A Day at the Park with Friends

I took Jaedyn to the dinosaur park today after dance because I told her a few days ago that there's turtles there. At the moment she's obsessed with the "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles", so she immediately thought I was referring to them. Needless to say, I didn't have to do any convincing or begging to get her to go there. Her friend Sarah from dance decided to join us too. 

When we first got there, I made Jaedyn eat her lunch, then I gave her and Sarah some bread to feed to the ducks and geese.  At first the girls had no takers on their yummy bread...

  ...but that quickly changed!   Jaedyn and Sarah got bombarded by ducks, geese, and pigeons!  At first, it kind of freaked them out.  After a minute they were okay with it and had a blast throwing bread to them all.  There were a few geese that tried to take the bread right out of the girls' hands, but I was right there to shoo them away before anyone got hurt.      When our bread was all gone, we went on a walk to try and find the "Ninja Turtles".  Jaedyn spotted a couple of them along the edge of the pond and she told me that it was "Donatello" and "Leonardo".  She was sad that all four of the turtles weren't together, but she did find the other two swimming in the pond.  So, all was good in Jaedyn's world.  I love that girl and her imagination!      We did some more walking and exploring along the pond.  We discovered that the "Ninja Turtles" have several relatives in the area.  Jaedyn was super excited about that!   On our way back to our car I asked Jaedyn to pose for me in front of some ducks.  Her expression cracked me up...     She was afraid that the ducks were going to come up and "bite her booty".  Silly girl!   Jaedyn has now requested that we visit the "Ninja Turtles" every week after dance.

Such a "Pretty" Daddy!

This is what happens when you have a daughter... 

  ...you get to be her dress up toy!   Josh was a good sport to let Jaedyn put some of her play jewelry on him.  He had more on, but unfortunately I didn't get a picture of it all.  Josh is such a good dad to let Jaedyn do this.

Double Dose of Scouts!!

Tonight was a busy night for us, both of my boys were getting awards at scouts.

We started the night first with Jantzen's pack meeting for Cub Scouts.  He earned his Bobcat award and was presented with it tonight at a fun ceremony that involved face coloring.  Josh had the most fun coloring Jantzen's face, as you can see by the big red spot on his chin.

  Jantzen was so excited to receive his Bobcat award tonight and we're so proud of how hard he's working in Cub Scouts so he can earn more awards.     After the awards part of the pack meeting was over, the Cubmaster had a fun game for all the boys to play.  They each got their own pvc pipe marshmallow shooter.  As you can see, Jantzen was a "little" excited about this activity...         Jantzen had a blast shooting marshmallows at empty soda cans...     After Jantzen's pack meeting fun was over, we had to rush back inside the church for Jaron's "Court of Honor" awards program.
Jaron was presented with his "1st" and "2nd" Class badges for work he had completed in his 11 year old scout troop.  I got to go up with him and get my pins for his awards too...              Jaron worked really hard to get these awards and his goal was to complete them before he moved up to the official Boy Scouts program...and he did it!  We're so proud of him and all of his hard work that he's put into his scouting career so far.      Here's my two little scouters that I'm so proud of...     They really enjoy going to scouts every week and learning new things.  Jantzen is now focusing on getting his "Wolf" badge and Jaron is focusing on his path to earning his "Eagle" award.  I know with a lot of hard work that they both can accomplish their goals...Good Luck Boys!!
Oh, and here's a picture of my awards...     I love that I get awards for supporting my boys too...I love them...my boys, that is!!!

Quick California Weekend!

We just got back from a quick weekend trip to southern California for cousin Amanda's wedding. We've been looking forward to this weekend for a while now because we love going there to visit and it was nice being able to go there for this special occasion. 

Here's Josh's cute cousin Amanda and her new hubby Marty...

   They have such an awesome story of how they met (this is a second marriage for both of them) and they are absolutely perfect together!
Their wedding/reception was at a gorgeous mansion that Josh and I wish we could live in.  It just happens to be owned by a couple that are part of the Rick's family (Rick's College aka BYU-Idaho).  The ceremony was beautiful and there wasn't a dry eye there, including the bride and groom.
(Here are a few pictures from their special day)      There was some dancing at the reception and I tried to get my family to dance with me, but they were all being party poopers until...Harlem Shake started playing.  Jantzen was all the way on the other side of the yard when this song came on and all of a sudden, out of nowhere, there he was getting down to the music.  I wish I would have gotten a picture of it, but I didn't.  I've never seen him so excited about a song before, it was hilarious!  After that, I was able to get the rest of my kids to dance with me and their cousins.  We had a ton of fun and danced all night!
This morning we came home, but before we did, we stopped to eat breakfast with Nena and her family, then we headed to the beach.  We can't go to California and not make a trip to the beach, even if it's a quick trip.  It was an overcast day, but the weather was perfect!                 Even though it wasn't very warm, Jaron and Jantzen wanted to stick their feet in the water.  I told them not to get anything but their feet wet though because we were heading home, it was really hard for them to stay dry...they love the ocean!  They just stood there waiting for the waves to come in and "get them"...         Jaedyn didn't want to get anywhere near the water, instead she decided to draw pictures in the sand.  It didn't take long for her brothers to join her...     ...Jantzen kept drawing and writing words close to the waves, so they kept getting erased.
This was a cute little head that Jaedyn drew, I was really impressed with her artistic skills...      ...she then added a body to it...     ...I got a good laugh because I didn't quite know what was going on with it, but it was really cute.   Our time was up and we needed to start heading home.  Of course the kids weren't happy about that, but they have school tomorrow and Josh has to work so we had to go.  Luckily for them we're already planning our next trip to California.   Congratulations again to Amanda and Marty!  We all hope you have an eternity of happiness together!

It's Dance Time Again!

Last Saturday I took Jaedyn to her dance studio's fall registration party. They had a car wash, music, food, and face painting. Jaedyn chose to have a butterfly painted on her cheek and her friend Sarah got a heart... 

   They both had a lot of fun running around together.  Since Jaedyn has preschool on Tuesdays and Thursdays now, we signed her up for the Friday morning ballet/tap class.  Luckily for us Ms. Kim teaches it...we LOVE Ms. Kim!
This was Jaedyn's first day of her new dance class.  We took her to pick out some tap shoes and a new leotard and she was so excited to wear them!  The first half hour of her class is all ballet and the other half is tap.  The girls all had a hard time getting through the ballet part only because they wanted to wear their tap shoes so bad.
These are the poses Jaedyn chose for some pictures.
Here's one of her ballet poses...     ...and some of her showing off her tap shoes...           She's so cute!  I love watching her dance because she's so good at it!  Her ballet techniques look like she's been doing it for years and it's only been since February.  I can't wait to see her perform in the Christmas recital.

My Guitar Lovin' Boy

To say that Jaron "likes" to play his guitar is an understatement...he "LOVES" playing his guitar! He's only been in his intermediate guitar class at school for a couple weeks, but he's doing awesome! He has to work hard this year so he can make it into advanced guitar next year. 

Jaron's also a little obsessed with owning a lot of guitar pics.  He buys them at school all the time, but this particular guitar pic of his is my favorite...

  Yeah, he took his school ID card from last year and made it into a guitar pic.  I thought that was pretty creative.     Now he can strum his guitar with his face!
Jaedyn got a little Minnie Mouse guitar for Christmas last year and Jaron will periodically give her lessons.  I caught the two of them playing their guitars while Jaedyn was singing along...it was so cute!     Josh and I keep telling Jaron that he needs to pursue a career in music because he's so talented.  He can play guitar, of course, sing, and he's also teaching himself to play songs on the piano after he learns them on his guitar...I love it!  It's nice listening to him play, especially when he learns and plays songs that Jaedyn likes.

Jaedyn's First Day of Preschool...2013!

On Tuesday Jaedyn started her last year of preschool. This year she's going to "Tater-Tot Preschool" and her teacher's name is Ms. Tate. Jaedyn has been so excited to start school again and she's especially excited for this year because her teachers name is the same as one of her cousins. I'm excited for her because she's in an environment that is more like how "big kid" school, as she calls it, will be for her next year. 

  Jaedyn insisted that I make her a sign for her first day just like I did for her brothers.  She told me what to put on it, here's the result (she held onto that sign all day)...

  Jaedyn decided to take her Tinkerbell backpack with her this year...       Josh and I took Jaedyn shopping for some new school clothes last weekend and she had a blast picking them out.  Here she is modeling the outfit she picked out for her first day...isn't she so pretty?!?!...       Jaedyn absolutely loved her first day at preschool.  When I picked her up she quickly asked me, "Can I go back?".     After she got her folder for school, we realized that her Tinkerbell backpack wasn't going to work this year because it's too small, so I took her shopping for a new one.  Can you guess what kind she picked out?
(This is Jaedyn's second day of preschool)       A "Hello Kitty" one!  She had every intention on getting a "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle" one, but when we couldn't find a good one, she saw this one and instantly decided that it was meant for her.  It was so cute how excited she was to get it, that's all she talked about the rest of the day.      I got more pictures of Jaedyn on her second day of preschool with her new backpack and one of the other cute outfits she picked out, then we headed to school.  She liked this outfit because I have a black shirt with white polka dots too.  I was wearing mine, but I forgot to get a "twinner" picture of us together.     I love how much she loves going to school.  I hope that excitement stays when she has to start going every day.  

First Day in G.A.T.E.

Like Jaron, Jantzen tested very well and made it into the G.A.T.E. program at school. He scored a 98% out of 99% on the first test, which meant he didn't have to take the second test to see if he could be a part of the program.  There were only a few kids that tested this high on the first test and it makes me so proud to know that Jantzen was one of those kids.

G.A.T.E. stands for "Gifted And Talented Education". This means he's one of the "smart" kids at school and this is an additional class he goes to three days a week where he learns a variety of different things, including building and programming robots, studying rocks and minerals, and creating and running his own company, just to name a few.

 
  Jantzen was so excited to make it into the G.A.T.E. program because Jaron was in it too and he wants to be just like his big brother.     Today was his first day and he said he really enjoyed it.  He loves learning new things, especially things he's already interested in.  It's going to be a fun year for him!