Try'n to impress the ladies . . .

Today was clean the messy pig sty of a bedroom no matter what . . . Carson and Heber have disappeared outside, in the TV room, around the block . . . lather, rinse, repeat . . .
We have nothing to show for it. I gave up and started working on our schedule/family home evening chart and heard them up in the bathroom talking about the great hair-do's they were going to do "try'n to impress the ladies". Here is what they came up with . . .


Heber seemed so surprised that I would know what that means. So ladies? Does that do it for you?

Christmas in June

This year for Christmas I finally broke Bill down and got a trampoline. I had always wanted one. We finally got one but it wasn't until a month or two before I got married. Bill has always worried about injuries and still does (I'm sure there is an "I told you so" with the first injury coming).

Well we didn't have a place for it so we told the kids as soon as the weather broke we would finally finish the south side of our house so that we could put the tramp up. With the weather so weird this year and other things we didn't get the sod until may and had to wait a whole month to put the trampoline up.

Luckily Heber is really good at math and has really grasped the concept of time and dates so we didn't have the question everyday of "is it today".

And if we did it was from the other kids and Heber would inform them "no today is Monday June 1st, we can't put it up until June 15th, which is a Monday. In 2 weeks, which is 14 days. Unless you don't count today then it is 13 or if you don't count the 15th either then it is 12, but lets just count all the days and it is 14 days, 2 weeks". You get the picture so it has been a count down.

Well D-day came, or I should say T-day. We had a really bad stomach flu last week, Carson missed all week at school. It wasn't really a throw up stomach flu, just intense stomach pains, leg aches, a really bad headache and fever. Most of us had it last week, well T-day came and it hit Bill really bad at work so he wasn't thinking we would be able to do it. Ammon's England research paper was also due and since he had been sick last week and so had I we weren't completely prepared. All that being said it didn't look like T-day would happen.

Bill and the 3 oldest had to go and collect the flags from the neighborhood for flag day so I decided Carson, Heber and I would have the tramp set up by the time they got home.Once we got it out and organized in our little piles and began we were making good time.



Carson and Heber were getting along so well and were great helpers, then I hit step 4 in the instructions . . . You need 3 adults in good shape to set this up to avoid injury or death and to make it possible. Well we only had 1 adult in lousy shape and 2 little kids. We waited and waited and waited until Bill and the teens got home.
So here is my math 3 adults in good shape = 2 adults in bad shape, 3 teenagers in good shape and 2 little kids to cheer us on and hand us things.


This is my favorite picture . . .







WE DID IT!!

It was a little rough going for a while and with Bill so sick he had to rest part way through, but by that time we had figured it out and made good time. We didn't really realize there were so many different sizes of trampolines and got the biggest Walmart had and were disappointed at how small it was, but they kids have had a great time. They jumped until after dark last night and BJ, Carson and Heber were out at 7am this morning jumping. Taft slept in, he has hit the tired teen stage.

And Ammon reluctantly finished typing up his research paper and putting it all together (he was only 2 or 3 minutes late).



All in all a pretty great Family Home Evening. I forgot to mention BJ was the lesson so he did the lesson while we put up the tramp and Ammon finished up his report.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

PS: My friend brought by a belated Birthday gift, not only the best lemon square ever made, but the best desert . . . (and the recipe).

Here is some of the fun . . .

Our busy life . . .

I haven't blogged forever. I hate going to my site and seeing the same pinewood derby pictures. Nothing against Carson, pinewood derby or anything like that but just a constant reminder that I am so behind on everything.
We got our yard done as much as we are going to do for a while and can now move back downstairs and start working on the basement. We finished the south side of our house that has never been done EVER. That side of the house was never done even when the house was built and we have never done anything with it.
When we built the garage we were going to extend the driveway out that way and have a big basketball court, but cement prices jumped though the roof and so have never had the money. For Christmas our family gift was a trampoline but didn't have a place for it so we tilled it, added a ton of dirt and laid sod last week. (The bishop was out of town so Bill had a free week, that I don't think he has had since he was put in the bishopric nearly 3 years ago and we took full advantage. We even slacked on everything, no homework and dinner at 10pm every night.)
We poured cement edging . . .


All the boys really helped (even after telling us they had a life and couldn't just work everynight.) That changed quickly with a few reminders on family responsibility etc.














I am so excited. We also moved the dog run.

I don't have a ton of pictures because we were trying to work so hard and fast and fix other parts of our yard that I gave the camera to Ammon and had him take a bunch of pictures and almost all of them are so close up all you can tell is cement and grass.
Anyway, I am LOVING IT!!! We are taking the night off and going swimming as soon as Bill gets home from work for Family Home Evening.

Pinewood Derby

Maybe by the time we are done with all of Heber's pinewood derby cars we should be pro's, but we still haven't done one yet that was done before the night before . . . no matter how early we start working on them.
Carson was so excited for his car, he started drawing designs back in January.


He did a really good job and was so excited. He just kept saying "I don't think I will win, but I think I will have the coolest car". He named it Sixburg (as in Pittsburgh has won 6 championships, I don't think the Bronco's have that many). He came in second place.

It was a LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG night. BJ saved up to take his dad to a Jazz game and we had picked the night of the derby by mistake, because of the 5 Tuesdays in march. So since I am the primary presidency member over scouts and Bill is the bishopric member over scouts we we quite involved. It was surprising how many people were there and at the end it was only the cub master and her husband and me and my boys there forever cleaning up. It was a great night. Carson was so pleased and happy about his car doing well and having a great night. He was sad that his dad only got to see the first race and wanted to wait up for him to be able to tell him about the race. I finally talked him into going to sleep at 11pm and Bill and BJ didn't get home until nearly 1am.





Finished product . . .

I hope this isn't a trend . . .

So back at the first of January Ammon had me sign a piece of paper saying that he had a science fair project. I don't remember signing it except that for some reason my kids think just as we are walking out the door is the perfect time to have me sign things. Maybe they think I will quickly sign and forget whatever it is (maybe they know me too well). So yesterday as I just got home from the doctor with a sinus infection, bronchitis and my lungs sounding questionable I talked to Bill on the phone. He was bringing pizza home for dinner and even though he had a ton of bishopric stuff to do he would set the kids up so they were taken care of and do homework with them when he got home so I should take my medicine that causes drowsiness. I did. Well then Ammon and Carson get home from school and Ammon reminds me that he has a science fair project . . . and it's due tomorrow, and Carson has tons of homework and a nasty note from his teacher about his reading minutes.
Ammon and I work like crazy to do a science fair project, we look on the Internet for what seems like forever for some sort of idea that is EASY. I find a couple that I think will work, but he is determined to do something with magnets and levitation.
We finally compromise on seeing if there really is Iron in cereal, you check with magnets. We do the experiment and lay it out, work like crazy all night long while Carson reads, Bill gets home and helps Carson with his homework while Ammon and I finish working on his project. Ammon goes to bed while I fight with the printer to get the pictures to print (which takes hours). We get to bed late, We finish in the morning, I take the other kids to school while Ammon finishes gluing and I take him to school late, check him in and head to his class to find out when the fair is . . . .and what do I find out . . . the fair was last week. He had until today to turn in his report late or get a zero in science and would have gotten an A+ but since it was late got and A-.
It turned out pretty good considering all that and now 24 hours later I am SOOOOOO ready for some sleep. Maybe tonight.