Things are winding up...

I was just looking at all the pictures on my phone and realized that I ought to document what Kami's Senior year has been like.  I've thought I ought to put it all down in our history, but I think that I have been/am in denial that the clock  keeps ticking and the days keep flying by and in a matter of months Kami will be graduating and soon after that she will be leaving home and I feel like our family will never be the same! I have loved this stage of life SO MUCH!! I've loved having all of my children nearby where I can teach them and learn from them....and in general really love being a mom.  I am not ready for my house to start emptying out!!!! I am going to miss Kami soooooo much:(  She is one of my best friends and I admire her and think she is amazing.


Currently Kami is in the throes of trying to figure out where to go to college.  She says that she is leaning towards BYU in Provo, but wants to ponder about it a little more before she really accepts a spot there.  Problem is, she doesn't have much pondering time.  I don't remember my Senior year being this busy!  This is what she has going this year:

1. Last year Kami convinced Caden to try out for the Bel Cantos school choir so that they could be in it together for her Senior year.  Then Caden convinced Kami to try out for a show choir of just 12 kids, four kids per part, called Vocal Spectrum.  They both made it, Kami as an alto and Caden as a bass!!! I absolutely LOVE going to their concerts and being able to see both of them up there at the same time.

2. Student Body President - here are a few pictures that I took of her at one of the assemblies I attended:

running towards the student body with free t-shirts:

A couple of her student council friends that were still hanging around after the assembly; Sarah Crawford and Hailee Hammond:

3. She and some of her friends decided to join a co-ed soccer program and formed their own team:
l-r: Taylor, Kami, Sam, Brady, Andrew, Caleb, Ellie, Daylen, and Matt

They're winding up all the games now and will be playing in a tournament to see who the top team is.  This indoor soccer that they are playing is super fast-paced and BRUTAL!  The first couple of games kids went home with concussions, everyone ALWAYS went home with serious bruises and some would show up the next day at school still sporting the imprints of a soccer ball:)  The other crazy thing about this team was that they played so late at night!  Their games were on Monday and Friday nights, so we would have FHE and head down to watch her.  Monday nights the games started at 8:30 which wasn't too bad - but still pretty late for our little ones - but on Friday nights they started at 10:30 or even 11:30.  Crazy!  The game would always last at least an hour and then we still had the 45 min. drive home. That about killed Shawn and I off- we went together to these and left the kids home with one of their siblings to babysit - but we kept going back for more because the games were so exciting.  I'm glad she has survived with her body intact so far!

l-r: Andrew, Matt, Taylor, Kami, Brady, Ellie, Caleb, Addie, Sam, Daylen

4. She has been helping at 6:00 am with  Distinguished Young Women and Mr. Madison.  Luckily they alternate days...

5.  She just performed again last weekend at the Distinguished Young Women program:

She went, a few weeks ago, to help the girls get ready for their talent portions of the program and was surprised to learn that another girl was playing the piece that she had ready for it.  So...she had to try to polish up another song, Warsaw Concerto, in three weeks time with everything else that she had going on.  It wasn't her best performance, but she looked beautiful:)

6. She just had her last orchestra concert of the year because she isn't taking orchestra this last trimester.  She was pretty sad and says she misses that part of her day so much!  She was the second chair all year, but says that she didn't deserve to be there and that "Mr. Hansen just likes me a lot".

 With McKenna and Maryn:

f

 The whole orchestra:

7. She and five of her closest friends traveled over to Boise weekend before last for State Basketball.  They were there a couple of nights and had a great time together and made some great memories.  What a great group of girls; I love them all!:
l-r: Chloe, Kami, Hailee, Maryn, Carli, Annie

l-r: Annie Stoddard, Maryn Tueller, Kami and Hailee Hammond

When the boys won a game by one point in the last second she sent me this picture:

They got soooo much sleep, as you can see... Kami said that on this particular night they stayed up until 3:30 talking and stuff and were too tired to get another bed ready so they all crashed right where they were:

8. I always think that when the weekend arrives she will be able to slow down and take it easy a little.  Right when I think that, she tells me that she is heading out to practice the organ.  She is the ward organist and music specialist, and she doesn't have time during the week to practice, so she does on Saturday.  And tries to line up musical numbers on Sundays.  This is a stressful calling for a young girl!! 

Also, she just quit a job working on Saturdays at a nursing home close to our house, and will soon be starting a job working as a "respite care" person taking care of two little autistic kids.

As you can see, she is a very busy girl!  I am happy that some of her activities are wrapping up so that we can enjoy her around the house a little more before she heads out to college.

We are all going to miss her so much!!

Big boy

This is what has been going on lately at our house:

And I need to say that Shawn is the best potty trainer EVER!!  Which pretty much makes him a hero in my book because I REALLY don't like potty training... Pace wanted either Shawn or Caden to help him with everything which just broke my heart;)

This was Shawn's attempt at getting Pace to sit on the toilet a little longer- made me laugh:

Academic all-star!

A friend told us about this insert in the newspaper:

And we were so glad because we don't get the paper and Caden was inside it's cover!  We are very proud of him and his accomplishments and the hard work he does in school.  He has always loved to learn and do hard things academically.  At the very beginning of his Sophomore year he took the ACT with Kami, "just for fun" because he knew he hadn't taken enough classes to do really well.  He got a pretty good score, but this article has motivated him to sign up and go get a better one!

A love story

Last week Shawn and I waited for Abram to get dropped off from Kindergarten and rushed over to the High School to hear Kami present her Senior "Project Citizen" report.  She did a great job, but that wasn't what this blog post is about:)  I brought lots of snacks and things to do for the little boys and they were great during the presentation.  On the way home, Abram said, "This has been the WORST day of my life!!"  I thought he was just being dramatic, because he had just been so great for the last hour, and so I teasingly said, "Why?  Because I brought you so many yummy treats to eat?"  He said, " no - I don't want to tell you why....but I guess I will...."

Then he told me that he found out today that the girl he has a crush on doesn't like him anymore.  She likes his best friend Dallas.  He said Dallas told him, and that she even put a note in his cubby that said that she didn't like him anymore.  His heart was crushed.  He said that all the way home from Kindergarten he sat with his eyes closed so that everyone would think he was asleep:(

When we got home I sat and snuggled him for about an hour, and after he finally decided to let Shawn in on it all, Shawn told him about times that he had his heart broken;)

Then Shawn took him outside and fixed his bike tire and after riding his bike all afternoon, Shawn heard him say, "This is the BEST day of my life!!!"  Shawn said, "well that was a quick recovery!"

The next day Abram came bouncing in the door and was literally hopping up and down with a big smile on his face.  I asked him if McKenna was nice to him today?  He said, "Yes!  She told me she likes me again!!" I wonder how she'll feel tomorrow;)

Abram is so funny - he has written notes to this girl all year long.  I don't think I even know how many, but I have seen a few samples lying around:

"McKenna, I hope you have a good day"

Isabelle saw the above picture and said, "Is she taller than you?"  Abe said, "No, I just wanted to make her feel good":)

Before Valentine's day, Abram said, "I'm trying to decide if I am going to have a Valentine this year."  Around here there are kids who ask someone to be their Valentine and then they get each other something on Valentines Day.  Shawn told him, "I don't know - I think you're probably a little young for that..."

I may get into trouble for putting this into the family history because he is actually pretty private about this whole thing - but I thought it was pretty sad/cute. (In other words, if you know him, don't ask him about this!!)