School Begins

Last week I cleaned and junked and cleaned and junked some more. I am very close to having my house all cleared out. It's very exciting. I even sold my treadmill. I will miss it but it is too crowded in this small space. Luckily we live about a mile from the DI because I took many trips there. I sold stuff on Craigslist and gave stuff away on Craigslist and I went to the Boise dump for the first time. Now we actually have a little more space for some more food storage which will be good.

Gabby and Corbin started school last week. Gabby didn't even cry she just walked right in. I didn't cry either actually. Her very best friend Audelia is in her class along with 6 other kids from our ward. I think that made a huge difference. Plus she was super ready to go. Corbin ended up in a 2-1 combo class which I'm not thrilled about but he does have a very good teacher so hopefully it will be alright.

It was so wonderful running errands with only two minions instead of four. Plus Piper could just talk, talk, talk to me in the car without interruption or competition.

Scott's car was falling apart piece by piece. He's always said that he wanted his next car to be a toyota avalon like his parents. I hopped on Craigslist and found one almost exactly like his parents same color and everything. So we will be twinners. I sold our falling apart car on Craigslist the next day. That was nice to get cash in hand. I had a few people trying to scam me on e-mails. I dislike dishonest people. Well that is all.

First day of Kindergarten. She practically ran to school the whole way she was so excited.

Second day of Second Grade.

Cute school kids. Love them!

Clearing out the Junk

All last week I mostly cleaned and purged my house of stuff. I think a key factor for me being happy in a small house is keeping the stuff to a minimum. We have an over crowded house and since I can't get rid of any people I'm getting rid of the stuff. I've DI'd tons of stuff and sold things on Craigslist and this is only the beginning! It feels so good. My main big project is the garage. It is so overly crowded I can't wait until it's clean and organized. Mostly I need to get Scott to get rid of some of his stuff, he tends to collect things and hold onto things. I also want him to build some more shelves in there as well.

We got the rest of the carpet in on Tuesday. Getting new carpet is a great time to rethink about what's worth putting back. I'm now used to my new carpet and I love it! It feels like we are in a brand new home. It's great. Plus it helps that I've been in serious manic mode and have been cleaning like crazy. It is lookin' good. The kids were total couch potatoes this week. Between the poor air quality and my cleaning mission there weren't too many alternatives. Oh well, I figure it's the last week of summer vacation so enjoy while you can.

I finished up with my fitness classes at the park. They wanted me to continue doing it and I almost did but then I decided I didn't want to do it anymore. I didn't want to feel pressured into doing it longer than I wanted to. I did that for 2 months and it was fun. Another girl in the group is going to continue on the workouts so that will be great.

School starts tomorrow. Gabby will be going to Kindergarten. She seems excited but nervous and scared as well. Wish us luck!

The kids slept on their mattresses Monday night because we had to clear out all the furniture for new carpet. 

I wanted patio furniture but I didn't want to spend a lot of money so I found some things at thrift stores and with some vision from my sister in law Jory voila', patio furniture. 

We decided we didn't want to move back Scott's ugly giant desk back into the office so I went on the hunt and came home an hour later with this beauty. I got it for $30 at a thrift store and it's real wood! It's super nice and awesome! Score. I also found a shoe rack at DI for $5. My closet is starting to look more clean and organized!

We did do one last end of summer, impromptu late night trip to Sonic for half price shakes.

Hart and Jory gave us their old mini trampoline. It works perfectly in our small backyard. Ryan's already sporting a big goose egg from it.

Stanley Lake!

It was my family reunion last week. Our family joined in on the camping reunion for the first time in three years. I am sick to death of camping with a baby. The only reason I came this year was because we left Ryan at home with some well trusted friends. Best decision ever! Everyone made it except for Chase and Rachel and my baby and my sister's baby.

On Monday morning Anna came and picked up me and my big three and we headed up to Stanley lake. Scott wasn't going to be up until Monday night and Anna's family had already gone up the previous Saturday. We had a fun time chatting it up on the drive. When we got there we set up camp and then just kind of hung out that day. The best part of the day was the late night talks around the fire (as always). The week before my mom and dad had celebrated my grandma's 98th birthday. After lunch some of them went back to my grandma's room and shared some favorite memories about her. My dad re-shared the stories with us and we all loved hearing them. I learned some things I never knew about my grandma that night.

On Tuesday a few of us went on a little hike. We basically walked a mile and a half and turned around. The hike wasn't anything special but it was fun to chat with the people on the hike. Doing stuff like that also helps break up the day too, plus exercise! In the afternoon we drove to Redfish lake to play at the beach there. We normally camp there but we are such a giant group it's really hard to get enough reservations. They get filled in minutes. So we had to camp at Stanley this year. Stanley is beautiful but the camping conditions are a little more roughing it than I prefer.

That night there was more great conversation around the campfire. The funniest/worst thing of the night was when I sent Scott to chaperon the kids fire at the other camp and he ended up telling scary stories. Gabby and Piper were terrified! No one talk about china dolls to them please. Scott and I were talking about it outside of our tent and Gabby yelled, "can you stop talking about it, you're freaking me out!" So funny. I was also trying to tell her things she could do help her not be scared like say a prayer or sing a primary song. I told her she can just say to herself "I don't believe that story" and then she said to me, "but I do believe it." Haha.

On Wednesday we gathered in the morning and chatted for a long time in camping chairs and then we headed to Redfish to play at the beach again. We played for awhile and then drove home. When we got home we tried to clean up as much camping stuff as we could and then we had to move all of the furniture in half of our house because we were getting new carpet in the morning. That was an exhausting day.

On Thursday the carpet guys showed up and I tried to get out of there as soon as possible. I hadn't really prepared myself for having to be away. We ended up going over to a family's house in the ward and we were there for nearly 5 hours. Man they were sure nice to take us in for that long. My kids were surprisingly calm and quiet over there so that was an amazing little miracle.

I'm not sure if I like the carpet yet. I'm adjusting to it. I'm not sure about my paint color with the carpet color. I also feel like it has a purplish tone in the front room for some reason. Anyway it's growing on me. I think we are going to buy new couches and that will help a lot. I looked on pinterest for brown and gray living rooms and there were tons of pictures on there. So if pinterest can do it, I can. The carpet is so soft though. We are loving that! The carpet guy comes back on Tuesday to finish the rest of the house.

Thursday night we had a girls night where we watched an outdoor movie at my friend Jen's house. It was super fun. Her backyard has great ambiance. I should have taken a picture. That was a great time.

Well that's all, this is long. Ha.

Beach at Redfish

The hikers (minus Justin taking the picture).

Scott got a few people to play Magic with him, the suckers. Ha.

My mom at the beach. To say she doesn't want a bit of sun on her is an understatement, also I think she was probably doing her family history on her ipad. Classic mom.

My mom and dad on a bike ride.

Hart and Jory's family are serious about biking.

The kids were "digging for treasure"

Scott takes great pictures.

My sister brought a couple of kayaks. Corbin loved it when he got a turn.

The girls decided it would be funny to dress up as Corbin. It was funny. 

Carpet picture in the front room. Now picture brown leather couches. Ahh that will be better, I hope!

The carpet in our bedroom. It looks different in different light. Basically it's the color of dirt which will hopefully work well with my 4 little people.

Scott nearly electrocuted himself when he hooked up the jumper cables wrong. Yikes!

Ice cream party.

Pipes did a great job on her talk today. The best part was she learned it in one day. I forgot to start working with her until yesterday. Good job little Pipes!

PoJos

Summer vacation is wrapping up quick. I feel like I am going to blink and school is going to start. I'm trying to sneak in any last minute summer goals now that it's nearing the end. I wanted to go to the dollar movies at least once this summer. Scott's schedule was open Tuesday morning so we got all ready to go. I even had smuggled candy in my purse. We got to the theater and the doors were locked! Dang. They only open for 10:00 am movies on Wednesdays and Thursdays. Awesome. So my kids were about ready to have some serious melt downs when I got the idea to go to PoJos instead. Corbin has been begging to go there forever anyway so we went there. It was nice because we already didn't have Ryan with us. It's not easy to go there with all of my kids by myself especially because of Ryan's age. So we went and had a good time there and all was not lost. They still want to go to the theater and hopefully we will be able to squeeze that in. I don't like to take babies to the movies so it will just depend on Scott's schedule probably.

Other than that it was a pretty typical week, libary run, splash park. I had my book club on Tuesday night and that was fun. I'm really enjoying that. I am not good at reading a lot of books and I usually finish the book the day of the meeting. That's part of the reason I want to be a part of it because I need a deadline to push me to finish. Ha.

I was able to borrow the movie Home which was what we were going to watch at the theater. So we watched it for our Friday night popcorn and movie night.

On Saturday I got to leave for several hours and go shopping with my sister in law Anna and that was a good time.

$.50 cones at A&W. So cute and messy.

PoJos

Piper colored this in church today. I love her coloring.

Update

Well we stayed in the house most of last week. Piper was sick with the pukes until Monday night and she had a fever through Wednesday. Gabby had a fever on Wednesday as well but never got anything else. So that was two solid weeks with at least on sick kiddo. Not fun. For now we are all healthy. Yay!

By Thursday we finally ventured out to the park and on Friday we even went to the river with friends. It was great to get out of the house. On Thursday Gabby was asking if we could go to a friends house because she did not want to be stuck in house all day again. Me neither.

On Friday Scott and I went on date to a local prime rib place downtown. It was good. It was expensive. Ha. Scott's bosses told him he had to take me out on a real date to a real restaurant where we both ordered entrees (which we never, ever do). Well he did and it was good.

I was able to go out to lunch with a friend before she moved to Tennessee. We had the best time talking, I'm really going to miss her. I wish we would have gone out to lunch more when she lived here.

I've still been leading work outs in the park three days a week. That has been really fun. My favorite thing is that I'm not doing it everyday, also chatting with the ladies that come, also the workouts. It's good!

Ryan helps Gabby empty the dishwasher. In fact he loves to open the dishwasher and empty it when it's full of dirty dishes. So helpful!

Building blocks.

Now this is multi tasking: playing Settlers with Corbin and Sequence with the girls.

Corbin and Luke found these shelters on a walk by the river.

Apparently baboons put big leaves on their heads to help beat the heat. This is what Scott told me when he came walking up the path with one on his head.

Yummy!