Julia's 2nd Grade Christmas program

Julia was able to participate in her 2nd grade Christmas program tonight. She was selected to play a triangle and then they sang Silent Night in American Sign Language. We got a video of her performance and wanted to share it with you. You can click on this link:
http://youtu.be/SgsjXZ7GDWo

Scout Court of Honor

JC volunteered to put together the slide show for the 12 year old scouts camp trip. So with a little help from Mom, here is it.

A Pumpkin, the Professor and a Mailbox

This post has been a long time coming, I'll explain why with the mailbox. As Halloween approached JC was very excited to carve a pumpkin, he said it was the first one he did all by himself without any help. This may be true, but next year we are going to let him clean out the pumpkin too, as we think that is truly the hard part. The roasted pumpkin seeds were good!



So a few months back, our mailbox got smashed along with several of our neighbors. We clearly had to replace the mailbox. So we decided to have some fun with it. JC and I worked on designs and got most of the box done. After several months of it sitting in the basement and with the weather starting to be wetter, we needed to do the final detailing and put the mailbox up. It looked really cute. I was hesitant to put the mailbox up on Halloween night, but I wanted the project done! I was relieved when the mailbox was still intact the next morning. I took pictures and was going to put post them along with JC's Halloween stuff. But the next morning our mailbox was lying on the ground with the post broken. It was not a good morning! Dad fixed the post and the damage to the sunflower mailbox was minimal, so we put it back out. So far it has been 2 1/2 weeks and no one had smashed it. We are hopeful.

Happy Halloween 2011!

We loved the Halloween season this year! We decorated the whole house with fun pumpkins and skeltons! Then we got to chow down on pumpkin shaped bubble gum. We had a great time playing with the guts of carving pumpkins and we enjoyed the last time we will get to carve pumpkins at school.

Here is Ethan playing with the carved pieces of his school pumpkin. 1st grade is the last year that they carve pumpkins. Julia did get to paint a pumpkin in her class for which she thoroughly enjoyed.



Here are our finished creations glowing on Halloween night. Julia chose to carve a castle with a ghost frightening everyone away, it was hard to capture the effect by camera, but it was there.



Ethan chose a vampire pumpkin, in his words, "of course" We liked the simplistic nature. ;)



Finally the long awaited night has come and Julia and Ethan get to dress up completely and go collect as much candy as humanly possible. We had fun dressing up two other times this season, first for our church Trunk or Treat, secondly for a fun birthday party and then tonight for "real."

Ethan is Bumble Bee the Transformer, he loves Transformers and fast cars, this was a good fit for him! Julia is rockin' pink Bat Girl. She has pink hair too, but it didn't show up on camera. She loves the glitter and glitz of this fabulously bright costume and I am sure it will be worn many times before it wears out! Both kids had the local police dept come and talk to them about safety tonight and they listened very well and were very safe, if you get a chance to ask them about it they will share all their facts.



We now have mounds of candy to rot teeth and electrify energy levels! Actually most of the candy will go to the local dentist for money and then be sent to the military serving over seas. Everyone wins! It has been a fabulous Halloween and we look forward to a whole year of deciding what we will be dressed as next year! :)

7th Grade School Picture

Here it is. J.C.'s school picture. He looks pretty good, despite the cheesy grin. I love that his eyes are bright. He is growing so fast! He is 5'5" now and in recent months filled out in his hips and chest. We just bought him pants that are 32 x 32's - real man pants.... Of course they are a little big, but only a little and since he grows so quickly, we be lucky if they still fit in the new year.


Check out this cute post about JC and his cousin Tori.
http://thececilclan.blogspot.com/2011/10/tori-and-jc.html

School Carnival and Crazy Hair!

Last week J.C.'s school had their annual carnival. The art students were asked to do face painting and J.C. volunteered. He also played the carnival games and we had a good time!

This week has been Spirit Week for the Jr. High students. Each day a different theme - crazy tie day, crazy sock day, fashion clash day... J.C. wanted crazy hair, but when your hair is only a centimeter long it is hard to do something crazy. He asked if we could cut lines into it or make shapes. I am not that talented and was also concerned that cutting his hair might impact his school picture which will be taken in a week. So we settled on some hair color. Working with an artist is tough. He wanted a red, white and blue flag, or stars. Not being an artist and explaining the hair color would work like spray paint he decided on all white with polka dots....PINK polka dots.


Yes, J.C. is as at school right now, doing his Dennis Rodman impression.

First Day of Junior High

J.C. starts 7th grade today. He is attending a Lincoln Academy, a charter school in Pleasant Grove. He proudly sported his red shirt. At his school the elementary kids can only wear white and dark blue shirts, the Jr. High kids get to add red to their options. The idea of having a locker, changing classes and no recess made J.C. a little nervous. At back to school night last week, he practiced opening his locker. He has the same teacher for Computer Technology Education (CTE), German and P.E. . He also as Math, Learning Strategies, Language Arts, Science and Sculpture.

Can you tell he didn't want his picture taken?

Power Tools

We've been working on a lot of repairs and improvements this summer. J.C. has been quite helpful. We even let him use his first power tool - the sander. He did a good job prepping the wood to be painted. He also helped paint the garage, has moved a ton of sod and compost. We'll see what power tool will be next, we'll hopefully upgrade to some serious man tools....

The Birthday Balloon- We love you Ethan!

J.C. and I (Kathryn) were sitting at the kitchen table this morning when this balloon came floating down the hall. We looked at each other a bit startled. It really was kind of spooky. This balloon was purchased on June 28, almost a month ago for Ethan's 6th birthday (June 29). We didn't even realize there was still a balloon in the house, but there is and it still has some helium left in it.

We took it as a sign that Ethan wanted to remind us his birthday is only 11 months away. (Ethan is very concerned about his birthday.) So to Ethan - we are thinking of you and are very excited for the one month anniversary of your sixth birthday. Maybe we'll count down your birthday with you.

Scout Court of Honor

Tonight was the Scout Court of Honor. J.C. received the 3 merit badges he earned at camp. He earned Leather Working, Art and First Aide. He has partials for Swimming and Environmental Science. Seems most boys couldn't tolerate the freezing water in the lake at camp.



After the presentations, each of the groups did skits - I can't say much about this - camp type skits seem to only be appreciated at camp. Here is the video of the skit. The premise is there is an old man trying to knock on a door, a boy comes up and asks if he needs help. The old man asks him to knock on the door. Then the old man runs, playing ding, dong, door, ditch. J.C. plays the person inside the door who finds no one there when he goes to answer. Just go with it. ;)

Faux Hawk

Ethan requested a Faux Hawk after his shower. We think he looks completely "adorkable".

Week 3 of the Kids Summer time

This last week was much lower key than the first two Julia and Ethan were here. No one had classes and Dad took the week off work. They worked around the house, went to Story Time at the Library, rode bikes and played on Slip N Slide, we also saw the Cars 2. We made two trips to the airport. On Tuesday we picked up Opa (Grandpa in German), Kathryn's Dad and on Saturday, we picked up Sitto (Grandma in Lebanese) Jamey's Mom. A visit to Salt Lake included a trip to the German Bakery for bread and to the German deli for meat, which is now being called Mommy Meat.

My apologies for the orientation of these videos, just tilt your head to the right. ;)

4th of July

July 4th was pleasant. It was nice that Mom and Dad both had the day off. It was just a good family day. The fireworks started days before. Utah has new firework laws, allowing high rising fireworks to be used, evidently they now go higher and cool faster so they are safer. So there were lots of fireworks going off near us this past week, but Independence Day isn't complete without fireworks. We watched fireworks on the edge of a ravine near our house. We could see fireworks across the valley. They were awesome.

The last year in review-Summer 2010

Our story begins at a beautiful campground on the shores of a Great Lake at Camp Radical in Ohio July 2010. We had a great time learning how to be better parents and to help Julia and Ethan learn how to respect and honor their parents and other authority figures as well as to help them feel safe, loved and secure with a positive self image and confidence. We drove from Ohio to St Louis to visit Chris' father.

While we visited for the evening there was a very sick and pitiful kitten crying outside his home. Because we could not just let it suffer in the heat of the south, we rescued it and stuck it in a box with every intention to take it to the local humane shelter. Of course with my luck there weren't any humane shelters open on Saturday's and it was past closing time on Friday when we were there. So we ended up driving home for 8 hours with an obnoxiously sick kitten in a box in the car. By this time we had fallen in love with her and Julia was completely taken with her. We called her Lucky because she was dang lucky we didn't kill her on the drive home. We kept her in our home for a few weeks until she was healthy and nourished. Thankfully Chris' mom, Candy, had a friend that had been looking for a cat for a while and felt that Lucky was a good fit. We were all ready for her to go, she was very active and used to being outside. Julia of course was very sad to lose her, however Lucky got into all of Julia's things so she was happy to have the kitten stay out of her room. Julia gets to go visit Lucky every once in awhile in her new home. Lucky is very spoiled and gets to live in a barn and chase all the mice she wants.

We were very occupied with the kitten for the rest of the summer and then getting ready for school to start.
Ethan was so excited to start Kindergarten, he had watched Julia love Kindergarten the year before which just made him want to go to school that much more. He counted down the days! We took their pictures at the school sign at the Back to School night.



At last the first day of school came! They were both excited and nervous about that day. They both barely even looked back as they got out of the car and ran to their respective classrooms. I couldn't believe that after 12 years of being a stay at home mom there weren't any children at home. It was surreal.

Ethan's Kindergarten teacher is Emma Orr and Julia's First grade teacher is Meredith Curtis. They were great fits for the kids personality and discipline wise. We were so glad that they got such great teachers.

J.C returns from scout camp

J.C. had a great week at scout camp. His favorite part was learning First Aide which surprised us all.

Scrubberella and Indiana McQueen or is it Lightening Jones?

We don't have a fireplace, so we can't have a princess named Cinderella. I guess we will have to settle for Scrubberella. Two weeks ago, I had Julia and Ethan help me clean the bathrooms. At first, I got moans and groans and then Julia found that happy place inside and made it fun to scrub the bathtub. This week, she was very excited to help. The bottom of the tubs have never been so clean, nor the person doing it, been so happy.

Indiana McQueen or Lightening Jones?

While we are talking about cleaning, Ethan made a mess with his cupcake and when he came back up stairs to clean it, he was wearing the hat. I thought it went so well with his t-shirt.

Art Class

Julia and Ethan attended an art class this week at UVU. They had one last week in American Fork, but they liked this one better. I was very impressed by the projects they did. Today as part of the class, they put on an art show. Each of the students presented one of the projects, explaining the inspiring artist and what they did.

Julia Presenting

Julia's Art Work


Ethan Presenting

Ethan's Art Work

Now We are Six

When I was One,
I had just begun.
When I was Two,
I was nearly new.
When I was Three
I was hardly me.
When I was Four,
I was not much more.
When I was Five,
I was just alive.
But now I am Six,
I'm as clever as clever,
So I think I'll be six now for ever and ever.

A.A. Miline

Ethan turned 6 today. He was so excited, he has been counting down the days.

Ethan waiting to open presents.

Making a wish....



We went to Trafalga for lunch and fun! Before the bumper boats....

After the bumper boats.


Ethan got some motorcycles that launch.

Little Miss "I can't swim"

Julia and Ethan have been begging to go swimming since they came, but Julia has been saying she hopes the pool has life jackets because she doesn't know how to swim. We know full well, she can and has swam just fine. So today after art class we met up with Angela and family including her daughter Gabby who Julia has played with before and we went swimming. Little Miss "I can't swim" and took off to play and then I saw her climbing the slide. Here is the video I got. She went over and over again and loved it. I know if I couldn't swim, I wouldn't dare go down a 40 ft slide...

Ethan hung out in the kiddie pool too had a great day!

Singin' In the Rain

Last Monday we went and saw Singin' in the Rain. It is such a fun musical with some great songs! It was fun to listen to the kids singing after the show!

JC Leaves for Scout Camp

The first week with Julia and Ethan in Utah was very busy and a lot of fun. There were several events that we wanted to participate in and they all seemed to take place last week. We'll be posting pictures as we can, but decided to start catching up by taking on part to of the weekend and this morning.

Today J.C. left for Scout Camp at 7:00 am this morning. He was very excited. We hope he has a great week!

Oh Brother!

This week Julia and Ethan will be coming to Utah. We are excited for them to come and love watching the 3 kids interact. Below are the boys making faces last summer.

NO TRAINING WHEELS!

Julia and Ethan both decided that June 1st was the day that they would conquer training wheels and they blew them out of the road! They both did awesome and haven't even fallen once! I was able to catch short video's on my phone, hopefully they work!

Go fly a kite!

And that's what Ethan (and all the other kindergarten kids) did on Friday 4-8-2011! His kite had a picture of a Blue Angle airplane. The day was just windy enough to fly a kite with out having to run.

He had a fun time and was able to, with Chris's help, keep his kite up for nearly an hour!

Spring Break 2011

Julia and Ethan came to Utah last week for Spring Break. It was really fun to be all together. The kids played really well together.

We went to Las Vegas to see Sitto (Jamey's mom) and Matt's (Jamey's brother) family. Sitto moved to Las Vegas from New York in November. It has been nice having her so close and that she lives essentially across the street from Matt's family. While we were there, we went to the Vegas strip and actually had fun.

The picture on the bottom is with J.C.s cousin Tori, there are about six weeks apart and currently the same height. Tori insisted J.C. was taller, but it is a tough call. J.C.'s feet are bigger, so we know who will be taller in the long run.


After Vegas we went to California where Kathryn's family lives for Nathanael's baptism.


We went to Kathryn's brother's house and picked oranges from their tree. We picked lemons at Kathryn's parent's house. When we got home we had an email from Beth saying that Julia pulled a large fruit out of her back pack and wanted to make lemonade with it, she wanted to ensure it was indeed a lemon. We assured her the grapefruit sized citrus was indeed a lemon. As you can see in the picture, they are larger than the oranges.


Kathryn also ensured the children received their In-N-Out history lesson. The original In-N-Out burger was started in 1948 in Baldwin Park, California, just a few miles from where Kathryn grew up. They closed the first In-N-Out a few years ago, but it still stands. They built a new one next to the In-N-Out University just on the other side of the freeway from the original. We of course had lunch there and visited the Company store to acquire t-shirts.



A trip to southern California would not be complete without at least seeing the ocean, especially when you live in a landlocked state. This children also learned quickly that sand can end up in places where you don't want sand to g0.

J.C. goes to Priesthood Session

Since J.C. turned 12 on General Conference weekend, so he was able to attend the priesthood session with Dad. Doesn't he look handsome? He is wearing the shirt and tie Grandma and Grandpa Otis sent him.

J.C. will be ordained to the Aaronic Priesthood on April 16th. We are so proud of him! He is really working hard at making good choices.

No Foolin' J.C. turns 12

The next piece is some video of J.C. opening presents from Mom (Beth). I learned that I can't take pictures and video at the same time, so I missed his reactions opening the wooden Eagle and Snuggie. He thought they were both cool. He made comments about the Snuggie being big and it being one size fits all - which it does.

Note his Adam's apple and how deep his voice is and how much he has grown, especially compared to last year. Check out last year's post for comparison here.

This afternoon we went shopping and bought J.C. a couple of shirts. We came home and he said he needed to "razor up." I was relieved that he meant putting on his Razorback gear as you can see below.

His Angel Food cake is the middle picture. It seems to have fallen from Heaven. The ironic part for me was that I had my dad help me make it. When I was about 7, he was helping me make a Bundt cake and he told me to turn it upside down and it fell apart. Well this time it was supposed to be upside down, but it wasn't supposed to fall out. It will still taste good.

Tonight we will continue the fun. We'll take J.C. out to eat and to play. Thanks to family and friends who have expressed their love for J.C. on his special day.