IT'S NOW OR NEVER... (at least for a very long time)

I've decided I've had enough of feeling like the guilty mom whose children have spent all summer doing jobs (due to my nesting instincts), then staying at home with no one to take them anywhere. One look at my elephant ankles and swollen face, and you'll know why! However, my kids just don't understand, they just KNOW that they are picked on! So this weekend, I have rid myself of any guilt. It was now or never, and I have pictures as proof!

FRIDAY...

Brayden & Jarin

I took the kids to the swimming pool. Yes, I even got into a swimming suit - (no way would I let a picture be taken of me as proof! - however there were far too many witnesses at the pool that day who can vouch for me). I did get a chuckle (almost a full smile - but not quite), at all the women who would give me that "you poor thing" look. The kids had a great time, even if they didn't think we got to stay long enough.

When we got home, Ira was home, and our new swingset had arrived. So back to work we went...but this time it was for a good cause! The kids helped build their new swingset, and have had a great time playing on it ever since.

Brayden matching up the poles

Jarin doing his part with building the swing

The finished project

SATURDAY...

We spent the day at Bear Lake swimming. We packed a shade umbrella and chairs (for my sake), and a lunch, and had a great time in the cool waters of Bear Lake, and building sand castles. It is always a favorite place for us to go to get away for a day.

Emilie playing on her boogie board. I even got wet, but only as much as this picture shows, and NO SWIMSUIT for me this time!

Emilie & Jarin in their snorkeling gear

Brayden & Ira played football, and this was after Brayden just threw the ball - way to get into the throw Brayden!

Jarin wanted to go with daddy on his "boat". It took me forever to figure out what he meant by going on daddy's boat. I kept trying to tell him that we didn't have a boat! Too bad we adults can't be satisfied with just a floaty as being our boats!

We finished the day off with having a hot dog roast in our back yard.

SUNDAY...

(notice the not-so-happy faces)

A typical Sunday at our house is unfortunantly not a day of rest. We were just walking out the door, and I decided to have Brayden take this picture so I could finish blogging the weekend (big mistake!) As it so happens, two seconds before this picture, the dog jumped on Emilie with muddy paws, and she had mud all down her dress, and he had torn it, so she wasn't very happy. Jarin just wanted to get walking to nursery, didn't want a picture. And me?...well, I went to put shoes on, and nothing fit over my swollen feet. So I pushed and shoved my feet into a pair, then came home after an hour of church and hard benches to elevate them instead!

Then my sweet son, Brayden, came home from church and decided he was just too hungry to wait for me to get the energy to make dinner. So he pulled out some meat, potatoes, gravy & corn and started cooking! Since cooking is one of my least favorite things, that was a real treat! The moral of the story is...starve your kids, then they will start doing the cooking :)

I do have to put a plug in for the wonderful people in our ward. They have been so kind to be patient with our family and let Jarin crawl under benches to sit with them, while I don't have it in me to battle him. They will hold him and keep him entertained thoughout the meeting, as he goes from bench to bench. Then after meetings, so many people ask me how I am doing, and the sincerity which they ask me is so kind and makes me feel like they really care.

I love our neighbors and ward family who recognize a need and help out instead of judge. And for my husband who helplessly sits and watches me from the stand, but continues to give smiles and winks of encouragement. (He better beware though, because one of these days when this baby is born, he may have a child or two sitting by him - then I will smile my encouragement!)

The last bit of yard transformation! (for this year anyway)

Ira laying the weed control - it better work!
Jarin doing his part in "helping"
Tough girl Emi
Brayden, Ira & Emilie shoveling in the rocks

The finished project - YEA!

We have been in our home now for about 6 summers (I think - maybe 7??). Every summer, we take on a big project in our yard or house to attempt to make it a little better. This year, we finally did something with the weed patch that has been growing alongside our driveway. I'm sure our neighbors are singing "Hallelulah"! It is a project that we have meant to do for a couple of years now, and FINALLY did it! Our original plan for that area was some beautiful flowers etc., then I decided that I had too many "beautiful" plans for our yard - and it has become very unrealistic to weed all my "beautiful" places. So...lets make things more practical! You may have noticed that I timed this project perfectly - there are no pictures of Nicky shoveling rocks! (If truth be told, I did shovel a couple shovels, and decided that I wasn't being very smart ). However, I did help with some smaller parts of the project, like spraying all the weeds - (with every bit of my skin fully covered at Ira's request so I didn't absorb any pesticides while being pregnant!), I ordered the rocks, and even moved a little dirt around. Other than that, I was the cheerleader and photographer! Even Jarin got "into" (literally) the project by being king of the hill and throwing rocks . Some even ended up where they needed to go - way to go Jarin!

Fathers Day

I have been blessed enough in my life to have two of the most amazing men in it.

My husband, and my dad.

They are always such a source of strength and comfort to me.

They are my source of inspiration and happiness.

They are the spiritual giants that have led me.

They are hard workers.

They are wonderful husbands, and fabulous fathers.

They have been my examples of perservearance and unconditional love.

My goal is to help raise my sons to be like these two great men, then they too will be a strength to those around them.

Thank you for being the great men that you are!

IT'S THE FINAL COUNTDOWN!

Jarin had just kissed mommy's tummy.

One month to go and counting! (Less than that if I have anything to say about it.) :) Jarin seems to start to be getting it that mommy's tummy is "big, big, big" (his words) because there's a baby in mommy's tummy, and that this baby will be sharing his room. I have shown him pictures of when he was in my tummy, then when he was a new baby, and I think it's clicking, and I'm not sure he's real thrilled about it. He has started to refer to himself as "Baby Jarin". He fell down today and came crying to me, saying, "Baby Jarin fell and got hurt." Then when he was saying his prayers tonight, he would usually say, "please bless Jarin, and baby brother." Tonight, he refused to say baby brother, but just said "Baby Jarin." This could prove to be REAL interesting!

I decided that instead of making the baby a new blanket, I would make Jarin his own special blanket. He has been using baby blankets, and I had hoped that we could give the babyish (is that a word?) blankets to the baby, and give him his very own big boy blanket. Hopefully he won't be traumatized when his new baby brother is wrapped in "his" blankets! He and I went to the fabric store, and this is the fabric he chose. He has tried to be patient while I have taken my time working on his "bug blankie", and today I finished, and he loves it! I have also been making Emilie a quilt for her baptism, but she won't get that until September (shhh...don't tell her...it's a surprise). I'll post a picture then. I wanted to get it done before the baby came. In case you get the wrong idea, I better clear something up - I DON'T like to sew! I couldn't follow a pattern if my life depended on it. If a true sewer were to examine these blankets?...let's just say I wouldn't get an A for a grade :). I probably won't sew again until I make Jarin a baptism quilt! (don't ask why I started that whole thing??? - but I did, and now I have to follow through with 4 children, instead of just the 2 that we had when I made Braydens, and at the time, we had very little hope of any more children joining our family). I'm not complaining. I would much rather make four blankets for my four great kids, than only have two children!

PLEASE HELP!!

We have a dilemma at our house. We have 4 names for baby Crawford, and all of us are OK with all of the names, but none of us has the same favorite name. Ira has been asking some of his patients, but it has been a draw, and so I am conducting my own survey. PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE leave a comment to what your favorite of the 4 is. If you hate them all, please, please, please DON'T leave a comment! :) - Also, if you have any ideas of a better spelling on any of them, that would be a great contribution also.
The choices (in random order) are:

a) Stockton
b) Kamden
c) Ashton
d) Ethan

P.S. This is just the first name - middle name is ????? (we'll probably pick a family name)

Alone Time? Was it a dream??

I love to get out of the house for a night every once in awhile. But more than that, I love to be home and have it all to myself to do whatever projects I want to without interruptions, and without having to make dinner (I don't think I would like it for TOO long though, 24 hours is good - except for the not making dinner part - I could go without that for the rest of forever!). This last weekend, I had that opportunity. Ira took all 3 kids with him camping at the "Father/Childrens" campout with the ward. I had great plans, and was anxiously waiting for Friday to roll around. As luck would have it, I ended up with a yucky cold that left me with very little enthusiasm to do much of anything. However, I still got to order out my salad and breadsticks, and of course I had to make up for the low salad calories by ordering a shake too ! YUMMY. (I am eating for two you know! ;) Then I kicked back with a chick flick, and my computer and scanner and had a very wonderful, quiet night, and even slept in. What more can a mom ask for?! (except maybe to have Ira take the kids EVERY weekend!) In case anyone misinterprets me - I do love my husband and kids, they are the greatest!

Monday... was the first full day of summer vacation for the kids, and Brayden was invited to go to Lagoon with his cousins for Zac's birthday. Zac's dad, Derrick, took 5 boys all by himself - what a man! Thanks Derrick!!!! Brayden loved it, and hasn't stopped talking about it. Zac's little sister, Myah played at our house with Emilie and Jarin for the afternoon, and they pulled out the sprinklers, swimming pool, and slip 'n slide. Monday happened to be the only day that we have seen sun in several weeks, so it worked out perfect.




























Tuesday...I turn into the mean and terrible mom who makes my kids do jobs. Brayden told me, "summer vacation means we're supposed to have fun, not work all the time." The other thing he said was, "You don't ever do anything, you make us do it all." I had to laugh, because in my last post, I commented how I had turned into my mom (with the things I say to my kids). Well... my kids have turned into ME when I was their age (with the things they say). I'm sure that if my mom were to listen to these conversations between me and my kids, she would get a real laugh out of it, and a walk down memory lane!

Wednesday...I think they are getting the hang of our summer job routine. They have realized that if they get it done, they have the rest of the day to play - WAY TO GO KIDS!