Monday, September 27, 2010

Bear Lake Roomies

Every one to two years my college roommates and I try to get together. This year Fur came to I.F. (Her name is Jennifer, which we lovingly shortened to "Fer", but choose to spell "Fur" cause it's funnier that way.) Her hubby, Ryan, had work to do in I.F., so she and the kiddos tagged along. Jennie (my other roommate) and her family have a cabin in Bear Lake and invited ALL of us to tag along, spouses, kids, and the like. We had a great time!


The roomies, me, Jennie, and Fur.

The future roomies? Fur's Hannah, My Halle, Jennie's McKenna. These girls get along so well. Who knows what the future holds for them?

What's more fun than taking some good old fashioned self portraits?

Not quite sure what Halle is doing here. Looks like she's trying to TKO poor little Tyler.

Popsicle Party!

The girls with the lake in the back ground. Gorgeous!

Lots of Guitar Hero during the weekend. McKenna's face TOTALLY cracks me up in this picture. Such a rocker!

Little guy's with big guitar's melt my heart. (Tyler giving it his best.)

Baby Addie in one of the few seconds she wasn't being mauled by someone. There were LOTS of little mommies (and a few big people) that wanted to love on Addison.

The boys had a great time running and romping and being wild together. In fact, they were running so much, that I don't have hardly any pictures of them.

We had fun taking the 4 wheelers for little jaunts.

When we got to the top, some of us had to practice our modeling skills. (Fur you Crack. Me. Up!)

What's Bear Lake without going to the Lake? (And yes, the water really is that blue.) After playing on the beach and having our skin exfoliated from the blowing sand (it was WINDY), we decided to head to a different place and try out the jet skis.

Fur & Hannah ready to get wet.

Unfortunately, Jennie and sweet baby Addie did get wet when little Tyler floored the throttle of the jet ski just as Jennie was trying to get on to ride to the dock. It was very scary, but thankfully everyone was okay. However, Jennie decided not to come play on the dock with us.

The rest of us had a great time playing around. Adam and Jacob playing on the jet ski.

The giant tube was a riot.

Even Fur and I had a turn. Yes, that's Adam pulling us.

We didn't cover our faces for vanity reasons. We were just wimps and couldn't breath when the water would splash us in the face.

After a very fun time on the lake we went back tot he cabin and ordered the biggest pizza I've ever seen.

We tried to put Tyler next to the pizza to show just how big it really was, but I think he thought we were going to eat him.

A great big thank you to Jennie and Adam for hosting all of us! And a thanks to Fur and Ryan for joining us! We had a blast.

The Boy Squad

I'm going to sit myself right down and catch this blog up today. It's driving me crazy to be behind, and I'm finding myself less and less motivated to blog in general. I'm hoping that if I catch up, then I'll find the joy in blogging again, rather than feel the drudgery of being behind. Normally, I say, "Just start where you are and don't play catch up." But I have some fun memories from this summer and I want these pictures in my books. So I'm just going to post the highlights, and then.....I'll be ready to start fresh once October hits.

August was our month for visits from friends and family. Every single weekend we were blessed with company. It made for a very busy, but very fun month. The day that my cousin Tonya and Callie left, our dear friends, the Peterson's came to spend the weekend with us.

It's been two years since we've all been together. The last time, cute little 7 & 8 year old Halle and Ethan declared they were going to get married. This time 9 & 10 Halle and Ethan had cooties I think. But they still got along great.

Kate and Liam didn't seem to notice each other's cooties and had a great time hanging out playing DS and coloring.

We decided to brave going to the river for the "Great Duck Race". We had to get the famous "I.F. temple shot".

James was so cute to just climb in Jarom's lap. It made Carter mighty jealous that another little boy had his daddy's lap.

We sat and waited for the big dumpster full of plastic ducks to drop it's load.

Here they come!

It was a hot day and we took a much needed rest in the shade, while we sipped lemonade and ate corn dogs.

Snowcones were a must!

After a VERY full morning, we came home Allred sign in tow, and then left the children to their own demise while the adults enjoyed dinner at Famous Dave's.

We're so glad the Peterson's could come our way!! Thanks for making the trek!

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Texas comes to Idaho

In August, we were excited to learn that my cousin Tonya and her daughter Callie were going to jump in the car and drive from Texas to Idaho. It was so nice for us to be able to get to know Callie a little better. We just don't get to see our Texas family enough.
Callie had many sleep overs at our house during the week. She fit right in.

Callie came bearing gifts, Silly Bandz. Something I had not yet heard of. But now I see them EVERYWHERE. My kids were in heaven trading and arranging their bracelet bands.

We did many fun things like attend the zoo. It was a cool rainy day and I think we about froze our thin blooded Texans to death.


We went to Rexburg to see more cousins and played miniature golf,

in the dark. (Note to self: Flashes in the dark make things appear bright.)

And our shoes glowed something cool!

We went for a walk through the university gardens.

We enjoyed Idaho Fall's finest ice cream...Reed's. Mmmmmm...

And climbed in trees while waiting for Tonya to go find out just exactly why the poor milk cows' tails were chopped off. (A sight I wish I hadn't seen, because now I can't enjoy the ice cream as much. Poor cows.) Reed's answer: "Because they can become lethal weapons during milking." My thoughts: "Tie the tail down during milking. Do you really need to cut it off?"

We even started up our own cover band for Hannah Montana.

We had a great time with our cousins! We hope to see you all again sooner rather than later next time!!

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Monkey Business

While we're on the topic of kid funnies, last night Kate gave us a cute one. We are experimenting with the bedroom situations at our house. Halle keeps getting scared in her room and either hopping into bed with Alyssa or coming into our room, thus causing nobody to get a good night's rest. So we let Kate and Halle switch bedrooms last night to see if it would help.

Kate was so excited about being downstairs with Alyssa. Jarom told her that it was bedtime and there was to be no monkey business. So as I'm taking Kate down to get her tucked in, she stops dead in her tracks and says, "Wait!" (as she's rummaging through her pillowcase), "I've got a little bit of monkey business in here." Sure enough, she pulled out a toy harmonica.

Alyssa reported that she had to go in and read some books to Kate before she really settled down, but she did sleep all night and didn't get scared. AND Halle slept all night in Kate's room. We'll have to try this a few more times to see if it's going to be a solution to our night time woes.

Monday, September 13, 2010

Vomitosis

Here's a little funny that I don't want to forget, so I'm writing it down. Back in August -yes, I'm STILL working on getting August blogged- a wave of stomach flu hit our house. It got everyone except for me...whew...dodged a bullet there. Anywho, every 2 days or so someone else would start up with it. One morning I thought I heard Carter in the bathroom. Halle was standing near the bathroom door so I asked her if Carter was puking. She looks into the bathroom, and can clearly see him with is head hung over the bowl, but still asks, "Carter are you puking?" To which he replies, " No, I'm throwing up!" LOL! Maybe less chunks = throwing up? Silly boy.

Thursday, September 09, 2010

What to do all day?

Okay, it wasn't all day. It was only 2 hours, but I enjoyed myself immensely today while Kate was at preschool. I went to Barnes and Noble where I sat myself down and read a few chapters from a book I didn't even purchase. (Scandalous I know!) I bought some new fall scents from Bath and Body. AND.....I indulged in a mini Blizzard from DQ. I ate it while I sat in the car and listened to the rain come down on the roof. So peaceful and relaxing. Then, just like that, my free time was up and I drove to pick up Kate. (I even ran a red light in the process b/c I was intent on enjoying the sound of the rain. I can NOT even tell you the last time I ran a red light. I giggled half way home out of shock and guilt.)

Kate loved preschool. She came out declaring that she loved it so much, she wants to do it all the time. They finger painted, ate apples, shared baby pictures, and read stories. I asked her if they did any "centers" (puzzle time, toy time, etc) and she said yes, but she didn't do any of them. I asked her why she didn't and she told me, "Because someone smelled stinky at the puzzles!" LOL! So rather than assault her nose and play with everyone, she chose to sit on the couch during play time! Oh man....she cracks. me. up!

Kate Goes to Preschool


None of my kids have ever gone to preschool. I did little home groups with the older girls and then attempted to do something on my own with Carter, but I've never paid to send my kids to preschool. I've always felt like they leave the nest soon enough as it is, no need to push them out any faster. But as it usually goes, things are done differently with the baby of the family. And my baby has been bored out of her mind with the big kids gone.

Kate is not one to entertain herself, and if she is, she's probably doing something she shouldn't. She's a mischief maker for sure. She's also extremely shy when it comes to strangers. So I bit the bullet and am shelling out $60 a month for someone else to play/entertain/teach her twice a week. I must say....it's worth every penny. She loves it and so do I.

She is the oldest in her class. She'll be 5 in a few short weeks, and most of her class just turned 3. It still shocks me to see babies in preschool. I'm under the opinion that babies should be at home with their mamas (but that's just my high horse speaking). Kate still feels so little to me, I can't imagine having sent her off any sooner. I guess there is a right time for everyone.

I have to laugh at myself a little. I remember hearing mothers with several children, saying how relieved they were to have a little free time when their kids went to school. I was appalled at this thought. How could any mother WANT her babies to be away from her? Yah.....live and learn. Live and learn. It's not that those ladies wanted their children gone, and it certainly didn't mean they didn't love their children more than life itself. It just meant that they were embracing every part of the good that comes from the natural process of our children growing up and leaving us. (Because lets face it, our babies growing up, really kind of stinks.) So here I am, ready to recharge myself for 4 hours a week, with zero children at home, and I am going to LOVE every minute. Then, I'll cherish the minutes I still have with them all home under my protective wing.
This picture cracks me up. I caught her right at the end of a little hop saying, "I'm so excited!"