Very Accomplished Day

Being without 2 vehicles has forced us to re-evaluate just a bit. I have vowed to make better use of my time and not take things I should be gratefull for forgranted. So, that being said, today we made very good use of our time. The King did tons of yard work, with the girls help. They're taking a hiatus from electronics, so they had plenty of time to help too :)We can't seem to get Buster motivated. It's like all he wants to do is eat and sleep. He seriously needs to start pulling his own weight. All 13#'s 11 ozs of it!! Tea took a break to model the new necklace she made with her charm kit. Amazingly she is the only one that had the patience to make one. Even I tried, but the 3rd time all of my beads fell off I tossed in the towel. When it got hot the girls took shelter in the playhouse. The King built them a little deck today to set their lawn chairs. Boo loves to play on the swingset. She has so much energy. Chiggie and Midge kept the new deck clean by sweeping it. After all the work was finished they sat out on their little deck and chatted. My future Golden Girls!

Tea's Party

Originally we were going to go see a move for Tea's birthday but the show she wanted to watch didn't end up coming to a local theater, so she picked bowling instead. We had a great time. Much to my disappointment my camera battery died, which has been happening way to often lately, and I had to take pictures with my cell phone. I took pictures bowling but they aren't good at all. She picked an ice cream cake from DQ and it was really good. She made a wish and blew out the number 3 candle twice. Because 2 x 3 =6.

As I mentioned in the post on her actual birthday she loves to color and do any kind of art project. This art kit pleased her and she can't wait to start making creations.

She really wanted a kit to make bracelets and was excited when she opened this one!

Happy Birthday again sweet Tea we love you so much!

When it Rains

It's pouring over here. Just when we started feeling some relief from the heat (window air conditioning unit) one of the brake pads fell off the SUV. I didn't even know that could happen. It can and it did. They didn't even sound that bad for that long at all. The quote to have them fixed is just under $1000, so for now I am carless during the day. Then last night while we were eating dinner the refridgerator starting making loud and strange noises. It alternates between being cold and not so much. No idea what the problem is. At that point we just started laughing because what else can you do. I'm thankful that we have the truck because at least we are not without transportation. Hopefully this will all blow over soon!

Tea is 6!!!

Her party is not until Friday, but until then, here are 6 awesome things about Tea:

• She is a wonderful sister. Big and little!
• She loves to color and will entertain herself doing so for hours.
• She is starting Kindergarten this year and very excited about it.
• She loves summertime for the swimming and camping involved.
• She loves to sleep in which makes her a girl after my own heart.
• She is a comedian. When we need a good laugh she never lets us down.

She is absolutely the best 6 year old daughter anyone could possibly want!!

Boo Turns 3

Today sweet Boo turned 3. It was cute to see the look on her face this morning when I woke her up singing happy birthday. Her personality is such that she really doesn't expect anything so she was surprised to be treated like a princess all day. She love eating dinner at McD's and having her sisters and aunt's there to enjoy it with her.

Afterwards we came home for cupcakes and presents. She chose chocolate cupcakes and chocolate ice cream. Her presents delighted her.

Boo, you will always be my sweet little baby girl. We love you!

On a Roll

Today was a good day. Well, one of those good days only a true mother would love. I woke up and even though I didn't feel like it I cleaned the whole house. The good scrub 'till it shines kind of clean. Buster even cooperated taking a nice 2 hour nap in his bed. This motivated me big time. The girls enjoyed the down time, we've been pretty busy, and played well together while I was busy.

I marinated some chicken breasts for dinner and put some potatoes in the oven. I'll throw a veggie on and that will make an easy but good dinner. Chiggie has play practice and I have to grab a few more things for Boo's birthday tomorrow. We're going to McDonald's for dinner and the play place and then my Mom and little sisters are coming back to our house for cupcakes and ice cream. Boo thinks this sounds fantastic and I'm glad she's easy to please.

Something I've been meaning to blog about are the nights around here. All 4 girls are upstairs now. We sold Boo's toddler bed and she's now on the bottom bunk, Midge is on the top, and Tea has a twin bed of her own. Amazingly there is still a ton of space on the floor for play. Anyway it's like a constant slumber party. It takes me back to childhood and I wonder what it would be like to have 3 sisters close to your own age. They pillow fight, giggle, and slide down the stairs on their tummy's until we put a stop to it all and demand they stay in their beds and sleep. Secretly though, I'm so glad they have that time together. I can't even imagine the memories they're making.

Happy

Tid Bits

I don't have time for a real post, so in the meantime:

• We're getting a window air conditioning unit very soon. For free. Yay!
• Buster has found his feet and he's teething something crazy. Just a lot of biting, not fussing.
• Boo is turning 3 Friday, Wow! She is out of the nursery at church and goes to class upstairs now.
• Lots of fun stuff planned this weekend. I hope the weather holds out. I'll post pictures of the events.
• I've been working a little on our pond and I'm hoping we can get fish in there soon.
• With it being so hot in the house my laundry is insanely backed up. I can only run the dryer at night and well usually at night I like to sleep.
• We're in a good place right now. I hope it lasts for a while!

Walk

It finally cooled off enough tonight to go for a walk after dinner. We decided to take the girls to the school playground. It's still a while before school starts but I think it's nice for Tea to see where she'll be playing.

We had a lovely time, just walking and enjoying the quiet. It's times like this when I think summer simply can't ever end.

4 Months

My sweet Buster boy is 4 months old. It's weird, but instead of being saddened by the milestones cruising by, I am so excited for what's to come. Don't get me wrong, I'm enjoying every minute of his sweet babyhood, but the future looks very bright. He weighed 13#14ozs at his last doctors appointment on the 9th. It was a recheck after his ear infection. Poor dude has had 2 ear infections and roseola, but he's a trooper. He is happy nearly all of the time. When he's grouchy I start searching for the thermometer because I know something is up.

He has the biggest gummy grins and is so happy first thing in the morning. Very soon he will start taking baths in the big tub because he's sitting up in the little one and it's scaring me. He can sit well in his bumbo ( see above) and for a few seconds unassisted. When we lay him down he rolls all over the place and scoots on his tummy.

He coos the most of any of our babies. He is almost always making noise. He loves for anyone to listen and luckily there are plenty of listeners around here!

Uncle

Okay, uncle, I give. I am declaring my new favorite season to be Autumn. Elizabeth, I hope you're satisfied :) This no ac thing is about to be the death of me. Yes, we have the portable unit, but still, it cools one room. The kids make messes in 10 other rooms. The heat has morphed our schedule into late nights and mid-morning wake ups. It's so nice to sleep when it's cool, but waking up to temps in the 90's is not pleasant. Tea went upstairs to use the restroom (she calls it that) and came down all sweaty. She was barely even up there. She came down and said " Chiggie needs a new fan, that one is only blowing hot air."

This too shall pass, I know. Maybe I'll sweat some weight off you say? Nope because in order to cool off I am eating tons of ice cream. It's a rule so I have no real choice in the matter. When you're hot you have to eat high calorie, cold, snacks. So it's not my fault at all. Next week is supposed to be rainy. I'm crossing my fingers!

Flying

This summer is flying by. I really feel like I haven't blogged nearly enough. Sure, I've posted some picture here and there, but in the end it's the stories I know I'll want to remember. So, I'm going to try to find more time to get stuff down.

We've been busy this summer but it's been a good busy. Tea wrapped up T-ball last week and she even got a medal. We went to the ceremony and ate cake and drank punch. I think she had a really good time. It's nice to have our Tuesday evenings free again.

Chiggie is enjoying practicing for her play in the fall. She practices about 4 days a week from 3-8 hrs a day. They have every other weekend off which is nice. They are starting to get costumes ready and this excites her. I can't wait to actually see the performance.

Boo is completely potty trained, which makes sense, as she'll be 3 this month. It is nice only changing diapers for one though. I really can't believe how big she's getting We actually have conversations now and I love that.

Midge is growing so much too and it's amazing to think that she'll be the oldest when school starts. She is very helpful with the baby and the other girls. Sometimes she struggles with wanting to be as big as the oldest girls. I think this next year will be a lot of fun for her.

I have plenty to say about Buster, but I'll save that for his 4 month on Friday. We have some other plans for this summer, but they're only tentative. Hopefully we will go camping in August, I know the girls want to really bad. We're still roasting on the really hot days. It's hard when you can only keep one room cool at a time and you have a closed floor plan. Fall will come soon enough though. I'm enjoying this time though, knowing how much things will change when school starts. I enjoy the sleeping in and slower pace.

More Fun

Sunday afternoon we hit Rock Canyon Beach for a little fun in the sun. The weather was perfect and everyone had a fabulous time!!

Visiting

My sisters in town, explaining the absence. I'll be back soon with details!

A Sad Day

Shortly after waking up this morning my doorbell rang. It was a neighbor giving me some very bad news. Our cat, Mr. Whiskers, had been hit and his injuries were severe. I was shocked. We have had Mr. Whiskers for 6 years and he has gone outside for nearly all of them. There is major road construction going on our street and I think someone just took the corner too fast. Poor Whiskers.

The 4th

We had another wonderful 4th of July here. The weather was beautiful for plenty of outdoor water play and then a great fireworks show in the evening. Buster was a very happy boy ALL day long. He literally did not cry at all. He sucked his pacifier pretty vigorously throughout the fireworks, but he actually seemed impressed :).

The girls enjoyed running through the sprinklers to cool off. This toy shoots balls into the air and they would chase after them and then run back through the water to do it all over again.

Boo is finally old enough to be an active participant in these types of activities. She loves being a big girl.

It was so cute to watch Tea put the balls back down the spout. She got such a kick out of it!

Per tradition, we ate cake made to look like the American flag. Yum!

The girls were really afraid of the sparklers. You can't tell from this picture, but they really only held them for a second. Last year Midge was burned (nothing serious) and I think it scared them.

The King and Rod were our official "lighters." I think they enjoyed it a little too much.

I hope everyone else had a wonderful Holiday weekend!!

Cooling Off

I will forever remember this as the summer we fried. I never entirely realized how lucky we were to have central air. For those folks who opt out of air conditioning, how on earth do you do it? I've tried getting out of the house and taking advantage of either places that have air conditioning or the cooler evening temperatures, but you can only get out so much. We finally decided to buy a portable cooler (it wasn't cheap) just to buy us a bit more time.

Last night we cooled off under the stars. We took the kids to see Toy Story 3 and everybody loved it. It was a perfect evening to go to the drive-in and we even sat out of the car. I hope to go one more time this summer, but if we can't, I'm glad we've gotten to go twice.

The house is buzzing with excitement for tomorrow. The King went today and bought firecrackers and the girls can't wait. We're going to church and then to my Mom's house for a bbq and some water play. Later we'll come back over here to watch the show on Skyline Drive. I hope everyone else has a great day too!

And so it Continues

I think this will be dubbed as the year we just kept going. I try to remain optimistic and such, but it's been hard, I have to be honest. Nothing serious, just the combination of everything feels overwhelming at times. I have strep again, but am feeling much better after starting antibiotics. My doctor is going to do some research and talk to an infectious disease doctor and try to find out why we are getting this particular strain of strep. It's obviously resistant and that's a little scary. Life must go on though, and we're living for sure. Tea had her last t-ball game on Tuesday. She's so cute and we've loved watching her play.

She's very athletic. She didn't have any trouble catching on. The pink bat was her favorite all season long.

This guy is such a trooper. Every morning he is all gums. I love his smiles and they encourage me on a daily basis.