Gold and Green Ball

Last night was the Gold and Green Ball at the Stake Center where we celebrated graduation for our Seniors. It was to celebrate them and give them encouragement as they move on. We had a Luau theme, so everyone was dressed up in fun Hawaiian garb. A little later the DJ broke out the tunes, and then OUR DJ broke out the dance moves. I have no idea where Dakota learned some of his dance moves. Greg and I both got a real kick out of it. As soon as Dakota knew the camera was on him, he got even more into character. He loved the attention. It was a FUN night!

Swimming Lessons in Action

I am so glad Kristalyn told me about winter swimming lessons. What a novel idea. This year we put Dakota in three back-to-back swimming sessions - from level 3 all the way to level 5. He has come A LONG way I tell ya! He is ready now more than ever for 7 Peaks. We can go without fear (hopefully) that he'll know how to swim in any 7 Peaks situation. Yeah!

I was incredibly impressed how hard the instructor made the kids work. They literally had to do lap after lap. Dakota did it though. After the first few attempts and my wanting to dive in to save him, I finally realized he could actually handle it. It strengthened him and gave him confidence that he really could swim.

We'll definitely do it again next year. It was worth every penny!

Making Christmas Cookies

Dakota loves to help me in the kitchen when I'll let him. We've been talking the last couple of days about making Christmas cookies. Last night once all the errands were run and we were home, we decided to get out the flour and get to work. Little did I know that my flour was lacking in the food storage room. Thanks to Kris, she saved the day, and we made 3 batches of cookies:
Thumbprint Cookies
Crescents (Sandies)
Chocolate Crinkles

Dakota's job was shaping the Crescents and then rolling them in powdered sugar once they'd been baked.

His favorite part of the entire night was licking the beaters. You'd think he'd died and gone to heaven. His expression was priceless. He licked those things dry and had a crusty chocolate face to show for it!

What I Want for Christmas...

Dakota decide NOT to be shy this year with Santa. When I offered to take him to visit Santa, he was all over it. He waited patiently for his turn and then eagerly climbed on Santa's lap. Dakota told Santa that this year he wanted a Pokemon DS game. That came out quickly and easily. When Santa pried to find out what else he wanted, Dakota was stifled. All of a sudden he'd forgotten. Mind you, he has at least 30 toys circled in the holiday catalog. He couldn't think of one. Funny!

Dakota and I ventured out for some Black Friday Holiday Shopping. I lured him out telling him we were going to Toys R Us, so he could spend his toothe fairy money. He had already saved $4, received $5 from the toothe fairy (he lost 2 teethe last Friday) and then Oma said she'd match it. So, he had $14 to spend. He was on a mission to find just the right toy. He ended up choosing Pokemon Cards (what the...), and that was after an hour of going up and down every single aisle. Mommy did get some good ideas for Christmas though.

We then hit the other stores on our list. Mommy came armed with coupons in hand. We were ready to find just the right gifts while saving as much $$ as we could. Money's a little tight this year. Five hours later we came home with a few gifts for Daddy and Aunt Heidi.

This year we really don't have a lot of gifts on our list. Christmas in Hawaii is our main gift. We are focusing on food storage with Greg's side of the family, and I already have most of what I need for that. Maybe one more venture out, and I'll be all set for the holidays!

Dakota Lost His 2 Front Teeth!

Pulling Tooth #1 a Success!

Pulling Tooth #2 on the same night an even bigger Success!

DJ Shoots for Two!

So he shoots and he scores, and I missed it! Luckily Greg was there taping Dakota's first ever "swoosh" during a basketball game. I am so proud of my little guy. You can tell from the video he's pretty excited too. Just wish I could have been there in person! Dakota you are such a stud! You make your mommy and daddy sooo very proud!

Soon you'll be shooting hoops just like daddy!

Making Carmel Apples

So last night we attempted Carmel Apples. That was fun. What I thought would be an easy project turned in to a mess. The carmel kept cooling before we had sufficient time to add the yummy toppings. We'd chopped up Butterfingers, pecans, toffee, and white chocolate. We were set. Greg and Dakota had unwrapped 14 ozs of carmel. I melted them (along with water and vanilla) on the stove top. We thought it would be simple. Not only did we find it difficult to get the toppings to stick, but we ran out of carmel. What we'd hoped would cover 8 juicy apples only covered 6. And we're not too proud about how they look. However...Greg was persistent enough to get some of the toppings to finally stick. And regardless how they look, we had a super fun time as a family. IZ was on the tunes while we danced and decorated the apples. Not to mention, they were absolutely tasty! We all had seconds!

Trick or Treat Street

Carving Pumpkins

Family Home Evening on Wednesday... First let me just say it feels great to eat again. As soon as Greg got home we headed out to Mi Ranchito for a quick dinner. Chips and Salsa sounded good. We all split a heaping plate of Chicken Nachos too. So, for $13 we had a filling sit-down meal. Not bad.

After dinner we headed home to carve pumpkins. Only a week until Halloween. We plucked, traced, and carved 4 pumpkins. We are Halloween ready, and have our pumpkins proudly displayed on the patio. It was fun family night.

BTW, Dakota personally drew the pumpkin face (not the frog) to the left. He wanted it to look scary but ended up cute instead.

A Mom and Son Project

Yesterday Dakota and I undertook a big project. We organized our Food Storage room. Greg recently put up more shelves for me. We'd gotten to the point where we had food lined up along the walls. Like every other room in our house, it was disorganized, and it bothered me every time I needed to find something.

So shelf by shelf we unpackaged, sorted by date, and organized. Dakota made countless runs to the garbage can with empty boxes. We cleaned it up and found a new home for all the food we'd just canned too.

When we were done, we felt a huge sense of accomplishment. Now we need to start on the "baby" room and the basement. Oh yeah, and the office. It never ends!

A Birthday Day!

Summer Fun with Friends

A Little Attitude

Dakota's Birthday Pool Party

My little boy is turning 7. Wow. His actual birthday is this Thursday, but Greg will be out of town. So, we celebrated with some of his best friends last night. We kept it simple - real simple. Mom (me) ordered pizza from Pier 49, and Em made the cake. Dakota wanted the cake to be a surprise. She made him a golf cake. As you can see she made an awesome big golf ball. What you can't see is the "hole" where it reads "Happy Birthday Dakota". Golf is by far his favorite sport. It doesn't hurt that he is so good at it. He makes golf look easy which is so unfair to the rest of us.

After pizza, cake, and ice cream, we let him open his presents (as if he needed any more toys). More noise of the house - thanks to whoever gave him the sword that's super loud. Kris? j/k

We headed up to the Poelmans' pool after our bellies were full and played. They've recently added another waterslide, so we had options!! The kids and the grown-ups all loved it.

It was a fun birthday party! Thanks to all our amazing friends for making it extra special for our little boy! We love you!!

Fun in the Sun at 7 Peaks

This year the whole family got a pass to 7 Peaks. Today we we met Greg after work and enjoyed a few hours leisurely laying around and playing in the water. The lines were long (I wouldn't personally know because I just soaked up the sun), but Greg and Dakota still got a few slides in. They went down one of the slides using the double tube and another one of the big slides where Dakota was able to go by himself. They hit the lazy river, and of course Dakota got in as many runs down the smaller slide as he possibly could. He had a great time. I'd packed a dinner and snacks for all of us so we wouldn't be tempted to buy the greasy food there. It worked. As it got later in the day the crowds thinned out a little but not much. We learned Fridays aren't probably the best nights to go. It was a fun family night, and we hope to fit in 7 Peaks at least once a week for the rest of the summer. It beat watching tv!

Fishin' at Battlecreek Park

Pleasant Grove's Strawberry Days is this week. We got a late start this morning and didn't get to Battlecreek Park until 11. The fishing was over. I guess they let kids fish along the side of the manmade pond/fishing hole from 9 - 11 a.m. That would have been fun to see. At 11 a.m. they had to put the poles away, and the kids were able to run around in the pond and try to catch the remaining fish with their hands or with nets. Dakota and Rylan worked together - patiently trying to find a fish. No luck. That didn't stop them from trying though. Next year we'll see if Daddy can take off the morning and take Kota fishing and catch a real live fish!

Dinner and a Movie

The other night Greg had plans to host a "cinema" night. He'd printed tickets, bought movie food, and thought it would be fun for the family to watch "Zoom" together. He built it up and told Dakota he needed to work for his ticket by helping me out around the house. Dakota totally got into and was anxious for "cinema" night. (BTW - thank you Colby for telling Greg about the idea).

Later Ry came over to play with Dakota. I made dinner, and Dakota kindly asked if Rylan could stay and have dinner and watch the movie with us. It was so cute, and it actually made me flash back to all the times that I as a child used to do the same thing to my mom and dad. No matter what they had planned, whether it was meant to be just the family or not, I would ask if a friend could come over. Or it would be the other way around; my friend and I would ask "her" parents. For a moment I remembered what it felt like to be a kid again and just how exciting the feeling was to have a friend over for longer than just a two-hour playdate.

Needless to say of course we wanted cute Rylan to stay with us. The boys ate really well (I'm not kidding), and then Greg turned on the movie. We got permission from Doug for Rylan to stay late. The movie didn't end until 9 p.m. on a school night. From the kitchen as I was cleaning, I could hear little giggles coming from the family room where they sat watching their movie. It's just hard for me to believe that we are already beginning "that" stage. Friends are so important.

Singing in the Shower

Who knew? Dakota likes to sing in his shower just like his Daddy. The other morning when we were getting ready for church, I heard two voices coming from upstairs. One from our bathroom, and one from Dakota's bathroom. By the time I got my camera, one of the voices had quit - Greg's. Dang. Missed that. But, from Dakota's bathroom, I heard the cutest little voice singing a made-up song. Little did he know I was capturing it on video. My little sweetheart!

Rylan's Posse (Minus Rylan)

These are the after-effects of a great Rocker Birthday Party. Dakota, Carson, and Parker all went to Rylan's birthday party. The punkers came home with colored hair. And IN character!

Easter Egg Hunt

Today we had an Easter Egg Hunt over at Sara and Colbys. Kris and I went over a little bit early and hid dozens and dozens of eggs. Eggs were scattered everywhere. I'm sure Sara and Colby will be finding eggs for months. The kids had a great time though, and neighbors came from both wards to play. Every kid left happy with their treasures.