Sick House

Poor Mikiya was out of school for an entire week being sick. We think she had the swine flu, but luckily enough, it wasn't bad enough to take her to the Dr. It just took a long time to heal. now she is back in school and we are all thankful she is doing better!

Now if the rest of us can get over our colds, we will be even more happy.

Cake Mistakes

You won't believe some of these cakes. I particularly enjoyed the grammar page. I think Amelia Bedelia decorated most of them.
www.cakewrecks.blogspot.com

My Family Tree

Our "The Friend" magazine came last week. Mikiya was so excited to get it she couldn't wait to start all the activities. She proudly completed the word search, coloring pages finished in amazing speed, some stories read, and then comes my turn for teaching. She was thrilled to fill out the family tree. I tried talking her into waiting until we could get pictures of everyone and print them off so she could glue them in. Oh no! That would not do, she said she would rather just draw pictures. Yes, I was able to give her the names without having to look anything up, but it got me thinking about her excitement and wondering where mine should be. Hopefully, we'll be able to talk more about our family and read some of the family histories we have. I was able to have a good little talk with her. In all her sweetness, Mikiya told me how much she missed Grandpa Great and was sad he had to go live with Heavenly Father and not with Grandma Great where we can see him. It was the perfect opportunity for me to excitedly tell her of my feelings regarding the matter. It's wonderful to know that there is the amazing sealing power on earth, and we will all be privileged to live with our Heavenly Father again as well as all the other members of our family. I can't imagine life without this knowledge. I pray I will be a sufficient teacher to my children, that they too may know and love the blessings our Father has given us.

Gopher Chasing

Mike's been out in the back yard trying to get ready to plant grass. In our opinion, this includes getting rid of the gopher. The kids excitedly wait for Mike to get home so they could go outside on their gopher hunt. They dig holes, the kids included, and look for tunnels. A couple days roll by and the gopher piles dirt back up. Friday, they decided to set a gopher trap. Mikiya was thrilled to tell me all about how the trap works. Now they keep checking to see if the gopher has been back. I don't think they will really want to see if and when they do catch him. But I have been wrong before.

Country Bumpkins

At long last and after multiple road trips with the realtor, we found our first home. We are all very excited. Mike finally gets to stretch his landscape muscles (of course with the approval of the Architectural Committee). Megan has her bathtub, kitchen, and more than one room to decorate. Mikiya and Quaid love their rooms and having new space to play in. Probably the only people not excited about the recent move are the neighbors directly behind us as we have been staggering the purchase of the window coverings.



As you can see, we live in what most would call the country. This is the view from across our street. Our favorite part though is the rooster crowing and the sheep that jump over the fence to eat and then jump back. Quaid is often found sitting on his bed upstairs or at the living room window downstairs watching the animals.

Mikiya is continuing to adjust to going to school. She has decided that it is easier to ease into the day by having breakfast with Daddy at school and then she has been good to ride the bus home at the end of the day. Last Thursday was Family Game Night at school. She was very excited to take Quaid to her school and play games. She even had to have Megan call Mike at about 4:30 pm to make sure he was going to be home in time.

The biggest adjustment for us has been the new ward; more specifically sacrament meeting. To say the new ward skews to a younger age than what we are used to would be a wild understatement. It has become a new exercise in focus and concentration to follow the meeting. For example, Mikiya went from having a small class to two large classes just for her age group. Quaid has to find his nursery out of the three available. We think we will adjust. ;) Oh, and for those of you who have heard of 'Big Riley', she is in our ward also. And she is a little twig like Mikiya. However, she is taller than Mikiya's cousin, hence the reference.

Now that we are nearing the 100 day mark for new baby, we are actively searching for a new family car to accommodate the new little person. So anybody that has opinions whether for or against a particular car specific feature, we would love to hear them. For all the non-math majors, we are looking at the 7 or 8 passenger models.

First Day of School!

This week has been one of a great milestone. Mikiya started kindergarten! We are moving in a couple weeks, and they start school a week and a half earlier than this district does, so we decided to take her out rather than having her miss the first couple weeks. She was pretty excited! I found out only a couple days before it started that they are moving to all day kindergarten this year. Mikiya goes Tues, Thurs and every other Mon. So today is her second day of school. We got her all registered last week, and the secretary told us she couldn't start the same day she registered because she wouldn't be in the system. Poor Mikiya was broken hearted and just started crying. Luckily for us, we had gone to "meet the teacher" earlier in the week and she and the principal were expecting us, so the principal let her stay. That was great for her. I thought I'd be ok until we got into the car, but as we walked down the K-1 hall, I started crying. Mikiya told me I didn't need to, and I REALLY tried not to. I kissed her goodbye, took her into class and watched her get settled at her table. She so big! I'm so excited for her, but it was a difficult day for me. I bawled off and on all day. I have known she was going to school, but somehow I still wasn't prepared, especially for the all day stuff. I decided that overprotective, emotional moms should not be pregnant when they take their oldest child to school for the first time. Quaid had a difficult time leaving her as well and asked to go get her all day.

When we went to get her she was exhausted and didn't want to talk about anything. I was worried all day was to much and she didn't like it, but after she rested and cooled down, she jabbered about everything, and has been playing school with Quaid ever since. We went to IHOP for dinner to celebrate. She was so excited! However, all day school took all her energy. She took lunch to school, had a cheese sandwich when she got home, ate all her dinner, and then ate my leftover pancakes when we got home because she was still starving. Hope she doesn't starve today!

Walton Reunion

I'm a couple weeks late in posting, but we did have a blast at the reunion! This year we stayed at Mom and Dad's rather than going to the cabin, allowing us a little more room. Mikiya was so ansy to go, she thought we'd never get there. She just wanted her Grandma! All along the trip she kept asking if we were to the big trees by Grandma's yet. Of course, she finally fell asleep the last twenty mins. of the drive and had to wake her up so she wouldn't miss the trees. Boy was she glad to get out of the car! Quaid kept busy by taking his turn "working" on Mike's laptop.



Quaid was excited from the beginning as he got to open more birthday presents. One was a little golf set that with with 3 clubs and 3 balls kept the older kids entertained until Rafe started absconding with the flags to pick his teeth. Then it was out to the pools. The kids loved sliding in and out of the alligator pool, then run over to splash in the other pool.

Millie was excited to have Grandma help her on the slide, but was startled every time she splahed in the pool.

The new game of the summer was Lasso Golf (manufacture's name, I hear it has other names as well). At any rate, as you can see it was enjoyed by every age and none of the kids wound up hog tied by the bolos.



Another favorite activity, and reunion staple, was four-wheeler rides around the yard. For Mikiya and Kaelie, the faster the better. The boys weren't as concerned with speed so much as being able to help drive. Millie didn't care about speed or control, but being able to say "Hi" to everbody as she went by; especially "her" Grandma, dog, and dad (unless he was the one giving the ride, of course).

Day two involved a trip to the zoo, a picnic in the park, and amusement rides at Funland. The camera got left in the car, so you all have to trust us that it happened. Quaid's favorite animals were the tiger and the lion. And his favorite ride was the Ferris wheel. Mikiya's favorite ride was the carousel. I don't know what Rafe's favorite animal was, but his favorite snack was the goat food.

The grandkids finally all got their soccer jerseys from Uncle Layton that were waiting for them at Grandma's. As you can see, we had a classic attempt to photograph them together. Considering this was on the last day of the festivities late in the evening after church, they actually did pretty good. Although, judging by the kids' points of focus, we may have had too many parents coaching; also typical. :)

Long post short, we thought it was a great reunion. I forgot to mention the S'mores, meals on the deck, Grandpa's outdoor movie theatre, and playing/feeding Millie's dog, Mya. We look forward to next year and the new faces and returning faces that will join us.