Cancer Survivors Day 2018

We attended Cancer Survivor's Day put on by the hospital. It is kind of fun going to things like this. It makes you feel like you are not alone in this but it also is makes you realize how many people this stupid disease has affected.  Other than that, we did have a good time at the dinner. I took the boys and Charlotte with me because Russell was with Emily at her softball game.  

The theme of the night was western so there were bandannas for all of us and horseshoes too.  The boys had too much fun in the jail photo booth while we waited in line for dinner. The BBQ pork from Texas Roadhouse was so good but our favorite part of the dinner was the Texas Roadhouse rolls and cinnamon honey butter.  While we ate, we listened to this really awesome speaker.

I wish I could remember his name but I can't. He was a throat cancer survivor.  He was a rancher from Wyoming and would travel to Logan for his treatments. The sad thing was that he loved to sing and was very good at it but with throat cancer, his vocal chords were pretty affected and he hadn't been able to sing for a very long time. He did sing for us though and he said it was the first time he has sang in public since his cancer. He did an amazing job!!  I loved his talk as well. He talked about his experience and how the Lord had His hand in everything that happened to him. Things fell into place for him along to way and people came into his life that helped him and his family. I was in tears listening to him talk because everything he said happened to me too. The Lord's hand was in my journey as well and I had so many blessings along to way. I loved hearing his story. 

At the end, we all had the opportunity to sign one of the beams that will be put into the new Cancer Center at the hospital.

I kind of felt dumb signing the beam but the kids finally convinced me and I signed all of our names on it. I went back a minute later and added "breast cancer survivor 2017".  Whether or not anyone will actually see my name I hope it gives them hope that they can survive their cancer as well.

Happy Cancer Survivor's Day!

School's Out for the Summer!

May is super busy with lots of things to do before school gets out. There are school plays, sage tests to study for, and graduations to prepare for, as well as a lot of fun things like field trips.  We were able to have a lot of fun with the kids and their classes as we helped out with and attended their class field trips this year.

The first field trip I helped with was Colby's first grade field trip to the Treehouse Museum in Ogden.  Charlotte and Logan came with us and they had a blast there too. Because they came with me though we couldn't ride the bus with Colby so we drove down. First we played at the park and ate lunch with the classes. Then we headed over to the Treehouse.  While we were there, we broke into groups and did a few activities.

The first group we did was the craft center where we made magic wands out of clay and chopsticks.  Next we moved on to the storytelling center where we heard and acted out fairy tales from other countries.  Finally we went to the theater center where we got to watch a play as the kids acted it out.  The play was really funny about a Mexican version of Snow White, Blanca Fair.  

After going through all of the centers, we set the kids loose in the Treehouse Museum to have fun.  That was a little crazy because there were about a million kids there and a lot of different rooms or play places for them to play and hide in.  I was too busy chasing Logan and Charlotte and keeping track of them to even attempt to keep track of the kids I was supposed to.  Luckily there were a bunch of other moms and teachers to help out as well.  I am pretty sure we didn't lose any kids but it was pretty hectic.

Anyway, Logan, Charlotte and Colby had a great time playing.  In fact, when the classes left, we decided to stay at the museum and have more fun on our own.  Colby even stayed with us.  Here they are riding the bulls and broncos at the rodeo exhibit:

They loved riding the horses but the faces of the cowboy and rodeo clowns were pretty scary so we decided to move on.  Next we milked the cow at the farm:

The fire truck exhibit was a real favorite for all of the students so we had to wait quite a while to get this picture.  Then we had to fight over who would drive.  Charlotte loved the firetruck.  In fact she loved the whole museum.

Everything was just her height so she just ran around the whole museum exploring and playing with everything.  There was no stopping her as she ran from exhibit to exhibit.  All of the kids just ran from place to place playing and learning and leaving a mess in their wake.  The awesome museum workers just followed along cleaning up after everyone.  

In the medieval exhibit, we dressed up as kings and knights and tried to pull the sword out of the stone.  Unfortunately, we are not destined to be the king so we couldn't pull the sword out.

The boys favorite place was the science center where they got to watch these parachutes fly up into the air.

The went back and forth sending the parachutes up and watching them fly and then catching them to do it all over again.  They had so much fun at the museum.  I wish the museum was closer to us rather than in Ogden or we would go more often.  

Colby's first grade class performed a little play at the end of the year as well.  Each kid in the first grade had a part and they all sang songs together in the program too.  Colby made an awesome Jack and the Beanstalk.

He and his friend, Cody, did an excellent job on their parts as Jack and the Giant.  They sang about how they didn't like each other at first but then as they got to know each other, they became friends.  The chorus of the song gave a great message saying, "Don't you go judging a book by its cover.  Take the time to learn about one another..."  Differences can be cool.  They did great!

Here is old Jack and his buddy, the Giant.  Good job boys!!  I had a good time making Colby's costume.  It was really quite simple to make too.  All I had to sew was the tunic and then put it over a white shirt and khakis that he already had.  Strap on a belt and a small bag of bean and there you go.  The hat was pretty simple too but it turned out too small for Colby's head so he only wore it while he was on stage.  Next time I will double the measurements. 

The next field trip we went on was with Emily's class.  They won an ice cream party for doing something well so they headed over to the park for their ice cream as well as playing on the playground and splash pad.  While there, Russell had a little too much fun trying to get the kids sick on the merry-go-round.

The whole class was on the merry-go-round at the same time and Russell was totally willing to spin them to try and knock them off.  One kid we really worried about because we really thought he was going to puke after eating all that ice cream and spinning.  Luckily he didn't though!

All the kids had a good time and it was really an easy going field trip for us and the teacher.  Another fun activity we did with Emily's class was her Spring or End of the Year party.  For some reason, I was put in charge of the party so I wanted to do something really simple.  I decided a class kickball game would be the really simple but also really fun.  The class had a blast playing together.  The boys however got a little too competitive and crazy so Russell started making bogus calls as well as blocking some of the boys from getting the ball so that the other players would have a chance.  This made the boys even more mad and competitive but we just laughed even harder at them.  For the treat at the end, I found these humongous Otter Pops.  They were like two feet long and about an inch and a half in diameter.  They were so big that the kids couldn't even finish them.  They were awesome!  I think the party was a success.

The school district put on a preschool fair for all of the preschoolers in the district.  Since Logan is part of the district's preschool program, he was so excited to go.

While there, we got a lot of good information about different learning games, as well as dinner and fun.

Finally we made it to graduation.  Graduation from first grade, third grade, and of course preschool.

Logan had been looking forward to preschool graduation for so long.  He was so happy.

He did awesome on his part about what his favorite part of preschool was.  He said his favorite part of preschool was sharing the toys with his friends.  Logan also got the award for being the best helper in class.  His teacher said he was always willing to help her with anything she asked.  

They also performed their talent show dance during the graduation.  We all laughed as clapped along and they did the "Whip and Nay-Nay."

Logan has loved preschool and he especially loved Miss Maggie his teacher. 

Now it is on to kindergarten!! 

We are so excited for school to be out and summer to be here.  We have a lot of fun things planned for the summer so we will continue to be busy having fun.

Soccer Players

It is soccer season again. This year Colby and Logan wanted to play and they had so much fun. 

This was Colby's third year playing I think.  He is getting better each game.

His team was pretty good this year too. A lot of Colby's friends were on his team this year including Quinn, Noah, and Jace. He also made friends with the other kids as well.

Like I said Colby was getting better each game. Here are a few cool action shots of him playing. I think the thing that really helped him this year was that Quinn and Noah really pushed him and he wanted to be as good as them so he worked really hard. They made a good team.

The whole team was fun to watch because they got along so well. They were also a little crazy as you can see from the above pictures. When we said we needed a team picture, all they wanted to do for the picture was do the 'dab'. So we let them after they did a good one.  Funny boys! They had a great season and Colby loved every game.

This was Logan's first year playing soccer and he also did really well.

Their team was still pretty young so they were still learning the rules and how to play. They mostly just crowded around and chased the ball. That was okay though because they were so fun to watch.

Logan picked up on soccer fast and was kicking the ball toward the goal whenever he could get it. He had a lot of fun. Mostly he loved the social aspect of soccer. He loved playing with his friends and cheering them on.

The boys loved playing soccer this season and we had a good time watching them. Good job boys!

Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all of the awesome mothers out there!  I have the best mother ever, hands down. I am trying to be the best mother to my kids too but I don't really know how well I am doing.  Some days are better than others so I hope those are the days they remember...

This Mother's Day was pretty good.  It was just really relaxed because I didn't want to do anything major.  First Russell and the kids let me sleep in for a while (Yeah!).  Then they brought me breakfast in bed and a bunch of cards.  (Love it!).  I did take it back in the kitchen so I could eat with them though.  

After getting ready for church without a fight (for once), they decided to have a dance party in the front room.  It was so nice to see them getting along and having fun.  They were so cute at dancing too.  

Church was really good too today.  The speakers and lessons were really what I needed to hear.  The sacrament speaker really hit me.  She talked about Mary and Martha and how sometimes in our lives we need focus on the better part.  We each have a Mary and Martha in ourselves and sometimes we focus more on one or the other.  However when we focus on the Mary's in our life, or the spiritual aspects, the Martha's in our life or the practical everyday to-do lists seem to get done as well.  So we need to acknowledge that we have both needs and find a balance.  I think I have been focusing more on the Martha aspect and have forgotten Mary.  I really need to strengthen my spiritual side.

Anyway, after church, I really just wanted a good picture of me and the kids for Mother's Day, so this is what we got:

One and... a half good ones in all the twenty pictures we took.  These kids are crazy and the rest turned out like these ones:

Yeah we cannot take a good picture but oh well I guess we will always remember their personality.  That night, Russell and the kids made a really great dinner and an even yummier cake for dessert.    We had a great Mother's Day!

These next few pictures are of this cute little thing, Charlotte:

She is getting so big!!  I can't believe she is almost 2!!  Her personality is growing so much and it is funny to hear her talk and interact with us.  She is learning so much and learns new words everyday.  She also knows and can point to every part of her body.  She is a sugar addict and goes crazy (literally) if you do not give her some kind of sweet if she sees it.  It is seriously like a crack addict going through withdrawals...  We really need to have and intervention and cut her off from sweets.  

Other than that, she is a perfectly good little baby.  She loves being around her brothers and sister and tries to do everything they can do.   She thinks she is pretty cool with her sunglasses on too.  She absolutely loves being outside.  She jumps on the trampoline as well as the big kids, runs, plays in the dirt, and has even tried riding the trike but it is still a little too big for her.  Her favorite thing to do outside though is ride in the wagon.  Charlotte will go in the garage and get the wagon out all by herself so that we can pull her around.  We can walk around the block a million times and she loves every minute.  But the wagon has to be moving or she gets out.  She will not stay in it at the soccer or baseball games at all.

Charlotte is just now starting to like the camera.  She will finally smile at the camera when I try to take a picture.  She says "cheese!" and everything.  After she smiles, which is only for a few seconds, she wants to see the picture you had better have quickly snapped.  She says "I see! I see!"  Charlotte is at such a fun age!

I finally got around to finishing a project I have been wanting to do for a long time.  I have been saving holey or ripped jeans for a very long time and I finally cut them all up into squares and sewed them into quilts for my family:

I was surprised at how many squares of fabric I ended up with.  I was able to make six 60x72 inch quilts.  They are a little shorter than a twin size.  My original plan was to just make one quilt to put in the van for picnics or ball games but then I changed my mind when I saw how much I had.  I decided instead to make one for each of us.  I did put mine in the van as I originally planned.  Then I made one for Russell to leave in the truck or use at the fire station.  Each of the kids also got one which I decided to save for Christmas (Shhh!)  They already know about them so it is no secret.  They even picked out their own backing and binding fabric so that they would know which one was theirs.  I figured that these quilts will be something that will last for a while and something they can use throughout their life.  They can use them for scout camp or girls camp or sleepovers or whatever they want.

  It did take me a while to do though.  I started cutting up the jeans in February.  This was the part that took the longest amount of time.  After cutting everything into 3 inch and 5.5 inch squares, I started sewing them together.  This also took a while to do.  Once I got the strips sewn, I formed them into the quilt top patterns I wanted and started sewing the tops.  Once all of the tops were together, and the backs cut and sewn to match, it was time to tie the quilts.  I didn't know how I was going to do this because I did not have any quilting frames.  Then my relief society president said that she had some frames I could use.  That was such a life saver.  I didn't want to keep her frames for very long because I thought that would be rude to keep them forever.  Because of this, Russell and I worked really hard and tied all six quilts in a week.  It was actually pretty fun because we could watch movies or TV while we worked and not feel guilty at all.  We did a Marvel Avengers marathon and watched pretty much all of the movies in this series.  Even Emily got involved and learned how to tie a quilt.  She had a good time helping.  After binding them all, they were finally done!  I love how they turned out and so do the kids.  This was such an accomplishment! I also feel like these are the best things I have ever made. Now I feel like I am bored so I need a new project...

This is just a funny picture we took at our ward party.  The Young Women were having a spaghetti dinner fundraiser for Girls' Camp so we went to support them.  The kids loved the mustache decorations and walked around with their fake mustaches laughing so hard at the funny faces they showed everyone.  I was just happy I didn't have to make dinner!  

Happy Mother's Day!