It's Great to be 8!

My Jakob turned 8 earlier this month. He's gotten so big!

It was kind of like a rerun of Troy's birthday: we went to the park, and we ate yellow cake with chocolate frosting that night.  However, when we went to the park, I decided to get my kids up early and go.  PERFECT plan!  No one was there, and it was nice and cool.  This time we got to go on the super big playing area.

We've had a poster hanging up in Jakob's room.  We made it when he was in first grade, when they did a spotlight on him.  I wanted to compare some of his favorites from then to what his favorites are now.  So his favorites from first grade will be listed in green, and his favorites now listed in red.

JAKOB'S FAVORITES:
Favorite holiday:              all of them!                              Halloween
Favorite song:                  DuHast, Billie Jean                 Until Forever
Favorite food:                  ranch chicken taco and pizza   pizza
Favorite color:                 red                                            white
Favorite movie:               Up                                            Transformers
Favorite toy:                    Bakugan                                   Wii and Bakugan
Favorite TV show:          Mythbusters                              Mythbusters
Favorite animal:              cheetah                                      cheetah
Favorite Superhero:        Gooie Man                                Deathacus
Favorite book:                 Junie B. Jones, Horrible Harry Harry Potter series
Favorite person:              my sister Ivy                             Ivy
Favorite school subject:  science                                      gym
Favorite cartoon:            Avatar, The Last Airbender      MAD

A couple of side notes: the superheroes are ones that he has made up.  Clever little guy.  And I have no idea what MAD is, seeing as how we don't have TV.  Also, it's nice to know that he's growing up, but that some things stay the same (favorite animals, food, toys, TV show, person).  Also, both times (in 1st grade and now), I secretly wished that Jakob would say that I'm his favorite person.  But I'll settle for it being one of his siblings.

We went to Arby's for dinner-his choice.  It was yummy.

Then my parents came over, but they couldn't come until a little bit later.  So we had the kids take baths and get ready for bed before they came.  Hence the jammies.

Jakob got new scriptures, a scouting outfit, a Wii game...

...and clothes.  Notice his excitement about the clothes below:

He was also not very excited about starting scouts at first, either.  I told him that he could try it for a couple of months, and if he didn't like it he didn't have to do it.  But then my mom took him to buy his shirt and badges and all that on his birthday, and then he got way excited.

Some Jake-isms for ya:
Jake: (coughs) Me: Jake, cover your mouth. Jake: Oh, sorry. It's just my asthma. (He totally does NOT have asthma.)

Beej to Jake: Do you have a girlfriend? Jake: Yeah, it's Ila. Beej: Is she pretty? Jake: Yeah, she's pretty....pretty HOT! (Yeah, Ila's not his girlfriend.  Just a friend.)

I love my Jakob.  He's turning into a little man, where he has actual conversations with us.  He's so concerned that he's doing everything right.  He loves anything science, and is a super good reader.  He's a great older brother.  He's really amazing at the different Wii games that we have. Jakob is super creative and really funny.

I love my boy.

Alive and Five!

My Troy Boy turned 5 at the beginning of August.  Look how cute he is!

By the time we reach the summer birthdays, we (ahem, I) are in total relax mode.  That means we just...hang out.  Troy's birthday this year was no different.  Although I did do a friend party for Jake when he turned 5...hm.

Troy decided he wanted to go to the park for his birthday.  We drove to a really popular park, and it was super crowded.  We saw two busloads of kids arriving there as well, so we opted for a quieter area of the park.

Then we commenced to bake in the sun.  It was so HOT!

We (ahem, the kids) were playing all good, and then, like, 10 kids suddenly showed up.  So my kids decided to go to a different toy area.  They played, and drew in the sand with sticks.  And then the same 10 kids showed up there!  It was like our own paparazzi squad or something.

Then two of my kids magically had to use the bathroom.  We found those, then I promised Popsicles at home.  The kids were in the car in two seconds flat.  We went home and ate Popsicles galore.

That night we went to Chili's.  Troy originally picked McDonald's, but blech.  So we convinced him to eat somewhere else instead.

Here's Ivy and Pete doing Spiderman poses:

My parents came over, and we had cake (yellow cake with chocolate frosting-one of my favorites, though I have lots of favorites) and ice cream.

Troy got a Joker cave (to go with his Batcave), some dinosaurs, a robot dinosaur, a couple of movies, and some Batman toys.  What a lucky little punk!

My Troy is so dang sweet.  He cannot WAIT to go to kindergarten next week.  He thinks he is just so old and so big.  He'll still cuddle with me, even though he's kind of pulling out of that phase, which makes me sad.  Troy loves his grandmas.  He's always talking about what he'll be doing when he gets older.  He's been trying to ride his two-wheeler bike sans training wheels, and petals twice, then freaks out, steers all crazy, and falls over. 

Troy: I love flying on a plane! Me: Um, have you ever flown on a plane? Troy: Yeah, I did in my dream.

Troy: When I grow up, I want a house that's a green rocket ship, and 26 kids.

Troy: (while eating, but not wanting to eat what I made for him) My sandwich doesn't want to be picked up.

He loves his Batman stuff, but also loves his stuffed animals.  He has a little turtle his grandma made for him.  It has a purple shell and light green limbs.  He named it Sea Mist.  No idea how he came up with that one.  Troy is a great brother.  He does a shy little smile that reminds me a lot of mine when I was his age-he tucks his lower lip under his upper teeth.  It's just so cute.

I love my little guy.

Bir-Cay-Ding, Part 1

We just got done with a many-evented extravaganza: my birthday, a mini vacation, and my sister Lexi's wedding. YAY!  It was all so much fun!  And the best way I can think of to tell all about it is...just to start at the beginning.  Or maybe I'll mix it all together, like I did with my title. Eh? Eh???

July 27: my birthday

Last year, I only got one picture of my birthday, which kind of sucked.  So this year I took lots and lots of pictures.

In the morning, I took all my boys to get their hair cut.  The boys were getting fluffy, and Pete had major beast neck. Look at Troy being all super important:

 Then we went shopping a little.  We needed a few things, plus I picked up a new dress (yay!) and the movie "Chicken Run", which I have always loved.  We also went looking for a new fridge, because ours is fritzing out again.  I think it's time to let it go. *sigh*  Here are two of my cuties, though, being all posh while shopping.

 Then I got a pedicure with my mom.  I didn't have my camera with me, so I don't have a picture of that.  But we both got orange toenails for my sister's wedding.  They're so cute!

After that, Pete and I went to the temple and did a session.  I hadn't gone since February, so it was really good to go.  So refreshing!

Then we, my kids, my mom, and my sister and her (then) fiance Chris went out for dinner at Sol Rio.  I LOVE their salsa that they bring out with chips-yummy!  And then we got really yummy food.  I ordered the Burrito Supreme, which I kept telling my kids was as big as my arm.  When they brought it out, I got photographic evidence.  SOOOOO good.

 Here's my mom and Troy.  Troy loves grandmas.

 After dinner, just my little family had dessert.  Instead of cake, I made rice krispie treats.  Which, I really do like cake, but we have two more cakes coming to our house really soon, so I opt for an alternative.

 Then I got to open gifts.  On top of my new dress and movie, my parents had taken me out a few days before and got two other dresses, which were much needed.  My kids all drew pictures of me with a cake. I'm a princess on all their pictures, which is very sweet.  And Pete got me a Slap Chop, which chops up your veggies or whatever else really well and easily. I can't wait to use it!

And here I am with my sweet kids.

My birthday was very nice, and very relaxing.  I am so blessed!

Okay.  Onward.

July 28: campfire night

Pete had been wanting to take the kids out and build a campfire somewhere.  We aren't really the outdoorsy type of people: in fact, we have a total of one sleeping bag.  But I think Pete's inner Boy Scout - or maybe it's his inner pyromaniac - wanted to come out and shine.  So, no sleeping in a tent for us this night, but playing with fire was definitely part of our fun.

We went out to some camp sites just past a ski hill called Kelly Canyon that's not too far from home.

Here's Pete with three future Boy Scouts/pyros:

This was my "cooler" for the night.  Because we did hot dogs and smores, and bought drinks on the way up, I didn't really need anything else.

My cute clan with our drinks:

Ivy and Troy.  Notice Ivy's cheeks-absolutely stuffed with hot dog!

Besides eating and playing with the fire, my kids ran around and whacked down big weeds. And then they threw those in the fire.

We also played Hide and Seek. Mostly I helped the younger two hide while someone did the seeking, though everyone took their turn being the seeker. There were trees and grass and huge rocks to hide behind. It was way fun.

And, of course, there was dirt to play in.  Lots and lots of dirt!

We had a blast, and I'm sure we'll do it again sometime.

Okay, friends, this post is getting long already.  So I'm going to have to make this a two-parter.  So stay tuned for the rest of our birthday/vacation/wedding adventures!

The Short Version

I think I am the President of the Procrastinator's Club.  Of course, I wouldn't know, because procrastinators would just put off having their meetings, wouldn't they?

Anyway, I've been gone WWWWAAAAAYYYYYY too long from my blog.  And so much has happened!  But I'm afraid if I try to do super detailed posts of everything, then I won't get around to doing any posting at all, because I'll just fall further behind.  So, I'm going to do the highlights, and you can fill in the details in your mind.  I trust you to make up awesome things.

So, without further ado...

Pete had his birthday.  He got a computer mouse, and then some drawings done by the kiddos.  It was very chill.

I started a chore chart for my kids. Jakob had been doing bathrooms with me for forever, and the other kids didn't have any chores.  I revamped it, and now we have a rotation of several chores.  My kids have been really great about doing chores-eager, even.

I have to supervise them, but for the most part they do pretty well.  A couple of weeks ago Troy was on dusting, and I didn't know that he was trying to do it by himself.  Needless to say, I had to scrape off oodles of dust stuff off of my dresser.  But he tried, and I guess that's what counts.

I also got a laundry basket for each of my kids, and now they fold their own clothes.  I have to help Ivy a lot, but they do well folding their own clothes.  I'm not quite ready to have them try and run the washing machine by themselves, but it's helped me a lot to divvy out their clothes for them.

Brock lost his two top teeth in the last little bit.  I love the toothless smile.

We spent mother's day with my parents.  It was really fun.  My mom is a spaz.  She's so cute!

My cute friend Sara got some free tickets to a show called "Handsome Little Devils", so she invited me and our other friend Anna to go. The actors do a lot of juggling tricks-that kind of thing.  It was really impressive. And I got pulled up on the stage!  The actor next to me had me hold some roses out in front of me, and he whipped the tops of them off while balancing on a ladder!  It was really cool.

We had an Easter egg hunt at my parents' house, in the 400 mile-an-hour wind.  Idaho "spring" is very, very windy.

Ivy had her third birthday.  For some reason, I always space on the candles for cakes.  Also for some reason, I had a brand new "1" candle, but that's it-no others.  Awesome.  So that's how we ended up with two matches as the other candles.

She got some clothes, and some hair things, a Tinkerbell doll, and the movie Bambie.

I was outside on a Saturday, and Troy ran out to be with me.  His hands were in his jacket.  He tripped, and fell flat on his face on the driveway.  I saw the whole thing and couldn't do anything to stop it.  So very sad.

A few days later, Troy graduated from preschool.  He loved preschool, but he is so ready to go to kindergarten in the fall.

And speaking of graduations, Brock graduated from kindergarten.  Their program was really cute, and I thought I would cry a lot, but I didn't.

(Okay, so here is where I tried to insert a video of Jakob's piano songs, but it wouldn't load.  Good job, blogger!  So, maybe someday I'll get it to load, but until then, just pretend that you can watch that video here.)

I had my piano recital.  I've been teaching Jakob this year as well.  He did an awesome job!  He was all, "My legs were shaking a lot!"  And I don't know why he decided to stand while playing, but whatever.  He did great, as did my other students.  I played as well, and did pretty good, but botched the end of my last song.  Oh well, though.  It's not the first time I've messed up a performance, nor will it be the last, I'm sure.

Also, I look like Beaker when I play the piano: my eyes are really wide, and my mouth turns down at the corners.  It's neat.

Right after school got out, I got sick, for a week!  It was way super awesome.  I love being sick.

We took a quick jaunt to Utah for Pete's mission reunion.  I was a little bored but I think Pete enjoyed seeing some of the people from his mission.  We hung out with family, and went to Thanksgiving point, to the dinosaur museum there.  I had no idea why Ivy is crying in the above picture.

They have a digging spot at the museum, where you can uncover "bones".  All my kids enjoyed that part.

All of my boys have individually told me that they want to either study or dig up dinosaur bones.

We ate at Benihana on the way back home.  The kids' menus folded up into hats.  Troy zonked out with his hat still on.

And, this last Sunday, Ivy decided to take some scissors to her own hair.  The pile of hair she chopped off is in her hands in this pic.

She did a very thorough job on both sides of her head.  It was very mullet-esque.  It's kind of hard to see in the pictures of it.  Needless to say, we needed to get it fixed up.  I figured a cute little pixie hair cut would work.  And, of course, all this happened before I got her 3-year-old picture taken.  Because I've been really on top of things lately.  (Pres. of the Procrastinator's Club, remember?)

Here it is, all fixed up.  Pete thinks it's kind of boy-ish, but I think if I keep a barrette in it then it will be feminine enough.

Well, that pretty much catches us up to speed.  Sorry it's not heavy on the details, but I just wanted to get 'er done, you know?  So that maybe, someday, I can step down as the President of the Procrastinator's Club.  You know, when I get around to it.