Can Anyone Stand Another Picture Of My Youngest?

I'm going to have to make a more concentrated effort to get pictures of my other children. This seems like some sort of favoritism. The truth is that he just has more picture taking moments at this phase in his life, than the others do. On that top picture there, he and Chloe were actually eating out of the same bowl, but I failed to get a picture that captured that. By the way, he said his first official sentence today. It was: "I want Daddy." I'm sure this makes Bruce very happy.

A Couple Of Things That Made Me Laugh

John & Liz came down for a short visit this weekend. Liz pulled off a great hoax in John's behalf. She had secretly bought tickets for the Rush concert (one of John's fav. bands), and talked to John's boss so that he could leave work early. She called John at work yesterday and told him that we had had a house fire and immediately needed help cleaning up. Anyhoo, that was a good one.

Shortly after they got here, we heard banging coming from the living room. I ran in to see what was going on, and I discovered Justice and Erik (both 1 1/2 years old) banging on the hard wood floors with a hammer a piece. I wish I could have gotten a picture, but I had to stop the damage before it got too far. Justice was banging with the claw end of the hammer.

Another funny thing was this: John, Todd, Bruce & I went running at the watershed trails today. This is a nice place for running/biking/walking, so you will always see other people out on the trail. We decided that it would be funny to act silly whenever we saw other people. We all switched from running to skipping when a guy rode past on his bike. There was also galloping like on a horse, while whooping and swinging a pretend lasso overhead. The Monty-Python horse trot thing, Bruce's over done swishy gay guy run. I was laughing so hard I couldn't run. We only actually did these things to two passersby. It was too hot and too hard to run today, so after a couple we just ran normal. We'll have to do that again.

Naughty Dog

Even the best doggie in the world just can't resist the pond in Grandma Sever's back yard. She's probably had more baths in their yard then she has had in ours.

Trent's Birthday

(As usual, I forgot to bring my camera, so here's another recent photo of Trent.)

As per tradition, I had to put Trent through an ordeal for him to get his birthday present. (See last year's post labeled something about August 21, if you want to know the other horrible things that I've done to him.) Well, as things tend to go, the gag gets bigger & bigger every year. I think I might have over done it this time. It was fun; I just hope Trent saw it that way. (I think he did.)

Here's what I did:
I had 13 tasks for him to do. He got $1.00-1.50 per task, depending upon how well he performed the task. He had to:

1:Somersault across the yard.

2: Do 30 sit-ups in one minute.

3: Crab-walk around the basement to find hidden puzzle pieces and then assemble them correctly.

4: Stand on his head for one minute.

5: Make up a funny dance to do for one minute.

6: Spin 10 times and then run from the patio to the opposite fence, then spin 10 times and run around the pool.

7: Find the correct balloon & pop it, out of a tub with probably 20ish water balloons in it.

8: Run around obstacles with feet in a pillow case.

9: Do 30 push-ups.

10: Swim around the pool, popping up at intervals singing "Happy Birthday"

11: Crawl over the picnic table, through a box, and under a bench.

12: Shadow box on one leg for one minute.

13: Run around the block as fast as he could.

It took him well over an hour. It was funny, but I think I'll be nicer next year. This may have been too much. What do you think? I had a dream last night of Death chasing Trent all over the yard, while we watched. I hope Trent doesn't hate me.

At Last!

The long awaited day has come at last! There will be Justice in the nursery class!!!! Hooray, Hooray, Horray!!!!!

Back To School

Can you believe it...Already! Man, where did the summer go? I always feel a bit melancholy when a school year starts or ends. It's just a reminder of how my children are getting bigger all of the time. Mark is starting Kindergarten this year. Ross is in second, and Lydia is in fourth grade. Lydia is starting at a new school too. She has graduated from the primary school, sigh! It is killing me. I hope I'm not screwing their childhoods up. Anyway, it's just Justice & I at home during the day now. It's so quiet! Justice takes a good nap everyday. Do you realize how long it's been since I had a regular quiet break. Wow! This will be nice. I'm not looking forward to the homework starting up. They give so much of it! Now I will have three of them to get through it. The last time I was responsible for 3 children's homework getting done (when we were watching Noelle in the evenings), I regularly spent 2 hours a night helping with homework. And spelling tests... I hate spelling tests! Oh well, I should look at it as opportunities to spend time with my rapidly growing children. Ross got Mrs. Scates this year! She was Lydia's 2nd grade teacher, and I LOVE her! Such a good teacher! I've liked all of the teachers that we've had so far, but Mrs. Scates was my favorite. I did a happy dance when I found out that Ross had her.

We had a good time on our last night that wasn't a school night. Bruce, Lydia & I went to see Les Mis. again. Loved it. Lydia & I took a little walk when the prostitution scene came on.

I had one of those precious moments tonight. Bruce & I took the kids & Chloe for a walk in the lovely evening weather. We walked up to Hit & Run, bought ice cream, and then we went to a little park nearby & ate it. I just love hanging out with my crew. When we got a few houses away from home, we let Chloe off of her leash and she and the kids raced to the house ahead of us. I just loved seeing them all running around together. I'm being sentimental, oh well. I'm going to bed now. Love you all!

A Busy Day ~ But It Was Fun

Trent placed 3rd in his division.

HOLY CRUD! I placed 3rd in my division. Who'd of thunk it? Not me.

Bruce placed 2nd in his division.

Terry placed 2nd in his division.

Yesterday was the Triathlon again. Terry, Bruce, John, Todd, Ashley, Trent & I all competed (along with 285 others). John, Liz and family came up on Thursday night and stayed at our house. That was fun. I always like it when they stay here because I get to see them so much more. It's fun to have races when we are all in them. Todd, Bruce, Terry & I all had early start times. Trent, Ashley & John all had really late start times, so we got to watch each other race. Unfortunately it was VERY hot yesterday. The later three had to run in the really nasty heat! I improved my best triathlon time by nearly 6 minutes. I placed! I've never even come close to placing before, and I hadn't ever even thought to this year. Todd would have placed, probably 2nd, but he did and extra lap. Anyway, it was fun. I meant to get a picture of all of us together, but I forgot to until half of us were gone. Oh, well.

Bruce & I went to the outdoor theatre last night with Mom, Dad, Ashley & Trent to see Les Miserables. (Dad paid). It was really good, even though I was so tired I was about to drop. Lydia loves Les Mis, and I had told her that we might try to get into the free seats one night when it was there. The announcer last night said that it was the last night of the season for subscribers. Lydia asked me today when we were going, and I told her it was over. She was crushed! She cried and cried! I felt like such a cruddy mother. So when we got home from church, we went on line to see what the Fox had showing this year. No Les Mis. I decided to check the theatre web sight to see what they were doing next year. As it turns out, there are three nights left which are not for subscriber seats. I snatched up 3 of the cheap seats. We can't really afford it, but I was afraid that we'd go and wait in line forever for the free seats, and not get in. So, anyway, Bruce, Lydia & I are going for her last un-school night. We'll have to take a potty break during the red light district scene or something.

Oh, And Here's Another Laugh From The J-Bird

Sigh!

I'm going to be such a mess when my children grow up and move away! I've been cleaning out

Lydia's cloths closet. It's a big attic closet that was completely full of girl cloths. I'd kept almost everything that she's ever worn, shoes too, in case we ever had another girl. Well, the closet was getting a to be ridiculously messy, and I couldn't find the cloths that fit her now. Anyway, I went through it and got rid of everything that is too small. I couldn't help bit get a bit misty eyed over the memories when I ran across things that she wore when she was ity-bity. So many good days in the sun! I got rid of everything except the yellow "Big sister to be" shirt. That's how we announced that Ross was on the way. Lydia wore that shirt around. I'd have kept the dress that she was blessed in, but I didn't run across it. Oh well. Here she is with her new hair cut. Doesn't she look so grown up! Sigh!

A Shameless Plug

In case you haven't, you should really check out John & my blog together. It will make you laugh, I promise! Here's the address: http://johnandrenae.blogspot.com/
There is also a link over to the right, the one that says "John & Me" I think that's what it says anyway.

Poop

My Uncle Robert and Aunt Melody had a major house fire this morning. Half of the ward weren't at church today because they were there helping out. Everyone got out fine, that's good. The roof is burnt to heck, as is the back wall of the house. Man, that has got to be awful! Makes you appreciate all that you have. People were so good though, they've had about a million offers of places to stay, and hotel rooms bought for them. Their neighbors raised over $1000 for them amongst themselves. Good people! Good news, the Crammer picture survived! ;) (They have a huge, framed picture of Crammer from Seinfeld. It was in their basement. I think one of their kids bought it for them for Christmas.) Well, what can you say, it's a sucky situation to be in, that's for sure! But it is just stuff after all, and no one was hurt. So, that's good.

In other news, we had a party in honor of Harry Potter's birthday this weekend. It was the kids' idea, but it was a good time. Todd, Suzanne, Tommy and our family went over to Mom and Dad's house for dinner, dessert and a game of muggle quiditch. I found a recipe for treacle tart on-line and I made it. It wasn't so great. Maybe I didn't do it quite right. The quiditch was great fun, we will have to do that again. Bruce and Tommy were the keepers. Todd & Lydia were the chasers for one team, and Trent was the chaser for the other team. Ashley and I played the beaters. We each had a wet wash cloth (They were supposed to be Nerf type balls, but they got lost somehow before the game even started, but the wet wash cloths turned out to be so much fun, that who cares that we didn't have the balls!) which we ran around and threw repeatedly at the other players. Ross & Suzanne were the seekers. They had to catch a certain amount of fire-flies for the game to end. It was really fun!

We were over at Mom & Dad's today, and they had this box thing out in the back yard. It was big enough for me to get into with my legs criss-crossed. It was laying down, so I was on my back with my legs inside this box criss-crossed in the air. It had an open part where my face and shoulders were. How to explain? It was kind of like if I had gotten into one of those big trashcans that they have in public places with a flat top and a flap where you put your garbage in the side, except that there was no flap, and it is laying on it's back with the flap part facing the sky. Make any sense? Anyway, the point was that I got inside all sneaky like, with the intent to lay there out of sight until someone came by, and I'd growl and grab their ankles. The only problem was that my mom saw me get in, and she did a dastardly thing! I was laying there with my legs crammed in and just my face and shoulders exposed, and I was somewhat trapped. Mom gave me away and they all came over and poured ice cold water in my face, and I pretty much couldn't do anything about it. Funny!

That reminds me of a new game we invented for family night a couple of weeks ago. We played tag with a water bottle. The person who is "it" has a squirt bottle and they tag you by squirting you. If you get wet, you get the bottle and are then "it."

It also reminds me (Boy, I am full of yammer tonight, is anyone going to actually read this whole thing?) of another time when one of my attempts to be funny backfired on me. I used to think it was really fun to draw a huge face on a pillow case, put it on over your head with your hands at the sides of your face, to make pillow case keep it's shape. Then you tuck your pillow case into a jacket that you wear around your waist. So, it looks like you have this huge funny head and really short legs. (The jacket covers down to about your knees.) You dance around, and it's comical. Anyway, we were over at Mom and Dad's a couple of years back, and I thought I'd be funny and go into the other room and quick do one of these get ups, then run out and convulse everyone. Well, convulse everyone, I did. The problem was that I picked out a pillow case that was a bit too small for me. I had just got the whole thing on (I did the jacket first) when I realized that I was stuck inside this pillowcase. I was starting to get a little claustrophobic, so I ran out of the room, in this lunatic get up, yelling, "Help, help, I'm stuck!" I think John nearly wet himself laughing at me.

Six Flags

We dropped the J-Bird off at Grandma Sever's for the day and went to Six Flag with Bruce's family. We had a good time. We all stuck together for a while and rode rides until lunch. We all packed a picnic and found a shade tree by the parking lot to eat under. The kids ran around and played while we grown-ups relaxed for a while. Then we went to the water park for a couple of hours. After that we split up. Bruce took Lydia and the more adventuresome people to do the roller coasters. I took the smaller kids (happily) and did the kid rides with them. I'm not a fan of roller coasters. I can do the rolling upside down & the spinning part fine, but the drops are torture for me. If I have one unreasonable fear, it's drops like that. I don't mind heights really, I can stand on high things and look down, no problem, but I hate drops. Bungee jumping or sky diving sounds like utter torture to me. I don't even like to jump off of the high dive. Lydia, on the other hand is a roller-coaster maniac! She couldn't wait to go on the meanest, scariest ones! Anyway, I didn't bring my camera, because I didn't want to have to keep track of it all day. Bruce took these with his phone camera. (That's why they aren't the best.)

And here's a beautiful nugget that I put on here just for the gross out factor. This is the picture of me that Bruce has as his wallpaper on his phone. Lovely isn't it!
Oh, here's an amusing thing. We didn't get home until about 11:00 pm, so Mom had long since put Justice to bed in the port-a-crib. She has one of the old kind that you have to assemble (it doesn't just pop up). Justice thought it was really neat when she was putting it together, clanking all of those metal bars together! But as soon as she put the top of it on, and it looked like a bed, he got really mad, and wanted nothing to do with it.