It's coming....

I love summer.  I really do.  It has been a pretty hot summer and I have loved every minute of it.  I haven't complained of the heat.  Here is my theory..You see I thought I liked winter.  As a kid it was great.  All the snowman building and fort building was so fun.  But now that the kids want to do all those things, it is not nearly as much fun plus it is cold, bone chilling cold.  And I am a wimp when it comes to cold.  So this summer has been exceptionally great.  My garden has been maybe the best garden I have had.  It seemed like everything was mass producing.  The peppers slightly out of control along with the weeds.  I kept a pretty good handle on it though.  Yesterday, I told Brian we needed to start getting our yard ready for winter.  He looked at me and said, "that's depressing". 

I used to like fall a lot.  But now I just realize that winter will be next.  I don't complain about the heat anymore, because when it is freezing cold, I will realize how awesome the heat really was.

Blah, blah.  Anyway.  I was looking through my blog, reading stuff and decided that I still need to blog.  It is a great way to document things and someday I will make it into a book.  Last month, our beloved hard drive on our Mac died.  It is 5 years old, which in computer hard drive life, I guess is old.  Out of the blue she died and so did all my pictures.  They were miracously able to recover everything else but not my pictures.  It was a sad day.  I can not do anything about it though.  Deep down I am hoping the guy at the Mac store will find some new knowledge he had never unearthed in his brain and figure it out.  But I don't anticipate that happening.  Is the lesson learned?  I have about 900 pics on a jump drive.  But I think I lost thousands of pics.  It will be okay.

I am boring.  In July, we went down to Heber Valley Camp, where mom and dad are on their service mission.  Such a cool place.  We stayed in cabins that had bunks in.  Did a challenge course and enjoyed one another's company.  The day before we hiked Ensign Peak, did some shopping, swam in a pool and fun things.  The following week we went to Island Park with Brian's family for a reunion.  It was also fun.  We went to Wade Lake, played horseshoes, again enjoyed company and had a good time.  Brian finished up his 2nd semester of nursing school..  We took the kids to the parade, saw fireworks, and had good times. 

In August, was Jaxon's birthday.  He turned 4.  He was so excited.  He is a sports kid and wants to play ball all the time.  Both kids learned to ride their bikes.  We go on family bike rides now.  That is fun.  We pulled up one section of weed mat, got bark, need lots more.  Brian and I went to Sun Valley for the whopping 10 year anniversary.  We went to a thrift store ( right up my alley).  Had some good food and enjoyed a weekend away.  School started for everyone but Brooke.  Reagan in first grade, Jaxon in preschool and Brian's 3rd semester.  It is half over (this part).  It has gone pretty fast to me, maybe Brian not so much.  Just to think that he could apply to grad school next fall.  Wow.

That pretty much brings us up to date.  No pictures, because well there are none.

Good Things:
1. Having some routine
2. Learning
3. Being so blessed.

Where we are...

We have been busy.  We mostly manage to keep up with life.  So this is what we have going on.  School is out and  Reagan was sad to leave her teacher.  We are getting back into reading after a few weeks break.

 This is the look of the backseat on days when my kids are at grandma's or Ashlee's house.  Exhausted.  They do have lots of fun but are so tired at the end of the day from all that playing.

 My family got together for FHE for some hotdogs and some minute to win it games.  This is putting a cookie on your forehead and trying to get it to your mouth without using your hands.  Most were successful.  We had some other games that were pretty funny too.  It was a good night.

 Free fishing day was a couple of weeks ago.  We try to take our kids, cause well it is free and otherwise we would have to get a license.  Our previous fishing was unsuccessful.  We started the day out, went to a stocked pond where there were 40 other people trying to  catch free fish too.  It was freezing cold.  The sun was shining but the wind was howling and it was cold.  Apparently the fish wanted to be bought and not donated.  Not many bites for others and not a single bite for us.  However, we didn't stay for long due to the freezing conditions.  The kids thought it was mostly fun.

 Jaxon was super convinced that he could cast by himself and tried but got caught.  I struggled a little myself.  I finally got a good cast only to get hooked on someone's line.

Reagan learned how to ride her bike last week.  She did not want to take the training wheels off but we did anyway and she learned in about 20 minutes.

Jaxon decided he wanted a cape.  So I cut around a t-shirt and made a cape.  I told him I would make a J on the back of it.

A week before fishing we took the kids golfing.  Hilarious.  I did not whiff it even a single time.  So proud of myself.  The kids had lots of fun..I think.  They said they wanted to go again.  They did pretty good.  The funniest part of the day was when Jaxon went to putt and was being really careful to line up when he saw a bug.  It immediately caused him to lose focus and then proceeded to try to stomp on it.  I was laughing so hard.

Brian is ready to be done with the semester.  He is doing well.  We are keeping busy with yard, garden, kids, church, work and whatever else falls in between all of those.

Birthday Girl

Reagan was excited to be turning 6.  She has thought about what kind of cake she wanted me to make for months now.  She finally decided on a Strawberry Shortcake Cake.  She went to school.  It was I day.  Which means you bring something that starts with the letter I.  Since it was her birthday on I day, she took ice cream.  (Explanation below).  She wanted hot dogs for her birthday dinner.  Jaxon came down with the stomach flu the night before so I talked her into French toast (with homemade french bread) and sausage.  It was a much better choice.  She got a dress from Gramma Carter, a dollhouse from Gramma Crandall, and clothes and a jewelry beading set from us.  When asked how her birthday was, she replied "good, maybe too good".  Glad to know we did not disappoint.  She got the stomach flu the following day. 

We celebrated with cake on the Sunday before with Kadri's birthday too.  Kadri is Reagan's cousin who was turning 2.

Explanation 1:  I bought ice cream cups to the school and put them in the freezer.  I told the substitute teacher exactly where they were and what they were for.  When I went to pick Reagan up, I asked if she had the left over ice cream, she said they ate it all and that there wasn't enough and the teacher had to go the lunch room to get more.  I asked why there wasn't enough.  I had bought 36 cups for 24 children, in my eye plenty.  Well, I went to the freezer where I put them and they were all still there.  The teacher had got the half opened box of ice cream sandwiches and when she didn't have enough then went to the lunch room to get more.  I am not sure of whose those were but they are gone now.  Sorry.  She probably thought I was out of my mind for not bringing enough.  It was a little frustrating. 

Explanation 2:  I got the jewelry box of yes 10,000 beads because it was cheaper than buying them all separately.  They are sooo tiny.  I need reading glasses to see the hole and I have good vision.  Can't wait till they are all over the floor.  The kicker of it all is she can't really do it herself.  So I have to help her or do it for her.  I told Brian that I didn't buy them for me.  So beware when you buy a jewelry set.

Easter Egg Hunt

In our house we never have big plans  for Easter.  I stopped making dresses and such a few years ago because well, I would really stress about it and I decided that I was missing the whole point of it.  So Easter is really pretty uneventful at our house.  So we decided to take our kids to the Easter Egg Hunt.  A large on at that.  We found their age group.  We waited still they said go and watched all the other kids go hunt for eggs while our kids stood there.  After a bit of encouragement they took a few steps out and stopped, sat on the ground, and Reagan began to cry.  There were so many kids and is was scary to her.  Meanwhile Jaxon picked up the eggs around them.  Needless to say, we won't be doing that again.  On the way back to the car, Brian and I, both decided our kids are not aggressive and don't really have that killer instinct.  We also decided that maybe Soccer wouldn't be the best thing for Reagan.  Jaxon maybe.  As for Reagan she wants to take piano lessons.  Non- confrontational.  She is passive.  That is okay, because she is very nurturing and caring. 

When the Easter Egg hunts had less kids (like less than 6) they were both okay to run and get the eggs and candy.


Before the Hunt

 

During the Hunt

Jaxon

It really is true that kids do say the darndest things.  Jaxon really might win the contest in this category.  We went to my sister's house for a few days at the end of March.  It seemed like he was saying crazy things all the time.  For the most part, all of these come in the form of prayer.

While at my sister's house, he prayed that B would clean her room, that we wouldn't throw toys at the walls, and lots of others.  I can't really remember them all.  I wish that I could remember or that I would write them down.  When we got back home, he prayed that we would get rid of all of our pets.  When I asked him what pets we had (none), he said all of the cats that pee and poop in our flowerbeds.  We tried to explain to him that they were not our pets but stray cats.

The above picture are just a small (very small) selection that Jaxon has taken.  Apparently he has a passion for photography or a slight obsession with my camera.  He did this unbeknownst to me.  He is a good kid and keeps us laughing a lot.

I like to call it Enlightenment

I just had what was really a "Duh" moment, but I will call it enlightenment moment.  It sounds better and doesn't make me look nearly as dumb.

All day today I have had to get after the kids.  It has been a continuous round of "stop touching her, looking at him, pick up your stuff, stop fighting and more", all day.  I have had it.  Tonight as I was telling Reagan for what seemed the the fortieth time to do something I had a thought occur to me.  It was this:  Perhaps that is how the Lord feels.  He is constantly beckoning me to read my scriptures, say my prayers, have more patience, be kinder, do more service, those little reminders that we need.  And the kicker of it all, he does it all kindly, no threats of spankens, or no snacks or tv time.

I am telling my kids a lot, that if they would just listen to me and do what I ask them to do, they would get in less trouble.  After all, I am trying to help them.  Isn't the same true of the Lord and us?

Each day we go through life in our various day to day activities and we are being told to stop fighting, be kind, be careful, pray and he will answer, think of others more and the list goes on and on.  Yet, if we would just listen to the Lord and do what he asks of us, don't we get in trouble less and have more time for the spirit to be with us.

The answer is yes to all, both the kids and me.  If we would just listen and do what we are asked, he is just trying to help, to make things easier.  It is so very simple, yet so complex.

Good Things
1.  Knowledge
2.  The spirit
3.  Aha moments

Halloween 2011, just a few months late

Here are the Halloween Happenings.  It was pretty uneventful.  I worked, Brian worked, Reagan wore her costume to school, and well,  Jaxon went to Grandma's sans costume.  When we came home, we went Trick-or-Treating to about 5 houses and came home.  Jaxon proceeded to eat too much candy, that didn't set well with him and well you can guess the rest.  The kids wanted to wear the same costumes from last year and I let them.  All was well the next morning, which was Brian's birthday.  He had a great day too.
Oh yeah,  we carved pumpkins too.