Starting Over - School 2011

And....done.  Summer went by that fast.  I can't even begin to go back and document this year so I am just going to have to start from scratch and try to keep up again.  Tomorrow is the first day of school.  Josh is going into 2nd grade.  Clara starts Kindergarten in a week after testing.  

So that I don't forget too much about this year...

January - Ginny and William came to visit.   Played in the snow, went to Thanksgiving Point Dino Museum.  My cute Webelos got their Arrow of Light badges.  


February - Went with cousins to Las Vegas (Erin, Rachel, Kristen, Ellen) for a girls' weekend.  


March - Turned 39 the same day Clara turned 5.  Had a joint little birthday party with three neighbor families.  Attended a business boot camp with some friends, had fun in Park City eating sushi.  Besties came to visit for Spring Break.  


April - Went to Virginia for Spring Break for a week and saw many old friends.  


May - Went to Grand Junction for Memorial Day.  Saw the Circus with the Bultmans.  Josh wrapped up First Grade.  Marty moved into the basement to start work at Providence Hall.  Ben Bennett (good friend from Virginia) moved to Utah. 


June - Graduated from the Paid to Play business academy.  Round two of the Amazing Race with the Olsens and the Martinezes.  Clara graduated from preschool.  Went to the Thanksgiving Point Children's Gardens.


July - Hosted and planned the Earl Family reunion with all but one in-law present.  75+ people!  Same weekend - bestie and family moved into the basement.  Attended cousin Julia's wedding in California.  Went to Thanksgiving Point Children's Gardens again with bestie and kids.  Attended great-aunt Mimi's 89th birthday party.  


August - Vacationed for a week at the Oregon Coast (Depoe Bay).  Went whale watching, to the aquarium, lunch with sister Carly and family, Tillamook cheese factory.  Rob and Jessica got married!  Back to school night for new Junior High and Elementary.  First Day of School!


There ya go - if you read it fast it will take you about a minute.  We've been mega-busy, like everyone else in the world.  At least now if I ever go back I will be able to remember what we did.  Thank heaven for digital pictures.  

November 21, 2010: Snow!

 We had our first huge snow of the year and it was a doozy.  At least a foot of snow!  Usually we don't get these types of storms in November.

 It's awesome having a kid old enough to really shovel and he loved doing it.  I realized that he was wearing sweats because his snow clothes were too small.  I had been saving snow clothes for Christmas, however, this type of snow warrants the warm stuff, so I got it out early.

 Good thing they both have shovels.  They were going to town!

 This gives a perspective on how deep it is - up to Clara's knees.

And there is the silver lining.  Huge snowstorm, but what a beautiful gift!

October 31, 2010: Halloween

Because we live in Utah, Trick-or-Treating is done on Saturday when Halloween falls on a Sunday.  I personally love this because then we have lots of candy for Sunday.  Just kidding.  I love it because then I don't have to struggle with whether or not I will let my kids go out to get candy.  So last night the neighborhood was out in full force, running from house to house.  I stayed home to pass out candy because I had taken the kids out several years in a row and it was Dave's turn.  Plus it was cold and rainy.  Clara lasted 17 minutes.  Josh got back about an hour and a half later.  

This picture was taken about a half hour after Josh got home.  I think probably 8-10 pieces of candy had been consumed.  We have a policy that they can eat whatever they want that night, and then the candy goes away.  Since the past 48 hours included a school party, trick-or-treating at Dave's work, a ward trunk-or-treat AND actual trick-or-treating in the neighborhood, our kids are way over-sugared and we are going to be working on detoxing them for the next few weeks.

September 16, 2010: Kelly's Stress Reliever

Poor Uncle Kelly. Trapped in wilds of Alaska. Building kayaks. Living through inspections. How does he cope? Counts the days until he can do somersaults with these cute kids.

September 3, 2010: Two Weeks Down

Two weeks into school we seem to have gotten into a routine of sorts. The alarm goes off at 6:30 and after I groan for a few minutes, I get up and go into the living room. Typically Josh is already up and dressed and has eaten a banana or something. Clara stumbles out when she hears us get up and is much slower about things (like her mama). I make my smoothies and put Josh's lunch together (at his urging) and make sure that Clara has something to eat. By the time we get all of that done, it's usually around 7:30. At 7:30 we read scriptures and say family prayers and then we brush teeth, rub OnGuard and Citrus Bliss on feet, and get shoes on.

If I can get any of my cleaning done during this time, I try to. I also holler things like, "Is your aquarium turned off, laundry in your basket, and your room clean enough to walk through?!" The answers are varied, but generally they seem to be realizing that this old mom is not going to give up on the daily cleaning schedule. I have placed the responsibility for picking things up in the hands of Dave, Josh and Clara as much as possible, and then I do most of the actual cleaning, although I leave some of the bathroom stuff to Dave. In general, our house has been substantially cleaner the past few weeks than all summer and that makes me happy.

Every day we drive our neighbors to school and their mom picks the kids up. I'm a morning person (forced, but whatever) and she is most definitely not. So it works out for both of us. School gets out at 3:30 and she picks them up at 3:45. Josh runs to Kate's class and they try to get as much homework done as possible together, so he is coming home with it mostly done. That has been a nice aside for the crazy evening schedule. He comes in the house and I give him an hour of screen time (computer, tv) to relax. Then at 5:00 I generally start making dinner and he finishes up his homework and works on reading. After dinner we read a lot and the TV stays off. It has been nice with the TV downstairs because we don't focus on it nearly as much in the evening. We have been reading The Magician's Nephew by C.S. Lewis and will work our way through The Chronicles of Narnia this year.

Clara started her second preschool and her teacher primarily speaks Spanish to her. She said after about two months she probably won't need to speak English at all because all of the kids will understand her. Awesome. Clara probably won't speak it, but it will give her a head start for the charter school where she will learn Spanish as well. She now goes to preschool every morning and is so tired by the end of the day that she falls asleep often about an hour earlier than bedtime. Bonus.

That's the news - I need to take more pictures, but we really haven't done that much lately!

August 23, 2010: First Day of First Grade

Today was the very first day of First Grade for Josh. Which means that he goes to school all day long for the first time in his life. I cried on and off yesterday. Today - no biggie. He was confident, he's ready. He even let me just drop him off so that I didn't get all emotional. Plus I had to go to the grocery store to get more stuff for his lunches this week. I had fun packing his lunch. I am sure that will get old.

Cheesy smile

Cool as a cucumber

It was nearly impossible getting them to stop wiggling, look at me, and smile

Darn, they are cute kids

Josh said to Clara, "See you tonight, Sweetie!" He kept talking to her in a baby voice all morning, reassuring her that he would be gone all day, but that he would eventually come home. She kept looking at him like he was out of his mind. As Ama Georgia put it, "He's a little boy...and she's a teenager."

I'm excited to hear how his first day went, and excited to see what he learns this year. I'm not excited for homework, but maybe I'll just put that on Dave's To Do list.

July 18, 2010: Photo Shoot

Today we finished Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder. We may start on the rest of the Little House series. I haven't decided. We probably will. I like the long chapter books that teach good lessons for me to read with Josh. Clara just gets her own book and reads along with us. How young is too young for the first Harry Potter? It will take us about a year to finish because we read these things slowly.

We are headed to Church in a few, but Clara actually let me do her hair so I decided to take pictures. She even let me put the flower in it. Times, they are a changing! This is a girl that doesn't like anything in her hair. She'll probably pull it out by the end of Sacrament Meeting.

Clara with two pony tails and a flower

I think there is a picture of me looking not too totally different than this at four years old.

Josh and his cheesy grin

His freckles have emerged full force with all of the swimming we have done in the past week.

When I said, "Show some teeth!" they took it literally. Still - I'll keep them.

July 13, 2010: Tired Children

This morning we got up relatively early (7am) and the kids watched shows while I worked for a little while. Then we took off to go to the splash park and they said, "We didn't eat breakfast!" Note the new rule kiddos - no tv until you have eaten! It was 10am by then! Natural consequences. Except it made them super cranky for the splash park. Because we were going to be home for lunch, I didn't pack anything but water.

As a result, I got nothing but whining and complaining. So, after feeding them lunch, I put them to bed. They have been napping for 2 1/2 hours (at the ages of 6 and 4). Happy Tuesday.

June 24, 2010: Lifetime Resort

Today my friend Melissa and I took our collective boys to the gym to go swimming. When I step out into the Lifetime Fitness swimming area all I have to do is close my eyes and decide where I want to be in the world. It is THAT awesome. It's clean, huge, beautiful, and relaxing. Josh spent his time hanging out in the pool (and could touch the bottom) so I mostly talked to Melissa and worked on eliminating my gardener's tan.

We came home and I spent a few hours cleaning Clara's bedroom since she was out of the house. And by clean I mean I threw a garbage bag worth of crap away. Love it. My goal is to alternate cleaning Josh's room and Clara's room every Thursday and hopefully the cleaning will be deep enough that things will stay more or less clean. I also went through her way too abundant wardrobe and bagged up the too small stuff to give away.

Tomorrow we are gearing up for a fabulous day. Dave took the day off because his bestie Jim is in town with the fam. We are going to meet in Salt Lake and play the day away in the hot hot sun (which means our kids will sleep well). I promise lots of cute pictures tomorrow, since I haven't had any for a couple of days now. Posts without pictures are boring.

Crimes and Consequences

Date: 5/26/2010
Time: Around 4pm
The Suspects: Clara, Aidan, Ava, Sabrina and Josh (otherwise known as "The Blur")
The Crime: Opening the entertainment center doors (a big no-no well established), climbing up on the entertainment center, jumping onto the lovesac
The Detective: Rachel
The Evidence: Indisputable
The Trial: Swift
The Verdict: Guilty
The Consequence: No pizza, no movie, and a 7pm bedtime

BUSTED.

Spring Break 2010: Disneyland Day One

But first, we drove a lot. Don't ever drive from Las Vegas to Los Angeles (why are those spelled differently?) on a Sunday afternoon. Apparently that is when everyone is driving from LV to LA. It's ugly. And not just the traffic, but the terrain. Ugly.

We arrived in Arcadia in time for carne asada ala Aunt Polly. It was our text request along the way when she said, "What do you want for dinner?" We ate outside, which you can do in California year round, unlike Utah where you can eat outside for 20 minutes in mid-June before it gets too hot. My backyard gets too hot, anyway. After dinner we sat and talked and vegged and put the kids to bed.

Monday morning we woke up bright and early at 6am because Josh had lost his first tooth! After lots of celebrating and excitement, we got ready and headed to Disneyland. The first ride was supposed to be Small World, but it was down all day so we went to ToonTown (which is just a waste of space in my opinion) for a little while hoping the Small World glitch was temporary. Since it wasn't, we roamed around the rest of the park, going on rides and eating stuff. It was really busy that day and pretty hot, but our kids were amazingly well behaved. We did lose Clara for about four minutes, causing a massive anxiety attack for me, Dave, my mom, and Josh. She wandered off when we were about to have dinner. Fortunately, my mom spotted her about the time I started to hyperventilate. Needless to say, the kids didn't wander much after that experience. Clara was crying and said, "I couldn't find you!"

See pictures below.

Josh and the lost tooth.

Ama, Clara and Josh in front of Small World.

Josh in front of the whale at Storybook Land.

Dave and Clara on the boat for Storybook Land.

Josh on the carousel.

Clara on the carousel.

Clara, Ama, and Josh on the carousel.

Clara, Me, and Josh on the carousel.

Josh and Clara at Inovations. When you touch the screen it looks like water is rippling in a pond. Very cool!

Ama, Josh and Clara playing games at Inovations.

Clara and Buzz Lightyear

Josh and Me on the Dumbo ride.

Clara asleep in the stroller.

Josh and Ama snuggling. We were waiting for the parade, but it never appeared. They have, apparently, moved the electric light parade to California Adventure permanently.

Dave was a tired boy.

Happy parents after a happy day at Disneyland!

March 15, 2010: Random

The other night Dave was snuggling with the kids and called me in to see what had happened.

Spring is in the air (and in my house)

Daddy is out of town, and this is how I found them asleep in my bed last night. Apparently Josh makes a good pillow.

I love that they can do this. I didn't love Josh kicking me all night.

December 25th: More Presents!

We got back from sledding and started in on the next round of present opening with Ama Ancy and Papa Rick. Clara got a baby doll and Josh got remote motorcycle dude. Dave and I got a floor steamer (which we have loved! Our floors are so clean!). We all napped and watched A Christmas Story, and then had chili and curry squash soup for dinner. It was a very peaceful afternoon!

Clara and her baby doll

Are they asleep? Nope. You can't get decent pictures of any Totten.

Kelly shaking his present.

Ama Ancy and Curt watching the show.

Josh and the motorcycle man

December 25th: Christmas Morning

We are no fools. With kids that wake up in order to wake up the roosters, we knew that holding back the flood on Christmas morning would be next to impossible. So we divided and conquered. Dave slept in Clara's bedroom with Josh, and I slept in our room with Clara. We shut and locked doors and slept with one eye open. It worked. When we heard the rustling of small bodies getting up, we threw them into our room and I ran out to call everyone and say, "Get here faster." As it turned out, having a tv in our bedroom worked wonders, and the kids were engrossed in a "How It's Made" episode at 6:30am on Christmas morning.

Finally the uncles, Amas, etc. arrived and we could get the party started.

I apologize for Uncle Rob's University of Utah attire. That is all he wears. Hopefully grad school will cure him of this particular fashion statement.

The kids descended down the stairs to see what was waiting for them.

Since our plans were to go to Arizona for a week after Christmas for our family reunion, I called Santa and asked him to please bring things that would travel well. He obliged.

Opening the stockings - we had our family plus Uncle Curt, Uncle Kelly, Uncle Rob, Amabuela, Uncle Jack and Aunt Karen

Uncle Kelly reviewing the ward cookbook that Santa brought him.

Uncle Rob, Josh and a snowglobe

Aren't we awesome at 7:00am?

Dave gets his 37th electric screwdriver. But this one is HANDHELD.

Josh tearing open his presents.

Clara tearing open her presents.

There is a story that goes along with my sweet Aunt and Uncle being at my house Christmas morning. It has never happened before. In fact, the vast majority of my Christmases have been spent at their house. Because they celebrated with their kids on the 23rd, we had them come up to our house. It was very special for me to have them there, knowing that a lot of my traditions have come from their traditions. They stayed through our annual breakfast with the Sudweeks (our neighbors across the street) and then headed to their daughter's house to visit.

And finally....the cry present. In our family we have a tradition of coming up with presents that make someone (anyone) cry. My mom went through the Arizona Mesa temple 20 years ago this Fall, and even though she lives in Utah, I know it is a special temple for her. So I got this for her 20th anniversary as well as Christmas.

After all of the gifts were opened, we went upstairs to start making breakfast. Cinnamon rolls, sausage, bacon, fruit salad, juice, etc., was all on the menu. It was heaven in a meal. The Sudweeks came over and all of the kids showed off their stuff and hollered and ran around. Aunt Karen and Uncle Jack left and then Curt and Rob left to go up to Ogden. We sat around for a while digesting and getting up the energy to go sledding.....next up!