Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Haley is..... DRIVING!!

I knew this day would come... I think I'd like to go crawl in a hole.

Haley got her driver's permit today.  And it's scary.  REALLY scary.

We got to the school to pick her up.  She was ready.


 I told her I'd need proof of her permit before she could operate my vehicle:

 The kids were prepared with protective gear:

 So was I.  Haley said that we were not funny.  But we were funny.

We arrived safely (it was a close one), and Andrew leaped out of the car and kissed the ground, thankful to be alive.

 The other kids jumped for joy that they, too, were safe.

It's going to be a long 6 months.

Thursday, June 16, 2011

Birthday and Bozeman

I had a birthday.  My age has two 3's in it.  I'm not too happy about that, but what can I do?  I prefer when my age had two 2's in it, but it's better than two 4's, I guess.  The best part about it was I finally got that KitchenAid I've been wanting.  I can't wait to use it!  We had just gotten back from the swimming pool (because we finally had a warm enough day to go), and Ben had dinner ready, and a big box wrapped in princess wrapping paper.  It was a decoy.  He filled it with junk, and some Hawaiian chocolates.  I loved the chocolates, and then he made me close my eyes, and they brought up the real present.  I threw my arms up in triumph, and spent the rest of the evening reading the owner's manual.


***

And today, we took our first little mini-trip.  We tagged along to Bozeman while Ben had a business meeting.  He dropped us off at the children's museum, which kept us busy for and hour and a half, and we could have stayed longer if we weren't all so hungry.  So we hiked it on down to Burger Bob's, one of the places Melissa and I ate on our Mom's Time Out weekend last year.  Joey took one bite of his burger, and proclaimed, "This burger is so good, I'm never letting go of it!"  It didn't take long for him to wolf it down.  Daddy joined us, and then we strolled downtown, hit the candy shop, and came back home.  And now I'm going to figure out what my innagural recipe in the KitchenAid will be...












Monday, June 13, 2011

Some Summer Pictures

The week before school got out, the Porters visited from Utah.  We took some pictures of new baby Tessa, and of all the kids separately and together.  I can't get the photo thing to work right now, but I'll post the group pictures soon.  Here are the rest:

I was just testing the light for Tessa's photo shoot, and Grace was my subject:


Baby Tessa, about 4 weeks old:



I think she totally looks like Andy in this picture:

We went up to Mission Ridge to take some pictures of the rest of the kids.  Here's Emma, Zach, and Brenlee:





And while the Porter kids looked at the duck pond, I got my kids updated on their photographs, too.  The sun was kind of bright, but they did great!




Monday, June 6, 2011

The Epitome of Summer

Sometimes when I go to practice my Symphony or Opera music, I find that Matt has destroyed, cooked, or rearranged something.  This time, apparently he was too tired to get into trouble.  The other kids didn't even bother to tell me that he was taking a nap on the stairs.  I came up to find them stepping over him, like it was a completely normal thing to do.  Or at least a "Matthew thing" to do.



For the record, I did pick him up and move him so that he didn't tumble all the way down upon his cessation of the nap.

***

In other news today:
We changed, packed up, and went to the pool: it hadn't opened for the season yet.
We played in the backyard instead.
We went to the library.
We watched "The Good Samaritan" for FHE.
We had Klondike bars for our treat (yes, honey, I saved you one).
We survived another tornado.
Joey prayed 4 times that we would live through the night.
He is now sleeping in Andrew's bed.
Matt just looked out the window after it had passed and said, "I don't wike dat."
Grace wants me to wake her if things take a turn for the worse.
Haley started Driver's Ed, and I'm more scared of that than the tornado.


Floods, Graduation, and a Haircut

I've not been blogging enough lately.  That is for a few reasons: I've been bogged down with girl's camp junior leader stuff (and lots of it), Ben and I are trying to get our Trek family meetings organized, end of the school year fanfare, and I hurt my back last week and haven't actually been able to sit at the computer desk.  I can stand or kneel.  It's been great fun.

So here's my catch-up:

***

Ben was driving last week, and part of the roads were covered in water.  It's like this all over:




***

Gracie graduated from preschool!  She's going to be such a young kindergartener, but her teachers say she is very ready.  I think she is, too, but that doesn't stop me from worrying if we should just wait a year.  I guess we'll know soon enough.  She already made it through the toughest part: shots.  So I guess we might as well send her, with that out of the way!

She loved preschool, and will miss her teachers, Miss Kim and Miss Lee, so very much.  She had a lot of friends, especially Arianna.  But she's looking forward to being at the boys' school soon.  She just loves to be with those boys.

The Parade of Graduates (complete with their home-made caps)

Patiently waiting for the ceremony to begin

Gracie with Miss Kim (left) and Miss Lee

 Accepting her diploma, and a hug for Miss Lee                   
           
 
         And don't forget Miss Kim!




            There was cake...  Matt just had to try on that hat!

***

And, summertime means all the boys get a haircut -- nice and short for more aerodymamics.  Matt has gotten pretty good at sitting still.  I just love those little toes poking out from underneath the cape!