I'm so excited for my first sleepover!

Wyatt has been begging to have a sleepover with Rockwell.  He has seen Jonah and Caitlyn have sleepovers with their cousins and he wanted one too.  Paul was out of town this weekend so we figured it was a good time to have a sleepover.  Wyatt and Hallee were so excited!  We went to Tiff's Saturday afternoon.

I love this picture.  Look at these cute kids!  It is so much fun to see how much they love each other and how much fun they have together.

I love how Hallee is looking at Tessa.  It is so cute how they talk to each other. 

The girls love to jump on the couches.

Tiff had to run to a bridal shower on Saturday so I stayed with the kids.  They wanted to play a sleeping game.  I was all for it, I got to lay on the couch and pretend to sleep!

The kids were pretending it was Christmas.  They decorated the front room and we all had to sleep while we were waiting for Christmas!

Wyatt and Rockwell had fun play fighting.  Wyatt was the giant and Rockwell was protecting all of us from the giant!  Mel came over and hung out with us too.  It was so fun to visit with my sisters while my kids were happily playing.  We all went to bed way too late, but it was a lot of fun.

We went to church with them on Sunday.  The girls looked so cute.  Hallee went to nursery with Tessa.  I think she had fun for a while, but they had to bring her to me near the end of Relief Society.  Hallee was so tired!  She kept crying and saying she wanted dad.

These boys thought they were so funny when they smiled like this. 

The kids were so good in church.  Wyatt loved going to class with Rockwell.  We stayed for a little while after church and then we headed home.  It was a lot of fun.  Keith, Caitlyn and Jonah had a fun weekend too.  They had fun shopping, eating treats and watching a movie!  It was a good weekend.

I'm glad this week is over!

This has been a bad week!  I knew we had a really busy week, but I had no idea how stressful and frustrating this week would be!

It started out early Monday morning.  Keith came and woke me up and told me I had to take him to work because his car wouldn't start.  Our poor Alero has been barely hanging on for a while now, but we hoped it would keep hanging on for a while longer.  We have been chasing an electrical problem for years, no one can figure out how to fix it.  We had decided that we wouldn't put any more money into it so we knew we had to get a new car. 

Overall the Alero has been a pretty good car, until this latest problem we really haven't put much money into it.  I bought it right after I moved into my apartment with Katie.  I'm a little sad to see it go.  We couldn't get it to start so we had to push it out of the garage and a junk yard came and got it and gave us a little of money for it.  Sad!

On Monday night Keith and I went out car hunting.  We drove a few cars we didn't like and then we found two Nissan Versas that we liked.  They were both 2012's for the same price, but one had 20,000 more miles on it, but it was fully loaded.  We decided to be practical and go with the one with less miles even though it is as basic as they come, not even power locks or windows.  We felt like we got a good deal, signed all of the paperwork and decided not to get a warranty because I haven't been thrilled with our van warranty.  I left Keith while he was finishing up with the dealer and I got home to the kids. They were all awake, they don't go to sleep when we are gone!

I thought it would be fun to take the kids out for a drive because they were all so excited to see the car.  I took them outside and they had a blast running around in the dark while we were waiting for Keith.

It was almost 9:30 PM by the time Keith pulled up.  The kids were so excited and they loved the roll down windows!  We all piled in the car and drove around the neighborhood.  The kids loved it.  After that I got them to bed and Keith broke the news to me that the check engine light came on in the car on his way home.  I shouldn't have been surprised, we have the worst luck with cars.  Keith ran the car over to O'Reilys to have them run the codes.  It pulled up four codes.  Keith and I spent the rest of the night stressing and researching online.  I might have spent some time crying too! The next morning Keith went in late to work and we took the car back to the dealership.  They were much nicer than we expected and promised to take care of us.  We now realize they didn't care and didn't fix the car, but at the time we thought they were going to.  The finance guy at the dealership was the only one that cared and took care of us.  He felt awful and took us in his office and said he would give us a warranty at cost because of the problems.  We decided to go ahead and get the warranty, thank goodness because after we picked up the car later the light came back on.  To make a long story short we took the car to a Nissan dealership and they fixed a couple of transmission problems and replaced the catalytic converter and it was all covered under the warranty.  The Nissan dealership was great to work with (we should have bought a car there) and they said that the car looks great now and we really got a pretty good deal now that everything was fixed on it. 

Because of all of these problems we only had the van for most of the week.  I spent so much time driving this week.  I was always driving someone somewhere.  On Thursday I had to drop Keith and the boys off at Wyatt's soccer game over an hour early so that I could go coach our young women in volleyball.

There is a skate park right by the soccer field so the boys had fun riding their scooters there.  I am very grateful that we are a two car family again, I think I would spend my whole life in the car if we weren't. 

Hallee and Wyatt seemed oblivious to all of the stress in the house, which is a good thing.  We had fun playing outside in the mornings before it got too hot.  They love to pick the "berries" off our bushes. 

I found another groupon for three more horse back riding lessons.  Caitlyn and Ataiya are taking a group lesson together.  Caitlyn was so excited to get back on a horse.  I was really impressed with this place.  Their trainer was this really cute 15-year-old girl.  She taught them more in one lesson than Caitlyn learned in her three private lessons at the other stable.

The trainer said Caitlyn did a great job.  It was nice to be able to visit with Mel during their lesson.  Both of the girls loved it and they are excited for next week.

Yesterday Keith took the day off and we were able to go to the temple while my mom watched the younger two.  We had this planned, but it ended up being great timing with our stressful week and our car was in the shop that day, so we didn't have to worry about only having one car.  It was a wonderful break from the stress!  Today I was hoping for a low key day, but I ended up rushing from one thing to another, I hate that!  This morning I packed Hallee and Wyatt a lunch and we went outside so I could mow the lawn.  They had fun playing and eating their lunches while I worked.

For some reason I wanted to make cinnamon rolls again earlier in the week and I never did so I told Caitlyn we would make them today after school.  Right when we got home from school I ended up running Jonah over to a friends house and then rushing home to make the cinnamon rolls before Caitlyn and I had to go on an appointment with the missionaries.  After that we had to get Caitlyn to a birthday party and Jonah to football practice.  Now I'm sitting up waiting for Caitlyn to call from the party so I can go get her.  Everyone else is sleeping over, but since we don't do sleepovers I told her I would come pick her up when the movie is over. So much for my low key day!

I can hear Keith and Jonah laughing in the other room while I'm typing this.  Wyatt and Hallee are in bed and Keith and Jonah are watching Looney Toons.  I love to hear them laugh together!

  Keith still hasn't received his offer from the Results Company in Provo.  It has been almost a month since we thought we were going to be moving really quickly on this.  The last thing we have heard is that HR is working on the offer.  They are trying to get Keith corporate benefits because they know their crumby benefits might be a deal breaker for Keith.  This company really wants Keith, even though they are taking their sweet time.  I'm so glad he is finally getting rewarded for all of his hard work and skills. We thought it was going to move really quick so the house is ready to be put on the market, but we have to keep waiting.  If we don't move at least we have cleaned out a lot of clutter from the house! 

This week has been crazy and hard, but now that I'm out of the stress of it I can see that we have been blessed and had some good things happen too.  I had a few great friends send me messages this week that I really needed!  I'm so glad that I did Jonah's birthday party last week.  I was planning on doing it today and I don't think I would have been able to handle it.  We are all healthy and I am very grateful for that!  Hopefully we are done with car problems for a while and now we can just worry about car payments!  

Jonah's Friend Party

Today we had Jonah's friend party.  I found a great deal for Fat Cats, but I had to use it in September so we decided to do it today after school.  We went and picked up his friends after school and drove them all to Fat Cats.

We bought a deal for eight people and Jonah chose Wyatt as one of the seven people he wanted to invite.  Jonah can sure be sweet when he wants to.  Wyatt had a blast.  All of Jonah's friends were so nice to Wyatt and cheered him on during bowling!

Jonah was in heaven with all of his friends.  We got one hour of bowling, so the boys got to bowl two games. 

Keith and I had fun watching the boys and cheering them on.

We sure love this birthday boy!

 Jonah was thrilled with all of his presents.  All of his gifts were Pokémon cards except for two. He also got a soccer ball and some money. He was so excited about each gift.

After bowling and pizza we got to do a round of mini glow golf.  The boys loved it.

Wyatt loved golfing.  He fit right in with the big boys today!

I think all the boys had a lot of fun.  After golf we drove everyone home.  I always breath a sigh of relief when my kids parties are over.  I love them, but they are stressful.  This one wasn't too stressful, it was great not to worry about having it at our house.   The boys were all really good, but they are still eight rowdy boys so I was ready to come home and unwind!  They are really good boys though, I'm glad Jonah has picked such nice friends.

Caitlyn and Amarie stayed home and watched Hallee for us.  Caitlyn said she would much rather have Amarie over than go to the party.  It worked out great!

I was counting by tens and then I fell

Hallee is a crack up.  She is constantly hurt.  It drives me crazy because I hate whining.  Yesterday she hurt her knee and I asked her how it happened and she told me it was because she was counting by tens.  She has no idea how to count by tens so I don't know where that came from.

The other day Wyatt and I were eating lunch and he said, "mom can I say a bad word just one time, please?"  It was an awkward conversation, but he finally told me that he wanted to say the word "fat" just once while he quoted a movie.  My kids know I hate that word and I don't ever want to hear them describe themselves or anyone else as fat.  I was just glad that was the "bad word" he wanted to say! Wyatt snuck his sun glasses to church.  I was surprised to look over during sacrament meeting and see him wearing sun glasses!

Hallee and Wyatt looked so cute for church today. 

I used to take pictures of Caitlyn and Jonah like this all of the time. 

Seriously though, they are so cute!

These two fight, but at the end of the day they love each other.

Tonight we had a family night lesson about the creation and then the kids got to make their own creations with peanut butter play dough.  This was always one of my favorite things as a kid!

Perfect Saturday!

Yesterday our fall sports season started.  Wyatt is playing soccer again.  He sure looks handsome in his green uniform!

He was so excited to play again. 

Yesterday was just a practice, but he loved it.  It looks like the kids on his team will actually play this time, which will be great!  I love how Wyatt always has his tongue out.

We ran straight from Wyatt's game over to Jonah's flag football game.  My goodness Jonah is looking grown up these days!  Jonah has only done flag football once, but he was excited to do it again.  He signed up with his friend Harrison and I think they know a few other boys on the team.

Jonah's coach seems really good.  He likes to have a lot of practices. They had two last week and they have another one tomorrow.  It is great for Jonah though, he loves it.

The game started off great.  Jonah ran down most of the field for a touch down.  They passed it to him and he got the extra point as well.  His team held them back on defense and it looked like it was going to be a shut out.  Then two of the boys on the other team got the hang of it and they were fast and got two touch downs.  We never caught up after that.  It was disappointing because I really think our team could have beat them.  I think that is why the coach called a practice on Monday!  The coach was really positive with the boys though and I think Jonah will learn a lot.  Either way, I love watching my kids play sports!

We were able to get free tickets to the Monarchs game again so we went there Saturday afternoon.  Wyatt was excited to go again even though he got a little bored at the last game.

The girls didn't want to go so we let Jonah invite two of his friends.  Jonah was really excited about that.  Rilen is the cutest kid.  He is so polite he kept thanking us for inviting him and always uses please and thank you.  I hope some of that rubs off on Jonah!  The boys were really good about including Wyatt.

We stopped at McDonalds for dinner on the way home.  The boys had a blast.  Keith and I had fun getting out and watching another game. 

Wyatt's first day of Pre-K

Wyatt was so excited for pre-school to start today.  He has had his back pack ready for weeks.  We looked at this pre-school back in April and I was really impressed with it.  It is a lady who runs it out of her home near Caitlyn and Jonah's school.  Wyatt and I liked Ms. Alisha right off the bat and I felt like this would be a really good fit for Wyatt.

We picked out his clothes last night.  He was up early and ready to go. 

I overheard Wyatt telling Jonah that he was going to show all of the kids his belly roll in class.  I think I talked him out of that, but he did want to do one for the pictures.

Everybody brought a poster about themselves to school today.  Wyatt and I worked on it yesterday.

Wyatt was happy as could be to say goodbye to me and head inside.  I was glad that he still wanted to give me a kiss and a hug.

Hallee wasn't so sure about the whole thing, she said she was going to miss Wyatt.  We stopped for shakes on the way home and that seemed to fix the whole missing Wyatt problem!

We went shopping by ourselves and played outside for a while.

Hallee was happy to play on the IPAD while I worked on the kid's blogs.  The time went by fast and then it was already time to pick up Wyatt again.

Wyatt came out with a huge smile on his face and told me some of the fun things he liked at pre-school.  We decided Wyatt needed a shake too, they were $.87 today!  I think we are all going to like this pre-school thing!