No, I'm not insane

As some of you may already know, Elliot and I have decided to home school our children this year through an online program. We came to this decision after much prayer and thought and discussion with school administrators and, of course, the kids. We started thinking about this option after a few incidents regarding the schools and came to the conclusion that this will be the best path for our children at this time. At the end of the year, we will reassess the situation and decide where to go from there. I'm excited to work with my kids this year and I hope this turns out to be a good bonding experience for us all. I'm not stupid and I realize this will be A LOT of work but I'm positive that together we can accomplish anything. Kyle will still continue to play on the JV football team for the high school and KJ will continue to cheer for JV also. Arizona has a state law the mandates the local schools must let all home schooled kids participate in all the extra-curricular activities, as long as they make the cut(which Kyle and KJ already have done). So as long as I keep them active in outside activities and sporting programs, I'm not particularly worried about them missing out on any socializing. Besides, we all know that Elliot is a social butterfly and all the kids seem to be taking after him. Also, I hope that everyone realized that the picture of Alycia is her faced super-imposed on Queen Amidala, Tucson hasn't changed our values that much.

Happy 11th Birthday Lee-She!!!

Sometimes your kids put new posts on your blog and you know nothing about it until you get a call from someone asking about that post. I think I need to make it a rule that no new posts are published until Mom has proof read it. Some really embarrasing things could get out to the world faster than you can bat an eyelash and there would be no way to take it back! Anyway, enough of that. Tomorrow our sweet little Alycia ( or lee-she) will turn 11 years old. Holy CRAP, where does the time go? She is turning into quite the little lady though. She is taller than both her sisters and she is one fast little sucker! That chick can move and will one day be an awesome track star. Alycia is very athletic, but she also has a sweet, sensitive side to her that I think is sorely lacking in our society today. All these femi-nazis think women need to be demanding and crass and over-bearing, but our sweet Alycia is out to break the mold and we couldn't be more proud. When she was at a school function, this lady asked Alycia what she wanted to be when she grows up. Alycia replied that she would like to be a Mom. The lady told her to pick something else because a Mom wasn't appropriate. Alycia was upset and picked a different occupation. She came home that day and expressed her deep desire to be a mother. Alycia is the type of girl who is concerned about who she remembers to invite to her birthday party, not to ensure her populatiry at school, but to make sure she invites those girls who aren't usually invited to parties. Everybody loves Alycia. She has friends spanning many age groups....even a few boys. You'll find her playing guitar hero with stinky highschool boys in Kyle's room and then turn around to see her playing dolls with 2-year-old girls from the ward. It's a joy to have Alycia in our family and a joy to be her parent. I wish I could make her stay a little girl forever, but, I'm too late now so I look forward to watching her develop into the Daughter of a King that she obviously is.

Happy Birthday Alycia. We hope you enjoy your riding lessons.

No more having to wake up early for school!

This is Alycia and i just decided to write a post on the blog and there is really only one thing that is really worth writing on the blog and i am guessing that most of you know this already, but all of the kids are going to be doing school online this year. But if we don't like it then we will go back next year, if we like it we will most likely be doing school online for a really long time. If any of you already know this then i guess you don't really need to hear this! Anyway,we were all kind of scared and worried about the whole thing, but when our parents told us about it we sort of calmed down and decided to be open to ideas. As you know Kyle is in high school so it is a lot harder for him to adjust, i don't know why, but that is the way that it is. So i just wanted to say to you kyle,get over it! Anyway when our parents decided that we were going to do it we were not really surprised that we were going to do it. We took tests that decided what classes we would be in and, as far as i know, the the better you do on the test the better class that you get in! We got our results back and all that i know is that we all did really well. That's pretty much it though! I will keep you all updated about that and we will see what classes we all got!

Girl's Camp

Sorry it took so long to post. I've been having so much fun this summer. Anyways, we woke up around 6:15 to meet at the church. It's about an hour drive up the mountain, but once you're at the top there's no cactus! The first day was mostly setting up and greeting. We did activities by level with our Youth Camp Leaders (YCLs). THat first night I was in a tent with my friend, Ashlen- you'll see her in a lot of th pictures- and two other beehives. Cissy was with our othergood friend Alyssa- also in lots of pics (she's the really short blonde). We four were planning on all being together, but we ended up having assignments. Our ward is so big that they didn't have enough tents for us, so we brought some. We got exactly eight hours of sleeping because we went to bed at 10 and woke up at 6, but that time included teeth brushing and writing in our journals, etc.
The next day, Thursday, we went on the hikes. Cissy's first year one is more of a nature trail. There was a girl that got hurt so she and Alyssa ran there and back for a big first aid kit just to find out that she didn't like taking pills. I have no clue how she could've gotten hurt "hiking that". Mine was definately harder than last year, but it wasn't too bad. I made sure to stay at the very front with my friand the whole time so I could be first to the showers after the first years. It's more of a rinse off since it's one minute and freezing. We washed our hair outside. That night we did our skits. We were practicing at our camp site and it started raining then it was a really bad storm, so we all ran to the lodge and we stayed in there forever and performed our skits in there, too. That night we worked things out with some other girls and the leaders and Ashlen and I moved in to Cissy's tent. It was dark and their tent was a mess, so it took a while, but we got situated with Alyssa and Cicely on the air mattress and Ashlen and I were on foam ones. This year they had new tents, so they didn't allow cots, which was a bummer because last year when I had one, I slept so nicely. I survived on the foam, though.
Friday was our favorite day. We did rotations that included archery, paintball, crafts and a humanitarian project. I liked the paintball. Every day we had scripture time and it was very calm. We did a Battle of the Bishops that had family fued and knockout (some call it speed or lightning). Our team didn't win, but it was still very fun! That night was awesome. We did a singing trees thing where we all sang a hymn we previously prepared. Then came a testimony meeting with our ward. Everyone was crying their eyes out except me because for some reason I don't cry during spiritual stuff like that. IDK. Then we went to inspiration rock which looks over the whole city. It's very pretty at night. When we got back we went into extreme tiredness mode where we all went crazy. We were all so goofy and the leaders even started a breakdance- off. It was hilarious. Our ward started the pony game- a tradition at camp here. Lots of people from different wards joined in and it must have lasted for a good half hour. We had to stop because some cranky party-pooper campers said it was too loud and they needed their beauty sleep. When we went in our tent we were still in extreme tiredness mode, so we sang camp songs to ourselves. We got to sleep around midnight.
The next morning the scheduled wake up time was 6:30, but we had to get up at 5:30 to start packing up, otherwise we would have never gotten out of there. The final flag lowering was our ward, so I got to do it with my fellow second years. We ended up getting back around noon. We showered and then took a short nap until Tanner's loud friends started arriving for his party.
So that was our YW camp experience this year. It was awesome!!! We're already looking forward to next year when Alycia will be joining us. Speaking of Alycia, she was very happy when we got home and made sure to tell us how much she wanted to go with us. It couldn't have been too bad, though because she went and got a pedicure and went to lunch with Mom while we were gone. Well, ...that's all.

Happy Birthday Tannerman!!

Our youngest and most spoiled child(they go hand-in-hand) turns nine years old tomorrow and we are feeling quite old. We celebrated his b-day with a swim party on Saturday and we'll do a small family party tomorrow--since we are his only family around. The invite to visit is still WIDE open to anyone willing to make the trip, so we don't want to hear the excuse from anyone that they were never invited! Tanner invited many of his little buddies; several are as crazy as Tanner. They went 100% for 3 hours and it was great to see Tanner amongst his own kind. It was like letting a spider monkey go in a cage of other monkeys and watching the fun unfold for 3 hours. There was lots of throwing, catching, running, jumping, yelling, flipping, flopping, and no crying--cause no girls were invited. Tanner got an electric guitar from us as he always wants to be like Kyle; no complaints here. The girls arrived safely home from girls camp a few hours before the party on Saturday. They had a great time, but we'll let them fill you in. We did notice one thing....although our girls are not usually grumpy, they sure were cranky after girls camp. But, after a little nap they were back to their usual sweet selves; which was good since several families came over after the party to hang and swim and our girls are the best lifeguards/babysitters in Tucson.

Hot weather and hot chicks

We just finished a fun visit from Jeff, Jen, Jarrin, and Jaliece. It was great to have them. We spent most of the time swimming; as you can see from the pictures. The four adults dined at the golf course clubhouse and had a visit from a little rattler which was a good welcome to Tucson for the Donalsons. We’re grateful for all our friends and family and love visitors.

Kyle is now in full swing with JV football. He has weight training 3 times weekly and practice about every day with scrimmages thrown in now and then. Kyle also just received an award for his diligence in seminary last year. Amongst other things, he read the Old Testiment, memorized the Quorum or the 12 by seniority, and read scriptures 20 minutes each night. He’s a great example to his younger siblings and friends.

Kjirsten is very busy with the JV cheer schedule. She practices every day, but not at the same time as Kyle which makes for lots driving for Amy. It’s a little difficult dropping a 13 year-old off at high school cheer practice. But, if anyone can take on the challenge, KJ can. Although KJ is fine, we are having a hard time not being overly protective of our little girl.

Cicely is fitting in quite nicely in the young women’s program. She loves the support of her sister and making new friends is in her DNA. She’s excited to go to girl’s camp and will not stop talking about it. Her health is 100% now and with daily meds it will hopefully stay that way. Thanks again for all the prayers and support.

Alycia is 10 going on 13 and hates being the last girl while her Beehive sisters leave her behind. The 3 girls do spend most of their time together, but when Kjirsten and Cicely are off doing YW stuff Alycia is very vocal about the fact that she’s not 12 yet. I have a feeling it’s going to be a long year since Alycia only turns 11 on July 15th. Lee-she is our little fish in the family. She’s always first to get in the pool and last to get out. She has so much athletic ability it will be fun to see her in Junior high sports next year.

Tanner is half monkey and half ball of energy. Tanner loves to help dad BBQ and he is always tossing a ball in the air or shooting hoops in our 110 degree weather. Tanner just wrapped up his baseball season with a semi-final tie. Unfortunately, we didn’t advance, but it was a fun season watching Tanner pitching strikes and nailing more kids at bat than any other pitcher in the league (he got to be quite feared by the other teams). Tanner is definitely the baby of the family and plays the part quite well when necessary. Tanner became a trend-setter recently when Mom cut his hair into a mohawk. Now Mohawks are popping up all over the neighborhood much to our ward's delight(we get a lot of eye rolls at church, what else is new?).

Ell is still doing very well baptizing the hell out of everyone in Tucson. Seriously though, we have had a lot of success in doing missionary work as a family and the experiences we’ve had here are priceless. We are so grateful for the opportunity we have to preach the Gospel and welcome any chance we get to teach a lesson in our home. Work is going very well and we are so grateful to have such a good job despite liberal attempts to shut down our economy.

Amy keeps trying to leave on one-way flights to Utah. But, she can’t get the kids to go with her, so she stays. She loves being a mom to her kids and she enjoys being a mom to all the neighbor kids as long as she gets a little time to read. Amy is sick of all the focus and money paid to environmental issues so she drives very fast everywhere she goes in either of her 400+ HP cars. Seriously, she drives fast. Amy spends most of her waking time loving her kids and taking care of Elliot (and the dogs). She’s proud of the fact that she’s a stay-at-home mom and grateful that she gets the chance to spend time with her kids before they’re adults…….Kyle takes his driver’s permit test on Monday.

My Plea!!

Hello All- So here is my official first ever blog post in my entire life. Pretty exciting eh? Okay so it's not that great. My reason for writing to everyone is to make a public plea for people to come VISIT US!!!! Not to say we are desperate or anything( although I will get down on hands and knees and beg upon request) we do tend to get kinda lonely down here in good ol' Tucson. If you do come visit I can promise you all of these great ammenities which will be included with your stay:
1- We will give you your own room complete with clean sheets and towels ( you have to share a bathroom with the boys but your welcome to use the girls bathroom also!).
2-All the food in our pantry. Just so you know, we are not hippies and therefore do not have anything organic. If you are a hippie, you may want to bring your own food.
3- Unlimited access to our super cool swimming pool. Bring your own sunscreen though, that crap costs an arm and a leg(highway robbery if you ask me).
4- Great conversation and some astute political views from my incredibly intelligent (and good looking)husband.
5- Five wonderful kids who love to play with all their cousins!
Seriously, we would love to have family and friends come visit anytime you can get away. I realize gas costs a lot of money right now but can you really put a price on good memories?