Our A celebration!!!

Because of the good test scores Mitch & Ali chose to go bowling! We went to the local bowling alley and played!!! It was funny because the place didn't look that old but, they didn't have electronic scoring and B and I didn't know how to keep score so i left it up to him and guess who won, Brandon of course!!!




after bowling we went to buffalo wild wings and had some appetizers,watched a little sports and just hung out and talked.



after eating so much really fattening yummy food, we decided it was time to go home and watch a movie. we all laid on the floor together and watched The Man From Snowy River. I hadn't seen it before. It was pretty good!!! We had a really fun night together! I wonder what we will do the next time the bring home A's. Good job guys!

This morning

Aren't they cute!!! I have to say this day has started out pretty good!!! It was the first in a long time and hopefully of many more to come that there was absolutely no fighting before school. Both kids got up when they were asked. Showered quickly (usually they stay in forever and then which ever one of them has to get in second has no hot water),got dressed immediatly which usually never happens especially because ali has so many clothes that she has a hard time deciding what to wear. Brushed hair and teeth with no problem (do your kids hate brushing their teeth? mine do). Had everything ready to go in their backpacks by 8:00. We even had time to make pancakes for breakfast! And then to top it all off, I was in the kitchen making their lunches and mitch came in after taking out the garbage and said "is it ok if i go outside and shovel the snow from driveway"? Of course was the answer and then ali decided she wanted to help. They shoveled for a few minutes came back inside and had 5 minutes to watch cartoons (i usually don't let them turn the tv on before school) before getting on the bus! What a great start we had hopefully it will last!!!

Christmas 2007!

Christmas Eve we had a lot of fun with the Youngs. We spend the afternoon hanging out at their house eating and talking about family and traditions. We had a really yummy dinner thanks to Shannon and then we went to a Christmas Eve Methodist Church Service. It was mostly music which we loved! It was really nice to be able to show the kids how other people celebrate and a wonderful way to teach them about the true meaning of Christmas. After the church service we went back to the Youngs to help clean up the dinner mess and ended up staying for ice cream sundays. The kids got to exchange gifts and then we headed home to make cookies for Santa and the kids got to open their Christmas Pajamas & we talked about why we give and get presents on Christmas by explaining the 3 wisemen bringing gifts to baby jesus & then they went to bed watching The Christmas Story!.........

Because of the layout of our house we told the kids they were not allowed out of their rooms so if they needed us they needed to yell for us and we could come to them. 1:00 am Ali starts yelling for me(we were asleep which is the first time ever that we have been asleep by 1 on Christmas Eve)I went up to see what she needed and both of the kids had woken up and were ready to see if Santa had come.
Santa has not come yet I told them and after 15 minutes or so they went back to sleep.
Finally, 7:30 they woke up and yelled again. After I got the cameras ready and turned on our favorite Amy Grant Christmas CD, Brandon escorted them downstaris and the fun began!!!!! Santa left for Mitchie a bike and new golf clubs & Ali got an IPOD Nano and an American Girl Doll, they loved the Pool table from mom and dad and yes Mitch was still excited when he finally got to play on it. It was a great morning, thanks to all who sent gifts, we know it is a pain and costly as well, it is very much appreicated!!!
We finished off our day by making homemade pizza and eating ice crean and watch the new Santa Clause 3 movie that the kids got for Christmas. It was a wonderful day and fun to spend it together.

TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS!

A couple fun things happened this week

The school had their Christmas Program yesterday and both kids got to sing a couple songs. Mitch and all the 4th grade students got to play their recorders and Ali got to play the piano. She was so excited to get to play in front of all the adults. I didn't get any good pictures of Mitch because I was to far away from him and they all turned out blurry. But I got a couple of Ali.

mitch top right way in the back
ali, isabel & jaret waiting for their turn at the piano
ali playing jingle bells

Don't mind the people around me talking and the shaky hands, i was holding a purse and two cameras trying to film and take pictures at the same time.

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On Tuesday, Mitchell's class got to go on a field trip to the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. His class has been learning about Native American's in Ohio and at the museum,they got to see all the cool Native American things they have been learning about and a lot of other things as well.

mitch in the BRAIN



I wonder if the rest of the week will bring more fun.....

Our little Charlie Brown tree...

When the day after Thanksgiving comes around my kids are very ready for Christmas. They know that it is the day for putting up decorations and decorating the Christmas tree. Many years ago just after B and I were married my Aunt gave us an artificial tree that she had used for one year and then decided to buy a pre-lit tree. We have used the tree every year since then.

When they day after Thanksgiving came around this year, we got out the decorations and started on the tree and when we went to put on the top section it was broken. Brandon tried many times to fix it but just couldn't get it to stay together.

The kids were so anxious to decorate the tree that I finally took them to a little tree that I put in the corner (Brandon calls it the Charlie Brown tree) of the family room and let them decorate that one.


It looks like Brandon may have fixed the big tree last night but it is still leaning a little bit so until we get it to look right, we will have to do with the "Charlie Brown Tree".

Go SEAHAWKS!!!

Even though we now live in Ohio, we are still big Seahawk fans!!! Brent and Nick came up this weekend to watch the Hawks beat the Browns!!! It's been really fun to have them here. They flew into Columbus (2hrs away) so B & I took the kids down Friday night and stayed in a hotel which the kids always love to do.
Saturday morning we got Nick and Brent from the airport and made the drive back to Clevland only getting one ticket along the way. Hung around the house for most of the afternoon and then we went to Dave and Busters last night. It was a lot of fun if you haven't been there you should go sometime.
We had a really great breakfast this morning and now the boys are off the the game. Everyone is leaving tomorrow morning including Brandon but it is always fun to have people visit. Hopefully they will come back soon!!!!

FOR THIS IS HALLOWEEN....

I think everyone knows I love HALLOWEEN!!!!! We started the day off with the school parade which the kids were excited about because in Bonney Lake, they weren't allowed to wear their costumes to school :(



Ali's Class




One of the strange things about our community is that there is a specific time for TRICK-OR-TREATING. They only allow the kids to go from 6:00-7:30 that is it. Our neighborhood met in front of someones house at 5:45 so we could start with a few pictures and get to our first TREAT right at 6:00.





It was a little bit different for us this year because B had to work late and Mitch had a drum lesson that didn't end until 5:30 so we did our best to get to the neighbors house by 5:45 but were a little bit late.
The last few years we only had 1 or 2 trick-or-treaters come to our house so B and I took the kids out together but this year there are a milllion kids in our neighborhood so since B had to work late he came home and passed out candy for a while and I went out with Mitch and then we switched (Ali of course had to go with her friends).


(And this is only a few of the kids in the neighborhood!! )


Ali dressed up as a "MIDNIGHT FAIRY" and Mitch started out as a "GLOW IN THE DARK SKELETON" but decided at the last minute he wanted to be a "HARLEY BIKER" so he through on a leather jacket,some boots and a bandana and they were off.

Hope it was HAPPY HAUNTING for you!!!!

Are you smarter than a 5th grader?

Now that the kids have been in school for almost 2 months here in Avon Lake, Brandon and I both are really learning what it is like to be parents of kids that really have to try hard to do good in school!!!!

Up until now, our kids have done very well in school and have not struggled too much other than the normal things most kids struggle with like homework, learning to read, and doing harder math etc.

Well, we are now learning that OHIO schools are much farther ahead of Utah and Washington schools and our kids are behind which really makes things hard for all of us.

Mitch comes home with at least 3-5 pages of homework a night (most of which Ohio schools taught the kids when they were in 2nd and 3rd grade and in Seattle he would have learned in 4th), on top of reading and studying for the 2 tests he usually has each week, and when I say test, I mean test. My kids have never really had tests like the ones they are taking here. These are very legit tests that even I have a hard time studying for.

We spend most afternoons from the time the kids get off the bus until they go to bed (sometimes we have soccer,drum lessons,football,piano,tumbling ,kids in the community,baseball in there as well) doing homework and studying. It feels so crazy to feel totally exausted by the end of the week and so happy that there is no homework or test studying to do over the weekend unless of course we know of a big test that is coming up or if one of the kids has a big project they are working on, which right now Mitch does.

Lets just say I am so happy when Brandon is home and is able to help with all they have to get done. He is much better at finding new and fun ways for the kids to learn.

Man, I feel like I am in school too but it is not a good thing when your 2nd grader brings home assignments that you don't know how to do.

Lets just say I'M NOT SMARTER THAN A 5TH GRADER (or a 2nd or 4th grader either).

Dance, Dance,Dance!!!

Tonight we went to the kids school for family fun night with a DJ and dancing. They had a lot of fun with hula hoops,the YMCA,hokey pokey and lots more fun dance songs. I couldn't get Mitch to go out on the floor and dance because just before we were heading to the school, he fell off his bike and the handle bars hit him in the mouth so he has been walking around the house (and school) with a big tissue sticking out of his mouth. Needles to say, he thought it would hurt to dance.





I did however get a few pictures of the Ali's back while she was dancing. She was so cute and fun to watch. She, like always is miss social and of course had to make sure not to miss any of the dancing with her friends!!

drowning prevention strategy for infants and young children

You really should watch this if you havn't seen it already, especially if you have little children that are around water a lot but don't know how to swim!!!!!