{Rite of Passage}

For our kids there is one very important rite of passage that they have to go through before we let them head off into the world called kindergarten.  That passage is called the "You must learn how to tie your own shoes" passage.  Miss Lauryn was no exception to this family rule.  Unlike her predecessors though, she was not as excited about learning.  Which surprised me.  She loves to tie knots in anything with two ends.  In fact Meysa called her the knot Nazi, after Lauryn tied about a hundred little knots in Meysa's doll's ribbon.  I died laughing and then I wondered how Meysa learned how to use the word "Nazi".  Anyways, Lauryn took a bit of convincing that learning to tie her shoes was "neat", "cool", and only for "big" five year olds.  I would have to show her a few times and then let her practice and then drop the subject and try again in a few days.  Slowly but surely each time she would have mastered a step and she could see her own improvement.  

While we were hanging out waiting for Irene to blow over I thought it would be a good time to give Lauryn her final test in tying her shoes.  The next day was the first day of school and she couldn't go unless she was able to pass her final (I of course would have sent her but she didn't know that!!)  She put on a shoe that was too small for her foot (apparently she had grown over the summer) and whipped out her mad tying skills and she wowed all of us!!  She was so fast I had to have her do it again, more slowly so I could take pictures for documentation.  She was so proud of herself and so excited to be going into Kindergarten!! 

This is what success looks like!! 

{First Day of School 2011}

 It's here, It's here!!  The first day of school is really here!!  Can you tell we are excited for today?!!  I possibly am more excited than the kids!!  I read on a friend's blog that she was sad to see her kids go off to school after spending all her time this summer with them, but that on the other hand she was excited to see her kids go off to school after spending all her time with her kids.  I can whole heartily agree!!  Plus the kids are ready and excited to go back too.  On Friday the schools had their open houses so the kids could come and meet their teachers before the first day and find their classrooms.  The kids got wonderful teachers this year and meeting them made the kids even more excited to start today.     

Ayden's teacher this year is Mrs. Burks.  She is so nice and I think Ayden is going to have a great time with her!!

Meysa's teacher is Mrs. Mebane!   She was so warm as she invited Meysa into the classroom.  Meysa really likes her already.

Lauryn's teacher is Miss Haering.  She is young and energetic.  Lauryn was excited because she has blonde hair and blue eyes just like her!!  I hope Lauryn has a great kindergarten year!!

Here is to the new school year.  Wyatt and I are planning on having some fun times around here as well.  Oh yeah and here is to grocery shopping with only one kid!!  Yippee~~

{5.8 & Category 1}

Those were the headlines making it into the news this last week around here.  First off Tuesday at about 1:52pm people around our area experienced an earthquake registering 5.8.  It has been a while since something like that has happened around here so you can imagine the surprise of everyone.  Ryan felt the tremor while at the hospital.  The kids and I were shopping at Walmart and didn't feel a thing!!  We were coming off the freeway and were stopped at a light.  There was an office building on the corner and people were standing around in the parking lot like they had been evacuated.  But oddly there wasn't any emergency vehicles around like there would be if there had been a fire or a powdery substance found in the mail room.  It wasn't until we got home and Ryan called to check on us that we found out why all those people were standing around in the parking lot.  Had we been home we would have felt it.  It sounds kinda funny but I wish my kids could have felt it and experienced it.  They are kinda bummed too!!  Starting shortly after the earthquake we started getting reports of Hurricane Irene and it's projected path so we started getting ready for her arrival.  We had a few minor things to do to get ready.  Like gas up the cars, get new batteries for the flashlights and get some cash out for an emergency evacuation.  We already have food and water on hand so we weren't the ones frantically trying to find bread at the stores, which from reports bread couldn't be found anywhere.  Around our house are lots of trees and so our biggest concern was downed power lines and trees uprooting and falling on the house.  

This was the calm before the storm.  Saturday morning it started raining a little but the worst of the storm wasn't suppose to hit our area until late Saturday night and into Sunday morning.  We hunkered down and hung out at home all day.  The kids played and Ryan and I put together our bucket list for things to do while we live on the east coast (it is pretty extensive, I hope we can do it in three years).  We kept thinking at any moment the winds would pick up and we would lose power.  Losing power had another downside.  School starts tomorrow and if the power was out we would for sure not be starting the school year on Monday.

The only thing that worried us in the back yard was our trampoline.  We really didn't want it taking off and landing in Mrs. Anderson's (our 90 year old neighbor) house.  It already had anchor straps so we just took down the safety net and tied that down to the frame.  It looked like it survived the storm pretty much intact, much to the relief of the kids. 

Right on time the winds picked up and the rain came down in sheets, late last night.  I was worried that a tree would land on the house and I wouldn't be awake enough to know it until it was too late so I stayed up downstairs watching the news until about 2:30am.  I did fall asleep here and there but I would wake up when I would hear a big gust of wind and I would watch the trees with baited breath.  Thankfully this is all we woke up to this morning.  Little branches and lots of leaves everywhere.  We did have our power go out sometime around 4am but it came right back on and then later we had some surges where the power acted like it was going to go out but didn't.  We are thankful for that!!

This is our back porch.

The side yard next to our other neighbors.  There were a few sizable branches that had fallen but none of them did any damage. 

The other worry associated with this storm was flooding and flash floods.  We again were lucky in this area.  We didn't have any flooding in our basement.  The only standing water we have is in our back yard, far away from our house.  We feel extremely blessed to be safe and otherwise unaffected by this storm.  We know so many others are without power and have flooding in and around their homes.  As we prepared for this storm we tried to calm our children's fears about what we would do in an emergency.  We had prepared long before this storm ever came, which I believe is so important.  We have food storage complete with water and other methods of cooking and sustaining ourselves.  We had budgeted emergency money and had that on hand.  I was thankful that we didn't need to worry about those things, they were already taken care of.  We weren't frantic yesterday and I know that is because we prepared long before there ever was an emergency.  While we said our family prayers last night we gave thanks for our safety but also for a living prophet that has always counseled us to be prepared, to put a little aside for a time of need.  We feel blessed and we are thankful.

{I am}

I AM.......

i am:   Sitting at the computer checking email and blogs

i think: school should start tomorrow...

i know:  who I am

i want: food to magically appear in my fridge so I don't have to go shopping for it

i have: a lesson to prepare for RS on Sunday...

i dislike: impatient people

i miss: my family out west

i fear:  drowning

i feel:  blessed

i hear:  Ayden doing the dishes listening to music

i smell: freshley sanded wood

i crave: fresh raspberries

i cry:  when I watch that "Coming Home" show on TV

i usually: read to my kids while they are in bed at night

i search: for blogs about photography

i wonder:  if I will get to work out now that I only have one kid at home during school

i regret:  not spending a little more money on my wardrobe

i love: when I hear my kids playing together instead of fighting

i care:  about my family, each and everyone of them (including the extended ones)

i always: have the radio on in the car

i worry: about the economy

i am not:  easily offended


i remember: when I didn't have stretch marks everywhere

i believe: in disciplining children when needed

i dance: with my kids in the kitchen

i sing: to embarass my kids

i don’t always:  put on makeup

i argue: with Ryan about how ridiculous the stats are in baseball

i write: on my blog

i win: the boringest house award....I need to put things up on the wall


i lose: at anything where height is important

i wish:  that extra weight magically melted off

i listen: to instrumental music on Sundays

i don't understand: people sometimes....I mean really

i can usually be found: at home with the kiddos

i am scared: to drive around here sometimes.  People are crazy here....


i need: a few more hours in the day


i forget: my reusable bags when I go grocery shopping

i am happy:  when everyone is home and tucked in at night

Now its YOUR turn. Copy and paste this to your blog, changing the answers to fit you! :o) Then leave me a comment, so I know to go read all about your "I AM's". :)

{Beach Bums}

We got to go and chillax at a beach on Wednesday.  It is at a nearby State Park and it was wonderful.  It is a sandy beach on a lake and the kids were in heaven.  We were there for 5 hours and the kids were still not ready to leave.  They have a campground there too and so we have decided that we need to go there and camp so we can practically live at the beach.  It was a nice break from our normal routine.

{Don't smile}

While we sang to Wyman last night for his birthday, he was so happy he couldn't help but smile.  Smile really big.  He was so cute, he tried so hard to not let it show how happy he was, including pinching his cheeks together to stop that darned old smile from showing.  He is so adorable and I love him at this age!!

{Are we ready....?}

Yes, I think we are indeed ready for school to start.  There has been nothing but fighting, teasing, and tormenting going on around here.  The kids put up these signs today, basically as a declaration of war against the other gender group.  Except Wyatt, he can play on both sides and apparently go unscathed.  The first day really can't come soon enough!!!

{BIG 3}

Oh so little....

Our baby is officially the BIG 3. Wyman has been talking about his birthday for the last few weeks and everytime we would ask him how old he was going to be, he would infatically say..."THE BIG 3". Only he has a slight lisp, that I think is incredibly cute and so it would come out more like, "THE BIG FREE"!! It is kinda hard to believe our little guy is this big. Where have the last three years gone?
Wyatt is such a blessing in our family. He has us laughing all the time and he reminds me to just slow down and enjoy life. Little boys are so needed in a family.
He is so proud of the fact that he can make the number three with this fingers. I love how he concentrates so hard and then proudly shows me how old he is.
The BIG THREE!!

Tonight we are going to celebrate as a family with the requested blue cake and some ice cream picked out by birthday boy himself. Happy Birthday Baby boy, we love you!!!

{Summer Days}

We are having the epitome of a lazy summer. We wake up when we want to, we play in the sprinkler, eat popsicles everyday, catch up on our netflix, we get dressed IF we want to. Basically we are being bums and I love it. I know in the real near future we are going back to a routine, which I will be craving once it is upon us but for now we are loving the fly by the seat of our pants kind of schedule.
We have read Treasure Island, Hatchet, Black Beauty and are going to start Call of the Wild. My kids love when I read to them and I love reading books that I loved as a kid.
Ayden has gotten to new levels on Mario Cart Wii and he has built some pretty cool Star Wars lego bases and spaceships (more on that later). Lauryn is starting to sound out words and she is reluctantly practicing tying her shoes. Meysa is learning how to do her own hair and being a good big sister to Wyatt. Speaking of Wyatt, he is getting big. Seriously he is eating me out of house and home right now and he is only almost three. The other morning for breakfast he had a bowl of cereal and plate of eggs. He is also sleeping more so I think a growth spurt is upon us.
We are t-minus 20 days until school starts and we have to shop for school clothes and school supplies, camp at least one time in the back yard, celebrate Wyatt's birthday, and maybe even go downtown one more time. I hope to post more often if and when we stop our lazy summer ways!!!