A Few New "Hats"

You have different "hats" in your closet of life. You put on a different hat as you play different roles. For example your closet may contain the hat of mother, wife, sister, friend, scout leader, PTO President, etc. just to name a few. In the past couple of weeks I have added 4 new hats to my collection those of student (I am going back to college to get my degree in Social Work), soccer coach (I am coaching Chloe's team), mia-maid advisor (a church calling working with the young women) , and special ed aid (at my kids school). I am excited and a little bit nervous about these new endeavours but am also excited. Our lives will definitely be busy this fall but hopefully fun as well.

Freezer Cooking Day

Last Saturday my Grandma, Mom and I had a freezer cooking day. I have been wanting to do one of these for over a year now but just never knew where to start or what to do. Well my sister in law Taryn got the book and software program called "30 meals in 1 day" and shared them with me. (I would highly recommend them). Thanks Taryn this gave me just what I needed to get going.

We pretty much cooked all day on Saturday we were all dead tired when we were threw, but looking at all we had accomplished when we were done made it so worth it.

Here is the start......
and here is part of the end product the other part was in coolers and freezers already....
We made...
chicken and biscuits
cola barbecue
chicken fried steak
ground beef stroganoff
ham and potato scallop
Italian shells
lasagna
minestrone
pineapple chicken teriyaki sandwiches
Shepard's pie
southwest potato skins
stuffed pizza bread
tomato Swiss steak
chicken bow ties
tortilla chicken

So far everything we have eaten has been good. We especially like the pineapple chicken teriyaki sandwiches. We plan to do this again in another month.

1st Day of School

Today was the first day of school for the kids. On the one hand it was so nice to send them back to school but then on the other hand I think I might miss them just a little bit in the afternoons. However once I get going back to school myself-tomorrow, and back to work-in a few days then that will give me the time I need to get stuff done.

Chloe was actually really excited this morning when she woke up, which was a huge relief because she kind of had a hard year last year. The only thing she was a little bit sad about is that her best friend wasn't in her class. She is in 1st Grade can you believe it! Her teacher this year is Ms. Carlston. (Also I did have to threaten her not to repeat anything she had heard on the movie Diary of a Wimpy Kid and tell her it was okay to wear both straps of her backpack regardless of what she may have heard on that movie. LOL If you haven't seen it you should it's the new family fave Landon and the Kids quote it all day long.)

Tanner of course was happy to be going back, he loves school and always has. The only thing he didn't like was the his class this year is going to be in the portables. However his best bud Rohun is in his class and one of his other friends as well so he was pretty happy about that. He didn't want me to walk him to class, but then when we got there he kind of wavered and would have let me if I really wanted to, in the end he ended up going to find it all on his own. Such a big boy I can't believe he is in 5th Grade. WOW! His teacher this year is Mrs. Winder.

Happy Birthday Tanner!

Can you believe it my little boy is 10 years old today! I guess I can't really call him a little boy anymore. I can't believe how much he has grown up and how big he is getting. He is starting 5th Grade tomorrow. YIKES!

(Tanner got a complete official Red Sox uniform for his birthday including socks and a belt although he doesn't have them on in the picture. He even go the real pants-thanks to Great Grandma-she actually made them. The ones you can buy with the red piping down the sides are $54 but she just bought a pair or regular white pants and added the piping herself-AWESOME!)

We had a fun weekend celebrating his Birthday.

Yesterday we went out to dinner at Red Robin, one of his favorite restaurants, he was a little bit upset the I told them it was his birthday and they came and sang to him. He did enjoy the hot fudge sundae though.

On Friday we had a big birthday bash for him. We had about 9 boys over plus Chloe and then some of the fam. We had pizza and cake and then went to Jumping Jacks for a few hours. The kids had a blast. What a fun day!

His cake was a Red Sox jersey, complete with MLB logo, and baseball cupcakes to go along with it. He was pretty happy about it. (Thanks Grandma and Great-Grandma)

Toothache

While we were in Fillmore a few weeks ago Chloe kept telling me that her tooth was hurting. When I looked in her mouth I could tell that there was definitely something wrong, so when we got home I took her right to the dentist. The diagnosis she had an abscessed tooth, caused from one of her teeth breaking off. She had to take an antibiotic for a week to clear up the infection and yesterday I took her in to get the rest of the tooth pulled out.

Luckily they gave her a little bit of laughing gas to get her through it, otherwise she would have been screaming hysterically the whole time. Instead she was totally smiling as big as she could during the whole procedure, which had Tanner and me both trying to hold in our laughter.

It went well and they got the rotten tooth out without to much of a problem.

I bribed her with a Slurpee and a trip to the County Fair that night. I forgot to take my camera to the fair but we had a fun time. Chloe and Landon went on the Farris Wheel and she had the time of her life she was smiling and waving at me the whole time she was up there.

Birthday Party Fun

On Saturday our last day in Fillmore we went to Birthday Parties for Saydee and Gavin. They were lots of FUN!

Here Chloe is getting all dolled upLook at these Rock Stars
My sister made tu-tu's for all the girls who came. They were so cute.And here is Saydee's Cake.
Grandma and the Girls
Gavin had a Dinosaur Party.

Here is his cake...

Look at these scary dinosaurs.

We had such a fun week in Fillmore I think we will plan to do it again next year.

Meeting Jeremy Evans

I forgot to mention this in my earlier post but on Friday while we were in Fillmore there was a Jazz clinic. The kids got to play some basketball and meet Jeremy Evans. Tanner, Tyler, and Sam all went. They had lots of fun. Jeremy seems like a really nice guy hopefully he'll be able to help the Jazz.

Our Fun Week in Flowell

So last week the kids and I spent the week in Flowell. We had lots of fun. Landon's sisters and their kids were there as well. I also had my sisters two kids most of the time, so it was pretty noisy but lots of fun.

The kids spent hours playing outside everyday. Grandpa and Grandma have a swing set and a cool dirt pile (soon to be sandbox) for them to play on. Grandpa even broke out the old water trough swimming pool so the kids were able to swim in it. Licorice would even jump in and join them. We didn't notice until it was too late that they were all being eaten alive by mosquito's-we invested in some bug spray-but they all probably have scars from scratching them off.

One day we went to the canyon and had a picnic. The kids had a great time running around and wading in the stream. Tyler even tried his hand at fishing and the kids all thought it was neat to watch the schools of fish from on top of the bridge. Tanner and Dawson of course had to swim instead of wade. They didn't think it was to cool when we headed home and I made them strip down to their undies before getting back in the vehicles. Ha!

We went swimming at the good old Fillmore City Pool two different times. (I didn't get any picts-Taryn will you send me some). We also went to story hour at the Fillmore City Library.

One Day we tried to take the kids to find the ice cube caves-we were just a little bit unprepared. (Let me just say this 10 kids in shorts and sandals walking across lava rock doesn't really work-we had to carry most of them out of there and put bandaids on all of them-luckily we had Tanner to help us out) Once again no pict of this but I think Taryn did happen to get one-so hopefully I can get that from her as well.

As we were leaving the ice caves Tanner caught this tiny baby frog. He wanted to keep it for a pet but I think it got handled way to much, because the next morning Chloe took it out for a little swim and she came back in and said "mommy this frog won't swim" poor little guy had taken his last breath.

The one quiet time of every day would be bedtime or when the kids were all engrossed in a tv show. The favorite seemed to be good Old Sponge Bob.

A quote from Tanner after we got home to my Grandma Marshall-"my Grandpa's 2nd favorite tv show is the news" her to him "what's his favorite?" him "SpongeBob, he always turns it on even when we don't ask him too" LOL Well I would be turning it on too if it could keep 8 or so kids quiet for 30 minutes or more.