McKay

McKay is almost 4 and just started his first year of preschool. His teachers are Ms. Emily and Ms. Lisa. He was totally against going to school back when we registered but now he loves it and gets so exited when we even see his school and acts so grown up with is backpack and lunchbox. I've loved having so much one on one time with him. He is really funny and just a super cool kid. He likes cartoons and cars and throwing balls and going to the pool and riding his bike. His favorite place to eat is Chick-fil-a, but he calls it Chich-a-lay. He wants to eat lunch there everyday. He always wants to help with dinner and he always wants to say the prayer. He loves to snuggle and have piggie back rides. He likes to dance and be silly and bother his older brothers and sisters and he laughs a lot. He brings so much fun and happiness to our home. I can't imagine live without him.

Gracie

Gracie is 6 and is in 1st grade. Her teacher is Mrs Breithart. She loves school. She works hard and does a great job at school. She loves writing and drawing pictures. She's a good reader but she would much rather be read to. She has lots and lots of energy and loves dancing and being silly. She loves her friends and is a really good friend. She is a great snuggler and a big mama's girl. She is friendly to everyone. She likes to watch tv and ride her bike and her scooter. She loves going to the pool and is working really hard at learning to swim. Her bedroom is by far the messiest one in the house. She's not very good at getting her chores done but she helps out some. She likes to have her hair done and get dressed up. She comes up with some pretty great outfits, and she changes her clothes about 5 times a day. Probably why her room is such a mess. She's so much fun and makes me laugh all the time. I love her to pieces.

Abby

Abby is almost 8 and 1/2 and is in 3rd grade. Her teacher is Mr. Jaques. She loooooves school, and loves learning. They are studying space and she spent a whole evening making a solar system. It wasn't an assignment, she just wanted to. She did a great job and brought it to school and her teacher hung it up in the classroom. She is a happy, silly kid. She likes to play with Bryce and take care of McKay. She's always loving on him. She has the cleanest bedroom in the house and is very responsible. She does her own laundry and helps with cleaning the kitchen and picking up the house. She doesn't like me to do her hair very ofter but sometime she'll let me. She tries to get away with wearing make-up and can't believe she has to wait 4 more years. She's very dramatic. She is very social and has lots of friends. Her best friend is Alex. She can be kind of shy with adults but surprises me how brave she is, like trying out for the school talent show and doing cartwheels in the family talent show at the Pope reunion. She just passed the swim test at the community pool a couple of weeks ago. She tried sooo many times through out the summer but she never gave up. She's amazing and I love her so very, very much.

Bryce

Bryce is 10 years old and is in 5th grade. His teach is Mr. Rasavage. He is in an all boy class and is loving it. He does great at school. He is a good reader and really good at math and is an amazing writer. He could totally be an author. Plus he has great handwriting. He's great at sports and loves PE. His favorite sport is football. He just got his bear badge in scouts and is going into Webelos. He likes running, and has done two races with me this year. Of course not totally with me, because he's a lot faster than I am. He is very thoughtful and caring. He has such a big heart. He is always willing to help. He does his own laundry and takes his turn doing dishes, sweeping, vacuuming, and cleaning bathrooms. And he does anything else I ask him to do, mostly without complaining. He likes to go to story time at the library and participates with all of the little kids. It cracks me up. He likes to play Wii and play in the front yard with friends. He will still hold my hand in public and even kiss me goodbye in front of his friends. He talks in funny voices a lot. He has a great imagination and likes to make up games and play with Abby. He's a great big brother. He's just himself and doesn't care what other people think. He's fun and silly and I love him to death.

NATE

Nate is 11 and 1/2 and is in 6th grade. His teacher is Mrs. Leuschner. She's super nice and he is enjoying school so far. She even called him from home to check on him the evening after he went to the ER for passing out at school. He loves to read and is currently on book 8 of the Penn Dragon series. He's good at math and has a great imagination. His favorite sport is football. Currently he has decided he wants to be in a rock band. He will play bass and his friend Alex will play guitar. They sill need to find a drummer and maybe a keyboardist and a lead singer, and a song writer. He likes to sing "rock songs", but hates singing in primary and in music at school because they sing "childish songs". He also likes watching tv, riding his bike, and playing on the Nintendo ds. He set a goal for himself to become an Eagle Scout when he's 14 years old, and he's working hard to reach that goal. When he grows up he wants to make lots of money so he's thinking about becoming a doctor. He want to go to the Air Force Academy. He's very open and will talk to me about anything and everything, and I do mean everything. He's becoming quite a gentleman. Most of the time he will hold doors for people without being reminded. He gets embarrassed easily but gets over it easily too. Sometimes he will still let me hold his hand in public. He tries really hard to be responsible and show me that he's growing up and can handle more responsibility and privileges. He helps out a lot around the house. He does his own laundry, and takes his turn doing dishes, sweeping, cleaning bathrooms, and vacuuming. If only he would clean his bedroom. He is a really good kid and I'm so glad he's mine.

weren't you just here two days ago?

Yes! Yes we were. I was joking with Heather today about how now that we have reach Nate's annual insurance deductible, he can go ahead and get sick or hurt all he wants because it won't cost me a thing. What a dumb thing to say. Only hours later we were back at the ER with a dislocated thumb. It happened at school during PE. It was at about 3:15 and the 6th graders were playing capture the flag out in the playing field. I was walking across the field with Heather to pick up the kids from school. I saw Nate playing then when I looked again he was walking to the teacher, Mr. K, with his hand out. Mr. K looked at it, called for another teacher and started walking Nate to the school. I walked over to them and saw his thumb. I had to look away and told them to go inside. I was following them but had to stop on the bridge and almost through up. I pulled myself together, mostly, and went inside. There was a police officer in the building and someone called for him to come look at it. I think he called for the paramedics, which I thought was kind of extreme, but they came and looked at it too and told me that I needed to take him to the ER to have it X-rayed and set back in place by a doctor. So off we went. Heather took my other kids and I called Sam to meet me at the hospital. It was pretty quick and not too painful. The numbing shots were the most painful part. They pulled it into place, X-rayed it, put a splint on it and sent us on our way. And we still had time to make it to the back to school BBQ, were Nate got to tell the tale to all of his friends.

2010 pictures

Last Sunday we went to the canyon to get some pictures of the kids. Here are a few of my favorites. Hopefully in a few weeks we will get a family picture and I'll actually send out Christmas cards this year.

never a dull moment

I started to get a cold last Friday and I still feel like crud, so today I'm blogging from bed. Yesterday was supposed to be my stay in bed all day and get feeling better day, but it didn't work out as planned. I dropped McKay off at school and then stopped by Heather's house to check out her new paint and curtains and hang out. *I know this post is totally boring so far, but keep reading, you could win a prize* At about 11:15 I left. I had time for a two hour nap before I needed to pick up McKay and I needed it. Badly. It was not to be. When I got in my car I noticed a message from the school on my cell phone. Nate had bumped his head on a table and I needed to call the school. Kids bump their heads all the time at school and they don't call home about it so I was a bit worried. I called the school as I was driving to the school. Apparently he bumped it pretty hard but it was no big deal until 20 minutes later he was walking across the room and passed out on the floor. Awesome. I called his doctor's office and the nurse said I needed to take him to the ER for a CT scan. Really. Shouldn't I just keep an eye on him for the rest of the day and watch for any changes? No, really, he needs a CT scan. Okay. So we headed to the ER. The Dr. did some neurological tests. You know, like, When is your birthday? and Can you follow my finger? Then she did a regular exam and asked how he was feeling. Do you have a headache? No, not really. Do you feel sick to your stomach? No, not really. Then She says, Well I think he's fine but we're going to go ahead a run a bunch of really expensive and mostly unnecessary tests so we can charge you a load of money and make sure that he's fine. *not her exact words*. So they did an EKG, a CT scan, a urine test, several blood tests, and started a bag of fluids in an IV. Of course everything was normal, of course. So, how much do you think it is going to cost us to find out that everything was fine and they don't know why my kid fainted 20 minutes after hitting his head. Leave your guess in the comments and who ever is closest will get a prize. Winner will be announced when I get the bill.

Pope Family Reunion

I forgot my camera at the reunion but my Aunt Jana posted some pics on Facebook so I copied them. On Saturday of the reunion there were lots of fun activities. A nail driving contest, log sawing contest, and a volleyball tournament. Our volleyball team totally won the tournament by the way. On my team was me, Sam, my SIL Kacey, my uncle Taylor, and two of my cousins Clint, and Micah. We rocked. It was so much fun. I wish I could play volley ball more often. Totally my favorite sport to play. We had such a good time the whole weekend. I'm so glad we went. The kids got to run around with sticks and play in the river and be filthy and get to know some of their family better. It was totally worth the trip.

My Family

First Day of School

The 4 older kids all started school on Wednesday.
Nate is in 6th grade. Bryce in 5th. Abby in 3rd. Gracie in 1st. We love all of their teachers and everyone had a great first week. McKay had his first day of preschool on Thursday. Those pics are on my phone. I'll post them soon. So verry, very cute. It was orientation day so I stayed with him the whole time. His first real day is on Tuesday and he is exited.

Pope Family Reunion

Because we haven't done enough traveling in the last month we decided to go to the Pope Family Reunion in La Plata, near Durango, CO. I'm glad we are going. The reunion is every other year and we didn't go to the last one so it's been 4 years. The Pope's are my mom's side of the family. Just a quick run down of the Pope Family. It consists of, My Grandma, Mimi, My Grandpa, and Step-grandma and my grandparent's 14 children (my mom is number 5) + their spouses and 75* grandchildren. To the best of my knowledge 45* of those grandchildren are married and have produced around 75* great grandchildren. That's over 230* people! As a family we are spread out all of the country. Needless to say I do not know all of these people intimately, but I have made it a point to at least know the names of all 70 of my first cousins, and of course my aunts and uncles. Through facebook and blogs I have gotten to know some of them better but I'm looking forward to actually seeing a lot of them for the first time in a long time. There are 7 of us that are within a few months of the same age. I remember as a kid how much I loved the Pope Reunions. My cousins and I would share a tent and build dams in the river and a few of us girls would sneak off and go skinny dipping. And even though we didn't see each other any other time of the year we would pick up right were we left of 2 years earlier as though no time had passed. I remember my aunt Dedria do french braids in our hair. I remember my uncle Terrel taking kids out to find arrow heads. I remember my older cousins Shana and Raina pretending that they were going to push me off of a cliff. I remember I thought my older cousin Anthony was soooo cute. Ahhh, so many memories. I'm glad we are going.

*These numbers were just my best guesses, actually on the cousin one I was just wrong, but my aunt Arla put together a chart with all of the family members on it and here are the actual numbers. My grandparents have 70 grandchildren and 93 great grandchildren + 41 of the grandchildren are married for a grand total of 234 people in the Bill and Lois Pope family, including in-laws. WOW! I actually guessed pretty close.

Legal Sea Foods in Boston

While we were in Boston I posted this picture on Facebook.

My mom showed McKay the pictures I posted.

Today:

McKay-"Mom, why when you were in Boston Grandma showed me a picture of Nate eating a Lobster, but he didn't die?"

More of Boston.

Last week Sam had his annual busness conference in Boston. Nate and Bryce and I tagged along. Nate just finished 5th grade where they learned about the Revolutionary War and Bryce is about to go into 5th grade so I thought it might be fun for them to see some of the Revolutionary War sites. We walked the freedom trail which stop at 18 or so historical sites, including the USS Constitution, Bunker Hill Monument, The Old North Church, Granary Burial Ground, and Paul Revere's house.

Boston

We had a great time in Boston. Here's a sneak peak of some of the sights we took in while we were there.