Nov 30, 2014

Baptism of Megan Julia Dick November 29, 2014 Pianist: Mary Mateski Chorister: Caelan Dick (sister) Welcome: Bishop Pearce Opening Song: When I Am Baptized Opening Prayer: Corbin Sorensen (uncle) Talk on Baptism: Linda Dick (Grandma) Baptism of Megan performed by her Dad. Special Musical Number: If the Savior Stood Beside me sung by the Dick kids, accompanied by Mary Mateski Talk on the Holy Ghost: Andrea Sorensen (Grandma) Confirmation of Megan performed by her Dad. Words from the Primary: Becky Nelson Welcome to the Ward: Bishop Pearce Closing Song: I Love to See the Temple Closing Prayer: Ben Dick (brother) Refreshments provided Megan had a very special baptism day. Grandpa and Grandma Sorensen as well as Corbin and Jesse were in town for Thanksgiving and then the baptism. Grandpa and Grandma Dick came for the special day as well. Her baptism was at 10 in the morning. We made sure there were jumpsuits (in the right size) the day before, and Dad went to get the font filled up, so everything went without any problem. We had muffins and sweet bread and fruit for refreshments. Megan was smiling the whole day. And she stayed perfectly perfect that entire day. A few of her friends were out of town for the holidays, but there were lots of people from the ward there to support her. It was a wonderful day, with a great spirit. She told me earlier that week that she was a little nervous, but everything went perfect and she was thrilled. I'm so proud of her for making this important decision to be baptized and to make this big step on the path to return to our Heavenly Father. She got her own set of scriptures (from us), she got a homemade scripture case from Grandma Sorensen and she got a special Holy Ghost book from Grandpa and Grandma Dick.

Nov 8, 2014

Happy 8th Birthday MegAnna! She had a simple birthday celebration (we knew we would have more celebrating later in the month with her baptism, so we just had a regular family party). She got a Barbie Christmas DVD, a big eyed cat stuffed animal, Ariel and Eric barbie dolls, a purse with nail polished and nail stickers, birthday money and a few other little gifts. She asked for Unicorn and pony cake, so I made a round layered cake with My Little Ponies on top. She was satisfied! She asked for Pasta Salad for dinner (the pasta salad with meat, cheese, peas, tomatoes and ranch dressing). Dad had a bunch of left over hamburgers from a work barbeque, so he brought those home and we had both. We did dinner and presents early so that Dad could take the kids to their 4-H meeting that night. I had a Relief Society thing to be at, so we didn't end up doing her cake until the next day. Megan is a joy to have in our home. She is a great helper. She is our best cleaner. She can definitely make her share of messes, but she is very good about cleaning things up too. She will often volunteer to clean the girls bedroom by herself. She loves to surprise my by cleaning her room or one of the other rooms in the house and then have me go in with my eyes closed and open them to see how clean it is. She is an animal lover - all kinds of animals. Sometimes she loves them almost a little too much, but you get the feeling from all our pets that they know who to go to for lovin.' She is a people pleaser. She loves to do things that make people happy. Which also means she is a good student. She likes to be the helper in her class and stay on task to please her teachers. She is super social - she can and does make friends with people of all types: old, young, boys, girls, etc. And she is a hugger, so all her friends get all sorts of hugs from her too. She is strong willed, which is most instances is really great. Occasionally she'll decide to be strong willed about something that isn't the best, which can sometimes get her into a little trouble, but I figure that is going to be a great trait to get her through her teenage years in the world these days. She loves to watch movies, play barbies, swim, play on the trampoline, play with stuffed animals, read books at night in bed, etc. Megan is very compassionate and lovable. She will give in to her siblings if she can tell they really want something. She likes to do hair, and she is getting pretty good at trying out her own made up hairstyles. She is pretty pleased when I let her do her own hair. She used to be a skirt wearing girl (every single day), but since the new school year has started she has enjoyed wearing pants. Megan has a sweet spirit that lights up the room. We love her to pieces.

Nov 1, 2014

Our 2014 Halloween festivities included a trip to a trailer park in Moriarty (trick or treating from trailer to trailer) where the kids also went through the haunted house by themselves. They were pretty proud of themselves. Then we stopped at a couple of houses on our street and then headed to some friend's house (the Free's)for hot chocolate and homemade donuts and hanging out by the fire. The kids had fun playing together. It was nice to only have one day of dressing up and parties this year. Megan borrowed a witch costume from a friend of ours, so that costume was easy peasy. Megan went with her best friend, Presley, to Rt 66 Elementary School Fall Festival the week before where she dressed up. She won one of the carnival games and got a whole 2 liter bottle of soda for herself. She was super excited about that.

Oct 30, 2014

Megan got her first report card of the year. She was struggling a little in spelling on the Progress Report (she had a 76%). She got her report card with all A's and one B in spelling (which she brought up to an 89%). The kids get paid for the A's that they get, and they get a bonus $5 if they get straight A's. She didn't the full $5 bonus, but she did get a $2.50 bonus for such a great improvement in that particular grade. She earned $27.50 in all. Great job Meg!

Oct 9, 2014

Our Balloon Fiesta experience was a little low key this year, but we still made it. It's the 5th year in a row that we have gone to at least watch the mass ascension. We weren't motivated enough to get up super early to get right down on the field, but we found a nice dirt lot with a good view and we watched them take off from there. The kids found their usual spot on top of the car to see the balloons. We stopped at Blake's Lotabuger afterwards for breakfast burritos.

Oct 5, 2014

We had a Sunday with nothing planned once we got home from church, so we decided to take a little drive up Sandia Peak. We wanted to see if there were any fall colors left up there. There were some. We drove all the way to the peak and took a little hike down along the peak trail (not too long, just a little walk). It was beautiful and fun to be together as a family.

Aug 20, 2014

First Day of School. Megan started the second grade at Estancia Valley Classical Academy. She has Mrs. Droege, who we hear tons of good things about. She is especially excited this year to have her siblings back at school with her again.

August 6, 2014

We just completed another great summer trip extravaganza! We managed to fit in three separate family reunions, a trip to Yellowstone and a stop to visit family. The trip started out a little rocky. We got off just fine, the car was working like a champ, we left early enough (I was running a half marathon the next morning in Utah, so we were hoping to get there by early evening, and we were well on our way). Along the way the kids made a couple comments about Austin looking funny. I looked in my rear view mirror and he seemed fine. When I stopped in Moab for gas and saw him close up I immediately noticed that something was not right. His face was swelling up between his two eyes (making his eyes squinty). He had fallen a week earlier when we were camping in Santa Fe and got a good little owie on his forehead. We cleaned it out and it seemed to be fine. That morning Austin fell and started crying. I noticed he had opened his sore up again, but I didn't think anything of it. Well, now it definitely seemed to be getting infected. I called to see if we could get into a doctor's office or urgent care, but there was seriously NOTHING in Moab. I called the next city and they had one possibility. She would call me if they had a cancellation, so I just kept driving. I didn't hear from her as I passed through the city so at that point I was hoping I could get to Spanish Fork, where I knew there would be Urgent Cares. We pulled into Brittney and Porter's at around 5, and then I immediately left with Austin to the Urgent Care. The doctor looked it over and thought it best to try and open it up with a scalpel and then see if he could squeeze any infection out. Austin was amazing. I couldn't believe it: a shot right in the sore, then cutting it open, then squeezing it, and he really only flinched once or twice. He sent me to get a prescription for antibiotics to hopefully clear it up. He said if it didn't clear up in the next day or so I would have to take him to an emergency room. We went to get the medicine and there were complications with the prescription he had written. We didn't get back to Brittney's until close to 10. I tried to go right to bed since I had to get up at the crack of dawn the next morning. We got his medicine the next day and he cleared up nicely. Anyway, after that silliness, the rest of the trip went great. The first Reunion was at Priest Lake in Northern Idaho. We spent a night at Chad and Charity's and then headed up for the next leg. We slept in the ca one night and then had only a short drive the next morning. We were actually the first ones to show up at that reunion. Some of the fun things included: huckleberry picking, natural rock water slide (which actually ended in quite the emergency. Britnie slid straight into a log and really messed up her leg. All the men, along with EMT's and others on the trail had to help get her out - over a mile. Charity and Chad and I hiked out with 8 little kiddos. It was an adventure), playing at our own personal lake shore, taking rides in the boat, getting ice cream, playing around the fire at night, etc. We camped in a tent. There was also a room with beds, so one night the kids slept in there with Grandpa and Grandma. After that reunion we drove over to Yellowstone with Grandpa and Grandma Sorensen. We met Scott and Shelley Morris and their kids there. We went to church at the little service there in the park. We saw buffalo and two bears and elk and deer. We hiked and got rained on and played at the hot springs. We packed up and left before everyone else, who were going to stay an extra night. That night it poured and poured and poured, so they packed it up and left too. We headed over to Garrett and Melanie's house. We went and saw Garrett and Caleb and Genevieve perform in "Shrek, the Musical." Garrett was Shrek, Caleb was Lord Farquad and Genevieve was the big head in the city. It was so fun, and they were quite the performers. We packed up once again and headed down to Provo. The next reunion was the Sorensen reunion. We stayed at Timp Lodge in Provo canyon. We actually set up a tent on the grass field. The lodge was huge and awesome to accommodate all of us. We hiked to Stewart Falls (where Nathan got a tick in his head...I had to scrape that sucker out). The kids floated down the Provo river with Dad and most of the family. We played games, we ate yummy food, we had fun nightly activities. We left a day early to get down to Duck Creek for our last reunion. I picked up Sean late on Wednesday night (the first night of the reunion). It was nice to be all together again. On our way down to Southern Utah, we got a flat tire on the trailer (the only vehicle hiccup of the whole journey), but we made it down there. We played on quads, the kids made forts, we went to church and spent time as a family. It was great to just be together. Then we made our way home. It was an eventful and full vacation.

Aug 2, 2014

Megan and Caelan and Ben joined the swim team this year. The only requirement to join is that you can swim all the way across the pool. Megan just barely learned to swim well enough to do that at the end of last summer season, and we haven't swam much since then. We took all the kids to the pool before tryouts just so we could try it out. And she could do it there. The first day of practice her coach had all the kids go across the pool. Megan was hesitant and acting nervous. Her teacher actually came up to me and said that she really needed to be able to swim across the pool. I told her we had just gone a few days earlier and that she did it. I was okay if it wasn't going to work out, but I wanted Megan to try it out for the day and see how it went. I talked to Megan and told her just to do what we did as a family and not to worry about going fast and being perfect, but just getting across the pool. I told her I knew she could do it. She went back in to finish out the practice. And she did great. I talked to her coach again afterwards and she said, "Oh yeah, she did great. She can totally do it. She must have just been nervous." So, the first meet came and Megan wasn't so sure about competing. I told her just get in and swim and if you finish the race you get a ribbon. She got in for the 25 M freestyle and she won first place in her heat. It totally gave her confidence to do some other races. It was her only first place ribbon of the season, but it was pretty great that it happened on her very first race. She got several 2nd place ribbons and 3rd as well as all the other places too. Towards the end of the season she would compete in every race that she was able to: 25 M free style, 25 M back stroke, 100 M free style relay, 25 M breast. It was a fun season. I thought it would be difficult to get into town to the pool every morning by 7:50, but the kids were excited and happy to get up and get going every day. Megan also played water polo. She wasn't as excited about this, and sometimes during water polo practice she would spend an extra long time in the shower and miss most of it, but she finished out the season doing it most days. Their team lost more games than they won, but there were a lot of beginners, and they had fun. Megan really improved throughout the season on her skills and her confidence. We're excited to do it again next summer.

July 7, 2014

For the 4th of July we went up to Hyde State Park right outside of Santa Fe for three days of camping fun. We went with some friends of ours, the Fabers. They have a girl, Merle, that is good friends with Megan. And they have two younger boys, Tyce and Kellen, who like to play with Nathan and Austin. They went up earlier to find campsites. We had a little rain the first night we got there - we were starting to wonder if this was going to be wet camping, but it cleared up and was nice. The campsite had little hard top pavilions at each site with a picnic table in there, so we could hang out in there and prepare food. There was a playground just down the hill from our sites that the kids loved to run and play at. We went on a fun little hike one of the days. It wasn't too long (maybe around 2 miles) and once we got to the end of the trail, the kids and men got to hike up some rocks up to the top of a mountain. The Fabers brought their two dogs and one of the dogs tried and tried and tried to get up those rocks, but just kept slipping down. That night we drove down the hill into Santa Fe to see a firework show. The kids climbed up onto the top of the Excursion for a good view. It was a fun time - close by, fun with friends, yummy food, beautiful surroundings and just a nice time getting away.

June 1, 2014

We have three bedrooms plus a loft that we use as a bedroom. We have a set of bunk beds, a queen bed, a full sized bed and a toddler bed (not to mention the king size bed that Dad and I sleep on), and yet come summer time this is pretty much how the kids sleep every night. They love to sleep together in the same room. Sometimes there are disagreements about who gets the bed, but they are usually pretty good about working it all out. And most of the time they really don't mind sleeping on the floor as long as they can sleep together.

May 1, 2014

Does this little puppy look familiar? Yep, that's because it's the same puppy that was at the baseball fields a couple of weeks ago. That same litter was there the next week when we were there for baseball games. All the kids begged and pleaded: "We'll pay for it, we'll take care if it, we'll feed it." They were pretty determined. It didn't help that the owner said they could buy if for $100 instead of $150 (since they were paying themselves). I told them I didn't want them to make an impulsive decision right then, so we would wait until Thursday of the next week, and I would call the owner then to see if they had any left. I was secretly hoping that they would all be taken by then, or that the kids would forget within 5 days. Oh no, Thursday came and the first thing Megan said to me when she got up that morning was, "Can you call about the dogs today." So when Dad got home that evening we called and sure enough they still had puppies (and they even had the one Megan and Nathan had been eyeing). The kids pooled their money together and we went and picked up the newest member of our family. The kids named her Molly. She is pretty cute. And she is certainly loved.

April 16, 2014

Dad and the kids were at the baseball fields for the boys' games (I couldn't be there that morning). There was a litter of puppies there that the owners were trying to sell. Our kids were smitten immediately.....especially Megan. She basically hung out there with the dogs the whole time they were there. She asked Dad about getting one (more than once), but they managed to get home without one. Phew.

April 11, 2014

During one of the days of Spring Break we went with the Bucks (and the Andersons) to Tent Rocks. It was a great little hike through tent rock formations and through one of the only slot canyons in New Mexico. We hiked to the top of the lookout, which was a little scary with as many kids as we had (pretty steep sides down), but everyone made it back in one piece. The last part of the hike was a good uphill walk, but all the kids did great - hiking like champions. There was even a little cave on the backside of the path down that we peeked inside of. Afterwards we went over to Cochiti Lake. We had to hike way down to the lake because the parking lot next to the wading area wasn't open yet, but the kids were brave enough to get in the water. I think they were pretty warm from hiking. We had lunch and packed it up and headed home.

March 10, 2014

The Daddy Daughter Dance at Rt 66 was held about a week after we switched Megan over to the charter school. I was hesitant at first to let her go (in fact, I told her she wouldn't be able to because they have a rule that only girls that go to the school can attend), but after talking to a handful of Moms on the PTO (and having Megan ask Dr. Harrison, the principal, herself) we decided it would be fine. I was in charge of the dance, so I did the decorations and treats. They had a candy bar, so the girls got to go and fill up their bags with candy. The theme was masquerade, so the girls had masks that they brought. There was a big mask archway to enter through when you first got there. There were purple lights and purple and gold and black balloons and other decorations. It looked great. Dad took Jordin, a friend of ours whose Dad was stationed away in the army for the year. The girls had a blast. Like last year Megan was done after about the first hour, but she stayed as long as the others wanted to. She loved to dance on Dad's feet and twirl around. She had fun finding her friends and playing with them as well. They all went to Pizza Barn beforehand. Megan and Caelan went to spend the night at Jordin (and Rylee's) house afterwards.

March 1, 2014

There is a charter school that opened up a year and a half ago. I went to the initial meetings, but for a few different reasons I didn't feel the need to move the kids over. This year however, I've been thinking about it more and more. Our district is closing two elementary schools for the next school year for budget reasons (the two schools closest to the charter school location). I started to worry that if I wanted my kids to get into the charter school next year it was all of a sudden going to get harder to because there may be lots of other families wanting to try and get in with the school closures. So, I asked any of the kids if they would want to move now (half way through the current school year). Megan volunteered right away. It was torture having to tell her teacher, Mrs. White, as well as the principal because I really don't have any big issues with their current school, and I actually really love her teacher. I just like what I hear about the curriculum and methods at the charter school (they are a classical education school). We switched her over. Her new teacher is Ms. Wilson, who was actually Caelan's first teacher at Rt 66 Elementary when we first moved to Edgewood. She fit right in and made friends immediately. It has been a good experience, and she is adjusting just fine. Now that she is in, all her siblings will have preference next year and won't have to go through the lottery system.

Family Hiking

The weather has been beautiful lately. Actually this winter has been so mild (too mild, in fact...we need some snow!). Well, we had nothing going on one Saturday, so we decided to go hiking up off South 14. There are all sorts of great trails for both hiking and bike riding. We did a little 2+ mile hike. We did some geocaching on the trail as well. The kids hiked like champions. They loved the breaks when we were looking for a treasure and they could hike up on the rocks on the side of the trail. Megan almost had a bathroom emergency. She had to GO. Good thing I had some spapre toilet paper in the baby backpack. We found a spot near a bridge we stopped at and she did her business. She was much happier on the way back...HE HE HE. The boys found their special walking sticks and wanted to bring them home with us. Afterwards we went down into town for some dinner (despite our sweaty, dirty appearance).

Cat and Dog

We're trying to get the dog and cat used to each other so we don't have to keep such a close eye on them. It's really Ally (the cat) that seems freaked out by the dog. Bruno doesn't seem to mind her very much. Sometimes she gets too close and then Bruno gets a little concerned, but mostly he doesn't seem to care too much about her. We've been bringing them in the room together and just watching how they interact. They get a little closer each time they're together. Megan is still totally and completely infatuated with Alley (just as much as the day she got her). She immediately finds the kitty when she gets home from school, she sleeps with her, she cuddles her while she watching TV, she goes to hold her almost anytime the cat passes her.

Geocaching

The weekend after New Years we had spent one too many days inside with all the sickness going through the house, so we wanted to go out and DO something. Sean though of going geocaching, so off we went. There are hundreds and hundreds of caches out in the East Mountains. We did one in a cave, we looked for one in an old abandoned ship right outside a ditch, we found a few up in trees, we found one under a rock, we found a few with treasures to take where we also left treasures behind (and several others with just a log to put our names in). Some were right off the road and others took a little hiking to get to. I think our total for the afternoon was 10. Megan was actually pretty good at locating them at the site.

We had a blast "treasure hunting." We'll definitely have to do that more often.