Happy Fourth?

I woke up early on Monday and it was cloudy! I jumped out of bed and hurried outside to work in the yard before it got too hot. Sander came out with me and picked up rocks while I filled in trenches. Evan finally came out,saying he had no idea we were already outside working. (Sweet Ev, sleeping past 5:00 is sleeping in for him, so we didn't mind when he came out around 8:30 to help)We worked and worked, and finally Sander realized the neighbor kids were headed for the parade and we should have been in the car on our way too! He finally said, "working isn't fun, when are we going to have any fun?!" I thought it was fun when we finally finished our retaining wall and smoothed out our front yard, so grass at least looks like a possibility! We got all cleaned up and the kids put on their red, white and blue and we headed to pick out fireworks. (Evan decided that we need to teach the kids to be more patriotic so he bought the girls red, white and blue bows and then bought a flag to hang on our house. - still having the picture uploading problem...sorry). We headed over to some friends for a BBQ which was tons of fun... even when the rain started. We quickly covered the food, put up a shelter, and got ready to shoot off the fireworks. I am not sure who had more fun, the dads or the kids, but there was a lot of laughter and smiles while sparklers and fireworks went off. They have legalized the fireworks that shoot into the sky, so Evan had to buy one really good one. It was worth every penny watching the kids react to that! What a fun night!

Go Owlz

Summer has officially started! We took the kids to an Owlz game last night. (Sorry no pictures, but I still can't get them to upload..any advice anyone?) I never thought I would be one to drag all my kids to watch baseball... but they LOVE it! It was a fun night complete with fireworks. When they were turning off the lights, I handed Hannah to Evan while I got the other kids situated. Then I turned to Evan and asked him where Hannah was, just as the final light went out. He doesn't even remember putting her down! It was a moment of complete panic. How was I going to find my baby with no lights?! After what seemed like forever, but was really only a minute, my neighbor started yelling to me that Hannah had walked over and sat down with her to watch the fireworks. That lasted until the first set of fireworks went off then Hannah started screaming. Addie jumped right in with the crying. What a fun night right? Well, Addie pulled it together enough to watch the last part of the fireworks as long as she was right next to Evan, and Hannah would look occasionally, but for the most part looked like she was trying to pretend nothing was happening. Hopefully the kids will look back on these experiences with fondness!

sleep walking

Evan and I were talking in bed last night when I thought I heard one of the kids get up. (This is after hearing a loud thud and walking in to find Gracie looking a little dazed on her bedroom floor.) I kept waiting for the little one to walk into my room so I could see who was awake. No one came. Then I realized I could hear someone playing with a door knob. I told Evan there was someone at the door ( Evan was a little out of it by this time ) so he JUMPED out of bed and started running towards the kids rooms. We couldn't figure out where the little wandering body was. Sander wasn't in his bedroom so we went back to look in the garage just as we heard the screaming and crying start. Sure enough there was little Sander standing in our dark garage, going to the bathroom. He is such a sound sleeper, when he gets up to go to the bathroom he often ends up in the wrong place. I have found him with the pantry door open, the fridge, and between the bookcase and our couch. I have always caught him in time to redirect him to the bathroom, but no such luck last night. I have to say it was pretty funny. We did a quick wash off and put him back in bed where he promptly stopped crying and said "love you mommy, goodnight." When I asked him this morning if he remembered anything he said no, but he had a good laugh about it!

Always good for a laugh

Addie has really kept me laughing these past few days. She was one sweet girl to keep telling me happy mother's day, but it always came out like this..." 1, 2, 3 HAPPYS MOTHER DAY!" She just couldn't figure out how to say "happy mothers day."

When I was driving home from the gym the other day, the radio was playing and it was the country song "I Get Carried Away." When the song was over she said. " I really don't like that song. If someone carried me away, you would start yelling 'Addie, Addie, where are you?' And you would be really sad and it would be really scary, right mom?"

Then this afternoon, I could hear her singing "follow the prophet" and it went like this..." follow the prophet, follow the prophet, follow the prophet don't go away follow the prophet follow the prophet follow the prophet he won't go away!"

The kids were really on one today. I fixed a nice dinner and none of them would eat it. Evan finally sent them all to their rooms, so they all ended up sleeping. By 5:30 they were all awake and fighting and driving me crazy, so we loaded up Charlie ( the dog ) and drove out to the lake. On the way, Charlie jumped out of the truck, almost got hit by a car, and hopefully learned his lesson! Grace was really worried about going out to the lake, because it might be dangerous, but we finally got her to get out and throw some rocks into the water. It was nice to get out away from the hustle and bustle of town and just enjoy some peace and quiet. The kids had a great time, even Grace admitted that it was a nice night. The kids are all FINALLY in bed! (Don't worry that it is almost 11:00! )

It's Official

After 22 weeks of wondering and waiting, the verdict is.... it's a (another stinkin- (the boys wording)) GIRL! All I can say is Sander better be really aware of what a girl needs after growing up with so many sisters. ( Evan thinks it won't make a difference because a boy is a boy- no matter how many sisters he has)

Tender

These past few weeks have been REALLY crazy!! Talk about LOTS and LOTS of stress, but it all kind of went out the window when I found out my neighbor had her baby who passed away after 18 hours. Watching this sweet family go through this experience has been so tender.
Love is real. Family is real. These are the things that matter the most. I am grateful to have witnessed their strength and their love for and faith in the Savior.

I'm reading a book

My sister showed me this and I just had to share!!!