Emi turned nine this month! Nine years since that little girl joined us two weeks early and and scared me to death by not making a peep when she was born. Once the doctors were convinced she was ok just content then gave her to me and she snuggled right back into a ball on my tummy like she had been for the last nine months but now was in the outside world.
She is a fun, joyful girl. She loves to play, work is always for later. She has been asking for a horse for the past few months. I told her that she wouldn’t be getting a horse for her birthday but she could pick a fun non-living present and still have a great birthday. She said, “That’s fine, I’ll just ask Santa for the horse next month for Christmas.” 🤦♀️
She voted to have spaghetti and three kinds of ice cream for her birthday dinner. She had a horse riding lesson the day of her birthday which couldn’t have worked out better. After her lesson Reese came home with us and ate dinner and they played the rest of the evening.
She decided to have a sleep over with a few of her friends to celebrate that weekend. There was six girls total including Emilee. Two of them stayed late instead of sleeping over and it felt like no less than 10 girls at all times. Emilee thought it was a fun successful party which is what counts. Grandma Terry let her pick a few crafts that the girls could do. She had a painting project, an ornament project and a diamond dots project. They were all a big hit. They had pizza for dinner and watched Space Jam while eating as much popcorn as they could. Emilee voted for ice cream only instead of cake and wanted one candle. After all that they opened presents and then played games and entertained themselves until 12:30 in the morning. I know because I was in the next room waiting for them to fall asleep. The next morning while we ate pancakes they talked about how awesome it was that they stayed up all night long.
Yes, those are my Christmas decorations in the background of the pictures. We needed some Christmas early this year!
Time seems to be flying by at a rapid pace again. September and October seemed to go by so fast.
Matthew had a busy month. When I was looking at the picture to add to this post I should have titled it Matthew’s busy September. Everyone was busy and had things going on. I guess we just photographed more of Matthew’s.
Matthew crammed in as much baseball as he could in September and October. The weather was pretty cooperative. He is on the same team but there were a lot of changes and the new group of boys is pretty fun to watch. They all mix well together.
Division 1 Champs
Out!
Firebird Baseball Cluc
Celebrating a big win!
Out!
Out!
Allison came up with another creative way to get her energy out. This is a video she sent me the other day.
We went to several High School Football games this past month too. Some at our school, some to watch other kids we know play for their school. One of those was Homecoming. Matthew and Campbell took pictures together before the game, then they changed and met their friends at the game. After the game they changed again (Matthew in the back of our car) and a group of them went to the dance together.
Next on Matthew’s list was a Temple trip and a camping trip with the Young Men in our ward. They went to a lake and did some swimming, biking, hiking, fishing, and eating smore’s. Matthew and his friend Carter are really into fishing now. They try and go at least once a week. I’m glad he has a fun hobby to do with a good buddy.
Emilee tried volleyball this year, and we are very happy to say that she loved it! She looked forward to practices, we didn’t have to drag her and she was excited enough about her games that she kept track of them herself. I am very glad we found a new talent for her to develop. Her dad is over the moon excited. She has lost two pairs of knee pads already but if she keeps enjoying it I can get her another pair.
She also loves drawing and wanted me to capture this master piece of me to share on my blog.
Well, unlike last year school started one the original day it was supposed to. That was a plus. To make a long story short our school district said it was up to parents if their kids wore masks or not. I think that is a great idea because 1-they are my kids and I should be the one making decisions for them. 2- there is no mask mandate anywhere in our entire county right now. 3-Despite the news and politicians making it look like people are dropping dead in the streets and hospitals are overwhelmed with COVID patients, its not. One hospital (ironically Children’s Mercy) has made a public post TWICE saying they are not full and have very few COVID patients. However, the Johnson County Board of County Commissioners decided they know better (despite ZERO children’s deaths in our county and very low infection rates for children since all this started in March 2020) and made an order requiring all K-6th grade students to wear a mask. Our school board found a way around it by providing a mask exemption form for parents and/or doctors to sign but it has caused quite a tizzy. It is all kinds of crazy. The world and people are getting crazier everyday. But my kids are back in school, mine have the option to wear a mask ONLY if they want and unlike the other districts around us they did not have to define their sexuality and declare their pronouns the first day of school. 🤦♀️🤦♀️🤦♀️
Emilee is in 3rd Grade. She has the same teacher Allison had in 3rd grade but her name is different because she got married. Mrs. Dechant. She is a great teacher and even though Emilee isn’t a huge fan of school I hope she will have a good year. I need to work on raising my expectations for her and helping her out of the “youngest child please do everything for me” funk.
Allison is in 6th grade and is ready to conquer it in a blaze of glory. There is a lot of cello players this year and they tried to persuade some kids to switch but she wouldn’t budge. She has been waiting a year to get to learn to play the cello and be an “Orch Dork”. She has a lot of classes with her friends and has organized and re-organized her locker multiple times a day since school started three days ago. Her friends and her make towel tents for each other to change in for PE and she can get seconds at lunch if she wants. Other than her mom making her ride the bus instead of personally delivering her to the front of the school each morning, she is loving life. If Allison is happy, the rest of us are even more happy. Doing the work won’t be a problem for her. Staying on top of things herself and being responsible will be her mountain to over come. She can do it!
Matthew started 9th grade this year, making it our first of many years to have a kid in each school. He got the classes he wanted but doesn’t have any close friends in any of them. He sees his besties in the hall and in a few weeks at lunch when they switch to the open hour lunch. He is a little bummed about that but his dad and I are encouraging him to meet new people. Good new people. So far he has a very good track record of picking friends that are good people and steering clear of the ones that aren’t as nice. He is starting to get some height going so that is exciting for him and he is hoping to bulk up a bit with weights as a class this year. His teenage laziness is effecting his motivation levels for school but he has always been good at staying up with assignments and managing it on his own. He told me he was looking forward to his retirement the other day. I rolled my eyes and told him to enjoy the phase he is at in life now. He takes drivers education soon and as soon as he is 15 he can drive by himself in a car to and from school if needed. He does have the slight problem of not having a car yet. They school had a gas leak 20 minutes after it started on the first day and everyone had to evacuate for an hour and a half but since then it has been pretty low key at the high school.
First day, catching the bus with neighbors Jack and Finn
It has been awhile since I wrote about each kiddo individually so I thought I would do that. They like reading about themselves when they look through these blogs so I’ll catch up on what they are like in their lives right now.
She has changed from a little girl into a young lady the past several months. I love watching her grow up but it is also a little bitter sweet with her because each time she finishes a phase it is the last of my kids to go through it. Sometimes it is nice- like potty training. Other times it is a little sad- like losing her first tooth, or holding my hand when we go places. I can still talk her into holding my hand for now.
She is finishing her last week of a two week trip to visit Grandma and Grandpa Jones in Florida this Summer. She has been having a great time. She told me some of the highlights have been watching movies with grandma and grandpa, going to the zoo, playing with her cousin Aubry, swimming A LOT, and her cousin Hannah coming to stay too. They even had a Pioneer Primary Activity while she was there. She was a little nervous about flying on the airplane by herself to get there but she is a pro now so she isn’t worried about the flight home.
Grandma picking her up at the air port.
Hiking with Hannah
Zoo with Aubry
Sherri said the swam for 4 hours and were still going strong but they had to go.
Taking a selfie with Aubry.
Pioneer Primary activity-they were making leather bracelets.
Grandma and Grandpa took over shaking the butter.
Playing with Grandma’s animals and singing.
Emilee is 8 years old. She loves being the youngest kid and tries to take advantage of the ‘I don’t know how’ excuse any chance she gets. She is a master at getting what she wants right under your nose. I have to really watch myself or before I know it I am doing everything for her or having her brother or sister do it for her. The saying, you catch more bees with sugar than vinegar is her motto in life, if it doesn’t work she is fully prepared to back it up with crying or even the occasional tantrum. Those tactics are easier to spot because they are more annoying obviously, and she usually over does the theatrics a bit so it is almost comical. Overall she is still a happy easy going girl for the most part.
We often hear her singing either a real or made up song while she plays. She is the best at using her imagination and will entertain herself for hours with her stuffed animals or her little animal toys or legos. She has an amazing stuffed animal collection. It is almost like her journal. She remembers each of their names and where or why she got them. They rotate on her bed so they all have turns sleeping with her at night. There are 10-15 stuffed animals in her bed at any given time.
She is very tall for her age. Dad still tries to get her interested in sports. She is very fast and has a fair amount of natural athleticism. She has tried basketball, soccer, softball, gymnastics and will be trying volleyball this Fall. She could be very good at any of those but so far she hasn’t loved any of them. Her love is animals. She started riding lessons with one of her besties Reese about a year ago. She loves riding the horses and helping take care of them each week. She did a horse camp this Summer and has been telling us she wants a horse for Christmas ever since then. I am hoping she will be my kiddo that does some theater and choir in school.
She likes to color and draw. If I let her she would keep every single piece of paper from school, church, restaurants, and anywhere else she gets it. She wants to color every single space on the paper and then display it when she is done. She has a good memory and if one of her papers comes up missing she quickly checks her bed room garbage, then the kitchen garbage and the big dumpster in the garage to retrieve it. She has followed the chain of where I throw things away that she hasn’t approved. Paper is not the only thing she likes to keep. She likes to collect almost anything. She has her stuffed animals, sea shells, sunglasses, chap stick, rocks, dragons, anything she can think of. She loves collecting and prefers to have all of her collections on display, not neatly put away.
She loves having a friend to play with. Her besties are Reese Dunn, Summer Beashore, Cambrie McDonald and her cousin Jovee. If she is with any of them they can entertain themselves for hours. Reese and her share a love of animals and swimming. Summer and her love coloring together, Cambrie and her love Lego dragons and Jovee and her come up with all sorts of games to play.
Reese and Emilee playing at Reese’s house with her dog Poe after horse camp.
She has loved dragons since she was very little and still loves them. She collects all kids of dragons-stuffed, plastic, action figures, but her most favorite is Dragons out of Legos. Her and Cambrie line them up for hours and play endlessly with them. She loves the How to Train Your Dragon movies and all the spin off shows from them.
Emilee is a sweet girl and has brought joy to our home from day one. She is the best cuddler. She loves to be tucked in every night. She enjoys going to bed when she is tired and looks forward to good sleep. She does not like getting up in the morning and the thought of having to get up early stresses her out. She is the pickiest eater you will ever meet. I think the biggest culprit to her pickiness is texture but it is a constantly changing, ridiculous list of what she will and won’t eat. Her food of choice is mac n cheese, cheese quesadilla, yogurt, carrots, apples, cereal, PB and honey, bagels with brown sugar cream cheese and water (unless root beer is an option which it usually isn’t but she likes to double check). She has been slowly getting better at broadening her list of foods she will eat with the exception of berries. Strawberries in particular. She will do any chore, go to bed in the middle of the afternoon, sit at the table for hours, go without any food before she will eat a strawberry or anything she knows has a strawberry in it. With the exception of strawberry milk which she calls pink milk and doesn’t know is strawberry. Technically it is just added flavored sugar so it isn’t really strawberry. As picky as she is she has a giant sweet tooth and we have to really watch what treats we keep around the house because she will eat all of them. Don’t think her inconsistent though, her sweet tooth is pretty picky too.
Emilee is a beautiful little girl but she doesn’t overly concern herself with matters of hygiene. She used to prefer to change into the clothes she was wearing the next day the night before instead of pajamas so she could roll out of bed and be ready. She now prefers to wear her pajamas and change in the morning like the rest of the world. She grabs whatever is at the top of her drawer and puts it on. Luckily she matches most of the time. She rarely shows a preference on what to wear and is fine with me picking out clothes for her at the store. She will brush the top layer of her hair and pull it into a pony tail. If she grabs shorts and it is cold she will put on a sweatshirt and wear knee high socks. If it is warm and she grabs leggings or long sleeves she will pull or roll them up if she gets hot. She would wear tennis shoes all the time even to church if I let her. One of her nick names is ‘Dirty Pigeon’. If you haven’t read the book by Mo Willems called The Dirty Pigeon, you should. It is about a pigeon that really needs a bath but doesn’t want to take one and makes a big fuss about it. When he finally gets in the bath he is in it for hours and won’t get out. That is Emilee. She will try and go days and days without taking a shower. When she is caught and has to take one she stomps and pouts about it then gets in the showers and literally stays until all the hot water is gone, or takes a bath and keeps adding hot water and stays for hours.
Emilee will be starting 3rd grade in a few weeks. School is not her favorite. The eye doctor is wondering and keeps checking her for focusing issues because reading is not her favorite. I think it is just that reading is not her favorite. She loves being read to but isn’t a big reader on her own. She does fine in school but is much more into the hands on active learning then sitting and concentrate learning. Her biggest hang up with school is she has to get up early (her definition of get up early is waking up anytime before she wakes up naturally on her own and can’t lay in bed for 30 minutes) but once she is there she does fine. Her teachers always say she is a sweet girl and a good listener.
Well that is kind of a hodge podge of things about Emilee. She is a happy fun girl and we love her a lot. She has been a happy easy going girl from day one. I am glad she is in our family and I love watching her grow up. The 5 words that pop into my head first when I think of Emilee are happy, fun, loving, silly, and kind.
Our 2021 Summer has officially begun. This will definitely be remembered as one of the weirdest school years ever I am sure. Of the three big school districts around our area, I am glad our kids were in the district we were in. They handled COVID the best as far as keeping kids in school as much as possible and getting things back to normal as quickly as possible. There was a lot of frustrations. Matthew was doing school virtually from home almost half the year and his grades and psyche struggled a lot because of it. The girls principal was ridiculous before COVID and used this as an opportunity to control and regulate EVERYTHING she could possibly think of. Compared to other districts I am glad I was in the one we were in though. I hope next year we can put all this behind us and have a good year.
Emilee finished 2nd grade this year. She had Mrs. Trimble. Allison also had this teacher and I specifically requested Emilee NOT have her. As I mentioned earlier though they have a special principal and her and I are not…fans of each other. Anyway, despite having a teacher that doesn’t seem to like kids or teaching, Emilee made it through the year without her anxiety getting to out of control. We were able to help curb her stress in the morning before going to school with a straight up bribe. A dollar each day she was able to not panic and cry about going to school the day night or morning before school. Best dollars I ever spent. The last week of school I went to a nail appointment and guess who I ran into?! Mrs. Trimble getting her nails done in the middle of a school day because she “just had to take a break from it all.” She didn’t see me, I just overheard her talking to the person doing her nails. I digress though. Emilee is done with second grade and is looking forward to 3rd!
Award day.
Field Day
Last day of school.
Allison finished 5th grade this year and is moving onto middle school next year! The dollar bribe worked so well with Emilee I bribed Allison a dollar each day that she got up in the morning and ready and made it to the bus on time without blowing up on anyone. We had a 50/50 percent success rate but I will still count it as a win. As per usual Allison had a love/hate relationship with her teacher, Mrs. Brown. I liked her though and thought she understood Allison pretty well. She also helped us realize that Allison was literally ‘gating’ her performance instead of performing at her top potential. She talked with us about this and we ended up getting her tested and she is now in the gifted program for math, science, and reading which I think will improve Allison’s attitude toward school a lot as she will not be bored out of her mind anymore. We had several meetings and talks with teachers and counselors (oddly never the principal) and were able to get her evaluated without her knowing-and purposefully sabotaging herself. After the fact, when we were discussing all of this with Allison and trying to explain what the phrase ‘shooting ones self in the foot’ means, I would say we didn’t get a full representation of her capabilities but enough that she is now on the school radar and we can challenge her better. I am hoping she will thrive in middle school with a little more freedom and more variety to her day. She is looking forward to it a lot.
1st day of 5th grade
Graduation Day!
Graduation Day
Award Day
80’s Day
Hawaiian Day
Matthew finished 8th grade this year and will be starting his first year of high school next year! Between mask requirements for school sports, and breaking his leg Matthew didn’t play any school sports this year- which is very unusual for him. Luckily he still had baseball and basketball outside of school (before he broke his leg) but he is excited to be able to be more involved next year. Despite COVID changes and no matter how ridiculous they got at times, he was able to finish the year on a positive note. I am nervous and excited for him to start high school. He is a good boy. If I can help guide him through the next 4 years of his life without huge mistakes or permanent scars and a strong testimony of Christ I will be a happy momma.
One of my co-workers lives on a small hobby farm. She has a pig, lambs, calf, donkey, turkeys, chickens, ducks, geese, bees and probably a few more animals I am not remembering. We were talking at work one day and decided that we should all go visit her farm. Emilee was the only one of my kids that was able to go, she brought her friend Summer. They loved it. Emilee is an animal lover and isn’t afraid to jump in and do whatever when it comes to animals. She loved the baby lamb and the baby ducks and chicks the most. One chicken in particular took a liking to her and followed her around and wanted her to hold it. Sandi let her name it, she decided to call it Ruby.
Every now and then when I am walking around the house I come across my kids being kids in such a cute way it makes me smile. Sometimes I am lucky and get a picture of it.
Allison will organize something or make a list or possible outfits to wear in the morning. Emilee watching her stuffed animals getting washed in the washer with concern they are not enjoying it. Matthew talking to Peanut and telling him he is the cutest. I love little moments like that.
We have a white board on the wall in our basement. I see it often when I am on the treadmill. It has had writing on it for a while but I didn’t take the time to read what it said until recently and it made me smile.
A few weeks ago when our cousins were over at our house, Jovee and Emilee decided to make an outline of their plan to shoot Ethan and Matthew with the Nerf Guns. As you can see they put a lot of thought into it.
There are symbols for Ethan and Matthew instead of their names.
There is a list of needed supplies…or ‘geer’.
A detailed plan of action.
And of course, a plan to regroup after the plan is completed and plan the next plan.
Emilee and one of her besties Reese both turned 8 this year and they have wanted to get baptized together. They have known each other since birth and they are two peas in a pod. Their due dates were just a few days apart but Emilee decided to come a few weeks early. Technically we were not supposed to combine baptisms still because of stupid COVID but I am currently the Primary President for our church so I bent the rules a bit. We did keep it to grandparents and immediate family only for attendance so it was still pretty small.
They were baptized the day after Thanksgiving while everyone was here. My parents and Roger came in person, everyone else watched from home over zoom. Emilee was a little nervous in the morning about it but as soon as she saw Reese she was giddy and excited about it.
Reese was baptized first, then Emilee, then they switched for their confirmations. Emilee’s Grandpa Jones and Reese’s Grandma May gave the talks and they each picked a song and someone to say a prayer. It was a really sweet baptism. It was a little bitter sweet having our youngest kiddo get baptized. We don’t really have little kids anymore.
Well, Emilee-whemilee turned 8 this year! She has been counting down to her birthday for the last 7 months and after “taking forever, and no days going by” her special day finally came!
Her actual birthday was on a Tuesday so we opened presents and had a cookie cake and went to dinner as a family. Emilee picked Sake Lounge for her dinner. She stuffed herself on her favorite sushi roll, called The Shaggy Dog. She has been wanting her very own hover board so that is what she got from her family. She got some snuggly jackets, candy, and a stuffed animal or two as well. She had treats at school with her class and overall it was a happy day for her.
Left to Right, Peyton, Cambrie, Reese, Jovee, Emilee, Anna, Anna, Summer
She wanted to have a birthday party at Main Event with a few of her favorite friends. She picked bowling and the ropes course after stuffing themselves with pizza and a sundae special birthday treat and opening presents with her friends. I think she had a great time. We are glad Emilee is in our family. She is a happy little caboose, and we love her!
Church is still not back to normal yet. Each Stake is doing things a little different depending on how it best works for them. Our ward has been having very small groups of people attend church each week. This past week they have changed it a bit and now the ward is split in half so you will go every other week and then do your own at home every other week. In the past, every year in October the Primary Children do a sacrament program to share what they have been learning in Primary. They sing songs and have little speaking parts they share. It is one of my favorite sacrament meetings of the year.
This year I am the Primary President so it is my job to put the program together with my presidency. Most wards have canceled it due to COVID, some have done a virtual program. We decided to put together a virtual program for those kids that wanted to participate. I will plan on attaching it to this post when it is complete. The girls did their part for it today. They each wrote an answer to a question. Emilee’s was, how can I keep my baptismal covenants? Allison’s was, how can I teach others about Christ?
