Week in Review

After coming home from taking Kelsie to Hawaii it was full steam ahead with school, soccer, and a little rearranging going on at our house. Before Kelsie left Scott started by painting our upstairs hallway, in all the years we have lived here it has never been painted except for the really cheap paint that came with the house. The hallway is now grey with the trim painted white, it looks great! The next project was turning Ryan's room into Avrie's room. This was no small task. Ryan had posters covering one whole wall and he used thumbtacks to hold the posters in place. There were major nicks in the walls where he would take his skis in and out of the room, yes he practically sleeps with them. When Kelsie moved out Ryan moved all of his stuff into her room while Scott fixed up his room for Avrie, it looks so cute, not quite done with the decorating. She wanted a pink room but I didn't want a room that was completely pink so we did a stripe of pink. The lighting is not the best but the top part of the wall is white same color as the ceiling, then the pink strip and then the bottom is the same grey that is in the hallway. We had just finished putting her bed in and I wanted to get a picture before all of her junk moved in.

This was the wall that was covered in posters. It turned out really nice and Avrie has been working hard to keep her room clean, it helps that most of her junk was sorted and "put" away.  She is not the neatest 7 year old that I have had but she makes up for it in cuteness. 

  
After Avrie's stuff was cleaned out of her old room and moved into her new room, it was Ryan's turn to move all of his stuff to the TV room so Destina could move her stuff, from the room that she shared with Avrie, to her new room, Kelsie's old room. At one point I had 2 bedroom's worth of stuff in the TV room and hallway, my house was a disaster. It took most of the weekend and I am still cleaning up all the leftover stuff that nobody wanted, but we have successfully moved Ryan into the girls old room, Avrie into Ryan's room and Destina into Kelsie's old room. We also had to switch bathrooms as well. I was throwing out stuff from 2 teenagers ago. It was really nice to have it all done, clean and mostly clutter free!   All my kids have their own room, now they have no one to blame the mess on!

We have also been in the middle of soccer season, it was a beautiful Saturday and I had good intentions of taking my camera to Destina's early morning game but, it is your fault Katie, an early morning birthday phone call distracted me and I left the house without it. I did however, remember to bring it later in the day to Avrie's game. She played goalie the last half of the game and did a pretty good job.

The pictures are a little deceiving, it looks like she is the rock star but in reality this last picture is more true to form she liked standing around the most. We are thinking this might be the last soccer season for Avrie, she is just not that into it! 

Being out in the sunshine, watching the kids play soccer, then doing a little shopping and dinner was a great way to spend my birthday!

Kelsie Update

Well she has been on her own for 3 days now and so far so good! She went to 2 different job interviews and was offered both jobs. Now which fast food place will be lucky enough to have Kelsie working for them Taco Bell or Pizza Hut?  The first 2 days of classes went well and she only had a few minutes to talk yesterday because she was headed to the beach.
 That time change is a little rough we were up at 6 am every morning, (Avrie called me every morning at 4:30 am to ask about her school lunch) ready to go by 8 am, and then wiped out and ready for bed by 9 pm. While we were killing time in the morning we had a little photo shoot.  Kelsie was still hesitant about what was in store for her, yet ready to step out of her comfort zone, as long as mom and dad were only a few feet away!
Kelsie here are my favorite let me know which one is yours!

A Little Like the First Day of Kindergarten

We left last Wednesday afternoon to take Kelsie to school in Hawaii, for the last 2 years she has been planning and working hard to be able to go to school at BYU-H. She worked 3 jobs this summer along with taking a summer class to finish off her associates degree. She saved and has earned this next year of being able to go to school and play in Hawaii. We are really proud of you Kelsie.

When we arrived at the school bright and early Thursday morning she was like a deer in headlights, totally frozen and at a loss as to what she needed to do. I think nerves got the best of her. We started pointing her in one direction then off to the next thing that needed to get done. Our job that day was to make sure she got all the boxes checked and everything taken care of at the school. We would give her a task and then scoot her along and stand back and wait. We did notice that we were not the only parents with a new student in tow. By lunch she had met and talked to a few groups of girls, most of them were staying in the dorms, she is staying off campus. After the school things were taken care of we headed to her new home away from home.
We were pleasantly surprised, we started out with low expectations. She walked into the house and met one of the other girls living there and she was really nice. She showed us Kelsie's room and her roommate had already chosen the top bunk, which was fine with Kelsie, she is the easiest person to get along with after having to share a room with 2 older sisters. We dropped her stuff off and then headed to Wall-mart to buy provisions. When we came back the other roommate had her stuff in half of the closet and half of the drawers Kelsie unpacked and found a spot for everything. 

Scott noticed several old bicycles in the driveway and when we met the landlord to pick up the keys Scott asked about the bikes and she said she would come clean them out and take them to the dump. Scott asked if he could take one and she was happy to have him take it for her. Scott now had a project and found the hardware store and in not time (a couple of hours) he had the bike looking like new, and she was now mobile. Although it was like watching a kindergartener riding a bike for the first time....be careful, watch for cars, don't ride in the middle of the street. 

 The next day was orientation day and we loitered around long enough for Kelsie to find some friends and go off on her own. We hit the beach, the shaved ice and did some shopping! Later that night we met up with her and she was feeling more confident about everything, but still did not want to sleep at her new place, she said it was because where we were staying had A/C.  On Saturday we headed back down to go to Pearl Harbor we have never done that before then off to a little more shopping, lunch and another shaved ice on the trek back home. That night she slept in her own place and went to church the next day with her roommates.  By the time we left Kelsie on Sunday night she was feeling confident, and ready for the next 6 months of living on her own. We were feeling like the parents of a first time kindergartener wondering if she was making friends, able to find her way around, and hoping her roommate would play nice with her, and making sure she had all the needed supplies. We know she is in good hands and that she will have a great time. We are also really lucky to have Katie's in-laws about 2 minutes away, and they invited her over anytime!

Good bye Kelsie, we love you to pieces, have fun and stay safe!

Happy Birthday Destina!

Happy 11th Birthday Destina!  We love having Destina as part of our family she is so kind and helpful. She has the most beautiful smile that truly radiates happiness. We celebrated her birthday a few days early, she wanted enchiladas and red velvet cake. She wanted more shoes and clothes and a new Wii dance game.

   
We also did a little photo shoot for school pictures and here are a few of my favorites!

First Day of School

The first day of school is exciting and sad at the same time. I hate to see summer go, but the kids are excited to be back with their friends and into a routine again. I only have four kids in school two of them in high school and two in elementary school. This is the first year in 10 years that I don't have a child in middle school, I get a one year break.  I am hoping this will be a great year for all the kids!