As I mentioned before, Alaina was chosen from her class to run for secretary.  They held two assemblies and she had to give a speech in front of all the students.  Alaina fretted over her speech for days, making sure she got it just perfect.

Robert and I went for the second assembly and got to see her in action.  She did a wonderful job.  I was filming her and fumbled with the camera at the very beginning, so you miss her her introducing herself. I did manage to get myself together enough to catch the rest of her talk, thank goodness!  Enjoy!


Sadly, she didn't win. However, I was so proud of her for trying! The boys were very supportive of her in their own ways. Austin told her what a good job she did and Ethan berated anyone who didn't vote for her. He had informed her that he told the whole 5th grade to vote for her and so he had at least one class covered. "The rest" he informed her, 'is up to you!" Too bad he couldn't rig the entire voting pool. :) I had to say that many of these kids' parents went slightly overboard. Their posters were engineered with flashing LED lights. One girl ran through a full-sized, printed banner (like the ones the football team runs through) and had three separate posters for her speech. It was intense. I happen to love the fact that Alaina made her own glitter poster (with Ethan helping on the coloring in) and wrote her own speech. She is more of a "you see what you get" kinda girl and I love it. And now...for your ultimate viewing pleasure, I have a secretly filmed clip or two of Jason dancing. He was playing on the electric piano and had the auto song on. Usually I go insane when I hear the same song being played over and over, however, watching Jason dancing to it made it more than bearable. I knew that if he saw me filming, he'd stop dancing, and so I hid in the other room. The down side is that you also get a pretty great shot of my messy kitchen. Thankfully, the ridiculously cut boy makes it worth posting. Now, wasn't that worth it? I love how completely joyful he is, enjoying the moment. And I just might have to steal some of those moves!

Here are a couple of the September pictures that haven't made their way to the blog yet.

At the beginning of September, I caught wind of a shipment of fruit coming from Utah to Henderson.  I wasn't going to do anything about it, but Robert suggested/insisted that I do some canning.  (He can be very persistent.)  So I ordered the fruit.

When I picked it up, I was immediately full of regret.  The fruit looked great.  There was just so much of it, and I was feeling rather exhausted just looking at it.  Fortunately, I had me a couple of helpers and it all worked itself out.

We made pretty, pink applesauce.  (Jonathan Apples make such a pretty colored sauce.)

And I made a bunch of peach jam.  I was going to be canning peaches, but I waited a day too long and they went from perfect to a little too soft.   Disheartened, I called Mom who suggested the jam and to freeze slices in small bags for smoothies.  That turned out to be a stroke of genius as we have already used most of those frozen peaches in afternoon snack smoothies.  Yum!

I also canned a few pears.  I didn't do too many, but we managed to eat the rest of them pretty darn quickly.  We'll have to save them for special moments...like, a Tuesday, or something.

Living in Vegas has its perks, and one of those is the chance to see road-weary travelers coming to and fro Utah and California.   Arianna and her husband Davey stopped by on their way back to Utah from picking up Alyssa from her Dad's house.  We got to spend a day with them and their newest addition, little Bryce.  It seems so funny that when I met Arianna we were care-free, child-free girls in our 20's, playing in the waves in Hawaii.  My, how things have changed.  We got older, but just look at all those sweet, additional, faces.  Every one of them...Completely worth it!

 And just one last little pic to make you smile.  Sweet sugar.

You may or may not have noticed, through the years, that I can tend to be just a tad sarcastic at times.  Don't worry if you've missed it.   It's barely noticeable.  However, it is true.  It is part of my, hmmmm, charm?  I have tried, as I have gotten older, to use my super power only for good, but sometimes I fall back to my evil genius habits and let out a couple of zingers.  I'm working on it.

Alain's super power is Sincerity.  Just how she got this is a mystery, but she always manages to pull it out in the most amazing moments.  In fact, they are usually the same moments I would come up with something not-so-nice to say.

For example, just yesterday I let Alaina play a Math game on my iPad.  It was multiplication and she was struggling a little with it since she hasn't official learned it at school yet.  Frustrated she said, "Argh.  I can't remember the sixes very well!"  Ethan, with his habit of self-aggrandization, interjected, "I am awesome at multiplication.  I don't understand how I got so good.  I had to take extra classes at it but now I am the best in my entire class."  Worried he made Alaina feel bad, my gut reaction was to drop a little reality square on that child's head...I mean, it is common knowledge, around here, just how much Ethan struggles with math.   Before I said anything Alaina replied, "I know Ethan.  You worked really hard.  I'm proud of you."  Seriously.  Word for word.  She said it looking straight in his eyes and it was very clear that she meant it.  

That, of course, dropped a bit of reality on my head.  Why wasn't that my first response?  So what if he exaggerates things.  That girl is always catching me off guard with her lack of malice.  If she ever says anything, positive or negative about herself, the boys instantly say something to one up her.  They aren't trying to bring her down, they just want to look good.  Most kids her age would either counter those comments with one better and bigger about themselves or pout from being slighted.  Alaina always finds something positive to say to her brothers.

"You are such a great Artist!"
"You have such a great imagination!"
"You are really smart!"

The list never seems to end.

When she does outshine them, she downplays her achievements and focuses on theirs.  Every time grades come home, she hides hers while I give my usual enthusiastic pep talk to the boys.  "Grades don't matter!"  "The only thing we care about is personal improvement!"  "You brought that from a D to a C, isn't that awesome!?!  And your C to a B!!!  You Rock!"  Caught up in my rhetoric, she joins in, praising the boys' efforts and is honestly impressed at their improvements.  (As am I!)  Only after the excitement dies down, and the boys move on to their next adventure, does Alaina quietly slide her grades over to me.  Straight A's.  Every time.  

I always sit her down and quietly express my amazement with her success while insisting that I only look for her personal best.  With her I try to teach her that although she gets the grades, I more proud of her attitude and hard work.  She is a perfectionist and I desperately want her to value herself for her awesome qualities instead of letters on a piece of paper. Still, it is her consideration for her brother's feelings that gets to me the most.  

Now.   The child can be sassy.  She can be impossibly determined.  She can even be naughty (shocker!).  But she is an old soul and I constantly find myself looking up to her strengths and emulating her behavior.  How's that for a 9 year old?

And just for fun...here are a couple of silly things she has said lately:

Whenever she hits her elbow she says "Ow.  I hit my funky bone"

The other day she went to her friend's b-day party.  When I picked her up, she noted that her friend, Katerina was very, "Hyper-getic."  Meaning Hyperactive and Energetic.  I couldn't have found a more perfect word to describe the little tasmanian devil.  :)