1st Grade, Here We Come!

Well, let me say that I only teared up slightly (causing my voice to crack) when I kissed Emma goodbye after taking her to her classroom yesterday. I think my mourning with her was last year with Kindergarten, or possibly even the year before that when she went to official preschool. Anyway, as far as I can tell, and aside from the fact that her school lunch debut was yogurt, strawberry shortcake, green beans, & chocolate milk, her first day went alright. I am a little worried about having her do school lunch, but I figure we will just see how it goes for a couple months.

Anyway, here is Mackenna throwing her 'I-thought-I-was-going-to-school-with-Emma' tantrum. It was short-lived and quickly subsided when I told her she could skip her nap if she made it all the way home from dropping Emma at school without crying, kicking, screaming, or whining.

Here is Kenna with the puzzle she did all by herself while Emma was at school.


As it is, Kenna just met her teacher today, who is my neighbor's sister, and she is phenomenal! She seems to have a true love for kids (I don't know who in their right mind would want to be a preschool teacher, but we DO need them, afterall). I sometimes get the feeling with preschool teachers that they can't wait for the rug rats to leave at the end of the day - which I am sure is true. But she seemed genuinely looking forward to the year. At any rate, she seems great, and I am totally excited.


Tomorrow I am having my neighbor's beehives over for a cake demonstration for Young Women's. I know she feels like she is inconveniencing me, but I am actually excited to share some of what I learned in my Wilton classes. Here is a picture of the kids helping me make the cake for tomorrow - Butter Pecan with Butter Rum frosting.

I really want to start selling cakes! I figure if I offer sheet cakes for birthdays or whatever just cheaper than Costco or Sam's Club(I think theirs are like $15), then I might be able to sell them. For character cakes or stuff that is a little more involved I think I would charge $20. Anyway, Sean has been talking about getting me a web page for my cakes, and I have been thinking of making up some fliers and taking them around. But, alas, the Halloween-costume craze is almost upon me again, and I have been promising Emma a Belle dress for two years now. This year her cake is a Belle cake, so I figure I should just get it over with all together!

Good Day

Yesterday was a good day. I'll admit it didn't start out too great. I started cleaning upstairs and got annoyed and angry when I saw that during all the girls' recent cleaning sessions in their room they had been shoving stuff in their closet, under their beds, etc. You get the picture. A while ago I bought a bunch of those plastic containers with the snapping lids to put their polly pockets, ponies, barbies, barie clothes, princesses, etc. in. They were all mixed up, and that bugged me too. On top of it Spencer kept getting under my feet while I was trying to help them clean. Suffice it to say there was a lot of yelling yesterday.

But, by the time Sean went to work at 2:00 p.m., I had the entire upstairs and the entire basement (including bathrooms) cleaned, dusted, and vacuumed. That is three bathrooms and huge for me. It usually takes me a whole week to really clean my house. So, I was ecstatic. Today all I have left is putting away a ton of laundry, and then the main floor, which includes another bathroom and the kitchen, which really needs a deep-cleaning. I can't remember the last time my whole house was clean all at the same time - probably the last time we had our maid service come in. Pathetic. That was a really long time ago. Gross.


Anyway, I took the girls school clothes shopping yesterday. Emma got three new outfits, some socks, and some new shoes, and Kenna got one new outfit and a new pair of shoes. She will only be going to school Tuesdays & Thursdays, and she has at least two pairs of jeans that will probably fit her for the whole year. Hers was more of a charity thing so she wouldn't feel bad.


After Sean went to work and the cleaning was done I took the kids to the park to pass some of the time, and then we came home for dinner and a bath. The girls and I have been reading The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, so I snuggled up in Kenna's bed with the girls on either side of me and we read a chapter.
After that it was time for bed, and when I told Spencer to go give hugs & kisses to his sisters, he decided to body slam them instead. They were laying on the floor, and he totally plopped down on them with his little bum and gave them the elbow. It was funny. Then when it was time for prayers he kept giggling and that set the girls giggling too. It was the kind of moment when motherhood is a joy, which doesn't come very often at all.


On the down side, Spencer has a new battle wound. He tripped over the girls ladder to Emma's bed, which was on the floor to prevent his falling off it, and smacked his nose on the bottom of Kenna's bed frame. See the lovely blue spot right between his eyes? Will it ever end? I guess he is more accident prone due to the fact that his head is probably 80% of his body weight. He went in for his 18 month well baby on Thursday and he still only weighs 22 pounds. I think he weighed that the last time he went in at a year. Should I be worried?

Hot Dogs and Peanut Butter

I know this is my fourth post today, but I haven't really said much about our Powell trip yet. It was much better than I expected. The last year I went (2 years ago) I was pregnant with Spencer, and Mackenna was a total beast the whole time. By about 4 days into the trip I was wishing we were back home. Last year Sean took the girls by himself and Spencer and I stayed home. That was my crypto week. Anyway, Spencer wasn't any grumpier than normal, and that's saying something! He slept like a dream for the most part, and the kids were all up shortly after six every morning - nothing new there either. The girls were both very brave when it came to trying new things - Emma knee-boarded with slight bribery
(one more barbie has joined our family), and Kenna tried swimming without holding on to anyone or a noodle, and did great!
They also both tried new food (well, new to them). I am ecstatic. Until now Kenna would not go near peanut butter, and Emma wouldn't touch a hot dog to save her life. I am proud to say that Kenna will now eat PB & honey sandwiches, and Emma has eaten two hot dogs since we've been home. Emma also tried breakfast sausage which she wouldn't go near in the past, and liked it! Sausage is one of Kenna's favorite things for breakfast, so I am stoked. Emma also tried frog-eye salad, which the girls haven't been too sure about in the past. I can't say it enough - how excited I am. Now if we have hot dogs for dinner, I don't have to make a PB sandwich for Emma. Now if Emma is having PB for lunch, Kenna can have it too! My life just got exponentially easier.


In other news, Spencer is trying to imitate every word he hears (hot, walk, nap, bath, etc.). He has also starting piecing sentences together. While we were at the lake the girls started talking about Dodger and Spencer says "dodgie.....whe-ah-u?". Another time someone was leaving the boat for something and he said "bye-bye.....i-uh-u". It was seriously so cute. He was walking down the hall of the houseboat and I called, "Spencer?" He turned around and called back "Wha?" So funny. He is getting so big so fast.

Emma is totally jazzed for 1st grade to start on Monday. (By the way, who else was bugged by Jasper's new nickname?) Okay, sorry for the sidebar. Kenna doesn't start preschool until September 9th, so I have a feeling we might have a difficult couple of weeks ahead.

I just read on stepheniemeyer.com that Twilight is coming to theaters three weeks early! The release date is now November 21st - due to the fact that Harry Potter six isn't being released until next summer. Bittersweet.


Angela Sedgwick just told me that the third Eragon book, Brisingr (sp?) is coming out in a couple weeks - I am stoked! I thought we had until October. Guess I'd better read Eldest real quick again!


Well, that's all for now, I guess. Glad to be home - but I have tons to do. There is both clean and dirty laundry all over, and I haven't cleaned any part of my house really good in.....well, too long. My goal is to have the house spotless and all the laundry caught up and put away before Emma goes to school on Monday.

Wish me luck!

Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity-Jig

So we are home from Amy's wedding. I am so much more exhausted than I thought I would be. Having eight children under the age of 7 all under the same roof for 4 days, minus two of the childrens' mother, almost did me in. Not to mention I came home with a wicked cold. All my kids have it too. It is that butt-kicking cold that just knocks you out. Of course, it couldn't help that we got to the airport 2 hours before our flight yesterday and our flight took off an hour and a half late. We also had an extra kid with us - my niece Hailey. Thank goodness all the girls were good on the plane and Spencer finally tuckered out. I'm sure the 7 1/2 hours of airport/airplane time would have been unbearable if not for that.

I think another reason that this cold is kicking my butt is that I mentally and physically exhausted myself trying to finish Breaking Dawn before we left Cal. We went to Costco on Saturday to pick it up, and when I didn't see a huge display near the front (or even near the book-area) I freaked. They only had about 40 or so copies wedged between the kids books and the cookbooks. WHAT THE HECK. Is the obsession a Utah thing? I doubt it. Anyway, my heart rate decreased to normal when I finally had the book in my hands. I started reading in the car on the way home from Costco, and I finished in the car yesterday on the way to the airport. I want to talk about the book, but I know that everyone who ordered in on Amazon probably just got it yesterday, so I don't want to spoil anything for anyone. I will just say that it wasn't totally what I expected, but I am happy just the same. And I could definitely see where a sequel could come in. Happy reading to all of you! In a couple weeks I will totally devote a whole blog post to what I liked/didn't like about it. Mandee, if you want to call me we can totally talk about it!!! (801-678-9504) As long as Sean's not around - though he just started yesterday when I finished and he only has about 1/4 of the book left, big jerk. Just kidding, honey, I love you! You are just a way faster reader than me. Maybe I should've let you read it first. Although I know you would be smirking at me all the time, and I'm not sure I could handle that.

Anyway, I haven't had the energy to download photos from the wedding yet. The girls looked so cute in their dresses, and Amy looked gorgeous, of course. Maybe I will put a slideshow on here of the pics.

We have pack meeting for cub scouts tonight, I have bills to pay, laundry to do, milk to buy, and library books to return. HELP ME.

Last Cake

Well, last night was my final Wilton class. I am relieved in a way - it takes a lot of prep work. But it is nice to have an out once a week from the house, and it is a lot of fun. Now I just have to stay in practice!

The basketweave is pretty easy once you practice a little, but ouch - your hand totally hurts after. And it's touch to keep track of the pattern too. The flowers and leaves are royal icing and the birds are color flow.

The last few days I have been recovering from Day Camp and getting ready to fly out to California for my SIL's wedding tomorrow. (The wedding is Friday). Anyway, this is kind of a boring post, but I wanted the pics of my cake on here at least!

One more thing. I have been religiously checking stepheniemeyer.com every day for the Breaking Dawn quote of the day. Anyway, apparently Stephenie revealed one thing that happens in her 4th book on ew.com. Here is the link if you are intersted. It's not a spoiler, since she told them herself. If you want to be surprised, then don't go there!
http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20215228,00.html

24th at Lagoon

So my family came up from Elsinore for the 24th, and we invited ourselves to go to Lagoon with them. I was pretty worried about how the kids (particularly Spencer) would do there. Especially since we were planning on staying for fire works. Give me a break, the kid goes to bed by 7 p.m. usually. Aside from only being able to go on a handful of rides, he did fine. He didn't get fussy until we sat down to wait for fireworks. Anyway, it was a good day. I have a million pictures thanks to my mom and sister, but there are too many to choose from, and I'm sure you're not all that interested in another slideshow anyway!


Friday was fun too. We went to see The Dark Knight with my parents, and left the bratties with my brothers and sister. Let me just say it is sweet justice. I used to babysit them when they were brats (what do you mean when?), and now they got to babysit mine. If all goes well, my brats will be babysitting their brats too. The movie was good. I didn't like it as much as Batman Begins, though. Heath Ledger's acting was definitely Oscar material though. So sad that he is gone.

Saturday I was at Day Camp with 15 hyper cub scouts. The upside was that I had awesome parents/leaders to hang out with. It was a lot of fun. The boys did archery, boating, bb guns, knots, etc. I think we had too many boys in our group for the leaders to really get involved, but it was a good day. And the best part is....I don't have to think about it again for a whole year!

I am already stressing out about this week. We leave for California for Amy's wedding on Thursday morning. I still haven't made my white polka-dot shrug to go with my dress, and I haven't really done laundry for about two weeks. On top of that I have my final Wilton class on Tuesday, and I have to make a 2-layer oval cake and two batches of butter cream icing. I was going to do the shrug today, since that is kind of more a hobby than actually working (Sunday), but I ended up taking a three-hour nap with the kids instead. Probably won't be hearing from me again until after the wedding!

In closing I would like to leave something extremely positive. Spencer had his first day in nursery today, and it came off without a hitch. His teachers said he did great - he didn't cry at all, and, HALELUJAH, they didn't even bring him to me! Yay!

One last thing: this is what I want to get printed on a black t-shirt to go to the twilight movie. I swear, all I did between classes at church was talk about twilight with everyone. It is the next Harry Potter. Maybe even better. Okay, definitely better. I mean, we didn't even get to see Harry and Ginny get back together!

Movie Review - Penelope

Sooooo adorable. And pretty clean, too. Let me just say James McAvoy is rapidly climbing into my top 10 pool. He is such a good actor and has a definite charisma. Although I still have a hard time picturing him without furry legs and a tail (Chronicles of Narnia). Anyway, it is a super cute story about loving yourself. Not to mention there is an awesome Twilight preview on the DVD, which is NOT the one in theatres or one of the two online. (It took me a few minutes to get over the Twilight preview, before I could actually absorb the movie). I know, I'm obsessed. Oh well. That's what happens when you've read the series four times. I am dying waiting for the 4th book to come out - absolutely shriveling in anticipation.


In other news, Sean is home from his camping trip, scrapped, sunburned, mosquito-bitten, and proud of himself for hiking around 40 miles in 4 days. We are glad to have him home. This week is super busy as we have dentist appointments, the 24th of July and my family coming up for a couple days, and then Cub Scout Day Camp on Saturday, for which I am just a tad nervous. I am going so far as to drive to Camp Kiesel tomorrow just so I don't get parents lost trying to find it on Saturday. Then next week we fly to California for my SIL's wedding. Then I will hit Costco first thing (and I do mean first thing - "OPEN....OPEN.....OPEN") Saturday to buy Breaking Dawn, after which I will be tuning the entire world out until it's finished and I have my closure. Hopefully.