Orthodontics in Kindergarten

This morning, Tom and I went to Hailey's little kindergarten class for Career Day. Tom gave a presentation to the class about Orthodontics.  The kids were able to dress up today as what they want to be when they grow up. Hailey dressed up as a cowgirl because that is what she wants to be when she grows up.  I asked her this morning if she has ever rode a horse and she said, "Of course, not Mom!  But I still want to be a cowgirl!"  ha ha  She is so stinkin' cute---we all love her!

Tom brought his models of fake teeth, his skull, and giant toothbrush.  The kids went nuts over the giant teeth and toothbrush!

Tom made a cute coloring page of an orthodontist helping a patient with braces.  It also had our office name and website on the paper so the kids can go home and play games on our website after school.  Hailey was super proud of her dad being in her classroom today!

Piano Blossom

Everyone who knows our little Hailey, knows that she LOVES to play the piano.  She is playing almost every minute of the day when she is home.  She listens to the older kids and what they are practicing.  Then, with her acutely accurate ear, she goes and figures it out on her own.  She plays most of the same stuff Spencer plays.  Sometimes it bugs Spence and he'll say, "Hailey - stop playing MY song!"  ha ha  But she can't help it----she can't read music notes yet so she just has to play the song as she hears it.  We do have her in a great music program called, "let's play music."  She learns solfege and ear training - some rhythmic values of notes, but she and I are slowly working on learning the note names.  A five- year old's attention span is not very long.  But Hailey really and truly has a love for the piano.

Sometimes, just to challenge herself, she will play without even looking at the keyboard.  It cracks us all up because she plays perfectly - even with her eyes closed!

Our little piano princess  . . . I hope she will always have a love for the piano as she grows up and endures the difficulties of lessons, practicing, etc.  She was blessed with an incredibly musical ear and I think the Lord has great things in store for her----if she will let this talent blossom!

My Shining Star

Last night was our YW Evening of Excellence where the girls in our ward were able to display some of the goals and achievements of this past year.  Kelsey displayed her pageant that she worked so hard on back in April.  At first she really didn't want to do it because she didn't know much about it and was super shy and nervous.  But, she didn't quit!  She worked at the rehearsals and practiced speaking and modeling in front of people.  She even performed a solo clog dance which was the HIT of the show!  Kelsey won the Talent Award for her age division.  We were so proud of her that night!

 So, for her program last night, they asked if she would perform her solo again.  I thought she wouldn't do it--that she would be too nervous to perform in front of her peers at church.  But, my sweet Kelsey said, "Sure!"  She was so cute last night.  The music was super energetic, her costume was so adorable, and her dance moves were incredible!

 Here's Kelsey with her super good friend, Hailee Hoover.

 Of course, our awesome Bishopric was there as well.  (Isn't that first counselor WAY good looking???!!!)

Kelsey is such a shining star in my book.  I often look at her and think, "I can't believe she is my daughter!"  She has NEVER one day caused me any sadness or pain.  Honestly, she is an angel daughter who is beautiful inside and out.  I thank my Father in Heaven for trusting me enough to send one of his most precious children to my home.  I love you sweet Kelsey J.! . . . "my Kelsey!"

Fun After School Snack Idea

I have never really been great at creative after school snacks.  Mostly my kids come home and eat cold cereal every day.  They love it and it's no effort on my part.  But the other day, my sister Melanie, told me of a really cute idea.  So . . . we tried it out!

 I took a muffin tin and filled it with snacks they would like.  Most of them were healthy, but I threw in a little sugar - because hey . . . I like sugar.  :)  I made 6 snacks for each child so they could each have their own half.  It was a hit!!!

 Then, I let them eat it in the family room (which they are never allowed to do) and it made the snack even more special!  We watched a cartoon together.  

It was a great eye opener to me that a little planning went a long way with my kids.  It was fun to jazz things up a bit and it was a really easy thing to do.  Thanks Melanie for the great idea!!!!

Great BYU Weekend!

Tom and I headed up to BYU last weekend for the annual Alumni Conference.  We are the chapter chairs for the Phoenix BYU Alumni Chapter and have been for the last 3 years.  We have served on the board for 9 years and really like being part of BYU and giving back.  However, it really does take a lot of time and maybe in the near future, we may be passing the torch on to another lucky couple!  ha ha

 We took a tour of the new BYU Broadcasting Building and had a lot of fun posing in the studios!

Colleen and Me getting crazy on the green screen!

Do we look like talk show hosts??

 Yes - we also attended the game and BYU Won!!!  Hooray!!

Here's Mary, Colleen, and her kids!

The whole gang at the game!

We fed over 350 BYU students at our Arizona Luncheon and it was a great success.  We had about 50 two-foot sandwiches left over though - so we gave them away to the kids and they were SO stoked to get a free sandwich to last them a couple of days!

We were so happy to see so many kids come to our lunch.  We gave away some sweatshirts and silly free BYU stuff and I think next year we will do more because they really liked it!  I am so glad everything turned out great.  (also, thanks to Megan, Amber, and Mary for coming and helping out too!  They were lifesavers!!!)

Spencer, my Sunshine!

Yesterday, I picked up Spencer from school for a Doctor's appt.  I was so worried that it would be during school pictures and he would miss them so I called ahead to the school to make sure he had already taken them and sure enough, everything was ok.  Pictures were taken in the morning and it was 11:00.  So, I got him out of school and the minute he sat in the car he said, "Aw mom, why did you have to get me out of school NOW?  We were at computers and we were doing something really fun!!"  You know, as a mom, sometimes you just can't win.  I try my best to keep everyone happy but sometimes in order to do everything we need to do, something's gotta give . . . including a fun computer class.  

At the Doctor, we found out that Spencer is struggling with allergy triggered asthma right now.  His lungs were so bad that the doctor prescribed him a steroid for 3 days to open him up quickly.  Poor guy - he always gets sick before we go out of town.  (Tom and I are headed to Provo tomorrow for the BYU Alumni Conference).  Anyway, as the doctor was examining him, I couldn't help but think how stinking cute he is.  

I have called Spencer, "My Sunshine" since he was a little boy.  I never ever thought I would have a blond haired, blue eyed little boy as cute as him.  When he was a baby, I would sit him on my lap and sing, "You are my sunshine, my only sunshine!  You make me happy when skies are grey.  You'll never know, dear, how much I love you---Please don't take, my Sunshine away!"  Most times I could hardly get through the song without tearing up because my emotions would get the best of me.  I couldn't believe (and still can't) that Heavenly Father would give me such a sweet, righteous, FUNNY, helpful, and kind little boy like Spence.

He is growing up and I couldn't be more proud of all he is doing.  

 Here is Spencer at his flag football game last Saturday night. 

 His team is the Cardinals.

 We brought donuts and juice for the team for after the game.  

They LOVED it!!!

I just can't imagine a day without Spencer in my life.  He brings us so much happiness and joy.  I will forever be grateful that I was chosen to be his mother.  What a blessing he has already been in my life!!

Happy Birthday Grandpa Chamberlain

Sunday was the birthday of two of my favorite people - my awesome sister, Mary Kay La Duke, and Tom's father.  Sunday morning we called MaryKay to sing Happy Birthday to her and afterwards I told the kids that it was also Grandpa Chamberlain's birthday.  Hailey said, "Grandpa  Chamberlain?  Who is that??"  I knew right then and there that we needed to remedy that.  So, I called Tom at the church and said, "OK - you are planning family night tomorrow night and it's going to be a birthday party for your dad."  We all got excited about it and Tom even called his mom to refresh his memory with fun facts about "Big Tom" (as he was called when Tom was growing up. :)  

We made tostadas and Kelsey photographed the toppings!  

I threw this photo in just because I love that color green - doesn't it look amazing!
 I am WAY into limes lately.

For our opening song we sang, "Come Come Ye Saints" which was one of Grandpa Chamberlain's favorite songs.  Kelsey played the piano and Tom accompanied on guitar.

Kohler was exhausted from football.  He came home, ate dinner, showered, then came downstairs for FHE.  He was a super good sport - even though he looks beat!

Kohler and I sang and we sounded really good, actually!  Then, Tom told some fun stories about his dad and the kids asked him questions.  We also watched some old home movies of Tom's dad giving him a bath when he was a baby and of his dad when he was older and beginning to get sick.  

Tom's parents with Colleen, Julie, and Lisa

Tom's parents on their honeymoon!

It was a great night and I am so glad that the kids were able to get to know their Grandpa Chamberlain a little better.  Someday we will all be able to meet him.  We can't wait!!!!

Our family's obsession!

OK - so our family is obsessed with a British TV series called, "Merlin."http://www.bbc.co.uk/merlin/  We were introduced to it by Tom's mother, Mary.  She let us borrow Season One last summer and we were glued to that TV then entire drive from SLC to Reno!  (it actually made the drive seem a lot shorter- ha ha)  After getting hooked, line and sinker, we ordered Season Two from Amazon.com.  We decided to make it our Sunday night movie and we had to make a rule:  only 2 episodes per Sunday - max!  That way we could stretch it out and keep the suspense lasting while not staying up until 3 am on a school night watching 6 episodes straight!



So, after Season 2, we bought Season 3.  However, Season 3 has not been released to the U.S. yet and when Tom purchased the DVD set, he didn't realized that it was formatted in PAL for Europe only.  So, a week ago Sunday, we are all sitting on the couch with carmel popcorn and waiting on the edge of our seat for Merlin to begin . . . and the disc wouldn't play.  ARGH!!!!!

Did that stop us?  No way - Tom immediately went out and bought a European configured DVD player and it came in the mail last week!  (angels singing - ahhhh!)  So, last night- even though it was after Bishop's Youth Discussion and totally late at night, (I think Tom logged in 14 hours of church service yesterday!) we were FINALLY able to watch our first episode of Season 3 and already we are dying to see what happens next week.  Ah, Lady Morgana!!!!

Half-Days are CRAZY

What's the deal with half-days?  For some reason, when there is a half-day at school, my kids think that means "party day!"  I'm not kidding.  I really don't like half days anymore because I am either hosting parties at my house or driving my kids everywhere to the entertainment of their choice that they have determined with their friends earlier at school.  It can be seriously crazy for me trying to get everyone where they need to be, ALL AT THE SAME TIME.  So, last Wednesday was a half-day.  Here is the run-down of what I did:

6:30 a.m. Read scriptures w/ family

7:15 drove Kohler to school

7:45 drove Spencer to piano lessons

8:00 dropped Hailey off at the bus stop w/ our neighbor

8:15 picked Spencer up from piano lessons

8:30 picked Kelsey up from school

8:50 drove Kelsey and Spencer to Ortho appt.

9:30 drove Kelsey back to school

9:40 tried to drop Spencer back at school - (but his school was in a "mock lock-down drill" and nobody was at the front desk, door locked!)

9:50 ran to Target to get a bday present for Hailey's friend's 

10:05 tried again to get Spencer back in school.  Door still locked.

10:15 ran to AT & T store to buy Kohler a new phone charger

10:30 tried once again to get Spencer in school and still locked so gave up and drove Spencer home with me.

10:40 - missed my exercise class :( cuz of Spencer's school!
11:00 - showered and got ready

11:30 - took the phone charger to Kohler at his school and that's when it all went crazy . . .(as if I wasn't exhausted already!!!)

All of a sudden Kohler runs up to me in the parking lot and says, "Mom!  Can you drive us to Peter Piper Pizza and then can a bunch of guys come over and go swimming?"  I am thinking like 4 or 5 guys . . . it was 16 BOYS THAT PILED IN MY SUBURBAN!!!

You can't see them all but there was a total of 16 boys crammed in my suburban.  3 in the front seat, including me, and the other 13 in the trunk and backseats.  It was totally illegal and totally crazy!! 
(but actually totally fun :)

Kohler and his good football buddy Nick.

They all came into our house and Kohler serenaded them with some Clair d'Lune!

3:30 - Here we are on the way to football practice - Kohler and Eric.  There were only 8 boys in the car this time.

The rest of the afternoon was spent driving Hailey to her friend's birthday party, taking Kelsey to her piano lesson then over to a friend's house, trying to keep Spencer happy because the friend that came over for him to play with had a massive cold and cough so I had to send him home!  The day finally ended with me driving Kelsey up to her dance class from 7:45-8:45 p.m. with a grocery trip to Walmart in between.  I came home and after putting the groceries away, having family prayer, and tying up loose ends in the kitchen, I totally fell asleep before my head hit the pillow!

It was a crazy day . . . but I absolutely LOVE MY LIFE! :)

The crazy things we do!

Here's a look at some of the crazy things the Chamberlain Family did this week:

Spence doing the old, "floating man in the mirror" trick.  Works every time!

Last  Friday night, Tom took the kids to our ward family campout up in the mountains.  I stayed home with Kohler because he had football practice and also because my parents were in town.  There was an incredible monsoon storm here in Phoenix - complete with a downpour of rain and so much lightening that they had to cancel the Varsity Football Game.  I kept worrying about Tom and the kids up in the mountains with their little tent.  I had pictured them floating on water in their sleeping bags from all of the rain.  Oh, and the last thing I told the kids before they left was, "If you get lost, stay where you are and hug a tree.  Dad will come find you."  Well . . . except during a lightening storm then you DON'T hug a tree!  I was a little panicked until Tom's cell phone finally got into range the next day and I found out they actually had a campfire, no rain, and enjoyed every minute of it.  So much for me worrying about them . . .

Yum - S'mores!

 The last thing that is probably the most crazy thing of all is:

Tom dressed up in his most "redneck" country gear to go help teach Country Western Dancing to all of the youth in our ward.  Kohler dared him to wear his nasty "Billy Bob" teeth, and of course . . . Tom did!  He has no shame!!!

The look on Kelsey's face says it all!!!!

All I can say to this is, "Yee Haw!  At least we don't live a boring life around here!"  Ha Ha!