Coming up next....Highlights from June

Kindergarten pet show and tell. Everything from dogs and cats to rabbits and goats showed up. The kids LOVE this day.

 Last day of 7th grade for Alyssa.  Looks like these ladies had a fun year.  Stay cool and see you next year.  Here's to 8th grade!!

Spring Soccer

 This boy loves his soccer.  He hardly ever complains about practices. I love that he has something he enjoys so much.

 Run son run! Carter has a knack for being at the right place at the right time, to tip the ball right into the goal.  He is one of the top scorers for his team which is really fun for the mommy to watch.

 



Most of these boys have been playing together since 1st grade.  It has been SO much fun to watch them grow and develop as a team.  They really are learning each other's strengths and only lost 1 game this year.  Next year, we've been told that they will be splitting some of the team up.  AYSO isn't really about competitiveness, but it still bums me out as I have loved watching these boys become a working team.

The Merry Old Month of May

Camera Fun with Friends! This is one of Halle's favorite games to play.

Ashely, Halle, and Taylor.  These three have been together since first grade.  There really isn't anything better than great friends. 

 

I just could not resist a little photo shoot of my beautiful Kate getting ready for the Mother's Day program.

 May always brings school programs.  This year Alyssa's class wrote their own play.  I was a little nervous about having to sit through it, to be honest.   But it was so clever and hysterical that I went to it twice and enjoyed every single minute of it.  It was a little parody about a group of kids being teleported into different stories. They had Twilight, High School Musical, the Wizard of Oz, and Lord of the Rings. Alyssa was Dorothy and it was SO fun for me to pull out MY old Dorothy costume from back in my own Jr High days when I also played Dorothy for the school musical. The kids did a fantastic job!

 May is also the month for Mrs Ball's big end of the year program.  Her kids work so hard and put on a fantastic program!  Next year I get to look forward to watching both Carter and Kate in it together.

 This kid really does love to sing and has great pitch, but he insists on singing an octave lower which just cracks me up to no end.  He did great on all his speaking and singing parts.

And what would May be without a kindergarten Mother's Day Program? SO fun and special to me as this will be my last kindergarten program to attend.  My babies are all growing up! They each gave a reason why they loved their moms.  Kate's was, "I love my mom because she tells me what to do."  HA!  I'll have to remind her of that during her teenage years.  I have LOVED doing centers with Kate's class this year.  It has been so much fun to get to know all these little cuties.

 

 

Dance Recital

 This was Kate's first year taking dance. She enjoyed the classes, but really it's all about the costume and makeup.  I just thought she was so cute walking down the sidewalk in her little tutu.

 She performed great and remembered all her moves.

 Halle decided to quit classical ballet and try clogging and jazz.  Boy were those first few lessons interesting.  Her feet had never moved like that and everything felt foreign, but she came a long way and did great at the recital.

Aunt Mimi and Josie were in town for a visit and got to come watch the dancers. We miss our little Josie Pants.

Alyssa Runs for Office

Alyssa came home and announced she was running for 8th Grade Class President.  I was super shocked by the announcement.  Running for a class office was something I NEVER had enough guts to do.  She had no qualms and wasn't even worried about the possibility of losing. (Or of mean kids drawing mustaches on her campaign posters -that happened at my jr high/ high school all of the time.) So we did a little photo shoot.

 Such a beautiful girl I have!

 

 Put together a campaign slogan, posters, and flyers.

 

And hung them all around the school. She gave a VERY impressive speech (seriously, where did this girl come from?) and later that week was announced the winner!  There will be 2 class presidents for the 8th grade b/c 2 Jr Highs are combining to form a new Middle School. So technically she is "co-class pres", but we are so excited and proud of her for this accomplishment!  She will do a great job for the school.

And here comes April

Fun Easter Egg Hunt with the Cousins at Grandma's.  Good thing Aunt Becky took some pictures because I don't think I even pulled my camera out.

 

 Cute little Hippity Hop Spencer! When he crawled it looked just like a bunny hopping.  It was the cutest thing.  Bunny ears were too funny on him.

 And it's just not Easter without dying eggs.  I boiled 4 whole dozen, and we didn't even dye one of them. (But we did enjoy egg salad.)  Good thing Grandma had more ambition! 

Apparently I'm such a good mother this year, that I didn't even get pictures of the kids with their Easter Baskets.  What was I thinking?  I guess I wasn't. Anyway, they did get Easter Baskets and a fun thing or two besides a chocolate bunny.

Halle giving her "curl formers" a try.  These actually make super cute ringlet curls

Carter was a nice brother and let the girls help dig for dinosaur bones.

 

I guess I didn't get pictures of Alyssa donning her new hot rollers, and again, such a great mom, that I can't even remember what Kate's fun thing was.  I'm thinking it was an Easter Barbie.
 

And just because bunnies feel Eastery, I'm concluding the Easter post with a couple bunny photos.  .

Thumper enjoying the warmth of his box and the sun on his face for a nap.

 

 

Yes we still have all 4 rabbits, and yes they are still loved, and yes they are completely the most spoiled rotten, destructive rabbits in the world. And no, they don't love us nearly as much as they ought to, but my kids think they are the greatest pets in the world

All Things March

So, I'm trying....trying is the keyword here, to get caught up. It's been so long since I've blogged that blogger has gone and changed everything, and I don't even know how to post and edit anymore.  So anyway, without further ado... Here comes the rest of the main events from March. Yes, I am aware that it is September.  Such is the story of my life, I'm behind in just about everything.  But today, I'm turning over a new leaf!  Here's hoping anyway!

Girl Scout Cookie Sells!

 

 

Basketball for Carter. Not his favorite sport, we've found.

 

 

A trip to the Museum of Idaho.

 

 

Spring Break in Boise

Over Spring Break, (last week of March), we decided to take a quick trip to Boise and have a little fun. We had a great time eating at a fancy Thai restaurant. I was shocked at how much the kids enjoyed it; they tasted every single dish we presented to them, and not only tasted them, but liked them too. We visited the Birds of Prey Sanctuary where we learned the difference between Hawks and Falcons. Falcons wings are straight and streamlined like a jet wing, and hawks wings spread out like fingers at the end of the wing (just in case you were wondering). We spent a day at the pool. And we visited our dear friends the Farnsworths.

Everyone together.

The traditional kiddos lined up photo.

And the adults.

The trip was fast and furious, but a refreshing break, and much needed togetherness time.

Ramblings and Updates

I haven't sat down and just written up my thoughts in a long while. A REALLY long while. I don't know why it's so hard to blog these days. I'm in the process of getting 2008 into a blog book; I had over 300 entries that year. It's been a bit of work to get it all in a book, but I do love to go back and read it. It's time for me to give a little update on life at this house.

I have been learning how to index lately. Basically it's taking old records (birth/death certificates, census papers, draft papers, etc.) and entering the info into a data base that can be searched online. I'm not a fast indexer because I give stories to every person I do. My favorites are the Southern death certificates. I love old Southern names for one, and two, I find causes of death EXTREMELY fascinating. Not that I'm morbid or anything (okay maybe I am a little), but nothing tells a story quite like a cause of death. I've run across everything from "struck by a train" (and there are a lot of these - watching for trains must have been somewhat of a novelty still in the late 1800's), to gun shot wounds (I imagine all sorts of imaginative story lines for these deaths), to cancer of every body part, to tuberculosis (a lot of deaths of every age from this one, makes me very grateful for immunizations.). Anyway, if you're interested in indexing you can learn more at www.familysearchindexing.org, you may just find a new hobby for yourself.

Bishop H. David Burton came to speak at our stake conference. I was able to be part of the choir. I haven't sung with a good choir (and no, unfortunately ward choirs really don't count - bless their souls) since my college days. I had forgotten how much fun it is. I really am a music geek at heart. It was refreshing, but let me know just how out of shape my poor vocal chords are.

Of course what would updates be without some kid funnies?  Jarom was driving home with Kate a while back and he complimented her very cute polka dotted boots. She gave him a patronizing smile and said "Dad, they don't even match my outfit!" What a little princess we have.

Alyssa has been volunteering at the Animal Shelter a little bit.  I was a little hesitant to let her go because I was afraid her heart would be sad and I didn't want to hear the begging for each and every pet she wanted to bring home.  I think she knows I don't want to hear much about it because she's been good not to say much, but one day she came home talking about a little dog she had bonded with.  She kept saying, "Scene did this, or Scene loved that, etc."  I thought "Scene" was a strange name for a dog, so I asked her how it was spelled. (The animals names are written on the outside of the cages.)  She said, "S-E-A-N".  I died laughing and said, "Alyssa, that's pronounced Shawn."  To which she replied, "Well, that's the most stupid way to spell Shawn ever."  LOL!

And finally, thinking she was sneaking a drink of some apple juice, Halle, took a big ol' swig from the cup on the counter. Instead of juice, she got a big ol' mouthful of bacon grease. Funniest thing I've seen all month long!  I had left it there for it to harden and cool down before I tossed it out.  Oh man was she grossed out. It was hysterical!

Cabin Trip 2012

In March we had our annual Manwaring Cabin Snowmobile trip.  This year we tried out a new location and cabin.  The cabin was gorgeous and huge and housed us all well.  We're a big bunch these days!

We had plenty of time to sit around and "electrocute" ourselves with our many devices.  We had a rousing game of Words going on all weekend long.

The Kindle Fires and iPads were on non stop.

And the big boys, hardly moved from in front to the big screen t.v. playing their war games all day and night.

Even the littles were up on all the hottest items in the cabin.

We did manage to go outside some. There was a great hill next to the cabin for sledding.

We even pulled out the snowmobiles. Here's Halle enjoying a ride from Aunt Emily.

The ladies took a nice ride to Mesa Falls.

I love this shot Becky got while hitching a ride on the back of Katie's machine.

We had great weather with beautiful views of the Tetons.

The kids had an activity night planned where they participated in stations. They took the cameras and got some shots of all the action.

Jamis, Wes, Ellie, Alyssa,  and Truman

The landing on the stairs proved to be the perfect spot for a little reading corner.

The Bean Bag Toss; these kids sure know how to plan a party.  It even ended with awards.

I'm sexy and I know it! Oh Jar...what can I say?

Here's a little cuter shot of someone (Truman) getting ready to go out. Ha! I love little kids all bundled up ready to go. But, I have got to say, that I am thankful my own kids are able to almost get all geared up by themselves. It is a A LOT of work to dress these little guys!

We could not have asked for more perfect weather. The kids loved eating lunch and playing on the balcony.

And as always, we eat like kings at our cabin trips. Here Kevin and Becky prepare Italian Subs for lunch. Mmmm...

When it was all said and done, we spruced ourselves up and the entire family went to church at  Jarom's parent's ward. What a sight we were; we took up and entire side of the chapel.