We Made it!

Lucy, Jensen and Mommy made it to the end of their school years. It wasn't easy but we did it! 

Lucy was the first graduate around here. She finished up in May which wasn't exactly the best thing for Mommy while she finished up teaching for the year. She sure missed her friends and wanted mommy to play with her. This is Lucy on her last day of preschool. They didn't have a graduation for her since she still has one more year of preschool (sigh).

I also snapped a picture of Lucy with her friend Wyatt. Remember they exchanged love notes a month ago? They might just meet up again for Kindergarten.  

She loved all three of her teachers Ms. Megan, Ms. Tami and Ms. Tanisha. 

Jensen had a few field trips and an unforgettable cockroach performance at the end of his school year. He got to go twice to the splash pads with both of his classes. I was able to chaperone both of them. 

As for the performance, all of the kindergartners dressed up as different bugs. Jensen was one cute cockroach. I am sure I will never say a cockroach is cute ever again. He was really into his mustache that they gave him for his costume. He kept feeling it and making sure it stayed right in place. His hat also liked to fall down so he couldn't see half the time what he was doing. 

The family attended Jensen's graduation ceremony. They read his name and he shook his teacher's hands then left the stage without his diploma. He got a good chuckle from everyone. This picture is blurry but is the only one (big sigh!)

Jensen was blessed to have two amazing teachers this school year. Ms. Sharp is his Autism teacher. She took great care of him and gave us a lot of support. 

Mrs. Lewis is his general education teacher. He would spend all morning with her before going back to Ms. Sharp's class. Jensen learned a lot from these amazing teachers! 

Of course last minute I was making their thank you gifts. These were bouquets of whiteboard markers with paper flowers on top. 

Jensen had his last day a week before mommy did. Lucy was so glad to have him home to play with her. Mommy was too. 

Mommy wrapped up her first year of teaching 5th grade in the second week of June. It was a great year and I really loved my class this year. You don't think you get attached to your kids when you teach virtually but you do! 

Jensen's and Mommy's summer break didn't last too long since we are both doing summer school. Keeps us out of trouble I guess!

Utah Part Two

After hitting the Old Navy sale in the morning on Wednesday the cousins came to see if we wanted to head to Trafalga in Lehi. They have the passes of all passes which got my kids in for free. However we were not the only ones there. It was super busy. We let the kids ride three rides and then we were done. Lucy ran away when it came to riding this ride. It worked out because there wasn't a seat for her anyway.  Jensen had his huge smile the whole time on this ride.

 

 

The second ride was the pirate ship.

 

 

 

The last ride was bumper boats which took over half an hour to wait for. Hunter said Jensen could ride with him. Jensen didn't realize that he wasn't supposed to be the driver. He totally took over the steering wheel. 

 

 

 

 

The soaking wet kids after the bumper boats. They were all happy with themselves. After we hit Sonic and then took the cousins to the Old Navy sale so they wouldn't miss out.

 

 

Jensen had asked Matt if he could go on a ride in the Mustang. Matt said he would take him for a ride to get ice cream. They were going around dinner time so we all headed to Spanish Fork to get a hamburger but Jensen got to ride with the boys in the Mustang. We all ate our meals at a park and then headed back home. Matt kept his word and bought Jensen a Frosty on the way home in the Mustang. Needless to say Jensen loved his ride.

 

 

Thursday was a busy shopping day. I told Quincy we were going to IKEA and he totally supported this idea since he didn't have to be dragged there. Dad was a good sport and drove us up there and loaded all of our goods for us.

 

On Friday, before picking Quincy up from the airport we went to the zoo. It was raining in the morning but once we got to the zoo the sun came out.

 

 

 

We went to the bird show soon after getting to the zoo. It was a pretty good show with lots of different types of birds. The kids loved the birds flying right over our heads and the talking parrot the most.

 

 

Before the show started they asked if the kids wanted to come dance with the parrot. I turned and asked Lucy if she wanted to go down. While I was asking her, Jensen just ran down to the stage by himself. He totally got into it. Can you spot him?

 

 

 

 

While we were at the show someone took Mom's stroller. She had put a bag of jackets on the seat and parked it next to mine. When we went to claim our strollers all that was left was the bag on the ground. There was another stroller that kind of looked like moms but was all beat up. Someone decided to upgrade and take hers.

 

 

Jensen and Lucy both took a dollar down to the stage afterwards. The parrot would take the dollar and put it in the box. Lucy just kept leaving hers on the top. She wasn't too sure if she wanted to get that close to the bird.

 

Alligator- the kids thought he was dead because he didn't move at all.
 

 

 

Grandma surprised the kids with stuffed polar bears after seeing the polar bears. She had even got Lego candy to go with. The zoo was having a Lego exhibit all around the zoo with animals all made out of Legos.  We came to a tree with monkeys on it and I totally thought they were real. There is a picture below of one of them.

 

 

Jensen was attached to this polar bear. It came up missing at bed time and Lucy was a nice sister and let him sleep with hers. We found it the next day in the playhouse so all is good now.

 

 

These penguins are made of Legos. They looked so real.

 

 

On the carousel ride Jensen wanted the polar bear but settled for the black bear.
 

 

 

 

 

Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for such a fun trip to the zoo! You both know how to make it such a special day. Jensen kept saying it was the best day ever after going to the zoo and we agree!

 

 

Lucy fell asleep on our way out to the car. She just doesn't now how well she has it right now. Jensen was a big help and pushed her throughout the zoo.

 

 

We picked up Quincy at the airport and then headed back to Provo. He decided we needed to hit JCW's while we were in town. We had already been there earlier in the week but not too many complained about going back.

 

Ella and Lucy = nothing but trouble.

 

Mom's Day 2013

The kids said some funny things about their mom this year so I thought I better write them down before I forget them.

 

A couple of days before Mother's Day Quincy was asking the kids who was the best mom. Jensen pointed to me and said "This guy".

 

Lucy made me a cute card in preschool. Her teacher said she wrote down exactly what Lucy said to her questions.

My mom loves to: make valentines

My mom's favorite food is: broccoli

Before bed every night, my mom: watches a show

My mom works hard at: mailing pictures. I have to help.

My mom's favorite place to go is: Sonic

My mom's favorite thing to do with me is: play puzzles

 

Jensen filled out a card during primary. This is what he said.

My mom's name is Jessie.

My mom is 14 years old.

My mom spends most of her day working.

The best thing my mom cooks is pizza bagels.

My favorite thing to do with my mom is going to Costco.

I love my mom because she plays with me.

 

These two bring lots of joy into my life even though they wear me out most days. I can't believe next year I will be a mother of three!

Girls Camp 2012

This year I got to spend a couple days at girls camp (big thanks to my mom-in-law for watching the kiddos). It turned out being the last part of the week, Wednesday night through Saturday morning, which included family home evening, hike day, moonlight theater, a skit complete with a watermelon fight, testimony meeting, and clean up.

It is always a pleasure to be up there with the girls at Mount Charleston. I kept singing lyrics to Kelly Clarkson's song while I was up there. "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger". Sleeping in tents and using the B.I.F.F.Y (bathroom in forest for you) is not my favorite thing but the trade off is so worth it. It's always a spiritual boost for me. 

We were the Virtue Sparklers this year. I only had a couple of assignments this year. One I gave myself was to make us a banner.

My two beehives and it was both their first year going to camp. I tagged along on their hike to spend some time with them. I love these girls.

We did a little repeling down the mountain on our hike. (No time for archery or zip-line this year. I was busy helping with crafts. Oh well.)

 Our Virtue Family getting ready to go home.

Our stake does camp in mixed groups so it was fun to be with new girls and I even got to be with one of my old girls from a different ward.

Our YW presidency (except our secretary) with our Camp Director.

Amazing women I get to serve with!

One of my assignments was to make treats for the girls in our ward to leave in their mailboxes to show that we loved and missed them. I used ideas from Pinterest of course but made my own labels to use. I just sent them to Costco and then attached them to the treats. If you likey, the links to download them are below each one. ( I took off who they were from.)

On the back it says "We are!"

Knock - Knock

Magnificent & Marvelous

S'more Love

It's O-Fish-al

Christmas Crafts

Just wanted to post some of my Christmas crafts that I made for this season. This was my card for card club. I copied the idea from another blog but actually made my silhouette do most of the work cutting out holes for the string. I had plenty of work though myself sewing these things but was glad with the final outcome.

 

 For card club we also make a neighbor gift that you can exchange or have on hand when someone says they are coming over last minute. These have saved me many times! Most of the time I usually keep them because they are so cute. I made this joy banner for the group.

I needed a present for Jensen's teachers at preschool. I tweaked an idea that my mom saw. It's jingle juice. Which consist of a jingle bell attached to a cup and lemonade powder packets. They attached them just to water bottles I stepped it up a notch by attaching them to these fun reusable drink cups.   

 Last is my neighbor gift that I passed out to my neighbors. I painted 8x10 pieces of wood and then applied vinyl. Seems so easy but I was glad when these were done.