Happy Birthday Malia!!

Malia turned 15 on Saturday! We had such a fun day!


Here she is with some of her gifts. She's wearing the Hoberman Sphere on her head. I'm pretty sure that's not what you're supposed to do with a Hoberman Sphere.... She's also wearing her cupcake apron. Her favorite gift was the duck crossing sign. There is a similar duck sign down by the river and temple. Every time Malia goes to the temple, she comments on the duck sign. Taisha suggested it as a gift idea for Malia. While most kids might have a picture of the temple to remind them of their goals to go to the temple, Malia has a duck sign.


We went to Texas Roadhouse for her dinner, and then came home to whatever this raspberry dessert is called. We are hoping for non-winter-like weather on Wednesday so she and her friends can play night games and have a hot dog / s'mores roast for her birthday party.

Yippee!! School's Out! (At least I think Yippee...)

That was one of the fastest school years on record.... right up until the last two weeks, which went painfully slow. There were some really good moments though. I have report cards for my elementary kids, and they are all straight A's. McKay and Taisha both earned Faithful Attendance awards, and Presidential Fitness awards. McKay did gymnastics in the 2nd grade talent show, went on a field trip to Walmart (ya, I know.... budget cuts made the field trips a little odd this year!) Taisha played the piano for the 6th grade talent show, and walked to Sonic for their field trip. Anaya walked to McCowin park for a picnic and had SO much fun on field day and the hot dog reading party.

Probably the coolest thing was Taisha was awarded the Hope of America award. It says on her award: "Presented with honor to Taisha Finlayson who has demonstrated during this school year capacity for leadership, ethical and moral character and outstanding academic accomplishment." (Incidentally Kayden was also awarded this when he was in 6th grade.)

(My camera takes terrible pictures in the gym!)

I worked on average 5 1/2 - 6 hours a day through this school year. This was new for me, and meant that things at home had to run REALLY smoothly. I felt like I was operating in some type of hyper-efficiency mode. I was never behind more than a load or two of laundry at any given time, dishes were washed and unloaded the night before, backpacks were packed, planners were signed, homework was done and corrected, lunches were packed (I hated that part), and laundry was folded and put away, all before I could go to bed that night. Trying to squeeze sports, homework, shopping, cooking, cleaning, and church responsibilities into the mix, made for exhausting days. But at the end of the week, I always had this feeling of accomplishment. I had to cut a lot of extras though. I didn't watch TV all year, not even the news. I have no idea what happened in the world or community this year. I didn't do anything with friends (I've missed that though!) I have eaten terribly this year, and what used to be a rare pop every now and again, turned into a once a day pop habit. I made it to the gym a whopping 2 times. I did a slap-happy job visiting teaching this year (lots of phone calls and just running a treat around quickly). But over all, I'm pleased with how the year went, and I loved my job at the school.

We've had our first day of summer break, and depending on when you talked to me, I was either overjoyed, or super grumpy. I was thrilled listening to Malia have time to practice the piano for 2 hours, while Taisha and McKay were on the couch reading the latest Friend magazine. And loved watching Anaya spend part of the morning drawing and coloring while Kayden was applying for jobs. But banning Kayden and his friends from the basement until further notice after an aggressive Nerf gun / Rockband war left my basement in shambles, and a foot and a half of wall that now needs to be repaired.... left me kind of grumpy. And scrubbing the words "McKay wrote this" which was written in ballpoint pen all over the kids closet doors had me a little frustrated (and as you can guess, McKay didn't write that..... ) And I haven't quite adjusted to the chaos level in the house.... but I got to sleep in!

Here's Anaya's dance pictures from this year. I love it!!

And Kayden brought home his prom pictures:

Kayden and Kristen

I sure do like that Kirsten girl (probably not as much as Kayden though!)

The Merry Month of May!

I tend to go through May celebrating when something ends. I don't know if that is good or not, but it makes me so, so happy! Wrestling's over, track is over:


and Malia and Taisha had their last volleyball games last weekend (you have no idea how happy I am that 5:37am practices are over.... I almost cried on my way home from taking Malia to the last one, I was so happy), McKay and Anaya have both met their reading goals, and they are both done with math homework for the year, Taisha is done with piano for the year, Seminary graduation is over (Malia had to play some REALLY hard songs on the organ for this), and as of last night, dance is over:


and all the major papers and projects are done, including the non-meatloaf, non-hotdog project that turned out like this:

and today was the 6th grade track meet. The weather was cold and SUPER windy, and Taisha came home exhausted, but she had a lot of fun! She got 10th in the mile, 3rd in the hop, skip, jump, and 4th in the 4x400 relay.





and all the proms are over.... including the ones I didn't know about. I got home from volleyball last Saturday, and was trying to figure out where Kayden had gone. Here's how my texts to him went:

Me to Kayden: Where are you? You're supposed to be watching McKay and Anaya!
Kayden to me: (nothing for several hours then....) We just got done with the day date, and there was water involved, so I didn't have my cell phone with me.
Me to Kayden: Day date??? For what??? I have news for you..... prom was LAST week.
Kayden to me: Not for Hillcrest. For IF.
Me to Kayden: What?! With who??
Kayden to Me: Mackenzie
Me to Kayden: Mackenzie who? Did you rent a tux?
Kayden to me: Nope, just wearing my 3 piece suit and my black, grey and white tie.... gotta go, heading to the BBQ.

Turns out a friend of a friend wanted to go to the dance but wasn't asked, so Kayden took her. He even ran out and got a corsage last minute and everything. Shouldn't I know things like that? I'm starting to notice a pattern with Kayden. Yesterday he text me that he was being inaugurated into student council RIGHT NOW. There was no way I was going to be able to get there with the camera and record anything for his posterity, because he let me know as it was happening. Apparently I'm supposed to be proud, and show my love and support from a distance. But I'm on to his ways now.....

Kayden and Mackenzie

Kristen has been helping Kayden learn to play piano. Here's their first piano/violin duet:

(I downgraded the quality so it would upload quickly.... sorry!)

We are down to 5 days of school left. And even though the weather doesn't feel like summer, I'm really looking forward to summer break!!

Prom, Mother's Day, and What the??!!

As part of our "PARTY EVERY WEEKEND" philosophy, Commencement was on May 7th. Kayden was SO excited to be going with Kristen. They were going with 12 other couples, so a huge group! The boys were hoping for some good weather for the day date, but the night before the dance, decided they'd better come up with a plan B, because the weather looked windy and wet. They decided on a scavenger hunt. I told them about the photo scavenger hunt that I had done for Malia's birthday a couple times, and they decided to go with that (it was late, and they were out of ideas... ) I altered it a little bit (since they were driving), and printed it up. They decided to meet at my house at 1:00 on Saturday.

Kristen 's little brother was being baptized the same morning as the dance, so Kayden went with Kristen to that, and to the luncheon afterward. All of the couples started showing up at my house for the day date, except Kayden and Kristen. After waiting for a while, I finally just decided to send everyone else on the scavenger hunt. After I got all the other kids out, Kayden showed up.... only with no Kristen! It turns out that the alterations she had done on her dress didn't turn out the way they had hoped, so she and her mom were looking for another dress!! Funny thing about the scavenger hunt.... I thought I was being so clever when I put "Photo with a street sign named after a president of the United States," on the list. I completely forgot that I live on the corner of "John Adams!" That wasn't nearly as hard as I had hoped, and all the kids had photos of the sign in my yard (CLEARLY I need more sleep!)

Kristen looked absolutely stunning in her dress, and it matched the tux and vest that Kayden had rented for the first dress!


I only got a few pictures of Kayden and Kristen, and they were in the middle of the night, after the dance, after walking through the rain, and after dessert at my house... and still looking good!

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I got to sleep in on Mother's Day. This was the best present! All day long though, the kids did little things for me. Kayden cleaned up breakfast and loaded up the dishwasher (he loaded the dirty dishes into a dishwasher full of clean dishes.... but it's the thought that counts, right?), Malia cleaned up the kitchen after dinner, Taisha got everyone and everything ready for church in the morning, McKay found all my hymns in the hymn book for me during Sacrament meeting, and Anaya decided to have beautifully polished nails to celebrate Mother's Day (ya, I know....)

In primary, the primary kids filled out questionnaires about their moms. McKay and Anaya did a really good job getting things right. McKay said that my favorite food is corn on the cob, and Anaya said Chinese food... both true! McKay said that I taught him to count by 3's, and Anaya said that I taught her to tie her shoes. Anaya said that my favorite thing to do was play the piano, and McKay said to SLEEP! This is Anaya's drawing of me:

And this is McKay's drawing of me (he put his on the back, instead of the front):

Bahahahah!! This made my whole day. This is actually how I have felt I've looked the last few weeks... huge forced smile, sleep deprived eyes, and all tinged with just a little bit of CRAZY!

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When I went to get the Commencement pictures off my camera, these pictures were on there:

Ya, I have no idea.... but it looks like "crazy" is catchy at our house!

McKay's Day!

McKay was baptized April 30th. He was SO excited! State wrestling was also scheduled for that day. It turns out that McKay is actually a really good little wrestler (who knew!?) I think it might have a little to do with his super-human strength (I'm not kidding.... he's STRONG), the fact that he doesn't seem to care that he might get hurt (boy thing??), and he's extremely flexible. All season long he was consistently in the the top 3, and won his last 9 matches. That being said, he didn't even want to consider going to state wrestling. He just wanted to get baptized. Lots and lots of family and friends, and good food, made the day WONDERFUL!

If you've been keeping track (and I'm sure you have), you'd notice that that makes weekend #3 in a row of PARTY PARTY PARTY!! First we had McKay and Kayden's birthdays, then we had Easter, then we had McKay's baptism, and this weekend it's Commencement (fancy dance for Kayden). That's a whole lot of parties, food and preparations. Mix into that all the sports, school projects, homework, pinewood derby car, and everything else, and I might be getting partied out..... In fact, I think I might be going a little crazy. Malia has 3 projects on World War II due in the month of May. The first one is done. She finished the second one early, because she knew she was going to be in Utah for a volleyball tournament all weekend and wouldn't have any time to work on it. Then she turned it in... only the teacher didn't think it looked "homemade" enough. Not. Kidding. So she has to redo it. Because I'm almost crazy, I SERIOUSLY considered having her make a WWII tank out of meatloaf and hot dogs. HOMEMADE meatloaf (and I would actually hear evil laughing in my head, when I thought of this great idea!) Malia looked at me like I was insane though... and I think she's making an airplane carrier out of cake instead. I might be just a little tired, and I may have used up all my (sane) creative ideas. Almost done though..... almost done.......