I will translate for you:
1) I climbed a tree
2) I fell down
3) I got up

My favorite... the guy crashing head-first on the second picture.
Plus what a good message, especially for me right now. Sometimes we fall. But we just need to get back up. Thanks buddy. For only being six you sure teach your mom a lot!

E1 has texting now.

She is so happy she can hardly stand it.

Grandma T told her the texting would start on Sunday. So Saturday night at midnight she was curled up with me watching a movie (but really watching her phone). It was like she thought she was going to have a magic cinderella moment at midnight or something. It was hilarious. Then, at midnight, NOTHING HAPPENED. She was totally bummed out. Like who was she going to text at midnight? (no really... I want to know.....).
Well the next day it did turn on, and she has been making full use of it. The top of my daughters head is now very familiar.
I even caught her in the following picture:

All said and done, it really has been nice to be able to communicate with her at school and etc. I am SO SLOW at it though. She is paying for her texting herself so I can't say too much. Although I have to laugh cuz she has unlimited in-plan texting but only 500 texts for those not on verizon. She had texting for four days and had already burned through more than 300 of those. Go Pepper!

N the SUPER READER!

Sometimes in a story, a character will not know how to read. A mentor will come along and quickly teach the skill to that person (for example Brom teaching Eragon in the book "Eragon"). I admit I've always scoffed at that.... thinking that reading simply cannot be learned in a short amount of time.

Well I've had to rethink my position. N yesterday asked me what the word was that had the letters V.I.P. I asked him why. He proceeded to read the entire Kraft macacaroni and cheese box to me. Apparently Kraft is having a contest where you can win a trip for one VIP and friends to take an all expense paid trip to Hollywood to see Jordan Pruitt. I just stood there with my mouth hanging open.

This is the kid that hasn't passed off his site words and is still on the lowest level of the reading books offered by his teacher. Go figure..... maybe learning to read really can happen quickly. Of course I'm of the opinion that it is a skill that must be perfected and practiced DAILY :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Aunt Kellee!! She turns 26 today!
My baby sister has such a big heart. She is a loyal friend. She has a killer sense of fashion. I covet her shoes. She is creative and unique. She is outspoken and wears her heart on her sleeve (the combination of which sometimes gets her in trouble but I wouldn't change that for anything). I love you Kellee!!!

Just a quick update on the Sheffers.

E1 is getting ready for her first track meet on Wednesday. She is going to do the hurdles. Both Darren and I will be out of town and will miss her first meet. I took her down to buy her cleats Friday and she picked some snazzy silver ones. She has been threatened about the horrible things that will happen to her if she ever ever ever even THINKS about wearing her spikes into the house.
Her Young Women's group attended the Draper Temple Open House yesterday. She thought that was pretty cool.

Poor E2 got six teeth pulled Friday by order of the orthodontist. Oh the price we pay for beauty.
The only bright spot was that she scored a haul from the tooth fairy!

E3 passed off an important milestone this week - her times tables! Each child has the chance to earn a special award if they pass off their multiplication facts to the principal by a certain date. Her visit to the principal's office was last Tuesday. She about threw up before school she was so nervous. But now she is full of pride. She said she only missed one. She was nervous because Principal Terry told her that she had saved the hardest fact for last. It ended up being 0 times 0.

N had a fun Friday because Darren attended school with him for part of the day. It was the annual "Daddy/Donut" day. The dads come and read with their kids and the school buys snacks. This tradition may come to an end at our school as there have been some issues such as not all kids have dads, and donuts really are not the most healthy thing to be feeding our overweight American children. However "Caregivers/Carrotsticks" day just doesn't evoke the same feeling of excitement now does it?

E1

We raced home from California yesterday as E1 had an awards ceremony / final Swim Team social at 7:00. She whipped us pretty hard to get home... protesting every bathroom and food break. She can be pretty formidable when she wants something. Which is probably one of the reasons she is such a competitive swimmer.

At the awards ceremony she received her Swim team letter, awards for breaking four school records, and an award for her wins at Region and State. The most exciting award she received was for the girls "High Point Swimmer". In other words, she scored the most points for the team. So proud of her. Both coaches have told us that even though E1 is just a freshman, she inspired her team to work harder and achieve more. We are pretty proud of her accomplishments. Way to go Pepper! E1 was pretty embarrassed/mortified by the whole thing... as you can see by the look on her face in the picture below :)

Got home from Disneyland last night. Had such a good time. My sister and her family are avid Disney-goers and have graciously shared their knowledge of how to "do Disney" with us.

Everything went so well we were just amazed. A lot of our success was because there simply were not many people there.





We went Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. We only used the fast pass system once the first day after which we realized it took us longer to get the fast pass than it would have to just wait in line. We walked on nearly every ride. We were able to ride our favorites multiple times and rode nearly every ride in both parks in just two days. The last day we repeated several of our favorites. The new Toy Story Midway Mania ride in California Adventure was totally awesome.

Our favorites this time around:

Darren: Soarin' over California, California Screamin', and the new Toy Story Midway Mania ride. Also love the BBQ chicken sandwich at "Taste of Pilots" grill.

Sonja: Space Mountain. Rode it about ten times. Loved it every time. Also enjoyed the Tower of Terror, California Screamin', and the new Toy Story ride.

E1: Space Mountain and Churros.

E2: Space Mountain and Innoventions

E3: Space Mountain, Innoventions, and California Screamin'

N: Space Mountain. He was happy he was now tall enough for Tower of Terror and Indiana Jones .... but still too short for California Screamin'.

As you can tell we are Space Mountain junkies



This pic is for Aunt Ashlee