September

I haven't been able to get onto my blog for a while. I finally found a backdoor, so here are some...

Random pictures from September:

We had our first Norm and Sheri Whiting family reunion in Sept. It was super fun. My sister Lori blogged all about it, you can check her blog out. :) Here are all the grandkids minus a few babies.

Next, Daddy daughter campout

Steve was camping for a strait 6 weekends in a row with ward campouts, daddy daughter, family reunions, and finally Wood Badge. He went up with Dave Haynes, and Mitch Bogle and had the time of their life.

We welcomed two new family pets TeeCup and KC- Dwarf Hampsters

And we welcome Scorpy and her 15 babies, and two of her friends. We hope all is doing well with them...HA! These were captured by Tyson and his friends in our woodpile out back. They caught them with plyers and put them in this jar to keep as pets! Aaaah!Lori came to town for her 10 year reunion. Sadie had fun learning how to take care of a baby, and is now okay that we aren't having any more :)

Hailee and her most "favoritest" cousin Savannah

Me and my most Favoritest sister Lori

Tyson and Hailee saying goodbye

Here is Tyson and Steve at Pack meeting. These guys were made for scouting. :)

And last random pic...

For Hailee's birthday, I took her to get her first manicure. She didn't enjoy that at all. :) J/K

Maui pictures to come...

Hosting Love and Logic

Hello you 5 people who read my blog! :) I thought I would post this and you can let people know who might be interested...

I am going to be hosting a Love and Logic 4 week course at my home. If you are not familiar with this method of parenting, check out http://www.loveandlogic.com/.

My little blib about this method is...It has changed my life! I look at parenting in a whole new way. And when I do it right, it is a whole lot easier, and fun. If you are interested, or have questions, leave a comment with your email and I will contact you. The presenter is an aunt of my sister Lori. She is awesome and has been doing this for years. We are only accepting 10 couples, so call me or email me soon if you are interested!

Here's the info:

SHEILA TOOLSON
Independent “Becoming a Love and Logic Parent” Facilitator
presents:

Parenting With Love and Logic:
Strategies for Raising Responsible Kids

Love and Logic is a philosophy founded by Jim Fay and Foster W. Cline, M.D., and is based on the experience of a combined total of over 75 years working with and raising kids. It provides simple and practical techniques to help parents and teachers have less stress and more fun while raising responsible kids. Love and Logic offers many useful techniques that parents and teachers can begin experimenting with immediately.

Love and Logic is easy to use, raises responsible kids, and changes lives.

Four Week Course:
(Tuesdays- 6:30 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.)
Fall Session: September 8th – September 29th
At the home of Steve and Jenny Smith

Price: $150/couple or

$100/person

Call to reserve your spot

1st Day of Horror

Today started out like any first day of school, actually better because I actually got up before my kids and made french toast and woke them up sweetly, blah blah blah. I was on a role, felt relaxed. It was going to be a great day, full of grocery shopping, and hanging out with Hailee. I drop the kids off at school, early :) Hailee has been begging me to take her to the park, and well it is only 89 degrees, so not to horribly bad, I'll sit in the shade. We go to the park. My friend is at the park with her 3 year old twins. I want to help her out, so I offer to watch her boys and I offer to bring them home when we are done playing. Friend is happy. While kids are happily playing I remember I have to return a call. A little later Hailee says she has to go to the bathroom, so I figure it's a good time to go, so I call for the boys and start to put Hailee in the car. Hey Aaron, where's Ben? "He walked that way" (Toward the school) OH MY GOSH!
I sprint across the field, and he is no where! I call his mom, and tell her that I can't find her son. She hangs up and is on her way, I run back and get the kids in my car and drive around the school to see if he is walking around the neighborhood. I am literally praying out loud. Then I call the front office to see if they happen to have a lost boy. Some guy on a bike found him walking and brought him there. 'Relief' doesn't even give my feelings justice. I am bawling and shaking at the thought of losing a child not to mention someone else's child. I finally find my friend who is bawling and give her Ben. She had called the police to help us find Ben, so we have to let the police know everything is okay. I had to admit to the policeman that I was on a phone call and wasn't paying attention. And then get mildly scolded. "Do you have other children?" Shocked that this would even happen... "You have to be careful, there are bad guys out there" Oh I feel so stupid! I don't think I have ever been so scared in my entire life!
Later that day, after laying down for a bit to calm down, I go outside and get my mail. My first ever speeding ticket! Kinda sad...I've never been pulled over, and they flashed my picture on my way back from the cabin...Darn STAR VALLEY! $187.00! This day is getting better and better. I went and laid down again. I'm waiting for 3:00 to come so I can get my kids from school. Hopefully they have some exciting news to cheer me up a bit. I drive on down the road at 2:55 and here they come, walking down the road, almost home. What the??? How did you get here so fast? "Mom, you are sooooo late!" What? It's not even 3:00 yet. Did you get out early and they not tell me? I am utterly confused. I go home look in their bags for paper work and find the times. OHHHH, it's Wednesday, you got out at 2:20????? You waited a half an hour for me???
Can I just go to bed now and start over tomorrow? I quit! But please first, will you nominate me for worst mother of the year?

Week at the Homestead

All summer the kids begged to go to the homestead. Finally, we were able to get away for a whole week. Steve met up with us that weekend. Ashley (SIL) mentioned to me that the night before they left the cabin, they discovered a big mouse and tried to get it out of the cabin, but couldn't and left traps. She told me I could find a dead one, or it could still be wandering around. I hoped it was gone, but as I walked in the cabin, a yucky smell was there and my kids had to use the bathroom so bad so I went into the bathroom and thought, "Nice, someone left something in the toilet!" On go the lights and surprisingly, I didn't scream :) I was quite relieved that I wasn't going to have to find or kill a rat. It killed itself.

Can you say "RATAPOOEEEE?"

After getting a man to fish that out, I had some sanitizing to do! Bathroom, counters, tables, cupboards. I don't think it was wandering that long. It even got into it's own box of poison that it probably did the first night it was stuck in there, lucky for me. :)

Up to the rope swing

Hailee can finally swing with a little help from big sister

Nature walk

Take time to smell the flowers

And ride the bull

Meet some new cousins, go crawdad fishing

Put on a play
Catch some more crawdads
Go take a hike

Rest and check on dad

Hailee's quite the hiker, she beat us all up the mountain

Sadie, making it to the top

Sadie and cousin Dani

Queens of the mountain

Donut Lake in the distance

Fishing again, "Let's see how many we can catch"

Cute little baby crawdad

After only 1 hour, 97 baby crawdads

Daddy's here! Now the real fun begins

Chad and Ashley came for the weekend to join in on the fun.

Hailee and Cozy

Must take dad fishing for crawdads too

I've always wanted 2 of me...always on the lookout...

This was soooo fun! The kids would push this up the mountain a little ways and then jump in and roll with it, like little hamsters. Best roller coaster ever!

Sweet little munchkin City kids! Can't stay away from movies for too long :)

My favorite thing to do up at the cabin is go to Greens Peak. Growing up, I loved these trips. We would go to the lookout tower and then run down the mountain as fast as we could. We would even knock down trees, (that were dying)

And we're off... WAAHOOHOOEEE! Here I come!

Come on, come on! What's the hold up?

Now, we're talkin! Go Hailee! You can't tell, but she's in the air jumping, or leaping...

Poor Sadie twisted her ankle, so we took it slow after that and enjoyed the walk. She's a trooper and made it down. Griffin, Piper, Cozy, Hailee and Tyson playing Harry Potter

Tyson found a Frog!

Picking strawberries

We made it out alive :)

Which reminds me, when we started down the mountain, we were a talking about all the animals that could be in these woods, and tried to make some noise, to maybe scare any off. Steve got a bright idea to sneak around and scare everyone. I noticed he was gone and I hung back to watch this scene unfold. I wished I would've had the camera. Next to the trail, there was rustling and then pounding footsteps coming straight for them, along with a growl. Ashley turned around face pale, they all started screaming and running for me. Ashley is screaming "Where's Steve, where's Steve...Why are you laughing???" I don't think I've ever seen her so scared. :)