Flashback Friday

In 2000 I did a pre-school for my nieces and nephews in my garage. Ray and I had been living away from family for the past year, and I had really missed these cute little chubby faces. So I set up my garage to look like a class room, and started a pre-school. I had class several days a week, and really enjoyed myself. As far as what these 5 plus sometimes Jaden learned, I am not quite sure, but what I do know is that the time spent with Kelci, Kyson, Chylie, Ryan, Teran, and Jaden and the memories I will forever have are worth a million bucks. Thanks for all of the fun memories.

We Love Daddy...

I was looking at my picture files and came across this picture of Jake kissing Ray. This is a common thing in my house one of the kids trying to give kisses to their daddy, but this day I caught it, and will forever cherish it. Jake thinks his dad is the coolest dad in the whole wide world, and loves to follow him around, and copy his every move. Of course Ellie has him wrapped not only around her pinkie, but her entire hand. She loves to snuggle with HER Daddy, and usually gets what she wants from her dad. One of Ellie's favorite things to do is sneak up behind her dad and with shiny sparkly lips, plant a big kiss on his cheek. The day I met Ray and he had brought 3 year old Creed for moral support, ~ : ) ~ I knew he was going to make the worlds greatest dad, and you know what, I was right. Love you Ray, thanks for being the best EVERYTHING and thanks for loving us as much as you do...

Saturday, Front Runner Trip....

As most of you know, we love to take what we call little micro trips. On Saturday we decided to head to Salt Lake and play for the day. When we had just about got to Ogden, I suggested to Ray that we take the Front Runner on into the City, and ride the Trax around. Although we were very nervous, as it was our first time we have taken the Front Runner, or Trax, we had a great time. Jake had a complete meltdown before boarding the train, but quickly got over it when he found that the inside of the train was like his bus. Here we are arriving in Salt Lake. We had a hard time figuring out the map in front of the trax, so we ended up boarding this one, and road it the entire length, and then boarded the next one that took us up the the college. We soon found out that there are two routes, and it is really easy to understand. Here are the kids sitting on a sculpture in down town Salt Lake. We got off at the gate way and ate dinner at McGrath's Fish house. The food was yummy, and the atmosphere was fun. After dinner we walked through part of the gateway stopping in at the chocolate factory. Ray and the kids wanted some chocolate for the train, but I had to put my foot down when I read the sign that read 17 dollars a pound. Holy Cow, I promised them some chocolates later. They had fun little sculptures around like this one, and the kids had fun playing on them while waiting for the Front Runner to take us home. We lucked out, and got to sit where we could look out the back window while we went home. I think this was one of Rays favorite places on the whole train.We all had a great day, and have decided we will be doing this a lot more often. The kids think every other Saturday is a great idea, but we will just have to see. I think I might try it someday with just myself and the kids. I think it would be fun taking them to the gateway for the day just the three of us. Now I have to convince my sisters to come have fun with us, and also my parents. :)

Did you bleed GREEN?

Ellie woke up this morning eager to get ready for school. She stayed up last night trying to find that perfect outfit that would let her whole class know that she did not want to get pinched. She told me that the rule at school is keep your hands to yourself, and that means no pinching even on St. Patricks Day, but that a couple of boys warned the girls that if they aren't wearing green they were going to pinch them at recess. She did not want this to happen so she headed off to school ready for this Happy St. Patricks Day

A time to blog about nothing-

I have been thinking a lot lately about names. What is in a name, and how can a person who feels completely embarrassed with their name come to love, and admire their own name. Last Sunday in Sunday School, an older gentlemen made a comment on the hideousness of names in this day and age. He wanted to know why parents choose such horrible names, and how as a parent you expect your child to feel any self worth with such a laughable name. He then went on to comment on names of Celebrity babies, and even hit closer to home with names of infants in our own ward. It left me thinking of a blog that I enjoy reading where a young couple who is having a baby boy in the next little while were suggesting certain names to the readers of their blog, and I was so surprised to see the comments made by so many, some were very nice about these names, but some were just down right rude. I guess I was most surprised because even if I did not like these names I would never come out and say it, it is their decision. I can't imagine having someone tell me that the name I have chose for my child is a BAD one. So as I was listening to this gentlemen bring up the name discussion again today, I made a point in my mind of making sure that my children have been given good names, and then I thought that a name is just a name. A name does not make a person, but the person makes the name. Growing up I was always called Mickie, but often people have made fun of the name, or rather teased the name with the famous M-I-C-K-E-Y, or the ridiculous song of (oh Mickie what a pity you don't understand....). So, when I got married and moved to Garland I introduced myself as Mickelle, and figured I would never have to hear the annoying songs again in reference to me. But then it dawned on me that I am who I am because of me, not my name. I could have been called (Gert) and it would not have changed who I am or what I have become. So as this nice older man was ranting on about names I just piped in with (we are all his children, and he doesn't care the name we carry, but the way we carry our name). This man stopped, turned in his chair, and at this time I could feel my face turn RED, and then he said you know what you are right. I turned out just fine with my name, and I can tell you turned out just fine with yours and I guess that it does not matter the name we have been given as long as we poses the right character to be a decent person in this life, and then he turned and opened his scriptures. So with this I am now thinking how can someone who is embarrassed of their name find worth in it at the same time? I don't know maybe you just grow to love it, maybe it bothers you every day you are alive, maybe it never enters your mind what others may think. I just don't know. But there you have it a post about something and yet nothing at all...

Certificate of Achievement

Ellie received an award a week ago for reading. The Certificate reads. For excelling in our grade level reading goal. In January, Ellie read over 460 minutes for our grade lever reading goal; that's more than 3 times the minutes needed. She also received this little chain with a charm attached that reads "Star Student". We are so very proud of her and her accomplishments.

Jake in the Hat*

Jake's school celebrated Dr. Seuss on his birthday by helping each of the kids make a hat and reading lots of Dr. Seuss books. When Jake came home today with the hat on I asked him what his favorite Dr. Seuss book was and he said it was the Cat in the Hat. He loves his hat, and thinks he is very cool with this hat on his head. He thinks it makes him look sooooooo tall. What a great kid he is, with a fantastic imagination!

Host Family Wanted....

We are currently looking for a family to host Ellie's flat Stanley for a week or so. We would love it if while with his host family he could have lots of pictures taken of him and the places he goes.

Flat Stanley is a very well behaved little boy, who is very willing to obey rules. He is very clean, and is very good at cleaning up his own messes. He does not eat much, but does eat everything set before him. Could you be the perfect host family for Flat Stanley? If so, please leave a comment here or e-mail me. We greatly appreciate it.

Thanks!!!

How Sweet-

When I looked outside a few minutes ago I found this little note from Ray. If you can't tell it says I Love Mic. What a sweet man. I love that he does things like this for me as simple as it is it means a lot. When I noticed it and grabbed the camera for a picture he said what are you doing, you're so weird. haha I love my husband!!

WARNING - WARNING - WARNING

Long post below.... haha

Long Weekend in Bozeman and a Job Offer

On Wednesday we left for Bozeman Montana for a long weekend of fun, and decision making. Ray was offered a job in Seward Alaska, and we decided that we would head to Bozeman to see if we would like living in lots of snow. When we left Tremonton we had blue skies and the kids were wearing t-shirts, but as we got closer to Montana it got colder and colder, and the kids decided they needed to put on warmer clothes. Here's Ellie with traveling Stanley entering Idaho.We ended up staying at the Ramada, it had an indoor swimming pool, and a water slide. Ellie spent lots of time in the pool, and could not get up and down the slide fast enough. Jake does not like the water as much, and does not like swimming so he just sat on the stairs of the pool and got his feet wet, but he enjoyed sitting in the hot tub as long as it was just he and Ellie alone. We went by the Museum of the Rockies and Ellie got her picture taken in front of the Dinosaur with traveling Stanley. Jake wasn't in the mood for pictures.

While we were in Bozeman they had a big fire downtown. They had several of their buildings burn down, taking with it several stores. I think they said it was like 4 buildings and 7 stores. They said that a gas leak caused one of the roofs to blow about 50 feet in the air. This picture below is the one in the left corner of the picture above that is shadowed right above the google. The blast shaddered windows 2 and 3 blocks away. It was amazing to see how and where the windows were broken. Some right next door were fine while others had every other window broken in the building. We ovberheard a guy at cotsco on his phone saying that this was Bozemans way of making their own stimulus plan. It made me laugh, but it was amazing to see how fast people were out offering their services, (glass, lumber, cleaning, food) We heard a girl walking into a bar a block away telling someone to get down to the bar quick cause they were opening now, the other bars were on fire and they would get the business. It is always interesting to see how one mans misfortune is another ones fortune.Here is a picture of a girl from the news talking about the fire.On our last little vacation we were able to find a real estate sign with Ellie's name on it, and so Jake was excited this time to see a sign with his name on it. The sign reads JACOBS CROSSING, Jake was pretty excited to get his picture taken in front of HIS sign.I promised Ellie that we would get a picture of her in front of the sign going

into Montana, but Ray did not want to stop so this sign had to do.

It is showing us leaving Montana and entering Idaho. We stopped just outside of Yellowstone and watched two people wind surfing on their snow boards. It was so cool to see the control they had. This guy came right up on the snow bank by our car and plastered Ray's window and our front window with snow. Ellie decided she wants to try this when she is older, but Jake said it was too scary and he could not ever try it. lol Here are my kids happy to be going home after a long weekend. They were enjoying their in car movies, and were more than happy to smile big for a picture. Check out the wrap on Jake's head. We found it at one of the store's in Montana, and he was excited when Ray told him he could get it. Stetson has one and Jake has wanted one for some time now. He looks so cool wearing it.
After our weekend in Bozeman Ray and I decided that we probably would not enjoy living in Seward where it is cold for as long as it is during the winter. We don't know how the kids would do with the extra snow. We woke up to snow this morning and Ellie said- More snow, grrrr we just left lots of snow in Bozeman. lol I guess we will be staying in Tremonton for now.