Hair cut

Yesterday I finally went and got my hair cut! :) I asked them to take off 8 inches but they ended up taking off 9 and a half instead. That was okay by me- that is just more to donate!!  It is now nice and cool for the remainder of the summer. Here is a quick picture of it (and Katelynn too in the background) that I snapped after I had dried and straightened it before heading off to the store! :)

I thought they were going to match! Oops!!

I found this fabric that I thought was the same as the fabric that I had used to make a dress for Amber when she was little. The fabrics are very similar but it wasn't until I was dressing the girls in their "matching" outfits this morning that I realized that the material wasn't quite the same! Oh well! They still look cute today in their blue outfits made by me! :)

Scout Camp

Monday morning, before the break of dawn, these two boys headed out to Scout Camp at Camp Frielander.  Weston has stayed overnight, but the 11 year old scouts have to come home every night.  Brian has had a LOT of fun and loves to give us updates on how Weston is doing!  :)  Brian was originally supposed to take Trailblazer all morning, but his scout master got him changed away from that since he already is just like 2 things away from getting his 2nd class scout and trailblazer wouldn't help him at all.  So, now he is taking the chess merit badge as well as citizenship in the nation.  After lunch he is taking the first aid, fishing, and nuclear science merit badges with his good friend, Kaden.  Weston is taking chess and fishing too, but for the life of me I can't remember what else!  I can't wait to hear all about Weston's days as well when he gets back home.  I will be glad to have 2 weeks of semi-normal life before school starts.  We still have to do the summer reading and other school projects, and there are schedules to pick up, and supplies and clothes to get, but I will be glad to have everyone home for just a bit before school starts back up.  Summer is quickly coming to a close.  Oh my!  It has been a very full, but very good summer for us!  :)

Happy 9th Birthday Aaron!

 This past Saturday was our Sweet Aaron's 9th Birthday!!!!  We had a good day hanging out around the house and enjoying the day.  :)  Weston made it home early from his scout high adventure camp out which totally made Aaron's day!  Aaron was sooo excited to get money from Grandma and Grandpa for his birthday!  He has already been planning and thinking about what he wants to get with his money.  :)

 Amber, Evan, and Katelynn waiting for the present opening to start!  You can see here that Evan is looking kind of pale.  He woke me up that morning by throwing up all over me.  I'm just glad that he is feeling better.

 Barth was announcing everything that was going on.  He picked up this microphone at a garage sale this past weekend.  They needed one for primary.  Our ward is meeting for the next 9 months at a Presbyterian church close by while our building is being expanded and they needed a microphone and amp for the room that they are meeting in.  So Barth picked up this microphone for them to use.  :) 

 Aaron wanted to open his present from Weston first.  All the kids have been missing him these past few weeks that he has been gone.

 Weston got Aaron a cool Minecraft book on his way home at a bookstore that they stopped at.  He loved it!

 Next up was Brian.  He was being silly and wanted to put the string from the balloon over his face.

 He got Aaron a game of checkers.  Aaron has been sleeping in Weston's bed while he was gone.  Brian and Aaron have had a lot of fun talking at night.

 Mostly Katelynn just wanted to cry or point out the window while Aaron was opening his presents.  The balloon was supposed to be from Katelynn.  :)

 Next Aaron opened the card and present from Amber.  I guess he wanted to go in order from oldest to youngest!

 Amber got him some glow necklaces!  And boy do they glow.  He made the first one glow on his birthday and it is still glowing tonight!!

 Evan was reading his card to Aaron.  He asked me how to spell Aaron's name.  He also drew hearts and smile faces on his card.

 Aaron was pretty happy about the raisinettes that he got.  He and Evan both think that they are very yummy!

 Yes, I know this is kind of a funny picture.  Katelynn kept crying and trying to take my camera.  So, I decided that we would take a picture together.  Obviously I thought that this was more fun than she did!  :)  She has been so sad and cranky this entire week!  I am ready to have my sweet girl back!

 Aaron got some Yu-Gi-Oh and Pokemon cards from us as well as a new Pokemon binder for his cards.

 All, in all, he had a great day!

 After presents came a dinner of chicken nuggets, home made macaroni and cheese, broccoli and ranch dip, pineapple, and fruit punch as requested by the birthday boy!

And lastly came yummy triple chocolate cake with chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream!!!  :)  Happy Birthday Aaron!!!  I am so thankful to have such a kind, funny, sweet, happy, smart little boy!!  We love you Aaron!!!!

Matching Girls

A few Sundays ago I had the girls dress in their matching Easter dresses again.  After church I snapped a few pictures of them.  They were just with my phone though, so not the best quality.  They did look sweet together though!

I am so thankful that I got to have 2 sweet girls so that I can dress them alike and that hopefully someday they will be good friends!

Amber said, "Take a picture of me like this because I look cute!"  :)

Mostly Katelynn just wanted to take my phone and push the button and slobber on it!

That evening was the World Cup championship game.  Barth was wanting to watch it and had gotten some chips out to munch on while he watched.  All of the other kids decided that they would rather go downstairs and play, but Katelynn hopped up on the couch next to Daddy, grabbed his bag of chips, and went to town!!!  :)  Silly girl!!!

Girls Night Out

Last Monday (on Michael's birthday) Amber had to go to the dentist to get a filling.  She has weak enamel on her teeth and has had way more trouble than any of my other children.  They have her on a prescription toothpaste, but she still got a cavity.  :(  She had several that she had filled last summer and to say that it was traumatic is the understatement of the year!!!!!  So, when we found out in May that she had to have another filling once we got back from Texas, we made a deal.  If she would be good for it (and by good, I mean that she didn't scream bloody murder through the ENTIRE thing like she did last year) I would get or do something special with her.  She had lots of time to think about it and she decided that if she did a good job, she wanted a girl's night with just the two of us.  Monday morning came and she didn't want to get up in the chair.  But, she bucked up finally and got up into the chair.  The rest was smooth sailing!  She didn't shed a single tear!!!  She did perfect!!!!  Hooray!  So that evening, the two of us went out to Chili's for our girls night out!  She had a great time telling me all about everything she knew about.  She told me about her friends at school.  She wondered if some would be in her class this year too.  She talked to me about math and reading and how she loves both of those things.  She told me that when Katelynn got bigger that she would have to come with us too.  :)  And she told me that her most favorite thing ever was to talk!!!  :)  We both had such a fun time!

Afterwards we went to a store close by called Meijer.  I wanted to look there and at Kohls because my vacuum had just broken and I wanted to see what they had.  Amber loves to shop, so she was as happy as a clam to look at all the things at the store with me!  Once we had looked at everything we wanted to see at Meijer, we went over and she got to ride the penny horse!  What a fun treat!  I am so thankful for my sweet little Mambers!  She is a good girl and is growing up so fast!

Around the house

 We are enjoying the last of the lazy days of summer here at our house.  Amber wanted to take this picture of me last week.  Not the best one of me, but it shows what things typically look like at my house.  I am always surrounded by the kids.  :)  They do like to play in the playroom and outside too, but if I am sitting on the floor in the family room, they are usually all within an arms reach!  I am blessed.  Weston was gone to his high adventure trip last week to Florida.  Brian always misses him when he was gone.  Thankfully for us, we had the most beautiful weather here.  We didn't have to turn the air on once last week!  It was low to mid 70's all week long!  I loved it!  That meant that we did lots of playing outside.  We even went to the park one morning with some friends.

 Katelynn looking cute!  Both she and Evan got sick at the end of the week.  Brian had a well check to get his booster shots and school physical as well as his scout physical.  It seems like we always end up getting sick when we go to the doctor's office.  Evan ran a fever and threw up.  Katelynn's mouth is full of blisters.  She has them on the underside of her tongue.  So, I took her in on Friday.  They said that she also has them all down the back of her throat!  Poor thing.  She hasn't really wanted much to eat or drink.  And she has been really fussy and hasn't slept well.  I don't blame her though.  I bet that really hurts!

 Brian was a great helper this past week while Weston was gone.  We also went to the library.  :)  Sunshine, cool weather, and having my windows open always puts me in a good mood!  Thank goodness because our weeks have been crazy!  We also had a day in there where we found out that someone had gotten a hold of Barth's debit card number and was using it!  They think that it was a computer generated thing and not someone taking the number off of his card from using it somewhere.  Thankfully the bank caught it within a few hours and all things are now restored back to normal.  Still, that is an emotionally draining thing to go through!!

I sure do love all of these kiddos!  The lazy days of summer, doing summer jobs and having fun around the house (and pool) are my favorite!  It is hard to believe that there are just 3 weeks left before school starts back up.  Next week Brian gets his schedule.  The week after that is Freshman Orientation and Weston's schedule pick up and then when the elementary kids find out who they got as teacher.  This summer has gone by waaayyy too quickly for me!

Pioneer Trek/ Youth Conference

 We got home from our trip on Sunday and Weston had Youth Conference on that Thursday morning.  They were doing a pioneer trek for their conference this year!  They had all sorts of  "things" that they had to have and take with them on trek.  They had to have button fly pants.  I went up to the Gap Clearance Center right after we got back and got a pair of khaki pants for $5 and took out the zipper fly.  We had another pair of pants that would work, but he needed 2 pairs (even though he only ended up wearing one) and 2 "pioneer style" shirts.  That meant that I had to sew up the buttons on the shirt and cut off the collar as well as take off the pocket!  Thankfully it wasn't too hard to do and then we were ready to roll.  The trek was being held at the same scout camp that is close by our house.  They had to be there by 9am Thursday morning.  :)  Here is Weston right before we took off out the door.  They could either wear a belt or suspenders, but Weston didn't want anything to do with the suspenders, so he just used a belt he had.

Once they were there, they split the kids up into families.  No one from our ward was in his family and neither was the Ma or Pa.  Still, he had a great time.  I am going to see if I can get him to blog about it when he gets back.  This week he is gone on his High Adventure Scout trip to Florida.  Next week he has regular scout camp.  I think that by the time school rolls around, he will be glad for a break!!!  :)  Anyway, they pushed and pulled their handcarts across several streams, up and down the gorges by us.  One of the times they even had to unload the entire cart just to get it down the steep incline.  The food was pretty true to what the pioneers would have eaten.  They had rice with honey for breakfast one morning.  A piece of beef jerkey, an apple, and a roll (that tasted like flour and water he said) for lunch.  And stew for dinner.  Their camp was even visited by a mob along the way!  Overall he had a great time and made some good friends!!  I am so glad that he was able to go and that he had such a fantastic time!!!  :)

Welcome Baby Camille!!!

Melissa was such a trooper!  Not only did she go WAAYYY overdue, but she also labored for a VERY long time.  Finally, when it came down to it, she ended up needing another c-section.  And thankfully for me, it ended up that Barth came back in town that evening just in time for me to make it over to the hospital!  I got there right before they took her back for surgery.  :)  We had time to snap a few pictures. 

We were all anxious to meet little Camille!

I know Melissa was too!!  :)  

The Mommy and Daddy all set and ready to meet their sweet baby girl!

Austin waiting to get called back to the surgery room!

Heather, Momma, and I waiting to hear the news that Camille was here!  Grandpa was waiting in the room!  We heard the baby cry, but it seemed like such a long time before we saw Melissa.  

Camille was having a little bit of trouble that first night, so the only way I was able to see her was from the pictures that Austin took for me in the NICU.  Thankfully she didn't have to stay there for too long.  But I didn't get to see her that night.

So, during the nap time the next day, I was able to slip away for just a bit before everyone came over to the Yorke's.  I finally got to see and snuggle that sweet baby girl!  Melissa looked so happy with her sweet baby girl!!

Isn't she adorable?!?!

She will have changed a LOT by the time I see her next, but I thank my lucky stars that I got to see her before I left to go back home.  :)

I thought that she was practically perfect in every way!! :)  And TOTALLY adorable!

I was thankful that I got to hold her.  Katelynn came with me and she was a little bit jealous, but thankfully Grandma was there to help with her.  :)

Claire with her new sister.  I loved this sweet picture of their family.  :)

I am so thankful that I got to meet my newest little niece!  :)  She is a sweetheart!!

At G&G Yorke's House

The last week of June/ first week of July we went over to Grandma and Grandpa Yorke's house.  Barth didn't join us till Wednesday, but we had a good time visiting with everyone while we were there.  We went to the park on Saturday evening with LaMonte and Emily's family.  :)  They were headed out on a trip of their own, so we were thankful that we got to see them once more before they left!  Then, on Monday we went to the Perot Museum with Randy and Mary's family.  Everyone had a great time.  Amber went around with Adara, Chloe, and Zachary.  Weston, Brian and Trevor went around together.  Aaron went with D'Marco and Grandma and Grandpa.  And Evan and Katelynn went with me.  :)  Above is Evan and Aaron on the earthquake simulator.  That was pretty cool!

At G&G Yorke's house, they grow some HUGE beans in their garden.  They are usually a few feet long.  They call them "holy cow beans!"  :)  Monday evening, some of the kids had a "holy cow bean" eating contest!  Adara won!  It was pretty funny to watch.  The beans taste and look very much like green beans only much, MUCH longer!!

One of the evenings that we were there, we took the kids over to a park/fountain area that is by the Coppell Farmer's market.  The kids had a great time playing in the water and park.  Even the big boys had fun.  Weston decided at one point to take off his shirt so that he could get it all wet and then try to chase after his siblings to drench them as well.  Everyone had fun playing that game.  :)

All that water and fun equipment and all Katelynn wanted to do was play in the mulch off to the side of the playground!  :)  Evan came over to see what she was doing.

Amber had a great time.  The kids all loved this spinning seat.  There were a few other children there too, but not many.  The kids ran back and forth between the water and the playground.

Brian was attempting to hide in the farmer's market area from Weston and the drenching shirt. 

Brian playing something with the mulch sticks.  I can't remember anymore what it was he was playing.  :P  It has just been too long I guess!

Evan and Amber playing up on the equipment!

Checking out more of that mulch!

Aaron told me he didn't want to get in the water at all.  So he didn't want to wear his suit.  But, the draw of the water was just too great, and finally, at the end of the evening, he decided to get in and play!  And he had a FANTASTIC time!

I was thankful that we got a chance to go to Grandma and Grandpa Yorke's house!  We had a great time visiting with them!!