Daily Ten

- The boys went to the dentist and did great. They both ended up with a couple cavities, but they handled the x-rays and check-ups really well. Of course they were thrilled to pick out a toy. Bryan's been looking forward to that for weeks!
- I watched Matthew as he got settled in his preschool class and it was just so cute to see him do his little tasks and interact with the teacher and other kids. I wish I could have stayed and watched him the whole time.
- I organized the laundry room and hall closet - two hot spots for crazy messes.
- I made a purple berry smoothie for lunch and Ariana dribbled it all down one of her cutest outfits. BUT I soaked it in some oxi-clean and the stains disappeared! Phew.
- David came home early from work to watch a soccer game. It was nice to have him around in the middle of the day and Matt and I were pretty entertained watching his reactions to the game.
- I got to cuddle with Matt while I rested a bit after lunch. He's just the right kind of squishy and I just can't get enough of him. :)
- I gave Ariana a little hair cut to even up the back of her hair. I just trimmed the bottom of the back to match the sides and it looks a lot better! Still curly at the ends, which I love.
- David and I went to the temple! We left Ari and Sara's and got a sitter for the boys, so they had a blast while we were gone, too. We definitely need to go more often.
- David read stories to the boys with his great story-telling voice before putting them to bed.
- David played volleyball and I had a chill night watching "Parenthood," one of the few shows I take time to watch these days.

Daily Ten

- I got a cavity filled and it wasn't an awful experience. Short and relatively painless.
- We got a lot of cleaning done this morning, and Bryan really got on a roll. He even insisted on vacuuming all by himself, which was totally fine by me!
- We made it to the bus on time and Bryan's biggest problem was deciding who to sit with. He loves the bus - it's his favorite time of the day.
- I enjoyed visiting with neighbors going to and from the bus stop.
- Ariana helped me sort laundry and cheered each time she put something in a basket. :)
- Matt and I made popcorn and watched the Disney channel together. I even dozed a bit.
- I read a parenting magazine, which is my preferred read when I'm not into a good novel.
- Bryan and Matt got to play at their friends' house after school.
- I baked salmon and barbecue chicken with corn on the cob for dinner. It was yummy!
- David found out he's getting a trophy for being the agent in Utah that's grown the most over this last year! Way to go, David!

Daily Ten :)

I've decided it's time to start doing this again!  It really does help me appreciate more my blessings and the quirky things that happen each day.  I'll start with ten, but if it proves to be too much this time around, I'll cut it down.  And this first one's going to be for today and yesterday (Sat and Sun), just because.

- Bryan had another soccer game and scored a goal or two.  He enjoyed goofing off on the sidelines with a couple of his teammates as much as he enjoyed playing in the game, I think.  Bree and Cassity came to cheer him on, which made it fun for me.

- David made it home from a scout campout - his last for a while.  He was released as the 2nd counselor in the Young Mens and is really going to miss working with the boys, so it was good for him to have one last bonding experience with them.  He said they laughed a lot.... I can only imagine! :)

- Bree and Cassity made friendship bracelets for the boys, which they thought was the coolest thing ever.  They're both into bracelets these days and usually have several going up each arm.

- David finally threw out our tomato plants, which haven't been getting the sun they need for weeks now.  The sun has moved so much in the last couple months that most of our backyard remains shaded during the day, and that hasn't been good for our veggies.  We did enjoy one last little harvest for lunch this afternoon, though, and our backyard seems so much more spacious without all the containers.  (I will say that overall it was a successful experience.  I loved eating what we did grow - it was just so satisfying!)
- I got to drive up to Salt Lake with Sara to attend the General Relief Society meeting at the Conference Center.  It was fun to visit with Sara and the meeting was wonderful!  I'm so glad I got to go.
- Bryan participated in our ward's Primary Program in Sacrament today.  He memorized his part (the 1st Article of Faith) and did really well.  I loved seeing him and all the other kids sing, especially after all the time I spent as chorister.  They did a great job!
- We had a good lesson in Relief Society today about "watchful perseverance."  I'm more motivated now to do better with my scripture study this coming month and share what I learn with David and the kids.
- I made pumpkin bread yesterday and zucchini bread today - quick breads are a definite weakness of mine.
- Tonight we did a barbecue at a park in the canyon with David's family.  It was beautiful and lots of fun!
- The kids got to try on their clothes for Javi and Annalece's wedding and they looked so cute!  I can't wait to see them all dolled up on the big day.  (Only 3 more weeks!)

Pictures from the canyon...

Here's everyone watching the bean bag toss...  And then Annalece beat Javi after a pretty intense match up. :)

And it couldn't be a real Misiego barbecue without s'mores and (of course) a little soccer.

Fond preschool memories

I was watching a movie tonight and all of a sudden I hear Bryan at the top of the stairs saying,  "Mom, I was singing "Zippity Doo Dah" and it made me think of my preschool and I just miss my preschool so much!"  When I looked up at him the poor kid was totally in tears!  I had to give him a big hug and assure him that he'll make lots of fun memories in kindergarten as well.  It was sweet, but I admit I laughed a little when I heard him say "zippity doo dah" with such a sad voice. :)

Some things about Bryan

Bryan is quite the kid.  I was thinking today how great it is that there's not much that scares him.  He never flinches when he has to meet new people or go new places or try new things.  It's pretty amazing.  He just loves life and he loves people.

His newest craze is silly bandz - silicon rubber bands that have different shapes and can be worn as bracelets.  Most kids seem to know what they are, and Bryan looks forward every day to trading different ones with his friends.  In fact, that alone seems to determine whether his day is good or bad.  On his "worst day ever" a week or so ago, he traded away a few he liked, and then the following day was his "best day ever" because he got one he thought was especially cool.  What actually happens at school doesn't seem to count for much, but I guess that's normal for kids.  Reminds me of the days of Garbage Pail Kids cards and the other funny things I was stuck on when I was young.  And he's still into anything related to Star Wars.  He dressed up as a Star Wars character for Halloween last year and I thought for sure he'd want to do something different this year, but he wants to be someone else from Star Wars more than anything and I'll probably go ahead and let him.  I was a Star Wars fan as a kid as well. :)

Lately he's done a few things that have just been so cute.  I thought I'd better write them down.  Last week David informed me that Bryan has a girlfriend - a little girl named Brynn that rides his bus and is in his class at school.  I asked him about another girl he's played with a lot and he responded, "Mom, she's just a friend.  Brynn's more than a friend."  Whoa!  I didn't know we'd be dealing with these things already!  What exactly does "more than a friend" mean to a five-year-old?  I'm not sure.  But then the next day when I dropped him off at his bus stop he and Brynn walked right up to each other and without even saying a thing grabbed each other's hand and walked onto the bus together.  I have to admit my heart melted a little. It was so sweet!  Imagine my little Bryan with his over-sized backpack clasping hands with Brynn who's rolling hers behind her, both only a few feet tall.  Cute.  Now as long as it's just holding hands and no kissing beneath the jungle gym or anything, I'm okay with that.  I'd like to think it's just the big-brother in him being protective of her or something. :)

Another cool thing happened at his last soccer game.  Since he played last year and plays a lot with David and his uncles, Bryan's quite a bit better than most of the kids on his team.  He scores goals like it's nothing, to the point where I'm even a little embarassed about it.  (No parent likes to watch someone else's kid dominate the game, so I feel bad for the other parents sometimes.)  David, of course, is just extremely proud, but even he started telling him ways to involve his teammates more by passing the ball, etc.  So on this one play Bryan had taken the ball down the field and was almost to the goal when he suddenly stopped, rested his foot on the ball for a second, and then kicked it to his little teammate, Logan, who's lucky if he runs in the right direction most of the time.  Logan didn't do much with the ball, but the gesture was so sweet.  Logan's parents happened to be videotaping and were so pleased.  For the next few minutes Bryan just tried to kick the ball to his other teammates instead of scoring a goal, to the point where his coach started saying, "Just score!  Just score!"  But I couldn't have been prouder.  Logan's parents even came up afterwards and thanked him for being such a good team player.  It was great.

Then last night David and I were driving with the kids to run a few errands and I asked Bryan to tell David about the book we'd read that afternoon - "The Biggest Bear," by Lynd Ward.  We got it at the library a few weeks ago and have read it a handful of times, but I had no idea how closely Bryan had been paying attention until he began telling David the story page for page!  He mentioned all the little details and even said some of the lines verbatim.  I was amazed!  It's not a short story, either!  He also gave a talk in church on Sunday and gave it all by himself with the help of some pictures he drew for each thing he was supposed to say.  He's just such a sweetheart and I love seeing him grow and learn and do new things.

David's 29!

We celebrated David's 29th birthday yesterday!  It was a Saturday, so we got to do lots of things.  First, the night before he took me to P.F. Chang's (our favorite restaurant) for a nice date night.  Then Saturday morning I went and got breakfast from Kneaders, which has his favorite breakfast food these days - chocolate croissants and bacon/egg/cheese sandwiches. :)  After Bryan's soccer game he went into work for a few hours, but Jose joined him there and made it a little more fun for him.  That afternoon his family came over and we went swimming at our clubhouse.  The Misiego boys love to take our little basketball hoop over there and play crazy water basketball.  The kids and everyone else enjoyed splashing around while they played.  Then we grilled some carne asada and had a yummy dinner with brownies and ice cream for dessert.  (Since David's not much of a cake person, he always requests brownies instead.)  Of course the best time was just visiting and spending time together.  He finished off the day by going to the movies with his brothers.  He wanted to see a movie that wasn't really my type, but his brothers were happy to accompany him.  All in all, he said it was a great day.  We love you, David!

(A couple pictures of me without braces!  Too bad my hair was all gross from swimming.  At least David looks good!)

Random pics

We've lost the charger for our camera battery so I haven't been able to take many good pictures lately. Here are some taken with our old camera or David's phone - they're not the best quality, but at least they show some of the random things we've been up to lately.

A while back, David and the boys got a chance to go up in the Remax balloon since Landin is a Remax agent.  The boys were a little scared of the fire, but I don't think the heights bothered them at all.

David's had an awesome last few months at work.  Here he is showing off the trophies he's received for repeatedly being the top producer in his zone.

Bryan started his second year playing cub soccer.  He's doing so well and loves scoring goals.  You can tell he's practiced a lot with David and his uncles this past year...

I love these pictures of Ariana and Cambria.   Heather took them when David and I were down in Vegas.  Such cute little cousins!

We got to go to BYU's opening game for this football season.  It was incredibly hot and we were in the very top row of the stadium, but we still had fun, and BYU won!

Ariana stayed with Sara and the girls while we were at the game.  I'm sure she loved playing with so many girly toys, like this fantastic dollhouse!  She loves looking at it every time we go and visit.

David's been playing a lot of golf lately and is really improving his game.  He insists that he still needs lots of practice, though. :)

His form wasn't so good on the swings the other day.  We were over at Allison and Nathan's having dinner with my dad since he was in town for a day.  David was trying to show Bryan how to jump off the swing, but got tangled up and ended up on his back instead.  It's a good thing Dad was there to help him up because I was just laughing and anxious to get a pic.

Here are a few other pics from our dinner at Nathan and Allison's.  (Grandma was showing off her gold medal from a 5k she walked recently!)

Ariana's hair is finally long enough to do pigtails!  They don't last very long, but they sure look cute while they're in and make her look so old.  I love her silly face in the picture with Bryan.

On Labor Day we went to Pirate Island with David's family to celebrate Giselle's 3rd birthday.  Of course the boys had a blast.  It's one of their favorite places!  And all enjoyed spending time together as a family.

Last Friday we went to Bryan's school carnival.  It's weird to think I have a kid old enough to go to things like this!  We stayed long enough for the kids to play a few games and win some prizes.  They thought it was the coolest thing. :)

And finally, this last Sunday David dressed the boys up "fancy" and took some pics before church.  The little suits make them look like little men!

Ari looked cute in her new skirt (well, one that Sara gave her for Christmas and she's just fitting into now) and sandals.  She's obsessed with shoes these days and always insists on trying to put them on herself.  She's girl through and through!

Aside from all that, we're just doing what we can to get into a good routine now that summer's over.  David's getting back to exercising, and I'm staying busy with Relief Society as a fairly new counselor in the presidency.  Tomorrow's a big day for me as I'm finally getting my braces off - woo hoo!!  I'll be posting pictures of my new and improved smile soon. :)