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!