The 1st Day of School 2009

  
On the first day of every school year we take pictures on "School Rock".  School Rock is located in our flower bed in the front yard.  This year I was taken back as I looked into the camera to take pictures.  My 3 school kids looked so much more grown up.  Hailey especially freaked me out. With her hair straightened and dressed up a bit (remember this is the girl that wore a camp basketball t-shirt for her school pictures in elementary school) she reminded me that she is on the brink of turning 13 in February and becoming an official "teenager".  Poor Landon was sad to be left home alone with just mom, after an eventful summer of receiving a lot of attention from his siblings.  

Summer Fun in Yellowstone and Idaho

Our family had a fun opportunity to go visit Eric's sister, Brenda, and her family in Rexburg, ID.  They recently moved into a beautiful new home and we had so much fun playing ping pong, Ticket to Ride (we came home and ordered it right away!) and doing a huge SLIP and SLIDE down the hill in their back yard park.

This summer we had a Freeman Family Reunion in Swan Valley, ID and Yellowstone.  What beautiful country.  We were lucky to stay at the Mooney "Cabin" (gorgeous and huge) right on the Snake River.  Literally the back porch is about 30 yards from the river.  This was a bit scary with Landon, however we had lots of helpers, including a leash.  

We traveled to Yellowstone and saw many beautiful sights and lots of incredible animals up close.  It was a very relaxing vacation and fun to be with our cousins, aunts & uncles and grandparents. 

The kids tie-dyed shirts and we all went canoeing, hiking, kayaking and ate lots of square ice cream from the local ice cream shop in Swan Valley, ID.

Our family had a fun opportunity to go visit Eric's sister, Brenda, and her family in Rexburg, ID.  They recently moved into a beautiful new home and we had so much fun playing ping pong, Ticket to Ride (we came home and ordered it right away!) and doing a huge SLIP and SLIDE down the hill in their back yard park.

Sydney Speaks

Sydney (7) is my child that speaks what she thinks. (More genes I'm convinced she received from her dad!). She often surprises me because Hailey and Dallin might think it (actually I don't even think they think it) but would never say it. Yesterday at her soccer game her team was not doing so well against what I can honestly say is the best 7-8 yr. old team I've ever seen . There were 2 girls that could have played on Haileys 12U Select team. At halftime they were up by probably 10 goals and I could tell Sydney was frustrated. I tried to encouage her to go back out there in the 2nd half and work hard. She just looked at me (sort of like one of those looks like "are you stupid?") and said, "Mom, we're pathetic! We should just change our name to "The Pathetics"!". "Wow"...I said, as I tried not to laugh, "that's not a kind thing to say. If you can't change your attitude then maybe you need to go home because you're team doesn't need you with that kind of attitude." She just looked right at me and said, "I'm ready to go, let's go!" I quickly backtracked and reworked my speech to try and be more encouraging. She did go out and work hard, and even scored a goal, which changed her whole outlook on the game. In the end I had been disappointed by her attitude but quite proud of her ability to use the word "pathetic" in the correct context. How many 7 year old even know that word? (in which my brother reminded me that kids get most their word use from their parents. Geez..I wish Eric wouldn't use that word so much! ha!)

Another Syd soccer story. After Sydney's first practice this season she came home to inform me that their team was changing from the red socks they've worn in previous seasons to white socks this season. So I promptly went out and bought not one pair of white socks, but three pairs. Below is a picture of her at her first game. Imagine my surprise. After the game I asked her why she told me they were changing their sock color when clearly that wasn't the case. She said, "because I'm sick of red socks, we always wear them and I wanted to wear white." Well, at least I know she is not a conformist, but we did have to discuss the need to be in the same uniform as your teammates. We love her.

Why Blog?

My friends have been after me to start a blog for a while now. I've comtemplated the reasons why people do a blog and decided that for me the reason was twofold. First, it would be a great way to keep Grandparents happy, and other family members and friends up to date on the happenings of our family. And second, it would eliminate the guilt I feel as a mom of not keeping a consistent journal or scrapbook about my family. I mean, when poor Sydney's scrapbook contains a picture of me when I was pregnant with her, that is kind of sad. She is 7. Yikes! So here goes my attempt at eliminating some guilt in my life and aspiring to be a bit like my late Grandma Hansen, who I adored, and who wrote in her journal, often daily, but always weekly for about 65 years. Since her death I have been reading and working (very slowing) on typing out those journal entries for her posterity and I can honestly say I've been blessed by her words and experiences. Since my friends told me they print out their blog entries and make them into a book each year I thought this was a great reason to "jump on board the blog train". Unfortunately I didn't know how to delete this post, but you can see that I actually started this blog on January 29th but didn't touch it again until September. I'm re-dedicating myself now, so here goes. Happy Day, Ronda