Happy Independence Day!

What a fun weekend we had this year!  We missed traveling over to southeastern Idaho to visit cousins...but we made the best of sticking around home!  Andy and the kids got up early and went down to the ward's pancake breakfast while Addy and I slept in...then we all piled in the car and went to the parade in Melba. 

 

When we came home, we started making some of our party foods...to snack on all day...and to prepare dutch oven food to be cooking while we went boating.  When you have 100 degree weather, the best place to be...is in the water.

 

Tay made our famous bean dip...because what is a celebration without it?

The girls and I made "cute" patriotic appetizers! 

Matthew loved them...rice crispy treat stars and then yummy fruit.

While we were getting food prepared, Andy got the boat ready...

We made two different dips for chips and dug right in...we called it a pre-boating snack.

Tay and Lainah, looking all patriotic.

I thought we had enough sweets...but Taylor convinced me that I needed to make a trifle too. 

So I made him a deal:  he bakes the cake and I'd put it together.  As you can see, he thought that was a good deal.

And Addy really loved the layered jello cups we made!

After we had all the dutch oven stuff going and appetizers and salads prepared, we left for the lake.  It was a beautiful day, the water was glassy.  Rachel got up for the first time on the wake board, Taylor showed off his skills...and proudest moment of the day!?!  Andy got up on the wake board!  Woot!  Woot!  We've had a hard time getting him up...but thanks to pregnant mama's fancy driving...we got him up.  The kids were all impressed that I could even drive with my big belly in the way.  Then we found a nice quiet spot on the lake, put out the anchor...and all of us got in the water to cool off...it was a perfect day...couldn't have been better out there.

 

After a few hours of boating, we came home to dutch oven chicken and potatoes, baked beans...and all of our yummy salads and appetizers we had made that morning.  It was a yummy feast!

That night we went out to Melba's fireworks, and when we got home our neighborhood was exploding with huge fireworks...so we piled back into the boat, and reclined back to watch more fireworks until around midnight!

I was a day late...but on Saturday, I put together my new wreath...better late than never!

 

My grandpa is a World War II Veteran, and Andy's Dad was a veteran of Vietnam, and my Dad served in the National Guard.  I'm so thankful for our great nation, and for the brave men and women who fight to keep us free.  I know it's not perfect, and some of our leaders are less than stellar...but I still believe in the USA, and am thankful to live here where I enjoy the freedoms I do, and I'm proud to be an American.



Just One of Those Days...

It's been one of those mornings.  You know the kind.  The kind where you wish you could rewind a couple of hours, go back to bed and start over?  It's only 7:30 in the morning...hopefully the rest of the day will go better.

 

My alarm went off at 6:30, giving me just enough time to roll out of bed, get dressed, and walk out the door to take Taylor to his weight training football and then basketball practice at Skyview High. 

 

Taylor is already up, has eaten breakfast, and is ready to go.  On most mornings, he has been riding his bike the couple of miles down to the school...but last night I offered to drive him because I didn't have any Dr. appts. that would keep me from being able to pick  him back up at 11:00 when he finishes up!  He was super happy to have a ride!

 

I grab my purse to go, but don't hear the friendly jingle of car keys in the outside pocket. 

I shake my purse.  No jingle.  Shake again.  Still no jingle. 

 I look at Tay.  He looks at me.  Enter panic mode.

 

We both start going through the house as fast and quietly as we can, looking in drawers, on cabinet tops, on dressers, in clothes pockets...we cannot find them anywhere.  I double-check and recheck and triple check my purse but still no jingle.  Why am I obsessed with finding them in my purse?  Because I am one of those crazy people who ALWAYS put my keys back in the same place:  the outside pocket of my purse.  If they are ever lost?  It is ALWAYS because someone has used them and not put them back.  So frustrating!

 

So I quickly text Andy, who has already left for work to ask if he's seen them anywhere.

No response.  He is either still driving, or with a patient.  So Tay and I keep looking.  No luck.

 

It is now 7:10.  Taylor is a full ten minutes late and still no keys.  We have even looked outside in the garages and in the Yukon itself.  No luck.  I am nearly in tears, tears of ultimate frustration!  I'm apologizing to Taylor when he throws his backpack on, opens the front door, gives me a hug and says...

"It's okay Mom...I'll just ride my bike.  C-ya."

Ya...I feel like a million bucks right about now. 

So...I go to each bedroom and tell each child over two years old to get out of bed and meet me in the kitchen. 

This can't be good. 

My voice isn't even raised...even worse...even more scary. 

It's that terrible scary, scary quiet "you are in SO much trouble and you know it" voice that they all dread.

So here's how it goes from there:

 

All right kids.  I have been up for nearly an hour looking for my keys.  Do any of you know where they are? 

 

Everyone looks at each other, they're rubbing sleepy eyes...and then comes the:

"I think Brooklynn used them to open the storage room..."  "No I didn't!  Matthew used them yesterday!"  "Ya, but I put them back!  Lainah used them too!"  blah blah blah.  Not getting anywhere with this line of questioning.

 

hmm....So it appears that you all used them yesterday at one point, but the problem is nobody thought to have enough respect to put them back into my purse!  (yep, I used the big "respect" word.  Seriously...my kids were probably trying to figure out what respect had to do with missing keys.)

 Still no one coming forward to confess, so I use the old "everyone will suffer until the problem is solved tactic."

 

So this is what's going to happen.  No one is going to go back to sleep.  No one is going to eat breakfast.  No one is going to use the bathroom until my keys are found!  Go search!

No one moves.  I have 4 children staring at me.  Five year old Lainah asks, "are you serious Mom?"

Yes Lainah, I am serious.  Go look for the keys.

But Lainah starts dancing around...and so I say, "Fine, Lainah, you can go to the bathroom first...then look for the keys!"

They all shoot off in different directions.  In less than 5 minutes, I hear:  "I found them Mom!  They were in the storage room next to the spaghetti sauce!"  Brooklynn found them.  So we gather back in the kitchen and I ask, "all right...which one of you used them and left them by the spaghetti sauce instead of putting them back in my purse pocket!?"  (Nope, I wasn't letting this misdemeanor go.)

 

It is silent for a few seconds.  Then I hear a little sigh...

 

and then I hear, "It was me Mom..." 

It was this cute little naughty witch who used my keys and didn't put them back where they belonged. 

 Big huge sigh from me...because although they are finally found, poor Taylor is still late and still had to pedal a few miles before he goes to lift weights and work hard at drills for 4 hours before pedaling back home.  But really the big sigh is because even though it's now only about 7:30 in the morning...I feel like the day is already spoiled. 

 

And not spoiled by lost keys...spoiled by my craziness over the lost keys. 

 

Taylor will survive...the keys were found...but here are 4 frazzled and sleepy children staring at me in my kitchen wondering who this crazy lady is and what did she do with their mother?

 

Finally, little Lainah breaks the silence and says, "So can we eat now mom?  I'm hungry!"

 

Before all this happened, I had been planning on making orange sweet rolls today...so maybe the day will turn out okay after all!

 

Note:  No, we weren't all dressed up for Halloween this morning...but as I was thinking about documenting this catastrophe, I remembered these funny pictures we took last year after trick or treating...and how crazy I looked in my wild wig and thought...ya...that would be perfect....

Double Date with the Boys

Two weeks ago it was my turn to take Taylor out and Andy's turn to take Matthew out...so we decided to do a double date and take the boys shooting.  This worked out great because all I had to do was sit in my camp chair and take pictures.  No walking involved...I was a good girl.

 

 First they had to set up their targets...and arrange all of the junk so they could shoot at it.

 

 Matthew had full reign of the BB gun...and I had to correct his form, he was all messed up at first!  Shooting off his left shoulder and trying to aim with his right eye...didn't work so well.

 

 In the meantime, Tay and Andy were shooting at the furthest target out...and they were using the box thingy to steady themselves.  They were watching with the binoculars to see how close they came to the center of the target. Tay did really well, he hit the outside of the circle each time.  I watched for a while...

 

 Then Andy told Tay to move over and let Mom show him what a sharpshooter she was.  Tay totally doubted my abilities.  However...if you look closely at his face...ahem...you'll see that he's a little annoyed.  Yep.  I hit the dead center of the target first shot...without leaning on the bench to steady myself.  He thought it was a lucky shot, so then I started naming off what I was going to hit before shooting.  For example:  "soda can on top of orange box, BOOM"  "shot gun shell in front of that target over there, BOOM."  I hit all my targets.  All those years of shooting at squash in our backyard paid off I guess.  It cracked me up how surprised Tay was that I could shoot!  Andy just laughed and laughed.

 

 After that, the boys started getting silly, and practicing their "form." 

 Here we have "casual Joe."

 

 and "Stiff Steven."

 

 and last but certainly not least..."Crooked Christopher."

 

By the end of the night, we had Matthew all straightened out and hitting his targets too!  Fun date with these funny boys!

Happy 14th Taylor!

Fourteen years ago, I became a mother for the first time when this "little guy" was born at 4:20 in the morning on June 23rd weighing 6 pounds, 12 ounces.  Where did my "little guy" go?  He is now a couple inches over my 5'8...passed me in shoe size in the 4th grade...and has grown into an amazing young man.

 

Happy 14th Birthday Taylor!

 

Our home wouldn't be the same without Tay's quick humor and wit.  He is constantly making me laugh over the funniest little details that I would miss otherwise.  For instance...he thanked me for "stealing" him some awesome Nike socks from JC Penney's.  Crazy!  The clerk forgot to take off the magnet theft alarm thingy...obviously...it doesn't work that great!  Looks like we'll be heading back in with the receipt and asking them to kindly remove it.

 

He'll be going to stake dances now...so we got him a couple of nice polo shirts so he doesn't have to wear his white button-ups.  And yes, he's spoiled...I know he only likes the sleek performance fabric...so that's what he got.

Addy had to try out Tay's shirt too....and it passed. 

When he opened this little gift, Lainah shouted, "Hey!!!  Matthew has an airplane just like that one!"  Well, yes he does.  In fact, this IS Matthew's airplane.  The RC glider that we ordered Taylor hadn't arrived yet...it will be here in a few days...Taylor is excited!

And what else does a 14 year old boy need?  Well...we bought him the good stuff, AXE body spray  Rachel kept walking over to him and sniffing him...she loved it.  So...it's "Rachel approved!"  Andy and I both wonder if buying him that good smelling stuff was a mistake...we should have bought him Old Spice or something.

 

Taylor is a good sport and puts up with a lot being the oldest of six.  He carries a lot of extra responsibility, and for the most part is really patient and a fun big brother.  Matthew especially loves having a big brother that he can literally pounce on whenever he wants too...and even though Tay has the strength to body slam him back...it usually ends up in a friendly tussle.  Usually.

Andy and I couldn't be more happy with Tay.  He is a great kid...so proud of all his accomplishments thus far in his life, and for the good choices that he's making.  He has given us a few worry lines over the years...and has been the main topic of concern in more than a couple of our evening jogs (when I'm not pregnant) but really...I feel so blessed to be his mother.

We thought a 14th birthday deserved a "ribbon-cutting" ceremony. 

The scissors and ribbon weren't cooperating though, and it took him a few minutes to get it off.  We suggested that he never run for Mayor.

And here he is...keeping with tradition and cutting the cake.

Yummm....kit kats and Skittles?  Surprising...but skittles actually taste okay with chocolate!  (He doesn't like M&Ms...so I had to switch things up a bit with the design.)

I named this cake "Death by Sugar."  Andy said it was more like "Diabetes on a Platter."  Yep.

Later that night, one of Tay's friends surprised him by coming over with a little birthday surprise.  We made him come in and stay a while.  Good friends are the best!

 

This year will be a huge year of "firsts" for Taylor...first year of high school (at a new school too), first year of stake dances, it will be the first year in our new house...where he gets his OWN room.  (he's not excited about that or anything.) and most importantly...first year that he needs a fishing license.  Ha ha!

 

Happy Birthday Tay!

It's All Taylor's Fault

This really isn't Taylor's fault...but just for kicks and giggles, I blamed it on him today.  Without going into detail, during the second half of each pregnancy I've had, I have dealt with a lot of skeletal pain that worsens the closer I get to my due date.  The pain is caused by cartilage tearing away from bone, and it hurts to stand, to walk, to sit...basically it just hurts to do anything.  I'm thankful for my doctor, who didn't just shrug this off as nothing.  He has prescribed what pain meds he can, but unfortunately, he can't prescribe anything strong enough to take care of the pain...

Here's where I blame it on Taylor.  My doctor suggested crutches if the pain gets too intense to put weight on my legs.  Well, for the past three weekends, Taylor has had summer basketball tournaments with his new team, Skyview.  Andy has been working, of course, so I've taken him to most of the games...and sitting on hard bleachers for hours at a time, and climbing up and down the bleachers (which I'm not supposed to be doing) has made it intolerable to walk.  So today I got my crutches. 

He has two more games tomorrow...and I won't be going to either one, I'm letting Andy take over.  I only have to get through doing three sessions of speaking at the Regional Singles Conference tomorrow afternoon...and a wedding tomorrow evening, and then I'm done with my commitments and won't take any more on until I'm recovered from this baby. 

 

On a side note, I really need to learn how to better decline commitments...and Taylor looks handsome in his new colors.

 

 

Rachel's Home!

Rachel came home from Girl's Camp today...and Addyson was THRILLED to have her Rachey back!

She kept hugging her and kissing her and saying, "I love your hugs!"  So, so cute.

 

 She just had to keep contact with her for a while...she didn't want to let go.

Addyson just loves her Rachey...and I just love this big welcome home kiss she gave her!