lots of girl cousins

With Kelley and David moving down to Utah, :(  we decided to have a cousin slumber party for all the girls.(Plus Nolan joined in on the sleepover, so it wasn't all girls:)  It was so much fun!! Ellie decided to sleep with two chairs put together:

The girls rearranged the room and set up props, Kami outfitted them in costumes and taught them how to show them off to the best advantage;)

Shawn and I told them "scary" stories about when we were young, and then we went to bed and listened as they tried to settle for quite some time.  What a bunch of fun, excited girls!

We are really going to miss having David, Kelley and their kids living close by!

Summer at last!!!

Kami and Caden went to school last Monday, got home, and with that, summer vacation began for them.  The little girls were supposed to go to school for two more days before they were finished up, though. Meanwhile, Shawn was going to be leaving Tuesday to work for the week in LaGrande, OR. I knew the little girls wouldn't be doing anything important those last couple of days of school, so I talked to their teachers and got them out of school a couple of days early, we all jumped into the car -even Jack :(- and took off on a trip to visit my parents while Shawn worked close by. (Just before we left we went to put Jack into his carrier, only to find that he'd outgrown it. We hadn't any idea what else to do with him, and weren't about to leave him in the back where he could chew everything to pieces, so he sat at Kami and Caden's feet the whole way:

We ended up only getting to stay  for two nights because Shawn had to be back to do a funeral, but we had a wonderful time.  I brought my sewing machine and some patterns and material.  Kami had big plans to sew herself some skirts, and I wanted to sew her a dress, and we figured we could do it simultaneously with mom's and my machine going at the same time. Kami, mom and I ended up teaming up on the skirt, and mom and I sewed the dress and got it done just in the nick of time before it was time to head back.

Even though the trip was short and it rained the whole time, and even though Maddie was miserable and threw up all the way home and even though Jack's breath was unbearable at times, it just added to the memories and was, overall, very fun and relaxing. Kami and Caden went to one of Eli's choir concerts, and to a pie social for Abby's graduation, dad took all the kids on a drive up to the reservoir where they ran through pipes and had a wonderful time in the mountains, they got to play with Farber and Bradford cousins, and Uncle Adam came up and rough housed and teased them and played with them for a couple of hours.

Cute comments

I've been hanging on around here, but just barely!! Amongst the craziness, I liked these cute things that have been said:

While getting Isabelle ready for church Sunday, I asked her where a butterfly pin was that was supposed to go on her dress.  She said, "Mom, remember back in 2009..."  She was really backing up what happened to that pin with FACTS.

This afternoon after dropping off Maddie for gymnastics and Kami for violin, I rushed home to get dinner in the oven and try to mow as much of the lawn as possible before which ever came first: the storm that was brewing or the time to go pick the girls up again.  The three little kids were playing on the front porch as I frantically pushed the mower around the yard as fast as I could go. I could tell that they were overly excited about the flashes of lightening, the gusts of wind and the loud cracks of thunder.  Later on, in the kitchen Abe was watching me as I threw together a dinner salad.  Suddenly he looked very solemn and said, "Potatoes can kill you dead."  It took me a minute, but I suddenly knew what Nolan and Isabelle had been talking about while out on the porch. Tornadoes. Abram has no idea what tornadoes are, so in his mind they were talking about potatoes. We were having some for dinner-  I'm glad that he still ate some:)

This and that

When I wait too long to blog, I end up having to write such a long epistle! Life has felt so busy lately, and blogging would probably slide far down my priority list, except for the fact that I love to have this history!  This last week, Caden has had to write a biography about himself, so he pulled out our family journal, which is what we had before blogging, and we have all been enjoying it so much! It's great to hear the kids say, "listen to this!" and then go into peals of laughter about something they, or someone else in the family did or said.

Shawn was gone all week, week before last, and I looked forward all week to Friday night when he would finally be home.  Thursday night, after he talked to Caden on the phone, he talked to me and said, "Caden was wondering if I was going to go on his camp-out with him Friday night.  Can you try to find out how badly he wants me to go?"  I asked Caden and it was apparent that he had really wanted Shawn to come. He said, "now I feel bad for asking, because I know he'd probably like to sleep in his own bed." Shawn and I decided that it would be a good opportunity for him to spend some quality time with Caden. So, Shawn came home Friday afternoon, scrambled around and got everything he needed for the camp-out and he and Caden happily set out for their camp-out. They had a GREAT time! Among other things they had to take care of  their own dinner, so they brought steak and cooked it on an already heated up rock, which was a big hit.

I wish that I could say I had a great time at home, but I have learned that you can get through the days just fine that you expect to get through, but it's really hard to adjust to a change in plans.   I had been dreaming of a Friday night date all week and had a hard time letting go of the idea.  I was pretty cranky, and the kids didn't end up getting to stay up too far past their bedtime even though it WAS Friday!

Saturday morning a sprinkler systems guy came and we decided to break down and get one put in so that this summer when the kids don't have school, we can take off and go with Shawn whenever we want or can.We spent the rest of the day getting ready for it by hauling rocks in and placing them in our yard and planting plants and didn't finish up until 11:00 at night. The bishop looked really tired the next day at church and I think in the future I need to make sure that he gets enough sleep:)

Maddie, Isabelle and Nolan have had swimming lessons the last two weeks.  I don't know why, but watching those lessons can get me laughing so hard!  I know their teacher thinks I'm crazy-he keeps looking over to see what can possibly be so funny. But Isabelle has quite the arm routine that she has to go through before she jumps into the deep end, and it really tickles my funny bone to see Nolan in his bug-eyed goggles and notice how he can do arms and legs but never at the same time. I love to see him concentrate so hard to get it all together!

I recently found some more toys in more strange places:

They were "hanging" from the blinds on either side of my kitchen sink. Funny.  (Must have been outlaws.) Last time Shawn was getting ready to leave on a trip he had his suitcase by the door, when Abram suddenly came up to him and said, "Don't bring my cowboys!"  Then he dug them out of a front compartment of his suitcase where he had evidently deposited them several days before.  After retrieving them he said," And don't bring my army guys" He moved down one pocket and pulled them out as well.

The other day Abram was calling for me, but wasn't hearing me answer.  He finally said, "Mom!  You anywhere?" I kept answering him, but he still couldn't figure out where I was and kept asking for clues.  "You in your room?  You laundry room?" I love to hear the way he talks.  He has started repeating rhymes that he's heard and it's so cute.  I notice that the kids have been taking lots of videos of him lately as he "performs" his rhymes and kungfu.

Kami's been in track, but the weather at every track meet has been nasty and the little boys have had bad coughs, so we have only been able to make it to two of her meets.  Her favorite race this year has been the 800 (1/2 mile) and her best time this hear has been a 2.52. I'll have to add some pictures later.

Maddie, along with her cousin Abby, have been thick into developing their own secret language. Well, at least I think the intent was for it to be secret, but Maddie is so excited about it that she just has to let us in on how to say things in her tongue. If you want to ask, "What is your name?" you say "tad q mo exeroo". Cool is "fussib". Shawn's name is "Hick-you", my name is "Izzy" ( I told Maddie that I thought my name was a little boring compared to the others, but she said that can't be helped because they have to follow a pattern.  Unfortunately, you wouldn't be able to decode her pattern because I know for a fact that I haven't spelled things right on here) Abby's name is "queeks", Maddie's name is "Ickwahammib". (I told her that I had no idea why I hadn't thought to name her that in the first place.)  You have no idea how often this language is brought up and thought about in this household- by our nine year old -right now.

Only fifteen more days until summer vacation - I'm SO excited!!!