School days, school days...

As this school year wraps up, we've had so much fun with each child doing different activities. It has been a super busy month! I think I have been out to the school for one thing or another 15 out of 20 school days so far this month.

Jimmy: He is still doing ballroom dancing. They have performed at several rest homes/senior living centers this month. They also danced for the year-end school picnic. They have a good time at each event, and Jimmy is very well mannered and greets the rest home residents after each performance and thanks them for coming... and they thank him for performing, too. He has also gone on a scout camp out this month. He still works every morning delivering newspapers, and has picked up a couple of lawn mowing jobs for the summer.

Doing the fox trot

Dancing the friendly waltz

Cha cha dance

I like this picture of him by the river.

Sam: If he's not making trouble he's out having fun. He is very social, and very smart. Here he is with his Hall of Fame certificate for 6th grade--he has to pass of several math sheets, science and social studies topics, memorize all the states and capitals, etc. to get this award. Then he got to go to Blast Off (our local laser tag/arcade place).

He took the camera to school and got several pictures of him with his class friends. He has 24 boys in his school class. They tried to make a pyramid... didn't work.

Slam dunk! His best friend John is behind him. 

Sixth grade... class of 2018. 

Abby is super smart! She had a double honor last week. First, she earned Hall of Fame and went to Blast Off. She flew through her math facts, synonyms, science facts, etc.

In front of the whole school, accepting her award. Her teacher Mrs. Shenton is amazing.

The next day there was another assembly, and (unbeknownst to her) she was chosen as Citizen of the Month. This is a special honor... only 9 kids a year get to be honored this way. She has earned it every year!  As part of their recognition the Citizens of the Month get to go to lunch with the principal.

Very proud of Abby!

Augie: what a shock to have my youngest child graduate from Kindergarten! Wow, he's so smart! He's reading, doing math, learning all sorts of cool songs, doing PE games, etc. They did a kindergarten program this week.

They did four very cute song-and-dance routines.

Augie introduced their Sight Word songs... they sing and learn to spell a simple word like  see, go, with, the, that, etc.

My three awesome students! Riding home from school, enjoying the sunshine.

Augie sang "Time to Say Goodbye to Kindergarten" song. This video is very funny! He is so emphatic and dramatic in his singing. Take a look at this link on Google Plus: Hopefully that works. https://plus.google.com/photos/105382108212397158045/albums/5745476210409303537/5745476211650216754

 I'm so proud of my kids and their accomplishments in school. They have surely kept me busy this month, but they'll have great memories of this school year!

Easter 2012

This spring is turning out so mild and gentle... similar to the mild winter we had, but more colorful and enjoyable. We had a beautiful day for Easter Sunday and we enjoyed time together as a family Easter morning. I took pictures of each of the children with their Easter baskets. We tried to get each child three little "presents" and added to the basket candy from Grandma Sharon and us. Grammy McCartney also gave the children butterfly nets, peeps, and $5. I got the most fun this year... not only did I get this hilarious bottle of breath spray that makes me "look and feel Canadian," but I got to give James this funny Donald Duck that quacks and hollers. It was a total nonsense gift but it's something we'll enjoy bringing out every Easter for the next 20 years. You can see the video below.

Easter baskets waiting for discovery in the morning.

Abby's basket had several books, a little lamb, and a hair bow to match her new Easter dress. We put curlers in her hair and she looked quite cute. 

Here is her Easter dress... blue check dress with bright pink jacket (she picked the colors) made by Mom with love. :)

Sam's basket had candy, a Dr. Who and Tardis construction set, and Skylanders.

My cute Augie! He loves Skylanders (part of his video game) so he got several in his basket.

Jim gets Legos (of course) and some Skylanders, too.

This product is so hilarious I don't want to take it out of the package!

The day after Easter we all went to the Museum of Idaho to see a T-rex named Sue. This was a fun exhibit. Jim showed how generous he can be and paid the $20 admission for our family out of his newspaper route money. So I gave the camera to Jim and he took dozens of pictures, but here are just a few highlights.

The T-rex is eating me!

This docent lady did a great job of explaining how they find and put together fossils, then we all got to hold this bone. 

These cases hold some vertebrae of a long-necked dinosaur.

What a fun family I have! I am so blessed to be a mom to these four beautiful children, and wife to a wonderful husband. We had a very nice Easter. I am thankful for my Savior and how he made life possible through his atonement and resurrection. I am glad we got to celebrate such a nice Easter this year.

February 2012

February is always a fun month for our family, and this one seemed busier than normal. We had lots going on!

It started with Sammy's 12th birthday. He had a hard time picking out a theme for his cake, so we ended up with Dr. Pepper flavored cupcakes. They weren't very close to the taste of the pop, except for the syrup drizzled over the top--distilled from the pop.

 He got some video game stuff, a Simon and Garfunkel CD, and the hoodie he is wearing he got to pick out at Walmart.

He got some other fun presents, too. Since he turned 12 he was ready to receive the priesthood. His Johnson grandparents came up for church and Grandma Johnson ordered him a new suit. Later in the month Grandma McCartney got all the boys matching ties. Here's a picture:


They are a handsome bunch of boys!

We had a huge fundraiser for Taylor's Crossing school (Sam, Abby, and Augie go there ). I am currently serving as PFA president, so I got to be VERY involved. We had a great committee and a lot of wonderful ladies to help decorate, cook, collect donations, etc. We hung balloons all across the ceiling, added some draped tulle, had a wedding decorator hang curtains, and set up 20 tables with decorations as well. It was 30+ hours in the making... but the fundraiser did very well.

 Stringing up balloons took hours, but the final product was nice.

 This is the room after the event... the high school it for their Sweetheart's dance the next night.

The other big event was James' 39th birthday. His mom planned a very fun party. Everyone had party favors including these funny nose/glasses masks...

 We had these Superman masks as well, to match our Superman/girl/woman shirts. Then we had Superman cupcakes and party favors. It was a fun night!

 Jimmy had a dance competition later in the month. He has been taking ballroom dance classes for over a year. This was his first competition. He got to dance with 4 different girls in 4 different events: Cha Cha, Swing (triple step), Tango and Mambo. He was so very nervous!

He started with newcomer Cha Cha. His partner, Brooklin, was very good. Here they are on their 3rd call back. #405

 They made it to the finals, and they lined up to await the results. Then they announced...  they won 5th place! Yay!

Here he is lined up to dance the Tango with Amber.

Dancing the tango.

 Dancing the Mambo with Elizabeth.

 Team pictures afterwards. The whole group did a great job for a beginning, homeschool, independent group of dancers! It was a lot of fun.

We are very proud of Jimmy and his team! 

Abby had one particularly difficult day. She fell down on the playground at school (tripped over her feet) and smashed her face into the pavement. She had to go to the doctor but didn't need stitches. We took her into the dentist at the next opportunity and she had 3 teeth patched up from all their chips and cracks, and her front teeth filed down to even them out. Poor thing! She's healing pretty well now. 

Now we are getting ready to celebrate Leap Day. Since it comes around only once every 4 years, we are having dinner with a 4 theme... 4 cheeses, 4 meats, 4 vegetables, etc. 

We hope you all had a great February, too!

Getting Ready for Christmas

December always keeps us busy. But I try to make is memorable for the kids, too. This year I was asked to run the class Christmas party for Augie's kindergarten class. The teacher knew someone who had a real beard and often came as Santa (he was actually the husband of another teacher) so we had Santa visit the Kindergarten. Then they got their picture taken. They wrote a little list of things they wanted for Christmas and decorated a "cookie" they cut out of foam. It all went together on a scrapbook page for their class memory book.

We have had a lot of fun in the past week getting ready for Christmas. We started with our ward Christmas party, where the primary children sang a couple of songs for the guests. I have been blessed with children who can sing well. They are very good and cooperative, too. Here is a picture of Sam and Abby with the group--unfortunately Augie was sick that night, running a fever, so he had to stay home with Dad.

This is essentially our whole primary group-- pretty small, but sweet kids!

 Another fun thing we did was visit Leo's Place, a favorite restaurant that serves pizza and burgers and has a playground for the kids. Augie had a birthday coupon that gave him a free kids meal and playland pass. So he got free food, and we got a pizza for the kids. At the end of the night Santa visited and all the kids got their names in a drawing for prizes--TONS of prizes! Since you had to be present to win, two of our children were lucky enough to have their names drawn! Sam won a football player action figure, and Abby this adorable circus-themed tea set.

 Augie got a consolation prize-- a cute rubber ducky "dressed" as a penguin. And with his free food and play time, he felt like he'd gotten a special treat. The only bummer was Jim is too old to be considered a "child." At 13, he's too old for the drawing and the playland. :( But he had a bunch of tokens for the arcade and that kept him happy.

We love Leo's Place. We know the owner personally and he said his wife has a ball planning this special Christmas giveaway night each year. We certainly enjoyed our evening there.

 This week has been crunch time for finishing Christmas projects. I have been working on this quilt for Augie since July. We borrowed a quilt frame from my sweet old neighbor Gay Solomon (we lived next door when we lived on J Street). So I got the quilt on the frame and Abby helped me tie it. The quilt has a lot of Augie's favorite cartoon and superhero characters--Scooby Doo, Cars, Pokemon, Superman, Batman, Captain America, Green Lantern, Spider-man, and more. After sewing the yarn ties on I bound the edges, and Augie will have a new quilt for Christmas. I also spent all day yesterday sewing Christmas pajamas.

 A new tradition we did this year was to read aloud a Christmas story each night to the children. We wrapped up each book and opened it each night (like an advent calendar). I got this idea from a lady in our ward, Ruth Arnell. This is a picture of Daddy reading a Disney Christmas Parade book to the kids. As you see, they really were into this story!

Sam,  Jim and I also were reading books that night-- a nice way to pass a cold winter evening.

Now it's just two days until Christmas, and we are so excited! We hope you all have a Merry Christmas, too!