1st Grade!

First day of school.


Shaylee is my little artist. These are my two favorite pictures of hers. She actually drew the giraffe in Kindergarten which amazes me. She drew the goat last week.


Shaylee is a funny girl. I have a few stories to share about her that happened this summer:

FAVORITE SHAYLEE MOMENTS 2009:

1- When Grandma Lorna came to dinner one night, Aaron was playing his favorite game called "Guess What Movie This is From." Aaron was playing a song for his mom and told her to "guess what movie" and Shaylee said "Oh, don't make the old lady guess." Grandma laughed.

2- I took Shaylee to a wedding reception and after waiting in the line for a looong time, she decided to walk around. Later, she comes running up to me and says "Mom! I found a shortcut to the party......come on!"

3- My favorite- 2 weeks ago I was getting the kids ready for a primary water party. Frantic and running late....I admit I was a little bit of a grouch. Aaron says to the girls "Mommy is in a baaad mood. She must have woken up on the wrong side of the bed this morning!" Shaylee was quiet for a moment and then said "Maybe she fell out of bed.....hit her head......and her brain changed."

End of Summer

My cannas are finally sprouting flowers. It only took them 3 months to grow, but it was worth the wait. So yardwork is done for the summer. These flowers were the ONLY plants I planted this year since we spent the entire summer pulling weeds out of the backyard.






This is what they looked like before the flowers came up.


This entire space was covered in weeds that grew to be waste high. It took us 3 weeks to get them all out by hand! Then AC made this cute little pathway so we could get to the garden easily. Next year we will build a garden box to the left and grow some food! I want to cry knowing this will soon be covered in snow. Boo.

We also bought the kids a swingset complete with monkey bars, a slide, swings and a playhouse. They LOVE it. I love it. I'll post pictures after AC gets the roof put on it. We also spent another 3 weeks pulling weeds and clearing space to put the swingset.

Share a thought

I read this quote, and I loved it. It is important that I share it.....SOOO important:

"I don't want to drive up to the pearly gates in a shiny sports car, wearing beautifully tailored clothes, my hair coiffed, and with long, perfectly manicured fingernails. I want to drive up in a station wagon that has mud on the wheels from taking kids to scout camp. I want to be there with grass stains on my shoes from mowing sister Schenck's lawn. i want to be there with a smudge of peanut butter on my shirt from making sandwiches for a sick neighbor's children. I want to be there with a little dirt under my fingernails from helping to weed someone's garden. I want to be there with children's sticky kisses on my cheeks and tears of a friend on my shoulder. I want the Lord to know I was really here and that I really lived."
-Marjorie Pay Hinckley

Family Pics

Mischief

Tyler turned 1 on July 8. We had Grandma and Grandpa over for cake and ice cream on Sunday. I posted this video of Tyler and his sisters to show what kind of mischief they like to get into. If you have audio on your computer, listen to the music along with the video. I had fun making it.

BUGS

I got this idea from a website kmkaydesigns.com. We made these cute bug cans with the kids and then they went outside in the backyard to find bugs!



The butterflies were the hardest to catch - obviously - but Uncle Doug caught three of them! Unfortunately, the next morning our cat ate one of them.





Shaylee desperate to find a ladybug.



Kaleb the master! He caught a dragonfly with his bare hands. He also found the only ladybug in the yard. We found numerous potato bugs, 1 ladybug, 3 butterflies, 2 dragonflies, and a weird green unidentified bug.

Swimming lessons for the kids. And a lot of fun for mom! I enjoyed relaxing in the sun while someone else watched my kids.

Shaylee learning front float.

And here is Tyler in the cheering section.

America's Funniest Home Videos

Disney Train

We went to see the Disney Train at the Union Station in Ogden. We waited in line for 3 hours. Yikes! There was a museum inside the train from the "Christmas Carol" movie. Here is our little adventure....



Shaylee, Kelcie, Kate and Ty. After an hour in line, we came upon the 2 hour mark. I thought they were exaggerating. They weren't.



Whatever the deal is with these pictures coming up sideways. And they don't let you fix them after 20 minutes of uploading. They don't let you delete them either so now we have to look at them sideways.


They had Christmas Carolers singing to people in line.


AC loves waiting in lines. He's a good sport.







These are actual handwritten pages by Charles Dickens. Again....sideways!


They had computers that morphed your face into the characters. Here is AC Scrooge.



Shaylee as Tiny Tim.


Three hours in line.....I took A LOT of pics.

School is out!

Shaylee's soccer team
Good bye Mrs. Pickett, we'll both miss you.

Shaylee's kindergarten graduation.

Just another Sunday afternoon.

6 years old!

Shay's kindergarten class went to the zoo on her birthday and all the kids sang to her on the bus.

We had a barbeque at Grandma Lorna's house and played games inside because it's always too cold to go outside!
Oh Hannah! Thanks to Grandma Sheryn, Shaylee loves her Hannah Montanna dressups.

Funny things Shaylee says:

* last year on the 4th of July I gave her a red, white, and blue popcycle and told her if she ate the red, white, and blue she would turn into an American. After she ate it she asked if she was turning colors....then she started crying and said "I don't want to be an American!"
* about two years ago we were running late for a baptism....waiting for dad to get his shoes on....when Aaron finally got in the car, Shaylee says "Mom, are you gonna kill my dad?" Whoops.
* In the car, on the way to the diabetes expo, Shaylee told Grandma Sheryn "I have an uncle that's disobedient." What? She got frustrated when we didn't understand....turns out she was trying to say "diabetic." Uncle Ryan is also diabetic.
* I love when she says "mom, I'm sirsty."
* when Kate first started playing with Shaylee, Kate hit her on the head with a toy. I overheard Shaylee say "Kate! When you grow up, you're gonna have to say sorry!"
* sometimes when I make a mistake I say "Yikesabee!" Then Shaylee always says....."where is the bee?"
* Shaylee loves my clothes and she always asks me "Mom, can I borrow that shirt when I grow up?"
* Every morning when the kids wake me up, Shaylee always says "mom, will you get up? and don't say 5 more minutes!"

Shaylee is a tough little girl. She has had some traumatic experiences in her short six years; last summer when Kate dropped a cast iron piggy bank ( a brick ) on Shay's toe and sliced it in half. a trip to the emergency room to stitch her toe back together. About six months ago when she started throwing up and we found keytones in her system. another trip to the emergency room to get an I.V. and fluids. Two months ago when one of her warts got infected on her leg. a trip to the doctor's office to cut her leg with an exacto knife and drain the infection out. Shaylee now checks her own blood sugar five times a day and NEVER complains when she gets 5-6 shots a day! She's a special little girl and we love her to pieces!