doing the shuffle

We have finally given in to Ryan's request to have his own room. He'll be moving into the junk/sewing/scrapbook/junk room. He is sooo excited! I was a bit sad because I'm losing "my" space. I told him there was no way I was going to move my scrapbook cabinet and he'd just have to live with it being in his room and be prepared to give me access to it at any time -- he was totally fine with that because he's just so excited to have his own room! Ryan and Jacob will now have to take responsibility for their own messes and clean up of their rooms -- no more blaming each other for messiness! They are both going to enjoy having some play space. Late Saturday afternoon we started going through the room to rearrange and clear stuff out. We loaded the van with treasures to go to DI and sadly, my skis were part of that load -- I've used them once in 15 years and they are way out of date and possibly not very safe anymore. We also threw some stuff away that we decided we just didn't need to store anymore. I'm not finished yet figuring out places to put everything that we do need to hang onto, but I'm very close and I'm pleased with what we've been able to get rid of and rearrange. We promised Ryan he could move in this weekend and I'm quite sure we'll be ready.

first day of school

The boys headed back to school yesterday! Yee-haw! It's hard to believe I have 3 kids in school this year. Even though they would never admit it, I think they were "ready" to go back and even excited about a new year. Jared is in sixth grade, Ryan is in fourth grade, and Jacob is in kindergarten. The kindergarteners went to school for all of one hour yesterday...with a parent. My neighbor took Matthew for me so I could focus on Jacob -- it was good for both of us. The kindergarten hour consisted of getting acquainted with the classroom, bathroom, coat/backpack hooks, library, and office. Each child drew a self portrait, got to read with their parent and then finally gathered on the floor so the teacher could talk to them for a minute and read a story. We also signed up for a time during the week for an assessment. We were home by 10:00 a.m. Jacob only goes to school this week for his 1/2 hour assessment, which is tomorrow. He will start going to school everyday after Labor Day.

Now for my mini-soapbox: I hate that the kindergarteners get all excited to go to school and they show up for the first day only to be there for an hour, with a parent, and then to top it off, don't get to go back for another week! Doing an academic assessment is fine with me, but could we just postpone their real "first day" of school until after Labor Day so that they get to go everyday after that? They are excited to go to school, so let them! And their first day should last long enough to be a "real" day -- none of this silly one hour with a parent stuff! OK, I enjoyed spending that hour with Jacob, but in all reality, it just wasn't necessary!! I think the teacher could show the kids all together around the classroom and school and the kids were fine to be there without a parent -- good grief, most every kid goes to preschool for a year or two before kindergarten anyway and is accustomed to not having a parent with them during school time!

My other soapbox: The first day of school our principal has everyone meet at the front of the school outside for a Pledge of Allegiance and singing the national anthem. Then the kids are told to go around to the back of the school to walk a lap around the track while their teachers go to their classrooms and get ready to greet the kids. This is all silliness in my opinion. When we're outside we can't hear the principal speaking or leading the pledge because there is too much traffic noise on Main street and too many people gathered around. It's complete chaos to get everyone going around to the back of the school and walking the track. The kids just want to get to their new classrooms and the teachers have been preparing to greet students for a week or more. I say, just go to class!

that's my boy!

We are lucky enough to have two packages of chocolate from Europe sitting on our counter at the moment. One is milk chocolate and the other is dark chocolate. I love dark chocolate. Jacob asked if he could have a piece of chocolate. I said "yes" and started reaching for the milk chocolate bar (this was definitely a selfish effort to save the good dark chocolate for myself!). Jacob immediately said, "No, Mom -- I want the other one, the GOOD one!" I gave in and complied with his wishes, all the while patting myself on the back for raising a child with EXCELLENT taste in chocolate!

jacob's sunflower

Jacob planted a tiny sunflower seed in a cup at the end of preschool in May. Look what happened to that seed! WOW! He is so proud of it -- and so are we -- it's the best plant in the yard!

mmmm, delicious!

Last weekend I made this yummy shrimp & pasta dish for dinner. I didn't use jalapenos, but just some medium-hot peppers from the garden and I also threw in some fresh mushrooms that I needed to use up. I also only used about 1/2 to 3/4 of the amount of cayenne that the recipe called for. Can you tell we don't like to burn our tastebuds too much?? It was deliciously spicy with just the right amount of heat. I will be adding it to my list of favorite recipes! Thanks, Nicola!

birthday boy

Here's my Ryan blowing out his 9 candles on a "death by chocolate" cake! He blew them all out with one breath, so we hope all his wishes will come true!
Since Ryan is the youngest in his school/age group, he is always anxious for his birthday to finally arrive so that he can be the same age as his friends...for a little while anyway! He got a boatload of presents for his birthday. He loves Legos and has been into Indiana Jones lately, so... here's the Lego Indiana Jones for DS game
and here's the Lego Indiana Jones Jungle Cutter all put together and ready for action!
Other gifts that he opened were a watch, BYU football, basketball, a tasty vanilla cream, clothes and money -- what more could a kid ever wish for?! Ryan is always ready to have fun and play games whether its with family, friends, or cousins. He's VERY competitive, loves sports, is a math whiz, has an infectious smile and laugh, and makes friends with everyone. We are sooo glad he's part of our family!!

outdoor adventures

Mark has had a craving for hiking and being outdoors in the mountains lately. About a week and a half ago he took Jared and Ryan with him for a hike up Adams Canyon to explore the waterfall. They had a great time and got huge gigantic drinks at the Top Stop afterward. Ryan says the hike was 10 miles, but I think reality is 6 miles round trip. Here's a couple of picts:



The next adventure was to Hoover Lake with Eric in grandpa's truck. (Jacob got to go too this time!) Eric brought all the fishing gear and Mark & the boys brought the cooler full of food for the day. The boys totally loved the fishing, although Jacob says his favorite part was the waterfall (apparently there was some sort of waterfall somewhere). They brought six fish home, even though they caught more. Jared had the fish story for the day -- he caught the biggest fish of the day, but it got away with a hook and a piece of line still attached! Besides fishing, they did a little hiking too. The mountains were cool, beautiful, and quiet -- they only saw two other people the whole day! Eric took the fish home with him and then cooked them up for us on Monday night. Yum -- I haven't had trout for a very long time and so it tasted extra good. It was the boys first taste of trout and they all agreed it was good stuff! Here's the boys showing off their catch:

I'm pretty certain everyone wants to do this adventure again!:)