Wednesday, September 22, 2010

A *NEW* Scout! 8-5-10

I am going to start playing catch up on here so the next few posts will be in no particular order but will update Summer 2010!


August 5, 2010
After crossing the symbolic bridge from Cub Scouts to Boy Scouts!

Jaco has officially completed Cub Scouts and is now an 11 year old Boy Scout! I have been warned that Scouting is much harder than Cub Scouting so I hope I (I mean HE) can do it! Thankfully I only have one son! Jaco is such an over achiever that I am sure he will make it to Eagle Scout! He has heard about Uncle Art who earned every merit badge possible and he wants to do that too!

But for now, Jaco did manage to earn all 20 activity badges and his Arrow of Light.


By accomplishing this, his Cub Master made him a very cool Exceller award! This award is what motivated Jaco to set the goal of earning all 20 activity badges.


He almost did not complete some of the badges but managed to finish one of them as we were walking out the door to his final Pack Meeting!

Receiving the Boy scout neckerchief

Our Cub Scout leader was the BEST! Curt Tiffany was called to be the 1st counselor in our Bishopric but asked to continue as the cub scout leader along with serving in the Bishopric, because he loves the boys almost as much as they love him!


Justin gave Jaco this knife at the pack meeting. It is a knife Justin's Grandpa Max gave him when he was a boy and he passed it on to Jaco!

CONGRATULATIONS Jaco! I am so proud of you! I love how when you are presented with a challenge that you meet it head on and are not happy until you complete it!

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Back to school...Back to early alarms!


I had very mixed feelings about today. I was tired of the constant teasing bored kids ready for more structure but not ready to be tired from the early morning alarm clock!

I thought it was spendy to get two kids ready for school until I had to get three ready! I am so glad I planned ahead this year. In May and June, I bought all 3 kiddos new shoes, new backpacks, simple school supplies like crayons, glue, etc..., and some basic clothes like jeans. I am lucky that they all grow at a slow but steady rate so I felt safe buying everything. Then when we figured out where the kids were going, I bought the rest of the supplies. It was easily $400 and this was not buying anything name brand! This was all Pay-Less, Ross, and Wal-Mart! I dread the day when they discover name brands and pray they will be confident enough to not care!
We recently moved to a new city. We chose a small community to live in for 2 reasons. Justin is working out of two cities and our new home is in between them and we had heard amazing things about a charter school in the small city we moved to. We had been under the impression that if we lived in this community, the kids would automatically get in. We started communicating with the principle; Jaco even e-mailed her a couple times, so they knew we were coming. One week before school started, we found out that the charter school had room for Jaco and Care Bear, but not La-La! She was devastated and I was ticked! The school she would be sent to is 20 miles away where the charter school is literally .6 mile away. The district would bus her but of course she didn't want to go by herself! We toyed around with sending Care Bear with La-La so they could be together but then Care Bear would lose her coveted spot and what if later in the year, La-La got in and Care Bear was left alone at the school! I was so frustrated and did not know what to do. La-La cried and cried and decided she did not want to go to school at all. She suggested I home school her but I am hoping to get a job and I would not be able to with her home. When the secretary called to tell me La-La would not be able to go, she had mentioned that the same thing happened to another family. Their 5Th grader got in but their second grade daughter did not. One afternoon when I was so frustrated I was crying, I had the thought come to me to somehow find out who this other family was and see if the girls could meet before school started. I truly believe it was an answer to my prayers. So I called the school and asked them to call the other family, give them my information, and ask them to call me. The other Mom Lisa called me within a couple hours and she was so happy to get the girls together. We met that night and Emily and La-La hit it off immediately.
La-La and Emily ready to go on their long bus ride together

The next day they played for 6 hours and had a ball. We found out Emily is in La-La's class and they will ride the bus together! All of a sudden La-La was happy about school again and she knew it would be OK! I also bought a small notebook that La-La will keep in her backpack. I will write her notes and she can write notes to me while she is on her long bus ride. She really liked that idea!So today, all 3 kids started a new school year with Jaco and Care Bear in a charter school and La-La off to another school until an opening comes up at the charter school.

Jaco started 6th grade! He was disappointed to go to a "little Kid" school again as he had been looking forward to middle school which he would have gone to if we had not moved. I know he will do so well here and I will admit I am so glad he gets a few more years in a "little kid" school!
La-La is off to second grade! She was excited but nervous and I know she will do great!


My little Care Bear is not so little as she started kindergarten today! She will go all day. When I dropped her off, I was worried she might cry but she was so brave and acted so mature.

She has to deal with her cast just this week at school and hopefully by Friday it will be a thing of the past!putting her things in her very own cubby

La-La getting off her bus at the end of the day. She said she had 5 recess breaks and loved the morning because there was no math!

Jaco and Care Bear getting off their bus! Jaco solved his teacher's Rubik's Cube and is already known as the class genius and Care Bear claims she already did math on a computer.


Last night for FHE, I interviewed each of the kids. Here are their answers!
Jaco=J La-La=L Care Bear=C

What is your favorite book?
J: The Hunger Games series
L: Juny B Jones
C: That's Not My Frog

What is your favorite song?
J: It's On (Camp Rock)
L: Phantom of the Opera
C: I Like to see the Temple

What is your favorite food?
J: Supreme pizza and banana cookies
L: Meatloaf & sour cream potatoes with ice cream for dessert
C: steak and cupcakes

What is your favorite color?
J: green
L: pink and purple
C: red and pink

What is your favorite outfit?
J: anything comfy and not stiff
L: dresses
C: sparkly shrug, tank top and jeans

What is your favorite thing to do?
J: anything electronic ie...DS, computer, TV
L: explore
C: play barbies

What are you excited for school this year?
J: after school clubs, extracurricular activities
L: meet new friends and learn more things
C: doing crafts

What are you nervous about school?
J: making friends
L: everything about the 1st day
C: having to go to time out

What will Mom do while you are school?
J: read
L: job and clean up the house
C: be on the computer

What will Dad do while you are at school?
J: work
L: work
C: watch TV

Anything else we should know about you?
J: Wishes he was still at our old house so he could go to middle school
L: funny thing; she was wearing my bra during our interview!
C: She loves snuggling with her mom

Thursday, September 2, 2010

8 is GREAT!

My sweet La-La is eight (September 1st!)! I can not believe how fast she is growing up! She is the most loving sweet child with a strong sincere desire to help others. I love my little lady!


La-La has been waiting very patiently for her big day. Unlike Jaco, Care Bear, and Justin, she loves surprises and would rather wait to open presents on her birthday. I am the same way! She woke up so excited and was thrilled to have her own special day!

We opened presents right away. She got 3 books, a movie, a butterfly shirt, cash from Granny & Papa and Grandma Ann, and a baptism book from Grandma & Grandpa Finch. For her big gift, I left clues for a scavenger hunt. After 8 clues, she found a brand new red wagon in the barn! She loves to haul things around and our other wagon bit the dust a while back. Our new house (more on that soon!) has tons of places to haul things to so she is in heaven!


Later that morning, we went to get her ears pierced. She has been asking for years to wear earrings so finally I decided she could do it on her 8th birthday! I had to be 14 but I didn't think she needed to that old. She was a little nervous but did so good!
She LOVES her sparkly earrings and looks so cute. When the lady who pierced them was marking where the holes should go, we discovered that La-La's ear lobes are different sizes! One is lower and bigger than the other. Not a huge difference but it was kind of funny that we had never noticed!


After La-La had *bling* added, we hit McD's for lunch. She ordered her usual hamburger with ketchup only, fries, and a soda. The kids played at the play place for a bit and then we headed home.



Before dinner, we went shopping so La-La could spend her $$$. She bought a baby that eats and poops and a new doll stroller. She loves babies and since I won't have another baby, she settled for a doll that acts like a baby but thankfully has an on and off switch!

Finally it was time for dinner: BBQ'd burgers, watermelon, and corn on the cob. YUM!

Then we had cake and ice-cream. I was so disappointed in the cake! As you probably know by now, the birthday cake is my favorite part of the day! I try to make a cake that shows what the person is in to at the time or I let them choose what cake they want. La-La loves swimming so I saw a cute idea for a pool cake.(what it was supposed to look like!)

It should have been easy but I messed up. You use blue jell-o for the pool water. I apparently did not let my jell-o set up enough. I poured the jello into the center and sat back to look at how cute it was. I was adding smarties to the sides when all of a sudden a small section of cake fell off and blue jell-o poured out the side!


I just sat there so shocked. It was 11:30 pm at this time. No time to start over besides the fact that I did not have another cake mix. I was sad and just hoped La-La would understand. I tried!

We bought cupcakes so she was happy and she did like the idea for the cake!


Happy Birthday to my favorite 8 year old! Love you even though you are trying to grow up way too fast for me! We can't wait to get her baptized but we are going to wait until November when Grandma and Grandpa Finch can come. Grandma is starting radiation treatment soon for her breast cancer (more on cancer update soon too!) so we will wait until she is done.