Mallory's Pre-Birthday Festivities

Mallory's teacher at school sent home a note last week that they would celebrate Mallory's 6th Birthday today at school. Mallory was soooo excited! Her teacher sent home a booklet for Mallory to complete and return to school. Mallory wrote and drew all about herself, her family and her dreams for the future (it turned out really cute--I totally love her answers and her drawings).

Today for her Birthday, she was the Leader of the day, received a birthday crown and she got to do all the jobs for the day (calendar, weather, be the first in line, etc.). I always go volunteer on Thursdays in her class and she was all smiles when I got there. She had a wonderful day in kindergarten!! She brought a treat for everyone in her class also!

Mallory in her kindergarten class

Mallory's best friend, Abigale, gave Mallory her birthday present today! Mallory was so excited for the Tinkerbell nightlight and Tinkerbell jewelry set. Abigale (and her sister Preslie) came to spend the afternoon with us today which was another treat for Mallory (they ate lunch over too--lunch is always better with your best friend). Mallory opened her gift when Abigale was over! It was a wonderful afternoon!


Abigale and Mallory--
the very BEST OF FRIENDS

NOTE: We were very lucky to have Abigale and Preslie spend the evening with us last night as their parents went and met with their caseworker. They just found out a few hours earlier that a birth mother and birth father had chosen them to adopt their 11 day old little baby girl. They had a million things to do to prepare to drive to St. George to pick up their little baby. They are going to get her on Saturday morning!! AMAZING--they only had two days to prepare for a new baby while most of us have 9 months!!
WE ARE SO EXCITED FOR THEM (ELATED might be a better word)!!
We are so glad Abigale and Preslie were able to be at house playing with our girls while their parents were trying to get last minute things done!!

Story time at the Library

Today, Hayley, Brittney and I went with our friends Danielle and Preslie to Story time at the Library. We haven't been in quite awhile (no real excuse--but maybe to avoid the germs in the wintertime or maybe because Wednesday mornings are the only day we really don't have anywhere to go). Hayley and Brittney absolutely loved it! They listened to stories, sang songs, played instruments and popped bubbles! At the end, they always have a little craft for the kids to do also. Here are Brittney and Preslie coloring and gluing cotton balls on their bunnies for "B" day! We really need to take time to do this each week!

Front Runner and the Ogden Train Station Museum Field Trip

Mallory had her first kindergarten field trip! She was so excited to ride the school bus!! I went as one of the chaperone's in Mallory's class and I had a group of three girls: Mallory, Alexis and Neesha. We rode the school bus from the school to the Clearfield Front Runner Station. We rode Front Runner down to the Ogden Train Museum and went on a short tour. The kids really loved the trains they could play inside, the caboose they could climb up into and the miniature train sets. Mallory had a lot of fun! She said her favorite part was riding the Front Runner train on the second story!

Erin and Mallory on Front Runner

Mallory riding the School Bus for the very first time--can you tell she's excited??

Mallory, Neesha and Alexis

Mallory

Mallory on the top story of Front Runner

Mallory in the Caboose

Mallory stopping the Caboose

Mallory playing in a train engine

Mallory and I were both really tired when we got back to the school (we were only gone 3 hours) but it was a lot of fun! It was nice for me to be on the other side of a field trip--the parent side. It is a lot less stressful than being on the teacher side of a field trip!!

Frosted Rock Creamery Field Trip

Hayley's Preschool Field Trip this month was to Rob's Frosted Rock Creamery. We went to the ice cream shop and saw how they make their ice cream. We also learned how they make their yummy waffle cones and waffle bowls. After learning how everything is made, we got to eat!! It was YUMMY!! We went to the field trip in the afternoon so Mallory could come too (last year she missed this field trip because it was on the day we brought Hayley home from the hospital when she was sick last year). Aleece (my sister) and her kids, Kaitlin and A.J. came this afternoon too (Kaitlin is in Hayley's pre-school class).

A.J., Mallory, Brittney, Hayley and Kaitlin

Mallory and McKinlee (they were in Pre-school together last year--what good little friends, McKinlee came to our house after the field trip to play for awhile)

Hayley and Kaitlin - the best of friends

Watching how the ice cream is made

A.J. and Brittney

Kaitlin and Hayley

Hayley finishing off her bowl of ice cream with a gumball in it!!

WHAT A YUMMY FIELD TRIP!!

Dr. Seuss' Birthday Celebration

This morning at Mallory's school, they had "Parents and Pastries" in honor of Dr. Seuss' Birthday. We went school early and had doughnuts and juice and read books until school started. The kids were able to dress up as their favorite Dr. Seuss character or any storybook character. Mallory dressed up as The Cat in the Hat! Mallory read "Go, Dog, Go" to us! She is such a good little reader!

Hayley also had a Dr. Seuss day at preschool. It was "Crazy Sock Day" and she made a Dr. Seuss hat. Mallory reading to Brittney

Brittney, Hayley and Mallory

Mallory and her best friend Abigale, both dressed as "The Cat in the Hat" (It's a good thing that when I was teaching kindergarten, my school bought us a hat several different years--I have three or four!)

Hayley, Mallory, Erin and Brittney

WE LOVE DR. SEUSS BOOKS AT OUR HOUSE!!!!

4 Snowmobiles + 15 intertubes + Young Single Adults = A LOT OF FUN!!!!

The Young Single Adults held their annual Sledding Activity on Monte Cristo again this year! It was a lot of fun but a lot of work (for Scott--THANKS!!--Scott was at work last night pumping up tubes and getting things ready until 10:30 p.m. and he left this morning at 7:45 a.m. to go set up and he got home at 8 p.m and still had to unload the trailer)!!! Scott hauls in a table, chairs, firewood and intertubes into the tubing hill and makes a nice set up for this sledding activity! Scott's nephew, Justin, comes and help him. They use the snowmobiles to give everyone a ride to the top of the hill so you can just sled down!!! Mallory went down the hill at least 20 times herself!! She had a blast!! Hayley and Brittney each went down about 3 or 4 times (Brittney really surprised me because she liked it so much!!).

All week Mallory has been planning this activity. She knew Jackson was coming (our friends plus his dad is now in the Bishopric of the YSA ward with Scott) so she had everything planned out!! She talked all week about how many times she and Jackson would go down the hill! She is so funny!

It turned out to be a really nice day--it was sunny and warm and not cold at all! We had a fun time! There were a few other adventures today but I won't go into detail (Erin getting the truck stuck in the snow in the snowmobile parking lot--I didn't take any pictures--and our adventures on the way home plus getting Mallory and Hayley ready for a birthday party in 40 minutes after we got home from sledding--baths, dinner and all!) What an eventful day it was!!! Justin getting ready to take Jackson and Mallory up the hill AGAIN!!

Mallory, Scott, John and Anna


Brittney helping deflate the intertubes (all 29 pounds of her--I'm sure she was a great help!)



Mallory, Hayley and Scott at the bottom of the hill

Hayley, Mallory and Scott sliding down the hill

Ashley and Hayley--Hayley found a new friend on this trip--they made snow angels together and went on a little adventure!

Mallory and Scott

Mallory and Scott

Hayley and Brittney

Brittney and Erin

Jackson and Mallory

Brittney, Scott and Erin

Erin, Brittney, Scott and Mallory

Brittney sinking in the chair

Hayley making a snow angel

The loaded trailer (minus the inflated intertubes, another snowmobile)

Mallory's Hero

Sunday at church, MaryLou (a good friend and we're members of the same book club) pulled me over in the hall and asked if I had talked to her daughter Neecha (also the bishop's wife and a member of book club too) about her reading group (Neecha is also Mallory's reading teacher in the Extended Day Kindergarten at school). I told her that I hadn't and she began to tell me what Mallory had announced to her reading group the other day.

Mallory told her reading group that her dad was in the Olympics and he was an ice skater (see I told you we've been watching the Olympics too much!!)!!! Mallory was so proud that her dad was an Olympian!!

I started laughing and it took me a minute to realize where this comment from Mallory was coming from. When we were watching the pairs figure skating last week, Mallory and Hayley were in awe. They asked Scott and I if we could dance and skate like the Olympians on TV. I told them I could barely skate across the ice without falling down. Scott, on the other hand, told the girls that he could skate pretty good on the ponds playing hockey when he was growing up.

So armed with this information, Mallory's dad is her Olympic HERO!!! She wanted to make sure her reading group knew how wonderful her dad is (which he is!!)!!

MaryLou and I had had a good laugh! A few minutes later, I found Scott and we had another good laugh!!

What a cute girl!! Mallory's daddy can do anything!!!!

We finally made it to Krispie Kreme's!

Mallory finally has her doughnuts from Krispie Kreme's for her excellent grades! We have been meaning to go for a few weeks now but every time we are headed in the direction of Krispie Kreme's we run out of time to stop (or we forgot the report card)! Mallory was excited to have 6 doughnuts all to herself (she was planning on sharing with everyone until I purchased a dozen). She ate one doughnut tonight so she has five left (she is keeping track)! I'm sure she'll have one tomorrow morning for breakfast too!

Way to go Mallory!!!

You are an EXCELLENT student!!

NO MONSTERS!!

I have been meaning to post this for some time now but I kept forgetting to take a picture!!! I now have a picture so here goes:

Several months ago we were driving into our neighborhood and Hayley said, "There's no monsters in here!" Here comment took me by surprise and I had no idea what she was taking about. I questioned her and she said again, "There are no monsters here! The sign back there says there are NO MONSTERS!" I circled around the block again because I had missed the sign the first time because we had already passed it. As we came around again, Hayley pointed to this sign and said, "See, it says NO MONSTERS!" I laughed to myself and said, "Of course it says NO MONSTERS. There are NO MONSTERS in our neighborhood." A week or so later we were coming into our neighborhood from the other direction and guess what----we have another NO MONSTER sign there too! Hayley was quick to point it out!!



So in case you are wondering, our neighborhood is a TOTAL NO MONSTER ZONE!!! Your neighborhood just might be too! You'd better check and let us know!
You have to love the innocence of a 4 year old!!

Olympics 2010

I don't know about the rest of you, but we have totally been sucked into watching the Olympics! Scott and I stay up at least until 11 watching the Olympics and then we stay up an additional 30 minutes at least to watch the news. Needless to say, we are pretty tired when it's time to wake up in the morning!

I love watching the figure skating (I was so excited we won GOLD in the Men's figure skating --go Evan Lysacheck --I know I totally misspelled his name!!). Women's moguls were awesome and the Snowboarding--WOW!! The downhill events were awesome especially because the USA received medals in so many events!

GO USA!!!!

Well after a few nights of being glued to the TV from 7 p.m. on, I decided I was wasting a lot of time (I don't just sit very well--I am a total multi-tasker and I would rather be accomplishing something while I just sit). I decided I would pull out the baby blankets and burps that I need to crochet around for some upcoming baby gifts. I managed to finish 2 big blankets and 3 burps (I ran out of thread to finish the last!) in just 4 nights of watching the Olympics! I wasn't crocheting nonstop because I couldn't crochet and watch figure skating at the same time and I had kids to bathe and put to bed. Tonight I went and bought another blanket and burp set along with more thread so I will be back in business (too bad the store didn't have another cute girl set--I know a lot of people having girls!!). I am really glad I was able to finish these gifts--here they are!!

Mallory lost a TOOTH!!

About a week and a half ago, we were all sitting at the table eating dinner. All of a sudden Mallory got a huge grin on her face and announced that she finally had her first loose tooth. She wiggled it and ran up to the bathroom to check it out in the mirror. She was all smiles when she returned!!

Well, Mallory was eating an apple tonight and her tooth fell out with her first bite!! She was so excited (and it didn't even hurt!!)! She put the tooth carefully into a Ziploc baggie (I was volunteering in her kindergarten class a few months ago and a boy in her class lost a tooth and I help him put it in a Ziploc bag so that is what you do when you lose a tooth) and made sure she stuck it under her pillow!

We have good news:
The TOOTH FAIRY made it to our house!!

VALENTINE'S DAY

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!!

Last night I left notes and a final treat for everyone on the kitchen table for Valentine's Day! (I think the girls are pretty sad this is the last day!! No more candy for Breakfast for awhile!) When I went downstairs to get breakfast before church this morning this is what I found on the kitchen table........................

Thank you Scott! I love you so much and I'm so glad I've had you as my Valentine for the past 11 years!!! You're the best!! You're the greatest and a real TROOPER!!!!

Decorating Valentine Cookies

What's Valentine's Day without Valentine Cookies???

This morning I went to Mallory's Kindergarten class for her Valentine's Day Party. We only had 30 minutes so the kids decorated sugar cookies and had soda and then we played "Valentine's Day Bingo". It was a quick party but the kids had fun.

At home this afternoon, we made sugar cookies so we could decorate them (luckily, Mallory didn't mind decorating and eating a cookie twice in one day)! My sister Aleece and her kids, Kaitlin, A.J. and Arika came over and Mallory's friend Morgan. The kids had a great time decorating their own cookie.

Brittney

Mallory and Morgan

A.J.


Mallory

Kaitlin and Hayley