Here we go again

It seems like I am always doing a quick recap of long periods of time because I am such a slacker when it comes to updating my blog. Interesting....I did the same thing with my journal growing up. Also, I've had to muster up some energy to rebuild my blog template since I accidentally deleted all of my friends' blog addresses while changing my expired template. (Please tell me if I don't have your blog on the sidebar so I can add it!) Anyway, here is a quick recap of events over the past month or two.

Sydney has always wanted bunk beds. Since we moved last year, she has had to share a room with Taylor, then with Avery because of a few too many battles with Taylor, and then with Taylor again when Avery kept her up or woke her up at least 3 times a night.

Our friend, Cathy, was getting rid of her son's bunk beds last month so I decided Sydney finally deserved to get what she wanted....the top bunk. We picked them up and Sydney and I spent 2 days in the BLAZING, HOT garage painting them white.

Taylor and Sydney went back to public school this fall. We were all set to do K12 again until about August when Taylor suddenly decided that she wanted to spend her last yr of elementary at a public school. They were really nervous to go back, but they got great teachers and love it so far. I do not love the homework.
Taylor- 5th grade

Sydney- 2nd grade

Avery - wannabe Preschooler......She insisted on packing a lunch with the girls and ended up eating it by 9:30 am. Actually, I had planned to keep Avery home with me for one more year before signing her up for preschool since she barely makes the age cut off. However, after I dropped off my two oldest girls, Avery kept asking, "When do I go to preschool?", "Can I color?" , "Can I have a snack?", "What's my teacher's name?", etc. Two torturous hours later, I called a friend to beg her to let Avery take her last preschool opening. Avery loves Ms. Trina!

Avery also turned 3 last week and was very insistent on having a Disney Princess party. Taylor saved her money and bought Avery a Princess Tiana dress for her bday which she would wear 24/7 if I'd let her. She also got a really cute tea cart that she loves (so do her older sisters) and is constantly taking my order. "Do you want a Dr. Pepper, Mom?" "That's 10 hundred dollars."



Uncle Niels being served a nice spot of tea.

She did get her Princess party with family and then spent the night by herself at her Grandma and Grandpa Orme's house to stretch out the birthday spoiling.

Saggy Lobes

Taylor recently decided to get her ears pierced again. I paid for them to get done when she was 8, but she decided she didn't want them pierced and let them close up after about a week. I was not very pleased that she had made this decision AFTER I just paid to get them done. I told her that if she ever wanted them pierced again, she would have to pay for it. Two years of maturity later, she decided she wanted to use some of her birthday money to get her ears pierced again.

I took her to the store and she immediately picked out the most expensive, ornate studs she could find, but when I told her how much they were, she asked to see some cheaper ones. It's funny how she spends HER money more wisely than she spends mine. :)

Anyway, the battle of what earrings she can wear has returned. I really think the reason she decided to let her ears close up last time was that I would not let her wear HUGE dangle earrings. Immediately after we got her ears pierced again, she went straight to the GINORMOUS, fluorescent earrings. I couldn't win the argument with her that they were tacky or too big, but I did tell her that her ear lobes would get really saggy like some old women's that I have seen. I know, I know....another reason I should get a mother of the year award. However, I refuse to let Taylor be the kid at her elementary school with the LARGE, tacky earrings!

After wincing at the thought of having saggy lobes, she picked out some cute, smaller earrings.
I have also noticed Taylor staring at people's ear lobes at lot more. Hey, whatever works!

Not Cool

It has always irritated me when the Las Vegas weatherman forecasts "cooler" weather for the week and then you see he only meant 2 degrees "cooler". Whoopee.....108 and not 110! Is there really a difference and should 108 ever be referred to as "cooler" weather? Not so much.

As you can tell, the hot weather here makes me grouchy so I jumped at an invite from some friends to go hiking at Mt. Charleston this morning. We hiked along the Robber's Roost trail to some limestone caves which, according to local legend, were used back in the day as a hideout for bandits raiding travelers along the old Mormon Trail.






The weather up there was a "cooler" 90-95 degrees, but once we arrived at the caves it felt like someone finally kicked on the a/c. While enjoying the cool air of the caves, we were suddenly joined by my old Highland Hills Stake young women who had chosen the trail for their 2nd year hike! It kind of startled me when hearing my name shouted up into the caves. I think I looked and smelled more like I had been camping than any of the girls.

Summer update

I haven't been blogging much lately mostly because I have complete summer fever/laziness. I have never looked forward to summer as much as I did this past school year. Homeschooling was a rewarding "adventure" for myself and the kids, but once their last assignments were turned into their K12 teachers in June, I literally did a "Toyota jump" and have been partying ever since. I wish I could say that I am one of those amazing moms that keep my kids sharp over the summer with various educational activities, but I am not going to lie.

So far, our summer has consisted mostly of swimming, swimming and more swimming. Sheldon and I have decided that we will never live in a house in Vegas again without a pool. I haven't been as grouchy in this 115 degree weather knowing that we can just jump in the pool when it gets too unbearable. Anyway, here is my feeble attempt of updating my blog by posting a bunch of pics. Hopefully, my laziness will subside when the kids go back to Heckethorn this fall.

Taylor performed the role of Mrs. Potts in a production of Beauty and the Beast. She had to sing 3 solos throughout the play and brought tears to my eyes. She used to hide behind people when standing in front of crowd and has really come out of her shell.

Sheldon's sister, Shellee, and my niece, Leila, came to visit from Washington. Avery talks about Leila at least once a day and thinks she is her best friend. Avery loves when kids come to swim who will sit on the pool stairs with her.


My kids cannot get enough of my niece, Madison, who is staying with us this summer from Florida. Poor Madison, however, has probably had enough of Avery getting into her things.

My sister, Missy, Madison and Aiden

My kid also LOVE to meet Grandma Great at restaurants. Grandma Great always overrides their mom's decisions and orders up all kinds of goodies. Recently, they got their favorite "TCT's" at Macayos with all you can drink Shirley Temples.

This is Avery's summer hairdo. :) Actually, this is what Avery's hair looks like when she goes swimming and then takes a nap with wet hair.

Sydney has become quite the daredevil by the pool this year, especially considering the fact that she just learned to swim late last summer.

I threw a surprise party for Taylor a few weeks before Taylor's birthday this year. Her birthday always falls too close to the 4th of July which means most of her friends are out of town. Surprise parties are a lot harder to pull off than I thought, but it was a great success.

Sheldon took me to Rosemary's to eat with the fancy folk for my birthday. I usually HATE fancy restaurants, but Rosemary's had the best food I have ever eaten.


Uncle Ryan popped in yesterday and asked if anyone wanted to go to the Adventure Dome with him. Three little girls almost passed out with excitement and jumped in his car. Kudos to my brother for taking 3 girls and for braving the summer weekend crowds. He also scored a few more favorite uncle points by taking them to CiCi's Pizza for dinner.

Weekend Fun

Last weekend was action packed.....

First, we had Ned's 4 kids sleep over so he could take Cherlynn out for her birthday. Although it got a little crazy, my kids were in heaven having their cousins over. I remember cousin sleepovers as being one of the best parts of growing up. Of course, now that some of the kids are getting older, a "girls only" and "boys only" room was requested by the kids at bedtime.

After miraculously getting 7 kids fed and ready for school by 8 am the next morning, I rushed Taylor and Alaina to their field trip at McCaw Mine out in Henderson. McCaw Mine is attached to McCaw Elementary School in Henderson and is only open to 4th graders in Clark County being it is the year they study Nevada History in school. Since the mine is quite realistic, the girls got to wear mining helmets with head lamps while exploring through the mine with their guide. They also got to pan for real gold flakes and bring them home. Taylor was informed by her guide that she found $5 worth of gold. Yee haw!

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After panning for gold, we then headed to Grandma and Grandpa's house for homemade mac n' cheese, all you can eat Otter Pops and to show the girls how to plant a garden. We also decided to plant a new ANNOYING Sun Chips bag out in the garden to see if it really is 100% compostable and just how long it takes to disintegrate.

On Saturday, we learned that soccer is never cancelled no matter how hard the wind is blowing. Also, we discovered that Grandma Orme, Aunt Susie and Uncle Niels are hard core fans and that crazy wind and 8am games won't get them down. Thankfully, Suz and Niels brought Winchells (better than Krispy Kremes) to make the morning brighter.




Avery was invited to a Cinderella birthday party on Sat. afternoon. She had hugged and talked about her invitation the whole week before so she was pretty excited to go. Brittany from my ward graciosuly dressed up as Cinderella and came to the party to read the kids a book and to color with them. Avery is still talking about coloring with "Rella".

 

A Fabulous Find

I have lived in Las Vegas for over 21 years and feel like I know most of the fun, little places to take my kids to around town. However, today we were invited on a new field trip to McKee Ranch in the southwest part of town. I love any opportunity to get my kids around farm animals since they are sort of a novelty in Vegas.

I knew my girls would have a great time when we got out of the car and heard a rooster crow. My kids' faces lit up with excitement while Avery tried to imitate the sound. The ranch is free admission and the owners let you bring carrots and crackers to feed the animals. They probably have more animals, but we fed goats, sheep, pigs, bunnies, chickens, a turkey, and a lot of horses, including little miniature ponies. The ranchers will also let you in the pastures right next to the horses which is rare. The ranch was full of old wooden toys, little benches, toilet planters, an old outhouse, a horse tire swing, and the extremely rare wooden merry go round.

If you are looking for something FREE to do with your kids one day, I highly recommend the McKee Ranch.

Polar Plunge

Taylor and Sydney have been asking me since the beginning of March if they can go swimming in our pool. My answer is always, "No, the pool is freezing cold and I am not heating it until May." I have also tried explaining to them that even though it is starting to warm up outside, it doesn't mean the pool is warm yet. Of course, my babbling goes in one ear and out the other.

So today when they asked yet again if they and a friend could jump in the pool, we said, "Go for it." It took just one dip of my foot into the 60 degree water to let me know that it will be another month or so before I jump in that water. I figured my girls would decide the same thing once they put their feet in. However, there was no dipping their toes in. They just came out and plunged right in.

Taylor and Samantha, being the tough girls that they are, tried to pretend that the water was just fine to quiet my laughter.


However, Mom was right as usual. The pool was FREEZING and they made a desperate dash for the hot tub.

Of course, Avery was anxious to sport her new swimsuit from Aunt Susie and to try to keep up with the big girls.
Avery has now reached the age of the fake, cheesey smile.

Status report

Hmmm, should I keep homeschooling or should I not? That has been the question hanging over my head for the last month. Well, actually, it is a question that I pose to myself on a daily basis.

Although some days have been bumpy for us, here are some of our celebrated successes over the past 7 months:

• I have finally trained Sydney to not say, "Nothing, " when Sheldon or someone calls on the phone and asks her what she is doing.
• I have finally convinced Taylor that Math worksheets are not just "busy work".
• Avery will now sit and do puzzles or color with crayons for 30 minutes at a time before throwing them at us. It used to be about 5 minutes.
• We have made friends with the lady at the gas station where I get my daily Dr. Pepper so I can cope with teaching Math to a certain child.
• Sydney used one of her vocabulary words from a History lesson on Babylon to accidentally insult someone. After apologizing, we decided to focus on the fact that she remembered the word. ;)

All joking aside, we are having fun with the K12 program and have registered for another year. I don't want to bore anyone with my many reasons for continuing to homeschool so I won't. Wish us luck!

Taste the Rainbow

Last weekend, my sister, Susie, invited my girls to sleep over. Yes, even Avery was invited. Did I mention that I love my sister?

I have told Susie, a.k.a. Martha, that she doesn't always need to make elaborate plans because my kids just want to be with her and Niels and escape from my yelling. However, she never listens. This particular sleepover entailed eating homemade pizza, a trip to Yogurtland, and then as a finale, learning how to make rainbow cupcakes. I know, I know. I've asked myself the same thing. Are we really sisters? Oh well, at least I got the looks in the family. :) Just joking. Thanks, Aunt Suz and Uncle Niels!

Will Work for Mickey

As most everyone knows, Disneyland is offering a free day at Disneyland to those who give a day of service to one of their chosen organizations. Now who would pass up free tickets to Disneyland for their whole family?

Our family signed up to help clean Lake Elementary's school grounds. It is an older school that is required to keep its playground gates open to the public on the weekends to double as a city park. However, the city does not help in cleaning the grounds, thus leaving the poor custodians with a huge workload.

Since there were about 75 other volunteers along with us, we were broken into groups. Our group was assigned the playground area. We were asked to scrub the playground equipment, pick up the trash (tons of broken glass!), and rake leaves. I was so proud of my girls for not complaining once and for working hard the whole time. We were only scheduled to help from 9 - 12, but some adults were sitting down on the benches after 30 minutes of being there. One lady asked if she could go home early! Taylor was disgusted with the lady and asked me if they were still going to give the lady a ticket.

My kids lit up when the news cameras started following us around. They kept yelling, "Mom, they're filming us!" I think the camera man was getting annoyed. :) We did get our 2 seconds of fame on the news that night, however. It really did feel good to get out and serve as a family and to earn our next family vacation.

"No peein' on my frog!"

One of my New Year's goals is to get Avery potty trained and say my final goodbye to diapers. I bought her a cute little frog potty on clearance at Target over the weekend thinking I scored since Avery loves the frogs from "Princess and the Frog". Avery was so excited, which surprised me because even the slightest mention of potties ticks her off. If you try to put her on the big toilet, she claws and screams like you are killing her. She also locks her body so you can't put her into a sitting position.

Anyway, I started talking to her about going "pee pee" in her frog. She replied with a giggle, "Noooo, no pee on the frog," like I was so silly for telling her to pee on her new frog. After some more coaxing, I tried to tell her to pee in the frog again, but this time she was passionate and ANGRY!

"NO PEEIN' ON MY FROG!!!"

Hmmm, I probably should have got a potty chair that resembled more of a toilet and not a cute little frog. Ain't nobody gonna pee on that girl's frog!

Note to Self

Note to Self: Place makeup bag, specifically mascara, on a higher shelf.