4th Grade Utah Pioneer Program

Today was Jake's 4th Grade Utah Pioneer Program at school.  I love how excited he was to be able to sing with the 4th grade students, and show all the parents just how much they had learned about Utah.  He was so excited to have me take pictures of him and his friend Carson before the program started.  He said he didn't want to ever forget just how cool they looked in Mrs. Stewarts cowboy hats.  

 This is Jake and his friend Dillon after the program.  Jake was so sweaty from wearing the cowboy hat for so long that he decided it would be ok to get pictures without the hat.  He felt bad that his other friends had already left with their parents and he wasn't able to get pictures with them.

He sure was excited to see that his sissy was able to get out of school early and make it to his program.  He made sure he sang extra loud so that Ellie could be sure and hear him.  I love just that these two are such good friends.  I hope that they always stay friends.  I makes my heart happy!

He had to make sure none of his friends were around when Ellie was kissing him on the cheek.  I mean how embarrassing would it have been if someone would have seen her kissing her brother.  :)

Spring Break and Lazy Days

Spring Break is upon us, and we have decided that we would like to spend our days making fun treats and being lazy.  Any day that my kids can take where mom does not hound them about getting dressed and doing their hair is a great day for these two.  

 Day  one of Spring break we made and decorated Giant sugar and chocolate chip cookies.  The kids loved being creative with these cookies, but the part they loved most is that mom let them eat them.

Ellie worked so hard on her swirls with a big pink flower on top.  She later admitted that maybe she had added a little too much sugar to the top of her cookie. 

 Jake sure was proud of all the designs he made on his cookie.  He would have like to add more icing to his cookie, but mom felt it would be best to just call this cookie the best finished cookie we had seen.

 Proud kids with their beautiful master pieces.  They sure were proud of their work!

  On day 3 of our Spring Break we decided that we would take peeps and dip them in white chocolate, then add lots of fun sugery sprinkles to our peeps.

 Jake absolutely loved adding hats and clothes to his peeps.  

  Ellie took a little more time on each of her peeps.  She wanted each one to be perfect.

 Both kids are feeling very accomplished.

 The best part of working so hard to make fancy little peeps is being able to eat them in the end.  At least that is the opinion of these to cute kiddos of mine.

 Between the sugar filled crafts we wrote missionaries, watched lots of movies, colored in new coloring books, jumped on the trampoline, and stayed in jammies as long as possible.  

Grandpa and Grandma

 My dad was recently engaged, and he brought up his fiance for us to get to know better, and for me to do engagement pictures for them.  I love how happy my dad seems, and am glad he has finally found someone who seems to make him very happy.  I don't know that I have seen my dad as happy as he is with Anna May in a long time.  She loves him, and loves to baby him and take care of him.  My dad needs this.  He has always been the one to show all the love in his relationships both with my mom and with his ex.  It made my heart happy to see that Anna May doted on my dad as much as he doted on her, and I hope that they have an enjoyable life together.

 Ellie was quite the helper with taking pictures.  She did everything she could to make sure that we got some good pictures, from holding up grandpas jacket to block the sun, to blocking the wind when it picked up.  She is such a good girl, and I am lucky to be her mom.

 Two very happy kiddos to have grandparents here to love them and spoil them with hugs and kisses.

I just love how happy these to make each other.  They are so affectionate towards each other, and I had to remind them about the no PDA rule.  HA!

The Big 10! Happy Birthday Jake

                   The TEN things I love most about Jake

1-  He never goes a day without dishing out compliments, be it to me, his dad, teachers at school, strangers.  

2-  Jake is a friend to all.  Even if someone is mean to him, he finds ways to be nice to them.

3-  He has freckles, so many freckles that we try to name the new ones every day.  LOVE THIS!

4-  Jake loves writing letters to me and his dad thanking us for all we do for him.  

5-  He loves helping out around the house.  He does not go to bed at night unless his room is clean.

6-  Jake has a great singing voice, and I love listening to him sing at the top of his lungs.

7-  Jake takes pride in how he looks-  his hair, and clothes always have to be picture ready.  :)

8-  Jake is a pleaser.  He does his best to please those around him.

9-  He is such a smart kid, and works hard in school

10-  He is my son, and I am thankful to my Father in Heaven for allowing me to be this boys mom.

Phat Cats in Ogden has a movie ride where you lay in the seat and watch a roller coaster ride on screen and the chair moves up and down and shakes,rattles and rolls.

Ray and I let Jake decide between a birthday party and Phat Cats.  He chose to spend the day with his family at Phat Cats, then we went shopping and let him choose his gifts and then we did dinner and picked up a birthday cake.  He said it was one of his best birthdays. 

 Can't believe my baby is 10.  There is a big part of me that is so sad to not have little ones in my house, to not have a kid who relies completely on me all the time.  But there is also a big part of me that is glad to be out of that stage of life.  I love that my kids are getting big, that they can do for themselves a bit more, and that they can carry on conversations with me.  I loved having them small, but I am loving the stage of life both my kids are in.  

St. Patties Day Fun

 This year St. Patties day I decided to make the kids breakfast for dinner.  They were both really excited to eat green chocolate chip leprechauns, green eggs, and green chocolate milk.  For dessert they had mint chocolate chip ice cream.

Life in forward Motion (long post with no pictures)

It seems so odd to me that life can often feel so fast forward at times and then can stand still and you feel like the world has stopped spinning.  The last time I blogged we had just spent Christmas with our 2nd exchange student Karolina from Norway, and we were excited about the upcoming year with our new student Paulina from Germany.  Life for our family seemed to be looking bright and exciting with many new adventures coming our way.  And then we hit a road block and faced some problems with Karolina which made it impossible for her to remain in our home.  Both for the safety of our children, and for the moral compass in which we hold fast to, we had to say goodbye.  I was set on not allowing anymore students in my home until the exchange company we were involved in reminded me that we had already approved a student from Germany, and that it would seem unfair to not allow her to come to our home based on our experience with Karolina.  So, I hesitantly agreed and we welcomed Paulina to our home in August.  This experience seemed like it would me much better than the last, and we moved forward with smiles on our faces but a hesitation as to what the future would hold for this experience.  We quickly found that this student would be very selfish in her everyday life, and that it didn't matter what plans we had made as a family, if it didn't include what she wanted or expected she would see to it that everyone was miserable.  Add a new boyfriend and his family to the mix and we soon found that we as a family felt as miserable and unhappy as we were with the last student.  We soon found that she was telling the boyfriends and his family everything that we would talk about in privacy in our home and we soon felt violated.  Life as we knew it became very miserable.  After talking with the exchange company, we found that it was her goal to move out of our home and so Ray jumped on the opportunity to send her on her way and regain our families happiness.  It has been hard trying to regain normalcy after having students in our home since 2011, but we are getting there and loving our new found freedoms of not having to entertain a teenager every second of every day.  It is amazing to me to see just how happy my kids are to not have an exchange student in our home. It makes me feel guilty and selfish that I put them in this situation in the first place.  I now know that we should have stopped after our first student.  Elena was what we call a poster child for exchange companies and students.  She did everything perfect, from respecting our rules, to being apart of our family while here in America, and making every moment count.  We now look forward to Elena coming for a 1 month visit the end of July to the end of August, and will be sad to see her go.

Our lives however have not just stopped.  We have been busy with finishing the gutting and remodeling  of Rays mothers home in Idaho, along with continuous work on our home.  Ray finally made time to put in my new kitchen/dining room flooring and baseboards, I am almost done staining all of my kitchen and bathroom cabinets, I am about 3/4 of the way done with painting the main floor, and hallway up stairs, I finally finished Jake's room and have the lower half of Ellie's room to paint.  We also hope to have our basement remodel complete before the end of summer.  Our poor, poor yard will hopefully get some attention this summer as well because Ray has decided that he wants a deck off the dining room, and who wants to look at an ugly yard when sitting on a new deck?  It seems like we will never be finished with what we want to accomplish with this home of ours, but slowly I think I am seeing a little light at the end of our tunnel.

Ellie and Jake have both been doing quite well in school and it amazes me how big they are getting.  It seems like I blinked and they were big.  Ellie is just finishing up the 7th grade, and will officially be in Middle school next year.  Jake is just finishing up 4th grade, and will be on his last year as an elementary student next year.  My kids are both old enough now to be left home without adult supervision, and that it extremely weird to think about.  Ellie is almost officially a teenager, and with that comes that ever so lovely teenage attitude.  I find myself wondering on some days if she will survive to adulthood.  Jake is still a constant ball of energy and wears me out on most days between his constant need to be on the move and his need to always have some kind of sports ball in his hand and all the attention.  I am however grateful that he can now sleep through the entire night without night terrors or being woken up by the lovely dogs in our neighborhood.  I used to dream of the day that we would get a full nights sleep, but did not really know if it would ever happen.  Jake has made so many strides in his life, and although he still has many struggles, I can now look back and see just how much he has accomplished and am very thankful.  Both kids are taking piano and I love that they are now able to sit down and play little songs on the piano.  It makes my heart happy to have music in my home.

We had to re-home our little Shih-Tzu Maddi.  We were all very sad to see her go,  but with Jake's severe allergies it has been nice to see him sneezing a little less, and to have him not taking his allergy medication and inhaler as often as he was needing to take them.  It is hard to not have a pet in our family, but it is something that we can live without just knowing that Jake is healthier because of it.

I am hopeful that I will be able to keep up on my blogging, and am looking forward to making my blog into a book, although I know it is going to be quite costly being that I have 7 books that need printing by the end of this year.  It will be worth it though when we can sit as a family and look back at what has happened in our lives.

News of the New Exchange Student

We are happy to announce that we have recieved our slot from the Box Elder County School District, and will be hosting another student in the coming school year. 
We will welcome Paulina Gundlach to our home in the first part of August.  We will be hosting another German girl.  We are so excited to get to learn more about her, and share our life with her.
This will make our 3rd student in 3 years, and we are still finding that we are just as excited and just as nervous as when we welcomed our first student from Germany and the second from Norway.  The kids are so excited to have yet another big sister in our home, and we look forward to making many memories with her.