Peter Pan Play

Alyssa decided that she wanted to be in the Peter Pan Play at school. Not only did she just want to be in the play, but she wanted a speaking part. So she had to sing a song infront of the the PTA and also recite a poem or something she memorized. Her song was "The Climb" by Miley Cyrus. And she memorized a Nursery Rhyme, One Two Three four five, Once I caught a fish alive..... She got the part of a mermaid named "Jelly". Her part is "You too Wendy, catch!" The mermaids are teasing Wendy. Alyssa will be throwing a ball at Wendy or blowing bubbles at her. She has learned 6 songs and does a dance with all the other mermaids.

Part of being a mermaid in the Peter Pan play means she needs a costume. We could have bought one at the store that had the Ariel on it, but we wanted one that was nice for Alyssa, since she has a speaking part. I bought some material and was going to make the costume with my good friend Krystal, but she had kids with RSV and she got sick (hope your getting better Krystal). So Cass and I decided that we could do it. And this is what we came up with. We make a good team! I was the sewer and Cass was the cutter. It was fun. My neighbor is going to surge the edges of the fins and it will be done. The top is a swimming suit. Alyssa will have to wear a shirt under it. She'll have hawaiian type flowers in her hair and flower necklace. I am very pleased with it, and Alyssa LOVES it!!

Puppy Love

I think most the pictures we have been taking lately are the kids and Toby. It is fun to see him laying down so the kids can pet and love him. The kids can't play with Toby (for obvious reasons being his size, and he is a puppy so he gets easily excited), but Tanner will play "fetch" in the kitchen where he gets Toby's ball and rolls it, and Toby will get it and bring it back to Tanner. The kids get the occassional wack in the head by Toby's tail, but for the most part, he is a wonderful addition to our family!

Happy #5 Abigail!!!

Everytime we went to Walmart Abigail had to ride the Spiderman Bike. That's what she wanted for her birthday. Before her birthday she saw spiderman cupcakes, and decided she wanted those instead of a spiderman bike. I quickly agreed, and she agreed that in the spring we would buy her a girl bike. Abigail's birthday was on January 25th, she is now a big 5 year old getting ready for Kindergarten in the Fall. She is ready, but I am not, so we won't rush it! Abigail loves horses, lions, and Tigers. She can recognize and write all her letters, she can count to 100 (I help her when she gets to 30, 40, 50...) She is very proud of all the things she can do, and reminds us almost daily of her accomplishments. A few of them are... she is good at i-fly, she can climb a rock wall, ride her bike with no training wheels, hold her breath under water, and also paddle. She says some pretty funny things. Aniston was sick and was having soup for dinner recently. Abigail said "What?!?! she isn't having any of this delicious spaghetti?" I ask her how she knows things and she replys "Because I am a smarty pants!"

-If you'll notice in the background what Tanner does best---climbs on everything!!

Yes, we are still alive!

Happy Halloween! Yes, that is me with a red Utah Shirt and a Ute sticker on my face. I knew I would be in big trouble if I did not wear the University of Utah colors on halloween with my family. No, really it was okay. It was fun having the whole family dress up the same. sorry BYU fans!

I am so excited for this Christmas Season, I love taking the kids to Temple Square to see the lights and going to all the other fun holiday activities around the city.

Alyssa is loving 1st grade, and is a very smart student. I can not believe how fast she picked up on reading Abigail is now writing her name and drawing pictures of her favorite things. Her and Aniston are in preschool. They love it. Too bad it's only 2 days a week. Tanner is a boy! All boy! Nothing like the girls. He is everywhere! On top an into everything! But he is so sweet! I love my family and I am so glad I get to stay home and play with my kids all day.

That's all I have time for today. Please check my other website www.melanie.wakeupandbefree.com for a life changing opportunity. Thanks!

Not much of an update...

Haven't posted for a while, but I have a few seconds to put some pictures up. Abbie and Anna started preschool, they love it. Tanner is walking and will be ONE on Sept. 22, Toby is HUGE!! ALyssa has 4 missing teeth, we are calling her Jack, short for Jack O Lantern.

Lagoon, Lagoon, and more Lagoon.....

This summer we have been spending most of our days at Lagoon. We have been going sometimes as much as 4 times in one week. We are pretty close, and we have nothing better to do. Our favorties are the LadyBug Drop, the dinosaur Bob, Odyssey, and Rattle Snake Rapids. Two weeks ago I lost my cell phone (the only phone we have) at Lagoon. I gave it to Tanner when I emptied my pockets before Rattle Snake Rapids. I came back to him, and it was gone. The next day we went and got a new phone through Verizon. For a new phone and set up we paid $41 and some change. We got home the same day and there was an unexpected check in the mail for $42 and some change. The difference was .11 cents. Coincedence? Why did I give my phone to Tanner? Why did we get the check in the mail? We called Lagoon several times and it never came up, I guess we weren't meant to have it back. Now it's a matter of getting all the phone numbers back that we lost. It didn't stop us from going to Lagoon, I just keep a tighter hold of the new phone. Better go, we're off to Lagoon.....

Summer Vacation

We started the summer off by going to St George for a family reunion with Cass' family. We stayed at the WorldMark condo's. They were really nice, it was like a house, they were fully furnished. They had a kids pool that was 2 feet deep. Alyssa was a little fish, swimming under the water. Abbie got brave and learned to go under the water. She was so proud of herself. We had a lot of fun. We were there from (june 11-june 16th) On June 16th, we decided to head to San Diego California. Cass had the week off work, and we were almost 1/2 way there. Normally we go to Disneyland every year, but in the summer it's so crowded, and we decided to try something different. We started off by going to SeaWorld on Tuesday evening when we got into town, we watched the Shamu show and sat in the "soak zone". We got soaked!! My favorite thing to see are the Polar Bears. We were back at SeaWorld on Wednesday. We liked touching the star fish, Abbie really liked holding the sea cucumber. Thursday we went to the San Diego Zoo. They had a family of Orangutans that were having their morning breakfast. There were two polar bears that were playing in and out of the water, it was fun to watch. They had a hippo that was in the water, we call him MotoMoto. Friday we went to the Wild Animal Park. There were 3 lions, one "lion king", Abbie's favorite. There were animals roaming freely together. rhino's, giraffes (tons of them) antelope, it was as though it was really Africa. They had 6 gorilla's, they were being fed by the zoo keeper. One did the sign for "eat". They are smart animals. We ended our vacation today at the beach in the morning, and SeaWorld afterwards. . We saw the dolphin show, and touched the manta rays. It was a lot of fun this week being here in San Diego, we did a lot of things, and saw a lot. Disneyland is more our thing, there was so much walking at the Zoo and Wild Animal park, we saw mostly birds, monkeys, plants and trees. We are going to keep our tradition of going to Disneyland in March. We also stopped by the SanDiego temple, it was beautiful. Tomorrow we drive home and get back into real life. We'll pick up Toby, I'm sure he'll be a few more inches tall. It's hard to see the pictures, but you get the idea.