Random

 Just a few pics of what our lives are like with kids:


This is what happens when a 5 year old finds something he doesn't understand what is for but finds it interesting enough to use up all 20 of them by pealing them off and stick them all together.... thanks Aaron.


You start projects that are supposed to be done in a day because you rather make it yourself than go and buy a new booster seat for that same 5 year old.... project still in progress :) and thinking it would have been better to just go a buy a new one anyways.

 \
You take your kids to the Scout meetings even though they are not your priority just so they can have fun and keep watching out for fire ants the entire time.

 You feed your baby what ever is available at the moment  and in this case I am grateful they had watermelon besides the crispy treats.

 One day you decide to go and get your 15 month baby a kitchen of her own so she can let you cook dinners... did it work?  NO but she likes it a lot.

 You spend time teaching your oldest how to do applique quilts... now that I like.

 When is too hot, you turn the hose on so the kids can play in the sprinklers.

 And get soaked.

 What is priceless is to see these cute curls after they get wet... LOVE!!

 Sister fun!!

 Getting sick of it...

 More and more Scouts.  Here is Victor taking a giant leap to win a race, that boy can jump.

 And of course he got more belt loops.

 Before the pool opened, the kids wanted to play with the old one, they are sporting their nice haircuts on this pic.

 Kahlan had fun and so did most of the kids....

 Expect the lonely boy behind the door. 

 But he came back to us after a while.

 After the pool then they get crafty.

 Shayna made these cute bracelets out of soda can openers (if that is what you call them)

 When the pool finally opened, we took Kahlan to try it out.

 At first she liked it from far away, we are still trying to make her like it.

 One day she tried to take the diaper off herself... she didn't find it very comfortable.  There are more pics but we will stop here :)

April Camping Trip.

Wow, this just goes to show you what kind of year it has been for me.  I was not on top of things at all.  So long ago and it was so much fun.  I think we did uploaded the pics of FB and shared them with all our friends and family that are there.  So our ward had a camp out and we were so excited to be able to go.  We had a great time after we set the tent in place.  They sang songs around the campground and the kids were mostly gone from out sight.  They are getting to be so big and independent.  We hardly saw them which is sad because they are not in very many pictures as you can see here. 

 Kahlan's frist time at a camping ground.  She LOVED it!

 The tent... not so much.  We were so excited and ready to go and have a good night and she kept screaming the whole time.  Kahlan and I ended up leaving and spent the night at home by ourselves.  It was a pain the neck driving at midnight by myself and getting to a house that had no one in it.  But we made it and woke up early to go meet the family for breakfast.

 Here is Kahlan ready to eat... dirt.

 Aaron playing with a friend.

 Dipping his feet in the water.

 Hey we found Tristan!!

Our campsite.  Sadly our tent is now too small for the whole family and Dan thinks next time we  will have to buy another one.  It is just not big enough with an extra person in there.  The camping trip was fun.

Victor's Gifted and Talented Project and Shayna's school project

This is way overdue, but here are the pics to Victor's project and Shayna's last project for school.

 We visited Sam Houston's statue again to get an idea of how to make it.  Victor did this mostly by himself, I helped with the vest.

 They were required to have specific sections in their dream backyard and having a nature center was one of them, he created this beautiful pond.

This is the relaxation area.

 His garden area.

 His pool area, notice how there are signs everywhere, also part of the project.

 His club house.

 Sports area.

 I helped him build a little hammock as part of the relaxation area.

 And here he is at the expo.  People were really interested in his project and asked a lot of questions.  They took pictures of the whole thing.  He was so proud of himself.

 A week after Victor's expo, Shayna came home asking me to help her with her last project for school  They learned about the Oklahoma City bombing and their memorial and were asked to come up with their own version of a memorial.  Shayna did one in memory of the kids that lost their lives that day.  It was really cute.

 She created a number for each of their kids and it represented their age, they were pink and blue depending on their gender and then she created a little pond and added some trees that we recycled from Victor's project and the little critters too.

 I love how my kids can be so creative.

Another School Year Gone.

It is always amazing to me how fast the school year goes by.  All my kids did great in school this year and we feel very blessed for having kids that have close to zero problems with their learning abilities.  Tristan had some issues being lazy for a while but nothing a few talks couldn't fix.  Victor got a little overexcited about being in the trashcan band at school that he left his gifted and talented project on hold for about a month which he regretted greatly and Shayna had a rough start keeping up with homework but it was tough just for a few weeks and ended the year with no problems at all.
I am gonna write a little bit about each of the kids just to remind me of the adventures they had at school this year.
Tristan finished 1st. grade and had a great start with his teacher until she got sick again (she had been battling cancer for a few years).  Eventually the teacher left on medical leave and sadly she passed away a couple of months ago.  The rest of the year was fine, I never go tot meet his new teacher which I thought was kind of weird but as long as he was doing great in school I rather just skip the whole "visiting the school" thing since I always end up fighting with the front desk people.  He is an awesome reader and he kept progressing til the end, his entire class nominated him for the "Best Reader" award int he classroom, he also got a math award and his report card was excellent.  He recently lost a tooth at school and was happy to bring home to us, the tooth fairy sadly never came to visit because she has been kind of busy and sick the poor thing.  At the end of the year Tristan was able to go with his school on a field trip to the zoo, he had a lot of fun.  The only thing he needs to work on is his handwriting, it is very good when he sits there and takes him time but when he is in a rush it is all weird and can barely understand it.  He is always in a rush that guy.  During the last month of school I finally felt confident that he could ride his bike all the way to school, so we got him a new bike and a new lock, he was the happiest boy on earth and enjoyed it a lot.  I think Tristan did a lot of growing this year but I still see in him a little bit of baby every once in a while, he still kisses stuffed animals while watching TV and loves all things soft, hugs a blanket when he has the chance but at the same time he is all grown up.  Last Sunday he gave another talk in primary and on that same day he had the desire to go share his testimony with everyone during sacrament meeting (on fast Sunday of course) and did great.  He is growing fast and looking forward to his baptism day, coming soon that's for sure.

Voctor just finished 4th grade and once again was a great student.  He brought a lot of As all year long, with the exception of the one B that he got and I think he was harder on himself than I was.  He hates not being number one.  This year they split his class into two and had two teachers.  Miss Lee from last year and Mr. Asher who mainly taught them Math.  I do not like that set up but what can you do.  He quickly got enrolled in the Gifted and Talented Project and was really looking forward to it all year, he also got involve with a Trash Can Band that seemed to be the highlight of the year, he was at every single rehearsal and if he ever missed was really upset about it.  We saw him a couple of times, once at school and once at the  Lone Star College. He did great and really enjoyed being part of something like that.  He is not very musically inclined, at least not with singing, he doesn't show any interest in playing the piano either so we wont push that on him.  He says he wants to play the drums in the future... we shall see.  He got his awards last week, he was super excited about them and again we felt very proud of him.  He procrastinated on the GT project but in the end it turned out really great and we were happy to go see his display at the Atascocita High school.  Only three kids represented the 4th graders this year. He is still a very strong reader, he is still a very shy boy too.  His only friend Zoleen is the only one that will hang out with him at school.  I am hoping he will come out of his shell a little bit more next year.  He was asked to be in the school patrol for next year and that means he will be staying a little bit longer after school.  Of course he is way excited about starting 5th grade.

Shayna finsihed 6th grade and is looking forward to start 7th. One thing I can't forget to mention about Shayna is that all year long she worked really hard on not missing a single day of school, she did great until about 3 weeks ago when she got strep.  She had to miss 2 days of school and she was devastated.  It wasn't until the award ceremony that I understood why it was a big deal.  They gave out an award for 100% attendance and only 3 or 4 kids got it.  The award ceremony was a big deal, only the parents of the kids who were getting awards were invited (makes sense).  Shayna got 3, that day.  One for excellent performance in Math, for Spanish and one for having all As and 1 B all year long.  She got an extra one on the day of her band concert.  She seems to be really good at playing the French Horn and she got an special award for it.  She made Honors Band for next year and is really excited about it.  She also went to perform a couple of solos at school and got a couple of medals.  Since I never attended school here or played an instrument I am not really sure what that's called but all I know is that she was really happy about it and I was happy for her.  Dan took his little box of memories out an shared with her all the medals that he got while he was in band.  I twas kind of neat to see them both looking through that box and for Shayna to learn more about her Dad.  She really didn't struggle that much at school and I see that as a great blessing, her report card always showed us what a great student she is.
I can tell that she had some struggles at school with friends and trying to figure out what people to hang out with.  In the end she is not with the popular girls, but I think she understand that there is a great deal to give up in order to stay with the cool kids.  I think she really knows who she is and the choices she is expected to make or she know what kind of person she wants to be.  She needed a little help from us and a couple of talks but I think she did great.

I can't wait to see what next year will bring for all of them and specially for my little Aaron.
Aaron and I had big plans but we could not really stick to them.  We tried doing the preschool that the school district provides around here but after my mom left we stopped going.  We did somethings here and there at home but he really does not want to spend more than 30 minutes doing it.  When he tries and pays attention he can show a lot of progress and I am confident that he can start reading soon.  He recognizes a lot of words but it is so funny to see him do the same thing my other kids have done.  I know he will get it eventually.  He is really excited about Kinder and so am I.  Kahlan of course did not go to school or will go for a long time, but that little fire cracker is going to be the death of me.  She learns so fast an picks up on a lot of things.  We are trying really hard to stick with the Spanish this time and she is doing great.  Understands a lot of it and since her siblings speak to her in English she picks up on that as well.  This week the new word for her was "Comer" (eat).  She goes to the kitchen and stands in front of the fridge and stats screaming, yes screaming the word "comer" and wont stop until you give her something to eat.  I had never had a screaming kid like that or at least not at such early age, so I am having a hard time dealing with it.  We are teaching her that is not OK to scream when she wants something so we take her to crib to cool off for a few minutes and when she is done she can come out and she is an angel again.
She loves her pink cowgirl boots and begs me to put them on almost every day, she loves all shoes actually.  She also loves to go bye bye, runs to the front door with her little cup and does a little dance which involves stomping her feet and screaming something at the same time.
She is our little rocker, loves rock music, any music and will dance for a long time trying to twirls which is really funny to see because she can't do it all the way.  She is such a cute person with a oh so very unique personality.,

Now we are on summer time schedule and trying to get organized to the days wont go by being all lazy and playing video games.  We have a list of chores to be done every day, craft days, pool days, picnic days and reward times for them to cash in their points earned.  My plan?  To keep them as busy as I can, learning and working hard, being nice to each other and help each other out.  Will it get done?  Probably not, but we can sure try.  I am really trying to stay positive even though it started rough today but I have faith in my kids and know they will try really hard.