When I was a baby Jesus held me

Hallee cracks me up.  She always has to contribute to a conversation, so if one of the kids are telling a story she will come up with her own story.  Today during scripture reading the kids were talking about Jesus and Hallee said, "When I was a baby Jesus held me and then I cried because I was so thirsty."  She also has to ask me about everything.  She will be playing in her room and come out to ask me if she can play with one of her toys. 

It is official Caitlyn made it into the school talent show!!!! She was so excited to come home and tell me yesterday.  They ended up picking three kids from each grade and she was one of them.  I'm so proud of her for trying out even though she was scared.  I wouldn't dare to do it, but I'm sure glad she does.  She has a couple of practices and then the talent show is the last week of school. I'm excited to watch it.

I snapped this picture of Caitlyn at soccer because she looks so cute! The kids had a great game this week.  They played a really tough team and they worked so hard.  They ended up tying 3-3.  Jonah and Caitlyn both did a great job.  Wyatt's game was at the same time so Keith watched his game.  He was so frustrated.  He said Wyatt was the only kid on his team that played.  The rest of the kids kept running off the field and the mom's and the coach were busy talking on the field.  He said the ref was pretty frustrated and started calling Wyatt by name when it was their ball.  Wyatt was a champ and played his best and didn't give up even though it was him verses a whole team! 

Yesterday Hallee and Wyatt pulled a fast one on me.  They said they wanted to play Halloween.  They got all dressed up and wanted their buckets to trick-or-treat.  They got some candy and ran in Hallee's room to eat it.  I think they just wanted candy the whole time!

Today we had everyone over here for lunch.  Hallee and Tessa got all dressed up and told us they were going to a party. 

Hallee is always singing.  She used to be shy about it, but now she will sing in front of people.  She usually closes her eyes, but she will sing.  The kids made a little band and Hallee loved singing while they played.  Rockwell said they were going to do some rock-and-roll!

Matt stinks

Matt and Lori were in town last weekend for a wedding.  It was so fun to hang out with them.  Hallee was really shy with them and when I asked her if she liked Matt she said, "Matt stinks."  That  sounds about right for one of my kids.  I don't know why, but I have always told people they stink, it is like a compulsion or something!

Keith was a saint and watched most of the kids here on Saturday while my parents and my siblings and I went to Provo.  We went o Jenna's graduation party and then over to Tiff's for the evening. It was so great for all of the adults to be able to visit without chasing our kids around.  Keith even took pictures while we were gone, he gets the best husband award for sure.  Caitlyn made all of the girls skirts and scarfs from Hallee's old dresses and they made up a dance.

They boys had fun playing guns and wrestling.  All of the boys were so great to include Wyatt this weekend.

On Sunday we went to my mom's church and then stayed at her house for the rest of the day.  All of the cousins had fun playing together.

Wyatt was in heaven playing basketball with EJ and Elijah. Wyatt is turning into quite the athlete these days.

I can't get over how cute these girls are.  They were laughing so hard because they were upside down on the couch.  It was so funny.

Wyatt loves Matt and Lori.  He is constantly asking me when we can go to their house again.

I wanted Hallee to take a picture with Matt, but she wouldn't and kept running away.  Matt kept looking for opportunities for me to snap one with her.  It was hilarious to watch.  Sunday night we went over and visited at Matt and Lori's hotel.  It took me a few days to catch up on sleep after they left, but it was totally worth it!

On Monday we let Caitlyn and Jonah miss school so they could spend one more day with Cody and Elena. 

We all went over to my mom's.  The girls had fun sewing with grandma.  Caitlyn is obsessed with sewing again!

I love this picture. 

After we played at grandma's for a while we went to Leatherby's for ice cream.  The kids didn't complain about that!

Matt won Hallee over, she gave him a hug when we were saying goodbye!  Hallee just looked at this picture and said, "Matt is holding me, I like he."  We love when family comes to visit!

I don't want the small TV, I want the big one!

Last week was crazy.  We had soccer 3 nights, activity days, young men's, birthday party, 2 projects due for Caitlyn and I had to go to traffic school. Cailtyn had a big project due on Iron County.  She had to write a paper and make a float.  Caitlyn and I had worked on the research and we had that all done, we just had to put everything together.  Unfortunately we waited until the night before to do that.  We were up until almost 11 PM finishing the project.  Her float focused on the Utah Shakespearean Festival.  We put pictures and quotes from the plays on the float.  It turned out pretty good.

Caitlyn made this picture at activity days.  A while ago Steve Ashby gave me these cabinet doors from his work.  They were doors they couldn't use so we copied his daughter-in-law and used them to modge podge pictures of Christ on them.  I also waited until the last minute to find the pictures, but luckily I found a Greg Olsen calendar that we could use the day before the activity. I am the worst at procrastinating sometimes. Anyway, they turned out really cute!

Keith has his 10-year anniversary at work next month, so they let him pick something from a catalog.  He picked a flat screen TV for our room.  We are really behind the times and this is our first flat screen.  It is a lot smaller than the one we had in our room and Hallee was not happy about the switch!

Keith has been restless at work lately.  He is itching to move up in the company and there hasn't been any openings.  If you want to move up in the company they really want you to go out to headquarters in Chicago for a four-month internship.  We have always felt like this wasn't an option for us.  Now that home prices have gone up we feel like we could sell our home which makes it an option for us.  It would be hard and scary, but we decided we need to start taking more risks, so Keith told his boss that he is willing to go out there.  We both felt really good about that decision and proud of ourselves for being willing to do it.  Two days later a job came up at Keith's work here in Salt Lake that would be perfect for him.  I don't know what will happen, but we are open to do whatever we feel is right.  Keith would have to interview for the internship and they don't have any openings for this summer, so we will see what happens. I'm so grateful to be married to an ambitious, hard working man!

Caitlyn had her second round of talent show try outs.  She was more nervous this time, but she did a great job.

Keith came over to watch with us. 

Grandma came and watched Caitlyn too.  We are still waiting to hear if she made it.  They only pick two kids from each grade, so it is tough to make it to the actual talent show.  I'm so proud of Caitlyn for trying out! 

Jonah went to his friends birthday party last week.  They went all out for it.  The all got light sabers and jedi capes.

His mom sent me a bunch of pictures of Jonah at the party, I love that!

Jonah had a blast playing all of the games and fighting with light sabers!

I'm cute, I know it!

Today has been a rough day.  I have been struggling with my kids lately.  I feel like I keep failing at the same things as a mom.  My kids, especially Jonah keep making bad decisions.  I can't help but wonder what I am doing wrong.  Keith and I are both at a loss right now on what to do as parents.  When I feel like this I like to look at pictures and blog.  I like to look at the happy memories that I have captured and focus on those.

When Hallee is giving me her fake smile I tell her to say, "I'm cute" while she looks at the camera.  She always says, "I'm cute, I know it."  Last week she kept going on and saying, I'm awesome, I'm wonderful.  I love to hear my kids talk like that.  I hope they never forget it!

The girls had a great time playing.  They are so cute together!

Wyatt and Rockwell laugh so much when they are together.

The boys have had a lot of fun playing Mario lately. 

Cute girls!

The girls came upstairs with swords and said they were getting bad guys.  It was pretty funny, except for when Hallee kept hitting me hard with her sword!

Wyatt is loving soccer.  I'm so happy with how much fun he is having and how hard he is playing.  He is the only player that stays on the field the whole game.  Even at halftime he rushes over and gets a drink and then rushes back onto the field.  Here he is hanging out with the referee while all of the other kids are getting drinks. 

Wyatt had an awesome game on Saturday.  He scored his first goal.  It was so exciting.  He dribbled the ball up from midfield and even dribbled around two players to make his goal.  Wyatt is such a timid kid, so I am thrilled to see him come out of his shell and play aggressively. 

Soccer!

It is soccer season!  All three of the kids wanted to play this time.  We started out with three different teams, but Jonah ended up switching over to Caitlyn's team, which will make our lives so much easier!  Jonah's friend is also playing on the team so his dad can coach him and his brother.  Jonah can handle playing a grade up and I'm so glad he is playing on the big field.

I am so impressed with Caitlyn.  Caitlyn isn't an aggressive person, but she is getting in there and doing great.  I love seeing her get in there and fight for the ball.  She is playing so hard and doing so well! She is really enjoying it so far.

Jonah played great today.  This is Jonah's first time playing on a full size field.  He is used to covering the whole field, but he realized today that you can't do that on the big field.  You have to play positions or you will wear yourself out.  Jonah did a great job and has no problem keeping up with the older kids.

I loved seeing my kids out there playing together.  Their coach is so funny.  He was screaming (in a good way) the whole time.  There were so many missed opportunities that drove him nuts!  I think he will whip them into shape at practice on Monday.

The kids were excited that their cousins came to watch today.  Wyatt loved sitting by Elijah during Caitlyn and Jonah's game. 

I was a little nervous about Wyatt playing because he gets upset and cries easily.  He has done great though.  The game is crazy because the kids are only 3 and 4-years-old and most of them have never played before. 

Wyatt is doing great at getting in there.  They don't have goalies at this age, but if Wyatt sees the other team heading toward his goal he runs down there and stands in the net and blocks them.  He does a really good job protecting the goal.  He will be a great defender.

I love seeing him get in there and play.  I'm so glad he is doing so well and having so much fun.  I love spending my Saturdays watching soccer games!

Good job Caitlyn!

A couple of weeks ago Caitlyn tried out for the school talent show.  She had to try out in front of the whole 4th grade.  She sang, "The Sun Will Come Out Tomorrow."  She was nervous, but she did amazing!  Wyatt, Hallee and I went and watched her try out.  When she was finished Hallee ran up and hugged Caitlyn and said, "good job Caitlyn."  Caitlyn was so excited when she found out that she was chosen to move on to the second round.  This Friday she has to try out in front of the 6th grade teachers and talent show committee.  They will only pick two people from each grade to perform in the school talent show.  I'm so proud of Caitlyn for singing in front of everyone even though she was nervous!

Caitlyn gave us a good scare last week.  When we checked on the kids we realized that Caitlyn's bed was empty.  We were calling out her name and looking everywhere for her.  Keith checked the window to make sure no one got in and then I saw her arm sticking out from all of her beanie boos.  She fell asleep on the floor at the head of her bed.  You seriously couldn't see her.  It scared us to death.

Caitlyn has been sewing a lot lately.  I'm impressed with what she can do.  She asked for some of Hallee's old dresses and made clothes for her beanie boos. 

Keith and I were able to go to a Jazz game last week.  It was so nice for just the two of us to go.  We will miss going to Jazz games until the season starts up again.

We like to meet up with Allison at McDonalds.  Jack and Hallee are really cute together.

On Sunday we went over to Keith's parents for dinner. 

The kids love to feed the ducks when we are there.

It was nice to visit with them because we haven't seen them for a while.