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.

Accomplishments

Micah turned 11 on Friday! I cannot believe I have an 11 year old. He's in sixth grade this year, student body VP and he's going to be in the school's play, Cinderella as the Prime Minister this Thursday night! For those of you that know Micah, this is incredible. He has really come out of his shell this year and is realizing his talents and interests. He just crossed over from cub scouts and is now in boy scouts. Life is incredibly busy but good. We have 2 boys in soccer, 2 in piano, 1 in cub scouts, 1 in boy scouts, 2 in the play (Jacob is stage crew) and I'm sure there's something I've left out. Tyler is always busy with Bishopric duties and I am in activity days now (8-12 year old girls week night activities).

Micah got a rip stick (like a skate board but only has 2 wheels) for his birthday. He was the only one that could do it, now Jacob can do it too. When no one was around last night I tried it...I definitely can't do it. I'm so glad I tried it in secret!

Tyler and I were the proudest parents last month, we had all 3 boys get Sparthenian of the quarter! It is like student of the month, they used to award it monthly, this year they only do it quarterly, and this was the first time it was given this year. We are trying our best to make a big deal out of any of their accomplishments so as to encourage them to continue accomplishing things, so we rewarded them with dinner out at Red Robin. It is times like these that I feel like I'm not completely screwing up as a parent!
I am so excited that it is now November, and cold! My favorite time of the year. Time for soup and hot cider, jeans and sweaters, warm pajamas and blankets, cuddling up to my husband at night instead of pushing him away! Thanksgiving and our Anniversary, and of course...Christmas! My sewing bug should be kicking in anytime now, I can't wait!

This Summer...(2)

We went to Monterey! The first day we went to the beach.

We tried out our skimboard for the first time but we didn't have success, the beach was too sloped for us newbies to skimboarding. Maybe we'll have to try it at Avila or Pismo.
It was lots of fun sharing our chips with the amazing seagulls. If you look closely at the bird on the top of the picture you'll see he has a chip in his mouth. They were catching them quite expertly mid air.


I got to enjoy some relaxing time under our new umbrella with a good book.
One of the kids favorite things to do for vacation is to stay in a hotel, and we got to do that. After getting all sandy at the beach we got to relax in our hotel's gigantic hot tub.
The kids liked the sauna too. I prefer a steam room myself.
The second and last day of our vacation we went to the aquarium.
My MIL met us that morning and joined us for the day.
We went to a seafood restaurant where she treated us to a delicious lunch.
Peyton had spaghetti, can you tell?


I had a dish that was kind of like Jambalaya, it was fantastic.

There were life sized statues all over the place and I'm posting a very small portion of the pictures we got with them.



Lastly we went to our favorite park in Monterey, Dennis the Menace park.



Ben's likeness...
It was a fun trip and Monterey is a beautiful place!

Summertime!

Here I am documenting week one of summer vacation and we're practically half way through already. Isn't that how it always goes? Well, day one found me dropping the little ones off at Aunt Mo's and taking the big boys to day camp. We pulled into the Rodeo Grounds about 3 minutes early, well, one week and 3 minutes early! There were no cars, just a single plastic bag blowing across the deserted lot. So, on day one we headed back over to Aunt Mo's and enjoyed the pool.

Day 2

Hanging out at the water park with friends. After waiting forever to get our pass pictures taken we got to enjoy the water park with the Olsen's.

The kids and I have been enjoying the library, like always, and having some reading time out of the heat.

Ben has been working on his reading and his math facts gearing up for first grade.
Every morning (almost) the boys have an extra summer chore, weeding. As I type this from our backyard swing I can see that maybe daddy needs to help on this chore a bit.

I think Jacob picked the right section, he has hardly any weeds in his.
I have my own set of summer chores as well. You know all those areas that just rarely get cleaned, on top of cabinets and armoirs, fake plants and plant shelves, top of fridge, light fixtures? That's my summer duty. In this pic below you can see the contrast where I started to clean. So, for those of you always talking about how clean my house always is, it wasn't, but it will be, as long as this phase can last!
Day 4 takes us back to the water park, this was a special day because Peyton has finally decided to venture away from the small purple octopus slide and go on ALL of the kiddie slides. Yippee!
Peyton also thinks she is a swimmer. She is starting to swim and I'm sure by the end of the summer she will be doing quite well.
She likes to jump in too, and where the water is deep she just kind of happily does swimming motions under the water after her jump. Silly girl, reminds me a bit of Ben. He was sneaky though. Ben would wait until he thought no one was watching him and then he'd jump in.
These are just SOME of the things I found up on the tops of the kitchen cabinets and plant shelf in the kitchen.
Lots and lots of dust. Maybe allergies will improve now that all that dust is gone.
This is a picture after I cleaned that area. It was so gross, I had to really scrub the knick knacks I'm glad I don't cook with more oil than I do! Light fixtures in the kitchen are next...
I discovered our plant shelves are strong enough to hold my weight and the weight of my Kirby vacuum. Good to know. Also, for the first time ever I took all of the fake plants and out fake tree out in the backyard and sprayed them with the hose, it was SO much easier than wiping them leaf by leaf!
More summer to come!