My sister in law just posted this and I wanted to pass it on.

It's over 6 minutes, but it will make your day that much better!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snAjZ8mfoYw

Plus, I needed to get those nasty sorpions off the top of my page!

Meet number three:

Meet number three:

Number one is definitely still my least favorite. I reached into my glass mug that holds my makeup brushes to get a bobby pin on the bottom, and through it I see a scorpion literally just below my finger that is in the jar! I screamed for probably 30 straight seconds. Brian thought I was seriously injured, but I was just seriously freaked out! Number two followed only a week or so later. I pulled the last shirt out of the washing machine and there he was. Fortunately dead. That was much easier on my nerves. The part that freaked me out was to think he was probably in the pile of clothes that I had just carried from my bathroom floor all the way to the laundry room a few hours prior. Once again, too close for comfort.

I went over a month with no sitings...until this afternoon I was cleaning the bathroom and there he was-peaking out from under the cabinet baseboard. (look how dirty my cabinet looks in a close up shot!-I mean-Don't LOOK!-haha)

Anyway, when I spotted this guy-I assumed he was dead. Why else was he out and about at 2 pm? (now that I see the pic, I have no clue why I assumed this!!) But his arms/legs were kinda curled up like they do when they die. Then, while still squatting down I was getting a closer look at my new friend on my LCD screen, and when I glanced back at him, he had MOVED!

He was alive!!! But I still think he was in the process of dieing...I ran to the kitchen and grabbed a glass jar to put over him and when I got back he had moved again.

When I put the jar over him (or maybe it was a her?) He went straight to fight mode and raised his pincher's up high and got his tail ready-it was so freaky looking. I didn't get a picture of that because I was watching him FALL over due to his dying state. We got sprayed last week so I assume he was affected. Anyway, he was on his back for a few mins before he was even able to flip back over. He was lucky enough to live out his last few hours under the glass before Brian got home to squash him to pieces....

Tonight a friend and his brother came over and we went hunting...We only found TWO! Yes, I said only. I had expected more like 10. Our yard is rather large and not landscaped. So we headed to the bank owned home next door thinking we'd hit the jackpot...And NOTHING in the back yard, but we found 3 in the same spot in front of the house. Then we found 6 in the front of the vacant home two doors down. One of which was caught in a web and was currently being eaten by a black widow. That was the highlight of the night for me. I should have brought my camera out-it was pretty cool to see, and much less creepy when they are glowing like toy..

Also, why is it that NONE of the ones we found outdoors tonight were as large as the THREE I have seen inside!!??

Football begins...

We started out the day with Kamryn's soccer game. Her team won again! The highlight of the game was when she saw that my parents had just showed up....she instantly turned on her GAME face (literally-see below), and she started picking up the pace-at least for the moment.

(game face above)

Tanner's games are in the late afternoon/evenings this year. It wasn't too bad. I think I was much more hot at the soccer game this morning. This is his teams second year together and they have come along way! They are so much fun to watch. Tanner loves it out there. He mostly plays defense and loves to try and get the flags. He got TWO today! His first ones in a real game!! The second time the kid sort of got knocked down in the process and look at his sad face.

He's got his eye on that flag!

Got it!

Payton and Blake love to go watch their siblings also!

His hair always looks extra blonde when he's outside.

Babysitters....

Aren't babysitters the best! My kids think so. They have always loved when babysitters come over and have never ever had a problem with Mom and Dad leaving... I also think it's amazing how easy they make the "MOM" job look. Having four kids at night and getting everyone fed and in bed can be quite a task, but a 13-15 yr old can do it with such ease. It helps to have such an easy baby to add to the other three. It's so nice to let him stay home and stay on his schedule, and know that he'll be fine.

We got home tonight and found little "presents" taped up on a few doors. It was so cute!

(on the garage door when I came in)

(on the front door)
Maybe someday we'll be nice parents and take Tanner to see the StarWars movie...he LOVES StarWars, but I still have No idea how he knows SO much about it?!? He can name all the characters, and tell you all about them. He does play the video game at a friends house every now and then, so I assume that's where...

(on our master door)

Also, I went on my FIRST field trip today!! Well, as an adult that is...We went to the Tempe Center for Arts and saw the child's play Miss Nelsen in Missing. It wasn't too bad, but I loved getting to know the kids in Tanner's class. That's my favorite part. I bet when I have no kids at home, I'll go back to teaching to kill the time! I just love being around kids that age in a school setting. By then I bet I'll have to take quite a few more classes to re-certify! Things just change so much over the years! We'll see....

Lazy Day....

Well, not really! That's what we call them over here. If we are ever just staying at home doing laundry or cleaning out closets, I always tell the girls we're having a "lazy day" or another phrase we use is a "play all day-day." The lazy part isn't on me (-I wish!) it's just if we're home all day that's when we're in our jammies the whole day and it usually includes a cartoon or two or three....

Anyway, it was almost noon and I just wanted OUT. We called April and she too was having a "lazy"-I mean laundry-day. We threw some clothes on the kids and met up for lunch. I was glad for some company and a chance to get out after a busy morning.

This is Bella-she is one of our(me and my girls') ALL time FAVORITE people! I guess we love April and Zander also, but I'll always have a soft spot in my heart for little Bella...

As you can see, Kamryn wanted to be in charge of taking pictures.....

BYU GAME

Brian and I were able to get away last weekend and go up to Utah to a BYU game with some friends. Brian's sister Rachel came over and stayed here with my four kids, plus her one! She did an amazing job with them and had everything so under control. I knew she'd be fine, but I was expecting my kids to be a little harder than she made them sound! (maybe she's leaving things out to be nice!) Anyway, we had a GREAT time. We stayed with Brian's brother and his family. We basically went out to eat a few times and just enjoyed the WONDERFUL weather! We even had David and Jessica meet up with us one night.

I only have ONE picture from the trip-believe it or not! It was an AWESOME game.

Even though I graduated from BYU, I think I only ever went to ONE game while I was there! I'm not sure why though, I've always been a college football fan. That is one thing I'd change if I could go back!

Can't every day,

Be PICTURE day?

Picture day is a favorite of ours around here. I let the kids pick out their favorite outfit, and they are always so excited. Anyone that knows Tanner knows that it is a complete struggle to get him to wear a shirt with a collar (like a polo shirt-he has no problem with button-ups to church) Anyway, he's been like this since he was about three, but each year on picture day I win and he wears one for me. EXCEPT for this year! He wouldn't put one on and we were running late, so he won.

This was Kamryn's first picture day, and she had been counting down the days for it. She asked me a few days ago if I could curl her hair that day, and this morning she ASKED for EARRINGS and her BRACELET! This is not a normal thing for Kamryn to WANT. We almost ran out of time to do her hair, and the tears were swelling up, but once the curling iron warmed up we had two minutes and we did it and we were off to school! (I did however find a second to snap a picture of my own-apparently not enough time to talk her into smiling "properly") Haha, she's just so much fun to have around these days!

I love this girl!

Let the busy Saturdays begin!

After we played all morning, Tanner had football practice (games start in a couple weeks). Then we headed out into 105 degree heat to watch Kamryn's first soccer game this season. She was SO excited that her uniform is purple this year, and as she saw her friends (all boys) throughout this last week she'd tease them and say, "you have to wear a purple shirt!" She had to good first game and got to try out goalie! (too bad the ball never EVER went on our side of the field that entire quarter! But she looked cute standing there!

After noon I was FINALLY able to meet Sariah (Shireen's baby) I have been a slacker and haven't gotten away without kids to visit her since she was born! Isn't she beautiful?!?

Then Brian and Tanner took off with some friends to the ASU football game. Tanner went once last season and loved it and he has been waiting for this moment to come up again! (last weekend we saw John Elway when we were there! He was walking in from parking at the same time as us! I think it's the only famous person I've every seen?!?!)


As for tonight...I was bored....and what do I do when I'm bored...cut Blake's hair. Poor kid-I just love to see the change! Hopefully Brian won't mind....I always miss his old "look" at first, but it only takes a day to get used to the new him!

(at soccer game before hair cut)

(tonight)

The girls are sitting right here playing with Blake as I'm doing this post, and this is what I just looked over and saw....I guess it's still long enough for clips!

Our little Bubby

Payton likes to mix Bubba and Buddy and call Blake "little bubby." When he is sleeping she'll always ask me, "Where's my bubby?" and when she plays with him she says, "hey little bubby!" She loves him to pieces.

Kamryn is still such a little mommy. Every couple days she'll go get a diaper, and an outfit for Blake and get him ready after his bath. Sometimes she needs help and the shirt gets stuck covering his face...but he doesn't seem to mind-he just laughs and smiles at her.

Tanner asks to hold him a lot, but he still has a thirty second limit. It's like he starts looking around the room like....."what now?!?" I think he gets bored and can't sit still that long. I do still find Tanner chatting away to Blake on an occasion-just telling him about his day.

This morning the kids were all playing in Tanner's room, and I needed to get some laundry done, so I took Blake in there to hang out with them. He just loves hanging out where the "action" is. A little while later I hear the kids making towers in the family room with the couch cushions and so I go to Tanners room to see what Blake was up to all alone. Well, they wore him out and he zonked out in the middle of the room!

I called the kids to come see, and grabbed the camera. While we were spying on him we woke him up and the kids got all excited and took turns passing him around playing with him again. He's gonna be one tough easy going kid someday!!

Buddies

Our friends Niki, Alexa, and Gavin came over to visit today. These boys are 6 days apart(we shared the same due date). Gavin is the older of the two. Thanks for coming over Niki, if and when you move back to Utah, we'll miss you! We met them when Tanner was a baby, she and Greg were our first friends we made once married. (that's right, we're dorks, we went like 2 years with no new friends....) I'm sure we'll still visit on our Utah trips each year....

Are his eyes going green on me?!? Maybe it's the shirt, or just cause he's next to Gavin's GORGEOUS blue eyes! I'm good with green-I just want something besides brown eyed kid number FOUR! (Brian and I both had green/hazel eyes)

Oh what to do....

This happens about once a week at our house, but I just don't get how it happens to all of them on the same night!?! Most mornings I wake up to no one...then out of the blue, I'll wake up to this:

As Blake woke up to eat at 6:15 that morning, I first tripped over Tanner and Payton, then almost landed on Kamryn. I train them young NOT TO WAKE MOM and DAD. So, they just make themselves comfy and I guess we're all satisfied! The only bad thing is....if they wake me, then I can say, "go back to your bed" and they usually do. BUT, if they don't, then they get away with sleeping in my room the entire night. I just thinks it's crazy that we never hear them come in, but I can hear the baby's slightest move in the other room?? When asked what the heck happened at their end of the hosue last night, both Tanner and Kamryn said they had a bad dream. Tanner later told me, "You know what's so cool mom?? Sometimes I have bad dreams in my room, but if I go to your room, then I NEVER have bad dreams...." Glad I can help Tanner....

(don't ask about the ginormous stuffed dog laying on Kamryn....my dad brought three identical ones home from Argentina one year, and they are often found all over the house....)

Joy School

Payton has so many little friends her age in our neighborhood. As moms we decided to do a Joy school for all these little 2 yr olds. The oldest is already 3, the rest are all right about Paytons age or a few months younger. She was SO excited for school to start. She talked about it daily and could list off 6 or 7 of her 8 friends that go....plus she could name most the moms (since 3 of them are her nursery teachers also!) Anyway, she got a pick out a tiny sized backpack last week and she even chose to sleep with it a few times. We started this week and they went two times. She had so much fun, and I LOVED how slow the two hours seem to go while she was away. I got a couple snapshots of her with her "bes-friends" as she calls them. Carson wasn't there, but he is her third little boyfriend...

Payton with Seth and Kamryn

Her with Samuel and Makaila

(Payton has always been taller than most kids her age, but I think she SHOT up recently, because I never noticed she was "that" much taller....)

Monday Night Fun

Some friends invited us to the Lake today and we were so excited when the sky turned from clouds to sun! We picked the kids up from school and headed up to the Lake. Brandon was first in and was skiing like a pro! He's 4 yrs old.

Tanner wanted to try next and he got right up the first time.

Then Ashlyn showed us her stuff.

The Dad's then had to show their boys what they could do in their old age...Brian has a pretty bad sprained ankle, but didn't want to pass up this chance.




We ended the evening with lots of fun tube rides. First all 5 little kids went together...Then the girls, then the boys. Payton was loving her turn out there also! Brandon and Tanner hit a major wave/bump and the tube went flying in the air multiple feet high. Tanner let go and says he was flying like superman. Brandon hung on for life and came down hard on the tube and it didn't feel too good! As we pulled around Tanner was yelling, "That was AWESOME!"




Here are some other favorites of the night. Blake and Emma also were there, and they too had a lots of fun!