Berry Picking

This past summer we had the chance to go pick blueberries at the home of a family in our ward. I had never been a huge fan of blueberries, but these were delicious! We came away with a few tubs full and ate them all week long by the handfuls. We even went back for more a week later:) It makes me want to have my own blueberry bushes. YUM!

Super Heroes

A few nights ago we were just spending some lazy time on the floor, watching Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy. Some times it makes me a little depressed that I actually look forward to watching these shows- I used to watch my grandparents watch them religiously each night and I would have rather died than sit through a full hour of that rubbish. But here I am, already doing the same thing. It makes me feel very, very old. But whatever- I have no problem admitting that I am quite boring and nerdy. As we were watching, Ethan put on these long green socks of mine (with the help of Dad) and I had to post it. He said "I have ninja turtle legs!" and proceeded to bust out his best ninja moves. And who was Jace to be outdone by Ethan? So here are my two super heroes- flying high. Along with a shot of Ethan, who is proud to say that he has finally mastered the Spiderman wall climb technique that Jace has been doing for years. You go, dude!

Decency

Wessy-Boo

Just a few quick snaps taken today of our little Wes, or Wessy-Boo as we all like to call him. At 3 months, it is hard to believe how fast he is changing! As you can see, this little guy has quite the charming smile, with his signature left dimple and pointy tongue. Jace and Ethan are loving him at this stage too- they are constantly fighting over who can put their face directly in his line of sight and make him smile- and thankfully Wes often obliges their obnoxiousness with smiles and laughs. Wes has also officially rolled over this week- so no more leaving him unattended on the bed or unstrapped in the bouncy seat. Love this little guy- what a great addition to our now not so little family:)

Enjoy!

School Days

Jace has been in first grade for over a month now, so I have been feeling pretty guilty about the fact that I had yet to post the photos I took of him when he started Kindergarten over a year ago. This really highlights how far behind I am in posting on the blog. But I am determined to catch up before Christmas, so I can have my blog printed as a sort of family Journal and scrapbook for each of my kids. So more old stuff here.

Jace started Kindergarten on August 10th, 2009. His teacher was Mrs. Strickland, who he absolutely loved. This boy was made for school, and the smile that he wears below was the same smile he went to school and came home with every day of Kindergarten. Jace thrives on possitive feedback and he really excelled in school, so going to school each day was a huge boost to his self-esteem (or ego?). And it was so fun to watch how much he did learn throughout the year.

Jace was also a great bus rider- his bus driver, Mrs. F, was often giving us comments on how well behaved he was on the bus. She really loved Jace and he came home with many Star tickets from her:)

~

And on August 10, 2010, this is Jace getting off the bus from his first day of first grade. I was happy to see that he wore the same great smile- hopefully first grade will be as fun as Kindergarten!

T-Ball

Doing some more catch up work here. I have to sort of apologize first for my boring posts of late- I fear I have lost my blogging mojo and I just don't remember how to be funny or witty anymore. It is kind of sad, because in real life I am not a very witty person but I prided myself on my small bits of wit in my blog writing. But maybe having my third child sucked all that wit out of me. So rather that spend hours trying to find something genuinely clever to say, I will dazzle you with a favorite knock-knock joke of my kids. Has been a favorite of theirs for years- here it goes:

Knock-knock...

Who's there?

Baby...

Baby who?

BABY CHANGE MY DIAPER!!!!!!!!!

Hilarious, I know. Crude humor- that is how we roll in this house full of boys. Now onto the post. This last spring Jace played T-ball- when he first started to play, he was not the most coordinated child in the world. Throwing, catching and hitting a baseball did not come very naturally to him, and Tim and I would secretly cringe watching him at first. But one thing that amazes me about this amazing boy of mine is his commitment- ever since he started T-ball last March, he has been practicing nearly every single day. And it has been so fun to see him improve! He has gone from being a bit weak and uncoordinated to having an arm that rivals a Major Leaguer. It is fun that we can actually play catch with him, and he can actually catch and throw the ball back to us. I am really proud of this little guy- and I hope he is as driven as an adult as he is now. These images were taken with my lens 'baby', the 70-200 VR. Seriously, this lens rocks and I look forward to taking sports photos as much as I look forward to watching my kids play:) These are straight out of the camera- no editing at all. Click on them and check out how crisp they are- it makes me drool!

Summertime Classic

I don't think there is anything that spells summertime in the life of a kid better than a good ole' lemonade stand. I myself have very fond memories of hosting a lemonade stand on our driveway, and the other childish business pursuits that were spawned by the success of the lemonade stand (such as cutting up strips of paper, coloring them and selling them door to door as 25cent bookmarks, or painting small pebbles and rocks with clear nail polish and selling them, because isn't a gem stone just a shiny rock?) So when my friend Amy mentioned doing a lemonade stand with my boys (her kids had done it with their neighborhood friends before and loved it) I was all for it! So we gathered at her house around the 5:00 rush, since she lives on a busy neighborhood intersection and let the kids go to work.

Here they are creating their signs- lots of creative genius involved here. Saige had all the words in just the right colors- "strawberry" in red, "lemonade" in a combo of green and pink, and "ice cold" written in blue. It was perfection. By the way, they sold strawberry lemonade, which was way better.

Here they are working hard for the money. My very favorite part was watching Jace when the cars would come by without stopping. He would hold up his sign nice and high and yell "ICE COLD LEMONAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaadddde" and as the car moved on, his sign would slowly drop along with the inflection on the word lemonade, leaving a dejected little boy in the dust. But he would perk right back up for the next one. Luckily they did have a few people stop.

Their first customer- one large glass of lemonade for daddy! He loved it, naturally.

A real customer...

One of the many passers by, avoiding eye contact with the sweet little children whose spirits they knew they were crushing. Note to self: ALWAYS keep change in the car so support the summertime lemonade stands!!!

And after about 1 hour of standing out in the heat, the kids each made about 4 dollars! Not too shabby, I think. But I have to give a shout out to the kind stranger in the BMW who had to pay with a $10 bill and let the kids keep the change. The kids owe the majority of their success to him. But in my opinion, $10 is a small price to pay for boosting kids spirits, good memories and a nice, sweet, ice cold glass of strawberry lemonade.

Good times!