what to do with a boy like this?

Austin is officially my first child to visit the principal's office. 

I thought that visit on Friday would scare the pants off of him, but oh no I got a phone call from his teacher again today(that makes for a total of 3)...ugh... what am I to do with this boy! I dread that this cartoon might be telling the truth.

I stewed all weekend over what I am doing wrong. I thought about what I could do better. I started reading a book about parenting and being a better mom. We had talk after talk about appropriate behavior and listening to his teacher. He sat in his room. He sat on a chair. He played no electronics. He watched no T.V. I even bribed him with a toy for good behavior.

After church on Sunday, I had to rush up to the teacher and ask her for this quote that she used in her lesson, I know I will need to re-read it often.  Hopefully, it will sustain me in my course of Parenting 505.

"A sweet and obedient child will enroll a father or mother only in Parenting 101.  If you are blessed with a child who tests your patience to the nth degree, you will be enrolled in Parenting 505.  Rather than wonder what you might have done wrong in the premortal life to be so deserving, you might consider the more challenging child a blessing and opportunity to become more godlike yourself.  With which child will your patience, long-suffering, and other Christlike virtues most likely be tested, developed and refined?  Could it be possible that you need this child as much as this child needs you?"

Is that what this is?  A test for me? I will try to get through this a little more Christ-like but Austin might swear that he has met the devil when he gets off the bus today!

lonely days

Today I am feeling a little bit lonely.  I don't know why because yesterday was a 1/2 day and I text ed Travis and told him, "I hate 1/2 days!".  18 kids in and out of the house until 7:00 p.m. was my reason. I guess my new found freedom IS a bit lonely, but I am not complaining.  I am enjoying my long days at home -ALONE.

I don't think lonely accurately describes my feeling actually.  It's more of a mourning that summer is coming to a close.  That Idaho has come and gone.  That homework and sports and piano lessons are back in full-swing.  I can't say the weather is changing but I wish it was because it is BLAZING HOT down here.

My summer is now just a memory....

 but I still miss this place....

 

and all of these people!

recap of the week

I made raspberry jam this week!  I have been wanting some but was a little afraid to try making it by myself.  I made it once before with my sister but to be honest she did all the jam making and I did the kid watching.  My SIL, Melissa has made it for me a few times, too.  When we moved I had to empty my freezer and I have been missing my raspberry freezer jam ever since.  It turned out great and wasn't hard at all, now I just wish I could make some delicious home-made bread to go with it!

Holden had a Scout Court of Honor.  Thanks to the Hurst's taking him to Scout camp in Idaho he earned a whole slew of merit badges and advanced  2 ranks!!! I was a proud mama, since 1) I had no idea about the rank thing and 2) I didn't even do a thing (accept pack his bag and fly him there!). I feel like Holden's whole Scouting career has been a success due to the Hurst family, I can't thank them enough!!! I'm trying really hard to keep Nicholas caught up with the legacy Derek and Holden have created.  THANK YOU JES & MARCI!!

Holden was loving being 12 this week.  Turning 12 means a whole bunch of exciting things in our church.  He had a great experience the first Sunday in his deacon's quorum and then that night he went to a Fireside with a bunch of his friends.  I drove a carload over to the Stake Center and I just had to take a picture of them.  I was surprised they didn't utter a word of complaint and even  actually co-operated.  Boys at 12 are different than girls at 12.  If I would have tried that with Chloe I would have gotten a big eye-roll with a "mmoooooooomm, you are soooooooooooo embarrassing". Don't these boys look sharp! Tonight he is headed off to his first Scout Camp-out and he is super excited.

Getting ready for his camp-out, we took a trip to Sportsman's Warehouse, where we found these sunglasses.  I was cracking up because I bought the exact sunglasses(the black & white pair) after 5th grade. We were in Logan, Utah for the summer getting ready to head to our new home in Germany.  I just remember wearing those glasses, hanging out with Jenny Watts, walking up and down the sidewalk in front of Jon Reece's house, wishing he would notice me and thinking I was pretty cool. I offered to buy the boys a pair but they both declined. What!!??

Austin has been catching up on all the swimming he missed out on this summer with his broken arm. The doctor actually encouraged A LOT of swimming because he said it is great therapy to help the arm gets it's motion back.  He has definitely been getting his "therapy" in.

We actually have to swim because our weather has been HOT! Hot and stormy, we had another haboob last night.  We missed the last big one that hit on July 5th, but look at the pictures!  They show the dust better than my shots of last night.

You can literally see the wall of dust coming towards you and it gets dark in a matter of just a few minutes.  It's an eery feeling but I stayed outside to watch until  the wind was blowing so hard  that I could not open my eyes because of all the dust in the air.  This is what it looked like outside our house.

AND Here is the weather report from yesterday.  I looked it up because Austin came home from school and reported that they were not allowed to go to recess.  I questioned the older boys and he was right.  No recess for the little kids and 4th grade and above only got a 5 minutes recess. I knew it felt TERRIBLY HOT yesterday!

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND!  We will because Travis has been on a trip for 9 days and he gets home tonight, YAHOO!

Severe	!
Right Now
Mostly Cloudy Dangerous heat index. Outdoor exposure should be limited.
111°F

bear lake

I never posted last year about Bear Lake and the longer I wait the more tempted I am to skip it again this year.  Why would I skip my favorite week of the entire year?  I don't feel I can adequately blog about how much we love this week we spend at Bear Lake every year. I read this blog and she can get her thoughts about and pictures of her time at the lake put together so well and her photography is amazing so I just read it, and think, amen.  We both love this same lake, she is on one side and we are on another but both love the same things- the beauty of the lake and how it can change in minutes, the sunsets, the family togetherness, the way the kids will play together with cousins for hours with no outside entertainment, the food, the good conversation, the game playing, the babies, the lazy days at the beach....  So if you want to read it beautifully put, read  71 toes or her sister's blog five kids...in five years and all their entries about Bear Lake.

Here is my synopsis of the best week of 2011-

our annual hike at Limber Pine Trail in Logan Canyon

our family minus Holden who went with the Bogrens to take Uncle Ryan to the airport

The most exciting part was when we discovered SNOW and a lot of it.  The kids thought it was so fun to see snow in July!  Here we all are getting ready to throw a snowball at Travis who was taking the picture.

The wildflowers were beautiful and the weather was great while we hiked.  We were watching some dark clouds headed our way and had worried  if we should risk getting caught in a storm but the storm didn't hit until several hours later. I remember because I felt the first drops of rain as we carried Austin into the Emergency Room in Logan.

This also happened a few hours after the hike. (If you are not up to date on my blog, read this entry  to find out about Austin's accident at the playground.)

down at the beach

 Holden

 Austin

 Nicholas

 Travis

 Chloe (and Lauren)

Heidi

jet skiing

cousins

Playing "house" is one of the favorite things to do for the little kids at Bear Lake.  There is a small area way up in the front of the loft that the kids use as their "house".  It has a small table and chairs and a small window that looks over the kitchen/family room area, and that is about it.  But the 8 and unders play up there for hours.  This picture is not in the loft, it so hot up there I try to avoid it at all costs.  Emmaline is the mom, Austin is the dad and the best part they have a REAL baby, Sophie.  Emmaline and Austin thought it was so great that Natalie loaned them Sophie to play house with. Natalie thought she scored too because they played "house" with her for quite awhile.

I know it looks like Holden is trying to plant a big smooch on Abigail in this picture but is NOT what it looks like.  He is just squinting and squishing up his face because of the bright sun.  This is the only picture I snapped of this so I had to use it with Holden's funny face and all.  I think we will make this an annual picture to see how these boys grow over the next few years.

Bed time is always a challenge at Bear Lake. We have some that are exhausted at 7:00 p.m. and others that stay up till 3:00 a.m. and then we have a group that wakes up at 6:00 a.m. and others who finely roll out of bed about noon.  My kids beg each night to sleep over with a different cousin, so many cousins and so little time!

playing bingo

This year the resort had a bingo night. Our kids spent so much time down in the little store at Ideal Beach that they made friends with the workers and one of them promised Nicholas that if he brought the most people to bingo he would give him a prize.  Nicholas rounded up almost every last one of us to come down and play bingo and we indeed were the biggest group there with twenty people. Nicholas got a free round of miniature golf for it, Brett won a round and Sadie won the Grand Prize.  Our family pretty much cleaned house and was the most obnoxious group there. I think the kid was sorry that he told Nic to bring his WHOLE family, but we had fun!

swimming off the dock

Another worker that my boys made friends with gave them permission to swim in the marina area where they do rentals from.  The kids all loved diving off the docks.  The lake is more full this year than it has been since I was a kid.  This is the marina that I remember but it has been dried up for years and they have had to pull the rentals out, way out with a tractor.  We even had one of our family pictures taken on these rocks last year and there was definitely no water around.  The difference a year can make!

Trying to warm up in the sun.

Eliza was too cold so she just watched.

Chloe walked over but she had just warmed up and dried off so she didn't want to jump either.

our annual farewell shot after miniature golfing

We always take a family picture the last day after we go miniature golfing but this year we only got a shot of the kids.  We took my three nieces with us to Bear Lake.  Their mom and my SIL is the one who had twins in April, so Bear Lake would have been a little much for them this year!  We had a great time, the girls were no trouble at all but I do have a new respect for LARGE families.

I noticed that I did not take as many pictures as I normally do, I guess with the whole broken arm thing and three extra kids I was a little preoccupied.  I am missing pictures of a lot of activities that we do, but there is always next year...and I can't wait!!!!!