Making No Promises: June 2012

June 26, 2012

My parents are in town this week. They stopped by here to spend the night, then off to visit my sister Jill and brother Josh for a couple of days, then back to my house for Syd's baptism this weekend. We're thrilled to have family visiting us in little old Amarillo. The kids are excited to see grandparents and Jill's family. Even Bailey wasn't too freaked out. And to prove how much my mom loves Bailey, here she is in the 104 degree heat, swinging with her in hopes of earning her affection. I think it worked.

June 25, 2012

This spot in my kitchen has become the official "put this stuff away" place. When I tell my kids to put the stuff on the counter away, they know that whatever random things they've left out downstairs have all been collected to this corner of the countertop.

June 24, 2012

Want to know one of the things I love about Sundays? No matter how crazy my Saturday was or my Monday is going to be, it's required of me to just chill out on Sunday. So today I had time to catch up on my blog...

I spent a lot of quality time here...

And the painting stuff stayed here all day...

June 23, 2012

It's actually happening! We tore down our old fireplace months ago, thinking we were soon going to have someone come and redo it. But apparently no one in Amarillo wants money because we couldn't get anyone to come do this. Finally, through a connection in our ward, we've got a guy here to build the frame and mantel and hopefully someone to do the rock within the next couple of weeks. I can't believe how different it looks with just the wood frame. I'm so excited. Watching this guy work, Jeff and I kept commenting on how there's no way we could have done this ourselves. But this guy just came in, took some measurements, bought the supplies, built up his scaffolding and finished it in one day. I had to very stealthily take this picture. It might have been a little creepy if I had asked him to say cheese.

June 22, 2012

9:00 A.M.

(And Shelbi was still asleep.)

June 21, 2012

Today was the final t-ball game of the season. I'm not sure that the boys' hitting or fielding improved much, but at least they learned how and when to run to the next base and that they shouldn't fight over the ball with their own teammates when they're in the outfield. I learned that some parents need to relax and remember that THIS IS ONLY T-BALL! I couldn't believe the way some of them behaved and the things they would yell to their children.

Ryan informed me that he never says "Good game" at the end to the other team as they're slapping hands. Maybe next year we'll work on sportsmanship.

June 20, 2012

In Michigan we had a dinky little portable grill that we occassionally used in the summertime. We had a Relief Society activity once where some master grillers in our ward showed us different techniques and foods you could grill. One of those things was pizza. After that activity I grilled pizza on our little grill, with much success, a few times.
Well, we now have a different grill. Not the ultimate grill that Jeff has been dreaming of and meaning to buy for a couple of years now. That one is on back-order. But I just bought another simple grill, about one step up from the portable one we had in Michigan. I thought it would be a great idea to have grilled pizza for dinner tonight...

Mmm, doesn't it look delicious? Needless to say we had Papa John's for dinner tonight. Maybe I'll try again when we have a better grill.

June 19, 2012

Yay for swimming lessons! I have all four of the older kids signed up for the same time. Syd and Erik are in the same class and Shelbi and Ryan are each in a separate class. These lessons are way better than what we had in Michigan. The girls took lessons there and had about 12 other kids in their class. They got very little individual instruction and swimming practice. It felt like a huge waste of money. But here they cap their class size to five kids with two instructors. I've already noticed that the instruction is better and they're actually challenging the kids to go outside of their comfort zones. And I get to sit in the shade for an hour in (relative) peace. (Bailey's still with me...)

June 18, 2012

WILL SOMEBODY PLEASE TELL ME WHY THIS BABY WAS YELLING AT ME ALL DAY?!?!

June 17, 2012

Jeff giving Bailey her first bath

I had every intention of taking a lovely picture of Jeff and the kids together for Father's Day. It was a nice day. Jeff had to work, but was home for dinner. We had a good time in the evening together, with cards and gifts from the kids and hot fudge sundaes. But no picture. You'll just have to believe me.

June 16, 2012

I don't know how hoarders do it. Today we were switching the girls' bedrooms to make room for Bailey to share with Sydney. I had all kinds of piles all over while we were in the process. I was going crazy stepping over and around things. I can't imagine living like this, only many times worse. Thank heaven I inherited the "throw it away" gene from my mom.

June 15, 2012

Again a day without an actual photo. This is from last year, at the discovery museum in Denver. I didn't pose the kids this way, it was their own doing.

June 14, 2012

I caught Bailey brushing her teeth with her finger the other night and decided it must be time to get her her own toothbrush. She was delighted.

June 13, 2012

Rub-a-dub-dub, three kids in the tub.

June 12, 2012

We flew back home today.

And this is what your plant will look like after a week of no water or sunshine. Oh well.

June 11, 2012

We spent a good part of today shopping in Walnut Creek. We were joined by Mary, Ellen, Kim (Jeff's cousin), and Trella (Jeff's aunt). I had never had a chance to spend much time with Kim and Trella before, and I was so glad I got a chance to this weekend. They are lovely, fun women. It's a good thing Jeff likes shopping, or he would have felt terribly out-numbered today.

This shopping area was so nicely done. It's like an outdoor mall, taking up a few blocks. I didn't take many pictures of the actual shopping, but got a few shots of the boys playing in the fountain as Jeff checked out sunglasses.

After working up an appetite shopping, we had lunch at The Cheesecake Factory. Here were are, extremely full after huge "lunch portions," and cheesecake for dessert (of course).

June 10, 2012

One of the girls' favorite things to do this vacation was play Master Mind with Grandma Foster. They got pretty good at it; I'm sure either one of them could give me a run for my money at it.

June 9, 2012

If you think that I've already shared way to many pictures of our trip, then I'll warn you to stop looking now. Today contains a ridiculous amount of photos. But considering I took nearly 300 today, the percentage of pictures actually posted is relatively low.

Jeff's mom, Mary, knew of some really cool tide pools so we began our day there. Jeff's sister Ellen and her husband Rich also joined us for the day.

A starfish, very cool.

There was a cold wind blowing along the coast, so we were a little chilly. There was a spot against the rocks that was shielded from the wind where the kids went to warm up a bit. It's too bad about the wind, because I bet they would have seen some really cool stuff if they could have braved the weather a little better. As it was, Mary still found some neat things to show the kids.

I think Sydney might hate this picture in about 5 years.

Ellen and Erik

The boys were convinced this was a pirate ship far off in the distance.

Our plan was to spend the rest of the day at the beach after the tide pools. We were a little hesitant, not knowing what the weather would be like. But luckily for us, Stinson beach was shielded from the winds. It was absolutely lovely! We had a picnic lunch first and then traded our long pants and jackets for swimming suits and beach hats.

Our day was filled with playing in the ocean...