BTS

A special thing happened last night.  At 9:15 p.m. the house was silent, except for the rustle of an oreo package. The kids were tucked in bed and Mike and I celebrated quietly with cookies and milk because school was starting in the morning.  

It was lovely. No one doing cartwheels in front of the TV (Reagen). No one playing Spore on the computer (Dal). No one eating Grandma Sycamore's bread on the couch (Michaela). Did I mention it was lovely?

First day of school outfits were laid out. Fancy hairdo's were planned. Showers were all taken. It's a night we had been anticipating. We've enjoyed summer break, but these kids are ready to have someone besides us tell them what to do for several hours a day.

Morning came and the kids hopped out of bed and got ready in plenty of time. I quizzed Reagen about her bus number several times until I was sure she'd get home ok. Just to be safe, I wrote it on her hand. We took pictures in front of the house and the kids filled their backpacks with supplies.  

I took Dal first and dropped him off in the back of the school. It's not cool to have your mom walk you in to jr. high.  Michaela and I walked Reagen to her class and she was happy that one of her little friends was just two desks away. Last was Michaela. We made sure she could unlock her combo and then got her to class. 

As I walked back to the car, I thought about our celebration last night. We were giddy as we ate the soggy oreo's, but we got a little sentimental as we talked about Reagen being old enough to be in school all day. How Mike will miss meeting her at the bus stop at noon and spending a couple of hours with her before the other kids got home. How Dal has gotten so tall and changed so much in the last few months.  How Michaela didn't buy one shirt from the boy's department this year (we're making progress). We talked about how fast they are growing up and how they'll be gone before we know it. It all rushed back to me as I walked down the hallway back to my car. A tear may have been shed, but I wiped it away quickly before the janitor saw me.

After all that excitement, I went home and did what any other sensible mom would do...finished off the oreo's.

Reagen in Mrs. Jenning's 1st Grade class.

So excited for school to start, she's doing the happy dance.

Back to school sisterly lovin'.

Dal wasn't in the dancing mood.

Look mom, no boy shirts! We're still working on the shorts 

and shoes, but you've gotta start somewhere.

Shake your bootie!

Not sure what this pose is.

Note to self...

I've realized a few things this summer. 

• Make a disclaimer to pin on Reagen's shirt that reads, "My eleven year old sister dressed me and did my hair today. She doesn't really care what I look like."  Needless to say, she looks like a little orphan some days. The clothes I lay out are usually still laying on her dresser when I get home.
• No excuse for Dallon. He's almost 14 and still can't match his clothes. 
• That cute summer skirt has a little cotton liner under it. When you pull it up to go to the bathroom, you have to make sure and pull it back down or it will be bunched up around your hiney at work for several hours before you realize it. I really don't need the extra volume in that area.
• Young Women lessons given on Sunday should be prepared prior to Saturday night. 
• If they are prepared Saturday night, make sure and prepare the correct lesson.
• Sleeping until 9:47 am on a Saturday morning is a little piece of heaven that doesn't occur more than once a year. Realize that if you sleep until 9:47 am, you may wet your bed. (I didn't, but it was kinda close.)
• Remember what 9:47 am feels like when I'm getting up at 5:00 am for work. Be grateful for that once a year event.
• And last, but not least, horses slobber like no other when they are eating apples. Stay clear.

Doesn't it look like a little heart on his head?

Six!

Five is a great age. It's the age where you figure out how to laugh like sponge bob (it's trickier than you think), you get to be a picky eater, it's a time when jumping on the trampoline and playing with stuffed animals consumes most of your day. With just a quick yelp, you can get your big brother or sister in trouble in 2.5 seconds.

Although five is great, Reagen was excited to turn six. She gets to go to first grade and eat school lunch, something she's been looking forward to all through kindergarten. She couldn't understand why they sent her home at lunch time instead of feeding her. 

She's still my baby and the little sis, but man, she's gotten so tall with those long legs and big feet, it's hard to deny that she's growing up. She's learned how to tease her dad from the older two and she loves, loves, loves doing that. She'll torment him and then run to the "safe couch" where he can't get her.

She sings in the tub, in her room, while she's eating, everywhere we go. No song in particular, just little sing songy noises. She's a dancing fool, too. She's got some swing in those little hips. Don't know where the moves came from because they're definitely not from my side of the family. She'll spend hours drawing and coloring. She's decided it's ok to like Hannah Montana regardless of what Michaela says. She's our little sunshine, making us smile constantly.

Michaela helped me with a treasure hunt for R's birthday.

She drew pictures of places all around the house for Reagen to follow until she eventually found her new stuffed Cheetah. 
I tried a new dessert called cake pops found on bakerella.com.  They were so nummy, it's a new fave with the fam.
We had family over for cheesecake brownies, cake pops, and sheet eclairs. Thanks to everyone that made R's day special.

I had to laugh when I saw this picture on my camera...

Dallon snapped it of Mike the other day after Mike got home from the post office.  He just wanted to get on the computer for a minute, but just couldn't keep those eyes open...or his mouth shut. 

With 3 kids, 2 parents working, and no school, this place is a zoo!

Pipe cleaner animals courtesy of Martha Stewart crafts clearance price at WalMart. I thought it would give Reagen hours of craftiness fun, instead I spent a half an hour listening to how I was making them all wrong.

The Fourth

In order to have a great 4th of July, you need to do several things:

1. Get up really early and run a mile in the Ray Barrus Annual 5K Run.  Actually, you make your daughters run in this instead of you. You don't want to be embarrassed when you are beat by a bunch of kids.

2. Eat a nice cold popsicle afterwards to cool off.

3. Discuss the strategy of your run with your good buddy Ian.

4. Give the only willing participant a holiday hair-do. It's supposed to be a star.

5. Go to the 4th of July Parade.

6. Make sure you smile and wave at everyone in the 

parade so they'll throw lots of candy at you.

7. Have a barbeque in the afternoon under the shade of the trees with family.

8. Eat until you can eat no more.

Austin- Not what I expected

I envisioned cowboys in wranglers and big belt buckles, steak houses and barbecue joints on every corner, polite people with strong accents. Instead, as I looked out of our 14th floor hotel window, I was a little scared for our safety. I saw a city that I would be a little hesitant to walk down the street alone after dark, maybe even during broad daylight. Old buildings, dirty streets, seedy bars, and not one cowboy. We ventured out into the city on foot and thought we'd eventually end up on the nicer end of town. Sweat dripped down my back and my flip flops gave me a blister and we never found a cleaner, less scary Austin. We got in the car and drove hoping that if we drove far enough things would get better.  Not so.  It made Salt Lake look bee-u-ti-ful, which it is, but even more so and squeaky clean. We even witnessed a lesbian fight in front of Wendy's that turned our stomachs (nothing against lesbians, just crackhead lesbians that hit each other in the face). 

I know it's hard to believe, but it wasn't a dream of ours to go to Austin. The nationals for tae kwon do were being held there and we thought it would be an interesting place to visit. Although it wasn't the awesome place I thought it would be, it was still fun to spend 3 days with the middle child even though she had a bad day and lost her first fight. We spoiled her with eating out and even dessert afterwards. She drank enough Coca Cola to make up for the years of going without. I think she'll always remember this trip (and probably won't want to go to Austin again).

Traveling with Mike is like having another kid there.

Flying just took it out of her.

Zilker Park - a tourist stop...that smelled like a dead animal.

Summer

Summer is in full swing, except for all the rain that we've had. It actually feels like it's in fast forward without a pause button. I used to think that summer flew by when I was in school and now it's just ridiculous how fast time skips by. We've been trying to do a lot of fun things with the kids while they're out of school and I have to admit I haven't been very good at taking the camera along which was nice at the time, but makes it kind of hard to blog about it. 

Me and some good friends started summer early with an escape to St. George in May. We always have the time of our lives when we are together and this was no exception. We sat around the pool (I know you are just dying to see those pics, but ummm..no way), watched movies, ate yummy food, laughed too much, and went to a day spa and got a 70 minute pedicure. My little piggies had never been treated so well. They used a chocolate hot paraffin wax to soften our feet and I can honestly say I could have licked my feet, it smelled so good. Holy cow.

A couple events where the camera was absent was the Deseret Peak Rodeo. It was a lot funner than I expected and made me reminisce about my cowboy boot days. I did snap a few pics with my camera but I am nowhere close to being computer literate enough to know how to get pics from my phone to the computer.

We also spent four nights in Park City at my friend's time share. She couldn't stay the whole time and was nice enough to offer it to us. The weather was pretty crappy, but we had one nice day and we spent the whole day riding the Alpine Slide and Coaster. We had never been on the coaster and it so much fun. I was laughing all the way down the mountain. Again, no camera to prove we were there.

I did take the camera with me to Cedar City last weekend for the Summer Games. The kids wanted to try track this year and we all loved it. They got to run on SUU's track. D & M both ran the 100 meter dash, D ran the mile and M ran the 4x100 relay with some girls she met down there. This is definitely something we'll be doing next year.

After the prelims on Friday, some of our friends invited us over the KOA where they were staying to ride these pedal go-carts. 
Reagen was about a foot too short to reach the pedals but she was bound and determined she was going to ride them. We wadded up M's hoodie and stuck it behind her and then we'd push her down a hill to get going. She was fine until she turned to come back up the hill and then me or M would have to go push her back up the hill. She finally let me take her for a ride and it was quite a sight. They are meant for one person, but we sat her on my thighs and she bobbed up and down as I pedalled. I was laughing so hard, I almost crashed. 

Tae kwon do was going on at the same time so as soon as the kids finished running on Saturday, they both went to the middle school to fight. This is Michaela in the red helmet. I missed Dal's fight because I was waiting for M to finish running. He had just finished running the mile and his legs were noodles. He wasn't too sure about going and sparring. He ended up having one of his best fights. I think he was too tired to get nervous and tight. We told him we're going to make him run a mile before every fight. He didn't think that was too funny.

Man, it's really hard to blog when you haven't done it in ages. Life speeds by so fast and the thought of getting it all documented is a little overwhelming. I'll just try and be brief (yeah, right) and get some pics of some of the things I've missed lately.

Reagen and Michaela started and finished fun soccer seasons.

Reagen is no longer the only five year old in town still sporting training wheels on her bike. It's funny how with the last kid your in less of a hurry for them to grow up.

Two school programs. Dancing through Kindergarten.

I love America 5th Grade Program. Yes, this was months ago, but it never got documented.

Reagen had her first ever trip to Build-A-Bear. This may not be a big deal to most of you, but she counted down the days with so much excitement. When I first told her that she got to go, she told me the next day when she woke up that she smiled all night because she gets to go to Build-A-Bear.

This girl got her braces on May 6th. Her teeth have already moved quite a bit. Making room for those two snaggle teeth that are hiding above.

She also had a birthday and turned eleven and we of course had to make her earn those presents. She acts a lot older than she is and is so easy to be around. I'm trying to enjoy these moments before she hits those teen years. I love this girlie.

I had a birthday too and look at us dorky dorks with our 3-D glasses on waiting for Aliens vs. Monsters. I think I deserve some type of award for letting the kids pick the movie on my b-day.

That's just a small percentage of what's been going on in our lives and I don't have time right now to get everything down, but since I've had a few emails wondering if I had dropped off the face of the earth (thanks Keysha and Chelsea), I thought I'd better get something posted out here. I'm failing miserably at documenting our lives and I'll try to do better.

The Nerve Center

Two tennis schedules, two soccer schedules, one taekwondo schedule, one reading calendar, several unredeemed reading awards for pizza, two old grade school program schedules, 30 kindergarten reading words, one key to funky mouth contraption, one orthodontist appointment reminder, three haircut coupons, one walk/run schedule, one calendar to jot down everything else down, two picture orders, one grocery list, a picture of Jesus and a partridge in a pear tree.

If I got my fridge in order, maybe my life would follow.  Maybe.

Some Craftiness

A couple of weeks ago, I got an email from Scrapbooks Etc. (i think) and it had cute gift ideas and I saw this and really liked it and thought it would go good in the girl's room. I bought a 16x20 canvas at Walmart and then just used scrapbook stuff to put it together so it was really pretty cheap to make. Since I don't have a craft room and this was all over my kitchen table for a weekend, I was motivated to finish it quickly. Normally, it would be one of those projects that gets stuck in the closet half done for years to come.  

My thoughts on walk running.

I've never been a runner, more of just a walker, but I really haven't been doing anything lately and I had been feeling lazy and a little out of control with my love of food/dislike of exercise.  When I saw this in the March Family Circle, I ripped it out and stuck it to my fridge because it seemed like something I could do and it says "lose 15 pounds".  Who doesn't want to lose 15 pounds and how hard can it be to run one minute walk two?  (yeah, that was a lot harder than I thought)  I started it and believe it or not, I completed week three tonight. Tomorrow I will run 2.5 minutes and walk 2 minutes 4 times.  Wish me luck.

We don't have one spare corner in our house for our treadmill so it's in nana's extra bedroom. It's a little pink room with a twin bed and matching dressers and night stand from the 70's and pinkish red shag carpet. The treadmill faces a large window with a clear view of our house right across the street. It's been too cold to run/walk outside so I've become a frequent visitor of the pink bedroom. 

I try not to think about how slow time passes for those minutes running and how fast the walking minutes pass. I try and think of other things to distract myself. 

I look out the window at my house and make a mental list of things that need to be done.  Baseboards in my bedroom, closet and bathroom doors painted. New siding around the front door, pictures hung in my room, the list goes on and on, but I get bored with that.  

I think I see someone in my kitchen window. I wave, but nobody waves back.  It's actually just a little tree in front of the window.

I see my reflection in the big window in front of me and I think how if I ran naked on the treadmill and saw my reflection in the big window, I'd probably run faster and longer.  That would really scare all the passerbys so I won't do that.

I think about how I used to hardly sweat when I was younger and how I really sweat a lot now. How I hate showering at night and going to bed with wet hair and how it makes me cold all night, but I don't want to go to bed all stinky so I shower.

I think about how I better not burp while running because that grape crush that I drank an hour ago may come bubbling up.  And how if I wouldn't have drank that grape crush, I wouldn't have to spend so much time on the treadmill.

I think about how I desperately need new music on the ipod because if I hear Single Ladies one more time, I'm going to scream. I wish I could read on the treadmill without falling off.

I think about how I should have lost five pounds by now and I haven't, but I tell myself I'll keep doing it for 12 weeks and then if I haven't lost, I'll drink more grape crush and relax.

Happiness

Just sharing a few things that made me very happy this week.


1. If you know me, you know nothing makes me happier than a bargain. I got this sweet deal from Kohl's. Perfect Comfort Memory Foam king size pad for $37 delivered to my door. Regular price $179.99. It was such perfect comfort that we slept right through the start of Stake Conference. I did feel bad about missing church and being a bad example to the kids so I listened to Soft Sunday Sounds on FM100 to try and ease my guilt. :)

2. This just made me smile. My dad sent some cash in the mail for the kids, strategically hidden in a folded note. He must think I'm still a blond! Look at the very detailed instructions as you open the paper. (I know it looks like it's from "Frank", but it really says "Gramp".

3. Have you tried this stuff? It's hair happiness in a bottle. It helps your hair dry faster, makes it super soft and gives it a shine, but doesn't weigh it down or make it greasy. We've gotta have the big hair.

4. More bargains. More happiness. Two shirts at Old Navy for $2.80 each. And SCORE at Robert's! $150 worth of scrap booking stuff for $15. Rub-ons, stickers, and chipboard, oh my!

5. No explanation needed here. These cookies are simple to make and so yummy. I'll share the recipe below. (oops, picture is gone...refer to cookie in the banner.)

1 8oz. cream cheese, room temp. 1 stick butter, room temp.

1 egg 1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 box moist chocolate cake mix Powdered sugar, for dusting

Preheat oven to 350. In a large bowl w/an electric mixer, cream the cream cheese and butter until smooth. Beat in the egg. Beat in the vanilla. Beat in the cake mix. Cover and refrigerate for 2 hours (or you can stick it in the freezer for 15 minutes) to firm up so that you can roll the batter into balls. Roll in powdered sugar. Place on ungreased cookie sheet, 2 inches apart. Bake 12 minutes. The cookies will remain soft and gooey. Cool and sprinkle more powdered sugar on top if you'd like.

It's easy to eat 12 and not even realize it so make sure you share...or not.

Especially for Ash

Ashley (we'll keep your last name a secret to protect your privacy) - here is the answer to your prayers. If you only would have had this thing 9 years ago. Think of all you could have accomplished while pumping away. All those lost hours sitting in a bedroom or hiding behind a chalkboard in a scrapbook store. What a shame.

Straighten Up!

I'm not just posting these pictures because they totally crack me up. I actually want to document Michaela's teeth getting straightened out. I didn't have braces and my brother and sisters didn't have braces (although we all could have used them). Amy, my little sis, did have some weird contraptions in her mouth, but I don't think she ever had braces.  Mike helped pull her mouth to try and expose some of the teeth hiding in there in the first two pics.  

Monday she had this cool little bridge put in. Every other day, we take a little key and turn in so that it slowly widens her mouth. After eight weeks, she will get the regular braces. She is responsible for making sure we don't forget to do this. She marks a little smiley face on the calendar on the fridge every time we do it. It does make her have a little bit of a lisp and she got part of a hotdog caught in it today from lunch, but she hasn't complained about it at all.  

Are you kidding me?

Did anyone watch The Bachelor?  All three hours of it? I got totally sucked in and watched the whole season really hoping Jason wouldn't be "hurt" again, but after last night, I was just thinking, poor Ty.  Melissa's going to be your new mommy...no wait, Molly might be your new mommy. As much as I hate to admit it, I'm going to have to watch again tonight to see what possibly could happen next. 

Also, is anyone watching Biggest Loser?  I love this season! Oh, and Amazing Race is great so far. Am I pathetic or what?

Don't let your kids learn to bake.

I'm just giving you some advise from personal experience. It's not because of the mess, although that alone should be enough. The eggshells in the wrong side of the sink, the flour blown all over the stove top, the sticky spoons stuck to the counter top, 12 dirty mixing bowls...well maybe that is reason enough.  

But the reason I was thinking of was that when I'm craving something sweet, 90% of the time, I am too lazy to get in the car and drive down to the store and 50% of the time I can't sweet talk Mike into driving down to the store.  99% of the time, I am too lazy to actually get up and make something.  There's a pretty good chance that if it's up to me to come up with a treat, I won't be getting one.

However, now Dal and Kayla have decided they like to experiment in the kitchen and when they want a treat, they aren't so lazy. They make chocolate chip cookies ALL THE TIME!  If that wasn't bad enough, Dallon figured out that he can make cheesecake. Dang his CSE class (what us old timers knew as Home Economics) for helping him get in touch with his feminine side and for teaching him to cook.)  I am totally screwed here. I can no longer rely on my laziness as a weight loss program.

He made this yummy brownie cheesecake for Mike's birthday last week.  I am in big trouble.

UNO

The game of choice when me and her are home alone.  She's surprisingly good. When she wins she chants, "Winner, winner, I want cheese for dinner."  When she loses she glares at me.  She's a little intimidating with the whole dilated pupils and the pursed lips look.

This beats the alternative of her other favorite passtime when we are alone. It's called mom tossing a stuffed animal high in the air over the couch with perfect timing as she runs across the front room and dives through the air to catch it and then slams head first into the couch, over and over a bazillion times.  I'll take 20 games of UNO over that any day.

Recap

A little recap since I've had a hard time remembering how to type lately. 

1. January is usually a month that I get the blues from lack of sunshine, cold weather, and too much eating of food that has absolutely no nutritional value. This year, it just flew by and I didn't even realize I hadn't had the blues until it was February and then I thought what's the use of having the blues now, it's February.

2. The kids competed in the US Open in Vegas for TKD. Fifty-nine countries were represented. Kayla had 6 in her division, fought three times, and won gold. woo-hoo for her. Dal had 53 in his division, fought pretty darn good, but didn't bring a medal home. boo-hoo for him. 

3. I remembered that I don't like to stay in hotels in Vegas. I hate trying to figure out who's long black hair is in my sheets. The women in thongs (or massive wedgies as the kids see it) plastered all over the streets makes me blush. The stay in St. George in a clean hotel was a lot better.  no mystery hairs in the bed. 

4. Reagen informed me that she'd like to be a garbage man when she grows up. She's been collecting cardboard boxes lately preparing so diligently. I wonder if she thinks the garbage men live in boxes. I'm so relieved she has high aspirations.

5. Dal has had a growth spurt and almost looks me in the eyes. Mike is worried that he'll grow bigger than him and torture him to pay him back for all of the teasing Mike does to him. I'm counting on it and looking forward to it. 

6. Work is crazy and leads to migraines on a lot of occasions. It's not a good time to give up Mtn. Dew...again.  Seriously, I'm very happy to have a job right now with things the way they are. I had my 12 year anniversary at Bard this month. Who would have known I could last this long?

7. Michaela gets braces on in March. I didn't think her teeth were all that bad and then she pulled her top lip up the other day and revealed some teeth I didn't even know she had. Whoa!

8. Last, but not least, Mike went postal on us. He got a job with the post office. He starts part-time next month. We are exicted about this and I know he's relieved to be done with the tests, training, and driving courses. (I drive with him quite often and I didn't think he'd pass the driving part.)

 

Some pictures to make this post a little more interesting.

This is Dallon in the red helmet fighting Mexico.

Three of our team members and one little sister.

I took these just to show some of the countries represented. Australia had a huge team and we met a nice Australian boy and I loved hearing him talk.

A couple team members from China.

The hung flags from all of the countries represented.

Kayla, Dal and Josh on the way back from making a snack run to the van.

If you look past the unhappy looking dude in front, you'll see a very happy coach throwing Kayla up in the air after she won her final match.

Random pic of Reagen with the cat that's not allowed in the house, let alone in her bed.

Taken

My girls will not be leaving the country on their own, or with girlfriends, or even parental chauffeurs. 

Not when they are in high school, not when they are in college, maybe not even when they are forty. 

Not to Europe, not to Paris, and probably not even Mexico.

Well, maybe if Mike becomes a super secret agent with sweet killing skills like Liam Neason, but probably not.  Mike and I saw the movie "Taken" and it totally freaked me out. I don't even want to leave the country and who would steal me? It was a very good, action packed, nail biting movie, but it makes you think twice about sending your young American daughters out of the country. I might not even let Dallon leave the country because I think he's kinda pretty in a manly way. Have you seen his eyelashes?

The Flour Game

I had forgotten about this game for many years, but Sunday night we were playing Uno with the kids for the 78th time and it came to me. My aunt Retha taught us how to play when we were young and then in high school I remember playing it with some of my friends and having lots of laughs.

What you do is fill a small cup half way full with baking flour.  Pack it down and then put a clean penny in it. You have to wash it with soap and maybe rub a little sanitizer on it if you are anal like me about germs. Then fill the rest of the cup with flour so that the penny is hidden in the middle. Place a plate over the cup and carefully turn it over so that the flour comes out on the plate in the shape of the cup. 

Now to start the game, everyone slaps ther hands on thier legs twice and then claps once like what you do when you listen to the song, "We will, we will rock you."  Slap, slap, clap.  Got it.  The first person says a subject like books, or colors or spongebob characters, or whatever you like.  The next person has to name a book or color or whatever on the next clap and you keep going around the table until someone messes up.  If they mess up, they have to take a knife and slice off part of the flour.  You don't want to make the flour collapse though.  Whoever makes it fall has to find the penney with only their face and pick it up.  It is hilarious.  Once they find the penney, you carefully pick out the slober they may have blown in there when they were laughing and pack it back in the cup again.  Good times!

What a week

Or at least half a week since all the fun started on Wednesday and ended on Sunday.

Wednesday was a good day. Dallon was nominated by one of his teachers to be Falcon of the Month (doo doo doo...hear the trumpets sounding). They give this award out not just for academics, but for kids that have shown kindness to others, leadership skills, or have improved somehow. Mike and I got to go down to the junior high library and they had a little program for the kids who were nominated. They read the letters out loud that the teachers had wrote. 

I'll have to admit that I had one of those proud mom moments where you almost cry, but I didn't want to embarrass myself in front of a bunch of jr. high kids so I kept myself under control. I'm getting better at that. The cookies and chocolate milk afterwards topped off a great afternoon.

And then there was Friday.  Glorious 5th Grade Maturation Program at the elementary school. Michaela kept telling me that I really didn't have to go. She said the only reason they invite parents is so that they keep the kids from laughing. Now, my kids live pretty sheltered little lives you have to remember. So do I, so I wanted to see if I could learn something along with Michaela.

They started the video and it was pretty cool and hip and everything until they cut to the drawings of our body parts. I seriously almost bit my tongue off trying not to laugh. You know, one of those nervous laughs that happen at church when you aren't suppose to laugh. 

I would look at Michaela and she would shoot daggers at me. I knew she had no idea before this video about what her little tom-boy body was going to do to her in a year or two. I wasn't going to be the one to tell her and ruin her carefree love of life. 

Finally, it was over and I had to force her to take the little prize bag that they give the girls as they leave. She wanted nothing to do with what was in that bag. As we walked to the car, I asked her if she knew any of this lovely information before today. "No!  They are lying.  That is NOT going to happen to me." (I'm glad she's not showing any signs of denial at this point.) I had to be the bearer of bad news and let her know that yes, it actually is going to happen. When we got in the car, she ripped the beloved prize bag open and threw the winged friends at me and told me that I could have them and she'd keep the deodorant and the granola bar.  These are those bonding moments you look forward to as a mom.  

Now fast forward to Sunday morning, 9:00am.  My little family that tries to be real inconspicuous is sitting up front and center at the pulpit in church. Yes, that's right, we had to speak in church. 

Everyone of us.  

Even Mike.

Yes, I said Mike.

Don't fall off your chair for those of you that know Mike.

It actually went well. Mike did awesome and didn't seem nervous at all up there. Especially since he informed us after, that half way through the talk he got this monster cramp in his left butt cheek.  He had all of his weight on one leg and was just a little tense. He said under normal circumstances, it would have dropped him to the ground. I'm so proud of him!

Reagen wanted to talk about Noah's Ark. Dal and Kayla both wrote their talks on their own. You couldn't hear my knees knocking...I think, so we'll consider it a success.  My friend Kathryn, who besides looking like Miss America, is sooo musically talented, sang a beautiful musical number for us.

It was sure a half a week to remember.

It's good to have friends

And even better to have friends with connections! My buddy Chelsea is friends with some developers in her neighborhood and therefore has access to 4 model homes that are really cute. I bribed Reagen into being our little model as we both worked on our "indoor skills". We've found that taking pictures indoors isn't that easy because of the whole lighting situation. It was really fun to have time to make adjustments without a family sitting posed and ready. Reagen had a lot of patience and I paid her well with a humongo frozen yogurt afterwards. Here are some of my favorite pics.

Reagen's version of Rockband

I may be raising a nerd...

...but I'm ok with that. He's already way smarter than me. I come home and find stuff like this on a regular basis. Little test tubes filled with who knows what. I don't even like to ask what may be in them. I'm constantly out of cornstarch because he makes experiments with it. He blew a fuse in his room last year because he wanted to try and make his own lightbulb and plug it into an outlet. I always sanitize my tweezers before using because I don't know what insects he's been inspecting with them. The internet history on our computer has interesting searches for things like inertia, surface tension, and nuclear fission. What the heck is this kid going to brew up? I don't know what most of that stuff even is, but I don't want to ask him because he might figure out he's smarter than his old mom. When he talks about sciencey type stuff, I just nod my head like I know what he' s talking about. I'm not sure where this kid got his brains, but I know at 13 I wasn't trying to make my own lava lamp, I was prank calling boys with my friend Mindy.