No First Day of School, REALLY?

I was looking through my posts and realized I think I missed the first day of school! Really??! How can I miss the first day? There are no excuses so better late than never, right? Everyone looks pretty excited for the day, Danielle is a Junior this year and driving. Soooooo I only got to grab a pic of her in the driveway, she wouldn't let me follow her to school and take a pic in front of her locker. :{ They grow up toooooo fast. Kody is an 8th grader and full of it, Lolo is now a 5th grader, both kids are the top of the totem at thier school. Can't believe this will be the last year I have someone in Elementary school...at least for 3 more years than it starts all over!

Sammy isn't too sure what all is going on, he just wants to get to his gymnastics class.

Here Kody is trying to avoid me, hard to believe one of the kids actually doesn't want me around??, he didn't realize I would really walk him up to his locker and take a pic. He was not happy with me, so we compromised I told him to just run up to the lockers and I would take a pic, even if it wasn't his. He was satisfied with that...doesn't he realize I mean it when I say Iwill take you to school EVERY first day until I can't???

Lauryn on the other hand was VERY excited to have me take her in. We missed Meet the Teacher night, so this was her first chance seeing her room and teacher. Lolo seems to be a little more anxious than the other kids, so she enjoys me taking her. She was so excited to start school this year, Taylor Hicks has been great for her. She is blossoming and making friends left and right and excelling in her work, she has even started reading books regularly.

Here is her ribbit, Sammy calls animals by their sound not name, and here she is unloading her backpack. She has a great teacher and is loving the year so far. I am so proud of my kids and all that they do. Hooray for another school year and all that it holds for us!

Attitude of Gratitude

Pres. Monson gave a wonderful talk yesterday on the attitude of gratitude. I immediatley felt guilty for not saying thank you enough. I immediatley came home and knelt down and prayed to simply say thank you for all that we have. Health, food, house, beds, clothes, great family, more than enough of everything. It helped me to let some of the worries go and the stresses we let pile up in our minds cloud over the good that we have.

That being said, Danny has had to fix 2 of his lawnmowers every night this last week and he was getting frustrated that they kept breaking and was starting to feel ungrateful and mumbly. We are waiting on 1 really big check right now and he keeps thinking, if that check would come I can just go buy a new mower and all will be well. It didn't come last week and Sunday being the only semi-free day he loaded up the mower and headed out to his dad's shop to weld some reinforcements on it. When they mow some of the lawns, the grass is so deep that you can't see what is in the way. So they often hit lots of rocks and stumps and things. The bolts have broken off 2 of the mowers and the engines literally fallen off. He finally combined 2 and even it broke Saturday which is why he had to fix it on Sunday, especially since he has about 10 yards to clean up this week. He got up this morning, said his prayers, and went to work with the newly reinforced mower. When he got to the first house, that was an initial yard care and locking up of the house, he walked in the backyard to assess the mess and low and behold an almost brand new, self propelled mower was sitting right in front of him. Almost the exact same model he was looking to buy. He added gas, and pulled the string and it didn't start. So they pulled the mower from the truck and his helper got busy....Danny felt impressed to walk back and pull the string one more time. Just like that it started and they used it to finish the yard and get done earlier with 2 mowers going.

Truely this is an example of the Lord showing us, especially Danny, that He knows who we are and what we need. If we humble ourselves and do as He as asked He will surely provide what we need. I immediately said a little prayer in the car, after he told me. I know he was extremely grateful and our attitude of gratitude is taking over! I am so grateful that He knows who we are and that He loves us and is watching over my hubby. That He knows what Danny needs. Amen!

Park N Play, Sept 5

Danny and I decided that since he was working all of the Labor Day weekend this year, we would only go to sacrament on Sunday and use the rest of the day as a family day. We had so much fun. We went to the park, as we were pulling in Sammy started to cough and ended up puking all over himself and the carseat, that is why again he is naked in these shots.

While cleaning out a couple of houses Danny has come across 2 pair of Rollerblades, one for Lolo and one for him. So he dusted them off and headed into the skate park with Kody. And Lolo has discovered she loves to skate, and even when we are just home she skates up and down the little patio we have out front.

Since dad was showing off his jumping skills, as you saw in one of the earlier posts, Kody decided he couldn't be upstaged. While I was in taking pics, Kody boasted that he too could jump over the cone. I got the camera ready, he skated down to his starting point, took off as fast as he could go...and then lept of his skateboard and jumped the cone with his own feet. What a goober, but he was right he could jump the cone, he didn't say he would do it on the board.

Sammy then decided he wanted to push his board all over. Danielle obliged him for a little while, then she got tired of him running in front of the other skaters and bikers and then he would throw a fit. This was about the time we decided we were done at the park.

So we loaded up and headed to the square to see what was going on. Sammy then decided he wanted to push the stroller instead of ride in it, which caused another fit. So Danny decided that Danielle and I could walk around why he plays in the grass with the other kids, thus elimating the stroller problem AND those that didn't want to walk around the art show anyway.

When we found them Sammy was wrestling with dad and Danielle decided she needed an airplane ride. Then each kid after her wanted one too. That is my superman, skating and jumping cones, then still able to lift all 4 kids up off the ground. What a stud!

Then we headed home for some fresh carnitas for dinner. What a great day!

Superman

Thats my superman! He's still got it!

Family Day with the Oquists, September 4

Saturday the 4th we spent the afternoon with the Oquist fam. It started with the Chino Valley JV football game to watch Justin. He is number 72, after the game started Sammy decided he needed to sit with Mike to get the low down on how the game works. It didn't last long and then he was back down playing with Lightening McQueen.

Chino ended up losing, but Justin played hard. It's fun to watch him get involved, I love going to the kids sporting events.

We then went to Mike and Janeen's for a BBQ, mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm killer burgers! Then while we all digested the burger masterpieces a game of croquet broke out.
We played teams and paired up each age group. Janeen/Mike, Joe/Danny, Justin/Danielle, Tyler/Kody and Lynzie/Lolo. (Liz and I just observed) Meanwhile Sammy grabbed the last mallet and played his own game. At the football game some of the kids found a water spicket and Sammy joined them in getting wet, hence the reason why he is wearing just his diaper in all the pics.

The dad's owned the game, they smoked everyone. Sammy didn't like it when a team got down to the wickets he was playing with. He would pick up thier ball and say "NO!" and move it somewhere else. lol Here is the 13 yr old team setting up the next move.

The 10 yr olds just kinda goofed around and then couldn't figure out how they were so far behind. It was always the other ones fault.

Sammy started playing croquet-ball. He would hit the ball then throw down the mallet and run, just like in baseball. He is so fun to watch and I love how he already has such a great imagination and plays so well by himself.

Mike and Janeen just laugh and enjoy watching everyone battle it out.

One of the best things about hanging with the Oquists is that there is always laughter! They are some of the most sarcastic and teasing people. Kids included, we had so much fun and I think the croquet game was the best part of the day. Here Tyler is "helping" Danielle with her shot.

Kody is setting up, while Joe and Danny entertain everyone else, part of why Janeen and Mike observed from the side is they could catch any cheating while no one else paid attention.

And here it is the winning stroke as Joe so loudly points out to everyone! Danny and him were hillarious together being the jerks they love to be. This is where Danielle and Kody get thier obnoxiousness from. Ornery kids!

Grandma finally stepped in to help Lolo and Lynzie.

Kody gets to send "Ole Yeller"s ball away. Janeen and Mike got the yellow mallet and ball, so they became the Ole Yeller team.

Danielle and Justin ended up 2nd, they had so much fun. They have become so enjoyable to be around, who would've thought that a 15 and a 16 yr old could be so much fun. Someday the 13 yr olds will be this way too...I hope.

Sammy takes a break.

Booyah! We're number 2, we're number 2.

While we waited on Ole Yeller and the other 2 teams to finish Justin tried to take down his dad. It was pretty much a draw, Joe finally said he was done. Neither one of them hit the ground, until Danny stepped in...

Justin then decided to show Kody how strong he was, I guess since he couldn't hold his own with the dads he needed to prove he could take someone down. hahahahahahaha
After the game finally ended we headed back inside for CAKE! Then Sammy asked to watch cars and the rest of us played a game of 31. BUT the 13 yr olds decided to use the pool table as a hot wheels launch ramp. When Sam discovered them he crawled over the back of the couch and joined them. I snapped this pic before Grandma turned around and caught him.

After getting caught, Sammy just poked his head through the cushions and tried to play with the big boys.

Sammy then gets attacked by Tyler and Lynzie, what else are cousins for? We had a great day, so much fun with the Oquists. Other than some pouting by the poor poor 13 yr old boys, there were no problems and the food was great!