Mad Hatters

Last week Harleigh and I went to West Yellowstone to go to the Playmill Theatre. We have gone the past couple of years with my Aunt, Cousin and her daughter. So while you are waiting for the Playmill Theatre to start, of course you have to walk around town. Harleigh and Shay started trying on all the hats in this store so we captured a few of their poses on film. Crazy girls...

It was a fun night.  I ALWAYS love to go to the Playmill and am hoping to get there again this Summer.  The weather was kind of yucky that night so, of course, we had to hit a couple of Outlet stores and pick up a new West Yellowstone sweatshirt! 

Mountain Men Field Trip

Last week I went with Harleigh and her class on a field trip to see the Mountain Men Rendevous that was at Krupp Scout Hollow.  They didn't have enough room on the bus so parents had to just meet the kids there.  DARN, can I just say how disappointed I was that I was not able to ride on the bus with all the kids and had to take the quiet pickup and listen to my own songs and peace and quiet! 

The boys both went to this when they were in the Fourth Grade but I never went with them, it was pretty interesting, but the weather was COLD!!!!  Makes me kind of sad though Harleigh will be moving onto the Middle School next year so I'm not sure that there will be any more field trips to go on. 

The guns and cannon were of course the kids' favorite.  This Mountain Man was very willing to pose for pictures.  His hat was made out of three different skunk skins, it was kind of cool. 

 They actually used the cannon to chop firewood.

 They also liked learning how to make fires and hearing a few stories by this Mountain Man.

 This Mountain Man, "Three Beard" had some interesting stories about John Coulter and kept the kids' attention.

 Finally I got Harleigh to pose for a picture!

The End....

Harleigh had her dance recital last month, can I just say that it was BITTERSWEET.  This is THE END....Michelle is no longer going to be teaching dance and so, after five years, Harleigh won't be taking dance from Michelle any longer so yes WE ARE SAD!!!  She has had so much fun learning to dance from Michelle and if we move on and choose another teacher Harleigh pretty much summed it "it just won't be the same Mom!"  Michelle has put up with Harleigh through the good and bad and taught her a lot.

 Of course I will miss out on my "social life", seriously am I the only mom that enjoys her children's ball games, activities, dance, etc. not only to support and watch my children as they grow and develop but also to be able to socialize.  I've been in trouble several times from missing "an important play" in a ballgame because I was socializing.  Thank you Michelle for five years of dance and for the friendship and love you have given, not only Harleigh, but our family and me!

That'll Teach Him

As you can see from the objects on the couch, Jayce took over the couch from the previous occupant, Harleigh, so we took this picture of him with his "pink" iPod, "Princess" quilt, and his "American Girl" doll. Seriously by taking a picture you would think "That'll Teach Him"....NO not really, he'll do anything just to annoy Harleigh! Some days those two can literally drive us crazy with their fighting and if they for some reason seem to be getting along then one of them does something to annoy the other one!

This picture is actually taken before his recent change of hairdo. Two weekends ago some girls he was with dyed his hair orange/red, I told him he was ready for the St. Patrick Day holiday coming up. I've had time to get used to it now but there for a few days I had to do a double take. That kid NEVER ceases to do something that makes us laugh or else we laugh so that we don't kill him! I'll have to get a picture of the new hairdo, although now that it has had two weeks it is turning into an auburn color which I tell him is so pretty hoping he will find some girls to dye it again! Guess Rexburg needs more to do on a Friday night!

An update on Brodie he went to MEPS, which is the Military Entry Program. He passed all of his tests and the doctor checked him over for his heart condition. They have sent all of the paperwork to Nationals for them to decide if they will waive his heart condition and let him enter into the Navy. That is the good news, the bad news was they found a hernia so he had to have surgery, which he had done on March 1 the only bad part of that is he will have to wait six months from the date of the surgery until they will consider him to go into the Navy. So for now we are waiting to hear back from Nationals on the waiver of his heart condition and also waiting six months until they will waive the hernia. CRAZY...sometimes it feels like one step forward and ten steps backward!

Hiatus

Here you go, according to the dictionary:

hi·a·tus
   [hahy-ey-tuhs]
noun, plural -tus·es, -tus.

1. a break or interruption in the continuity of a work, series, action, etc.

2. a missing part; gap or lacuna: Scholars attempted to account for the hiatus in the medieval manuscript.

3. any gap or opening.

I literally have not blogged for so long, I don't even know where to begin!! I look back on past blogs and wish that I had kept things up because I love looking back and seeing the things that we were doing! Do you ever feel like you are so far behind you will never, never, ever get caught up! That is pretty much how I feel. I have pictures on my camera from so long ago that I haven't even downloaded. I also have a very BIG problem I have ISSUES ~ yes ISSUES!! Seriously the perfectionist in me cannot even get myself to just pick up blogging without catching up and not only catching up, everything has to be done in chronological order. Yes, I have SERIOUS issues. So now that I have admitted it you must know that this is VERY, VERY difficult for me to do, to just pick up and start blogging without catching up. I'm not sure how I will catch up where I left off, of course, I'll have to think of some "perfectionist" way to do it, stay awake at night, work my stomach all up!

But on that note ~ here are a few things that are going on at THE DAYS OF THE DAVISONS!

Harleigh is dancing again with Sugar and Spice, we are a little sad though this is going to be Michelle's last year of teaching dance. Harleigh is really liking it this year! I did manage to take a picture with my phone of her and one of the girls she dances with before the first performance. I have lots more photographs on my camera, but yeah we already covered the ISSUES right?



Jayce is loving that it is that time of year when he can go snowboarding in his free time, although we have lacked in snow this year, it has been a little crazy. It is snowing today and what is sad is I've liked it when it has snowed this year. Maybe because it has been so little that I haven't had a chance to get sick of it!

Brodie will go Monday with the Navy recruiter to Utah for some medical tests to see if medically, because of his heart, he can go into the Navy and also to do some other tests and paperwork. So we will see. He is excited but yet hesitant because he doesn't want to get his hopes up.

Todd and I ~ well we are just trying to keep up with it all! It seems like my job keeps me so busy anymore but I really love my job and the people that I work with. We are busy with our year ends, which have to be ready by the last day of February. This is where the statistics that are published in Crime in Idaho and also nationally by the FBI come from. So it is a busy time of the year. As always November and December are busy for me with Shop With a Cop ~ but I LOVE that program, even if it CONSUMES me! I love the friends that I have made from other law enforcement agencies, co-workers, wives, children, and parents!! I even love that I get to know this guy a little bit better ~



I will REALLY try to work through my ISSUES and keep blogging, if nothing more than it was my journal and I love reading back about the things that the kids were up to and having our activities documented! I love this quote and try to remember it when the "perfectionist" tries to take over my thinking "You can do anything, but not everything!"

Mixed Emotions

I've been doing calligraphy on the Diplomas for Central High School for years.  Today I did a bunch for them again but today I had some "mixed emotions", today I did the Diploma for Brodie.  He will be finished with high school Tuesday, April 19.  The actual graduation ceremony won't be until May 25 but as of next Tuesday Brodie will be finished with high school.  So....like I said I have some mixed emotions.  I can't believe that he is that old.  The last year has been difficult as Brodie has turned 18 and I've realized that I can no longer hold his hand as he "crosses the street of life".  I can love him and always be here for him but my "little" boy has grown up.  I'll always remember how upset he was that he couldn't go to kindergarten until he turned 5, his birthday was a late one in November.  He was going to a babysitter during the day where some of the other kids had been able to start school but he hadn't because he wasn't 5 yet.  The day he turned 5 I knew he was awake because the first thing he yelled was "Mom, do I get to go to school today?"  I had to break it to him that he had to wait until the following school year.   Needless to say he NEVER wakes up excited to go to school anymore, not unless I'm telling them that it is a snow day.   

Okay this post is not anything really about fun family activities and doesn't even have any pictures in it but it was something that I wanted to post for ME to refer to.  I was reading one of my favorite blogs Scattering Sunshine   and came across Holly's word for the year 2011 which is YES.  A while ago I decided that my New Year's Resolution was learning to say no and when I read Holly's word for the year I laughed, opposite of my word which would be NO, but actually the reason that I am saying NO is from this article that I read:

 "Consciously choose what you want to do. When you say “Yes” to one thing, you are automatically saying “No” to something else. Think about that the next time a request comes your way and be conscious about what it is you’ll need to say “No” to in order to say yes."

For those that know me, November was a month from HELL, sorry but there is no other word for it.  I learned the hard way that if I would have said NO to something, which I still don't think was a possibility at the time,  I would have been able to have said YES to so many things, I would have had the TIME for so many things.  I won't go into a lot of detail because it is still so recent but it did make me start to think!  January has brought the usual stressors and I've been feeling a lot of guilt this month and when I started reading some different articles about guilt and stress I came across the above and REALLY, REALLY liked it. 

Also, as I was going through November and trying to do everything in my "perfectionist way" it came time to plan Brodie and Harleigh's birthdays and I was asking Todd questions, his reply was "you need to read this" and he THREW me the Ensign opened to this Things That Matter Most .  In President Uchtdorf's talk he refers to this from Elder Dallin H. Oaks “We have to forego some good things in order to choose others that are better or best because they develop faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and strengthen our families.”   So now going through November, December, and January I can now say WOW....saying NO to some good things so I can say YES to things that will develop my faith and strengthen my family....EVEN simpler SAY NO so I can say YES to me and my family!!!!!!  I guess also having the faith to say NO, that if I say no in a polite way that the person or thing I said NO to will understand, that has always been hard for me, I don't want to let anyone down but have realized in not letting others down I was not remembering the PEOPLE in my life that matter most. 

And I know I said no pictures but I wanted to throw in a few because they remind me that if I practice saying NO more often I can say YES to these PEOPLE and these things that I love to do!!!

I can enjoy some of my favorite things...from this blog post Favorites

I can enjoy cooking with my kids and enjoying PLANNED dinners together as a family~

 Playing games as a family ~

 Spending time together as a family ~

Okay, so this post was a little on my thoughts today, but I just wanted to remind myself why I'm saying NO more this year because I KNOW I'm going to need reminding A LOT!!!!!