Progress at the pool!

We have had a blast at the pool this summer. We spent a total of 4 weeks in swim lessons and Jordan and Spencer have made gigantic strides!!! I am so proud of both of them. And not to leave out Landon, he has gotten much more comfortable in the water, not that he wasn't already a little dare devil when the summer started.

It was pretty fun because there were lots of moms in the ward who signed up for the lessons, as well as Jordan's good friend Karly. It was great to have lots of friends for the kids to play with and moms for me to talk to.

Spencer went from just barely putting his face in the water to doing his own cute little version of the freestyle. It is pretty fun to watch him. He tries so hard to do the strokes, and one day when his teacher gave him a thumbs up, he was all smiles and said "did you see that mommy-he gave me a thumbs up." He has also developed a love of being under the water. He wears his mask and is constantly diving under for various toys or just gliding along in the water. He comes up for air, then is down again! It is really fun to watch.

This top pic is of Spencer doing his strokes and the bottom on is his favorite thing to do-he just glides in the water -he keeps his arms to his sides and kicks his feet. I love it!!

More of Spencer swimming. I love that the mask is actually wider than his head. So funny.

Jordan has progressed so much. She went from level 2 up to level 3. She has learned the freestyle, breast stroke and backstroke. She does really well on her own now is so much more confident-she goes all over the pool and it is so nice to not have to worry about her anymore.


Jordan doing some strokes. She has to wear her mask as well. I am working on showing them both that they could just wear goggles and not have to have their nose plugged. Makes me think of when I learned to swim-I've never had a formal swim lesson in my life-just lots of uncles who taught me to swim in lakes and rivers and we never had goggles or masks.
I think Jordan can do almost the length of the pool. Makes me wonder if we should do a "swim team" type thing next year, but I think we would have to join the pool. So far we have only been going for lessons, but I am beginning to wonder if joining the pool would be worth it.

A big accomplishment for Jordan was that one day she decided that she could now go off the diving board. I didn't have my camera the day of the very first jump, but here are some shots of her going off the days to follow. Now she is often at the "boards" as they are called jumping over and over. It was fun to see her first timid jump and frantic swim to the side progress into her jumping off backwards and swimming to the ladder with not problems!
The last couple days she really got into going off backwards.

So, when we started the second round of lessons, every day Spencer would ask me if he could go off the diving board. We would walk over and watch for a few minutes, then he would say "tomorrow." This lasted the whole first week. One day I asked if I could be at the bottom waiting for him, but the lifeguards said no.

Well, one day there were lots of friends at the pool, and peer pressure finally paid off. He stood up there for what seemed like a half and hour, but then he finally did it!!!

His first landing-he frantically swam to the back wall and got out. Of course we were all cheering wildly-as we did for Jordan on her first jump! Both occasions necessitated a trip to Dairy Queen to celbrate!
After a couple more jumps, he got a bit more comfortable and went off the front instead of the side.
Way to go Spencer!!

So the big thing was going off the "boards at the same time. So fun to see Jordan and Spencer be able to go at the same time.

Here are some more random shots: Jordan learning to dive off the side, Spencer doing a handstand-his favorite new trick the last few days, and random shots of Jordan. After typing all this, I realize there is a shortage of pics of Landon. Well, I tried putting him in lessons the first time around and it was a disaster. He did not listen and I had to be in the water with him. The pool filled the class pass the capacity, so they moved his age group to noon, and by the time he had been playhing in the pool for an hour waiting for his turn, he was spent and did not do well at all. I did not take my camera at all the first two weeks, thus no pics of Landon. I do have some of him I did with the waterproof camera I'll post after this one.

Thank you Rolling Hills Swim Club for a great summer!! See ya next year:)

Spencer is 5!!!

We celebrated Spencer's Birthday while we were in Boston. It was a fun day overall. It had been raining all day, so we had to find something indoors to do. We decided to do "monster" mini golf, which I'll post about later, then had dinner and cake and ice cream and presents later that night. Spencer was funny-he woke up asking if he could open his presents and asked about every hour the rest of the day. Safe to say he was a little excited:)

We had a couple families who I know in Boston over to celebrate, so there were other kids to play with, which my kiddos loved.

Here's Auntie Karin getting the cake ready. She's holding her cute little grand niece Brooke, the daughter of her niece Katie, who I have known since she was like 8 or 9 years old.
I got a cake from the store, but it had roses, so I had to get something more fitting-little fishy decorations. Jordan had a blast decorating the cake, and made it a point to tell everyone who walked into the house that she decorated it. She is really not shy anymore.
Spencer was worried that he wouldn't be able to blow all his candles out. It took him a couple tries, but then he did it.....well, he had a little help from little brother and big sister.




And finally the time came for Spencer to open his presents. He was sooooo excited and he made the best faces while he was opening the gifts. He was so excited for each one. I loved watching him get so excited each time.


Here he was opening a Toy Story 3 Lego set. His excitement was obvious!!


Giving love to Auntie Karin. We were sad that Auntie Marion was at work and had to miss the party. But he sure loved their gift.

Dinosaurs from Grammy and Papa "O" Another awesome gift. Right up Spencer's ally.

Spencer's gift from his Nana and Papa-a pirate lego set. His smile says it all!!


Just like his big sister, Spencer received some really fun gifts. It was all about Lego this year. Oh and a couple Playmobile sets. Lots and lots of tiny pieces. Am I ready for a Lego habit? Hmm....
Anyhow thank you to all our wonderful friends and family for the love you show to our sweet 5 year old boy!!

The top 5 reasons why we love you Spencer:
1. You are truly a sweet and sensitive boy-always wanting to make others happy.
2. I love to see your awesome imagination work-especially when you are playing with your Lego and Playmobile.
3. We couldn't live without your wonderful hugs and kisses!!
4. Your brother and sister are so lucky to have you-you're such a caring and fun brother!
5. I love how you are the first one to get up and help when I for it. You are a good listener, too!!

WE love you Spencer-Happy Birthday!!

Jordan is 7!!

Here's our goofy Birthday girl!!

Jordan had lots of fun opening her presents on her birthday. She was also wearing the same dress as a few girls in our primary! Thanks Target:) (She actually picked it out herself!!)

Opening presents:

After all the work to open it, here's Jordan's gift: Sydnee. An "American Girl" doll, courtesy of Target at a much lower price:)
Someone loves her new "American Girl" doll.
Barbies from Nana and Papa.

Jordan received wonderful gifts from family and friends, but one of my favorite was a small cardboard box that looks like a treasure chest with tiny little books in it. Jordan wasn't too sure about it, but then I noticed that all the books had her Aunt Darcie's name in them. What a sweet gift to give!!

I know you love all these gifts, Jordan, but you are truly a gift to our family.

Top 7 reasons why we love you Jordan:
1. You are so kind and sweet.
2. You are a wonderful and caring big sister.
3. We are so thankful for your reverence and great behavior in primary.
4. We have such a fun time playing with you.
5. You have a gift for writing and have written some wonderful books.
6. I love how you are such a great friend and look out for your friends at school.
7. You give the best hugs and kisses!!

Happy Birthday!! We love you tons!!!

We've had some birthdays!

August is a busy birthday month at the Maney house! Jordan's birthday is Aug 15th and Spencer's is Aug. 24th. Last year we did separate parties, but this year because we were going on vacation to Boston, we decided to do a combined party. It turned out to be an awesome decision. A few weeks back, Darin took the kids to a movie on a Saturday morning but found out they couldn't see it because it was the time for birthday parties. So I called them and and got the info and immediately booked the party.

It was a great deal-you pay the rental fee and get the whole theater for your party. There is also a discount on drinks and popcorn. And the guy at the theater was so nice!! We had been keeping track of the movies since we got to choose from any of the ones they had been showing, and we were really hoping for How to Train Your Dragon. It had been there for weeks and was just finishing up before the party. I talked to the guy and he saved it for us even though he was supposed to send it back. It was awesome since we didn't really want to see Marmaduke or Shrek.

So we invited the whole families to come and everyone had a really fun time. We got there and after a few minutes we got to see a tour of the projection room. I actually didn't go up since I was waiting for latecomers, but Darin said it was really cool. The guy showed them how to thread the movie into the projector and told the group lots of facts about it. For instance the power needed to run it could power up 3 houses, and if you look into the bulb you would go blind immediately. He said it was very interesting and everyone seemed to really enjoy it.

After the tour, we got all the kids their own popcorn and drink. Some of their expressions were so cute. They couldn't believe they each had their own. So fun!! The kids all got to pick where they wanted to sit in the theater, so most of them sat away from their parents-in 2 major groups-the boys and the girls. I didn't really take many pics, but here are a few I did get.

The "boy" group.
Spencer and his buddy Patrick-he's the little guy I watched last year, and I'll watch him again after school this year, too.

Not a great shot, but here's the "girl" group.

After the movie we had cupcakes in the foyer.

Here are the birthday kiddos!! Yeah, I didn't notice the posters behind the kids-hello Mr. T. Nice.

Blowing out candles. This year I decided I just didn't feel like making any cupcakes, so I as lazy and got the store bought ones. I got the cupcake "pull aparts" and we really liked them. A word of warning, though, is that there is tons of excess frosting. I trimmed a lot off the ones I gave the kids. Sugar overload!!!


Jordan and her school buddies

We had a wonderful time!! It really turned out to be the best party. I highly recommend it to anyone in our area!!

Hill Cumorah Pagent

We had an awesome time at the Hill Cumorah Pageant. I was so excited for the kids to see it. I remember just loving it so much the couple times I went. We got there in the late afternoon and found some good seats. I was amazed at how much the seats had been staked out already-people do all kinds of crazy things to save seats; for instance roping them off, tying garbage bags over them, taping paper, etc. I would have done something like that early in the morning if I had known.

Anyhow we found the closest available seats and set up camp. We had plenty of time, so I took the kids to the top of the hill to see the monument. I pushed Landon up in the stroller and boy was that a good work out. I made him walk down. But the kids all loved it. Especially when we saw Auntie and Carla sitting down in our row. I took a pic with my zoom lens and you can see them. Pretty cool.


The Angel Moroni statue at the top of the hill.Maney and Price kiddos at the top of the hill.

Some crazy kiddos at the top of Hill Cumorah.
It was a pretty hot day, so when we got back down to the bottom, Darin took the kids and a blanket and hung out in the shade under a tree on the side. I tried taking Landon in the visitor center with me, but he was less than cooperative, so that didn't last long. We played for a while on the side, had a picnic dinner, then all the character started coming out. It was fun to try and guess who they all were. Spencer was more into seeing them than Jordan and Landon, so he and I had our pictures taken with a few.



Here are a few of the characters we saw:


Spencer and Sarah with 2 Nephis. There were 2 because there was a scene of Lehi's vision-one Nephi in the scene of the family in the wilderness, and one Nephi in the vision.
These guys were in the Samuel the Lamanite scene. Forgot their actual titles.


Spencer and I with Lehi."is that a bad guy" Asks Spencer-yup. King Noah. "oh yeah" We know that story. The kids love the picture from the gospel art kit. They like the leopard, or what ever animal it is in the pic.

Spencer with Mormon

I did miss a bit of excitement. I had to take Spencer to the bathroom one last time just before it started, and apparently I missed seeing Donny Osmond who was jut about 1o rows or so in front of us. Darin said there was big crowd around him and Darin a bit earlier he had overheard a lady say that her highlight of the sacred grove earlier in the day was seeing Donny Osmond there. Guess we timed it wrong:)

So the pageant started and I had very attentive children!! They loved it and watched the whole time. Well, Jordan made it through the whole thing, Spencer about half, and Landon fell asleep fairly soon after it started. And Kaalie and Sarah really loved it as well.


I started to take pictures, but then I couldn't get the shots I wanted and I wanted to just sit back and enjoy it, so here are just a few from the beginning.

Here's a pic to show the size and scope of the cast. It was huge. Truly amazing.

Lehi's family in the wilderness.

Lehi's tree of life vision. On a side note, something else pretty cool happened that day. We had found a fun little diner for lunch, then went to a small grocery store to get a few missing items for our picnic dinner at the pageant. My friends Karin and Marion were ahead of me in the store. I walked into the produce section and I heare this voice exclaim "Marion Olson." I went to see what was going on and it was a great friend who had been a nanny in Boston years ago and was in our singles ward. We had all lost touch with each other. She was with the missionary who converted her, who my friends also know since she had lived in Boston as a nanny before Cathy did. Such a small world. So we chatted a while and exchanged information. Later at the pageant we ran into her again and our kids played a bit. Oh, that reminds me that we also saw another friend from the old singles ward years ago when we were leaving the Sacred Grove. So fun when that happens. It is fun to be in touch with my friend Cathy again. I love the connection we all have as members of the church!!!

More Catch up-Palmyra

I am still playing catch up from lots of our fun times this summer. In July went went up to New York for the Hill Cumorah Pageant. We had a great time!!

We had a wonderful day in Palmyra. We met up with our best friends from Boston-Marion and Karin, and Carla Price and her girls Kaalie and Sarah. We had breakfast, then stopped at the temple first. It was fun to walk around and look at all the beautiful stained glass windows. It is such a beautiful temple.

Our family in front of the Palmyra Temple

Some more shots of the Palmyra Temple. It was so beautiful-I was amazed at all the stained glass windows. We learned that it is the only temple where you can see out of the Celestial Room-it faces the Sacred Grove.

Which reminds me of another thing we learned about the temple. There were some trees blockingn the view ofteh grove from the temple, so the church asked the town of Palmyra if they could cut them down. They were told no. Well, apparently the next spring the trees had a disease and had to be cut down anyway. Hmm......


Next stop: Smith Family and Alvin Smith Homes.

After we saw the temple we went to Joseph's Home. It was fun to take the kids to the home where the Angel Moroni appeared to the boy Joseph. This house was actually built on the original foundation of the first Smith home. We went up stairs and talked about the fact that the Angel Moroni appeared there. It was nice to be able to share that with the children.



We toured the Alvin Smith home. He started building it for his fiance, then he died. The family then took over the building of the house and lived there. It had been altered through the years, but the church recently did a deconstruction-back to the way the house was when it was originally built.

Here is the hearth were the golden plates were hidden at one point.


The Maney and Price kids in the bedroom of the cabin where the Angel Moroni appeared.

Next on our tour:The Sacred Grove

We had a wonderful visit to the Sacred Grove. It was a hot day, but still so sunny and beautiful. We got there and the kids wanted to walk around on the paths by themselves. They were actually really good. I was a bit worried about them running and bothering other people, but they did really well. I was walking around for myself a bit looking for them and it was a nice feeling.

As I walked through the grove, I would stop at spots I felt were similar to the description of where Joseph saw the Father and The Son. I would think..."maybe it was here....or maybe it was here...." Just amazing to know were in such close proximity to here the vision took place. There's a wonderful calm and peaceful feeling in the grove.



More pictures int the Sacred Grove.
I just liked this picture of Jordan running down the path out of the grove.
When I was walking back to the car, I realized that when you looked to your right, you saw the Nauvoo temple. We didn't see it when we were walking toward the Smith home. No one else in the group saw it because they were way ahead of me. Landon wouldn't walk so it took me a while of walking away from him to finally get him to walk. So enjoyed being able to see it, even though I was fighting Landon at the same time.