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.

It seems like it has taken us this long to get better. Although we did have things happen in the middle of flu and now colds. So I best get posting.

OH, Man

Have we been sick!!!

And of course the kids can't all be sick at the same time. That would be too nice to mom. That would mean she would only have to stay up all night one time and then sleep the next day while all the sick kids sleep. NOPE, not gonna happen.

Instead it starts with one. One child at 2 am who can't get the door open of the bedroom to get to the bathroom because she is still asleep and therefore throws up all over the door. She has forgotten her mother's words of "if you can't make it to the bathroom, throw up on your blanket". This is much easier to clean up than the carpet. The mom is alerted after Oldest daughter comes in yelling something about throw up.

After a shower and some clean up, this child now has a bucket (gallon ice cream buckets, the best) and is resting on the couch while the mom is cleaning up the rest of the mess in the carpet. Only now, 1st child is in the room next to the child with the trigger gag so he is now throwing up. (he did remember to throw up on the blanket, good boy). Now two are sick, but only one has the true bug causing the sick. The Dad is pretending to be asleep because his trigger gag is just as bad as the boy's.

By 4 am all children are clean. EVERY bed now has a bucket next to it, and all seem to be asleep. Except for the mom who now needs to wined down to be able to go to sleep to be able to get up in 3 hours.

This was Sunday Night.

This same thing happened again Monday and Tuesday night light Groundhog Day only they all had buckets this time and it was a different child.

I was SO happy that this last week was a short week. The kids all had Thursday and Friday off. I thought for sure we would all be able to rest on Thursday and be all better by Saturday. Well, the kids were all better, but then it was my turn to get it. Horrible, horrible.

Then The oldest who thought she was going to be better than the sick, could not hold out any longer. I think she got it the worst. She was probably tired from being the one to get the mom every time someone was sick.

The dad is the only one that did not get so sick he thought death would be better, but it is only Monday and who knows what 2 am tonight will bring.

As for me, I feel much better today. And all kids went to school.

Personal Revelation

Background:

We have been talking about the importance of having a strong work ethic. Our kids don't have a lot of chores and almost never have to do the dishes while we are here in Grandma's house. But the few jobs they do have, do not get done regularly. So, last night for FHE, The Dad shared a website with us call My Job Chart (http://www.myjobchart.com).

He was able to create individual job charts for the kids. When they are done with the job, they log in to their own chart and mark that they have completed it. They are really excited about it. The Dad was also able to create a reward system where each job has so many points assigned to it. When the kids accumulate enough points, they can cash them in at the Job Store.

Story:

One of the jobs on the chart is to have personal scripture study. I know they are probably not reading for a long time, but we are hoping this will get them in the habit of reading themselves in addition to family reading time.

Kelsey seems to be the most excited about the job chart. She always wants to log in to check off her jobs. She may be excited because her jobs consist of brushing her hair, getting dressed, making her bed, saying her prayers, and reading scriptures. She is excited to do all these things BY-HER-SELF. Even reading the scriptures. She has been carrying around a Bible and opening it to read whenever.

This afternoon, she came to me with Hosea chapter 11 open. She pointed to the words then proceeded to tell me...

"Mom, it says here that you need to give me markers to make a puppet with this brown bag."

I figured I should give her the markers to make the puppet since she did receive personal revelation from the scriptures. Who am I to tell her that is not right?

New School Year

I can hardly believe that this year Allynn started Jr. High School. She is in the 7th grade. Where had the time gone. And she is so beautiful (see picture). And I am so glad...kids call her to hang out. I worry about all my kids not having good friends. Allynn seems to be making good choices when it comes to friends. She tries to be friends with everyone, but also knows the difference between the kids to hang out with and the kids to say Hi to at school. We really have lucked out with her.

Sydney has started the 5th grade this year. She says she likes to be in school, but doesn't really like school. She enjoys being social. She has started playing the flute this year, and seems to be really enjoying it. Last night she asked if she could bring the flute to school. I thought maybe she had a show and tell and wanted to play for her class. Nope... she wanted to be able to play at recess. We talked about it and decided that was probably not the best place to practice. I am glad she has an interest. She is still pretty good with math and is working hard on her reading. Now if we could just get her to organize herself...I guess we just work on one thing at a time.

Austin has started the 3rd grade. When did the baby boy start growing up? He was baptized this year and started Cub Scouts. (I need to post picture of him in is uniform.) He also likes school and has really been doing a good job of getting home to get his homework done quickly. He is also quick to get his 25 minutes of reading done before dinner. I am sure the motivation for that is his desire to play flag football. He started that two weeks ago, and the rule is that he has to have his homework done before 5 o'clock in order to go to football. This has been a great incentive. Now I need to find the next sport that will continue this great work since football ends at Halloween.

Kelsey is pretty mad she is not going to school. She talks about turning 5 and how that will change her life over night because she will get to go to school. I keep reminding her that she will still have to wait until the next school year to start in August. I think it is sinking in. We register her for Kindergarten on March 10th. WOW! That is coming fast.

Another change this school year... THE DAD GOT A NEW JOB!!! WOOO HOOOO!!! He is so happy. He was working for Integra Telecom in the customer service department for almost 2 years. He said it was not a hard job and that the people he worked with were great (for the most part), but he did not feel challenged. He has been applying to anything and everything for the past year here in UT and networking to meet new people since it seems that job come from the people you know. Well, thank goodness we know Dave!!! Yes, my cousin Dave. An opening came available at ProPay and Dave told The Dad about it. He applied. He got the job. The Dad is so happy when he comes home from work. But he says his brain is so tired. He is learning new things. Then this week they put him "on call". Even though he is tied pretty tight to his new Black Berry, he is excoted to have the responsibility.

I am home with the Kelsey and watching my cousin Jeremy's little boy. He is 15 months old and plays very nicely by himself or with Kelsey (if she will let him). I am also subbing again this year. I have already been once and will go again this Friday. Julie is kind enough to watch the little kids for me while I am out on those days.

It is nice to have the chaos of summer over, but we have now fallen into a new chaos of practices, homework, appointments, and more.

Baptism Pictures

The Dad and The Son

Sam and Austin

Keagan and Austin

The family with Grandma and Grandpa Carlile

Eight is GREAT!!

He was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on June 5. We had a great time with friends and family. He was also excited to be baptized on the same day as one of his friends from Primary.

Thanks to family who came and shared that great day with us. And then picniced with us at the park. We thought we would be able to just go use the picnic tables without a reservation since we were there so early in the morning, but there were people already camped out there. We still had fun visiting with all of you!!

So far behind

I am so far behind in keeping a record of what we have been doing that I don't even know where to begin.

School is back in Session

Mom: Sydney did you read for 25 minutes?

Sydney: Yes

Mom: When?

Sydney: While you went to Costco.

Mom: Who did you read to?

Sydne: Kelsey

Mom: The same Kelsey that went with me to Costco?

Girls Camp

I have been preparing for this day for the last three months. It is finally here and the realization that I have a daughter going to girls camp is boggling my mind.

We started with packing her bag to make sure she had enough clothes and washed what she needed and wanted to take. We discovered that she only owns one pair of long pants. So we went to DI and got three more pairs of pants. All for the great price of $22.00. I like getting deals and on things she will wear!

Then we headed over to Wal-Mart to get good bug spray and the last of the bathroom stuff she needed. We ended up with that plus a new backpack and a 2 liter water bladder that goes in it. I think she will be glad to have so much water. She was worried because she heard on the news about a girl that died last week at Girls Camp of heat stroke. So water was an issue for my dear 1st year daughter.

We also got a new camera that will fit in my pocket when we go do fun family things. The one I had before was big and bulky and the compartment door for the batteries was broken. I am letting Allynn take it with her. She is very excited. She wanted to know if she needed to bring an extra SD Card. Her dad reassured her that the card she had would hold 1000 pictures. I think she will be covered. And thank goodness for digital photos so we don't have to develop EVERY THING she takes a picture of.

We had a chat about keeping track of her stuff and practiced rolling up the sleeping bag so it would fit back into the stuff bag. She thought I was crazy, but I feel better now that I saw her do it.

Everything has her name on it. (She wouldn't let me write it in her underwear.)

I am sure she will do just fine. It is the mom that may have a hard, long week.

Summer fun

I feel more busy now that school is out than I did before. Four kids home at once has been kind of crazy.

Austin is in Reading Camp ( a fun way to say summer school). He is loving it. He goes to school from 9 to noon and then has the rest of the day to do whatever he wants, after his room is clean, clothes are put away, and anything else I can think of that he should do to help out.

Allynn is in Summer band. She is learning how to play the trombone. She decided she wanted to be part of the marching band and realized it is too hard to march with the cello. He seems to be having a good time. She goes to band every morning from 10 to 11. Then she comes home to make sure she has her jobs done and then got to hang out with her friends. This hanging out does not always mean she leaves the house. I find a lot of this hanging out time is done on facebook where the small group can chat with each other without leaving the house.

Sydney is not in any extra activities this summer. She is happy to watch TV while the others are out. But once they get home she is ready to be out doing something else. She just had her 10th birthday and got a nice new bike. She feels like she has new freedom. She rides her bike over to her friends houses to see if they can play instead of calling them on the phone. Then if they can't she just rides back home. She is having a good time.

Kelsey does not seem to have changed her routine much at all except for refusing any kind of nap at all in the early afternoon. Now she goes and goes until she crashes somewhere. And most days manages to keep moving until she is forced to go to bed at 10 when the other kids are going to bed. (Even then only because I am going to bed and I dread what they were all conspire to do while I am sleeping.)

As for family fun, we have been...

Baptized Austin
Visited with family
picnicked at Vivian Park
swimming at the rec. pool
cleaning out drawers
moving boxes
getting ready for Peter and Whitney
watching Cake Boss, West Wing, and Gilmore Girls
Camping at Maple Dell
and Camping at Utah Lake

We have more camping planned. I also found some free bowling passes at fatcats. And I am sure there will be more swimming.

I feel much more busy!!

IHOP

Allynn: "Oh...now I know why they call it IHOP. It is all the first letters from International House of Pancakes."


I love those moments when things click and make more sense. :oP

Coming Attractions

I have so many things to blog about, I just don't know where to start. Maybe once school is out, I won't be so busy.

Girls Basketball
Allynn and the Cello
Soccer
Swimming
Spring Break
Zion Concert
Mother's Day
Bathroom floor
Job anxiety
School coming to an end

Stay tuned.

Spring Storms

The other day we had our first spring storm with thunder and lightning. I love this kind of weather, especially when it is warm outside. I like to sit out on the patio and smell the rain and watch the storm.

Kelsey on the other hand does not seem to enjoy the storms too much. She happened to be upstairs when a huge clap of thunder rang out. She came running down the stairs to seek comfort.

Mom: "Kelsey, what's wrong?"

Kelsey: "I am scared and shaking like a little leaf."

Mom: "Why?"

Kelsey: "Because if I get struck by lightning, I will get sent back to the future."

Sleeping anytime

My sister posted a lovely picture of my daughter sleeping. I just thought I would add some more.