Rachel and Josh came to visit!

Yea! Rachel and Josh live in Washington now! Rachel is my cute niece and she and Josh have been married for two years now. They moved to Spokane for Josh to go to Gonzaga Law school. We got to spend all of Conference weekend with them. This was perfect timing because this would be the first conference without both Samantha and Garrett which I was feeling sad about. Although we really missed them both it eased the pain to have some more family around. It was a busy weekend. We were being rained on at the football game when they arrived. They wisely skipped it and went straight to the house. The next day I dragged Rachel to Dallin's soccer game in the pouring rain. She and I and Lydia and Eli all huddled under an umbrella (Josh was at home studying). Of course we did a lot of eating. Luckily Rachel was here to help harass Bridget's date for homecoming since Todd, Josh and Dallin were all at priesthood meeting. Then Rachel and I stayed up while the homecoming gang had dessert and played games at our house after the dance. They went home way before Rachel and I went to bed at 3:30 am. We just had a lot of catching up to do and it was finally quiet. They are so fun to have around, everyone really enjoyed their visit. The first time Todd ever met the family was at Rachel's baby blessing. We spent a lot of time hangin' out with her family when we lived in California. It is so crazy weird to be hangin' out with her as an adult now. It was funny when we got home from the football game Rachel saw the note we left for the babysitter. She couldn't understand why we left the Bishop's cell number with her. Yeah well we expect our Bishop to handle all our children's disciplinary issues. (It only took her a few seconds to remember who our Bishop is.)
Poor Josh spent the whole weekend listening to Elijah calling his name a million times. Josh! Josh! Josh! Hey Josh remember how you are a monster and I run? Can we do that again? He couldn't go to the bathroom without Eli standing outside the bathroom waiting for him. Here they are enjoying conference together.

Lydia wanted to do Rachel's hair all the time. And she might need to re watch conference so she can hear it without hearing Lydia singing or humming nonstop through the entire thing. She makes music where ever she goes. Here is Rachel and Eli being superman together. Eli thinks for sure he is a superhero. He loved having a partner in saving the world.
They even got to see the famous shop! It now has a roof.

And walls and (most exciting for Todd) electricity. Now he can be there half the night too.

Here is everyone outside just before the driving tour all over town. Bridget was at home sleeping off her long night.
We were having so much fun we made them stay way past their planned departure hour. I really hope they come back and I just hope they didn't feel the need to go home and stock up on the birth control.

Homecoming 2008

Homecoming was weekend before last (yeah I'm a little behind). Here is Bridget with her date Jordan. I was still working on altering the dress at the last minute but she looked beautiful. It was a very pretty dress and she felt like Cinderella in it.

This is the group that went to dinner together. They decided to have the Mom's make dinner. It was still really special with cool decorations and probably better food too.
Bridget spent half the day setting up and decorating for the dance. She also had to clean up after so her friends helped and they got out of there late. These are the ones who came back to our house for dessert and games. It was a good time had by all.

First Home Game

Last weekend was the first home football game. It was really fun to see Bridget in action. She had a great time. She is really enjoying this whole cheerleading thing. She is the smallest cheerleader (not by much, a lot of them are really small) so she gets to be the flyer. This is right up her alley. We also had a surprise visit from a boy she met at EFY (church camp). He is from Boise and he brought his mother and sister. She barely even got a chance to talk to him. By the time he got here she was getting ready to go to the game. Then she had to leave for the game 2 hours early and so I got to entertain them and we had dinner and they went to the game with us. They left after half time to go home. Then he got a $243.00 ticket on the way home. That was a very short and expensive trip.



Near the end of the game the cheerleaders throw out little footballs to the crowd. Dallin has always loved this part of the game. He has been trying to see how many footballs he can collect through the years. He thought he had an in this year. Unfortunately Bridget was thinking, "Little brother, what little brother?" He still got his football.This is one of my favorite cheers.

This is homecoming week. So since Bridget is on the ASB (the student government) she is in charge of planning all the festivities. With that and being a cheerleader she has been very busy. At the assemblies she has to run back and forth from cheerleading to taking care of her ASB duties. At tomorrow's assembly she is in charge of announcing the homecoming court in some special way. She is the only person besides the ASB adviser that knows who is on the court. She is doing a very good job of keeping it a secret because she wont even tell me, her own mother! And I want to know! Her homecoming date and some other kids I know have been nominated and I want to know who made it and none of my coaxing and coersing has budged her. She is also in charge of the half time at the homecoming game. She is so busy right now but she likes it that way.

In other news, you can all speak to me again now that Ohio State has won it's last two games and USC got beat by an unranked team! HA! Take that! It happens.

Don't EVEN Speak to Me!

Loyalty runs deep

GO BUCKS!

Letting Go

We took Garrett to school last week. It was a very exciting and gut wrenching time. I almost didn't get to go. I was very torn. Lydia was still getting started in school. We were leaving on her first full day. And with the other kids activities there was a lot going on. But a kind friend offered to take the little ones even though she has a new baby herself and another friend offered to help. I ended up going. It was hard to leave them with all those responsibilities but I am so glad I got to go. It is important for my own mental health to be there and see for myself where he is and know he is okay. Doesn't really make sense but it works for me. One of the saddest parts was watching him say goodbye to his friends. He has been blessed with a lot of good friends. Ethan and Michael came to say goodbye. They stayed and watched as we drove away.

So we had to wait in this long slow line to get him checked in to his apartment. I'm still not sure why. It was always very fast for Samantha to check in to her apartments. So while we are standing in this line forever we notice this cowboy family a few people ahead. Everyone is majorly dressed in their John Deere finest. Todd notices that the boy has a knife clipped to his pocket. So he quietly asks Garrett if he thinks it's against the honor code to have a knife on campus. Garrett looks over there and says, "Not if you're Buffalo Bill". So we finally get to his apartment excited to see who he will be living with. No one is there but one person's luggage is in the back bedroom. Here is what we saw.
Garrett gets this serious look on his face and says,"Buffalo Bill is my roommate." It was funny but no worries, he likes his new cowboy friend.

All the apartments in this complex got new furniture. The beds are up high with desks underneath, very space saving. The new couches are so hard they feel like there is wood and no cushion. Here is Garrett trying to break them in a little.

So after the apartment tour we went over to check out the campus. They are constantly doing construction on this school. About three minutes after we walked on campus I turned around and Garret was hugging a girl. We just happened to run into a girl from our stake that was his "sister" on the trek last year. She lives at the other end of the stake about an hour away so they don't see each much around here. So went and saw all his classes and bought all his books at the bookstore (saw more people we know). We went to Idaho Falls and did all his shopping in order to miss the mad rush. Then we went out to dinner. It was so nice to have that time with just us and him alone. We came back and, with the help of the only roommate that was there that night, we got his cupboards stocked and all other stuff moved into his room and his bed made. Then came the hard part--saying goodbye. I think I did pretty well. I got all my crying out earlier. We went back to IF where our hotel was and left early the next morning.
The next day while we cried our way home, Garrett had lots of activities to welcome the freshman to campus. While walking to the barbecue lunch a girl walks up to him and says,"Your Cookie's son aren't you?" It was the daughter of my really good friend from Ohio. They used to play together and went to Kindergarten together. Now here they are going to school together again. I love it when stuff like that happens.
The next day he was walking with one of his roommates and his twin sister and their cousin. The cousin asked Garrett where he was from. When he told her she asked what his last name was. When he told her that she said, "I was your sister's roommate last semester! I heard you dedicate a song to her on your radio show." So many coincidences! So he went and watched a fireside with Sam's old roommates at her old apartment that night. Here's another coincidence. Garrett's roommate in his room was the last to arrive. Turns out his name is Dallin. He is a recent return missionary. So recent that the day we drove there he was still on his mission. Garrett likes all his roommates and is enjoying his classes so far. Here he is in his kitchen just before we left. I wonder if it is still this clean.

Now I am left here with only four kids. I always liked the feeling of locking the door for the night knowing my kids were all safely home. Now I don't get that feeling. It's kinda sad.

In other letting go news. Lydia is enjoying kindergarten. But she is suddenly a little more grown up. It is no longer cool to hold my hand in public. She can most definitely get off the bus by herself! But if I am not right there to tell her to get off the bus she will ride it around town for a while. The kindly bus driver delivered her safely back home. I work in her class once a week and today was the first day. Eli got to come and loved it. But when it was time to go home at the end of the day I made Lydia come home with me. I wasn't sure if I would make it home before the bus. And we know what happens then. She was mad at me all day because she didn't get to ride the bus home.
Speaking of holding hands, Eli told me that he can't be a red, good spiderman (he always has to use those descriptive words) for Halloween because when he holds my hand it will stick to it and get it all red. Well at least someone still wants to hold my hand.

I realize probably no one actually reads all the way through my looooong posts but I am long winded and I want to remember this stuff.

Fair and Parade

Every year the high school band has a concert at the fair. For the last seven years we have had someone playing in that concert. But not this year. But alas we still went to the concert because the cheerleaders were also there. It is usually later in the evening so it isn't blazing hot but for some reason this year it got bumped up to 2 pm so Todd couldn't be there. Me and the little ones sat in the blazing sun to get a good view. Then they moved the cheerleaders over so Bridget ended up behind a picnic table. But anyway here is a little bit of their dance. They have been working hard all summer and I think they did a great job. Bridget is the one in the front of the line on the right.



Here is the fight song. Normally she would be playing this with the band this time she is in the middle in the front row. I know these aren't very good videos but it was the best I could do with my little camera.
I was supposed to get this on video too but I only got pics and I missed the H.
The kids loved all the animals at the fair. We spent hours looking at ALL the horses and every other kind of animal.
We also saw Garrett's photography. His is the tire picture second from left on the top row.

Funny story, while we were sharing a very yummy elephant ear Elijah announces he has to go potty. So we go to the bathroom and I take Lydia in the girls and send Eli with Dallin. Dallin wasn't real thrilled with the job but he did it. Little background on Dallin...He is a germaphobe. If you touch his food or take a sip of his drink, he won't eat it. He's nuts about this kind of stuff. So Lydia and I finish and we go out and wait for the boys. And we wait. And we wait. Did they leave without us seeing? Where are they? It's one of those bathrooms with no door so I go and yell Dallin's name. I hear this very annoyed sounding "what?". He comes out alone, obviously upset and tells me that Eli was standing at the toilet, with his pants down, doing his business when a stream of poo comes out of his bum. It went everywhere. All over the floor, his pants and even some on Dallin's beloved new school shoes. Of course I thought this sounded pretty funny. Dallin fails to see the humor. He had been in there cleaning everything up. It almost killed him. Elijah comes waddling out because his pants are a little uncomfortable now. But other than that he is very calm and says, "Can we go home now?"

This reminds me of a story. I have a problem with thinking these things are funny. Only when it happens to my kids though. One time when Elijah was a tiny baby I was nursing him in the mother's lounge during Sacrament Meeting. The kids were left in charge of Lydia since Dad was sitting on the stand. My friend Amy was also nursing her baby in the mother's lounge with me. Suddenly Samantha bursts in the room very exasperated and tells us that Lydia just threw up all over Bridget. Amy and I both immediately burst out laughing. (I'm glad I'm not the only one.) Samantha was aghast that we found this situation funny. She made some comment about how we just sit in our little room and laugh at everyone. It just made us laugh harder. The best part is when a more mature and responsible sister in the ward came in to get some towels to clean it up. Through my laughter I told her I would clean it up myself. Well she just said she would do it then gave us a look to let us know how immature we were. That just made us laugh harder. Then when I went out and saw Bridget standing there holding Lydia all vomity I laughed more. I mean really, what are you going to do? Every time Samantha told the story after that it got better and better. It still made me laugh.

Anyway back to the story at hand. We went home and got Elijah cleaned up. He didn't seem sick so I just put a pull up on him just in case and we went out to dinner with Dad. The kids really wanted to ride the Ferris Wheel like I had promised and take one more look at the animals so we went back. Without Todd since well he hates the fair. On the Ferris Wheel Lydia clung to me shaking like a leaf and Elijah loved it. When Dallin and I were looking away Eli decided to stand up and lean over the side while we were at the highest point. That scared me to death. Here they are safely sitting.

They got to go on two more rides: the airplane ride and the carousel. We took another peek at the animals and then went home.

The next day was the parade and the cheerleaders were in it. This is their float.

It just happened to be Bridget's turn to walk along side the float when it got to us.

Here is everyone having a great time watching the parade. This only lasted until they started throwing candy. Those kids were up and running in no time.

School is IN!

It's back to school! New clothes, new school supplies, new teachers. This is the only first day of school picture I got this year. Frankly the other two are just to cool for back to school pictures. Don't worry, Garrett is having his back to school picture taken whether he likes it or not. Lydia loved her first day of Kindergarten and has been asking to go back ever since. They start them out very slowly with half the class every other day. So with a four day weekend in there she has been waiting almost a week to go back. We both really like her teacher. Both Bridget and Dallin were reasonably happy with their schedules so it looks like a good year for everyone.