Nothing but FUN!

Towards the end of July we had sooo much fun when we got the chance to have Linda come for several days. We went to Lava Hot Springs and had a great time, we had great dinners, ice cream, and lots of visiting. We loved having her come stay with us, and you can tell that from the looks on my kids faces! Next up for FUN was the Preston Rodeo, carnival, and Parade. We had a great time going to them all, but we did get poured on during the rodeo. It passed by quickly, and the kids refused to go home, so we toughed it out like true cowboys, and had a great time.

To end the summer FUN with a BANG, we have decided to take the trip to San Diego that we've been talking about doing for several summers. We are leaving this Saturday, and coming home Wednesday night after wearing ourselves out from the Zoo, the Wild Animal Park, Disneyland, and many parks, restaurants, and maybe even a trip to the beach. (It's been so cold in San Diego this year, so getting in the water is not an option, besides the big black poisonous jelly fish they all the sudden have as well.) Never the less, my children want to LOOK at the ocean. It's so neat to them, and me too. Anyway, it won't be many days after we get home that the kids will be sitting in a classroom for another year of routine and structure. Now, doesn't that sound FUN too!

More Summer FUN

I'm going to start this post where I ended the last time. Kaden and I took our trip to the Summer Games in Cedar City for Basketball. We had a really good time minus a few mishaps with motel rooms. His team played really well, and beat teams from all over the Salt Lake area, as well as a team from Las Vegas. Long story short, we ended up winning the bronze medal in our division. We were very excited. Our little country hick team did Great! I was very excited to see this be the end result of a long, but good, season. Great job Kaden.

I don't know what happened to this next picture, but what it's suppose to show is the kids with their new black kitty. They got it yesterday from their cousins, and have hardly left it alone since then. They are calling it fluffy, mostly because that's what Danica calls it. Hopefully the kitten will do well as an outside kitten, because it has been use to being indoors. That is not allowed at this house.

We have many other things that we have enjoyed in the last few weeks as well. Kaden got to go with his cousin to another scout camp, and was able to get 5 more completed merit badges, so now we just need to work on the unfinished ones. We have enjoyed 2 Reunions, one with my family, and one with the Shumways. Both were lots of fun. I loved getting to see my new neice be blessed. She is so beautiful. It's Cody and Jessica's 3rd little girl, and she looks just like the other two. A few weeks ago we got the AC put in the house, and that has been lovely. I feel like I can bake in the summer time and don't have to worry about heating up the house.

Jody is going to go to Heber City to a golf tournament for work this weekend, so I'm going to take the kids and go see my parents. I'm excited to get a trip to Dubois again. Then over the 24th of July, Linda gets to come and spend a few days with us. We are really looking forward to seeing her, and spending some time with her. After that, it will be the big Preston Rodeo. It's always a good time if anyone wants to come! The one thing about rodeo is that when it's over, it's kind of like the countdown to school has begun. I cannot believe how quickly it goes. Summer will be over before we know it. I think we have decided to do a NO dance year. Neither of the girls were too excited about it, so we're going to take a break and get use to the new 4 day week schedule. It might be nice to take a break, I just hope they decide to go back eventually. I love watching them dance. I guess that's it! Until next time....

Catching Up

I have tried sooo many times to get on here and get this all done, but it just never seems to work out. We're going to start off by going WAY back to the end of May. Ali had her dance recital, and did such an amazing job. We LOVE to watch her clog, and she's soooo good at it, but I don't know if I'm going to be able to convince her to do it another year or not. She doesn't think it's her favorite, and would like to try ballroom. I will keep you all updated on what the decision is. If you will notice the long beautiful curls in the clogging picture, we are going to use that as a before picture for her big haircut. Ali cut off 11 or more inches just after school got out. She had been wanting to do it for awhile, so we let her do it. She donated the pony tail to Locks-of-Love. We were very proud of her for that. She looks very grown-up and adorable in her new hair-do, and she has been enjoying the new look. As for me, I didn't cry, and I think she looks GREAT, but I sure did Love that long hair too!

Our June has kept us busy running. Kaden had a basketball camp here in Preston, then he ventured to Scout camp the same day that Ali left for 4-H camp. Both had a good time. We enjoyed a visit from Natalie and her children one weekend, and Oh she's a go getter. She helped me accomplish more in 2 days than I've done on my own in 6 months. We cut out some vinyl for Ali's wall, and also some sayings for some walls upstairs. We did a bunch of Strawberry freezer Jam that is So Yummy, and put together some of my new bedroom set, along with several very interesting fixer upper jobs too. I won't list everything we did, but I do want to tell her that I think she's wonderful, and thanks a ton.

Kaden and I just got back from a trip to Cedar City Utah, and we had a great time. I'm going to blog the details of the trip next time, because I still need to get the pictures off my camera. We have now slowed down a bit, and are looking forward to the Jacobson family vacation over the 4th of July, and also the Sumway reunion the following week. We hope to enjoy Bear Lake at least once this summer, and maybe some swimming too.

I have been taking a little me time to walk in the morning with one or more friends, and feel like it's a little therapy session every morning. Jody is as busy as usual with School, Farm, Work, and Young Mens. He has 2 weekends off from shcool now, so hopefully he can help catch up on some farm work so they won't be behind all summer.

I did forget to mention that Danica is Potty Trained (mostly) and we are Very Happy about that. She's done such a good job, she my youngest to potty train, but maybe my easiest as well. Yeah for me!

I guess that is a good enough catch up for now, I hope it won't take me this long to post again. It's way too hard to try to remember everything.

All the going ons...

We decided to start doing Bountiful Baskets, and are very excited about it. We got our first basket last Saturday, and the kids were very happy to see lots of things that looked good to them. We have been going through snacks SO Fast lately, that I thought maybe this would help all of us to snack on healthier foods. It's also more cost friendly than buying a whole box of fruit snacks for each child every 2 hours! (Sad thing is, I'm NOT even joking that they could eat that much). We also just attended Tyce's Preschool Graduation on Wednesday evening. He did not participate in singing about the first 4 or 5 songs, but I finally quietly convinced him (from the audience) to sing. He did great! He worked really hard in preschool, and did over 200 Name Papers. You have to write your name 8 times on each page. He along with his 2 best buddies, won a slip-n-slide for turning in the most name papers! GREAT JOB DUDE!Ali has been going to a neighbors house on Wednesday evening to learn to ride her ponies. She LOVES LOVES LOVES horses, and ponies are more her size, so she's much less nervous on them. She's been twice, and talks about it constantly. She goes with her friend, and that makes it even better. She loves to trot the pony, who's name is Ollie. I can't wipe the smile off her face for hours after she's done. I am glad she's doing this. She's also looking forward to 4-H camp in June.

My news is NOT so great. I went to the doctor yesterday because I had such weird itchy spots on the left side of my face, and my left jaw was hurting and had some swolen glands or something. The doctor said I have SHINGLES. He also said he thought it would get worse before it got better. I woke up this morning with at least one more itchy friend. We have to watch it close he said, because it's aroung my eye. If it gets in it, I'm suppose to call. I'm not really excited about shingles, but even less so that they're on my face. I'm trying SO HARD not to scratch, because I don't want scars all over my face. Anyway, that's enough of Woe is Me!

Jody is working like crazy. He made it home from his study group at 2:00am this morning trying to finish their homework for tonight. They may have to stay after class tonight as well so they can finish their assignment for tomorrow mornings class. He hasn't complained a bit. He's sure been a good sport.

Danica is working on potty training. She has had some success, but we are just starting. I hope it doesn't take us all summer to get her going well! Kaden is finishing up his last big project for the year today, and we are so happy about that. We are counting down the days, and I'm so glad that we're close!!!

Hurray! Paige.

Paige had her Cheer Recital last Friday night, and did such a good job. Ali and I went to watch her, and left Kaden home with Tyce and Danica. Jody had school, and wasn't able to come with us, but he did get to see her dances earlier in the year. I was however, going to record the recital so he could watch it at home. On her first dance I had Ali take the still shots and I recorded the whole thing. When I pushed the button to stop recording, I noticed the little light come on the says REC. My heart sank into my stomach when I realized I forgot to press record and had actually missed the whole dance. I now unfortunately do not have that dance recorded at all. Oh well. Paige was quick to forgive me, and I did get the second dance.



This pose is the ending of her 2nd dance, and on the last beat of the music all the girls slide to their stomachs and it looks like to pyramid collapses. It's very neat and you can tell by the smile on the girls faces, that they all anticipate this moment as well. Great Job Paige! You are quite a good little dancer!

Happily Ever After

I have tried several times to get on and update my blog, but something always happens to stop me. We've started the last week of cheer, basketball is now just once a week but not mandatory, and so we will only have clogging and preschool left in May. Things are looking slower all the time.

This is a picture of my not so little anymore baby. We put curlers in her hair the other day, so I took her outside and snapped a few pictures. She absolutely does not hold still, so a lot of the pictures I got are her looking down. She's such a sassy little cutie, and we sure love her to death. She talks up a storm now, and can usually tell us what she needs. Funny story, yesterday after church she was sitting by me on a couch in the church hallway. An elderly gentleman was standing near us using the phone and Danica started to yell "MY BUTT, MY BUTT" I had no idea why she was saying it, and was trying to quiet her when Tyce said "No, My spot" Of course by the time we figured out she was saying my spot, the gentleman had already left. I'm posting this next picture because today is our 14th anniversary, and the most recent pictures I have of the two of us together are Mexico 2008. It's very sad that that's the case, and I hope to change that this summer.

Jody is so definately the love of my life. I can't believe how much he sacrifices to make sure his family is provided for and happy. He makes me laugh everyday and some days that's not easy to do. I looked at some of our wedding pictures this morning, and both of us have changed in many ways, but I can truly say that I love him more now than I did then. You just know so much more about each other, and go through so many things together, how can you help but love them more as time goes by. Happy Anniversary to us, and I hope there will be a whole lot more of them in our future!

Me and MY HAPPILY EVER AFTER!

Busy Time of Year!

April and May always end up being a pretty busy time of year for everyone I imagine. We have dance recitals, performances, and competitions. Basketball tournaments, preschool graduation, and of course all the homework that comes with trying to finish the school year. I guess if nothing else, these two months really make me ready for the summer break!

Kaden's basketball time had a tournament in American Falls last Fri. and Sat. Their team won the championship for the 6th grade, and better yet, were UNDEFEATED! We were all very happy for them. We did have one close call game with Burley. We won that one in overtime, but we had to play them again for the championship, and just beat them that time. One more Kaden surprise, HE GOT HIS HAIR CUT! He looks so good. He also is looking more and more grown up. It's all a little crazy for me. (I do have pictures of before and after with his haircut, but they are still on my camera).

Ali and Paige did SOOOO much babysitting for me over Spring Break because of basketball games. They did such a good job, and I was so proud of how they took care of their brother and sister. They did start their week off by having cousins come and stay over night, and they really loved that. It was fun to get a chance to have Natalie's kids here for a visit. Tonight both the girls are dancing in a competition that Preston has every year. I'm glad they are both doing it this year, because Jody's not going to be able to go to their recitals because of school, so this gives him an oppurtunity to see them both do their dances.

Tyce and Danica enjoyed having the kids home all week last week, and are still getting use to only having each other to play with again. They sometimes get along really well, and then sometimes Tyce thinks she's invading his space. Danica also went to nursery for the first time a couple weeks ago. It was not her favorite thing to do. I heard her crying several times, but she made it through the whole time. Unfortunately, it was some subs, so she will have to try it all again with new teachers next time.

Jody has been running nonstop like usual. He's got so much to do and amazes me at how he just seems to keep up. The class he's doing right now for school is much more time consuming than the last one. He's in a study group several nights a week doing homework, and then has classes on the weekend. Last night he didn't even get home until 12:30, just to turn around and do it all again today. I sure love him for all his hard work at everything he does. Just to add to his list of things to do, they also just put him in as the Deacon's Quorm advisor. We are excited that he gets to be with Kaden, but it is just one more thing to do! Hang in there Jo, you doing GREAT!

Well, I am going to try to go to Logan for a coupon run. Hopefully I can get the ward party pictures off my camera so that I can post pictures next time.