'Wacky Week' (Plus Other Stuff)

Last week Emma came up with the idea to have a 'wacky week' where they do something crazy each day. So ready or not- here comes some of our summer wackiness!

(Sorry Emma I know these are out of order).

Monday(I for once did not take the blurry picture:)
Tuesday (or was it Thurs?)


Wednesday
Beachball soccer :) Looks like Emma's "Red Hot Volcano" uniform she wore when she was 4 is finally starting to fit!

They ran out of ideas so decided to include Eli's rope bridge he made for Friday.

As you can see, we have a non-stop party happening over here :)

Actually I have to say I feel really, really blessed that the kids still play together. Every morning they start some game (they are almost always animals) and I have to eventually stop them to have them start jobs. It's hard for me because I'm not sure how many more summers they'll do this so well. Or maybe they'll keep it up and start acting out plays like on "Little Women" :)

Anyway, since you've been wondering, here are our beautiful peaches- some of the last few. They have been sweet and delicious even though they're small. We've loved them and hopefully will have lots more to come next year.
I just can't believe school begins 2 weeks from today. Yikes! Every other year I've been pretty excited, but this summer I'm enjoying having no schedule and taking our little vacations.

I bit the bullet the other day and got our school supplies. Then I put them out and had the kids get the things on their lists and put them in bags in their rooms.

Unpictured: Emma tried every single clothing item she owns and we discovered that about more than half her closet was too small for her. I had to BEG her to go school shopping. First we looked online at Gap which was pure torture for and she didn't like a single shirt. Today she dragged her feet to "Tillys" with me and found 2 shirts she thought were pretty good. So I guess her school shopping is done. Have you ever heard of an 11 yr-old girl feeling this way about clothes? I can't relate to it (I wore heels and make-up to my first day of 6th grade) but I'm trying to appreciate it because I don't think I'll have this problem with the little two. And I think it would've done me well to care a little less about what other people thought of me. So I'm trying really hard to let her be her. (As long as it's a hygenic her :)

My Special Trip

July is usually the climax of misery here in the Valley of the Sun.-- until this year. It's amazing how just little breaks from the heat really help to sustain you through the summer.

Last weekend I got the best break of all. I got to see my little sister become a mommy. And of course love, cuddle and kiss their sweet beautiful baby James.

I was trying to remember the last time I'd flown on the way to the airport. I think it'd been about 5 years! The little 1 hour flight was exciting for me.

Here's my photos going from Phoenix to San Diego. It was so fun to watch the clouds roll by. Along with the emergence of plant life.
And the star of the show didn't disappoint. He was cute as cute could be. He kept forgetting he was a newborn and trying to smile lovingly at his aunt Kate and melting my heart.
I thought about how unbelievably short this time is and how one day I will probably think of all of childhood as being very short. I made a renewed vow to try harder to enjoy my own babies and not get as frustrated at little things.
The beautiful family of 3! (Doesn't Sally look amazing for like 5 days post-pardon?)

I got home late Monday night. Tuesday morning I had my patience hat on.

It was a good thing too because within the first 15 minutes after getting out of bed there'd been 2 slammed doors and one 4-yr old having a tantrum that could be heard within a 5-mile radius :)

Flaky Fairy Strikes Again (barely)

Holly had been waiting and waiting and waiting some more. Until finally. That first tooth came out. When she noticed it was wiggly enough for her to really move around she wouldn't leave it alone and got it out that day (which is an undetermined date approx. 3 weeks ago).
So the first tooth is a big deal and all night I kept thinking- 'Fairy! don't you DARE forget Holly'. And yep, you guessed it. I woke up bright and very early to a sad voice saying "Mom...the tooth fairy didn't get my tooth for the castle". Yes my heart about broke in half.

Her fairy belief was already on shaky ground due to Eli declaring the day before that "Fairies are not real, even the tooth fairy (crazy-eyed look from mom)....oh uh....haha...actually except for the tooth fairy." Nice recovery boy.

Luckily, I had her re-convinced by the time we tucked that tiny tooth in our pretty fairy pillow that night. But then the flakiness.

Don't worry, this story does have a happy ending. The fairy made a surprise (mad-dash) visit while Holly went to the bathroom. Then we did an under pillow re-check to see if maybe she had missed it and what-do-you-know! The money had fallen out but was there.

Me: Didn't you see it Holly? Oh well that's okay. Wow! A dollar! And the Kleenex..still waded in the bottom but the tooth is gone! I bet that tooth is being added right now at the front of the castle because it was so perfect and clean.

Holly: mild confusion giving way to acceptance and happiness about having $1.

(whew!)

I know it was a Saturday because then she traded the dollar for this movie at a yard sale and was a happy camper.
The girl's pretty savvy. I'm hoping we make it through a few more teeth and at least one more Christmas.

Independence Day 2011

"What date is the 4th of July on?" This is the question (however grammatically incorrect) I asked the kids as we happily left for Utah to celebrate the birth of our country. I actually had them stumped for a few seconds. It's like how L-M-N-O-P is sung too fast in the alphabet song and kids don't know they are individual letters.
But they figured it out. I don't think they've ever been happier to finally pull out of the driveway and head out. I'd been telling them all week that we'd leave after I got home from Girls Camp on Friday. I forgot to mention the the 3 hours or so it'd take us to unpack my Super Soakers, rope, hair feathers, clothes caked with dirt, do a couple loads of laundry, repack, go over our list, try to make sense of the list after a week of sleep deprivation, etc, etc (you know how it goes). They were out of patience and so were we.
But we made it out and as you can see, we decided to bring Scouty.
Utah's beauty never ceases to amaze us this time of the year when the desert is so brown and SO hot.

We were met with warm welcomes.
And idyllic scenery.
Which caused us to reflect on the beauty of the Earth and also- why do we not live here again? Oh yeah- 8 months of snow. They were just as excited about the nice weather as we were.

I was deemed official photographer which is a nice title but on the downside comes with very frequent photo-op suggestions from family members. I was also in charge of taking family pictures of Dana's sister's family since their oldest son Luke will be leaving on his mission in Sept. That was actually a lot of fun.

And we got a family picture of our own :)

Dana, scruffily handsome.
Yep, I'm a lucky gal.
And I took a few of Dana's mom and dad. He's been a hairdresser all his life. It makes me wonder how many times he's done her hair. It's always cute to watch.
This was my favorite. A little candid smooch.
One of the kids favorite activities at grandma and grandpa's is feeding the horses nearby.

July 4th starts off with a cannon booming through your dreams at 6 am. About 10 times or so. Dana, 3 nephews and 1 niece (who smoked them all) got up and ran a 5K in Moroni. Kodi got 1st, Dana got 9th. Kodi is running for BYU next year. Simply put, she's amazing.
Next, off to the parade!
The kids LOVED this little puppy their cousins just got. She was hardly put down the whole time because everyone wanted to hold her.
All the cousins minus Dale's kids.
Emma and Savannah were inseparable.
Eli's a serious candy grabber.
Lots of princesses from all the nearby towns.
Anything can be a float in this parade which makes it quite fun to watch.
My favorite.
No, this takes the cake for sure.
We skipped the fair this year in favor of relaxation and shaved ice. Then waited for the fireworks at night. Dana picked up some sparklers on the way there.
It wasn't long until we were all trying to write our names for the camera. ("katie" sans the K)
I'm not sure what we were thinking bringing scout to the show. He was not a happy camper.
I got this picture though which gave us all a hearty laugh. Poor doggie.
Spectacular show as always. At the end it started raining which made the night even more fun.
On the 5th we went out to "Palisades Park". It was cloudy and windy and all the local family were irritated because they wanted a nice sunny day. I'm sure I'd feel the same if I lived there but we were enjoying every bit of it. We all rented a canoe which the kids had a great time on.

(Dana rowing against the wind)

Sadie and Sophie were really cute together the whole time.



We left from there to come back home. Dana saw this as we drove through Gunnison? I believe, and so we made the kids get out in their crazy get-ups and take a picture.
And here when we stopped for gas :)
Aww- we (the kids and I) Loved all the storms we drove through on the way home.



I didn't get pictures, but Dana put on a great program where we remembered what the 4th is all about and felt grateful for our freedoms. We are all so blessed.