I have failed . . .

Two things -
1-I have learned that I'm not very good at maintaining a busy life, reading a book and updating the blog. The boys have a list a mile long of books that I need to read. I have a few chapters left of the second book in the series. When I finish I'll take a break before I start #3 and update the blog. I hate getting behind.

2- I have failed to teach Josh a thing or two about modesty. I thought I had taught him but apparently it didn't sink in. Last night, Josh lost a tooth. This morning as he was getting undressed to get into the shower, he noticed the dollar bill on the floor. He was so excited, he ran downstairs to show me. I turned around to see him wearing nothing but his socks. I said "Josh! You don't have any clothes on!" He looks down and says "Mom, I've got my socks on, I'm covered, it's all good."

The latest funny

We were driving home and one of the boys were reading a book and they said

"Hey mom, the kid I'm reading about in this book, his mom won't let him date until he's all the way out of high school."

Jokingly, I said

"Oh, now when I try to teach you that girls have cooties until you get home from your mission, that doesn't make me look so bad does it?"

Josh, with the most serious and complex face says

"Really? Girls have cooties for that long?" "Do they just fall off when you come home?"

New arrival

26 minutes after arriving at the hospital, Nate and Britt welcomed . .


Theodore at 8:30am, weighing in at
7lbs 7oz and 20 inches long
and is a healthy baby!

I'll post more pictures of Theo later. I just thought these
pictures were so precious
I had to post them.

Clambake

One of our old ward's yearly traditions is a clambake at the beach. Our friends the Menzie's, go back for it every year and this year we decided to go with them. I have to admit, when we originally committed to go, it was going to be a "family affair". So when Mike ended up having to extend his business trip and wouldn't make it home in time, I almost didn't go. It didn't sound like as much fun to go with out him.

The fact that the boys thought it sounded like fun and that I had already ordered the lobsters was what got me there, and I'm glad it did. We had so much fun.

The food was yummy, I'm always a sucker for lobster and I got a lot of it. Ben's not a lobster fan so Josh and Luke and I had to split Mikes, along with ours. I was stuffed! After lunch we played at the beach.

It didn't take long before Ben had himself in trouble and was being chased
down by Christina and Grace.

These were the only two brave enough to get fully into the water. Not long after, Josh comes running out saying "I think we have a problem, I can't feel my legs." That still didn't seem to stop him.

Luke was proud of his collection.

and Jamie was proud of his tricks.




Rebecca had this great "photo opp" idea. It sounded good in theory. But here are the photo's of the good idea going bad fast. :-)

The 2010 was going to make it a fun Christmas card picture.

The kids were so done after several attempts but Rebecca and I were determined to get a successful shot.

The 2010 didn't make it in this shot, but I think this is about as good as it gets. I still can't look at these pictures without laughing.

The sun started to go down and by that point we were cold which meant it was time to end our day.

Until . . . . Ellen had the great idea to stop at the apple farm, Russells Orchards, that was about 5 minutes down the street. Apple cider donuts? You didn't have to ask me twice.


I loved this place. It was SO CUTE!!!! We got FRESH apple cider donuts, 25 cent candy and homemade caramel to dip our apples in. They were closing in 15 minutes or I would have picked apples too!

The perfect ending to a PERFECT day was to come home and see Mike, after he's been gone for the past 6 days. The laughs and giggles as the boys wrestled with their dad for the rest of the evening, was music to my ears.

Apple Picking

A couple of weeks ago when Neal and Macy were staying at our house we made one last stop to Tougas for honey crisp apples before they moved. That night the missionaries came over for dinner so we shared an apple with them. They thought they had died and gone to heaven. For those of you who haven't ever had a fresh honey crisp apple, THEY ARE HEAVEN.

The missionaries wanted more, so this past Monday was their P (preparation) day, where they can take time to do some things like that so off we went.

Here is the crazy thing. This was just this past Monday. According to my calculations that's LESS THEN 7 Days ago. We picked 25 POUNDS of apples. I only have 8 apples left, the even crazier thing is Mike has been out of town all week, and I haven't bake anything. Which means my 3 boys have consumed 25 pounds of apples in 6 days. OH MY!

Wasps

Jake came in the house acting so weird the other day. Trying to figure out what his problem was I realized he had 4 wasps stuck to him. Not sure what to do, I noticed Luke had the hose running outside, so I grabbed it and tried to spray them off of him. One flew off in the house and the boys were forced to catch it and kill it. One flew off and stung my finger before I could kill it. Ouch! Those sting. One I killed as it was coming off of him and the other died stuck to him. I had to pry it off. Poor Jake, I don't know how many times he was stung, but you could tell it hurt for him to sit, or lay or do anything. It took him a good couple of hours before he could even begin to relax where he wasn't in pain AND it took me a good day before my finger would stop stinging. :-)

NOT SO FUN TIMES AT OUR HOUSE

Camp Joseph

Labor day weekend was our traditional ward camp out.
This was our 4th year and we have loved every one.

In fact, this darling little girl, called Camp Joseph a "magical wonderland." I can't think of a better name for our weekends there. The love and comradery that is there during that weekend, is priceless. My kids, actually all of us, literally start looking forward to next year as soon as the current year ends.

This year we brought all sorts of "extras" - bikes, dutch ovens, and more of mike's toys not sure exactly what, but we were packed to the brim. Mike told the boys, "once you go in there is no getting out, til we dug them out."

Less then 4 HOURS after arriving at camp this was how Luke's feet looked. AMAZING they can get dirty so fast.

Saturday morning was our traditional "heart attack breakfast" It's my favorite breakfast but so incredibly unhealthy for you, we just have it once a year. I LOVE IT!
For those of you who don't know, it's pancakes and eggs cooked in the left over bacon grease. YUMMM nice and crunchy, almost scone like pancakes. Along with that, french toast, sausage and bacon.

FABULOUS CHEF's

FANTASTIC EATER'S

I think the word is getting out about this breakfast. We had SEVERAL "drop ins" this year for breakfast. I think we ended up feeding around 40 people. I propose - Next year - ward breakfast on ward budget. :-)

Now onto the rest of the day -

Water Rockets

Bird watching

"Babies" a Camp Joseph first for our wardour camp fire boys
They kept the fire going almost the entire weekend, for the exception of sleeping, we had a fire, no matter how WARM it was at noon, thanks to them, we had the option to be WARMER! There were many more boys then this, Luke being one of them. This was just the best picture I had. I've decided they each took shifts! I rarely saw them all there at the same time.