Water for sale...

The kids had a water sale yesterday. They have been wanting to do this all summer. Now that it is bearable outside there was no stopping them. They loaded up the wagon and pulled it down to the end of the pod. Bode made signs "watr for $1 dallr". A friend came down to help. They all started yelling,"water one dollar!!! If you're poor you can have it for free!!!". They actually sold one. Laine had so much fun tagging along. What a fun day for a few 6 year olds and a 3 year old.

No hands...

This picture explains its self. She is growing so fast! She is so proud of herself.

A bike...

Jeremiah and I have been thinking of getting bikes for quite awhile. We go on Sunday walks but the kids always want to go faster than that. We have looked at them a lot but never bought for various reasons. Well a few Mondays ago I had Piper with me and Jer took the big kids for the afternoon. When I came home he had bought me a bike with a baby seat for Piper to sit in! The kids and I have been riding ever since. Once it cools down we are going to ride back and forth from the school for Bode. Laine and I have been ride bikes to her preschool. And we have all been riding around the neighborhood. We borrowed a bike for Jeremiah last Sunday so we all got to ride. I think we just might have to get Jeremiah a bike for Christmas!

The neighborhood...

We have a good neighborhood. We live in what we call pods. There are 6 houses per pod and we all share a big hammer head shaped driveway. They are very kids friendly. Most days, after the heat of the day, the driveways come to life with kids on bikes and scooters. They bust out the sidewalk chalk and play. Parents are normally out socializing with one another. I don't know how long we will life here in the end. Could be one more year, could be five, who knows. Either way I am glad that we are here. I am sure my kids will look back on these evenings in the pods fondly.

Life. It's busy...

We are busy around our house. Here is a little rundown of our family...

Piper- I cannot believe that she is 11 months old, 11 months people! That means in about 30 days she will be one. This year has just flown by. Piper is cruising all along the couches, walls and pushes chairs and stools around to walk. She won't stand by herself yet, is totally capable, but she is just too scared. She has almost 6 teeth and loves to eat. She screams at the top of her lungs when she is hungry or wants more food. She will eat anything. Tonight she was loving my pad Thai. She is a happy little girl and I can honestly say that she is such a mama's girl. We just love, love, love her!

Laine- Boy this girl is full of spunk. She goes to dance class on Monday mornings. I am never quite sure if she likes to dance or if she just likes to be around her friends. Either way she loves to go. She is also going to preschool on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. She is so proud of this. She loves to pull her papers out of her bag and show me when she comes home. She also loves to do homework in the evening with Bode. She has really learned how to pull her face and use her body to tell stories and make us laugh. She can be very stubborn at times. The other day I asked her to put her shoes away, hang up her backpack and the she could have a snack. It was a dramatic 15 minutes of crying, gnashing of teeth and rending of clothing to get it done. Sheesh, she can be hard to deal with but I wouldn't trade her for anything.

Bode- I think he is enjoying his little 1st grade life. He is reading really well and loves to draw. He is getting very good at it. He is struggling at math a little bit but we are working on it. Over all school is good. We signed him up for football. He has some friends on his team and is having fun. Not sure how much of the game is actually sticking but he is having fun. I think it maybe a while before what he really wants to do catches up with what his body will let him do. He is a bit long and awkward right now. He will grow into his big feet, his dad did ;)

Dad- Jer got a commendation for a job well done at work. It's not the first one he has gotten but just the same. I am proud of him. I was asked 3 times this week about how it is to be a cop wife and over all I can say I am proud of him and what he is doing. There is a lot of fear that goes through my head when he leaves to go to work. It is a dangerous job. It is a job that not everyone can do. I am grateful that he takes his job seriously and is good at it.

Mom- I am keeping things together, barely. I don't mean that things are bad, just busy! My husband is the bomb I love him so much. (this part was added by "the bomb" husband as I left for a second to go upstairs) My calendar a year ago had nearly nothing on it. Actually the biggest thing on my mind last year was to have a baby. Oh how things can change is such a small amount of time. Preschool, primary, my kids, husband and home are keeping me busy. I really don't mind being so busy I guess. I just like having one day a week where I can stay in grubby clothes, go no where or be anyone for anybody. This week Laine had strep throat so I had to cancel preschool on Thursday. Tuesday night was actually the day she got sick so I had 3 whole days to take care of her and clear my calendar. I didn't love that she was sick but I did love my lazy days. We also did our primary program today. I am glad it is over. I am so lucky to be working with such a wonderful presidency. They made it come together so well. The kids knew their parts, the songs where beautiful and the spirit was strong through the whole meeting. No matter how well it went in the end it is still stressful to put together.

Labor Day Weekend Camping...

This year for Labor Day my family when camping. It was fun to get together, relax, catch up with family and let the cousins roll in the dirt. We missed our Papa cousins and hope to see them soon. 

This picture was on the last day. We were all looking our best ;)

Laine had a ton of fun playing with everyone. Each morning she would ask if we were leaving. I would tell her no and she would be so happy! She did not want to come home.

The men make this rope swing for the kids. It provided hours of entertainment for all the kids.

I really enjoyed the break. It was nice to get away from church callings. home and everyday life. 

Ben and Jett

Rope swing fun. Megan is getting so big. She is a great older cousin and played with the little kids. We love her.

Jeremiah decided it was time for Bode to have a pocket knife.  He looked all over and found a Gerber that has a bunch of gadgets on it along with a small knife. The Gerber was spring loaded and snapped closed really fast. He did really good with it until it came to closing it. He got a small cut and it pinched him when he closed it. He (we) decided we needed to find a pocket knife that would be easier to open and close. He thought it was still pretty awesome while he had it though.

Grandpa taught them how to shoot a bbgun.

Dirty face.

Laine hurried in to use the trailer potty once. The walked out a few minutes later with the lid. She called out to Grandma to that "this was broken". She didn't actually break the potty, just the lid. After that she mastered the art of peeing outside.

Eating dinner around the camp fire.

Quad riding, very slowly, with all the kids.

Picking wild flowers.

Happy little camper.

Super dad taking care of kids. He was taking them down to the swing.

This girl literally made dirt  angels rolling around on the ground. So much dirt! So much fun!

Swinging with Grandpa.

Big Lake...

We camped a few miles from Big Lake. On Saturday morning the plan for the day was to go fishing. Piper was not up to fishing. A nap was much better for her.

The kids had fun playing on the bank throwing rocks and sticks in the lake.

The standard picture on the stairs by the Big Lake stairs. Although none of these kids wanted to sit on the stairs but Mike.

 I headed back to camp with Piper while everyone else stayed to fish. My kids are lucky to have such a great dad. He knows that fishing with kids isn't really fishing but he takes them anyway. They did catch a few fish this time around though.

Sheeps crossing...

I love Sheeps Crossing. It is absolutely beautiful and one of my favorite places in Arizona. It was one of the places I wanted to visit this weekend. On Sunday afternoon we piled in our cars to fish and play at Sheeps Crossing.  

We didn't actually get to fish. We all hiked along the waters edge looking for a spot to stop and fish. With 10 children and 8 adults I am pretty sure all the fish swam up river.

At one point along our hike on the river bed we had to cross the water. The big kids and adults made it across just fine but the little kids took a little...um...flight across the stream.

After it was clear we wouldn't be fishing we found a quiet bank, took off our shoes, and got in the freezing cold water. I remember playing in Sheeps Crossing when I was little. Like full on head under the water playing in the water. I don't remember the water being so cold. I guess as a kid you don't care. My feet were freezing! The kids would have played all day of we had let them. They loved the water!

We found this little baby horned toad. It was too cute. They named him Toady and made him our camp pet. I guess Piper's little head was the perfect spot to hold Toady?

No pants? No Problem.

Some kids did not like the mud.

Some kids did.

One kid got mud on their buns.

The ride home...

We packed up camp and headed home on Monday morning. We knew traffic would be bad but were in no hurry so off we went. We really expected our kids to just be so tired that they would sleep for hours. No. Not so much. They all were awake for hours! They each fell asleep but only in short stints. But as you can tell by this picture when they did fall asleep, they were exhausted.

We went home through Payson like always. Gag. Traffic was AWFUL.

What normally takes around 4 hours took about 6. This was about 21 miles out of Payson. We were crawling along at about 4 mph.

After a fun camping weekend and a looong car ride home we were all ready to be home.