To Be American

Paige, Ashby and I were able to perform in our second UVMCO concert and it was amazing! Completely filled with patriotic music, new and classic. Ashby's group sang My Country Tis of Thee and You're a Grand ol' Flag. (We decided to not have Levi participate this time round and hope he learns how to follow instructions soon). Paige's group sang To Be American, Profile of a Flag, and Let Slavery Clank. She says her favorite was To Be American.

The whole experience was incredible. Our very first song received a standing ovation - a standing ovation on the first song! My favorite song was an African spiritual, Follow the Drinkin Gourd. The night before the concert we had a dress rehearsal in SLC and it made for a long night to be away from home and away from my newborn. But I was just so grateful to have the opportunity. I know it wasn't easy on Brian but I told him, "Thank you so much for letting me do something other than take care of babies." I have been glad to have such an uplifting and challenging activity that shows me I can stretch and grow in different areas of life.

Ashby's last game of Spring soccer

Grateful is Great

Ashby really surprised me yesterday.

It was his birthday and we had a lot of fun doing family activities. One thing we did was go to Trafalga and have pizza for lunch. Pizza was Ashby's birthday request, so it worked out well. At dinner time I asked Ashby what he wanted for his birthday dinner.
He said, "I already told you, I want pizza."
"But we had pizza for lunch."
"Well, I don't want anything but pizza."
"But I really don't want to make pizza.
"I just want pizza."
"You want pizza even if you know it will make me cry?"
"Yes."
He left and I got out the pizza crust recipe. Then I put my head on the counter and cried. I only cried for a minute until I realized nobody really cares how I feel and I might as well just suck it up and help my son have a nice birthday.

Then...
as I was making the pizza, Ashby came in to the kitchen with a huge smile on his face and said, "Thank you so much for making pizza! Actually....beyond thank you because I know you really didn't want to make it!"
I smiled and told him how much that meant to me.
So, we had homemade pizza and it was very good.
Later that night as we ended his birthday day, Ashby said, "Thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you....[etc.] for such a great birthday!!"

And I was happy. :)

Ashby turns 7

Ashby got to invite a friend to his birthday celebration. We went to the Lehi Trafalga for our first time and tried out all their activities.  The rides were especially exciting. And the big kids got to play laser tag! We even splurged and ate lunch there. Later in the day Ashby invited another friend to see a movie with us. He requested chocolate min for his birthday cake and opened some presents.  For a "family party" year, I think Ashby had a lot of fun.


Ashby says:  I had fun with my friend, Kyler. We played laser tag and rode on go-carts. We ate pizza. I really, really, really loved laser tag. It was the funnest thing ever. I liked my new helmet for my bike. I went to the movies with Branson. We saw Mr Peabody and Sherman. It was really funny. I liked the movie. I had a lot of fun this year!

Most thoughtful Christmas Present

 The most thoughtful Christmas present award goes to Paige.

She has been concerned about Ashby's picky-eater-ness and wanted to do something to help him want to eat dinner with his family.

So she made him his very own place mat!  Complete with pictures of some of his favorite things - Ninjago (those are spinning tornadoes under them) and Skylander characters, and a snowflake smiley face.

He loved it! (But that doesn't mean he has started eating dinner).

Pink Day

It was pink day for Ashby's first grade class. Each day over the past two weeks they have focused on a color and are encouraged to wear that color to school. Ashby has been pretty in to it. He was adamant about wearing pink, even though we couldn't find anything in his closet with that color. He simply went over to Paige's drawer and picked out the shirt he liked best. I admire his courage, confidence, and determination. I put a different shirt in his backpack (just in case), but he came home wearing pink. No big deal!

Dinner at my house

I thought it was a pretty good dinner...

Cafe Rio shredded chicken
Rice
Corn torillas
Salad
Watermelon
and Frog-eye Salad

...and its not even Sunday!

Guess what Ashby ate?
        Marshmallows picked out of the frog-eye salad. That's it.

Then when I got after him about eating real food, he yelled about how he wishes he never had a mom.

Such is life with Ashby. Such is dinner at my house.

Spinjitzu Master Ashby and his Ninjago birthday party

 My birthday was fun!

We played games. We popped balloons with ninja stars.
And we played "Sensei Says" using ninja moves. I got a turn to be the sensei.

 We did ninja training. I was the first ninja to go on the obstacle course. There was lasers, a tire that you had to jump on, climbing up or over slides, balance beam and spinjitzu at the end.

 Dillon came to my party. Ronnie came to my party and Eric and Ry Ry and of course Levi and Paige and Me! There were four friends that didn't come. They missed a cool party.

We played Ninja dodgeball on the trampoline.  We had to dodge all the balls that were thrown at us.

I had the coolest cake. It was yummy. It was a ninjago cake with lots of frosting.

When I blew out the candles I wished that I could have a motor scooter. My wish didn't come true.

 We made skeletons for the skeleton army of Ninjago. We made them with white pretzels and marshmallows.

 Mom and Dad made swords for all the kids to fight.
My favorite part was popping balloons with ninja stars. And the obstacle course.

Everyone got Hershey's candy bars with a Ninjago wrapper on it to take home.

I got a skateboard for my birthday! I'm excited to learn how to ride my skateboard. I'm pretty good already, but I'm going to practice to get better.

Wal Mart Bathroom Adventure

Three little boys accompanied me to WalMart this morning. That's an adventure on its own, right?
Well, it gets better.

During checkout the older two boys decided they needed to go to the bathroom and ran off before I knew what had happened.
As I was putting bagged groceries into the cart I could hear screeeeeaaaming and crying echoing across the store. Of course, it was coming from the restroom.
I anxiously waited for the cashier to finish up, swiped my card and hurried over to the restroom.
Of course... they had gone into the Men's Restroom. Now what was I supposed to do?
So, I stood in the entry way talking to the boys.

What's wrong?
Levi tinkled on me.
Why did he tinkle on you?
I don't know!
What do you need?
I need new pants.
Well, I don't have new pants for you. Why is Levi crying?
I don't know!

A couple of men walked out and I asked them if they knew what was going on.
Well, it looks like the littler one peed on the the bigger one. I'm assuming they're both yours.
Is there anyone else left inside?
Yes.

So, I stood in the entry way waiting some more. Trying to talk the boys into getting paper towels and cleaning themselves up. That was a no go.

Eventually I got the all-clear and hesitantly walked into the men's restroom.

There they were. Standing at opposite sides of a urinal. Pants around their ankles. Levi is dripping with tears, and Ashby is dripping with...you know...other stuff. Completely saturated from tummy to toes. Woh.

I grab a bunch of paper towels and start wiping them off. Trying to comfort and reassure them that we will quickly change clothes as soon as we got home. Levi was easy to wipe off. His pants were just a little bit wet. Poor Ashby. It took me two trips to the paper towel dispenser. Plus a few more trips to sop up the puddle on the floor (sorry WalMart, you had quite a mess to mop up today).

I think the boys learned a few good lessons today: Don't go to the bathroom without mom. Don't try to teach your little brother how to use a urinal when he usually sits to go wet. And most important, move out of the way if there is a stream of urine pointed at you.

Science Fair Winners

Paige and Ashby entered the school science fair today.
Their question was: "Does adding triangle shapes to a structure make it more stable?"

I told the kids we had to do something simple because we didn't have time for anything spectacular.

We looked through some science books and Paige stopped at a picture of marshmallow construction. Well, that's simple enough - marshmallows and spaghetti noodles. We already had all the materials and it would be fun for the kids to build.

It was fun! The kids built lots of squares and cubes, snapped lots of noodles and ate lots of marshmallows. It was simple, but they got the concept. They also liked searching the web for pictures of cool buildings and bridges that incorporated the concept they had just witnessed.

The judging was today (Wed), we did the project Monday night for FHE and made the poster last night. We kept it pretty low-key. I had thought about skipping out on the science fair this year, but I think its important for them to have these extracurricular activities.

Past years I've gotten to help judge projects and stick around for motivational support. This year I had to drop the kids off early, help them set up, pick up Brian and the little kids, take Brian to work for an early meeting, rush back to the school, pick up Ashby (even though he wasn't quite done with the judging), and hurry to the church so I could unlock the door to start aerobics.

I wasn't sure how the science fair would turn out, but the kids came home from school this afternoon all excited. "We got a gold medal! We won!"

Well, what do you know? I guess simple is better.

Good job Paige and Ashby!

Ashby lost his first tooth!

Ashby had been lying in bed for probably 20 minutes tonight before I heard "Mom, Mom! I lost my tooth!"  So we celebrated for a little while and he carefully placed the baggie under his pillow. 

Ashby's first lost tooth, and he pulled it out himself!

Ashby's Kindergarten Christmas Program

My favorite song was "I want Chocolate in my Stocking for Christmas". I got to wear a Santa hat. My favorite part was Mom taking pictures of me. I smiled at her. I like being on the stage but I was a little scared of all the people watching me (except for Mom).  I saw all of my friends there and some of their moms. I was smiling because I was so excited for Christmas.
Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

Ashby the Optimist

Ashby was actually paying attention in church on Sunday.
The speaker said something about how we need to be optimists.
Ashby looked up at me with a big smile and said, "Optimus. He said Optimus - like Optimus Prime."
I got a good chuckle.

Not on Santa's lap

Here's Ashby's conversation with Santa at the ward Christmas party this weekend.

Santa: "So, do you still want that thing you were wishing for?"

Ashby, nodding: "Yes!"

Santa: "Okay."

 [snap picture and he's on his way.]

Later that night Ashby says, "That's weird that I didn't get to tell Santa what I wanted for Christmas."

Yes, Ashby it is a little weird...

Crazy Hair Day

 It was crazy hair day at school today. I'm not very good at doing hair, or very creative. But the kids were happy with the results.

Paige went to school with a ratted up mess of ponytails. I'm not really looking forward to brushing it out later.   

Ashby wanted to look like Grandad. So we shaved the top of his head and left all the sides long. . I couldn't bring myself to actually buzz it to his scalp - this is a #2. I was surprised that Ashby was actually interested in drawing any attention to himself. Its surprising how shy/stage-fright he gets. So hopefully he will enjoy a little showing off today.

Reptile Preschool

 Highlights from preschool...

Using bubble wrap to paint scales for a snake.

Visiting our neighbor's house and having their son show us his lizards.

Ashby was the only one brave enough to actually hold the bearded dragon.

Watching them eat cockroaches and then having the kids feed them shredded carrots.

Such a cool chameleon! We were hoping to see her super long tongue, but she got stage-fright.

Thanks to Jeremy for answering all the kids' questions and showing off his animals.

Making stained glass sea turtles with tissue paper and contact paper. 

Our BYU football experience this year

We got vouchers a couple months ago for 4 tickets to a BYU football game. We tried to make it to a game earlier in the season, but things just kept not working out. There were lots of different factors that would have ruled out going to the game today - snow storm, 25 degrees, 8:15pm kickoff, tired kids, etc. -  but since it was the last home game of the year we had to just go and not think twice. I ended up taking Paige and Ashby while Brian stayed home with the littler ones that would definitely NOT be able to handle the above factors.

 We had a nice welcome when we got to our seats. 5 inches of snow covering all the benches!

The kids had good attitudes through most of it. Ashby paid close attention to the game and asked lots of questions. Paige spent the time making formations in the snow with her feet or counting patterns on people's blankets in front of us. We left around 10:30 just after half time. The score was 42-7 and we were pretty much frozen. Nevertheless, it was fun to take the kids to a BYU game, sing the fight song, relive the good ol' college days, and enjoy a yummy cougar tail.

GO COUGARS!!

Ashby's getting ready for Christmas

Ashby rushed inside from school today and ran over to the computer. He wanted to write an email to Santa Claus. This is what he said,

dear santa
i am sorry for being bad to levi and paige
love ashby

Guess he knows he needs to be getting ready for Christmas.

Bragging Rights

Its about 4 weeks into the school year and I feel like I'm allowed to brag.

Ashby had his kindergarten assessment the week before school started. He came home with a note that said, "A typical score for an entering kindergarten child would be between 100-120 points. Your child's score at the beginning of the year is 217." Yay Ashby!

Paige came home with her 2nd grade beginning-of-year assessment last week. It said, "Paige has met or surpassed grade level expectations." Yay Paige!

...So, what is she supposed to do the rest of the year?

There are still good people around

Last week I saw my 5 year old son screaming and kicking while he was being held against his will, draped over a man's shoulder walking down the street outside WalMart. As I watched from afar, feeling helpless and frustrated, I saw a beat up old car follow slowly behind the perpetrator monitoring the situation. It made me uneasy at first, thinking someone might jump out and pull my son into the car. But then I realized they were the ones actually ready to jump into action and stop the assailant. What the driver soon discovered was that the man was the boy's father and the boy was throwing an irrational tantrum. Because of the fit, my boy had been invited to get out of the family car and walk home (with his Dad). I drove off and did a U-turn a few blocks later to pick them up, hoping that the tantrum had ceased. That's when I saw the suspicious car following them. It made me nervous until I realized how they probably perceived the situation.  Then I was grateful. Isn't it nice to know there are still good people around?