Summer is here

Whew! The last two weeks have been a whirlwind. I can't believe how much time the kids swimming lessons took up. The lessons were only about 45 minutes total but it still took a lot out of us. Riley did so good with his lessons. I was pleasantly surprised. Last year at the AJ pool when the life guard would ask Riley to do something he didn't want to, he would freak out and then the life guard would move on to the next kid and Riley basically did not learn much. This year however, I found a new place for swim lessons. Suzi's Swim and Fitness. Suzi is awesome. I could not be more pleased about her method of teaching. This time when Riley would start freaking out she would make him do it and then by the end of the two weeks he was doing everything by himself! He can even swim under water. At the beginning of July Riley will be going back to the AJ pool with a friend for lessons but at least he can actually do some swimming now and is more confident. Here is Suzi's website if anyone is interested http://suzysfitnesszone.wordpress.com/

Riley is on the end in the red shirt

Mattie did awesome. Suzi would put Mattie under the water and then Mattie have to come up and find the edge of the pool and get out by herself. She was quite the trooper. She is also very strong. At one point she had quite a grip on Mrs. Suzi's neck and Suzi said that Mattie is incredibly strong. That's my Mattie. Maybe she'll be some kind of athlete or gymnast or something. Maybe a weightlifter.

Mattie and Mrs. Suzi

Our Perry family vacation is in less than a week. 5 days to be exact! So exciting. Of course I have a ton of stuff that still needs to be done before we can go and I am dreading getting it done. But my reward will be a good one~ California!!

One quick story before I go- Mattie has been talking a lot lately. Mostly repeating what other people say which is not always the best thing but often funny. Last night we were driving home from Globe, the kids had been terrible that day and thrown several fits. Both of them. Vern and I were talking about it and Vern said you guys were throwing fits and Mattie said, " Fits. Fits. FITS!!!" and Vern asked her if she had been throwing fits today and she answered extremely happy, "YES! FITS! FITS!" It was funny because Riley was refusing to talk to us and we were asking him about the fits and he wouldn't talk about it and said he wasn't going to say, "Fits" and we couldn't get Mattie to stop saying it.

WWF and Swimsuit Shopping

So I made the terrible mistake of taking Riley and Mattie swimsuit shopping with me. I know, what was I thinking right? Swimsuit shopping is bad enough without any extra stress or embarrassments. I found a few suits to try on and during this time they had already had several arguments/fights in the basket and a cup of ice was spilled. We went into the dressing room which was pretty big. Mattie kept attacking Riley and trying to, much to my dismay WWF wrestle him. No kidding. She pulled him off the bench onto the floor and was on top of him. Riley of course didn't take this lying down, oh no he screamed to the top of his lungs. In the meantime, I'm half clothed trying to get things under control hoping we wouldn't get kicked out. I separated them and began getting dressed in my own clothes. However, Mattie runs over to Riley again and was trying to unzip his pants- I've never seen her do this before so I'm hoping its just cause she saw me undress or something. Riley yells "Mom Mattie is trying to see my private". He yelled it really loud. I seriously doubt that's what Mattie had in mind but by then probably all of Target did. I was so embarrassed to come out of the dressing room. We booked it out of their. Note to self~ no more clothes shopping with both of my children.

Mattie with a pair of high heels on and she could walk in them way better then I could

Riley's preschool and t-ball finished up last week. I hope he will be able to continue karate during the summer. Riley and Mattie are both going to start swim lessons tomorrow. That should be interesting. I have different concerns for each of them Riley~ I hope he doesn't get all shy and be difficult about getting in the pool and Mattie~ I hope she doesn't act of control and listens to the teacher. Wish me luck!

Riley at his last day of preschool

Riley and Dustin

Mattie got to go to Riley's school swim party too.

I can't believe Riley is going to start kindergarten in few months. I hope he will be ready. I can't believe how much Mattie has grown up from last summer. Here is a picture of her at the beginning of last summer and now. She hardly had any hair last summer! How fast they grow.

Look at all the hair she has now! Those are her first pigtails. Aren't they cute? Except I can't get her hair to look like that when I've tried to do pigtails again.

Karate, Easter and a two year old

Its already the end of April!! Where did April go? I feel bad that I've slacked on the blog for the past few months. Not because I think people are that interested in what's happening over here but its a good way to keep a record of things that happen and stuff the kids say. I'm going to try to update it more often, now that Vern's school semester at UVU is finally OVER!!! YEAH!! And with Vern's new work schedule he is home more or I should say awake at better hours. His work day generally starts around 7:00 a.m. now instead of 12:00 a.m. or 2:00 a.m.

Update on Vern's job- he has two students! They are both brand new to flying helicopters and are working on obtaining their private licenses right now. Vern is loving it but feels a big responsibility because he is teaching these students to fly.

A few weeks ago Riley had his first karate belt test! It was the cutest thing ever. The belt test was at the Dojo that his instructor goes to for her lessons. I was sooo nervous for him. I think I was nervous because I didn't know if he knew what to do or what would happen if he messed up and got embarrassed. He had to go up in front of everyone and the three judges and perform his test. He and one of his classmates were allowed to go together. They were the smallest/youngest ones there. Riley was the smallest of all. But he was one of the cutest!! He did everything and knew exactly what he was doing. I was so shocked and so proud. I wished that everyone could have been there to see him. Unfortunately Vern had to work so he missed it and I couldn't tape it because I was struggling with Mattie (trying to keep her on my lap and quiet- not an easy feet). All the students in his class pasts their belt tests. Riley now has a black loop on his belt. I just can't express how awesome this was!!

All the people that were belt testing that day- Riley is the second one in on the right side

Denver and Riley testing

After the test

Lately Riley's been saying he wants a brother. However, he doesn't just want another sibling, he wants to trade Mattie for a brother. His reasoning is that a brother will be nice to him and not scratch him like Mattie. I told him that a brother would do the same things that Mattie does. He doesn't believe me.

Seriously- how could he want to trade her in? She just wants to be like him and do everything just like him. See how both their shirts are off? She also wants all of his attention and goes about it the wrong way. That's when the trouble starts.

For Easter we went to the lake with Vern's family. It's tradition, they always go camping Easter weekend. This year it was at Roosevelt. We took our trailer~ so glad we have it! Mattie had the time of her life with her cousins. Verlynne's boys just love her. They played whatever she wanted to and held her hand and walked around with her. She is so lucky to have such wonderful cousins. She also got to enjoy the two babies Brighton and Jaylie. Riley loved being outdoors with his cousins. He got to ride on Grandpa's boat and ride motorcycles.

Mattie coloring Easter eggs- that was a mess

Decorating eggs

Riley, Kyson and Ridge before the Easter egg hunt

Riley and Vern riding a motorcycle

Mattie Easter morning with a recess pieces carrot

In case anyone is wondering, Mattie is definitely acting like a two-year old. She is into everything and thinks she's big enough to do whatever she wants. She's not. She also has started throwing herself down on the floor if she doesn't get what she wants. She also hits herself and will bite anything near here such as a table, counter, play cash register etc... when she doesn't get what she wants. Yesterday she got into the pantry and got out the Nutella and pretzels. She also has a fascination/obsession with brushing teeth/toothpaste/dental floss. I found an entire roll of dental floss strung from my bathroom all the way to the hall by the stairs. We have locks on the cabinet doors but have yet to find something for the drawers. Nothing is allowed to be kept in the drawers because she gets into them- hence all our bathroom products are on top of our counter in one big mess. Whenever I catch her with something it goes on top. This drives Vern insane because all the stuff is in one big mess on top. He'll say, "Where's the floss?" I point to the pile on top of the counter and he gives me a dirty look as he searches through it. I say, "Well its either that or Mattie ends up with it".

Mattie and the Nutella

March

In case anyone has been wondering what has happened to us the last month, I'll try to give you the short version.

The day we left for Disneyland Vern had completed and passed the ground part of his Stage 2 check. The Stage 2 check is a two part test, one part is ground where Vern teaches a lesson, answers questions, etc... the second part is flying where he instructs in the helicopter and performs maneuvers. He was nervous before the stage 2 check. After we got back from California he did the flying part of his stage 2 check, which he passed. Now it was on to the check ride with the FAA to try to obtain his CFII license. In order for Vern to get a job with the school his is at now, he not only had to have his CFI rating but his CFII as well. The lady that is basically in charge at Quantum (his school) would be performing his FAA check ride. So not only did he need to pass the first time (it costs $500 every time you take it) but he needed to do it according to her standards/liking so he would look good for hiring. I can't even tell you how stressed he was before the check ride.

The FAA check ride is like the stage 2, broken down into two parts. Vern completed and passed his ground part. Whew, he could kind of breath a sigh of relief but not quite yet he still had his flight part to pass. To get to the point, he couldn't do his flight part the first time because of too much fuel in the helicopter and then a few days later he took it again and passed everything except for one GPS approach. At this point, Missy (the chief flight instructor) said he could just redo that part of the test in a few days and asked him to come in for an interview on Monday. Well, then the pressure was really on because if he didn't pass the next time, would he still get the interview? Vern did pass, bless his heart. And HE GOT THE JOB!!!!! He is now officially a flight instructor at Quantum!!!!!! Can you believe it? He's worked so hard the past five years and now everything he's worked so hard for is here. Neither of us can believe it. It doesn't seem real yet.

So for the month of March, Vern has been studying, stressing and taking tests. The kids and me have been doing our normal stuff and trying to give him some space to study. Riley started T-ball March 12th and loves it! Riley also had a birthday April 4 and turned 5. I can't believe he is 5. We also found out that he got accepted to Ben Franklin for kindergarten next year. We are so excited! Last Saturday was Riley's first T-ball game and birthday party.

Riley running to get the ball- he ran to get every ball even balls that were across the field. Some of the other kids did to. It was really cute.

Riley running to base after he hit the ball

Mattie at the T-ball game

Riley on base

He had the best birthday party! He had so many friends come and they all had a good time. We played a wild game of duck duck goose and the limbo. Then, the kids had snow cones (Grandma and Grandpa Perry brought their snow cone machine)!

I don't know if you can tell but the piñata is Darth Vadar's head. It looked awesome and we kept it since it was still in one piece.

Children scrambling for candy

Riley's cake/cup cakes. The cup cakes had light sabers or clone trooper rings on them

Grandam in one of the Darth Vadar masks we had for the kids

Disneycation

It's almost been a week since we've been back from Disneyland and I have not blogged about it! We had a lot of catching up to do at home and Mattie had a birthday. I kept putting off blogging about our trip to Disneyland because I knew it was going to take awhile and can't decide on pictures and what should go on here. At last these are the pictures/stories that have made the cut.

We flew to California Thursday night. Both Riley and Mattie wanted to sit by my mom so she ended up sitting with both kids. Lucky her. Mattie did okay. She wanted her own seat and wanted to do what she wanted to do. After we landed Riley said, "That was a crazy ride. I felt like I was jacking out of my seat!" We did have some turbulence.

Vern's parents drove out to California and met us there. This was really nice because they drove out some of our stuff like our stroller, jackets, pack n' play etc... The weather report said it was supposed to be rainy most of Friday which was the next day. We prepared for the worst the next day (the weather report also said that Los Angeles was expecting snow and it was the first time in like over 40 years). We took warm jackets, umbrellas, and ponchos.

The only ride that Mattie talked about before our trip to Disneyland was the Nemo ride. We decided to do that one first since it was early in the morning and the park was just open. We only had to wait about 15 minutes. Mattie and Riley both loved it! We of course did all our other favorites that were open like Buzz Lightyear, Pirates, Small World, Autotopia and Toontown.

Mattie and Riley in line for the Finding Nemo Submarines

Mattie inside the Nemo ride

Riley had been dying to do the Jedi Training. So Riley and I got first in line so that he could be picked. When the people came out and started picking and I realized by the way of picking methods, Riley probably wasn't going to be picked. But the man doing the choosing was looking directly at me or so I thought and describing a sweatshirt (which Riley had one on) so I sent him out there. After I pushed him out there, he said plaid sweatshirt. I said, no Riley it was someone else and made him come back. The man saw this and saw how upset Riley was (you can imagine if you know Riley). The man said if the boy turns around he can come up. Riley turned around and got to go up. He was on stage and so cute! He got to fight Darth Vader on stage. It was awesome! I don't think any of us will ever forget it.

It's kind of small, but Riley is the little one on stage with the orange and red on

Riley preparing to fight Darth Vader~ look at how much bigger Darth Vader is! Scary

Riley battling Darth Vader- its awesome!

By about 6:00 we had had it. We met Vern's parents for dinner at Bubba Gump's Shrimp. That night Vern and I went back to Disneyland in the poring rain and rode Souring Over California, Indian Jones and Pirates. It was fun to have a date with my husband. That so rarely happens I can't even remember the last time just the two of us went out so it was really nice. Even if we were running around from ride to ride, sloshing in the rain.

I don't want to bore everyone with ALL the details of the vacation so I'll just mention a few more:

My mom lost her purse on the Indiana Jones ride and they had to shut it down while they looked for it!

Riley and Mattie got to meet Woody and Jessie

My dad got the kids bubble guns and Mattie was obsessed. When ever we were at the hotel room she had to have her bubble gun going. Sometimes she even had two going at once.

Grandpa Vernon wanted to take Riley to Tom Sawyer's Island. Riley didn't really want to go, but once he got there he didn't want to leave! He loved it!

We got to eat at the character breakfast and it was awesome! Mattie loved Minnie Mouse but when she got close she was afraid. But when Minnie would leave, Mattie kept wanting her back.

Mattie loved the Buzz Lightyear ride and got a higher score than my mom and me!

Riley rode Thunder Mountain Railroad for the first time and loved it!

Us on Small World

Mattie driving on Autotopia

Riley waiting in line for Peter Pan

The castle all lit up, on me and Vern's journey back to Disneyland the first night

Riley and Captain Hook

Shaking hooks

Riley and Grandma on Toy Story Mania

Mattie in her own seat on Toy Story Mania

Mattie and Riley in their Woody and Jessie hats

Us with Woody and Jessie

As you can see, we had the best time at the happiest place on Earth! We loved our Disneycation!!