Saturday, June 26, 2010

All Shook Up

Isn't she pretty in pink! Isabel had her dance recital this past Monday at Roy High School. They danced to 'All Shook Up' by Elvis. She loved having her hair boingy!


Isabel danced really well. She has been talking since last year about danicng on stage. She loves to perform! She was even old enough this year to go backstage by herself and stay there the whole performance. She is sure getting big.
This was what they had to do on the word 'buttercup', so she did this a lot. When she didn't remember what she was supposed to do, she made up her own movements :) It was fun to watch her! She informed me that teacher Shae told her that she danced the best out of everyone.

She can do a backbend all by herself, and she is getting pretty good at cartwheels. I think that we might try a tumbling class. We will see how she does with Kandi for a teacher. Hopefully she will do awesome :)


Friday, June 25, 2010

Random pictures

Here are a few random pictures while I have the camera card with me! :) This is actually from last year when we went camping at Bear Lake. This is Isabel and Ben inside the trailer. I love this picture of Isabel.
This is at Six Flags this year. Couldn't figure out how to add it to that post where I wanted it so this is easier :) Brady and Isabel watching Shuka, then killer whale show. On the row behind them you have Gpa, Gma, Noah, Adam, Ari, Tamina holding Sarah and right next to Brady is KelliAnn.

On Saturday when we moved Ben discovered that he loved to pull the bike trailer around. Zoey was there so he and Isabel took turns pulling Zoey around the yard. They all had fun!

Ben pulling Zoey around in the yard. It was very funny.






Mission Call

My parents call came on Wed last week! They are so excited! I called all the kids and we came over to mom and dads so they could tell us at the same time where they were going! I got everything out of mom except where they were going before we got there! (When, how long, foreign...) So while the kids were eating dad read his call letter to us. Although he teased us that it was the Ogden UT mission, they are really going to the Manilla, Phillipines Mission. They are going for a period of 23 months as a proselyting mission speaking English. They are very excited even though it is a big city. There are 15 missions in Manilla. Crazy huh?! They leave Aug 23, so we have a little bit of time to help them get ready to go. Brady was at work, but he called me 2 times during the day to ask if he had won. (We all guessed where they were going). Imagine his surprise when I called him back to tell him that he really did win! He got a huge symphony bar. But in order to be fair to eveyone (cause it is hard work guessing according to Noah) we all got a miniature candy bar for our efforts!


We are very excited for them! They will be awesome missionaries! I'm excited that they are in a position to be able to accomplish one of the goals they set for themselves when they got married! Quite an accomplishment! Isabel makes me laugh. Everyday for the past week she would say, maybe today is when gpa and gma will get their letter (mission call). I asked her one day who writes the letter and she said, 'Santa, then President Monson signs it'. Santa knows where everyone lives! She knows now that it is President Monson and his helpers that do it all! She cracks me up!

Swim Lessons

Swim lessons have come and gone! Isabel had a blast with swim lessons this year! She can jump in all by herself, is learning how to dive and loved going to the bottom of the pool to look for pennies. She loves water no matter where it is. She is extremely excited for the Roy water park this year so she can show me what she learned! When driving down 5600 in Roy, Isabel knows that if we hit a red light by heritage park, we get to drive by the water park. It is her special treat to see it! She still talks about going last year with grandma Tracie, Kandi & Krystle. Krystle is who she says gets to take her down the water slide! Lucky Krystle! :)

Ben is a fan of water. No matter where the water is, he loves it. We were leaving our house in Layton with a load of stuff on Tuesday and the sprinklers came on before we left. Ben saw them and ran out of the house and was drenched in less than 2 minutes! He loved every minute of it! He loved swimming lessons, and even though he cried (bellowed) the whole lesson through the first week, he would come out and tell me he swam good and loved swimming. The second week was much better. He left his earplugs in (he has tubes in his ears) and found out that no one would just leave him there by himself, so he had fun. In fact yesterday, the last day of swimming, he cried becuase he didn't want to get out! He is a really good kicker and loved finding pennies on the stair and bringing them to me. Thank you grandma Tracie for swim lessons! The kids loved them!
(Ignore the dates on the pictures, it was really June of this year)




homeless

Hooray! We are officially homeless :) We decided to out a new roof on and sell to that guy, his name is Dave. Luckily Jeff Monroe and his son were able to get the roof on before Sat last week so that the sale wouldn't be affected. They did an awesome job. Thanks to Steve for helping us fix all the electical stuff. Guess we had a few outlets that weren't grounded. We appreciate it! I was reading in the newspaper yesterday about the real estate market and it said that even though the market was supposed to improve, it is actually down by 22%. They are prediciting it to recocver the end of the fall now. Maybe that is why when we prayed about it we got the answer that it was an ok decision to sell to him.

Thank you to eveyone that helped us move all the big stuff! We appreciate it! Ben hated packing. In fact he refused to pack anything. He would just throw himself on the ground and have a tantrum when I asked if he wanted to help. When he saw grandpa loading stuff on the trailer on Friday, he decided that he wanted to load something. So he packed his 2 trucks and carried it to the trailer. Definitely picture worthy!



Isabel on the other hand loved to help pack boxes. This is a picture of her packing the freezer. She packed lots of her room and lots of books and shoes. She is definitely a good helper! Don't know what I would do without her!



THANKS AGAIN TO EVERYONE WHO HELPED!


Sunday, June 13, 2010

house update

Ok, I know I just posted something, but here is the update on the house. The guy buying the house wanted an inspection so that happened on Thursday this week. We supposedly have 7 days after the inspection report comes to make any needed changes to the house. We got his report back on Saturday and besides a few electrical things, he wants a new roof. I mean honestly.... I already dropped the price how much and he still wants a roof. The inspector didn't say that it was leaking he said that it was probably only good for 2 more years. So I had a roofer come and look at it and he said that all inspectors will only guarantee a roof for 2 years (even when they first put the roof on). He looked at my roof and said that there were a few shingle missing, but if he replaced those and fixed any trouble spots then the roof should be good for 8 years. We sent the information to our agents to send to the buyer. No news yet..... so maybe we are still moving :) I am still planning on moving on Saturday. We will see how it goes. Hopefully the weather will hold out and be nice......

California Trip


Ok, no pictures yet but here is an update anyways.
California was awesome. The kids were hilarious on the airplane. Brady got to sit on row #1 with Isabel and I got the last row #13 with Ben. That's right, a tiny plane like the one we rode on in Brasil! Poor Chris had to duck and hunch his shoulders to fit through the aisle :) Ben put his seatbelt on and then promptly had to make sure that everyone else was safe too. Airplane rides are old news to Isabel seeing as she has her own passport already (Panama and Hawaii before she was 2). Ben had to pull his Car backpack with wheels until we got on the plane and actually had to pull it everywhere we went in CA (except Six Flags, I refused to carry it) It probably took us 2 hours to get to the airport, park, check in and walk to the terminal. Good thing grandpa Grant was there to hold Ben's hand the whole way through the airport. Ben LOVED seeing all the airplanes and watching them take off and land. It was fun. As we took off Ben just held on and kept saying WOAH.......Flying, fun. Ari raised her hands above her head like on a roller coaster and said WEEE and Adam said 'we're in the air!". Traveling with kids is great!


We rented cars (which took forever.....) and ended up riding with mom and dad in a silver mini van. Every time Isabel got in the van she would ask where our van was and why we were riding in a van like ours. She is definitely a talker! My dad says that she reminds him of me when I was little :) As soon as we got off the airplane, Isabel looked around and asked me where Grandma Zelma was. I had told her that we were going to CA to see her, and Isabel expected to see her right away! It was funny. Dad asked all the kids if they liked Cheerios, and then told them that we could see where Cheerios came from. Isabel looked at him and said, they come in a box grandpa. :) Funny girl!
Six Flags was fun. Definitely different with kids. Brady tried 2 or 3 of the kid rides, then realized that he didn't fit in them at all and just watched and took pictures. Isabel loved the rollercoaster! At first she was a little scared but by the second time around she was loving it! She was tall enough to ride all the rides by herself, and she did for the most part. She and Ben both loved the swings and driving their own jeeps to see the african animals (turtles, giraffes & elephants) I only had to carry Ben kicking and screaming off of 3 rides (just because he wanted to stay on cause he loved them so much) the merry go round, Thomas the Train, and the Jeep. The only ride he told me 'all done' on was the roller coaster. I think that is was because his head hit a weird spot on the seat and it was kind of a jerky roller coaster. The kids both loved the sharks. The first ride we went on (the helicopter from Thomas the Tank Engine) Ben watched the lady open the door and lock it, and after that he figured out how to open all of the doors so he could get on. When I let him ride on some rides by himself, he would lean over and watch how the ride worked..... he might end up being some kind of engineer of some sort, we will see.
Before we went to the reunion, Brady went golfing with Grant and my uncles on the most awful course ever with rented clubs that cost $10 and he still only shot 1 over par.... my relatives told him that he couldn't golf with them next year cause he was too good. I was impressed cause he only golfs maybe 2 times per year! While Brady was golfing, we went swimming at the hotel. The water wasn't heated but that didn't stop us! The kids had a blast. Swimming lessons will be fun this year! Isabel is getting brave. She held on to the sides and went all around the pool. She likes to hold onto my back and swim around too.
It was fun to see everyone at the reunion. I put Ben and Isabel's name into a drawing for a jean quilt that my aunt made and Ben won! (Luckily Jenny was there so she could bring it home for me.) Brady and Dad played horseshoes almost the whole time. Ben pushed around a stroller and Isabel played most of the games they had. She did awesome at the one where you have a tennis ball in a nylon and you put it on your head and you swing your head back and forth to hit down rows of empty pop cans. She got all the cans but 1! Every time she got to pick a prize she chose candy! Surprise! There was karaoke which was funny but I found out that my uncle John likes to go to nursing homes and dress up like ....... (can't remember his name) and sing to them. He says it is one thing that makes him happy! I say go for it! We ate Chinese food that night and the kids loved it!
The next morning we went to the Spanish branch for church. My uncle Garth is in the branch presidency so that is where they go. The primary sang the hello song to the kids "hola-hola" it was cute and we doubled the nursery. With Sarah and Ben it made 4 kids in the nursery. What would it be like with just 4 kids :) We had lunch with Janel and family then headed back to the airport where we found out that there were mechanical problems with the plane so there was a delay. I knew everything would be ok when we got to the terminal and Elder Russel M Nelson of the Quorum of the 12 was waiting to get on the same plane :) Dad went right over and talked with him. Noah went and introduced himself and I went over and shook his hand, Isabel didn't want to and Ben was running around watching planes take off. I told him, 'Flying with kids is and adventure", he replied with "I know, isn't it great!" I said yes as I ran after Ben :) We were able to sit as a family on the way home, all at the front of the airplane:) Ben played with his train and all was good. Elder Nelson sat right behind Brady. It was just neat having him there. All in all it was a fun trip. Quick but fun. More swimming would have been good seeing as it was so humid, but that's ok.

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Hooray! We just signed papers putting our house under contract. I was beginning to wonder if it would sell before my parents left. We should be closing on the 24th, so that gives us 2 weeks (since we will be in CA this week). Even though we were hoping for more, this is definitely a relief! Just found a cool website that is a zoo cam so you can watch different animals. http://nationalzoo.si.edu You can watch an octopus, panda, tiger, etc.... I will have to let the kids watch it. It was pretty neat. California and Six Flags here we come!