Late Night

This is what happens when you stay up way too late on a school night. McKade came home from school today and crashed. We were up way past anyone's bedtime last night. I thought for sure he was sick and would wake up with Strep Throat the next morning but he was just fine and very well rested. Love you Bubba!

Jr. Jazz

Thanks to the Jr. Jazz program we were all able to go to a Jazz game tonight. Since Brett coached Trevin's team we had enough tickets for all of us-except for Harlee to go to the game and the best part was that we all got a free hot dog and drink as well. The Jazz played the New York Knicks and it was a close game but the Jazz pulled out a win at the end. I don't have any pictures because I left my camera in the car. Bryn got a pink Deron Williams jersey and she looked super cute in it. We bought it a little big so it would fit for a while. I will have to remember to take a picture of her when she wears it again. It was a fun night and sure nice to get away for the evening.

Brynlee

Brynlee has been taking a tumbling class for competitive dance and she is constantly cartwheeling around the house. She has been working on her back bends and as of yesterday she can do a back bend into a back walk-over all by herself. She has been doing a one handed cart wheel for a while and hopefully soon they will start working on back handsprings too. I was trying to get some pictures of her cartwheels but it didn't work out too well.

She Finally Did It!!!

After months of pleading and trying and failing, Harlee finally decided it was time to be a big girl and go potty all by herself. I kept telling her she could start taking dance as soon as she decided she was going to be a big girl. I think this time it finally paid off. She has been going strong since Friday and has only had 4 accidents in 4 days. Not too bad!!!! She is so excited to be able to start taking dance and start going to pre-school-my baby is growing up!!! Good Job Harlee Bug!!!

Crazy Harlee

Harlee is wild and crazy and pretty much has free reign over the house on Tuesday nights while I am working. Trevin was at Scouts, Brynlee at dance and Brett and McKade had gone up to the baseball field to help out with the uniform exchanges. We are still working on getting her potty trained and she put these tights on all by herself. Oh yeah, and for some reason she absolutely loves the slippers that are 3 sizes too big. I sure love that girl!!!

Pack Meeting

Tonight was Pack Meeting and McKade received his Wolf Badge. He actually had this finished last month but we had something else going on and we weren't able to make it to Pack Meeting. Since Pack Meeting falls on a Tuesday night Brett got to go and be "mom" while McKade was receiving his badge. McKade loves Scouts and is now working on his Bear. Good Job Bubba!!!

Play Ball

Baseball has begun again at the Ruoti house. It's that crazy time of year where we are all running in different directions. This year has proven to be no different. Not only is Brett coaching Trevin's team but he is also serving on the board for the Rookie/T-Ball division as their VP. However, we were lucky enough and it worked out that the boys will practice on the same nights at the same place. This took a huge load off of my shoulders. Trevin is playing for the Major Red Sox and McKade is playing in the competitive division for the Minor Mariners. Before I typed up this post I went back to read my posts from last year and we weren't sure that McKade would ever go back to playing baseball again. He told me last night that he is having fun. I think that year of growing up helped him gain a little more confidence. Hopefully Mother Nature will be kind this year and send us some warm weather so we can actually enjoy baseball season.

A Moment

Yesterday started out the same as any other Tuesday with the anticipation of a million things going on while at the same trying to get my work done before my 8:00 deadline. First of all, Trevin called and after talking to him I was a little emotional. Later in the day the dam broke and I was an emotional wreck. I think I am allowed to have "a moment". I don't have them very often and yesterday the pressure of work, homework, dinner, family and the lack of, health, baseball, dance and everything else came crashing right down on me. I wasn't very nice and I yelled and after I yelled I cried and then the kids felt bad and Brett walked out all angry at me and I still didn't feel better. I try to be the strong one. I try to be "Super Mom", "Super Wife" and "Super Human". Most days I know I fall short of all of the above. I worry about my kids and their future and what kind of adults they are going to grow up to be. Holy crap-I worry about everything. After a good night's sleep things looked and felt a bit better this morning. I had a good chat with two really good friends who I don't see or chat with often enough. Thanks ladies-you may not know it but chatting with you put a smile on my face. Now that I have had my "moment" I think I am good for a while and can hold things together while life gets crazier and crazier as the minutes tick by. No, I would not trade it for anything because our kids are our life-I chose this and I stand by it. Thanks for listening!!!!!

Trevin

Trevin called me from school today and he was crying. When I asked him what was wrong he said, "You are not going to believe this. I got 93% on my math test today." I asked him why he was crying. He was so excited he couldn't stop crying. Man I sure love this kid. He has worked so hard this year to bring his grades up. He has an awesome teacher who has taken the time to work with him and now we finally see all his hard work pay off. He studied all weekend and all night last night for this test. He had me in tears too. Great job Trev, we love you!!!!

Give a Day Get a Day

Disney has a huge promotion going on this year. If you give a day of service to a participating organization then you get a day free at Disneyland. At first I didn't really even give this a second thought and then I realized that in June we will be in Las Vegas for Nationals and that Las Vegas is only 3 hours from Anaheim. I went back and forth on this and then Brett and I decided we would go for it. I got us signed up and today we did our volunteer service. We went to the Living Planet Aquarium and they only required 2 hours of service. We organized some cards and counted some other stuff, we got to look around the Aquarium and then we were done. What a piece of cake. We were going to keep it a secret from the kids and surprise them with it but the boys found out. We told them it was their job to keep it a secret from the girls. We decided we are going to upgrade our ticket and spend two days at the park. All in all it was a great experience for the 4 of us and I can't wait to use our free tickets.

Parent Teacher Conferences

We are nearing the end of our first year at a Charter School. Have I mentioned how much I love our new school? I know that Brynlee and McKade would have done well wherever they had gone to school but Trevin, not so much. Trevin struggled with the inconsistency of going off track and then having to start over everytime he went back on track. Trevin never had a teacher who took the time or had the patience to work with this kid and figure out his learning style. Let's start with Brynlee. Brynlee's teacher said she is so ready for 1st grade. She is reading on a 1st grade reading level and is ready to tackle chapter books. She is writing in complete sentences and her handwriting has improved ten fold. She is a friend to everyone in her class and she gets to sit between the two naughty boys to keep them under control. Brynlee has learned about and can name all the continents and all the oceans of the world. She can count by 2's, 5's and 10's and can identify north, south, east and west. She has grown by leaps and bounds this year and I am truly amazed-oh my little sponge. McKade is doing just as well. He sometimes hurries to be the first one done and makes a lot of minor errors but we are working on that. He is a friend to everyone and belongs to the "elite group", as his teacher called it, the one you have to be invited into at recess time. He is passing off his multiplication facts and is ready to move onto division. Right now he is reading the first "Percy Jackson and the Olympians" books and is loving it. My easy going child has remained easy going and just rolls with the punches as they are thrown. Trevin has made such amazing progress it makes me want to cry. He has come so far in every subject that I don't even know where to begin. He is reading on grade level and the only thing he needs to work on is reading a little bit faster. He is doing so well in math and with the help of his teacher and some extra after school tutoring he is improving even more every day. The only thing he needs to work on is his competitiveness. Trevin likes to be the winner-weird,huh? Trevin was doing the one talking at his conference and they had to pick two IB traits that they would like to improve on. This is the main focus of our Charter School and he chose to work on Integrity and Risk Taking. I think these are two things that are so important not just in school but in life in general. I can't believe how quickly my kids are growing up.
I am so proud of all of my kids. We have really worked on stressing the importance of a good education and how it is so important to get a good job. I think it is finally sinking in-at least I hope it is.

The Zoo

We have had a bit of unseasonably warm weather in the past two weeks or so. This is definitely strange for winter in Utah. My good friend Kelly called me up to see if I wanted to venture to the zoo with her and her kids. Brynlee was out for Parent Teacher Conferences and the temperature was forecasted to be near 60 degrees so we decided to go. It was a bit chilly when the sun went behind the clouds and we did end up getting rained on at the very end but it was so nice to get out and the girls had a blast. There was nobody at the zoo and it was so nice to be able to let the kids run and not worry about them getting lost in the crowd. The animals were very active and we got to see all the new babies that have been born over the last year. Thanks to Kelly for the great idea!!!

The Grand Event

This week our school hosted "The Grand Event". Basically this was a "bring anyone to school to eat lunch with them day". The boys chose to have Brett come and eat lunch with them. They both have lunch at different times so this gave them a little one on one time with dad. I thought it was awesome that they both wanted their dad to come and have lunch with them. McKade chose to miss recess and go to the book fair with dad but Trevin couldn't wait to get outside and he decided to wait until we went to parent teacher conference to get his books from the book fair.