filling in for august

I haven't posted many (or any) photos in the last couple of weeks.  August has been BUSY!  Here are a few photos (not in any particular order, chronological or otherwise) to illustrate some of the things we've been up to:

 

Liv sporting a sweet "retro" look:

 Learning to buckle her own shoes:

 She snuck downstairs and fell asleep on the couch without us knowing (we were right in the room and discovered her probably 30 minutes later).  As I've mentioned to some of you, her finger isn't in her nose although it looks like it...

Excited to see what looks like some natural curl!

My astute sister in law noticed that Liv is using her left in this photo (I hadn't noticed!). 

Then I went back through the other photos I took (this was waiting at the ENT office last week) and saw this one of her using her right.  Ambidextrous? 

Love this one of her ready to leave for the church swim party:

Tosh playing with bubble wrap (great entertainment for this mom too):

Playing with Play-Doh takes great concentration:

 

 Burke lounging in the pool after a long day of school and then soccer practice:

 I made some personalized towels for the kids' bathroom.  I have loved knowing exactly which kid has left their towel on the floor! 

Awesome sunrise I caught one morning:

Hewitt can't eat breakfast unless he has a book to go with it (just like Rob):

I had parent teacher conferences for all three boys today (all are doing great).  Hewitt's teacher gave me this book he wrote and I thought I'd share (my favorite part is the "about the author" portion):

I spent all morning canning peaches with some friends.  Tomorrow morning we move on to pears. 

Other things of note:
Rob is going to be coaching Tosh's soccer team (we already know all seven players).  Should be a very entertaining bunch of boys.

I wrote the primary program for our sacrament meeting program this week.  So nice to have that checked off my to-do list.

Instead of saying, "I'm going to keep this in my room," Liv will say, "I'm taking this to my room for keeping!"  I love how lots of her sentences end with "for keeping."  So cute.

I am also noticing Liv "mothering" the boys (and their friends) more and more.  For example, we will load up in the van and she will say, "Get buckled up, boys."  She is also starting to storm off to her room when she is upset and say things like, "Fine!  I am going to my room and I'm going to shut my door!"  It's sometimes hard not to laugh, to be honest. 

Can't believe that September is almost here!

that moment when all is right in the world

 

 

It isn't our wedding anniversary today (or any other special occasion for that matter).

 

Today is a typical and somewhat ordinary day.   

 

YET, today I feel very happy and perfectly content. 

 

I was pondering today (on the treadmill, of course, where I do most of my real thinking) about how I truly feel that I could conquer anything with Rob by my side.  

 

Sometimes I feel that I have much more confidence in US than I do in ME. I think I'm OK with that.

 

Our marriage isn't perfect by any means, but I can honestly say that we have everything that's ever really mattered to us.

 

Thanks for bringing out the best in me and for making my dreams come true, Rob. 

 

I love you, 

Tams   

By Burke

I am Burke. Mother is feeling rather exhausted at the moment, and after pondering deeply has made the risky decision to temporarily pass down the authority "Blogger" down to me. Don't worry though, I'm a cool dude.

On Monday the missionaries came over for a delicioso dinner of burritos. Mother and I made a delicious dessert of chocolate mint ice cream.

Tosh's teacher told Mother the following:  The kindergarten kids were a getting a little loud and the teacher said something like, "Kids, who is the boss of this class?"  They replied with stuff like, "you are" and Tosh said, "No, JESUS is the boss!"

Also, Mother's friend told us that she overheard Tosh in the hallway at school talking to some kids.  They were discussing who their best friends were and Tosh told them, "Jesus should be your best friend."

I guess Tosh is the class clown.

On Friday we went to our friends' (the Dommers) house and had pizza. Father was somewhere else. They also gave us some caramel popcorn that mother said I could after this. It's good.

At school my class made some movies based off the book The Giver. The link is here. My portion starts at the 4:36 mark (and is the black and white section).

On Saturday some friends came over to go swimming. Mother made lemonade slushies in our Ice cream maker. They were good. We went out to dinner and saw a movie called Spy Kids  and Father got us some candy.

That is it. Farewell, reader.

daily snippets

Another week of school and record breaking HOT August heat behind us.  My A/C in the van isn't working.  BAD TIMING!  I'll recap the week with some daily (almost) photos.

Sunday:  Rob and the boys spent quite a bit of time sorting LEGOs.  We bought an organizer so we could have them separated by color and we pulled some of the bigger toys out of the playroom.  It feels good to de-clutter a bit.

Tosh decided to try bread for the first time in a year or two.  He is such a funny kid.  He'll take one bite and say, "Yumm!"  then claim he doesn't like it a few more bites in.  Maybe someday we'll get him to try a sandwich for the first time in his life. 

Monday:  I was able to volunteer in Tosh's classroom.  I always love seeing my five-year-olds in class for the first time.  He was very happy to have me there as well. 

The kids (and Rob) did a little night swimming after Family Home Evening...

 while I made fresh strawberry ice cream (with a hint of lime) and it was delicious!

Tuesday marked six months since my Mom's passing.  Liv gets herself dressed everyday (changes outfits a ton!) and she came downstairs Tuesday morning in her "I love Grandma" shirt.  I thought it was sweet that she would happen to wear it that day.   Sure love and miss you every single day, Momma! 

Wednesday afternoon Liv and I did a little shopping.  She loves trying on glasses.  Glad she doesn't need them (yet), but she sure looks cute.

Sweet brothers:

Thursday:  Burke has started guitar lessons (in addition to piano) with Rob.  I can't believe how quickly he is learning.  I sat in for a bit of practice and liked what I heard. 



 Liv and I ran more errands (have to quit doing that in the afternoons--too hot!).   I don't buy Liv very much (thanks to AWESOME hand-me-downs), but these beauties were calling Liv's name:

Thursday night was Pack Meeting for Cubs.  The kids had fun playing some "Minute to Win it" games:

No photos from Friday, I guess.  Liv and I had some friends over to swim and have lunch.  That evening our family went to a swimming party/BBQ with Burke's soccer team. 

Saturday was fairly busy and productive.  Yard work, house work, ward temple session and dinner, etc.  A neighbor lent us his extension chainsaw to do some trimming (Rob usually trims by hand and it takes a LONG time).  Well, I guess he was reaching too high and somehow got the blade stuck in a high branch.  We tried several different things before we finally called for help!  Our friend Kent (his family had our older boys while we were in Oregon, and he is also our hometeacher) came to the rescue with his 20 foot ladder.  It was enough to get it down safely.   We were laughing at ourselves for sure.  We were hoping our neighbor wasn't watching the entire thing out of his window.  This photo makes me laugh; you can see the saw suspended in the tree! 

Sunday:  It seemed like we had tons of time to kill before church today.  I think it just felt like forever beause Rob and I sang in sacrament meeting and I had major nerves!  I can't believe how nervous I get these days.  I think I'd lose 10 pounds in a week if I had to sing in public every day.  We motivated our kids to shower and get dressed by telling them we'd play games as soon as they were ready. 

I just had to snap a few pics of my cute T today.  The most, hmm, interesting or entertaining (?) story of the week is that Tosh has had a little trouble at school.  I know what you are thinking.  This kid?!?

He came home with a red note on Tuesday.  He got in trouble for talking while the teacher was talking (no shock) and then a second time for KISSING!  He kissed a little girl (Elizabeth) that he talks about all the time.  She is "one of his girlfriends."  Ha Ha! Heaven help us!  I've never dealt with anything like this with our older boys.  We both had a long chat with Tosh about appropriate behavior and I had him write a letter to his teacher that said, "I am sorry.  I will follow the rules." 

Needless to say, I wasn't thrilled to get an e-mail from Tosh's teacher on Wednesday saying that he had to go to the "Thinking Spot" again!  This time he had joined another boy in ripping up some tape that was on the floor during their quiet time after lunch recess.  I have never had reports of Tosh ever being disrespectful at preschool or Sunday School!  What was worse was that the teacher found his red note folded up and in the waste paper basket at the end of the day!   I wrote the teacher back of course and also talked to her when I took Tosh to school on Thursday.  Luckily, the teacher seems to find Tosh entertaining and said, "He is so stinkin cute!"  I guess when she showed Tosh the note in the waste basket he said, "That's weird!" 

After much thought (and some pleading prayers!) about how to handle this less than steller behavior, I decided to tie a green ribbon around his wrist as a reminder to make good choices.  We also put his bear up every day before school and he has to earn him back with good behavior.    Both Thursday and Friday were a success (no red notes!) so I guess it's working!

 We may be in for some trouble with this little charmer...

back to life, back to reality

I love this first photo!  This little tent has been in our garage since we've moved here.  I had totally forgotten about it until Liv brought it in the other day.  We set it up in the hour between picking up Tosh up and the older boys. 

Getting back into the groove of things can seem fairly overwhelming to me after a nice break/vacation.  School is in full swing and we seem to be adding new things to our schedule each week.  Burke started band this week.  He is doing percussion (Rob and I were very happy with this choice).  Band is before school on MWF and it works out perfectly for Rob to drive the boys (we are carpooling with a boy in our ward) on his way to work.  Soccer is starting up as well.  I never know how we will juggle three boys in soccer, two in piano lessons, and also Cub Scouts (Burke and soon Hewitt).  I felt very stressed out on Monday night and so Rob put together charts for each of the boys to help them use their time as wisely as possible.  We are leaving the house earlier this year, and the boys' bus has been getting home quite a bit later this year (it shouldn't be, but it's a new driver). 

  

Chart example:



So I totally felt like a lame mother when Burke read through his chart for the first time and then asked, "I'm supposed to say personal prayers in the morning?"  I guess we ALL have things to work on.  Also, some of you may not be familiar with "SPLA" yet.  A couple of years ago Rob was trying to get the kids excited to help clean up the house and said something like, "Now we are going to do SPLA!  Super Put Laundry Away!"  The term stuck and our kids always refer to putting their folded laundry away as SPLA.  I should note that I am also trying to teach our kids to come to me each day and ask, "Mom, what can I do to help?"  I've told my boys that if they can get in that habit of asking how they can help then their wives will LOVE me!  :)

Hmmm, what else?  After 13 years of marriage, Rob is writing a duet for us to sing together.  It's kind of fun to be involved with a little project.  I sing maybe once a year, so it's not easy to dust off the old voice.

There are several things I've been excited to do with Liv with the boys in school.  On Friday morning I got out the bike and trailer and took Liv on about an 8 mile ride to a covered park and let her play for a while.  Maybe I wasn't thinking about the fact that it's AUGUST IN ARIZONA!?  The ride home was very hot--96 degrees before 10AM.  We jumped in the pool as soon as we got home.  I think we'll stick to swimming for now, or at least not ride so far.  O October, October wherefore art thou October?   

Our boys don't play with friends very often.  All three of our boys invited friends over yesterday.  They all played so well and had lots of fun.  We swam and made pizza and the boys did all sorts of interesting things. 

The younger boys having fun with the hose on the tramp:

Burke and his buddy came downstairs dressed as ninjas:

Rob and I did a little "home improvement" project together on Saturday...  That kind of thing will test our marriage like nothing else!!!  Rob pulled our old vent hood out when we had the cabinets refinished in January, and we are now finally putting a new one in.  Luckily, we will have a friend install the new cook top when it arrives in a week or two. 

 Handy Rob; cleaning up the mess:

So I've been very sad all week about missing the Olympics.  I love the Olympics!  Rob really surprised me when he said, "Do you want me to get a TV?"  We haven't had TV (cable) in a year and have been planning to get a flat screen when we finish our family room (built-ins and new mantle which we are doing soon).  The TV and digital antenna (not getting cable again) both arrived on Friday in time for me to watch Michael Phelps swim.  Thanks, Rob! 

We took the kiddos to dinner last night (Chino Bandito):

We were celebrating a certain little girl wearing big girl panties ALL DAY-- and keeping them dry, of course! 

It's the end of an era!  I knew that Liv would just decide that she was ready one day (she's been going potty on the toilet off and on for over a year, but at my request).  We were so excited yesterday when she came downstairs (we were working on the vent in the kitchen) and told me to come upstairs to see her poo in the toilet.  She had been playing in the playroom and just went to the bathroom on her own!  This morning we laughed that she got herself dressed in panties without us saying anything about it.  So proud of my big girl. 

 Liv was dancing around the family room last night singing a 'Liv original' that went, "I can do (pause) anything!"  She sings all the time.  Another funny thing is that she gets mixed up and will also say the word 'anything' when she really means 'nothing.'  For example, she will be upset about something and will say, "I want ANYTHING!"  It makes me laugh because she is saying the opposite of what she means.  What a funny girl.  I am going to sign her up for a little dance/movement class through our community center this week.

I think those are the main highlights for the week.  Happy August.  Stay cool!