Road Wins This Round

In the ongoing battle of a boy and his bike vs. THE ROAD, another victim has been claimed.....(Shelby says this is way too gross to put on my blog, but hey, we document the good, the bad and the ugly here! Besides, this is 2 days later and looks SOOOOO much better than it did.) Anyway, for all the brute strength and coordination Samuel has, he seems to have more than his share of bicycle accidents. He has been flipped over the handlebars twice this year alone! Our neighbor has brought him home scraped up and bleeding from his crashes on the way to the pool. So when the latest crash happened, I wasn't too overly concerned. I was out shopping for day camp supplies (kill me now, but that's another story that I will share next week!) and got the call from the pool that Samuel had crashed and stubbed his toe. I hurried back to the pool and found Samuel happily eating a snow cone with his foot all wrapped up. He didn't want to unwrap it for me, and he wasn't crying, so I wasn't too concerned. However, about 5:00 pm he comes to me and unwraps it and I about threw up! The scraped up part on the knuckle of his toe was incredibly deep, like a big chunk had been taken out of it. There were pieces of black asphalt in it and I wasn't about to dig them out! So off we went to Immediate Care. They soaked it then xrayed it to be sure that all the road grit was out (there was concern that some may have embedded in the bone....gross, I know!) and then debrided it off all the dead skin, packed the wound and wrapped it up. They sent him home on an antibiotic to prevent infection. Then the next day, we went to his regular doctors office where we went through the whole process again (minus the xrays). We will go for one more visit Friday and then hopefully he will be good to go. Apparently the risk of infection is highest the first few days so they like to keep an eye on things. Needless to say, the bike is currently parked in the garage and there will be no more bike riding with flip flops.....at least not this summer!

In Training.....

Guess who's cheerleading this year?
Yesterday was uniform day and she was SO excited to run home and try hers on!
It was a little late, so the video is kind of dark, but cute nonetheless!

Summer Swim Team

I know I haven't posted about it at all, but we have been doing LOTS of swimming this summer! Here are some pics of our swimming in reverse order.... Joshua was awarded a trophy for most improved swimmer, which made his night! He has worked really hard this year and as soon as he starts to eat and gets more brute force, who knows what will happen???

Caleb at the swim team banquet making a very funny face! He didn't get to swim much this year between the state tennis tournament, scout camp, EFY, and youth conference. He missed it so much, he has asked me to keep swim team season open next year so he can hopefully qualify for champs.

Savannah in awe of her medal....it had a swimmer on it that "swims" when you move it side to side.

Samuel getting ready to swim at champs. He was the only one of our kids to qualify this year, and he did GREAT! He got 2 gold medals and one silver medal! That boy was born swimming!

Joshua assuming the "coaches position". He was really good at standing alongside the pool and cheering his teammates on. He even gave Savannah a few pointers that have really sped up her swim times! In every sport Joshua has been in, he stands out as a coach!

Samuel (in the bright blue swim cap with goggles on) waiting at clerk of course for his race. He is in the 9-10 yr. old age group and is swimming in the top heats with the best swimmers at age 9.

Not really sure what this look is, but it totally made me crack up when I downloaded it off my camera! Chris must have taken it while I was timing at the meet!

And yet another funny face!

Savannah and Coach Chris giving her a few last minute pointers....it must have worked because between Coach Chris and mini-coach Joshua, she ended up getting 10 seconds faster!

Quick Trip to Palmyra

After thinking about doing it for 10 years, we finally decided to attempt the trip to Palmyra for the Hill Cumorah Pageant! I have to admit to being the one who held back for so long....I really did not want to make the trip with the kids because I hated travelling with little ones. But we are now well beyond little ones, and our kids are really quite good travelers (well, except for Savannah who seems to need to go to the bathroom anytime she is tired of sitting in the car!) so we took off at 6:30 pm on a Friday night for New York. We got to our hotel about 2:00 am and slept in late the next morning, then spent some time in the pool (because we all know that is the favorite part of the trip!) Then we spent the day sight-seeing in Palmyra before going to the pageant..... Here are the kids with Wicked King Noah

Acting crazy at the Printing Shop where the Book of Mormon was originally typeset and printed LETTER BY LETTER! It really made me appreciate the technology we have nowadays!

Joshua in the Sacred Grove

Savannah walking in the Sacred Grove

Our family at the Sacred Grove (Joshua was the photographer)

Savannah at the large Smith Family home

On the Smith Farm looking back at the Palmyra Temple

The small Smith Family Home where Joseph Smith first saw the Angel Moroni and was told about the gold plates in his upstairs bedroom. I believe they said there were actually 11 people living in this house!

We had a great time and were so glad we went. However, we made one fatal error and that was not lining up a hotel room for Saturday night. (Chris was debating whether or not to go on up to Niagra Falls so the kids could see it, so we hadn't arranged for a room) By the time we started searching for a room at 11:00 pm we were unable to find anything available. We decided to start driving towards home and kept calling hotels along the way only to find that everything was booked! Somewhere around 2:00 am, we realized that we were going to be driving ALL NIGHT! I fell asleep and Chris took over till 5:30 am, then I drove till 7:30 while he slept....it was ALL I could handle! So he took over and brought us the rest of the way home where we promptly crashed into our beds!

Yes, I am 40 and NO, I AM NOT A COW!!!!

Friday was my 40th birthday!

With Chris and Caleb gone to scout camp, Joshua spending the morning at a friend's house and Shelby gone out to breakfast with a friend, I was left with 2 kids to fix breakfast for. That was when I made my plan to not cook on my birthday. I scrounged around through our coupon drawer and found 3 coupons for free chicken mini's and Chick-fil-A, so off we went! Once we got there, we discovered it was "Dress Like a Cow" day and everyone who came in dressed like a cow got a free meal. I realized we could have Chick-fil-A for breakfast AND lunch FOR FREE and my "no cooking day" was looking better and better! We spent the morning at the pool, then after we got Joshua and Shelby back home, we went to work on our costumes. Shelby initially refused to dress like a cow....even my threats of "well you'll have to cook your own food" wouldn't sway her.....but then Aunt Rachel called to wish me a happy birthday and the bribing began! Needless to say, Shelby can't say no to money!

Here we are in all our bovine glory!

I would have to say it was probably one of my best birthday meals ever!

It All Started With a Piano.....

A few months ago, my youngest sister, Rachel, surprised us all when she called to say she was moving out of the country. Not that she doesn't move, mind you....she moves enough that her blog's address is actually "didwemoveagain"! But out of the country??? Well, that was different than just across the country (which she HAS done TWICE!). Anyway, she has had a baby grand piano that she has moved with her on all her many moves, but this time it was not going. She called me and offerred to send it to my house if we could pay to move it here. My kids have progressed so far at the piano, that it was time for me to step up from the spinet that we were blessed to get for $200 8 years ago. And the prospect of a baby grand for the cost of moving (which wasn't cheap by any means, but was still cheaper than buying a new piano) was too good to pass up. Soooooo....somehow that got the ball rolling and Chris and I decided to replace the disgustingly nasty white carpet that we have lived with for 3 1/2 years because it would be a lot harder to do once we had a baby grand piano in the living room. And well, then that turned into "perhaps we should repaint the living room" which encouraged "I think the dining room needs a new coat of paint" which then morphed into "wow, the foyer paint has a hideous green hue....we better repaint that too"! So.....

FOUR months, one major remodel, and $4500 later, my husband can tease me that this is the most expensive free piano we were ever given! Oh, and the foyer is still waiting to be repainted....

And I am hearing beautiful music from my living room! I love it! Thank you Rachel, we will take good care of your "baby".

I'm Baaaa-ACK!

Due to technical difficulties with my camera, I have not been able to upload pictures in forever! Last night I finally took the time to figure out my new uploading program so now I can actually catch up on my blogging!
Caleb's high school tennis team made it to the state A championships. We travelled down to watch them play, but sadly, they got knocked out in the semi-finals. They returned just in time for the Sports Award Ceremony where Caleb received his letter and an award for Most Promising Newcomer to the tennis team.

Joshua graduated from elementary school, which means we now only have 2 kids left to get through elementary school! He had such a great year with *almost* a perfect report card....sadly he got a B in word study for his last quarter. Here he is with his teacher, Mrs. Scarpinato.

Our big job of putting in hardwood floors in the entry, living and dining rooms turned into something bigger when I decided to repaint the living room, then the bottom half of the dining room, then debated on pulling down the red painted over wallpaper in dining room (NOT going to happen yet....we will live with the red a bit longer!) We have finally started moving furniture back in! But I still have the entryway to paint....

My Life in Chaos

We have turned our small kitchen into an eat-in kitchen. It's a little tight, but still doable.

We have 3 couches, a loveseat, 2 tables, a piano, a computer desk, a rocker/recliner, 2 bookcases and an entertainment center in the family room.

We have turned the basement into temporary living quarters for five kids.

I know, it looks chaotic, but amidst the mess, there really is living space.....for instance, this is Caleb's "room".All so we can do THIS.....

Believe me when I say it is SO worth all the chaos I am living in!

SHE DID IT!!!!

After 4 1/2 long years of hard work, Shelby has earned her Young Womanhood Recognition award! I have to admit, there were days when I didn't know if this would ever happen! :) Here she is showcasing a few of her projects that she has worked on--one was learning to play 10 hymns on the piano and then playing them at church and the other was helping to run the Craft Shack at Cub Scout Day Camp.And just because I am one of "those" moms....you know, the ones who won't let their kids drive until they earn their YW Recognition or Eagle....here is Shelby showing off her driving skills on the way to church.

I was feeling a little guilty for manipulating her into earning it, so I did ask her on the way home, though, if the award even meant anything to her or if she just did it so that she could drive. In the end, she said that it was the biggest thing she has ever accomplished and she felt good about it. So I guess a little manipulation isn't so bad after all.....Congratulations Shelby, we are so proud of you!

Field Trip Fun

I had a chance a few weeks ago to accompany Samuel's class on a field trip to a local park and nature preserve. I went on the same field trip a week later with Savannah's kindergarten class, but suffice it to say, I liked chaperoning 3rd graders better....even if they were active boys! Leave it to Samuel to fall in the Japanese koi pond! At least he was not alone in his follies....both boys were wet up to their thighs!

If I had my pick of destinations with boys, I could think of no better place than a 100 acre park! We had so much fun watching them run wild!