Over the river and through the woods...

To Grandmother's house we go!

We went to my parents' house the beginning of July. I once again flew by myself with the 4 kids. We had a plane change in Phoenix. We had just enough time to use the bathroom. We left early enough that we arrived in Sacramento at noon California time. There's a two hour difference. My mom picked us up and we went to the Sacramento LDS temple for a picnic and to run around. The grass was nice and SOFT and fire ant free! It was wonderful. The weather was perfect. Hot and not humid.

 

On the plane.

There were only 3 seats but Addie joined them for a few minutes of the movie on the DVD player.

The kids worked hard at packing their carry-on roller back packs and were a little upset when I had re-packed them.

Staucie's



Parker's

Bensen's

When we finally made it to grandma's house, after winding through the woods and going over the river, the kids wanted to do EVERYTHING right away. They remembered from last summer and ran around wearing us all out. They were cute.

My dad giving Bensen a ride on the four-wheeler with Parker following on the small four-wheeler.

Addie figured out how to drive the power wheel by herself and it was hilarious and sometimes scary.

My sister, Tyne, helped give baths. Daniel didn't come til two weeks later and I was feeling pretty awful the whole time so my sweet sister, and my mom, wore themselves out helping me. One night they all jumped in the bath with their little cousin Riley. Five kids in a bathtub! How do you even wash them?? Riley thought it was great and didn't seem to notice she had no room.

The kids thought this cart was awesome and put chairs on it and pushed each other around. Twelve-month-old Riley is being assisted by her mom, Tyne.

And then a couple of days before the rest of the crew arrived I finally bought a camera at the Walmart! I took a practice photo on Tyne making dinner. Yea Tyne!

Parker's 5th Birthday

Parker turned 5 On July 6th, 2012!

I still did not have a new camera so the pictures are not the greatest and I didn't take a lot. Poor Parker. But he had two birthdays. We were going to be in California at my parents' house without Daniel so we celebrated the Sunday before we left. Daniel and I decorated the night before and we had cake and presents! He mostly got Legos this year. His first set. I love Legos!

 

 

 Cake face!

Then when we were at my parents' house my mom and I stayed up too late the night before and I forced her to decorate before going to bed! Sorry mom!

 He opened presents first thing!

 

 And then later we had the cake. He wanted an orange motorcycle cake. I attempted it. My sister the cake maker got their that evening but it was already made by me, the non-cake maker.

 

Happy Birthday Parker!

I can't believe you will start Kindergarten!

The month of June, snakes and blueberries

I don't remember all the things we did in June...

But we did go to the library and sign up to do their reading program. They had a party at the library. We bounced in the bounce house (which was really hot), the kids touched snakes, I thought they were really brave, and we went inside the petting zoo, but the only thing some of them would touch was a buny hiding in a corner. I am pretty sure it was Parker that cowared next to me and didn't touch anything.

Staucie even dared to hold a snake.

 Daniel turned 30! Yea!

Why are most of the kids naked? I don't know...

 We finally made it out to the blueberry farm this year. I had been wanting to go the last couple of years but I did not get brave enough to go with all my kids until this year. We also went with our friends that live next door. It went well, but it did get hot. Addie threw some fits in the dirt and was sweaty and so the dirt stuck nicely to her. All of the kids, but Parker grew tired of picking and just played. Parker, though, he picked and picked and picked. He did not want to stop picking and leave. It is quite addicting. You want to keep picking, especially when you keep seeing more good ones.

 We got a good amount between Parker and I. The kids distracted me a lot and I was shocked at how little I picked and how much Parker picked. We picked about the same amount.

 I can't even think of what else we did that month, except lots of car shopping. Never a fun thing. Our Navigator was reaching the end of its life and we decided we better get rid of it before it cost us more to repair then it was worth. It had a lot of problems and really needed new tires. After weeks of looking we finally found what we wanted. It looks a lot like the Navigator which we didn't plan for. I wanted red or white, but black is better than something else. It is 9 years newer than the Navigator, gets twice the amount of mpg, has rear air conditioning and working air conditioning, is clean, and has good tires. It's an Explorer and we love it. It feels like we are driving a sedan because it is smaller. Our first car purchase we made together! Yea! Now if only we can keep the kids from smashing fruit snacks and raisins in it...

SUMMER!

I love summer more now that we don't have to go to school!

This is our fourth summer here in Houston. I can hardly believe we have been here that long. It finally feels like home. I don't know if we are finally used to the heat or it really is a much milder summer since we actually have gotten a little rain, but I can stand to be outside most days this summer. Some of the days are still too hot to stay out for long but we still get out eveyday no matter what! We just need water!

One morning we went to a park to play and then fed some ducks. Unfortunately, Parker cried the whole time because he is a scardy cat. The other kids thought it was great.

We have tried to go to our neighborhood pool a lot. The kids had swimming lessons again this year. It was Bensen's first year. He cried the first day and then loved it after that. He was funny. All of our kids have turned into little fish. Especially the boys. This is the first year I have dared to take all the kids to the pool by myself and it has been fun. We also have tried to go every Saturday morning with Daniel too.

And we play lots with our neighbors. They are all sitting in the neighbor's garage with their swim suits on.

I am bummed that summer is going to end soon. I feel like we ran out of time. I was sick for too much of it too...

Kindergarten Graduate

I still can't believe that Staucie's kindergarten year is over. That was a super quick nine months. And summer has happened way too fast also. They start again in 2 weeks! Life is flying by and I don't think I like it. I need to stop cleaning my house and just play more with my kids. I'm not ready for another school year to start. It will make the next nine months go by too quickly and soon they will all be another year older in a blink of an eye.

This is Staucie's Kindergarten graduation program they did earlier in the week.

Staucie got her certificate and she also got the Principal's award.

Staucie and Madeline

Staucie, Priscilla, and Mallory

Staucie and Mrs. Hollis. She is an amazing teacher!

This is the last day of school. They had a luau breakfast party. It was crazy!

Goodbye Mrs. Hollis! I hope Parker gets her this next year! I can't believe these kindergarten teachers can teach all year from 7:45am to 2:45pm with 20+ kindergartners!

This is later that night. Staucie's friend Madeline had a birthday party on the last day of school at Chuck E Cheese. Staucie and I went together and it was fun to hang out with her. Just me and her. She had a lot of fun with her friends from school too!