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.

It's finally spring!!!

Evan doesn't believe me that it's nice outside. He always says, "I'm freezing!" Here he is all bundled up on the couch trying to stay awake. We are enjoying the sunshine - hopefully it's here to stay this time. Mark finished the fence and we got the border logs in place - now we're just waiting for rock to be delivered. When we're done spreading rock we can plant grass. Can't wait for that!

Forgive me for posting more baseball pictures. The two pictures above were taken at Brett's best game of his career. He made two beautiful catches out in left field - one was a foul, but he went all the way to the fence and made a game changing catch. I was so excited I could hardly control myself. The game was tied at the end of the 6th inning (we usually only play 6) so we went into a Kansas City tie-breaker. The last out from the previous inning goes to second and you start out with one out. Brett is up first and the kid that started on second base stole to third. Brett hit a fabulous hit to center field and Nick scored. Brett hit a game winning RBI!! That never happens to Brett so I am happy for him!!! So now he's on second base (the first picture - you can see the scoreboard reads 3 balls, 2 strikes, 2 outs, and we're up by one) Brett steals third, then is hit home (the next picture) and scores making the score 4-2 at innings end. Unfortunately we have to forfeit the game because our pitcher threw too many innings for the week and no one brought it to our attention until we were winning. So it was all for nothing. But Brett still feels good about his personal performance. Today at practice he is going to get a "Be A Hero" Award that the coaches give out if a player has an exceptional game/play. He's getting it for making the catch out in the field because if he hadn't we would have lost the game in regular innings.

Here is me with my babies on Mother's Day. Evan said it was "TOO light" so he wouldn't look up. Can you believe that Brett will be 13 tomorrow and if I wasn't wearing heels he would be just about as tall as I am. I think he only has an inch to go. He thinks that's real funny. I told him he could really laugh if he ever catches up to Mark. I didn't realize how tall Bubba was until I looked at this picture. Maybe it's just the angle... I had a wonderful Mother's Day filled with lots of special drawings and gifts. Mark finally bought us a new matress and surprised me with it on Saturday night. I LOVE IT - it's so nice to not have to sleep in a hammock-like bed any more. We had our previous matress for 15 years so it was time for a new one!

Kehli's first softball game is tomorrow night. She can hardly wait. She had to get the pants, belt & socks to complete the outfit. I'm sure it will be entertaining.

Holy Cow, time flies when you're having fun...

Wow, I can't believe that it has been so long since I've updated our blog. It is baseball season so everything kind of takes a back seat to that. I am so happy that Mark takes care of the kids during the games so I can actually watch and concentrate. I LOVE to watch Brett play and it makes me sad when I get interrupted with, "MOMMY Kehli hit me" or "I'm hungry can we buy some gummy bears." His team is doing so much better this year with a record so far of 11-3. There's actually a possibility that we could win the All-City Tournament in June. I don't want to get ahead of myself, but the prospect of after season play is so exciting. Brett is doing well at the plate - I guess all the batting practice over the winter actually helped. His batting average so far is 0.316 which is considerably better than last year. When he pitches he does well also. One game he pitched the last two innings and only threw 19 pitches. Not bad!! He's been walked 10 times and hit by a pitch twice. As long as he gets on base he's happy! If you don't care about baseball stop here and skip to the next section as I ramble on about our last game...Saturday's game was disappointing - we were down by 2 in the last inning with one out. Our kid gets up and bunts the ball, but he was still in the batters box so it was called a foul. But then he hits it again with the bat and the catcher picks it up and throws him out at first - the outfield ump calls it out. Obviously we complain that it was a called foul by the home plate ump first - after deliberations and lots of exchanges with our happy coaches the batter is called out. Two outs, a player on first, and Brett is up to bat. He hits it out to center field just over the second baseman's head. They get it to second base and the runner is out. Game over and Brett feels it is all his fault for hitting it where he did. It was a disappointing loss and even worse when there were several bad calls by the umps. I am a good spectator though and only get upset for a while. I've only been told once to be quiet. I don't want to embarrass Brett too much!

Kehli decided to try softball this year and her first game is on Saturday. It will be fun to watch her play and so different from watching Brett. She is one of the only girls that can catch the ball most of the time so she's pretty confident. I'll post pictures of her next time.

Here are pictures of the lot that we are going to build on. It is about one acre and is on a hill. The first picture is from the bottom looking up and the second is from the top looking down. It's hard to tell on the second picture since the slope is considerable, but I like how it feels country a little bit. We are finishing up bids right now and hope to go to the bank with everything next month. It is such a process so far and we haven't even broken ground!! Mark puts so much time into gathering bids that I try to not complain about designing the kitchen and picking out plumbing & light fixtures. I have to do it all now though because with the kids home in the summer there will be little time for things like that. We are praying that interest rates stay low until we lock in our rate. We can't wait to get started!!

Right now we are also working on getting the yard done here at our rental. Mark finished the sprinkler system on Saturday and started on the fence - at least digging post holes. Hopefully the fence will be in by weeks end and we can get the dirt all leveled and the grass and garden planted before it gets too hot. There are so many rocks here. The kids and I have been gathering rocks for 3 weeks now - I almost believe that they are having babies overnight! I'm about to the point that I'm not going to make them pick up any more that are smaller than their hand. It will be fine, right!?

Erin loves to sing. Unfortunately she inherited my singing abilities so we are looking into voice lessons for her. Since she is not interested in sports or dance I figure this is one talent that we will try and help her develop. She is trying out for a solo at school this week and I think she'll be pretty disappointed if she doesn't get it. Luckily there are 30 kids trying out for it so I think she'll understand if things don't go as she has planned. She volunteered our family to sing the reverence song in Primary a few weeks ago and it was the most embarrassing few minutes of my life. It is a new song that Mark and I had both not ever heard before except for the kids singing it around the house - so it doesn't sound like it should. So the pianist plays it once through for us and I get through the first line before the giggles set in. I laughed all the way through the rest of the first verse and the second. There were tears rolling down my cheeks. I don't know what happened, but I couldn't stop. So, Erin basically sang a solo into the microphone as I laughed, Bubba mumbled a few words here and there and Mark sang as quietly as possible. I felt bad because I am sure it didn't help reverence the kids, but I'm happy to say that they will never ask our family to sing again!!

The kids have said a few cute things that I want to document before I forget:
The first was when I was tucking Evan in for his nap. I alway say, "Evan, I love you forever and ever." As I was tucking him in the other day he grabbed my cheeks and said, "Mommy, I love you never, never, never."

The second was on Saturday night after dinner. We are having an issue with ants coming in under our kitchen door. It could be because we are working the dirt outside and stirring them up, or the fact that there are holes under the door so they can walk in freely, or that Evan's chair is right next to the door and he drops a lot of crumbs on the floor - or a combination of all of the above. Anyway, I have to sweep the floor after every meal and I mop every night after dinner. So this was the conversation in the kitchen one night:
Bubba: You're cleaning the floor AGAIN!?!
Me: Yes, so the ants won't keep coming in.
Bubba: Well, the devil will keep sending them.
Erin: No Bubba, the devil doesn't send them, he TEMPTS them.
Bubba: You mean with our crumbs?
Too cute - I couldn't keep from laughing!!

Well, this is long enough. Hopefully it won't be two months before I post again. I'm a little better at Facebook because I don't feel like I have to write as much so check there for more pictures if you are interested. HAPPY SPRING!

Well, we finally sold our home and moved into a rental for about a year. We hope to start building in July and are in the process now of finishing up our house plans. Then the fun begins!!Here is our new family room / living room - there is only one front room in our rental house. This is what it looked like after we moved in and they cleaned it up. It's been 9 days now and it is finally our own. We moved the couch in on Friday and are now just waiting for a TV. I didn't think I'd miss it this much. Most boxes are unpacked - I only have about 4-5 left to go. So far the kids have adjusted well. The girls are all in one room and Brett & Evan are in one together. I'm going to like having less space to clean. Mark is hoping that I get out of the habit of having piles everywhere because there just isn't room in this house to have piles. It's in my blood...

Evan has had so much fun watching the "workers" out the front window. He loved the "little tractor" and even asked if he could have a ride, but was turned down.

I love this picture of Evan & Mark watching the last of the three cement pours. It will be wonderful to have all the concrete done so the tracking of mud can be cut back. I will be happy to plant grass - hopefully sooner rather than later! Brett can't wait to mow again - NOT!

Brett helping Mark cut plywood to put in the rafters in the garage to store more of our junk...I mean treasures. I was happy to see him wearing safety goggles as I stood in the window praying that he didn't cut off any fingers. He did a great job!

Evan cleaning out the dryer after putting a handful of sand in it. He's such a good helper!

Evan being a good helper again putting the computer cabinet together with Mark.
Here are Mark and I at the Hawaiian themed Primary Appreciation Dinner. Yes, those are coconuts that I'm wearing - Mark made me wear the shirt under them because it was 30 degrees outside and he was afraid I would catch a cold - he's so thoughtful.

Here are some shots from Brett's last basketball game of the season. They ended up only losing one game and really worked well as a team.
Brett in the middle - not letting go of the ball.
Way to block out Brett!
Get that rebound!!!
Baseball season started last week with practice 4 days in a row, four practices this week then the first game on Saturday. They appear to have a strong team this year and we are hoping for a few more wins than last year. The league Brett plays in is switching to a 70' baseline with a few rule changes. Brett is nervous about that, especially since he is a pictcher and the kids can lead off 1st base now. He'll do fine though - he just needs to be confident!! Evan is ready for baseball season and wears Brett's extra baseball "mitten" around all the time. Why can't he stay small for just a little bit longer?