Kid’s Marathon!!!

My kids ran a marathon!  Not all in one day like I did, but over 2 months.  They have a Kid’s Marathon that they do here.  It is awesome!  Between September 1st and October 29, they have to run a total of 25 miles, but only up to 5 miles per week.  On the 29th of October, they bring their completed running logs to the race to get their number and t-shirt.  Then they run a 1.2 mile fun run to complete the Marathon distance of 26.2 miles and each finisher gets a medal!  I am so proud of my kids!  Congratulations Liah, Emily and Sean on your awesome accomplishment!!!

Here they are before the race:

Cousin Avery came to cheer on her cousins and aunt Jill.

Avery and I were the cheering section. They had these support signs at the expo before my marathon.  I knew it would come in handy!

Go Liah!

Here is Sean about to cross the finish line!

Here are our awesome Marathon medals!

Congratulations Liah, Emily and Sean!  You guys worked so hard!  I am so proud of you!!!

First Day of School! 2011

I can’t believe summer is over already!  I’m not ready for my kids to be back in school. My Seany started Kindergarten today!  I can’t believe is old enough.  Here’s hoping things go well… let’s just say it’s a good thing his sisters went to this school before he did… LOL.  Bless his little heart!

Doesn’t he look handsome??  It’s hard to believe he ever does anything wrong with that sweet little face…

We had Belgian waffles for our first day of school breakfast.  Yum!

Here’s my little Emily.  She’s off to 2nd grade today!  She has Mrs. Hagedorn again this year, and she is so excited!  Isn’t she pretty?

And here is my Liah.  She is in 3rd grade this year.  She is so excited to be in one of the portables.  Not sure why… and her teacher is Mrs. Vera.  Liah is so excited that she has a pretty teacher.  Clearly, in her mind, this is what makes a good teacher.  Last year, her teacher wore hoop earrings, and she was so excited.  This one wasn’t wearing hoop earrings, so we’ll see if she lives up to Liah’s standards.  LOL.

Here is Sean in his line next to Mrs. Sisemore!  Both the girls had her, and she is fabulous!

Sean and his new friend Cole.

Addy starts preschool in one week!  I can’t believe it!

Still another hour until I pick up Sean… what to do, what to do…

Happy First Day of School!

I about died tonight…

…laughing, that is.  We were sitting at the table having dinner when my children started to inform me of their plan of defense, should anyone try to kidnap one of them.  I am usually pretty good at keeping a straight face when they tell me stuff, especially when they are completely serious.  Now, my brothers and I used to have our own defense strategies, should a robber or someone come while a babysitter was at our house, which mostly involved “kicking his butt and shoving him out,” but my kids’ was pretty much awesome.

I kept a straight face while Emily informed me that the kid who was being taken would throw a toy to the unkidnapped one.

I kept a straight face while Liah told me that they would then proceed to grab the persons shirt, then kick, punch and bite them.

However, I totally lost it when Sean informed me that they would then proceed to stick the kidnapper to the fence with gum.

Liah and Emily both agreed, only after seeing my reaction, that gum would never work.  Sean thought about it for a minute, then suggested glue.  Liah thought about it for a second, agreed, and informed him that they would probably have to stick it to the kidnapper’s back.

Good plan, kids.  Good plan.

My kids’ hopes and dreams

What do you want to be when you grow up?

Liah: A meteorologist!

Emily: Maybe a doctor or a nurse… or maybe just nothing, like you are, Mom. (did I mention how great she is with compliments?)

Sean: A fighter fire.

Addison: Big!

From the mouth of a second grader

Today we were watching General Conference, listening to Richard G. Scott speak about happiness at home. 

Emily: Mom, you need to do this because you and Dad fight a lot.

Mom: Well sometimes Dad is mean.

Liah: Mom.  When boys are mean to you, it means they like you.

Chore Chart

Emily: “Hang up coat and backpack?  Why is that on there? lol”

Mom: “Um, because you never do it.”

Yesterday, about 20 minutes before the girls got home from school, I came up with a spur of the moment brilliant plan.  Make a “chore chart” for all of the things I have to remind/fight with them to do everyday.  Rocket science?  No.  But I had never done it.  I taped it up in an obvious place with a sheet of sparkly stickers right below it.  My girls were defenseless against the sparkles.

They came home, saw the chart, read the directions and excitedly went to work.  “This is going to be so fun!”  Emily even kept writing in more jobs for herself just to be able to put up a sticker.  It’s the first time I haven’t had to fight with her to get her stuff done.  The girls even helped the boys do their “chores.”

Today as they walked out the door for school, they both excitedly asked/begged me to have another chore chart up when they got home.

Who knew?!  Not holding my breath, but hopefully this will last…

There’s been a rumor flying around…

And now I know it’s true.

Yep, it’s official.  My girls are insane.

…guess I’d better get the hot chocolate ready…

My cuties

 

I have had this little skirt suit and purse cut out for… a really long time.  I made a pink one for Liah last year for her birthday and Emily desperately wanted one, too.  One of my friends happened to have the pattern that was Emily’s size, so I borrowed it, got the material, cut it out and… forgot about it.  After sewing THREE Halloween costumes last week, I decided it was time to finish up my forgotten project.  I finished it today, and I am so proud of it!

Oh, and Emmy loves it with all of her cute little heart.

Addy decided he needed a picture, too.

I think Emily looks absolutely gorgeous in this picture.  I love this color of blue on her.  So pretty!

On a side note, last week, I was driving home when I saw this breathtaking sight:

On another side note I finally made muddy buddies with my kids a couple weeks ago.  I’ve always wanted to and just never gotten around to it.  They were a huge hit.  Just looking at this picture makes me want more! 

Sometimes...

...after a long day of Kindergarten, you just need to kick off your shoes, curl up and take a nap in a laundry basket. (aka "boat bed")

I wonder if they make them in my size?

Talent Show!

So today was the school talent show and both my girls participated. They did so well! I'm so proud of how brave they were to stand up in front of the whole school and perform. I've literally been having nightmares and losing sleep over this going badly and scarring my daughters for life. Fortunately, I was the only one with the anxiety.

First off, this morning, Emily wanted "rockstar hair" and Liah wanted "superstar hair." Well I just gave them cute hair, and they felt like rockstars and superstars all day. Seriously, it boosted their confidence level immensely. They were struttin' around the majority of the day. It made me feel like a good mom anyway.


Here is Emily after the talent show:

...and Liah (she wanted to wear "her 80s style")

...and my little cuties together:

Here is little Emily's performance. Just a little disclaimer before you watch. They hadn't set up the piano properly... yet. So the music teacher had to come and fix it while I was playing, and Emily didn't hear the sound for a second so she thought the song had stopped. She didn't forget her words. Other than that hiccup, the performance was fabulous. She did such a great job! I am so proud of her to stand up in front of that many people at age 5 and sing like that. She did tell me after that "she felt embarrassed because there were so many kids!" But my mother heart is beaming with pride. She did say it was fun though, and she is LOVING all of the attention she is getting from random people telling her she is amazing.

Okay anyway, so here it is:

Oh, and one more comment, Seany is sitting next to Jeremy who is shooting this video, and well, Sean thought he would join in for the very last note of the song. It is especially hilarious because he is off about one half-pitch. Awesome. But fortunately, no one there heard it, but all of you will!

And here is Liah's performance. She did so well, too! She has also never performed in front of an audience this big. She was so confident. I'm so proud of her!

I'm so proud of my girls!

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So my strawberry creation of the day was strawberry pie. I absolutely LOVE this recipe. So, so good.

You know what makes great playdough? Real dough. Emily played for the next solid HOUR with the unused scraps of pie crust. Here she is "making herself." Doesn't it look just like her? I'm pretty sure it also has "rock star hair."

Here is my pie: (or should I say was...)

Doesn't it look delicious?? Well it was.

p.s. My brother and his wife just had their baby boy tonight! Welcome to the world, baby Alex! I can't wait to meet you!!!

Learn something new every day...

Today I learned that when Emily trips and her top tooth and bottom lip meet Jeremy's kneecap, and the tooth pops backward behind her other teeth, but not completely disconnected or broken, after a scared freaking out big sister and a call to a dentist friend, you can just pop that tooth right back in place.

Sorry Emily. Guess you'll have to wait a little longer for the tooth fairy to come.

Do You Hear What I Hear

My girls didn't do ballet this year. Instead they started going to my friend Brook's singing/performing class. She is amazing! She has a degree in Musical Theater, which is right up Emily's alley. So I am so excited that they have this opportunity to work with her!

They just had their first concert, which was a Christmas concert called "Do You Hear What I Hear." It was adorable! Liah was unfortunately on the other side of the group, so I only got a few shots of her before some intelligent mother's camera's batteries died part way through the program. Oh, that would be me... :) But here's a taste of it anyway for my mom and sister and anyone else who cares!

(p.s. Any other moms that read this that were there, can I get copies of your videos??)

Emily

Emily, age 5

This is a post I started a couple months ago that I was planning to post for Emily's birthday. On July 11. As you see, time has gotten away from me, but better late than never.

The best word I can think of to describe Emily is "spunky." This girl just cracks me up. You may remember the "grandma" post from December. Well she is full of these little gems. Here are a few of my favorites:

• "I just can't stop thinking about Ad! He's so cuuute!" (she will just randomly spout this off)

  
  
• "Liah always treats me like dirt. And she treats me like a shovel."

  
  
• "Mommy, what did I saaay??" (One time she said "Mommy, everytime I give you a kiss, you give me a kiss." So then randomly she would give me a kiss and if I didn't kiss her right away, she would say this.)

  
  
• Today we were feeding lunch to Addison, and we always call him a little piggy because he eats so much, and Emily started singing "He's a piggy" to the tune of "He's a tramp" from Lady and the Tramp.

I love this girl. LOVE her. She can definitely be opposite ends of the spectrum from one second to the next, but how she keeps life interesting!

Here are some pictures from her birthday party. She was very specific about who she wanted at her party (all THREE people) and what she wanted to do. I was happy to oblige.

Liah and Emily even made the invitations for Emily's party. It was pretty funny actually. Emily took a piece of paper off of her notepad and colored some rainbow stripes on it, and wanted to go give it to her friends. She was disappointed when I informed her that the invitation probably ought to have some words on it to let them know what, when, where, etc. "But I don't know how to write!" Liah stepped in and offered to help, and together they made invitations. They tried to have the party start at 9pm, but oddly enough I wouldn't go for it. So they eventually came up with the time 11:15am, and I allowed that. Funny girls.

She wanted 2 piñatas. Instead of saying no, and because I am cheap, all I did was staple together some pieces of cardstock and put snack bags of m&ms in them that I got couponing. Either way, she was delighted.

She also wanted to have lunch and watch a movie, so we made mini pizzas and everyone got to make their own. They watched the movie while each person made their pizza.

She wanted a cake in the shape of a heart. There was half a cake left over from my birthday party the night before, so I cut out a heart shape of cake and stuck it on a plate. She was thrilled with that as well.

The other activity she had planned was to "play in her room." This was by far the easiest party I have ever done.

Books from Aunt Lorie. Each page is a puzzle!

Princess castle sculpting set from Gramma Mac.

"HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL!!!" pajamas from Gramma MacGregor. She was just a little excited... and by little I mean a lot.

Seriously, this girl wanted an 8 pack of olives from Costco for her birthday. She was talking to Grampa later on the phone and she goes "I got OLIVES!!! 8 cans!!!"

Froggy purse from Liah

A fabulous make up job.

Happy Birthday little Emily! I love you!!!