The Rio Grande

On our way home, we were able to see the Thatchers and stay with them one night in New Mexico. Here we are overlooking the Rio Grande River. I thought it would be bigger but still cool to see.

We're Back in Arkansas!

This is not Chicken Pox. This would be mosquito bites.

It was so nice to be out west for a few weeks - I loved the weather and lack of bugs. The scouts went on an overnight camping trip when we got back, and Jack got eaten alive. He had bug spray on but it didn't seem to matter. This is from the boys in his tent going in and out at night and not being diligent in zipping up the tent. It was so hot that Jack slept with his shirt off. I told him he better not do that again.
On Sunday, Jack leaned over to me and said, "Mom, I have 61 bug bites on my one arm." Wow.

Wow

Grace has become more independent in her dress. She definitely knows what she wants to wear. I thought this outfit was pretty crazy. She wanted to wear her tutu, her bracelets, barrettes in her hair and piggy tails.

Pinewood Derby

We held our Pinewood Derby this week. We only had 3 scouts and 2 upcoming scouts participate but the boys had a lot of fun. Jack and Kade made cars as usual (we always make 3 cars every year) so they were able to race since our numbers were so small. Kade was so excited. He was hopping up and down all over the place.

I guess I didn't take a picture of Kade with his car. It was pretty cool. It was black with a purple stripe in the middle. He also had a cool fin on the back. Grace got a hold of his car at the weigh-in and threw it. The fin broke but luckily we had super glue.

Josh's car is the green one and Jack's is the black one.
They all had a blast. After it was over, the kids all ran around racing their cars.

Baseball

I really did a terrible job of taking pictures of the boys at baseball this year. Here are a few.

This is Josh's All Star team.

Kade at bat. Kade struggled with hitting this year, but he did a great job in the field. At his last game, he asked his coach if he could catch (I'm sure it's because both his brothers are catchers). He had a lot of fun wearing the catcher's gear.
Josh loved playing catcher this year. He is also played shortstop, 1st base, and pitcher.
Jack also played catcher a lot for his team. When he wasn't catching he was shortstop or 2nd base.

Here is Jack's All Star team (they didn't have their uniforms yet when this was taken).

They took 2nd place in a tournament. Pretty exciting. Josh is also on an all star team. We have tournaments every weekend now. It's too bad that the boys don't play in the same cities. Tom and I get to divide and conquer.

End of the Year Awards

Here is Kade with his teacher, Ms. Cain. She was so sweet and kind to Kade. He had a hard time adjusting with our move and his teacher was really good to him.

Jack and Josh both received multiple awards.
Jack had the 3rd top AR points in 6th grade. Not too shabby considering we moved here in January.

Little Climber

Grace has decided that she likes to do things herself. She watched the boys get into my Cub Scout candy the other day so she decided that she needed some too. She pushed the chair over to the counter, climbed up, then got into my upper cabinet to pull down all the candy. She then dumped the whole bag out to find the sucker she wanted. I have caught her doing this a lot lately.

Say What?

So here is one of our typical weekends. We didn't get anything done around the house (there's still lots of boxes in the office to unpack and pictures to hang and the never-ending yard work) but we were still very busy.

Tom and Jack spent all day Saturday helping gut flooded houses in northern Tennessee. They had to rip out all the drywall, cabinets, flooring, furniture, everything - out of these houses. He said it was so sad for these people who lost everything. They told them that they only had a few minutes warning to get out. Jack even got to use a sawz-all (not sure on the spelling). I'm glad we could do our part to help other people. I know I would be grateful if the situation was reversed. I have a feeling we will have plenty of opportunities for service when it comes to tornadoes, floods and hurricanes.

Tom and Jack got home in time for dinner. We hadn't had time to do any of our yard work so I told the boys that if they finished mowing the lawn, I would take them to Sonic for milkshakes. They got right on it after dinner. I wasn't thinking when I bribed them to get it done that Tom and Jack would be out there too. So, way after dark, we were still out there mowing and bagging grass. I tried getting them to stop several times but they really wanted to go to Sonic. (I would have bought it for them anyways, but they were definitely determined.) I took over for Jack because I could tell he was exhausted but in the end, Tom was mowing, poor guy. I know he was exhausted. When there was only a little bit left, Tom started running with the lawn mower. They were having relay races. Even Grace was running behind everyone else. It was so funny to see them sprinting and laughing while mowing the lawn in the dark while we were getting eaten by mosquitoes.

We left for Sonic well after 9 p.m. I was a little worried that it would be closed but it wasn't, thank goodness. Jack and Josh both order limeade chillers. While we were waiting, Jack saw that they sell Java chillers on the menu. Josh then asked what Java was. I explained that it was coffee and then Kade blurts out, "Ew yuck, why would you want to eat Jabba the Hut?!" It was so funny.

On Sunday, Tom Barbequed steak. We must have let a fly in because it was buzzing around during dinner. At one point I said Shoo fly, Shoo. Immediately Grace said, "Foo Foo Shy." It was funny to hear her imitate me.

Little Helper

Grace is such a good little helper. She was digging around in a drawer looking for her apron but couldn't find it so I got out my apron. She was so happy to put it on.

Yesterday, she was putting a cake mix box in the toaster over and closing the door. I couldn't figure out what she was doing at first. She was trying to cook the cake.

Fun Weekend

To finish off our fun weekend, we had our second Stake Conference in three weeks. Elder Holland came and spoke to us. They announced last week that they would broadcast the meeting to our building since we live 1 1/2 hours away, but I wanted our kids to be in the same room as an apostle. They won't have many opportunities to do that. So, we got up early to get there on time. About 15 minutes before church started they announced that anyone who still didn't have a seat would have to go to another building. I'm so glad we got there in time. That would have been lame to drive that far to not be able to see him especially since we could have just stayed home to do that.

Afterwards, we ate our lunch on the back lawn (a tradition for our ward) in the shadow of the Memphis Temple. So cool.

The boys were so excited for this weekend because it was the Father - Son Camping trip. This is their favorite weekend of the whole year. We never go camping although we talk about it all the time so this is a big deal for them.

Tom and the boys went up early to set up the tent because all three of the boys had make-up baseball games Friday night due to rain earlier in the week.
They didn't make it back to camp until 10 p.m. but they still cooked hot dogs and roasted marshmallows and played with fire. They could get as dirty as they wanted and there was no mom nagging them to brush their teeth!
Tom bought three fishing poles this year. The boys were so excited. Jack and Josh both caught a fish. This was their first time fishing (if you don't count the time we found string and Cheerios on the ground at a lake in Utah with Uncle Jimmy which the boys always like to count as fishing.)
Tom said that the lake was really pretty and it was a great place to camp. He said we should go back as a family. I asked about the bathrooms because I need a bathroom. He said he thought there was a restroom there but he wasn't sure. I'm not so sure this sounds like a great camping spot.
There weren't really any kids there except for my boys. There were older scouts, but they didn't come with their dads. That's a little disappointing, but Tom said they didn't care. They were happy to be camping. They didn't care who else was there.
The boys stayed up super late then got up early on Saturday. They were all up by 5:30 a.m. because it was going to rain. They pulled the tent down and got everything in the car by 6 a.m. so they went fishing early. It rained on them and they got soaked but that's part of camping. I asked Tom why he didn't just leave the tent up and stay in there and be dry but I guess I don't have the true camping spirit. What's a little water, right?

Baseball Time

I am terrible when it comes to the sports pictures. I usually forget my camera or am too busy watching the kids to get any pictures. When I do, the pictures usually aren't that great anyways. I did get a couple of pictures of Kade before his game.

Kade is excited to be playing. For his age, they have a machine pitch the balls. It is pretty fast considering last year was coach pitch. It won't be long before he's hitting them.
Kade got to play third base in this game. Someone hit the ball toward him. He caught it and threw it to first. Too bad the first baseman couldn't catch. That's just how it is for 6 year olds.
I'll post more pictures of the boys soon. I just have to remember my camera!

Look Who's 2

Here we are doing our famous rendition of Happy Birthday
Grace loved this part.
I was going to make Grace a cake (most likely pink) for her birthday but we ended up buying three cakes from the Scout Cake Auciton. We got this fairy cake for Grace. The boys were dying to light the candles so Grace got to blow out her candles three times. She loved it.
Grace got a new tricycle for her birthday. It has a nice, long handle for us to push her with. We can even control which way it turns. I wish I had one of these 11 years ago. Josh and Kade both have been riding it around the house.


I tried really hard to get a cute picture of her on her birthday, but Grace had other ideas. This is the best I could get.

Jack's Activities

Jack received a bronze award in band. As soon as he sat down with his award, Grace whined and grabbed at the medal until Jack gave it to her. She didn't want to give it back. I asked Jack to let her wear it until the awards were all handed out so she wouldn't cry. Jack was so good to let her wear it. He is the best big brother. He is always so patient and willing to share.
Here he is after wrestling it away from Grace.

So here is an outsider's perspective of the South. They love their sweet tea. It is everywhere. When you go to restaurants, the first question they ask you is if you want some sweet tea. At the awards banquet, they had big urns full of sweet tea. Jack then told me that you can have all the sweet tea you want during lunch at school for free. If you want milk, it is 25 cents. He said the only two kids who drink milk are him and the other LDS boy at the school.
To raise money for Scout Camp this year, our ward held a chili cook-off and cake auction. Jack really wanted to make a dragon cake (like the one he made a few years ago for cub scouts). We made it green this year. He did a great job. It looked great. He won the prize for most creative cake. His cake sold for $35.
I made a four layer chocolate mousse cake with chocolate gnash and heath bar bits on top for the cake auction. It was the prettiest cake I've ever made. Too bad I didn't take a picture of it! It sold for $50. That wasn't the top selling cake though. A lady in our ward made a chocolate cake with flan on top. It sold for $85. We were outbid on that cake. Afterwards, she told me she would make our family the cake since we didn't win the bid. She brought it over the next day. It was so yummy!
When we moved here, Jack had the option to join band. He has learned to play the trombone.
He had his first (and probably last) band concert last week. The 6th grade band did four pieces. They did a great job.

For Science, Jack had to build a rocket. He worked really hard on his project. I guess it didn't work when he tried to launch it. We don't know why. They tried using several different engines but nothing worked. Sorry Jack, I guess I'm not a good rocket builder.

Tom's "Vacation"

So to finish the story of our crazy weather weekend, Tom got to the airport on time, but his plane was delayed. They flew into North Carolina and missed their connection because their first plane had been late. Instead of being able to spend all afternoon and evening with his family, Tom and Josh sat in an airport.

They did have fun once they got to Charlottesville. Josh had a blast seeing his grandparents, playing with cousins, and getting on-on-one Dad time.

They left early Sunday morning to drive home and got as far as Nashville. It turns out Nashville was flooded. The roads were closed and Tom spent hours driving around trying to get home. When he realized that it was futile, he looked for a hotel to stay in. No hotels anywhere. Tom and Josh got to sleep in the new truck in a gas station parking lot along with a lot of other stranded motorists.

It wasn't the fun weekend Tom envisioned for Josh, but I think Josh still had fun. He never complained. It was a great adventure.

Wacky Weather

I must have been really spoiled spending my whole life in California. Last night's weather was crazy. They were predicting thunderstorms and lots of rain. It was overcast all day but that was it. I went to bed around 11 p.m. last night and that's about when the lightning started. Looking out my bedroom window was almost like watching fireworks on the 4th of July. The lightning was non-stop. Since I am not used to lightning storms, I couldn't fall asleep, I just lay there watching the show out my window. At midnight, the tornado siren started going off. We turned on the radio and it said the storm was heading straight for us. I hurried upstairs to get my kids - none of which wanted to get out of bed. I had to pull Kade off the top bunk. We all went down to our closet to wait. We were in there for about 45 minutes. Then we sent the kids back to bed.

Since Grace is terrified of the thunder and lightning, she got in bed with us. She wanted to be right next to me then she kept calling out for Daddy. He would pat her and tell her he was there. The whole time she had her little hands balled up into fists covering her eyes. She was up for at least another hour.

We had to get up this morning to take Tom and Josh to the airport. I drove and the whole time it was raining then pouring then raining then pouring... We made it to Memphis, went to Costco then headed to the airport from there. More pouring rain. We were almost to the airport when we came to a tunnel that went under the runway (I think). We had to stop because the tunnel was flooded and there were three cars that had crashed and were all over the three lanes. I started panicking (because it's me) and didn't know what to do because that is the only way the directions told us to go and we were late. We decided to brave the flood. Luckily we made it. Then I had to drive home by myself.

Once we were outside of Memphis, I stopped for gas and we tried to go to Sonic but the whole shopping center was flooded. Everything near Memphis was flooded. All the fields looked like lakes. We waited to eat till we got home.

I suppose I will get used to the weather, but I'm not there yet. Hopefully there aren't any tornado warnings tonight.