So Long 6th Grade

Bella graduated from 6th Grade this year.  Which means she moves to the Jr High next year.  Not sure how excited we are about that...
We will have one kid in High School, two in Jr High and 2 in Elementary.  They are growing up fast.  For Bella's 6th Grade Celebration, they had a dance at her school.  Josh volunteered to chaperon so he spent an evening watching her have a great time with her friends.  She was a bit mortified at the fact that her Dad would be there and that he could quite possibly spoil all her fun, but when I asked her about it she said that he wasn't embarrassing and that he spent most of his time in the other room.  She also told me that it was the 'best four hours of her life."
She also participated in 6th Grade Graduation which Josh and I went and watched her receive her 'diploma'.  They had some refreshments and a slide show and went through all of the 6th Grade classes.  They were all given a t-shirt from Stahl to wear the following Monday on their tour of the Jr High.

Field Day

The end of the school year is jam packed with all kinds of activities.  It's crazy how you can go from 1-2 events a night to absolutely no schedule at all in just a couple weeks time.  One of the activities the kids got to participate in was Field Day.  Josh volunteered his time to help out at some of the various stations and spent the day in Puyallup with the kids.  It was one of the nicest days we've had this summer so he lucked out.  He came home smiling and sun burned.  Can't ask for a better day.

Track Stars

All of the kids (with the exception of Blake) participated to track this year.  Blake would have loved to have joined, but he's still to young.
Zak lettered in long jump and triple jump although I can't tell you what his distances were.  Ryson did well and competed in the 100m dash, the 200m hurdles and the 4x100 relay.  His team was a combination of 7th and 8th graders so that made it hard for any of the 7th graders to place in order to go to Districts.
Bella and Riley both made it to Districts and Regionals and were really nervous to participate.  Josh just kept telling them that as long as they had a smile on their face the whole time, they would be just fine.  So they did just that.  Ran their races with huge grins on their faces.  It was fun to watch!!

Thir-TEEN

For Memorial Day Weekend we had a basketball tournament (what else would we be doing on a three day weekend).  We drove to Vancouver Washington to stay for 3 days and play basketball the majority of each day.

We played at Battleground High School and had a total of 7 games.  We lost every single one of them but it was a fun weekend all the same.  I don't have any pictures of the actual games (If you've ever tried to take pictures of a basketball game with a 35mm digital camera, you know it is all but impossible to get a decent picture).

On the 27th was Rysons 13th birthday.  That's right, he's now in his TEENS (heaven help us).  We all went to the Old Spaghetti Factory for dinner that night and he had a GREAT birthday.  We had a cake and everyone spoiled him with gifts of cash.  I won't even say how much he raked it.  It was unbelievable.

We had over 50 people at the party and it was a great time.  We spent the day shopping all over Portland.  We hit up the Nike outlet first.  I'm pretty sure every kid on the team bought a new pair of shoes.  Then we headed over to the Adidas employee store.  Josh had scored an invite (which is the only way to get into the store if you aren't an employee).  Everything was 50% off so he did a little shopping for himself and Ryson got the basketball shoes he's been waiting for.  He was thrilled.  When we were done shopping we decided to take Ryson to downtown Portland for a little surprise.

You can't really tell what they are standing in front of, but it is Noodles & Company which happens to be Rysons FAVORITE restaurant from Utah.  They don't have them in Washington so he was so excited when he noticed where we were.  Josh and I stumbled across it when we spent our 1 year anniversary in Portland.
When we lived in UT we used to eat here after every one of Rysons baseball games (yes I said baseball).  We would order the same thing every time and Ryson would make sure I left enough on my plate for him to sample a little bit of everything.  He was 7 at the time. Great memories.

Needless to say, we had a PERFECT weekend.  Ryson had an AMAZING birthday and we can't wait to do it again next year.  We have been to this tournament twice now and we are hoping to make it a yearly tradition but Rys is growing up to fast and before you know it, he will (hopefully) be joining the High School basketball team and we will follow him whereever that team takes him.

Happy 13th Kiddo!!

Zoom Zoom

FINALLY!!  After months and months of dealing with a car that I had to jump start EVERY SINGLE DAY before I could drive it, we finally found the car we've been looking for.  Right style, right mileage, right price.  It was worth the wait.  I had to really talk Josh into the Hatchback.  He wasn't a big fan at first but then once we got serious about looking, he decided maybe they looked a little sportier after all.

This has been ONE positive for us in the last few months.  Things have been REALLY rough around our house lately.  We've been through some things/changes that have challenged us physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually.  Josh and I have had to come to terms with some things we never thought/hoped we'd ever have to worry about.  We are trying to stay calm and not over react and giving the space we feel is needed at the moment.  Life is hard and things get rough.  I haven't blogged in a while because I haven't felt like I've had anything positive to talk about.  The car is a material thing and isn't a 'cure all' but it sure has been something fun for us to focus on for a change.   

Brace Yourself

My husband and I are at that point in life where we get to start panicking about tween/teen expenses and how in the world we are ever going to afford all that our kiddos are going to need (demand) from here on out. 
Zak will be completing his Drivers Ed this week and will eventually deem it necessary to drive.  In order for that to happen, we need to have a car (that we aren't especially fond of~if you catch my drift) and he will need to be covered on our insurance.  The discussion with State Farm is a phone call I have procrastinated as I've heard from far to many people that covering a teenager is beyond expensive and I just don't think I can face that number at this moment.

Meanwhile, Ryson had the fine opportunity of getting braces last week.

Bella decided to go with us to see what was involved because her dentist recently told her that she has an overbite and will also require braces. 

Hopefully she can hold off for 12-18 months so that we don't have the expense of two metal mouths in the family.

 


Ryson did pretty well during the whole procedure considering how long he had to have his mouth stretched to capacity and dry as a bone. 

They kept telling him what a model patient he was.  It took just over an hour to get everything where it needed to be.





Dr. Roloff ~the Orthodontist that will be vacationing on our hard earned money for the next year.

These puppies aren't cheap.  He will need them for 12-18 months and they told him if he takes care of them, he may get them off sooner.  This was probably the worst thing they could have told him.  The kid wants them off so bad, he hardly eats and is constantly worried about how much food he has in his brackets so he brushes, flosses, brushes some more.  We have to keep telling him to RELAX and just do what is normal and he'll be fine.

He didn't have the wires and bands on in this picture but I never did get a picture of the end result.  He opted for alternating hot pink and purple bands to finish off the look.  I failed to mention that he had to have a tooth pulled the day before so that his other tooth would have a spot to fit.  Wasn't the best weekend for a 12 year old kid.
I don't think Bella is as excited about the idea of getting braces after watching Rys go through the process but she has such a bad overbite that I'm pretty sure braces are inevitable.

So as we brace ourselves for the future with our 5, ever evolving kids, we have our fingers crossed that we will be able to provide for them all that they need and want in order to have the best future possible.

Yes, we are alive and no, nothing worth reporting...