End of 1st Quarter!

With October comes the end of the first quarter in the kids school year. After Fall Break was over they had their awards assembly to hand out awards for good grades that quarter. Shawn and Brady both had great grades and so both were given awards!

Here's Shawn getting a Student of the Month Award:

Plus his awards for good grades and perfect attendance:

Plus he got a special award - the 6th grader who had the most AR (reading) points for the quarter! Doesn't surprise me with how much that boy reads!!!

And Brady getting his good grades award and perfect attendance award! So proud of him!

Great job first quarter boys!!!

Football Days...

Pretty much all fall long we spent every Saturday at Shawn's football games! It was so fun watching them play! They really are a good team!!

These two crazies had fun at the games too - not only watching but playing on the bleachers and running around with friends. Good times!

Shawn has had some issues with his feet the last couple months. His bones were growing so fast that his feet couldn't keep up and it was causing some serious pain. Like to the point where he couldn't even walk sometimes. We took him to a doctor and they had us do a bunch of things to take care of them - taping them, ice, and shoes all the time and resting - he had to stay off his feet as much as possible - and could not run on them at all for almost a month! Definitely was not fun especially since it started right at the beginning of football season. The coaches were great to work with him (knowing that if he didn't take care of his feet he would have problems the rest of his life!) He was a trooper and still went to every practice and just sat and watched from the sidelines and learned what they were doing. Plus he would go to every game and sit on the side cheering his team on. Finally they were starting to feel better and he was able to play for the last part of the season! Yay! Since it was a "growing" problem it shouldn't ever happen again - let's hope! 

 

Fall Break Fun??

During Fall Break (kids had a week off of school in October) I was going a little cleaning crazy knowing this would be the only big week I'd have with lots of time to "deep clean" the house before we have a baby in April! (There's always Spring Break in March but knew I'd be too preggers then to do much!) So as I was a cleaning fool for the week, at one point I realized since we moved into this house 2 years ago I had never really cleaned the tile grout. And it was nasty. So I decided to clean it. With a toothbrush.

Income these two boys! They saw me working and they thought it looked like FUN! Say what?! Scrubbing grout with a toothbrush looks fun?! Well if they were wanting to be all over that fun I figured I'd let them! They got the whole half bath and hallway done too! Such good little worker bees! (Not sure if they still thought it was fun when they were done though! Haha!) At least I got a clean floor out of it!!

September News...

So a few happenings for me this month (well, in the last few months)...

First randomly - We had a ward talent show this month and I sang with these lovely ladies in my ward a song all about moms to the tune of Bohemian Rhapsody! It was so fun! To be honest I haven't sang in front of anyone in years so I was a little nervous but had a great time! These ladies are so awesome!! (And ignore my preggo belly poking out of my apron! I tried so hard to hide it! Not really anyone even knew I was pregnant yet! - I was only a couple months along - But more on that later...heehee!)

The other big news with me (besides the pregnant thing) is that at the end of July I was called to be the Primary President of our ward! Me?! YIKES! That was a big deal to be since I've never held a calling like that before. I was the 2nd councilor in YW at the time and that was the "busiest" calling I'd had yet! Well seriously that ain't nothing compared to how busy I am now!! (and being super sickly pregnant on top of it! Sigh...) Anyway! So they officially sustained us the beginning of August and lo and behold the Primary Sacrament Presentation was set to be the end of September! What?!?! They really threw us into that one!! But the previous presidency was awesome and already had it written, parts just needed to be assigned (quite the task when you don't know all the kids yet!) and then practiced & carried out. It went so well and we got so many compliments on it (best primary program we've ever seen!) and I couldn't even take credit for it because it was the previous presidency who wrote it! So thank goodness for that!! After all was said and done I wanted to give thank yous to the teachers and the kids so this is what we came up with...

M&M (Much love & Many thanks) jars for the teachers for helping us out!

And glow sticks (Thank you for letting your testimonies SHINE) for all the primary kiddos!

I'm super nervous about this new calling and all the un-knowns that come with it - I'm still learning all the many parts of my calling! - but I'm also super excited to be with these amazing primary children each week. I already am loving them so much and love to feel their sweet spirits each and every week in Primary. The theme this year (2013) was "I Am a Child of God" and that was so neat to be a part of even just for the last few months of the year! I truly am blessed!

Wolf Scout

Brady has been hard at work as a new cub scout this year and he has earned his Wolf Badge! 

So at Pack Meeting tonight they did the little ceremony for him where they read about being a Wolf Scout and I got to put the paint on his face to represent the different things. Always a fun moment when your kids work hard to earn something and they accomplish it! Good job Brady!!

Shawn for Treasurer

Shawn is in the 6th grade and that means he can run for student council this year! He wanted to run  for Class Treasurer so we went to work...

Took this pic of him to put on flyers that he handed out (totally forgot to keep a copy of the flyer! Duh!)

And took this pic of him to use on the poster below (made a few different posters to hang around the school)...

He also had to do a speech in front of the school and he did this big cool rap about being the treasurer. It was awesome!! (Once again, should have recorded it! Duh!)

Well...his hard work paid off because he won!!!

Shawn McDougal is Simonton Elementary's Treasurer for the 2013-2014 school year!

Just Like Dad...

This kid is sure growing up fast!! And he's liking all sorts of things just like his dad....all sports (especially football), golfing, movies, telling jokes, Boy Scouts, etc. Here he is on a Sunday afternoon settling in to watch the Cardinals football game on our big projector screen tv. Just like dad, he's scooted the lazy boy recliner over to the middle of the room/screen so he can have the very best view of the game. And with a screen that size, it's just about as good as being there live!Just like dad he's got remote in hand and is ready to go! Thank goodness he's got a GREAT dad, so if he wants to grow up to be just like dad, it's a-okay with me!!

A "Rattling" Experience!

One early morning in August at about 5:30 am my day started out with a nice peaceful run enjoying a beautiful AZ sunrise...

I got home, woke my kids up to get ready for school, and waited for my daycare kids to arrive. When they knocked on the door and I went to open it, I heard the mom yell through the door for me to not open it because there was a RATTLESNAKE ON MY FRONT PORCH! YiKeS!!! 

So I went through the garage to let them in and also to check out the snake for myself. Yep there it was! Curled up nice and tight under the corner eave of our porch right by the front door. It had to have been there when I went in & out the front door to go running, but it was dark so I hadn't noticed it! Scary!!!

Daycare mom left for work (and I of course had the kids inside) and I went to tell Mike that it was there. He hadn't quite left for work yet - thank goodness!! When I first told him his response was "What am I supposed to do?!" I told him that our dear friends had one on their porch quite a few months ago and that the husband had killed it. To that Mike's response was "well call and get him over here!!!" Hahaha!  Well of course that wasn't the option and we couldn't let it stay there! So Mike got out his metal shovel and went to work trying to kill it! 

At first he kept trying to hit at it but it was so far under the overhang of our house that he couldn't quite get to it,,,just enough to make it mad! At one point it cam out and raised itself up and hissed/rattled at us! So scary!!! But fortunately Mike was finally able to get it with the shovel, chopping off the rattle and it's head (as you can see from the gross pic below! Yuck!) The cement on our porch and our stucco took quite the beating from that experience but at least no more rattlesnake!!!

Of course Mike HAD to keep the rattle in a plastic bag for bragging that he killed the snake on our porch! 

Definitely something that we will always remember! It really was quite an experience after all! I guess stuff like that isn't too ridiculous when you live in the desert! I'm just hoping that was a one time deal - definitely don't need to experience that again!!!

Airmen Football (season 1)

 Shawn LOVES football! And this year he finally is able to play real, tackle football (not just flag) for the first time! Because of his size he can play down an age group which works out nicely for him! Our friend & neighbor started up coaching a new PopWarner football team this year called the Airmen and Shawn is so excited to play!

They started practices the first week of August (above are the first night!) and for the first 3 weeks they have practice 5 nights a week for 2 1/2 hours a night! This is crazy serious stuff! haha! I should mention that this is in AZ and it's over 110 degrees outside! Ick! After that they'll move to 2 nights a week for the 2 1/2 hours, so not quite so bad! Shawn is super excited and we're excited to see how he and the team do together! Go Airmen!

First Day of School 2013

The beginning of August brings the beginning of a new school year! This is a big year for our boys too! Shawn is now in 6th grade which means the last year in elementary school!!! So crazy! I can't believe how fast he is growing up! 

Brady is now in 3rd grade - so middle of the pack and experienced at the school now!

And last but not least, Connor! Our brand new elementary school boy now officially in Kindergarten!!! (I can't believe all our kids are in school now! Little bit of a sad day for momma even though I'm super excited for him and what lies ahead!)

All 3 boys dressed and ready to head off to their first day of the school year!

And they wouldn't be boys without having at least a few silly faces! hahaha

It really was such a bizarre feeling taking Connor to Kindergarten! The weirdest part was going back home with NO kids! (besides the little boy I was babysitting! Ha!) But knowing that all 3 of our kids were in school for at least half the day is strange and new and exciting and sad all wrapped into one! Quite an emotional day! But he was super excited and ready and so I'm glad!

Here's to a great school year!!!