Behind Again

I tried to be so good and post in my blog at least once a month but I am behind again. Halloween has come and gone, Football is over, baseball is over and the boys have just started Jr. Jazz basketball. We made it through one quarter of school and the kids all did really well and I am a proud mom. Harlee is learning to read and it has opened up a whole new world for her. Brett and I celebrated our 17th Wedding Anniversary and our oldest child turned 14-WOW! Life has been such a whirlwind but I wouldn't change a single thing. As Christmas is creeping up on us I find myself wishing we had more. I wish I could give my kids every single thing they have asked for and them some but it is just not possible. I have to sit back and remember that we are truely blessed. We have a roof over our heads, food on the table and warm clothes on our back. We have tried to focus more on making memories rather then spending money on toys that get thrown into the toy box the day after Christmas. We started a new tradition on Thanksgiving with just the six of us. We went to see a movie. "Rise of the Guardians" was a perfect way to kick off the holiday season and the kids really enjoyed it. We came home after and the kids got to decorate their tree that is downstairs. The next day was filled with more decorating and then we took the kids down to the Gateway for a little shopping, dinner and fun. We have spent time with our new friends, The Terry's and have more plans with our new friends for some other Christmas activities. Merry Christmas!

Random Happenings

We have so much going on and I don't want to miss anything. I had a chance to take Brynlee to Thriller again this year. We made it a girls day and invited her friend Megan from dance and her mom. It was fun to spend the day laughing and giggling with the girls. This week the kids were off for UEA. We went to the Pumpkin Patch, Gardner Village and topped it off with a cute Halloween movie. We saw "Hotel Transylvania". The weather has been really nice for this time of year and we are taking full advantage of it.

Epic

A couple of weeks ago both girls had a chance to attend a dance convention in Provo called Epic. They bring in choreographers from out of state to teach workshops to the girls. This was a huge opportunity to learn from some of the best. Harlee's only last 4 hours one night and Brynlee's was 5 hours on Friday night and 7 hours on Saturday. She had a chance to take a class from Liz Imperio who has choreographed concert tours for Jennifer Lopez. She was amazing with the girls and I was very impressed with her. Apparently I didn't take any picture of Harlee dancing but I did snap a few of Brynlee.

October Happenings

Since I am really bad at updated my blog all the time I will try for a monthly update. October has been another busy month. Trevin is knee deep in football and loving it. Right now they are 4-3 and if they win one of their next two games they are headed to the playoffs. McKade just finished up fall baseball. He kind of stalled out at the plate but finally got a chance to pitch in a couple of games and did a great job. I have already told him he has to give football another chance next year. The girls are busy at dance working on competition routines and solos and trios. Brett and I are just busy getting them to where they need to be.

Parent Teacher Conference

We are back into the swing of things at school and it's time for Parent Teacher Conferences already. I am so proud of all four of my kiddos. Harlee is keeping up with her classmates and actually has two girls in her class that she is trying to be just as good as. Competition is a great motivator for her. Brynlee is reading on a high 4th grade level and completing math that is the end of a 3rd grade level. She is a very good student and a good friend. McKade has 4 different teachers this year. He is really quiet but is doing very well. Trevin is in 8th grade and has 8 different classes. By looking at his grades one might think he is struggling but all of his teachers say that he is a really good student. He is focused in class and they are not worried about him at all. I love gettting good reports like this.

Brynlee's Baptism

Brynlee turned 8 this past July and made the choice to be baptized. Because of a family reunion in August we had to postpone it until the beginning of September. She was so happy and we are so grateful for all of those who came to help us celebrate this special day for her.

Summer Catch Up

We had a busy summer full of swimming, baseball, dance and various other activities. Back in July the girls had dance tryouts and Harlee was finally old enough to try out for a team. She made team Platinum a average age 6.5 team and Brynlee made team Jasper and average age 9 Advanced team. Brynlee is doing a Lyrical solo this year and Harlee is doing a trio with 2 of her good friends. It's going to be a good year.

McKade had a full summer of baseball. He played on the All Star team again and they did pretty well. They placed 2nd in the All Star Pre-Tournament that was hosted out at our field. They didn't fare as well in the actual tournament but it was a lot of fun.

Trevin spent his summer at a few football camps getting ready to play football again this year. He went to one camp hosted by Paul Krueger and received an award signed by him.

I took the girls to see Big Time Rush at Usana. It was their first concert and alot of fun for me too.

That's kind of our summer in a nutshell. We were crazy busy but it flew by!

First Day of School

I guess I need to back up and catch up a little bit. The kids started school back in August. Trevin started 8th grade, McKade started 6th grade, Brynlee started 3rd grade and Harlee started Kindergarten. They were all so excited and are loving school so far. McKade said now that he gets to rotate through 4 different classrooms that the day goes by so much faster. I don't know how ready I am for the onslaught of homework but it sure is nice to have some kind of daily routine again.

Harlee

My poor Harlee has been through the ringer in the last couple of weeks. About 3 weeks ago she came to me and told me that she had a sore on her leg. It was on her upper thigh and almost looked like a bug bite of some kind. I took her to Instacare and they confirmed it was an abcess. They gave me an antibiotic onintment and a prescription if the ointment didn't seem to be helping. 4 days later there was no change so I picked up the antibiotic and called to make an appointment with her pediatrician. After seeing him he agreed we should wait a few more days to see if the antibiotics started helping. One week later there was no change so we went back to the Dr. He immediately called Primary Children's and sent us up there to have it drained. She was going to need to be sedated and this was the best option. Little did I know what was in store. They gave her some Vercett to help relax her enough so she wouldn't fight the nurse when they put the IV in. They didn't put her all the way to sleep but she doesn't remember anything so I guess it worked. When they puncutured the abcess to numb it, it exploded like a big zit. I can't imagine how much pain she was in. They drained it, packed it, waited for her to be fully awake and keeping liquids down and they sent us home. We had to go back to her pediatrician the next morning to have the packing removed. It's been 11 days and it is finally scabbed over and she went without a bandaid today. She is such a trooper!

SLACKER!

Yup, that title is about me. I am a total blog slacker. It's so easy to post pictures from my phone to Facebook and I forget sometimes that I even have this blog anymore. Life has been crazy to say the least. We just finished up another competition season and a successful one at that. The boys are still in the middle of the baseball season and school is almost out. I guess I will start with one kid at a time. Harlee-She is graduating from preschool tomorrow and then she will be a big Kindergartener. She absolutely loves dancing and she should because she gets dragged to every dance competition whether she likes it or not. Brynlee-She just finished up her first solo season and although she didn't win any Queens, she always came in a close second. Most of this was a learning and growing experience and I am amazed with her dance progress. Her team finished up another successful dance competitions season. With all but one 1st place finish for her jazz dance, five 1st place finishe in Lyrical and five 1st place finishes in Hip Hop. They also got a High Point for Jazz, High Point for Lyrical, High Point in Hip Hop and Overall Mini High Point Champions for Hip Hop as well. What a year. She is looking forward to finishing up 2nd grade in the next week. McKade-he is busy playing on 2 different baseball teams. He has really come along way as a baseball player this year and I am amazed every day at his progress. He has finally gotten used to his braces and is also looking forward to the end of the school year. Trevin-he succesfully completed 7th grade and maintained a 3.7 grade point average the entire year. He is enjoying his first year playing on a Superleague baseball team. He spends all of his spare time texting his friends and playing video games. Yup, he is a typical teenager. I do need to post a bunch of pictures and I hope to have some time to do that in the next couple of days. That, in a nutshell has been our crazy life for the last 3 months.

Brynlee's 1st Solo Competition

Brynlee has been working on her solo since July and has been anticipating her first solo competition. She was so excited for the day to finally be here. We headed out early because she wanted to watch a couple of her friends and just hang out. When it was finally her turn she wasn't nervous at all. She went out there and kicked some butt. I was so proud of her. We spent the rest of the evening hanging out. Brett got bored so we took a couple of the girls to Iceberg for shakes and they are some goofy girls. Brynlee was awarded a 1st place and High Gold. She had one of the highest scores in the entire Intermediate Jazz Category for all age groups. We are looking forward to several more competitions.

Wedding Time and Shoes

I am going to make this one post for the sake of time. On the same day as McKade's birthday my dad and his girlfriend/fiancee/common law wife finally decided to make things legal. They made it quick and painless and got married at the courthouse. And then on a whole other note we finally made a trip to the mall and the girls finally got the pair of Tom's shoes they have both been wanting. Yes, I know we bought them something on McKade's birthday but we asked and he didn't mind. I will say it again, he is the happiest kid I know.

Happy Birthday McKade

My baby boy turned 11 today. I really can't believe how time has flown by. McKade is the sweetest, happiest kid ever. Not much makes him mad or upsets him and he is a huge help to me around the house. We had a hard time finding him anything for his birthday because he never asks for anything. He got a few things that seemed to make him happy and dinner at the California Pizza Kitchen. His one and only request was that he wanted to have a friend party and he wanted to go swimming. That was cheap and easy and they had so much fun. Next up was the family party. We kept it small and I was exhausted after 3 days of celebrating but McKade was, like usual, happy. Happy Birthday Bubba-we love you!

Crazy

Life right now is crazy. Brett is still the President of the baseball league and right now is their busiest time. Registration is underway and they are busy getting everything ready. We had to find a new baseball team for Trevin this year because he finally outgrew little league. After several tryouts we decided to stick with a team close to home and a team that he already has a few friends on. Trevin will offically play with the Strikers this year and we are looking forward to doing a little traveling to baseball tournaments. McKade will move up to the Major's division and will also play on the Accelerated team again. They have already started practicing and the season will begin at the end of March. We are coming into competition season for dance and Brynlee has been busy getting her solo ready and going to and from extra practices for her two teams. Her first solo competition is only 11 days away and I don't know who is more nervous, me or her. Harlee is still dancing and tumbling and working on getting ready for Kindergarten. She amazes me everyday with how far she has come. She knows all her letter sounds and can recognize almost all of the letters by sight. She knows a few sight words and is doing pretty good with blending others. Time is flying by and my kids are growing up faster than I would like.

Birthday

For my dad's birthday we decided not to go out to dinner but to go over to my dad's house for dinner and dessert so the kids could hang out and we could actually spend some time chatting. The kids were crazy as usual and had to do something just as crazy for a picture.

Dance Recital

Harlee has been so patiently waiting for her turn to dance on the big stage. She did such a good job. She smiled and remembered most of the dance. I am so proud of her.