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!!