THE PEARCE FAMILY: October 2008

Top Ten

So I have put about a hundred post on today. I feel so far behind and as I have been bottling grape juice today and had to stay close to the kitchen I have tried to catch up. So here are some top tens of my life these days;

10. Jaxon finishes up another season of Soccer. He is quite the player and loves to play. We are however already gearing up for Basketball that will start in a few weeks
9. Grin plays football in Cache Valley every week crazy I know but he loves it and the kids love going to watch him play and running around the field. At least we haven't had any really cold games this year and tomorrow should be the last
8. Grin and I got to the temple Yeah! We haven't been for a few months and it felt so good to be there.
7. Grin and I take our own UEA and head to St. George where I golf that is right I totally suck at it but by whole 17 or so I did hit a few ball that went "Somewhere" see St. George post that may be coming soon if I am lucky
6. I have book group with my ward we read "Three cups of Tea" A documentary type but I really enjoyed it.
5. We get our pumpkins carved the kids did a great job and had so much fun.
4. We take the kids to see "High school Musical 3" they loved it my boys are so into it I have to laugh. As we were watching it a song started that was just "troy and chad" singing and Jaxon turns to me and says " Mom, I think I am going to like this one"
3. My sister comes and takes our family pics. We are a hard family to photograph but I think out of the 100 pictures she took there are 3 or 4 that most of us look normal in.
2. I finally get all the costumes for Halloween taken care of now if I can just get the family party ready
1. I update my blog and almost get the things on it I wanted thank goodness for having to watch my grape juice.

"Fall"ing in Love with my kind of shopping

Getting together with all of your friends and eating yummy treats catching up and getting your Christmas shopping done that is my way of shopping. So I am having a Vendor Bendor in november and thought that I would put a heads up on my blog for all of you. I will send more info later but here is a little of what is going to happen.

Fall in love with:
Pampered Chef- Absolutely fabulous kitchen items including the must haves (the chopper I can't function without mine, baking stones, all in one measuring cups, and so many more
Close to My Heart- Stamps with acrylic bases so you can see what you stamp!
Scensy: A fabulous way to make your house smell wonderful without the worry of burning it down. A wickless candle that warms on a low voltage lightbulb
Simply Fun Games: tons of fun different games for the people on your christmas list who love games and have all the others
Usborne books: My favorite books, they teach and are so fun to look at my favorite are the the touchy-feely board books and the picture books. My kids love them and they have tons of easy reads for Jaxon to read himself
Discovery Toys: We all know and love them. My Friend Amanda will be there hosting a fundraiser for Riley Nelson's classroom at the Pingree School for kids with Autism! All the proceeds will go to the school. A wonderful way to help kids with Autism and get your christmas gifts at the same time.

I am also looking into having an Avon repressentive and Lia Sophia Jewelry I have never seen it but I here it is very fun and would make great gifts for those girls in your life.

Anyway so Put Saturday November 8th From 10-2pm on your calendar as the day to get your Christmas shopping done or just have a girls day and check things out and have a little lunch on me. I will give you more info soon and tell you what all of the web sites are so if you can't come you can also order on line or over the phone. I would love to see you all.

One-Heart Bulgaria toy fundraiser

My Friend Amanda had this on her blog and I thought that I would post it for all of you who don't know her. It sounds like a great way to help and get some fun toyse.

Amanda wrote:

I look forward to the One-Heart Bulgaria toy fundraiser that features Melissa & Doug toys- exceptional quality at a super price- with all proceeds going to help children in Bulgaria! I have bought some of our most cherished toys at this sale- which is located just across Juniper Crest Road from Leila Lane on Boulder Meadow Drive! Read on below; and maybe I'll see you there :)."Every year, I do a toy sale that is a fundraiser for this great charity organization, One Heart Bulgaria. They help orphans in Bulgaria and they provide so much relief and love. You can read all about this organization here: http://www.oneheart-bg.org/. (My sister was one of the founders of this organization, and I have been involved for a few years, so I know it is totally legit, etc) Melissa and Doug have allowed us to sell their toys at a discount of what they are sold in the stores, and we can give ALL the proceeds to directly help the children. The past years have been successful, but I think this year will be VERY successful. Would you please attend??? And please, either post this on your blog or email it on to your friends so we can have a huge turnout and raise a grand amount to help the Bulgarian orphans!"Wednesday, October 29th10 am til 6 pmOpen house style4837 Boulder Meadow Drive, Herriman, Utah(see directions attached)Come when you can, look through the catalog, and order what you want. You save 25%! No sales tax! Three weeks later, come back and pick up your order. Easy and quick way to get all your Christmas shopping done early. Melissa and Doug toys are high quality, durable, and educational. Go to their website and check out their inventory: www.melissaanddoug.com. Then you can come prepared with what you would like to order. Please do not order online, as you will not get the 25% off, and none of the proceeds online will go to the charity. Please be prepared to pay with cash or check. Please call me with questions: Brittany Daw 302-5910

Feast or famine

Well that is not exactly the right title for this post because as I am sure it is at your houses there in NEVER a day that goes by that I don't clean up at least one or two messes but today was an exceptionally busy day so I thought I would list every mess I cleaned up just to help me remember on the good days that it can always be worse.

1. Jaxon changed his heelie wheels on his bed and left enough dirt to plant a garden.
2. Gavin pours the entire bottle of bath wash (thank goodness it is only 1/2 full) into the tub for "bubbles"
2. Ella and Gavin pulled every book off the book shelf (we do this everyday but usually it's only one shelf or so.
3. Grin gives Gavin a brownie and he decides that he should decorate with it instead of eat it. I find brownie on the carpet, tile, chair, Ella's baby buggy, sofa, and television.
4. Ella finds the grapes in the garage (purple staining grapes for juicing) and proceeds to smash a bunch with her bare feet and then re-enter the house. I did however catch her before she walked on my carpet Yeah!! but the garage still had to cleaned or better yet needs to be clean I haven't got around to that one yet.
5. Gavin spills his LEMONADE all over the kitchen floor, his chair, and of course where ever it hit when it landed, walls, cabinets etc.

I know you are all thinking I should keep a better watch on my children well it is probably true but somehow they got away from me a little more today then usual maybe it was the grape juice, or the laundry, or the Halloween invitations, or the catching up on the blog, or the laundry who knows I am just glad that most days we tend to avoid a few of these adventures

Winter day in October

So the other day when it snowed we got a couple of inches and the kids were dying to go out and play. Personally I was against it becuase who wants to start all of that winter gear clean up in October right? Well there father (who when I say "kids" is included) took them all out ot make an early October snowman. Ella of course wanted to go as well. I hadn't bought her a winter coat yet but my sister had given me a snow suit So we put it on her and you can see how well that worked. ( we are going to have to find something different for the snow days) She looks like a big pink sumo wresler. Anyway they all had a ball. Thank goodness there dad is a kid at heart.

Pumpkin Carving

Our little family carves pumpkins. Jaxon did his all on his own and Gavin really got into digging out the insides. Ella just wanted to be in the middle of it all.

I bake!

Ok so I have decided that with all the food storage I should use some of it. So I have taken up baking bread I have been at it for 3 weeks now and my family really likes it. I was so proud of my domesticness that the first time I took a few picks (to tell you the truth I did it becuase I wasn't sure it would ever happen again) but I am quite enjoying it and it really isn't as big of a deal as a thought it would be. while I baked Gavin found all the hats in my room and decided that he needed to wear them all. What ever entertains them right!

New Job

So I think that I mentioned that I have started doing windows for Little Things mean a lot. I really enjoy using some creativity that doesn't "cost" me money. So I took a few picks. Here they are I am about to do new ones so I am a little late with this post what else is new?

Grinner on the news

Grinner finds himself on the news for a brief moment. (Don't mind the big mark on his head just result from football )

ksl.com - Couple in their 80s trade retirement to sell cars

Points Trip

Chuckie Cheese Here we come!!

So my kids earn points for doing chores, obeying, being kind, etc. Well they pick something to earn usually a family outing. at the beginning of the summe they earned a trip to chuckie cheese. Well we never got there because we never found a whole day to make a trip to Sandy but a few weeks ago a Chuckie Cheese opened right here in our own Layton so the "excuse" was no longer valid. So a week or so ago we took the kids to Chuckie Cheese and you would think that they had died and gone to heaven (including the big Kid Grinner) who proceeded to win the boys 300 tickets a piece shooting baskets. Boys truly never grow up not that I am complaining I love watching him play with the kids like he is one.

The climber

So Ella has taken to climbing. She climbs on top of the kichen counter, the coffee table and a few of the latest discoveries was the toilet where she got a hold of the reed diffuser that was on the back of it and proceeded to spill it on the carpet and I am pretty sure eat some. So I ended up calling poison control and thinking I had succeeded in poisoning my child. But she was fine thank goodness. Well then yesterday (I have taken to making sure all chairs are tucked in so she can't climb) she decided to try climbing on the chair with it tucked in and I had to laugh at her trying to stand up on the chair under the table. What made her think that she could do this I don't know but it was fun to watch her try. enjoy the little clip.

Labor Day Update

So I have been a little crazy lately and not got done what I wanted to on this blog. So I am going to do a little updating forgive me for the yesterday's news but I wanted to get a few things on here.

For Labor day we went to the Fort Bridger Ronevous! We first went and spent a day and a half at Flaming Gorge only an hour or so away from Fort Bridger. we swam and watched a light parade on the water where people decorated there boats with lights and parading around the lake. It was a fun sight to see they had made whales, the Iffell Tower, fish, etch out of lights. We then left early sunday morning to attend church at the ronedevous. We all dressed (the best we could) in pre-1890 clothing (thanks to those who let us borrow things) and went to experience sacrement meeting. We just missed the sacrement but got to sit out side on the grass and listen to all sorts of people in all wakes of life bare there testimonies if was very fun. Then then wondered around seeing what there was to see. We really had a great time and experienced new things. Thanks to my Bro. In law who 's from Mountain View close by Fort Bridger who got us going on the whole thing. It is a fun experience. I recommend for a fun thing to do.

Half way through the year Grin changed Jobs. He still works for Ken Garff but is now the Used car manager at the Ken Garff Nissan dealership in Riverdale. He is loving the change and has started going to Auction to buy used cars. He is really enjoying this new aspect of the job and has had the opportunity to travel to Pennsylvania a few times to an exclusive Nissan Auction. He is now the 1st counselor in the Elders Corm and loves spending time playing with the kids and teaching them sports and watching as much sports as he can football, Basketball, Baseball, Golf, Hockey, Tennis, Poker, Soccer, (did I miss any) pingpong? if it is on Espn it is worth watching am I right?

As for me. It is pretty much same old same old. Clean house house the house by 10 am the next morning it is dirty again. I have Jaxon in joy school with the neighborhood kids and will be the teacher next month. We "remodeled" the storage room it started out putting some shelves in then I decided that we should put floor in, then we put in a water softener and a new water heater. My quick small project ended up a huge major project and cost way to much money but in the end my glasses come out of the dish washer clean for the first time and I am a little more organized which makes me happy. I got a new calling a few weeks ago and am now the primary chorister yikes never complain about your calling because it could always be worse. Teaching relief society was torture but at least it was only once a month now it is every week. The kids are a true joy though.

Jaxon started the 4th grade this fall and is doing amazing . He is crazy smart and can read at a 6-8th grade reading level. I gave him my old alarm clock after Grinner won me an Ihome and wakes himself up every morning. He gets up, gets dressed, makes his bed, unloads the dishwasher, reads and sometimes gets his piano done. This of course doesn't always happen smoothly but he does pretty good. We went to his SEP conference however and learned that he doesn't turn in his work that he does. He read probably 4 books that quarter at home and he had turned 1 in and it was the one I had read to him. My little brother was like that and almost didn't graduate because of it, what a nightmare we are working hard to rectify that situation as quickly as possible. He is playing on a competetion basketball team (The Davis Starts) and a comp baseball team (The Sox) and has practice or games almost everynight year round but he loves it and is always happy to go and willing to get his other jobs done to do it most of the time it makes for great leverage. He is getting so tall and before I turn around he will be taller than me. I bought size 10 pants for him for school last spring and we got them out for school and they are too short so he has been flooding around for months new pants "Merry Christmas Jaxon". It is so fun to watch him grow and develop into who he is going to be.

Gavin is now 6 years old! He is in Kindergarten and having a September birthday the oldest in his class. He is not "in love" with school but I don't have to convince him to go everyday either. He has discovered video games and I have had to spend a lot of my time monitoring how much time he has spent playing them. He still has middle child syndrome and you would think that I being a middle child myself would do better at making sure that doesn't happen but he still seems to be the kids that doesn't get his homework done and isn't reading as well as he should at no fault to his own but because mom seems to be running around after everything else. His sweet little personality I am afraid is reflecting this and he spends his life looking at the world with "the glass half EMPTY" I actually put a glass in front of him and asked him "Gavin, when you look at this glass what do you see, is it half full or half empty." his response, "half empty". I am praying that it is a 6 year old phase some of his friends moms say the same thing that the girls will cry in a drop of a hat etc. Gavin doesn't cry that quick but he lashes out yelling not nice things at us like "I hate you's" and "your the worste mom in the world" or this is the worst day ever" "stupid idiot" well you get the idea. I don't want this to be negative but want to write how he actually is so that someday we can read back and laugh at this funny faze our sweet Gavin went through right? On the switch side (it is kind of like living with Dr. Jeckle and Mr. Hyde) he is the cutest big brother to Kennedi and to Ella most days to. But he will spend hours playing with Kennedi from the day she was born giving her kisses, and talking to her in baby talk. Now that she is 10 months he pushes her around the house on her push toy and sits around playing with her for hours kissing and loving her. He is truly the best baby sitter and my heart just leaps out of my chest when ever I watch him. He is going to be the best sweatest dad. My sisters little girl has been his favorite for ever now and I kept wondering if we would be as cute with his own sister as he has been with her but he is just as sweet and loving. How so much love and tenderness and hate and rage can come out of the same child in a matter of hours is beyond me but I am learning quickly that he just "feels" more than the rest of us and we will all adjust accordingly and search for ways for him to utilize that gift.

Ella is now 4 years old!! I was so excited when we found out that Ella was going to join our family I really needed a little more estrogen in this house full of boys and boy did we get it. There is no "tom boy" in our little Ella she is Girly Girl to the core. We have a trunk full of dress-ups in her room (however rarely are they "in the trunk") and a Mirror above it were she spends hours admiring herself and "possing" in front of it. Then she keeps asking things like. "Do I look beautiful in this mommy" or "am I more beautiful in this mommy", or "do I look cute or no?" of course the answer is alway "Yes Ella you look beauiful in everything". but she just keeps asking. We are constantly in a state of imaginary play, princesses and mommies, dances, and tea parties. She loves to dress up in moms shoes and wear princess dresses. She is constantly wanting a friend to play with and they will play house and pretend all day. I LOVE IT!!! it is such a great balance from the "lets wrestle, fight, shoot each other etc." we just eat her up. She is in preschool and loves it. she can write her name so well and knows every letter and its sound ( and has known them for over a year) and recognizes them all the time when we read. She loves to pier over my shoulder when Gavin and I read and she hurries and repeats the words after him like she is reading right along and truthfully she does about as good as he does. That's a girl for you right!

Kennedi Rose Pearce came into our family on February 11th 2011. She became the 3rd Hone Grandchild to be born on that day (strange). She has grown so fast and becoming such a fun and integral part of our little family. She has such a sweet demeanor and is always smiling at people. She is really quite the flirt and we spend most of our outings with people standing around talking about how cute she is and telling everyone around them things like. "Have you seen this baby", "come look at this baby", "She is the cutest thing, you have to see this baby", "look at those big blue eyes" While she just smiles and smiles like she is telling them "I know I am cute and you should all notice". It is really quite fun for me and Grin because we reallyh get a say in how they look or act right! She is crawling all over and getting into every thing she is a typical 10m old baby and we wouldn't trade her for the world.