The Dog Days of Summer

My house gets really small in the summer! My two acres shrinks in to the 1400 square feet of a house and we all pile in and get a little claustrophobic. I get a little stir crazy in the summer and need my outdoor fresh air, instead I'm met with a fiery furnace and scorching heat accompanied by masses of fly's and no place to send my two rambunctious boys. Normally I herd them outdoors to run off their energy. Today was especially hard because we couldn't go to swim lessons, Braxtyn had a fever. Yes, a cold in June, in our 5 straight days of over 110 degree weather! I'm complaining a bit, yes I know, but really, I need the woods, another lake trip or better yet, the beach! I have a hard time staying still anyways, but when I can't go outdoors to garden or ride or just sit on my porch, I am a bit testy.... Thankfully, Daniel took me to Pei Wei for dinner. It was too hot to turn on the oven or go outside to grill! So anyways, back to my point, I need an indoor hobby. Most of my hobbies are outdoors. And I need to save on fuel, so any ideas? I'm trying out sewing. Also, I need some new recipes. Can anyone send me a favorite recipe online, I think I make the same 9 dinners over and over. I need lots of beef and steak recipes, we just got all our cow back. Its a lot of meat. Ok, enough complaining about the heat. I wouldn't trade our 8 months of mild weather, even for a milder summer. However, I do think an indoor hobby would be good.

Summer time on the boat

Beating the heat this weekend, we went out on the boat, Friday, Saturday and Sunday evening. It was so beautiful! Friday, we took some of our employees out to wake board and have dinner. It was a great time of fun and we were able to talk about the Lord and share with them a little bit. We didn't have the kids, so it was pretty relaxing:), Saturday night we went with our good friends the Blumentritt's and their three kids. So we Had four adults and six kids under 7 for the evening, it was a blast! We picnicked and swam and wakeborded. Sunday night we just went by ourselves, it was a great night and the kids had so much fun. We went back to the river part of the lake and swam and played around the boat. We ended our night towing a family with a bunch of little kids back to the Marina. Their battery had died. What a blessing to be able to just share that time and enjoy our family. We didn't even mind the 113 degrees!!

Graham being so cool talking with Braxtyn and Brenley
Graham and Mommy

Braxtyn and Daddy (we found the tire on shore)

Braxtyn and Mommy

Noah and Brayden

Dalen and Michelle

The Captain

Braxtyn and Brooklyn

The Crew

Cataloging - a not so great family night

Well I have to catalog both right? Just to be fair and paint a better picture of reality:)
Dinner was a loud disaster with lots of stuff on the floor, half the kids not liking what I made and all of them telling the loudest knock knock jokes, oh and no one wanted to pray:). After dinner we had Braxtyn spread the worst possible substance all over her room, Noah fell off his scooter and scraped most the skin off the top of his foot (ok I'm exaggerating a little about the foot). It was bad though. Then Braxtyn sprayed one of the cleaners into Noah's eyes and while I was flushing it out of his eyes, she sprayed it on the couch. Where was Daniel, you ask? Outside with the carpet cleaner getting stains out of Braxtyn's rug. Graham remained unscathed most the night, he is pretty good at staying out of chaos' way. And to end the night Noah rolled his eyes at me for the first time. Yikes, I've been dreading that! Needless to say, I am worn out and ready for all members of my family to go to bed! Not complaining, I just thought it would be funny to read this later.

POO Bear

(This is what she looks like when she's conspiring against me)
Yes, this is Braxtyn's new nick name. It sounds a lot nicer than I'm feeling right now, actually I feel a little like throwing -up. I never thought I'd be cleaning up what I had to tonight. Let me just say it involved a dirty bottom, a kitchen set and utensils, a baby doll with an open mouth and the carpet and the wall...Use your imagination. It took me about three trips into the room to even be able to handle the situation. Three or four cleaners, rubber gloves and a carpet machine later, her room is back to normal. I don't know if I'll ever be! She took the longest bath in history and I think I'll do the same. I can't believe that my boys never did this and here, my little princess has been the perpetrator twice now. The first time was a little less aggressive and grossed her out, I guess she got over that part! We used to call her Boo, now we call her Poo (bear) of course!

Prayer time

Last night we were praying before dinner. This is the portion of Daniel's prayer that was found incorrect "Dear Lord please be with Jarrod as he is sick and please make him feel better"

After Daniel prayed Noah says: Dad, you've got to be kidding! God is always with us. Why did you pray for God to be with Jarrod, He already is!

Amazing how a child's faith is so pure and unfaltering. No wonder Jesus said to have faith like a little child.

Daniel's response: I wasn't kidding , but thank you Noah, your right. And thanks for the theology lesson tonight:)

Noah's Date

(homemade ice cream is so yummy)

No worries.. the date was with me! It was so nice to spend some quality time with just one of my beautiful children. I have a babysitter come about twice a month and this week was Noah's week. We went to the mall and walked around, bought Daniel a Father's Day gift and just hung out together. We bought candy at the candy store, small treats for Graham and Braxtyn and of course a kid's meal for lunch. He was smiling the whole time. We talked in the car with no interruptions and it was so nice to hear what goes on in his little head. Mostly, he tried to figure out how everything is made and how things work. Like how a car moves its wheels, how candy is made, what are cactus needles made of (steel or metal?) LOL!. He even noticed that the trees outside PV mall were the same trees in our backyard, he knew because the bark was the same. What a blessing for me to be able to just appreciate all the things that make up, Noah.



In two weeks its Graham's turn. He already has our food stops planned out! (My kinda kid)

I made it:)

Braxtyn loves dress up clothes right now. Its hard to get her out of them and into regular clothes for bedtime, thankfully she has some great every day clothes that she loves (thanks to cousins Karsyn and Kacy) to change into to leave the house. So I was looking for dress up clothes at walmart and instead found this fun fabric. So I tried it and I actually made it! I am more excited than she is I think, although as soon as it was done she said, "yeah mommy a pincess dress". She is currently napping in it!

So just to brag I have to post it!

Cataloging - Just a great family night..

Tonight was a night without TV and it was so relaxing! We stayed outside until dark, cleaning up after the party. The kids played, I picked squash, tomatoes and green beans out of my garden (!!!!), and then we had dinner together. Braxtyn prayed for the first time, and of course the boys got in trouble for not eating there dinner (picky eaters), we cleaned up and Braxtyn asked Daniel to sing "Yes, Lord" her favorite song. So, Daniel got out the guitar and we sang and jumped around to music. It was silly, and so great to see them know the words and hand motions to all of them, even Braxtyn! Noah and I read a book, while Graham played army men and Braxtyn took a bath and crawled all over us trying to get more attention. It was so nice to have a night without distractions and just close family time. I wish all nights could be so pleasant and well behaved kids:)...but I'll hang on to this one!

Graham after the fan hit him in the head: It hurts! Is it (his head) gonna crack?

Braxtyn prayed for the first time tonight: Dear Jesus..Amen! then added the signs, shook her fist for yes and then made an L shape for Lord! (we cheered and clapped, so she prayed about 5 more times)

Noah and I finished a 75 page book tonight, I read it to him and he just became engrossed in story and wanted more. I have been waiting to be able to read big books to my kids and share some of my favorites! it was the Magic Tree House #5 Night of the Ninjas ( a first time read for me)

Extreme Wylene

Wylene is the one next to me in the middle.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCPPaRy0a9E



This video is of Wylene Wilson, who rides in our drill team group. She is absolutely amazing and supports her and her children as a horse trainer. She was just awarded second place for this ride at the Extreme Cowboy Race. She competed against 200 competitors and only missed 1st place by 2 points! Its a short video and worth watching.

Yeah Wylene!

God can do it, we just have to let Him

There are so many things to be prayerful about right now, I can't even name them all. But mainly I have been hit with worry on all levels and then reminded time and again God's amazing ability to bless me in the midst of trials. I tend to get antsy when I'm stressed, I have to do something, make changes, plan something, and ohh.. how that drives my husband crazy! And me too; as I go along with a whirlwind agenda...trying to cover up other stresses, I wish I could just sit on the couch and be calm and just wait to see what God has for me. But no, I get stressed or worried and here I go, planning everything from parties to play dates, cleaning schedules to grocery trips, you name it it's filling our time. I can't possibly hide from the upcoming stress, because in reality my over scheduling causes more untimely stress...You are probably worn out just in reading this tyranny on over doing it! Thankfully my two closest friends are NOT "doers" and actually say to me, your doing too much! And I have a husband that realizes this outlet of mine and somewhat patiently puts a sudden stop on all activities. I am thankful for this because I can go on for days and not realize it. I guess this confession comes after a stint of overdoing things and as I'm now coming off it, I realize how much better I feel to just relax and let God do what he was going to do anyways. I'm like standing on a sports field trying to play the game, I just keep forgetting the rules, so our team can't score, cause I'm blocking for the opposing team...

I'm guessing we all have our coping mechanisms and I'm sure we all wish it was a perfected "trust God and wait" mechanism. So I am thankful for God's mercy and His desire to know me.

And guess what??? I have two days with nothing planned all day!