Chapter 33: Dance

During the summer Lainee was begging me to go to dance, so I told her that once school started we would sign her up with the same studio as Kennadee. Last week was actually her first class but I forgot to take my camera and she ended up not being in that class anyway so it didn't matter. One of the teachers came up to me and after seeing Lainee dance last week and said that she thought Lainee was already ready to be on the competetive team and asked if I wanted to just start her out there instead of waiting a year, so the biggest benefit to having her on the competition team was that she would go to dance right before Kennadee did on Wed. so that would cut out a day of driving across town for me seeing that Kennadee has dance on Mon. and Wed. and Lainee would have had to go on Tues. if not on competetive, so I moved her and if you are wondering what my feelings on competitions are I would just like to refer you to Chapter 4 in the "King Kronicles" and now I have 2. Double the hair, double the make-up, double the cost and double the trouble, but you know what for all my complaining I really do love to see the girls perform and to have fun with the stunts they get to do, so I will just grin and bear it. Lainee was a little hesitant to start this day but once they got into the dance itself it was like no one else was in the room and she just wanted to please her teacher and dance, dance, dance. I love listening to the teachers give the instructions of what to do it sounds a little like this "A ten Hut" girls "slap" teahcers "ready position, POSE, and bounce, bounce, bounce, I'm so cool, whatever, pose, jump one, two, shoulders, what?, stars and wiggle, wiggle, wiggle. I get a kick out of watching all these little 4 and 5 year olds responding to these commands on cue. After they dance for a while it is time to tumble and this is one of Lainee's favorite things to do, she is so proud of herself when she does a summersault all on her own and she is really trying to be able to do a cartwheel by herself, but her favorite is the back flip which she does with the help of her teacher, hence the pictures, she can't wait to be able to do all of it by herself with out anybody's help. But when you ask Lainee what her most favorite part of dance is she will most likely say "the gum you get when we are all done!!" well what can you expect she is only 4 after all!!!

Chapter 32: Almost famous!!!

Girls just wanna have fun!

This is mine and Lainee's theme song, since we have alot of time that we get to spend together. Well today was just one of those days, that I want to be able to remember because although it may not seem like a big deal to anyone else, it's days like these that make me really, truly appreciate that I get to be a stay at home mom and that I have the priveledge of having these little moments to treasure.

So after a pretty much routine morning of getting the older kids off to school, I was loading the dishwasher and clearing off the cupboards when my little Lainee hollers in from the front room "Mom, will you put High School Musical 3 on T.V. for me?" my response to this most awesome request, "You bet Lainee!" so I put it in and go about finishing up the kitchen, when again from the front room I hear her say "But Mom, don't you want to come and sit on the couch with me and watch it?" well of course how can you say no, so I hurried to finish the kitchen and put in a batch of Laundry and sat down to watch (but mostly to sing loudly) HSM3, and of course anytime one of us got up we had to pause the movie so we wouldn't miss a thing and then when it ended once Lainee wanted to start all over (ahhhh!!! Heaven, who wouldn't love to just sit and oogle over Zac and Corbin!) Sadly though about half way through the movie we did have to take a shopping break (mostly because we had nothing to eat for lunch) so while I finished getting myself ready for the day so did Lainee, including lotioning our legs which she gave my legs a good dose and then proceeded to pound on them as if I were at the spa (and no I didn't even teach her that, but for the future I think I will instruct her on how to do good pedicures), so with flip-flops flipping and sun glasses shading off we went to the store. As I was opening Lainee's door she looks at me and with complete and total honesty she says "MOM, what am I going to do if people think I am famous!!!" I kind of chuckled saying "Oh! uh-well why would people think you are famous Lainee?" and then doing her little side hip thing and pointing to her hair she states as if I am totally blind "Because of my hair", so I smile and say "Well if the crowd starts mobbing us I will just grab you and run to the car." and that seemed to be good enough! Ahhhhh, what did I ever do before I had kids to entertain me. Oh and the "hair-do" was a headband with a big flower on it, so if you run into a short blonde with a flower in her hair, don't rush at her to get an autograph or anything, she just wants to be treated like any normal little 4 year old.

Chapter 31: Sniffle, Sniffle, Cry, Cry, Cry.....

School Bag in hand, they leave home in the early morning, waving goodbye with an absent-minded smile. I watch them go with a surge of that well-known sadness, and I just have to sit down for a while. The feeling that I'm losing them forever and without really entering their world. I'm glad whenever I can share their laughter, my funny little ones. Slipping through my fingers all the time, I try to capture every minute, the feeling in it, Slipping through my fingers all the time, do I really see what's in their mind? Each time I think I'm close to knowing they keep on growing, slipping through my fingers all the time.

I just happened to be watching Mamma Mia sometime last week and Bradley walked in when she is singing this song to her daughter, so he said "Mom, why don't you ever sing that song to us?" Well as I pondered on it, and thought about it, all I could come up with is that, really that isn't the song I would choose, the song I really feel in my heart the first few weeks of school is..............

It's the most wonderful time of the year, with the school bell a-ringing, and mom always telling me, "be of good cheer", it's the most wonderful time of the year. It's the hap-happiest season of all, with your pencils a writing and school lunch your biting, and friends who are near. It's the most wonderful time of the year!

Maybe in a few years when all my kids are in school and I have many, many moments to ponder, who knows I will probably be sitting at home singing of them slipping through my fingers *sigh* okay maybe not, but it's the thought that counts, right, right, anybody. Okay fine, at least enjoy their pictures from the first day of school!

Chapter 30: I am the "Queen"

Okay so Kari has declared herself the coupon Queen but I think I may have taken the title from her today!!!! I have been seriously coupon shopping now for a few months and I have been so excited to see my grocery bill go down but my intake of groceries explode, I have been getting some really good deals and not spending very much money to get my every day groceries and also see a huge growth in my food storage. Today I went to Albertson's because I got some double coupons in the newspaper from them and decided that I would use them before they expired, below you will see a picture of all the groceries I was able to get, I made 4 seperate purchases and here my totals: $8.70, $2.97, $19.10 and $1.03 for a grand total of $31.80, but wait, if you think that is the final total, you would be wrong, the suspense is going to kill you isn't it:)


Here is the list of groceries I purchased:
4 Colgate Toothpaste
2 Philadelphia Cream Cheese
4 Easy Mac
8 Boxes of Honey Bunches of Oats
2 CPK Pizza's
8 large boxes of Jello
2 Kraft Cheese Singles
2 Kraft Cheese Bricks
1 block Velveeta Cheese
4 (6 pack) Jello Pudding
4 Candy Bars
1 Bag Green Grapes


so with this purchase I also got 2-$20 rebate offers that I need to mail in and I have one $5.00 coupon that I can use next time I go to Albertson's, so if you are not good at math or you just gave up, remember I told you that I paid $31.80 today, but with my mail in rebates and my $5.00 coupon, Albertson's actually paid me $13.20 to go shopping and get all those groceries, not bad for a day's work. So the challenge is on (mainly to Kari) to try and take my crown away (anyone that has an old crown laying around I really could use it:), but for those few who do accept this challenge, may your eyes be sharp, may your ears be tuned (to the sound of sales), may your legs be swift, and may your purse be light!!!! Good couponing to all!!!

Chapter 29: Oh the things they do and say.......

So with the new school year fast approaching, all moms know what is to be done; buy new pencils, crayons, notebooks, shoes, shirts, socks, hair accessories, pants, socks, and underwear. Yes, I know I mentioned socks twice but hey when your kids go through them like mine do you need to buy twice as many. From the time that Bradley started pre-school I have tried to make back to school shopping an event that they will look forward to and also one that they will remember and hopefully have some "good" memories when they are older. On Wednesday it was the girls turn, we picked up the Patty's and headed off for our day of shopping til we dropped (and we literally did), what I learned about the girls is that; Lainee "loves, loves, loves" everything, and she "needs it" because "it is so adorable", one of the things I have always said is that I would never have a baby of the family, because they are always so spoiled and they always get more than the older ones, and although technically she didn't get everything she wanted, she did get more than she needed because after all she is the baby of my family. Kennadee loves trying on clothes, I wish I could do more to emphasize the word loves, I really thought that we were going to have to camp overnight at Old Navy so Kennadee and Makayla could finish trying on everything, I did have to giggle though as I am watching them in the dressing room, they would go in, you could see a whilrwind of activity for a long time and then they would suddenly appear and you would notice that they had only changed a shirt or that they had just layered a tank top over the top, it made you wonder what in the heck they were doing with all those clothes flying around. But to sum up my shopping experience with the girls you will have to imagine with me please 4 little girls, they all just purchased matching sunglasses (because they were 2.99 on clearance) they are talking and giggling as they go to the double doors leading to outside world, the older girls are in the lead with the younger girls mimicking their stride, the doors open, with purses on shoulder and bags in hand, and a gentle breeze blowing to keep their hair out of their faces, they exude confidence as they walk down the sidewalk to our next destination where once again they will leave their cares behind because after all there are other clothes that need to be tried on!!!

Thursday was Boy's day, now let me give you a little background on my boys, they are only jeans and T-shirt kind of boys, but the jeans have to fit just so and the shirts have to hang just right and the coloring of both cannot be to bold nor the pattern to odd and forget about button up or collared shirts (seriously, come on), so I usually take them and make them try on everything and then persist to ask them over and over and over again, "will you still like this tomorrow, next week, next month, how about in January", I have learned the hard, pricey way that in order to avoid fighting with them every day, I have to let them pick out what they want and only interject my opinion when cost, or just plain bad taste is involved. So this year having just been with the girls, I knew what stores had the best prices for their usual jeans and T-shirt, we were off to a good start and then a store that I had not been to in a while caught my eye, so I asked the boys if they wanted to go there, being boys they said they didn't care, I am telling you right now, in that very store a miracle occurred, had I not been there and witnessed it I would never have believed it. Although Bradley is very picky about his clothes he does like the plaid shorts (after I spent 45 min. talking him into them) and so he found a pair that he liked and a shirt to go with it and then as he was looking over some other clothes he pointed to a button up collared shirt and was like "hey mom, what do you think of this shirt" before I spoke I had to take a deep breath and stifle my sob (10 years I have been trying to get this boy to see the other side of clothes, 10 years) so playing it cool, I was like "yeah, it has a good color you could wear it this way or you could roll up the sleeves for a more fall look, you should try it on and see if you like it." and then a little while later BAM he hit me with another one, this time a long sleeved collared shirt with stripes, oh yeah I said it stripes and he was like "Mom, could I layer this with the other shirt", can you hear the angels singing, because I could, and then I saw the coolest thing ever, right before he came out of the dressing room he fixed his hair, now for some of you this may be nothing but for me I wanted to shout it from the rooftop "MY son finally cares about how he looks!!!!" I just think this may be a turning point, he may actually start brushing his teeth without constant reminders or maybe when he showers he will use soap and shampoo the first time and not have to suffer through a cold repeat shower, who knows what all this entails, the possibilities are endless (oh and just so you know I don't think I will let him read this blog, so try and keep this under wraps), so you would think this is the end of the tale but alas it is not, so we move on and he again finds some shirts that he likes and something must have rubbed off on Zacky because he to was trying things that are not in their "norm" and then not only that but when they were tying on clothes (in between bouts of take downs) they were actually telling one another if the shirt they picked looked good on them or if they needed maybe a different color or size. I know, I know, I about passed out from the shock of it all too. Well after I recovered and we finished our shopping, the boys took me to dinner, opening the doors, acting grown up, being very polite, and sitting in their seat the whole time, and not one fight, seriously how many miracles can occur in one day, I think this must have been a record. So now that the school shopping is done and another year of memories is stored, I will bid you farewell with the promise of pictures to come and another story yet to share about Bradley asking me about dating........................

Yellowstone (Day 5)

Our vacation was now winding down, but we still had a few fun things to see. We started this day by heading down to the West Thumb Geyser Basin, where the famous Fishing Cone is located, the story goes; there were some explorers fishing in the Lake and one guy dropped his fish in this cone shaped pool of water and when he pulled it back out the fish was cooked, the kids enjoyed the story and sad to say when we finally found the fishing cone it was under water, but we had to take our picture by it anyway, hence the family picture up above. We then took a ride through Gull Point Drive and had some fun walking along the shoreline of the Lake. We then stopped at the LeHardy Rapids and saw some Pelicans trying to find their lunch. We found another of our favorite spots at the Mud Volcano, where we got to experience the "Dragon's Cave",
it was awesome to hear it hissing and roaring and to see it spewing steam, I can see why they gave it such a name. As we were making our final loop down the mountainside, we found that we were not the only ones on the path, there were 4 Buffalo that had decided they would take a tour as well, lucky for us, they decided to take a short cut and headed a different direction. Our last stop was to see the Upper Falls Overlook,
which is located at the top of the Falls, it was a little unnerving to have the kids so close to a powerful waterfall, so we made sure not to linger, after all my mom had warned us not to lose any kids on our trip!!!
We then finished our travels for the day by walking across fishing bridge, where we stopped and watch a beaver cut down a weed and swim back to his home with it in his mouth. Our Family Vacation to Yellowstone was such a wonderful experience, from all the wild animals we saw to the power of nature we experienced,
a trip well worth taking and a great memory maker. Hope you all have enjoyed sharing a little bit of our vacation and as for our license plate game, we found 46.5, I say .5 because Kennadee and Zachary were positive they found a Hawaii plate but it was not confirmed by Scott or I, so we counted it as a half, we also missed Delaware, Conneticut and Vermont, not to shabby if I do say so myself.

Yellowstone (Day 4)

Well Good News everybody, today's post is not about Yellowstone, it is about Jackson Hole :). Roughly 15 years ago a boy asked a girl to marry him, she said "no" and then realized he was serious and then said "YES", so the boy and girl got married and decided to spend their honeymoon in a place called Jackson Hole, now fast forward fifteen years, where the now man and woman have come back with their 4 children to have some fun visiting the place where it all began ;) (hey Taci, that wink, wink, is just for you!)

Since there was lots of construction on our way to Jackson Hole we didn't arrive until close to lunch time, so we hurried to the Visitor's Center and made our plans for the day. We ate lunch at a park where there were lots of geese (I think that is what they were) and let's just say lot's of geese droppings, so I was glad when lunch was done and we could move on. Bradley knew that they had a Ripley's believe it or not Museum there and so we went to see if we could beleve it or not. It actually was really fun to see and read some of the unbelievable and freakish things people have or have done, I think the boys favorites were the wierd facts of some of the outlaws like Billy the Kid, and I am sure the girls favorite was the story of the woman who killed a Bear with a frying pan, and of course Scott and my favorite was the Love Throne the "King's" got to sit upon, and no it wasn't in the bathroom. After the Museum we just did alot of sightseeing and wandering the streets of Jackson, we stopped by the Million Dollar Saloon, a Moose Christmas shop and another fun store, that I can't remember the name of but it is where Lainee latched onto her pink "cowgal" hat, which she looks absolutely adorable in. We ate dinner at the Teton Steakhouse and then went to the Town Square to catch sight of the Western Shoot-out, which had everyone laughing and plugging their ears, cause the guns were so loud.
I loved the time we just got to meander through the town and remember the time spent there oh so many years ago, and now to make some new memories with our kids. Oh and just as a side note, on our way back into Yellowstone as we were passing the Tetons we did come upon a Grizzly Bear that was just off the road, he was so big and close, he was just on the other side of a construction embankment so we couldn't great really great pictures, and then when we were a little closer to home, coming down the middle of the road was a coyote, so Scott decided he would try out his coyote call, and I'll be danged if it didn't work on the poor guy,
he kept turning and looking at us, after that excitement the kids just wanted to drive around and see what else we could find in the roads but we decided that it was better to get some sleep so we wouldn't run anything over.