Colten turns 9!!!

Oh my goodness...he has been waiting for 364 days for this day to come.  I am afraid I created a mini me as far as birthday loving is concerned. 

Colten,

Happy Birthday!!!!  Yes I am writing this after your birthday so I guess I should say "Happy Belated Birthday!!!!"  I hope you enjoyed your big day.  Unfortunately, you had to go to school but you did eat quite a few chocolate chip pumpkin cookies for your birthday treat.  You have been enjoying your speed bike from me, oh and your beyblade.  You tend to want your birthday items before your birthday.  Your dad did send you your present, he got you the football stuff that you will need - mouth guard, practice jersey, cleats and then a Broncos hat.  Holly took you to Magleby's.  You got the same thing as last week - cheeseburger and salad.  You also got an ice cream sundae for your birthday.  You ate so much food you couldn't go to Fizz afterwards but Holly said she will take you another time.

Although there are times that I struggle with being a good mom for you, I wouldn't trade my time with you for anything.  I love that I can talk football with you and actually you talk my ears off.  I love that you will sit down and watch any sport thing I have on the TV with me.  I love that you love learning.  This year has been a tough year as you grow and learn how become a good man that I know you can be.  I love that when you do something, you give it your all. 

Most of all, I love that you are really trying to turn your behavior around and although reluctant at times, you go with whatever crazy thing I am trying on you.  This weekend it has been smile for one minute.  I can see that it does make a difference in calming you down and then you make a better decisions. 

Colten - I can't wait to see what is in store for you in the upcoming years.  I am lucky that I get to be your mom.  I love you bud!!

Mom

Colten's turn

for a birthday but I'll do a separate post for him.  This past week wasn't AS busy has it has been but still plenty to keep me busy.

Monday had us going to the Snow Canyon League Little League opening ceremonies (yes that says opening even though the season only has 3 weeks left - I didn't plan it haha).  We had the Chick fil A (who can pass that up) and then the kids played the games.  Colten even had a turn at being dunked in the dunk tank.  I got it on video but no still photos.  It was fun to watch...Aspen really enjoyed it.

Aspen had 2 softball games this week.  She is continuing to get better every week.  She was playing in left field and had to go chase down a ball (not too far though) and she picked it up and threw it to second where the runner was headed.  While they didn't get the runner out, Aspen did get the ball to the second baseman with one throw.  The parents I was sitting around were impressed.

I also got a text on Thursday evening from Aspen's teacher, Mrs. Tui.  She was letting me know Aspen improved her LA SAGE score and went from a level 2 (approaching proficiency) last year to a level 3 (proficient) this year.  Basically she is on grade level for LA.  I was super happy to hear that news.  Aspen has worked hard this year on homework and went in early a few times to Mrs. Tui to get some help (because LA is not my forte).  We also got her 5th graduation pictures.  I can't really believe that she is going to be done with elementary school in less than one month.  She has really grown and learned so much.  She has been able to do service with the student council, she has made some great friends and is becoming quite the young lady.  I am one lucky mom to have her as my daughter.

Colten had a game this past week as well.  He is kind of in a slump as far as batting goes.  But his team is doing really well.  I will talk more on him in his birthday post.

So I will update a little on me...I don't do it that often.  This past week I made the quick decision to cut my hair.  My hair, although many people are jealous, is a lot to handle.  It is super thick and doesn't cooperate with styling.  I was tired of pulling strands of hair off me so it was time for a cut...I chopped off between 5 and 6 inches.  Aspen walked in from school and was like "What??? You cut your hair?"  Colten didn't really notice until Aspen said something haha.  So I am ready to go for summer...as far as my hair is concerned.  Yesterday I took the kids shopping because they had some money burning a whole in their pockets.  I made the mistake of taking the kids to Kmart.  I should know better because they are the only place that has sales on Bronco attire.  They had T-shirts for $5 and $7 and PJ pants for $5.  I walked up to the kids with 6 shirts and PJ bottoms, 2 of the shirts were for the kids though.  I was having a tough time deciding which shirt to get when the kids said "Why can't you get all of them?"...well ok then.  I did put one shirt back.  But my school shopping is done for next year haha.

I also learned a few weeks back that I had been nominated for and won a k12 Teacher of the Year award for Student Achievement.  I was in shock for about a week to really know if it was true but I guess it is.  k12 sent me a $50 Amazon card to show their appreciation.  I debated for a few days on what to get with it.  I won an instant pot from our lead teachers a few months ago and am learning to love that.  Holly had suggested getting an air fryer.  When I looked those up, it was about in my price range with the card.  I got it last week and have been playing around with it.  I tried banana chips the first day I got it...those didn't turn out to well.  But this weekend I have been working on apple chips and potato chips and am more confident in my air frying abilities.  I'll be giving banana chips another go when the bananas I have get more ripe.  Colten loves the apple chips...Aspen and I love the potato chips.  And these chips are healthier snacks.  We tried frozen chicken nuggets and they were more crispy than cooking in an oven.  Love this fryin' thing.

I know I say it a lot but what a busy week.

I don't think we could have packed in anymore this past week if we wanted to.  It was a fun week though so that made it worth it.

Monday we had Arrowhead's PTA Color Run fundraiser.  It was super windy which meant that even people who didn't want to get chalk on them did.  Aspen wasn't too into the run part of this event, just the color part.  She walked around the track four times with her friend Katherine.  Colten did do the run part even in his flip flops.  He did find a few friends that got some color on him.  They did a race a little while after the run.  They gave Chick fil A dessert coupon to the top 5...Colten got 4th.  He was super happy about it.  It was fun to run into Ashlyn and Paige at the fun run as well.

That evening Holly and I were talking about rings and how my fingers are so much smaller than Holly's.  She gave me on of her rings to see if I could get two fingers in one...well I got my two pinky fingers in one and got a picture to prove it.  Haha.

Tuesday was my 35th birthday.  It was a good day.  I had a lot of people wish me happy birthday and made me feel special.  I went to Sweet Tooth Fairy, got a free cupcake for my birthday - and 6 other cupcakes, pretty much one of each kind they had.  That was my birthday present to myself.  The kids had a choir concert (they said it was for my birthday haha) then they each had ball games.  All in all, it was a great birthday spent with family.

Wednesday was a calm day.  Aspen just had gymnastics.  Then Holly took me out for my birthday and I brought the kids along haha.  We went to Magleby's because I had never been there before.  It was really good.  I got the Chicken Club sandwich.  Both Aspen and Colten got bigger plates and not kids meals.  They only ate about half but they each finished it off the next day.  It was a very nice birthday dinner and so nice of Holly to help make it special.

Thursday brought on more ball games.  Unfortunately the weather wasn't the best.  It was cold and windy.  I ended up watching from the car for both games.  Colten's team is in 6th place and if they keep up they should make the play offs.  Aspen's team is playing well as well.  While Aspen hasn't had a hit, she has gotten on base and scored a run or two.

Friday was another calm day (luckily I had these days this week).  Aspen went to sleep over at Audra's and Colten and I spent the evening at home.  We watched "The Ultimate Gift" then the first part of "Remember the Titans".   He was really into both movies.

Saturday I was able to make it back to the temple.  I love attending and serving there.  Colten had his batting practice as normal.  Then after lunch we headed off to the kite festival.  We met Aspen and Audra there.  The kids chose to get the tickets.  Colten had wanted to do jousting but Aspen didn't want to.  Luckily he found Alijah and gave him a ticket so he could do the jousting.  Then he also shared a ticket with Jeramiah as well.  Colten was happy he was able to do his jousting.  Aspen stood in line for an hour to do the blow up balls on water.  She went with Audra and Katherine and they had so much fun doing it.  We were at the festival for about 2.5 hours and luckily none of us got sunburned.  Colten is trying to get his blue belt in karate before summer so  he had a karate class.  Hopefully he will be able to test soon.

I am truly grateful for these opportunities to see my kids doing things they love.  There are plenty of hard times but I am trying to be more positive and focus on the good times.

Almost done

I love watching my kids enjoy sports.  I know that these times will not last and I need to be grateful for the busy week nights.  Aspen has loved playing softball.  She is still learning all the rules of the game.  She usually sits out a couple of times a game (I think it is because she is the smallest one on the team) but she doesn't seem to mind.  She just cheers on her teammates.  She has learned to not swing at every pitch that is thrown.  She has walked a couple of times because of knowing that.  I love that she doesn't feel like she has to be the best on the team.  I love that she doesn't get frustrated when she doesn't catch the ball or make the play or strikes out.  She just has a love for playing and enjoys every minute.  She also pulled out her own tooth this past week...I think her dad has pulled all most of her teeth but she finally got one all on her own :)

Colten, on the other hand.  I love him dearly but he has a completely opposite approach to sports.  He does love the sport but gets frustrated when he doesn't play well.  It puts him in a negative mindset and he can't see anything that he did right during the game.  He is the youngest on the team so it doesn't help when the older boys give the newer boys a hard time.  I have been trying to work with him on helping him have a better mindset...it hasn't been going very well.  Hopefully I will figure out how to help him better.

This past week we attend our Young Women's luau fundraiser.  They had a silent auction for some goodies.  I had given the kids some money to bid on some items.  As it got closer to the time expiring, Colten stood by his cake he bid on and told people that it had poison in it.  Haha it worked because he won the cake.  It was a good cake too, whoever baked it knows how to bake a cake...super moist.

Friday night the kids had another sleepover at Grandma's at my request.  I was volunteering to help at an aid station with Girls on the Run for the Southern Utah half marathon.  I needed Grandma to get the kids to practices that morning.  Don't know what I would do without my mom.

On Saturday, Darcee and Jay helped me pick up a "new to me" sectional couch.  I was tired of having to move to the floor when the kids and I watch movies.  So I found one on facebook that looked comfortable and big enough for all of us.  It is a little bigger than the guy described but Jay is awesome and got it to work.  I got it vacuumed and Holly is picking up some febreeze.  There are a few things that need cleaned...I might look into getting it professionally cleaned.  We will see what I can find as far as that goes.

Today in primary both Colten and I had our birthday's announced since we have stake conference next week.  Colten was super excited to be a king during primary.

Today we are getting ready to head out to a mini Stewart family party.  The Shields are down for their annual St. George trip.  It should be fun.

Crazy life begins

Well I knew when I signed the kids up that my life would take a turn into busy.  And I was correct.  Colten had two games last week.  Wednesday's game was a little rough on him but Thursday he did a lot better.  He did get thrown out at home on a force out but I learned that he has never learned how to slide.  So I relayed that to the coach.  He said that he will be working on that in practice with the boys.

On Thursday both kids had games...Aspen had a double header.  So I was able to watch her first game and then headed down for the second half of Colten's game.  Both of them did very well in their games.  Aspen tries her absolute best but still has fun playing no matter what.  Her team won both of the games that night...their first wins of the season I think. 

On Friday, I took the kids to Fiesta Fun for a little batting practice.  I learned that Aspen needs to be in the slow pitch cage but she didn't do too bad in the faster pitch cage.  Colten did really well.  On his last set he said he wanted a challenge and to do it on more level up in speed.  He didn't hit any of the balls but he acknowledged that he was glad that he tried.  After the batting practice, the kids used some free mini golf and played the course.  I am not a fan of that course and I have never had the kids play by the rules.  I think I need to start too haha.  They like to stop the ball before it goes down hill or drag the ball a little too much.  But they had fun, I think.

On Saturday - we had a filled day.  First, I started it off by going to the temple :)  I love that I have started doing this again and keep doing it.  I feel such peace when I am in the temple.  After the temple, we had Aspen's softball practice, then Colten's batting practice with his coach and team.  Aspen and I went to the library while he was at practice.  Then we headed over to Home Depot for their craft.  Unfortunately they had run out of that day's project but they were still able to complete projects.  Then we headed home for lunch and for the bug guy to come spray.  Aspen had a birthday party at Fiesta Fun that afternoon.  I was exhausted by the time I got done running everyone around.  But I was still able to get the kitchen floor mopped.  A freak rain storm suddenly came and got stuff wet in my room (the window was opened), the wind shut my bedroom door and knocked down a picture all while I was trying to make dinner.  Dinner turned out good but the picture frame was broken and things were wet.  Oh well :)

Overall we are still doing well.  The kids are getting ready to do their choir concert in a few weeks.  They have both started their end of year SAGE testing.  School is winding down and the anxiety of summer will start to show in the next week or two.  Colten's birthday is coming up...guess I had better start planning it.  Ah I have a busy life but I wouldn't trade it.

Easter 2018

Well for 27 more days, Colten still qualified to participate in the Santa Clara candy hunt and he wanted to do it.  So I made sure I got to my parents for the waffles and then to take him to the candy hunt.  It is a little sad that I won't be participating in this anymore, I have been doing it since I moved to St. George.  Colten was able to get a plastic egg this year and got a frisbee plus tons of candy.

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After the candy hunt, Colten and I headed over to Home Depot for their special Easter craft.  It was a cute little Easter basket.  Colten said he wanted to give his to Oaklee.  My mom came as we were leaving with the other kids.  Colten had batting practice with his baseball team that he needed to get to. 

While he was at batting practice, I chilled at my parent's house and watched the first part of conference.  We had a solemn assembly this conference since we have a new prophet.  I never knew this is what happens when we switched prophets.  I loved participating in it and felt the spirit so strong to sustain President Russell M Nelson as our new prophet.

After picking up Colten from practice, I just went back to my parents where my mom was having the kids watch the solemn assembly again.  I don't know that they fully understand, don't know that I do either, but they were excited when they were able to stand up and sustain the prophet.

The kids were helping Grandpa clean up the yard a little bit before we headed out to our Easter activities.  He rewarded them by paying them $2 for their work and reminding them to pay their tithing.  After lunch, we headed out to Lytle Ranch.

We lucked out in finding Lytle Ranch as we pretty much have the place to ourselves or at least we aren't bothered by anyone.  Kirk loves leading the kids on the "treasure" hunt to find old coins.  The kids come back with happy expressions of, "look what I found".

The kids had a great Easter.  Aspen had to jump really high to get her basket while Colten just had to find the right hiding spot.  I always love spending time with family and love watching my kids play with their cousins.  It was also fun watching Oaklee on her first Easter hunt.  Once she found her basket, she was more interested in eating her Veggie sticks than finding plastic eggs.  Good thing that she had her mom help her.

All in all it was a great day!  Now to focus on the true meaning of Easter by listening to our prophet and apostles on Easter Sunday.  This has been a great spring break.

March 2018 has ended on a high note

This past week has been great...my spring break :)  The kids still had school most of the week so I had some time to myself.  I was able to attend the temple twice, go to some job interviews, clean my house, watch a little TV, go to the gym, go eat lunch with the kids, do a little shopping...it was really nice.  That was just during the day.  My evening life hasn't really changed this past week...softball and baseball.  Because of the holiday weekend, there were only games on Tuesday.  It was Colt's first game.  He hit the ball both times he was at bat, got thrown out at first and then scored a run on the second.  Aspen has learned how to walk haha.  The girls pitching typically don't throw 3 strikes before they throw 4 balls.  She hasn't really learned how to hit the fast balls that are coming at her.  I think we may need to go to the batting cages to get her more comfortable.

On Thursday, I checked Colten out of school for the afternoon so that we could go do the Scout cave hike.  My mind was all sorts of mixed up and I thought I had to tutor Alijah that afternoon but since there was no school on Friday I didn't have to.  Karston joined us.  It was a fun little hike.  Colten loved the "cave".  Karston has a cool camera app that takes a bunch of pictures so you can jump and get a good picture of you in the air.  Colten did the jumping picture about 5 times.  I think he will go back again.

On Friday, the kids were out of school for their spring recess.  I had asked the kids if they wanted to go on a hike in the morning or the afternoon...they chose the afternoon, they learned their lesson haha.  It wasn't too bad but definitely hotter in the afternoon than it would have been if we had gone in the morning.  I had found a hike called Yellow Knolls over in the Red Desert Reserve.  I have never been or even heard of this reserve.  There are a couple of hikes so we will probably be returning.  The hike wasn't what I thought but definitely a good hike.  Colten described it as an exercise hike.  You were climbing on lava rock, walking in sand, uphill and downhill.  Aspen emptied the mountain of sand (her words) out of her shoes a few times on the hike.  But the kids did really well on this hike. 

I had told the kids that if they didn't complain, we could go to McDonald's for treats.  We were so anxious for the treats, I forgot to get a picture.  Colten had already finished his treats and was playing by the time I remembered.

On Friday evening, I got a text from my parents inquiring if Aspen and Colten could come sleep over with Alijah and Jeramiah.   They both wanted to so off they went and I went to sleep haha.