Pacers

With school starting, Pacers program also started. This year for Pacers the school decided that as soon as they run their marathon distance, they will get their sweatshirt and won't have to wait until the end of school year. Then, if they continue running, for each additional 5 miles they run, their name will be put into a drawing for prizes at the end of the school year.

 

Kylie received her sweatshirt at the beginning of December. She did awesome and I am so impressed with how well and easy running is coming for her. Even her teacher commented on what a great runner she is. I hope she'll continue to develop a love for it.

 

Merit Badge

Tyler is really into scouting. He had the opportunity to participate in a merit badge pow wow and one of the merit badges he signed up for was photography. He needed to take pictures of nature and put them in a presentation to pass it off. One day after school, Braden and I picked Tyler up and we went to the gardens on campus. He did a great job taking LOTS of pictures and I couldn't let the opportunity pass me by so I had to get a few of my boys. This is where I discovered my camera wasn't working anymore, so we did the best we could with what we had.

 

I love this picture below because Braden LOVES Tyler. He looks up to him and when refering to Tyler, he always says "My Tyler". Braden just kind of grabbed Ty's face and was going in for a hug, with "my Tyler".

Halloween

Halloween came again this year, and I am at a point where I am not really into buying elaborate costumes. So again, I kind of let them all come up with what they wanted to be and this is what they chose. Except for Braden - we had costumes in our Halloween bin, and he was so excited to be a fireman - except he kept calling it a fire truck.

 

Kylie was a football player. We even did the black paint under her eyes

 

 

Braden as a fireman/ fire truck

 

One night we were joking about the replacement refs - hence McKenna as a ref. We used black duct tape on a white shirt, gave her a whistle and black hat, and she had black pants on.

I didn't get a picture of Tyler. He wasn't going to participate in Halloween this year, but after seeing how easy McKenna's was, he also decided to be a ref since they attend different schools. I think they all looked great and it turned out well. Lots of candy. Successful Halloween.

Pumpkins

Loved carving pumpkins this year. The kids really took over and knew what they wanted to do. We didn't choose a pattern for them, and they carved everything themselves - except Braden. He knew what he wanted, and we had to help him. I won't bore you with the gory details, I'll just show you their finished pumpkins. They were all so proud and they looked AWESOME outside with a light in them.

 

Braden of course did Mickey Mouse

 

Kylie surprised me and wanted just a basic Y on hers (for BYU)

 

 

McKenna's was a little more detailed - a football with a Y at the bottom

 

Tyler's was the traditional BYU

 

Tyler's 12th Birthday

It is so hard for me to believe that my oldest is 12. I don't feel that much older so it's weird that the little people keep getting older! For Ty's birthday, he had a birthday party with lots of boys over. We set up the basement with the projector and band hero, food and the wii. They spent a lot of time down there and my favorite part was hearing them sing Taylor Swift songs.  HILARIOUS! After it got darker outside, they spent a long time outside playing night games. All in all, it was a very successful party and Ty had a great time.

 

As a family, we celebrated Ty's birthday on the 29th. Of course we had to do the "tradition" party hats. Braden gets so excited about these and we have to use them for EVERY birthday. Ty opened presents and had his traditional sam's club chocolate fudge cake!

 

One of my most favorite things about Ty's birthday weekend was he was ordained a deacon and received the priesthood on Sunday, the 30th. So special and so neat to see him each Sunday pass the sacrament and get excited to collect fast offerings. He also serves in the Deacon Quorum presidency and what a great leadership and learning opportunity for him.

 

Again, definitely growing up!

 

Primary Program

The primary program has usually always been held in October of each year. Tyler was so happy about this because that meant since he turned 12 in September, he wouldn't have to participate this year. However, for whatever reason they had the primary program on September 23rd, a few days before his birthday. He was not too excited about this.

 

The fun thing for him is that we got a new counselor in the primary presidency and she also has a daughter whose birthday was at the same time of the primary program. She did a great job making them feel needed and put together a little orchestra for one of the songs.

 

Lots of practice hours later - I even helped out by going over and over it with me on the piano and Ty on the violin. They did great!

 

The primary counselor also had a special song for all of the children who were baptized this year and had them wear their baptism dresses.

 

It was a great program and I of course had to get pictures of them on the day! I also couldn't leave Braden out. He was pretty well behaved this Sunday!

 

Posts

I know there are 12 new posts. I should have kept up with it throughout the summer. Just didn't happen. I know some are lengthy, but again, it's more for remembrances for later. Not that anyone reads my blog anymore, but if you do, and you are bored, at least there is something new!

McKenna's Broken Wrist

I always thought Braden would end up with the first broken bone, but McKenna decided she wanted the title more! On September 15th she was riding her ripstick at the neighbors house in the morning and fell off it and hit her arm. The neighbor was sweet and gave her a bag of ice to put on it, she came home crying and I put a different ice pack on it. She cried for awhile but could move it just fine. It was her wrist and she could bend it and move her fingers. After awhile she said she felt better and wanted to go and play so I let her thinking we would check on it later anyway. A few hours later she came back home in tears because it got bumped and it hurt. It was swollen at that point so I made the decision to just take her in.

We get there and she was so upset about the possibility of having a cast - that's all she could think of. The doctor came in and was able to squeeze it without her yelling in pain. At that point I started really doubting me taking her in. So they x-rayed it and I was fully prepared to hear - it's just a sprain. I was in shock myself when they said her wrist was broken.

They put on a temporary splint until swelling went down. It was hard to keep her still. We went back when we were supposed to but they said another couple of days because it was still really swollen. On the way home McKenna said, "I'm sure it is swollen because someone bumped me when I was playing 4-square." At that point I decided it would be best to keep her home for a couple of days from school until we could get the cast on it.

Finally we got the cast on it, people have signed it and it seems to be going well. Still need to get it x-rayed again to make sure everything is healing well. But so far, so good.

9-11 Memorial

For September 11th, Allen's group of students wanted to put up a memorial of flags for the day. It was a big deal and a lot of red tape to go through. Once given the go ahead, they needed to find the flags. There was an organization that was kind and donated their flags for BYU-Idaho to use. There were 530 flags that were placed - each flag representing 20 people who died on September 11th.  In the evening, we took everyone over so we could see it for ourselves.

Not the best picture, it is a view from the skywalk - but the best I could get. It was really neat and just a nice reverent feeling there.

Of course, everyone needed their picture by a flag!

Summer Randomness

Just a few random pictures. The first one is Braden in the bath. He loves bubble baths because goofy loves bubble baths. The second two are ones not taken by me but found on my camera!

First Day of School

First day of school this year was August 22nd. Kylie and McKenna are in 3rd grade. Kylie has Mrs. Wilcox and McKenna has Mrs. Reese. So far so good!

Tyler is in middle school and in the 6th grade. He was excited about this year because finally, he gets a locker. He's also not really into having his picture taken!

Celebrate Youth

I know I have a post like this every single August, but we are still at that stage where we enjoy (mostly) the celebrate youth day. This year was no different. We jumped on that train very first - and Braden couldn't have been more excited!

Tyler has asked me for a long time how you sign up to be a volunteer. So as soon as we got off the train and before we realized it, Tyler went up to the main booth and asked how. They gave him a shirt and put him right to work. He loved it. He enjoyed being able to do that the most. I understand too as he is getting older, who wants to hang out with his siblings and parents?

We did face painting. A butterfly for Kylie, a football for McKenna and of course Mickey Mouse for Braden.

The hospital had a fun gigantic operation game that all of them enjoyed.

The bumpers that they all enjoyed again. Even Braden got to participate this year. Crashing into people - what isn't to love?

They had a little dig for prizes. I thought he looked so cute in that hat!

Then there was the fire trucks and ambulance. Braden is terrified of sirens and doesn't like them. So it was surprising to me that he jumped into the ambulance without a problem and looked around. We get to the fire truck and it was total hang on tight and wouldn't let go of me. It's amazing we got this picture of him sitting on the step. Hopefully he won't think it quite as scary anymore.

We weren't chosen for any prizes again this year - but maybe next!

BYU Visit

After we dropped Tyler off at my brother's, we decided to drive around Springville and Provo a little and remember the good ol' days! We wanted to eat lunch at BrandX Burgers, but they went out of business - so sad! Then while in Provo we stopped and walked around campus a little and went to Legacy hall. Kind of like an athletic museum of all the great BYU players. We thought it was really cool!

McKenna in front of that wall

We also got to see the team practicing. We didn't see Riley Nelson though and McKenna was pretty sad about that. She loves Riley Nelson.

After Provo, we drove to Sandy and persuaded my sister and her two kids to drive back to Idaho for a week visit. So we packed and loaded everyone up and I had the opportunity to drive Katie's car back. It was fun - I don't get the chance to drive cars much anymore.

While she was here we tried to do fun things. We did get to go to Fat Cats and go bowling and of course play the arcade games. We most just hung out though.

McKenna and Kylie were excited that I rode with Katie because they each got a turn to sit by their cousins. They love Samantha and Morgyn and interacting with them.

My sister will understand the signifigance of this picture the most. But all I can say is she is AWESOME driving on I-15 on a Saturday with a bunch of crazy people! :)

We stayed the night with Katie and her family and got to get some school shopping in - which was good. The funniest part, and I don't mean to embarrass anyone, but we walked into the mall in Sandy and needed to go downstairs. So we hop on the escalator to come down - the girls first and of course Braden jumped on but I am holding his hand so I had to hurry and jump on and Allen got on after me, but poor Tyler was at the top and was afraid to come down. I don't blame him, if you don't ride them often (like never), then it is really scary. Once Allen got to the bottom he went back to the top to help get him on. But it was kind of a funny moment of trying to get him on it.

Long and exhausting week but so much fun!