ELI'S FIRST PACK MEETING!

Eli had his first cub scout pack meeting - he was super pumped to go and so were Tyler and Tyson. I had to work so I couldn't go and quite honestly - I was kinda relieved - never been to one and didn't really care to go either - scouting is not my thing - but I was still happy for Eli and then as Jared was sending me texts - I was sad I missed out. Not only was it his first pack meeting - but he also earned his bobcat!

Here are the texts and pictures I got from Jared:

He's doing great. Pack meeting about to start :) they're doing the flag ceremony. Lolololololol Eli was hilarious not knowing whether to salute the flag with his hand on heart or cub salute. He figured it out :) (before judging his outfit - he did come straight from soccer practice!)


Eli is totally shushing the kids around him so he can hear about the boy that earned his wolf.


Eli's loot (got a lot of badges and belt loops). Some of it was from day camp. The belt loops.
 
He's totally paying attention and into it. Norm giving fireman demo. Pretty cool. Norm just told the boys there's nothing better after fighting a fire than drinking a cold dr pepper!

(as a random side note - the Germaines subsituted Eli's primary class yesterday and Eli was the only one who knew who they were and the kids were asking him how he knew them and Eli responded with, "He's Uncle Norm!" - like Duh! We aren't quite sure if Eli knows he is not really his uncle - ha ha!)

FOR REALS?!

This cute little turd bucket of mine sent me a text this morning at 9:04am

"can you PLEASE bring me a change of clothes?"

I had just gotten to Tyler's classroom to volunteer when I saw the text...here was my reply

"why? what's going on? I am not at home and can't come right now"

She didn't respond and I knew school started at 9:05am. It was now 9:45am and in order for me to go home and get her clothes I had to be late to work and I still hadn't heard back from her. I called Jared and he thought I should bring her some clothes, who knew....did she start her period? did she get dress coded? did she spill something all over herself?

I called my work and told them I would be 15 minutes late, I ran home and got her a cute outfit from her drawers and headed off to her school. When I was about 2 minutes away I got the following text:

"I look HIDEOUS!!!! I look like a total fatty and everyone is laughing at me, even XXXXX is laughing! Why didn't you tell me"

Are you kidding me?! This is why she needed a change of clothes? Lucky for her I was already on my way. We don't discuss weight in our house - being fat is not something we talk about - nor is it something I would allow her to say about herself. She did not look fat, she did not look hideous....she did however - look out of sorts for herself - she normally dresses a lot cuter and a dance t-shirt and jeans is something she has never worn before (not that we care or isn't allowed too - she just hasn't). My response...

"I tried asking you about your choice of clothes but when I do - you get mad at me so I dropped it"

Her reply:
"Oh no mom, I am not mad at you!"

Ha! Didn't think she was mad at me and frankly, didn't really care either....

"I am almost to your school, please be waiting in the front office"

I pulled right up to the office and went in to hand her the bag of clothes, she looks at me like a sad puppy and says, "thank you mom!" I looked at her and handed her the bag and put my hand on her head and with a smile said, "never again will I bring you clothes because you don't like what you chose, have a good day!"

I am ONLY writing this down because it makes me smile - she is funny - and some day I hope her daughter does the same thing and she will owe it to me to take my grand daughter a change of clothes because she wasn't felling pretty in the outfit she chose!

How could this little button be growing up already?!

HALLOWEEN 2014!

Shhhhh - I am hoping my kids won't realize that we never carved pumpkins this year - first time ever - oops! We were all so busy this month and then we never got around to it - I am having "mommy remorse" over it, but seeing how it's the 2nd day of November and no one has said anything - I am hoping to get by without it this year - next year will be better I just know it!

Despite not doing the pumpkins - everything else was pretty much Halloween traditions as normal -

Trunk-or-Treating with the Parrys (sadly, it was not Grove 2nd ward as usual - we missed that one, but were lucky enough to go to the Parrys)
Tyler the red ninja, Eli the morph suit skeleton, Tyson Wolverine, Payton the Dracula and Chiara the Witch!

 The twins

 Maddie the Goddess and Emma the nerd

 Alyza came trunk-or-treating with us this year and she was a strawberry - she was also a freaked out strawberry when Eli came by her - never saw her move so fast in my life the first time she saw him in his costume!
 
 I was lucky enough to be able to go to all 3 boys Halloween Class parties this year in the afternoon - I did not get to help out at them because I was trying to hit up so many, but I got to spend time with each of them and that was awesome! Tyler playing pin the nose on the pumpkin..

 and bingo...

 Tyson showing off his ghost with 3 eyes and his mummy with 3 eyes...

 me and spicy eating dirt and worms while listening to a Halloween story -

 Eli also played bingo and made pumpkins!

 Halloween morning Haley did their usual Apex fun run to raise money for the school - the boys all called Grandpa Rodgers and got him to donate - he is awesome! Jared was able to go and watch the boys do their run - they were very happy to see him!

Eli ran 48 laps and was the highest in his class - Jared said he got smart and realized if he stayed on the inside of the track he could run a lot more quicker - 


Tyson ran 44 laps - he is turning out to be quite our little long distance runner

Tyler got 37 laps - 13 more than last year so that was awesome and he had no broken foot this year too!

That night we kept up the Jensen/Parry Halloween soup and trick-or-treating tradition. We met at the Parrys for potato soup in bread bowls and then we hopped on the trailer that had benches and Halloween music playing and rode it over to the neighborhood we wanted to trick or treat at. The kids LOVED it and thought it was awesome on the "hay ride" Conner and Cade even joined us this year!

 It was such a great Halloween and my favorite part was probably Jared threatening the boys to give him the candy he wanted of theirs or else he would make them play in the outfield and the next baseball game - so mean but so funny!

PHOENIX TEMPLE OPEN HOUSE!

Sometimes sports does bring you closer to church and family - Eli's soccer games were on the west side today so I was able to surprise Richelle and show up to her birthday lunch for a quick 10 minute visit and then we were right by the Phoenix Temple so afterwards we stopped by for a tour! So glad we were able to make it over there and go through it! 

A REAL LIFE ENERGIZER BUNNY!

This kid makes me tired just thinking about what he does - he is so freaking busy and active with sports its insane! Only on a rare occasion does he actually get tired and not want to participate. Last Saturday he had an 8am Heat baseball game. Then he got to come home for some lunch and hang out time, but after that - it was crazy town again. Then he had his U8 soccer game at 1:30pm, then another one at 2:30pm and then they had a U9 game at 3:30pm! No breaks! The U9 game plays 6v6 and has a goalie - so their team has been playing in a few of those games to get them used to the new format for next year. All the parents were like "our poor boys are so tired, they need rest and water and they are just going to go home and eat dinner and crash!" I was laughing to myself - they would die if they knew what Eli did/does every weekend. As soon as the game was over at 4:30pm we loaded up in the car and Eli changed his clothes and ate a couple of snacks and we were headed to his 5pm baseball game!

More impressive than his long day and every lasting energy though was his mad skills that day. He did the usual good things he always does (and some of his mistakes too) but in the U9 game - he scored 2 of the 5 goals his team made that game - against goalies - woo hoo!!! Then in the last baseball game for the Dodgers - he went and made an un-assisted triple play!!! It was awesome!! Even better was Jared and Coach Carson talking to him after that inning and telling him what he needed to do better next time - me and Coach Corey told him to screw them and not listen to them and "holy cow!!! you just made an un-assisted triple play - you are awesome!!!"  I love watching my kids be successful at things they love!

I should mention that I got a call that day from Emma's tumbling teacher and she just wanted to let me know that Emma had her best day ever in tumbling and she was so thrilled for her.

The twins - weren't out done by their siblings - they also had good days - Tyler played short stop and Tyson played second base and they were both able to make some good stops and get some outs and they each hit doubles! Woo hoo!!

That night when Eli's last sport ended, he loaded everything back up in the car and went and picked up Emma from dance and we took the kids out to dinner and then to a movie. My favorite part of the whole day - not the crazy good things my kids had done - but peacefully sitting in the movie theatre at 8:30pm on a Saturday night (something we never do that late with them) and looking over and seeing Emma sitting there with her arm around Eli - melted my heart.

I heart my family for sure!

MY DAUGHTER IS A BEEHIVE?!

Seriously?! I know I say this a lot - but how am I old enough to have a daughter who is a beehive?? I used to be a beehive! I went to mutual - how is she going to mutual?! What???

It was especially weird to go with her to Young Women's Evening in Excellence! It was a red carpet night - so the girls had to come in modest prom attire - Emma borrowed a dress from a girl in dance and then me and grandma Rodgers added sleeves - I think we pretty much rocked it if I do say so myself!

Ignore my sweaty arm pits - 

 Hoku and Emma

 The girls pretending they were taking a prom picture!

 The young women who came...

 

Annie and Emma

 Just after we added the sleeves...

no sleeves....

 photobomb from Amanda Lawler

 

These girls have also played Stake Flag Football....

and then there was mud football - now that I wish I could have gone too - 

 

 I am so glad Emma gets to go to mutual most of the time and gets to have these fun and spiritual experiences. We were lucky this year with dance and let them know that Emma needed to have Tuesday nights off so she could go to this and they were very happy to accommodate her!

ASU SOCCER GAME!

Eli's Legacy Soccer team was lucky enough to be able to go to an ASU girls soccer game. The boys had a ton of fun. They got into the game and got a little silly and then during half time they got to go onto the field and high five the girls when they came back on. After the game their team got to do a shoot out again Sparky....if I remember correctly - Sparky blocked all of Eli's shots but Tyson was able to sneak one past him (Tyler was to shy to participate)! So glad we were able to go and do that together!