Dance Festival 2011

Emily, Kalli and Madalyn

Kalli and her teacher Mrs. Kenley

Kalli and Aidan at the Author's Fair

Mr. Pulham and his puppets

Aidan and his teacher Mrs. Frederickson

We had a great day today! The sun is shining brightly and it is so green from all the rain we have been getting! This morning, the school did their annual dance festival.  Aidan did the dance "La Bamba" and Kalli did hers to Men in Black. Afterwards the kids shared their stories that they had written. It has been a good school year. It is so hard to believe that Kalli is done with her elementary school experience and she is going to Jr. High next year. Wow. She is growing right up. So it was fun to get pictures with their teachers this year and to see some of the things that they have learned.

Happy Anniversary!

Scott and I were able to get away last weekend to the Anniversary Inn in Salt Lake City. It was so nice of my parents to help us out with our kids and of course Kael who took the lion share of the babysitting. We really enjoyed our stay and it was so nice to have breakfast in bed instead of being the one making it for everyone!!  We also were able to attend the Salt Lake Temple which was the highlight of our trip. That is where we were married 18 years ago.  We came home to Orem at about 4 p.m. Saturday and went to Texas Roadhouse by University Mall. It was so good. It was our first time there and they really had good food and had excellent customer service. Wow! We had a great experience eating there. Then we went to Kung Fu Panda 2 which was a fun movie except for when the kid in the row above us spilled pop on my head and down Scott's neck. Plus everyone brought their kids and some people were not considerate when their kid was crying...we got to hear it. I'm sorry kind of a pet peeve...if you are going to bring your kid to the movie, you can't enjoy the movie as much as you would like. If your kid is crying...please take them out. Anyway, other than that...it really was an entertaining movie and we had a good time. When we got out of the movie, it started pouring rain which was kind of the name of the game the whole weekend!

Running with Angels 2011

so many pretty waterfalls there in the gardens

I made it with a time of 58:01

My mom, sister-in-law, Hannah and my two sisters, Emma and Katie, walked the Running with Angels 5K on Saturday, May 21, 2011.  We had such a good time together. We didn't push to hard, just walked and enjoyed the gardens which were so beautiful.  Some of the tulips were even in bloom still. Afterwards, we went to IHOP for breakfast which was great. i had such a big meal, that I didn't eat anything else till the end of the day at about 8 p.m.! But it was great to enjoy my family's company and we had a great time together. We are planning on doing the 4th of July 5K together along with brothers and brother-in-laws so that will be a lot of fun too!

Aaron's preschool program

Aidan is such the drama king!

Aaron has been going to preschool all year and tonight they had a little graduation program.  It was so cute. Aaron's part was to lead us in the pledge of allegiance.  He did very well. He has no fear standing in front of people and speaking and/or singing. He did such a great job. I was so proud of him.  My mom, grandma and aunt came to see him and I'm so glad of their support. I have a great family.  I just wish that Aaron could go to kindergarten next year. His birthday is the beginning of September so he just barely misses the deadline. He is so ready to go. We are going to try and get him in Westmore's preschool program but we won't know if he gets in until the testing which is the first week of school.
I'm so excited for this summer! Last summer I didn't sign the kids up for any camps or anything and we just stayed home which was okay but this summer, I felt like I wanted to be a little busier. I signed the kids up for swim lessons and some sports camps and I want to take them to the Manti Pagaent.  Kalli has girls camp (wahoo!) and we have a Wendt family reunion to look forward to with Scott's siblings as well as a Pyne Reunion with my aunts and uncles.  Kael is getting his Eagle Scout award this summer (I'm thinking positive!) and my 20th High school reunion is in July. As well as Stadium of Fire and three 5K races to run! Four birthdays to celebrate (mine, Kael's, Aidan's and Ammon's) and Aidan is getting baptized!  Wow! Lots to look forward too! Plus my garden to work on, weed and irrigation. I am so excited! Now if the weather would just warm up instead of all this rain! Although it has been great seeing all the green as a result of the moisture.  And we haven't had to put our air conditioning unit in the window yet.  That has been nice.  It's hard to believe the kids have 2 weeks of school left! It went so fast! Here's to summer!

Little purple pansies

I couldn't help myself Saturday and I bought some more flowers. I saw these "Little Purple Pansies touched with yellow gold" and I just had to get them. My pansies usually don't survive the summer heat...they are so tender. Petunias do much better for me. But I got petunias, pansies and a geranium and hopefully I can keep them alive. They have been surviving fine with this cool weather we have been having. Although my marigold's aren't doing so well.  Scott and the kids got the corn planted so we now have our garden all the way planted. We have tomatoes, peppers, zucchini, cucumbers (slicing and pickling), corn, green beans, carrots, and pumpkins.  And I have a raspberry plant that is doing well and I planted more strawberries. I hope that I can stick to my goal to harvest my garden well. It seems like every year I make the same goal and then I get tired and I can't keep up on the weeding and then I somehow get so much food and it goes to waste!! If I can't can it this year and keep up with it, which is what I'm determined to do this year, I need to make sure I give it to my neighbors!!!
This week I have felt a little lazy and blah. I don't know if it has to do with the weather but I haven't been very motivated to do a lot of housecleaning and gardening. I've actually been spending a lot of time with my boys which is good and I've been reading way too much. Last night we went to Kael's band concert at the high school which was awesome. They played theme's from the movies: Star Trek, Star Wars, How to train your dragon, Mission Impossible, Pirates of the Caribbean and Avatar. It was really fun to listen to but halfway through, my younger boys were done. Scott took them to grandma and grandpa's for a little while and then came back and got Kael, Kalli and me.  It surprised me how scared Aaron was of the music...he kept saying how loud it is. He is not used to live performance. He is just used to CDs and DVDs. I need to take my younger boys out more and expose them to more plays and concerts. It just has been hard with their age...they have a hard time sitting through long performances.  
Scott and I went to the play, "Annie" at the SCERA on Friday and really enjoyed it. A girl from our ward was in it so that made it extra fun to see her perform.  I could really see Kalli in something like that in the future. I am looking forward to going to plays and concerts at SCERA this summer.  It is hard to believe that the school year is winding down and school will be over soon.  Aidan has a fun field trip to the Living Aquarium tomorrow and Kalli has a ton of sixth grade activities coming up: Etiquette dinner, Kickball game against the Faculty, sixth grade graduation....it will be a lot of fun.  And take-home library is winding down. I am so excited to be helping with the library since I am planning on being in charge of it next year....it basically means that I will make be in charge of getting parents to switch out the books (which parents are so awesome and step up to do this...it will be great!) and basically if an emergency happens and they can't do their books than they can call me and I will do it.  It will be a busy job but I have such a love for reading that I love encouraging others to read also. So I am looking forward to helping there and hopefully Aaron will be going to preschool at Westmore next year so I will just have Ammon with me and that will make it easier. 

Planting the garden

Watermelon and cantelope

Green Beans

my flowers

Our Backyard

Today was so wonderful! I was so happy with the weather.  It was so nice and I got some sun on my arms for proof!  We planted most of the garden and hopefully it will be okay. I don't think we have ever planted this early in May; usually we wait till June.  It was so fun to pick out the seeds and the plants...I also weeded a place by my porch and planted some petunias and pansies. I am anxious to be a better gardner this summer and not let the weeds get out of control.  I guess time shall tell....

Getting the Garden ready

We had a fun Saturday! Scott and I took our youngest boys out shopping for garden plants and seeds.  We went to Vineyard nursery then to Cook's nursery.  At Vineyard, they gave us some free pansies..the poor things were covered with snow from our snowstorm in the morning.  Also, they had about 10 packets of Veggie Tales vegetables and Aaron wanted to buy them all. In fact, he threw a huge fit when we only got one and then the whole drive to Cook's nursery, which is on 1600 North Orem,  you could hear him weeping and wailing like a banshi.  Scott's patience was wearing thin...but we finally calmed Aaron down.  There were so many fun vegetable starts at Cook's; I wanted to buy them all but I don't exactly know what to do them until I plant them in the ground. I don't want to plant for at least two weeks. Last year, our last snow and freeze of the year was May 24th so I'm a little nervous.  But I am so excited to start our garden for 2011.  Scott and Kael tilled the garden and we have a few more things to get ready and I am so looking forward to a fun summer in the garden!!!

Cherish your children

Ammon and his cousin Talmage

Ammon with his bear

Aaron with his new friend Alice

So these are pictures from last week when I babysat my nephew and two friends came to play, Zach and Alice.  it was busy but fun.   As I was looking over the pictures again, I wanted to blog about how fast kids grow.  It has been a couple of years since we have had a baby living in our family.  Ammon is approaching three years old this summer and I'm just amazed at how fast it has gone.  I think back when all my kids were newborn babies and when I was so overwhelmed, especially when I had Ammon, and I felt like it would last forever.  Today, Aaron is too busy playing this morning to eat...it is 9 a.m. and he still hasn't had breakfast, yet I remember when he was a baby and feeding him at 1 a.m., 4 a.m., 6 a.m., etc  It is so different now.  I am in a different stage of life where I am dealing with different issues than I was when I did when I had little babies.  I remember people telling me, "Cherish this time together, they're not babies together" and I did...but now that I am moving on to a stage where I don't have little babies anymore, I actually miss it! yet I'm relieved too. Life is a little easier now that I feel like I'm not in survival mode and I can actually breathe and do other things.  But, it isn't all peaches and cream....it has been really hard to deal with the teen issues and just because my little kids are not babies, they still need me and they are demanding in other ways.  I love being a mom and I love my family so much.  The highs are high and the lows are low. And I will try and cherish the time I'm in right now because it is just flying so fast.  My favorite thing that Aaron said this past week is when Becky came to pick up her baby Alice:  Aaron said that she should bring back Alice but not Zach and then Becky asked if she could stay and he said, "No, just Alice"  He really enjoyed having such a little person around. He smiled at her and cooed at her and it was just really fun to watch. He really won't have the same experience that Kael and Kalli have had with babies around. Maybe in 7-10 years when he has nieces and nephews will have experience but it is still not the same as having a baby in the house.  There is something so special about having a baby around.  Cherish that time. I sound like all my kids have moved out but you get the idea ;-)