Strawberry picking

It is JAM time!  This past year I ran out of freezer jam (probably because we eat A LOT of peanut butter sandwiches around here!)  In my attempts to not run out of jam this coming year, we have been doing lots of berry picking this summer.  Unfortunately the day I finally was able to go pick strawberries it was BLAZING hot.  I don't think anybody had a great time, it was just too hot.  Lucy was finished about 20 minutes before I was and I was completely wet with sweat by the time we were done.

After we picked strawberries and raspberries we stopped to cool off by eating ice cream cones.  That helped!!

Outside Ops Manager

The Outside Operations Manager-dead animals and poop division (A.K.A Mitch) has been busy.  The kind of busy were I am starting to F*R*E*A*K out!

 Last week while Mitch was home sick in bed I discovered a dead rodent on the play chips of our new clubhouse.  I was so disturbed that I roused Mitch out of his sick bed to remove the nasty thing.  It was big, dare I say-- a rat.  Gak!!

On Saturday I was cleaning the cars.  While I was pulling Mitch's car into the driveway I noticed that the backseat of his car had been damaged/torn up.  Upon further investigation we discovered that some sort of rodent had gotten into his car and chewed on his backseat in two different places and pooped all over. We have no idea how a mouse got into his car but Mitch set traps in the garage.  The traps have not caught anything so we are hoping that we don't have mice in there. It still doesn't answer how one got into his car.  So GROSS!

Yesterday evening while the kids were playing in the backyard they literally stumbled across the remains of a mouse and by that I mean just the head.  GOOD HEAVENS the outside ops manager was home and was able to get rid of it!!

This morning the kids were playing outside, I popped my head out the door to see that they were doing.  Cam said "Uh Mom, there is 1/2 a mouse outside on the grass."  Sure enough 1/2 a mouse was on the grass! Cameron had put 4 orange cones around it so that they wouldn't step on it and they were continuing to play by it.  The Ops Manager is at work so I think the orange cones will just have to stay put till he arrives home this evening.

I am not sure that my heart can handle any more of these! Why so many rodents?  As Mitch put it, "Your such a girl!"  Yes, yes I am!!  YUCK!!!!!!!!

Julia's Baptism

Julia was baptized on Saturday, July 6th at 10:00 am.  It was a beautiful sunny day. 

Julia was very excited and couldn't stop smiling.  She was so cute. 

Julia and her dad

The baptism was a success and Mitch was able to keep those long legs of hers from popping out of the water.  Julia didn't plug her nose though and got some water up it!! After the meeting was over Mitch told me that he had remembered everything that he needed for after the baptism: towel, underwear, etc. so when he went to change after he was a little bit surprised when he pulled out his underwear to find he had packed a dry top instead of bottoms.  He had to wear wet underwear for the second half of the meeting!

Although four other kids from the stake were baptized that day she was the only one from our ward.  This was special because her baptism and second half of the meeting were just for her.  Mitch baptized and confirmed her, Grandpa Swany and Grandpa Stuard were the witnesses, Grandma Stuard played the piano, Megan was the chorister, Katie gave the Holy Ghost talk, Laura and I said the prayers, and Kenzie and Tayler sang a special duet, Julia's favorite primary song We'll Bring the World his Truth.  After the baptism was over we had lunch at our house with our family.  It was such a nice way to celebrate our Julia's big day!

Clubhouse

When we ripped out the grass in our backyard we got rid of our old play set.  It had completely rotted and was garbage.  We have been promising the kids something new but could not find anything that was going to work for our yard for the price we wanted to pay. 

We found this man/company online who comes to your house and builds custom play sets at a reasonable price.  It was genius!!  The kids love it and the best thing for Mitch and I was that he came, built it and was done in just a few hours.  It would have taken us days and days!!

Endless summer fun!

July Happenings

This month is flying by.........  I am so far behind!!  Here are a few things that we have been up to this month!

The 4th of July was a hot sunny day full of fun.  We went to our ward breakfast and bike rodeo and then to the Clayson's for swimming, badminton, BBQ, and some fireworks!

We have learned that Lucy REALLY likes s'mores and marshmallows

We have hung out at a lot of track meets and have had to put our hair up to keep cool.

had tea parties......

 swimming, swimming, swimming

The kids took swimming lessons and have really improved.  All of them moved up a level and are good swimmers.  It is so nice not to have to worry about the three oldest when we get to a pool.  They are hoping to take another session before schools starts.  We will see if I can muster the strength and afford the cost of yet another session.  But they sure do love it!

Cub camp-- Cubs Go West

This was Cameron's last year of cub camp.  FUN, HOT, and so glad it is O-V-E-R!!  I was the camp coordinator for our ward and I swear I will never do that again!!!! Cameron had a fun time and shot TWO bulls eyes with the BB gun.  It doesn't get much better than that!

EIGHT

Julia turned 8!  How can it be??  Julia got some Lego Friends Legos, a pink volleyball, a Hello Kitty radio, a box set of Beverly Cleary books, and the movie Wreck it Ralph.  Since her birthday was on a Sunday we took her cake to her birthday buddies house to celebrate.

Laura's birthday theme was much more mature than Julia's black, white and pink polka dots...she had a wiener dog themed party.

 

The day before her birthday we took Julia out for her very special 8 year old dinner with just mom and dad to Benihana in Seattle.  She was so cute and so excited to go!

Julia had the steak and chicken and even tried a shrimp....

Happy Birthday Julia!!

1st tooth

It finally happened!  Natalie lost her first tooth.  The permanent one was already coming in behind the baby one so it needed to come out.  Natalie was so happy to have the tooth fairy visit her.

Cam's Birthday

For Cameron's 10th birthday he wanted a sports theme.  He got some Under Armor clothes that he wanted, a Bop It, and  a Wii game.

The Mariner's had a home game on his birthday so that night we headed to the ballpark. Grandpa and Grandma Stuard, Katie and Dale came with us to celebrate! It was also LDS night so we all got a free t-shirt!  It was a beautiful night.  The Mariner's ended up losing and it was a hard loss for the birthday boy.

Natalie was so excited to be there. It was her 1st Mariner's game ever.

The end of the game....

The Mariner's even knew it was Cameron's birthday and his name was on the BIG screen!!!

We found the Mariner Moose and got our picture taken with him...

Things were going pretty good up till the 6th inning when Natalie started complaining that her stomach hurt.  About 3 minutes later she was throwing up all over everything.  It was projectile and a lot.  She threw up all over ALL of her clothing, some of mine and ALL OVER the guy sitting in front of us.  It was the walk of shame going to the bathroom.  She cleared out three rows of people while "housekeeping" came to help clean it up.  Katie was nice enough  to come help me clean up Natters in the bathroom.  We had to strip her down and made a dress out of Katie's free t-shirt with a lanyard as a belt.  The city of Seattle has outlawed the use of plastic bags and charges people to buy a paper one so in the end we had a paper bag full of throw up clothes to go.... 

After we got her all cleaned up she was feeling much better.  The usher let us sit in a lot nicer seats (he was worried she was going to throw up again!) and gave us a bunch of free stuff.  After the game was over Mitch wanted to get the heck out of there before we ran back into the guy she threw up all over!  He was probably the nicest guy ever and after apologizing profusely over and over we still didn't want to run into him.   This was definitely a night that we won't be forgetting for a long time!!