May 30, 2013

letter to Dustin:

So what’s up? We’re just counting down until summer break.  The kids have 3 ½ days left.  And this Saturday is their last games.  Danny is playing basketball, Rachel volleyball and Aaron soccer.  They’ve had fun, but it’ll be nice not to have to go to practices and games all the time.  Seth turns 5 in January.  That’s usually when we start the kids in soccer.  And I want to start Ruby in Dance lessons about the same time.  Then we’ll really be crazy busy.  Did you do soccer like Ryan and Casey? I can’t remember what sports you did.

We’re putting a basketball hoop in the front corner of our yard.  We’ve been planning on it for a long time, but Bob keeps thinking he’ll level out the ground for it.  But he never does.  So he finally decided to just pay the guy who is going to pave it to also get it all ready first.  I was so excited it was finally going to happen, but it turns out the guy is going on vacation for most of June.  So we’re still waiting.  That guy is sure going to be hot working in our backyard in July!

Are you still working for dad and trading?  We’re coming next Thursday. I think we’re going to 3 rivers one of the days that weekend while Bob is still here. You can come if you want.  Bob’s just staying until Sunday but the rest of us are staying until Friday.

May 26, 2013

Danny is so into his clothes.  We found these addidas high tops that he had to have.  They were regularly $100 but he found them on sale for $70 and really wanted them even if he had to pay for them. The I found some similar ones when I was shopping for $45. I thought we could substitute those, but he wants them too.  It's so cute how he cares so much what he looks like.

I think I'm going to find another counselor to go to with Aaron.  He's great at school and church, but at home he's still going crazy.  I don't want to be miserable this summer and I don't want him to ruin his relationships with his siblings. And I'm so burnt out on his tantrums that I don't have enough patience with him.  Hopefully we can find someone who can help us.

Ruby is "feisty". That's what the nursery leaders tell us every week.  Sadly, it's not a good feisty.  She's my first one to have to have the no hitting talk before nursery every week.  Seth never used to hit or be mean, but he's learned to fight more now that Ruby fights with him. She's so cute and tiny, but when she is treated unfairly or sees someone else treated unfairly, she hits or pushes to try to fix things.  Hopefully she'll grow out of it before she is labeled a bully.  And at least she's small so she's not as strong.

May 19, 2013

Bribes didn't work.  I'm going to wait a few months to try potty training Ruby again. 

I was reading a talk on Revelation by Bednar last night.  The one about light.  And as I was reading it I had the thought that I need to start communicating with Dustin.  So I sent him an email.  I can't imagine he'll write me back, actually I don't even know if he'll read the whole thing.  But I think I'll try to send him an email every couple weeks and see how that goes.

Here's today's email:

Did you hear there were fires right by Ryan’s house? I just saw it on facebook, but it was so close to Jeremy’s school they had to go pick him up early.  I made ginger crinkles today. Do you like those? I think I’ve made them before, but it must have been a long time ago because my kids didn’t remember them.  They all liked them pretty well.

We have 2 ½ weeks left of school.  Then everything gets crazy. It’s so hard sometimes to entertain 5 kids all day. I’m trying to psyche myself up for it.  We’re coming to mom’s on June 7^th for a week.  We’ve come right after school gets out for the last 2 or 3 years so it’s kind of becoming a tradition.  That’s been when all those frogs are all over the place down the street from mom’s.  My kids love that.  Hopefully the frogs will cooperate and be there again this year.  Las Vegas is getting a water slide park this year.  It’s crazy a hot place like this hasn’t had one.  We bought season passes to keep us entertained.  But now I’m getting worried that that is all of Las Vegas’s plans for the summer because everyone I talk to has bought season passes.  Hopefully it’s not way to crowded.

Bob and I are going on a helicopter tour of Las Vegas at night for our anniversary in a couple weeks.  Bob’s always wanted to do that.

May 12, 2013

It's Mother's Day.  Bob took me to see Romeo and Juliet at the Ballet last night.  It was great.  Then he made breakfast today and the kids all made the sweetest cards. And Bob gave me Linda's ipad. We went for a walk and had a good time together.

I'm going to try potty training with Ruby again this week.  I bought lots of bribes this time.  Hopefully that'll work.

May 5, 2013

We went on our big trip.  We had a great time.  We stayed in a hotel across the street from disneyland Wednesday night.  We got two rooms.  Thursday the park opened at 10.  It was really nice to walk into disneyland instead of riding the tram from the parking lot with all the crowds.  The weather was warm, but not too bad.  We all had a great time.  Seth was brave about all the rides. He even rode splash mountain and liked it. And he loved Buzz Lightyear; we rode it three times.  Ruby was great too. She took a 2 hour nap in the stroller in the afternoon.  We watched the parade at 7 and then it closed at 8.  We didn't wait longer than 25 minutes for any of the rides.  It was a really fun day.

We stayed at Ryan's that night and went to Magic Mountain on Friday.  It opened at 10:30.  It wasn't crowded at all. The longest we waited for anything was 5 minutes, except for a couple rides that took longer because they broke down while we were in line. Everyone loved all the roller coasters.  Seth rode anything he was tall enough for and loved it.  Danny, Rachel and Aaron all rode the big roller coasters. Their favorite was Goliath. It was fun to watch their different reactions.  Danny was pretty freaked out before the rides, but he couldn't back down if the other kids were riding.  Rachel was totally excited for everything.  Aaron was pretty even.  He said he wasn't freaked out and I think he really wasn't.  They all loved it when they were done. Ryan and Venessa and their kids and Mom and Dad came with us.

Saturday was a kids fishing day at their lake.  Our kids loved it even though they didn't catch anything.  Then we went to the beach.  We had a great time.  It was great weather to sit on the beach and watch.  The water was a little too cold for boogie boarding, but the splashed around a lot, and found lots of shells and sand crabs.  Danny caught 2 surf perch with Ryan's fishing pole.  He was pretty excited about that. Bob took the 3 oldest to the NCAA volleyball championship that night. BYU was playing in it and it was at UCLA.

Now back to regular school life.  One month left of school.  May is always busy.