Back to School, Chuck-E-Cheese, Ordination

I forgot to add one activity that we did in Texas--we visited the U. S. Bureau of Engraving in Fort Worth.  It's where they print paper money for half the United States.  They were very strict on no cell phones or cameras so I don't have any pictures of it.  However, it was very interesting.  This was our second visit to it and I think the kids actually got more out of this visit than the last visit since they were two years younger at our last visit.  Anyway, I think I am all caught up on our vacation--so here's my attempt at getting caught up after the 2 1/2 week vacation...

 

Saturday we wanted to celebrate the August birthdays with G&G T.  We met up at Chuck-E-Cheeses and the kids had a blast.  Each adult picked a kid and played.  Matthew kept screaming from being so excited during our visit, "Chuck-E-Cheeses where a kid can be a kid!"  I must say it is where adults can be kids, too as you can see by these pictures:

 

Daniel and Aaron playing against each other:

Grandma and Matthew taking a picture together:

Grandpa and Josh playing together:

 

 

Oh my good heavens I spent most of my time watching Noah ride the big tire truck with Sarah over and over and over and over and over again...

 When they weren't riding the monster truck they were riding the carousel:

 We had cupcakes after having our pizza.  Sarah got to blow out another candle:

 Matthew's turn to blow out his candle:

 The kids had lots of fun with G&G T at Chuck-E-Cheeses--WHERE A KID CAN BE A KID--just ask Matthew!!

That evening we wanted to roast hot dogs (gogs according to Noah) on the fire pit.  However, when we got everyone outside and their hot dogs on their sticks it started sprinkling.  Matthew started getting really nervous.  A few years ago he learned at school that thunder and lightening are dangerous and that we can't be outside if it is raining because it is too dangerous.  As much as we try to tell him things are ok, he has his mind made up and won't listen to reason.  He ran inside and refused to come back outside.  Well a few minutes later it started really raining HARD.

 The kids all ran inside and left Aaron outside to try and cook everyone's hot gogs for them.  To make things easier he tried to grill them instead.  Unfortunately, it was so windy the grill refused to light. 

 Aaron HATES microwaved or boiled hot dogs so he refused to come inside and his inner engineer came out.  He grabbed one of the grills from inside the grill and put it on top of the fire pit.  He turned the fire pit on and grilled up everyone's hot dogs that way instead.  He didn't mind getting soaking wet....too much anyway.

 After eating hot dogs it continued to rain so roasting s'mores was out of the question.  So much for one last summer BBQ.

Sunday we did our annual measure up day.  We keep a wall of measurements of the kids.  Every year around the start of school we measure everyone up to see how much they have grown in the past year.  Every year Josh gets closer and closer to passing Matthew up, but he is still 1/2 inch shorter than Matthew.  I can't believe how much the kids have grown this past year.  I see them daily so it doesn't seem like they grow until I compare last years marks to this years marks.  Noah is just excited to be like his siblings and get measured.

 Sunday at church the bishop asked Aaron and Matthew to sit on the stand until he could get sustained.  Matthew looked so big sitting up on the stand.  After he got sustained, Aaron and Matthew started walking down the stairs to sit back down with us.  Matthew remembered about the time he got to the bottom stair to thank the bishop so he just yelled so everyone and their brother could hear, "THANKS BISHOP CHAPMAN!!!"  as he continued walking down the aisle to come and sit down.  Gotta love Matthew.  After church Aaron was able to ordain Matthew a deacon.  We were glad G&G T were able to come up to watch it with us.  Here is the newest deacon of our ward:

 I can't believe I have a child in the young men's program now!!!  I don't feel like I should be that old!

After dinner was the annual Before School Father's Blessings activity.  We were so glad that Grandpa T got a chance to give a grandfather's blessing to Matthew.  I am so nervous to send him to Jr. High.  Kids there can be so mean.  I just hope Matthew remains blissful ignorant of kids remarks and behaviors just for a little longer.  The rest of the kids are really eager to start school and get back into a routine.

That evening the young men's president, Deacon's quorum advisor, and Deacon's quorum president with a few other boys came over to welcome Matthew into young mens.  Aaron and I are nervous because this is new for us and working with Matthew we don't know what to expect.  I guess it goes both ways because the leaders and nervous and don't know quite how to work with Matthew either.  I guess there will just be a lot of trial and error to make things work for both sides.  I am glad that both sides are willing to work together, though.  I get so nervous to send Matthew because he can be a handful at times.  Thankfully I have a husband who reminds me that Matthew is not only here for us to learn, but to help others learn compassion, love, humility, charity, etc. as well.  Their first activity will be learning how to pass the sacrament.  The Deacon's quorum president and first counselor are going to shadow Matthew while he passes the sacrament for the first time on Sunday.  Oh I am so nervous!!  I am hoping he doesn't get too excited and lose track of what he is doing or try to say hi to everyone he knows.  It is going to be quite interesting Sunday.  Wish us all luck, PLEASE!!!!

Monday we got up extra early to get everyone ready.  I now have FOUR kids to get ready in the morning.  Can we say 'mass pandemonium'!?  Aaron was kind enough to stay home a few hours to help me out with the craziness of the first morning.  Here's the smiley, happy, excited kids:

 Matthew starts 7th grade and looks so grown up!!

 Josh starts 5th grade and is getting so tall!

 Daniel starts 2nd grade and excited to see his friends again.

 Sarah's excited to start kindergarten.  Poor Noah will be sad to lose his partner in crime!

 Matthew's bus drivers are two retired grandpas.  Matthew talked their hind legs off on the way to and from school so he knows all about them and told me all about them when he got home.  They seem like really sweet guys so hopefully Matthew isn't too hard on them this year :).

Josh and Daniel walked with their friends so we weren't able to see them off to their classrooms.  However, we walked Sarah to her classroom.  Here she is by the mural in the hallway:

 She looks so little!

Here she is in her classroom.  She was not sad at all when we left.  That made me a little sad, but I am glad she is excited to start.

The kids seem to still be trying to get used to being in school again.  In the first two days I have already had a call from the school because of a forgotten lunch (Daniel).  Josh has already lost his lunch box and Daniel has lost his homework folder.  Sigh.  This first week seems to be full of kinks, but I am sure they will get worked out.

In the mean time I am enjoying the Fall harvest season.  Yesterday I was able to pick some more tomatoes and make 6 quarts of tomato soup.  I was also able to make some 15-- 1/2 pints of peach jam.  Yummy!!

Texas Trip Part 2, Back to School, Birthday Party

After the first week all the days seem to run into each other.  I will just highlight some of our activities for the last week.  One day Aaron and I were able to do a temple session together.  However, I had forgotten my recommend back in Utah.  Doh!!  However, the nice thing with the new bar code recommends, they are easier to verify if you leave it behind.  I was so thankful they were able to show that it was valid and let me do a session.   Afterward, Aaron and I went out to dinner together.  Aaron had to get some chicken fried steak while we were in Texas so that's what we went out to dinner to get.  When Aaron ordered he chose a kernel corn, but when they brought out his plate they gave him a deep fried cob of corn.  Holy cow that thing was HUGE!!  Aaron took a bite and it was so battered that he didn't even reach the corn, but only bit through the batter--only in Texas, right?!  Here's a picture of his HUGE cob of deep fried corn with the chicken fried steak with country gravy on the side with French fries with another side of country gravy:  (I called it heart attack on a plate!!)

Jeff's sister in law the one who talked to Matthew during the family get together after Lila's blessing sent Matthew a surprise present in the mail.  Matthew was so excited to get it and open it!

That was so nice!  We have truly been blessed by wonderful people that surround Matthew!

While we were staying with Jill we took advantage of Jill's theater room.  The kids watched many movies in it.  Here's Sarah and Sydney eating their popcorn and watching some movie.  Sarah and Sydney had a lot of fun together:

We also did A LOT of swimming in Jill's pool.  Sarah got so much practice that between Jill's patience and Sarah's willingness to try, she learned how to swim without floaties.  I now have four kids who know how to swim thanks to Jill's pool.  WAHOO!!

Sunday we attended church with Aaron's parents.  Aaron got to see a few people he hadn't seen for a few years which was nice.  Afterward we had a yummy Sunday dinner with G&G M at their house.

Monday we headed out to see one of my friends from high school and old roommate from Ricks (aka BYU Idaho) who now lives in College Station, Texas.  It was so nice to see her and her cute family.  College Station is where Texas A&M University is which is where Aaron attended his first year of college before his mission.  We went out to lunch with KiLee at Freebirds where you can get some yummy burritos.  We then headed over to the George Bush Library that just got built at College Station to check it out.  However, we got there about 90 minutes before the library closed and you had to pay $9 a person to get in.  Seeing as we weren't going to have a bunch of time to look around we decided to walk around the grounds instead.  We headed out to a pretty lake and then out to visit George Bush's daughter's grave.  She passed away when she was 9 years old due to leukemia.  Here we all are at the lake--may I just add it was so HOT 107 degrees and HUMID!!!

 Here's all our kids together (minus Matthew because he stayed behind to have a fun day with G&G M).

 About 30 minutes of being outside we decided to head back to KiLee's house with air conditioning because we were all so HOT and sticky.  As we were leaving I got a picture of the George Bush Library sign to prove that we were in fact there.  It just so happens that my well used (especially on this Texas trip) $0.99 Sonic Route 44 Window sticker is in the picture as well.  Love me some Sonic!!

 It was nice to visit with KiLee and to see her cute baby girl.  I am so glad for technology to be able to keep in touch with her and to read her blog.  It was a fun visit and great to catch up on things.  As you can see we are still quite in sync with each other--we chose to wear the same colors that day without each other knowing.   I can't wait to see her again when she comes out to Utah this winter :).

 The next day we took everyone out to see a $1 movie.  No visit can be without it's own problems and this outings problem was that Noah got hopelessly stuck in his movie seat.  It didn't take him very long to get really stuck either.  What a crazy kiddo!

 After the movie we all went back to G&G M's house to visit.  After being there an hour Matthew was starting to have stress.  I wasn't feeling that great either so I took Matthew and Noah and we went back to Jill's house to have some chill out time.  It's a good thing because about two hours later I started puking my guts out.  I am glad that Matthew decided to take a nap because I only had to worry about Noah.  He wouldn't leave my side and wanted to crawl all over me while I was trying to lie down in bed and not throw up.  Thankfully Aaron came back a few hours later and took control of the kids.  Only a few times did Noah escape to come visit me in my room--he's such a momma's boy.  As the night went on it got worse.  To say it politely all my insides wanted to be on my outsides from both ends.  It was bad.  Unfortunately it struck Aaron the next day.  Even though I didn't still feel very well I had to watch kids while Aaron laid in bed in agony.  It was bad.  It then hit Josh that afternoon.  However, he was only down for about 12 hours.  It took longer for me and Aaron to get over it.  Thursday morning I was still not feeling the best, but we had decided to celebrate Sarah's birthday that day.  Jill and I took Sydney and Sarah out to get a fun little girl pedicure.  Sarah thought it was fun to get bubbles all over her legs and feet.  She then giggled when the lady massaged her legs.  Sydney didn't quite know what to think about it all, but as time went on she liked it.

 Sarah got to pick her nail polish and design.  She got pink toes with a purple and white flower.

 She even got a cute little toe ring.  Here's the after shot:

 She also got glitter heart stamps on her face as well as sparkle spray on her face and hair.

 Here she is showing off her glitter spray.

 She was excited to see herself in the mirror afterward.

 They even had a runway the girls got to walk down to show off their new looks.

 Here's their cute toes:

 It was so fun to have a girl's day.  I am glad that I got at least one girl to have girl time with!  Afterward we had some birthday cake:

 Blowing the candles out with help from Bubba:

 Opening presents:

 She had help from Matthew whether she wanted it or not--but she didn't seem to mind:

 After the party and the kids were in bed, I got my baby snuggles in with Lila.  She's such a good baby.

 The next morning we started the long journey back home.  Unfortunately I had a resurgence of some of my earlier in the week problems.  I got to know many a public restroom--many more than I ever would have wanted to use.  About 15 minutes into our trip home we HAD to stop by a grocery store so I could visit their bathroom and then pick up some Immodium, saltines and Gatorade.  Had I been a customer at the store and saw another person with those items in their basket I would have stayed FAR away.  Anyway, I didn't get much better on the way home.  Our trip home was much longer since we had to have so many pit stops.  YUCK!!

For lunch we stopped by a Burger King.  After all the kids had eaten I made them do jumping jacks to get out their energy before we had to get in the car again.  I am sure the customers were wondering what was going on.

 That day was Sarah's actual birthday so she had to get a crown even if it was Burger king crown...

 We stopped for the night in Colorado Springs again.  Unfortunately I spent a lot of the night in the bathroom.  The next day we headed straight home.  When we got home I was so excited to see that some kind soul had mowed our front lawn for us.  That was so nice!!!  Sunday we ended up staying home from church because I still didn't feel very good.  Monday Aaron mowed the rest of the lawn in the backyard when he got home from work.  He had lots of help from Noah as you can see.  Thankfully by Monday I was feeling better.

 Tuesday I was feeling well enough to have one last summer hurrah.  Aaron took off work two hours early and we headed down to Provo to pick up some BYU tickets since we signed the kids up for Cosmo Kid's Club again this year.  After picking up the tickets we headed over to Trafalga to do some laser tag and car driving.  We also stopped by to visit G&G T.  The next day I harvested the tomatoes from our garden and had enough to bottle a dozen quarts of tomato soup. 

One of Sarah's presents was a jewelry box.  She LOVES it.  She brought it out and asked me where all her jewelry goes in it.  She is so funny!

 Thursday evening was Sarah's kindergarten picnic.  We got to go and meet her teacher and see her classroom.  I was happy to see that one of Sarah's friends from the neighborhood is in her class. 

 The school had their back to school night that night as well, but they asked that only parents come instead of kids.  Aaron ended up going and meeting Josh and Daniel's teachers.  Kind of interesting way to do things--back to school night with no kids invited, but what can you do?

Friday afternoon Sarah got to have her friend birthday party.  We played pin the tail on the donkey:

 We also made bracelets, decorated cupcakes, painted fingernails and played BINGO.  I think the girls had fun.  I know Sarah had fun.  She loved blowing out her cupcake candle.

 She loved opening up her presents.

 More presents:

 Eating cupcakes:

Whew we have packed in a ton of stuff in the month of August!!  I am looking forward to calmer times after the start of school!!