*Star Student*

Last week I wrote about Reagan receiving two homework assignments before school even started. We finished the gingerbread princess and turned it in on her first day. Saturday we finished the second assignment called Star Student. We had fill out a paper on her likes, dislikes, family etc and then make a collage of pictures of her. I went through our pictures of her and sent a lot to be printed at Costco. We went and picked them up Saturday and after a birthday party started her assignment. She is a girl who likes symmetry! I let her choose which pictures she liked best and then I cropped them and we tried to get as many as possible on the page. As I would crop she would organize... she came up with this layout, everything had to be lined up! She didn't want to stick the pictures down for fear that she wouldn't get them on "right"! She decided to decorate her page with butterflies and flowers. I had to make an executive decision to put the butterflies on an angle for everything would have been vertical... which would have been fine, but I'm not sure that I could have lived with it... where do you think she gets it from? We had a great time doing it. When we were finished she said she hopes her homework assignments get shorter. Wait until you get to middle school... high school... college! I better not wish time away.

First Day of School

So Today was Reagan's first day of school and Dad was lucky enough to get to take her. We got up like we normally do and Mom, Kairi, Camden and Tahlia all went to Aimee's house while Dad stayed home with Reagan. Normally we leave to Aimee's by 6:50 at the latest and so with the ones going to Aimee's at that time, Dad and Reagan would have an hour to burn. You would have thought that it was a week if it was an hour as Reagan asked every 4 minutes if it was time to go yet. It led to a small conversation on time and numbers as Dad finally just put on Sponge Bob (thank you cable) and the last 40 minutes flew buy. When it was finally time to go to school we ended up going down 2700 West and by Southland which Reagan thought was her school, and was sad as Dad told her it was Michael's school. Then she realized you have to go by Aimee's house first before we get to her school. As we finally got to school (Monte Vista) we had to cross a street and we talked to the crossing guard first and let her know how that works. After that she talked to her new teacher (Mrs. Shumway) and she was told to put her against the wall and then go play. To her Dad's amazement she did just go and play and acted like she wanted Dad to go. He took some pictures and gave her a hug and kiss and off she went. Our Reagan is now in school.......wow I am starting to feel old.

Accident

Alan's brother Michael turned 7 this week and we were having a family birthday party last night. We had had a busy day doing errands and cleaning but we were excited to go. The party was at 5 and we were having hamburger's and hotdogs. We had all the kids loaded in the car except Camden. He had just woke up from a nap and was not quit awake. Alan and I were grabbing last minute things before we went. I picked up Camden set him on the counter to talk to Alan. I asked Alan to take Camden to the car and then I remembered I was going to take my lap top over. I turned to go grab my laptop and Alan turned to get something out of the fridge. Neither of us knew the other was leaving... I grabbed my computer and turned around to see Camden teetering on the edge of the counter! I screamed at Alan and then it happened! Camden fell face first onto the tile! I grabbed him up in time to see the blood starting to come out his nose. He was crying and I was trying to catch the blood. He kept blowing his nose as he was crying and little blood chunks will fly on my arms, his clothes, and the counters. After a little time we calmed him down and gave him some tylenol. By this time his lips were swelling up, he had a bruise appearing on the top of his nose, and he had dried blood under his nose. This was not the way we wanted to start our evening! Camden didn't complain about his nose or mouth the rest of the night. Needless to say we felt like bad parents after this... we are just thankful he is ok.



Look how sad!


He can still put on a smile...

Homework

Here, in Jordan District, kindergarten starts a week later than the rest of the students so that they can meet individually with their teacher and be tested. When Reagan went to be tested, last Monday, her teacher gave use two homework assignments. The first one was to decorated and paper gingerbread man. This is due her first day of school. The next assignment we have to complete a paper on her likes, hobbies, etc and then to create a collage of pictures. This isn't due for a few more days though. Reagan decided she wanted to decorate her gingerbread man like a princess. She picked out paper for her dress and then we accessorized. She was so excited that she didn't want to do much herself for fear she would mess it up! I finally convinced her to glue on her eyes, but that was about it. She told me what she wanted and I tried my best to do it. We couldn't decide if she looked better with or without shoes, so we left them off for now and if we decided to add them later, we can. I'm sure there will be many more projects and homework to come. I will be giving homework to my students during the day and helping my own daughter do homework at night! What will we do when all 4 kids are in school! I guess we will just take it one kid at a time.


Reagan is so excited to take her gingerbread princess to her teacher!


A little interesting... but she loves it!

First time homework

Today we did a little homework project for our Kindergarten girl and will have to put up the pictures......wait wait wait, I mean today Mandie did her first of many homework projects for Reagan. Lucky girl to have a mom that cares for her like that. We will have to put up Mandie's materpiece tomorrow when we have more time. Tonight we are going to celebrate Michaels 7th Birthday (that is Alan's Brother for those of you that do not know).

Pictures Finally

So here is the anniversary gift all together. Yeah we know pretty boring just some new bedding but it is nice to have new stuff and well there you have it.

Camdemonium

For those of you who know our "little" Camden you know how he is already a big old boy. Well today while I was cleaning he took a chair to school and it made me laugh for quite a while. I have taken a short video, and played with the new computer a bit and you will see it below. This may be the beginning of a string of videos of our little boy. Enjoy

Anniversary

I know our anniversary was a few days ago, but I saw this on a friends blog and thought it was a good idea. It's always fun to look back.

1. What date is your anniversary?
August 2nd

2. Where did you get married?
Idaho Falls Temple


3. Who proposed and how?
Alan proposed. It seems like yesterday. It was April 20, 2002. The night before he, along with his friend Bob, drove to Idaho Falls, without me knowing and asked my parents if he could marry me. He wasn't there too long because he was still planning on driving back that night, but he was there long enough to let me sister's try on my engagement ring! The next day we had planned to go to Rodigio Grill to celebrate something about his mission since he served in Brazil. I was game! It was kind of a rainy day, but it was still nice. We had a great dinner, or I did. Later Alan told me he couldn't eat much because he knew what he was about to do. I didn't even pay attention. We left and he ask if I wanted to go for a walk and walk off some of our lunch. I said sure, but was a little shocked because it was a rainy day. So we ended up driving and parking behind the Conference Center and then started walking down. I had had a little too much to drink and told Alan I wouldn't make it too far if I didn't stop to use the restroom. He asked me a few times if I could just make it to Temple Square, but I kept saying no, so we went into the Conference Center. Alan waited for me. When I came out he was sitting on a couch in the lobby of the conference center. I went and sat beside him. We made small talk for a minute and then he started to move and I thought we were going to continue our walk, but he turned and got down on knee! I was shocked! He asked me to marry him, then he showed me the ring. Of course I said yes! He put on my ring and we hugged and kissed. As I looked up, there was a tour going through the conference center that had seen the whole thing and they were all pointing and smiling at us. Needless to say, we didn't finish our "walk" we went back to his car and started to call my family.

4. How long were you engaged?
3 months and 2 weeks

5. What was the favorite part of your wedding day?
The whole day was great, how do I choose? I loved kneeling across the alter and hearing the words, "for time and all eternity". What a great promise!


6. What would you change if you could?
I honestly can't think of anything. It was a great day.

7. Wedding colors?
Navy, Yellow, with accents of white and silver

8. Do you remember anything special from your ceremony? Any good advice? A comical moment?
I remember all of my family being around us, I love my family! I honestly don't remember much of what our sealor said. I remember the wonderful feelings I felt throughout the whole ceremony.

9. Were you clean or messy when you cut your wedding cake?
We were clean, Alan says I threatened him to not get me messy, but I don't remember that conversation!


10. Where did you go on your honeymoon?
We spent two night at the Blue Heron Inn in Rigby, Idaho. Then went to Island Park for the next few days. It was great.

11. How long have you been married now?
6 years!

The Kids are Back

The kids had a great time at Grandma and Grandpa Duncan's house. They went swimming, camping, helped Bryce work on his deck, played in the irrigation, etc. They came back worn out and very tan! Here are a few pictures of their week.

Feeding ducks at the falls.

Camden with Leslie

Picking raspberries

Camden wasn't too sure about the four wheeler at first

Playing in the irrigation


Playing baseball

Kairi making bread with Grandma



Reagan and Kairi rolling down a hill

This weekend (well mostly just Saturday) Mike and Carol visited us. Alan took Mom golfing at 6:00 am on Saturday and they had a great time. We were glad to get our kids back and have missed them. Camden is still only walking when he wants too but he is about there so watch out world the tank is going to be that much taller. We were grateful to have the time alone but our house never felt quite right as it does when you have the screaming and laughing that the kids bring. This is the last week of summer for us so it should be a fun one.

Painting

Well, it's official.  We have a red accent wall in our kitchen.  Yesterday, while Alan was at work, I took everything off of the wall, washed the wall and baseboards, and taped everything that wasn't suppose to be painted.  Tahlia was so cute.  She mostly sat on the couch watching TV while I worked.  When Alan got home from work we had a sandwich for dinner because the kitchen was torn apart.  Then we went and got the paint.  We debated whether we needed primer and how much paint we needed.  Alan thought the brown we already had on the wall would be good enough "primer".  I new, from doing a painting project with my geometry classes, that a can of paint covered about 400 sq feet.  Using that information, I told Alan we only needed one can of paint.  We both ended up being right.  We got the first coat on and cleaned up by 10 last night.  It went on great, but we could tell we would need one more coat.  After I got home from water aerobics, I painted the second coat.  It went on really easy and covered great!  The only scary part about the project was climbing on the ladder to reach the 9 foot ceilings.  I survived though.  The paint in currently drying.  I will hopefully put my kitchen back together tonight and decorations up tomorrow.

Tahlia watching TV.

I tried to take a picture myself after I was done, but it didn't turn out very good.  This is what I look like after swimming and painting for a few hours.  Cute, I know!

Michael Scott is so funny........Oh this isn't The Office.

Tonight we finally went and saw Get Smart and might I say it was pretty good.  We have no kids for the rest of the week as they are with Grandma and Grandpa Duncan and so we are as Mandie says "footloose and fancy free".  Now we just have to do some other things this week and one of the great ideas is to paint an accent wall in the Kitchen, so maybe you will get to see pictures of that soon too.  

The 2nd of August, 2002 was the greatest day of my life, and yesterday was the six year anniversary of that date.  I have loved being married to my adoring and caring wife and the past six years have just flown by.  To celebrate we bought a new bedding set and now it makes Mandie want to repaint the room, so guess that we will be doing that too.  Pictures of the bedding will be up shortly once we get the final part in the mail.