Do people even blog anymore?

I haven't posted for a long time so I thought I'd update a little bit.

Jared- Just bought a small CPA/tax firm in Roy,UT. Look for their page on facebook: Stone & Company (formerly K R Colby & Associates). He is still doing some consulting work for Meridian (the Burger King people) but was pretty unhappy there with all the changes and problems they were having and is excited for this new adventure. He's been putting some time into the lawn now that we've got the sprinkler system all fixed and I have to say, I'm really happy with his efforts there to get out of his comfort zone a little. I know he hates yard work but I'm hoping as it starts to look a lot better he'll be able to enjoy it. He already bought a small grill for the back patio and has made us some delicious hamburgers and hotdogs along with tasty s'mores. The kids wanted a fire pit so it's a compromise, this grill doubles as a portable fire pit if you switch the top parts out.

Amy (that's me!)- I'm working for Two Rivers High School in Ogden. I started looking for a part-time job when Jessica turned seven and it took me a while and a whole lot of job applications to find something. This job has been perfect for me. I work with the teen parent program and for most of the school day I help run a small daycare for the babies of the teenage parents. Our goal is to help the teens to get their high school diploma and find resources to help them achieve better things for themselves and their family. We had a lot of graduates this year and I'm seriously going to miss those babies and their moms and dads.
I've also been working on the yard. I've removed a few bushes, cleaned up flowerbeds, pulled a million weeds out of the lawn and replanted some bits of sod from here to there, dug up sprinkler heads, and generally tried to figure out what the heck I'm doing. I've got a whole bunch of how to videos saved to my Pinterest board which I've name R U a Weed? For a city kid who grew up in apartments and seems to have a black thumb with indoor plants I feel like I'm making progress with the yard.
I still read a lot. Check out my Goodreads for where I'm at with that.
I play Roblox with my kids sometimes. I've gotten really good at Work at a Pizza Place and this weekend they talked me into playing Battle Royale Simulator which seems to have very little point but there are piñata llamas, it doesn't seem to be fair, and everyone dies, so it's pretty much like life.

Krista- Just finished her second year at the University of Utah. She made the dean's list. She's got a couple of really good scholarships. She's still majoring in Business. She just moved to a little studio apartment in Salt Lake, this time with no roommates. She works at the PF Changs in Salt Lake. She's dating Ben. She's into running these days and still does some dancing but you would have to ask her about her thoughts and plans in that area.

Kylie- She'll be a Junior at Weber High in the fall. She keeps a solid 4.0 while working two jobs and dancing five or six days a week. She's got plans and goals and is doing awesome. She works as an assistant dance teacher at Julie Moffit Ballet School and was just promoted at the Burger King where she's worked for a couple of years now. She's in the future educators program at Weber High and is planning on going into teaching. I think currently she's thinking elementary school. She's got a great group of friends and lots of opinions on everything.

April- 8th grade in the fall. She's still my quiet one unless she's yelling at her younger siblings who interfere with her quiet time. She's been the best at social distancing during Covid 19. She spent most of her time in her room watching TV and chatting with her friends online. She would come up for food and drinks and to do her laundry. She's the first of my children to pass me in height. She enjoys basketball and has played with the Young Women in the basketball games at church. She'd like to play on the Junior High team. She's started a couple of murals on the walls in her bedroom and got a henna tattoo on her arm this weekend. She's very creative.

Andrew- 6th grade in the fall. Still learning Chinese. Loves to dance. He's into ocean things and currently wants to be a marine biologist when he grows up. We redid his room with some ocean decor. He loves playing games online with his friends. He's super skinny and he's growing like a weed.

Jessica- 5th grade in the fall. She's still my cheerful chatterbox. She's funny and smart and snarky with overflowing amounts of energy. She dances and did Nutcracker for the first time this last December and did really well. She likes to play games online and watch random Youtube channels about people with quintuplets and people who take strange food test challenges. She's interested in everything and bounces through life with a spark of happy enthusiasm. She's also learning Chinese.

Okay people, there's the update for now.

First Day of School 2017

Jessica 2nd, Andrew 3rd, April 5th

Krista 12th (Senior Year, Woot!)

Kylie 8th

4th Grade Puppet Book Report - April

Went to Grandma for lessons on sewing and design. Look how cute they turned out!
 They look just like in the book.

Krista - Sweethearts Dance at WHS

Sledding Weather

 

April lasted the longest

The Nutcracker Ballet

Pre performance ozone layer depletion.  But that hair was fancy and firmly in place.

















Pictures from the performance.  Taken with my little camera in a dark room with no flash so I did pretty well.

Krista as the Arabian princess

Kylie as one of the snowflakes

Kylie in snowflake costume

Krista (center) with the Arabian dancers

Krista (center) in the waltz of the flowers)

Jessica ate a quarter

Here's Jessica and her x-ray at Primary Childrens in Salt Lake City.
She was lethargic and pale and pretty uncomfortable.





And here she is after the procedure, back to her busy happy self.

Halloween

April as a witch

  

Jessica as a super hero

  

Andrew as Batman

First Day of School 2015

Jessica - Kindergarten - Ms Koer

April - 3rd Grade - Ms Harp

Andrew - 1st Grade Chinese Immersion - Ms Booth and Ms Liang

Kylie - 6th Grade - Ms Wallace

Krista - Sophomore at Weber High

April's baptism

Very proud of my little girl.   

Andrew - Kindergarten Graduate

Andrew and Ms Law

With his diploma

I asked him to stand in front of the A Parley Bates School sign, this was the pose he struck.

New Year new posting

So this time of year always gets me thinking about all the things I'm not getting done.  Ugh.  What's up with that?  Why can't the new year be about happy stuff?
Anyway, so I haven't kept up the blog very well.  Might have something to do with the five children, husband, house, church assignments, carpools, reading list, yard, extended family, etc.
I also didn't write a Christmas letter this year.  Same reasons as above.  I'm thinking maybe a nice Valentine's Day letter might be doable.  I'll have to get right on that...

Some of you might actually check on what I've posted lately (although don't worry if you're behind on reading your friend's blogs, so am I) so here are a few pictures and things:

Krista turned 14 on the 22nd of August.
She dances.
This shot is titled Dancing With Dinosaur.

Andrew's first day of Kindergarten was a week later than the other kid's first day of school.
 Yes, this picture is so much awesome.  Those abs with those legs... quite the thing.

Kylie turned 11 in September, those pictures must be on my husband's phone...

Have to run the kids to dance class now so I'll try to post again later.

Andrew turns 6

One of the things Andrew was looking forward to the most was being able to take a treat in to share with his Kindergarten class on his birthday.  He chose Ring Pops.  Love this happy, generous, smart, funny little guy!

Halloween 2014

Jessica - Elsa from Frozen

Andrew - Batman

Andrew - Indian (no masks at school so he wore this for the parade)

 April - BYU cheerleader

 Krista - robber

Kylie dressed up in one of her dance costumes and a red cape as Little Red Riding hood and looked gorgeous but didn't give me a chance to get a picture.

First Day of School

Jessica Is 4!

This year, happiness is a Barbie with an ORANGE dress.

She wanted Mickey and Minnie on her cake.

Family Picture

We were asked to bring a family picture to church for the bulletin board.

I think we took a dozen or so.

This was one of the best.

You'll notice almost everyone is paying attention and smiling.

The kids are calling the fuzzy guy in the background "Fred".

Cartoonist Sighting

Cartoonist Cal Grondahl at the Hill Aerospace Museum.

He also has coloring pages at the Dinosaur Museum.

Very interesting man to talk to.

Tooth Fairy Time for Andrew

Orem Library Puppet Theate

If you get a chance, take some children and go play with the adorable puppet theater at the Orem Public Library.  I say take the children only because playing with the puppets all by myself was getting me some funny looks.

Theater with convenient puppet storage.

A parrot wearing a Jessica.

A snake wearing an Andrew.  Notice the matching tongue action.