Blast from the Past- May 2017 Happenings

And just like that, we are on to the month of May!

A busy, busy month indeed.

Abbie Kadabbie

Abbie had a busy month which included finishing up her first year of Junior High, going on a field trip with her friends in her peer tutoring class, and playing softball.

She LOVES softball and it has been fun to see her improve her softball skills.  

I love this gorgeous little 13-year old of mine.  She loves to help people, she loves going to the temple, and she still loves anything and everything that has an owl on it.

Ellie Bellie

In my post for last month I mentioned that Ellie found out that she won the Arbor Day contest for her grade at Liberty Elementary.  I love, love, love her poster and I am so happy that Mark and I were able to go with her to the awards ceremony.  This little gal is a pretty amazing artist and I am excited to see where she takes this talent of hers.

Ellie finished up the 4th grade this month and received a "Math Magician" award for her hard work in math this year.  

She also survived a session in the van where I was teaching Emma to drive (the picture of her wearing Abbie's softball helmet.)

She took a baseball apart because she 

A.) Saw someone do it on YouTube

B.) Wanted to try it for herself

She is such a cutie pie and I cannot believe how grown up she is getting.

Emma Lemma

Well, May brought us another legal drive in the house.

It takes her almost a full minute to adjust the seat every time she gets in the car, but she is turning out to be a pretty good driver.

She still gets distracted easily, so we are working on that.

But, she does know that you

A.) Should not drive with both feet.

B.) Should stay away from garbage cans

C.) Cannot wave to her friends while driving.

She is definitely part of the "selfie" generation and I find a lot of pics of her by herself and with friends on her phone.  Josh happened to be the lucky victim of one of her photo sessions.  She is going to miss that kid when he is on his mission.

She finished up her Freshmen year of high school and is gearing up to move on to being a Sophomore this fall.  Y-I-K-E-S.

Mother's Day

It was a pretty low key Mother's Day this year, which was just fine by me.

This little cutie instructed me that I was not to get out of bed in the morning until she had brought me breakfast.  So, it was a breakfast of toast with strawberry jam and a heart cutout in the middle, scrambled eggs, and water for me.  I loved it.  She also made the flower centerpiece.  I love her.

After church, I just basically did nothing, and it felt so good.

I read for a bit, took a nap, and then we went over to Mark's parents house to have dinner with everyone there. 

The perfect Mother's Day if you ask me.

I think I will continue the glorious month of May in a few more posts, so stay tuned...

Blast from the Past- March 2017 Happenings

*Sigh*

I am naming the most of the following posts "Blast from the Past" because that's exactly what they are.  Between school, mom taxi duties, retiring from preschool, and just life in general, I have not had enough spare time to keep up on this blog.  But, I have to!  It's my only way to scrapbook at this point in my life.  

So...sit back, relax and enjoy a major catch-up session on what the Ogden clan has been up to the past few months.

Mom's 39th Birthday

It was an absolutely great birthday this year.  I definitely got spoiled. :)

Mark took me to lunch and then we stopped at Baskin Robbins to get one of my favorite birthday treats...Clown Ice Cream Cones.

Before lunch, I taught preschool.  I love it when my birthday falls on a preschool day because I always pull out the Dr. Seuss stuff.  I share a birthday with Dr. Seuss and this year was even more special because I had my very own Cat in the Hat!

Ana was a good sport and tolerated a few pictures, but then she decided that she would rather attack the hat then wear it.

 Mark rarely surprises me, but when he does, it's always a fantastic surprise.

He actually found me a Red Panda Onesie!  I definitely did not see that one coming.

All of the girls have at least one animal onesie and now I can join the club!  Emma and Abbie were not too excited about that, but, as you can see, Ellie couldn't wait to jump into her panda onesie and get a picture with me.

I have always loved birthdays, and I don't see that changing, even though I am getting older.  Through some difficult life experiences I have developed a deep gratitude for birthdays--for the opportunity to turn a year older.  I love that I was able to share this day with my favorite people on this planet, and I look forward to spending many more birthdays with them.

Abbie's 13th Birthday

Abbie turned 13 this month, but I am going to do a separate post about that. :)

Josh's MAG Dance

Josh had the opportunity to go to MAG with his friend, Lucy.  It was an animal-themed dance and, wow, did they find a great outfit for Josh at the Goodwill store.

I think he needs to wear it more often.  Lol.

Josh's Lyceum Concert

Josh has really enjoyed playing with the American Heritage Lyceum Philharmonic this year.  We are so grateful for this opportunity and it has been so fun to see him grow as a musician.  They are a group of extremely talented kids and I love every chance we get to listen to them.

Abbie's Junior High Musical--Shrek Jr.

Abbie had the time of her life being a part of her Junior High's musical.  She was a Dulocian from the musical, "Shrek Jr.".  Her friend's, Abby and Noah were in the play as well.  She has definitely been bitten by the acting bug and cannot wait to be in another play.

I was so proud of her!  She did an amazing job and was even able to do a little mini skit during intermission that she and her friend, Abby, wrote together.

Ellie's Elementary School Musical- 

Conquering the Pillaging Pirates

I think one of the main reasons Ellie was excited to go back to regular school this year was because of the school musical.  She was one of the knights and had a fun time dancing and singing her little heart out.

Josh's Acceptance to BYU

Josh received his acceptance letter to BYU!  He was also accepted to the University of Utah, Utah State, and BYU-Idaho.  But...BYU it will be.  It's been his dream since he was a little boy.  We are so excited for him and proud of him for his hard work.

Odds and Ends

Ellie and Dad had a date to our favorite ice cream shop.  As you can see, Ellie had fun with the hot fudge.

Ana is growing every day and we absolutely love having her in our family.

She is a funny cat.

We celebrated Bailey's 9th birthday this month.  She is definitely showing a few signs of age, mainly her cute little gray face, but other than that, she is still as hyper and fun as ever.  She sleeps a little more than she has in the past, but as soon as someone knocks on the door or rings the doorbell, she is barking up a frenzy to make sure that we know someone is there.  She loves visitors, and that is an understatement.

These cute kiddos make me happy *nearly* every single day.

On the days that I am not happy with them, it is usually because I am stressed about something else and take it out on them.  They really are great kids.  They are not perfect and they have their moments of sass, frustration, and eye-rolling (lots and lots of eye-rolling at our house), but I wouldn't trade them for any other kids in the world.  I love 'em to pieces.

Back to School

Sadly our home schooling adventures have come to an end.

With Abbie going into 7th grade this year, she really wanted to attend the Junior High and take theater and art.  I did not want to keep Ellie home by herself.  That would not be fair to me or her.  So everyone is attending a public school this year and they couldn't be happier.

I have to admit, it is nice to have my day back, but I still really do not like the rigidity of the school schedule.  I also do not love it when they send home notes with a huge paragraph trying to guilt you into making sure your kids don't miss too much school.  I totally understand why they have to send those home.  I know there are people who do not take education seriously and keep their kids out of school way too much.  But, being the parent of A/B students who know how to do their homework and do what is required of them, I don't love having the guilt laid on me when I want to occasionally have some family time during the school year.  

Okay...off the soap box now and onto the cute first day of school pictures!

My baby boy is a Senior in high school this year.  A SENIOR!?!?!  Can you believe it?  I truly feel like I just graduated myself, even though it has been 20 years.  I am so excited for him to be a senior though.  I remember my senior year as being one of the best years of my life- school wise- and so I am very excited for him to have a ton of fun this year.  He definitely will be keeping busy.

4 AP classes

1 concurrent enrollment college English class

Madrigal choir

School orchestra

Lyceum Philharmonic

part time job

MOS presidency (Men of Sparta)

National Honor Society President

Seminary Council Member

Oh ya, and he graces us with his presence once in a while and tries to spend some time with his friends as well.

This adorable young lady is now in high school as well, although she still goes to the junior high (thankfully.)  I cannot imagine her roaming the halls with Senior guys.  I would have to follow her around with a bat.  Emma loves to be with her friends, especially her besties.  She can never have enough time with them and she can never have enough Takis.  (Don't ask.  They are gross and disgusting "chips" but she loves them.)  She made the volleyball team and currently plays on the Sophomore and JV teams.  She is trying to balance time with ice skating and is finding out that it is hard to spread your time evenly between two sports that you love so much.  But it is a good lesson for her to learn how to prioritize and sacrifice.  She spends most of her down time in her room either sleeping, listening to music, or braiding her long locks.  

My beautiful young Abbie Dabbie is now officially a junior high schooler.  She was so excited to go to the junior high and was especially excited for her first day.  In our district, they have the 7th graders begin school a day earlier than everyone else so that they can have the school all to themselves.  This way they can figure out the whole going to different classes thing without having to be bothered by 8th and 9th graders.  Our school also has a fun tradition of rolling out the red carpet for them to walk down as they enter the school.

She had a very successful first day and then had a party with some of her 7th grade friends on the following Monday when everyone else in the district had their first days.

Now this little cutie pie is all grown up and in the 4th grade!  That means that now that she is back in the elementary school she is in the "big kid hall."  She gets to have a turn working in the lunch room and she gets to play on the big playground.  She was SO excited to go back to school.  I think that we were all a little burned out from online schooling and the girls were definitely ready to get back to their friends and away from their crazy mother. ;)  Ellie had her outfit picked out 2 weeks before school started.  After I did her hair on the morning of the first day she said, "Oh, it's perfect.  I look just how I imagined I would."

**Sigh**  These kiddos are all so grown up and amazing.  I cannot believe that I am lucky enough to be their mother.