1st Grade..."What a tear jerker!"

Cooper started the big 1st grade yesterday. Well he hasn't been that excited to go to 1st grade, some days he was more excited than others. I thought that we were doing a good job at talking it up and telling him that he was going to have such a great time. But he would keep saying "I am just a little nervous." First let me tell you a few things about Coop's personality. He is super sensitive and very tender. It is very rare that we yell at Cooper because it would just make him cry, but we don't ever have to yell at him because he very rarely does anything that he shouldn't. Just reading the school and classroom rules to him made him quiver inside, I know that I will never have to deal with him being the trouble maker. So back to the story... The day before he started he went and met his teacher and had a little tour of his classroom, I could see that he was still nervous, but being very brave. I continued to talk up 1st grade that night and tried to make him as excited as possible. I thought we were set!
Well the next morning I had to wake him up to get dressed (I never have to wake him up, he is usually awake at the crack of dawn so I should have known this was a sign). Well I was changing Peiton's diaper and he comes in the room just bawling, saying "I don't want to go to school, I am so scared. I don't want to go!" What do you say to your child that is so nervous and scared and you know you have to send him to school? Well I said what I think most parents would (I hope I am not the only one) I said..."Coop it is going to be okay, you will have a great time and when you get home if you can stop crying and be brave, I will take you to Target for a prize." I believe bribery is a great thing at times. Inside my heart was broken, I didn't want to send him to school I just wanted to protect him and take all of his fears away. Well, he calmed down eventually and we were on our way to school soon after. As we walked to school I could just see him holding the tears back. He had the look where his eyes were swelling up and your heart just hurts so bad because the tears just want to come out and your trying so hard to hold them in. I felt awful.
We found his classroom line outside the door and he just stood there nervous, but he was so brave. He did so great, there were no more tears, he stood there quietly not saying a word. I was so proud. He did a lot better than me. My poor cousin Kiley was there to comfort me and I sat there in tears when he wasn't looking. (Thanks Kiley for dealing with the crazy mamma!) I just get so nervous for him, I was the exact same way, but I was even more shy...didn't say a word, I know, hard to believe. After a long day of watching the clock every hour, I met up with him right outside the school and it looked like he did great. He said "it was a little fun." So that is better than not fun at all. And today he did great, a much better day!
It is so weird having my little guy gone all day long, I miss the kid. I am so proud of him and I am so blessed to have such a great little guy. And Bode and Peiton are so lucky to have such a good big brother. Love ya Coop!

A few pics before school. If you look really closely you can see his sad little eyes. O' they break my heart!

Cabin Getaway

This past weekend we headed up to Collin's parents cabin. We invited our good friends Jon and Amy to come along. It is always nice to get away and not have to worry about everyday life. The kids played along great. It is funny to see them warm up to each other, at first they won't say a word and then one starts talking to another and by a few more words, they are great friends. We started the getaway off with some yummy dinner from the good ole' Dairy Keen. You can't go to Heber and not get Dairy Keen. Well I guess you could go to Heber and not get it, but whenever we go to the cabin we like to stuff our faces and that is just what we did, stuffed our faces.
Collin and Jon getting some R&R (not really)
Amy
Cooper and Paige enjoying a nice bowl of popcorn before bedtime.

On Saturday we spent the day 4-wheelin, eating, playing in the dirt, eating and just chattin...did I mention eating?
Cooper and Bode ready for a ride. Bode loved the 4-wheelers (as usual) We had to struggle just to get him off. In the afternoon I took him on long ride and he crashed, it was the begining of a perfect nap.
Paige, Coop and Bode
Charlie and Hailey
Hailey and Peiton
Hailey took great care of Peiton, she was our little babysitter.
Thanks for coming Jon and Amy, we hope you had a great time!

Pioneer Day

We had a fabulous Pioneer day this year. We started the festivities at Shawn and Stacy's where the kids (and Bubba and Coors) played on the water slide. A few of us played some games and we just sat around and chatted with each other. Then we enjoyed a yummy steak with yummy side dishes brought by all. After dinner it was off to the softball field where we had a friendly softball game, there was no competitiveness at all. Some of us needed to refresh on some of our softball skills (I won't name any names) it was quite hilarious. We then decided that we were going to start a family softball league, so watch out all of you that play softball...the V-dub's are bringing it down! It was great because the kids were able to participate and they did a great job. After the game we headed back to Shawn and Stacy's for some yummy homemade ice cream made by Russ and some killer fireworks! The fireworks lasted about 2 minutes...but they were fabulous! By 10:30 we were all beat and ready to call it a night. Thanks family for a great time, I love it when we can all get together and just have some fun! Love ya all!

"Look what I won, baby!"

My cute friend Kristen did a drawing for her 100th post on her blog, and I won! I do not win drawings, I am so unlucky when it comes to drawings. But this one, I was destined! I love Grease and I am one of the rare people that love Grease 2. So thanks Kristen, I can't wait to enjoy the shows and the treats. You rock!

Mamma Mia!

Rachelle, Alisha, Mom, Lexee (might as well be our sister) Hollie, Stacy, Nat, Jacki

Last night I went to Mamma Mia with all my sisters and my mom. I loved it! I saw the Broadway production a couple of years ago with our friends the Peck's. It kind of was a last minute decision and there were only a few seats left. Low and behold when we got there, our seats were the very last row on the balcony at the Capital Theater. We sat through the whole show squinting, wiping the blood off our noses and listening to this sound the whole time...chaa, chaa, choo....chaa, chaa, choo....we had a sweet gentlemen next to us that was on oxygen and that is what we heard the whole time. We crack up whenever we think about it. Besides all of that I did enjoy the show.

Well last year my mom took me and all of my sisters to see it at the Capital Theatre again, we had much better seats! I absolutely loved it! I loved the acting, the singing and the music was awesome! Stacy and Alisha (Stacy had a thing for Collin Firth especially at the end when he is dancing with his shirt off...ohh baby. And Alisha didn't agree with me on Pearce's singing...she loved it, right Alisha?)

Last night was awesome too! It is just a fun, happy show that leaves you in the best mood. My friend Heidi describes it the best. She did a great review of the show on her blog. I thought Meryl Streep did a great job, Sophie (which is the chick in Mean Girls, another fabulous movie) did a good job and I LOVED the mom's friend, the short haired one, I swear she is the one in the Broadway play, it looks just like her. She was hilarious! Now as for Pearce Bronsan...super goofy, not so much a singer, but good to look at. The movie in all just makes you want to get up and dance and at the end Stacy and I couldn't help it, we got up and boogied! That is what I love about the play, at the end everyone is on their feet shakin' it, is should be the same way in the theatres. So if you are looking for a fun girls night, I would suggest this film, a little cheesy but a lot of fun.

I am so lucky to have such a fun mom and a bunch of fun sisters. We always have a great time together. Love ya gals!

"Scales, tails and boobs..."(rated pg-13)

(This is pg-13 because I will describe some graphic material and I use the word "boob" because breast just does not do it justice. So bear with me and I sure hope you don't get offended.)

Last night Collin and I took our kids to the library to this little thing called "Scales and Tales." They had this guy and lady come with all of these different reptiles. They had scorpions (yuck), tarantulas (double yuck), iguanas (back to single yuck), tortoises (cute), and snakes (triple yuck yuck!) Cooper loved it! It was actually really interesting, the guy did a great job at making if funny and giving you a lot of information that didn't bore you to death.

So now I will get to the PG-13 part, I know you have all been waiting for it. So, Collin and I are sitting there in this room on the floor waiting for the show to start. The room is super packed and there are probably more than 60 kids and about 50 adults, families everywhere! So I look over at Collin and out of the side of my eye (she was sitting right next to us) I see this lady pull up her shirt (she was wearing no bra) take her let's say 10 month child, and latch him on to her boob. I saw full boob, full nipple and full suck, (quadruple YUCK YUCK)! I just started dying of laughter because who in the heck does that?? Collin was like what was going on, why are you laughing? So I told him, and not because he wanted to look it is just intuition to do so he looks over and sees the same thing I did. Well I guess the baby wasn't too hungry because as he looks over she is unlatching the baby and he sees it all again, but I think a little worse. We both were dying, I couldn't believe it. Well I guess the baby got hungry again because 5 minutes later she pulled out the other side and latched him right on. Holy cow, are you serious? Now let's get some things straight. I am all for breast feeding, I actually commend those that do it because I have the hardest time doing it. And I am all for breast feeding in public, I know that sometimes you have to do it in public and that is just fine, but for heaven's sake, COVER UP, and if you can't cover up, leave the room where you are not surrounded by families where all they have to do is look around and they are in a live porn show that they did not pay for, nor ask for. Sorry if this comes off a little harsh, but I just don't like to spend my FHE night looking at boob. I am just grateful Coop didn't see anything.

So anyway, on to the sweet reptiles...

They brought this snake out last. It was HUGE! It was some kind of Python. When they brought it out, Cooper jumped back so far, he was a little nervous I think. It was pretty yucky, but compared to the "B__B" it wasn't bad at all.
Here is a bunch of kids holding the snake. I don't think you would catch any of my kids up there.
A huge Iguana they brought out. This was actually really cool. I didn't get to grossed out.
Cute Coop

Bode and Dad
The tarantula, these things are yucky!

Little Pei Pei. So focus to my crotch (yes, I remind you this is a PG-13 post) Well as we were driving to the library, I started to feel something really warm on my legs. Low and behold Peiton's bottle that I had in my purse started to leak all over. It leaked perfectly on my pants to make it look like I peed my pants. I mean it was perfect. So I had to walk around like I just peed my pants. It was super fun.
Sorry the pictures aren't the best. I couldn't get my camera to work in the room and with the lighting. It was really hard to focus on anything.

Memory O' memory....

I have seen this post on a couple of my friends blogs and I have loved reading all the memories and things people have had to say. So of course I am doing it on mine..

Here are the directions:

1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you. If you don't want to play on your blog, or if you don't have a blog, I'll leave my memory of you in my comments.

Draper Days 2008

This weekend we had some fun family time at Draper Days. We have been doing Draper days since back when we lived in Draper. I guess we have just made it a tradition to keep going. First we start the day off by running in the 5k fun run. This year we had 6 of us running, it was fun to have that many of us participating. I think we were all happy with our times and thought it was pretty fun. I was especially proud of Nicky, it was her first race and she rocked! Kelly took it away with her quick 23 something minute race...go Kelly! We then made our way over to the parade route where we were all anxiously awaiting the parade. Call me crazy but I enjoy parades, I think they are so fun to watch and the kids love them. I am lucky because I have a great husband that will sit there and watch it with me. I drag him to all the parades I want to go to, he is quite the trooper. And after the parade we were all ready to go home and take a long nap...at least I was, and I did!

This is the Place Monument

Yesterday my mom took all of us to This is the Place Monument. It has been a tradition to go every year sometime around the 24th of July. I think this is the 4th year going. Each year it gets better and better. They seem to add more and more fun things for the kids to do. We got up there about 12:00 and had a lunch and didn't leave until 5:00 and there was still things that we didn't do that we would have loved to do. And the older Cooper gets the more interested he gets in the things they have. I think they have done a great job and trying to make you feel like you are actually back in the days of the pioneers. I really can't imagine living in those times. It is incredible the things they went through and the living circumstances they had. They were really brave people and did the best they could with what they had. We are so spoiled with all the many things we have and I feel like our kids (at least mine) take it for granted, they don't realize the blessings we have. I am so grateful for the pioneer heritage and the struggles they went through for our behalf. I learned more about Mary Fielding Smith and was a remarkable woman she was and the things she had to go through by herself with all of her children.

So anyway there is my deep thoughts for the day or I guess for the year, since I really am not that deep of a person. We all had a great time and by the end of the day the kids were crashed, especially Bode. I think the parents were a little crashed too. The moms were dropping like flies, Alisha had to leave a little early so we kept Dakota and Hollie left early (bless her heart and her little stinker Kate) so we were left with 4 strollers and basically 3 adults that were around to push them. It got crazy at times but we managed. Thanks Mom for the great time and the fabulous memories.