soccer camp

I had soccer camp like 3 weeks ago. I had someone that was on my soccer team. byben

Slurp

Yesterday and today,we've bin having Slushies!Thare yummie.Yesterday I had Grape,today I had Lemin and Blue Berry mixed.




by Joshua W. Millward :)

camp

I just went to basketball camp. I got a byu waterbottle . and a basketball. and my mom is signing me up for a ball boy tomrrow! by ben

Theater

Last night we saw Toy Story 3!





by Josh W. Millward (:

t-ball is awsome

My dad is the coach of a t-ball team. Josh is the assistant coach. I am on the team. by ben

Ben the Soccer Man

The longer we are here, the more advantages I see to living in Utah. One of them is some of the really cool sports opportunities for Ben, especially as he gets older. With BYU so close, he is able to go to their sports camps, something that is right up his alley.

A couple weeks ago he went to the soccer camp they have for four to eight year olds. It was taught by the head coach of BYU's women's soccer team, and a bunch of men's and women's soccer players. And the coolest thing about it was it was held in the Indoor Practice Facility! It is a huge indoor football field, air conditioned and everything! There were TONS of kids, probably over two hundred, all playing 8 on 8 soccer, and there was still room for more games. It was amazing!

The only drawback I see is, since it is artificial turf, they use teeny tiny rubber pellets to cushion the ground. Not only did it somehow get spread all over my house from Ben's shoes and clothes, Ben himself was filthy every day when he came home. He was quite bugged that he had to take a bath every day that week. Here he is:

You can only imagine his knees and legs.

The funny thing is, I did not see another single kid who was so sweaty and dirty. But I know why; that kid did not stop running the whole time he was out there. He was everywhere man, offence, defence, and the kid who chased after the ball when it went out of bounds. I'm pretty sure Ben imagines Heaven as a huge Indoor Practice Facility with lots of soccer balls.

Sneak

Yesterday my mom made cookies.So,I snuck a BIG glob of cookie dow.Then I said "Wich hand is something in." When she picked the right one I ate it right in front of her!





by Joshua W. Millward

Lillie vs. The Cat

We have a neighborhood full of cats living under (and somewhat inside, we think) the Firebird. What Joe thinks about this is worth a whole other post. Let's just say Joe has been thinking about getting "Josh" a BB gun, and the words "blow away" have nothing to do with a blustery day.

Anyway, because Joe is so allergic to pretty much anything that is not human, fowl or reptile, these cats are about as close as the kids are going to get to a furry pet. Lillie especially loves trying to play with them. Most of them are pretty nice, but one cat especially does not appreciate her attempts to play.

Well, a couple days ago, Lillie came inside absolutely hysterical. Crying so hard she could hardly breathe, but still trying to tell me what happened. After quite a bit of time calming her down, I got her to try to tell me what happened. And I still could not understand what she was talking about. All I could figure out was it had something to do with the the cat with the green eyes. Finally I was able to understand her words, but it took me a minute to decipher their meaning. She said "The cat with the green eyes made a blowing nose sound at me!"

I actually had to picture a cat blowing it's nose to figure out that the cat hissed at her! I have to say, it is actually a very accurate description of a cat hissing.

So poor Lillie is now totally afraid of the cat with green eyes. And presumably, cats with colds.

My Great Idea

I will totally admit, I was scared to death about summer arriving. Not the sunshine, the popsicles, and the bad TV, but the fact that all four kids were going to be home - all day, every day. And not because I was afraid the boys would fight constantly (which is a distinct possibility). And not because I was afraid of a reprise of Lillie's "Christmas-Time Freak-Out of 2009" brought about by the combination of boys being home from school, and the arrival of a little sister (also a distinct possibility).

I had no idea how I was going to survive things like going to the bank, running to the post office, and the dreaded grocery shopping.

Don't get me wrong, individually, all of the kids seem to know how to behave in public. Even in small combinations they are tolerable on short errands and shopping trips. But put them all together and it is like an explosive chemical reaction happens. Suddenly a nine year old seems to find it appropriate to run up and down aisles playing hide and seek. A 6 year old thinks it's funny to try to car surf on top of the cart that looks like a car. And a three year old starts tossing every kind of junk food known to man into the cart. You know you are in trouble when your infant having a diaper blowout is the best part of the shopping trip.

So I was scared.

And then I had an idea. What if I don't have to bring them? What if I find a babysitter to watch the kids for a couple hours one day a week, and I run around town, getting things done? Isn't that what teenage neighbor girls are for? Genius.

So for the last two weeks Rachel has come over on Monday morning, and I have had the minivan to myself. I have to say, it is SHOCKING how much I can accomplish when I don't have to unload and reload four kids at every stop. Just this morning I ran to the church, two banks, the post office, Babies R Us for a crib mattress, the theater to pick up midnight Eclipse tickets (!!!), and the grocery store where I got a weeks' worth of groceries, all in just two hours! Hallelujah!

Funny how a couple hours away from the kids doing ordinary errands can make their, and my, summer so much more sunny!

School's Out For Summer!

Well, we are two weeks into summer vacation, and everyone is still alive, some missing a few privileges, but that is to be expected I guess. Before it gets too far out, I wanted to get some pictures up about the boys' last few days of school.

Every year the third grade at Reagan Academy does a big end of year program all about different cultures they have learned about during the year. And I mean big! There was singing and dancing and all the kids were in costume! I cannot imagine how much work it took to put it all together! It was over an hour long, and was totally amazing. Josh learned an African tribal war dance, and he was totally into it. I don't know how to post video, but I'll have Joe put the video on here sometime. Here are a couple pictures. Josh is in the bottom left of the second picture.

As for Ben, he had a fabulous Kindergarten year. He learned so much and I can hardly believe he's going to be gone all day in just a couple months! I am really going to miss him. Ben had a great teacher, Mrs. Miller. She is an older lady with 14 (!!!) kids of her own, so she knows how to handle a classroom of crazy 5 year olds! He had a program on his last day, where they each talked about the continents and the US presidents. Ben's lines had to do with the continent of Europe. He did a great job. (Again, hopefully video will come soon.) Until then, here is a picture of Ben all graduated from Kindergarten with his teacher.

Finally, I just have to say how much I LOVE their school. Josh and Ben have learned so much, they have been challenged, and the atmosphere there is just special. The teachers go above and beyond, and I know they love my kids. When we switched from our neighborhood school a couple years ago, it was difficult. Josh had to be the "new kid" and that was scary for him. I worried that I was expecting too much from a school, and what we were experiencing at his old school was just how it was. And I worried that I was being a whiner. I never had a choice about what schools to go to growing up, I just went to the school I was supposed to. And I think I got a great education, from mostly great teachers. But I just couldn't shake the feeling that my kids needed more than they were getting. That I wasn't expecting too much, the school was just expecting too little. So we switched to Reagan. And I have not had a single moment of regret. It is everything I thought a school should be. My kids are learning so much and discovering new things. Josh loves art now, due to an AMAZING art teacher. He had a self-portrait chosen to display at an art show at BYU last year, and even won an award for another piece at their school Fine Arts contest. So thank goodness for Charter schools, ours has made a huge difference for my kids. Hooray!

new bike!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2 days ago I got a bike I road it yesterday. My bike is blue. I like my new bike.




byben

Riding

Today I was at Cub Scouts.We were riding are bikes for 1 mile.There were 3 miles in there and back.I made it alive!



by Josh W. Millward :)

Cousins Are Awesome

Look at these two sweet girls! Ava and Sophie were born only three weeks apart. We went to Boise over Memorial Day weekend, and the kids all got to play with their cousins. It is so fun for Josh, Ben and Lillie to have cousins of about the same age to play with when we go to Boise, and now Sophie will have a built in buddy too! I remember going to Nebraska every summer, and one of the best things about it was having cousins to play with.

Josh and Ben were both excited to be there for Ethan's 10th birthday party, and had a great time rock climbing. The biggest thrill was when Ben slipped off the wall and flipped upside down in his harness, quite an adventure!

Lillie just loves Eowyn, and is always so excited to have a little girl to play with. This time she also liked playing with Ella, but she is still figuring out how we are all connected, because while she knows Winnie is her cousin, she kept calling Ella, "Winnie's cousin." (She also called her "the running girl", an appropriate description -I have finally found a kid who runs as much as Ben did at that age!)

Sounds

I hear the T.V..I hear a baby toy.I hear Ben.And I definitly hear the computer.






by Joshua W. Millward :)

Learning

I leanrd how to ride my bike when my brother was practicin. Ican ride all the way around the block by ben

A B

A b b b.






by Sophie

It's a girl!

Let's just start by saying I never imagined I would have a daughter. Having no sisters, and marrying into Joe's family, with six boys and no girls, I just figured my chances were slim. Plus, girls sort of scare me. I have no idea how to do the girly-girl thing. I was a tomboy, I didn't have any girls in my neighborhood to play with, so I hung out with all the boys, racing bikes, playing football (complete with tackling), playing baseball (I take great pride in the fact I have never thrown like a girl), and in general making sure they all knew I could hang with the boys in all they did, if not flat out beat them. I don't think I ever owned more than one dress at a time until I started working at Morgan Jewelers! So when that ultrasound tech said it was a girl (and Ben burst into tears), I knew I could be entering new territory.

And yes, Lillie is a total girly-girl. Her favorite color is pink, she thinks a tutu matches any outfit, and she wants so badly to be a dancer. And while I still don't understand the drama, and I have no idea where she gets the poses she does when trying on new clothes, she is not the "typical" girly-girl I was so scared of. She still hauls out and smacks Ben for bugging her, she immediately wanted to ride her bike when the boys figured out how to ride this past week, and she puts together outfits like this:

And this:

Now that is a little girl I can get along with!

Home

yesterday we got back from boise we had a fun time there. and We had a safe drive back.