Back to School!

Going back to school
can be so much fun!
All the kids had the hardest time
falling asleep the night before the big day!

We aren't exactly swimming in money these days and so school shopping was pretty limited. Each of the kids got 1 new outfit for the first day of school. Carsten quickly proclaimed that he didn't want an outfit, he wanted new shoes! And not just any pair of new shoes, he had a particular style in mind! Let me tell you, this kid is all about fashion!

We went to Famous Footwear and these are the COOL NEW SHOES he picked out! I have to admit though, I DO think they are pretty cool! And I also have to admit that Carsten is pretty dang smart! There was no way I was going to let him go to the first day of school in an old shirt. So he ended up with new shoes and a new shirt! I took him to Walmart to pick something out. A glow in the dark Muppet's shirt... AWESOME!!!

Traditionally I have the kids stand outside for a picture before they head off to school and this year was no different. However Talan was a little miffed that I wasn't taking pictures of him. He kept getting in front of me saying, "Mom, take my picture!" He starts preschool next week and he can hardly wait!
He got this cool Cars backpack!

Ethan is the most simple kid in the world. He's not too picky about clothes and will usually wear whatever I pick up for him. I got him a brand new outfit from Old Navy and then he didn't want to wear it! WHAT! He wanted to strut his ASU pride!
FORK EM' DEVILS!

All the boys standing at the bus stop
waiting for the bus to come!

So the morning schedule goes like this...
Carsten starts school at 8:00 as a early bird.
Ethan starts Jr. High at 8:15.

I get the two of them up and off to school
and then head back home for the next round.

Bradon and Reagan go as later gators and so their school starts at 9:15.
Once Talan starts preschool he will go Tuesdays and Thursdays at 9:30.

So I have this table in my entryway. Every month I decorate it. This month I got out all my back to school decorations. I have some pictures of the kids on the first day of school from several years ago that I put up. Talan noticed that he wasn't in any of the pictures! And then began to cry throwing the hugest fit about it! I tried to explain to him that when I took those pictures he wasn't even born yet, but that was not good enough for him. He wants to have his first day of school pictures taken too!

When we went to Famous Footwear for Carsten it was Buy One Get One 1/2 off. So Talan got the 1/2 off! These are the shoes he picked out! Light up Lightening McQueen! Super Cool!

Reagan is just as cute as ever!
She's all girl and we love it!

She's learned how to ride a rip stick recently. She rode around while she waited for the time to pass by so she could go to school! That's one thing I love about the first day of school! The kids are always are up and at em ready to go!

Bradon picked out a Sponge Bob Square Pants shirt.
Not what I was expecting, but it works!

Bradon and his friend Dillon rode their bikes to school.
They are like really BIG 6th graders that
don't need their moms to help them out!

I saw the cutest 'Back To School' cupcake idea that I just had to make! I took them around to all the teachers thanking them for a wonderful first week of the new school year!

Running Running, Keep on Running!

One of my most favorite Characters of all time is DORY from the animated m0vie Finding Nemo. I identify with Dory on SO MANY LEVELS! In this movie Dory sings while swimming, "Swimming Swimming, Keep on Swimming!" And often times while I'm running and HATING every minute of it, I find myself thinking or singing out loud, "Running Running, Keep on Running!" It's just one of those silly things that keep me going, and without fail it lightens my mood!

I trained for the Saint George Marathon all the way up until the 16 mile run. And that's when I fell off the "running" face of the earth!

I was training simultaneously with my Sister-in-law Cheryl. She was training in Arizona and I was training here in Utah. The plan was to meet up in Saint George and run it together. We would text each other back and forth to report how far we had ran and to give each other words of encouragement. As the long runs became longer it got harder and harder to train by myself! I'm just not a BY MYSELF kind of girl! And that's when my sweet friend Amy decided to join me.
Now don't get me wrong! Amy had no plans of actually running the marathon, in fact she flat out told me that she couldn't do it this year. But she was willing to train with me so that I could reach my goal. {Yeah I know, she's a pretty darn good of a friend! I mean really, WHO DOES THAT?} Anyways, everything was going good with the training on my end but then I found out that training in the Arizona heat was just about to kill Cheryl! And to tell you the truth, I can't even imagine running that far in those kind of temperatures! In fact I don't think their is any way on earth that I would, or that I could! So the decision was made for Cheryl to not continue on. And that's when I was faced with a decision to make of my own. Do I try to convince Amy to do this with me or do I bag it until another year. Because we all know that their is no way I'm going to do this on my own! So I asked Amy what she thought. She decided to give it a try but then as all the runs became longer and longer her leg injury became more painful and painful! Training for a marathon is just not good for the body! I totally understand her decision to not continue on and I totally respect it! But remember the part about me not being a by myself kind of girl? Yeah, I'm not running a marathon alone... So I'm out too!

ALL IN OR ALL OUT?
I was definitely all in! But once that decision was made to quite training, I have definitely been all out! Why is it so hard to just get up out of bed to go running?

Two weeks from now is the Red Rock Relay race and so now it's total crunch time for me! I've got to get my act together, get my butt out of bed and hit the road!

I've got to make the decision to be ALL IN!

Meet the teacher night.

Last week we raced down to the school to see who the kids teachers would be this year. All 3 kids seemed really pleased with who they got, and for that I was grateful!

Tonight was meet the teacher night.

We started with Reagan's class first.
She got Ms. Cox for her 2nd grade teacher.
Bradon and Carsten both had her in 2nd grade and so Reagan was excited to be able to have her too! Ms. Cox loved both of the boys and was really hoping to have Reagan in her class this year. Last year she told me that she would love to teach the girl version of the boys! I quickly informed her that Reagan is NOTHING like her brothers. I think she will be pleasantly surprised! Reagan is seriously a teachers dream!

Next we made our way to Carsten's class.
He has been placed in Mrs. Alston's 4th grade class.
From what we hear she can be a lot of fun but she's pretty strict! I personally think that Carsten could use a little strict so I'm excited to see how this all plays out!

Last but certainly not least we made it all the way to the other side of the school to visit with Bradon's 6th grade teacher Mrs. Howard.
Unfortunately Bradon wasn't able to make it with us.
You see, Bradon is a BIG 6th grader now and doesn't need to meet his teacher with his mother present anymore. Bradon and his friend Dillon rode their bikes to the school and went by themselves to meet their new teachers. After meeting their teachers they found us in the halls to tell us that they had already met their teachers and were now going home.

Well Bradon may have met her but I hadn't!
So we went without him!
She seems like she'll be a pretty fun teacher!

So here it is BACK TO SCHOOL!
I can hardly believe it!

The best fundraiser EVER!

If you ever find that you're in need of making some quick cash but don't have the money or time to mess with selling a product of some sort AND you are willing to put in some muscle and hard work...
THIS IS THE FUNDRAISER FOR YOU!!!

Power washing out garbage cans
for $10.00 a can!

We did this for our 8th grade football team fundraiser this last week and it was awesome! Not only did the boys round up quite a few jobs, but they had a blast hanging out and working hard together! It was a great way to kick off a new season of football!

The day before the clean out is when we walked through the neighborhood collecting jobs and money. The day of the clean out we rounded up a few more jobs. Some of our new clients had missed the garbage man the day before and their garbage cans were full of garbage! But that was no problem for us! Apparently we empty out garbage cans too! You can tell by the look on Taylor's face that he was thrilled to take on this challenge!

Check out this posse!
Their lean, mean, trash can grime fighting machines!

I borrowed a power washer from my Uncle Jay, filled a gas can with gas, loaded up a hose and a bottle of dish soap. And then just as I was walking out the door I went back for my kitchen broom and mop. The MOP was worth all it's weight in gold! I hooked up the trailer to the back of my Denali and off I went on an adventure to remember!

As I drove around town picking up the boys for this activity I kept thinking to myself, "Please let their be some mothers show up to help me with this!" And luckily I had 2 VERY HARD WORKING mothers come! Tami Lemon and Sydney Schoonover were absolute life savers! These girls know how to WORK!

Don't get me wrong, the boys were hard working too!
I even think they kind of liked using the power washer!
Which was good, because us moms didn't want to use it!

After we rounded up and cleaned all the cans, we loaded them back on the trailer to take them back to their proper owners. The boys had a blast riding around on the back of that trailer!

When all the work was done the boys decided it was play time!
We took them to a local pond and they all jumped in with their clothes on. They swam across to the other side only to meet up with a cop who sternly told them that they were not allowed to be swimming all the way across the pond. He made them all get out and walk around the pond to the "Swimming Area!"

After about an hour of play I gathered the boys up, piled them into my Denali and I drove them all home! What a fun bunch of boys!

We raise a total of $300.00!
Not bad for a few hours of work!
Now we shouldn't have to ask the parents for anymore money all season long!

This Summer...

has flown by!

I don't think there has ever been a summer to feel
like it's gone by as fast as this one has!

The first month was filled with baseball games galore!
The second month was filled with Seven Peaks fun!
And this last month has been football football football!

I can hardly believe that the kids are going back to school this week. It's probably the first year that I can truly say that I'm not thrilled to see them go! I don't know if it's because they are getting older and easier, or if it's because I resist schedules. But this year the kids going back to school is kind of bitter sweet!

I think that it's going to be the hardest on Talan!
I don't know what he's going to do without a neighborhood filled with kids of all ages to play with. It's going to be back to just Talan and me! However he is going to start preschool this year and I think he's going to LOVE that! Unfortunately it doesn't start for a few more weeks.

So here's to a summer that's zipped on by!
And on to another school year of fun!

Football Football Football

This is the time of year that football begins to consume our lives.
We eat, drink, sleep
and breath football!
And as a football mom I wouldn't want to fail to mention boiling mouth guards, taking football pads in and out and in and out over and over again, filling up water bottles, driving to and from practices, scrimmages and games, making half time posters, cutting up oranges and bananas, doing stinky laundry, reminding the boys to take a bath, and feeding hungry football playing bellies!
This year all 3 of the boys are playing football again!
David is coaching Ethan's 8th grade B team and I'm his lovely assistant side kick team mom!

Youth football is one dramatically political beast!
This year we have started our season off with more drama than usual.

A few months ago David decided that he didn't want to coach football this year. He has either assisted or head coached a team for the past 4 seasons. This year he decided that he wanted to just be a dad and equally support each of his 3 sons. This caused a little drama within the 4th grade but a new coach was found and Carsten was drafted to a really great team!

The 6th grade is 100% all drama!
Some parents think that they should be able to dictate what team their child gets drafted to. And if they don't get drafted to the team of their choosing then they can throw a big fit to the board and then the board will just cave into them and let them switch to the team of their choice.
Ludicrous I know,
but that's what happened!
Bradon was drafted to one team and then 3 days after the draft and after their first practice we received a phone call proposing a trade for Bradon to go to another team due to the fact that someone was throwing a tantrum. We gave Bradon the choice and he chose to be traded. David and I don't really care what team he plays on just as long as he has fun! So now everyone that we run into from that other team stops us to ask what happened. It's been rumored that Bradon didn't want to play for them and volunteered to be traded. It's kind of annoying that they jack us around and then we feel like we have to defend ourselves now that all has been said and done. The funny thing about this whole ordeal is that the assistant coaches on that team had no idea what had happened. The wool was pulled over their eyes and some puppet master worked his magic!

In the 8th grade the league didn't have the coach locked in that they thought they had locked in due to a lack of communication. So the day before tryouts they were sending out a mass email to all 8th grade parents desperately pleading for someone to step up to the plate and coach. Two days into tryouts they were still without a coach. The league president approached David several times asking him to take the position. David told him no. Several people approached David and then finally another father, Ben Higbee and David together decided that they could assist as offense and defense coordinators. Another father stepped up and told the league president that he didn't know much about football but was willing to take the position as head coach so that the kids could play. So it looked like everything was taken care of. They found a few more fathers to help and things were looking good. The new head coach wasn't able to go to the draft and so David and Ben went. They came away from the draft thrilled with their picks. They felt like they really picked a good team.
So the very next day was their first official team practice and that's went everything went downhill fast!
The new head coach that told the league president that he didn't really know much about football and was willing to let someone who knew more than himself take over didn't come to practice with that same attitude. He came with the 'it's my way or the highway' attitude that was extremely over the top! All the assistant coaches did one of those lay low sit back and watch to see how this was all going to play out attitudes. After voicing that he wanted to run a no huddle audible offense much like flag football, putting the boys through a few good lacrosse drills, and having all the team players go out for passes no matter their size or position, we all began to wonder what he was thinking. When practice was over and all the boys left the field, all the coaches gathered together standing in a circle. The offensive coordinator asked the head coach what kind of offense he was thinking about running. And this is how that conversation began.
The head coach responded with an angry, "I will not stand here and be bullied by you guys!" WHAT? We aren't trying to bully you! We are just wanting to know what offense you want to run! "Well just because I don't have a playbook in hand on the first day of practice... don't hold that against me! I just found out I was going to be the coach a few days ago! You can't expect me to have a playbook!" No we don't expect you to have a playbook! We're just wanting to know what offense you want to run so that we know how we can best teach and help these kids. "I want the offense to be audible!" Okay so what do you mean by audible? "I want my quarterback to go to the line of scrimmage and look at the defense and then audibly call out the play like 1 or 2. I want the quarterback to make the decision on the first two downs and if that doesn't work then we can call in the play on third down. I want to develop leaders on the field!" Okay but the second time you call out your play #1 they are going to know exactly what your going to do. "They wont figure it out by the end of the game!" Okay so where have you seen this done before? What high school, college or NFL team does this? "I don't know!" That's because NOBODY does that! "DON'T YOU TELL ME IT WONT WORK!"
Anyways after an hour and a half discussion between the offensive coordinator and the head coach about what an offense is and trying to explain why it was necessary, you could say that we were all frustrated beyond belief! We all went home with a sick feelings in the pits of our stomach knowing that something had to change!
After a weekend long series of texts and phone calls with the league president, Sunday night they all met together to discuss the issue. To make a very long story short David is now the new head coach! Not what he was wanting or hoping for but seriously the only thing fair for this cute team of 8th grade boys!
Since then everything has come together beautifully and excellent coaches have come out of the woodwork to help out! We are all very happy and excited for this upcoming season that lies ahead!

So now that we have that drama behind us I've taken it upon myself to take care of helmet decals and the last name stitching on the back of the jerseys for the entire league. Which means I'm running around collecting orders and money from all the coaches. It's crazy I know! And I know that I didn't need to get myself caught up in all this but the league has always taken care of these things for the boys and this year they didn't! I just felt like someone needed to do it and it didn't seem like anyone was so I did! Funny thing is that I've received phone calls now about equipment issues people are having as if I'm the equipment manager or something. OH NO! I'M JUST A CRAZY MOM THAT DECIDED TO TAKE MATTERS INTO MY OWN HANDS!

Like said on Forest Gump,
"Stupid is as stupid does!"
Hey, I've never claimed to be smart!

Are you going to the movies?

Then why are you picking your seat?

This kid has been picking his seat ever since he's been potty trained! I can't figure out if he has an itchy bum or if he just likes the feel of his soft baby butt!

If he doesn't have his hands down his pants then he's pulling his pants and underwear down in one swift swoop giving anybody and everybody a nice MOON!

"Talan pull your pants up!"
"Get your hands out of your pants!"

Oh the sweet pure innocence of a 3 year old!

It was a Super Saturday!

Saturday was busy from start to finish.
I woke up and hit the ground running!
No seriously! I literally hit the ground running!
My friend Amy and I got up well before the sun rose and ran 14 miles! This was the longest run of my life so far! And even with blisters on both of my feet, a quick trip to fleet feet sport to buy a new 100 dollar pair of wider running shoes, and sore muscles reminding me of the torture I put myself through, we are still planning on running 16 miles this next Saturday!

As soon as I got home from my run I jumped in the shower, woke up all the kids and we headed to the Highland Fling parade. Well everyone except for David, Ethan and Carsten. They were at Football practice.

We found a nice shady spot under a tree and waited for the parade to begin.

I love this parade because it's short and sweet!
They always have a few really big nice beautiful floats and then the rest is all local businesses along with my personal favorite... the local High School Bands!

All the floats throw candy to the kids and we always go home with quite the haul!

I thought this one was cute!

And this one is pretty cute too!
Some otter pops were thrown out into the crowd and Talan thoroughly enjoyed it!

This is the American Fork Marching Band!
They are so good!
This next year they will be marching in the Rose Bowl Parade in Pasadena CA..

.

Our friend Bruce Tucker's daughter won Miss American Fork this year and then competed in the Miss Utah pageant. She is in the carriage on this float. She didn't win Miss Utah but won Miss Utah County and so that puts her in the Miss Utah pageant again this next year. Her father is thrilled for her and her accomplishments but very very sad for his pocketbook!

After the parade Grandma wanted to take us all to the Orange Leaf in Highland. The Orange Leaf is a relatively new frozen yogurt shop. We went there as a family after Reagan's dance recital and realized that it would have been cheaper to have gone to the grocery store and let all 7 of us pick out our own half gallon of ice cream. I told Grandma that it was expensive but she wanted to take us anyways! We had a 20% off coupon that we got from the parade! The kids were thrilled to go! Too bad for David, Ethan and Carsten because they missed out!

Ethan had to go to the Highland Fling to pick up trash for an hour and a half of service for scouts. So we all met up with them there. When we got there they were having the BMX show! It was totally awesome! Talan was amazed!

Actually we were all pretty amazed!
These guys were really good!
I loved that before they performed they told all the kids that drugs were bad and then encouraged all the kids to be drug free just like them!

When the show was over I turned to Talan and told him, "Don't try any of what you just saw at home on your own bicycle!" I could see by the look in his eyes that that's exactly what he was thinking about! I swear that Talan has NO FEAR! He has the "anything you can do I can do better" mentality!

We paid 5 bucks for Talan to play on the blow up toys.

And let me tell you, HE LOVED EVERY MINUTE OF IT!

Making the big climb to the top!

And fearlessly leaping off the top of the slide!

100% thrill seeker!
X Games, here Talan comes!

While we were all watching Talan play we heard the firetruck siren blare!
Then we heard people saying, "It's the fireman spray" as they ran out to the field.
We decided to go see what all the fuss was about!

OH MY GOSH!
It was a ladder truck fully extended spraying all the people on the ground!

Bradon was the first to be apart of that hose spraying action!
We was like, "That's a lot of water!"

Reagan wanted no part of it!

Here is Bradon and Carsten running in the SPRAY!

Carsten said, "Oh my gosh that water is cold!"

Reagan STILL wanted nothing to do with it!

Bradon was trying to get David a little closer to the water!

After watching the Scottish games {in which our neighbor Betty Robbins son Matt won the whole thing}, checking out all the booths, listening to a few musicians perform and enjoying Roxberry smoothies we headed home to get ready to go to an Owlz baseball game.

Bradon's super league baseball team The Strike, were all meeting their for an end of the summer last little team raw haw get together! We of course gathered around the "chicken" as Talan calls him for a awesome photo!

If you will notice nobody was willing to get too close to that "chicken"! Come on guys squeeze in and pretend that you like him!

After the picture I said, "Okay give the Owl a hug!"
Carsten responded with a quick, "NO WAY!"

Well BIG RED OWL CHICKENS don't take NO WAY for an answer!

Not only did Carsten get hugged!
He got picked up and...

Flipped upside down!
He almost lost his shorts in the process!
Moral of this story... Don't mess with the Big Red Owl Chicken!
Just give him a little love and nobody will get hurt!

After visiting with all the awesome STRIKE families and watching a little bit of the OWLZ game we raced to our car and headed back to Highland for the Highland Fling Firework show!

Last year Ethan and I got the show of a lifetime having one of the finale fireworks tip over and shoot straight at us exploding only a few feet from where we had been sitting! It was definitely a firework show to remember!
So this year everyone wanted in on the action!
We were thrilled to go back to our same semi dangerous viewing area only to find out that they had it all roped off deeming it too dangerous! We laid out out blankets anyways and enjoyed the fireworks without one incident of a stray firework shooting out of control.

It was a day filled with just about everything!
A day that took at least 2 days to recoup from!
A day to remember!

She's back!

Grandma Adair is back!
We couldn't be more happy to have her here with us!

Marathon training update...

I'm still running!

Well okay I admit, it's not really running that I do. It's more like jogging! But it feels like running because I'm going just about as fast as my legs can carry me. So let's just call it running to help boost up my self esteem... okay?

My long missed running partner Amy is back at it with me again! YEAH!!! Did I mention how much I missed her? Running isn't something that I necessarily love. I mean, I love the feeling of accomplishment that I get when I'm done running but the act itself of running.... not my most favorite activity! And running alone is the worst! So I am overjoyed to have my friend back!

I've begun training for the Saint George Marathon. I know, crazy huh? And let me tell you, it's not easy! In fact it's down right HARD! So I keep telling myself that if I survive the training for the marathon, then I'll run the marathon! But there is a good chance that I might just drop dead training!

So why is it that I would want to run a marathon you ask? That's a very good question! The more and more I've thought about this very question has led me to believe that it's more about the accomplishment than the running. Weird huh? I don't know, it's just one of those things that you can't understand unless you just so happen to have the same feeling.

Would accomplishing a marathon make me a better person? I don't know! Would it make me stronger? YES! Will it kill me? Maybe! Do I feel like I have to prove something to someone if not myself? I don't know, maybe, no not really! Well then WHY? I guess I want to know what it feels like to cross a finish line after pushing myself for 26.2 miles of pain and misery!

Crazy I know! But like I said over a year ago... I've joined the crazies! So wish me luck and think of me this Saturday morning as I set forth to conquer the longest run of my life up until now... 14 miles!