Sunday Afternoon

Hey.  How's it going?  Check out what I found.

It's beautiful.

 Wait a second... what's that you've got there?

 Let's get a closer look.....

 Closer....

 Almost there.....

 Oh... it's you.  

Blogging Like a Slacker

So... I kind of forgot about blogging this month.  Besides that I have forgotten to take many pictures.  With everyone home for the summer life is too crazy and blogging just falls down the list of priorities.    Here are just a few random pictures from this month... they are mostly of Grayson cause he's really really cute.

 During a storm on Friday night our power flickered out and then I heard something hit against our windows in the backyard.  I looked out the window and said "Oh my word... the wind blew our trampoline over."  Then I looked closer and realized that it wasn't our trampoline hitting the window.  It was our backyard neighbor.  Amazingly... no fences were broken. The wind just picked it up and dropped it right on top of our trampoline.  It looks like our trampoline will still be usable but I'm not so sure about the neighbors.  

Grayson is 4 1/2 months old in this picture. He's starting to get very mobile and now gets up on all four and rocks back and forth.  I suspect he'll be crawling before much longer.  Oh my...

Camping Last Fall

Last fall we went camping and had a wonderful time. .  A few weeks after we returned was my birthday.... the one where I got a fancy schmancy new camera.  Our old camera was tossed aside and forgotten. Since Lizzy is going to be using our old camera on her trip... I decided to clean out the old pictures.  This is what was on there.

I put the kids in charge of packing their own bags for the trip.  This is what Sam packed.  Yip... he likes to really rough it.  He doesn't even wear clothes on camping trips.  He does, however, like to bring along some fake food and a tea set plus one fireman boot.

 Aaron tried out his cool camp chair.

 Look at that beautiful glassy water.

The most exciting part of the trip was the boys big catch.

Grandpa

This past week Grandpa Brown came to visit for a few days.  We miss him already.  

The Preacher

Sometimes Sam likes to play with Andrew's toys that Andrew has forbidden him to play with.  Lately he has been sneaking a few bouncy balls and Andrew's medals and hiding them under his pillow.  He plays with them when Andrew isn't watching and then quickly hides them again.  As one would expect... a few days ago, Andrew caught him red handed.  Andrew was about to get after him when Sam said, "Wait, I needa get my scriptures."  He then ran to grab some scriptures and very deliberately opened them up and proceeded to "read" Andrew a scripture.  It said, "It came a pass, the Lord said, Andrew don't get mad at me."   

Andrew's Busy Week

This past week Andrew was able to have his first experiences as a cub scout and I think it is going to take.  I mean.... he really really loved it.  Even the hot, sweaty, sticky weather didn't keep him from enjoying this full week of cub camp.  I only have these pictures that his den leader sent me... but I think his favorite things were the bow and arrow and BB gun shooting.  He also made a birdhouse, a leather bookmark and lots of other things that I can't remember.  He also loved the day that a firetruck came and turned the house on all of the boys.  

Then.... on Saturday Andrew participated in a triathlon.  He decided he wanted to do this and worked pretty hard with Aaron to get ready.  I am so proud of him.  The 7-9 year old category that he participated in swam 50 meters, biked 1.2 miles and then ran 1/4 mile.  

 He wasn't really able to give a real smile yet at this point... he was pretty wiped out.

 But it only took a few minutes for him to perk up and get giddy excited again.  I think the medal, and goody bag helped.  :)

The whole thing was so much fun and I think my boy is awesome.  I hope Andrew will look back at this and remember how good it felt to work hard and accomplish something big.  

Goings On

Ahhh.... Summertime... the season of popsicles, sprinklers and lazy days.  For the first little while I felt pretty frazzled by all of the new activity around, but we are settling into a routine and overall enjoying each other.  Getting out of the house seems to be our biggest trial and so we stay home most days except for of course going swimming which we generally do about 4 times a week.   Last year I did a fun little "mama store"  (http://www.aaronandrachelle.blogspot.com/2012/06/summer-days.html), but I decided this year to keep it simple.  I have a simple chore chart and each kid has 2 chores a day.  Lizzy and Andrew also have to practice piano 20 min. a day and they each have to do one worksheet. They've been pretty good about getting their stuff done so they can play.  

Andrew discovered this nest in the tree in the front of our yard.  Andrew is the only one small enough and with enough flexibilty to get up there, so he has taken pictures and made regular reports for us.  At first there were 3 baby birds and an egg (in the top picture) and later on he reported just 3 baby birds.  I hope that 4th one is okay. 

 Grayson just keeps getting cuter everyday - if you can believe it.  :)   He is constantly smiling now and is a champion spitter upper.  He goes through at least 5 outfits a day.  Luckily it is the non-painful kind of spit up so... he just soaks himself and grins.  

 Let's have another look at his cuteness.  

 Alright fine... one more.

Lizzy and Andrew are running a preschool this summer.  It runs from 10-11:30 twice a week.  They charge a dollar a week / per kid, which I think is a pretty dang good deal. They plan activities and learning adventures.  On this particular day they were learning about bodies.  Lizzy and Andrew set up an obstacle course for the kids to go through and then helped them listen to their heartbeats.  Here they are enjoying a snack.  It has been good for them to gain patience and learn how to work with kids.  Lizzy came to me in frustration after the second day saying... "Mom... they won't listen to a word I say."  Oh... so familiar.  Next week they will have 2 more kids bringing their total clientele up to 5 (including Sam.)

 We hosted the young men for our churches youth conference at our home one night.  As a result... we woke up to find this surprise left by the young women.  LOL!

I am reading this book right now.  It is quite fascinating.  I can actually see quite clearly what terrible food habits we as Americans have developed.  It is amazing how deeply ingrained it is in our culture though. Learning to eat more like the French would be life changing but the whole thing seems terribly overwhelming. Has anyone else read this book?  Any thoughts? 

Last but not least... It seems to be at least once a week the kids decide to dress up in each others clothes and come down giggling to show me.  Why are my kids so wierd?  Love it.