AUGUST 2011

Is it really October already?! WOW!

August brought us the beginning of school, but before school started Kylie got her cast off!! She was a little sad that she was getting it off right before school started because she now wasn't going to have proof that she spent most of the summer in a cast. Yet, she was ready to have it off - as was I! We were pretty lucky that she had to keep going back for different things so that she got a new cast on every couple of weeks. I can't imagine how people go all 6-8 weeks with one cast. They get so nasty! Now it's off - HALLELUJAH!

As for school - I can't believe we now have a 6th grader & that my baby is in 3rd grade. Time flies! Kylie was asked to be one of the flag kids this year & she was jumping up & down for awhile when the call came to ask her. At her school they pick a few kids to be over the raising & taking down of the flag everyday. She felt so privileged that they asked her. I love it because she's learning how to respect & handle the flag.

I need to get better at taking pictures & getting on the ball. (I know, I say that every time.) Only now I don't have a camera, so that's awesome! Mine decided to bust on me & I haven't gotten a new one yet. Hopefully before Halloween! ;)

KYLIE HAS SURGERY

**WARNING** If you have a weak stomach I would not advise looking at the photos!!**

Kylie was playing at a friends house (along with Jadyn) on Tuesday June 14th. I text her to tell her to come home. I heard back nothing. So, I called her & got her voicemail. Waited a few minutes & still...nothing. A few minutes later her friend & Jadyn come busting through the door screaming that Kylie had been hurt. Jadyn was beside herself with crying. I took off running down the street. They had moved Kylie back into her friends house & she was really upset.

Apparently, she saw my missed text & call & took off out the door. Got on her scooter only to hit a crack in the sidewalk just right that sent her flying & landing on her wrist & arm. It got pretty swollen in the days to follow, but she wasn't overly in pain. No fever, no heat to the touch, nothing. Well, being the good parents we are we took her in finally on Friday, since the swelling hadn't gone down, night to my brother's office (who's a chiropractor) to get an x-ray before we took her in to the Dr. Saturday we heard back from my brother that she had a distal radius fracture. Nice! Did some research & called around on Monday & got her in to an orthopedic surgeon (apparently family dr's don't do casts anymore) on Tuesday morning June 21st. In fact, Erik took her (along with Jadyn) since I had to work & we just figured they would cast it.

Well, the Dr. informed Erik that she really needed to have surgery right away. Because of the way it was fractured it needed a pin in order to continue to have full mobility of her wrist & so that bone fragments didn't accidentally sever nerve endings or veins. Sounds lovely, eh?! So, surgery was scheduled for the next day - Wednesday June 22nd.

Taking your child in for surgery is nerve wracking!! I was a little bit of a mess! Especially when nurses are calling you for pre-admission info & asking your religion preference. They only ask that if there's something scary to think about. I know it's normal protocol, but when your kid's involved it's a whole different ball game! I don't know how mom's do it that have to go through major surgeries with their kids. I guess you just have to do what you have to do. YUCK!

We took her in & the ortho hospital she went to was wonderful! The nurses were all really nice & helpful. Her Dr. was great as well. We were truly blessed to be led to people who were so good. The scariest part was probably getting the i.v. in, but she was a trooper! She handled it way better than expected! When they put the meds in to start to put her out she got kind of silly pretty quick! It didn't take much for her. She kept asking us to come with her to the OR (which we couldn't obviously) while they were wheeling her away. She started asking again & then just started laughing mid-sentence.

Erik & I were then escorted to the waiting room. Erik went to go get some food really fast since we hadn't eaten. He brought me back a salad from Jack in The Box & I found a live ladybug in my salad!! Took a pic for proof! According to my mom that means good luck - I'll take it!! I couldn't get grossed out because I was about to pass out from starvation. Ew - yuck - I know!

After about an hour the surgery was all done & we were able to take her home! All in all, we were at the hospital for a total of about 3 hours. Not too bad!! We went home & she fell asleep for another couple of hours. Then, the fun began of having a cast, etc.

We sent her away still to Time To Blossom (more to come on that) in hopes that taking care of her cast would be ok. Not to mention someone helping her with her hair since that was a lost cause with your right arm out of commission.

The morning of July 1st we had scheduled a trip to San Diego. Kylie had a follow-up appt that morning before we left where they took her cast off & stitches out. The Dr told us he would remove the pin & we had no idea that it was sticking out of her arm. Kylie took one look & said, "Mom, I gotta lay down." I felt the same way! She got a new cast & picked red for this one & we were off on our trip!

This coming Tuesday she gets her pin removed & then her last cast that she will have to wear for a couple of weeks. She'll probably get it off the day before school starts. She's hoping for after so that she has proof that she really had a cast during the summer. ;) I'm glad it happened during summer, however, since writing & drums would have been extremely difficult!

APRIL / MAY

In April Kylie had the opportunity to go on a special field trip with all the Student Council Officers since she was the secretary in the fall. They went to the Capital building & were able to meet a couple of house representatives. Pretty cool if you ask me! I've lived here my whole life (except for 6 years in Vegas) & have never been to the capital building. Apparently, they have a museum there that she said was really neat. They even got some special treatment & were able to sit at house members desks & take photos. Lucky kid! The picture on the top right is with Eddie Farnsworth on the left (He's actually over her school) & I don't know who on the right. ;) I tried to look it up & there's just too many of them to look through, so I gave up. Sorry, whoever you are!

May brought beautiful weather & the kids dying to have a "lemonade stand"! We love the neighborhood we're in & the girls have been lucky enough to make some good friends! This whole lemonade stand idea spun a little out of control. It turned into a sweet stand & they sold all kinds of treats & stuff. It was a lot of work for the parents, but the kids had fun. They even made about $46 the first time. Who knew?! Maybe I should quit my job & put my kids to work. ;) Now it's just too hot to do it. I'm sure when it starts cooling down they'll want to do it again. They even had a few copy cat stands pop up after the word spread on how much $$ they were making. Haha!

The last day in May brought a very special birthday to Jay! She turned 8. She wanted breakfast in bed, it's turned into a tradition with the girls, with just a good 'ol Slim-Fast shake to eat. Then, she opened up her gifts. My kids give the best reactions to gifts. We're not dramatic in anyway at our house! ;) She got to go to lunch that day at her favorite place - Barro's pizza. Mimi & Papa came along with John & Aunt Jewelry (Julie). For dinner we went to Cafe Rio - another on of her favorites. Dave & Wendy Paez came to town & stayed the night with us. It ws so fun to have them here for all the festivities! Jack, Alli & Eli also came to Cafe Rio. I, of course, didn't take any pictures. UGH! We love our Jay!

The next morning I realized I didn't take any photos & made the Paez's pose for a couple pictures before they took off. Wendy was not too happy about that since it was bright & early, but she was a good sport!

ACTIONS

My new favorite picture of Kylie Erik happened to snap last week. Only, now I can't figure out which action I like the most on it. I secretly love the vintage, but then you lose out on the awesome colors. Ahhhh, decisions! Any opinions out there?

KYLIE'S 11

WHAT THE?!?! How did we get here? How did we end up with an 11 year old? My goodness! That means we have 1 year left until Young Women's. Actually, since it's already April - we only have 8 months left now! My, oh my, oh my!

Kylie had a party this year & in true fashion for me - it was totally thrown together at the last minute! She invited some friends & wanted to do cake decorating. I made small round cakes for each girl, had lots to decorate them with, & let them go nuts. Since our table is smaller - we did it in groups. While one group was decorating - the other group made ornaments. Then, we played pin the cotton ball in Buddy the Elf's mouth.

Kylie has a cute group of friends & we had a lot of fun!

KYLIE SofM

Kylie was chosen for the October Student of the Month in her class. The value for that month was perseverance. Here's what her teacher had to say about her:

"I feel this student deserves The Student of the Month Award" because she is a 'ray of sunshine' each day. She tries hard in all subjects, and regularly attends math tutoring to become a better math student. She understands first hand the meaning of perseverance. Her math grade has risen by pushing on despite difficulty. Her smile and positive attitude is uplifting to those around her."

We are so proud of our Kylie!!

STUCO SECRETARY

Kylie decided to run for Student Council Office again. I definitely don't want to discourage her on this, so we obliged again. I like that she's so confident - yet she doesn't stress if she gets picked or not. She told me that if she didn't get chosen it was ok - she'd just try & run for class representative. I also love that she doesn't get overly stressed giving her speech in front of everyone. Still not sure where that one comes from. Not myself - or Erik that's for sure! She definitely was one of the more energetic kids giving a speech.

The thing I love most is that each STUCO officer has to get a signature from there teacher each month saying there grades are good enough to stay in office. That pushes Kylie to try extra hard because she loves being in STUCO. She's such a cute little thing & absolutely loves her school! I only hope we can continue this through high school so that her college applications look good! ;)

CONGRATS Kylie we love you bunches!!!

**Sorry Mom. I tried & tried & tried to upload the video of her speech & it would not work. When you come down for J&A's baby I'll show you then.

VEGAS BABY!

After leaving St. George we headed to Vegas for a night to see some of our old friends. There are days when we REALLY miss Vegas. We miss our friends their dearly! We met my friend Jessica at Fashion Show Mall for lunch. We got their a little early & walked around. We went into the Vans store & they have a loft that has some Vans memorabilia. Kylie had to have her pic taken by the No Doubt Vans. She thought that was the coolest!

After lunch we went back to Jessica's to hang out & visit for a bit. Jessica has a daughter the same age as Kylie & they have been best friends since they were 6 months old. Kylie still considers Ana her best friend ever!


Jessica & I...

The best part about this photo is the New Kids buttons in the background. They are so Jessica! She was even published in a Teen Beat type magazine as a young teenager talking about how much she loved them. So classic!! {Don't kill me for writing that Jess - it's one of my favorite stories ever! ;)}

JUNK

I love looking at the pictures on my camera & finding the most random photos. Here's such an example...

My girls think these photos are hilarious. They do them often. They turn the screen saver mode on the xbox & then take pictures like they're being sucked into a vortex or something. They are nutty!

Then, there's some proof that Nui definitely belongs in my home. I believe he has OCD. Check out his dish...(Not sure why this photo keeps flipping on me. Sorry.)

He always pushes his food to one side as he eats it. It keeps his bowl cleaner & in order. That's my kind of dog!! ;)

KYLIEism

I was given strict instructions to NOT put this on the blog. But, since I'm the boss I'm doing it anyway! Not to mention that I've had a lot of silly Jay stories lately that I needed a Kylie one somewhere...

The other day we were all sitting on the couch. No doubt watching something on the Disney Channel. When Kylie brings up this movie...

Have you ever seen it? We own it - we LOVE it! It's great! Kylie says something along these lines...
"You know how Ozzy Osbourne played Joseph?"

I thought Erik was going to loose his lunch! He was laughing so hard. If you know Erik at all. When he laughs hard he does this weird giggle chch, chch thing. Well, he was doing that. It was hilarious!

We then corrected her. "No Kylie, it's Donny Osmond."

She says, "Oh yeah. Wait, who's he again?"

I'm not sure if this is sad or not. Maybe. But, when you say Donny from Donny & Marie or Puppy Love, etc. She draws a blank look & is clueless. But, when I mentioned - "Remember he's the goofy dancing guy in the White & Nerdy video with Weird Al." She was all over that one & knew exactly who it was.

Hmmm. That's some great parenting right there! Just to redeem myself - she also knows him from Mulan. He sings "Let's Get Down To Business". Another classic at our house.

Just for kicks. If you haven't seen the Weird Al "white & Nerdy" video click HERE. It's funny! Another Donny Osmond clip we love is this clip from the Jimmy Kimmel show. Click HERE for that one. It's quite hilarious!!

CATCH UP

I have so many posts running through my head & just no time to keep up. So, here's a catch up post of what happened during one weekend...

The 11th of December my Kylie turned 10!! My how we love that girl. Even when she's crazy - which is pretty much all of the time! How did I get so old to have a 10 year old? She told me a few times throughout the day, "I'm 10 now mom. Double digits. Do you feel old now?" Why yes, yes I do. Here she is with her Phineas & Ferb pin she got... (She loves that show.)

We love that she's not shy. Sometimes it can be much, but for the most part it's wonderful! We have no idea where it comes from as Erik & I are not very outgoing. She loves life & loves to be in charge. If you've been around her at all you know she can keep you busy all day long with activities made up on the fly. We're so happy she's part of our family!!

The next day the girls participated in a movie. A couple in our ward has a daughter in film school. She was making a short film for her class & needed girls for one of the scenes. They had to be crazed girls at a birthday party. (Not very hard for my girls.) They had a blast!! They actually filmed stuff a couple of weeks ago, but the camera broke towards the end. They had to come back to refilm & my girls were quite happy with that idea.
They loved being "on set" for a day. I came for a little bit to take some pictures & I'm so glad I did! Check out what they did to my girls....

I was laughing so hard! I loved it! (Do you love Kylie's dress EmmaLee?) They had some dresses for the girls to wear, but asked them to bring some more just in case. Kylie was the oldest & they didn't have anything that fit her. All we have is old dance costumes & she chose the lovely pink & white number to wear.

I asked a guy at one point what was going on in the story & he mentioned something about zombies. But, they did not tell the girls that. They just told them to act crazy. At one point they had to dig in & destroy a birthday cake making grumbling noises. Again, I was just laughing! Then, a guy stole a bike from the party & the girls had to chase him. I can't wait to see the finished product. We'll be getting a copy of the film once it's all edited. And I'll probably need to watch it before I let my girls see it just to be sure! ;)

MEXICAN

Kylie's full of them lately! Here's her latest silly quote...

Erik & the girls were watching "Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader" the other night while I was making dinner. In the catagory 1st Grade Language the question was: What language is the word Fiesta (meaning party or celebration) that is spoken by 1/3rd of the world.

KYLIE: "Oh! That's so easy!!! I know that one!"

(**I have so many exclamation marks on purpose. She's yelling as she says these things because she's so excited.**)

ERIK: "Oh yeah, what is it?"

KYLIE: "It's MEXICAN!!"

I about fell over I was laughing so hard. Silly girl! She quickly realized the error of her ways once Erik & I couldn't talk from laughing so hard.

Yesterday Erik was helping Kylie clean out her room after school. This is always an overwhelming project. She is the hugest pack rat. In fact, Erik is on the lookout for that "Horders" show to tape it & show Kylie how crazy it can be.

Anyway, not the point of my story. I hear this little conversation occur during the process over Erik trying to throw away some "Camp Rock" movie peraphinalia....


Kylie: "Dad, you can't throw that away! It's from my "Camp Rock" party which was my second favorite party ever!"


Erik: "What was your first favorite party?"


Kylie: "My baptism, duh?! That's everyone's favorite birthday party."


Well, gee - maybe I'm not the world's worst mother after all. Seems like I'm doing something right!

RINGTAIL

This is my mom's newest pet...

His name is "Moki". My mom & Alan caught a ringtail cat awhile ago that was pregnant. They took care of her & her babies when they were born. They sold the othe babies & kept Moki. Kylie's class just recently did a report & learned about these animals. Her teacher asked if we would take pictures for the class & even asked Kylie to interview my mom about it. Everyone took a turn holding Moki....

He was fascinated with my glasses. Or maybe it's my red demon eyes that I'm too lazy to fix in photoshop. Gotta love overly large pupils!!

TEETH

Teeth seems to be a never ending saga at my house. At the beginning - it was a nightmare with the whole teething thing. Kylie didn't get her first tooth until she was 13 months old. But, she started teething at 4 months. Now that they're older - it's a nightmare loosing teeth! For some reason it just scares my girls to death. I'm not sure why. Especially since everytime when their tooth finally comes out they remember it doesn't hurt, but they still go nuts everytime. Jadyn especially! There's just no way to describe the torture it is to try & get her to let us pull her tooth out when it's just barely hanging on. It took days of screaming & crying & throwing fits to finally end in Erik just stealing her tooth when she was screaming & had her mouth open.

While up at my mom's house Jadyn had a front tooth just barely hanging on for dear life. She would not let us pull it! She told us one morning, making Kylie extremely upset, that Kylie also had a loose tooth. Which was funny because Kylie kept telling Jadyn it didn't hurt & don't be scared. Guess she doesn't practice what she preaches. Once Erik found out about it though she was awesome. He told her to stand still so he could pull it. It took her only a minute & then stood still - it came out without a whole lot of effort. In fact Erik just pulled it down & it just flipped out of her mouth in the air! It was actually quite funny.

We made Jadyn watch to see how non-scary it was, but it didn't help. She was still freaked out. I'm sad to admit this, but it ended up in us pinning her down & pulling it out. Which of course, as soon as it was out, she was fine & happy. It had to be done, it was literally hanging. And with a front tooth doing that it was just gross. I couldn't look at her pretty little face because it grossed me out - it had to be done!

Here's my toothless wonders showing off their teeth...

Erik told them that if they both lost a tooth in the same day that they would get extra money from the tooth fairy. So, they each received a $5 bill. (Actually, it was all Erik had in his wallet. We don't carry cash. They were lucky - at least he had something since we weren't about to drive into town to find an ATM at 9pm!)

The adventure is not over yet. Jadyn's other front tooth is loose. (I hope she looses it before Christmas!) She has now lost 3 teeth in the past couple of weeks. Kylie's other bottom tooth (the one opposite the one she lost) is loose as well. Fun times!!

KYLIE and the PLEDGE

Kylie was excited to be the leader for the pledge for flag ceremony one Monday. Here she is doing her job...

We love their school & that the kids get opportunities like this. I love this picture because it has her teacher standing next to her & her principal in the background. We are blessed to have our girls attending such a wonderful school. Not to mention being blessed for just having such cute kids! Look how cute she is!!! Plus, I LOVE that she's so comfortable in front of people. I wish I had an ounce of that from her!

CONGRATS

My Kylie wanted to run for her school's Historian this year. It was the first opportunity for her to run as you have to be in 4th grade to run for this office. She was so excited to run. It's been a good motivator for her because she found out that you have to keep your grades up. She's been working extra hard to make sure that happened. The Historian at her school is in charge of taking pictures at Student Council activities & then making a book at the end of the semester for the Student Council members. Well, that is right up our alley! Here's her poster we made to display....

She also had to prepare a speech. This is where I started to stress. The poor girl has the most uncreative mom when it comes to things like this. I knew most of the kids would have very creative speeches with props & things. That's just the way it is with the mom's at this school. It's a dang good thing she is so animated - or it never would have worked! Here's her speech.....

She did so well on her speech! Most kids stared at their paper the whole time & were quite nervous. Kylie was nervous, but she is not scared to be in front of people. I'm so glad she's like that & not terrified like me.

We've prepped her for the past couple of weeks to not be shocked if she didn't win & to be happy for whoever does win. Especially since there was 8 other 4th graders running for this office. Well, the lucky little kid WON!! She was so excited - she just kept looking at me grinning while the Principal announced the other winners. She'll have so much fun since a few of her friends won as well! This will be a fun group! Here's Kylie right after she was announced....

Here's her excited little face when her friend Marinne was announced as the Secretary winner...

CONGRATS KYLIE!! We're so proud of you!!

SCHOOL BEGINS

Yesterday was the first day of school!! I am not the normal mom when it comes to school beginning. I don't sit around & cry. Jadyn started 1st grade yesterday - which means she goes to school all day now & I did the happy dance! I've been waiting for school to begin so I can sit in peace & watch Twilight. Everytime I've tried to watch it the last few months things happen & I never get to finish it. So, yesterday was my day to sit in peace! Well, Erik came home & I didn't get to finish it. Maybe today. At least I was able to get my house organized. (OK-just the front room & kitchen. And, of course, it's already trashed!) We also got our microwave fixed! It's been broken for a couple of months. We haven't really missed it, but it will be nice to have it again. Anyhoo, here's some photos of our first day of school...

Kylie the 4th grader...

Jadyn the 1st grader...

These are Jadyn's shoes. I had to post a picture of these because I LOVE LOVE LOVE these shoes!! Did I mention I LOVE these shoes?! They have glittery chandeliers on them & they're Converse. Gotta love this find in the clearance area at Tillys.com!! Unfortunately, they only had one size, so I was unable to get some for Kylie. But, lucky for us, at least the size fit one of my girls!!

My girls with their cheese ball faces...

My girls doing what they do best. Singing their hearts out to Paramore's "That's What You Get" on the way to school!!

They had a great day. They're excited to have the teachers they have. We're blessed to be able to attend such a wonderful school!!

Check out the new company car Bell got us...


Isn't it beautiful? Who would have ever thought that the Bell's would get us a car that costs almost as much as a house?! They're just too good to us!!

HA! If you know the Bell's than you're laughing. Actually, this has been parked in our neighbors spot for the past two days. Like idiots - we had to take some pictures. It's just too pretty to ignore! We piled the whole family into my car yesterday & told the girls to both go out Kylie's door on the opposite side of the Bentley. Kylie started to protest & ask why? WHY?! We explained that this was a VERY expensive car & would cost more than her college tuition to fix if we dinged it. Her reply...

"Well that's just a rip off of a car!"

Apparently, she's not a fan of paying ridiculous amounts for a car. Even if it's lovely!

As for Jadyn -

In the morning she was reading a Junie B. Jones book. She's quite the little reader lately. Upon finishing it she told Erik & I, "I'm done with my book! Can I get a what, what?!" I'm still not sure where she comes up with these things.

KIDS

This has got to be the worst part of raising kids. The heartbreaking thought that other kids are mean to your kids. Kylie is such a sweet girl. She truly has a genuine personality. On the flipside, she can be bossy & overbearing. Not in a vindictive way - just a "I like to play what I want to" way. I'm sure that doesn't make any sense to just read this, but if you know her than you understand. Some kids just don't know how to handle her & it sometimes makes life hard. Even though she likes to do her own thing, she in no way is mean to other kids. I'm not just saying that either. I'm definitely not one of those "my child would never do that" kind of moms. In fact, I automatically assume it's my kids fault before finding out the truth. Backwards I know.

I wish I could pick my girls friends, but I know I can't. I wish I could pick the cutest girl in the class with the best family to be their best friend. But, I'm finding out that sometimes that person is not very nice. Poor Kylie has had a rough time with this one girl. It's someone she's always wanted to be friends with, but this girl is just not nice to Kylie. It breaks my heart to see her cry & have her feelings hurt. I remember what that's like & it makes me crazy to watch someone else go through that. Especially someone as sweet as Kylie. Kylie may be loud, hyper & crazy as all get out, but she's not mean!! I am thankful for that. It's also hard because this girl has a great family. But, unfortunately, at this stage in life - Kylie's better friends are the ones I necessarily wouldn't just go out & pick for her. They're not mean though, so I find comfort in that. Hopefully, Kylie will be able to find a GREAT friend soon that can last for a lifetime. Heaven knows that's the best way to make it through life. I was lucky enough to find many in High School.

Well, at least the school year is almost over & we can have a break from this kind of stuff for a couple of months! Bring on the trips & the FUN!!!