Josh and His Birthday

I started this post before Josh's birthday, hence the early date, but thought we'd better put a little about Josh on since he just turned 8. He is such a good kid, always trying to do his best, and be mischievious at the same time. He has taken to calling himself a "furry platypus" lately, and will say "pudding" at very random moments. He has also decided that he wants to wait to be baptized until Christmas when we will have Shane's mom and some family with us. He wants Ryan to watch him be baptized, so we'll do when it they are here after Christmas.

He got a new bike for his birthday, plus a rocket set. We haven't been able to shoot his rocket off yet, Dad has not had enough time yet, but the bike is getting good use as we ride to school most days. Josh has been growing so much that his old bike is too small. His knees almost touch his ears as he pedals on the old one. Hopefully this one will last throughout the next growth spurt.

We sure do love our Josh, and our so glad that he is part of our family. He is a great big brother to Tanner and Parker, and plays really well with Luke. He is also getting pretty good on the Wii, and is so fun to be with. Happy Birthday, Buddy!!

I found these pictures and this video the other day, and thought I'd better put them on. The pictures are of Josh (with a little help from Kaitlin,) being a "cucumber."




The video took place at Brock and Crystal's house, or the park down the street, before the family reunion. Look out Chinese gymnasts, you may have a rival in a few years.

Can You Hear That?

"That" is the sound of silence, well, relatively. The kids went back to school this morning, and the only sounds we have right now are the sound of the "Hamster Dance" as my two little ones (and me) shake our booties to the music, Tanner asking to play his game, and go to "Gramma Cayson's house." (Suzy, if he would survive in a box, he would have been shipped to you this morning.) Yes, they are back in school and we are celebrating this morning.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76HcLEunsws

Kaitlin was so excited that I didn't even have to wake her up this morning. She beat Shane and I to the shower. She had her back to school night Monday night, and she has been bouncing off of the ceiling ever since. She is now in middle school, complete with changing classes and lockers. Speaking of which, I spent probably 15 minutes trying to teach her how to open her locker, and then I left her to go fill out paperwork while she tried it on her own. A few minutes later, she comes back with a goofy look on her face and informs me that she locked herself into her own locker!! It was all I could do not to bust out laughing right then and there. She was showing her friend that she could fit inside it, and between both of them fooling with the door, she got stuck inside. Her friend couldn't open the locker, she was a 6th grader, too, and new to lockers, so her friend had to get her mother to open the door. I giggled about that one all night long!















The boys were excited, too, but also worried, especially Josh. Their back to school night was last night, and it went well. They were both feeling better after that. They saw their teachers, their desks, etc... and Luke even took off without me this morning to find his classroom.
















So today is celebration time, and we are dancing away. Next week comes painting rooms, cleaning out rooms, and hopefully the start of potty training, but not all at once. I'm not quite that crazy, yet.

Venting

OK. Shane isn't home and I need to vent or I'm going to throw a kid or two out the window, so whoever reads this gets to be my venting board.

Can I tell you how glad I am that school starts Wednesday? Right now I am so sick of children who don't take naps when they are supposed to, and need it (Tanner); don't nap long enough, but won't go down for another nap (Parker); complain that they are hungry about every 30 minutes, but complain about the choices that you give them to eat (Luke), and other various, kid related things that are driving me up the wall!!! I am so ready not to have to tell kids to be quiet, the little ones are sleeping, or go and play and leave me alone so I can get some work done, or go find something to do before I give you so much work you won't see daylight for 3 hours!!!

I love my children, I really do, but today the traveling band of gypsies would be very welcome, and might have 5 new members. OK, now that I've unraveled a bit, I will go and try to make dinner that at least one kid, if not several, will complain about having to eat. But it's one of my favorites from my childhood, and if they don't like it, they can go to bed hungry today. Now let's just hope that this venting doesn't bring CPS to my door to check on the welfare of my children =>.

There's no Place Like Home - 3200 Miles Later

Wow! What a week, and then some, we just had. Shane's family had their family reunion in Nevada this past week, and boy was it fun. First we went to Suzy's house to hang out for a few days. We really miss Shane's mom, so it was nice to have some time with her before the reunion. Then we drove to Reno, where we got to stay with Shane's brother Brock, and his family. They took us to Virginia City to see on old west style town. It was quite fun. We got to have a tour of an old mine, take some fun pictures, and see some neat things. Thanks, Brock and Crystal, for taking us. We loved it.

Doesn't this look about right? PS- The extra one is Shane's niece, Chloe.



Shane thought this was a good description - NOT!

The canary in the cage is how the miners knew if the air was safe in the mine. If he stopped singing, you knew you needed to get out quick!

Next it was time for the reunion. The reunion was at Lake Tahoe, and we had a great time. We rented a house up in the mountains, and then would drive down the mountain to the beach. It was so beautiful, and the best part for me, 10 degrees cooler and much less humid than Nebraska. It was a welcome change in weather for me.

We spent two mornings at the beach, letting the kids play and swim and eat sand to their hearts content. OK, we really didn't let them eat sand, but they tried to anyway. Let me tell you, those diapers afterward were disgusting. Anyway, the beach was surrounded by pine trees, and the sand was a little coarser than I'm used to, having gone to the beach in California. The water was a little chilly, you know, coming down out of those tall mountains, but wasn't too bad once you got used to it. The problem was, that took some time - getting used to it - at least for the adults. They kids however, had no problems. Kaitlin and Tanner just went for it, with the other boys following at a slightly slower pace. They loved digging holes, trying to bury things, or people, and making bathtubs for Parker. We brought lunch the second day and ate at the beach, which presented problems when Parker would try to eat and walk. He'd fall more often than not and whatever food he had in his hand would then become sand covered. He couldn't understand why we kept taking his food, but I'm sure his digestive system thanked us for it.

Thanks to help from my mother, I also made up a "survivor" game for us to play at the beach. It only had one minor hiccup, as one team couldn't find their puzzle buried in the sand. But over all, I believe it went well and is something that I am in charge of next year, too. I'll be watching this season's Survivor to get some more ideas for next time.

There was also a trip to a train museum in Carson City. I stayed home with the little boys who were napping, but Shane took the older kids to the see the trains.

We also had a "grandchild" talent show, and then dance, for the little ones of the group. What a hoot!! I am assuming that Shane's family will post the talents of their kids, so I'll just post mine and a video of the dance. Tanner was the star, I think, of the dance, because he was just a groovin' and a shakin' coming up with his own dance moves. Parker even got into the action after getting over being a little scared.



We left Sunday morning at 4:30 a.m., after loading the kids, and drove all day. The kids behaved very well, even Tanner and Parker. Parker whined a lot, because he couldn't understand why we couldn't hold him. He didn't sleep as much as I'd hoped, either, because he wanted to lay down flat or on his tummy, but overall they all handled the traveling very well. We made several stops on the way for gas, food, and stretching, and after 3200 miles roundtrip, and 23 hours of driving, we made it home Monday at 5:30 a.m. local time. What a ride!


We sure loved seeing all of Shane's family, we missed Cody, Joanne and Jack, and can't wait to do it again next year.