Random Weekend Pics

I don't remember which reason we were here on this particular day. This is just outside the hospital that we are very lucky to live so close to. Our pediatrician is located here and I often pick up prescriptions at the pharmacy. It seems between the girls, there is always something we are heading in for, I am grateful to have such a nice hospital so convenient to us. The girls always have to climb through the bike rack when we are walking in or out.

Sarah got a fun surprise early one Saturday morning. One of her best friends, Kassee, had a breakfast birthday party at IHOP. She came and kidnapped Sarah at 7:30 - a time you will never see Sarah awake on a Saturday morning! She was so surprised to see Kassee standing in her room when we went to wake her up. She had a blast at the party once she woke up! This picture makes me laugh because she probably blinked, but it kind of looks like she just doesn't want to open her eyes.

Nat and Ang wanted to do their own IHOP breakfast since they were stuck at home!

A lunch time creation by Natalie. She is always making herself these funny faces. She hides in the pantry - her workstation - sometimes with a flashlight so she can close the door, and she works on her creations. I love it! (Except for when she leaves things a mess in the pantry.)

Activity Days Around the World

What a fun night! Our cute Activity Days leader had the cutest idea to combine our theme of learning about manners in March with a trip around the world. She invited members of our ward who had served missions or lived in other countries to help us learn about manners in those countries. We started out with a photo shoot (that was my job) with the mothers and daughters in fun dress ups.

Then we "traveled" to 4 different stations and learned about England (Molly grew up there and had fun stories which sounded extra cool in her beautiful accent!)

Geff taught us about France which was a lot of fun, partly because he is such a nut. (O:

Brother Rossiter told us about the Cook Islands which was fun. This is him showing Sarah what the language there looks like in it's written form.

Sarah loved the Japanese station - she loves Japan since learning so much about it from Will. We had a really fun time together and even all of us moms who helped pull off the night got to enjoy it. Sharon did a great job planning and all the special guests were so fun. (o:

Volleyball

When I heard Sarah's friend Kaitlyn was doing a volleyball "camp" with Riverton High, I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to introduce Sarah to one of my favorite sports. She was excited and enjoyed going every Tuesday night for a month. The girls had a great time learning new skills. Their team came in dead last, but hey, they had fun!

Science Fair 2011

Well, it's that time of year again, science fair time! As you know we love these and even though this year it wasn't required for Sarah, she still participated - with my encouragement. (O: We looked online for several ideas and she liked the idea of doing ocean science. We found this idea on sciencebuddies.com It's called, "Can Water Float on Water?" And we both were fascinated with what we learned. Basically we inverted different water substances on top of each other in the water bottles. We made different solutions - fresh water, salt water (various amounts of salt), warm water and cold water. We tried salty on top of fresh, warm on top of cold, etc. It was very cool. The ones like below that didn't mix colors seemed to be happy right where they were.




The one above, was an example of different solutions that wanted to switch places. The cold water on top was more dense and wanted to be on the bottom. The warm air wanted to rise up. The colors mixed to green in these cases.

Sarah worked so hard on this. I helped her lay it out, but she did almost the whole thing. This year was also particularly hard because the science fair is more demanding than the ones we participated in in Oregon. Here, you have to not only make a poster, but put together a binder with all kinds of information. It took hours to put just the folder together.

When Sarah came home from school the next day, she was sooo excited. Her project was chosen to go to district! This will be her third year in a row doing a district science fair. Way to go Sarah!

Ms. Sarah

I love the creative things the girls come up with when they are playing. I found Sarah "teaching" her dolls one day when I came up to her room. She loves using her big whiteboard when she is "teaching".

I like how she gave each doll a pad of paper and pencil. And on top of that, she wrote their names at the top and assigned them each a number like her teacher this year did. What a cutie.

Miss Manners

On the day it was my turn to be in charge of activity days, Miss Natalie was not feeling well. We had to change our plans around a bit, which actually ended up being more fun anyway. We held our activity at my house while Nat watched a movie in my bedroom. The girls did little skits where the first time around the main characters were rude. They had to "rewrite" the skit so the characters had better manners. They really got into it and did a cute job. Then we ate some snacks using some good manners that we learned after playing a funny game. This has been one of my favorite activities so far. The girls were pretty cute and had very nice manners that day! (o: I've had fun getting to be Sarah's activity days leader too!

The girls have have right now are (front to back, left to right) Sierra, (the one next to her is a visitor), Kaitlyn, Mandy, Sarah, Sunshine, Nicole and McKayla.

My Valentine's

These were my Valentines to my Valentines this year. (O:

The one above says on the inside, "If so, You're My Hero!" I laughed out loud when I found this at the post office and had to get it for Bob* my super hero!

Thank Goodness it's Friday!

We love Fridays around here! One of the nice things about the schools out in Utah is that the kids get out early on Friday, an hour and a half early. It works out perfect because the rest of the week we are busy with homework, dance, violin and piano. Friday is the day we have playdates and 4H (every other week). They are fun days and we live for them! Above, Sarah and her buddy Sophia are making sun catchers. Sophia lives just down the street - we love having friends that are close enough to walk over!

Angela got invited to her friend Abbi's house for a cookie party that same Friday and brought home a cute new apron and these darling cookies. It wasn't even a birthday party - just for fun. And I believe, this same day, Natalie was playing up in her room with Janie. Did I mention we love Fridays? (o:

Queen of the Bee

Sometime back in November or December, Sarah told me she was going to get to be in the school spelling bee. It is a funny story how she got to go to the school spelling bee. The classes all have their own "bee"s to pick the students who will get to do the school bee. Sarah actually missed a word in the class bee and was eliminated towards the end, until the final person missed the word. Her teacher asked if anyone in the class knew how to spell the word. The word was 'whittle'. Sarah laughed to herself and raised her hand and spelled it perfectly. When she came home to tell me she was laughing while she was telling me and I didn't understand why. Then she reminded me of our Deep Thoughts book we love to read, including this one: "I remember how my great-uncle Jerry would sit on the porch and whittle all day long. Once he whittled me a toy boat out of a larger toy boat I had. It was almost as good as the first one, except now it had bumpy whittle marks all over it. And no paint, because he had whittled off the paint." We laughed so hard when we realized that Deep Thoughts helped further Sarah's education and offered her a chance to be in the school spelling bee! Thank you Jack Handy! Ha! We got a list of the possible words - I think it was around 400 words, I don't remember. We studied every one and made cards for the ones she didn't know. On the last row there were words I had to look up because I hadn't even heard of them. Some of them were: xanthic, orthographize, incendiary, virulently, nebulosity, doughtily, euphonious, etc. Then there were ones I had heard of, but would need spell check to help me with, like: froufrou, grotesqueness, lackadaisical, elucidate, silhouette, roux, etc. There were funny ones too like: zigzaggedness, uvula, yahoo, crepuscular, ululate, flammeous, etc. As I studied for hours with Sarah (using small piece of dark chocolate as a treat every time we practiced 20 words), I realized that she really has a talent for retaining knowledge. (**funny side note: I always spell check my posts and five of the words above, my spell check doesn't even recognize.) She's always done very well at spelling, but just learns things very quickly and remembers them. I do not have this skill - I have to work harder to remember things. As we started studying, my goal was to help Sarah be familiar enough to make it through the first couple rounds so she could have a positive experience. As we studied, I realized that if we had started sooner, she probably could have had every word spelling memorized. We still worked very hard and she knew probably 85% of the words solid. We had fun spending that extra time together - looking up words and talking about meanings to help her remember and be familiar with them. We came up with some tricks to remember certain words and had some good bonding over practicing these words. I hope she will remember it as a fun time, though it was hard work too. I went to watch and support her that day and couldn't believe how nervous I was. I just wanted her to make it through the first two rounds. I sat by another nervous mom and we laughed at ourselves. I texted Bobby* constantly since he couldn't be there and was nervous too. Sarah was on the last row, so it was a while before her turn came. It was so fun to make eye contact with her frequently as we heard all the familiar words read aloud. So many of them we had inside jokes with our silly ways to remember spellings. It made it fun and we laughed to ourselves when we looked at each other. Finally her first turn came. Her word was "feud" and she spelled it without a hitch. I was so glad she wouldn't have to be sad about getting out the first round. Most of the kids did. Second round, Sarah's word was "counterclockwise" by far one of the hardest of the second round in terms of length. It was an easy one to mess up because of nerves and the number of letters. She kept calm and spelled it just right. I was so happy and relaxed quite a bit after that. She could be proud of making it through two rounds. The third round was brutal. A third of the kids missed their words. Sarah's word was "kanji" - not a hard one if you practiced. This was the round where it really showed who studied and worked hard. I was thrilled as I texted Bobby* that she had sailed through the third round. I also had to text my friend Kim. Her daughter, one of Sarah's very best friends, won the DISTRICT spelling bee in Texas. I knew she'd understand the nerves and excitement of a spelling bee. (o: The next round was a strange one. There were about 10 kids left and every single one missed their word! Sarah missed "chaperonage". But they all got a second chance - lucky for Sarah. Only she and one other girl spelled their next words right. Sarah's word was "phalanx". She was in the final two with a sixth grader. And funny thing - the other girl's mom was the one sitting right next to me! Unfortunately, Sarah missed her next word "virulently" and the other girl got her word right, so that was that. Sarah was second place! I couldn't believe how far she went! She secretly told me she would be so excited if the other girl got sick and couldn't go to the district bee. (o: But she was very excited to have done so well and wasn't too disappointed to take second. The neat thing for her was that now she was getting to be known in the school, not as the new girl from Oregon, but as the second place winner of the spelling bee! Her class cheered for her when she got back to class and her teacher was so excited for her. For a few days, she was a celebrity at school and kids in several grades would say, "hey you're the one came in 2nd place at the spelling bee". She can't wait to go for it next year! Way to go Sarah!! We are so proud of you!!

Activity Day Girls

My new calling in our ward is to be the 10 year old Activity Day leader. We have lots of girls in our ward so there is a group of girls for every age between 8 and 11. I was excited to get to be with Sarah's age group. This picture was taken at my first activity with the girls. They are spunky and definitely not boring! Natalie is our honorary member until she turns 8 this spring and gets to go with her own group. (She is soooo excited - you get to start going when you turn 8.) As it turns out, Angela's dance class is at the exact same time as activity days, which works out good, although sometimes she wishes she could come too. My girls are from left to right, top to bottom: Nicole, Sarah, Sunshine, Kaitlyn, Natalie, McKayla, Sierra and Mandy. Great girls. They are always excited and happy to participate in all the activities. In fact, they are VERY enthusiastic about everything. I love it! (o: We have a good time, though sometimes I have a little bit of a headache by the time we're done!

More Snow!

From NovDecFavorites

We got a lot of this white stuff before Christmas! The girls made this cute guy all by themselves with a few supplies from mom! They are loving the big backyard of their own fluffy stuff.

From NovDecFavorites

David Archiletta and the MoTab! LIVE - Almost.

From NovDecFavorites

The week we moved to Utah, I got an e-mail from my cousin about the upcoming Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas concert. This is an annual event that has grown in popularity exponentially every year. It is always incredible. I have seen several rebroadcasts that they play on BYUTV during the holiday season and they are so inspirational. They really bring the spirit of the season and the MoTab always takes my breath away.

So the chance to be at the Christmas concert LIVE sounded so incredible! A huge perk to living in Utah. Unfortunately, there are over a million other people who think this would be incredible too. The tickets are so popular, people used to sleep overnight in line to get them. To avoid this extreme, the tickets are now given out using a lottery system. The tickets are free - all you have to do is sign up and cross your fingers. They do 4 performances, but even so - you have to be pretty lucky to "win". I used all my siblings information to increase my chances, but nobody was picked. )o: I was pretty disappointed.

As a consolation prize, the church opens up other sites on Temple Square where you can watch a live broadcast. You have to enter to get tickets for these too and my grandparents scored 4 tickets for a Friday night. They very kindly offered the extra two tickets to Sarah and I! Sarah was so excited because the guest was David Archiletta - and being an American Idol fan, she knew who he was.

Our seats were in the Joseph Smith building theater and we had a FABULOUS time. The concert and program were just beautiful and embraced everything amazing about Christmas time. There was dancing, stirring music, incredible story-telling by Michael York and of course the nativity reading from Luke 2. Whether you are LDS or not (the programs are fitting for any Christian denomination), I'm telling you - this is the most amazing Christmas performance there is and there's a brand new concert with new amazing guests every year. I can't recommend it enough. It just gave me chills.

From NovDecFavorites

What a special night this was for us - we loved going on a "date" with great grandma and grandpa T. I love that my girls are getting lots of time getting to know grandma and grandpa now that we are in Utah.

From NovDecFavorites

I'm not a fan of this picture of myself, but it's me and my sweet Sarah, so I'm including it. (I need to get some more stylish winter garb - I've had that dumb headband thingy since I was 14!) We had fun exploring temple square and the beautiful lights a bit with grandma and grandpa. I LOVE temple square at Christmas. A HUGE plus to being back! I have missed it so much and now it can be a tradition for my girls too.

The White Witch

From NovDecFavorites

For a book report in December, Sarah had to read a fantasy novel and then do an oral book report from the perspective of one of the characters. She read, "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" and decided to be the White Witch. (Although, she looked way too cute to be evil. (o: )

Sarah did a great job. She is so creative and has a good sense of humor. She addressed the kids in her class as sons of Adam and daughters of Eve and used her most evil and mean-spirited voice. She really got into it. She talked about how disgusted she was when Edmund got away and her joy when she thought Aslan was gone for good.

I was also able to find some Turkish Delight at the World Market so Sarah could lure them to her to come try this sweet featured in the book. It was a big hit and fun for the kids to try something most of them had never had before. (It is kind of like really gushy gumdrops coated with powdered sugar.)

We love Sarah's teacher. She has a great sense of humor and got a kick out of Sarah's jokes. She laughed at all the right spots. (o:

Good job Sarah! Ahem - Queen of Narnia.

T-shirts

From Blog Favorites Sept.Oct.

While shopping at Walmart for some new home necessities, I spotted this shirt in the men's department. I was in a silly mood and it made me laugh. I liked this "cool Yoda" shirt and pointed it out to the girls. Angela laughed, Natalie laughed, Sarah rolled her eyes. I told her I liked it enough that I might buy it. I like things that make me laugh. She didn't think there was anything funny about it. "But that's a boy shirt!" she pointed out. Plus, she thought it was dorky. Ok, I'm not arguing that. Then I had a thought and told her that maybe it could be the shirt I wear when I come volunteer in her classroom. Her face turned white - she was stunned and horrified. "No mom! That would be so embarrassing!" Oh dear, this only seemed to encourage my teasing. I don't know what it is, I couldn't help myself. I found myself buying the shirt within minutes of that comment. Sarah was seriously MAD at me for buying such an ugly boy shirt. Any time I bring it up (still) she gets freaked out. I haven't worn it to school yet, but when I wear it, she really pays attention to where we are going that day. Poor Sarah - we all get a big kick out of her hatred of my Yoda shirt.

From Blog Favorites Sept.Oct.

From Blog Favorites Sept.Oct.

And speaking of shirts, this is a very cute, one of a kind shirt Natalie owns that can't be found at any Walmart. For one of her school assignments, she was supposed to design a T-shirt that advertised a mystery book she read. She read a Magic Treehouse book called, "Day of the Dragon King". On her shirt, she wanted to draw a dragon with fabric puff paints. I found a picture on google of a cute dragon and gave her the paints. I swear I did not draw a single line on this shirt. I could not believe how good it turned out! What an artist! This is now one of her favorite T-shirts to wear. I wish I had one my size. Guess I'll just have to wear my Yoda instead. (o:

Happy Birthday Sarah!

From Blog Favorites Sept.Oct.

A week and a half after our big move, Sarah turned 10! She got to enjoy a unique birthday this year! She looked so cute in her new, blue velour outfit.

From Blog Favorites Sept.Oct.

I usually try to bring a balloon to the girls if their birthday falls on a school day. This balloon was very entertaining for the girls during recess. (o: That's Sarah with new friends Amelie, Sophia, and Gracie.

From Blog Favorites Sept.Oct.

What a treat to get to celebrate birthdays with family!

From Blog Favorites Sept.Oct.

A party with daddy's side of the family . . .

From Blog Favorites Sept.Oct.

AND a party with mommy's side of the family! Cool!

From Blog Favorites Sept.Oct.

On Sarah's birthday, after school we went to search for Halloween costumes and look who we ran into! He's shorter in person than I imagined. Love his style.

From Blog Favorites Sept.Oct.

We did our family birthday get togethers at various times, but the night of her actual birthday we headed to good old Chuck E. Cheese! It was actually quite fun - not many people go there on weeknights!

From Blog Favorites Sept.Oct.

This picture makes me laugh so hard! Angela and her funny bug eyed expressions!! What a cutie pie.

From Blog Favorites Sept.Oct.

And the huge cherry on top of a wonderful birthday was the Harry Potter Hogwarts castle lego set. Sarah was in heaven! Happy birthday sweetheart - it's hard to believe you are a decade old!

A Precious Gift

From Blog Favorites August/September

Sarah's first sleep over! Of course it was with her bosom buddy since preschool, Allie. These two have such an amazing friendship, it just makes me happy. I think it makes me especially happy because Kim and I have such a wonderful friendship as well. Kim is one of the very best friends I have ever had. It makes me smile to see that our girls have just clicked so naturally together as well. For us, it feels more like the Melansons are family. We all get along so easily and it has always been so comfortable. We finally got their family back after they left for Texas for a year. I was heartbroken when they left and that was when I knew they'd be back in a year. Now we have them back and we're leaving. It doesn't seem fair. )o: Luckily, our families will always be close and I know we'll find ways to get together. I just REALLY miss the days when we were 'neighbors'. (Well, Kim lived about 3 miles away, but she lived in the rural area so we really were only a few houses away. (O: )

Anyway, this event all came about because Kim wanted to help us this week. She gave our family a precious gift and helped out more than she knows. On Wednesday morning she and Allie came and picked up all three girls and loaded them in her van. She took our kids for 13 hours that day. Not only did she take our girls, but she planned a wonderful day including crepes for breakfast, playing at the park, neverending Harry Potter role playing, dress ups, movies, pizza and more! The girls had a fantastic day while Xavier* and I got soooo much done. Probably 2/3 of our work was done on that one day. I honestly don't think the house would have been ready so fast without that precious day to really work hard without having to break up fights, make breakfast/lunch/dinner for everyone and nag the girls to not make messes. And Xavier* and I even got to enjoy a peaceful lunch at a Thai restaurant for a break. Kim, we just love you to pieces and can't thank you enough for that gift. (o:

While picking up Natalie and Angela, by a strange coincidence, we found out that both of us were going to IKEA the next day! This worked out perfectly because we decided to meet for breakfast there and then we could just pick up Sarah there.

From Blog Favorites August/September

If Kim and I get our way - these two will be married someday so we can officially call ourselves family! I think they would be an adorable couple! (o: I will use this picture in their wedding slideshow and Kim and I will do a high five!

From Blog Favorites August/September

Cute Harry Potter fans! I heard that they played Harry Potter almost the entire time together!

From Blog Favorites August/September

Cute Natalie.

From Blog Favorites August/September

Katers eating her potaters.

From Blog Favorites August/September

From Blog Favorites August/September

This was the best I got when trying to have the kids pose. (o:

From Blog Favorites August/September

Kim and I in IKEA - what could be better?

From Blog Favorites August/September

Awww - these two are just too cute. They held hands for a lot of the time as we walked around looking at tables and desks.

From Blog Favorites August/September

Another shot from the car through the window. We just live in such a beautiful place. I don't want to forget any of it.