Scrappin

I recently learned how to use photoshop. (Thank you very much Tiffany) Bill has been trying to get me to scrapbook with photoshop for years and I just kept blowing him off. However, once I learned what I was doing I was totally hooked. I still enjoy scrapbooking the old fashion way and I will when I can go with friends, but for now I am having a blast digital scrapbooking. Because of this new little obession my house and laundry have totally been ignored. I have tried not to ignore the kids. They just want to play with friends so it hasn't been to bad. Eventhough I have not been on top of my motherly duties I am preserving our family history so that counts right? Here are just a few pages that I have done. I am not the super Carrie Carroll type scrapbooker, but my layouts work for me. You would think that Jake is the oldest child with all of the pages I have done for him. I guess I just learned after four other kids to take lots of photos.

Less Is More

Today Sadie and Kate were at our house playing with Hailey. They played with the dress ups and with Hailey's makeup. Each girl carefully chose the special dress that she wanted to wear. For some reason Hailey's dress up of choice lately is her Easter dress. I don't really get that one, at least I am getting my moneys worth with that dress. If you look closely you can see the care with which the make up was applied. Kate is sporting a purple nose. She was very proud of it and later proceeded to put lipstick all over her face. Sadie and Hailey have some lovely red stuff on their cheeks and forheads. All of these beauties have lovingly put sparkles in their hair as well as a finish coat of sparkles on their face. I hope that their make up techniques do not come from watching their mothers apply their own make up. They were all about the photo shoot, they have definately been working on their posing. I hope they learn less is more before they are teenagers. They were just too cute!

Dance Festival

The end of the year always brings the dance festival. This is one of my favorite traditions at the kids school. Megan did the Virginia Reel, she had to wear pioneer clothes. They learned about Utah History this year, very fittting. Parker's dance was I'll Be Nice, he had to wear African clothing. Hailey did the Hukilau (sp?), and of course she wore Hawiian clothes. They all did a great job and we were lucky that the weather cooperated. Way to go kids!!!

SMILE

Yay, Jake has learned how to smile. He actually first smiled at me on Mother's Day. What a wonderful gift for him to give his mom. He is such a sweet and content baby. He loves to smile especially at his family and his toys. He is almost 11 weeks. I can't believe how fast he is growing and changing. He can't fit any of his 0 to 3 month clothes. He has worked very hard at eating and has the biggest stomach ever, too cute. That is the saddest thing for me when I have to clean out his small clothes from his drawers. We are just having a ball with our cute little Buddha Boy!! We love you Jake!

Liberty Land

Our neighbors are creating a "Boondocks" type place called Liberty Land. They are making a mosaic wall where the bumper boats will be. Laura Lee came by and asked if we wanted to come and help make the mosaic. Bill took Parker and Megan and they had a blast. Parker was ready to move to Liberty Land and he has decided that he wants to go there for his birthday. They have been three times which has been so fun for all of them. They love to see the progress and they have such pride in the work that they are doing. We are so grateful for great neighbors that help provide our children with great opportunities.

Piano Recital

Friday May 23, 2008, both Megan and Parker had their piano recital. Megan played Irish Dance and Parker played Ode to Joy. It was Parker's first recital. He just started lessons last August. He was very nervous for the reictal. Before we left for the recital he practiced his song but he didn't come out of the piano room for awhile. I knew that he was very worried about his song so I asked him if he wanted us to pray before we left the house. He said that he had just said a prayer by himself and that he would be alright. I was very proud of him for turning to his Heavenly Father for help we he needed it. It is moments like that when you think maybe the children are actually listening during FHE, primary, etc. They both did a great job and worked hard to learn their songs.

Memorial for Rylee

This past Sunday we went to Primary Childrens Hospital to a memorial for all of the children that had died over the past year. I was amazed at how many children there were. I would say that there was close to 200 children that died. The program started with a child reading a poem about a leaf on the ground. Then the CEO Joe Mott spoke. He did a great job and was very sincere. There were serveral musical numbers played by a little orchestra. Then there was a memorial video with pictures of the children that had passed away. It was very well done. Our little Rylee's picture was so cute. After the video there was a song and a prayer by the chaplin at PCMC. After the prayer the bagpipe player played a song and we all followed him down the hall to an outside area. We each got a ribbon and wrote on it a letter to Rylee. We then tied them to a fence outside. Then we had refreshments inside. It was such a special program. It was nice to think of Rylee and celebrate her life again. It is so sad that so many people have had to go through losing a child. There are no words to discribe the loss that is felt. I know that Rylee struggled while here on the earth, but I just miss her so much. Life was better when she was in it. Eventhough her life wasn't easy and our life was challenging with her I would love to have her back to deal with all of her issues to just have her with us. Rylee had such a special spirit about her and I think the people that really tried to get to know and love her for who she was, were able to feel that strong spirit in that little frail body. We have been so blessed as a family to have her be with us. I am grateful that families are forever and I can be with my little Ry again. We love you Dolly!!!

The kids tying their ribbons on the memorial wall.

Tuesday Tell All

Answer the following with only one word.
1. Where is your cell phone? Purse
2. Your significant other? Bill
3. Your hair? Gray
4. Your mother? Helpful
5. Your father? Gone
6. Your favorite thing? Family
7. Your dream last night? Ridiculous
8. Your favorite drink? Water
9. Your dream/goal? Children
10. The room you're in? Den
11. Your children? Wonderful
12. Your fear? Water
13. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Here
14. Where were you last night? Home
15. What you're not? Creative
16. Muffins. Lemon
17. One of your wish list items? Freedom
18. Where you grew up? Midvale
19. What you read last? Cookbook
20. What are you wearing? Pants
21. Your TV? Off
22. Your pets? Fish
23. Your computer? Broken
24. Your life? Greaat
25. Your mood? Happy
26. Missing someone? Rylee
27. Your car? Clean
28. Something you're not wearing? Shoes
29. Favorite Store? Target
30. Your summer? Relaxing
31. Like someone? Bill
32. Your favorite color? Yellow
33. Last time you laughed? Today
34. Last time you cried? Sunday

Tuesday Tell All

My friend Angeline told me about a fun blog that gives ideas for journaling. I thought that I would give it a try since I am using my blog to journal what is going on with our family. The topic this week is "What do you remember about your childhood summers?" Here it goes. I have many fond memories of the summers during my childhood. We lived by my grandma and grandpa and we loved to spend time at their house. We would play in their backyard. They had a intercom system in their home and also on their back patio. My cousins and I would put on the music and dance and sing on the patio. I loved it when my cousins would come to visit my grandma. I have two cousins that are my same age, Darrien and Ann, we loved to hang out together. I would spend time with my cousin Darrin at his home in Morgan. We would ride our bikes all over the place. Darrin was a riot because he would always make up crazy stories about people he knew and places that we went. Of course I was so gullible that I believed him. We spent a lot of time making up dances to our favorite songs. The danced to Pat Benetar, Olivia Newton-John, Fame, and many other songs. We called ourselves the shadow dancers. Darrin found some black and red material and he cut it up into strips, then we would use a wooden dowel as our microphone and we would hang the strips of material on our arms and the microphone. We had a blast and we would make our younger brothers and sisters watch our dances. They of course hated it but we loved to have an audience. Another fun game we would play with our cousins was Dracula and Becky. Darrin being the brain child of all our crazy games would be Dracula and I would be Becky, Draculas wife, I don't know where that name came from. We made poor Ann be a servant, she was a good sport. The younger brothers would be the gargoyles and had to do whatever we wanted. Can you tell that we were the oldest? If I wasn't playing with my cousins then I would play with the kids in the neighborhood. We would play The Jolly Butcher Boy, Red Light Green Light, Mother May I, and of course kick the can. I loved to sleep outside in the summer with friends. I loved to look at the stars and watch for satellites, my kids enjoy doing the same thing in the summer. I just remember how fun and carefree those days were. I would dream big and hope that someday my dreams would come true. Most of my dreams have come true. We were not able to go on many trips when I was younger but it didn't matter because we would come up with our own adventures and we had a blast.
That was fun to remember some of the things that stand out in my mind from my childhood, I just might continue on with the Tuesday Tell All tradition.

Hendricks Clan

This weekend Dennis and Sylvia come to vist from Idaho. We always love it when they come. Grandma was able to come and see Megan's play and Grandpa went to see Tanner do his karate. Grandpa has a new toy it is called a trikke. He brought them for everyone to try. The kids had a blast riding them. Bill and I were trying to get the hang of it but it just didn't come as easy for us as it did for the kids. We went to dinner with the family. It was fun to have Stacey and her kids, Carrie and Jon, Erin, Taylor and Tanner. It is great to be together with the Hendricks family.

Walk of Rememberance

We were invited to a walk of remembrance for children who had died in Utah County. It was held at Thanksgiving Pointe gardens on Saturday May 10, 2008. It was a beautiful morning and the gardens were absolutely amazing. There is an IHC program that helps grieving families who lost children and they were the ones who sponsered the walk. When we arrived we had a continental breakfast and then the names of all of the children who had passed away were read, and then there was a moment of silence. We were able to walk around the gardens to reflect on our loved ones that we lost. The kids had a blast running up and down one of the big hills. They loved the water fall. Parker said that he just needed to go home and pick up a few things then he would go back to the gardens to live. It was so nice to have time to celebrate Rylee and her life. We think about her and miss every day, but it was so nice to make our thoughts of her public. I think we will make this walk of remembrance a yearly event because it was just such a special time for us to think of our little Ry. We miss you so much baby girl!!

Treasure Isand

Megan with the cast of Treasure Island

Megan was involved with the school chorus this year. It was for the students in fourth grade and up. The new music teacher at her school used to work in California and she did plays there with her students. She moved her and started this program at Megan's school. They really did a great job. The kids worked really hard. She had a lot of fun doing this. This year she was in A Christmas Carol and Treasure Island. She was a Flint dancer, however she really wanted to be Capt. Flint. She was very sad when she looked at the casting sheet, and saw that she was a dancer, she cried and cried. She did have fun playing with her friends during practice. The friends she hangs out with in school are in this picture they call themselves the jellyfish. They have a little theme song about jellyfish, it is very cute. Megan and her friends really are quite entertaining, they make me laugh.

Megan with her friend JJ from our ward. There were girl and boy pirates. They would have the girls play some boy parts becuase there weren't enough boys.

The Buddha Boy

I have decided that Jake's new nickname is Buddha. As you can see by the picture it is a fitting name. He has the cutest tummy, it is the shape of a pear. I think it doesn't look very comfortable to sit up with his tummy the size and shape that it is, but he doesn't seem mind. He hit his due date and decided that eating isn't a bad thing. We had some friends weigh him on Sunday and their scale said that he was 11 pounds 4 oz. Way to go Jake!! We just love our little Buddha Boy.

Sorry I just got a new camera and I am learning which way to hold it when taking a video.

Are You Kidding Me?!!!