Kindergarten Graduation

(lots of pictures ahead)

Ashleigh graduated from Kindergarten this morning! I still think it's strange to have a graduation for Kindergartners, but I guess it's a big thing around here! My mom and dad and Nick's mom came to the graduation! Ashleigh was SO happy that they came...and told me later that she had more people come for her than anyone else in her class! Yay!

The gym decorations...

Preston waiting for the graduates to arrive

Preston had a hard time staying away from the decorations!

Nick waiting for it to start

Chloe, Haylie, Ashleigh, and Errina
Cute little graduates

These kids were only absent 6 days or less for the whole year!
Ashleigh's "boyfriend" Jace is one of them--far left.

Mr. Stone-Principal, and Mrs. Wyatt-Teacher getting
ready to hand out Diplomas.

Ashleigh receiving her diploma....So excited!

The graduates

Ashleigh's whole class...only 19 kids...I love that!

Principal Stone and Mrs. Wyatt...she looks so happy and proud!
Ashleigh....Yay!!!
After the graduation we went to Ashleigh's classroom to enjoy some cake and visit

We had to get some "typical" graduation pictures
Meg, Ash, and Nick
Do-over picture
Meg, Ash, and Nick
Preston eating his piece of cake

The room-mom presented Ashleigh's teachers with little gifts and flowers. They have been GREAT teachers this year! I can only hope that her teacher next year will be just as good!!!!

Ashleigh with her teachers
Mrs. Fillmore (teachers assistant), Ashleigh, and Mrs. Wyatt (teacher)

The grandparent picture
Dad Ballard, (Preston), Mom Ballard, Ashleigh, and Mom Call

Thanks so much to Mom and Dad and Juli for coming and showing Ashleigh your support and love for her! We all really appreciated it!!! Love you!

Memorial Day

Memorial Day is a hard day for me. I definitely pay tribute to those who fight for my country and who have fought in the past. And those who have died to defend my freedom! I never go a year with out thinking of all those brave men and women!

Since I was little kid, I always remember going to the cemeteries to put flowers on the graves of my relatives. As an adult and mom, I have gone to one particular cemetery to put flowers on my son's grave. However, since moving to Utah, I have not been able to visit his grave at Memorial day or his birthday, but I have an awesome sister who goes and visits for me. I love her SO much for it and I couldn't possibly thank her enough!

Emily sent me pictures of their visit to Christian's grave this year.......

Avery and Bridget at the grave

Bridget and Avery cleaning it off

The girls...after their hard work. It looks SO good!!!

I hope Em doesn't mind me sharing part of the email she sent me...while at the cemetery, Bridget, who is 5, asked the following questions....

"Mom, does Christian have a grave in Utah that Meggie and Nick go to?

"Mom, if I step on the stone, will it hurt Christian?"

"I miss Christian a lot." (she stuck by that statement even after I explained that he was born before she was born.)

"I'm kind of sad that Christian died"

"Christian's headstone is little cause he was little. Are the big 'standing up' stones for old people who died cause they were bigger?"

What cute things for her to ask! Ashleigh has often asked me a few of those same questions too....and still states that she misses Christian. I think it's sweet, considering she never met him here on earth. I often wonder if they were together before coming to Earth and how much time they had together...did they have a close enough bond that Ashleigh may actually remember him and miss him?

THANK YOU, EMILY!!!

We went to the Call's for a barbecue dinner on Memorial day. It was a nice distraction....

We played badmitten and horseshoes while we waited for the food to get done cookin.

The kids found tons of rolly-polly bugs. Here's Ashleigh holding one.

And after dinner we chatted for a bit...woah, extreme close-up of Preston!

And then Randy treated us to dessert at Cold Stone. YUM! (Didn't take any pictures there.)
It was a fun day....

Family time at the playground

We took advantage of the nice weather--albeit a bit too hot for Nick and I--to take the kids to the playground and park to play for a bit. We had a lot of fun!

Nick going down the slide

Preston hanging on the phone thing....Ya know what I'm talking about?

Nick sliding down with Ashleigh

Ash in the slide

Ash going up the climbing wall

Preston at the top of the climbing wall--the only scary part of the whole playground

Then the kids played in the park--on the grassy hill.
They rolled down and chased butterflies

Then Preston thought it would be fun to pull out the grass and put it on daddy's back

Nick and Preston

Rain in May....Yay!

The other day we had the most wonderful Spring storm. It rained really hard, we had thunder and lightning and it was really windy. But it was also like 70 degrees outside so it was FUN rain! I put the kids in "rain coats" and sent them out to play. I love that my kids love to play in the rain as much as I do! The rain only lasted about 30 min, but it was 30 min of pure fun!

Spanish Program

I LOVE Ashleigh's school....It's a charter school and she has learned SO much this year in Kindergarten. Every Friday she has music and Spanish. I think it's cute that she learns Spanish. At the end of the year the school puts on a Spanish Program. The Kindergarten class sang Itsy-Bitsy Spider in English and then in Spanish. We couldn't hear it, or understand it, but it looked cute.

Waiting to go on stage--with their spider hat costumes on.

On stage waiting to start the song...see the kid on Ashleigh's right side? That's Jayce...HaHa...he just had to stand next to her! I hope for his sake that they are in the same class at school next year! Lol.

The video of their song. It's pretty much impossible to hear or understand it and it was so loud there! Oh-well!

Another tooth has gone missing...

Not really, I'm pretty sure the tooth fairy took it, because a dollar was left behind in it's place!

Ashleigh's top right tooth has been mildly wiggly for a couple weeks. Tonight it was REALLY wiggly, but she gets nervous when she thinks about someone trying to pull it out, so we just let it be and let it fall out when it wants to.

Right after I left for work tonight I got a call from Ashleigh telling me that that tooth finally fell out. I guess she was eating dinner, bit down a little too hard, and it popped out! She said it didn't hurt at all! Yay.

Nick got right on the phone to call the tooth fairy and let her know that Ash lost another tooth and could she please come tonight to take it and leave Ash some money for it.

(Ash just LOVES that Nick does that...I'll be sad when she stops believing in the tooth fairy, Santa, Easter Bunny, etc)

The adult tooth hasn't started to show through yet, so she'll look pretty silly for a couple weeks until it comes through. I still think she is just adorable!

(Phone pic...not great quality)

Nick and I were looking through old photo albums last night....of Ash as a baby. And we kind of just stopped and looked at each other with a bewildered look on our faces and said--wow, can you believe it's been 6 years!!! How fast time flies! I think 6 is pretty significant....in 6 more years she'll most likely have started her period, 6 years later, she'll be graduating high school, and 6 years later (we hope) she'll be getting married! It's pretty mind blowing how fast it goes by when I think about it like that....

What does your birthday say about you?

I took this quiz on facebook---I am a sucker for quizzes. And this one was completely correct! i was shocked!!! If you have facebook, take the quiz and see if ours matches you! :) Good luck!


Megan took the What does your birthday say about you? quiz and the result is March

Attractive personality.sexy. Affectionate.Shy and reserved. Secretive. Naturally honest, generous and sympathetic. Loves peace and serenity. Sensitive to others. Loves to serve others. Easily angered. Trustworthy. Appreciative and returns kindness. Observant and assesses others. Revengeful. Loves to dream and fantasize. Loves traveling. Loves attention. Hasty decisions in choosing partners. Loves home decors. Musically talented.Loves special things. Moody.

A new book...close to my heart

If you, or someone you know has lost a child...this is the book for you! It's touching, emotional, spiritual, full of humor, and matter of fact. I love the way Camille is strait forward and very raw and honest in her writing. I highly recommend this book!

Sick kids....really suck!

Ash got sick Monday night so we kept her home from school Tuesday...and again on Wednesday...and again on Thursday...and just when we thought she was getting better, she suddenly got much worse and we kept her home Friday too...

but her bottom tooth finally came out, so we had to make a call to the Tooth Fairy (who gave her a $1 gold coin)! Saturday she was still sick....but starting to feel "much better".

I pretty much thought we were in the clear until I got a text from Nick while I was at work Saturday night telling me that now Preston was sick--high fever!

Sigh...

So Preston slept most of Sunday and went from being hot to cold, and very uncomfortable all day. Clear signs that he has the flu. He very willingly went to bed at 8pm on Sunday night and was out like a light about 10 min later. Ash is doing tons better, but still not sure if we will send her to school Monday since Preston is sick...and we don't want this illness to spread to the other kids in her class.

Nick and I are drinking Airbourne and Emergen-C like crazy to hopefully prevent this illness from getting to us.

I am just glad the kids got sick this week instead of next...we have a date with Thomas the Train coming up next weekend! :)

A whole new Megan...What do you think?

BEFORE

BEFORE

I have been debating for a few months now to dye my hair dark, like really dark! I didn't want it to be just plain old brown, so I called up Lindsay (Nick's cousin) and asked her if she would dye it and put in highlights. I went to her house this morning....

and stumped her for a few minutes.

She is used to doing hair with "real" hair dye, like the kind you get from Sally's, but I brought L'Oreal Excellence BOXED hair dye. Anyway, she put in the blonde highlights first using foils and then used the dark hair color to dye the rest of my hair.

It was pretty inventive, if you ask me!

I was REALLY nervous when I saw how it looked while I was blow drying it, but once it was dry and I straightened it, I could see all the pretty highlights and I started to love it! It's still a shock to look in the mirror to a dark haired girl, but it's a nice change! I was actually complimented on my eyes today...which has never happened with blonde hair! Lol. Lindsay is SO talented and I am SO happy with my new hair! (so is nick! Yay)

I am curious to know what you think....honest opinions only please! ;-)

AFTER