ANOTHER GREAT SUMMER!!!

We had such a busy summer that now I am playing catch up. Morgan and I both had a wonderful birthday back in May(9th&10). We went and got glitter toes. Cody finished up another great season of baseball. His team took 3rd place. Cael played soccer for the first time this spring and loved it. May was so crazy with end of school year stuff. I was so happy when school ended. We went to the Sherwood family reunion that first weekend in June and had a great time visiting with extended family. We also spent time with my family at a cabin riding 4-wheelers. We went boating at Starvation Reservoir one cold weekend in mid-June. What is up with June and cold weather? We still had fun with our friends. Tom went to China for 10 days. The Chinese government paid for Principals to go to China and learn about their school system. It was a great opportunity! They kept him very busy, they were able to go and see the great wall of china and a few other big sites. It cost $5 a minute to talk on the phone so I had to learn how to text. With the time difference it was hard to stay in touch. While he was gone I worked 24/7 on getting the house ready to sell. It was a lot of work. I recruited some family members to help. We did it and it looks great. Tom flew in from China on June 30th and then on July 1st we headed to Oceanside, CA. We stayed in a beach house with Tom's family for a week. We spent most days on the beach and went to Knott's Berry Farm for one day. It wasn't crowded so we were able to go on all the rides 3 or 4 times. We had a great day! Except for Tom who dislikes amusement parks and lost his new phone on the log ride. Our trip was great and we wanted to stay longer. We all love the beach!!! We were home for one weekend and then Tom and I flew to Phoenix, AZ for a Principals conference. We stayed at the Marriott resort and it was amazing. We left the kids home with grandparents. I enjoy the heat so I was content on laying by the pool in 115 degree weather. We had a nice relaxing vacation without kids. It was the perfect vacation after a vacation. At the end of July Cole and Cody started tackle football practice and with that their is no time for anything else. It is 5 days a week 2 hour practice. We were able to take the boat out a couple more times on Saturdays. Before I knew it school was starting again. Cael turned 5 on August 27. I can't believe my baby is that old. We took his 2 cousins to the Kangaroo Zoo. They had a blast! We finally took off his bike training wheels a few weeks ago and it didn't take long for him to learn to ride. He got a new bike for his birthday. He loves to ride it! Cael also started pre-school and is loving it.

Fun, Fun, Fun... Busy, Busy, Busy...

We have had a very eventful month. It stared off with a girls trip to St. George on April 3-5. Morgan and her cousin Bailey had a dance performance at Dixie High School. We went to St. George with grandma Jetta, Haley, Sammy, Mike, Angie, Taylor and Reece. The girls did very well on their performance and had a great time. We shopped, played, and went swimming. The weather was a little bit cold, but better than home. It snowed on the way down. Morgan's team took the overall high point trophy for lyrical - "I hope you dance." Very exciting!






The very next week (April 8-11) the family headed to Las Vegas with the JHS Baseball team. We stayed at the South Point Hotel. This hotel had an amazing swimming pool. The pool area covered about an acre. The hot tub was huge. The pool was actually shockingly cold. The weather was in the mid seventies, but some days were windy and overcast. Kids are crazy and will swim no matter how cold. It also had a movie theater, arcade and a bowling alley inside it. Fun, fun, and more fun. Basically I was a single parent on vacation with four kids. But that beats being a single parent at home. We went to the pool every day, saw Monsters v.s. Aliens, went bowling a couple of times and spent time at the arcade. Cael became a pro at skeeball. We went to the hot tub at night and watched movies in our hotel room. Dad had a free moment and took us to watch the water show at the Bellagio Hotel on the strip. My favorite part of the trip was laying by the pool reading a book and listening to 80's music. We all had a wonderful time and the kids can't wait to go back.







We came home Saturday night. The next day was Easter Sunday. We had a wonderful Easter! Here are a few pictures of the kids with their Easter baskets. We spent the afternoon with family and the kids had fun finding easter eggs with cousins.












SPRING BREAK!!! We were home for three days and then headed down to St. George for spring break. Tom had a conference at the Holiday Inn. My sister Lacey is in the Dental Hygiene program at Dixie College. We were able to spend some time with her. We did lots of swimming and went shopping for summer clothes. We met my friend Sue at the water park on Main Street and let the kids play while we caught up. Sue and I went to Dixie together and even lived next door to each other while we were pregnant with our oldest children. It was so good to see her and her kids. The kids warmed up to each other quickly and had a good time. I also was able to see my friend Shaquel. It was great to see her again. We went hiking up by the Dixie rock and spent some time in Snow Canyon.

First broken bone...

I guess it was bound to happen sooner or later. Cole and Cody got a rip stick for Christmas and Cole has been obsessed with it ever since. Grandma bought these for the boys and she was worried about the danger. We had to talk her into getting them. They have enough video games. We were unsure whether the kids would even ride these - they have skate boards and haven't ridden those much. Cole is on his rip stick 24 hours a day. He rides it in my house even though I have asked him not to. He takes it to school and rides it to scouts. He does quite well on it. I am glad that he is being an active boy. Anyway, a few weeks ago (Feb.25Th) he was on his way to a friends house and was going down a hill and hit a rock. He doesn't remember how he landed, but hurt his left wrist. His friend Patrick was with him and helped him get back to the park by the school. Patrick called his mom and she called me. I drove to the park and someone had helped put a make-shift splint on his wrist. Tom and I decided to hold off a couple day on going to the doctor. It seemed okay later that night, he was able to move it around. After a few day it was still hurting him, so I took him in and had it x-rayed. Sure enough, they called it a buckle fracture(it was actually broken-kids have strong bones). I am very glad we decided to take him in. Tom and I are not overly worried parents and tend to just figure they will be fine. They usually are. They put a splint on it for a week and then a cast on for three weeks. They put the cast on a couple days before we went to Disneyland. He was bummed out that he couldn't swim at the pool. The cast didn't slowed him down one bit. He still managed to write, draw (he is left handed), play football at recess and ride his rip stick. We went in on March 31st and had it x-rayed again and they told us it looked good. Cole told me that it was loose enough to take it off himself. I guess he took it off one time to wash him arm(itchy-can you blame him?). His arm must have still been pretty swollen when they put the cast on for it to be loose. It made the doctor's job easy as far as pulling it off instead of getting the old saw out. Since the cast was still intact, Cody wore it to school and used it as an April fools joke. Cole was happy to get that thing off!

GOOD DEALS!

I just wanted to let my friends know about this great service I enjoy. It is dealstomeals.com and it saves me money on groceries and helps me keep up on my food storage. I have been doing it for about 6 months and love it. The mom who started it was just recently on Good Things Utah. She takes 5 grocery store adds and compares them with Costco and Walmart and lists the best deals (cheaper than Costco, etc.) She also tells you how much of each item you would need for your food storage. She has meal plans and grocery lists. I have loved this service and saved lots of money. She has a blog - myfoodstoragedeals.blogspot.com. There is a 2 week free trial and she replies almost instantly to emails. It costs about $5 a month, but I think it's worth it and you don't have to bother with coupons. Check it out!

"THE HAPPIEST PLACE ON EARTH"

We just got back from Disneyland! We had a blast! With the exception of Tom who informed me when we got home, that he hates Disneyland. Who hates Disneyland? I think I enjoy it more than the kids. Anyway, it was a great trip. We went with the JHS drill team. We stayed in one of the Disney hotels. I was totally excited about staying so close. There is a special entrance through the California Grand Hotel that we got to use. We went back to the hotel every afternoon - the kids swam, we ate lunch for cheap, took naps. It was perfect! When you stay at one of the Disney hotels, you get to experience a "Magic Morning." On Tue, Thurs, Sat, Sun, guests get into Disneyland an hour before anyone else. They open Fantasyland and Tommorowland. We did Fantasyland in 30 minutes walking right onto all the rides. It was sweet! We did have to get there by 7:00am, but it was worth it. The kids were giving me a bad time. They said, "mom, you don't get up at 6:00am for anything!" I knew I would get a nap in the afternoon. We had 4 day park hoppers. They keep adding new rides and adventures so that people need to spend this many days in Disneyland. When I was a kid we did Disneyland in a day. What happened to those days? There were a few new attractions this year. Morgan wanted to go to Pixie Hollow and meet Tinkerbell and friends. We stood in line for about 45 minutes. It was fun! The Toy Story ride was a 45 minute wait also, but worth it. It was great! I hate lines, so we did a lot of fast passes. Early morning was best. Being in Disneyland before the gates opened got us on the big rides right as they opened. We saw lots of characters. I love the characters. At one point Cody told me I was a picture freak and wouldn't pose with some of the characters. He sure is photogenic when I do get him in a picture. A perfect smile. We came across Cinderella in California Adventure and waited only 10 minutes. This saved me from standing in the princess line later. We got pictures with Handy Manny, Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Pluto, Sully, Cinderella, Goofy, Chip and Dale. And we saw many more... My favorite rides are Space Mountain and Tower of Terror. My kids love Space Mountain and Soarin' over California. Cael was tall enough this year to go on almost everything. We made him go at least once on everything. He chose not to go again on a few. His very favorite ride was Sourin'. The weather was perfect (73)! I love fireworks and parades. I watched the fireworks show 3 nights. It was awesome! We happen to walk by as the parade was starting and since you can't really go anywhere, we stopped and watched. The Fantasmic show is amazing. All of the characters are in this night show with fireworks. I told Morgan I was glad she got to meet her favorite princesses last year and she said "mom, I saw them yesterday"(in the show). I was feeling bad that we didn't make time to meet all the princesses and she saw them from a distance and was happy. We did splash mountain at night right before we went back to the hotel. It was the perfect time to get wet and there was no line, so they let us stay on and go again. Morgan tried to duck her head way down behind the seat so she wouldn't get wet and got a big bruise on her forehead. So if look close in some of the pictures, you can see the goose egg on Morgan's head. Morgan got sick the last night and threw up in the restaurant. On our way home, Tom, Cody and I were all sick. Good thing we had a garbage bag in the van. It was the longest ride home ever. I am ready to go again next year! I just need to talk my husband into it. I'm sure one of the groups at JHS will be going next year.

Morgan's Moments...

Morgan has had a very eventful month. A couple of weeks ago we signed her up for a cheer leading clinic at JHS and she got to perform at halftime at a Basketball game. She did it with her friend Makayla and they both had a blast! I was a very shy child. She is not and doesn't get nervous performing in front of people. I am very glad she is like her father in that way.




Morgan is in the middle being silly...


Morgan is on a competition dance team with Ultimate Dance. She is on the Pewees team and they only practice an hour a week. Misty is amazing with the girls. They had their first competition last Saturday at Thanksgiving point in the Show Barn. THEY WERE AWESOME!!! They ended up taking 1st place on their Sea Cruise dance. They performed I hope you can dance and were amazing. They took 1st place again and then also had the Novice overall high points out of 62 teams. We were very pleased and excited! We are looking forward to the next competition. The dance company took overall best dance studio in two categories. Way to go Ultimate dance!