Ice Bucket Challenge

 This is what Violet calls the WARM ICE BUCKET CHALLENGE!

 She invited her friends, Ashley, Olivia and Brooklyn to join her!

 Who knew this could be so much fun!

 When Jonah heard that his friend Zach had "dominated" him to do the ice bucket challenge he hooted and hollered all over the house!! 

 His ICE BUCKET is the real deal!  Way to go Jonah!!

He "dominated" his cousins Peyton Bridge, Jacob Schow and friend Trey Wendel

 Will was nominated by his cousin Andy Shumway, and his friend Thomas Ord!

 Will got wayyyyy too much ice in his!   Go Will!!!

hot showers

 cozy pajamas

warm blankets

 snowy bedtime stories

sleep tight!

Violet thanked Heavenly Father for the Warm Ice Bucket Challenge in her night time prayer : ) 

First day of school 2014

Quick picture with Dad before he left for work.

Eighth grade girl going to Vista Heights Middle School

First Grade at Saratoga Shores

Fifth Grade at Saratoga Shores 

Principal Thomas welcomed everyone back with a high five!

The kids walked the red carpet into the school which was lined with all teachers.

Will's class is in the middle trailer in the background.  His teacher is Mrs. Lefevre.

Jonah's class is the first classroom Will passes when he comes inside the doors.  His teacher is Mrs. Reid.  I tried really hard to get Jonah to do one more year of kindergarten but he would have none of that! :)  He told me I would have Nicholas and Violet to have fun with while he's gone!  He's ready to be a big kid!

Where is Luke?  He and Violet and Nicholas are all at home sleeping. At 6:00am I told him there had been a bomb threat called in to the school leaving school cancelled for the day.  He said, "Sweet, I'm going back to bed!"    

But the little kids and I enjoyed spending the day with him at home with us!  It was nice not to have ALL the big kids gone all at once.  You can see what we watched together here. 

 Luke and his friend Max are the YM Family History Specialists in the ward so it has become a bit of a hobby as he learns more and more about how to search for his ancestors.  We had alot of fun the other night finding famous people we were related too.  I think our favorite names were Long shanks and a King Henry, The Bald.  It was very fun to look through the chart to see which lines these people were on.  

BYU Fall Scrimmage

 With Adam and Luke on a scout camp, the kids and I decided to come over to the BYU open scrimmage at the stadium.  But first we went to Angela and Rostand's house for a back to school haircut for Bridget.

Will took these pictures of the players from our front row seat.

After the game, the players gave high fives to everyone seated on the front row!  Will and Jonah were thrilled when Taysom Hill came by.

As Will & Jonah waited in line to meet Jamal Williams, Jonah said, "I have never had an autograph from anyone!"
"Well Jamal Williams is someone you want to get an autograph from,
cause he's so good, he'll probably go to the NFL!"  

Nicholas loves crawling in grass...the field was no exception

It looks like Bridget and Will let the football atmosphere influence how they would look in the picture...rather like football player head shots! And Violet is joining in with her double fierceness.   

A fun way to spend a warm summer evening!  Go Cougars!

Cross Country Meet at Home

 First unofficial meet of the season, at home with just our team. This will be his second year  running with the team.  They have brand new uniforms too! 

Starting his watch

He got 7th place and his time was 18:30 (or something close to that)

The fastest 7 times will run Varsity, 

Next meet: August 21st at Sugar House Park

January days

Home with the little kids:

Jonah's Nike shoes are covered in mud because he went "deep into the field" to play in them.  His grey running shoes are soaking wet because he wore them to play in the snow yesterday.  It's time for school and he wants to wear the wet shoes to school.
"My socks will dry them Mom!"  So I took him up to his room to see what choices we had left.  Church shoes, brown boots, or snow boots.  He chose the snow boots. 

Today for lunch Violet brought the nutella from the pantry and said, "I want this!" 
Jonah quickly informed, "Violet, that is called Nutunia!"  (As in petunia)

While cleaning up the kitchen after lunch, Jonah came in and asked me if we should save Nicholas' carseat, in case we have another baby. 
"That might be a good idea, but I don't think we are having any more babies."
"Yeah, we can.  Remember that family that sits on the front row in church?  They have a lot more kids than we do, so we could still have some more."
"Good point Jonah."

When it was time for chess club I asked Jonah to put on his snow boots and coat because Eliza's mom would be here to pick him up any minute. 
He came in and asked, "Where did you put my snickers?"

 

Dinner time at home

Tonight at dinner after realizing that we were all in our own little worlds, I asked everyone to share their two favorite things from the day.

Luke said, "Playing football with Will and his friends on the backyard BYU field."

Bridget said, "having my hair curled with my new wand."  (She was convinced that her hair does not curl with a curling iron, but this wand proved her wrong.  It stayed curly all day long!)

Will said, "finishing a really big art project, and playing football in the backyard with Luke, Tyler B. and Thomas O."

Jonah said, "Going to chess club and beating a boy three times, and making a fort at Tyson's house."

Violet said, "Taking two nappez: one in my bed and one on the couch.  And watching Princess Sofia on the tv."  When Violet pluralizes words, she doesn't just add an s, she adds an ez.  And only when she said, "Bridgets-ez" did I realize who she sounds like; Gollum from the Hobbit.  He says "Hobbits-ez the exact same way!

I didn't share this but I say, "Holding baby Nicholas all day long (except for a couple of naps he took in his bed.) (And holding him snuggled on me fast asleep while I type this) I have always loved holding babies but holding my own babies has been my very most favorite thing. I purposely let things slide so that I can enjoy him, and give him the comfort and security he needs while he's so young.  Tonight while I helped Will gather things to sell in his classroom store, I noticed Nicholas had two tiny little crowns on his head, right beside each other.  His darling dark hair swirls around them ever so slightly and it's cute.  I love the back of his head, mmmm with all that dark hair and that sweet smell of baby shampoo mixed with his naturally sweet baby smell.  There is no better smell than that, and baby's breath.  Mmmmm.  And he gives his smiles so freely.  He waits to catch your eye and then gives a hesitant smile, before giving a big smile.  If you laugh or make to much of a sound in reaction, he gets scared and the smile goes fast. 

O.K. so that's one.

I loved washing dishes with Violet this morning.  She rinsed, and filled cups with water and lined them up on the edge of the counter.  And she hummed to the Christmas music we listened to. 

Jonah told me, "Mom, the thing I DON"T like about our guest room is that when people come to stay it doesn't smell like our house anymore.  I want it to always smell like our house!"  I'm happy he likes the smell of this place.  When I picked him up at school today he ran to the car and I said,
"Go get your friends."
"They are not my friends."
"Jonah, go get the girls and boy who ride home from school with you everyday."
"No."
"Jonah--"
"Are you still sick?"  (I've been sick all week and have refused to leave the car in my comfy apparel and unkempt hair and face, not to mention my aching body)
"Yes."
He looked at me, looked away, and then one of the girls saw him and started running over.  I had to get out and flag down the second one.  When did he decide that girls were unacceptable friends?  It was only last year in preschool that they were his friends. 

Will laughed his head off while we brainstormed and searched for items to take to his classroom store.  The items he thought were the funniest:  deodorant (my idea) and our old Christmas tree(Luke's idea). He is so fun to laugh with.  He told us that his teacher, Mr. Allred, gives him a bad time about BYU, (because he is a Utah State fan).  Oh and by the way, Utah State hasn't beat BYU in football for 11 years.  That's the kind of trivia Will throws at me everyday, and no wonder Mr. Allred razzes him.  I'm sure he hears it all day long.

Bridget shared one of her cherry Hershey's kisses with me.  And yesterday she wrote "Beyond 5" on her hand.  FYI:  they are the latest Mormon Boy band and they are cute!  Cousin Hannah made the trip down to Provo to their concert so Bridget and Luke decided to join her, not knowing anything about the group.  Apparently the words BOY BAND didn't ring enough of a bell with Luke because he ended up with his head in his hands, plugging his ears, while Bridget and Hannah joined the rest of the crowd and screamed!  When I came to pick them up, Hannah got to meet Nicholas and held him for a while.

Luke has a curly mop top and I love it.  He is reading the Rangers Apprentice series right now, and it's reminding me of when he was reading Harry Potter and couldn't put it down.  I love that he loves to read! 

He and Bridget both made the honor rolls at Vista Heights!  YAY, I'm so proud of them for working hard!

And I think my cold is almost gone and that is good news.  I've muddled my way through this week of being sick and having Adam gone.  But I am blessed with a sweet neighbor named Glenda who happens to be my new Visiting Teacher.  She brought the yummiest pot of homemade chicken noodle soup "because Dr. Oz says it actually does help you get better.  Something about the enzymes in it!"  and two loaves of homemade bread.  Is there anything better on the face of the earth than those two things/  No.  I'm convinced that's why I'm feeling better today.  Grateful for her. 

Track Meet #1

I enjoyed the warmth of the sun today.  The weather can't decide if it's winter or Spring, but today it was Spring.  Jonah went to Pre-school at the Wilcox's and took an Easter egg with lego inside.  The kids had to shake it to try and guess the contents. 

Meanwhile, Violet and I cleaned the kitchen with the Pandora "Mindy Gledhill" station booming to keep us moving.  She wiggled to the beat on her barstool as she helped me chop red peppers for the stir fry we would have for dinner.  Then we packed lunches for she and Jonah to eat on the way to Kangaroo Zoo to meet our friends for the afternoon.  Jonah was happy after preschool.  

Kangaroo Zoo was a hit.  We met the Peterson's, the Foess' and the Jensen's there for a lunch. 

Luke's first track meet of the season (last weeks was cancelled due to a snow storm) was at Westlake High School. Violet and Jonah and I were there to support him.  Will was busy with chess club and scouts.  He won Annie Peterson with 3 queens!  And he just joined the Bear's den who apparantly do not have treats after den meeting, like they did in wolves.  He said,"Sister Peterson and Sister Burdette were really good!" I think he misses them.  But he will love the Bear den, even without the treats! Bridget had piano lessons.  She plans to invite a friend to come home from school with her tomorrow.  She continues to love playing capture the flag at school during free time (on top of recess).  Mr Emett is giving them so many opportunities to get out and play that they are really enjoying his class, and probably learning well too.  Today she and five other girls versed 3 of the boys in their class and beat them 7 - 0. 

Back to the track meet. While Luke was in the bull pin waiting for his race Violet ran over to say hello.  He stretched and she stretched with him.  She is always ever so happy to see her Yuke.  So Luke ran the mile.  And he did it fabulously!  We can't wait to find out his time tomorrow because he is confident he knocked some time off his 6:20 record.  It was exciting to see him keep up with the first pack of runners.  (He was not far behind a boy from his school that was quite a bit faster than him last year.  It's so fun to see how the body grows and improves) He paced himself well and had a good finish.  Jonah cheered his name the entire race, screaming, "Go Luke!" through the entire mile.   I wish he had a megaphone so Luke could hear him all the way around the track.  On the rest of the races that Luke was not competing in I told Jonah that we were cheering for the kids with the black jersey's on because they are from Luke's school.  He said, "I can't cheer for them I don't even know their names." I told him he could call them Vista or Thunder.  Soon I realized he was referring to them as "The Black's."  At one point there were two Vista kids coming up the straitaway together in the 4X100 m relay and Jonah yelled, "Look, there's two blacks!"  A boy from the Vista team who was seated nearby turned and commented on the racist comment, which I quickly explained.