Wedding

One of the girls McKayla, that use to babysit Ashlee and Mikayla when they were younger got married yesterday in the temple.  Today was her reception and she asked Ashlee and Mikayla to help take Polaroid pictures of every guest and help with gifts.  The girls did a great job and everyone loved their Lularoe dresses.  Our girls are growing up so fast.

Deacon/Beehive Cotilion

Our stake does deacon and beehive activities that they call Cotilions.  They basically teach them dance ettiqute.

Miakyla did not want to go to the activity.  But her friend Allison, begged her to go so she wouldn't be alone.  Mikayla went and said it was funner than she thought it was going to be.

Volleyball Camp

This week Mikayla attended volleyball camp with all her friends that she attended girls camp with the week before.  Mikayla and Allison were moved up to be with the older girls, based on their volleyball skills, so that made them happy.  Mikayla loves volleyball and had a fun week at camp.  They ended their week of volleyball camp with a pool party at a friends house.  A friend that Mikayla just met at camp.  This group of girls had so much fun together the last two weeks.

Karah, Brooke, Allison and Mikayla

Allison, Mikayla, Karah, Ashlan, Brooke and Jocelyn

Everyone that participated in the week long camp.

Girls Camp

Mikayla got to experience girls camp for the first time this year and she came home with so many stories and experiences to share.  She loved it and she made some new friends.  She went zip lining for the first time, made lots of crafts, learned survival skills, and had lots of fun.  Plus her aunt Teresa was there, and was able to share her magic with Mikayla.  Mikayla and her friends loved the treats Teresa put together for them.

Mikayla had so much fun, she may even have Ashlee convinced to give camp another try again next year.

Meeting at the church for a health check first

After the health check she got her camp shirt and lanyard

Mikayla and her camp group.  Someone at camp sent me this picture during the week, to let me know that Mikayla was doing well.

Karah, Allison and Mikayla.  Karah and Allison are Mikayla's friends from Whitmore and she got to spend the week at camp with them and Brooke, who isn't in this picture.

Google Field Trip

This year the girls are using Chrome books at school.  They do not have text books.  Everything is done on their Chrome books and they use everything Google.  Today the 8th graders got to go to Google for a field trip and I got selected to be a chaperon.

Google is huge! It's like it's own little city.  Google employees have just about everything they need at work.  They can take their dogs to work, get haircuts at work, eat from numerous cafeterias/buffets, play volleyball, take naps, get massages, etc.  You name it, they can pretty much do it all free of charge.  Google employees don't even really have a starting and ending time to their work day.  As long as their work is done, no questions are asked.  In fact, our guide for the day was telling us, that Google got into some trouble with the city because some of their employees, chose to not have a place to call home, and instead, called home their car in the Google parking lot.  By sleeping in their cars they could save money on rent.  They didn't need a home because they could shower, do their laundry, etc all at Google!

Ashlee's 8th grade class.  Ashlee is almost directly in the center back row in a light pink sweatshirt.

A mobile haircut

There is a little "park" area with figurines of all of Androids different operating  systems.

Annika, Aleya, Makenzie, Cassidy and Ashlee

Annika, Annie, Aleya, Makenzie, Cassidy and Ashlee

All the 8th graders with their two teachers on the ends.  Mrs. Crohare and Ms. Virtue

Google bikes.  Employees can take a bike and ride it anywhere they need to go around the Google Complex.  When they are done, they just park it for someone else to take.

All the 8th graders with Mr. Ballenger the principal peering over the sign.

The Google Maps Car

As big as Google is, I really was expecting to see more.  But they didn't show us too much.  Not sure if it's because they don't want to leak information or that's all our tour guide felt like showing us.  At lunch time we got to eat in one of Google's Cafeterias for free.  Unlimited Buffet.  They had anything and everything you could possible imaging there.  When we were finished with a plate, we put it on a conveyor belt and it went into their kitchen to be washed.  And yes, even the toilets at Google are techie.  We had a good trip.  I just wished they would have showed us more.  

Ashlee's Soccer Party

Ashlee had her end of the season soccer party tonight at Rico's Pizza.  They each got a medal.

Ashlee in gray sweatshirt

Ashlee in gray sweatshirt and her friend Lauren getting ready to hand a medal to someone.

Ashlee's team and coach.

First Basketball Game of the Season and Ever for that matter

10/22/2014-  Ashlee and Mikayla have never really tried to basketball or have even had an interest for it.  This weekend they decided they wanted to try out for the school basketball team.  After their first day of tryouts they decided they liked it, so they tried out again on Tuesday.  Today they found out that they both made the team.  This was a teaching moment...you never know until you try and if you don't try you will never know.

Fast forward to 11/2/14 now.  That is the day of Ashlee and Mikayla's first basketball game of the season, and first game ever for that matter.  And to top it all off, their first game was against their friends from their old school Whitmore Charter School.  When they arrived to the game, their friends from their old school were out waiting on the curb for their bus to arrive.  Their bus driver told them "look girls these girls are friendly"  (he didn't know that they were waiting for Ashlee and Mikayla to get off the bus.

Mikayla's team played first, and their was  one point in the game where she was having to block her best friend Allison from her old school and they were laughing and giggling down the court, they couldn't keep a straight face.  Then Mikayla attempted to score a basket for her old school (I guess she thought she was with them), luckily it didn't make it in, but that made for more laughs.  Mikayla's team ended up winning their game.  Here is a picture of her with some of her friends after the game.

Brooke, Mikayla, Allison, Jordan and Heather

Ashlee's team played next.  They won as well.  You could tell that Ashlee was afraid to block her friends from her old school.  She didn't want to be aggressive or get in their way because she knows them and they are her friends.  

Volleyball and soccer

This is the time of year when life is hectic crazy. I am working full time 6 days a week, the girls are back in school and they are both participating in sports.  There seems to be something every night of the week and we just go one day at a time because that is the only way to get through it.

Mikayla is playing volleyball for the school and is doing very well.  She has had four games so far, and has scored points at every single game.  She is the only girl on her team allowed to serve over hand, the rest have to serve under hand; and she has been recognized on the morning announcements at school twice for her accomplishments at games.  I have only been able to leave work once to attend her game, but hopefully in the coming weeks I can take some time off to see her play some more.

 This week Mikayla played volleyball against Gustine, Teresa was able to go and watch her play and sent us these pictures.  Mikayla was recognized on the morning announcements at school for having 8 ace serves at this game.

 This is the morning announcement that was on the school web site and also announced on the morning announcements the day following Mikayla's first volleyball game.




Mikayla is playing soccer for the city league as well.  She has one of her coaches from last year and some of the girls from her team last year (the rest of the girls moved up to the next age group due to their birthdates).  They have had three games so far and have tied one, and won two.  They are off to a good start.

Ashlee is playing soccer for the city league as well.  She is on a team with her friend Lauren from Whitmore Charter.  She is glad that her and Lauren are on the same team and still get to see each other 3 days a week, even if they don't go to the same school anymore.  Ashlee's team has had some tough competition, and has been dealing with lots of injured and missing players, so that makes it hard for those that are participating.  Most games the girls have to play the entire 85 minutes because they don't have enough girls to sub for them.  Ashlee has recently started playing goalie, and has done well.  She can play any position she is asked to do.

Ashlee #14 Lauren #15

Ashlee and Lauren

Last Day at Whitmore Charter

This school year has not got off to a good start.  Mikayla's home room teacher, who is also the math teacher for the entire middle school, has been horrible to say the least.  I have complained to the administration just about every single day since the first day of school and the only response I get is "we will continue to work with him."  The guy has supposedly taught for 12 years!  If he doesn't know what he is doing by now, he should probably be doing something else.

Friday both girls came home with the exact same homework.  Mikayla is in 6th grade and Ashlee is in the 8th grade, there is no possible way they could both be learning the exact same thing.  When I found out that they had the same homework, which was homework neither one of them could do, I went to the Vice Principal, she was surprised that they both had the same thing and said she would look in to it and get back to me, but she never got back to me.  Then Mikayla proceeded to tell me that he had her and another student, go sit in the front of the class, and mumbled something like "because they have problems" (he was referring to her hearing impairment) not okay at all.  In the days prior to this he couldn't even turn on the computer to take attendance and had to have a student show him how to the attendance (a student shouldn't even know how to do the attendance).

So after lot's of sleepless nights and listening to the girls complaining every single day, I decided to take them to tour Ballico School.  The school I went to.  We were very impressed with the principal and his conservative philosophy.  We liked what we saw and heard.  Mikayla was ready to start school at Ballico, Ashlee was hesitant.  It's her 8th grade year, she wanted to graduate with her friends and she didn't want to leave them.  After weighing the pros and the cons.  We decided to move the girls to Ballico School.

It was a hard decision.  We had made so many friends at Whitmore and knew so many of the families there.  I had been active in the Parent Booster Club there since Mikayla was in Kindergarten and they had made lots of memories there.  But we felt like it was something we should do.

The last day was hard, I had teachers and other staff members coming up to me in the parking lot, the girls had to say good bye to their friends, and leave their home away from home.

I wasn't able to get any pictures of that day, because we were running a bit behind with everything going on, but one of the teachers aids texted me a picture and Ashlee was able to take some pictures on her phone.

Mariah, Lauren, Ashlee and Alyssa

Brooke, Allison and Mikayla

First Day of 6th and 8th Grades

Today was the first day of 6th grade for Mikayla and the first day of 8th grade for Ashlee.  It's going to be one of those unsuspecting years, because almost all of the middle school teachers at our school this year are new, so we don't know what to expect.  We are hoping they will be as good as the teachers Ashlee had last year in middle school.

Ashlee and Lauren

Mikayla, Allison, Serina, Karah, Brooke and Madison

Mikayla, Brooke, Allison, Karah and Jordan

Ashlee and Alyssa