You know you are a dedicated parent when...

Today was Alec's dance festival. I knew about it a few weeks ago because of a note that was sent home, but Alec didn't actually mention it until a couple of nights ago. His acknowledgement went something like this. "...Um....I haven't exactly told you about this but um....we are going to have a um..dance festival on Thursday." I didn't tell him that his hesitancy was moot, I was going no matter what, but I was glad he kinda invited me. Anyway, it was at 10:00 this morning behind the school. The weather had predicted a 30% chance of rain for the Wasatch Front, which does not usually hit us so I was not too worried. I was however glad that I had two car blankets and a sit n' stand stroller with a very large hood. The girls stayed really dry and warm, I however was drenched. Alec's class was the very last of 6, it was only the third grade...6 third grade classes... whoa, to perform and the 3rd class to have to perform in the pouring rain. They did a great job anyway! I only got a couple really bad still pictures because manning a still and video camera and trying to keep the girls dry in the rain proved to be a little too tricky. We made a video though and put it to Alec's favorite song, Enjoy!!

Tagged

Jenna tagged me a few days ago and I am finally getting around to it. It was much easier than the 100 things about me, but I was held up on the tag 4. I am not well known in the blogging world and don't have many blogging friends. Sorry to those named but I will enjoy reading about you :)
A- Attached or single: Attached.
B- Best Friend: Eric.
C-Cake or Pie: Cake, chocolate, chocolate or white, white..never mixed!
D-Day: Friday.
E- Essential Item: Diet Dr Pepper.
F-Favorite Color: Green, always has been, always will be.
G-Gummi Bears or Worms: Gummi bears, but only if they are the white or cinnamon ones.
H-Home town: Taylorsville Utah
I- Indulgences: Warm brownie with vanilla ice cream. Eric just made some! Yummy!!
J- January or July?: July.
K-Kids:3; 1 boy, 2 girls.
L-Life is incomplete without: Eric and the kids!
M- Marriage Date: 11/14/97.
N-Number of Siblings: 2 brothers.
O- Oranges or Apples: Oranges.
P- Phobias or Fears: Earthquakes, Kidnappers and Serial Killers.
Q- Quote: Everything has a place and everything in it's place.
R- Reason To Smile: Life is good!
S- Season: Fall, I love sweatshirt weather.
T- Tag Four: Kim, Michael, Marne, Megan....sorry I don't know that many bloggers.
U- Unknown fact about me: I love Neil Diamond!
V- Vegetarian or Oppressor of Animal: Oppressor, but it has to be well done! Jerky :)
W- Worst Habit: Not taking the time to enjoy things. I am working on it.
X-Rays or Ultrasounds: Ultrasounds.
Y-Your favorite food: Cafe Rio Grilled Chicken Salad.
Z: Zodiac Sign: Taurus.

That's what you get when you play with girls...

So Tyson was over the other day and I came down to find that the two of them had decided to play princesses. They were all decked out and looking great! Tyson was all dressed up in only blue. He insisted that he would only wear it if it was blue. I am saying it is because blue is manly and for BYU, which has been bred into Jenna's kids as much as mine. I am not sure that was his thinking, but I think that it makes a lot of sense! So, except the shoes because the ones he has on are the only ones that would fit him, I think he is one manly princess. Sorry Ty, that's what you get when you play with a girl! :)

And she graduates!

Chloe had her preschool graduation tonight and it was so fun to get to see all that she has learned and to celebrate a great year of school with her. It was a nursery rhyme presentation and she and Tyson were Jack and Jill. They did a great job and were so cute. Chloe won the "Best Friend" award and was really proud of herself. Chloe loves school and loves Miss Molly! We are so proud of all that she accomplished and learned and think she is a great friend too! Good Job Sis!! Just a little FYI, in the bottom row of pictures the random family is a picture of a Utah Celebrity. He is one of the missionaries from the movie "The Best Two Years". He plays the one who gets Dear Johned. His daughter Andie was in Chloe and Tyson's class. Kinda Cool!

What a weekend!

I had a great opportunity to take the kids on a little adventure weekend. My dad works for Hummer and they were having a Moab weekend where all the owners take their Hummer's on an off-roading trip. Eric had a University of Phoenix faculty thingy so we, the kids and I, were invited as a tag along, plenty of room in the suite and Hummer that my dad had to drive down. It ended up being a smaller Hummer so it turned into a drive your 3 kids for 3 1/2 hours by yourself and tag along, plenty of room in our suite. The plenty of room queen suite with two beds and one pull out couch turned out to be a king suite with one bed and one pull out couch. No biggy, my gracious parents took the pull out and I shared the king bed with the two older kiddos and Kate was in the Porto Crib. First night, kinda rough for all the adults. Second night, brilliant idea to have the two older kiddos sleep on the pull out couch and my parents and I share the king bed. Even a rougher night, this time for everyone involved. Kate had an unusually off night and was really restless and sleepless and 3 adults in a king bed, not so brilliant. Those were the lowest points...high points, awesome hiking and a great resort, minus the king room situation of course...not the resorts fault. It was really a great place! It had a walk out patio that bordered the Colorado River. We watched the all kinds of river rafting boats come down and were also able to fish along it. We took a really great hike that ran along a stream most of the way and that had a gorgeous view of the mountains. I wanted to tackle the Delicate Arch in Arches National Park, but was too chicken to do it without Eric there to pack Kate up the steep incline. Next time when he can be with us! We did walk the bridge that crosses the Colorado River at the mouth of the canyon. So a rocky start turned out to have a few bumps, but all in all a great vacation! Why not make it better. There is a dinosaur quarry just outside Price and we thought about stopping there on the way home. I had Eric look it up online to see if it would be something worth seeing. Alec has always like dinosaurs and thought a working quarry would be really fun! Online it showed that it was 30 min outside of Price and Eric said it looked like fun, but that it was a grated dirt road from the turn off to the quarry. We opted to take a chance and turn off. Well, the 3o min ride turned out to be a 30 mile grated dirt road that seemed like it went on, and on, and on, and on, and on...need I say more. We almost turned around a couple of times but could not imagine that it was much further. We finally saw a sign that said 1 more mile and so persevered. Big Mistake! Totally not worth it. The tour guide was a total jerk and we were unprepared for the 3 mile round trip hike of the quarry so were only able to see the few things right around the museum area, not so neat. They really need to post more information about the site somewhere so you know what to expect! Whatever, it was an adventure and we did it and the kids seemed to like it despite the long winding dirt road and short visit to the quarry. Back in the car to head 30 more miles back to the highway. Fine right, yeah except for I got a flat tire! My parents were in front of me so I took them a couple of minutes to realize that I had stopped and when they got back to us my mom said, "Oh !*&#, (crap)." We just laughed for about 5 minutes. Could this trip have anymore road blocks? Well yeah, the one we were causing as a firetruck, yes I said firetruck..full sized regular old firetruck, came plowing down the road straight at us blaring it's honker as my mom scrabbled to move their car out of the way. Who would have thought that in the middle of a dirt road in the middle of nowhere you would block a firetruck heading to a brush fire. NOT US! So that is how our little trip ended and I am none to anxious to head out again soon, especially minus my hubby! But give me a couple of weeks and I am sure I will be ready to head out again. After all, what would life be without these fun little adventures! I hope you enjoyed it kids! Thanks Papa and Banana! We had a great time!

Life as we know it just changed!

I set Kate in the hall in front of the bathroom while I was helping Alec do his hair when all of a sudden, she was at our feet. She has been playing around with crawling for a few weeks and has been able to get around alright by rolling and kinda scooting on her leg\booty, as Chloe calls it. Yesterday she got close and got a couple of scoots on her knees in...but today, full out crawling. She hasn't stopped since she figured it out!
Yeah Katie!!

Oh Alec!

Alec had testing last week for school and so this week they started May Days. Each day there is either a fun activity or theme to participate in. Today was poem day. Yesterday I asked Alec if he had a poem he wanted to share and if he needed me to help him practice it to memorize it. He said that he had one, but he already had it memorized. I asked him what it was. He looked me straight in the eye and said, "It is called Fleas." "Fleas....Adam had 'em." And so today, that is the poem he shared. What a goofball!


It that doesn't prove some kind of genius, maybe this will. A couple of days ago he asked me if I thought that Eric could get him a rocket from work. He said that it would just need to be a small one and that since his dad worked at ATK and they made rockets, he thought that would be possible and wondered if I thought so too. He told me that he had a great idea to turn his scooter into a jet scooter. I told him he would just have to ask his dad! He sat down and did this drawing so that when he told Eric about it, he would be able to show him that he had really planned it out.





He showed him all the angles of the scooter and kept saying, "Now you understand what you need to get, you understand what you need to do right!" "This is what it looks like from the side/top/other side..." He also informed him that they would need an L shape piece of metal to weld to a certain area. There is also a button to turn it on and one under that to turn it off. He had even figured out that the handlebars would not turn the front wheel, but shift the direction of the rocket instead to maneuver the scooter. It is all very impressive!

Bear Hollow Field Trips

One of my favorite days of the weeks this school year has been Thursday. This is the day that I drive Chloe and Tyson to preschool. It has become one of my favorite times of the day because I am able to just take a minute, actually 40 minutes to and from school, to smile and laugh. I love to listen to them talk to each other and to ask me questions and to play our silly games. Our favorite game is "Let Go and Go Fast!". This is played when we come to a big hill just before Miss Molly's house. They yell, "Let go of the wheel and go fast!" So I do! We put our hands up in the air like we are on a roller coaster and yipe and yell and laugh! It is great fun. Another favorite has become, "I'm Mad!" This came about because there used to be this hilarious billboard for a dentist's office that had an ape brushing his huge teeth and smiling. We used to laugh about it every time we passed it. Not too long ago they changed it to a baby. While the baby is cute, it is not funny. So every time we pass it now we say, "We are mad! We don't want to see cute babies we want to see hairy monkeys!" Those are just a couple of our several silly games. I also haven taken this time to work with them on letters and numbers and colors and shapes and animal sounds and songs and nursery rhymes and whatever else they have come up with. It really has been some great times. Below are some pictures of the last two field trips the school had that I got to go on. Jenna and I split the field trips so at least one of us was always with them....just because you never know what those two will put their heads together and think of! Actually the funny thing is that they are really well behaved at school. They always look out for each other and are so kind and cute with each other and they even mind Miss Molly really well, we have asked her the secret but she won't give it up :)

Thanksgiving Point Dinosaur Museum

Nursery Rhyme Party at the Park

Playing nursery rhyme games; Duck, Duck, Goose. The Itsy Bitsy Spider's going to get you. Three Men In A Tub race. Sack Full Of Wool, or kids, race.

Little Lost Sheep Scavenger Hunt.

Picnic lunch and playing at the park.