Kidless...for a little while anyway

Isaac started preschool on Monday!  I used an exclamation point because that is super exciting news.  It's a new experience for us because he is the first official preschooler in our family, none of my other children ever attended.   That was wholly due to the fact that JayDee refused to pay for something that I had been trained to do myself.  What he didn't understand was that I am much better at the mother role than the teacher role at home.  None of my kids ever responded well to my "teaching."  As a matter of fact, when Ethan started kindergarten (almost a year later than everyone else his age because his birthday is late) he did not recognize all the letters in the alphabet and he didn't even know the letters in his name.  He thought his name was spelled E-T-H-I-N.  Thankfully, they all caught up quickly with no trouble.

Isaac however is another issue. My current conundrum about  Isaac is whether to let him go to kindergarten next year or wait a year.  His birthday is right at the beginning of school but he makes the deadline if I want him too.  I  discussed this with JayDee and told him that in order for me to make an educated decision about what is best for our son I needed to know where he was academically and socially.  Preschool is the perfect gauging tool.  He consented and now Isaac is super happy to be in school like the big kids and with 2 neighborhood friends.

I'm excited to have 2 1/2 hours of kid free time, 3 times a week.  I almost don't know what to do with myself but I'm pretty sure I'll think of something.

Isaac and his buddies

Ready for new adventures!

Another Birthday

Isaac, my baby, is 4!  Man, I love this kid!  He is so dang cute, he's got a mischievous streak and lots of hugs for Mom.  He melts this Mom's heart.

We started the day with presents....

 Yes, the picnic table is a present. 

He really wanted a picnic table. Go figure.

This one is Toy Story 3

And of course a backpack for school.

Later that day we had a combined party with Isaac's cousin Milan.  Milan and Isaac were born only 8 days apart and they've become best of friends, so while they are young they'll have combined parties.  I'm sure sooner or later they may change their minds about that, but for now, we like it.

Everyone came over for dinner, 

a great excuse to use the new picnic table.

More presents...

Thanks Grandma for the cool remote controlled 

Lightening McQueen!

And of course, cake!

Although Isaac and Milan love each other they have very different likes and dislikes.  Milan loves cars and trucks, just about anything with a motor.  While Isaac likes really active play, swords, guns, bike riding and right now he loves Wild Kratts.  In case you're not familiar with this, it's a cartoon on PBS Kids about the Kratt brothers who are animal experts.  They have all kinds of gadgets that help them learn about animals and help animals.  Anyway, Isaac loves it.  I think more for the gadgets than the animals but oh well.

I think they're cakes are a good representation 

of both of them.

  

Close up

Happy Birthday boys!

Biding Our Time

With my 3 oldest in school all day, it's felt really different around here.  Isaac will be starting preschool next week and I can't imagine myself without a little person around.  I can't wait for Isaac to start preschool just so he'll have something great to do. He has really missed his brother and sisters and it's only been two days.  Today, however, we found something to bide our time and Isaac had so much fun.  I consider this a mundane task but Isaac loved helping.  It was jam time!

I asked him if he wanted to help me make jam and he acted like we were doing magic.  I think he thinks that jam is just one of those miraculous foods that is just always in the fridge. His excitement level was helped by the fact that he loves jam. He turned out to be a great sou chef!  He followed instructions and kept his little fingers out of the goods until I gave him the go ahead when we were finished. Maybe baking will become a regular activity for us while we're biding our time.

 I had frozen the raspberries from our garden until I could get to jamming, so there was quite a bit of juice that I drained off and Isaac was the juice taste tester.  Mmmmm...

School!

I've got to admit that I am not one of those weepy mothers that hates the thought of sending her children off to school every year.  With every one of my kids that have started school, the first day of school was met with great excitement and dare I say joy. And those are my feelings not my kids. :)  Maybe it's because I have always loved school and I see it as a great, big, worthwhile adventure or maybe it's that I can't wait for my kids to experience new things or maybe it's because I like the break from them.  Whatever the reason...when school rolls around every summer I'm happy about it. 

That's exactly how I felt this year too until about 2 days before school started and then all of a sudden I felt very unprepared for school to start.  The school shopping was done, the clothes were picked out, nothing out of the ordinary was happening to make me feel this way.  It was quite a mystery to me and still is actually. I have yet to figure it out.  Maybe I'm becoming more sentimental with the passing years.  Maybe it's that they're noticeably growing up. Who knows? 

What I do know is that these 3 cuties left yesterday for their new adventures and had a wonderful time.  

 All of them had nothing but good to say about their new classes and teachers. In fact, after talking to them all I said, "So everyone likes their teachers then." And Hannah answered, "Like her. I love my teacher!"  Well said Hannah, well said.  I hope it lasts all year.

Water...It's What Summer Is

Summer just isn't summer without water and this last week we've had lots of it!  Thanks to our awesome Rasmussen Reunion we found ourselves at the Roy Aquatics Center for an entire sun-filled, water-filled day.  And when I say entire day, I mean entire day.  We were there when it opened at 11am and we stayed until closing time at 8pm.  Wow!  We've never had the stamina for that kind of fun before.  I must say we had blast!

When Isaac took a break from the water he had to be completely covered from head to toe or else he would be "freezing" in the blazing sun.

Sweet moves boys! 

I'd give it an 8.5.

Good solid 5.

 Ethan overcome his fear of the high dive this year and loved showing off his new bravery. Unfortunately, there are no pictures to prove this so you'll just have to take my word for it.

Just a few days after our pool day we spent another day by another body of water. This time it was with our friends at Utah's beach - good old Pineview Reservoir.  I wasn't sure how excited my kids would be to be sun soaked for another full day so I kind of prepared myself for a short trip but there was no need.  They played all day.  There were no near death drownings, no drama with friends, no sand wars, no complaining so it was quite a relaxing day for moms.  We'll take those days any day.

Out and in...out and in

 

Just over a week left until school starts and it was just this week that I finally felt like we had done something summery.  Good thing.  Now I can send my kids off to school knowing I didn't deprive them of their summer.  :) 

Emma's Baptism

In case anyone didn't know...we love our friends!  We feel so blessed to live in our neighborhood and have so many great friends that really feel more like extended family than friends.  We love them so much we think it's extra special when we get to share special days with them.  Emma's baptism day was one of those days.  It just so happens that Emma and our good friend Oliver Thompson, who coincidentally lives right behind us, share the same birthday; so their baptisms were going to be on the same day just different times.  Well that just wasn't going to work for us.  We would have gone to Ollie's baptism and the Thompsons would have come to Emma's baptism.  Why go to the church 2 times in the same day when we can just do it together?!  That's just what we did and it was great!

August 6, 2011  10:00am

On our way to the church

At the church with Ollie

We can't forget our Dads

After the baptisms at our house for lunch

We had a lot of fun at our luncheon.  It was the middle of the day so it was blazing hot. Our backyard doesn't get shade until the evening, perfect for evening parties but terrible for daytime events.  We set up one of those giant white event tents to make some shade and all the kids had a picnic in the only natural shade in the backyard.  Family and friends stayed for hours and Emma came away with lots of gifts of love for her special day.  


We love our Emma and although she still has lots to learn about making good choices and listening to the Spirit, I can honestly say that I've noticed a difference.  Hopefully she'll continue to progress and with the help of the Holy Ghost she'll become the best she can be!

BIRTHDAYS!!

I love sharing a birthday with Emma.  When she was a baby I was kind of sad for her that she had to share a birthday with me, especially because mine comes first.  I remember thinking I wish she was born the day before my birthday instead of the day after so that she could be in the spotlight and we could just kind of forget my birthday.  That's not the hand we were dealt though so we make the most of it and every year we get a two day party!  

This year was good for Emma because my birthday landed on a Sunday. There's not a whole lot you can do on Sunday so we were pretty low key.  I had to go to Ward Council in the morning and was commanded to come home between my meeting and the beginning of sacrament meeting. When I got home I was surprised with a great present.  Everyone was ready for church and lined up with something behind their backs.  They sat me down in the "birthday chair" and they each took a turn to wish me happy birthday.

Ethan was first:  "Happy Birthday Mom! I love you! I promise to be more helpful."
Then Emma: "Happy Birthday Mom! I love you! I promise to be more loving."
Hannah: "Happy Birthday Mom! I love you! I promise to be more patient."
Isaac: "Happy Birthday Mom! I love you! I promise to give you more hugs."
JayDee: "Happy Birthday! I love you! I promise to give you more time. Specifically tomorrow."
 
As each of them wished me happy birthday they also handed me a $20 bill rolled up and tied with ribbon, so at the end I had $100!  JayDee's promise was to take me and that money and go shopping the next day for whatever I wanted.  We had a great time shopping together.  JayDee was so amiable and helpful. He sat in dressing rooms for hours and didn't complain one time. It was way fun!  And yes, we shopped on Emma's birthday but she never missed us because she was at Boondocks for most of the day with Grandma.  Happy Birthday to both of us!

After church, where I was sung to by all my cute primary kids, I got a Sunday nap and then we were off to Grandma and Grandpa Taggart's for our birthday dinner.  I picked the menu, Dad's famous BBQ chicken, spinach strawberry and mandarin salad, corn on the cob, and watermelon and Emma picked dessert, Chocolate Chiffon Cake.  YUMMY!

That was it for my birthday but just the beginning of Emma's.  Emma turned 8 this year.  She is so excited to be 8.  She found the baptism schedule for the year in my primary binder in January and has been telling everyone since that her baptism is going to be on August 6th.
Look forward to that post.  It'll be a good one...hopefully. :)

Emma woke up to the customary birthday decorations and presents.  

She got new clothes (mostly for school), hair stuff and a real set of scriptures.

I loved after we sort of dispersed to get ready for the day that Emma told me her most favorite present was her scriptures.  She said she had wanted those most.  Really she had never mentioned scriptures to me or JayDee before but I sure was happy that she loved them so much.

Like I said before Emma spent most of the day with Grandma Taggart at Boondocks for her birthday date, and then at 7:30pm she had a late night birthday party with her friends. Her party was so much fun!  I love her friends.  I love that they are all good girls and get along so well.  Emma wanted them to come in their pajamas, they watched Evan Almighty (which I thought was kind of an interesting choice for a group of girls but they loved it! I loved listening to their shrieks of laughter when something funny happened. I could almost predict when the laughter would start and every time it made me smile).  They ate popcorn, candy, cookies and drank lemonade.  

Getting ready for the movie

  

They ate so much during the movie that no one wanted cake after.

We lit the candles and sang anyway and then went straight to presents.

After presents we were getting ready to go out and light fireworks when JayDee came in and said it was raining.  Awwwww... I told them as long as the fused stayed dry we could still light them so out we went.  

We opened the garage and they stood inside at first.

It didn't rain for long (which I suspected) and soon they were running all over shrieking with delight.  And because I love Emma so much I bought ONE aerial firework for the finale.  I did not however get a picture of that one but I did get a picture of this one. Hooray for fireworks!

We finished the party with a rousing game of "Ghost in the Graveyard."  Another opportunity for more shrieks and laughing.  They had so much fun that one little girl started crying when her mom came to get her. 

I was completely exhausted after our birthday celebrations but we had such a good time I wouldn't have had it any other way.