Boise River

This week I took the kids to the river to play. We haven't been there yet this summer. The kids LOVE playing there. They get to play in the sand and they play in a little stream that runs by the river. It is great. The bad part is there are mosquitoes and the sand makes for a ton of clean up. I had to vacuum out my car forever after that. It was fun though and I will have to take them again soon.

On Wednesday I made tin foil dinners and we went as a family and had a picnic in the park and Scott floated the irrigation ditch with the kids. That was a good time as well. On Thursday I caravan-ed with a friend on her Boise parks quest. She and her kids are trying to visit as many Boise/Meridian parks as they can (there's at least 50 in Boise alone). We hit two parks in Meridian. The kids had fun. We were going to join them on Friday as well but I had too much stuff at home to do that day.

On Thursday I found a dresser at the DI  that I want to upcycle and use as an entertainment center. I started that project yesterday. It is going to be a TON of work. I hope it works out! Fingers crossed.

On Friday night we had our friends the McFarlands over for dinner. I'm so sad they actually moved to Twin that night. They were in the middle of packing and came over for a bite to eat and then continued to pack and move that night. We will miss them!

Saturday I spent the day researching painting furniture, buying supplies, sanding and painting the first coat of primer. Once again fingers crossed!

Kid Quotes:
Corbin:
I had to sub to the music leader in primary today and as soon as church got out Corbin said, "mom you know what's annoying about you, you didn't sing Follow the Prophet." Ha. (That's his favorite).

me: "babies eat everything." Corbin: "ya even kids."

Gabby: "He said, get away you dog!" He hates dogs just like you." For record I don't hate dogs (except for mean dogs that chase you when you are running) I just don't want to touch them or smell them or be around them. Ha.

Piper: "Don't worry Gabby, I will save you!"

He is so lucky to have a sister to dress him up.

Love him!

This is so great and fun for the kids and the water was so warm. The raging river is far enough away the kids don't even get near it. Such a great kid spot.

Crawling babies in the sand...not my favorite! But look at that face!

The kids were having a fort, snack party before church today.

Atomic Days

It's been a pretty crazy busy week. On Monday I did a ton of work trying to get back into the swing of things after coming back from vacation. After dinner that night I took the 3 kids swimming at the pool in Eagle with Anna's family. Any chance I have to go swimming with them I try to take them up on it. I ended up babysitting all 4 of Alex and Anna's kids all day Tuesday and Wednesday. It was pretty exhausting. We all survived! I went to the park and unloaded what seemed like 50 little children, one old man walking his dog said, "do you have any more in there?" It was pretty funny. We went to the park, played in the sprinklers, baked some cookies, made bracelets, played video games, watched movies etc. Seriously 9 hours straight is a lot of hours to kill. Ha!

On Thursday I spent the whole day getting ready to leave for the Beal reunion in Arco. Kelsey and Justin flew in that night and got to sleep in the triple bunk bed. Oh the luxury. We woke up super early and loaded up and headed out. I ended up leaving Ryan home with Scott. We decided we would both be much happier with this arrangement. It's not easy or fun to take a baby on the road and Scott doesn't really love going to my parents house when it's really crowded and so HOT (no AC, we are spoiled and like it cold over here). So it ended up working out great. Scott had a great time with Ryan in his air conditioning watching some super nerdy international video game tournament all weekend.

All of my siblings and family arrived sometime on Friday. Chase and Rachel were able to come from OK and Kelsey and Justin from Vegas. Yay! Almost the whole weekend I mostly sat in a camping chair chatting it up with whoever was present. Friday got a little long because I didn't seriously do anything else. I thought about swimming or playing volleyball or playing games but mostly I just sat in some lawn chair all day. Ha. Hart and Jory set up a huge projector and we watched My Big Fat Greek Wedding. It was really fun and that movie is so funny and I haven't watched it forever. It's especially fun to watch funny movies with my dad because he laughs tons and it's highly entertaining to me.

On Saturday a few people went and ran in the 5K fun run in the morning. Keaton won the raffle grand prize of propane valued at $250. (That will make a great gift for my dad). Awesome. All of us went and watched the parade. My kids got tons of candy. They got super close to the parade too many times. Piper is not scared at all especially when candy is involved. You've never seen a 2 year old get so much candy especially with such stiff competition with all of the cousins. She's scrappy and people were kind to let the 2 year old grab candy.

After the parade a few of us headed up to Mackay Dam to enjoy the drive and take a quick dip. The water was cold and dirty but it was fun to ride with my parents and talk with them and enjoy the scenery. It was also really refreshing to get wet. My girls had a fun time throwing rocks in the water. The rest of the day I sat and chatted in a lawn chair. That night we chatted around the fire. It was a really fun time. The kids had tons of fun playing with cousins. I loved that they spent 2 full days outside. It was great. We had to drive home super early so Kelsey and Justin could catch their flight back to Vegas.

They needed a last minute sub for Corbin's primary class. His class is rowdy but it was fun. I loved that I could tell Corbin was proud to have his mom sub. It was cute. I'm not looking forward to the day when he will be embarrassed to have me sub. Ha.

My kids and Gabe and Christy's kids

Trailor ride with Granny

Gabe brought his swimming pool.

Chatting in a circle. There was a lot of that going on. A lot! Ha.

Mackay Dam. I was the grandma of this group for sure.

The "beach"

Movie Projector

Aunt Jory and Gabby

Piper, Kelsey and Justin

Parade watchers

St. George Vacation

We had a great week in St. George. The weather was crazy mild for St. George in July. When we got out of church today in Boise Scott said he thought it was hotter here than when we got out of church in St. George. Well he was right. It's 109 in Boise today and I don't think it got over 101 the whole time we were in St. George. It was crazy! I loved it. We were actually able to go outside here and there without wanting to die. One day it was 80 degrees. 80 degrees! It was so great. I was able to sleep in and still go for a walk nearly every morning without frying to my death.

The kids had a blast playing with their aunts and uncles and Nana and Papa. The biggest hit was 15 month old cousin Greta. Gabby especially couldn't get enough of her. She was constantly by her side trying to dance with her or chase her around the room.

Corbin loved swimming. He is a fish! He swam as much as he possibly could. Sometimes swimming 4 hours straight. He didn't wear a life jacket the entire week. Granted the pool was very small but he is a good little swimmer. He also loved watching a kid show in the movie theater room with snacks and playing video games with the big kids. He was a huge fan of the snack closet and was often found rummaging around in it.

Gabby loved the kids room that had a lot of toys for her to play with. She was not a big fan of swimming and screamed like she was being stabbed to death when I tried to get her to swim to me with her life jacket on. I was able to persuade her to swim with me a few laps with her life jacket on while I held on to her. I got her to put her face in the water and blow bubbles about 10 times the whole week. She loved dancing with Greta and having an unlimited supply of fruit snacks and fish crackers.

Piper loved swimming. She was also a little fish. She swam with her arm floaties by herself all over the pool. She kicked, kicked, kicked and loved it. She also loved having someone to give her full attention at all times. Papa was especially good for that. She also like playing left, right, center with Nana. She loved eating lots of grapes.

Ryan kind of liked the pool sometimes for awhile. He was mostly a big fan of finding any leaf he could get his hands on to try to eat and choke on. He especially liked the restaurant Ninja where he ate rice and sauteed vegetables until everyone was done and I had to finally cut him off so we could leave.

Scott loved playing video games especially when at least 4 of them could play at the same time. He enjoyed watching some of Gettysburg in the theater room and hiking with Corbin.

I loved watching my kids have so much fun all week. I loved swimming, playing games, going to the movies, and eating snacks. I too was often found in the snack closet rummaging around. I may or may not have gained a few pounds last week. Ha!

Cuties!

Hiking adventure

So cute! I love that she has Carole's purse in this picture. 

Scott's most favorite moment was probably when his mom joined in for a bit of zombies action.

At our pit stop in North Ogden Scott found a HUGE caterpillar. You can't tell from this picture but that thing was so fat.

We drove from St. George to Boise straight yesterday. With 2 pit stops it took us 10 hours. Long day! The kids did pretty darn well. The car was especially peaceful when all 4 clunked out at the same time.

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4th of July

Scott went to Texas again on Monday and Tuesday. We thought his last trip was last month but the sale of the property was postponed another month. That night we ended up having a girl's night at my house. We had a fun time chatting into the night. Tuesday night Scott got back and we got caught up on the last couple of episodes of 24. Wednesday Gabby had her follow up appointment with the ear, nose, and throat P.A. Her throat looks good. I guess her big scabs fell off. She handled it like a champ because I don't even know when it happened. She handled her surgery and recovery amazingly well. The P.A. said that only about 10% of patients are like that. Lucky us! Last night I went to check on the sleeping kids and I couldn't hear Gabby breathing. I had to go right up to her face to hear her. Amazing!

Kelsey and Justin came late Wednesday night for the weekend. Justin's uncle hired them to help set up the fireworks for the city of Boise. We got to hang out with them for a little bit before we headed to Utah. They were great at entertaining our kids while we were packing.

We left for Utah for our big St. George trip on Thursday. The main reason we came down on Thursday was because Scott really wanted to go karaoke and it turns out that place got shut down. Scott was very sad. On Friday we went to  the delicious Holladay City 4th of July breakfast. The rest of the day we hung out and later had scrumptious burgers on the deck for dinner. We were waiting to go to the Holladay fireworks but while we were waiting there were people lighting illegal fireworks all around us. We had a great fireworks show right in Nicole and Rustin's backyard. It was great.

On Saturday we caravan-ed down to St. George. The house has tons of bedrooms which is great. The pool is pretty small so that's a little sad but I'm sure we will still have a blast swimming all week. I can't wait to watch Corbin swim all week. I'm hoping to work with Gabby this week as well.

Kids Quotes:
Corbin:
"How old will you be when you are killed?" Bah!
"Mom, are you cute?" Me: "Do you think I'm cute?" C: "Yes." Me:"I guess I'm cute then."

Gabby: "Piper kicked me and I didn't kick her." (Hmmm..quite a telling statement).
"Mom they're so sparkly and gorgeous and sparkly."

Piper: "Mom, you got new pink shoes? Great job!"

Cute Ryan having a little cuddle with Corbin

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!