So let it begin!

School has begun. Today!

It is a bitter-sweet. More bitter for me. I truly miss them when they go to school.

They were excited to go, and they all have really nice teachers.

I am worried a little that Caleb will revert back to how he was at the

beginning of last year, and not wanting to go to school, but I am hopeful that we are over

his anxiety.

We had such a great summer, and it is time for them to begin again. Ryan gave them all their back to school blessings last night, and I was totally amazed at how much each one of them have grown up this summer. They are all such great boys, and I am so lucky to be their mom!

Mara, is of course obsessed with backpacks, and when the boys were getting ready for school, she had to have a backpack, so she found an old lunch box, and carried that around all morning long. She calls the boys "My Boys" and has already asked be about five times today..."My boys at school..." I am not sure if it is a statement or a question. I think she and I will miss them terribly.

HOw SwEeT is ThAt?

Hello everyone!

Loggin Creek

We were so excited to go camping this weekend. We all needed to get away, and we had heard about a place called Loggin Creek. We were going to go by ourselves, but at the last minute our friends the Birklands decided to go with us. We were loaded to the hilt. There was stuff everywhere. under everyone's feet, and jammed in every nook and crevas, and then we put in the dog.

We had the best time. I was shocked that we got there Friday afternoon, and the campground was mostly empty. We made no reservations, and we weren't rushed out the day we were leaving. That never would happen in the Uintahs were we used to go camping. The kids had a great time playing in the fire, and roasting everything that they could find on sticks...including, but not limited too, grapes, bugs, marshmellows, air heads, apples, and plastic forks.

Mara had a blast playing with Avra and Eden. They got out barbies, and played with the dogs, and had a grand old time.
All of the kids got along so great, they were always making each other laugh, and entertaining each other. It was great. Channing loved to hold Emma, and Emma loved to be held. I don't think she got put down the entire time we were there.

There was a creek that ran through the camp, and even though it was freezing cold, the kids all played in it. The first night was pretty cold, but Saturday it warmed up and was perfect weather. Each night Max had a toothache. He has a cavity that needs to be taken care of, but we just discovered it on Friday night when he woke up screaming in the middle of the night. That's always fun for all the people trying to sleep. I ended up taking him out by the fire and calming him down enough that he could fall asleep again.

We feed Emma an avocado, she loved it, and just kept reaching for more. Needless to say she was a mess.

As we were getting ready to leave on Sunday, the kids decided it would be fun to have a mud fight down at the creek. They were covered from head to toe, and even though it was a hot day, the water was still freezing.

They were not happy when they had to wash off, and they got brain freeze because the water was so cold.

Sam went fly fishing for the first time, and really liked it. Ryan, Scott, Makai and Sam fished a lot on Saturday, and caught a few little fish that they let go. It was really fun for Ryan to be able to get in some fishing....finally... We have lived here over a year, and that was his first time fishing here. Sad.

Sam was passing off some requirements for scouts, and he and Noah and Makai started a fire with flint and steel. That is hard to do, but they stuck with it and got quite a good fire going. They then made skittle water. What is that you might ask? Good question! You'll have to ask them.

Thanks Birklands for the time of our lives. It was so much fun!

yOga

Ryan has been on a "get in shape" kick lately, and has been doing yoga at night.

(I hope he doesn't kill me for revealing his manly secret)

We were just starting one night after the kids were in bed, when Caleb and Max came down. They informed us that they didn't want to go to bed, they wanted to do yoga.

They then preceded to undress down to their underwear. Apparently to do yoga you have to dress like the guy on the T.V. (Rodney Yee) He only wears biker shorts. They were cracking me up. I had to stop to go get the camera! Caleb thinks that he is quite the expert on yoga, and boasts openly that he can make it to half moon pose (which actually is pretty good, it's about 25 minutes into the tape) He really has been into martial arts lately, and insists that he must take Karate lessons.

What nut cases!

Happy Birthday Max!

MAX IS FIVE!

a whole hand.

We has a great breakfast...Ryan came home from work to eat with us.

We had biscuts and eggs and bacon. Then Max got to open up his presents.
He wanted a horsy cake. So, being how I am a lousy cake decorator, we put his horse and cowboy on the cake...it's really little up in the left corner. He wanted his horse to be drinking from a river, so the blue...yeah, that's supposed to be a pond and a stream. Like I said, I need help in the cake decorating business. It's what he wanted and he is thrilled with it, so I guess that's all that matters

He successfully blew out the candles, and kept his wish a secret, so maybe it will come true.

Everyone was so nice to send him birthday presents in the mail. Getting packages addressed to him was almost as fun as opening them. Max loves the knights and horses Grandma and Grandpa Maughan! Thanks !

The Horse blanket was a huge hit...do you see that smile? Thank you YiaYia and Papou! for the blanket and clothes and everything else! Also thank Grandma and Grandpa Passey for the transformer and the shirt!

First Bites

Emma is now six months old! Oh how time flies! Today we decided to feed the baby. I have told the kids since she was born that she couldn't eat until she was six months old...I didn't want them to try stuffing things in her mouth. So , on August 12 when she was exactly six months old Max said..."can I give Emma a little piece of cheese?" Obviously we need to work on explaining just a little better what babies can eat. Here she is still unsuspecting.... The first bite didn't go over so well, she gagged and spit it out, but we kept trying.

She never really did like it, but we tried. We will have to keep at it for a while. I have given her fruit to chew on in her little mesh thing, so I may have ruined her. She may never like this cereal stuff now that she has tasted peaches and blueberries.

And Caleb's Off...

So I have been beating myself up for over a year, wishing that I would have taught Caleb to ride a bike while we still lived on a paved road that didn't have a lot of traffic. I havent' taught him to ride since we moved, because it is a gravel driveway, and well...i've been lazy is all it comes down too. I decided finally enough was enough. I put him on the bike held it while he got his feet on the pedels, and away he went.
That was that! Easy peazy. He now is riding all over the place. It did take him a while to figure out the steering, but once he got that down, he taught himself how to start on his own. Now that is how you teach a kid to ride his bike 10 minutes and we're done.

He's so proud of himself, and now goes out all the time to ride.

way to go Caleb!

12 years...

Happy Anniversary to the greatest man I know. I cannot believe that it has been 12 years since we got married. It seems like so much longer, and yet just a blink of the eye at the same time. Wow! how I love this man of mine. I am continually amazed at his patience with me. Even when I know I am being stubborn or unrealistic, he is so patient and forgiving. I am so bossy, and he just rolls with it and mellows me out. He is like a calm dose of peace when I get so crazy busy and life gets so hectic. I am so grateful that he chose me to live his life with. I totally appreciate his level headed view to life, he is truly my rock that I lean on. I am grateful for his insight, and how he thinks things through when I would just rush ahead and deal with the consequences of poor planning. He is always so willing to teach our children, and play with them, and give them blessings when it is needed. He is a great man, and I totally look forward to many more than 12 years with him.

For our anniversary we went to Chili's for desserts. We left Sam at home to tend everyone but Emma, we took her. The waitress was totally enamered with Emma, and eventually asked to hold her. I let her, and somehow in the course of our conversations it came up that we had 5 other kids and it was our anniversary. When she brought us the bill it said Happy Anniversary! It's on me! The charge was $0.00. I was totally floored. I am guessing she either really thought Emma was cute, or she was thinking these people are crazy to have so many kids, they need all the help they can get!

...And She's Up!...

Well, she's done it. On sunday, she sat up on my bed for Ryan, and Today I sat her on the floor while I was making dinner, and she sat there the whole time. I was amazed that she didn't do the whole falling over for a week thing, she just decided that she wanted to sit, and little Emma sat. I wonder if this is a preface to her personality? She will not let me put her in her swing anymore, and she doesn't like her walker for longer than a couple minute, but she will sit for a long time with toys in front of her. Is something wrong with this picture? She's not even six months old yet. I am grateful though, because up until now, I had to carry her in her sling if I wanted to get something done without listening to her cry. Wow, I love this little girl. She is a great baby!
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More of the Bouck's and Call's

Meal times were always just pure chaos. I loved it. Chris and Ryan maybe not so much. I loved how little Abram always told you at least 10 times what he wanted and at least once every meal told us that he did not like ketchup.
Emma even enjoyed the stream, maybe not as much as the other kids, but she did love watching them play.

Lucy had no fear whatsoever. You may think it odd that Baylee is in a life jacket and the little girls aren't, but there was a rope swing, and it got pretty deep over by it, Baylee had been over there, and Lucy and Mara were just by us in the shallow stream, loving the water.

This is on Belt Creek. The water was so cold, and this is after day two of no water in the house, so the cold creek was very welcome. I love these girls! What great friends.

This is Sam going off the rope swing. The older boys thought that this was the greatest spot on earth. Had our stomachs not been calling us to fill them, we would have stayed all night long. They all begged us to go back. We will definately have to make this a frequent stop.

These little guys are all about the same size. They had so much fun.

Abram, Nick, Max and Eli.

They all slept downstairs together, and would keep each other up talking and giggling. All Max had to do was say "Sweet" and Eli would bust up giggling so hard. I loved it.

Even though they are all potty trained, and never have accidents at night, it seemed each night one of them had wet the bed. They must have been so excited, or just plain exhausted at the end of each day to wake up and pee in the night.

What Goofy guys!

This is all of us! At Memorial Falls. There was a natural slide at the top of the upper water fall that the little kids all slid down, and loved. There was a nice, random man in business clothes who happened to be at the falls when we were all there that offered to take our picture. He thought we were having a family reunion. He was amazed to find out it was just three families!

It seemed wherever we went there was water to get in and boy o boy did the kids get in it everywhere. It was quite amazing how thoroughly entertained they were when by water. This is a little stream at the stop we had when we rode the boat to Gates of the Mountains.

I was so glad that Zak and Caleb and Sam got along so well. They slept in the RV every night, and loved being the older kids. We did have them tend one night while we went out to dinner. They did a good job, and the kids all loved playing with them. The also took there bike to the skate park and rode one night. It was fun to watch them go on the jumps and in the hole.

We had such a great week and were sad to see them go. Thanks for entertaining my kids for a whole week! This was definately the highlight of our summer.

Friends!

The Bouck's and the Call's came to stay with us, and what a great time we had! They pulled up Tuesday night in a huge, and I mean HUGE RV! The kids were so excited to see all their friends, but I don't think they were near as excited as Ryan and I were to see our friends. There is just something about being with friends that you totally love that lifts your spirits, and give you strength to endure. The Bouck's and the Call's totally fill our reserviors! Thanks for a great week guys. What a great week. We had 22 people in our house, and we loved every second of it... except the two days that we didn't have water and Ryan about died when the control box on the water pump blew up on him... but other than that... Having 15 children ,ranging in age from 13- 6 months, might seem a lot, but honestly we loved every second of it. I loved the massive amounts of food we had to cook, and the hustle of trying to get them all into the car to go places, and counting...counting... and re-counting to make sure we had them all everytime we left a place. I was in heaven.

With a the technology, like Wii's and satallite T.V., movies, and the internet, we found that a simple stream can keep children of all ages thoroughly entertained for hours on end. From the adults to the babies, we could have spent all day there, with no one complaining, or wanting to leave.

We went on the boat ride that takes you to Gates of the Mountains, just outside of Helena, and it was a little boring for the kids, but pretty interesting. On our way home we took Recreation Road, and stopped at this little stream. We had stopped here last labor day, and it was just so much fun.