First Day of School

The first day of school came early this year as the kids went back on the 22nd of August.  I have NO complaints but the kids did. 
Holly is in the First Grade this year and her teacher is Mrs. Pope.  She seems to like her but was way more excited about being able to go to school for the whole day & even have lunch at school.  Of course for Holly everything had to be pink so she got a pink lunch bag & back pack. 
Ethan is in the Third Grade this year and has Mrs. Younger who has a teaching aid that happens to be her husband Mr. Younger but the kids call him Mr. Tweetie Bird because he whistles like Tweetie Bird.  Ethan was excited because one of his best friends, Jett,  who just happens to live two doors down from us is in his class this year.  It is also a big jump in academics so he is & will be challenged all year long.  He is even learning how to write cursive this year, which he is happy about because he thinks it will make him more grown up. 
Also new this school year is that everyday that it is not raining or snowing we walk the mile to school together.  It was hard the first day because it was new.  They next day they were able to ride their scooters which helped. 
Mason rides in the stroller & once we drop the kids off we turn around and walk the mile home stopping off at the park on the way.  Mason thinks its great that he gets to play at the "dinosaur" park everyday and Ethan & Holly don't.  My kids call it the "dinosaur" park because their is a dinosaur type thing on the back side of part of it.  Mason plays, and I read or visit with some of the other Mom's on the days that their is some. 
We have enjoyed the school year so far, except for the homework according to Ethan, and the kids are doing so well.

Harvest Days

In the first part of August is Midvale Harvest Days.  We were told way ahead of time to plan on going down to Ryan's parents house for the whole day, first for the parade & then for a big surprise that Ryan's parents had planned for all the grand kids. 
The kids LOVED the parade mostly because of the candy but they also love hanging out with their cousins.  Each of my kids are lucky enough to have at least one cousin that is pretty close to their own age to make it fun.  Mason was not too excited about how loud everything was especially the fire engines.  He is such a cute kid with such a kind heart.  There was an elderly lady sitting behind us & Mason made sure that when he got candy he would take one piece back to the "grandma" sitting behind us.  He said that he was fast & she needed to have some candy too.  How cute is that?
After the parade we went back to the Granquist homestead where a large blow up water slide was being put up in the back yard.  Well the kids freaked out.  Ethan & Holly were all upset because they thought that they couldn't play because they didn't have their swimsuits, but of course I had all the stuff they needed hidden away in the van.  Again, much freaking out.  The hard part came telling them they had to wait until it was put up all the way & that they had to eat lunch first.  We had to take them away from the site of all the excitement it get them to eat lunch, but they were happy because we got Astro Burger, a big treat in our household.
They played in the water for 8 hours!!  Almost straight.  We had to make everyone get out & eat dinner.  You have never seen so many kids eat so fast in your life.  I think Holly ate in 10 minutes flat & that includes dishing up her plate.  That 10 minutes I think was the only time the whole day that Holly & her cousin Rachel where out of the water.  Let me tell you she & all the kids slept good that night.
Mason had a hard time getting warmed up to going down the slide.  The kids kept running over him to get up the slide & then when he would take too long they would pull/push him down.  So he spent most of the day crying & being held by Mom.  Uncle Kay helped Mason to be happier by giving him a ride on his Jazzy & even letting him drive it. 
Latter in the day while everyone was taking a break to eat I took Mason to the slide & let me take his time.  He soon got his sea legs & was going up & down so fast he was the one running over the other kids. 
It was such a fun day & a great way to say good bye to summer. Thanks Rhonda for such a fun day!

Spring & Summer

After our trip to Canada from my Grandma's funeral we had Easter, of which I didn't take a single photo.  I know, my bad.  Easter was low key & quite.  Nothing big, just small Easter treats for the kids, no new clothes & a ham w/ funeral potatoes for dinner. 
Then in May we had Holly's 6th birthday.  I know it was my birthday too but once Holly came along I think of it as her birthday.  She got a scooter for her birthday with a bell, which I regretted as soon as she was off and riding it.  The good thing though is that once she got the hang of the two wheeled scooter she decided that she could ride her bike.  Ryan took the training wheels off it last year & tried to get her to try & learn how to ride it but never would.  She didn't have the confidence to do it but once she got her balance riding that scooter, off she went on her bike as well. 
Her birthday was a low key event at home & then we had the big birthday family party with Ryan's family.  We have 6 birthdays in May with Ryan's family so it it easier to just have one big party. 
Just two weeks after Holly's birthday, her scooter was stolen.  She left it out on the front sidewalk one night & some dishonest person took it one night.  She was heart broken.  But fortunately Toy's R Us had pink scooters on clearance and we were able to replace it.  Holly will never forget to put her stuff away again so I guess in the long run it worked out Okay.  She learned a lesson & I didn't have to hear that bell ringing all the time.
In June Ryan's sister & her husband got a great surprise.  They adopted little Titan & welcomed him into their family.  He is so dang cute & we all just love him to bits.  Ethan is especially taken with him 7 fights to get a turn holding him, but I think that is they way it is with everyone in the family.
My Mom also came down from Canada to spend some time with us & my brothers family as well as attend the Utah Highland Games as she does every year. The kids love their annual trip to Toys R Us & to have some fun with Grandma Bo. 
On the 21st of June Ryan & I celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary.  We didn't get to take a trip or do anything big.  Liz was nice enough to take the kids so we could go see the last Harry Potter movie & then we got In-Out Burger.  The kids loved it because they got to go to Mike's (Liz's son)  championship baseball game which they won.  So a good day all around. 
July was uneventful & Hot. 

Long Time...

It has been forever since I've written anything mostly because 1) I have children that see me on the computer & think they need a turn and 2) I just have not had any motivation to write.  I've been getting into the bad habit of not doing things when I don't feel like doing them, which is a BAD habit to get into. 
We have had so many things going on & I have not been dealing w/ them in a constructive way...I guess.  So I'm making an effort to be happy & be a big girl by getting organized as this seems like as good a time as any.  With school starting soon it kind of makes me want to get on the bus, sort of speak.  How long it lasts you never know as I admit that I'm a space case most of the time.
I will try and cover what has happened in our crazy lives, in the next week or so w/ pictures as I still want to document everything.  I just have not down loaded ANY pictures off my camera since before Christmas, so it's not just blogging that I've been slacking on.  I would do it now but I'm on Ryan's extra laptop w/ no access to pictures, so...
Here is to more simple, organized, happy living.

Loss in a Short Time

With the beginning of 2011 came many sad times.  First Ryan's Grandma Naomi past away on the 27th of December 2010.  She was sick through Christmas but Ryan didn't get a chance to go down & see her before she past.  He kept telling me that he wasn't worried because she was a tough old bird that always can back when we thought she was on deaths door step.  This time unfortunately she didn't & that made it so much harder for Ryan.  He was so full of remorse for not making the time to go down & see her it just made his grief deeper.  Naomi Granquist was a strong woman who spoke her mind (which just made me like her more), but she did set people on edge sometimes because of it.  She loved her family greatly especially her grand kids & expected great things from each of them.  She was buried on New Years eve in Sandy, UT with her family around her. 

Only a month and a half latter on Valentines day we got a call from Ryan's Dad letting him know that his cousin Andy passed away.  He was only 45 years old & it was very unexpected.  Andy was not only Ryan's cousin but one of his very best friends.  We spent so much time with Andy & his family over the first few years we were married and we loved our time with them.  It was such a shock that I don't think that it really sank in until the funeral.  Andy Walker was a fun, smart & loving man that leaves us with a void in our lives at his passing. 

Then towards the end of March we get a call from my Mom saying that my grandmother Geneil is not doing very well.  So we planned & waited for the end to come, which did almost a week latter.  We traveled to Cardston, Alberta, Canada to gather with her 7 children, 30 grandchildren & 30 great grandchildren for her funeral.  I had the hardest time with this because I was so close to my grandma.  She was in many ways more of a mother to me.  It was a beautiful service full of music just like she would have wanted.  My Dad even came down from Edmonton to be with me, which meant so very much to me & my Mom's family. 

The start of the new year was a hard one for our family because of all those who we lost but we know that they are there beside us watching & helping to guide us though the rest of our mortal lives, until we meet again in the next life. 

Pinewood Derby Baby!

Ethan became a Scout at his last Birthday, which meant that in February he got to be in his very first Pinewood Derby!!  He was so excited & he and his Dad spent a lot of time trying to come up with the coolest car.  In the end they decided to go for fun looking rather than speed. 
They went with a basic car shape but wanted a "Angry Birds" car.  Which meant they needed some help from Mom in how to get something that looked like Angry Birds on the car.  So with a couple of big red pom pom puff balls, some felt & google eyes we had our birds. 
Then they found some cool pictures of Angry Birds online, cut them out & after painting the car mod podged them on to the car.  It turned out very cool looking. 
In the race it self it didn't do that well but Ethan did get the prize for the most original car of the derby.  We all had fun with the pizza that was served & cheering on Ethan & his friends. 
But next year, according to Ethan, they are going for speed so that he can win the whole derby. 
Way to go Ethan!

Christmas 2010

We, Ryan & I thought it would be fun to take the kids on the Front Runner Train down to Salt Lake & see the lights on temple square.  Which they LOVED riding the train, & getting McDonald's for dinner.  Word to the wise, make sure you know the train schedule otherwise you end up waiting a hour to get home.  It made for a long night but a fun one. 
Ethan had to take a camera w/ him as he had an assignment for school that entailed him to take pictures of what he did on his Winter Vacation.  They don't call it Christmas Vacation anymore as the schools have to keep everything PC or they get into trouble these days.  He was snapping pictures of anything and every thing.  It's a good things we had an extra digital camera because I think he had taken over 100 pictures by the end of the night.  You can see Ethan holding the camera in this picture of the kids in front of one of the fountains on temple square. 
The lights were as beautiful as always & there were people everywhere.  I thought we had lost a child more than once over the course of the night.  We tried to get into see the Christus but there were so many people the line to get up to it was taking about a hour.  That is just too long to wait with three kids so we had to skip it.  We didn't even get to see the Nativity presentation.  I think if we do it again this year we will no go on a Monday night, everyone must of had the same idea we did. 
We went down to Ryan sister Katie's on Christmas Eve & had breakfast for dinner.  We also played Christmas Carols on so pipes turned chimes.  Everyone had a different note w/ a number on it.  Then followed a number pattern on a poster board and WA-la a song came out that everyone got to play.  It was fun but the highlight of the night was Uncle Dan, our brother-in-law singing & playing the guitar with a huge sombrero on his head.  He had the kids laughing so hard...Ethan was crying.  It was a fun night but I was very glad that we didn't have to get up and go all the way back down to Midvale for Christmas day.  We went to Ryan's sister Liz's as she had moved to Kaysville, just down the road from us a few months before.   
Christmas morning was early, as usual but we do make the kids wait until 8 am to get up.  Although they are up was earlier than that.  Mason got a Thomas the Train set, which he loved because he can fold it up and take it anywhere in the house. 
Holly got her Princess kitchen so she could play house & have tea parties w/ her friends.  She had received a Tinker Bell table & chairs for her birthday so now with the kitchen she had the full set up.  She couldn't wait to have her friend Ryley over. 
Ethan got the Lego's he so desperately wanted, much to his mothers disappointment, but Santa convinced her that Ethan was only a kids once and that it would help him with whatever learning.  Why is it that Lego's are like sand, you keep finding them everywhere although you were sure you got everyone of them put and put away, but stepping on one is still the worst.  Oh the things we put up with for our kids...
That afternoon we went over to Liz's for dinner and to finish putting together to school bags we had made earlier.  Ryan's family had decided to take the money we would have spent on Christmas gifts for each other & get everything for school bags to donate to the church's Humanitarian Center.  It was fun for everyone to put together & to teach to kids that there are other things more important at Christmas than getting gifts. 
All in all we had a great Christmas.

A Little Wake up Call

I never thought of myself as one of those people who always had to complain about their lives, because I do see all the many things I've been blessed with, but today I had a little bit of a wake up call.  I was on Facebook and used an app to put all of my statuses for the year together .  Sitting reading them all together like that really knocked me for a loop because 95% of them where negative. 
I realized that although I do see my blessing I need to express them more.  I have been using Facebook and probably this blog to vent my frustrations.  Which is great for me but not so great for those reading it.  I must seem like the most miserable, unhappy person ever.  I'm really not, I just get overwhelmed very easily and I've never been one to be able to hold things in, although I've gotten better at it since I've been married.  I've just learned that if I keep things in to long they either turn toxic or I blow up.  I choose to see this as a blessing because I've been able to let go of some pretty horrible experiences in my life and move on.  But over the course of our marriage I've learned to hold my tongue, and Ryan has learned to express his feelings more.  We are truly opposites in so many ways, but in the end we balance each other out...another blessing. 
New Goal:  I need to learn express my feelings more to those around me and talk more of the good things going on in my life to others.  Life amazes me sometimes....we go for a run on this roller coaster and when we hit firm ground we are given these moments of clarity.  Did that make sense? 
For those that have read this blog or has me as a friend on Facebook, I apologize for being so negative.  I really didn't realize I was being that way until it was all put together in front of me.  So I've awakened and pledge to be better.  If I slip I hope you will remind me that I'm doing it again.  So here is to a better year of focusing on the blessings and not the trials. ;)