Little Shopper (May 24, 2018)

She is just too adorable NOT to take a picture of her. 

She always wants to get the little carts when we go to Kroger. 

She is not the best driver but she is working on it.

Arrow of Light Award/Recognition (May 24, 2018)

I was SOO beyond bummed with the terrible pack that our ward had here. It was just ridiculous. Like beyond horrible.

But since I wasn't in charge there wasn't anything I could do. 

HOWEVER, I got put in charge and then I saw something that did not seem fair to me AT ALL.

There was a boy who didn't get his Arrow of Light done before he turned 11 however the previous Committee Chair said it was fine to keep working on it and get it done after his birthday. So because he did that, I had to let him get it, but now that there was a new chief in town I could do things how I wanted them to be done. When I talked to my Cubmaster, we talked about how when these boys get their Arrow of Light, they need to get an arrow and it needs to be a bigger deal and we were both wanting to do that. He said that the previous CC wouldn't let him do anything. Which was very true because when Matthew got his Arrow of Light, he got the painted arrow, because I was the one that bought it and had his Webelos leader present it to him when he got his award. I couldn't believe that our ward didn't do anything for these boys. ANYWAYS, so because this boy waited PAST his 11th birthday to get it done, he NOW got a big award and a big Arrow of Light plaque and an arrow and a big ordeal, which is good, but had he gotten it done on time like he was suppose to he wouldn't have gotten this. ALSO he didn't even have to do as much as the previous boys in his class. Boy Scouts of America changed the Webelos book so that they only had to do almost 1/2 of what they used to have to do. So this kid, didn't have to do as much, and it took him longer than it was suppose to BUT he got a big reward out of it. I am glad he got a big reward out of it but it just wasn't fair to those boys that did it on time AND the full amount. SO I made these plaques for these boys and then their parents bought their arrows for them. It ended up costing my about $50+ to make these plaques but I was SO glad that I was able to get these boys back and present them with these and recognize them the way that they should have been recognized. I made 6 because I was told another boy earned it but right before they told me he didn't actually earn it, so I only presented 5 boys with these, one of which was Matthew. Had he not been in this group of boys I would have had no idea that the highest rank you can get in Cub Scouts AND the only badge you can earn from Cub Scouts and still wear it on your Boy Scout uniform never got the recognition they all deserved.

I was glad I was able to do this for these five hard working boys that did So much and did it on time.

Playdate (May 24, 2018)

Michelle's best little buddy moved away, but only about 20-30 minutes. His name is Nicky.

Nicky's mom, Jessica and I are good friends so we get together, go for a little walk while pushing the strollers and then let the kids play at the park afterwards.

Breaking the News (May 16, 2018)

Here is us breaking the news that we were pregnant with baby #4.....

These were the cute ones I was talking about to send to our moms....

Matthew's 12 year Check-up

I took Matthew to his 12 year check-up.

Dr. Tull talked to him about organization. It is pretty much too late to really worry about a new system for him for this year but next year we hope to have him do better with knowing where his homework is, instead of just stuffed somewhere in his backpack....maybe.

On 5/9/18 Matthew

Weighed: 92.2 pounds (55th%)

Height: 60 3/8 (70th%)  5 feet!!

Blood Pressure: 82/52

Mother's Day Pictures 2018 (May 14, 2018)

I love to get pictures of my kids in their Sunday clothes on Mother's Day. I also like to get a picture with them, so I did, because I am still their mom, but I HATE the way I look so I don't love looking at pictures of me, so I try not to get in them very often.

The sad thing about these pictures is that I was pregnant in these pictures. I had the kids holding up 1, 2, 3 and then a 4 was there. I printed those out and sent them to our moms in their Mother's day cards and that is how we told them, they were going to get another grandchild. So when I look at these pictures, even though they don't actually have the numbers in these particular ones, it reminds me of the baby that I lost at 16 weeks, which was about 3 weeks after these pictures were taken. I found out the baby didn't have a heartbeat anymore on May 31st. I am glad for these pictures but they are also sad for me.

Scouts Night at the Diamond (May 12, 2018)

I had always wanted to go to a Richmond Flying Squirrels Baseball Game, but tickets are more than I want to pay to have that experience.....

HOWEVER, when there is a scout night at the diamond with reduced tickets AND we get to sleep out on the field!!! Heck yeah!!!

It was fun to watch the game, but not a whole lot of hits happened that game unfortunately. 

About 15 minutes after the game was over, it started pouring. I thought they were going to cancel the campout, but I really needed Matthew to get the night because he needed 20 nights of camping for his camping merit badge and he only had about 3 at that point. If he didn't need the night, we would have just gone home, but darn it, he needed the night. I try not to rely on our troop too much for things that these boys actually need because it is so hard in an LDS Troop because of the way it is set up so I look for any opportunity I can to take Matthew to other scouting events to get merit badges or camping nights or whatever it may be. I have taken him 2 hours away to Longwood University and dropped him off there for the day to get 2 merit badges, and then drove the 2 hours back home. I am willing to pay some money for him to get these opportunities because I believe that is what a lot of the scouting program is all about, many opportunities to do things and try different things and have different experiences. Like, go to a baseball game and then sleep out in the field!!!

Thankfully the rain didn't last a long time and moved out so we were able to set up our tent, on wet grass but it wasn't raining!!

It was cool to see all of the tents here. They showed a baseball movie as well but I don't remember which one. 

My kids need a lot of sleep and I tried to get them to go to sleep about 11-midnight, but it was so loud still. I gave them Melatonin but it didn't completely kick in for awhile.

This is how light it was in our tent until about 3:00 in the morning!!

They FINALLY shut these big lights off at that time!!

The idea of it was AWESOME, but hearing so many kids running around so late, or early, depending how you look at it, was ridiculous but that is part of camping.

These big lights did shut off, but there were other lights that stayed on all night for safety and also I believe to help you see if you had to walk up the stairs and go to the bathroom, which I did so I was glad that I could see where I was going. It was doable once the big lights got shut off.

We had to be off the field by 7:00am so I was very happy to get up and leave. I couldn't wait to get out of there, I slept VERY little. 

Allison and I had a Stake Activity Day Girls activity at 10:00AM that morning. We had to meet at this park with our bikes. We were to ride 3 miles around this park and then have a devotional and eat lunch. Allison's leader was about 8 months pregnant so she asked if I could come be the leader from our ward. I was happy to do it. I like riding my bike. Everyone there all got pink shirts that said CHOOSE THE RIDE. They were really cute and it was AWESOME to know which girls were a part of our stake when they got separated from their ward.

It was a fun activity.

Random Michelle Cuteness (May 2, 2018)

Michelle is just SOOO stinking adorable and I just can't stand it. I am so thankful she was able to come to our family. I tell her that all the time.

I will still go into her room and watch her sleep and just cry, feeling so grateful that she is ours. She is just the sweetest thing.

These are just random cute Michelle pictures.