rest of the weekend

playing fibbers

Last night we had Chelsea come over and watching the 3 little girls, the rest of us went to the movies to see Jack Ryan, which I liked.

This morning I went to the Capital Ward for their ward conference.  I was assigned to speak.  After it was over I drove to our ward for our ward conference and linger longer.

We came home and played games and made cupcakes.

Jodie made a dessert we want to make for the Beehive Conference and invited us over to see if its good.  It was.  We had a fun visit with them and then came home, put the kids to bed, walked the dogs and then watched "the American President" while making things with felt.

needle felting

Space Camp

 This morning Bub left for space camp in Huntsville Alabama.  We have been getting him packed and ready to go for a few days.  He was a bit nervous.  His parents a bit more.  We've never sent our boy anywhere without us, or a grandparent.  Hopefully they are having a great time.

 Fortunately we will have access to photos every day so we can keep track of him.  Also he got a disposable phone and we will be able to talk to him each night.  It's going to be an amazing experience!

Grace's Birthday

Grace had her birthday party today. We had it at the barn. It was a lot of fun. We invited 5 friends and the girls groomed the horses and rode them.

Grace on Big G

Tate was a good little rider and said she wants a horse. Takes after her Mimi!

After we went home for cake and ice cream and opened gifts and played Fibbers!

Day 1

The kids have a four day weekend! Yay! That meant that Grace and I could ride together for the first time! 

After riding we had a full day. We went to wal-mart, played  just dance, read scriptures, made cake batter treats and cookies for the party tomorrow, ate Hawaiian hat stacks, watched a movie, read a lot of stories and enjoyed each other's company. Oh and Dani cut my hair.

The girls put on a talent show.

These two giggled all night and woke up at the crack of dawn last night. Tonight we got them down earlier.

Penny enjoyed some late night treats!... Since sleep is not on her agenda.

much better!

Two little girls, an aunt and a niece, reading bedtime stories together.  Now that's a sweet sight!  Of course Mimi got to read some too.  Looking so forward to this next week and some fun time together!

On the way home from the airport we stopped at Red, Hot and Blue.  The food was pretty yummy but the company was top notch!

Gracie and Tate

Grandpa and Penny

These two were happy to see each other again!  We spent quite some time in Lu's room with all the dogs and kids and chaos!  Loved it!

room for two

All tucked in

You can barely see little Lu snuggled in amongst the stuffed animals. But she is there warm and snug and ready for a good nights sleep. I spent my day getting ready to have the girls arrive. We washed the sheets and put out fresh towels, went to the store for some diapers and baby snacks and made sure the toys were ready. Then we headed off for the airport. On my way I called Val to chat. Much to my surprise Dani answered the phone. I couldn't figure out what happened; after some discussion it turned out that I had the wrong day! They are arriving today not yesterday:( 

I turned around and went home, gathered up all the children and took them to Panera bread, then we went to the church. It saved Rob a drive he would have had to go home and get them and then turn around and go back. Grace had fun at activity days they planned their calendar year. She has amazingly awesome leaders! They really go the extra mile to make it nice for the girls. Hannah's group played human foosball. She said it was kind of crazy. Ethan went to scouts. I sat on the couch and talked with the other mom's. It was a good night.

Amazingly even though I did a lot of picking up and cleaning yesterday there is still cleaning to do today. How does that work?

first world problems

I find this so frustrating and a recurring theme in our home.  We buy the children something they "need" and then they do not have it when they need it.  For example, Grace likes to fish with her dad.  They like to fish year round and in the winter it is a cold muddy mess so she "needed" outdoor fishing boots".  Rob bought her some and they very happily traipse off to fish from time to time.  Today we are going on a field trip to Elms Beach.  An outdoor environmental field trip where it will be raining and muddy and cold.  I told Grace this morning put on your fishing boots.  Then we went to find them and after much searching only came up with one and then she remembered that the other was in dad's car.  So now she has to wear her new tennis shoes, which we just got last week because she outgrew the old ones and I would have made her wear the old but I gave them away.  While we are there her feet will be wet and cold and when we get back we will wash them and then they will be drabby. I will then be frustrated because for the next three months she will look even a little more scrappy each day.  She's my  hardest one to get looking nice walking out the door because a) all clothes itch and bother her but of the offending choices the only ones she can even consider wearing must be soft and comfy (read: sweat pants in the winter and shorts in the summer) and she takes her cute hair styles out almost every day so add to that some stained shoes and she's going to look like an orphan.  How does one exit a car with only one shoe on?? and why oh why, even though we provide a special location for the children to store their shoes (specially designed shoe racks in each of their own personal and not shared closets) and remind the children to put them there, is it so hard to put them away…together.  Would not you have thought at some point while putting one shoe into the closet "hmmm, I probably will want to wear two shoes when I next need these" and perchance go and fetch the lost mate?