7-26-15

So....this happened!

I got my hair chopped off!  I was debating whether I should grow it out or not.  It is obvious which option won the debate.  I figured it is summer so I will keep it short and then grow it out.  My hair grows extremely fast.

These two are so fun!  Here they are babysitting for a lady in our ward so she could come to a "music club" meeting at my house.  Some friends and I decided to form a music club- kind of like a book club.  We will meet once a month and listen to each other perform.  This gives us incentive to practice and a chance to perform something other than sacred music.  There are a lot of musical people around here which I am grateful for.  I have been wanting to do this for a long time.  We will see if we can keep it up during the school year as our schedule gets busier.  For our first meeting we had a violist, clarinetist, vocalist and two piano solos.

Our sweet Sydney was down this week with a raging fever.  When it just wouldn't go away I took her in to the doctor and it turns out she had a bladder infection.  Here she is feeling much better after some medicine.  We are happy to have her sparkling personality back!!

Here are these two in their matching Frozen shirts. :)

Here they are showing off their fun fabric headbands made at the Weaver reunion.  Neither one of them will keep them on for too long.

It is difficult to take a picture of Elise because as soon as she realizes you are trying to take a picture she just tries to come and "see" it before you have a chance to actually take it...hence the blurry photos :)

The kids were in tennis and swimming lessons the past two weeks.  Seth and Brenna do not really need swimming lessons anymore, but it is so inexpensive and they were with me anyway I decided to go ahead and sign them up.  Their class just swam laps the entire 40 minute class...it was a great workout.

Sydney looks adorable in her swimsuit so I thought it would be a great idea to take a picture of her for the blog...but she didn't think it was a great idea :)

Woohoo!  Look who is fourteen!!!  I cannot be old enough to have a fourteen year old!

(So, I forgot to buy candles....this happens a lot.  We made do with a #1 and four candles (yes they are pink)  He was a great sport about it.  I will be sure to get candles for the next birthday coming up :)

We are so excited the Indianapolis Temple Open House is occurring right now.  We went as a family Friday night.  It is just beautiful.  The kids really felt how special it was.  Grant summed it all up when he said, "Wow, that is an event for my journal."

oops this picture is out of place- this was an outdoor water activity at pack meeting.

Seth and Brenna have the unique opportunity of participating in the Youth Temple Cultural Celebration.  Our stake is dancing a square dance to Hoedown  by Aaron Copeland.  They are really enjoying the practices.  I love seeing their enthusiasm for the temple.

July 16 2015 catch up part 1

Okay...I have had a little trouble with these posts.  I originally created one big long "catch-up" post.  But then, it would not publish.  So I thought perhaps it was too large and broke it up through copy and paste into four parts. But then part one (the original post) still would not post.  So I copied it and pasted but now they are all out of order.  So, ideally, to read this as I created it you need to follow the titles (part one, then find part two, three, then four.  Currently it is 1 then 4 then 3 then 2.  Sorry! 

Two months of missed blogging all caught up in one post (and we have been busy!!) 

Ready, set, go!

I don't remember what I was making here but I had a darling helper!  I love how she is "typing" on the ipad here, and her face in the next photo is adorable.

 Yummm!  Strawberry shortcake for my birthday!!

 Here is a picture of the birthday cake Rob made for Grant's baseball themed birthday party.

Some photos from the party.  I blogged about his birthday party already but here are some pictures from Rob's phone.

Memorial Day weekend we visited my sister in Cincinnati.  We loved seeing her gorgeous new house and her cute kids.  She cooked us delicious meals and we had fun playing whiffle ball in the backyard. We also got to try out their neighborhood pool...very fun!

 



One night Seth and Brenna stayed up and played a fun board game with us.

Rob's birthday fell during the holiday weekend so we celebrated at Sarah's house.  He wanted peanut butter cookies...they were delicious!

Elise got into the firepit and played in the ashes,,,probably not the best sandbox, but she loved it :)

Sarah inspired me by her garden and garden pots so I planted some tomato plants and some seed starters when we got home.  I hadn't done so before because we were considering moving to a house with more land and therefore didn't want to spend time and money on a garden if we would move.  But I realized I could plant portable plants!  We have eaten a few of the tomatoes already.

July 16 part 4

This summer Brenna has taken horseback riding lessons.  She loves it!

A couple weeks ago we packed our bags and flew to Idaho and Utah for some visiting and a family reunion.  I do not like it when my kids are "plugged in" to electronics, but they do come in handy for a 3.5 hr layover!!

We were all looking forward to visiting our dear neighbors the Harris'.  Their kids were at our house all the time and we loved it.  They have grown so much.  It was all we hoped it would be.

We spent a night at Rob's Aunt Marilyn's house.  Uncle Dan always likes to take a picture with Sydney and send it to Rob's mom to make her jealous.

The next day we traveled back to Nampa and visited with friends at the park.  We rented two small cars since that was cheaper than renting one that would fit our whole family so after the park Rob and Seth and Grant and Elise drove to Idaho Falls and the rest of us stayed so I could have some more time to visit my dear friend Jen.  Her son Caleb and Russell were good buddies, and she has a daughter Brenna's age so they didn't mind staying with me.  Sydney looks like she enjoyed herself as well :)

I told Rob's mom when we were in Idaho Falls I really wanted to go on a hike so my kids could experience the lovely mountains.  Rob's brother's family and his sister and family came to visit for the weekend and came along on the hike too.  Luckily we were convinced to leave the youngest home with a babysitter, which turned out to be a good idea.  It was a wonderful challenging hike but just the right level for what I had had in mind. 

Unfortunately the pictures doesn't show the beautiful varied colors of the wildflowers on the side of the mountain.  They were breathtaking.

The destination was the waterfall and a cave behind it.

 These crazies stood in the waterfall...icewater anyone?

The post-hike destination is always the square ice cream shop :)

We were in Idaho Falls for the Fourth of July.  All of Rob's siblings but one came for the celebration.  That afternoon a lot of Rob's extended family came for volleyball, water slides and the Melaleuca fireworks show.  It was great catching up with family we hadn't seen for a while.

 

 I love this picture!  Russell and Sam are warming up together :)



The curly-heads...Sydney and Joe



Waiting for the fireworks.

Elise loves to "play" the piano.  I thought this was so adorable.

One morning Elise woke up early and I brought her in bed with me.  She promptly laid down with her bum on my face and went back to sleep/  Haha!!



Tuesday morning we headed to a wonderful cabin just north of Park City for the real reunion :)  It was a beautiful place with beds for all and amenities including a projector screen, pool table, air hockey table, hot tub, tetherball court, sand volleyball court, playground and basketball arcade game (did I get everything?)

We all had meal assignments...check out all the watermelons!  There were 41 of us.




This is the view from the playground and also the windows-the beautiful side of the mountain.  We were told often moose travel through the meadow but we never saw any...maybe we were too nosiy?


Sydney and Annie enjoyed the swings.



Grandma Weaver gave everyone t-shirts and put the number of their birth on the sleeve.  I think she is up to 27 now.  We lined everyone up on the loft and down the stairs for a picture.  Here are half of them.

Gathered for evening devotional.

Watching a movie.

Elise and cousin Sam.

Playing Rook on the patio while the kids play on the playground to the left.  I could get used to this!!

The Weaver Olympic Games.  Team Yellow Lightning, hooray!!  (We had colored fabric strips to mark our teams...some put them in their hair or wore them as belts...)

One of the most popular events was the "Rifle Shoot" where with a nerf gun contestants had to knock over cups for varying points.

Another exciting event was tossing cheese puffs on shaving cream.  All three of our boys participate for their teams.

Elise enjoyed the noodles that were a prop for another event.

Elise loves trying on shoes that belong to other people.  These cute crocs coordinated well with her outfit.

One of the best parts of family reunions is the delicious food everyone cooks.  I had to take a picture of these beautiful wraps Kristy made for lunch one day.

Cuties.

Some new BYU gear was appropriated during our visit.

We left the cabin Saturday morning but didn't fly out until that night so we were able to visit Grandma Astle.  She is such a wonderful person.  Even though my kids do not know her as well as I wish they did, they can tell what a wonderful person she is, and that makes me happy. :)

 Now we are back home to the humidity and thuderstorms!  We have been busy this week with tennis and swimming lessons.  It has been a great summer so far!