Summer Fun Right???

This is the picture of how summer SHOULD be going!!! This is the picture of how summer IS going!!! (not right)

Every year I start summer with all kinds of plans. First we are going to keep the house clean, and every morning we will clean it up and play the rest of the day. We are going to have a schedule and on Wednesday's we are going to go play and explore the city just mom and kids day. Well summer has started and you guess it not one of these things have worked out. I still wake up every morning with "this day will turn out the way I planned", and go to bed "tomorrow I will do better". I don't know if it is because I have 5 children from ages 15 to 3, or because lets just face it I'm tired. Whatever it is summer fun is never the way I planned it. I do promise the lemonade stand I have be promising Meg and Jake will happen even if I die from trying!!! Let's just hope our vacation to Disneyland goes better, I think I will stop planning it out and just go with the flow...

My Son...

So I know I have been complaining a lot about my teenager's, but today I need to praise my son Josh. This week was EFY and Josh was able to go. This past week I have been able to witness my teenager become a really neat young man. His spirit and his love of the gospel and the Lord has grown by leaps and bounds. He told me this morning when he was getting ready for the last day of EFY, "mom I wish EFY was all summer long, the feeling I have by being a part of it I don't want to go away". He said he would gladly miss scout camp if he could do EFY again. Every night when he gets home he has so much to share including his testimony. It's hard sitting here trying not to cry, but when you here him speak you just know he is a strong young man and a strong child of God. Willing to stand at all times and in all places for our Father in Heaven and for our Savior. I know that this annoying teenager that bugs me to no end will be a great man and servant of our Savior one day. Plus it's always nice to have so many people tell you everyday that your son is one of the most polite and well mannered people they know. This has been a great payday week for me as his mom. I couldn't ask for anything more!!! Josh learning to ride a horse in Montana April 2010

Father's...

I just wanted to take a minute to tell one of the best Father's in the world happy Father's Day!! I want to thank him for all the hard work he does to make home a happy place. So here is to you Lynn, from six people in the world who love you and think your the best dad a person could have. From me; Thank you for always putting your family first and always providing for our needs. I don't think I tell you enough how grateful I am that I have never had to work outside of the home when we started our family. I really don't call the year of babysitting much work over the past 16 years. Thank you for always making good decision with how we spent money and lived so I can be home. I look up to you so much, to your guidance and your wisdom in the gospel that has helped lead our family towards eternity. I love you babe!! From Josh; thank you for always honoring your priesthood and keeping yourselves worthy so we can have blessing at anytime we need them. Love you dad! From Travis; thank you for playing games with us even when you don't want to because you say you always lose, when we all know you always win. I love you dad! From Meg; thank you dad for letting me be your girl, I love having a dad who loves me and always makes me feel better about life. I love you dad! From Jake; I love that you play with us and I love to help you wash the car. I love you dad! From Ben; I love that you take me on bike rides. I love you dad! So Lynn I think by far you are one lucky man, and we are one lucky family to have you as our DAD!!!

Family Pic's June 2010

This past week we went to Wheeler Farm and got our family picture's taken, there are over 500 so I had to pick what ones I liked the most so here goes... By the way it was hard to find one with all 7 of us looking great and smiling!

There was a family of geese that were not very happy with us taking over their grass...

We could not keep Jake off of the tractor...

HELP ME!!! HELP ME!!!

Just for fun we had a lot of these kind of picture's tells you what our family personality is like...

Got caught in the outhouse....

Moving on from Jr. High...

Do you remember when you went from Jr. High to High School. In our school district Jr. High is 7th grade to 9th grade. Now, it is Josh's turn to move on to High school. Besides that fact that I am still flipping out at the fact I have a child old enough to be in high school, Lynn and I took Josh out to dinner to celebrate his 9th grade promotion. So we told Josh he could go anywhere, he could have steak, shrimp, anything. In the end to a 15 year old boy nothing beats Litzas Pizza, any size, any toppings, and all to himself. Yea I think he was in heaven even if it was just for a hour or so. Lynn and Josh enjoying the yummy garlic cheese bread...

But don't worry to much about one hour after this fun dinner Josh returned to his "Oh my heck, I'm going to be in high school" teenage self again!!!

It's always fun having boys...

I have four boys I love them all and have had fun over the years with all the boy stuff that comes with four boys. Yesterday was a great and productive day as far as Memorial days go. We started the day with cleaning up and clearing out the yard and getting food made for the BBQ at grandmas house in the afternoon. The weather was nice and one of Ben and Jake's friends Johnny came over to play after lunch. Because the weather was so nice I thought I would come in and get them all a twin pop. The three boys where out front playing with their big dump trucks down the drive way. This is where the fun part of having boys comes in, as I was getting ready to go back out Meg and Ben came in. Ben was crying and ran up to his room yelling I'm a bad boy. I was looking at Meg thinking what did I miss, then Meg began to tell me what I did miss. Ben needed to go potty so he pulled his pants down and went on the drive way. Because the drive way is on a hill it was fun to watch things running down and fast too, according to all the boys. Now this is not the first time I have had to have a talk with one of my boys at this age to teach them right from wrong and why it was wrong what they did. (I would like to add a side note Meg never had a problem with this kind of thing, so I do think it is a boy thing.) Well after looking and trying not to laugh and telling the other boys it was wrong and a bad thing Ben did, I washed it up as Jake and Johnny was showing me how far it made it down the drive way. I went up to Ben's room to talk to him and tell him he's not a bad boy, but as I opened the door he was fast asleep for the next hour in a half. So much fun having boys!!!