Snowbird Tram

5,4,3,2,1 BLASTOFF!!!!!

The 6th grade Rocket Launch was, according to Isac, OUT OF THIS WORLD AWESOME!!!
Definitely rivaled 4th grade Mountain Man Rendezvous and 5th grade Patriot Day. WOW!

Halloween

It's not Thanksgiving yet, so we can still talk about Halloween right? This year was fun because Mack can walk and Emily 'got it' so she was super excited about everything involved. We trick-or-treated the grandparents in the A.M. and then headed up to This Is The Place Village for the afternoon. There were lots of activities for the kids and it was a fun way to spend the day. Next came the neighborhood party (thanks Deans) which is a required tradition. After filling up on hot dogs and chili we headed out and got down to the business of begging people for candy. We made it around the block and were satisfied so we came home to take our turn of handing out our own candy. Here we have a Maril Pokemon, a Ute Football player who was suppose to be a CareBear but decided he didn't want to wear a costume after-all so this is what Mother put on him, and FunShine Bear.
Isac ditched us to go with his friends so that he could maximize his Trick-or-Treat time. For some reason he thought his siblings would slow him down (I am not sure what gave him that idea). This group of boys had a plan...don't they look ready with their pillowcases? He definitely accomplished his goal and came home with quite the haul.Oh and two things I don't want to forget so I will write them here:
A full grown adult, who was all alone (as in no children) actually rang the door bell, said Trick-or-Treat, and when I urged her to take more than just one little Butter-finger, she actually did. WEIRD!!!

Among the many adventures Isac had while he was out, he told me about a house with the bowl of candy on the porch with a sign that said "Don't be a piggy...only take 1 please." So, according to him, he took one, and continued on, while the rest of his friends proceeded to load up their bags. While doing so some teenagers ambushed them with water balloons, but since Isac only took one, he escaped unharmed. I thought it was a rather sneaky trick, but I am glad he was honest and stayed dry.

So that was our Halloween!!! We were on a sugar high for day and Emily is already asking how long until we do it again.

Out of the mouth of Emily

While attempting to get across the grocery store parking lot to our vehicle with both littles walking on their own, I had to remind Emily more than once to do things like:

stay next to me,
watch out for that car backing up,
don't run ahead,
and get back over here!!!

As we were safely climbing into the car, she said in her "Gosh" Voice.

"OKAY Momm, will you stop being a crybaby, I mean a yellbaby".

Ok Emily I will.

Look at ME!!!

And the ADORABLE dress my Aunt Dawn-Dawn made for me. This is one of 2 dresses that I don't scream blood-murder about wearing. The other one is plain black and I think I look like Batman when I wear it. So thanks Dawn-Dawn for making me a dress that my mom and I both think is cute.

Primary Program 2009

This year was a success...Emily's 1st and Isac's last. Each executed their parts (which they both wrote themselves) flawlessly. Emily owned the microphone when it was her turn and Isac was slightly more enthusiastic than last year, but he intentionally mumbled the part about his dad "tickling" and "playing" with him after his classmates teased him about it. We of course thought it was cute. He sang parts of all of the songs and smiled whenever he looked at us. Emily sang with her mouth open so wide, and tried her best to stand and sit on cue and even did her own hand motions along with the music leader several times. It was a memorable program and one of my favorite Sundays of the year.


Emily- The temple makes me feel special because Jesus made it.
Isac- My father goes to work to support the family. When I am disobedient he disciplines me because he loves me. My father tickles and plays with me. Sometimes we do projects together and he teaches me how to do many things.

And this one..

...survived another Scout overnighter! He said it was crazy fun and I guess it probably was to him...I mean really imagine that you are him, up in the mountains, with four other 11 year old boys and leaders who don't mind letting them act like 11 year old boys, surviving on a diet of mainly marshmallows and hot dogs, with no one around to tell him to brush his teeth, or hair or wash his hands, sleeping/staying up all night singing silly songs and telling goofy stories in a tent/tarp rigged up on the branch of a tree because no one thought about bringing a real tent. His idea of a great time.

*I just want to remember that one of his leaders told me afterwards what a funny kid Isac is (as if I didn't already know) and asserted that he was the best thing about the whole trip. I was relieved that they felt that way instead of being annoyed with his phrase of the day which happened to be, "You guys remind me of a song...." followed by a strange song about penguins.

It didn't feel right at the time...

...but he cried to wear it because it had Hot Air Balloons on it. So I told myself it wasn't hurting anything and put it on him. Doesn't he look pleased. The next morning I think Ryan broke the world record for getting the kids (Mack at least) dressed. He commented that when he first noticed, he didn't think it bothered him, but quickly changed his mind and took it off. Maybe I should put Mack to bed in nightgowns more often so that he is always dressed when I come home from work.

And I thought summer was kicking my butt...

...now we have HOMEWORK on top of everything else.

School has been in session for over 2 weeks and I am just now coming up for enough air to post these 1st day pictures. Better late than never right, or maybe I should be embarrassed to consider myself a blogger, either way here they are. Around here, when something's gotta give it is usually computer time, and housework, but we won't get into that since you can't see the piles of laundry on every bed in this house.

We seem to be settling into a new routine with our new work and school schedules. Ryan is getting use to his program. We do see him every once in awhile...although most of the time he is studying or trying to help with random household duties.

Isac is excited to be a 6th grader and King of the Campus this year. He said something funny the first week of school about it. He observed, "Last year the 6th graders just seemed so big and grown up. But when I look at Isaac, and Ben (and his other classmates), they just don't look that cool."
I reassured him that they seem big to all the younger kids and that by the end of the year they will be even bigger. Crazy Kid.
So far in 6th grade, we are having fun navigating new social issues, mastering good personal hygiene (a.k.a brushing our teeth & combing our hair EVERY morning), and learning more responsibility in preparation for Jr. High.
He has our wonderful next door neighbor Mrs. Dean again this year so we are hoping, with her mad skills we'll make it through the year intact.

Emily also had her first day of preschool this week. Because our budget is so tight, and because I realize that once you send them to kindergarten, things are never the same, we are doing a home-preschool with her cousin Sam and one other friend. We will be rotating weeks, similar to Joy School, so that is another item added to my "To Do List".

WowWee...education is so much FUN!!!

I am mostly just bummed that Isac isn't around to buckle/unbuckle the kids' carseats whenever we go anywhere in the daytime now...it really slows me down!

HICCUP

I love it when Mackey gets the hiccups.
He is always confused but thinks it is so funny!

This is how you give yourself a Heart-Attack...

Spray a fine mist of thisover every piece of living room furniture that you own,
without realizing it when you intended to pickup this instead.Thank goodness the heavens happened to be shining down on me at that moment because for some unknown reason it did not bleach a SINGLE spot on the fabric.

And I sprayed a lot.
Seriously nothing short of a miracle in my book.

And I even manage to survive all of this after barely getting over*The Dry-Erase Marker Incident of '09, in which Darling Mackey, age 2, thought it would be fun to draw on EVERY cushion and pillow (for a total of 16) of the furniture mentioned above with a lovely, blue Dry-Erase marker. I was so horrified he was lucky that he looks like this
I was so applaud at the sight that I did not take the time to document his handy work with the camera, but don't worry the image is still burned into my mind. And all I can say is thank goodness for Magic Erasers. With their help most of it came out.
*This is not to be confused with The Dry-Erase Maker Incident of "07 in which Darling Emily, also age 2 at the time, decided that drawing on the couch with a lovely blue Dry-Erase Marker would be a great way to show off her budding artistic abilities and send some attention her way on the day after her new baby brother came home from the hospital.

Who keeps leaving out the Dry-Erase Markers anyways?

This is how you give your mother a Heart-Attack

Today we are headed out to my nieces birthday party. It made me think about her birthday last year, which I never got around to blogging about at the time, but the events of that day definitely deserve a post.So this is Rachel.
She is the middle child.
She is the sweet, creative child.
She is the emotional child.
She has 3 sisters.
I can understand Rachel and the lot she has in life.
This is Rachel's dad.
He is cheap. Very cheap.
He has 4 daughters.
This is Rachel's older sister Coral.
She is the firstborn.
Last year for her birthday she got to have a party at
Hollywood Connection.
She got to invite whoever she wanted.

Rachel didn't make the cut.
And for some reason their parents went along with it.

Rachel was sad.
Rachel was emotional.
Rachel's dad, in an attempt to console his middle daughter told her that when it was her birthday, he would take her to
Wal-Mart and she could choose anything she wanted.

Did I mention above that Rachel is smart?
No?

Rachel had 3 months to make her plan.
And when August 2nd rolled around,
Rachel chose this....

And the only thing her dad could do was buy it for her.
And I laughed.

And now just for kicks...can you believe how young my babies looked just 1 year ago?

GROSS!!!!

If you were outside weeding the garden and your 4 yr. old, tomboy of a daughter beckoned for your attention, and you turned around to see this:

Would you-
a) gag a little on the contents of your stomach which are now in your throat.
b) laugh to yourself at how your 11 yr. old son looks like he is going to faint before he quickly snaps out of it and launches into a tirade about how disgusted he is and how he would NEVER allow that.
c) go grab your camera and capture the slimy moment before plucking the little nasties off, tossing them over the fence into your bad neighbor's yard, and giving the Snail Queen an antibacterial scrub down while listening to her lament about the loss of her 5 precious friends.
d) All of the above


I chose D.

Another Note to Self

If your 2 year old brings you a jar of pickles and a popsicle while you are on the computer, don't open the popsicle, give him a pickle and continue checking your email, read several new blog post in Google Reader, or pay a few bills for the next half an hour to 45 min. Instead, it might be a good idea to go upstairs and check the doors to the fridge & freezer because there is a good chance that they are probably standing wide open.

Note to Self

The next time you get the urge to make lemon bars simply because they sound scrumptious, resist.
Especially if:

a)Ryan is working a double shift,
b)Isac is away at scout camp and
c)Mack & Emily are too young to really appreciate them

Because if you do you will probably end up eating at least half of them, maybe even 3/4 of them, all by yourself.

And then you will regret it.

And you probably won't want to eat lemon bars for a really, really long time.

I don't want Isac to grow up...

Isac has been at Scout Camp this week and I have to admit it has been kind of nice to only hear Emily whine approximately 5 times a day instead of the usual 20. It is definitely getting to that time of the summer when the thought of the kids going back to school doesn't seem like such a bad idea. Really Isac is more of a help than a hinderance, but those oldest two really know how to push each others buttons. So anyways, tonight is the BIG Overnighter, which means Isac won't be coming home...is he really old enough for this. Sleeping in the mountains without your mother, etc. It just seems so weird to send my child out in the world alone to sleep. Don't get me wrong I am sure he is having a dandy time but letting your kids grow up is hard work! I am afraid that tonight while I am trying to sleep, knowing that he is not in his bed, where he should be, will do something strange to my mothering mind. However, thinking of the leaders who are up there with all of those crazy 11 yr. old boys makes me laugh...maybe I should feel sorry for them.

Mackey's Birthday Recap

Whenever you turn 2 and your mom is really sick, and no one wants to come to your birthday party because they are afraid that she might have the Swine Flu, just ask your dad to take you to Chuck E. Cheese, because he will probably say yes. Then he will probably buy way more tokens than your mom ever would and you will have tons of fun.

Then tell your mom that since we have such a nice, big cake and not many people to eat it, you would like to stick your fingers in it and eat the icing. She will probably let you since it is your birthday after all. Then invite your sister & brother to join you.

Then look so adorable opening your presents that your parents decide to give you an extra remote control train set that they weren't planning on giving you because your dad built you a super cool sand box,

but they love to see how happy you are when you open fun things they want to keep watching you.
Then go to bed knowing that you are the luckiest 2 year old around.