Update

Stan has been busy at work surveying for burrowing owls. It means leaving the house before sunrise, but he is an early riser and we are grateful that he is busy because that means a job.

I was released from my calling as Young Women President today. I don't have another calling. I will miss being with the teenage girls in the ward. They are so much fun. It is a good thing I have a few of my own teenage girls to keep me company.

I remember noticing that the seniors above me in high school did unexpected things. It was like they knew they were leaving soon and weren't constrained by the box that high school had put them in. Well, it happened at our house, too. Summer joined a couple of clubs this year and even took part in their homecoming lip sync competitions.

Rachel is taking guitar lessons and loving it.

Heather is homeschooling this year for middle school. It is wonderful having her around.

Gwen was Student of the Month for September. Woot, woot, Gwen!

Kelly is in public school for the first time this year. She is holding her own, but it has been a hard transition. One of the best things about her going to school, and one of the reasons we sent her, was for new friends. She has already made a bunch.

Michael is in kindergarten at home with me. He likes to get up before I do and come into my bedroom to ask if we can do schoolwork, RIGHT NOW.

Naomi is happy being the baby of the family. She has decided that she will stay the size that she is and never grow up. She is bound and determined. Good luck!

Date Night

Last Friday night, Rachel got a babysitting job, then Summer got a babysitting job. Just as Stan and I were ready to go out on our weekly date, Heather's friend invited her over for a girl's night of fun...so we left Gwen in charge for long enough to get some take out Chinese and came back home. We wanted some solitude, so we went the only place that there was any solitude with four kids still around
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the roof.

It was fun - kind of romantic and we didn't even fall off.

Summer's Room

Summer decorated her room with paper flowers. They hang from the ceiling like rain falling from the sky.

For those of you who can't come to visit sometime soon, this is what she wakes up to.

Beach Trip

We went to the beach a few weeks ago and I am finally blogging pictures of each of the kids...






...and the seagull Naomi wanted a picture of :)

Mandy

My bff Amanda (and the kids' Aunt Mandy) came to visit. We all love her to pieces and feel like it is Christmas when we get to see her :)

We smashed as much fun as possible into the time she was here...

...she even painted her own and my toenails and taught me a stellar nail design :)

Yogurt Contest Answers and Winner

Well, we were overwhelmed with entries...but it was easy to choose a winner! Bless you, Shantel for thinking the the most modestly filled yogurt cup was mine. I was really the biggest pig of them all with the fullest cup. We'll get you a prize just as soon as we figure out what it is :)

#1 - Kelly

#2 - Rachel

#3 - Stan

#4 - Summer

#5 - Amy

#6 - Heather

#7 - Michael

#8 - Naomi

R.I.P., Ratties!

So far, Stan has killed five rats. No wonder so many oranges were devoured! The last two were on the small side, so I think we are moving down to the younger generation, hopefully before they reproduce...

Stan caught one in a classic wood snapping trap, but the other four have all died in the trap you see below. It is a tube lined with metal plates and it has four big batteries.

Here's one of the bigger ones that expired earlier in the week. Goodbye, Rat!

Yogurt Contest

We went out for frozen yogurt as a family the other night for FHE. It was one of those places where you put everything in your container yourself and the the cashier weighs what you have chosen and charges you by the ounce. I neglected to fully educate the kids before we started. All I told them was not to put anything in their yogurt cups that they weren't going to eat.

It was chaos. 

I was trying to keep track of whose yogurt had been weighed. I would try to sort the kids into groups - weighed and non-weighed, but they kept moving. The three times I asked Michael if his had been weighed, he gave me three different answers. In the middle of it all, I heard Summer, who was one of the only kids whose yogurt I knew HAD been weighed say, "I didn't know there were blackberries. I want some of those!" Then she left the "weighed" kids cluster and moved to the "un-weighed" section to unwittingly add food to her yogurt that would not be paid for. Finally, after I asked each kid a half a dozen times whether their yogurt was weighed or not, and in the process, forgot whether mine was or not, the cashier decided to void the transaction and start over. I wish she'd given me that option earlier, but who knows, she might have tried and I just couldn't hear her over all the effort I was making to keep my seven frogs in their respective wheelbarrows!

Anyway, I didn't get a picture of Gwen's yogurt (understandably, since by the time we were done paying I had forgotten how to count), but here are Summer's, Stan's, Rachel's, Naomi's, Michael's, Kelly's, Heather's and my own yogurts. If you can guess whose is whose, you'll win a prize. I can't tell you what because I don't know yet, so not only is it a prize, it is also a surprise.

The contest ends on September 6th and there is only one entry per person per day. In the event that more than one person gets the right answer before the 6th, the first one to submit it is the winner!

#1

#2

#3

#4

#5

#6

#7

#8