A lot has happened...

I feel like I have lost an entire year by not keeping up on this blog!  I have been posting pictures to Instagram as a quick way to document, but it's not really the same since I don't have much dialog to go with the pictures.  I was thinking just the other day when I was helping Chance with his 4th grade autobiography, that had I not kept up on a blog and pictures, I would have no clue about his life!!  I have the worst memory!!  I was so happy to have pictures and a blog to remind me of the blur of the passage of time.  At the same time, I sort of feel like I have been "living in the moment" - not worrying about the past or future, but just taking each day at a time and enjoying life.  I am going to try to go back and post a few highlights to the best of my memory (even if it's just with a picture or two), and try to do at least a once-per-month recap of our lives so that we have something to look back on.  And laugh about.

So, starting with the most current, Chance had his Memorial Day basketball tournament Friday and Saturday.  As my friend Mindy said, our vacations have turned into basketball tournaments!  Chance's team won on Friday night, won their first game on Saturday, then lost their second game on Saturday.  Chance has been playing "okay."  I think he's a little burnt out.  I might have lost my temper a bit with him after the first game.  I tried to explain to him that it is such a sacrifice for our family with time and money to keep him playing competitively.  Sometimes I watch him out on the court, and it looks like he isn't even trying.  The coach sees it too, and then Chance spends the rest of the time on the bench.  I didn't waste my whole weekend to see my kid sit on the bench.  UGH.  Chance is a talented ball player, but sometimes I just look at him and wonder why he doesn't give it his all.  Maybe with football coming up, a break from basketball is just what he needs to regroup and play harder.  ANYWAY, the highlight of this Memorial Day tournament was that Big T - Thurl Bailey - walked in to the tournament to watch the games!  Holy cow he is tall!  The Kings were star struck and just stared at the legend.  One of the moms from one of the other teams was brave enough to ask for a picture with Thurl and their team.  I should have done the same (and I might have), but of course this was the first game I did not have my cell phone or my camera!!!  of course!!!  Oh well.  It's a good memory!

This year was the first year that I can remember the kids getting out of school BEFORE Memorial Day!    It was kind of nice!  They finished up school on Friday, May 24.  Hannah brought home a fistful of awards from her second grade teachers!  "Exceptional Handwriting", "Outstanding Writing Skills", "Great Citizenship", "Friendliest Smile - awarded to the Friendliest Student in our Class", and "Walking 100 miles."  Not quite sure when they walked 100 miles ha!  Hannah has struggled a little bit with some girls in her grade this year.  There has been drama going on that I don't remember dealing with until I was much older!  For example, two girls wrote her a note that said they hated her.  Hannah had come home from school in a bad mood, and I found the note crumpled up in her locker here at home.  Then the same girls continued to say "Oh my G**" in front of her over and over because they knew she did not like it (and continued to say it after she asked them to stop).  They also pushed Hannah into a snowbank and told her they didn't want to be her friend.  These episodes (plus others) resulted in lots of tears after school.  I finally told the teacher(s), Mrs. Johnson and Mrs. Miles, about the episodes, and things improved for the last part of the year.  Until the last week of school when the "Oh my G**" thing started up again.  However, this time, Hannah had her friend Jerzi Dixon with her to have her back and be on her side.  I am so thankful for my kids' good friends.  It has been rough helping Hannah to find some good friends with the same values.  Jerzi is one who I am hoping continues to be a good, positive friend for Hannah.  Hannah really misses Esi from North Ogden.  Esi and Hannah continue to be friends (they just went boating together yesterday), but it is hard when they do not go to the same school.  {Sigh.}  Girls.

Chance had an improved report card for 4th Quarter of 4th Grade, but it wasn't the greatest.  Which isn't like him, because he has always been a great student.  However, he was in a class with a bunch of his goofy friends, and for some reason they all sat together????  Anyway, this resulted in a lot of not paying attention, a lot of not getting school work done, and a lot of poor grades on the report card.  I finally made Chance sit down with me and commit to being prepared at school by signing a written contract.  I think a lot of his lack of preparation came with the dread of finishing a large project on his own.  I tried to make an extra effort to help him, especially with his larger projects, so that he could be prepared on time or ahead of time.  I reminded him day to day to bring home everything he did not finish in class so he could finish it at home.  [I must've slacked off in my reminders in 3rd grade (or 4th grade was just a lot harder) because I could see an obvious deterioration in his grades as the 4th grade year progressed.]  Anyway, our efforts paid off and Chance's report card improved.  Chance mentioned to me, "It's so nice to go to school and not have my name on the board for being unprepared!"  I felt so bad that he had his name on the board for being unprepared in the first place!  I had no idea!  I think he kept it to himself, then dreaded showing up for school.  I felt really guilty about that.  But, I have been congratulating myself for passing 4th grade for the 2nd time!  ha!!  As a highlight, Chance's teacher told him that he was the first kid in about five or more years to score 100% in the Language Arts portion of his core testing.  He got a 95% in his math core testing.  I was very proud of him for that.  Maybe he is goofy during class, but the kid is super smart and tests well.  

West-a-boy (as he refers to himself!  I don't even think he knows his real name is West! He calls himself 'uh-boy') is growing and makes us laugh every single day.  I don't know if it's because I'm older so I can sort of step back and appreciate him more, but he is hilarious.  West always has a smile.  He is such a happy, happy boy.  He loves his "gee gees" - all of them.  He sort of has one or two he prefers, but he typically carries 2 or 3 around at a time.  They are all made of the "minky" furry material.  He cringes at the feel of fleece - which is what Chance's and Hannah's "gee gees" are made of!  ha!  He puts them up to his chin and then lowers and raises his chin on them.  West-a-boy loves cars and trucks, especially garbage trucks.  The other day at the gym, he hid a little garbage truck inside of another truck.  When I went to pick him up, he grabbed the garbage truck out of its hiding place and tried to take it home.  I made him put it back, which he reluctantly did.  I thought it was funny he even thought of hiding it in order to take it home!  West is obsessed with Caillou, but much to our relief has really taken a liking to Lightning McQueen and Mater lately.  We are considering a Disney trip this year, but Shawn is cringing over it.  I think Shawn's Disney tolerance has maxed out.  But I just want to see West's face when he sees Lightning live and in person!!  He's also taken a liking to the Little Einsteins. Hannah went through a Little Einteins phase too.  Really, to sum up West, it's that he just makes me laugh.  I find his little brain and actions so amusing!!!

Shawn is continuing to work at Superior Roofing and with the W.A.R. Program with his friend Dustin.  He continues to work out and is super strong.  Shawn is so funny - when we met, dated, and were first married, probably due to working on the roof, Shawn never worked out or exercised.  He was doing hard, physical labor all day so he didn't really need to.  He referred to himself as the "natural athlete".  Plus, he ate anything and everything he felt like.  Now, he's sort of a gym rat and is really nutrition-consious.  It is so funny, I tease him and say, "Who are you???" when he makes reference to how something is loaded with sugar or carbs.  He really has done a complete 180.  But I'm not complaining - he looks amazing and is so helpful with making healthy choices for our family.  

I have done a 180 myself and have stopped caring so much about what I eat!  Much to my demise!!  ha!!  But I'm getting back on track.  I have been going to a girl's house to work out 3 times per week.  She does cross-fit type training, but its in small groups of 8 and all are women.  In this atmosphere, I feel a lot less intimidated and can work hard.  It's been about 3 months so far and I can tell I'm getting stronger; however, if I continue to make poor food choices, I'm never going to look any different/better.  I want to eat healthy, but I choose to eat whatever I feel like!!  I will just continue to try to balance it out.  I sure feel a lot better about myself and in general when I exercise.  I really think it helps clear my head and reduce stress.  

Hike to Waterfall Canyon

Since Chance's basketball tournament was over, we did not have any other Memorial Day plans.  So today, we took a hike to Waterfall Canyon.  We had not ever hiked as a family before, so we weren't sure how it was going to work out.  It was actually pretty fun!  Hannah wanted to quit on the way up, but she made it!  And once she got to the top, she had the time of her life!!  Shawn carried West all of the way up in a backpack carrier.  And Chance only fell in the river twice!  ha!  Shawn told Chance he would pay him $10 bucks if he held his head under the waterfall water for 5 seconds.  Obviously Shawn didn't think he would do it, but Chance surprised us all and did it!  Pretty funny.  A good family activity, I thought.  Then later on, we spent time with Grammy - which is always a pleasure.

Hannah's Baptism!

I feel like I just barely posted about Chance getting baptized - and now it's Hannah's turn!  Hannah's birthday is March 14 - meaning she could be baptized the first week of April.  But since the first week of April was General Conference, baptisms were scheduled for the second Saturday of April.  That day happened to be Hannah's first dance competition of the year, and I did not want to rush from competition over to baptism.  I wanted it to be a special, relaxing day for her.  So we moved the baptism to the first week of May - May 4.  I told her she will always remember her baptism day because it is "May the Fourth be with you."  LAME haha!!  

I took Hannah to "Just Girls Stuff" to pick out a dress to wear after she was baptized.  They had the store all set up just like a bridal store, where the girls could try on dresses in front of giant mirrors and twirl around on the pedestals.  She was in heaven!  I think she tried on every, single white dress in sizes 6, 7,  and 8 dress in the store!  There was one dress that looked really similar to my wedding dress...so I told her that.  I didn't want to sway her opinion at all, but I think I did.  After lots of trying on, she narrowed the dresses down to the one that looked like my wedding dress, and this other one with little flowerettes all over.  She tried both of them on two or three times and couldn't decide!  I told her she needed to pick the dress that SHE loved, not what I thought.  So she picked the one with all of the flowerettes on it.  It was perfect - it was so "her"!!  We picked out some sparkly high-heel shoes, a little jewelry, and her baptism outfit was compete.  She looked beautiful.  

I was lucky enough to take Hannah's and Esi's baptism pictures together at the Brigham City temple.  I told Hannah she could choose anywhere she wanted to have her pictures done, and that is where she chose.  I am thinking she might have chosen the Ogden temple had it not been under major reconstruction.  So fun to have two best buddies at the temple together in their baptism dresses.  They looked like little angels.  

We decided to have the baptism dinner at the church, similar to what we did for Chance's.  It was so nice to not have to clean the house and stress out if there was going to be enough room.  Hannah wanted to choose all of the tablecloths and decorations herself.  She wanted "spring colors", so she had purple, pink, green, blue, yellow, and orange tablecloths.  We made number "8" donuts buy putting two little mini donuts on top of each other on to a colorful stick so they looked like the number '8'.  Then we put them in little colored buckets in the centers of the tables.  I was not thinking, so I have zero pictures of the final product, but we thought they were cute!  We had meatball sandwiches (same as Chance's) and Grammy's famous chocolate cake.  

On the big day, Hannah got into her baptism jumpsuit and took some darling pictures with her brothers.  She was all smiles.  Then, she walked into the water and Shawn baptized her.  When she came out of the water, I expected this magical, fresh-and-clean smile.  Instead, Hannah squinted up her eyes, scrunched up her nose, and stuck out her tongue in the worst face I have ever seen!!  I about died!!  I didn't prepare her and tell her to smile when she came out!  I didn't think I had to??  She said it was because she got water in her mouth and it tasted gross.  Oh well, it gave everyone a good laugh.  Then Shawn confirmed her with a beautiful blessing.  I asked Hannah how she felt after the confirmation and she replied, "Safe.  I felt really safe with all of those people around me."  I completely agree - one of the best feelings in the world is to simply feel "safe."  All-in-all, I think it was a great day.  

dance * dance * dance

Hannah has been taking dance lessons from Utah Dance Academy for the past two years.  This year, she decided she wanted to do a dance solo for competition.  She begged me and begged me to do one, and I finally gave in.  So in February, she started working with her dance teacher, Ashley Hess, on her solo to a song Hannah chose, "Do You Believe in Magic".  Ashley worked with Hannah once per week on Saturdays to get the solo learned.  The only problem was that Hannah refused to practice outside of these private lessons!!  I was getting so frustrated - it was expensive and time consuming to get Hannah to do this solo, yet she was not willing to put forth any effort into it.  I was getting really mean about it, telling her that she was going to make a fool out of herself out there, etc.  Nothing sunk in.  I finally decided that this would have to be a lesson to her - Hannah was going to have to learn the hard way about what happens when you don't practice.  Competition came, and I looked at Hannah in the middle of the basketball court at Weber State University.  A little dot in the center of a huge stage.  And I don't know what happened, but that little stinker came out and gave it her BEST!!  She was AWESOME!!  I about died.  She pulled it out of nowhere and turned on her charm.  I was so proud of her!!  There were only two girls in her division - she and another little girl who was in an entire different level of dancing than Hannah.  So that girl took Queen and Hannah took 1st Attendant.  But as far as most improved or most surprising, Hannah should have been Queen!!  She was thrilled with herself and I was so, so proud of her.  At this same competition, I entered Hannah into the "Cover Girl" contest - the winner got to have their picture on the cover of the program for the competition.  She won 1st Attendant for that contest (but in my book, she was the winner for sure!)

Hannah performed her solo in two more competitions - one at Roy High school where she won 1st Attendant, and one at Weber High school where she won 1st attendant.  The poor thing just could not win Queen.  At the competition at Roy High, she competed against the girl who beat her at Weber State, so I knew she would not win that one.  At the competition at Weber High, every single girl in her division (except Dylan, her friend who won Queen) forgot their dance out on stage!  Hannah included.  By the time the competition at Weber High rolled around, Hannah could have done that dance in her sleep.  But she got out on stage and forgot a chunk of it.  That was really hard for her because she really wanted Queen.  But all in all, it was a great learning experience and confidence booster for the Babes.  She is such a darling little dancer, I can't wait to see how she progresses!!

Polar Bears (Hannah, 2nd Grade)

If I Were President (Chance, 4th Grade)

I would be a great president. I would do all the stuff that every adult wants like lower taxes and stuff but I would go over the top. First of I would have kids get ripped off less. People always put fake links on the internet that make you buy stuff. Then people rig the arcade games so you lose most of the time. I also think you don’t have to buy NFL Sunday Ticket if your favorite football team isn’t on national T.V.

I would not change school. Most kids don’t want school. But if you don’t have school you don’t get a job. I think there should be less people on the streets. If nobody went to school there would be no doctors, dentists and other good jobs. Here is another point you make money by working. Also every one wants to be rich so why not go to work and get rich. That’s one thing I am keeping.

I think kids should get less recess. If you cut out both recesses you get out earlier. I also think school should start earlier. Then you get out even earlier! I think short days should be on Fridays. Then you get a longer weekend. That’s what I am going to change.

I don’t think presidents should get re-election. They should get six years and out. I think people should change the White House. A lot of presidents have families now. So the White House should have an indoor pool or an arcade or something. They should still have work rooms and stuff. I think if you change that you should do it on the whole other side of the place where the president works. But you never know if they are going to change that.

I think there should be less jails. I think people should just know better. They should know not to do dumb things. I think there should be no laws. Because for the same reason I just said. For example If you drink a lot of beer you will probably get drunk. Do you see what I mean its all common sense. Bottom line here is president would be easier if some people would be less stupid.

Football, Soccer, and Dance

Chance played his second year of tackle football. Shawn had toyed around with the idea of helping to coach the team this year, but hadn't really made a firm decision. When we went to the first meeting/practice, one of the coaches announced that Shawn would be helping to coach. After the meeting, I asked Chance what his favorite part was about the first official practice. He said, "When dad was announced as a coach." Well, it goes without saying that Chance's comment solidified Shawn's decision to coach! Chance was #12 this year, and played starting defense (they called it Black defense) as corner/linebacker. He played backup offense (Red offense) as halfback. The highlight of his season was when Red offense was able to run plays. Chance wore the playbook on his wrist and started calling out plays like he was the man in charge. He was totally in his element! It was pretty awesome. Chance also ran in a point-after during one of the games. I was so proud of both Shawn and Chance – there were practices every day (with the exception of Fridays) with games on Saturdays. It was a sacrifice for both of them to get there, on time, every, single day. However, the Warriors ended up with an UNDEFEATED season!! There was an end-of-year banquet held for the boys at the elementary school where they were each awarded a trophy, and the coaches talked about each of the boys and what they contributed to the team. It was so cool that Shawn was able to talk about Chance and the progress he had made during the season. I was a little bugged, however, because I started to notice (well...I think I noticed all season and put it together at the end of the season) that the "Team Mom" had a little crush on Shawn!!  She would walk by him, touch his arm, etc. She even made some comment at the banquet about the fact that his new braces affected his kissing? What?!? Annoying!! Well, luckily, we won't be on the same team again next year!!

 My Handsome Boy

Biggest fan...of football and snowcones!!

West is such a good sport at all of these events!!

Hannah had her first year of soccer! She was on a team with her best buddy Esi. I am glad she was on the same team with Esi because I think it helped her come out of her shell a little bit. Hannah wasn't too aggressive on the soccer field, but she would get in there and kick around! She'd run and keep right up with the ball. Their team was called the Blue Dragonflies. They don't keep score at this age, but they would consider their performance a win most of the time! I have been tending Esi in the mornings before school starts so her mom can get off to work. It has been so fun to see her friendship with Hannah develop. I think Hannah enjoyed soccer. It will start up again in the Spring, so we'll see if she's excited to continue.

This picture says a lot about Hannah's soccer career.

Hannah has also been taking dance from MY old dance teacher – Kathy Carver! Talk about crazy! I never thought that Hannah would take dance from my old teacher! It never even crossed my mind! But she LOVES Kathy and has learned a lot from her. The group is called Utah Dance Academy. Hannah is already doing pirouettes, and she will leap and sashe from room to room. Hannah was taking from Jenny's Jazz, and I don't think she learned a thing! I have been really impressed with her progress. We decided to have her take a break from gymnastics and do dance instead for awhile. I would really like to get her into a group that does dance and gymnastics maybe twice a week? I don't want to overdo it for her, but I do want her to be involved and they are both activities that she really enjoys.

And this picture says it all!

A Big Move

Doug Christensen, Shawn's friend in our ward, started talking to me and Shawn about possibly buying an older home that had come up for sale in the ward boundaries. The older home would have to be torn down, but it was on a ¾ acre lot that was very nice. Shawn and I had toyed around with the idea of moving, but we always figured when/if we moved, we would move south so we could be closer to our offices in Salt Lake. We really like the house and area we are in right now. Anyway, we started looking at houses in South Ogden, one thing led to another, and suddenly we made an offer on a house in South Ogden that we both really liked! It was a whirlwind and so crazy, because Shawn and I have a hard time agreeing on houses that we like. He really likes the one level, rambler style with a basement, and he doesn't mind older homes. I tend to like homes with high ceilings that are newly built. But when we saw this house in South Ogden, we both really liked it and agreed on it. It is in a wonderful location, and we are so excited to move. We are waiting to move until we return from our Disney trip. The kids have mixed feelings about moving. They really liked the house we bought, but they are a little sad about leaving their friends and school. I should probably be a lot more nervous about the move than I am, if not for anything, because of the fact we haven't even sold the house that we are in yet! But for some reason, I feel really good about it. I think if we are going to move, we've got to do it now before the kids get any older. I think the older they get, the harder it will be for them to leave. I hardly remember moving to North Ogden from Layton when I was in second grade. The only thing I remember was that my old teacher, Mrs. Condra, would let me move to the front of the class when I couldn't see the board. When I tried that with my new teacher, Mrs. Coleman, she yelled at me and I was really embarrassed! Other than that, nothing traumatic happened!

Pics of our North Ogden house {at its cleanest!!} ...sniff sniff...

Primary Program

Gotta love the time of year when the primary program rolls around! Grammy, Grandpa Ted, Grandma April, and Grandma Debbie all came to see the kids in the program. This year, the theme was on reading the scriptures. The kids had filled out a piece of paper each week they read their scriptures, and then they hooked all of the papers together in a chain. The chain wrapped around the entire chapel! It was so cute. Both Chance and Hannah did a great job on their parts. Of course, Chance lost his piece of paper with his part on it so I can't post it here, but I wanted to post Hannah's. She had given this part as a talk earlier in the year. It was a fairly long part, so she had to get up with older kids instead of her own class. She had the whole thing memorized and did such a nice job! Chance gave his part very last and finished the program beautifully.

School Awards
Chance and Hannah both received an award from the school last week. Chance's teacher mentioned that when Chance was finished with his work, his nose was somewhere in a book. That reminded me of myself at that age! Hannah's teacher described her as a "model student." No bigger compliment than that one! I was so proud of both of them. Hannah and I were over at Grandma Debbie's and Grandpa Brad's, and I told them that Hannah got an award for being a "model student." My dad replied, "That deserves some money." He took out his wallet and gave Hannah a $5.00 bill, which Hannah very shyly accepted. That might not seem like too big of a deal, but I was immediately taken back in time to my Grandpa Dale - whenever he found out about something good we had done in school, he'd whip out his wallet and give us a dollar. Or, he'd take us in his room and let us pick out some quarters. We thought that was so awesome!! What a great memory.

Short and Sweet summary of Halloween

My spider entry for the neighborhood pumpkin contest was...well...average.

And if it wasn't bad enough to only take THIRD place, I had to tie for third with CHANCE who made this hideous BYU pumpkin!!! haha It did make me feel a teeny bit better that our neighbors who won (taking first, second, and tying for third) made it their goal this year to "beat Natalie." Ha ha ha, gotta love it.

Hannah didn't enter hers. This was our first year of carving. She looked really cute with a candle inside! (the pumpkin, not Hannah!)

Chance was a "scary" football player this year. ooooooohhhhhhhh

Hannah was a genie. Even though everyone kept calling her a gypsy!

Westaboy was a spider! It was cute when he crawled, it really looked like he was using all 8 legs! This was Chance's old costume, I can't believe I kept it this long!

Lovin' this fall weather!! Wish it could last forever!!