Monday, January 30, 2012

Highs & Lows

Lows:

We ended up taking Rachel's iTouch away completely.
The temptation was just too much to keep friendship going with that "one boy." It was a good idea and we've had SEVERAL discussions with her of what we expect to get it back. SO far so good-she's progressing in the right direction. It's REALLY hard for her to be living here. There are no girls her age in our ward. They are either 2 years older or 2 years younger then her. She's pretty much been by herself since age 11. We feel for her-she's not having the teenage experience both Jon & I had. We are considering some other options. We shall see what happens.

Bummed that our OLDER girls STILL can't seem to keep their eyes CLOSED during prayer. Does this bug anyone else? Is this only happening in my family? Am I doing something wrong?! Seriously--so gets to me & Jon.

We went to cabin last Saturday after house chores.

Jons parents were there "working" so I offered to help. Was disappointed Rachel did.not.help at all. To be fair-I did have them clean my house already and going to cabin was the "treat" but I think she still could have been nice and done something. Don't worry--we had a discussion about this too. Can you tell--LOTS OF DISCUSSIONS happening over here!!!

Highs:
Rachel had Winter Formal at her HS-since she is not 16 year-we took her out to dinner-

just the three of us--Texas Roadhouse. We did a lot of talking. It was a great time.

Going to Arrowhead cabin for the afternoon. SO FUN to have something we can just jet too. It was weird for it to be 80 at our house then drive 40 minutes and its 55 at the cabin! After we came home we took the fam bam to Island for dinner.

Jon and I split the Hawaiin burger--our "thing" is to always order buffalo wings-so we shared those two. Dang now im HUNGRY!

Robert needed help picking up a LOT of needles from the front area of the cabin. Anna & Becca were soooooooooo nice to come out and help Robert & I. We managed to get 20 huge black sized garbage bags full of pine needles. I love to work hard like that. I seriously would have made an awesome pioneer!

Speaking of pioneer. Our stake is doing the Trek this year. I took Rachel and she picked out zebra print for her pioneer outfit with lime green as her apron and bonnet. What a crack up! I'll have to post a photo when its done.

I read a POWERFUL article from the BYU Magazine. It was written by Brad Wilcox. Jon & Brad are close friends.
http://magazine.byu.edu/?act=view&a=2968
SERIOUSLY EVERY youth child needs to read it. I've been telling everyone about it!

My girls FINALLY found the Oklahoma DVD

and have been watching it daily. They all know the words to every song-hysterical. I seem to have the freakish talent of being able to laugh like that one girl in the movie--for reals. My girls are amazed. Now admit it-you just tried to do it huh!

Thursday, January 26, 2012

No more life!

Looks like I will no longer have a Life in a few weeks -and here's why. THANKFULLY all these activities are literally within 1 minute of my house!

Rachel will be on the High School Track Team as a sprinter--the girl is freakishly FAST!
This is her head coach "Coach Corona":

and this is her specialized Sprint coach "Coach Jones":

SUPER GREAT COACHES! This should be a GREAT season for her-Im anxious to get it started and ACTUALLY SEE HER RUN for reals.

Sarah will start Spring Softball. She tried out last night-NAILED IT! This was her official tryout number. They had to catch two fly balls and throw to second base. Then move to short stop and catch two grounders and throw to first base. This girl can throw from center field to home plate. She did that very play in winter ball and got the girl out-all 5 of her coaches were like WHAT THE SMACK!??!? super fun.

Then she had to hit 4 balls and run on the 4th ball that came. She walked up to the plate, got in her "stance" and ALL of the new coaches that were drafting said "WOAH!!" Most girls kind of go up there and are a little dainty-but not Sarah. She's for real. This photo isnt of Sarah-but was pretty much Sarah's stance.

She doesnt mess around! Her first time EVER playing a sport was winter softball. She knew nothing of the game. She had AMAZING coaches that took her under the wing. They all kept saying "Sarah has NO IDEA how athletic she is--she's like every coaches dream!" ---they get their athletic build from Robert their grandpa. They are lucky to be so strong.

Anna strangely wants to do Karate!?

She is my dainty, always dressed with perfect accessories, always reading, always behaving, girly girl. I have no idea why she wants to do Karate-but alrighty then!

Lastly Becca didnt want to be left out and will be starting floor gymnastics.

Is that photo not SCARY or WHAT!?

So as you can see-the next three months with all this going will F.L.Y. our life by.
But I can look forward to this

come May 6th-13th!
I earned a free trip to Hawaii all expenses paid-flights, hotel, food and entertainment. SHAZAM. We havent decided if it will just be myself & Jon (we've already been to Maui pre accident), or us and the four girls (the girls have never been) OR me and my four close girlfriends for our annual girls weekend-only it will be a girls WEEK. We'd LOVE to take all four girls--so that is our goal. We will see if we can make it happen-flights are SO EXPENSIVE then times four, get another hotel room-it all adds up.
Either way--I will be ready to R.E.L.A.X and do N.O.T.H.I.N.G on a beach in Hawaii!

Monday, January 23, 2012

Highs & Lows

My friend Amber does Highs & Lows on Sundays-I always look forward to them. She's HILARIOUS too--always great posts.

Lows:
Dealing with Rachel and her choice in boys. It's SO HARD to raise girls-and we are just beginning! Jon has been working REALLY hard at staying calm and letting Rachel do most of the talking. That is key I think. Kids know right from wrong-sometimes we have to step in and remind them that the DO know right from wrong and can change behaviors. This is the third "round" of dealing with this same boy so I decided to step in and texted the kid "This is Mr. and Mrs. Hales. Please do not call, text, email, facebook or message our daughter any further. Thank you." I think as parents-we sometimes need to step in when the time is right. Rachel is WAY happier when she's not having interactions with this boy. Here's to hoping she has a better week. So far so good.
(Side note-my dad told me last night that the Stake YM's president came to our house to meet with my dad and said "There are lots of boys that would like to date your daughter but they are too afraid of you." My dad replied "Well Alan, lets just keep it that way." --good grief that explains why I didnt get asked out one ONE DATE EVER in High School! It's okay I more then made up for it in college.)

Dealing with Sarah who likes to C.O.N.S.T.A.N.T.L.Y pick on Anna. Sarah will make some remark about ANYTHING Anna is doing-then Anna comes to use crying. It's a cycle that get's old-real fast. What is it with 2nd and 3rd children!?

Man I didnt really have a lot of lows this week? I could add how Rachel didnt do ANY of her chores this week and that so bugs.

HIGHS:
This is a photo Rachel asked me to take of Jon & her.

This is what she wrote about him on her Facebook: "This is my daddy. Go ahead and laugh, I don't care. I've been told every possible thing imaginable. He is my idol, my world, my hero. He's there to listen to everything I say. He's a best friend, a father, a teacher. He's the one I look up to. This is my daddy that could never be replaced.♥" She was teased in 5th-8th grade about her daddy being in a wheelchair-it was R.E.A.L.L.Y. hard on her.
I LOVE this photo and it will definitely be one of her wedding montage video photos.

Yesterday after Stake Conference we drove to Todd's house. I had texted to see if it was okay to come-but neither of them saw their cell phones with the text. So when my girls knocked on the door their kids were yelling "NO WAY OUR COUSINS ARE HERE!" Jon and I left them there and we drove around looking at houses.

The Hales purchased a cabin in Lake Arrowhead. You can see photos at http://cabin.jonathanhales.com/ The family is SO EXCITED! It JUST closed on Friday. I picked up the keys. Our family is only 40 minutes away. We are 20 minutes from our house to the base of the mountain, then 20 minutes from base to cabin. I am also helping Sandra pick out tile, carpet, colors etc. SO FUN.

Lastly Jon & I started a Ticket business and it is doing great. You can see the website Jon built at www.stubgate.com PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD! Any concerts, shows, games etc--use our site! It's been GREAT to work side by side with Jon. We pretty much live in our office. We LOVE that we can really live anywhere-as long as we have internet access we can work. What a blessing to our family.

Monday, January 16, 2012

Goals, changes & date nights

Last Sunday afternoon Jon had PPI's with each girl. They went over their goals for 2012. Jon had them write them down and hang on fridge. I then took a photo snap of each one, printed it up at Walgreens and now they are hanging on our "to do list" wall. I love that they can see them and keeps tabs on how they are doing. At dinner Jon will ask "So how is everyone doing on their goals?!" Suddenly the girls start hugging one another, or saying a nice thing. Whatever works.
Here's Rachels:

Here's Sarah's:

Here's Anna's:

Here's Becca's:


Having our "to do list" thing on our wall-seriously FABULOUS!


Jon had to prepare a talk on Sunday-which meant on Saturday evening, I had to keep all of the girls out of the house. The older two went to a friends house (because our Stake Dances are kind of lame here) so I took the younger two on a date. MEXICAN FOOD!

This GIANT garnish was on Becca's plate-she asked "Um....am I suppose to eat this?!"

Seriously-who doesn't look at this photo and get a tinsy bit twitter paited!?


I've been doing SO GOOD with eating well thanks to this

I use it in my protein shake for breakfast, have a snack, then repeat for lunch, have a snack then enjoy a yummy dinner. Down 3lbs my first week. Whoo hoo!


Rachel has start HS Track (she's doing sprints.) She has been running sprints everyday all last week. Between early 6am seminary, training in Volleyball after HS, and then immediately into sprinting for an hour with track-she.is.beat. She said she just wore sweats to school all week and her hair in a ponytail. So when she decided to go out Friday night she got "dressed up." Now if you know my Rachel SHE IS SUCH A TOMBOY--but I love her girly side coming through!

We are excited to see how she does in Track. So far she's placing first every sprint. My older two girls ask "Why did we get stuck with Grandpa Hales' legs?!" Now they know why--they are athletes.

I dont know how you are about your Ward Church Xmas parties-but I could TOTALLY enjoy staying home and skipping the whole thing. I'm thinking next year-Im good with each family bringing a plate of cookies, we serve hot cocoa and then we go home. Over and done in 60 minutes! My sister Heidi is all.about.christmas. The over the top kind of people. I like that I can enjoy (and slightly make fun of) from afar. She did her ward Xmas party and texted me a photo.

I mean seriously-for reals?! She built that thing-did everything-even had a play with Jacob in it. I am SO THANKFUL for people like Heidi-so I can sit back and well-do nothing.

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Anna's funny ways

Anna cracks us up. This is how she LITERALLY eats dinner every night.

What in the world?! We teach the girls-how they behave at dinner is how they will behave on dates ie "Are you going to chew with your mouth open on your dates? Are you going to burp on your dates? Are you going to SIT on your date?!" Weird huh?

This is what she wore to school today.

Cutesy?!

I LOVE this board that I made.

The girls walk in and can see what the plan is for the day. It makes our life simple having structure like this. Kids REALLY do well when they know what is going on.

This year I started having each girl pick a dinner dish job.

You can A)rinse, B)unload, C)load or D)sweep & change table cloth. THIS HAS BEEN FABULOUS!!!!!!!!!!! Whoever had to pick last-gets to pick first the next night. No one complains & it helps keep order in my home.

Monday, January 09, 2012

Science Projects & Girls Goals 2012

The younger two girls got handed science projects 2 weeks before the Holiday Break--seriously-what kind of teacher does that?! And it was due pretty much 4 days after Break was over. We did SUPER EASY projects.

Anna did a thing where she mixed 10 tablespoons of cornstarch into a 1/2 cup of water one tablespoon at a time then kept mixing it.

Eventually it turned into puddy. When you let it "slide out" of the cup-it flows easily-if you try to "force" it out with a spoon it breaks and cracks.

Becca did "which flavor of gum lasts the longest?"

In the end each one really only lasted 15 minutes.

Each Fast Sunday Jon takes each girl one at a time and has a PPI with them. Last night he had them write one church, family & school goal. They then hung them on the fridge.

I think I will frame them somehow and hang on our wall. I created a wall that has everything Hales.

Are you impressed that I MADE THIS all by myself-super easy, GIGANTIC and SO HELPFUL!

Made this too--it's so nice they can walk in from school and just do whatever I write on the board. I usually write Homework 330, snack, chore for each girl. Here I just listed things on there so I wouldn't forget about them later. I think I will put their framed goals here so they can see it all the time.

Thought I'd throw this HUGE HALES family photo in--

this is when we all went up to Chad's house for thanksgiving. Todd/Jon stayed back because it was cold and to watch sleeping babies.

I also LOVE this truck photo----

we have a photo of each of the older 3 boys with their Mercedes when they all first got married-now they have all had kids so they all have black denali's--such a crack up!

Friday, January 06, 2012

Good Times!

The weather in so cal has been AWESOME--total beach weather--which of course we took total advantage of. My girls are beach freaks-

and cold water does not affect them.
It is really strange to be having 80 degree weather during the day and 40 degree weather at night. It's AWESOME that we can go to Newport beach one day and then off to Lake Arrowhead the next day!

This is a gift Anna picked out with her $30 from my parents for Christmas.

Seriously-how do my children know about such things like this?! It's HUGE.

It makes me laugh how Sarah can keep her room super organized and spotless and Rachel is the complete opposite. Jon tells me it is because she is an artist. Here are all her clothes I cleaned-I just tossed them back onto her floor-

where they sit. I have learned you "pick the hill you want to die for." PLEASE refrain from any judgmental comments about how I need to make her clean this up-I got enough of them from Facebook friends (why do women feel the need to do that?!) and quite frankly I am doing the best I can with a paralyzed husband, four children, a house to take care of, money to provide etc etc. Geez I'm sensitive huh! HA

Today while dropping the younger two off at school they were looking at our drivers licenses.

Here is their conversation:
Anna "wow-dad looks weird!"
Becca "that's because he was standing up then and not in a wheelchair."
Anna "no it's cuz he looks like uncle Todd!"
Becca "Mom looks like a maniac."
Anna "you mean a mannequin."

For the record--i was waiting for the lady to say 1, 2, 3--all she said was "next"---for.the.love now i have a mugshot of myself!

I saw this photo and feel like this needs to be shared with all teenagers--

and well some adults too!

Tuesday, January 03, 2012

What just happened!?

Another year has past. I feel like these past 5 years have been a total blur. Here's to remembering the next 5!


Everyone is healthy & happy. I will be working from home now (YEAH) side by side with Jon. We are both VERY productive, organized, optimistic & excited for 2012. One of my goals is to better document our family life--the good, the bad and even the ugly!