Ryan and Amber got married! We headed to Springville for the wedding where Alissa was a cute flower girl and Zach got an awesome purple bow tie! The ceremony was really pretty with touches of Ryan's funny charm and the night was really fun! We are happy to welcome Amber into our family and the kids now have a new aunt!
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Our sweet Tiss is also a very prissy girl. I call her Tissie Prissy. She likes to be left alone (I do too, so I can't blame her) and I find her in her own little quit places a lot. I walked in to get ready for bed and found her oh so happy in our closet on top of dirty clothes. You can see she was happy as can be as she twisted her head upside down to be pet. We love our Tissie Prissy!
Alissa's room is her little world. She likes to have stuff out and available to her at any given time, but I was becoming more and more frustrated that it was a wreck most of the time. I have been reading a book called The Child Whisperer, where you determine your child's energy and then are given great advice on how to help parent them to their own individual needs. She puts people into four "types" to make it easier to talk about. I don't like labels, but the information is great! One I determined what Alissa's energy was, room cleaning has become much easier! A few helpful tips I got to help were:
1. Let her keep some of her favorite things out so she has access to them.
2. Make it a challenge and reward at the end. These types of kids love to see that their hard work is paying off!
So I sat down with her and told her she is welcome to keep out her stuffed animals and 3-4 other toys she'd like to have access too and then we played the card game and timed her cleaning her room. I then came up with the idea to have a 30 day "challenge" where if she beats the clock for 30 days (or 30 times total) then she gets a medium sized stuffed animal to add to her collection. She loves it and even came up with some ideas of her own as part of our room cleaning system. When it's time to beat the clock, I tell her exactly what she needs to do and she's off and doing it! So far so good! Now she has the things out she loves and the rest is put away (unless I don't keep up on it, then it becomes a mess again, but what doesn't if you don't keep up on it?)
Another thing I like about parenting to each child's needs is that I have started realizing that MY needs are not going to be the SAME as theirs. While I like things put away in the proper places, she could careless. So there has to be a compromise and I have to realize that they are not me and I am not them. Where major rules and structure apply and still will apply as they grow older, having Alissa's room spotless isn't as big as deal.
It's finally here, the first day of school! Alissa was excited and Zach was nervous (although he says he wasn't). Alissa wanted me to walk with them to school and then off when she found one of her friends from last year. Zach stood by himself at his door and I walked away hoping that everything would be okay for his first day. I KNEW it would be, but I'm a mom, HIS mom and it's hard when you know they are nervous and you can't do much more than say "I love you, have a great first day".
They both came home saying it went well and we now start another year of school!
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We have gotten signs that Zach's eyes needed to be checked, so I made his first eye appointment. We explained to him that it's critical for him to be honest with the eye doctor because if he does need glasses, the wrong prescription will hurt his eyes. He ended up with about 20/30 vision in both eyes and the doctor explained that was bordering on needing glasses and if he's struggling at school, he should get some for things like seeing the board but not playing at recess. We agreed that he'd keep us updated in school and he said if he had to get glasses, they'd be blue.
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As back to school sneaks up on us, I told Zach and Jordan they could have one last sleep over and we ended up at the park on our way to drop Jordan off. I laid under a tree and soaked in the beauty of our earth while the kids ran and played. It got so warm, the boys ditched their shirts. Alissa was done before Jordan and Zach so we sat under the tree and played a card game. These are the best parts of summer!
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The kids were excited for weeks to see who their teacher was going to be and who was in their classes. I think we walked down at least twice to see and found out later the day it would all be posted. The day finally came and the kids were ready to head over first thing in the AM. Miss ran right to her list and Zach stayed back nervously looking for his name. On first glance, he was bummed because he didn't get the "cool teacher" (we had one of those in 6th grade. Her name was Mrs Roxbourne, or something close, I can't quit remember...Maybe Mindy or Ryan remember?) and none of the friends he had in his class last year are in his class this year. I assured him it would be okay and meeting new people would be good for him!
Alissa got Miss Sorensen, Zach's teacher last year Zach got Mrs Lystrup. It's hard to believe they will be in 4th and 5th grades this year!
We spent a minute playing at the park there at the school and went home.
So I had mentioned in another post that I have been reading The Child Whisperer. The woman who wrote this also has a fun program helping woman dress their "truth" with a program called "Dressing Your Truth". It helps woman identify their natural energies and then gives you a fun color and style guide. It really has been fun and I've met some amazing girls who I have a lot in common with. We have told each other multiple times that going through the program and identifying our true natures brings years and years of things in to perspective! They have girls nights called Club Nights and I finally went to my first one after going to dinner with the girls you see in the picture (minus Carol and the lady in the black shirt). It was really good to meet some new people and the Club Night was celebrating WOMAN! After they did a panel of people who work there, we all walked by this stage and showed off our fun outfits. It's really fun to finally feel like you "get it" like I "GET MYSELF"! Carol separates people's energies into four "types" to keep it simple and the more I learn, the more I can truly see all these different energies in people. It has not only helped me to understand myself, but understand others. Truly great information! After words, Carol stuck around and took pictures with people. It was almost like meeting a celebrity after the many, many videos I've watched with her in them! FUN NIGHT!
I've now been on two other girls nights with some of these wonderful girls and making some great new friends!
Park City was so great this year! Last year when we went, I was very new to all the diet changes I made and it was hard. I couldn't seem to find that "Park City good feeling" that I normally get, but this year...I had it almost the whole time! The kids and I were able to have some time just to our selves a couple of the days and it was great to be there alone with out the extra noise of three other kids!
Saturday : The kids and I left around 2pm so we could head up to Sprouts to get groceries and then head up to Park City! My mom and Greg where there for a minute but then headed to John's grandma's birthday party so it was just the kids and I. My cousin, Kimber, had told me about a free concert up near our condo and I thought it would be fun to take the kids. We grabbed some dinner to take up and then headed on over. The evening started with a ride up a open and standing tram that scared the crap out of Alissa. She cried, no screamed, the whole way up, so she wasn't too thrilled. We headed up the hill to listen to the music and eat and found shortly after that that kids had no interest in the concert. I was trying to get a hold of Kimber while the kids played on a mini golf course. I finally got a hold of her, so she walked over to where I was sitting and saw Alissa jump and then fall into a little pond on the mini golf course. This cut our evening short because she was cold and wanted to leave. I had fun though, I never knew this area existed and I thought it was really cool!
Sunday : The kids and I had a great time this day! We started out with swimming at 10am on the dot! Mindy, John and the kids wouldn't be up until late, so we spent the day doing things Park City style (meaning, things I remembered doing as a kid and loved). While at the pool, Alissa met a boy that was following her around. The aunt of the kid walked over to me to explain that she text his parents saying he didn't want to leave because he was playing with a girl. The parents insisted "he doesn't like girls" and so she was recording her nephew flirting with Alissa to show his mom! It was too funny! We then headed to the game room for some pool and old school games. This room used to be hours of fun for us as kids! We took a walk around PC and ended up at the park I loved going to and were we've gone most every year. I played cards by myself, we relaxed and it was a great day!
Monday - Friday : because Mindy, John and the boys made it up late Sunday, the kids were eagerly waiting to go swimming at 10am when the pool opened. The kids pretty much went swimming two times a day the entire week! We did a puzzle, went on walks, played some more in the game room, bbqed, relaxed, played cards, did the Alpine coaster, jumped, had dinner, swam some more and had a lot of fun this week! One of the nights Trapper, Hunter and his girlfriend, Levi and his girlfriend came up and we did the whole night out for dinner thing, went swimming again and then Hunter, his girlfriend and Trapper stayed for a couple of rounds of Telestrations. I continue to tell people how fun this game is, but they don't get it until they are laughing so hard tears are in their eyes! My mom's drawings were hysterical, Alan left one of the answers on from a previous game which embarrassed Hunter's girlfriend (oh man, I can't think of her name) and we all had a blast! We made chocolate factory runs, swam some more, played more, bbqed more and thoroughly enjoyed the week! Grammy left early to be back at school, Mindy's family left Friday afternoon and the kids and I enjoyed watching "Night at the Museum" alone before heading home the next morning.
It was a perfect week and it makes me excited for next year!
I will be the first to admit that I don't like big messes like this, but I'm learning to chill out because I know they had a lot of fun. Alissa and her friend, Katelyn, wanted to make a big fort the other day. They came into the office asking me who's design was the best and I gave my thoughts. They were going to make one fort in the living room and it turned into a full dining room and living room of fun! They assured me that they would clean it all up and I thought it was great they got to make and build together!
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