My Boy

Today seemed longer than usual. Cold and rain have that effect on me. Five straight days of rain make me almost crazy, especially since we have a nonworking dryer. Can you imagine the piles of dirty clothes for a family of eight? Wouldn't it be nice to live in the simpler days when everyone owned two outfits, one for everyday and one for good? Half of my cleaning problems would be solved! But, seriously, no complaining! We are blessed with an abundance!
Rain also makes little boys restless. At least this little boy:

He kept busy this morning with writing and paper airplanes and drawing.

Here's a cow he drew earlier this summer. He loves drawing cows. 

He kept busy this afternoon building Lego creations, sword fighting bad guys and making music.

He can play a mean 2 string guitar

Then this evening he was bored. Not good. Let me back up a bit. Earlier when there was a break in the rain C went outside for a mandatory burn-off-some-energy jump on the trampoline. An older gentleman with a white beard and stout build stopped at our house. C spied him and yelled, "Hi! Santa Claus is coming to town!" I can't be sure if the Santa-look-a-like heard, but he gave C a wave as he left. C must have liked the facial hair look.

This boy keeps family time from being boring. Another funny moment today involved him and big brother A. They were wrestling which usually leads to C getting hurt. (It's not easy having a brother 11 years your senior.) As predicted, C ended up crying. Knowing how rough A is I, in my infinite mommy wisdom, allowed C to take a free punch at him. After C got his strike in, he started laughing. He said, "Haha...that was a joke cry!" What a boy. 

Right now this clever little fellow is up sleeping in his bed sporting superman jammies......and a blue beard.

Girls' Night

It's the girls' night out, na na night out..... I've been known to randomly break in to 1980's songs. Aren't they great? My kids don't seem to appreciate them the way I do. I know the look exchanged between my older two girls. It is the same look my sister and I would give each other regarding our mom. My girls don't understand that I am a cool mom.They should feel privileged to have me. :) (I can see their eyes roll as they read this.)
They may not think I am the raddest mom but I sure think they are pretty special. I don't often get to spend one on one time with any of my kids. I'm determined to see that we do. Friday was mother/daughter night with D.

Things I love about this picture:

• Dakota looks so beautiful and grown up. (Perhaps I don't like that she looks so grown up....)
• She is wearing my high school cheerleading jacket. Maybe she thinks I'm cool, after all. Or at least my old clothes are.
• Her cowboy boot necklace shows a little window to her heart. My necklace was a gift from my sweet sister.
• My earrings were made by Emmaly just for me. She picked red because it is my favorite color. What an observant, giving girl.
• The background shows Austin's Chevy Luv .....the cutest truck ever!
• You can take a little peek at the play yard....swingset and trampoline.
• I would say that I like my flannel shirt and hat but I was informed by my ever-stylish girls that I looked like a lumberjack. They meant it in a "good way". Of course. Most lumberjacks try for the classy look.

D and I both love a good book. She averages a novel or two a week. I love reading the same story and then having our own book club discussions afterward. (B joins our club once in a while.) I have been wanting to read The Help. When I heard it was coming out in theatres I decided to wait and watch the movie before I read the book.

It was a wonderful movie and I had fun company. D was the youngest one in the theatre. (Unless you count the two kids that were probably there because of a lack of a sitter.) We're looking forward to reading the book now. After the movie we went for a hot drink.

D is for sure going to be a coffee drinker. I say "going to be" but she would love to be now. I let her indulge once in a while. Maybe I would give in more if I understood the coffee-hype. I'm a hot chocolate girl. I'm also really dumb when it comes to flavors and ordering at a coffee shop. I asked the barista what was good and she gave me an odd look. She answered with a "Well, what do you like?" I felt even more ignorant. If I knew what I liked I wouldn't have asked.  D ordered a chocolate mocha. I ordered a pumpkin-something-or-other in honor of the first day of fall. Then 30 seconds later I couldn't get the taste of chocolate out of my head so I scratched my order and asked for the same thing D had. (I am the MOST indecisive food customer! Something that drives my husband CraZy.) Still wanting to honor autumn's appearance we bought a big slice of pumpkin cake.

She looks like a Simpson in this shot; being yellow and all. I hope you had as much fun as I did, Kodi! It was refreshing to be able to spend time with you! You are a breath of fresh air!  I'm looking forward to next time! ....It's the girls' night to play...all night to play....so don't wait up for me...na na na na na na... :-)

Pigtails, Parades and Prayers

I just love that mischievous little face. And pigtails on a tot....be still my heart.

I can't get enough of sweet, little bare legs and shoeless toes. I'm guessing the days of bareskinned babies are becoming few and far between. And just maybe gone altogether. I'm almost accepting. After all, summer is about to pass her winning crown on to autumn. I'm not anti-fall, I just want to let summer have her final moments in all her glory. Let her take her last walk with dignity. And if autumn would share the stage with summer for a while longer I would welcome her orange colors and breezy days all the more!

One of the first signs of the new season to me is the Apple Festival. I love a small town gala! *I feel like I have to say this in every post.....these pictures were all taken with my phone. So, excuse the quality! Especially a couple of the blurry ones that I just couldn't leave out!*

Getting ready to watch the parade.

Do you want to know the secret to scoring big on candy during a parade? Sit at the front of the parade route. Holy cow, they got candy! I'm a mean mom that makes them combine all the goodies. No filling your pockets and your own bags, all the candy in one bag. Not because of fairness but because I want control over the candy jar. Okay, maybe a little bit because of fairness. I am a middle child, after all.

So is she. She would like to do everything her big sisters do. She doesn't think there should be different bedtimes or other rules that make her life less fun.

Cousin A driving his dream 

This was the guy who was a finalist on America's Got Talent last year. He did a good job and was such a nice guy. He invited one of Austin's friends to ride with him during a show after seeing how well he rode. It was refreshing to see a "famous" person willingly share the limelight.

Emmaly with the 2 bikers

What you can't see in this picture is E's little head wound..... Court and I rarely go out on dates. (Something I REALLY want to change!) We left the 3 little ones with Kodi. She does a great job and I can't complain about her rate. (free!) :-) About 45 minutes after we left we got a phone call from her that Emmaly's head was bleeding and Kodi was sure she needed stitches.  I called my brother who lives 2 miles away to go check on her until I could get home. When I got here here's what awaited me:

What do you think, stitches or not? I knew it needed something and was really not wanting to spend another 3 hours in the ER for the second time in one week. (Kidney stones are a pain, just ask Hubby.) I called our family doctor (whom I LOVE!) and asked what he thought of me trying to glue a smallish head wound that could probably use stitches. He gave me the okay since it wasn't deep and was done bleeding. I went to the store to buy Dermabond with no success. I called him back and he said Krazy glue would be fine. He told me how to glue it and said he would even meet me at the office (It was after 8:00 pm) if I needed his help or if the glue didn't work. Did I tell you I love this doctor? The glue worked enough. I'm sure staples would have made a smaller scar but it will be covered by hair anyway. I'm sure you are wondering how she got that lovely groove. She was the victim of her little brother's retaliation. It involved a wooden block and a curve-ball-pitch.

These two fight? It doesn't even look possible. :-) Corbin has gotten every toy in the house taken away. He gets to earn them back. Funny thing.....this afternoon I spotted him playing with two batteries. Have you ever heard a Duracell rev it's engine? Who says we need matchbox cars? Emmaly kissed him on the cheek as he took a rare nap today and whispered, "I forgive you for hurting my head." Melt a momma's heart, why dontcha?

Also heart melting is what I saw this morning in church. Our church had the honor of having it's services at the Apple Festival. 

There is just something about worshipping together outside in the crisp air under a tent. Even with my attention being divided between Pastor Tom's God-breathed words and making sure Faith wasn't spilling my hot apple cider, my heart was filled with the Spirit. 

We have some awesome spirit-filled teens in our church and I'm blessed that 3 of them live under my roof. (see, how can I not share this picture even in all it's blurriness?)

It has been a long week with getting in the routine of school, sick husband, volleyball and basketball games, meetings, shopping, town festivities along with all the work it takes to keep a household functioning. I'm tired just thinking about it. Or maybe I'm tired because it is 1:30 am. My me-time has come to an end. I should have been in bed long ago so I am ready to get up and do it all over again. May my spent time be glorifying to you, Lord.

Work Work Play

I had the fun opportunity to go to work with Court last week. He was touching up on ceramic tile he had previously installed. He does awesome work. He impresses me with his perfectionism. (Sure glad he isn't a perfectionist on my housekeeping!)

My job was to wash the grout off the tile. Tedious work.

I got to witness that my husband actually does wash floors. :-)

And wouldn't you think that since he installs tile for a living that we would have tile floors, showers and back splashes? As the saying goes... the cobbler's children go unshod. That's okay, it's in the plan for one of these days.

I've been asking him to teach me how to drive our zero turn mower all summer. He and Austin have been working so much that I told them if I knew how to mow with it I could take over that chore.

What a laugh!! Have you ever drove one of those things? I was laughing so hard that I couldn't drive straight. Ok, that's a lie. I couldn't drive straight even if I was perfectly still. It doesn't have a granny gear. It has two speeds: fast and faster. I did finish the back yard. It may not have had professional diagonal lines like usual but the grass was shorter. It was fun but we came to the conclusion that they get to keep mowing. Also...no little kids will be allowed outside while that mower is being used! I never realized how speedy and dangerous it was until I was the one behind the wheel....er, handle-lever-thingamajiggers.

Austin drove the bigger red tractor to clean up the garden. It was a sad, sad garden this year. I'm ashamed of how we let the weeds rule. The produce didn't stand a chance with me as the head gardener. I failed. I really should have been fired early on...like in June.

We took advantage of the last hot day of the season (and we know that meteorologists are never wrong) and decided to give the van a good washing.

Some even washed their bikes.

And this family does not believe in all work and no play! We have been looking for a swing set all summer. We couldn't find what we (by we I mean I) had in mind. So we changed the route and decided on a TRAMPOLINE.

We had a smaller one a couple of years ago. It fell victim to a wayward trash fire. The old one didn't have a net. I love the enclosure!

It's like the perfect outdoor playpen for this little girl.

She loves the "sump-a-sump". (I don't know if she is saying jumpy jump or trampoline but whatever she is saying it's pretty cute!)

She always finds the escape route. It has been fun for all of us. Even us old ones.

We had to set some bouncing rules after someone got a goose egg on her forehead after day number one. Then we had to revise the rules and add some more after someone sprained an ankle. Hmmm...maybe we (again, I) should have thought this purchase through a little more. But there are no guarantees for safety anywhere.

Especially with this little daredevil. He's the reason I use Preference by Loreal.

He's also the reason we laugh everyday.

Come on over! Take off your shoes and let yourself feel like a kid again on the jumpy-jump!

School Days, School Daze

This morning the big yellow bus little red mini van dropped off a load of precious cargo to a brick-and-mortar school. A, B and D  knew the drill. Two of the three were very excited. I'll let you decide who wasn't as thrilled. (This picture may give you a hint.) This year we added E and C to the attendance roster. One of them was also super excited. And the other one had no interest in going anywhere. What is it with the boys in this house?? It wasn't as bad as I feared it might be. As I told you in the last post, C is a mommy's boy and wants to be with me all of the time. He got to spend the first hour with A in the library so it was a lot easier to say good bye to Mom.

Look at this little guy. He can barely reach his locker handle to open it. Maybe he's right, he should be home with his mommy.

Look at those cheeks; super kissable. I kissed him goodbye outside. I didn't want him to have the chance to say he couldn't kiss me in front of his new classmates. My heart wasn't ready for that. There were no tears from any of us. I knew they were in good hands; safe and secure.

E has been counting down the days. She is the keeper of time in the family. "How many hours until....?, How long will we.....?, What time will it be when...?" She had a great day and said that she loved her class and she loved her teacher and she loved her lunch. :-) She is an easy one to keep happy. Baby F was not a happy camper that she couldn't stay with the big kids. She cried the entire way home.

We had our own special day planned. Well kinda. We were going to meet Daddy for lunch. We also ended up dining with Grandpa and Grandma.

I love these two! Little F has them wrapped around her finger. They don't object to baby backwash and slobbery french fries. We also ran a few errands while we were out.

A, B and D all enjoyed catching up with their friends. (I really did take pictures of them too. Phone camera plus bad lighting equals blurry and grainy pictures.) C on the other hand.... I asked him how he liked school. He said, "It was dumb. I'm not coming back." (I'm just sure his dad was like this at 5!) I asked why he thought it was dumb. He said, "We sang a song about a cow waking up in the morning and saying it's a good day. Cows don't talk. It was dumb." This kid cracks me up. He was mad that his school supplies had to stay in his desk and he couldn't bring them home. I explained that everything needed to be there for next week. He said, " You need to go get them because I'm not coming back next week." Yep, his father. The only explanation. Friday school took every last bit of energy from him.

When he awoke two hours later he saw things differently. School wasn't so bad after all. It may have helped that our favorite summer meal was served for supper. (Prepared by D!)

Seafood taco salad! The events of the day always seem to be a little brighter when feasting on yummy food and being surrounded with unconditional love!