squirrel tar tar on a bed of stink weed

you would have thought that was what I served the children for dinner tonight, instead of these lovely pizzas.

Mexican pizza for dinner, fruit pizza for dessert.

New rule:

if you have anything to say about the food you may leave the table and wait for the next meal to be served.
I have had it.

niece and nephews

Look how cute these three are!

Joneaux is almost 8 months, Reggie is a few weeks and Talia is 17 months. This is going to be a fun Christmas with all these cute babies together!!

The only one missing from the picture is Tate, who is soon to be 1.

quiet time

sprinkler fun

Flags Pond Beach

We went to the beach today. It was our first time to this beach and we really liked it. The only problem was we were there about an hour, total, including our hiking time :), and then it started to storm and we had to run back to the car.

new name

my name is "momma I need". My children must belong to an indigenous tribe of some sort because they have renamed Beloved and I. I am "momma I need" or "momma can I have", he is "dad will you" or "dad can we". Kind of as glamorous as "dances with wolves" or as sweet as "mother whom I love so much because she does so much for me and I am grateful" but not.

This morning, after a not so careful budget watching trip, I announced to E and Lu that we will not spend a penny today.
They were very concerned. Why? Don't we have money? don't we have a credit card? I thought there was money in the bank!?!

So I explained that while we do have money in the bank we want to keep it there so someday, some distant day when everyone is grown, daddy and I can go on a mission or 4. And we have food and there are free things to do and we will find them. Maybe we won't spend money for a week (gasp!)

How can that be??


in other news we went to E's first pack meeting last night. It was awesome. We threw raisins at plates and stacked cookies and blew ping pong balls with straws; by we I mean they and I watched so it was sort of the royal "we". Then he got his Bobcat badge! and some belt loops and retired the flag. It was lovely.

ghost walk, fun shop

The girls had a really good time on the ghost walk, and then came home and told me all about it, so it was just like being there :)
Tate had a good time sleeping while her momma was gone ( as you can see )

Today we went to some more shops in Williamsburg. They are really cute. This would be a perfect girls trip because it has such lovely shopping.

Then we ended our trip with a stop at the Yankee Candle Flagship, which was the funnest store I've ever been to. It has such CUTE stuff. The Christmas section actually snows on you every 3 minutes! and they had every cute, festive, fun thing you could ever want to buy.

Little B is going to be a good shopper, much better than his father. He knows how to smell candles and oohh and aahh at the stuff with the best of us.

Lu thought she needed this wonderful elephant for her herd :)

Williamsburg

I was worried that we wouldn't be able to go because H has been sick. Even last night she woke up several times not feeling well, but this morning she said she felt well and wanted to go so we quickly got ready and headed up to Williamsburg.

We've had reservations for awhile and I was really excited and had been looking forward to it for some time.

The town is really cute. It is really pricey to do the tours or anything like that but we had a good time walking around and looking at the free stuff and going to the shops.

The kids got to try colonial games and we listened to a drum and fife play.

The shops were also fun :)

The kids didn't have as good a time as I had hoped and complained a bit in the middle, however in the end I think we all agreed that it was a lot of fun.

Lots to see. Costumed people walking around. It was nice. I like Nauvoo, and Mt Vernon better but I am glad we came.

Our hotel has a pool so after seeing the sights we went swimming, always fun & then went out to eat.

We all agreed that was the best part of the day. The restaurant was yummy and nautical and fun. Everyone gave it two thumbs way up.

Now I am hanging out with the little kids and watching TV and Dan & Jen went back to go on a historic, candlelight ghost walk.

slept like a baby

earache, bad dream, teenager tip toeing home in the wee small hours, sick hubby, another bad dream, more meds for the ear, dog whimpering, a trip to the potty (I was up after all)......6am YAWN

this little Sis is going to Belgium!

this little Sis has to stay home :(

Jenna's passport arrived! She thinks" it's so cute, it looks like a little blue Book of Mormon". Now we need to talk with Grandma, and Tori and figure out when those two girls can jet on over!

Happy Sabbath Day.

It's 3 17 am Monday morning and I am waiting on the couch with H who has a terrible earache. She can't sleep at we have until 3 30 until she can have more Tylenol. Poor thing. We thought it was swimmer ear...and it may be, but a trip to the doctor tomorrow will tell us for sure. Meanwhile she's been suffering.

I missed sacrament today. Last night the kids took bags of salt water taffy home from the ward social. Lu left some on her car seat and this morning sat in the car seat on the way to church. When we got there we discovered a melted rainbow of taffy on her dress, all over. She and I had to go home to change, and when I got back it was time for the closing prayer. I was so disappointed. Particularly when I learned that Julia had played her cello :( and I missed it. I am always sad to miss sacrament. It is a boost for the whole week.


After church we had some of big B's work mates over for dinner. We had a good time. Grilled, in the middle of quite the summer storm. Visited. Admired Charlotte and Chris' new baby Dean. I think everyone had a good time.

6 more minutes.

Hopefully then we'll get some sleep.

crab cakes!

I saw a sign for a crab cake dinner at St Georges Island and knew we had to fit it in. This morning we had family cleaning hour, and went to walmart for the weekly damage, then got Lu ready to go to a birthday party (which she later proclaimed was the "BEST BIRTHDAY PARTY EV-AH) and then we drove out.

Big B was at the pool with H and little b so it was just J, D, T and me.

A) the island was SO cute! Loved it. Loved the houses, loved the smallness of it. I wanted this cute cute pink house on the water with a lovely wrap around porch :)

B) it was the 143 annual crab dinner and they know what they are doing. So yumm-O!

We got to go boxes and found a cute little beach where we could have a picnic. Tate put her toes in the water. Lovely.

C) the company was awesome. We laughed and ate and had a fun time.

After we were done we went to get Lu. Came home and made cupcakes and cut watermelon and then went to the ward Pioneer Day Celebration, which was fun.

Dani took the kids home and Big B and I went shopping for our big date of the week. We got some new shoes for him and some school supplies.

Now J and D and I are watching "When In Rome"

working on his flip

cinderella and the front porch

When I got back from the sweatfest, Dani and Tate treated me to lunch! Such a fun surprise. We went to the Front Porch and it was yummy and so cute. It's a restaurant that used to be a home. The Sterling family with their 17 children lived there from 1911 until about 4 years ago. It is newly the Front Porch, and it was a delight. The house reminded me of Baba Olya's house and I loved the paint colors. The food was also so tasty and the service was good. The company was the best of course, two thumbs way up!

Then it was time for hair cuts.

Tonight Jen, Dani, Lu and I went to see a community theater production of Cinderella. We sat by Jen and Julia and the girls had so much fun. It was magical and really well done, I was surprised by the talent of those young people and the sets and costumes were wonderful.

My friend Tessa is the theatrical director and after Lucy got to go up into Cinderella's coach!! Wow!!

It was a masterpiece. The whole production was a delight! If you get a chance grab your ballgown and tiara and head over to see it!

youthletes

oh my sweaty heck, I resolved not to complain about the weather any more but this morning I melted it was so hot outside.

The kids had the "youthletes" at the country club. E, H and Lu all participated. They rotated through events in tennis, golf and swimming. E and H both won gold in their age groups! It was such a fun surprise. Everyone got participation medals too, which was nice for Lu. It's been an exciting summer.

When they were done I felt like I had jumped in the pool, I was that sweaty! yuck.

Lu with some of her friends watching the boys compete.

for Bea

another swim meet

played with super T

swam

ran around with friends.

high adventure!

Luckily for facebook because I found these cute pictures of Jenna at high adventure.

High copes course

Bunch of girls by the lake

going caving

finished caving.

how many girls can fit on a raft?? a lot.

Jenna and Emma having fun

a few more pictures from trek

so that when I print my blog book we will have a record. These are from the women's pull.

swim meet fun

FHE

We gathered in the living room last night for Family Home Evening.

First on the agenda was a little dancing to the pink pajamas song.

Tate is quite the dancer!

After much singing, dancing and chasing the baby around :)...

We shared favorite scriptures, ate some zucchini brownies and had our prayers.

It was a pretty good night :)