Kellyn

Kellyn was sad that the kids get school pictures taken and she doesn't so this morning we had our own little photo shoot. I am in love with this girl. She is so flipping cute!

Science Fair

working hard, thinking hard
Kaydin's experiment

This week was the science fair. Projects were due on Tuesday. Did the kids have 2 months to prepare? Yes. Did that stop us from staying up all hours Monday night (I even called in to work) to get the posters done? No. In any case, they turned out ok, although I didn't get a picture of Maryn's display. She did hers (or rather, I did hers) on left/right side dominance. The poster that you see here is Kaydin's. I did the lettering for him, but he did all the work and even drew a diagram of how he wanted the display laid out. His experiment was about negative inflation. In a related subject, the kids are all kinds of excited because a Utah Jazz player is coming to visit their school. They met a school-wide goal of reading over 500,000 minutes in a month, so the Jazz player will come and their principal will dress up in a chicken suit and wear it all day. Kaydin read the most in his grade (just over 4,000 minutes for the month), so he gets his own prize. The school year is half over-I can't believe it!

Puppies!

These are Scout's babies. Back around Thanksgiving, I took him to a friend's hosue. She has a female Shih-tzu. Her dog and my dog had a date. Scout was very romantic with her and made sure to bring flowers and chocolates. He would never do something as ungentlemanly as start going to town on that poor dog the minute he walked in the door. Anyhoo, 2 months later, these little darlings are the result. So cute. We are taking one when they are ready. Probably the black and white one that Rylynn says looks like a cow. On a sad note, we still haven't found Scout. He has been missing for 9 days and the kids are pretty sad. We have called the shelter and he hasn't been turned in or cleaned up off the road. We have put up posters and ads on craigslist and ksl.com, but no luck. I think someone took him. I hope whoever has him is taking good care of him.

Movin on up

Hey George! Where's Weezy? Ok, if you don't get these references, then that just means I am old. In my defense, I have never actually watched the Jeffersons either. Anyway, yes, I did this to my son and then Joseph and I almost peed ourselves laughing. He needed a haircut badly, so we usually just get the clippers out and buzz him, but I had the presence of mind to stop halfway through this time and take a few pictures. No, we did not let him go out in public like this.

Birthdays, haircuts, good times!

At Joseph's b-ball game

Aunt Amielle took the kids to Krispy Kreme. Yes, I know they look homeless.
Trevin's #9

Tristan's #9

Haircuts!

Ewan's favorite toy!
It's not like I'm encouraging this

Happenings lately:
Tristan turned 9
The next day, Trevin turned 9
After much pleading and bribery, Kaydin and Trevin let me get their hair cut
Scout's puppies were born (4 in all). Yes, Scout is a boy. These are his offspring
We can't find Scout. Not at the animal shelter, hasn't been cleaned up off the road. Where is he?
My friend David came to visit. Thanks, Dave! Seeing you made my week!
Kaydin's on the honor roll.
Rylynn had straight E's (the 1st grade equivalent of A's).
Trevin's report card was amazing as well!
Fabiola went to Job Corps.
Ewan has leared how to tell us NO! I'm so happy.
That's all, folks!

Already?!?!?!

The kids are back in school. I miss them. I am pretty sure they miss being home. We are finally going to start using our piano. Tai Kwan Do should start next week. Except Rylynn. She will be enrolled in tumbling to in preparation for the cheerleading glory to come. This is her idea, not mine. Parent teacher conferences were last week. Kaydin is on the honor roll. All the teachers had good things to say. The kids are finally acclimating to this new school. I hate that we had to uproot them from their friends and the place they had grown up and move away. They still miss it terribly, but they are finding good things here too. Why don't I have any pictures? I need more of those. Joseph and I had our 11th anniversary on Saturday. I mostly slept. He took the kids swimming. We went to Zak's wrestling match. If that doesn't scream "romance" I don't know what does. Actually we have a trip planned a little later to celebrate, so Saturday wasn't terribly imbued with meaningful romantic gestures, dates, presents and dinners. But holy cow! Eleven years! How did that happen? We have had a pretty good time for that past 11 years, so I am pretty confident there are more good years to come.

Resolve

It has been really hard for me to wrap my brain around the fact the it's 2009. How can this be? I can still remember 1999 like it was yesterday. It is just unbelievable to me how fast time goes. And it is only going to get faster. In the interest of not wasting any more time, I have made some resolutions for this year. One is staying on top of keeping this blog updated. It is a great way to keep a history of our family and is like journaling. Also, if I tell myself that, then I don't have to make another resolution to keep a journal this year, which I have failed at every other year! I need to take more pictures and we need to have an updated family picture taken. Yeah, it's been a while. I resolve to have Nikki married by the end of the year - hahaha how do you like that one, my BFFF? (that's not a typo, that exra F is there on purpose). Ok, but seriously, there is the potential for there to be 3 weddings this year. That, in addition to my dreaded pending birthday (30 freaking years old), have forced me to add to my list of resolutions. So I also resolve to get my face botoxed and invest heavily in cosmetic surgery. The goal is to be able to pass for 20 on my 30th. But in reality, I will settle for being 30 years old and having a husband who still thinks I'm a catch and kids who tell me every day that I'm beautiful. Oh, I love this family so much. My real resolution is to be more Christlike. Especially in my parenting. I start to tear up even typing that on a blog. In primary the kids learned a song and one of the lines is "If the Savior stood beside me, would I do the things I do"? I want to be able to say yes to that, particularly in regards to how I deal with my kids. To have more patience, be slower to anger and be the kind of mom that I always imagined I would be before I was set upon by the reality of actually being one. But right now, I resolve to put my insomnia to good use and do some dishes and some exercise.