First Day of School

I have been looking forward to this day for three years now, or so I thought. I have been telling Courtney all summer that she would be starting preschool in the fall. She always thought it was a wonderful idea, until it got closer to starting. She kept telling me how she couldn't go to school without me because, "I just love you and will miss you too much." At that time, that didn't even melt my heart.

I continued with my, "you will go to school whether you want to or not." Over the past few weeks, we have had many days of constant whining and crying whenever she thought about school. When school day came, she cried all morning and everything I did was a fight. She even threw her backpack in the trash thinking that if she didn't have her backpack, she wouldn't have to go.

I had big plans for

my hour and a half that she would be gone. I was going to call a friend and make cards. I was going to have some "me" time. I brought her to school, despite her constant protests. All of the other kids were fine. No one was crying and wanting their mom to stay. They were all looking at my little girl, wondering what was wrong with her. After hanging up her backpack and playing blocks for a few minutes, she was still upset. and playing blocks for a few minutes, she was still upset. The teacher said it was time to clean up and for a second she stopped crying to clean(you must know that my child is quite OCD about things being put away and in their place)! I looked at the teacher and asked if they were going to call if she couldn't stop crying or what the procedure was. She told me that generally they didn't because the child would end up being fine. At this point, tears welled up in my eyes. How could I leave my baby in this place that she did not want to be in? What a terrible mother. I wanted her to go to school so badly that I didn't care what she wanted. Surprisingly, she saw that all of the kids had to pick a spot on the mat and told me that she would be ok and that she needed to find a spot before there wasn't one left. I walked out the door and started to cry. Instead of doing anything while she was gone, I sat there wondering if she was ok or if she would hate me forever for leaving her. With 15 minutes until school was supposed to be out, I couldn't take it and picked her up. In my defense, there were lots of other parents there to pick their child up early too. Courtney ran to me and said that she had lots of fun. Her teacher said she never cried again. She can't wait to go back tomorrow because, "you just pick me up, huh mom." Now hopefully I can get some things done while she is gone, knowing that she is having a great time.

A Fun End of Summer

We have been having so much fun that I haven't even had time to post anything in forever. Let me give a quick overview of our past couple of weeks. It all started two weeks ago when Grandma and Grandpa Bollard came for a visit. We went to Liberty Park that night to feed the ducks and play. Courtney had a great time. We were also able to get some great pics of her with her grandparents and family pics as well. She loved playing on the playground but was very sad that the water had been turned off for the day. She had so much fun climbing a huge hill and rolling down it. All the fun ended when she decided to run down the hill instead. Her legs couldn't go as fast as they needed to and she ended up face planting at the bottom. On the way home from the park, we got to see Dave, Brooke, and baby Boston. Courtney refers to him as her baby Boston and even told his grandma that he was indeed Courtney's and not Grandma Robyn's. We got to go to the Junction in Ogden Friday. Dave had a new theater open up there and there is lots more to do too. We played arcade games, played on the slide, played miniature golf, as well as going to a movie. It was lots of fun. Do you think we were exhausted by Saturday? No, not us. We decided that we should take a day trip to Lagoon. Courtney loves the rides and kept wanting to ride the ones that she was too small for. She did get really good at bumper cars though. We also spent part of our time there at the waterslide park. And again, we got to see Dave, Brooke, and Boston. After getting home later that evening, Wendy and I went to a movie while Bob and Dave took Courtney to the park for more fun. They had a water gun fight.

Sunday was sad for Dave. Courtney and I went back to Las Vegas to spend the week with the grandparents. On Monday, Aubrey Rose Bollard was born. We were so happy to be able to be there for the birth. She is a beautiful baby. We got to help watch my niece, Ali, while Mom and Dad were in the hospital. We visited everyday. We also had the opportunity to visit my brother and his girls. The oldest, Ellee, decided to put makeup on the two little girls. I had to laugh and take pictures. Courtney almost learned how to swim. Grandma is a good teacher. She spent most of her time there in the pool. On Saturday, Dave got there in the morning and we were all able to spend time together. It was a lot of fun because Dave's whole family was there. Courtney was also spoiled to death by Grandma, and her surrogate grandma's, Betsy and Robyn. We are finally home and Courtney starts preschool next week.

Swimming with friends

We were lucky enough to have our friends, the Youngs, come for a visit this past weekend. We know how busy they were and appreciate them spending some time with us. Courntey was so excited for them to come and has been asking about it since about March. While Jamie and I were in Park City getting massages, the boys had the kids for awhile. They decided to take the kids swimming and they had a blast. They got so tired that by the time the moms got home, they were as grumpy and could be. But this was no day for naps. We had alot planned and would cram it all into one whole day. The kids played for awhile and then we were headed to dinner. Courtney fell asleep in the car and slept most of the time we were eating. Then we headed off to the movies. Dave and Jason had to see Transformers(something about when they were young) while the rest of us were off to see Ratatouille. Of course, no movie is complete without soda, popcorn and candy. Our friend's little boy, Jayden, fell asleep soon after the movie started and missed the whole movie. We had so much fun with them and can't wait to see them again!

Fourth of July

We hope everyone had a very fun 4th of July. Ours was really good. We helped plan a neighborhood BBQ and it was a lot of fun. We had over fifty people show up and we had a very good time. We love our neighborhood. It has just the kind of people in it that we have always wanted to live by.
The party was complete with a pool and sprinklers, tattooes, face painting, a pie eating contest, and more fireworks than I have ever seen at one time. We made little pies for the young kids to have a contest with but Courtney wanted nothing to do with it, until her dad pushed her face into it.
There had to have been at least five people with huge Costco packs of fireworks that were being set off all at the same time. We also had one neighbor with the illegal fireworks, so that was kind of fun. There were others all around our neighborhood with illegal fireworks, so we got quite a show. We were also able to see the city fireworks from our neighbor's backyard.
Here are the teenage boys in the neighborhood trying to pick out which pie they want for the contest. It was pretty sad. Only one of the boys was even able to finish off their pie. They had a good time though. One boy got a pie and smashed it on his aunts head. That was when the water fight started. So much fun!
My latest quilt that I have finished is this one. I decided it would be very cute to have a patriotic quilt out for this month. I'm working on two other quilts right now, need to bind the edges of one, and have about four more in mind that are just waiting to be started. Hopefully I'll have more time so that I can get everything done that I want to.

Daddy's little helper

Courtney loves to help her dad. I'm pretty sure Dave is hoping that when she is actually old enough to really help, that she will still want to. With the move to the new house, it seems like all we do is work on projects. One of our last things to take care of(excluding the garage, of course!) was to set up the office, which included the desk. Courtney thought it was great that she could do it too. She is a very hard worker. I also have to mention that this is one of Courtney's all time favorite outfits. She picked it out herself, and was extremely proud. Her absolute favorite color in the world is blue, so she couldn't believe that she could wear blue pants(jeans, of course, don't count as blue). It's getting pretty worn because she wears it so much.

Courtney Playing Outside

Here is a video of Courtney having a good time outside with her bike. She has been wanting a new bike for awhile. In the mean time she has to settle for the little rider.

Ducks

Courtney has an obession, of sorts, with ducks. When she was very small, her Grandpa Bollard took her to Sunset Park in Las Vegas to feed the ducks there. Now she asks him every time she talks to him if she can go feed the ducks with him. They even found ducks here the last time they were up for a visit. During this particular feeding, they saw ducklings with the mother duck. Courtney was so happy. She talked about it non stop for weeks. For some reason, she always associates ducks with her Grandpa.
We thought it was unlucky for us to have a a canal behind our house. We didn't think it would be too bad though. We also got a fence put up the backyard because of city code. So we thought we could live with it. Little did we know that it would bring hours of entertainment to Courtney.
We have a mother duck and ducklings that come by a few times a day. At first, Dave would yell to Courtney and she would come running to catch a glimpse. But one lucky day, the ducks were actually sleeping on the bank. When they woke up, they ate. Courtney thought it was the greatest thing in the world. I guess ducks really are pretty cute.
The one drawback was that last week we heard them quacking all night. Courtney would have loved it but she was sound asleep. We had a power outage for about 12 hours on one of the hottest days of the year. We opened the windows to try to get some relief, and all we heard was "quack, quack, quack." You have probably already guessed that we did not get much sleep that night.

Courtney's 3rd Birthday!

Ok, so this post is extremely late. For some reason I have had a hard time getting my posts up. Anyway, it was Courtney's birthday on Wednesday, June 13. I cannot believe that my baby is three. We ended up having a family party the Saturday before her birthday so that everyone could come and celebrate with us.



Courtney was so excited to get presents. This is the first real time that she has understood what was going on and she was very into it. She was extremely happy to have her two older cousins, Lauryn and Brayden, there with her. She also loves, and I mean really loves, her baby cousins, Cashe and Tyler, whom she affectionately calls, "Bubbas". I guess I should stop calling them that and call them by their real names.
As you can tell, someone has a fascination with Winnie the Pooh. For all those of you that think I'm a nut, I have to say that I too never wanted my child to be in love with Disney characters. I decided that my opinion doesn't count anymore and so she got her Pooh birthday. She had to have Pooh balloons, wrapping paper, and even Pooh presents.
She also had me take on the feat of making her a Pooh cake. If any of you are wondering, yes, it is just as cost effective to buy a cake, which I found out after I started to collect everything I needed for the cake. But, I find it satisfying to say that I made it, even though it took two days to make and about 10 trips to the store.

I wanted to do something for her on her actual birthday as well but she didn't quite get it. In our house we live around who's birthday is next. So when I told her that we were going to do whatever she wanted for her birthday, she looked at me very funny and said, "Shouldn't we go to Costco." I gotta love that. Then she preceded to ask if she was having a party, if her cousins were coming over, if she was getting more presents. I told her no. She scrunched up her nose and said, "It's not really my birthday Mom. It's Uncle Darron's and Uncle Brian's." I responded, "That's right, their birthdays are next." To which I got the reply, "Mom, you're silly because you always forget the birthdays." This was followed by much fake laughter from her. I guess we got off easy with only having to celebrate once. Thank you to everyone near and far who helped make her birthday special.

Fun with Grandma

Grandma Bollard was here for 4 days because of Boston's birth(see previous post). Courtney was, of course, so happy she could hardly stand it. Everyday we went out to do different things.

As you will be able to see from previous posts, Courtney and Dave are two peas in a pod. They love to open their mouths and eyes really big for pictures.
We definitely need to say a big "thank you" to grandma for all the fun. We she left Courtney said, "Why did grandma have to go? Cause I wanted her to stay for a long, long time. I just love her."

Boston is here!

Boston Gallagher arrived on Saturday around 3:30 in the afternoon. He came nearly 4 weeks early but still weighed a good 6 lbs. 3 oz. He is a beautiful baby and he and mommy(Brooke) are doing well.
We all got to visit them in the hospital on Sunday and Courtney was so excited. I don't know if there is anything that can rival how much she loves babies. The funny thing was that she didn't want her grandma to hold the baby. Grandma is only allowed to hold her.
This is the fifth baby born between our two families this year and there is still one more due. I think Courtney just thinks everyone having babies is a normal part of life. It may be pretty shocking for her to find out that no one else in the family is pregnant, as of right now(there's still time though Darron and Kristen, haha).
I should mention also that numerous cousins on both sides of our families have had babies as well. I'm trying to count and have come up with the number 5 but it may be more. Plus there are a few more cousins having babies before the year is up. It's hard to keep up with them all.

Cooking Class!

Courtney loves to cook and bake with me. I have to admit that for a few years there(while she was a baby), I had forgotten how much I enjoy cooking and baking. Now that she is older and able to help, it's fun again. Thanks to her aunt Betsy, she is in possession of an easy bake oven. I don't know who named the thing but "easy" should not have been included. For those of you who don't know, everything is completely miniature. I bought a cake mix, as well as a cookie mix, hoping to let my daughter bake on her own. Little did I know that the pan you use to cook is about 5 inches in diameter, and you are supposed to bake three cookies in it at a time! It was way too frustrating for me but Courtney had a great time. We've put the easy bake oven away for now and I think we'll just use the regular oven, which is much easier for me.

A Day Out With Thomas

I know what most of you are thinking. Yes, Courtney is our daughter, not son. But lately she has had a fascination with "boy" things. She loves cars, trucks, trains, basketball, golf, and many more. I think it's mostly due to the fact that the poor girl has almost all cousins and friends her age that are boys. Don't get me wrong, I think it's fine. She still loves princesses more. Plus, she'll have plenty of time for that. Truth be told, I was quite a tomboy myself for most of my childhood. I turned out relatively normal. :)

It all started with my nephew having to go ride Thomas. The weekend of the ride, my brother came into town from Las Vegas. It turned into a whole family trip and was a lot of fun. Courtney was so excited when she saw Thomas. I could tell it was confusing for her though when she said(after riding on the train for 15 minutes), "Can I ride on Thomas now?" Oh boy! She didn't even realize that we were riding him. Still, she had a good time.
She loves to be with her cousins and grandparents more than anything, so that made it all the more fun for her.
Of course the first place she wanted to go after we got off the train was into the gift shop. Luckily, she is really good about looking and not wanting to get everything. I told Dave that we should get her the train track that they have at IKEA. It's only ten dollars!

Other highlights were going to the petting zoo(that was smaller than my master bedroom). It was fun though. The kids got to pet all kinds of cute little animals. Courtney also waited in line for about 15 minutes just to get a Thomas tatoo on her arm. She loves it and will be very sad when it's finally all washed off.

Our new house

Since we finally got the front yard landscaped and per the request of several people, I am posting some pics of our house. We have been really happy with it and I hope to stay here for several years. Dave seems to think that we should be moving every 3 to 5 years but I am hoping that doesn't happen. This area is so nice and our ward and neighbors are really great. Courtney loves playing outside with all of the kids. We have loved everyone around us. An added is bonus is that we have a babysitter that lives right next door to us(if that isn't a dream come true, I don't know what is).
I was even able to convince Dave that we needed to plant some flowers to make our yard look nice. We were able to get some planted and so far, they are still alive. There have definitely been some close calls to killing them but now we are very dilligent in our watering.
I also have to mention something that has nothing to do with our house. We are so thrilled to have the Utah Jazz in the western conference finals. I do not believe they can beat San Antonio but we're still rooting for them. Anyway, it has been a fun and exciting time for us here in Salt Lake. Go Jazz!