Things Are Just "Off" Around Here

 What's wrong with this child picture?!

Happy Valentines Day!

Truthfully, not the day we planned around here, but that's the one constant isn't it? Change?

Earlier this week we got a call from Oklahoma informing us if the death of Riley's grandfather and my husband's 1st Father-in-law. So early this morning, early, they boarded a plane to take them to OK for Monday's memorial service. Thank goodness for Priceline, we were able to get incredibly good fares at the last minute, but the downside is you only get to choose flight dates, not times.  (Try out $200RT each instead of $500RT each!  If you ever need a quick flight and are flexible with times, bid on Priceline.)

Which meant they flew out of SLC at 6 am for a layover in Denver, then on to OKC.

Which left me and the kids home to brave church alone. It went pretty well. The kids were better behaved than usual - tender mercies! Nicole gave a talk in Primary. She did great. She spoke about the Bible story of the woman at the well and Christ being the "living water". Nursery for me was calmer than usual, which was a nice break.

Ron and I went out Friday for a VDay date since he was going to be gone today.  And because today was a Sunday.

Before we ate, we went to the AT&T store and got me and Riley new phones.  My old phone's battery was toast...if it was fully charged, I had about 5 minutes to talk before it would die.  Not so useful, and highly irritating!  Riley had gotten her's wet one too many times, so a few of the buttons weren't working. It was time for some new equipment, and thankfully our old contract obligation was fulfilled. Ron was a gem of a husband and got me an iPhone. I'm sure I will be addicted...yep, positive! Problem is, it's taken me all day to write this post since the kids keep stealing borrowing it to play games.  What possessed me to download games for them?!  It'll be a fun phone to have...but I'm paranoid about dropping it. Cross your fingers that I won't.  I'm scared of the shattered glass!

That's about it for today, just one more thing...for those of you that have an iPhone, will you share your favorite apps with me?  I'll share mine in a later post if you are interested.

I hope you all felt lots of love today, and that it spills over to every day.

Happy Birthday!

Riley hits the big 16 today.  It's big.  It's amazing.  I've known this girl since just after she turned 5.  I'm about to enter my 11th year with her.  I'd probably be doing a much better job with her if she were only that old.  No lies, we've had some rough patches.  We're in the midst of more.  I fully admit that I was not prepared to be her mother when I took on the job and I should have done just about everything differently.  But I do know that Riley has some amazing potential.  She was given a test and trial in her life that many of us couldn't handle.  She's still finding her way through it.  I pray that as the next few years progress, we can find our way through the rocky stretches, and get through okay.

Riley and her cousins,  Haley and Jenessa

Happy 16th Birthday Riley!

Eight is GREAT!

As I mentioned in an earlier post, eight is a big deal, and that is because that is the age the children are baptized and become members of our Church. I took Nicole out for a little photo shoot, first, so we could catch her at 8, and second, so I could send out some invites to Grandparents and Aunts and Uncles for the baptism! I, of course, procrastinated until the last possible day, so I was just praying I got some I could use. Nicole is funny....her fake smile is obviously fake and forced, but if you get her laugh for a genuine smile, she either throws her head back and laughs as well, opens her mouth up too big, or squints her eyes down to almost nonexistent....makes for fun pictures! But here are some of the good results:







We used the one above for her invitation. Not the typical baptism look, since she wasn't in a white dress, but the door was perfect to put words on with photoshop, so I was thrilled!

Since the other kids were there that afternoon, I caught some quick ones of them:







Riley hates having her picture taken and is highly uncooperative when we try.....Ron had to grab her and hold her arms down to her side in order to get this.....someday, she'll be sad she was such a stinker about it since she'll have hardly any pictures of these years. :)

Four - three = one, and a SMILE!

Back to school today for the three oldest! I'm left with my little one at home, and so much more peace and quiet that I can't help but smile. Don't take me wrong, I love and adore my children, but how can you miss them unless they leave the house?! That, and too much together time for them equals more and more arguing and fighting, which frankly, drives me bonkers! But onto the point of this post:



Riley entered the world of high school this year. It literally seems like yesterday that we were walking her to 1st grade, so it is just so weird to think of her in high school. She was nervous, but excited. I hope everything goes well for her! I caught this picture as she was waiting for her friend to come pick her up...lucky Riley has a friend that is a junior and has access to a car. :)



Here's a look at our newest 2nd grader, sporting her new hairdo. Nicole and Jared are back at the charter school, and Nicole happily got the teacher she was hoping for. :) The only thing that could've made her happier was if she'd ended up having more of her friends in her class.....but no worry there, she'll see them at lunch and recess, and she'll make new friends in 5 minutes flat anyway!



Jared was so excited this morning he woke up all on his own, and came out all dressed and ready with even shoes on before he'd even had breakfast. First grade. I will admit, I will miss him. All day is a long time to be gone! He is very excited about three recesses and taking his lunch to school though. He told me this morning how he was going to organize his desk as soon as he got there. He is a funny kid! :)



So now, it's me and Ellie. I'm glad I have my little princess here with me for a couple more years! When we were out school shopping, Ellie decided she needed a lunch box. So we let her pick one out. She brought it with her today as we dropped the kids off. Then she asked if it was time for her to go to ballet. Nope, not until Monday! When we got home, she asked that I pack her lunch box with, what else? Lunch. So I did. She then put her cereal spoon down, and ate her lunch. At 8:30 AM! Ellie and I are doing a co-op preschool here in the neighborhood, but that doesn't start until September, so we have to figure out how to fill our days until then. But I'm liking the quieter and peaceful mornings just fine! :)

Riley - On to High School

How beyond weird is it that Riley will be a sophomore in high school next year?!?!?!!! It feels like it was literally two years ago that we were delivering her to Kindergarten. I have a feeling that these next three years are going to go even faster. Riley is somewhat excited to be heading to high school....excited that she won't be in a school with uniforms anymore, but not excited about the change in venue of a new school. Although she already knows a lot of kids there, so it won't be as bad as she imagines!

I was able to get two shots of Riley on the last day of school. The first she was hanging with some of her friends looking through the yearbook, and the next......

Riley was inducted into the National Junior Honor Society! :) We hope she continues to work hard in HS and keep her GPA up. Most of all, we hope she has fun. You only get to do it once, and it's the best to spend it making good friends, having lots of good clean fun, and learning as much as you can before "real life" hits!

Cool School

The school that Riley, Nicole, and Jared attend was nominated and selected as a "Cool School" by our local Fox affiliate. Today the school was featured in a few different spots on their morning news show. Riley got to go bright and early and perform with the choir, and when the elementary kids got there, they included them in a couple spots about what the different grades did for the Presidential Pageant, and about the school becoming a "Gold Medal" school in physical education, and health awareness.

Here's Riley's spot. You can catch a glimpse of her in the back row when they pan to the far right (at 2:13). Not only does the choir have 2 more concerts left this year, but they are traveling to California in April for a big festival competition at Disneyland.



And next, here's the spot Nicole is seen in. You'll see her run by at 0:32 sec.....she's in the skirt and flowery coat!


Jared was very sad today that he is in afternoon kindergarten, since it meant he didn't get to be there with the TV guys....you can't win them all. :)

Turkey in the Straw

The school the kids go to have a Presidential Pageant every year around Presidents Day, celebrating a different president each time. This year, being Abraham Lincoln's bicentennial birthday year and held on his actual birthday, they honored "Lincoln's Legacy." Each grade had a different presentation. The Kindergarten (showing above) performed the Virginia Reel to Turkey in the Straw, the 1st grade did a puppet show about Lincoln's life, which Nicole was the narrator for one of the groups. We did video that as well, and if you are really interested, you can come by and watch it! ;) All the students from 1st-9th grade also wrote essays about different quotes of Lincoln. The Jr. High quote was "It's not the years in your life, it's the life in your years." This was the essay judging I mentioned in an earlier post that kept me SO busy when we got back from Florida. To our delight (and I promise I didn't rig it!) Riley's essay won "most creative" for the 9th grade! She actually won this same award for her essay in 7th grade as well. She was embarrassed and didn't want to go get her ribbon, but she knew she couldn't get out of it! We were really proud of her. Riley also sang with the choir, but since I still hadn't figured out how to take video with my camera at that point....well, you understand... :)

Happy Birthday Riley!

Fifteen, and already asking for a learner's permit......Can I hide under a rock please? I'm not ready for a driving teen in the house!!!!! EEK!

A Little Freedom: Take 1

Riley and Nicole started back to school today...9th and 1st grades, respectively.

It really seems like yesterday that I was walking Riley to her first day of 1st grade.....now she's a freshman?! Whoa! And can you believe it? I actually caught a smile?! Cute kid. Riley has Seminary now (released time from school to take a religious class), she also is taking Algebra 2, Painting 2, World Civilizations, Biology, Advanced Choir, Advanced Spanish(3rd year), and Honors English. Go Riley! :)

Nicole was so excited for 1st grade. The kid is just excited about school and learning. I hope her enthusiasm never wanes. She was happy that she and most of her kindergarten friends ended up in the same class. I was excited for her to start on this new adventure of 6 hours of school....but torn as well! She grew up so fast. I of course got teary as I walked out of the class and Ron laughed at me and asked me why in the world I was crying about more freedom....I wasn't! Those tears would be for joy....my tears were a mixture of pride and sadness that my babies are just getting old so quickly. It was fun to pick her up, she bowled me over with a big hug and was most excited about the fact that she had three recesses! :) I found it interesting when she told me that during her 3rd recess, she and her friends were pretending to go on a rocket to visit the moon, Venus, Pluto, and back to Earth.....funny that they decided which specific planets they were going to visit.

**Stay tuned for "A Little Freedom: Take 2" next Monday when Jared starts Kindergarten.**

Dropping like flies...

Tonight I had the pleasure of accompanying my husband to Girls Camp. It was the last night, so the Bishopric went up for dinner, the closing devotional, and the infamous fireside testimony meeting. It was nice, and I was just so thankful that I wasn't a YW leader or a camp leader! Oh, I know, though....someday I will eat my words. I did have the privilege of being on the camp committee 3 years ago, and I got put in charge of the food. I was GLAD when that was over! It's stressful being in charge of food for that many, especially because if you mess up, everyone goes hungry! And darn if I wasn't pregnant the next year so I couldn't go to camp again. But dang, I won't ever have that to excuse me from camp again. :(

But tonight was good, plenty of food, and it was tasty. Lots of goofy camp songs, and goofy girls as well. Watching them I remember well acting like a huge spaz, and I was embarrassed for myself! ;)

The testimony meeting went well....and long... I had told my mom, who babysat for us that we'd be home around 10:30-11. Ummm....oops...we got home at midnight. And we didn't even have far to drive as we were only about 20 minutes up the canyon near our home. Every time I go up that canyon I wonder why I don't go up there more often; beautiful scenery, cool temps, and so close to us.

Coming home was interesting though. Riley was sick when she went up, and when we saw her tonight, we knew she needed to forego the last night of camping and come home to her bed....But as the evening wore on, more girls decided they needed to come home. We ended up bringing 3 girls home, and 2 more went with another leader. Eeek! I hope Riley wasn't responsible for getting them all sick! We really do have a great group of girls in our ward though...all of them try to do their best to make good choices, and are all nice to each other.

Fun with Photoshop

SOOC....straight out of camera....nice, but I think I'll tweak it with a little action and tutorial I found...courtesy of PW...

VIOLA! WOW! I believe this deserves a printing and frame! :)

Oh, and to be fair to Riley, she also finished school today. Had fun getting her yearbook signed by her buddies, and her dad and I are in shock that next year is her freshman year....The kid ended with 7 A's and 1 B....she's gonna have an amazing GPA for this year. Now if she can keep it up for the next 4 years, she could actually have a chance at getting into BYU! (If that's what she still wants to do in 4 years!)

Little bits of life.

Various things going on....so here you go!

Nicole- Back to school! The kid has definitely been catching up on sleep.....Monday, she slept in until 10! Tuesday, til 9, and I had to drag her out of bed this morning at 7:20. She really wanted to go back yesterday because her teacher, who has been gone since having a baby a month ago, was coming in for the day and bringing her new baby. So I took Nicole for the last 45 minutes. When we got there though, her teacher wasn't there because she couldn't find a sitter for her older child. But Nicole wanted to stay and her teacher is coming on Thursday, which is also her last day! Holy cow...I cannot believe she is almost done with Kindergarten. That FLEW!

Nicole is now to the "stinketh" phase of her recovery....uck! I brush her teeth well, and her tongue, and have her gently gargle to help the tonsil part, but I can't do anything about the adenoid part....so I remind her not to breathe too close to anyone's face for a few more days. :) Yesterday in the mail she got a cute "get well card" signed by the nurses that took care of her and some stickers. I am SO beyond impressed with the same-day surgery department of this hospital. Awesome care, and great follow-up.

Riley- There was an awards assembly at school yesterday and Riley got 4 outstanding student awards from her English, History, Graphic Arts, and some other teacher that she couldn't remember. They hadn't told parents about the assembly, so we weren't there. She'll get her certificates today so we'll see what the mysterious 4th was! Her Science teacher told her she was on his list as well, but they made him shorten his, so she was taken off since she was getting the others.

The really weird part about this kid is that this last term she's been checking her grades, on her own, and is bugged that she doesn't have all A's....huh?! Seriously, talk about a FANTASTIC change! At the beginning of this year, she could care less what her grades were, and if you told her that she was missing assignments and her grade was down to a D, she'd ask "what's so wrong with that"? So this change in attitude is so welcome! It's great as a parent to watch a child start taking responsibility for themselves and meeting their incredible potential! YAY for Riley!

Here's the kicker....guess where I took her yesterday....???? A JOB interview! Yep, if she gets it, she'll be working in the snack shack at one of the local pools this summer. Such different plans for her this summer. Last summer, I thought her butt was going to grow into the couch. This summer....Youth Conference, EFY, Girls Camp, Tennis Lessons, Voice Lessons, and a part-time job. Crap. If this keeps up, we will be getting her a car in a couple years so I don't have to schlep her around! :)

Jared- Has preschool graduation Friday, and his end of year Water Party on Tuesday. Starts T-Ball in June.

Me....I should be doing a lot of other things, but I'm escaping it by blogging....hehehe...well, until now. I have no more to tell. Dang. Non-interesting but highly irritating tidbit....it was in the 90's yesterday. I had to turn on the A/C last night for a while to get it to a comfortable sleeping temp....Now that the storm has arrived, it's 40 degrees right now. With wind chill, lower than that!

Fun & Frolic

So, because I had a big mouth to Nicole's ENT, and mentioned that she has nosebleeds, sometimes often, the Dr. ordered a CBC and clotting time test....just to make sure she doesn't have any clotting issues that would cause us to move her surgery to a children's hospital (where they have pediatric blood, in case she should need some.)

She began freaking out when I told her where we were going, and didn't stop until the needle was in her arm and she realized it wasn't as bad as she'd imagined, and it was sorta interesting watched the tubes fill with blood. She screamed her loudest when the phlebotomist uncapped the needle...I think she woke up some of the ICU patients out of their coma's...

That was fun....not.

I'm sure she'll be fine, and we'll hear nothing of the results from her doctor...no news is good news!

Yesterday afternoon, we also had an appointment at the school for an assembly honoring the kids who scored well on the IOWA skills test. Riley scored in the top 10% of the nation in reading and science! Way to go Riley!

(I would've had a picture of the event, but we were late and I ran out of the house leaving the camera behind...better than one of the kids!)

Fun planned for today: Burlington Coat Factory is having a suit sale, and my hubby desperately needs new suits. So we're off...the kids will be so excited, as they LLLLLOVVE to go shopping...not.

An extra 24 whole hours!!!!

February 29th..Leap year!!! What a day! Beautiful, sunny, blue sky, snow melting....I even discovered the daffodils starting to pop up out of the ground.....SPRING is coming!

And the best....what I've been hoping for for a couple years...a whole extra day in my year! Where shall I begin.....mop the floors, get laundry done, organize a room...I have all these extra hours at my disposal.

Maybe I'll just sit and play with my kids....after we get back from taking Nicole to the doctor...I'm pretty sure she has strep again. Good thing we are getting those tonsils out.

Funny for today...well, sorta funny. I was out in the car this morning waiting for Riley to join me so I could take her to school. She took forever to come out, and when she did, she said, "Mom, I think Joey(the dog) isn't breathing...he didn't move when I pet him as I was leaving." I told her he was fine, because I was pretty sure I saw him move this morning as I went out to the car. (He is a pretty lazy dog, and spends many mornings just sleeping away in his kennel, so I wasn't concerned.) But then I asked her, "What did you want me to do if he was dead, go in and give him CPR?!" Of course she answered yes....I had to explain to her that there was no way on EARTH I would do mouth to mouth or CPR on a dog....even if I liked him. She was mad, tears were flowing....I told her I'd go right home and check on him. Which I did and OF COURSE he's fine...just lazy. I would never be so lucky....we'll end up having the amazing immortal dog that will never die. So I texted Riley and told her all was well in the world and the dog lives so she could focus on school.

One down!

Today, Riley hit the magical day of the removal of her braces. Hooray! I was excited for her, even if she wasn't. Wasn't excited, you ask?

Riley is an interesting sort of person. She has the amazing ability to not be excited about fun things for whatever reason she chooses. Still not sure what the deal with today was, but she certainly seems to be on a downer about this. Whenever we ask to see her pretty straight teeth, she won't even smile for us...we get a smirk. In fact, her first comment after looking in the mirror once they were off and she was out of hearing of the orthodontic people was, "I hate my teeth." Huh? Wish we'd known that before we'd plunked down thousands to straighten them. Oh well, guess she has nice looking straight teeth to hate now. (You are so welcome for getting you all set up with braces, getting you to the appointments on time, paying for the things, etc. so you can have a beautiful smile. Thanks for the fantastic show of gratitude.) Isn't fourteen great?

Maybe next time Ron and I will take a well-deserved trip to Hawaii or somewhere without the little ungrateful herd and they can get braces when they are all grown up and can pay for them on their own...like their mother!

All kidding aside, she looks beautiful without the braces, and she better wear her retainer and keep 'em that way! I'll get a picture posted in the next couple of days if we can get a smile out of her!

Happy Birthday Riley!

Riley and cousin Connor enjoying the 4-wheeler!

Miss Riley is FOURTEEN years old today!

Whoa! It really seems like just yesterday that she was turning 6...

(I can't say it seems like yesterday that she was born, because I wasn't around then!)

Riley really is becoming all grown up though. Going through all the fun moodiness of teenagehood. But thankfully it is getting better! She is very excited to move into the "MiaMaids" group at church since her closest friend in the ward is already 14. She gets her braces off in a month and couldn't be more thrilled. She is a tall darling girl, and her dad is going to start building a moat around her soon!

She has chosen sushi for dinner tonight....so she and her dad are happy about that....the rest of us will have something else since our opinion of sushi is a big fat "BLECH!", and since she doesn't read my blog, I can say that she's getting clothes for her BDay! Sunday outfits, shoes, some other shirts for every day, and some really cute black and leopard print converse lowtops. Hope she likes them!