Monday, July 26, 2010

moving and losing it (I always was good at multi-tasking)

This week, I am finally making the move from point A to point B (literally).

Between the emotional nose-dive packing up this home has me in and the post-dads weekend behavior boot camp the boys are going through (flinging full glasses of milk at each other in anger while hollering 'dad told us we needed to be good for mom' being the least of it so far) I may or may not make it to the end of the week with my sanity, much less have this house packed up and relocated. That may have been my most impressive run-on sentence ever, but I am too tired to re-write it. Sorry. Also I'm out of Diet Coke tonight, so the situation is getting serious.

Just in case I wind up in the loony bin over this, I wanted you all to know I made a solid effort. See you on the other side.


Maybe.

Thursday, July 22, 2010

summer catch-up #5

After three respective summers of being invited and never having our schedules work out right, etc. we finally made it out on the lake with the Bradshaws! We all had so much fun that I am now adding a boat to my future dream life. Seven kids, three adults and the boys have talked about it so much that I have shamelessly asked them to invite us again sometime soon.



Speeding across the lake. I love how happy Bubba looks in this picture. I don't think I have ever been able to capture that face on film before.


Jared found a quiet spot on the lake and jumped right off the side. All the kids followed immediately. Bubba also jumped right in with no prompting and only the slightest hesitation. For a kid who won't even leave my side at the water park, this felt huge and he got big cheers from all of us!


Sis took over the wheel for awhile


No swimming picture is complete without Junior staging a picture pretending like he is drowning or being eaten by a lake monster (I can't remember which this was).


Atta boy, Gabe!


Junior taking his turn in the belly flopping contest (ouch).


Gabe and Gracey


Britny took Sis for a swim



Coaxing the babies in (not that it took much...)





Warming up!


Brit drove the boat while Jared took each of the kids for a turn on the wakeboard.


Jared and William (4)


Jared and Gracey (almost 2)


Jared and Josh (7 yrs. A little later, Josh practiced standing on his own on the wakeboard. Junior thinks it will be his turn to do it alone next time. We'll see...)


Jared and Junior (who hasn't stopped talking about how cool 'surfing' was.) Bubba's bravery didn't extend to wake boarding this time. He says he will do it when he is 10.

Major props to Jared, who wore out his left arm taking all the kids for rides. We had so much fun! Next time, I may try to dig deep and find my waterskiing self from the high school days and see if I've still got it. At the very least, it doesn't take much skill to ride on the tube :-) For anyone who thinks I included an excessive amount of pictures with this post, I would like you to know that my camera died right after getting the pictures of Junior wake boarding, or it would be much worse. Just sayin'

Thanks Bradshaws!! As always, you rock.

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

summer catch-up #4

Britny and Jared live on a nice, quiet cul-de-sac and we spent an evening grilling, eating snow cones and terrorizing my 2/3 of my children with fireworks.






Bubba is on the run after a smoke bomb landed right under his feet. After this, he would not uncover his ears or let his feet touch the ground. Hope he grows out of this by the time he is a teenager. Could be embarrassing.


This made us a little nervous, but fortunately Gabe was a little nervous about holding a flaming piece of wire as well.


Britny rescued Bubba...


while Danielle and Jeff rescued Sis.


love this Gracey pic


My turn to protect Bubba


364 days out of the year we tell children not to run with sharp objects or play with fire. Once a year, we put hot, flaming pieces of wire into their hands and tell them to run and wave them around.


Bubba was a little too nervous to hold a real sparkler, but he was a good pretender so he could join the boys.

HAPPY 7th OF JULY (the boys were with Dad for the 4th :-)

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

summer catch-up #3

SUMMER BIRTHDAY PARTIES

There are so many summer birthdays on my side of the family these days that we have started holding one big family party every summer while the California crowd is in town. This summer's party was held at my place and the kids requested a Hawaiian party. We got a killer deal on a bounce house that came at 9:00 a.m. and stayed until 9 p.m. Given how many kids are generally underfoot, it was worth. every. penny!!! Grandpa perfected his smoking skills and we had BBQ pulled pork, ribs, beans, potato salad, cupcakes, caramel pecan cheesecake and everyone dived (figuratively) into the snow cone machine we rented at least a few times. Mak and I had flashbacks of working the Lions Club booth at the Rodeos and Derbys in Heber. Everyone left full of food and most of the kids left crying, which means it was a successful party!


Cousins!


My yard is not that big but fortunately the bounce house still fit (barely).


Jen working the snow cone machine.


Cubby


Lauren and Abby


Sis discovered my diet coke and wasn't sure what she thought about it at first


but she kept going back in! That's my girl...


Lulu


Couldn't get Norah to smile, but check out her cool new hair!


Bubba


I'm going to miss my shady yard, if not the insane amount of yard work it requires (not that I have really have had time to do more than mow the lawn this summer.)

summer catch-up #2

Bubba Turns 4!!

Bubba chose Classic skating as his birthday venue again this year and wanted Iron Man as the theme. He is so much less complicated than his brother, who has been asking for a 'plunger birthday with a plunger cake' for 2 months now. I am really hoping he is onto something else by February (because, gross!!)














Because Bubba's actual birthday fell on one of J's visitation days, we had the party a day early, but got to have cousins Lauren and Abby over for a sleep over. They decorated the house for Bubba to wake up to and I made everyone blue pancakes with white chocolate chips for breakfast. No one ate them. I guess colored food is only a novelty on St. Patrick's Day.


When the boys got back from their day with J, Lauren had decorated cupcakes and made a treasure hunt for Bubba to find his presents. I don't think any 4 year old has ever spent two full days partying so hard before.

summer catch-up #1

I happened to glance at the calendar today to note the date (welcome to the world baby Eli and Baby-girl-whose-name-I-haven't-heard-yet Thornal!)Despite being a reasonably organized adult, it hit me that July is almost over which means that a) I am moving in ten days and have yet to really do much about packing my house (denial, I think...) and b) I have a folder full of summer activity pictures that I have yet to post. In the interest of keeping this blog chronological (and you far away friends and family) I am going to do a catch-up series. Enjoy (or don't, it's up to you!)

Toy Story 3 at the Drive-In


Glow sticks kept everyone busy until the show started




Sis misplaced her glow stick (can you find it?)


Britny and Jared


Chilly night!

The Drive-In was something that J and I used to attempt with the kids when there was a movie we wanted to see and couldn't afford a babysitter. The idea was that the kids would watch a movie on the DVD player and fall asleep in the backseat. We were always more optimistic than we had cause to be because it never did work out that way. Now that the boys are getting to an age where they can appreciate movies, I can see the Drive-In being more reasonable, although Sis might take some time. I spent the last 1/4 of the movie in the back seat entertaining her, only to have her zonk off right about the time the credits rolled. Maybe someone can fill me in on the ending?