Summer Craziness

It is hard for me to believe that school has already been out for a month. I have to admit the first two weeks were a little hairy trying to get into a routine. They make school so much fun these days that my kids expect to be entertained all of their waking hours (well, mostly Sawyer-he is one kid that needs structure). We have swimming one morning a week for the oldest three and piano one morning a week for Faith and Sawyer. Faith has softball sometimes up to three nights a week. I thought we would have a ton of free time. We also do the library reading program so we go there once a week too. We have had numerous play dates, Faith is going to her second sleepover tonight. Socializing is my favorite thing to do so I wouldn't dare deny my children the joys. Kyle is taking Sawyer and Eden camping tonight. I also bought a pool pass this summer for the first time ever. Faith and Sawyer are good enough swimmers that they can go off on their own. The pool we go to has an awesome baby pool area-it is huge and separate. I pretty much just keep an eye on Eden (who is becoming a pretty good swimmer herself) and follow Bex around the whole time. The kids love it and it gives us something to do when they are "bored". I have always dreaded the time when I would have to get into my swimsuit several times a week to take my children to the pool but I have learned something from this experience.....that I shouldn't base my standards of what everyone looks like in a swimsuit to those celebrities featured in PEOPLE magazine. I have found that most mom's look just like I do, or in many cases worse in a swimsuit. So, now I don't care anymore. Kyle is shocked by how tan I am. It has been over 10 years since I have had a tan. I hate to subject myself to wrinkles and potential skin cancer but it must be done for the kids.

On Wed. I took the girls to see, yet another, stage production of High School Musical. It was very good but I think this is it for awhile. I am ready for something else.

Faith got her expander in 4 weeks ago. It is placed in the roof of her mouth (as seen in the photo) and I have to put a little key/pin type thing in the top of it and give it a little crank down every single night. This will widen her bite and give her more room for incoming teeth and supposedly make the braces thing less complicated when the time comes. She has done really well with it. It takes her a lot longer to eat and it has taken her some time to adjust to speaking. She has been a great sport about it-she hasn't even complained. It definitely bothers me more than it bothers her. It has also created a large space between her two front teeth, which is to be expected and what they want. We go back to the ortho today and I think we are done with the "expanding". She will have to leave it in for a couple of more months and then she will get a retainer to hold everything in place until it is time for braces. Did I mention that this is all costing us a fortune!! But, you know....we just want her to have a beautiful smile!!

Faith is loving softball. They have won a few games and I LOVE watching the games. It is a great program at this age where it is girl pitched and they get to try all positions. Faith has had a couple of great hits this season and has played several positions. Just like everything else she does, she is a very conscientious player and wants to do well. It will end in mid-July.


I guess I should mention Beckett. Well...not only are my chairs still on top of the table but now my stools are on top of the island as well. He can push the stools over to my pantry area, climb on top and open the top cabinets. My oven doors are roped together because he likes to pull the bottom one open and stand on it and bounce up and down. I also caught him walking on the dining room table yesterday. Fortunately, he rarely goes in the dining room so hopefully I can keep that room intact. I think he is very happy that the kids are home from school. He will be lost in Aug. when it is just he and I. He loves to be on the go. He is extrememly content when I put him in his carseat because he knows we are going somewhere. He is an excellent shopper. He loves to go outside and mooch food.

Father's Day

We had a very nice Father's Day yesterday. We had my in-laws and my dad over to grill out Rib eye steaks. My mom is in Texas visiting my brother and his family-we missed her. Don't worry mom, we sent dad home with some leftovers-he won't starve. God decided to bless me twice with an amazing dad and an amazing husband. My dad has always been there for me. I have a lot of memories of him practicing sports with me when he got home from work, teaching me to ride a two-wheeler, being at all my sport/school events and ALWAYS waiting up for me at curfew when I was a teenager. He also paid my phone bill (that I couldn't afford) when I was in college several times and sent other money to me for various thing. I hated making that phone call to ask and sometimes I got a lecture but he always sent it anyways. He has done NUMEROUS home improvements for Kyle and I since we have been married-most recently putting a fence up around our massive window well and helping to finish our basement-in fact he will be coming over this week to do more in the basement. He has fixed many cars too. The list is too long to keep going. He is also a wonderful, active grandparent to all the grand kids. Kyle is also an amazing dad. In addition to working 1,000 hours a week he always plays and spends time with the kids. Sawyer often asks me why I'm not fun like daddy is. He loves to take the kids camping and boating and be at their various activities. He loves to play Rock Band and board games with them too. Sawyer always says that daddy is his best friend. We mutually enjoy the kids and our family a ton. I can't ever imagine doing or even trying to do this all without him!

Twilight

This background and post is decicated to my two die-hard Twilight fan nieces, Kalista and Maddie. Kalista is 9 and calls me at least once a week to talk "Twilight." Also to Jenny, Kristen and Amy M. - my fellow married late-bloomer Twilight fans :)!!!

SCHOOL IS OUT!!!

The kids finished up with school on Tues. morning. They went in for one hour to pick up their report cards. I am VERY pleased to say that they did really well. I hate to brag but well...this is my blog and I can do what I want. Faith got straight A's. She even got her "A" in P.E. For P.E. they have to be able to accomplish all the presidential fitness stuff and the one thing she hasn't been able to do is a pull-up. Well, she finally got her pull-up. She doesn't know how she did it and I don't know that she could ever do it again but I think it was just mind over matter. Sawyer got all "3's" except he got a "2" in P.E. His P.E. teacher said he improved in 4 out of 5 areas of the presidential fitness stuff but I guess that still didn't warrant a "3"-whatever!! I know you are all thinking right now that I am an over competitive mother but I'm really not. But, I am happy that all my nagging and harassing about doing homework and studying is paying off. Faith is very independent with her homework and projects. It was hard at first to just let her do her own thing but she has it all under control. Sawyer needs more guidance and I think next year will be more challenging since they will start getting letter grades. I am already overwhelmed thinking about having 3 kids with homework, activities and projects this fall-UGH!! They had a great school year and they both had amazing teachers. I was worried about them transitioning, once again, to a new school but they did great. Now we just have to transition into a summer routine. The three oldest already had play dates yesterday and have been asking for sleepovers. I was looking through Sawyer's journal from school and this is what he wrote on his first day of 2nd grade. It says "If I was a teacher I would change jobs." Funny!

Good Times

Lately we have been attending sporting events and on Monday Kyle took the day off work so we could go boating. Kyle actually left early in the morning to go fishing and I met him at the lake around lunchtime with the three oldest kids. The in-laws watched Beckett. I have decided that Kyle is conflicted between wanting to spend time with the family and doing the things he enjoys so now he is planning our family activities around the things HE likes to do. If they were things I wanted to do it would include shopping and expensive vacations. Regardless, we always have a fun time and we all really enjoy the sporting events but I can think of some other things I would rather be doing. The boat (aka "The Mistress") has been Kyle's dream since he was 15 and I was supportive until I have seen all the MONEY and TIME it takes. Kyle cleans and tinkers with that boat for HOURS-this is why it is called "The Mistress." I try and be a good wife-really I do but the boat should have waited until retirement or until the kids were ages 5 and up. Okay, enough complaining but it is my blog and I can say what I want. Last week we went to a baseball game. It was fun but we didn't stay the whole time because it is too hard to contain a 16 mo. old for too long. On Monday we went tubing. We really did have a great time. The kids thoroughly enjoyed themselves. I drove the boat. I was afraid but I figured since I drove on the other side of the road in England for two years that I could drive the boat. If I didn't drive the boat then Kyle wouldn't have been able to tube. Fortunately, there were VERY FEW people on the lake. Here are some photos.