September 2022

Nancy and Shad offered our family tickets to the Jack Johnson concert at Usana Ampitheater.  Our kids have never been to a real concert before so although they don't know Jack Johnson songs we went.  It was a fun night just sitting on the grass listening to music and having fun.

I've been wanting to do this as a family for a long time but we finally hiked up and went on a tour of Mt Timpanogos Caves.  The hike wasn't too bad and Siena who is our hiker that hates hiking survived as well.  We made it up pretty fast and had to wait a while for our tour time but it was worth it.  The caves were really cool (literally cool as well) and it was fun to learn about them and see everything inside.

My birthday started with a trip to the Orthodontist with the girls.  They've had their expander in for a month and needed a check up.  Everything looked good.  Then we decided to go get donuts and we headed over to my parents to let Gus out since my parents were out of town.  So we played with Gus and ate donuts all before school started.  While the kids were at school Shane and I went to lunch and shopping.  I got new shoes and a BYU sweatshirt.  That night the kids had stuff going on so Shane made us dinner and we opened presents and went about our night as normal.  It was a fun day and Shane and kids always make me feel special and loved!

We of course celebrated mine, Kayla's, Siena, Aria and Jennifer's birthdays at dinner at my parents.  It was yummy as always and always a fun time.

The saddest thing happened this month.  Aria's cute bird Scottie died.  It was pretty traumatic. Aria was getting ready for school and had Scottie in the bathroom with her and something startled Scottie and she flew into the mirror and broke her neck.  We weren't exactly sure what was going on and was hoping she was just stunned and scared so we put her back in her cage and within about 30 minutes she had passed away.  Aria was very upset, especially since she saw it happen and it was a very sad day.  We had a little funeral and as we went outside Aria crying said 'Now you can go outside, I always wanted to take you outside' Heartbreaking.  She cried and cried all day and did for a few days.  Jennifer was so thoughtful and came over that night and brought Aria a stuffed animal owl that Aria named Waddie.  Aria slept with and cuddled Waddie every day and night for weeks.  Scottie was seriously the cutest bird and loved to sit in our trees, be held and always let Aria hold her, pet her and sit on Aria's glasses and shoulder.  She really was a special bird and I was even sad that she died.  I know she will always have a special place in Aria's heart.

Siena decided she wanted to do a little more competitive basketball than just Jr. Jazz rec teams.  So we put her in some basketball camps this summer and in September she tried out for Bantam.  This is through the high school you are in the boundaries for.  She made the Lone Peak 5/6 grade combined team.  She is excited to start practicing and will play games after Thanksgiving through February.

Jaron made his 4th grade Utah Cake which is the tradition here in Utah schools and had to document it.

After Scottie died we found out her horse riding instructor, Scott, got cancer and was not going to teach for a while since he was in treatments.  So Aria tried to think of other things she could do with animals.  She isn't old enough to volunteer at the Humane Society but we found out she could go read to cats.  So one Saturday morning we drove up to Murray to the main humane society and read to cats.  Honestly the cats didn't really care about us reading but it was fun for her (Siena came too) to see them pet them and they had a fun time.

We went to a BYU Men's Soccer game as a family one night.  It was fun to see older players play and they were hustling up and down the field.  Jaron loved it and watched intently.  The Pace's came and it was kind of interesting cuz the boys just wanted to go play and mess around and Jaron was like no thanks I'll just sit here and watch the game.

Westfield, the school Jaron goes to now puts on a school carnival every fall.  It was a fun night and the kids had fun rock climbing, playing games and going on the bounce houses.

I got to meet Jeff and Whitney's newest little girl, Hazel.  She's so darling and cute and everyone is in love with her.

We had a shower for Ella who is getting married in October.  Since they met in Hawaii it was Hawaiian themed and such a fun night.  That night we realized Brigitte is almost as tall as Brigitte.  Just another inch or so. 

Jaron got to go biking with his friend Aiden and then Parker invited him and Graham to bike in Provo canyon and then stop by his dad's work on a Saturday to eat snacks and play games there.  He works for Qualtrics in Provo.

Siena and Aria turn 11!

Siena and Aria turned 11!  I feel like they have changed and grown up so much this last summer.  They have grown a ton, their feet have grown and they just act a little older.  No longer girls, they are just turning into tweens and they are becoming so fun and cute to hang out with.

The night before their birthday we had their birthday party.  We invited their friends Annie and Holland and went to Wilkerson Farm.  It's a small version of Cornbelly's with a fall festival, corn maze and rides.  They had so much fun riding all the rides.  The rides were on the small side but it wasn't crowded and they just ran around the whole time.  They also had fun in the corn maze and hay ride.

Their birthday was on a Saturday this year.  Which they were happy about until they realized Jaron had a soccer game.  But they were glad that was a day they had a day off from school and soccer.  We started the morning opening presents then headed to Jaron's game.  That afternoon they went to Obstacle Warrior kids, a ninja gym we hadn't been to in a long time.  They had so fun and were exhausted and their hands hurt by the time they were done.  That night we went to dinner at Chuck a Rama for dinner, not my favorite but the kids love the all you can eat atmosphere, even if they don't eat all that much.

They've started 5th grade this year and are starting to sit in the front seat of the car sometime, are a little more into music and are continuing to shine in their each individual ways.

Siena is into crafts, sewing or any project type thing she can find online.  She loves to create things basically.  She loves to do crafts and computer creations.  I think she would be great at some coding things as she gets older so we'll see.  She loves to read and still loves to create games or activities for the family to do.

Aria is still our huge animal lover.  She always has a book checked out from the library on birds, horses, animals, whatever she can find.  She loves to learn about them and we hope we can find her some horseback riding lessons soon.  She's still improving a lot on the violin and will participate in her orchestra at school again this year.  She is also a huge reader.  She always has a couple different books she's reading and will read in the car and take books wherever she goes.

August 2022

August is always a different month.  As soon as it hits, there is a panic to fit everything summer related into our days, a panic to get school supplies, clothes, etc. to be ready and then school starts and we're back on a schedule and afternoons are always crazy busy.

So we started off August with the Highland Parade.  Only Aria, Jaron and I went. Siena hurt her leg, pulled a groin muscle the day before and refused to walk on it.  It kept spasming and it looked really painful.  Luckily it only lasted a little over a day and then a couple days of being careful on it so we knew she couldn't get to the parade.  Aria and Jaron got enough candy though for all of us and it's always a fun morning at our local city parade.

The Girls took the first step of getting braces by getting expanders put in.  When they first got them they thought they were going to drown in their spit as it took a little while to figure out how to swallow, etc.  But after that it hasn't been too bad.  We had to adjust it every night for 4 weeks and luckily it didn't bother them too much.  They have to keep it in for 6 months and then they'll look to see if any teeth need to get pulled and then either get braces or invisalign.

Jaron had his 2nd Soccer tournament of the summer, the Utah Cup.  It was in Orem again and they played good but unfortunately lost in the semi-finals.

Siena and Aria had 2 dog watching gigs this summer. The Arnetts across the street and The Daniels dogs.  They love to do it and it's easy money.  Aria in particular loves to watch the dogs and would sometimes bring the dogs over to our house so they could just hang out in the yard.

We had to get an updated picture of the JLO's for their birthdays.  Can't believe these boys are 9!

First day of school for Siena and Aria at Ridgeline.  They are both in Mrs. Leimer's class this year and she seems super nice and fun so I think it's going to be a great year.

Jaron started at a new school this year.  Kind of a long story but last February, Jaron's teach Ms. Hutchinson emailed me on a Sunday night saying they were testing for the gifted program and she was shocked I hadn't signed Jaron up to get tested.  So not knowing much about it, I signed him up and told him just to do his best and we'll see what happens.  Well April rolled around and we got his results back and he did really really well.  Well enough that he was accepted into the A.L.L.(Advanced Learning Lab) program. In order to be in the program he would need to switch schools where the class is being offered.  It was such a hard decision but Jaron has been so bored at school  He likes school but is always complaining about how easy it is and how bored he is.  So ultimately although he was going to miss his friends he really wanted to do the program.  So now he goes to Westfield Elementary.  The first day he came got in the car and said 'Mom, the best part of the day was that we actually did work instead of just learning rules all day,'  Then that Friday he got in the car and said 'We don't have homework this weekend but we might start having it because we voted if we wanted homework on the weekend and most everyone including me voted to have weekend homework.'  Right then I knew we had made the right decision.  He knew one boy, Logan and one girl, Isabelle that also came over from Ridgeline.  He had his friend Sam from his soccer team last year in his class and has already made some other friends.  So we are very happy with the change. 

We tried to go to the zoo before school started but Jaron was sick and the girls were dog sitting so we ended up going the Saturday after school started.  We had free passes and I didn't want to forget to use them before it got too cold to go.  It was a fun morning but I think the highlight was the dog show for us this time around.

We grew our own pumpkins again this year.  Instead of just doing orange ones we tried white pumpkins this year as well.  They grew so much and we ran out of room so we kept piling the vines on top of each other and then we got a whole bunch of rain in August.  Like every night for weeks it rained.  Soon we found that the pumpkin vines got some fungus on them and were making the pumpkins rot.  So we had to harvest them early and some of the pumpkins that would've grown bigger we had to throw away but we were able to save these ones.  We are keeping them in our cold storage until October.

And just like that we're in school and going to piano, violin, soccer, basketball, horse lessons and activity days.  Every day there is something going on and I love to watch my kids do what they love and are good at.