Summer Smiles

I have taken to keeping all my thoughts and feelings to myself for too long. I will purge them starting now.
This summer I had the delightful opportunity of having all of my kids in a "good place"...meaning we had such a great summer and I enjoyed spending time with them so much that I dreaded the first day of school and all it meant we had to say good bye to. This summer was what I will take and store in my memory and keep it for when the fun times are lacking. My "watershed" moments, as I like to call them. I was telling a good friend about that theory of mine. Where you realize that life is so good right now and this is such a great time of my life. I have to stop and take a mental picture of it all because Iknow that life isn't like that all the time and the low times come and drain you of all the fun in life. I am always so thankful for the memories I can pull up to get me up and over the tough times. This summer was that for me.
I will cherish the quiet morning runs, the morning chores dancing to way too loud music. The breakfast chats that can last as long as you want to because we have no where important to be. It became way too commmon to not even go anywhere in the car each day...we rode our bikes and played our hearts out in the greatest backyard ever! I am thankful we have this time to give to our kids...even if it may not be permanent...to have these memories is what I have always wanted to give them. We said good bye to wonderful neighbors and hello to fun new ones. The movies in the backyard late at night were so great and who could have asked for a greater group of neighbors. Night games that would never end. How could they when it was the adults that kept them going? Birthday parties that start when it starts getting dark....Nightgame birthday parties....how clever is that. Never once did I hear that dreaded summer term..."I'm bored, there is no one to play with." That doesn't apply in our neighborhood and I am so thankful for all the darling, fun, adventerous,bike jumping,motorcycling,army fighting,star wars talkin, dress-up princesses, kitten chasing kids that are in the neighborhood. This summer was a party in our own backyard. Kimball became the champion lawn mower and loved every minute of it. Cole thankfully learned how to tie his own shoes though he may have been caught wearing them only once or twice this summer. Lauren learned to roam the neighborhood on her two wheeler and lives to chase our neighbors kittens all over. Lucy just hung on and enjoyed the ride this summer. My favorite sound was the horn honking on our little ride-on jeep in our garage. She would climb into it and honk it forever. I always knew that I would come out to a big, huge smiling face sitting behind the wheel in her favorite place. The smiles, the popsicles both were in big supply this summer.
Come to think of it we did go quite of few places this summer and had some fun vacations too. But the beauty of the summer for me was the peace, fun and good times that we had in our own backyard. We had so many great visitors who made the summer that much more special. Let's see the Flakes, the Meads, MacKays,Mark and Jaime and girls, the Martins, the Bessey's, Bankheads...hope I am not forgetting anyone. Visitors are our favorite. We love them...so come and visit if you are in the area.
Summers are sacred. This was a good one that will stay in my heart and memory forever. I guess I am starting to understand the beauty of small town, country living. What a blessing.

Dear Lucy: I Love You!...Love, Mom

 

Dear Lucy,
Happy Birthday to one of the sweetest blessings that has entered our lives. I can't begin to express my love for you. You are such an amazing gift that has been given to us. We enjoy your beautiful smile every morning, that sweet sparkle in your eyes and your loving nature. I live for your hugs and sweet kisses! Every cuddle you share with me heals my tired, concerned heart. I long for you to stay a baby. I have enjoyed every second of our lives together. Thank you for coming to our family. I love you more than words can say! Lets hope your second year of life is as sweet as your first.
Love,
Mom

From october 2008

Our family photo shoot

Nice to have these done for a while now!

Happily Ever After!

So I had to blog this momentus occasion. Our family actually got professional family photos done and Troy and I got the "couple" shot done. This is the famous pose that you see at weddings and 50th anniversary parties. Yep, we are officially old. I titled this Happily Ever After since this is the one and only picture we may ever have of us together.

 

Saturday is our play day.

What would be the highlight to a great day of fishing at the local kids stocked fish pond and a yummy dinner at Artic Circle (in Shelly Idaho...no less) with eight kids 9 and under?...a night playing Wolfen. Wolfen you may ask...Now what it that? Good question. Troy and I were invited over to the neighborhood game night last night and we were introduced to this fine game. Ever played Mafia? It's similar. It makes me laugh how no matter how old you get and plain exhausted you are at the end of a week when ever the fun house calls you are there in a flash. We put the kids to bed at 7:45 and were out the back door with a monitor in hand by 8:00 pm. For anyone who has never had the pleasure of having such a luxury as having a baby monitor be your baby sitter you are missing out. Our backyards are all connected and we enjoy many fun nights out thanks to our new babysitter...aka the monitor. I saw a new side to all of my neighbors. Who knew I lived by such a shifty sort. Ha just teasing. We love our area and get such a kick out of all our neighbors. We were pulling out of the driveway to go fishing yesterday and our neighbors hollered to us to stop and they said " Where ya going?...wait we'll come too" how fun is that. Our neighbors are very patient with us and all our bikes and ramps and fun stuff. (I think our home teachers had to walk up the bmx bike ramp to get to our front door tonight). There seems to be endless fun and games in our neighborhood and that is worth a lot to a kid. As well to the parents.
See my attitude is changing and I want you to all know of the fun and good that goes on in Idaho too. Saturdays are good anywhere as long as you get a chance to enjoy them as a family.

New attitude

So has the time change affected anyone else? My family is still getting up at five in the morning, super peppy and ready to start the day. If only I went to bed at a decent hour this wouldn't throw me into such a tail spin each day. Saturday was no exception except I couldn't for some reason shake the grumps that morning. I was not happy. My poor family. I finally did us all a favor and went for a run in the late morning to just clear my foggy mind. One thing about Idaho that I love and hate is the wide open space. My subdivision is a small area with sidewalks that take you in one big circle. You can only run them so often before you want to poke your eyes out. So I went out on a limb and ran along the "quietest" country road close by. I usually avoid this road for a multitude of reasons but mostly it is the nasty dogs that no one bothers tieing up or fencing in or training to be nice. They scare me and I like dogs. Anyway, in my quiet time while running,I realized some things that I need to write down so I can read in the future again to remind myself. First of all I DO like fall...contrary to all my complaining about Idaho and it being so cold. I miss the close,beautiful Utah mountains, but I have started to really love the acres of fields. I am actually looking forward to winter somewhat so that I can ski and do all the fun things that I haven't done for years again...this time with my kids. Yeah, how great is it to have kids that can finally enjoy all the things you once enjoyed. I am determined to have a mountain biking partner soon. I think Kimball shows the most interest in becoming that partner. It is really fun to think about hanging out with my kids and the fun people they are turning into. Cole and Kimball are Troy's fishing buddies and I actually have a dream of all of us out fly fishing a lake together one day. I am sure Lauren will out fish us all being the most athletic in our family. Fun though...it made me grateful for so many things this little time to myself to clear my head. I think I give off the impression that I don't like Idaho. I don't know how that could be but...ok I am so guilty. I vowed this weekend to make a change and to start with my attitude about Idaho. Next my attitude about Football. I like it. I think I get jealous that Troy likes it more than me...but oh well. The Utes have won his heart and it is fun to see the crazy little Ute fans we have running around the house. My secret favorite thing is when Troy starts singing the fight song around the dinner table and all the kids join in and we have a pep rally going on right here in our kitchen. (We still get the Michigan fight song mixed up in it...since this has been a long standing tradition). The list goes on and on of things I want to make changes on but these are the current front runners and most drastic. I will have to check in and let you know how things are progressing. So all in all it was a very productive run and I am still sore from it today (sunday). I guess in a way this is my early New Years resolutions. Wish me luck!