15 YEARS..........and counting!

Fifteen years ago today, I came out of the Idaho Falls temple as Mrs. Jody Shumway. There was flowers blooming, and a little snow over the top of them. I feel like in the past 15 years we have had more of the flower moments together, than moments of trudging through snow. I truly have been blessed with........... The man of my dreams.................

The Father of my dreams......................

The larger than life, BFF of my dreams....

And the all out most amazing companion I could ever ask for!

Jody, thank you for the past 15 years, and I'm so excited to see what eternity with you still has to offer me! I LOVE YOU FOREVER you sexy hunk of a man!

Good Laugh!

Something that many of you may NOT know about these 2 adorable faces, is that they both seem to think they need BOYFRIENDS! This morning Jody and I were eating breakfast when Ali asked if I wanted to see what her boyfriend Kyler had given her.................. I said sure, and asked her why she was getting something. All we could think of was Easter. As she was showing me her set of 3 yummy skittle smelling chapstick and lipgloss, I asked Paige if she still had the same boyfriend. To my surprise, the answer was NO. She had a recent break-up, but it was short lived. Ali informed me that she has a NEW boyfriend Mark, and he's a 4th grader. (An older man) I asked her if he had given her anything, and she told us that he gives her love notes. (she was already giggling about something) I asked what he wrote, and her answer made us ALL (including Paige) laugh. Here are the words of a 4th grader in love.......................


Roses are Red, Violets are Blue, When we're apart, My heart beats for YOU!


Hope you had a as good of a chuckle from it as we did!

Break Break Your Heart

This is how I feel today! I'm afraid that what follows is the ramblings of an overwhelmed mother.

My 2 year old is dancing around me singing that she's only going to break break my heart. Oh how I hope that is not the case! Kids can sometimes be trying, and today I had to have (yet another) conversation with my teenager about being responsible for his school work. I CANNOT WAIT FOR 7TH GRADE TO BE OVER! We have this last quarter to make it through, and A LOT of things due. Kaden has to do a plant collection for Science, but this is not just a go get a few plants and tell what they are kind of collection........you have to lamenate each one, and get several different phases in the plants life. I really still don't know all the details, but I think Kaden is going to opt for the plant research paper this time. Who has time to go driving around looking for plants that I don't even know?

We are also in the midst of ISAT testing for all of the kids. They seem to be doing well, but Paige did inform me last night at about 5 to 8:00 that she needed to go to bed at 6:00 so she could be really ALERT for her tests......................hmmmm how do I fix that one? Story of my life......always behind!

Okay, done venting for awhile. I really do have things under control MOST of the time. I think this is just the time of year when I get that burnt out feeling and can't wait for summer to be here. I'm counting down the Mondays!

Oh what a Tuesday!

Yesterday was a very crazy day for us. Jody is out of town again, and so I was one driver down with 3 children to be in 3 different places, at just about the same time. I had to call in for back-up, and thank goodness for the BEST IN-LAWS ever! I asked Jancie on Sunday night if they would be willing to help me and she immediately got a notebook and pen, and asked what I needed them to do and when and where. Thank you grandpa and grandma for helping my crazy evening to go SO smooth. Now, Danica knowing that I had nothing to do yesterday decided to help herself to some "sugar". Problem is, it was flour, and it was in the recliner, and all over her. I cleaned up most of it before I thought about taking a picture, but she is proud none the less! How do you get upset with her when she has such PRIDE in her work? So, now for the Tuesday evening agenda! I was to have Ali to the high school in Preston for a dance performance by about 6:00, but she wouldn't actually perform until around 7:00. Tyce needed to be in Richmond, about 15 minutes away, at his first spring soccer game that started at 6:30, and Kaden needed to be at mutual in Riverdale, 10 minutes in the opposite direction of Preston than Richmond, for a service project, and to get an eagle project idea to start working on. We made a plan, which I am very good at doing.......ask Jody.........and away we went. I took Ali to the school and dropped her off with warnings of DO NOT LEAVE THE GYM, and STAY WITH SOMEONE YOU KNOW. Then Tyce and I went to his game. Janice met us there, because I was only able to watch the first 10 minutes, then had to get back to Ali's dance performance. This is Tyce getting warmed up for the big game. For some reason, they only have 5 kids on their team, and only the 3 boys showed up last night. The other team had 4, but only played 3. Does anyone want to tell me how you can truly play soccer with only 3 people?

Tyce is very good at soccer, and very fun to watch. I got to see him make 1 goal before I left, but he came home with 4 of their 5 or 6 goals (he can't remember which). There is however NO goalie in this league, so that helps too, but we were VERY proud of his goals! (Tyce is blue #14)

When I was just about to leave for Preston, Brad called Janice and told her that he had gotten Kaden to mutual. He had a meeting in town, so it worked out well, EXCEPT that Kaden got told he had to be there 30 minutes earlier than usual, so his wonderful grandpa left early for Kaden, and I'm sure ended up sitting in his car in town while he waited for his meeting. Thank you grandpa!

I made it to the high school about 4 dances before Ali performed. PHEW! She is doing ballroom this year, and has enjoyed it, but wants to go back to clogging next year. We are happy about that, because she' really good at clogging, BUT............

She was also VERY GOOD at ballroom. She did GREAT! She was swinging her hips, and moving her arms so pretty like. I have to admit, I was a very proud mom! (Ali is on the right)

Ali is the 2nd one from the right in this photo. She's twisting so cute, but doesn't it look like the girl behind her is doing bunny ears? Funny!

When Ali finished dancing, we watched several more dances waiting for Kaden to call and say he was ready for a ride. We finally picked him up on the way home just a little after 8:00, and happened to see Janice and Tyce on their way home as well. We never could have done it without our grandparent angels, and I sure love them for always keeping an eye on our family.

I also have to give lots of thanks to Paige who stayed home and tended Danica through the whole thing. She is absolutely the BEST babysitter, and Danica loves her. I would have been a basket case if I would have had to take Danica, so thanks to my sweet little Paige.

So, review of what we came away with yesterday, 1 flour mess cleaned up, 4 soccer goals, 1 ballroom dance done, and make-up still on her face to prove it, 1 service project, 1 eagle project idea, 3 angels that helped me, and 1 very tired but VERY BLESSED mom!

Daddy Daughter Date

Last Friday Ali and Paige had a Daddy Daughter Night planned. They were very excited to find out that Jody did NOT have school, and would be able to go, BUT with all the games they had planned they EACH needed their OWN DAD! Their leaders suggested that they might ask an uncle or grandpa to be a Dad for the night. Paige was quite excited about this suggestion, and came home begging to ask UNCLE MATT! Of course Matt being the GREAT uncle that he is agreed to go. Here is the Dad's and the Daughters...dressed up in their basketball outfits for the matching part of the night! This was my favorite picture of the night. My 2 cute girls just having a good time! Paige thought she was pretty sneaky.

Here's a picture of the dad's and daughters playing TWISTER! We are proud to announce that Ali was tied for first with our Bishop (who also had a daughter in attendance). Way To Go Ali!

All in all, this was a fun night for all, and I'm sure glad for these kind of opportunities for our kids.

In other news....We are on Spring Break this week, and Jody is in Philly, so it's me and the kids. We spent Sunday at my mom and dad's, and then Monday with Natalie, and we took the kids to see Tangled. It was as good as everyone has been saying, and we all had a great time. Now we are just home entertaining one another, and enjoying a week of NO HOMEWORK!

Thanks to her sweet cousin Laiklie, Danica now owns a pair of "tappy shoes"! She LOVES them! We go everywhere in our tappy shoes, including the Chiropractor, and grocery store. In this picture, she had just had a bath, and she went straight back to wearing the shoes, funny thing is, she doesn't use them on the wood floor much, just likes to walk around in them. SILLY girl!

This next picture is another project we have been working on...Paige's Science Fair. She decided to do Fingerprints, and everyone got to be involved. We loved seeing the similarities, and differences in the prints. We needed to get Jody's fingerprints, and he was taking a Sunday nap, so we printed him while he was sleeping, and giggled about it when he asked us later if we fingerprinted him in his sleep!

Paige has also been working very hard on her times tables, and we think has finally passed the BIG MONSTER TEST that Preston gives the 3rd graders. We're waiting for it to get corrected to see if she got them all right! Way to go Paige!

Kaden has been playing well at his ball games, but we still haven't pulled off a win. They start Tournaments on Tuesday, and it's single elimination, so win or go home I guess. I won't get to see the game this time, because Ali is doing her "Congressional Hearing" that night. When you're in 5th grade, you write a We the People speech, on some topic, then they have judges come and ask you questions, all in front of your parents. She's not looking forward to it, but I don't think any 5th graders are.

Tyce gave us all a laugh at the Dinner table yesterday. We were talking about how our neighbors get their milk right from the tank after they milk their cows. Ali commented that she thought it was SO GROSS to touch that thing and get milk out of it. Tyce said, "What is that thing called again...is it tenticles?" We all laughed as Jody went ahead and explained the proper words for that part of a cow. Fun dinner conversation!

Now, for my good news...we finally have upgraded, and have satellite internet! It took me less than 2 minutes to post these 2 pictures, and it use to take me at least 20. Hooray! I also love that we can use the phone now when we're on the internet. I always hated that part of dial-up.

Jody and I are staying very busy, but Jody is about to get busier (if that is at all possible). Starting next week, he will be going to Philly to an education thing for work, but he goes for 4 days, then comes home to go to school here on the weekend, and then back again for another 4 days. He will get a week break, and then in May, he will get to go to Jersey to finish it all up. He served his mission in Jersey, so I know he's excited to go. I only wish I could go with him. One thing is for sure, he will be sick of school by the time he's done! Good Luck to you sweet stuff!

Relief Society, and children keep me busy, but I love them both, so no complaints.

Life at the Shumway's

Paige turned 9 at the end of February. I can't believe my beautiful girl that we almost had in the car is 9! She chose to have a homemade chocolate pie for her cake. I think I did a pretty good job for my first time. Paige had a great birthday full of lots of cute clothes and dinner with mom and dad at El Toro Viejo, yummy Mexican food. Happy Birthday babe, love you lots!

Also, I didn't pay attention to the mail all over the counter behind Paige before I posted this picture, so please ignore the mess!

This is Danica learning about puberty! I walked into the living room the other day to see her reading Ali's book she got at school all about puberty. I giggled to myself, and then called and shared the funny with my sister as well. So silly!

Kaden just got awarded his Life at a court of honor last Sunday. We're really happy with his hard work, and with some more of it, we are hoping to have his Eagle down this summer, or at least by November when his 6 month waiting period is over. Right now Kaden has been working night and day to catch up on some Science work that he hasn't finished. The end of the quarter is next week, so we are all a little stressed about all the work still to be done. How do you make a teenager understand the importance of good grades?

A funny from Tyce this week...He asked me what shape a bumb was, and then said, "Is it like 2 ovals that are stuck together?" With a little giggle, I said yes and then told him to talk nice! Isn't that what a mother should say?

Ali is very excited today, because her little friend that has been so so sick gets to try to go to school for a little while today. She sure has missed her, and talked last night about being her bodyguard so nothing would hurt her. Ali does have the build to be a bodyguard...right?

Kaden is doing 2 a week games now, and playing well. Jody has had a little break from school, but now has to start another class. He's holding up well. I for some reason am having a little shingle pain back that causing me some headaches, but I think all in all we're hanging in there, and are glad for the weekend to come.