MY BIRTHDAY BOY!

12 years ago today our little (9lb. 1 oz.) tow-headed boy was born! How time flies. Here he is at a soccer game with his buddy Dayson. They were the stars of the team!

Indy LOVED to dress-up when he was little. He was even known to be caught running around the neighborhood in little girl dresses! This picture was for Cowboy Day at preschool.

I love this picture. He looks so sweet which he wasn't really when he was little.

8 months old at the beach.

3 months old.

Things I love about INDY

1. He gets more even-tempered the older he gets.
2. I love that he likes to dress-up STILL, ie: sport coats and ties, scarves, brightly colored clothes like his Grandpa Pat, etc.

3. He is excited to pass the sacrament.

4. He is very good at everything except maybe making his bed and keeping his room straight.

5. He loves to hang out with his brother Finn.

6. He knows what he wants and will work to get it.

7. You would never know it by looking at him now that he was such a big baby!

8. He is a killer defender---last season his team gave him the award for being the "Great Wall of Indy"!

9. Too many other reasons to list them all!

I love you bud and hope you have a great 12th birthday!

Wax Museum

Last night was the 4th grade Wax Museum. Each student chooses a famous Utahan (I swear the spelling of that is wrong but spell check says it's right??), does a report on that person and then pretends to be that person for an evening. Emerson got to be Grandma Hale! She was so excited.

Here they are singing the counties of Utah.

Here she is doing the Virginia Reel with her dance partner Tim Bryce. She had a different partner to begin with but her teacher, Miss Lisonbee, changed all their partners last week. She was soooooo glad to be with Tim!

Here is her poster about Grandma. Notice the picture of her with Kurt from the Singles Ward.

Paige was her uncle Steve Young. She did a great job.

Madeline was Martha Hughes Cannon-the first woman state Senator in Utah.

They were so excited for this night and they did so well. I'm a proud mom!

Montana

A friend of Montana's took these pictures of her for his photography class at school. She thinks her face looks weird in this one......

And this one........(whatever, Montana!!!)

He won a district competition with this one!

FHE

Montana & Emerson with the Thundercat!

Our neighbors, the Afflecks, gave us tickets to the opening game of the Utah Valley Thunder. I had never been to an arena football game before. It was pretty exciting.

They must have gotten a little bored during the game because they took about a dozen more pictures which I have not posted!

Dinner at Hogi Yogi

WHEW!!!!

This was a crazy week and I am so glad it is over! I am still itching to get out of town and it is still not going to happen soon enough.

Monday we had visiting teaching interviews in the morning. We had two hours blocked out for the 3 of us but I think maybe 4 or 5 sisters showed up. I have to say that I wasn't disappointed! I was so anxious to get home to start preparing for an FHE group from Kurt's ward to come over for dinner. I spent the whole rest of the day in the kitchen! And I thought I was doing a meal that was fairly easy to prepare. Next time I will think twice before I make haystacks! Now I have fed these kids many times before but I was reminded again how much they eat! I cooked a 5 lb. bag of rice and they were still looking for more after THAT was cooked. Kurt didn't even eat any rice! I think I am going to call Panda Express next time.

Tuesday I had a quiet day------just enough time to gear up and prepare for the rest of the week. Wednesday we had more visiting teaching interviews in the afternoon. Thursday I spent most of the day getting things ready for our quarterly enrichment. I don't know how I had time to do everything I needed to do that day. Of course all the kids had soccer practices that they had to be to right at the time I needed to be at the church. Luckily I was able to get rides for them. But the enrichment went really well and I am very happy with the turnout even though it wasn't the greatest number of people we have ever had. A lady named Lisa Harkness came and talked to us about food storage. She was amazing! I was very impressed with how much knowledge she had. She really knew her stuff.

Today I only had to take Montana and Finn to the orthodontist first thing in the morning. Then I came home and what did I do???-------clean, of all things. I actually did take 45 minutes to go get a pedicure but I need a break longer than that.

Knowledge Bowl

The Art Team (minus the boys)

The whole Art Team!

Today was a very exciting day for Emerson! It was her Knowledge Bowl competition. This is a fun extracurricular competition between different elementary schools in our district. Our subject this year was the humanities and Emerson was on the art team. She has been going to school early 3 days a week since January to prepare for this competition. It has been really fun. I was asked to be one of the art teachers. I wasn't the greatest at it but it was definitely a subject I have enjoyed. Her team did really well. I was so proud of her and our whole art team! Emerson was a little timid at hitting the buzzer but I know she knew all the answers! Although it was a lot of work, I am actually looking forward to being involved next year.

FRUSTRATION

Today has been the most frustrating day of my life (that was just a slight exaggeration). I can't get anything accomplished, I can't get a hold of anyone and nothing is going my way. I have been itching to get out of town for weeks and have not been able to. I can't decide if I want to leave so badly because I know I can't or if I really just NEED to take a little vacation. This has been the busiest week I have had in a while and, of course, Kurt is out of town just to make things a little more difficult.