Choosing School Folders

Conversation I overheard from Becca and Emily about why they choose the colors of their subject folders

Emily: "I always choose blue for Math because it makes me feel Blue."

Becca: "I choose red for Math because you know Blood, Fire, Pain,  the Devil!"

Apparently I'm not raising any female accountants.

Daniel on the other hand is so excited that he gets to be in the Advanced Math Track and take Pre-Algebra is 6th grade.  It's his favorite subject.

More Cousin Fun

 Somehow I missed posting our Pioneer Day Celebrations which we were fortunate to spend with some of our cousins.  I appreciate their willingness to travel up to visit us despite the longer drive.

 Swimming at the Splash Pad

 Bocci at the Park

 More Carousel Rides

 Fireworks

Pioneer Day fell on Sunday this year so I printed off some brief highlights from the lives of our Pioneer ancestors for the kids to read and summarize.  Somehow that always seems to bring my troubles in to perspective as I read about those who lost homes, children and lives in order to relocate to Zion.  While the transition of moving our family to a new city hasn't been easy, I have felt amazingly blessed by the little miracles that have occurred to make the transition easier.  Rebecca joined the cross country team and is starting to make some good friends as she pushes herself to new heights and amazes me with her persistence to do hard things.  Jacob is in heaven with his our new dog, 4 wheeling in the backyard and keeps busy with football, agility training.  Daniel was able to maintain his position as quarterback on his football team with an amazing QB coach. And Emily, Alyssa and Josh all have nice friends in close proximity. 

Cousin Fun

 

I love living in near such picturesque farmer's fields! My kids and their cousins had a great time at the Mother Daughter Activity playing beach volleyball and then played a little hide and seek in this field of tall grasses before we left.

 It was a fairly cold day but we still took a little trip to the free splash pad and then Alyssa warmed up by laying out on the sunny sidewalk.

 Josh was super excited to show me his new accomplishment... pumping himself on the swings.

 Even the bigger kids like to have crazy fun on the Carousel at the Park.

Everyone has their own rendition of what a crazy face is!

Healing Music

Prepping for back to school in a new town has been an emotional process for me this week.  I am so thankful for the music that heals my soul and brings back proper perspective when things start falling apart in my mind.
Three of my favorite passionate endeavors are education, music and family history.  This week I visited each of my children's schools

Beep Hearts & Kid Perceptions

I absolutely love the preschool stage.  I love their inquisitive minds.  I love their affectionate kisses.  I love their innocence. I'm not ready to have my little guy grow up yet!

Lately Josh has been kind of fascinated with heartbeats.  We had this conversation a few days ago.
Mommy did you know that dogs have beep hearts?
Dogs have heartbeats?
Yah.
All animals have heartbeats
Holy crud I didn't know that!
Mommy can I sit on your lap?
Then we watch "Kids Health How Your Heart Works" which he finds very intriguing
Later in the day this is still on his mind as he randomly interjects "Donald Duck has a beep heart!"

Its no secret that I'm not too fond of our new dog.. well really pets in general.  It's an addition to the family that creates more work, makes more messes, costs more money and adds more germs and does things that annoy me like chewing, digging, jumping, scratching, etc.    So Joshua overheard me in a conversation with the other kids about the germs that dogs carry and how important it is to wash yourself after playing with the dog, especially before eating.  Apparently he thinks the dog affects me more negatively than others.
Last week Joshua comes bounding down the stairs emphatically exclaiming, "Mom I'm afraid your going to get a disease because Lyssa let the dog go in the hallway!" (The dog isn't allowed in the house)."So don't go in the hallway because your going to get a disease."
[Jacob wants me to assure all of you that our dog really is very nice and calm. He sees things very differently than I do. He says "Star our dog has been such a blessing.  She's a bulldog lab mix and is the cutest thing ever. She rarely runs off.  She can just stay at our house. She is a one of a kind dog. She is so calm its almost annoying how lazy she is."]




Today after reading and discussing an inspiring story from the library about a father who was cured from his sickness after being administered to by the missionaries, Joshua said "I know that Jesus loves me."  It touched my heart and then we sang "I Know that my Savior Loves Me."

Creative Kebby

Alyssa and her "husband"

I came into Alyssa's formerly clean room and found that she had constructed her "husband" Derek from some random household objects.  I thought he looked more like a Wall-E.  She was pretty devastated when she found that Josh had destroyed her husband a few hours later.
Honestly, I was not to happy at first when I came upon this next scene.  Hangers were strewn on the floor with all of her dresses scattered about, because she needed a "tent" post (closet rod) to hold up her newly designed tent bed. I find that my children's desires for fun supersede their desire for me to have order in my home, so I need to learn to let go a little and remind myself that someday when they are gone my home can be filled with empty quiet clean rooms, but this isn't the season for that. I'm glad my girls have each other to play with.

Old Alyssa

 Alyssa soon got over the loss of her "husband" and decided to be an old lady instead.  Gotta love that sturdy walker!

 She and Emily tried a dance and tumbling class a few weeks ago.  I brought a bunch of books to read in the waiting room with her but she was much more fascinated pretending to be her version of a cool mom sporting my sunglasses.

 I ordered some school clothes for Emily from an online sale and when Alyssa found that Emily had a jean jacket and boots coming she was pretty eager to get one too.  But when we went to the store, the ones she liked were a lot more pricey than Emily's and I was pretty sure we could find another one for less somewhere else or wait for a sale.   I told her that "Good things come to those who wait," but she was not very convinced when I dragged her out of the store empty handed.  In fact she was pretty devastated to not even get the cheap sunglasses because the line was long and we had to pick up the boys.

 She didn't have to wait long.  We stopped by the thrift before heading home and she was elated to find her own jacket, boots and umbrella for less than $10 for all 3!  Now she wants to wear them everyday in the hot summer

  I was about to find and scold the culprit who got into my sewing box and left tacks on my bedroom floor, then I saw this "painting attached to bedroom wall that Alyssa made for me.  We still haven't gotten around to hanging most of the pictures in our home, so the walls are looking pretty barren.  She decided to take matters into her own hands. I love how she even made duct tape frame!

Lake Playground Fun