Ty's b-day Part Two

UPDATE: I added the pictures on the 23rd of Jan.

We had the house decorated in Star Wars. After lunch we brought out the cake and sang to him. Then, I gave him a little card with some info about his presents. He had to go on a scavenger hunt to find them. Each present had a new clue on it to lead him to the next present. He opened each one as he went along. The 4th present was a scooter and the clue lead him to the park. So, we got on the scooters and went to the park where Mike and Bray were waiting with the next present. From there, the clue lead to the bowling alley where the hunt ended with a game. We came home and watched Return of the Jedi (Ty's fav). Ty spent most of the movie putting together his new lego sets. Tyson helped me take dinner to a family in our ward who's son just passed away. They invited us in and showed us pictures of the 15 yr old boy. It was touching to me and when we left, Tyson told me he thought that was good for us to do (which made me glad since right before he had been complaining about having to help me). We then went to Mickey D's by request of the b-day boy. On our way home, Mike and the kids doorbell ditched our Secret Santa family and listened as the little 9 yr old screamed when she saw the presents. The kids loved taking part in the service project and it was a perfect way to end the b-day. Right now they are heading to bed after playing a few computer games and putting away the coveted lego's (thanks everyone). He is so happy to be 7!

Happy Birthday Tyson!

Wow, 7 years old. I can't believe it. 7 years ago I was 25 hours into the 29 hours of labor it took to get this little boy here. I told him the story of his birth (minus all gory details) on our way to the store tonight. I remember how glad I was when he was here, frustrated that we had to be in the hospital until Christmas Day, but so glad when we were released to go home with our sweet little gift. He was a beautiful little baby and I can still remember that skinny little body and that round chubby face. He looked like an angel and though it was a hard few months with sleepless nights and eating problems, he was still so full of life and we were glad to be his parents. That feeling has never left. He and I have our personality conflicts and this learning how to parent thing hasn't been that easy, but there have definitely been many joys to it and I know I have learned a lot. He is my first, so he is my teacher in many ways. I have loved watching him grow, have been amazed by how smart he is, and have been touched when he is so sweet and loving to others. I am often taken back by how much he understands about life, about God, and how quickly he picks up on just about everything. I am sad it has gone by this quickly. It seems that toddler hood went by rather slowly. Now that he's in school, I don't see him as much and time is measured in school months and play time, and it just seems to go by quicker. He's growing up and in just a short year he will be baptized. I am crying a little thinking about that day not so far off. Days go by fast and I hope I can remember to slow down for the sake of these babies that will always be my babies. I love you so much Tyson Cole. You are a strength to our family and I am so glad I have been entrusted with your care. Happy birthday!

Preschool Recipe Book

Anna gave me a recipe book that her preschool class compiled for the parents for Christmas. Each child was given the assignment to secretly watch their parents cook their favorite dish and then tell the teacher EXACTLY how it was cooked, what ingredients were used, how long it was in the oven etc. This made my day. SO hilarious. I thought I'd post a few excerpts from the book (including Anna's of course)....

MILK, BROWNIES, & DIRT

You put the milk in the other cup. You get apples and eat them. And then you get dirt from the backyard and cook them to make brownies. It's so good!

PUMPKIN COOKIES

Put the ingredients in and then you need the orange stuff. Then you put it in the oven for 13 minutes. Then you eat it and then I'm getting a dinosaur for Christmas.

POTATOES

Uh! Uh! She mashes them in a bowl. She puts weeds in it and then cooks, um, in the fridge for 20 hours. Then you say your prayers and then you eat it with spaghetti.

COOKIES WITH CHOCOLATE IN IT

Put chocolate in the cookies. Mix it around with a stick thing. Stick in the microwave way up high for 10 minutes. That's all you have to do I told you.

YELLOW PASTA

It's Mac & Cheese. I like the white too. She waters it. She puts yellow cheese on it. She stirs for one minute. Eat it! It's almost my birthday in two weeks.

SPAGHETTI (by Anna)

Put noodles on the hot pan and then cut tomatoes and sprinkle them on to the noodles. And then, then my mom cooks it for I think, I think it's um, um until my Dad comes home. I don't know how much. Do you know how much?

Ok, so I can't stop laughing at these. There are many more. Ask me and I'll give you a copy. Seriously the best. What a cute and innocent present.

The First Snow....

Ok, so it snowed here again. 3rd year in a row. We were cold! Bray LOVED it and carried around a snowball all morning. We, along with all of the younger boys in the area were the only ones awake. All the boys came over to our house and destroyed the backyard. I even participated in a snowball fight. We then had everyone in for some hot chocolate to get warmed up. It was fun. Only lasted a little while, but the cold stayed for a few days. I'm sure there's more to come this winter.....

Tyson's Christmas Program

Tyson's WHOLE school had an evening Christmas Program. It was CRAZY! Ton's of people, not enough seats, lots of noise, but the kids had a lot of fun. The first graders sung "Silent Night" for their part of the program. We got to see Tyson's Gingerbread house on display and then took it home with us. He managed to eat all of the candy off it by the next day. He did a good job and I'm proud of him as he is really coming out of his stage fright. We love this guy!

Julianna's Preschool Program

Julianna had her Preschool Program this week and OH was she cute! She sung all of the songs, knew her part, loved wearing her pj's, and did all of her sign language so well. This was also the first time Mike has been able to see any of the kids preschool programs. Brayden was crazy (and therefore so was my filming) but it was fun. At the end, they had a pinata. It's hook that held it up ended up breaking so they to stop in the middle and fix that. They kids ended up being too weak, and after ALL of them had a chance to hit it, it still didn't break. The dad's (including Mike) took a few turns until it finally broke open. What a good day and what a good little girl. We love you Miss Anna!

Christmas Baby

Happy, sweet, fun-loving kid. This was Tyson's sweater. Brayden does a much better job of filling it out. It still swamped Tyson was he was two. I think photo should be on every Christmas card in America!

Puppy for a minute.....

There were some people visiting the area that found this dog as they were walking around the neighborhood. They had no where to take it and they couldn't find the owner. The shelter was closed (it was the day after Thanksgiving). Being the sucker that I am, I took the dog. Anna and I played with it for a long time in the backyard and it fell in love with us and we fell for it too. What a sweet little thing. Thank heavens for the neighbor two doors down though. Her house is all tile, she has three little dogs, and plenty of doggie food to spare. She took the little thing in so that I wouldn't have to keep it overnight. She ended up finding the owner and all is well. We had fun having the little guy, but I am still not sold on EVER owning a dog :)

I should be working instead of writing this post...

I have so much to do and this blog, along with e-mail accounts, facebook, and some rather humorous web pages, are giving me plenty slacker excuses. But anyway, I thought I'd tell you that Mike got a new job. I should say "another job" just so people don't get a little nervous. He'll be creating curriculum and then teaching the curriculum for the Open High School of Utah. It's a completely online high school in Utah and Mike interviewed with them this week. It's some nice extra income but I'm waiting to see how much MORE of his time will be taken. He assures me it won't be a lot, but I'm not buying it. I guess we'll see.

I chopped Anna's hair off tonight. It's so short! She loves it and I think its nice to have a change. Hopefully when she wakes up tomorrow we'll both still like it :)

I took Squish and Banana to the doctor for check-up's today. They both had to have shots and were so sad. I go the stats on both though- and they are the same as always. I really thought Anna was catching up, but not so much. She is in the 65th% for weight and the 22nd% for height. Same since birth. Brayden is in the 73rd% for weight and the 80th% for height. I guess it's good that his height is a bigger number than his weight now.

Bray is totally healthy and I couldn't help but think of what a blessing that is. They told me after his birth that even though everything seemed normal he could still have some mental issues or learning disabilities. We've seen nothing. He is, in fact, above where he should be. Great blessing.

With Anna, she's mostly healthy. Looks like her eye sight might be diminishing and they told me they found a small trace of white blood cells in her urine. He said he was concerned about that and that we'll have to monitor her, but he said nothing more than that. Not sure what that will lead to, but hopefully it's nothing and everything will be ok.

I've got some pictures to post later. Right now, the kids are in bed, Mike is at his last concert of the season (yeah) and I HAVE to finish writing a piece of music for my band kids (not to mention make SUPAF phone calls, do some grading, and prepare for my sub on Thurs.). Good night all!

No Longer Private...

Ok, so I found that by making the blog private I was excluding some very important people. SO, it's no longer private....until further notcie anyway.

Concert Season

Yes, it's Christmas time, but more so for us it's concert time. Mike had his concerts last week and they went really well. His kids sounded good. The first concert was a combined concert with the college. There were a few mishaps at first- like the fact that everyone had to pay to get in after Mike had been told it was free. He ended up paying for all of the parents tickets (with school money). His band was first, and minus the few kids who weren't quite sure what accidentals were, it went very well. They looked great and I was proud of them. I took the kids and we were going to stay until the end to hear the combined numbers, but at 9:00 with no end in sight, Brayden wandering, Tyson pouting, and Anna crying, I decided it was time to call it a night.

The Jazz Band concert was the next night. They were great! It was a fun holiday concert. Mike had a few problems. He was listening to the balance as the band played the first song and backed up without knowing the edge of the stage was RIGHT THERE! He fell off. Poor guy. Every band teachers worst nightmare. That's why I'm a beginning band teacher. We have our concerts in the gym- a one-leveled surface. I would be falling every other minute. Anyway, he jumped right back up and acted like nothing happened. A number of kids from the middle school and Intermediate school had seen the concert and it was talked about for a day and luckily forgotten after that. Mike is doing fine if you were wondering.

My concert was last night. My kids were so cute. All 97 kids (just got another student) were so excited and nervous. The concert went very well- almost. They had never played the pieces together before. On one particular piece, the saxes were taking one tempo, the percussion another, and my student teacher yet another. My student teacher did a great job and cut them off and started over. It was a good lesson for the kids to not only watch the director, but also that mistakes happen and life goes on. The rest was just wonderful. I had a little Christmas tree set up decorated with candy canes. They each took one after the performance. The only sad thing was that I had a student move last night after the concert. His family had packed up 6 days ago and they were just waiting for him to finish the concert. He wrote me a very sweet note and I'm going to miss him. The 7th grade band played too and they sounded amazing! What a great group of musicians we have. I love it!

BTW, I am totally loving the Christmas season this year. I am excited to have a break and spend time with my sweet family. I can't wait to make neighbor treats, school goodies for the kids, and see the kids school programs. Usually I don't want to make the cookies and I'm overwhelmed by the amount of work that has to be done, but not so much this year. I hope it continues. Cheers!

Grandma

My Grandma passed away last night around 7 pm. We've been expecting it, but it still was a sad thing for me. I tend to hold on to the idea that there must be hope of some kind. I knew that it was not possible that she could survive the tumor, but I kept thinking "maybe there would be more time" or "maybe there would be some kind of miracle". Crazier things have happened after all. But no, this wasn't one of those events. I didn't want her to suffer and I know that she really wasn't suffering much. She slept so much of the time and this whole last week she never woke up- I know it was peaceful. It was good that her illness wasn't long and that she was able to do so much of the things she loved nearly to the end of her life. She had a great life and she is now back with my Grandpa. I have great memories of being at their house. I will miss the dock, the lemons, the smells, the swimming pool, the way the house was so tidy. Even when I went back 6 weeks ago, the house was still kept the same way with the same furniture. Nothing can replace her gentle and respectful way of speaking, her love of babies and children, and her genuine care for those she loved. Those are the things I will miss. Regrets?- of course. I wish I had been able to visit more, I wish she had been able to hold my Brayden, I wish my kids had known her better. Wishes don't work now though. They are pointless. What does matter is that I loved her and she made an impact on my life for the better. That's what we all want in the end, isn't it? To be remembered as someone who lived to love and loved to live. I think that was her. She was a genuinely good person and I know there is rejoicing in heaven today- especially because she is reunited with Grandpa. I will miss her and I will remember her until I can see her again. Goodbye Grandma. I love you.