Mishmash

I didn't know what to title this entry because there is a bunch of everything so here is my mishmash of updates.....

My birthday this year was a ton of fun. Corbin was able to take a half day off of work to celebrate with me. We started off by going to Cheesecake factory. All I can say about that is YUM!!! After that we came home and I went to a few stores to pass the time until the evening. Kirsten came over after she was done at work and watched the kids so we could go see "Harry Potter". Thanks Kirsten!!! When we got home from that we were putting the kids to bed when there was a knock at the door. When I answered it I got a lovely birthday surprise of a toilet papered yard! I guess that is what you get when you serve in the Young Women's! My kids thought the toilet papered yard was the best thing ever. Claire kept saying "This is so funny!" and for days after the incident she would say "Remember when there was toilet paper outside? That was so fun!". You would have thought it was Christmas :)

On Labor day we took the kids up to the mountains for a hike. Surprisingly we didn't do our normal hike but ventured out on a new trail to Secret Lake. I have never seen a more busy place for hiking. Maybe it was because of the holiday or maybe it is one of the more popular trails. We had to park a couple miles away from the trial head and be shuttled to start the hike. For someone who doesn't like crowds the shuttle ride was not fun! We were packed in like sardines. The hike went okay, not the best. I thought it felt wonderful to get out into the mountains but 2 of the 3 kids were complaining a ton which made it kinda hard to enjoy. I bet you can guess who was complaining! I had one child wanting to be carried and one that was worried about getting back to his computer. Once we were up at the lake all the kids had fun playing in the water with sticks and enjoying the nature.

I want to point out two things in this collage. First that there is still snow in the mountains from last winter which tells you how wet and cold our winter and spring was. Second, the bottom right picture is a picture of Corbin and Claire singing. They were singing "Dynamite" the whole way down the mountain.

Now a quick update on all the kids....

Claire is still as hard as ever but is more manageable the busier she is. School has been very good for her. She loves going to see Miss Karen and all her friends. She is doing so much better this year with learning her letters. Her favorite things to do right now is anything to do with creativity. She loves to color, paint, sing, dance, and anything else like it. She also is liking the Wii. Her favorite games are Mario cart and Just dance kids.

Maelyn is still easy going. She loves school and is always happy to get up and go in the morning. She is growing up so fast and so she really doesn't play with toys anymore. She still likes to play make believe with friends but I'm sure that she will grow out of that soon as well. She is no longer in dance because she wanted to take a break. Instead we tried voice lessons and piano lessons. They are both really expensive so we are just doing piano right now. She is so musically talented so piano is going great. She gets a little frustrated with the notes once in a while but she is doing great! Another thing new about Maelyn is that she wears glasses now. Her prescription is very weak so she mainly needs it for reading. I think she is adorable with her glasses on.

Jaden is doing pretty good. He is struggling with school right now which is hard. He doesn't like his teacher and is convinced that he needs to switch schools or teachers. He is really stubborn so no matter how much Corbin and I try to talk him through his issues, he has his mind set that it's going to be a bad year. I think the biggest issue for him is that he is extremely bored because he is so smart. We had a meeting with the teacher and came up with a few ideas that hopefully will help. Man, I'm looking forward to junior high when he can take advanced classes. He is still liking the computer way too much. He is like his dad with his one track mind and his love of the computer. He is programming little tidbits for his game. Soon he'll be programming his own games. He is just like his dad.

Not much else is going on with us. It's a lot of the same old stuff. Maybe life will get more interesting soon so I can start posting updates more often. :)