad when he was growing up, like, "when he was having an egg fight in his barnyard with his brothers and he got hit with a rotten egg right in the eye."  He was giggling uncontrollably in the backseat while telling me this.  He actually hates it when the radio is on so as soon as we get in the car, he asks me to please shut off the radio so we can talk.

I don't want to forget this...

This was taken at Morgan's soccer game last Friday night.  They were on their way to the playground.  I'm so hoping that I can take a similar picture on their first day of school in just 3 years.  The other cute thing I noticed is the height difference--and there is no cheating, they are both in flat shoes.  I wonder if she'll always be taller???

Vote Regan!

Regan decided she wanted to run for Student Council and her dad had the perfect idea for her campaign slogan: 

I was surprised she was so excited by the idea because over the years she's been called "Ronald" and not been exactly thrilled about the teasing.  She just may find out that the nickname isn't too bad if she ends up winning:)!  Yesterday she found out she made it in to the top two so today she gave a one minute speech on Channel 1 and then the students will vote again and she'll find out the results on Tuesday.  Good  luck, Regan!

Pinkalicious!!!

I can think of no better nickname for Kamryn than this!  She's all about pink:  pink clothes, pink underwear, pink pajamas, pink hairstuff, pink treats, pink crayons, pink toys, pink dress-ups, pink books, pink candy, pink plates, pink cups...you get the idea.  She includes a certain shade of purple in her "pink" obsession but is very particular at that.  I usually think it's adorable except when I'm trying to get her to wear the non-pink clothing in her closet.  She is all about girly stuff and is most happy playing polly pockets, loading her pink/purple purse, playing with her pink dolly and getting her fingernails painted (w/ pink fingernail polish, of course).  The thing that makes me laugh the most about her little obsession with pink is that she thinks Porter should be equally obsessed with "blue".  So being the little mother that she is to him, she picks out all of his blue toys and makes a large pile on the couch for him to play with.  I'm still not sure if she's just being the nice sissy or if she's afraid that he might invade her "pink" territory.  I love this little girl and love her personality.  She loves hugs and kisses from me and is happy when I will just sit and snuggle with her--but if I can't hold her, she reaches out for me and says, "hand, hand" so I'll hold her hand.  She is talking really well now and says pretty much everything.  My favorite thing right now is "Gamma paint pretty."  She loves for Grandma to paint her nails and it's the first thing she says to my mom when we visit.  She shows everyone her "petty" nails, even perfect strangers.  So far, the so called "terrible two's" haven't hit.  I love my little babies!

Kamryn set this whole little play area up in her bedroom one afternoon.  I walked in on her doing her hair with her pretend hair stuff!

Dress-up is the best!

The proof is in the pink! Yep, she picks out all of the different shades of pink/purple crayons and is happy to "cudder" for quite a while.

First day of school (August 30, 2010)

I can't believe we're in school again.  It seems weird that 4 out of the 6 kids are in school, man, I'm getting old.  Actually, Kaleb has one more year of preschool but he's gone 3 days out of the week from 11:30 until 3:00.  He gets to ride the bus which makes it nice for me but I have to admit, I get a little sad when I see him leave.  He just seems too little.  He enjoys preschool so much and the teachers are fantastic so I'm not going to complain.  Really, I've never seen Kaleb quite so excited to head out the door for school as he was on the first day.  He was up at 6:00, clothes on, backpack out, smile on his face, and wondering when his bus would be here.  It was all I could do to break the news that he still had 4 long hours to wait for the bus.  He handled it pretty well and planned out the morning like this:  first I'll eat breakfast, then I'll watch the Letter Factory, then I'll play with the babies, then I'll ride my bike, and then I'll have a snack and head to school.  He's a fun kid and I'm loving that he's growing out of the little "mouthy" stage he was in for a short while.  Love you, Kaleb!  

What a handsome little guy!

Jordyn is in 1st grade this year and has Mrs. Walker as her teacher.  She's so excited and ready to stay all day but is most excited about eating school lunch:)  She was so excited to pick her outfit for the first day and stretchy pants were sure to be in the mix:)  I've said it before and I'll say it again, Jordyn LOVES getting dolled up in the morning, right down to the last piece of jewelry.  Some of her favorite items include, stretch pants, skirts, rounded toe shoes, necklaces, new hair do's, jeans, tank tops with shirts underneath, to name a few.  She's getting better at choosing things that match so I guess I can live with her obsession. 

My two Elementary school girls!  Morgan's the big sis at the school now!  She has walked Jordyn to her classroom for the last 2 days per Jordyn's request.  I think she enjoys feeling like a little mother.  She's a great kid but definitely the one who's emotions I can't quite figure out yet, actually, I don't think she has them figured out either so at least we're on the same page.  Anyway, she'll be a busy girl for the next few months as she's involved in Soccer which she LOVES more than probably anything and she's starting piano again after a 4 week summer break so we're off and running again.  Love you Morgan!! 

Morgan is in 3rd grade this year and has Mrs. Willis as her teacher. 

I love this kid, she's beautiful inside and out!  It's so interesting how my girls are all completely different.  Morgan is slightly camera shy, partly in due to her braces which I think she looks adorable in!   She's happy with one pair of favorite shoes, a pair of jeans, and a couple of cute shirts.  She would also live in basketball shorts and t-shirts if I'd let her.  Soooo completely different than the little diva up above.  But, I love each one of them the same and wouldn't change a thing. 

This was not a great picture of Regan, she looks a wee bit stressed for her first big day of Middle School.  Although, if she had taken a picture of me Monday morning, I would've had the same expression on my face only 10 times worse. Yikes, I can't believe I have a daughter in middle school.  I actually went to Walmart to buy makeup today and walked out with "age defying foundation" hoping that it just might help cover the bags under my eyes and little wrinkles that are showing up:)  It's a sad commentary if you ask me!

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Sitting in the car on a very rainy first day of school waiting for the bus!  She's looking a bit more confident!  DJ took one look at her and commented on how pretty she looked and how scared he is that the boys might notice her.  I think he'll probably come home with a supply of gunny sacks for her to wear for the next 9 months. 

I think we've officially entered the crazy stage of our lives.  We're up at 6:00 for our family time, the little girls leave to catch the bus at 7:25.  Regan leaves for the bus at 7:45, I scramble to clean up the house and run a few errands.  Three days a week Kaleb catches the bus at 11:30 which means an earlier lunch than usual.  The babies and I hang out for an hour before their afternoon naps.  I play catch up while they sleep, plan dinner, do laundry, devise plans for getting all children to all activities just in time for the kids to arrive home at 3:00.  Then starts homework, piano, soccer practice, activity days, Y.W., picking Regan up from Cross Country, play practice for Jordyn, and whatever else we can squeeze in for the week.  No wonder I've graduated to "age defying" makeup:)   To make things a little more crazy, its canning season and I'll be guilt ridden if I don't squeeze it in.  So far we've done 24 jars of applesauce and some freezer beans.  My neighbor just called to let me know she can get peaches for canning for $12.00 a box, I can't turn that down!  This is life, and I love it!!