Jordyn's Dance Recital

It was the final big week for Jordyn's dance class with their recital. Jordyn did a great job!! She remembered to smile the whole time, and she remembered most of her dances. "Tik Tok" was a favorite, and she loved dancing with the umbrella to "Rhythm of the Rain" Good job Jordy!!!

Confessions of a Real Mom

I saw something similar on another blog, and it was just too cute and too true, that I couldn't resist borrowing and adapting it to my life. There is a quote from the Earl of Rochester, "Before I got married I had six theories about bringing up children; now I have six children and no theories." I didn't have theories so much as the notion that I would raise perfect, well behaved, beautiful children, and I would be the most involved, patient, perfect Mom. I do learn quickly, it only took me about a week after our first child was born to realize that I knew NOTHING, and with each individual child I learned that the rules had completely changed. As soon as I got one thing figured out, there was a new situation with completely new rules. Here are just a few of the ways that I have fallen short of my original plans:

* Sometimes I nod and make noises to pretend I am listening to my children when I am not. Especially before 9 am and after 10 pm. It didn't take the kids long to figure that one out and ask me for things during those times. I would often say yes and not realize what I was agreeing to.

* I gave up on daily baths for me and the kids after the second child was born.

* I do have a one bite rule, but I have become increasingly lax about this. Child number 6 pretty much eats whatever she wants, while a previous child went hungry for three days before he took a bite of taquito. PS, he liked it!

* I like to be around my kids most of the time, but I don't always want to play with them.

* There are days when I'm the one asking if we can just do nothing and hang out all day.

* While I love my children at all ages, there are some stages I have enjoyed much more. I really enjoy my older teenagers and adult children.

* I have forgotten to pick up a child on time on many occasions. Hey, it's good for them to walk home, and it teaches them patience to wait for me, right? I wait for them all the time!

* I readily admit that I do the happy dance on the first day of school. And I didn't cry at all when my youngest went to kindergarten this year.

* I am not organized enough or well enough budgeted to pay an allowance. I will pay for "extra" jobs, and I will bribe my children. Sometimes the lunatics do run the asylum.

* I have become my mother and do many things I swore I would never do to my kids: guilt, yell, threaten to call the North Pole, embarrass and scream uncontrollably. Did I mention that I lose it sometimes?

* Our tooth fairy gets lost quite often. One time it took her a week to find our house. The Easter bunny too. Sometimes he comes Saturday morning, and sometimes he comes Sunday night, or it could be anywhere in between. I wonder why my kids don't believe in fairy tales...

* If a lego or barbie shoe is on the floor, I vacuum it up. If it isn't important enough for them to pick it up, I don't care either.

I feel much better now. Please don't forget that Mother's Day is in two weeks and I'd love breakfast in bed and lots of chocolate!

April Fool's!!

Yesterday when Jordyn came home from school, she asked me to fix her some lunch. I told her that it was Lucky 5 (a local chinese place) Friday, and we were going to lunch with her sisters. Jordyn proceeded to have a complete meltdown as only Jordyn can do (second only to Jayme! ;P), complete with fist banging,stomping and real tears. She didn't want to go to Chinese, she wanted to stay home, blah, blah, blah. After about five minutes of this, she takes a deep breath, wipes her eyes and says, "April Fools!!" Wow.

P.S. Lunch was great, I love spending time with my girls!

Locks of Love

Jordyn has had long hair for most of her life, but lately she's been wanting to cut it off. She hates having me brush out the tangles every morning, she hates letting me curl it or straighten it, and most days we just do a ponytail. She finally decided a couple of weeks ago that she really wanted it cut, and so one day after school I was going to take her to get it cut. Well, she wanted Kari to cut her hair. So, we called Kari and it was going to be a few weeks before we could get in. Finally it was THE day. Someone had suggested locks of love, but I didn't think she had enough to do that. When we got there, Kari asked if we wanted to do Locks of love. She said that she had enough, so yay, we could do it! Jordyn thought it was pretty cool that her hair would go to make a wig for some poor child with cancer who lost her hair. Her hair came out super cute, and we both love it!

Matthew and Basketball

This is a little late getting posted, but better late than never, right? Matthew had a great time playing basketball this year. He had great coaches who really helped him improve and gain more confidence. His team finally came together for the last few games and started winning, but what was more important was that they had fun and learned a lot. Matthew was definitely the big kid on the floor, and his coaches helped him learn to use his size to his advantage. He learned to be more aggressive, and was great on defense. He also got tons of rebounds and gained the confidence to shoot. He scored in almost all of their games, and really helped his team when they needed him. Way to go Matthew!!

Wrestling 2010-2011

This year, Ammon made the big move from junior high wrestling to high school wrestling. Although he is only in 9th grade, and in junior high, he was able to wrestle as a freshman for the high school. The problem is that Ammon is 6 feet tall and weighs about 185 pounds. Most freshmen are significantly smaller than that, so most of his opponents would be juniors or seniors in high school. We all knew that this was going to be a hard transition. We truly expected him to get beaten pretty badly every week. Well, Ammon quickly proved us wrong, and he was able to hold his own with all but the toughest of kids. He ended up wrestling both varsity 189 and 215, depending on the needs of the team. There were some very difficult times, but overall, Ammon had a great season. He ended the season with a 30-19 record with 27 pins. He placed 5th in the region, 7th in section, and qualified for state. Ammon was able to win one match at state before being eliminated. Now on to the freestyle season, and getting stronger for next year. Go Ammon!!

Christmas 2010

We had such a great Christmas this year!! It kind of snuck up on us, and I wasn't quite as prepared as I hoped to be, but I was good, took my meds, and didn't stress. I guess part of it was because we had been having really warm and dry weather, and it didn't seem like Christmas. Also, with the new house, I wasn't sure where everything went, and I had to find out how this house needed to be decorated. :) I had done some shopping, but no wrapping, no baking, and no Christmas cards or letters. Oh well! Then about 2 weeks before Christmas it started snowing, and it felt like Christmas and I was in super prep mode.

I was actually calm and relaxed and completely ready on the 23rd!! I think this was the first time I wasn't wrapping on Christmas Eve. We had our traditional, nice Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve. Everyone was here: Jenn and Adam, Dad, Scott and his kids. It was a great night. After dinner and dessert, we read scriptures and opened pajamas. Then all of the kids went upstairs to watch a movie and wait for Santa.

Christmas morning started at about 6:30 when Jordyn came bopping in to announce, "It's Christmas!! Wake up! It's Christmas!!" We opened presents, ate breakfast, and went back to bed for a nap. Michael was supposed to call at about 12. They had permission to use skype, but we don't have it, so I said we'd just do a normal phone call. Well, Adam came to the rescue with his computer and web-cam, and we were able to skype. It was great to actually see Michael while we were talking to him, and we were able to show him some things too. We talked for 2 hours. It was great to talk to him, and the two hours flew by. He is doing so well, and we are so proud of him. You could tell that he didn't really want to hang up though because he kept saying, "what shall we talk about now? does anyone have any questions for me?" It was a great talk, and we covered just about everything.

Then it was back to bed for another nap.

Everyone just kind of hung out, relaxed, ate and played games. One of the most fun games we got was Dance on Broadway for the WII. Everyone could play, and we all had a ball! Jayme and Jenn were a little put out that Jordyn and Dennis were beating them though. After all, they have danced all of their lives. It was so much fun, we had to go and get the Michael Jackson dance game too.

Sunday, we went to Jeremiah Jackson's homecoming in our old ward. It was great to visit with friends. Then we went to our ward to teach primary/deacon's quorum. After church, more food and games.

On Tuesday we had the Jackson's, Amundson's, Budd's, and Lorrie over. We ate more and played more. It was really fun! We all got passes to Trafalga/Seven Peaks, so we went to Trafalga on Thursday and played mini-golf. It was New Year's before we knew it, and the holidays were over.

It was just so nice to have everyone, well except Michael, here. Jenn and Adam were able to spend a lot of time with us, and Jayme isn't working right now so she was here lots too. I really enjoy my adult and semi-adult children. We are at a really good place with our family right now, and I think it will only get better!! Jordyn is fun and reminds us of the child-like joy and excitement of the holidays. Matthew and Ammon are mostly old enough to play games with the family and behave well (mostly, I said). We missed Michael, but we know he is where he is supposed to be, and it makes it easier knowing that he is doing well. I just see our joy increasing as the other kids get married, grandbabies start to come, and our family just increases along with our love and happiness. Ok, starting to get sappy, I'll stop now.

I never did get Christmas cards or letters written, but then again, we didn't get many this year either. Maybe everyone is just letting them fall to the wayside. I guess with blogging and facebook, no one feels as much need to send cards and letters. I may still write one, just for our own history. School started back today, so it was back to real life. Now I guess I need to de-decorate and get rid of all the crap food so we can detox now.