The Sweet Moments.....

This morning Hallie was holding a picture frame that I have in my entrance way and she said, "Mom, mom, come here.  I want to show you where I am in this picture."  This picture is with my parents, all of my siblings and their families when Chase (who is now 12) was just a baby and 8 years prior to Hallie's birth.  I thought it was so cute, she pointed to the sky in the picture at a very specific spot and said, "I'm right here - hugging Jesus."

The Birthday Planner

Hallie is very excited for my birthday tomorrow.  I asked her what she wanted to do and she quickly replied, "Go to Bear Paw, then to Sonic for food and drinks for you and me and then to the Park to play!"  She told me we would pick the kids up from school and then for dinner she would take me to a restaurant.......McDonalds! and we would go INSIDE to eat! She held in her little hand, 9 pennies.  I can hardly wait!

Chandon's Football Game

Today we went to Williams to watch my nephew Chandon, play in his football game.  He did great and it was a lot of fun hanging out with my sister Kimberly!

He's #55!

The Blackwell's

We went to Sedona at 6:30 this morning and took pictures of Cari's cute family!

My Sister Cari's Family

Happy 15th Birthday Kailan!!!

Six more months and she'll be driving with her driver's permit! She's counting down! Where does time go??

 From Grandpa Randy and Grandma Cindy!

 Kailan loves to read and got a couple of new books for her birthday.

She chose Cherry Cheese cake for her birthday cake.

Very Domestic!

Today I went over to Jeanna Hansen's with a few other ladies and made homemade wheat bread (including grinding the wheat into flour to make the bread) AND I learned how to use my pressure cooker that I recently bought from a garage sale and bottled pinto beans! In fact, I am just finishing up my second batch of canning before I head to bed! I am able to fit 7 quart jars in my pressure cooker at one time.  I bottled a total of 12 quarts today.  For dinner I used 2 quarts and made chili beans that we ate with my scrumptious homemade bread! It was a fun, rewarding day! Next, I want to learn how to bottle fresh roasted green chilies!!! 

Conference Crepes!

This morning we made crepes with raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, bananas and homemade cool whip (dream whip)! They tasted wonderful! Our friends, the Bliss's make crepes every conference Sunday as a tradition in their family - a tradition we thought we would like to adopt! The kids loved it.  Conference was great and I'm once again inspired to make changes that will help me be a better person! Elder Arnold who spoke in the Sunday afternoon session was Mark's Mission President.  That was a lot of fun for Mark. He has a lot of fond memories of President Arnold.

Funny Girl

This morning I was doing something that Hallie thought was funny and she was telling all of the kids that "Mom is going to crack us out!"  She kept saying it over and over while she was laughing instead of 'crack us up'.  It was pretty funny.  She wanted orange juice in her water bottle, so I demonstrated to her what a funnel was.  I rarely use my funnel and she thought it was the coolest thing ever! The simple joys of life!

Cupcakes!

Today after school Abi and Brooklyn went to their first cupcake decorating class.  It was so cute and they had so much fun! Amy Dries, a friend in my ward is teaching it.  She is so creative and fun! They will get to go to her house once a month after school to learn different techniques and decorate different types of cupcakes.  They can hardly wait 'til next month!

Anthem Swim Meet

Kailan loves to compete! She did a great job at her swim meet and had a lot of fun!

She took two 2nd places, one 3rd, one 5th and one 6th.

Way to go Kailan!

Brooklyn, Grandma Jackie, Jordynn and our friend Ronnie Gilliland came with us down to Anthem to cheer her on!

In between events, the girls found a table inside to play cards!

After the meet, Kailan and Ronnie went swimming in another pool on the premises with water slides.

She's Legal!!!

Jordynn finished her Personal Progress and was able to go and get her drivers license! A very long, awaited, exciting day!!! After she passed her test (parallel parking was the scariest part of course), she brought me home and then took the car to school.  She's saving her money so she can get her own car! A whole new world!!

Also, today is Grandpa Randy's birthday! An extra great day!!! He's entering his final year in his 50's!!

Kailan has Returned to the Water!

The beginning of this month, Kailan began swimming for the Snow Sharks here in Flagstaff.  It was a difficult decision for her - the choice to swim competitively again or play high school sports.  She loves to do it all! In the end, she chose swimming.  She said she has missed it SO MUCH and is so glad to be back in the water! Her first swim meet is in Anthem this Saturday - she can hardly wait! When I got on the computer just a few minutes ago, I saw a paragraph that Kailan typed last night for her English class and thought I'd include it!

Simile, Metaphor and Personification Paragraph

Swimming, the greatest sport in the world. The great feeling you get when you dive off the block and soar to the end. Swimming is many things, a magnificent cave just waiting to be explored, or a blank book waiting for the pages to be filled with many miraculous stories. The water, which shakes in anticipation to see who will win. The goggles like your ammunition in a war. Your strength, the key to your success. And the starting whistle that screams in your ear as you jump, landing gracefully into a whole new world. It’s just you and the water as you surge on to complete the goal you have set for yourself, and the feeling of joy when you accomplish it. Swimming, my life. 

Big Kids (aka adults) striving to lead the little kids!

This morning after I placed Hallie in time-out for excessive whining, I had a talk with her and explained that now that she is 4 years old, she is getting big enough to talk to me about how she feels instead of crying or hollering.  I proceeded to give her examples of how she can nicely explain to me how she feels when she is sad or upset.  At the end of my little spill, she looks at me and in a rather matter-of-fact tone reminds me that Kailan (who will be 15 next month), still cries when I get mad at her!  I'm the mom - which supposedly constitutes me as much older and wiser and when I'm upset I unfortunately find myself raising my voice rather than nicely explaining why they (usually the children) are causing me to feel upset. It's so hard to raise these children when you often feel so hypocritical! 

As our conversation continued into an entirely new subject, she asked me if she was going to die when she was really old.  I basically told her that would be the best time when she said, "But you're very old and you haven't died!" She quickly followed it with "because you're my mommy!" Perspective!!

Hallie has a Pet!

Our friends, the Codner's youngest son Spencer, just turned one! We went to his home for yummy food and lots of coaxing while he poked at his one year old birthday cake.  Emily (Spencer's mom) went all out on the decorations - super cute! 

As a party favor, Hallie was given a fish and a cute bag with a bottle of fish food! She has named her fish Sparky Fire.  If you are extra nice to her, she'll let you have a turn feeding her fish!

Boys will be boys!

Yesterday we had a big neighborhood Bar-BQ.  After the boys ate, they, along with Dallin Codner and Tanner and Quinn Mickelson, went into the woods to build a fort.  After they finished, they came back to our house and played for awhile in the back yard.  Then, they decided they wanted to go to the duck ponds!   The duck ponds are right behind the Codner's house.  They stopped by there first and got ziplock bags so they could try and catch some fish.  After awhile, they came back (quite proud of themselves), with each of them carrying a fish in their bag! Emily (Dallin's mom), told them they needed to hurry and put the fish in their fish tank before the fish died.  That is when they explained to her that all of these fish they caught were already dead in the lake! Taige was especially proud that he was able to catch not only his, but 2 of the other boy's fish for them as well! GROSS! After Emily took a picture of all of them with their bags of fish on her back deck, she immediately made them scrub their hands in scalding hot water! Boys are so fun!

Quinn, Tanner, Chase, Dallin & Taige

First Class!

Tonight at Chase's Court of Honor, he was awarded the rank of First Class.  

He is pinning the 'Mother's pin' on me.  Brooklyn is the photographer!

The Scouts are being awarded their Merit badges that they earned at Scout camp this summer.

Chase earned 8!

Seth Strand is the Scout Master and Mark is his assistant as well as the 2nd counselor in the Y.M.'s Presidency.

They survived the 1st Day!

This is Chase with his good friend Mason Gilliland after their first day at Sinagua Middle School! They walked down to Fox Glen Park where we met and picked up the other kids.

Jordynn's Gift...

Jordynn has planned for a very long time to take Hallie to have her ears pierced on her 4 year old birthday since that is when Jordynn had her ears pierced.  Although mom was a little reluctant, Hallie was very excited! After her birthday party we went to Claire's in the mall and Jordynn paid for her to have her ears pierced.  

She's holding so still!

Here we go!

Ouch!

And now we have to do the other ear! I wish they would do them at the same time!

I almost couldn't even blog this picture! Isn't it so sad?! Poor thing - and this ear was much worse since she knew what was coming! I held her for a moment and we showed her, her ears in the mirror.  She stopped crying and claimed she was happy to now have pierced ears!

As a reward for being so brave, Jordynn let her ride a couple of the riding toys outside of Claire's.

This one is a virtual roller coaster!

Birthday Party at Bear Paw

After all of the kids left for their 1st day of school, we (Hallie, Grandma Jackie & myself) went to Bear Paw and celebrated Hallie turning 4 years old with some of her friends!

Hallie

Mallory Bliss

Ava & Kristy Bliss

Olivia & Delaney Fox (their mom Valerie and Grandma Fox came as well!)

Hallie & Claire Strand

Spencer Codner - Hallie loves this baby!!

Spencer gave Hallie 2 cute rings that his mom made!

Yummy pizza!

It started to rain, so we went inside to finish our pizza and have cupcakes.

Mallory & Hallie

I think the kids had more fun jumping on the bean bags in the movie room than swimming in the pool! They were pretending to be frogs jumping on their lily pads!

Hallie, Claire, Olivia & Mallory

Hallie opened her presents & then we gave each of the girls a little princess purse with chap-stick & candy.  Lots of fun!