Is anyone still here?

I guess things have been busy lately and i just haven't been to keep up with life!  I am going to be blogging again, and the order they come in will most likely be pretty random!  I have a kid in jr. high this year and he's loving it.  He'll be 12 in less than 2 weeks and he is so ready to be out of primary.  He got all A's and is still playing the piano (level 4) and taking violin lessons from my mom.

 The first day of school we dropped him off and this is the best picture I could get of him.  We also heard the "F" word within about 3 seconds of him getting out of the car, here we go.

 Jacob is in fifth grade this year and in the best class.  His teacher is amazing and helping him come right out of his shell.  He's in band and chorus, he had his play tonight which he had the lead role in, he ran for student body (didn't get elected) and he'll be starting basketball in about a week!  He also, like Micah, got all A's on his report card.

 So far all of my boys have had the same teacher for 2nd grade, we like her, Ben is doing great.  He is loving gymnastics and doing really well at it and in school, all A's as well.

 Peyton is sure something, I don't even know what to saw about her.  She is stubborn and strong willled and funny and she really knows exactly what she wants.  She is still shy but not as much as she used to be, sometimes she doesn't turn away from people when they talk to her, and sometimes she even smiles.  She is also in gymnastics but I'm not sure she loves it like Ben does.

 This is Jacob with his campaign poster.

I had this little chest at my grandma's and she gave it to me, I changes the pulls and used it to organize my small pieces of upholstery fabric. It's right by my sewing machine.

 I love how the fabric looks in the drawers.  It makes me want to sew.

 This drawer also has the regular fabric scraps I just can't part with.

 My boys all love each other very much, they hang out together even in a stinky bathroom while one of them is pooping.

 I have a date every few weeks with my little girl.  Her date place of choice is a frozen yogurt place near our house.  She likes spinning on the stools.

We got a very sweet and cute dog and then 4 months later, got rid of a very cute and sweet dog that loves to dig and chew.

Clarification on the Crime Scene

Porter did not get stuck. Peyton tried to get him out while I was in the shower but she was only tall enough to open the tank, not tall enough to reach in far enough to get him out. She gave up and left the lid off, Porter took advantage and escaped. He roamed the house for months, always changing locations, his last location was under the treasure chest, not because he was stuck, but because he starved to death. Snakes can't get stuck anywhere they can get into, you would be amazed at the tiny places they can get to, the trunk was easy in and easy out. Poor Porter starved, apparently we don't have any rodents in our house to keep him fed.

Crime Scene Photos from my bedroom

So, you may remember reading about our snake Porter Rockwell and his 2 escapes. He was found after his first escape and hadn't been seen since his second escape when Miss P mistakingly let him go. We all assumed that he had made his way out of the house and would never be seen again. We spent weeks searching for him, all along he was inside the house. I dusted and vaccuumed my bedroom today and decided to move a little trunk we have to vaccuum under it. It had been a month or maybe two since I moved it to vaccuum under it. Lo and behold, under the trunk lay a somewhat moldy, very dead and dried up Porter. Please do not tell my children, they love Porter and are just as well left thinking he is living free outside catching rodents and lizards. So, for those of you who feared a visit here, no longer fear, the only snake we now have resides safely behind glass.
Time to bust out the carpet cleaner...

This is the bottom of the trunk he was under.

SO SAD.

My 8 year old and a new addition to our family...

Today is Jacob's 8th birthday. A very special birthday in our family as he will soon be baptised! My mom and Morgan came over this morning right as we were getting ready for Jake to open his presents. He opened my mom's first, a new Lego set, Star Wars. After that it was time for him to open my sisters gift to him...Another snake, yes, we're trying it again folks. This time instead of a king snake we have a ball python and she is up on a higher counter and Miss P has been seriously instructed that she is not to get him out on her own. She is a beautiful snake and very calm, as ball pythons are. I am excited to have a snake in our home again and hope that this one will live in the tank rather than roam freely in our house!

She has no name as of yet and if you have any ideas please comment. Our last snake was named Porter and we loved that name. Jacob is thinking maybe Scarlett ( I know, funny that the Saunders have a boy named Porter and one of the girls is Scarlett).

The typical 8 year old presents in our family are a first set of scriptures, complete with the childs full name, a scripture case and a journal (Jacob is very excited about his journal, he has been saying he has a lot of stuff to journal about.) We continued the pocket knife tradition as well, Micah got his for Christmas that year, but Jacob wanted one for his birthday.

He can't believe he got one, he thought he wouldn't get one until he was 9. His is just like Micah's but instead of red it's black.

Jacob is a very smart and outgoing boy. He is doing well in piano and is now practicing on his own, without being reminded. He loves Legos and building things, jumping on the tramp and playing outside, he also still loves video games and has been enjoying Lego Harry Potter which Micah bought with his birthday money (Jacob is very happy about that) and baseball on the wii. this morning he told me that his arms have been really sore and he had a hard time believing it was from a video game. I knew this only because Tyler and I played the other night and both experienced the same thing, that pitching is good exercise! We love you Jacob and are excited about your decision to get baptised. You will do great things, I know.

Meet Porter Rockwell

My sister's boyfriend caught us a snake. He's a king snake, a very pretty one, black with yellow bands. We've had him for 3 weeks and 2 days. He spent his 2nd week with us loose in our house. I was at a friend's house and got home very late, was up with Ben and up with Peyton, and finally in bed at 2am when I heard a noise. I was so tired, I needed to get to sleep. I knew our cat Carmen was in the house, I had let her in when I let the dog out at 1:30am. I thought the noise was from Carmen knocking something over on the hall counter, well, it was a noise from Carmen. At 5am, after 3 hours of sleep I woke up to Jacob bawling. Porter is gone, the corner of his tank is broken. Sure enough, Porter was gone. The cat cannot stay away from his tank. Apparently she sat on top of it and caved the screen in on one corner. I should have gotten up. We looked for a little while but it was 5am. I couldn't go back to sleep. We said prayers, many prayers. Jacob was ready to get rid of the cat, he was thinking she ate Porter.
Peyton adores Porter and holds him for a very long time, often. Peyton said, "I know where Porter is!" We say, "Where?" Peyton says, "He's lost!" Thanks Peyton.

Well, after many prayers, much faith, 7 days, and an obedient child, Porter is now safetly back in his tank. While I was visiting with my grandmother in the hospital after finding out she was taken off life support, Tyler was telling Micah to get his pajamas on and Micah listened right away and on his way to his room he saw Porter go into my room under our chair and he yelled for Tyler, Tyler lifted the chair up and retrieved Porter!

We are so happy to have him back! He is getting bigger and ready to shed soon. He is a good eater and is having no problem adjusting to his new diet of no longer living mice.

I couldn't think of a title

Ok, so this post is maybe a bit out of hand, but I'm getting behind! I'll keep my words short, a picture says a thousand words right?

MAY 4
I don't know whos idea this was, but the other went right along with it.
When it's not too hot we've been enjoying our backyard. Thanks to Susie V. (my mom's friend) we've had a pretty cozy swing.

Ben is NEVER not posing. Maybe it's just how he is, but he always looks like he's striking a pose

Balls and dolls, that's what this little girl is all about, she is pretty fond of water and dirt too.

She gets a little frusterated with this ball, it's too big and heavy but she still tries.

She adores any small furniture, usually chairs, she loves stuff that's her size, apparently she thought this would make a nice seat.

Ahh, twilight in the backyard, isn't it pretty. Daddy had been pitching balls to the boys back there lately. We really are enjoying having a backyard more than we thought we would.

We're a few people short of a team, I think we need to get together with cousins soon!!!

May 5

yep, another day, same clothes. I promise we won't do that once they're in school!

If you got to hear my talk in church on Mother's Day, this is what I was talking about. It's cat poo, no, none of the kids pooed on the bed. Peyton got into it, but she discovered pretty quickly it wasn't a good idea and came to me for help right away.

May 7

I don't know how Ben will ever decide between these two girls. When he isn't with them he is asking to be with one or the other or both. He adores them and they play so well together. Aubriawna and Rebekah.

May 8

The one thing I do love about summer is swimming. My parents just retiled and resurfaced their pool too. I am so glad they live close to us. Thanks for letting us use your pool!!!

He has to take a break now and then to soak up some heat. The water is still a bit chilly.We have another fish on our hands with this girl. She doesn't mind how chilly the water is and has taken a few plunges and not gotten upset at all. Maybe she'll even start swimming at 2 like big brother Benji did! I love my water babies.

They just can't stop

Peyton and Roxie (my parents dog) absolutely love to kiss each other. Peyton will crawl over to her and open her mouth for kisses. It is disgusting, and there is no stopping it.

DO NOT leave food unattended!

We have 2 of the biggest moochers in our house that go by the names of Peyton and Diego. If you leave your food unsupervised, one or the other, sometimes both, WILL eat it. Jacob was pretty good humored about it though and even enjoyed a "Lady and the Tramp" moment with his sister. She tends to get away with more than anyone else here.

More Charlotte

I have not been in a blogging mood, but I'll do a bit anyhow. Peyton had her 6 months pics taken at Sears yesterday. When we got there there was some problem and they said we had no appt. for us, ugghhh! So, since we were there and ready we waited, about 45 minutes. By then she was tired, the boys were horrifically bored and playing with props and Ben was standing on chairs and playing with the photo viewing computer. I was one of those times when you are really embarrassed my your kids behavior, but I couldn't blame them either. We go back Thursday for Ben's 3 yr pics. That could be good, so they can see what great kids I have, or bad, if there are more problems!!! Today is going to be a hard day, my 2 big boys are grounded today because they didn't come to the dinner table last night when called at least 5 times. We haven't been doing much, just swimming at my parents house mostly and I have been getting caught up on my digital scrapbooking.

Ok, these pics are of my dear sweet Charlotte. Her and Diego absolutely love one another. They play often and always take turns chasing each other. Getting her was great for Diego, he's having lots of fun with her.