Spencer's Birthday Party

Better late than never, right? These pictures are from Spencer's birthday party that we had a few weeks ago. We had an outdoor water party and as we all headed outside, I thought, "Oh no...how am I going to get all these boys sunscreened down so I don't send them home with a sunburn?" I thought it would take forever to sunscreen them, until I had this bright idea:

A sunscreen lineup! Everyone rubbed the person's back in front of them. It went much quicker that way (and was even pretty fun too!)

Water balloon toss

Look at the determination on his face. This game was run the wet sponge down, squeeze it how, see who has the most water at the end.

Just hangin' out in a bucket.

This picture is funny...after Brady soaked all the kids with a hose I let them turn on him with all the extra water balloons.

Blowing out candles on banana split.

Signs of Fall

For most of you, these are the signs of fall...changing leaves. I love the fall colors and miss seeing the leaves change and fall off the tree, but unfortunately, that doesn't happen for us until about January or February. And then the leaves don't really change colors, they just fall and cause us to have to rake every other day.

A sign of fall for us is this:

All the kids outside after dinner eating popsicles, getting all the neighbor kids together for a game of kickball. The temperature finally cooled just a few degrees last week, but better than that, there was NO humidity for a few days and you would have thought it was Christmas morning around here. That was all anyone talked about - "Isn't this weather lovely?" "What a gorgeous day!" Even yesterday in the grocery store I heard two men saying how Wednesday was just a beautiful day with the breeze and cool temperatures. Thursday morning when I went walking a man jogging down the other side of the street hollered through the dark at me, "Is this weather wonderful?"

I'm telling you, we Floridians wait all summer for the temperatures to drop just a few degrees and when it does, we celebrate! So, I guess fall is here. The kids are playing outside again. This is why we endure the summers...to enjoy all winter outside.

Glued to My Sewing Machine

This week I have been sewing like a crazy woman. Meghann wanted to be a Midieval princess for Halloween so last weekend we bought a pattern and some material. Then on Sunday she told me she was having a "princess party" for Young Womens on Wednesday and that they could dress up. So I thought, "Ooo, if I got her dress done by Wednesday she could wear it then and get one more use out of all my work!" So I started on Monday and sewed like crazy, but by some miracle I got it done by Wednesday afternoon! Whew! She loves the dress and definitely feels like a princess in it.

Then on Thursday Courtney had an Activity Day Recognition Night where they were talking about ancestors and she was stressed because we didn't have any bonnets that matched the dress she wanted to wear! So, I dug through my fabric and found some green that matched her dress and on Thursday I sewed her a new bonnet. She looked darling and did a great job telling what she had learned from her phone interview with Grandma Great (thanks grandma!).

Sometime during the week I got this idea of a satchel I could make for Jordan's Halloween costume. He is so excited to be Indiana Jones! I'm not sure how I'm going to make the rest of the costume, but I was thrilled with how the bag turned out, especially because I really can't sew without a pattern. But this idea went from my head to fabric without a problem so a heavy sigh of relief there. He LOVES the bag and wears it every day!

Last, but not least, I made this cute blanket for a friend. She ordered it for her grandson and just told me she wanted something with a teddy bear on it. I had so much fun picking out the fabric for this quilt. It just came together perfectly with the colors and all. It was fun to make.

Saturday Jobs

Yesterday was a work day - housework, cleaning cars, buying groceries, (oh, and a little yard sale shopping but that's work too, right?) Anyway, when I came home from running errands Brady had been having a little fun on the driveway with his new power sprayer. Nice to see that it works!

Roadshows

Remember those? Well, our stake had a roadshow weekend a month or so ago. Brady and I went on Friday night to help right the skit. We ended up with a sort of "twisted fairytales" theme and it was quite funny, if I do say so myself! The kids all got together on Saturday morning at 8:30 a.m., then put on the roadshows for the stake at 6:00 that evening. It was a whirlwind day, but the kids really look forward to it. Meghann had the part of Goldilocks (and the Three Pigs). Her advanced drama class really showed through in her performance!

Meghann with her friend Natalie in the background.

The best part of the evening was when they announced our ward as the WINNERS of the Best All Around category! Yeah!!!

Afterward half of the ward stopped by Jeremiah's to celebrate with a little Italian Ice. Thanks, Meredith for all the pictures!

My Lunch Date

Every Thursday Brady and I try to have lunch with one of the boys. Since the girls have moved on to middle school, I guess it's no longer cool to have your parents come have lunch with you, but it's still acceptable at the elementary school. So, this week was Jordan's turn (I forgot my camera last week when it was Spencer's turn). Brady was on a conference call with Salt Lake so he couldn't make the lunch date, but Jordan and I sure had a good time.
One bonus of having mom and dad come for lunch is we give the kids some money to buy a snack. That only happens when we come for lunch (that way they're always excited to see us, right?)

Eating the ice cream sandwich from both ends!

Mmmm...lovely teeth!

Thanks for the fun lunch date, Jordan.

I've Got to Warn His Wife

This post is for Tucker's future wife. I'm warning you now that Tucker is famous for losing things. Don't leave him alone with the check book, car keys, children or anything else you find valuable because he probably won't remember where he left them. Here's an example: a missing library book. It has been missing for about a month and I finally went to the library to pay for it. They kindly told me they would put it on some "lost/watch for" status at the library and give me more time to look for it. I had already turned the house upside down so that was why I was there to pay for it. Okay, I said, I'll keep looking. Good thing I listened to them because a few days later while dusting, I found it here:

See it there on the shelf above the DVDs? That shelf is right as you walk out the back door and I'm sure he stuck it there as he was headed out to play, never to remember where he laid it down.

Then, just a few days after finding the book, he lost it again. This time he lost two more books with it. He was carrying around a pile of three books (I'm not sure if he thought he could read three at a time but he IS a bookworm!) and set them down somewhere...only where??? He looked for two days and by last night, was getting pretty worried that they hadn't turned up. So I said I'd go look after I put him to bed. I walked down the stairs and began tidying up the kitchen cupboard (which seems to be a catch-all for junk) and there they were! His stack of three books.

I hollered up the stairs that the missing books were found so that he could get a good night's sleep. (Notice what's going on in the background of the above photo: Spencer the Chef is scooping muffin batter into the muffin tins for me and look at the lovely flowers on the kitchen table that Brady brought me back after his weekend in Tampa).

So, future wife, I'm doing my best to raise a great guy for you...but I'm afraid he was born with forgetfulness!

Talent

Meghann loves to craft - mostly with Sculpey but she's crafty in lots of other ways too. She's been making these cute dolls that she has given to a few friends for their birthdays. We're going to see about a clay or pottery class at the local art shop here in town that she might be able to take.

Look at the detail on that hair! It looks like a brunette version of Meghann's own hair!

Squint your eyes a little, this one might come into focus better :)

Favorite Chair

This is our favorite chair in the house...we call it the Snuggly Buggly. It is big enough for two, yet cozy enough for one. Perfect for reading a book in.

And here is my little photographer. Spencer can do just about anything he sets his mind to, but his favorites are cooking and taking pictures (just need to work a little on the focus there, Spen).

Happy Birthday Spencer

Name: Spencer
Nickname: Spenny
Age: Eight!
Favorite Event of the Day: Going to Outback Steakhouse with Mom and Dad, but having eight friends over for a water activity birthday party was a close second!
Favorite Gift: Indiana Jones Lego game for the computer, but money to buy a rip stick was a close second.
Mom's favorite part of the day: He didn't want a cake this year! Just ice cream sundaes with LOTS of toppings. I can do that.
Baptism date: September 28.

I can't remember why he was sulking here but he was not happy about something so this was his way to escape. Sometimes I feel like doing that too.

Happy Birthday, Spencer. We love you!

Opinions

These are the shoes I bought my oldest boy for school that he wore once. He said someone told him they were ugly and he won't wear them again.

These are the shoes that I bought my boy for school that he said he liked, but has never worn. The tag hodling them together is still on the shoes.

These are the shoes that I finally bought my boy because he would only wear last year's worn out, overly used shoes. He's worn them every day since. I thought it was only girls who had all the opinions about their clothes? Don't tell me I'm in for it with my three boys too! AND last week when I announced it was Collared Shirt Day for the boys...he refused! Where did he get all these opinions?!