Blog-Worthy

A few recent things that I think are blog-worthy:

-Jacob is out of diapers! Okay, this one could have had it's very own post, in my humble opinion, because it's BIG NEWS considering he is our caboose. Brad and Amy are officially done changing diapers after 13 years! Thank you, thank you.

-Lyssie and Danny passed yet another swim class! This is not something we've had happen before - kids passing their swimming classes with ease (sorry Amber and Haley).

-Haley and Alyssa took a super cool knitting class at a knitting shop in town and made cute little knitted/stuffed kittens! They both loved it. Alyssa pronounced, while knitting one night, "Knitting is such a nice, calm hobby"...as opposed to all her hyper hobbies, I'm guessing.

-Brad is about to begin his last week at ShopKo! That sentence makes it sound like we've dreaded working at ShopKo, when in reality this has been a great job for him and for our family and we have appreciated it very much. But it has been a bit tricky to jump back and forth between practices over the last several months so he is very much looking forward to being full time at Valley Vision Clinic.

-Amber bought her Nintendo DS! This actually occurred a couple of weeks back, but she has been delighted with it and with herself for having saved up that much babysitting money. Now she has about that much saved up again, so I took her over to the bank last week to open up a savings account. She is pretty much feeling grown up.

-We are getting ready for a big trip - up to Canada, then down to Utah, then up to Seattle. Brad has his 20-year high school reunion (he's old, huh?), then our niece, Cori, is getting married in Utah, then I have my 20-year high school reunion (okay, I'm old too) Should be lots of fun!

Slip 'N' Slide/Kid Bowling

For our Family Home Evening activity last night we broke out the new Slip 'n' Slide! Freezing cold hose water and flinging oneself across a lumpy back lawn covered with a thin sheet of plastic was never so fun! Not that I tried it myself...but it sure looked like fun!

Amber opted to watch all the fun with Brad and I (smart girl!), but the other kids got totally into it. Even poor Haley, who really couldn't do much because of her knee, got into the spirit of things by posing for a fake sliding picture (looks pretty good, huh?!)
Lyssie and Danny liked it a lot and got pretty good at it, but Jacob had a hard time figuring it out at first. He ended up asking Brad for help in sliding, which basically involved Brad chucking Jacob down the Slip 'n' Slide...as if he were bowling and Jacob were his ball.

This made me cringe! But Jacob totally loved it. He kept having Brad do it again and again (lots of cringing on my part) and then Danny wanted in on the action. I'm sure all this was very good for Brad's bad back. And yes, we do realize that Danny needs a swim suit with a draw string.

A Utah-tastic Week!

I did it! I took all 5 kids to Utah all by myself...and we all survived! We had such a fun and busy week and problems were at a minimum. They included the usual sibling spats, a handful of emotional melt-downs (one was mine...so does that still count?), only minor injuries (the kinds solved with a band-aid), one child passing out and throwing up (Haley, of course) and the fact that I blinked in just about every picture I was in. Other than those few issues it was just about perfect!

The girls LOVED Stadium of Fire and Miley Cyrus. Even better than the program itself was the company we kept - we went with our old friends the Nields (actually it was about half of the Nield Family, I guess) Maren and Anika were best friends with Amber and Haley through optometry school. They lived right across the side walk from us when we lived in our super-scary government subsidized housing so we have that special "poverty bond" between us. Dayna and I used to wave at each other through our kitchen windows while hand-washing dishes for hours and hours...somehow it made it easier! Anyway, it was so fun to see them. It melted my heart to see those girls together again...and we moms had fun, too!

We saw so much family and so many old friends while we were in Utah - that was easily the best part for all of us! Got to see my sister, Lisa, and her boyfriend, Lee (a big thanks to both of them for babysitting the boys while we went to Stadium of Fire!) We also spent time with my Grandma Ruth, my Aunt Paula and Uncle Ted, my cousin Beka and her family, my cousin Brett and his family and my 2nd cousin, Sarah, who is a dear friend and kindred spirit. We even got to see Nana Jo and Papa Jim, who happened to be visiting Grandma Ruth!

On Brad's side we got to see Uncle Todd and Aunt Janice and their kids (the "Utah Cousins"), who were kind enough to let us stay with them. We got to meet their new daughter - our newest cousin, Maci! We also got to see Aunt Sandy and the "Kelowna Cousins", who are in Utah for a few weeks visiting Sandy's family.

Then there was the mini-BYU reunion I got to take part in! I went out to dinner with my old roommate Kimm (who was nice enough to drive all the way down to Provo from Ogden!) and later in the week the kids and I went up to Bountiful to have dinner with my friends Erin and Misty (also former BYU roommates of mine) and their families. Erin was my roommate my first two years at BYU and Misty (Erin's sister) was my roommate a year later. What a fun night that was! I even got to see their mom again, who was sort of my mom-away-from-home while I was in college and so far away from family. It was so good to reconnect with great friends! And my kids loved getting to know their kids (they're calling them the "BYU Cousins" since I met their parents at the Y)

My parents, my Grandma Ruth and I took the kids to tour BYU in what Brad and I like to call our 'Semi-Annual BYU Brainwashing Event'. As usual, it seemed to be very successful. The kids have been wearing their new BYU hats for days.

Here are a few pictures from our week...