Jubilee Days

Every year in Laramie we have a Jubilee days celebration. We have the rodeo, a parade, the amusement rides come to town and there are 3 or so nights of street dancing with food and the like. We were out of town camping last year, but wanted to be here this year. We went to the rodeo Friday night. The evening started with mutton busting for ages 3-8 under 50 lbs. There were a few boys who rode really well, but the arena was all mud so the sheep usually lost its rider as it was trying to keep its footing. I had talked to Carter before we went about this event and he was all excited to ride a sheep next year until he saw the event, then he said he didn't want to do that.

 I thought that I had taken a few more pictures during the actual rodeo, but I must not have cause I don't have any. Here's a picture of us after the rodeo was all done.

 

The next morning, we went to the parade. It is probably the longest parade I've been to. Start to finish was about 45 minutes and there was a lot of great floats and people in the parade.

The cowboys representing the Cheyenne Frontier Days came and the chairmen for all the different events were all on horseback behind the wagon. 

 I can't remember this mascots name.. Cowboy

 Joe maybe?   The kids were happy to shake his hand and say hi. He was walking with the UW cheerleaders an sports athletes.

 Then they had the old time tractors that every town has in their parade. I liked this little tractor cause I'd never seen one before.

 The local reserves walked through also. The special ops team had a soldier on both sides of the street shaking hands with all the children. It was pretty neat to see them interacting with the kids.

 We also had a pickle riding a bike it the parade. Never have seen that before. They were from the store downtown called Sweet Pickles. It's a specialty toy store that Paige loves to visit from time to time.

When the parade ended with the street sweepers it was raining and we got a little we getting back to the car. It was really fun and the kids enjoyed the candy they collected. We will defiantly attend again...and maybe next year, the clinic will have a float and we can throw candy instead! 

It's been a long time....

It's been a long time since I've done any blogging... pregnancy does that to you. Shortly around the time of my last post I was blown into full fledged morning sickness and most every normal thing in life came to a halt.

So before baby gets here, we are getting all the things crossed off our to do list. One of those things is dental check ups. Carter had his first appointment on July 10, and was awesome. Emma, Paige and Carter all had an appointment at the same time, so Emma went first to show him how things go and how it's is not scary. He was so excited when it was finally his turn. 

 He had no issues with any of the instruments used and really loved the water and sucker tools.  He was good at opening wide and letting Lexi do a full cleaning.

 I'm pretty sure he was smiling while she was cleaning.

 Ta Da! All done. We had to drop something off at the office later that day and he was so excited to be back, and so disappointed that he wasn't going to get to do it again. Now he asks when he gets to go back.  I'm grateful he liked it and count my blessings that I have kids who actually like going to se the dentist!

Christmas 2012

The Sunday before Christmas, we got all dressed up in our Sunday Christmas clothes and went to church. We enjoyed several musical performance's which included the bishops 11 year old playing a complex version of Oh Holy Night, a violin duet, a guitar accompanied a singer and the congregation sung. It was wonderful. Too bad Shawn missed it due to an emergency. This is our family Christmas picture. 

This year I had trouble finding matching Christmas pajamas for the kids so I decided that I would make them. After a week of late nights and sewing during naps I completed all 4 pairs and anxiously awaited giving them Christmas Eve. 

We had Christmas Eve dinner at some friends from the wards home and played some games while the kids decorated sugar cookies for Santa. When we got home we gave the kids their PJs. they are a bit big, but I think I did a rather good job for not having done this before. 

Santa just came...

This year we were lucky enough to sleep past 7. The rule was the stocking we're free to the taking, but the gift opening had to wait till after breakfast. We knew Carter wouldn't last long opening gifts with out something to eat first.

I made cute Christmas tree waffles for breakfast and all the kids thought it was a great idea. They loved them and it was a big hit. *thank you Pinterest for the idea*

Carter got a Finding Nemo fleece blanket, and pillow case and a cotton pillow case from Grandma Sanders. All the other kids have one, so now Carter fits in on movie night, even though he never watches the movie.

Santa brought Mason his much desired Jake and The Neverland Pirates ship and Carter got him the characters. 

Paige got her "titar" she's been hoping for. I wish we would have had the camera rolling. I was busting a gut watching how excited she was.

Emma got a my life horse and doll. She was so excited. She said "Santa must have been watching that day we were at walmart and I asked for this and you said I couldn't get it cause it cost $40.00. I didn't have that much and I didn't do any chores to make that much. I'm so glad he was watching." She hasn't played with it as much as we thought she would, but she is making sure it's safe from the younger kids.

We had a good Christmas. There was very little fighting, and a lot of peaceful play. I couldn't have asked for a better Christmas this year.

Breakfast with Santa

This morning I had the great idea to take the kids to the community center's Breakfast with Santa. Paige had a rough start to the day so I was wondering if it really was a good idea, but we loaded up and headed out at 8:20. Shawn joined us till 9 then headed off to work. We had pancakes, bacon and hot cocoa for breakfast and it was so nice not to have to cook or clean up after.  

Then the kids and I had a talk about line etiquette and they promised to be their best in line waiting to visit with Santa. It was a long line and with all 4 kids by my self, I was worried. Mason alone worries me with it comes to lines. They did amazing, considering. We waited for 30 minutes as the line moved slowly. 

Mason could hardly contain himself as it came our turn. We let Carter go first and he wasn't quite sure about this scary bearded guy at first. He was about to cry but then her saw me and I told him it was okay and he decided that it would be okay not to cry. He had that worried look on his face, but no tears. I really love this picture.

 Paige asked for somethings and told Santa she was good this year. He told her to listen to her parents and do as they say. In my mind I started to laugh. She is so head strong. Good thing she's a cutie.

I think that Mason scared Santa with all his excited energy.  I was worried that he was going to jump on his lap and knock the poor man over. Thankfully, Mason didn't and he enjoyed every second of chatting with Santa.  Santa asked him if he wanted a toy car for Christmas and Mason said "NO, not that!" He wants what he wants and that's what he said. I laughed.

Emma went last and was very happy to get some good time with Santa. She asked for a barbie car that you can drive.  Santa also asked her if she wanted her two front teeth and she just laughed and didn't answer him. 

 After visiting with Santa we went over and did some crafts. Paige decorated reindeer and Emma and Mason did a Santa. 

Carter chilled eating his candy cane that Santa gave him. He was so sticky and messy with he was done. Good thing he didn't get the whole thing.

When we got in the car Emma said "This was the best morning ever! Thank you Mom"!  It was so nice to hear her thank me cause I debated going all week knowing I'd be alone and with 4 kids, that's a hard feat. Thankfully they were really good and I didn't have any melt downs to deal with.

The best of Backyard Camping

Because we went to the beach as our vacation this summer we didn't have our traditional family camping trip. The kids missed it terribly and kept asking about when we were going to go camping again.  On a spur of the moment we decided that we would have a backyard camp out. Shawn built a fire on a piece of sheet metal that we've used before but didn't have any marshmallows to roast.  The kids helped Shawn set up the tent and get all the sleeping gear our to the tent. 

We enjoyed a beautiful sunset from our back yard that evening. It is such a beautiful thing to experience. 

All tucked in and ready for bed.  Due to the temperatures that evening we chose to let Carter sleep inside, which in turn allowed me to sleep inside and not intrude in the kids sleep over with their Dad. They were so happy just to be able to sleep outside. 

2012 Swimming Lessons

This was Paige's first year of swimming lessons. She was excited that she got to do them, until the day they started and then it was a small fight everyday to get her to do it. Her teacher was amazing and patient. 

 See what I mean...this was the first day, she hasn't even gotten wet yet.

 Carter hung out everyday for 2 weeks for 1 1/2 hours. While the other kids played on the trampoline or the swings, or the dreaded sandbox when it wasn't their turn. Paige went first and really wanted to go after Emma.  That was part of her problem. Emma went last. 

 By the end of her first lesson, she was a bit more satisfied, and not so grumpy.

 Mason's class was a very large class. Most of them were good swimmers, but a few struggled like Mason. The little boy on Mason's right, he talks privet lessons weekly also and they struggled to get him to listen and follow directions. He just wanted to swim under water the whole time. He wasn't a good influence on Mason. He just wanted to play with him and do what he was doing. 

 Emily is learning to teach swim lessons, and was Mason's constant hands on assistant in the pool. She was really good with him. 

 Emma loved to swim under the water. She's getting better at the breast stoke, but struggles breathing without stopping. I know she'll get it with practice. 

 The 3rd day of lessons Paige decided that she didn't want to get into the pool, so I sat on the edge of the pool and tried my best to get her dress off.  It was not worth it and when Emily offered to come and take her from me, I took her up on the offer. She warmed up after getting in, and she doesn't throw a tantrum in the pool with her teachers, just with me. She thought it was pretty cool that she could swim in her dress. 

 Carter fell asleep in the stroller almost everyday at the end of the time we were there.  He was so cute sleeping with all the commotion around him. 

 He got to swing in his first swing, it lasted about a minute and then he wanted out. He doesn't like swinging.

Swimming lessons were successful this year. We look forward to doing more and getting better with time. We were so thankful the the Weist's opened up their home pool for lessons and that we were able to find a place that was conducive to having little kids play and have fun while siblings were in their lessons.

I should share one experience that scared the daylights out of me. Swimming lessons were held at the home of some members of our ward. They had up over for dinner the weekend after we moved in.  The property were the lessons are given are here in Tangent. It's pretty secluded from the roads or other homes. The property is set back off the road and the pool sits between the house and a grass seed field directly behind it. The trampoline sits to the south of the pool and behind it are some big pine trees.  To the north is a very large lawn and some flower garden with more large pine trees at the end of the property.  One of the first few days Mason disappeared after Emma got out of the pool. I went into the house and checked the bathroom, I walked through the house and didn't find him, or hear him. He didn't answer me calling him either. Emily lives there, and I asked her if she had seen him. She started looking. I started to walk the perimeter of the property, looking in the dried up ditch, on the porch swing and in the front yard.  After searching for 10 minutes we called on the help of the teenagers who were there at the house. I think we had like 6 or 7 people looking for him.  I finally called Shawn at work after 15 minutes and he got in the truck and headed over.  I drove over to the Elementary school just in case, but while going there kept thinking, "why would he go there?" The school can't be seen from the house, nor has he gone from the house to the school.  While I was there looking one of the kids on bikes came around looking for him also.  I kept beating myself up over loosing my special needs child. I know better to take my eyes off him, but I figured that with the swing set and trampoline he wouldn't wonder. Well I was wrong and I was sick.  As I was coming back from the school Shawn called. Emily had found Mason in her older brothers room, he's 23, reading some books he found in there.  We walked through the house several times, and all Emily could come up with was he would move rooms before we would get to them.  He went in to go to the bathroom, and got distracted while he was coming out of the bathroom and never returned outside.  Emma was amazing the whole time. She sat and played with Carter and kept an eye on Paige. Just thinking about it I get all those emotions again and I find myself wanting to just go and hold my babies. I prayed the longest prayer of thanks that afternoon. Thanks for those who were helping, thanks that my husband dropped everything to be there and thanks that we found him. I can't imagine what parents go through when their child is taken and not returned.  After that day, I escorted Mason to the bathroom, and he didn't get out of my eyes shot. I just couldn't take that chance again.