Our Week

We've been staying busy this week...

Monday- For Family Night we went to Picnic Point Beach with some other families. It was nice to visit and let the kids play.

Tuesday- I took Chelsea to get her picture taken at Penney's in her blessing dress. We got a cute picture of her. She's a very good baby. Later I swept and mopped and vacuumed. It's always stressful to clean while kids are up and around. I feel like I'm picking up or cleaning and it doesn't look like I've done anything. I also did a bunch of laundry today. It was kind of a hard day today.

Wednesday- I took the kids to the zoo. We got there right when it opened. It was not busy and that was so nice. We strolled along and got to see our favorite animals. We were on a path and this pick-up needed to get by and the zoo worker was asking us to move out of the way. They were nice about it. I quickly got the kids and we moved out of their way. Well this lady gave us these tokens for a free carousal ride for being so nice about it. The kids were excited for that surprise. We got home in time for lunch and naps. Then Chelsea and I left around 4 to meet up with my Mom, Sara and Marci down in Puyallup. Well, the traffic is horrendous at that time of day so it took me 2 hours to get there. Ugh. We ate dinner at Olive Garden and went shopping to Charming Charlie's (a jewelry mecca). It was fun. The drive back was much better and I got home in an hour. :)

Thursday- I did some organization of my closet, got the kids ready and then headed down to Ikea to meet up with my Mom and sisters again. We put Kate and Preston in the play area and shopped away. After Ikea we went to Chipotle to eat- yummo!- then to DSW for some serious shoe shopping. By that time my kids were very tired and even though I wanted to keep shopping with them I needed to head home. It was nice to have 3 nannies helping me with my kids though! Lindsey fell asleep minutes into our drive home. When I got home, I put her back down to bed and Preston went and took a nap too. I ended up waking them up around 6 so they'd eventually go to sleep at night.

Friday- We had the leather repair guy come to our house by 9am. We had a rip in our leather couch, probably from the kids climbing on it. He stitched it up, patched it, painted it and dried it. It was actually interesting to see the process. I've never seen how they fix a rip in real leather. The place we bought our couches from actually paid for it to get fixed since they are only 1 1/2 yrs old. Very nice of them. Hyak's Leather Furniture Store in Lynnwood...if you're wondering. :) Then I loaded up the kids and went to Winco to get some things for the ward picnic (Kyle's in charge of getting all the food for it). After lunch while the younger kids were napping, I got out the pool for Kate and Preston (brrr, but Kate wanted it, whatever), organized my emails and did some laundry. After dinner, Kyle took the kids, minus Chelsea, to the Church to pick up paper products for the picnic tomorrow. Then later, some young women and leaders met here so we could make a poster and take it along with cookies I made to one of our young woman who is moving away. After that I ran to the mall to pick up some things. Now it's the weekend. :)

Demo Derby

The demolition derby in Moses Lake is yearly family tradition. It's held during the fair. I've never been, but this year I got to go thanks to Kyle's Aunt Sunni! She babysat our kids at my parent's house so we could both go. My Mom had never been either and she was debating about going, but Kate was so excited for Sunni to babysit her. My Mom got trumped by Sunni, too funny. Sunni even brought her own toys for the kids to play with. The derby was so much fun. It's pure white trash at its finest. :) Ladies walking in with a cell phone and pack of cigarettes tucked in their bra. Classy. My Dad said it's like going to Walmart. haha!

The group that went: Chris (Marci's friend), Marci, Me, Kyle, Jared and then Sara (she was taking the pic) and my Mom and Dad were there too.

It was SO loud. These cars are loud and zoom around in the dirt and bump into each other. They have to go around 4 times and first one to do that wins. It's intense because they will crash into each other or a big pile up will happen and trap the other cars. Sometimes they get stuck on each other's bumpers. It was funny. There were several different groups of cars that raced. It went on for a few hours.

Lots of cars didn't make it so tow trucks came to drag them away.

They had quick fireworks and then did the demo derby part where they just crash into each other and wreck their cars. I was told it was lame this year compared to previous years because there weren't very many cars that participated. 

This red and yellow car was so trashed. It was hilarious.

Goodbye's are Hard

Our neighbors and good friends, Mat and Darbi Ryan, moved last Monday. It was a rough day. Actually, it was hard when they told us about a month ago that they were moving. I was depressed. Since we've been neighbors, Darbi and I practically spoke every day. We joked we needed a bridge over the road between our houses because we would run back and forth so often. Our kids played together all the time. Darbi and I met 7 years ago when they moved into their house. We had just moved in a few months earlier and saw this cute family coming to check out the house. I remember thinking "I hope that family buys it because they look nice." Well sure enough they did and the next spring we met outside. We didn't meet until then because of the cold winter months and neither of us were out much. But once we met we became friends fast. We've been though a lot together with having kids, sharing heartache, dealing with mean neighbor issues, watching each other's kids, picking up each other's kids from school, borrowing food items when we ran out, sharing desserts and recipes, sharing magazines, sharing life's problems and just talking about everything. It's rare to find a neighbor that you get along with so well. We talked about that a lot. We were lucky to have each other. I will miss her a lot!

They are moving to Alaska. I know crazy! Mat is going to be the director of the Fred Meyer store in Fairbanks, Alaska. Darbi really wanted to move there because she likes adventures and because it's a jump career and pay wise. They have a 5 yr commitment and then might be back down in WA after that. Best Wishes!

Big ol' moving vans rolled in front of their house and made it all too real. Their house is the one with the tree in front. This picture is the view from our yard. We were right across the way. Too convenient, huh?

On Sunday night, the night before they left, we had them over for dinner. 

Logan liked playing with Lindsey and would push her in the swing and play with her.

I put together a going away bag for them.

Top row: Anshu (another neighbor girl, good friend of Logan), Logan and Lindsey

Middle: Dallas and Kate

Bottom: Preston and Asher 

Darbi and I. It was hard to say goodbye. 

Mat and Darbi with their kids Logan (10), Dallas (8) and Asher (6). Their dog, Koda, is behind Asher. 

Kate with their dog Koda. All my kids liked Koda. He was good with the kids all over him. They will miss him. I told my kids they can play with Koda all they want because there's no chance of us getting a dog! 

Swimming and Summer Fun

The kids love swimming in my parent's pool. It's always hot and sunny there so it's fun times. I'm just bad about putting sunscreen on them (you have to apply it so often, I forget!) so they are usually very tan by the end of summer.

Kate jumping off the high platform. I have jumped off of it a few times and it's scary! Those kids are brave to do it over and over. Kate likes to show me her flips into the water, hand stands under water, jumps while doing the splits and other tricks she comes up with.

Preston puts on a life jacket then jumps into the pool, doggy paddles to the ladder and does it again. He loves it and it's good practice for him.

Lindsey loves riding on the tractors with Kyle and my Dad. Whenever she sees a tractor she says, "papa" referring to grandpa. Here she sat on the tractor with my Dad as he smoothed out the dirt road with the loader tractor. 

Kate and Lindsey riding with my Dad

When Kyle was helping out my Dad on the farm he was gone a lot and thank goodness for my Mom's help with the kids or I would have gone nuts. Well, who are we kidding, I went nuts anyway. But it was hard because I wanted a break from the kids. I told Kyle I hoped he enjoyed the peace and quiet sitting on that tractor! But I give major props out to those farmer wives, like my Mom, who are practically single mom's during the busy farming months. I'm used to Kyle being home by 5:10 and home on weekends. I grew up with the farm life, but I've surely grown accustom to the city life work schedule. I don't think I could handle being a farmer's wife. It's hard work I tell ya!

Blessing Part 2

My Mom emailed me the pictures she had and there were some cute one's I wanted to include so here's more. :)

This picture made me laugh. Lindsey is patiently waiting for us to leave for Church while folding her arms. I love her painted nails that Aunt Marci painted minutes before. 

Cousins- l-r: Preston, Lindsey, Kate, Kathryn, Reed, Dane and Nathan 

Jeni's daughter's Hailey and Paige

Carter and Kate, they love each other, seriously. 

Everyone who came to the blessing (minus Kyle's sister Jill who had to leave after sacrament meeting). Thank you! 

The adorable Mary Jane booties my Mom made. She needs her own boutique!

Blessed Chelsea

We blessed Chelsea on August 5th in Mattawa at my parent's ward. We were over there that weekend for Carter's baptism so we just did the blessing there too. It was more convenient for our family. Kyle did a great job giving her the blessing and we were grateful to all our family that came and supported us. We had a ham dinner after Church at my parent's house.

We tried taking pictures before Church and that's always a "fun" time. I included some outtakes because those are funny to look at since it's really crazy trying to get all the kids to smile at the same time and not run away. 

My Mom made Chelsea's blessing dress and adorable booties. The picture of the booties is on my Mom's camera, but they are adorable. My Mom crocheted them and they are Mary Jane style. Chelsea's dress is made out of taffeta and she looked darling in it. I hurried and took these pictures before Church, but again they are awful and I need the other pictures from my Mom's fancy camera. :)

 My Mom has made all my kids their own blanket so she asked how I wanted Chelsea's done. I looked on Pinterest and found a blanket with this ruffled/pleated look and loved it. We went to Hobby Lobby and picked out the material and then voila she made it. Love it!

Lindsey Lou Who's Birthday Bash

Happy 2nd Birthday Lindsey!!!

Her birthday was Saturday August 4th so we were able to celebrate it after lunch. Then I hurried and put her down for a nap because we had to leave at 2:30 for Carter's baptism in Tri-Cities, an hour away. 

I made her an Elmo cake and it was pretty easy to make. The hardest part was painting the ping pong ball orange- the spray paint wouldn't stick so my Mom used craft paint! haha! Lindsey liked her "melmo" cake. 

My Mom made her an Elmo pancake for breakfast. It was Kate's idea to use marshmallows for the eyes. Cute.

"It's my party and I'll cry if I want to!" She was waking up around 6 or 6:30 while we were at my parents house so she was always so cranky and tired by mid-morning. Sheesh. Here she is having a meltdown. haha!

She was totally posing in this picture by putting her hand on her hip. It cracked us up!

We played "stick the nose on Elmo" really quick before her nap.

Posing just like Elmo. Too funny!

This is the only good picture I got and it's not good! Carter's in the back next to Aubree who's holding Chelsea. My Mom got some better one's on her camera though. Carter was baptized on Saturday afternoon then we went to Jeni and Kevin's for a yummy cafe rio dinner. Kate loves Carter so she was so excited for him. 

After dinner, we stopped by the hospital in Tri-Cities to see Kyle's mom, Dee Ann. She had just retired and had come up for a visit for Lindsey's birthday and Chelsea's blessing. Well, the day after she got here she got super sick and ended up in the ICU! She was in there for a week then transferred to the University of Washington Hospital in Seattle. She was having a bladder infection that lead to septic shock, acute kidney failure and other problems. It was scary, but she is doing better and should be out of the hospital soon. It was a good thing she was up here around family and we were over there visiting so we could stop and see her.We got back to my parent's and Lindsey opened her birthday gifts since we didn't have time earlier.

My Mom made Lindsey this leotard and tutu. When she first opened the gift she threw them to the side and was excited for the other things she got, play-do and color wonder. We eventually got her in it and she was dancing around. She looks adorable in it.

Got Milk?

The kids love the Moses Lake Aquatic Park so we had to come here. Sara met us there so it was fun to see her. We ended up bringing Carter and Paige with us too. They stayed at my Mom's house for a couple days so Kate could have some playmates. My friend gave me the adorable swimsuit for Chelsea and I was excited to see her in it. 

The kids did really well. Lindsey surprised me the most because she didn't want to go down any of the slides. She just walked around in the water. She loved the lazy river, but last year she totally did the slides. Funny girl.

My Mom stayed at 'camp' and took care of Chelsea. It's nice having a nanny! 

After the water park we went to Derek and Sara's. We chilled for a bit then met Derek at his family's dairy to get a tour. The kids were fascinated by it all. It was cool to see the cows come in and line up all orderly ready to get milked. They produce SO much milk, like several gallons worth. I went down to look at the measuring thing to see how much they produce and got sprayed with pee. Lovely. 

Preston was too close when a cow poop splattered on him. haha! I don't think he knew what happened or else he probably would have been crying. Gross!

Lindsey playing peek-a-boo with the calves.

We also got to see this little calf born!!! Amazing that we happened to be there at that time. I guess people come to take tours of the dairy and hope to see a calf born, but don't. It was interesting. 

We were getting ready to leave when Derek's uncle noticed the key to one of the work four-wheelers was missing. Preston was sitting on top of it and I had already told him once to not touch the key b/c he had taken it out. Well, we could NOT find that key! I was so annoyed with Preston because he wouldn't tell us what he did with it and we spent a long time looking for it. At one point he told me he wanted to tell Grandma where it was and not me (probably because I was getting so mad at him and my Mom wasn't). He said he dropped it on the four wheeler (before he said it was in the toilet and in the hay). It was even the spare key! I felt awful, but we ended up leaving because it was getting late and the kids needed dinner. Well, not too long after we left I got a text from Derek saying they found the key!!! Phew! He had to remove some plastic part around the gas tank and found the key sitting there. I think Preston either stuck it down there or it slipped and fell. Stressful!