More specific

I asked Tennyson to take a Light Brite peg out of his mouth. Which he did.........and then promptly stuck it up his nose.

W had to use tweezers to retrieve it.

I guess I need to be more specific in my directions next time.

"Tennyson, please take that out of your mouth and do not stick it in any other openings."

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Slightly off

I feel slightly off today. Not enough to completely lay me out, but enough that food sounds like a ridiculous idea and I asked the older two kids to make dinner.

The corn dogs and dinosaur chicken nuggets seemed like they were a big hit.

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The After

Do you remember the Before and Middle post?

Well here is the After

Look! No more gaps!

Mr. Handy man himself

Kev did a great job. The Karaia and Beckham were thrilled he specifically asked for their help. Kevin was a bit frustrated when he realized that the risers that hold the step board are totally bowed and therefore it was impossible to get every step level.

I told him not to worry about what it looked like. We won't have it for long...we plan on replacing and expanding the deck probably next year. But the steps where too dangers to wait for one more year. I was just worried about the safety. Not any more! Those babies are nice and solid.

You now no longer have to sign a waive to use our deck stairs! Hooray! Good job, Kev!

Sometimes

Sometimes I just don't feel like documenting a day because reliving it will bring me nothing but sleepless nights and indigestion.

Therefore, I will just pretend as if they day never happened.

OOOOOOooooo maybe I should just make up a day and insert it into this one's memory.

OK, today, everything went exactly as it should and I felt nothing but peaceful, calm feelings. It was glorious.

Forward

Things are moving forward in the fabric design area.

I've decided not to post too much about it online. Not until something is official anyway.

However, I will say I am excited for the next few weeks!

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Before and Middle

 This is what our deck stairs looked like earlier today.

 Notice the gaps? It was a model of an accident waiting to happen.

 One more of the BEFORE:

And here is how it ended the day. We'll call it the MIDDLE (It's not the after....just yet)

It was SO hot today, but the whole family worked together. It was pretty much awesome. We had to stop before it was done because there was a family BBQ at my dad's.

More to come

The friend party

Tennyson had his friend birthday party today.


He had a hard time nailing down just exactly what type of party he wanted. First it was hot wheels, then star wars, then back to hot wheels, until he finally settled with dinosaurs.

Perfect because the zoo has a Zoorassic experience going on right now. They have these amazingly cool, robotic, dinosaurs scattered all over the zoo.

We invited a few of his friends and took a deep breath. Thankfully, my mom was able to help me wrangle 6 four year olds in a very crowed, busy venue. Also, she was able to get everyone in for free with her zoo pass!!! Thank you, mom!

 

I brought a rope with us and tied 6 knots in it. Each child was assigned a knot. We learned quickly that some of the boys of the group felt that this was an excellent opportunity to practice their tug of war skills. After we rearranged the line up and promised a train ride at the end for awesome behavior we were all good to go.

The kids loved the dinosaurs. Almost more than the animals. Funny kids. There is a debate between the girls and the boys as to whether or not the dinosaurs were actually real.

All the boys TOTALLY think the dinosaurs are robots.

And all the girls TOTALLY think that most of the dinos are real with the possibility of maybe one robot among them.

It was fascinating to see the gender line on this issue.

The promised train ride. Starting in the back on the left: Capriel, Taylor, Tennyson, Jacob, Forrest, Hannah

After the zoo we came home and had dinosaur chicken nuggets and cupcakes with little plastic dinosaurs on the top.

In Tennyson's words, "My party....was...AWESOME!!!!!"


Thank you to everyone for making him feel so special.

Summer

Chrissy came over with her kids. Lyndi dropped off her kids. And, of course, my kids live here. So with all these kids and weather that is much, much to hot, we decided that it was a perfect day for a run through the sprinklers.

We turned it into a real party by having lunch outside with otter pops for dessert.

The kids didn't mind the heat one little bit.

Me?

I am not a fan.

But the company was good.

Wiggles

Sanders is wiggly. He's always so excited to go somewhere and be a part of the gang, but once there, his enthusiasm for sitting still and/or paying attention runs dry.

This makes Tuesday--movie day and Wednesday--library day, extra tiring for me.

Hopefully, he'll learn by the end of the summer........ just in time for the schedule to change.

Brilliant.

Motivation

I can't find any motivation. It's all gone.

Some day i'll be awesome, but not today

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Chocolate

 It's a family obsession.

Greatness

Through out all of the ups and downs within a marriage, I have never once thought Kev was less than a wonderful dad.

He excels in this area.

The kids adore his company. There is just something about a Dad that is so much more fun than a Mom.

My kids are better people because of who their father is.

Which in turn makes me one very lucky girl.

Happy Father's Day, Kev.

Talk

I have been asked to give a talk in sacrament meeting in church tomorrow on the Sabbath.

As I was rehearsing my talk for Kev, he said it sounded like I was reading my blog.

So.....I guess that means I've already blogged for the night.

Who knows how the talk is going to go though.

Tennyson turns 4!

Tennyson's fourth birthday was a bit unusual. I don't know how he was in the morning, or even most of the day. I wasn't with him.

He was still up in Bear Lake and I was down in Salt Lake attending my dad's citizenship ceremony.

I did take a picture of his last night of three-year-oldum

My sweet sister-in-laws offered to get up early with my kiddos so that we could leave the night before.

I'm told he seemed to have a happy day.

He got to have a peanut butter sandwich for lunch, per his request, and make pipe cleaner animals with Grandpa Jim.

All Tennyson wanted to do for his birthday was to celebrate it in Bear Lake and to celebrate it with Grandpa Jim. They have the same birthday you know. This is the first year that Tennyson has really understood just how cool that is. He would tell EVERYONE that he and his grandpa share the same birthday.

When we returned to Bear Lake around 4 pm they took Tennyson in the back so we could decorate and then hide and surprise him.

It didn't really work, but it was a fun idea.

The cake was awful... awful looking anyway. He asked for a light saber cake (Yes, I am aware he had a light saber cake last year. I pointed out this fact to him. He said, "But I didn't have  a Luke Skywalker light saber!" So this year it was blue instead of red) We had rushed making the cake before we returned to Bear Lake. By the time we got there, the frosting had melted and the blue berries had migrated. So, so sad. Ah well. Can't win them all.

A before picture of the cake. Not that it was a beauty before it's long car trip.

And after. What a sad, sorry looking cake.

Tennyson told me the cake looked great. That's all that matters.

Tennyson was so grateful and excited about every. last. present.

He told grandma Candace, "I wanted this for my LIFE!!!" when she gave him some play dough toys.

Funny kid.

We gave him a little table top sandbox. He is in love. He's been eying this toy for over a year now.

He got some fun water toys, a tic tac toe toy, and some rocket shooters. All perfect.

Tennyson is my child of extremes. He can be extremely helpful, smart, thoughtful, sweet, caring, responsible, and funny. He can also be extremely disobedient, stubborn, button pushy--as in I'm-going-to-do-this-because-I-know-it-will-annoy-you-and-for-no-other-reason-than-that, and one minded.

When he gets going he is my most organized child and really relishes in putting things where they belong. Hooray! Maybe I can learn a few things from him.

My favorite thing about Tennyson is how great of a big brother he is. He is always looking for ways to help Sanders and include Sanders and to be kind to Sanders. It makes him so happy to have Sanders happy. He will go without if it makes Sanders happy....and he's in that kind of a mood. It warms my heart.

I can't get enough of those blue eyes and his genuine compliments. He is constantly telling me how much he loves me and that he thinks I did something well.

He still gets up early. Very early. Anything past 6:30 am is sleeping in for him.

He loves coloring, riding his bike, playing with cars, jumping on the tramp, reading, and playing computer games and the wii.

He's always good for a snuggle if ever you feel like you need an extra bit of love.

I sure love that kid.

Should have known better

I should have known better than promise a particular post the day I returned home from a trip.

While Bear Lake is wonderful place to spend time it is hours and hours of work to get cleaned up and ready to leave. All the while trying to entertain the kids so they don't reverse all the hard work while they are playing.

I don't want to rush through Tennyson's birthday post just so I can get to bed. So it will have to wait.

Goodnight.

Long awaited

Tennyson turned 4 today! But I want to save his special birthday post until tomorrow when i'm using my computer and not my phone to post. For now it will do to say that all the family made him feel very loved. Thank you!

My dad became a citizen of the United States today. I was happy to be there for the ceremony. There were 195 candidates representing 40 countries.

Congratulations, Papa!

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Quick trip

Kev and I came back home tonight (the kids are still at the lake..thank you family! ) because something special happens tomorrow.

You see, tomorrow, after living here for more than 30 years my dad, a Canadian, will become a citizen of the United States of America.

That's just not a thing a girl can miss.

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Too much fun

Having you much fun to blog.

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Bike ride

We went on a family bike today. To the lake and then a little but toward town.

By the lake we stopped to play at a park and the kids jumped over waves.

Another great day.

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Perfection

Today.was.perfect.

Perfect weather.

Perfect activity level.

Prefect company.

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Week away

We Are at the lake for 6 days! PLUS my father-in-law is coming home after basically being gone for 6 months!

It's going to be a great week.

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Taller enough

What a wonderful day!

*warning--there is an over abundance of the word "awesome" in the post.*

I took the kids to a great park in Kaysville/Fruit Heights called Castle Park. It. was. awesome.

This picture doesn't even come close to giving the true feeling of the playground.

It was even better because Chrissy, Sarah and their kids were able to meet up with us. Then we got rained out and headed back to my house and hung out for a few more hours.

LOVE those girls. Seriously. We can go from very serious, tender subjects, to joking and laughing without ever losing any of the quality in the conversation. They just plain make me happy.

PLUS, someone always says something awesome. Either awesomely funny or awesome in a make you think kind of a way. Today, there was a bit of mocking directed at Chrissy because she asked her 8 year old son if he would like her to reach something for him. We questioned her whether or not she was any taller than him in (I believe she is 5 feet) order to truly make good on her offer.

Her response?

"I am taller enough"

See?!?! Just awesome.

I got all my flowers planted and most of the laundry is done.

Great day.

The letter of the day is...

....L.

We went to the library.

I did laundry.

And LAST minute shopping for up coming birthdays.

I know. It's a stretch, but your lucky I blogged that much.

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Balance

Mom came over yesterday and, Brianna came over today to help me reclaim my house.

It's a lively thing to have such talented ladies in my life. Thank you! !

But, I am finding that I can either organize a closet or my thoughts. Trying to do both sounds like extra work to me.

So......goodnight.

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The garden

 The boys planted the garden this year. I didn't want to....that's not true...I like planting the garden, but I was in crunch mode with the portfolios. Karaia was at a party.

It's a modest garden, but at least it's planted. The boys loved every minute of it.

On a side note, the portfolios have now been mailed! It's just a matter of waiting now. It could still all crumble, but I know just where I could start if it does. Still, if you happen to have any spare prayers or well wishes I'm not going to turn them down.

Continuing the tradition

I LOVE this tradition.

I just do.

When the kids come home from school on the last day, they run through, and break, a banner that says "Welcome to Summer!". This serves as a physical showing of switching gears from school to summer.

This year, Beckham got to break his first banner!!!

He punched right through it as was SO excited.

Karaia loves this tradition too, but usually hides her excitement because she feels a little embarrassed. Forget that two seconds before she broke through the banner she was jumping up and down because I reminded her that it was waiting for in the front yard.

Beckham actually had two tries because the first time through didn't tear the banner...well...at all actually.

 Yes, I did just reuse the same banner by duct taping the tear from Beckham.

 She's CLEAR back by the sidewalk

Ah, summer. I love summer!