Last weeks news!

I think things have actually slowed down a little bit for us for a minute anyway. Last week the biggest news was that Kaden got braces. I was going to hurry and get a picture of him to post, but I thought about it, and every picture he takes for possibly the next couple of years will have his braces in them, so why take one more?

Ali had a little clogging performance on Saturday and she did a great job. She went with me coupon shopping afterwards and we enjoyed the time together to talk about THINGS!!!

Now the beginning of this week is being consumed by a cub scout breakfast that I will not be here to help with, but still have to organize and get ready for. I am making a trip to Logan today to get supplies, so I'm planning to get all the stuff I need for our Jacobson reunion as well. WE ARE SO EXCITED TO SEE EVERYONE! Mom and dad have planned some fun things, and we are looking forward to it all.

Well, I best get moving. Before I can leave they are coming to do a test dig for the new house. I hope we get everything done and moving quickly. It seems like we keep running into road blocks. Hopefully that won't happen too often after the building starts!

Summer fun

Ali is home from 4-H camp. She had a great time until one of her ADULT leaders told them all a horrifying ghost story, and scared her so bad that she could not sleep the night she came home. At least the leader didn't tell them until the day they came home or she would have been too scared to sleep. It took her a long time to get over it, and I hope that soon the memory will fade so she will go again next year. She really did have a good time.

This was Paige's last softball game. She did a good job and seemed to enjoy it. She doesn't seem to be our biggest sportster, but she did want to play this year. She ended up with a good coach and learned a lot. She was a pretty good little hitter! Good job to Paige! So I mentioned in my last blog that I was headed to Dubois so Kaden could have a little fishing trip with Grandpa. When we got there we found out that it was rodeo weekend, so there was a scout breakfast, parade, and duck race.

This is Dallin, Tyce, and Rhett getting ready to watch the parade. It was lots of fun. They played at the park during the breakfast, and then got drug to a yardsale by there mothers. (which ended up being worth it for the bargains we got)

This is Kaden and Grandpa also ready for the parade. They had a good fishing trip. They did not camp out as the weather turned bad in the late evening on Friday, but Kaden caught some fish and had soooo much fun! Thanks to Grandpa for taking time to spend with him. He really had a good time.

While the boys were fishing, Natalie and I helped mom prime and paint one of the rooms in their new house in Dubois. They just closed on it a week ago, and are going to take there time fixing it all up the way they want it before they move in. It's going to be a project for them to paint it, but it will be worth it, and it's so much easier to do when the house is empty. We are soo excited for them.

Speaking of new houses, I finally feel like it's going to be a reality, so I can mention that we are going to build a house. It will be just over to the side of the one we are in right now. We should be able to start digging the hole very soon. I am SOOOO EXCITED! I will take pictures when we get started. HOORAY!

Sports, Sports, and more Sports!

So I'm sure all of you are asking yourselves where I've been. It's summer, things have finally slowed down right? WRONG! I have been running all over. We started with a week of basketball camp in Preston for Kaden. Followed by a week of basketball camp in Logan at USU for Kaden as well. After that he left for scout camp, and while he was gone Ali had softball tournaments. This morning I dropped Ali off and she is on her way to 4-H camp. Tyce is having a sleepover tonight, and then this weekend I am going to go home to Dubois so Kaden can go camping with my dad. We have also been to a ward camp out, and had other friends and sleepovers. I think June is flying by because of all the running, but we are having fun. FUN is what summer is all about anyway RIGHT!

So, this first picture is Kaden at the USU basketball camp. He did really well on the first day, so he a two of his buddies got bumped up to play with the 7th graders. (They moved the better of the 6th graders. I think they had lots of 6th and not as many 7th.) I thought I took a great picture here. I caught it just as he was going behind his back. What a good photographer.

Kaden's team was a good little team. They played a tournament at the end and Kaden's team beat the team that had never been beaten, and won the tournament. He got a T-shirt that says CAMP CHAMP. We were very proud of him. He also got an award for the most coachable player on the team. We were glad to hear this as well. We want him to listen and learn, and not be one of those kids that are sure they know it all! I'm sure you've all seen them!


This next picture is Ali at her softball tourn. on Saturday. The rain let up so they could play. It did sprinkle on us a few times, but we can't complain after all the rain this month. Ali lost her first game to the blue team, so then they had a break. (if you call running to the primary activity for awhile a break). Then she went back and played the pink team. We won, so we went up against the blue team again. This time WE won, so we had to play them AGAIN. WE WON which made her team the CHAMPS! She was very excited because now they get there picture in the paper. It was a long 9 hour day with 3 of the 4 games against the same team, but all worth it in the end. (I guess I forgot that she also played one game against purple on Friday night, and won that as well). It all runs together like a big blurr.

Well, I guess that's a brief catching up. I will have pictures of Paige playing softball next time. She has one last game to play that was canceled because of rain. After that I think the only other sports things this summer are Kaden's golfing, and soccer starts toward the end of the summer as well. I guess swimming lessons is sort of a sport too. Oh- well, it was a nice thought...

Oh...How we love clogging!

Ali's clogging recital was last Friday night. This is her 3rd year, and she is very good at it. We love her teacher. She comes up with some very cute coreography. We had to talk Ali into taking it again this year though. She's sure she wants to try ballroom dancing, which she may enjoy, but we can tell everytime she starts to clog how much she enjoys it just by the look on her face. So, we made it through this year and we'll see what next year brings. This is the picture of her costume for her dance to "A Dream is a Wish". It was a cute dance and she said she liked it the best out of the 2 she did this year. She'd kill me if she knew I was saying this, but look at how skinny she is. We had to stitch up the back of this skirt in two places, and she still had to pull the belt tight. It puckered up a little bit, but what can you do. It was already a smaller size than she usually wears!

This is the costume for "I Don't Dance" from High School Musical. I really liked this dance. The prop it a bat, and they did very cute things with it. She loved that she got to wear a hat as part of her costume too.

Well, that's about it for the recital. We sure thought she did a great job and are SO proud of her. As a side note, I thought I'd let everyone know that I also clogged at the recital in a ladies class. I love taking the class, but was not so thrilled about performing. It's over and I didn't mess up, so I guess I can't complain.

Well, pack meeting is tonight, so I better finish getting it ready, and my baby is sad so I guess it's enough for today.

Paige's Concert

Last week Paige's 1st grade class had a year end concert. It was filled with singing, dancing, acting, and narration. Jody was able to leave work for a little bit to come with me and see Paige perform. She was AWESOME! She danced with a boy named Mason who was quite a character. I thought she handled herself well by just grabbing on to him and pulling him along. Sometimes we women have to do that with men!

This is a picture of Paige's leading role as Little Bo Peep. She is obviously looking through her spy glasses to find them. What a sweetie she is! We really enjoyed her concert and are very proud of her.

Now, a little update on some happenings. Danica turned 8 months on Saturday, and for her birthday she got her 2nd tooth. She looks very cute with those two little things sticking up when she smiles. She also eats finger foods on her own, says mum as much as da da, and squinches up her nose at people she's not very familiar with, or just whenever she feels like it. We sure love watching her grow!

Tyce is as busy and full of questions as ever. He often says things that crack us up, but I'm so bad at remembering them all to share with everyone. He had the flu this weekend, but is now feeling better. I hope it doesn't go through all of us!

The three older kids headed out the door today for their last week of school. They will only have a half day on Thursday, then it's on to summer time fun.

Jody had a busy weekend. They worked cows and got many of them taken to their specified places for the summer. The kids LOVED being out with him on Saturday and Monday, especially because they got to ride the horses after they were finished working. Kaden has become quite a good rider. He goes with Jody to help and I was impressed with his riding SKILLS!

As for me, this is another busy week with softball practices and games to attend, coupon shopping to do, pack meeting to plan, prepare, buy awards for, and pull off, orthodontist appointments, laundry, dishes, cooking, toilets that MUST be scrubbed,..........You get the picture! Wish me luck, I'M OFF!

Shumway vacation to...Salt Lake City

We're traveling back in time again for this post, we just don't have to go quite so far back. For several months now, the Shumway family has been planning a trip to the Hogle Zoo in SLC. We all got our hotel reservations, (at a place with a pool so the kids could swim as well), then we just waited for the day to arrive. Our scheduled departure was May 15th, so you can imagine my excitement when on May 14th Jody said there was a possibility of him having to work on Saturday along with all the accounting dept. to finish up the annual budget. Well, I packed him hoping he would be able to some how pull it off, and about 10 minutes before 4:00pm he called to tell me he would not be able to go. A little heart broken, I tried pulling myself together because the kids were going to get home from school any minute. I called Jody's dad and asked if I could please follow them because I had no idea where the hotel was. Thankfully I was ready to go, because they were just about to leave, so the kids got home and off we went, all missing Jody from the start!

We got there and went straight to the pool. Danica did not enjoy her first swimming experience for several reasons. First, it was past bedtime and she was SO tired. Second, the pool was pretty chilly for her tiny little toes. Third, the echoing volume in the pool was SO loud you could hardly talk to your neighbor without yelling! We ended our swimming session a little before the pool closed, but I had had all I could take for one day!

The next day we headed for the zoo! It was a beautiful day and the kids all had a great time. This is Danica enjoying the zoo from her ride. She did GREAT, and I really needed that, so thank you baby girl!

Here are some of the older cousins. (I didn't get the youngest 4. ) We all had lots of fun, but I don't remember actually looking at too many animals myself, because being there without Jody, I was always looking for my kids counting 1..2..3..4 all day. I'm glad #5 just went wherever I pushed her. We rode on a small train, and also on the big carousel. I wore the kids out completely, and then headed home.

(Ali is in the brown shirt in the back left, Kaden is in the red shirt, Paige in the pink shirt, and Tyce in the blue stripes)

We got home some where around 6:30pm, and we still beat Jody home although they told him he would only have to work until noon. He worked at least 12 hours. Happy Vacation to him. Oh-well, we may just have to use that as an excuse to finally take the family vacation to Jackson Hole and Yellowstone that we wanted to do last year. Now all is said and done we had a WONDERFUL time, and thank you to all the Shumway family for your help!

Mother's Day Visit

I am SOOO far behind it is going to take me several blogs to catch up, unfortunately I can only make up one today because the last couple of weeks at the end of school are BUSY, BUSY, BUSY!
If you will now just travel back in time with me to Mother's Day weekend... We had a huge treat in that Jody's mom got to come stay the weekend with us, and we sure loved having her. We did a lot of sitting around and talking, and the kids did a lot of showing off. Linda brought gifts for everyone, and on Saturday night the kids all dressed up in their new shirts and we all went out to eat at our favorite local Mexican restaurant.

It was neat for Jody to have his mom here for mother's day, so he grilled up his favorite London Broil dinner after church for all of us. It was as FABULOUS as ever. Thanks Linda for coming to see us, it is always great to see you. We love you and really enjoyed having you here!