4th of July Celebration {2013}

Ryan and Tanner got up at 5 to put out flags in our ward....while I got the rest of us ready for a BIG DAY!

We made it up to Rexburg in record time, partially reclaiming our seats that Grandma saved, but somebody else moved...

While we waited for the parade to start, we played at the park.  The weather was cool, and perfect, and the kids were excited to get some energy out.

Afterwards, we headed back to the house for a fabulously simple meal of Pizza Hut and salad and watermelon....seriously, best idea ever!

After naps, we broke out the slip-n-slide....and quite honestly, I'm surprised this loved slide is still holding it together....our kids have been pretty rough on it!

We finished up our day with some day-time fire works, which the kids LOVED!

 We even stuck it out in a 5 minute down-pour....lovely Idaho weather!

By the time we got home it was about 7 pm...we were all exhausted.  Ryan gathered up a few remaining flags, and we all hit the sack...I'm certain we were all sound asleep before 10 pm...we totally skipped out on the Melaleuca Freedom Celebration fireworks, but were sure to thank our Heavenly Father for such a beautiful day, and the many blessings we have been given, including our freedom.

Happy Independence Day!

Heaven Help Us

While driving to my mom's this weekend, I overheard the following:

Tanner:  You know, Taylor, we can really do anything we want.
Taylor:  Um, but then we'd be on the "Naughty List".
Tanner:  That's impossible.  Wanna know why?
Taylor:  How is it impossible?!
Tanner:  Because every single year, Santa brings me presents.
Taylor: ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...... *thinking*

Heaven help us!  I'm in for it now....they have us figured out.

*sigh*

Encampment

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints celebrated the 100th anniversary of the Boy Scouts of America program being utilized within our church this year.  There were seven Encampments in the United States, one of them being right here in South East Idaho.

Ryan, my dad, and brother Clay attended this amazing experience in Firth, Idaho, and they had a BLAST!  All three earned the Thomas S. Monson Award.  My dad had the privilege of presenting the award as participants earned them.  Clay participated in EVERY.SINGLE.ACTIVITY that was offered.  He had a punch card with about two dozen activities, and made great use of the opportunity.  Ryan traded off his set of trading cards to collect one of each!

While the 'boys' were off having fun, I packed up the kids and we went to my mom's.  While there, the kids had a great time playing in the sprinklers on the trampoline.

My mom and I started tacking a project we've been wanting to do for at least 20 years.

For three days, we sat at the kitchen table with cook books and *the box* of recipes and typed.  We typed, and typed, and typed, and typed.  Some of the recipes were written on scraps of paper, quickly jotted down.

Other recipes are so well loved, they looked like they had been through the wringer.

The two recipes are my mom's favorite bread recipes....the ones we grew up eating because she made half a dozen loaves each week.  We were SO blessed to have such delicious bread!!!

When I left, we had a good 80 pages of recipes typed, and carpel tunnel. And we're not even half way done.  We had only compiled the recipes we like and use from various books, and one file-folder in *the box*.  We have many more to type up!!!

Deseret was a great help once she got home from Girl's Camp...Every time she'd hold Keetley, they'd both fall asleep.

And the boys loved on auntie Katelyn while watching a movie in the FREEZING basement...which was much more cool than the 100* weather outside.

Ward Campout

I have very fond memories of camping as a child, and I'm telling you, my mom and dad made it so much fun!  I never realized how much work it was to take kids camping until I had my own.....

Our ward held a camp out for families near Roberts, Idaho.  We'd never been to this particular site before, so we were not sure what to expect.  While there were some nice port-a-potties (can there be nice ones?!), their fire pits were a tad puny....but we made the most of it!

I didn't get many pictures as I was trying to console a baby girl who wasn't having a very good attitude about the bitter cold.  LOL!  It had been warm all week, then this particular night, it was in the 50's, and got to freezing through the night.

We all slept snug as bugs in rugs!

The following morning, our R.S. President confessed that she prayed for us at 4 am when the birds started chirping, because she hadn't heard our baby cry during the night; once I got her to sleep.  She was afraid that maybe Keetley had suffocated in our sleeping bag or something terrible...but it turns out that if mommy sleeps with one eye open and can hold the binky in baby's mouth, that there isn't any crying.  And everybody sleeps soundly.

We're hoping that maybe we can do one or two more camping trips this summer, and look forward to the wonderful memories we can make along the way!

I must mumble

My mother is constantly telling me to "stop" because I talk too fast, and often mumble.  Guess this proves her point:

We were in the van, with the AC on high.  I was telling (lecturing) the boys that if they wanted to go camping with the ward this weekend, we needed to work together to keep the house picked up.

Tanner asked, "who are we camping with?"

I responded, "the ward".

And we went back and forth with the same question and answer four or five times.

Then Tanner said with frustration, "HOW are we going to go camping with Heavenly Father and Jesus?!  That just doesn't make any sense!!!"

"WHAT?!"  I responded.  "What are you talking about?!"

Tanner said, "HOW are we going to go camping with the Lord?"

.....

I must mumble.

And I'm pretty sure that Somebody listening in had a good laugh.  :)

Crazy....or, CRAZY?!

take your pick.

My computer is limping on its last leg.  It is so temperamental, and just shuts down whenever it wants.  Ryan thinks it's the graphics card, and I just think it should pull up it's boot-straps and keep working.  I don't get a day off, why should my computer?!

Because lets face it, I'm relying on my computer (we have no TV, and we like it that way!) to entertain my children for a small (VERY SMALL) portion of each day.  I'm going to be real, and just say it:  I let my kids watch a movie so I can take a nap.  There.  If it wasn't obvious before, now it is.  I'm a fish without water if my computer isn't working.

So...today has been a little on the longish side.  Ryan left before I was coherently awake (about 7 am) and just got home at 9pm. He just finished setting up the tent so he and the big  boys could sleep outside.

I apologize for the scatter-brained-ness....Like I said, crazy is on the brain.

First thing this morning we (meaning me and my four children) accompanied Keetley for her 8 week appointment and 2 month shots, ran to the bank, and sweltered outside, then sweltered in the house, then sweltered outside, then sweltered in the house.  And then lunch time was upon us.  I know what you're thinking....we should have made it PAST lunch, but we didn't.

...stay with me....

I promised the kids I'd take them swimming if they ate their lunch, and while I was taking a 2 second potty break, they either ate their lunch really fast, or threw it all away.  I'm going to pretend I didn't see perfectly un-touched pb&honey sandwiches in the bottom of the garbage.  And I will also pretend you aren't assuming I dug them out of the clean garbage bag and ate them.  Because really, I didn't.  I had a plate full of pasta and spinach doused in Cesar salad dressing and avocados (and sunflower seeds).  If my plate hadn't of already been made up with food, I likely would have dug out the sandwiches.  I know.  It's embarrassing.

ANYWAYS, yeah....I think I'm going a tad bit crazy.

So for about 4 hours (and while scrubbing my kitchen floor), I was hell-bent on not taking the kids swimming because of the lunch incident.

But after I got done with the kitchen floor, I felt like I'd been sitting in a sauna.  With all my clothes on.  It was 93 degrees outside, and a balmy 78 degrees in the house.  Not bad, but I was dripping wet with sweat.

As I was changing out of my sopping wet clothes, I thought I'd try on my swim suit...and when I couldn't get it back off, I decided "what the heck"....and told the kids to get theirs on.

We hit up the pool, and after 45 minutes they were cold, so we came home.  I fixed them dinner, and they proceeded to ask for HOT CHOCOLATE.  Seriously, boys.  It's now 90 degrees outside and 89 in the house.  I'm NOT making you anything but dinner, and I've half a mind to let you have ice cream if I had any in the freezer.

So....call me crazy, but I was either going to lose my mind at home, or at the pool....and the pool was sounding much cooler so I just went for it.   We had a good time, and I realized I need to purchase some sun screen and a wee little swim suit for the princess...the sun-suit was fun, but I think next time she'll want to splash a bit.  :)

Last Day of School

Summer is upon us!  It's official!

I slept in, and Ryan took the liberties of getting donuts for breakfast.

No better way to celebrate!

Tanner has done pretty well this year in school.  I was slightly nervous for him, but he had WONDERFUL teachers.

We have a goal to keep him at the second grade reading level over the summer, so he can start out second grade on the right foot.

Hello, Library Summer Reading Program!  We tend to fall off the band wagon around week two, but I'm determined to READ, READ, READ with my kids this summer!!!

We've been reading the Chronicles of Narnia at bedtime for the past 2 months, and we're ALMOST ready to start in on Book Four, Prince Caspian.  :)

Anyhoo....I have good intentions for the summer....so wish me luck, and keep encouraging me!!!

Little Princess

How does the time go by so fast?!

Keetley is 8 weeks old!  Already!!!

Forget about the perfectly posed pictures each month.  Forget about having time to get the camera out at all...I'm lucky I snapped this one of her, with how busy these darling kids keep me!

She absolutely LOVES her bath time!  She has never cried or even screamed during a bath, and is so happy and content to play in the water.

I used my 'spending' money (when I do alterations, I keep that moolah for frivolous things I want) to buy a play mat with the toys that hang above for the baby to play with.  We never had one for the boys, so this was a definite splurge.  Keetley LOVES it!!!  She bats at the toys and smiles, and gets silly little looks on her face when she concentrates really hard on the hanging toys.  And technically speaking, the boys play with it, too...so...nobody is left out, really.

She weighs just under 10 lbs.  Crazy to think that Kortlen was born at 9 1/2 lbs, and she's just now reaching that milemarker at 2 months old!  She's about twentieth percentile for weight, and sixtieth percentile for height.  Tall skinny thing!  But she's a GREAT eater, and is growing those fat-rolls on her legs like nobody's business.

Keetley loves to hold her head up.  She has always had a strong neck and is very observant.

She sleeps quite well, often from 9pm through the night till 8 am. She'll wake up for one feeding in the night, which is to be expected. Her naps are also going great!  While I haven't really stuck to a tight schedule for her (let's be honest, I often don't know if I'm comin' or goin' or even what day of the week it is!), but when she naps each morning and each afternoon, it's for 2-5 hours.  And I'm okay with that!!!

Needless to say, we're so happy our little princess has come to join us in our home!  She puts a smile on everyone's face, and we simply cannot get enough of her!