The Earth goes round the Sun and Bryce is 5

The Earth goes round the Sun and Bryce is 5.

When they have a birthday at Montessori this is what they do. They have a cute little song and walk around the sun so many times depending on how many years old they are. It's cute. Bryce wanted me to come, but I couldn't leave work at that time so his teacher sent me a picture.

Bryce is 5

Our little Bryce had a Birthday. In true Bryce fashion he woke us all up at 5:30 to gather round and open presents.

Tanner surprised him with a donut that had a candle on it.

Bryce turned five on Thursday. I can't believe it! Where has my baby gone? 

He seriously is such a blessing in our lives. We weren't planning on having anymore kids after Chloe and then eight years later we decided to have one more and we got Bryce. He was what we needed. The past five years have been hard for me. There have been trials and challenges, but through them all it's helped to have someone to hold and snuggle, someone who gives great hugs, and who loves me unconditionally. He makes everyone in the family smile and helps bring us together. I don't know what we would do without him.

I asked him where he wanted to go to dinner for his birthday. He said he couldn't really think of anywhere, so we could just eat at home, but that he would like to go to Fizz for some dip and dots. My Mom picked him up from school and took him to Fizz. I asked him again about dinner and he said "well I guess we could go to McDonald's." So that's what we did. What a funny kid.

5 Fun Facts About Bryce at 5

#1 He Loves Games. Board Games and Dice Games. If he can just get someone to play with him, he will gladly play for hours. I think he got this from Great Grandma cause when she would tend him they would play games. For his birthday he got three new ones and we have all already played them all several times. 

#2 He Loves school and Can Already Read. That's a first for us, to have a reader before Kindergarten. My Mom says I was the same way.

#3 He has never had a hamburger. In fact the only type of beef he has ever eaten is a beef hot dog.

#4 He loves the water and swimming. He can swim really well and likes to put his goggles on in the tub and practices. Sometimes he stays under for so long we grab him to make sure he's okay and he just laughs. We need a bigger tub! HA

#5 His big brother and big sister are his best friend and that makes me happy.

1'clock church is rough

I looked in the primary window to check on Bryce and this is what I saw.

To funny. Apparently he did this last week as well. Poor kid, 1 o'clock church is rough, and nap time is right during primary. I need a nap too, most Sundays about that time. Maybe they should consider nap time instead of singing time. 

#BryceEE

2 Gray Hairs

It's happened. Blame it on the kids. Yesterday I pulled out two hairs that were completely gray. Is it normal to get gray hair at the age of 35? Who knows, but I guess I'll be seeing a hairdresser soon to get it colored. The kids think it's hilarious and keep making jokes about gray hair!

Dixie Basketball (2)

We were supposed to travel to Cedar City on Saturday for basketball games, but just as we were hitting the freeway we got a text saying games were canceled due to extreme weather conditions, so we turned around. We were all disappointed. We were supposed to meet up with my Mom and Grandma while we were in Cedar as well as go to the games :( Oh well better to be safe than sorry. And they did get a lot of snow. I think it snowed all day and they ended up with about 6-8 inches. I
I guess there is always next week, looks like we are headed to Cedar again then.

Dixie Basketball (1)

Last weekend we traveled to Enterprise for Chloe's first basketball games of the season. The team did pretty good considering they didn't even have any plays to run. They ended up losing both games the first one by 9 points and the second one by a lot. Chloe had two great games though. She scored lots of baskets. In the first game she scored 11 points (high score) the only shot she missed was one of the foul shots she took. In the second game I think she had 4 or 6 points. She was definitely on fire in the shot department. I don't think she took any shots that she missed except for the one foul shot. It was fun to watch, even though they didn't win.

Bryce usually gets to pick some little treats at the gas station to help make it through the hours of sitting.

 On the way home we stopped at Veyo pies for an expensive but delicious lunch. Maybe there is a reason they don't put their prices on the menu-HAHA. 

After that Chloe and Bryce both zonked out for the remainder of the drive home.

I was going to use Chloe's new camera and try to get some pictures but I forgot it, so next week hopefully I'll have some action shots.

Dixie College Basketball

Last week Dixie College had a night where any school age child and their families could attend the game free of charge. We thought this would be a fun 'family night' activity, so as soon as Chloe got finished with softball practice we headed over to the game.

It was a lot of fun. We have only been to a game at the college one other time, and we definitely need to go more. The kids had fun, even though Bryce didn't quite last the whole game. 

Yeti in My Spaghetti

Bryce is a game lover. I think it came partly from his Grandma Fridays, because great Grandma on those days taught him how to play games, and they would spend a considerable amount of time every Friday playing games. They played matching games, memory games, dice, and board games they invented. A favorite for both of them was Husker Du. 

Anytime someone is willing to sit down and play with him. Bryce is up for a game. He has a great attention span this way and will stick with a game longer than most kids his age, sometimes it is the older people playing with him that wear out before he does. 

For Christmas Bryce got a game called Yeti in My Spaghetti. (It went along perfectly with all his other Yeti themed presents.) Of course he loves it, and anytime someone is willing he is ready to play. It's a pretty fun game and right on level for age appropriateness for a kid his age. The trick is to pull spaghetti pieces out from underneath the yeti without letting him fall into the bowl. The one who makes him fall in the bowl loses. The other day Landon and Bryce got it down to two pieces of spaghetti holding the Yeti up. Bryce thought that was great!

We love our game loving little guy. Hopefully he will always want to play games with us and we can use that as a way to continually keep a good relationship with him as well as have some fun together.

How We Ended up Having Pizza Instead of Roast for Sunday Dinner

We received a electric pressure cooker for Christmas. I was excited! I had heard so much of the miracles of these things and the wonderful meals you could prepare. So last Sunday Landon and I decided we would invite our neighbor over for a nice birthday dinner and cook a roast and veggies in the pressure cooker. Maybe we should have tested it out first-because it didn't work. We thought we had read the directions and did it right, but the machine wouldn't pressurize and it wouldn't seal right. We kept trying, and started to panic as the time for him to arrive drew closer. Finally, we determined it was a no go and it wasn't going to work. So I dialed Domino's and ordered pizza. (a side not we normally don't eat out on Sunday unless we are traveling or out of town, due to religious convictions-however sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do) I sent Tanner out to pick them up, and I sent him to the wrong location-UGH! He finally got the pizzas and made it back to the house. We only ate a few minutes late, and our guest was only a little disappointed that we were having pizza not roast-ha! I think the kids were actually happier with the pizza. LOL

Courtesy Award

A few week ago I received an email letting me know that my daughter would be receiving an award at school for Courtesy. I actually laughed out load. Chloe seriously?! Are we talking about the same child here. Chloe is not know for being courtesy. She is bold and blunt. She is sassy to other students as well as adult and teachers. She is just Chloe. When I told her she didn't believe me. She told her friends and they didn't believe her-HA. She threatened me not to come or take pictures she wasn't happy about receiving it. I didn't take any but the school and her good friends mom did.

In my classroom we were having a birthday the same day she got the award. We decided to have a little fun and alter the banner. Chloe came in to pick up a snack and instead of the sign reading Happy Birthday. It said Congrats Chloe. I had gone home already by the time I came in, but the ladies I work with made her stand under it and took her picture. When I picked her up after school she said "don't even talk to me right now." LOL-Oh Chloe

 I thought about this award a little bit and a couple of things came to mind. Maybe the teacher who nominated her for this was trying to work some reverse psychology on her. Or maybe someone had seen what I have on several occasions, that although Chloe is not necessarily overly courteous to most people it is the underdog she is nice to. The Special Education Students, someone whose friends are being mean to them, someone who she feels is being threatened by a teacher or another player on her team. Those are the people she is usually nice to and I guess that counts. 

Summit Softball

Chloe tried out for and made a new softball team. Summit Softball. Three other girls who were on her Dixie Angels team are on the new team as well. We think this will be a positive change. Now the work begins they have a tournament in a few weeks. Looks like our lives are back to crazy. Chloe has either basketball or softball practice every day Monday-Thursday and then basketball games on Saturdays and softball tournaments sprinkled in for the next few months. Forecast-BALL GAMES. 

Tia's New Year Goals *2018*

Supposedly if you write your goals down they are easier to obtain, so that is why I am once again writing my New Years Goals. This year I am also going to do a monthly check to see where I am at, so that I can see progress and also areas I need to improve on. Hopefully this will help me meet more of my goals. We actually had a really good talk in church on Sunday about making and achieving goals that gave me some inspiration. I'm pretty good at making goals, but not always achieving them, so that is what I'm going to work on this year. Also I'm going to break things down into smaller attainable goals instead of looking so much at the big picture or end result. 

Spiritual

-Read Scriptures 5 Days A Week
-Read Lesson Material for Relief Society each week
-Attend 2nd Hour (family history or Sunday School more regularly)
-No Social Media on Sunday morning Before Church
-More Personal Prayers
-Don't work on Sunday (I do some work from home for my Mom and I want to limit this to Monday-Saturday and not work on Sundays)

Health and Fitness

-Run, Walk, Bike, or Swim 1 mile once a week

-Only drink Coke once a week except for my period/headache week

-Make a conscious effort to drink more water

Financial
-Save at least $300 spending cash by the time we go to New York in June
-Do better at staying on budget and not spending my weekly petty cash before I have it
-Save any dimes we get for the year (we read something about it and want to test it out)

Educational

-Read at least 3 books per month (I want to focus on reading more and being on social media less)
-Look into what it would take to finish my Bachelors Degree (1st Step)

Personal
-Sew 6 Levi Quilts and 6 Other Quilts During the Year
-Continue Blogging
-Do Better at Keeping the House Clean---Focus On the Dishes!

Happy New Year!

A lot of New Years we are in out of town and celebrate with Landon's family, sometimes if we are in town we go out to my Grandma's and celebrate. This year however, we were in town and my Grandma was in Cedar, so we decided to host a New Years party of our own.

We had a really fun night. Good Food, Great Friends, and Lots of Fun.

Chloe made a fun photo booth...

We had several Games for the Kids-the saran wrap ball dice game, and a variety of minute to win it challenges. They also had fun playing the Nintendo switch Mario kart. 

 In the garage we held ping pong competitions.

We had so much good food. Everyone brought something to share. I think we were all sick from eating to much.

The adults played a rousing rendition of 'spoons'. Luckily no one was injured. Ha!

After that we gathered everyone and played The Money Dice Game. It was super fun. And the best part was that someone ended up walking away with the cash pot (our neighbor Kellie). We had never played this game before, but Landon saw it on Facebook and thought it would be fun. After a little bit of looking I was able to track down the specific dice you use for the game (I ended up finding them at the Dollar Store-everywhere else in town was sold out). We will for sure be introducing this game at our next family get together.

After that it was almost midnight so we gathered our firecrackers and pots and pans and headed outside to ring in the New Year.

We had truly had a great night. I'm glad we decided to have the party. Even better was that we were all able to sleep in the next morning. YAY!

Happy New Year!!!