Blue and Gold



 

Tonight March 28th was the Blue and Gold dinner.  It started off with pork bbq sandwiches, salads, and chips.  After that, they handed out the awards the cubs have earned the past month.



 

Talmage getting his awards


Talmage getting ready to perform his talent

After the awards, the boys performed or talked about one of their talents.  Talmage really wanted to do a magic trick.  We thought since he hasn't really been practicing too much to perfect a trick he should do something else.  He decided to whistle using an acorn top.  He learned this a little while back and it didn't take him long to perfect it.  He can do it really loud if he wants too.  If I'm lucky, I can make a little sound.  Of course it was a big hit and everyone loved it. 
It was a fun night and the best part was I didn't have to make dinner.

Special needs movie day

 

Three days ago (March 7) when I was at Connor's school at one of his special needs luncheons, I found out that once a month at 11am on a Saturday at Cinema Grill Movie Theatre they have a special needs movie that they show.  March 10th happened to be the next one and it was The Lorax movie.  The best part is Connor (the special needs child) is free as well as their siblings.  The adults and non siblings have to pay $5.00 each.  So it was $10 for our whole family to see this movie.  We got their early since we have a big family and want to sit together and we figured it would fill up fast.  When we were seated, some theatre employees came up to the kids and gave them each a Lorax t shirt, bookmark, and a activity sheet.  Of course they thought it was awesome.  When the movie started, I noticed the lights were not all the way turned off but dimmed and the volume wasn't as loud as regular movies.  I guess that is all part of the special needs viewing.  The kids had a great time and we will definitely be doing this often as long as it is a movie we want to see.   

 

Safety Town

This is my 3rd and final time helping out at Safety Town.  Safety Town is run by the city of Roswell.  They set up a mock town with buildings, streets, and crosswalks in one of the gyms at Hembree park.  They also have a firetruck and police car in the parking lot.  Then they have any preschool, prek, and kindergarten classes around the area come and participate in this program.  Both Talmage and Hayden's prek class did this.  I didn't help in Talmage's prek but with his kindergarten class, and I went and help with Hayden's prek and kindergarten classes.  I wish I would of brought my camera to take pictures but I didn't.  They have 4 different groups rotate around the different areas.  The areas are talking with a lady about strangers and then touring the police car, touring a firetruck and talking with firemen about fire safety, and the last area is in the gym with the mock town and trading off between pedestrians and riders.  The pedestrians are split up into small group of about 3 people and they walk around the town in the cross walks and sidewalks while their leaders (volunteer parents which is what I did) walk with them and talk about traffic and road signs and visiting and talking about the different buildings.  Then pedestrians switch with the riders and they get to get to ride in big wheels on the mock street.  The leader is still with their group and help them with stop signs and traffic lights, and help them turn corners and stop before running into the big wheel in front of them.  Then the whole group comes together again and the director reviews what the kids have learned.  It is a great program and the kids just love it.  I am sad my children are all grown up and will no longer be doing this. 

Pinewood Derby

On February 22, Talmage participated in his first Cub Scout pinewood derby.  He had a great time designing his car and then Jon cut it out.  Talmage picked out the colors and dad spray painted it.  He placed a Lego guy to be the driver of his car. 

 

Talmage showing off his car

front view of the car

Lorin and Talmage showing off their cars

side and top view of the car

Talmage and Lorin's first race

Talmage and Lorin racing each other

So Talmage and Lorin's first race was between each other.  Talmage won.  Talmage won all of his races and Lorin won all his except for his first one against Talmage.  Then they had Talmage and Lorin race one last time and this time Lorin won.  Then they raced again and Lorin won again.  So Lorin took 1st place, Talmage took 2nd, and Calvin took 3rd.  All these boys were Wolves and this was all of their first time and it was Calvin's first Cub Scout activity since he just turned 8 3 days before.  Talmage was very happy for his cousin Lorin and told him if I had to loose I am glad it was to you.  Of course, Jon and I gave Talmage the whole speech of just have fun and it doesn't matter if you loose just have a great time.  I as a mom was just hoping he would at least win one race.

The winners Talmage, Lorin, and Calvin

After the race, the Tady's, Bugees, and us went to Dairy Queen to celebrate.  O.K. we really went there because whatever den was in charge of bringing the refreshments for some reason didn't bring them or tell their den scouts to bring them.  It was a fun night.

Two very happy winners Talmage and Lorin at Dairy Queen
 

Hayden 6

Hayden is 6

My baby, Hayden turned 6 on Feb. 29.  Since Hayden's birthday was on a Sunday, we went to the Tellus Science Museum and then to the restaurant of his choice on the way home which was Mc Donald's.  Then on Sunday we had him open his presents.  He has been wanting a Nintendo DS lite ever since Talmage got one for his birthday last October.  So I search Craigs list since Hayden didn't want the newest 3D DS I thought I could get one at a great price.  I found a person nearby who was selling theirs along with 9 games 2 of which I know he would really love.  It also came with a case and 2 chargers and 2 extra stylus.  The boy who used to have it kept it in great shape you would never know it was used.  Needless to say Hayden was thrilled when he opened DS and all the games.  Basically the same price I paid for the whole lot is the same price I would of paid for just the DS at the store.  So I am pretty proud of myself for the great find.  The secret is to start looking early.  I had bought his DS at least a month before his birthday. 



Hayden just unwrapping his Nintendo DS

Hayden showing Talmage his new assortment of DS games

 Later in the week we had the family birthday party.  Hayden doesn't really care for cake so he opted for chocolate silk pie.  Yumm!!

Hayden and his birthday pie

1 girlfriend



Hayden getting ready to open his presents from the Tady's Bugee's and Hansen's



Although I am grateful that all my kids are potty trained and in school, I just wish I could freeze time for awhile because I think all the kids are at a great age.

Smart Phone

Our cell phone comany announce a super deal on the radio that Jon just happened to be listening to while taking Brenton to seminary.  They were giving free android smart phones with a 2 year contract.  Actually, the phone wasn't free.  It was free after the 2 rebates.  Since my contract was up and I have been using a flip phone from one of Jon's old employees that hasn't been with the company for going on 2 years now, Jon thought what a great time to upgrade.  I didn't mind my flip phone.  I rarely use my cell phone.  I am not a phone person.  I refused to text people.  Mainly because I was not about to do the AaBbCc thing since my phone wasn't a texting phone.  So Jon and I went to the store to check things out and I walked out with my first smart phone.  I am still not a phone person or a text person.  I do prefer to talk on the phone vs text.  I only text when I am picking up Brenton so he know's I am here and waiting for him only because if I call he still might be in Scouts or Young mens or another activity that I don't want ringing to disrupt. 
The only thing I don't like about smart phones is the fact that people are on theirs way to much and not communicating with people around them.  I have been to numerous activities and see lots of people on their phones instead of having converations with people right next to them.  It is really sad and I refuse to be one of those people.  That doesn't mean I don't check emails or facebook or look up something or things like that.  I just don't do it at activities with other people like Relief Society, school class parties or volunteering, and never during church meeting.  If I have to check my phone to see if I missed a call or text because I often have it on vibrate, I make sure I do it as quickly as possible.  I don't want my kids to be one of those kids who are on their phones texting the kids right next to them.  I want them to talk with them face to face.  So hopefully they will look to Jon and I and see that we are rarely on our phones while we are out and about and they too wont be on their when they get a cell phone.

We have a Bobcat in the house

Talmage got his Bobcat merit badge on January 25th 2012.  When a boy get his bobcat badge, he is flipped upside down while the mom pins the badge on rightside up and when he is turned around his badge is upside down in order to flip it right side up he has to perform an act of service.  I can't remember why Jon wasn't there to flip him upside down, maybe he stayed home with the younger kids.  Talmage loves scouts and is sad on the 2nd Tuesday of the month because there is no scouts that week.

 

 



Talmage about to get flipped upside down

Gretta and Talmage

Brenton's 15

I finally just posted 4 drafts that I have had sitting for months.  I can't believe I am a year behind in my posts, and Brenton is now 16.  So I will just rewind a year and pretend he just turned 15. 
Brenton turned the big 15 on Saturday January 21. I still can't believe my oldest is that old which means I too am getting old.  I made him a $100 cake.  The cake pictures look like the frosting is yellow but it is money green.  We got Brenton a 32 inch flat screen TV for his room so he can hook up his PlayStation 3 to it.  He wasn't expecting the TV.

Brenton

Make a wish

What is under the Dora blanket

What could it be

A TV for my room

In Georgia you can get your learners permit when you turn 15.  You have to have your permit for a year before you can get your license.
So in February, I took Brenton to get his permit.  You have to take 2 tests a road signs test and a multiple choice test.  Since we didn't have the driving manual, he took an online practice test a few times before going to the DMV.  We went and the wait time wasn't as bad a usual.  He past the signs test with flying colors, but missed the multiple choice test by 1 point.  So we made sure we got the driving manual and he studied it every night and a week later we went back and this time I told him if he didn't pass he would have to pay the $10 next time.  Luckily, he passed no problem this time. 
Once you have your permit, in Georgia you have to take a 30 hour in class driving class.  Brenton is doing his class room driving instruction online because it was about $300 cheaper.  Along with the class you also have to have 40 hours of logged driving and 10 of those hours have to be at night.  He is getting his night driving in by driving to seminary every  morning.  So sometime next year I will have a licensed driver.  I can already see my gray hair count double.
 

New Year's and more

 

First, let me start out with the and more part of this post.  Our washing machine had a leak.  We have a front loader washing machine which I absolutely love, and with a big family that is just getting taller it is a must.  Just after Christmas, I noticed the floor wet after I did a load of laundry.  I thought the water hose had somehow came unclasped so it wasn't draining down the pipe since that has happened to us at a different house before.  So after checking that our and it being in the right spot, I got Jon to take a look.  We discovered the rubber that when you shut the front loader machine had a huge hole in it and wasn't sealing the door all the way.  So we called Sears and they said they would send someone out to diagnose the problem and then come back and fix it if they didn't have the parts with them.  After many times of telling them we know what the problem is just send a repair man with this part and them telling us that is not how we do things, I called my mom since we have the same washing machine and she has had hers serviced 2 times who she got to come out and fix her machine.  She gave us the name of one of the guys and we called told him the problem and what part we needed and what type of machine we had and he was over on Jan 30th with the part and a few hours later (I guess you have to take the machine apart some to take off and put on the new part) we had a working machine.  When the guy took off the old rubber piece, he told us that is the worse tear he has ever seen and didn't know how we did laundry for so long with out water leaking a long time before now.  I like to think of it as a tithing blessing.  Anyway, he was grateful that we knew just what part we needed and could just bring that part and the few tools he needed to fix it and was able to drive his Smart car instead of his gas guzzling van.  I am not a fan of the Smart cars.  I like small cars I one day hope to own a yellow Mini Cooper, but this car looks too weird to me.  Jon had me come out and take a look at this guys Smart car.  The guy attached a wind-up  piece to the back of his car.  The wind-up piece even turns.  After I saw this, I had to take a couple pictures.  His license plate is also kind of funny.  It says WUTISIT.  

 

Washer repair man's car

wind-up Smart Car

Repair man's funny looking car

For New Year's Eve, we had the Bugee's and Tady's come over to our house just before dinner time.  We had sub sandwiches for dinner.  I cut all the Turkey, and Roast beef with my new slicer.  Then we played games for the rest of the night.  Morgan and Taylor stayed a few hours then ditched us for their friends.  No I can't blame them.  They will have plenty of  family New Year's when they get married and have kids of their own.  Payton was looking like a model so Jon shot a few pictures of her.

Payton the model

Payton and her sweet pose

Model Payton

Payton and Kennedy

Goodbye 2011.  Here's to a great 2012.

Christmas 2011

I am so far behind on my blogging.  I have never been this far behind.  I have just been so busy with life that blogging seems to never happen.  Now that school is back in for 1 1/2 weeks and finally I have a day when my calendar is blank.   I have stuff to do laundry, cleaning everyday things, I don't have anywhere I need to be at a certain time or kids bugging me all hours of the day. 
For the past 2 years I have really started to love the whole month of December.  Of course when I was a kid Christmas was my favorite time of the year.  The Christmas music, the parties, putting ornaments on the tree, the goodies, the presents, and no school for a couple weeks.  What's not to love about any of that when you are a kid.  Once I started having a few kids, I dreaded December.  The happy memories of a child were no longer there.  It was replaced by stress.  A few years ago I decided that I was going to have a stress free December.  I was going to simplify things and just take things one day at a time rather than thinking of all the millions of things I had to do by Christmas.  So I didn't even think of all the things that needed to be done but rather I focused on what I needed to do first and so on.  First on our list is setting up the Christmas tree and decorating the house.  Luckily the kids love this part.  Once they see me bring up the decorations they go at it.  They remember where everything went from last year.  Once the tree is assembled and the light are on the kids love to decorate the tree.  They still need some training on not putting every ornament at eye level.  So as they put the ornaments on my job is to space them out a little without them knowing.  Now if only the kids were as excited about taking the ornaments off the tree.  Still haven't figured out that one.  I usually end up doing it myself while they are back in school.  We decorate our tree during family home evening the first Monday in December. 
Once the decorating is out of the way, I look at the calendar at things that are already on the schedule like ward Christmas party and school class parties things with a set day and then I fill up the calendar with things that I want to get done by Christmas but space them out so it isn't too overwhelming or I am not doing them all at the last minute.  These things are Christmas goody plates for home teaching/visiting teaching families, Christmas letter, bus driver goodies,  present shopping, and other things like that.  One thing I have done to simplify December is I give money to the room parents so they can get the teachers a gift card.  I know it isn't very personable, but if I was a teacher I would love it if my students gave me a gift card rather than something I don't really want.  I also do visiting teaching drop offs.  I just drop off the goody plates to them.  I do make sure I do a sit down visit with them the month before and the month after.
Taking the time to schedule things out so everything doesn't come at once made all the difference in me now loving December.  I feel hardly any stress (there is always a little mainly when it comes to thinking of present ideas for certain people).  I can enjoy this wonderful holiday and focus on the birth of Jesus Christ.
We spent our traditional Christmas Eve morning with the Hansen's and then dinner with the Tady and Bugee's.
Since Christmas was on a Sunday, we only had sacrament meeting and instead of going bowling on Christmas we went the next day.  We opened presents at our house and then headed over for Christmas breakfast at the Bugee's then went to church then went back to the Bugee's for left overs and game playing. 

Talmage with Santa at ward Christmas Party

Christmas morning Connor missing



Hayden loves balloons

Payton and Brenton

Kennedy and Payton

Talmage with Lego's

Harry Potter Lego

Hayden, Taylor, and Talmage bowling

Talmage waiting for his turn to bowl

Hayden getting ready to bowl

Hayden seeing how many pins he knocked down

The final score

Talmage's Baptism



Our ward's 8 year old baptisms are scheduled for the 3rd Saturday's of every month.  Since Talmage's birthday was after the 3rd Saturday in October, and the 3rd Saturday in November was the Saturday before Thanksgiving and the Tady's and Bugee's were going to be gone that day we decided to do Talmage's baptism in December.  I know December's are just plain crazy without any extra things, but we made it work.  I just wished Morgan and Taylor could have been there, but they were coming in the next day from BYU Idaho.  We invited all the kids in his primary class to his baptism along with his primary teachers.  Since Talmage was the only one getting baptized we had kind of a small group.  Talmage asked Lincoln to give the talk on baptism.  I think this is Lincoln's 3rd or 4th time doing this talk for family members, but the kids just love it.  Payton did the talk on the Holy Ghost and did a great job.  I was kind of shocked she wanted to do it since she is very shy.  The 2 Grandpa's were the witnesses at the font.  Christa played the piano and I conducted the music.  The 2 Grandma's gave the prayers.  After the baptism, we had some refreshments.  Talmage is so happy he is now baptized and has the gift of the Holy Ghost.

 



 

Talmage and Jon right before his baptism

Gretta, Talmage, and Jon

Gretta, Talmage, and Jon

Talmage right before his baptism

Black Friday on Thursday

Last year, we were in Disney World during Thanksgiving.  I'm not sure if this is the first year they started black Friday on Thanksgiving, but for me this is the first time I've heard of it.  I believe the earliest stores started opening was at 10 pm.
Since Jon's parents only stayed for a couple hours we had the rest of the day to just hang out as a family and look at the newspaper ads to see if we wanted to hit any stores.  Brenton had been saving most of his Miss Jan's lawn mowing money to buy a PlayStation 3.  He wanted to hit Toys R Us which opened it's doors at 10 pm because that had the best deal for the PlayStation.  We got to Toys R US an hour before the doors were to open.  It wasn't a real cold night, but cold enough to have a coat on and be fine.  I wasn't too worried about being one of the first people in line, because the item he wanted wasn't a hot ticket item.  Once the doors opened, they let about 50 people go in then wait 2-3 minutes and let another 50 and wait another 2-3 minutes and so on.  I think we were the 3rd or 4th group to be let in.  Once we got in, Brenton went straight to the video game section to get his Playstation while I went and picked up a few toys for the kids for Christmas that were at a great price.  I only got those because we were already there otherwise I wouldn't have made the trip just for those.  I met Brenton back at the video game section and found Brenton hadn't gotten the paper slip to take to the cash register to buy the item and then the worker's bring the item out from the back.  I guess they couldn't find them right away.  By the time they found the slip and handed one to Brenton, the check out line was already real long.  I think we waited around 30 minutes just to check out.  Once that was done, we stopped off at Walmart for about 5 minutes and it was such a mad house we went home.  Then at midnight Kohl's opened it's doors so I went by myself and bought me a pair of running shoes that were only $25 and a nice tie for Brenton.  Then I came home and went to bed only to wake up early to be at JoAnn Fabrics at 6 am.  Kennedy and Payton wanted to go, but only Kennedy ended up going with me Payton wanted to sleep in.  I wanted to by some flannel to make Brenton, Kennedy, and Payton some pajama bottoms.  I wish I would have picked a ticket for the cutting counter right when we got in the store, because we waited a long time to get our items cut because most of the people in front of us are serious sewers and had a couple carts full of fabric.  Luckily, they have a sound system that says the number that the whole store can hear.  So we looked around the store waiting for our number to be called.  Then we headed over to the mall and I bought some things at Bath and Body Works.  On the way home, I picked up some Krispy Kreme Donuts since it was still early when we got home and the kids hadn't eatten breakfast yet.  The rest of the day was spent relaxing and napping.