The last of 1st grade

The last day of 1st grade?!?! How in the world did we get here so fast????? Wasn't this tall rough smelly boy just recently a soft warm round little toddler? And so goes the ongoing amazement of how kids grow. Why does this still shock us people? We know logically that its gonna happen, they're gonna grow and change and rather rapidly in these early years. So why am I still a bit on the shocked side looking at how much even this year has changed him (and all of us).
Just 9 months ago I walked my little-more-timid-than-now boy to the back door of the school every morning because he was nervous walking there alone or with other kids, he needed my hand to hold, and I needed his. I needed to see him walk in that door and know that he'd made it (all the way from the front of the school to the back) and I'd wish him a happy day, I'd truly wish it deep within me that it would be a happy day~I know it is hard for each child to have a voice in a classroom as large as public schools offer and I know that kids can be mean~ so each day I'd worry a bit and sincerely wish him a happy school day, a day when none of that tenderness would have to harden to adapt, a day where there were many many more smiles than sadness, a day that he could learn new things and that his heart wouldn't get hurt.
The months went on and somewhere along the way I was able to leave him at the front of the school and watch him walk to the back without my help. This was monumental feeling some days, moments that it would hit me how he is in the not so distant future going to be taking bigger steps away and find his own way without my hand to hold. Days where the conflicts that he faces are bigger and more tragic than what the playground at school will offer. Now before you think I'm nuts because he's only in 1st grade and there are years and years ahead before he's grown, think about any parent/grandparent you know, what is the one thing they all have in common? The one thing they all say over and over? "It went so fast, I can't believe how fast it went, how fast they grew up, how fast they were gone". If already, as young moms, we are amazed at the rapid changes our kids make in the early years (we're already saying "I can't believe how fast he/she's growing!") there is no reason to think it'll slow down.
The trick I hear, is to enjoy it while its happening. Live in the moment. And so I try my hardest to enjoy all these moments, to keep perspective on what is really important and what won't matter later, to smile and laugh with him Now instead of 'after the dishes are done'.
Today dropping him off for his last day of 1st grade and watching him run off with his best friend Bryson with barely a wave to me, no longer even thinking to ask if I will walk him to the door, I am happy that he's so secure and happy and yes, sad that this time is going so so fast. He is 7 but already so clearly I can see him grown more, making his own way, living his life with his whole heart. I will still be wishing him those happy safe days.

And its going, going...

I don't know if it is because I heart Neil Diamond or because I heart Wolverine or simply because I really really heart John but I thought the side burns were oh so hot. (see bottom picture) I wanted him to keep them. He tried, because he loves me and evidently would try to do anything to make me happy, but when he realized he was too embarrassed to go out in public with them they had to go bye bye too.
And because I realize that we think we are much more funny than anyone else thinks we are and we don't want to overly bore anyone with our childish games, here are only a few of the almost 100 pictures taken that night.






Oh I'm not sure if John will be happy about me letting everyone in on our secret life as big nerds or not, but here we are anyway! I can think of so few times that I have laughed as hard as I did the other night when John decided it was time (before engagement pics) to banish the beard. I don't know if ever anyone has had so much fun with a matter as disgusting to play with as used/discarded facial hair. Who knew that facial hair could be recycled into perfectly good chest hair? Corie may have known, but she didn't tell me.
My side is still sore from all the laughing that night!
Seriously though, I LOVE the sideburns in that last picture!

Roasting over an open fire. No, not Fire, exactly.

A couple of items from our list of Great things we love about summer
1. Food cooked outside
2. Watermelon ~especially the first watermelon of the season, it just makes my "taste butts" so happy!

Roasting marshmallows on the open fire...er..I mean, on the tiny bucket of warm coals. Our Memorial Day barbecue ended with the warming (for cooking is too strong a word to use here) of tiny marshmallows. We had my friend Sarah over for dinner and the best watermelon ever. It was wonderful to see her, its been way too long!
We cooked dinner on my teeny tiny little grill that got retired the next day. It was hilarious! After we cleaned up we checked to see how the coal was doing and it seemed at the exact same moment we all had the same sarcastic light bulb go off in our heads "Where's the marshmallows??" as soon as we all uttered the ridiculous idea aloud we realized it did sound fun, and you can't say something like that without getting the hopes up oh so high of my marshmallow junkie (Spencer, not John) and we did have some in our hot chocolate accessory stash........so here we are practicing for when we have a real fire.
I don't think I've ever used the word marshmallow so many times in such a small span of words. Where is a thesaurus when I need one!? Ha!
~~and enjoy these shots of John's beard, for it is gone now! :(, I'll miss it, but its absence will make his mommy and sisters-in-law happy.

Zooing it up!

n




We had bored Spencer with our fatigue and grown up projects all day, so the next day as we started our errands that sounded like more torture for this 7 year old we also made a big deal about a Surprise that was coming his way. We succeeded in producing the desired atmosphere of giddy excitement spilling out of every breath of the day, we wouldn't tell him what it was, just that a surprise awaited him. It was as much fun for us listening to him cheerfully debate what it would be as it was for him.
The Hogle Zoo was the destination and oh how happy was this kid to get there! We hadn't been to the zoo for a long time! Long gone are my nanny days with M. when I would be zooing at least once a week. Spencer hadn't been to the zoo in at least a year either, and he informed me that he would be happy to go every day.
Not mommy though. I did LOVE seeing how happy Spencer was but I always get so sad about captivity when I'm at the zoo. The animals are amazing and beautiful and its wonderful to be able to see them up close, magical even. And tragic. Too tragic for my nature. Caged just doesn't seem just or peaceful and leaves me a bit mournful. BUT....Spencer was a smiley happy creature and not caged at all so it was worth it!
And more happy memories to feed our souls. And some fun pictures, no?

Elder Moon is home!!

Stanton and Dena~yes I wanted to be in a picture, so I took it myself
Mom and Stanton

Stanton and his boys~Spencer and Makell

Stanton got home today from his 2 year mission in Brazil. We were soooo excited to see him! Especially Spencer who has been counting down for today for the entire 2 years. This 7 year old has included Uncle Stanton in EVERY bedtime, meal and primary prayer EVERY day for the entire time Stanton has been gone. Our prayers last night as Spencer asked that Uncle Stanton would be safe on the plane and get here safe and happy instead of his usual words about the mission made me realize how its real that Stanton was on his way home.
Spencer was too excited to sleep last night and so excited for Uncle Stanton to get here this morning that he woke up so EARLY. Just like Christmas I said but Spencer corrected me, "No Mommy, Christmas happens all the time, Uncle Stanton has been gone for a long long time, so this is better!" Yes, I'm sure we'll all agree, having Stanton home is much better than Christmas.
~and on a separate note: check out how blue our eyes are in that top picture! (no editing took place.)

Stanton, Dad, Bishop TaylorDestrie and Deja welcome Unlce Stanton home

Homeless? No.

Only a couple of weeks left! The move is so close, its crazy how you can count down to something in life that feels forever away then you wake up one day and realize its time to go find boxes!
Instead of moving directly into a new place we're going to camp for a while then move into the new residence. So this move I am packing everything up and letting those boxes stay in storage for at least a month.
I get a lot of people giving me those worried "oh no, she's gone crazy" looks when I give an overview of our summer plan. That or the "oh no, you are going to be homeless?" look. No, not crazy and not homeless. My dream summer would be disconnected from the world up in the mountains somewhere with John and the kids and the dog. This is as close as we can get, a few weeks (perhaps up to 5?) of nice relaxing tent living. I know it is not a wonderful thought to some but to us it sounds like paradise. We'll camp close-ish to town, since we will still have to go to work (silly responsible adults that we are) and take the kids to a sitter~(and I do enjoy real showers after all so we'll visit my parents house almost daily I'm sure).
I'm excited to get us all away from the T.V. and video games and (gasp) yes, even the computer for a while. Real time together. And a campfire, what more could we ask for? Seriously how much fun are these kids going to have on our adventure? My prediction is that they'll love love love it and we'll all make fantastic memories!
Sunday I went to Star Valley to meet John and spend the day together. After our day I am a billion times more excited for our camp out ~and for our forever together~ and I was all the way on board already before that day! Sunday was so peaceful and blissful. We got lunch then drove up into the mountains, spread a blanket out and spent hours just realizing how nice it was to be away from everything (except each other, being away from each other is NOT my favorite).
Here are some pictures from Sunday. Happy happy us!

Happy Mother's Day!

A picture of my 3rd Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to everyone! Especially to my Mom!

This year Spencer and I had a great Mother's Day! We just hung out together all day, and all weekend long. It made me realize just how busy our life has been lately! I'm with him every day but so much is going on that we have to get done that there are not enough minutes left just to enjoy him and hang out. We laughed and talked and he made a big deal out of it being Mother's Day so he wanted to do everything for me (very sweet!) We played games, watched movies, went on a bike ride, went to yard sales, went to cousin's soccer games, ate out, cooked together and ate in, read books........no huge plans, nowhere we had to be, nothing we had to do, just down time with my kid. Wonderful wonderful wonderful Mother's Day! I hope all of yours were just as great!

I'm busy reading The Host

Rewind to MONTHS ago when my wonderful friend Emily Rassmussen tells me her sister Stephenie will be releasing a book called The Host which will be an alien story. I am oh so excited, I loved her Twilight books and what for me is the next best thing after a vampire story? Time travel or alien stories of course! (and yes, you read that right, Stephenie's sister, Emily, is my friend. Its the closest I have come to fame!)
Now usually I don't pre-order books. I wait, there are oh so many books to fill my time while I wait that it usually isn't a big deal. Especially if there is hype involved. If it is something everyone is going crazy over I tend to pass. Perhaps in the name of individuality? I'm not entirely sure. I just know that if it is for everyone I can't bring myself to follow the craze and buy into the fad. It took me until the 4th installment or maybe even the 5th to realize that I did, indeed, NEED my copy of Harry Potter the day it came out.
I didn't find Twilight until Emily guided me to it but I've accepted that Stephenie Meyer is an author who's books I need asap. Seriously, if you haven't read them what are you doing playing online? Go read them!
The waiting is difficult. (I say that about a lot of things in my life lately! Yay August 2nd!) Anyway, its like waiting for Bon Jovi's new album. Or my birthday. No, my birthday is easier, if I get tired of waiting I just start celebrating earlier.
So fast forward to more recently. I decided to pre-order The Host from Amazon.com. I do love so many things about Amazon, like prices. $15 for my book and I spent just a bit more on other books I (NEED) and I have free shipping to boot. Oh but the waiting. I'm not sure if you get the point that the waiting is already agonizing but it is. When the rest of the world was opening their copies of The Host on the 6th I was waiting for mine. And waiting. And waiting. Perhaps I'm a slow learner, this happened last time I pre-ordered from Amazon. This time I found a solution..... last night I gave up on waiting and took myself to Barnes and Noble and bought myself a copy (for $15, I might add) for mother's day. I figured the extra copy will make a great gift for my mom, if she doesn't already have it.
And so I've started. I'll be busy reading for the next few days. Don't expect to get a hold of me.

More digital scrapbook pages

Here are more digital scrapbook pages. I think I'm getting the hang of it finally. I'm having fun with it at least, thats what matters right? What do you think?

The Autumn Castle

I hadn't heard of Kim Wilkins before so this was the first book of hers I read. I finished it earlier this week, so worth reading! It was a treasure I found when the Bookshelf was having their huge closeout sale a couple of months ago. (has it really been that long ago?) At that sale I got billions of books (I may be exaggerating a tiny bit) and so many of them are new authors to me. It has been great! The Autumn Castle was a bit dark but a great escape into the realm of faeries. Kind of a modern fantasy faerie tale with a bit of murder thrown in. I got so attached to the characters that it was a little sad for it to end! I am searching Amazon for more Kim Wilkins books now.

A boy and his Grandpa and a spin around the block

Today my dad brought our bikes to us! They have been in Star Valley in storage for a while. Spencer's bike is one I bought at the end of last summer at a yard sale for $5 and my parents helped put new tires on it. It is such a better fit than his old one, he's just outgrown it with all this growing he insists on doing so he's hap hap happy to be the proud owner of "bigger bike". My bike is one I got for my first official Mother's Day and I am pretty sure its been over a year since it has had air in the tires so its been a treat to have it up and running too! Spencer and I went on a bike ride Sunday in Star Valley after we got our bikes cleaned up and ready to go. It was so much fun to go ride with him! I had the impression from how he kept saying "Mom, I love this bike ride!" and "Mom, riding bikes with you is my favorite!" that he enjoyed it as well! Wonderful times!
Well, tonight I while I was cooking dinner my son was itching to ride around the block and pulling a 'busy mom' routine I kept putting him off with "I'm busy making dinner, wait" and "In a while, wait". As you know, Wait is not a fun word to keep hearing, especially when you have a 'new' bike ready to race around the block. So Spencer asked his Big Grandpa if he'd ride with him around the block. And what do you know? Grandpa said yes! I took a quick break from dinner because I knew these would be pictures I'd want, and that Spencer will love in years to come. I got a few great pictures (I'd hoped for more, but with a camera that only works 30% of the time these are good!).
I told Spencer that he should feel very very special. He asked why. I told him that had Grandpa's kids asked him to go on a bike ride he'd probably have been busy and not gone, but when Spencer asked it was an immediate yes. Now off I go to email my brothers these pictures and show them what magic grandchildren can spin!

A very mild rant : Polix is not Toj

I am realizing as I am being driven to the brink of insanity by my neurotic dog, Polix, that part of the problem is my own expectations. He isn't Toj. He is not at all the dog she was. She was so smart and so loving and not wild and crazy, she was trainable~oh so well trained! For me, she was the perfect dog.
And to me, Polix, seems like a strange creature from the depths of some overly caffeinated and crazy universe doing a poor impersonation of a dog.
Seriously if one more thing is broken at his hands (ok, paws, tail, teeth...) I will go mad!!!! And if there is one more day of his CONSTANT crying and RUNNING like a madman through our tiny house.......OY!
Last week I had a mystery roll of 35mm film developed. There were some jewels. May 2002 is my best guess at when these pictures were taken. This photo of Toj and Danica is one of my favorites! Oh how I miss that dog, my friend.
I need to accept that Polix is not Toj, will never be Toj and try to enjoy him for what he is. (An alien creature with no earth manners).

Oh my rough and tumble Growing boy!

Oh the growing! The growing! Enough with the growing! And the rough and tumble nature of boys! OY!
Spring is trying to get here and with it all the wonderful opportunity to roll and crash and rumble on the new wet grass. These are photos of Spencer's pants this week.
There has not been a day all week where he has come home with un-grass stained pants or no holes in the knees. Keep in mind that he Goes to school with clean intact knees in his jeans!
I must take a moment to rant about the pants issue all together. This boy Grows! I know that all you moms reading this are feeling my plight! A couple of months ago he started outgrowing his size 7 jeans in a hurry. Ok, this was something I could handle (growing to the next size happens, no?) So out I go and invest in some size 8s thinking they would get us at least through most of summer. Nope. A few weeks and he shot right on through to a size 10. Right after I'd made an investment in the 8s. Sheesh! And its only the length that are the issue. He could probably wear 5s if the legs were longer. These legs on this boy are gonna be long! On the bright side, we are set for cutoffs this summer!
When his dad and I were getting to know each other and started dating, my friends would joke that if ever we had a child together I would have to fold up the baby's legs to fit them in the stroller/car seat/tent. (Maybe they were thinking that the baby would be like a horse and emerge from the womb with full length legs~oh what a painful and hilarious thought!) Well, there was no folding necessary then but now...?
We are lucky that my mom is so willing to mend the tears and holes to give Spencer's pants a few days more of wear time than otherwise!
I know I was warned. Spencer's grandma Cindy warned me many a time (but Spencer was a baby, fitting nicely into baby clothes) and these days felt like they were forever away!
Days are long but years are short.

Pretzel Paddles

Spencer in snack creating mode.
Spencer got this cookbook at the book fair a couple of weeks ago. He has loved looking through it and deciding what recipe to try next. It is a great book, I love the pictures and how kid friendly the recipes are!~Yesterday after school Spencer decided to make Pretzel Paddles for an after school snack. They turned out so festive and he loved eating them! They are essentially pretzel sticks with peanut butter and cereal (we used Trix). Yummy!