Dinner Convesation

We've had a lot of dental work around here lately. TC got braces yesterday, Titus had a tooth pulled today and Tanner and Tobyn had cavities filled. (We really do brush our teeth around here, just that time of year to get all the dental work done) Anyway....we we've been eating soft stuff: yogurt, pudding, eggs, mac and cheese. Tonight Todd made Chinese noodles and I was going to make deviled eggs as a snack for later.

This was the conversation at the table.

Tate -"Mom?! do I have to eat my noodles?"

Mom- "Yes"

Titus- "Don't you want the eggs?"

Tate- "we're going to have demon eggs right?"

TC- (looking all sorts of confused) "Demon eggs?"

Titus- " I think he means deviled eggs."

Tate- "Oh-yeah DEVILED eggs!"

few minutes later....

Tate- "Mom, do I HAVE to eat my noodles?!"

Mom- "Yes Tate!"

Titus- "c'mon Tate the noodles are better than you think!"

Tate- "Well my taste buds do not agree!"

I love the stimulating conversations around here.

Idea

I wonder if we could hook up bikes as a generator to run the A/C? I have 5 boys here with WAY too much energy and WAY to high of an electrical bill from running the A/C 24/7.

I figure with bikes the boys can burn off their energy, and my electric bill goes down....everybody wins right?!

A Close Shave...

I was giving the boys haircuts this morning. I had done Tanners, Tobyns and was working on Tate's when the clippers dropped. I messed with them for several minutes and couldn't get them working right. I finally decided that I needed to find another pair. I walked into my bathroom, looked around for a few minutes, and came back out to keep working on Tate's hair.

Tate was looking at Tobyn and says "What happened to your hair? Or did you mean to do it like that?" I looked up and saw this:

Tobyn had taken my peanut shears (not the broken ones, but the ones that are meant to do the very bottom of your neck. The part that has all the little hairs and is meant to shave really close) and shaved some chunks from his newly redone mohawk.

Needless to say we were 20 mins late to church because I had to fix the hair cut. It's a good thing he is a boy and it was really easy to shave short. As far as the broken clippers go. They didn't get fixed...shhh..don't tell the boys I finished up with Max's clippers :-)

It's a Party!

We had a combine party for Tate and Titus on Thursday. I think they had a lot of fun. This year is an even year, which means friend birthday parties. We had the boys make paper rockets and blasted them with launchers made from soda bottles, bike tire tubes, and pvc pipe. The kids had fun chasing their rockets around. We also did a donut eating contest, opened presents, and had cupcakes. It was a lot of fun to have their friends over for some fun!

Later in the day we went swimming. the pool lately has been pretty empty, I guess people figure it's too hot even for swimming. Anyway, we had the pool almost to ourselves for about 2 1/2 hours. The kids LOVED it! Todd took a nap, and I hang out with my friend who had her kids there also. What a great day!

Digin' in

Gathering to launch their rockets!

All of the boys waiting to start the contest!

Admiring the goods.

Happy "late" birthday to Tate, and early birthday to Titus. I hope you had a great day!

Can you say HOT?! I knew it would be hot here, everyone warns you about the Texas heat. But recored breaking heat for 3 weeks straight is pretty insane! I guess we moved here on a record breaking year for everything. Most storms in one month, recored lows, recored highs, recored drought...I hate to find out what's next.

Overall the summer hasn't been bad. Figuring out what to do with 5 boys when it's a 105 and 52% humidity outside so they stay inside all day is a little rough. There is only so much Nintedo playing, tv watching, craft doing, card game playing, fort building, one can do in a day....week...month....We do still swim quite often. But with the heat, the pool is hardly refreshing. At least it's wet and not just sticky humid.

Todd finally is holding a line so that's a great thing. Even though he is back to working weekends, we know when he's leaving, when he's coming home, and where he is going. It's more hours and more days off. I sure hope we're on the up swing now! He is still loving his job and we are all adjusting pretty well. The days he is gone are going by faster and I don't feel like I need to gear up as much for the next 4 days he is away.

I started school last week. It is going well. I am sure glad I only signed up for one class at a time right now. For those who don't know I decided to go with Interior Design. I will earn a Bachelor Degree with the Art Institute online dev. With the kids demanding the computer (because of lack of activities) and just the plain old busyness of summer, it was a good choice. The first class is a little boring. I can't wait to get into the more fun classes. I just received my Adobe Suite set, which has all types of Photoshop and such in it. I am a little intimidated. Those programs always seem to have SO much to them.

We get to spend a little extra time out in the heat. Our dryer is on the fritz and so we get the opportunity to line-dry our clothes. Nothing like crispy, hot, fresh smelling clothes :-) It's not bad, just get pretty hot standing outside to hang them up. But it saves a ton on the electrical bill.

Well on to enduring the heat, more fort building, computer playing, school working, flying fun!

Family Pictures '11

These pictures are just a sample of my favorites. Although, this one of the boys I would have to say is my absolute favorite! I think it shows their personalities SO well! Man, I love these guys!

I am very pleased with this one of my mom and I.

Thanks Julie for doing another fantastic job with our pictures!

The 4th!

Our 4th was filled with a whole lotta nothing :-) With Todd working a lot of holiday's we've just learned to celebrate differently. Saturday we had some friends over and went swimming, went to a wonderful ward bbq and watched fireworks at the park. Tuesday we were having the house sprayed for bugs, and the fridge repair guy coming to look at our freezer so most of the kitchen had to be emptied out. So Monday that was my task....

The boys did play with some friends, Tobyn, Tate, Tanner and I went swimming, and we watched a movie or two.

It wouldn't be a holiday without a bbq. So despite the mess I bbq'd us some hotdogs. Yummy! I really do love a good bbq'd hotdog.

These were the sparklers that we couldn't light. Not just because I couldn't get them to light, but also because with the drought here, there is a strict no firework policy so there weren't even fireworks on the street to watch...bummer!

It really was a nice holiday weekend. We had a fun day on Saturday and a relaxing 4th. I sure feel blessed to live in this wonderful, free country!

A few more random tid-bits.

A few more little tid-bits that I wanted to recored. I love this picture. Todd helped the boys dress up and make a music video. The music was the rock version of Book of Mormon Stories. They had a lot of fun making it.

Also introducing...Titus with glasses! Yep that makes two handsome guys with glasses. He is so excited he can see so much better! I didn't realize he needed them or he probably would have gotten them a year or so ago.
Another little thing I wanted to write about is Tanner and his blankie. I don't think he is any more attached to it than he has been, but he's picked up a new habit. I am getting less and less patient with him trying to stick his hand up my sleeve or in my shirt, so if I won't let him he smells me! He walks up to me, sticks his nose against my shirt and sniffs. Weird!! It drives me crazy! I love the little guy to pieces, but really?! I am kind of done with this phase already. He doesn't do it to any one else but me. He will even look at me, with his thumb mostly in his mouth and say "what?! I smell you!" then shrugs his shoulders and walks away. Little turkey. I sure don't know what I'd do with out any one of my kids though, quirks and all!

Swim, swim, and swim some more.

We have a community pool here and we LOVE it! I think we've gone swimming every day since summer began. Some times 2x's a day. The pool is pretty awesome. It has a variety of things to do, but it's not huge. They enjoy playing and playing, and because it's free I have NO problem if we go only for an hour or so.

The kids have really improved on their swimming skills. Tobyn can swim in the deep end with no problem, Tate's confidence in swimming has grown a TON, and funny little Tanner thinks he is a fish. I'm not watching as my baby floats face down, well ok I am, but he's not in trouble. He sticks his face in the water, paddles as hard as he can and then comes up for air. He loves swimming back and forth to Todd and I. I make him wear his floaties when he's in the deep water and I'm by my self, but he can swim without them. He can swim under water for several feet, and he can swim just a foot or two with his head above water. I've never had a child that learned how to swim so fast, but we've also never lived by a pool that we go to every day.

Tate getting ready to "dive" in.

Tobyn and Tanner playing in one of the shallow parts.

Most of the time I see feet above the water more than I see their head above water. Headstand, swimming like a dolphin, and playing water tag are some of their favorite past times.

Tanner jumping in the deep end. He loves to jump in!

So far we really are enjoying our summer. The kids don't seem to get too bored and I like swimming a lot too.

Grandma and Kady visit

Kady and Grandma B drove home with us from Ut. We decided to push all the way through, it was another long drive, but we made it. We didn't do a whole lot of anything for most of the week. A LOT of swimming, a lot of movie watching, a few naps, going out for pizza, playing some card games and reading. Grandma B promised it was a relaxing vacation, Kady claims to had fun, and I enjoyed just having family around a little longer.

This was the scene most afternoons. It is getting too hot to do a lot of outdoor play in the afternoons.

Titus and Tate had a last minute chance to go to Twilight Camp for that week. It's a scout camp that goes from 4 pm-8:30pm for 5 days. They made a lot of fun stuff, passed off quite a few requirements, and had a lot of fun. I took this picture on the last day and I think they were pretty tired at this point. Tate is SUPER excited to be a scout!

Also while Grandma B was here I did some yard-sailing. It was kind of fun. It doesn't look like much in the picture, but I got a film camera, lenses, 2 cases, and a bunch of other odd's and ends stuff for $27! Even if the camera isn't worth all that much, the other stuff is pretty good I LOVE the case that I got with it all and it will look really fun on a shelf I have planned for it!

Sadly, this was the only picture I got of my mom while she was here. I had the camera out SO many times to take pictures and we would get distracted or the camera would get forgotten, in fact one of the kids probably took it, but her hair looks really nice :-)

The only real picture of Kady that got taken. Again I think one of the kids took the picture.

We really enjoyed their company! I hope more family makes it down here sometime. It's fun to show off our neck of the woods...errr....plains....