Three Boys on a Merry-Go-Round

We had to run to the outlets on Tuesday night because apparently J.D.'s feet grew in the two weeks since he had last worn his tennis shoes and they were tight for the first day of school. While we were there, the boys wanted to ride the Merry-Go-Round. It is fun that they could all do it together (although it is difficult to take a picture of three kids on it at once and I was concentrating on getting a good one of Joey and missed getting a very good one of Jake--poor middle child). Also, as you can see, it was absolutely packed with people on the first day of school :) -- sense the sarcasm!

J.D.'s First Day of School!!!

Tuesday was J.D.'s first day of Kindergarten. (Finally!! For all you non-Texans who have had your kids in school for weeks, I was not very happy to learn that the Texas Legislature passed a bill last session requiring that school cannot start before the last week of August, which therefore requires that we always will have school for a week or more in June). J.D. has to be at the school by 7:25 a.m., so this is going to be quite an adjustment for our night-owl family. (He goes all day until 2:45 p.m.)

Here is a picture of him the night before school started with his first homework--he had to decorate and cut out a paper Teddy Bear. He chose to color his just like his Snugly Teddy Bear and I had to convince him to glue buttons and a ribbon on so there would be more to it than just coloring. He did a great job of making it look just like his teddy bear, though.

He was so excited to take his Racer Car (what our boys call the Disney Cars movie) backpack and Racer Car lunchbox and Wall-E rest towel and head off for his first day. (I'm not sure what is up with the look on his face, but he really was happy to be headed to school. Also, he is wearing the tag that all Kindergartners have to wear so the teacher knows what they are doing for lunch and how they are begin picked up from school.)
Here he is leaving the cafeteria with his class. His school has everyone meet their class in the cafeteria, then they leave the parents behind and walk to their classroom together. He isn't crying like some of the kids, but I started to get a little emotional when I was leaving him (which isn't usually like me). I guess it is quite a momentous day to send your first child to Kindergarten, though (even when he has already gone to 2 1/2 years of preschool).

So far, he is loving school and has had mostly good experiences. He did leave his lunchbox at school the first day, but we were able to go back and find it in his classroom, so all was well!

New Callings (Sort of)

Another "Sort of" post. Jim and I got new callings (positions we are asked to take by our church leadership) in our new ward. Jim is still the Young Mens President (he has served as that for a little over a year). I am the Ward Music Chairperson and the Primary Pianist. Hopefully Joey will take to the nursery well since we will need him to be in there to fulfill our responsibilities. On our first day of 12:30 p.m. church we were able to get him to take a one-hour nap before church, so we are off to a good start so far!

Garden Update (Sort of)

I've pretty much let my garden go to pot the past month because of the heat, the weeds getting out of control and my plants getting to the end of their fruit and veggie bearing. I plan to clear it out completely and start over in September with some winter vegetables. In the meantime, I am a gardener without trying. I was outside in the front yard this evening and I discovered these:

Mushrooms, anyone?

A Ward Divided

On Sunday, we found out that our stake presidency (church leaders who are over a group of congregations) were going to change the boundaries for 4 wards (congregations) in our area and make 6 wards. We went to a big meeting on Sunday evening to find out which ward we would be in. J.D. kept asking why we were going back to church and I explained to him that we were going to get a new ward, so then he kept saying we were going to the church to meet our ward.

Anyway, we got there and although Jim and I had to keep taking turns wrestling, restraining, and muffling Joey (not really on the muffling part, but he was screaming pretty loud a few times), we found out that we are in a new ward. We will now be driving to a building a little farther away (about 15 miles away for you Utahns that can walk to church) and we get to go to church at 12:30 p.m.--Joey's nap time. Can't wait! At least this Sunday we only have sacrament meeting (an hour and 15 minutes instead of 3 hours) since nothing is organized yet. We will also find out soon what callings we will have, so that will be fun! We will miss the friends we've made who are not in our ward anymore, but we plan to keep in touch (don't worry, I'll still be blog stalking all of you--you won't be able to get rid of me).

P.S. For all you Google Reader people out there, I have finally updated my blog background, picture, etc. so come check it out!

Grandma & Grandpa's Visit - Last Day

Even though it was hot and humid, the boys played baseball with Grandpa in the morning. That was one of my favorite things to do with my dad when I was a kid, so I'm glad my boys were able to play with him too. J.D. and Jake both had a fun time hitting and running the bases.



We ended our visit with Grandma & Grandpa with a trip to Salt Grass for dinner. Then, I had to take them to the airport. Thanks for visiting, Grandma & Grandpa, we had a great time (and our house and yard look better)!

Grandma & Grandpa's Visit - Day 5

On Thursday, we worked on the sewing in the morning and J.D. and Grandpa played MarioCart on the Wii. After I picked up Jake from school, there was the unfortunate incident with the DHL truck. However, I pulled myself together and we stopped on the way home to pick up another wheel from GameStop so they could race each other (although you really don't need the wheel, but it is more fun that way). I wish I had taken a picture of Grandpa and J.D. playing MarioCart. They had a great time and Grandpa is the current MarioCart champion of our house. He opened a bunch of new races with his mad skills.


After naps we met some friends at our community pool. I was only able to take pictures after Joey got out of the water to eat snacks so here he is:





And here are Jake and J.D. with their friends.

After dinner, the boys and grandparents walked to get the mail.

Finally, after we put the boys to bed we were able to finish and put up the Roman shade and the valence we have been working on for nine months. They look awesome. Thanks Mom and Dad!

(Sorry for the night pictures with the glare, but I always forget to take pictures in the daytime.)

Grandma & Grandpa's Visit - Day 4

I got a babysitter for the boys and Grandma & Grandpa and I went to San Antonio to go to our church's temple that is there. We also did a "driving" tour of the sites in downtown San Antonio since Grandma didn't want to do a lot of walking and we needed to get back to the boys.

When the boys woke up from naps, we went to Chili's for dinner where Joey ate some of everyone's meal and just kept eating as long as we were giving him food. (He must need to eat so much because he burns so much energy with all of the trouble he tries to get into.)

We then went shopping at the outlets in honor of Aunt Megan and I got some great stuff on sale at The GAP and Banana Republic. Luckily Grandpa was there to take the boys to ride the rides and stroll them around while Grandma & I went shopping. He didn't know my camera was in the diaper bag so he didn't take a picture, but he had all three boys riding the little three-person, coin-operated carousel together and he said Joey had a big smile on his face!

The adults finished the night by watching the movie The Alamo, so Grandpa could realize the significance of the sites he saw on his driving tour of San Antonio.

Grandma & Grandpa's Visit - Day 3

Grandpa did more yard work and Grandma and I worked on sewing the valance and roman shade for the kitchen that we started on last Thanksgiving (and have worked on every time she has been here since, which is two other times). I'll post pics of the finished product in Day 5.

Grandpa and I picked up Jake from preschool then took all three boys to Sports Clips for haircuts. Joey had never had his hair cut there (we used to go a lady who lived in our ward, but she moved, so he has had someone cut his hair while I was holding him on my lap). Luckily, we got a stylist who was quick and got the job done before Joey was "done."

After nap time and dinner we played outside for a while because it was a bit cooler weather since it had rained earlier. We had some family fun on the trampoline.

Then, right before bed, J.D. and Jake had fun playing some board games with Grandma & Grandpa.

"You Don't Have Any Cousins."

Yes, J.D., I do have cousins--59 first cousins to be exact (and all but 4 of them are younger than me--the youngest one is about 6).

I was looking at a picture from my cousin's (Travis) wedding on my Grandma's blog (Thanks for giving me all of the links to my cousins' blogs, by the way, Grandma), and J.D. said, "Who are those people and why are they wearing wedding clothes?" I told him they were my cousins and he promptly said, "You don't have any cousins." I thought it was pretty hilarious that he thought I didn't have any cousins, when I have more cousins than most people!

The Many Faces of Joey

Joey has been quite a character this week, so I had to share some of his antics. Here he is wearing J.D.'s Cars slippers. He loves to wear them and walk around.






Here he is sitting in the Hummer waiting for one of his brothers to give him a ride.



Here he is just chilling in the van with his sunglasses. He left them on for a couple of hours which is crazy considering his brothers wouldn't leave any glasses or hats on for more than a minute at this age.

Here he is with his brothers all wearing their BYU hats. He left his hat on for a long time too (again not something his brothers would do), but the best part about this picture is the look on all of the kids' faces. They are all doing one of their characteristic looks and they are pretty funny--especially Joey's.

And, last but not least. Without any of us seeing how he did it, Joey managed to climb into the recycling bin so he could play in the garbage. Yes, he is IN the garbage container, not standing next to it. He is pretty proud of himself. Needless to say, that cupboard will always be locked from now on.

DAMAGED . . . bleh!!!

I don't have a good record with package delivery drivers who park in my way.

About 4 years ago I was backing out of a parking spot at J.D.'s babysitter's apartment and because a FedEx truck was parked behind me in front of a row of parked cars and left me hardly any room, I was swinging wide to avoid it and I scraped the front passenger side corner of my car on a post and caused $1200 worth of damage to my car.

On Thursday, it happened again. I was parked at Jake's preschool and while I was buckling him in the car, a DHL truck pulled up and parked behind me blocking the driveway to the small parking lot. Because I didn't see him park there and I was distracted by kids and talking to my mom in the car and could not see the truck in my mirror (it was just blocking my passenger corner), I backed right into the truck. It did nothing to his truck, but did this to my bumper/bumper cover:

Is it just me or do these package delivery drivers just have parking issues that cause danger or damage?

Grandma & Grandpa's Visit - Day 2

I decided I would break down our nearly week-long visit with Grandma & Grandpa into several posts because I don't know if I'll be able to get it all done in one sitting (it has been a long day and I need to get to bed).

On Monday, Grandpa (who doesn't often take vacations that are just vacations without bringing his 18-wheeler and working) decided to do some yard work and help our sorry gravel area look decent again. It looks awesome now--thanks Dad! I had to post a pic of him working on his vacation, mostly for my siblings who will get a kick out of it.

Later, we met Jim for dinner at Chuy's--a Tex-Mex restaurant. This was the first time the kids and I had been to Chuy's (yes, I know you fellow Texans are wondering why it has taken me over a year and a half to go there, but I don't get out much.) It was yummy and we will have to go more often. Then, Jim, J.D., Jake, Grandma & Grandpa went late to the Triple A baseball game and had a great time (eating treats AND watching).

the field

eating cotton candy

eating popcorn

drinking a drink

Joey and I stayed home. He went to bed and I got some work done in the peace and quiet. That was good too!

Welcome Grandpa & Grandma!

Grandma & Grandpa Campbell arrived today from Utah to visit us this week. They decided to take the boys on a short walk (and brave the heat--not actually too bad compared to Arizona). Here is a pic--we are glad Grandma has been able to ditch her crutches and is starting to walk without her boot.

Note: J.D. insisted he could not go on the walk until he found his sunglasses.

Jake's First Day of Preschool

Jake started preschool this week (he goes two days a week). (He did go one week in the summer with J.D., which was a good transition for him, but this was his first time going solo.) He had a fun time and was really excited to have Daddy drive him there and Mommy pick him up and take his dinosaur lunchbox. I can't believe my little Jakey is already so grown up!

(He wouldn't cooperate and pose very well when I was trying to take the picture, so this is the best we could do.)