Joe's Bob Cat

In January Joe started Cub Scouts. He was very excited to go and he has a lot of good friends in his pack.

He was really looking forward to this months pack meeting for two reasons.

First of all, it was the Blue and Gold Banquet, and they were serving one of his favorite meals, tacos.

And Second, he had worked very hard the past few weeks to earn his Bob Cat Merit Badge.

I am very proud of how hard Joe worked for this. He was very motivated to earn it quickly. For this badge there was a lot of memorization. Every day after school, he would bring me his book and we would work on it. It did not take him long before he was ready to pass things off.

After all of the awards were handed out the boys put on a few puppet shows. Joe was the narrator for this one.

I am grateful for Joe's leaders who make Cub Scouts so fun. He is loving it!

Crazy Hair Day!

Today was Crazy Hair Day at school. My kids love this day. They have been talking about it for days. I have tried to talk them into a few of my ideas, but all they want are Mohawks. So Mohawks it is.

Even with their crazy hair, I think these are two cute little boys.

Joseph's Baptism

Joseph was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints today by his dad.

He had lots of family come and support him.

All of his grandparents were there, including Great Grandma Atkin. Uncle Jon and Aunt Jenny, Uncle Kevin and Aunt Alisa came. His cousins Violet, Jaxson, and Asher were there, and his cousins Matthew and Davis came from Washington with Grandma and Grandpa Lay.

He also had a few friends there. These are his two good buddies, and they are both named Max.

I am so happy Joseph made this decision to be baptized. I know that the gospel will be a great blessing in his life, and as he comes to know and use the Holey Ghost, the Lord will be able to bless him in so many ways.

We Love You Joe!

Happy Birthday Matey

To celebrate Joe turning eight we had a pirate party. Joe liked helping me get the party ready. He really liked it when it was time to burn the edges of the paper.




Joe loves pirates, and he makes a pretty good one himself.


His friends soon started arriving dressed in their pirate gear. It was funny to listen to them discuss which pirate they were. Most of them wanted to be Jack Sparrow.



As the guest came I had them pick a bandanna. When everyone had arrived I split them into teams by bandanna color, and the games began. .

Jack, Sam, Josh, Ethan, and Charlie made up the white team.




Hudson, Joe, Max, Aiden, and Cooper were the black.



The first game was a marshmallow cannon battle. After a few minuted of the teams going against each other Grandma Bolander (who was a big help at the party) started calling pirates up to duel.


This was one of the favorite games at the party. the other favorite was the candy bar game. The pirates had fun getting their treasure, and trying to keep it from the other pirates.

Happy Eighth Birthday Captain Joe. We love You!

The Late Night

Joe had been wanting to invite some friends over to play night games in our yard. I told him last weekend that I thought Friday would be great for that. Then the weather turned and I realized that Friday was going to be cold, and maybe a little wet. So I told Joe we had to have a change of plans. Now instead of inviting anyone he wanted to come play outside, he needed to narrow it down to no more than 4 friends, who could come over for a late night, where we would play indoor games.

Joe thought that sounded great too, I told him to only invite three or four kids, because any more than that would make it hard to find games to play, and I didn't want things to get too crazy. Joe knew right away who he wanted to have come and started inviting them. I got busy looking for games that 6 boys (Josh of course was going to be in on the late night too.) would have fun playing. I really considered just having a movie, but Joe wanted games.

Friday night arrived and the late night began. We started off with just having the boys play with Lego's. I put out a few goodies (mini candy bars and popcorn) and the night was starting off nice. When the Lego building started to slow down, I brought out the first game. Being October we decided to have a mummy race. I divided the boys into two teams. One boy was the mummy and the other two boys on the team had to wrap them in toilet paper. The first team to run out of toilet paper wins. The boys loved this. At the end of the game the two mummy's ripped themselves out of the toilet paper. I asked the boys if they would pick it up and put it in the trash. They picked it up all right, and then the toilet paper fight began. Before too long there was toilet paper everywhere, and the boys were having a great time.

When the toilet paper throwing starting getting too crazy we put it all in the trash. Then we went for a calmer game and started playing Apples to Apples. We ended the night with a good old fashioned game of charades. Which somehow ended in a big wrestling match.

I am still not quite sure how that happened.

It was a great late night, and all of the boys had lots of fun. I am sure we will have a few more of these, but for some of them I think we will watch a movie...........Although I have a feeling that could end in a wrestling match too.

King Joe

On Friday, Joe was King for the day.

This is his teacher's fun way to get to know the kids a little better and spotlight them for the class. She has each table (4 kids) be the king and queens for the day. Joe is the only boy at his table, so on his day, he was the king, and there were three queens.

Thursday he came home with a crown and a spotlight bag. He was to decorate his crown however he wanted and place five items in the bag that would represent him. The kids who had gone on the days before had been given Thor crowns. Joe had planned to put his face on Thor. He was a little disappointed when he got a BK Club Kids crown instead. It did not slow him down to much though. By the time he had walked home from school he already had a new plan. For this crown he wanted to take advantage of the word club. So we made it into a club Joe crown. We printed photos of his friends and brother and sisters and glued them over the cartoon heads on the crown. Club Joe represents the people who like Joe.

The five items he took to share were:

His Karate Trophy

A Joke Book

A Baseball Trophy

A case to a DS game

and something he had built out of Lego's.

It was fun to see how creative Joe is, and also to see what is important to him.

For Joe, the best part of being king for the day was getting to eat lunch with his teacher, and his fellow royals of the day. I thought that was pretty cool too. During lunch his teacher talked to them about school, and friends and some of their interests. He really feels like his teacher cares about him and what he likes. It really made him feel special.

First Day Of School

As summer is winding down and school is beginning our house is filled with all kinds of activity. I remember how I felt the few days before school started for me when I was a kid. The nervousness I had for the unknown, but the excitement I felt for the new adventures ahead. I didn't know that as a mother I would have these same feelings when my children started school every year.

This year is a big year for Emily. She is now in 7th grade and going to Middle School. So the unknown factor for us is huge. Needless to say we were both a little anxious.

I am so glad that Emily's middle school administration understands this.

Last Wednesday (before school even started) we had back to school night. After the initial introduction to the school and it's programs and policies, we were sent on a run through of Emily's schedule. We were able to visit each class for 5 minutes in the order she had them on her schedule. So not only did we get to meet the teachers, but she was also able to see most of the other kids that would be in her class.

Then Friday they had 7th Grade orientation. The 7th graders went for half a day and learn the ropes of the school without the 8th and 9th graders there. So Monday they were ready to start. Emily has at least one person she knows in each of her classes. She is also very lucky that her friend Lindsey is in three of them and they have lunch together.

Emily was very disappointed that she does not have any classes with her friend Tiana. In fact they might as well be going to different schools. They have different lunches and their lockers are on opposite ends of the school.

Emily's biggest struggle was getting her locker open, but by the end of orientation day she had it down. At the end of the first day Monday, Emily came out with a smile on her face. I think middle school is going to be okay. Emily seems to love it.

At the end of the year last year We had the chance to submit our first and second choice for teachers we wanted next year. For Emily I never did this and I was always happy with her teachers, but Joe is a different personality and I knew there was a teacher I did not want. As for the other two choices, I think I would have been happy with either one, but after many days of pondering which one to put first, I went ahead and requested the one I thought would push Joe a little more.

Wednesday the class lists were posted, and Joe got the teacher I requested. However, she was not the teacher Joe was hoping for. And to pour salt in his wound most of his friends were in the other two classes.

Having friends and being liked is a big deal for Joe, and to have a class without his friends was heart breaking. There were many tears shed that night.

I still had a few things to buy for school, so Friday I took Joe and Emily shopping to finish up. Joe was only interested in t-shirts with some kind of cool picture on it. We found some really fun ones. One was even a scratch and sniff. It smells like grapes. (I am not sure how long it will last.) That night I asked Joe if he was happy about his new clothes. He said, "Yes. They are very rare." Then a little quieter and to himself he said in an excited voice "popular!"

Monday Morning was the first day of School. Joe was feeling excited about school and told me he was not worried about his teacher. He still wished more of his friends were in his class, but it would be okay.

We walked up to school with his good friend Cooper. Cooper was also sad that they were not in the same class.

After School Joe was very happy with his first day. He realized he would still see his friends, and he likes his new teacher.

Josh is really excited to start school this year, and was very disappointed when he found out he has to wait another week to start Kindergarten.

Now that we have made it through the first day, I can happily say,

I think we are going to have a great year.

Karate boys

Saturday Joe and Ryan had their karate belt test.

Joe was testing for his orange belt,

and Ryan was testing for his Purple belt.

They both did a great job and passed.

Congratulations boys!

Family Fun Day!

We had kind of a rough start to the summer at our house. Just as school was ending the stomach flu began. At the rate that it was going I was not sure if we would recover in time for Family Fun Day, but by Thursday everyone was on the mend.

So after a week of staying inside we were really ready for some outside fun to kick off summer.

Family Fun Day is an event our Stake puts on every June.

There are all kinds of treats to eat.

A rock wall to climb.

A dunk tank....Joe was the only one of my kids brave enough to get in it.

Face Painting.

Building and launching paper rockets.

Bounce houses........This was Valerie's favorite part (along with the treats) She stayed in them for the first hour and a half.

And last but not least

The Water Slides

This is where the boys spent most of their time.

What a great way to kick off the summer!

The Karate Boys

The Karate Boys have done it again...............................

They worked very hard and passed their belt tests. Joe is now a low orange belt, and Ryan is a Green belt.

About a month before the test Sensei told Joe he did not think he would be able to test, because he did not seem focused and ready enough to do it. Joe showed Sensei how much he wanted his new belt, by working really hard the next month. I was really impressed with how hard he worked to get to test.

Ryan was also not too sure about this test. He has trained into the harder levels now, and he was not sure he had his technique down well enough to do this next test.

But they both did a great Job and I am really proud of them.

Joe is really excited about his new belt, and he was happy to get to show it off at the 1st Grade Talent show. I was a little worried when I saw how the stage was set up, but Joe did great at improvising his Kata to go up and down the different levels.

He was not sure about doing this in front of his class. I thought he did a great job, and his friends seemed to like it.

1st Grade Zoo Day

When Joe brought home the permission slip for his class field trip to Hogle Zoo he was really excited. He told me all about it, handed me the permission slip and then walked off. The next morning I handed Joe the permission slip and happily told him that I marked that he would bring home lunch and that I would come too.

I thought first graders wanted their moms to come to school things, so I was a little surprised and sad when Joe's reaction was an unhappy "Ohhhh, Why!"

He reluctantly took the slip back to school.

A few days before the field trip Joe came home and happily handed me a note about the field trip. Joe showed me the list of kids I had assigned to my group and told me that because I was the mom coming he gets to be the group leader. So that made it a really good thing that I was coming.

My group was Joe, Charlie, and Max. My friend Angela had two boys in her group ,Cooper, and Gibson so we decided to go around together.

The weather forecast for the day of the field trip had been saying rain all week. So I picked up some rain ponchos at the dollar store for our group. I am really glad I did because, it made it really easy to keep track of the boys, and it rained the entire time we were there. The kids didn't seem to mind the rain though.

We started out at the tigers. They were eating when we got to them and the boys thought that was great.

I loved the new baby elephant.

There was a special dinosaur exhibit going on at the zoo. All over the zoo were animated dinosaur statues.

They had this one for the kids to climb on for a picture. If you look at the dinosaurs mouth you will see that Joe is not the only joker in the class.

These two dinosaurs were their favorites, because they sprayed water. The boys loved this.


The original plan was to go to a park after the zoo and have a picnic lunch, but because of the rain we just headed back to the school.

But the kids still got a little bit of a special lunch, because they got to eat it in the classroom.

I am glad I got to go on the field trip. It was a little cold and wet, but I loved being with Joe and his friends. I hope he was glad I came too.

Easter Morning

Happy Easter