Graduation Time

Michael's niece Tawsha graduates from high school tomorrow. On Sunday we had a graduation party for her that was also a surprise birthday party for Michael's mom.


Me and Allie enjoy our cake



Emma and Gracie smile pretty!



Grandma gets ready for her pinata



Grandma has a pretty good swing!



Jacob takes a swing at the frog



Allie has a pretty good swing herself!



Emma and Gracie like to watch the frog get beat up!



Daddy takes his turn and destroys the frog!
The kids weren't too upset, he was full of candy!


Daddy and 3 of his 4 siblings, Michelle, Jenny, & Chris
We missed you Matt and Christina!

Gas Stop

We had to stop in Boise to fill up the van again. We were getting ready to get back on the freeway when we drove right in front of the Boise Temple! For the second time in one day we saw a temple we didn't expect to see! We passed so quickly that we didn't get a very good picture, so Michael turned around to get a better one. It was a really good thing he did, because we realized we missed the turn for the freeway and could have driven way out of the way before we realized it. So here is a picture of the Boise Temple.

Car Crazy

What do your kids do to entertain themselves in the car? My kids found some interesting ways of keeping themselves busy. Jacob has a lightning McQueen book that has buttons to make different noises. One of the buttons is a radio button and it plays this corny music. Jacob made up his own dance to go with it, a video would be better, but we don't have it.


Allie decided not to actually eat her M&M's, but she found another way of entertaining herself with them.

Day 3

This is our family before our long driving day to Kennewick, WA. It was a ten hour drive for people who didn't stop for long. It took us 13 hours. We stopped for lunch. Then we stopped in Twin Falls Idaho. About nine miles off the freeway is Shoshonee Falls. It is called the Niagra of the West. It is 212 feet high, that is 50 feet higher than Niagra Falls. This stop took about an hour. But it was worth it!




We took a different route back to the freeway and to our surprise it went right by the Twin Falls Temple! It is a very pretty building and we were glad we got to see it!

Jacob Pretending

It has just been in the last couple of weeks that Jacob has started pretending. Making his toys talk to each other or making up different stories. It is really cute when they get to this stage. At the Pace's house we played on the treehouse. Jacob was up on top and I was down on the grass. He said, "Mom, come up here! The sharks are going to get you!" So I climbed up the treehouse and sat on the bench by Jacob. I said "Oh no! What are we going to do?" Jacob said, "Don't worry Mom, Flipper will save us!" We played sharks for about an hour, in which Flipper did save us many times and Jacob found a plastic toy gun and kept shooting the sharks so they wouldn't get his sisters! He was so cute!

2nd Day of Vacation

We arrived in Provo at about 1:30 p.m. to visit Dr. C, A friend of Michael's. We visited for a couple of hours, the kids played on the swing and ran around the backyard for a while then we had ice cream sundae's.


We drove to Brother Pace's house where we stayed for the night.


The kids had a great time in the backyard playing in the playhouse and on the swingset.

How much room can a three and two year old take up in a king size bed?


Quite a bit when they are sprawled out! They were wiped out from the days travels and playing outside, we had a great visit! Thank you Brother and Sister Pace for putting us up for the night!

1st Day of Vacation

On Wednesday, June 3rd, we left our house to drive to St. George for the first part of our drive to Seattle. Allie always wants to ride in the back seat like Emma and Gracie, so she climbed back there and wrapped the seatbelt around her neck. She put on Emma's broken glasses and decided she was ready to go! We made it to Grandpa's house at 1:30 a.m. and went straight to bed. We got up and left at 9:00 a.m. to drive to Provo.

Awards Time

Gracie's awards for this year are as follows:
Perfect attendence for the 4th quarter
Perfect attendence for the whole year
1st place for AR reading
Top Student in the class


Emma's awards for this year are:
Perfect attendence for the 4th quarter
Superintendant's Honor Roll for the 4th quarter
A Gold Seal for The President's Education Award -
(straight A's and good citizenship all year)
(it is signed by The President of the US and the US Secretary of Education)
1st place for AR reading
Top student in her class

Michael and I are so proud of our girls! They are AWESOME! They worked so hard this year and tried to do their very best. They had great teachers and a lot of fun! We hope for a repeat next year!

Allie's Owie

Can you guess what this is?


If you guessed a whole fingernail you are correct!



At the end of April, Allie slammed her finger in the sliding glass door. She screamed hysterically and her finger bled a tiny bit at the top of the nail. We didn't think much of it for a whole week because it looked fine and didn't seem to bother her. Then she woke up Sunday morning and the tip of her finger looked like she had one of those red pencil erasers on it. Really swollen and red clear to the first nuckle. I noticed if you pushed down on the top of the nail there was fluid underneath it, so I knew she was going to loose the nail. A couple of hours later you could look at the top of her nail and see that it was no longer attached to the skin. It looked hollow. Only the edges were attached. I took her to the doctor because it looked infected, but he said it wasn't and pulled the nail off all the way. Allie looked at him like he was crazy! But she didn't cry at all, and it didn't bother her if we touched her finger. The week went on and her finger didn't improve so on Friday I took her back to the doctor and she said it was definitely infected and put her on antibiotics. After two doses her finger looked tons better. It has been 6 weeks since she lost the nail and the new one is about 1/4 of the way back.

FYI - This picture is when it was looking better!

Jacob is Amazing!

Today we are doing laundry. Jacob usually puts his clothes away in his drawers, and he is really good at it. He took all of his clothes back to his room including his shirts. He was back there a really long time and I wasn't sure what he was up to, but he came out with a big smile and said "Mom, I hung up my shirts in my closet!" I was very surprised, and I asked him who helped him and he told me he did it all by himself! He slid the lego bucket to the closet and climbed up to get the hangers, then he put each shirt on its hanger and hung it up! He was so proud to tell me he had done it all by himself! I sure love that boy!




Michael came home from work and wanted to see how Jacob did it so he asked him to do another shirt and of course Jacob was thrilled, so that is how we have these cute pictures! He is so cute!

Easter Eggs

The kids had a great time coloring easter eggs, it is amazing to me how many colors you get now! I think I remember 3 or 4 when I was little, and you had to make the rest of the colors by dipping in one color and then another! Who knows what they will come up with next!

These are the beautiful finished product!
You can't see it but Jacob's name is on this egg
Everyone having a great time (me hiding behind the camera)
Allie is decorating her egg with stickers
Jacob loves purple!
Emma and Gracie are very crafty girls! They love to do stuff like this!We are grateful for the Easter holiday and what it means for all of us!

Spring Break

I know, I know, you are thinking "ANOTHER slideshow"! What can I say but I love them! And since I haven't posted in about 3 weeks this is the easiest way to post a lot of pictures at once. My computer has not been working to post, that's why this is so late. For spring break we went to Utah. The kids had fun chasing Rusty (the dog) around. We played on the swingset in the backyard, and we went to the park several times. We went and saw the movie Monsters vs. Aliens, it was cute. We visited all of our grandparents there, even mine! Grandpa went with us to Fiesta Fun and had a very exhausting evening with me and the kids riding the go-carts and bumper boats and playing video games (but he loved it)Thanks for the help Dad! Grandma went to the Washington City pool to go swimming with the kids, we met Uncle Jack and Gracie and Diana there. My kids are fish so this was probably the greatest thing for them! We had dinner with Uncle Jack and Aunt Beth and got to meet Riley, their new baby! She was two weeks old and she is beautiful, good job Jack and Beth! We visited with Aunt Shannon and Kolbey and Gage, we missed you Cassey! We didn't get to see Uncle Jason and Aunt Lindsey or Lizzie :( We miss you guys! We love and miss you all! It was a fun trip, not quite long enough, but it never is!

Jacob

Jacob has had the runs this week, so he is wearing pull-ups. Michael got home from work last night and Jacob asked him to change his pull-up. Michael told Jacob that he needed to change out of his work clothes first. Michael went to our room and closed the door. Jacob runs back there, bangs on our bedroom door and yells "Fine! I'll just change it myself then!"

Cute Pants Mom!

Last night I was wearing my gray yoga pants. Gracie said "Mom, when you die can I have those pants?" I said sure. Then she said, "I will be really sad when you die, but I really like those pants!"

Kids are so cute!

Smiley Faces!

I have been sick this week. Cold, fever, sore throat, really fun stuff. I think I only left the couch to change the movie for the kids or maybe feed them, I think I fed them!?! Anyway, Jacob and Allie found the smiley stickers and had a great time with them, what do you think?

And First Place Goes To............

Emma Stevulak!

A few months ago, Emma entered the school science fair and won 3rd place so she got to move on to the regional science fair. On Tuesday, March 17th, 2009 Emma and Michael drove to the science fair. At 9am they met the school advisor and she took them to see Emma's project. Michael spent a little while with Emma reviewing her project and then he had to take a seat in the auditorium. For two hours Emma had to stand at her project and answer questions from different judges. The parents weren't allowed on stage during judging. After judging they went to lunch at Panda Express and spent some time outside waiting for the awards ceremony. Michael wasn't going to stay for the awards because I had an enrichment activity and he wanted to be back in time so that I could go. Emma wanted to stay and I was okay with that. At 3:30 they started the awards and did the 4th and 5th graders first. The presenters announced the honorable mentions and then did 3rd and 2nd place for 4th grade, and then they said for Engineering and Mathematics 1st place goes to Emma Stevulak!!!! She was in shock! She couldn't believe that she had won! It was amazing, Michael had tears in his eyes he was so happy for her, and I was screaming when they called me! She got a gold medal on a blue ribbon. It was a very long day, but well worth it. Michael had to take the pictures from a mile away, so they are kind of blurry, but it's the best he could get. I didn't go to enrichment, we went to celebrate! We took Emma to Olive Garden for dinner and Coldstone for dessert, It was a great day!

There were 140 schools participating and 550 kids in 10 different categories. Michael thinks there were around 50 kids in her category and grade! This was a really big deal! I am so proud of Emma, and Michael for that matter. He helped Emma with her project while I was in Seattle. They did a great job!

Allie's Invention

It's a chair! You strap yourself in and sit!
But when you want to move, you stand and walk and your chair is right there when you need it again!
It's a hands-free ready to use chair! Great idea Allie!

L.A. Zoo

On Tuesday, Gracie and I went to the L.A. Zoo with her class for a field trip. I had Gracie, Charli, and Evelyn in my group. We had tons of fun and saw everything we could possibly see, several things more than once! We rode the school bus down to L.A. (it even had seatbelts!) We ate lunch and then tried to find everyone's favorite animal. Unfortunately the elephant enclosure is under construction so we didn't see them very well, but a very nice zoo man told us where we could get a peek, so we did in fact get to see everything! We hit the gift shop and then back on the bus to head for home, it was a lot of fun and I am glad that I could go with Gracie - Thank you Michael for staying home so I could go!

Urgent Care *%$#!

I had to take Gracie to urgent care this morning. We waited for two hours for them to tell us that Gracie in fact has strep throat. Okay, no biggie. We waited for an hour to get her medicine and then we finally went home. I gave the first dose at 2pm. At 4pm Gracie says "Mom, my back is itchy". Having dealt with two previous allergies to amoxicillan I pretty much knew what I would see when she lifted her shirt and sure enough, hives. Bumpy, itchy, red hives. I called the nurse to see if we could just switch meds over the phone, but no dice. I took her back to urgent care at 4:55, peds urgent care is open until 5pm. They wouldn't look at her. They told me I had to take her over to the adult urgent care because they were now closed. Apparently 5pm at Kaiser means something different than 5pm at my house. I took her to adult urgent care at 5pm. At 7:40 the doctor finally sees Gracie and tells me what I already know. Gracie had an allergic reaction to her medicine and needs a new one. After the doctor visit was pharmacy visit #2 and at 9:15 we finally get home and eat dinner. You may have heard this from me before, but I don't recommend Kaiser. It would have taken the doctor in peds 5 minutes to walk out her door and look at Gracie and order a new medicine, AND she still would have been out of there by 5pm. But no, why try to help a patient out and spare a second urgent care co-pay and wait time. AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Toe Nail Drama

My darling little Allie HATES to have her nails trimmed, absolute torture for the poor girl (and me). Last night she was in desperate need of serious trimming, so I tried to be clever. I thought that if I could trim the first one and then paint it (she has never had her toenails painted before) she would like it. WRONG - do you remember the backpack fit from Christmas? Well, this was just as bad. I got the first nail trimmed which she usually allows, and then I got it painted. She started screaming at me! She was sooooo mad I couldn't believe it! What little girl hates pink toenails? Anyway, I kept telling her how pretty it was and trying to calm her down to see if I could get any more done. I trimmed the second one which was a bit of a challenge, and then painted it and told her it was pretty. She didn't seem to settle down very much so I stopped with just two done, after all two was better than zero. I put the nail stuff away and started to put the polish away and she freaked out! She tried to get the polish away from me and I thought she wanted to put it away but then she sat down and pointed to toe number three and said "Pretty". So I asked her if she wanted me to paint that toe and she said "yeah!" I told her that I needed to trim it first and she went and got the clippers out of the drawer and gave them to me. After that she very excitedly pointed to each undone toe and said "Pretty" - We got the rest of her toes trimmed and polished and she very happily showed everyone in the family and said pretty over and over until bed time! I sure love that confusing, infuriating, adorable little girl!

Allie's New Dress

Thank you Grandma for my pretty new dress!

A Rumpus In The Rainforest

Gracie performed in her 1st grade play this week called A Rumpus In The Rainforest. It was a really cute play and Gracie was the Toucan. She did a great job and wasn't even a tiny bit shy, (she was worried she would be). The play was about a frog who wanted to go see the sky above the trees, but didn't know how to get up there. He asks the toucan first, but she is injured so he asked several jungle animals like the sloths, the monkeys, the jaguar, and the snakes, but no one can help him. In the end the toucan's wing gets better and she takes him to see the sky above the trees. Gracie likes to add that the frog doesn't really climb on her back they just pretend! (Which is a good thing because the frog is twice as big as Gracie!)

Michael finds razor, loses mind!

Death in our Family

We had a tragic loss in our family on Saturday. Our trampoline died! (sorry if I scared you) I know some of you laughed, but for us it is a huge loss! It has been a dear member of our family for about 6 years now and we will truly miss it! A spring popped off a while ago and it wasn't a big deal, but then another did. I told the kids if 4 popped off in the same section we had to take it down. Saturday was the awful moment it happened. The hole it created was just too big to ignore and we sadly took it down. No worries, we have every intention of replacing it ASAP!



As I was taking off the rest of the springs, Jacob was very distraught, and mad. Then he found something to entertain himself. He started to hang the springs on the rings that were hanging down from the mat. As he did this he was singing Jingle Bells and hitting the springs like they were bells! It is amazing to me the things that children come up with! He was soooooo cute!