The Young and the Restless

Little things

Brace yourself, here comes a doozy of little things. First up, we had a movie night in the park fundraiser for the youth's Moroni's Quest camp. They asked Lexi and I to be in charge of the hot dogs. Of course we went home that night and ordered weiner hats on Amazon for no other reason than to have a good excuse to own a weiner hat. 

Maddox continues to do well in scouts. Some days he loves it, some days he begs me to let him skip it. But he's learning a lot and it's a great program.

Maddox and Jayden received leadership awards at school, as if they needed another reason to make me proud.

Maddox has really taken to heart the old "early to bed early to rise" advice. By 6:30 pm he is asking to go to bed. He loves to have his quiet time alone in his room without Ryder keeping him up. He wakes up around 6 am, gets dressed, does his chores, makes himself an egg sandwich and enjoys a quiet house and having the rest of the morning to play. He also sleeps with a sleeping bag on top of his bed so that he doesn't have to make his bed in the morning. Ryder has copied him and even took it a step farther and started sleeping in his clothes, thankfully I've convinced him pajamas are more comfortable.

Wrapped up football season for Maddox

And soccer for Ryder. I can't tell you how nice it is to only have two kids going in different directions on Saturday instead of 4.

I was able to chaperone Maddox's field trip to the aquarium. Love spending time volunteering at the school, but I always walk away with a much greater appreciation for teachers. Spending the day with 27 8 year olds is exhausting! He loved having me there and I loved a little one on one time with him. Ryder just got back from a field trip to the science center (I wasn't able to chaperone since I already had a turn this year). He was a little disappointed that it wasn't blue inside. I think he was expecting to visit the science lab on "Johnny Test" . Funny boy.

They had donuts with dad for the kindergarteners.  They sang songs and it was pretty much the cutest thing ever. At least from the videos I saw.

Ryder was FINALLY star student, he has waited all year for this week. We got to bring home Auxier bear, make a poster, write a journal and come eat lunch with him. It was quite grand.

I try not to live vicariously through my kids, but I would be lying if I didn't admit that I love seeing Jayden's natural running ability shine through. Occasionally he'll go running with me or Jason and without any training he can run the whole way and often times faster than us. The problem is that he doesn't love running (let's be honest, does anyone really love it?). He qualified for the elementary school track invitational in the 800 m, that's a tough race. He finished in the middle but I'm confident that with some training he could be awesome. I'm trying to convince him to try track and cross country next year, but we'll see.

Maddox is always so curious. His little mind is always working and he absorbs information like a sponge. His favorite shows to watch are Nova, Brain Games or anything on Nat Geo. They recently did a unit on butterflies so he was so amazed to find two butterflies "stuck together". I tried to explain that they were mating, but he wasn't phased. He quickly gathered oranges and flowers for nectar and gently cared for them. Love him.

Maddox has always been my biggest fan. He is such a lover and has a special place in my heart. When I heard they were having a mother & son dance I just knew he would be over the moon excited.  An excuse to dress fancy in his suit and spend the evening dancing with mom was right up his alley. Or so I thought. Imagine my heartbreak when he brought home the flyer with this scrawled on it. Excuse me while I gather the shards of my broken heart. He is not allowed to grow up.

This one made me laugh too. $259 for a 4 day lego camp, he knew better than to even ask to go because it is a "rip off". I've trained him well.

Jason has been studying hardcore for the past 5 months or so to take the Series 7 exam for his financial advisor's license. Even though he won't be doing any of that at work he's still required to take it as an employee. It has been so time consuming and a big stress these last couple of months, but the day finally came. He was so nervous that he wouldn't pass but with all his preparation I was confident that he would do well and he did! He came home on cloud 9, had a dance party with Kylie, jumped on the tramp with Ryder and made up for the lost time he had with the kids while studying. His idea of celebrating was to get a haircut and go running, but we also convinced him that we needed to go to Bahama Bucks.

Jayden had a campout in Flagstaff, love the experiences he's having with scouts. And it's always entertaining to hear the stories he comes home with, like the boy that had to walk a mile back through the cave to collect his own poop so that he wouldn't defile the Native American land. Oh man....there's a special place in heaven for scout leaders of 12 year old boys!

Church selfies I find on my phone. Clearly we are not in the running for most reverent family. I still need to tell Ryder that when he prays it's not necessary to tell Heavenly Father that "girls are beautiful, boys are awesome, dad is the king, mom is the queen, kylie is the princess, Jayden is the prince, Ryder is the knight and Maddox is either the servant or a knight" (depending on if they have been fighting or not). Because it puts a smile on my face every time when he repeats this whole line. I'm pretty confident it's putting a few smiles up in heaven as well. I also don't have it in me to correct him when he calls Jesus "cheesus", because hearing him say "baby cheesus" is just about the cutest.

Ryder was so proud of the picture he drew of me, especially that he even remembered to draw eyebrows. Then he looked up on me with a look of shock as he realized I had no eyebrows. I had just washed my face and gone were the eyebrows I pencil in. He took a deep breath and said, "well, I guess I'll just have to erase those...". Kids and their brutal honesty are my favorite.

We inherited a basketball hoop and I love that it gets the boys outside. Jayden has kind of narrowed down basketball as his sport. He has played so many different sports over the years and I love that he is well rounded. But as of now, basketball has won his loyalty.

I also love how excited Kylie gets for food, a good meal or treat can seriously make her day. It's the simple things.

I've found a fun new creative outlet. My sister in law was telling me about this app "Foap" where you can sell your photos and enter photo contests. I joined a few months ago and have had so much fun with it! I've won 2 contests so far and have sold 69 photos, enough to buy me a new camera and lens! I like being challenged with my photography and it has also been fun going through old photos to submit to contests as well. Recently Five Star reached out to me and wanted to send me some of their products to photograph for an upcoming contest. They sent me about $75 worth of products, it was pretty cool. I joked with Kylie that I'm sponsored now. I convinced her to ask a couple of friends to take the pictures with me, it involved eye rolls and bribes but they were good sports and they ended up turning out great (love my new camera!). She has such cute friends, it was a fun afternoon that ended with milkshakes and pizza. And we'll end on that note, life is busy but life is good!