Monday, January 30, 2012

Good bye and Good luck

Today, Sept 1, is Morgan and Taylor's last night before going to BYU-Idaho.  This will be Taylor's freshman year and Morgan's senior year.  They will be missed, but hope they have a fabulous fun time.  See ya at Christmas!!

Morgan and Taylor and kids

Morgan, Taylor, and kids
  

Now What?

So now what do I do will all the free time I have now that all the kids are back in school and it is just little old me left at home.  ANYTHING I WANT!!  Oh how I wish that were true.  The next couple of weeks while my 2 youngest sisters are still at home I will be going to the pool for a few hours during school hours a couple of times a week with 3 of my sisters, mom, and anyone else wanting to join us.  The pool is opened for lap swim during the day until Labor day Weekend.  Once September hits, then My mom, Christa, and I and any other sisters from our ward at church will attend the temple every Tuesday mornings.  So besides the temple on Tuesdays my days are filled with laundry, cleaning, cooking, grocery shopping, visiting teaching, getting ready for or having an Activity Day Girls meeting.  I like to get all those things done while my kids are at school so when they come home the rest of the day is devoted to them.  I also hope to get the closets that need organizing organized, sew, catch up on the blog, and maybe some easy home improvement projects done. 

First day of school

August 15th was the first day of school. It is a week earlier than last year, but we get out a week earlier on Jon's birthday May 18th. We started the day early at 6:20 am. The first 3 elementary age kids had to get up, dressed, and fed and picture taken and out the door by 6:45 am to catch the bus. They were all ready in record time since they are excited to start school and get to the bus stop.



Kennedy 4th grade

Talmage 2nd grade

Hayden Kindergarten

Hayden

 Once they were all on the bus, I woke up the remaining 3 to get ready for school.  Connor's bus is the first one to come at 7:25 am then Payton's comes at  7:40 am and finally Brenton's bus comes at 7:50 am.  Brenton will only be riding the bus in the morning this week.  Starting next week, Brenton will have to get up at 6:00 am to leave for seminary by 6:30 am and then Jon will take him to school after.  All the times work out perfectly.  I drive Payton to the bus stop every morning and once she gets on the bus I drive to the park and run. 
Payton

Brenton

Connor
They all had great things to say about school.  Brenton had a great first day of being in high school and Payton had a great first day of being in middle school.  Here's to a great school year.

Final Week

The week of August 7th was the final week before school starts.  Luckily I was a little more organized than previous years so this week wasn't too painful on my time or wallet.  I had the kids school supply lists in my purse for the past couple of weeks and anytime I was at a place that had the best price on a school supply item I needed I just picked it up them.  The only person I wasn't able to shop for ahead of time was Brenton.  He got his list the day of Freshman orientation.  I know I can't believe I have a kid starting high school this year.  Wednesday was Brenton's, Payton's, and Connor's open house.  Luckily the times worked out for me.  First Brenton and I went at 8 am and listened to the principal and other staff workers for a while then the kids got their schedule and went from class to class to meet each teacher.  While he was doing that I picked up Payton and went to her middle school and got her signed up for everything and we met her homeroom teacher and she tried out her locker.  When we were done, we went back to the high school and picked up Brenton.  Who then gave me his supply list of things he needed by Monday.  I decided to skip Connor's simply because I have gone the other 2 years and he is in the same school and I knew all the teachers in his special needs wing.  Or so I thought.  Apparently, they did a major switch up of all the teachers.  They have all new teachers but 2 assistant teachers.  Yeah, that was a big shock to me.  So I felt bad that I hadn't been there because then I could of brought Connor and let all the new teachers watch and observe and ask questions about him.  Luckily, his class had one of the assistants who had been at the school previously.  I am writing this a few months later and I still have no idea what happened to all the other staff.  They were great teachers and some of them have been teaching at this school for years.  I hope they got transferred to another school and are happy there.  
On Thursday, Brenton went to his contact lens check appointment.  One of the things he wanted before starting high school was contact lens.  So of course I put it off as long as I possibly could and a few weeks before school started, I finally took him in to get contacts.  He really caught on fast and is quick to take them in and out. 
On Friday, was the elementary school open house.  I can't believe my baby is going to be a Kindergartner.  He of course is excited about riding the bus.  I always make it a habit to bring all the kids school supplies at the open house.  Simply because they have lots of bulky items to bring and it would take all week to bring in all the supplies in their backpacks.  It's not like when I was younger and all I had to bring was a folder and that was basically it.  Everything else was provided for us from the paper and pencils to the crayons and scissors.  Besides paper, pencils, markers, crayons, folders, binders, scissors, glue they are also asked to bring in multiple boxes of Kleenex, and hand sanitizer, liquid soap, baggies, Clorox bleach wipes etc.  It is crazy. 
By the time Saturday came I was so ready for a break and for something fun.  I was very happy to go to our ward annual potluck/pool party.  We first start out at the park across from the pool with a hot dogs and pork BBQ sandwiches and then everyone brings a pot luck picnic side dish to share.  Then we head over to the pool and swim and eat Popsicles.  It was fun to just unwind from the crazy previous days. 

Kennedy turns 9

On August 2nd, Kennedy turned 9 years old.  The number one thing she kept asking for is a MP3 player.  Ever since Brenton bought himself an Ipod touch a few years back he never used his MP3 player.  So Jon and I paid Brenton a little money and bought his old MP3 player and gave it to Kennedy for her birthday.  It basically was like brand new since he took real good care of it and didn't have it for long before buying his i touch.  She was of course thrilled.  She got some nice new head phones to go with it.  She also asked for the Rapunzel dress.  Since she didn't really ask for much I splurged and bought her the one from the Disney store.  Her brothers and sisters gave her some nail polish and things like that.  Later we had the relatives over for some pie (she didn't want cake) and ice cream.  The best part is she wanted the Edward's brand Hershey's chocolate pie in the freezer section at the grocery store.  So that was basically the easiest ever.  It was a fun day.
The day before was the annual pool pass holders party.  They do it every 1st Monday in August.  Brenton won early on in the raffle and the prize he picked was tickets for 2 free meals at Golden Corral.  That is where Kennedy wanted to eat the next day for her birthday.  So that was so nice of him to get those for us to use. 

Talmage, Kennedy, and Hayden with her presents

Kennedy with her Rapunzel dress

Kennedy with her MP3 player and headphones

Kennedy testing out her new player

Kennedy with her pie

Never in a million years

After we went to the Cheesecake Factory, we went to Costco with the Bugee's since I don't have a Costco membership (just a Sam's Club).  They had a Singer Sewing machine on sale and today was the last day of the sale.  Yes, I said sewing machine.  I bought myself a sewing machine for me to sew.  Who would of thought I would ever want to sew let alone buy a sewing machine.  Definitely not me. 
A few months back I got the urge to want to sew something.  Then after trying to find my daughters some summer modest pajamas the urge became even stronger.  Then I mentioned it to my mom and she said they had a great deal on a machine at Costco. 
Since buying my machine (3 1/2 months later), I have sewed my daughters summer pj bottoms,  Brenton winter flannel pj bottoms, Talmage's scout shirt patches, fixed an Indiana Jones costume, and sewed a crayon roll.  I just buy a plain solid color t shirt for the pj's.  I don't sew that.   After I finish sewing the other flannel pj bottoms, I think I will make the girls some skirts.  I am having a great time sewing.  I went to my mom's house so she could help me with the pj bottoms.  I made 3 of them there and came home and finished to last one since the thread color was different. I am having a great time learning how to sew.  The only problem is finding the extra time to actually sit down and do it. 

More swimming fun

I found some more swimming pictures of the kids from this past summer.  The first few are of Payton, Kennedy, and Sonoma taken from an Activity Day Girls pool activity. 







Hayden

Hayden

Hayden

Connor and Jon