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1st first day of school

Our family has four different days this school year when it will be someone's first day of school. Today it was Jaxon and Jake. Kyson will be on the same track as them but since he is in Kindergarten, he doesn't start for another week. We had a super short summer this year (3 weeks) but it was fun. We did lots of fun things and ended the summer with a camping trip that I will blog about as soon as I get my pictures organized. Jake and Jaxon both said that they had a good first day and they both liked their teachers. Since we changed tracks this year, they don't know many kids in their classes but I'm sure they'll have lots of friends in no time!

Our new teenager!

Today is Jadon's 13th birthday. It doesn't seem very long ago that he thought he would never be 13 and would be able to see PG-13 movies. Now he can't wait to be 15 so that he can legally start driving. It's so weird to think I'm old enough to be the mom of a teenager!

We celebrated his birthday last night. We went out to dinner as a family at his favorite restaurant, La Luna. We let him order a triple order of smothered burritoes so he could have some for lunch today.

After dinner, he had a party with some friends and we went bowling. They seemed to have a good time. I think they had the best time making up silly bowler names on the computer screen for each other. I'm glad that Jadon has good friends to hang out with. I'm really proud of the person Jadon is growing up to be. He does the right thing. He is a great student and is very responsible. Although he likes to tease his siblings, he's a good brother. He likes to spend time with me and that makes me happy. He is always up for an adventure and doesn't like to be bored. He's a good worker and is always looking for ways to earn money. I hope he continues to be the good kid that he is. He's a great son and I love him! Happy Birthday Jadon!

15 people for dinner!

My sister-in-law, Kris, is in labor tonight so we had all her kids over for the night. We also had 2 of Lisa's kids over for the evening to play. So with all that, we had 15 people at our house. We decided to pick up in-n-out for dinner and bring it back home. I love that I was able to feed 15 people for under $50.00. In-n-out is awesome! The kids had a great time eating outside and then playing together outside all night. Gladys got to our house around 9:30 and took some of Kris's kids (plus Jake) home and the rest are sleeping here while they wait for the arrival of their baby brother.

A great night out with the girls!

My best friend, Amy, is back in town. She moved to North Carolina 8 months ago and this is the first visit back. It was so great to see her and be with her again! This afternoon we spent a few hours shopping together. Then we got together with club ladies and went to the temple. It was so great to be together in the temple.

After our temple session, we went out to eat at one of our favorite restaurants, Outback Steakhouse. We had such a great time together! It was like the last 8 months was only a week. It's so great to have a friend who you can pick things up with, right where you left off the last time you saw each other. I really have missed Amy and am so thankful that I will be able to spend the next 2 days with her. She's a wonderful friend!

Bye Honey!

Well, it has been a long week with Honey. Let me first say that this is a very sweet dog! We feel so bad for her. She has been terrified in our home. Of course, our home is not the quietest place on earth, but this poor thing is afraid of her shadow(and everyone else's). She has had a very difficult week. So far, we have learned that in this new environment, she is afraid of ceiling fans, basketballs, dogs barking in the distance, absolutely any noise she is not expecting, Katie, our backyard and among other things, most of all fire crackers (unfortunately we had to find this out because of unaware neighbors. No, we were not stupid enough to purposely expose her to a loud bang.). And I should say that she clearly does not like Katie and is scared of her, BUT she is ultra patient and tolerant with her. We have been careful letting Katie get around her, but Honey hasn't made any aggressive gestures toward her at all. When we first noticed that this may not be just normal acclimation, we tried to do everything we could to learn how to help her, including working with the breeder and two professional trainers. What we have come to realize is that if she ever got comfortable in our home, it would only be after a few months of hard work on everyone's part. Our concern is that in the meantime, she may be damaged. So after consulting with the trainers and the breeder, we are sad to say that Honey is going back home. This has been one of the hardest decisions we have ever had to make. But everyone involved believes she will have a much better chance with perhaps a retired couple or a family with maybe up to two older kids. So, thanks to a breeder who obviously cares about Honey enough to work with us to get her the right home, and refund money (which they usually don't do, or have to do), she will be back home on Monday. While I am sad to see her go and sad that we couldn't make her see what a great home she would have here, I am excited to get her back to a familiar place so she will feel safe again. It is surprising how much you can learn from a week like this. Not only about dogs, but about ourselves and our family. Though, it has been hard on Honey, I am grateful for the opportunity we had to care for her. We pray that she will end up in a quiet home and have happiness! Bye Honey!

Candy Store Fieldtrip

Since our kids have such a short summer, I want to make it as fun as possible. My friend, Suzy, arranged for a group of us to go on a tour at the Sweets candy factory. It was fun to see how the candies are made and samples were the best. I let the kids pick out their own assortment of salt water taffy to take home. On the way home, we stopped at the car wash to get the van washed. The kids thought that was just as fun as the candy shop. After we got home Kyson said "Mom, I want to go to the candy store and the car wash again someday. That was so fun!"

New family member

After many many years of begging and 9 months of Kierra keeping her room clean, I finally gave in to the kids desire to get a dog. Her name is "Honey" and she is a 2 year old Golden Retriever. I have always loved Golden Retrievers so I decided if I had to have a dog, I wanted it to be this kind.

Last Saturday Dale started looking on-line for Golden Retriever puppies. He came across the web-site of a breeder who was selling Honey because she wouldn't be able to have puppies. We went back and forth between the idea of getting a puppy or Honey. We decided it would be better for our family to get an older, already trained, dog.

So we called the breeder and told her we wanted to get Honey. The breeder lives in Logan so we all took a trip to Logan yesterday to get her. We were able to see her with the trainer. She has been trained to come, sit, stay, fetch etc...When she first saw us she was very shy. She hid behind the legs of the trainer just like a little kid would. It was sad. She was very nervous to come home with us. She is very nervous and shy and keeps looking for her previous owner. They said it would take a couple of weeks before she would acclamate to a new home. We are excited for her to get to know us so we can play with her. She is a very gentle dog. I haven't heard her bark yet. I think she will be a great dog for our family!

July 4th (part 2)

We spent the actual 4th of July with Dale's mom in Pocatello. We had so much fun! We started out by going to a patriotic concert in the park. My kids couldn't believe how many "old" people were there. It was so nice to sit outside and listen to Patriotic music. They even passed out free ice cream cones to everyone. You don't see that in Utah very often.

Katie was very entertaining for the senior citizens. She kept going over to them and talking to them and showing them her ice cream cone. They loved her and it was fun to see them playing with her.

After the concert, we went to with Dale's aunt and uncle to their church for fireworks. His uncle bought some fireworks and sparklers for the kids to do. The kids had a great time with that. Their church had tons of food for us to eat. When it was dark, we watched the Pocatello city fireworks. They actually put on a very good and long show. So long that the kids started falling asleep at the end. The next day, on the way out of town, we ate lunch at Ross Park. I don't know what it is about that place but I love it. I love going to Pocatello. It is such a fun little town.

Happy 4th of July!

I love the 4th of July!!! I love patriotic clothes and decorations, Bar-B-Qs, fireworks, songs about America, parades and playing outside. Tonight, to celebrate the 4th, we had a Bar-B-Q with some of our friends. There were 14 kids there and they all had a great time playing outside while the adults visited. After we had yummy steaks for dinner we went to watch fireworks in Sandy. I had been here before several years ago and it was great. Not too crowded and awesome fireworks. When we got there tonight I quickly found out that this spot has gotten more popular through the years because it was packed! We did find a spot to set up our blankets and the kids once again had a great time together. They got their glow sticks on and danced to the music while eating snacks! The fireworks were cool but a building was kind of in our way. Oh well, it was still fun! I really love to watch fireworks! Tomorrow, after church, we are headed up to Pocatello to visit Dale's mom and she is going to take us to a patriotic concert in the park and we will get to see more fireworks. I'm excited because I love going to Pocatello. I get to eat at Ross Park drive-in. Yummy!

Last day of school

Today was the last day of school for my kids in elementary school. It seems like every year the school year goes by faster. It was a great year for everyone! All 3 kids had fantastic report cards! Jake had my favorite teacher, Mrs. Newman, this year. She is a wonderful teacher and everyone loves her as much as she loves them. I am very thankful for her patience with Jake this year and we will miss her next year.

Jaxon and Kayla were in the same class this year and have a great relationship. Jaxon does a good job watching out for Kayla. Jaxon was the only kid in his class who did enough book reports to get black-out bingo. I'm very proud of his desire to be the best.
Kierra and Kamry also have a great friendship. They have never been in the same class but as they are going into 6th grade we have decided to allow them to be in the same class together. They are very excited. This means that Kierra will be on a different track then the boys so she gets a longer summer. The boys only get 3 weeks and she will have 6.

School's out! When I picked up the kids today, they were very excited to share the news that our school will be changing their start time from 8:30 to 9:00 next year. I was actually glad to hear this news. I think that having that extra half hour in the morning will be great for all of us. After school was over, we all went to our favorite pizza buffet at Mountain Mikes then to see Toy Story 3. It was a cute movie and thanks to my friend, Suzy, I got to enjoy the movie and not have to deal with Katie. It's been a great year and now we have to try and have a fun three week summer!