Basketball

Alaina really wanted to play basketball this season. We signed her up with the boys and girls club. It started kind of rough. She has never played and has only had a few practices with a less than helpful coach. But she's had four games and gets better and more confident each game. I'm so proud of her for stepping out of her comfort zone and doing something hard. I want her to learn she can do hard things.  I'm excited to see how she does at the end of the season! Good job Al :)

Simplify

My goal for the year in 2016 is to simplify my life in every aspect. I think this will be good for me on many levels. When we simplify we keep the things that most important closest to us.

This quote sums up nicely what I want to achieve this year.

Starting Preschool

Dash and I have started school together this week. He thinks we play games all morning but I know better :) He's learning!

He got these awesome sorting vehicles for his birthday and loves playing with them. He has a hard time deciding between yellow and green. When he really concentrates he can tell them apart, but just barely.

It's pretty funny. Poor boy.

We've been working on patterns. This week he was able to make his own pattern for me.

And we've been working on writing. He's finally got that pencil hold correct :)

He's so cute. I love "playing games" with Dash every morning!

Dash Turns FOUR

Dash is FOUR!

Holy smokes hes like a big ole kid now!

(Mother's heart breaks)

Dash wanted an airplane party for his birthday this year.  Why not?  Sonshine party, car party, train party, airplane party!  Sounds good.

I am trying to simplify this year.  I think I did an ok job with the first birthday party of the year.   I love birthdays and always want to go all out.  I held back in a few places this year.

He had four friends over.  Addison, Ani, Eli and Presley.  

He has a lot of girls in his life.

Also, Elise and Michael were there with Tia and Tio.

Times flies.

Dashing Airlines

The first thing we did was make paper airplanes.

Then we threw the paper airplanes through a little game I made with holes in a board.  The older they were the farther they had to stand away from it.  They had a lot of fun with that.

Then we stood in the hall and each threw our paper airplanes to see whose went the farthest!

After that we played pin the propeller on the airplane.

Success.

 Then we opened presents.

My favorite part was when Dash was opening Addison's gift and she was just SO excited for him to open it she could hardly stand it.  She had the biggest smile on her little face.  She got him something she knew he would love and was so happy to see him happy.  I love little kids sometimes!  And guess what?!  He did love it.  A lego fire truck.  Theres nothing better.

After presents we had cupcakes and ice cream.

Dash wanted cupcakes instead of a cake and I was all for that.

Chocolate of course.

Happy birthday Dash!

We got him a big kid car seat. Which he loves.

A kitty from GG.

A cool book from gramme and papa.

And motorcycles!!

I could sit here for days and try to write how much I love this boy of mine, but I never could.  There are no words.  I love him so much it hurts.  Im so glad we decided to have that 4th baby.  Our lives would be much less rich if he weren't here with us.

Happy 4th birthday sweet baby boy.  We love you so much.

Alana's GT Magnet Essay

Alaina applied to the Gifted and Talented Education Middle School Magnet Program.  

To think she is old enough for this blows my mind.  I'm not sure I'm ready for middle school.  We know this will be a wonderful opportunity for her and we are excited.

She was asked to write an essay (150-250 words) about three words that describe herself and why.  We told her to think outside of the box.  I was thinking more along the lines of what her three words were, but she was thinking outside of the box with the format in which the essay is written.

She wrote a haiku for her essay.

She did it herself and it is quite good, if you ask me :)

15 haikus.  Only Alaina!

We find out of she gets in on February 12th!

Salt Lake Trip Pt. 2

On Day 2, we got all ready and took the train down to the Children's museum.  On the way we past the old railway station, where Bret's grandfather worked for a long time.  So I took a picture of  him with it even though he didn't love that idea.

Again, I missing some pictures.  The kids LOVED the museum.  There were lots of fun things to do.  Dash waited and waited to have his turn on this crane but older boys would cut him or take his turn but he was patient and finally got to  play with it.  He was pretty happy about that.

The girls' favorite parts were the movie making center.  Alaina made a pretty hilarious video.  Braelyn loved the outside emergency helicopter hospital landing pad.  There was an actual helicopter out there that you could get your patient from, then wheel them into the hospital and operate on them with an ipad on the little person.  It was so neat.  They loved that.  it was cold out there but they totally didn't care.  Alaina also loved the huge xylophone in the entrance.  She would play songs on it.  Way fun.  Caylee liked building things on the shake table.  She used magna-tiles and blocks and then would test her structures with the table.  She also liked climbing on the tree.  the museum was a success.

After that we went to lunch at a restaurant.  Sue's stomach started hurting really bad and she couldn't eat.  She really wanted to go ice skating later so she didn't want to go back to the hotel.  She toughed it out and did a good job.

After lunch we went to the planetarium.  The kids got to play on all the cool planet type exhibits.  Then we saw a movie in the dome theater.  it was visual graphics to Christmas music set to lasers.  They really only used the lasers in one song though.  Dash and Bret fell asleep and I dozed off a couple times but everyone else loved it.

After that we took the train to another part of downtown and went ice skating.  The girls have been waiting for this for months.  Sue was feeling better.  Dash and my Dad sat and watched as the rest of us (with a million other people) skating in circles.  I was worried my Mom would fall and die so I stayed with her most of the time, which was nice.  The girls did great and no body fell!  We even got to see the zamboni come out and smooth out the ice.  

After that, Bret, Braelyn, Caylee and Dash went back to the hotel for a swim and dinner.  My Mom, Dad, Alaina and I went to Olive Garden for dinner.  My phone died, which was bad because it needed it to get around.  So I found an inconspicuous place to charge it in the foyer of the restaurant.  

After dinner the headed over to the Salt Palace for their Eve Celebration that downtown Salt Lake was putting on.  All the thing we did that day were part of it.  We got into the museum, planetarium, the movie and ice skating for free with our Eve tickets.  It was a good deal and way fun.  We walked to the Salt Palace to see a Shakespeare for Children and Adults with Short Attention Spans play.  Before it started we had a couple minutes so Alaina and my Mom went in the "ballroom", which was literally a room full of huge plastic balls, and played for a while.  It was really funny watching them.  Then the play started and we watched that.  It was pretty entertaining and funny.  Alaina really liked it.  After that was over we walked through the mall and looked at the Macy's windows.  My Mom was pretty adamant about seeing the Macy's windows.  With good reason too.  They had these huge Christmas tree bulbs made from candy in a Peanuts theme.  Alaina thought they were the coolest things ever!

We were right next to the Joseph Smith Memorial Building so we decided to go up to the 10th floor and look at Temple Square light from there.  It was beautiful.

From there we walked down to the Off Broadway Comedy Theater for a family friendly improv group.  This is the show I was most excited about.  It was REALLY funny.  Alaina was cracking up so much and my stomach hurt from laughing so hard.  My parents really enjoyed it too.   

After that it was late and we were very tired.  So we took the train back to the hotel and went to bed.  We left the next day to go home.  Caylee got to go home with Gramme and Papa and she was very excited about that but also sad because she would miss us.  She had a great time.

The kids and I stayed with Emily for a couple days and that was really fun to hang out with her and the kids.  Bret had to go back to work.

The trip was successful.  We had some rough spots but I was asking a lot of my little kids.  The second day was better because they got to do the fun things and then go swim while the ones who wanted to stayed out later and did more fun things.  I'm grateful I got to share this experience with my family and that my parents got to share it with us too.

Where should we go next Christmas?!

Salt Lake Trip Pt 1

For Christmas this year we didn't get the kids gifts and we didn't get each other gifts.  We used our christmas money to take a trip to Salt Lake to see Temple Square.

The kids knew about it for a while and were really excited about it.

The first thing we did when we got to the hotel was go swimming.  This is what the kids were most excited about.

Early, very early, the next morning Bret and I headed to the Salt Lake Temple to do a session.  it was incredible.  This temple is so beautiful and intricate and detailed.  I could have sat in each room for hours and not seen all there was.  Im really happy we got to have that opportunity.

Bret and I went back to the hotel and gathered everyone up.  We took the train from the hotel to downtown Salt Lake.  I didn't want to have to worry about driving and parking downtown.  The train was easy and the kids loved it.

We did Temple Square on Tuesday.  It was cold.  Really cold.  And snowing.

We looked at the temple and snapped a picture and then went in the visitor center.  The kids liked looking at all the stuff and watching the videos.

We went to the tabernacle for a organ concert after that.  it was pretty neat.  They did a little demonstration about the dynamics and acoustics n the tabernacle.  Caylee and Dash got a but bored and Alaina and Braelyn enjoyed the concert.

 After the concert we went to the Joseph Smith memorial building for lunch.  We ate at the Nauvoo Cafe.  After lunch we walked around the building and oooed and ahhhed at all the beautiful architecture.  

 We went up to the 10th floor and saw Temple Square from there.  Its was beautiful.

I missing some pictures and thats making me sad.  After lunch we went over to the visitor center again for a sister missionary led tour.  They took us through a really neat video about the Plan of salvation that made my Dad and I cry like blubbering babies.  I get it from him you know.  Then they took us to Seagull Monument and told the kids the story behind it.  Then we went in the Assembly Hall and they told us about that.  We took a picture of them with our family in the Assembly Hall and everything and I cant find the pictures.  Weird.

After that we went to the Church History Museum.  It was really crowded and not very fun with kid actually. 

They had a small section for kids (which was swarming) but Dash got to play with tangrams for a few minutes.

 At this point Braelyn, Caylee and Dash are done with the day.  But we had more to do.

Next we went to the conference center, which I was really excited about and interested to see.

We got to go on a tour right away.  I know the conference center is big, and I was ready for it to be so so big.  But even with knowing that, its so big it kinda blows your mind a bit.  Its an enormous building.  I don't think I've ever seen a bigger open space in a building before.

It was pretty incredible.

I also loved all the artwork and sculptures and busts and wonderful things found in the conference center.  Its an amazing place.

During and after the Conference Center tour Braelyn, Caylee and Dash were done.  Sue was laying on the floor and Dash was tired and everywhere, like he gets when he's tired.  It was starting to get dark and the lights were just coming on around Temple Square.  We walked across the street to the temple.  

 

Caylee had been chewing on her gloves all day, even after being told  not to several times.  So when the sun went down and it got colder, her hands were frozen.  She started SCREAMING because she was tired and cold and miserable.  Which, how nice of her, made the rest of us miserable too.  Needless to say we didn't stick around long to see the lights.  Back on the train we went and back to the hotel.

Everyone went down to the pool but I needed a bit of a break from these naughty ungrateful children of mine.  So I stayed upstairs and ate some food and watched a show.  By the time everyone got back, I was ready to be a mom again.

This ended day 1.