We had a campfire!

Can I just start by saying how much I love being with people who are in the same situation as us. I love that the families will hang out everyday all day but then when the guys are on days off we all give each other space. It just goes unsaid. I love that I don't have to explain to a new friend that Bret will be home and try not offending them when I don't talk to them for 2 weeks straight. Its so nice just having that in common.

 I also love how our friends are completely happy with out last minute, spur of the moment plans. Just the other day we were starting to head in for the evening when the girls asked if they could have hot dogs. Kennedy and Emma heard and they started asking for hot dogs also. Since the kids were all excited for hotdogs we decided that's what we would have dinner. We've been doing hot dogs a lot lately so to switch things up we pulled out the fire pit! It was so much fun having a little campfire, dinner and s'mores on a school night!

 

I love our little propane fire pit! Its so easy. Plus you don't end up smelling like smoke after sitting around the fire all night.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After dinner and dessert we turned on some music and the kids had a dance party. It was the funniest thing I've seen in a long time! I love watching them have fun. It makes me happy.

Fire Station!

The girls have both been learning about fire safety at school this month. I just happened to be at Haylee's school when the firemen brought the smoke trailer and some of their other trucks.

 

Then the next day I was able to go on a field trip with Maycie's school. We went to the fire station. I was surprised how excited Maycie got when she saw the trucks. She loved the firemen who were handing out cookies but when she saw one who was all dressed in his gear she was scared to death!

 

 

 

We had these two sisters in our group. They were adorable!

 

 

It was so fun being around all the little kids! There are 36 kids at Maycie's school, there are only 12 in her class but they have 3 different classes.

Lemonade Stand!

Every kid needs to run a lemonade stand right?? That's what we thought. With summer gone and fall quickly passing by Jen and I decided that our kids would sell lemonade! Cory (Kennedy and Emma's dad) build this awesome lemonade stand (that also doubles as a hot cocoa stand). The kids were lucky enough to get a customer! You have no idea how hard it is to sell lemonade in a man camp!!

Jason was excellent and paid WAY more than $0.25! 

 

 

After the kids saw that they would get money from selling lemonade they started going door to door. They would collect the money, run back to the stand, fill a cup, run back to the neighbors but by the time they got there the cup would be nearly empty. It was so fun to watch!

 

 

These are all the kids (except 2 babies) who are here year round. For the most part everybody gets along well together.

 

These three were left to run the "store" while the big kids were off making sales.

 

The kids definitely drank more than they sold but they had so much fun! We'll be doing this again next year!

Flat tire part 2!

Ok ok ok I know its been a LOOOOONG time since my last post. I'm sorry! I've just been sort of in a rut lately. I've just had a hard time making myself do anything. Its turned cold and I really really don't like the cold. I never have... but my hatred for the cold is a whole other post; all I want to say is cold makes me want to hibernate. The cold weather has thrown off my grove. I just wish I could kick it out through the window like the poor old man in Emperor's New Groove. (ps if you haven't watched that lately you need to!) Seriously though, I don't like getting out of bed and I don't like going outside. There, that said, we've been pretty lame around here. We haven't really don't a lot of exciting things.

I do feel that I owe it to you to tell you the end of my tire drama that started in my last post. Lets not forget it was raining. It was cold. It was a Monday. Ok just to let you all know, yes, I really did keep the girls home from school because I had a flat tire. My mom called me to check up on that little detail. I'm sure if school was 3 blocks away we would have walked. So...after getting back inside we all got back into our comfy clothes and hung out all day. I called Bret, who was out on location and would be until Friday. I knew I couldn't sit at home for the whole week because of a flat tire so I decided to solve the problem myself. I kept waiting for the rain to stop so I could go asses the situation. It didn't stop raining. By the early afternoon I decided to brave the rain and go change the tire... myself.

 

IT WAS SO COLD!!

 

I knew how to change a tire thanks to my dad- Thanks Dad!!- but I had never actually done it by myself. Nor had I taken a tire off without power tools! I didn't even know how to get the spare out from under my car. I got the tools out and just stared at them for a good 5 minutes trying to talk myself into actually going for it. Finally I pulled out the manual, went inside to the warmth and started reading. That wasn't any help! So I turned to YouTube, I found a video that showed me what to do and I got to work.

 

Thanks to all the horror stories I heard over the years at Burt Brothers, I was terrified to use that jack! I think that is what was holding me back, I really didn't want to use it.  

 

I did it! I felt so awesome! It took quite a while but I finally had the spare tire on. I was soaking wet, covered in mud and my fingers were so cold I could hardly move them. But it was probably the coolest thing I've done on my own. I'm not going to lie I was pretty nervous to drive my car afterwards. I did everything by hand and I wasn't sure it was tight enough. So I buckled the girls in nice and tight and off we went to the tire store. Of course the tire was beyond repair, it had a hole bigger than a quarter. We ordered new tires that are being shipped from Denver... they still aren't here. Nine days later and we're still waiting. But at least I can drive the car! Thanks to me! Yes, I am pretty proud that I did it!

 

Oh and while we were sitting in the waiting room of the tire store it stopped raining. Ugh.

Well isn't this lovely. ..

Have I ever mentioned that I get up at 6:20AM? Well, I do.  Have I ever mentioned how much I don't like getting up at 6:20? Well, I really don't like it! I know I use to get up even earlier and I was Ok with it.  Since I became a mom my sleep became something very very important to me.  I pretty much love it.

Have I ever mentioned how far away the bus stop is?

How about Haylee's school?

How about how much it rains here?

What about how cold it is in the mornings?

I know I haven't mentioned anything about how dark it is in the mornings now.  The light doesn't start creeping in our windows until well after 8. It is pitch black.  It's so dark outside that even with our porch light on I still get a little freaked out going out there by myself.

Well with that all said, this is what I noticed this morning... AFTER waking up at 6:20. After getting ready, getting the girls up, getting them dressed, doing their hair, feeding them breakfast. AFTER I had started the car, let it warm up, loaded the girls in, AFTER they were buckled...

 

Yay! Third flat tire in two months. Second time this one has been flat in the last two weeks. Ugh.

 

Sorry girls. No school today.

MISSING TOOTH!

 

FINALLY!

Haylee has been working on this tooth non stop this whole week. I can't believe how long it has taken for this thing to fall out!

 

 

She's been pulling on it with a string for days. I remember one loose tooth I had, I had a string tied around it and I was going to pull it out when I got the guts up. Dallas reached over, hardly pulled on it (but at the time I sore he yanked on it) and it flew right out! I was sure that would happen with Haylee. I knew if I could just get that string tied around it tight enough I could reach over, when Haylee wasn't expecting it, and pull it out. But she insisted on doing it herself. She wouldn't even let me touch the string.

 

 

Maycie was right there next to her the whole time. Trying to hold her hand and telling Haylee it was going to be ok.

 

We sat at the table for most of the afternoon because Haylee was sure it was ready to come out. We decided to take a break from the string and it wasn't 2 minutes after we got up she started screaming. She had just yanked it out with her little fingers!

 

You would not believe how tiny that tooth is! When she put it in my hand I literally thought it was a piece of rice. Its so cute! She wanted to hold it and play with it, I should have known better, but while she was playing with it she dropped it. It fell onto the carpet that is under the table. Of course there is rice from dinner last night, dirt, all sorts of pieces of tiny, hard garbage down there. We literally had a missing tooth! I looked for twenty minutes on my own. Haylee was panicking because she knew she had to have a tooth to give to the tooth fairy or she wouldn't get money. She ran outside to show all her friends and they all came in to help find the tooth. We had 5 kids, plus Haylee all on a 2 foot square piece of carpet. Finally one of the kids found it! Over an hour after she lost the tooth we had it safe in a baggie.

 

Look how happy she is!

Haylee turned 6!

Wow I can't believe how much has happened since my last post! Life has been so crazy busy around here. At least I think it has...

We celebrated Haylee's 6th birthday! I can't believe she is 6!

 

Do you remember this little girl?!

 

 

 

Now, suddenly she's turned into this big girl:

 

 

 

We took these pictures on her birthday. The one of her sitting on the rock was taken at the bus stop. Bret was working out on location so we really didn't have any birthday plans. In the afternoon Maycie and I took ice cream sandwiches out to Haylee and her friends at school. She was SO happy!

 

 

Just look at her face!

 

The kids sang Happy Birthday to her then they smothered her with love.

So adorable!

 

This cute little boy, Isaac, would not leave her side. He kept saying "I love you so much Haylee"

 

When Haylee started school there were 8 kids in her class. Now there are 15. Its almost doubled in size in just two months!

 

I wanted to take a picture of Haylee's class before we left. As Ms Bellikka was getting the kids in order she kept putting Isaac in the back row but he would sneak around back to the front with Haylee. It was so adorable!

 

Doesn't this class look like its so much fun?!

 

I checked Haylee out of school early and all she wanted to do was teach Maycie how to cross the monkey bars. Luckily Maycie wasn't all that interested in them.

 

Then they played a little game of tag. I love watching the girls play together like this!

 

When we finally made it back to the car I asked Haylee what she wanted to do. She wanted a snack and to go to the park. So we did just that. I took her in the gas station and let her pick whatever she wanted. Even the red slurpee! Then we went to the park...and I couldn't help but take pictures! I love birthdays so much! I love taking a day to look back and realize how much has changed.

 

This has always been Maycie's favorite spot to relax while we're at the park. She climbs in and watches Haylee run and play.

 

 

Then our friends joined us at the park which made it a lot more fun! They ate melted ice cream sandwiches and ring pops.

 

And of course some monkey climbing...

 

 

Later that evening we had cake and ice cream and Haylee opened her presents.

 

 

Haylee was having fun sticking the balloons everywhere. She thought it was so cool that she was decorating for her own party!

 

I pretty much sang happy birthday by myself while the kids stared at me.

(Where are Laramie and Jerome when I have to sing this song??? It really is a boring song without them!)

Emma loved the chocolate ice cream as you can see.

 

 

 

My favorite part of the day was when we baked cookies. I didn't get any pictures of us doing it because I was too excited! When we were in Salt Lake last month Grandma B gave us a roll of her cookie dough. I've been tempted once or twice to eat it but I didn't! I wanted to save it for Haylee's birthday! It was fun having that special treat. Thank you Grandma!!