Playing Catch-Up

It was brought to my attention recently that I haven't updated my blog lately (thanks mom).  I realize it has been a while, so, once again, I will play catch up.  We tried to end the summer on a high note and went to visit Temple Square in Salt Lake and the new church history museum.  As you can imagine, walking through a museum full of amazing historical artifacts from the early church was captivating to Joey....(sense the sarcasm).  The rest of us really loved it, and it is totally amazing and interesting.  But there were more than a few passed signs and exhibits as we tried to keep everyone happy.  Then we walked around Temple Square, which is always beautiful.  I managed to capture a couple of pictures from the day.

 This one is from an exhibit at the museum....

 Totally changing directions now, we found a fun store in Payson called Goofy Guys that sells all sorts of odds and ends from old fashioned candy to metal signs to (you guessed it) giant underwear.

 If you can't see the need for a pair of giant underwear then there's no point in explaining it to you.

Another out of the ordinary thing we did this year was the Monster Truck Show at the county fair.  We were prepared with earplugs and headphones and thank goodness!  Word to the wise---they are excessively loud.  So does loud=super fun totally awesome?  Kind of.  It was fun for sure, but I think the family loved the Demolition Derby last year more.  The trucks were pretty cool the way they flew through the air and crushed other cars.  I mean, how can you not enjoy seeing a giant truck drive over a row of old cars?

We spent time with family--and the kids obviously enjoyed (and terribly miss) their old trampoline.  Our "yard" here still consists of dirt, with some dirt on the sides, a but more dirt in the middle, and then in front of the house we have some dirt.  It gets old...and dirty.

And then lo and behold the first day of school came (mom shouted for joy while the kids moaned and groaned).  They are getting to be quite a handsome bunch!
Tyler--8th grade

 Maggie--2nd grade

 Jake--5th grade

 Joey--Kindergarten!

Tyler and his cousin Ben did their annual summer rock band again this year.  As usual Tyler told me over and over how they weren't ready and didn't know the songs and were, in general, awful.  And, as usual, he was totally incorrect.  They did amazing.  It is so fun to hear them play and sing.  Tyler even learned how to play the intro to "Piano Man" on the harmonica.  They totally rocked it out!  I just warned him he isn't allowed to grow his hair long and get any tattoos or piercings.

Eric took the two older boys on his annual BYU Football away game trip.  This  year they went to Arizona.  It was a close game but BYU won in the last minute of the game!  Almost the same thing that happened in the game they went to last year in Nebraska--I think these boys are good luck charms for BYU!

 Having the barn finished (FINALLY) has been such a relief.  No more long nights and Saturdays out there slaving away.  It's filled with hay and looking like the real deal finally.  So it's official now, we are country bumpkins.

 A funny sight the other day....on our flight to Boston over the summer, Eric and I got those eye covers for sleeping....I don't know what they are called.  The kids for some reason loved them and commandeered them from us.  Joey would sleep with his on all the time.  Well one night he was tired and I told him to go lay down on the sofa in my room for a while.  I walked in to find this....

 He was dead asleep!  It cracked me up.

In other Joey news, he had a birthday!  The big 6.  He had a party with a few friends with a donut cake (his choice plus easy for me..bonus!)...

 And a family party with chocolate pie (his request again, and Jessica made it, so once again easy for me...double bonus!).

 And to top off his birthday he decided to learn how to ride a bike without training wheels.  He is so good at his scooter it didn't take him long to get the bike balance down.  I think he had it 90% good after about 15 minutes.  Triple bonus.  We even got him a new bike!

 Joey is a great way to round out our family.  He is a human paradox--you can want to strangle him and kiss him all at the same time.  He doesn't let us rest--he's a little ball of crazy energy.   But he manages to keep up with his older brothers and sister...most of the time.  He can be so sweet and cute.  Gives me kisses all the time and pats me on the back.  He's cracker jack smart too.  A lot of times you wouldn't guess it with how crazy he acts, but he's got quite a brain.  He always makes me laugh too.  he told me the other day he is getting so tall because of all the eggs he eats for breakfast.  And he told me he's a fan of steak:
Joey:  What does it mean to be a fan of something?  Like I'm a fan of BYU?
Me:  It means you really really like something.
Joey:  Mom, I'm a fan of steak.
I'm always amazed that he is alive and growing considering how little he eats, but he is super sneaky and is always sneaking snacks and treats when he knows I won't find him.  I need to channel that craftiness to good use.  He's growing up fast--but lucky for me still slow enough that he likes to snuggle and wants to be tucked in every night.  We love you Joey!

In other news, Tyler got his tonsils removed.  That makes all 3 of my boys now.  Maggie tonsils seem fine.  His tonsils were huge, he snored like a lumberjack, sounded/talked like his throat was always clogged, and was the loudest breather you ever heard.  So I had them checked out and the doc said he definitely needed them out.  Once they were out the doc said they had a significant amount of scarring on them and he's probably had chronic mild tonsillitis for years.  Whoops.  Guess I should have checked them out sooner!  But he recovered well and really was a super trooper.  I was worried about recovery but he took it like a champ.  Now there are no more sawing logs at night!

Crazy hair day at school....see sometimes I do the pinteresty mom stuff...

Jacob is still loving soccer.  He is doing great with his team.  They finished out the fall season and now he's doing indoor futsal to keep his skills up for spring.  They've got a great little team and have a ton of fun playing.  It's fun to watch him play--he gets better and better each season!

For fall break we decided to do a repeat trip to Escalante/Bryce Canyon and hike some slot canyons.  It was a blast once again but even more fun this time because we didn't camp, we stayed in a hotel!  So no big set up or clean up, well....I take that back.  There was a big clean up because joey puked twice on the floor of the hotel room in the middle of the night.  It was nasty.  Thank goodness we had tons of extra towels!!  The sleeping bag he was in (he slept on the floor) was thrown away in the dumpster.  Some things aren't worth the nastiness.  But the canyons were awesome...Eric and I barely squeezed through some of them!  I couldn't get pictures of the skinny parts because you literally didn't have room to raise your arms to take a picture.  Suck it in!!!

 Bonus:  We (Dad) caught a little lizard.  Poor little guy was passed around the group.  But he was tough and survived and we let him go, despite protests from the kids wanting to keep him as a pet....

 And then right around the corner (isn't life just one thing after another?!?) it was Halloween!  We had some fun with Napoleon Dynamite...

 Old man Batman...

 Super ninja...

 And Skelita (yes, I know what you are thinking.  Maggie was that last year!  But when I asked her what she wanted to be she was set on it.  Bonus for me--I already had all the stuff!  Sweet)

I don't normally dress up too much for Halloween but we were invited to a friend's Halloween party so I thought I'd play along.  It was a Day of the Dead party.  I may have gone a little overboard...

Actually no one recognized me until I told them who I was.  It took me a shower, 3 more face washes and a lot of eye makeup remover after that to get it all off.

We had another birthday in the house (first Joey, then Eric, then me--age undisclosed, and now Maggie!)  Maggie had a super fun fashion party with a LOT of friends.  I was counting on some girls not being able to come but pretty much everyone that she invited came!  So it was a full house but lots of giggles.  They had a piñata, played a balloon stomp game, decorated pillowcases, decorated a wooden letter of their name, cake and ice cream and had a silly fashion show.

The fashion show was a hit--we dumped out all of our many costumes and wigs and the girls went to town.  There were some pretty creative outfits.  We had 2 rounds of the catwalk and then a fashion dance party.  It was pretty hilarious.  Here's Maggie's two beautiful creations...

Maggie is my little princess--my only girl in a sea of testosterone.  I love love love having a girl, and I love that she loves all things girly.  She loves dresses, nail polish, pink stuff, jewelry, crafts and all of that.  But she also loves playing the dirt outside (good, we have a lot of it), playing nerf with her brothers, and riding horses.  She loves those horses!  She can be a bit of a drama queen at times (ok, a lot of a drama queen) but she also makes us laugh.  She loves to dance, she loves music, and has started piano lessons now too.  She is helpful--always helping in her classroom at school.  She has a toothless smile and looks like a hillbilly right now too, which I love.  When she smiles she lights up my heart.  The only thing I can't stand it how fast she is growing up.  It makes my heart hurt.  She will always be my little Maggie Moo.

 I wonder daily how I got so blessed to have such a great life.  I'm going to do my best to enjoy every minute of it!