My Gymnastics Girl!

So, Emery has one more competition for this season. I am so proud of my baby girl.  At the beginning of her 3rd grade school year, she had taken 4 maybe 5 gymnastics classes.  We were in a better financial situation so we decided to put her in gymnastics.  I was super excited!!! So we put her in a recreational gymnastics class and it was soon discovered she was advanced.  They (the gymnastics teachers) put her in a gymnastics class that was more advanced and still she needed something more challenging.  One day, I asked about competitive gymnastics.  The coach tested her and said she was a quick learner....and at the age of 8, she was young to start.  haha! The coach said she could practice with the competitive team, since they were forming the teams for the next season.  They put her in Level 3 and a couple months later she was a Level 4.  It has been so fun to see her learn and grow.  Sadly, Emery chose not to do competitive gymnastics next year.  =( I am kindof one sad momma...but can understand.

I have a few videos of her last competition but am having problems putting them on here.  So sorry! You'll have to do with some pics. =)

A Day At Pirate Park

Couch to 5k: Day 1

I have been feeling like my body needs to move, so I decided that I would "secretively" do a couch to 5k program. Then I thought that I could hold myself somewhat accountable if I blogged about it. So I did!
Walked for 4 min and Ran for 1. Feeling pretty good. Do have a little side stitch.
So I am out of shape and am excited to feel better about myself. I guess not so much in my weight on the scale. I have lost like 35lbs since the baby! But feeling healthy overall. So here is to feeling healthy!

My Baby Girl

Well, today was a special day for the Wright Family. It was the day that my beautiful daughter got baptized on her birthday! The program was beautiful...Emery was beautiful! I am just so proud of my baby girl that she chose to be baptized and become a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. She helped plan the whole program. We had two dear friends give talks on Baptism and the Holy Ghost. My hubby and I sang a song. My friend and her daughter played the piano and violin as welcoming music and as the interlude music. My mom said the closing prayer and Ethan gave the opening prayer. So many people came to show their love and support. I am just grateful for them and everyone who helped. And of course, I cried like a baby. My little girl was growing up and the Spirit filled my heart.

Emery's words of the day: "I was happy, scared, nervous and excited" She was so gracious with all of the gifts she received. My mom gave her scriptures with a cute ruffled scripture case.

*More pics to come*

Being "Single"

So, I have a few minutes before I Skype with my parents....so I thought I would jot down some happenings.

I have been a "single" parent for 4 days....and I'm ready for my sweet hubby to be back.

Thursday: Soccer Practices. Every Thursday, Emery and Ethan have soccer practices. Ethan has his at 4:30 and Emery's at 5:00. It is nice that they overlap a 1/2 hr...but that means I have to entertain my two youngest for an hour and a half. So bring on the snacks....and craziness.

Friday: Went to Movie Night at the kid's school. They showed National Treasure. They just had it on the football field. It was actually pretty fun. If you call playing Tag with six 2nd graders...then wohoo! Yes, I had to take several time-outs. haha. There was Chick-fil-a, a jumping castle and kids to play with. We didn't stay for the whole movie...but Miles was so interested in the stars. He kept on pointing to them and making me look with him. Cute boy!

Saturday: 9am-Soccer Game; 11-Lunch; 12-Soccer game; 2-Birthday party; 2:30-pick up apples for applesauce; 3:30-Pick up Emery from Birthday Party; 4-Diaper run; 5-Pizza and Movie

Sunday: Went to church. Sang in a duet for ward choir. It went well. Skyped with my parents. Made applesauce. (So this applesauce is a recipe that Ethan got in kindergarten) The applesauce is awesome!

Recipe:

10 apples, peeled and sliced

1 lemon, juiced

1 Cinnamon stick

Put in crockpot for 3 hours on high. Smash apples. Eat and enjoy!

Totally yummy.

...I love

...I love that every morning, Miles cuddles with me. He has his routine of getting a pillow and putting it next to my head. After he gets his pillow next to mine, he puts the "boppy" (the nursing pillow) and puts it on top of his pillow and then we name off the parts of the body he knows. (eye, ear, nose, head)

...I love how Miles is starting to repeat words. Balloon (th-oon), drink, pillow, ow, no...are some.

...I love that Ethan is learning his alphabet and the sounds to the letters. He spelt fox all by himself and then Emery played a game with him. She thought of three letter words and Ethan had to spell them out. And he did great!

...I love how Emery cleans her room up every night. She says she can't sleep when it is messy.

... I love that Emery insists on having a salad for her "sack lunch." She saw a friend who had a salad in her lunch and thought it was a good idea.

...I love how Preston prays that he'll be happy in his prayers. But not only does he pray that he'll be happy...but Mom, Dad, Emery, Ethan, Miles will be happy on earth.

...I love how Jac works unbelievably hard for his family. I love that he works hard so that I might be able to stay home and be with my beautiful children. Yes, difficult sometimes...but my treasures.

April

I've been looking at other blogs, and thought I would just jot down some April happenings.

WE RENTED OUR TOWNHOUSE IN UTAH!!! (Yay! After a year+ of being vacant!)

We had 3 visitors this month! Jac's brother Tyler had a conference in Denver and stayed with us for a night. My parents and brother came and visited on their way to Texas. And Glendon, Jac's best bud, stayed with us overnight on his way to Iowa. We've been blessed to have 3 visitors in a month.

Birthday celebrations galore. My 30th birthday. Had a party at a friends house, and it was a blast! Jac's 31st bday....partied while parents were here.

Helped with a Sock-hop for our ward. It was fun and loved dancing with all my kids.

Busy with my baby, Miles. He has learned to push the kitchen table chair over to the counters so that he can climb on the chair, climb on the counter, open the kitchen cabinets to get to the candy that is supposed to be hidden. (at 15 months!) Needless, to say, nothing is safe.

Had Easter at our friends, the Estes. Wonderful dinner and DELICIOUS ham! Actually everything was good. I am so grateful that Jesus died and suffered for our sins. I am so grateful that He was resurrected. I find joy and peace knowing that I too will be resurrected and live again with my family.

Emery's 7th Birthday!!

There's my beautiful 7 year old daughter!!!

Menu

Breakfast

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Muffins

Yogurt

Clementines

Strawberries

Lunch

Chicken

Ceasar Salad

Croutons

rolls

Dinner

Olive Garden

Emery got to choose her meal plan for the day. The big present that she wanted was going to get her ears pierced. We went to Claire's and she was a little nervous. We told her that she didn't have to do it, but she wanted to do it. She picked out light pink studs. I held her shaking hand while they pierced her ears. I am so proud of her!!! She did awesome!!!

When we got home, she told me, "Mom, when I am grown up...I'm going to tell my daughter that it hurts to get your ears pierced."

That night we went and ate at Olive Garden with our dear friends. They had a daughter that was turning 9. Our friend asked Emery if it hurt and she said, "oh, just a little." And then when my parents asked her she said, "not really."

She is such a funny girl. Emery, I love you so much. You amaze me every day. I love that you are a wonderful big sister and challenge yourself. Happy Birthday baby girl!

Christmas Card 2010

This year has been one of adventure and one filled with many blessings. At the very beginning of 2010, we were blessed with our fourth child, Miles Romney. Within his first 6 weeks of being born we put our house up for sale, moved into Jacob’s parents house, went house hunting and actually found a place to rent, and moved our family to Boulder, CO.

With our move, we truly have been blessed. We have wonderful friends and neighbors. We have had to rely on the Lord and know that He answers our prayers. May the Lord watch over you and your family in 2011.

Here is what we’ve been up to:

Emery, 7: She is loving being a 1st grader. She enjoys reading, writing, and is interested in fossils and rocks. She wants to be a paleontologist and a farmer when she grows up. She is also enjoying her first year of Girl Scouts. You can usually see Emery in a comfortable t-shirt, exercise pants, running shoes and her hair in braids.

Ethan, 4: He enjoys going to preschool. He loves doing crafts....so preschool helps a lot with that! He enjoys being anything Ninja. He enjoys printing out coloring pages and pays a lot of attention to detail. He usually finds a picture of a Ninja, Knight or Robin Hood figure and creates costumes after them. You can usually see Ethan in his Ninja costume.

Preston, 3: His biggest accomplishment this year is that he got potty trained! He has started singing to himself and we love to hear his little voice. (fav. song: Jingle Bells) He is all boy which comes with a lot of opinionated views and mischief. You can usually see Preston wearing his Optimus Prime mask.

Miles, 1: “Smiles” took his first steps at 10 months and now loves walking around everywhere showing off his new talent. He fills our lives up with the many smiles he gives. He is such a good baby. You can usually see Miles pretending to talk on the phone with anything he can hold up to his ear.

Jacob: Got hired by Jive Software. He enjoys working with his co-workers. They even had a day where they all went skiing together. He ran his first 10k at the Bolder-Boulder. He participated in Movember and got to grow out his facial hair for a whole month. Jac is cub master and recently got called to be a primary teacher for the Valiant 9-10 class.

Brittany: Keeps busy with feeding kids, taking kids to school, cleaning house (or trying), picking up kids from school and making meals for the family. And in her spare time likes to spend time with her friends and host parties meant for kids. Her life is filled with a lot of her kids (and hubby) which in turn comes with a lot of joy and happiness. She is the Relief Society Meeting Coordinator....and loves being a Mom!

Hudson Holiday Lights

We went to another night of fun! We drove down to Denver and went to the Hudson Holiday Lights. It was at the Hudson Gardens and Event Center. All I can say is...WAY FUN! It was fun walking around the gardens and seeing all the light displays. They had a cool house that was hooked up to music and different parts of the lights played with different parts of the songs. Kids loved it...and most of all, we went with our friends! They were such good sports about trekking and waiting for us with our 4 kids. (oh, and they have twin baby girls) We actually went to dinner and made a fun night out of it all. And, we got the tickets 1/2 price. Such a great night...have to do it again.

Girl Scouts & Ethan's Program

Ethan had a Polar Express program. He got to wear his pajamas to school and had a little program. He was so cute and did a great job! They sang Rudolf the red nosed reindeer and had cute little red noses. They had a surprise for the kids and Santa came! Ethan got to see Santa twice this year! He is asking for a Ninja costume for Christmas.

Emery sang at a nursing home with Girl Scouts. Just last month we signed her up for Girl Scouts. She loves it and I know we'll be doing a lot of fun things with the Daisy group. In January, she starts selling cookies. She also did a great job in her performance. She sang 10 songs, smiled and made eye contact with the audience.

Zoo Lights

Thoughts before I get started: (1) Can I say how grateful I am for cabbage leaves! (2) Was having a "rough" evening and Jac talked to Emery on the phone and the kids had me lay on the couch while they massaged and brushed my hair. I'm so grateful for my beautiful children. Emmy took care of Miles and then I felt very loved while Emmy massaged my back, Ethan brushed my hair and Miles was shoving pretzels into my mouth. And to top it off, Jac came home with flowers and donuts. Mmmm...(3) I love singing Christmas songs in church. We sang 2 closing hymns, and I loved the second song we sang "Silent Night." I love how in hymns you can truly share your testimony by singing. The Spirit touched my heart about the Savior and his divine plan for all of us. He is real. He loves us. And I love this Christmas season and may we reflect on His "gifts" to all of us.

At the last minute, we got invited to go see the Zoo Lights with our friends. They had a Zoo membership so....we got a little bit of a discount. Yea! It was just so fun! The kids got to see lights, some zoo animals and got to sit on Santa's lap.

Mickey D's

Jac went up with some of his co-workers and go skiing. It was for one night and a day....but still, that gave me the excuse to go out to eat. I talked with my friend and we promised each other that we would meet each other at the playground at McDonalds.

I was on my way to McDonalds and realized that there was no playground at this particular McDonalds. So I got my handy GPS and searched for McDonalds Playland. It popped another McDonalds restaurant up close-by so I followed "Gabby's" voice and made it there. (yes we call the voice on our GPS - Gabby - or as Jac puts it Gabby Google) And Yet...another McDonalds without a playland. It was late, kids were hungry and I was grumpy. We ate there.

Gathered all the kids up, got all their food, got their drinks, got into their seats at the table, was holding Miles on my lap and Presters needed to use the bathroom. AaAh...never a quiet moment...to sit down and enjoy the meal without getting up 20 times. Anyway, got Presters situated and we were all a little happier now that we were eating.

The cashier who took our order came up to us and gave me a gift card to McDonalds and said that the person who was giving this to you wanted to let you know that you had a beautiful family. Talk about how sweet and generous!!! After this incident, my burden was lightened. Thank you!!

Emery's loose tooth

It is interesting to Emery to check every night to see how many loose teeth she has. (it was always about 4 teeth that were loose)

Yesterday I picked her up from school and her top tooth was VERY loose. She wanted to pull on it and take it out. I told her to keep wiggling it, and it will get really loose.

Needless to say, she was OBSESSED about pulling her tooth out. She would take streams of toilet paper and wrap it around her tooth to try and pull it out. (quite funny) At bed time, she sat herself in front of the mirror and was determined to pull her tooth out. She got it so it was bleeding a little bit, and she freaked out every time she saw blood. But she didn't mind twisting her loose tooth sideways in her mouth and making funny faces. Finally, when we all gave up...there was a little voice in the bathroom that said, "I pulled it out. See, I told you it would come out." (yes, a little fact about Emery...she likes to prove her point ALWAYS...some might say she argues about "almost" everything...and this is the case...even if she is wrong) I sure do love my sweet pea.

The tooth fairy came and left her 50 cents...and Emery was thrilled!

Movember

Jac did Movember with his co-workers for the month of November. It is a charity kind of thing to bring awareness about men's prostate cancer...and they grow their beards out for the month of November. It has been the only time where I willingly let Jac grow out his facial hair. It was fun seeing him grow it out...but after the whole month...I don't like it. I didn't like kissing him: too scratchy! But to be honest, after he shaved it off after the month - it took some time getting used to his "baby face" again. But now I'm glad that I can kiss my sweetie without getting scratched!

Many faces of Jac:

Early Beard

Untrimmed Stache and beard

Goatee

Handlebar

Stache

Can I have a New Years Resolution yet?

I have thought of my New Years Resolution and that is....write in my blog once a week. I have neglected writing, and have found that I have been missing a lot of the "going-on's" that happen around here.

So even if it is a week loads worth....at least I'm writing...and my sister Morgan won't be mad at me. =)

This week's "going-on's"

Relief Society Meeting: In my ward, I'm the Relief Society Meeting Coordinator. So for our holiday meeting we decided to base it off the book "The Hundred Dresses." It was a fun idea and it actually turned out really well. We, of course, had a nice dinner. We had a speaker do a slide show of the book, then had some songs and then had another speaker talk about how this book relates to her in her life and focused it around Jesus. We did this enrichment with another ward. My ward was in charge of the decorations. Here is some...not so good pics of the evening. I couldn't have done it all by myself. Thank you so much for everyone that made it possible to have a beautiful night!

Christmas Tree: This year we decided to get a fake tree - since we are renting, less we have to worry about: needles and fire hazard. I hit a Black Friday sale and got a lit tree for way cheap. Isn't our tree beautiful!

Christmas package: We got a package from Grandma! Thank you Mom!!! There was several presents that were labeled "Open Now." We got advent calendars - which I'm really excited about...couldn't find them anywhere...so thanks Mom! And a fun hat that jingles to "Jingle Bells" music.

Haha...these just make me laugh!

This is a Halloween Photo Gallery

Halloween was fun! Miles was a bumblebee, Preston was Optimus Prime, Ethan was Bumblebee the transformer and Emery was Toph from Avatar:The Last Airbender. We went and picked pumpkins from the pumpkin patch. The kids had a blast carving them. We also had a kids Halloween party at our house. We did skeleton necklaces, Halloween bingo, a donut eating contest and had fun with our friends. On Halloween, we had several couples over and had chili. It was fun! Can't wait till Halloween next year.