Last Days of Summer

Josh had Saturday off. The first one in 3 weeks. He wanted to have a family adventure, so we went to the riverwalk. I'm glad we went but it was a long adventure. I had already been to the gym for a run and a zumba class so another two hours of walking really did my knees in for the day. I'm not complaining about the fun time hanging out with Josh though. It was nice having him around.

I also have pictures of the kids playing out back in the water. We didn't do this nearly enough so we will probably have to fill up the kid pool and have some after school splashes until the weather gets cold.

Tucker playing peekaboo

The First Day of School 2013

The kids are excited, I am excited and we are off on a new adventure. School started this morning. Of course we didn't stick to our schedule, but so far the attitudes are happy and people are working on their own things. Life is good and I am very happy.

A Close Call

I rescued a toddler in a pool today. It was one of those slow-motion, I-can't-believe-this-is-happening moments. I was swimming with my kids at our friend's house (they do open swim time on Thursdays) and I had Tucker in the pool along with my two kids in floaties. There were some other kids and as another family arrived, their 3 year old son went over to the slide. I looked at the other mom in the pool, wondering if we should try to grab him before he climbed up the ladder. We tried getting the mom's attention, who was busy with her newborn baby to see if he was a good swimmer. Their oldest child is practically a fish, so I didn't know whether to be concerned or not. He was acting like he had gone down the slide a million times. Like he owned the place. Super confident. And then he slid down and just splashed around, not really swimming, not really sinking, either. I had already put Tucker on the side and another mom grabbed him (not that he would have come anywhere close to the water as he was already fussing about being in there) and I swam to get the boy. He never did really go under but he sure got a few mouthfuls of water. So did I, since I am not really the strongest swimmer out there. But I got him to the side and we both got to sit for a while and stop our legs from shaking. We both had a bit of shock. My favorite part of this whole thing was watching his mom and her amazing reaction to the whole situation. I would have been frantic and most likely, screaming. She, on the other hand, had a cool head and told him he was really brave and she was glad he was okay. No screaming and hollering and "How could you do that?" None of it. I wish I could keep my reactions positive like that.

Kids Do Strange Things

I have a random group of pictures, all of my kids doing strange things. Kid things.

First is Tucker doing what he does best: crawl like a little bear. Now he crawls up and down the Lego box.

Second is Melynn with play makeup smeared all over herself. I am not sure why she chose to do this. We had friends over for dinner and Melynn smeared their daughter up too. I guess a girl just needs some sparkly makeup sometimes. It looks like vasoline.

Third is Emmett's strangest thing: Sauce Sandwiches. He has been doing this for a while but I finally decided to take a picture. I was actually hoping that he would stop doing it because it sounds so disgusting, but it has stuck and therefore must be recorded for posterity's sake. In case you have never experienced a sauce sandwich yourself I will describe it. You need ketchup, barbecue sauce and miracle whip (or mayonnaise if you prefer that) to smear on your bread. Slap the two sides together and there ya go. A sauce sandwich. Pretty nasty.

And last, but not least, comes Melynn's bright idea of wearing the floaties as hats and ankle warmers. Tucker actually kept his on for a while. Go figure.

So there you have it. Some strange things that my kids have done this last week. I think they might be bored.

Tucker on Two Feet

It is official. He can stay standing up without holding on to something anymore. He does not stand up on his own, he does not step away from things, but if you put him somewhere on his feet, occasionally he will stay standing. Not for a long time yet. He does better if his hands are full of electronics, as you can see. He is growing up so fast!

And I may as well throw in some 14 month statistics since he finally got his 1 year well child visit taken care of.

Height: 31 inches
Weight: 21 lbs. 9 oz. (which is way lighter than he feels when you heft him around, believe me!)

He is about average. I think maybe slightly above 50% in both.

Homeschool "Nesting"

I'm totally stealing a phrase my sister said the other day because it is so true. I am nesting. Nesting for homeschool. I have been planning until I have a headache the past little bit in order to have as much finished before we start as possible. I have finished the weekly plan for all 36 weeks of school, which lays out all of our history projects and science experiments, along with what is assigned for math, spelling, etc. I put both Emmett and Melynn's work on the same page for my sake and I think it will be really slick. I also put a section that reminds me of what we will need for the next week's project and reminders of when to schedule field trips and such. Last year my main failure was with science experiments. I didn't ever have the supplies on hand because I hadn't looked ahead in the book. I felt so bad because it was life science and that is what I studied for my bachelors! I should have given him this amazing experience and instead it was pretty blah. So, this year will be different. I bought a science kit that is designed to go with our curriculum to make it easier. And again, I listed anything I might need to buy a week ahead of time on my planning sheets. Whew was that a project!

I also compiled our book list to go with history and science. The books were all listed in the curriculum, but I organized it according to which week we will be going over that section. I did this last year and it helped me immensely. It takes a lot of time to type it all up and I feel like I have carpal tunnel, but that's okay. So worth it!

The last thing that I need to finish is deciding which books I will assign Emmett this year. I have a few book lists that I have gathered over the last little while and so I have to narrow down the selections somehow. I'm thinking that I will have a list for each six week unit that is a must-read list and then a long challenge list with all the extra books that I have found. If he finishes his must-read list, he can pick a challenge book and work toward some type of reward. I am up for suggestions for how to do this, if anybody has a great idea they would like to pass along.

Fishing for Potatoes

Last night after an afternoon downpour it had cooled off enough that soup sounded pretty good. I made the kids Cheddar Chowder, which sounds like something the kids would just devour. Oh no. They are going through quite the picky-eater stage and it is really getting on my nerves. They both refused to eat certain parts of the soup: Emmett unhappy that there were onions and Melynn fussing over the celery. Meanwhile, Tucker eats two bowls full. He's such a good boy. Anyway, I told them they HAD to eat three bites of celery and that's it. Seems pretty easy to me. It took forever! Emmett cooperated better than Melynn, which is NOT normal. He is my biggest dinner complainer at the moment. Melynn fussed and chewed her celery for five minutes making lovely gagging faces as if she were about to throw up. She did finally eat it but that was about all. She spent the next few minutes fishing out the potatoes and then left practically a full bowl on the table behind her. Oh well. Maybe she will eat what I make tonight, right?

A Day In, A Day Out

Last Thursday I was so excited. I had plans to go to the gym and then to the library for story time. Melynn really wanted to go. When we were ready to go, I couldn't find the car keys. Tucker had been playing with them on the floor and somehow managed to hide them so well that it took until Josh came home for them to be found. He found them under the stove. So, we spent the day in and missed story time. Sad.

Friday we made up for it though. We went to the gym and the library, came home during nap time and I got cleaned up, then we went out for free lunch at Chick-Fil-A (dressed as cows, of course). After lunch we went rollerskating (also free, except skate rental). It was a very fun day. We didn't stay too long so that Tucker could have a late afternoon nap.

T-Ball with Cousins

I think it was a really good idea to get the cousins playing t-ball together. It was fun to sit and cheer on all the kids and have them feel like friends, instead of just cousins that live far away. I have a few more pictures of these kiddos.

Tucker is in love with my phone. He loves anything with buttons.

Melynn at bat

Emmett at bat

Cousins Gabe, Emmett, Brinley, Melynn, and Aiden

Sporting their tball medals

The official "professional" pictures that I don't think were worth the money I paid for them:

Back Row: Coach Devin, Daniel, Lucas, Emmett, Ian, ?, ?, Brinley, Aiden, Coach Kathy Front Row: Kyle, Tyler D., ?, Titus, Tyler S., Gabe, Melynn

Cassie's Reception

Here are the pictures of Cassie's reception. I spent most of my time in the kitchen with Anika. It was a great party in there. The food was great and there was plenty of it. We packaged it up at the end and sent it across the state for the open house at Hans' house. We spent most of Thursday before the wedding making 20 batches of muddy buddies. It was probably double what we needed. We sent the newlyweds with a huge assortment of goodies from the reception so Hans could have a snack. Har har. I told them about how hungry we were after our reception because we didn't have time to get dinner. We just had a solid day: sealing, pictures, luncheon, reception pictures, reception. We ended up getting Taco Bell in our tux and gown. Well, I remember being hungry from all the go go go and so we packed them some food.

Cassie really looked beautiful. A lovely bride.

Melynn enjoying some muddy buddies

Aiden

The food

Wes, Susan, Cassie, Hans, Hans' mom and dad

Kissy!

The cake

Happy Cassie

Cutting the cake

The smash

The results

Lunch at Olive Garden

After all the picture taking we decided to meet the out-of-towners (oh, that includes us!) for some lunch at Olive Garden. I love their unhealthy food. I wish I didn't. Seriously, why doesn't that unhealthy stuff taste bad? It is my curse. Anyway, we had a lovely lunch and got to hang out with Grandpa Merrill and Josh's aunt Marie. The teenage girls (Josh's cousins) all had a blast watching Tucker eat some lemon. His first go at the sour stuff. By the end of this our kids were POOPED. Unfortunately we only had about a half hour before we needed to be at the church for pictures. Long day.

Grandpa Wes practicing his dancing skills (he would use them at the reception) with Melynn

Pucker face!

Cassie and Hans

The happy couple was so cute coming out of the temple. The sealing was great, apart from the worried frenzy while we all waited for Isaac and Mariah to show up (they made it though and all was well). The weather was colder than at Isaac's wedding in May, which was strange. In Idaho you just never know. The same weekend the central part of Idaho got snow. Crazy.

Left to Right: Josh, Melynn, two of Lark's daughters, Isaac, Justine (white sweater), photographer, Cory, ?

Hans' family

Melynn

Melynn and Isaac (I think she has a crush on him)

Tucker and Josh

Coming out the door

Cassie and  Hans, Susan off to the left and Hans' dad holding the door

He carried her down the steps

Getting ready for pictures

I like this one because it shows a tiny bit of Melynn's hair.

My little family