Getting Older

October 30, 2011 was Allynn's 14th birthday. I started to post pictures of her at Halloween over the years, but then I got distracted. Now lots of her younger pictures (before digital) are in storage. So This is what I have.

Age 4

Age 5

Age 8

Age 9

Age 11

Age 13

Age 14 1/2

She is a WONDERFUL daughter. Heavenly Father knew what he was doing when he sent her first. I am sure she was part of the planning and volunteered to come first.

1st annual Moon party

G & G Alger invited all the kids to the 1st Annual Moon party. Each of them were given an assignment to contribute to the moony events of the evening. Allynn was asked to make a poster of the moon cycle. Sydney was asked to read Good Night Moon. Austin was asked to make a poster about the first lunar landing. Kelsey was asked to recite Hey Diddle Diddle. I was then asked to make macaronni and cheese (because the moon is made of cheese).


They are to arrive at 6 pm with a sweater and camping chair. They will then be picked up at mid-night. I am looking forward to hearing all about their lunar adventures.

Us Updated

New School Year

OK, I have something to blog about and time to do it.

School started last Tuesday. Allynn started 8th grade. Sydney started 6th grade. Austin started 4th grade. Kelsey had to wait a week, for today, to start Kindergarten. She was most upset about having to wait while the big kids went to school without her.

Big kids say school is "Fine". So I don't really have anything to say about how the first week went. They are happy to be in school and not doing jobs around the house all day.

So today was a much bigger deal. We set Kelsey's clothes for today out last night. She found her shoes and put them by her bed so she could put them on quickly. Then she went right to sleep. I thought I was going to have to keep reminding her to go to sleep.

This morning we ALL got up at 6:30. When I went into the girls room to say get up, Kelsey asked "Even me?". YEP today's the day. She jumped out of bed and was getting her day on. (She has always been able to stay in bed until it was time for family prayer and scriptures an hour later.)

We ate scrambled eggs and pancakes (I told them to not get used to it and that we would buy some milk today.) Took some pictures. Read and prayed and then it was time to go. Sydney and Austin wanted to ride their bikes, so they left. Allynn was moving slow like any other teen I suppose. She also walks to school. Then it was time for Kelsey to go. Even The Dad got to go with us this morning. (Sorry, Dad, we should have taken a picture of you too.)I did pretty well keeping it together until she marched right in with her class. Then the tears came. Now I am watching the clock so I don't forget to go pick her up.

It has been a very exciting morning!!

It's about time...

If I would make time, I would have plenty of things to blog about.

We finished school with out too much harm to the mother or children. And all children managed to make it to the next grade.

We have been busy doing nothing for most of the summer. I instituted Bathroom Mondays. I thought that would be fun. We have three bathrooms and three big kids. Each kid cleans a bathroom on Monday. There is the small half bath downstairs and then two huge tub/shower bathrooms upstairs. They rotate through them each week cleaning a different bathroom. The dad and I are always glad when it is Allynn's turn to clean our bathroom because she does such a good job. The other two do good, too. Allynn just seems to leave a gleam.

Anyway... Allynn had summer band for the month of June. She is still playing the trombone and having a good time. She is one of two girls in a group of boys in the trombone section. She has spent the summer babysitting, hanging out with friends, and getting ready for girls camp.

Sydney has done a great job of keeping her room clean and the dishwasher empty. Those are the jobs she had to have done before exiting the house to play with friends. This neighborhood we are in has two girls her age and they are always busy floating from one house to the other. The decided to have Alphabet parties this summer. They started with A and did things and ate things that started with A. They got very creative. N happened to be the same weekend as the father's and son's camp out - so they had a No boys party. Those three girls wrote a skit and then performed it while we had cake and ice cream. I think a fun time was had by all.

Austin has been having just as much fun in the neighborhood. He is surrounded on all sides by boys his age. There is something in the water here that our ward is full of boys. Austin also has jobs he has to do to be able to get out and has done a good job getting them done. Some mornings he gets up early to get his jobs done and then wants to leave right away. We have to remind him that not everyone is up and ready to have friends over at 8 am. My favorite thing he has done with his buds is fill the large green and blue tubs we have with water. We happen to have four and there always seems to be four boys. They set the patio chairs in front of the buckets and put their feet in the water while sitting in the chairs. They look like little old men sitting on a porch talking about the weather. Then someone will challenge another to old his head in the freezing water for as long as he can and then a water fight breaks out. Silly boys.

Kelsey is also lucky to have friends in the neighborhood. She mostly talks about when school is going to start and how many more days until.... whatever (my birthday, Christmas, school starts...) She seems to always have a pen and paper in her hand writing things down. She has also been sick and on an antibiotic for some of the month of July which meant she had to stay out of direct sunlight. She is finally better and able to get out to play with all the kids in the yards. She was a trooper through it all.

Jason has been working. He was called to the Elder's quorum presidency and seems to be having fun doing that. He also has been working on getting healthy and eating right. He lost over 30 lbs in the spring and is still working on more. He has more energy. So much that he put in our beautiful garden. We have two rows of corn, a tomatio plant, two sunflowers (volunteer), 6 tomato plants full of tomatoes (we are waiting for them to turn red), squash, zucchini, cabbage, brussel sprouts, broccoli, cauliflower, radishes, carrots, and peas. Everything has grown big and beautiful. No food from and of the cabbage plants (probably too hot), and the radishes just went to seed. It has been so fun watching it all grow. The kids did have to do some weeding and they did a good job of not complaining too much about it.

I have been crocheting. I started at Christmas time with some YouTube videos. Then I got myself a book and have made some cute things for Lola. This week I made two blue hats for Thing 1 and Thing 2, an elephant trunk, and a Cat in the Hat hat. I have been having LOTS of fun. I have also been getting ready for girls camp. I was called as the Laurel adviser and have been having much more fun than I thought I would. We have a great group of girls who seem to like each other. Next week it camp. The last time I went to camp, Allynn was 8 months old (she will be 14 this year). Jason's parents will be here the Friday we get back from camp for the weekend. Then the next Thursday we will leave for West Yellowstone for the Alan and Joy Busath family reunion. We have been looking forward to that for almost 2 years now. All the planing has come together and now it is time to go. That will be more fun camping.

Then we will come home and have about two weeks and school will start. All the kids will be in school this year. I asked Kelsey what I would do without her if she went to school. She said, " I don't know you will be OK." I'm glad she thinks so. I will substitute teach again and I will have Percy to keep me company.

Big long blog, but thought you might want to know what was up.

Homework

What is the purpose of homework?

Is it to teach a new concept to the student or to reinforce a idea that was taught during the day?

Should the student be able to do all the homework on his or her own?

Are parents supposed to help get it done?

How long is too long for the student to get the homework done?

If the student is taking too long to do the homework, should the teacher be told?

Or is homework sent just so the mom has a reason to be mad and yell from the end of school till bedtime?

I am so ready for summer!!!

New Post

I got an email from my mother telling me it was time to post something new. I am sure I could think of lots of things to write about, what i am having trouble with is finding time.

Since November, we have had a lovely, family filled Christmas. The Dad's parents came out in early December, along with his brother's family for a baptism. It was fun to watch the cousins, who don't get to see each other very often, play games and pretend all together. There was also lots of "Rock Band" thanks to Uncle Josh. My family had the annual brunch at my parents home. This year proved that no matter what, we can fit everyone in at a table somewhere in the house. I think we counted almost 50 people for brunch Christmas morning. There were people in the kitchen, Living room, and back bedroom, eating waffles, sausage, and my favorite, breakfast casserole. That was a really fun morning.

December also brought band concerts and student parties. I subbed four days that month. I thought I was doing pretty good with that. Then January brought sickness and I have been busy every since.

I think I subbed six days in January between teachers being sick and district meetings. February was even busier. I will have to get my calendar to check for sure, but I feel like I was gone from home at least two days a week. Included in those days of February was a big move for the Wells.

Maybe not a BIG move, but we did move two blocks over from my parents basement into our own rental. This house is in a perfect location for us. We didn't have to change wards. (This made the bishop happy, who is also our new neighbor). We didn't have to change schools, which made all the kids and mom happy. We are still close enough to the Elementary School that the kids can walk to and from school and we are closer to the Jr. High that Allah feels better about walking to and from school. This is also great because they can get there without incident when I am subbing. They beat me home most days.

This new house has been great for us. We have spread out and are loving it. Long lost toys that have been living in boxes for two years have been found. For a couple of days, these toys were scattered all over. Now we have found homes for them and are working on taking one out at a time. The best box the kids found were the board games. Since we didn't have TV or Internet for almost a week, they played Life, Monopoly, Uno, and more.

We have 5 bedrooms, a living room, a kitchen large enough for our table, a family room, and a large storage room. The two middle girls are sharing a room while the oldest and the boy hot their own room. This was decided so there could be an office/craft room. While moving in the youngest, most opinionated child informed me that we needed a 6 bedroom house because she needed her own space. We told her she could have her own room when Allynn when to college. Kelsey seemed to be satisfied with that.

I will need to take some pictures for all to see. We are happy and healthy. Jason loves his job. I sub lots and look forward to summer.