Turkey or MMMMmmmm Ham

Here is a Turkey story Chandler had to write for school. November 2010

Ham, ham, ham, humans love ham. Ham is delicious. Aww fine, I'm a turkey who HATES ham, but people LOVE ham. Oh, you think I'm tasty, well, I'M NOT! I'm absolutely disgusting. You would NOT want to eat me. You know Wilbur, from Charlottes' Web? Well, he was meant to be Thanksgiving dinner!

Ham is delicious, Ham is delicious, turkey is disgusting, but ham is delicious. Sorry, I felt like singing. Ham is good with stufing and potatoes, so is beef. They taste better than me. Most of the turkey meat comes from my BEHIND!! Look at that delicious slab of ham. Now look at that disgusting, salty, and runny turkey. Disgusting aren't I right? Surely you would like ham for Thanksgiving or you'll soon be in the emergency room.





Too late for us! We had turkey...although I do LOVE ham! Hope you all had a Happy Thanksgiving!

I'm a workin'!

Today I started my new job. It has brought back a lot of sweet memories....and makes me miss those wee baby stages. I am babysitting for a family who lives on my street. A sweet little 2 month old baby boy. I got to change a diaper today......been a VERY long time since I did that. I got to rock and feed him. Get him dressed....and then try to juggle a very curious 4 year old, who I might add is used to being the queen bee. I could tell she was a little frustrated when I was warming a bottle for baby and she REALLY wanted scissors, glue and paper. She of course was forced to wait....not very happily I might add! It should be a fun adventure for all of us!

Pirates.....(I went a little crazy with posts today.....keep on goin!)

She knows the drill for the pictures, but it kept making my laugh because she kept saying, "Cheese" and you can't even see her face except her one little eye. She of course decorated this all by herself. If you look closely you can see all of her little "Peace" signs she drew herself.

Today was pirate story time at the library. I let Brinley pick out a bandana at JoAnn's a couple of weeks ago and she chose the "peace" one. So, I coined her the "Peaceful Pirate." (Thanks to Addie I have my 4 year old decorating everything with peace signs) We went with my favorite neighbor and partner in crime and her cute little kids. Brinley's best bud is her son, Noah!

(This is a side story, but last week I caught both of them peeing outside together under a tree......Gross!!)

Brinley's First Day of School!!

Here's her little preschool group. She is the only one who is pre-k the others are only 3!

I am pretty sure that I bought happy meals for each of my kids after their 1st day of preschool....so I HAD to carry on the tradition for Brinley...plus I really needed a diet coke after all those kids running through my house!! :)

I've postponed as long as I can preschool for Brinley because I just can't stand the idea of being home alone! I'm not quite sure what to do with myself!! I am doing a co-op preschool with a couple of friends from church and in our neighborhood. I taught last week, their first week...so we'll see what this week brings for Brinley. Hopefully she'll still be as happy as she is at home. She sure has some issues with being away from me!! I guess I know who to blame for that one.....ME!!

Soccer

Here's some pictures I've taken of Chandler this season playing soccer for the middle school team that Derek is coaching! I am not much of a photographer....but you get the idea....Chandler is number 4 on the maroon team. They are called the KQA Trailblazers.

Labor Day

We spent Labor Day with some good friends of ours...the Parks Family! We've been friends for I think almost 9 years now....They moved 2 years ago to Kansas City, KS and recently moved back to Ft. Collins, CO. We've missed them!! We decided to take our families up Poudre Canyon. It was a beautiful view, although we didn't last too long because it was sooooo windy and cold! I thought if we all wore jeans and sweatshirts we would be plenty warm considering the day before it was 97.....I thought wrong.....:)

11 Already??

He is now a boy scout!! We are officially done with cubs after this months pack meeting! Chandler will be receiving his arrow of light. I think that is the highest rank they can earn in cub scouts. He's worked very hard to get that!!

There's 11 there I promise you!!

Birthday Boy!!

Well, Chandler is officially 11. I can't believe how quickly time flies! He started the day off with pumpkin pancakes. Had a delicious school lunch....and brought pumpkin muffins to share with his class. Brinley and I whipped him up a pumpkin cake with creamcheese icing. (Are you all sensing a theme here??? HE LOVES PUMPKIN!!) He had a great day at school and at soccer practice. We took him to Cici's for dinner and he ate 11 plates of food. We got a little creative at the end and counted his cup, fork and spoon. That's a lot of food for ANYBODY!! On Sunday the 5th he got his beloved pumpkin pie...whipped up by Grandma!! She made him turkey, irish potatoes and bisquits. All his requests.....He is such a funny kid. We love you Chandler! Happy 11th Birthday!! XOXO

Twinkies

Addie and our neighbor, Avery, have driven her mom and me crazy over their obsession with everything "peace." This is what they had all planned out to wear on their 2nd day of school. Addie had this written on her white board in her room.

1. Guitar earrings

2. Blank caprees (that is how she spelled it)

3. Cool purple "Peace" shirts

4. Twinkle toes (her shoes)

5. 2 pig tails with bangs hanging in front.....

6. Peace bracelets

My aren't they adorable? Crazy little "Peace BFF's!!"

Woohoo!!

Addie and her "Peace BFF" Avery and then Chandler right behind them.

Chandler, Avery, Addie and Sydnee

My big 5th grader and 3rd grader!!

Take notice of his shoes. He's very proud of his DC's he's BEGGED for!! I don't know where he gets his shoe fetish?? :)

All ready for 3rd grade!

Well, we officially survived the first week of school. Our lives our now crazier than ever! I can tell I'm going to miss those lazy days of summer. Although my house is looking a little cleaner......:) The kids are involved in way too many things it seems now! I've been picking them up from school so Chandler can make it to soccer practice. He is playing on the middle school soccer team for my favorite coach....Derek! So....let's see we are busy with soccer, music, did I say soccer?, cub scouts, soccer, piano, soccer, after school band, soccer, hopefully student council for both Chandler and Addie (they still need to be elected), and finally did I already mention soccer? Chandler and Addie both loved being back in school. I can't believe that Chandler had his last 1st day of elementary school. I kept my emotions in check until I realized that his next 1st day of school would be middle school! I know I say this all the time, but they sure grow up quickly! I will have a deacon on my hands about this time next year! Ahhh!! Oh, and I guess I should also mention that I'm officially out of Primary! I think there have only been about 8 months since Derek and I got married that I haven't served in Primary. I will be teaching RS instead (so super scary for me!!!) I am so sad to not teach my little class but very relieved to be done with cubs!! :) Derek also got called to serve in YM as a deacon's advisor. As if he wasn't busy enough?!! The best part about that is that a year from now he'll have Chandler in there with him. There are a LOT of deacons coming up starting in January. 13 to be exact. Oh...the fun he will have!!

Finally!

Thanks to my sister in law Shay, I finally have some pictures of my kiddos in the sunflowers! I have wanted to do this for YEARS because we have so many beautiful sunflower fields near us. They only bloom in early August so their timing to come visit us was perfect! We had so much fun! Thanks Shay!!

It's time!!

School will start on August 18th for Chandler and Addie. To be honest, I have dreaded having to send them back because I miss them! However after the past week, it will be nice to have them gone for a nice chunk of the day! I am sooooo tired of all of the fighting, whining, drama, feeding, cleaning and constantly trying to find things to entertain them!! I think they are both looking forward to more structure and being busy. Our lazy days of summer, I think we've all had our fill!! We met both of their teachers yesterday. I think their teachers will be great again. We got our shoe shopping done. The kids each have a couple of new shirts, some new jeans, new back packs and of course all of their school supplies. We are ready to go! Here's to a fabulous new school year!! Wahoo!!!! :)

Funny things

Here's a conversation I had this morning with Chandler and Addie on our way to swim team practice. (Note: We had watched the weather forecast this morning while eating breakfast)

Chandler: Mom, can we go swimming today later?
Me: Sure
Addie: Mom, I think there are going to be storms later.
Me: Where?
Addie: Denver
Me: Addie, the closest part of Denver is over an hour away from us. Even if there are storms there they probably won't affect us.
Addie: Mom, the storms were by the "e" and the "r" how close is that to us? (Get it? The "er" part of Denver on those weather maps)

Made me laugh.

Happy Birthday Derek!

Yesterday was Derek's 36th birthday. I hope he had a happy day. I did try to keep the "nagging" to a minimum! He started his birthday off throwing papers. When he came home he got Chandler and Addie and took them fishing up at Johnstown's reservoir. (It's the lake in our neighborhood). Addie caught a nasty catfish and Derek and Chandler were snubbed. :) Derek came home to freshly made raisin squares (ewwww!) that his mom would make for him when he was growing up. I only make them once a year on his birthday usually! You have to LOVE raisins to like these. He then took Chandler and a friend to Ft. Collins to watch the USA vs Ghana game. Sadly the US lost......When he returned home I talked him into a drive to Milliken to see Steam Engine 844 which was stopping there on its way to Cheyenne. It was the last steam engine manufactured in 1964 I think it was....Chandler has always told me that steam engines were is favorite so I thought it might be a fun, cheap family outing! Upon returning home, Derek said that he was exhausted and went to bed. I feel bad, we didn't sing, I didn't make him a fancy dinner or anything. He bought his birthday presents a few weeks ago for himself....a fancy soccer jersey and a t-shirt. I think we're getting old! Happy Birthday Derek! Thank you for all that you do for our family! We couldn't do it without you! Thank you for sacrificing all your sleep to throw papers way to early in the morning....we sure appreciate all the nice things we have! Thank you for taking us fishing, on bike rides, helping with homework, and all of the many, many other things you do! We Love you!! Love, Jill, Chandler, Addie & Brinley

I quit!

I sure get a kick out of some of the things my kids say. On Sunday during the closing song, Brinley starts to cry. (This is typical of most Sunday's for her). So I pull her onto my lap and ask her why she is crying. Her response is, " Mom, I want to quit Primary." Too funny! Especially since she is only a Sunbeam. She still has a lot of years until she can techinically "quit Primary!"

PS. This is a picture Brinley took of herself. I still don't know when she got a hold of the camera but I have about 40 pictures of random things and a few of her....here's one that I loved! :)

Happy Father's Day! CHEESE!

Lemondade Anyone?

We are definately into summer mode over here! Our mornings aren't lazy because Chandler and Addie are doing swim team, but our afternoons are another story! We've been spending them, playing games, watching movies, swimming, playing with friends....typical summer activities.

This week Addie decided she wanted to make some money so she roped her friend and our neighbor, Avery, into starting a business. The two of them have been setting up a lemonade/koolaid stand and have been quite profitable if you ask me. Yesterday they made about six dollars and some change. They split the money and begged to be taken to Target to spend their hard earned cash. With this money, they each purchased a lip gloss, a candy bar, and a whoopie cushion. Then on the way home they enjoyed making all of the noise they could and laughing hysterically. Silly, silly girls!!

Then today they set up once again. I think because my house sits on the corner of the street and down the main road leading into our neighborhood they have a pretty good advantage. I also think their sweet toothless grins and standing on the corner with HUGE signs makes people feel guilty to pass them by, because you CAN NOT not see them! Today they made $13 dollars in 2 hours. Not bad for a hard days work.


Today Chandler and his friends decided to give them some competition, so they set up their lemonade stand over by the swimming pool. They only made seven dollars. :)

I do have to say that I am impressed with the people who live in my neighborhood. Who have turned around and come back just to buy a slightly warm, watery paper cup full of lemonade. I also have to say that a large majority of their "customers" have been teenagers. And lastly I have to say Thank You to all of their customers who took pity on two little girls by stopping for a drink....you have all made them very happy, wealthy 7 and 8 year olds!!

(The dark haired girl with glasses is friend of mine, who I was watching today so she helped Addie and Avery with their stand. She told me she didn't think it would be worth it, but ended up walking away with 4 dollars and some change!)

P.S. If you happen to be in the area, stop by for a cup of lemonade it's only twenty five cents!

Salt anyone? (2 posts again today!)

Chandler loves to play video games. In fact he would do them all day and all night if I would let him! A lot of his friends have been out of town with the long weekend and school just getting out, so I've been trying to find things for him to do that don't involve driving something, jumping over or on something, or shooting something. So, yesterday I decided he needed to cook something. He's made a few things, like PB&J sandwiches, microwave popcorn, cheese quesadillas, a cake mix. Nothing too difficult and usually with assistance. I got really brave and decided to have him make cookies.

I remember making cookies a lot at his age, so I figured he could handle it. I had him read the recipe. Get out all of the ingredients and showed him how my mixer worked. He did really good until he got to salt. He got the amount of flour and salt mixed up. So....we had 2 cups of salt and only a teaspon of flour. Luckily I caught it before the chocolate chips went in! Wahoo...talk about a heart attack!! He started over and the end result was pretty good! I even had him bake them, take them out of the oven all of that all by himself. The girls and Daddy are gobbling up his cookies like crazy! I think I might like having an extra "chef" even if he spills a lot, drops eggs on the floor, and adds a "tad" too much salt.

Today he made banana bread.....so far so good.....!

Summer

School's out! My kids have been out of school now for a week and a half. It has been a nice change to our routine. Chandler and Addie both have taken advantage of being able to sleep in. Brinley usually gets up and comes running into my room and the first thing she asks is if Addie has to go to school. My reply of course has been no then she asks if Chandler has school, and then she says, "Yes!" Then runs down the hall to jump on Addie to tell her she doesn't have school. She definately misses them both when they are gone. It makes me laugh.

Things changed drastically for Chandler and Addie this morning. They both had to wake up at 6. They both had swim team practice at 7:30AM. Today was their swim assessment. I wasn't sure how well they would do, but they both did awesome! They then had to swim laps with the rest of the team afterwards. I forgot what a workout swim team can be....remembering back to YEARS of swim team when I lived in California. They probably did roughly 25 or so laps this morning. I thought for sure after they saw what swim team was like they'd both be begging to quit, but they both got out and said how much fun it was. I am glad that they enjoyed it as much as I always did. It's definately hard work, but well worth it in the end!

He's a winner!

Just a quick update on the science project. Chandler came in 1st place for a physical science project for the 4th grade. He came home with a gift card for $10 to the Shops at Promenade (outdoor mall by us). He has already spent the $ and all of his lawn mowing money on a new video game, Mario Galaxy. Somethings never change!! I suppose at least this time it wasn't a driving game....those have ALWAYS been his favorite!!

The sad part was that the school had an assembly to announce all of the winners and present them with their awards. That morning Chandler woke up and said he wasn't feeling good. This is a regular morning ritual I go through daily with Addie.....so it was a little unusual for him. I tried to be the mean, ol mom and told him that if he really felt like he needed to stay home, that he would be taking a nap, laying down, and taking it easy ALL day. I took Addie to the bus stop and when I arrived home he was throwing up. Luckily I let him stay home or that would have ended up all over the bus!! Yuck!! He's all better and busy playing his new game!

It's Only Fair! (2 posts in one day too!!)

I posted a story that Chandler wrote a couple of weeks ago, so it's only fair that I post one of Addie's. Addie amazes me with her ability to use her imagination. She is CONSTANTLY reading, drawing or writing her own books. Here is a story that I enjoyed.



I was on my bed reading one of my favorite books, "The Wizard of Oz." I was so interested in it I got sucked into it. I went outisde of Dorothy's house. But guess what... A tornado started! It didn't hurt me, but a message flew out of it. The note said, To find the next place to go, you need to play a 1 on 1 soccer game against a really famous soccer player. I've played lots of my friends before and I've beat them. So I pretended he was my friend. He was hard, but I beat him
20-19. It was a close game. He pointed toward a tree. There was a door to a room in the tree. It wanted me to go inside. I went in there. I saw a clue to get out because the door shut and I was locked in the tree. The note said to write 1 fact about each planet including the sun and Pluto. There was a microscope that let me see into space. I had all the supplies I needed. I got all the facts written down about each planet. I turned it in and a rainbow carpet took me home and I got a million books. It was the best thing ever!! By: Addie Age: 8 2nd grade



I love how her little mind works! A little insight into Addie. I love it and her! :)

Almost Done!

I can't believe another school year is nearly behind us! Chandler and Addie only have 9 1/2 more days left of school!! Then I'll have a 5th grader and a 3rd grader. What to do? I cannot believe that Chandler is in his last year of Elementary school. That scares me! AHH!! We just finished Chandler's science fair project and he is in the top 8. I guess we'll find out next week where he places.

Our soccer season is almost done too! Tomorrow is Chandler's last game and Addie has 1 more after tomorrow! It has been a fun busy season. I think Derek is ready to relax a bit more than he has been! He certainly deserves a little R&R!!

We also recently returned home from a wonderful visit to Arizona. Derek's sister had Trey sealed to their family. He is a sweet little guy that they have been able to adopt! I sat outside with all of the kids during the sealing. I enjoyed the quietness that even the temple grounds brings. It was a special day. Almost all of Derek's siblings were able to make it (we missed you Colin & Cori!). I loved the warmth of Arizona and the kids and I were very sad to leave. I am still constantly getting asked, "When can we move to Arizona?" I don't think my children realize that we wouldn't live at a hotel next to all of Derek's family....It was a lot of fun...and a much needed get a way for me!! Thanks Nana & Papa!!

While on the road home from Arizona, Derek and I celebrated our 13th wedding anniversary. Not especially romantic spending the night in Albuquerque, NM with 3 children. Or stopping every couple of hours at some nasty gas station to use the bathroom....but I guess that is us. Life is always an adventure! It's been a happy 13 years! Here's to many more!!

I can't think of anything else....we're just plugging along. Wishing Derek's job would give him a raise so he could quit the paper route....Or that we would win the lottery that we don't play.....that the laundry would magically wash, fold and put itself away....that we had self cleaning bathrooms and kitchens.....:) Like I said, our life is always an adventure!