Lady Thunder

Here are a few shots of Emily.

She loves being on the team and still loves the game. 

This is going to be a fun season.

 Westlake High School #27

 

 

 Her team won their first game against Orem 8-2!

 

A Father's Blessing

      Every year before school starts it is tradition in our home (as it is in most homes in the LDS church) that Dad gives everyone a priesthood blessing.  This was tradition in my and Ryan's home growing up, and we have continued it in our family.  There is nothing that calms the nerves of starting a new school year more than a blessing from our Father In Heaven.  This year was no different for us.  The night before school we gathered together as a family and Ryan gave each of our children a father's blessing.
       Emily was starting 9th grade this year and she has a very heavy schedule.  She had decided to take four honors classes and as her mom I was very nervous for her.   Emily is a great student.  She has always loved to learn, and is self motivated. She pushes herself hard and demands the best out of herself.  This is a good quality, and has served her well, but I always worry a little about what will happen if she gets too much on her plate and fails at something.  I was grateful that one of her classes would be Seminary.  I loved Seminary when I was in High School.  It was a break from the day and I  know many blessings came from it.  I knew that Emily would love Seminary also.  She loves the gospel and has had a desire to do what is right from a very young age.  She also was not afraid at the young age of three to let others know what they were doing that she did not think was right.  I can't tell you how many times she scolded our young neighbor in San Diego for smoking outside his apartment. 
     Even now it is hard to bend her.  To get to our Stake Center from our home you have to cross a busy street (smaller town busy).  One day Emily and I headed to the stake center for a meeting.  when we got to the corner to cross the street Emily insisted that we would be Jay Walking and we needed to walk two blocks down to the Crosswalk and cross there.  I insisted that we were fine and dragged her, with much distress from her, across the road.     After we safely crossed she lectured me all the rest of the way to the Stake Center on how I had just made her break the law.
     When it was her turn to receive her blessing Ryan blessed her with many great things.  He blessed her that she would be able to manage her schedule and that she would enjoy her classes.  Then the blessing turned to a warning.  A warning that I did not understand and made me question what this year had in store for her.  In the blessing Emily was told that Seminary would be one of the most important classes for her this year and that she needed to make sure that she always attended it and make it a priority.  I can't remember the exact wording in the blessing, but I remember the way Ryan was saying it made me feel like there would be a reason that Emily would not want to attend Seminary.
     This was confusing to me because it would be so unlike Emily.  I began to wonder what on Earth was going to happen this year to make Emily feel this way toward Seminary.  My daughter who won't even jay walk with me. 
     As school has progressed this year I have had many conversations with Emily about Seminary and her other classes, and things going on in between.  There has been nothing out of the ordinary, and just as I thought Emily has loved Seminary.  School is more than halfway over and I have been feeling really good about things. 
     In January Emily started going to Spring Warm Ups for the high school softball team.  She has loved softball from the moment she started playing at the age of 7 and she was excited for the opportunity to get to try out for the team.  As more information started coming home I began to realize that if she makes the team she will have to miss a little bit of school.  The way her schedule is now that would mean missing her drawing class and Honors Biology.  Drawing I am not too concerned about,  but I am not sure about her missing Biology.  Unfortunately she had gym last semester so switching her schedule so that is last is not an option.  Looking at her schedule the only class in it that she could miss without too much stress was Seminary.  But as soon as I thought it the words and feelings from her blessing came rushing back to my mind.  I then knew that moving Seminary for softball was not an option.  I also remembered the promise that was given to her in that blessing if she did what she was told and put seminary first.  She was blessed that she would be successful in her classes and be able to manage her time well.  Emily and I talked about her schedule and she too felt the same way I did.  That Seminary was the only class that would be easy to miss,  but that it was the only class she could not miss.  She too remembered her blessing. 
     Yesterday we found out that Emily made the team.  She will be playing on the Westlake Lady Thunder sophomore/freshman softball team.  Her schedule just got a whole lot busier.  I am so grateful for the priesthood blessing she received at the beginning of the year to help us know what we need to do with her schedule.  I know that as we work with her teachers that Emily will still be able to be successful in school and have fun playing softball.  This experience is another time in my life where I have seen that the Lord knows us individually. He knows what is to come for us. He has a plan, and if we listen he will help us along the way.  I hope that Emily realizes just how much her Father in Heaven loves her and is aware of her.  The gospel is such a blessing in my life and I know it will be in hers too. 
     I am so excited for her to get to play on the school Softball team, and I can't wait to cheer her on!

    I love you Emily 

Dancing Valerie

Valerie started taking dance in September and she had her first performance tonight.  Her class had a show case of all the things they had been learning.  This is the tap dance they performed .  I love dance at this age.  They are all so cute. 

Tran Siberian Orchestra

At Christmas time some of our favorite songs to listen to are from the Tran-Siberian Orchestra.  So when Grandpa called Friday and let us know he had tickets I was very excited.  He wanted to take Joe and Emily to see them live, and I got to go because they needed a ride.  (Lucky for me Ryan was going to be out of town so I didn't have to fight him for the ticket.) 

 

Ryan and I had seen them in concert before and I was excited for my kids to get to see them.  The concert was just as fun as I remembered. 

 

What they can do with a white background and lights these days is amazing.

 It was a great show and the kids loved it. 

Thanks Grandpa!!!

Fall Leaves

Visiting my Grandma in the Fall is always so much fun....even though some people might think it sounds like work. 

 

My Uncle Dean showed the boys the best way to get the leaves in the bag.

Josh really liked bagging them that way.

Emily stuck with the more traditional way.

Valerie just played.

 

The boys may have spent some time playing too. 

 

Uncle Dean's dog Sam loved playing in the leaves with the kids.  He would get mad and start to bark and growl when they would start to bag them up.  The kids thought he was really funny.

 

 

Somehow I got my kids to pose for pictures, and I think I got some cute ones. 

 

 

 Valerie spent a lot of time in this tree and loved to pose for me.  So I got a lot of her.  These were my three favorite. 

 

I love my Grandma, and I am so grateful she lets me bring my kids out to play and visit. 

 

 

 

Halloween

 It is Halloween once again.  We started off our haunting at Red Butte Garden After Dark with Grandma and Grandpa Bolander and family.

 

This year Grandma got Ryan to participate in the costumes.  When the boys decided to be Minions from Despicable Me there was no question that Ryan would make the perfect Gru, and he did.  Ryan's mom made these cute costumes for the boys and they were a favorite everywhere they went.  During the school parade both of the boys teachers stopped and told me how much they liked the costumes.  I hope they know how lucky they are to have a grandma who will make them costumes like this. 

 

 Valerie wanted to be a green witch this year which made me very happy,  because I tried fro years to get Emily to be a witch and she never would.  Valerie loved being the witch. 

Emily put together her own costume.  She is a Anime teenager.  She explained to me that in every Anime cartoon there is a teenager dressed like this.

 

The Sunday before Halloween Gru's mother showed up at our door.  We were all very excited to see her. 

Especially because she brought the fixing for caramel apples. 

She also came back to Trick or Treat. What would Gru be without his mother?

 

The night before Halloween we carved our pumpkins.  We have kids safe knives so the kids get to carve their own.  It can make for some fun ones. 

 

 It was a great Halloween....

 

 Happy Spooking. 

Preschool Pumpkin Patch

Ashley and Maci Pitcher, Valerie and Hillary Bolander, Sandie and Kaylie Westphal, and Brooke, Kingston and Kavika Saluone

 Today for Preschool we headed to Evans Family Farm in Lehi.  I have driven passed this little farm many times over the past year and a half,  but I didn't realize how much fun it was.

 There was a petting Zoo.  The kids loved this. We bought a little bit of the food.  At first they were not sure, but once they tried it they didn't want to stop feeding the goats. 

 

 Hay Bale Maze 

 

The Corn Box....Valerie loved this. 

 

The Hay Ride.

 

During the ride we stopped at the pumpkin patch and all of the kids got to pick a pumpkin to take home. 

 

 The Hay Bale Playground

 

The Corn Maze 

 The kids were not worried about getting lost,  but I was a little worried about loosing them.  

 

Train Rides

 

I even got a few pumpkin pictures. 

 

This next picture is my favorite one of the day.  I didn't realize what I had captured until I started looking through my pictures later.  It reminds me that I don't always need to have my kids smiling at the camera.  Sometimes I just need to watch and take pictures of them just doing what they do. 

 

 I love doing this Co-op preschool.  I am a having so much fun hanging out with these four cuties.  I hope they are having as much fun as I am.