At our house...

Hmmm... I had imagined that when Alex had full-day school, I would have so much time. I would always have my house clean, I would exercise every day, I would read to my other kids so much more and I would always blog on a regular basis. I can't figure out where I went wrong.
Alex on his first day of school this year! I know I had a better picture than this, but I can't find it! Oh, and notice the band-aid on his forehead. He had just gotten stitches from a stick that Tristan threw. When they put the stitches in all he did was say, "Ow. OOw. OOW." They said he was the perfect patient.

a quick rundown on what has been going on in our house. If you are really lucky, I might even put in a few pictures.

- Alex has made himself busy by finding and blowing up with the hand pump every, single, blow-up toy that we have. So our house always looks like we are about to head out on vacation, with large, inflatable whales, tigers and boats. But it keeps Alex busy blowing them up and the other kids busy fighting over them.






- Tristan has learned how to hook up the vcr and has been happy going through most of the old vhs's that we have. I walked in the other day and could not figure out what he was watching. Finally, I realized it was Funny Farm. He was watching it happily, apparently convinced that if it was on vhs, it must be a kid's movie.

- We worked in the yard some. When we went to someone's house with the Mahers, Nicole commented on how nice and manicured their yard was. "Our yard is not like that," she said. "Well, not mine either," I replied. "Yea, I know," she said. "I saw it." I didn't want to tell her that we had just spent the whole Saturday before working in it.

Alaina while we worked in the yard

- We took the kids to the fair! This is a fun tradition. The kids were really tired and cried a lot, but other than that and losing Alaina in the petting zoo for about ten minutes, we had a fun time.

Alex was convinced that all of the animals wanted to eat his "pamphlet" that someone had handed out. I was surprised the goats didn't.

- Alaina found out that she can fit in the cat carrier. She loved it and refused to get out and Alex thought it was great fun to carry her around.

- We had Kimberly and Nicole Maher stay here for the week and had a blast! They are from Meggie's ward in West Virginia and Kimberly was bringing Nicole out for BYU-I. As evidence of how much fun we had, I took absolutely no pictures. But, Kimberly did teach Alex how to use the camera, and Alex has now commandered it for his own purposes. I need to buy a bigger camera card. Here are few of the self-portraits he has taken.

- I am trying to convince Tristan and Alaina that bread with butter and jam is not by itself a complete food group. They are convinced otherwise.

- I just finished reading The Hunger Games and loved it! I read it in just two sittings. It's so interesting and the sequel just came out! I can't wait to read it, but I am savoring the first for a while. Plus, I promised Danny I would read Eragon first.

- Alaina has decided to start her very own nudist colony. She refuses to wear clothes most of the time, even though I got her Little Mermaid underwear. This morning she peed on the floor twice because she didn't have anything on. She's not potty-trained and I don't think she is quite ready yet. But when I try to put clothes on her she runs away and says, "I needa go poddy!!" and runs to sit on the potty, which she has never, not even once, gone on.

- At Danny's work they give out scratch lottery tickets for little prizes. Danny has won $4 on two of them. Four dollars is four dollars, but I can't seem to bring myself to turn them in. I don't even know what you do. And what if someone sees me and thinks we bought them? Awkward. So there they sit on my dresser, day after day. I can't bring myself to turn them in, or to throw them away. Maybe I should find someone who will turn them in for me and split the $4. Maybe Danny will do it. If I offer him two of the four dollars.

- I had an "imperfection" on my face and Tristan asked if it was an owie. I said, "Yes, it is." He looked at me quizzically for a few moments and asked, "Did you get it from a magic sword?" If only it were that glamorous.

That's all for now!