Margie's Blog

I somehow have fallen victim to the neglected blog virus that has swept the internet.  Life is busy.  I’m happy with life.  My family is completely adorable and my bucket overflows with blessings but taking time to sit and chronicle our adventures isn’t happening.  It should though because we are staying plenty busy and I don’t want to forget this busy & fun season of our life.

The school year is already flying by.  I had a hard decision to make this year with Paige and her violin study.  She has been taking private lessons for a few years and doing great with them.  Her private teacher decided to stop teaching and be a full time mommy (which is great!).  That left me with the decision to either hunt for another teacher (which I’m picky about) or take a breather.  Our budget needed a slight break, my schedule needed a little breather room and I thought I needed to at least explore the option of tutoring her myself.  I have played violin since I was eight after all, I should at least attempt it.  So I signed her up for school orchestra, bumped her up to the 5th grade group and tutor her at home every couple of weeks.  She continues to practice daily which I’m pleased with and think this is a good balance and compromise for this year.  We’ll probably revisit the issue another year but it works for today.

Paige and Brooke are continuing with Hula lessons too.  Paige added a Poi Balls class this year as well and is loving it.  I’m grateful for my sweet neighbor for sharing her talents and love of her Hawaiian culture with so many children.

Brooke is soaring in her love of reading.  I love seeing her ability just skyrocket this year.  She is comfortably reading chapter books, cruised through all the magic tree house series that we had and is hard at work on Ivy and Bean books.  It’s awesome to see a kid take a jump in their education.
Morgan is doing great with kindergarten.  She is grasping reading, developing friendships and still gives Sydney lots of love and playtime in the afternoons.  She is soaring as well with her piano lessons.  She started in the summer is starting to take off as well.  Even though it makes for a noisy house I love that my kids will jump on the piano and play their favorite songs even if it isn’t their designated practice time.  I might have to invest in a nice keyboard with headphones for downstairs someday though.

Sydney is my joy.  She soaks in everything good in life and gives it back to you just when you need it the most.  Seriously.  She currently is loving dance class, her Sophia Halloween costume (especially the amulet which she hopes will glow and allow a real princes to visit her), Just Dance Disney and church nursery.  It makes me melt when she says things like, “Heavenly Father gave me my body.”  I hope her nursery leaders realize that some of those little wiggle bodies are soaking in their important messages and I’m so grateful for them.

Garrett, I can’t even mention him without my heart skipping a beat.  I love this little man and all his chubby cuteness.  I might be spoiling him with way too much love so I’ll be his favorite always and I’m kind of okay with that.  I’ve taught all the girls that Garrett has to approve of each of their husbands before they get married and they have to be extra nice and loving to whoever he picks to marry.  My hopes is that a brother won’t let their sister marry a jerk, right?  And whoever he marries will be the only sister-in-law so she is going to need extra love and attention to let her know we think she’s awesome.

Shawn and I are cruising along.  This now sounds like a rough draft for my Christmas letter so if you see something similar in a month sorry.

After setting aside coordinating clothes all year we pulled off a family photo this past weekend and my speedy friend already got them to me!  Mari-Catherine Vinton continues to share her awesome talents with her.  You can check her out at https://www.facebook.com/MavinPhoto

I’m amazed at how fast time is racing by these days.  We managed to survive the busy schedule of May and now are in summer with five busy kiddos to keep busy and entertained all day everyday.  We’ve successfully gotten through a whole week though and only have eleven more to go.  I’m not counting though, right?

Here’s some quick updates.  All three girls wrapped up soccer last month.  They all stretched and grew a lot this year.  The only one I snagged a team picture of was Morgan though.

Morgan did awesome with her dance review as well.  She was front and center and watched carefully her teacher and precisely copied each dance move.  We need to work on her smiling a little bit next time but she loved it all.

Another Morgan milestone is graduating from preschool and then I took her to the salon for a new look later that day.  I’m kind of in love with her new bob and might not let her grow her hair out for a few years.  Sorry cutie!

The following week I “helped” with Super Kids Day.  I loosely say helped because I brought three little ones with me so really I’m not a ton of help when I’m tending to little ones but I didn’t help in Paige’s class at all this year and thought I should try to rally for one thing.  It was fun to see the kids enjoying their field day fun none the less.

The girls had their last day of school and now we are on full fledge summer mode.

Summer mode entails piano, a few chores, swim lessons, park exploring and LOTS of playing with sisters.

Brooke, Paige and Morgan took a crack at roller skating this week.  I strapped some on and skating around a few times too!  That’s a first for this decade.

Sisters, babies and strollers.  It just doesn’t get much cuter, sorry.

Sydney spotted this air hockey game and was determined to get a turn playing it.  She didn’t seem to mind if the puck went in her goal though.  Just playing it was fun for her.

The girls all creamed me in bowling.  Their bumpers and ramp advantage didn’t hurt them either though.

Shawn refilled the sand box with new sand and now it’s much more fun to play with neighbor friends in it for afternoon fun.

Park exploring is always a highlight of summer.  We found a new favorite way over in Mendon.Swim lessons is a must.  They love jumping in and improving a little everyday.As long as mom has patience she has a lot more helpers around the kitchen.  Time to get these girls helping out more.Shaved ice after a hot afternoon at the park.  Yes please!Back to visit our old stomping grounds in River Heights.  Crazy that when they built this park Paige and Brooke were wee ones.  It’s fun to find our fence posts each time.  I’ll have to get a picture of it next time.Work books so our brains don’t turn into complete mush.Local events like Hyrum’s Hot Dogs and Hot Rides event as well as the Storyteller’s Festival in North Logan.

Now on to week two.  Do you think we can find anymore fun?

A week ago Shawn and I took a weekend trip to California to celebrate my brother’s wedding.  We brought Garrett along and he was super duper on his first plane flight and big trip.  Shawn’s mom was a saint and watched the girls for us.  We had a blast spending a day visiting the Getty Museum in LA then coming back in time for the wedding at the Newport Beach Temple followed by a reception the following day at a nice restaurant.  Shawn and I took time to have a miniature golf date and Camelot and enjoyed attending church with my family.  It was great to see lots of family that I rarely get to see and refreshing to have a trip with just Shawn, Garrett and I.

My boys, we’ll work on Garrett looking at the camera later.

Quick picture at the reception.

Bride and Groom exiting the temple.

Our first visit to the Newport Beach temple!

Our first visit to the Getty Museum as well.

And because you’ve put up with this here’s a cute clip of Morgan playing soccer.  Five-year-olds are awesome!

This past weekend my sister wrapped up her whirlwind 10 day vacation with a visit to our house.  The cousins don’t get to see each other nearly enough so they spent all Sunday night munching on yummy food, jumping on the trampoline and strolling the neighborhood together.  We loved it all and hope they come back soon!

Trampoline fun with 7 kids!  The dads joined the party shortly after this.

7 kiddos ready for bed (one had already crashed by this point).

Cousin slumber party in the big girls’ room!!