Weekly Wrap-up

This week was the first week of Joy School and we got to have it at our house. We have 4 kids this year from 3 families. We spent the week learning about the rules and routines we'll be using throughout the year. It should be a fun group this year. McKade loves Joy School so much that I'm pretty sure he's gonna be upset when he doesn't get to move on the next house!
The weekend ended up being soooo busy for us. On Friday we went to the last Orem Owlz game of the season. The Tongs, the Hoens, and the Stuebners (don't even ask what Matt's talking about in the picture of the guys!) all joined us and Ben's work was actually there so we saw a lot of people we knew. It was such a beautiful night but freezing!! Fall is definitely heading our way. The game was really, really, really long but the kids had a fun time playing around despite being cold. Poor Jayme even caught a home run ball...with his leg! Ouch!!! He had a giant bruise and was hobbling around at the end but hopefully he'll be okay. We toughed it out until the end of the game to see a short but awesome fireworks display. It was a fun way to end the summer!!
So despite our very late night at the game, we still dragged ourselves out of bed on Saturday morning to head up to downtown SLC to the Star Wars Event at Pottery Barn. This was some exclusive even that you had to get tickets for so we're thinking it sounded really cool. Um, after 45 minutes of standing in line and then getting to see a total of 4 Star Wars guys for like 1 minute, we weren't too thrilled. The kids even thought it was dumb and that's saying something!! Afterwards we gave in to our kid's pleadings and headed to IKEA for a bit. Who would think IKEA would be more exciting than Star Wars?!? So sad.
Today we had Regional Conference. I didn't go because I'm 8 months pregnant and honestly don't think I could have sat on a hard metal chair for two hours besides the fact that Kade would spend the entire two hours pounding away on his new-found "drum." Ben and Skylar headed off and I stayed home with the boys so we missed out but I heard it was good.
Later we went up to my parent's house to celebrate August and September birthdays. We had a good dinner and a nice night until....poor Kade hurt his arm. He was playing with a cousin and then started crying. He wouldn't lift his arm at all and cried if we touched it. If Kade is crying over getting hurt it usually means he's really hurt because he's such a rough and tumble kid that he's always banging into something and doesn't ever cry. He's had his arm dislocated twice already so I was hoping that was all it was but since I didn't see what happened, I didn't want to just pop it back in blindly. Needless to say, we took off and headed straight to the pediatrician's office-thank goodness they have after-hours. After a long wait-I never knew Sunday nights were so busy!- we finally saw the doctor and yes, it was dislocated. A quick twist and a few minutes later, Kade was back in business eating a fruit snack and happy. The doctor said it'll probably keep happening until he's around 5! Poor Kade!! We're glad it's a quick fix though and he's fine. We love you Kadybug!

And Then There Was One

So this last weekend we finally found the last home for our giant litter of kittens. To say we feel relieved is an understatement. The first to go was little Frodo. He actually ended going to our friends, the Chadwicks, which made Skylar happy since she was really attached to him. The hope that she'll see him again made it so much better, although he didn't get away without many tears and Kade's pouting every day, especially at bedtime, "I miss Frodo."
After that, we averaged about a kitten a day disappearing (with tears from Sky every time!!) and Soffee spending the night walking around letting out her sweet little meow (she doesn't EVER meow!) in search of her lost little one. I just felt so bad for her! Can you imagine your children just being gone like that?! I think she's finally come to the realization that they've all gone, except for the one we kept, Cali. Her name has actually been changed to Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious since she can't just be Cali when her mom has a cool name like Barrus Offee. The kids like to call her Super Cali. Anyway, we decided to keep her because she was Skylar's 2nd favorite and Nick really wanted one with orange on it. She really is a pretty cat. She and Soffee get along well so I think we made a good choice. Soffee's even started playing with her! Although I think Soffee was bummed about the whole vanishing kittens thing, she seems like she's finally comfortable and not starving anymore!! She was so famished all the time feeding six kittens. It's soooo nice to be back to two cats again. Ben is so happy that his current kitty litter duties are back to "normal"! Thanks babe!!! I totally owe you but our baby will thank you!! Welcome (permanently) Super Cali!!!

First Day of Preschool!

Tuesday was Nick's first day of preschool! He was soooo excited!!! He is taking it from a lady that is in the neighborhood next to ours. My friend, Angie's cute twin boys, Caden and Carsen, are taking it there too and Nick thinks they are about the coolest kids on Earth. He calls it the "Caden Carsen preschool". He has been asking everyday for weeks when he was going to get to start. He had such a great day and really loved it! Wednesday was also Nick's first day of preschool! Confused? So were we! There is a preschool at our Elementary school that Nick was given the opportunity to be in. The great thing about it was that it was free!! The bad thing was that it is the same amount of time as kindergarten-everyday of the week for 3 hours!! While some may think that sounds great, I was not too excited about it. Nick is still just so little. I wasn't ready for him to be gone so long and I don't think he's ready for it either, especially since he still really needs a nap every afternoon. He was not at all happy about going to the school preschool. He wanted to be with his buddies and he kept saying, "But Mom, you'll miss me!!" So true!! Anyway, I decided to at least try it and so he went on Wednesday. He said it was okay but he wasn't nearly as excited about it as the other one.

We didn't do preschool with Skylar-just Joy School. Skylar was one of those kids that knew all her ABC's and 123's by 3 and was ready to read at 4. Nick is completely opposite! He is way more interested in the temperature on Pluto or the amazing abilities of each and every superhero. Just this morning he was looking at a Superhero book and Kade asked him who a guy was and he replied " That's Red Skull. He fights Captain America." What? I've never even heard of him. But ask Nick which letter is L is and he could care less. The only letters he really cares about are X for X-men and T for Teen Titans. Silly kid! Ben and I haven't been to concerned because we know he's a smart kid but his interests just lie in different places, which is fine. Anyway, we did decide to do an academic preschool so that he could have some more exposure before starting kindergarten next year. I want the whole academic thing to be positive for him and I want him to be happy about it from the beginning.

So, anyway, after me losing much sleep over the whole issue and stressing out half of this week, we have decided to stick with the first preschool. We are also doing Joy School again and I felt like I had an obligation to my friends that I do Joy School with, to stick with it. We couldn't possible do both Joy School and the school's preschool. That would beyond too much! Plus, I love Joy School and the time I get to spend with my kids learning about the joys of life! After finally deciding last night, already I feel so much better than I have all week and Nick is ecstatic that he gets to go to the Caden Carsen preschool! I hope he has a great year and above all, has fun! That's what a being a kid is all about!!!

Thank goodness the Olympics are over...I'm pooped!!!

Okay so have I ever expressed my love for DVRs? They are seriously the coolest things!! They put me in charge of when I want to and can watch TV. Plus, I love the fact that I don't have to watch commercials!!! I have completely decided that they are a necessity for watching the Olympics!!! Every night during the Olympics I was able to view all 4-5 hours of prime time in about 2 hours or so. Most of this was on fast forward, of course. But, needless to say, I became a little obsessed. If I didn't watch, everything would be spoiled the next morning when I opened the newspaper or got online so, as much as my poor pregnant body needed the sleep, I tried my best to watch every night! I have never before been this into the Olympics and I definitely have my DVR to thank-or curse!!

Here were the highlights for me:

Swimming!! All around! I mentioned before the whole Michael Phelps thing! He was amazing!! But all of the USA swimmers blew my mind! Dara Torres was awesome! Ben and I loved how she was such the mother hen with the young swimmers less than half her age. Then, she went out and totally kicked their butts! I saw her on Jay Leno last night and she mentioned even possibly shooting for London. I'll totally be rooting her on if she does!!Volleyball!! Okay, I've got a confession. Back in junior high and high school, I was always the last one picked on a team for volleyball. I was horrible! I honestly could not hit the ball, especially serve the ball for the life of me. I have avidly avoided the sport since. I seriously don't know what is wrong with me but volleyball + me = disaster. So, I am in awe of the volleyball players at the Olympics. There were so many times I thought the ball was on the ground but it popped up again. All the teams were great and inspiring-the men's team overcoming the awful tragedy they faced and the men's beach actually having to play in the gold medal match against Jaws-scary!! I totally wish I was buddies with the girls on the women's beach volleyball team because they were just so much fun and having the time of their lives. But honestly, did they have to be dressed in those skimpy swimsuits and what's up with the crazy, dancing cheerleaders?!?Gymnastics, of course!!! Sweet Skylar loved the gymnastics so much and I promised her that I would always watch it with her. This meant that I often knew the results before watching since I wasn't about to let her stay up until 11 to watch. That was a little frustrating but worth it to watch with her. Anyway, what a show! The USA gymnasts this year were awesome!! Cute little Shawn Johnson just was so fun to watch and such a good sport, always having a giant smile on her face. I wanted to cry for poor Alicia Sacramone because she was such a good leader for her team and did so well, despite her mistakes. Nastia Liukin was the most graceful gymnast I've ever seen. Wow!! I wish that she smiled more but I guess I don't blame her since they were all being totally judged unfairly in comparison to the tiny little girls on China's team. Seriously, they looked Skylar's age!! I shouldn't even get started on this since I've already yelled at the TV enough for my kids to think I'm insane but I hope it all works out in the end and Nastia gets that extra gold she deserved!!!! Diving! Okay, so I admit, that this can get a little monotonous-that's where DVRs come in so handy. But I think it's soooo cool to see some of the dives that the divers do. That they are able to twist, turn, and flip and still make it straight into the water without making a big splash or hitting their noggins on the board on the way down is just fun to watch. I hated the lady who was commenting because I'd watch this awesome dive and she would just rip it apart with her negativity!! Since the USA kinda sucked in the whole diving thing I wasn't really rooting for anyone to win but it was fun to watch!!Track and Field! My biggest problem with track and field is all the prep time where they just talk as the athletes are taking their place. Thanks again DVR! I guess the races are so short that they have to have something to fill in the time. My absolute favorite thing about the running was my cute little Nicky!! Nick loves to run!! We tried to get him to watch some races but every time the runners took off, so did he!! He would run and run around the room as fast as he could go! I don't think he watched one race! Of course, this left us cracking up. Cute kid!! Usain Bolt of Jamaica was insane to watch-I mean, was that guy human?!? Truly amazing, but I seriously think he needs a lesson from Michael Phelps about humility!!!
BMX! Okay, so this was extremely short but so cool! After watching the X-games for years I've started really enjoying BMX. It was great that it's finally in the Olympics. The next event added needs to definitely be skateboarding!!!And my new favorite Olympic event-Slalom Kayaking! I mostly watched prime time but thanks to the flu I did catch the finals for women's kayaking. I loved it! It was so much fun to watch! I was totally rooting for the 40-year old lady from the Czech Republic but she turned over. However, it gave me faith that I can maybe be an Olympian someday-I've got a few good years in me left. It looks like so much fun!!!! Anyone know where I could find a trainer for slalom kayaking???

I think I know that guy

Okay, so the whole Michael Phelps thing is basically over and I have to admit I've been pretty obsessed with it. He is beyond amazing!! Watching all his races was well worth all the sleep that I missed. What an awesome athlete- truly awe-inspiring! The crazy thing is that he looks almost identical to my nephew, Mark!! Every time I'd see him after a race, I'd just be amazed at the resemblance. Then, last night, I watched an interview that he did and I could have sworn he was Mark. They are both great guys with awesome attitudes and the ability to achieve so much! Needless to say, I have become a huge Michael Phelps fan-I only wish there was more to watch!!!

First Day of First Grade!!

The first day of school went great! Skylar was up at the crack of dawn-the crack of dawn in our home is 7 since that's the earliest we roll! She was totally dressed and ready all by herself and practically jumping out of her seat with anticipation. This was great because I was highly hesitant about the whole early morning thing. Her school has two different times that they go so that the class is smaller for the whole three R's thing. One group, the Early Birds, goes an hour early and gets out an hour earlier and the other group, the Later Gators come an hour later and get out an hour later. She begged me to put her in the Early Birds since her buddies were in it and, knowing that we are not early birds, I was worried. However, the appeal of having her out of school early made my mind up and Early Birds we are! The first day of school was proof we could do it so I'm feeling good about that now.
Skylar loved the first day of school! She loves her teacher & loves that two of her best buddies are in her class with her. She said lunch was kind of challenging because she couldn't get her straw out of the package but other than that, she had a blast! The boys sure missed her and were so glad when she finally got home. I'm so glad she loves learning and has such a postive attitude about school. Skylar, you're awesome!

So what about baby #4?

MyHeritage: Family trees - Genealogy - Celebs - Collage - Morph

MyHeritage: Look-alike Meter - Yad Vashem research - Free genealogy search

MyHeritage: Family trees - Genealogy - Celebrities - Collage - Morph