Nora has been sitting on the bleachers watching Ian do karate since she was 2. This week she decided to join him and participate herself!

I have been so happy with the program at Bobby Lawrence Karate. Ian is just starting his third year and he as gotten so much out of it! Cole Klekas seriously has a gift for teaching those little ones. I just love watching him interact with the kids. I love the principles that Bobby Lawrence Karate teachs. I am really happy that Nora decided to give it a try.

Nora did even better than I expected in her two private lessons. Nora tends to give up easily. If she tries and can’t do it she gets frustrated and wants to quit. Once she gets in that mode it is hard to change her mind. But she really tried to do everything Mr. Klekas asked her. A few times she said she couldn’t do, but he talked her into trying. It was really cute to watch. I think she was proud of herself too. At the end of her two lessons she earned her white belt. She was just thrilled!

Now that the kids are back in school, I have finally had some time to edit some of my own photos

Here are the photos I took of Emma at the beach. She looks so grown up to me in these photos. I can’t believe how fast she is growing up.

Nora started school last week too. She actually started before Emma and Ian, but I am just getting the photos finished. Monday morning we woke up to rain and thundershowers. Darn! I was disappointed that I wouldn’t be able to get those cute first day of school photos outside. It stopped for a few minutes and we rushed outside, but it was still a cold dreary morning to be outside.

Nora, however, didn’t seem to mind and was really excited to go to school. She was returning to the same school she attended last year. She had been looking forward to it for weeks. She couldn’t stop talking about her teacher Lina and cute “Baby Finley”. She was so excited to have a baby in her classroom.

We took a few quick photos and then headed for school. As we started to get closer, she started to try to talk Scott and I out of leaving her there. She asked us to walk her in and I could see her starting to melt down.

We walked her in and helped her find her locker. She didn’t want to put her things in it. She just held on to everything and kept asking us to take her home. I helped her put everything in, but she quickly grabbed it out and tried to make a break for the car. At this point I knew there was no stopping her. Once she gets worked up, there is no calming her down. I knew I just had to take her to Lina and leave.

We found Lina, and I handed her a screaming and crying 3 year old. I felt terrible, but I knew that I needed to kiss her and tell her I loved her and leave. That is exactly what I did. I felt bad that she was sad, but I knew she would be fine once I left. I wanted to get a few photos of her in her classroom, but it just wasn’t in the cards.

Luckily, she calmed down just as soon as I left. She had a great first day. When I picked her up she was all smiles and she couldn’t stop talking about how great her school was!

Today was the official first day of school for Emma and Ian. It was a big one because they were both starting a new school. The opening was delayed a little bit because of construction, and I was a bit worried that they still wouldn’t be ready, but they made it. The school still looks like a big construction zone, but the classrooms are done and look nice.

Ian started first grade with Mrs. Johnson and Emma started third grade with Ms. Taylor.

Emma was the first one up. She was all dressed and ready when I got up. She couldn’t wait to wear her new dress! Ian was a little later and I had to wake him to start getting ready. We took a few quick photos at home and then we were off to school.

I’m keeping my fingers crossed that they both have a great day!

A few photos from the beach. Stories to come later.

So much has been happening lately, and I just haven’t taken the time to sit down and post.

One of the most exciting things for our family is that we purchased an RV! Everybody is really excited about it. Before Scott and I had kids we loved to go camping. While the kids were babies, camping just seemed out of the question. But now that they are getting older we decided that we want to start doing more of it as a family. Scott has been wanting to buy a pop up trailer for a while. I went to breakfast with some friends a few months ago and one of them had an RV. She talked about how much they love it and how great it has been for their family. I talked to Scott about it and we decided to start looking around.

We found the perfect one for us at a dealership in Salt Lake: a Four Winds 5000. (I’ll post some photos of it soon.)It was slightly used, but in great condition. We decided to go for it and we purchased it a few days after we looked at it.

Since then we have been going away in it almost every weekend. Scott took the kids to Jordanelle for the night the first weekend we had it. The next weekend we went to Captiol Reef. We had a great time there! I went there with my best friend’s family a few years in a row when I was in high school. It is just a special place for me and I have many great memories there. It was fun to go back and spend time there with my own kids. We went on some great hikes and just had some great family time together. The kids were just thrilled. They loved the RV, riding bikes, and playing in the dirt.

The next week we decided to go to Moab. We invited Bryan and Mary to come with us and we all went down there for 3 days. The weather was perfect and the guys did a great job of finding us a campsite. We stayed right near Slickrock and had a really nice campsite. We all got to go biking and hiking. We hiked to Delicate Arch, which I had never done before. I also mountain biked Slickrock trail, another first for me. I have to say that I hiked with my bike quite a bit, but it was a fun experience!

A few weeks later we spent a few days at Mirror Lake. We made it a family affair and both sets of grandparents came up to spend a day with us. We had a great time fishing, and even caught enough fish to have a trout dinner for 7 people one night! The weather was perfect and we escaped to the mountains on the hottest few days of the year.

The week after next we head to North Carolina to spend a week at the beach. We are all looking forward to that!

It has been a great summer, but it has been going by much too fast. Before we know it, the kids will be back in school.

This was the scene at our house at 4:55am this morning.

Emma and Ian got up at the crack of dawn and made me breakfast for Mother’s Day. They had first gotten up at midnight, but Scott chased them back to bed. They got up again around 4:00am and started my breakfast of cereal, waffles, and cinnamon toast.

They came in to wake me up about 4:45am. I was so tired I didn’t want to get out of bed. I didn’t realize at first what they had done, but as soon as I did I knew I had to get up!

They were so cute. Emma had made me all kinds of cards and crafts. Ian was so proud of himself for making my waffle all by himself.

I sat with them and ate my breakfast while I read all of my cards. They made me feel so special. It was so sweet that they went to so much trouble to make my Mother’s Day breakfast.

Ian has been taking karate at Bobby Lawrence Karate since last fall. This year he decided he wanted to enter the Bobby Lawrence Karate tournament. I thought it sounded like fun and I was excited that he wanted to do it. I took him to a few extra karate classes so he could prepare. He entered in two divisions–forms and self defense. For forms he had to perform Taikyoku Shodan, and for self defense he had to do Halting Ram. He has practiced both of these over and over again in class. But getting up and doing it on his own in front of the judges is a whole different ballgame.

When we got to the tournament we watched the team competitions. Ian was totally entertained by them. He loved all the jumping and especially the weapons! As soon as he saw them he talked non-stop about how he wanted to do that. When the competitions were over, though, I could see another side of Ian. I saw him get very calm and start to get worried. He was thinking about what he had to perform and he couldn’t remember a few parts. Luckily my friend Vicky was there. Since Vicky takes karate herself, she was able to help Ian, and I think it helped to calm him down.

Right after that they called him to the ring and I went to watch from the stands. I was excited for him. I was happy that he was so enthusiastic about the team competitions and I was excited to see him perform. When they called his name for forms he was great. He went running to the front like he was supposed to, and did great with his speech.

“Hello Judges. My name is Ian. My style is Kwon Shu. Today I will be performing Taikyoku Shodan. May I begin judges?”

He started out strong, but then he got to one spot and he got confused. He started asking the judges to help him. When they couldn’t, he just turned his back to them, put his head down and started crying. I could see him from the stands and I just wanted to run out there and hug him. It was so sad. Luckily, one of his regular teachers just happened to be one of his judges. Mr. Markus went out there and put his arm around Ian and started talking to him. He helped him remember what to do and Ian decided to give it another go. I was so proud of him for starting over and trying again.

When he went up the second time it went much better. Except for the part where his partner didn’t know what to do. He had to stop in the middle and teach her what to do so that he didn’t hurt her. It was cute! Here he is getting his self defense scores.

After everyone in his ring finished, the kids waited while they gave out the medals. I loved watching Ian’s anticipation and then seeing him so excited when they called his name and said he had tied for second place in self defense!

He came running up to the stands to show me his medals. I gave him a hug and told him how proud I was of him for starting over, even when he was scared and it was hard. He just hugged me and gave me the cutest little smile. Then Mr. Markus came up with a second medal. Apparently they had made a mistake and Ian also got second in forms. She he ended up getting second place in both of the events he entered.

I think Ian’s first karate tournament was a success!

Scott and I have had season tickets to our local minor league hockey team, The Grizzlies, for about 10 years now. Before that we used to go to as many games as we could fit in. I used to be a HUGE Grizzlies fan. I read all the stats, kept up on the players, and went to all the team events. Then we had kids, and I just didn’t have time to be such a dedicated fan. But we did take Emma to see Canada vs. Finland in the 2002 Olympics when she was only 5 days old!

I have always wanted to go on a road trip to see the Grizzlies play. We just never seemed to be able to work it out when they were playing one of the two closest teams: Las Vegas Thunder or the Idaho Steelheads. This year for the first round of the playoffs we played Las Vegas. We tried to see if we could go see on of the away games, but it just didn’t work out. When Utah beat Las Vegas in the first round we were scheduled to play the Idaho Steelheads. The first two games just happened to be in Boise, Idaho on Friday and Saturday night. We decided to pack up the kids and make the trek up there for the weekend.

The kids were thrilled to be staying in a hotel with a free breakfast buffet and a pool. They were not so thrilled about going to the hockey games. But once we got there they had a lot of fun. Our seats were right by the Steelheads booster club. They had face painting and sign making booths set up. The kids were thrilled with that part!

All of the Boise fans went out of their way to make us feel at home. I was a little worried about it, since I have never been to an arena where I was cheering for the other team. But they were all great. Especially the booster club members. Of course, the Grizzlies didn’t give the Idaho fans much to be mad about. They slaughtered us the first night 7 to 2. The second night it was a better game, but the Steelheads managed to score a goal in the last 2 minutes to win the game.

I am really glad that we decided to go. It was fun to see the Grizzlies on the road and fun to spend time together as a family. Maybe we will get to do it again next season. Now the Grizzlies have a tough road ahead of them in this best of 7 series!

Happy Easter from North Carolina! This was the best shot I could get today of the kids together