Hillside Galloops

This picture is from back in August but I found it just now and realized I never wrote the story for our journal. My dad tells the story of a hillside galloop that he once saw. It is his favorite story to tell when we are camping up Loss Creek. It is half man/half animal and it has one leg shorter than the other. So, if you are ever running around a hill and are being chased by one (and they are fast), all you have to do to escape is turn around and run the other way because that will cause him to topple over because he can only run one way around a hill because of his short leg! He will just fall down the hill if you turn around!

Sounds scary right? Well, my girls are afraid of them and even though they have never seen one, they believe that they do exist because Grandpa swears he has seen one. 

Anyway...one day we were shopping for school clothes and Saige saw these pants/capris, held them up and said with excitement, "MOM! This must be what the hillside galloops wear!!!"

One day Madi came home upset from school because she had been telling the kids on the playground about the hillside galloops and they told her that they weren't real. She said to them, " YES THEY ARE-MY GRANDPA HAS SEEN ONE!"

Thanks Dad!

Share Week

Back in March it was Madisen's share week. This is like show and tell for one student, all week long. She decided that she wanted to play her violin for her class. I was so proud of her. She doesn't like to practice or go to lessons but she does like to perform (which is SO unlike her-she gets embarrassed so easily and worries about what others think of her). The kids in her class were so impressed and asked a million questions when she was finished. 

 She was getting ready for school and came out like this and said, "every violinist gets dressed up before a recital"!

The only thing that wasn't fun about it was that Brett was gone to a conference in Dallas and I had to take the babies. I loaded them up in the stroller and once we got inside the classroom, Sydney was SO loud. Every noise she made resulted in a roar of laughter from the 30 kids in Madi's class, which made her only want to make more loud noises. Madi's teacher was getting really annoyed so I ended up waiting outside for them to finish. 

HELP!

So, my little Brother Jade is getting married and we just found out that he and his fiance Bailey are one of 5 finalists to win an all expenses paid wedding. Isn't that exciting?
So, here's where you can help. Click on the following link and vote for them please!

CLICK HERE

Thanks a bunch!

violin recital

Saige and Madi had their violin recital on Saturday. I am SO proud of them for how well they are doing with violin-especially since the babies were born. I haven't been good at getting them to practice everyday but they are sticking with it and they keep improving. They are SO cute when they play. I am surprised at how easy it is for them to memorize their pieces.

This is Saige playing Medieval Tale

This is Madisen playing Heat Haze

I am also so proud of how they are doing at school. These pictures are from the last awards assembly where they were each recognized. They are at the top of their class both academically and behaviorally.

Love to hear this

Bully

Which baby is the bigger Bully?

This is Dalton trying to 'share' the bird with Syd. Brett says it's his favorite thing to play with when he is in there so he is trying to share it with her. I say that he is doing it to annoy her. You be the judge.

This is Sydney. EVERY time I give Dalton his bottle, she throws hers across the room and crawls over to steal his. She doesn't want to drink it, just steal it and play with it. This video doesn't do it justice-she is usually more aggressive!

Politically correct!

There has been a lot of discussion around our house about the up-coming election. Mostly because we watch a lot of Fox News. I don't have it on when the kids are around though so I have been surprised about some of the questions I have been getting from Madisen. I have tried as hard as I can in the past to teach them to respect the office of the President, even though I don't agree with one thing Obama has done since being there. I could go on and on about the fact that I paid $4.19/gallon for gas today at Costco and our government won't allow us to drill on our own land, or the fact that the government spends almost 1 billion dollars (that's a lot of zeros) on advertising each year-things like advertising for food stamps. My blood is beginning to boil just thinking about it. Then there's Solyndra and Acorn, etc. etc. etc. GGGGRRRRR!

All you need to know for the story is that I say things to my kids like, "we don't agree with the decisions our government is making so we would like for there to be a new President at the next election".

Today Madisen asked me if I would be voting for Romney. I told her that I am still deciding who I think will be the best candidate. She said, "But Mom, he goes to our church".
I told her that just because someone goes to the same church we do, doesn't mean that they would make a great president. I told her that there are some things that I do like about Romney but I like things about some of the other candidates as well and that I need more time to make an informed decision. She kept pressing me and in the end I told her that I will be voting for whoever is running against Obama.
She sighed and said, "Well, I just hope Romney is fast."
I said, "Why?"
She said, "Because if he is running against Obama, he's going to need to be pretty fast"!

Here I was thinking that I had done a great job explaining to my kids (at their level, of course) how politics works. I forgot to clarify that it is NOT a foot race!