Sophie Lou

Soph is 5!  Holy Smoly!!
I only let the kids have a "friend party" at 5, 8, and 12 (cause I'm mean that way).  Someone in our ward is starting a party planning business and I totally asked her to do it, since parties ain't my thing.
The theme was "Fairy Garden Party" and I cannot rave about Jamie Coe ENOUGH!  The party was so fantastic, and I didn't have to do ANYTHING!  I LOVED it!

Sophie loved it too.  It was super fun.  The girls got dressed as fairies and the boys were Garden Knomes.  They looked so cute!

Soph said she wanted a unicorn (check) and a toy Sam (what?) for her birthday.  Sam is her "boyfriend." Sophie is constantly telling me how much she loves him and is going to marry him.  Great.  She makes me a little nervous.  :)  When she saw this picture she said, "(Sigh) I love Sam."  We are in SERIOUS. TROUBLE.

Sophie decided that she wanted to learn how to ride a bike, so I helped her for about 10 minutes before bed one night and she took the initiative to wake up early for school so she could practice.  This is Soph after one day and for all but 10 minutes, self-taught.  Crazy girl.

Soph is loving school (most days) and turned into my most social child.  I'm beginning to believe that E.M. is the cure to all problems!

Last One's First Day

Sophie was so excited to go to school today!  She wasn't nervous or timid.  She walked right into the Kindergarten playground and played with her friends.

When it was time to go into her classroom, she just walked right in and hung up her backpack.  I wanted to get a picture of her in her classroom, so I went in and she was sobbing.  :(

I think it made her a little nervous that she didn't know anyone sitting around her.  She seemed ok when I left though.  I can't believe my baby is in Kindergarten!

True Love and First Day

When I had Kennedy, the hospital gave me a water mug that I LOVED.  Water just tasted better coming from the mug.  I can't explain it.  The mug disappeared long ago and I have often reflected how much I missed my special hospital mug.
Flash forward to this summer.  Ty had neck surgery.  He got a special mug.  I was jealous.  I tried to not covet, but it was hard because I missed how water magically tasted yummier inside the hospital mug.
Ty searched online for one for me too, but unless we purchased 5000 of them, it was a no go. He then had to go in for X-Rays and while he was there, asked a bazillion people if there was any way to get me a mug. After a lot of responses that there was no way to purchase them, ("not even the staff can get these mugs"-snooty, McSnooty pants) a kind nurse told Tyler that he had spent enough money with them (she was not foolin!) and she gave him a mug- for me!  That is true love right there. Tyler loves me!  I love my mug. I love Tyler.

School started for the older 3.  I've had a lot of inexplicable anxiety about this year.  But, they all seemed happy with life yesterday.  Kennedy has the same teacher as she did last year, and it is a 5th grade/ 6th grade split class (they didn't have enough money for a teacher in both grades) and so she gets to be in a class with her BFF and cousin, Livy.  She is so excited!

Jake has Mrs. Morgan, (the YW pres. in our ward) and I'm super excited about this!

Eli has Jake's teacher from last year, which was good.

So why the anxiety?  I don't know.  Maybe its that my last child is starting school and I'm unprepared to deal with the trauma of losing my buddy.  Or maybe it's that this is Ken's last year in elementary school and she's growing up too fast. Maybe.

i'm a horrible blogger...

Things have been happening, but I'm failing to record them!  I'm not sure exactly how to catch up on everything, so I guess I'll start from now and work back.
I registered Soph for Kindergarten.  I hope we're doing the right thing.  I had my mind all made up to hold her back for another year and put her in preschool again.  The preschool was through the school, so Soph could go with all the other kids 4 days a week but not have it be "real."  But, preschool was suffering from lack of attendees (apparently 4 other parents and I are the only ones who liked the idea of paying exorbitant fees for preschool. *shrug*).  Please tell me I'm doing the right thing!  I've always thought that given Sophie's interesting agoraphobia problems, that public school in general was probably out.  I can't believe how far this little cutie has come!  I certainly never dreamed that I would have already given her the "WE DON'T KISS BOYS!" talk twice before her 5th birthday!
She also got her ears pierced.  She looks cute with the little flowers in her ears.  She is awesome at remembering to clean them and take care of them too!

Also, last week Ken went to an educational school camp Monday-Friday.  I missed her so much!! :(  I don't think anyone could miss her as much as Soph, though.  She cried for hours the night before she left about not wanting her to leave.  She woke up with puffy, crying eyes, and mentioned her every two seconds with sniffles.  Some examples:
Me: Do you want some breakfast?
Soph:  I want Kenny to get me breakfast!  Waaaa!  I won't eat until she gets home!  Waaaa!
Me: What would you like for lunch?
Soph:  What is Kenny eating for lunch?  Who is going to feed her?  I want my Kenny!  Waaaaa!
Me:  Are you excited to go and register for Kindergarten?
Soph:  There's no one to sit by me in the car!  Kenny always sits by me.  Waaaaaa!
Soph:  Who is going to teach me to read?
Me:  I'm going to help you!
Soph:  But you'll probably just teach me what Kenny already teached (sic) me!  Waaaaa!

It was a long, sad week.  I truly missed having Kennedy around.  :(

Right before camp Kennedy decided that her hair had been growing long enough (yay! Curse Tangled and it's indoctrination of not cutting hair!!!) and she finally cut a foot of it off!  I think she looks so cute and a little more grown up!  She donated her pony tail to "Locks of Love."  Soph (whose goal is also to be Rapunzel when she grows up) was inspired by big sis and cut her hair too!

Eli, Jake and Jesse made up a pillow fight/wrestling game last week that turned ugly when Jake body slammed Eli and Eli cut his head open.  We didn't get a before pic.  It was too gross. The after pic is of the 4 staples he got at the quick care.

Eli after the first staple:  AGHHHHHHHHHHH!  Oh wait.  Never mind.  I thought that was going to hurt, but it didn't.
Eli after the last staple:  AGHHHHHHHHHHH!  Dr:  Did that hurt a little bit?  Eli: No!  It hurt A LOT a bit!
He is such a funny kid.
He was baptized on July 2nd.

He finally got his own scriptures, which I'm pretty excited about!  He told the entire primary that he couldn't do the scripture reading challenge because we didn't own any scriptures.  Nice.
A couple weeks before his baptism, this was the conversation in the car:
Jake:  Dad, have you ever seen a rated 'R' movie?
Ty:  Well, I don't now and that's the important thing.
Jake: I'm never going to watch an 'R" rated movie!
Kennedy: Me either!
Sophie: Me either!
Eli: I can't see the future.
I am very grateful he decided he wanted to be baptized.  He makes me smile and fills our home with a lot of joy!
For the picture, Jake was acting goofy, so everyone was focused on him and making sure he looked normal.  Of course, Sophie would take the opportunity to make a face.

Ty had neck surgery last month.  I can't believe how well the surgery went!!  What a relief!  He hasn't needed one pain pill and was up and walking a few hours after his neck was sliced open from the front, a disc was scraped out of his spine, and a plate was screwed into his spinal column.  His surgeon is a genius.  Anyone in need of a neurosurgeon should definitely check him out.

Unfortunately, Ty still can't lift over 10 pounds for 3 months (or run- he's sad).  We didn't really get to do a lot of our summer plans.  We did sneak in a quick camping trip before hand, which was fun.

The kids also took swimming lessons from my neighbors of 22 years ago.  We had the same teacher way back then, so I knew the method they use works!  I drove to Draper for 3 weeks and it was so worth it! They are all really good swimmers!  I took all the kids to the water park by myself and didn't even panic because I knew they could make it to the side!  Hooray!

We loved having family come and visit and only wish that it would happen more frequently and for longer durations!


I'm being computer stalked by a cute blond headed boy, so I'll do another post if I forgot anything important.

a bee, a play, and a derby

Eli won first place in his class spelling bee.  He went on to the grade-wide spelling bee and missed it on the first word- squirrel.  He was super proud of his trophy and we were proud of his awesome spelling!  Admittedly, I wasn't hopeful that he'd do too well.  Spelling isn't really his thing.  He's more of a math kid. Good job Eli (even though you have a crappy, doubting parent!)!
                                           

Kennedy was in another play called "How I Became a Pirate."  It was a super cute play! We enjoyed going to the performances.  She played the mom.

It was pinewood derby time again.  I was super nervous and anxious because of last year's fiasco, but I'm happy to say, Jake's car made it down the track every time without any problems!!  Phew!
In his races, he placed 2nd, 1st and then 3rd.  I was just over the moon excited that we had a working car!  And Jake was so proud!  Hooray!

graduation

Sophie graduated preschool (sort of.  We're actually keeping her out of Kindergarten for another year)! But, she graduated THIS preschool!  Miss Ari is so FABULOUS!  LOVE HER!
Each of the kids dressed up like people in the community.  Soph was the gardener.

I made Soph a garden belt out of a tea towel and made her a flower clip for her hair.  She looked adorable! Her line was:
One of my favorite things to do
Is smell the pretty flowers.
A Gardener gets to do this too-
Every day for hours and hours.


Notice the knee is up for a proper pose?  Where do they get this stuff?

Ty and Andy sang the Garden Song by John Denver.  They sounded SO GOOD together!  We had technical difficulties in the recording of it (the phone had a piece of lint blocking the sound ;)), but trust me.  They were great!

my apologies....

Sorry.  I've been adjusting to a busier life.

It takes too long to type up all the words.  This is a catch-up of a few pictures.  I'll be better going forward.  It's too late to look back. :)

Jake turned 9-

We had Easter-

holidays and holy days

Christmas turned out lovely, but I'm kinda missing the boys.  You see, blog world, they received ipod touches for Christmas and that is all they can think about now.  They think they are sneaky by hiding the ipods whenever I walk in the room, but I know.  We always know.  Luckily, the rule that you have to read for every minute of game time you get is still there, so at least when they're not playing, they are reading.  It doesn't help much with interaction, but....   I have no finisher for that sentence.

I got sustained in my new calling today.  My sweet cousin was right that as soon as I got set apart that I'd feel a lot better.  I do.  I am the new Relief Society President.  I still feel totally unprepared for this (oh, and I do so LOVE preparedness!!!), but I'm grateful for the opportunity to serve.  Hopefully I don't screw it up.

That's all I've got for ya.  For now.  I haven't loaded the pictures from Christmas onto my computer yet, so sorry about that.  Pictureless posts stink.