My Sister is Getting Married!

We had my sister's bridal shower last Saturday with friends and family. I just love weddings and all the fun traditions that go with them. My sister is getting married in October which is right around the corner. Okay it is tomorrow. But, anyway, the wedding is in a couple of weeks and I am so excited for Katie. She has such a fun adventure ahead of her! I had to leave the shower early, which I felt bad for, but it was a good excuse. I got to go to the Relief Society General Meeting up in Salt Lake that evening with my Wendt Sisters-in-law and my nieces. It was such a great experience being in the conference center. There are no words to describe how strong the spirit is there. Especially when President Monson came in. All visiting ceased and hush came over the whole audience and everyone stood in respect. It was so wonderful! I want to take Kalli to the YW meeting in the spring so she can feel that feeling too.
We always bring way too much food to these kind of things but better too much than too little, right!!!!


Kalli said that she felt like she was having her picture taken with a Disney princess. I agree. Wow! What a couple of good-looking girls in this pic!

Autumn decor!

The kids and I had a good time putting up our autumn decorations that I have saved away for the last year. I love autumn time! I love the leaves crunching and the smell in the air, the harvest of grapes and pumpkins, the orange, red and yellow and brown colors of the season! It is so much fun. Happy Fall everyone!!!!

Aaron's haircut

Okay I've noticed that I have blogged a lot about Aaron and that is okay!!! He was getting bushy like a lion so I gave him a haircut. The top picture is the costume he found when we were going through the tubs of Halloween and autumn decor that I opened. He said, "I want to be Harry Potter!" The trouble is that the costume is way too big and the glasses won't stay on him and we can't find the hat. So, sorry, Aaron dear...you may have to pick something else. I was so amazed at how much Halloween stuff I had. Last year, I bought a ton of stuff on clearance and now I'm so glad I did! Aidan has a choice of about four costumes...of course he wants to be a jedi...luckily I have a Jedi costume!!!! Like I said in the post before, we are being well provided for!!

Aaron loves preschool!

Aaron has been going to "Circle of Friends" preschool run by my friend Jennifer Patterson and he is so enjoying it. It is two hours Tues and Thur which is nice because it gives me a little break and he enjoys it so much. When I come to pick him up, he runs out so happy to see me, which I love, and he tells me all the fun things that he got to do. He is such a smart boy! Anyway, I am so blessed to have such generous extended family that is making it possible for him to go.

We have seen so many blessings in the last little while that has shown me that we are not alone and that the Lord will provide for us and take care of us. We need to make sure we are doing our part too, but I have been amazed at how the windows of heaven have been pouring blessings and almost to the point where it is overwhelming!!! Our garden has done so wonderfully well this year and we got some assistance for medical insurance and food. Also, this year, the secretaries of our school district did a program where they bought backpacks and filled them with school supplies and other needful supplies and gave them to needy families in the district and we were recipients of that program. I was so touched by the generosity of others and the kids were really excited to get them too. It is sometimes hard to be on the receiving end of charity but we won't always be in the position and someday I'll be able to help others too. Hopefully, they will receive it as graciously!

Egg Drop 2010

One of the fun activities of 6th grade was the Egg Drop. This is a picture of Mr. Beckstrand, the principal at Westmore. The kids were supposed to design a container to keep a raw egg intact after a fall of the school roof. Alas, Kalli's egg did not survive the fall but there were some kids that succeeded! It was a lot of fun for the parents and students to watch.

Up and coming Author David Powers King

For all that know me, you know how much I love to read. I have over 700 books on my Goodreads and it is just a hobby that I love. I am currently reading a book by David Powers King called A Dragon's Heart that I am really enjoying. The only thing I don't like is I only have it on the computer instead of in my hands like a regular, old-fashioned book. The problem is money....I would print out the whole thing but that uses ink and paper or I would get one of those new fangled technological Kindles to read it on but again, that costs money I don't have. So I have to settle on reading it on the computer...wah, wah, wah......but anyway. It has been a fun read so far and I can hardly wait to find out what happens next. (As a side note, for a month, Stephenie Meyer offered her new book, The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner a couple months ago--she's not doing it now---and I read the whole thing on computer with the same complaints. I disliked reading it that way so much that even though I had finished it, I went to Costco and bought a copy of it!) So, anyway, this is such a treat for me to be able to read this story and hopefully soon I will finish it!

Congrats!

Congrats to Kalli who is the Ladies and Gentleman's club captain, a position on the Student Council at school. She had her interview this past week and she was informed yesterday that she is on the Student Council. She is so excited! I am excited for her too and I know she will do a good job. This week, Kael is going to Yellowstone National Park with his Geology class for three days so this week I will be helping him get ready for that. We have to get him packed and he has to make up his classes at school that he will miss. I hope he doesn't get too behind....he has 20 credits of concurrent enrollment. So far he is doing a great job caring that heavy load. I am proud of him! It is so fun to see all my kids work so hard in school and make the accomplishments that they do!

Kalli's birthday

Kalli turned 12 this year! I am so excited that she is in Young Women now. She got to go do baptisms for the dead with the Beehives on her birthday and that was a real treat. Today is her first day to go to mutual with everybody. It will be so weird to have two of my kids gone to mutual every week. Hopefully, Kael and Kalli will get along :-) My rule for the kids have been that on their even year between the ages of 8-18, they can have a friend party but Kalli didn't get one this year... so I promised her she could have a party next year. Aidan turns 8 next summer so I will have two parties to plan :-) I love Kalli and I am so grateful she is in our family! I remember all the trouble she would get into when she was two and I thought she would never grow out of it but she did....well mostly. She is so fun to have around!

I just wanted to say that we have been so blessed this month. I thought there couldn't possibly be life after unemployment and that we would never make it but we are. I am so surprised (and I shouldn't be!) how well the Lord is taking care of us. We are doing the best we can and He is taking care of our needs. We have been blessed so much that I am just in awe!!!!

Aaron's Birthday

We have three September birthdays in our family: Aaron, Kalli and Scott. Aaron turned four and has been so excited. He has been enjoying preschool twice a week. He is such a smart boy! He got a Veggie Tales lunch bag for his birthday and he was so excited! He really enjoys Veggie Tales! We had his birthday celebration on Labor Day with the extended family and also celebrated Kalli's birthday too. I will put pics of Kalli's birthday next. Anyway, it seems like just yesterday that Aaron was born and in the NICU and now he is four years old. The time goes so fast. Next year, because he missed the deadline with his birthday, he won't be able to go to kindergarten yet but I will try to get him in Westmore's preschool. I have my doubts though because Aaron is so smart. I don't know if they will let him in! We'll see. But I am so grateful for the joy Aaron brings and I am so glad he is in our family!

The Rest of the story....

So I found out some more info on the whole student council situation. What a drama. So, in order to apply for student council, you have to write an essay on why you want to serve and then fill out an application which has a parent signature, and 4th, 5th and 6th grade teacher signatures. Kalli had her 5th and 6th grade teachers sign it but her fourth grade teacher is no longer there so she had asked the teacher in charge of student council to sign her application. The teacher said no and explained why (that her behavior wasn't examplary enough, etc, etc) but she told her that she could have another teacher sign it and then turn it in. So Kalli went to the person that she suggested and that person wasn't there so she came home crying because she didn't have the application done so she couldn't hand it in..... So that was the real story. No one actually told her she couldn't apply but I was sad that Kalli had it in her head that she wasn't behaved well enough to apply. So I am glad that I went to the principal and got to the bottom of things. I am happy that she is happy and also she knows that I care about her. She is on the list to interview for student council and has the chance she wanted to apply so I am happy about that too. I hope we don't have too many more situations like this during the year. It's just too much energy....

Conquering Fears

Those who know me well know that I do not like contention and I do not like confrontations. I would much rather let things blow over and just be quiet. Well, I realized that with Kalli's student council situation (last blog entry) that I needed to be her advocate and there are just some things that moms have to do whether they like it or not. I worried and stewed over all weekend and last night I even had a dream that I went to the principal and he said, "Kalli needs to shape up...you are absolutely wrong." So silly. What actually happened is I went to the principal and he agreed with me and he is going to take care of the situation. I am so glad that conquered my fear and went and talked to him. More later....

Disappointments

So yesterday, Kalli came home from school sobbing and so upset. She has worked all week on her application for student council and worked on her essay and yesterday, the teacher in charge of the student council took her aside and told her she couldn't apply because her behavior wasn't good enough. She is so disappointed because she really wanted to be a part of the leadership of the school and I am a little disappointed that they didn't even let her try. I know that Kalli isn't a quiet girl but is her behavior really that bad? The teacher told her that sometimes she is rude. Well, now I feel like Kalli has this label in her head at how she is perceived and it kind of makes me a little upset. I told Kalli to prove them all wrong by being on her best behavior ever. When Kalli was crying yesterday, she said something that was a good lesson: She said that she shouldn't be so upset because other people have worse trials than that and I told her that this meant a lot to her and she has every right to be upset. It just made me think that no matter how small or big our problems are, we have a kind Father in Heaven that listens to us and loves us and our trials matter to him. Anyway, she feels better now and she is involved in a lot of things this year with school so she won't be bored. I think she will live through this. :-)

First Day of School

So this is a picture of Kalli on her first day of school which was last week, August 25th. I didn't get a picture of Aidan because he missed the first day because he had croup. Last week, I took Ammon to the doctor (he had croup and got a steroid shot) Monday, then Tuesday after hours I took Aidan who got a shot and medicine because he sounded so bad and then Thursday, Kael missed his first B day of school (they go 4 classes on A day and 4 classes on B day) because--you guessed it he had croup too although they don't call it that when you are older. He just had the same virus that the other kids had and so he lost his voice and couldn't talk. He didn't get a shot...he was just told to take Ibuprofen and wait for it pass basically. This week everyone is over the croup and I am so happy. We take our health so much for granted sometimes. I have been getting a cold and sneezing a lot this week but I am counting my blessings that it isn't worse! I have this canker sore in my mouth that is not going away. I have had it for two weeks and I have put everything I can think of on it and it just won't go away. I get cankers a lot when I'm stressed but they come and go. This one just won't go! I need to stop feeling stressed but sometimes it is hard. I look at the trials that others are going through right now and they seem a lot worse than mine so what do I have to worry about?
Well, Kalli is enjoying 6th grade so far and I am pleased with how organized her teacher is teaching her to be. Aidan is liking 2nd grade and I really like his teacher and I love that he only has 15 kids in his class. What a blessing. Now if we can just get him to write legibly. Aaron will be starting preschool twice a week the day after Labor day and he is excited to go to school. It is nice to be getting into routine again although it has been very hard getting up every other day to take Kael to early morning seminary that starts at 6:20 a.m. I am really hoping that next year he will just do released time and take seminary during the day. Early morning is just killing me! He doesn't have his license yet so he can't drive himself. I should just make him ride his bike but I haven't yet. Anyway, we are doing well and Scott is still hunting for a job.