Tangled:)

Such a cute movie - We went and saw it on Christmas Eve. We went to the early show and this time Dan got to go with us!!! Ya!! The kids seemed to enjoy this one more then HP I think maybe it was a bit more entertaining for them - I only had to leave one time to take Jax potty:) We had a lot of fun, its a really fun movie.

Also just so that you all know. Jax earned this movie - he stayed on green (card) for the whole month of December and the end of November. Which means that he was good at school:) If you stay on green that means that the Teacher did not have to get after him enough times to make him pull a card (that means you are getting a warning, then you lose recess time, and finally you lose a whole recess). Now I am sure that she had to get after him probably a lot, but he did it. He set his own goal and was able to achieve it. When he first told me that he was earning Tangled (about 3 wks ago) I laughed - he gets to pick the reward, but I have to pay for it?!?. I was talking to a teacher at my school and she told me that if he has picked a reasonable reward and is working toward it all on his own then I should probably honer it - she was right, so I did. The movie was cute and I am so proud of him:)

Christmas Trees!

We got our Christmas tree up and decorated finally. We try to do it the weekend after Thanksgiving, but not this year:) Poor Jaxon was starting to think that we were not going to have a tree this year. Dan says that the tree has turned out better this year then it has for the past few years - I always think its cute, the kids are the decorators.

We also went to the cemetery today and decorated Kourtneys tree. I am so excited to have her spot festive and cheery.

our thanksgiving!!!!!!!!!!!

Yesterday the kids and I got to go and see the new Harry Potter movie. Sadly Dan had to sleep because he has been working some crazy long hours this week (thanks to walmart) so he did not get to go with us. We went with most of my family and Dans cousin. We had a lot of fun.

Then we ate lots and lots and played board games. It was just a nice relaxing day!

Dan and his swan:)

It only took him 5 days of hunting (I think more then that:) before he was able to get his swan. He has been trying for a few years and is very excited. I think it is a bit eeky but I am happy for him.

PT conference

Well - the time of year has come again and we got to meet with both of the kids teachers last week.

Kadrey is doing well, she was in Math tutoring for about 2 months but she is now back up to the level she needs to be at. She does very well in most all subjects. Sometimes she gets a little to involved in

her books and forget to pay attention to her teacher, her other problem is the same one she has had for a while - TALKING- but for the most part she is doing wonderful!!!!!!

Jaxon is doing awesome. He started the school year out testing "below average" in every subject and has now testing "class average" in most areas and "above average" in one. His speech is getting a lot better (Yay!) and they are now guessing he will be out of speech therapy this winter (they originally predicted 3 or 4 grade he is only in 1). He has a hard time

staying on task and not being a goof - small steps right?!

Soccer pictures!!!!!!!

Trick or Treat

The kids where so cute this year (ok, they are always cute). Jaxon was a vampire and Kadrey was a "midnight princess" (a girl vampire :)

We went to a halloween party about 2 weeks ago and and they had lots of fun -they even won prizes for their costumes

Then when we went trick or treating it rained a lot! Soaked kids, smeared make-up, wet costumes and lots of candy - so all in all it was a fun night.

Soccer

Well, as you are all aware I am terrible at remembering to take pictures - sorry. However the season still has a couple of weeks so I will get some:)

This year Kadrey is on 2 soccer teams one is regular AYSO (so anyone can pay and be on a team) Dan is her coach for that:) and he enjoys it. It can get frustrating at times because even though the girls are older for some reason cluster up and want to visit with each other and forget that they are playing a game.

Her other team is also from AYSO it is called an "Extra's" team. I guess for the most part the girls had to try out for their spot on the team, by the time we heard about the team they had already started practice. It is between reg. and comp. . The coach gave Kadrey a spot on the team after she saw who Kadrey was (she said " I wanted her on the team I just could not remember her name:) The team has been good for Kadrey, it has really helped her grow as a player, and learn a lot more about teamwork. Plus she gets to go to different cities and play their "extra" teams ( well, two cities - Clearfield, and Layton).

Jaxon is still deciding if soccer is his game - he says he likes to play so.......

He has made a goal at almost every game (only it is sometimes for the other team)

We have been having fun. Who would have thought that I would turn into a soccer mom:) and I don't even own a mini van.

wow 30!!!!!!

So I am now 30.

Dan asked me if I feel different my reply........ I just feel tired, however I have felt that way for a long time so I don't think it really has to do with the fact that I am 30! :)

I did not do a whole lot on my birthday! My friend took me to lunch, Dan got me some lotion and a candle, and I made a wedding cake for my friend (sorry, I did not take any pictures of it) Kim helped me do that :)- Oh and I had to work that day.

Pretty exciting huh! I remember when having a Birthday was a huge deal and now its just another day!!!!!!!!!!

WAIT!

Jaxon is so funny!!! Maybe its not so funny if you where not there, but the kid is always making me laugh. Most times while I am trying to get after him I have to turn my head or hide my face just so he won't see me laughing - or he would never take me serious. He always goes for the laugh no matter the consequence.

We where rushing out of the house the other morning, running late of course (they had about 2 min before their school bell rang - lucky we only live about 1 min from the school). We get outside, have the house all locked up and Dree and I are in the car - suddenly I hear Jaxon saying

"Wait!, did anyone remember to brush my hair."

Of course in my hurry I had forgotten but really

he is a boy and 6 so why is he so worried:)

School has started.

School has started for the kiddies. Kadrey is starting 3rd grade she loves her new teacher and is very excited about school. Jaxon is starting 1st grade, he has not said a lot about his teacher but seems excited enough. He is excited to go to school and I hope he feels that way for a long time:)

I also started back to work last week (my other job ended when school did, and then it was eliminated at that school. So I have not had a job for about 3 months.) I now have an intervention job at an elementary school near my house, even though it is only part- time it is better then not having one at all:) Now my house is quiet more often, it still gets messy pretty fast though.

Happy Birthday Kourtney!!!!!!!

Today is the 2nd Birthday for my Kourtney baby!! I sure do love her - and miss her!!
and my goodness, I have had a lot of birthday cake this month:)

Happy Birthday!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Jaxon turned 6 years old yesterday. It is amazing how fast he is growing up - even though Dan says "it seems like he was 5 forever" :) He is growing up too fast.:( Dan had his birthday earlier this week also, he is now a 31 year old man - Ancient right?! Just kidding that is not old.

Our dentist adventure.

Jaxon had to go to the dentist today - we found him a new one after the little "incident" last year:) I do not know who to post the link so just a reminder - he bit the dentist. The new place that he now goes to is wonderful. We have had to spend a lot of time (and money) there, because of the problems with the other dentist, genetics, and laziness Jaxons teeth have suffered and we have had to pay dearly for it:) This was his last major visit for a while Yay! But today was no fun. Poor guy had to sit in the dentist chair for 1.5 hours - and I forgot my book, so I just sat around too. Last weekend Jax hit his teeth on his knee when he fell and knocked the two bottom ones loose, he ,however, would not let me even touch them. So while he was on the Laughing gas and the dentist was in his mouth I asked him if he could pull them out for me (because they were really loose). Jaxon is now missing almost as many teeth as he has in his mouth! (ok, maybe not quite that many but he is missing a lot:)

Happy Anniversary!!!!!!!!!

Happy Anniversary Dan!!!!!!!! Love you!!!!
9 years ago today I married the most wonderful man. We have been through a lot in our time together, sometimes it feels like we have been together for much longer, somedays the time just seems to fly and seems that there is no way 9 years has passed. Either way I am thankful that we have a lot more time to go - forever :)-

Stadium of FiRe!!!!!!

Ok, so I know that I am a bit behind (only by a week though!)

Last weekend (The 3rd of July) We had the opportunity to go to the stadium of fire with some of our family. We have gone for the past 3 years and love it every time - well, not the traffic

when it is all over because that is really horrible. - but it is really a lot of fun.

This year the main attraction (or whatever you call it) was Carrie Underwood. She is a very

good singer.Of course they had an awesome fireworks show (after all it is called the stadium of Fire for a reason :)

Before the concert/firework show we had a BBQ and got to play with some cousins that we only get to see once a year:) sooooooo much fun.

They have a huge couch in the basement so Danny took advantage of that and got to take a much needed nap. He had worked the night before and then only got to sleep a couple of hours before the long drive to Provo.

Is this not one of the biggest couches ever?!

Camping

We went camping this past weekend with some friends and we had a really fun time. We went to the Jordanelle park near park city. We spent some time fishing (which was the highlight for the kids) and they also spent most of their time playing :) Fun times.

pictures!!!!

So I did not get a lot but here are a couple of base

ball pictures - near the end of the season. (lots of the games were rained out, and the baseball people decided not to make them up UGH) They really had a lot of fun.

And here are some other random pictures that I never got around to posting

Baptism day

Kadrey had her baptism on Saturday. I know that I am a little late on posting but it was a wonderful day. Her dad baptised her and then her grandpa (Dans dad) confirmed her. It was her special day, everyone helped her feel it and she KNEW it.

Bragging for a minute :)

Ok so I forgot every saturday this season to take pictures of the kids. They had a wonderful soccer season ( well, other then the fact that it was really winter and not spring for the past 7 weeks).

Jaxon has a very powerful kick - we just need to work with him on a couple of things.

Kadrey is an all-star (ok I know I am bragging but I cant help it). She can pretty much dominate in any position (as much as an 8 yr old can dominate:)

Both kids has just started baseball - T-ball for Jogee and Coach pitch for Kadrey

This is Kadrey's first year playing and is still trying to figure out all of the rules and things. Now this is Jaxons sport. He can hit the ball harder and farther then anyone else in his age group and he has got the running down - he knows where to go and when to go there (most of the time). Yes T-ball is fairly simple and there are no outs so the kids get a chance to play all of the bases, he is still awesome at it :)

ok I am done now.

Have a good day

oh, Kadrey turned 8 yesterday. It is amazing how fast they grow up. Her party is next week - I promise to try and remember to take pictures of it. Also I do have a couple of soccer pictures on Dans phone so I will transfer them to my computer and share :)

Now have a nice day!

Two Kings

Jaxons kinder class did an opera on friday - Two kings in the bathtub. It was so cute! His teacher is amazing - she put the whole thing together, and It was just the funniest thing ever:) They kids were singing about getting the Kings out of the bathtub,and they could not figure out how to do it - They had the princesses, the princes, and the queens try before the pages figure it out:)

Jaxon was one of the two Kings.

I of course forgot my camera so this is the best picture I could get ( its from a cell phone)

A Golden Heart

This poem is for Kourtney - We have it framed along with her picture in a pretty frame with flower petals in the back ground. I wanted to share it with everyone... so here it is...

A Golden Heart

God saw you were getting tired

And a cure was not to be,

So He put His arms around you

And whispered, "Come with me",

With tearful eyes we watched you suffer

And saw you fade away,

Although we loved you dearly;

We could not make you stay.

So when we saw you sleeping,

So peacefully from pain, we could not wish you back

To suffer that way again.

A golden heart sopped beating.

Your hard-working hands were at rest,

As God then gently called for,

His brightest and His best.

Sorry I do not know who the author of this beautiful poem is - So I can not give him/her the proper credit for it. However whomever wrote this poem did a wonderful job and I am very grateful to them:)

Our Kourtney girl, one year today!!!!!!!

spring break?! April fools

Spring break really? What a cruel joke to start spring break this morning and have it snowing out side. Really plus I have a terrible cold and that just isn't fair - here it is finally a holiday so no work for me and I get sick plus our lovely spring has turned back into winter - now I know that the time for shorts and t-shirts was not yet here and that is fine with me, but now the coats and gloves have to come back out:( So sad, however sleeping in this morning was great and the kids are having fun with our new Netflix membership (the movies play directly onto the T.V. so they can watch as many in a day as they would like).

Bike ride season!

Every time we have warm weather I take the kids on bike rides. They go down the street and around the turn - technically it is the same block because it has no breaks in it but it is really really long:) (and of course we are picking up neighborhood kids along the way). We need go a few blocks and turn by this big grass hill (it used to be the fire station until they re-build right by my house). The kids have been waiting and begging to go on bike rides again, they have been so patient and even though we have had a few days of nice weather Saturday was the first day we could really get out there - They had fun. Their most favorite part is the grass hill - riding the bikes up and down it. Now for me that would get tiring but for them it is great fun:) I didn't think to take any pictures of them doing that but I will.

Yay!! I am so glad the weather is finally getting warmer.

Oh, some days....

I took Kadrey to the doc on Wednesday because she had been coughing since last Sunday. Now I know that is a while to wait but I really thought it was her asthma getting out of control. The Doc. said she had croup (yes 7 yr old can get croup, most out grow croup by this age - but some don't). I had to take her back today because after the steroid treatment she still coughs so much. Now they say she has walking pneumonia. I knew this is what they would probably decide she had and I had already tried to talk myself into being calm and I think I handled it pretty well:) Didn't really freak out:) They put her onto antibiotics and says she can still go to school and do everything she would normally do. Hopefully this medicine works cuz I really need her to get better and to not cough all night so that she and I can both get some sleep - sleep would probably help her also, but every time she lays down she coughs, plus I just need her to get better.:)

Hi!

I know I have not posted in forever... life have been crazy (and pretty uneventful).

Um... We have been playing wii fit a lot and on Monday Dan stopped drinking pop (well his goal is to not drink any for a week - not forever) and since then he has lost 4lbs. It took me almost three weeks to lose that much - What a jerk huh?! :) But really I am proud of him, just wish it was that easy for all of us:)

I started bribing the kids two weeks ago. If they can stay on the green card at school Mon - Fri then after school they get to go and get a prize at Dollar Tree. Jaxon got to go on the first week but not Kadrey...sometimes her mouth just wont stop:) Kadrey got to go on Friday no Jax though (he thru a crayon box at somebody, yes it was empty and cardboard but still).

THE JEEP IS PAID OFF - as of Wednesday. It only took us 5 years to do it:)

Work has been crazy but I will try to post more often:)

oh and on a finally note - Dan starts school "Electrical school" on Monday at the ATC. Yay!!!!

valentines day @ school

The kids had their V-day parties yesterday, they have been excited all week for it (I really do not remember it being that exciting:). They had a lot of fun and got a lot of candy - as if they really need that. Thursday night they had to address their cards (only the from part - the teachers asked that the cards not be address to anyone because that they can just hand them out and not have to worry about which card goes to which student- works for me:)

They really had a fun day!!!!!!!!

Meet Mit (The red books)

So, I don't know how many are familiar with these books. However I am so very familiar with them - you see, I spend almost all day listening to Kids read (well TRY to read them). I spend 20 min a day with a 2nd grader reading them, 1 hour a day with the Special Ed class reading them, 30 min with a third grader, 30 min with 1st graders reading them and if that were not enough - 2 weeks ago Jaxons teacher sent home a note saying he was ready to bring books home and have us sign them off ------- low and behold...... Same books. Some days I think I may go crazy if I have to hear any more about Mit and Sam :) Although it is nice to see progress - but really I don't see a lot I mostly get to hear the same stories over and over again - except for Jax - he seems to breeze right through them:)

Parent Teacher Conference!!!!!! (winter 2010)

Tonight was conferences for the kids. I wanted to share with anyone that cares:)

Jaxon's teacher told us that she was so amazed at the progress he has made. Since returning from Christmas break she says that he has just made so much improvement. He has moved up in reading groups, is doing great with math, and he is doing great socially (but that has never been his problem :) She says she is unsure of the reason but thinks it may be that his confidence is higher because he is improving so much on his speech (He does speech 2x a week in school and 1x a week up at the Scottish rite house, and his therapist is wonderful). The first time he said C O A T instead of oat I wanted to cry (he has been trying to get the c/k sound for a very long time) and I made him say coat for anyone that would listen (I am sure most of them did not care and thought it was strange that I was so excited, but I was:)

Kadrey also got a wonderful report back:) Such a great day to have so much GOOD news (we don't get that a lot :( She is doing great in her spelling, her teacher has decided that she needs to move into the top spelling group (yay for Dree). Her reading and fluency are wonderful and so is her math. Her teacher did mention one problem that she is having... paying attention and staying focused on the teacher while he is teaching (I have been talking with her about this, but really since she is doing so well I am not so worried:)

After working with kids that are so far behind and struggling so much All Day Long it is so wonderful to hear that my kids are doing great. OK I am done now :)

It's a good day!

So... Today is the nine month anniversary of the passing of our sweet little Angel Kourtney. Today is also MLK day (Martin Luther King,Jr.). I spend my morning making texture blocks for the blind school. I maybe complained about this project a bit(at first we were going to sew quilts for the school, I can not sew) however, when I found out that Kourtneys day and the project day were one in the same I decided that this was something that I really wanted to do and I was excited for it. You see, the Blind School was very good to Kourtney. They had a "teacher" come to the house and work with her once a week, she was a recipient of some texture blocks (not the same ones I was making of course but ones that were very similar:) What a great way to spend my day. Giving back! Two wonderful reasons to do it:)

I hope you all very a nice day too!!!!!!

Alvin and the Chipmunks

On Saturday Dan and I took Kadrey and Jogee to the movies - we saw Alvin and the Chipmunks. We had so much fun, Jogee was really getting into the movie and started to dance along (well, he was dancing like Dave to be silly) at the end. Kadrey loved it to she is just more reserved then Jogee is :)

Thank you Grandma and Grandpa Howell for the movie passes :)

Happy New Year (2010)

I hope you have a great new year!! The kids and I spent sometime at Grandma and Grandpas house last night (but not till the new year only until about 8pm) we had some yummy dip and crackers and the kids played games with Grandma. It was fun.

I was in bed last night when the fire works started to go off. Sure enough I ended up sleeping with the little boy of mine in bed with me -silly guy-

There is a Christmas song (sorry can't remember what it is called) that says "next year all your troubles will be miles away". Lets hope right?!

Now the dieting must begin :)