Budding Photographers

When I went to use my camera the other day, I discovered that it already had 96 pictures on it. I couldn't remember having taken that many pictures recently...

Because I didn't!

My children had been using my camera! Here is a sample of their artistic genius. (Save these. They may be famous someday.)

"View from a Curly Q"

"Into the Wild Blue Yonder"

"I Believe I Can Fly"

"A Wild Hair"

"Instant Replay"

"Air Guitar Champion"

"Use the Force, Luke"

Balloon Launch

I'm sure that when Tom let himself into our dark house last night and crashed on the floor, he wasn't expecting to be woken up before six the next morning and invited to a hot air balloon launch. But he came along anyway and it was so cool! (Even if all the pictures did turn out a little hazy.)
There were twelve balloons that all launched from the football field. (Not at the same time. They didn't all fit.) So it lasted for over an hour, and Cannon thought it was the coolest thing ever that they were "putting fire into the balloons!" The world is an amazing place.

(It can also be a very cold place in the early morning.)

Tom was also a very good sport about being used as a beast of burden and having his hair pulled by one very cute little girl.

Tagged!

I've been tagged by my cousin Tiffani!
This version asks you to list 3 joys, 3 fears, 3 goals, 3 current obsessions or collections, and 3 surprising facts about myself. Then I get to tag 5 people at the end of my post. So here you go:


3 Joys ~
#1 - Seeing the first little sprouts coming up in my garden.
#2 - Reading to my children.
#3 - Teaching Jessica (one of my Laurels who happens to be deaf) how to play the piano.


3 Fears ~
#1 - Not having enough air.
#2 - Losing Jef or any of the kids.
#3 - Everyone knowing what a lousy housekeeper I am.
(And now that you all know, I can move on. :)


3 Goals ~
#1 - To finish the ASL Book of Mormon
#2 - Three months food storage.
(Not as scary as a year. We'll get to that next,
after we figure out where to put it.)
#3 - To solve the Sarah MacLean/Campbell mystery
(my GGG Grandmother)


3 Current Obsessions ~
#1 - Family History
#2 - Reading
#3 - Gardening - Both Flowers & Vegetables


3 Surprising Facts About Myself ~
#1 - My left shoulder is lower than my right.
#2 - I've met George Bush
#3 - I'm a compulsive paper-roller. Any paper left in my idle hands will end up in a tight roll. I'm sure this reveals some deep psychological flaw. Please don't tell me what it is.


Tag, you're it!
Jamie, Lisa, Chelsea (Forsythe), Sara, Megan

We all Jump Up!

Hey Jamie! I bought Jennie a knew shirt, and it worked!

See? All you need is the right label. Hee hee hee.

The part you're watching for in this video is where Jennie stands up. If you're not impressed, then you try it. And then put it on your blog so we can all see. It's been great fun watching everyone around here try to do it. No hands, no crossing your ankles. Knees turned slightly in, with feet spread apart.
Go ahead, just... stand up.


P.S. Everything in this post was recorded directly after feeding Jennie a bowl of cold cereal. In case you were wondering about her clothes.
Hey Lisa: You should definitely have someone filming if you decide to try this! Lol

It's a Zoo out there!

While up North, we took the opportunity

to go to the zoo!

We saw LOTS of animals!

This white alligator was about the
coolest thing I saw all day.
P.S. It is NOT an albino! Crazy, huh?

We got real close to the leopard,

Hung out with the giraffes,
Rode the elephant,
Pet the tigers,

Fed the snakes,
Met the turtle,
And rode the caterpillar.

We also measured Robyn.

She's still got a little growing to do.

It was a full day. And Mike pulled the wagon almost the whole time, carrying one child or another.
And, most importantly, we rode the train. Next time I will do this FIRST, since my boys had a very hard time enjoying any of the animals because all they wanted to do was
RIDE THE TRAIN!!!

Notice how red Jennie's cheeks are? The poor girl had a fever the whole weekend, and didn't have much fun. Turns out she had an ear infection and also that she is allergic to ibuprofen. Crazy, huh?

Also on this trip, I got to see Sara, an old high school chum whom I have not seen in about ten years. Her little girl is about a month older than Lydia, and it was lots of fun to see her.

Thanks everybody for a great time!

Katie's Home!

OK, so I realize this has already been posted on everyone's blog but mine, but just in case there's someone out there who doesn't know yet....

Katie's Home!!!

Sister Forsythe has triumphantly returned from her mission to the Czech Republic. Hooray!

We went to the airport to meet her, and crazy enough, her flight was actually mostly on time! None of this hanging out at the airport for hours and hours. It was great!
And, of course, we took lots of pictures of this great moment. Here are a few:

Katie with her siblings.
If you look hard, you can see an imaginary Lisa in the picture. And then this would be a picture of all my siblings and me!
Or, if you want to look at it that way, all of Katie's siblings and her!

Katie with her nieces and nephews.

And... Katie with her parents... and Lydia

Welcome home, Katie!

Robyn's Birthday

Robyn turned TEN last Tuesday! Holy Smokes, I feel old!
All she wanted for her birthday was clothes, so she and I went shopping the morning of her birthday and spent way more than planned. But, hey, we came home with some really cute clothes! She had a few friends over that afternoon, and she was a very good sport about the trick candles. :)

Sunday

I have been trying very hard to save gas lately, and so we have been doing a lot of walking. I was very proud of us one Sunday for walking to church and still being mostly on time. On the way home the little girls fell asleep, and it was just so cute.

That same Sunday an amazing thing happened. I have known Jef for more than eleven years, and this was the first time I had ever seen him wear a short-sleeved shirt to church. It was really weird. So weird that I took his picture after church. Of course, I couldn't get to the camera before the tie came off. I'm not that fast.

Carnival

The Carnival likes to show up around here on the last day of school every year. I try to avoid that end of town, but after Ben's friend invited him, then the rest of the kids just had to go too. We had lots of fun, even though it started pouring rain as soon as we got there. The kids didn't seem to mind at all.

Fathers & Sons Campout

Our ward has a Fathers & Sons campout every year which is looked forward to with much anticipation all year long. I always imagined them hiking, sitting around the campfire, throwing rocks... You know, camping stuff.
Well it turns out that the big event this year was racing tin cans down the stream. The boys kept at it all afternoon until it was too dark to see and got up and did it some more in the morning.
It isn't quite what I imagined father-son bonding time to be, but since I'm not a boy, then I guess I just don't know.


But I guess that any activity which involves getting completely filthy before coming home is considered time well spent.

Potty Stop

They put in this great bike path next to a new road they built, and it is fabulous for taking walks with the kids. One day the boys were riding their bikes, and I was walking along with the stroller, when Ben announced that he had to go.
Now.
So I pointed to a nearby ditch and suggested he take his potty stop there. Cannon thought that was the coolest thing ever and decided he had to go, too.

Well, on we went and I thought the event was over.
Not so.
It has now become a regular ritual to stop at that ditch every time we pass it. If I object and voice my doubts about their urgent need, I am treated to a hopping, crouching, knee-crossing demonstration of just how important it is to stop at that ditch.
Every time.