Veteran's Day Parade

Sophia and I got to march in the Veterans Day Parade in Leavenworth, Kansas.  Everyone in her Daisy Girl Scout Troop had so much fun!  We sang songs (I'm a Daisy Girl Scout, You're a Grand Old Flag, and several different cadence songs) and waved and had a great time!  It was fun to see the people be excited and smile at our cute troop singing and waving at them!  It was a great experience for the girls and leaders! 
My funny moment of the day:  When you hear there is going to be a fly over at 11:00 and to prepare the girls because it might be loud, what do you expect is going to happen?  We were in Hawaii for our last duty station and had the Blue Angels and several other fighter jets flying over all of the time.  The fly overs that shake the ground and buildings around because they are so loud and impressive, the kind that you have to really be prepared for because they come and go so quickly.   Well we had just had the moment of silence for all of the Vet's past and present and we were looking for the jets to fly overhead.  In the distance we could see some planes coming so I pointed them out to the girls and we watched them as they slowly crept our way.  As they got closer, at a very slow rate, I realized we were not having the Blue Angels or any other jet, these appeared to be crop dusters.  Yes they were the planes that were doing the fly over, but nothing that I had pictured for the day.  One of the little girls in our troop said "do we have to wait for them to get all the way to us?"  It was fun and a great tribute, but oh so not what we had expected!
   Thank you to all of our family and friends past and present who have served in the Military.  I don't want to even try to name them all because I know I will miss someone.   However, I do have to mention my amazing husband.  Sterling is a great man who gives so much for our country and for our family.  He missed this 4 day weekend with family serving the Army in Texas for 4 weeks.  We miss him and can't wait for him to come home.  We are so grateful for him and the great man, husband, father, friend he is to all of us!

Sophia lost her first tooth tonight!  She was so brave and so excited!

  She is my youngest to have lost a tooth.  The boys were much older when their teeth came out!  Her friend Kathryn has already lost 2 or 3 teeth so Sophia has been waiting anxiously for this tooth to come out!

  Such a cute girl!

(Nov 2, 2013)

Oct 31, 2013

 Helena loves LOVES loves to help me bake.  We made banana bread before dinner so the kids would have something sort of healthy to fill up on before candy.  My kids love banana bread!  

This picture is over exposed, but she is so cute with her big smile and of course I couldn't get that perfect smile again!  

 My cute kids before trick-or-treating.  Helena is a mermaid, she wanted her face painted because Sophia had hers done.   Sophia is a Geisha, Nellie Sue is a cute Lady Bug, and Daniel is a fierce Ninja!   James doesn't like or even tolerate Halloween.

   The lovely purple Sky-lander dragon is Kat, Sophia's friend from next door.  She is at our house enough we just call her ours!  She is an only child and loves to be with our big gang!

   Trick-or-treating in style!!  The girls did a good job of just going along for the ride! We went up our street and back down on the other side and then called it quits.  They each got about 15 pieces of candy and were very happy with that!    Sophia, Daniel, and Kat walked the neighborhood with Kim (Kat's mom) and had a good time.  They didn't do much more than the girls did, just much faster!  Sterling is gone to Texas and we don't like having Halloween without him!  

   Sophia loves Daisy Girl Scouts!

This is Sophia's whole troop on the night of their Investiture Ceremony.

 This was an activity a few weeks ago.  They were making a Lupe Petal Power Car out of leaves and sticks and things they found on a nature walk.  The girls loves putting it all together!  Anything that involves glue can't be bad!!!

 This is the care that Sophia helped create!  This picture is sideways.  The shells are the wheels. 

 This is at investiture night.  

 This is the girls saying the Girl Scout Promise

 Sterling got to pin on Sophia's Daisy pin.  Making her an official Daisy Girl Scout!

 Miss Austi gave Sophia her certificate and her patches that she has earned.  She was so excited to finally get the center of her Daisy patch for the front of her jacket and her blue petal along with some other fun patches.

 We had lots of refreshments and the girls thought it was great!

Austi, Staci, and Jessica

Daisy Troop 5400 Girl Scout Leaders

What a weekend!!!

We had an amazing weekend!  It was busy and fun!
We started the weekend, Saturday morning, with Sophia's first Girl Scout outing.  We went to Red Barn Farms to their pumpkin patch.  We took a hay ride down to the pumpkin patch, each girl got to choose a pumpkin, then we went back on the hayride to the top of the hill.  We then went through a corn maze.  We got to have some yummy cider doughnuts dipped in caramel (if we wanted - and of course I wanted!) and frosty apple cider, it was delicious.  Then we went over the the animal corals to see the animals.  It was a fun morning.   The weather was perfect, just cold enough to let us know fall is about to begin, but not so cold that we needed to be completely bundled up!

   Sophia searched high and low for "Just the right pumpkin".

 All the girls in her troop.  We have a pretty big troop with 17 girls in it!

 This is Phia and her BFF Kat. 

 Kat was brave enough to feed the goats, Phia was brave enough to give the goat food to Kat to feed to the goats.

We came home from our great Girl Scout adventure and then were able to watch conference and enjoy the day together as a family.  

 Sunday Morning

 Sunday Morning the kids wanted to have cinnamon rolls.  Because the commissary has been closed for a week due to the government shutdown and I can't find Rhodes Frozen Cinnamon rolls anywhere else around here, we got to make our own cinnamon rolls. (Which the kids probably thought was more fun anyway!)   Sophia had a great time, and was successful, at rolling out her own cinnamon rolls and then putting the cinnamon/sugar/honey mixture on them and then cutting them.  Helena also played with some dough but wasn't nearly as successful at making anything of her mound of dough.  The girls did a great job making their rolls, so mommy could make the rest of the rolls for the family.

 Between the sessions of Conference we went for a family walk.  The kids were going stir crazy being stuck in the house so we went out to enjoy the nice cool air.   Helena ran almost the whole walk.  She did a great job.  She is getting so big.  She is starting to speak in longer sentences and is pretty amazing.  Nellie is sure she can do anything that Helena can do (Which most of the time is true!)   They are both so big now. 

 The kids had a great time on our walk/park adventure and we had a really great day! 

Sunday Night

We got frogs!  The story:   One of the young women in our ward, Carolina,  knew that James loves animals and that we had a lot of them.  Sister Ransom was driving carpool to seminary one morning for a bunch of kids who live on post.  She asked the kids if they wanted some frogs.  No one said they wanted them but Carolina said she knew someone who would want them.  She knew James would like them.  Sister Ransom called me, her parents had some frogs that they no longer wanted.  They had had them for 2 years but wanted to give them to a home that would enjoy them.  I called Sterling and did some research.... and well, as you can see, I gave in and we now have 3 frogs.  They are pretty cool!

 We now have 20 animals, and the counter is full so there is no more room for animals.  James says we are just missing a rodent then we have all the different kinds, I assured him NO rodents will be coming in my house!   He is a great kid with a serious love for animals and I am a mom with a serious love for my son.... so we have a lot of animals!  They make him happy when not much in life does... so animals it is~!

 This is the cute frogs in the bucket while I cleaned out their cage.

Random fact:  Frogs can climb.  I figured they were in a deep 5 gallon bucket they would be fine in their while I cleaned out the aquarium they live in.  I was at the sink scrubbing the things from their cage when all of a sudden a frog jumped from the bucket (which was on top of the turtles cage so the girls wouldn't get it) and landed in the water in the sink.  He then jumped to the other side of the sink and up on the counter.  After a bit of chasing and heart racing, I was able to catch him and put him back in the bucket; this time with Glad wrap to cover the top so he couldn't escape again.

I would have NEVER bought frogs for my son.  But I am glad we have them and I was convinced to have them in my house.  They are really cool and fun to watch.  The girls love to watch them and see what they are doing.   So, to anyone thinking about getting frogs, go ahead.  They are pretty cool!  (We haven't had them for 24 hours yet, so give me a while and then ask me again what I think in a week or 3!)

It was an exciting and fun weekend.  I love weekends when we are together as a family and really have a good time together!  James was great this weekend, the toddlers were great this weekend, it was just a great weekend!  We got to watch conference and hear from our Prophet and leaders and be spiritually uplifted and life is good!

I have an amazing husband and a really great family!

I am truly blessed!

Random Cuteness!

Helena just got potty trained and her reward for doing such was that she gets to take BALLET!!!  She gets to be a big girl just like her sister!

 Helena is sitting by Mrs Deena doing her stretches. 

 They do Ballet for the the first half of the class and Acrobatics for the last half.  It is perfect for Helena.  It keeps her busy and always on the move.  She is the one walking on her hands closest to the mirrors.  She is so tiny. 

She asks to go to dance class EVERY SINGLE DAY!  She loves Mrs Deena and her dance class!

James 11 year pictures

James turned 11 in the beginning of September.  I had his pictures taken earlier just didn't get a chance to post them until today. 

James is 4' 11 3/4.  He is so close to 5 ft it is killing him.  He wears size 8 shoes and is mammoth! James is now an 11 year old scout and he loves his leader, Brother Everett.
James is also taking piano lessons (which he doesn't love!)
James is in 5th grade at Bradley Elementary and doesn't love school but loves the routine of it. He has a very good school that has a lot of interesting things to keep him going throughout the day.  He got to go to Science Lab yesterday and he was very excited because they just got a new 30 gallon aquarium and new fish for him to observe.   They already have a bunch of other animals and things in the lab.  That is his favorite place in the school.
James is doing pretty well.  He is hitting puberty so I expect another massive growth spurt to come our way.  He has grown an inch and a half in just about 6 weeks.  That is a lot of growing!  I imagine he will be taller than me by next year.