Last Day of School

Skylee's last day of school was today and she was excited for summer but also sad to leave Mrs. Berg. Skylee and Mrs. Berg had a unique relationship. Mrs. Berg constantly told Skylee she needed to be doing college work and that she was too smart and for the spelling bee she told all the kids they needed to beat Skylee. I will admit I was worried it would go to Skylee's head but she took it all in stride and Skylee just loved Mrs. Berg and adored her. I can't even remember how many times she would call me Mrs. Berg before or after school. Mrs. Berg did a great job and doing fun activities- like bringing in a squid for the kids to touch and disect, doing the spelling bee, the country party and the list goes on and on. We really will miss Mrs. Berg. Today Skylee's report card was sent home and Mrs. Berg had written a little note for Skylee. I thought it was very sweet and I'm pretty sure the actual letter will get lost at some point so I thought i would put it in here so it wouldn't get lost. So here it is :)

Last day of being a first grader- on to SECOND GRADE!

 Skylee received second place in a book writing contest and received the Young Author award. 

She also received the math award. When I got the letter about this one I went to her room and told her she had to stop with all the awards already and she said, "Never!" I hope she continues to be so self-motivated with education. This is one proud Momma!

Preschool Graduation

Jaston finished his first year in preschool. I was a little nervous to send him to preschool, not sure how he would act for the teachers but he did a great job. He's a smart little cookie when he wants to be. His sweet teachers went all out with the super hero program a few weeks ago and now the graduation and carnival. The kids had an absolute blast. They had yummy carnival food and fun games. I'm pretty sure my kids played every game at least twenty times. Thanks Holli and Kalli for a great year! 

Brielle a Year Old!

So this is a bit late considering she is 13 months now but my sweet baby girl is a year old now! I can not believe it. She is such a sweetie and starting to work her way into the stinker stage although she is still a pretty darn cute stinker. She started into the fit-throwing stage which is still in the humorous stages. She will flop down on her belly and kick one little foot. She is starting to sign and is learning how to communicate what she wants much better. 

Here are her stats:

Weight- 16 lbs 14 1/2 oz = 9%

Height- 27 in = 1%

Head- 44 1/2 cm = 34%

She loves signing time, like my other two did at this age. She loves to be outside. When she hears that back door open she is going as fast as those little legs will carry her to escape. She is trying to run which usually ends in a belly flop. She still usually takes two naps a day and sleeps 10ish hours at night. She is a binky lover. She knows where her toes are and her nose but other body parts she hasn't figured out quite yet. She is a pretty good eater. Most everything we eat she will eat. We just adore her. The kids still fight over her almost every day. We love our Brielle Barbara! 

So

Piano Recial

Skylee did an amazing job at her piano recital playing Supercalifragilisticexpealidocious (don't really know how to spell that word). She also got the Butterfinger award. She had some tricky notes for her little fingers and she did a great job. Piano was a real challenge for Skylee at first but she is really starting to take off and enjoy it. I even gave her to option of whether or not she wanted to take during the summer and she said she did. That's good news. 

Skylee's end of year Country Celebration/Awards

Skylee's sweet teacher, Mrs. Berg. Did a huge country celebration for the kids. Skylee's country was Iceland. She learned how to say Hello and Goodbye and learned about her country. They made shields and had a talent show. Skylee was asked to do a fairy dance. She was quite repetitive and a little  hesistant but she kept going for the full 2 1/2 minutes that music played. She did a great job. She also got a medal for getting second place in a writing contest. Three kids in the class were awarded trophies for academic excellence in the class and Skylee was one of them. I just learned she will be getting another award for math on Thursday. First grade has been very good to Skylee and Mrs. Berg has been a great teacher. We are pretty excited for second grade and hoping Skylee will make it into the advanced class. Mrs. Berg said it shouldn't be a problem but we shall see. Sure proud of this little smarty-pants. After I got the letter telling me about the awards assembly on Thurs I went in and told Skylee she needed to stop being so smart. She has been awarded something every quarter this year but one. She smiled big and said, "Never!" Love her!

Skylee's principal and us when Skylee was awarded her Academic Excellence Trophy. Notice Jaston had a shield too. Skylee made him one too. 

Skylee with her shield, medal, and trophy.

Girl's Day Out

 One of my friends, Kelly Germond, asked if I would want to take Skylee and her oldest daughter out to take some pictures. I thought it sounded super fun. It took me several weeks to finally getting my crazy schedule open enough to go out. But we did and it was a blast! I took over a hundred pics and had a tough time narrowing it down but these are definitely my favorites. I will have to go out more often. It was so fun to just get to spend some one on one time with Skylee and have it a low stress environment to just let her explore and take some pictures. I sure love her and love spending time with my kids one on one. It was fun hanging out with Kelly, someone who has photography has a hobby too and her sweet daughter, Tessa. :)

Spelling Bee

Today was Skylee's spelling bee. About a week ago she had a preliminary round and got first place, tying with her friend Dylan. She was insistent that that was the final spelling bee but to her dismay they still had another round. We studied quite a bit and did our best to prepare. The thing she was most excited about was because she was a finalist she got a medal and a marker (she got to keep her dry erase one), I think the marker won out on all. But the first, second and third place winners got trophies. She did awesome at the spelling bee and made it down to four students before she missed the word 'serve' spelling it 'surve'. One spot away from a trophy but she was a champ and swallowed the tears down and rooted on her classmates and Dylan won! We were so excited for him. It was tough to not get the trophies but fourth out of her whole class isn't too bad either. I think it was a great life's lesson as well. 

Skylee drew this a few days ago. I thought it was cute.

Jaston's Preschool Program

The school year is coming to an end and all the end of the year festivities are beginning. Our first round festivity was Jaston's preschool program. Their theme was super heroes and it was super cute. Jaston's line was "We all have things that make us special. Even though we are all different we have one thing the same: Super Powers!" He did a great job. My favorite part was their Apples and Bananas song they sang without music and they were coming in and out all over the place it was adorable! Sure love my little super hero and can't believe he is done with his first year of preschool!

Brinlee Grace is here!

            My first precious niece, Brinlee Grace Cluff was born April 23rd, 2014. She was 7 lbs 5 oz and 19 inches long. She is absolutely precious. We got a text 4:30 AM on Wed saying Kelsi had her water break and they were heading down to Cedar to get this party started. I couldn't get back to sleep I was so excited and nervous for her. Jeff and I were planning on going down The next night but I knew we wouldn't be there until late and wouldn't be able to see her until Friday. I thought of all I had to do and the appts I had the next two days and it was too much to drop everything and head down. I didn't realize how upset I was about not going  until I talked to my mom an hour or so later and started to cry. My heart hurt that I wouldn't be there for the birth of this sweet spirit and to get to meet her right away. But at this point I knew I couldn't do it. So I talked to Jeff and told him I cried which he laughed at but said if I wanted to go he would totally support me in it. I still knew it wasn't practical so I got the kids ready for the day and started getting ready myself. 

         Brielle had a doc appt and that was my focus for now. As I was getting ready Teona called and told me she was on her way down. That was the point of my next break down. I wanted to be there so bad. I was embarassed I was so emotional about all of this but Teona explained she was super upset and cried when she wasn't able to get down for Brielle's birth. That made me feel a little better. So I texted Jeff and told him Teona was going and I was super bummed but there was just no way I could go. I listed off all of the reasons I couldn't and he told me those could all be rescheduled and that I wouldn't regret going. This was about 9:00 AM. So I dropped Jaston off at preschool, Sky at school and went to the doc appt. I had decided what the heck I was going. So I started calling and texting like mad- canceling VT, installing a toilet, arranging Skylee to be picked up and dropped off the next few days, freezer meal swap stuff figured out etc etc. By 10:30 I picked Jaston up early from preschool and headed to Cedar. I drove as fast as was legally possible. Stopping to go to the bathroom and grab food which we ate in the car. The kids were complete angels on the way down (heaven's intervening I'm sure). About St. George I got a text saying she was at a 9 1/2. Only Teona knew I was coming and she told me to hurry. I informed her I was trying! 

       Thank heavens the new speed limit from SG to Cedar is 80. That's one of the only reasons I made it. But Teona had to tell my mom when I was about 15 min out to try and stall the nurses because they were getting ready to start pushing. I pulled into the hospital and Teona came and took my van to park it while I literally ran into the hospital so I could give Kelsi a quick hug and tell her good luck. The nurse checked her right then and said it was definitely TIME. I left and got a text like five min later that the baby didn't have red hair- she was right there! Less than a half hour later we had a baby! I had made it JUST in time. After some one on one time with Mommy and Daddy and Baby, we got to meet sweet Brinlee Grace and she is perfect! A complete angel! We went back Friday when they got released so Skylee and Jeff could meet her and I had the opporunity to take some sweet pictures of Brinlee. It was SO SO much fun. I took so many and had to narrow it down some. So I narrowed it down some and edited away. These are the results. I can't believe how precious newborns are. They are straight from heaven. 

      So that's my labor story of my sister's birth. haha. Jeff was right I don't regret canceling and rescheduling any of those things. And what a blessing I have sweet friends that I know will help out with Skylee and not worry about me totally dropping the ball on a TON of things. :) I am blessed!