New Year, New Blog

I have decided for a couple of reasons to start a NEW blog. Here is the linkhttp://www.sherwoodfamily5.blogspot.com/

football and halloween...

Our lives have pretty much revolved around football, theater and Halloween the last month. Cayden has REALLY enjoyed playing football this year. It is is first year of TACKLE football and let me tell you it is not an easy thing for a mom to watch your boy get flattened by a kid twice his size, it has happened more than once. Cayden is doing AWESOME, he is the running back for his team and he has really taken to it. I was worried how he would handle getting tackled (or nailed) but he has done exceptionally well, he does his very best to be tough and get up and keep playing even when he is hurting. His arms are COVERED in bruises and bumps but to him its kind of cool :) I am sure he doesn't mind the girls seeing them and thinking he's so tough, ha ha. We are so PROUD of him and how well he is doing and how dedicated he is, he NEVER gives less than 100% at practice and games! To make the season even more fun his cousin from Hatch is also playing on the "Bears" team. We, of course, are the DAWGS!

These 2 Cousins have been having so much fun playing football, even if they are on opposing teams. They played each other a few weeks ago and it was so fun to watch them!

 HEAD TO HEAD......who will win?

Here is our sweet little RODEO PRINCESS. After going to the Rodeo at the State Fair this year and seeing all the beautiful cowgirls Ally decided a Rodeo Princess was the way to go for Halloween. Prettiest cowgirl I have ever seen

We are also very Proud of Ally right now. She had the opportunity to be in a play this year. It was so fun for her. She absolutely loved "theater" as it was known around our house and the many practices they had. She had about 4 or 5 lines in the play and that was just perfect in her eyes, she couldn't have been happier. The whole week, who am I kidding the whole month, before the play that is all she talked about and was SO excited that her grandparents and Aunt and Uncles were able to come out and watch her.

 Here is our "MUMMY" Cayden. I was proud of myself in making his costume this year. It was fun, not difficult, no sewing involved just me a sheet from Savers, 20 tea bags, a pair of sweats and some hot glue. These pictures are from our Annual ward Trunk-or-Treat. His makeup looked much better on Halloween Night. Once I find my camera I can post some more pics.

 .....and of course our Buzz Lightyear. Grady is so into Buzz and Woody right now. Its pretty cute. So, naturally, he really wanted to be "Buzz Whiteyear" It was so cute on Halloween as we trick or treated all of the kids would say "LOOK, there's Buzz Lightyear as we would pass by them" I think Grady felt pretty darn special, as he is. He is such a joy right now. Driving me nuts with his one million questions but is so much fun. He is so into numbers and letters. He loves to ask what is 6 &7 make or 5&8 and when you tell him the answer he says "whoah" He is very into tracing letters right now. He will pick up books and trace the letters of the titles with his cute little pointer finger and pick out all the ones that are in his name. He is growing up WAY too fast.

We had a good Halloween this year and were lucky enough to have some of my Family come out. They were able to see one of Caydens best football games, Ally in her play "Rip Van Winkle" and go trick or treating. My cute little nephew was spiderman and he was adorable. I need to find my camera for some more pics to come!!



Seperation Anxiety????

What is that? I ask myself. I have never experienced that with any of my kids before. They have all been really great to start school, nursery, have sleep overs at grandparents house, have babysitters etc. etc. I used to think when I would see kids freaking out when their moms would leave "you obviously need to leave him more often". Judgmental, I know. Well, I no longer feel this way. Out of the blue my little guy has started having this "seperation anxiety" as everyone calls it. I don't know where it came from and why because he has gone to "daycare" at the gym since he was less than a year old, gone to nursery, had sleepovers with family, etc. etc. all without ever a word of complaint or sadness. He has always "LOVED" having babysitters. I think because they eat whatever they want for dinner and have dessert and stay up late. Anyways, he has recently started "freaking out" when I drop him off at preschool. It is the weirdest thing. He lOVES preschool and ususally doesn't want to leave when I pick him up when its done but for some reason unknown to me he HATES it when I drop him off.  There are no problems at school, he is not being bullied or bored or challenged. He does just fine when my girlfriend takes him on Wed.'s becasue I have to go to work earlier and last weekend when I was out of town and Travis took him he did just fine! So, it has to be a "mom" thing right? This last Thursday when I took him I tried everything. I tried sitting down and playing with him for  a little while, I tried bribery (great mothering skills I know) I tried being very stern and spanking him (wow, 2 thumbs up for me), I was lost and fresh out of tricks. Nothing worked. He would get brave and say he was going to be a big boy and just as we would start to walk in he would stop dead in his tracks and freeze. I had just about had it and had a million things to do while he was in preschool so I decided to just take him with me. I went inside to explain to his teacher the situation (this has happened the last couple weeks, so it was nothing new) and she advised me to not take him. She didn't want a pattern to start where he thought he could just go with me anytime he didn't want to go into preschool. She assured me that he cries for about 5 minutes and then he is happy, smiling and has a GREAT day. She said if you want to bring him in and just give him to me crying or not and if he doesn't stop in 10 minutes I will call you. So, I did. He cried, grabbed my neck and shirt and had to be pryed off of me, I think I even had a scratch on my neck. Quite tramatic. I left feeling horrible. Then I headed to the older two kids school to pay for lunches, take forgotten homework and bring Ally her violin so she could play for her class. It wasn't more than 3 minutes I got a text that he was happy and having fun already!  Oh brother, was my thought. All that drama and you are happy already? So, some may say, why even have him go to preschool if he acts that way, its not like he's in regular school yet or anything? Well, he LOVES it, he really does. Once he gets over me dropping him off he has a great time. He talks about it all the time and the days he doesn't go he is asking if he can. Being kind of like an only child during the school year because he is so much younger than the other two he really needs to have something to do, as do I, ha ha! I decided to try a "treasure box" idea. I got a bunch of cheap little toys, candy, etc. and put in the "treasure box" and every day he goes to preschool without crying he can come home and choose something from the box. Here's hopin! Anyways, it is so bizarre and I am not sure where it is coming from but boy do I hope it passes soon. I really don't want to be the one to have the kid in kindergarten that has to walk her child to the playground and wait for the teacher to get him every day!!! I

Catch Up!

There is no way for me to catch up on everything that has been happening since 4th of July when I last posted so I thought I would just put some random pictures with some highlights of the last few months. This is all the kids after the "talent" show at my family reunion this year. The kids love this and look forward to it every year. Especiallly the girls. As soon as they all get up there (Sherwood Forest) they spend countless hours practicing their dances to perform for the talent show. I LOVE this tradition, it went from me and all the cousins my age being teenagers teaching the younger cousins a dance, to the younger cousins teaching my kids a dance and finally this was the first year that the dances were all choreographed by the kids themselves. They did GREAT!
Sarah and Me (we are camping, not going out on the town, ha ha) She is great, I love her. We have always had this special bond even though she is like more than 10 years younger than me.

All the cute little girls, they have so much fun together.

This was at "The Catwalk" which is in Glenwood, NM about an hour away from Alpine and it was amazing. Beautiful hike and stream running through it the whole way.

So....the water was literally ICE COLD. It didn't stop these crazy boys from getting in head deep and riding it out. I am glad my brother in law Jon was there so Cayden had someone crazy enough to get in with him.

This is sideways but it is one of the many cool spots on the hike. Grady was a trooper!

I LOVE my little man. He is so hilarious!

Grady again, hiking down the path, it was pretty steep up and down in some spots. My other two kids took off way ahead of us slow people with their Uncles.

Back to 4th of July. We rented this plontoon boat and had a great time at Elephant Butte Lake. We missed the other Sherwoods, they had sickness at their house and couldn't make it.

I don't know how I got so lucky to have such a good looking husband!

Other things I haven't yet posted about:

Older two kids started school again (Cayden-5th grade, Ally 3rd grade)

Grady started preschool, which he LOVES

I am starting to work again, only 3 days a week

Cayden has started tackle football, scary!

Ally is taking violin lessons, I love it, she is doing really well

Ally is also taking a theater class and will be in a play the end of October "The Legend of Spooky Hollow"

Travis is CRAZY busy at work and doing awesome! He amazes me :)

Happy 4th of July

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!

I got these photos from Hillary's blog, she really captured the spirit of the festivities, thanks Hills for getting these great shots. Amy is an amazing host for our celebration, she always has goodie bags (buckets) for the kids, food that goes perfect, and decor of course. Then we can't forget the great fireworks show the men put on for us. I don't know what's more fun, the actual fireworks show or watching and listening to them prepare and carry out their plans laughing the whole time as they try to ensure noone dies from a firework being shot the wrong direction. Keep reading for more details.

It is our tradition that all of Travis's family comes out for the 4th of JULY and we have a big BBQ and fireworks at his brothers house. This year was no different. We had so much fun, between fireworks, the lake, food, movies, some games, and barfing. Yep you heard it right, barfing, poor Amy had taken care of 6 sick kids the week of the 4th, they thought they were rid of it until we were all there for the BBQ and Justin comes down with it, poor guy. We enjoyed our time regardless. Since I am still missing my camera cord I am relying on pics from my sister-in-laws. Here are some I recieved from Amy, thanks!

The "older" cousins all on the slide, right before it broke :)











The girls being beautiful like they are: Ally, Molly and Lucy










The "Big Boys" Calvin, Noah and Cayden










The "Little Boys" Henry and Grady

Our Family

Ally's Baptism...

So, I still need to find my camera cord so I can upload my pictures but here is some my little sister emailed me. We had a wonderful weekend with almost all of our family in town for Ally's baptism. It was definately a FULL house but we really appreciated everyone coming out to share this special day with Ally. Here is the "boys" playing in the pool, they had so much fun together and Grady talks about his cousin Porter all the time.

Here is my adorable sister and beautiful mom, and of course my handsome brother in the background, ha ha! Emily is so good about remembering to take pictures and taking the time to do it. I always forget and then regret what I didn't get. I did get some great ones of Ally and her Daddy before the baptism that I will upload as soon as I either a)find my cord or b)buy a new one.
This was one of our many attempts to get a good picture of us 3 girls. I don't know that we ever did.

Ally, Kamryn, Morgan and Emily

Ally and her "twin sister" or so they wish, Kamryn

My little girl and her momma

The cousins from my side of the family that came. I have some more on my camera with Travis's side. I am not sure if Grady is posing or what he is doing..

Isn't she beautiful!!!! She was so sweet, she sat there and soaked up every word from her baptism and you could literally feel her sweet spirit just beaming inside her. I have never seen a little girl, or boy, be so in tune with the spirit that there and really sittting back taking it all in and loving every minute of it. She is one amazing girl. She is such an example and sweet girl! We love you Ally girl and are so happy you are part of our family!

MORE PICTURES TO COME.............

ok. so just a few more.....