Ace

Sunday we had a big family BBQ at my parents house,

almost everyone was able to come.

It really was a good day and the weather was just perfect!

After stuffing ourselves silly with some delicious food, watching football and catching up with everyone,

we divided into teams and played some volleyball.

It was the Rough Riders vs. the Ghost Riders.

I'm not for sure who ended up winning the games but I do know that everyone had a good time and shared in some good laughs.

Some of us didn't have the most graceful of moves

including a certain someone who split their pants while playing!

It didn't take long out in the hot sun for a water fight to break out.

The ice cold water from the buckets of drinks was FREEZING!

Uncle Matt isn't going to let anything slide so you better watch out.

Poor Aunt Nicole couldn't get away fast enough,

Luke better hope she forgets about this by Christmas.

Roxy didn't even know what was about to happen to her, she bolted the minute that water hit her tail.

You know what they say about paybacks......

a bare bum on an ice block!

Hope that we can do this again soon!

It's True

On Wednesday I spent an hour at the fabric store with my mother.

This is something that I wouldn't normally do.

In the past I was haunted by these stores, I absolutely loathed them.

Growing up my mom and sister would spend hours in them deciding on patterns, the different colors, blends and weights of fabrics, bindings, zippers, buttons and thread.

It was torture.

No decision was ever simple, especially with my sister. She just couldn't ever decide on one pattern so she would have my mom combine two to make whatever it was she wanted.

These are the things I remember as a child.

Fast forward how many ever years later and I have the idea that it would be great for my mom to make the boys their Halloween costumes.

Of course she said yes.

This meant that I would need to overcome my fears and help her pick out many of the above mentioned items.

I like to decide things quickly, grab and go kind of thing.

My mom doesn't exactly do that because she wants it to be just right, (which I do to) but that can take a lot of time.

In fact there were two fabrics she couldn't decide between so we had to get both just in case.

There were a few times that I felt the old feelings start to creep back up but I was able to work through them in order to get the job done.

Overall my mom and I worked really well together, I think she was proud of me.

Cody has decided to be a Marine so my mom won't be making that because we can easily piece that one together, Luke will be a knight and Ryan wants to be what he calls a four wheeler racer.

The hard work is over for me and just beginning for my mom, we can't wait to see the finished products!

good as new

School playgrounds can be rough.
This isn't how I planned on starting the weekend with a call from the school.
Luke and another boy accidentally ran into each other on the playground.
The other boy was fine but Luke had a deep open cut above his eye.
He didn't know what to do so he went to the office and asked for a band-aid.
Once they looked at him they knew it would need more than that.
Leaving the school Luke was so scared because he heard the school nurse mention the word stitches to me.
When Luke is scared he just goes into a zone, he doesn't want to talk, be touched or be comforted; just left alone.
Once at the doctors office he started to come around a little more and talk with us.
He was still nervous not knowing what all was going to happen but we said a prayer and sent out a text so others would be thinking of him too.
He handled everything so good and was so brave.
I was right by his side the whole time while they cleaned it, numbed it with shots (ouch!) and stitched him up.
I handled it well too, better than I ever thought I would.
I think I go into a zone too, knowing that I have to be strong for him.
During all of this Ryan was by my side asking a million questions worried for his brother and Cody was studying the escape route on the door just in case of an emergency he would know which way to get us out.
Five stitches later we were ready to go.
Luke asked for Dairy Queen for his treat because it's not everyday that you get stitches (he's the first of the boys).
Now that we are home I can honestly say that everything is back to normal,
Luke is already back to being....well Luke!

the pictures are just from my cell phone so not the best.

When talking to my sister she reminded me how much alike Luke and Tucker are in everything, we all know how accident prone Tucker is so I hope this isn't just the beginning for us!

Also come mid October Luke will be having surgery on his stye. Since it's not going away with the antibiotics and ointments and it's been 4 months they are going to have to go in and surgically remove it.

On a funny note:

When picking up Ryan today from preschool he was all into rhyming all the kids names, Matthew Patthew, Gavin Favin and then he told Miss Michelle he could rhyme her name

Miss Michelle Hell (that kid, I never know what will come out of his mouth).

Pretty in Pink

Ashlynn celebrated her 5th birthday yesterday

and it was a Pinkalicious party!

I surprised the boys with what was inside that little brown package yesterday.

Pink shirts for them to wear of course.

They didn't seem to be bothered by it at all,

their only comment when getting ready to walk over to Ash's house was,

I hope the neighbor boy across the street isn't outside to see us.

Even Heath was up for the pink reminding us that,

Real Men Do Wear Pink

The kids absolutely loved the party,

pink and all.

farewell

It was a sad goodbye
but I think it was time to let them go.
When Cody was two years old we got our first cozy coupe car
and since then we had collected another car and truck.
The boys loved them!
Many hours were spent playing with them.
Not only did they ride them but they used them for car washes, taxi rides, races and so much more.
Oh and the fights that they would start.
Even with three there never seemed to be enough between the boys and their friends.
It's not that they had even quit playing with them now
but Cody was getting way too big to fit inside and
between the plasma cars, bikes, big wheel, and scooter
we just had too much stuff.
I'm not good with changes.
Because even though it's just a toy, I know it means that my boys are growing up!
So a few weeks ago we loaded them up and dropped them off,
some at our preschool and another at a friends house
where we know they will get a lot of use
and be loved.

This was one of the not-so-safe games the boys would play.

little brown package

a little surprise came in the mail yesterday
in five days we will be helping a little girl
celebrate her 5th birthday
any guesses on what it could be?

Friday Night Lights

Last night we headed out to Melba to watch Tucker's football game.
It wasn't a close game, not even by a little bit
but we wore our red and supported the Melba Mustangs.

Especially #86
he is our favorite.

Heath says I'm an embarrassing Aunt because I wave and yell his name whenever he runs by
but I don't care because I just love that kid.

We really yell whenever Tuck gets passed the ball.

We sat in the end zone with Jim and Nicole because they were the EMT's for the night.
Their services were only needed one time and thankfully not on us because

the boys were wrestling and playing hard the whole time.

One day it might be them playing on a Friday night!

Bittersweet

Ryan has been waiting for this day and it couldn't come soon enough.
He would get so upset watching his big brothers head off to school each morning while he was left behind.
So finally it was his turn to head back to school.
It's all a little bittersweet.
Great knowing this is our last of six years paying for preschool but
so sad that this is our last year of preschool, no more little ones.
But today wasn't a day to be sad because this crazy kid was just way too happy.

This was his favorite new shirt.
Not only was it covered in sharks on the front and back but
it had a little pocket that Ryan thought was pretty cool.
He also wanted to wear his hat today, backwards of course and
once he put on his Mario Kart backpack he was all set.

Drop off was easy, he couldn't get in the door fast enough.
I asked for a goodbye kiss and he said "only on the cheek"
he doesn't give out kisses on the lips all that easy.
We are excited for him.
Not only does he have a cousin and really good friend in his class
but he has Miss Michelle for his teacher
and we just adore her.

We just love this kid!

Labor Day 2010

A few pictures and words to remember how we spent our long weekend.
Friday night the five kiddos were together again, this time water balloons in our backyard.
The balloons became grenades, double water balloons and babies.

The babies soon needed day cares and then protection from the bad guy trying to pop them.

What great games they invent with their imaginations, it's fun to just sit back and watch.
Saturday morning we were off to the Bruneau sand dunes with friends to spend the day.

Two years had passed since we were there last, so we were looking forward to going back.

Ruby was in heaven running wild up and down the dunes.

The kids were the same, with endless amounts of energy.

As for myself, I made one trip up.

We had races on the sleds.

I tried taking Ruby with me but she quickly bailed out.

The kids found baby scorpions and hard shelled beetles in the sand.

It doesn't take long for the sun to warm up the sand, so after some playing we headed over to the water.

Ruby played fetch the whole time and was loving swimming, it was her first time all summer.

The boys stayed busy building in the wet sand, wading in the water, exploring a little island, and making a bridge out of long grasses.

The day was fun, hopefully we can go back again next year to camp.

Sunday we headed to Melba for a BBQ with my sister and her family.

Brooke was back in town so it was good to see her again.

Ryan was super excited when he saw Tucker, running over to him yelling Tucker!

The boys did a little shooting but there was too much wind so they shot at ant hills instead.

The boys loved playing with my sisters new kittens, it was a first for them.

Cody kept telling us how fascinating they were to watch.

We also found out that Cody is allergic to cats, he gets very puffy itchy eyes.

Ryan spent most of the time looking at a Lego magazine with my sister, page by page. She wasn't allowed to talk or ask questions, he was the one doing all the talking!

Monday we headed over early to Emmett with the girls to do some peach picking.

Luke loves peaches so he has been super excited about this for awhile.

We quickly realized it takes five kids about 10 seconds to fill up the buckets with peaches.

We also realized that they pick any peach they can find, so you don't end up with the best quality.

They enjoyed exploring the orchards but not posing for pictures.

It was a fun experience for them, I would love to do it again.

That evening we were back together again for a BBQ at the girls' house.

The kids enjoyed yet another play date, while the guys watched the BSU football game and Amanda and I found plenty more things to talk about.

For some reason a song that I used to sing as a kid popped in my head and it made me laugh.

It went like this...

Great big gobs of greasy, grimy, gopher guts

Mutilated monkey's meat

Chocolate covered birdies feet

Luke warm vomit oozing out of every mouth

and me without MY spoon.

Great song huh?

I've been singing it for Ryan now and he loves it.

I thought I better write it out so I don't forget about it again, it's a keeper.

As you can see it was a busy but really good long weekend.

The Weeks Wrap

Our first week of school is almost over and we survived it.

Luke made it back to school Wednesday wearing these new totally bright shoes.
I promised him that he would learn how to tie shoes before first grade, so I showed him
over the weekend and he learned it right away, he was very proud of himself.
He has still been a little nervous each morning but comes home with nothing but good things to talk about from his day.

Cody told me that something weird happened in the lunchroom yesterday,
"the girls and boys were sitting together and not because the teacher told them to".

He also told me that when he went to eat his cottage cheese for lunch (which my boys love) all the kids thought it looked like barf, so he wasn't able to eat it because that's all that he could think of then.

Cody's teacher picked him to be a "bee catcher" one day and it was up to him to hand out a busy bee award to someone that was being helpful. Instead of just finding someone to give it to, he decided that he would need to come up with a plan.
The plan was to purposefully knock off his tool box from his desk but make it look like it was just an accident and whoever helped him pick everything up would win the award.
I guess it worked out because the girl sitting next to him helped him pick everything up and won the award.

This is the first year that Ryan is home alone without any brothers to play with. Last year even though Luke was in school some days, Ryan had preschool those same days so on their home days they would have each other. Now that Cody and Luke are both gone all day, everyday, it's been a lot harder on Ryan. Ryan relys on me now to be his buddy (which I love) but just can't do it all day long so he is never completely happy and I always feel guilty. He follows me through the house constantly yelling MOM and talking nonstop, let me just tell you this kid can talk!

Things will get better next week when Ryan gets to start preschool again, he is so excited he can hardly stand it. I'm also needing some kind of routine because I am getting nothing accomplished each day, I'm so paying for those late nights and lazy summer mornings now.

We are all looking forward to the long Labor Day weekend that will be spent with friends & family.