Naughty or Nice??

This picture is of Alizah covering up something she did. (Hanna had told on her) She claims there is nothing under her hands. After we finally pulled her away from the table.....this is what we found....

Now, apparently, Piper knows how to spell AND write, because it was blamed on her. The teacher in me even got a little upset. (I know most of you invision me praising this kind of fine motor control and the creativity in use of writing materials...ha, ha) Alizah and I had a discussion about how moms can tell when kids are lying. A lying's child nose turns red just like Rudolph's. We had this same conversation a few days ago and the same reaction came from Alizah...Her hand slowly moved up to her face to cover her nose. I think this is an admission of guilt if I've ever seen one!! I'm not sure if it's her age or not, but we are having problems with her telling the truth over the smallest things.
In the mail today, also came letters from Santa! The timing was not the best because Santa told Alizah she was on the top of the nice list!! Oh no, I guess lesson was not learned today....

Cheerleading Performance

So since we don't have enough to do, the two girls have taken up cheerleading. Korbi is the coach and she recruited for extra girls and it has turned into an amazing opportunity for Alizah. Of course Hanna likes it too, but Alizah has become a little obsessed. Brandon had bet me $$ that Alizah wouldn't perform at the high school basketball game a few weeks ago and I was skeptical, but she came through and couldn't wait for the next one. She's never been one to perform in front of people, talk or pray in church or even hold a picture during singing time. She's starting to come out of her shell and this cheer program has been wonderful for her. On Friday morning, I walked into her room and she popped out of bed and said "today is cheer day!". Throughout the day, she continued to ask about a hundred times, "is it 7:00 yet?" She begged her dad to come see this performance and was as proud as a peacock when he came. We love that she has seemed to find something that makes her so happy. It sure helps that her "sister-Auna" is in the class too. Korbi does a great job with the girls and they have cheer/dance/stunt and tumbling in their routine. They'll have another performance in january, hope she can hold out till then:)

Gingerbread House

A grandma at the girls' school put together kits to decorate gingerbread houses, so of course we had to buy one. I was lucky to hold them off till Friday to decorate it. It was an event and a mess! The girls were super good about not eating the candy. I think I ate more than they did. Piper held out till the last picture then begged to eat the snowman's head. It was a fun project and it even had a light that we put in the inside to light it up. The girls are getting pretty excited about the holidays. We decorated the tree and wrapped a few presents. Hopefully we make it through the last week of school and all of our holiday activities!

Card Games

We're home and after our long ride (not as long as usual-but this didn't seem to lower the amount of screams:), the kids were excited to be out of the car. We quickly unloaded and I threw some laundry in. It's so hard to come home to a clean house and then within a matter of minutes it looks like a bomb of clothes and stuff went off. I can't believe we fit it all into the truck. There are Christmas presents that I'm trying to hide and sense that I'm trying to make out of the mess. So in the midst of all of that, Alizah says, "Play a card game with me mom". So what do I do, leave the mess (didn't really want to do it anyway) and sat down and played "Go Fish" with Alizah and Piper. I have to document this because it's the first time that we all played together-actually played, not pretended to hold the cards! It was amazing to me that the game did not end up with cards being thrown cuz someone didn't know the rules. It was easier for Alizah to win, because Piper would set down all of her cards one at a time to find the match. Alizah was extremely patient as Piper would look through each one every time. Like I've said before, we seem to be moving into a different phase of our lives. The girls are getting older and playing more together. When we got our new kitchen, Piper said she was thirsty, went into the kitchen got a cup and got her own water out of the fridge with the water dispenser in the door. Brandon and I looked at each other in amazement. Things are changing!! Now don't get me wrong, I still do a "little" too much for my children (people who know me are laughing at this point), but they are getting so old and I know time is flying fast with them....

School Pictures

My friend Jenn, came to our school to take pictures for the pre-school. Piper was not necessarily cooperative, but I think they turned out great! People have been checking my blog lately wondering why I haven't been posting, I've got to get in the routine again! We are preparing for leaving for Idaho next week for Thanksgiving. I'm trying to pack as I'm doing laundry and getting all my school stuff done. The kids are super excited to get out of town and see family and cousins. I'm excited cuz we have a new DVD player in our truck!

Halloween

Hanna dressed up as an Eskimo. She looked pretty cute when she went to school. You can't see in this pic, but we did her hair in braids and she had the matching boots. For her other ten parties (I'm exaggerating-but not that much:)) she was a rock star. That one was her favorite cuz she got to color her hair and wear make-up. She went to a friend's house, her babysitter took her to her ward's carnival and she dressed up at gymnastics.

Piper was also various things. Every time we went somewhere she would dress up as something different from the dress up closet. This costume was actually Alizah's last year. At school she was a cowgirl and at the carnival she was Princess Jasmine.

If anyone could even guess, Alizah was the same thing every time. She picked this Swiss Miss costume from a magazine and was so excited when it came. It arrived a little too small-at least maybe sister and cousins will get some use out of it in the years to come.

I actually missed the true trick-or-treating on Halloween. So I only got these quick pics at the door. brandon took them around to a few houses. I have been so sick. This weekend I couldn't even talk becuase my throat finally gave out. I've been sick for a few weeks, taking the weekend to rest and then jumping back in. I finally got a blessing yesterday and feel much better today, but still took the day off. I've been sleeping a ton and letting the kids run wild! They've been eating so much candy and loving it!! I had to force some decent food down them.

School Updates

I figured I'd better do first day of school pictures before we hit November!
Hanna has taken on a new adventure with school. She attends Kimber Academy which is a private school. There are many reasons while we chose to try this route this year, which I won't share here, but she is enjoying her new school and the exciting opportunities it has brought. We do alot more activities at home, which is what we took a picture of above. The girls are exploring an owl pellet. I purposely didn't tell them what it was until after the exploration was over:) Last week Hanna's new class went to the vet and dissected a rooster and looked at all the organs during their physiology lessons. She also takes extra spanish classes (which was the deciding factor for me with the private school) and a drama class during the week. Her school does include religion and intensive history classes which are pretty amazing.

Alizah and her friend Halie and teacher, Maestra Jasmine. Alizah goes to AIM school where she also goes to Spanish classes during her kindergarten day. Alizah THRIVES under her new schedule. She's the type of kid who lives for structure and sets her clothes out a week ahead, completes homework every night without being asked, and asks to go to bed cuz she doesn't want to be tired for school. She loves her friends and has even decieded to be interested in "fashion"- (meaning her clothes actually match this year)

Piper was not so thrilled to start her school experience this year. I tried to put her into a class that accomodated the rest of the families' schedule, but as you can see in this picture, she really wouldn't have anything to do with that class. She wanted to be in her best friend's Collin and Beck's class. So, she wins and mom runs crazy most of the day getting the kids to their right classes. Piper loves her class mostly because her favorite aunt kiki teaches it. She is so lucky. her first month inluded boiling foods to make paint, painting feet, and exploring life size skeletons. She is speaking more spanish than any of the girls did at this age.

The girls and I are settled into our schedules now and poor Brandon just struggles to keep it all straight. He calls everyday and says "what happens tonight?" The girls each have their after school activities which include gymnastics of course. Hanna is also doing her church activity days, dance class, and a pottery class. We have bounded right into the school year and I can't believe it's almost Thanksgiving.

Finally.....a kitchen!

A little recap for everyone....we, started on June 11th with our demo of the kitchen from a tiny leak behind the fridge. A month ago, boxes arrived in our kitchen and they started, but discovered that one of the cabinets were broken from shipping. So we wait again and finally three days short of FOUR months we get to move in....
Then we look like a mess for another week as I wash every item that has been in a garage for that long of a time.....and TODAY we look like this!
YEAH!! We have running water, a DISHWASHER:), and a stove. We are working on the broken oven-repair man should be here any minute..
This is my favorite part. The deep granite composite sink and sprayer faucet. I love it! I was never a fan of the two part sinks and love how DEEP it is!
And this is Alizah's favorite part. We had a lazy susan before, but for some reason she shows everyone this cupboard when they come to our house. "Look", she says, "a spinny cupboard!"


I know that many, many things have happened since I posted last and I will catch up, but all my family has wanted me to post pictures of my kitchen so this is what you get first! I'm excited to be moved in and am working on decorating and organizing still, but I'm not too excited about having to do my laundry myself!! No more time to read, now it's back to dishes and laundry, but that's real life right???!! I'll be posting more about the girls' new school classes and our life for this school year. We've had some major changes and I'll catch everyone up, I promise!

Broadway Jr Week

Broadway Jr. Camp was another camp that Hanna participated in this summer. She absolutely loved it! The kids did a mini-play of Mary Poppins. Hanna was Jane and her friend Reili was Michael. She had lines that she memorized and songs that she sang. They even had a choreographed dancing number for the chimmney sweep part of the movie. It was really impressive! I wished I had gotten it on video. I was running the music so was unable to get too many pictures. She can't wait until next year.

This week has been a throw-up week at our house. Korbi's family got it first, then it came to our house. We started Wednesday night and it has made it's way through 3 of us up until today. I'm praying I don't get it! We are still out of a laundry room, so I've made multiple trips to the laundermat with disgusting smells coming from the bags of blankets, pillows, etc. I've lysoled the house every five minutes. I hope it makes it's way through before Hanna's school starts next week.
My Grandpa Beck is also in the hospital this week. He's been very sick and we are all praying for him. I hope to be able to talk to him today. He's almost 99 in a few weeks and he is one amazing man! I have a book of stories he has written about his youth and views of the world and really enjoy going through them. I hate being so far away.....

Hanna's Woodward Week

Tye Dye Project during arts & crafts....

Silks with Olympian Kristy Powell during Open Gym......

Learning to play drums during Rec time.....

Showing off her Olympian autographs from Kristy Powell and Alicia Sacromone....

Rock Climbing after dinner....


All of these experiences were new for Hanna this year at her gymnastics camp at Woodward West in California. We went in July with 8 of her teammates. This year another mom came with me and it was alot less hectic week. I actually coached at the camp, so I didn't even get one gymnastic picture of Hanna! She did do over 30 hours of gymnastics that week plus all these extra activities. She made some new friends and learned some new skills. She is growing up and I love having the opportunity to have fun right along side her!

More vacation pictures

I know it seems like a long time ago (my vacation), but I'm still slow on posting. Or, maybe I'm pretending I still want to be on vacation!! Anyways, here's about the ONLY picture you'll ever see of my girls acting in way, shape, or form....like tomboys. We bought them slingshots that were carved into the shape of Yellowstone animals in West. I loved it! Alizah of course got into it the most and was pretty good at it! This is funny to anyone who really knows my girls, because they are the type that will see a rock on the ground by a stream and ask if they can pick it up to throw it in. Now, their boy cousins see rocks and see what car or person is nearest for them to throw it at! We just spent an amazing week with all their boy cousins and absolutely loved having them around our house. They went on walks and explored their secret hideout and picked unripe grapes at the neighbors. I'll post more later, but I just have to say, we really miss you guys!!

Are We There Yet?

The only picture of Piper....sorry I know it's terrible, but I had to document her so she knew we didn't leave her home.

Alizah being silly!

Hanna is extremely thrilled to see the moose! Can you tell how enthusiastic she is???

Alizah was the only one who enjoyed the ride....

So here are more pictures from our vacation in Yellowstone. We went on a float trip with the girls and saw two moose as we floated down the river at Mack's Inn. This was the ultimate example of "Are we there yet?" For some unknown reason Hanna hates boating. She has been like this since she was a baby. The river was so low that for most of the trip you could hear the bottom of the boat slide along the bottom of the river. Everytime dad shifted his weight and the boat rocked, screams shot out of Hanna and then Piper would follow just to get a reaction! It was the longest two hours...A funny story happened yesterday. I wore my Yellowstone shirt to work and someone came in to check out our gym and register for classes and my shirt got us talking about Yellowstone. Traci had just moved to Moses Lake from Utah, but her parents own the candy store in West Yellowstone where we go every visit. They make homemade taffy which I had brought back for our coaches. The coaches were telling her how good it was! She was so excited because she has had a hard time moving to a small time not knowing anyone. It was so funny how many connections we had. It's such a small world!

Catch Up...

Chase & Taya and the girls resting on a hike to LookOut Point at the
upper falls in Yellowstone Park.

Our "Jr. Wolves" that wanted to join the pack in West Yellowstone.

Feeding the bears in West. Alizah was so excited because she was old enough this year!!

It's been forever since I've posted. I seem to go through spurts of run, run, run, then play catch up for a few days, then off to a full speed run again. I'm at a slightly resting point meaning I'm home and no major event happens this weekend. We are down to two weeks until summer is over and I'm already getting set into panic mode. I have so much more to do for the summer!! I hope to pack a kitchen remodel, more tanning time, walks with my kids, and book reading into the end of this summer... We have one more major Idaho trip and a flight back to Moses Lake to fit in and a little school shopping. It hit me the other day that I have THREE kids to "school shop" for. AHHH, the backpacks are bought and it's kindof freaking me out a little. So I finally downloaded my pictures and will slowly catch everyone up on our past few vacations and summer camps. We'll start with fun pictures from Island Park where we actually had a real vacation of sightseeing, family time, runs in the mountains, bear feeding, and games. The cabin always creates such wonderful memories and everytime I go, I wonder why it took me so long to get back there. I'm already wanting to go back and wish it wasn't so far away. We did a tour of Yellowstone and had a few days with friends to add to our trip this year. I'll add more great pictures and updates quicker this time!

Happy Father's Day

Brandon playing with the present the girls got him....CandyLand! Can't you tell he is excited??

Happy Father's Day Brandon!! This is the only present the girls didn't tell him beforehand. He knew about the golf shoes and swimsuit. Piper had even said, "Dad you are NOT getting a orange striped swimsuit." She laughed and laughed when he tried on his striped swimsuit today! He has been taking the girls swimming a few times a week, so we
needed to update his style:)

Yesterday we went to Hanna's Horse Vaulting Performance. It was a fundraiser for her team that she had joined only three weeks ago and look at her!! Wow, I had never seen her and I was so surprised at how she switched positions on the moving horse! There is an actual team that she could compete on if she wants. I love it, because this gives her and her dad something to do that is outside of our gym it doesn't have to do with me. (we do kindof butt heads when it comes to me coaching her....) I was so proud of her and her dad! We need to go shopping for boots for the family though if we are going to be attending these events often. The cute, glittery sandals and cute fashionable clothes didn't quite cut it when around horses, dirt, and you know!!

Recognize this food?

Anyone want to guess what this food is that Alizah is eating? I was soooo, super, super excited when Alizah started eating this food, but that was before she made her own addition! Send me a guess and no fair if I already told you!

My latest drama....

You walk into my house and you see this......

You turn the corner and you see this.......

And this.............

And this little valve is responsible for this minor disaster!!

So if anyone recalls, we had a kitchen fire in November and just had the kitchen floors replaced in mid-April. I noticed a few bumps in the vinyl last week and called the guy who did the floors to come and fix his work. He walked in and said, "you have water damage". Water damage, what water? We hadn't ever seen any water! So after investigating, we found a tiny leak behind the fridge. We called a water damage place to come dry it out Friday morning. By noon, that same day, my kitchen was gone. I even had dirty dishes in the sink that I had to just rinse and throw in box because they were demolishing so quickly. They had to rip out two subfloors, walls, and the cabinets in both the kitchen and the laundry room. I don't even know what this means for us other than a fridge in the living room and paper products for the rest of the summer! They've told us a minimum of six weeks and that's if everything goes smooth with the insurance-who will more than likely drop us because we've had two claims. I don't really understand how that works, you pay into insurance for the purpose of disasters and then they drop you because you use them???? What the heck??? So the kids are enjoying cheetos and cereal which is what they are living on. And we are going to be spending a lot of time at the pool and away from this whole in my house that all I can do is stare at and cry over the brand new vinyl that I watched being ripped up!
Oh, by the way take this as a fair warning to anyone that lives in Moses Lake or the surrounding areas. We will be expecting a hurricane or huge wind storm shortly. The Service Master guys joked with me that disasters come in threes-so we've had the fire and water, so expect the wind anytime soon:)