The First Day of School, 2011

Let's remember what a painful experience it is to take pictures of my twins.  It seems to be getting worse with age...

David will smile for the camera in the safety of his own home.  The smile will only be for the camera and he will resume to his "I hate taking pictures face!!!!"

Ethan has perfected his camera smile so much that it now looks completely fake and I have to resort to posting pictures he doesn't know were taken so he has a "real" smile on.  

Jacob has a great smile, until you ask him to smile and then he pulls all sorts of weird faces, really weird ones, faces he NEVER makes.  So he remained unhappy the WHOLE entire time I tried to get a picture.

Luckily Tyler isn't showing you all the veins and lovely things in his neck, which he sometimes does when you ask him to smile.  He got to go meet his teacher the first day and I got to keep him home for the rest of the day.

Ethan gladly posed at school with his friends.

The twins would not even look at me!  This is pretty much what I saw after we got to school.

Tyler had his first day today.  He has wanted this shirt "with lots of colors" for weeks now.  He saw it at the store and has talked about it ever since.  I kept waiting for it to go on sale and it never did.  Last night we were at the store again and he saw it.  Oh, he wanted it so bad and it still wasn't on sale, but I caved and bought it for him.  Considering his other school clothes were each less than $5, I guess I made up for it by buying this one at $19.50

Off he goes for his first day of school.  Today was the only time I have ever been emotional sending kids to school.  That's it for me, they are all gone.  That precious school is home to my children and has them more each day than I do.  This morning I prayed for that school.  I don't know why I haven't done that before, I should have, but I will be doing so now, every single day.  

4th of July 2011

Everyone should have a Richfield for the 4th.  Of course, I have only ever celebrated the 4th in Richfield, but it really is so much fun.  Highlights this year were the primary parade-my kids got to participate by walking down main street with their grandma, the side by side-my dad bought one right before the primary parade.  We were checking it out as we left and I wondered how they hauled it home because there were no trailers in sight, but I forgot we were in Richfield, they just drove it home.  And then later that night my mom needed ice.  My car was gone and her car was blocked, so my brother's girlfriend and I drove it to the gas station to get ice, it was awesome.  Navajo tacos, shoe shopping, and seeing high school friends are always highlights of the 4th as well.

 Another highlight was having friends join us for fireworks on Sunday night.  He is not from Richfield and he just kept shaking his head in disbelief that the cops had not come after us for our fireworks.  

I feel bad I didn't have my camera for more of our good times which included many bbqs, four wheeler rides, lots of Kirk's family, and a quick trip to Fishlake.  

More of Ethan's Birthday...

The afternoon of Ethan's birthday, we went boating with family.  Having two boats and switching back and forth, left me without my camera a couple of times.  The lake was beautiful that day and the boys all had a great time knee boarding.  David got up on the wakeboard and mastered a 360 on the knee board.  Ethan said it was his best birthday ever!

 David doing his 360

 Tyler knee boarding with cousin Emma

 Since we went boating on our way to Richfield, I asked grandma to buy a cake for Ethan.  He wanted a carrot cake and boy did he get one!  She made one herself and decorated it with the same decorations she used to use on our cakes growing up.  When you pull out the candles, there is a carrot underneath.

After our fun filled 4th, Ethan had a little friend party back at home.  

The Red Haired Cousins

Last year my parents watched my kids while Kirk and I were gone somewhere.  While they were with my parents, they hauled cows down south with my dad.  They had down time in Rockville and my cousins were there, who they found, played with, and fell in love with.  Tyler has talked about playing with them ever since.  He calls them the "red haired" cousins in an effort to distinguish them from the rest of the cousins.  My Aunt Shillene lives in Arizona and they only come up to Rockville in the summer and we never go down in the summer so the kids don't really see each other that much.  I remember when I was little and used to stay with my grandma in the summer, I remember when Shillene's first daughter was a baby and I was in Rockville for awhile and got to play with her.  I always enjoyed and admired my aunt growing up and haven't been able to spend a lot of time with her as an adult.  Well, this summer they came all the way up north to stay with another aunt.  We all hoped we would get to see them and we did!  The kids had so much fun together and so did I.  I wish we all lived a little closer.  They invited us to go to Lagoon with them, the kids had so much fun and I was so glad for brave cousins who took my kids on rides I don't think they would have normally gone on.  And of course we had to play some games...

They came to our house a couple of days later for dinner.  The kids had a blast playing in the yard and I had so much fun visiting with my aunts.  I really should have gotten a picture of the adults.  Hopefully there will be a next time.

Happy Birthday Ethan!!!

 Ethan is 9 years old today!  We are so lucky to have him in our family.  He is a sweet, smart, and kind boy!  He is having a little birthday party this year so I went to Target to get some invitations.  Things have been crazy around here and I thought that would be easy.  I picked out the ones that I thought he would like and I was so excited to show him.  But he was disappointed, he said, "I just like the kind that you make better."  So I returned those ones to Target and made some for him.  I was happy to do it and I'm glad little things like that make him happy.  I love that little man!

Kirk has been in New York, so we were glad to have him home again!  Especially when he brings me surprises:)  He is the best!

We have had a lot of fun the past couple of weeks and I am way behind on blogging.  Hopefully after the holiday I can get this blog going again...

Kirk Travels=I Don't Cook...

I don't know why it is that when Kirk is gone, I rarely cook.  It is not like Kirk puts any pressure on me to have a meal prepared at home when he is here, but when he is gone, we just get by on whatever.

Last night we sorted through all the "free meal" coupons my kids have been bringing home from school.  Chuck-a-rama won, the place where you "get your own food" as my kids remember it.  I was perfectly fine with that because I do love a salad bar and it was over 90 degrees and salad sounded perfect.  Plus, have you had their scones?  Yum!

So off we went for dinner.  We got all settled in after a trip to the bathroom and help getting food.  I left the kids at the table and went to get my salad.  When I came back, Jacob was nearly in tears.  Now don't talk about this to the boys, they would DIE if they knew I was putting it on my blog, but I want to have this recorded.  As I sat down, they told me they were telling Ethan about Where the Red Fern Grows and that it was a sad story.  Jake continued on a bit, his eyes red and tears ready to spill.  David tosses a napkin to him and tells him he is tearing up and to stop talking about it.  I look over at David and his eyes are red and full of tears as well.  They tell us again what a sad story it is.  They both read the book at school.  David tells me he excused himself to the bathroom when he read it because he was getting tears.  It was such a sweet little thing to see that they did in fact read and understand an entire book on their own at school and that it had made such a powerful impact on them.  I'm so grateful for boys who really enjoy reading and are vulnerable enough to let a good story have an impact on them.  

Another Dream Fulfilled

Tyler always wants to sell things.  And by things I mean the junk in his closet.  Saturday he casually visited with the neighbor and sold her a rock and a bouncy ball for $2.  He asks constantly to have a yard sale or lemonade stand.  So we set him up a little stand hoping to catch a few kids on their way home from school.  I not sure whether he really likes to sell things or he just really likes to spend money.  Either way I have a happy boys who is a few dollars richer!