Haylie's 6th Birthday

Haylie turned 6 on December 1st. On the day of her birthday she chose to go to JB's for dinner (I know, real classy). She loves to get the salad bar there and then load up on hard boiled eggs and cottage cheese. After dinner she opened her presents from the family and then on the 3rd we had a friend party for her. It was a Littlest Pet Shop Party which is by far Haylie's favorite thing to play with so it was perfect for her. Everyone had a great time. My favorite part was watching Haylie make sure that Zander was treated as a party guest too by making sure he had everything that we gave out. Although she has her moments (don't we all) she can be so sweet to him.
Haylie is really growing up! She is becoming more and more able to do things by herself (although she still insists on help occasionally). She is extremely curious about the world and questions everything. Usually I am the type of person that just accepts things for what they are but she keeps me thinking with the curious questions she is always asking. She also is very considerate of other feelings for a 6 year old. We had a great time celebrating with her this year and are very glad she is a part of our family.

Tearing into the Littlest Pet Shop Rescue Tails Center

A new coat complete with purple fur just like she asked for.

Haylie and her friends playing with her Littlest Pet Shop Pets

The party guest decorating homes for their party favor pets

Yet another Pet!

Thanksgiving

As Thanksgiving approached this year, Dave and I debated where we should spend it. When we lived in Boise we spent several Thanksgivings at home but since moving to Price we have traveled to my parents house for a few reasons. It is pretty close by for one reason, and I HATE cooking big meals in our apartment with the extremely limited counter space. Not to mention my totally awesome family is fun to hang out with. This year we were torn because the days that Dave had off for the holiday was precious time that he could be working on the house. We finally decided that Dave would stay and work on the house and the kids and I would go to Perry for Thanksgiving. I felt bad for leaving him with a turkey loaf and only the cat to spend Thanksgiving with, but I was consoled by the fact that he would have driven himself crazy sitting around when work could be getting done. So that being decided, the kids and I loaded up on Wednesday afternoon and drove to Perry. We were joined by Alyson and her family as well as Darin for Thanksgiving day. Ryan and his family joined us later in the weekend after spending time with Arika's family.

My mom has a pillow with the quote, "Grandma's House...where cousins become friends". This couldn't be more true. Haylie and Zander love playing with their Harwood cousins. We just turn them loose downstairs and they have a fantastic time. Here they are in a tent they built using pool cues and blankets.

After a delicious meal on Thanksgiving and the traditional "December 1st" party on Friday, by Saturday we were all looking for some kind of activity to get us out of the house. We decided to ride the Front Runner to Salt Lake to see the lights on Temple Square along with every other person on the Wasatch Front. Talk about CRAZY!! We were just glad that we made it back to Grandma's house with everyone we started with and no extra children! We did learn a couple of things for the experience. First to choose a different night next time, and second to pack snacks!! The kids were very grateful to Aunt Arika and her well stocked diaper bag during the train ride home! Here are some shots of the family riding the train and a couple of the kids at the Church History Museum that we stopped in at. It has a cool interactive area for kids. We missed Dave but still had a great holiday weekend and Dave was happy to be able to have time to work on the house. I will have to post all about the house another time.

Haylie dancing with the Flamanco Dancers

Zander enjoying a meal with the missionaries

Halloween

It seems like there is never time to blog! Here is a run down of our Halloween this year. The 29th of October was my dad's 75th birthday so the kids and I decided to go up to surprise him along with Clint and Alyson and their family and Darin. Dave stayed home and worked on the house. He spends every free moment working on it and I appreciate him so much! Anyway, we carefully planned our arrival time in Perry so that we would all get there at the same time. We met at the Flying J near my parents house on the 28th. We got the kids in their Halloween costumes and then trick or treated to my parent's door. My dad was VERY suprised. We had a wonderful weekend together having a birthday/halloween party, playing games, and visiting. We came home on Sunday the 30th. On Halloween I make mummy faces and mummy fingers for dinner. The kids helped and didn't even recognize the faces as pizza until they tasted them and said they tasted like pizza. I used string cheese, olives and English muffins for the mummy faces and sliced up tortillas to wrap around Little Smokies for the fingers. I give each finger a dot of pizza sauce for the nail.

After dinner the kids and Dave got dressed up for trick or treating. I stayed back to answer the door for the 2 trick or treaters that came while they were gone. Dave kept saying he was thinking of shaving his head and being Charlie Brown for Halloween and on Monday morning he made good on his word. It is still working on growing back to its original length. At least we found out that if he every goes completely bald he has a pretty normal head under there! Zander was a robot for Halloween and Haylie was a black cat (of course). Our black cat, Sam, walked with them around the neighborhood.

My Birthday

I was going through some pictures and found some that I wanted to blog about but haven't yet. We decided to go to the Salt Lake area for my birthday. Gretchen Rimmasch, my good friend growing up, was having a wedding reception in the area that evening so we thought it would work out well. We took the kids the Living Planet Aquarium. It was a fun place and small enough we saw the whole thing before the kids got tired of it. My parents and Darin joined us at the aquarium and my parents also joined us for a dinner at the Olive Garden before we went to the reception. We ended up getting home pretty late so Dave and the kids and I had cake next day.

Mixa Moxa

I had to post about this because I know it is one of those things that is so funny and cute now but I won't remember it later. As I may have posted before, Zander has some idiosyncrasies that make him very unique. He shakes and flaps his arms and/or jumps when he gets excited. I have had to tell people that watch him that he is fine and he is not having a seizure, he is just really excited. Another of these idiosyncrasies is that he likes to make little songs or chants when he sees something happening in a rhythm or repeatedly. That is where Mixa Moxa comes from. He likes to get on a chair and watch me make things in the kitchen. Whenever something is being mixed (batter, something in the Bosch mixer etc) he repeats "Mixa moxa mixa moxa" until the mixing is over. To us it is just part of Zander but when he had done it around others it has been known to crack them up. His other favorite is popcorn in the air popper. It is "pop, pop, pop" for that one. Oh, and who can forget his sprinkler obsession. It has a song too..."sprinka, sprinka". What a silly kid! I love him to pieces!

Kindergarten!

Haylie started Kindergarten at Castle Heights Elementary on August 30th. She was very excited to go and kept wishing the day before that it could be tomorrow already. I hope she keeps her enthusiasm for school. She goes to the same school that I teach part time at so we get to pass each other in the hall every now and then, and I have to admit it is nice to know what is going on at the school. Her teacher is Mrs. Sjogren and so far everything is going great. She has even overcome her fear of automatic flushing toilets! I had the cutest outfit all picked out for her first day of school. What you see in the picture is not it. Haylie is very particular when it comes to clothes. Nothing can be "cute". Pretty much any other adjective is acceptable but if I call something cute it is downhill from there. So, instead of fighting all morning on her first day of school. What you see is what she chose. She did finally wear the outfit to church this past Sunday (it was a dress with leggings) and looked very "cute" if I dare say.

I have to add that I am very proud of both of my kids. They have done so well as I have had to drag them around all over the place to meet my obligations. Between teaching, coaching volleyball, and Young Women, I am always going. They have been so good to tag along or stay with Dave or the babysitter. I will certainly be ready for volleyball to end and to be able to get in a more comfortable routine. Hopefully there won't be too many more days like last Wednesday. I went to the Jr. High at 10 to get the balls ready for our away game and ran a couple of other errands. Then I dropped Zander off at 11 and went to school. At 2:00 I left school early, changed my shirt in the car and got on the bus to go to the volleyball game. I coached the volleyball games, rode back on the bus, changed my shirt again in the car and went back to the school for Back-to-School night at 6:30. That lasted until 7:30 and then I had to get my things ready for a substitute teacher the following day. At 8:40 I finally got home and ate dinner at 9. Those kind of days are LONG! Thankfully Dave is a wonderful dad and I didn't have to worry about Haylie and Zander. I do miss them on days like that though.

For Haylie

Tomorrow is Haylie's first day of kindergarten so I wanted to write her a letter that she could read later and to help her remember this day later. Since I would lose anything else and this will eventually make it into my blog book, I thought this was a good place to put it.

Haylie,

Where did the time go? I can't believe you are no longer that chubby little baby we brought home that snowy December day. You have turned into such a beautiful little girl. I am so excited for you to start school and show everybody what a smart and caring girl you are. I am so glad that you were so excited today you kept asking why it can't be tomorrow already. I know you will make lots of good friends and am so happy I can be just across the library from you for part of each day. You will do great. Just put on a smiley face and don't be afraid say hello and make a friend! I love you so much and want you to be happy. Good luck tomorrow and don't worry if I cry just a little bit. It is only because I am so proud of you!!!

Love,

Mom