Last Day of School!

June 4th was the last day of school.

Ali went with a new hair-do. She was thinking she wanted to cut her hair to her chin but decided shoulder length would be easier to live with.

After School we went to the Putnam's for the annual School's Out Party. So much fun!

The Pool was awesome.

And so was the Jump House -all the kids played hard in both.

We went at 1:30 and went home at 6:30 -the party was still going too. Needless to say, everyone was wiped out.

Thanks Cami for always throwing a terrific party.

This was a paragraph that Ali wrote to convince others not to get rid of the saguaro. I thought she did a great job and her teacher, Mrs. Walker, did too. The scan is kind of hard to read so here it is:
When people see the spiny Saguaro, they see a plant, nothing special. But it is! It is, in fact, a habitat to many animals. It's teeming with life! Birds perch up on the cactus to get the sweet nectar from the cactus's flowers. When a cactus is too old to live, it will topple over into the brush. In time the cactus decomposes and becomes fertilizer. So do not, I repeat, DO NOT take them away! A cactus is part of nature, and we wouldn't want that to go away, now would we?
I hope you are convinced!

This was Ali's drawing that was entered into the national Doodle 4 Google contest after being chosen to represent the 4th graders at Bartlett Elementary. Below is her wish for the world that accompanied the drawing. She didn't win nationally, but we're so proud of her creative talents.

Some Pics

Ali's new look. It's a whole new world for Ali, she never knew things were so crisp, clear,and full of color.

Musical Spencer. He won this guitar at our church auction for $12. Ask him to play it for you -he's sounding pretty good.

He's also really liking his band class where he's learning to play the trumpet.

Our family get together. Notice the beautiful flowers in the forground made by Ali and her cousin Katie.

Magnus is turning 1 Tuesday! Happy Birthday Heather June 1st.

Grandma Tammy (Dave's sister), Mom Cherish, and sweet baby Suzie.

Tricky Asa

Sam and his buddy cousin Lydia -not as innocent as they look.

Sam and I got to hang out with the Bodily's at the Secret Garden and Dolphin Habitat.

Definitely the highlight for Sam. He didn't want to leave Lightning the Dolphin.

Happy Mother's Day!

I was blessed with a really great mom. I'm so grateful for her example and support to me and my family. She is righteous, kind, good, and wonderful in every way. I love her so much!

I am also blessed to have a really great mother-in-law. She has been through so much and just keeps moving forward. She's been good to talk things through and is so understanding and nonjudgemental. I love her too.

I love being a mom, but I haven't always loved Mother's Day. I remember about 16 or 17 years ago sitting in Sacrament Meeting while Dave talked about motherhood, tears streaming down my face. I wasn't a part of his talk. It was Mother's Day and I didn't know if I would ever celebrate it as a mother. We had been going through different fertility treatments and nothing seemed to be working. Finally, after about 6 years, we adopted our spunky sweet Spencer. We met him the day he came into this world and loved him so much from that moment. 2 years and 3 months later, we were so blessed to have another precious baby join our family, Alexi. She was so sweet and loving. I didn't know motherhood could be so wonderful. When Ali was 2 we received another wonderful blessing. It was from Pres. Faust. He blessed Dave and I that we would be able to conceive and bring a baby into this world with the specialized help of modern-day medicine. 5 and a half years later, after lots of specialized medicine, we had Samuel -our sweet little monkey. These 3 terrific children make my life so full. They are all going in different directions -it's amazing that 3 kids from the same family can be so different.

I got to talk to a small group of girls about motherhood. I told them that for me it was like a roller coaster. Sometimes you're up on top and sometimes your down, maybe even struggling to get back up. Sometimes you have to wait with anticipation not sure what's around the next corner. It's so exciting and exhilarating. Sometimes it's really scary and unsettling but it's also reallly fun. Hopefully when I'm done I can say, "That was Great!"

I love you Spencer, Alexi, and Sam. I'm so grateful for this wonderful privilege of being their mom.

Happy Mother's Day!

Ali -Born to Be a Star

Ali has had a great week and a half. It actually started just last Tuesday. I got a phone call from Mrs. Keith at Bartlett Elementary -Ali's school. She told me that Ali had won a drawing contest, Doodle 4 Google, as the 4th grade winner from Bartlett. She drew the google logo and then added an artistic rendition of what she wanted for the world which was world peace. It was very cute, and I'm hoping that I'll have a picture to post of it tomorrow. She'll compete with other winners from around the state, then the region, then nationally. Go Ali Go!

On Saturday, March 28, we got to watch Ali perform in "Hansel and Gretel, the True Story". (She's been going to this class, Readers Theater at the library, every Saturday in March for 2 hours.) She went at 10:00 am and they practiced, took some breaks, ate some lunch, figured out what props would be used and got ready for the 2:30 show. Ali got a fabulous chopstick hairdo and wore a funky dress as the game show host Tina. She was the moderator between the Witch and Hansel, Gretel and their parents. She really did a super job. Also, since she is such a great reader, her and another boy got to read us a poem, "I Met a Dragon Face to Face" by Jack Prelutsky. It was fun too that Grandma and Grandpa Salter were able to be there. I think they really enjoyed seeing our Ali star.

Then Tuesday evening it was the 4th grade musical, "Posibilities". Ali got to dress up as an author -glasses (my old pair which gave her a headache) and all.

She sang wonderfully and it was a cute presentation.

We've really enjoyed seeing our very creative Ali shine. She's quite the talented artist, writer, reader and actor, and we look forward to more of it.

The Duck Park

One of Sammy's favorite places is the duck park.

He loves to feed them.

They dance for him.

He makes sure that all the ducks are in the water and get the love and attention that they need.

All this work makes him thirsty, thirsty enough for a V-8!

Words We Live By

Last Saturday Ali was at her Hollywood 101 class at the library,
-it's like a readers theatre and Ali loves it, anyway, they all got to perform their parts in front of the rest of the group for the first time. I asked Ali if it was scary. Her response, "I was born to act!!" Not scary at all.



On St. Patty's Day, Spencer reminded us that he's part Irish. He asked me if he looked Irish because a lot of people have been asking him if he's Irish. He also showed me that he sometimes has a little hoppity hop in his step -isn't that Irish too?



We found Sammy squatting in the corner. I asked him if he'd like to go get on the potty to poop. No thanks he said. But you're such a big boy I reminded him. "Not big enough!"