School's Out For Summer...

Yeah!! School is out for the summer!! Although every year the summer seems to shrink by a day or two. What's up with that??? Before you know it the kids will be going year round. :( The kids were excited to be done with homework and classwork, but they are all pretty bummed about not getting to see their friends for the next 2 months. Oh well, they will be back before they know it! I got to go to all of the 3 younger kids class parties and that was fun. Plus it rained on us when we were done so that made it even more fun!! Here are some pictures from the day --

Here is Jensen at her class party getting her award. All of the kids got an award for something special about them or something special that they did. Her award was for making learning fun because she was always so excited about new papers that they did in class and she always tried to get everyone else excited about learning something new. Ya, that sounds like her! :)


She was so excited about it that she ran off cheering before I could get another picture! :P


Here she is with her teacher, Mrs. Martinez. She sure is a great teacher! She makes things so fun for the kids. She taught them a little morning song that they would sing every morning when saying the pledge and having a moment of silence. It has actions and everything, I guess I should get her to do it some time so I can film it. It's something along the lines of -- Good morning birds, Good morning sun, Good morning flowers and trees each one, Good morning ?????, Good morning to you and Good morning to me. Yeah, I really need to ask Jensen about it! Jillen had Mrs. Martinez for 2nd grade so we were super glad that Jensen got her this year!



Here is Jayden and his teacher, Ms. Swartz. Boy, I can't say enough good things about her!! She was really a blessing for Jayden this year. He struggled so much last year in 1st grade, they really wanted to keep him back in 1st grade again this year, but once we got his ADHD diagnosed and got him started on some medication things seemed to straighten out a little bit. Ms. Swartz was always so patient with him and always encouraged him to do his best. He really enjoyed having her as a teacher! I got to help out in his classroom a few times each month (well, I helped in all the kids classes) and I was really impressed with how positive she was, even when the kids were not being their cutest selves. :P She really helped Jayden with his handwriting and he really started improving once they started cursive in January. As a result he got the Best Penmanship award for his class! He was so excited!! We will forever be grateful to her for all of her hard work and dedication!
<-- Notice the army suit from Uncle Beau! Seriously, he never wants to take it off!! :D At least it was cold and rainy all day so he didn't sweat to death or look too out of place wearing his jacket! :P


Jillen always loves her teachers, and this year was no exception. She was a little worried at the beginning of the year because 4th grade is a little stricker than 3rd but she did great! And she quickly became a favorite of her teacher. Mrs. Nicol told me that she could always count on Jillen to have a good answer or to work hard on her classwork. She said lots of good things about her which made me happy since I'm her mom. I guess I must be doing something right since other people think she is such a sweet, helpful girl. Jillen and I will both miss her next year!! I always looked forward to helping in her class because Mrs. Nicol was so much fun to talk to! :D Jillen made the Principal's List and had straight A's again this grading period. She was sure excited!!



And of course, Jillen is our little social butterfly. Here she is with a few of her best friends --

Jillen and Hannah


Jillen and Kaylin


Jillen and Maddie


And Jorden did great with his school stuff too. He won't get his grades for a few more weeks but according to his weekly planner he has pretty close to straight A's again, if not all A's. And he said that he made the Honor Roll again. I asked him if they give out certificates or anything and he said yes, that he had thrown away a couple of them! :o I guess we should be getting one in the mail for this semester and he thought he had another one in his folder, so I should be getting that. Silly Boy!! He got to go out with his friends for the first time last night too! I think I saw him for a total of about 15 minutes all day! As soon as he got home from school his friends came and picked him up and they went to buy tickets to the Indiana Jones movie. Then they all went and hung out at one of his friends houses and had dinner and stuff. He had a really good time! I think he was surprised that I let him go, especially since he didn't get home until almost midnight! But I know all the families and all of his friends are in his Deacon's Quorum at church so I figured it was pretty safe. Plus I guess he's got to be able to start having some fun without me sometime... ;)


So, since school was out today I decided to take the kids to the movies! One of our local theaters does movies before noon on Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and holidays for $5.00 each. I have been waiting patiently for 2 weeks to see Speed Racer, so off we went this morning to the 11:00 show. I know that the critics didn't like this movie, but I have learned over the years that the movies I love are usually the ones that they hate, and the ones that they rave about are ones that I can't stand. You know, the kind where you feel dumber for having wasted 2 hours of you life watching it? :P The kids were excited, but probably not as excited as I was! And the movie was really good too!! No cussing or blood or sex or anything! And both the young kids and the older kids liked it. There was lots of action in the car race scenes and a pretty good story line too about the good guys trying to defeat the bad cheaters. And the fact that Matthew Fox and Scott Porter are in it didn't hurt either! :D Well, at least I found myself smiling a little more everytime they were on the screen!! :D It is one that I am sure we will buy when it comes out on dvd. Here are the kids (minus Jayden who apparently doesn't like to be in pictures anymore... Wait, he is my child right??? :P ) in front of the movie poster. Notice the long sleeved shirts!! It was chilly all day!! And it's the end of May!! I think our high today was around 70 degrees or something, and it has rained for the past 2 days! We got over an inch of rain!! That kinda sucked for all the high school graduations last night. :( Anyway, Speed Racer!!!



Oh, and congrats to Cookie for winning American Idol!! He will do great!!! I sure wish that both him and Archie could have won but I know how talented they both are and I am sure they both have great careers ahead of them. Yeah Cookie!!

Random Ravings...

Get ready!! The All-David Finale airs tonight on American Idol!! Now I will be the first to admit that I haven't regularly watched this show since about season 2 or 3, and I wouldn't have watched this season either if it hadn't of been for my Mom telling me that I MUST watch it! :D I had class this Spring on Tuesday nights so I was never home to see the performances and then one night I missed class because Tim was gone and I thought, "Oh yeah, American Idol is on. I guess we can watch that since I don't know any of the other shows that are on." After that night I was hooked! I would get home from school on Tuesday nights a little after 10 and finish up any History homework that I had to have turned in by midnight, and then go to YouTube to watch that nights performances. My favorites from the very beginning were -- Brooke White, David Archuleta, David Cook, and Jason Castro. We started calling them by nicknames as the show went on. David A. became Archie (which I think a lot of people call him), David C. became Cookers or Cookie, Brooke was just Brooke (with a lovely name like that why change it? Am I right Brooke??? :P ), and Jason became known as Pretty Eyes. :D I was really excited when they all made the top 5, and I am super excited that the David's made the finale! I figured that they would so I was thrilled last week to see that other people agreed with me, especially since I never guess these kinds of things right! So good luck from us to the Two David's! I think they are both really great and our house will be happy with either one of them as the winner! I really like David Cook, but I must admit I will be voting for David Archuleta. His voice is so beautiful, and he's such a sweet kid -- We Love Him!! Good Luck boys!!

The David's!! Cookie and Archie --

Brooke -- Hopefully we will get to see her again this week!

And Pretty Eyes (Jason). Is there really any question as to why we gave him that nickname??? :D

Okay, I saw this first picture and I couldn't NOT mention it! I know everyone thinks that their babies are the most beautiful babies ever, and some of them are really cute, while others obviously have parents who are highly delusional. :D I always thought my kids were cute but I will be the first to admit, this baby is the most beautiful baby ever! I guess with the parents she has, she comes by it naturally. I have always thought that there should be a law requiring some people to pass along their genes, and this baby is proof of that. Thank you Brad Pitt for proving my case!! Now if Michael Vartan would just find himself a nice girl... Well, there's plenty of time for that!! Especially with 2 more little Jolie-Pitt babies on the way. Can the world possibly handle 3 of these gorgeous little people??? I can't wait to see!!

Look at those eyes, those cheeks, that mouth, and that hair! She is just perfect!! And with a name like Shiloh, she's even cuter!!

I guess with beautiful parents her probability of being cute was pretty high. Although sadly it doesn't always work out that way! ;)

Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt gets my award for Most Beautiful Baby On The Planet!! She's just so sweet!

As Jensen and I sit here watching Charlie and the Chocolate Factory for the hundredth time, I am reminded of how amazing Johnny Depp is! If you haven't seen it, you really should!! He is hilarious and even though he looks a little odd and his skin is kinda pasty white, he's still one of my favorites! This movie is really great, just like the original!! Check it out!! You won't be sorry! :)

Silence and Camo Boy...

Wow!! This week is finally over! Jensen was sick until Thursday and got to stay home from school all week, until Friday when she was only there for about an hour since they had early outs because it was the last day of the grading period. The kids are pretty excited to get out for the summer this Thursday, although Jayden and Jensen are going to do a Summer Reading Program there for the month of June. It should really help them with their Phonograms and give them a head start for next year. And since it's only half a day, Monday through Thursday, they should still get plenty of play time.

Can you hear that? Listen... Did you hear it? The sound of silence? Coming from my house? Ahh, a mom's night alone!!

So this past weekend Tim decided to take the kids camping. They all have been dying to go for quite a while now so he found a camp site just outside of town and they headed out for the night on Friday afternoon. They didn't go too far and since it was hot, they came back Saturday morning. But I got the night all to myself! I almost didn't know what to do with myself! Almost... :D Tim said that he wants to try and go once or twice a month with the kids, which would give me lots of nights to myself! :) The kids all asked me if I would go with them but each time I explained that "Mom doesn't camp!" and eventually they got the hint. It's not that I don't camp, or haven't ever camped, I have...alot. It's just that I don't LIKE to camp, and avoid it whenever possible! ;) My idea of roughing it is a hotel room! Anyway, I had plenty of things to keep me busy, as you can see in this picture of my events for the evening!

First I got Panda Express for dinner. Yum!! Then I went to Paradise Bakery and got some Lemon Zester cookies. (They are SO good!!) Then I went to Bath and Body Works and got a refill for my plug-in room freshener. Man, I could spend a small fortune in that store! :P Then I went by Sonic and got a Vanilla Cherry Coke. I was all set! When I was at Wal-Mart earlier in the day I saw that they had refilled their $5.00 dvd bin and they had some movies that I LOVE! I got A Knight's Tale, Footloose, and The Wedding Planner, which I added to the 2 ice skating movies I got not too long ago - The Cutting Edge and Ice Castles. Have I mentioned how much I love movies??? :D I also treated myself and bought Juno. It's such a cute movie! So I had movies to watch, which I did, and I even watched an episode of Roswell and one of Friday Night Lights! And imagine my excitement when I turned on Jay Leno just to see who was on and found out that Matthew Fox, aka Jack on Lost, or Racer X from Speed Racer, or 'Foxy' as he is commonly called (obviously we know how he got THAT nickname!! And it's not just because of his last name!! :D ) was going to be on. Oh, he's so awesome!! (And so grows my crush...) It was a fun evening, that's for sure!! I was even nice and bought Chocolate Chip Cookies from Paradise Bakery for the kids and Tim for when they got home. (Well, I knew I shouldn't eat an entire dozen of Lemon Zester cookies myself... :P )


Then Saturday my parents came by on their way home from their trip back East where they got to see Beau graduate from his basic training. They had a great time and really enjoyed the time they had to visit with him. They said he got ice cream 3 times that day while they were out! Apparently the Army isn't too big on their recruits eating a lot of fattening things! :P So, of course, they brought some fun things for the kids. The girls got Army Teddy Bears and the boys got Army Camo t-shirts. And Jayden got his wish fulfilled -- the wish he has had ever since seeing Uncle Beau in his snazzy Army camo uniform! I mentioned before that Jayden asked me why I hadn't gotten him any clothes like Uncle Beau's...Well Uncle Beau sent a mini Army suit just like his for Jayden! It's for his birthday next month, but there was no way that it was gonna wait until then! He put it right on and seriously has only taken it off to shower and go to church today. And then as soon as we got home he put it right back on! He slept in it last night, jumped on the trampoline in the sprinkler with it yesterday afternoon, and wore it all morning and afternoon/evening today. And he's sleeping in it again tonight. I am gonna have to PRY it off of him tomorrow morning when he has to go to school. He even took his hat with him to church today! He wore it the whole way in the car and then held it in Primary, putting it back on as soon as we left he building to go home. Silly Boy!! And he did all of this even though it was almost 100 degrees yesterday and over 100 degrees today! He looks a little silly sweating to death outside in his t-shirt, pants, jacket, boots, and hat, but he loves it!!! Thanks so much Uncle Beau!!! Hoepfully I can get it washed tomorrow while he is at school because I am sure he will be looking for it as soon as he gets home from school! :D

And here is Jayden going his best impression of Uncle Beau -

And just to prove how into camo Jayden is, he fell asleep last night in the camo uniform, with his camo blanket, so Jorden and I decided to have a little fun of our own!! We played our own version of Where's Waldo -- we call it...

Where's Jayden???

Can you spot the elusive Wild Jayden?

How about now?

And since we had just watched E.T. yesterday afternoon, I was inspired by a particular scene. This is the Where's Jayden??? version of it -

Yeah, it doesn't pay to fall asleep around this house when mom is still awake and has a camera!! Oh well, at least he's cute!! :D Ahh, what an interesting week!!

May 2008 12 of 12...

Wow, I actually did it!! A new 12 of 12!! I haven't done one since January and I finally remembered this month. Sadly, I realized just how truly boring my life is!! :( Oh well, I guess it's no great secret, I've just been in denial. But I think with Jensen being so sick, my day was a lot more boring than it would have been otherwise. Anyway, here we go!! For those who don't know what this is, here's the info --

It's the idea of Chad Darnell, and if you want to check out his 12 of 12 you can go here --> http://chaddarnell.typepad.com/runchadrun2/12_of_12/index.html. People all over the world are doing it, it's a really great idea he had. The deal is that you take 12 pictures of your day on the 12th day of the month, and then you blog it.

Here we go!!

7:30am -- Time to take out the trash. The kids were late getting up for school so they missed the bus and while I was waiting for them I figured I'd get the trash taken. The recycle dumpsters get emptied tomorrow so I may as well fill them as much as I can!

8:00am -- My sick little Sleeping Beauty. Jensen is still pretty sick so she had to stay home from school today. She actually woke me up at 5:45 to help her get a drink, but I wasn't thinking about the camera at that point... I was just glad to get down the hall without stumbling into something. :)

8:45am -- This picture is a 2 parter. So, it's no secret that Jayden has his good days and his bad days. Well today was surely a bad one! He refused to get dressed so instead of making Jillen late by fighting with him, I left him at home and drove Jillen to school. Jorden is still home at that time so he wasn't totally alone or anything, but it gave him a little time to think about what he wanted to do. So when I got home he had decided to go to school, but he wanted to ride his bike. Yeah, 4 miles or so? I don't think so! So then he asked if he could walk or run, and again I said no. I know, I'm the meanest mom ever! So his compromise was that he would run to the end of the street and then to the end of the next street if I would follow him and then pick him up and drive him the rest of the way. At that point I was fine with whatever, as long as it got him out the door! So I loaded up Jensen while he started down the street and pretty soon this is what I saw. Crazy boy!

10:00am -- Ahh, a full dishwasher!! That only took me an hour! :D But at least they are done for another day!

11:00am -- Time to check my grades for the semester! Our instructors had to have them turned in last Friday but I forgot to check during the day and since the new student website thing is only available during the day, I had to wait until today. My grade for my history class isn't posted here, but on the class website it says my grade was an A. (I'd have had to basically not do my last 2 essays to NOT get an A! :P ) But imagine my surprise when the grade for my other 2 classes were both A's!! Yeah!! Straight A's again!! It seems like it's been so long since I had that! Last Fall I got 2 B's and last Spring I got 2 B's and let me tell you, they are still annoying me to no end!! :o I seriously want to retake those classes! But I won't... I don't think...

12:30pm -- Lunch time! Tim brought me his lunch, or what was left of it. :) I got a taco and a crunchwrap supreme. I hadn't had one of those before and it wasn't too bad. And of course there is my favorite -- Vanilla Coke. :D

1:00pm -- My sick little Princess! :( She watched cartoons and then slept most of the day, after throwing up a few times that is. The doctor says that a flu like bug is going around and that it can last anywhere from 3 to 7 days! 7 DAYS?!?!?! NO!!!!! I don't think I can handle that! She already hasn't eaten any food since Friday at lunch. Poor baby! But as long as she's getting some fluids in her, and she doesn't look bad, then we will just have to ride it out. But she is still so sad looking... So of course I had to take a picture of her, which she loved, as you can tell! :)

3:30 - 4:00pm -- Again, a 2 parter. The kids got home from school! They are always so glad to be back after a long day in class. They always find some type of snack to eat. Apparently they aren't fans of the school lunches! :) Today they were especially excited to get home because the school was having a swim party tonight and they were anxious to tell me so that they could hopefully go.

6:00pm -- Speaking of the swimming party... Jensen got pretty excited when she heard the other kids talking about it so she went and got her swimsuit so that she could go. She was heartbroken when I told her that she couldn't go, and that she and I were staying home while Dad took the other kids. She cried for a few minutes and then was asleep before too long. Poor baby!! :(

5:00-ish - 8:00pm -- Darn you Tyra Banks and your addictive America's Next Top Model show!! And extra darns to VH1 and MTV for airing marathons of them!! But it does help pass the time. Plus it's always fun to hear Tyra tell her "You think you have it bad, well I had to..." stories! :D Ahh, this was the season of Jade, the "confident" (stuck up) girl who always thanked everyone for believing in her... Yuck!!! But it sure was fun to see her get voted off again!! :D Jensen and I laid on my bed and watched it... Well she slept while I watched it! :P

8:30pm -- After Tim and the kids got home from swimming it was time to eat. Spaghetti and garlic bread are always a favorite and everyone will actually eat them! Jensen even managed to get a scoop full of noodles down and they haven't even made a reappearance yet! Yippee!!

10:00pm -- Bed Time for the kiddies!! They usually go to bed closer to 9:00 but because of the swimming and baths, it was 10 before they headed off. Their clothes are all set out for tomorrow, although Jensen doesn't have any. I think she will be staying home for another day or two. Man, the house is sure a lot quieter after they are in bed! Maybe now I can go watch the shows I recorded this evening! That The Big Bang Theory show is hilarious!! :D And John and Kate Plus Eight is really good too! So sweet!! :)

Bonus!! Now I know that Chad isn't doing bonus words this year, or at least as of January he wasn't. ;) So I figured I would include a picture of my Mother's Day gifts, minus my flowers, so that you could all see how sweet and thoughtful my kiddies are! :D The cards and pictures are all proudly displayed on my little flower pots, so they kind of blend in, but they are there!!

And here is a little something that I made this afternoon while Jensen was sleeping. I am DYING to see the new Speed Racer movie, and I think I will probably take my kids next Friday morning since they will be out of school and the theater does $5 movies on Friday mornings. My brothers and I used to watch the cartoon when we were growing up and I always sing the theme song, or at least the chorus to it, so I was super excited when I found out they were making it into a movie. And then to find out that Matthew Fox, aka Jack on Lost, was playing Racer X made me want to see it even more!! But I think we will discuss Foxy a little more in the next week or so when I start back up with my Favorite things... :) Anyhow, I thought I'd play with my Photoshop program a little and this is what I made!! :D (You'll have to click on it and make it full size to really get the full affect. ;) )

Well, I hope you all had more exciting days than I did!! :D

Mother I Love You, Mother I Do...

Well, another Mother's Day has rolled around. I usually love Mother's Day because the kids make a big deal about it, and this year was no different. They all make gifts for me at school and then bring them home on Friday and ask if I want them right then. I usually tell them to put them away and give them to me on Sunday, but this year I got them on Saturday because everyone was just too excited. Silly kids! They were all so proud of what they had made for me, except for Jorden, who told me that he HAD to make his gift for me because his Tech teacher at school made them all make one! Man, I need to send a thank you card to that guy!! :D Tim got me the Crazy Daisies that I always like to have on Mother's Day -- they are so fun and colorful!

I woke up this morning to a pancake breakfast that Jillen made for me all by herself! And she was so proud that she didn't even burn any of the pancakes! Let me just say, I was glad for that too!! :P Tim usually "helps" the kids make me breakfast and then bring it to me in bed, but last year the kids did it all themselves. What a nice way to start the day! Then I fixed up some little treats that my Primary kids were going to give to their moms and then got ready for church. The little kids were singing in Sacrament Meeting so that was fun to hear. Then after we got home Tim and I headed over to my friend Melissa's house to pick up Tim's truck that she was so nicely storing for us! (Thanks again Melissa!!) On his way home Tim stopped and got me Panda Express for dinner, which meant that I didn't have to cook!! Yeah!!

Me and the Kiddies - Easter 2005

Me and Jorden -- February 1997

Me and Jillen -- May 1999

Me and Jayden & Jillen -- June 2000 (Yeah, no make-up, I had just gotten home from the hospital after having him, I was a little tired. :P )

Me and Jensen & Jorden (again, no make-up...at least this time I was still in the hospital! :D )

(Wow!! I really need to take more pictures with the kids! :o )

The only damper to this lovely weekend is Jensen...she has been so sick ever since Friday afternoon. She threw up Friday after geting home from school, but I figured it was just car sickness, which she gets quite often after riding the bus home. But then Friday afternoon she got sick again and then kept it up all night and all Saturday. When she got up this morning she seemed to be doing better and by this afternoon she was able to keep some Gatorade and crackers down. But while Tim and I were gone and Jorden was babysitting, she got sick again and then it happened again later. Poor little thing!! I guess she won't be going to school for a day or two. If she's not any better by tomorrow then I guess I will be making a doctor's appointment for her. So far no one else is sick, so I'm hoping that means it's not a flu bug. It's been so long since we had one, I guess it's about time for it to roll back around.

Now, on to the real reason for this post!! :D I know most people think that they have the best mother ever, but they are wrong. Sorry everyone, but I lucked out in that department! My mom is so great!! I was reading my sister Brooke's post and I have to say I agree with everything she had to say. I guess I should just copy it and paste it here! :P My mom has always been such a fun mom. All my friends used to love to hang out at my house because my mom always had fun stuff for us to eat or good ideas of what we should do. Our house was always available for get togethers and my mom never minded having a house full of teenagers, even though I know it must have been hard especially since she had little kids that needed to sleep! My mom would always drive me and my friends to dances and games, even though my brother Brett was a baby and she was exhausted! I remember being away at college and she would send little packages and all of my roommates thought she was the coolest mom because none of their moms ever sent anything to them, and my mom would send enough for me to share. I can also remember boys that I had crushes on in high school telling me that my mom was the coolest mom around and that they all wished they would have a wife like her someday. Um, hello!! They say the apple doesn't fall far from the tree... Oh well!! :D My mom is such a great Granny to my kids too!! She always sends them cards and packages and they are so excited when they see something in the mail from Granny and Grandpa because they know there is gonna be something good in it! I remember all the holidays growing up when she would do fun little goodie bags for us -- she made them so fun! I remember the first time I did them for our kids Tim asked me why I was doing them. I just told him that my mom always did it for me and I loved it, and I knew that she did it because she loved me, so I wanted my kids to feel the same way I did. She is truly a wonderful mother and grandmother and I am so glad to be her daughter!!

My Mom!! Her Senior Year of high school and her with me.

Me and my mom - Homecoming October 1989. In Snowflake it was a tradition that the students, especially the athletes, buy a Mum for their Mom. Luckily my friend Laura had my camera for the day so she got a picture of me trying to pin the Mum onto my Mom. Luckily my mom knew what she was doing! Oh, she also had to pin the boutonnieres on my Homecoming and Prom dates for me! :D I didn't want to risk the blood stains on their nice shirts that surely would have resulted from me doing it! :P

My mom and Jorden - April 2006

My Mom and Jillen - July 1999

My Mom & Dad and Jayden - July 2000

My Mom and Jensen - December 2002

Me, Brooke, Brianna, and my mom with Ellee -- December 2007


I also need to wish Tim's mom a Happy Mother's Day! She is a really great grandma to our kids too. Every time she would see our kids when they were little she would sing songs with them and teach them about shapes and letters and colors. The kids loved it! Tim always talks about what a great cook she was when he was growing up, he loved everything that she made. He still calls her to ask her for recipes...ya, I don't have too many of those. If it doesn't come from a can, a bag, or a box then I probably don't make it. :) She has always been so welcoming and loving to me and I appreciate that! After hearing so many of my friends compalin about their mother-in-laws, I know how lucky I am! She raised Tim to be a good husband and I'm very grateful for that!!

Tim's Mom and Jorden - February 1996

Tim's Mom and Jillen - June 2000


(Man, I really do need to brush up on my pictures!! :( Another thing that my mom excels at! :D )

I hope all the mom's out there had a wonderful day!!