Because there's more to life than Halloween costumes

While I may have been consumed by costume construction, life went on for the rest of the family. Here are a few activities worth noting.

Aiden earned his Wolf and was promoted to Bear in cub scouts. They have a ceremony where the mom paints different colors representing different attributes. Unfortunately I was at work so Chris stepped in as "Mr. Mom" and sent me pictures.

Kaylee was one of only two students who made it to the Spelling Bee semi-finals for a second year in a row! She didn't make the finals but she did get further than last year. She had a kind of "been there done that" attitude which helped her have more fun than stress. She also reunited with one of her third grade friends, what a small world:)

Ashton went to the sleep over science camp with her school and she lo-oved it! I thought for sure we had taken pictures, but no. Unfortunately not very many of the pictures she took turned out either:( But, here is a self portrait with one of her good friends. Hopefully she can get some more from her friends.

Halloween 2011

I had to look up the Halloween post from last year to see if I vowed to never make costumes again. I did not..but I definitely was not as gung-ho about making costumes this year. Luckily we found most of Kaylee's costume at Goodwill and Aiden borrowed his from his cousin so I only made two. With that said, here is Edwards Halloween 2011 edition.

Mad Hatter. The awesome hat (and receiver of much compliments) courtesy of Aunt Megan

Greek goddess Aphrodite

Harry Potter

Aang the last air bender (the cartoon version, not the awful movie version). I love how this one turned out. Not to shabby eh?

This is the pile of candy the kids gave Chris without his even asking. We have some sweeties:)

A 5 year old take on...

Being friends with a girl

Dalin's best friend moved away a while ago and he hasn't really found another "bestie" so I was asking him if there were any kids in his primary class that he wanted to be better friends with. He answered Tenley (the only girl in his class). When I asked why he told me, "Because you need to be friends before you can be a couple."

School

You may remember his "Principal Comment"on the first day of school. Day three brought, "I don't want to go to school anymore, can't I just get fired from that place?."

Self Control

One of the behaviors Dalin's kindergarten teacher has been trying to teach her class is self control (i.e. raise your hand and wait to be called on before you speak). While we were at Target Dalin wanted to go to the men's bathroom by himself. Despite my overly parinoid parenting style I relented. After we came home he said,
D: "Mom I wanted to say something not nice but I used self control and I didn't say it."
M: "What did you want to say?"
D: "When I was in the bathroom at Target, there was a guy in there who was wierd and kept getting more and more paper towels and hand sanitizer. I wanted to say 'You old coot', but I didn't"

Corporate America

Mom did you know In-N-Out makes their fries with love? It's because they love their customers money.

Happy Birthday Aiden!!

Can I just tell you how much I love this kid! He is smart and kind and helpful and he is usually very happy. Here are a few of my favorite things about Aiden:
He gets distracted easily (especially when doing the dishes) but when I remind him to get back on task he always replies with a quick "Oh sorry."
When he is nervous about something he asks a ton of questions (they usually start with "wait...wait, what about...")
He knows how to annoy his older sisters (like any little brother should) but he has a fair amount of patience when his little brother shows him the same kindness.
He loves to read.
He plays his chest like a drum
He wants to be famous
He recently got into the G.A.T.E. program
He's an all around good kid.

I didn't take many pictures on his birthday (I know what a bad mom), but I hope the cute baby pictures will make up for that

Three for Three

Aiden's the latest to inherit my eyesight. He's not a fan of the glasses and he's fairly certain his eyes will be better by next year. I think he looks so handsome!

First Day of School 2011

Back to school, back to school! The first day of school went pretty well in the Edwards house (there's a first for everything right?). Kaylee is old hand at the middle school thing, being in 7th grade and all. It didn't hurt that she knew she was going to have several of her good friends in most of her classes. Her schedule did get changed around a bit to accommodate a pre-algebra class, but that's what you get for being smart;) Reports are she had a good day. I didn't get any pictures of her because waking up at 6:30 makes my brain a little slow. Ashton (5th grade) was a little sad that none of her friends from last year are in her class, but she really likes her teacher and she gets to see most of her friends at recess anyway. Aiden (3rd grade) really likes his teacher too. It may have something to do with "Cookie Friday" but I think he would love his class regardless. I'm really excited for him because his teacher last year wasn't our favorite so he is due for a good one. Dalin started kindergarten. The school used to have only grades 3-5 and this year it switched to K-5 so luckily Dalin gets to be in the same school as Ashton and Aiden. His teacher is really nice but she had been teaching 4th grade so she's adjusting to kindergarten life too. There are about 38 kids in the class which is kind of insane. His teacher said if the get five more kindergarteners at the school they can get another teacher, so I'm hoping for that because sheesh! Best quote of the day comes from Dalin. He had a homework sheet where he had to color like five things which was almost to much for him to bear. He looks up at me and says, "I didn't even say anything mean about the principal and my teacher still gave me homework!" It's going to be a long year:)

The kids all set their clothes out the night before, it was pretty cute to see in the morning.

The elementaries



Dalin was a little nervous. He told me there were two girls in his class who cried, but he didn't cry, he "held his tears"

The Lazy Days of Summer...emphasis on lazy

This is our first full summer and I had all kinds of plans. Unfortunately I forgot one thing. It is H-O-T, hot! I mean the kind of hot that makes you tell your husband to ask for a transfer up north so you never have to deal with this kind of summer heat again. We did make it out of the house a couple of times, but I'm afraid there aren't too many pictures to prove it. Here are the few pictures that show we do know what the world outside our four walls look like.

Kaylee and the newest beehives on their way to their first girls camp. I know it doesn't really look like they were headed to camp, but they did baptisms for the dead in St. George on the way.

We took our annual library sponsored trip too Shark Reef. Again you can't really tell we were there, but trust me we were.

We did cousin shopping and I didn't get any pictures of the girls. This was the first year we took the boys and the only picture I got was their "huddle" to decide what kind of shirt to get.

We went to the temple with our primary and it was AWESOME! It really deserves it's own post but I'll refer you back to the lazy part of the title.

Edwards Family Reunion

Most of the Edwards crew. We were unfortunately missing Emily's husband and daughters and Lindsay's husband and daughters. Maybe next time:)

Chris's family lives all over the place. We are lucky enough to have one of his sisters here in Vegas, but his parents are in Arkansas, a sister in New York, another sister in Texas and his brother who lives in Utah is going to be moving to Rhode Island in August. That along with his parents upcoming 40th anniversary and a baby blessing seemed like a good reason to have a family reunion. We decided to rent a house in Salt Lake so we could spend actual quality time with the Edwards family. The house we had originally reserved became a case of false advertising (it was dirty, not wheelchair accessible, and previously had cats) so the rental agency was contacted and we were moved to a bigger much nicer house. It was awesome! There was a hot tub, a game room with air hockey foozeball and ping pong, 5 bedroom, 3 1/2 bath and enough space that the whole family could just hang out and not feel like we were on top of each other. There were fireworks across the street on Fri and Sat night and a parade that on the street next to the house on Sat morning. They said those were for Taylorsville days, but I'm choosing to believe it was for our family. It was fabulous to relax and visit and play together as a family. Everything worked out perfectly. Thank goodness aunt Lindsay and aunt Kim took lots of pictures, because I don't think I even took my camera out.

This picture cracks me up! It is typical Chris. These poor girls put up with a lot from their older brother.

I have a Young Woman now...

12! Kaylee is 12! It's kind of blowing my mind. When did I become the lady old enough to have a 12 year old? Alright, I know it's not about me;) This year Kaylee had a friend party and we decided to have a movie theme. I use the term "theme" loosely though because besides the invitations and cupcakes looking like popcorn, there wasn't much more movie involved. The girls had pizza, played some "Minute to Win It" games (thank goodness for that show and it's instant party games:) then we were off to the movies to watch Kung Fu Panda 2. Kaylee thought it was fun (so did I), so SUCCESS! Happy Birthday Kaylee, we LOVE YOU!

After we had played the games all the girls wanted to try "Face the cookie". They had to move a cookie from their forehead to their mouth using only their facial muscles. They decided laying down was the best technique for this challenge. It was pretty hilarious

Dalin 5.0

Yep he's 5, can you believe it! I'm still coming to terms with it myself. I think I have a hard time with every one of his birthdays because he's my baby, but five is a doozie. Five is kindergarten. Five is big. Okay, enough of that, moving on. Dalin has been counting down the days to his birthday since Christmas (168 in case you wondered). And he has been asking for a "Power Ranger Switch Head" for 120 of those days. He got his Power Ranger and enough to constitute a "good haul". He also had a Happy Meal date with his dad and there is a rumor that someone let him drive the car. What more could a five year old ask for:)

Here are some of his favorite things:

Food: Popsicles, watermelon & strawberries
Toy: Power Ranger Switch head
TV Show: Power Rangers Samurai
Movie: Kung Fu Panda 2 (or whatever the latest cartoon movie happens to be)
Color: Green
Super Hero: Spiderman
Thing to do: Play

Dalin requested this "cake". It's not very pretty, but it's made up of his two of his favorite things.

The Runaway Kid

For Christmas I made the kids pillowcases out of some super soft fabric. Kaylee, Ashton and Aiden immediately put theirs on their pillow. Dalin tried his out for a couple of days then decided it was too big for his pillow (he refuses to use a full size pillow) so it kind of got forgotten. One day he decided it would make a good blanket/toy holder so he loaded it up with his favorite things and carried it around the house. I needed to go to the mall and I let him bring it, figuring he would leave it in the car. I was wrong. The following was an effort to get him to leave his loot behind.

Me: "Dalin people are going to think you ran away from home if you bring all that stuff in"

Dalin: "They will look at you and know you are my mother. How could I be running away when my mother is right there."

"They might think I'm Santa but I don't have a hat."

"I could be a robber but I'm not wearing robber clothes either."

What other argument could I have?

Not only did he have a treasure bag, but a handy seat for the elevator ride:)

2nd Grade Spelling Bee

Aiden was able to participate in the first Jim Thorpe second grade Spelling Bee. He had three "Bee's" in his classroom and the winners of those competed against each other to determine the classroom champion. Aiden took that title and he went on to compete against the 12 other second grade champions in his school. I was really proud of the way he took the initiative to study, I never had to tell him to practice. He didn't win (they started using third and fourth grade words) but he was AWESOME!

The kid to the right of Aiden who took the prize was hilarious. He kept winking and saluting the audience after he won.

Preschool Graduation

I forgot to post about Dalin's graduation last month, probably because I am in denial. I got a little teary just watching them practice. He successfully made it through his first and only year of preschool. We were a little worried he might drop out because most school days started out with crying, bargaining, bribing and sometimes forcing him to go. I don't know why, he was always fine once he got there and he had a fun time, but sheesh! They had a very cute little graduation program where I missed his speaking part and when they called his name to get his certificate. Luckily Chris was more aware than me and he got a picture.

I didn't think we were going to get time for a picture on his graduation day so I took this picture after the practice.

Dalin is in the second row up on the left

Spring Concert

Kaylee had her spring orchestra concert was this week. I tried taking a few pictures with my phone, but they weren't turning out very well so I gave up and put it away. About half way through the second of her three songs I noticed other parents recording the songs with their phones (yes I'm that kind of genius for not thinking of it sooner) so I only got part of the second song and the last song. I could hear a great improvement from their winter concert. Kaylee will tell you it's just because the songs were better, but I will refer to my professional audience member status and agree with myself. During one of the songs Aiden said, "This song seems so familiar, I just can't remember where I've heard it before." Dalin was sure it was "Follow the Prophet". I'm more inclined to believe it had something to do with the fact that Kaylee had been practicing it for the last five months;) Kaylee has loved orchestra and her teacher asked her to be in the varsity orchestra next year!

*I have been trying to add the video for three days. Hopefully I can get it up soon

Take your child to work day

A few weeks ago (is that how long it's been who can keep track of time these day, certainly not me) after much begging and puppy dog faces, Chris relented to take the kids to work with him on "Take you child to work day". Ashton went for the first half of the day, and the boys went for the second part. Kaylee's English teacher told her they were going to do something important in class that they shouldn't miss so she went to school (they didn't do anything by the way). Chris works in the IT department for the state, there is only one other person in his office and he spends most of his day in front of a computer screen. Not a lot of glitz and glamor to show the kids. Chris being the innovative fellow he is gave them papers to shred, saved some boxes for them to throw in the crusher and let them race down the hall on a paper cart. Our kids loved it, but now they are pretty sure that is the extent of Chris's job. The next day when Chris came home Aiden asked him how many boxes he crushed that day:)

Teaching a new dog old tricks?

Today my sister in law Kortney and her one year old daughter came to hang out with Dalin while I was gone for a little bit. When I came home Dalin said, "Mom watch. 'Alia do nothing.'" Alia just looked at him and he gave her a goldfish cracker. Then he told me, "See she does tricks if you give her goldfish." I guess he was practicing this trick while I was gone because Alia was being a little cranky and Kortney told me Dalin would say, "Stop crying Alia" then give her a goldfish and she would stop. How do I get that to work on Dalin:)

Father daugter campout

Chris and the girls had their second annual father daughter camp out this past weekend along with their uncles and cousins and grandpa. I kind of love that they do this. There was the general campfire fun, story telling (I heard my three year old niece Kimball was the best story teller. Just like her daddy) and dealing with loud obnoxious neighbor campers until 3 in the am. After breakfast there was a hike and swimming in the freezy lake.

I'm proud of my brother Jordon, his daughter is only one and they stayed overnight

The start of the hike. Uncle Ryan was visiting and was able to come too

Taking a break. Cousins and besties!

Pinewood Derby

Aiden participated in his very first pinewood derby. Chris I mean Aiden worked on the car for nearly a month. When race day came they were both pretty excited. Aiden was sure, with all the research his dad had done on pinewood derby cars, hat he was going to win the whole shabang. I'm pretty sure every boy who ever races feels the same way. He may not have come in first, but he never placed last either. I think he still had fun and he got to have some quality time with his dad and grandpa which is what it was all about, for me anyway:)

Thanks for all the help Grandpa!

How cute is that cub scout!

My dad cut out a few practice cars, so Dalin made one too.

Love these boys!!

Easter

The nap I had this afternoon must have done me some good because I finally feel like getting caught up in the blogging world. We had a really nice Easter this year. Our Easter bunny is getting trickier and came Saturday afternoon and it took our kids a while to even notice that he had been around. The kids asked us to tell the Easter bunny to hide their baskets really well, and he certainly obliged. I like that he came on Saturday because it really made our Sunday more Christ centered. I decided to make the girls dresses this year. I've decided that I really like sewing, but no matter how prepared I think I am I always end up making ten extra trips to the fabric store and spend more than I store bought dress would cost. Not to mention the month long sewing occupation of our kitchen table:/ As much as I complain (and much to Chris's dismay) I would (and probably will) do it again:)

The crazy face pictures are my favorite!

NJHS

Last month Kaylee was inducted into the National Junior Honor Society. I try to get her just to call it honor society, but it's NJHS or nothing. The candle ceremony seemed a little secret society-ish and the kids who were supposed to light the first candle had kind of a hard time (insert your own "how many honor society kids does it take to light a candle" joke here). It was a nice evening and we are so proud of Kaylee! I was involved in a lot of school activities because my older sister was, and I know it made all the difference in my school experience. Kaylee is the oldest child and grandchild so she has to do everything out first. I am so glad that she is such a great example for her family!

Beware the NINJAS!

They're coming for YOU!