Oh what do you do in the summer time....

Mmmm....snow cones, swimming, shopping, camping, family reunions, backyard layouts.....I could go on and on.  There are just things you do in the summer that make it summer!  And most of the times it is the small simple things that make it the best.    In fact, I wont even confess how many stops to the snow shack we have made!   The summer has begun and already we have had lots of fun stuff to do.  I think the girls have something going everyday!  If they are not with their friends they are with each other trying to make fun.
Kelsey started her summer with EFY.  (Sorry, if I posted pictures of that it would only be Kelsey's pictures of way to many different people that none of us know but her!)  Sam has already had one session of swim lessons and has another to come in July.

Swim lessons for Sam

Riley had a week of British soccer camp.  The kids were all divided up into teams with different country names.  She was on the England team.  All week they worked together to learn new skills and earn points for their "world cup" tournament that was held on the last day of camp.  This is the second year she has done this and loved it again this year!

Riley showing her team spirit

Riley with her team

Riley with her coaches.  Yes, they are all British.

 

Rachel has not had her big event for the summer yet, although last week she and her friend did put on a small Day Camp for all the neighborhood kids.  That in itself proved to be a big task for her!  But in July she will go to stay on BYU campus for four days for a basketball camp.  I dont know if she is more excited to stay in campus housing and eat at the Cannon center (like Kelsey does at EFY) or to just play basketball for a week.  There is no reason these girls should go back to school in September and say that they didn't do anything this summer.   It seems that if there is a day that they are "bored"  I get to feeling guilty and take them somewhere.  This week we went to an Extreme Sports arena with olympic trampolines and foam pits.  They played so hard that the were all dripping sweat by the time we were done.

Supposed to be a pic of Riley climbing the wall but Rachel just had to be in it too!

Jumping from one tramp to the next

Rachel

A very sad Sam in time out.  Dont feel to bad for her.

Jumping off the wall!

Fun stuff.  Now its onto family reunions, youth conference and girls camp.  This is the stuff memories are made of.  I love the summer when we can play together as a family!

I cant help but think of the primary song...

Oh what do you do in the summertime
When all the world is green?
Do you swim in a pool
to keep yourself cool
or swing in a tree up high?
Is that what you do?
So do I!

Jr. Miss Santaquin

This year Rachel decided with her best friend that they wanted to sign up for the Jr. Miss Santaquin pageant.  I was a little surprised at her interest in doing it because I would never have thought that dressing up all pretty and walking across a stage waving to judges and an audience would have been something that Rachel wanted to do.   For a whole week before the pageant, Rachel and all of the other girls spent time each day learning a dance and working on posture and their walks.  They also completed a service project as a group.  When the night of the show came Rachel was glowing.  She both felt and looked amazing.   The night was a long one for an audience member and Dan may have bribed the girls with money to never do it again but it was worth it to see my girl on the stage smiling like the world was hers for the taking!  As Rachel was walking across the stage waving to everyone I was so happy for her.   At the end of the her walk she stopped at one end of the stage to draw a question out of a bowl to answer.  Her question was "Why did you want to enter Miss Santaquin this year?"  Rachel, as honestly and as eloquently as she could said "I wanted to do Miss Santaquin this year because I wanted to ride on the float in the parade.  Thank you."  Ahh, I love this girl!

Getting ready to preform their dance number "New York, New York"

Quick change and set to walk the stage.

After the dance performance I sent Kelsey in to the changing room to see if Rachel needed any help with getting ready.   Kelsey came back quickly and very dramatically expressed concern for her own life in entering that room.  She said there were so many mothers in there helping their kids that she felt she nearly suffocated from hair spray inhalation and that she almost lost an eye from a "bump-it".

One of her Miss Photogenic pictures

Wearing her crown and 3rd attendant sash!

Good Job, Rachel!  She will get to ride the float this year for the Payson Onion Days over Labor Day weekend and she did inform her dad that he would be sitting through it all again next year :)

Long ago in a Galaxy Far Far Away...

....there lived the funniest four year old ever.  April 10, Sam turned four and when asked what she wanted she said that she wanted Ballet shoes (no she does not do ballet) and a new light saber.  What an odd combination!  She also said she wanted a Star Wars party.  I don't normally do full on birthday parties with the whole theme, games, and other peoples children but this year I figured, why not?!  I started looking online for ideas for star wars parties and do you realize that there are crazy mothers out there that spend outrageous amounts of money and time on kids parties?  It was nuts.  One mother was proud of the fact that her 6 year olds party ONLY cost her $250!  Well, its a good thing Sam cant read because I was not about ready to make jedi training cloaks for all our guests and outfit them each with a light saber.  We did have a great time though and Sam thought I was the best mom ever so really that's all that matters, right? 

Light saber "cake"

Kelsey was in charge of the pinata

What party wouldn't be complete with a couple of games?  We played "Pin the light saber on the Jedi", a memory game that required them to use their jedi powers to do, and "Dont eat Luke".  The funny thing about this whole party is that I think Sam was the only one there that even knew Star Wars.  I had to explain what a Jedi was and who Luke was?  Psshh, kids these days!

Sammie got lots of fun gifts for her birthday and while she did not get her new light saber (I thought two was enough) she did get what she thought was the greatest gift ever.....

Thank you Nana for the creepy Yoda costume.  She screamed when she got it and laughed at herself in the mirror for a good five minutes after putting it on.  Sam loved it!  What a girl!

American Thanksgiving 2010

When Grandma and Grandpa Wood got their mission call we knew that this year's Thanksgiving celebration would be a special one.  G and G have been assigned to the Alpine Germany mission and were to report to the MTC on November 29, 2010.  We all knew that this Thanksgiving would be the last opportunity for our Wood family to be all together for at least 18 months.  Bring on the chaos!!  Having five of the six Wood children and all their families were together in one house for the weekend was CRAZY!!  11 adults and 13 children  and we have a party! It was perfect!  The dinner was amazing (as always) and the games and fun to be had was great.   Every year we are together for thanksgiving you can see the kids off in one room playing games, the mom's in the next room browsing the Black Friday ads, the men sleeping or watching football, and Grandma in the kitchen making a pie or watching the kids.  This year, though, there was that resounding heaviness that was weighing on all our minds that our special parents would be leaving all this craziness to serve their mission.  I think we all are so proud or them and their willingness to serve.  The Sunday that the family was there we were all able to go and attend their setting apart with the Stake President.  What a great experience that was!  While we miss them, we are so happy that they are serving in Germany and even more happy that we will get to go see them in a year!

So here we go with the pictures:

Dan spending his time with Sam watching football

Me holding Olivia.  (One of the only times I didn't make her cry!)

Cousin time!

Sam helped set the big table.

They all thought it would be fun to do family yoga.  Why?  I dunno

The yearly traditions continued with our trip to Spaghetti Factory

Awww.  How cute are they?

Rachel was offended that the waitress gave her a kiddie menu and cup. 

Somewhere in this weekend I managed to sew a couple of skirts. 

I thought they turned out pretty nice :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Dear Kelsey, Rachel, Riley, and Sam.....

Well, my girls, remember back a few entries ago when I was so excited to start a blog to record our lives together???  Well, once again your mother has fallen short.  It has been four months since my last attempt at posting a blog and ,well, there really are no excuses.  Have we been busy?  Yes.  Have there been big events occur in the past four months?  Yes.  Have I been writing them down?  No.  (*hanging my head in shame*) Even though the past four months have come and gone without a post all I can do now is just push the rewind button, pretend that I never skipped out in my commitment to record the cool and meaningful things that have happened in our lives together as a family, and re post some of the great pictures and events that have happened lately.  It may take a few entries to catch up but...lets just do it, k?  I figure it will take about three entries to update Thanksgiving, Christmas, and our Disneyland trip.  And just to keep you interested, here are a couple of pictures from the past few months.

Thanksgiving with the Wood Family.  This was right after G-ma and G-pa were set apart as missionaries.

Building "gingerbread" houses christmas eve

The girls standing in line waiting to see the Disney princesses.  Can you see the joy?? :)

 

 

 

 

Belle and the girls 

So girls, I am a slacker when it comes to this stuff.  I would like to say that I am going to be better but, really, I am only going to commit to doing the best I can.  Thats all any of us can do, right?  Just know that our time together is precious and I love every minute of it!
Love, MOM

Halloween! (and other stuff)

We love Halloween here.  I love making costumes and the girls love wearing them.  Every year we have a family party hosted by Kristin Wood.  She is one of my girls aunts and is simply amazing.  She has boxes and boxes of Halloween stuff to put out each year at this fabulous party that she puts on.  I wish I had gotten more pictures of the games but I got plenty of the costumes and food.  The whole night is pretty fun. 
Costumes:

Aunt Kristin

Connor: After all this work for the costume, he ended up HATING it!

The FOOD:

Center piece

Monster cupcakes made by myself.

A close up of these fabulous cupcakes!!

Meringue ghosts were my favorite!

On top of Kristin's party, Halloween would not be complete without pumpkin carving for FHE.  This year as well as carving we made these luminaries for the porch.  The girls simply modge podged on tissue paper and faces to glass jars and put a tea light into the bottom.  They had such a good time making these and I think all turned out pretty great.

I've had the above written for some time and only now am posting and since I have been so bad about updating this blog I thought that I would  add in a couple of odds and ends.  This month Rachel ran for student council. She did great. She used her whole super hero costume as a theme for her running.  Posters were made with her in costume "saving" the school and her skit she had to preform was all super hero stuff. Unfortunately, she was beat out  by the other candidates.  (only because some of them cheated though! I have to throw that in) I thought that it was cute that she made t shirts her best friends.

And yesterday I was putting a chicken in the rotisserie oven with Sam watching me.  Once I got the bird in and rotating Sam kind of freaked out.  I didn't think that she would react the way she did.  I had to explain to her more than once that there was no head or feet because they had been chopped off.  She thought that it was all gross.  I should not have been surprised when I put a drumstick on her plate at dinner that she burst into tears and refused to eat it.  Kind of spazzy but cute.