Belt Promotion to Purple

Eric has now made it to white belt purple stripe.  The day of the belt promotion I could not find his belt.  Scott had taken him to Karate the class before.  Before and after karate they made a few stops including getting an oil change on the car and to Carl Jr. to eat.  There was not karate belt in either of those places.  So Eric did not have the other belt on.  He has been doing great in karate.  We are really trying to practice at home.  Scott has even purchased some of the equipment that is used in class to help with the skills.  It makes a difference in Eric's confidence in his skills and in his own commitment.

Rubie's visit to Urgent Care

One Thursday afternoon in June I came home to find Carlee bandaging Rubie up and nursing some wounds.  Apparently Rubie had gone cruising down the sidewalk as she likes to but did not have shoes or helmet on.  She needed to stop quickly--and since her feet serve as the brakes on her balance bike--she just couldn't drag bare feet on the ground, so she crashed.  She hit her chin and cut it open really good.  I wasn't sure if I should take her to Urgent Care or not.  But when she wouldn't let me clean it well enough to see if she needed stitches I decided we should at least go there and have the doctors clean it and decide if she needed stitches.  She was a really good patient.  The doctors numbed her chin and cleaned her up well.  No stitches were needed.

Carlee said Rubie was so tough when she crashed.  She barely cried.  She cried more trying to have us clean it and examine the wound.

 Before the crash she colored herself with pink marker making it look like she is hurt worse than she was.

A Playset / and Jaxson Turns 1

We got an outdoor playset!  To help make it more fun at our house, for our kids and others, we got an outdoor playset.  We invited Dan and Eli, along with Cougar, Andy with Beth and Isaac to come and help put it together over the Memorial Day weekend.  It was really rainy in the morning and made it kind of hard.  Around noon they all took a break and enjoyed a delicious lunch.  Then the sun came out and made it possible to finish.  We love having it.  Eric and Rubie's favorite part are the swings.  They can let us push them for 15-20 minutes at a time.

 After finishing putting it together we rushed up to Joe and Tai's house for Jaxon's 1 year old b-day party.  We were late and most people had left by the time we got there.  The playset just took much longer to put together than expected.

You can see Eric behind Joe.  Eric fell asleep in the car and had a hard time being social at first.  It took until Joe took him downstairs to play Wii with him and Tai's niece and nephew.

Red Rock Relay/Mother's Day

In May over Mother's Day weekend Scott and I participated in the Red Rock Relay Moab.  I committed to this event last year with a team of girls form the Orem Orchard 4th ward.  Carly Pendleton was the team captain and we also had Nancy Henson, Annie Thorsted, Kristie Rodas, and Colleen Muliner.  Even though I ended up being pregnant and had been sick leading up to the event I didn't feel like I could just back out of it.  Also, I knew these ladies weren't in it to win, it was just about doing the event and having a good time.  And still I was more prepared for it than some of the other ladies.

I arranged for Tai to come down on the Friday afternoon and take our kids back up to Mom and Dad's.  Originally the kids were going to stay Friday night at Joe and Tai's but Tai wasn't feeling very well and so she just took them to Mom and Dad's.  They stayed the weekend there.

Scott was on the same team that he had participated with in the Zion Red Rock last fall.  I stayed Friday night with my team in a condo and then Saturday night I stayed with Scott, Liz, Kevin and Shauna from Scott's team in their condo.

We had a great time.  I did well.  I really just tried to listen to my body and not push myself.  Though I think I look pregnant not many others thought I was.  But there were a few women from other teams that could tell (because they made comments to me).  Also my doctor, Dr. Shelly Savage, was there participating with a team of her own and so she checked in with me periodically about how I was doing.  I actually was really proud of myself nutrition wise.  I brought the right things and took care of myself.  For future reference I loved having the pbj sandwiches, boiled potatoes, boiled eggs, fresh fruit and veggies, meta-salt (which I handed out to everyone because it didn't seem that anyone but Nancy had much of an idea of how to nourish), and lots of water.

My team was a lot of fun.  Our team name was More Cowbell.  Taken from a Saturday Night Live skit.  We had cow socks and ears, and lots of cowbells and drum sticks.  Our team became quickly recognized by the other teams.

I had the 2nd leg.  I ran after Colleen and passed the baton on to Kristie.  My first run was in the canyon along the river.  It was just over 7 miles. It was already hot by the time I ran.  I actually love that run early in the morning.  My second run was in the middle of the day and was all uphill, but just over 3 miles.  I never walked and I didn't push myself too hard.  I still maintained about 10 min miles which totally surprised me.

Scott seemed to have a great time with his team as well. We passed each other a few times in the beginning but about half way through we passed them and didn't see them until the end.

The best run of all was Carly's second run.  It was just over 7 miles of total downhill.  She dropped hundreds of feet fast.  She has been training and it showed.  She was amazing!  She was running against Jess B (now I can't think of his last name--we were in BYU student ward together, he is with January Hill, is always Captain America at Wonder Woman ride).  Anyway he really is in great shape, but he and Carly had the competition going on during this leg.  They kept passing each other and we in the van made the most of it too.  He yelled out at one point--I can't get rid of that darn cow.  We were so excited for the photo finish, but just before the end Carly came racing in and no Jess.  Right at the end he was injured and bailed.  So disappointing.  I don't think he could handle being beat by her.  It was totally fun and exciting.

And when we returned home I received this really cute gift from Eric for Mother's Day.

Crazy Hair Day / KV Graduation

During the last week of school at Kids Village there was spirit week.  One day was crazy hair day.  Eric was super excited about being able to have crazy hair and knew immediately he wanted to color his hair red.  We went to Walmart and found a washable temporary hair color and went to town.  He LOVED it!!  He didn't want to wash his hair for a few days but finally after 3 days I made him. 

Rubie of course also wanted her hair dyed.  With the left over hair color I put a red streak in her hair.

 Kids Village also held a graduation ceremony.  Eric's class marched in.  They sang and performed a few songs.  We saw a slide show with pictures from their class.  They each kid was called up to receive his graduation diploma.  We are so proud of Eric for the accomplishments he has made this year at Kids Village.  I didn't realize that he would leave having been able to read at almost a first grade level, and be exposed to math, geography, science, spanish, art, etc.  I have loved Kids Village and wish that Rubie could attend there next year.  If there was not American Heritage School our kids would be attending Kids Village for as many grades as they have.

Last day of school.  "Yeah! I made it!!"

Rubie also wanted to pose in front of KV.

Eric wore his KV shirt the all the next day after the last day of school.  Eric and Reed wanted everyone to know that they both had KV shirts.

Thanks Kids Village for educating our child and family!