Sunday, August 30, 2009

Newest Elder

What a great day!

Jake received the Melchizedek Priesthood today.
He's now an Elder.
I'm so happy that Jake has made good choices in his life that have made it possible for him to be worthy for such a blessing!
How awesome it is to have a husband and sons who honor their priesthood!
Our family is truly blessed.

He came home last weekend for an interview and then today for a couple hours for his ordination. It hasn't been bad having him gone because I knew I'd see him on Sunday.
So, when he left to go back to school today he said,
"Well Mommy, this is it for real now."

It's kinda hitting me finally.

Life definitely will not be the same around here.

Emma


While driving home from church today,
Emma says,
"Mommy. I just thought I'd let you know,
I have school tomorrow."

Thanks.
Because, you know, I would have forgot!

Yeah.
Can you tell who is in LOVE with school?

Another Reason to Love Crocheting...

I was invited to attend a baby shower for Lee's cousin's twin boys that are due in a couple weeks.
I was wondering what I could bring that would be cheap (because, you know, I don't have a money tree just yet!) but not look cheap (because I really do want to give them something good!) and it had to be useful because otherwise, what's the point?

Then I remembered my trusty tote of yarn.
Ah yes! Crochet something!
People like homemade and it's cheap.

I happened to be in Robert's Craft the other day when I stumbled upon 50% off yarn.
It was really cool expensive-type yarn that I normally wouldn't buy but it would be perfect for a warm beanie and baby booties.
So, I brought a couple skeins home and went to town.
I already had some yarn for the edging so for a whopping $5.81 and a day's worth of crocheting (because I still can't follow a pattern so I had to make this up and it took a lot longer than I planned)
here's what I came up with...

I was pretty happy
(once I got 4 booties the same size!).


Thursday, August 27, 2009

First Days and Changes...

Whew!
These last couple of weeks have been a whirlwind.

First, we sent our two oldest away to school.

Elisabeth is excited for her last year before becoming a full-fledged teacher.
(I have to say that it's pretty amazing she's going to finish in four years! Way to go Beth for sticking to it! She's such a great example!)
She's all settled (for the most part--stupid financial aid office!) and enjoying life.
I don't have a picture of her on her first day of school or of us moving her in because she didn't move back home over the summer so we didn't have anything to move back to school. I hope
she took a picture of her first day. And I hope she wore a skirt! (tradition.)

We dropped Jake off a week ago.
Here's a picture of him setting up his desk in his dorm.
It looks a little crammed but really, these were the biggest dorm rooms I've ever seen. His roommate and he decided to put their desks back to back so the could have private study areas. He's got a really nice kid, Riley, for his roommate.
They get along great so far so that's always good.
He's got a crazy hard schedule (if you ask me) but he says it's going to be great.
He started on Monday and loves it so far.
I have to say that it's pretty weird having both of them gone now.
I don't even want to think about next year when Jake leaves on his mission!

Scott started his Junior year last week.
He's so busy right now,
I feel like he's gone away to college too!
Pretty much the only time I see him is driving him to and from his obligations.
He's on the PHS varsity golf team and works for Macey's as a bagger/cart guy.
He's taken on quite a schedule at school this year so I'm a little worried how he'll be able to juggle it all. (Especially this month with golf.) But he's doing it and working really hard.
I hope he'll be able to keep up with it all!
I'm very proud of what a hard worker he his.
He's setting such a good example for his family!

Cole's in high school now.
He started his freshman year last week.
I think he's loving high school!
He's on the JV golf team and doing really well.
He's got some difficult classes this year but is determined to do well.
What more could a mother ask for?

Max started 4th grade last week
(bright green cast and all!).
He cracked me up when we walked into the school for the first time.
Kids were saying hi and, of course, he had to wave with his casted hand!
It just made me laugh!
He's so funny.
He HAD to have an under-armor shirt this year for school. He said it was because it would keep him cool in the hot weather and warm in the cold weather.
Whatever!
He just wanted to look cool!
I think his teacher is going to be great for him this year. She's really structured and Max does well with that.
I'm excited for a good year for him!

Yesterday,
Emma started Kindergarten.
I thought I would have a hard time with it but so far, I've only teared up a couple of times!
To say she was excited would be a total understatement!
When I dropped her off, I got her settled at her desk and her teacher asked if I could stay and help other children get settled while she greeted the children at the door.
So, I was helping children find their desks, etc. and Emma says to me,
"Uh, bye Mommy!"
Yeah, she was ready to get started!

So, now the house is a lot more quiet most of the time, our lives are crazy busy -- especially in the afternoons, we now have homework and projects, we're missing our oldest children like crazy but that's life with children, right?

Thursday, August 20, 2009

Who Said They Could Grow Up?

Seriously?
My cute little children are all grown?

Cutie on the left: Starting her senior year at SUU and will be doing her student teaching in January and graduating in April.


Cutie on the right: Just left today to start his education in Biomedical Engineering at the UofU and will be preparing to go on a mission next summer.

Hard to believe.
It really does seem like yesterday...

Saturday, August 15, 2009

Wahoos


All I can say is
I live with a bunch of WAHOOS!






Friday, August 14, 2009

From Bike Trailer to Broken Bones


There once was a cute little bike trailer.

After the child it carried grew too big

(And apparently so big that she can't even watch Backyardigans anymore--only shows like iCarly. That's what she tells me but anyway...)

it was collecting dust in the garage.

So these kids

turned the cute little trailer into this new trailer to pull their golf clubs to the golf course.


I failed to inform by boys that it is only to be used to transport golf clubs and not people.
Because, you know, I have to spell things out apparently.

Well on Wednesday, Max came running in with a huge bump on his head and all scraped up looking like this...

His scrapes were starting to heal and he started feeling better when on Thursday

he fell off our chain link fence and
broke his wrist.
Of course he did!

This happened while I was picking up Jake.
I was gone like 5 minutes tops and we get a phone call saying Max broke his wrist.
We hurried home and Elisabeth had his wrist propped up with ice and Emma was rubbing his head for comfort (so cute!).
Then Jake made him a splint out of plastic mixing spoons and an ace bandage.
Meanwhile, I was running around with a piece of fabric saying, "I can make a sling! Yeah, a sling!" but I don't want to talk about that!
Luckily, I have level-headed children!
Anyway, we made it to the emergency room and he got x-rayed that looks like this

and found out he has two Buckle Fractures.

Now he looks like this.

I'm just glad it wasn't worse.
He should heal up nicely and in the meantime
he's milking it for all it's worth
but that's okay.

Thursday, August 13, 2009

Visiting Grace

Last week Emma, Max, and I joined my parents, Cricket, Liberty, and baby Brit and drove to the thriving metropolis of Grace, Idaho to visit Cortney and her family.

The city of Grace was the gracious host
(how could they not be with a name like Grace!)
to
the Caribou County Fair.
We had the chance to experience a small town county fair and it was
a lot of fun.
It's common knowledge that the Houghton's love us a parade and on this trip we got to go to two!
I had to laugh a little at the children's parade.
It seriously was 5 minutes long.
But it was fun and Max even got to be in it with his cousins and Aunt Cortney!
The big tent had a variety of shows going on throughout or visit.

A favorite was the Magic Show.
Emma was VERY impressed!

Especially when the magician pulled quarters out of this little girl's head!

And when my beautiful niece, Julia, got to be a volunteer with the linking rings.
I love Julia's expression in this one!

And what would a fair in Caribou County be without some rodeo competitions?
The kids really enjoyed this...the mom's (Cricket)...not so much!
Emma's face cracks me up in this picture.

The kids rode on the scary but fun carnival rides
(thanks to Grammy and Papa!)

Yes, fun was had by all at the Caribou County Fair!
(Judging from this picture, especially by Adam!)

Saturday morning, Dad took Cricket and me to the pancake breakfast and the show put on by the Bar J Wranglers.
*photo taken from barjchuckwagon.com

It rained the whole time and was freezing but it was a fun show under the big tent.
(Even though I felt like an idiot when I bawled my eyes out when they sang Gene Autry's "Silver Haired Daddy of Mine". Kinda embarassing but it was really touching especially sitting there with my awesome dad!)

I'm sad that I forgot to charge my camera battery before we left so I didn't get pictures of Lyle (my dad's favorite singer there), the Carnie that Cortney made change the music playing at the rides (funny story), the carnival food, the funny booth that sold the "pork-n-beans" and the "red neck jacuzzi", the "big" parade where the kids got as much candy as Halloween, and let's not forget -- London Drug!

But the last picture I took was this one standing on Cortney's front porch looking off to the west (I think).
Isn't she lucky to live in such a beautiful place?
Because, you know, everyone's secret dream is to live in a place like Grace!
Thanks Cortney for letting us invade your beautiful, peaceful home and thanks mom and dad for taking us and making sure we all had a great time!