Welcome 2011!

Wow, 2010 was such an amazing year for us. I can't wait to see what 2011 has in store. Our kids have grown so much over the past year and we are so proud of the "big kids" they are becoming. Madison is halfway through first grade and I can't believe how much she is learning on a daily basis. She really loves to read, and loves math. In fact, she is one of the top readers in her class! Ethan has become so much more independent and continues to come out of his shell all the time. Actually, I'm not so sure he has a shell anymore! ;) Didn't think I would ever say that!

We had an awesome Christmas and New Year (happy birthday Tiff), definitely got spoiled by our family, but mostly we just love spending time with our family. They mean so much to us and we are so grateful for them always being there for us and for loving us unconditionally. Love you all and hope you had a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Let's get this year started!!!!

Oh my

Wow, it has been FOREVER since I have posted and I figured what better time to post than when I have a bunch of new pictures!! Tiffany's sister-in-law Aubree took our family photos and I am so happy with how they turned out. of course it helps that my kids are so dang photogenic! The pictures were done downtown at the Gateway and even though it was slightly awkward at times with people staring at us (including a homeless guy holding a sign about his homework being eaten by the boogyman or whatnot) it was a lot of fun! Besides family pictures, Madison has started first grade....okay it's been a little while since she started, but she loves it. She is learning so much so fast, I just can't believe how fast the time goes. Ethan is in pre-kindergarten and gets more independent every day. He rarely wants my help with anything these days and if y'all know Ethan, that is SO not like him! Anyway, I was going to post some more pics, but I keep getting some stupid error....guess I'll have to try again tomorrow!

2 first days, for reals this time

Yesterday was ACTUALLy Madison's first day of Kindergarten. I am not so sure she believed me this time when I told her she was going to Kindergarten, but she still seemed pretty darn excited. We actually had two firsts yesterday so I will start with the first one.

A good friend of ours, Jeni, has been watching Ethan for the past 7 months and she has been really great. Ethan adores her and her kids and I know he has had tons of fun with her. As many of you know, we just recently moved so we decided it would be much easier for us to start taking the kids to the same school. Madi has been going to Kearns Rec for a year and a half and we absolutely love that place. (Thanks Jared and Barbi for the recommendation!) KRC is much more like a school than a daycare. They do tons of activities, lots of fieldtrips in the summer and the staff is amazing. I thought it would be beneficial for our little bubble boy to get to experience some of that!

So, we headed to KRC yesterday morning. "Ethan, are you excited to go to Kearns Rec?", "Yeah, I am going to Madi's school" (that's what we have called it for so long). Well, we got there, went to his class and said, "Love you, have fun." He looked at me all wide-eyed "Don't leave me, I want to go with you!" Uh-oh! I was so sad, I just wanted to take him home, plus I knew I was about to drop my little girl off for her first day of Kindergarten so I was pretty emotional already! He just kept crying for me to take him with me and it was so sad! But then, I peeked back in just a couple of minutes later and he was already playing, no more tears. Thank goodness, it made it much easier for me to leave then.

Now, off to Kindergarten...yeah, for reals! We got all lined up outside on the blue chalk with her teacher's name and waited. Of course I forgot my camera this time (at least I had it for her fake first day of Kindergarten! Ha ha) but Dylan's brother let us borrow his video camera so at least we have that! She was all smiles and dancing around, as she always is. Then the bell rang and the teacher came out to get the class and she all of a sudden looked a little nervous. She kinda had a look on her face like, "What do I do now?". It was pretty cute though and I was super proud of her as she walked into that school looking back at me with her big smile.

When I picked the kids up we had quite the conversation of their first days. Madison said her teacher is really nice and they listened to music, played outside, wrote the letter A, big and small, made new friends and got her first homework assignment. She was beaming as she told me of all the fun things she did. Ethan told me that he played with Caden (his cousin is in his pre-school class!), and that Caden is his teacher. How cute! I was so anxious all day yesterday wondering how they were doing so after talking to them both last night, I felt a lot more at ease. I am excited for all the new experiences they are both going to have in the future and I am so proud of the awesome kids that they are.

NOT my first day of Kindergarten!!

We have been so excited for so long for Madison to start her first day of Kindergarten. She kept asking every day for weeks before her first day "how many days left now?!" So, we called the school to get some information on her kindergarten testing and when school starts and all that and they said we would get something in the mail. Well, since we didn't get anything in the mail, I went to their website for some info and it showed that school starts on July 27th so that morning we had the video camera, our camera and the kids all ready to go. We headed out to Beehive Elementary. When we got to the school, there was a lot of excitement in the air, lots of parents going to take their kids on the first day. We walked up to the school, found the list of classrooms/teachers. Madi is in room 108, Mrs. Barnes. We made our way to her room and found it empty...except for the teacher. We thought it was kinda odd, but a lot of parents were still wandering the halls so we decided to walk around and do the same. We took them outside to play on the playground for a few minutes....then the bell rang! All the kids started running inside so we went to take her back to her classroom....still empty. We went to the front office and I asked them, "Where does she go...does she need to line up outside or something". So the office lady asked me what grade she is in and I said Kindergarten. "Oh, Kindergarten doesn't start until next Monday." What!!?? I was sooo dissapointed and I coul tell Madi was too. Then the office lady asked what her name was and told us we had a meeting with the teacher at 8:30 that morning...it was 8:29 when she told us this!!

So we went back to the classroom to sit there for 45 minutes while she did her testing with her teacher, wondering why the heck nobody told us that kindergarten starts a week later than EVERYBODY else!! Then, a few days LATER, we got a notice in the mail with the information about testing/first day of school. A little late, don't ya think!!

Well, here are some pics of her NOT first day of Kindergarten!!

I am very excited to announce that Madi's actual first day of Kindergarten is tomorrow and I am excited to know that she will actually be going to school tomorrow! Not many people get to do the first day of school twice!! Ha ha!!

**UPDATE**

So, it was brought to my attention that I failed to mention where the Relay for Life event is taking place. Oops!! Well, it is at the West Jordan City park (1985 W. 7800 S, just west of Redwood Rd.) and the event starts at 6:00 pm and goes ALL NIGHT LONG!!! Once again, hope to see you all there!!

The Main Event

Yay!! The main event for the West Jordan Relay for Life is this Friday night, June 26-27!! We have been working pretty darn hard and I'm so proud of my team(s) for all the hard work we have all done over the past 6 months! This year we worked extra hard raising money by having a yardsale, poker/pool tournaments and working a hamburger stand (although thanks to our Seattle weather, that one didn't turn out so well!).

It has all been leading up to our main event. If you have never been, I urge you to come at least for the luminaria ceremony. They line the track with paper bags that have been sold and put a candle in each and every one of them and then they do a tribute to all those who have battled cancer. It is so amazing, although don't forget your tissues. To start the night off, there is a survivor's dinner for anyone who has ever had cancer and after dinner the survivors are the first to walk the track and get the relay on a roll. A member from our team will be walking the track from then until the morning and we take turns all night long.

There will also be tons of fun stuff to do so I hope to see you all there!! I know there is going to be helicopter rides, face painting, food, midnight movie and much more!! And best of all, the money all goes to the American Cancer Society!! Dylan and I feel so blessed to be a part of this and work with such awesome friends toward an amazing cause.

It is so unfortunate that we will all know someone who has been affected by Cancer at some point in our lives so it's important to at least do what little you can to help! So dig out a little bit of cash and bring your family down!!

Support WJ Relay for Life 2009

Hi all,

I’m writing this letter to hopefully rally some troops! As many of you know, I’m involved in an amazing charity called “Relay for Life” in West Jordan. Relay For Life is the American Cancer Society’s signature activity. It offers everyone an opportunity to participate in the fight against cancer. Teams of people from all walks of life will camp out at West Jordan Park on June 26th -27th. We have fun while raising much-needed funds to fight cancer and raise awareness of cancer prevention and treatment.

Our goals are to:

• Celebrate the lives of those who have battled cancer. The strength of survivors inspires others to continue to fight.

• Remember loved ones lost to the disease. At Relay, people who have walked alongside people battling cancer can grieve and find healing.

• Fight Back. We Relay because we have been touched by cancer and desperately want to put an end to the disease.

I’d like to share with you the reason I Relay:

I relay because: In my lifetime, I’d like to see the day we find a cure for cancer!

With that said, I’m asking for your help to join our charity in hopes that no one else we love, loses someone special to them, due to cancer. You can be involved as little as or as much as you’d like. Some ways to help are below:

Start a Team: Team Captains and Team Members are the "foot-soldiers" in the fight against cancer. Team Captains lead their team by representing them at monthly update meetings and are the liaisons between the Event Committee and your team. Team Captains organize the team's participation in activities before and throughout the night of the event. The teams also set up activities and booths to sell goods to the public to raise funds.

Recruit Survivors: If you know of a survivor that you think should be honored, please give me their contact info. as we would love to honor them.

Corporate Sponsorship: Have some pull in your company or think the company you work for would be interested in donating for a tax write off? We advertise very heavily to the huge crowd we draw and allow companies to set up a booth to sell goods at the relay if they’d like.

Youth Involvement: Start a team of children to camp out for the night and be a part of this fun event. Involve their schools to help raise money.

Purchase/Sell Luminarias: During the event, we honor our loved ones with the luminaria ceremony. The luminaria bags are $5 and are usually decorated to honor someone who has either beat, is beating or has passed away from cancer. If you’d like some, let me know and I’ll either deliver them or mail them to you.

Donate Yard Sale Items: We are having a yard sale the morning of May 16th in the southwest parking lot of 7100 S. and Redwood Rd. (same parking lot as Furniture Warehouse). If you have anything you’d like to donate, let me know and we’ll arrange to have it picked up. (No clothes please.) All proceeds go to the charity.

Become a Committee Member/Volunteer: We have a couple positions still available if you’d like to be involved individually. A committee member has a specific role, where as a volunteer helps the day of. If you are interested, let me know and I’ll get you added to our google group!

Make a monetary donation: Visit my personal page to make an online donation. Any amount is helpful in our efforts! http://main.acsevents.org/site/TR/RelayForLife/RFLFY09GW?px=5740214&pg=personal&fr_id=14940

Pass Along This E-mail! Send this to anyone you think would be interested.

Thanks for your support! For more information about the Relay, visit www.relayforlife.org/westjordanut