Two-Eyed Pantyhose

What do you get when you fill a pantyhose with soil and seeds, followed by gluing on two plastic eyes?

This cute guy!

This little guy is nestled in one of my flower pots, I think he is adorable. Ashley made him at school this year and has been very diligent at keeping him watered.

Let the school year begin

Usually when the school year starts I am sad to see my kids leaving for the day, not this year. With me working and them being home alone most days the house has been in a daily upheaval. I am excited to be able to gain control of the mess they leave behind their every step.
The girls are also excited to start a new chapter in the life. Breanna will be starting 8th grade, Ashley 3rd and Nicole 2nd. Each kid will be at a different school so I will have 3 different schedules to keep track of.

The photo will all the 3 girls is the only one I got of Breanna. She didn't want me to take individual photos of her. She is going to wish she would have allowed me to when she grows up.

Nicole is striking a pose as only she knows how.

And Ashley was playing the big girl today. She didn't want any help with her hair or clothes. She can do it herself, thank you.

Now I need to go get myself ready for work. Hope things go well for them today.

Pioneer Day 2011

This year we stayed in Thatcher for Pioneer Day. It was Thatcher's turn to host the activities.

Here is Nicole on Church street between Stadium and College waiting for the parade to start.

And here is Ashley waiting.

The Daley cousins joined us for the parade and fireworks after.

8 is Great but 9 is Super Fine

Look who turned 9 today.

 ASHLEY!

Happy Birthday Princess

Ashley's baptism

Today was Ashley's baptism. She was baptized by her dad in the Thatcher stake center. She actually had to be baptized twice because Brian forgot the word "the" the first time. I gave the talk on baptism and didn't cry until the last sentence. She was really happy and had a great day. Wish we would have gotten a family photo but we took this one before anyone else showed up and then forgot later.

Let's Celebrate Early

Because Brian can't be in Thatcher on Monday for Ashley's 8th Birthday we are going to celebrate today. We are treating today like it's her birthday. On her actual birthday the girls and I will have a smaller celebration in Thatcher. What kid doesn't want to get their presents two days early?

We started out the morning opening presents.

She received: Bella Sara horses, Sketchers light-up twinkle toe shoes, silver 8 necklace, crystal and pearl necklace to go with her baptism dress, blue flower necklace, silver locket necklace, real leather all-in-one scriptures, 2 packages of socks, battle zue zue pet, and her favorite toy was a Barbie that came with 3 little dogs that pee. (last year she got the Barbie pooping dog, who knew kids would want something like that).

For Breakfast we choose french toast sticks after which I took them to the Stapley pool for two hours.

I made a simple pink birthday cake yesterday and Brian's grandma ate a piece out of it when she woke up this morning. She didn't realize it was a birthday cake until after she ate it. She told Ashley she was sorry. And both Ashley and Nicole said it's OK. I don't think she minded at all.

I got Ashley candles that relight after you blow them out. They were sparking everywhere and kept relighting and shooting out more sparks. Kind of scary actually. She was a little freaked out by them but also thought they were lots of fun.

In the afternoon we went to see Despicable Me 3D in the theaters. Usually I don't like 3D but this one worked out well. Ashley wore her new light up shoes and they were blinking so brightly I thought maybe she should take them off during the movie. She said she would be careful not to have them blink so I let her leave them on and she only set them off once. These are really bright shoes. The little girls loved the little yellow guys in the movie.

After the movie Ashley chose Mime Cafe for her birthday dinner. We called and invited Marion but she had already eaten. Ashley loves their gummy worms in "dirt" for dessert.

Ashley had a really good day and so did the family getting to spend some time together.

Hairdressing party

Bre had a hairdressing party for her little sisters to get them ready for church.

Last night Nicole got really sick. She was so bad she ended up sitting on the toilet while she puked into a bucket we put in front of her. When she would stand up she would scream that her belly hurt. Her face was as white as a sheet and if she drank anything, up it came. Poor girl, we didn't know what to do for her.

Socks and Cats

I ran across this scene tonight while I was checking on the kids. For some reason cats LOVE Ashley. Usually when the mother cat is in the house for the night she sleeps right next to Ashley. This was a first for a cat to sleep on Ashley. I wonder what it is about her over the other two girls they like so much. All 3 girls love the cat and kittens as much as their siblings. But there is differently something about Ashley that cats love.

I wonder if it's just cats or all animals. We don't have any other pets (other then a Betta fish) so I don't know.

I made Nicole 10 pair of decorated socks for her birthday coming up here shortly. This is a pair with frog ribbon. The girls love this frog ribbon and have several hair pretties made that will match it. Other pairs have white lace, beads, or different colored ribbon. Nicole is asleep in this photo, I snuck into her room to try the sock on and see how it fit stretched out a little bit on the leg.

When Breanna was young and it was her birthday I would buy her lots of toys. I thought she needed lots of toys to be happy. I learned over the years to instead buy a few select toys that you know they will actually play with. Their room is cleaner because they don't have an overflow of toys coming out of the toy box or shelves. Instead I made it a point to buy/make gift that are sentimental or that the child needs along with a few good toys, because they are still kids.

Cast Pictures

Saturday night cast pictures of The Jungle Book

Ashley is the monkey flashing the peace sign with tan pants in the front row.

Nicole is in the back row with the striped pants.

They had their cast pictures before the show.

After the show was the cast party, which means lots of sweets for children at 9:00 at night.

Tonight Ester, Claire, Allison, Anna, Aunt Suzy and Grandma (Lavee) Mayberry came to the show.

The Daley's were in town most of today because Breanna, Amy and Beth had Temple Cultural Celebration (TCC) practice at the EAC football field. When this play was going on they were able to participate in a 6 or 7 stake dance on the football field. Breanna met some cousins for the first time and there were many there she didn't meet. Breanna had a really good time and didn't want to leave.

Help me sew

Grandma Mayberry helped Ashley sew a small bag with some cat fabric she has been saving.

All the sewing of the bag Ashley and my mom did together. Ashley sat on my mom's lap while my mom controlled the foot pedal.

In this photo my mom is putting on the button. Ashley didn't help with this step.

And because tomorrow is Mother's Day I gave my mom and Brian's mom their gifts today when they were at my house. I cut out the Gila Valley Temple in vinyl for each. I discovered a website that had all the LDS temples in SVG formats available to buy for around $8.00. Brian wouldn't have let me spend that much money on another SVG file, but the temple he said go ahead.

This is the vinyl with the backing still on ready to go home to it's new house. Looks really nice. Ester and I are ordering 10 yard rolls of vinyl in different colors. When I get that vinyl, I will cut myself a temple like this and place it in the corner of my large black mirror that hangs in the front room.

Ashley's Track Meet

The Thatcher Jack Daley Primary School had their annual 1st grade track meet today.

Each child was able to participate in 3 activities.

Notice above how Ashley gets whacked in the head with the baton during the trade off. I didn't notice it at first because I was looking at Ashley, the boy handing the baton to Ashley is holding his pants up.

Catching some air.

She participated in the jump rope (6th place), 50 yard dash class relay (seen in photos, her class won) and the backwards race (2nd place).

She wanted to wear her softball shoes so she can run fast. I was against it but, Brian said let her do it if that's what she wants. He's right, it doesn't hurt anything. I do wish she would have let me put her hair in a ponytail. She told me she had done her hair pretty the last three days and she wasn't going to do it today.

OK, I get the message.

And yes, she picks out her own clothes she's going to wear to school. Most of the time I let her wear her sense of style unless it's just really bad, then I have to intervene. 

After the meet I took her to Denny's and Brian met us there for lunch. She had a fun day.