Future Mothers

Megan has never really played with babies much.  She does some with her little sisters, but Kenna and Ashlee LOVE to play with dolls.  I love seeing all the fun they have with them.  They begged for
Baby Alive dolls for Christmas.  Santa was very kind to them and he obliged and brought them each one.  Ashlee's doll drinks from a sippy cup and then wets in its diaper.  Kenna's drinks from a bottle and then can burped which causes it to spit up and it also wets its diaper.  FUN for them!  Not so much fun to buy more diapers for the dolls.  I refuse to spend money on diapers every again!!!  (Well, until I have grandbabies but that won't be for a long time.)

So, one day I decided to make the girls these diapers for their babies.  They didn't take a lot of time (once I found a pattern I liked), and the girls were thrilled with them.  They now had pillows (each girl had made one a while back), blankets (my amazing Grandma made each girl one a while back), and diapers for their babies along with all the doll stuff we already had.

I have had a great plan to make them each a diaper bag, changing pad, and wipes to go with the diapers.  I found this fun blog with great patterns that I wanted to use.

http://thediymommy.com/sew-a-deluxe-dolly-diaper-bag-and-accessories/

I, of course, have not taken the time to do it yet.  But tonight the boys and Andy were gone to the temple, so we had just some girl time.  Kenna wanted to craft, so she asked me to help them make the wipe case and wipes.  45 minutes later, Kenna and Ashlee each now have their own wipe case and wipes for their dolls.  They are so happy!  I hope I don't wait as long to get them a changing pad and diaper bag made.  I love being able to do things like this for my girls!

STARS OF TOMORROW!!!!

(skip ahead to almost the minute mark - I thought I would video the MC doing the introduction but I wish I hadn't.  He took forever!)

Meg and three of her clogging teammates performed in a local talent competition called Stars of Tomorrow.  I remember doing this competition when I was younger.  It stressed me out!!!  But Meg doesn't seem to get stressed out when performing.  They had to go through an audition process and then several dress rehearsals along with all the practices they did with their instructors and practices just getting together at one of our homes.  The girls worked hard!  Meg loves to clog!  I always thought she would be my athlete, but she really only enjoys volleyball right now.  Clogging is her passion.

The girls placed 2nd out of 12 acts in their age group - grades 3-5.  They did wonderful!  She and her teammates are good friends too, which makes dancing together even more fun!

Ready to rock the stage!

Anxiously awaiting the results!

Getting their 2nd place trophy (They only had 1 available that night, but they had 3 more made.)

Checking out their trophy

Meg, Abby, Katie, and Morgan
Way to go, girls!!!

A Day Off From School

So last Friday, March 14, there was no school.  It was a trade day for parent teacher conferences plus state basketball.  Last year, we enjoyed going to state basketball since Uncle Justin was playing, but this year, much to Aaron's dismay, we didn't go.  I couldn't justify the expense.  But I wanted to make sure we had a fun day together, and thankfully the weather cooperated (mostly).  I also didn't want to spend a ton of time in the car or a lot of money.  So, we took advantage of the nice weather and had a day at the park.  The boys didn't want to take their lunch to the park, so they ate before we left.  The girls wanted to take a picnic lunch, so they packed their lunch bags and we hopped on our bikes to ride to Westside.  The boys wanted to be able to shoot hoops and that is the only park with hoops.  They aren't very high, but I think they still had some fun.

After we had played for awhile, we decided to go for a treat.  We had never tried the new frozen yogurt place in town, Wyogurt, so we decided to splurge.  Boy was it yummy!!!

Ashlee thought this Superman guy was cool (she called it Batman - I couldn't convince her otherwise).

We were going to go park hopping afterwards, but it had become a little windy and chilly so we opted to go to the church gym and play basketball, volleyball, and Frisbee.  It was a fun day!  We had a nice relaxing night with Dad when he got home from work.  He was leaving for South Carolina early Sunday morning, so we wanted to make sure we had some family time together cause we sure miss him when he is gone!

FHE - Remembering the Savior especially during the sacrament

We had a two day FHE lesson this week.  Andy is gone to South Carolina until Wednesday night, so we started FHE on Sunday night.  We had a wonderful discussion about the sacrament and how we can do better to remember the Savior during it; then we made reverence books.  I let the kids cut pictures out of old church magazines, print out scriptures, words to songs, quotes from General Authorities, other pictures, whatever they wanted to include in their books that would help them remember the Savior.  The kids loved doing this and spent and long time working on them; in fact, some of them are still adding to their books.  Tonight, we finished our lesson.  We did the more formal stuff.

Opening Song:  Ashlee - Stars Were Gleaming

Opening Prayer:  Aaron

Lesson:  Mom  I used the following to finish up our lesson.  We talked about the story of Jarius' daughter and then about all the things the Savior has done for us to show us he loves us.
https://www.lds.org/friend/2014/03/jesus-christ-is-our-savior?lang=eng

Closing Song:  Megan - I Stand All Amazed

Closing Prayer:  ???  Aidan or Kenna

Treats:  chocolate cookies and/or popcorn

I wish I had taken pictures of the kids working on their reverence books.  They worked so hard on them.  Our front room showed how much fun we had!  We sure missed having Dad here to do this FHE with us.  We will also be starting a new Sunday challenge to encourage better listening during sacrament meeting.  Each child will get 3 or 4 questions to answer about sacrament after church.  Each right answer will earn a little treat out of the Sunday is Sweet jar.  I am excited to see how it works!!!  It will make Andy and me have to do better also.

Aidan's 6th Grade Basketball season

Aidan finished his 6th grade basketball season the end of February.  They weren't very successful in the win category, but there were very successful in the having fun category and learning to play as a team.  Aidan loves basketball!  Well, that might be an understatement.  He begged his dad to take him to the church gym every morning before school.  He doesn't let his size hold him back.  He works very hard on his ball handling cause he knows he will be a point guard.  It is so weird seeing him shoot left handed.  He is a very ambidextrous kid.  He has been since he was little.  He chose to write with his right hand cause Aaron told him he colored with the wrong hand.  He used to cut paper with both hands.  Aidan would use his right hand on the right half of the paper and then switch to the left hand for the left side of the paper.  His preschool teacher, Mrs. Jennifer, finally said he needed to choose: red or green scissors.  His favorite color was red, so he chose red and they were right handed scissors.  But when it comes to sports, he is dominantly left handed.  But he can bat with either hand in baseball; he plays golf right handed (because the pro said he was fine either way and since his siblings are right handed to buy right handed clubs); he plays tennis with two forehands - he doesn't have a backhand.  

Aidan is a very busy kid.  He loves to be active and doing.  He loves to have fun!  He takes his sports seriously.  He hates it when others goof off at practice.  He will take anyone on - any size, any age.  He loved getting to play one-on-one with one of the college players.  He works hard.  It will be fun to see what sports he chooses to play in middle school and high school and to see him improve each year!

Skip video ahead to about the 55 second mark...Aidan shows off his skills!

Free throw time!

Defending the inbound pass

Coach Joey and Coach Brady (the one and only game Brady got to be at which made Aidan sad.  He loves Brady!  But Brady helped coach the high school team, so he was very busy.)

Checking out the play on the floor (friend Jesse Brown sitting next to him)

FAST BREAK!

Bringing the ball down the floor

DEFENSE!

Dad and Ashlee enjoying Aidan's game after Ashlee finished gymnastics

Movie Night with Friends - FROZEN!!!

Friday night (March 7) we invited 11 friends over to join us for a movie night, FROZEN!!!!  We are in love with this movie.  We didn't want to wait for it to come out on DVD so we bought it through Google Play.  We can watch it on our phones, tablets, and through our Google Chrome for our tv.  Yep, we are inpatient cause we loved it so much.  We have watched it a lot since we got it and wanted to share it with friends.  I figured that there were some moms that could use a few hours of peace since there husbands have been gone nearly every weekend for sports.  And some kiddos might want to get out and enjoy some treats and time with friends.  I decided to not worry about our basement not being finished and just have a party!  I was once again reminded that the kids don't care that the basement isn't finished.  I believe they enjoyed the movie just fine despite concrete walls, stacked sheet rock, carpet remnants on the floor, and a little bit of chill.  I provided everyone with a blanket of their own (a few used them), plenty of snacks, and a fun movie!  They played for a few minutes, enjoyed the movie, and then played for a little bit more before they had to go home for bed since it was the dreaded Daylight Savings time weekend.  BOOO!!!!  We could have played longer!  It was so much fun!  You wouldn't have known that 16 kids were in the house.  I really need to let the kids do this more often.  

The Group!
Who would have thought that with 16 kids in the house that there wasn't a huge mess, and they all sat and watched the movie so nicely.  It was a fun night!!!  I need to do it more often.

Aliya and Maya - Aliya is such a good big sister.  She took such good care of Miss Maya - making sure she had the snacks she wanted, had a blanket on her lap, and helping her dress up like a princess.

Miss Kalia - the youngest one to come and such a sweetie!  She loved to sit in the baby stroller to watch the movie.  She did a good job taking care of the babies too.  

Another little princess!

Hmmmm...I thought we were watching a movie?  Keona and Aidan decided that the top of the sheet rock would be a fun place to camp out and play a game.

Melissa and Jenna - We absolutely love our neighbors!  Our girlies go back and forth between houses.  Friday "late nights" have become a regular.

Taylor did such a good job of helping Ethan.  I love how intent they were on the movie.  I am so glad my kids have fun friends with which to do things.

This silly goof just always has to be the center of pictures!  Love this sweet little face!

We were glad Daniel wanted to join us for the movie too!

Kamea and Kaili - I asked Kaili if she was doing ok.  This is how she watched the whole movie.  I was worried something was bothering her or she didn't feel well.  Nope, she just likes to watch with her head tipped like this.  It just made me smile!!!

Kenna and Taylor are good friends!!!

Maya enjoyed the chocolate chip cookies!  I hope she went to bed for her mom!  :)