Tuesday, June 6, 2017

May Newsletter & Slideshow


Slideshow:
https://goo.gl/photos/Secjk59mfTZjffyQ6

Newsletter:
Hamilton Newsletter
May 2017

FAMILY: Yay!! School is finally done and we are already enjoying summer! On May 1st, North Elementary had its final arts night in their old school. We all went and enjoyed watching McKinley play cello and sing and Ireland sing as well. On the 7th, the 3 older girls put on a fashion show for us – complete with beautiful dresses and fancy make-up J The 12th was Heidi & Jason’s 17th wedding anniversary. Grandma & Grandpa Potts were so sweet to come watch the girls so we could go have a little getaway in St. George at their place. We watched King Arthur in the DBOX seats (they move and vibrate with the movie) and we ate at Anasazi Grill, which was really yummy. That next morning was the Share Walk, so we left St. George early and headed to Cedar with our purple Share Walk shirts to go walk with the other families there to remember their babies. It was a wonderful morning. The 14th was Mother’s Day and Heidi was spoiled with jewelry, gifts, and yummy food (Jason even made an AMAZING nutella cheesecake. Oh. So. Good.) It was wonderful! Wednesday, the 17th, was North Elementary’s last day of school! So, McKinley & Ireland were pretty excited! They got out a week earlier than the rest of the school district because they were transferring everything to the new school. Kezia had one more week of school, but she didn’t mind a bit – she is missing her teachers! On the 19th, the girls had their earned late-over for staying in bed and helping to clean. McKinley had Micaela, Ireland had Elli, and Kezia had Ivy. We had fun playing, eating homemade corn dogs and  yummy stuff in the chocolate fountain, and watching A Dog’s Purpose downstairs. On the 20th, Heidi & Jason went to a parenting class at SUU in the morning while McKinley helped with the girls. It was a good time! That evening the Vogts invited us over for an end-of-school-year pizza party! It was fun and we all enjoyed visiting, eating yummy pizza & trying out Mahina’s virtual reality goggles J On the 26th, we started out Memorial weekend by heading to Richfield for Sedona’s high school graduation. She graduated with a 4.0 & got lots of scholarships! Yay Sedona! After her graduation and a get-together at the Reeds, we headed up north to Mapleton. We got there just in time to set up the tent and get to bed. Jason & the 4 older girls slept in our old trailer. Heidi & Oaklyn slept in the tent. Not much sleep, but the weather was SO nice & we enjoyed visiting with family, eating yummy food, going for hikes, petting the baby bunnies that Tucker brought, and just being in nature. We got home on Memorial Day and that evening we visited our baby boy and enjoyed spending some time in the cemetery. There was even a little ladybug that was crawling all over his bench and went to everyone in the family and tickled our arms & hands. J One other thing we worked on this month was the downstairs basement. After Noelle’s sharpie destruction, mom decided to re-paint the whole thing. She painted the entire basement, but the girls helped with the bathroom. Kezia got to pick the color – it’s a deep purple!!

JASON: He enjoyed seeing his family for Sedona’s graduation and has been busy at work and with his calling!
  
HEIDI:  Heidi is grateful school is done!! No more carpooling for a few months! It makes our mornings so much nicer J Heidi is going to the gym more for classes and running more outside. It’s been so nice outside. She got the garden planted with seeds this year – corn, peas, pumpkin, carrots. She still needs to get her flowers for the front planter & get her tomatoes in, but she’s looking forward to it! Heidi spent a solid week working on painting the downstairs. It’s been a LONG time since she’s done that much painting, but the downstairs looks SO much better – both because you can’t see Noelle’s marks anymore, and because the 2-tone paint looks much better than all off-white. She finished the 2nd book in the Ember in the Ashes series, which was very good. She also finished listening to the autobiography of C.S. Lewis, Surprised by Joy. And she is almost done also listening to Daring Greatly, which she listened to as she was painting.

McKINLEY:
-McKinley is done with 5th grade – and all of elementary school!!! Way to go McKinley!!! We are so proud of you!
-McKinley got all 4s (the highest you can get) on her SAGE testing and received a special award at school – AWESOME JOB McKinley!
-McKinley went to the open house at her new middle school – Cedar Middle School (CMS) with Jason. In 6th grade, they have a core teacher & class that stays together for all the other classes. Her core teacher is Mrs. Weeks. She is excited! But also sad because all of her friends have other core teachers. We know how good McKinley is at making friends, though & know she will find some good ones!
-McKinley did a great job with her cello performance at the North Elementary Arts night!
-McKinley got to go on a field trip to the aquatic center for her end-of-testing celebration!

IRELAND:
-Ireland is now a 5th grader!!! She really enjoyed Mr. Sahagun’s 4th grade class, and will miss it, but she’s ready to be the queen of the school!!! She will be in Mrs. Brown’s class next year (she’s new to North)
-Ireland won a coloring contest at Menchie’s in St. George – way to go Ireland!
-Ireland has been on a Harry Potter kick lately! She plowed through book 3 & is now on book 4!
-Her class got to go to the aquatic center to celebrate end-of-testing
J
-It was fun to see Ireland perform for her arts night. They sang “Home” and did a great job! She also did space artwork on canvas with a working LED blub. So cool!
-Ireland went on a lunch date with mom to the Brick House. She got a yummy chicken sandwich and a molten lava dessert. Yum!
-Ireland gave a talk in Primary on baptism as part of choosing the right. She shared about a time when she could have gotten very mad, but didn’t. She also talked about Alma at the waters of Mormon. She did a terrific job!!
-Ireland found an origami craft in the Friend magazine & made daddy a really cute origami shirt that says “You’re the best dad ever!”
KEZIA:
-On May 1st, Kezia got to go on a field trip to the St. George Children’s Museum. They asked for Spanish-speaking volunteers to go, so daddy came along! She had a lot of fun getting to spend the day with her dad
J
-Kezia got to go with her 1st grade class to the aquatic center & had fun swimming with her friends!
-Kezia’s friends, Macie & Ivy, had a lemonade stand, but Kezia chose to go to her friend, Sophie’s, birthday party in the park. She had fun.
-Kezia finished her soccer season this month & did so well! She usually makes 1-2 goals in a game and is getting better and both goalie and defense. Grandma & Grandpa Potts came to see her last game on the 13th. Way to go Kezia!!
-One day, Kezia was playing soccer with her friends at recess and she was trying to slide to the ball and she hit her head hard on the ground. Her pupils weren’t dilating properly, so she called daddy & he came & picked her up & took her to the doctor. Thankfully, she is okay!
-Kezia gave a talk in Primary on baptism as part of choosing the right. She shared about a time when she did something wrong & talked to her mom & dad about it. She shared the story of Jesus getting baptized. She wrote the whole talk out by herself & she did a great job reading it!!

LINK: Oh, our sweet boy! How we love and miss you! We’ve seen some beautiful rainbows this month & think about you ever time. Grandma & Grandpa Potts both talked about you in their church talks, and one of mom’s Share friends, Stephanie Neilson, also talked about you – Linking families together through temples. It is so heart-warming to hear your name spoken so much. On Memorial Day, there was a tiny ladybug that was crawling all over your cars. It went to each member of our family & tickled our hands and arms. It was so sweet & special.  We know it was a love note from you – thank you!!

NOELLE:
-Noelle is obsessed lately with “the monster game” on mom’s phone. She wants to play it all the time! Good thing it’s educational!
-One day Lisa Riddle came over to give us some clothes. Mom & Lisa were visiting by the front door when Noelle walks over & gives Lisa a note that says “Need Help.” We both got a good laugh out of her “cry for help.” Turns out it was a paper that McKinley had made during homework the night before J
-Noelle now has chores! Mom made a little magnetic chart, where she can “close” the chores that she completes. Every day she needs to get ready for the day, clean her room & make her bed, put away the utensils, and do a choice chore. She has been really good at it!
-Noelle was talking a lot about Link this month. She wanted his picture to carry around. She would put it on the floor and build blocks around it. She said quite a few times “I miss my brother. I miss him so much.”
-When McKinley & Ireland were fighting one day, Noelle got into the middle of them and said “let’s not fight sisters!”
-One day Caleb Hillstead came over to play. Just when mom was thinking how nice they were playing together, she heard yelling from the backyard. Caleb & Noelle were screaming at each other “I’m the best!” and the other one would say “NO! I’m the best” Unfortunately by the end tears were involved
L
-Mom was visiting teaching & the dad came in and said “I asked your daughter her name & she said it was Noelle Christmas Eve Hamilton” J
-Noelle had a lot of fun camping at Mapleton. She found roly polys, ants, ladybugs, and LOTS of butterflies. She LOVED going on hikes!
-After Mapleton, Noelle got a fever. At one point it was 103.5
L We took her in and the doctor said her tonsils were VERY swollen and inflamed, so he prescribed antibiotics. Noelle HATES taking the medicine, though. Apparently it must taste horrible, because no amount of bribing would make her take it. Only through force would she get it down.

 OAKLYN:
-At 9 months old, this cutie patootie is nonstop! She crawls everywhere, pulls up on everything & even has taken a couple steps (2 at Aunt Kim’s!). She’s starting to pull open drawers and cabinets & explore all the fun things inside.
-Still no teeth, but we think she is SO CLOSE to getting them now!
-Finally, finally she is starting to sleep through the night. It required a few nights of absolutely no going into her room to comfort her, which was really hard, but she is finally a solid sleeper. Hooray!
-Oaklyn says Uh-Oh! And she likes to play peek-a-boo, and it sure sounds like she’s saying peek-a-boo, too!
-It also sure sounds like she says Kezia!
-She eats more of what we eat now, but she still likes her baby food! Unfortunately, it backs her up a bit, so she’s been drinking lots of prune juice.
-Oaklyn’s first night at Mapleton was pretty brutal L She was up most of the night, but the following nights were much better. She had a lot of fun crawling around, getting filthy, and eating everything in sight.

-Oaklyn got sick after our camping trip. When we took her to the doctor, her temp was almost 104 L Thankfully, after a couple days and lots of ibprofin, she is doing so much better!