Garrett the River Bandit

My next spotlight of our family is my oldest son Garrett. He is 8 years old but is only 2 months away from being 9. How time does fly. Garrett is my sports kid. If it's a sport he wants to play it. Right now he is playing on a baseball team called the River Bandits. He is having fun but is a little bummed because his birthday is so late in the year he had to play a year lower so most of his team are 2nd graders but he still has fun. He loves to play soccer and basketball too. He really gets into video games a lot. He could play for hours on end if I let him. He also goes in spurts on what he loves at the moment. He had a passion for Star Wars and then it changed to Mario, then to Sonic, then to Avatar the Airbender, then to Bakugan and now the latest is Pokemon....everything Pokemon. I just can't keep up with him and I can't buy Christmas early because likely his new thing will change and who knows what it will be next. Garrett has always done things early in his life. He talked extremely early. He was full blown talking at 12 months old. He was reading at 4 years old and walked at 9 months and has always been doing things extremely early in school and is a smart kid. He is definitely my smart reader though. He reads at an extremely high grade level for his age. Just wish I could get him to like it more :)

Well here are the answers Garrett gave me when I asked what his favorite things are:

Favorite foods: Noodles, hamburgers, hotdogs, pizza
Favorite desserts: Cookies, cake
Favorite color: Red
Favorite TV shows: Pokemon, Spongebob
Favorite movies: Narnia Voyage of the Dawn Treador, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Harry Potter
Favorite Books: Percy Jackson, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Pokemon Hand Book
Favorite Vacation: Disneyland
Vacation you want to go on: Nickelodean cruise
Favorite things to do: Play with my friends, video games, play with my family
Favorite sport: Basketball
Things I don't like: Getting hurt
Things I love: My family
Favorite animals: Bear, tiger, lion
Friends: Cale, Brooks, Efron, Chris, Kasen, Kyler, Nathan, Morris, John, Ethan, Jayden, Mason, Carter, James, Ryan, Preston, Adam, Harrison.

Everybody needs a Connor

CONNOR

The second spotlight in our family is my middle child Connor who is 6 years old. This first picture of Connor sums up his personality to a tee. I have very few pictures of Connor where he is not pulling some sort of face like this. In fact yesterday we went to a street carnival at the library here in Fillmore and a guy was drawing faces of the kids for free. He was doing this straight for 4+ hours, doing hundreds of kids. We went over and he did Kylie and Garrett and then did Connor and Connor stuck out his tongue for his picture and the guy laughed and drew his picture that way and said that was the first time a kid had ever done that for him. Of course Connor would be the first kid to not sit and smile for his picture but stick out his tongue. Connor is a very unique kid. One minute you want to strangle him because he will reason you to death and one minute he is the most loving enjoyable cooky kid you have ever met. My mother in law once told me that everybody needs a Connor and I totally believe that. How would we get by in life without him and his way of life. He has the best memory of anybody I have ever met. He is also a math genius for his age (which is something he definitely did not get from me). Well here are the answers he gave me when I asked him for his favorite things:

Favorite foods: Taco soup, pizza, tortillas, chicken enchiladas, tomato soup, hamburgers
Favorite desserts: Cookies, cake.
Favorite color: Red, blue.
Favorite TV shows: Spongebob, pokemon, Icarly, Sonic X, Tuff puppy.
Favorite movies: Winnie the Pooh, Harry Potter, Spongebob Squarepants movie.
Favorite music: Dynomite.
Favorite books: All of them.
Favorite vacations: Yellowstone, disneyland.
Vacation you want to go on: Nikelodean cruise.
Favorite thing to do: Play with my family, play Wizards 101 on the computer.
Favorite sports: Karate, soccer.
Things I don't like: Spiders and getting hurt.
Things I love: My family.
Favorite animals: Shark, blue wale, lion, tiger, cheetah.
Friends: Will, Danny, Cooper, Spencer, Ty, Forrest, Cody, Jesse and Brandt.

Thirty, flirty and thriving

I've decided to kind of do a spotlight on each member of our family and why not start with me because well..it is my 30th birthday today. Yikes-the big 3-0. I asked Connor yesterday if 30 was old and he said "yes...but mom's are supposed to be old." I guess when I was 6 I thought my mom was old too. I don't think that any more.

So a few things about me....

Favorite food: Lasagna, pizza, rolls, soups.
Favorite dessert: Chocolate cake, doughnuts.
Favorite color: Red.
Favorite TV shows: One Tree Hill, Gossip Girl, American Idol, Grey's Anatomy and Glee.
Favorite Movies: Harry Potter (all of them), Pride and Prejudice, Mamma Mia, Phantom of the Opera, The Holiday.
Favorite Music: Kris Allen, Paramore, SecondHand Serenade, Plain White Ts, Kelly Clarkson.
Favorite Books: Harry Potter, The Mortal Instruments, Twilight, Hunger Games, Percy Jackson and Fablehaven.
Favorite places I've traveled: Rio de Janeiro, Maui, Yellowstone, Disneyland.
Places I want to travel: Alaska cruise, Disneyworld, well..anywhere really.
Favorite past-time: Reading, watching movies, camping, 4-wheeling, spending time with my family, traveling.
Favorite sport: Basketball.
Things I don't like: Spiders, Pain (I have fibromyalgia so basically have pain every day of my life), kids being hurt, allergies, ironing.
Things I love: Sleeping in, roller coasters, making lists, playing board games, my family!!!!

I can't believe how fast 30 years has gone by. I have been married for 10 years now. It will be interesting to look back in 10 years from now to see how much has changed from this list. Hopefully the list of places I've traveled has gotten bigger!!! Hopefully my 30s truly will be a fun age to go through. No more diapers so that already is a fun start (way to be positive right?)

Growing a little (well maybe)

So today I took Kylie and Connor to their 3 and 6 year old checkups. We got to meet their new doctor. I was sad to have to switch to a new doctor. I have been seeing the same doctor for almost 9 years but I really liked the new doctor and the kids were happy #1 because neither of them had to have shots and #2 because the doctor found Spongebob and Dora in their ears. Connor was acting his goofy self and the doctor of course instantly loved his personality. The doctor asked if he could stand on one foot and hop when he was squatted down. Connor told the doctor it would be easier if he could go into midget mode. He then preceded to put his shirt over his knees and squat around the room like a midget. The doctor told us we had a genius of a boy and we were just going to have to accept that our boy was perfect. Kylie also was perfect for the doctor. At first she wouldn't say a word for him but by the end she was telling him all about Dora (since he managed to find Dora in her ears and Boots the Monkey in her mouth). Then he found out that yes...she is a talker and does not stop. He learned quickly that our kids are small and that it is just how they are...he said he could tell these two will grow up to conquer the world...and I can tell you that these two will. Now we will see in a few months what he will have to say about Garrett.

Kylie 3.3 years
Weight: 24.0 lbs 0%
Height: 35.0 inch 4%

Connor 6.2 years
Weight: 37.0 lbs 3%
Height: 43.5 inch 11%

My Karate Kid

So with all the spring sports starting up, Connor decided he wanted to do karate instead....maybe because we watched the new karate kid movie and then decided to watch the old karate kid movies and he told me he was more of a karate kind of kid. We saw a sign in a dance studio that said they did karate on Thursdays so we stopped by. He watched the first week and decided he wanted to do it. (they have baseball season going on so I told him it was baseball or karate and he chose karate). Today was his first official class. He came home from his first class and actually had a lot of things he learned and he looked so stinkin cute in his little karate uniform (they call it a gui). So my camera has no battery so the bad picture is taken with my phone but here he is anyway.....(I will take a better picture when I get my camera back)

We are here

Well we made it to Fillmore.....and have loved it so far. I only have about 10 boxes left to unpack. When we first got here I thought there would be no way we would fit everything we had here but surprisingly we fit perfectly here. I love the house we are in. I will take some pictures once I get everything put away and we are settled a little more (will that ever happen?)....the kids have loved school. There are two twin boys Garrett's age that live across the street and they became friends the second we moved in. He plays with them nonstop!!! The teachers at the school told me they don't get new students very often so they are paid attention to a lot and of course if you know Connor he loves that. I dropped him off at school today and two little girls followed him all the way in to class whispering "There's Connor" the whole way in. He was beaming the whole way to class. Connor loves attention.

We do have to spend our first weekend traveling back up to Ogden to get the rest of our stuff (we couldn't get it all in one trip) but that just makes Grandma happy to get to see us sooner!!! I will post some pictures of our new life here (when I can find my camera--ha ha)

Graduation

On Friday Chelton graduated from Weber State's Law Enforcement Academy. He has been going full time since August and has been working very hard. It is a big accomplishment and we are very proud of him. He got a job with the Millard County Sheriff's Department and the Millard County Sheriff and the Captain came to graduation to present Chelton with his certificate. We are also proud of him because he is an excellent shooter and got the top shooter award in his class. He starts his new job down in Fillmore in a few days and we are excited. The rest of us will join him in a few weeks when our house is available. I know he will make a excellent police officer and all his hard work and training will pay off


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