Santa and His Reindeer.

Last Saturday we took the kids to Quilted Bear to see Santa and his Reindeer. Well Santa only brought 2 of his reindeer so Ciarra was a little dissapointed and she kept saying where is his sleigh? How did he get here without it?? And Santa is too fat to ride on the back of 2 Reindeer all the way here. Man too many questions. She thought it was the coolest thing she sat by the reindeer pen the whole time we were there and didn't even want to see Santa she just wanted to stay with the reindeer. She kept asking me if she could go inside the pen with them. Man my little animal lover!!

Andrew and Brayden were too cool and grown up for this of course and Baylee and Lexi did not want to have anything to do with Santa Clause cause they didn't want to wait in the long line. They still loved seeing the reindeer and walking through the craft store afterwards asking for any and everything that they thought would look good in their bedrooms. They are soo much like their dad it is a little bit scary!! I actually lost the boys in there and couldn't find them cause they looked at everything in the entire store. Man I thought girls were long shoppers those 3 are so much worse than me and the girls. Later that Night we went to our Ward Christmas Party and the girls finally decided they wanted to see Santa. Which was good cause he brought his wife with him and they were so much fun with each of the kids.

This is Ciarra with Santa and Mrs. Claus. She was not afraid at all this year she just jumped up on his lap and told him everything that she wanted. And over and over she reitterated that it had to be 2 Barbies and not just one cause they needed to have a friend to talk too. He got a kick out of that. This is the first year that she has sat on Santa's lap and not ran out of the room. Man she is growing up too fast. Brayden and Drew refused to let me get a picture of them with santa so I won't be posting one of them.

Baylee was very shy with Santa any question he would ask her she would put her head down and whisper. She told him she wanted a DS and he kept telling her a DSI and she would say NO I want a plain DS he could not get a clue so that upset her afterwards. She could not believe he would not listen to her. He told her that he doesn't think that she will be able to control one of those on her own. She was not happy with Santa afterwards.

She did however like his wife and thought she was very nice and happy to talk to.

Lexi however shocked me. She is the most out spoken of all my children and she would not talk to Santa at first which is weird cause not only does Lexi always have something to say she has to SCREAM it not say it!! He told her that she was on the naughty list so she wouldn't get anything she just laughed at him and then he said well there's a line lets get this over fast so he started asking her 10 questions all in a row without letteing her get a word in she just laughed and gave him the are you seriously waisting my time look that she loves to give. She finally did get to talk to him though and its funny we've had the talk and she still believes. She told me I am so wrong cause she wrote to Santa even after I told her and she got a letter from him at school last year so I am just a liar. I guess the power of believing never does leave some of us.. I am glad that our talk last year didn't ruin it like I thought it would. When you can't afford Christmas for your kids it is such a hard thing so to prep them we told the older ones. She asked me hundreds of questions and still she thinks I was lying to her. So I am glad she has the spirit to believe and that she has faith in all things.

Reflections Contest

This year the Reflections Contest theme was Beauty Is... so 2 of my kids decided to do photography this year and Baylee of course had to do another painting since she went soo far with winning last year. She thought she would have luck again this year. Well sorry Baylee your picture was very cute but no luck this year but better luck next year!!

Baylee sayed Beauty is Friendship cause when you are down friends always make things feel and look better. So she painted her with Emily and Katera playing by an apple tree. And yes she did this all by herself!! She loves to paint with watercolors on canvas it makes her feel calm and at peace is what she tells us. Who knows maybe she will love it so much to continue to progress each year.

Lexi Picked Nature... she said Beauty is Natures cause it is so peaceful and beatiful in the mountains. So we took her up Mirror lake Highway to pass lake and it had just gotten done snowing and took the pictures of the lake. She loved how the trees, the sky and snow, reflected in the water. Lexi was very dissapointed that hers didn't win cause she thought she had the prettiest picture out of everyone. Better luck to you again next year one of these years you will make it.

And Brayden of course picked Elk... Go figure with a dad like his. He said Elk were beautiful cause they are so powerful and strong. They carry themselves with strength and the attitude that you can't touch me I dare ya. He loves looking at the elk so much that everytime we go to Grandma and Grandpa Donios we have to drive past the huge Elk Farm off of 106th South so he can watch them fight or just lay there. Brayden's didn't win but his was soo good that he got an Honorable Mention Ribbon attached to his cause if they could of picked more winners his would of been next. Way to go my little Booser!!

Thanksgiving

This year we had a blast. All of us were at my parents this year and we decided to do it at my sisters church building cause my mom's sisters and all my cousins and their families and all my brothers and sisters were going to be there this year. So we get to the church and there was soo much to do. They had 4 TV's set up with 3 Wii's and a playstaion 2 set up with DDR on one and Guitar Hero world tour on one and then free for all on the other 2. The boys had their half court for basketball games and pin the tail on the blow up donkey and bowling for the littlier kids. It was soo much fun. Even though Jason you cheat on Dance dance Revolution you need to get a life. I bet thats all you do in your free time at home.

After dinner we went to Jeff's mom's for dessert and hung out with Carl, and Deann and all their kids and their spouses and Joyce and Larry and Tom and Vicky and all their kids. We had a blast. Yummy pies banana cream which is the only pie I like at Thanksgiving (thanks Joyce) and we played pounce all night laughing and chatting it up with my niece's and nephew's. Rachel I feel sorry for you with your soo competative husband!! And Vicky better luck next time. I will take it easier on you when we play again (haha).

I love Thanksgiving cause you can just eat and chillax with the people that matter most in your life!! We are so blessed with the family that we have. We love you all and are greatful for all you do for us!! I am grateful for my husband and the 5 beautiful children he has blessed my life with. They make my life busy and full of laughs. We may not have much right now but as long as we have each other nothing else matters.

Finally gonna update.......

Halloween has come and gone and we survived yet another year with my 3 little drama queens. They all had to be fairies this year so I got brave and made their tutu's for them and just added wings and their costumes were done. They were soo cute!! Ciarra couldn't stand the wings so mom ended up carrying them most of the time at all the parties we went to. My shy little Brayden decided he was going to go out of his comfort zone and be a nerd this year. He looked soo cute!! see picture below.....

Brayden was excited this year again cause Jeff was able to take the first half of the day off again this year to come to their school Halloween parade and help with the party in Brayden's class. All the kids love having Jeff in their classes cause all the kids think he is cool So of course I got Baylee's class. Next year she is dressing up as ugly as I can make her cause she had boys grabbing her hand to be in their group for centers and boys in other classes coming to her door and telling her how cute she looked that day. Ugh I am soo in trouble with that child!! Lexi had fun in class too cause they did a readers theater and we were able to go listen to that before we had to help with class parties. It was so fun to see how interactive and dramatic she can be!!

Things have been soo crazy it seems like we never have time to just stop and breathe. I have finally finished the top to my quilt that I am making for Lexi's bedroom all I have left is the backing and quilting it all. She told me I have till Christmas to finish it then if it's not I am in big trouble and have her to answer to. OOOO I am soo scared an 8 year old is threatening me I guess I better watch out!! Brayden has had his Webelos badge and Arrow of light earned since August and he finally received the Webelos last Saturday. However they won't be doing his arrow of light ceremony till January so he will finally get that then. He does however love his new scout leaders and was able to go on his 1st overnighter campout. He loved it they went to Strawberry and fished on the lake in his scout leaders boat. He had a wonderful time!!

Jeff got a new calling and we are all trying to adjust to the demands that it puts on our family. He is now the Scout Master for the 12-18 year old boys. What a lot of work. I was soo tempted to raise my hand when they asked does anyone appose. I wanted to see what they would of done never seen anyone appose anything. Campouts every month are going to be hard for me to get used to especially when I work nights every weekend. But Andrew was so glad that his dad gets to stay in young mens with him even though it's not in the presidency anymore.

Busy! Busy! Busy!!!

Sorry for not posting lately. This summer has been so busily crazy I'm going nuts. First off Girls Camp!! What a blast. We had 20 girls and 8 leaders up there this year double what I had to plan for last year. But the good news is they all got along and we really enjoyed getting to know all the new girls that are in this year. We did tons of fun things including Zip line this is our group that went and almost all of us went down the zip line a couple of times. WE had a Blast!! Next year Charri and Lucinda we are going to get you on there!! No excuses!!



Another thing we have enjoyed doing this summer is free family activities to keep the kids busy. The kids have discovered the fun in Herriman at a splash pad that they can play in for hours. It has a playground and then the water pad that water shoots out of everywhere they have loved going weekly and enjoy playing with their friends and hanging out for hours here. We have also the Gateway fountains, Sweets Candy factory tour, The best was the Mrs. Fields Cookie Factory tour. The kids loved it!! WE got to see how they make and package the cookies and the taste testing afterwards was divine!!! We also went and saw all the floats for the parade and voted on them and went waterskiing. This summer has been a blast.

This is the kids at the Gateway fountain. They had so much fun!

We got to go see all the floats for the Days of 47 parade and vote on them.

Us at the Mrs. Fields cookie factory YUM YUM!!

I got the opportunity to go on Trek with the youth in our stake this year. Oh my gosh what an awesome experience this was. I have never done something so hard in my life. I was shocked I survived the whole thing being as I am not in the best of shape health wise. I had the best family ever!! And I enjoyed getting to know people I would not normally have hung out with. This experience has really brought to light the reason why we are here and why I want the best for my children. It taught me a lot and helped me grow both spiritually and mentally.

Me and Lexi also got the chance to go on Good Things Utah and be in their audience. What a blast. They had a guest host that day and he was hilarious. We got to hang out with them after the show and the guy loved Lexi's hat and she was very shy every time he tried to talk to her.

We have had one busy summer and now that school is going to be starting the fun during the day has to end dang!! Hopefully I can be a better blogger now and keep it updated more often. I am going to have 4 out of my 5 kids in school full time now and I don't know what the heck I am going to do with myself just having Ciarra all day. Hopefully she won't be too sad when she won't have Baylee to play with anymore. I guess just me and her will have to find fun stuff to do to make the time go by.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SCOOBY DREW!!!

Happy 13th Birthday little man!! I can't believe you are 13 already. You came into this world 2 weeks early weighing 6 lbs 10 oz and 19 1/2 inches long. You were such a cute little thing! And you still are, except for now you are 65 lbs and 55 inches long. Man where did the time go??

You are everybodies best buddy!! Everyone always likes to hang with Andrew. You have always been a well mannered kid and a very good helper to your parents. You have grown into such a responsible young man and I am honored to be your mother. You never seem to amaze me with how grown up you are and the decisions that you make in your life. I just pray you will keep that level head of yours as the peer pressure will continue to build. I am proud of your christ like ways in trying to inclued any and everyone with everything that you do. You are such an amazing child and I sometimes wonder where you get all of your good qualities from. Hope you have a fun birthday. We love you tons my handsome man!!! Love mom and dad.

Happy 6th Birthday Baylee

Happy Birthday to our precious little angel!! You came into this world waking us up at 3:30 am the only one who made my water break in bed and at home. You arrived at 7:30 am weighing in at 7' 5 oz. We took you home on July 3 and the very next day we took you to the West Jordan parade on July 4th then to the swimming pool with the family and back to grandma's for fireworks. We had a long day and we stayed inside grandma's cause the fireworks scared you. Ever since you were born you have been a firecracker, you know what you want and how to get it. Some of your favorite hobbies are chasing boys, playing with your friends and riding your bike. We can never find Baylee cause she is always going and going and going.

Baylee can bat her eyes and get her own way with anything especially with daddy!! She is a big time daddy's girl and always has been. She can wrap anyone around her pinky to get her own way!! We love you tons girly girl and I can't believe you are 6 already. I always think of you as my little baby still cause you are so small for your age. Try not be so fiesty though as you get older... I'm already not looking forward to the pms years with you!!
Hope you have a wonderful day and that your wishes will come true. Love mom and dad!!!

Last Days of School Festivities

This is Baylee on her last day of school with Mrs. Reese!! She was such an awesome Kindergarten teacher and she is leaving Heartland so she will be missed. Baylee was always so excited to go to school. She would cry and yell at me if she was sick and couldn't go to school cause she loved to see Mrs. Reese. They did the cutest little graduation program and the kids sang and danced it was so much fun. They were then presented a flower by the principal so they can move on and grow more in 1st grade next year. Thanks Mrs. Reese for all your love and patience you showed teaching our daughter this school year. She has grown alot and can read basic easy books on her own. She spells signs and words everywhere we go!!

Here is Lexi with Mrs. Willahan. She is such an awesome teacher too if your kids have ever had her if not you are missing out!! Andrew was lucky to get her in 1st grade and none of my kids have had her since until Lexi this year. We were so excited to have her!! Lexi loved all the fun they had in class and Mrs Willahan would always talk highly of her and how talented she is. She also said Lexi was always so polite and quiet in her class. POLITE and QUIET huh I have never seen that side of my very demanding and verbal child that she is at home!! You even look at Lexi wrong and she is ready to beat the crap out of you. Thank you Mrs Willahan for being a wonderful example and teacher in my little girls life!! Hopeful Baylee will get you in 2nd grade too. I will keep my fingers crossed!!!

Last but not least I bring you to Brayden. He was not too happy about getting his picture taken with his teacher in front of his friends it's just not cool in 4th grade. But I don't care I made him do it anyway!! This is Mrs. Bailey she is also among many of the great teachers at Heartland. We loved having her as our sons teacher. Brayden is one who will only do work when he wants to do it and we can't make him. I think his name was on the board the whole last half of the year for missing assignments. His teacher would laugh at me cause I would come into the school and go thru his desk and make him do piles of homework all in one sitting cause he procrastinated too long. He loved science in his class and going to the museum for his fieldtrip. Mrs. Bailey always made classtime fun!! You are an awesome teacher and thanks for your patience in letting Brayden turn his work in whenever he felt like it.

Unexpected Lake

I know I haven't updated for a while and what better way than to tell you about my little troublemaker Ciarra. Man that girl is always busy, busy, busy!! Well last night while I was at Young Women's and Jeff was at Young Men's she decided to water my flowers in the back yard and left the hose running by the window well all night. We got home at 10:00 and I walked downstairs to take my contacts out and low and behold I stepped into 2 inches of water in my bathroom. At first I thought one of the kids flooded my toilet. Then I started to hear a trickleing noise so as I walked into my bedroom there to await me is 2 inches of water sitting on top of the carpet. She was so lucky she was asleep when we got home cause I doubt she would be alive this morning if she hadn't been!! Jeff was at the grocery store when I came upon this awesome discovery so I immediately grabbed the shop vac and started to suck up some of the water. I had already dumped 2, 6 gallon buckets of water by the time he got back and that was only a tiny portion that I got done before he got back to the house.

As you know we finished our basement into one huge master bedroom and we have a huge log bed in our bedroom and the mattresses alone weighs a ton!! So thanks to our good friend and neighbor Brent Locke who we finally called at 11:00 last night came down to help my hubby take apart the bed and carry it out of the basement so we could get the water sucked up and the carpet torn out of there. I am so grateful for him cause of the way wet carpet and the huge area it ruined I could never have helped Jeff lift that out of there!! He also stayed and helped rip up all the carpet padding that was soaked and helped chuck all that out till 1:30 this morning. Thanks Brent for all your help we couldn't have gotten that all taken care of without you. Jeff told me it's lucky it happened on a night that I wasn't working cause he probably would have lost it and killed her for sure ! (metaphorically speaking) So yes love I am not glad that it happened but I am grateful I was the one to find it and not you!! You are just lucky it didn't happen while you were out of town!!

The upside of all of this is my widowsills will finally get grouted and we can restain the wood on the walls since we had to pull everything out of there. The downside is we are now sleeping on the couch for the next couple of weeks till we can get it all put back together. Man the joys of having Children. If she is this much trouble at 3 I can't wait till she is a teenager!!

UGGGGHHHH

To start out I just wanna say whoever said Sunday is a day of rest is sooo wrong!!! To me Sunday's are my most hard and busy days. I get up in the morning make the kids breakfast, fight with them for 2 hours to shower and start getting ready for church. I get myself ready do all 3 girl's hair and dress them. Fight Brayden to shower and to then to get out of the shower cause he will sit there under the water for 45 mnutes. Fight Brayden to get dressed. Finally get out the door for 1:00 pm church. Wrestle with all 5 of my kids during Sacrament meeting to where I feel like I am in a Boxing Ring. Finally get church done with and finished get home at 4:15ish and constantly get yelled at cause we are all starving and what is for dinner and when is dinner going to be done?? While Jeff and the boys sit on the couch and watch sports after they change out of their clothes. By the time I can change and sit down it is almost 7:00 and I am totally exhausted!! This has been my Sunday ever since January. So yesterday when the kids put me thru this I totally blew up at all of them while making dinner and screamed and yelled at them anytime they asked me when dinner was going to be done. As I look back on it today I am one of the meanest mom's in the world!! Ask Lexi she will totally back me up! Andrew finally helped me cook dinner last night and Lex asked if she could help. I already had CC crying at my feet the whole time and so I told her no. She stomped out of the kitchen saying "everybody hates me and never wants me to help them" I felt horrible then to top it off CC was trying to carry glass plates on the counter to the table and I yelled at her not to touch. She ran off crying saying " Mom you really hurt my Heart, you are making my heart hurt so bad." So needless to say today I am in a horrible mood and feel like the worst mom EVER!! I even threw a fit cause Jeff needed my car today cause he can't drive his until we can find parts to fix his arm that holds the tire on the truck. I yelled at him for no reason when I should of just been understanding and loving. Which after 4 hours I did call and apologize to him. I am just so use to my Monday routine of driving Baylee to school and then going and helping in Brayden's class with math facts before I have to do all my carpool pickups. Sorry if I am rambling but this is my way to vent as this is my way of journaling. Hopefully tonight I can make it up to them when I take them to Classic Skating for family fun night for their school. Then maybe they will forgive and forget. That's one great thing about kid's they don't hold grudges for too long. I do love all of you even when I am in one of my moods. Please forgive me for being a horrible mother this week.

Lexi's Baptism

Lexi and (as she would say) her Favorite Daddy

A lot has happened in the past couple of weeks. Our little Lexi turned 8 and she was Baptized a week ago Saturday. She was so excited. She had grandma Donio (my mom) make her a dress for the occasion. My mom is amazing at sewing and she makes all the girl's blessing dresses and baptism dresses! I joke with her and tell her she needs to start designing wedding dresses next so she can make 3 out of 3 of their white dresses. Lexi was so funny when we took her shopping for her material she would not say one word but would pick out colors and texture to make sure it wasn't going to be itchy. My mom showed her the furry material and she just had to have that so we decided to make her little jacket out of that so if it was cold her arms wouldn't freeze since she had to have a tank top top. We had a great time at her baptism it was fun to have all of the family over for lunch afterward and just hang out. Thank you to all who supported us and for those of you who couldn't make it and sent congrat's Lexi thanks you also.

This is what the bottom of her dress looks like. This is the top of her dress with the Jacket.

Mom you did an awesome job on the dress you are amazing as always. love you.

Kids are so observant!!!

Andrew is soo funny last night we were eating bacon and french toast for dinner and Lexi was pulling all the fat off of her bacon and I asked her why she was doing that and she said cause I don't want to get fat. I told her she had nothing to worry about cause she will always be tall and skinny like a model. Andrew proceeded to tell her that she doesn't want to be a model cause model puke their guts out and starve themselves so they won't get fat. I asked him where he heard that thinking it was from health class at the Jr high he said no from TV isn't that what all models do. Lexi just looked at him and started to finish off her bacon.

Happy Birthday Lexi!!!

Happy Birthday to my gorgeous beautiful daughter!! It seems like just yesterday when you woke me up in the middle of the night so you could enter this world. You came into this world at 3:15 am weighing 8 lbs 5 oz. You were the most beautiful thing we had ever seen. Even though we were dead tired we could not stop holding you and admire you. You brothers were so excited to see you when grandpa and grandma brought them up to the hospital. It's too bad their constant wanting to hold you and love you and protect you has turned into teasing you, laughing at you and playing tricks on you to get you to yell at them. But what are brothers for??


Now 8 years later and 45 pounds heavier you have grown into a beautiful daughter of god. We are so proud of you Lexi and for your choice to be Baptized what a big decision for you to make on your own. I love the mommy daughter times we have and am looking to soo many more as you progress into a young woman!! You are our life and we love you more than words can express!! Just think as tall as you are getting and you 2 older brothers aren't growing very fast pretty soon you can play all the tricks on them cause you will be looking down on them and they will soon fear you!! Hope you have a wonderful day!! Love mom and dad!!!

Valentine's Day

Friday was such a hectic day! I had to help in the kid's classes for their Valentines Parties. Then Drew didn't want to stay for his school dance so I had to check him out. Couldn't find him anywhere had to search the Jr High's school dance for him for 40 minutes turns out he walked home. So I get him and rush to Jeff's sister's house to get my hair colored. Then Jeff calls me at 5:00 and says that John and Rochelle and Sam and Michelle just called and purchased tickets for the movie Taken and that they were going to dinner right then. Well hello just got my hair colored not done no way can I be ready!! Jeff of course told them we would meet them for the movie but not dinner since he still was on his way home from Roy. We get to the movie and it was so dang good!! A little disturbing but waayyy goood!! We got out of the movie at 9:00 and decided since Andrew was babysitting and all of Jeff's sisters kids were sleeping over that we were going to go out for dinner to have some alone time. We ended up at Olive Garden in south towne. The time alone was sooo worth it!! I haven't had a quiet and peaceful dinner in a long time. Thanks love. So Saturday we of course have to wake up early for Brayden's last Jr Jazz game. Which they won by the way. Then we had to sign up Drew for Baseball and then we spent the rest of the afternoon finishing tiling his sisters bathroom. Way fun!! NOT. But to make things better we went out to dinner with Xela and Brent and ended up going to Bucca De Beppo. So dang good!! After dinner we had tickets at the Desert Star Playhouse and watched Home School Musical. It was sooo funny they were making fun of High School Musical and Naploeon Dynamite. WAY FUNNY!! Thank you love for 2 awesome nights away from the noise and caous that always surrouds us! We decided not to get each other any thing this year cause why waste the money on things that die. I so enjoyed just being with one another without my little rugrats hanging on us and telling me that I can not kiss daddy cause it is gross. LOVE YOU BABE you are always going to be my #1 Valentine!!

Brayden, Brayden, Brayden,

I am constantly fighting Brayden to do his homework everyday after school.! It takes him literally an hour and a half to do 15 multiplication problems in math cause he thinks it's too hard and he whines and cries the whole time he is doing it. So we finally finish the math at 5:00 pm and start on the chore of writing out his 28 Valentines for his party today. Of course he starts to write out 3 and decides that he doesn't want to do anymore and he tells me that he will write the from on all of them if I will write the names of who they are to. Sorry buddy not gonna slide I could care less if you even handed any out! I had already sat and helped Baylee and stuffed the candy in all of Lexi's so you being 10 you are on your own except for stuffing the candy. Well after an hour of writing those out at 6:00 he tells me oh ya mom I have to decorate a Valentines box for tomorrow and my teacher gave me paper to decorate it with in my backpack. UGGGGHHHH!!! Why do they always wait till the last minute??? So Brayden got the scissors out and a tissue box and then he goes upstairs and gets on my cricut cutter and decides that he needs to make a bear on my Animal Kingdom cartridge and the sounds that the bear makes So he told me all it is is pushing buttons and glueing them on to the box any dummy could do it so he doesn't need my help! Well thank GOODNESS for the cricut machine cause he totally did it all on his own.!! Way to go Brayden!

Here is his finished product. He calls it his GROWLER MAIL!! He was so excited to take it to school today cause it was something he could actually do on his own and it only took him 15 minutes to make it.

U of U Gymnastics Meet

Last night we took the kids to the U of U gymnastics meet we had free passes from the school to get the family in for free. We had a blast!! We went with Jeff's two sisters Joyce and Vicki and their families. Ciarra and Baylee had so much fun dancing to the music and screaming at the top of their lungs with Brooke and Jessica. Lexi hung out on Uncle Tom's lap of course with Elizabeth. She loves her Uncle Tom. We have gone to these meets for the past 3 years and we never got a chance to go last year so we decided to start the tradition up again. Andrew was away at a Scout Klondike camp out so he wasn't with us but Brayden had a lot of fun watching all the girls in their cute outfits with their tight bods!!

It was so fun Jeff always takes his Binoculars so that he can see better and some college boys who one of them was on a blind date turned around and saw how Jeff was watching the meet and he kept hitting his friend saying "Dude check this guy out he can see every detail" "You can see every flaw on the all the girls" thats the way to go" So we got a good laugh at them laughing at Jeff. Of course Utah won out of all 4 school which were BYU (haha) SUU and Texas. This is Ciarra with her favorite Aunt Joyce!! When Joyce is around mom does not exsist!!

Refelctions Contest is now over for Us!!

We were able to go to the District level Reflections contest last night for the painting that Baylee painted. We had 6 kids move on from our school Heartland Elementary. While we were sitting there thru the hour and 15 minute thing none of the kids at our elementary school or the 4 surrounding elementary schools around us got to move on to State. Totally sucked!! Baylee was so dissapointed that she didn't get to move on to state that we had to take her out to Applebees with just Daddy and mommy. We had so much fun with her one on one that we decided to take a kid out by themselves every other week so they can have alone time with us and so we can spoil just them and only them for that night. Another boy Jacob in our neighborhood that is in Brayden's class his didn't get to move on either and he was devistated he was so cute while they were calling out the photography winners he sat with both his fingers crossed the whole time!! When they were finished he just put his head down and cried. It made me so sad for him. When 3-D art came up the little boy in Baylee's class Kyson he was dissapointed also that his didn't get to move on either. It was sad to see that even at 5 how dissappointed these kids get and that they do realize it was a big deal to get as far as District level. I told Baylee there is always next year and she is already thinking of something that she could paint.

Here is a picture of Jeff and Baylee enjoying their Shrimp and Parmesan Steak!! Baylee of course ordered a corn dog but once she saw mine and Jeff's shrimp and steak she ate off of both of our plates instead of hers. You think we would learn by now not to order what she says she wants and just let her share with us cause it happens all of the time!! We had to stop at the grocery store afterwards to pick up some milk for the kids and of course Baylee batts her eyes and daddy gives in and buys her a treat so she picked out a PEZ dispenser like she doesn't have enough of those but she was soo sweet and asked him if she could buy a pack of refills also so her brothers and sisters could have some too. Her siblings were very grateful cause daddy can never say no to Baylee.

4th Grade Field Trip

Brayden's class got to go to the Historic Veterans Museum in Lehi today for a field trip for School. It was soo much fun!! I have never been here before so I thought it would be lame once I saw the word Veterans but it was a lot of fun. The kids were mixed up into 8 groups from all 3 classes so I didn't get to be in charge of Brayden's group cause another mom dibbed that group but I got to go with some other kids in my neighborhood we had a blast!!

This is a sign that was at the front desk as we walked in, I tried to get Brayden to stand by it but he wouldn't he didn't think it was very funny! While we were there we got to learn about all different things, like rocks and minerals, we got to do a lot of hands on things, also. They got to make pictographs by scratching symbols and pictures into a pottery stone. They got arrested and put in jail, they were offered dead crickets that had flavoring on them like bacon and Cheddar, or sour cream and onion. Only half of the kids in my group would try it I even had a girl who tried to be brave and taste it but I had to run her to the bathroom so she could puke after it hit her tongue. No way would I even try it the kids tried to get me to but NO WAY was I going to! They got to rub buffalo skin with a indian made knife to make it into cloth for a tepee. And a lot of other things. So much to name!!

At the end of the field trip one of the guys that worked there decided to give us a treat and he brought out 4 very beautiful and awesome birds. He brought out a Falcon, a Hawk, and Owl and a Golden Eagle. This is the Eagle. It was so beautiful!! When it tried to fly out of his arms its wing span was so wide and pretty!! The kids loved it!! Brayden is still talking about all the fun he had today. They were saying that they are doing a Night at the Museum where everything comes to life coming up in February, so I am seriously thinking of taking the kids to it. It sounds like so much fun.

Kid's and their Thinking

Baylee has show and tell every Wednesday in her Kindergarten class and this week the letter was "P" We could not think of what she could take so when she got in my car yesterday after school she turns to me and says "I know mom I can trick my class and bring up my back pack and say It has brown hair, clothes and it talks. " So I asked her what that has to do with the letter P and she said " It's me I'm PRETTY!!! She thought that was so funny So after school I asked her if she did it and she said yes but she won't ever again cause the boys thought that was stupid!!

Party Night!!

Last night was soo much fun!! My friend Sheryl called me yesterday and asked if I would fill in and be a sub for her Bunco group. I of course said yes so I could have some me time. It was so much fun the ladies were so nice and we ended up having to call 2 more people from the neighborhood cause they were short people from their regular group. Dinner was delicious and it was great to be in the company of people who are older than 12. We were done playing by 10:00 but 5 of us decided to just sit around and talk and laugh. We were so into it that when I looked at my watch it was 12:45 so we finally decided that we better call it a night so our husbands didn't get mad. I got home at 1:00 and was so exhausted from laughter that I even slept in until 10:00 this morning. My kids didn't have school today so not only did they sleep in they let me also. Thank you my love for letting me have another night of no phone calls and time to myself. I guess I owe you another 4-wheeling trip to yourself again without kids. Knowing you you already have one planned like last time.

Mom's Night

Last night was so much fun!!! Holly asked me if I was doing anything last night and asked if I wanted to come over and bring scraps from scrapbooking to make cards with a couple of other ladies from the ward. At first I wasn't going to go but at about 7:15 I decided to just go. I had so much fun!!! There was Monica, Gaylynn, Julie, Holly, Annie, me and then Kim showed up just to talk and hang out for about an hour. We each had to pick a theme for a card and make 6 of the same one or 12 of the same one so we could each have 1 or 2 of that same card. At the end of the night when we were done we switched cards with everybody. We had a lot of laughs and it was great to get out and away from the kids and just BS without having to worry about anything!! Jeff was so great usually when I am out I get a million phone calls from the kids or him asking when I will be back. Especially if I am out past 9:00 when the kids need to be put to bed. But I did not get one phone call from them. I didn't get home until 10:00 and I was expecting him to be major mad but when I walked in the door all the kids were in bed asleep, and Jeff was on the couch watching the news and he was so sweet to me it totally shocked me!!! Thanks love for letting me have a night to myself!! It was greatly needed!! And thank you Ladies for a fun and enjoying night!!

Congratulations Baylee

Today we found out that at the Region level Reflections contest last night at the middle school that Baylee won 1st place in visual arts for all of the Kindergarten thru 2nd grade age kids in our region. Woo-Hoo way to go Baylee. We were so excited when we got the phone call this morning from Allison Tran (pictured above with Baylee) who is in charge of Reflections for our school.

This is Baylee after she got her Region Medal. She was so dang excited. When I got off the phone to tell her that her Snowman gets to move on to District the first words out of her mouth were "Where is my Medal?" It killed her to have to wait all morning until she got to school to receive it. We can't wait to go to District on January 29 to find out if her Snowman is good enough to move on to State level. We will keep you all posted.

Baylee with her teacher Mrs. Reese. Proud to have 2 winners out of her class that got to move on to District!!

My computer nerd!!

Baylee is soo funny. We won't let her play on the big computer so this morning while I was changing loads of laundry she went and got her Bratz lap top and a bag of Pistachio nuts and sat at the computer desk for the last hour now and typing and eating. What a way to entertain herself. She told me "she had to get her homework done so she is smart when she goes to school today."

Kids are so dang funny!!!

Ciarra 1st day in Primary!

Ciarra had her first day in Sunbeams today!! She cried hysterically when I put her with her class. I couldn't sit and hold her cause I had to get my classroom ready cause I had to teach so I left her to go set it up. When I came back in she was still freaking out so I had to grab her and have her sit with my class. When I went to teach I dropped her off to Jeff. I guess he took her in and sat with her and her class until she was fine with it and he left her. After church she was so excited about her I am Child of God crown and super excited that they sang her favorite and only song she knows which is I am a Child of God. Even today while the kids were at school she put her crown on and kept saying how her teacher let her sing her Lead me guide me song. So hopefully next week we will have better luck with her and she will go to class without crying.