Grammy and Papa brought over the teater totter that was theirs.

They no longer pull it out for the kids to use at their house so they decided that we would probably use it more.

As you can see, they are loving it.

Getting Carson to do much of anything except make messes is a never ending battle. Today his dad asked him to go down and clean the TV room up and Carson said, "what am I, your freaking maid?"
I said, um no, but you did make the mess and I'm not going to making your sisters clean it up for you.


We bottled Jam again this year.
Blueberry, blackberry, strawberry, grape and raspberry.
All but the raspberry is new to us.
We don't normally venture out of our comfort zone of raspberry.
Joe was really worried when I suggested that we make grape, but I think it turned out ok.
This project took all day. We actually finished around 4:30 and then I cut up potatoes and put together tinfoil dinners. I got those in the oven and retreated to the bedroom to put my feet up for a bit.

CHORE CHART

	Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
Dishes & Microwave	Carson	Quynsie	Raven	Nadia	Quynsie	Raven	Nadia
Counters And Table	Raven	Nadia	Carson	Quynsie	Raven	Nadia	Carson
Sweep/mop	Quynsie	Raven	Nadia	Carson	Quynsie	Raven	Nadia
Trash	Nadia	Carson	Quynsie	Raven	Nadia	Carson	Quynsie
Bathroom Sink and shower (Up.S)	Carson		Nadia		Carson		Nadia
Toilet    (Up. S)	Nadia		Carson		Nadia		Carson
Bathroom Sweep/mop (Up. S)	Carson		Nadia		Carson		Nadia
Bathroom Trash (Up. S)	Nadia		Carson		Nadia		Carson
Bathroom Sink and shower (Do. S)	Quynsie		Raven		Quynsie		Raven
Toilet    (Down. S)	Raven		Quynsie		Raven		Quynsie
Bathroom Sweep/mop (Down S)	Quynsie		Raven		Quynsie		Raven
Bathroom Trash (Down S)	Raven		Quynsie		Raven		Quynsie
TV Room	Carson	Nadia	Raven	Quynsie	Carson	Nadia	Raven
Dojo	Quynsie	Raven	Nadia	Carson	Quynsie	Raven	Nadia
Family Room	Raven	Quynsie	Carson	Nadia	Raven	Quynsie	Carson
Bedrooms	All	All	All	All	All	All	All
Laundry	All	All	All	All	All	All	All

While putting my feet up, I redid the chore chart. I am trying to make it more fair and make them learn how to work together as a team to get things done instead of always fighting.

August 6, 2016

Provo Rec Center

Quynsie was still babysitting so we took these tree to the rec center for one last swim before school starts.

Thanks but no thanks!!!!

It is much higher than it looks from the ground.

Carson finally got a play date with his bestie Cody.

Quynsie went over to babysit for this family and Carson loves to tag along for play dates.

In the picture is Cody, Parker and Carson.

Cody and Parker's mom is my sister's best friend from elementary.

Her kids have grown up calling us aunt and uncle.

They also go to the same school as we do.

Carson and Cody were in the same class last year and so that is how they became so close.

In fact Cody cried when I went to pick Carson up.

Unfortunately, they will not be in the same class this year.

Parker is Nadia's age and for some reason, they have never been in the same class.

Anyway, Quynsie is on her first over night babysitting job today.

She babysat from 8:30-7 and then she will babysit again in the morning at 7.

We decided in stead of having to drive her to Payson that early in the morning, she could just stay there.

This is so far out of my comfort zone. I HATE sleepovers of any kind.

The only sleep overs that they have ever had was at my parents when Raven was in the hospital a couple of years ago and then an occasional camping trip with the grandparents.

We have personal and I mean very personal reasons as to why we do not allow sleepovers and I am not about to go into it here as my kids do read these blog posts and I have tried to shield them from some our pain of how sexual abuse ruins everyone's lives whether you are the victim and family or you are the family of the one that did the crime. It may be different kinds of pain, but it is pain all the same. Our kids have been exposed to sexual abuse in their past and that was one of the contributing factors in our decision.

Joe and I have just made the decision that we do not want to be in a position of someone accusing us or us having to accuse someone else of the crime.

Better safe than sorry.

August 05, 2016

HAPPY 2nd BIRTHDAY PETER

Happy birthday my little Peter Pan Man!!!

I still am having a hard time thinking that you are now 2!

Where did the time go?

We love you so much buddy and hope you had a great birthday.

August 04, 2016

HAPPY 5th BIRTHDAY MAELIE

This cutie is a little fire cracker.

This is our niece Maelie.

I hope you had the most amazing day my Maelie bug!!!

Nadia and her bestie celebrating their "friendiversary". They came up with this name a few years ago. They have been best friends since 1st grade and they are now going into 4th grade this year. I have loved watching these two girls grow up and their friendship grow with them. They have always had the same teacher as well and this year isn't any different so come 7th grade it may become as a blow when they don't have every class together. We made cookies for her to take and Nadia even used her money to buy Olivia a small gift.

Wow... This spider was big enough to eat one of my children.

The back story to this spider.... I'm sorry neighbors for ravens screaming last night... I seriously thought she was over reacting.

Last night Raven came running out of the house crying and screaming "it's alive, it's alive" and joie and I couldn't help but laugh. She then said it was a huge spider and it's going to eat me and I can't find it anymore but it came crawling toward me and it was going to eat me.

We told her that we killed it when we cane in even though we hadn't but she wouldn't stop carrying on about it.

This morning we told her that we really didn't kill it because we couldn't find it.

Well just now it found its way onto Quynsie's school stuff that she is going through and both Quynsie and Raven scream again.

Now I feel really bad because it really was a huge spider, but I still can't get Raven's face out of my head from last night.

I went and got the 3 littles registered for school this morning.

Normally I buy all of the supplies that the teachers request, but this year, I decided to only pay $35 per kid. So much cheaper than buying all of the supplies.

That brings our total up to $400 so far for registration fees.

I am sure there are going to be other fees for Quynsie once school starts.

Next week is volleyball tryouts and if she makes the team, then there will be more money to be forked up.

TWINS!!!!

Meet Chloe and Sophie, our newest nieces. They arrived safely yesterday morning.

Chloe was 7.1 and Sophie was 6.11

Chloe has red hair just like the rest of her siblings before her and Sophie got brown hair.

CONGRATS CAMILLA AND MICHAEL!!!

I wish I was in Texas right now snuggling up these girlies.

We were all on our seats waiting to hear all day yesterday and finally I text Michael wanting to know if the girls had made their grand entrance.

Much to my delighted heart the answer was yes!

I cried tears of joy and tears of regret of not being able to fly out and help with the other kids.

When they had Peter 2 years ago, I was able to be there the entire time. I sat with Camilla in the hospital when Peter was really sick, I was able to watch the other kids for her when she was in need. I got to bond with all of the kids.

I am really sad that I won't get to bond with these ones while they are so tiny!!!

Oh so many emotions going through my body right now.

The girls were having a great time trying to see how high they could bounce each other on the trampoline with the water on it.

I am actually impressed with my camera on my phone this time.

The pictures are pretty clear considering the kids were on the move.

***WE HAVE 12 DAYS OF SUMMER LEFT BEFORE SCHOOL STARTS AGAIN ON AUGUST 15th.***