Bath Time

I walked in on Ella bathing the other day. She was just relaxing in the tub and singing to herself. This is the view that I got.

All their bags are packed there ready to go

My house is a little quite right now as I am updating my blog with tons of new posts because my kids are gone without me for almost a whole week. The plan for now is that Nate and I will go to Utah on the 4th spend the night and then go to Colorado to see my brother until the 9th. But for now the kids are in Utah without me and I must admit that although it was a lot faster getting ready for church and I sat through a whole sacrament meeting without telling anyone to be quite I am sure going to miss my hugs and kisses good night. But I will enjoy this week. WOOHOO!!!My very brave sister took them home with her in the car. Imagine 1 adult, 4 kids and 2 dogs crammed into a Buick. They got it to work and all of the people had seat belts on. I asked Ella last night if she was going to leave. She told me she had to go because she hasn't seen Grandma and Grandpa for so long. I don't blame her if I had that opportunity when I was younger no way would I of passed that up.

Saturday Night BBQ

Yesterday I had some friends over for a BBQ. It was delicious. The kids loved having so many people around to hang out with.We banished all of the kids to the blanket's to eat. We told them they couldn't bother us until all of their food was gone. Yeah right like that would work. Tyler, Ella, Kerrissa, Carson (in the blue) and Tanner (in the orange).Heather, Jeremy and Jamie hanging out by the food. I waited to take picture's until everyone was done eating wasn't that so thoughtful.I don't know what it is with the chickens but all of the kids seemed to like them. Ella, Kerrissa and Tanner all playing on what we call the stage.Nichole and KaitlinCarson jumping on the trampoline. He is quite a daredevil on that trampoline.Every time Ella would pick up a chicken it would get stuck on her dress and end up pulling her dress up with it. And if she had to adjust the chicken at all the dress would just go up higher and higher.The men (Tyler does he count as a man he was the only little boy there) playing lasso golf.Everyone had to try it. You toss the balls that are connected together with a rope and try to get it to lasso around the game board.The lower the rope lasso's around the more points you get.

Kendra just wandered around eating food off of every one's plate. I had a great time Saturday night and wish I could do it every Saturday.

Mister Sandman bring me a dream....

I snuck around the house and took picture's of everyone while they were asleep. Well, some were more asleep then others. Joy who would not even fake sleep for me.
Natalie and Nichole who got woken up when I snuck into their room and then got made at me when I took their picture

Ella rolled over when I snapped Tyler's picture and never rolled back.

She also insists on sleeping without a shirt because her brother can do it and plus she says she sometimes gets too hot. And who can argue with that. It only really gets to be a problem when she won't put it back on in the mornings.

Tyler was the only one that cooperated. And he slept right through it.

Joy's Visit

My favorite sister came to visit me this past week. I had a blast with her. I always have a great time when she comes. She arrived Friday the 19th about a hour after I woke up. She left her house at 4:30 in the morning. Joy and I went out to eat lunch that day. At one of my favorite restaurants in town.

Saturday all of my plans that I had kinda went bust. Saturday morning I invited all of the Young Women to my house to make cinnamon rolls for their dads for Father's Day. Not a single Young Women showed up. The leader's did but the girls did not. So the we ended up making cinnamon rolls for their dad's. Then I was supposed to have a BBQ at my house but it was supposed to rain so I called and rescheduled my BBQ for the following Saturday. That made it so Joy and I could head to Boise. It was so nice in Boise. We went to lunch. And then went to the mall, REI, old navy and finally target. I hit all of the placed I loved to go to and don't get to go to very often. It was super fun.

On Sunday it was Father's Day and although it is late I just want to say to my favorite man out there Happy Father's Day babe!

Monday I ran around town with my sister. We also went to a Tee ball game and Soft ball practice.

On Tuesday I co hosted a baby shower so I ran around part of the day buying stuff for that. Joy and I also watched Confessions of a shopaholic and Inkheart.

Wednesday Joy and I go up early (well I got up early and Joy got up at her normal time) and went to volunteer ant the cannery. It was a lot of fun. Joy and I did dry pack that day and canned wheat, apples, oats, sugar, rice, flour and hot chocolate. When we were done I ended up buying more then I canned. They might of had to restock the shelf when I left. I bought about 600 pounds of food. You should of seen my van low riding it after I got all of the food packed into it. After the cannery we went to eat at Cheesecake Factory. Yummy Yummy!! Later that night Joy went with me to Young Women. We talked about our divine qualities as women and how they change and develop as we get older. It was fun.

Thursday and Friday was just a relaxing day. We just hung around the house which was nice because I am not used to all of the run, run, running that I have been doing.

I am so glad that my sister came to see me I had so much fun with her.

My sister's dog's and my dogs playing with a stick they found in the backyard. It was longer then them and so funny to see them all chewing on it at the same time.This is how Ella carries around poor Otis. He is getting big and makes it harder for her to carry him around. And BTW he is yawning in this picture not yelping.Ella and Roxy spent the majority of the time on Joy's lap.I rented Bedtime Stories for us all to watch while Joy was here.Joy and the kids.

Lew and her favorite Aunt.

silly Ella

The other day Tyler and Ella were playing outside. I hear Ty by the front door yelling Ella no. He opened the front door. "Mom she's peeing." For a moment I thought that Otis was peeing by the front door. I said Otis? Otis is peeing? "No mom Ella is peeing in the front yard by the door." I knew I had heard wrong so I said "Ella?" And sure enough she pulled down her pants and peed in the front yard. Why you ask? Because she couldn't make it the 15 steps to the bathroom and then she said it was because Tyler did it once. Hmmm Naughty kids. Needless to say we had a long talk about going to the bathroom outside. I am very grateful that it was #1 and not #2. I know it is gross that I posted the picture of the pee spot but when something like this happens it is just my natural reaction to grab my camera for proof and now you can see the evidence too.

You shave your cat?

The answer is Yes. I know it is weird but every summer Nate and I shave the cat. She just doesn't shed as much when we shave her. She actually likes having her back shaved. And she will sit very still and purr while she is getting it done.

Congrats Baby!!!!

I was woken up this morning with some wonderful news. Nate made Tech!!!!!!! Which means that he will be getting promoted next year. Every year in the air force all eligible staff sergeants test to see if they are going to get promoted. About 20% of them do (that changes every year too) and this year was Nate's lucky year. He will be sewing it on next year sometime because they only let a certain number of people a month sew it on and his number won't come up until next year sometime. Congratulations babe. I am so proud of you!!

This Week

As always my week was all over the place. I did get to go to the gym 3 times this week which is so much more then I have been able to do in a while. And I did get to a chance to clean the house. YAY!!!!

Thursday and Friday Tyler went to scout camp. He had a ton of fun. He got to do archery and shoot a bb gun. He also made a rocket and alien slime (which was a huge mess) He got to do an obstacle course. He was really nervous about being gone for 6 hours. But he really enjoyed himself and can't wait to do it again next year.

Yesterday Nate and I spent 5 hours cleaning out the garage. I finally got a chance to inventory my food storage. And get the whole thing organized again. Hopefully it will stay clean and organized longer then it usually does.

Play Ball

Ella had her first Tee Ball game on Monday and what a hoot it was to watch. All of the kids get to hit twice and they can only run to one base at a time. Ella is a really good hitter. And she ran on the line around the bases just like she was told to do. It was like tackle tee ball out there when the other team would hit the ball, all of the kids would run up to get it. Ella would get so close but never quite make it there. And the one time that she did another one of the boys grabbed the ball out of her hand. I was afraid for a minute that she was going to hit him. One time the first baseman ran off the base to get the ball and was very upset to find that someone was on his base when he got back. He them started yelling at the other little boy "Hey I was here first." They he went to the coach and told on him. When he didn't get help from the coach he went back to yelling at the little boy that he there first and that he had to leave. Eventually the little boy learned that he had to share the base. I don't think he liked it very much but he stopped yelling.

Ella is really enjoying tee ball and asks everyday if she gets to go and play.

Natalie my Tomboy

I think of all of my girls Natalie enjoys sports the most. She is also the one that picks them up quickest. She loves going out and getting dirty and I think could hold her own with against any boy in sports. Right now she is trying her hand at Softball. She is really enjoying it. She had her first game on Wednesday night. She did really well. This is what the sky looked like during the game. You could see the storm clouds moving in. It only rained on us for a few minutes. But we toughed it out.Natalie's coach is also one of my really good friends. She's awesome the wonderful JoHanna (or Jomama if you are Ella) If the pitcher throws 4 balls the coach gets to step in and pitch.Natalie is an okay batter. The girls have not had as much practice batting.Natalie is the team catcher. She is really good at stopping the ball.

I am really not sure why she is wearing those pants! I thought that when I pulled into the game. Hey too late to stop her now.

The cousins are here. The cousins are here (sorry loaded with a ton of picture's)

Caleb and Ryan came to spend the week with the family last week. It was great fun. I always try to have fun things for the boys to do but this time they were here it rained most of the days so there goes all of my outside fun. The boys arrived Sunday night. My kids were so excited to have the boys around. Monday we went to the sand dunes.There were a ton of bugs at the dunes. It started out that there were a few moths that quickly turned to a few dozen with then turned into a million moths flying around. I tried to get a picture of the kids with them but they seemed to want to hide. As we worked out way up the dunes we got attacked by mosquito's. But they were not the only wild life that we found up there. The kids found a lizard, a frog, and a rabbit.I went to the dunes for mutual a few weeks ago and that is what gave me the idea to take the kids. On the top of this dune there is a crater. I did not get to go and see it the last time I went so I was determined to see it this time. Until...... Tyler wouldn't go up the dunes very far. I think that he has a fear of heights. Plus he was freaking out about the going down part. But everyone else went up to the top including Ella who I thought wasn't going to make it.There was a great view. This is taken where Tyler and I were hanging out at.From part of the way down the dunes. It's too bad you can't really see how steep it really is.There was a beautiful rainbow on the way home. It didn't really translate to film. After the dunes we came home and had s'mores. We were originally going to make them up at the dunes but we were getting eatin alive by mosquito's.Check out the moon in the back of this picture. Caleb is making the marshmallow just how I like them made. On FIRE!!!On Tuesday the kids played out in the water. It was a great day for that too. Not to hot or to cold. That night we went to see "Night at the museum" Which was a funny show. I found the boys like this a lot throughout the week.Wednesday we played card games inside. We played a game of Uno that lasted 45 minutes. Then I finally had to change the rules to make it so that we could win faster.We also had a bubble gum blowing contest. Some of us did better then others. I was surprised to see that the 2 younger boys couldn't blow bubbles at all.

Thursday was the 2nd day of crummy weather. I asked to kids to pick up the bedrooms. Tyler and Ryan were done within a hour. Nichole, Natalie, and Caleb cleaned the room for 5 hours. They didn't even start to clean it for 4 of the hours. But hey that's okay. I got a little break for a few hours. And Ella well it's Early Monday morning and she still hasn't finished her room. On Friday Nate took the boys on the father/sons camp out. It started pouring rain Friday night but they all slept outside anyway. The boys all had fun. Caleb and Ryan left Sunday morning. I had a great time with the boys. Until next year.