Feeling the Love...

At our house the week didn't start out so great...I missed the first day of seminary!

I had set the alarm at 5:45 to get up and see my first child off to seminary. I wanted to make sure he had a lunch and give him a big hug. Well I guess I never turned on my alarm after I set it and I woke up to Jacob saying “Mom can you hem my pants?”

"What day is it??" I ask (I thought it was Sunday). No it was 6:30 on Monday and we had to get him and Jeff out the door in 25 minutes! So we scrambled as I hemmed, Jeff showered and Jacob started on his lunch.

I was sad that Taylor was picked up by the Paiges on his own without anyone to even say goodbye to him.

When he got home about 5:00 I felt horrible when I asked him how his day was he said “I didn’t have a lunch and we ran 6.7 miles today!” I guess his ride came as he was starting to pack his lunch and all he got was a yogurt before he ran out the door.

So the rest of the night last night he was hungry, cranky and feeling sick.

So sorry Taylor :(...I felt so bad.

I think he forgave me though because today I packed him a HUGE lunch and in 6th period he sent me the best text..."I love you mom! You're my favorite mom!!" What a way to make my day :)

So I had to show him some love by making brownies today.

So after the razzing we all gave Jeff about Brad Wilcox, he thought he'd send him a nice e-mail to show him he wasn't blowing him off.

Brad was VERY nice and sent one back the next day giving Jeff compliments and letting him know he wanted his contact info to give to the guy in charge of EFY. He thought that Jeff's story, style and delivery would be great for EFY. We'll see if anything become of it, and even if not it was nice of him to say :)

 

Ashley was feeling the love with the "friendly letters" they exchanged at school yesterday...

"Dear Ashley, Hi I just want to tell you hi. And try to be good in school and home but I all ready know you’re going to be good and stay that way and you look good today and this is your friend Mikey.

Your friend, Mikey”

Ashley thinks Mikey likes her a little because he's always trying to hang out with her at recess and he always makes comments on her outfits....he said he liked this one yesterday :)

My nature girl was also showing love to this leaf bug we rescued after it somehow took a ride on Jeff's car for at least 4 miles without blowing off. (Some of his ride was on the windshield and he still hung on)

When she found that he flew into the garage she made sure I rescued it right then! Love my nature girl!

Jacob was feeling the love at school again when 3 "hot" girls came up to him at lunch today and said “I heard you were really cool, can we have a hug?”...

 He’s a hugger so he agreed.

Then one of them asked him to hold her hand to class. This was out of his comfort zone so he told her to hold his friend’s hand instead. She said “But he’s not cute like you are.”

He didn’t hold her hand but he says he now wants to get a shirt that says “Free Hugs” on it.

Taylor has been checking himself out since cross country watching to see if he'll get a "six pack". So he finally has one (I can see it if he flexes...from the side...if I look hard :), a combination of running and probably losing the little body fat he had.

So humble Taylor was commenting on his 6 pack and his reaction from the girls was laughter and the declaration... “No, those are just cancerous bumps.” The other one said “They are infected bug bites.”

Feelin the love...

So Taylor got to show some love back...

Remember that toilet that Elise Bradford so generously gave us when she TP'd our house.

Taylor finally found a use for it. It was Alise's birthday yesterday. What a better birthday present could a girl have??!! In her bedroom no less...complete with an unwrapped candy bar representing gross items that usually reside in a toilet.

Not wanting Taylor to look like a complete troll, mom included lotion and a body spritzer for when shes done using her personal bedroom toilet hee hee hee.

Needless to say this prank was the talk of the "mormon friends" today.

I have heard from Simone Bradford that war has been declared...I'm scared.

Creativity, motivation and Christmas in August...

CREATIVITY

So necessity is the mother of invention or so I've heard.

One of the school supplies that the boys needed was a white board eraser. The teacher suggested and old sock, I didn't want my kids having to pull out dirty old socks to use at school so I was trying to think of a better solution.

As I was putting stuff away Jacob saw this...

and said "Is that my white board eraser?"  

Ooooohh what a good idea! "Why yes Jacob!" (It fits in his pen holders, it's cheap and it's not a dirty sock.)

I pulled out another one for Taylor :)  Sweet!

I was making dinner the other night and Jacob said "I want stuffed crust pizza!" Well we were having home-made pizza...so I got to thinking what if I rolled up sections of string cheese in the crust???? 

So I did and it wasn't half bad....and more importantly the kids LOVED the fact that it was stuffed crust.

Jacob told me today at school that a kid traded him just the stuffed crust portion of his pizza for the rest of his barbeque beef sandwich (Jacob loves them). He thought he got a pretty sweet deal out of it :)

This week Lori and I were good girls and went out to do our visiting teaching...the question is always what to bring them...luckily I had dipping chocolate in the freezer from Christmas (that I never used at Christmas) and some pretzels...

...a fast easy visiting teaching treat that didn't require an oven! (Who wants to turn on their oven when it's 108 anyway!)

MOTIVATION

So this week Jeff was invited to my alma mater to be a guest motivational speaker for the BYU faculty.

Jeff has clients that moved up there and work for the school. They thought Jeff would be great as the motivational speaker and they knew if the school flew him up to speak they could meet with him for business too ;)

Jeff joked that he would say that he was a BYU alumni by marriage. He didn't go to college but he paid for it. Fun to joke about until he's ready to get up in front of all these highly educated people and he starts to get a little nervous about what he can teach them.

The dean let him know that they've been having problems with cuts and being understaffed and overworked and being discouraged.

Well Jeff did what he does best and shared a healthy dose of perspective. He shared stories, motivation and encouragement. He also tried to be real. He's learned as much as anyone that life isn't meant to be easy and having challenges is NOT a reflection of how good of a person you are or how blessed you are. Look at the prophets in the scriptures, look at the life of Christ himself. They weren't above the worst kind of challenges and yet they were highly favored of the Lord. Hard things are part of life and is what helps us grow. The key is to strive for a positive attitude. Often we can't change certain things about our circumstances but we can change our attitude.

After he was done speaking he got lots of feedback from grateful listeners who appreciated his words and his positive attitude.

He said one person stood out from the rest. He told me he didn't know who he was but he seemed a little pompous as he was talking to him. The guy mentioned his name was Brad Wilcox.

Jeff thought for a minute...."Brad Wilcox,  Brad Wilcox...that sounds familiar...are you famous or something??"

The people around Jeff almost gasped "Oh yes he's an author and a speaker.."

Jeff said "Oh yeah, I think my wife has seen you at women's conference. I think she might have some books from you around the house. She would probably know who you are."

I had to laugh because Jeff was in his stomping grounds (It seems like he is at every BYU thing) and he had no clue who he was! Probably took him down a notch.

While Jeff was out motivating them I was motivating our children...

Ashley came home sick today (couldn't even make it through one week of school) She has a miserable cold and is dripping all over the house.

So I had to motivate her to stop crying throughout the day even though she's miserable. I had to also keep telling her she doesn't have pink eye either, her eyes are just watery from her cold.

Every bathroom is out of toilet paper because she unrolls a wad of it every time she needs to blow her nose. I even gave her her very own roll of toilet paper...it didn't help.

I left all the rolls empty until she went to bed tonight :)

Over the last 2 days I had to work with and motivate Taylor to stick with his engineering class...

I think his new schedule...or at least worrying about his new schedule has got him very worried about his engineering class. He feels like he's in over his head and is already ready to transfer out (He's worried about his grade after 3 days!). I told him he could transfer out if his counselor could get him into something else.

She couldn't because every elective was full so he came home saying she would just rearrange his schedule and he won't have a 1st period class. What??!!

Not an option!

So I went in there today and met with the counselor and came up with a compromise that involves him putting his best effort until progress reports come out and we'd go from there. So he's agreed to try his best and see what he can learn. I told him it's a good thing hes out of his comfort zone...thats the times I'm learning the most...even if it's uncomfortable.

Jacob was trying to be motivated by an 8th grade friend to hold a girl's hand today....WHAT??!!

While Jacob was walking to class today an 8th grade girl came up to him and asked to hold his hand on the way to class....."UUUUMM I don't think so" he said.

His friend said "Dude, you should've done it!"

Then her friend came up to him and asked the same thing!

Again he refused and again his friend said "DUDE, you should've done it!"

I asked him if he knew who the girls were. He had no clue! 

Ha ha ha...are you ready for this new kind of attention Jacob???

CHRISTMAS IN AUGUST

So we're planning projects for our super Saturday in October and they want samples by...Sunday. So I've spent the last couple of days coming up with inexpensive...not too hard to make Christmas projects

We have to decide which one's we're going with so we have an ornament that can be made in about 5 minutes that will sell for $2.00...

An snowman ornament that can be made in about 1/2 hour that can sell for $1.00

An a photo brag book that can be made in about 1/2 hour that would cost $3.00

 

front cover

when you first open it

opened all the way (there end up being 14 panels front and back)

So opinions on these items and wether or not the prices are reasonable would be welcome...

All this Christmas planning has got me thinking of the season and the joy and peace it brings. I think other members of my family need to reflect on the true meaning of peace...

 Ashley walked into my room yesterday while Jacob was playing video games. "Ashley just go out and close the door! I want to play my video game in PEACE!" He was playing Modern Warfare II.

First day of school!

Yesterday was the first day of school for all three of the kids.

Well technically Jacob and Taylor has a freshmen first day at the Junior High and High School that was like an orientation last friday...

Look at these cool looking boys :)

So once I was able to enjoy freedom and peace and quiet I ...did lots of laundry, cleaned the house, went to the gym, got to talk on the phone with friends and before I knew it...it was time to pick everyone up from school and find out how their day went. (Boy my free time sure went fast!)

Ashley was the first one home. She came home and reported that her teacher wasn't too bad (she was worried about having a man teacher this year) but she did inform me that when the teacher did a poll to see how many student had pet dogs at home she was "very embarassed that she was the ONLY one that didn't raise her hand"...."See Mom EVERYBODY has a dog!"

I told her that if they asked who had a chinchilla, she probably would've been the only one to raise her hand.

Jacob was the next one home, from junior high. I asked him how it went having to switch classes. He said the day was long but it seemed to go fast too.

He said at lunch there was two boys who were looking at him and snickering and then his fellow deacon Trevor from the ward came up and said "Hi Jacob!" and started talking to him. I guess the boys that were laughing knew Trevor and they got quiet and after watching Trevor with Jacob they were cool with him. How nice for friends :)

Taylor still wasn't home but we were invited to go to Frozen Yogurt with some other first day of school Mom's. I was pleasantly suprised that it was buy a mini get one free (every Monday from 1 - 4) so it wasn't even as expensive as I thought it might be.

I guess these moms have this as a first day of school tradition but it was the first time we joined them. Fun! (Even though Ashley decided her combo that she got to pick all by herself and eat all by herself wasn't good and she threw 1/2 of it out)

When we got back to the house all Ashley wanted to do was try and get cool.

I don't know what it was but this summer didn't feel like summer until the first day of school! It was blazing hot today and of course all the kids have to be out in it!

Since we dont' have a pool we had to get creative...I turned on the sprinklers for awhile but since we have a Riverside ordinance prohibiting sprinklers before 8:00, and only on odd days, depending on the side of the street you live on...I didn't feel like getting written up so we improvised...

Finally at 5:30 Taylor came home from his first day of school. I had been waiting all afternoon to find out how his day had gone!!

I guess this is going to be his new life...gone most of the time busy with all his stuff going on :( ... I'm already missing him.

He had his Cross Country right after school was out so he had to run until 4:30 (in 100 degree weather) then wait until almost 5:00 to get his stuff out of the trunk of someone's car who was still running, then he stopped off at Juice it up, then he called me and said he had to stop at Cameron Paiges.

Cameron Paiges??

I guess he asked to come over and jump in their pool on the way home...no swim trunks...so he jumped in with his gym shorts and came home dripping wet and happy (no towel either)

I asked him if a group of them had gone to Juice It Up. (wondering why he would want to go) 

"No I went by myself. I thought I would treat myself for the first day of school."

"How much was the smoothie?" I asked. (he had used his own money)

"Five dollars" he said

"Did you know it would be that much?"  "No I thought it would be like $2.00."

Welcome to real life son :) 

This morning Piano lessons started...and now the year has really begun... :)

We had a birthday...shout Hooray!

We had a birthday at our house. "Little Jacob" turned 12! Can't believe it. Of course we had to celebrate...



with a friend pool party. Luckily we happen to have nice friends who let us use their pool for the party. (I would've never asked but Jeff isn't shy and they ended up being happy to do it.)

What nice friends we have! And what nice friends Jacob had to come and celebrate with us...




The girls that were there had their own fun...mainly squirting each other and the boys mercilously. Luckily the boys were so busy doing their own thing so they didn't retaliate very often.



They were having too much fun on the slide and jumping off the rocks to notice.




Of course we had to play some competitive "boy" games, hold your breath the longest, swim the farthest...collect the ping pong balls first...they only wanted 3 games or so and then they wanted to swim. The pool was the best entertainment ever.

The prizes they all picked first were the nerds ropes...I'll have to remember that next time they want candy!



Instead of cake Jacob wanted a pizooki (a favorite birthday treat at school). It worked out good and wasn't as messy as cake.



Time for presents...sweet!



Money works just as good :). See what happens when you give a boy a gun! :)




On Sunday we celebrated Jacob's ordination. He will be able to pass the sacrament next week!

Of course following church we had our family tradition of all coming over to eat. Jeff was nice enough this time to order El Poyo Loco on Saturday and they delivered it hot as we were getting home. How nice not to have to worry about throwing together hot food when I walked in the door.

Great idea Jeff. I was able host and actually enjoy the family and not stress. Very nice.



Cousins coming together to eat is always fun.



Sarah and Naomi even braved the drive from L.A.



The younger girls loved hanging out on Ashley's bed with Olive. Wait where is she??



Here she is... taking a nap on Ashley's bed...using her Big Pig as a pillow. How sweet is she. Sweet asleep...



and even sweeter awake! What a cutie!






Ashley is in heaven. When I put her to bed that night she said "I smell like baby all over!" I'm not suprised after all her snuggling.



The best part of family get togethers is the games.

Steve had to try out a new one on us...
What is this?? A jelly bean game??



You have to spin to see what color you get...you pick the color and it could be good.....or bad. You never know... Either it's buttered popcorn...or moldy cheese....black licorice...or skunk spray.

Jeff tried it out and got...a nasty one.



Jacob doesn't want to try it until we start chanting his name!!!



He get's a barf flavored one!

(I'm sure he regreted listening to us.)




We also played "signs" and "what if..." (another newbie). The funnest part was Dale and Mo are hosting foreign exchange students right now. One is from Spain and one is from France and they sure had a lively Sunday playing family games with us. I wondered what they thought about our crazy family but they seemed to have a good time.

After everyone left my kids were so excited about what a great family we had and what a fun time they had...especially playing the games together. We are so glad for each of you and all you contribute to our family!!

For those family members who joined us on Sunday we have a lost and found going.

Luckily grandma got her shoes back but we missed...

somebody's dress,
a purple polka dotted tie,
and a binky (actually we know who the owner of the binky is ;)

We will just hold these items hostage so you'll have to come back and visit us again!



And...for anyone who rode in our car for the Stake Beach party we have a random shirt,
socks,
swim trunks,
towel,
mini-sunblock, (not shown)
and blue folding chair smelling of fire (still stinking up the car)

If you would like to reclaim any of these items let me know....soon.



After all the celebrations it's been time to buckle down and get ready for school. We've been all over getting backpacks, and notebooks, haircuts and shoes.

Luckily my kids don't care about shoe name brands so we scored at Payless with shoes for all 3 using their Buy one get one 1/2 off (I broke down and bought Ashley cute sandals to complete the second pair;)

We were all in a silly mood by the time we were at Payless and the kids were having tooo good of a time trying on inapropriate shoes...

Jacob kept bringing Taylor pink baby shoes to try on then put on the biggest clodhoppers in the store. (He couldn't even walk in them) and Taylor and Ashley each had one shoe on of the biggest, tallest, black, high heeled ladies boots. I would show you how attractive Taylor was in them but he accidently deleted the picture off his phone. We were laughing so hard I was waiting for the guy to come see what we were doing and kick us out of the store!

We then stopped at McDonalds where Taylor tried to order a Chicken McFun Pack (a non-existent menu item that the missionaries told him they ordered just by insisting it really did exist). He didn't get one but he did get the worker to believe that they existed on the menu, (she just didn't carry them)...haa haa crazy kid.

So school starts in the morning for both boys (Kind of a freshmen only day for both of them). We spend the morning in line for Taylor getting all his stuff and rearranging his schedule (no band).

You can see how excited he is. Don't let his look fool you...he is actually excited to start school...his look of disgust is simply because he is irritated that his mom would have the audacity to actually take his picture at school.

How embarassing Mom!

Fast Forward...

Summer is almost over (only one week left before school starts!) So I'm going to speed through the last 2 1/2 weeks of trying to fast forward through life.

The upside from getting back from Mexico and cancelling all our plans to continue traveling was the way it opened our schedule up for other things that we didn't plan...liking spending time reconnecting with friends.

Shawna Banagas came out for a pool day with Penny...and missed it thinking it was in the afternoon....so Penny created her own pool at at the Hale's house. (She was very sweet to let us all swoop in last minute to swim with her family)

It was fun and crazy having a pool full of friends that haven't seen each other in a while...Pendeltons, Banagases, Smiths, Beaulieus and Hales.



I was puzzled when the kids dragged out a broken coffee table from the side of the house until I saw...



it made the coooolest slide! (It was actually a lot sturdier than the regular plastic slides that you see in the old school pools :)



Here is Taylor demonstrating the "choking trick" in the pool. (Jacob is standing on his leg and Taylor is pretending to choke him.

It looks soo bad :)

They tried to demonstrate it to Jeff but he was so embarassed because it looks real, he told them "don't do that again!"



That night (because I wasn't gone in Arizona) I also got to go to our Relief Society activity at Kristin Thompson's house.

Teresa Rassmussen came down and showed us how to bottle meat. She loves it and uses her bottled meat all the time, even on vacation, and swears by it. She had been officially Utahfied and was very excited but I have to say we had some sceptics in the house :)



Maybe they'll have to try it to see if they like it. Of course without our very own basement and "food storage room" to store all our canning in, not to mention not owning any canning paraphenalia many of the sisters might not be able to test it out very easily.

Not to mention...what happens in a California earthquake when all the jars break when we need them (ha ha my friend had to point that out to me)

Teresa brought back fond and not so fond memories of my mothers noisy, whistly, forever percolating pressure cooker that kind of scared me every time she opened it (I secretly thought we would all be covered in hot steam or it would explode). I did like all the things my mother made in it however and the fact that we would rock out to ABBA music while she was canning stuff. Fond memories :)



We had so much fun on Wednesday that Shawna decided to plan a day for us to get together again on Friday. We planned to go to the community pool and waterslide but when we got there it was already filled to capacity and they were turning people away so...

plan B we went to Rusti's apartment (Shawna's sister-in-law) and got into her pool.



Just our luck it was only 1/2 full. Oh well it was water and it was hot so we swam anyway and Jacob was able to touch all the way to the deep end :)

The downside was the boys couldn't resist the hoses. We all got turns getting squirted at some point :)



It was nice to let the kids play and catch up with Shawna and Penny and Cindy!



On Thursday Taylor finally went to run for the first time at his cross country camp. (He missed 1/2 of it while we were out of town) His first day and it's the 3 mile time trial! He made the qualifying time to make the team with 2 minutes to spare. Way to go Taylor!!

On the next Monday we went to our 1st beach day of the summer. The ward has been going on Wednesday but we've missed every one (It's been cold anyway) so we finally got to go to 18th street.



Jacob spent most of the day in this chair.



Taylor and bigger boys always love digging. The lifeguard came over and told them no holes deeper than waist deep though...otherwise they are deadly. So I guess no more deep holes for Taylor.



That's OK Once it filled up they really started having fun. Jacob even got out of his chair and joined in...it was about this time that Taylor was complaining to go home...right as the other two were having fun. It seem like that always happens at the beach!



Tuesday we went to Legoland's aquarium with Heather Anderson's group. She's does these mom's group things and every summer we try to do something with her groups and we haven't seen her since they moved so it was nice to get together with her.

The downside was that I didn't think this one through very well. The admission into the aquarium was like $40.00 to get us all in...but I was thinking something like Long Beach Aquarium...when I thought to look into this aquarium the day before we were going I was a little worried when it said "geared for a child's 1st aquarium experience" I warned the kids that it would be geared for younger children.

So after a looong drive, $12.00 for parking (because you are in the Legoland parking lot) we met up with the other moms.



The fish were great, and the displays were very accesable.



Jacob getting an up close view...



Ashley too...you could tell that the place was geared for small children because everything was Ashley's size. She absolutely loved it! Taylor on the other hand had to constantly bending down to see things.

I can tell I'm not as used to being around a lot of younger children. There were all kinds of little kids and summer camp groups at the aquarium too and all I could hear was adults calling to kids "Come back here," "You're too far away!" "Stay with me"...I think I learned 1/2 the kids names because of the adults calling after everyone!





We liked this shark encouter walk through area. I know this isn't the best picture but there was this unreal sting-ray passing over Taylor's head and I was trying to capture the size of it! This was a favorite.



Here was a Diver "show" where a guy was interviewing the scuba diver in the tank.

What was a crack up was all the lego guys throughout and inside the aquarium...of course it made Jacob want to go to legoland. (I don't think most people come just for the aquarium) There even was a movie that we let the kids watch...it wasn't anything about fish...it was a lego cartoon about finding Atlantis!

In the end we were done in two hours. (Jacob and Jeremiah long before because they kept racing through everything) I was very proud of how patient Taylor was. I asked him how he like it in the end he said "The fish were fine but I could'nt handle any more screaming kids!" Hmmmm I'd have to agree.



I was very happy when Heather suggested lunch at Islands on our way out. It was nice to talk to Heather some more. We miss them from the ward but they are doing well, and are happy.



And it was nice to reward Taylor for his patience with a yummy hamburger. (I think he ran 6 miles this morning so we had to rev up his calories anyway :)



The next day was Pool Day at the Thompsons!

Lots of fun (and a little scary) to have a pool with a slide and kids jumping off of rocks.



On Friday I took Taylor and a group of friends out to Knotts Berry Farm. Some of his friends had never been there before, or hadn't been there since they were little, so he arranged a day to have them all come out together.

We had Lauren, Becca, Maddison, and Garret... and us it was a full car :)



Here's the silly girls in the car.



Jacob and Ashley flew through some kiddy rides while they tried going on some of the bigger ones.



Ashley's tried this ride where you pump yourself around the track. The stinky thing was she was stuck behind a little girl that thought the ride would move by itself so she wouldn't do anything and Ashley struggled to push both of them around the track! :)



For lunch we came out and ate packed sandwiches and some of the kids at Pinks!

I left the teens early because I already had planned Jeff's birthday dinner (didn't realize we had a conflict until later) so they ended up staying later and getting a ride home with Becca's parents.

One of the moms was worried about them being there alone but it wasn't long before they ran into another mutual friend whose parents were there. The other parents were glad that they had adults with them and the lone boy was glad to have 5 instant friends to hang out with on the rides!



Meanwhile I raced home and got ready for Jeff's b-day dinner at TGIF.



We had a small intimate group since most people invited coudn't make it. We had the Pendletons, Stubbs and Thompsons. It was very nice to hang out with them and enjoy their 2 for $20.00 meal deal. Yum!



The next day we had Grace McAbee's 4th b-day party for lunch, Madison Williamson's 4th birthday party for dinner, and going away game night for Curls at the Elsworth's house.

Busy week.

By the time Monday rolled around again nobody wanted to do the beach. So we spent pretty much all week of doing errands and other stuff like...

Watching 5 year old Wyatt for a morning. Jacob played a racing video game with him and told me later that he kept trying to encourage him to help him feel better. When Wyatt was in 12th place (which is last) and was discouraged Jacob told him he was 12th out of a 100. He said all the other guys were so far behind him he couldnt' see them. When he came up on the board last and said "I did horrible because I was last!" Jacob told him that the other guys did so bad they weren't even on the board! (I laughed where does Jacob think of this stuff!)

I took them to see Karate Kid at the $2.00 theater. It was good but I was suprised at the fact that it was a little slow...and long. I was almost late for getting Taylor home for mutual!

When Jimmy Job asked if Taylor could come over I had Jacob go with them. Taylor's phone died while he was there. Jacob told me he was going to take Taylor's phone and text me "I pooped my pants" I'm glad he didn't because his phone would've been dead and I wouldn't have known if he really had or not...I'm wondering if getting a phone for Jacob's birthday is going to be a good idea!

We wrote girls at girls camp, Taylor wrote the girls he knows and we all wrote Jenae (I heard she like the letter). Taylor was so silly and of course didn't write a normal letter. It was full of crazy stickers, inside jokes and the line "I know that you guys like getting letters at girls camp so here you go A B C D E F G ..." Crazy kid.

Jacob had a Birthday this week. He got his phone in the morning when he woke up (he's been waiting for that phone forever and couldn't wait until friends were awake so he could call them). And luckily his friend Ryan asked him over to hang out because we were getting ready for his party and hadn't planned on doing anything very fun. I did make him his favorite dinner though :)


On Friday we cleaned the house and then I finally convinced the kids to go one last time to the beach.

It helped that Taylor brought a book. We hung out with the Bagley, Whitehead, Quist family. It was there last full day at the beach house so we knew we'd have buddies when we got there, and the Orr's were there too so Jacob had Ryan to hang out with.



Ashley liked feeding the birds...



and trying the homemade slide...I know where all that sand ended up!



I feel like summer is winding down and now it's time to start getting everyone to bed earlier, getting our school clothes and prepping mentally for crazy school schedules!