All three of the older girls in braces at the same time!  Jordynn and Ashtyn got theirs on within hours of each other on June 26th, 2014!  Kaylee had hers already (Nov. 14, 2013) Fun times! 

A picture of the girls and Daddy at Six Flags Magic Mountain during the summer of 2013.

 

 

Jordynn

BEAUTIFUL Jordynn - Mormon PROM , April 12, 2014 (age 16).

She was stunning.  She had a fun time at the PROM and went to Cold Stone afterwards with her friends, Sina Paletua and Elena Martinez (below). 

At Cold Stone (Turlock) after the PROM.  What a great bunch of kids!

James Iongi, Edvid Gassant, Daniel Kelepi, Sina Paletua, Jordynn, Elena Martinez

 

 

 

Kaylee

 Kaylee participated in the CSMEA Concert at MJC on

January 25, 2014.  She played beautifully.  She was 9th chair. 

 Grandma Bunker was able to come out and visit us during this time.  She was glad to be a part of

watching Kaylee perform during this special event.

 

She also got to watch one of Jordynn's basketball games, watch Kaylee play the violin in the Ward Talent Show, attend the girl's "Young Women in Excellence" program

and visit the McHenry Museum. 

 

Kaylee also participated in Gymfest for the 2nd time on May 2-4, 2014. 

She did very well, considering they put her on the "Gold Team" within her Exhibition Team

and they were asked to perform in a more competitive style.

 

We're back!

Wow, it's been WAY too long since I've posted anything on here.  But we are back with our

 

 "First Day of School"

pictures for the

2012/2013 school year:

 

 

Jordynn - Sophomore Year



Jordynn - Grade 10 (age 15)
Patterson High School

Kaylee - Grade 6 (age 11)

Creekside Middle School

Ashtyn - Grade 5 (age 10)
Apricot Valley Elementary



Miley- Kindergarten (age 4)
Apricot Valley Elementary



 

 

My Valedictorian Honor Student

I'm a little late posting this blog (wow-I never thought creating a blog was as much work as it is for me)...
In fact, I accidentally posted this on my OTHER blog (http://http//theartistinme-patti.blogspot.com/)

and just realized the mistake.  So, some of you may have already seen this, but if you haven't, let me share! :)

So, JORDYNN Graduated 8th grade with HONORS! 

Jordynn finished at the top of her 8th grade class (over 300 students) and was 1 of 3 Valedictorians. She gave a great speech at her graduation.

Here are some great photos taken from her graduation. These were taken by "Photo Unique". 


                      Taking in the moment during her speech



Walking up to give her speech.

                           Giving her Valedictorian Speech

                                         With her Principal

Here are a few more taken by her proud Grandpa:

I love this one- She is walking up to give her speech and a portion of her classmates are clapping for her as she walks up the aisle. (Click on the picture to see a close-up view)

This is the award they gave the 3 Valedictorians (the school mascot is a panther).

GO JORDYNN! CONGRATULATIONS!

Time Out for Women

In April, my good friend (Alisa) and I were able to attend the Time Out For Women conference in Fresno, CA. 

It was awesome, of course.
  I got to meet and visit with one of my favorite people-
Mary Ellen Edmunds.  She was one of the directors in the M.T.C. when I was there (back in 1992). 
 I am currently reading one of her books. 
I didn't think to bring it with me so she could sign it, but oh well.  I got my picture with her instead.  She's awesome! 

We heard other great speakers and had an absolutely fabulous weekend. 

For those of you who have never been, LDS or not,
you need to go!  It's worth the while. 

They tour every year, across the nation. 

Here is the link if you want to check it out:  http://deseretbook.com/timeout


Mary Ellen Edmunds (MEE) and I.
April, 2011




Me and my pal, Alisa at the TOFW conference.





Graduation - Jordynn

Let's talk about JORDYNN!

It's that time again when the school year is coming to an end.  Field trips are crammed in the last few weeks, speaking presentations, science projects....
This year we get to add one more big event to the list - 8th GRADE GRADUATION (or "Promotion")!

JORDYNN graduates on Wednesday, June 1st.  She has held a 4.0gpa every school year she has ever attended.  I know, I know - elementary school doesn't give letter grades or a cumulative gpa, but she received all the highest marks, so I figure it's the same thing! :)  So anyway, as you can see, I'm already a very proud mama.  Jordynn has also been a part of the 
A-Team (which means she has all A's) and has helped tutor other students, she was in Honors Science, Honors Geometry, and Honors Language Arts, (and at the top of those classes).  Jordynn was chosen by her coaches to be the co-captain of her Varsity basketball team.  Jordynn was also nominated by the entire school as the girl "Most Likely To Succeed". 


Jordynn is my child who sits in Sacrament meeting at church and writes out geometry and alebraic equations, then figures them out.  She talks about the formulas as if it was common sense to everybody.   

Besides avidly watching every NBA play-off game lately, she has also been into drawing.  She recently drew a picture of Derrick Rose (NBA MVP and  Chicago Bulls player).  A friend from school is currently paying her to draw a picture of himself with Derrick Rose. 

As you can see, we are very proud of Jordynn and her accomplishments.  She's a pretty good kid, is extremely smart, and has many great talents as well.  Great job Jordynn! :)  We love you!

So this is what the big guy does

while he's not at home...

Self Portraits

Give a 3 year old a camera, and this is what you get! 

Gotta love Miley! 



 



VICE PRESIDENT In the House!

Let me introduce the VICE PRESIDENT of 4th Grade!
She was up against a lot of competition, she passed the interview process and went on to win the election. 
She is....

           KAYLEE SCHEULLER!

********************************************************************

My Gymnast, Kaylee!

Gotta love these two pictures of her doing her crazy stuff!  Just had to share!

Just click on the photo for a closer-up view!

My pretty little girls

Miley - Princess

I told here we were going to the grocery store.  She insisted

on dressing up for it.  Not what I would wear to the store, but

she definitely got all the compliments.  Of course, that was only

 before and after she threw a big fit and cried really loud.

After that, she was a little princess again.

Ashtyn - 3rd grade

After school on picture day.  The girl actually let me pull her bangs back and curl her hair!  Whoa!  Definitely news worthy!

FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL -
Aug. 12th, 2010

Poor Jordynn- HATES pictures.  And, first day of school was also portrait  day.  Evil mom made her curl her hair, and told her to think of something funny and show her teeth when the photographer takes the picture.  This forced smile she has here just doesn't do my beautiful daughter justice.  
Can you say T-E-E-N-A-G-E-R??  Gotta love the girl though!  And I do.  I love my "JoJo".  Look out 8th GRADE- here she comes!

My sweet Kaylee- -already in the 4th grade.  Where does time go?  Kaylee gets to have her first MAN grade-school teacher.  So far (almost a week into school now) she is happy with him.  She also just joined the school music program and will be learning to play the VIOLIN!  She's so excited for this. 
Go Kaylee! 


And then there's Ashtyn.  3rd grade already.  New classmates, new teacher, all the questions and unknown territories to cover.  Wow- it's going to be a big year.  Ashtyn has gone from not wanting to pull her back in any way, and not allowing me to touch it at all, to wanting me to put it in a "high pony tail" every day.  She has discovered that having longer hair now can actually be fun to pull back.  It's amazing the things a 3rd grader can learn! 

Of course we know that MILEY is not old enough for school, but she does get her backpack full of books and toys and asks me to take her to school anyway.   I do pack her lunches sometimes so she can take it with us when we go run errands.  This satisfies her for now.  I will say that she does plenty of learning while she watches Barney ON DEMAND (Comcast).  She has also started taking gymnastics on Friday mornings and that is quite the sight to see.  The girl is strong, I'll say that much.  Her teacher of course loves her to death.  She's a little firecracker, that's for sure.  The best thing about watching her during class is seeing the huge, beaming smile she has on her face, non-stop.  Love that girl!

Summer Vacation July 2010

We just returned home from a 2 week vacation. We had such a great time. It was hard to come back. We spent time in Vegas (Nevada), Utah, and Idaho. We even hit Arizona, Montana, and Wyoming (Yellowstone).

Here are a few classics of our fishing trips spent at the greatest place in the world- our cabin in Idaho! This was Miley's first visit up there. She had a lot of fun and picked up the fishing thing right away.

***********************************************************************************************

Bret and his brother hiked to the top of Mount Timpanogos in Utah. It was definitely a full day's task. It was an amazing and beautiful hike. They were feet away from mountain goats. They had to hike up a glacier and the best way back down was to slide down on their bottoms. Way, way down! They had a great time together, making for another memorable "Bret and Bart Adventure". Good job guys. Glad they came home safe and no one was bleeding or broken!

MORE PICTURES and stories to come later.....

A quick Sunday afternoon project

I've been needing to make more birthday cards to have on hand for those birthdays that just kind of sneak up on you. So, I sat down on Sunday afternoon and whipped these up.
I needed to be quick, so I found these cute pre-cut flowers ready to assemble,
stamped a birthday message and a stem, applied the flowers, added some ribbon and
Vio la! These will hold me over for at least next month. :)

Tootsie Roll piggy banks

As many of you know, my big creative question is: Before I throw it out, can I apply paper on it or paint over it?!?!? So, before I decided to throw out these cute tootsie roll containers/ party favors my daughters received from a birthday party (btw, "Thanks, Aunt Kelli"), I decided to cover them with paper and a bit of ribbon, then applied Mod Podge. Still can be a piggy bank, or another candy holder, or I can make it a cute pencil/pen holder for a teacher gift. I'm actually not quite done embellishing these, but it's a very simple project that anyone can do. Just thought I'd share!

Have a fun, creative day! :)

Ashtyn's Carnival Style Birthday Party

For Ashtyn's 8th birthday, we had carnival games, popcorn machine, ticket redemption booth, and more! Here are a few of the home made cardboard activities that I made. Ashtyn begged for a picture cut out. I wasn't too sure about doing it. Once I did, I was glad. The party turned out fun. The kids enjoyed their prizes, the cake, the corn dogs, the popcorn, the cotton candy, and all the games. HAPPY 8th Birthday, ASHTYN!

Balls had to land on a circle with a star. This was a tricky, but fun game.

Ashtyn modeled in each of the photos while her friends took turns being the clown.
The photos are part of the thank you cards Ashtyn is sending out.

Depending on what # you landed on, determined a small prize you could win.

The basic bean bag toss game earned 1,2, 3 or 4 tickets.

Other games included a ring toss on soda pop glass bottles, rolling pennies on a Twister mat to land in the middle, fishing pond, mini basketball toss, and guess the # of gumballs in the jar. FUN FUN!