Melanie's Baptism

What a beautiful day for a beautiful girl!  I can't believe Melanie is eight! The baptism was wonderful.  She had all her local family and many friends from our past and present ward in attendance.  Grandma Merrill gave the Baptism talk and Grandma Clinger gave the talk on the Holy Ghost.  Melanie had asked her cousin Maddison who is 12 years old, to play the piano and her cousin Brooke (9) to lead the singing.  They did a fabulous job!  I couldn't believe how brave they were.  We sang Melanie's favorite songs, I am Trying To Be Like Jesus and I Am a Child of God.  Dan baptized and confirmed her a member of the church.   As the program cover we used a drawing my brother Matt did for me many years ago.  It was neat to have a little of her Uncle Matt there on her special day.  After the baptism, everyone came back to our house for pizza and rootbeer floats.

 

It is Gr8 to be 8!

Dan's Sailboat Race

Dan's dad has a sailboat he likes to race.  Every year Dan and his dad participate in the "Nood Regatta Sailboat Race". They race for 4 days. Yes, that is a long time without Daddy around, we let him go to bond with his dad.  This year "Split Decision" (the name of their team) came in 3rd place over all.  It was a pretty exciting weekend in the water with the California Tsunami warnings and heavy rain storms.  I have to say I was a little scared, but they made it through...no tsunami.  They had an absolute blast like always. 

 

Dan and Dan with their 3rd place award!

The Boat

 

On the first day!  Nice waters!

This was on the last day!  Looks pretty sketchy to me!  Is it just me or does the boat look like it is half in the water?

Happy 8th birthday Melanie!

Happy Birthday to our beautiful Melanie!  

Eight years later!

 

First Birthday

 

2nd Birthday

3rd Birthday - Spencer cut all her hair off the day before :(

 4th Birthday

 5th Birthday

 6th Birthday

 7th Birthday

Spencer and his glasses!

A few months ago, Spencer was playing around with MY glasses. When he put them on, he said, "mom, I can see good through these". I then started paying more attention to him, and noticed he squinted when he watched TV and played the Wii. I talked to his teacher and his teacher noticed the squinting also. So, we took him to an eye doctor and sure enough he is very much nearsighted (like his mother and about 5 or 6 other cousins on the Merrill side). I learned that nearsightedness is inherited! We are so lucky! So, we got him glasses today. We shall see if it helps him in his school work. Doesn't he look smart and handsome!

Never leave a sick child in the bathtub!

Chelsea has been pretty sick off and on with the flu this past week. On this particular day, she stayed home with me and we cuddled all day long! At one point, she needed to take a bath. She is 5, so she can and does give herself a bath. Well, She turned the water on and then when it fill up, she turned it off. I didn't hear the splashing and playing like I normally hear, so I went in to check on her (thankfully) and this is what I found. Chelsea was SOUND asleep in the bathtub! Sooo scary right? It took a few tries to wake her. She was like died weight as I lifted her out of the bathtub and into her bed. I will never leave her in the bathtub again! I didn't think one could fall asleep in there!

Happy Valentine's Day from the kids!

These were the kid's school Valentines this year. Last year, my sister-in-law Jen made them for one of her kids. When I saw them, I just had to copy. Thanks Jen for the idea!

Annual School Jog-a-thon

The kids ran their little heart's out at this year's jog-a-thon. This has to be our kid's favorite fundraiser of the year. They love to see how many laps they can get. The school only allows them to get "pledges" for 25, but they always try to beat that with a higher number. This year they did just that!  Melanie was 43, Chelsea (our kindergartner) 34,  and Spencer, well, he had a cough so he was only 26! Thank you to all who sponsored!  They will all earn a cool prize this year!

Chelsea's First Loose Tooth !

Chelsea's first tooth came out today! I say, "came out" because she insisted that I pull it just like Melanie has us do. So, it was pulled out! Weird children we have! It grosses me out to even think about it. Chelsea didn't know she had a loose tooth. She was smiling at me and I noticed that one was crooked. It was about to fall out and she didn't even know! She worried about it for the rest of the weekend. Every few minutes, she asked, "is it still there or did I swallow it"? She finally had me pull it!

Ice Skating

In our family, we use marble jars for good and bad behavior. It is something we have done off and on since the kids were small and it always works well. When they each fill their jars, they can either take money or a date with mom or dad. This time they all filled their jars at the same time (this doesn't happen very often), and so they chose to go ice skating as a family. Dan and I haven't been ice skating since before we were married, so we were equally excited. It was a blast! The kids all Rollerblade, so they picked up ice skating pretty quickly. The best surprise was seeing my niece (the kid's cousin)Maddie there. She was there with her friends. Definitely something we will do again!

Fun Beach day in January!

Yes, it is January and we are at the beach! The weather has been crazy this year! We always try to get to the beach when we can. Thanks to the holiday and the sun, we were able to escape the valley and enjoy the sand and surf! The water was freezing, but that does NOT ever stop kids! Very fun day with the Mackays and Bensons!

Beach Day!

The first beach day of the summer! Every Thursday is beach day if anyone wants to join us. I haven't seen some of my girl peeps since we moved in November, so it was a fun reunion. Can't wait to get together with them every week! I have really missed them. My brother Joe's family are in town visiting from Utah this week. They all joined us today and burned their precious white, Utah skin. I just love the first burn of the summer. We all got pretty burned too. My kids have their grandma Merrill's skin and their burns are now gone and their tan has started...ok, and maybe cancer too! I know, I am bad, but you have to have a little color right?
This is our group today...

This is Spencer! He was getting too HOT and so he is hiding from the sun. Does that tell you what kind of day it was at the beach. It was so beautiful!!

This is Chelsea and her cute cousin Ashlyn. They are two peas in a pod!

Melanie was our body boarder today. She joined her older cousins in the freezing water. It is only June and still pretty cold out there.
But she had an absolute blast coming in with the waves.

Chelsea couldn't get enough of the water either. She doesn't know how to swim yet, so I won't let her do the whole body boarding thing yet. She goes in waist high though, which scares me sometimes. So glad we have lifeguards close by.

Be prepared to see more beach action in the future! Gotta love it!

4th Grade Top AR Reader

Back in April, Spencer received a HUGE award at his new school. It was for having the most AR Reading points for the month. What is AR? The kids read and complete a book; then they take a computerized comprehension test. Points are given based on the reading level and length of the book. This was out of all the 4th graders in the school. Pretty HUGE right? He got his picture taken and it was posted in the newsletter, library wall, and even in the yearbook.

Spencer LOVES to read, but he didn't always. A little background: In 1st grade, he was assessed and put into a reading resource class to help him develop his reading skills. In second grade, his teachers told us he wasn't fluent and he was suffering greatly. To get him to read, we told him that he could stay up later (past bedtime) if he was reading. We got him books he really enjoyed. It was the very funny series, 'Caption Underpants' that did it for him. He loved these books and loved staying up late reading. By the end of 2nd grade, he was re-assessed and they found that he no longer needed resource. He was excelling in reading and comprehension. Spencer just completed his 4th year of school this week and he is a total show off, reading on a junior high level.

Yesterday Spencer came home with a huge smile. He said he made the 100+ AR club in his class. Meaning all the kids in his class that got 100+ points for reading were going to have a special party. He was pretty excited! He had no idea how many points he made; he would find that out later.

Today at school Spencer's class had an AR reading awards ceremony. He was given an award for receiving the most AR points in his class for the year...250+. One of the boys in his class said, "He beat us all and he came to the school half way through the year."

We are very proud of Spencer today. It has been a good lesson for him, "If you want something bad enough, you have to practice".

Sky High Dance

Melanie has been taking a Hip Hop dance class with her friend Natalie after school for the past 7 weeks. She has loved it! Today was her BIG performance. I wasn't able to get a clear view of Melanie's face the entire time because she was in the back row. Their teacher couldn't be there for the show today, so they did the dance by memory. They did pretty well too. I also taped her practice performance last week, which I think is better. You can't see her at all in that video because she was in the front row, but at least you can see what the dance was like. This was the cutest thing ever! The MPR where they did their performance was just packed full with family and friends. What a great group!

Santa!

Christmas Dress!