It's all track these days...

...and I'll prove it with all of these pictures! Now that Maddie is out with her ankle, there are only three meets per week:D

Maddie's ankle, by the way, is very colorful and still pretty swollen this week:

And she still can't do much on it, so she probably won't be going back at all this season.

Isabelle had the first meet this week in Hermiston, and we had typical track weather for it: COLD and windy!  Belle was nervous as this was her first meet ever!  She started off as the third leg in the 4X100 and as she passed the baton to the last runner the baton fell.  She doesn't know if it was her fault, or the girl's fault or both, but she felt awful.  She went from that right into the mile run, which she did in 6 minutes and 28 seconds.

She and the boys both had meets on Thursday; Belle's was home and the boys was in Walla Walla.  Belle successfully ran the relay this time and their team came in 3rd.  Then she ran the 800 and came in third with a time of 3:01:

And got first place in the 3000m run with a time of 13:39:

Ok - she was the only girl brave enough to do this event and it was actually traumatizing for her because she had to run with the boys and they all came in before she did, so she felt like a loser even though she did great and her coach thinks this is HER race! She claims that she will never do it again... we will see if the coach talks her into it:D

Meanwhile the boys were having a great day at THEIR meet, with Abe throwing javelin again:

Nolan doing long jump:

Running the mile together - Nolan came in third and Abram came in fourth.  I loved watching them go around and around the track TOGETHER.  Abe was determined to keep up with his big brother, and while Nolan came around smiling with each lap, Abram looked like he was in pain. But Abram did it!  He stayed right on Nolan's shoulder the whole time:

In other news, I LOVE having three boys in a row! I love watching the things they do, whether it's eating their breakfast with a relish:

or being monkeys while helping their dad tear out shrubbery around the house:

I may not love WHERE I am in live, but I sure do LOVE my life!!!

Maddie dies on the hurdles and we go to heaven for three days

Monday: Just as track was beginning, I got a text from Maddie that said, "I did something to my leg, can you come get me?  With this picture:

Apparently, she was trying to get a three step between hurdles, rather than four, and twisted her ankle on the way down.  She could hardly walk the next day and skipped all but her biology class because they were dissecting a squid and she knew that would be hard to make up.  She hobbled around for a couple of days:

Then we took her to the doctor and he thought that from where she was hurting she may have a fracture.  So we went for an x-ray:

And she was okay (whew!) but was told to get a good brace.  This was her super swollen, bruised foot after one day with the brace!:

By the end of the week she could walk normally if she really concentrated on it.  Meanwhile, she took advantage of her injury to ride one of these Walmart carts while she had the chance!:

This is also Maddie at a Salon in the Tri-cities this week getting an "express blowout":

Every three -six months her hair gets too curly and frizzy and drives her CRAZY!  The blowout elongates the curls, makes it easier to straighten and gets rid of frizz.  (Her after shot is actually above in that hospital x-ray picture, and driving around Wal-mart)

And this was one day this week when the girls wore dresses to school and then asked me that afternoon if I would take their picture "since they kind-of matched and were looking good":)

I worked all day in the yard Monday because it was supposed to be the only sunny day all week.  I got a lot done, but we decided to finish the job with the whole crew for Family Home Evening.  We moved A LOT of sod along the back fence!

I can't wait to start planting things!:

There was no school Friday and a trip to Rexburg was LONG overdue, so we packed up Wednesday night and left directly after school on Thursday.  It was soooo good to head for "home"! We got in around 1:15 am, but had a good time getting there.  Movies and snacks and fun stops to stretch our legs:

It was so good to BE "home"!:

Shawn and I got up Friday and went to the temple, and in other spare time visited friends (Archibalds, Sharps, Roberts and Bresslers this visit) and spent a lot of time with family!  We also went to a violin recital that Ellie and Marilyn played in:

The talent in Rexburg can't be topped!!

The kids got a piano lesson from Marilyn and the cousins got lots of time together:

I tried a few times to catch more pictures of the boys, but they didn't seem to stay in place for very long...:

Saturday night the girls had some fun at DI and then did face masks and a movie.

Abby:

Ainsley:

Isabelle:

Maddie:

Ellie:

Fun times!  Now we're back to the grind.

Birthday week!

I'm sorry for whoever still reads these posts!  My new way of doing family history is to take pictures all week and then remember what happened during the week as I post them.  It makes for rather long posts...

Monday:

Pace hit his head on the oven and as he cried, told us "you should have put that somewhere else!!!"

At dinner, he lunged at Nolan with his fork, and the way Nolan groaned and grabbed his eye, we were sure that Pace had stabbed his eye out.  That got a quick, very worried reaction, and we found out that Nolan was okay, but Pace felt bad and started crying.

Nolan comforting:

Tuesday:

I found a job for Pace that he enjoyed:  cleaning cat hair off of the porch furniture from some neighbor cat that has found our deck😠😠😠:

Pace usually sticks right next to me during the day and gets anxious if he finds himself in a room all alone, so it was fun to watch him from the kitchen window as he pretended that he was a robber (as he later told me):

Should I be worried that he always wants to be "the bad guy"???

I picked up Maddie at noon and we went to Hermiston to a new orthodontist.  When we moved here, we had her braces all paid off, but went for a consultation with an orthodontist here in town who said he would take her on for $2000 more.  It has become very apparent that he doesn't know how to deal with the brackets that she has and he can never get her hooks to stay on for more than a day so that she can wear her bands.  That, and the tantrums that he throws every time he has to deal with her caused us to look elsewhere.  Turns out, that her care has back-tracked and he really didn't have any idea what he was doing....sigh.  Incredibly aggravating. She may truly have a million dollar smile by the end of this!!

Caden was requesting more pictures of her, so I took these.  I said "babe" for this one:

...And "zombie" for this one:

He and Kami get a kick out of horrible pictures...😄

We had a great evening with cousins, as Leslie and kids came for dinner. I can't believe I didn't get any pictures!  We love them and love when they can come!!

Wednesday:

I woke up another year older!  Shawn took the day off and it was the best day ever!!  We started it out by heading to the gym together:

Cardio and legs day:

Stretching it out:

Went home and got ready and then went to lunch at Roosters:

He and the kids spoiled me rotten with dinner and cake and lots of great thoughtful gifts before the boys headed for scouts and the girls and I went to mutual.  One of my very best gifts was having these letters show up in the mail from Kami and Caden!  It meant so much that they planned ahead and remembered their old mom:

Shawn got me an amazing foot massage machine and I guess it got everyone going on back scratching and everything else pampering-related.  These two spent about an hour taking turns scratching each other's backs with a back scratcher:

Thursday:

I watched Lexi Foust all day because she just got her tonsils out and her mom had to work. Pace was thrilled that he got to watch T.V practically all.day.long. I didn't get to watch the boy's first track meet, but Shawn sent me these pictures. Abram has a great arm and threw even further than Nolan, getting first place!:

Nolan jumped 11'1" in the long jump, which I am pretty sure was first place too.  Maddie says the high school girls jump 13', so he's doing great for his age!:

They also got first or second in their other events, but no pictures.  They have a program here that the kids who do track can earn an "iron man" award for trying every event, and the boys are determined to get it!  It's going to be busy around here through track season!  Isabelle hasn't started meets yet, but will next week.  Maddie has about two per week, but so far all of them have been canceled because of rain, and now the boys will have a meet every Thursday, plus getting everyone to and from practices. Busy, fun times.

Friday:

Pace woke up looking pretty tough after falling during a chase the night before.  Also he was having a hard time waking up happy and that added to the look:

I sometimes irreverently take pictures of him when he prays. He doesn't leave anything out and gestures with his hands and everything while he explains things to Heavenly Father :

I've been enjoying this bed with spring flowers in the front yard.  Fun to see what comes up in the yard, since I had nothing to do with it:

Pace climbing in a tree while I weeded a bed in the back yard:

Saturday:

We were excited that Tia and her kids came to visit for half of the day!  We don't get to see them much now that they live two hours away in Condon, Oregon.  Again, I failed to get pictures😒It was good to catch up and for the cousins to keep up with each other!

Later, after Shawn and I went for a walk all over town, Maddie met us at the door and asked us to come listen to her latest piano piece, "Waltz in A minor" by Chopin.  She has worked hard on it and it's sounding great!: