VBS

The kids were invited to Vacation Bible School. The theme was Beach Blast and it was true to its name. I think this was the first church experience that Charlie would look forward to. Of course that did have a lot to do with the fact that they played sports outside. Jane did a fish craft to remind her of when Jesus fed the multitude.
Charlie made a treasure box that says "God's promises are my treasure"
Inside there are different scriptures.

Maggie learned about baby Jesus and was able to hold and take care of little baby dolls.

At the end of each night the kids gathered for singing, dancing and a "wrap up the evening" story.

Gracie, Jane and Maggie

Someone and Mags

So there was a very favorite song that none of us can get out of our head. Here's the chorus for you.

uh uh uh A Admit to God that you are a sinner.

bu bu bu bu B Believe that Jesus is Gods only son.

su su su su C Commit yourself to the Lord above and ask him to fill you up with his love.

When you become a Christian hope is easily found cause when you hit rock bottom you'll land on solid ground.

Shake and Drowned

I was standing in my kitchen when I heard a loud noise. I thought it was the dogs above me in their kennels. I started up the stairs and then stopped on the landing. The loud noise stopped but my house was shaking. I stood still trying to comprehend what it was. I looked out my window to see if a huge gust of wind had hit. Nope. Then I ran back down the stairs to find Maggie sitting on the toilet. I pulled her off and held her close. She thought I was weird.

The teachers at the elementary school were great.Charlie and Jane were unfazed and after the quake they were out in the field until it was time for the buses. I think they were outside for a couple of hours. No school Wednesday as they had to inspect the local schools for damage.

The epicenter was about an hour from our house. The event made for some great neighborhood talks.

So to keep things exciting we are awaiting Hurricane Irene. She's expected to attack us late Saturday night. The prediction is for 105 mph winds. Who knows? Mike prepared by mowing the lawn last night. And I prepared by going to Costco and buying a big box of Ghiradelli brownies. Yep, we'll be just fine. Maybe no power for a bit. But just fine.

Back to School

Back to school is awesome. Charlie started first grade yesterday. New classmates, new teacher and his very own desk. We are excited for all of the things he will learn this year.

Cooper, Patrick & Charlie
I think Charlie has spent the whole last month with these boys. They are good kids and all live close enough to play, play, play.

Today Jane is beginning her kindergarten adventure. She is lucky to start her day with her best friend Carys.

Jane and Carys

Jane, Mike, Charlie & Maggie

Jane wasn't scared. Just excited which made the good bye's easy. Had she been scared then I probably would have broken into tears.

Maggie and I will begin our very own adventures today.

Last But Not Least

Back to Utah where we had a cousin swim and my sisters house. Julie (my niece) and Jane

She will be the one who receives our children if we die. This is not a joke. I'm dead serious.

(and for the record that is our official last will and testament.)

Momma and Kevin (nephew)

He will want me to say that he is my most handsome nephew but I will not say it without compensation.

Fortunate for us Mary brought Mom down so we could see again. She braved the cousin swim but was probably sweating bullets.

Taylor (great nephew), Mary (sister), and Mallory (niece, she just might be one of my favorite people to spend time with in the world.)

Dad finally joined us and we went to stay full time at Grandma and Grandpa Croslands.
The girls robbed some of Grandma's manikins of their hats.

Jane and Maggie


Grandpa Ivan and Maggie on our July 4th celebration

Grandma Helene and Mags
We partied with the Croslands until I'm certain that they were saying, "seriously, just go home already." It seemed that we had a barbecue every night.

Uncles Andy and Matt

They came the day before we left. We don't get to see them enough and I'm always left wanting more time with them.

Charlie, Uncle Richard, Baby Boston, Jane Grandpa Ivan and Mags

partying at Aunt Leslie's. Boston is the youngest grandchild and he just celebrated his first birthday.

Ada and Uncle Richard

This is the only picture that I got of her. She is the first Great Grandchild in Mike's family.

She is a delight.

She's posing with her Grandpa (mike's brother)

Kate and Charlie

Charlie thinks that Kate is his cousin. They share the same Aunt Anne and Uncle Richard but not related. Kate lives in China and Charlie thinks that is so cool. Every time he sees that something was "made in china" he thinks its awesome.

Jane, Aunt Anne and fake cousin Abigail

Mike and Charlie

We had a great time out on the boat with family. The trip was another great success. Back to real life.

Idaho

The kids were in heaven while visiting family in Idaho. You'll see why from these pictures.Back row: Mason, Braden, Courtney
middle row: Aysha, Allie, Annika, Brinley, Jane, Charlie

Front Row: Allie, Aimee, Dakota, Adam

Cousin parties galore, it was awesome. On this day we went swimming at the Meridian pool and then had dinner at Michelle's. The cousins played with puppies and ran around outside.

Jane, Courtney, Maggie
Jane has two favorite cousins on my side of the family. Courtney is one of them.

My cute nephews Jim and Zach. Both humble and sweet. Oh wait maybe just one of them is humble but both are pretty sweet.

Jane, Allie, Maggie, Charlie, Brinley

Jane on the zip line (only attempted on flat ground)
My brother put up a zip line from the top of his house down to the bottom of his yard.

Maggie screaming her guts out. Only on flat ground.

Charlie had a hay day on the zip line.

Introduced the kids to Dad

Aunt Michelle's dog, Lady, had eight golden retriever puppies before we arrived. Perfect. Enough for everyone to play with.

Spencer, Charlie and Lady

Charlie and Spencer bathed in mud. Then they thought they were invisible of course. I believe the quote out of my sons mouth was..."Aunt Michelle, my mom would never let us do this at my house."

I would like to rebuttal with.... The only mud to be had would be from someones flower bed.

Maggie

Jane, Brinley and Mags

The girls tried it the very next night. I think that they had forgotten that we made the boys hose off in the freezing cold hose. They finished off the hosing with a warm bath.

We also enjoyed visits with my sisters, Nona and Mary and Mom had us over for visits and swimming. Many more cousins than I took pictures of but boy, we had fun.

Part Deux

Charlie trying out a flip at Aunt Debi'sCharlie, Grandpa Ivan, Jane

We were able to spend Father's Day with Grandpa. He wasn't feeling well and had me worried that he might not live much longer. I'm happy to say he is feeling a bit better. We love spending time with Grandma and Grandpa Crosland.

Maggie and Aunt Michelle at the Strawberry Days Rodeo

Cousin Brynlee and Jane

These girls were a joy to watch at the rodeo. They did NOT like calf roping and would let out great cheers when the cowboys missed.

Aunt Fancy Nancy, Aunt Tamara and Cousin Lindsey.

We had a fun BBQ at Aunt Tamara's the night before. Lindsey has a boyfriend that kept all of us entertained (even after he had left.) Funny dude.

Next Stop....Beautiful Boise.

Summer Trip Part 1

Made it to Denver. We didn't have enough time and Fancy Nancy's house. Only two days before moving on to the next stop. Colby and Brady caught wild baby bunnies for us to play with. I regret to say that after all of the man handling, most of them have gone to see their maker.Brady
Charlie, Brady, Maggie and Jane



Charlie

They LOVED playing with these bunnies.



Our next stop was Utah.

We stayed with my sister Debi and her family

Jakelle, Jane, Mallory
Mallory had the great idea that we should go ice skating. I wasn't totally convinced that this would be a great idea with three little ones. Turns out that I was wrong and she was right. All three kids loved it and by then end they were getting pretty darn good.


They had these neat little walker contraptions so the kids could skate themselves

Jakelle, Mallory and McKenzie

all of my great helpers

Kimber and Maggie

Jakelle, McKenzie, Mallory

Jane, Charlie and Maggie

Beginning of Summer

Let's start at the very beginning. A very good place to start. Summer is on it's way out and I'm just beginning to post about it. Here we go. This picture of Mags just has to be included because it's classic

Charlie got his cast off the last week of school. Three days before we began our cross country voyage. It was super stinky.

Just in time to entertain himself in the car for hours

The night before we went on our big trip we found this guy in the street. We brought him home and played with him for a couple of hours before letting him go.

Typical day in the car. I was surprised once again that the drive really isn't that bad. We have a system and it works. Each day goes a little something like this.... start early, begin with quiet, then have singing time, then coloring or school work, next is present time (little wrapped gifts from the dollar store) eventually we stop for lunch and a break then finally they get tv and electronic time. Each day is about 10 hours of travel.

On our first stop Jane fell out of bed in the night and punctured her lip. Mike thought she needed stitches, I figured she'd be fine.

After three days of travel we reached my sisters house in Denver

Family Funnies

I've been saving up. I try to record them as they come along.. here's what I've collected over the last few months.

Charlie: "I can't wait to tell everyone at school about my stitches"

Mom: " yeah, you can tell them how brave you were and that you didn't even cry."

Charlie: "I'm not going to say that. Whenever you tell me what to say, I never say it. You're not in my brain. Besides, you don't ever make sense."

Maggie

"Mom, go over to that guy, I want to talk to him."

(so like an idiot, i walk over to the nice man working at sears)

"My daughter just wanted to talk to you" I say.

He looked at Maggie with a smile and she replied.

"You're hair is crazy and nasty."

He looked at me. I looked at her in pure embarrassment and anger and she lifted up her arms and said "what? is that not nice to say?"

I love my children's bottoms. They are cute and squishy and I like to squeeze them. The other day Maggie was getting on my last nerve and she knew it. After she started to boss me around, I gave her the look. She saw my face, turned around, stuck out her little rear end and said, "you can squeeze my bottom if you want to mom."

Charlie and Jane

I was bending down in my pajamas and I could feel that they were sagging. Jane said "uh mom, your pants are too small". Charlie quickly jumped in and said "Jane that isn't' nice, mom is still growing".

While at Cabella's Jane was laughing and pointing at the gopher that they had posed with it's head in a hole and bottom in the air.
Charlie turned to her and said "Jane stop laughing. You are not being nice to nature."

Jane was singing another great made up song. Here is an excerpt

" Jesus loves me. Jesus widiculous loves me"

So clearly neglecting the third child is alive and well. I totally thought that Maggie knew her ABC's. She is three and I've heard her sing them a million times. But just the other day we were face to face singing the ABC's here's what I heard..."A B C D E F G H I J K an I need to go P, Q R S T U V W X Y and Z" Of course I had her repeat it and we will be working a little harder on our ABC's.