Lue Lankie

When Jake was newborn, my oldest sister, Melanie, crocheted a blanket for him.  It's so soft!  He has loved it since he can remember.  Even before he could talk very well, he has called it "blue blankie."  But he just now can say the "b" at the beginning, so it actually sounded more like "lue lankie."  He has to have it every night and he asks for it when it's snuggle time and I make him take a nap.  It instantly calms him down.

 None of my other kids ever had a "blankie," but this kid loves his...it almost makes up for the fact that he would never take a binkie.

The best part is that he just came up to me and let out a shriek:  "That my blue blankie!!!" as he looked at the screen.  Love him. :)

Sydney is SEVEN!!!

Sydney turned 7 a couple weeks ago! I can't believe that this time next year, me baby girl will be getting baptized! She shares her birthday with my mom, and we were lucky enough to be able to celebrate with them both. My parents drove up from Texas and got here just a few hours before the party. Sydney chose to have a pool party at our neighbors' house where she swims all the time. It sure made planning easy--let the kids swim a long time, do presents, swim some more, have treats, and done! She had a great time and had a ton of friends over. I even played the role of "FUN MOMMY" and swam with the kids the whole time. I can be fun when I want to. :)

She got way too many presents...I guess that happens when you invite so many friends.  I love her face in the picture on the top in the middle--pure joy and excitement.  She felt pretty special getting presents on her party day, which was 2 days before her actual birthday.  She tried real hard to let me open her gifts from us that day too. That was taking "fun mommy" too far...she had to wait!

 For her treats, she wanted to same rainbow cupcakes that we had done for Ryan, but with purple added, of course, to girly them up.  We also had ice cream cones, in keeping with the easy-on-Mommy party theme.  All 24 cupcakes and 3 containers of ice cream disappeared in no time!

 My dad was a great entertainer to Jake once he had spent enough time in the pool and while I was still swimming with the kids.  Jake thought it was great fun to get his hands wet, then shake them on my dad's face.  I can see where that would be fun. :)  It was so great to see my kids with my parents...they don't get much time together each year...

Once it was Sydney's and Mom's real birthday, I let Syd open her presents from us.  She has been begging for new bedding for her room for months, and we had been "window" shopping several places.  She really loved this zebra bedding with purple and hot pink as accent colors.  So she mostly got stuff for her "new" room.  I was pretty excited that she's moved on from Littlest Pet Shop...

That day, I took my parents and the kids out to Winger's.  It was nice to be able to treat my parents to lunch for once.  Too bad our service at Winger's was A-W-F-U-L!!!  But in the words of my mother, "We made a memory!"

For dessert that night, we had raspberry Jello poke cake and homemade vanilla ice cream with fresh strawberries on top.  It was delish!  The best part, though, was Sydney...  Tim and my dad had gone to the little neighborhood park to fix the pump for our irrigation system and Syd wanted to go see what they were doing at one point.  She was gone for a while, then when she came back, she was COVERED in dirt (see photo above...).  I don't know that she's ever been that dirty.  I took the hose to her, but not until after I got a picture!  My sweet little girl--all boy!  That's why in the pics of her and my mom later at dessert shows her with wet hair--she had to have a spray down followed by a bath before dessert--typical Sydney Grace!

Piano Lessons

I have made the decision to start teaching piano lessons in September.  I've been mulling it over for a long time, and have finally committed.  I'm pretty excited to have a new challenge!  Lesson times will be Tues, Wed and Thurs from 3 to 5 pm, so I have room for 12 students max.  Cost is $40/month for one 30 min lesson each week.  Now I just need to find some awesome students!

July 4th

For the 4th of July, we went up to our trailer for 5 days.  It was so nice to have 5 days with no phone calls, laundry or video games.  Of course, there was plenty of laundry when we came home.

We had a great time.  Our friends and neighbors, the Tufts, came up, too, along with Tim's parents, Josh and Brittney, Cody and Lindsay, Daniele and Matthew, and Kip and Sabrina.  It was fun to have so many people there.

We went fishing and swimming, and rode the 4 wheeler.  On the 4th, the kids and I painted shirts.  Tim was a party pooper and didn't want to, so note his BSU shirt instead.  We went with Josh and Brittney and their kids to Red Fish Lake and then watched the fireworks in Stanley, then came home the next day.  The kids loved playing on the beach!  Pardon my hair--this was my 4th day w/ no hair dryer or flat iron.  Good thing I wasn't a pioneer!

Ryan's Bday

Ryan is 11 now!!!  He can't possibly be that old, can he?  I remember when he was Jake's age--I would try to tuck him into bed with his blanket, and he would  take it off, lift up his shirt, and say, "My belly's hot!"  And when he was barely 4 years old and had to get glasses--how is he 11 now?

We let him open his family gifts before he left for camp, since he would need some of the gifts for the camp out.  He got a Bear Grylls packet knife, a flashlight, a mess kit, a Boy Scout shirt and book, $20, Almond Joys, and some other fun stuff.  For his family treat, he requested a Paula Deen cake we saw on her show one time.  It's called Volcano Cake and is like an Almond Joy in cake form.  He loved it!

The next week after his birthday, he had a party with some of his friends.  They went to our neighbor's pool and swam for a while, then we had dinner (Ryan wanted Sloppy Joes) and treats.  I made rainbow cupcakes for the first time, and they turned out so cute!  He had a great time and is excited to have a great year ahead.  He starts middle school next month...how can that be??

No more cub scouts for a while

While I was in Texas visiting my family, Ryan had his Arrow of Light ceremony.  He has been such a great little cub scout, and it's hard to believe we won't be going to pack meetings for 5 more years when Jake starts!

Ryan was able to go to the 11-year-old overnight camp out as a 10-year-old, and come home the next day as an 11-year old.  He thought it was a great way to spend his birthday!  He got a lot of camping/
Boy scout gear for his birthday.  The shirt just swallows him up.  One day when he is getting his Eagle, I want to compare how his shirt fits him then compared to now.

 Seriously--how cute is he?!?

You think that was enough stuff for 2 days?!?!?

Working Out

Sometimes for my morning workout, I do Jillian Michaels's 30 Day Shred DVD.  It's a nice change from running sometimes.  And she kicks my butt.  Often, when the kids wake up, the first thing they see is me sweating to this DVD.  Well, a couple weeks ago, they caught me doing it and sat and watched me...then I went to shower...then when I came out all dressed a little later, this is what I saw:

I laughed so freaking hard!  They were both so intense.  It was awesome!

 Sydney is those stinkin' boots!  I asked her later why she was wearing them, and she said, "Well, I needed some shoes and these were the only ones I could find.  I think she's channeling her inner Wonder Woman!  If that weren't enough, she was also using canned soup as her weights, since Ryan was using my hand weights.  It was such a sight!

Ryan was trying not to laugh--he must have had an idea how ridiculous they looked!  I was pretty glad that they wanted to try the workout, too.  Of course, they went with Level 1.  Level 2 almost brings tears to my eyes...someday I hope to be able to get to Level 3...


Someday.