Preschool Princess

Claire started her first day of preschool today at 1-2-3 Learn.  She was a little confused that Dallin was not with her (since he went to this preschool for 2 1/2 years and has always been a standard there).  Ms. Carol explained to her that she is now the big kid that gets dropped off and she gripped my hand even tighter and wouldn't let go as she realized it was all her today.  No Mom, no Dallin.  

She was a little hesitant when I left, as was I (since I was saying goodbye to another one of my babies to school this week).  Apparently Claire asked Miss Melissa to call me often in the beginning for me to pick her up.  When that pick-up time came, she didn't want to leave.  Not a bad day when you make some cute new friends, paint a picture with your favorite color (PINK!), have teachers who already adore you and you leave school with a pink popsicle in your hand.  Not to mention a new dress and cute new ladybug backpack (thanks Nana).  

Here's to Tuesdays and Thursdays and to everyone being happily occupied!

Kindergarten Knight

Well, here it is... the day that I have been dreading and Dallin has been anxiously anticipating.  It was his first day of kindergarten.  I woke him up this morning in tears (gotta love Hinckley genes and pregnancy hormones) and as he woke up, he noticed my tears and automatically smiled knowing full-well that my tears=his exciting first day of school. 

I was invited to attend class today with him (it was a shortened day) so that we could meet his teacher, Mrs. Oakes, go on a tour of the school and learn all of the Kindergarten rules.  His normal day will go from 9 a.m. - 3:30 p.m... oh, how I will miss my Dallin during these long weekdays!

We arrived early today (what!?) and took some pictures out in front of his school.  

We then waited by the gate that leads to the kindergarten classrooms for his teacher to invite us into classroom #1.  He found his seat, played blocks with me and met some of the new kids in his class.

We also happily greeted some well-established friends from church (Jake Draeger and Avery Sumida).  It was nice for Dallin to have some friendly faces in his class and for me to have some mom-friends to hang out with today :).In what seemed like no time at all, we were done and on our way.  Dallin grabbed his cool new backpack and met me at the gate to practice our pick-up for his "real" (and long) day tomorrow. 

 I took a picture of Dallin with his teacher Mrs. Oakes to start a little "first-day-of-school" tradition.  I got an idea from our friend's, the Dursts, to hold up the number with your fingers for the grade you are in... since Kindergarten isn't a number, Dallin and Mrs. Oakes are making a "k" in sign language.  

We are so excited for Dallin and still are in a little shock that we are old enough to have a child in elementary school.  He is absolutely ready for this next step in his life... he is such a kind, smart, social and sweet little guy.  I can't wait to see what Kindergarten has in store for him (or maybe what he has in store for Kindergarten :)).  We love you Dallin!  Promise not to grow up too fast, I'm running out of waterproof mascara.

Exciting Engagement

Congrats to my little brother and his brand new fiancee, Erin!  Dave proposed last night and we are so happy for them... can't wait for the wedding in November!

Flying Fairy

This summer (& every summer) we have been plagued by flies.  We also have a bird feeder and a hummingbird feeder in our backyard, so we often have flying visitors surrounding our home.  Yesterday, we had a flying visitor of a different sort:

A butterfly fairy visited our backyard yesterday (and her daddy got a really good workout).  Dallin even got the fly swatter out and tried to "take care of" this particular pest (ie: his little sister).  I hope Dallin sticks to getting rid of the obnoxious flies, and lets the cute hummingbirds and butterfly fairies roam the yard whenever they please!

Office Obsession

So my kids LOVE going to visit their Dad at his office... thankfully it is only 10 minutes away and they have a Daddy that loves our visits.  The other day we picked up a little of this:

We met Daddy in his office courtyard where we ate, basking in the beautiful weather.  Afterwords, there was the traditional throwing of these...

into the fountain (we have donated A LOT of money into this courtyard fountain... maybe next time we visit, we'll go "swimming for money").  Peter and the kids also like to race leaves in the water...

congrats to Claire for winning the leaf race.  We then followed Pete up to his office where the kids colored pictures with random office highlighters to add to their Daddy's coloring collection.  They stole their usual soda from the fridge and ran around the Merrill Lynch office as if they were "Merrill" and "Lynch" themselves.  

Thanks Daddy Peter for loving your family more than anything else and for tolerating our madness in your personal sanctuary.  The madness will visit you again soon :)...

Girls Camp

Here is my long overdue girl's camp entry... 

if you want the quick version- it was fabulous, 

if you want the novel- read on: 

Two weeks ago our stake held a fabulous week of girl's camp... we all had a great time.  The theme was The Wizard of Oz: "There's no place like home" and the whole camp was so well done.  My good friend Leslie was the Stake Camp Director and did an incredible job leading, delegating to super-talented women and making the week full of fun and spirituality for all who attended.  I'm so glad this "preggo-mamma" (what some of the girls called me at camp :)) was able to attend.

Day 1 (July 7)-  

The girls met at my house and we drove to Camp Metoche (1 1/2 hours away), ate our sack lunches and claimed our individual bunks in these cute little cabins.  I ran to a bottom bunk knowing full well that no one wanted to see a fat pregnant lady trying to jump up to the top bunk each night.  Luckily most of the girls were thrilled with the top.  At camp orientation, the stake leaders were awesome and did a Wizard of Oz rap and the YCLs made up cute skits to inform the girls of camp rules.  We then had free time where the girls could spray paint some old shoes red and put glitter on them to make them look like Dorothy's shoes...

The Stake Presidency men even got their own pair of bedazzled shoes when they visited camp later on in the week... so funny to see these huge man-shoes all red and sparkly.   

After the camp picture and some free time, we had dinner (which was prepared for us by a staff that works at the camp in a really nice lodge... so we'll call this whole experience "glamping").  The girls loved to play a certain game at meals with cups... it was new to me and they sure loved it.  It's not a good game for anyone with a headache...  

Each night after dinner, devotional and dessert, we had ward time.  On this particular day, we had "self-esteem night" where each girl and leader in the circle had a piece of paper with their name at the top.  We passed each paper around so that we could all write something genuinely nice about that person.  It was a great activity and way to start camp... looking for the best in each other.  I sure loved reading what the girls wrote to each other and to me... such an amazing group of young women.  After taking our bin 'o' food to the bear safe, we all hit the sack. 

Day 2 (July 8)-

I woke up this particular morning to one of my sweet Beehives, Corrie who has Down-Syndrome, jumping off the top bunk and starting to walk out the door (she was looking for her mom who went on a walk).  I realized it was about 5 a.m. and tried to convince her to go back to bed.  She ended up sitting on my bed, rubbing my belly for awhile.  At about 5:30, I finally dragged my body out of my incredibly plush bed (not even close) and we hit the trail looking for Julie (Corrie's mom).  We found her, and in a matter of 2 hours I was able to shower, get ready, read, walk to the kitchen and get some hot chocolate, make my bed, read some more, wake up the girls in our cabins and be the first one's to devotional.  I should have Corrie wake me up every morning at 5... so productive!  

This fun day consisted of:

-scripture study groups - these girls have such mature and amazing testimonies.

-a service project - preparing the kid's craft for our stake Christmas creche festival.

-lots of free time - hanging out by our cabins talking, archery (we had so much fun!), playing by the stream, etc.

-ward swimming time at the pool - played "big booty" game... so fun, and I pulled the stinger out of Lauren's foot when she stepped on a bee getting out of the pool (I felt kinda heroic :)).

-skit night - they passed each ward's assigned topic out at dinner and ours was "missionary work" and we had to incorporate the song "I Hope They Call Me on a Mission".  I was given the task of directing this skit since I truly do enjoy doing this kind of stuff.  We did a cowboy theme and we all had a lot of fun putting it together and performing it... the girls got to see a whole other side of Sister Waldron (a little nuts).

-ward time - this time we had game night and it was a blast... the girls kept playing the games in their cabins after lights out cause they couldn't get enough.

-female bonding - while my Beehives were playing games, I went over to spend some time in the Miamaid cabin and ended up talking with them until about 1:30 in the morning.  It was so fun just hearing them go on about boys, pranks, funny stories, what they want to name their kids, what I should name mine, etc.  One of those moments when it's great to be a girl!  Super fun day.

Wednesday (July 9)-

I stayed for the first part of the day and passed the leader baton onto Hillary and Julie (YW Pres. and other counselor) who arrived the night before.  After lunch, I drove home with Alexis (who needed to be home early) and was able to spend the rest of the day with my sweet husband who so kindly took off work so I could go to camp and my kids that I was so happy to see!  I know the girls had a great time back at camp participating in workshops, devotionals, and rope courses as well as "spa night" for ward time... so sad that I missed all of that but it sure was nice to shower and sleep in my comfy bed (and actually get some sleep).  Not as many bugs to shoo away at home either...

Thursday (July 10)-

This was the day that the Stake Presidency and Bishoprics arrived.  I made the journey back up that evening to participate in what I think is the best day of camp.  Bishop Chase lead some great activities with the girls teaching them about choosing good friends and keeping the Holy Ghost as a part of their lives.  We had the stake testimony meeting as well as our ward one, and it was incredible.  It is so wonderful to see these girls really feel the spirit and such love for one another.  I drove home that night so grateful that I made the journey back to camp.

Friday (July 11)-

The girls clicked their heels together and said "there's no place like home."  What an amazing week for these girls and I'm so glad that I was able to be a part of it!  

Painful Perspective

I received a phone call yesterday from my mom telling me that good friends of our family were travelling to a family reunion in Utah and were in a car accident.  Ali (a sweet girl I grew up with) and her dad (Brother Walther) were killed while Ali's three young children (5, 3, 1) and mother (whom I adore) suffered only minor injuries.  

My heart aches for this amazing family and brings to the surface feelings of gratitude for the knowledge of the gospel and how precious every moment is.  I checked my friend Christie's blog (she is good friends with Ali) and a beautiful letter was shared written by Ali's husband, Jeremy.  I am always amazed how the Lord comforts and strengthens those who truly need it in their most difficult times... it had only been a day since his sweet wife had been killed and yet he wrote with such testimony and strength.  

Please keep these wonderful families (Walther and Van Gieson) in your prayers.

You can read the press release here.

To visit their memorial blog, click here.

Me Mosiac

My friend Heather passed this fun idea on... 

a mosaic version of yourself!   

Here is how you can play too...

a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
b. Using only the first page, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd's mosaic maker.

The Questions:
1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What high school did you go to?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. Favorite drink?
7. Dream vacation?
8. Favorite dessert?
9. What you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. One Word to describe you.
12. Your flickr name. (kid version: favorite animal?)

I would love to see your personal creations 

(it's like a super-creative tag)!

Birthday Babe

Here is one of those friends that you always hope to have, and I am fortunate enough to have found.  

Happy Birthday, Krissy!

Rock 'n' Roll

This past weekend was full of Rockin' and Rollin'... allow me to explain:

The "ROCK" part has to do with the fact that: 

1- Dallin discovered "Guitar Hero" and decided to give the game a try for the first time on Saturday morning.  I couldn't get him off to have lunch and he ended up playing it for hours.  He loves the song "Surrender" and got really good at playing it (his best score so far is 88%!)  as well as quite a few other songs.  His love for the guitar becomes more and more apparent every day... he even found a red starter kid's guitar online that he can't wait to earn and learn how to play.  

2- My brother, Scott, was in LA this past week (visiting from Washington) recording music with his band.  He was able to break away for a quick little visit to see us and it was really great having him here.  He helped us celebrate Pete's birthday and played with the kids like only a fun uncle can do. He also helped fuel Dallin's love for Guitar Hero even more as they played together.  Dallin was super-impressed with Uncle Scotty's expert level skills and even tried to play one of his favorite songs on expert level after Scott left... needless to say, he'll have to keep practicing since he was booed off the stage after about 3 seconds :).  We all had so much fun with Scott here and the kids are still asking when he is coming back.  We are also anxious to hear his band's new album!

3- On Saturday night, Peter and I went to a concert at Pechanga (a local casino and entertainment venue).  We saw Blue's Traveller, Live, and Collective Soul... it was Peter's birthday present to himself :).  We are not die-hards of any of these bands, but we had a fun time, there was some really great music, and the drummer for Collective Soul is one of Pete's clients so there was an added interest.  It was great date night!

As for the "ROLL" part of the weekend:

1- At the concert, JB (what we call the baby in my tummy = Jelly Bean) was going nuts!  The vibrations from all of the rockin' must have made him wonder what in the world was going on.  He was kicking and literally doing somersault rolls in me the entire concert.  Dallin may have a future band member on the way :).

2- Saturday afternoon (after I convinced Dallin off of Guitar Hero), we went to Costco.  After shopping we returned to a  hot car, so I left the kids in the cart and turned on the AC.  Before I finished, I heard a huge scream and turned to find Dallin lying face first on the pavement.  I thought he broke his arm from the way he was positioned, but came to find out through all the screaming that it was his nose that hurt the worst.  He was bleeding pretty badly and luckily I had my first-aid kit still hanging around in the car from girl's camp last week.  I cleaned him up and bandaged his little face as he continued to scream.  I came to find out that he decided to jump out of the Costco cart (superhero style) but tripped and rolled onto the pavement.  Once I got my traumatized son into the car, I turned on a movie and the screaming ceased.  He has some pretty cool battle wounds and luckily it was no more than a scraped up face... good thing he's a guy and thinks this kind of stuff is pretty awesome.  

Gotta love a little "Rock 'n' Roll"!

P-Day

Happy 33rd Birthday, Peter!

We love you like crazy!!!

Independence Day

Hooray for a free country...

Hooray for those who fight for that freedom...

Hooray for 4th of July parades...

Hooray for "firework" hair...

Hooray for little ones...

Hooray for good buddies...

Hooray for barbecues and swimming...

Hooray for pink...

Hooray for red, white and blue...

We had a wonderful 4th of July!  We were able to spend a good part of it with our fun friends, the Lowes, visiting from Idaho and crashed their Brundage family reunion... thanks for taking us in again for another holiday and feeding us delicious food, letting us play in your gorgeous pool, hanging out with us at the parade and making us feel so loved and wanted.  It was a great day.  

Happy Independence Day!