First Days of School for All

It came. It went. And time sped up from 0 to 60mph FAST. All of a sudden we are busy busy busy and it is great! The lazy days of summer sometimes feel too lazy by the time the end of August hits. Here's the report:

Wednesday morning Nathan woke me up at 7:00 am which I specifically asked him to as that is his wake up time. So have you ever felt like noises and touch are amplified when you are
sleeping? That's what happened with me. I told Nate to bug off (kidding.....but not really) and slept another few minutes. (Don't judge. Summer has been so very nice for sleeping in until 9:00 am for EVERYONE, including yours truly).
7:15 I jumped up and created yummy smells of pancakes and bacon for the kids to wake up to. Walked them to school at 8:05 (on the dot) and spent the day with Emma (who was very glad to have me back AND be the oldest boss in the house again) and Masos-Eats-Pesos. After getting a phone call a few hours later, (uh-oh. Poor Hay-Hay "fell in a puddle" and needed some new pants and undies. Nerves?), I came home and Emma and I made some chocolate chip cookies for the after-school hunger chaos. Tyler came home first and said, "I love my teacher Mr. Curtis. This is the best school year I ever had. Way better than 2nd and 3rd." (um, it's only been one day...). Hailey has Tyler's teacher from last year (Miss Jacobsen) who went the extra mile and even came to one of Tyler's baseball games. She already has a gaggle of friends and is very serious about every rule. (Miss Perfection). Great day other than the "puddle", which of course is what every mother wants.
Nate is gone to school in SLC as we speak and will be gone every weekend for the next 2 years. (*sigh*)SIDE NOTE: This is why I must have a private blog. So I don't think a scary boogieman will come to my house! Anyway, he started off with an intensive week up the Snowbird ski resort in Sandy (picture above), and I am taking 9 credits at Utah State (El Ed major) online, during Nate's lunch hours and one night a week. We need LOTS of school supplies in this house. And to add to the craziness, our dish washer fizzled out tonight. I totally just want to throw away all the dirty dishes and just buy new ones after our new dishwasher gets here. Bummer.

Last Party of the Summer

Cotton candy,






And Crack the Egg.

What more do you need?

#14 Tackle Tyler. Nothing to report except these games are LOOOONG. Poor Tyler was out there for 3 hours in the heat. (Relatively speaking,78 degrees)

Quick, write it down!

Emma: "Do you know these boo-boo's?"

Me: "Um, yes". (As she is poking my chest in Wal-Mart.)

Emma: "They are my pillows. I like these boo-boo's." 

:)

Just do it!

Wow. I am so grateful to myself for continuing this blog for this long. I truly intend to print it out into a Mac book one day since it is the funniest thing ever. Especially 2007. I am in my office at 9:00pm (Nathan out of town) reading all the comments, and I missed the entire hilarity of the second half of 2007 because I was pregnant. Thank goodness I can read back and see pics, too. Keep journaling/blogging everyone! (Plus it makes you smarter because of spelling checks.)

Snowbird...without the snow. (Which is way better.)

Monday was Nathan's first day at the U doing the MBA, which starts with an entire week at the Snowbird Ski Resort here in Utah. So we all came! (Yes, we are that family. Free hotel=family vacation.) I was afraid we would have to kinda sneak around so it wasn't obvious Nathan had his whole family, but this place is huge with tons of families vacationing, plus he's gome from 7:30am-9:30pm, so we are really on our own. Basically we live in the pool. (I have no choice with mermaid Hailey in this family. I think she's part fish.)
This BEAUTIFUL view from the hotel.
The top of the hotel lobby. Can you say Hailey and Emma in the top left-hand corner? This area makes my stomach drop. Too freaky for little kids.
I think we have taken too many camping trips this summer. Mason kept smelling all the cement posts. (The sap in trees smells great.)
Looking around to make sure no one is watching him rip off flowers...

Found a "chicken"...


These little chipmunks were everywhere.














We REALLY miss our Tyler. He drove down with Grandma Linda to visit cousin Cole and Will. We're going to go pick him up at the airport on Thursday. (Yes, I am nervous. He's flying solo!!) I totally trust Brian and Candace though. I am sure he's having a ton o fun. :)

One more Sunday memory

Today Emma brought a purse to church. In the middle of Primary she opens it up and takes out a second pair of shoes (flip flops). I tell her those aren't allowed and she complains that she has blisters. I tell her "sorry, can't help" so she opens her purse and takes out a THIRD pair of shoes. (Dora tennis shoes, both for the right foot.) What??? I can't win...

Little scoundrel.

We had a "happy/sad" talk during dinner the other night. We went around the table and everyone had to say their happiest moment of the day and their saddest moment. It was so funny when EVERY KID'S saddest moment had to do with Mason:

Tyler: "I was sad when Mason dropped a car on my face."

Hailey: "I was sad when Mason smacked my head." (And made her actually cry).

Emma: "I was sad when Mason hit me."

Me: "I was sad when Mason body-slammed me into a plow position. (see "yoga" below).

The boy manhandles us. AND as Nathan is out of town this weekend I took them all by my lonesome to church today. I almost chickened out and skipped sacrament, but I squared my shoulders and did it. Only a sacrament cup thrown on my face (goodbye half my makeup), a smelly poop diaper, a few walks around the benches, and 3 extremely loud "Hello!" screams during the meeting. Ironic thing was that our Uncle Brent was speaking and one of the topics was reverence. Ouch. I was only a little frazzled by the end. :)

Next Sunday he's in nursery! Good thing he's a doorbell.

Bottom of the creativity well.

A sloooow Friday here. Vernal tends to be a little deserted on the weekends since a lot of families go to the "big city". Or maybe just trying to cram one more vacation before school? (Which is next Wednesday, and speaking of, Tyler and Hailey both got the teachers they wanted. Tyler's being a male teacher. I wonder what differences there will be with a man?) 

Anyway, they were friendless and beyond bored by 4:00 today so I said we were going to pick names out of a hat, go to the Dollar Store and buy a present for that person. I would then make them a scavenger hunt with the presents at the end.  At the store Tyler insisted he needed a few extra dollars, and I kinda got grumpy with him, (he's always wanting more money), but finally gave in. Here were the presents received:

Tyler to Me: 4 glass figurines of my children. 2 boys and 2 girls, each with corresponding hair color, and the oldest boy holding a dog. MY HEART MELTED. I apologized to Tyler for getting mad at the store and and now cherish this heart-warming present. LOVE it. (Although the dog part is his way of sneaking in the fact that he wants one for his next birthday. Bleh.)

Me to Hailey: Glasses. Her best friend is getting them and she thinks they are so cool. Remember when the idea of them were so intriguing ? Along with braces and a cast?

Hailey to Emma: A halloween pumpkin, (are we really into Halloween already!?!), that Emma LOVES.

Mason to Tyler: A miniature skateboard for your fingers. (Hey, we were at the dollar store. Not much to choose from).

Emma to Mason: A rubber sting ray.  I have no idea why?

All in all it ended nicely. The kids are in bed. They all sleep in the Emma's room now. The girls in the bed and Tyler on the floor. I hear a lot of suspicious giggling. And it is very loud. I think they realized Dad's not in the house and they aren't as afraid of big ole' momma. Nate is off on a motorcycle trip to Wyoming with his best buddy Seth. He's had a lot going on at work so I am glad he gets a little stress relief every now and then. 

And I think I will go and paint a wall. Yup, changing my mind again. The perks of being a home owner. Nate gets to come home to some surprises! :) hee hee

No "me time" tonight..

The kids heard there is a meteorite shower tonight at 11:00 PM til dawn so of course we are staying up. (Even Emma). Tomorrow's going to be hard, I can feel it in my bones. Especially with all the extra messes they made in the last 3 hours. (Water logged bathroom-they all took a shower together in their clothes to keep them awake-and water logged kitchen-they made 3 bowls of water with floating ice to put their faces in if they get tired.) I'm worn out just thinking about it. To top it off? Nate went to bed early so he can get up early and start his homework. He starts his MBA program next Monday. Oh well, hope we can see some sweet shooting stars.

Night night.

yoga

I am really liking yoga right now. It cracks my body joints. (In a good way.) I usually go to the gym and take a class, but it wasn't going to happen this morning, so I tried to do it in the living room with a DVD. Of course, Hailey and Emma wanted to do it with me and Mason just ran around us. (Nice zen environment). I was trying to do "plow" (pictured above) and could NOT stretch that far. My feet just wouldn't get to the ground. As I was trying Mason decided to body slam me and jumped on top of my legs. Yep, I can do the plow now. I have a major backache, but I CAN do the plow. Probably better than any professional yoga teacher.

No-name post.

So we went up to the mountains again this weekend and saw a mama moose WITH her baby moose drinking water across the lake from us. Super cool and huge as a horse. That's all.