Getting better

I just want to say thank you for all the sweet comments from my last post. I am truly overwhelmed at the outpouring of love I have received.
I am surviving.
I have 3 months left of this pregnancy and this gives me something to look forward to. I feel like I haven't had a chance to enjoy it, but I am excited for another little girl to come to our home. Poor Kellen who has to put up with all of us girls. I'm going to have to give him golf clubs and season passes to get out of the house when the girls are all teenagers.
I think I am figuring out how to survive, little things come up and we get through them. I am not trying to say it isn't hard, but we are getting by. I do have to say that I don't think I have ever studied the scriptures more, or prayed more in my life. I feel that I have developed a stronger testimony and now I am sad that it took a humbling experience to get me motivated. I guess this is how it works though, right? The pride cycle?

Well, on to better news, we had the pine wood derby a few weeks ago, I have a love/hate relationship with this scouts thing. I feel like this derby brings out the worst in people. I have to admit I get a little controlling when it comes to the cars, but I let the boys do what they want because I want them to have fun. Patrick hasn't ever done well, but he has tried. This year we tried to do a little better in the planning stages so the boys went with Kellen to Lowe's where a derby expert talked to them and gave them ideas. They had a blast and were very excited for their cars. They drew their plans and then we went to our neighbor's house to cut the cars. Then it was race day, the boys couldn't sleep.
Well, Pat took 3rd in every race he ran, which was great but not good enough I guess. He had the best attitude though and was very happy for his little brother who took 3rd overall! It was a fun day with no tears so I call it a success!

                              (Pat's car is the green with yellow stripe, and Reed's is the blue car)

Yay for Scouts, right? :)

My football players

I am a mom of football fanatics. We love football at our house, and now that both boys are playing, it has gotten more intense. Last night we watched the BYU Cougars pounce on the Texas Longhorns, it was great. The kids were all in bed so I was able to enjoy the game with Kellen (it was like a date!)
But the greatest part of the day was seeing my boys playing a sport they enjoy.
They each had 2 scrimmages and enjoyed every minute. Here are some pictures for your viewing pleasure.

 Reed loved playing, and did get to pull some flags!

 Now Patrick may not be the biggest player, but he sure has the heart. I call him my little "Rudy".

 But this picture shows his best moment of the scrimmage. He is the one with his arms around the taller player up above, and the picture below shows him pulling the other guy down. He got that tackle!

Go Bears!!

Pat turned 10!

We know summer is over when Pat has his birthday. This year before we left Provo, Kellen took Pat and a friend to play unlimited Lazer Tag. We only do friend birthdays ever other year (on the even numbered years) and since we knew he wouldn't really know anyone here in Michigan yet we decided to celebrate early.
When his birthday came around, he told me he wanted an ice cream cake and cheesy chicken for dinner. That is easy, right? Well...
I got ready to make the chicken and remembered that the blender we received for our wedding and have had all these years broke right before we left Provo, so I didn't have a way to blend up the ingredients for the breading on the chicken.
THEN Patrick went to football practice and he was overheated and dehydrated so he threw up at practice and we brought him home early.
SO, that night he got to open his presents and then went to bed.

The next day we got his ice cream cake and sang to him and with no blender we are still waiting for that chicken. (Kellen is ordering me one, this appliance discount is pretty awesome!)

I think the best part of Pat's birthday was a face time call from his friend that is a girl back in Provo.

The smile on his face is priceless...
I sure love this boy!

Her mom sent me this picture from their chat.

All in all it was an ok birthday Pat says. But I am sure glad he is my boy!

My little Snowflake

On Monday night Patrick's school had a kindergarten Holiday program. We learned all about Hanukkah and Kwanzaa. Patrick's class were snowflakes. He was grumpy about going and we fought with him the entire night. He stomped into his classroom and when his teacher saw him, she said "Patrick, you look a little sour tonight, we don't want sours in our program!"

We were anxious to hear him sing the entire songs, since we have been hearing bits and pieces for a while now. They did a great job! It is so fun to see kids do funny things when they don't want to sing, and also to hear the few boys who feel the need to not sing the words, but yell them! Patrick didn't want to do any actions with the rest of the group, and sometimes he would fake sing, but he looked adorable anyway! He was standing next to a boy who tried to talk to him the entire time. I tried to get a picture of him singing, but a little girl in front of him moved a lot!
Reed danced the to the first song, then fell asleep. Mady loved the songs and loved the cute little Emmett sitting next to us!
I love this Christmas season, and all the fun things we get to do!
I hope all your shopping is done, we have a few stocking things left- I hope you are all enjoying this Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

Assembly

Patrick came home talking about bullys and what to do to stand up for himself. My friend Jenny found the link to the newscast about it. Her kids said "Now we are famous"! When Patrick saw it, he was very excited and also said "That is so cool, everyone will know about us!!" :)
Here is the link!

Pirate Party

For Patrick's birthday we had a pirate party, complete with a pirate ship cake. Although by the time we cut into it, it looked more like a sinking ship! We had a pin the tail on the donkey (Pat snuck it into the cart while shopping, he wanted it that badly!) Pirate eye patches and earings for every guest, yummy pizza, and a treasure hunt to find the pinata. Everyone had a turn beating the pirate(some with swords) and when the string broke, Kellen threw it up in the air a few times to break it asking the kids if they had ever seen a pirate fly. The door had and "X" on it to mark the spot for the party, when I put it on the door the boys knew what it was!
I think the kids had a great time, they were all very well behaved and we would love to have them back again. Reed wants to invite the same kids for his party! Kellen and I have decided there is NO WAY we are doing a friends party every year- it is a lot of work but this party was way worth it! I love making and decorating cakes so I love birthday parties!! :)

First Day of School

My boy is in kindergarten! He absolutely loves his class and comes home every day with a new song that they sang and teaches it to Reed. He has a friend from our ward in his class and he told me he likes to play with everyone! When I asked who he played with at recess he said "No one- they all wanted to play with me!" We got to go and meet his teacher the day before school started so he was not scared at all the first day. We are all adjusting to getting up earlier which is getting easier. The bus didn't start picking him up until this week and he was so excited. I was a little worried he wouldn't know where to go but we tried to explain it to him, I guess we didn't do a very good job because he followed some kids into the cafeteria, then proceeded to sit down and have breakfast. They were late that day, but he said someone told him he could finish his cereal before going to class. He then told us he didn't know where to go, and all the kids had left so he got sad (that means he cried) and a teacher helped him. I think it is great that they give free breakfast to all the kids if they want it- they catch the bus so early that sometimes they don't want to eat before school! He absolutely loved eating in the cafeteria!
I am so proud of my boy, and I can't believe he is 5! His birthday was the first day of school, so we had cookies in class- VERY EXCITING!