Toilet Talk

I was laying in bed with Claire the other night when we had this conversation:

"Mom, are you done growing?"

"Yes Claire, I am."

"Is Dad done growing?"

"Yes, he is. (pause) Well, I guess I could grow fatter....or skinnier."

Claire began to pat my arm lovingly and said "I will still love you no matter what."

"Ah, thanks Claire."

Then after a few moments she says "But if you were fatter it would be easier to sit on the toilet because you wouldn't fall in."

So glad she can find something positive about getting fatter. :-)

Father Sons Campout

Little slow with getting things posted.... Our ward had their annual Father Sons Campout in June. Spence hates to camp so it's always a struggle to get him to go. I bought an air mattress for him and they just took out the back seats of the Sequoia and slept in there. All of the boys took their airsoft guns and the "big boys" took their guns. I wasn't too pleased about that, but everyone survived. Nathan even survived almost falling right into the fire while running from the Bishop in the dark playing "Capture the Flag." Here are some pics from the campout thanks to Bro. John Castleberry.

This is the modern day "Circling the Wagons."

I think we need to have an annual Mother Daughters campout. We could start out with manicures and pedicures. Take a trip to the spa- then out for a little tea at the Grand America downtown. Top it off with a suite there.....guess that's probably not in the ward budget. :-)

The Cheetos Girls and Other Summer Fun

We have spent a lot of time at the swimming pools this summer. Some of my cousins came and spent a few days with us and the kids had a blast playing with them.

Here's my cousin Belle, Claire, and friend Malia at the pool enjoying some Cheetos.

This is my cousin Nick and Logan. The new thing to pass time at my house is to set up the cars, helicopters and army men in the front flower bed. Guess it makes an awesome jungle. :-)

This is at the Murray swimming pool. Claire and my great-nephew Lucas.

Nathan enjoying the diving board.

Logan and Claire at the Murray Pool. They love the waterslide there.

I can't believe there's only another month of summer left for us! I'm sure I will be ready for school to start though. :-)

Finally A Post!

After like forever- I am finally taking the time to catch up on some posts. First is Girls Night Out. The boys had their Father/Sons Campout at the end of June. Claire and I, along with my friend Coby and her daughter and niece, went to the Arts Festival downtown. Claire had fun painting and making little crafts.

After about 30 minutes being there it started to cloud up and get really dark. Then there were a few little raindrops....then all of sudden it was a HUGE downpour. Oh my goodness did we get soaked! We were running for the car. I've never seen raindrops that big. Claire was having a cow and was so worried about the boys being out camping. (They didn't get rained on at all BTW.) Claire just kept saying she needed to just go home and that she needed a nice warm shower. Our car was only parked about 2 blocks from the festival and this is what we looked like:

Right when we got home we took that nice warm shower, got in our cozy jammies and played some card games in bed. It ended up being a nice quiet evening together.



FLOWERS!


A few weeks ago, Claire and I spent the afternoon together planting some flowers. Claire picked them out and had fun helping put them in the pots. She had on quite the "gardening" outfit. :-)

I love my Claire!

Claire's Photography

I finally took the time to download pictures from my digital camera and found that half of them were pictures Claire had taken of her baby dolls. Different dolls, different poses. There were about 50 different picturess, but I won't post all of them. :-) So for all of my photography friends out there- watch out! You might have some competition on your hands! LOL

Then there were some old ones on there that she and Macy took. (Paige is the one in the elephant mask.)

(Notice how Paige is holding the cat- tightly around the neck- the way a cat should be held. j/k)

Disciplinary Action Taken

Mother's Day started out great. Spence ironed all of the church clothes and got up and got ready for church first so that he could get kids ready. I was able to stay in bed longer. Nathan brought me breakfast in bed- scrambled eggs, pancake, toast and diet pepsi. After church I was surprised by Spence with a picture with Christ and children in it for my front room that I have been coveting at Deseret Book. (Is it okay to covet a picture of Christ?) I had no idea that he had bought it for me. I was excited to finally have something to hang on the bare wall.

By the time we left for Sunday dinner at my in-laws, I was a frazzled nervous wreck. Nathan and Logan were just at each other all afternoon. Constantly fighting and screaming with one another. So I told them they were grounded to each other the next day and that I would be tying them together with a rope and they would learn to get along. If they undid the rope, they'd get another day. All afternoon and evening they were stuck with each other. It was AWESOME! They had to learn to compromise when one of them wanted to do something. They had to sit by each other to do homework, eat dinner, etc. Poor Nathan got the bad end of the deal I think though. He got stuck waiting outside the bathroom door while Logan did his "number." Logan takes a LONG time on the toilet. Plus to make it even better- he "tooted" on the way into the bathroom so Nate got stuck standing there in the smell. LOL

Monday ended up being a very peaceful day with hardly any screaming and fighting with the boys. Now I have something to threaten them with. :-)

(Yes, that is a Clone Trooper Halloween costume on Logan. He is obsessed with Star Wars. He's always wearing that thing. He wishes he had "the force" so bad. I was in his classroom last week when it was Show-N-Tell. He said his was a "talking" one. He got up and announced that he knew ALL of the clone troopers names. All of the first graders were quite impressed....)

Proud Mom

Nathan had to write a "passion poem" for his honors english class. He brought it home to show me. His teacher gave him 15 points out of 10 possible. Her comments written on the poem were this: "Can I have a copy? Powerful imagery and message! Great job! Wonderful!"

So as a mom- of course I have to share his poem.


Never stopping;
Moving;
Flowing forever in an eternal cycle.
Water, ice, rain;
The beginning of life.
Bringing joy and pain.
Sleet, hail, snow.
Falling;
Rising to bring life to the world.
Oceans, lakes, streams;
Glaciers, frost;
Water.

~By Nathan McDonald