We'll miss you Elder Hales!!!

Our weekend was busy. Rob ended up not having to work the catering job on Saturday because they moved the job to Sunday (he doesn't work Sundays), so we sent him off to Buffalo Wild Wings to watch the UFC that afternoon instead. We (everyone stayed in the car except for Rob) went to the farm to get our milk in the morning before he left and we brought a load of stuff to donate to a nearby charity. We (the kids stayed in the car with Rob) checked out the thrift stores near us for a couple of things I am looking for to complete the library (3 round pillows for pillow covers that I have, a floor lamp, and two frames) and although we didn't find anything on the list, we found a mini recliner for the kids that is in near perfect condition and was really cheap! The library isn't completely done yet - there are still a few pictures to be hung over the couch - but it's so close that I took pictures anyway :)

Yesterday we ended up missing church because Megan had a fever still and Kylie had a stomach bug. Sometimes it feels like we always have someone sick, but I guess with four kids five and under, it's kind of like a daycare and daycares always have someone sick. Hopefully once they start to get older, we won't have as many illnesses.

Last night we figured out that the a/c wasn't working, so Rob ran over to our friends' house to pick up our window unit (we had lent it to them when their a/c was on the fritz and hadn't gone over to get it yet) and we all slept in our bedroom. This morning I called a company run by people who used to go to our church until the congregation got too big and was split into two congregations. They were over in less than 30 mins and had it fixed in another 30 mins. Apparently there was a part that needed to be replaced, but fortunately it was a small part, so it wasn't as expensive as it could have been :) Thank heavens for that! I don't know how we would have paid for thousands of dollars of work!

Saturday night we got a phone call and it was Elder Hales letting us know that he was being transferred to a different part of the mission. Elder Hales is one of the missionaries assigned to our congregation and is one of our all-time favorite missionaries. (yes, Elder Larson, you are too, but I wasn't blogging when you left!) We are really going to miss him!!! He better keep in touch with us! I'm so glad there are things like facebook because hopefully we will be able to keep in touch with more of the missionaries we become friends with. Elder Larson and Elder Hales worked together here for a few months and the combination of the two of them was one of our favorite sets of elders ever, so we really hope we stay friends with them both! Good luck in your new area Elder Hales! Come back and see us!

I love Megan because . . .

Megan's teacher put together a little memory book for each of her students. It includes a page of nice things that other students said about each child. The page starts with the phrase "I love _____ because . . . " Here are what the other students said about Megan ~
"Because she is nice to me every day" Makayla
"Because she lets me borrow her pencil" Maddison
"I like her because she lets me play with her" Braylen
"Because she is smart" Brandon
"I like her because we play with her at centers" Kyle H.
"Megan helps me with my work" Anwar
"She is my best friend every day" Paula
"Megan is pretty and a princess" Shelby
"She is a good reader like me" Cooper
"I like her because she helps me" Tyler
"Megan is very cute, but I am not going to marry her" Kyle K.
"Megan is nice and kind and once I went to her house to play" Steven (he goes to church with us)
"Because she is funny and is really good at drawing pictures and reading and she is kind to me" Ethan
"Because she is cute and smart" Trevor (Megan's "boyfriend")
"Because she is beautiful" Trevor

Megan's last day of school!

Meg

Shelby

Trevor

Cooper

Meg & Mrs. Robertson

Cooper, Keegan & Paula

Anwar & Tyler

Kaylee & Braylen

Kaylee & Maddison

Makayla, Kaylee & Braylen

Kaylee & Paula

Today was Meg's last day of school! Yesterday Christy gave us her old digital camera as it doesn't work half the time and she bought a new one, so we let Megan take that camera to school. She and her friends had lots of fun taking pictures, and I am glad that it was a digital camera because half of the pictures were of cards from card games or shoes or something like that. They had a pizza party and Megan brought her presents for all her teachers. Megan ended up feeling sick about 45 mins before school was over though, so I ended up picking her up about 15 mins before school got out. The pictures on this post are those Megan and her friends took (and one that I took this morning of her and Rob).

Another haircut - this time unplanned

Kylie got a hold of a pair of scissors this morning. (Megan brought home all her stuff from school yesterday, including her pencil box that had her scissors in it and apparently took the scissors out before putting the pencil box away.) I walked into the playroom and found a trail of hair leading to Kylie, who was hiding in the little kitchen happily cutting away. I took the scissors away, took a picture, cleaned up the hair and took Kylie into the big kitchen. She cried and cried while I cut her hair to make it even. She kept saying "don't cut all my hair off!!!" I told her I wasn't cutting all her hair off, but she cut a fair amount off, so I had to make it even. She now has a bob. It's very cute, but both Kylie and me really miss her long hair! I now don't have any girls with hair long enough to braid :( Oh, well; it will grow out eventually. Kylie cried again when she looked at her haircut in the mirror and then she sat on my lap for a few minutes crying that she didn't like it. I told her it would grow out and not to cut her own hair again. I'm glad I didn't get mad - the haircut was enough of a punishment for her. She was feeling better after a while and came up to me about an hour later, very excited because she said that her hair grew a little bit!

Other than that, it's been fairly uneventful. Megan and Rob went to Skate Town last night with Garett, Jalynn, and Jessica since it was a free night for all Hughes Elementary students. Rob said she got very proficient at skate walking :) Garett told Beca that night that Megan was very popular :) We're glad she has so many friends!

Tonight Megan and I (and maybe Kylie?) are going to Kohls to get end-of-the-year presents for her teachers since tomorrow is her last day of school! Rob's friend Dan is coming over to watch the UFC thingy on tv with Rob. That's about it for us! We are working on organizing stuff again. I have the library almost done! I'll have to take pictures when it's finished.

Just for comparison . . .

Rob (age 3)

Jack (age 9 months)

Summer haircuts! (and other pictures)

Self portrait by Kylie

Beth (taken by Kylie)

Jack playing on Mommy's lap

Kylie in the stroller (taken by Megan)

Megan being a dog (taken by Kylie)

Before 1st haircut . . .

And after!

Kylie got her hair cut too (well, all the kids got their hair cut, but Beth and Meg just got trims). She says it's a "little long".

Megan's kindergarten awards ceremony

Megan's kindergarten awards ceremony was this morning. Megan got a "trustworthy" award and a kindergarten certificate. Although they didn't hand out awards for this, Megan has never once had to "pull her clip" this year. There is a behavior ranking at school based on colors. The best is green, then yellow, orange, and red. If a child does something they shouldn't, they "pull their clip" off the color it's on and move it to the next color down. Megan has been on green for the entire school year! She is also one of the best two readers in the whole kindergarten! Her teacher has actually spoken to us about having her skip first grade because she is so far ahead of everyone else. We've decided not to have her skip first grade, but we will keep an eye on her and make sure she is being challenged. We feel so lucky that Mrs. Robertson was Meg's teacher this year because she has done such a great job of making sure that Megan moved at Meg's pace instead of everyone else's.

Christy came with us to the awards ceremony. Rob unfortunately couldn't make it - we are really looking forward to him moving into a position where the hours will be more flexible! (Hopefully that will happen sometime in July or August!) We took Meg's picture with Rob this morning just before they left for school though :)

Another exciting thing we finally got a picture of - Jack is now walking using his walker! Look out Mom! Here he comes!!!