Sam's 18

Today is Sam’s 18th birthday. He is such a great kid. I invited some of his friend’s over for cake after his volleyball practice was over. He was so happy with his friends. It makes my heart happy. He turned in his mission papers about a week ago. I can’t wait to see what happens to him on his mission. 

 I know Olivia is having a hard time. The language is so hard and she is always so worried about what people think of her. So I think she is being very hard on herself and yet, maybe she isn’t hard enough. It is hard to say... I really don’t know what she is thinking or feeling. All I can do is pray for her... I love her and want her to be the best person she can be. I pray she is preparing herself to be a good mother and wife. 

 Lauren stayed home from school today bc she was having allergies and then she didn't wake up in time for school. They are doing state testing. If she goes to school late it would have been in the middle of testing and that would mean she would have to stay after and get caught up. Where as if she doesn't go at all she would just never take the test. Consequently, I put her to work at home and she said she is never staying home again. I love all my kids and pray for their testimonies. I have started telling them they have to be good parents and very direct about their testimonies and when teaching their children.  

We moved in with my parents October of 2020. I love living with them for many reasons. Just now we had Sam’s friends over for cake on his bday. My parents joined in teh celebration. I love that my parents are a part of my kids lives. I love that we have space in their big house. I love that we have a fire pit. I love that i can help my parents and my kids see me helping my parents. I love that my parents can help me. I love that Daniel is less stressed over money. We pay rent, but it is different than having a mortgage and being responsible for home repairs and such. I love the sunny warm weather and I love that we are so close to a temple. I am so blessed. I love my life... even though there are some things I wish I could change, I love where I am in life.  

Sam's first pinewood derby

My car got under 4th place every time it went down the track. It's best was 2 nd place.  It didn't look very cool, but it was pretty fast. In the end I got 2 nd place in all of the Bear 2- there were about 20 kids in all the Bear dens. The car was named Zipper. You can see it in the picture above. It is in the bottom row. The 5th car it. It has a green back, red side, yellow top. 

Four eyes times 2

Chloë was complaining about her eye hurting, so I took her to the eye doctor. Sure enough she needed glasses. She was SUPER excited to wear them. I think she likes the look and attention.  So fun. I am glad my kids had a good attitude about glasses. I'm hoping this will help Chloë's reading. I'm sure it will make it easier. Get reading has improved, and now she is going to take off.

Chloë says, " I can't wait to wear my glasses at school, but I have butterflies."  - using an Elvis Presley type voice. 

Sam's buddies

One reason I love this elementary school is because the all the kids here are so kind. Sam has had this great group of friends. Benny is funny and likes anything he can build or fix, his mom lets him use all the power tools. Then Sam. Anjali is smarter than smart, but very kind. She is a leader- when the four of them did the science fair this year she managed the task, making spreadsheets of days available and jobs to do. Isabelle, Izzy, is crazy, wacky and lots of fun.  Those are the words Sam used to describe his friends.

The other good thing about his friends is that they are very flexible. He doesn't eat lunch with them because he wants to play ball with the boys. But when they are ready to play he takes off with them. 

Busy weekend

At the end of Sam's soccer season in November he was asked to participate in the AYSO select team.  The Mountain View team played on Sunday, so Sam decided not to participate.  It seemed the director really wanted Sam to play so he suggested Sam try out for the Cupertino league.  They don't play on Sunday. Daniel was an assistant coach, which was nice for me because that meant I didn't have to worry about driving to or from practice.  So Sam and his team had a great season.  In fact they made it into the tournament.  So here we are on the day of the tournament.  Sam is as chilled as can be.  I think he must be envisioning himself in goal stopping strong kicks or running down the line to score a goal.  


The didn't end up wining the tournament, but it was a good experience for him.



It has been a busy weekend. Before the soccer tournament Sam and Daniel went on the father son camp out. They had a great time. Daniel and I were both excited about the thought of the father son camp out this year because our new ward is much smaller. So the camp out will be more intimate.  I didn't get any pictures of the camp out.

I did however get a picture of half of the little treasure Daniel brought home. After Daniel and I said our nightly prayer he asked me to look at his arm. I could not believe what I was looking at. It was a TICK!!!!!  After reading some tips on the internet I took some tweezers and a try to pull it out.  I was pulling REALLY HARD!!    I mean really really hard.

Of course when I pulled so hard the body finally broke off.  Above you can see the head and 2 arms still in Daniel.  The only thing to do was text my friend Cara, she is a nurse. Sine it was really late we asked her to come take a look at it after church tomorrow.   When she came and analyzed the situation it was clear to her she was going to have to dig deep into Daniel's arm to get the whole head out.  She put some lidocaine on it the area and dug a hole around and under the head to pull it out.  

Yeah!!! Thank you!  Nice wound, but no tick.
Below is the little monster.  We saved it in case Daniel starts feeling ill in a few weeks.  

4 eyes

I have always thought Sam was such a cute boy.  My good friend Mandy said Sam reminders her of the little boy on the front of Mad Magazine (not because he is naughty) but because she thinks he looks like an all American boy.  I know exactly what she means, he is just adorable.  Well, my cute boy can't see.  He has 20/80 vision.  So he is going to get glasses.  Then we will officially be the cutest boy around.  I am sure he will do well wearing his glasses.  If I can find an image of what he has been seeing with 20/80 vision I will upload it.
 Click here and you can see the glasses Sam picked!

Sunny Winter Days

It has been great weather lately.  On the way home from school Sam said he wanted to have a picnic.  I thought that was a great idea.  Next thing I know he is calling Lula and Chloë to sit on the grass in front of our house.  OH the joys of living on a busy road!

Most Fridays I take the two younger girls to the park with from friends from church. 

Just a normal day...

...Or maybe not.  Sam and I went in for his normal 3 shots.  We are finally on the highest level of medicine.  About 15 minutes after the shot Sam started getting short of breath and coughing.  So I said something to the nurse, Trish.  They quickly took him back read his oxygen levels and heart rate.  Trish quickly gave him some medicine and Chris (the other nurse) gave Sam an epi pin (epinefrin)  It all happened so quickly. 

Needless to say, Sam was wired for the next few hours.  I think they might have over reacted a little, but he has been fine ever since.

Bubb gingerbread houses

I took the three older kids to a friend's house (from Bubb school) for a fun party.  The kids loved running around in the backyard playing.  After a while it was time to decorate their houses.  Here is the smile Chloë gives when she is shy.

 At first it was a little hard for me because it was apparent that most of the mom's already do things together, but as the party continued I warmed up.  It was nice to be invited to this party so my kids and I could develop our relationship with the people we see at school.

Olivia's Christmas party

Olivia's teacher, Mr. franklin, goes crazy for Christmas.  He starts a few days before the last day of school.  The first part of the celebration is embroidering their initials on a scarf he gave them. That was fun!  I was able to teach the kids how to use the needle and thread.  Then we made about 500 sugar cookies.  Really we made that many!!!  The kids just kept rolling and cutting.  Everyone had a great time.  Here is Olivia with Bryan.

On the day of the actual Christmas party we had stations for the kids to make 6 different items.  We had a bell station which is what Chloë is doing, there was a snowman station (which is sitting on top of all the cookies), a game station, a chocolate sled... well you get the idea.  It was a crazy, wonderful, happy day.  I am glad I could stay for the fun.

Yummy, yummy

Here is Sam's tongue after his Christmas party!

Olivia had a gift exchange with her classmates.  Her secret Snowman was Matthew.  He is a great kid.

Sam's winter Party

Today Sam had his winter sing and Christmas party.  He was such a good singer and loved every minute of the show.  Every time he saw me he had to wave. 

After the sing, we met the kids back in Mrs. Sherman's room for an art project and more singing.   

For some reason the girls started washing cups?? 

Bubb Thanksgiving

 

Kindergarten had there own Thanksgiving Feast.  Sam (with turkey hat) in front of the boy facing the camera with the red sweater on. 

Here is Sam's teacher Mrs. Sherman.  I admit I did not like her at the beginning of the year, but from what I have seen as I visit the other classrooms, she is GREAT.  She has a great handle on the kids in class and has the progressing nicely. 

After Sam's Thanksgiving feast, I went to Mr. Franklin's classroom to visit Olivia.  Mr. Franklin had some parents bring make a real Thanksgiving feast.  I made the Mashed potatoes and other parents brought other items.  Besides one pie and my mashers, ever other part of the meal was pre-made from the grocery store...bummer.  But I was grateful that Olivia did have a nice Thanksgiving dinner.  It was a fun day at school for the kids.

Here's my girl with her Thanksgiving Feast!  and that is the "greenware".  Yes it is made out of recylced garbage and we wash it and reuse it.  I am not a fan, but this teacher is so green it makes me sick!

Is this normal?

So, I am getting dinner ready and Sam walks up to me and says, "Look mom, I built a machine."
And then he shows me this:

I have no idea how he knows this, nevertheless he does! It reminded me of this funny clip I saw... by the way, my dad is an engineer. So I love them!

Update on #3

Race Car number 3 is still held in high regards.  I found this setup in Sam's room this morning.  It seems Sam wants all the other cars to know that #3 is the best car!

First day of school for Sam and Olivia

 We arrived home from Phoenix and 10 hours later Sam's first day of kindergarten and Olivia's first day of second grade began.  Class starts at 8am.  I really like the early start, we will see how the kids do. 

 

Sam was very excited to go.  His teacher is Mrs. Sherman.  She is in Mrs. Engelhardt's room which is the same room Daniel had for kindergarten.  I am sad Mrs. Engelhardt is not at Bubb anymore.

Olivia was very excited to see her friend Sophie, unfortunately they are not in the same room.  Olivia's teacher is Mr. Franklin.  It is said that he is the best 2nd grade teacher and one of the top 2 teachers at Bubb.  All the kids just love him.

Sam's preschool Graduation

Today Sam graduated from St. Tim's preschool. He has done a lot of growing this year. I am very proud of him.

Here are all of his friends at school that go to our same church.

Sam's artwork

Well, at age 5, this is what Sam thinks of us:



This is a picture Sam made when they were studying rain forests. I asked Sam about the picture and this is what he said:
the top shapes are clouds, the shape next the the tucan's beak is a butterfly, the bird is sitting on a branch and the things under the tucan... well that is the fire, hence the tucan's scared look. I can see the panic in the bird's eyes...can't you?!!

Since I am posting funny art work I decided to add this. A few months ago when Barbie and Poppy Mike were in town my mom and I left my dad in charge of the kids. When we returned home we found this note taped to the garage door.

Apparently, my dad and the kids, except Olivia got into the ice cream. That rectangle is a picture of the fridge and she started to draw a picture of a bowl of ice cream.
Well, I thought it was so cute I left it up on the wall, until one of Daniel's friends came to visit. He saw the note and asked why we imposed such negative views of the Pope on our children at such a young age!

Our first camp out with the kids!

Over the Memorial Day weekend we took the kids camping in the Santa Cruz mountains. We had a great time!!

We invited the Carmacks, Freys, Barlows, Pieronis, and Notleys. We arrived Friday night, set up camp, and then started a fire. We roasted marshmallows and had some left over hot dogs. The kids just roamed around and played with the 11 other kids. Lula was such a good girl. She did not roam off far and came back whenever I called her.

This little boy is Jared Frey, he is a week younger than Lula.

I thought the kids were going to stay up late, but around 8:30 Sam and Olivia said they were tired. So I took them into the tent and got their jammies on. It was a cold windy night, I was worried they were going to be cold. But it turns out they were fine. After we got the kids to bed Daniel and I went out to the fire and enjoyed talking to our friends and playing with the fire. The wood was wet, so it was a smokey fire. I love roasting marshmallows. I ate way too many. The Freys and Daniel and I had a great talk. It was finally time for us to sleep. I was warm and cozy in bed. I put in my ear plugs and went right to sleep. But Daniel, on the other hand, had a long hard night; he was cold.

Saturday morning we just hung out and talked. The kids ran around and played or would come to sit on our laps every so often.

Here is Logan Frey, Olivia, and Miles Carmack.

After hanging out for the morning, we all went on a walk to the playground. After we played at the playground for a while, Daniel took the baby back to camp for a nap. The rest of us went to the pond. While at the pond we found some salamanders.

We had a great time just sitting around watching the kids play. After a while everyone but us went back to get lunch. I stayed and talked to the kids and just messed around. It was such a wonderful moment for me. I love being a mom and love having time to tell my kids about life! Finally we decided to take the long way home and, on the way home, we ran into Daniel who came to find us. We talked and sang songs and just enjoyed each other. We took some great pictures on the walk back to camp.


Saturday night, I was in charge of dinner, we made tin foil dinners. I told each family to make their dinner into their own tin foil animal so the dinners would not get mixed up in the fire. We were the rabbit family. The only problem with that was that Chlover did not want to give her rabbit up. After dinner, we ate 2 frozen pies. My dad told me exactly how to cook them so they would not burn or still be frozen. It took a little extra work, but the pies turned out PERFECT. Daniel said one of the other dads said, "I have never seen pies cooked that way before!" Well, you can bet I felt pretty prideful about my pies!

This is Fiona Carmack and Lula, some people in our ward say they look similar. I see the resemblance.

Cute, but blurry!

As a side note, when we got home from camping, Daniel showed the kids youtube videos about World War II. Sam, of course, was interested in the bomber planes. Then some how they found a lego picture of a bomber plane. For the next 2 days Sam was working on creating The Perfect bomber plane. He did a really good job. Sam will sit on the table and search for the perfect piece. And now look at how great his plane is!