Happenings

Last week Keith and I took Caitlyn to her first Temple dedication.  She was excited about it.  It was fun to take her with us.  It was a really neat meeting.

Hallee and Jonah had fun playing horses the other night.  Jonah is pretty much out of the woods with his leg.  He has been a good sport about taking it easy.  His version of taking it easy and my version are a little different, but he tried.  We got another bill from the hospital this week and it is going to end up costing us almost $500!  I really wish we would have just gone to Lagoon that day!

Hallee loves to play with toys.  I think she plays with her toys more than any of our other kids have.  She is really into dolls right now.  It is cute to see her taking care of her babies.

Wyatt has been so much happier lately.  He hasn't been throwing fits and he has been trying to help out a lot.  He tries to calm Hallee down and figure out what she wants.  The other night he was trying to get her to eat her dinner.

Wyatt loves dress up.  He wore this football uniform for a few days before I finally made him take it off so I could wash it.

Wyatt finished up swimming lessons this week.  I think he will miss it.  I'm going to wait to put him in again because he is going to pre-school in October at the fitness center.  He improved so much over the past couple of weeks.  He really liked his teacher.

I was taking some pictures of Wyatt during swimming and I looked over and Hallee was in the pool.  I can't take my eyes off that girl for a minute!

She sure is cute though!

Tiff and Paul moved yesterday.  Keith had the day off so we both went down to help load the truck.  My mom kept all of the kids.  It was fun to go help out and just spend the day with Keith.  Wyatt was so excited to play at grandma's with Rockwell.  Today Keith had to work so I kept the kids while my parents went down to help them unload. 

We were excited that it stopped raining long enough for us to go outside and play for a while.

These girls are so cute.  I love hearing their cute little voices, especially when they are talking to each other.

I had some Halloween costumes out on our couch.  The kids all wanted to put one on.  They loved looking in the mirror at themselves.  So cute! 

Yesterday while Keith and I were gone Mel took Caitlyn to her house for the day.  Amarie and Caitlyn are having withdrawals from each other now that school is back in.  I'm so glad they got some time to play!  They ended up having a sleep over. 

I knew as soon as Jonah found out that Caitlyn was having a sleep over Jonah and Dante would ask for one and I was right.  Dante came and stayed at our house.  

We spent Thursday night moving rooms around.  Jonah has been sleeping in Caitlyn's room because Wyatt wakes up so much that Jonah can't get any sleep if he sleeps in their room.  We decided we needed to separate them all.  Everyone is back to their own rooms.  Wyatt has the big room downstairs so we can have all of the toys in there.  They are all excited about their rooms.  Jonah has a lot of nightmares and hates to sleep alone, but he says he isn't scared in his new room.  I hope it sticks because it was so much work to move all of these rooms around.  It did feel good to clean up and get rid of things though.

JDRF 5K

Every year Discover Card sponsors the 5K walk for Juvenile Diabetes.  They have held it at Liberty Park the last two years.  We love it!  Discover donates money for each one of us that register and we get to go have fun.

The kids thought this bear was cool.  The walk is twice around the outside of  Liberty Park.  The kids only wanted to go once so Keith took them over to play while I finished it.

They have a lot of bounce houses and different games for the kids. 

Hallee had no interest in the bounce houses, but the other kids loved them.

They also give you a free lunch.  It is a ton of really good food.  Jonah loved the big slide.

 Hallee was happy to walk around and snack on her lunch and then we took her to the park for a little while. 

The kids loved all of the carnival type games.

Caitlyn and Jonah had fun playing on the park together.

Wyatt was the biggest fan of the bounce houses.

They all liked knocking over the milk jugs.  Caitlyn was the only one that knocked them over on her first try.

Wyatt cracks me up.  He is such a cute kid. 

It was another hot day today.  I hope we get nice, cool Fall weather soon.

The boys were excited to see Spiderman as we were leaving.  The first thing Wyatt said was, "can I show Rockwell the picture of me and Spiderman."  Such a fun day! 

The Zoo

We went to the Zoo on Wednesday.  Emilee was nice enough to take us up there and get us in for free with her pass.  Wyatt was so excited.  He was really excited that Jonah wasn't going to be there so he could have Parker and Logan all to himself!

The kids were so excited to go on the train.  Hallee was scared at first, so I had to hold her.  She finally realized that it wasn't scary!

The carousel is another big hit.  Hallee would only sit on the bench.  That girl does not like to be up high.   Wyatt loved going on the animals over and over.

Hallee loved the splash pad.  It was such a hot day.  She got soaked, but I bet it felt great!

I love the look on all of the kids' faces in this one.  It was fun to take Hallee and Wyatt to see the animals and nice for me to catch up with Emilee.

She is too old to be young, I don't know how I can explain it any better

Jonah said that about his teacher.  She is older, I would guess she is in her 60's.  I don't even know what he was trying to tell me but all he could come up with was, "she is too old to be young, I don't know how I can explain it any better."

Jonah got his stitches out this week.  Keith ran him up there and we thought it would just be a quick thing, but it didn't work out that way.  We had to take him back to the ER where they put the stitches in.  Keith said the guy who started to take them out first used scissors and ended up poking Jonah in his wound.  Jonah let him get half of them out and then he wasn't having it anymore.  He was freaking out and wouldn't calm down.  A nurse came back and helped get Jonah calmed down and put a cream on his leg to numb the leg.  They had to sit and wait for 45 minutes for it to kick in and then he let them take the rest of them out.  It made me grateful all over again that Jonah was so calm and rational when he got his stitches in.  He is a tough kid, but he is a stubborn kid!  Jonah got another hospital bracelet so he told Wyatt they could be their best friend bracelets. 

Keith and I got smart phones and wireless plans this week!  We are so excited.  We have put it off as long as we could.  We are on a tight budget and never felt like that was what we wanted to spend our money on.  We tried to go cheap on our home phone and it worked for a while, but it isn't working anymore.  We decided to get rid of that and go with cell phones instead.  It will cost about the same and when we factor in our pre-paid cell phones we were paying for we will actually save a little bit of money!  We did a family plan with Mel and Earl through Cricket.  Mel and I went and picked up the phones on Thursday.  It took forever and Hallee and Wyatt were so good!  I was so proud of them.  I took them over to McDonalds after because we were all starving and I wanted them to be able to play after being so good in the store.

I love having the camera on my phone.  I think I will still use my other camera most of the time, but it is great to have.  Keith and I are loving our new phones and feeling like we have finally caught up with technology! 

My mom came and watched Wyatt's swimming lesson this week.  Wyatt loved it!  When she came in he told his teacher over and over that his grandma was there.  I think he pretty much talks through his whole lesson.  He always has a lot to say!

I bought some blue cookies at the store the other day for activity days.  Not only was Hallee's poop blue, but her bum was stained.  I wiped and wiped and couldn't get it off.  The bath took it off.  I don't think I want to eat blue cookies anymore!

We had fun at Tiff's house on Tuesday.  Wyatt and Rockwell had a blast together.  Wyatt threw a nasty fit when it was time to go.  Love these boys!

Tessa and Hallee were being so cute together.  I love seeing them talk to each other.  It is so cute.

I love that Wyatt and Hallee both have a cousin to play with.

Hallee is obsessed with TV all of the sudden.  She is constantly asking to watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.  This is how I found her watching it the other day.

It has been so hot this week!  We are making up for the cool weather we had in August.  I wish the outdoor pools were still open.  Wyatt got to have his soccer class outside this week.  Man I love this kid!

Natural History Museum

The kids did the library summer reading program and we all got free tickets to the Natural History Museum.  They had two days that we could use the passes.  Last year we couldn't go because it was during football season so Tiff and I just took the young kids.  This year we were able to take all of the kids since Jonah couldn't play football.  Keith loves museums so he was really excited. 

They had a lot of cool things to look at and a lot of fun things that the kids could touch.

I love to do things like this, but I also stress the whole time while I try and keep track of everyone.  Keith is always a calming presence for me.  Thank goodness because if I married a stressed person like myself I would be miserable!

We saw this bird when we first walked in.  The kids were all excited, but Hallee was terrified.  We took this picture and walked off.  Hallee threw a fit because she wanted to see the bird again.  She wouldn't look at or enjoy anything.  We finally found the bird and Hallee screamed and wanted nothing to do with it.  Sometimes I can't figure that girl out!

This room is a big hit for the kids.  There are some animals and a water table. 

They also had dress up.  Wyatt sure makes a cute skunk!

The kids also liked climbing around in the caves.

It was a nice way to spend a Saturday!

Jungle Jims

We talked about going to Lagoon last weekend with the whole family because Keith and I had bounce back passes.  In the end we decided to be responsible and not spend the money.  It was really tough to realize that we ended up spending the same amount of money for Jonah's emergency room visit and we would have avoided the whole thing if we were at Lagoon.  Caitlyn said we should learn a lesson from that and always do fun things.  Anyway, Wyatt got all excited about Lagoon and asked every morning if this was the day we were going to "magoon."  I thought it would be fun to take Wyatt and Hallee to Jungle Jims so Wyatt could ride some rides.

Wyatt was a huge fan.  He was a little cautious at first, but he ended up doing all of the rides and loving them! 

We invited Tiff and the kids to come along.  I'm so glad they came because it made the day so much more fun for all of us!  Wyatt was in heaven, rides and Rockwell, it doesn't get much better than that.  The boys loved the bumper cars.  It was so fun to watch them because they were smiling the whole time.

I had to do all of the rides with Hallee or she wouldn't do them.  These spinning cups made me sick! 

There was no way I could fit in these jeeps so I just stuck Hallee on and told the guy to turn it on.  I was pretty confident she would like them and I was right.  I don't think I could have done that on the other rides, but she loved this one. Hallee went on this one a lot.  It was so cute to see Hallee and Tessa looking at each other and laughing during the ride.  For such a feisty personality Hallee is sure a scaredy cat!  She gets that from me!

Wyatt watched this roller coaster when we got there and told me that he was not going on it.  I heard him tell Rockwell the same thing.  Later Wyatt and Rockwell ran up to us and said they were going on the roller coaster, I was shocked.  I ran over and took a picture because I figured Wyatt would only go on it once.  He was really nervous when it started.  He was hanging on for dear life and looked like he might cry.  As he passed me he said, "hi mom," in the most sad, pathetic voice.

At some point on that first ride he stopped feeling scared and loved it.  He was all smiles after that and wanted to go on it over and over.  I'm so glad he tried it.  Rockwell is so good for Wyatt.  He gets Wyatt to try things that are out of his comfort zone without pressuring him at all.  I guess that is why Wyatt responds to him because there is no way I could have talked Wyatt into going on that ride.

Hallee preferred the playground to the rides.  I'm sure glad we didn't pay for her to go to Lagoon!

Of course they always love the rides and games that take tokens instead of the rides you paid for them to ride on.

Hallee wanted to go on the bumper cars.  I didn't know if she would be able to drive them, but she was excited about them so I put her in one.  She was hilarious to watch.  At first she drove around in a perfect circle over and over.  When people would bump into her she would give them a dirty look. 

She told me she wanted to get off, but I told her she had to stay in her car until the ride stopped.  The guy running the ride might have fallen asleep because it was like a 5 minute ride.  Hallee just gave up and stayed in the corner, took her seat belt off and put her legs up and watched the other kids ride around.  It was so funny.

I had to stand next to Hallee on the merry-go-round and she held me with a death grip!  She went on that a couple of times though.  I think she had fun, but rides may not be her thing, at least not yet.  Wyatt had so much fun and hasn't stopped talking about it.  He wanted me to take a video of him on the roller coaster so he could show everyone at home.  He loved showing them how fast it went.  It was fun to take the little two out and let them do something that was just for them.  I think they deserve it after a summer of being dragged all over for activities for the older kids!