New Beginnings (again)

This year the first day of school was perhaps even harder than last year. New schools (again) for everyone.  More nervousness, trepidation, and excitement. All from me.

Ha! Not all from me, but most of it.

Matthew started Jr. high at a school where he hardly knows a soul. I can't believe I have a 7th grader! He seems even more grown up now than during the summer.

Gracie's a 5th grader. It was a rough first few weeks, being the only new girl in her grade. Tears were shed, discussions were held about going back to the old school but she stuck it out. She's settling in nicely now. Just got elected class representative for student council. Settling in quite nicely it would seem.

Owen's a big ol' second grader now. Owen's a cool cat, makes lots of friends wherever he goes and charms the pants off his teachers. No worries here.

My little Rexy started kindergarten this year, my first full day-er to date. It was hard on me but he was so excited and he loves school. It helps that he has two siblings at the school with him.  It's so fun to see the excitement of learning through his eyes.

Poor little Colby, once he saw all the big kids go off to school he suddenly decided he wanted to go too. He didn't want to leave after we took them all to their classes. Poor kid, nobody tell him he's got three years to go...

As I said, he was pretty sad he doesn't get to go...

This was the only picture I took of Leelee on the first day of school. At this point in her life she was still sleeping most of the time. :)

Last Day of School

The kids had their last day of school on May 26th. Which I was so grateful for because by this point I was just flat out exhausted from all the end of the school year festivities (it didn't help being 7 1/2 months pregnant). 

Here's a pic of them on the first day of school.

And here they are on the last day (just to see how much they've changed). Funny, Matthew's wearing the same shirt. I think Colby's changed the most!

Matthew graduated from elementary school.  Which to him was kind of weird since he took a step backward when we moved here, he'd already been to middle school last year and had to go back to elementary school.  Poor Matthew.  But, onward and upward to junior high.  Eeek! Do I really have a 7th grader?!?

Way to go Matthew! It was a difficult year as far as moving and adjustment and change but he survived and his grades were awesome! 

He had an excellent teacher, Mr. Monette.  He did a lot to help him survive the year.  He is a teacher who goes the extra mile and really cares about his students.  I'm so glad Matthew had him for a teacher this year.

Rex and Colby had a blast at the end of the year splash party for preschool.  They played, played and played some more in the water with all their school buddies and cousins.

What a crazy year!  It was just a relief knowing that we had all survived.  I'm so proud of the kids for being so strong and doing so well in school in spite of all the changes and upheaval in their lives.

More End of the Year Stuff

For moms the end of the school year is crazy and the more kids you have the worse it gets.  Projects, concerts, reports, field trips, school activites, awards ceremonies, graduations and a larger influx of crap coming home from school. Seriously, I just wish the teachers would throw half of that stuff away rather than leaving it for me to deal with.  Do I really want the last 10 pages of whatever workbook? No, I do not, but they send it home and I suffer guilt about throwing it away rather than having my child finish it up or play school with it or whatever.  I just wish I didn't even have to see it.  Anyway, on we go...

Matthew's castle project

 Gracie's peregrine falcon report.  They had to do written and oral parts.  I think she knows everything a person could ever want to know about that bird.

 Owen received the Falcon Citizenship Award.  They selected two people from each class who exhibited excellent qualities.  We were so proud of him for earning this.  He was surprised to see me and the boys in the gym at the assembly because he had no idea so it was pretty fun to see his face.

 I think these two felt a little neglected the last few weeks of school and they wanted me to take their pic in the Walmart arcade.

End of the Year Concerts

I've got some super mega catching up to do as far as blogging goes so there may be several posts from me in the next little while, hopefully I can get all caught up before the baby comes.  Let's start off with the end of the year concerts.
Gracie had her last orchestra concert on May 12th. She did a great job and had a lot of fun being in the orchestra this year. She's not sure if she wants to continue playing the violin or join the band next year and play the flute or something since she will have that opportunity as a 5th grader.  But, playing in the orchestra has been a great experience for her.

The following week Matthew had his end of the year band concert.  He received the Student of the Month Award for the month of May and a special award for being one of only two people to play two instruments in the band, he plays the bass clarinet and the soprano clarinet.  Way to go Matthew!

I'm so stinkin' mad at Blogger because I've been trying to upload another video of Matthew's and I've tried about a billion times and it's just not working.  This one is of him playing the bass clarinet and the quality is not great.  The other one shows him playing the school song on the soprano clarinet and Kris actually got up and shot the video from a much better spot.  Oh well, maybe check back later and see if I got the other video loaded.

I'm glad that my kids are enjoying being in these music programs, hopefully they will continue to for a long time!

December Recap

Well, actually I'm starting with the end of November. Gracie had her orchestra concert on the 23rd. She loves playing the violin and she did a great job!

On December 2nd we went to Matthew's choir concert. I sacrificed an hour of sleep once a week before school to get him to choir since it was an extra activity that he wanted to do. Maybe it was because of all those girls...

I've been trying to upload videos from his concerts but am not having any luck :(

On Dec. 8th Gracie got to participate in the school spelling bee. And she won (she's only a 4th grader)! She was SO excited and we were all so proud of her. I could hardly stand the nerves, I don't think I have ever been more nervous in my life. Now it's on to the district bee this week and I'm so nervous it's killing me. I'm just praying she can make it past the first round.

On the 12th we went to Matthew's band concert. They did a great job. We love the music teacher at their school, he's a great band teacher and he also did the choir class.

Dec. 18th had us out in the desert enjoying a cookout with Kris' side of the family. We had yummy hot dogs, smores and some fun 4 wheelin'.

Colby really enjoyed the smores.

On the 23rd we got to take a little boat around Val Vista Lakes and see all the Christmas lights. We had fun with G&G Walz and G&G Archibald. The kids were especially excited since it was followed with dinner at MickeyD's.

We made sugar cookies for Santa on Christmas Eve.
It was kind of a quick, thrown together ordeal since I so did not have it together.

But at least we did it.

We also did Christmas Eve jammies but I can't believe that we didn't take any pictures of the kids after they put them on. Kind of depressing. Oh well. Then we drove around looking at Christmas lights.

Christmas morning.
Gracie had been pining away for this mini American Girls Samantha doll for ages.

Luckily Santa came through.

Colby's huge Elmo.

Matthew's new mountain bike, now he and Dad can really tackle the desert together.

Owen playing his new DS and Rex wishing he had one. Kind of makes me feel bad but he's only four for crying out loud. He was a tricky one this year and I think he is the one kid who kind of got the shaft. He didn't really get anything that he was dying over. There's always next year.

Making Up For Lost Time

Fourth of July Fun! (on the 3rd)

This summer Matthew participated in summer band so that he could be in the 4th of July parade. He sacrificed sleeping in many mornings (so did I!) But in the end I think it was all worth it. We enjoyed watching him in the parade and he had fun marching in it.

We even had some of the guys from Star Wars come.



After the parade we went straight to the park for Matthew's concert in the park.

The kids got to play in the jumpy castles and slides.

After the park we enjoyed lunch at Eric and Lynne's and lighting off our fireworks in the backyard then sitting on the back steps under blankets and watching what we could see of the county fireworks. Oh, how I love the 4th of July in Rexburg. I'm practically in tears posting this. Hopefully, we can go there every year to celebrate!

And the Band Played On! Part 2

Matthew had his end of the year concert a few weeks ago and we got way better seats than last time and I happened to pick the right side of the gym to sit on so we had a perfect shot to video him. You can actually see him play! I think the band overall is much improved. Good job, Matthew!






(I'm not sure what the kid next to him is doing, I mean, did he forget his intrument or something? Who forgets their instrument for the concert? Seriously.)

Birthday Boy!

Happy Birthday Matthew!

Birthday donuts!

(I guess they get pretty excited over it.)
Party Time!
They had a great time playing laser tag, miniature golf, and making their own frozen yogurt treats.

I can't believe my oldest is 11!

Didn't we just celebrate his 10th?

Am I old enough to have an 11 year old?

I don't really feel like it.

But I'm so happy to have Matthew in our family!

We love you! Happy Birthday!