Saying Goodbye

I've put off writing about this because it has just been a little too raw. We found out in May that the Bagleys were going to move. Everyone was devastated. It has been a very hard transition. Months later Livi will still break down and cry about missing Carter. Ella seems a little lost with out Maddi in her classroom. They had been in every single class together since preschool. We don't have people to invite over for birthdays, or Thanksgiving. I don't make friends easily and very rarely share my deep emotions with those outside my family and I lost the one person I had here. There are wholes in our hearts, and we are still trying to heal.

Before they left we made sure we got together and spent some quality time playing:

 

The 4th of July, only a month late!

Ella is a pretty good traveler.  She is fine on long car trips, doesn't get super home sick, and it excited about almost everywhere we go (unless she is feeling sick, and then she immediately flips into the worst traveler since C3PO).  Her one request this summer was that even though we had tons of trips planned, could we please be home for the 4th of July.

I'm not a huge 4th of July fan.  I know lots of people for which it is the ultimate in holiday revelry, but I just can't get that excited.  Growing up in the desert means you don't get to do fireworks at your house and my parents weren't big on taking us to firework displays at the fairgrounds.  We did do them on the occasion we were in Utah, but really it has been a "ehh" (shoulder shrug) holiday for me.  All that background info translates to: I don't really understand her desire to be home for the 4th of July.

Since it worked out well we did indeed make it back for the 4th of July.  We even found out from the Bagleys that there was a big firework show put on by members of the other ward at the Gering Stadium, so never ones to miss a free event, we packed up the crew to stake out some seats.

A little before dusk the Bagleys arrived.  I don't know how they do it with 5 kids, but we were happy they would brave the noise and lateness of hour to share in the "adventure."

Carter has his lego guys.  You can ask Carter at any time or place if he has a lego guy on him and odds are 99.99999999999999999% he will have one in his pocket.

The first big BOOM...

They started getting bigger and louder and at first they were a little scary.... then they just kept...well..going.  It was an amazing show.  It was the first year they had sponsors, and after about 20 minutes all of the adults were looking at each other like "Wow, how much longer can they keep this up?" After 45 minutes I yelled to Eric "They had too many sponsors!!!!"  And finally after what seemed like 5 weeks of deaf inducing noise we were free to go home an collapse into our beds.

On the actual 4th of July we had the Bagleys over for BBQ and fireworks...in the day time!!! (because I was super tired from the trip and the night before and wanted everyone in bed at a reasonable hour.  Yes, party, I am your pooper.)

Eric thought it would be "fun" and "a good idea" to let the two 10 year old boys be in charge of lighting the fireworks.

All it took was them waving their punks haphazardly around and Ethan getting burned before we turned that job back over to Eric.

Someone parked in front of our house to go to a party up the street.  There was lots of room by the house they were going to, but I guess they didn't want their car messed up by any fireworks they were going to do...ha ha suckers.

Melissa was nice and brought glow necklaces for the kids, or in the younger kids' case glow eye wear, frame, and pirate patch (missing the patch).

It was fun to have friends over, and we did get done reasonably early, but unfortunately we forgot the college that is 2 blocks from our house does fireworks and they set them off in what sounded like our back yard.  The kids got to bed early, but we were up with the rattling windows and the poor whiny dog.

Down By The Bay...or the really gross lake

A few weeks ago we were lucky enough to go with the Bagleys to Lake Minatare.  It has been drought conditions here, so the lake was a little lower and...stinkier than usual, but it was still a great time.

Eric and Chad took the kids out in shifts to ride around the lake.

While the  big kids took their turn on the boat Livi, Carter and McKay played in the murky water while Melissa and I tried to keep them away from the grosser sections of the shore.

Livi loved all the frolicking, but Carter got a little chilly.

How many adults does it take to start a fire?  3 adults, 2 of which are Scout leaders, and 2 wind blocks (one of which is the very manly princess towel around Eric's legs).

Our happy group enjoying hot dogs and S'mores roasted on the (eventually) roaring fire.

Tartar Sauce may be over 100 years old, but our Tarter Sauce is 2!

Olivia's best friend, Carter (she calls him "Tarter") turned two on Wednesday. It is so fun to see the two of the growing up, but a little sad too. They are at my favorite stage where they are opinionated, mobile, talkative, funny and just plain sweet (and a little sour sometimes :) To celebrate Tarter Sauce's birthday we were invited to go with the Bagleys to go see "Tangled" and then to have dinner afterwards.
Before the movie, while we were waiting for it to start I let the kids get little prizes from the vending machine by the snack bar (WAY cheaper than letting them get a candy!) The girls all got rings, Ethan got some boyish necklace, but Caleb got the BEST item ever distributed by a 25 cent machine: a fake mustache! He looked very debonair.
Livi wanted to sit next to Carter, but when you have 7 kids and only 4 adults it makes finding seats next to everyone you want a little difficult. Melissa was so nice and let Livi sit on her lap, but then Carter wanted to sit on her lap too. They were so cute during the previews. One came on for the new "Cars" movie and they started screaming "CARS" "MATER" "AHHHHH." It's like they were playing off each other and kept getting louder and louder and louder!
Tangled is one of my new favorite movies. I literally laughed and cried (but I do that in almost every movie I watch). It was so much fun, and everyone in the family had a great time.
After the movie we headed over to McDonalds (in negative degree weather). The kids loved the food, the play place, and especially the chocolate cake. Livi dragged a chair over by her Tarter and spent the whole night eating and playing with him. What a fun night!
We spent Thanksgiving the next day with the Bagleys as well, but I forgot to take any pictures. It was still awesome even though I didn't document it.

Sorry Carter or Dancing In Dresses

We had our friends over on Tuesday to decorate cookies and play. The big girls wanted to wear their princess dresses which made Livi want to wear her princess dress. They had lots of fun twirling around, and that caused.....well....you'll just have to watch. Just so you know, Carter INSISTED on his outfit.

Our Friend Justin On So You Think You Can Dance

Our friend Justin is a man of many talents. He reads crazy books, he is funny, he is a great photographer, he is a beekeeper, and now he is a back up dancer for Usher. Yep, you read that right. Eric and I were watching So You Think You Can Dance when we noticed our friend Justin dancing in the background on the premier of the Usher/Justin Beiber video. Awesome! Okay, so maybe it's not Justin, just some other group of dancing beekeepers, which begs the question: Usher, what are you doing with Justin Beiber and a bunch of dancing beekeepers? New low Usher, new low.

Fun in the Sun, or Not Winning Any Awards

We were able to go over to the Bagleys today and take advantage of one of the first days of summer we've had in weeks. Melissa set up the sprinkler and the kids went nuts. They tried the sprinkler on the slide, the sprinkler on the swings, and the eternal favorite, the sprinkler under the trampoline. Ah good times.
The babies didn't like the sprinkler so much. They liked a bucket full of water better. I guess it's more their size.


Here is my bad mom moment of today:

Livi and the Tramp

We were lucky to be with the Bagleys this Memorial Day with great conversation and yummy food. Chad grilled some awesome steak, Melissa made killer marshmallow brownies and scrumptious soggy fries (ha ha). Eric cut up a watermelon and my contribution to the meal consisted of opening a can of olives to put next to pre-pealed baby carrots and celery. Awesome! The highlight for Livi was jumping on the Bagleys new trampoline. I'll post them in order so watch the top one first. The second one shows us trying to get Livi off the trampoline. I can't even remember how we finally got her off, it took so long! By the way, the incessant giggling is Olivia.

6 Kids, 2 Parents, and a Dog

We were lucky enough to have the Bagley kids spend the night at the beginning of the month while Melissa and Chad went to celebrate Melissa's birthday. From Friday afternoon to Saturday night we had 3 sets of twins and a dog. It was TOTALLY AWESOME! (imagine the hamster from "Bolt" saying that) The older kids were pretty self sustained. They would run off and play with their partner and resurfaces when they needed something. Carter and Livi were so much fun. Eric and I were able to each take a baby and so it was completely manageable. Friday night was interesting. It was a first sleepover for all our kids, so we had some excited kids on our hands. They are all such good kids though, that all it took was me sitting in the room for 5 minutes (and interrupting the block city that was being built) for the girls to drop off to sleep, and boys just needed a few reminders (really, how can you interrupt such funny conversations). Saturday we had fun going to McDonalds, making Valentine's cookies, watching Monsters vs. Aliens, and just playing with friends! At the end I'm not sure who was more excited to see Melissa, Carter or Bentley, the dog. Speaking of Bentley, it was SOOOOOOO fun to have a dog on loan. Sunday morning I woke up and missed having the cute little bundle around my feet and on my lap. Even Ethan ran up stairs, looked around and remarked "Where is Bentley?"Here are a couple of random pictures: Me with Livi, who wanted to sit on my lap and read a book, and Bentley who wanted to sit on my lap and eat the book. Carter loved all the necklaces around the house. I swear I would take one off of him, turn around for a second, and he would have found another. I never let them stay on, but I had to get a picture of how happy he looked wearing the "pirate treasure."Eric loved having the warm little body to nap with. Notice where Bentley is and where Ethan is. They are BESIDE each other Yeah, progress! Now here is one of my all time favorite videos. Eric was playing with the babies (they are only 4 weeks apart) and they LOVED it.
Thank you Bagleys, we had a great time!

Meeting Bentley

We got to spend Saturday with the Bagleys, which was awesome since we haven't seen them in a while with all the vacations and illnesses. We went to the zoo to see the new baby meerkats (so cute!) then came back for dinner and Melissa's yummy cookies. We were so lucky that they were able to bring their cute puppy, Bentley, who after spending hours cuddled up in a cave of pillows on the couch, finally felt comfortable to come down and play a little. Ethan gave him a passing pat, Ella actually would pose with him, but Livi was obsessed. She wouldn't actually pet him, but she wanted to be where she could look at him. When he got off the couch she ran over to Melissa's purse and started pulling things out and "giving" them to (ie throwing at) Bentley. Oh well, her heart was in the right place.

Christmas Ella Singing

Ella had a Christmas party on the Tuesday before Christmas. Mrs. Hessler is amazing and goes all out for her parties. The kids sang the Christmas songs they had been learning. Santa came and each child got to sit on his lap and tell him what they wanted for Christmas. Each child got a candy cane and a stocking filled with goodies from Mrs. Hessler. I brought cookies and juice, and we played lots of games. Eric took a short break from work and came over to enjoy some of the games with us. Melissa and Carter stayed the whole time, too, which made it even more fun for me. Ella sings so beautifully, with lots of enthusiasim and pretty much on pitch. I love to watch how much fun she has while she sings. (although in the videos she gets a little distracted by happenings around her)Ella actually sat on Santa's lap. She told him exactly what she wanted, "A Playmobil Magic Castle," but never looked him in the face. You can only overcome so much of a fear in a year, I guess.
I love this photo because it is not posed, not encouraged, just pure cute baby all the way. Carter kept trying to give Livi hugs and he finally pulled himself up beside her and put his arm around in a love. They were pretty cute and played together more that I expected from two 1 year olds!Livi loved being with Ella and wanted to be in the middle of everything she was doing. Here she is as the center of attention during the calendar section of their morning routine.