The First of Many. . .

Macey lost her first tooth! It was quite an experience watching her struggle with this tooth. She tends to stay far, far away from things that might cause even a little pain, so she was not too excited about someone reaching in and grabbing this tooth out.

But eventually, it did come out! We wrote a letter to the tooth fairy. She left Macey $2. Woohoo!!

The Games We Play. . .

Today I find myself in a very odd spot. . .with not much to do. I do a little work (usually 2-5 hours a day) for a small company here in South Jordan, and I do a little work for a law firm (usually 6 hours a week) and I am teaching Intellectual Property Law again. But I have not received much work this week from the small company, and the person who sends me work from the law firm is on vacation, and I finished up a lot of the details for Intellectual Property Law last night. . .so, here I sit.

It's a great day to tackle cleaning the house. But, I also have a book I'd like to read. So I break it into a game. I read a chapter, I clean a room, I read a chapter, I clean a room. It works for me.

My visiting teachers told me about little games they play to get the job done. My friend Danielle pretends that someone is coming over and so she cleans before they come. My friend Desiree cleans thoroughly once a week and she calls it her "House Blessing" day.

Because just tackling the house can be a little overwhelming.

How Do You Like Me Now?

A few months ago when I was very pregnant, Emma told me that a neighbor girl said that she never comes over to our house because it is always so messy. Now, that is not true. She never came over because she just was not invited over. The girls usually played with some other girls down the street because they were sisters the same ages as my girls. So it was just easy. Everyone got someone to play with and these girls are very well behaved and kind. In the stress of pregnancy, I took the easy road.

But here's the thing. I cannot forget that that girl accused us of having a messy house. She is an only child living with her parents and grandparents, and so of course her house looks nice because she is outnumbered 4-1. It's the opposite over here. I am outnumbered 4-1.

But wouldn't you know it, everytime that girl has come over this summer, my house HAS been a mess. She comes in the no-man-land time of 3:00 -- long enough for most of my kids to have been home and not late enough to start cleaning before Garry comes home.

But when the house is clean, I almost feel like calling that girl and telling her to come over RIGHT NOW. Lookm it's clean! How do you like me now?!?! But come quick. Because you know it will not last for long ;)

Pioneer Day!!!. . .A Little Late

A few days ago. . .okay, it might almost be 'weeks' now, we celebrated Pioneer Day! The actual "day" was on Sunday, and so we celebrated on Monday. We took the girls up to This Is The Place Monument and tried to explain what Pioneer Day is and why it is important.
We spend most of the day in Park City. I took Macey down the Alpine Slide. The attendant was giving us directions at the top and he warned us (since there were clouds threatening rain) that if it started raining, we had to pay attention and get off the slide because the brakes did not work in the rain. Macey looked at me and asked, "Momma, you'll pay attention, right?" She did not have to worry, I am a huge wimp on this thing traditionally. But this time I did pass two people on the mountain. Go Me!
Garry took Emma on the roller coaster. They had a great time, and Emma could be heard to scream for miles around. The coaster does not come off the track and so you can just let it ride and hold on!

Molly was able to ride the carousel. Braden rode his stroller.

Next year we will have to try to go to the parade. The girls loved watching it on TV and so I can only imagine that they will love seeing it in person even more.

Flashback Friday

On Fridays, my friend Tina will sometimes publish "Flashback Friday" blogs where she will post old pictures and discuss memories. I do not have access to a lot of pictures, and I have been jealous of these posts.

But, today we bought Emma her second bike. It's huge. 20 inches. It even has hand brakes. Just this week I found pictures my friend Kiersten sent me from Emma's "Trike A Thon" in 2008. Look at how small she is!!!

Looking at this picture, I miss this little Emma. She was a good girl, so happy, so eager to do the right thing. Luckily she is still fabulous.

Her Big Day

Macey has always been my little buddy. From the minute that Emma was born, she and her Dad were best buds, so when I had Macey, I was excited to finally have a little buddy of my own. My favorite memories of her are from when Emma was just barely three and going to Preschool down in Waldorf. Macey and I would drop off Emma at 8:00 (crazy early, what was I thinking, especially considering it took 15 minutes to drive there?????) and then we would go to Target for a little while until the gym down the street from Emma's preschool would open.

I would be in my workout clothes, and I would take little Macey in her little sweats. So cute. She was always so good and never had any problems in Kids Club -- unlike a certain little sister who screamed her head off for the first 18 months we went.

Then it was time for Emma to go to another Preschool called First Flight. During orientation, Emma and Macey both played in the school area. I expected Macey to be overwhelmed and a little scared. She LOVED it and I signed her up, too, four months later. She loves to learn. She loves to play. So it makes sense that she loved all things preschool.

I realized this week with Macey starting Kindergarten, I was losing my little buddy. So I decided to go out with a bang. She was able to play her favorite Wii game for far too long, she had a popsicle, we went to McDonald's where she got a Smurf Happy Meal, we went to Target where she picked out a toy, and we went to the bookstore where we had a hot chocolate and a piece of chocolate cake and then she got to pick out a book. We declared it her "Day of Fun".

At the bookstore, she picked out a Cars 2 book. I winced a little and then bought Little Women, Secret Garden, and Anne of Green Gables behind her back. They are small little versions called "Classic Starts". Love them. And one day, so will she.

Upon leaving the bookstore, Macey hugged me and thanked me for "the best day ever". But, easy come, easy go as when her Dad asked her how her day was, she answered "Fine". And then she wondered how her friends "Day of Fun" was because surely all Moms did this. Sigh. Sometimes, you just cannot win.

Meet the Teachers!

Before Emma and Macey started school, we met the teachers!! We met Emma's two teachers first. Her morning teacher, Miss Timothy, has a reputation for being strict but good. Her afternoon teacher, Mrs. Bringhurst, is from Taiwan and is Emma's Chinese teacher. Emma spends the morning in English and since she was accepted into the Chinese Immersion Program, she spends the afternoon immersed in Chinese. Mrs. Bringhurst only speaks Chinese to the kids and they are not supposed to know that she can understand English. It's just not an option. Thus the "immersion".

I could see that Miss Timothy runs a tight ship, and I think that Emma will be fine in that environment. She's pretty resiliant. When Mrs. Bringhurst walked into the room, I teared up. It was a silly/embarrassing reaction, but I just knew that Emma was in good hands with this teacher and even though the process would be a little confusing, Emma would be fine.

The next day we met Mrs. Mueller, the new Kindergarten teacher. She was a student teacher last year and had a really good reputation coming in because she received a perfect score during her student teaching, something that had never happened before. So we were excited to meet her.

Sometimes when I meet someone, I associate them with someone I already know and place all of my feelings/prejudices upon that person. Sometimes that serves me well, often it does not. When I met Mrs. Mueller, I instantly thought, wow, it's Sarah. I've known Sarah since college and she is the kindest, most elegantly dignified woman. Again, I just immeditately teared up. Again, I was embarrassed, but I knew that she would take care of my Macey Grace while she had her for three hours a day.