Frownie Brownie, Museum, Water Park, Garden, Braces

The other day I was preparing my primary lesson which happened to be on families.  As I was looking for pictures of my family I came across these gems:

 There is proof that my dad had dark hair at one point--even though I don't remember it ;). 

His nickname at work was the Silver Fox for good reason as you can see in the next pic:

You can tell both of those were taken a LONG time ago.  The last one was before Aaron and I had kids so I can't even remember that far back hahaha :).  Was there life before having kids?!

We finally got our first tomatoes from our garden.  Now Sarah and Noah LOVE tomatoes.  Aaron didn't have any trouble getting a taste tester volunteer.

 Yup, it passed the Bubba test.

Noah has decided sleeping in a bed is for chumps.  Every night after I tuck him in his bed, when I come back to check on him a few hours later he is always on the floor.  This is what I found the other night:

 I guess the trucks and cars take priority over Noah.  All the cars and trucks were all tucked in nicely in his bed while Noah was huddled up asleep on the floor.  What a crazy kid. I do put him back in bed again every night, but it is his choice whether he wants to stay there or not.  He will surely be ready for those boy scout camp outs on the hard ground...

Matthew got his braces on last week.  Here's the before shot:

 He is so funny.  He knew he was going to see the orthodontist so he dug around until he found his orthodontic t-shirt that he could wear to the office.  He did that completely on his own without any suggestions.  He can be a little OCD that way, but he was excited to wear it nonetheless.

The hardest part of getting his braces on was not being able to talk.  Not that he didn't try again and again and again.  The assistant was pretty patient even though she had to remind him to STOP talking about a bazillion times.  Matthew just has A LOT to say all the time.

 Here's the after:

 He was so excited that he had to show them off to EVERYONE at Kids in the Park and even to all the parents who were dropping their kids, too.  We have been pretty nervous to see how he'd tolerate them, but so far so good.  Hopefully it will stay that way for the whole time he has to wear them.

We decided to make the most of Aaron's furlough time since he has extra time off.  He now gets off at 2:30 every day and gets every Friday off.  This is one positive thing that came from the furlough--however, it doesn't quite offset the 20% pay cut, though.  In trying to stay positive at least Aaron still has a job so I will stop complaining.    I do have to add that we have been blessed.  Aaron called up AT&T and said that he had been furloughed and they actually gave us a free month.  We also had to take Aaron's car in to get tires.  His two front tires were bulging ready to blow out.  Doh!!  I HATE spending money on tires!!  Anyway, we were just going to replace the two front tires because the two back tires were not the best, but still drivable.  After seeing all the tires the Discount Tire guy recommended we replace all of them.  Aaron explained why we were only replacing two which was because of the furlough and the Discount Tire guy bent over backwards to help.  He said that the owner of the Discount Tire was very supportive of the military and wanted to help out.  We ended up getting all four tires replaced with nice tires at almost the same price as the two cheap tires we had originally picked out.  We are truly counting our blessings! 

Anyway, Thursday afternoon since Aaron got off early enough 2:30 pm we headed down to Trafalga to take advantage of our Pass of all Passes which got us in for free.  The kids rode a lot of the rides.  Here is Noah (on the end) looking quite scared, Josh and Matthew riding the Frog Hopper.

 Here they are waiting for their turn to ride the mini Tidal Wave:

 Notice how everyone is wet?  We went on the bumper boats beforehand.  We all had fun except at the end it turned into everyone gang up on mom and Noah to see how wet you could get us.  Good thing it was a very HOT day so I wasn't complaining about being soaked.  All the kids (including Aaron) thought it was hilarious to corner mom (me) and get her as wet as possible.  I don't think boys every grow up they just get bigger....:).

Another ride:

 The hydraulic gizmo that runs the ride made a loud sound so that's why Sarah is covering her ears.

The go karts were fun, but Daniel was too little to drive one himself.  He was sad about it, but Aaron came up with a solution.  Aaron worked the pedals while he let Daniel steer.  Aaron feared for his life, but Daniel thought it was great.  Aaron is a brave soul!!

 We tried mini golf, but after the first hole it turned into a free for all.  By the end we were missing three golf balls and a few kids.  We ended up finding the kids, but the golf balls are lost never to be heard from or seen again.  I have no idea where they ended up.

The next morning Josh had cub scout day camp.  He was so excited he made sure he had all his stuff laid out the night before.  They were leaving at 6:45 am the next morning, but Josh got up at 5 am to shower and get dressed.  He was so excited to go.  Needless to say he wasn't late in showing up.  He did have to wait around for about an hour until I would let him wander over to the cub scout leader's house, though.

While Josh was gone we took the rest of the kids and used our family pass to the Union Station Museums.  Here's the kids checking out the luggage scale:

 Looking at the model trains:

 When we got home from the train museum we met up with Josh who had a ton of fun at day camp.  He did have one accident where he got a nice gash on his elbow and knees from tripping over a rock and falling down a hill, but other than that he had fun. 

We had a quick dinner, met up with G&G T and headed over to the Pioneer Days Rodeo in Ogden.  A few weeks ago a radio station was giving out free tickets to the rodeo and we went and picked some up.  We got enough for our family and for G&G T as well.  They came up and met us and we headed over to the rodeo together.  It was sure hot, but fun watching the rodeo.  However, I had fed Daniel some leftover homemade chili for lunch.  I quickly realized that was a very bad idea since I was sitting down wind of him during the rodeo.  Down-winders certainly got a new meaning for me--whew!!!  There were a few times I had to ask him if he had turned his whitey tighties into some frownie-brownies :(.  It was bad, but Grandpa and I survived it.  We should have gotten hazard pay though!!  It was hot, but the rodeo sponsors handed out fans at the gate which was awesome!!  Here  are most of us on the bench waiting for the rodeo to begin. Noah was climbing up the stands and Aaron was chasing after him.  Noah was probably trying to get away from Daniel and his post chili smell.  I don't blame the poor guy!!

We got home really late from the rodeo so the next day everyone was tired, but we headed out for more adventure.  That morning we went and used our Passes and got into the water park where we spent a chunk of the day.  Why does swimming make you so tired?!  By the time we were heading home everyone was 'Chuckles' or EXTREMELY ornery.  I have never heard so much fighting and whining!!  However, the longer we drove the quieter it got.  Here you can see why:

 Poor Josh!  All the craziness from the previous two days caught up to him and he was passed out cold in the car.  The rest of the kids did, too, but they woke up when we stopped at the store to pick something up really fast.  Josh slept through all of it.  He was TIRED!!

 Anyway, we have almost recovered from our crazy weekend.  It was business as usual yesterday.  The older three boys had their Kids in the Park field trip to Fat Cats in Ogden.  When they got home I was feeling brave and tried to go out grocery shopping with everyone.  That was a big mistake.  Whenever I feel like I have this parenting thing down it only takes one trip to five stores with five kids alone to remind me that I don't and will not ever have this parenting thing down!!  I think that trip wore me out more than our weekend did!!  By the time Aaron got home from work I put myself in time out and took a nice long hot bath.

Noah loves riding the wiggle cars.  He will sneak out every chance he gets (usually while I am in the bathroom or showering) to ride them.  However, he uses his toes as the brakes.  The whole summer his big toes have been bloody.  You think he would stop dragging his toes as his brakes, but nope, he keeps doing it.  I finally took a picture yesterday of his poor toes.  This isn't even that bad.  Usually they look a LOT worse.  What a crazy kid!!  I think he may have a high pain tolerance--what do you think?!

Occasionally I will treat myself to a Sonic drink just for a coping mechanism :).  Hey it's cheaper than therapy!!  Anyway, the boys used to get paid piano bucks according to how much they practiced.  Well this morning Sarah found an old piano buck and was so excited to get some money.  She excitedly yelled down the stairs, "Mom I got some monies!!"  She then said in the same breath, "I can get a Sonic drink now!!"  Maybe she needs some 'therapy', too.  Face palm moment--what am I teaching my kids?!?

 Speaking of Sarah, she was telling Aaron about primary on Sunday.  She said, "Dad I was so reverent in primary today.  I didn't even fart!"  Poor girl--you can definitely tell she has four brothers!!

Josh broke his new prescription glasses.  Good thing he still has another pair.  I am just hoping this pair will last longer than two months like the first pair did.  Good thing we only spent $10 on them!!

Chaos, Cold, Knives

Noah has turned out to be one of our most observant children which can be bad at times.  If I need to open a package I usually grab a knife and slice it open.  Well monkey see monkey do--Noah wanted a banana and couldn't get it open so he grabbed a knife and started slicing.  Good thing we caught him before he sliced his finger off!!  However, this is not an isolated incident, though.  If he can't get anything opened including Pop Tart wrappers he heads over to grab a knife.  We have to keep an eye (or an ear) out for the knife drawer being opened because he is quite sneaky.  He is getting quite good at pulling that 'what...me?' face as you can see.

 After we built our house they never stained the stairs going from the back door into the garage.  I was ok with it, but it has been bothering Aaron for a while.  It became worse after the summer because the kids let their popsicles melt all over the wood and stained it all kinds of colors.  Finally Aaron had had enough and sanded and stained it.  The boys were really excited to help paint when they saw him get out the paint brushes.  When we went to pick up the paint Josh asked me when Aunt Jill was coming since we never paint anything without her around.  They were surprised when we said she wasn't coming, but we were still painting.  Aaron got lots of 'help' during the job.

 Last Monday (9 days ago yes I know I am severly behind in blogging) the kids had the day off from school.  We met some friends at the Dinosaur Park and played for a few hours.  It was nice to let the kids run off some energy and get some adult conversation in.  Here's all the kids feeding the ducks and seagulls in the pond.

About a month ago during Sunday quiet time Josh dropped his ipod in his room and cracked the screen and shattered the corner of it.  I don't think it would have broken if he had kept the case cover on it, but after multiple times of me telling him to keep the case cover on he still took it off and that's when he dropped it and cracked the screen and shattered a corner.  It still works, but the more he uses it the worse the damage gets.  We have told Josh we will replace the screen if he will earn the money to replace it with.  He has been working hard to earn that money.  Aaron even told him he would earn extra money if he changed one of Noah's dirty diapers.  Aaron waited until it was a really bad diaper and then got Josh to change it.  Josh wasn't excited about it, but that's what happens when you don't listen to your Mom!!!

 Noah has turned into a little stinker lately.  The other day for lunch I made a green smoothy.  The kids drank theirs and asked for seconds.  I poured them another glass and then went over to do some laundry.  When I came back I found that they had poured out their seconds all over the bar and were finger painting with them.  **Sigh** A Mother's job is never done, literally!!  I feel like all I do all day is clean up messes.  Good thing I love my kids because I would have quit this gig a while ago!!

 Friday night was movie night, but the kids had had a fun filled busy day.  About half way through the movie Noah noticed Sarah had fallen asleep.  Being the good little brother he was he went over to crawl all over her.  Thankfully when he did wake her up she didn't get mad at him she just gave him a love.  I can't say that anyone else would have done that....

 Saturday night Aaron and I got a mini date.  We had football tickets and had arranged baby sitting two weeks in advance with G&G T for Saturday night.  However, early that week my Grandmother (my Dad's Mom) had fallen ill and was taken to the hospital and it looked like she was going to pass away.  Also my other Grandpa (my Mom's Dad) had broken some vertebrae in his back and was in the hospital as well.  We had given up on going on our date due to the circumstances, but when Saturday rolled around my Grandma was still in the hospital with her condition mostly unchanged from her admission and my Grandpa had been transferred to a Rehabilitation Center.  My mom was willing to sit with the kids after we had fed them and gotten them ready for bed so we could go to the game.  We grabbed a quick bite to eat and then headed over.  Unfortunately there was a big snowstorm the evening before and they didn't clear the snow off the cheap seats.  We froze.  The game started at 8:15 pm and ended about 11:30pm.  By the end we couldn't feel our toes. 

 We did get some hot chocolate and enjoyed a huge back of roasted almonds since we never get to eat that at home due to someone's food allergy.  They were tasty!!

 It was a nice date/break.  However, my Grandma ended up passing away early this morning.  I am sad, but glad to know she isn't sick anymore.  My Grandpa is doing well and getting stronger.  Hopefully he will be able to return back to his home soon.

Noah's been excited about seeing all the boys' snowboots.  He likes to put them on and wear them around the house.  It's funny to try and see him walk in them.  He thinks he is big stuff.

 Sarah thinks she is big stuff, too.  She is learning how to write her name in preschool and decided to practice on my dining table with green crayon. 

Good thing I love my kids is all I can say.....

 

However, they can be cute sometimes.  Today Sarah was boxing on the Wii with Matthew.  Noah wanted to play so he just picked up a random remote and copied everything Sarah did so he could play, too.  They both giggled and thought it was pretty funny.  This almost made me forget about my 'autographed' table....almost...

Blackmail, School, End of Summer and Temple Time

I always love me some blackmail pictures.  The other day Noah came out of Sarah's room wearing her mismatched 'glass slippers' as she calls them and toting around his baby.  I wonder what he will think of this picture in about 15 years---or more importantly what his girlfriend will think--mhwawawawawa (evil maniacal laughter)!!  I can't wait...

Once Sarah saw me take a picture of Noah she came over and insisted I take a picture of her in her nightgown wearing her backpack. What a crazy girl.

 These last two weeks have been super busy.  Since it was the last two weeks of summer I tried to fill them full of fun activities.  One day I took the kids to the splash pad.  Of course with all the fun fountains spraying everywhere Sarah and Noah were more interested in the drinking fountain.  Isn't that how it is, though?! 

 I finally got them away from the drinking fountain and they played in the spraying water for a while.  Josh, Daniel and Matthew were off running here and there between the playground and fountains so I didn't get a good picture of them playing.

 After the splash pad we had tickets to go and see the Brigham City Temple open house.  We drove to the designated parking spot and then we were bussed over to the temple.  The kids were excited to get on the tour bus.

The temple was so pretty.  I snapped a picture through the bus window.  It was a perfect day to see the temple.

 When we got there we were ushered in to see a short film about the temples.  G&G T came along with us, too.  We were thankful for their company and for the extra set of hands to help.  As you can see they were put right to work when Daniel needed his shoes tied...again and again and again. 

 After the tour we wandered the grounds for a bit.  Here's our family in front of the doors to the temple.  It was so pretty inside.  Brigham City's theme is peaches so they incorporated peach trees and peach blossoms throughout the whole temple.  You could see pictures of the blossoms worked into the window decorations, paintings and the carpets.  My description doesn't even do it justice.  Just take my word for it--it was beautiful.

 The next day I took the kids bowling.  Sarah found her sunglasses in the car and insisted on wearing them wherever we went.  Heaven help the poor soul who tries to take them off her!  I tried once and I thought I was going to get my hand bitten off.  Don't come between a girl and her glasses!!  She is so strong willed!  It will be interesting to see how she does in preschool for the first time this year.  I think I will drop her off on her first day and just wish her teachers luck...

 I have to say that very rarely do I get a bit of luck.  However, on this particular bowling day I got my chance.  I got four strikes in a row which I have never done before.  Let me just say it was not skill, but luck because even after a whole summer of bowling I am not much better than where I started from.  Oh well I had to add my picture because things like this very rarely happen to me and when they do I need to celebrate!!

We had a new family move in next to us and they have kids all the same ages as my kids except Matthew.  They have a little girl who is Sarah's age and really into dressing up.  She has gotten Sarah really excited into dressing up as well.  The other day Sarah came out of her room wearing this outfit concoction:  Who knew that Snow White could pull off the Fairy Wing look?!

 Last Saturday we tried out the Syracuse Farmer's Market.  It was not busy at all and that was to our favor.  They had lots of prize booths and that's when it pays to have a big family.  Suh-weet!!  Everyone got a turn at the prize wheel and won something (mostly flashlights and measuring tapes).  Noah was excited when it was finally his turn to spin the wheel-o-prizes.

 They also had a football toss that everyone got a turn at.  We won even more flashlights and measuring tapes.

 They also had a free temporary tattoo station and a face painting station as well.  All the kids had to get something.

 Matthew chose a tree frog tattoo on his arm.  They assured us that the tattoos were temporary, but his tree frog is still on his arm two weeks later.  Hmmmm either that is some strong temporary tattoo ink or Matthew is not scrubbing too hard in the shower....something I would rather not think about.  Anyway, Sarah chose a princess for her face painting.

 Josh chose a Captain America symbol.

Daniel who worships Josh got a Captain America symbol painted on his cheek as well.

 

After the Farmer's Market Matthew got to attend his very first 11 year old scout meeting.  Here he is sporting his new (outrageously expensive) scout shirt.  Wow scout things really add up fast!!  Good thing we will be able to pass this down through the ranks of Josh, Daniel, and Noah.  I am hoping that it will hold up through Noah because that will be a lot of wear and tear.

This last Tuesday I wanted to do something we hadn't done before.  I heard about Thanksgiving Point's $2 Tuesdays through the month of August so we thought we would go down and check it out.  Wow, it seemed like everyone else had that great idea, too.  The place was mobbed!  We only got a chance to check out the petting zoo/animal section because there were so many people.  What we did see was fun, though.  We got to learn about cows, milk, chicken and eggs.

 Then we got to go around and pet the different animals.

 The kids all got a chance to ride horses as well.  Noah thought he was pretty big stuff when he got to crawl on the horse just like all his other siblings.  Josh even got to ride a horse instead of a pony this time so he actually enjoyed it unlike what happened at the Davis County Fair.

 Noah just like touching anything and everything.  This computer kept him occupied for a bit.

 After being there for a bit Grandma T came over to see it with us.  I was thankful for the company and the help.  We got to go on a wagon ride around the fields surrounding Thanksgiving Point.

 Then they had a few fun buildings set up for everyone to see.  They had a mock jail set up and all the kids thought it was fun to hang out behind bars.  Hopefully this is the only time they find it fun to hang out behind bars.

 Afterward we headed over to the Highland City splash pad the let the kids play for a few hours.  Then we headed home.  All the kids fell asleep on the way home except Matthew who had to keep an eye out for trains.  He even brought his train calendar along so he could know the names of any trains he saw.

 Last week Sarah found her long lost Snow White purse and hasn't put it down since.  She made me let her wear it bowling and she refused to take it off her shoulder no matter what.  She bowled with it, walked around with it, climbed all over the chairs with it....  She was pretty funny.

 The next day we had to go to pick up school supplies for the boys and she even wore her purse into the store.  However, after a little while she got tired of carrying her purse and walking so she gave her purse to Aaron and requested loves.  Aaron, who can't turn down any request from his little girl ever, gave in.  Good thing Aaron is comfortable enough with his manliness to be able to carry a sparkly red Snow White purse all around Walmart.  Good thing he loves his little girl!

 I can't believe this summer is over already!!  To celebrate our last day of freedom we had a BBQ at our house.  We set up the big blow up water slide that we borrowed from G&G T and invited all of my family over.  All the cousins had fun playing with each other and the adults had fun talking and eating.  It was a nice ending to a fun summer.

The first day of school was yesterday and the house seemed so quiet without the three oldest kiddos hanging around.  Here's Daniel getting ready for his first ALL DAY day of school.  The house was so quiet without my little chatter box following me around the house.  I still can't believe he is old enough to be in first grade.  You can tell because when I was getting some shirts for school clothes I ended up buying a shirt that was size 4/5.  DOH!!  I guess I will hold on to that one for Noah to wear in a few years.  Whoops!  I still think of my Daniel boy as a small 4 year old boy, but he is almost 7 years old.  Makes me a little sad to see him getting so big!

 Josh the big fourth grader was excited to start up school again and to see his friends.  Before school started we did our measurements of all the kids and Josh and Matthew only are about a 1/2 inch apart in height.  Josh is such a tall boy!  He is all the way up to my chin.  He is growing way too fast!  In speaking of Josh we have been slowly decreasing his Topomax medication to wean him off of it.  He is doing great so far and stayed seizure free.  We are keeping our fingers crossed it stays that way.  Also Josh requested tie shoes for school this year.  Seeing as I have been a slacker mom, I still have not taught my kids how to tie their shoes.  I just take the easy way out and buy Z tie shoes or velcro every year.  Well Aaron spent an hour with Josh patiently trying to teach him how to tie shoe a few weeks ago.  Josh learned how so he got some tie shoes.  However, once he actually got to wear the shoes he confessed he had forgotten how to tie them.  DOH!!  I guess he will have to learn fast or I will need to be tying his shoes for him every morning which does not sound appealing....Sigh... 

 Matthew was excited to get going in school again.  I still can't believe I have a 6th grader!!  He is at a whole new school this year so we will wait and see how things progress these next few weeks.

 This picture about sums up my feelings about the first day---WAHOO!!  We all survived the summer!!  Now on to homework, schedules, and relearning how to tie shoes....