Wax Museum

The latest project Sydney had to do for school was the Wax Museum. I think it is an awesome way to get the kids excited about learning more about important people from History. Sydney chose to do her research on Pocahontas; she had to read a Biography, write a report, write a poem, and then dress up as Pocahontas and portray her as a live statue at their school Wax Museum. It was alot of fun to go see all the famous people from our American History...there were people like Daniel Boone, Davy Crockett, Sacajawea, George Washington, Betsy Ross, Helen Keller, Rosa Parks, Amelia Earhart and even Elvis Presley. All the kids did such a great job, I had to go through about five times because it was so fun and interesting to see them all.

Good Job Syd, I think you were the most beautiful model in the whole show!!!

Still trying to get caught up!!

Stetson's Birthday was May 3rd, he turned nine years old...already!! I can't believe how time flies, it almost seems like yesterday that I gave birth to that 9 lb. 13 oz. bouncing baby boy. He was the cutest little guy I had ever seen, and still is. He is so sweet and tender-hearted, I know he'll grow up to be a wonderful man one day, just like his Dad!!

We made him go down to Nana's to spend his B-day with family, which he wasn't to thrilled about...already acting like friends are more important!! So, the following weekend we had a few of his friends come over for Pizza & Cupcakes, then Matt took them to Classic FUN Center for some rollerblading and games; they had a great time!!

Seth, Stetson, Blake, Cole

Opening presents!!

He got a Steeler's football, a new Bakugan, a kite, a yo-yo, some Flarp!, and five bucks!!

Stetson, mid-air in a back flip.

Climbing the ropes on the BIG bouncer.

Good friends, Great FUN!!!

Hope of America

A couple of weeks ago Sydney was priviledged to be involved with the Hope of America Celebration at BYU's Marriott Center. She was one of some 6,000 other fifth grade students in the area to take part in this aewsome event. Together they made up a live form of the American Flag and sang a number of patriotic songs. This was the big kick off/opening ceremony for Provo's Freedom Festival they do every year. In addition to the kids singing their many songs, they also had dancers from many different cultures, and videos honoring our slodiers. It was so awesome, it made me so proud to be an American...I got a little teary and choked up all throughout the program.

Here is Sydney before the whole thing started, I had to get a good close up shot.

And this is the Flag that all those students together made...So COOL!!!

Syd is centered in this picture,

One of the shining stars in the field of blue.

If you study this picture a little bit you can see there is a bit of a ripple

going through the middle of the flag. During one of the songs they started a wave

that continued around the stadium four or five times.

The last song they sang is titled "We are the Light of the World"

All lights were turned off and the flag was illuminated by flashlights

held by each student. It was AmAzInG, just thinking about it

is making me get choked up again!!!

Goodtown Gala

As the school year is coming to a close, we have lots of things keeping us busy. Stetson, has been so lucky to be in Mr. Goodman's class this year and a citizen of "Goodtown". They recently had their Goodtown Gala where the students shared some of their work and progress with us, sang some fun songs and received their certificates of acievement.

Stetson shared his Pumpkin Poem with everyone.

Mr. Goodman presenting the Determination Award to Stetson.

And here is Stetson with the Greatest Teacher on Earth!! Not only in our eyes either, he received the KOSY Teacher of the Year Award for 2009. He's also much more than a 3rd grade teacher, he also volunteers and mentors kids in crisis, teaches religious classes at the Utah State Prison, and writes and sings his own music. Just check him out for yourselves at http://www.timothygoodman.com/ or http://www.theiwillproject.com/.

We LOVE Mr. G., he has made such an amazing impact on Stetson,

and has a very special place in our hearts!!

Spring Break

The kids had the week following Easter off school for Spring Break, so we took off Sunday afternoon and headed down to Mom's for the week. We had big plans of cleaning out the basement, seeing old friends, and playing with cousins. Well, we worked in the basement for a couple of hours one day, we did a little scrapbooking, we went shopping for my birthday, we watched a few movies, but mostly we just hung out and enjoyed our time with Nana. The days just seem to fly by us whenever we get to spend any amount of time down there! We had to come back home on Thursday, because we ALL were missing Dad terribly!! Then Friday morning Grammy & Papa called and invited us to go to the Living Planet Aquarium with them, what a treat!! We met up with them, Danelle, Shay & Colt, Trish, Kylee & McKinley(as well as their Grandpa Dan) It was alot of fun, the kids loved hanging out with their cousins and seeing all the fun and exciting things at the Aquarium!!

Shay, Colt, Stetson, McKinley, Sydney

Sadie & McCrae.

Checking their reflections in the wavy mirrors.

McCrae loved all the bright, colorful fish; here he's "Finding Nemo".

I caught Sadie for a split second as she was climbing though one of the cool tunnels.

Stetson letting the little sucker fish eat all the dead skin and germs off his hands.

Notice the mowhak? I caved and let him have his hair the way he wanted it for that whole week!!

Sydney petting the stingrays.

There is so much to see and learn there, it really is an awesome place. I think my favorite thing to see is the jellyfish, the way they are constantly changing color is so amazing!

PINK

& BLUE.

This beautiful red & white starfish was another thing that really amazed me.

But, you must admit, the octopus is just plain UGLY!!

Easter

Easter Weekend came and went just like any other normal weekend, it seems. We usually put in our request to the Easter Bunny to make his visit on Saturday rather than Sunday, with church and all it's just too much of a hassle on Sunday morning. But we were a little late in making that request, so I at least petitioned him to visit our house while we were at church so we wouldn't have to fight the kids to get ready for church rather than hunt for easter baskets! He was very kind to honor my request!!! It's really quite sad to think that we didn't do anything big to celebrate, especially since my Birthday fell on Easter this year, but the cold wintery weather didn't help matters at all. I did spend many hours in quiet solitude, sewing the girls easter dresses, while everyone else in the house was getting precious sleep!!

Pictures were even taken a few weeks later, because I'm such a slacker.


I love this pose, sooo precious!!!

**The best part about their Easter dresses is that the only things I had to buy for them is the pretty sheer pink fabric that drapes around the neckline of Sydneys dress and the zipper. The pink taffeta for Sydney's dress was from my mom's stash of things bought for my called off wedding. Sadie's dress was a project I bought and started for Sydney, which I was lucky enough to still put to use after all these years!!

And, of course I had to stick in some pics of my handsome boys!!

Blog Slacker!!

Okay, I know we all have made confessions of being Blog Stalkers...but, today, I'm confessing of being a BIG BLOG SLACKER!!!! I could make lots of excuses, like I've been so busy with this or that(which I have, by the way) but I am mostly wanting to apologize and say "I'll do better!" I will be doing my best to catch everyone up on the last six weeks so stay tuned.

Weekend Road Trip

In an attempt to get in better shape Matt has been checking out some possible motivators, his first thought was to make the St. George Marathon be his goal since his brother and sister have participated in it before and his brother was planning to do it again this year. He thought it would be a great reason to get into shape and alot of fun to join his brother in running it. Then he started talking to a bunch of our neighbors that are runners and has decided on the Wasatch Back Ragnar Relay(http://www.ragnarrelay.com/wasatchback/index.php), he's been talking to the family and trying to get them all pumped up to get a team together for the 2010 race. The race goes from Logan to Park City and you have a team of 12 members that each take a leg of the race, sounds fun, right?!?! Yea, we think it could be, so since we were planning to go to Logan for the weekend anyway, Matt decided we really needed to check out the route of the race as much as we could( alot of the roads are impassable during the winter). Anyway, we left Saturday afternoon and headed to Heber, went up through Kamas, Oakley, Coalville, all the litle old towns that the main highways have bypassed and forgotten about. It was alot of fun and had such great scenery.

This is just a picture I pulled off the internet of the Wasatch Back,

it is beautiful and I hope I can train and be ready to take part in the

amazing experience it is sure to be!

I loved this little old church we saw in our travels.

I can't remember the name of the town it was in, but it sat at the top of

a little tree lined road right at the base of a big red rock mountain.

So Beautiful!!

Matt and the kids on the front steps of the church.

Part of our travels actually took us along the Mormon Pioneer Trail,
so we stopped to check it out and take another picture.

And here's Matt and the boys standing by the trail marker,

a bit too snowy for a hike.

We had a very enjoyable day, checking out new places and spending time together as a family!

Family Time with the Cox Tribe

Last weekend we spent in Logan with Matt's cousins for a baby blessing on Sunday. It was so much fun to spend time with them, we just never seem to get enough opportunities to get together.

We were surprised to wake up Sunday morning to a few inches of snow...welcome to Spring!!
Nathaniel, grilling up some yummy kabobs for the big get-together.

Just chillin', having a little TV time.

Sydney, Stetson, Isaac, Ethan

Sadie & Natalia.

Saying goodbye is never an easy thing...especially for Stetson and Ethan

who had such a great time playing and getting to know eachother!!

Let's do this more often, guys!!!!

I <3 FHE !!!

Monday Night was Stetson's turn for our FHE lesson...he had decided well in advance that he was going to do something with secret codes and invisible ink messages because it was one of the Achievements he wanted to pass off in his Scout handbook. He also wanted the kids to put on a skit of one of his favorite scripture stories; so he made a couple of posters using a secret code and an invisible message telling what stories they would act out. Then the kids threw together some costumes and acted out the story of Nephi retrieving the brass plates and the Stripling Warriors.

Here they are all dressed up portraying Nephi, Laman, Lemuel, and the wicked King Laban.

Thay had so much fun, and did a great job(with Dad's help)of retelling the story and helping Sadie and McCrae know what to say and do.

And I was having so much fun watching them that I forgot to take more pictures; I really wanted one of just Stetson all dressed in his skins and fur as Nephi!