October 2024

 October brought a big change for Siena.  Over the summer when Siena went and saw the pediatrician for her Jr. High shots, they noticed one of her shoulder blades stuck out more than the other, a sign of scoliosis.  So after xrays, seeing an Orthopedic doctor, Siena has a 25% curvature and needs to wear a Scoliosis brace.  The brace is worn 18 hours a day and does not correct the curve but prevents it from getting worse.  If it gets around 40% then she has to have spinal fusion surgery which is just awful.  So she is wearing the brace to prevent that from happening.  So October was the month she got the brace.  It was rough at first, as we knew it would be.  Lots of tears, lots of shopping for new clothes that are loose fitting, getting a new mattress topper to help her sleep in it, etc.  Lots of family was so nice sending her cookies, bringing over ice cream.  I ordered her this cute scoliosis brace teddy bear.  It took about 2 weeks to get up to the 18 hours a day but she is now sleeping in it, wearing it to school and except for the occasional venting session she is more than entitled to she is doing great with it.  Wears it without me having to bug her about it.  The other hard part of this is she has to do 24 sessions of Physical Therapy, which has proven not only hard physically but a pain to fit it in our busy schedules.  She'll have to wear it until she stops growing which they think will be in about 2 years.

We went to Frightmares at Lagoon a few times in September and October.  The kids love the haunted houses and how decorated it is for Halloween.

Our big event for October is we went to the Imagine Dragons concert.  Jaron is a huge fan and we all really like their music and it's probably the most played music in our car.  So we were so excited to get tickets.  The Taylors came with us and it was such a fun concert.  They put on a great show and one that is clean and appropriate for kids which I really appreciated.

We took our annual trip to Gardner Village to see the Witches there.

We had free tickets to the zoo and only Aria wanted to go this year.  So we had such a fun time looking at the animals and no one was rushing us to leave.  We got to go see some animals a few different times.  It was a fun day spending some one on one time with her. Our favorite parts were the wild horses, the leopard and the red panda.

Jaron's school had a come eat lunch with your child day.  So I got him McDonald's and had lunch with him.  It was fun sitting with him and all his friends.  I was mostly glad he even let me come and didn't seem embarrassed to be with me.

Siena and Aria had a great soccer season.  They won most their games and both girls improved a lot.  Aria mostly played defense and it really good at stopping the ball.  My favorite thing she does is when she does a pull back.  Siena mostly played forward and was great at getting the ball down the field.  She even scored a few goals.

Carving pumpkins is always a fun night.  I love how they each do their own and how cute they all turn out.  My job is to cook the pumpkin seeds and help clean up.  Shane helps clean them out but the rest they mostly do on their own.

Jaron had his last Halloween parade.  He dressed up as Messi, which means he wore his Messi jersey that he wears just about every week as it is.  Still fun to see everyone dressed up.  He trick or treated with the neighborhood kids and also a couple of school friends.

The girls coordinated with their friends and all dressed up as prisoners (and one cop)  They wore the costumes to school, stayed after for a Halloween dance and then went to their friend Alexis' house for dinner and then trick or treated over there.  So I hardly saw them at all that day but they had so much fun hanging with their cute group of friends.

The saddest part of the day was Aria's fish she got for Christmas died sometime during the day of Halloween.  Aria of course was so sad.  She really loved that fish and took such good care of him.  She got extra stuff for his tank and would always analyze how happy he was.  I remember when I bought him he was swimming around so active and happy and that is how he was for a long time in Aria's room, always coming over when you would walk in the room.

September 2024

Birthday month for the girls in our family.  My birthday was great.  It was on a Saturday and so we got to wake up early and go to Jaron's soccer game.  He won so that was good!  We got doughnuts and had them when we got home.  That afternoon we went and saw the movie Twisters.  It had been out for a while so we were all so excited when we had the entire movie theatre to ourselves.  The kids went and sat in the luxury seats, after doing cartwheels in front of the screen and Shane and I sat in the back doing shadow puppets.  That night we went to dinner.

Grandma and Grandpa always coming to support the kids at their games

Jaron was one of the narrators for his last ever Primary Program.  He did a great job reading everything clearly and he is more than ready to be done with Primary and is excited to become a Deacon.

The rest of the month was busy with school.  2 girls in junior high has been quite an adjustment.  They each manage 8 classes and it has felt so busy, along with soocer, doctors appts and other stuff going on.

Siena and Aria are Teenagers!

I can't believe we have 2 teenagers in the house...Siena and Aria turned 13 this month.  They are so fun to have around.  It's fun to hang out with them and they have really turned into the cutest girls who are happy, responsible, fun and loving girls.  Their young women's class heart attacked their door which was so cute and fun.

They have been begging for their own phone so I finally decided it was time.  They are responsible enough and I trust them to be good about when to use and when not to.  They were so excited to get their own phone.  They had to go to school that day (even though they didn't want to) so I checked them out at lunch time and had McDonald's for them and we went to the park next door to the school and ate (they didn't have a lot of time and didn't want to be late to their next class).

That night we went down to Provo Beach and did the ropes course, laser tag and played some arcade games.  We ate at DP Cheesesteak and then after that we met the Pace's for ice cream at the BYU Creamery.  

That weekend the girls had a little get together with friends.  We ordered pizza and they played night games and watched a movie.  They have a cute group of friends that all get along and have fun together.  They are a bit crazy but what else would you expect for 12 and 13 year olds.

August 2024

Lilly came and stayed with us for a couple day while Michelle and AT were in Europe.  Michelle bought the girls each a little miniature room to build.  They worked on them for hours, each little piece being built and decorated.  It was a super fun activity for them.

The day we left on our trip the girls got their school schedule.  They are so excited to start middle school and it was fun as we heard about friends they have classes with.  Siena and Aria don't have any classes together but they do have the same lunch time so they are excited about that.  The day before school started they had a back to school where they could go into the school, find all their classes and meet their teachers. It was total chaos for me trying to find 16 classes in the right order.  We walked from one end of the school to the other and I was totally exhausted by the time we were done...and I think it took 1 1/2 hours!

The girls started 7th grade the day before everyone else.  They get to go to each class for 5 minutes and they also had an assembly about middle school stuff.  I think they liked going and it was nice because it was only for 2 1/2 hours.

Jaron started 6th grade the day after the girls.  Last year in elementary school.  Jaron has Mrs. Clifford who is his good friend Beckham's mom.  Hopefully that will go ok and they won't goof off too much.  The first day of school they took a class picture and you can already tell how comfortable Jaron feels in his class!

Jaron had a soccer game in Roosevelt (2 1/2 hours away).  We had to wake up early to get there and glad we won.  So we celebrated with some pizza before driving home.  Jaron's team is really nice and he doesn't know the boys super well.  I think he still misses his old team but he gets to score and play a lot which he loves.

AT invited me to a BYU football game last minute.  It was so fun and I love going to BYU football games. And AT always makes things fun and entertaining, hence the weird faces and laughing pictures.

Glovers go Cruising

 For our family vacation this year we took the kids on their first cruise.  We had so much fun and although the destinations weren't that amazing or exotic we went for the ship and cruise experience and we loved it.

We drove down to Christy's on Saturday all day and hung out with her Saturday night and went to church Sunday.  Sunday afternoon we went to the tide pools that my kids always love doing.  

Out cruise left Monday afternoon but we were able to board at 11am.  That was fun because even though we couldn't get into our rooms yet it was fun exploring the ship, they had lunch out on the deck where the kids learned they loved their fresh grilled hamburgers.  Then we set sail that afternoon, found our rooms and had a great dinner.

Tuesday we stopped at Catalina Island.  We rented a golf cart and drove all around the island for a couple hours.  It was fun to see the island a bit and after we hung out walking through shops and the kids played on the really tiny beach there before we headed back to the ship to enjoy the activities on board.

Wednesday we were in Ensenada.  Without a really long side trip and lots of money there wasn't a lot to do there.  So we got off walked around the little vendor shops and then got back on the boat so the kids could swim, go down the slides and do the ropes course more.  They had parrots as we got off the ship that Aria loved holding.  

Thursday was an at-sea day and we spent it eating, swimming, playing games and doing some fun ship activities.  Some of the fun activities the kids loved was going to all the trivia contests they had.  We ended up winning 2 of them.  The girls loved the towel animals in our room each day and so they loved going to the towel folding class they had.  Jaron loved the miniature golf course and they all loved the ropes course.  The pool slides were fun for a little bit but then they thought the water was cold.  

The kids had a soda pass and in less than 4 days I think Jaron had 25 sodas and the girls weren't too far behind.  Add in the free ice cream 24 hours a day and they never were without one of those in their hands.  They all tried some new foods at dinner but loved the free cheeseburgers and pizza that were always open.

Friday we disembarked and drove home the whole day.  It was a long day but good to be back home.  We had such a fun trip and it's definitely something we want to do again as a family.