Open House 2014

Yesterday afternoon I took my kids to the book fair.  Maren and Gentry were being....well....Maren and Gentry.  Maren was pulling books off the shelves to look at them and Gentry was crying because she really wanted this 20 dollar princess book that I wasn't going to buy.  I knew then and there that there was no way that I was going to be able to do Open House with those guys in tow and so I started my search for a baby sitter.  I was coming up empty and was getting worried and I was getting tired from being sick and guess who sent me a text.....My visiting teacher!  Michelle is the BEST at offering help.  She said...Hey I heard you were sick this week.  Can I bring you dinner tonight at 5:30?  It's open house tonight.  Can I help you with that?  Are you kidding me?  Yes I need help tonight!  I had already made dinner because I had offered to take someone else dinner that day and had made mine already but I totally took her up on some help for Open House.  Tender mercies right there.  

I'm glad I got a chance to just focus on my school kids too.  They all were SOOOOOO excited to show me all of the stuff in their classrooms.  And it's difficult to do all three kids because they all wanted to be the first class and to see all of their friends but we managed pretty well.  

 Pacen in his cool kid outfit.  The girls looking cute as always. 

 First up....Kindergarten!  

 They made time capsules to document what changes they went through this year.  Claira has grown there inches this year and her handwriting is soooo much better.  She has grown a ton this year.  I'm so proud of her reading and what a good student she is.  

 I let her choose a few things to show me and promised to finish the list later and then we were off to Camry's 2nd grade classroom.  

Camry has LOVED this year in school.  Ms. Carter is the nicest ever and she feels very loved.

 Mom!  Put your camera away! 

This girl is so ready for third grade! 

Finally, we made it to Pacen's class.  Mrs. Worthington has been amazing for him.  He struggled in the beginning of the year but has really turned things around.  He's grown a lot this year and has become a better student.  Mrs. Worthington has helped a lot with that!  I love having all these fabulous teachers! 

Pacen was much more interested in seeing his friends than he was showing me his work.  :)  Fourth grade in california is so much fun.  You study missions and the gold rush and the donner party.  It's a super fun year.  I'm just kind of freaking out that next year is Pacen's last year in elementary school.  I'm so not ready for him to be in middle school.   I'm going to pretend that that isn't happening.  

The sky was really pretty on the way home.  

 Claira is very interested in my taking pictures of EVERYTHING which I obviously don't mind, but she insisted on me taking a picture of this CRAZY strawberry which was like three strawberries in one!  CA-RAZY!

Peek a boo! (and Women's Conference)

Maren is the best baby at going to bed and the best baby to go in and get out of bed.  She is super smiley and happy and gives the biggest hugs and gives me kisses and lays on my shoulder and wraps her arms around me and when you go in to get her when she wakes up she is so happy to see you and is all cuddly.  It's perfect.  It's really my favorite times of the day.  

And today we played a little peek-a-boo.  

 I mean....seriously....how cute is she??!?!

And she's gonna be a pretty good little mommy too.  She wanted to wear that super hero cape again today.  She had it on when we went to the book fair and everyone thought she was the cutest thing ever.

I was sick again today and not really able to do much so we painted and played with play doh.  I did have to be a real human being and went to the store because we had nothing to eat.  Its a rough life these days. 

We did have open house today but I can't figure out how my photo stream works because those pictures haven't loaded but these have so I'll have to do that one later.  

But instead....lets flashback to May 1 & 2nd.  

BYU Women's conference.  

 Emily and I have been planning to go to Women's conference for over a year and it finally happened!  I had Wednesday through Saturday with no kids and it was pretty refreshing I must say.  

Wednesday I flew in early to meet baby Cougar.  I am a lucky auntie to get to snuggle him when he was just a few weeks old.  

Hilary and I ventured out to meet Kathy at Thanksgiving Point for the Tulip Festival. 

 

 Thanksgiving point is so pretty!  Hilary was brave and took Cougar out even though it was windy and she had to nurse in public which is hard when you don't know what you're doing.  She even had a flat tire on her stroller and handled it like a champ.  

Emily flew in Wednesday night and we hung out with Jana and LaNell and stayed up late and checked into our dorm room.  Man...dorm room life.  I should have taken a picture of it.  Really the only time you can live in the dorms is when it's your first time away from home and you would think that anything was awesome.  Because let me tell you...it's not awesome.  Really uncomfortable beds.  Going out of your room to go to the bathroom and shower.  Cinderblock walls.  They did provide us with sheets and one blanket and one pillow.  It was some meager living those three nights but it was sooooooooooo much fun.  I told emily it was like therapy hanging out and talking forever without being interrupted by kids.  I'm so glad that fate put us together on the 6th floor of T-Hall.  I'm sad I didn't take more pictures.  Next time.  

This was when she wanted me to take a picture of these dudes dressed in fake battle gear.  Only at BYU....

So women's conference itself was AMAZING.  Like really, truly amazing and uplifting and inspiring and I just want to go every year.  The theme was from Psalm 84: 11 "For the Lord God is a sun and a shield:  the Lord will give grace and glory:  no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly."  I came away with a more full understanding of what the Grace of God really is and how I can and have used it in the past without really acknowledging that it was the grace of God.  I went to classes on marriage, parenting, how to make my home a MTC, how to not yell at my kids (they didn't call it that!), a class on death, Sherri Dew gave an amazing talk on grace, Elder Cook spoke at the closing session.  It was all amazing.  And you really walk out of there feeling like you are going to be so much better and I really feel like I have come home and implemented some of the things I have learned. 

 So I may have won the I know Jana and Ben Bracket....AGAIN!  Yep...it's the second time.  And this time I got a shirt to prove it baby! AAAHHHHH YEEEAAAHHH!  That's how we do when you pick Duke to win it all and they are defeated in the first round! I actually have no idea how I won, but I'm sure glad I did because this shirt is sweet! 

Can you tell that I was excited about it!?!?!

 This night was super fun.  This little restaurant (if you can call it that) is called Slurp.  And all it has is Soda and cookies.  Maybe ice cream and smoothies.  But basically just soda and cookies.  I had my first dirty diet coke and we just sat out on those chairs like we had nothing better to do.   I loved it.  

After we checked out of our really nice amazing 5 star resort....oh, I mean, Dorm room....we hiked the Y with LaNell.  If you were wondering if I could breath in Utah...the answer is no.  I was huffing and puffing the whole way up!  And I like to think that I'm in shape!  That utah air killed me! 

 Here is a heavily photoshopped pic of the valley.  It though it looked pretty cool though. 

I'm really so so so so so so so so so glad that I got to go.  I seriously left there with so many thoughts and ideas and I just wanted to be a better person.  It was just what I needed to recharge my batteries for the summer.  I have a huge responsibility as a mother of these five kids and I need to be at the top of my game.  It's going by so quickly and I don't have a lot of time to teach them all the things that they need to know.  I love my job but I have to make sure I'm not just going through the motions.