Kindergartener

On our way to Fiora's first day of Kindergarten a talent scout spotted her and wanted her portfolio immediately! Just kidding. But we did take many photos of her and she modeled gorgeously for each one.




Fiora is very excited to be at school every day. She would be happy to be in kindergarten all day. When I picked her up the first day she didn't come out with her class mates, so I peeked in her classroom and there she was sitting with the later students oblivious to the fact that it was time to go. Savanna leaves her in her dust when they walk to school so we've arranged for Fiora to walk with Rebecca instead. Weston was very cute the first day, he ran up the stairs shouting "Fiora!" to show her something and was very disappointed to learn Fiora was at school.

Camping

My sister Heidi and I schemed a camping trip this weekend. The school system may think summer is over, but we know there are a good two weeks of good hot weather to enjoy. Just an overnight stay in Nuns park. Gabe and Jared fished most of the trip, but it was fun to catch up with Heidi, and Jesse and Kelsy joined us also. We roasted hot dogs and marshmallows and had a dutch oven breakfast casserole that was to die for! The kids loved hiking to Bridal Veil falls and playing in the pool under the waterfall and running in and out of the tents. Savanna kept saying "Pretend we were camping..." Jared and Gabe caught several fish, four of which were huge enough to take home and cook up! We want to do it again next year!

What goes up must come down

What was he thinking? Nobody knows. But I witnessed it with my own eyes, Weston threw a rock up in the air and it came back down fast on his head. I sauntered over to him, "Ow, that must have hurt. Maybe you'll learn not to throw rocks..." and then I saw the blood! YiKes! Lecture over. I scurried Wes in the house and straight to the bathroom where the removable showerhead was and washed his poor red head (the girls somehow witnessed this and ran to their room crying, and darn it I just washed that white rug) and thought another trip to the ER was coming. Jared calmed me down and suggested we get the bleeding to stop to assess the damage. I wanted to shave his head right there but Jared wouldn't have it. All this time Weston is crying and beggin us to stop washing and touching his owie. We decided it was going to be alright without stitches but had to figure out a way to keep a bandage on his hairy head. White tape and gauze strapped to his chin. It worked!



The Rock.

This week Savanna started school. She was the most adorable 2nd grader there of course. Transitions are always challenging with Savanna, she is so excited to have a change but gets pretty frustrated with all that is involved. Tuesday we were totally in a fight from the minute she woke up to the minute she dropped to sleep that night. She likes to negotiate:
Mom: you need to practice the piano now Savanna
Savanna: I'll only practice if you sit right here (patting piano bench)
Mom: I'm not going to sit there while you whine and cry about practicing
Savanna: Alright then I won't practice
Mom: Yes you will
Savanna: Then I don't have to do my dish job
Mom: Really?
Savanna: If you make me do dishes I won't practice and won't learn piano and it will be all your fault. Is that what you want? (a phrase she picked up from Jared)
I'm so mean, making her learn piano like that.



Fiora has a new friend! Rebecca Gomez, who lives just three houses down the street and is just her age and amazingly is also in her class at school. (Fiora starts kindergarten on Monday.) They have been playing together nearly every day and it makes me so happy that my free spirited Fi has a friend. Fiora went to the dentist yesterday and got a perfect report from the dentist, the pain she was complaining about that I was sure was cavities was just teething pains. She has 4 molars coming in! She was very brave and helpful at the dentist. She said, "I was even more brave than you mom!" Ha ha.

How Spiderman Should have ended

I wishthey had one of these for every comic book movie! Compliments of Howitshouldhaveended.com

FHE

We went to the canyons for FHE and had roasted hot dogs and zucchinis! Nuns Park is our favorite "spot" this summer. Jared fishes the river and the kids throw rocks at each other (ok, only Weston threw a rock at Savanna and got in big trouble, so don't worry.) We love to make a big fire and come home smelling like camping! Fun!

Here are Jesse and Kelsy displaying our zucchini's we roasted on hot dog sticks.

Movies

I have been getting asked the question "What is your favorite movie?" a lot lately. Maybe this is because I am so extraordinarily picky about movies and people are wondering, well what DO you like??? So I thought I'd add a list of movies I think are good in composition, moral, integrity, humor/drama, and entertainment. Feel free to remind me of some great ones, this list may grow as I remember more.

Theme song stuck in your head

Weston walks around the house constantly humming something, and it's usually the theme song to Superman. He knows a lot of theme songs, Spiderman, Stuart Little, Three Amigos, Wonder Pets, Diego, Blues Clues, Dragon Tales, Over the Hedge, even Sky High, and I'll be humming them myself before I realize he got one stuck in my head. He was very disappointed when I let him watch Batman, the theme song is unhummable, and therefore the show was very boring to him and he didn't watch 10 minutes of it. He likes to ask me how a certain song goes to get him started...


Weston was just mortified of Link the first week we had him, then magically last night he realized he has power over that kitty and decided to instill some fear in the cat. He was poking him with sticks, stamping on his tail, whipping him with a belt and poking his head with a stick!!! Today he even slammed him in the door, that was kind of an accident, and as a result Link no longer darts into the house. Poor kitty. But I'm glad Weston's not afraid of him anymore.


Savanna and Fiora got their teacher assignments for school, which starts in one short week! Savanna has been very excited as she has a "boy" teacher this year, Mr. Backman. She has been polishing up her reading without complaint (in her special reading spot above). Fiora has Miss Johnson and is very excited as well. They both have new backpacks and a new alarm clock (which they will soon learn to hate) and start school at 8 AM sharp. That will give me more time to spend with them in the afternoon before my evening classes, which start after Labor Day, which I am more nervous about than excited. Weston starts preschool on August 26th two days a week and will meet his teacher Mrs. Youd tomorrow at an open house. What an adventure the next four months will be!

Bob and Larry came to visit us. They look just like vegetables in real life! Actually, the kids took one of the big zucchini's Grandma Sandy and drew a face like Larry the Cucumber and then had to have Bob the Tomato to go with him. I thought it was pretty funny.

Husband tagged again

Amy tagged me on this "you and me" template, and I am going to also paste what I wrote about Jared last January for those that missed it:

What is your/his name? Jared and Heather Schauers

Who is more sensitive? Heather

Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? Jared

What meals do you cook together? barbecues

Who is first to admit when they are wrong? I am never wrong, and he never admits it

Who has more siblings? Heather

What do you like to do together? Biking and eating and you know

Who eats more sweets? Me, he amazes me with his desire to abstain

Guilty pleasures? Locking the kids out of our room and punishing them if they knock on the door

How did you meet? Wendy Snow invited me to Jared's family homecoming from his mission

Who asked who out first? Jared asked me on a date, but that wouldn't have happened
if I hadn't made an appearance at that homecoming

Who kissed who first? Jared asked and I allowed

Who proposed? Jared

What is your/his best feature? All Jared's features are equally attractive, but I've always thought he had very nice hands

What is your/his best quality? Jared is so happy all the time, I am organized

How long have you been married? 9 years in Oct

How long did you date? 7 months

Who eats more? Jared, except when I'm pregnant or nursing

Who said I love you first? me, I was a little antsy

Who is taller? Jared, 5' 10' (he has 9 inches on me)

Who sings better? Jared does a great beat box!

Who is smarter? Jared's college GPA was .02 higher than mine

Whose temper is worse? Jared flares, Heather glares

Who does the laundry? If I didn't do the laundry, Jared would wait for the RS president to do it before he would

Who does the dishes? Me, okay he helps once in a long while

Who pays the bills? I used to, until free bill pay, now the computer basically does it but Jared types in the numbers

Who cooks dinner? me, but he made some awesome grilled chicken tonight

Who drives when you are together? He very gentlemanlike always offers

Does your husband take you on dates? Yes, sometimes it's just biking together and sometimes it's with others but we do try to get out

Who arranges for the babysitter? We switch off

Whose parents do you see the most? toss up

Who is more stubborn? Unfortunately, that too, is a toss up

Who has more friends? Doesn't matter, Jared has Justin (his twin brother)

Who has more siblings? I'm oldest of 10, Jared's 2nd youngest of 8 by 30 minutes

Who wears the pants in the family? Jared, and that is okay because he is a good guy and I love him. (And why else would I be doing all the laundry, dishes and meals:)

Timp cave

Saturday we took the kids up to Timpanogos Cave. They had to hike up 1 1/2 miles and 1/2 mile through the cave and 1 1/2 miles down. They were really good about it, Savanna wanted to stop and rest at every switchback, but we really made good time and had a picnicv lunch afterwards. Jared drove us up to Tibble fork reservior afterwards but that was hot and dirty and we were all tired. After we found a few leeches on the kids feet we decided to head home. It was a fun day.


You may recall that while we were in Cancun in April and the kids were staying at my parents', my sister Krystal's cat had kittens. 6 kittens, two died at birth but they managed to adopt a black stray because it looked just like the other kitties and they were missing one. The true black kitten showed up, and the mother cat is pregnant again, so my parents were anxious to get rid of that first litter. We adopted this cat from them yesterday, my brother had named him Link, so that's what we call him. The kids are a bit paranoid about his jumping (he's pretty mild-mannered but still has kitty tendencies - 4 1/2 months) but they love to pull a string around the back yard while Link chases it. Jared wants to go on record as being dead set against having a cat. The rest of us love our new kitten.