The Sixth Day

On Saturday night as I drove us home from our date night (dinner at Blue Adobe Grille and stake conference), I told Ryan that today was a fantastic day.  I loved it, loved everything about it, but it sure seemed like it had been going on forever.  I was so exhausted my eyes were blood shot and on fire and the lids were begging to shut.  And it was only 9:15. 

I was hoping that when we got home, the house would be sparkling (OK, maybe not sparkling but at least tidied up), and the kids would have all made it through the wash & rinse cycle and be ready for bed.

Wishful thinking.
Actually, they usually do pretty great on date night.  I rarely have any complaints.

But this Saturday, all but one of my offspring looked exactly like they had when we left them at 5:30. Still wearing the same, dirty play clothes from our crazy busy fun Saturday, still with hair disheveled, not all the dinner mess entirely picked up, and some sort of minor tornado remains in the family room.

But they were happy.

The babysitter offspring, to her credit, had been sidetracked by her grandma's new iPod Touch that she was setting up for her and had sort of forgotten about the kids and the house I'm guessing.  Good thing they are pretty self-sufficient on date nights.  Really, since we have the TV-ban in effect Sun-Thurs, date night is often supervised TV or movie watching for our peeps.  Not really a tough gig.

Just wish they would have bathed.

Anyhow, back to the fantastic day, quick version:

• Left the house at 5:55am for an incredible run.  Amazing red sunrise, felt like a champ, chalked up 9 miles
• Said goodbye to Ry & Barrett at 7:15 as they headed out to Quail Run for her softball games.
• Transported the 3 youngers to Quail at 8:15-ish and spent the next three hours watching the tourney in the most wonderful Saturday morning weather.  Barrett's team won the first game 10-8, and barely lost the second 6-5. She played well both games and was hitting the ball hard.
• Squeezed in some errands and solo shopping (my favorite kind of shopping) for family birthday gifts while Ryan took the peeps home.  Ended up browsing at Kohl's for a little too long and ended up with a few new things for me :)
• Home for a fun afternoon with the peeps.  Everyone was outside all afternoon...scootering, bike riding, skateboarding.  Lots of trips in and out for snacks and water.  The kitchen floor needs a serious mopping.
• Bribed Easton to get back on his bike again (he learned to ride a year ago but had a couple bad falls and has done everything in his power to avoid the bike ever since).  This time, the bribe worked, and he picked the dollar store for his reward if he would get on and ride.  He said, "Can I get six things since I'm six?"  Sure.  You bet.  Just ride.
• And he did.  I helmeted and padded him up (just in case), but as the old saying goes, "It's just like riding a bike."  I ran behind him for a few streets, thinking maybe he needed me, but not even close.  Not even for a minute.  The kid was flying all over the place, up and down the streets with ear to ear grin, not wanting to stop. He was a riding machine.  So after getting completely winded sprinting after him for no reason, I decided to get on my bike too, and all the kids and I enjoyed a family bike ride.  Ry sat in the driveway trying to repair the scooter and change a bike tube since he's still on the DL.
• Then the dollar store.  I was hoping to put it off til Tuesday since I needed to get ready for our date, but the whole instant reward motivation thing was nagging at me so we went.  Hauled all the peeps plus one neighbor friend to one of my least favorite places and let the kiddos pick out their dollar store gems.  Easton ended up buying six stuffed monkeys with velcro hands that can hang on anything (and have so far).  Bunk bed rails, ceiling fans, necks, door knobs, bicycle handle bars.  I guess it was $6 well spent since the boy has been loving his new monkey pals and he's loving the bike.  Finally.

Stake conference was great - all about the family.  My favorite subject.  Speakers were great.  Music was too.  I cried.  That didn't help my red tired eyes at all.  The visiting and pie afterwards were even better.  So many great friends and family to visit with.  Loved it. The night ended watching a movie in bed with Ryan, but I didn't even come close to making it to the end.  Ryan caught me up on the second half on Sunday morning when we woke and it turns out it wasn't that great a flick anyway.

Great Saturday. And I loved that my kids loved it.  Afty told me as I tucked her in that she was so happy today.  She told me that she loved that we just spent the whole day together as a family and that she was glad that she hadn't played with friends because she would have missed out on all of that.

Awwhhhh, how sweet is that?

And Another Year Begins

They have a whole 8 days under their belts now.  The novelty has worn off a bit.  Homework is starting.  Reality might be starting to set in...summer vacation is really OVER.  Don't get me wrong - they are all enjoying school.  All of them like their new teachers and seem to be making plenty of new friends, not to mention re-connecting with the old ones that we saw less of during our busy summer.  But it's back to the grind.  No weeknight TV.  Getting outfits and lunch boxes ready the night before.  8:00 family prayer & scriptures.  Bedtime before the wolf howls at the moon.  Waking up when the lids want to stay shut.  And so it goes...

But we're used to it, and most days we all make it through pretty well.  Our new system of rotating kitchen cleanup & "family round up" duty by assigning everyone a day of the week seems to be working fairly well.  But then again, it's only been a week and a half.  Time will tell if it sticks.  I think it's gonna, though.  I like it.  A lot.  

So here's my sweet Afton on her first day of 5th grade.

• Has Ms. Kemp for her teacher at Hale
• Still loves creating and still the duck tape queen.
• Still our most obedient 
• Starting to feel out the boundaries a bit
• Already likes the boys
• Still a tom-boy at heart, but becoming ever conscious of her feminine side
• Getting a little relief from her crazy allergies with her new allergy doc and some meds
• Playing piano, getting ready to start fall ball
• Still always going, going, going...loves to be active!
• Has a mind that is one-step ahead...always thinking about the questions no one else asks
• Had the most fantastic summer vacationing and playing non-stop with her best friend, Sydney Bauer, whom she just met in January.  They were on the same basketball team together, then the same softball team, then All-Stars.  They were like peanut butter and jelly all summer long.  Swimming, playing, late nighters.  Syd came on 2 vacations with us, and Afton spent 5 days with her family up in Snowflake.  We love the Bauers and are so glad our girls have become such great friends.

Here's Rowan on her first day of 2nd grade: 

• Has Ms. Day for her 2nd grade teacher at Hale
• Definitely our little fashionista
• Finally losing some teeth (a bit of a late bloomer in that regard)
• Increasingly becoming Easton's best buddy
• 110% social 
• Still feisty & head strong beyond my ability to understand at times
• Sporting one incredible little rockin' body
• Has become quite the hugger lately
• Is so super smart...and so perceptive.  
• Had a killer summer vacationing in Mexico, California and 3 trips to the cabin.  Spent lots of time in the pool, lots of time playing with friends.
• Funny quote during last week's meltdown over a wardrobe battle (well kind-of funny, kind of scary) : "If you'd just let me shop for my own clothes I'd have more friends!"  Oh my gosh...I about died with that one.
• But...we survived and she was back giving me luvs a few minutes later.

And here's our little man, Easton, on his first day of full-day kindergarten:

• Has Ms. Etzen for his kindergarten teacher
• Has been sooooooo happy going to school on the bus with his two sisters and all the neighborhood kids every day.  So different from last year when he did half day at Hermosa Vista and was the only kid at the bus stop.  He wasn't often too thrilled to get on.
• Loves recess and PE as every well-balanced 5-year old boy should
• Would wear basketball shorts every minute of every day if I let him...and no shirt.
• Still does the one eye half squinted thing when he smiles
• Is making me laugh all the time now...funny how their sense of humor seems to develop overnight
• Still my lover boy...he cuddles with me on the couch every night during scrips, still loves to have his back rubbed and scratched, and still gives me hugs and kisses pretty freely.  Although he did let go of my hand yesterday morning just before we turned the corner at the bus stop...just in time to keep his buddies from seeing
• Had "too much fun" goofing off and playing hard this summer.  He got so tan too with so much time out by the pool and at the beach.  He loved spending a lot of time at the cabin, and loved playing musical beds with his sisters in their upstairs forts and as they slumber partied in each others rooms...back and forth for the last several weeks of summer.

And here is our growing-up-way-too-fast 7th grader, Barrett, on her first day of junior high.

Does anyone else remember when she looked like this...on her first day of kindergarten?

• Has lots of new teachers now that she's in junior high...and a new locker to boot!
• Super responsible & getting more beautiful every day
• Terrific straight-A student taking full load of ELP/accelerated classes
• 120% social
• Likes to be in the adult conversations but still loves to hang out with her friends
• Is meeting so many new friends at school every day...I am really proud of her for going out of her way to introduce herself and ask other kids their names.  It's awesome!
• Still our go-to babysitter for our weekly date nights
• Getting ready to start fall ball (she's moving up to Juniors Division this year!)
• Wearing a size 9.5 shoe already (I only wear a 7.5!)  I hope she grows tall too!
• Such a good friend - both to her buddies (both girls and guys), and to me.  I love that we can talk about anything.
• Had the most ridiculously busy fun summer.  We figured out that she wasn't home for more than a week at a time for the entire summer break, and often it was less than that between her comings and goings.  She did cabin for Memorial Day (and invited a friend), then Girls Camp at Lo Mia, Mexico with the family, a week at Time to Blossom Young Women's Conference, Cabin for 4th of July extended weekend (and invited two friends), family beach camping in Carlsbad (with cousins and friends too), Snowflake for 24th of July weekend with Hallie Bauer's family, family cabin trip at end of July, and finally Ward Youth Conference.  Seriously...too much fun!  She told me somewhere near the end of summer that she didn't have any time to even think about being bored.  No joke!

Ryan and I are lucky to be the parents of these great kiddos.  They are all so smart and so good and just growing up at the speed of light.  I love their ages right now...I kinda want to freeze them for a bit.  Just so I can catch up and figure out what to do next.  There's no do-overs in parenting.  That's a little daunting thought.  I hope we don't screw it up...and I hope they turn out fantastic in spite of us.

Living Life

The blogging universe has been minus one for the past several weeks. Almost a month it looks like from my last posting date. Holy cow. I have no idea what everyone else has been up to since I haven't checked anyone's blogs for weeks. And what the heck have I been doing? Living life, I guess. Many days, I wake up and think, "today I need to blog about such and such," or "I have the best pictures to upload to my blog today." And then the day comes and goes and the next one comes and goes and life takes over.

Really, blogging is an indulgence for me lately. I love to write and think and share my pics. I love keeping a little history of the Mesa Brown crew. And I love being able to check up on all my friends and keep up on their lives - even if it's just from cyberspace. Hopefully with only six more school days to go this year and one more night of softball games, life will slow down just a bit in the summer and the memoirs will start to make their way to the keyboard again.

So...as of late, this is what we've been up to:

• J.R. & crew finished up our master bathroom remodel (I might have already blogged about that. I can't remember it's been so long :) But it looks fabulous-o. Can't wait to find a minute to post the pics. It's like a little bit of heaven in my house. I super duper love it and think they did such a great job. Thanks, J.R. You are the best!




• Barrett and I went up to 6th grade camp at Tonto Rim Camp outside of Payson on April 25-27 with all of the sixth graders from her school and had an absolute blast. I was one of the cabin moms and loved every minute of it. I loved being up there with Barrett and her cute friends. I loved the classes and activities and cool weather and hikes and skits and all the fun. Such good memories. I have a zillion pictures from the trip (no, not really - only about 500). I was the camp photographer too and am working on the camp movie on my Mac, which will be shown to the whole school and parents next week at the awards assembly. No pressure. Super fun. Barrett and I spent a couple hours last weekend going through our music library to pick the coolest, hippest songs for the flick. Left up to me, we would have resurrected the 80's hits for the soundtrack. We all know how good the 80's music was, right? Just kidding (kidding about using it, not about it's greatness). I wouldn't have done that to Barrett. She's a little music connoiseur herself and certainly appreciates a good Sammy Hagar or Alice Cooper hit, but we let the music of 2011 prevail for this sixth grade motion picture extravaganza. Justin Beiber and Katy Perry and Taio Cruz and Usher and The Black Eyed Peas and all their cronies are taking over the scene to provide the background music for the movie.




• Softball season. Enough said. No, not really. Not even close to enough said. We've been doing four games a week since late March and really loving every minute of it. Our girls have been so much fun to watch this year. Rowan finished her season a week ago, and Afton & Barrett are still in the majors tournament. And finally, finally... both Barrett & Afton are off the DL and actually playing at the same time. Barrett got her splint off last Friday and she played on Monday with taped fingers. Hooray! No more broken bones in the Brown house (knock on wood.) Tomorrow is the last night, though. The Diablas (yes, they are the She Devils) went all season undefeated up through the first tourney game, then lost their first game of the year on Monday night to the Vipers. The Vipers were tough. Their #1 chuck was on fire, we had one bad inning, and couldn't get a rally going. Final score was 8-3. But our girls rallied back last night and crushed the Crushers 15-4 (both Barrett & Afton got some sweet hits) so now they have to beat the Vipers twice on Thursday night to take home the title. Can't wait. I love watching them play.




• Working out. Ryan continues to be a running machine, going long a couple days a week. He's building up some serious stamina and shedding the extra cushion. He's not training for any races or anything, just keeping in shape and getting the body ready for the next Rim to Rim coming up in September. He throws in some P90X upper body workouts in the mix and has been very consistent. I, too, am keeping up with the fitness and loving it. I started a new Beachbody workout series a couple of weeks ago (Beachbody is the company that makes P90X, Insanity, Chalean Extreme, Slim in 6, and a bunch of others, including the one I'm doing now). I'd tell you what it is, but my kids grin ear to ear every time I say it and then bust into a giggle. Ya, ya, I know it's a funny name, but it's fun and it's working! Really, working. My whole core was in need of toning since I've just been running and not lifting too often. I was ready to mix things up a bit. So I looked online for some new workout DVD's to help me firm up and get ready for summer. I think I found the answer! I've been working out hard 5-6 days a week (and squeezing in a couple of runs a week, too, so I won't lose the lung stamina) and doing some calorie counting to boot. I've never been a dieter, but counting the calories and focusing on making all of them count with good stuff has really been an eye opener for me. It's crazy how fast you can eat your way through 1500 calories. By lunchtime! So now it's about choices and eating smaller, more often, and staying away from fast food and white stuff and junk and getting enough protein to keep up the fitness. So hopefully it's all paying off. We'll see in another month.




• School projects. In one week, Barrett had to turn in her country report on Greece and her Roman castle project that she and Katy constructed out of cardboard and paint and glue and moss and sticks and all things crafty; Afton completed her desert animal report on the Banded Gecko; and Rowan finished her habitat diorama and report on The Wetlands. Why do the teachers all think it's such a good idea to save the big projects until the end of the school year? Maybe because they think that the recitals and ball games and field trips and end of the year programs and regular school work and all the extracurricular stuff won't be enough to fill our lives. I don't know. Maybe it's just me :) We (and I do mean "we" when I say that) still have to finish up a country poster, create and dress a 2- foot paper doll in "authentic" Greek attire, prepare an Indian costume for the Arizona program, prepare a Greek costume and snacks for the world fair, and make an Easton-sized car from a box for the kindergarten drive in movie day. All before we can officially pack away all things crafty for the summer. Should be another fun week.

I'm sure there's a bunch of other stuff that I missed too (like church callings and getting our website up and running and work and converting to a new software system at RMB and all the training that goes with that), yada, yada, yada...But this post is already crazy long and I have long since passed my small window of blogging opportunity. Gotta run. Hope to post the pics that go along with all of this stuff soon. Life is good. The Browns are good. Getting excited for summer vacations and camps and friends and time in the pool.

Summer Sleepover

(Karyn, Barrett, Katy & Riley)

We did it again.

The annual summer sleepover,

on the second to the last weekend

of summer vacation.

After last summer's Nacho Night,

I was persuaded to commit to a repeat

for Summer 2010.

The girls didn't let me forget it either.

But I was pleasantly surprised.

No drama-rama.

No fights.

No hurt feelings.

All the peeps were out by midnight.

No next morning crabbiness.

Just a bunch of beautiful girls

(and one stray brother along for the ride)

having a night to remember.

We started off the night with a pool party. Ryan BBQ'd some burgers & dogs, and all the kids swam and played hard. Easton didn't care at all that he was surrounded by cute girls. He's pretty much used to that livin' in the Brown House with three older sisters. We were sad that a couple of the cousins couldn't be there since they were beachin' it in Cali, but I'm sure they were having a blast too. (Sidenote: Afton & Rowan got to have a cousin sleepover with Avery & Lainey at their house this past weekend to make up for them missing the party. Thanks, Jessie. They had a blast.)

Of course, the girls did a craft. This year, we kept it pretty simple, but they all loved it.

Each girl decorated her own backpack keychain with ribbons and tule galore. They were super excited about showing them off on their packs on Day 1. According to Barrett, the girls got lots of comments at school as Barrett and her two amigos walked side by side through campus with blinged up high top keychains dangling from their new packs. The pictures don't really do them justice.

After the crafts, the girls opted for more swimming - late night style - in the dark - and then came back inside for ice cream sundae mania. Too much chocolate syrup and caramel and whipped cream and M&M's for me... They were creations that would have made Mr. DQ proud.

I didn't get any photos of the moon light nail salon, but all the girls did each other's nails too, somewhere in the 10:00 pm hour. Oh ya...they ate more snacks and watched a movie too. Sometime around 11:30-ish, I wished them all a good night and retreated to my room. I came back out at midnight, and heard nothing but the TV on entertaining a group of wiped out, slumbering girls. AAhhhh....

(Barrett, Riley & Karyn)

After our pancake & bacon breakfast on Saturday, the girls each picked out their own facial mask packets and indulged with a little spa session, complete with eye cucumbers and all. So fun and so funny...

Sidney, Afton & Lily

What a terrific party! The girls are already scheming for next summer's shindig and persuading me to commit now (since they know I'm not a sleepover fan.) I have to admit, though, this was one fantastic group of little girls, and even I had fun watching their fun.

It's all about the shoes

The shoes tell it all.

It's back to school time.

Clearly, Vans are the bomb this year.

Last year they were all wearing Converse.

Rowan & Lily at the bus stop - both getting ready to start first grade. We're sad that Miss Lily isn't in Rowan's class this year, but thankfully, being cousins and all and living just around the corner, they'll still get to hang together all the time.

My little man is officially a school kid...kinda hard to believe. Half-day kindergarten at Hermosa Vista. He's a Skyhawk and wears a sky blue school spirit shirt on Fridays. We're used to red, white and blue at Hale. My girls are Hale Heros. Since I'm a couple days overdue in posting these pics, we now have three days of school under our belt. I have to say that today was the hardest day for me yet. Yes, the fact that the bus never showed up on day 1 was disheartening...but we dealt with that. (By the way, I'm driving him to school now and he takes the bus home.) But this morning when Ryan and I dropped him off at school, I almost cried. We got there about 10 minutes before the first bell so that he could have time to play a bit if he wanted before lining up on the "yellow circle" where his class meets to walk in. But after he laid his new backpack down on the sidewalk, he looked around so confused and sad. He asked me if I saw any of the other kids in his class on the playground. Sadly, with a new school and a new kindergartner on the third day of school on a playground packed with kids and no sisters around for support, I had no idea who any of them were.

He couldn't figure out what to do. He started for the busy playground twice, then came back. He thought about just waiting in his class line, but that didn't look too appealing with only two kids waiting there. I knew that he wanted to play, but I think he was just intimidated about jumping into that jungle with no one he knew. I tried encouraging him to go play, but he just stood there silently, looking around, then plopped right down on the sidewalk with his hands on his cheeks across from his yellow dot and waited. With a small frown and furrowed brows. He looked too sad and lonely. I wanted to stay with him. So did Ryan. We were trying to get off to the temple, though, and I knew that today was just one of many days that I'd be leaving my little man on the yellow dot to face his kindergarten world. So I gave him a hug and started off.

Thankfully, just as I said that, my cousin Dyan came up with her little guy, Jay, who is in Easton's class. He was the lifesaver. After a little coaxing, Easton got up with Jay and waited in line with the one face he knew in the crowd. I knew that once that bell rang and his fantastic teacher led him into class, that he would be fantastic and love his day. And that's exactly what happened. When I met him at the bus stop after school today, he was all bounce and smiles. Without prompting (since I've asked so many questions about day one and day two), he told me all about day 3. "I had recess, ate snacks, colored one picture...and I got to pick this (showing me a Buzz Lightyear lolipop thing) from the treasure chest! Probably next Friday we get to do that again. And that was all I did." Hmmm...not a bad report from the four-year old. I was happier than ever having him with me all afternoon. Just like last year. Just he and I. I love those times.

My cute girls (plus our neighbor friend, Riley, who's like a fourth daughter) waiting at the bus stop. They were so good to indulge me for a few quick snaps of the camera.

Is it me, or does Rowan look extra smart sporting her glasses? I'm still getting used to seeing her in them. It's such a change. But she seems to be loving them more and more and is keeping them on pretty much all day now. I guess they must be working...good thing. Rowan is our social butterfly - always trying to arrange play dates and make sure her schedule is packed with fun. She came home on day 1 with the phone number of a new friend, Taylor. She's already got quite a little posse of friends from her early learner kindergarten and kindergarten years. But hey, you can never have too many friends, right? Rowan's also excited that our new friends, the Hughletts, who just moved in about a month or so ago, have a little girl Rowan's age in her class. Her name is Brooklyn and we love her to death. She's a doll and so is her mom, Lisa. They moved here from Michigan and bought a house in Harris Park not too far from our house. I've already made a new friend too!

My sweet Afton. A fourth grader, sporting her "yay 4 Saturdays" shirt on the first day of school. I like it. It seems so Afton. She has Mr. Dominguez this year, her first "man teacher." Although she was pretty upset when she got her teacher assignment earlier this summer (she did not get the teacher she was hoping for), after day 3, she seems super happy with it all. She says he's really nice and even lets them eat snacks while he talks. Amazing in the world of a fourth grader. Plus her best bud, Lily, is in her class again this year, which always helps. I hope her teacher challenges her enough this year. Afton is so dang smart. She's a straight A student across the board and has literally been breezing through every grade so far.

OK, she's growing up too fast. Look at her! Miss Barrett Ally, almost twelve, now the head of the school as a sixth grader. She's on top of her world and lovin' life. She's became a voracious reader this year, which I love, and no doubt will be a little fashionista as she grows up. She's already got the fashion bug itch, and has "i wanna be a teenager" written all over her face. Thankfully, she's as sweet as they come. We've gotten pretty close this past year, closer than we've ever been before, really, and I'm loving that. I love that she and I are great friends and I hope that she will always treat me like that. Come junior high, I guess time will tell...but for now, she's such a gem.

My sweet kids...good luck this year. Be kind. Make friends. Study hard. Have a blast!

Marathon Tuesday

Yesterday felt like a kid marathon day. It just kept going and going and going and...kinda like the Energizer Bunny.

I guess that's to be expected on the day before school starts. Still, I was spent. I'm quite sure that staying up too late a couple nights in a row working on our Mountain View Class of 1990 website and then the stadium trainings had something to do with my fatigue. Maybe the heat a little. Whatever the reason or myriad of reasons, I was tuckered out last night.

The Brown Family's Tuesday, August 10th included all of this good stuff and more:

• Early morning workout with Ryan up at Mountain View. We ran at the track and did tons of stadiums - getting ready for the big hike next month.
• Meet the teacher day up at Hale for the girls. Three new teachers, three new classsrooms, three new school t-shirts, one big lunch check and one big PTO donation. Hooray! (NOTE: We did meet the teacher at Hermosa Vista Elementary on Monday night for Easton. He's starting half day kindergarten there today. We ran into a zillion people we knew there and everyone kept asking us if we were transferring. No, it's just Easton. The girls are staying at Hale. But we loved his new school and are so excited for him. Oh, and we did Meet the Teacher at Field Elementary after that Monday night for Barrett's ELP class. Same teacher for ELP as she had last year, but a new theme. This year they are studying the Stock Market. I'm pretty stoked about that.) We've met lots of teachers!
• Home for quick laundry rotation and potty break.
• Dentist appointments at 11:30 in Gilbert for all the kiddos. Knock on wood, but they all still have perfect teeth. No cavities. No problems. Barrett is still waiting for 3 baby teeth to come out so they can get moving with her braces. Maybe one more year. Afton has five loose teeth and Rowan, much to her dismay, is starting first grade with all 20 of her baby teeth and none even close to loose. Easton's are perfect.
• Errands.
• Lunch and shopping at Sam's Club with the crew. It's amazing how much lunch you get for five people at Sam's Club for $13. Seriously. Kinda helps with the sting of the final bill when you check out from shopping and wonder if you'll ever leave with a bill under $200.
• Home for about 30 minutes for grocery drop off, email checking, and more laundry rotation and showers for all the kids (so they could have freshly washed hair for Jayme).
• Hair cuts for all the kids at Tantrum at 3:30.
• Walmart trip (for the last minute school supplies that we didn't anticipate). Big mistake. Walmart was insane. Half of Mesa was doing the same thing we were. It took 25 minutes to check out. No lie. I was so done with people by the time we came home. Thankfully I love my people and they were all pretty good considering the day we had. But Easton was super done too.
• Finally, home for good and ready to dive into dinner prep at 5:45.
• Kids turned our living room floor into school supply heaven while I prepped food. With supply lists in hand, and Barrett in charge of the chaos, the four of them divy'd up the crayons and pencils and glue sticks and scissors and binders and notebooks and hand sanitizer and tissues and filled their backpacks with first day of school treasures. I could hear the craziness from the kitchen. I only elected to intervene a couple of times when I thought World War 3 might break out about whose package of pencil lead was whose.
• Dinner - all vegitarian. A mish mash of quick and easy favorites: corn on the cob, baked potatoes, salad, fruit, bread (that we picked up at Walmart). My kids wanted to know where the chicken or the chops were. None tonight. We're going meatless today. Barrett kept asking what the entre was. I told her it was the baked potatoe and she smiled. But they all devoured it. Easton told me I make the best dinner ever. He's so good to me.
• More laundry, the final checking of the packs to make sure the lists were fulfilled. I realized today that I forgot the white pillowcase for Easton's painting smock and Afton's dry erase marker. They'll live without for a day or two I'm sure. Hopefully they don't bust out any paints in kindergarten today though. I liked the shirt Easton picked out and would love for it to come home paint-free.
• Baths again to wash off the stray hairs, then father's blessings from Ryan for each of the kids. That was my favorite part of the day. I cried in each one. They have such a good daddy.
• Prayers and tucking. Only 40 minutes behind schedule. Not too bad for getting back into the routine.
• Time with Barrett (my night owl) helping her tweeze her eyebrows back into perfect shape for Day 1 after being neglected for a couple of weeks. And I did the requisite checking to make sure all the outfits layed out on the ledge actually matched and all the shoes had socks to go with them.
• 10:00 - finally done with the day. I'm pretty sure I was out when my head hit the pillow.

Final note: when we were at Walmart, we ran into a couple of friends from the neighborhood, Gail McClure (Easton's preschool teacher from last year) and Connie Shelly (my good friend and our ward Relief Society president). Gail and Connie are best friends. As we laughed and visited with them for a few minutes, they commented that they were having some serious nostalgia watching me trek through Walmart with a full brood of kids in tow on the day before school started. All of their kids are grown now. They reminded me to cherish these days because they are gone before you know it.

So true. I can hardly believe that my little man is in school already. He was just born, wasn't he?

What We've Been Up To

Barrett:

She’s spending this whole week at her Time to Blossom young women’s conference. They’re staying at the Mesa Hilton and she’s bunking up with her cousin, Sydney, and a couple of other girls they just met at the conference. Four girls to a room, one counselor for 8 girls. Her other cousin, Kiersten, is also there with a friend and they are all having a ball. It’s kind of like EFY, but without the boys, and it’s for girls turning 12 this year up to 16. They’re having speakers/classes/activities on etiquette, body image, goal setting, self esteem, spirituality, friendships/peers, reaching their potential, and so much more. They have had a dress up party, multi-course meals, fashion show, pajama party, devotionals… What a great experience for her! I’ve been talking to her each night and she says she’s having lots of fun, but is so tired by the end of each day. They’re pretty much going non-stop from 7:00 am – 11:00pm every day. We miss her tons and are looking forward to her end-of-conference program tomorrow that we get to attend.

Afton:

She’s still taking electric guitar lessons. She’s still so dang cute and obedient and good to the core. She has also stepped up this week to help even more since Barrett’s been gone. She even babysat for me for an hour while I went visiting teaching down the street. That’s a new one for her but she did great. She’s been hanging out with Grandma Cindy on the days I’m working, being a great helper there too. Grandma and Grandpa have been doing tons of work in their backyard, uprooting and replanting trees, re-staining their deck, and basically giving the whole yard a make-over. It’s looking fabulous (but then again, I thought it looked fabulous before). Tomorrow night we’re having our ward daddy daughter swim party over there. My mom says there’s nothing like a party to get you motivated to work on the projects that have been on your to-do list for too long. I’m so thankful that they agreed to let us party there tomorrow. Anyway, Afty is looking forward to that tomorrow night too – spending time with her dad and all the other girls in the ward.

She’s been swimming a lot this summer – pretty much every day – and also busy working on crafts. Yesterday she and the kids took a field trip out to Hobby Lobby with Grandma and stocked up on some cool projects. Our Afty is always so crafty and inventive. I think she has a little me in her, kicked up a notch. To her dismay, she hasn’t been having much luck arranging play dates with friends (everyone’s schedules are so different), but she’s still been enjoying the time off and enjoying the flexibility of summer. She’s looking forward to our upcoming family summer vacations to the cabin, Park City for the 4th, and of course, the annual beach camping trip in July! Hooray for summer!

Rowan:

She’s been our little shadow lately. Every time either Ryan or I need to go somewhere, she asks to come. I think she enjoys the one-on-one time a lot. She went with Ryan to the Eagle Court of Honor on Sunday night, helped with me my visiting teaching on Tuesday, and has run all my errands with me. Grandma Cindy says she’s been a real helper around her place, too. She’s also been lovin’ her library finds and her Polly Pockets lately. Rowan loved having all the Brown cousins over on Monday night for a Father’s Day FHE pizza/swim party. We ate and swam and visited and watched the little movie I made in honor of the men in our lives. We got to meet our new little niece/cousin, Eva (Lacey’s new baby) on Monday night too. I held her for a long time and loved every minute of it!

On the not-so-exciting front, our little Miss Rowan has been complaining every day for the past two weeks about her vision. She says things are blurry, that her eyes are bugging her, and that “something is broken in my head” because I can’t see things clear. I asked her if she noticed this at all during school, but she said no, it just started this summer. So I made an appointment with the eye doctor and she’s going in to be checked in two weeks. She is frustrated that she has to wait so long. Me too, actually. But it’s better than the six week lead time with the first doctor I booked. Holy cow. I hope it’s just a growth spurt or something and that she doesn’t need glasses. We’ll see. Maybe she does. My SIL’s speculated that maybe she just “wants” glasses. Really? Would a kid make that up every day because they want glasses? I guess it’s possible, but seems crazy to me.

Easton:

Easton is growing up too fast. He’s already counting down to his fifth birthday. Every day he makes me smile and surprises me with some new word or phrase added to his ever-growing vocabulary. I had him tested for early entrance into kindergarten last week (he misses the cut-off by 19 days with a Sept 19th birthday). We got the letter on Friday letting us know that he passed and is recommended for early entrance. Yahoo!!! I was so bummed that Mesa Schools had to cancel their early learner kindergarten program with the budget cuts (all three of my girls went to that since they all have fall birthdays). So I went down to the registration office in early May to sign him up for the paid equivalent of early learner kindergarten (called KinderPrep). But much to my dismay, the gal told me that I was the only one in the whole dang school district who had signed up and that they would likely be cancelling that program too. What?? So I was facing another year of preschool and not excited about that. Easton’s ready for more. He’s catching onto everything so quick and I know he’s super smart already.

So I decided to have him tested for kindergarten. I have no idea what the test was all about since they don’t let parents come in, but there was a seven page application/ questionnaire I had to fill out ahead of time and then he spent about 20-30 minutes in with the teacher. I’m glad that he passed. He came out of the room all smiles. I was worried he’d be a little shy with the new face. I was wrong. Maybe he charmed her to death with his gorgeous blue eyes and irresistible smile. Either way, he passed. But… since I really don’t want him to be the youngest kid in his class for the rest of his school years (socially, educationally, athletically), and because I don’t want him to feel some sort of stigma about being held back if I send him to all-day kindergarten at Hale two years in a row (when all his buddies would be moving up), we decided to sign him up for half day kindergarten at Hermosa Vista (which is just about as close as our home school, Hale) and treat it as “Early Learner Kindergarten” just like all three of his sisters. I think half day will be good for our little man. Then, next year, he’ll start the normal routine of all day kindergarten at Hale. My girls are kinda bummed that he won’t be going to Hale with them this year, though. They adore our little guy and would love having him at their school. One more year, girls.

Ryan:

He survived scout camp last week and is back to the grind at RMB Properties. I’m sure this week has been crazy busy trying to catch up with all the voice mails and emails and jumping back into the deals. I tried to keep things afloat on the work front while he was gone. He had no cell reception unless he hiked up to the top of Inspiration Point on the mountain and stood next to the huge metal cross, which he did once every day to check in with me. I love him for that. So needless to say, the voice mails piled up. We’re in the middle of rehab on our latest fixer upper and getting ready to close on another one, hopefully tomorrow.

One deal blew up while he was gone, but may still close in a week or so. We’re waiting on some new POA from the seller’s wife who flew the coup and went to Mexico and swears she’s leaving her husband and doesn’t care what happens to the house and yada yada yada…Such a soap opera. Everyone was claiming that there was no way to reach her and the deal was going to tank until we offered $500 to her in exchange for the POA. Miraculously, they found her and she was happy to oblige for $500, but needed the money upfront in order to catch a bus to go to a place to pick up a package to sign and send back. Hmmm… I don’t think so. We’ll do an even exchange. Anyway, it’s still in limbo. We were all ready to close on the house (Ryan has been working on this deal since last October – it’s a short sale so it takes forever), we’d already signed with title, funded, bound the insurance, ordered the utilities – all the day before Ryan left. Then when I called title last Monday to confirm it recorded, she laid the bomb on me. Super fun stuff.

Enough work update…sorry, I digress.

We’re excited to celebrate Father’s Day this weekend with Ryan and our dads. We’ve got dinner out with the Browns (adults only) Saturday night, then my cousin, Matt’s missionary farewell and dinner with the Goodman/Teeples crew after on Sunday. Lots of family time for sure.

Me:

I did the single mom thing last week with Ryan gone. I had high hopes of accomplishing all kinds of projects and such while he was gone. I don’t know why I thought I’d have more free time with two less hands in the pot, but clearly I was delusional. Really, I just worked through the week and juggled the business and took care of our precious kiddos and the house and the errands and went to Park City for a long day and the week flew by. Oh ya – and I thought I’d finish my book while Ry was gone, too. I’m reading The Host by Stephenie Meier. But it stood neglected all week long. Just like my projects. I picked it up again yesterday at lunch and now I can’t wait to finish it. Oh, and I totally spaced it and forgot to pick up our Ward Emergency Preparedness Books that I ordered up from Staples to be ready for our Sunday combined lesson with the men and women. I felt sick when Brother Pulver called me on Sunday morning an hour before church to make sure I had them. Seriously, sick. That is soooooo not like me. I can’t believe I forgot to pick them up! Thankfully, in the end, it all turned out OK (except for the notch off the responsibility block that kills me). After apologizing profusely, I scrambled and got the summary pages printed for handouts for the lesson (which is all we needed) and told Bro. Pulver that the full books with the specific exhibits for each type of emergency would have to get handed out next Sunday. Still, I felt so bad. Am I losing my marbles?????

Other than that, this week has been filled with the usual: kids, house, running, work, work, work, church calling stuff, etc. After work yesterday, I trekked all through Costco wearing my high heels that I’d worn all day (so stupid of me – I should have planned ahead and brought flip flops with me), then proceeded to unload the car full of supplies at RMB, then unloaded the rest of the groceries at our house. I was ready to toss those stupid shoes into oblivion. I was smoking hot, starving, and totally wiped out. And a little crabby. Yes, maybe just a little crabby…Yesterday morning’s too dang hot run combined with not enough sleep and 12 hours in heels took a bite out of me. Thankfully, I recovered last night, though, and feel 100% better today. I even bought donuts this morning at Bosa on my way home from the temple. I love donuts. And the kids loved me.

So that’s us this week in a more than a nutshell. Maybe a bucket full of nutshells. I’m sure that someday when I go back and read my hard bound published blog (if I ever print it into a book), I’ll be glad I documented the day to day of our lives. I think.

Wax Museum

Somebody, somewhere, figured out an ingenious way to make history "come alive" for our 5th graders. A wax museum! So fun and such a great way to engage these bright eleven year olds in their study of American History. The culminating project for the Hale Elementary fifth graders was to choose a famous American in history (and there could be no duplicating among all the fifth grade classes), write a report, make a poster and include a timeline, and then....THEN, the best part, was that each student got to become their famous American for a day.

Barrett chose Sandra Day O'Connor, the first female justice of the US Supreme Court. Doesn't she look fabulous? Thanks to Beth for letting us borrow the Judge Judy robe from Halloween long ago, and thanks to Ashley for offering up your wig. Unfortunately, Barrett tried on the old lady wig and declared, "This is not Sandra Day O'Connor hair."

So we were back to ground zero on the hair. What to do, what to do....

Well, let me tell you, getting Barrett's hair do to look like that took some serious effort. We started at 5:45 am (we had to be done by 6:30), curling, ratting, spraying, smoothing, powdering, styling, pinning, and more powdering. She was pleased with the end result, though, and really looked terrific. Add some pearl earrings, a little hot pink lipstick and mascara, and voila! Court in session!

At their wax museum, each student had a blue "button" cut out of construction paper taped to the floor in front of the them. The museum patrons (aka parents and fellow students) who toured the spectacular Famous American museum in the Hale cafeteria could step on the make-shift button and listen to each "wax" figure deliver a 30 second speech about their life. Yes, I may be a smidge biased, but I think Barrett’s speech was among the best of them all. She was very prepared, spoke loud and clear, and delivered a great speech (over and over and over…)

Some of my other favorites were Benjamin Franklin (her friend, Adam), Jackie Kennedy (her friend, Emily Woods), Elvis, Babe Ruth, Albert Einstein, Wyatt Earp, Dolly Parton, Helen Keller, Paul Revere, Calamity Jane (her friend, Riley), and Ginger Rogers.

What a great idea to engage our kids and get them thinking outside the box. I loved it.

Panthers 2010

I have mixed emotions about ball season coming to an end. Mostly, I'm a little bummed that the girls didn't make it to the finals in the tournament, but they played hard. They lost their last game Tuesday night 9-8 in the bottom of the fourth. They led the whole game until the last batter got a 3-run homer. As in every lost game, the Panthers missed a couple of key opportunities to score, left a few too many stranded on base. Overall, it was a good game.

But, if I'm really honest with myself, I'd admit that part of me is glad that it's over. May Madness has been all that and a bag of chips this year. Seriously, every single stinkin night we've been gone with games or recitals or programs or school projects or church functions or appointments or something. All good stuff, just too much of it. It will be nice to breathe.

Hello, Summer Vacation! I wanted to share a few pics from the season, so we'll always remember. I loved that Barrett and Afton played on the same team this year (and their good friends Riley and Karynn.) It made going to the games all the more fun to watch.

Here's the Panther brood after last Saturday's second tournament win. Lots of smiles, happy to be moving on in the tourney.

Here's our little jock, Afton. She's got some wheels and some energy and a love of the game. We're hoping for good things from you, Miss Afty Cakes.

Riley had a good season, too. She really progressed in her pitching throughout the season and had a blast playing on the same team with our girls.

You go, Barrett. I love that serious look. You've been the MVP of the team this year with your good pitching, strong defense and consistent strong hitting. The coach has had you batting clean up all season and we are so proud of you! I am glad that you've had a blast this season.

Love this pic. Afton on deck. Ready to hit.

Most of the season, Afton played first base (and did really great). She played short a couple games too. I was the team mom and official scorekeeper at most of the games, and I can tell you that we had quite a few 1-3 (when Barrett was pitching) or 6-3 (when Barrett was at short) ground out combos in the scorebook. Our fellow team parents (and good friends) joked that it was the "Brown Show" whenever that happened. At Tuesday night's game, in the bottom of the second, Barrett was playing short stop and got hit three grounders in a row. She fielded them all cleanly and all three were sat down after strong throws to Afton at first. Three up, three down. (Too bad the fourth inning didn't bring the same results.)

Well...before I get too sentimental about the season ending, I just got an email from the Mountain View Softball Little League letting us know that fall ball signups are coming in August for the Sept-Oct season. Looks like we'll be playing again soon enough! Not sure what Afton will want to do, though. She's been begging to play soccer (ugh!), but I'm hoping that she'll be just as thrilled with softball. I've never loved soccer and I'm not sure why, but I have no desire to be a soccer mom. I think team mom and scorekeeper suits me much better. Hehehe. Not that it's about me. I get it. But still...ball is in our genes.

Until then, we'll be playing some catch, taking some BP at the retention basin (if we can stand the heat), and enjoying lots and lots of time by the pool this summer. Our first vaca of the year is coming up in a 11 days. But who's counting?

Hmmm....I'm dreaming of:

mangos on a stick,
vanilla popsicles on the beach,
reading under the cabana,
laying out poolside,
waterslides,
beautiful condo,
Miami Ice (virgin of course),
fajitas at Ramon's,
new sunglasses,
jewelry shopping on the sand,
a nice tan,
.....
and the list goes on.

Our New Tradition in the Making

The last couple of general conference weekends, the kids and I have met up with my SIL's and our cousins at Gene Autry for dinner and playtime while the dads are at the priesthood session on Saturday night. Grandma Cheri joined us too. It's our new tradition in the making I think. It's been a very long standing tradition that the men in our family all go to the priesthood session of conference together, then follow up the session with dinner out somewhere (usually Vitos). It's great for the kids to get some wiggles out after 4 hours of Saturday conference inside!

I've often said that all a boy really needs to be happy in this life is a little dirt and water. It's amazing how occupied and happy they can be with earth and water. Easton is no exception. He must have emptied and filled his water bottle with sand a hundred times, never tiring. Too funny.

Rowan, Trey & Lainey: Best Cousin Buddies

Rowan finally started using the camera she got for Christmas and is having so much fun being a little photographer. She's snapping away like her mama...

These girls crack me up. I have so many crazy pictures of them together! Afton with her best cousin bud, Avery.

They thought this picture was so funny. I turned the camera (Afton's new camera with which all these pictures were taken) upside down while our monkeys played on the bars.

My cute nephew, Grady, was just happy to play with the ice in his mama's Sonic cup most of the time. See - all you need is water and earth...

My niece, Jolie, enjoying her time on the swings

Just Because

No occasion for these pics...just a lovely Sunday afternoon two weeks ago. As we pulled into the garage after church, I looked back at my four beautiful kiddos and was so grateful that we were all together. So grateful to be their mom. So grateful that we had gone to church and that we are working daily to stay on the path...