Random Stuff....

We finally received Denver's official diploma in the mail. Needless to say we were very excited about this and proud of Denver for his accomplishment. 3 more grueling semesters and I will have my own to brag about :)

Addison is so excited to start Kindergarten. We bought this funky new curling iron and she loves the way it makes her hair look. She has decided that she wants to grow it out, much to my dismay, and therefore we have to find new ways to do her hair while she is letting it grow.

We took Addison to meet her teacher for the first time the other night. She was soooo happy to be in her classroom and see her name every where she looked.

We got to watch little Jude the other night. Poor thing had to escape Addison trying to play mommy at every turn. She was so upset that he wouldnt let her hold him but he is at that age where running and exploring is more fun than being held.

We went school shopping for everyone at once. Due to my surgery, it ended up being put off until this weekend. I knocked everything out in one day: clothes, shoes, haircuts, backpacks, and school supplies. Needless to say we were beat! The picture above is Addison modeling one of her new outfits. She made me take a picture of her in every single thing we bought her.... silly girl :)

School starts Monday for me, Wednesday for the kids....even though I am sad to see the summer go, we are ALL ready for school to start!

Two Random Pictures....

I told you about my poor camera breaking the other day....well, I replaced it a little quicker than I had expected. Isn't it pretty? It takes amazing pictures even with a novice like myself. I am very happy with it!

And here is one of Miss Addison, happily striking a pose while I figure out my new camera!

Summer? Maybe....

Well, the kids only have 3 more days of school left until they are out for the summer. It always comes with mixed feelings because I do enjoy the little bit of quiet time I have while they are at school but I am also excited to do some fun things with them. We decided not to put Addison in her summer pre-school even though I do have a couple of classes.This past week we had some fun things going on. First, Evan had a solo part in a song presented to a retiring teacher at his school. The song was performed in sign language as the music was sung...Evan had a solosigning part. It was so touching to see him do this and to know how excited he was to be doing it. He came home and practiced all the time. The song is beautiful and written by Masa Fukuda the composer I have spoken about before. He has been a wonderful part of Evan's third grade experience. I posted a video of him at the end of the post...

Here is a picture of Miss Priss at the performance...

I took this picture of her and as I was putting the camera away, she huffed "Only one picture?!".... I figure it must be the sunglasses or her inner diva making an appearance. So, I took a second one to make her happy :)

I love watching my kids when they are concentrating on something that they find very important and engaging. Ian is a book worm, just like his mom...I can often find him this way with his nose in a book.

Addison is my artist (so is Evan actually) she is constantly creating her own masterpieces. I cannot tell you how much paper we go through in this house because of her and her pictures...here she is drawing something in the car while we wait for Evan to finish scouts.

She is also starting to show an interest in cheerleading, or gymnastics...I think it must come from some of the girls in her pre-school class. They have competitions to see who can kick the highest.

Here are a few more instagram shots. This will be a regular appearance on the blog until I get sick of it...if I ever do. I love the way it makes my pictures look.

This morning was Addison's spring dance recital. This year it was done to all the music from the movie "Tangled"... they were little Rapunzel's. We have finally overcome the stage fright phase and Addie was excited to dance up there with her friend Abbie (brown haired girl that Addie partners with in video) She was quite proud of herself when she finished the first number, clapping vigorously on stage....I just love watching her twirl. I hope she stays in dance forever. Here are a few pictures of the morning and a video at the end of her ballet number.

Today was Evan's last soccer game of the season. They really did a number on the other team winning 15-1. Addie and I enjoyed sitting in the shade.

She was a bit tired from her big morning. Evan had previously decided that after 3 seasons of soccer he was ready to do something different and planned on signing up for basketball instead this fall. After the game was over today he ran up to me and said he changed his mind...he still wants to play soccer. He has such a great team...they are all friends and his coach is wonderful. I guess we will just have to stay tuned as to what Evan will be playing this fall.

The weather is gorgeous today! 83 degrees finally! I am getting ready to go on my girls trip next week to Colorado so the next post will probably be an update from my trip. Happy Summer!!

Instagram....

I got an iPhone back at Christmas time and while I love some of the app's, some are just plain dumb. I have found my favorite app thus far. It's called Instagram. It's free. It's easy. And, it makes pictures look really cool!! I highly suggest downloading it....and then using it. Here are a few of my own creations (you can see who my most willing subject is) :

Randomness....

This week we learned about a new virus called Fifths Disease. Or, Slapped Cheek Disease whichever you prefer. Anyone heard of this one before? Well I have 3 kids, one of which is 10 years old and I have never heard of it. I mentioned in an earlier post about Ian's tooth that was hurting him and I think I mentioned that his cheeks had gotten all red and puffy. We thought his tooth was infected or something, causing his face to react. Nope. Fifth's Disease. It starts with a fever usually...which is often so low grade it isn't even detected or noticed. Once the fever breaks a rash appears on the face giving the appearance of "slapped cheeks"....

Then the rash moves down to the torso and arms/legs.

Once the rash appears they are no longer contagious which makes it hard to control because most of the time the kids rarely feel sick. Once you catch it, you are immune to it. So, there you go. That is why Ian's cheeks were so red that weekend.This week Evan has had it along with 3 or 4 kids in his class. It's going around the school. It is pretty common to catch in the early Spring. Adults don't usually get it because they more than likely had it when they were kids...but if they do catch it I hear it causes intense pain in the joints. Yuck. Im hoping I already had it.

We went to Evan's school the other night for the Bonneville Bash. It is a yearly carnival that the school puts on to raise money for its art and music programs. It is usually a lot of fun. This year, because of the darn rain they had to move it inside which made it not as enjoyable. But I think the kids still had a great time! Ian took a turn in the dunk tank and was proud of himself for remembering to take his shoes off....

Unfortunately he forgot to take his socks off. Silly kid. Addie enjoyed the face painting and the nail painting stations.

Of course there were a lot of yummy things to eat too! I tried an Asian Taco. Interesting, but not something I would eat again.

I just got this picture from a friend of mine who's daughter sang in the choir with my boys. I thought it was so cute and a perfect moment to capture. When Evan finished his little acting part during their performance (he played Prince Eric from the Little Mermaid during the song, Kiss the Girl....where he had to actually kiss the girl playing Ariel) the choir director got on the microphone and said "everyone give a big hand to Evan for being such a great sport"..... This picture shows him just as she was saying that. You can see that he is embarrassed but I love that all the girls are grinning and looking at him and his friend Carson to the right of the picture looks like he is embarrassed for him. Too cute.

Im so sad I didnt get that part recorded. Stupid camera. I have to wait for the actual DVD of the concert to finally get his performance posted :(

Yesterday I took Evan to the dentist. Afterward we went grocery shopping to let the numbness wear off before we ate lunch. We decided to hit Costa Vida for some yummy pork tacos. After we ordered our food and were getting ready to sit down, look who walked in the door!

It made for a fun little impromptu family lunch....and we got to see cute little Jude which is always a treat.

Well, it's Memorial Day weekend....anyone doing anything fun? We are just going to stick around and eat good food. It is supposed to rain....again....all weekend so no big outings planned. Hope you all enjoy the holiday!!

Another Week Gone By....and the World Did Not End!

This week has been pretty busy....as if that is anything new. Tuesday I started my Summer Semester classes. Im just taking 2 classes though so it should be a fairly calm one. I needed it after the last one! But, I was happy that my hard (stressful) work paid off as I finished last semester with a 3.9 gpa... Yay!!

Spring 2011
	ENGL 3310 Intro English Grammar 3.00 3.00 A
	ENGL 3510 Writing Fiction 3.00 3.00 A
	ENGL 3600 Intr Critical Theory 3.00 3.00 A
	Upper Division Comm/Wrtg
	ENGL 5880 Children's Lit 3.00 3.00 A-

Wednesday was the Pinewood Derby for the Cub Scouts. When Denver was in town last month he took their cars back to South Carolina with him to carve the shapes that the boys chose for their cars.

Then, he mailed them back to us and they got painted and put together.

I felt bad because I couldnt get the wheels attached on Evan's car and I think it went pretty slow because of it. He was a good sport though and didnt get upset over it. It was bittersweet too because it is Ian's last Pinewood Derby.

Next year he will be in the Boy Scouts :( He has been so lucky to have the same den leaders from the very beginning. They have been such fabulous leaders and have really helped Ian (a lot more than me...) obtain all his awards and badges.

Thursday Ian had his annual school piano recital. He did a great job as usual but I'm not allowed to post the video because he thinks he messed up too much....I am going to respect that request even though I thought he did just fine.

After the recital I took him to the dentist. He has had a tooth that has been hurting him for a week or so. Over last weekend his cheeks got really red and swollen and he couldnt even eat cereal! We knew he had a couple of small cavities and were scheduled to have those filled in a couple of weeks but I guess they got really bad, really fast and he ended up having both of them pulled. Ive never heard Ian cry out like he did during the shots. It was horrible and hurt him so badly....Poor thing.

Friday the boys had one more concert with their choir. They performed for the students at the McGillis School to thank them for allowing the choir to use their school for rehearsals.

And finally, today Ian played in his last soccer game at eight o'clock in the morning. I think whoever chose to have 8:00 am soccer games is just plain mean. Ugh. But on a good note, after 3-4 days of straight rain....it was a beautiful 70 degrees and sunny today. Here is Evan enjoying the weather at the game.

After the game, me and Ian and Addison went to see the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie. Evan was at an all day birthday party, also seeing the same movie. We had a great time and now we are all decompressing from our busy week.

The end. (but thankfully not THE end...as in the Rapture...haha....)