All I Want for Christmas...

Oh, Come on now... you know the rest!!

Out of 4 children losing teeth, this is our first Christmas to really CONNECT with, and ABSOLUTELY LOVE this classic Christmas song!

What more can be said??

(Our Last),.... FIRST LOST TOOTH!!

Qiyana just lost her first tooth! I was pretty surprised that the little bit of blood upset her -- it's not like she hasn't seen 3 other siblings lose MULTIPLE teeth before -- still, it freaked her out a bit. But, a quick swish of water and the thought of a visit from the tooth fairy made everything OK very quickly!

Qiyana's top 2 front teeth are also loose, but it'll probably be awhile before they're ready to fall out. Hopefully, it won't be quite such a shock to her the next time around!!

Back To School!!

You know, when Leandra was old enough to start school, I didn't know if I was going to like the year-round schedule that Jordan School District has (due to all the young families out here). But I can honestly say that I LOVE it! It's been GREAT to have a little 3 week break every couple of months. It gives the kids a break from all the work, yet it's short enough that they aren't quite dying of boredom before it's time to go back. Next year will be interesting having Leandra at the Middle School (which is on a traditional schedule), but we'll figure that out when we get there. :)


Anyway, July 25th marked the beginning of the 2009 - 2010 school year for Hayden Peak Elementary (with Kindergarten starting the August 4th). So, as of now, all of the Utah Thornton children are back in school! This will be the one year where they are ALL attending the same school, at the same time (even though Qiyana's only 1/2 day).

Qiyana was especially excited for school this year since she would be able to go everyday. She's even excited to be able to go "off-track" with her brother and sisters this year. The PTA did something cute this year for the parents of Kindergarten kids. After we brought them to school for their first day, there was a "Boo-Hoo Brunch" held on the stage for parents to have muffins and juice and help each other get through this BIG day! They even had little packs of tissues for the parents. I didn't go, because I still had day-care kids to get home for, but my friend Heather is the PTA President Elect this year, and she said there were plenty of tears being shed up on that stage. I had to giggle. I guess if they had done this Brunch when Leandra was going into Kindergarten, I might have had some tears to shed too. But, as I told Lee, I think when you get more to my stage in life, it might be better called a "Woo-Hoo! Brunch". I don't know, maybe if I still didn't have 5-ish kids at my house all day, I might even feel a bit teary-eyed too. Aren't I just horrible??

I'm not sure I'm ready for all the work and projects to come -- I'm probably going to have some nightmares about forgetting some huge project for someone -- but hopefully I'll be able to stay organized enough to keep up with all 4 schedules! But if nothing else, even with the day-care kids I still have every day... can I tell you how quiet it is at my house before 11:17am these days?? :)

JONAS BROTHERS - LIVE!!

Any of you with "Tween-age" daughters, like I have, probably know who was headlining at the Stadium of Fire this year... (YEA!!!!) Well,... Lee did the most awesome thing a few weeks ago and told me he thought I should take Leandra and Kendra to the show.
Well, he sure didn't have to twist my arm! I know it's pretty sorry when an OLD MOM likes the latest GIRL CRAZE, but I just can't help it! Kevin, Joe and Nick are such talented and cute boys, with good values and good music... even Lee thinks their music is good enough for the kids to listen to! I LOVE that my kids love them! It's really hard to find good role models these days! Anyway, anyway...

We've never been to the Stadium of Fire, but I'd love to be able to go again! I couldn't believe what a HUGE production it was! I felt like I was at the Superbowl half-time for most of it!! They even had a fly-over from Hill Air Force Base!
The coolest part of the fly-over, was that they had the pilot of the head plane on camera from his plane, broadcasted to the big-screen in the stadium as they flew over... it was really cool!
When the concert part finally started, Kendra had a hard time adjusting to the volume level... I guess I should have thought about that and maybe brought along some ear plugs, but eventually, she became less sensitive to it (or her ear-drums just became permanently damaged!)... But, WOW!!! What an AWESOME show! They seemed to be having SO much FUN! And, of course, we TOTALLY were!! I love a GREAT concert!!
Even though we weren't right in front of the stage (yea,... the $300 per ticket section... Ugh!), we could see plenty well enough! Also, Lee picked up a couple pair of decent binoculars (from work) for the girls to use. They worked GREAT... just too bad I couldn't take pictures through them!! You know, they are so cute,... they said they wanted to play a song so all the kids could see how cool their parents were... They played "Sweet Caroline" by Neil Diamond, and did it fantastically!! (Is that a word??) It was AWESOME!



And, of course, the night ended with an awesome fireworks show!! Although,... I have to say that Taylorsville Dayzz is seriously hard to beat! It was cool to have fireworks shooting right out of the stadium, but we will STILL never be able to say anything against sitting on Nana and Poppy's back deck at the end of June every summer! I would have to say that THAT part of the night, was a draw with the fireworks show we saw last week! We are SERIOUSLY spoiled in that area!!

Who says we can't??

I guess we were supposed to have our little camp out because the minute we took Leandra's friend home, it began raining again! I'm not sure what the weather was like elsewhere in Utah, but later Saturday afternoon, we had flash flood warnings in Salt Lake County.... and I believe for good reason!! The skies seriously opened up on us a few times, and for awhile each time! It was incredible! (Have I mentioned I LOVE the rain, recently??)

Last time it rained, Lee was a bit disappointed because he had wanted to play basketball with Jordan in it, but didn't get home in time. Saturday, however, he took full advantage of being home. Who says you can't play ball in the rain?? I was out running some errands, but came home in time to see Lee, Jordan and Leandra completely SOAKED and having a blast in the driveway!

An hour or so later, we got hit with some serious rain again, and playing basketball was the first thing on everyone's minds!!

I'm sure our neighbors thought we were completely insane... even I got in on the last game!! (Fortunately, I'm the one with the camera, so you won't be able to prove anything!)

Nice flick of the wrist, J-Man!!

Excellent "D", Leandra! Play on!!


You know, in the rain, it's a little harder to hit your shots, because of the downpour in your face! Not to mention the fact that the ball is so darn slippery! Eventually though, if you keep at it, success will be yours!!

Oh yea.... the sweet, SWEET feel of VICTORY!!

CAMP OUT!!

So... all the yard work was well worth it because we had a backyard camp-out Friday night!! All the stars and planets must have been aligned too, because it was the most beautiful, clear night we have had in weeks!! We found the big dipper, roasted marshmallows, and DIDN'T get rained on! It was AWESOME!

It was originally going to be a big sleep-over party for Leandra and her friends (since we don't do "sleep-overs" with friends as a general rule, we agreed that we'd have a fun camp-out in our backyard during the summer to kind of get that "sleep-over itch" out of the big girl's systems). Unfortunately, only 1 friend was actually able to make it, but it still turned out to be GREAT FUN!

Lee had to help someone move that night, but was awesome to get (and put together) a steel fire-pit for us before leaving. I was SO excited for this. It may not seem like much, but I've wanted one of these for a LONG time! And... it turned out to be as AWESOME as I'd hoped it would be! The kids thought it was totally cool to make smores in our own backyard, and it kept them warm too! The girls did have to keep moving their chairs though, because they were all SOOOOO beautiful! (you know,.. the smoke??)

Anyway, after Jordan and Qiyana said goodnight to the girls, they sat around the fire with me for a little bit while it died down, and then while I made sure there were no hot coals left.

It was a very fun night,... and I LOVED coming back in the house and going to bed with that awesome camp-fire smoke smell in my hair!! I can't wait to do it again!!

I feel like I'm rambling, and don't have a clever name for this post!!

I have LOVED the rainy weather we have had SO MUCH!! Do you think this whole Global Warming trend (sorry, Travis!) could possibly make our "desert home" less of a "desert"? I mean, seriously... it's JUNE! No, no, no,.. you will not find me complaining whatsoever! I know there are those crazy people who enjoy the dry, INSANE heat of Arizona (sorry, Bedont's!) , but not me. I'm sure I would be the happiest person in the world living somewhere like Seattle... (or perhaps, Forks??) :)

Anyway, I digress... sorry! OK, so the point I was trying to get to was that the WEEDS in my yard have seemed to enjoy the weather as much as I have lately! You know, I had these great plans for our backyard of our entire fence lined with trees (probably Mom in me trying to keep the world out of my yard!), and big beautiful bushes all around the house exterior. Unfortunately, I have learned that landscaping isn't free, and so instead of all the greenery I had expected to have, I instead of MUCH TOO MUCH open dirt surrounding my grass, and it cultivates HUGE crops of weeds!!! It's mostly just that tall grassy stuff (you know?), but it's terribly annoying. Anyway, I have spend most of the last week out in my backyard finding my dirt again! I am quite pleased with myself, as I am actually starting to enjoy spending time back there again, but I am TERRIBLY EMBARASSED to have to admit that when all was said and done, we ended up with 22 bags full of weeds and grass clippings!


OK,... so I still don't have all the trees and bushes I'd like (or the deck that we ARE going to get in eventually), but at this point, I would even be willing to host a family get-together! Anyone game?? :) WE LOVE YOU ALL!

A Temple Near My Home...

Yesterday our Primary held one of their quarterly activities which was -- I thought -- quite ambitious. We met at our church at 9am and then caravaned to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple to attend the open house. Since Lee and I are now teaching the Valient 12 class, we were also able to attend (AND, since we have all 4 of our children in Primary right now, it turned out to be a really nice family activity as well). Jordan really got a kick out of the ushers and began holding his arm out to the side as if to guide people along periodically. Once he even questioned a Brother who was on security detail as to why he didn't have his arm out. The gentleman got quite a kick out of him.

Our children all LOVED the Celestial and the Sealing Rooms the most because of the mirrors. But, who doesn't find that visual perspective of eternity inspiring??

With the temple open house and upcoming dedication such a part of our lives out here right now, our Stake primary decided to do a little re-arranging of their monthly "focus" and made May our "Temple" month. So, all month long we have been talking, learning and singing about the temple -- which was also a GREAT build-up to out ward's activity yesterday. Our Stake Primary Presidency has even written another verse to the song "I Love to See the Temple" which the kids have been learning... it goes like this:

There is a sacred temple
That I can call my own.
A beacon on a hillside...
And it's nearby my home.

The greatest blessings can be mine
As I learn to live the gospel.

We'll sing and shout in gratitude --
The Oquirrh Mountain Temple. *

Words by Galene Gish and Stephanie Ransom

A New Look... Short and Sassy!

For a long time now, Leandra has been pleading with me to cut her hair short. I have been unwilling to go short because I've been afraid of what her hair might do without the length of it pulling it down (I don't think girls are supposed to have afro's are they??)! Anyway, I finally realized that in the grand scheme of things, this really wasn't an important fight to have. Although I did NOT agree to cut her hair to her shoulders (as she had thought really wanted), I did end up cutting off about 4 1/2 inches.

It was so cool to see her face light up when she looked at herself in the mirror. She really loved it!! And I have to say, I think it does make her look more grown up -- not that that's what I want either!! Ugh! What's a parent to do??

But, we DO really like her new look -- and I LOVE to see her happy with what she sees too!!

2 Month Vacation!!

Saturday was the last day of soccer for our kids for the Spring season. The only BUMMER was that Kendra was unable to play (or even come to) her game due to the Flu. Her team really missed her too! Cooper (one of my day-care kids who plays on Jordan's team) told me that on the way home from school last week, Konnor (Cooper's brother who plays on Kendra's soccer team) and his friend Garret (also on Kendra's soccer team) were having a conversation about their soccer team. Apparently, the 2 boys had agreed that Kendra was the best player on their team! I thought it was awesome they would talk like that when Kendra wasn't even there!

Qiyana had a BLAST actually playing on a team this year after all the years of watching her siblings and not yet being old enough herself to play! She did great and we know she'll just get better with time!

No suprise that Jordan was AWESOME as always this year! He has more energy than he knows what to do with, which makes him great on the field! I can't think of one game last Fall or this Spring, when Jordan score at LEAST one goal!

Leandra has been INCREDIBLE this year!! She finally moved up to the "BIG" field this year. Since I'm not a soccer professional, I don't know if the fields get any bigger than what they're playing on now,... but I believe they're on the full-size field now. It's really A LOT of field!! Leandra absolutely LOVES this game and was amazing this year! She was a bit bummed that she wasn't able to score a goal this year, but she was overall very pleased with this year's play. She spent a lot of time playing forward, whereas last year her coach kept her playing defense a majority of the time. But, Leandra really showed some aggressive play this year... and it was very cool to see!

Not Kendra's best week...

OK,... so after spending the night in the emergency room on Memorial Day, we figured we were probably good. Until, when on Thursday evening Kendra was still feeling dizzy and nauseas. Add to that a 101.2 fever and you get another trip to the emergency room. I was worried that they had missed something on the CT scan they had done on our previous visit, but because of the fever, the Dr. said it was not head related. They gave her an IV to give her meds and fluids, drew blood and got a urine sample. After another 5 hours of waiting, they said she had tested positive for the Flu. Lovely. So, they gave us a prescription for Tamaflu, a medical release note saying she couldn't return to school until June 4th, and sent us home (at 2am) with instructions to basically just keep our hands clean.


The Tamaflu (along with Motrin, Tylenol, and Delsym) really seemed to help. After church on Sunday, however, Qiyana started complaining of a headache and stomach ache and then slept on the couch for a couple hours. When she woke up, she also had a fever. So, Monday morning I called their Pediatrician and they called in a prescription for Tamaflu for Qiyana.

So far, no one else has been sick... and we're keeping our fingers crossed!

WARNING... pictures in this post are rated PG!

Yesterday was one of the most beautiful Memorial Days I can remember. Unfortunately, I was unable to get all our bikes into the van (let alone the fact that Leandra's required a new inner tube which I hadn't replaced yet) so we decided to skip the family bike/picnic day in Syracuse hosted by the awesome Kevin, Kathy, Zach (professional biker), and Eliza. Instead, I took the kids to the dollar show to see Paul Blart: Mall Cop, and then to Subway to split a $5 Sub. Afterwards, we back home for me to do much needed yard work and for the kids to play with some friends.

Later in the day, Kendra ended up down the street riding bikes with a friend - Bailee. Around 6pm I received a call from Andrea (Bailee's Mom) telling me that Kendra had had an accident on her bike and had cut her chin and was bleeding - she was walking her home and Bailee was walking her bike home. I dropped what I was doing (of course) and started down the street to meet them. Kendra was holding a dishtowel on her chin and was obviously upset and crying. I tilted the towel down to examine her cut and then immediately put it back - exchanging that "look" with Andrea.

Needless to say, I took her right to Jordan Valley Hospital's emergency room and Lee took care of the kids at home, bringing them to the emergency room a little bit later. Leandra was quite upset, and really worried about her sister; but Lee did a great job in helping her calm down and understand what was happening.

I was with Kendra at the emergency room until 11pm - Lee took the rest of the kids around 9pm to Wendy's (because they still hadn't had any dinner and were starving), and then home to bed since they still had school in the morning. The doctor did a wonderful job stitching her back up and they also did a CT Scan to make sure her head was OK... or at least as OK as Kendra's has ever been!! :)

Kendra was awesome through the whole ordeal, but was very worried about getting stitches. She just kept saying she wanted to go home and go to sleep. I have to say that I did pretty good as well, until they were giving her the numbing shots. I really felt the blood drain from my head as I watched... Ugh!

I thought it was kinda funny, while we were in the back room waiting for the doctor, Kendra asked me why she had to be the one who always got hurt in our family. She said to me, "I'm just like Aunt Alli!" (Love you Alli!)

This is Kendra before the stitches...

She actually did get a little sleep while we were waiting for the area to get completely numb...

After 2 stitches were finished, the doctor had to go and help another patient for a minute (she was the only doctor there). Here's Kendra with the 2 stitches...

All 5 stitches finished...

This morning Kendra woke up feeling really good. I did give her some Ibuprophen because her jaw was quite stiff, but her headache is gone, her nausea is gone, and her chin isn't hurting her much. We feel extremely blessed that Heavenly Father was watching over her so her injuries were limited, and very fixable.

Thanks for listening to my lengthy story... We love you all!

90 Degrees!

OK OK... so I realize that I've TOTALLY slacked on our blog lately... hopefully, this will be a fun way to get going again!

We have a pretty firm rule (guidline, of sorts), at our house in which we do not play outside in the water until it is at least 90 degrees. So, it was no suprise to me today when I was bringing the kids home from school that they noticed the temperature gage in the van reading exactly 90 degrees! I knew it was going to be hotter today than it has been all year, so I was already expecting to be washing a bunch of wet clothes and towels this evening.... Totally worth it for all the FUN the kids had. Here's just a taste of my CRAZY children!!

I guess this marks our "official" start of summer fun!!

No soccer today!!

Today was SUPPOSED to be the opening day for West Jordan Youth Soccer Spring Season..... however, Mother Nature decided she wasn't ready for that just yet! Instead, we spent the morning building our family out of SNOW!


It was a really fun morning, although by 2:30, half of our "family" had fallen due to Mother Nature's warmer weather. Ugh! Oh, well... I've heard horrible rumors that we might have more next week! How does the saying go??? "If you don't like the Utah weather,... wait a minute" ? Yea, seems pretty believable lately!

Reading...

I feel extremely blessed that I have children who are such excellent readers! Still, they never cease to amaze me.... Yesterday we picked up the mail and found a letter from Hayden Peak Elementary addressed to "the parents of Qiyana Thornton". I had a feeling it was the standard letter they send for all new Kindergarten students with information on the up-coming orientation for parents... needless to say, Qiyana was extremely excited about the letter.

Qiyana has been reading AMAZINGLY lately, and so I thought (just for kicks) I would give her the letter and see how well she did. She read the greeting and the first 2 paragraphs with help on only 2 or 3 words. After that, she thought the letter was getting a little long and asked me to finish reading it to her. Lee and I just kept staring at each other,.... I called Mom and Dad to do a bit of bragging... and then I decided to video her reading the letter for the 60 seconds that my camera will record.

I'm having a proud Mom moment, so please endulge me!

Here is the beginning of the letter which she read :

"Dear Parents of New Kindergarten Students,

We will be holding an orientation for parents that have children attending kindergarten in the 2009-2010 school year on Friday, April 17, 2009 at 2:00 p.m. in the Hayden Peak Elementary activity room. The orientation will last approximately 30 minutes.

This meeting is for parents only. Please leave children at home. At the orientation we will explain the kindergarten program and introduce the kindergarten teachers. They will answer any questions you might have."

IT WORKS!!

OK,... so I have to admit that I was pretty apprehensive about Leandra's kite-making assignment. Neither I nor Leandra have ever made a kite from scratch before,... and while I thought we had done a pretty OK job, we did not have a chance to test it before she took it to school on Friday because of all the SNOW!! Suprisingly, Friday turned out to be a pretty decent day, and Leandra's teacher was able to go forward with her kite-flying plans.

I was SO happy when I picked the kids up from school and Leandra told me the GREAT news! "Mom, mine was the ONLY one in the whole class that flew!!" She added that actually, there was one other kite that flew a little, but not as high as hers. Fortunately, the other kite belonged to Chayston (a very nice boy in our ward), so it was OK. ;)

Let's Go Fly a Kite!!

On Saturday, the wind sure let us know it was blowing in Sunday's storm! Out in West Jordan, it almost felt more like Kansas (in black and white)! Anyway, as yucky as the idea of another snow storm sounded (after so many GORGEOUS Spring days!), we figured we'd try to make some fun of it and decided to run down to the soccer fields to do some kite flying. Granted, we were only flying the $1 Wal-mart kites, but the kids had a BLAST! The wind did get a bit cold, but it didn't slow them down too much.

Kendra even decided to get a bit "creative" with her kite flying.... (could we really have expected much less??)

Leandra has one last "big" assignment in her school class due this Friday (before they go off-track again). They're supposed to make their own kite (no kits!) and then the class will have a kite flying event that morning. Hopefully, the wind will accommodate the assignment!

PIRATES!!

I came home from a song practice on Saturday morning and found pirates in my house!! Lee had the kids clean up their rooms, vacuum, and do some chores... when they were finished Jordan and Leandra (aka Jack Sparrow and Will Turner) decided it was time to battle some pirates! (via the PlayStation)...


Note the "beard" Jack is sporting.... AWESOME!!