Honestly I missed the memo!

That's what this weed claimed when I questioned it for hiding behing the bushes in the front yard. I told it I had sent a memo out earlier in the summer informing the weeds that they were to take the summer off. Obviously this one (and a few of it's friends) missed the memo.

One day I looked out the boys window and I saw this weed peaking in. It took me another 2 weeks to get out to it and by then it was taller then me. My budding green thumb works only on flowers-not weeds!

First Lessons

Today Simeon started piano lessons. He was so excited to come home from school and find his books on the piano, that he sat right down and started playing. After his lesson this afternoon he was given some assignments, one was to write his own song. He wrote the song "hummingbird" .

Pine Lake State Park

On the agenda for this weekend-Camping, Fishing, Dutch oven cooking and Hiking.

We moved the tent (put up) across the camp ground. It reminded me of the shows where they move a house from one spot to another. We got the canopy net set up, a fire going to smoke any bees away, the tent stakes down and then Johann and the kids headed for the lake while Rebecca and I organized the inside of the tent.

We love to cook in a dutch oven but don't get the chance all that often.
Dinner Friday night-Kielbasa, potatoes red & green peppers, carrots & onions.
Dinner Sat night-Chicken enchiladas and Mississippi Mud Cake. Both were 1st time tries and they were completely delicious!!


Rebecca stayed snugly warm during the cold nights. The 2nd night was so cold I covered her car seat (where she was sleeping) with a blanket to keep the draft out. She was such a good camper. She enjoyed looking at the trees and the clouds. She would watch whatever was going on and she hardly cried. On Thursday Rebecca woke up with her right eye goopy. All weekend both her eyes would fill with moisture and goopiness, but she never seemed bothered by it.
This is the 1st Bluegill that Simeon caught. Honestly he wasn't trying to take a bite out of it. He caught another Bluegill this afternoon then just got nibbles, but no catches.
The kids were kind and helpful with each other. They enjoyed playing with each other the whole trip.
Johann found out that Corrine is really good at casting her line. I was trying it out one time and just couldn't get it out very far. She said "Mom let me cast it for you!" Corrine got lots of bites and her worms would be considerably smaller after it was in the water, but she never got a fish on her line.
Instead of baiting the hooks with the worms, Ammon plays with the worms and refused to give any to Johann to fish with. This afternoon he found more worms in the dirt to add into his worm so it wouldn't be lonely.
Simeon was so excited to be fishing. He was good at casting his line, and was pretty patient waiting for a bite. He likes all the different baits to use, and would switch between them.
Johann and Simeon had a great bonding time fishing. Johann caught one Bluegill on his birthday!
On Saturday Corrine, Ammon, Rebecca and mom walked around the bend to find the beach. Well it wasn't around the bend or the next, and it wasn't even on the same lake we were camping on, but the next one over. After a good 20 minute walk we found what we were looking for and it was worth the walk! Corrine & Ammon played in the sand and water. Ammon got his pants so wet that he took them off. It was such a beautiful setting to play in the sand with the forest and Canadian Geese in the water behind them.
Behind our campsite was a small valley filled with trees. There was a tree that had fallen over a small stream area. The kids were playing "Bridge to Terabithia." They were taking fallen branchs and laying them under the fallen tree to make a bridge that they could walk on. They spent hours playing in the forest. They showed me around-which stopped some of their fun when I realized how far (the other forest area over the hill) they were going. They made friends with our neighbors Max and Sophia (both 4 years old) and played with them from sun up to sun down.

The morning we were packing up to come home. A lady who was camping across from us came over and told us that we did such a good job with our kids. It was such a nice compliment to receive because it had been alot of work, but totally worth it. We are already looking forward to camping next summer.

Once Stung Twice Shy

This weekend we set off to go fishing and camping to celebrate Johann's birthday. We picked a camp ground with a lake near by for camping, and the camp site we reserved had 8 or so beautiful tall pine trees offering us lots of shade and a big grass open field behind us.
What we didn't realize was that the area was hit by a HUGE hail storm just a few weeks earlier. About a mile from the camp ground the corn fields looked terrible. Like they had been burned, then the trees on the other side looked bare. We drove into the camp ground and found our site #, but there were no beautiful tall pine trees-just freshly cut stumps, no shade and pine needles all over. We decided to move to the next site over to get some grass. Johann started setting up the tent. The kids got thirsty so we opened the apple juice. We started noticing some bees. There were annoying, but managable. Then more started coming and they were attracted to Rebecca's stroller. We put the net on the stroller but they kept going to her.

This is the conversation I had with Ammon about the bees:
A- "Mom I got stung by a bee."
M-"What did it feel like?"
A- "It hurt a little bit."
M-(too Johann) "If he gets stung he won't say it hurts alittle!"

Simeon has the idea to fill a cup with apple juice and put in the fartest away stump to get the bees to go away from us. Ammon didn't like the idea and he brought the cup back.
A few minutes later Ammon was sitting on his chair with another cup of apple juice swatting at the bees when he starts screaming and grabbing his neck. He had gotten stung right on his neck and it didn't hurt alittle like he thought it would-it hurt ALOT!



We pile the kids into the van, swat the bees out and sit wondering what to do. Ammon fortunatley scratched the stinger out himself, but he was swelling fast. We put a piece of ice on it to slow it down.
The DNR guy drove in right then, so we followed him to ask him what to do. He told us that the bee hives had been knocked down in the hail storm and that the bees had no where to go. A few things the bees like-sun and sugar. We were right in the sun with apple juice. He suggested we move to a camp site with shade (there were only 2 open ones left) and not to have any sugar-especially liquid sugar-so no juice.
We drove down the road to Eldora to get some baking soda to put on the stinger. All the way Ammon is still crying really hard. When I came out of the store he was quiet-Dad had found a way to dry the tears up-orange soda. We also made a stop at Pamida to buy a canopy net to put over our table to keep the bees out.
The saying once bitten (or stung) twice shy is so true. Now even a harmless fly sends him into panic mode, nad he learned that bee stings don't just hurt a little-they hurt ALOT!!

New eyes

Tonight as I was reading Ammon a story I told him I was concerned about the funny blinking thing he does when he watches tv, or reads books. I told him we were going to go see Dr. Boysen about it.
To this he replied totally seriously: "I went to Dr. Boysen when I was a baby and he was good at that. He popped my eyes out and gave me new ones."

1st Days of School

Nope that's not a typo-the 1st days of school happened on 2 different days in our family this year.

Simeon

Simeon had his 1st day of school on Thursday August 20th. He was very excited and a little nervous to be in 3rd grade. He's now combined with 4th graders and will have the same teacher-Mrs. Johnsen for 2 years. On the 1st day of school they went right in and had an assignment on their desks. She is a very funny teacher who smiles all the time. He is back with his 2 good friends Nick & Carter, who both are very sport minded like Simeon.

Corrine

Corrine had her 1st day of school on Monday August 24th, because she was at camp on the official 1st day of school. She is in 1st grade and has Mrs. Thrams as her teacher. She is so nice and loves every thing Disney. This year most of Corrine's closest friends were placed in the other class, but Corrine has not let this get her down.

Ammon

Ammon's 1st day of preschool was also Monday August 24th. He is attending preschool at the school districts preschool. He goes every afternoon from 12:30-3:30pm. He is also in a preschool playgroup at Gymnest every Tuesday morning.

I thought this was a cute picture of the kids. All with thier backpacks and lunch boxes. Ammon insisted on bringing a box of kleneex to school just like Simeon & Corrine needed to!

11 years as a family

After picking Corrine up from camp we headed to Omaha Nebraska for the weekend. Sat marked 11 years since our famiy began.
When you cross over into Omaha on the 80, you see 2 huge train engines up on a hill. We stopped and ate our lunch while exploring the area. The trains are part of a monument about the Transcontinental Railway that connects the east to the west.


We then headed for the Omaha Children's Museum. The kids absolutely LOVED the ball room. We spent at least an hour and a half playing in there.

The room centers around a bucket that fills with balls and they get dumped out of it every few minutes. To get the balls into the bucket, you have to put them into different tubes which send them to different places. Some go straight to the bucket, others to another opening. The kids had alot of fun laying under the bucket and having the balls drop onto them.
One area the kids really liked involved a crane, a conveyor belt and a track. To start this one, you 1st raised the balls in a cage onto a platform. Then you brought the crane over and raised the platform to dump them into the cranes bucket. You then had to turn the crane 180 degrees and dump them into a tube which dropped them into the bottom of another cage. There was a crank you turned which ran the conveyor belt that brought then to the top of the cage where they went into a metal track which brought them back into the original cage. If the crane was dumped early, the balls would spill on the ground.

Ammon especially had a great time playing in the real firetruck and wearing the boots and hat. The boots weighed about 5 lbs each, but he was determined to keep them on!



We got a room at an Embassy suites in a nearby city. I have come to LOVE Embassy Suites for many reasons. The rooms are so nice. You walk into a living area with couches and a table. In the hallway there is a small kitchen area with a fridge, microwave and sink, then there is a door into the bedroom. You have so much more room and have 3 beds when you use the bed in the pull-out couch. In the evening they have a welcome reception with snacks and in the morning they have a full breakfast with made to order pancakes and omelets.
We went swimming in the evening after dinner at Texas Roadhouse. Simeon has been learning how to swim this summer, and was getting lots of good practice in the pool. We didn't bring Ammon's life vest, so he went under and swallowed more pool water then one kids should, so I took him back for pj's early. Rebecca went into the water up to her belly button, but it was too cold for her.
Saturday we went to the Henry Doorly Zoo. This is such a fun zoo. There are exhibits outside, then they have a desert dome, an indoor jungle, a gorilla building and a big cats building.

Last time we came they were building the butterfly exhibit, and this time we were able to go through it. Johann had a butterfly land on his back pocket. We were able to get a very close look at a grasshopper molting.
We watched the bears get fed which wasn't worth the time we waited.
The desert dome and jungle always take us so long to go through since we stop and look at so many different things. In the jungle some of the animals are more free to roam. There were these 2 little monkeys that were within feet of us hanging on a vine. Then our kids became the monkeys (or sloths) and hung from the vines.

We had such a nice time this weekend celebrating the 11 years since our family began.

Sibling Camp

The last few weeks Corrine has been asking "when camp was" nearly every day. She was so excited to go. On Sunday morning, we went to sacrament meeting, came home to change and headed out to camp.
Saturday night I had secretly made her a photo album, wrapped it up and put it in her backpack. In the van before even leaving the house she found it. I told her it was a surprise for her to open that night at camp.
The whole way to camp (it's a 3 hour drive) she kept asking "how much longer?", "are we getting closer?", "when are we going to be there?"

Finally we arrived at camp and checked Corrine in. Her cabin is Wakonta-the same one as last year and her counselors had it decorate with all sorts of Hanna Montana things, including a headset complete with microphone.
During the week she got to do lots of fun things. She climbed the rock wall. She climbed the ladder and got just above it before coming back down. She rode a brown horse 4 laps around the corral. She made lots of crafts including 2 blankets for Rebecca. They went swimming, but Corrine only got in 2 times.
This time at camp Corrine got to see pictures of Aunt Fifi and she looked like a witch dressed in black. Aunt Fifi leaves presents for the kids each day and she checks on the cabins to see who has the cleanest one.
Corrine got homesick a few times, but each time she would look at her photo album and she'd feel better. Her favorite picture to look at was of her and dad holding hands walking. She also liked all the pictures of Rebecca and she told all her friends about her.
The day before she slipped and scrapped her hip pretty badly. Her counselors told us she was very brave and didn't want to be carried and did great when they cleaned it out.

When we picked her up she was very quiet and just wanted to touch and hold Rebecca. We headed straight to Omaha for the weekend, and she kept asking if we could go home so she could sleep in her comfy bed.
This year at camp she was much more comfortable and is already looking forward to camp next year when she gets to go with Ammon.

Fun Summer Pictures

Hanging out-wiggly style.


Baby it's bright in here!


Passing the time at the park while the van gets an oil change. It rained early this morning, and the kids all had wet rear ends from the wet slides-but happy smiling faces! Did I mention that it was an 8am appointment across town, with 4 kids. And yes we were on time-amazing I know :)


Our blue eyed kids.


"Where's the baby?" Corrine & Ammon wanted Rebecca to lay in the baby doll nursery at the Children's Museum-she fit right in since she's about the same size as the baby dolls.

Playing Catch up

Since this is our family's journal I like to keep it updated so I've been updating what we have been up to the last few weeks. I date them on the day we do it to keep it in order. Some are added back into the last part of July. If your up for lots of reading go for it. If not know we were doing alot for having such a little one. The crazy thing is-Rebecca's never gone grocery shopping, but she's been to the hosptial for her brothers apts about 6 times totallying 25+ hours.
Today was a long one of those days.
Kari

Who Took the Camera?

We have a budding photographer in our house. The 3 ways we know this-

1. We notice the camera is missing from where we put it.
2. We find it in a weird place.
3. We start looking through the pictures on the camera and find ones we don't remember taking.

At first we would ask all 3 older kids if they knew where the camera was. Once we found out who took it the 1st time it made it easier to figure out each time. The pictures taken were also a dead give away.

Here is a selection of the pictures taken on the camera by our budding photographer Ammon and his sometimes assistant Corrine.

The night the camera was found on the boys bedroom floor-along with pictures of Ammon's bed and stuffed animals were videos he didn't realize he had taken.


Looking through the pictures on the camera these appeared. This little guy was painted on the deck by our main man and helper girl. His assistant Corrine obviously helped with these pictures since our main photographer is in them.




Since our photographer has an obsession with Star Wars it was no surprise to find this picture on the camera.


One day you might tell someone that you saw the first pictures of a famous photographer when he was just 4 years old, or you might have just been lucky enough to have gotten a glimpse at the world through a 4 year olds eyes. Either way we hope that this passion stays and that it improves with each picture taken.

BIG Smiles

This afternoon after a nap and a full belly Rebecca gave us some of the biggest and brightest smiles we've ever seen. She was looking at her beloved animal mobile and just lit the room up with her smiles.



For those of you wondering she's laying on her "Sandy Quilt". The back is the pink and white heart material.


She just watches the animals-an elephant, zebra, giraffe and lion dance above her while soft music pays. It's one of the best pieces of baby equipment ever!

So Big

Rebecca is growing so quickly. It's fun to see her growing and doing more, yet sad to watch the newborn stage dissapear. As I was writing this she gave me the sweetest smile. We get about 1 a day while she's awake. When she sleeps she gives the cutest smiles.
At 1 month she weighed 9 lbs 13oz.

Harvest Time

In the spring we planted 2 roma tomato plants in pots on the deck. We've never had good luck with plants so we weren't sure what these 2 plants would do. What they did was grow and grow and grow some more. We started finding flowers all over the plants with more blooming each day.

Then in late July we had our 1st reddening tomato. Within days more were reddening and by the last week of July and the first week of August we had handfuls of ripe tomatoes on a near daily basis.
We all had so much fun checking the tomato plants and watching them grow. They were right outside on the deck so we could see them everyday while we ate or were out in the backyard.
As for the rest of the garden-it didn't do so well. We burned our 1st set of peppers with too much Miracle Grow (we bought another plant and we've had some small red peppers), our broccoli plants became rabbit food, and the lettuce and carrots never made it from their planter boxes to bigger pots to grow so they never grew much.
We all had so much fun with our garden this summer and we learned some good lessons for next year-like putting a fence up around the plants before the rabbits find them, and when it comes to Miracle Grow-more isn't always a good thing!

Space Derby

Tonight was Simeon's 1st Derby as a Cub Scout. He has been working with Johann on getting his rocket ready for 2 weeks, but most of the work got done in the last few days before the race.
Simeon painted his Cubs colors-blue and red, and had even #'s on the side.

The boys were testing the rocket before Pack meeting and found out that they had put a part on backwards, so they took it apart and redid it, but unfortunately that made it not work. So during Pack meeting Johann was in working on the rocket and getting it to fly.
Fly it did. It went from not working, to being really fast.

Simeon was moving up the bracket towards the top places, when his rubber bands broke. This happened to another rocket and they both got a chance to put in a new rubber band.
As the race for 3rd place was about to get going the rubber bands in Isaac's rocket broke, giving him 3rd place. Then it was the race for 1st and 2nd place and just as the rockets were about to be put on, Simeon's rubber bands broke, giving Simeon 2nd place, and Jordan 1st place.

The boys and dads all had a good time racing the rockets. Simeon got his 1st taste of a derby.

This month at pack Meeting Simeon earned
Belt Loops:
Fishing, Soccer, Baseball, Computer, Bicycling

Activity Pin:
Baseball

Old MacDonald had a farm...

I've always wanted to take the kids to the Bever Park Zoo now known as Old MacDonald's Farm for years, but I've always been intimidated by Cedar Rapids. I needed to go to a store in Cedar Rapids so I decided that we'd make a day of it and stop at a few fun spots.
We started the day at Noelridge Park playing at a Splash Pad. When we got there, there were maybe 6 other kids around Corrine's age or younger playing at the pad, when we left there were 30 kids mostly Simeon's age or older and it was too busy, so it was good timing for the kids to be cold and ready to go.



We then headed to Beaver Park.

At the farm there is a meerkat area. We were able to see 1 meerkat out each time we walked by it.

There were ducks, goats, roosters, chickens, pigs, cows, a rabbit, a ferret a few birds and chinchilla.

There was a white chicken walking around that thought the stroller was very interesting. It started pecking at the shinny area on the tire, then was pecking at the footrest. It stayed around the stroller for a good 5 minutes.

Outside of the farm you can walk down a path to another area that has ponds and more ducks. The kids were finding the animal feet in the cement on the path and figuring out which animal had made them.

After the farm we read about the history of the area, and decided to go visit the boulder that was talked about in the history. It was huge and is the only one like it around.


There used to be more 'zoo type animals' when it was a zoo long ago. It is now just farm animals. There were also other fun things at the park, including a nice pool, an educational path to walk on, a big wooded area with picnic areas and a really neat play area with a metal firetruck to climb on. At one time there were 2 real firetrucks for the kids to play on.