Summer recap

I realize I have become a less than stellar blogger.  Life just never slows down and I just can't seem to fit "regular blog entries" onto my priority list these days.

I do have quite a bit of catching up though, so here is a taste of what we did over the summer.  :)

We pulled Jemma out of school on the last day of school because we wanted to go to Ti-bee Island in South Carolina on a friday...hoping it would be less crowded.  Well, it was PerFecT.  We had a wonderful time and even got our first (seriously needed) exposure to vitamin D for the summer.  :)

 Allow me to back up a little though...before we pulled her out, they had an end of the year field day with all kinds of fun races and relays.  Prior to the actual field day, they had all of the 1st graders race to see who would compete in a 50 yard dash.  Out of all the girls in Jemma's class, she came in 2nd and the girl who beat her has unbelievably long legs, so there you go.  ;) 

Here's Jemma competing in a balancing relay.  She didn't drop that little stuffed chicken once!  I was quite impressed.

 Carter also graduated from Pre-K.  We really liked his preschool and were sad to see it end...especially because kindergarten is ALL day here.  (LAME, LAME, LAME).  He loved his teachers, especially his MUSIC teacher, Miss Tammy.  She was hysterical and all the kids just LOVED her.

 In the interest of conserving space on this post, here's Carter with just the boys...Michael, Collin, Howey and Owen.  I heard about these guys pretty much daily...for being such a shy dude, I was grateful he managed to make a few friends.  :)

For Father's Day, I had the kids all take a picture in Brandon's Air Force boots.  They were just too cute not to post.  :)

 We also snuck into his office and I took a picture of them at Brandon's desk, then we framed the photos and put a poem about dads in a photo collage frame for him to hang in his office.  :)

 The kids also participated in a two week swimming lesson session at the beginning of the season.  Jemma and Carter made huge progress and are now swimming across the pool confidently and going off the diving board and slides without any flotation devices!  Woo-hoo!  This was especially important for Jemma who later accompanied Brandon and me to Hawaii!

Gavin, on the flip side, only attended his class 3 out of the 8 times and when he did go, he sat on the edge of the pool crying and refusing to get in.  The very last day, I told him that he didn't have to go over with his class, but that if he did, he was not allowed to cry and he needed to try to get in and do what his teacher asked.  Well, he finally got in and one of the guy lifeguards actually spent a fair amount of time with him jumping into the deep end (with a life jacket).  Sheesh!  This kid.    

Our 4th of July was a little sad.  It was pouring rain most of the day and into the evening, so all the parades and firework shows were canceled.  We decided that that was not going to ruin our celebration, so in the morning, the kids did their own parade (We watched our friends' youngest child, Greyson, while they were on a cruise...so, the little blonde on the end is not ours :), but he could have been one of ours by the end of the week.  Our kids LOVED having him stay with us and he was a super easy goin' dude.)  We also had several friends and their families over for a bbq in the late afternoon and the rain even stopped long enough for us to set off fireworks in the front yard!  Yee-ha! 

We planted a garden and ended up with more produce than I could put to use!  It was exciting to go out and find things growing and ready to harvest.  This picture is of ONE harvest on a Saturday morning.  :)

We started off the summer with A LOT of fighting.  The kids were constantly at each other's throats!  But by the end, they were best buddies, always coming up with very entertaining forms of imaginative play.  Here's one shot of them I got on another Saturday morning.  LOVE the dress-ups.

 We also made it out to California for a few weeks at the end of the summer.  We got to see just about everyone we could possibly have wanted to, even our good friends, the Hamiltons.  Alan and Alee Hamilton were both influences for good in Brandon and my life as teenagers and have continued to be people we care about and look forward to seeing whenever we make it back home.  We had an opportunity to spend a morning with them and they had this hilarious little buggy still decorated for the 4th of July parade in their area, so they sent Brandon and the kids off for a ride.  Too funny.  :)

We stayed with Brandon's mom and dad most of the time (minus our 8 days in Hawaii - that trip requires it's own post). Their property is awesome and the kids played outside A LOT.  Trey, our kids only cousin on that side of the family, was staying with them during that time too, so our kids had an opportunity to do a little bonding with him.  Here are a few shots I took one of our last night there.

 And no trip out there would be complete without quad and tractor rides out in the pistachio orchard.  TOO FUN!

 But all good things must come to an end, and so, after 3 weeks of AWESOMENESS we reluctantly came back home.  :(  Home to humidity, bugs, freaky spiders, daily rain and thunder storms, school, structure and routine.  Alright, it's not all bad...I'm just feeling extra lazy here in the last trimester of this pregnancy and I sure enjoyed living a more flexible, relaxing lifestyle for 3 weeks.  I'll get over it.

  The boys, however, are LOVING the rain.  They get to go out and play in it every time it starts pouring, to which I have no problem as long as there is NO THUNDER and LIGHTNING.

Hey, your only a kid once. 

Like I said, you're only a kid once...and those are some TALENTED kids.  I can't even do that!

And here are Jemma and Carter on the first day of school...BOOOOOO!  I have cried almost every other day when I drop them off.  I still can't bring myself to put them on the bus.  Maybe next week...or when I'm finally in dire need with a newborn.

When did they get so big?  Sigh...

The Boys' Birthdays

 So it's only been three months since we celebrated the boys' birthdays, (Carter, May 14th and Gavin, May 20th) but it would be criminal not to blog about them.  Just as a preface, yes, there are like four times as many pictures of Carter's birthday than Gavin's, but that is only because is was a "friend party" year for Carter...his FIRST party, to be a little more specific, and he requested a Pirate Party.  It was SO RIDICULOUSLY FUN planning this thing, but boy was I tired when it was over.

Here are a few of the details.  :)

Above: Gavin and Greyson enjoying some of the snacks.

Below:  The battle; most of Carter and Michael's teammates defected to the other side, so I was forced to join in the fun.  :)

 Below:  Walking the plank.

The pinyata - full of Salt Water taffy all the way from California because I couldn't find it ANYWHERE in our area...THANKS MOM for sending all of that!  We sure enjoyed it.  :)

Below:  Opening presents with friends.  Ok, so this is one of the prime reasons I LOATH friend parties.  I have been to A LOT of birthdays where the kids act like rotten brats and don't say "thank you" or just chucks the gifts aside that were less than stellar in their opinion.  Rude, rude, rude.  We're all glad you were born, but that doesn't give you the right to be a jerk.  No way.  So, I made it very clear to Carter than he be gracious and grateful to each of his friends for each of their gifts.  He did pretty well, and it's a good thing too, cuz I would have been mortified. 

After all the friends left, the kids put on pirate tatoos...I totally thought I had purchased stickers...darn it.  I'll have to check better next time I guess. :)

And that evening, we celebrated as a family.

 Carter is NOT a fan of cake, so we just had ice cream cones.  I was certainly not complaining.  I got out of making a cake for cryin' out loud!  

Happy 5th birthday Carter!  You are getting so big!!!  We LOVE you!

 6 days later, Gavin turned THREE!

This little guy has changed SO MUCH in the last year.  When he turned 2, he was barely uttering 30 words and was super low maintenance...now, he is a constant stream of words and rather lengthy, high vocab sentences, and quite frankly, is anything but low maintenance.  He is a stubborn little dude with insurmountable energy.  Man I envy that.

 He requested taquitos, NOT the homemade ones.  He specifically wanted the ones from the freezer section, with a jar of store bought salsa, chips and fruit.  It doesn't get much easier than that.  AND, to top it off, he wanted to choose a cake from the store.  AWESOME!  I totally got off the hook this year.  Hey, he was happy (and so was I).

 A few weeks prior when he and I were out birthday shopping for Carter, he spotted some toy yard tools and told me over and Over and OVER again that he wanted a blower and an edger for his birthday.  That's pretty much all he talked about from then until his birthday.  And, that lucky little dude, got what he wanted. He's completely obsessed with yard work...in fact, the lawn mower he received for his birthday last year from Nona and Papa is still one of his favorite toys. 

Blowin' out his candles.

We sure love you Gavin!  Hope you had a fabulous 3rd birthday!!!

Semi Annual Blog Post

I've decided that blogging has just become a last priority for me these days...which is unfortunate because I am even WORSE at keeping a personal journal.  How will my posterity ever know that I did ANYTHING with my life???

Sigh.

Anyway, I have an overload of pictures for you, and I will try to keep my narratives brief.  The pictures are the best part anyway, right?

Back in February, Jemma's school held a Booster-thon...(when I was in elementary school, it was called a jog-a-thon...I kept calling it that and Jemma was quick to correct me.)  Her school made a super huge deal of it and Jemma kept coming home pestering me to get people to pledge her.  I can NOT stand fundraisers.  They drive me crazy.  I would rather make a donation and call it good rather than ask people to give my child money so she can get some crummy prize.  She ended up with just us pledging her $0.50 a lap.  I know. I'm cheap.

The boys and I went to cheer her on and she did great!  I think she ran 26 laps. 

 Toward the end she got tired and decided to walk with the Vice Principle and her friend Aubrey.  :)

March was a busy month...we even celebrated Easter! I'm always a little sad when Easter falls in the month of March instead of April.  It's like April is getting jipped out of its ONE holiday!  Oh well.

My friend Karrissa organized an Easter Egg Hunt at a park for a bunch of friends.  The kids had tons of fun and even the weather was cooperative!  :)

Here are most of the kids that attended.

 We dyed eggs the Friday before Easter.  If the kids didn't LOVE this tradition, I would bypass it cuz I can't STAND the smell of boiled eggs and dislike eating them even more!

It's a messy business, but the kids LOVE it!

We were fortunate enough to have some of our favorite friends, the Skinner Family, come visit for Easter weekend.  We had so much fun that I totally spaced taking any decent pictures, and the ones I did snap didn't even really turn out!  Sheesh!

Kristina and I went and got pedicures on Saturday, then took the kids to play at a park while the boys talked Optometry and Brandon gave Shawn a tour of the Optometry Clinic he works at.

Sunday morning the kids woke up to find the Easter Bunny had visited!  I think the Easter Bunny out-did him/herself.  There was a ridiculous number of eggs full of treats and fun toys.  Too fun!

 Here are most of the kids (I cannot believe I never got a snap of Kennedy, the Skinner's darling baby girl!) chowing down on their Easter goodies...for breakfast!  Don't worry, we had a second breakfast a little later; french toast with buttermilk syrup, bacon and juice.  Mmmmm.

After church, we managed to get a quick snap of both our families...of course separately.  Lame.   In our defense, I had my tripod out there ready to get a group shot, but our photo shoot got rained out by a sudden downpour. (ps. Carter refused to smile and Gavin, bless his heart, just doesn't know how to fake a smile.) 

We had a ham dinner with the Skinner's and the Rich's and all in all just enjoyed a beautiful Easter Sunday with people we love!

I am so thankful for this holiday and the opportunity it provides for me and my family to reflect on the merciful Atonement of our Savior and of his miraculous Resurrection.  I know He lives and that I will someday have the opportunity to be with Him again.

In April, Carter's school took a field trip to a local strawberry farm.  It was SO FUN!  They had the biggest, juiciest, most delicious Strawberries I think I have EVER had.  It was hard not to eat them all up in one day!

 The boys had a great time and I am planning to go back next year to do it again, field trip or no field trip!  :)

I also had a birthday...kind of a milestone birthday of sorts...I turned the BIG 3-0.  Yikes.  I'm feeling old.  But you know what, I'm really ok with turning 30 because now when people look at me with my three kids (and protruding pregnant belly) and say things like "Gosh, you look so young!  How can you have three, almost four children?"  I can respond with, "I'm actually, older than I look...I'm THIRTY!" :)  I had a great birthday.  The kids were on Spring Break and fed me breakfast in bed, all on their own!  Eggo-waffles with orange juice and strawberries.  SOOO CUTE!  I got a sitter for a few hours in the afternoon so I could meet Brandon for lunch and do a little shopping.  Then we went out to dinner and came home for cake and icecream, after which Brandon helped me re-pot my hydrangea bushes...I got some nice big/tall pots to put them in on either side of the front door.  :)

Thanks everyone for making my birthday special!

 And no post would be complete without showing you a project...I have completed several, but only had a picture of one on my camera, so here you go; a floating shelf.  It looks really little in this picture cuz the wall is so massive, but in real life, it actually fits the space quite well.  And, btw, I should tell you that little green chair was a birthday gift from Brandon.  Love it!

And here's a cute picture of Carter. :)

Phew!  

Well, until next time! (Probably 6 months from now.  Ha ha ha!)