signing my life away

It's been a good summer but yes, school has started once again. And in true form, Preslie has been ecstatic for it to start with a paper chain counting down the days and poor Hunter dreading every day that moved him closer to school time.

P- 5th grade      H- 3rd grade

Preslie has had her first week of outfits picked out and hanging in order in the closet well ahead of time. She has been driving us all nutty with her over-zealous and over-prepared self.

 

The night before school started I realized Hunter probably needed something decent to wear in the morning. Here is the conversation that went down before bed...

Me: Hunter do you want to pick out some clothes for school tomorrow or should I just lay something out for you?

Hunter: (no response)

Me: You probably don't even care what you wear do you? I will just pick something and lay it out for you.

Hunter: ...uh Mom, sorry. When you started talking about clothes you lost me.

 

Lost. Kind of like his brand new pair of school shoes. No where to be found that morning. Did he care? No. Did he know where he wore them last? No. Would he have gone to school without shoes had we not all but put them on his feet? Yes.





Preslie even had her hairdo planned out for the first day but needed a little help. While I was pinning her bangs back...
Me: How big do you want the poof in front?
P: Not that big. Not as big as Snooki's.

That evening, Dax and I were in charge of putting on our neighborhood picnic. It was a success with over 80 people in attendance and good times and food had by all. We live in a GREAT neighborhood. What a blessing that we often take for granted. I liked the streamers I hung across the road from my house to my neighbors' house. It made for a great party vibe. If anyone ever needs 200 feet of streamers, I'm your gal.


That same week soccer started. This is our first year playing it (or any sport) so it is a new thing for all of us. I didn't realize I would be signing my life away for 7 weeks but hey, who needs to eat dinner or clean their house or go to back to school night?

Dax's work has picked up like crazy and he's been gone more nights this week than he's been home. Couple that with hunting season and you have yourself a semi-single Mom here. So what does a busy Mom do with herself spread so thin? How about get a dog?!

Meet Echo. The newest member of the family.

WHAT? Am I crazy? Totally! I don't know WHY we have this dog. I saw him on our local KSL-ish  site and I kept thinking about him. I know it is weird and surprising and cheesy to think that perhaps this dog was meant to be in our family. He is a great dog. Smart and obedient and awesome with kids. It's work to have a pet though and I don't know why now, with the busiest we've ever been, I decided this was a great choice. Now we add fence the rest of the yard to our list.



Life is fun and crazy and keeps us guessing. I can't help but get excited for Halloween when I receive severed limbs in the mail. It's just so awesome.

 

And here is a fun decoration I set up for a neighbor boy's b-day party. I wanted to take Mack's picture by it (it was the first party he's been to) but he refused.

But hey-it's September now so can openly get excited about Halloween. Let the good times roll.

"I'm Bored!" ...(j/k)

This summer has been the hardest yet for keeping my kids busy and not saying "I'm bored!" every other day. I WISH I was bored! That sounds so relaxing. I can think of a hundred things I want to do but can't get to.

 I brought home boxes of plums from my parents' house and Dax helped me make jelly and syrup. It turned out yummy. I hope this will last for the next year! I made/canned pickles today from some neighbors' cucumbers.

Here is a cute pic of Quinn helping my Dad unload the dishwasher. She is hanging on my back right now saying, "Happy Gampa! Nice Gampa!"

Yay! The kids thought of something creative to do. They made a time capsule and each put things in it that represent them at this moment in time. I even wrote some stuff down and put it in there. Preslie wrote on the outside, "2012 time capsule. Open in 2017."

 Preslie opted to open it in 5 years rather than 10 because she'll be 20 years old if we wait that long. 20? Weird. The kids wanted to put the time capsule in the attic. They also wanted to get up there and look for treasure. I told them we didn't have that kind of attic. Mack was dissappointed.

Who is so tired of their kids staying up too late? ME! I am ready for earlier bedtimes!

This next series of pics is cute to me. Quinn LOVES her Dadda! She always wants his attention and is just his little sweetheart.

Mack, Preslie, and Hunter all started soccer this week. Holy cow, it is going to be crazy keeping up with all their practices and games but hopefully fun. Congrats to me, I will be a soccer Mom for the first time! Not one of those cute, primped ones; more of the frazzled, sweaty types.

yard sale show and tell

Preslie and I went yard sale-ing this morning. It was super fun and we scored some awesome stuff. Everything we bought was $2 or less. Take a look...

Preslie's favorite find were these cute Nike hightops. She didn't take them off all day. TWO bucks.

pants $5, shirt $3 from our local thrift store.

 We got a lot of cute clothes and some cool toys but my fave find was this adorable wool jacket. Ah, my heart melts every time I look at it. It was $1. You read that right, ONE DOLLAR.

 Preslie and I made outfits with our new stuff but had to stop prematurely to stop Mack and Quinn from flooding the back yard with the hose.

I'm not sure I like the jacket with shorts...

top- yard sale $1, white under tee- thrift store $3, belt- yard sale .50 cents, jacket- thrift $6, shorts- Zara (in Spain) 16 Euros.

cardigan- yard sale $1, tank- thrift store $1

top- yard sale $1, tank- thrift store $1, skirt- yard sale .50 cents,
shoes-yard sale $1

Here is a fun toy I've seen in stores but couldn't bring myself to pay $25 for it. I got it today for $2.

We did well, don't you think?

Uintah Basin in Celebration

Summer keeps getting better and better. Yay for seeing family, school shopping, and fresh garden produce.. And if you live in the Basin, UBIC festivities were going on all last weekend. Dax's bro, Matt and his wife Abbey brought their 2 kiddos out to join us for the fun.

These four ran the UBIC 5k!

 I am so proud of these guys running the 5k early Saturday morning! Preslie should especially be commended- what a go-getter! She was the only kid who ran it! And Dax took 3rd place out of the men who ran! The race route went right down my street so I was able to run out and cheer for them as they ran by!
After some naps, we watched the UBIC parade..


Everett watching the parade



So much candy was thrown (dumped) on the street it was reee-diculous.

We also went to the art show, tasted some fair food, hit the bouncy houses, and enjoyed the final concert in the park. Vertical Horizon was awesome!

We are so happy Matt and Abbey and their kids came to play!

K minus 3 {and my free dress}

[deep breath] I have had such relaxing week! My 2 boys went to stay with my in-laws and Preslie went to Girl Scout camp. What do you do when you're minus 3 kids? Anything you want, that's what.
I finished sewing a dress that I wore to church today. I have had this orange spotted fabric for. ev. er. (like 10+ years) It had fun navy blue stripes at the bottom and I've always loved it but never knew what to do with it until inspiration struck and I made a boxy top dress with elastic waist. I did not have a pattern so it isn't perfect but kinda fun for an experiment. I cut out the pieces so the blue stripe would be at the neckline and across the bottom of the skirt. What do you think?

Dax and I took Quinn camping Friday night. It was mostly blissful!

We fed some birds bread and grapes. They got to where they'd eat out of our hand.

Other stuff we've done recently:

Mack's primary class had a bike wash party. SO cool.

 Check this thing out...

 His teachers had made all these ice cold yummies for the kids and they all had a blast.

We had a fun reunion with Dax's family at Heber Valley camp.

We celebrated Quinn's 2nd birthday- We adore our little sweetheart!

We checked in on my Mom as she was recovering from having her gallbladder removed. Quinn took the liberty of feeding my bro's dog his food one piece at a time.

Other summer haps:

I have still been faithfully running a few times/week. One particular morning, I was {trying} to sleep through my alarm but decided I'd rather be anywhere than in my bed between these two...

My morning run was less torture than those two kicking feet.

 We had a great 4th of July. Mack was in HEAVEN. He waved and smiled at everything and everyone that passed in the parade. Even after the parade was over, he still kept smiling a waving at the cars driving home thinking he could get more candy.

And these pics are making me miss my boys...

A great summer so far...and tons more fun to come!

redneck summer

 Took a trip up the canyon for some outdoor fun.

 Did some exploring, relaxing. Ate a picnic lunch.

 Dax let the kids chop branches off dead trees with his machete. They shot a bb gun at garbage found on the ground.



Redneck fun always includes a gun.

On the way out, we stopped at a pond to fish a few casts. The kids stripped down to their undies and hopped in. Mack doesn't wear underwear so he skinny-dipped.

Quinn thought it looked too fun not to join.

 A fun afternoon with my favorite people.