Blessed

I took Austin and Isaac to Panara this morning to pass some time until the library opened (a new pet peave: you bust it to get everyone ready in the morning so you can drop your oldest kid off at the bus stop and then you have to wait around until 10:00 for every thing to open...). As a sat down I noticed a "grandpa" watching and smiling. As he passed our table he told me how beautiful my family is. He said I am very blessed. I've been thinking about it all day. I really am blessed (pet peaves and all!). How could I ask for more?

A Day in the Life

Isaac LOVES to rip up the shelf paper and the second he hears the pantry open he comes crawling

Following Landon and Austin Around



Seconds before a BRAWL breaks out over the piano keys on this toy - it ends with Austin on top of Isaac and both boys crying


Back to the shelf

And back to the toys

Caught red - handed... this happens EVERY time the bathroom door is left open and Isaac is left alone anywhere near it. This time some of the toilet paper was salvageable

Other adventures not caught on camera: Tipping over the trash can; Playing in the toilet water; Emptying three cupboards all over the kitchen floor; Pulling Dad's books off the shelf; Pushing "talk" on the phone and leaving it on for 34 minutes; Climbing in the dishwasher; Cruising over to the oven the second I open it (don't worry I stopped him in time - but he always wants to pull up on it - I make sure he's strapped in somewhere or in a different room before I open it - what a pain...)

Fun Times!!

P.S. The pictures are fuzzy and I don't know why but if you double click them you can see them without the fuzz

Landon is in 1st Grade...

...and I can't believe it!

Last night we went to Land's "meet the teacher" night. As we walked down the hall Landon grabbed my hand to hold. Since hand holding has become a rare occurance in his old age it gave me that warm fuzzy, I'm a happy mom feeling. Of course I opened my big mouth and asked him if he was nervous and off he went running down the hall to find his friend Dallin. Today as we walked to the bus stop it was more of the same; he did everything he could think of to let me know he was not my little boy anymore. He wouldn't even let me carry one of his big boxes of kleenex's he had to take today.

So as he jumped on the bus without a look back I had a little moment of sadness. But as I watched him talking to his friend and squishing in his seat to make room for his other friend I also felt so proud of him. He is so good at making friends and always optimistic. I love his good attitude and the way he just takes things in stride. I think he'll have a great year. I just love this kid.

(Landon laid his clothes out the night before exactly like he would be wearing them. Believe me, he put much thought into his first day wardrobe. We had a little problem when his "no show" ankle socks didn't fit just right so he opted for the crew socks... Ha Ha The kid is serious about his own ideas of fashion)

The highlights of the first day were:
*Science is a "special" class (meaning they get to go to another teacher in the science lab) and Landon got to do an experiment in front of his whole class
*He got to bring a lunchable for lunch (he's been begging since last year!)
*He wants to join the 30 club - that means he wont flip a card (for disciplin) for 3o days in a row and then he gets a prize
*He made a friend name Jacob, one of four Jacobs in his class
*He saw his friend Dallin at all three recesses
*He sat with Dallin and Spencer on the bus to and from school
*He likes his teacher and she didn't make him flip a card when he was talking to his new friend Jacob
*His folder has a sticker with his name on it

Cave of the Winds

There is a little treasure here in Colorado Springs. It is an active cave that is fun to take a tour through. The kids LOVED it. I must say the highlight of the adventure for me was when our tour guide took us into the cave "room" called something like Silent Cathedral. She explained that if you were quiet enough you could here your own heart beat. Just when the entire group got silent Isaac started yelling and laughing at his echo. A little while later our tour guide got someone to esscort Zac and I out of the cave because he just couldn't stop making his little squeals of delight echo off the walls. Not to mention he kept reaching out and touching the cave walls which is a $2800.00 fine - I'll take the escort out of there over that fine any day, thanks. Oh, and if you don't want babies yelling in the cave, why don't you put an age limit on who can go in? Just wondering. All in all, though it was a great, rainy, fun day...

(We asked a lady to take this for us - she didn't do a great job, obviously, but I love the picture anyway. Just try to look past the blurrieness)

A few new things

You all know that Cameron and I have been in school since we got married 8 years ago. We have been scrimping and saving in a big way. Cameron just got his first "REAL" paycheck ever! Sadly, we still don't "have money". (will we ever?!) But it is such a wonderful feeling to pay our bills with money from a paycheck rather than money from a student loan, credit card, or other random chunk of money we somehow managed to come up with. So as a way to celebrate our first ever paycheck we bought a few things from our "things to buy when we're done with school" list. Let me tell you it's been a long time coming. I'm still holding my breath for my camera and microfiber couches and piano and... (He He I could go on and on!!) Oh wait, we have to pay off student loans, credit cards, our car... I think our list is now called "things to buy when we win the lottery because our "real" paycheck is not enough to fulfill our every wish and desire". It's too bad, I was hopin' it would be!

This is the monitor that goes with our computer! Finally, a computer with the capacity to do what we need it to. Our out-dated laptop was just not cutting it anymore. The hard drive was so full we couldn't access anything which is why I thought I lost our pictures from this summer. So happy happy joy joy I have them back and once I figure out how to use this monster computer I will finally get them posted.





And this little beauty is something I've been wanting FOREVER. Since central vac is what I really want and you know that's not going to happen until we can build a house, I'll settle for this baby. I actually found it on sale and had a twenty percent coupon which made it affordable so... Hallalujah, I don't have to vacuum that piece of lint 4 times before the vacuum finally sucks it up!

Cheap Entertainment

So the kids have been doing some funny things lately. Here's some highlights:

Landon - Picture full on HEAD-BANGING and AIR GUITAR and imagine some hard rock "tune"... Landon's been working on a song for his "band" and this is what he's come up with so far:

Down Down Down in the deep blue sea, all I could see was a picture of me.

I thought it was red but I forgot the sea was blue
The next thing I saw was you.
You took me here. You took me there. Then you took me everywhere.

It's a work in progress. But it's defininitely funny to watch him rock out. I love it!

Austin - This is Austin's version of chasing his own tail. Seriously, it's pretty funny. He does this while I'm getting ready in the morning. You can hear how hard he's breathing; that's because he had been doing this for a good twenty minutes before I even got the camera out. The kid's got stamina!

Isaac - Zac's been staying busy too. He is crawling like crazy. He's constantly in any cupboard that he can open. Literally, IN any cupboard he can open. He's pulling up on furniture now. He can crawl up the stairs and thankfully has only made it up two before I've caught him from falling back down. He chases Landon and Austin around all the time and drives them crazy because he wants to EAT whatever they are playing with. He is already "all boy". He loves balls and is just starting to be able to play "catch" (before he would hold on with a death grip but now he knows if he rolls it to you you will roll it back - unless he's playing with Austin!). He says Dada, cracker, more, all done, hi, and just started saying Mama. It's so cute to hear him talk. I LOVE it!

My kiddos keep me busy; that's for sure. They give me all the entertainment a mom could ever want!

P.S. if your wondering why there are no pictures yet - my external hard drive ate them! I'm not crying yet. Cameron's taking our hard drive to computer guys at work tomorrow. If they can't extract the files then I will be crying... our whole summer was on the hard drive and of course when I downloaded them to it I erased them from our camera. Cross your fingers that they can find them, k?

It's A Dairy Queen Night

It's common for people to eat when they're stressed, right? When I'm stressed I want the good stuff: cookies, candy bars, ice cream, those gross nachos from 7-11... Well, tonight is definitely a Dairy Queen night. I sent Cam out for a Mint Oreo Blizzard. I had to.
So I've had a wonderful weekend. My mom was here Sat - Tues and Cameron's sister Shauntelle and her husband and three kids were here Mon - Wen. I loved having them.

I've been waiting all day to put my kids to bed so I could get some pictures downloaded and ready to blog. There's so much to say - fourth of July, Utah trip, good times with my family. So after dinner I thought I should call the primary president to make sure I'm not supposed to teach my new class on Sunday (I got called to be the 11 year old Sunday School teacher - at least it will help me study my scriptures a little more). Since no one's given me the lesson manual yet I just assumed I wouldn't be teaching... I was wrong of course. So I decided tomorrow would be my lesson planning day.

But then my phone rang and it just happened to be another member of my ward asking me to speak in church on Sunday. Say What? Um... I've got to plan a lesson already and now a talk for Sacrament and it's Thursday night. I need time to prepare people! So much for getting my fun summer documented - it's going to have to wait until next week. For now I will be reading and writing and praying that I will not make a fool of myself on Sunday!

Oh, and as long as I'm griping can I just say... why doesn't my family close closet doors? At any given moment in any given room there is at least one closet door open and it BUGS me. Especially the coat closet in the entry way. I close that door at least five times a day. Help me out kids and close the door (you too Cam!).