Brianna's LVA friends

Campout at Boulder Beach

Daddy's little helper

Mike has started his first remodel project in our house :). He is re-doing the fireplace and then he'll be installing wood floors in the main living areas downstairs. He has a cute little helper with him working out in the garage. I wasn't here for the demolition phase but I'm sure they had fun with that as well.



Before:

During:

Stay tuned for after:

Cord

Cord loves puzzles. He likes to put them together all by himself which can be a little frustrating for me sometimes. He'll get frustrated but wont let me help. He eventually gets it figured out though.

First Pointe Shoes

You can tell by the smile on her face how excited she is for this day!!! I wonder if she is going to sleep in them? At dance class they'll sew the laces on and learn how to tie them up.





Yup,I was right. She fell asleep with them still on her feet.

I found her again hugging them. Sweet dreams little ballerina!

Chelsea's new friend

Chelsea is lucky to have met Lisa. She is an exchange student from Germany. She is a junior at Coronado and living with a family in our ward. Chelsea has gone out of her way to make Lisa's experience in America a good one. She made her cake pops to take to her the first day and offered to show her around the school. I'm really impressed at my wonderful daughter and her efforts to welcome her. I'm sure there is a lot she can learn from Lisa as well about another culture.

The happy bakers

Chelsea has really taken an interest in baking yummy treats lately. She likes looking through books and trying new recipes. She invited her friend, Taylor Dillman, over on Friday night to bake with her. They made these yummy smore brownies. Then she brought me over a sample of her goodies to work. It was fun to visit with her on my lunch break. I got to show her off to those I worked with and show her where I spend to much of my time. We decided that we need to be teaching her how to make dinners so that when she goes off to college she doesn't have to live off brownies.

Cleaning out the email

I have like over 1000 emails in my inbox. With a little free time while watching tv at night, I've been working on cleaning it out. I found this email sent by my grandma mathews on February 23, 2010. She didn't do much with the computer ever but I love reading her words and wanted to preserve them when I print my book. I love her and miss her. It's been over a year since we lost her. I love having Chester by my side as a reminder of her. This is what she sent......

"Jalyn you are wonderful. Let me count all the reason I love you. I can't. It would take forever I enjoyed the pictures so much I can't begin to tell you. What beautiful children you have. They all looked like models. In 30 minutes I take my last drink of water before I go to the hospital. I have to be there at 9 AM so I can sit around and wait for an hour and a half before they operate. I will be in the hospital for three days and than go to rehab for a few days. If Terri wasn't here I wouldn't be able to write this letter. I am such a slow learner I keep forgetting how I am suppose to do things. I check my e-mail and that's about it. Jalyn I can't begin to tell you how much I love you and your family and appreciate you. Well I have got to get ready for bed say a prayer for me love Grandma Gum"

This week

Lots of stuff going on this week. We went to Brianna's back to school night at LVA. I was interested to see the LVA campus and see what her day is like. I was super tired after running from class to class. She'll be super skinny this year burning all those calories running to her classes. The building behind her is where she spends a lot of time, it's where her dance classes are.

I also took Cord to the library and got him his own library card. He was super excited to find some books and play the games they had on the table there. He was even more excited to check out his own books. We don't usually go the library because we have so many books that we don't get through all of them anyway, but it was a fun experience for both of us.


Also, Riker is back to spend the weekend with us (yeah). We love it when he comes. He rides down on the shuttle so it's really easy. This morning they both went to some merit badge classes and got their robotics, metalworking, and plumbing badges. When I picked them up they said they were hot and thirsty. I know the perfect cure for that.... a purple penguin. It's only the bestest snowcones on earth. They are only here for 3 more weeks so our time is limited. After we got home they jumped in the pool to cool down. Perfect!


Other interesting things:
I went to check out Chelsea from school on friday for an appointment. As soon as Cord and I got into the Deans office to wait, the principle announced over the intercom that the school was in a "hard lockdown". Everyone started scrambling, closing the blinds, covering up windows, and turning off lights. They told us that we had to move away from the windows. Cord and I went down a little hallway and sat on the floor by some filing cabinents to play "hide and seek". We had no idea if it was a drill or real. We were there for about 30 minutes. They did say that there was no threat in the school but that something was happening in the community. They told the kids to go ahead and communicate with their parents because the media was involved and it would be on the news. When they finally let us go we noticed several police cars, etc down the street and it was blocked off. I never did find out what was going on but it was an interesting experience.

Also - Cord started his practices for t-ball. He is so excited to be playing baseball. When I came home from work this morning he said "Mom you are awake, lets play baseball."

Crazy hair day

"Mason, get ready for school, the bus is almost here!"
"Mom, I am"
"What do you mean? Did you comb your hair?"
"It's crazy hair day"
"OH"

Cross Vegas

For the last 3 days we've been hosting 2 riders that were here in Vegas for the Cross Vegas bike race. It's a cross between road biking and mountain biking. We hosted several riders last year as well. This year we had Joyce and her aunt Maurda from Belgium and Fabio and his trainer, Joseppi from Italy. They were all really nice and we all have to admit that Fabio wasn't that bad to look at. Add the Italian accent.... hummm :) Tuesday night we had a BBQ/ party for the riders. Chelsea invited her friend Lisa (an exchange student from Germany). There were all kinds of accents flying around, it was so much fun. We had a lot of fun while they were here. I decided that I should get my passport with the hope that one day I'll eventually get to Europe.

The race was on Wednesday night. Chelsea and Brianna invited some friends to go to the race and volunteer. They got to stay in the VIP tent. Mike was able to go to the "pitstop" area and help with the exchange of bikes. Chelsea was in charge of taking pictures while she was there. I saw the pic of Mike and "some guy". When I asked him who it was...... he almost packed up his suitcase to leave me. How in the world was I supposed to know that it was Chris Horner. OMG! Guess what? I still don't know who that is. Hopefully he'll forgive me. The girls had a great time there.















One funny moment of the week was when Mike and Joseppi were talking before the race. He was asking Mike if he wanted to take his place in the pits and help with the PITSTOP. With his Italian accent, all I could think of is Guido from the movie Cars everytime he said the word "pitstop". I thought it was so funny that I had to find the movie and show him the end part that I was thinking of. Anyone who has seen the movie as much as I have will totally appreciate this funny moment.