Last Meet

 Today the kids worked hard in school, Charley put in a whole day of school work because English is getting the best of him. We worked hard though and I think we will pull through in the end. (this is hard for him because he has always been able to slide through so doing a hard thing is different for him.) It is good. 

Emmerlyn mastered her back-walkover today so it looks like I owe her a new tumbling leotard because that's the prize she set for achieving her goal. I am proud of her hard work this year so far.

Charley had his last XC meet today and it went well. I am so proud of his hard work this season and trying something new and seeing it through to the end. He was pumped because he didn't finish in the last three today which is AWESOME!! 

William worked hard at football practice and had a little bit of hangout time with a friend so that was nice. For all of us. He and Sharpie are now enjoying a nice walk in the dark before hopefully everyone heads to bed.

Brevick ran hard at the XC meet and then complained that he was bored the whole time. He did like that he got to ride in the Jag on the way home and that we had cereal for dinner. That is always on his favorite food list. He is having fun learning to write words and has written 2 books. One is 3 pages and one is 5 pages (1 sentence per page) He even took them to read to his friends on the bus today. He is super proud of himself.

Anchor's quote for today as he was squirming away from me on the floor while I was trying to put him down for a nap. "ummm, floor is good." He also enjoyed running and trying to get me to let him jump over the little stream. He even practiced jumping on the side. He is as of yet unable to leave the ground I did not allow him to attempt that. I did let him throw sticks in though so he liked that. He also tried his first otter pop today and is not sure he likes it. He didn't like the cold.

Tuesday's Run

 The gauntlet went ok today. It was supplemented by chocolate milk for Brevick and Anchor. 

Anchor got himself ready to go.

*I asked him to smile and this is what I got. Please don't mind the nutella on his face.*

Prior to leaving he played cars with Sharpie, which included him carrying the cars in his mouth like the dog. After the dog had carried them. I died a little inside.

Emmerlyn did great at gymnastics and she climbed all the way to the top of the rope (hanging from the super high ceiling!!) I am so proud of her because she gets a little nervous with heights. Unfortunately she experienced some rope burn on her fingers on the way down and now is missing a bit of skin on a couple of fingers. Poor girl!

Charley had fun at XC and headed straight from there to football. When his coach asked him why he was so tired he informed them that he had just come from running.  Poor kid, he will sleep well tonight.

William worked hard at football practice but is having a hard time going to bed because he won't stop talking. I'm sure he will be ready for bed after his 45 minute shower. The second one for today.

When we finally got home Brevick had to get in the trunk to get a toy that he dropped in there. After retrieving it he wanted to close the trunk. I said ok thinking he was going to hit the button and then go in. When I walked around to the back of the van he was standing on the bumper attempting to manually close the trunk. I said no way and told him to get down. I told him that he can't close the trunk while he is standing in it. (He was trying to swing down as it was coming down and then hope out...I'm sure you can picture it.) Well as I imagine you can see coming, he would not get down (side note, my hands were full with groceries and water-bottles, oh and the toys Brevick needed me to hold while he attempted this maneuver.) Just as I said get down, he fell out of the the trunk landing painfully on his hip. I set the groceries down and carried my ginormous 6 year old inside to snuggle him up. Which I did. I even refrained from telling him that's why I said no!! while he was crying. As we were rocking, Anchor came walking up the steps carrying the discarded toys back in to Brevick. 

That was a sweet moment. 

He returned to his old self as soon as the door was shut by dumping water on the floor, starting to unload the dishes and then leaving them all over the kitchen. Throwing utensils in the pot of chili and then screaming through dinner and drinking his milk with a spoon dipped in his cup. 

Good think he is predictable.

In other news to my utter despair, I found today, my first gray hair. I think that I just aged 1000 years. 

Also, William has resurrected the school Florida trip debate and I am about ready to ban travel to Florida forever.

Trudging September

 I feel like last week was such a long week. I can't believe that we are still in September. We are coming up on mid-terms this week for the kids school so it must be moving along. 

All of the kids had school today so Anchor and I tidied up the house and then went grocery shopping and ran some other errands. He picked out the ghost marshmallows and was livid when I wouldn't let him eat the whole bag. (they are for General Conference this weekend) He also wanted to push the cart which I let him until he pinched his finger. Then I had to carry him AND push the cart through the store. Let me tell ya, it was rough. We relaxed this afternoon and played outside because it was so nice out there and then wrapped it up by going to bed. 

Well, everyone is in bed.

But, Sharpie wasn't ready and is barking.

Now Anchor is crying.

William is taking his sweet time eating his dinner.

Maybe bedtime was a bit of an optimistic thought...

Must have Missed it.

 Yeah, apparently Friday wasn't my day. Brevick had a flag football game in which his team played like they had never in their lives seen a football. So you can imagine it was a blowout loss for them.

Charley had a double header (read 3 hours of football watching for us.) I am not sure if they won or if they lost. Charley had fun bouncing around out there. His coach was so patient with him taking time time teach him after every play so that was super nice (probably that's why he is the mission president.) 

Brevick had to go to the bathroom in between Charley's games and naturally the bathrooms were out of order so we snuck down to the gas station for the bathroom and some hot chocolate just to get us through

Saturday we had 2 more hours of football with William's game. We got there and dropped William and Ben off and headed off to get some snacks and a little shopping. Just as we got to WinCo Ben texted us that the game was cancelled and to come pick him up. Just as we got to where they were they learned that the game was back on but moved across town to the new Thunder Ridge stadium. So there we went. Since we were then pressed for time we had to just settle for Halloween candy which was yummy and nauseating all in one. 

Anchor loved running around at the stadium and thankfully it was not as cold as I thought it was going to be. William's team won by a landslide because they decided to show up and play. 

The ride home was nice.

Tragically in the time since this photo was taken, his shoes have gone missing...

It was church day on Sunday which was nice to go to. Anchor was adamant about the hat to finish off his outfit.

Thankfully, we convinced him to leave it in the car when we got there. He had fun eating starbursts, complaining about not getting gum and then going out to the hall because after 30 minutes, he was done. 

A Slow Day

 Today was nice. We only had Cross Country for Charley and Football for Brevick so that helped out. All the kids had school so there was a minute of quiet while Anchor was taking a nap. That was nice. 

For XC Charley ran up and ran the stairway to heaven again which is super awesome. Tragically he fell when he was on his way back to the school (thankfully not on the stairs) and got some SUPER bad road rash on his leg.

Thankfully once I got it all cleaned out it was AS bad as I thought it was going to be but we put some medicine on it and wrapped it up so that it doesn't sting as bad. He was grateful that his friend that was running with him happened to have some bandaids with him so he could at least slow the bleeding. I am grateful for that too. I am also grateful that he is making friends.

Now to head to bed to the tune of Sharpie barking.

Took it Easy

 We just did the usual today.

After Breakfast. Anchor did not like any of the breakfast options so he found something that looked better.

Everybody was a little disappointed that they didn't have that option. 

Emmerlyn had gymnastics which she made it to and from without incident. 

Charley had a XC meet and I felt like he did really good. We will see how his time looks tomorrow. It was a super tough course with lots hills so go him.

Shout out to Anchor and I, we did 1 whole lap around the track while we were waiting so go us.

The XC course was scouting him out and cheering him on.

William had football practice and they realized that they have so many kids that have various injuries that they can't practice the rest of the week so hopefully they will have enough kids for a team on Saturday. Lucky for William, he is back on starting.

It also makes my afternoon tomorrow and Friday much simpler.

That will be nice.

Wiffles in the Candles

 Tuesdays are just so busy. I can only be in so many places and I never feel like I am pulling it together enough. We have also started eating soup on Tuesdays which Brevick hates and reminds me of that every. single. time. I know buddy, I know but you know what? It's food in bellies that I don't have to babysit or try to time just right in the oven. I have started taking him to the store with me to pick up the garlic bread to go with the soup. **Important side note. Do NOT get garlic bread from Fred Meyer, it's really not that good.**

So we did the usual things today. The middle kids had school all day, William and Charley had homeschool all day. Anchor did his remote learning in the morning aka bubble guppies, pj masks, and mickey mouse club house. Then he played, took a nap. Yelled at a few people and threw something off the deck which I can't remember what that was and I KNOW I forgot to go get it.

Then we started running the gauntlet. We started out ok. Picking up Charley and delivering William, Charley, and Emmerlyn to their practices starting at 5:30, 5:30, and 6:00. (William's coach threw a curve ball yesterday evening saying practice was going to start 30 minutes early to accommodate team pictures.) That's ok. I can be flexible. Everyone got delivered on time or early.

Brevick and Anchor enjoyed running in the building where Emmerlyn goes and shouting "echo, echo" and "gecko, gecko" respectively to hear themselves.

We got gas, we picked up the garlic bread and then played at the park for 10 minutes before it was time to pick up Charley at 6:30 and we waited. and waited. I ran the kids. Then we waited. I started getting stressed as the team showed no signs of stopping and I needed to get from there to pick up Emmerlyn by 7:00. Emmerlyn doesn't tolerate me being late for her AND she asked when I dropped her off if I would be there at the end. Of course I said yes. I knew I hadn't had the late conversation with Charley recently and since I didn't now when he was going to be done I didn't want to leave him panicked and alone outside when I wasn't there.... I texted Ben, he didn't respond (he was in a meeting and then supposed to go pick up William at 7:30). By this time I only had 10 minutes and thankfully Sallee was available to go get Emmerlyn. 

Charley's practice finally got over a little after 7 and we had resorted to watching Planes in the car to keep the peace. We trekked home to enjoy soup while having the "what to do if Mom is late picking you up" conversation and I figured Ben would get back with William just after us and we could say prayers and go to bed. 

When we walked in the door Emmerlyn asked why I wasn't there. She took my explanation pretty well but then informed me that Sallee had been 2 minutes late getting her and she was afraid that I had been in a car accident or something and was getting nervous. (Poor sweet girl) 

I was throwing dinner on the table, while watching the door for the last 2 gems to get back. They finally did a little after 8, apparently William's practice went late too. 

While I was trying to get dinner on the table and people fed Anchor helped by unloading the clean dish towels.

Then while I was cleaning that up he went into the bathroom to spray down the tub.

Annndd a few miscellaneous things.

I dragged him out to eat dinner which he did.

For a minute.

Then he thought he would rather have loaded bread.

Which he didn't eat.

He hated his pajamas.

He hit the dog.

Brevick didn't want to go to bed. 

William wants to keep chatting.

Sharpie keeps whining.

William wore Charley's socks for his football pictures so I need to wash them by tomorrow afternoon.

Today was laundry day.

I'm going to have a load of laundry with 2 socks in it.

As I was sighing my way to go get this computer to type this blog I found this little gem.

I have no idea how those things got there or how long they have been chillin on top of the piano.

Apparently, I have too many kids to be flexible. 

The wiffles will remain in the candles for the time being because I just can't risk finding something else...

The Weekend AND Monday

 William had a football game and it was going to be raining and FREEZING. So we gathered our winter gear to pack up. Then I decided that it would be better to leave the little kids home with Charley babysitting so the weren't and in turn I wasn't miserable. So we put all of this stuff back.

The game was good but unfortunately our little team suffered it's first loss in more that a year doled out by Snake River. (They just had a big, disciplined team.) It was rough but William was in good spirits so I think it's going to be ok. They are definitely going against harder teams this year so they are having to step it up a notch. (Side note, we do have some footage provided by Charley but we are having a bit of trouble getting it posted somewhere. We will have to work on it. Maybe I need a Go-Pro to record and upload his games...

Monday dawned after a restless night. Anchor just didn't get his beauty sleep but his bouts were off from mine and I didn't hear him. But Allyn did. He must have gone back to sleep on his own until I heard him at 4 and got him out to snuggle. I don't know if he was cold our hungry but those are my guesses.

We got all the kids off to school and then Anchor and I did some grocery shopping. We needed to restock our banana supply and Sharpie's chewies and a couple other things that were of lesser importance than those you know like milk, eggs, bread, and the like.

Charley looked up his XC results, his first race was 28 minutes (and some seconds) his second race was 20 minutes and like 50 seconds. so he did SO much better. He is trying to get his time down to 18 minutes so he is going to have to run a little bit more this next time around.

Ben wasn't going to be home for dinner so we went with something a little out of the box tonight.

We baked an oatmeal cookie cake. It was super yummy and super rich. It was kind of like a dense muffin. I feel like it was pretty much baked oatmeal and scrambled eggs so it was fine. :)

Now I'm just trying to get William and Brevick to stop talking and go to bed.

Really, I just Forgot.

 I'm not really sure what happened exactly. It was a rather stressful day with all of our cross town running of children and on top of it my phone kicked the bucket. It's had one foot in the ground for about a year now but I just really don't want to buy a new phone. Apparently they only last so long. I still don't want to buy a new phone so I transferred my stuff over to Ben's old phone and I am hoping it will last me a little while. At least until I win the lottery or something.

We were a little ahead of schedule yesterday so we were able to relax and watch the end of Brevick's practice while some of the kids played on the toys. That was a nice break.

(Like father like son)

We had some good Sharpie playtime but I overheard William informing her that "if you rip anymore legs off we are not going to be able to play tug-of-war with this anymore."

Sharpie adjusted her grip accordingly

Today we had a little baking competition to see if we could find a good chocolate chip recipe we did find a good one and that was fun. And delicious. 

The school board voted to continue the hybrid learning for the rest of the trimester which I personally am happy about because I love it. William is a little bummed and frustrated with Covid in general and Charley is indifferent to it. I am not surprised they voted this way. I just couldn't see them changing it in the middle of the tri unless they were moving to more drastic measures. Which I don't want.

The kids decided it was time to pull the carrots from their garden. I think something went awry with our gardening skills.

These are the only things that survived. Side note, the kids said they don't taste that good. Probably will have a hard time convincing them to grow a garden next year...

Anchor was watching a show this morning and then suddenly he was asking me for pants.

He wasn't as impressed with his new skill as he thought he would be.

Charley had his flag football game at 5 today and we forgot his mouth guard so we dropped him off and raced home and back to get it to him. He had to spend the first half on the sidelines cheering but that is probably his favorite position so it worked out for him. Anchor tried to sneak onto the field, luckily as his mom I know all of his trick plays. We got him set up in a running zone on the sidelines so he could be content.

We ran home for dinner and caught the beginning of the game online. Anchor was pretty enthralled.

We headed back to the fields at 8 for Brevick's game.. This time we had his mouth guard. They will be living in a zip-loc in my purse from this day forward. He hit the ground running as a team captain and was able to sneak a touchdown in. His current goal is to pull 5 flags so he can get a whopper. He is so funny he never stops moving on the field and as he was running for the end zone he totally looked over to us on the sidelines and smiled. 

William enjoyed staying home to babysit and watching the Poky-Highland game online with Anchor. Poky lost. William says it was such a heated game that there could have been a ref that just constantly threw flags and they still wouldn't have caught all of the penalties. 

Ran it

 Charley had his second cross country meet today. He started off with tripping and having to dodge a hole but in the end he did great. He had to run over a rickety old bridge and he was SUPER nervous about it. In the end he faced his fear and ran it. I am proud of him for finishing and working everyday at practice, he is doing a great job. Anchor tried to be a runner and then tried to convince me to let him go to football with William and Ben. In the end he had to come home and play some living room soccer with Brevick. That was lively.

Anchor put on a hat so he could go outside to play. I made him leave the hat but let him out.

Anchor was giving some kisses which ended in some tears. Kissing is a learned art. 

Sallee taught him the joy of putting things in his pockets. Unfortunately he can't differentiate and the easiest pocket for him to find was...his diaper. That got awkward fast. We will have to work on that.

I think that covers the highlights of the day.

Tackled it Tuesday!

We thought that we would put our best face on to go up against the Tuesday game again so we started with getting ready for the day.

Anchor thought he would try his had at some eyeliner while I was not paying attention to him. (I was putting on my mascara)

He was mortified by the result. He looked so ashamed kept trying to wipe it off after I showed him. It was a little bit funny. Luckily for him it wiped right off with a baby wipe and when I showed him the mirror again he was very pleased with his clean face.

We spent the rest of the morning prepping soup for dinner and doing the laundry. We all hate the laundry.

After the fiasco last Tuesday I was pretty nervous about our crazy schedule today. Thankfully Brevick's coach selected Thursday for practice so that was a sweet tender mercy and we were able to pull it together this evening even running slightly ahead of schedule. Anchor and Brevick had fun playing at the park while everybody was at their practices so that was a nice break for them.

Brevick also found himself some bug eyes.

In your mind you can just hear him going "buzz, buzz" repeatedly. For 15 minutes.

We flipped Anchor's car seat around today so for the first time in his life he felt and saw what it was like to ride facing forward in a car instead of backwards.

With his new found perspective he found himself talking constantly and asking to " 'rive car me??" It's going to be a long 12.5 year wait for this guy.

Nobody was excited to see soup for dinner but that's the way of life. The toasted cheese on the side helped placate them enough to send them down to bed. 

I thought they would all fall asleep quick but Emmerlyn is jammin' to the Hamilton soundtrack and the boys are chatting like tomorrow will never come. 

It will come.

And it will be way. too. soon.

Made it through Monday

 Yeah, we did ok today. 

William played a good game on Saturday. He got in on a couple of tackles and had a lot of fun. We had a good time watching him, eating our ice cream lunch, dumping out our water bottles on the blanket, well, Anchor had fun doing that. 

Ben's Grandma passed away late Saturday night so we drove down on Sunday afternoon to spend some good time with family. The kids had fun outside except they now have bug bites and they think they are going to be fatal. 

Monday dawned early after a rough night but we pulled it together and got everybody out the door for school. 

Anchor and I went shopping and then he sat on the chair and laughed at me while I brought in the groceries. He was watching intently for he bananas to come in. When they did he decided that he didn't want one at that time.

He then helped me by throwing the cereal boxes down the stairs.

At least he was entertained.

We had a pretty easy evening. Charley had XC practice and William had football so that was kind of nice. Emmerlyn and Charley helped me by getting the dinner finished up so we could eat at a decent hour. They are so great. 

Sharpie got some good loves and then got real comfy for bed.

Silly dog. She did have a good time riding with me to pick up William and walked right up to get in the car. She panicked at the last minute and I had to lift her in but she was so good after that. She didn't even eat Anchor's cookie. That was amazing.

Ben is working hard against the tax deadline looming tomorrow. He is so amazing and does such a good job. I am so impressed with how hard he works. 

Hopefully he gets home in time to sleep tonight....

Friday Night Flag

 Today was a usual Friday. The older boys were doing remote school. William was a little perturbed that they assigned enough work to keep him busy for the entire day.  That's rough you know. 

Emmerlyn and Brevick had a spirit day so they wore blue and yellow and they got new school spirit masks. That made their day. They also made it onto the bus without forgetting anything so that was a good change. 

Anchor and I enjoyed taking Sharpie for a walk and doing some lounging. It was a chill day for us to gear up for the evening runs.

Charley was in charge of getting dinner going while I was picking up William. He did great except he forgot to push start on the over so it wasn't actually cooking. It worked out though and we were able to eat it before rushing off to an 8:15 pm football game. 

It was our first flag football games of the season and Brevick and Charley did so good. Their games were at the same time and thankfully their fields neighbored each other so Ben and I could watch them at the same time. (aka only had to sit through 1 game timeline instead of 2!!!) Charley had a smile on his face the whole time and was all in cheering his teammates on and playing a little football on the side. Brevick was a beast that never stopped moving. Even on the sidelines, he was crouched and ready to go. He had some great hand-offs and scored a great little touchdown which he was SUPER pumped about! He is already chomping at the bit to get to practice next week.

I really love watching my kids play sports, no matter what they are playing, or how they do. I love to see them having fun and learning new skills. 

Next is William's game at 12:30  tomorrow in IF. He was impressed with himself because he hit someone so hard at practice the other day that it popped his mouth guard apart...hopefully he continues to play like that tomorrow!

Just a Thursday

Sometimes we are rushing around in the mornings. Sometimes we just chill on the floor in our PJs and pet the dog. Allyn was rushing. She is also carrying her energy drink which Brevick recognized as the same one his teacher drinks.  "yeah, she gets me." Allyn mumbled on her way out the door.

After the belly rubs and playing the kids headed out to school. Emmerlyn had to run back from the bus stop for her mask. 

Charley had to run back twice once for his mask and once for his water bottle.

William had to run back for his water bottle, he made it back to the stop just as the bus was pulling up. He left his water bottle on the bus. 

Maybe we should be a little more collected in the morning. 

We just lived today. Anchor and I took Sharpie on a walk. She did great, he did great, except when the grasshoppers were jumping on the sidewalk. They made him a little nervous. 

Brevick and Charley are super pumped for the flag football games that are tomorrow night at 8:15, that's going to be so fun. 

Hopefully everybody sleeps well tonight.
 

Race Day

 Charley had his first Cross Country meet today. He did great, took his time, enjoyed some chatting along the way and finished the race. He had so much fun and I am glad he has found a sport that he enjoys and is starting to make some friends. We headed out to support him. *now that we know the layout and approx timeline, we will adjust our arrival accordingly.*

I had this shirt made so I could be full out in my support. (blurry picture because Anchor didn't want to wear a jacket. Which turns out, he didn't need.) Charley is getting a team shirt through the school but they aren't coming in until tomorrow. 

Getting ready to start. (he has the black long pants on, his hands are in his pockets.)

Running...ish

The only casualty of the day was that Emmerlyn forgot that I was going to be late picking her up from gymnastics and she was crying when I got there. Poor girl.

Yep, Tuesday Slapped Us

 Sometimes your perfectly timed pick-up and drop-off schedule rolls off just as you intended.

Sometimes, Charley's XC practice goes late and the whole thing is ruined. Emmerlyn missed gymnastics because she would have been 10 minutes late. That was rough. Better luck next Tuesday. 

As we were driving around and chatting Emmerlyn was telling us about her bus ride home from school. "I like to look at the cars out the window. I like to look in them." Brevick with a shocked look on his face chimed in "Em'lyn, you're a weirdo."  We all got a good laugh out of that.

We had soup for dinner tonight, much to Brevick's dismay. He was thrilled to find out it was chicken noodle which he loves.

We all stared out the window at the tramp and wondered if we will be able to bend it back into shape after it got whipped around so much last night.

I got the band masks turned in. *that was a super pain, I am not at a sew-for-hire level* I also had a talk with William about not volunteering me without asking me first. Just to make sure I have the skills.

Anchor was funny when we dropped Brevick off at practice. We had a few minutes to play on the toys at the school but Brevick was just barely on time so he jumped out of the car and ran over to practice. I carried Anchor to the sidewalk and he was squirming to get down. As soon as his feet hit the ground he started running and yelling with his water bottle in his had, "me hurry, me hurry!!" he ran right over to the huddle and tried to get himself a set of flags.  He was heartbroken when I pulled him away to go play on the toys. He is really trying hard to get himself on a team.

I am definitely ready for some good sleep and thankfully we only have 3 afternoon events instead of 5!

Happy Birthday Anchor Part 2

 Yeah, some days are like that. Especially when you are too little to remember and your mom gets sick. Also, August tends to get super busy super suddenly. I realized this when you were born and we hit the ground running. You spent so much of your days running your older siblings around. You were such a trooper!

We had cake and opened Anchors presents this weekend. He was super excited for the Buppies but he wasn't real sure about the candles. He was blowing them out as soon as Ben would light them because they were making him nervous. He had a chocolate chip cookie flavored cake. It was yummy. He loved it because it combined 3 of his favorite things, cake, cookies, and BUPPIES!!

He loved all of his gifts but not having to wait for me to undo the tape on the boxes to get them. out. 

Later, Sharpie tried to make off with one of the buppies and sallee yelled at the top of her lungs "Oh no!!! she has a buppy, hurry, get the buppy! she can't have the buppy!!!" 

Thankfully, it was saved. We are trying to keep all of them safely downstairs but Anchor thinks it's hilarious to throw them up here. 

His current favorite things are jumping off the window sill onto a mattress while swinging from the curtain's like tarzan *thanks Brevick*

Playing outside.

Going to the park.

Eating Sallee's breakfast

Ordering people around.

Coloring on the walls.

Getting lots of snacks.

Playing with the toys downstairs, especially shooting people with the laser tag guns (which he can turn on and cock himself. Thankfully they don't actually shoot bullets)

Drinking everybody's pops/waterbottles/cups of water.

Dancing

Singing 

annnd if you ask him how old he is he says he is 4. (I said no, you are two. Then I asked again how old are you? he answered confidently "BIVE" (5) I gave up)

As for the rest of the weekend, we went and helped a little more at Grandma and Grandpa Rydalch's where they said we could have some old barn wood to some projects. Ben was gathering all of the good pieces and unfortunately he stepped on a nail. It quickly filled his sock and shoe with blood but after some warm soaks, ice, and rest it is doing much better today. Simeon was quick to offer to sell him a pair of shoes for an exorbitant price but Ben declined and we saran wrapped his bandaged foot (so the bandage didn't soak up the blood), put it back in his bloody shoe and headed home. Ben is now in the market for some nice new work shoes :)

Sunday we revamped our Come Follow Me layout for the new school year and I am excited to see how it works out. I really love having good discussions with my kids and seeing the things that they are picking up on.

Today we worked on some little things around the house. William made a rotating model of the sun, earth, and moon which he talked Emmerlyn into painting for him. She did an excellent job. He chose good on that one. Anchor enjoyed a long bath.

Silly dude, PS, that's his toothbrush. He likes to brush his teeth in the tub 'cause then he's clean all around. (And because I am usually brushing my teeth while he is in the tub)

The boys enjoyed drafting their fantasy football teams while Emmerlyn and Brevick enjoyed Phineas and Ferb. Now time for sleep because Tuesday will slam us in the face tomorrow!!

Finally

 Finally, Brevick and Emmerlyn had their playdate.

Finally, Sharpie's harness came in the mail. (it works really well. I'm glad we bought it.)

Finally I took a nap.

Finally we finished the Rexburg project. (That has been hard but rewarding work. It feels so good to see the house all ready!! We are excited to see where the new chapter takes them!)

Finally Ben got off of work.

Finally it is Friday.

In other news, Ben cooked a yummy grilled chicken dinner and when he went out on the deck this happened.

So after dinner, Ben fixed it up with a new door knob. 

Charley had fun at XC practice.

William had fun doing his school work, helping at Grandmas and playing with Sharpie.

I think that about covers it.

Oh yeah, Anchor had a day of fighting with Montgomery (apparently they are in an enemy stage) throwing apples. Sitting on the lawnmower and helping to put things on the trailer. 

He's been busy.

Also, he never got dressed today.

Hopefully we get to that tomorrow!

Today

 Today Anchor and I went back up to Rexburg to help out. We did some painting, he did some drawing. I did some organizing, he worked on screw-driving a board. He introduced Simeon to Buppies. Simeon was not overly impressed. We worked hard and then rushed home to get Brevick to football practice and pick up Charley from XC. Charley was super proud of himself because he ran (walked) the stairway to heaven.

(This is that staircase that you drive by going up our hill to our house)

So they had to run from the middle school up the hill and they had to get to the stairs by 4:30 or else they wouldn't be able to go up. So he ran it in time and went up and back down and then ran back to the school. So that was over a mile there and a mile back plus the stairs. Needless to say, he is sleeping well tonight. 

William babysat Anchor while I ran around this evening and hates his life. He is getting a couple days off from football because of the holiday weekend and I think he is missing that. Both Anchor and Sharpie ganged up on him and really gave him a run for his money. Then I made him help clean out the car and he lost his mind. 

I hope HE sleeps good tonight.

Brevick did excellent at practice tonight and is looking forward to his playdate tomorrow. He wants to talk football with his friend.

Emmerlyn started working on a scrapbook and is now needing me to print her some pictures to put in it. Brevick then reminded me that I need to do HIS baby book. Which is true. I will do it after I get the band masks made.

Tomorrow.

Hopefully.

Want to Know Wednesday

 Today was a remote day for William and Charley. They did really well on getting right to their work. I hope that they never have to go back to normal school. I really love this schedule. They are looking into the eBay selling business so they wanted to go to Ross to price some things out. I was game for that. They went with their notebooks and jotted down some info while Anchor and I shopped. We are always up for a little shopping. Anchor always likes to say hi to everybody who walks past us so he considers it his social hour. 

After we came home we put Anchor down for a much needed nap and I made a million cookies for a drive-by RS activity that we had tonight. There were 10 people there. 5 were NOT required to come. I have 999,000 cookies leftover. Our freezer is set for awhile.

Charley had XC today and they timed his run. He did 1.8 miles in 27 minutes and I am honestly so proud of him. I don't really know what a good time is so I think that is amazing. I think it is so awesome that he is committed to doing it and goes to practice everyday. He is really growing into himself. He is also getting excited for his first meet next week. That will be fun.

Emmerlyn had gymnastics today too. She worked so hard and is really getting stronger each time. 

All of my kids are doing so well in their various areas. They are putting forth effort and trying to make progress and develop their talents. 

Yesterday I had to pick up fabric from William's band teacher so I can sew masks with a hole in them so they can play their instruments (thanks William for volunteering me for that. ) As I was leaving the teacher said  "Hey, you should know that William is really an amazing young man. He just has something about him. Whatever you guys are doing to raise him, you're doing it right." As much as I wanted to take the compliment I responded truthfully "it's not us, he came that way." I feel lucky to be his mom because he really is quite a guy. Then I went home and had to unhook the trailer from the Toyota which he watched me do and then critiqued me. I guess we have a little work we can do. :).

Time for sleep. Anchor went down really well tonight, after I had to catch him as he was running away across the living room!!

Caught Up

 Not with life. 

Certainly not with cleaning my house.

No, today our fall schedule caught up with us. 

Charley had XC practice from 3:45-5

William had to leave at 3:30 to be to his game in IF that started at 6

Charley had flag football from 5:30-6:30

Emmerlyn had gymnastics from 6-7

Brevick had flag football from 6-7. Which his coached changed to 6:15 so that was nice. Anchor cruised in the car capitalizing on all the opportunities to play on the playground. And being incredibly cranky. He was so tired and just wasn't having it.

Tuesdays are going to be wild for the next few weeks. Needless to say we are all worn out and ready from some good sleep. Except Sharpie. Sharpie is full of energy and going to send me over the edge.