Friday, June 26, 2015

Happy Birthday, Sandy!

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This little girl is 7!  She’s not so little anymore…  She is so much help at home, she loves her baby brother. She loves to read, she’s been devouring the books she gets at the library and is excited to read some new books she got for her birthday.

 

Blowing out birthday pancakes the morning of her birthday:

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Blowing out a giant chocolate chip cookie cake that night:

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Blowing out a pumpkin chocolate chip mini muffin at her birthday party with her friends today:

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We do friend birthday parties every other year and usually keep them pretty low key. But I just finished a business program (more about that below) and one of the ladies in my class owns a blow dry bar called Pro Do. They style hair – no cuts or color, just hair styling. She has a storefront but she’s also gutted a 40-foot tour bus and put a beautiful salon inside. She drives her bus to weddings, events, AND birthday parties. 

 

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These girls each had their hair styled, nails painted, and lips glossed (and they got to keep their lip gloss).

 

Last night was the graduation ceremony for the business program I finished. It’s the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses program and here is my class:

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It was a fabulous experience although rather intense. It was 16 weeks of classes, one full day a week and sometimes more. The classes were very useful – all taught by people who were successful business owners. The best part of the class, though, was my classmates. 27 successful entrepreneurs, all with experience, wisdom, and ideas to share. We became really close over those 16 weeks and it was fun to see them again last night at the graduation ceremony.

The end product of the class was that we each wrote a 5-year business growth plan for our own business. They will survey us after 6 months, 18 months, and 30 months to see how much we’ve grown (revenue) and how many jobs we’ve added to the economy. It’s an amazing program and I encourage any one with a business to check it out. It’s completely free.

Goldman Sachs has invested millions of dollars into this program with the belief that teaching business owners how to be more successful is the best way to create more jobs. The program was developed by Babson College. They’ve partnered with colleges around the country to offer this program, and they even have an online national version for those that don’t live in one of the cities served by the program.

 

The class involved a lot of soul searching and discussions about work-life balance and goals…. One of the surprising things that came out of it is Bill and I decided to drop our daycare this summer and have me stay home with the kids. The hope was to hire an administrative assistant and that hasn’t worked out (anyone know someone looking for a job in SLC?) but so far we’ve made it work.

We’ve had a  fun summer. We have a schedule. I’ve been getting up and going to the gym then swinging by the office to enter any checks and create a deposit. I get home by 7 a.m., just as the kids are waking up and we have breakfast. The girls are good at getting their morning chores done: they have to do 20 minutes of online school, make their bed, and do 10 minutes of cleaning.

Then we try to leave the house by 9:30 every morning. We have done some really fun things. Here’s a picture of Abby walking on stilts at This is the Place Park:

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We’ve also been catching the summer kids movie on Wednesdays at the gateway, going to the library, parks, hiking, and more.

We try to get home for lunch and to put Liam down for a nap. The girls have to stay downstairs with me while Liam naps and if they read for 20 minutes and clean their room and the family room they get to watch some TV. If they watch TV, I can reconcile business accounts and get some work done.

It’s worked pretty well for us. I think the girls are really getting sick of each other. I could use some ideas for separating them. They have a love-hate relationship so I put them in separate rooms and they don’t stay very well. They want to play together – and sometimes they play beautifully together. But they fight a lot.

 

 

It’s been 7 months since I’ve updated this blog. I’ll try to go put a short post with some pictures for each month. But in December my dad was diagnosed with Esophageal Cancer that has metastasized to his liver. The kids all have shirts that say “I wear Periwinkle for my grandpa.” I guess I don’t have a picture of Abby in her shirt, but here are the other two.

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Sunday, May 31, 2015

Happy Birthday, Abby!

 

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Abigail is 5 years old! I can’t believe how much she’s grown over the last year! Apparently this is the only birthday picture I have. I’m sure we took more, maybe they’ll turn up later. We made rainbow cupcakes for her preschool class and she had a party at the nearby indoor pool.

 

Here’s Liam eating pancakes on Abby’s birthday:

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Some other things that happened in May….

 

Sandy lost her first tooth!!  She’s been anxiously awaiting this event for the past 2 years.

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One day Sandy asked if she could paint her nails. I was in the middle of making dinner and told her it was fine but to go outside.

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She came in with nail polish ALL over her hands and said it was harder than she’d thought it would be to paint her own nails.

 

Abby made a no phones sign for her “dance recital.”

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Then stopped dancing to ask why I wasn’t recording her dance. I told her I’d put my phone away. So she gave me permission to get it back out so I could record her dance.

 

We found a friendly kitty outside the doctor’s office when we went for Abby’s well child visit. We gave the kitty a drink of water and the kids played with her for almost an hour.

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Here is Liam pulling Abby in the wagon one day when we went to pick Sandy up from school. He didn’t make it very far, but he did pull her. He is a very determined kid!

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Abby on a mama date to celebrate getting a gold medal from her online preschool. Utah offers a free online preschool and it’s been fantastic. Abby has learned so much and (most of the time) really enjoys doing it. She earns a gold medal for doing it at least 15 minutes a day 5 days a week for an entire month. I think that’s worth an ice cream cone!

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Abby’s preschool graduation. She also went to a preschool 3 afternoons a week.

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Here she is with her preschool teacher.

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Abby got accepted to ELP – it’s the accelerated elementary school program – for kindergarten next year and it’s all day. We’re excited. All day school is going to be a good thing for this busy little girl. Luckily for me, the program she is in is at the same school Sandy goes to. Two kids in school all day next year at the same school!! I’m looking forward to it!

 

We went to a craft day at the library. Abby made this puppet. Yes, that would be my child wearing snow boots with shorts.

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Sandy made this pretty purse with fringe.

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Thursday, April 30, 2015

April

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Liam went with me to the shoe store. I was having arch pain and I bought some tennis shoes with molded arches. We were there for awhile. The shoe saleswoman was brilliant – she put socks on Liam’s hands. He loved it. And when he touched the mirrors and windows he didn’t leave finger prints.

 

Here he is in a sling. He got nursemaid’s elbow but the instacare couldn’t pop it back in so they sent him home in a sling. Didn’t slow him down a bit.

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Bill ended up popping it back in after watching a youtube video. I’m sure glad I spent several hours and several hundred dollars at the instacare. I think we’ll try youtube first next time.

 

Abby holding a chick at This is the State Park. Doesn’t everyone dress like a ballerina to go to a petting zoo?

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Trip to the zoo:

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Liam playing with playdough – can you believe how grown up he looks?

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This kid loves feeding himself and he uses a fork like a pro.

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On a big boy swing:

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Here’s our table set for Passover. How do I not have any Easter pictures?

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Tuesday, March 31, 2015

March

What did we do in March? Apparently not much based on the photos from my phone.

 

Abby’s spring concert at preschool:

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Abby doing her online preschool in a blanket fort under the table while Liam watches:

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Saturday, February 28, 2015

February

Family picture at one of Sandy’s school activities:

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Abby cut her own bangs and her grandma cut her more bangs to cover them. They are slowly growing out:

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Sandy dressed up for 100 days of school:

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This is what our house looks like a lot of the time:

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Abby LOVES her baby brother. He does NOT love her loving him.

 

And here’s another thing that happens a lot. Only often it’s all three kids that want to be in my lap at the same time.

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He loves tools, wires, cables….

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We had a very warm February. It was nice:

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Bill took the girls to the stake daddy-daughter dance. It was a western theme this year.

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Liam got into the diaper rash cream:

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Saturday, January 31, 2015

January

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The two pictures above were taken during Primary. Apparently it was really windy when Sandy got hers taken.

 

We went to St. George to see one of Bill’s friends get married.

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