The Seal Bark

ZEUS

2012-01-11T23:55:00.003-07:00

I bought Zeus 9 months ago, hoping he would be a good fit for our family. The Havanese breed comes with raving reviews as the perfect dog for a family and children but what really convinced me was that this breed was one of the best for allergies and asthma. Ryan had to use steroids twice in the 9 months because of difficulty breathing and his inhalers not being strong enough. He did fine during the week while at school but had a harder time on the weekends. And the two week Christmas break didn’t help things. We finally decided it was time to find a new home for Zeus. It took several months for me to finally be able to place the ad. Zeus was my little shadow. This breed is known to be a“velcro dog”. Following my every move. He was always under my feet and I had to watch where I was stepping so I didn’t step right on him. If he wasn’t right next to me then I knew he was up to trouble. House training was not his strength. Marking his territory (or anything on the floor that wasn’t carpet) was. I finally placed the ad and let Gavin screen the calls. The ad had only been on the website for two days when we got the call. Someone was very excited to buy him and during the phone conversation they figured out that they were the original owners of this dog who sold him to us in April. He was out of his apartment and in a better position to own a dog. Knowing that Zeus was going to someone who already loved and knew him made it so much easier. Not that there haven’t been a few tears shed. But it’s nice to know he’s with his original owner.

Hadley loved Zeus and had the hardest time with letting him go. She had one request. To give Zeus a bath. She had wanted to bathe him the entire 9 months and always chose the craziest times to ask. Usually on a really busy day when we had no free time. “Mom, can I give Zeus a bath today?” Bathing Zeus was at least an hour ordeal. He had to be brushed before and after the bath because he had such fine hair that it matted all over if we didn’t. He was very overdue for a bath and Hadley got to give him a bath a few days before we sold him.

This was his favorite spot. Right next to my feet by the computer chair.

He slept in a kennel at night in our laundry room. Everyone fought over who got to let him out of his kennel in the morning. It was usually Morgan. She would come into my bedroom every morning and whisper, “Mom, can I let Zeus out?” Zeus didn’t really like Morgan. She didn’t know how to be soft with him and had spent the last 9 months torturing him. She liked to open the door to the kennel and then try to pick him up (which he hated) or block him from getting out. Morgan knew he was going to a new home but forgot he was gone that first morning and came into my room and asked. She was so sad when I told her Zeus was gone to his new home. I think she was hoping he had just gone away for the day.

Hadley spoiled Zeus for Christmas and got him a cute little Santa suit that he wore and some dog toys. His favorite was his toy fox that Santa brought him. He loved to play fetch, tug-of-war and chew on it to make it squeek over and over. I'm bummed that we never got video of him singing along to Hadley’s piano practicing. Whenever she started to practice, he would run into the living room and sit right next to her doing his best howling. Funny. For a minute.

He loved riding in the car with me. He would try to sneak out every time he saw me grab my keys. Most car rides ended up at my parents’ house and he loved playing with their two dogs and hanging out by the pool while we swam.

We met the new (previous) owner at The Gateway to make the trade. Zeus seemed a little hesitant to leave his old family behind. I think he kinda liked us. Us meaning everyone but Gavin and Jack. I’m positive he didn’t like them. He barked and barked at both of them whenever they walked into the room.

I’m still adjusting to not having my little buddy with me, sitting by my feet while I blog, following me to the bathroom, watching me fold clothes (hoping to get his scent on all of my freshly folded piles), walking out with me to check the mail, waiting patiently while I got ready every morning. I can see how a dog can quickly become an important part of a family. I texted his new owner several times that first day and it sounded like Zeus was doing well. He said we could visit him one day if we wanted. Hadley is excited about being able to see him again and I told her we could go in about a month, give him some time to adjust to his new family. And to give us some time to plan the hour drive to his new home.

Out with the old . . .

2012-01-11T14:56:00.000-07:00

Time to say goodbye to 2011. It was a great year that went by way too fast. We did a family activity for FHE and had everyone write down their top 20 blessings of 2011. It was interesting to hear what the kids came up with and to see that everything on the list was not something materialistic, even if Xbox and iPod touches did make a few lists.

My top 20 (in no particular order):

1. Family trip to California

2. Girls trip to Seattle/Vancouver

3. Mia potty trained. Finally!

4. Happy at work

5. YW presidency

6. Youth Conference

7. Good Friends

8. Dinner, Movie, Reality TV date nights

9. No hospitalizations for any of the kids

10. Grandpa got a better diagnosis and prognosis :)

11. Morgan started cheerleading

12. Griffin’s big hugs

13. San Francisco trip to celebrate 15 years of marriage

14. New York surprise birthday trip

15. Mexican cruise with Jensens and Nan & Papa

16. Forty years old

17. Activity Days leader

18. New bishopric

19. Having a bunny for 11 years and a dog for 9 months. Both had to go.

20. 40th Birthday surprise. Trip around the world (aka Las Vegas).

Biggest lesson from 2011: Life is fragile. Appreciate family. You never know how much time you have together.

We celebrated 2011 with dinner and games with my family. Everyone had early morning church the next morning so our party died out around 10. I really debated about going to sleep and even climbed into bed. But it just didn’t feel right to go to sleep before the New Year.

I got out of bed around 10:30 and convinced Gavin to go over to our friend’s party for a few hours. We played a few rounds of Celebrity Names and then it was time to get the bubbly out and countdown to the new year.

We woke up anyone who may have been sleeping in the neighborhood with our loud pots and pans, fireworks and cheers.

Happy New Year!

Christmas

2012-01-11T13:56:00.003-07:00

Oh Christmas! The highlight of the year! Not sure who woke up who but everyone was up by 7 am and ready to go. Well, everyone except for Mom. I went to bed after 2 am and wasn’t quite ready to be awake 5 hours later.

Who’s ready for Christmas???

Santa delivered! Jack got his first cell phone. Hadley got the iHome she was wanting. Griffin got a new Ds game and lots of Legos. Mia got a new Belle dress up and doll.

Ryan was excited to find not one but two hamsters from Santa.

Morgan got a talking Belle doll from Santa but didn’t care about that. She was way too excited about her Tangled barbie doll from her aide, Brittany. She opened it up and ran right to the computer and spent the rest of the morning acting out “Tangled” with her new doll and the movie playing on the computer. She had a huge pile of presents waiting for her after she finished the movie.

A new family picture for the office

The big surprise in the stockings . . . a family trip in February. This will be our first time to take the 3 youngest on a cruise. Hoping it won’t be all work and there will be some fun mixed in with the chaos. Nan and Papa are joining us too! Wahoo!

Since Christmas was on Sunday this year, we opened presents, had Gavin’s gourmet french toast for breakfast, took a late morning nap (maybe that was only me?), and got ready for church at noon. After church, we went up to my parents for brunch and more gift exchanging.

Grandma and Grandpa with all of the grandchildren that live in Utah

Once again, everyone was spoiled and loved what they got!

Until next year, Christmas!

’Twas the night before Christmas

2012-01-11T12:16:00.003-07:00

We hosted the Seal family Christmas party this year. This is such a fun tradition and something my kids look forward to all month. It’s the perfect way to celebrate Christmas Eve . . . with family. The kids love their cousins and have so much fun together. Everyone played a few games (The Celebrity Name Game) while I quickly wrapped the Wiseman Gifts for the story.

Aunt Rae continued the tradition of reading the story of the Wisemen, stopping to let the kids open their own "wise men gifts". Gold = worldy gift Red = sentimental gift (books). Green = necessity gift (Christmas pajamas). I don’t think we even finished the story this year with all of the excitement of Nan and Papa on the computer.

Nan and Papa didn’t want to miss out on the fun. Gotta love technology and Skype! The best part of this picture is Savanna. Not sure what she’s doing but it looks like she’s telling Nan and Papa they better watch out!

All of the cousins in their Christmas pajamas.

Even Uncle Jeff and Aunt Rae joined in on the Christmas pajama fun!

It was getting late and we didn’t have time to have the kids dress up and do the Nativity play. Big mistake. Mia and Morgan were so disappointed and asked about it for several days. Morgan thought Avery was all dressed up as an angel in her beautiful nightgown. Next year, girls! I promise!

Then it was time to leave a snack for Santa and his reindeer. Hadley helped Griffin and Mia write their notes to Santa.

Then a little magic, sparkly food for the reindeer and time for bed . . .

Christmas Traditions

2011-12-28T02:21:00.000-07:00

I think this is officially my longest post. Ever. Trying to make up for not blogging all month. Once again we managed to stay busy this Christmas season with our advent calendar activities. Each morning one of the kids opened the door on the advent calendar to find out what activity was planned for that day. Some days were more exciting than others and we had to be flexible around Hadley’s performances and the boys’ basketball schedule but we did it and that’s what counts (at least that’s what I tell myself).

Day 1--Festival of Trees
We started the festivities with one of my favorite activities. The Festival of Trees. I could spend the entire day there, reading the story behind each tree, and I tried to look at every tree but then realized that wasn’t going to happen with the whole family in tow.

We got the bonus of watching Hadley perform with Clayton Productions at the festival. She is such a little performer. Her whole face lights up when she comes out on stage. It’s so fun to watch her! She wanted a picture in front of the “Minnie Mouse Tree” since her costume matched the tree.

And the first experience of sitting on Santa’s lap. Griffin asked for a Ds game, Morgan asked for ‘nothing’, Mia asked for ‘dress ups and Polly Pockets’ and Hadley was just trying to get their pictures but Santa convinced her to come over and sit on his lap. She asked that her dog, Zeus, could stay in our family for Christmas.

Day 2 -- Chocolate Advent Calendars
The kids love getting their calendars to countdown the days. Morgan always struggles with eating just one piece so luckily we had Hershey’s Kisses on hand when one piece of chocolate just wasn’t enough. Mia keeps asking for her piece of chocolate in the mornings. Not quite getting that Christmas is over and so is the chocolate.

Day 3 -- Church Dinner

Gavin was asked to be the emcee for the night and, as usual, did a great job.

The Primary kids sang a few songs. Morgan was in heaven. She loves to perform, doesn’t matter if she knows the words or not, girl’s gonna shout out the song.

On the other hand, the youth also sang a few songs. Couldn’t hear any of them singing though. Just the 3 adult leaders on the stage with them were singing.

And we enjoyed having my niece, Kennedy, with us for a few of the events before she headed back home for Christmas break.

Day 4 -- Gingerbread Cookies
Every year my mom has the grandkids all come up to her house to help make and decorate gingerbread cookies. My kids love this activity, especially the decorating portion.

Sprinkles anyone?

Ryan helped ini the making and not decorating of the gingerbread men with his cousin, Maddie.

And the final result . . . gingerbread cookies with peppermint ice cream!

Day 5 -- VF Factory Mall.
Christmas shopping and watching Hadley’s performance.

Day 6 -- UDSF (Utah Down Syndrome Foundation) Christmas Party
We had such a fun night. Dancing. Eating. Chatting. Fishing for gifts. Meeting new friends. Sitting on Santa’s lap and hearing all about his reindeer.

How lucky are these two boys? Best friends in school and they both have a sister with Down syndrome. Makes the Ds activities even that much better for Griffin, knowing Easton will be there and everyone loves baby Jayne!

Morgan danced all night long. All of the kids with Ds did, actually. Danced and danced and danced.

Then it was finally our time to see Santa. Morgan was so excited! Santa was so cute with the kids. It took awhile to get our turn because he took time to talk to everyone and even shared stories from the North Pole.

This may be our only family picture from the Christmas season -- All of us with Santa sitting on Jack’s lap.

Day 7 -- Jack’s Guitar Concert
Jack chose to take guitar as one of his electives this year. He has really enjoyed it and wants to continue playing once his class is over in January. His teacher was surprised that he was able to learn it so quickly and asked if he had any background in another instrument. Guess all of those years in piano lessons and playing the trumpet in band paid off. He spent more time laughing with his friends during the concert than playing the guitar. He said they couldn’t stop laughing at how loud the background music was while they were playing, like his teacher didn’t want the audience to hear the actual guitar and all of the mistakes.

Day 8 -- The Dicken’s Festival

We got to watch Hadley perform again at the festival.

We walked around and checked out all of the shopping and booths. I think we spent the most time at this foot/back massage booth. Morgan’s getting the full spa experience with the foot massage and back massage. Not sure she’s enjoying it though.

We went to the barn to find ‘Father Christmas’. Unfortunately there was a sign saying he had to go feed his reindeer and would be gone for the next hour. Morgan watched as the kids already in line finished up their turn and listened to the lady taking their picture. She didn’t understand why she couldn’t have a turn. She kept saying, “No. I say cheese with Santa!” She was so mad she didn’t want to sit in his sleigh or stand next to “Queen Victoria”.

We enjoyed having my mom come along with us on some of our activities. She was a huge help at this activity. There were booths everywhere and Morgan liked to walk close enough to the displays to hit their stuff off of the tables. We needed as many extra hands and arms that we could get!

Day 9 -- Read Christmas Stories
Our go to activity when everyone was tired or it was a busy night. The kids all chose their favorite Christmas book that they wanted to read before going to bed. We tried to read Christmas books with the 3 little ones every night before going to bed. They loved reading the dedications and seeing whose book we were reading that night.

Day 10 -- Christmas Shopping
This is probably the craziest activity of the month. Taking the whole family shopping in the toy section during the Christmas season. We had 3 carts weaving in and out of people. Most of the time they were just left in the middle of an aisle, blocking everyone trying to get by. Two were to caravan Morgan and Mia and the other one was full of cousin gifts. We spent about an hour choosing all of our gifts and made it to checkout with 2 carts. No one knew what had happened to the other cart. The one full of toys. We all searched the store and Gavin finally found it back in the toy section. We checked out and didn’t realize until the day of our party that one of the cousin’s gift had been swiped out of our cart.

Day 11 -- Seal Christmas Exchange
The kids look forward to this all month! Who doesn’t love to open Christmas presents two weeks before Christmas? We did all of our shopping the day before and were ready for the big party. Uncle Jeff and Aunt Rae hosted the event and did a great job. It was such a fun night with great food and company. All of the cousins get along so well and love to be together. They were sad that their cousins in St. George couldn’t make it this year.

Annie was willing to share her birthday with the christmas party. So lucky to have her in our family!

Mia loves her baby cousin, Oliver

Gavin with his brothers and parents. Brendan and Laurie were out of town. These boys are crazy. They try to come up with some creative thing to wear to the party. This year Jeff decided to wear his ‘Seal Pride’ shirt which he claimed it stood for “I heart Seal Family”. Gavin wore his blue/purple dickie. And Trevor broke out the ‘Mr. T’ necklace.

The cousins all draw names and the kids get to open their cousin and grandparent gifts on this night. Morgan was just excited with the gift. “I love presents!"

And then the adults do a White Elephant Gift Exchange. I lucked out and got #1 which meant no switching for me. I chose Scotty’s gift . . . a broken halloween planter, a few movies and a horse shoe, which I think means I’m going to have good luck all year.

Day 12 -- Ryan’s Basketball Game

Day 13 -- The Mall
We went to the mall and got dinner in the courtyard, watched Hadley perform, sat on Santa’s lap and bought a few surprises for Christmas.

Day 14 -- Stomach Flu
Hadley got the stomach flu on day 14 and missed the last few days of school and Christmas festivities. She also missed a few performances and activities. We had a fun work dinner with the Wares and let the kids fend for themselves this night.

Day 15 -- LDS Christmas concert with Jane Seymour and Nathan Gunn

Hot chocolate at Ryan’s favorite hot chocolate spot. Seven Eleven.

Day 16 -- Morgan’s school party
Morgan’s schooling and inclusion has been a battle this year. But the one positive among all of the negatives was Morgan’s morning aide, Brittany. She has been amazing for Morgan. She is a certified 1st grade teacher who wanted a part time job after having a baby last year. We were so sad to find out that she was no longer going to be Morgan’s aide after the Christmas break. Her sister moved and she didn’t have childcare for her baby anymore. I cried and cried. For me but mostly for Morgan. One of the most difficult things about inclusion is the aide situation. I never realized how attached I would become with her aides and how attached Morgan would become. She has loved her aides and loves them all so much. She really bonded with Brittany and responded well to her. Her behavior has been the best it has been in the mornings with Brittany. I got off the phone with the principal and couldn’t stop crying. Ryan asked me if I knew who her new aide would be. I said, “no”. He then asked why I was sad when I didn’t know anything about the new aide and she could be great for Morgan too. He’s right but it’s still hard. We are really going to miss Brittany!

Brittany and Morgan

Day 17 -- Morgan’s Cheer/ Hadley’s Performance
Almost two weeks later and I’m still smiling from this day. Morgan had her first performance on a big stage (that wasn’t something school related). It was finally her time to shine and she knew it! She started cheer last summer at Elite Academy. EA noticed other cheer company’s special needs squads at last year’s competition and knew they wanted to add a special needs squad to their company. All of the girls have Down syndrome and vary in age from 9 - 20’s. I think Morgan is actually the youngest one on the squad. She has been going every Friday and sometimes she participates and other times she just lays on the floor and tries to take a nap. I wasn’t sure how she would do at the performance with the big crowd, loud music and not knowing where we were sitting in the audience. But she loved. every. minute. She was smiling the entire time and so was I. I was overwhelmed with pride. Seeing my little girl up on the big stage, smiling and having the time of her life. But I think my favorite part was the acceptance and love I felt from the crowd. Most of the audience was there to watch their child perform in their own group, trying to qualify for national competitions. The focus was on perfection and timing. But none of that matter when The Angels took the stage. They cheered and celebrated in the perfection of Morgan’s group. It was better than I could’ve ever imagined!

Morgan, Abbie and Jazzy

Hadley also had a performance a few hours after Morgan. She was supposed to be at rehearsals all day but was determined to not miss Morgan’s first concert. She was able to watch Morgan. She was so proud of her! Then it was her turn, she had her big Christmas concert with Clayton Productions and once again did an amazing job.

Day 18 -- Stewart Family Christmas
We’ve been doing this as long as I can remember. Getting together with all of my aunts and uncles and cousins on Christmas Eve. It’s now grown to second cousins, at my parents’ home and usually earlier in the month. We used to have the real Santa come every year and all of the younger kids got to sit on his lap. I miss the Santa tradition. We get together for a yummy dinner (sorry about my cold potato casserole) and read a Christmas program from Luke 2 and sing Christmas songs. Morgan wanted to read every part but there were only so many parts and many more kids. I finally just had her stand up to read her part because she wanted to do it and no one was excited to read the next part. The cute thing was she decided to add a little to her part. When talking about Joseph, Jesus’ father, she added ’Smith’ to his last name.

My mom spent the last few months typing up her dad’s letters from his mission to Germany in the early 1930’s. She had the letters and pictures made into a digital book. It is a book we will all treasure!

Day 19 -- Movie Night. Arthur Christmas.
We drove across the valley to see this movie. We needed earlier than 9 pm and no 3D. Morgan refuses to wear the 3D glasses and ends up watching a blurry movie. Morgan loved it. She’s at the perfect age for movies. She has the attention span to sit and understand what is going on and she’s no longer overwhelmed and scared by the volume of the previews and movie. Mia was just worried the entire movie about the reindeer that were being left behind.

Thanks Wares for joining us for our movie night!

Day 20 -- Desert Star Playhouse
“It’s a Wonderful Life”
We had a great night out with my extended family at the theatre. I set up our seating and was excited when the lady called me back and told me an extra show had been added on our night and she could get us all together and better seats. I had no idea that meant FRONT ROW seats with my family of 8. I was already nervous about buying tickets for my two youngest since they suggested no children under 5. I was a little panicked as the usher walked us to our seats but in the end, it was perfect. The action was so close that my kids had no choice but watch the show. Morgan even used her straw at the end of the show to be the choir conductor as the cast sang a few Christmas songs. And Ryan and Gavin got to be part of the show. It was such a fun night! I think we have a new Christmas tradition!

Day 21 and 22 -- Friends and Neighbor Gifts
I had this great idea of taking the kids to a few stores to pick out something they would like to give their friends for Christmas. After two stops, TJ Maxx and the grocery store, with all 6 kids by myself, wrapping up a million gifts and loading up everyone in the car to drive around and deliver the gifts, The kids started fighting before we had even backed out of driveway. Griffin even broke one of his m-n-m candy cane gifts when he decided to hit Morgan with it. M-n-m’s flying all around the car. Morgan tried to eat them quicker than Griffin could pick them up and put them back into the candy cane. I lost it and started yelling. Something about them walking to the store next year and using their own money to buy their friends’ gifts and then walking to their friends house to deliver the gifts because I couldn’t stand to be in the car with them. And I may or may not have used the “h” word during my rant.

Day 23 -- The Nutcracker
Hadley and I spent the afternoon downtown with her cousins. Eating lunch at Gateway. Walking to Capitol Theatre. Watching “The Nutcracker” and going backstage to meet the cast. It was such a fun afternoon. I loved spending time with my girl. She even explained the story of The Nutcracker to me. This will definitely be an annual tradition!

Ice Skating
We rode Trax downtown with the Wares to go ice skating at the Gallivan Center. It was a great idea but a cold night to be waiting outside for a train. We had never taken the younger kids ice skating and decided to brave it and give it a try. Ryan has been ice skating in PE this year and loves it so he was very excited for this activity. Morgan went around one time, basically being carried, and let us know she was done. Not her sport. Mia and Griffin went around a few times. The first time around was shaky (for me and for them) but they picked up on it to where they could actually move their feet a little bit and not just slide back and forth and knock me over.

Morgan was NOT excited about the train. We told the kids we were driving to the train station to take the train downtown. Morgan kept saying over and over, “Not me. Not me. Okay Daddy? No train for me!” You can tell how much she hated that train ride! Once she sat down, she was so excited and kept saying, “I love this train!"

Griffin wanted to make sure he got a picture of his ice skates. “Everyone can look at the picture and know what my ice skates looked like.”

If you look through the blurred mess, you can see Hadley skating with Mia and Gavin trying to ~~pry~~ ~~Morgan’s hands off of the railing~~ skating with Morgan.

I managed to skate around the rink a few times. Each time getting a little braver and venturing further away from the wall. I didn’t fall, at least not ice skating. I fell walking back to Trax. Down some stairs when I was looking at the tents set up for “Occupy Utah” and not the approaching stairs.

It was fun to be downtown, ice skating outside with all of the Christmas lights and music but not so fun to do it all in the cold December weather.

Up next: Christmas Eve

Happy Thanksgiving!

2011-11-24T19:46:00.001-07:00

I’m grateful for . . .

My big family. Everyone was in town this year for Thanksgiving. All of the cousins have been having so much fun together with outings to the movies, sleepovers, video game marathons, shopping, etc. We had the girls sleep over the first night so it was the boys turn last night. The Rushings are really mean parents and don’t let their kids have any video games in their home so their kids tried to make up for lost time and stayed up all night playing NBA 2K12. I told them to go to bed around 2 in the morning. I guess I don’t carry much weight around here because I heard them hooting and hollering at 7:30 in the morning. I went downstairs and took the controllers away and told all of them to go to sleep.

They got about an hour of sleep before it was time to wake up for the 5K Turkey Trot. Uncle Scott woke them up and jokingly told them how happy he was that everyone was well rested and got a full night’s sleep because they had a big day planned. . . Turkey Trot, raking leaves for the widows in the neighborhood and Thanksgiving dinner. Gavin held on to his record of crossing the finish line first, then it was Uncle Scott, followed by the newcomer this year, Hadley.

I'm grateful for my own family especially that cute guy on my right!

Morgan’s grateful for Grandpa

Grateful for yummy food, family traditions, great conversations and a home big enough to hold all of us together.

Grateful for my husband’s sense of humor. Gavin likes a good joke. And many times the joke includes some weird clothing ensemble. He got this years and years ago from a building my dad leased to a car dealership. He decided to have it make it’s grand appearance today for Thanksgiving dinner and was nice enough to wear a shirt on top of it for the big family picture.

And I’m grateful for my amazing parents! I am so very blessed!

Another teenager in the house!

2011-11-24T17:43:00.000-07:00

It’s hard to believe that my little “Ry-Ry” is now 13 years old. The years have gone by so quickly. It seems just like yesterday that I was holding my newborn baby boy. He was a posterior birth which meant it took awhile for him to finally get out and once he was born, his face was really swollen for a few hours. It didn’t help that he was 9 lbs. 2 oz. and 22 inches long! We joked that we got our football player. He lost all of that baby fat by the time he was 2 years old but still went on to love football. Ryan came into this world full of personality and it hasn’t stopped. I love looking back and seeing how their little personality was right there from the very beginning. He was a cuddly, loving newborn. High pitched, whiny, naughty toddler who thrived on negative attention. Early reader, girl crazy, friends with everyone, baby loving, smart, athletic, and crazy sense of humor child. And now we are on to the teenage years.

A look back in pictures. I can’t believe the change between 9 and 10 years old. I had to keep checking to make sure I didn’t miss a year somewhere. Proof that one day, they are your little boy and the next day they turn into big kids!

He wanted to do a late over/movie night for his Birthday party but had to wait a week since his Birthday was on a school night. Ryan doesn’t like cake or ice cream which makes it hard to do anything special on his birthday. I decided to try and do something different and filled his bedroom floor with balloons. You can see how excited he was to wake up.

I mistakenly thought that Ryan might want my help and suggestions on what to wear for his birthday. I set out some real clothes for him. Clothes that are in his closet and haven’t been touched. Ever. He and Jack prefer wearing the clothes in their drawers . . . shorts, tshirts and hoodies EVERY DAY. Doesn’t matter if it’s snowing and freezing outside. He came upstairs to open his presents in his usual attire and the clothes battle began. It wouldn’t be a good teenage birthday celebration without some teen attitude. He refused to change his clothes (which is fine. I choose not to fight the boys on their clothes. If they want to be outside in the cold with shorts and a hoody, then that’s their choice. This battle was because he had worn the same shorts the day before, slept in them and was wearing them again. I do have a problem with that even if I was known to do the same thing at his age!) and opened his presents, grouchy and all, barely paying attention to what he was opening. Mumbling a few 'thank yous’ only after being prompted. I think it was a combination of not wanting to wear the clothes on his bed and not seeing a new iPod in the pile of gifts.

Gavin took Ryan and a few friends to McDonald’s for a Birthday breakfast before school. I sent a text asking him to get a picture of them in McDonalds. He responded, “in the car going through the drive thru?”. I had arranged to do the morning carpool so they could eat breakfast and then be dropped off at school. Obviously I didn’t communicate this to Gavin very well. The boys were still happy with their quick birthday-breakfast-in-the-car-before-school. Ryan came home to get his backpack and was a different child. All smiles and happy. He ran downstairs and changed his clothes and took time to look at his gifts again and this time when he said thank you, he meant it.

The little kids waited all day for Ryan to get home from school so they could finally eat his cake. We sang Happy Birthday to him while Morgan blew out his candles a few times and then everyone had a piece of cake. Everyone but Ryan who doesn’t like cake.

We went out to dinner at the restaurant of his choice-- Training Table. Morgan gave him 13 kisses. One kiss for every year. She was sitting next to him and said to herself, “Happy Birthday, Ryan. I like Ryan!”

He had his birthday party the next week right before Thanksgiving break. He had his friends come over for a movie night, Super 8, and lots of candy, soda and popcorn. Birthday parties are so much easier as the kids get older.

In honor of his 13th birthday . . . 13 things you may not know about Ryan:

1. He wants a hamster for Christmas (yes, another hamster!).

2. School comes easy for him. He’s set a goal of getting straight A's every quarter in 7th grade. We told the kids in junior high that they could go on a trip anywhere in the United States with us if they maintained a 4.0 all year. Not thinking about ALL of the states as being a choice. Jack and Ryan instantly thought about Hawaii or Alaska as their destination choice. He’s shooting for Hawaii.

3. He loves sports, especially football (talented receiver) and basketball.

4. He is a huge BYU fan. Thanks to his best friend, Tate.

5. He is tender hearted. He loves babies, Down syndrome and adoption.

6. He doesn’t like sweets. Didn’t have a piece of cake on his own birthday. Gave his Halloween candy away to his siblings.

7. He loves hot chocolate, especially hot chocolate from 7-11.

8. He takes after his dad’s enthusiasm for Christmas. He loves the Advent activities and spent hours hanging Christmas lights all over his bedroom. Just like Gavin did when we were dating. Only Ryan used tape and Gavin used a stapler. The boys both go to sleep listening to Christmas music on the radio every night.

9. He loves to eat at Training Table. Cheese fries and Turkey Bacon sandwich.

10. He doesn’t let asthma slow him down.

11. He’s working on his six pack.

12. He has a great sense of humor.

13. Still trusts his parents to do his hair every morning.

Happy 13th Birthday, Ryan! We are so lucky to have you in our family! We love you!

Halloween.

2011-11-09T15:54:00.004-07:00

Remember when Halloween meant a school parade and trick or treating and it all happened on the same day? Oh, the good ol’ days. Halloween now ~~drags on~~ lasts about a week and by the time the actual day arrives I am ready for it be over already. I can only dress up six kids so many times and try to keep their costumes clean for so long before I am ready to store those babies (the costumes, that is) away.

No one could decide on what they wanted to be for Halloween this year. We wanted to try to do a family theme again but nothing really sounded that great. Until I saw a link on Facebook for a tutorial on Angry Birds costumes. I jokingly asked my friend, Jenni, if she wanted to do an Angry Bird Flock with our family and make the costumes together. Not only was she game, but she helped me pick out all of the stuff needed to make them and did all of the sewing while I did the cutting. All I know is that we would have never made it by Halloween 2011 in these costumes without all of her help. What took her a few days would’ve taken me a few months.

Flock of Angry Birds

Jack thought we looked like we wearing big pillows on our stomachs (not that there’s anything wrong with that!) and wanted to do his own thing. He decided he wanted to be the Joker from Batman and was willing to pay the difference of the store bought costume from the home made costume which meant he really wanted to be the Joker if he’s willing to pay $25 for it.

The school parade was 4 days before Halloween which made the real Halloween feel like just another day when they didn’t wear their costumes or have class parties on the real day. The school PARADE was more like a 5K sprint. The kids run by their parents as they try to snap a picture, usually of the back of their child’s head, before they’re gone. Hadley was one of the few who actually stopped and posed for a minute. That’s my girl!

Morgan loves her morning aide, Brittany. She talks about her all of the time and now likes to add that Brittany was “Jessie” for Halloween. We’re so lucky we got her! She was a first grade teacher who decided to go part time after having a baby. She’s been amazing to help Morgan with her IEP goals and doing the classroom curriculum.

My friend signed me up to be in charge of Griffin’s kindergarten classroom party. Luckily I found out a few weeks before the day. I love volunteering in my kids’ classrooms and seeing how they interact with their peers and their teachers. It was so fun to be a part of his party!

We had several different stations: Halloween story book time, Popcorn hands, Spider donut decorating and Pumpkin bowling. Lesson learned--it takes more than one pumpkin to do bowling.

Morgan had a costume party the next day with her cheerleading group, The Elite Angels. She really did have fun just wasn’t in the mood to smile by the end of class.

She loved all of the games!

The next day was our ward’s Trunk or Treat. We had yummy soup, costume and carved pumpkins contest, a carnival and then trunk or treating in the parking lot.

Griffin put the mouth on the ghost on his first try.

Trunk or Treating

Every Halloween we go to our friends’ neighborhood pre-Trick or Treating dinner. My favorite part is watching as my friends arrive in the craziest costumes. This year the hosts' house is under construction so the party was in the circle and they dressed up as construction workers. Tiffany rocked the 'stache!

Jack went trick or treating with his friends and then ended the night at our house for a little party and movie watching--Poltergeist. Even with the outdated special effects, I heard screams several times coming up from the basement.

Hadley with her best ANGRY bird face.

These little yellow birds were my favorite. They could barely walk in their costumes and waddled as they walked. So cute!

Last year they were Napoleon Dynamite and Pedro. This year they were "the King" Pig and “the Bomb” bird.

It was a beautiful night for trick or treating. The rain and snow waited until the day after Halloween and we appreciated its hospitality. It made trick or treating even more enjoyable. The little kids went to a record number of homes before coming home to help pass out the candy. Morgan loved giving the trick-or-treaters not just one candy but handfuls as she said, “Here you go, honey. Happy Halloween!” Sounding just like all of those cute grandmas who had given her candy earlier in the evening.

I’m enjoying the quiet that comes between Halloween and Thanksgiving. Using the time to get caught up on projects and prepare myself for the busyness that comes with the Christmas season. I’ve finished a few furniture refinishing projects, furniture from my grandma's that has been sitting in our garage for way too long. Gavin’s hoping to be able to fit his car in the garage again one day soon. Finished up the school directory and now hoping to have some time to start working on homemade Christmas gifts. Can’t believe it’s just around the corner!

Fall Roundup

2011-11-08T13:59:00.000-07:00

I think Fall would top my favorite time of the year list if I didn’t know what was right around the corner. Cold and snow. I love October, Halloween, costumes, candy, pumpkin patches, perfect temperatures, fall food, hot chocolate, fall pictures and little league football games. We stayed extra busy enjoying everything FALL and now I can’t believe Thanksgiving is just around the corner.

It’s not always easy to find something that all of the kids can enjoy but Hee Haw Farms never disappoints. We always seem to get there just in time to catch the last wagon ride of the day. The kids love to ride on it and catch the candy as it is thrown into the wagon.

Seriously. How tall this fall? is right! This boy is growing like crazy. We almost see eye to eye now which says a lot since I’m 5’9. I grabbed a pair of his shoes the other day to put on as I had to run out the door and was shocked that they were too big. But the biggest surprise was when I called home the other day while I was working and thought I was talking to Gavin, wondering why he was being so short with all of his answers.

“What are you doing?”
“Cleaning.”
“Oh. . . Cleaning what?”
“Everything!” (the irritated voice gave it away).
“Jack?”
“Yah?”
“Can I talk to Dad?”

I guess that’s what happens when you have a teenager in the home.

We attempted to do the corn maze and I know the older kids were disappointed that we didn’t finish it. Morgan didn’t want to stay on the path and enjoyed walking right through the corn fields and hiding from us. She also liked picking up random cobs of corn and eating them.

Some nice lady saw me taking a picture of the family and told me to go get in the picture so we could have a family picture of all of us. She asked me after how it looked and of course I told her it was perfect. Thinking about hanging it on our wall or using it for our Christmas cards this year.

Morgan enjoyed doing her own thing. Hiding in the middle of the cornstalks. Walking down the wrong path. Eating random old corn off the stalks. Running away from us. We decided it was time to get out of the maze and go do some of the other activities. Easier said than done. I thought we’d never find our way back to the activities. I was almost one of those crazies you hear about on the news who calls 911 for corn maze help.

This was our first time to pick our pumpkins from an actual pumpkin patch instead of the big cardboard box at the grocery store. Unfortunately we carved our pumpkins kind of early this year and they were showing it when it was finally time to light the candle on Halloween night.

We enjoyed a warm fall night at the Salt Lake Real soccer game. Our first time in the stadium. I was nervous with Morgan. She has a hard time with noise and didn’t enjoy going to the hockey game or basketball games. I was nervous when I turned the corner to see where we would be sitting. Our seats were right next to the Real band (or whatever it is.). But she started dancing as soon as they started banging their drums and making all of their noise. I think the outdoor stadium made a huge difference for her hearing sensory issues. We had a fun family night out even if Real didn’t win.

We made caramel apples with the Activity Day girls at church. Morgan loved the caramel and left the apple behind.

Morgan’s finished apple

October is also Red Ribbon Week at the school. Crazy hair day is a favorite. I let Morgan go all crazy by not combing her hair that morning and, not surprising, her communication note said she had the best day ever. There’s nothing she hates more than having her hair combed. Hadley did lots of braids in her hair. And Griffin wanted to look like a spiky dinosaur. He came home from school and asked to have his normal hair back. A boy (who had no craziness to his hair) in his class made fun of his hair.

Pumpkin carving with the cousins. We showed up in our costumes for a few minutes then took them off to carve. Felt doesn’t wash and I wasn’t about to make new costumes. Gavin’s brother, Trevor, hosted the party at his house this year. We’ve kind of lost the tradition of pumpkin carving together every year since his parents moved away. No one dares host with all of the pumpkin seeds that seem to fly all around the yard. Trevor claims to still get pumpkins every year even though he’s never planted a pumpkin seed.

Ryan starts the serious process of putting the design on the pumpkin. Angry Bird this year. Keeping with the theme of his costume.

Jack’s pumpkin barely made it out of the pumpkin patch. Half of his pumpkin was a big soggy mess before he even started carving his bat and gravestone. (Hey Jeff!)

Hadley’s Skeleton and Cat design ended up breaking off mid carving.

Morgan anxiously waited her turn with the knife. She was crazy this year!

Mia didn’t have a lot of demands.

"I just want a Princess Pumpkin, Dad!"

and Dad delivered. . . just check out that adorable Princess Pumpkin!

This pumpkin still makes me smile. Griffin took his time drawing this face on his pumpkin and then asked Gavin to carve it. Dimples and all. Cute little pumpkin face!

Mia loves babies! She had so much fun playing with Oliver.

Donut eating contest. Object of the game -- eat donut off of the string with no arms or hands. Uncle Scott added a new variable with swinging the pole up and down and back and forth. I think Ryan ended up winning the game.

(L to R) Mia’s Princess Pumpkin, Griffin’s cute pumpkin face, Morgan’s vomiting pumpkin, Ryan’s Angry Bird pumpkin, Jack’s crazy face. (Hadley was still busy craving when this picture was taken.)

Griffin loves his cousins. He has so much fun playing with Zach, Nixon and Kamen. He and Zach took a minute to check out all of the pumpkins together.

Fall wouldn’t be complete without witchy nail makeovers. We took the Activity Day girls to Gardner Village for manicures. The girls had so much fun and had the best witchy nails for Halloween.

Morgan gave this girl a run for her money. She would paint one nail and Morgan would quickly wipe it with her finger or on the paper towel. Still not sure how she managed to get all of her nails painted and dry but they looked so cute and Morgan was in heaven. She loved having her nails done. Now she needs to learn how to overcome the incredible urge to touch and wipe off the new paint before it dries. She was so excited and just like anything that she feels is a big accomplishment, she wanted to show Daddy. So we texted a picture of her cute orange nails to Dad.

Griffin had his first performance in elementary school and sang lots of Halloween and Fall songs for us.

I’m not a football fan unless it’s my own flesh and blood on the field. Ryan had a great season with some amazing catches. His team did really well and were undefeated for awhile. The best part was that we had good weather the entire season. Not that I’m a fair weather fan but I kind of am.

Jenni and I make a good team. She gives me the play by play updates and I make sure all of my fb friends are updated.

Ryan didn’t want to miss any games. Not even Asthma would stop him. He was on steroids and major nebulizing treatments for a viral induced asthma exacerbation and he still went out and gave his all. We are probably the only parents on the sidelines with a pulse oximeter asking the coach to pull their son out of the game so they can make sure he is still getting enough oxygen.

Grandpa and Grandma decided to spend most of the Fall in Mexico this year but made sure to come to Ryan’s game on the one Saturday that they were in town. On my Mom’s 69th Birthday. Happy Birthday Mom!

Fall family pictures are a must but I have such a love hate relationship with them. Love the pictures. Hate getting them. This year it took two attempts. Our first time, Morgan was not going to cooperate no matter what we tried. And most of the pictures were blurry. So we went back a few days later for Take Two. Morgan was cooperative and we got some keepers.

Welcome to the Jungle!

2011-10-25T17:03:00.001-06:00

Still catching up . . .

Morgan turned 9 years old last month and had quite the birthday celebration. We started talking about her birthday and what she wanted to do for her party a few weeks before her birthday. She knew right away that she wanted to have a Jungle Book party and go to a movie. No surprise there, she watches Jungle Book 2 almost everyday and loves Mowgli! She wanted to have her party right then and was mad when it was time to go to bed and wanted to know what happened to going to the movie. Hadley made a birthday countdown chain to help her know how many more days until her big day.

She got an early birthday celebration at Grandma and Grandpa’s house the Sunday before her big day! She loves having everyone sing to her and didn’t complain about getting to do it a few times that week.

She wanted donuts for her classroom birthday treat. She couldn’t stop smiling when she saw me walk into her classroom. She helped pass out the napkins and donuts to her classmates. It was on Spirit Day when the students wear red to show their Tiger Pride.

Finally the big day! She woke up very excited to go downstairs and open her presents. Her big gift from us was an iPad. We got it hoping she could use it in the classroom and at home to help with school work and modifications. I keep finding the older kids’ games downloaded on it though. I still think it’s going to be great but it’s going to take us some time to figure out how to implement it into her homework and school stuff. She still gets frustrated trying to type on the screen and pushes too many times the same key or backspaces all of the word off of the screen. So far it’s just been a really expensive video player.

I love these pictures. This is so Morgan! I wanted to get some pictures of her and she wanted nothing to do with it. She sat there with a serious face, determined to not look at the camera, and then after a few minutes, out of the blue, she started laughing and doing her “King Tut Dance” for the camera. And of course she was all smiles after that.

I can’t believe how grown up she is -- Nine years old! Wow! I know every mom feels like this with their kids, but it’s different with Morgan. It really does surprise and amaze me every year to think of how quickly she is growing up. That first year of her life is still so vivid in my memory. It feels like it just happened. Not nine years ago. I was so worried about the future when she was born. Worried about how it would be to have an older child, a teenager, an adult with Down syndrome. Worried about all of the unknowns. I learned that first year to take it one day at a time. And here we are nine years later and it’s been all good. I look at these pictures and am overwhelmed with love and pride for that beautiful girl. So lucky she is mine!

She had a lot of friends and cousins come to help her celebrate her big day. I was worried about having too many friends at the party but then realized having too many friends is a good problem to have. She knew they were all there for her and loved greeting each friend as they arrived to her house. Her friend, Macey (sitting on the left of her), was especially cute with Morgan. Making sure she was taken care of the whole time. Macey can’t hear but somehow she and Morgan are able to communicate together perfectly. All of her friends are so amazing and patient with her. She loves them and they love her!

They played outside, played games on the trampoline, ate pizza, opened presents and then it was time to sing Happy Birthday and eat cupcakes and ice cream.

Instead of going out to a movie, we made our basement into a movie theater. The kids all got “Morgan Money” to buy concessions for the movie. Then we started the movie. I had this great idea to rent Jungle Book (the original movie) since Morgan had never seen that one before. I should’ve known. She loves repetition and knowing all of the lines in the movie. The first JB is slow and not a lot of songs. She kept asking to watch Jungle Book 2 during the movie but I knew I didn’t have time to start and finish a different movie. The kids were interested in the movie until the last little part and then they started jumping all around, spilling pop all over the carpet, running through the house. Morgan finally liked the movie when Shanti made her appearance at the very end of the movie. After the movie ended and the lights were back on, Morgan went and found the DVD cover for Jungle Book 2 and said, “This one, Mom!” Letting me know that I had really failed with the movie selection. Luckily she still loves me and managed to have a great birthday celebration!

In honor of her 9th birthday, 9 things you might not know about Morgan . . .

1. She loves sharing a room with Hadley. She doesn’t like to get into her bed before Hadley is going to bed too. She usually ends up switching beds in the night and climbing up into the top bunkbed to sleep right next to Hadley.

2. She wakes up super early every morning (5 am) and watch the TV or computer (with the volume as loud as it goes) until everyone else wakes up. She now has a lock on the outside of her door and no lights in her room so she goes right back to sleep after she wakes up.

3. She’s nice to Griffin and she loves him. (Griffin really wanted to tell the reason for #3).

4. She’s a great reader and speller. She gets 100% on almost every spelling test.

5. She loves to ride her bike. It’s her first vehicle choice for her getaways. She was getting out of the house almost daily and riding her bike to the school to play on the playground. We have amazing neighbors who knew to let us know every time they saw her riding her bike unaccompanied. Gavin finally moved the garage door openers up on the wall, out of her reach, and she’s been stuck home ever since.

6. She soothes herself by sucking on her finger, especially when she’s tired or at school. We used this yucky tasting stuff to break the thumb sucking habit when she was in 1st grade and it worked. Until she found her finger. I just started the yucky tasting stuff on her finger. Hopefully it will work. Her jaw is already too small and the constant sucking doesn’t help things.

7. Morgan hates to have her hair brushed. Really, really hates it. It’s the worst part of our day. She screams, cries, hits me and calls me all kinds of bad names, usually it’s a boy because nothing’s worse than calling a girl a boy (Jafar, Flynn Ryder, Aladdin, Mean Mother --mom in Tangled).

8. She started cheerleading this past summer with Elite Angels. She’ll have her first competition in January.

9. Her favorite activities are swimming and watching Disney movies.

Happy 9th Birthday Morgan! We love you!

No more braces!

2011-10-24T00:45:00.002-06:00

The orthodontist predicted Jack would have braces for 18 to 24 months when he got them. 27 months later. . . Jack is officially brace free! He did a good job at wearing his elastics without many reminders from me and did a good job getting his teeth brushed and braces clean. He was excited to finally get them off! They gave him a big bag full of treats -- all of the things he wasn’t supposed to eat with braces. Weird, but I don’t remember him not eating cornnuts, jolly ranchers, laffy taffy, gum, etc. He got to go directly from the orthodontist to the dentist to get a cavity filled (his first one since he got his braces) so he can get his permanent retainers on his teeth next week. He only had a few minutes to enjoy the amazement of how big and smooth his teeth felt before he was talking about how fat and huge his lip felt.

I think the biggest surprise for me was looking at his before pictures. I can’t get over how much he has grown up these past two years. He was still such a little kid back in 2009. What a difference two years makes!

The BEFORE pictures. . .

And the almost after pictures. Getting the braces removed.

And the AFTER picture. It’s a cheesy, forced smile but his regular smile doesn’t show any teeth so I made him give me a big, fake smile. Love the new brace-free smile!

One down. Two in braces. Three to go.

Diversity Means . . .

2011-10-19T00:23:00.003-06:00

That’s the theme for this year’s "Reflections for Students". I’ve never had any of my kids show any interest in participating in the annual Reflections contest at school. And I’m sure my lack of time or initiative didn’t help the cause either. So I didn’t pay much attention to the papers that came home from school except for liking the theme this year. Diversity. I love anything that points out the positive of differences, acceptance and respect. I was surprised when Hadley’s piano teacher called to let us know that Hadley had been working on composing a piano piece the last few weeks that she wanted to enter into the Reflection’s contest. It was only a few months ago that Hadley was struggling in piano (more the practicing then the actual playing). It was always a battle and it didn’t seem like she was learning the notes and only memorizing the hand positions and if she should skip or step between the notes. We decided to switch things up this past summer and see if there was a difference. She started taking piano lessons from a new teacher, who just happened to be her old (but young) 3rd grade teacher. We witnessed a complete change. I never had to remind her or ask her to practice the piano. We were all usually woken up bright and early to Hadley’s piano practicing. She got new music, songs that she knew and it was fun to play instead of the scales and Bastien books she was playing in her other class. She now loved piano! Her teacher moved last month to Naples, Florida (she wanted to ‘enjoy the small things’ or something like that) and her mom took over as her piano teacher and has been just as great for Hadley.

She played the song while her teacher wrote down the notes.

The final piece.

She named the song, “Rainbow After the Storm” and then she had to write a small essay describing how her art entry relates to the theme, “Diversity Means. . .” This is what she wrote--

I did “The Rainbow After the Storm” because a rainbow has different colors that work together perfectly. I wanted to do a piano song because in music there are tons of different notes and when you put them all together they create something wonderful!

She also had to include a CD of her playing the music. That took almost all afternoon to figure out how to get something from the piano into the computer but voice memo on the iphone worked like a charm! Here’s the recording from when Hadley played and I recorded. Enjoy.

Girls Trip

2011-10-07T14:28:00.003-06:00

I spent the last weekend in September touring around the Northwest with some of my favorite friends. We were long overdue for a girls trip and an email notification about low airfare rates was enough push to make the trip finally a reality. I sent out an email in June asking friends and sisters who would have interest in a girls trip. I loved opening the return emails and being surprised and excited by the words, “I’m in!”. We ended up with 7 of us on the trip -- my sister, sis-in-law, freshman roommate, best friend, her sister and childhood friend. I was nervous how it would work with such a wide variety of friends and not everyone knowing each other, but it was perfect!

We had 3 full days and wanted to make every day count. We started the planning and had so much we wanted to do. Much more than Seattle. We wanted to go into Canada and visit the San Juan Islands, too. I asked for suggestions on Trip Advisor and was quickly shut down. Told we were trying to fit in too much and couldn’t possibly do the 3 locations in only 3 days. We were up for the challenge!

Day 1: Friday Harbor, San Juan Islands

We drove 90 minutes from Seattle to catch the ferry over to Friday Harbor. We lucked out with planning this day first. It was the warmest day of the week. Beautiful and sunny. We relaxed on the ferry for an hour and enjoyed the amazing scenery around us. It almost felt like I was in Alaska again.

We had about 5 hours on the island and spent the afternoon walking around the harbor, eating lunch and shopping in the cute boutique stores. Daisie and Sylvia headed out on a whale watching tour and saw lots of beautiful sea life but not a lot of whales.

The ‘Seal’ sisters!

All of us with the sailboats in the background. At least that’s what I asked for when I handed the guy my camera. Just know that there were lots of beautiful sailboats directly behind us. We took the ferry back and drove 2 hours to Vancouver, BC.

Day 2: Vancouver, BC
This was my favorite day. I love everything about Vancouver! It’s a big city but has a completely different feel than other big cities. It has a little bit of everything. Great food and shopping. Harbor and bridges. Mountains, rain forest, and parks. And we always felt safe, even walking around after midnight. We spent the day biking all around Vancouver. The bike ride was definitely the highlight of the weekend (and the jumping pictures on the beach)! I highly recommend the bike tour!

My sister, Heidi, was our designated driver. She drove us all over Washington and across the border without a complaint. We spent about 6 hours in the car but it flew by with all of our endless talks. We figured out that between the 7 girls, we have 31 children which meant we all appreciated being able to have uninterrupted, adult conversation (i.e. plastic surgery horror stories, healthy eating ideas, confessing that we were armed with cabbage while crossing the border). We did have one small collision with a light pole in a parking lot. Sorry Cassidy, my niece who gets to drive the damaged car to school now.

We started the bike tour riding on the path along the seawall and rode into Stanley Park and saw all of the totem poles.

Brockton Point Lighthouse and the beautiful architecture of Vancouver.

We spent a few hours riding around through the rain forest in Stanley Park. This was my favorite part of the ride. It was incredible to be inside the rain forest. The scenery and scent of pine while trying to ride my bike to the top of the hills (unsuccessfully). It was absolutely beautiful!

Beaver Lake

Lions Gate Bridge at Prospect Point in Stanley Park

Our poor tour guide, Dan. We kept asking him to stop every few minutes so we could take a few pictures. He had no idea what was in store when he took us to see Third Beach. We asked him if he would take a few pictures of us jumping together on the beach. 30 minutes later . . . uncontrolled laughter and no picture of the seven of us in the air at the same time. We tried 5 different times and just couldn’t get the timing right. Synchronized jumping may not be our strong point but the pictures are my favorite from the trip. I can’t look at them without laughing.

Jump #1

I love this one! Rae (far left) is the best one in this jumping picture. She managed to get her right leg off of the ground!

Jump #2

Jump #3

Rae proves she can get some air

Jump #4

I love my hyper extended arms in every. single. picture. From start to finish! Obviously I was never a cheerleader!

We took the aquabus and bikes over to Granville Island. We didn’t have a lot of time to shop or look around after all of the jumping and picture taking. Just enough time to walk through the market and get some lunch.

We rode through ChinaTown and walked through Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Chinese garden.

Rode on the brick and asphalt streets in Gastown and checked out the last functioning steam clock.

And finished the tour with just enough time to walk to Robson Street and shop for souvenirs and yummy Canadian candy bars.

Day 3: Seattle

We spent our last day back in Seattle. We started off the morning with a small rear ending accident into a light pole on our way to church. Church is always so much better out of town. Not sure if it’s the no kids to worry about or if it’s because we just aren’t as diverse of a group in Utah. We met a sweet lady at church who let us know over and over that God loves us. A nice way to start out our day. We spent the rest of the day at the obvious tourist stop . . . Pike’s Market.

The market is full of beautiful flowers, flying fish, yummy chowder, local talent, unique boutiques, great people watching and . . . the GUM WALL!

Vennesa also got to try out her first vanilla steamer at the original Starbucks location at Pike’s.

We ended the day with the Underground Tour. It was cool to see how they built Seattle right on top of the old city after it burned in the early 1900’s. You can walk around under the sidewalks and streets and see where the old city used to be.

Pioneer Square

We were able to fit in one more thing on our way to the airport. The Fremont Troll.

Thank you girls for all of the fun memories! Now it’s time to start planning our next getaway!

St. George Marathon Weekend

2011-10-03T13:02:00.001-06:00

I always think that once school starts, I am going to have all of this extra time to finally get caught up on everything that’s on my to-do list . . . painting all of my grandma’s old furniture (so Gavin’s car can finally fit in the garage again), start and finish digital scrapbooks before Christmas Eve, get caught up on the blog, organize the house, etc. But it never works out that way. I’m not sure why but instead of more free time, I end up having even less time. Can’t believe the kids have been in school for more than a month already and that Halloween is just around the corner. We’ve been busy with lots of good things and hopefully I will get to catching up on the blog one day soon. But for now. . .

We spent the weekend in St. George at Nan and Papa’s house. Gavin trained all summer, waking up bright and early, to run and train for his 7th marathon. His goal was to finish in less than 4 hours. Once again, Ryan stayed behind at his friend’s house so he could play in his big football game on Saturday. They had their first loss of the season but Ryan did have an interception.

We took Zeus on his first road trip. He rode in his kennel in the back of the car and did great. Hadley and Nan took the dogs out for a walk on our first morning there.

We spent the first day swimming at Uncle Brendan’s and Aunt Nicole’s cold pool. Griffin and Kamen were inseparable and had so much fun together.

We went to Pizza Factory the night before the race for some good pre-race Carb loading.

And then Gavin took off with Uncle Richie to sleep in the cabin in Pine Valley

Hadley and Jack had fun making posters the night before the race. Nan asked Jack what the teenagers say these days when something is cool. His response? “Coo”

“You so ‘coo’ aliens would abduct you."

We found a good spot around mile 25-26 to watch and cheer on all of the runners. It is an emotional experience to watch the runners as they approach the finish line. Lolly and I both got a little teary-eyed, especially as we watched one man finish the wheelchair division using only one hand to push his wheelchair to the finish line. And I always get emotional when I finally find Gavin in the crowd and see him so close to the finish line. Proud of his hard work, determination, endurance and example.

He made his goal of finishing under 4 hours. Barely. 3:59!!! Way to go, Gavin!

His biggest fans!

Gavin and his parents

Gavin with his brother, Brendan, Nicole and Baby Shae

I think this was the only time that Gavin got to rest all day. A few minutes on the grass with some ice on his knees. And then he was back to full-time dad status.

We were spoiled all weekend with Nan’s yummy cooking . . . waffles and sourdough hotcakes, chocolate sheet cake, chocolate chip cookies, pot roast dinner, and lots of yummy snacks. It was hard to leave all of that goodness. And the kids even slept this time around. Except for those early morning wakings when Morgan woke up hours before everyone else to let Zeus out of his kennel and kindly put him into her grandparents’ bedroom. Barking and all.

And if you’re wondering why anyone would ever want to run a marathon. Watch this. It even made me wish I had joints that could handle a marathon. Very inspiring!

The end of summer

2011-09-01T16:40:00.000-06:00

All good things must come to an end. At least that’s how the saying goes and it was really good. We managed to fit in a lot of fun even if we were jipped on our summer break. The kids got out a week later for summer this year and went back to school a week earlier.

I bought a family season pass to Raging Waters this year and we went enough times to get our moneys worth. The kids knew what “our usual spot” meant when discussing towel drop offs and meet up zone. Morgan, Griffin and Mia spent most of their time in the kid’s zone and the big kids disappeared on the big water slides and wave pool. I did attempt to go down a big slide once during the summer. I hauled Morgan, Mia and my double tube up a million stairs, got to the top, forced two screaming kids on to the tube with me, pretended I didn’t notice everyone staring at me in the line, upset at how long it was taking me to get all of us on the tube and go down the slide. We made it to the bottom of the slide and the girls let me know how that wasn’t fun and too fast and too scary. And even though that was the slowest slide at the park, I kinda agreed with them and called it good for the season.

Our last big adventure to Raging Waters was with Heidi’s family while they were in town. It was super crowded since it was the last weekend before the beginning of school and we got rained on. The kids loved swimming and playing in the rain until the park was shut down for weather safety.

Mia danced in the rain, grabbed for raindrops and caught a few in her mouth.

Just like the previous summers, we spent most of our free time swimming up at my parents’ home. There were lots of swimming lessons, friend playdates, Wendy’s dollar menu items and days enjoying the sunshine and water. Their pool was shut down for about a week in the middle of summer and I really panicked. It was too hot to play outside in the backyard but too boring to hang out inside all day. It made me realize how lucky we are to have this great pool just minutes away from us. And how lucky we are to have Uncle Blake for a swim teacher. Mia went from being timid and refusing to the leave the steps to being able to swim all over the shallow end of the pool. Hadley took a swimmer’s class and discovered yet another talent. The girl’s got serious coordination and speed! And she finally mastered the dive with her feet going in last. Ryan and Jack spent most of their time playing around on the diving board. Ryan’s favorite trick was a back flip. Griffin proved he can swim all over the pool and that doggy paddle is just as efficient as the skills he learned in his class. And Morgan is our little fish! First one in the pool and the last one out (usually not by choice but by the pool cover closing). She spends the entire time with her head under the water and her eyes wide open. She won’t wear goggles for more than two minutes and always had burning, red eyes when she got out of the water.

We should have done more lemonade stands. Hadley joined in a neighborhood stand and carried her weight with providing lemonade refills that she got to share in the earnings. If it was up to her, she would’ve had a lemonade and bake sale every day of the summer.

Lots of new tricks and adventures were found in the backyard . . . the trampoline, the slip-n-slide and playing in the plastic pool. Hadley set up her slip-n-slide and it remained on the grass for days and days as the kids played on it then it accidentally got popped by Jack but it was still workable after a little duct tape magic by Jack.

Mia hosted an impromptu tea party for Morgan using all of the new china sitting on the dining room table. Gavin walked by the living room and I heard him say, “Oh mommy is gonna love to see this!” And he was right. I did love it, all of it, down to my green couch armrest cover as the center place mats on the coffee table.

Boating was a favorite summer activity for everyone (and I even enjoyed it when I didn’t have to drive the boat). Jack mastered going over the wake on the wakeboard. Ryan and Hadley stuck to what they know best . . . the knee board and tube. Morgan loves the boat and has NO fear on the tube. The faster and bumpier the better. Griffin and Mia also love the tube. I don’t think Gavin and I water skied once this summer. I’m saving it for Lake Powell.

Tube Wars with the Rushings. "Hard core!"

And it wouldn’t be summer vacation without our annual trip to Lagoon on Down syndrome day (BOGO admission). It was a mini family reunion at the amusement park with all of the Stewart grandchildren there and a few Seals too. It made the day even that much better to spend it with cousins.

This cute girl knows what fun is!

All of the Stewart cousins

We had an extra fun ending to our summer. My sister, Heidi, and her family were in town for the last half of August. They kept us busy with outings to the park, family dinners, dollar movies, Education Week at BYU, swimming parties and lots of sleepovers.

Happy End of Summer! Welcome routine and structure!

I {heart} San Francisco

2011-08-15T01:59:00.002-06:00

We spent the last week of July in San Francisco for our 15th wedding anniversary celebration. Everything about it was perfect! SF is one of my favorite places in the world. I love that no matter how many times I go there, each trip is different and unique. My first time there was 4 years ago. I was barely pregnant with Mia, it was the end of June and I packed for a summer vacation to California. Fully expecting warm and sunny weather. I quickly learned that San Francisco is usually colder than warmer, no matter what time of year it is. I borrowed a few long sleeved shirts from Gavin and had an amazing weekend. I left knowing it wouldn’t be my last time there. I went back the next year with my sister and sister-in-law for a girl’s weekend trip. We biked the bridge, shopped, laughed and laughed, went to a few movies, signed up for a crappy city bus tour, and made the best memories together. I went back 6 months later for Gavin and his brother’s birthday celebration. Two months later, we escaped for a quick 36 hour trip with the Wares to see Wicked. Two years had passed and I was more than ready for a San Francisco adventure!

We spent some time at the Wharf with our friends, The Jensens, who happened to be traveling through San Francisco the same time we were there. I got my "Mia fix" with their adorable 3 year old, Victoria. She was my little buddy, busy holding my hand or getting piggy back rides around the wharf.

Look at all of those crazy tourists waiting hours to ride the cable car when they could walk up a few blocks and get right on one.

Maybe it’s empty and not moving but it was free, with no wait and we got a picture that makes it look like we rode on a cable car. Good enough for me!

We stayed at The Fairmont on the top of Nob Hill. It had amazing views of the city and harbor and lots of character. We could easily walk down to the wharf or to Union Square but had quite a walk up the steep hills back to the hotel.

We spent the second day on a personal city tour with our friend Jeff who now lives in the city. He drove us all around and took us to the best spots for views of the city and bridge and told us what we would have seen if it hadn’t been all covered up by the fog. Loved seeing all of the hidden gems of San Fran and new tourist spots that I hadn’t seen before.

We stopped by Rodeo Beach. Loved this beach! Instead of sand, the beach is covered in smooth, colorful pebbles. Morgan would’ve been entertained for hours with a shovel and pail at this spot!

That night we had a yummy dinner at City Hall

and then walked across the street to Symphony Hall for a surprise concert

Carrie Underwood did NOT disappoint. That girl has amazing talent and sounded incredible!

We spent the next day in Sonoma Valley at the wineries. I thought it would be fun to see this area of California. Thinking it would be similar to driving through northern Italy and all of the beautiful countryside full of lush vineyards. It didn’t quite live up to my expectations. It was more like rolling hills covered in dead, golden grasses with a small vineyard in the middle. Probably not the best tour option for non wine drinkers.

Cheers!

I know this wasn’t Gavin’s first choice but he knew I really wanted to see Billy Elliot and he was a good sport. He even pretended to be excited while everyone watched him try his best dance moves in front of the theater. I really enjoyed it. I don’t know that it’s the “best musical of the decade!” but it was definitely the best musical of the night.

The nights and mornings were beautiful. Every night the fog rolled in and covered the city. It changed the feel and look of the city and stayed around until late morning. I really couldn’t get enough of it.

Our hotel room had a huge picture window and I spent a lot of the night enjoying the beautiful, foggy view from my bed. Gavin woke up early every morning and went for a morning jog around the city while I slept in waiting for the sun to break through the fog letting me know it was time to wake up.

We spent the next day shopping all of the end-of-summer sales in Union Square. Gavin was a good sport while I spent hours in Zara. He left and came back a few hours later and found me in the same section of the store and started laughing. Hey, it isn’t easy shopping for six kids. I have to look at everything and remember who needs what and the right sizes. It’s a full time job!

Our last night was so much fun! Gavin’s company closed down Ghirardelli Square and we got to go from restaurant to restaurant for dinner. We had mini-donuts, lamb, seafood, Japanese cuisine, cupcakes, Ghirardelli ice cream, crab, etc.

But even after all of the food samplings, our favorite was still the first thing we tried. Mini-donuts.

We spent our last day shopping around Haight and Ashbury. There were some great boutiques and consignment stores. And lots of tattoo and piercing shops. We managed to leave without any new piercings or tattoos. But I did pick up a few new clothes items.

We had time for a quick lunch on the wharf with Dave and Heidi and one last stop at the donut shop before we headed to the airport.

It was a perfect anniversary celebration. Happy 15 years to us!

Until next time San Francisco . . .

Weekend Update

2011-08-08T00:19:00.001-06:00

It’s been a busy weekend, but my favorite kind of busy. Outings and activities with the entire family, all of us together.

We kicked off the weekend with a late morning breakfast with Morgan’s buddies -- Lance and Jackson. They are within 6 months of each other and met as babies at Kindermusik at Jordan Valley. Lance moved away 6 years ago and we were so excited to go see him again. I couldn’t believe his height or his vocabulary and speech. I always seem to have a better time at these get togethers than Morgan does even if it’s supposed to be all for her!

The afternoon was spent at cheerleading with Morgan. They are working on their new routine for competitions this winter. I honestly can’t stop smiling when I get to go into the room and watch her practice. All of the girls work so hard and some of them have already perfected their cartwheels and somersaults. It's been such a great experience for her!

The last time we went to a Drive In movie was when Jack and Ryan were toddlers. Long enough that they had no memory of it. They were so excited as we drove into the parking lot and they saw all of the screens all around them. Ryan, out of his excitement, announced that he was definitely going to take his date to a Drive In movie when he was old enough to date.

Morgan, Griffin and Mia were excited to sit in the back of the truck to watch a movie in their pajamas. Griffin asked me if you could wear anything you wanted to Drive In Movies, like pajamas, or snow pants and snow boots, etc. I didn’t realize going out of the house in their pajamas was so risque.

It started out well but then just went downhill. Our view of the screen wasn’t the best and then about half way through the movie our car battery died and we could no longer really hear the movie. We stayed for The Smurfs but left after a few minutes into Zookeeper. I’m not giving up hope, though. I would like to try it again and get there early enough to get a good spot and take a portable radio that we can have right by us while we watch the movie.

The weekend was full of picnics beginning with a picnic lunch at Liberty Park on Saturday. Then we climbed around the playground, waded our feet in the canyon’s water area, pet a few random dogs, cooled off with snowcones and then rolled down the hill. Mia’s favorite part of this adventure were the paddle boats. (The boats we didn’t do because the wait was way too long). Next time we’ll have to make sure we do the paddle boats. For Mia.

We made a stop at the local goodwill shop (the DI) on our way to a water park. I was excited to find a big set of dishes and silver stuff. I got all of these dishes for $75 and silver goblets for $25. I know Gavin thinks I am crazy but Hadley loves it and gives me her full support! She helped take off all of the price tags late last night and loaded up the dishwasher so we could use them today. She arranged the dishes on the dining room table and even made place settings for everyone. We didn’t end up eating at home today but will definitely use our new dishes sometime during the week. I inherited some of my Grandma Norma’s glassware, silverware and gold cloudy mirrors that no one wanted. I love it! When I asked Gavin what he thought about all of it, he let me know that if my goal was to make our dining room look like a grandma’s house then, “Job well done! You did it!” I think he secretly loves it!

We ended the day at Raging Waters. My favorite part was the lazy river with all of us together on the tubes. I love when we find something that all ages can enjoy. And it felt so nice to cool off after being outside all day in the hot summer sun. Jack felt a little cooler too after his much needed haircut on our way to the water park. He doesn’t like it but give it a few weeks and it will be long again.

We decided to escape the summer heat and drive up to Heber City for a picnic after church today. Our plan of escaping the summer heat didn’t work but the kids were excited to be up in the mountains. Griffin was nervous that he’d fall off the tall point of the mountain and was disappointed when the park at the top of the mountain looked a lot like the park at the end of our street. He was hoping we’d be climbing up big hills to get to the top of the mountain. I’m thinking a family friendly hike up the mountain is in our near future.

We quickly ran out of drinks but Mia and Morgan made sure the last water bottle was all theirs by drinking out of the same bottle and letting the water go into their mouth, back into the bottle, and back into their mouth. No one else wanted to share their water with a little of their dinner mixed in it.

Everything is better with friends and family and the Weichers basically fall into both of those categories.

I love this cute face! Morgan trying to take a nap at the park.

Heads up!

We drove over to Heber Valley Railroad to let the kids play on the deserted trains

I love busy weekends. It makes me feel like we made the most out of the time we have with all of us together. We made new memories and hopefully some new traditions along the way. Only 2 more weeks until the kids go back to school. Hoping to make the most of it and surviving. It gets a little chaotic around here by the end of summer. The kids have done a great job on their weekly job charts again this summer which makes such a difference!

Boating Birthday

2011-08-05T01:27:00.002-06:00

I can’t believe my oldest is now 14! A soon-to-be ninth grader! It’s crazy and a little sad (okay, a lot sad) how quickly the years and birthdays come and go. Jack is growing up and becoming a full fledged teenager. He grew about 6 inches this past year and is now almost as tall as I am. And he loves it! His feet are big enough now that he can share Sunday shoes with his dad. And Jack and Ryan’s favorite Sunday morning activity is going into their dad’s closet and choosing one of his ties to wear to church that day.

Jack’s always been a smart, independent kid. And he signed up for a difficult school schedule in the fall. He already has an AP Geography summer project. Something to do with maps. Hopefully he’s been doing it. And a project of collecting insects over the summer for his Honor’s Biology class. The teacher told the kids to put the bug in a Ziploc bag, label the date and location of the bug, and put it in the freezer. Apparently that’s the most humane way to kill an insect. Not sure how they would know if that’s true but it doesn’t really matter because our freezer is full of Ziploc bags containing earwigs, moths, beetles, bees, potato bugs, etc. Gotta love school projects!

Jack knew exactly what he wanted to do for his birthday celebration . . . boating. Just like he did last year. He invited a few friends to help celebrate his day. They came over first thing in the morning and had some cake and ice cream for breakfast before heading out for the lake. Jack opened his present (card) from us. It was a card that had cut out pictures of his gifts that would be arriving in the mail in the next few days. A new ipod and SL Real soccer ball. He was excited, even if it was just pictures. Ryan surprised him with xbox games purchased at the DI. And Hadley got him a birthday card and treat. Love when my kids think about each other and want to help make their sibling’s day a special one!

The birthday boy! (U of U colored balloons)

The party guests

Jack, Jackson, Ryan, Matt, Jace and Logan

It was the perfect day for boating. Beautiful weather. Smooth water. And an almost unoccupied lake.

There was wake boarding

Planking

Knee Boarding

Tubing

And lots of wipe outs!

It was a great birthday celebration and I think all of the boys had fun trying out new tricks behind the boat. We ended the day with a late lunch in Park City and headed home. Jack spent the rest of the day playing his new xbox games from Ryan.

The Sunday following his birthday he was asked to give a talk on pioneers in Sacrament meeting. He did an excellent job. Grandma and Grandpa came to show their love and support for him and got the added bonus of hearing Hadley and Morgan sing a Pioneer Song with the Senior Primary during the meeting. After the meeting we all met with the Bishop and Jack was released from his calling as Deacon’s Quorum President and ordained a Teacher in the Aaronic Priesthood. I am so proud of Jack and the good choices he is making in his life to be the best that he can be. He’s a great example to his little brothers and sisters and they adore him and so do we!

Happy Birthday Jack! We love you!!!

15 Years!

2011-07-30T22:05:00.001-06:00

When Gavin and I were dating we went on a weekend trip to St. George with Jeff and Rae. We stopped at a gas station so Gavin could run in and grab a drink. He came out with a huge smile on his face, excited to let us know that the gas station carried red creme soda in their fountain drink selection. He was driving my red Honda Accord and I was in the passenger seat. Jeff and Rae were sitting in the back. He balanced his drink on my dashboard and drove off. I don’t think we made it even two blocks before the drink tipped over and spilled all over me, down the dashboard, into the vents and all over Jeff’s mix tape collection. Everyone was quiet and a little mad. Jeff about his ruined tapes and me about red soda all over me and my car. That’s when Rae dropped the, “Who, in their right mind, buys 32 ounces of red creme soda anyway???” Gavin does! So we celebrated 15 years of marriage with red creme soda floats at Jeff and Rae’s house.

Everyone had fun playing a game of add on.

Jeff entertained everyone with his tricky maneuvers!

We ended the night with a Smore’s roasted in their backyard fire pit.

15 years . . . they haven’t all been easy but they’ve been so worth it! Happy 15 Years!

May the force be with you

2011-07-16T23:09:00.000-06:00

The countdown for Griffin’s 5th Birthday began approximately 98 days ago. I don’t remember any of my other children being this excited about birthdays. It makes it more fun for all of us with all of the excitement and anticipation in the air. He made a birthday countdown chain, tore off a new chain every morning, counted the remaining chains and made the big countdown announcement every morning . . . "Only ____ more days until my birthday!” He loves everything Star Wars and knew he wanted a Star Wars themed birthday party (which translates to a swimming party with a Star Wars cake and pinata).

He woke up bright and early and couldn’t wait to open his gifts. We eventually woke up all of the other kids so they could watch him open his presents and sing happy birthday. He was thrilled with all the new Star Wars toys and school supplies.

It took him a minute to figure out how to work his new “Tailspin” bike but now he (and Ryan) love it!

Ryan helped him put together his new Lego's.

I took Griffin with me shopping for all of the birthday decorations and cake. He loved choosing the cake, balloons, party gifts, etc. I debated if it would be more fun just to wake up and be surprised by it all but it was so fun having him with me. Watching as he looked at all of the options and then choose his favorites . . . Star Wars tattoos, Storm Trooper arm bands, Darth Vader pinata, Luke Skywalker and Boba Fett puzzles.

It was the perfect summer day for swimming with his friends and cousins

It isn’t a birthday party without a pinata, just ask Griffin! The pull string pinata was a new option, less violent but harder to control when the candy falls. Almost everyone got a turn to pull a string before Gregory found the magical string to open the door to the candy.

The cute (and wet) party guests

All of these cute cousins were born within 2 months of each other. How lucky to have 5 cousins all turning 5 years old!

The 4 boys.

And 5 things we love about our big 5 year old boy!

1. He’s a smart boy who loves learning and being creative. He spends a lot of time drawing pictures of Master Yoda for his friends and cutting out pictures from coloring books. He has used all of my envelopes making letters and invitations for all of his friends.

Darth Vader

2. He can dive down to the bottom of the swimming pool and get rings off of the bottom. Only if he’s wearing goggles, of course.

3. His favorite movie is Star Wars (Star Wars #1 and #2).

4. He loves playing with his friends.

5. He likes me to lay down by him at night which is a new love. He got a big boy bed for Christmas and the first few nights I asked him if I could lay down by him and he told me no. Then he finally decided to let me on his bed after about 2 minutes he said, “Okay, mom, you can go back to your own bed now.”

5 Year Old Stats:

42 lbs (63rd%)

46 in (95th%)

Happy 5th Birthday Griffin!

40th Birthday celebration!

2011-07-14T23:15:00.006-06:00

I definitely felt the birthday love from my family and friends. It was the birthday that just kept on going and going. Technically it was more of a birth’week’ celebration. It started the Sunday before my birthday at my parents’ home. My mom surprised me with a bouquet of 40 flowers with notes attached to each flower, each one with something they and my siblings love about me. I had no idea my mom had this planned and it meant a lot to me that she took the time to put it together.

There was a recurring theme on a lot of the notes. It seems I really like photography, photoshop, making DVDs, cleaning my house, being a mom and planning vacations. What a surprise!

1. You make every holiday special. You spend hours collecting pictures and videos from all our Christmases to keep the memory alive of past Christmases.

2. You take fantastic pictures and email them to me. They are so much better than I can take. You are always willing to help me with scanning and transferring old videos to DVD.

3. You create beautiful and personal cards. You take the time to gather hundreds of old pictures to make DVD’s for us.

4. You spend hours taking pictures of entire families, edits their pictures and get nothing but compliments for your time and work.

5. You blog each and every event that your kids do, and have them made into a digital book. How wonderful that your kids will always remember these important events.

6. You are an immaculate homemaker and teaching your kids to be independent and helpful and teaching them responsibilities.

7. You are an expert and juggling 6 kids with all their activities. You try to be at all of their events along with your camera. You somehow find the time to spend quality time with each of your kids.

8. You make sure your kids get the opportunities that they should have. You have had to stand for what you believe so that Morgan will have the best education possible. You know what needs to be done and you do not give up.

9. You face challenges with a positive attitude and make the best of difficult situations.

10. You are a great friend and often give encouraging advice to your friends and family.

11. It is important to you that as a family, that we do things together and you try hard to please each of us, which is not easy in a big family.

12. You are not judgmental and you go out of your way to make everyone feel accepted.

13. You are such a great mom, to such great kids!

14. You always let me tag along with you when I was little, Gavin was probably wondering when or if you guys could ever be alone!

15. You are a great nurse!

16. You are an amazing mother, sister, daughter, wife and Nascar Monopoly enthusiast. You are a very smart cookie and possess great Scrabble zealotry (zealotry 20 Scrabble points!).

17. You are so beautiful and look so young, that is why our patients can never tell who is the older sister!

18. You are smart and always looking to learn new things.

19. You are always willing to help anyone, no matter what the circumstances may be.

20. You have a strong testimony of the church, and that influences everyone around you.

21. You are busy, busy, busy! I don't know how you do all that you do!

22. Even with six kids, you manage to spend time and give attention to each one of them.

23. You are always willing to make the effort to come up to see us instead of just waiting for us to always come to Utah. That means a lot to both my family and to me.

24. You got me into blogging and share my passion for photos and documenting life!

25. Without you there would be no family trips or girl's weekends!

26. You are always the first one to get me the photos for the Christmas calendar - may not sound huge...but come November it is!

27. You seem to really care about and want to spend time getting to know my kids. For example, taking my girls to Park City last year, driving 6 hours to camp with us and arranging sleep -overs whenever we are in town.

28. You have 6 kids yet you still find time to make sure they all get to be involved in whatever they desire.

29. You share your talents willingly with others. I have watched you stand out in the cold for hours taking photos of others for nothing. We treasure our photos by you as some of our very best ever!

30. I always think of you as the one Stewart kid that remembers everything. Now I can't even remember where I was going with that!

31. You are really good at keeping in touch with everyone. You have kept in touch better with MY friends that I have!

32. You are a peacemaker. You see beyond others weaknesses and just love them for who they are.

33. Heather is great at forgiveness. I know I wasn’t the big brother to her that I could have been or should have been and that probably robbed her of an adolescent experience that she should have had but she’s been great about forgiving that.

34. Caring. In a family where the way we communicate is to just yell louder than the other people to be heard, Heather is a great listener and is genuinely caring about other people and their lives. She always knows Birthdays, special events, etc, in other people’s lives. I need to ask her sometimes when my wedding anniversary is!

35. I admire that you go out of your way to do nice things for people.

36. You are easygoing and easy to get along with.

37. You have an extremely rare talent of nose whistling. :)

38. Curly headed kids are adorable. Thanks Heather for being one and cloning another.

39. You are always concerned about all of us and keep me informed on the latest and best medical information.

40. You have always wanted to help others and do a great job with this still to this day. I had some difficult times where I was hard to talk with, but you would go out of your way to find me and see if you could help.

Birthday cake and celebrating with the help of my kiddos

I wanted this year to be different. I wanted to turn 40 and feel stronger and fitter than ever. To show forty that I was in charge. I started off the year strong. Eating healthier. Exercising and walking regularly. And then a few weeks passed and it was all gone. Somewhere along the way, I got my vowels mixed up and confused “fittest” for “fattest”. It’s a good thing I’ve got a decade to show forty who’s boss.

As my birthday approached, Gavin never mentioned a thing about it. The day before my birthday I figured if Gavin wasn’t going to do anything for my birthday then I would throw my own party . . . a pity party. I called up my bestie in Idaho and planned a get together at her place. And called Gavin to tell him all about my plans to leave town. I also let him know that I was sad he hadn’t said one word about my birthday. He reassured me that he did have plans for my birthday and to not go to Idaho. He was a little too good at keeping my birthday plans a surprise. I owed him a HUGE apology the next morning when I woke up and saw all of the thought, planning and effort he had put into making my birthday the best day possible!

I can’t even put into words the feelings I felt as I was going to bed the night before my birthday and noticed something on my lawn. I opened the door and found 40 balloons all over my front yard with sweet messages from my friends. I ran from balloon to balloon, in my pajamas, in the middle of the night, smiling as I read each of the notes attached to the balloons. It was the best surprise! I am so blessed to be surrounded by amazing friends!

1. You are so FUN!

2. You plan a Great Party!

3. You plan fun vacations!

4. You make events special!

5. You make your kids and Gavin’s Birthdays Special!

6. She is Amazing with the Computer!

7. You are so talented at photography!

8. You are Great at documenting daily life as well as special events!

9. You are quick witted!

10. You have a great way of saying things!

11. You look gorgeous, even right out of bed!

12. You can wear your hair in so many different styles and they all look fabulous!

13. You are sincere!

14. We like that we can trust what you say. When you say it we know you mean it!

15. You are thoughtful at doing small acts of kindness for others!

16. You have a flair for reality shows---and your family would make a Great one!

17. You make us laugh!

18. You can find humor in many situations!

19. Your outlook makes life more enjoyable!

20. You are very patient!

21. You are generous with taking pictures of our kids when we forget our cameras!

22. You are willing to share your savvy tech skills with those of us that are less techy!

23. You are a great example at record keeping and documenting the life of your family, their talents and their strengths!

24. You are always up for dinner and a midnight movie!

25. You are a Friend for Life!

26. You stick it out with us through thick and thin-good times and bad!

27. You’ll do anything for a friend!

28. You are a die hard Survivor fan!

29. You are good at spur of the moment!

30. You know how to relax!

31. You are able to empathize with others trials.

32. You are able to laugh at yourself!

33. You are a good listener!

34. You are a gung-ho painter!

35. You are a sushi connoisseur!

36. You make the Best cold pasta salad!

37. You are the #1 “blogger”!

38. You make everything look better with a can of paint!

39. You are a great mom!

40. You keep us in the loop what’s happening in the world of Facebook!

After the flowers and balloons (and 80 loving comments), I am set for another 40 years! I got into bed and couldn’t sleep, overwhelmed by the love and support of my family and friends. How lucky to be blessed with amazing parents, siblings, friends, children and husband.

I woke up to these cute faces, all excited to give me their birthday presents and help me celebrate my day!

Gavin surprised me with this Birthday letter . . . massage, lunch, dinner and then a birthday vacation with a surprise destination. I canceled my birthday breakfast and made it just in time for my birthday massage. Birthday Bliss!

Birthday lunch at Cheesecake Factory with my girlfriends

And then the big surprise. I honestly had no idea that I was going to be dining with all of these cute faces! As we turned the corner in the restaurant and walked back towards the table I was overwhelmed seeing all of the people that mean so much to me! I told Gavin I didn’t want a surprise party but this was different. The table was full of family and friends who mean the world to me. Not friends and acquaintances that I have lost touch with and haven’t seen since elementary school, but family and friends who know me and love me just the way I am. No pressure to make small talk or entertain. I was just able to enjoy that moment surrounded by those who have been there for me and have all had a big part in my life. Thank you for taking the time to come out and make my birthday the best one yet.

We ended the evening with laser tag and "birthday cake" (aka my laser tag code name). Who knew that a group of adults could have so much fun playing laser tag together in a dark room being shot by “the undertaker, ace, sly, the help, lucky number 13” and whoever else tagged me?

I wondered how Gavin was going to pull off a ‘journey around the world’ in just 3 days but once I found out the destination it all made sense. Anything is possible on the Las Vegas strip!

We started our journey around the world in Monaco at the Monte Carlo hotel

Made it to Rome

And enjoyed the fountains and gardens at Bellagio

Made it to New Jersey to see The Jersey Boys

And even made it to Paris!

It was the perfect way to end my birth’week’ celebration. I got to sleep in, go to movies, see a few Vegas shows, sit around the pool, get caught up on celebrity gossip, drink frrrrozen hot chocolates, eat buffet dinners, walk around the city. And the best part? I got to share it all with my best friend! Thank you Gavin for making my 40th birthday one that I will never forget! xo.

Independence Day!

2011-07-07T01:44:00.001-06:00

We had a great 4th of July! This is one of my favorite holidays, right behind Halloween and Christmas! What is there to not love about this holiday . . . family togetherness, BBQs and all of the festive colors involved in the side dishes, a holiday with a color theme, it’s during the warm summer months, and it ends with an amazing fireworks show!

We celebrated at Trevor and Annie’s house and had a blast!

Annie and baby Oli

Matisse was the local talent at the party. She brought her face paints and got everyone inked up for the celebration. I love how her flag is on backwards because she did it all by herself while looking in the mirror!

Base soccer was a big success!

I love this picture. Can’t really tell who was kicking the ball . . . Jeff or Scott?

Hadley with her three cousins. Matisse, Avery and Savanna.

And we ended the holiday with our best attempts at Sparkler art

40!

2011-07-06T22:50:00.000-06:00

Today has been a whirlwind . . . full of relaxing, massages, food, cheesecake, more food, cake and ice cream, laser tag and a travel adventure. But the best part was that it was shared with my incredible family and friends! I definitely felt the Facebook love as well, as my phone buzzed all day long when someone posted a birthday wish on my wall! And to think I wasn't excited to turn 40! Today will be a day I treasure forever! I'll post more about my birthday adventure when we get back. In the meantime, check out the newest blogging addict in our home's blog. Hadley did the sweetest birthday tribute for me today! P.S. She loves comments. No really loves comments! My Adventurous Life.

P.S.S. My husband rocks and is a little too good at keeping secrets!

5 days later and we all survived.

2011-07-01T17:32:00.000-06:00

I’ve been counting down the days and hours until it was finally time to go back to Camp K to bring my girl home. All in all I think it was a good experience, besides the lack of communication between staff and families. When I signed her up for the camp, I was told I could have as much or as little contact with my child that I wanted. I could talk to her on the phone everyday. Pick her up at night and return her in the mornings, etc. After three phone calls and three days at camp, I was finally able to talk to Morgan on the phone. She didn’t say anything into the phone, just listened to me, which isn’t like her. The counselor told me she whispered, “I love you, too.” but I couldn’t hear her. Her counselor reassured me that she was doing fine, was homesick the first night and cried a lot in her bed, but was having fun and participating in the activities. They had been canoeing earlier in the day and were in the middle of roasting S’mores over the campfire when I called. Knowing that she was staying busy with fun activities helped me feel better about the experience.

It was finally time to pick her up. We got to the camp and were instructed to go to the sports court area to find our camper and wait for the award ceremony. Everyone was wearing blue shirts. I looked all over for Morgan and couldn’t see her anywhere. Then I finally spotted her by herself, not in a blue camp shirt, staring into the pond. I called her name and ran to her. She gave me the tightest, longest hug as tears started filing up in her eyes. Another counselor came over and asked her why she was crying. It was so hard to see her sad and crying. Luckily my sunglasses hid my tears as I tried to put on my strong face for the counselors and Morgan. I was feeling like the worst mom, realizing I had made the biggest mistake by sending her to camp. In that moment when I was ready to pick her up, skip the award ceremony and run for the car, the sweetest boy walked up and put his arm around her and said, “Hi Morgan!” Morgan didn’t even look to see who was standing next to her. She didn’t need to, she knew. “Hi Larry,” said in her soft, monotone voice. The sadness I had been feeling immediately left as I witnessed this exchange and realized Morgan hadn’t been all alone but had made new friends who loved and cared about her.

We sat down on the bleachers and watched as each group went up to receive their awards. Morgan still wasn’t talking and would only whisper a few words here and there, tears still falling down her cheeks. But that all changed once it was her turn to go up and receive her award. She ran up to join her group, full of smiles and laughter.

Larry, thanks for being Morgan’s friend! You made this mama very happy! (Larry is the boy standing behind Morgan on the left).

Morgan got the award for “Silly Goose”. She loved this award and read it over and over again on the way home. Apparently she liked to act silly and stick out her tongue a lot at camp. Good manners never have been her strong point!

Award ceremony footage

One last goodbye hug with her counselor, Gerber

It takes a lot of guessing and knowing the right questions to find out any details with Morgan’s limited communication abilities but she did let me know that she made some new friends (Hope, Larry, Maggie, Gerber and Jack). Loved riding the horses with her helmet. And she must have really loved breakfast this morning because she talked a lot about the eggs and bacon that she ate before we picked her up!

I asked why Morgan was the only one not wearing a camp shirt and was told she refused to wear it this morning when she was getting dressed. I got it out of her bag once we got home and we read the front of the shirt together. She asked if she could wear it and immediately put it on.

I think she had a fun week but also missed being with her family. She was excited to get in the car and back to her usual routine. We had a fun afternoon together. Lunch at McD’s, “Rio” at the dollar movie and snowcones on the way home. Welcome home camper Morgan! You were very missed!

Summer Camp

2011-06-27T19:32:00.001-06:00

It’s been really quiet around the house today. Too quiet. I even got in a nap while Mia took her nap this afternoon. I’m down three kids. Jack and Ryan took off to scout camp for the week and Morgan went to Camp K until Friday. That’s right, a full week without my little girl. The one whose never slept away from her family. I’ve been a nervous wreck these past few weeks. Questioning my decision of signing her up for camp. I started talking more about it with her last night. We pulled out her camping list, started checking off the items as it got packed into her bag. It made it easier on me as I saw her excitement grow and grow as we talked and packed. “You’re going to go swimming, hiking, horseback riding . . . you’ll get to sleep in a cabin with lots of new friends.” Her first words this morning when she woke up were all about camp. She was ready and excited for her big adventure!

Jack and Ryan all packed up and ready to go!

The scout troop

Oh my goodness! I can’t believe this little one is at her first camp! I miss her so much already! This is the longest I have ever been away from her while being home. She’s my little homebody, always by my side, wherever she is, I’m not far behind. I’m hoping she is having a fun time and loving her new independence and new friends!

We all went with her this morning to check in. She got a mini assessment and then a little tour of the camp and cabin areas.

We got her bed all set up for the week. My girl likes her routines and bedtime is the one she is most particular about. She has to have the exact same pillow case on her pillow and same blanket. The blanket has a top and bottom (one that only Morgan knows) and she insists that the blanket be fixed if it somehow turned around and the top got down to the bottom. The blanket needs to be straight and touching all of the corners of the bed without any of it being bunched up. I started explaining her routine to the counselor when Gavin stepped in and reminded me that Morgan would be just fine. Maybe the routine is more for me than her? Haha! She’s sleeping in the top bunk bed which is ideal. She sleeps in the top bunk at home too. After I got her bed all set up, she looked up and said, “There’s my bed (and then pointing to the bottom bunk) and there’s Hadley’s bed!"

Morgan with her new buddy and counselor, Gerber

We said our last goodbyes and smothered her with hugs and kisses and without any hesitation, she walked off and didn’t look back!

I may just need to drive up there and peek in on her sometime this week. I can’t imagine going a week without a little glimpse of what she’s up to. Mia is already missing her too. On the drive up to camp, the kids watched Beauty and the Beast in the car. Morgan, of course, was ‘Belle' and Mia was the 'four girls’ as they sang their parts in the car. After we dropped Morgan off and got back in the car Mia realized she could be whoever she wanted to be and declared, “I’m Belle!!!” After swimming lessons Mia told me that we needed to go get Morgan from camp. That she needed to come home and play dolls with her. I love watching the two of them interact and am so happy they have each other! I know they will always share a special bond together!

Can’t wait to get my family all back together on Saturday and hear about all of their adventures!

Happy Father’s Day!

2011-06-20T00:26:00.003-06:00

It rained and rained today for Father’s Day. I was wiped out from just getting home from Youth Conference and wasn’t very prepared for Gavin’s special day this year. Hoping he liked his Father’s Day Eve celebration (a 90 minute massage in the afternoon, swimming with the family and then dinner and a movie) enough to make up for the lack of festivities today. Our fridge and cupboards were bare which meant no breakfast in bed. Cinnamon toast for lunch. And a pizza dinner with my family tonight. I’m so lucky to have Gavin by my side helping me raise this wild group of kids! He is an amazing father and always striving to be better and better at this job.

Father’s Day picture outside in the rain.

Primary saved the day with cute gifts and cards for Gavin. Mia made him a candy bar with her own wrapper around the edge. Luckily daddy shared it with her because she really thought it was hers and showed me the proof . . . her name written on the side.

Ryan conveniently used a left over Skor candy bar from Griffin’s teacher appreciation gifts. He just needed to scribble out a few words (“teacher” and “Griffin Seal”) and he had the perfect gift. “I skor-ed getting you for my Dad. Thanks for a great year! Ryan Seal"

Hadley went all out today! She spent the night before making lots of cards and crafts with Griffin for their dad. She wanted him to know it was his special day and kept wishing him a happy father’s day. She made him brownies tonight and then asked him if he wanted a back massage. She is always such a thoughtful girl!

Dear Dad,

Your #1!!!

I don’t know how I got so lucky

to have you as a father!

Thanks for all you’ve done!

I want to say so much (well write)

however I’m running out of room!

I love you sooooo much!

Love, Hadley Seal

Griffin decided he didn’t like to have his picture taken and hid under the table and wouldn’t look at me. I loved his cute cards! He wanted his daddy to know that he really did love him 400 times!

Jack made a card tonight and left it on his dad’s nightstand. He kept trying to print out a card on the computer yesterday but it wouldn’t print for him.

You are such a great dad.

The best dad anyone could have.

You have loved me so much.

I love you so much.

Hope you had a happy Father’s Day

Love, Jack

Morgan’s cute card and picture of her daddy.

Happy Father’s Day to my dear dad! I have been blessed with incredible parents (happy 47th anniversary this past week!). One of my favorite memories of my dad would have to be testimony meetings in the 10th Ward. Every testimony meeting when we were growing up my dad would stand and bear his testimony and he would always end with something positive about my mom, usually about how he was so lucky to have such a beautiful wife. He’s been such an incredible example of love, patience and acceptance. I love you Dad!

End of School.

2011-06-08T01:22:00.004-06:00

It’s always full of emotions. I have a hard time letting go and seeing a good thing end. My kids have all had an amazing school year . . . loving teachers, great friends, learning and growth. But I think what really gets me is that my babies are growing up. There’s no way around it. I was an emotional mess today as I was putting together the teacher’s gifts and looking through my pictures from the past school year. Luckily I had Griffin by my side who gave me a big hug while I was mid breakdown. I’m the mom who cries every year as I watch the sixth graders walk down the halls on the last day of school with the music playing in the background and everyone standing on the sides, cheering and clapping. It doesn’t matter that none of the students are my children. It gets me every time. But tomorrow it will be my boy who’s being cheered on. And I already know it’s going to be emotional to watch. I am so happy for him but at the same time I just want time to stop for awhile.

Ryan with his friends on a field trip to Noodles & Company

Hadley had a good year. Different but good. She started with one teacher, had a few substitutes in between and ended with a different teacher. She learned about flocks of geese and sticking together. Values incorporated with her curriculum. (Video of her class and curriculum before her first teacher got sick). Then she was in a classroom full of chaos with substitutes but she’s ending the year strong. She loves Mrs. M and so do we!

It doesn’t help the emotional-ness of school ending that we still aren’t sure what the plans are for Morgan next year. I’ve been told by the district that she is still going to be in the regular classroom, but instead of one full time aide, she will have two part-time aides. We have been extremely lucky with Morgan’s aides. Both of her aides from the past 2 years matched up perfectly with Morgan. Expected big things from her. Challenged her and pushed her to be more. And most importantly, they loved her. Genuinely loved her. Not knowing what will happen in the fall and if we are getting Aubry back has been hard on all of us. I put together a scrapbook to give Aubry. I loved looking through all of the pictures and reflecting on the great experiences Morgan had in 2nd grade. Here’s a look back at her year. It’s been a good one.

I spent some time with Morgan helping her write her thank you cards for her teacher and aide. It takes her so long to focus with all of the distractions in our house but she finally got them done. My favorite part about writing the letters was that she knew what she wanted to write and she knew how to spell all of the words except “sweetheart”. She got mad when I tried to get her to put a “t” at the end of the word. Clearly anyone knows it is “sweethear without a t on the end” Never noticed that she had been saying, “I love you, sweethear!” all of this time!

“Mrs Aubry

Thank you

I love you

You are a sweethear

I will miss you

Come to my house and see me

I love you”

“Mrs Pendley

You are a fun teacher!

I love you!

I liked school

See you next year!”

I didn’t forget about Jack. I honestly don’t really know any of his teachers. They’re so on their own once they go to junior high. No field trips. No volunteers in the classroom. No eating lunch with your student day. No Halloween parades or class parties. It’s all grown up stuff. He’s had a great school year and continued to get excellent grades. He’s got a big year ahead of him next year in 9th grade. He signed up for a few honors and AP classes. I’m just hoping he gets his yearbook signed tomorrow. Last year they all took off early and didn’t do much with the yearbook. I just remember it being such a big part of high school. Must be a boy thing. He just wants to get out of there and go bowling and hang out with his friends.

Fun Run

2011-06-08T00:19:00.000-06:00

It may be just fun for some but for others it’s a full on race. I couldn’t even get a picture of Ryan (or Gavin) before he took off with his friends. I only saw Hadley long enough to hand over the dog. She begged and begged me to bring Zeus to school so he could run with her. Still not sure how well that worked out for her.

Morgan and her friend Claire (and aide, Aubry) started running right out the school doors.

There was no pacing involved for Ryan and his friends. They sprinted the entire 2 miles. Gavin ran with them. Staying a few paces behind them. He claimed he didn’t want to beat any of them. Uh huh. He said Ryan and two of his friends stayed together the whole run until the end then Ryan and his friend, Josh, stopped to catch their breath while Tate just kept on going.

The winner of the race. Tate. You can see Ryan and Josh running in behind Tate.

They all couldn’t walk the next day and were popping Ibuprofen, except for Gavin. He had no problems with sprinting two miles. You can see him running into the finishing area by the police car.

Mia and Griffin got to enjoy the after-race treat without the race.

Morgan shows her friends how to do this running thing. Look at her catching air after running one mile!

Egg Drop

2011-06-07T16:07:00.000-06:00

It's that time of year. . . end of school year activities which includes the annual egg drop. All of the students think of some sort of contraption to hold their raw egg with the hopes it won't break when thrown off the roof of the school. Hadley was excited to think of a creative way all on her own this year. She put her egg all wrapped up in toilet paper inside the egg carton. Ryan didn’t care if he participated or not this year (being the big 6th grader and all) and used the left over spaghetti noodles from Morgan’s project. Put his egg inside a Ziploc of noodles and then in another Ziploc full of air. Morgan put her egg inside a Ziploc bag of noodles and then put it inside a big, black, fluffy pillow. Hadley’s egg was the only one that survived this year. Way to go Hadley!!!

Ryan with his friends Daniel, Tate and Giovanni

Morgan with her aide, Aubry

Hadley and Ellie

Morgan was so excited to run and pick up her egg contraption off of the ground.

The excitement quickly died when she saw that her egg had cracked and was smeared all over her noodles!

Hadley anxiously waits to see her egg

I love that Hadley came up with this cute contraption all by herself.

It worked! No cracks!

Ryan finds his egg inside the spaghetti noodles

All cracked!

Moving on up.

2011-06-07T01:21:00.001-06:00

Griffin is officially done with preschool (sniff, sniff). He had a great experience and has grown so much these past two years, as most kids do, but Griffin has grown into a lot of his quirks and partially outgrown his defiant behavior. He’s also made a lot of friends along the way. He found his "best buddy", Parker, at preschool and spends almost everyday playing with his friends.

He’s quite the perfectionist and it shows in his schoolwork. At his last parent teacher conference (am I the only one who thinks it’s a little strange to have conferences when the kiddos are only preschoolers) the teacher commented on how it was obvious by Griffin’s penmanship and his attention to detail that he was one of the older students in the class. I had to remind her that he is actually one of the younger ones, not turning five until mid-July.

His preschool had an end of school BBQ and game day

Griffin’s playgroup friends

Excited for all of the new adventures at the big school with his sisters, Hadley and Morgan.

Camp Kostopulos

2011-06-06T17:01:00.002-06:00

I’ve committed to do something and now I’m wondering if I made the right decision. I signed Morgan up for a week of summer camp at Camp K. I’ve never let any of my kids go to camp this young, 8 years old, and am having an even harder time thinking about sending Morgan, the one who I tend to overprotect, to camp. Her friend is going to be there too and I know it will be a good experience but I’m still struggling with the decision. I called up the camp director and he reassured me that I could have as much contact with her as I wanted. I could call or visit everyday, pick her up at night and bring her back in the mornings, etc. And then reminded me that the kids have a blast while it’s the parents who have a hard time with the adjustment. I know this is true but I just envision Morgan at night, waking up, climbing out of bed, waking up all of her fellow campers. And good luck to the person who’s in charge of brushing her hair every morning. Hopefully they’ll get a good laugh when she fights them and calls them “Jafar” (the meanest villain she knows).

We visited Camp K a few weeks ago on their family open house day. Thought it was a good idea to get Morgan familiar with the camp before sending her up there for the week. Hadley had a dance performance at the same time and had a major meltdown (major as in . . . laying on the floor, screaming, kicking her legs and rolling around all over the house and ruining her dance costume and then getting mad because I couldn’t do her makeup on her wet, tear stained eyes. That kind of meltdown) about not being able to go with us. Hopefully it will work out that she can go with us next year.

We had lunch and then hit their huge yard sale. Everything is donated from different stores and nothing has a price on it. They just ask that you make a fair donation to the Camp. It was hard to tell what was the yard sale piles and what were the “claimed” piles. Crazy how much stuff people were grabbing for just one family. Griffin got bored with the yard sale stuff and decided to get his “Spiderman” on.

We hiked all over the hills. Looking for the horse coral and rock climbing wall area.

The horses were a big hit. This was one of the main reasons I wanted to take Morgan up . . . to get her used to riding horses. She did her best to resist getting on the horse. We finally had to just pick her up and put her on. Honestly the second she was sitting on it, she started doing her usual, “Wahoo! This is fun!” She got off the horse and asked if she could go again. By the time it was her turn she had forgotten all about how fun it was and fought getting on the horse again. But, once again, loved it once she was riding. Hope they make her get on it while she’s at camp!

Morgan waving to spectators. She’s ready for the parade!

Mia shows off her new butterfly ink to Morgan

We ended the day with a little fishing. No one caught anything. I was just trying to make sure none of us were caught. Morgan was swinging the fishing line all over the place. I think I’d be fine with Morgan skipping this activity at camp!

Hopefully camp will be just as much fun for Morgan! They just need to let her swim everyday and she’ll have the time of her life!

Our very first (and last!) . . .

2011-05-31T14:14:00.001-06:00

We finally did it. Our family’s first garage sale. The kids have always wanted one but I’ve never been patient enough to gather all of our treasures (crap!) together at the same time and then WAIT until the big day to carry it all out into our front yard. It’s just so much easier to clean out one room and take all of the unwanted, neglected toys to our local thrift shop right then.

My house was was long over due for spring cleaning. It was exploding with stuffed animals . . . in the storage closet, toy boxes, kids’ closets, beds, floors. I finally decided I wasn’t willing to store Jack’s frog collection or Ryan’s monkey collection indefinitely, until they had their own children. I came up with a plan. They could keep all of the money from their stuffed animal sales if they would let me sell them. They chose their favorites and kept a close eye on the remaining ones throughout the day.

Ryan made one last quick look for any monkeys he wanted to keep after someone tried to buy his beloved “Cha Cha”.

It was a fun experience but I would never do it again. It was so much work and preparation to get all this stuff together and presentable. Garage sale people are only looking for steals and don’t want to pay more than $2 for anything. We ended up spending more money on batteries for the toys than we made on the toy. We still had a lot of stuffed animals left over. I ended up buying them for $.50 each from Jack and Ryan so I could take them to the DI. They walked over to the grocery store and spent all of their earnings on chips, drinks and gum. We ended up making around $150 which surprised me since most things sold for $.50 to $1. And the best part of having a garage sale? I was finally forced to clean out the toy room, storage room and closets!

Worth the wait.

2011-05-26T02:04:00.003-06:00

Happy 39th Birthday Gavin! I bought U2 tickets for Gavin’s birthday. Not this year but his birthday last year. I felt instant regret after buying them. Knowing they were my favorite band, not Gavin’s. Spending way too much money on the tickets when I could have purchased less expensive seats. Then right before our scheduled show Bono hurt his back and needed emergency surgery in Germany. Our show was put on hold for a year. I thought about the tickets from time to time wondering if I should just take them back and get a refund. It wasn’t like we hadn’t seen them before. We saw their Elevation tour 10 years ago and it was good but nothing I’d spend hundreds of dollars on again. Luckily I never did anything with the tickets and let them sit in our drawer for 15 months. No regrets with this show! It was nothing like I’ve ever seen before. The stage, the music, the lighting, the message, the vocals, the backdrop (blue skies and snow-capped mountains), the memories, my hot date. All of it!!! They put on an incredible show! I’ve grown up with this band. It’s been the soundtrack of my life. Each song representing a different time . . . junior high, high school, college, dating, shouting out the songs with my best friend as we drove all around the city, pre-mission, marriage, children, triathlons (Gavin’s, not mine). All of the big times in my life had U2 playing in the background. Well except for the day I got married. That had a lot of Celine Dion but one day when I re-do our wedding video, I’ll be sure to at least include “Beautiful Day”!

Turns out it takes a lot of trucks to haul all of the band’s stuff around. Not to mention that stage that was almost as big as the stadium!

The stage

A little bit of the show. The video doesn’t do it justice but it’s the best I’ve got.

Better video footage of All I Want Is You/Love Rescue Me from the show.

One of a kind

2011-05-24T00:20:00.001-06:00

We feel extremely blessed and grateful to have Gracey in our life. She made an instant connection and friendship with Morgan two years ago. That scary day when we weren’t sure if we had made the right decision to have Morgan not go back to the cluster classroom but attend her regular neighborhood school for 1st grade. Not sure if she would fit in and be included with her peers. Gracey reached out to her and took extra special care of Morgan. That friendship and love continues to grow and we can’t imagine our life without Gracey!

She made the big decision to get baptized and wanted our family to be a part of her special day. She asked Gavin if he would confirm her a member of the church. It was such a privilege to be included in such an important event in her life. She is the most tender, sweet, loving, caring 8 year old you will ever meet! She cried through the entire thing and seeing her pure joy made everyone in the room cry happy tears along with her.

The cute sister missionaries who taught Gracey about the gospel of Jesus Christ.

You continue to amaze us Gracey and we love you so very much!!!