The Massive Summer Update

Summer started with sleep. Lots of sleep, and not getting out of bed early. We had a gigantic family reunion at the end of June. I love spending time with my family. All of the kids were good. We didn't have any major meltdowns or injuries. It was great. While we were there, Mike had an interview (over the phone) with Best Buy and was hired on our last day there. He is super happy with his new job and is loving it.

Here are my parents with all of the grand kids who were at the reunion.

After we got home, I realized that it was Alexis' birthday in a few days! I was too tired to deal with a party, so we bought her some presents, took her out to pick out her cake, frosting, and ice cream flavor, and invited over family. SIX!

The following week, Emily went to her first year of girls camp. No, she is not twelve yet, but our stake (and maybe others?) has decided to take the girls the year that they turn twelve so that they are staying with the other girls in the same class at church. I'm glad that they did this, because she would have been very sad not being with her friends every year.

After she got home, and before Mike started his new job, we decided to take the kids to the beach for a couple of days. They had lots of fun playing in the sand and water, I taught them how to boogie board, and we met up with some cousins and had a BBQ. It was a fun and relaxing time.

Mike started out his new job with a week in the Los Angeles area for training. While he was gone, I took the kids and visited Corinna for a couple of days, and we took all the kids to the beach for a day. They had lots of fun again. We love our cousins!

Immediately after getting home, we had to pack Mike up and take him to the airport for a week in Minnesota for more training! I decided that would be a good time to head up into the hills, so we spent the week at Big Meadow. It was wonderful getting out of the heat and enjoying the peaceful nature.

Once we got home, summer was pretty much over, so the final week was spent preparing to go back to school. The kids are all doing good and liking their teachers.

First day of school! Emily has to catch the bus early, so she gets her own picture.

I wasn't going to go to Big Meadow for Labor Day this year, but Alice and Eddie talked me into it, so we headed up the mountain again for the long weekend. We had a great time with friends that we hardly see, and there were lots of kids to play with.

(I don't know why blogger suddenly decided to post all of my pictures to the side, but there you have it. I took a lot more pictures, but I'm tired of fighting with it to get them posted.)

So far this year...

Early in January, I finally heard enough of Alexis complaining about learning to ride her bike without training wheels and decided it was time. We had a warm, sunny day, so I went out and took the training wheels off and called Alexis outside. She was excited for about a minute, then decided she was scared and wanted to quit. I told her that we were out there, the wheels were off, and we were doing it now! I ran up and down the street with her for about half an hour before she was confident. Now there is no stopping her! Since no one else was home, I had to take the pictures while running next to her, but they didn't turn out too bad.

If you look closely, you can see the "tongue of concentration". When she is concentrating really hard on something, her tongue comes out, or pokes out her cheek. I'm glad she didn't fall and bite it!

Later that month, I got a call from her teacher saying that she was chosen for student of the month! She said that Alexis is very sweet and nice to everyone. She has never cried or acted up in class and tries to help other kids in her class when she can.

Here she is getting her medal from our PTC president. And with some of the other kindergartners. (It was also the 100th day of school, so that is why the little boy next to her is wearing that)

And finally with her teacher Mrs. Ramey. We love her! She is the best kindergarten teacher ever!

In February, Mike and I were able to take a little mini-vacation and flew to Austin, Texas. We had fun visiting the state capitol and the Texas state history museum. We also went to the University of Texas (go Longhorns). We drove to San Antonio to see the Alamo. We got there at 5:35pm, only to discover that the Alamo closes at 5:30pm! Slightly disappointed (especially after we paid the $10 to park, and they did not inform us of this). We were still able to look through all of the openings, we just didn't get to read the signs or take a tour. Oh well. We walked along the riverwalk. It was a very beautiful place. We need something like that In Bakersfield!

March (and so far in April) have been super busy months because baseball and softball season have started. I am running most nights of the week. It gets a little crazy some nights when both Emily and Dustin have games or practice. I am looking forward to Spring Break. We don't have any big plans, but these kids are not going to be happy when they discover that they have to clean! I decided we are doing one major house project a day (such as cleaning windows). I've also decided that at least Emily and Dustin are going to learn how to iron clothes. Every Sunday morning I call for clothes to be ironed. Sometimes I get a shirt or dress, sometimes I don't. Then it comes time to get dressed and I'll be in the middle of curling my hair when a frantic child will show up wanting something ironed. I won't do it at that point. Therefore, they will be learning to iron and be in charge of doing it themselves.

Well, I've ranted enough for today!