Summer Routines?

Summer is a couple of weeks in and we are still working out the kinks of our summer routines. I had the new schedules worked out on paper, but decided that on the 2nd and 3rd days of summer I would spend scrapbooking.....which was great! But that also meant NO schedule at all for the kids. The rest of that week was spent recovering from the 2 scrapbook days. After that I thought, OK, now we can really start the new routines. Then the fever struck. There is a a strange sickness going around our ward where kids run a really high fever for about 2 days. It started with Nathan, then spread to Ashton, then to Kaylee. If they had all gotten it the same 2 days it would have been better, but they decided to take turns (now they decide to share and take turns!) It would also have been better if Ashton had not decided to be sick for 4 days instead of just 2. Anyway, that took us to the middle of the second week of summer, so then Wednesday was spent recovering from having sick kids (aka...doing all their chores that they had neglected) Then finally yesterday we started onto a REAL summer routine. It was actually a lot of fun. We were able to finish our work by 9:30 in the morning, then the kids had some computer time, we went to the library, followed by the park with sprinklers and a picnic lunch. After the park we had our summer school lessons and piano practice, after that we spent an hour reading (I started reading Fablehaven to the kids, then they read on their own for a while) That was followed by dinner during which a Kirby salesman came and cleaned some carpets. I have had bad experiences with Kirby salesmen in the past so I told them they were welcome to come clean my carpets for free so long as they did NOT try to sell me the vacuum. They agreed and actually stuck to it. Well, today is day 2 on the routine, so I had better go before I am to far behind!

Last Day of School

I know it is late in coming, but school is out! The kids are glad summer is here and so am I (the get a little bit restless right before school gets out making summer a relief!) Here are some of the things they each learned this year:

Trevor:
Trevor was a pro at first grade. His love for reading just skyrocketed. This year alone he read 1-37 of the Magic Tree House books, Most of the A-Z mysteries, Some Box Car Children as well as some Choose Your Own Adventures. His teacher, Mrs Smith was perfect for him. She let him take 176 AR tests (Accelerated Reader) Which was enough to earn him a gift from the school of $10 to Barnes and Noble. He also accelerated in Math and Science. We are SO proud of him:

Kaylee:
Kaylee has grown in leaps and bounds this year. She has started to read and write. I loved reading her stories that she brought home. Most of them had to do with gardens and flowers. She was able to come out of her shell a little to. She made lots of friends and loved her teacher Miss Maxwell (who also taught Trevor in kindergarten and could not believe how different the two of them are). Kaylee is also doing wonderful pictures. She draws detailed pictures to go with each of her stories. We are also SUPER proud of Kaylee. (Kaylee's last day of school was a day before Trevor's and it was crazy hair/pajama day in case you were wondering!)

Happy Fathers Day

I am so blessed to have such great Fathers around me. I was raised by a wonderful father. I have several fond memories of growing up with my Dad. Here are some of my favorites:

1) Once I was sick and had to lay on the couch. I remember Dad putting a cup of soda on the floor, then connecting several straws together to make one long straw that reached up to my mouth so that I would not have to sit up to drink.

2)"gotcha last" This has always been one of my favorite games. It is kind of like a two person tag game. We still play when we are together and always try to get the other person last as we are pulling away to go home! (I think I gotcha last Dad!)

3)Dad always had great ideas for road trips. He would strap a TV to the van seats and sometimes a VCR, or he would tell us GREAT stories. I also remember him teaching me how to sign the alphabet while driving!

Thanks Dad for all you have done for me!! I LOVE YOU!!!

I have also been blessed more recently with a wonderful Father in Law. I could not ask for a better one in fact. I have grown to love and respect Bryan's dad as well. Here are some fond memories of him:

1) Beating him at Rook (we don't win every time, but I will never forget fooling him into thinking I played my last trump color!)

2) BYU football games. I have a love/hate relationship when it comes to watching a BYU game with Mike. It is SO fun to watch him get down when the team is down and get excited when the team is doing well.

3) I will never forget Mike's Dad who called me every Mothers Day to tell me how much he appreciated me.
And Last but not least I am super blessed to have such a great husband who is a wonderful father to my kids. He gives all that he has for his family. He sacrifices his time and energy to provide for us. He even took me shopping last night and I got to pick out some new clothes when it should have been him picking out a fathers day present. Here are some of my favorite pictures of Bryan with the kids.

Bryan pulling Trevor on a body board in St Augustine, Florida

Bryan and Kaylee cleaning out pumpkins to carve on Halloween.

Bryan and Nathan after building a snowman (Because Nathan was born in Florida I think this was one of the first times he had seen snow!)

Bryan and Ashton (it is easy to see where Ashton get his good looks!)

Happy Birthday Kaylee!!!

My little Kaylee Ranae Davis was born 6 years ago. She is such a blessing to our lives. We got up early and opened presents from the family in the morning before Bryan had to go to work.

We decided that this year she could have a party (they only get parties every 3 years) And I now am confident in that decision. We invited all of the kids from her school class as well as some friends from church. We had 6 kids we knew for sure we coming, but planned on having 15 which is half of what we invited. Our guess turned out to be just right. We had 14 kids show up, plus my kids, Andea's kids and My friend LaNae's little boy Devon, so needless to say, we had a FULL house! As the kids started to arrive they went right out to the back yard and played on the playground. (so glad we had it) When everyone was here we started with some games, then came in to open presents. I am amazed at the generosity of others. Kaylee made out like a bandit with all the loot she got! She was super excited to get her first webkinz. After presents and we had pizza, chips and soda. (A HUGE thanks to Barlow for picking up the food on his way home from work!) The kids then played outside for a little longer and we had cake and ice cream.

I think the cake turned out great! Here is where the HUGE thanks to Andrea comes in. I had made a cake topper like I normally do, but it turned out ugly and did not freeze well so it stretched out when we tried to take it off. Andrea came over and we came up with the idea that I think turned out great. Andrea also gets credit for the pictures. I was so busy that I would not have gotten any pictures of the party, but Andrea got some great ones! The last thanks goes out to my friend LaNae who came over and held Ashton for me as well as helped out with the games. I could not have run the party with Ashton in my hands, and they way he was feeling he wanted held the whole time!!

It was tuns of fun, but wore us out! I took yesterday completely off, no housework, hardly any cooking and I curled up with a good book most of the day. Needless to say I have my work cut out for me today finishing cleaning up after the party, but I feel much better now!

WE LOVE YOU KAYLEE.......HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

That SUCKS!

So, my vacuum started to smell like it was burning and it lost suction. At first I just ignored it, hoping it would go away, but it got worse and worse. So I started asking around and searching the Internet. Everything said, oh you must have a broken or worn out belt. So, I took the cover off the vacuum and checked the belt. It looked just fine so I thought, oh great, I am going to have to get a new vacuum. I tried to just ignore the smell longer but it was unbearable, so I decided to buy a new belt and see if that helped. When I got home with the new belts, I took the old one off and compared it with the new one. My first thought was, Oh NO! I bought the wrong belt! Then it hit me......I bought the right belt. The old one was just REALLY stretched out!

I quickly installed the new belt and ran the vacuum. My vacuum is pretty cool because it

has a red light green light system. When the light turns red then it is picking up more than a normal amount of dirt, so you keep going over that spot until it turns green. Can I just say that it was red for a LONG time. I am so glad to have clean carpets again!

I know I have been on my own now for more than 10 years, but I really have NEVER changed a belt on a vacuum before. The worst part is that I think I have gotten rid of two vacuums in the past that I thought were broken , but they probably just needed new belts. You learn new things everyday! (some of us just learn very simple basic things, but hey it is learning none the less!)

You know your diet is out of control when.........

.......you consider yourself lucky that you get to lick the envelopes for your daughters birthday party invitations!

So sad but true, we were in a hurry to get Kaylee to school so I decided to help her lick the envelopes and my first thought was, "hey, that's pretty good." That's when I realized we would be having dessert after dinner. I went out to the garden and picked the ripe strawberries (we almost got the same amount as our 3rd crop again!) I cut them up and added some good old fashion SUGAR! The we ran to the store to get the shortcake and whipped cream. It was REALLY good, and well deserved.

Our Weekend

On Saturday we went to a company party for Bryan's work. It was pretty fun and there was TONS of good food. If you thought it was hard not to buy desserts and snacks to have at home, try having in FREE right in front of you. It was to much to handle and I had a lighthouse cookie (my all time favorite cookie) They had a large bounce house for the kids, and some hula dancers to entertain. After their performance the hula dancers taught any kids who wanted to how to hula. Kaylee was the first to volunteer.

After only a few minutes of instruction they were ready to show off their new found skills (it was REALLY windy, so sorry that the camera had a little trouble holding still and staying in focus) I also had to cut the dance a little short because the wind blows a large "obstruction" right in front of Kaylee.....you will see) Oh yeah, if you look closely Trevor and Nathan are at times in the background.

As the party ended there was SO much left over food that everyone went home with steaks, chicken breasts, fresh pineapple, chips, juices, and pies. With all this we decided to have Barlow and Andrea over for dinner on Sunday, however they had signed up to feed the missionaries, so we had them over as well (that is how much steak and chicken we brought home...crazy eh?) We also had a fabulous green salad courtesy of Andrea, and a fruit salad with the pineapple and the strawberries from our garden (if you haven't checked make sure to see the pictures of our strawberries on the sidebar. They are growing like crazy!!)

Sunday morning was nice. Trevor had asked if he could fast this week so he started his fast after breakfast and did a great job. Trevor and Kaylee also bore their testimonies in sacrament meeting for the first time. They were kind of nervous, but went up together and did a great job. We love watching them grow up and make such righteous choices!

After dinner on Sunday we watched old family videos. We have NEVER gotten our video's out before so it was tons of fun to see Trevor running around as a baby, then adding Kaylee and watching the two of them play together, then we add Nathan to the mix. (we only have digital video of Ashton so we didn't get to see his addition) The kids loved watching themselves open birthday presents again.

All in all it was a great fun family together weekend!