Preschool Graduation

Brooklyn had Preschool Graduation today at 11 am at the Kearns Library. She "graduated" from the 3/4 year old class and will start the 4/5 year old class in the Fall. Kind of silly, but it fun to see all the things she learned this year. They sang songs that I have never heard of, but it showed me what they learned. I only wish I knew the songs so I could help her remember them. The songs showed they can count to 100, that they know the alphabet (which she already knew prior to preschool), they know the days of the week, and the months. They also sang a bunch of other cute little silly songs and recited a couple of poems.
Her class was there with the morning 4/5 year old graduating class. It was cute to watch them do the procession down the aisle. It kind of made me teary eyed even though it wasn't my child. :) The library auditorium was packed! Here are some pictures of the event.
Colby, Brooklyn and Gage
This was my view of the group (this includes both classes).
Trying to get a little closer. The top row was Brooklyn's class.
Jaxon (in the green & white shirt on the bottom row), Colby (who is also in our Ward), Brooklyn and Reagan.
Holding up the alphabet while the older kids recited poems about each letter.
Almost done! Brooklyn did a great job. There were two girls in her class bawling through most of the program. I was SO glad that wasn't Brooklyn! :)
The blurry shot of Brooklyn shaking Miss Barbara's hand. Some guy bumped Marty's arm right as he was getting this picture. Grrrr!
Brooklyn & Eileen. Brooklyn made lots of new friends and enjoyed playing with all of the kids, but toward the end of the year, she talked the most about Eileen. She would always say that she liked Eileen because she made her laugh. Luckily, Eileen will be in the summer class with Brooklyn as well as next year's preschool.
Grandma also took 2 hours off of work to attend. Brooklyn was excited to have her there!
The proud graduate! Grandma gave her a 5 dollar bill. Brooklyn was SO SO SO excited! This kid loves money and never wants to spend it! We stopped and got a Slurpee (her favorite treat) after graduation and she was upset that we were going to spend her money. We assured her that we were buying the Slurpee's. :)
Brooklyn's support group. Our friend, Ben Hunt, took this picture and Brooklyn would not look at him.
But of course she would look when Grandma took the picture.
Here is Brooklyn with Miss Barbara at the beginning of the year.
And here's a picture of them today. Brooklyn played the shy role again and I had to pretend to be in the picture in order to get this. Brooklyn does love Miss Barbara. She is in our Ward as well and Brooklyn always looks for her and gets so excited when she finds her. She's a wonderful teacher!

Sun, Slides & Suckers!

Eliza's shirt says it all: I heart Sunny Days.
After waking up to snow on Monday, yes on May 24th, it was so nice to have a somewhat sunny day today. My kids love to play outside because it makes them happy, which makes mom happy. Everyone wins!
My girls have fallen back in love with their swing set in the backyard. Some days it's really nice just to go in the backyard to play instead of walking to a park. However, park trips are fun too!

Last month, Marty brought home four homemade suckers that someone was selling at work for a fundraiser. He picked out a specific flavor for each of us. Eliza got Cotton Candy, Brooklyn got Bubblegum and I got Pina Coloda and Marty got Watermelon. Yum! They were tasty! Marty gave them to us and then walked out the door to be at the church all night. Smart move! We instantly turned into three crazy sugar-high girls.




I had to get in the pictures too! Oh, girls!!!

CF Walk

Last Saturday, our family participated in the Cystic Fibrosis Walk. If you want to know more about this disease, click here. I have a friend named Chuck who died when he was 30 (I believe). He had recently been married (Hi Jill) and passed away a short 6 months later. He was born with CF and it was amazing he lived to be as old as he did. He accomplished much in his short life, but his greatest blessing was to be married in the temple. I will be eternally grateful that he was allowed this opportunity before he passed on. I often wish he had more time with Jill, but that wasn't part of the plan.
Each year, our friends that knew Chuck gather together to walk and raise money in his behalf. The life span for people with CF is getting longer and longer. Yeah!! I've missed the past few years so I was excited to make it this year. This year we walked through downtown (about a 5K in distance). We started and ended at the City & County Building.
Here is Charlton's Crew. It's sad that I rarely see these great friends except once a year at this walk, but at least I see them once a year! I'm still laughing that our team leader (hey Terry) didn't realize the walk was last weekend and was in Moab. :) hehe.
Some of the local team mascots showed up for a bit. Brooklyn is terrified of them, but did good as long as they stayed away from her. Well, this bear jumped right into our picture. I was worried Brooklyn would stream and bail out of the stroller, but she still has no idea he was there. :)
Eliza enjoyed riding in the stroller while she waited for the walk to start!
We tried on hats to protect from the sun, but no such luck. They both took them right off. My kids are not big fans of hats.
They did love the rest stop with Creamies. Yum!!
I loved the Creamies too! And would you believe it, I didn't even get a picture of Marty that pushed the girls the whole time. Oops!
Afterward, the kids enjoyed lunch (oh wait, no they ran out of lunch). They enjoyed yogurt drinks and playing together.
Brooklyn, Blake, and Sabrina played hide & seek with Marty. They kept hiding behind all the trees. It was cute to watch!

Mother's Day

These are the girls that make me a mother! I'm so grateful for the opportunity to be a mom. It tests me every single day. Being a mom is very different from being an Aunt, Friend, Babysitter or Teacher, which were my experiences with kids before becoming a mom. Most of the time, I feel like I'm failing as a mother but I find hope in knowing tomorrow is another day and I get to try again. I'm grateful for the love these girls show me no matter what! I have a lot to learn from them!
I'm thankful for my mom and her example. I'm grateful to the 3 moms I'm blessed to have. I'm grateful they are awesome grandmothers to my girls. My girls are always watching and learning so much from every woman in their lives.
I had a wonderful Mother's Day! Marty canceled his meetings all day! It was AMAZING to have a "normal" Sunday again. I loved eating breakfast and having him here to help get the girls somewhat ready. He did have to leave about 30 minutes earlier than me, but it was so helpful to have him home. Then he took Eliza to Nursery and took care of her for the last two hours of church. Plus, all the men in our ward taught all the classes so every woman had the opportunity to go to Relief Society. It was again AMAZING to have a completely full room of sisters. I don't think I've ever seen all of our sisters all together like that. It was incredible! Also, there was plenty of chocolate given to us at church, which is always a plus.
Marty came home right after church (ok 30 minutes later) and spent the rest of the day with us. Marty and Brooklyn enjoyed time together while I read a book and relaxed until Eliza woke up from her nap and then we all hung out together. Marty made dinner (my choice) and a yummy dessert. I got a Shark steam mop as my present and I'm so excited to use it! It was such a great day. Better than any birthday. I was very spoiled!
Monday was fun too! We all got haircuts. Brooklyn and I had an appointment, but Eliza got a little trim from Grandpa Ted. We all cut our hair short and now we just need the weather to warm up!

Chillin'

It seems life has really sped up for me the last several weeks. I'm always so rushed when I finally have time to get on my computer that I quickly read blogs and then move on to something else. I'm trying to at least post something once a week, but some weeks are harder than others to find a "blog worthy" post.
We've really been enjoying our basement! It's still a work in progress. I've been slowing spreading out all my junk, um I mean treasures throughout my house. It's so nice to have more room upstairs and to not have all the kid's toys in the front room. It's been good for me to have the opportunity to look through all the things I've been storing downstairs that we no longer have room for and no longer need. It's opened my eyes to how much stuff we really have. Some countries would be disgusted by how many things each person has to themselves. I've been getting rid of lots of stuff and it feels nice. I'm really excited for the County dumpsters in a few weeks.
The girls love playing downstairs. Eliza finally has her own room (at 17 months) that is not shared by a computer. She didn't like how empty it was at first, but we now have toys and such in there so she can have fun and enjoy her bedroom. However, she still keeps pulling all the toys out to the front room. Marty and I love having our computer (especially our printer) available at any time and not having to work around a sleeping baby. We also enjoy watching movies and relaxing downstairs. It's so nice!
I thought I would share two pictures of Brooklyn from about 3 weeks ago just as we were starting to move things downstairs.
Brooklyn decided to put her beanbag on top of the ottoman to watch a movie. She was so excited!
Brooklyn fell asleep two times within the first week of our new basement! This is amazing because this kid hasn't napped for at least a year and a half. I could have sworn there was a sleepy spell on the basement because I fell asleep through my first two movies as well. It's just so dark and comfy and zzz.....