Hope of America

Bonneville Elementary's first grade was invited to join "The Hope of America" pagent this year, which includes Savanna. If you look close you can see kids in white holding pom-poms, one of them was Savanna! She has been practicing three songs for weeks now, "Hope of America" "V-O-T-E" and "Star Spangled Banner" with actions. Next time you see her ask her to sing one of them, it is very cute, especially the National Anthem. Savanna was very excited to be one of the pom-pom holders. She did two performances, one in the morning so she took a bus to BYU and one in the evening in which case I had to take her. It took 45 minutes to get there with hundreds of thousands of other school kids being taken there also, but it was a very neat show and I wish I could have stayed for the whole thing. Weston was whining to go home from the minute we sat down (it took so long to get him there he was anticipating something better than a chorus) and Fiora threw a fit when her shoe was lost in the bowels of Marriot Center seating. I was quite afraid one of my kids would be lost (Jared was not with me to help control them) so I'm glad it was only a shoe. She left with only one shoe on and very distraught. Maybe Fiora or Weston will be asked to go some day and then I can watch it all.
Here is a picture of the star with the intent of showing you her missing teeth on both sides of her big teeth.


I have noticed this week then whenever Weston laughs a lot he gets violent hiccups afterwards. I wonder if that has always been the case and I never noticed. I signed Weston up for Pee wee soccer, and ever since that day he has been asking me every day "when am I going to play soccer?" I hope he likes it after he actually starts playing. His hair is getting long, we can comb it any way we like, like Wilbur on "Meet the Robinsons" or like Peter Parker or like Superman. He is cute no matter how we comb it.

The kids love chips, they would be happy if I fed them nothing

but chips for a week. (Maybe I should so they will hate chips for life.) They like to quote "Over the Hedge" and say "A.K.A the Chip, nacho cheese flavor, *ding*" My kids like to quote movies. We're looking forward to May! There were a couple warm days that reminded us of riding bikes, picinics in the canyons, and swimming at the Scera.

Hanging at Heidi's

Praise to mom and dad

This is my blog to humbly thank my parents for taking our kids all last week while we were in Cancun. Lucy was there a lot of the time too because of her cousins being at Grandma's. I'm sure it felt like their family doubled in size with the extra little bodies in the house. They played it off like it was no big deal but I know it was a little tougher than they let on. THANKS mom and dad!
Weston and Grandpa got some bonding time and Wes would follow him around when he was home. Even when Grandpa was in the bathroom Weston was knocking on the door. Sounded very familiar. Savanna lost ANOTHER tooth while we were gone and the tooth fairy that works Eagle Mountain gave her a dollar. They went to the park a couple times and Kangaroo Zoo once also. My sister Krystal's cat gave birth to kittens when they were there so they got to hold newborn kitties. I asked Fiora if she wanted one and she said, "No, I want a dog." They got to stay over at Lucy's one night too. We came in so late Saturday night the kids stayed one more night and we picked them up in the morning. But they didn't seem to mind at all! We had a happy reunion and they loved their gifts, marracas, sea shells, and mexican candy.

Here are some pictures of the kids with their souvenirs:

SUN and FUN

Here is a day by day run down of our trip:
Saturday: traveling from 3:00 AM to 6:15 PM, dinner at resort, relax on beach
Sunday: church with the Saints in Mexico, sight see Coba Mayan ruins
Monday: ferry to Cozumel Island, rent scooters and drive around island, snorkel
Tuesday: Xcaret ecological park, beach, cenote, and cultural center with amazing show
Wednesday: Boat ride and sight see Tulum Mayan ruins
Thursday: sight see Chichen Itza Mayan ruins, snorkel in cenote (water cave)
Friday: relax on beach, boogie board and swim, dinner at Italian restaurant
Saturday: traveling from 6:15 AM to 10:15 PM

It was fun fun fun fun fun! We loved the food, the Mormon tour guides and what we learned about Mayan/Nephite correspondences, snorkling for the first time, buying Mexican souvenirs, and riding to and from sights with Wendy and Keith. They were awesome travel buddies! I got a killer sunburn at Cozumel and we lost a SD card with some pictures, but overall it was a very positive and fun experience. It would take days to write everything, but the highlight for me was definitely the cultural show at Xcaret. We are glad to be safe and sound back home with our cute kids.

It's cold, lets go!

Almost no problem is insurmountable, as I've learned this week. I wrote a paper and got an A on my 2nd Sociology exam even though I was alone with the kids and had to find study time and a babysitter on my own. Weston has been asking me for three weeks if he could go to Carstons and be a superhero, this particular friend has a green power ranger outfit complete with mask and Weston loves it, so I arranged a playdate there. (Thanks again Natalie!) I have replenished our food storage up to a years supply thanks to a final shift at the Lindon Cannery on Tuesday I did during Weston and Fiora's preschool, but in order to do that Jared had to take them and Stacy had to pick them up. And since Grandma Sandy is still in California settling affairs after Gma Donna's passing, I had to find alternative child care while we are in Cancun! But my sweet and blessed mother is going to take them, with a brief overnight reprieve in the middle while my sister Heidi takes them. I'm glad we chose to go during spring break so while my mom does some work shifts my teenage sisters can watch them. So my kids will be playing with the Eagles over that mountain for a while, but they'll be well taken care of. Whew! Thanks mom dad and sisters! It is wonderful to have friends and family I can count on to help us out.

One insurmountable problem is roller skating. We took the kids to classic skating rink for Bonneville free family skating, oh my! I wish you could have seen it, I really wish you were there. Our kids could not stay up on skates to save their lives! I was laughing the whole time, until I fell on my rear and totally bruised my hand. Trying to keep my own balance while constantly holding Fioras arm and Westons arm while they slipped and slipped over and over was hard work. Especially laughing at the same time. Savanna was determined to keep getting up and trying no matter how many times she fell, but I felt more sorry for her than proud because she was going so painfully slow and fell so many times! We stuck it out for an hour and then came home, curses I didn't have a camera. I guess we will have to stick to the movie theater for future family outings, or stay home and be entertained by the kids. Savanna has lots of great jokes and Fiora has a great purse trick.

Thank heavens we are leaving tomorrow, if I had to take one more of these freezing Utah spring days I would really go nuts. Stay tuned April 20th and I'll blog all about it!

Grandma Donna

Jared's sweet grandma, Donna Smith - Sandra Schauers mother, who lives in California passed away this past weekend. She was 86 and in pretty good health, so we thought, so it was very shocking news. Jared is in California now, to be with his family and attend the funeral on Thursday. I wish I could be there! Grandma Donna was a vibrant, funny, loving woman who we loved and admired. On one of the videos Sandy gave us of Lillian, Grandma Donna said, "I will probably be the first one to see you again (Lillian) and that makes me feel good." We are glad Lillian was one of the many there to greet her.