Sleepy boys

Evidently we have been wearing Simeon out this summer. (well, that and forgetting to take naps!) He has been falling asleep all over the place since our schedule isn't very much of a schedule lately. What can I say, It's summer! The boys all fall asleep all over the house here the last few weeks.

Joseph was so tired he grabbed a pillow and blanket and crashed on the couch. He slept away right there where all the other kids were yelling and having a grand ole time playing with the giant race track

John just falls asleep ALL THE TIME! Imagine that. He is turning into a finger sucker. That makes five out of six. We were hoping we would be able to keep him a binky baby, but it looks like that isn't going to happen. How is it that we ended up with so many finger suckers? He's still deciding between these two and the middle Ezra/Nettie fingers.

Simeon fell asleep at the dinner table a few days ago. I love this picture!
Watching him fall asleep was hilarious. I thought he was just being silly at first.

He actually fell asleep in the middle of a bite of food.

Vinyl Wall Art

First off, Mary, Mom White says congratulations on being pregnant. She's so happy for you. How wonderful that you are serving the Lord and providing homes for little spirits!

This might not be all that interesting to you guys, but it's something I'm enjoying right now. Jacob let me get a Cricut (after much begging). If you don't know, it's a machine that is meant to cut vinyl or paper. You can also use it to cut fabric. I LOVE it! It's so much fun. Here are a few pictures of things I have cut out for around the house. If you guys ever want anything let me know and I'll make it and send it off!

This one is in our entryway. People comment on it all the time. The picture frame has each of the children's names etched on the glass under their picture. You'd think that since John is three months old now I would have gotten around to putting his picture in there by now. I made it about a month before I had him.

This is in the playroom above the kids' bookshelf. I like it because it reminds me to take time from my day to just sit and read to them, something I forget to do when I'm caught up in keeping the house clean and running to my satisfaction.

This helps them put their towels in the right place, and lets me know who has left their towel in the middle of the floor. Simeon ALWAYS leaves his towel in the middle of the floor! hahaha...it's not his fault though. He still can't reach the hook!

This one is in the kids' bathroom next to the mirror. I put it up, and Rebekah asked me what it meant. We had a nice discussion on what it means to be beautiful inside and out.

I love the temple on this one. It's about 12 inches tall. And yes, the words are a little crooked,

Summertime Fun

We have had a pretty eventful summer so far. We have to get it all in because the summer break gets shorter every year. Last school year ended on June 18th and will start on August 12th. For the 4th of July we got to spread it over 3 days because it was on Sunday this year. We had our traditional pool party at the Lowell Sr.s on Sat. the third. Gary just was called to the High council in our stake so was ordained a High Preist on the 4th. Both of our parents and Ezra and Tim came for that so I made patriotic cake. On the 5th was our ward breakfast (my pet peave: celebrating a holiday after it has passed) Parley was able to be part of his first flag ceremony as a cub scout.

Gary was able to get tickets to the Rueben H. Fleet Science Museum for half off. My kids love "kid city". Caroline played in the little house Emma and Parley played with this cool tube system. You put balls in and air pushes them through it.

Gary is on High Adventure campout for his last commitment from his previous calling in YM. So Mon. morning before he left I took a certain kind of test because I was curious and guess what.....I'm pregnant! Number 8 here we come (or as mom says numbers 8 and 9 because I'm ready for twins).

We've also gone to the beach. I'll post those pics next time.

The big girls...mostly

I had Rebekah take a picture of John and me. I'm hardly ever in the pictures, so here I am. John is WHITE! His legs look like they could glow in the dark!

Rebekah is getting her big teeth in. She's getting so big. I found a setting on my camera that takes the pictures in black and white so I don't have to convert them later. Kind of fun!

The girls being silly.

John-John dear we love you so...(sung to the tune of Mother dear we love you so)

In her new PT outfit that matches Papa's PT outfit. Now they can work out together.

This one is pretty interesting. They have on the same size shorts and shirt. Rebekah's shirt comes way down below the waist of her shorts, and Sariah's shorts look much longer. Rebekah has Mom's LOOOOONG legs and a short torso. Sariah has a long torso and average length of legs. They both have the shorts on their waists.

Baby Chicks

Well, we've been incubating eggs for the last 3 weeks. Yes, Travis got this crazy idea, because someone gave him some eggs. So, of course, I was left with turning duty when the automatic egg turner didn't end up working. I had to turn the eggs 3 times a day, make sure the temp was within .1 degree of 99.5, and continually add water to make sure the humidity was good. Here's the incubator.

You can actually see some of the unhatched eggs in there on the right.

It's really quite amazing. That's all I did, and now vualla! There are baby chicks! Today they started "pipping" through their shells, and 3 are now currently free. You aren't supposed to help in any way or they won't gain the strength they need to survive. Not even open the incubator. It was kind of hard watching through the top and seeing the little chicks flip upside down and struggle. I had to walk away! I would not be a good mother hen!
There's a little chicky, all hatched. It's amazing how fast they grow strong. When they first come out, they can't even stand up. Then within 30 min they can stand up for 1 min or so. It's a miracle.
Now Travis has this crazy idea that we'll be incubating turkey eggs. Not just a few, like 25! But not all will make it to hatching. We started with 6 turkey eggs this time, and none made it.

Here's sweet little Tustin at swim lessons. He was so excited this day, he had a smile the whole time!

Trayton was actually not feeling well, and sat out. But I'll get pictures next week.

Here he is kicking with the kick board.

This is a funny one. Get the true personality of my boys. I was taking happy "cutesy" pix of them with Naomi, and then Tustin decided to give a scary face. So I said what the hey, show me your scary faces. So here it is.

And my favorite picture for this post. Naomi just loves sucking on her fingers! But here she is actually sucking on the "Nettie/Ezra fingers"!!! I just couldn't help myself. Who knows if she'll continue, she did it once. Like Mother like daughter. I actually have a child that is somewhat remotely like me! Wow, it feels nice. :) I love her to pieces.

Cousins are here

Poor Joseph has been so worn out lately. Three days in a row he fell asleep somewhere besides his bed. He even put himself to bed one night this week. I couldn't find him and finally looked in his room. He was out cold an hour before 7:30 bedtime. Just before he fell asleep here he was trying to ask Jacob a question about our scripture reading, but he couldn't stay awake enough to get it out. We have several pictures of random places the boys have fallen asleep this week. Check out that shaggy hair! We did haircuts yesterday for the boys. Hooray! They look so much better now. Simeon has a weird spot where he jerked his head at the end. Oh well. That's how it works usually with at least one of them.

Lizzie is such a sweet little mother. She love taking care of "my baby John." She is so proud to tell anyone who will listen that he is her baby. Who needs baby dolls when you have your own real baby to care for, love, kiss and cuddle?

Nancy, my sister, and I are able to spend a few days together before she starts working night shifts. It's our last chance to see each other before we head off to Fairbanks. She was going to be able to be here until Thursday morning, but now she has to leave Tuesday afternoon due to a schedule change at work. Not. cool. at. all. That's life though. I'm thankful we are able to even have her here for the two days that she could make it. The kids love seeing their cousins. Joseph and Nathan got into the "anything you can do, I can do better discussion." It's pretty funny to listen to the little guys do their bragging.

Yep, that would be Joseph getting a drink of water out of the slip and slide. They were all lined up there for a while getting drinks. It's back to blazing hot once again. The kids really live in their bathing suits.

The girls have finally gotten brave enough to do a real running start on the slip and slide. Rebekah keeps forgetting to hang up her bathing suit when she changes out of it, so she made do with biker shorts and an undershirt.

Swimming anyone?

I love his face in this one. How cute can he get? That's baby Ayden next to him. He was just three weeks old the last time I saw him. After this he'll be running around and talking up a storm before I get to see him again.

Camo

Oh no, John's bum disappeared!