Wolf Badge

I know it's been awhile but I wanted to get these up here. This is William doing his rain-gutter rigata. He did great.

 This is him getting his Wolf badge. He is such a great kid and we are so proud of him!!!

Snuggle Puff in Flight School

Well we are coming in on our last week before school and even though it seemed like an extra long summer it does feel like August is going a little bit faster than I had hoped. The kids played outside this last week and we went to the park and we went on some walks we went of a drive on Saturday. That pretty much sums up our week.

We did some chicken dancing.

 Brevick was trying hard to be part of the dancing action.

 Because sometimes you just have to get you wiggles out. (we were watching a little boy for a friend)

 What a stud, growing up SO fast!

 Pre-bedtime playtime.

 Water play to challenge this little busy body.

 "Look mom! I made me!" Isn't she so stinkin' cute.

 Church shot. Please note the total insanity that comes on Sunday morning! Also Emmerlyn's tights were on inside out and not pulled up so the crotch was hitting just above her knees (thank goodness I was taking a picture or I would not have noticed probably until half way through church!

 So in Primary they do a spotlight of a child each week and tell a little bit about them and show their picture and stuff it hasn't been Emmerlyn's turn yet (I think they are like picking names out of a jar or something) and when they picked the kid on Sunday Emmerlyn turned to her teacher with her hands on her hips and a scowl on her face (you can just picture it can't you?) and said huffily "why don't they pick me?! They never pick my. Why not, I am so BEAUTIFUL!!"

Emmerlyn's primary teacher (who we LOVE) came right out of primary to tell us that story and she was still chuckling about it she said she laughed until she cried. What a funny little girl but at least she is confidant right?

It was Emmerlyn's turn to teach a lesson for FHE, she did a great job drawing our family (a little out of preportion she drew herself as the biggest member because "I am big now") and talking about why everybody smiles.

Ben has been busy.

I have been busy.

Muffins and Puffs

It was kind of a hot week last week. We hit up to about 105 and I tell you what that is too hot for me! Thankfully on Sunday it cooled off and it was like 68 on Monday which was SO nice!

On the hot days we got creative with some artwork and some fun kinetic sand that we got from a neighbor. The kids were supposed to only let it be in the bin. . . I bet you know how that went :)

The kids also did some painting. 

 A late afternoon wind storm came up with a few sprinkles of rain and the kids of course went running out to play. The picture doesn't show it but the wind was coming in gusts and almost blew them over!

 Playing Hula-baloo with a friend. Brevick wanted to play so bad and they were in his favorite room but he kept stealing everybody's shapes so they gave him the boot.

 Dad's very stylish helper in cleaning the garage. . . They didn't get very far.

 Brevick is very excited about his new jersey, he was carrying it around with him for quite a while until I took it away so it didn't get dirty BEFORE he actually wore it.

 We were hanging up some pictures on Saturday afternoon (yes it has only taken me a year and a half and now it still looks half hazzard, I hate those kind of projects!) I had an adorable helper though don't you think?

 On Monday afternoon the boys went out to ride their bikes and I heard Charley scream. As I ran out there he was hitting his back and screaming and sure enough he had gotten stung by a hornet that had flown down the collar of his jacket and stung the back of his neck. It broke my heart poor boy! He handled it really well and it is healing nicely, not swollen or anything now but his scream haunted me through the night. I wish I could protect them from stuff like that! He now wants to know everything there is to know about bees most importantly how to avoid getting stung in the future.

 It was Charley's turn to give a mini lesson in family night. I am not really sure what he taught about, something about gas, smoke, and electricity. He had a great flow chart to go with it!

 Isn't he cute?  We made zuchini banana muffins yesterday and this baby LOVED them he literally ate like 18 of them throughout the day (I am not even exaggerating, he was pulling them off the counter himself)

In other sad news during yesterday when Brevick got out of the tub I set him behind me then reached in to get Emmerlyn out and of course he was coming back to get in again. Well he slipped and knocked his teeth on the edge of the tub :(. He didn't really cry just kind of whimpered and then looked at the tub like he couldn't believe it would do that to him. When I was getting his PJs on I noticed that it had chipped the front of his tooth. So sad but the night got worse. After dinner I couldn't get him to go down so he was just kind of running crazy. William was unloading the dishwasher and likes to have Brevick "help" him (which makes it fun for both of them so I am ok with that) Well when they got done Brevick was running in the kitchen and fell and slammed his face into the open dishwasher door. As you can imagine he instantly had a crease form across the front of his forehead and it split open and started to bleed a little. Thankfully it only split a crack and I put some pressure on it and this morning it isn't even bruised around it :) :) :). I tell you what he did cry! I am hoping the rest of our week can be injury free and that I really am not horribly failing at this whole parent thing. Needless to say we will not be taking him in for his immunizations today!

Yep that's William in the background he is practicing the piano and trying to waste as much time as possible! Sound familiar to anyone?

Snuggle Puff Boxed Up

This week has been the same old thing. The kids hung out while we did mutual (their days are numbered with this and they are feeling a little sad.) We had our end of the summer reading program party and the kids did so good getting all of their stuff done and turned in. They earned tickets and got to enter them into a bucket for prizes and Emmerlyn and I were the only ones that won anything which they were all a little bummed about but they did great and nobody even cried! 

On Friday we took the 3 big kids out to the fort peck theatre (we have lived here for almost 4 years and have never been to a play until now!) it was so good. The kids were made that we were making them go while Brevick got to stay home with a babysitter but once the play started they were glued! We saw Tarzan and it was so fun! The kids also came down with a yuck cold and are now starting to get over it. Saturday they got to go to their fun Primary activity where they played water games and had treats and stuff. They have such great primary teachers and I am so grateful for all of the time and effort they put into their callings! Sunday was a little crazy and Brevick was SO cranky because he was sick but we made it through, barely. Charley got to help teach a little part of his lesson about Holland and he was pretty pumped about that. William wanted to give a little bit of a lesson during FHE yesterday so I let him. He taught us about global warming and how we need to do better about using less electricity. He then challenged us this week to make sure we turn off the lights when we leave a room and made us tally sheets to keep track of our progress. What a great teacher!

We had spagetti the other night and Charley was introduced to parmesean cheese. He had some extra on his plate and said "it's ok I don't really need noodles."

 This guy is in the box phase. I walked into his room to find them in there and I think my Grinch heart grew 3 sizes that day. I had to drag him out so I could get a picture!

His climbing skills are also taking off so we have to keep all chairs/stools/laundry baskets out of his eye sight or he is everywhere!

From the Mouth of Goobs

Charley couldn't find his bike helmet this morning so I told him to go and look for it in the garage and on his bike. He said "OK I did so we are probably gonna have to pray for it." He went and looked to no avail and then came back in and said we need a miracle lets pray. We did. He rounded up his siblings and they looked for the helmet which they found right next to where it was supposed to be. Charley was so excited to come tell me that they got a miracle today just like they needed!

Face your Fears

That was the theme of last night's visit to the fair. In all honesty the fair here is kind of a let down they have like 6 really creepy rickety looking fair rides, a couple games a little bit of food a petting zoo, and then the 4H stuff. With that being said it is kind of nice because it is not a huge undertaking to go to the fair and their is no entrance fee so we do try to go when it comes and the kids really look forward to it. We let them pick 1 ride to go on and they are usually pretty timid about it. William I think would prefer to just ride the merry-go-round. This year William had the little rocket ships all picked out to ride on because they are a step up from the merry-go-round without getting to drastic but when we got there Charley saw the swings and could not contain his excitement. His little arms were going a mile a minute as he was talking about riding on those. William did NOT want to go on them. Well after studying the options and a LOT of convincing Charley talked him into getting on with him. They had a blast. By the end of it William was even waving to us. We are so proud of him for trying something that was scary to him!

This little girl of course wanted to go on the swings but she was just a little bit too small so she went on these spaceships all by herself. She looked a little concerned at first and refused to smile while she was riding but when she got off she was all smiles and talking about how it went up so high!

The kids love the soft bunnies in the petting zoo but they come with a price. William got a few good scratches on his arms from trying to pick them up.

This dude also worked on his concern with animals. He loves to watch animals but likes to be at a safe distance. He loves to pet Jetta but not to have his hand actually touch her. He especially gets nervous when they make noise. With the help of his daddy he braved the fence and even petted on his own a goat and a sheep. He was so proud! He loved seeing all the 4H animals.

We left with a very large bag of cotton candy to share and thankfully we are done with that tradition for another year!

Tangled Turtles

A couple weeks ago we all went up to go fishing. It was a really nice day and the kids were having a little bit of success. Charley caught a big pike that broke his line right as it got up to the dock I thought it was going to pull him in with it the way Charley was fighting to get it there. Then they saw a turtle that was swimming around trying to eat the bobbers. It was funny to watch and pretty soon they assigned Emmerlyn to cast out a line with no hook just a bobber as the turtle decoy. She was working good and then the turtle lost interest and swam away. Well you can imagine what happened next. Charley got a bite and started reeling with all his might and at the end of his like was the turtle. It was  little sad to see him fighting the hook with his little turtle feet. Luckily the hook was barely in there and Ben got it out easily and the turtle swam free. It was quite a fiasco and I might be scarred for life!

Snuggle Puff in the Cutlery

I feel like we were really busy last week but I am not really exactly sure what we did. I think it was just the normal stuff. The kids had story-time which it is the summer reading program and they are having lots of fun. William got to make and launch a 2 L bottle rocket which he is still talking about. We are also slowly but steadily working on our house. We built our bed on Friday/Saturday so that was fun. Actually it wasn't bad. Eventually we are going to put drawers in but for now we are just going to use it like cubbies. I feel like we are finally out of the college kid phase because our bed is up off the floor :) (we have had a bed frame in the past but it just did not fit in our house so we sold it and now but that was like over a year ago so we have just been chillin' on the floor.) Brevick was a little sad because now our bed is to tall for him to climb on and jump! 

Ben was busy this weekend helping people move. He and other ward members helped 3 different families move. He was pretty sore on Sunday!

Emmerlyn sometimes gets up too early for her on good and we are always thankful when we come out and find this instead of a very grumpy 3 year old! 

A while back the kids wanted to have a dinosaur dinner. Since I am not adept at feeding prehistoric reptiles this was the best that I could come up with. They ate greens, other dinosaurs, fish, and then chewed on the bones.

 And they ate like this. (I did not stay in the room to watch them do this because it goes against every thing I have tried to teach them!)

 Charley wanted a milkshake like they have at McDonalds I think I did pretty good! 

 It's that easy. So recently we have been hearing a lot of talks about Family History and William keeps saying "I want to do that, help me do that." We put him off because I thought it would be beyond his capabilities well finally on Sunday Ben and I sat down with him and created his account and Ben showed him the basics. He has found like 8 or 9 names! It really is that easy. He is super excited about it and now we are trying to figure out a time when we could go to Billings and take some of the names to the Temple. What a great kid!

 One of the many places Brevick and Snuggle Puff have been getting into. Brevick's big news this week is that he is learning to go down the slide at the park. He loves to get my attention and then start to put a rock in his mouth and then laugh and laugh when I tell him no. We are working on throwing the rocks when we pick them up.

 We stayed up late last night to watch the stars. The grass and sidewalk was wet from the sprinklers (poor planning on our part) so we watched from the porch. The kids look pretty comfy and they had lots of fun. Thankfully we survived with only a few bites!

 Emmerlyn was taking baby Granite on a walk she was very prepared with diapers and wipes too just in case! What a cute little minnie mommy.