The School Projects

 Edmond's water colors.

 Edmond's self portrait.

 A story written by Charlie

Memorial Day Weekend

 We took the kids out in the kayak at the ponds near our house. There wasn't room for me in there too, so I just jogged around the pond and took pictures of them.

The next day we took the kids down to Andi's to see their goats. The kids spent hours out there petting them and feeding them and riding them.

 We all sat and watched the kids and gave them advice on how to catch a goat and mount it. Charlie and Scarlett did it very well. Papa gave them lots of encouragement!

 On Memorial day we stopped by to visit Grandma and Grampa Adair's grave.

 And Kristine and I stopped by the RC Willey sale.

 The kids rode their bikes around the court.

 

Preschool Graduate

 My pretty girl is finally done with preschool and ready to start Kindergarten in the fall!!! She has waited so long for this day. Scarlett loves to sing preschool songs and perform them with her class. She likes to play with friends and wishes she could do it every second of every day. She wants a real live pet more than anything. Her wish is to get a baby hedgehog for her birthday. She is a good sister to Juliette and is always watching out for her. If anyone offers Scarlett a treat, she always tells them that she needs two, because she has to give one to her sister.

My favorite things about Scarlett are:
Her face. It is the cutest little face. I love looking at it. I never want to stop looking at her face.
She is fearless. She will go on any ride at Lagoon.
She loves animals. She will approach any animal and try to ride it or pet it or feed it.
She is strong. I'm not sure what is going to come at her in this life, but I'm confident that she can handle it.

I love this sweet girl. She is my best friend and I am so glad she is my daughter.

Where I'm At

This year has been different for me. I felt it creeping up on me last year, in Idaho. My job as a mother was changing. I would find myself having spells of idleness during the day. Part of it was the fact that we were renting, and there just aren't as many chores and projects to be done in a day. Part of it (a big part) was that my kids were getting older and didn't need me as much, and I no longer had a baby. I found myself looking at jobs in the classifieds that I was qualified for, and daydreaming of ways that I could actually make it happen...if I could get a sitter for a couple hours a week and go have a little career part time. We didn't need the money, mostly I was just bored sometimes.

 

I realized quickly that getting a job made no sense. There will come a time when I will probably work again, but I need to be here for my kids and if I had a job I would be missing out. But I did want to lose some weight. I'd been holding on to 10 pounds since Juliette was born, and I was sick of it. So in January I focused on losing the weight, and I did. And I've kept it off.

 

The other problem is we need a house. The house we are renting is adorable and clean and close to the school. But we want to be settled. We want to be established in our neighborhood and ward. We want to plant a garden and do yard work. In all of our marriage of 14 years, we have never done yard work. We've always belonged to an HOA that did it for us, and when we had the pool house and B was in the bishopric and we had 4 babies in 5 years, we hired gardners. So, we really want to sink our hands deep in the earth and do some gardening. But we can't find a house that we agree on. Also, we were sick of trying to work with realtors. It's annoying to do all the work of finding a house on our own, and then have to contact a realtor to show it to us and then pay them a 3-6% commission. So, I signed up for the realtor class and got my license! I had to sit through 120 credit hours online, then take a very difficult test. I passed the test the first time. (I was so proud. My brain felt like mush trying to learn things after all these years of baby birthing and child rearing, but I'm not a total idiot after all.) And now we are able to show ourselves any home that we want and we won't have to use a buyer's agent and we'll save some money on our purchase. Hopefully soon we will find the house of our dreams.

 

 

I have been reading a lot. A LOT. I started doing it when I was sitting through those real estate classes. I absolutely could not focus on the boring lessons, so I read novels while I sat there. When the lesson was over and the guy was done talking, I would read through the lesson myself and then take a quiz, then go back to my novel while the teacher droned on about easements. My husband was doubting me when I drove off to take my test. He thought for sure I would fail it since he knew what I'd been doing during those 120 credit hours. I was very smug when I called to tell him that I had passed. "Never underestimate the power of cramming," I told him. I had stayed up until 2am the night before, cramming.

 

 

 

I taught art once a month this year in both the boys' classes. They were proud to have me there and I love doing that for them. It was tricky finding babysitters for the girls while I went to the school, but I all worked out.

 

I've also been getting caught up on my blog books. I finished 2013 and 2014 this year, and I plan to do 2015 and 2016 by December. I will be all caught up! My kids love our blog books and I always catch them reading and laughing over them together. Our family's written story is my gift to them.

 

And lastly, I have a secret project that I think about all the time. Have you ever had something that you want to do, that you think about every day? Something scary and time consuming and that maybe, when it's finished, it might not even be that great? It might be a total fail. And maybe it's too lofty of a dream. Maybe I'm not good enough to pull it off. But it's there, always, this idea that I have. And so I promised myself that after I finish these blog books, that I will start on the project. And maybe, with a lot of hard work and God's help, it will be something I will be proud of.

Birthday Boy

 It was Daddy's birthday, so we made him a cake and surprised him with it when he got home from the Father Sons campout. We were lucky enough to have Lee and Annette in town for his birthday, so we waited for them to get there to cut the cake.

 We had a fun weekend with Grammy and Papa and even cousin Tanner came to join us.

 Later B got some free tickets to a Bees game in a suite, so we all spent an evening drinking too much soda and eating too much chips and popcorn.

Around Here

 I've been baking more these days. Rainy days always make me want to bake.

 We were at the park with friends when Scarlett stepped on a bee with her bare feet. I pulled out the stinger and when it was time to go, she had to pedal her bike all the way home on her sore foot. She is such a tough girl.

 My girls have been waking up extra early these days. They like to get a blanket and go out and jump in the wee hours of the morning.

Feed the birds. And mouse.