Superior!

Matthew and Katie love piano lessons. It is only their first year and I hope the novelty doesn't wear off and they continue to love their lessons. Piano has been such a blessing for me, I want them to have a good experience too.

Since January they have been preparing two pieces each for their Spring recital and the Jr. Festival piano competition. They had their pieces SOLID. Then, as it got closer to the competition Matthew started acting really stressed out and his pieces started going downhill. We knew he was under too much pressure. So, we (Matthew, me and Jeremy, and his wonderful teacher) decided to have him pull out of the Festival and just perform at the recital. He was still PLENTY nervous the night of the recital, but he did GREAT. So did Katie. In fact, today was the Jr. Festival and she received a "SUPERIOR" which is the highest ranking!!





Video from their recital is on our youtube site.

Ephraim is a Tree City

Ephraim is an official Tree City. It has been for 13 years. I'm not sure what that means other than they have a city council person over trees. That happens to be Grandpa Cragun. (He has other responsibilities too.) It also means that on Arbor Day each year the city has to sponsor some kind of tree event. This year the event was planting trees at the new park by the fire station.

While Katie, Jeremy and I were at the Jr. Festival, the boys went with Grandpa and Grandma and Levi to the tree planting. It looked like a great event with people from a variety of walks of life participating. Here are the boys by "their tree."


I think it will be fun to watch that tree grow when we visit the park.

Space Derby & School Programs

Our big kids sure keep us busy with scouts, school, and their extra-curricular activities.

My camera ran out of batteries so I didn't get any pictures of the Jr. Genius fair. But they were cute and their project was dinosaurs. Grandma Cox did get a picture, maybe I can get a digital copy from her.

The night of the scout Space Derby, Matthew also had a class play. It was a musical. Sadly, I had to miss it because I couldn't find a babysitter and we had a couple kids, but Jeremy took pictures and video.





Around that same time, Katie had the first grade program. The multi-purpose room was so crowded (can't wait for the new school) that the boys were miserable. We tried to keep them entertained with their favorite books. I love the first grade Patriotic Program. I loved it when Matthew was in first grade and I loved it just as much the second time around. Katie looked cute with a patriotic hair do. She recited her lines perfectly!

Family Pictures

One of the things I love about Usborne is I can earn fun stuff (in addition to books and money). This October, I worked really hard to earn a free portrait shoot from Sears. I know Sears isn't the best portrait studio out there, but the price was right. I got the sitting fee, 10 sheets, 5 enhancements, and an 11x13 wall portrait for free. Here are the unedited ones. My mom is picking up the finished products as we speak. I am so excited. (We got a couple extras of Cal because he had never had a professional picture taken.)

Catch-Up

FINALLY... I have a moment to catch up on this blog. I wouldn't worry about it, but this is what I use for our family history and I believe very strongly in recording family history. So, while Jer wanders around the house spraying febreeze (in hopes of doing something about the baby barf smell) I am updating. Lots of posts follow...

How He Has Grown!

In the past two months our little Cal has gone from a sweet little thing who mostly eats and sleeps to an amazing, adored, and skilled little guy.

At his four month check up he was big... 82% on height and 64% on weight. He was also meeting all his milestones on target or early. (A huge relief because I've been worried about the time he went without oxygen during delivery.) He laughs, talks, rolls from tummy to back, and walks in his walker. He is trying so hard to crawl! He just can't quite figure out how to coordinate his arm and leg movements.

He brings us so much joy! I often tell Jer I don't think there is a more adored baby in the world. It is so fun to see his siblings interact with him. Katie and Matthew are such good babysitters. Ash frequently tells him, "Calvin I just have to give you lots of kisses 'cause I love you so much!" and this morning Will said, "Hi, Calvin. It's your big brother. You're the cutest baby! Yes you are! Wanna a kiss?"

We're so grateful he is ours forever!

p.s. Jer recorded some cute video on his phone. We posted them to our youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/jerandjill.

Secret Agent Men

What would I do without these boys and their crazy antics?

A Month of Book Fairs

Our February could basically be summed up in two words: BOOK FAIRS. It was a crazy time with 3 book fairs all needing advertising, set up, take down, close out, etc. One weekend we had 35 boxes of books delivered. That is a lot!... Like $17,000 in books. Our poor UPS guy.

Jer and the kids were troopers. Especially, Will, Ash, and Cal who spent A LOT of time traveling from one set up to another. It is a good thing these boys like road trips!

The awesome thing was two of the book fairs were tied to a Reach for the Stars!! reading incentive program that rewards kids for reading. We have received so many "thank yous" and success stories from students, parents and teachers at the those schools. It is an amazing feeling being able to help kids discover the joy of reading and become better readers.

Superbrothers!

Playing House

One day Katie amused us by putting Ashton and Will in Calvin's diapers and telling them to get into Calvin's crib where she read them stories. Hahaha!

Usborne Regional Training

Usborne Regional Training is always one of my January highlights. I get to hang out with wonderful Usborne ladies, be inspired, and connect with the business builders on my team. This year was a bit more challenging because I also had Calvin to worry about. Thankfully, Stacie and Steve watched him most of the time and shuttled him back and forth from Stacie's house to the Provo library where Regionals was held. I could not have survived with weekend without them!

Reflections... again!

Also, in January we learned that Katie's poem on beauty won first place in Region reflections. This was quite the honor because she was competing against k-2nd graders from two school districts. We are so proud of her!

Our Actress

Katie had a part in her class play. She told us she was one of four main parts, that the play was super cute, etc., but then we started hearing from the director and her teacher that she was an amazing little actress. When we went to watch it we were dumbfounded. She IS an amazing little actress. She was in character, she projected, she was believable in her role as a naughty little frog. So, now we aren't quite sure what to do with this info. Should we have her audition for stuff? Should we wait until she is in high school and see if she is still interested in drama? Seriously, she was freakishly good. We could not get over it for a few days.

Makes me wonder... What other "hidden" talents do our children posses that we haven't had the opportunity to discover?

Grandma's Birthday Party

Way back in January, Grandma Cox wanted to have a birthday party where her grandchildren played the types of games she played when she was little. The kids had a great time helping Grandma with the cake, playing pin the tail on the donkey, London Bridges, and just being with their cousins.

When You Are the Mom...

When you are the mom being sick is THE WORST! Seriously... it is so difficult. Life goes on for everyone else and so moms just can't get the rest we need to get better. So illnesses seem to drag on and the house gets more messy...

I don't remember my mom ever being sick when I was a kid. I remember when she had morning sickness, but I don't remember colds, flu, etc. So, I have to wonder did she have an amazing immune system that managed to ward off all the germs that SEVEN children brought home? Or, did she just handle it so well I can't remember it? I'm pretty sure my kids are going to remember my sicknesses. I just hope they don't carry permanent damage from the way our house gets, the food they eat, they way they have to take care of each other, or the way they have to search for clean clothes when I get sick.