Welcome to our World

Life got busier for K with the start of club volleyball.  This year she is practicing twice a week instead of once a week like last year and is also doing conditioning once a week, which she didn’t do at all last year.  I am so proud of her being able to have Acro, Young Women’s and now volleyball 3x a week and still keep up with her homework and have the energy to do things like have fun at her school’s fall social and have her best friend over to spend the night.  K is such a strong girl and I wish her the very best this volleyball season and am looking forward to seeing her perform her Acro routine at the Holiday Show next month.  K also went to a special showing of the Harriet Tubman movie as part of her social studies class. Hubby is also plenty busy with not only work (as always) but he is currently the Sunday School President and the EQ 2nd Counselor — and with the changes recently made to the duties of the bishopric and EQ, he is basically the ward mis...

K and I got to start off October right by going to the Jonas Brothers concert in Denver.  It was a blast!  We enjoyed the opening acts and it was a great blend of old and new Jonas music plus Cake By the Ocean, one of K’s all time favorite songs.  They did a great job and my watch warned me that the sound was over 95 decibels and that I was in danger of hearing loss but it was totally worth it. A couple days later M got to spend the night at a farm with her 4th grade class and absolutely loved it.  She was in her element and was totally fine without having a parent chaperone (for the first time).  I’m grateful she could have such an experience.  While she was gone D and N had their parent teacher conferences and it was so fun to hear how much their teachers enjoy having them in their classes.  The next week when K and I went to her first middle school conferences it was fun to hear teacher after teacher saying what a joy she was to have in their...

With all 4 children in school full day for the first time I have more flexibility with how I spend my time as a stay at home mom. I miss having lunch buddies but the puppies make it so that I am never alone. I am still doing things like I did with N around like go to the grocery store — it just takes a few minutes shorter to run errands without a friend along. I feel like there is still a ton to get done, largely in part to our dogs, but I don’t have that rushed feeling as much. For instance, it doesn't bother me a bit to block out Tuesday mornings for catching up on the blog and scrapbook and spending every Thursday morning volunteering at D & N's school.  It's easier to leave to pick up M from her school when I only have to take the dogs out instead of interrupting N from whatever she was doing.  I am able to take the time to make better choices and work on becoming a better person. A couple women that I highly respect recommended I begin listening to the Better Than...

My oldest and youngest daughters have very big transitions to make this year and are doing well. N is adjusting from half day kindergarten to full day first grade but loves her teacher and has many good friends in her class from preschool, church and kindergarten. We had to suppress happy dancing in public at back to school night when we realized how many people she knew. K began middle school!!!  I am so proud of her for taking good care of her school iPad, getting homework done, and walking with her best friend and being early everyday.  Back to school night allowed me to meet all her teachers and see what her schedule and curriculum is like and it's pretty obvious they already like her. D finally gets to have a guy teacher, which he was hoping for and he has been a real champ about the crutches at school.  I can tell D is enjoying 5th grade because when I had to pull him out to get his cast off and fitted for his boot he was willing to go back for another 4 hou...