Coach Pitch.....

This year Briggs played coach pitch baseball again and loved it. It's actually pretty funny watching them play. Some of them have an idea of what's going on, but most of them have no clue. Briggs did pretty good though. Steve was the coach again this year which Briggs loves. I even had to come and coach a few games when Steve wasn't able to. The weather wasn't the greatest this spring so I didn't haul the crew to watch too many games, and when I did we cheered from the burb with the heater on!!

The coveted position of back-catch that everyone fought over.

Briggs taking his turn in the race around the diamonds after.

The team!!!

Cardston Kids Marathon....

This year at the elementary school they had a Kids Marathon. Everyone that signed up for it was given a step counter or a "blue thing" as my kids called it. You were "supposed" to keep track how many steps they took to figure out how many miles they walked or ran. The goal was to get to 24 miles before the race day. It was a little hard keeping track of all 3 of them, and after seeing how many steps they took the first few days I knew that they would probably double what they needed. It was such a fun event. They gathered at the school before hand to warm up, and then they all left at different times in their classes to run their last mile.

Here's Micah at the start of the race. It was so funny watching everyone run as fast as they could at the start.

Here's Summer doing a few tricks while we were waiting for the kids.

Haylie coming in to the finish line at the Remington.

Kash just being cute in the stroller.


Briggs coming in. As soon as he saw me and my mom watching he ran as hard as he could. It was so cute. After the race he was so tired and he told me he would never do that again.

Here's the three of them with their medals. They were so proud to get them. I was so proud of them all for running and I loved watching them come in at the end.

Skater Boy....

Briggs has been bugging me for weeks that he wants a skateboard. I'm not one to go out and buy my kids whatever they want for no reason so I told him no, but maybe for his b-day I would think about it. I hoped that he would drop it after that but no. He still kept bugging me non-stop about it. So I told him he could earn money and buy his own. He immediately started doing little jobs around the house and earned a dollar that day. Then he wouldn't stop bugging me if he had enough money, and how much more he needed. At that point I was almost tempted to just go buy the kid a skateboard.

Then I remembered all the bottles and milk jugs that we had and I sent him gathering all of those up, putting them in garbage bags and hauling them to the burb. Then he called his Grandma Holland to see if she had any and sure enough she did. We brought them to the bottle depot which was disgusting by the way, and he got just enough to buy a skateboard.

Now the bike has been put on the back burner and he is riding his skateboard non-stop.

Catch up.....

I feel like so much has been going on lately but then when I try and figure out what, I can't. Don't know if that makes any sense. Let's see....I did survive the run that I was in last weekend. I wanted to write about it earlier but I was waiting for Brette to email me pictures and it's just not working out, so I'll have to post them later. The whole morning before the race I had such a grumpy attitude about the whole thing. I'm definitely not a morning person so getting up before 6:00 had me a little grumpy, then I couldn't believe I was driving 45 minutes to run when I could just run here. Then I had to drive in, find parking, figure out where to go and what to do, find a bathroom. I just wasn't sure it was all worth it. But it was actually pretty fun once I got going. I finished it before the time I wanted to do it in. It was so fun seeing my mom come threw the finish line. Possibly the best part of the day. I was just so proud of her cause she is not a runner at all, and she worked hard to get ready for something she doesn't even like doing and then ran it in 59 minutes!!! She did so good!! Anyways it ended up being a really fun thing and I already have the bug to do it again!

So when I got home my kids were very excited to find out how I did. Haylie's first question of course was "did you get 1st?" I laughed and said no. She was pretty confident when she asked if I got 2nd. Then I had to tell her no again. You could tell she was worried that my feelings were going to be hurt because I didn't get 1st or 2nd. Then I told her I got 219th. She was so cute cause right away she said, "oh mom that's so good. There was a lot of people and 219th is really good. It really is good mom." I love that she was so worried that my feelings would be hurt. She is a thoughtful little girl.

My whole week last week was occupied with planning a softball tournament for the ladies league. For some reason I got put in charge of the league so I got to plan it. Really I don't have anything better to do.... Anyways it ended up turning out good, I found umps, found prizes, settled a little drama, and now it's over. And it was also my last year I'll have to do it. Yay!! It was fun, didn't win but oh well. And I got fried to a crisp. Not the nice tan look I was hoping for. My arms still hurt.

We are on to the last week of school. I have mixed feelings about it being over. Right now I'm more than ready for it to be done but I'm not looking forward to hearing, "I'm bored.", "Can I have a friend over.", "So and so won't play with me." Briggs has been out of school for a week now and I'll be glad to have the girls done so they can play with him. He is constantly needing someone to play with. From the second he wakes up he is asking for a friend. Luckily my mom said he could go out there for a couple days. It's crazy how much quieter the house is without him here. He loves to go out to the farm where he can ride his dirtbike and "help" Grandpa. Too bad it poured rain all day today and he's been stuck in the house all day. I'm sure my mom kept him busy. She is such a good, fun Grandma.

Hopefully something exciting, funny, or at least some what interesting happens in the next few days so I don't have to have another boring post like this one again.

Trouble....

Now that Kash is mobile he loves to explore and get into mischief. One day I busted him getting into my bucket of flour. Little stinker. There are two things I love about these pictures...

I love the chubbiness. Don't you have the urge to squeeze those chubby thighs?? And I love that he has a pencil in his hand (that is totally jabbing his cheek). I don't know how he does it but no matter what he always finds a pencil kicking around somewhere. He finds them as fast as I take them away.

Love/Hate.....

This is the relationship I have with running. Right now I want to start with the hate cause I feel like it overpowers the love. The last few times I've gone running I honestly can't stand it. I have been getting shin splints really bad, my knee always hurts, and my hip has really been bugging me. I know I'm getting old but I'm not that old yet. My body feels like is in it's 70's. It's really frustrating. I feel like endurance wise I could keep running but it just hurts really bad so I can't.

But I do love the feeling after I'm done running. (After the pain is gone) And I do love that there is nobody bugging me, or asking me questions, or talking to me. I love being by myself for at least 30 minutes at one time. Sometimes longer if I'm really ambitious. And I love listening to whatever I want on my ipod and not High School Musical or Hannah Montana. Okay maybe I do love it more than I hate it.

Tomorrow is the run that I decided to sign up in for some reason. I hope that it is one of those I love running days and not I hate every second of this days. I went downtown today and bought some insoles to go in my shoes. Hopefully that helps a bit. Maybe I'll just pull a Steve and pop some Tylenol before I go. Either way tomorrow it will be over and I will not have to think about it anymore. Yay!!

One down, one to go.....

So for a while now I have been procrastinating two things. Potty training Summer and taking away her soother. Both equally painful in my opinion. Well she decided on her own that it was time to be potty trained. I have NEVER had any of my kids do this but she just decided it was time to start going in the potty and has been doing great ever since. No bribery, no treats, no charts, hardly any accidents. I think after the last year of crying non-stop, tantrums, clinging, stubbornness I deserve this. (she does have a sweet side too)

Now if I could only think of an easy way to take her soother away??... She is over 2 1/2 now and I know she looks completely ridiculous with it. Even Haylie told me the other day that Summer looks really cute without her soother. Any suggestions????

Just for Leslie.....

Here you go Les, I'm updating my blog. Just for you. I even typed four different posts. Read one a day though cause who knows when the next post will come.

Here are two of my cute sisters. Quite possibly the only two people who even read this blog faithfully. Their birthday's are a week apart so we had a joint party for them when they were home. Neither of them have had sugar for a while cause they're having a no sugar contest right now but they were aloud to cheat for their b-days. They have more will power than me!!

The river....

A few weeks ago everyone came home for a few days. I love hanging out with my family and the kids had fun playing with their cousins. We were extremely lazy the whole time so one day we decided to get out and go to the river for a wiener roast. It was a little chilly but I'm glad we went anyways. Here's a few pictures from that.....

Part of the crew. I love the kids trying to warm up their hands. It really wasn't that cold.

I know this isn't the best picture but I love it. My dad has a little soft spot for his grand kids and I'm glad I captured it here.

My mom keeping Kash warm or the other way around.

I know this isn't the best picture either, taken threw the windshield. I just couldn't get over how cute these two looked on their dirt bikes. They just look so minature. They were so excited to ride all the way to the river and back. Briggs thought he was pretty cool.

If Steve had his way we would be camping at the river every weekend and everyone would have their own bike or quad to cruise around on. Love this picture! Especially that Kash is sucking his thumb in it. Makes him look really manly on his bike with the biker clothes.

When Steve went to the sand dunes this year he came home with this little outfit for Kash. He was pretty proud of himself for finding it. I does look pretty cute!!

Piano recital....

Last week Haylie and Micah had their piano recital. They are so lucky to have their Grandma Holland that is willing to teach them piano. She is amazing. They were a little nervous to play their songs but they both did a great job. I love playing the piano and it is so fun to see them enjoying and learning the piano. As much as I love them taking lessens, I'm really excited for it to be over for the year. No more stressing about them practicing. I find now that it's over they play even more cause it's just for fun and it's something they don't have to do but want to.

Sunday pictures....

So every once in a while when we are actually running on time on a Sunday morning which is pretty rare, I like to get a family picture. Right now it's pretty fresh in my mind the pure chaos that went on before this picture, the lost shoes, lost toothbrushes, digging threw laundry mounds for lost shirts, the lost brush, the amount of time to do every one's hair only to have them roll all over the bed and wreck it minutes after it was done, the dirty kitchen I was grumpy about, the grumpy kids cause it was fast Sunday and they were hungry, the struggle on what to wear to church cause nothing seems to fit me right, and the rush to get all 8 of us showered and bathed cause we didn't do it the night before. I wonder if 20 years from now I'll look at this almost perfect picture and think, man I really had it all together back then or if I'll remember the crazy Sunday morning routine?! I hope I don't forget these years cause as crazy and busy as they are I love them!

So mad about the piano bench the camera was set on. Brette I need a little photoshop done. While your at it maybe photoshop out Briggs's hand. Of course he had to be doing that cause that's just him.

And I love this picture. I look at it and honestly can't believe that all these kids are mine. I still find myself in awe some days that I actually have six kids that I get to raise cause half the time I still feel like a kid myself.

Fund Raiser.....

So the other day Haylie had her friend Kelly over. They decided it would be fun to have a stand and sell things. I usually cringe at this idea cause it ends up being a lot of work (for me) but I decided to be a good sport and let them do it. So they decided to make cookies and of course chose the messiest kind of all, sugar cookies. There was no convincing them otherwise and they promised they would do it all and clean it all up. (ya right) So as they were making the cookies they decided to give all the money that they would make to one of there other friends so that she could buy a dog. Well they got the cookies made, decided not to ice them cause not everyone likes icing (less mess for me), and then decided to pop some popcorn and sell that too. They made signs, packed everything and a picnic table up the street cause our street wasn't busy enough and off they went. In my mind I was feeling bad for them cause they had such high hopes and I didn't think they would make any money. But sure enough, they sold all the cookies but two and all the popcorn and came home with $8. They were proud as can be!!