Super Glue is a Miracle Worker

Before I get too far into this post, I have to tell you that we lost our camera. Yes, we were at the Fourth of July Rodeo and some where amongst all the barrel racing and bucking we lost our camera. Actually, it was Saige's camera we lost cause our camera has a chip in the lens and the screen on the back is not working (grrr!!!). So besides loosing the camera we also lost our pictures from the event, which is what I am most heart-broken about. So that is why there have not been posts about my girls swim meets, or the rodeo or anything else. But when this event happened, the one I am about to tell you about, I decided I better just use my broken camera and get some pictures. SO............. Yesterday I took the three oldest to our float practice (the kids are on the float for Saturday's celebration of July 24th and they needed to know what they were doing). So while I was gone with them, Blake took Summit and Sedona out for a bike/scooter ride. Well, at the end of our street there is a bit of a hill and then the road turns to the right. Summit was up ahead of Sedona and he got going pretty fast on his scooter and started getting really close to the turn. Well, Blake could not see if there was a car coming and kept trying to yell to Summit to slow down. Of course what kid wants to slow down???? Speed is what it is all about and parents are just trying to ruin the fun, right? Anyway, so Blake ran up to Summit to get him to slow down. Meanwhile, Sedona came to the hill and she started going fast. By the time Blake turned around she was really picking up speed. Unfortunately she does not understand how to stop on her bike. So sure enough just before Blake got to her she hit a dip in the road and went right over her handlebars and face planted in the rocks on the road. Blake brought her home and got her cleaned up and put some band-aids on and she was set. But before Sedona went to bed I took a quick look at it. She had a bit of a gash in her head, as you might imagine, and a small rock still lodged in her head (imagine David and Goliath, just on a smaller scale, with the rock just totally stuck). So I got the rock out and decided that the gash needed to be closed up. I remember a couple of my friends telling me that they had closed up some wounds with Super Glue, so I figured I would give it a try.






Now the question I have is, how long does the Super-Glue stay on and do I ever need to re-apply it?


By the way, Mom & Dad, it was not to the bone so it was not as bad as mine.

Summit's Swimming Lessons

The first day Summit was not so sure he wanted to be in the pool, but by his last day he was sad to get out. He had sooooooooo much fun!!!

Oh, and to explain the "construction" goggles..... he has been wearing these in the neighbor's little pool and so he figured they would work well for the big pool too. As you can see, we fixed that pretty quick. I thought the pictures were adorable though.

Where is the "E"?

Last Saturday we had a bunch of friends over for homemade pizza. We had so much fun!!!! I think total we had 13 kids and 5 adults in, and out of, the house (Blake had to work, gggrrrrrr! one day he will be able to schedule work around family instead of the other way around). It was such a party!!!!! The following morning when I came into my kitchen I noticed something was a little off.


I am sure you see it, but just in case.


The "E" was totally gone! I know it was there the night before because one of my friends had commented on how much they liked my green wall with the red accent from the "apples." So I started looking, I mean there are only so many places it could have gotten to, right?

So logically I look on the floor right in front of the pantry. It only makes sense that it would come straight down.


No "E!"

So perhaps, I thought, that when the "E" fell down the pantry door was a little bit open and it fell into the rack I have on the inside of the door.


No "E!!"

I was starting to feel like I was on some kind of Sesame Street Hidden Camera thing and at any moment Cookie Monster or Big Bird or Elmo was going to jump out and start singing. I tried to put that thought in the back of my mind as a possibility so I would not be so taken by surprise when it happened.

Then, I thought maybe if fell into the trash. Our trash sits inside the pantry so there is no real logical way that could have happen, but let's face it by this time I was past the logical.


Still no "E!!!"

By this time I had enlisted the help of my oldest children. My thoughts were that when the "E" fell down one of my friends kids had taken it somewhere. We were searching high and low (well mostly low since that is how tall most of the kids were). Then we asked "THE BOY!"


Don't let him fool you as he did me. He is sooooooooo adorable with his angel smile and snuggling ways, not to mention his intoxicating laughter. When we asked him if he had seen it, he led us straight to it without any hesitation. Guess where it was...........


Of course, under MY bed. When I asked Summit how it got there he simply said, "I put it there!"

Then all the pieces started fitting together. Before I could open the pantry door I had to move this


That is when I remembered that on Saturday night as we were getting ready for family prayer Summit was throwing his pillow up in the air. After several times I asked him to stop and come to kneel down. He then told me that he just wanted to do it one more time in the kitchen. I told him I didn't want him to throw it in the kitchen cause it could land in the sink and get all wet.


Apparently, he threw it anyway (imagine that! I told you he was tricky), it knocked down the "E," he knew he could not come tell me what happened cause I told him not to throw the pillow, so he quickly thought up a plan and tucked it under my bed so as not to get into trouble. Then he came to prayer as though nothing had happened.

There is GREEN!!!

Back in March when it was sunny and beautiful, Blake planted grass seed in our front yard. He watered and took care of it (since we didn't put in a sprinkling system we have had to water it manually) and when he went to work, I watered and took care of it (by this time the sprinkler we did get broke, so I was hand watering the whole thing). Then the wind came!!!! There were times I was out there watering our lawn (let's face it though, it was still a bunch of dirt, but I figured even then that if I just saw it as lawn it would become just that) and the wind was blowing like 80 miles and hour (that is no joke). I had a neighbor comment on how comical it was watching me water like that. I was literally having to squat down in order to lower my center of gravity and even then I was being blown so hard that I had to take a step forward to catch myself. Then the freezing temperatures came back, even before we had any sprouts. I kept watering just hoping something would come of it. Then just before I thought all hope of anything coming up was gone we saw green coming up in rows (Blake had raked the seeds into the dirt) and we got excited. We watched our lawn grow. Finally after two months of watching and hoping we decided we better get a lawn mower cause the lawn was actually coming in.




So now, we must stay on top of the lawn mowing. It is an exciting place to be AGAIN!!!!

There is something about Grandmas...

They make things so special just by being there. Just seeing their face, their smile....it is like magic. You just know that they love you even before they squeeze you to pieces.

Last night we got word that Blake's grandma finally stopped being so stubborn and left this life to be reunited with her husband after nearly 9 1/2 years. I can just hear her saying, "Oh Crap!" cause Grandpa left her for so long. At the same time I can just imagine the reunion of the two of them after so many years. I know there was a great love between the two of them and am so thankful for the knowledge I have that they can be together forever. I feel so blessed to have been a part of Grandma's life for just over 12 years. I cherish the many visits we have had with her over the years. When I first married into the family and began visits with Grandma, it was with Grandpa at their home in Arizona. What I remember most was that Grandpa was in on the computer almost always doing family history work (or something about genealogy, I am sure it had something to do with a calling he had in the church) and the TV was always turned on to some game show and the volume was turned up really loud! I remember Thanksgivings at their house..... the pies were always bountiful thanks to Grandma's expert baking. I remember her pumpkin roll, and the white chocolate dipped ritz crackers with something good in the middle (I hope someone has that recipe or I call it. HAHAHA!) It always seemed you could find some kind of goodness in her freezer, just don't ask how long it had been there. I remember, when I was on bed rest with Sierra I got to stay at Grandma and Grandpa's for a couple of days while Blake went to work. Grandma took such great care of Savannah and me. I remember her making me a mustard, I mean ham, sandwich for lunch. For the record, I do like mustard, just not THAT much. But I ate it gratefully because she made it with love, and really, how can you complain when someone is willing to take you in, serve you every meal and take care of your one year old?
After Grandpa passed on in 2000 Grandma moved to Utah (which was perfect cause we were already there by that time). We had the pleasure of going to see her often, though now I wish we went more. She usually had something for my kids to eat and when she didn't she felt bad about it. You could see her mind frantically scrambling to think of something she could give to the kids (isn't that just like a Grandma? Always wanting to give even though there was not much to give). I remember the day she gave my kids their own cherished set of salt and pepper shakers. She gave us strict instructions to "take good care of them." For those of you who don't know, when Grandma lived in Arizona she had probably close to two hundred sets of salt and pepper shakers. She got rid of a lot of them when she moved to Utah and I am sure it broke her heart. She had to get rid of the rest of them when she was moved into her last "home" here on earth cause there was little room for any stuff. As we continued to go see her as often as we could, it was always a pleasure. So often we would catch her when she was playing Bingo or at lunch. It brought her such joy to "show off" her grandkids and great grandkids to everyone. Sometimes she would not recognize us right off, but once she did her face would light up. I remember visits we made with David and Becky and how Grandma called Becky, Debbie for so long (hey, maybe that is what we should do to keep the two Becky Larson's separated, we would call David's Becky, Debbie. HAHA). Hey, does anyone know how many hats she made? That is something she was so proud of.... she made hats on a loom and donated them. She had kept so careful track of how many she had made and donated. It was definitely in the hundreds. My kids had to be really careful not to tangle up the yarn when we were there.

Okay, so this started out kind of chronological and now it is all a mess. I need to get back on track. Where was I? Oh, who cares. On with my story.

Here are the last pictures of my kids and Great Grandma from when we were up there in March. Summit was not sure he wanted to be in the picture, so this first one is cause Grandma looks so beautiful.




And this one is cause it has all my kids in it. I was not sure how long Summit would stay there so I just snapped, not waiting for Grandma to be looking. What do you do???


Have your amazing, thoughtful big brother photoshop a picture so you can have it all! Thank you so much Jared, you are incredible!!!!!

My brain knows it is a good thing that she has left this life. She was so uncomfortable!!!! She could not see much, she could not hear much and she could barely breathe. But that does not make it easier to see her go cause my heart aches. Grandma will be very missed!!!!!!!! It will be strange going to Utah and not rushing over to her place first thing so she knew how important she was to us. It was kind of funny, but every time we went to visit her she wanted to know when we got into town, how long we were going to be there for and who we had already seen. She was always thrilled to know that she was our first visit after a night's rest.

Thank you Grandma for all the memories you have given me, my husband and my kids. Thank you for the example you were to us. Thank you for loving us so much. Thank you for making us laugh. We love you and we anticipate our reunion with you when we pass on, when we will again get to see you face, your smile and again feel that magic, just knowing that you love us even before you squeeze us to pieces.

Banana Splits!!

We have been trying to find something that will help our children see how easy it is for them to help around the house and also how much they contribute to the attitude in the house. So we had this stroke of inspiration come to us...... How about earning BANANA SPLITS! So for about 5 days they earned points for some amazing banana splits. I think we may have gone a little bit over board on the toppings, but it was good enough. So the kids could all earn up to 15 points and they earned points for getting their chores done without complaining and they could only be reminded once (cause let's face it, no one wants to remember they have chores to do), bedrooms clean, getting caught doing something nice for someone else. So like I said they earned 15 points and they earned a bowl, spoon, banana, two scoops of ice cream and then toppings from there. I am pretty sure that 10 toppings is WAAAAAAYYYYYY too many for anyone to put on their ice cream (NOTE TO SELF: Don't ever do it this way again). They also could get points taken away if necessary for things like fighting, hurting, or cheating (Blake & I were the only ones allowed to put points up and if anyone tried to sneak a point up they would get all their points taken away). This worked like a charm! The kids were so busy trying to find out ways they could help out that they did not have time to fight. Blake and I went out twice that weekend and both times the house was BEAUTIFULLY CLEAN, everyone was in PJ's, and they were all happily getting along. Not to mention even Saige (who normally takes a back back back seat to helping) could not be stopped in her helping. It was absolutely incredible!!!














Oh, and just for anyone wondering, Blake had to head off to work so he took his with him so there are no pictures of him. Only Saige, Blake and I finished our splits (the other put theirs in the freezer). As a recommendation...... If you have not had much sugar for 6-8 months I do not recommend that you break that by having a very large banana split. Just in case you thought that might be a good idea.

The most AdOrAbLe CoWgIRl!

This little one just melts my heart. She has a smile that makes you happy and her laughter just may be the resolution to having world peace. Which if you will see if you can see her through the messy face.




Messy face or not..... she is mine and I will take her and love her forever.