Baby Shoes

I think I have a new love:  baby shoes.

Here are the ones I made. I can't wait to make some girly ones.  These are for a couple of my friends who are having baby boys. 

Peaches

Kent was working at home today and came upstairs for a little break while I was canning. He immediately grabbed the camera and started taking pictures of me canning. Apparently he thought I should blog bout this. So here you go. There are few things that make me feel more domestic than canning. Probably because my grandmas and mom all did it. Of course they were very domestic. I guess it makes me feel kind of grown up. Not that having a husband and 4 kids shouldn't be enough or anything. But for some reason I always feel domestic and productive when I can stuff. Maybe because there is a product there at the end and I have something to show for my hard work. Too bad that while being extremely domestic and preserving "food for the winter" the rest of the world around me seems to fall apart. The kids get neglected. The house gets neglected and messed up. But at least we will have peaches to eat this winter.

Adele was my "big helper". She actually spent about an hour playing with jars and the little jar-picker-upper thing. Why do I buy toys? Why?

Ah, tasty peaches!

35!

Happy 35th to my great hubby Kent!



Gotta love the "Ghost Emilia" in the background



Yummy peanut butter cookie pizzookie with Reese's Peanut Butter ice cream



A little bit of birthday "Sorry" with the crazy "Yayhoos"

The exciting present:  A 2 terabyte external hard drive. 

Love ya hon!  (Even if you are getting old!)

Again Again

Here's Adele.  She is scrubbing the wall with a magic eraser. Again.

School (At Last)

I have to admit that I have been rather eager this year for school to start. I love my kids. I love them a lot.  I don't love the arguing, tattling and fighting.  And I do enjoy a little personal space when i can get it.  The problem with the summer is that the kids are with each other TOO much and you know the result of that:  They bug each other, thus bugging me.  About 3 weeks ago I was done having fun and was ready for the structure of school and ready for the kids to not require ME to 1. entertain them 2. find friends for them to play with and transport them to/from houses and 3. solve all their disputes. 

Tell me this girl isn't excited to go to school.

 Being grumpy about taking pictures.  In the last frame Elise is TRYING not to smile but can't help it.  Notice Ian's tooth-window on the bottom. He makes sure to tell EVERYONE about how he lost his tooth. He is very proud of it.

 Finally they agreed to take a nice picture "just to get it over with".

Ian wouldn't wear the new multi-colored shirts I got for him. He insisted on dressing like a fudgesicle.  He is a very picky dresser.  Who knew boys cared that much.

Happy First Day of School kiddos!  I love you very much but I am excited for back to school!

Fun at the Lake

We have been swimming a lot this summer at the pool but we haven't done the lake thing at all (until yesterday).  So to have one last shebang before school started we decided to go spend the morning at the lake.  We went early before it was too hot OR WINDY!!! It is pretty much always windy there so it was a really nice surprise.

It was a lot of fun, but OH THE SAND!!!  The clean up is not fun.  And yes, there is actually a lake!  I was just noticing that all the pictures are of the kids on the sand. 

Ok, there you go.  The only picture of the water!  :)

Crazyland

I feel exhausted.  Not just body tired or sleepy tired but just tired from stress and craziness.  I feel like it has been crazyland around here this week.  We have been pretty ready for school to start but there are always those things that come up at the last minute.  Like soccer practices that you find out about 3 hours before when you hadn't heard a word about soccer since you signed up in the spring.  And it just happens to be back-to-school night.  Or kids who are trying to lock the door when they are the last one out of the house and they lock the deadbolt from the inside and try to shut the door with the lock mechanism sticking out.  That locking event leads to the mechanism bending and ultimately needing to be replaced.  (Who knew that outdoor locks are 50 bucks?)  And then there is the garbage disposal which had been dead for a week and had to be replaced ('nother 100 bucks to Home Depot), and which after being replaced had a weird pipe problem that made it detach from the garbage disposal not once but twice (before being re-plumbed), filling the area under the sink first with bean-spew and then oatmeal-spew.  And now tonight, the crowning event of it all: the text I got while at Emilia's back to school night:  I caught Adele cutting her hair.  It looks pretty bad... sorry.

 Here is a picture of happy Adele, playing at the lake just this morning.  Never thought I'd be using this as a "before" picture.

Here is a picture of SAD Adele who has been in her room for the last 30 minutes having a BIG time out for cutting her hair (again). 

And here we have the haircut.  The stylist ended up parting her hair on the opposite side to try to help conceal the worst of the choppage.  More pictures later.

And a big SIGH as I go to bed, thinking of how I have to get up at 6:45 to get Emilia out the door in the morning for SCHOOL!!!!



End of Summer Vacation Update

The kids start school one week from today. I think that the excitement of being home for the summer has definitely worn off and we are READY to start school.  Today we went through clothes and tried on stuff from last year to see what still fits, and I did some online shopping for the stuff we needed.  Yesterday we bought all the school supplies.  In one week we will be back on a schedule and back to sanity (maybe).  I have kind of been on a blogging famine so here is the quick catch-up.

• My nephew Erik got married on Tuesday and Kent and I went to Salt Lake for the wedding.  Our kids spent some time with our friends the Schofields while we were gone.  There was one incident, however, involving scissors and hair.  Adele and her friend Gracie were playing in a room and apparently had some scissors.  Adele thought her ponytail was too long, so, chop chop.  Gracie had kind of an all-over trim.  Gracie's mom "fixed" her hair and then ended up taking her to get it fixed by a pro. I haven't done anything with Adele's because it actually isn't TOO bad and it wasn't a totally blunt-pony-tail-chop-off.  Sometimes I wonder HOW many times Adele will repeat the same naughty shenanigans (and get in trouble) before finally learning.  She definitely wins the "most naughty toddler" award at our house.
• On a particularly stressful day this week I went to the gym for some treadmill therapy and ran my personal longest distance:  7 miles.  It made me think for a minute that I should do a half marathon.   Then I realized that 7 miles is only 1/4 of a marathon and to do 1/2 I'd still have to run another 6 miles.  Hmm. I don't think so. I am too old.  I say that because the DAY AFTER the big run I was moving at great-granny speed with aches and pains all over my body.
• My sister Linda came to visit last weekend with her kids. We had such a fun time and my kids were in cousin heaven.  (I can't believe we didn't even take pictures!  What is wrong with us???)  We did most of the things that we wanted to do but ran out of time before we ran out of activities, treats and things to talk about. I love having sister therapy.  (Thanks Ween for coming to visit!)  I sent her home with a plethora of hair bows.
• I found a huge bug at my friend Dana's house last week and had to collect it for my entomologist brother-in-law.  Dana thought I was totally crazy to capture and keep such a huge and nasty bug but I had to.  For science.   My BIL is a beetle expert and has even discovered several (4?)  new types of beetles.  One of them is named after my sister Kathy. I called Kathy to see if she wanted me to save it and to find out what to do with it.  She said put it in a jar with alcohol and that would kill it and preserve it.  So I did.  Only it didn't die.  It swam around (more like drowned around) and it wouldn't die. So I put it in my pantry so I wouldn't have to look at it.  And then I checked on it awhile later and it was STILL alive. It kept doing this weird hissy thing with its bottom and making bubbles in the alcohol.  Finally I poured MORE alcohol over it and next time I checked it it was FINALLY dead.  Blech.  I will deliver the specimen to my BIL tomorrow when he stops at my house on the way back home to California.  It will be nice to get the thing out of my pantry. (It is on the very top shelf so I don't have to look at it, but STILL!) I think I should have been a biology major in college or something like that.  Not that I love creepy crawly things, but I guess they just fascinate me. (And disgust me, but the fascination wins out.)

• I made tarts tonight. Or "tots" if you say it with an English accent. We make fun of the people at the Shakespearean Festival who sell tarts and talk in bad English accents. My kids were all speaking in English-esque accents while we ate our tarts. When I was first telling Kent I wanted to make some "tots" he thought I was making a reference to the potato delicacies that Napoleon Dynamite puts in his pocket.

Pioneer Day Hike

We were pretty annoyed that they make you pay 10 bucks to park in the parking lot now.

See the butterfly on Ian's shirt?  He was so excited that the butterfly kept landing on him.

Such a fun and beautiful hike!  The kids were awesome hikers and the 3 biggest ones did all 4 miles!

The only one to go down the waterfall slide was Emilia

Enjoying a snack