Update

School starts tomorrow, and most years I just hate the thought of that.  I still have mixed feelings about the whole craziness of carpools, homework, science fairs, etc., starting and I will really miss my kids; however, overall I’m excited.  It’s a fresh start.  I’m excited to get in a routine again, have a reasonable bedtime (for the kids, but mostly me!)  I’ve slacked off running, and I’m so excited for cooler weather to run in and for my kids to fall back in love with the great outdoors.  I adore Fall and last year with Joshy as a babe I was pretty consumed.  This year I’ll be a little less tied down and free to really dig into Halloween costumes and the Holidays with my sweet little family.  Can’t you just smell the soup and homemade bread cooking?  Hmmmm, what a fabulous time of year. 

Yesterday Brennan and I sat Anna down and had a great chat with her about Junior High.  We told her all the things we’ve heard about that she might be seeing and hearing and begged her to tell us about everything and anything she experiences.  She’s excited and confident and ready.  She’s a great kid, we love her so much.  Our biggest challenge will be getting her out the door even earlier this year – I’m having night terrors about it :)  We love Anna.

Abby will be the official leader of their little walking group now and I can tell that worries her a little, but mostly she’s awed with her new station in life.  4th grade is kind of a big transition year as far as turning into a big kid.  I’m so grateful I can count on her to be on top of all her responsibilities.  I think all of the kids are really going to miss Ben and Joshy.  Abby especially.  This summer she and Anna turned into big time sleeper inners so every morning she would run up and be so happy if she got to see Joshy before he went down for his morning nap.  We love Abigail.

I’m so excited for Nate this year.  His teacher is our friend and neighbor, Chloe’s mom.  She’s a fabulous teacher and fun and kind.   He’s got darling friends in his class and we’ve recently had two boys his age move in really close to us who are both in his class.  He’s needed more options close by for friends so I’m thrilled.  Oh, and another good thing about school starting is I won’t have to have our morning argument about why I don’t want Sports Center on.  The thing he’s most excited about is the coming football season, he keeps wanting to record all those lame exhibition games.  What am I going to do with two complete tv sport fanatics?  Sigh.  We love Nathan.

The other day Anna was teasing Benny and started tickling him.  She said she wouldn’t stop until he said her full name so he immediately yelled, “Anna George ________”  We all laughed so hard.   George is his middle name and I guess he thought it was just sort of standard issue.  He was at our neighbors’ when Anna was tending their little ones.  When the mom came home and tried to pay Anna, Anna refused it but Suzi kept insisting finally setting it down on the couch next to Anna.  Ben walked up and took the money saying, “Well, I guess I will have it.”  We love Benjamin George.

Joshua was sick and fussy for a lot of days and then he came back and we are more enamored with him than ever.  He’s just pure yummy.  You have got to hear his deep, chesty evil laugh he does whenever he continues to do something you tell him not to, or when he takes some unassisted steps.  Even if he’s not being funny, you can’t help but smile just by looking at his chunky thighs or sizeable bottom.  We love Joshua.

Look Who’s Walking!!!!

 

Okay, so maybe we should say look who’s taking a few steps and falling a lot but that’s just not as exciting a title.  Here’s one with just one step, but some cute clapping and a pretty exciting fall :)

 

Oh what a difference a day makes.

We’ll enjoy every second of those thighs – I think their days are numbered :(  We’re so proud of our Squash!!!!  We love Joshua!

Partay!

For Anna’s birthday party she planned it and the rest of us just showed up.  Seriously, it was great, I bought some invitations, she filled them out and delivered them.  A few hours before the party I bought her requested menu items a few party favors and wa-la, the perfect party.

Her cute friends met at our house where she opened presents and then we loaded up into both cars and went to this great wooded park.  Brennan and I got the briquettes heating up while the kids explored the forest.  Bren cooked up some hamburgers (all the while telling me these were never going to work and that we would all surely die from undercooked beef and that he was going to go to Burger King, etc., etc., etc.) that turned out great.  After our meal of burgers, chips, strawberries with marshmallow creme, we roasted marshmallows for s’mores.  Anna really didn’t want cake or cupcakes, so we sang to her over gooey s’mores.  

After cleaning up dinner we headed over to the stage (this is the same park they have our town’s summer play at with a stage right in the middle of the woods.  And, just in case you were wondering, there is a fencing club that meets here every Friday night.)  Anna had packed two big bags of costumes and divided her little group up into two teams.  Each team had to dig into their costumes and come up with a skit.  They were very creative and very funny. I was so impressed that all the girls were totally game, none of them were too cool to make fools of themselves.  In fact, they kept begging to do more.  They were darling.

 

Telling us she only had time to shave under one arm.  Lovely.

 

This is one of the very talented casts, including the very talented “Lion Secrest”.

After gathering up the costumes we went back to our house where the girls settled in to watch “The Princess Bride.”  It was a dream party for me, and I think the girls had a great time too.  Love these cute, creative, sweet girls.

Family Reunion 2010

Every two years we try and get my whole family together for a little trip.  This was round 3.  Unfortunately we didn’t totally succeed in getting everyone here, my oldest brother Braden and his family couldn’t swing it this time, and we really missed them.  The rest of us were there though and it was good times.   For starters we went to one of my all time very favorite places in the world.  It’s beautiful, it’s cool, there’s water and sand and a huge lawn.  I know it doesn’t sound like much, but I promise it’s everything. 

enjoying the lawn

These two are never seen apart.  They are the cutest busiest little pair.

We left Saturday morning and arrived early that afternoon.  We went straight to the beach.  Joshy was loving the sand - both playing in it as well as shoving chubby little fistfuls of it into his mouth. 

It was wonderful.  After getting our fill of the beach (literally for some) we headed back to our condos where Josh and Liza served up a delicious dinner.   After dinner we drove to a nearby town for a rodeo.  This was a major highlight for us.  Brennan and I just love these random, small town affairs.  They even let all the kids try their hand at getting a ribbon off a calf’s tail, along with about 100 other kids.  Things like that just don’t happen in bigger cities.  It was fabulous!  Another highlight of the rodeo was the Mutton Bustin’ event, which consisted of watching 5 through I think 10 year olds come out of the gate riding a big old lamb and holding on for dear life.  Amazing.

This is the calf chasing event which our kids are in.  They let a calf out with a ribbon tied to his tail and these kids all go for it.  That calf was amazingly agile and fast, kids were diving all over the place, but one finally prevailed.

Some of our group caught a ride back to our cars.  It wasn’t raining, my camera got a little dusty.

Once we got the kids to sleep the adults gathered for some chatting and laughing.  Good times.

Sunday morning we got up and off to church.   After that we changed, ate lunch and loaded up for a drive up to another lake we could walk around.  It was a long and bumpy ride but totally worth it, it was stunningly beautiful.

and before long, this started happening:

The water was freezing, but oh so inviting.  So clear you could see everything.

Joshy getting a taste of the local flavor :)

It was a great way to spend our Sunday afternoon.  We came home to a yummy dinner by Ryan and Macy followed by our traditional talent show.   We had everything from a Neil Diamond impersonation (guess who) to some impressive grape catching in the mouth.  Great stuff.

Monday morning Rebecca whipped up a major breakfast and we headed out to the beach.  We rented some jet skis and had a blast.  Davis and Melissa fed us a great lunch and then had to leave to get back to New York.  The wind kicked up and a storm rolled in and forced us out a little early.  We scrambled back to our condos with all our stuff and the storm rolled right over and we had a beautiful evening.  Mom and Dad served dinner and we played some “Minute to Win It” games.  Brennan and my parents stayed behind with sleeping kids while the rest of us went for shakes. 

Tuesday we packed up and drove to the city my parents’ were married in on our way home.  They celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary the weekend before so we decided we’d stop at the Temple they were married and surprise them with a photo book.  We compiled some highlight pictures throughout the last 40 years along with a letter from each of us.  They were completely surprised.

We parted from there and went our separate ways very tired and very happy.  The kids could not be cuter little cousin buddies who are fortunate to have some of the worlds’ greatest uncles, aunts and grandparents.  We feel extremely blessed to so thoroughly enjoy our family.

Happy Birthday, Anna June

In what seems like about 3 minutes ago, this little doll was born. Now she’s 12. I can’t quite wrap my head around that, but ready or not – it happened.

On August 6, 1998 a teeny tiny bundle of crazy blond hair was put in my arms. Up to that moment we hadn’t known if she would be a boy or a girl. I felt confident she’d be a boy, and the one thing I knew for sure was that this baby would be bald. Neither Brennan or I had any hair until we were 2. I held my furry little girl completely awed, surprised and totally overcome with love. That is how I’ve felt about Anna ever since.

Victoria, Spencer, Abigail, David and Anna, the first grandkids.

She’s always had a little gleam in her eye. Ever since she was born she loved mischief and that combined with lightning speed, a bright mind and an angelic little face made/makes for a very lively time. For 12 years she’s been outsmarting, outrunning, and surprising us.

Fortunately for us, her sweetness and compassion keep her mischievous side to innocent fun. Anna is the most affectionate girl. When she was very young before she went to bed she started saying, “Love you, you’re the best.” She still says that, and so do each of her siblings and both her parents. I smile every single time one of us says that.

Today I registered her for junior high and took her to get her ears pierced. Next week she’s going boating with all the 12-18 year old girls and boys in our ward. Ready or not, she’s 12.

Happy, happy birthday my beautiful sweet girl. We love Anna.

Update

Don’t you just love summer? It’s going way too quickly though, that’s my only complaint with summer. We just had a great visit from Jamie and Brett (Brennan’s mom and brother) a few weeks ago. We loved having them and are so grateful they were able to come stay with us.

Brennan is busy with work and golf, but still manages to help me out so much. He’s been working with Anna on tennis. He frequently takes one or two of them to hit golf balls. He loves those times he gets with them one on one or in small groups like that. He loves his kids. Last weekend he played in a Stake Tennis Tournament. He is so much fun to watch and even though he hasn’t played forever (he’s afraid it will mess up his golf swing) he took second place in the advanced division. We love Brennan.

I am really enjoying my flowers. I, like always, planted them really late, but got great discounts. Anyway, some haven’t done so well, but most of them are looking great and I just love driving up to our house when there’s a cheerful, colorful host of flowers to greet me. A few weeks ago I ran a 5K and it was a lot of fun. I am such a slow, slow runner which I didn’t worry about at all for the Wasatch Back, my goal was to pretty much not collapse and die. So for the 5k I didn’t really know what to shoot for. My friend, Alesa, did it with me and she is a lot faster than me so I was on my own and decided I was going to try and beat 45 minutes. That’s really not fast, I know, but I told you I run like 15 minute miles so it was a good goal. Well, I did ran it in 39:41. Woo hoo. Good times.

Anna hosted a little tea party this week. She’s working really hard to finish up her “Faith In God” which is like the Gospel in Action we did when we were in primary. It’s basically a little booklet of goals/activities they work on when they turn 8 until they turn 12. Anyway, she invited her little girl cousins and some neighbor girls over to entertain them and also taught them about the Word of Wisdom. It was darling, she did such a great job and loves attending to these little ones. They all dressed up and can you believe we didn’t take one picture? Grrrr. Anyway, she’s been such a great helper to all summer and has really grown up in so many ways. She’s been reading her scriptures everyday and Brennan and I have both noticed such a difference. She’s a great example for all of us. We love Anna.

Abby really floored me while driving home from one of her play rehearsals she said, “Mom, I know you don’t like it when we say this, but the guy who plays Luntha (sp?) is HOT.” “Whoa, Abby!” “Well, he is, he’s the one who picks me up in Uncle Tom’s Cabin scene and he’s just such… such a MA-AN.” This child has some serious potential to be a major boy crazed teenager. She and her best friend, Paige, celebrated their 3rd anniversary the other night. Somehow they remembered that the first time they played together was the day after Paige’s brother was born. They decided to celebrate with a late night and spent days planning and preparing for their special evening. They made a scrapbook, carefully selected a movie (they wanted one with a friendship theme), selected and made a treat, and made many lists. Happy Anniversary Abby and Paige! We love Abigail.

Nate has basically moved in with our neighbors. They recently got an air hockey table and he LOVES it. He will also play catch with anyone he can talk into playing with him. He’s kind of obsessed with sports, he’s always recording random sporting events and “Sports Center” on our dvr. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised by this given who his father is, but still I guess I just thought I’d have a few more years before total and complete obsession set in. Every morning he tries to get Joshy to cuddle with him on the couch and is really sad that Joshy has lost interest in cuddling. He’s not going to give up on it though. We love Nathan.

Ben is the busiest little 4 year old I’ve ever known. He’s constantly on the move, he goes back and forth between our house and the neighbors all day long. If they’re gone he wants to know which of his other friends he can call. He’s a funny contradiction because as social as he is at times and as much as he loves to be on the go, when he’s done he’s done. He’ll have a friend over and after about 45 minutes he asks me when his friend is leaving. Or when we’re out somewhere really fun like a park or a party he’ll ask when we’re going home. He’s such a funny, unpredictable boy. You should have seen his smile last night when for Family Home Evening we took turns telling what we love about each family member. When we were talking about him I thought his face might explode with pure joy. We love Benjamin.

Squashy stays busy doing things like getting into the fireplace or lapping up water on the ground. Yes, I stopped to take a picture before grabbing him. I promise he’d had plenty of water, evidently it’s just more fun this way.

So you can see he’s got a lot to do. He keeps all of us smiling. He has this deep laugh that just kills me. He loves showing off by standing up and letting go of whatever he used to pull himself up with. He is very, very loved and is very patient about being mauled with love all day long. We love Joshua.

Happy, happy summer!