Vacation All I Ever Wanted

Hello friends its been awhile.  I've been busy with this little thing called life.  However the hubs has been bugging encouraging me to post on our recent vacation for posterity sake.   We decided that what our family needed was a little togetherness so we decided to take a road trip to Texas, and then from there to Florida.  Yes that equals to about 42 total hours of family togetherness, and that is just the time spent in the car!   All in all we had a fabulously fun, and relaxing ( for the most part) vacation. Stay tuned for details, but in the meantime here is a hint about what we did.

Lemonade Anyone?

 It was the last day of summer vacation, and of course we tried to stuff as much fun as we could into that day.   I was babysitting my neighbors kids for the day and was trying to keep everyone busy.  They decided to have a lemonade stand.  It was beautiful, 8 + kids  between the ages of 12 and 3 working together for hours making signs and manning the "stand" in the hot sun, with one goal in mind, money!   It made for a great day.  And the kids were over the moon with excitement when someone stopped by, they especially loved it when they got to "keep the change".  Each kid made $2, it was a pretty profitable stand!

The proceeds!

It's The Most Wonderful TIme of The Year - Happy First Day of School!

   Let's be honest here, something happens to kids ( or at least my kids) at the beginning of August.  It doesn't matter if you've had the funnest summer ever, it seems like by August everyone is summered out.  At my house this translates to"mom I'm bored, I'm bored, I'm bored . . ." Which then leads to "mom he hit me" or  "she's looking at me funny".   I think this is natures way of making both moms and kids excited to see that bus coming around the corner.
    I tell the kids every year how much I love, love , love  school.   They are quick to say " we know, it's because you get us out of the house all day".  I quickly remind that this is not the reason ( at least not one I'll admit to them) but that I love learning and I hope that they will too!
    As the school year approaches I do get excited about reclaiming my house back, but I am most excited about seeing how far my littles ( some of them not so little) have come.   And yes, I am not embarrassed to admit that I cry ever year they get on that bus,  because I know that one day that bus will not be stopping at my house anymore.
   Enough of that , here's to fresh notebooks and crayons, here's to a fresh start!

 Noah is in 7th grade, his first year in middle school.  He was understandably nervous, but is adjusting well.  I think he is liking school although he'd never admit it to anyone.   He currently playing fall ball, trombone in the band, and piano at home.  He loves being a boy scout, and he is an all around great kid.  I should mention that he is also as tall as me.

 Ian is in 5th grade,  his first year having to follow a schedule at school.  He is a great student and looking forward to joining the school band in a few weeks.  I think he has settled on the trumpet as his instrument of choice.   He is also playing fall ball on the same team as big brother Noah.  It is a dream to see them play together and get along on the baseball field, since that is not always the case at home :).

Ammon is in 3rd grade,  his first year at a new school.  He is an easy going kid, who loves school, and loves waking up in the middle of the night to sneak video games ( much to my dismay).  He is currently into collecting baseball cards.

Claire is in 1st grade,  it is her first year going to school all day, and eating her lunch at school!  She is learning to play the piano, and loves to play barbies.  She recently got her ears pierced and makes sure that I remember to clean them every day.  Her hearts desire is to get a real American Girl doll, not the Target brand one she got for Christmas last year.

And here is little Ruby, she gets to stay home and play with mom all day.  She loves to use her imagination, turning almost anything (even nail polish bottles) into a game of "house".   She is learning her alphabet, and misses her brothers and sister while they are at school.

  So Happy first day of school everyone, may this year be filled with joy and learning!

Baseball is Life. . .

. . .the rest is just details.  This was a popular saying on t-shirts back when I was in high school.  Just insert your favorite sport ( I had one that said "running is life. . .", but I digress).  This pretty much sums up our life this spring.  With 3 boys on 3 different teams we were at the ball fields just about every night and all day on Saturday.  But our boys love it, and when they aren't at a game or practice you can find them playing baseball in the backyard, watching it on tv, or playing it on the wii.  I love it too.  I love the lessons it teaches them.   I love watching them as they improve every year.   

    Noah was one of his teams pitchers, he pitched a couple of innings every couple of games.  His favorite moment of the season was when he got a chance to pitch most of the semi-final tournament game.  He was spot on all night.  Unfortunately the other team won, but Noah sure finished the season with a heck of a game.  

     Ian played first base most of the season, he was pretty good too, he is definitely not afraid to dive for a catch.  This year hegot invited to tryout for the all-star team for his division.  Unfortunately we were on vacation during the tryouts.  He would have made a good addition to the team.

   Ammon is so fun to watch, he is in coach pitch and loving every minute of it. He celebrates when anyone on his team does something good.   Currently his favorite part of the game is snack time. :) 

   So as you can see baseball is life around these parts.  If you ask any one of the boys they will tell you they want to play for the majors one day. To them I say practice hard, do your best, and have a back up plan.   These boys are too fun and they grow up too fast.  

Noah staring down his batter!

And the pitch

running to third

Ian playing his best position 1st base

At bat.  

Ian's pitching stare down

Ammon at bat

I love when they play catcher

Waiting to run

Last Day Blues

Wednesday was the kiddos' last day of school. I love the last day of school, I even get a little giddy about it. Now don't get me wrong the thought of having the littles home EVERY DAY for 2 1/2 months is a little overwhelming, ok a lot overwhelming. But I do get excited for the laziness of long summer days where there is no schedule and spend all day in the backyard running through the sprinkler and eating popsicles. Seriously who was I kidding, the very next day after school let out, the kiddos in true kid fashion, were already bored, eating everything in sight, and asking where are we going today. Ahhh! But seriously I do get a little excited for the end of school, but I also almost always get a teary-eyed, because in 9 short months they've gone from this: First Day of School August 2011 To this: June 6th 2012 And we can't forget this cutie who will get to spend another year at home with mom These kiddos are growing up way to fast. The key I guess is to live in the moment.

Dress Up

One of the things my girls love to do more than almost anything is to play dress up. Imagine their excitement when our neighbor brought over some dress ups that she had grown out of. The girls have been wearing them non-stop. They only took them off for bed, but you can be sure when they woke up they were back on again. Now one of my favorite thing about these little ladies is that while they love getting dressed up, they are also not afraid to get dirty. I wish I would have taken a picture of them yesterday playing in the back yard with their brothers. They of course were dressed like princesses but they were helping to make a house in the dirt for a frog that the brothers had found. Now that's what I call a well rounded woman!

Happy Easter!

I've been in a bit of a blogging funk for I don't know how long. I am in the process of making a post of the highlights of last year, while in the mean time this year is passing me by. :) . So here is picture of my littles, on Easter. I had grand plans of having them all ready for church 30 minutes early so that I could do a photo shoot . Ha ha yeah right, of course no one cooperated. So on the way home from church I told everyone that nobody was getting lunch until I took a few pictures. They obliged, and while I didn't get the perfect picture as I had envisioned, I got a few for posterity. Oh and don't look to close at Ammon's teeth , he didn't get the message about no food before pictures and decided to eat a piece of candy that turned his teeth orange.