Spelling Bee!

I'm just gonna start by saying I'm probably the worst "school mom" in the world. My kids better learn responsibility quickly because I'm TERRIBLE at making my kids do homework, or teaching them anything. Deacon taught himself to read at age 3-4 and whenever I tell anyone he can read I like to make sure they know that it has NOTHING to do with me. He's just a freak.
Anyway, through no fault of my own Brighton is an awesome speller! I noticed she was always getting perfect scores on spelling tests (again, not because I EVER maker her study them.) so when some information came about a school spelling bee I encouraged her to give it a try. She has stage fright (you wouldn't guess that if you know her) so it took some prodding. She made the top 10 in the class before we had a chance to really study the words and then we worked pretty hard on studying the words. But there were like 100 of them!
I was so excited when she made top 3 in her class and got to go on to the school bee! It was funny though because she didn't want to do the school bee. She said she only wanted to do the class one because "the kids think I'm not smart and I wanted to show them that I am." Mission accomplished. But she went on to the school-wide bee and she did a great job! She only messed up because she got going too fast.

Piper turns 3!

My BABY is 3! And the funniest thing on the planet.  Talk about personality! This kid is constantly on one, I swear. If you give her a little attention, she will put all she has into making you laugh! She's also a feisty-pants and a mamma's girl. When I was growing up I always heard about when I was a toddler I'd just slowly and quietly climb onto someone's lap in between what they were trying to do. I thought that was funny but didn't really get what they meant until I had Piper and she does the exact same thing. The minute I sit down to do anything, there's Piper nudging herself onto my lap. Or if I'm walking, it's less subtle. She'll speed up and run right in front of me, put her arms up and say "hold you!" And I do.  I can't resist holding this little pumpkin and it doesn't help that she only weighs 25 lbs at 3 years old! Yes, I should teacher her to say "hold me" instead of "hold you" but it's too stinkin' cute and she's my last, so dang it! I'm holding out. Don't judge.

Some things about Pip:
She's still completely persnickety. She wants what she wants, whether it's a certain cereal bowl or a dress she wants to wear. She'll be super stubborn until she gets it.
She's Miss Independent! You can tell her to go get dressed, forget you even asked her, and she'll come down 10 minutes later completely changed. And then she'll yell "Surprise!" 
Anything she CAN do (or thinks she can do) by herself, she will! She likes to be my "big helper".
She's finally over Daniel Tiger! For a solid year that is ALL she wanted to watch and she's finally outgrown him.
She loves to drink warm milk in a sippy cup WHILE watching TV. If I get her milk before her show is ready, she'll save her milk until the show she wants is on so she can watch it and drink at the same time. Kinda like how I like eating ice cream while watching the Bachelor. It's ceremonial.
Her favorite people are Matthew Stimpson and her cousin Michael.

And they both adore her in a dangerous way. Dangerous because she likes it when they do naughty things... so when they're together BAD things happen! Such as:

 

She's kind of a homebody. She likes going to do things but only for a little while and then it's "I want to go home!" When we're at the park, she'll play for a while and then want to spend the right of the time on my lap.

Her favorite thing in the world is "ballerina class".

 

 

Catching up- Soccer Season

This fall Deacon played on a little 4-year-old soccer team. It was Saturdays only, which was great for beginners. They both played in the Spring but it wasn't for Brighton. She liked it because her team was mostly girls. They named themselves the "Cheetah girls" and wanted to gab the whole time, whether they were on the sidelines or the fields. (Brighton had never met these girls before, but of course they were instant BFF's.)  It was funny, if the ball happened to be kicked right to her, she'd look at it, kick it away and go back to chatting. Hilarious.

Deacon wanted to play again in the fall. He's definitely not the best on the team, but not the worst either! Mostly he just runs fast and tries to get the ball if it breaks away from the kid-cluster. He scored one goal and grabbed the side of his head in excitement!

Some pics from Spring:

Brighton turns 8!

Brighton, please stop growing up!
The days are long but the years are short and I can't believe Brighty is 8. It's such a "milestone year" in our culture/religion.  She's right in the middle of being a "little kid" and just being a kid. Although she thinks she's a teenager. ;)
  I need Aaron to take her out for a good 8-year-old photo shoot, but here are a couple shots I got during the rush right before her baptism.

Some things about Brighton at 8:
Loves to read anything funny. i.e. Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Ivy and Bean, My Weird School, Dork Diaries
Worships her cousin, Cannon. (I think he's pretty great, too.)
Doesn't like cake, and for the most part prefers healthy foods, except when it comes to Donuts or thin mints girl scout cookies!

Can manipulate Deacon and Piper to do anything she wants or give her anything she wants. (A dangerous skill.)
Had a "rock star" birthday party with 14 girls at our house!
Favorites colors: Bright pink, purple and turquoise (the colors of her bedroom)
Loves playing with friends: Elle, Reese, Katie, Anila  She especially loves doing arts and crafts with friends.


For Halloween she wanted to be a "tap dancing butterfly queen from Hawaii." Cause why not?


 

I love how quirky and silly she is!

Favorite chore: cleaning toilets
Least favorite chore: Cleaning her room.

I write my kids letters every 6 months or so. It started when Brighton was 3 and I just got this glimpse of her as a teenager and it wasn't gonna be pretty. I wanted to document how I felt about her all these years so she would know how much I've always loved her even when she hates me (which she will). I don't share them on my blog cause they're super-duper cheesy but here's an excerpt from one I wrote to her in November.:

You may never fully understand how much I love you. How much my heart aches to keep you young and with me forever. Sometimes I see you in these moments of "kid bliss" like when you win a carnival game or pop bubbles out of the air and you're so happy and I just take these mental pictures that can bring me to tears later. You mean SO much to me. You're always in my heart. Always.
Mommy

One Strange Night

First a little background about my old neighbor from Kamay Dr.- Fatima Terziqui.  They came to Idaho as refugees from the Kosovo/Serbian war in the late 90's.... and moved onto my street in about 2009. She didn't know anyone and didn't speak great English but her youngest kids (twins) and Brighton are the exact same age so we got to know one another. For a while I used to kind of avoid Fatima. She always needed help making a phone call, or a ride somewhere (she was scared to drive because they don't teach women to drive in Kosovo.) Or she needed help with the computer, etc.... Then one day I heard her knock on my door. I was pregnant and sick with Deacon, tired and just tired of helping her with everything but decided I better answer. (I think she saw me pull into my garage.) She used to watch for my car and then run over to talk to me while I was getting out of the car.  Anyway, I opened the door and I could tell she was upset. She said she needed help with Skype because her dad was very sick and possibly dying and she needed to say goodbye. (Most of her family was either in Kosovo, Turkey or Germany but they were all making their way back to Kosovo to help re-build the country after the war and reclaim their village.) All the sudden, Fatima became something else to me, instead of the needy neighbor she became a Daughter of God. I don't know why I hadn't thought of her as my sister in Christ before but it hit me so strongly that even though she called her God "Allah" He loved her JUST AS MUCH as he loves me and my earthly sisters. She was someone's sister, daughter, mother and she was alone in this strange country, all alone.  How would I want someone to treat my sister if she was all alone in a strange country?  I gladly helped her that day and most days thereafter and we actually became good friends. She just needed someone to talk to, someone to confide in, someone to make her feel not so alone.
  SO...back to the strange night. We've been off the street and in another neighborhood for about 8 months now but I've seen her several times since we moved. She called one day and invited me to a party they were throwing for their son. It was some kind of cultural party to celebrate the boy after he gets circumcised at age 7 or 8.  She insisted we come and that it was very important for us to come. Well, we were the only non Albanian family at the party. The party was catered by an Iraqi family. Everyone was dressed in super formal clothing and the family probably spent an entire month's salary (or more) on this party. The father makes beds at the hospital overnight and Fatima works at Little Caesars. They rented a Hummer limo for an hour and took the kids on a ride, and brought in an Albanian DJ from Nevada. I could tell what a source of pride this party was for the family. The crazy part was when the women got up to dance...and never stopped. They did this dance, or a similar version all night! They stood in a circle, held hands and walked around the circle, two steps forward, one step back. ALL NIGHT. I quickly caught on and it was actually funner than it looked! But not in 4 inch heels. The more the men drank, the louder it got! All I can say it was quite an experience!

October Utah trip

In October, Brighton had a couple days off school and Aaron was in the throws of his busy season, so I decided to make a trip to Utah to see friends and family.
We seriously packed in the fun!
We spent a good part of one day at the Gardner Village witch festival, which my kids loved. We did this little scavenger hunt to find all the witches (All for a 50 cent sugar cookie.) Then there was this witch playground and Brighton seriously bonded with a witch named Trixie.

This picture made me laugh when I looked at it after we got home because Brighton looks like the witch! They're making the same face and are missing the same teeth!! Brighton had no idea she was mimicking the witch.

All the "little" Hale grandkids.

Pretending to be scared. :)

 

We also spent some time at the Salt Lake City children's museum. It's right below my brother-in-law's work, so Lynzi has a season pass. My kids loved it there.

 

I talked everyone into going to Lagoon for Frightmares because I'd never been and I'm a total little kid when it comes to Lagoon. I love it.
  Tami and her girls came from Wyoming and I even met some of my Meridian friends there for part of the time. Also, my cousin Shane, his wife Kathy and their girls met us there because they have season passes. :) At first I had to talk Brighton into doing some of the rides. Then she went off with her older cousins and did all the scariest rides! I was sad I missed it but glad she did it!  For sure the highlight of the trip, even though it was a long day!

These two are SO cute together. I couldn't stop taking pictures of them.

Minnie's Water Park

Piper and I play this game where she is Minnie Mouse and I'm Daisy Duck. We use super high pitched voices and my Daisy Duck is spot on.... not at all. But I do sound like an annoyingly sweet cartoon character. I should preface this story by saying Piper has become my magnet lately. Wherever I go, she goes. Doing my makeup, going potty, getting dressed, there is my little pint-sized shadow. So I'm doing my hair in the bathroom playing Minnie Mouse which is a talking only game. So we say "What do you want to do today?" and we talk about doing something like packing a picnic and going to the park. So I say I want to go to the waterpark and she disappears!  She comes back 3 minutes later dressed in her swimsuit and says, "Let's go to the water park!" When I told her it was just in the Minnie Mouse game this happened:

Aww, break your heart, right?

What's a mom to do except fill up the bathtub! Crisis Averted: