When does it become worth it??

The quote goes, "I never said it would be easy, I only said it would be worth it."

Do I have to die first??

We are alive here in Utah. I actually have a tone of pictures to share and stories to tell, however I am currently stuck in the world of dial up. That and I can't find the cable to download the pictures off of my camera. Just one of many things that are MIA. I will try really hard to be more positive the next time I write.
To give you a glimps of what has happened since I last wrote; We went to legoland, the wild animal park, the beach (4 times), the tide pools, BBQ'd with friends, a wild, crazy, and extremily fun last book club, the park, packed up and left.
We got here and the next day it snowed, and snowed, and snowed, we celebrated Hailey's birthday, and it snowed, and snowed, the kids went to their first day of school here, and it snowed and was cold, my grandmother died, and Riley got punched in the mouth at school.
A lot to write about and I will, another day when I can say it in a better way.

Life's Tough Decisions

I have been putting off writing this post for almost a week now. I think I was trying to come to grips with the life changing decision Ryan and I have made for our family. We have decided it is in our families best interest to move to Utah. Now I always thought that if I got the chance to move "home" I would be so excited...well, I'm not. I think this has been the most difficult decision Ryan and I have had to make for our family so far. There was a lot of fasting, praying, and going to the temple. Although I know and have peace that this is the right decision it doesn't make it any easier. I am going to miss sooooo much!! What I am going to miss the most are the wonderful people who have made themselves a part of my life. They are priceless. I have never had such great friends. I don't even know how to tell them how much I love them and will miss them. There are not words to describe my feelings. sniff, sniff!!

We told the kids on Monday night. I was interested to see what their response would be. Ryan told them that we were moving to Utah and with out pause these were their responses (as I remember them) Riley- Cheering and really excited Hailey- "OH, I am going to miss my friends, can I have a kitty?" Sydney- "Can I have a baby chick?" Carley- Excited because everyone else was. With in five minutes Riley and Hailey were fighting about who gets to feed Grandpa's baby calves, and making plans on how to improve the tree house, and Sydney was making sure she could take her blanky and her animals. They are all so excited.

Every time I get down I go talk to the kids and feed off of their excitement. This will be a great adventure for them. I just need to find joy in the journey. I probably won't be posting much for a while due to frantic packing, and fitting in all our last wishes. When we get settled I will fill you in on the beginning of the next chapter in our lives.

Fun Friday

I have known for a while that Legoland was free the last hour of operation. You can drive right in and walk right in. Although I have known these things for some reason I have not take advantage of it. Well today that all changed. When I got home from picking Riley up from school I packed up all the kids and we went to Legoland. We had a blast!! We were a little late getting there due to lack of planning. For some reason I am doing things VERY spontaniously this week. We only had half an hour in the park, but that was enough for a lot of fun.

We started out with fairy tale brook. Sydney was loving every minute of it. Carley wasn't so sure. To Hailey and Riley this was old news, but still fun. They are both old enough to remember when we had season passes. Oh the good old days!!



Look at Carley's cute little face. Doesn't it just scream WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO ME MOM??? Poor little thing.

Next we visited the safari ride. Carley wasn't big enough to go on this one, but I don't think she minded. Riley got to ride it twice, onece for each of his sisters. I love how he takes care of them when we are on an outing like this. I gave him the camera, and we got some pretty fun pictures.

Isn't Riley a great photographer?!!

After that we had time for one more ride. Hailey and Riley both really wanted to go on the dinosaur roller coaster, so we headed over there. I was really hoping that Sydney was going to be tall enough to ride. If she wasn't we were going to have a melt down. She was so excited. The top of her head hit the right bar, and we were in business. Hailey cried the first time she rode this roller coaster because she was scared. I was interested to see how Sydney would react. My little adventurer, snuggled between her older brother and sister couldn't have been happier. Since they were the last ride of the day the operator let them go around one extra time. They all had a lot of fun.



Waiting to go. Sydney was so excited.



Catching them as they zoomed by.



My favorite picture of the week. Sydney getting off the roller coaster and letting me know how much fun she had.

When we got back to the car I said, "Anyone who had a good time say OH YEA!!" I think you could have heard them from where ever you are if you had known to listen. We are defently going to have to do that again. In the words of Sydney, "It was todiwy FUN!!" She todiwy wants to do it again.

After all that we came home and had a picnic dinner. I put an old blanket out on the floor and we had pizza and chips while we watched Alvin and the Chipmonks. It was a very fun Friday!!

Chef Sydney

Tonight I impulsively decided to have Sydney be in charge of making dinner. She chose what we ate and helped with all of the preparations. We had spaghetti, asparagus, Greek salad, and raspberry lemonade. It was really yummy!! She had a BLAST!! Every time I called her Chef Sydney she would giggle. She especially liked it when everyone thanked her for the yummy dinner. It was a lot of fun. I need to do things like this more often.

Making the noodles.

Putting the salad together




The Juice. I told her to smile, and this is what she came up with. She is SO much like Ryan in her facial expressions. Never a dull moment!!



The final product!! Bravo Chef Sydney!!

Valentines

We didn't do a whole lot for Love Day this year. Ryan's birthday is so close to it, and with everything else going on we kinda skipped it. The kids didn't skip it though. The Monday before V-Day we used to put together all the kids valentine cards. I thought this would be a quick fun activity. Two hours later when the kids still weren't done and it was bed time, that thought was long gone. When there are at least 32 kids in each class and two to three teachers it takes FOREVER to fill out all those little cards. I was really glad we got a head start. The kids finished up over the next few days and had fun exchanging them with their friends at school. Sydney was really excited. This was her first Love Day in school. She couldn't wait to give her teacher the card she made for her. It was cute. Happy Valentines Day everyone. I know I am a little late, but we are still in February, so it still counts!!!

The Museum of Music

On Thursday I got to go on a field trip with Riley. I was in charge of a group of six boys and one girl. Ceci, Riley, Jackson, Henry, Christian, Riley D., and Jesus. I know poor girl, but she was a tough cookie and handled it well. I told her she could help me with the boys and be my little bouncer. It was kind of fun. I made sure the boys always let her go first. They didn't think that was too fair, but I thought it was great. I told them that they may thank me for teaching them how to treat a lady someday. We rode a bus to the Carlsbad Museum of Music. After we got there we went into a room with the two other groups from Riley's class and made paper plate tambourines. It got really loud really fast. I was relieved when they collected them before we left the room and told them that they would get them back at the end of the day. The next room we went in had a drum for everyone. Our guide talked to the kids about tempo. She chose a few kids to come up and "conduct" everyone. When they put their hands up we were supposed to go really fast, when they put them down we were supposed to go really slow. Riley and Jackson were chosen from my group. When the kids were done the museum guide asked for an adult to take a turn. I was taking a picture at this point and not paying much attention, but when I heard the other adults coming up with excuses for not going up I had to put an end to it. It was fun taking a turn. I made one side of the room go fast while the other was slow. I know, tricky hun. It takes great skill to do what I do I tell ya. LOL!! After that we went on a lengthy, and slightly boring (don't tell the kids I said that ), tour of the museum. We went through 100 years of music history. The kids learned the charleston, and the swing. When our guide was showing the kids the swing she grabbed a few girls that were in her vicinity and started dancing with them. Riley was the closest boy. Realizing that he was going to be her next partner if he stayed where he was he quickly ran to the other side of the room. I wish I had video of it. I'm sure he broke some kind of record for quickest evasion. After our tour we got back on the bus. It was fun to spend the morning with Riley and meet some of his friends that I had only known by name. Now I have faces, they better watch out.

Blue and Gold

The first week of February Riley participated in his first Blue and Gold banquet as a scout. As part of our ward Blue and Gold they have each of the boys make a dessert and auction it off. They use the money toward scout camp. Having been in primary for many years I was really excited to work with Riley and make something fun to auction off. When I found out the theme was "The Old West", I started finding fun cakes we could make. Cakes that looked like boots, horses, cows, etc. I was so excited!! One day when Riley got home from school I asked him what kind of cake he thought he would like to make and told him I had some ideas that I had found on the Internet. He informed me that he didn't want to make a cake, he wanted to make dirt. Well, okay. So much for all of my years of planning and excitement. We made dirt. We had a lot of fun with it, and got the whole family involved. Riley and I crushed the cookies while Ryan and the girls mixed up the creamy filling. We put it together in a sand bucket. In each layer we included worms and rocks (chocolate covered cherries), and finished it off with a shovel in the top. It just goes to show that no matter what ideas and plans you have for your kids, they get to make their own choices. Even if it means you get to eat dirt.

Riley with his "Dirt", awards earned, and his painting of a cowboy.
Great painting bud!!