Camping at Pine Valley

Last night was our annual Ward Dinner at Pine Valley. The last couple years it has been on a week night so we haven't camped but this year it was on a Friday night so we were able to camp. They had a wonderful dutch oven dinner we all enjoyed.

The boys played some football before dinner.

And the kids had a lot of fun with the water balloon launcher Brian made.

Lots of fun around the campfire melting cups.

Too bad a good nights sleep and camping don't go together. The 12 year old Scout tent took quite a while to settle down. Not until Jenny walked over to their tent a second time and threatened to take her boys out and make them sleep with her did they finally settle down.

First Day of Preschool

The day is finally here. For the first time all 5 of our kids went to school today. The older 4 started school 2 weeks ago but today was the first day of preschool for Kylie.

Boy was she ready. She woke up asking if it was time to leave. She let me curl her hair and got on her new school clothes and shoes. Picked out a backpack and helped make her lunch. Then we still had lots of time to kill before school started at 11:15

The sun was in her eyes so she wasn't thrilled about having her picture taken in front of the school. The look on her face is more how I was feeling. She wasn't nervous but I was. She's still so young and none of our kids have ever gone to preschool. But with Kylie being the youngest and at home all day alone with just me she gets so bored. Either she plays with a friend, watches TV, plays the computer or she wants me to play with her. Too much TV or computer isn't good, she can't play with a friend all day and I get bored pretty quick when it's my job to entertain so preschool seemed like a good idea for her.

So here she is doing her first assignment - Tracing shapes

Hopefully she's had a great first day. I know I have. I'd planned to clean but then thought I clean everyday. I should celebrate today. So I called Brian and we went out to lunch together.

School goes from 11:15 to 3:15 on Tuesdays & Thursdays. She gets out in 15 minutes so I'm off to pick her up. Keep your fingers crossed that she had a great time and will want to go back on Tuesday!

Work It Wednesday

Today I am headed downstairs. We end up with lots of kids here most days. It's normal to have a dozen kids in my house after school and I just send them all downstairs. Unfortunately I'm not very good at making sure stuff gets cleaned up before dinnertime when I send everyone home. A few days of this is all it takes for the downstairs to look like a tornado hit it.

My goal is to spend a couple hours downstairs today cleaning and simplifying (aka giving stuff to the DI). Since a have a good book on tape to listen to the time should pass quickly.

Craigs List Rocks!

So this was our couch. Kylie put a couple little cuts in it with a pair of scissors and over the last 6 months those cuts have turned into this. Lovely.

Brian has been searching craigslist trying to find a new couch. Yesterday he found one that was in like new condition for a screaming deal.

Thanks Brian! You rock too!

Picnic at Hidden Valley Park

It was Bradley's night to choose our activity for Family Home Evening. He chose to have a picnic at Hidden Valley Park. It's nice to have so many beautiful parks so close to our home. Hidden Valley & Little Valley parks are both within a couple miles and have splash pads which are really nice in the hot summers. We didn't stay at the park very long since it was a school night and we needed to get home and have a lesson, scriptures & prayers and get to bed on time.

Tackle It Tuesday

Another day. Brett & Bryce are off to school and I need to wake Kim & Brad up in about 20 minutes.
I stayed home most of the day yesterday and got some deep cleaning done. Only had to go out to take Brett & Bryce to the dentist which was quite enjoyable until I found out how many cavities they had. (Bryce has 1 & Brett has 6). It was actually relaxing to sit around in the waiting room reading a book for over an hour.
Today is activity days at my house and we're making Ice Cream in a Bag so I've got to run out later and get ice and half & half to make it. I've also got an appointment to get Kylie's immunizaiton waiver so she can go to preschool.

I'm home until 12:30 with lots to accomplish. I'm trying to come up with a Tackle It project but mostly I need to just do the day in day out cleaning that always needs to be done: laundry, dishes, vacuuming, decluttering. Today I'm working on decluttering the living room & window seat. But first I've got to get the kids off to school and get my workout done. Hi ho hi ho!

Maintain It Monday

It's Monday! I'm finally feeling like we're back on a schedule and have a routine. We gave up on the idea of scriptures in the morning. The kids all leave at such different times that it's not worth it to me to get the little ones up at 6:25 for breakfast and scriptures when they don't have to leave for school until 8:30. They are much more pleasant when they get enough sleep. So we've opted to read scriptures at dinner and have multiple family prayers in the morning with just whoever is wake and leaving.

I'm back on the healthy living wagon. I will be attempting to post how I'm doing daily on my healthy living blog. This morning started off great with a good workout already complete.

As far as Maintain It Monday I've got the typical Monday morning messy house. Laundry, dishes and clutter to take care of. Kylie is off playing at Jessie's until noon so I've got a couple hours to shower and then work on the house.

I'm going to focus on just the upstairs today. Several loads of laundry, dishes, kitchen, bathrooms and the carpeted area. Perhaps even the office and my bedroom. We'll see how far I can get by noon.

Oquirrh Mountain Temple Dedication

Regular church was cancelled in Utah today. Instead we had the opportunity to attend a broadcast of the Oquirrh Mountain Temple Dedication. Since you had to be 8 to attend we traded kids with the Frames. We watched Jessie & Zach this morning while they attended the first broadcast and they watched Kylie & Bradley while we attended the 3 pm broadcast.
I came away being grateful we have a temple so close and wish it wasn't closed for the next 2 weeks. I also decided that we need pictures of the temple in all our rooms. We currently have a couple pictures in the office but I'm going to get pictures for the kids bedrooms. How wonderful it is to belong to a church lead by a prophet of God.

1984 by George Orwell

I'm starting on my list of classics. First book 1984 by George Orwell. Anyone read it? I read the first 20 pages last night and so far it's holding my interest. I heard it has a lame ending so I'm going in with low expectations.
I'm also listening to Xenocide by Orson Scott Card. Not a classic and other than the fact that it contains too much language I'm loving it.

Technology & School

I love that many teachers are finally using email and the internet to communicate with parents. I love visiting a blog and seeing a picture of my son in his class. I love emails telling me when tests and other important dates are. I love blogs that let me know what happened in class on a given day. I know it is extra time for the teachers but a huge thanks to those who take the extra time. I would much rather receive an email than have to search through a backpack full of papers looking for the 1 important message I need to read.

Book A Minute Classics

So in my quest to read more classics I came across the funniest website Book-a-minute classics. I think I could read a lot of classics if they were all like these:

Pride and Prejudice
By Jane Austen

Mr. Darcy:
Nothing is good enough for me.

Ms. Elizabeth Bennet:
I could never marry that proud man.

(They change their minds.)
The End

The Scarlet Letter
By Nathaniel Hawthorne

Evil Puritanical Society:
Because you have committed adultery, you must wear an 'A'. Harlot! Harlot!

Hester Prynne:
(The Evil Puritanical Society SNUBS Hester Prynne.)

Hester Prynne:
(They call her NAMES.)

Hester Prynne:
(They won't let her play any Evil Puritanical Society GAMES.)

Reverend Dimmesdale:
I can't take it anymore. I did it.

THE END

A Christmas Carol
By Charles Dickens

Ebenezer Scrooge:
Bah, humbug. You'll work thirty-eight hours on Christmas Day, keep the heat at five degrees, and like it.

Ghost of Jacob Marley:
Ebenezer Scrooge, three ghosts of Christmas will come and tell you you're mean.

Three Ghosts of Christmas:
You're mean.

Ebenezer Scrooge:
At last, I have seen the light. Let's dance in the streets. Have some money.

THE END

There we go 3 down 97 to go. ;-) I'll reach my goal of 100 books in no time.

Court of Honor

There are a whole bunch of boys Bryce's age in the 11 year old scout troop. We are so grateful our boys have such terrific scout leaders.

Bryce pinning his 2nd class pin on me.

Brett got his Life scout award & his Varsity letter and 2 pins. Next rank will be Eagle. Just 6 more merit badges and a project. 16 months to get it done so he can drive when he turns 16.

One week down!

We've made it through our first week of school. No one is getting enough sleep. We can't seem to get to bed early enough but other than that all seems to be going well.

Kylie has 1 more week until she starts preschool.
This is the conversation she has with everyone she meets from the checker at the grocery store to a guy walking into the school.

Kylie: What's your name?
Stranger: (tells her their name) What's your name?
Kylie: Kylie Rebecca Habel. How old are you?
Stranger: Various responses but most just say something like "really old" How old are you?
Kylie: I'm 3. I go to preschool in 8 days.
At which point in time I usually allowed the said stranger to go on their way by focusing Kylie's attention on to something else.
The best is when they tell her their age and it ends in "3".
Stranger: I'm 33
Kylie with a huge grin on her face: 3 Just like me!

Dang Proud of Our Boy Scout!

This is a boy who makes his parents proud. Bryce went camping with his scout troop on Friday night. His friend Jaden couldn't get his sleeping bag out of its bag so Bryce gave Jaden his sleeping bag to use. It made for one long cold night for Bryce. He didn't want to wake up his scout leaders and couldn't get into the scout trailer to get a blanket so he laid awake freezing all night long. He said he maybe got 2 hours of sleep. He fell asleep sitting up on the couch late Friday afternoon, woke up for a few minutes around 8:30 then went back to sleep for the night. Next time we told him it would be ok to wake his leader up or just use a knife to get the sleeping back out of the bag!

Visit from Cousins

Friday night Heidi and Kyle stayed with us on their move from AZ to Montana. The kids had so much fun. We have not seen them in way too long and their kids are growing up so fast. We spent Saturday morning boating at Sand Hollow reservoir then came home for a pizza lunch and just hung out until they had to leave Saturday evening.
Makenzie

Brooke

Spencer and Bradley are only 4 days apart.

Hopefully it won't be years before we get together again.

Books to Read

So let's hear it for my sister in law Kirsten! She took my 5 lists of books to read and combined them and sorted them by how often then appeared. I'm going to read all the books that appeared at least 3 times. I've not read much of the 45 books since graduating from High School. I'll then pick from the remaining books to reach 100 total.


Title
1984 by George Orwell
ANIMAL FARM by George Orwell
CATCH-22 by Joseph Heller
LOLITA by Vladimir Nabokov
LORD OF THE FLIES by William Golding
ON THE ROAD by Jack Kerouac
THE GREAT GATSBY by F. Scott Fitzgerald
7 books on all 5 lists

A CLOCKWORK ORANGE by Anthony Burgess
BRAVE NEW WORLD by Aldous Huxley
BRIDESHEAD REVISITED by Evelyn Waugh
GONE WITH THE WIND by Margaret Mitchell
HEART OF DARKNESS by Joseph Conrad
I, CLAUDIUS by Robert Graves
INVISIBLE MAN by Ralph Ellison
LIGHT IN AUGUST by William Faulkner
SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE by Kurt Vonnegut
THE CATCHER IN THE RYE by J.D. Salinger
THE GRAPES OF WRATH by John Steinbeck
THE HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER by Carson McCullers
THE LORD OF THE RINGS by J.R.R. Tolkien
THE SOUND AND THE FURY by William Faulkner
THE SUN ALSO RISES by Ernest Hemingway
TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD by Harper Lee
TO THE LIGHTHOUSE by Virginia Woolf
TROPIC OF CANCER by Henry Miller
ULYSSES by James Joyce
UNDER THE VOLCANO by Malcolm Lowry
20 books on 4 lists

A FAREWELL TO ARMS by Ernest Hemingway
A PASSAGE TO INDIA by E.M. Forster
A PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG MAN by James Joyce
A PRAYER FOR OWEN MEANY by John Irving
A TOWN LIKE ALICE by Nevil Shute
ALL THE KING'S MEN by Robert Penn Warren
AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY by Theodore Dreiser
AS I LAY DYING by William Faulkner
BELOVED by Toni Morrison
GO TELL IT ON THE MOUNTAIN by James Baldwin
GRAVITY’S RAINBOW by Thomas Pynchon
MIDNIGHT'S CHILDREN by Salman Rushdie
NATIVE SON by Richard Wright
THE CALL OF THE WILD by Jack London
THE HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY by Douglas Adams
THE MAGUS by John Fowles
THE MOVIEGOER by Walker Percy
THE SHELTERING SKY by Paul Bowles
18 books on 3 lists

A DANCE TO THE MUSIC OF TIME (series) by Anthony Powell
A HANDFUL OF DUST by Evelyn Waugh
A HOUSE FOR MR BISWAS by V.S. Naipaul
ABSALOM, ABSALOM! by William Faulkner
ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND by Lewis Carroll
ANNA KAREINA by Leo Tolstoy
APPOINTMENT IN SAMARRA by John O'Hara
AT SWIM-TWO-BIRDS by Flann O'Brien
ATLAS SHRUGGED by Ayn Rand
Atonement by Ian McEwan
BLEAK HOUSE by Charles Dickens
BLOOD MERIDIAN by Cormac McCarthy
CHARLOTE’S WEB by E. B. White
CRIME AND PUNISHMENT by Feodor Dostoevsky
DAVID COPPERFIELD by Charles Dickens
DEATH COMES FOR THE ARCHBISHOP by Willa Cather
DELIVERANCE by James Dickey
DUNE by Frank Herbert
Emma-Jane Austen
FINNEGANS WAKE by James Joyce
FRANKENSTEIN by Mary Shelley
GREAT EXPECTATIONS by Charles Dickens
HERZOG by Saul Bellow
HOWARDS END by E.M. Forster
JANE EYRE by Charlotte Bronte
LITTLE WOMEN by Louisa M. Alcott
LOVING by Henry Green
MADAME BOVARY by Gustave Flaubert
MOBY-DICK by Herman Melville
MY ANTONIA by Willa Cather
NAKED LUNCH by William S. Burroughs
NOSTROMO by Joseph Conrad
OF HUMAN BONDAGE by W. Somerset Maugham
OF MICE AND MEN by John Steinbeck
ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST by Ken Kesey
ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF SOLITUDE by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
PALE FIRE by Vladimir Nabokov
PORTNOY'S COMPLAINT by Philip Roth
Possession by A.S. Byatt
PRIDE AND PREJUDICE by Jane Austen
RAGTIME by E.L. Doctorow
REBECCA by Daphne du Maurier
TENDER IS THE NIGHT by F. Scott Fitzgerald
TESS Of The D’URBERVILLES, Thomas Hardy
THE ADVENTURES OF AUGIE MARCH by Saul Bellow
THE AGE OF INNOCENCE by Edith Wharton
THE AMBASSADORS by Henry James
THE BRIDGE OF SAN LUIS REY by Thornton Wilder
THE DAY OF THE LOCUST by Nathanael West
THE DEATH OF THE HEART by Elizabeth Bowen
THE FOUNTAINHEAD by Ayn Rand
THE FRENCH LIEUTENANT'S WOMAN by John Fowles
THE GOOD SOLDIER by Ford Madox Ford
THE HANDMAID'S TALE by Margaret Atwood
THE HEART OF THE MATTER by Graham Greene
The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
THE PRIME OF MISS JEAN BRODIE by Muriel Spark
THE RAINBOW by D.H. Lawrence
THE RECOGNITIONS by William Gaddis
THE STAND by Stephen King
THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS by Kenneth Grahame
THE WINGS OF THE DOVE by Henry James
THE WOMAN IN WHITE by Wilkie Collins
THE WORLD ACCORDING TO GARP by John Irving
THINGS FALL APART by Chinua Achebe
U.S.A. (trilogy) by John Dos Passos
UNDER THE NET by Iris Murdoch
VANITY FAIR by William Makepeace Thackeray
WAR AND PEACE by Leo Tolstoy
WATERSHIP DOWN by Richard Adams
WIDE SARGASSO SEA by Jean Rhys
WINNIE THE POOH by A(lan) A(lexander) Milne
WISE BLOOD by Flannery O'Connor
WOMEN IN LOVE by D.H. Lawrence
Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
75 books on 2 lists

A BEND IN THE RIVER by V.S. Naipaul
A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
A Death in the Family by James Agee
A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mxistry
A HIGH WIND IN JAMAICA by Richard Hughes
A ROOM WITH A VIEW by E.M. Forster
A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
American Pastoral by Philip Roth
ANGLE OF REPOSE by Wallace Stegner
Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
ANTHEM by Ayn Rand
Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret by Judy Blume
ARROWSMITH by Sinclair Lewis
AT THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS by H.P. Lovecraft
AUSTERLITZ by W. G. Sebald
BATTLEFIELD EARTH by L. Ron Hubbard
Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
Call It Sleep by Henry Roth
Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
CITIZEN OF THE GALAXY by Robert Heinlein
CLARISSA by Samuel Richardson
Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
Complete Works of Shakespeare
Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
DARKNESS AT NOON by Arthur Koestler
Dog Soldiers by Robert Stone
DON QUIXOTE by Miguel de Cervantes
DOUBLE STAR by Robert Heinlein
Dracula - Bram Stoker
Dune - Frank Herbert
ENDER'S GAME by Orson Scott Card
Falconer by John Cheever
Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
FARENHEIT 451 by Ray Bradbury
FEAR by L. Ron Hubbard
FIFTH BUSINESS by Robertson Davies
FROM HERE TO ETERNITY by James Jones
Germinal - Emile Zol
Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
GREENMANTLE by Charles de Lint
GUILTY PLEASURES by Laurell K. Hamilton
Hamlet - William Shakespeare
Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
HENDERSON THE RAIN KING by Saul Bellow
His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson
ILLUSIONS by Richard Bach
IN SEARCH OF LOST TIME by Marcel Proust
Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace
IRONWEED by William Kennedy
IT by Stephen King
Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
KIM by Rudyard Kipling
Les Miserables - Victor Hugo
Life of Pi - Yann Martel
LORD JIM by Joseph Conrad
Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis
MAIN STREET by Sinclair Lewis
Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
MEMORY AND DREAM by Charles de Lint
Middlemarch - George Eliot
MISSION EARTH by L. Ron Hubbard
Money by Martin Amis
MOONHEART by Charles de Lint
Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
MULENGRO by Charles de Lint
MYTHAGO WOOD by Robert Holdstock
Neuromancer by William Gibson
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
ON THE BEACH by Nevil Shute
ONE LONELY NIGHT by Mickey Spillane
PARADE'S END by Ford Madox Ford
Persuasion - Jane Austen
Play It As It Lays by Joan Didion
POINT COUNTER POINT by Aldous Huxley
Rabbit, Run by John Updike
Red Harvest by Dashiell Hammett
Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates
ROBINSON CRUSOE by Daniel Defoe
SCOOP by Evelyn Waugh
Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
SHANE by Jack Schaefer
SISTER CARRIE by Theodore Dreiser
Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson
SOMEPLACE TO BE FLYING by Charles de Lint
SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES by Ray Bradbury
SOMETIMES A GREAT NOTION by Ken Kesey
SONS AND LOVERS by D.H. Lawrence
SOPHIE'S CHOICE by William Styron
STARSHIP TROOPERS by Robert Heinlein
STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND by Robert Heinlein
SUTTREE by Cormac McCarthy
Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
THE ALEXANDRIA QUARTET by Lawrence Durell
The Assistant by Bernard Malamud
THE AWAKENING by Kate Chopin (1851-1904)
The Berlin Stories by Christopher Isherwood
The Bible
The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler
The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood
THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV by Feodor Dostoevsky
The Color Purple - Alice Walker
The Confessions of Nat Turner by William Styron
The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen
THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO by Alexandre Dumas
The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon
THE CUNNING MAN by Robertson Davies
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night - Mark Haddon
The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
THE DOOR INTO SUMMER by Robert Heinlein
The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
THE GINGER MAN by J.P. Donleavy
THE GOLDEN BOWL by Henry James
The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing
THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE by Shirley Jackson
The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
THE HOUSE OF MIRTH by Edith Wharton
THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER by Tom Clancy
The Inferno – Dante
The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
THE LITTLE COUNTRY by Charles de Lint
The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS by Booth Tarkington
THE MALTESE FALCON by Dashiell Hammett
The Man Who Loved Children by Christina Stead
THE MOON IS A HARSH MISTRESS by Robert Heinlein
THE NAKED AND THE DEAD by Norman Mailer
THE OLD WIVES' TALE by Arnold Bennett
The Painted Bird by Jerzy Kosinski
THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY by Henry James
THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE by James M. Cain
The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene
THE PUPPET MASTERS by Robert Heinlein
The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
THE SATANIC VERSES by Salman Rushdie
THE SCARLET LETTER by Nathaniel Hawthorne
THE SECRET AGENT by Joseph Conrad
The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
The Secret History - Donna Tartt
The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
The Sot-Weed Factor by John Barth
The Sportswriter by Richard Ford
The Spy Who Came in From the Cold by John le Carre
THE STUDS LONIGAN TRILOGY by James T. Farrell
The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
The Time Traveler’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
THE TRIAL by Franz Kafka
THE WAPSHOT CHRONICLES by John Cheever
The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
THE WAY OF ALL FLESH by Samuel Butler
THE WOOD WIFE by Terri Windling
THE WORM OUROBOROS by E.R. Eddison
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
TOBACCO ROAD by Erskine Caldwell
TOM JONES by Henry Fielding
TRADER by Charles de Lint
TRISTAM SHANDY by Laurence Sterne
TRUSTEE FROM THE TOOLROOM by Nevil Shute
Ubik by Philip K. Dick
V. by Thomas Pynchon
Watchmen by Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons
WE THE LIVING by Ayn Rand
White Noise by Don DeLillo
White Teeth by Zadie Smith
WINESBURG, OHIO by Sherwood Anderson
YARROW by Charles de Lint
ZEN AND THE ART OF MOTORCYCLE MAINTENANCE by Robert Pirsig
ZULEIKA DOBSON by Max Beerbohm
181 books on only one list

Find It Friday

I know there is carpet downstairs and carpet in the office. The carpet downstairs is buried under blankets, legos and dry Ramen that someone ate and then left downstairs to be smashed and scattered. The carpet in the office seems to be lost under a summers worth of paperwork, school supplies and various odd & ends. It's quite obvious which areas of my house I neglected this summer.
I have a little time all to myself so I'm listening to Xenocide while trying to get the office back in shape. When I accomplish that I'll head downstairs to unearth the carpet down there. Hopefully by the time Brian's sister Heidi gets here tonight the house will all be clean. I better get back to work or that will be wishful thinking.

No More Menu Plan Mondays

I've gotten tired of planning out menus week after week that are almost identical except for eating the same foods in a different order. We decided to just have a set menu that we repeat each week with a little variation. It makes life simpler for me. Obviously it will be flexible and can change according to what we have going on each week.

So here it is. I'll just post it on the fridge and call it good until we get tired of doing meals this way.

Back to School

Hard to believe Bradley is already in 2nd grade. He was up and ready to go and was excited and said he wasn't even tired despite going to bed really late.

Bradley has Miss Hicken. Bryce and Kim have both had her and loved her so I put Bradley with her too.

Kim looked so pretty heading off to school today.

She is in 4th grade with Mrs. Bateman and is excited to be in a portable this year.

Kylie doesn't start preschool until 2 weeks from today.

But the concept of 2 weeks is hard for a 3 year old to understand so we stopped by her preschool so she could see her classroom and all the fun toys they have there.

Intermediate School

Off to his first day of 6th grade at the intermediate school. From 1 teacher & 1 classroom in 5th grade to 6 teachers and 6 different classrooms.

There is a huge group of kids from the neighborhood that meet at the bus stop. Only 2 girls and a bunch of boys.

I told Bryce to turn around and smile and Ashton is reaching out telling him to smile. Yes I was one of only 2 parents at the bus stop. I was actually surprised that the bus pulled up right on time 7:17 am, I thought it might be late the first day.

Early Morning Seminary!

Brett's first day of 9th grade! How in the world did he get old enough to be a Freshman?

I just dropped him off for his first day of early morning seminary.

Of course I made him pose for a picture just for the purpose of posting it here!

Back to School Early Tomorrow

10:45 and all the kids are finally downstairs. I totally failed in the "ready" for school department. It was Back to School night tonight at the elementary school and I didn't get home until after 8:30. No one had even started getting their school supplies together and their backpacks packed. The house was a disaster and everyone was hungry. The kids got their chores done (thanks Brian for seeing to that), had a snack, packed their backpacks, made their lunches and then we had Father's Blessings. Now it's off to bed because we are getting up really early tomorrow because.....

We found out that they just started offering an early morning seminary class so we enrolled Brett in it! It's not even true "early" morning seminary because it doesn't even start until 7:00 am and it is only 3 days a week. But it's good enough to make me happy! My poor children have the "meanest" mom in the world, I rejoice that they get to attend early morning seminary.

Jacob Hamblin Home

Not the best pictures but still a fun activity. Today we took the girls out to the Jacob Hamblin home in Santa Clara. We had a fabulous tour guide who did a great job with the girls.
Remind me the next time I go to take pictures to make sure the camera is set correctly. I had a few issues due to the fact that I didn't take it off night scene after going camping last night. These are the only 2 pictures that were not completely blurry.

We have a great group of girls to work with. It's a lot of fun to have activities with them twice a month.

End of Summer Campout

Since our last camping trip didn't work out we promised Kim we'd go camping. Since summer is about over we opted to go camping for family home evening. We went out to Sand Hollow and camped on the beach.

While the tent was being set up Kylie got a little muddy.

We were camped in the "primitive" campground right by the water.

It was a great place to camp except there was no bathroom nearby and there were tons of little tiny bugs that looked like pieces of ash from the fire.

Once the tent was up we took the boat out of the water.

Then it was back to the campsite for roasted starbursts and marshmallows.

It was a fun simple campout. I always complain that camping is so much work but Brian says all we have to do to go camping is throw the tent and some blankets in the car and be off so that is basically what we did. We had sandwiches for dinner and bagels and cream cheese with fruit for breakfast. Easy fun and not much work... except for the pile of blankets and towels that had to be washed when we got home.