Roaring Springs and Surprises

This week has been mostly kind of long and boring. We haven't really been out much. I haven't wanted to take the kids out because Gabby is still in recovery. So we spent a lot of time indoors. Gabby has done really well all week. Her scabs are still on so we will see if she has a rough time when they come off.

On Tuesday Corbin and I slipped away the whole day. We went to Roaring Springs and had a blast. He got a free pass through his school and we went with our friends so I could get in half price. We hung out with my friend and her kids all day. We mostly did what they wanted to do. It was fun but I was pretty excited when they left at 5:00 because the rest of the time Corbin and I went on rides up until the park was almost closed. We had a blast. Corbin is barely tall enough to go on all of the rides and lucky for me he is super brave so we went on all them except for the ones that you wait in line just so you can terrifyingly free fall to the bottom landing with a major wedgy. No thank you! We had a great time, I think he and I should slip away sometime when we are in Salt Lake and have ourselves a day at Lagoon.

On Friday I was gone for a big part of the day taking care of the food for a funeral. I also went to a bridal shower that night. On Friday my mom called and asked if they could crash at our house on Saturday because she and my dad and my brother Keaton and my sister Trisha were coming over. They wanted to surprise my brother Hart and be there when he got called as a Bishop today. Hart called my parents and told them about it and my mom said they couldn't come because they were speaking in church this Sunday. When she got off the phone my dad said they couldn't miss that so they got our of their speaking assignments and decided to make it a surprise. Keaton and Trisha drove to my parents house from Rexburg and Rigby and jumped in the car with them. They came over and we went and saw Lance and Katie's new house and then went and stuffed our faces at The Golden Corral. After that we came back to my house. It was a beautiful evening so we went and spent some time at DeMeyer park. When we got home we watched the movie based on the true story and book called The Prize Winner of Definace, Ohio. We all enjoyed that. Trisha and Keaton had the pleasure of sleeping on our triple bunk bed. Ha.

We got up and headed over to Hart's 9:00 am sacrament meeting. He was very surprised to see all of us. The sacrament meeting was very good with the old Bishop and his wife speaking and with Hart and Jory speaking. After he was set apart we came back to my house and had a delicious lunch that my mom had prepared and then they headed out.

Another exciting thing is that my dad was called as a temple sealer in the Idaho Falls temple a few months ago. He was also just recently called as the first counselor in the temple presidency. This will bring some changes to my parents lives. They may have to get a hired hand to work the farm and they may have to get an apartment in Idaho Falls as they will be serving in the temple 3 days a week. It should be interesting for sure.

Oh and lastly we had a few tithing miracles this week. Our starter engine on our van broke down. We were going to have to pay for a tow truck and pay for a new part totaling  around $470. Scott decided to call a guy in our ward to come and check it out and he was able to buy the part at a discount and fix it for us right in our garage. He didn't even want to get paid but Scott paid him anyway. With the part and labor it cost us only $170. Sweet. Also we were trying to get on a payment plan at St. Lukes for our Ryan bill and they sent us a letter reducing his bill by $3,770. Amazing! In not so exciting news our second flat screen TV died on us this week. So annoying! We moved our little bedroom TV out to the front room. I'm not in any hurry to go and buy another brand new TV. We don't seem to have good luck with those.

Kids:
Corbin: "That is seriously dangerous."
"Gabby it's really heavy. It weighs like a pound."

Piper:
Piper coming down the hall, "mommy here I am."
"He is a rascally little devil."
"Mom, I was crying and freaking out and throwing a tantrum."
(Ryan was crying in the car) "Don't be a whiny pants."

Corbin likes to trap Ryan. It's pretty funny.

Tonsil Town

The big event this week was Gabby's tonsillectomy. I've been worried about it for awhile. She's been so mature and brave about the whole thing. On Wednesday night we dropped off Corbin and Piper at Anna's house. When we left and she didn't get to stay she only cried for like 5 seconds. We went to the library and picked out some movies for post surgery recovery and ate some late night Oreos before sending her to bed. We rose early and dropped off Ryan at a friend's house and headed to the hospital. We checked in and waited together in the waiting room. Gabby colored pictures until they were finally ready to send us back. By that point she was asking if we could go home.

We went to a room where the nurse took her vitals and we briefly met with the doctors. She was getting pretty nervous by this point and so was I. They gave her some medicine to make her kind of out of it so that it would be easier for her to part with us. When the time came the nurse picked her up and I gave her a hug and a kiss and off she went. She didn't even protest. She's been so cooperative about everything which has been great.

After about 30 minutes the doctor came and said he was done and all was well. About 30 minutes after that they let us go back and be with her. She looked so cute all tiny in her hospital bed. The nurses said she was a perfect little patient. She was super out of it in the hospital. She wasn't acting strange but she was really zoned out and tired. We hung out for about and hour and then we headed home.

My visiting teacher picked up Corbin and Piper in Eagle so Corbin could go to his last swim lesson. I met them there. Piper saw me and said, "mom, you're back!" Corbin did great with his swim lessons this year. He moved on to the next level. He's a natural athlete. He's very coordinated, unlike me. It's been fun to watch his lessons.

Gabby has been handling her recovery really well. She's had the hardest time today but she already seems to be over her low point which wasn't bad. She's pretty much eating normal foods. I'm not going to let her eat something crazy like tortilla chips but she's handling foods well. I'm not looking forward to when the scabs fall off which I hear is the worst. I'm also not looking forward to trying to keep her inactive for 14 days. I don't think we are going to be able to wait that long. She was asking to ride her bike yesterday. I don't know, I know she needs to keep it easy but that seems like a daunting task for an active 4 year old in the summertime.

Kids:

Corbin:
Nana sent a package this week for Gabby's surgery. Upon opening the box Corbin said, "I hope it's not clothes." (Luckily there was a water toy among the clothes).
I broke the screen on my phone a month ago and now it's cutting me and I have to use it with saran wrap to not get cut. Corbin said to me, "I know why your phone is broken, it's because you didn't take very good care of it." Yep.

Gabby: "I have some hiccups going on."

Piper: "Nana gave that to me. It was wonderful."
"Uh oh mama! Baby Ryan is a crabby little boy. You have to put him to bed."
(Talking about the yolk of her boiled egg). "I want to eat the golden egg because it was magic." How do they come up with this stuff?

Ryan is army crawling all through the house. I have to go looking for him often. I sure hope we can keep this baby safe. It's hard to have lots of little kids that may leave inappropriate things on the ground. I've pretty much gotten rid of the tiny stuff like marbles and things like that. He cut another tooth last week. He still spits up all day everyday. It's getting very old. He's our super cute disgusting stinking baby. He is so cute though, I just want to eat his chubby face. Ha.

Corbin wanted to make cookies so I guided him. By golly he pretty much did it all by himself and they were delicious!

Belly flop!

Ha!

Cute Pipes didn't take a nap one day and just fell fast asleep right after dinner.

Picking and shelling peas with daddy

Someone left a bag full of waffles on the floor. Ryan tore right into them. He was loving it.

A late night treat before surgery. (Notice Gabby's chest, she got a major burn last Sunday). Ouch!

Coloring in the waiting room

Waiting for her surgery. Getting clingy and nervous.

Right after the surgery. Doesn't she look great?

I jumped right in bed with her and had some cuddles until we got to leave. I bought her some princess shoes for being so brave.

Eating an ice cream sandwich after her surgery. Notice she's wearing her princess heals. You can't keep a princess down.

Swimming and Father's Day

Corbin finished his first week of swim lessons. I love watching him swim. We also went swimming for several hours with Anna and her kids twice last week. Anna has access to a neighborhood pool right by her parent's house so she invited us to come as well. On Wednesday Scott was home so I left Ryan and Piper to nap and took the older kids. On Thursday he was gone so I took all the kids. They did really well especially since it was both Piper and Ryan's nap time. They had a blast. They have a great kiddie pool that Gabby and Piper lived in. I even had Ryan swim for the first time. He was a trooper. I think he liked it. He didn't cry so that's good. The water wasn't too cold so that was nice. Other than that this week we mostly went to the park, rode our bikes, and did yard work.

We broke down and had our carpets cleaned on Friday. They were so disgusting! Unfortunately Ryan still spits up 500 times a day. For the last two days we've been keeping him mostly in the kid room but I mean really how long can that last? Especially since he can army crawl himself right out of there. He somehow managed to barf a few times in the front room even though he was on the carpet for like 2 minutes. Ryan! (The carpet for now looks so much better)!

Last night our friends invited us over for dinner. That was a good time. It's kind of hard to actually communicate with each other when there are 7 kids under 6 but we did alright. 

For Father's Day I made Scott a candy graham poster. I love those things. I got one from my aunt Alison when I got baptized and I thought it was the best! I made Scott his favorite breakfast casserole for breakfast. For dinner he cooked his own ribs and he did a good job too. I don't really like ribs but I tasted a bite and they were good. We also had his favorite zebra dessert afterwards. I'm sure glad my kids have a great dad. It seems like a luxury these days.

Happy Fathers Day to my father in law and my dad. I told my kids they had a posterity of great dads. Scott's dad is very generous and diligent. He is an amazing grandfather. My dad is my hero. He is the hardest worker I know. He is true blue through and through. I think I've always been a bit of a daddy's girl. I would stay up late at night and watch TV with him. I remember going with him to Jerome to the cattle sale. We would go to the auction and then get burgers afterward. When I was in college he drove down to San Diego with me and when we were driving through Southern California he started telling me all kinds of mission stories. Good times. Love you dad!

Kids:
Piper can give some serious dirty looks. She knows it too. Lately when she's been doing it she says, "I'm dirty look." Another thing she's been doing is if she has a time out as soon as she gets out she says, "I was freaking out. I was rude." She also likes to say everything is amazing. At swim lessons someone went down the slide and she squealed with delight and yelled, "that was amazing!" Oh Piper! Funny girl.

Gabby: "A bee was by me." Corbin: "It probably thought you were a flower." Gabby: "but I wasn't, I was a human."

Big boy! I love this Stinky Pete.

Ryan first time swimming. My hat looks so much more glamorous in my head. Oh well! It was sweet to wear in the water. For real!

There is a book series called "Fancy Nancy." I love it because Nancy is just like Gabby. Such a girly girl!

Graduation, Rigby, and Old Friends

Love this!

It's been a busy week. I spent Monday making giant gourmet cookies for some staff members at Corbin's school. I'm not super out going so it's kind of awkward for me to get to know everyone. I know that the secretary and the principal recognize me because I volunteer a lot but I wanted them to know my name as well. I'm a bit of a brown noser I guess. I just want to form relationships so that I can have some negotiating power if I need it in the future. The secretary told me the next day at school that it was the best chocolate chip cookie she's ever eaten.The principal saw me and thanked me again at Corbin's Kindergarten graduation. Oh yeah! I felt like a dork doing it but I'm glad I did. I also made cupcakes for Corbin's Kindergarten graduation that day as well.

Tuesday Corbin graduated from Kindergarten. It's been a good year. The kids sang some songs and they called out each of their names to get their diploma and had cupcakes afterwards. 

Wednesday was the last day of school. We picked up Corbin and had a picnic in the park. Later that day we went to a neighborhood ice cream party celebration. I made tin foil dinners and we ate them at the park and the kids and Scott floated the ditch. It was a great kick off to summer.

Scott's MTC companion called during the week inviting us to their baby blessing that they were doing in Idaho Falls. They haven't seen each other in 6 years. My sister lives in Rigby so we decided we would make a weekend of it. I really like going to my sister's house in the summertime. She has a big fun yard and our kids have tons of fun playing. 

We left Friday and mostly just hung out and ate Trisha's yummy meals she prepared for us the whole weekend. Bless her! On Saturday we met up and hung out with the Guthries for a few hours. We got Fiesta Ole to go and went and ate it at Porter park in Rexburg. I love Fiesta Ole! Rexburg is more developed every time I see it. It actually makes me a little sad. I kind of miss the old Rexburg that I knew and loved. Oh well. Life moves on. Saturday night Trisha and I watched Jane Eyre. My brother Keaton who goes to BYU-I came down both Friday and Saturday night to eat and hang out with us for awhile. On Sunday we went to church with my sister. The baby blessing was at Melissa's sisters house at 3:00. We loaded our kids up and 3/4 of them fell asleep on the way. Scott popped in and visited with them for a minute and we said our goodbyes. (We should have snagged a picture, doy)!

We drove to my parents house to stay for the night. My brother Alex is working for my dad for 5 weeks this summer so he and his family were there. Hart and Jory came Sunday night as well to pick up their ski boat they like to store in Arco for the winter. It was great to get my mom's Sunday dinner. We went up and checked out my grandma's house to see what Alex has been working on. We rode our bikes for a bit and had a smores in the fire pit. We decided we wanted to go ahead and drive home rather than endure a hot night with a fussy baby so at 8:45 pm we hit the road. 

Corbin started swim lessons today. I love to watch him learn how to swim.

Kid Quotes:

Corbin:

"Stop, stop, stop tell her to stop. It's too loud, I can't handle it." (Piper was talking about her book in the car and she is loud and incessant).

Gabby:
"Mom, my tummy's growling for mint oreos." Mine too. Always.

Piper:

"Oh look at her, she is beautiful."

"Pinky pie said that. She said, "hold on a second!" She was silly."

With her arms outstretched talking about a strawberry she said, "I got the biggest one in the world!"

"We have to find daddy. He's in Texas."

"Mom, Corbin pushed me. That wasn't nice."

Piper was sitting in her shoe bucket and when I told her to get out she said that it wasn't for 2 year olds.

This boy is so big!

Corbin's teacher Mrs. Poole. Love her!

Cute Corby.

Gabby's castle

These cupcakes were good!

Oh baby.

I love sleeping kids. So cute.

I don't even think I realized Piper could sing this song until I took this video. Ha! Ryan's beautiful singing in the background. We often call him Scuttle from Little Mermaid.

How do you do to...day! I love that video cut off. Ha.

Tucanos

Our Memorial Day was pretty good. Our cul-de-sac did it's annual BBQ and basketball game. I thought last year they weren't going to do it anymore but we were happy they decided to do it again. We enjoyed some delicious food and Scott played some hot sweaty ball for a bit. I made a few batches of cookies after my failed attempt the day before. Luckily these turned out and I was able to take some to the BBQ and give a few plates to the families that watched our kids while we gave our talks.

I'm ready for school to be done. I was talking to Corbin about how he had just finished his last homework packet. He was very excited until I told him I was going to still work with him over the summer to which he said in tears, "I need a break." True that!

I took Gabby to the ear, nose, and throat specialist and we went ahead and scheduled her tonsillectomy. Gabby snores like a trucker. It's crazy. I'm going to be very glad when that is over and she is recovered.

On Friday we finally used our Tucanos birthday coupon and went out before it expired. The food was excellent and our kids thought it was the greatest. Kids are cute!

Kids
Corbin loves science, he is so excited because he got a booklet from school with a bunch of at home experiments and he wants to do all of them right now. We've done several already.

Gabby quotes:
Talking about Ryan, "I like him so much, even though he barfs."
Talking to Piper in her room, "I'm gonna scratch your head off!" Ha!

Piper:
"Mom, can you leave? You need to take a nap. (Ha, she wanted me out of her business).
To Corbin, "Go away you bum, I am busy."
"Momma! Momma! (shrieking followed by quick relief) Oh there you are. I was just rying (crying)."
While we were at Tucanos they came out to wish someone a happy birthday and she said "I hate music."

Piper: "I'm in my princess dress." Gabby: "Your ball gown you mean."

Ryan cut 2 teeth this week. He's been a bit crabby understandably. He's barely 7 months and has 5 teeth. Oh and he's army crawling everywhere. Slow down baby!

I think he was pretty proud of himself to find this unoccupied.

Our neighbors had a bounce house for some reason and let our kids jump for about 20 minutes. Fun times.

Ha! Love Gabby in that picture.

Piper is sort of learning how to ride. I ran that over last year so I'm not too sure how easy it is to ride.

Ha! I love that they are huddled around the movie player and that they are all leaning on their elbows.

Cutest!

Gabby at the doctor's office.