All that jazz

For some reason this summer is weird. It's almost over which I have mixed feelings about, but I also kind of feel stuck in limbo. There's not much going on, not much I feel like reporting, but we aren't miserable either. It's just weird. This is kind of what we've been doing.

We've been trying to do a few projects. These took a couple of days, which was nice. The girls painted the faces and picked out the clothes. We're still working out what to do for arms. Right now they look like the less glamorous neighbors of Higglytown.

I found this plain white tray at Ikea. We decided to make a project out of it and send it to my mom for her birthday. The girls had a good time cutting up old magazines. I really liked how it turned out, I hope my mom did too.

The girls made a mailbox that unfortunately only kept them occupied for one afternoon. They love the mail, I thought for sure they would play with this for a couple of days. Oh well, we'll try something else.

We have been gardening again this year. It was amazing and slightly alarming how much our plants grew while we were gone for two weeks. This was our most ingenious idea this year, plant zucchini plants on our unused hill that used to house an apple tree. Last year this hill became a trash heap, we dumped all the yard debris and rocks from around the yard here. Roger and the girls worked hard getting it cleared out this spring and the zucchini have been incredibly happy here.

Roger spotted this in the yard a little while ago. Can you tell what it is? I really couldn't at first, but it's a baby rabbit. That's one of the funny things about this area, we have bunnies everywhere. They're just the wild ones, but i get a kick out of them nonetheless. We have never seen one this tiny though. I was really worried about it because they usually don't come out of their den until they are bigger. I think we've had at least 4 bunny holes in our yard this year. One day the girls and I watched the mama dig her hole for the babies, we saw this a few days later. I hope this little one was OK.

I had the very fortunate experience of getting a new calling at church on Sunday. I am now the Sunbeam teacher (teaching the 4 year olds). I'm so excited I can barely take it. We'll see how Sunday goes, hopefully I'll still feel as excited about it on Sunday evening.

What we found

We found a fun place to swim last weekend. It's a local reservoir that has a little beach. When I say little I mean like you can only swim out about 100 yards before the buoys tell you that you cannot pass because there are boats. It was perfect for our little family. The price was right too, only $2 for the whole family.

This is what Luke did the entire time. He's absolutely fearless and really didn't care when the water got too deep. It is worrisome indeed.

Ashby enjoying the lake. I was standing on the sand and took her picture, you can see the you cannot pass buoys in the background. It was small indeed.

Avery preferred digging in the sand over swimming, I can't say I blame her. The water was a little too murky for me too. On a side note, what happened to me? I didn't use to care about murky water, now it kind of gives me the heebie jeebies.

The kids getting ready to pull out.

I also wanted to include these pictures from the fourth of July. We have a new point and shoot camera and I won't ever be able to use more than half the functions on it, however I did find this cool night scene setting and it was good for catching some sparkler action. The best thing to do with sparklers? Write your name of course, this is Ashby's y.

Avery was fixin' to lasso her something good, probably a candy bar or some lip gloss.

Mediocrity

I had a discussion with my sister in law this week about being mediocre. I am the definition of mediocre and I'm totally OK with that. Every now and again, especially when I get sucked into the blogosphere, I wish I was or could do something really outstanding or tremendous, but then I remember I'm totally OK with mediocrity and I carry on. I've been feeling so guilty about not posting anything in a while, but the truth is, life has been mediocre. Which isn't a bad thing. I prefer stability to the wild swinging of ups and downs anyway. Things are going just fine. We are going to the library, a lot, which means we are reading a lot and that's great. It's been raining so we've been watching TV, a lot, which really doesn't bother me that much (I'm totally over feeling guilty about that). I haven't been taking a lot of pictures for a few reasons: I'm too lazy, I've got my hands full of Luke and nothing seems that picture worthy. I guess my one real complaint about the mediocre life I lead is that time seems to pass more quickly. The girls start school in about a month and when they do, I'm sure I'll look back on the summer and have nothing to remember about it so therefore will wonder what happened to it. Were you wondering how many more times I could say mediocre? Well I think that was the last time, for now.

A month really?

As I'm looking through pictures I haven't posted yet, I can't figure out how to catch up, it exhausts me to think about it. I'm going for highlights here and hopefully for my own benefit, I'll fill in more details later. We had a wonderful time in Utah. It was too short. We spent so much time with my parents and my family, it was so great. I still can't get over the injustice of the swine flu though. Our very good friend Brittany contracted said illness while we were there which limited our time with her family, how dare she right? Here we go.

Ashby graduated from kindergarten on June 11th. Here she is with her teacher Miss Galie, we will miss her next year.

We had breakfast up in Big Cottonwood Canyon. I love that mountain air.

We went swimming and barbecuing with my Ricks College roommates. Look at all those kids, the five of us have been busy. I love this picture because it illustrates how difficult it is to get kids to do something all at the same time. Thanks again Jill for offering your house and pool. The party is something the girls still consistently say was one of their favorite things about the trip.

Luke and the other little ones were busy with this chair at Jill's house. Isn't is just the right size?

We were able to attend the Oquirrh Mountain temple open house. I remember going to the Bountiful temple open house; I hope this is something my kids will remember for a life time. The view from the temple grounds was truly amazing.

We were able to celebrate Kid's Day while in Utah. We took the kids to the Children's Museum. This was one of the few activities they did together.

Did you know a kiddie pool was so fun? Swimming on Kid's Day.

We try to ride a carousel on Kid's Day, here's Avs.

Here's Ashby. She chose the dragon, man I love the dragon!

They fought the good fight

Ashby was Ms. T for their end of the year Letter People parade. Ms. T has tall teeth,

or is Ashby fighting the good fight for Christianity?

Because of Luke's war injury to his left leg, this was the only means of transportation left to him.

Avery kept out of the fighting this time...

We are heading out to Utah next week, does anyone have any good tips for flying with babies? It's been a really long time since I've flown with anyone as young as Luke and I've never flown this far with a baby before. I'm pulling my hair out to say the least.

I guess I'm a pessimist

I usually consider myself an optimist, but after deciding to write this post, I may not be. I have a bone to pick with "well, you tried you're best, so it's fine." I hate that I find myself saying that to my kids. At some point I guess I might, if I had to and only to make people feel better and only in certain situations kind of believe it. Here's the reason why I don't buy it (humiliation on the line again...) When I was a junior in high school I tried out for the varsity song leader squad. I cheered on JV that year and I liked it a lot and really wanted to be a song leader. The song leaders at our school were good, like really good, like went to competitions and got first place good. It was serious business. I had friends that had been song leaders in previous years and they danced their tails off, it was a joy to watch. So I went to the audition and it was really hard. I thought I held my own though. By that time in my life I had been dancing for almost ten years. I could remember a routine pretty well on short notice. The dance was fast, really fast, but I felt good about it, in fact you could say that I did the best I possibly could. There were a few other things in the tryout, I don't remember specifically, but just more testing of abilities. At the end of the audition I got cut. I was absolutely devastated. I mean I hadn't felt that upset by anything for a really long time and quite honestly I don't know if I have since (that's actually kind of weird). Anyway I was a wreck. I went home and cried my eyes out to my mom. The very, very worst part was that I knew I did my best, there was nothing left to give, I gave it all, but was it enough? Not even close, I didn't make it through the first cut. It just sucks to know that no matter what you do, you come in about 20th place. Such is life I guess, but you won't catch me throwing around the" you did your best" without some serious peer pressure...

I meant for this post to be funny, turns out it just sounds grouchy huh?
This is not a woe is me post either, I was just thinking about it the other day. I often hear you did your best on TV and it makes me laugh.

Oh goodness

May was a busy month. We had a great time. There's a lot to catch up on.

Ashby received the pledge keeper award for her class for May. Every month the teachers nominate someone in their classroom that demonstrates a particular part of the Fairmount Pledge. Ashby was chosen for responsibility. The school sent a letter in the mail informing us of the award and asking us to attend the assembly but to keep it a secret. It was very fun to surprise her at school. She was walking up to the stage so fast I couldn't get a good picture, that's her leg by the podium.

Ashby played in her last soccer game of the season. We will miss it; well I won't really miss carting all the kids to practice every week, but we will miss the games and having a good excuse to be outside.

Avery danced in her first recital. She performed in two numbers. She did a great job. She smiled and kind of looked at the audience and not her teacher. Thanks again Pat and DeAnna for coming.

Pretty little Avs waiting for the show to start. I like this picture because all three kids are in it. Ashby didn't want to go to the recital, but she didn't want to leave at intermission so it wasn't a complete bust.

Avery graduated from nursery school. She was attending at the local high school. The child development lab holds a preschool for a few months every year. She loved it.

It's so fun to watch the girls grow into their own little people. We love them so much. Not to leave Luke out, I don't have any new pictures to share. He's becoming an accomplished scooter. He can get anywhere he wants to go and pretty quickly too. We can't wait for school to be out for the summer. Who doesn't love summer?