Happy Birthday Honey!

Today is Lance's Birthday! We went over to some great friends of ours on Friday, to celebrate. Lance has been working his hiney off and hasn't had a day off in a few weeks besides Friday!

Lance is an amazing father and a great hubby! I love him and I am so grateful that I've got him!

He has been wonderful at sharing his favorite past time with the kids. He teaches and enjoys fishing and hunting with them. He never wants to go by himself because he doesn't want to lose an opportunity that he could share with the kids.

Happy Birthday Lance

Another day another milestone. Fisher started kindergarten today. I love how the school does it. Yesterday was orientation day. It warms the kids up to the idea of school (and the parents too:). Yesterday we show up with our kindergartner at 9:00, go through class rules, get a tour of where the bathrooms are, the library, and even got to take a bus ride around town!!!



Then they sent the parents home at 11:00. The bus department gave the parents an orange ribbon to put on our mailboxes to ensure that the bus drivers wouldn't pass by our house when dropping our kids off.

So yesterday was an introduction to a day at school, but today was the "official" day of school.

Lance and I walked them down to the driveway and waited, and talked with them and of course had to get the first day pictures!



Fisher was grumpy and didn't want to go, but Trapper and I enticed him with money to get himself an ice cream after eating lunch (they sell them in cafeteria Tues. and Thurs.)!

Our bus driver, Myra, is the best driver, and possibly, the nicest person, in the entire world! She always has a big bright smile on her face and loved these kids like they are her own. This morning she opens the door and with arms stretched out exclaims to the kids "I'm here!!!"





5 of my 6 children go to school. This has never happened before. I have 1 child at home, with none coming up from behind like in the past. It's kinda nice, but I am sentimental, and I miss my monkeys....

Fresh Pair of Shoes

Today is the first day of school. Fisher's in kindergarten and it starts Thursday. But for the rest of the boys school starts today. I didn't have the heart to flash the camera at 6 am when the older boys were up and about! Trapper was a trooper, because he was a wee bit tired and still managed to go through the motions of the morning grind:)


Writing this down is my therapy. My way of dealing with sending my children all day to school (who need school?)that have been protected under my hand of care (and Heavenly Father's-which is nice to know He is at school with them:). I have always had a hard time letting go. Not one year has passed without tears being shed. I would keep them in my "Fun Bubble" as long as I could. I call it a fun bubble to make it sound better....and fun.



So, off my 8 year old son went this morning. He ate a PB&J and had his standard glass of milk. He is a man of routine.


He says he is nervous. He says that if some kids make fun of him at school he will just start watching TV inside of his head. I asked which show he would watch and he said "Fairly Odd Parents." Then he said "I don't want to talk about it anymore."

He said he is excited to come home and have some rice puddin' that I am going to make for him today, the first day of school.

He gets on the bus. The bus driver is smiling and excited to see him. Trapper walks methodically down the isle and sits without stirring, with his back pack hanging off of his shoulders, stuffed to the brim with school supplies, and on his feet, a fresh pair of shoes, he is off and away...but only for a while....

Is Your Light Burnt Out?

I was in the basement (semi-scary basement) doing laundry. I am shot, pooped, drained, tuckered out. I look up. There it is, in our home, a time switch. I saw there, in a switch the answer to my problems. All I had to do was flip the switch and I could pause time!!! Time itself would stop!! It said it was a "Time Switch!" What else would it do?

Then it says "if light burns" and gave a few numbers to call if the light burned out. To my dismay, the numbers didn't work.

But my light is burned out! What do I do now? I couldn't stop time, because the light was burnt out and it wouldn't work now. So, do you wanna know what I did?.....another load of laundry.

This switch in my basement totally cracks me up! It makes me feel like I am in an episode of "Lost."

I will have my light re-lit when I go to church tomorrow:) PS, I am giving a talk ! Argh!

PSS The switch was for an old septic system...that's all I know!!

Peach! Glorious Peach! How Peachy!

I think bottled peaches are one of the most beautiful things on the planet. It's almost hard to use them, because they are so pretty just sitting on my shelves basking in their glorious peachiness.

The next bast thing to enjoying them on my shelf is~ making peach cobbler out of them! It was delicious, and once again I was able to enjoy the gloriousness of peaches.

This is a shout out to peaches! Thanks you to whomever originally created peaches (Heavenly Father? Christ?...or maybe even before?)!

and Thanks to Cally and Debbie for the peaches!!!

I am pretty sure peaches will go down in history as one of the best creations ever!

Do you have a favorite creation? Besides the obvious IE: children, moms, etc...

Just another Day...

Rider came down this morning to show me his prized goggles that his "Dr. Dad" helped him put on. He pretended to swim and plug his nose. Rider loves his Dad. I'm not sure which one he was most proud of~ his goggles, or that his Dad put them on for him.

The top picture: Rider is showing everyone his Owie, because he had one.

As I was lifting off the lid from my oatmeal storage bucket, I got mouse poop under my nail. I don't know who owns our basement for sure. I figure if we are making the full mortgage payment, the mice should have to kick in a bit for being tenants in the basement.

I don't try to think of it very often, but I bet there are more of them that occupy this home then there are of us....

Just another day.

I have been doing a lot of projects that I will post when complete. I don't have the before pics, which is a shame, truly a shame.

Oh The Places We Went!

I had the amazing pleasure of being the Asst. Stake Camp Dir to Laurie Busch (cute gal smiling big in first pic)! She is the cutest cutie pie that you have ever met! We had such an amazingly exhausting good time!! We were able to plan and carry out some wonderful experiences for the girls! We did rope climbing and rock climbing with the YCL's on Monday, before anyone else came. With everyone, we did paint balling (my new favorite release of endorphins:) rifle shooting, swimming and an all around great time!

I did my VERY best to add a bit of zany excitement to the mix!

I bawled my head off during testimony meeting and gained such an appreciation for the teenage girl.

The first day we had a balloon launch to signify rising above the world's standards. We had the girls write something that they would like to improve or become a strength to rise above and then launched the balloons. We did have a few girls ask about littering. We started telling them that the balloons were biodegradable (eventually :)!

It really helped me remember and appreciate what my daughter is going through as a teenager. Their perception on life might be different than ours, but they are still trying to figure out who and what they want to become. The girls (including my own) became beautiful blossoms that just needed a good shower and comfortable bed :)