Did you eat him???

Here is a short conversation that I had with Evan this morning:

(Holding a bottle of baby lotion) Evan asks, "What is this for?"
Me: "It's lotion for a baby."
Evan: "Where is our new baby?"
Me: "He's still growing inside of me."
(putting his hand on my stomach) Evan: "In your belly? Did you eat him?"

We have a roof!!

This first picture was taken yesterday (8-12-09). The roofers came out and rolled out the paper in one day. Mark got out there last night and painted all the soffet and fascia first so we wouldn't have to tape anything off. Brett, Erin & Kehli spent all afternoon cleaning up in the front and did a great job - probably the cheapest cleaning crew on a job site ever! As long as they could play in the mud when they were done they were happy.

Then came out today (8-13-09) and roofed the whole thing, finishing around 7:30 pm. It looks better than we expected so we are very happy. Plumbers will finish tomorrow and HVAC will probably finish tomorrow also. The electricians are scheduled to start Monday. A couple of windows and one door were installed today, the rest should go in tomorrow except for three that are still on order.Here is Brett ice blocking for mutual last night. It looked like fun, but the other leaders weren't letting me have a try in case I fell off and rolled down the hill. I guess it would have hurt a little. Everyone had a blast, especially the young men.

August Update

This picture of Evan was taken at the Child Family Reunion at the Moses Lake Water Park on August 1. He thought he could do ANYTHING with that life jacket on. I'm glad he wasn't afraid of all the water, but the sprinkler park was a nice change of pace for a bit. He kept running off wanting to go on the surfing wave and the big slides (that you have to be 4 ft. to go down) - even got to the top of the stairs once or twice. It's interesting how many people would just stand there and watch him try to do things that he obviously shouldn't be doing. The best part of the day was when Evan discovered the sprinkler that they had attached to a hose to keep the concrete cool just outside the locker rooms. Evan is fascinated with sprinklers, maybe I have mentioned that before. Anyway, at first he would just turn the sprinkler to squirt people on their way by. Then, I guess that wasn't fun any more, so he picked up the sprinkler so he could get a closer shot at people and even chase them a little. The lifeguard that was closest thought it was pretty funny and so did most of the people, but there were a few stinkers (at the water park!!) who weren't amused at getting wet a little. I wish I had had my camera handy. Here is my most recent trip to Rite Aid. After rebates and coupons I got these 12 items for only $4.34. They would have cost me over $45.00 if purchased there at regular price. And all of them are items that I would have to buy anyway - including the Werther's chocolate!! I love rebate programs. I should have take a picture of our school supply shopping trip that we took on Monday - lined paper, rulers, pencil pouches for 1 cents each, 6-pack highlighters & 2-pack pink pearl erasers for 29 cents each, 12-pack pencils (the good kind!) for 5 cents each. And I didn't mention before my steals at JC Penney on Saturday - 15 items for $112 including 6 pair of jeans for the kids. Plus I started Christmas shopping - only one gift so far, but it's a start. It has been a good week for us at the stores!

Here are the most recent pictures from the house. These first two were taken on Monday, August 3. The first one is right after the trusses got delivered in the moring. It was 105 that day so I felt bad for the framers. The second picture is in the evening when they were done working for the day.

These last two pictures were taken this morning (8/6/09). The first is a front view, the second is from the back. They should have finished the roof sheathing around lunch time and then finished the garage exterior walls. The windows and exterior doors were delivered yesterday so those will start going in either today or tomorrow. Mark will paint the soffets on Saturday afternoon before roofing starts. Roofing, plumbing, HVAC and electircal will all start next week. It's so exciting to watch!!

Summer Fun

House updates: First two pictures of the forms for the concrete basement walls. Next picture is Mark putting tar on the walls so the excavation can backfill with dirt. Fourth picture is of Erin and Evan breaking nails off after the forms were removed. We had to do that all the way around the basement one day when it was about 96 degrees. The last picture was taken yesterday (7-26). The downstairs is almost completely framed. They will finish that part today then start on the upstairs. We'll pick up windows & exterior doors next Monday then trusses in two weeks or so.

Before we left the church parking lot on Monday, July 13:
Playing Chubby Bunny on Ward Day - probably one of the grossest things I've ever done:All our girls together on Ward Day (minus one that we couldn't find at the time): The brave girls getting ready for the polar bear plunge (that's me on the far left):My turn on the rope swing: I got to go to Girls Camp two weeks ago. We went to Camp Zarahemla on White Pass about 125 miles away. The weather was perfect and the girls all had a great time (I think). We had 15 girls with us at the Ward camp and another 8 that were YCL's with the Stake. We canoed, made crafts, did a polar bear plunge, swung on the rope swing, relaxed & ate, ate, ate!!

Evan & Grummpa Pirate watching Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs:
Eating delicious ice cream at Leatherby's. Brett's eyes were bigger than his stomach!: The day after I got home from Girls Camp we left for Utah. My parents are out visiting my mom's family. We only went to Boise on the first day and stayed at a hotel to relax and swim. We got to Utah on Sunday and stayed until Thursday. My camera starting acting up at the end of our trip so I will have to wait for my parents to send me a copy of the whole group picture. We went swimming a couple of days at the local pool, ate ice cream at Leatherby's, visited Ken & Robyn & their family, went to the movies, and relaxed as much as possible.

Eating popsicles with cousin Jared:

On Monday, Evan decided to get into my Grandma's pills up in her cupboard and too 6-8 of her thyroid pills. Poison control said there would be no side effects for a couple of days. Wednesday morning at 4:00 am he woke up barfing and continued to do so until about 8:30 that morning. After his nap he was starving then fine the rest of the time. We were lucky the thyroid pills were in the front of the row and not heart or blood pressure medication. He would have had to get his stomach pumped if that would have been the case. Here is a happy picture of Evan blowing barf bubbles and keeping a bowl close.
After being able to hide it for 17 weeks we are finally announcing that I am pregnant with baby #6. We are due on December 31 and found out a couple of weeks ago that we are having another boy. We probably could have gotten away with another week or two of not telling anyone, but Erin announced it in Primary so I got a flood of emails Sunday afternoon asking for confirmation. I'm not as big as this picture shows - it must have been the angle. I can still see my feet when I look down. I'm feeling good now, just tired - but that is to be expected!

Summer has begun!

Brett getting his medal for coming in second place in the league.
Brett watching the other team get the big trophy instead of listening to the coaches.

Baseball ended on a sad note for Brett. After having a mostly winning season and not losing one game in the tournament his team ended up losing the championship game and coming in second. It was SOOO hard to watch the last games. The other team had to beat us twice since we had never lost and they did beat us one game after another. The first game we gave to them with many errors and few hits. The second game was actually a good game and we ended up losing in the last inning by one run. I even cried a little bit with Brett - what do you expect, I'm a mom!! Brett is sad to be too old to play in this league next year and is still trying to decide if he's just going to play school ball or go out for the Babe Ruth league. He's got time to decide. It would be nice to do school ball because they don't travel as much as Babe Ruth, but we'll leave that up to Brett. I'll watch him wherever he plays!

Erin has had two weeks of voice lessons and is not lacking in the confidence department. She sang a Celtic Woman song in the school talent show on the last day of school and did a great job. Then yesterday her voice teacher, who also teaches piano, had a recital at an assisted living facility and she sang "Castle on a Cloud." She was more nervous singing in front of a few old people that she didn't know than in front of the whole school. When I figure out how to post videos on this blog I will post one of her performances.

Kehli starts summer school on Monday. Her Spanish teacher was hoping that summer school would be in Spanish since she's in the Dual Language program, but it is only offered in English. So it was up to Kehli if she wanted to go still. When she found out that she gets to ride the bus and eat breakfast & lunch there she decided to go. It will be good for her.

Bubba is excited to start swim lessons. Now that she is 6 she can move from the kiddie pool to the big pool, which is warm. Evan continues to keep us on our toes - not letting us sit for longer than 2-3 minutes at a time. He loves to run and is pretty fast. I'm sure the carpet will be worn down by the time we move out because he runs up and down the hallway constantly.

Yesterday we finally broke ground for the new house. Mark was like a little kid at Christmas - with a smile as big as his face. I took Brett, Erin & Bubba to see the excavators and they had fun trying to figure out where their new rooms will be. It will be a fun process to watch and hopefully everyone won't get tired of seeing pictures and hearing details. It's been such a long time in the making for us! It still seems unreal.

The Most Exciting Ending...

Brett's team is now in the City Tournament. So far we've only played two games with the third tonight. We're still in the winner's bracket, but play the other leagues #1 team tonight. It should be a great game - hopefully our pitchers are on.

Saturday's game was SOOOOO exciting. It started at 9:00 and was the hottest day of the year so far - 98 degrees. We played the #3 team (Meuller's) in our own league who had beaten us twice in regular season play; we had only won one game against them. It was a close game the whole time and we got to the last inning. We're up 4-3 and are in the outfield. Meuller's loads the bases with their pick-up batter at the plate. The coaches have our outfielders (Brett was playing right field) go way out in anticipation of a big hit. The kid hits the ball to right field but way in front of Brett and towards the right field foul line. Everyone thinks there is no way Brett will catch the ball so the kids on base take off hoping to score at least two runs. Well, Brett runs and dives to catch the ball. Then he stood up and threw a perfect throw to first base for a double play - ending the game. I could hardly contain myself!!! They gave him the game ball and carried him off the field. He was proud because they've only given out a game ball one other time this season. Even the umpires and other teams coaches told Brett how impressed they were. Of course this was the first game that I didn't have my camera because Mark was on a motorcycle ride with his buddies and wanted it to take pictures. Hopefully some of the other moms were more on top of things and got some pictures. If so I'll post them another time.

We are getting closer and closer to starting to build our home. We signed on the lot last week so it is officially ours now. All of the bids are in and we turned in everything to the bank a couple of weeks ago. Ryan, our lender, said it should come back from the underwriter this week. Mark applied for our septic permit last week and was told it should also be signed off this week. Then the official building permits and we can start!! I still can't believe that it is actually happening. We've been planning for so long!

This is the last full week of school for the kids and I can't wait. I love having them home for the summer. It's not easy, but so much fun. We can't wait to go swimming and participate in the library's summer reading program!

Kehli's Softball and more...

Hitting the ball out past third base, but only making it to first base - they only let them take one base at a time. She could have easily gotten to second.

On third base waiting for someone to hit her home. You can see by the members of the opposite team how exciting the games are when they are in the outfield. It's not uncommon to see a girl doing kartwheels or picking flowers or chasing a butterfly. Running home!!
Playing catcher for half of the game.

It is more fun to watch Kehli than I had expected. I thought I might get bored after watching the fast paced ball that Brett plays. It's actually quite entertaining, but I'm glad that it only goes for just over an hour. She got go play catcher and pitcher (it's coach-pitch, but they have a girl stand by the coach to catch the balls coming in and field the hits). She is having a great time!

Brett's team ended up finishing second in their league and they start the All-City Tournament on Wednesday evening. We play a team that we've beaten 3 times so are hopeful that the first game will be easy for us. We should be able to get through the first two rounds without any problems, but you never know.

Eating in the back of Mark's pick-up.

Serving hot dogs as fast as I could with Gabriella Furniss.

We had a "Car Hop" fundraiser for the young women at church to help earn money for girls' camp this summer. It was the first year we've done this particular fundraiser and we did much better than expected. The girls brought in over $1000. It was a crazy two hours, but well worth the effort. We served hot dogs, chips, cookies, & rootbeer floats. And we offered family pictures, classic cartoons & popcorn, games for the kids and a silent dessert auction (which brought in over $500 on its own!). If they decide to do it again next year I know they could make tons more money just from what we learned this time. Everyone seemed to have fun and were patient with our rollerskating waitresses.

The boys didn't want to dress up so we didn't invite them into our picture. The girls had poodles on their skirts, but unfortunately you couldn't see any of them. Oh well.