Pinkalicious Party!

Two weeks ago my baby (Maddie) turned four! She has been so excited to wear that shirt and wore it the entire day! On her actual birthday August 1 we took advantage of a fabulous Saturday in the NW and went boating on the Columbia River. Maddie loved tubing, swimming, and eating!

She had so much fun that she crashed on the front seat of the boat in the late afternoon!
After a fun day on the river we barbecued pizza on the grill, ate ice cream Sundaes, swam in our pool, and danced the night away with her sisters and the Zundel girls! On August 3 she had her first "Friend" birthday party. She invited four little girls to her Pinkalicious Party.

We first had lunch that consisted of only pink foods!

They had Pink Jello, Pink Strawberry Applesauce, Pink Marsh mellows, Pretzels dipped in Pink Chocolate, Pink Cream Cheese & Bagels, Pink Candy, and Pink Lemonade!!! The girls loved all the pink foods but I must say the pretzels were a HIT!After lunch the girls made crowns, necklaces, colored, and of course read the book Pinkalicious!!

We finished with presents, ice cream and the famous Pinkalicious cupcakes!
I made this cute cupcake t-shirt for Madelyn to wear for the party.

After making it I thought, that wasn't that hard I think I will make all the girls their own t-shirt! (I should not have left it til the night before to finish that project though!!!) I'm so happy how they turned out!!! They all looked just perfectly Pinkalicious together! It was such a fun party to have with these little girls!!! (from L to R, Elise Kelley, Hannah Zundel, Madelyn the birthday girl, Kylie Cannon, and Shaylee Phelon.

Facts about Maddie at age Four!

She loves to be called Maddie and not Madelyn. Sometimes she won't answer me if I call her by Madelyn. Some of her other nicknames are Matt, Baby Dolla, Honey, and Sweetie. She is a fairly good eater and a great snacker! Her favorite dinner is Chicken & Broccoli and Sweet & Sour Chicken (Tamara Larkin's recipe!) She is notorious for eating little at Breakfast and Lunch then saying she's hungry like 10 minutes later! Loves Chocolate Milk, water with NO ICE, and sneaks drinks of mommy's pop frequently. She has to have purple fluffy pillow and blanket at bed time or there is a meltdown. She's a pack rat and has things stashed in purses, backpacks, and underneath her bed constantly. She has been known to change her clothes at least 5 times a day, and during preschool she would change the second she would come home from school into something SHE wanted to wear and not what I wanted her to wear that day!(Isn't she too young to be so opinionated about her wardrobe???) She loves to play pollies with her sisters and will play for hours in the Bonus Room. She also loves to dress up her Bitty Baby, color, play with play dough and would paint daily if I would let her! She's definitely the baby of the family and pretty much gets her way because of that. This past year she has been more talkative, friendly, and has grown up a ton! She weighs 35 pounds, wears size 4/5 clothes and now shares clothes with Brinley. She loves her "Buddy" Daddy and is still a mama's girl. She's constantly giving hugs, giggling and is a sweet little girl! What would we do without our Maddie???

Back Home!!

We are thrilled to back home in our own beds after being gone for sixteen days, putting over 2700 miles on the Burban, traveling through six states twice, drinking way too much Diet Coke, eating desserts every day sometimes TWO, and having so, so much fun!!! This summer we went to Colorado for almost two weeks while Jon headed off to Boston for work. Here's a recap of our some of out activities!

The first two days we just DROVE! Brinley kept on asking "Are we in Colorado?" I had to tell her no we still have to go through Oregon, Idaho, Utah, Wyoming, and then we'll be in beautiful Colorado! We arrived Monday evening to anxious cousins who had been waiting for two hours on the front lawn. My sister recently moved to Albuquerque, NM and is now only six, yes SIX hours from my parents house. This is the closest any of the siblings have been to my parents since we all moved out! She's thrilled to be so close and I'm jealous!!! The first few days we were there we just swam at my mom's friend Robyn's pool! I figured out that we actually were swimming almost 70% of our whole trip. I kept telling the kids enjoy the sun, pools, and water parks because we don't have many outdoor pool and NO waterparks here! We went to Robyn's pool six times and every time they loved it! Morgan was awesome at entertaining the little girls while Monique and I relaxed. This floaty toy became Maddie's favorite especially since it was a FROG!

On Friday we were all loaded in the car to head up into the beautiful Colorado Rockies for an authentic steam engine train ride. We were all excited to go and then Brinley barfed in the car. We quickly exited the highway and headed home. Instead we went swimming at Robyn's then we all went to Chick-Fil-A dressed up like Cows for Cow Appreciation Day!

My dad dressed up like a farmer and led his little cows into the restaurant with his rope. The manager loved it and took a picture of us to send to their corporate offices. We all received a free meal of our choice off their menu for dressing up! Saturday was spent shopping at the downtown Littleton shops, lunch at Panera Bread (only the girls went on this outing and Mason let me know that he too wanted to go out to lunch with only me!), more swimming, pedicure with Monique, movie, and Wii games in the evening. I brought my Father's Day present with me to give to my dad. I got him a puzzle of Times Square in New York City. Brooklyn says to my dad "Grandpa my mom was so excited to get you this puzzle for father's day because you went to NY last summer! We got it at the Maplecrest Garage Sale for only 50 cents!" Yikes, I wasn't going to tell him that because it looked brand new!

The big kids loved putting it together plus many more that Grandma fished out of the game closet. Every day the kids would spent endless hours on the trampoline. Morgan loves Grandma's trampoline because it's "So much more Bouncy than ours!" All the kids became friends with my parents neighbor's little girl Beth. She's an only child and would watch the kids daily as they jumped and jumped. Her mom let her come over and play, but only twice! This picture is the three little girls talking to Beth Sunday afternoon.

Monday morning we were up early to go to Chemotherapy with Mom. Monique and I both went and sat with her during her fifth session of Chemo.

I guess I was expecting something different like images I have seen in the movies or on television of Chemotherapy. She was hooked up to an IV in her favorite chair along with many others. We chatted, read magazines, and I wrote in my journal. The whole process was about three hours. Mom is doing well although some days are better than others. While we were there she had lots of energy the first week and then a few days after Chemo she was very tired. She has been a real trooper through this cancer stuff! We cried together and here we are smiling together because we are glad to be with her finally for at least one treatment. Brinley lost her first tooth while we were in Colorado. She's just like her big sis Brooklyn, pulling it out herself! She was so excited to get her five dollar bill. Brinley, Carter, Mckenna, and Maddie all woke up at 4 o'clock in the morning to talk about the Tooth Fairies surprise!

It was a hot and sunny day when we went to Pirates Cove! It's a smaller water park only 10 minutes from my parents house!

The entire day was spent swimming, floating on the Lazy River, playing in their huge sand box and going downs the water slides. Maddie LOVED this little kid water slide and probably went on it almost fifty times! I just watched her go on it over, and over, and over again!

Monique and I were pretty tired from a long day in the sun and water! We took a small nap at 10 pm, had another Diet Coke, packed our candy and headed off to the theater for the midnight showing of Harry Potter. We were there again with hundreds of teenagers! It was so worth it even though we didn't get home until 3:30 AM! Once Uncle Al arrived in CO we decided to take the kids fishing. Mason and Brooklyn were both surprised at how much fun they had catching a fish!

The kids all took a turn fishing, throwing out the line, catching a fish, and scooping it in the net! Monique and I were both so glad that Al was there to help! Everyone had a great time and thought that this was one of their favorite days!

We did many more fun things like shopped, ate dinner at Costa Vida, more swimming, outdoor movie, miniature golf, and the sprinkler park. Most of these pictures are on Monique's Fancy Smancy new camera! She took 600 pictures on her new rapid fire camera (I have no idea what the name is) I took about 30! So I will definitely need to get some copies from her! Tears were shed when packed the car and started our trek home on Sunday morning. We drove back through boring Wyoming and stopped in Ogden,UT to spend the night at Aunt Linda's house. It was fun to catch up with Linda, Russ, and Jon's cousins. The next day we met some of our best BYU friend's the Lopezes at Cherry Hill in Kaysville, UT. It was so fun to catch up, reminisce, and swim with them. We were all thrilled to have another fun vacation day this time with Dad! After Cherry Hill we went to Amy's parent's house for a barbeque and swimming in their pool until 10:30 pm!

We were exhausted when we finally made it back to Linda's at midnight! After a long thirteen hour drive, five movies, a book on the IPod, many more Diet Cokes, and lots of snacking to help keep us awake we made it Back Home! What a fun vacation for all of us!

Pioneer Trek!

Twenty four years ago next month when I was fifteen years old I was able to experience a Pioneer Trek with my Stake in Colorado.

I remember loving the entire experience! The trekking, the lack of food, killing the turkey that we ate for dinner, our solo time, and the testimony meeting. I have often talked about this Trek with my family and husband. When our Stake decided to invite all the youth 12 and up for our Trek I was thrilled for Morgan! Since she was still busy with school she didn't get that excited for Trek! But when she got her dress from grandma (Thanks Margene for making it!) she couldn't wait to wear it!

Last Wednesday morning all the youth in our Stake were dropped off at the church. There we 400 kids all dressed like pioneers!The next day Jon and I were asked to come to the Trek and help with the Hoe Down! We were both very excited. I was anxious to see Morgan and talk to her about her experience. After a three hour drive we arrived at the site. We saw lots of tents, handcarts, and hundreds of tired pioneers! Day two was a HARD day of trekking. Everyone I spoke to told us that. When we finally found Morgan she was also tired and dirty. I was a little nervous about how the kids would respond to a Hoe Down considering that they were exhausted! Not everyone participated but many of the kids had a great time doing some fun line dances!

Even I had a great time dancing with all those young kids!

I was glad that I was able to experience a small portion of Trek with Morgan! Here we are with all the Jackson Pioneers!Morgan came home on Saturday and could not stop talking about her experience. At church yesterday she said that many of the beehives including herself want to go on another Trek! She loved it! I'm so grateful to those who spent countless hours to make this such a wonderful experience for our Youth! It was a HUGE success!

Fabulous Fifth Grade!

Mason's Fabulous Fifth Grade year is now officially finished! He is now done with Harmony and is moving onto Middle School. This morning he told me that he didn't want fifth grade to end! I asked him why he liked fifth grade so much and he told me that he loved his teacher:

He thinks Mrs. Tendler is the best 5th grade teacher in the whole wide world. We were both very excited when he got her since she is a fellow BYU alumni! She helped Mason in so many area's this year, especially reading! She challenged her class to set a goal for the number of reading minutes they wanted to accomplish each trimester. Her goal for them was 3000 minutes each trimester, Mason's goal was much higher. Yesterday during the class awards presentation he received the award in his class for reading the most minutes of the entire class all year!!! He read 14,308 pages in fifth grade! I attribute this new found love of reading to his fabulous fifth grade teacher! Mrs. Tendler would give out a homework hero award weekly to the students that completed/turned in their homework on time. Mason had a homework hero award every single week and got a certificate yesterday with only four other students for achieving this!

This picture is of him with some of his homework hero awards that I saved throughout the year. Mrs. Tendler had such a great relationship with her class. A final note she wrote to Mason said "You are a wonderful young man with many great qualities. Keep in touch and I want to hear when you get your Eagle Scout award, go to BYU, serve a mission, get married in the temple, and play in the NBA!" How awesome is she!!!

Mason also said he will miss his great classmates and friends!

In this picture three of the boys have been with him at Harmony since Kindergarten! His BFF Drake Mulder started out with him in Miss Thompson's Kindergarten class!

And finally he told me that he will miss going to Recess!

I took this picture of him and Drake today on the swings, which is rare because he usually was on the bball court. Mason told me that he wanted to do everything on the playground for one last time! I told him enjoy this last Recess because you are now growing up! Mason's had some great memories as a Harmony Husky! He has had some amazing teachers and great friends that have helped create these memories that will last forever!

Preschool Program!

Just a few short months ago, ten to be exact, I dropped my baby off at preschool! As I left that first day I was in tears!!! I couldn't believe that she was actually old enough to go to school. Every time I would drop her off I loved seeing her with her big backpack and I finally got a decent picture of her!

Last Thursday was her end of the year program. This was only the second program that she participated in all year since we were out of town at Christmas time. We were all very excited and anxious to see how she would do with a large audience! B, B, and Mas were on the front row cheering her on! She sang:

She did actions as she sang:

And she even got some microphone time:

We're proud of her since she barely would talk to her teachers at the beginning of the year! She grew to really love school, her teachers, and her friends! She had two great teachers Miss Michelle:

And Miss Keli:She successfully completed the Honey Bee Class and will only have one more year of Preschool until she goes to Kindergarten!?! Crazy!!!

End of the Year CRAZINESS!

The end of the school year has approached once again and so has the CRAZINESS that comes with it! Over the past month I have attended many extra events with my children!

Morgan finished up her second season with the Pacific Middle School Dance Team. She had a fun pajama party banquet and awards night with the team, parents, and coaches.

Here Morgan is with her dance team coach Sarah Daley. We adore her and are excited for next year!

Mason participated in track again for his third year at Harmony. He was hesitant about competing this year. Both Jon and I encouraged him and told him that it's OK if you don't place first. (This was part of his discouragement last year!) We were all very excited to attend the meet since it was a beautiful day. The girls and I arrived on time and met Jon at the Stadium along with many friends from our neighborhood and ward! We cheered Mason on as Harmony placed third in the Tug-of-War. This would be the last event I saw him compete in!!! I was CRUSHED when I had to leave at 6 pm to go and teach my class! They told us that the entire meet would only last until 6 pm. I should have known that all fifth grade events would be last and that the relay is ALWAYS last! But no! I missed him place FIRST in the 100 meter dash!

I started to cry when I saw this picture! He had a great time and took third place in the Relay and Hurdles!

Last week I went Bowling with Brooklyn on the Second Grade Field Trip. I think this is the best field trip of them all! I had so much fun with Brooklyn and her friends! They each got to bowl two games. It's a good thing there were bumpers on the lanes because there was some crazy bowling going on!

Brooklyn, Lauren, Jackson, and Christian had a great time together.

I have now been on Four Kindergarten field trips to the Oregon Zoo! They have all been fun but this year the weather was amazing! Last week I took the bumpy bus ride to the Zoo (I rode in the last seat on the bus!) When we got there the teachers gave us free reign on the Zoo and we just took off! It was so fun and EASY since it was just me, Brinley and her BFF since she was born Kennedy Lake!

(Kennedy and Brinley often talk about how they have been friends since they were born! Stacey and I tell them that because I was there videoing the birth of Kenna and Brinley was also there because she was in my tummy!) We were able to see the entire zoo since my group was so small, eat lunch when we wanted and enjoy a sunny day together!

There are other things I did not include in this crazy month like three music performances, Pride Night, Honor Roll Assembly, Art Show Recognition and Hawaiian Day! I had to write a daily list for the next 10 days because it includes many more activities like pre-school graduation program, End of the year Carnival, three field days, Marimba Concert, Fifth Grade Graduation and Move-Up day! Whew! I will be excited for Summer Vacation! Right?

My Cavalier!

For the past couple years Mason has loved LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers! He has the poster of him and a sign that I bought last summer at the NBA Store while I was in New York City hanging in his room!

Mason also has LeBron's Jersey, t-shirt and a Cleveland Cavaliers hoodie also purchased at the NBA store! (I think I spent the most money at this store last summer even more here than at the American Girl Store! It was an awesome store!!!)

I just recently got him this Cleveland Cav's pillow case to add ANOTHER pillow to his bed!

Mason just recently finished up his Basketball Season. He has been playing straight since November! After being extremely disappointed with his coach last fall, Jon decided to step up and coach his team. Jon and I contacted several of Mason's friends and previous teammates. We put together a Rockin team and the Cavaliers had a great season (that was their name! Imagine that??) I was very proud of Jon and his coaching abilities! This was his first time and he did great!

I think both the team and Jon learned a lot this season! The girls, myself, grandma, grandpa, and all the parents loved to go to his games on Friday night! We watched him dribble:

Pass the ball:Drive in for Layups:

Shoot Fouls:

And score many, many baskets!

Sadly both the Cleavland Cavaliers season is over and so is Mason's season! We are proud of him and his accomplishments and are looking forward to another great year next fall! (Pictures compliments of Jalynn Jackson Hansen! Thanks Linny I love them all!)