Just some things that made me smile today

I swore after being up late last night doing school work, that I would get to bed early tonight. And here it is 11:00 and I am STILL up blogging. But as crazy as my schedule is I don't know when I will have free time again to do this, and I didn't want to forget to blog about these

things that just made me smile today...

I was doing the dishes after dinner and looked over and saw this.

Amidst her brothers loud, fighting, craziness,

Ame was writing in her journal and working on her Faith in God.

What a jewel this girl is.

It was a definite proud moment for this mom

and one that just MADE ME SMILE!!

that and her beautiful singing with the Senior Primary Choir

in Stake Conference Today, that just brought tears to my eyes.

She was right in front and sang with such pride,

conviction and love for her Savior.

And this boy, just makes me smile every

minute of the day (well almost).

I was a little slow to get the video and didn't

quite catch him when he was histerically laughing.

He became a little too mesmorized by the camera

to laugh much more after I started filming.

But still such a cutie!

Joy School

I have never participated in Joy School b4.

Mostly because I have always wanted my kids

to have experiences away from me, and lets

face it I do need a break sometimes.

But for economic sake, I thought why not give it

a try and if anything safe us some $$ every month.

This past week , amidst starting school myself,

it was MY TURN to teach joy school.

Lets back up a bit.

Ash has not had such a smooth start with this

whole preschool thing. WIth joy school we are

rotating between 7 homes, and I don't think that

is Ash's ideal environment. He missed 3 straight

classes because he just wouldn't stay when MOM

took him. So I thought lets have DAD take him

and sure enough, it worked!

SO I think he is liking it a bit more, or maybe

just because it was with mom this week.

We have a really cute bunch of kids.

All pretty low key and they get along very well.

(Porter, Hyrum, Abram, Ash, Abby, Jacob and Jaylee)

My 2 lessons included:
Joys of the Earth-seasons/seeds and animals
We planted seeds, talked about the seasons, sang songs,
ate apples, applesause, apple juice.
Then we made bird feeders out of pinecones,
brought pets to share, and much, much more!
These are quite detailed/interactive lessons, but a lot of fun!
After a whirlwind week, I am glad to have a break
for 7 weeks! Although this week we are taking
a fieldtrip to Great Harvest Bread
(that's if I don't get a sub teaching job, which
is always a possibility...oh yes one of the other
things on my list of busyness).

I hope I don't have to miss this one, I LOVE GHB!

It was a JOY to spend time with my Ashy Boy this week
and see him interacting with his peers!

its gotten CRAZY!

Life has gotten CRAZY around the Hanamaikai home since the past post.

Mostly because mom has started school!

I am getting my Master's in Math Education, k-6.

I started on October 1st and since then I can hardly keep

my head on straight. I still don't know what I think about

getting an online degree. I am just such a hands on, interactive

learner, it is definitely enlightening as to my abilities as a learner.

We have had to make some adjustments around here so mom

can study a few hours during the day,

but also mom is just getting less sleep and

doing a few hours of school work

at night after the kids are in bed.

My R & R time is gone for the time being.

I used to love that time after the kids were

all in bed and I could sit down with a bowl

of ice cream and enjoy one of my favorite shows!

These late nights are kickin' my butt, I must say.

Staying up until 11:30 or later, just doesn't work

well when I SHOULD be up at 6:30 the next morning

(if I want any chance of getting in a work out b4 the craziness

of getting kids ready for school begins).

As part of WGU we commit to at least 20 hours a week,

and I am trying to stick somewhat close to that,

at least for the next 6-8 weeks.

My main goal is to finish my first course, which is

18 units. I am trying to get my teaching license current

again. It expired since I haven't taught for over 4 years.

And the quickest way to renew it is with college courses.

Once I get enough credits to get my license renewed,

I will slow things down a bit with schooling

and not feel so pressured to work so hard and so fast.

Amidst teaching Joy School, volunteering in my kids classes,

trying to figure out Halloween costume, think about

my baby turning 1 and just BE A MOM, I

am now a student again.

This is one WILD ride!!

It's GREAT to be 8

(thanks to Jamie for these simply perfect invitations)

This day has been anticipated by us all for quite some time now.

WOW was it a special day!

We were waiting for all to arrive...

We shared this baptism daywith our next door neighbor,

Summer and her family. Her grandma gave the baptism talk,

and Grandma Asplund gave the Holy Ghost talk.
She shared the importance of following the

promptings of the spirit, just like Lehi

followed the Liahona and was guided in the

right direction.

Grandma Frankie gave a beautiful opening

prayer, took LOTS of picture for us

(thank you) and brought ALL the

GIANT sandwhiches to feed our large

crowd afterwards. She is amazing and we soo

appreciate her love and support!

Our beautiful girl SOO clean and pure

She got her very own engraved scriptures (from mom/dad),

a beautiful bracelet & journal (thanks gma and gpa)

and this VERY cute scripture bag (thanks AUntie Karli).

She also got several other fun gifts, since this was

a baptism/birthday family party.

we really appreciated all the support from our families,

to travel the distance and help out in so many ways
to make this day soo special for OUR girl!

all the cousins who were able to come show their

excitment for Ame's BIG day!

Ame's 2 primary teachers were wonderful to come

and support her as well, and one of them brought

this AWESOME scripture cake.

(it was much better looking than mom's #8 cake)

Sunday Ame got introduced as the

NEWEST member by the Bishop, got

to sit on the stand and she even

CHOSE to be the very first

to share her testimony.
What an amazing girl!

We LOVE you & are so PROUD of you

*Ame'lia*

We are excited to see your beautiful spirit

continue to blossom and grow!

MY turn...

Kaipo is ALWAYS complaining that Ame gets invited to do SOO many more things than him, including birthday parties. So needless to say he was VERY excited to get HIS turn and invited to a birthday party. This little boy is Hunter and he has a twin sister, they are in Kaipo's primary class, YES Kaipo's! Even though he is the same size as Ash!! The party was at LITTLE GYM and the

kids had a blast!

I told Kaipo since he was starting school this year and

would be making lots of new friends, if HE is a good friend

he just might get invited to more parties?!

The Birthday Girl turns the BIG 8!

Thursday was Ame's big day, one she

has anticipated for a very long time!

She started her day off just as she requested,

with breakfast in bed

(hot cocoa and Einstein Bagels) She had fun opening gifts from

her family. Kaipo was soo excited

to give her the musical card he picked

out all by himself, just for his sister!

Then it was off to school where

there was MORE celebrating

and Happy Wishes!

Because she is in the spanish program

and has 2 classes, she celebrates with

her home room teacher, which is

her morning class.

So instead of bringing ice cream bars

at the end of the day to share with her

class, they got them at 10 am.

She got her happy birthday song

in Spanish and a fun sign,

that all of her classmates signed.

FELIZ CUMPLEANOS!

Dad surprised Ame by joining her for

a lunch date and enjoyed

the 'oh soo yummy" school lunch.

She got to play with her birthday gifts after school,

then we went out to dinner that evening

to finish off the first day of celebrations for Ame.

Friday after school was round 2 of the fun!

We hosted a

GLAMOUR PARTY

for 9 of her friends and

WOW was that a house of

craziness!!

The girls got to decorate a frame

to put their GLAMOUR picture in,

as a keepsake of the festivities.

In addition, there were 3 stations:

hair, makeup and nails.

I invited some of the Young WOmen

to be my expert sylists and they did

a FABULOUS job!

After everyone was GLAMORIZED,

we played musical nail polish

(like musical chairs, but they pass a

bottle of nail polish and when the music

stops they paint one toe nail with that color).

We had a few spills on dresses and some CRAZY looking

toes, but I think they had fun with the game.

We opened presents, and each gift giver

got their picture taken.

We ate LOTS of snacks and enjoyed

the oh so easy ice cream cake.

And of course what is a

GLAMOUR party

without a toast to the birthday girl?!

CHEERS!

I hope it was a

PARTY to REMEMBER

(cuz boy was it a lot of work for this mama)!
But what more would I want

for my one and only super SASSY,

BEAUTIFUL 8 year old girl.

We sure love you Ame...

attitude and all!!

And to top off our day, we enjoyed a visit

from the RObinson Family.

Since Savannah came up for the party

we decided to have all the gang join

us afterwards for pizza and some more fun!

And it sure was FUN!!

Thanks for coming up guys.

We hope we can do it again soon!

***************

Now its onto the next BIG event...

2nd grade fieldtrip

On MOnday I got to join Ame on their

fieldtrip to Utah Botanical Center in Kaysville.

I actually found it quite interesting, fun and

informative. I think the kids did as well.

They learned about lifecycles and got to have a popcorn relay.

We also learned about all sorts of insects
and plant life.

The kids got to explore life from the pond

and PLAY with bugs!

As you can see Ame was lovin' this...

and proud of the things she captured (and then let go)!

This is Ame new friend, Layla.

She is a really cute girl, and her mom

is the 4th grade English teacher in

the spanish immersion program, so

Ame will have her in a few years.

I can already tell they are going to be

best pals! I am so glad, cuz those first few days

were hard for Ame. Joining a class where

everyone already knew eachother.

After exploring at the center for a few hours

we headed to the park to enjoy more of the

beautiful weather and have a picnic.

I am so glad I got to join Ame for a fun day

before things gets crazy next month, and my life

is A LOT busier!!
These times together are so special.

Oh CANADA

Our trip to Canada was much anticipated for months and months, for reasons of financial to getting passports for everyone (which is a cost in and of itself), to where will we all stay, to travel arrangments, etc, etc. But dispite all the challenges we may have faced to get there, it was sooo worth it!! We had an incredible time. Uncle Jim was a terrific host and we got to do soo many fun things in the short time we were there. We felt like the LUCKY ones, because we got

to stay with Jim and Great Grandma

(as well as my parents). They have an

amazing home and the yard is NEVERending,

perfect for our little explorers.

They spent hours and hours just enjoying the outdoors!

We LOVED just sitting around with various members

of the family, talking and listening to stories.
We had great adventures each day.
Friday we got to go see where my dad grew up
and he said it was like the TWILIGHT zone,
because it was just soo different.
We also got to visit a farm, that had some amazing
corn mazes. B4 we set loose in the mazes the kids enjoyed some playtime.
It was quite funny TRYING to
keep us all somewhat together and NOT losing
the kids (who would have LOVED to run off on their
own, we just may not have seen them again).

Nalu was a trooper, sitting it that darn stroller soo much.

One of the mazes was a trivia one with clues.

Good thing we didn't rely on the kids for directions.

We would have NEVER made it out!

This was the site around just about every other corner...

they told us as we were getting our BRIEFING before

entering the maze that there was a watch tower

if we got lost, thank goodness we didn't need help

cuz NO one was watching?!

there were LOTS of animals to get fed too

another of our adventures and I think one of the favorites

of most, was visiting my uncle Mark's ranch.

Kaipo fell in love with all their kittens and chased

them around for hours.

Ame definitely discovered a NEW love.

If we had the $$ I know she would be in

Heaven to have her own horse and to take some

lessons. You should have seen this girl...

if she wasn't riding she was helping the younger cousins

enjoy a ride on the pony.

Kaipo broke away from the kittens for a bit

to a take a few rides himself.

it took quite a bit of convincing (or forcing) to get

Ash anywhere near one of the animals.

He did ride with dad and helped brush the horses,

but that was about it. Anytime one of the kittens or dogs

looked at him or got near him he was NOT happy.

Mom even took a turn on the ol' horse

One last ride for the horse lover!

The BIG day was on Saturday.

The party was held at a place with all

kinds of restored buildings. It had an old

jail...

an old school, horse drawn school bus, trains, tractors.

Soo many neat, fun things to check out and explore.

We had to drag the kids away at then end of the day.

They had a BLAST!

even some old dressups

oh these cousins are cute!

the main reason for our visit was to honor

the amazing woman of all these siblings

(missing just a few). It was soo fun to see

them all again, and their families. Don't ask me

to name them all (I CAN keep most of them straight).

I am soo glad we could be there to celebrate and honor

Great Grandma Asplund. She is such a fun, loving woman

still at age 90! She is a true beauty!! I just can't begin to

imagine birthing, let alone raising all those children.

WOW. WOW. WOW.

Thanks mom and dad for making it possible for us to be there.

It was truly a trip we will always remember and cherish!

And we are already planning on taking Great Grandma up on her

offer to join her again in 10 more year!!