Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Halloween 2012

"Tender lumplings everywhere
Life's no fun without a good scare."


This morning The Boss, Bea, and I went to the school for the annual Halloween Parade through the school halls and classrooms. It takes a while for the parade to get started, so there is some waiting that can be pretty boring. Good thing Princesses and Super Heroes can make their own fun (or watch Garfield on mom's iphone) while they wait.


Then once the kids start by in their costumes it's supper awesome. 

Pooh Bear {aka Kyle Beckerman #5, Captain of RSL} and her/his class paraded by first.


Then Drama, the Hippie Chick, peace marched past. She's in 6th grade this year and it's her last parade. Sigh.

After the parade the babies and I came home and watched the Nightmare Before Christmas, because it is one of my favorite movies and oh so appropriate. Then I threatened to ban anyone who did not take a nap from trick-or-treating this evening. {so mean, I know}

Finally dad came home from work AND we ate dinner. Then it was time to hit the streets. but not before mom made them all pose for a picture.

And dad dressed up in all the left over pieces of each costume: PB's Beckerman wig that was "too heavy and itchy," The Boss's Spider Girl mask that wouldn't stay on her face to her satisfaction so we just drew on some spiderwebs, a princess tiara from the dress up bucket, and a peace button from Drama's costume {that she didn't even want to wear in the first place because she didn't believe that hippies wore buttons!}. And Buddy, who it has been determined, has dressed up as Mark or an Old Man depending on who you ask!

"This is Halloween, everybody make a scene
Trick or treat till the neighbors gonna die of fright"

Thursday, October 11, 2012

Family Photos ~ 2012

October 11,2012

{{Also know as ... the one were you get to stare at the 4 most adorable and photogenic children on the face of the planet.}}

Family photos generally are not fun for me. I stress about what everyone should wear so we look coordinated but not matchy. This year we took family photos at Grandma Tina's while Matt and Rosanna et al were in town... And I had to find something for us all to wear to that so I scheduled another session shortly after for my own little family. Yes, we are wearing almost the exact same outfits, but I don't care so you shouldn't either!

We went with FotoFly again because they were so awesome the last time. Only this time we went to their outdoor studio, FotoFly Away, located at Thanksgiving Point. If you're in the market for new family photos call them. Now. {Robyn} I'll wait.....
 
Here are a few of my favorites, because it's not cool to post all 80+ images that we got back on two {yes, 2} CD's.

The Fam



Drama



Pooh Bear



The Boss




Bea




And, because we are soooo hip, a photo bomb.


If this wasn't enough peeping on my family {you know who you are} then you can see the rest of the pics at this address... myfotofly.com and use the password: 20123122VanHorn. And if you would like prints of your very own to stare at lovingly for hours {Grandmas}, then email me the photo numbers and sizes, etc. etc. and I will order them for you.

Friday, October 5, 2012

School Photos ~ 2012

School has started, the weather has actually turned cool, and the mornings are becoming (way too) dark. We've also participated in the school photo right of passage. You never really know what you are going to get with a school photo, but I should have learned by now that if someone is taking a picture of my girls, it's gonna be pretty dang cute. {Not over exaggerating here, just stating a truth.}

Pooh Bear - 4th Grade

Drama - 6th {gasp} Grade

Sunday, July 1, 2012

Taking a Hike

Today after church we headed up to the canyon. Drama and Pooh Bear are staying at Grandma & Grandpa Van Horn's with their cousin who is in town for a visit. We needed a diversion so we  took the little ones up to Tibblefork Reservoir for a "hike" around the "lake".




  


 Watching the baby ducks and their mommy.




What's that daddy? Part of a dead fish? Ewww.





And finally...




Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Oh Nuts!

Saturday, June 2, 2012

Well, it was inevitable - bound to happen sometime - a ticking time bomb, if you will...


Tree Nut Consumption

If you don't know Pooh Bear is allergic to tree nuts, specifically, walnuts and pecans, but we have been instructed to avoid ALL tree nuts. {side note: she is not allergic to peanuts - which are not even a nut, they're a legume} We visit the allergist every ear to have her school paperwork signed and to have a new epi-pen prescription written and filled. I carry 2 epi-pens with me all the time, we have 2 epi-pens in the cupboard at home and the school has an epi-pen in the office with her name on it. We had successfully avoided the need to use one for 5 plus years.

Until Saturday.

Saturday afternoon she called me from her friend, L's, house...

P.B.: "Mom, get my epi-pen ready. I ate some tree nuts."

Me: "What!?" "How!?" "When!?"

P.B: "They were in a cookie. My tongue is itchy and kinda getting big. L's mom is bringing me home right now."

When she arrives home, L's mom is so worried and apologetic. I'm sure I seem totally rude telling her it was okay, we'll take care of everything and pretty much blowing her off because I needed to follow P.B. into the house to give her the epi-pen.

Mark and I have a brief argument discussion about whether or not to give her the epi-pen, wherein I convince him we have to give it to her and then take her to the ER. I then hand him the epi-pen and tell him he gets to give it to her. {I'm such a pansy.} I did volunteer to hug her tight, which was a huge help I'm sure.

Epi-pen given, Pooh Bear and I head to the ER. En-route I ask her 8 to 23 times if she was still okay. 


We check into the ER and I realize that it's going to be traumatic not because of our situation but because of all the other interesting people there! The guy shaking in the corner of the tiny triage area, the crazy vocal lady without insurance on the other side of the curtain in the bed next to Pooh Bear {she may have hurt her knee but now it's totally better?}, and finally the little girl who had split her finger open falling off her bike, screaming while they performed a block on the finger. We both covered our ears for that part.

Anyway, they gave her some benedryl and a steroid that would help her body deal with the allergic reaction. she was really shaky with all the adrenalin and epinephrine coursing through her body. Then we waited to see if she had any other adverse reactions. We were there for about 2.5 - 3 hours under observation and then she was cleared to go home.


Thankfully before the doctors had to start more work on the little girl's finger next to us.

An exciting and, at the same time, utterly boring Saturday afternoon.

It was a favorable outcome {P.B. alive} and we learned a lot that afternoon. First, never assume that your friend's mom knows you have a food allergy. Always ask if the homemade cookies have walnuts in them! {I'm not sure what happened here. P.B. is so good at asking about the food she is given. She even asks me if I have put tree nuts in her food! Maybe she doesn't trust me!} But she did everything right after and was so great through the whole ordeal.

Statistically, it will happen again, but we'll be ready and we know how to handle it. Maybe this incident bought us another 5 careful years.

As an added bonus, she now has a great "What Happened This Summer" story when she goes back to school in the fall!

Friday, May 25, 2012

Dance Festival 2012

Today was the annual Dance Festival at Drama and Pooh Bear's school.

It was pouring down rain at 7:45 when I drove the girls to school.

But I have been through the refiner's fire when it comes to sitting in the rain/snow/wind/cold as a REAL Salt Lake season ticket holder so, we prepared for the worst.

But by the time we got to the school around 9:30 it had stopped raining and by the time the festival was over the sun was out and it was hot. Welcome to spring in Utah!

This year they went in order from youngest to oldest so Pooh Bear's grade (third) was up first {well, not first, I guess they were actually 4th, but you get my drift}. It was a new dance with awesome choreography and fun to watch. Pooh Bear did a few round off back handsprings at the very beginning and then rocked out with the rest of her class. Sadly, I didn't bring my good camera because of the rain so I have sad iPhone pictures to share and my phone was doing something weird so I didn't even get very many of those. Mark took video with his phone so you can watch all the dancing excitement! 



Drama's grade went 6th or next or whatever. She's in fifth grade. They had a cowboy/girl theme. They also tried to spice it up this year. Of course Drama is so tall she's waaayyyy in the back. I couldn't even find her until Mark pointed her out. Another awesome jig.



Between dance numbers Mr. Melville, the principal, {I totally just said to myself the principal is your pal to remember how to spell principal. Thank you 4th grade spelling tricks.} Would announce which kids had won the prizes from the Road to Success Reading program they have been doing all year. The kids would receive raffle tickets each week according the number of days they read and now the 5th and 6th graders were all in the running to win a Kindle. And guess which lucky 5th grader's name was called to win the Kindle....Drama's! She said she wasn't even paying attention but I screamed out loud like a crazy person. 


Ironically, she was going to get a Kindle for her birthday on Sunday. Now I have to come up with something else! Great.


Pooh Bear's the one in the hot pink shirt, BTW. {ha} She tumbles first in the back and  then she's on the front row, the 6th girl if you start counting from the left @ the girl with super long blonde hair.

Drama is on row 7 so you can't see her for most of the dance but towards the end when they dance in groups of 2 rows at a time -  she dances with the fourth group and she's front and center with the aqua tee shirt, denim shorts & cowboy hat.

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Can You Graduate With Honors from Preschool?

If anyone can it would be The Boss for sure!

Last Thursday The Boss graduated from Ms. Cathie's Preschool. She and her classmates have advanced from the 3 year old class to the prestigious 4 year old class.


It was held in the Primary room at the church and included several cute preschoolers, many songs with actions,


 silly faces and giggling.


All year as the class had been learning about the alphabet they made a scrapbook page for each letter and Ms. Cathie collected them all and made them into an adorable bound scrapbook. She presented each book to it's student and read the V page, for Valentine. Ms. Cathie asked them what they loved on Valentine's Day and this is what The Boss had to say:

I love...
my family. I love my 
Grandma and papa. I love 
Pizza Pie and my Mom. 
Oh and my Dad and my 
Mom. I love these shoes too... 
(points to her gold shoes! So cute.)


Ms. Cathie is an amazing teacher!


Of course little Miss Bea wanted to be a part of the action and kept trying to steal someone's chair. She won't have to wait for long, she starts preschool in September!


I tried to take a picture with the camera timer. 


It's always an adventure with these two!



Bring on the Summer!