Jackson's On Student Council

Jackson ran for student council at his brand new school Crescent Elementary. In fact, every single 6th grader (about 90) ran for it, because it gave them extra credit. Only 5 were chosen from each class, and Jackson made it! The voting was weighted in thirds, 1/3 student votes, 1/3 teacher votes, 1/3 on last year's grades. Since he was new to the school, the teachers considered his performance in the first few weeks.

He had to give a 2 minute speech. His was so cute, he told about how responsible he was and how all his teachers always tell his mom that "Everyone loves Jackson." He also said that being on Student Council would help him to make friends more easily and more people would get to know "a great guy like me."

His duties so far include morning announcements on TV and over the speaker, recycling, and he went to a big conference at BYU last Monday with kids from all over Utah that are on Student Council. They learned leadership qualities, one of their speakers was John Bytheway, Jackson liked him.

Jackson is also on Safety Patrol again this year, they are assigned weeks in the year where they help "patrol" the drive-thru pickup lanes before and after school, the cross-walks and bus lines etc.

At parent-teacher conferences this past week his teacher told me studies have shown that kids that are involved with Student Council and just generally are a part of school activities in that respect tend to do better academically and all around in school.

I have not pushed him ever to do these things, he really enjoys it, I'm proud of him!

(In the picture he is on the far right in the blue t-shirt).

Girls Night Out-"This Is It"

I put together a GNO to see the Michael Jackson's documentary movie, "This Is It" on opening night. We went to the 10:00 p.m. showing but met at Red Robin first for shakes and fries. Cori suggested we all wear a Michael Jackson t-shirt and then Trista last minute suggested we dress 80's style. As you can see, only 2 girls had the guts to do that, Trista and Mindy, but boy did they look cute and have fun. Cori Blodgett and her sister

Brooke are on the left in the group shot, they

were also at Red Robin, but we don't have a close-up of them. The movie was so great, I want to see it again. I've already bought the music CD that goes along with it, and I plan to buy the DVD. Although Michael Jackson was eccentric, and maybe made some wrong choices, he was so talented. Quite a loss to the entertainment world with his death.

Picture 1: Group shot before the movie
Picture 2: Me, Trista, and Suzanne
Picture 3: Charity and Teresa
Picture 4: Shelly and Mindy

Halloween 2009

Now I won't have to take pics ON Halloween! Our ward Primary had a trunk or treat party tonight, so we got the kids all dressed up and off we went.

Steve took some great pics of the kids on the front porch. Jackson is a Ghoul who's eyes light up off and on (a big hit at the ward party), Collin is a Vampire (again), and Summer is Bat Girl.

The primary held their annual Trunk or Treat party at the church. They had games and a parade first, then truck or treating.

These are some fun pumpkins we got this year at Farnsworth farms. A pic of the trunk or treating, and a well-decorated "trunk" by our next-door neighbors, the Gentil family.

Fall Soccer for Summer

Summer was on a soccer team this fall with some girls from our new Sandy neighborhood. Her friend Janelle's mom coached and Shauna's dad (who is also Collin's scout leader) was the assistant coach. This team had practices every week, and the league was serious with refs and playing in your postition etc. Interestingly enough, Summer didn't make any goals this time (like spring soccer that happened to be more relaxed). She didn't seem to mind, but she also didn't like soccer as much and was pretty burned out halfway through the season. But, on the bright side, she learned the "in's and out's" of proper soccer playing. Mia from our old neighborhood was also on the team, although, she wasn't there for the team pics and she isn't in any of the pics that I took bc they were all taken on that same day.
Summer told me after the last game that she wants to do a different sport now, maybe basketball. Ü

Tracy Aviary October 2009

While were were on the cruise, my mom took Jackson and Summer to Tracy Aviary on a "sick day" from school. Collin went to school, so he wanted me to take them all again when I got home. Saturday was a beautiful day, it was fun. I only had my cell ph. for pics, so they aren't great. I can't believe how much the kids like it there. I thought it was a little boring, but they loved it and didn't really want to leave. Jackson told me, "This is making me want to go to the zoo again." Poor kid, hasn't been to the local zoo for several years. We did go to the San Diego Zoo a couple of years ago. Well, watch for zoo pics in the spring!




Summer was so cute, she brought a pen necklace and a notepad and would stop at every different bird she saw and sketch a picture of it. She's really into drawing lately.

Murder Mystery Party

Argh, loading in wrong order again...These pics were taken after the "murder" when everyone got their 2nd card with questions on it to ask people. I caught the joker accusing the chambermaid of having done some shady things, I love the look on her face! Btw, Heather (the chambermaid) really did a lot of work to put this together, she typed all the invites and cards up, told us how to dress, helped decorate and helped with dinner. She was our go to girl of the night for questions.

A couple of my bunco girlfriends put together an awesome Murder Mystery costume Party. It was set in Medieval times and everyone was given an assigned character. Steve and I were the Lord and Lady of the Manor, Lord Taylor and Lady Gwendolyn.

It was held at Trista's house in Highland. They had torches out front and banners lining the entrance when we arrived. Here is a pic of our invite, the laws of the land, all the characters with info. on them (since a "murder" will occur during the night, we need to know who we're working with). Also a pic of Steve's assignment and info. on his character.

The beginning of the night as we were arriving. Sunny and Joel, Jason and Charity, Allison and Tyler, Mindy (Kevin was coming from work), and Aimee and Randy.

The scene for the evening was that Steve and I were throwing a dinner party in honor of the arranged marriage of our only son and Lady Diana of Dunnsberry. The king and queen were there as were all the folks of Fernwood, even the serfs. In one of the pics above you can see Steve getting the evening going by reading a welcome paper with some instructions. We all needed to be "in character" all night. You can also see everyone looking at a card in one pic. We were all given some questions/comments to make to other characters to get to know each other better and maybe get some much needed info. for what will happen later on.

Me and Trista, the host for the night. Also, Julie and Suzanne, two good friends of mine. They were exchanging info. during the beginning of dinner.

The murder! As we were in the kitchen dishing up our main course, the lights went out, we all "screamed," and when the lights went back on, Sir Rufus (a Knight-Eric) was "dead!" You can see the Watchman (Bryce) reading to the group that a murder had occurred, and he will be gathering info. to determine the "killer among us." You can also see in these pics (kind of), the gigantic table that we all ate at. There were 22 of us! I couldn't ever get a pic of the whole table, it wouldn't fit in my camera lens!

I will be forever impressed with Trista and Heather for putting this all together for us. It really felt like we were back in Medieval times, the setting, the background music, the food, the goblets, the costumes...each couple was even given a whole rotisserie chicken to share! Look in the pics and maybe you can see them on the tables. What a great night, we had a blast!

Cruise to Cabo San Lucas

This was our first night on the ship at dinner. We were about to meet some new friends...

Here they are! The couple on the left are from Riverton, Utah (I could tell when they walked up), their names are Reinhardt and Lisa. The couple on the right was from Canyon Country, CA. and their names are Sean and Liza. We ate with them every night, because we all came with just our spouses, they put you together at a table to fill all the seats. They were great!!! You will see later some of the fun stuff we did with them.

This is at our 2nd stop (my pics posted in the wrong order) in Ensenda, Mexico. We took an excursion to about the only sight to see there called La Bufadora. It's a blow hole of water building up in a cave and then with a wave crash, it blows water up into the air. It's beautiful, I'm glad we went. Good pic of Steve too!

Late one night we went to a game called "The Quest." This is where you get a team together and the cruise director gives your team captain a number. He then proceeds to ask for random things to be worn or done by team members and they have to run up to him and show him before time is out get a point. CRAZY fun! So our team captain was Sean, in fact, he made us form a team. At one point they asked for a man on the team to be dressed as a pretty girl, thus the bras etc. Reinhardt went up for the lipstick all over a man's face point. Steve barked like a dog on all fours, and I had to do the worm dance on the floor with another girl. Definitely a highlight of our cruise!

Just random pics. The globe I'm standing by lit up from the inside, so it glowed. You can't tell in the pic, but it was cool. Steve is by a huuuuge fruit table carved and shaped decoratively. We had lunch one chilly afternoon at a yummy cafe at the top of the ship.

Our first port was Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. The ship can't pull right up to the coast bc it is too big, so they tender us over on these little boats that they bring on the ship for this purpose. Cabo was beautiful, but it was pouring rain off and on the whole time. We ate at Hard Rock Cafe there, during the rain. Steve liked the yellow dune buggy we saw. The crew on our ship said that Cabo is never rainy like that. Just our luck.

More pics of beautiful Cabo San Lucas.

Royal Caribbean ship that holds 2,700 passengers and over 800 crew. Beautiful ship. We ate at Chops Grill one night, a fine dining restaurant on the ship. You can't see in this pic but it was sunset out the windows behind us and the water was so beautiful.

We went to every show every night which included comedians and singers and even the ship's version of The Newlywed Game. They picked from the audience a newlywed couple, a couple married for a few years and one married for over 50! It was really funny!

This is a group called Mosaic, they use only their voices to make all the music, it's totally incredible! They won "Best New Group" (or something) on an MTV reality show recently and are starting to get recognition. They were only on the ship for 2 weeks, so we lucked out. Their website is: notaboyband.com (really)!

I'm sorry that I had to post these pics, but you gotta' hear the story...This was formal night in the dining room and the lady dancing on the table was really drunk. She was with a group of about 20 people her age, all drinking a lot. Anyway, during dessert, so got up on the table and started dancing! They were only 2 tables away, so we had a good view. As soon as her dress came up, the dining manager came over and made her get down. She was immediately banished from the dining room for the rest of the cruise. Good grief.

The "Hoe-down, Throw-down" of the Miley Cyrus Concert

Pictures: Summer and me getting in the car to leave.
Arriving at the arena.
Miley on a motorcycle circling the audience.
Jackson and me at the end of the concert.
Miley at our actual concert. (Got it from the SL Tribune)

After seeing the Hannah movie Summer asked me if she could ever see Hannah in real life. I asked her if she wanted to go to a concert if she came to Utah and her eyes lit up and she said, "Yeah!"
Fast forward 6 months and the concert finally arrived. We had tickets on the 8th row center. Summer had a Hannah outfit to wear that Jake and Ava Smith gave her for her birthday. She made a poster months in advance and was hoping Miley would see it. We were so excited!
Steve and the boys dropped us off at the arena and then went to dinner at the Gateway. Here's where "the fun" begins...
We sat down during the opening act, Metro Station (Miley's half-brother's rock band) and Summer was plugging her ears. I gave her earplugs and talked her into wearing them bc otherwise her ears might start to hurt (big mistake- that freaked her out and got her all nervous). All she could think about was what if her eardrums burst. Finally, Miley came out and Summer sang along to one song, all the while looking at me nervously and telling me that her ears were "shaking inside" and her tummy was "bubbly and shaking." She didn't like the floor shaking either. She asked me if at the end she could get an autograph from Miley. I pointed to the 20,000+ people there and told her it was impossible. (Actually, all this conversation between the 2 of us was yelled, not spoken, soooo loud in there). She was teary and tried to eat her pizza and sprite to feel better but to no avail. She wanted to leave. We went up to the bathroom bc she felt sick. She felt a little better after going, but didn't want to go back in. She heard a song she wanted to see, so we went just in the door, she looked down at the stage and then said, "Ok, let's go, I just want to go home." I tried for about 10 minutes in the corridor to talk her into staying, and she was so sweet, she just said, "No mom, it's okay, we can see her next time she comes." I told her it was $200 to see her, a lot of money. She said, "She probably won't come for a long time, we can save up, I just want to go." She later said, "I don't think I ever want to go to a concert again." She wasn't dramatic, just done.
Luckily, Steve was still across the street with the boys (we were going to catch a ride home with friends) and the security guards let me switch out Summer for Jackson. So, Jackson watched the last 30 minutes with me. (I missed about 4 songs in the middle while this was going on.) Jackson liked it, but was trying to act cool bc he was one of only a handful of boys in the whole arena!
So, it turned out okay. Summer was totally fine with leaving, it was me who felt so bummed out I couldn't watch her throughout the whole concert and have that experience, but, I'm over it!

--Side note, towards the end of Miley's 2nd song Miley doubled over and looked pale, then ran off the stage and the back-up singers continued through. Then a stage manager came out and said that Miley has had the flu, she just needs a little rest, but the show will go on in 5 minutes, and it DID! You could tell she was pale and clammy and not feeling well but she soldiered through. I will be forever impressed with her for that, she didn't let her fans down.--

Funny Collin Creation

 

Recognize this from a commercial? It's a Golden Grahams guy. My creative Collin had to copy it.

Collin Turns 9!

 
 
Nine years ago today at about 2:30 a.m. I sat straight up in bed thinking I had just wet the bed! I was 8 months pregnant and I waddled to the bathroom, still leaking, then I realized...my water just broke! We called the hospital and they said to come in to make sure, so at about 5:00 a.m. we packed our 2-yr-old Jackson up and and drove to Cottonwood Hospital. Sure enough, Collin was on his way! He was born at about 5:30 p.m. and weighed exactly 6 lbs. He was as healthy as can be, he just wanted to get here! I always tell him that he was tired of being in my tummy and kicked the bag of waters saying, "Get me outta' here!"
Today we celebrated 9 years of my middle child's life. He was an easy baby, maybe my easiest! He is a sweet kid, always very concerned about everyone's feelings, and he makes friends so easily. He's a lefty like his Grandma Towsey and he is very creative. He's cute as can be and has always had a contagious laugh, probably one of my favorite traits about him.
His favorite gift? A new skateboard that he picked out online a few weeks ago. Best part is, he forgot about it until he was halfway done opening it. He was so excited! He's been riding it like a pro all afternoon.
Happy birthday to my sweet Collin!