Last week of school 8-)

It's finally here!! The last week of school. Sierra will be busy with yearbooks, Lagoon Day, 9th grade promotion, and her 15th Birthday party on Friday!! Luckily for her, no drill practice this week (thank goodness!).

Justice and Montana will have field games, lunch barbeques, and a carnival after school on Friday!!

This is always a fun week, but I am sure by next Monday they will be bored already!!

Montana Marie :-)

Looking at Montana this morning I am honestly shocked at how quickly she is growing up. Not only physically but mentally as well. She has already entered the "pre-teen phase". She has mastered the texting on the phone all morning and night, the rolling of the eyes when I ask her to do something, the constant phone calls/texts from her friends requesting sleepovers or "hanging out", the sending of e-mails without help, etc. etc.

She still wants to cuddle (yay) and have me carry her to bed- which I cannot do now because the kid is practically full grown! Her appetite is voracious!! She eats constantly- and always has- but now she is conscious of calories, fat, and working out. She and Sierra are always working out together- which is fine- I prefer for them to know that you have to be aware of the calories in/calories out equation- but I see her looking in the mirror and pinching her skin and wondering if she is fat. WHICH SHE IS DEFINITELY NOT!! The outfits she picks are much more trendy, color coordinated and so cute on her!! The hair- is the one thing she has not become crazy about-yet! She keeps trying to shave her legs- but momma keeps telling her- NOT YET! You're only 9 for crying out loud!!

She has always been a story writer and illustrator. Her stories are very important to her. Her latest story was a love story and full of the drama of break-up, crying, and then finding a love that would never die!! The drawings were fantastic. It's so fun to see how even her writing is taking on a grown-up twist. This kid is so lovable!! It's hard to watch your kids grow up- but I am trying to enjoy it and help her enjoy it too! So far so good!

What a weekend!

We had so much fun this weekend- and got so much done. It feels like the last 4 days have been two weeks long.

After church yesterday we went to decorate the graves. It was really rainy so we basically just left flowers and didn't get to do our usual shining of the stones and edging. Which was just fine. Mom cried this year- she is really missing John. We all are- it has been 18 years since John died. He is still a part of our everyday life. Can't wait to see you again buddy! I will hug you and kiss you, and then shake you and kick you right in the butt! After the decorating mom invited the Mc family over for a BBQ! My family is always a hoot. Lots of hugs, laughs, and food. The kids had so much fun they didn't want to leave, and ended up sleeping over. Fine with me.

Then today we FINALLY got the kids settled into their new rooms. This has literally taken forever to accomplish but we are so happy with the results. Thank you so much dad for helping me disassemble and reassemble the beds. That ended up being a lot harder than I had anticipated. I could not have done it without you! The kids are soooo happy and the rooms look great!! We still need to paint and decorate- but that will be a piece of cake now! And that can wait for another day. We are all exhausted. We need a day to recover- but there will be no rest for the weary. Back to normal tomorrow. Can't wait for summer!

Once we got that accomplished- I took the kids swimming to celebrate- and to relax! It was so nice. The kids were being very adventurous today. Justice went down the slide several times by himself. I waited at the bottom- but then he decided he didn't need me because he could land and even go under the water and would be just fine. Montana was jumping off the side of the pool into the deep end, floating on her back, practicing her strokes. She is so proud of herself. They can't wait to start swim lessons now. Sierra decided not to come and went to spend time with Ari (her new best friend from Drill). So it was just me and the little ones.

Pet Project

I was cornered at church today and found out that "a little birdy" told someone that we need a lot of work done on our house. I wasn't sure what to think about this at first but after the initial embarassment I was so excited. I am not sure who is going to do it exactly but it sounds like a bunch of different organizations: the boy scouts, the young men, and the elders in the ward are coming together to do the fix it projects in our home. The Elders Q president is coming on Tuesday to find out exactly what we need done. The first project that we discussed (that he already knew about) was the railing on the deck and down the deck stairs. They are worried about the safety issue of that. So that will be done first. We have just gotten use to it after two years. Also the fence needs to be fixed because Roxy keeps getting out and it is literally falling over. He wants me to show him anything that needs fixing. Should I really whip out my big old list?? Or just be modest and show him a handfull of the most important things? I am not sure. I just feel so blessed that in our time of need people just step in and do things for us without us even asking. That is divine intervention in my book. I am excited but nervous. I guess we will see how this irons out. It's kind of weird being a "project family". But I won't complain!!

The funnest family day ever!!

I made the kids stay home with me after playing with friends all afternoon. They all wanted to scatter to the wind for sleepovers and whatnot- but I said no. I wanted to have a family night. We worked some more on switching the rooms (it is never ending!!). We are so close. I think we could actually finish by Monday!! Wahoo! It has helped us weed out so many things that have been hanging around forever. Anyway-we had such a fun time just being together and laughing and working. We wore ourselves out after several hours and decided to have dinner and relax for a bit. After dinner we decided to play the Wii together. We all took turns trying to break weird world records (a game we borrowed from neighbors). It was seriously a riot!! We were laughing, yelling, and cheering for each other. Justice and Montana kept doing a kick line. Sierra and I could not stop laughing at them. I have not laughed that hard in a long, long time. I love my kids so much. They bring me so much joy and purpose. It's so amazing when we can just do nothing and have a great time.

Family Mini Golf Date

I have been in the dumps this past week and Grama Mc wanted to take me to do something fun to get my mind off of things. She suggested we go miniature golfing. I thought that sounded so fun. We were trying to come up with a date to go and it turned out that EVERYONE had the day off today. The kids got out of school early- of course I'm free and just brought Skyler along, mom had the day off, and dad and Grama Mc were both not busy today- so the WHOLE GANG went! It was a blast! We went to Mulligans out in South Jordan/Sandy area. It is beautiful there and a fun course. They have two different courses- so we want to go back and do it again. The weather was perfect and a nice breeze blowing. It took us a couple of hours with our huge group- but it didn't seem that long. Can't wait to go back!

Voices Spring Performances

Tomorrow is our last spring performance for Voices. It has gone by quick- but two weeks of performances is a lot of work. I have had such a great time with these sweet ladies who put up with me. I think after 5 months I am finally making some progress with my voice. Yesterday I had my vocal director, and the group coordinator tell me how great I sounded. I was so happy to hear this because usually I am getting direction from everyone on tone, diction, note correction, etc. So that put a big smile on my face.

We have performed for several nursing homes, senior centers, our friends and family concert, and today we performed at a very very special school. It's called Jordan Valley School- a school for physically and mentally disabled "children"- from 5-adult. It was amazing. They were clapping and dancing and singing along. You could just feel the love in the room. All the staff and teachers have a great attitude and genuinely care for these kids. I feel so blessed to have been able to bring some happiness/entertainment to people we have performed for. We love to see the tears, and when people sing along, or smile- it makes all the rehearsal hours totally worth it! It's been amazing. I hope I will be able to do the Christmas season- but I will have to see what happens with the job situation. I will post some pics tomorrow after our last performance!