Mozart is in the house!

Olivia decided that she wanted to learn to play a song on the piano. I put up a note and key helper, wrote out the keys to a song and showed her. She plays is over and over. My other kids showed interested too, jumped on it and got them started on piano lessons, the excitement fizzled out fast. I would love one child to play the piano!

Back to School

On the first day of school dad gives each of the kids a blessing and then we drive them to school. On the way out of the neighborhood my sweet Jeff says "Well mothers are rejoicing everywhere right now" My kids asked why? Is there a party for just moms today? In my mind I'm thinking yes, each one of us is having our own celebration. Wow what did I not do???? I cleaned, sewed, read, exercised, watched a movie I wanted to watch while I folded laundry. It was glorious! However, it was sure nice to see their faces walk in the door later. Then the fighting, teasing, carpooling craziness began!

Olivia started her last year of preschool. She informed me she did not understand why she could not go to kindergarten with all of her friends. She said, "Mom, I can write my name, I know all my shapes, numbers, colors, letters, and I have to go back to Preschool." Reminding her that she is still only 4 does not seem to help.
On the second day of Preschool, she reminded me that she was almost 5 and almost in Kindergarten, that I no longer needed to walk her to her cubby in the school, that I should wait by the gate if I needed to, otherwise I should just go because she can do it herself. So my last baby does not need me anymore. Everyday I wait by the gate not because she needs me to, but because I need to.
After 14 years of constant company, I am finally able to go to the bathroom without an audience. I love my 4 little snuggies and I am REALLY enjoying my quiet time, but I sure miss them while they are gone.

Just watched a great movie called, Pay it Back. It was about a class project where the kids were supposed to do 3 nice things for someone else, in return those 3 people had to do something nice for 3 people as well. What a great concept! I was checking a website of an author I enjoy and he was giving away a free copy of his new book , all you had to do was write on his blog one nice thing you have done this week. So, I am going to copy cat...anyone out there who reads my blog...do something nice for someone this week and post a comment letting me know how it went.
We have a couple in our neighborhood he is kind of quiet and seems shy, she is really mean. She has even threatened to kill our dogs. Well I noticed that their yard is looking pretty bad. A neighbor called and informed me that he has cancer and is too sick to work on his yard. About 20 people showed up and spent about 2 hours weeding, mowing and talking to this lady. She actually really is a nice person, just going through a bad time. Her and her husband could not believe that so many people would show up and do this for complete strangers without expecting anything in return. It is called service.

Rigby Lake

We finally are able to go and spend several hours at our local lake. No one needs a nap and everyone has a great time together. We have our special spot that we like and we like to groan really loud when we drive up and someone is already in our spot. Sometimes the kids fish, from the shore or from their pontoon boats. Olivia is actually the only one that has caught one.

Rigby lake has great sand, grass, playground, walking path, a small slide that goes into the water, firepits and now a snowasis (not to be confused with a snow shack, which is by far the best snowcones ever!)

Usually I read and lay out because I find Lake water pretty gross. I prefer to waterski in it, swimming in it just grosses me out. Well today I surprised all the kids by running and jumping in and dunking all the kids. It was actually pretty fun as long as I did not think about what was lurking below!!!

My kids are HAMS! I don't mean the meat!

Monday night we went to a party at a new club in Rigby. The family hosting the party rented out the whole place so the kids were invited. The basement is a karyoke area, with a stage, lights microphones etc. Olivia was the first one up on stage to sing. She sang you are my sunshine and twinkle twinkle little star. Sarrah and Gabe sang poker face and Ethan sang a song from Linkin Park. I got up to sing it's Tricky from Run DMC with Stasha and Ethan ran up on stage and did the dance he made up at school (it is hilarious). The upstairs is a dance floor with lights, fog, DJ etc. the music is loud and the lights are cool. Olivia and Gabe tore up the dance floor. Olivia was doing her spins, leaps, splits, floor rolls. Gabe was breakdancing. Olivia then wanted to request a song. She went up to the DJ and said she wanted to hear Move it Move it. He turned it on and everyone was dancing and Olivia loved it! At the end everyone was chanting Ethan, Ethan trying to get him to sing his opera. He wouldn't do it, so I invited everyone over on his dish day, that is when his opera singing begins. He says it makes dishes bearable! Love my kids!

Proud of my boy!

I am so proud of Gabriel. He just finished his Wolf in Scouts. He has two great leaders right now, Maureen Thurstan and Christy Crandall. I am so grateful for people who take this calling seriously and help these boys love scouts. I am grateful to my parents for taking Gabe camping and helping him pass off so many things. Gabe is so excited and I love seeing him feel so good about accomplishing something so great. He is such a wonderful boy, with a good heart.

On a side note..Gabe was holding his hamster "Jack" we have had Jack for awhile now. Jack sometimes gets overly excited and pees. I could smell Jack from where he was curled up in Gabes lap. I said "Gabe let me see Jack for a minute." I looked at Jacks underside and low and behold Jack was missing a couple of things and had nipples. So there you have it. Jack is now Roxy!

We are off the spend the day at Boy Scout Camp with Ethan and Jeff. We miss them and today is the day families get to come up for activites and dinner. I am excited to see my boys, won't be long until Gabe is there too, then me and the girls can have a nice non stinky, non loud week!

The JOB JAR!

So Sarrah and I were watching some show called "worlds meanist/strictest parents" something like that. This family was LDS and had 2 bad teenagers come live with them for 2 weeks. One of the things that this family had, was a JOB JAR. Whenever anyone was fighting, teasing, back sassing etc. instead of getting angry with the kids, the parents just held out the JOB JAR and all parties invovled in the trouble had to pick a job out of the jar. So I sat down and typed up all the little jobs around the house that I would like done that take me awhile to get to and some others that were nasty (toilets). Now every Wednesday is bathroom cleaning day anyway, but boy do I love on Monday when one of the kids draws "clean all the toilets in the house" I now have the cleanest toilets, cleanest base boards, cleanest kitchen cupboards!