2.09.2010
Let's Play in the Snow...Even if there is just a little bit.
2.08.2010
My Christmas Concert!
2.06.2010
Very Behind On Posting....
I have a great friend, Tina, who has really helped me become more involved with community events. Relay for Life and now Go Red For Women! If you didn't know, February is Go Red For Women month.

One of Tina's dearest friends and co-worker, Rebecca Herrick, pasted away a couple years ago from heart disease. As Tina shared the story and history of her dear friend, I was shocked to find that she was just like me. Early 30's, active, mother of two young children and unaware that her heart was in danger.
Please spread the word this month to all of the women in your life. Take a minute and visit the Go Red for Women website and take the short quiz. If you would like to wear a Go Red pin, you can purchase one from me for $5 (I can mail them). All monies will go to the Go Red for Women American Heart Association! The little red pin attracts a lot of attention, which causes awareness to the disease. You can make a difference!
***
Article written in the Tracy Press, February 13, 2008
In Teacher's Memory
Those who knew her considered 36-year-old Rebecca Herrick an unlikely candidate for a heart attack. But last September, the healthy, energetic sixth-grade teacher died when her heart suddenly stopped.
Unknowingly, Herrick suffered from heart disease — the nation’s leading killer of women. When she died, she left behind two kids of her own, an entire class and co-workers at
So when February, named Heart Health Month by the American Heart Association, rolled around, a teacher and the school’s leadership class organized a fundraiser in Herrick’s memory.
Teacher and friend Tina Brown, who had worked closely with Herrick, started selling paper valentine hearts, red pins and red bracelets to raise money for the American Heart Association. By mid-month, the class raised $750.
“It’s just tragic — so shocking,” school secretary Sue Edmiston, Brown’s mom, said today. “Here’s this healthy, fit woman, with no family history of heart problems, and like that she’s gone. But I’m extremely proud of my daughter, who was such a good friend to Rebecca. This fundraiser has been very helpful in her healing.”
During announcements every morning, leadership students offer heart health tips. Walls in the school’s administration office are covered in the paper hearts the class tapes up every time someone donates.
Brown and Herrick first met five years ago, when they first got assigned to teach a class together.
“She was hilarious; she could always make you laugh,” Brown remembered. “And she loved to write; the students remember that about her.”
Leading her students to focus on heart health has been a healing experience for Brown, she said.
“It’s good. It feels good to take such a sad and unfortunate situation and try to make something good from it,” she said. “It was just this reminder that we all have to take care of ourselves.”
12.23.2009
The Most Awesome Book EVER. The Cost PRICELESS!
When I started our family blog back in October 2007 my intent was to print it into a book as a family journal full stories, pictures, my kid's art, etc. About 2 years ago I went to blurb.com and downloaded their software and started working on it and to be honest the software was SOOO frustrating I stopped. I kept blogging in hopes that they would come out with something else. Well, blurb must have received many complaints because when I decided to try the updated software last month it was much better and the software bugs were far and few.
So here is what I did. I downloaded blurb software from blurb.com and then downloaded my blog to the software. Selected the 13 x 11 inch book. And bamm! It laid out one days post on one or two pages depending on the size. Now realize you might want to spend time shifting pictures, adding more and fix text boxes. For my 365+ page book, I took about 8 hours making changes to make the book the way I wanted.
My most favorite pages in the book are the full bleed photos. The picture on the left is a 13 x 11 photo of my cuties. The quality of the pictures are perfect. The paper of the book is the thickness of the pages of a coffee table book. Now stop and think how much it would cost to print all these pictures at Costco. I calculated that it would have cost me for just the pictures alone estimating 500 pictures $95.00. The $95 doesn't include any text and would still have to put the pictures into an album or scrapbook. This book cost me $120! That is with a 20% coupon and free shipping.
I love that I can scan in my kids art into the book and toss them. No more stacks of kids papers.
You can choose the color of the fabric on the outside of the book. I chose black and a dust cover. You can also chose to have a smooth hard cover minus the dust cover with a photo of your choice.
Here is an example of photos and text together. Have you figured out how much I LOVE this book. As I was going through each posts in the software, I was quite surprised how much I had forgotten. Blogging has definitely helped me keep a record of our families activities, experiences, comments or just snapping a photo with a silly smile I want to remember forever.
Here are a few pointers when you decide to download your blog (thanks Angie for summarizing my pointers. I borrowed the list from your blog):
Here is the inside sleeve of the dust cover. You get to write text and include a picture on both the front and back inside sleeve.
So there you have it! I am a huge fan. I am so grateful that Liz got me blogging and Lynne encouraged me to print my blog. I am so grateful I have pictures and stories about my family whether it be good or bad and all the stuff in between. It is our family history done easy for me. Something I know I will be able to keep up with. It is a must! It could make great gifts! Do it! You will love having the book and so will your family!12.22.2009
Day 3 On Our Christmas Break!
12.21.2009
A Family Secret!
Well I think the time has come to tell the story of how Dave and Sarah REALLY met. Everyone has been lead to believe they were set up by their mutual friend, Mike while they were all attending the University of Utah. We were all sworn as families to secrecy and as far as they knew all the pictures of their past had been destroyed. I managed to save a few for posterity. Now if you don't know, Dave and Sarah are HUGE Utah fans and both graduated from the U. I know they are both going to get a lot of flack for these pictures, but if you start playing with fire you might get burned a little. Dave, I'm only telling the truth and the truth needs to be told.
Dave and Sarah actually met through the BYU cheer squad. Dave is on the third row down and center. Sarah is on the the first row 2nd one in from the left. Love the long blond hair!
Dave and Sarah started hanging out a lot more as they would travel to away games and found that they had a lot in common. Can you tell they are flirting in this picture?
It wasn't until they were put as a cheer partnership that they started dating and fell in love. They were only both on the cheer squad for a year until Dave's 5 o'clock shadow started appearing at 10 a.m. (too annoyed to shave 3 times a day) and Sarah's frustration finding a Diet Coke on campus forced them to look for another school. Once they were accepted to University of Utah, they both feared abuse from UTE crazed fans so much that they swore never to mention their cheerleading at BYU. It was for their own protection. As a family, we too feared for them and all took a vow of silence and have been silent for the last ten years.Dave and Sarah....I just can't keep your secret anymore. I know that your heart pumps UTE red, but your veins are still full of BYU blue. I know this secret has been tearing you apart inside, but I hope exposing your past will help to make you whole again and provide more peace to you and your family.
12.20.2009
Yikes...What A Party!
12.19.2009
Hatch Holiday Party 2009!
Our first Holiday activity happened the day after we arrived. It was the Verlin Anson and Stella Colleen Lear Hatch's holiday party. Their 10 children and 9 spouses (Minus Bryce. Missed seeing you.), and 22 grandchildren ranging 8 months to 13 years old were there. That is 42 people! And since everyone was coming and the house gets a little crowded, Colleen reserved the church for the party. It was very accommodating for dinner, visiting and run around space for the kids.
Starting from the left: Kadance, Jacob, Kylie, Shelem, Cody, Carter, Tristan, Ali, Mason, Marshall, Kaden, Taylor, Camden, Syndey, Graham, Parker, Morgan, Hyrum, Audrey, Kasidy, Isaiah and Brigham
Below are all of the ten Hatch children, their spouses and families from oldest to the youngest. The Hatch children names are italicized.
That is a whole lot of family and we are grateful for everyone making an effort to come, for preparing food, games, arranging the humanitarian projects, those who participated in the talent show and nativity play. It was great to catch up with everyone and a perfect start to our Christmas break!
12.18.2009
Holy Crumb! You Have To Be Kidding Me....
Camden had been sorting these impossibly sticky tiny pieces of Floam out by color and was very satisfied with himself. First of all, these pieces are so small that I wouldn't have the dexterity or patience to play with individual grains. Second, sorting out 10 or so grains of Floam amounts to something about the size of a piece of rice, so I would be extremely discouraged attempting to do this.12.17.2009
Where Are YOUR Shoes?!?!
After we dropped Sydney off we drove home. I went straight for my treadmill in the garage for my morning run. I told Camden that he could watch TV in my room on the bed if he took his shoes off and put them away. That was it. I ran. He watched TV. At noon it was time to take Camden to school. I couldn't find his shoes and looked around for about 3 minutes, gave up and put on his old shoes. Didn't think much about it. Well, day 2 and day 3 came and his new shoes were missing. We looked everywhere! And I mean EVERYWHERE! I called Anson at work upset and said, "I bet they are in the garbage. They have to be."
Anson came home from work that night and retraced all of my many, many, many steps before going through the garbage. Camden just kept telling us he put his shoes in the corner over and over and over and over again. Anson finally caved and pulled the garbage bags from the garbage can outside. Well guess what we found, his shoes mixed in with Sydney's old birthday cake and party materials. This is not the first for us to find something in our kitchen garbage that Camden has misplaced. It is normally a plate, cup or silverware. It drives me crazy.
When Anson asked Camden why did he throw his shoes away he said, "Daddy, my eyes were tired and not working right." There you have it! That is why he threw his shoes away. His eyes were too tired! I can't tell you how frustrated I was looking for those new shoes. I tore the house apart. Who knows what else we are missing because of Camden's tired eyes. I guess we will never know.I "Heart" David!
Sydney has had a little crush on a boy named David since the beginning of the school year. She talks and giggles about him all time. It has been really funny to watch these two be uncomfortable with each other. I'm not encouraging a boyfriend/girlfriend relationship in 1st grade, but I do have fun listening to Sydney talk about him when she brings him up.
For about a month a month ago, David wasn't part of her daily conversation with me anymore. I did ask her about him during that time and she told me that he doesn't talk to her anymore or runs away when she tries to play with him during recess. No big deal to her. I asked her if it hurt her feelings and she said, "Nope! He doesn't like girls. He thinks they are yucky." And that was that.
I ran into David's mom at school during the later part of the "non-speaking month" to each other and mentioned how cute I thought David was and that Sydney likes telling stories about him. She replied by saying, "I need to talk to you about Sydney." My heart stopped, I got a big pit in my stomach and felt sick. I was thinking to myself, "Does this lady think I am encouraging my 6 year old to chase a boy or have a boyfriend." I was sure that she was upset. She started telling me that David came to their bedroom one night after being in bed for 20 minutes pretty upset about Sydney. I was thinking "What did my Sydney do to this kid?" David's mom asked David what was wrong and he said, "She doesn't like me anymore. Sydney doesn't try to talk to me or chase me anymore." She told David that Sydney might not do those things anymore since you run away from her or say "girls are yucky." David's mom asked again why he is so upset (he was crying). He said, "Mom, I like it when Sydney tries to talk to me. Now that she doesn't try anymore, I think she thinks I don't have a cute face and ugly clothes." I was shocked! He was having image issues because my Sydney got bored being ignored by him.
So anyway, we laughed a bit about our kids, but she did ask if I would be willing to ask Sydney if she could at least say hi to him and David knows to say hi back. Silly kids! The pictures above are after their month of not talking to each other. You can see the little shyness and silliness in them both. David feels much better about himself. They are even P.E. partners most times. Cute kids....12.16.2009
Swimming Anyone?
The boy is CRAZY! A week ago, Camden came to us and said, "I want to go swimming." I replied, "Camden, it is way too cold. You won't like it." "But, Mommy I want to SO bad." He said. After several arguments back and forth I told him to go talk to his dad. Anson had the same conversation/arguments back and forth and then said, "Come help me clean out the leaves from the pool first so you can see how cold it is."The daytime temperatures have been around the 40's and night time upper 30's. The water was freezing. It hurts your arm to just pull the leaves from the the skimmer, but it didn't seem to bother Camden and told Anson he still wanted to swim. Anson sent Camden back into the house to ask me. "Mommy, can I please go swimming?" He said jumping up and and down. I finally caved and said, "Whatever Camden, it's going to be freezing cold."
He ran off and put on his swimming suit and outside with his dad. I miss grabbing a shot of him in the pool, caught a shot after though. He took the first step into the pool and told his dad that it wasn't cold. Took the second step into his waist and said it wasn't cold either. Anson asked if he was going to get all the way in and Camden replied, "No, I don't want to get my tummy wet today, just my legs." He wouldn't admit that the water was cold but was sure to tell all of us his tummy didn't want to be wet today.
Crazy boy!
12.15.2009
Tis the Season!
For one of my cub scout activities, we made ginger bread houses from scratch and then decorated them . Camden and Sydney were lucky enough to each decorate a house after the 8 cub scouts disappeared to their homes. Ahhh..the peace!Tea Time With My Girl.
Tina and Emma invited us to join their table this year. I had a rough idea what I thought the Teddy Bear Tea would be like, but it was so much more than I imagined.
When we arrived, our company hadn't arrived yet so we sat at our table and looked at the beautiful decorated room of trees, lights and table settings. I asked Sydney what she thought about what she saw and she said, "Mommy, I'm kind of nervous. This is very fancy."
I guess in the past, trays of different kind of foods were just left at your table. This year, there were several servers stopping by your table with trays and trays and trays of food every 2-3 minutes. It took Sydney a minute to feel comfortable to "just take what she wanted" without asking me. Her favorite food moment was the hot chocolate and drinking it with her pinkie up just like Fancy Nancy would.
Tray after tray kept coming. Fruit, crackers, different types of tea sandwiches, cookies, cheesecakes and more.
The atmosphere of the room made the experience extra "Fancy Nancy" like and fun.
The girls were lucky to have a second with Mrs. Claus and Santa Claus.
Guess who we saw? Our friends the Riddles all dressed in their Christmas best.
Sydney's ABSOLUTELY favorite part of the Teddy Bear Tea was the Santa Secret Shop. No parents/adults were allowed into this room. I can't tell you how much Sydney loved this experience. When it is your child's turn to enter the room, they are escorted with a Santa Secret Shop Helper with the list of people your child wants to buy for and money. At this point Sydney got to walk around the secret shop to find the perfect gift on her list all on her own. Once the gifts are purchase the helpers then wrap and label the gift! Sydney was done with her Christmas shopping in 15 minutes. She felt so proud and excited! She came out of the Secret Shop beaming and giggling with her loot for her family.12.14.2009
Christmas Countdown!
I told Sydney and Camden about a month ago, let make two paper chains one for each of you. We will do Sydney's birthday, birthday party, when we leave for Utah and Christmas with yellow paper to show you how many days.12.13.2009
Thanksgiving Feast for Sydney!

The classroom filled with a yummy smell from their ingredients all day.
While we were adding our ingredients, Mrs. Stewart came into the classroom to present the "Green Certificates" to those children who have stayed on green for the whole trimester. I was lucky to have been there for the little presentation and able to see Sydney receive hers.
It's a big deal to stay on GREEN! You never want to be on yellow and never, never, never, never want to be on red. You have to go to Mrs. Stewart's office and she will yell very loud at you. That is what Sydney tells us.
During the morning Language Art centers, I helped the kids make butter for the rolls our upcoming feast. I was quite surprised how much fun the kids had making the butter. We had several baby food jars half filled of whole whipping cream. Next, you just shake and shake and shake for 15 minutes. Voila...you have butter.
Sydney shaking her butter. Keep shaking girl.
You add a little salt for taste and there you have it. It was really yummy and smooth.
Before we had our Thanksgiving movie, we set up several sheets of colored leather for the kids to set on. They absolutely loved it. Dressed with either a Indian head band with colored feathers or a pilgrim hat and wearing a multi-colored macaroni necklace, they sat at the tables with a bowl of their stone soup, a roll with hand shook butter and a Thanksgiving place mat. Sorting again...
What amazes me about this 4 year old of mine is sometimes he will bump or drop his shape on the floor before we have melted the beads together and no tears or frustration comes out of the boy. He just picks it up and all the little pieces and STARTS all over. I would be soooo frustrated! This has happen a number of times for one reason or another. Sometimes it has been my fault and I will tell Camden, "I'm sooo sorry sweetie!" His reply to me, "It's ok mommy, I'll just make another one. Don't be sad."
The star that he is working on in the picture above never did get melted because he ran out of green sparkly beads. I tried to tell him to just fill in the center with a different color, but no! He just picked it up and dumped it back into the bucket. In my head, I was yelling "No, then you have to start over." So then he tried to fill the star with all sparkly blue pieces and didn't have enough and dumped it again! This is after sitting there for about 1.5 hours. The boy has a vision and will wait it out until he gets it just right.12.10.2009
Party Time!
Sydney's party was on Friday, so she was at school while we prepared for the festive party. I packaged 12 hot coco packets, 12 packets of marshmallows and 12 candy canes. The plan was as the girls arrived that they would sit down and decorate their own hot coco paper cup with markers. Once the girls all arrived, we made jingle bell necklaces to wear for caroling to 3 different homes on our street to get the ingredients for the perfect hot chocolate. More pictures and info later in the post....
Here's Camden helping me out by filling up Sydney "No. 7" pinata.
For one of our Christmas crafts, we had the girls make snow globes using baby food jars, glitter, small Christmas ornaments, Kara Syrup and water. The girls absolutely loved this activity and they turned out so cute.
Kitchen ready awaiting for our birthday girl and her guests to arrive.
We also had a cupcake decorating activity. All the colors and toppings were of Christmas yummies.
Sydney arriving at home looking at all that had been done while she was away. So excited!
Happy Birthday sweet girl! She is loving every minute with her friends.
Here are our cute little carolers singing their hearts out to receive one of their hot coco ingredients.
Karen and Connor listening to the party girls and Camden singing "Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer." They did a really good job and sang loud enough you could even hear them. At the first house they earned their coco and were each given a packet to carry.
Second house the girls sang to Daryl. My kids love Daryl. He is just a good guy that loves to laugh. The girls sang "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" and each earned a packet of marshmallows.
Our third and final stop, the kids sang "Jingle Bells" loud and clear while shaking their jingle bell necklaces.Happy Birthday Sydney Girl!
Happy birthday to my sweet Sydney! I know I say this every year, but I can't believe that she is a year older already. And this year she is 7! What happen to my little preschool/kindergarten toddler? She is gone and here is my sweet little 1st grade girl full of life!
As I was taking Sydney to school today I asked her if she was excited that she was 7 today? Her reply was, "Mom, I'm going to be 8 soon and I have a lot of tickles in my tummy. I'm excited!"Our Elf is Back!
Look who we found this morning! Elroy our elf has returned. Sydney and Camden have wondered where Elroy has been. I mentioned to them that maybe Santa put him on a special assignment, but would show up soon. Sydney was still worried that he wasn't coming since Emma's elf, Eric had returned and her classroom now has an elf named Charlie.
Today is Sydney birthday so she woke up pretty excited, but I would have to say maybe even more excited that Elroy made it!
As she was reading the letter, she yelled out, "Mom, Elroy couldn't be here early because he had Elf-Asthma and was sick. He had to be in the hospital for 2 days." Wow! We now have two kids with asthma and an elf. What are the chances?
The p.s. of the letter written by Elroy stated that he couldn't help himself and took a little piece of Sydney's birthday cake. I said, "Wow, Elroy should be in trouble for that or have to go to time out (joking)." Sydney replied, "Mom, its ok. Don't get Elroy in trouble. He can have some of my cake." 












