Last Week's Happenings

October is flying by and sadly we aren't finding time for all of our fun autumn traditions, but we've had plenty to keep us going and busy. Last week started off with a trip to the pumpkin patch with Gracie's preschool class. Of course, it landed on the only rainy day we've had in months. Me, being the great mother I am, tried to convince Gracie that we should skip the field trip and go a different day. She was set on going with her little classmates and I can't say I blame her. Therefore, on went our rain gear as we schlepped ourselves to the patch. One observation I made is that the smell of farm animals really intensifies when it rains. Boy, there were some really stinky pigs and cows!

Gracie was happiest when we were inside the barn and out of the rain.
Of course she loved taking control of the giant umbrella too.
Last week was also great because Carson was selected to be the "Star Student" for the week. We have waited long and hard for his name to be drawn out of the hat. On Friday, he exploded through the door with the great news. I looked at the poster with him and thought, we'll wait until Sunday night and make this look really nice together. Okay who am I fooling, I always end up doing it for my kids with very little assistance from them. They are after all the star student and I don't want them to show up with a lame poster and have all of the other mom's think I'm the lame mom. We all know how it goes. Well Carson wasn't aware of this unwritten rule between mom's and he ended up doing the ENTIRE thing himself. I was running kids back and forth while Mark was working from home, when I returned about 3:45 he had the entire poster already filled out.

I was actually totally relieved I could mark it off my to do list and proud all at the same time. He took the initiative and did a really great job, he even picked out the picture of himself from the frame on our mantle and glued it to the poster. It's interesting to me how different each child behaves even though the parenting is the same. Some of my kids would never dare to do something like that on their own and yet Carson would have felt totally stifled if I had done it for him or even tried to help. It's fun to discover these little things out about my kids.

When I first looked at the poster I thought I would have to guide him on the question, "What three things make me a Star." I was a little worried maybe he wouldn't know what makes him so special. I love what he chose to write 1) I've been on TV (I don't remember this, but they say we were on the news in Vegas at the Christmas village with Andre Agassi) 2. I'm nice 3. I'm cool. It was reassuring to me as I sometimes worry about this little guys self-esteem that he so quickly came up with 3 things that make him a star. Here is a picture of his handy work. He is so cute, you can see he tried writing his first name in bubble letters. Naturally, I was proud to hand it in, even if I do look like the lame mom.
One of the privileges of being the Star Student is that you get to bring something that is special to you to share with the class. It melted my heart big time, when he asked to share Gracie and Bayden. Here they are the day of the big share. Bay was running all over the place.

We also had McCall's first Middle School Orchestra performance last week. I was shocked what a difference daily music class makes. I was really impressed with all of these kids and the music was beautiful. No more Mary had a Little Lamb. They played a Korean folk song that Mark remembers hearing while serving his mission there. They also played some other lovely classical pieces. We were really proud of McCall. She is so good to always practice her viola. It was quite the challenge to get a good shot of her because the lady in front of me had big hair and kept moving every time I moved. Add to it the fact that the conductors hands kept swinging down in front of her face in almost every picture and well you start to get the idea.

The cap to our fun week was our good friend's wedding on Friday. Blake is the oldest son and their family is like our second family. His parents worked so hard to make it a beautiful day for the two of them. Aren't they a cute couple? They looked so beautiful and they had a perfect day. I loved the words of wisdom that his grandfather gave him before he married them in the Sacramento temple. I learned so much that day.
Later that evening we got to attend a fabulous dinner and party in their honor. Here is McCall with one of our favorite ladies, the fabulous Vicki Wolf.

The best part of the day was when I got to dance with this little boyfriend all night long. It was one of those nights when I wish time would stand still and that my kids would never grow up. (That was of course until 11:00 when I was trying to get 5 tired kids into bed while Mark stayed to help clean up. Then I wanted everyone to act a bit older)

Golden Gate Invitational

We got the swine flu at our house so I've been out of commission the past few weeks or at least I will use that as my excuse for my lack of productivity. We had a pretty fun September though and there are a few events that I want to make sure get documented.

One of those was McCall's soccer tournament in San Francisco. We turned it into a girls day out together with Gracie, McCall and I leaving early on Saturday morning and returning very late that night. We LOVE San Francisco, so the girls were really excited to head down there. We were lucky enough to have one of McCall's teammates, Annelise and her grandmother Carol join us for the ride down. Grandma Carol used to live in San Francisco and was a total riot, we hit it off immediately. We were lucky enough to play at the beautiful Beach Chalet fields with the beach just across the road from the fields.

I think one of my favorite parts of being a parent is watching my kids learn, work diligently at and then hopefully progress in a task. Sometimes the progression is slower than they hope for, which can be frustrating. However, when they finally see the fruits of their labors it is magical. This has been particularly evident this year for McCall and her soccer. She started playing soccer when she was four and this is her 6th year of playing. She is small and has never been a stand out player. She has held her own and had a few good games here and there, but she definitely had things she could work on. Earlier this year she decided she wanted to try out for a select soccer team. I remember how nervous Mark and I were, especially since we were out of town during the try-outs! She worked hard and made the team.

Practices started and this came with some challenges because she was the new player on a team that had previously played together a couple of years. Some of the girls openly questioned her abilities and although it was challenging she forced herself to go to every practice. She even started doing conditioning on the off days of practice. A few of her first games were hard and again she had some areas that could use improvement and she kept working at it.

Then the last few months something has clicked. All of her extra effort, years of building skills and hard work have come together and now she is good...I mean REALLY good! She has finally discovered her speed and how to use her size to her advantage. She is more comfortable in her ball handling skills and she now gets the fact that if you ever hope to make the shot you have to take the shot (even if it is with your left foot.) Of course, there are still things she can work on improving (putting more power behind her long kicks), but she has really come a long way. She has worked so hard for so many years and it is so wonderful to see her develop into such a great player (I really hope this doesn't sound too boastful, that is not my intent, but she is my girl and I am so proud of her)

She had the best two games of her life in San Francisco. It was the most fun I have ever had watching her play. My only regret was that Mark wasn't there to see it! Luckily, she has kept her stride and he has gotten to see her play in some other really fabulous games. The highlight of the tournament was hearing the other coach yell, "Watch number 12, mark her and don't let her out of your sight!" It took me a minute to figure out that he was talking about McCall. I was so proud. She was on fire. She was all over the place and it was driving him crazy (I feel bad that he was frustrated), but I was still proud of McCall.

Here she is playing sweeper taking the ball up the side.

She plays against a lot of REALLY tall people and so this picture depicts a nice height comparison.

Here she is with her sweet little friend Annelise. McCall was convinced she played so well because it was in San Francisco and she loves the smell of the ocean.

Gracie was a good sport sitting through 8 hours of soccer. She was McCall's #1 cheerleader.

This was a sweet play where she kicked the ball around the two defenders and took it up the line (I don't know the soccer lingo for that, but it was pretty cool to watch).

This was a co-ed team she was playing and she enjoyed trying to out run the boys.

Another great play going up against two of the boys and she beat them both to the ball. She was working so hard that she started having an asthma attack during the 4th quarter of this game.

Here she is going against two of their defenders and the goal keeper to make a goal. Unfortunately, she was unsuccessful during this play.

We ended the day by swimming at the hotel with her teammates and then going out to dinner as a team. Because McCall doesn't play on Sunday's, we wished them well on the next days games and headed home around 10:00. It was a great day!

Meet Abby!

Don't know how much Bayden will appreciate these photos when he is older, but they make me smile. The last few weeks our kids have gotten a kick out of dressing up Bayden as a girl (he is a pretty cute girl if I do say so myself). Gracie always wants a little girl to play with, so this was an easy solution! We have cousins on each side of the family with the name Abby that we all adore, so of course that was the name of choice. So here is Abby......

He was more than happy to pose for me in some of Gracie's clothes.

A close up of his hair clips.

A full length shot was a must to show off his cute shoes. Gracie's facials were making me laugh.

(*Just a note, Gracie selected her own outfit and accessories) Gracie was thrilled that for a large part of the day, he would only respond to the name Abby. Mark and I were totally entertained listening to and watching them play all afternoon. I'm going to miss this age when they all grow up!

Jog-a-thon 2009

My love, hate relationship with the annual Jog-a-thon continues again this year. Hate how they send home those sponsor sheets and get the kids all hyped up to ask for donations (I hate asking ANYONE to sponsor for fear they will feel forced to do so). On the other hand I love watching my kids get all excited and then working so hard to meet the goals they have set for themselves. Of course I wasn't loving the 103 temperatures, but I figured I could stand and cheer on the sidelines with a happy face if my kids were running in it and still had smiles on theirs.
Carson started out strong with the ladies. His team was the 1st Grade Road Runners.

Still going strong and working hard.
Hmm...someone is slowing down and breathing really hard.
Can you say asthma attack. Of course Carson insisted he was fine and did another lap before he almost collapsed.

Thus ended Carson's jog-a-thon dreams. He got his inhaler and sat out for a bit until he had things under control.

Bayden being cheesy while I took care of Carson.

One tired little guy holding up his lap card. He got the whole front side filled up. And then he got to enjoy a cool treat with his two best buddies.
Next we were off to cheer Parker on. We met up with him at recess. He was sitting in the quad trying to "save up all of his energy for the jog-a-thon". I love how sweet Parker is with his siblings. I love how he is holding Bay's hand.
Then it is time for a little snuggle. Bay is a much loved boy and is adored by his siblings.
And who wouldn't be in love with this boyfriend? Look at the smooch he is giving Parker.
We headed up to the field where Parker's class would start. I was helping out with his class. Luckily the teacher took one look at me and suggested that I just cheer from the sidelines (something I do quite well) instead of running with the kids (something I don't do quite as well!)
I think this was around lap 19....remember it was hot! Do you like that he is at least 1 head taller than his classmates.
This is his intense look. He is really trying to focus here.
He stopped for a hug and a picture from his favorite cheerleader.
All in all I think it was a successful jog-a-thon. Hopefully we earned enough money to have our library open this year (you got to love California and its budget crisis!).

Hogwarts School of Wizards

Parker finally got to have his long awaited birthday bash! He and McCall had been planning it for months and if I do say so myself they came up with some pretty creative ideas. McCall took on the role of Professor McGonagall and welcomed the 25 boys (yes 25 that is not a typo) and 2 girl wizards to the party. For such a shy little boy, he really has a lot of friends. When the kids first arrived McCall welcomed them to the Great Hall and we did the sorting house to find out which house they belonged to. Next it was time for spells class and their Hogwart wands. Then it was on to a lively match of Quidditch.
)
Quidditch was a little too intense for my taste, so Mark took over that activity while I ended up setting up the science experiments for the Transfiguration class.

Of course Bay had to participate in every activity. After Quidditch he was hot and sweaty.
It took a lot of pizzas and watermelon to feed all of those cute kids, but everyone was all smiles.

Parker with his cute Harry Potter cupcakes. I didn't get a cute close up picture, but they were darling. My friend found them on a website and then came over and helped me replicate them.

Parker had a great evening with his friends. He is really blessed with some sweet friends. I was proud of him and McCall for putting together such a fun party and we had a great time working on it together.

A Couple of Visits from the Tooth Fairy

Carson came to us a couple days after school started to let us know that his front tooth was REALLY loose. This was big news for our boy who has waited patiently while the rest of the world (or at least those in his Kindergarten/1st Grade world) lost their teeth.

He has tried everything to coax those suckers out including, but not limited to, eating only apples for a day, tying string to his teeth and then trying to attach the other end to a door knob, wiggling them back and forth over and over and over again. You can imagine the look on his sweet face when he came to tell me the big news. Of course I think it is all a little sad to see his sweet little baby face not look quite so baby anymore with missing teeth and then big adult teeth coming in. I inspected the tooth and sure enough it was really loose. He kept wiggling it, so I grabbed him and took him outside to snap a picture to remember that sweet little face before his tooth came out.

I'm sure glad I did because the next day when he walked in from school, this was the sweet (can I use the word sweet one more time?) little smile that greeted me.
Testing out the new open space in his mouth.
He even got a special little tooth holder from his teacher at school. He didn't quite understand the whole "tooth fairy takes the tooth and then gives you money concept", so a few tears were shed later that night because he really wanted to keep his tooth (sick!). He also really wanted the tooth fairy to come, so McCall suggested we write her a note asking her to please leave the tooth and the money. Luckily, the tooth fairy is a sucker for this little one so he got to keep the tooth and got some money too. I might add that I was quite impressed the tooth fairy made it on the first evening.
I only had 5 days to get use to his new little smile, when he came home last week with an even bigger smile than the first time and a bigger gap...his other tooth fell out at school.
Whoa, he was excited as you can see from his expression below.

One more shot because he was so thrilled. This time he lost the tooth before it could be placed under his pillow, so another memo was sent to the Tooth Fairy which read like this, "Tooth lost, please leave me money!"Who wouldn't leave this little face money? Can you tell I'm in love?

Look Who's 9!!!

Nine years ago when Parker was born, I never imagined he would always celebrate his birthday the first week of school. Because of this lovely fact and the craziness associated with back to school, I am just now posting his birthday picks 2 1/2 weeks after the fact. It is the same reason why he won't be having a birthday party until September!

This year his birthday was extra special because he actually had family in town to celebrate with him. The Jones family were visiting and we able to spend his birthday morning with us.
Here is Parker getting all ready to open up his gift from his best buddy Ian.

Carson was so thrilled with all of the birthday gifts you would have thought it was his special day.Parker can never have enough Lego's

Later that morning cousin Ian joined Parker at school for show and tell and then he helped Gracie and Bayden hand out his birthday treat. After several years of trying to follow the school's "healthy" snack policy, Parker asked if he could just have a really good brownie, so brownies is what they got!

Gracie and Bay love helping out in the classroom.

He got his special lunch, but unfortunately the rest of the day was filled with activities, so we didn't get to go out to dinner until last weekend. He told me it was worth the wait. There are lots of things to love and appreciate about Parker, here are our top 9:

1. He loves babies. He always wants to hold them and loves trying to make them laugh. He'll be a great dad someday.

2. He is a good listener (except when playing the Wii)

3. He is VERY flexible which makes him a

4. Great friend and brother.

5. He has a great imagination. Parker comes up with great plans and ideas and even makes me want to play some of the games he creates.

6. Parker is totally compassionate. He thinks a lot about others and how they are feeling. The best part about his compassion is that he does it privately without drawing a lot of attention to himself. This boy is definitely NOT an attention seeker. He likes to quietly serve and worry about others.

7. He loves to sleep. This is just a fantastic quality to have in our home, especially since he is our only child that actually sleeps well! Parker is our only child who has ever admitted to being tired and sometimes asks if he can go to bed. He is the golden child.

8. He is an athlete. Introduce this boy to a sport, any sport and he loves it. In his perfect world he would play every sport in hour long intervals all day long. He doesn't even need to be the best at a particular sport, he just loves it for the fun of doing it.

9. He communicates his love for others consistently and sweetly! Yep, he still tells me several times a day out of the blue how much he loves me. Seriously, it is always spoken at just the right moment and melts my heart every time. It is a phrase I never tire of hearing from him because coming from him it is always so heartfelt.

Parker you know our list could go on and on, but all you really need to know is how much we love you and how proud we are to be your family!