Keeping Up With the Joneses

Mason starting 3rd Grade. He was so excited and insisted I take him to school 20 minutes early because he couldn't wait.  Myles starting 1st Grade at a brand new school to learn Chinese. He is so nervous and at the back-to-school night last night had tears in his eyes. When I walked him into school this morning he squeezed my hand super tight and said "you promise you will pick me up at my classroom as soon as the bell rings?" Yes my sweet boy--this is hard on me too! Max actually started his new preschool yesterday but insisted he get the same pictures as his brothers. He is going to two preschools this year--one on Tuesdays and Thursdays and one on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. I'm hoping this will keep him from being bored while his brothers are at school all day, and then give me a break when the new baby comes.  This perfectly captures the kid's attitudes today. Mason excited, Myles serious, and Max just plain nuts.  This was the pi...

We headed up to Waterton again a few weeks ago along with Marshall's parents and nephew. We had a great time and I realized how much easier it is to be up there with a husband than alone with the kids! Here are a few highlights. Driving up. So much better to share the driving. Truthfully I probably slept 70% of the day. Hello third trimester! Marshall, his dad, his nephew, and Mason went on an overnight hike and camping trip to Bertha Lake. It was quite a hike for Mason but he was a trooper (I just about died on the hike last year). I had a huge panic when that afternoon we saw rescue helicopters flying back and forth to the lake and I went to the helipad to find out what was going on. After a few terrifying seconds they could tell me that it wasn't my family and I started bawling out of relief. Too similar to circumstances a few years ago when things didn't turn out as well.  Mason ready for his hike. Myles loved riding the "two-person bike" wit...

So maybe we are the worst parents in the world, but Max's birthday was August 4th and we didn't get home from Hawaii until early the morning of August 5th. Fortunately, Max isn't really familiar with a calendar so we just told his grandma to NOT tell him it was his birthday until the 5th when we were home. It worked like a charm.  His grandparents had an "early" party for him on the 4th and we got to see him the morning of his "adjusted" birthday and he had no clue. He'll probably hate us when he is an adult if he reads this blog. Hmmm. . .oh well! Max was very particular about what he wanted for his birthday. He wanted it to be "just like Myles' birthday" which meant at "Chuck-E-Cheese, with balloons, and presents, but with a Mickey Mouse cake AND cupcakes." He was definitely not disappointed and it was the easiest kid's party I've ever thrown. Because we hadn't seen the kids for 10 days and Max is a little youn...

I've been working on a research project comparing educational and career aspirations and multiple role planning among women at BYU and in November had the opportunity to submit it to present at the conference of the American Psychological Association in Hawaii this summer. At first I wasn't going to submit it because the cost of traveling to Hawaii was prohibitive, but my department announced that they had some extra research money we could apply to use to travel to Hawaii. I had to decide within a few days and went for it and got approved for airfare to Hawaii and to use my almost $1000 travel stipend for the trip. In the Spring, Marshall decided he could take off of work and come with me and when we went to book his ticket we discovered he had enough air miles to get the trip free! So on July 26th we left for our 10 day Hawaiian vacation. My dad joined us for the last 5 or so days and we had a blast. Here were some highlights. We stayed at Turtle Bay on the North Shore ...