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.