The Great American Challenge

In the 5th grade the kids learn about American History. There is a challenge that all of the 5th graders are given at the beginning of the school year. It is a lot of work and not easy but Megan decided that she was up for the challenge. She had to memorize the Preamble of the Constitution, know all of the states and identify them on the map, know all of the Presidents of the US, sing the Star Spangled Banner, write the Pledge of Allegiance without any errors, and memorize the Gettysburg Address. She started off by learning the Preamble thanks to American Rock. Then she didn't work too hard on the other things until February and then the race was on to finish the challenge by April. There were many times that she wanted to give up but she worked hard and I have never seen anyone memorize things as quickly as she did. The whole 5th grade class was challenged but only 5 students from the whole 5th grade class actually finished the challenge. She got an awesome trophy today at the school awards assembly. We are so proud of you Meg, you worked hard and didn't give up that is all we want from you is to do your best. She is looking forward to the 6th grade challenge next year. Way to go Megan!!! We love you and are proud of you and your accomplishment!!!

Dance Festival

I think that the dance festival is one of my favorite end of the school year activities. The kids did such a cute job with their dances. Megan danced to "Cotton Eye Joe", Parker to "Surfing USA" and Hailey to "All For One." This has been a great school year but I am glad it is over!! Way to go kids!!!

Cancer

It seems like this past month has been a whirlwind. I need to give an update on our life. For the past several years we have been trying to get Bill's parents to move to Utah from Idaho. They always had excuses as to why they wouldn't move to Utah even tough none of their kids lived in Idaho and four of the six kids live in Utah. Because of the lovely real estate market Bill's brother was able to help them find a beautiful house that would work for them and one that was affordable. They were set to come to Utah to look at the house and decide if that was going to work for them or not. We were all waiting for them to come to see the house. They were supposed to be here on Thursday May 7th around 4:00 pm. Bill called them to see where they were around 4:00pm and he got a huge shock. His mom had not been feeling well for a couple of years due to melanoma in her eye and thyroid cancer. She had been telling her doctor for some time about her problems and the doctor thought it was because of her thyroid. When she went to the doctor this month she thought that maybe she had problems with her gall bladder so an ultra sound was done, while doing the ultra sound they found that her liver had melanoma in it. She was told that the cancer was all in her liver and that it was a pretty advanced stage. The next day they came to Utah bought a house and this past weekend we moved them into their new house. After many doctor visits we found out that the cancer is in her liver and lungs. She has stage four cancer. There are chemo treatments to possibly extend her life by a few months. She has gone down hill very fast since May 7th. We are so glad that they live here now and we can all take care of them while she deals with this cancer and the treatments. I am so glad that we can serve her because she has helped us so much the past four years. We love Sylvia and we hope that we can have more time with her. I saw a sign that says "Cancer Sucks" I have to say I agree. This is going to be a hard journey for Sylvia and our family but at least we can make the journey together.

Spring Break

There is never a better way to spend Spring Break than making a snowman!! The kids actually thought the snow was fun and made the most of it.

We took the kids to Midway for some fun and to get away for awhile. We had a great time hanging out together. There was a Carousel at our hotel. Jake was not happy about riding on it until it started and then he loved it and when it stopped he cried and cried.
We also played a little miniature golf at the hotel. The kids thought it was the greatest place in the world.

Of course the kids loved the swimming and they could have spent every waking hour there. They even had a blast swimming in the outdoor pool.

We also went to Olympic Park. We have always wanted to go there and it was awesome to finally get there. It was a neat learning experience for us. The kids had a blast!!

For along time the kids have wanted to go to Color Me Mine, a place where you can paint clay figurines. They each took great care in choosing the right figurine. Parker choose a dinosaur, Megan a turtle and Hailey a unicorn. They had a great time and it was fun to see them be so excited about their art work.

We had a lot of fun this past week. The best part was just being together as a family!!

The 100 Club Baby!!

We just got back from a very cool Jazz game experience, even though they lost to Golden State, lame. Our friends called tonight and asked us if we wanted to go to a Jazz game with them. Mark got some tickets from his work. Of course we can't ever pass up free Jazz tickets. Well it just so happens that these tickets were on the front row. Yup, we could see the sweat on Boozer's bald head. We could see Korver's extremely small calves hidden by his silly looking socks. We were able to eat dinner at the 100 Club. I never even knew they had such a thing. Of course we knew Parker would be so jealous!! He did tell us that when he plays for the Jazz he will get us better seats. Now, I don't know how that could be possible. How do you get better than front row, feet on the court? We even saw our season ticket holder neighbors sitting in their seats. Bill was kind enough to trade Kaden places for a little while. It was so cute to see how excited Kaden was to be sitting right by the court. He kept telling me how quiet it was down by the court and he wondered if it would be OK to yell at the players and refs. We had a great time!! It was definitely a once in a life time experience. Of course if they ever have tickets again we told them to give us a call anytime we would drop what we are doing and go. Thanks again Mark and Carrie it was awesome!!

Two Years

I can't even believe that it has been two years since my sweet angel baby passed away. We have had so many friends that have lost little children this year. It has been so hard to watch our friends with the lose of their loved ones. It also brought up all of the emotions that we went through when Rylee died. I was able to work through a lot of emotions that I hadn't dealt with before, after Rylee died. I was so grateful that I was able to offer some advice or help in any way that I could during these hard times.

There are so many times when I wish I could have had more time with Rylee. I want to hold her again, change her diaper, feed her, dress her in a cute outfit, make her laugh, listen to her cry, watch her play with my children, take her to therapy, give her medicine, fix her hair,watch her laugh when a child is crying, so many things that I would love to do again, even just for one more day. I still have dreams that she is alive and I can hold her and love her. Those are my favorite dreams because they seem so real to me. It makes me sad when I wake up and realize that it was just a dream, but at least I can feel for a moment that I still have my baby with me. Even better than dreams are the times that I can feel her spirit with me. It has been awhile since that has happened, but I am so grateful for every time I know that her spirit is with me. I remember feeling her when Jake was born, actually because Jake was almost born about three weeks prior to his birthday, I felt her both times. In fact she rode on the ambulance with me when I had to be taken from one hospital to another during the whole Jake trauma. I was glad to have her there with me, it just made me feel like everything was going to be fine.

I just also want to say that I am so grateful for wonderful friends and family that remember her today. That means so much to me. I could never be able to find the words to thank you enough. We have been so blessed with such great friends and family to help us through hard times. I mostly feel blessed today because I am lucky enough to be the mom to a sweet perfect little angel who taught me more than I could have ever thought possible. Rylee I love you and miss you everyday.

My New Passion

I know that I am a really big geek and this new passion only makes me more of a geek. For the past two and a half months I have become a "couponer/budget shopper." Couponer is not really a word but it works. Since the RS started the blog I have learned from all of the sites on there how to use coupons. I have been really happy with my results. I tracked things pretty closely last month and I have been saving $200 to $300 a month with my new way of shopping and using coupons. I am not only saving money but I have been stocking my food storage with a great three month storage. Not only have I been adding food to my food storage but I have been storing other household and personal hygiene items. I am showing one of my best shopping days so far. I am posting this so I can remember why I am putting the time into shopping this way.

Here is the run down. I got 2 boxes of Cheez-Its, Shout stain remover, Palmolive dish soap, 2 Quarto Razors, 2 packs of Huggies Diapers, 3 Soft Soap, Secret Deodorant, 1 box of Band Aids, 6 boxes of Kellogg's cereal, Reynolds Aluminum Foil, and Rhodes Rolls, not pictured. My total out of pocket was $20.71. If I would have paid full price for all of these items I would have paid $104.63. Now that is quite a savings. The deodorant and Rhodes Rolls were free with coupons. I do admit that I do have to spend a few hours a week shopping this way, but it is totally worth it. One day my goal is to budget only $50.00 a week for groceries. I still have a lot to learn but I will get there someday.

This past week we had an amazing Enrichment given by Pantry Secrets. We learned how to make bread in one hour from start to out of the oven. They also talked about food storage and shopping. It was awesome!! It turns out that it only costs .25 a loaf. No more store bought bread for me. One batch of bread makes four loaves, I finally have a great quick recipe to use that 1,200 pounds of wheat I have. I got a little carried away on the wheat. And the best part is my kids love the bread. I am putting some links on my side bar for my friends who have asked me for them. If any one has some great food storage, shopping or great wheat recipes please let me know. It is always more fun when we work together.