Finishing June

Well, now that it's August I thought it about time I finished blogging about June! Our second week we had Cub Scout Day Camp, for real this time. I continued my late spring cleaning which I'm sad to say ended almost as soon as it began. After a few weeks of spirited, energetic cleaning I moved on to other interests. Here are some of the plants I pulled out and sprayed off, wow, so easy to clean with a hose! I will be cleaning them more often now.

Here is another before of another one of the many ledges in our house that has been neglected for so long. Disgusting, I know. It was another source of bouncy balls, darts and deflated balloons.
After I cleaned the boys begged me to let them climb up, so I did.
Our inside and outside entry way light fixtures were in dire need of a good cleaning and it was not an easy job but I am so glad I got it done!
Too bad I didn't get a before, it made quite a difference.
I chickened out this year and only helped one day out at camp, the first day. Jacob requested I be there for his first day, I think to ease his nerves a bit. He LOVED it, even the first day which isn't the best day, mostly just getting situated and such.
Jacob really enjoyed the roping and was pretty good at it.
Micah is a big kid now and I didn't get to see much of him but he had a good time too.
What follows the cleaning bug? The crafting bug of course! I got my book wreath done and I love it, it now resides inside by my book shelves. I think I may have posted this already but here you go anyhow...
I get to sub for a card exchange group every once in a while so I've been testing out some card ideas and playing around with my paper and goodies.
Next up, our Utah trip!

Room (s) Redo, step one

First off, let me just say, Pinterest is crazy. I can't stop. Hopefully I'll be able to pull myself away log enough to do some of the things I've pinned!

Week 2 was scout camp, enough said, crazy week.

June 18th

our front rooms (dining room and formal living room) are really multi purpose rooms. We hardly know what to call them, music, office, sewing, crafting, reading...room. They are such a hodge podge of hand me downs and really lack style. I thought maybe some rearranging might give us a good start to work with. This is them before...

Above, the computer desk and my desk are now on this wall with the filing cabinet in the middle, the couch and buffet are in the same place. The tv is gone (we don't have tv anyway, didn't think I'd miss it, come to find out I watched movies and shows on dvd more than I realized, oh well.)
Above, the piano is now on the wall where those bookshelves are, which is good, I hear you are supposed to have pianos on an interior wall. The sewing desk and machine are in the same place, the birds have moved.
Above, Peyton's dollhouse is about where the chair is, the chair and the lamp are more to the right, the birds are to the right of where the computer desk is in the picture.
Above, the 2 large bookshelves are on the wall that the small bookshelf is on, the small bookshelf is in our hall, at the end of it. It sounds weird but I like it.

June 21st

Below are all the new locations
The desks below can close now and I love the arrangement so much better now. We stole that mirror from our bathroom. The birds and dollhouse have since switched places.
My book wreath is now on that spot of empty wall. I am going to make some new pillows for the couch and chair to bring in aqua and maybe some orange and white. I want to change out some knick knacks too.
It has room to improve but I like it much better now.

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!

I live with a PE!

The last day of school we found out that our friend Eli passed his PE exam (Professional Engineer). We were very happy for him. It's quite a test, 3 different parts, sometimes people take it and pass none of them, Tyler was fortunate to pass one part the first time and one part the second time. He didn't get in as much study time before this third and last time taking the test so we weren't expecting him to pass his last part. It's a ridiculous amount of time you have to wait to find out results, months. So, Saturday morning while we were still in bed Tyler got on his laptop to look and see if Eli's name was on the PE website yet. Eli passed a different portion, one Tyler had already passed and you find out sooner about. So, Eli was there, a Professional Engineer! Tyler was thinking about typing his name in but didn't want to not find himself there. I told him it wouldn't mean anything if he wasn't there yet, besides, we really weren't expecting him to pass anyway...

He typed his name in, and up he popped complete with our address, it was him, a Professional Engineer! What an exciting way to find out. I made him a yummy, big breakfast to celebrate. I am so proud of him.
French toast
Potato rounds
Cantelope, which I delegated to him to cut so everything would be ready together.
Perfectly cooked bacon.
And here are the two PROFESSIONAL ENGINEERS. Eli came by to congratulate Tyler. Good job you guys!

End of year awards and Peyton's Snail friend Spydo

Micah got perfect attendance again this year. A feat that is amazing to me because of my own horrific school attendance. Jacob missed only one day and he missed that day because he was sent home from school the previous day because of a fever. School policy says they have to be fever free for 24 hours before returning to school. Jacob actually cried that day because he couldn't go to school. He never had a fever that entire day either, it was gone just a few hours after he was sent home. Anyway, maybe next year. I am very happy though that we didn't have any illnesses with Micah and Jacob and that they didn't want to even fake being sick to stay home, good job boys!

Jacob got the school's Personal Responsibility Award again this year, a pretty big award and we are so happy that he is good for his teachers and a very responsible kid. He also got straight A's all year this year, shouldn't they have an award for that? They did when I was in school. So, GOOD JOB JACOB!
Each of the boys received a medal, below is Jacob's medal.
Tyler and I have been walking the boys to school in the morning, and today, on the way to school Peyton found this new little friend that she kept with her all the way home ( I didn't even crush it when she let it go!). I told Tyler I have never seen a snail crawl all over someone when being held, they always stay in their shell. I got to thinking though, I've never actually seen someone LET them crawl all over them! Don't worry, I washed her up with lot's of soap and water.
On the way home it crawled all over both of her hands front and back and then all the way to her elbow.

gardening, birthdays and such

I finally got all the pictures off my camera and onto my computer. I didn't realize how much I had to blog about but I'll have to make some choices and limit it a bit.

A few night ago while Tyler was working late the kids and I spent some time on the trampoline together enjoying this lovely, very non Junish weather. Peyton is such a cutie when she jumps I took about 2 dozen pictures! I wish this picture below was clearer, she was making the funniest faces.
You can kind off see below, but she was wearing underwear that used to be Ben's. I thought it was cute that she was in her frilly princess nightgown wearing boy briefs. It really sums her up well, she is a little tomboy princess.

She also helped me make Ben's cake. I am surprised that she can hold the mixer by herself with one hand. Mixing is her favorite part, she says when she grows up she wants to crack up the eggs.

We had family over for cake and ice cream the night of Ben's birthday. I even picked up Grandma Kay so she could be with us. It ended up being a late night but it was fun.
All of the in town cousins (Essien and Dustin) were there. Ben never requested any certain cake and he never complained about the cake I made him. It was lacking in decorations but everyone said it was very yummy and moist. Moist is always what I hope for!

Benjamin is 6 now and pretty much the same as ever. Always making us laugh, loves games, especially the Wii and his new Lego Pirates of the Caribbean game. He has the funniest and most adorable was of saying things. He loves having a sandwich for lunch and he is an amazing reader. He is a cuddler and a love bug but when he is going somewhere, like school, you may not even get so much as a "bye". He really likes to have a friend over and he is really good on the trampoline, front, side and backflips are his specialty, he can even do 2 back flips in a row! We love you Ben!
The thunder and lightening storm was our Sunday show. It kept the kids up later than normal but we all enjoyed watching it.
Monday my friend Christie B. came over to make clips and brought us a zucchini from her garden. I told her we didn't have any zucchini or cucumber yet. I took her out to show her our garden and low and behold we had 2 cucumbers! I forgot to get a picture before I cut the big one, here they are below.
Isn't that beautiful? I love having food growing right outside our kitchen window!
Today I decided to get a hold of the weed situation in the garden and check our plants and look what I found! A green bell pepper. Our yellow and red plants have peppers on them too but they are still green, and our jalapeño plant has lots of peppers on it. I am really looking forward to our tomatoes, I don't know why, but this year our tomatoes are growing like crazy.

Read the post below too

Here is a link to a video (FYI, video is from 3 years ago when Ben was 3, Jacob 5, and Micah 7) I made with my new Windows 7 on my new laptop. It is not the one I wanted to share, there are no special effect or music, just a few subtitles. I wanted to share Peyton's birth video, I love how it turned out but Tyler doesn't want naked pics of our kids on the internet because apparently there are sick people out there. I know this, I just thought newborn video would be safe but were not risking it. If you want to see Peyton's birth video, come over, yes, that includes you Grandma Honey. My number is in the directory, Clovis 2nd ward. You are fun and I would like to be your real friend, call me and we can get together! I'm having some issues, I'll try to imbed the video, let's see if I know what I'm doing or not!