Damon is 9!!

Last week Damon turned 9 years old! We were out of town on his actual birthday, which I felt really bad about. He kept telling me before we left, "Mom, all I want for my birthday is for you to be there." (Cue the mom guilt!)

I made sure I talked to him first thing in the morning on his birthday, which I think made him happy. Our good friend, Donna, watched our kids while we were gone and she is like a second mom to them so I know he had a good time. They LOVE it when they get to have Donna watch them! She made him a chocolate cake and they sang happy birthday to him.

I knew of a gift that I wanted to give Damon for his birthday and it was a big gift that he has been wanting for a couple of years. Because it was expensive, I told him, many times, that I would not buy it for him. However, I saw that it was on a really good sale so I bought it for him. Knowing that I was going to give it to him, I asked him a few weeks ago if he would rather have a birthday party with friends, or if he would rather have a big present. He wisely chose the big present.

From the moment we got home from our trip, Damon was asking when he could open his birthday presents. That night, when Anthon got home from work, I pulled out a big box and laid it in front of Damon. He was so excited to see such a big box!

When he ripped off the wrapping paper, he couldn't believe what he saw! He was in shock for a minute or two because I had been telling him for years that I would never buy this for him.

Damon calls it the Nerf Gun Driver, but I think it's real name is Nerf Terrascout.

He was shocked and happy and kept saying, "Mom, you said you would never get me this! But you got it!"

Happy birthday Damon!!

First Day of School

I'm late posting "First Day" pictures because my life is crazy. I have 4 kids going to 3 different schools, all of which are their first year at these schools. The little boys are going to a new charter school in Vineyard because it is close to where our new house is being built (more on that later), I put Sophie in a preschool that includes dance, singing and karate in the curriculum, and Anthon Jr. decided he wanted to live with us so I got him registered at Mountain View High School. I also work 3 days a week, so I feel stretch pretty thin most of the time.

Last year I was so ready for the kids to start school, but this year the boys' new school started earlier than all the other schools so the first day kind of snuck up on me and I felt like we were not quite ready for the summer to be over yet. They were both excited about going to a new school, but I was nervous for them. They are great at making friends so I knew they would be fine, but I was just having some mom-anxiety for them.

The boys have been loving their new school and have already made a few good friends. Within the first couple of weeks Monson had a playdate. After only a few days at school, when I picked the boys up after school, Monson said, "Mom, I'm planning a playdate with someone in my class. Her name is Hadley." Of course it's a girl. Monson has always loved playing with girls and meeting new girls. She is really the only person he talks about in his class. They had a playdate at her house and he asks if he can have another playdate with her all the time.

Damon has some good friends at school, but the only person he wants to spend time with after school is his friend Baden. He's in our ward, but he's a little older than Damon so they didn't really know each other for the past year since Baden moved in. I can't even remember how they became friends, but in about July they started hanging out and now EVERY SINGLE DAY they only want to spend time together, mostly playing Roblox.

Sophie's school didn't start until after Labor Day. I have had all my little kids going to Kids Village preschool in the past, but over the summer I found out about a preschool that offers singing and dancing as part of the curriculum. Those are two out of three of Sophie's favorite things (the third is makeup) so I knew I had to switch her to this other preschool. So far she loves it. They also do Karate one day a week, which she is loving too.

I've never been able to do an official "first day" post and picture for Anthon Jr. so this is new! Anthon Jr. was on a trip to Equador until the weekend before Labor Day so he missed his first 2 weeks of school. On the Tuesday after Labor Day, he and I went to his new high school, met with his counselor and picked out his classes. All the classes he wanted ended up being open and fitting into his schedule on the first try. His counselor said that never happens. It's hard to tell whether a teenage boy is excited about something or not, but I think he was excited about his new school because his friends go there. He even let me take a picture of him before we went in!

So far he is doing well in his classes. He is taking band, wrestling, biology, AP calculus, seminary, English, Spanish, and US history. He gets a ride to and from school with his friend Johnny and they either go to our house or his friend's house for lunch everyday.

Avery started going to a private school this year. It's in Kaysville and it is Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints based and focuses heavily on academics. It doesn't have any art or band or anything like that. They only go to school for 5 hours a day, 4 days a week. They get a lot of homework and read a lot of books. Avery said she is reading 7 different books right now. She seems to be liking it and is learning a lot.

Here are some stats:

Damon

Height: 4 feet 8 1/2 inches     Last Year: 4' 6"

Weight: 70 lbs.                       Last Year: 62 lbs.

Shoe Size: 4                           Last Year: 2

Clothing Size: 10

Favorite Color: Green (Back to normal. For a while last year he was saying red.)

Favorite Super Hero: Spiderman

Favorite Food: Burritos

Favorite Friend: Baden Pratt (a kid in our neighborhood that he hangs out with EVERY SINGLE Day)

Favorite Thing to Do: Play Roblox with Baden

Favorite Subject in School: Math

Favorite Book: Monkey Me

Favorite Toy: Doesn't really have one anymore

Favorite Game: Roblox

What do you want to be when you grow up: Soccer player

Monson

Height: 4 feet 1 1/2 inches     Last Year: 3' 11 1/2"

Weight: 58 lbs.                       Last Year: 50 lbs.

Shoe Size: 1                           Last Year: 1

Clothing Size: 6/7

Favorite Color: Teal (because Avery told them her favorite color is teal)

Favorite Super Hero: Iron Man

Favorite Food: Spaghetti

Favorite Friend: Baden

Favorite Thing to Do: Play outside

Favorite Subject in School: Art

Favorite Book: Dinosaur book

Favorite Toy: I don't care

Favorite Game: Roblox

What do you want to be when you grow up: I don't know

Sophie
Height: 3 ft. 7 inches              Last Year: 3' 4"
Weight: 42 lbs.                       Last Year: 36 lbs.
Shoe Size: 10                         Last Year: 9
Clothing Size: 5

Favorite Color: Teal (because Avery said it was her favorite color)

Favorite Princess: Elsa

Favorite Food: Spaghetti (she heard Monson say this was his favorite)

Favorite Friend: Lilly and Kyrus (next door neighbor kids)

Favorite Thing to Do: Cuddle with Mommy

Favorite Subject in School: Draw

Favorite Book: Kitty book

Favorite Toy: Owley (a rainbow owl with a unicorn horn)

Favorite Game: Guess Who

What do you want to be when you grow up: a Mommy

Anthon Jr.
Height: 6' 2"
Weight: 150
Shoe size: 10 1/2
Favorite color: I don't care
Favorite food: Pizza
Favorite friend: His group of friends
Favorite thing to do: Play video games
Favorite subject in school: Band
Favorite book: Adventures Wanted
Favorite game: Call of Duty
What do you want to be when you grow up: The smartest man alive

Avery
Height: 5' 8"
Shoe size: 9
Favorite color: Yellow (apparently not teal anymore)
Favorite Super Hero: Spiderman
Favorite food: Tin foil dinners
Favorite friend: Tyler, Elana, Xavier, Audam
Favorite subject in school: Math

I think it's going to be a great year!

Future Recreate Photo

Just putting this out there in hopes my children recreate this someday. But Sophie will have to wear a swimsuit.

(They all wanted to get in the tub together...for unknown reasons.)

This would be a good one too.

Damon's Baptism

It is so surreal that this day is already here. My first born got baptized. Damon has always been a spiritual giant. He remembers scripture stories after only hearing them once. He loves to bear his testimony. He loves to read the scriptures. (Especially the children's version.) He reminds us to do Family Home Evening and loves to be the conductor. I am constantly surprised by his spirituality. So naturally he has been very excited to get baptized.

I had high hopes to be the crafty mom who makes a cute invitation and has decorations at the baptism, but unfortunately, that's just not who I am. We were also out of town the week before his baptism and the weekend before that so I didn't have as much time as I would have liked to prepare. I ended up taking pictures of him the day before his baptism and almost didn't even get the pictures printed in time. (Apparently 1 hour photo sometimes means 1 day photo.)

I only had time to take his pictures at 5pm, which I discovered is not a good time to take pictures because the sun is still up high enough to be really sunny, but low enough to cast shadows. So if Damon was in the shadow so that he wasn't squinting from the sun light, then the temple behind him was brightly lit from the sun, but in the picture he was really dark. But if I put him in the sunlight, he was looking right at the sun so he couldn't keep his eyes open. And if the camera was light enough on him, then the temple in the background was just all white so you couldn't really see it. The struggle was real. Especially with 2 other kids running around the temple grounds. However, we were able to get a couple of good pictures so I guess it was a success.

This pose was his idea.

Saturday morning we had all 8 members of our family frantically cleaning the house and preparing food for the 40 people that would be coming over after the baptism. Luckily we were able to get everything done and get to the church on time. There was only one family that didn't make it on-time because my brother Norm thought the baptism was at 11am instead of 10am. But everything else went really well and I think it was a special day for Damon. Anthon Jr. and Avery said the prayers, Danielle gave the talk on baptism, my mom gave the talk on the Holy Ghost, the Grandpas were the witnesses, Hailey played the piano and Grandma Mecham lead the music. It was a very nice program.

 

 

I'm so proud of Damon and the little man that he is. I am excited to continue to watch him grown into a man and know he has great things in store for him.

Damon's 8th Birthday!!

Damon has been counting down the days until his birthday all month. I never had to remind him how many days were left; he kept track all by himself. This month has been really busy so I kinda forgot about planning a party for him until last week. Since he was turning 8 years old, it's kind of a big birthday so I knew we had to have a fun party for him.

He invited all his favorite friends/cousins: Dano, Jack, Lincoln and Hayden. We decided to have it at his favorite place: Nickel City. Arcade games, laser tag, and prizes. All his favorite things.

When we got there all the boys grabbed a card that was loaded with nickels and went to town on the arcade games. You used to have to put actual nickels in each game, but now you just have a card that you tap on the games and it automatically takes your nickels. It's much easier to blow through your money and the boys did just that in under 20 minutes.

I only played a couple of games because I try to leave as many nickels for the kids as I can, but one of the games I decided to play, I ended up hitting the jackpot and won 1,000 tickets!!!

Next we got to eat some pizza and then Damon was more than ready to open his presents. His cousin/friends game him a Minecraft guy, (I don't know anything about Minecraft) Harry Potter Lego sets, and Spot It game. We gave him the book "Bad case of stripes," and a Harry Potter costume with glasses, wand and robe. He was very happy about everything.

After that it was time for the highlight of the night: Laser Tag! All the boys loved this part the best I think.

After laser tag was over it was already 7pm, which was the time I told the moms that we would be done, so we quickly had cake. Damon told me he wanted a strawberry cake. And then he asked if I could put some chocolate in it, like chocolate covered strawberries. So I made a strawberry cake with chocolate frosting.

I had a little money left on a card I had kept hidden from kids so I let everyone do one last game and then we got to spend our tickets we'd earned with everyone picking a prize.

I was really happy with how the party went at Nickel City. I only had to bring the presents, cake and kids and Nickel City did the rest.

Damon is so happy to be 8 years old and is really looking forward to getting baptized in a couple weeks.

Happy Birthday Damon!!

First Days of School 2018

Words cannot express how ready I was for school to start. Summers are exhausting for me. I try to make them fun for my kids, which results in exhaustion for me, especially since I have 6 kids for most of the summer. We had swimming lessons, 3 family reunions, soccer camp, sports camp, girls camp, a day at Lagoon, piano lessons, a company party, youth conference, and various other daily activities. We have a lot of fun, but by August I am ready for the structure and schedule that school brings.

Damon was the first to go back. He started 2nd grade two weeks ago Thursday. He was really excited to go back to school because he loves school and mostly loves playing soccer with anyone he can find who is willing during recess.

I'm not good at editing photos, but here's a look at Damon the past 3 years:

It is crazy how quickly they change! I still think of him as being that little kindergartener.

Sophie started her second year of preschool on Monday. We went to her school open house the week before and she got herself all dressed and ready to go for that.

She never leaves the house without her purse (full of makeup) and a baby, just like mommy. And all pink of course.

When it was time to go to school on Monday she was so excited to go...until we got there. I brought her in and she cried and cried and I eventually just had to leave. When I picked her up 2 1/2 hours later she was happy and said she had a great first day.

Last year and this year:

Monson was the last to start. Kindergarten starts a week later than the rest of the school so that they can do assessments. At Monson's assessment his teacher told me that Monson was smart enough to test out of kindergarten if I wanted him to. That is a huge decision that I'm going to have to spend some time thinking about. The school said that it's best if he goes to a couple weeks of kindergarten so we can see how he does and we can do the test after that if we want to. I'm not sure if I want to yet.

Monson is so excited to be in kindergarten and at the same school as his big brother. They have seen each other a couple times during recess and they love that.

I drove carpool on Monson's (and Damon's) first day of school. Last year I went into the school with Damon for his first day, but this year I figured Damon could show Monson where to go and what to do so I just dropped them off. When they were getting out of the car Damon said, "Monson, I'll show you where to go." Monson said back, "Damon, I already know. You don't have to show me."

Here's Monson last year and this year.

I know Monson is having a lot of fun in kindergarten because after I pick him up, this is what usually happens:

Since it took me so long to get this post up, I've had a few kid-free days. On Monday, Wednesday and Friday I do carpool for the boys and 3 other kids. I bring everyone to school at 8am. Sophie and I come home and I finish getting her ready and bring her to school at 9am. At 11:15am I go pick up Monson, then we pick up Sophie. At 3:30pm Damon gets dropped off at home from someone else in our carpool group. It's a pretty good schedule. On Tuesday and Thursday I get some good alone time with Sophie and three days a week, I have 2 hours alone. I have a ton of stuff to catch up on (like blogging) so I should be using my time for that, but for the past week and a half I've been using my free time to rest. I did exercise one day and get my lashes done yesterday, but the other days, all I want to do is rest. I'm sure I'll be more productive soon, but my body and mind are tired right now so I'm letting myself have some me-time.

Here are some stats:

Damon
Height:  4 ft. 6 in.           Last Year: 4 ft. 3 in.
Weight:  62 lbs.              Last Year:  57 lbs.
Shoe Size: 2                    Last Year: 1
Favorite color: Red (I did not see that coming because it's been green his whole life)
Favorite Superhero: Spiderman
Favorite Food: Burritos
Favorite Friend: Dano (his cousin)
Favorite Thing To Do: Play Super Smash Brothers and Classic Smash Bros.
Favorite thing to learn in school: Math
Favorite Book: Lego Star Wars
Favorite Toy: Pikachu Plushie
Favorite game: Chess and Checkers
What do you want to be when you grow up: a teacher and Authority Heating and Cooling

Monson
Height:  3 ft. 11 1/2 in.   Last Year: 3 ft. 8 in.
Weight:  50 lbs.              Last Year:  44 lbs.
Shoe Size:  1                   Last Year: 10
(I gave him a size 12 shoe to wear on his first day of school but when I picked him up his teacher told me that his shoes started hurting him and he took them off. So apparently he's a size 1.)
Favorite color: Teal (again, did not see that coming because his favorite color has been yellow forever)
Favorite Superhero: Iron Man (because he has an Iron Man costume)
Favorite food: Spaghetti
Favorite friend: Lily (our neighbor)
Favorite thing to do: play with friends
Favorite book: Biscuit Books (an easy reading book series we have)
Favorite toy: Paw Patrol plushies
Favorite game: Mario Baseball
What do you want to be when you grow up: a missionary

Sophie
Height:  3 ft. 4 in.           Last Year: 3 ft.
Weight:  36 lbs.              Last Year:  31 lbs.
Shoe Size: 9                    Last Year: 7
Favorite color: purple (sometimes she says pink)
Favorite Princess: Elsa
Favorite Movie: Elsa movie
Favorite Toy: Unicorn
Favorite Book: Mickey Mouse one
Favorite thing to do: Play animals
What do you want to be when you grow up: "Get some kids"

We don't ever get to be there for the older kids' first days of school, but Danielle did send me this picture:

Jr. is starting his sophomore year and Avery is starting 8th grade. Danielle's college doesn't start until September 16th so we have some time before we get a first day picture for her.