POW, POW!

Have you ever felt like life was getting the best of you?

Like you kept getting hit in the face over & over, no matter how many times you tried to get up & keep going?

Yeah, it's kinda been like that at our house lately.

And poor Jack, he really did get socked in the eye. Twice. One upper lid & one lower lid.

KA-POW!

Here's hoping for a smooth week ahead.

We ALL could use a break.

Not Quite Sneaky Yet

I can hear the boys in their room right now. Jack is talking in his always-loud 2 year-old voice.

Daddy calls in from the living room: Boys, be quiet. It's time for bed.

Jack responds: I'm not talkin' to you!

So Frank has caught on that he needs to be quiet so that he doesn't get in trouble.

We can now hear quiet whispering in between the bunk beds & Jack saying: Frank! Talk louder! I can't hear you!

This Is A Little House

This is a story about a little house.

Not a house for people, but a house for man's 2nd best friends.

People don't fit in this house.

But people can paint this house.

Little people do a GOOD job of painting this little house.

See? People don't fit in this house.

But people can put a roof on this house.

And people can make this house pretty.No, people don't fit in this house, but cute little chickens do. This is a great little house.

And So It Begins!

School started this last Monday- Holy cow! (We are on a modified year-round schedule.)

I have 2 at the Elementary School this year!We were lucky enough to get both teachers that we requested & also AM Kinder for Frank. It's going to be a great year!As we walked Frank back to the car after his first day of kindergarten, I was reminded of this scene:Wasn't that just yesterday? Or maybe last week? Man, they're growing up fast.

So as we start this new year I'm going to try to enjoy every moment. Because it appears that my kiddos are not going to cooperate & stay small forever. Good thing they're not totally ready to be big kids ALL the time.

Apparently kindergarten is exhausting!

Summertime Adventures

This summer was so great!!!!

I took the list we compiled at the end of school last year & every week we chose something new to do.

Here are some highlights:

Young Women's Campout- Emma & James got to tag along with Mommy

Giant fish, canoeing, S'Mores- Awesome.Do you like my life vest? It was Emma's size. :)The Children's Museum. So fun!!!

Brandi Fenton Splash pad- this place is so great that we went more than once!

Swimming, Swimming, Swimming.

Oh, and did I mention swimming?

We ordered 30, yes 30, pounds of Zaycon bacon.

I've always liked bacon, but this stuff isn't even in the same galaxy as the junk I've always bought at the grocery store. I will never go back.

Basketball camp.

154 kids, 3 days, 1 t-shirt, 1 ball, all for FREE?

Good thing it was a church putting it on, because I was thinkin' "God bless these folks" the whole time!July 4th in Safford-

Parade

Water fun at Nana's- this is the "Bike Wash" Uncle Dave made.

Patriotic cousin fun- isn't little Alexis so cute?

And somehow we even managed to fit in 2 weeks of swimming lessons with some young women from our ward. I now have 3 fish living at my house.

Mt. Lemmon was closed for almost the whole summer because of the fire danger, so we rushed right up to the cooler climes as soon as it was opened back up.

The Cookie Cabin in Summerhaven has cookies as big as a person's head!

Not represented in these pics would be our trip to the The Cove. For the 2nd time, I forgot my camera. Just imagine skinny little Emma bailing off the high dive & the first thing you see coming up out of the water is her thumbs-up. As soon as her head popped up she started screaming "I did it!" Now picture Frank diving head-first & not quite getting his head down, so he was belly-flopping every time. Totally classic. The lifeguards were definitely enjoying my kiddos. James REALLY loved the wave pool. He would wriggle his whole body & throw his head back & laugh every time a wave passed. But Jack just wanted to spend all his time in the warm therapy pool. I can't wait to go back.

In fact, I can't wait to do all of this stuff again. Fall break can't get here soon enough!

I can't even begin to express how excited I am right now.

I feel like a little kid at Christmastime!

My skin feels all tingly.

My lips won't stop smiling.

I feel like doing a happy dance!

Why?

Well, after 84 days of bone-dry, blast furnace windy, horrible, sweltering, blistering weather at my house-

IT'S RAINING OUTSIDE!!!!!!!

Yeah, yeah- I know that's not a big deal to a lot of you, but it's been 112 multiple times in the last week.

Our girls' camp was held on a ranch in Tucson with temps exceeding 110.

All of our mountains & semi-cool places to hide from the heat are closed.

Fires are ravaging our whole state, cancelling our family reunion this weekend. BOO!!

So call me crazy, but I am excited, giddy, & ecstatic.

I think I'll go stand outside in the rain........

Just a few words:

~~WOMEN'S RUGBY~~

~~CAR WASH~~

~~BIKINIS~~

Wow!!