August 27, 2012

 Shelbi, 5th grade

 Sydney, 3rd grade

 Erik, kindergarten.  He has a slight obsession with Star Wars, but what 5 year old boy doesn't?

  Erik at his table, amid crying children and parents trying to comfort (bribe) them. 

 

  I feel kind of sad for poor Ryan.  He's lost his daytime buddy.  I suppose he and Bailey could play together. He was playing a video game today, and did something especially cool and automatically called for Erik to come see.  He then remembered that Erik wasn't around and went back to playing.  Bailey just wouldn't appreciate his video game awesomeness like Erik would.

August 26, 2012

  I volunteered to be the treasurer for the elementary school PTA.  After meeting with the out-going treasurer, I came home with these three boxes of information and files.  What have I gotten myself into?

August 25, 2012

 

At the Discovery Center for the stake activity.

 

 

August 24, 2012

  I wasn't sure what I was going to take a picture of today until I saw this on a movie I was watching:

 

  It was almost like a joke when she pulled this cellphone out of her purse.  I guess I forgot how huge cellphones used to be.  When Shelbi saw this she asked, "How big were people's pockets back then?!"

August 23, 2012

  Tonight was Meet the Teacher night for the elementary kids and for Shelbi, who's going into middle school, they called it "Stuff Your Locker" night.  My understanding was that the kids would bring their school supplies to put in their lockers and get a chance to meet their teachers.  But it turned out to be another example of Texas craziness and over-the-topness (not an official word).  Sure others brought their school supplies, but they also brought "wallpaper," mini chandeliers, rugs (yes, rugs!), shelves, mirrors, magnets, etc. to decorate the inside of the locker.  Take a look inside of Shelbi's friend's locker.  She was just starting the wallpaper but she already had the curtains and chandelier up.

 And the parents were as involved as the kids.  I purchased a shelf and mirror for Shelbi to put in her locker but we didn't bring it with us because we weren't sure if they allowed that kind of thing. 

This reminded me of when I had Bailey.  All of the other hospital doors in the maternity ward were decorated with HUGE wreaths, like this (small) example:

  And when the girls here go to the high school homecoming dance, they don't just wear corsages.  They wear these monstrosities called mums.  Here's a picture I found on a website of a floral shop that makes these:

  Yes, this is for real.  All the craft stores around here are stocked with the makings for these things right now. It's my understanding that they wear these to school before the dance and to the homecoming game.  Hopefully they're not expected to lug these around all night at the dance.
  Yes, even the traditions in Texas are big.

August 22, 2012

Apperantly I'm really lazy this summer.  I can't even remember to take a single picture in a day.  Here's a random one from March, 2006.  I was visiting Utah for a funeral.  This picture was taken on Sunday, after my sister Jami's baby boy Austin was blessed.  I'm pretty sure this is the last time I was with all of my siblings at the same time.

August 21, 2012

Today we knocked out the rest of our school shopping.  Jeff was off from work so we packed the kids up and headed to Target and the mall.  I know it sounds like torture to some, but Jeff and I are shoppers and apparently we have raised 5 shoppers too.  We were gone for five hours before the boys decided they were tired of walking.  By that time we were done with the kids stuff and looking for things for Jeff and I. 

August 20, 2012

  Today the girls were asked to be in a radio commercial for their piano studio.  They read a little script about how much they love music and their teacher.  Jeff was working so I took all the kids with me.  They were very gracious to a frantic mom trying to keep five kids from peeking into the wrong rooms and making too much noise at the radio station.  Unfortunately they ended up only using what Sydney said for the commercial.   Shelbi seems to often get the short end of the stick when it comes to this type of thing.  But she seems okay about it.

August 19, 2012

  Not my favorite thing to find.  Marker on the new couch, complements of Bailey.  Luckily for Sydney (she's the one who left the markers out) it was washable and came right out with a wet rag.  I've declared that any more markers left out for Bailey to find become mine.  I'm tired of finding her and the furniture streaked with marker.

August 18, 2012

Yep, forgot to take a picture again.  These pictures are from 2008.   The first one was taken on August 8th and the second on August 12th.  Ryan was born with a good amount of dark, curly hair.  Within four days, it had fallen out and started to come back blonde.  I remember finding little dark hairs all over his blankets and my shirt.

August 17, 2012

  Syd put together a "tea party" today.  She gave us all invitations asking us to meet in the dining room at 5:30 and to bring a stuffed animal friend with us.  My friend is the tiny Charlie Brown by the red crab.  She prepared Kool-aid, a granola/goldfish snack mix, and Oreo crumbles with Oreo cream balls on the side. 

August 16, 2012

  School starts next week.  And while I'm glad to be getting back into that routine, one thing I will definitely miss is having the kids help clean the house every day.  Sure some of the time it seems they are doing more harm than good (see above picture) but the girls have gotten pretty good at vacuuming and cleaning bathrooms.  I guess there's still saturday chores.

August 15, 2012

  It's hard to tell exactly what this is a picture of, but these long stringy things the girls have are loops of elactic string that they tied together.  They decided to play Rapunzel with them off of the loft.  At one point they had Erik and Ryan try to "climb" up.  You can imagine how that went.

August 14, 2012

   I'm not sure how many times I found the baby undressed like this today.  I'd put her dress back on, and later find her just like this again.  Not sure why she decided to leave the shoes on.  Too hard to take off I guess.

August 13, 2012

  Apparently I was going through "fun withdrawals" today.  We just got back from 2 1/2 weeks of practically non-stop fun, and I couldn't let the party end.  So even though it was bedtime, we went to the local Cold Stone knock-off ice cream parlor for a midnight snack. (Well, more like 9:00 snack.)

August 12, 2012

What a lovely sight to come home to.  All my flower pots are dead.  I know it's my own fault for not arranging to have someone water them.  I think I'm just not used to the long growing season here in Amarillo yet.  In Michigan I only had to keep flowers alive for about three months.  So after three months here, I'm done.  I don't really even feel that bad.  Fewer pots to water means one less thing for me to worry about. 

August 11, 2012

  Vacation over, driving back home.  Most of the scenery from Utah to Texas is so boring.  But there's this one hour in the middle of it where we drive through various farm towns in southern Colorado.  They're not fancy farms and the towns are pretty run-down, but they're so interesting to me.  We pass by the hardware stores and the elementary schools, and I wonder what it must be like to live there.  Then we hit Shiprock, and I'm really glad we're just driving through.

August 10, 2012

  Driving around recently Erik saw a sign for Panda Express.  Erik loves pandas, so naturally thought this must be a great restaurant.  Since Jeff likes Panda Express and is excited about any new food Erik is willing to try, we took the kids there today.  This picture does no justice to the disaster it was.  It doesn't show the peanut butter sandwiches we had to bring for Ryan and Sydney because there's no way they'd eat this food.  It doesn't show the fit Ryan had when he learned he'd have to share a root beer with Erik.  It doesn't show that same root beer spilled all over the floor because they were arguing over it.  It doesn't show Erik gagging at just the sight of the noodles.  And it doesn't show the disaster Bailey made because she insisted on feeding herself the rice.  Jeff and I ate our meals as quickly as we could to get out of there and the kids basically had fortune cookies for lunch.

August 9, 2012

  We packed up and cleaned the cabin this morning and had our traditional lunch at LaBeaus on our way out of Bear Lake.  Things were back to normal at my parents' house.  After mowing the lawn, by dad let all the kids have a turn driving the tractor. 

August 8, 2012

This morning Jeff took all the older kids out on the boat.  They each took a turn tubing.  Here's Sydney, barely able to peak above the tube.

Ryan taking his boat driving very seriously.

 Bailey and I joined the others at the playground on the beach. We didn't bother with canopies or lunch, or even getting in the water.  The kids played on the swings, slides and merry-go-round while the rest of us sat under a tree on the grass with snacks.  Not a bad way to spend the day.

August 7, 2012

  The kids decorated their traditional Bear Lake t-shirts today.  This year we switched to fabric markers instead of puffy paint.  It would have gone off without a hitch if it hadn't been for Erik's meltdown.  Not sure what brought it on.  He was happily decorating his shirt one minute, and the next he was pacing at the bottom of the deck stairs because something went wrong.  Don't know what to do with that boy sometimes.

   Pre-meldown. 

   Yes, Ryan does have a strange sunburn.  I'm not going to mention any names, but somebody didn't quite get the sunscreen on all of Ryan's face.  Those sunscreen sticks can be tricky.

  Most of the cousins modeling their shirts.  The older boys were all golfing.

August 6, 2012

   Out of five days at Bear Lake, we have the tolerance to spend a total of one full day at the beach.  Today was that day.  Luckily the weather cooperated.  No running after canopies blowing away in the wind or scrambling to cars to get out of the rain (or hail, as we did last year).  The kids did spend a good amount of time playing in the water and boating with Jeff.  I, apparently, was too lazy to get pictures of anything other than what was within 20 feet of where I sat on the beach.  

  Shelbi with her favorite cousin, Monica.

 Sydney and Ellie.  I challenge you to find any other two little girls who are as sweet and easy-going as these two.

August 5, 2012

  After church today we packed the last items in the car and made the three hour journey to Bear Lake.  It is a week filled with junk food, lazing on the beach (sunburning), sand everywhere, cousins everywhere, close sleeping quarters, very little actual sleep, cold showers, swimming in the questionably sanitary pool, boating, wakeboarding, tubing, skiing, card games, board games, and "Werewolf" (another game).   I'll take the good and the bad because it's a fun week with family and a great time for the kids to spend with cousins. 
  I didn't get a photo today.  Mostly it was spent unpacking at the cabin and chilling out on a Sunday evening.  But as I was going through last year's Bear Lake pictures, this one caught my eye:

      Oh my goodness!  Just look at that bald baby!

This is a shot of us at the beach.  This could pretty much be any year, as things just don't change that much year to year at the lake.

August 4, 2012

   We spent the day getting ready to leave for Bear Lake tomorrow.  At least some of us got to relax.

August 3, 2012

   Another evening on the patio, but with the added bonus of Uncle Bust visiting and Jeff being back in town. 

    Bailey is no stranger to getting her picture taken.  When I have the camera trained on her, she says "cheese" and makes this face:

   Uncle Bust bouncing the kids on the trampoline. A favorite.

   Not sure why the baby is in the bucket...

   The boys playing "Angry Birds."  Some things don't change no matter where we are.