Celeste's 10th Birthday

So today was Celeste's birthday. I feel like a loser mom though. I was gone most of the day trying to take care of some issues I had with an old car of ours that we gave away, but came around to haunt me, and cost me a lot of money. So I got that taken care of and then went shopping at costco to get a birthday cake, and other things. I came home and unloaded my groceries and then had to jump in the car again with all the kids and take Devin to football practice. Then I came home and put dinner in the oven. Bruce got home and I was off again to pick up one of Celeste's birthday presents and run by luckys to pick up a couple more things for her birthday. Then Celeste and Ashley were off to an Achievement day activity.
They got to go to a concert in the park here in Fremont. They didn't get home until 9:30p.m. Then we had cake and ice cream, and she opened her presents. She thought she was all done, and then Bruce came out of the office riding on a bike that looked a little small for him, and Payson said" hey daddy, why are you riding your bike in the house?) then Celeste noticed it, and didn't get that it was for her right away. When she realized it was hers she was so excited. Bruce was my camera man, but set the camera down while he rode the bike in, so we didn't get the surprised look on her face. It was priceless! I didn't feel like such a bad mom after all. She gets to have her friend party tomorrow night. That should be fun too! Celeste loves birthdays more than anything. She talks about it forever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So that about sums it up. She is such a wonderful daughter. She is a big help to me when it comes to cleaning!! She loves babies and trying to help others. I love her very much. Happy Birthday Celeste. One more double digit child. I feel sooooooooooooo....old!

Girls camp

Yeaaa!!!! I made it home alive. Got bitten a couple of times by masquitos. That wasn't bad considering how many times eveyone else got bit.
I had a great time at girls camp! I had 3 girls up until Wednesday night, and then my 4th arrived. I had a great group of girls. No fighting at all between them. They even let me sleep at night. I think most nights, we were asleep by 10:30p.m.(not normal for camp).
My mornings started with my alarm going off at about 6:00a.m. If I was crazy enough I took a shower at this time when it was 53 degrees outside, and that meant the temp. around you as you showered. The showers were yucky! The water was warm if you were lucky enough to get there before everyone else, but you stood in a cold puddle of water because the drains weren't that great. Boy am I glad to be home and able to shower in my nice bathroom. I had a leaders meeting at 7 every morning, and then the day began with all the activities that were planned for the day.

Some of my highlights

I learned how to do a whipstich. (now I can sew my sons patches on his scout shirt)
I learned how to tie a double half hitch knot.
I learned how to tie a square knot.
My group took 1st place in the Amazing Race. Yipee!!! (I'm not competitive or anything.) :)
My group got an award for the cleanest cabain. Yeah again!!
I didn't have to cook for a week. (Had to supervise my girls making breakfast 1 morning.)





I got to be goofy all week! :)


I got to go on a couple of canoe rides.
I started a huge water fight while in a canoe with 2 of my girls from my group from last year. We all ended up drenched, but had a great time laughing while we did so. I wasn't in my bathing suit eather. I was in jeans and a t-shirt. It was kinda hard walking all the way back to my cabain like that.
I got to be with my daughter Ashley for her 1st year of camp,

and watch her learn and grow.

I had fun doing and watching the skits. We did an intro skit, and a lip sinc. and a commercial we had to make up along with a newspaper, duct tape fashion show where we had to make an outfit for 1 of our girls to show off. Lots of fun.



I went on a hike that was only about 6-7 miles long. We got to see about 3 different

lakes while we were out. The views weren't as good as they could've been because of the smoke from all of the fires, but I still enjoyed what there was.

I'm sure there is much more I could share, but I'm not. I don't need everyone going to sleep on me. I'm just glad I'm done with camp for this year. I need to catch up on some sleep.

While I was gone, Bruce took the week off and stayed home with Devin, Celeste, Lizzy and Payson until Wed. He then took all but Devin to my parents house, where they stayed until Saturday afternoon. Bruce and Devin left early Thursday morning (4:45a.m.) to go on an adventure together hiking to the minarets, which is near mamoth mountain, which is below Yosemite. They didn't know what they were in for though. The hike started out pretty normal until about halfway in and then they came to what is known as a class 2 trail. That means that there is pretty much no trail and it's very steep, very rough terrain, and there was snow on the ground. Pretty scary for them, and a lot more work than they thought they were going to get. They ended up comming home earlier than they planned. They were both beat!!!! It was a nice surprise for me though, as I thought that I wouldn't get to see them until late Saturday night. Bruce even went down and picked up the kids for me. We ended up getting home at the same time. It was great to see my honey and my babies. I missed all of the hugs and kisses!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Again, I am sooooooooooooooooo...... happy to be home with my family, even if I have to deal with all of the bickering between my kids.


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Lindas visit

Today I stayed in bed a little longer than usual. I think I got up at about 11ish. I got up and gave Payson a much needed hair cut. He looks so cute. Nice and short. He looks like he could be in the military! I went over to our neighbors (the Willyerds) to visit with Sondra for a bit. She let me use her computer to try and find something to put on the camp shirts for my group. I kinda found something, but wasn't for sure if I wanted to use it or not. I came home and showered myself. Much needed!:) Linda Smith gave me a call to see when her and the boys, minus Dallin, could come over. They got here around 1:40p.m. The kids got settled down, we chatted for a while trying to catch up, and then went to grab some lunch before she had to leave. It was a great visit. She lives in Pleasanton and we don't get to see or talk to each other much because of the crazy lives we both live. Having 11 kids between us doesn't make it any easier either.
Celeste had her friend Julian over to play for a couple of hours, and then they went to Julians house after the Smith's left. Ashley went with her. Then Payson and Lizzy went over to the Willyerds to play with Collin and Brandon and Gabe who was visiting the Willyerds. Then Bruce took Devin to football about 15 minutes later, leaving me with a few minutes of quiet time. Yeah for me!:) So I sat down at the computer trying to work on the camp shirts some more.
So, here's something funny. Well not really...but after waiting hours yesterday for my computer to import 53,000 pics. I found out that I didn't need to do that. So much for staying up late. I found the piece of paper that tells you what to do. That would have been nice to have had last night! So, it made my life a lot easier today, while working with the program. Woooooooo........... Now it's 12:48 and I finally found something to put on the shirts. I'll take a picture when I'm all done, and post it for those who care. Not exactly what I set out to look for...but I think it's cute anyway.
Devin got to babysit for the Willyerds tonight for a couple of hours. His first real babysitting job. He sounded like he had fun with the kids before putting them to bed. He said he marched around their room with them singing, and dancing and then read them some stories. I bet Maddie was so exited to have Devin over. She is 2 and has a SUPER BIG CRUSH on him. She brings him flowers all the time. She smiles at him, bats her eye lashes and say goodbye Devin, whenever she leaves our house. It's the cutes thing ever. We love Maddie.
So that about sums it up for my day. I think that's most of what happend today. If not....well that's the way it goes. My brain works on it's own terms. What can I do?! I'm gonna go hit the sack. Till we meet again.

Long Night

So, here I am again, up late. I'm trying to get things ready for girls camp. I leave on Monday morning bright and early, so there's not much time left to squeeze in all I need to do. I am trying to get shirts made for my group of girls. Our group is called the country bumpkins. I have been trying to find a picture for our shirts for the past week or so and have had no luck. Aahhh...so I went to best buy today to get a clip art kind of a thing to see if I might have better luck. Well... now I'm sitting up waiting for the 1.5 million pictures to get uploaded on to my computer. It's only on the 6,128th picture so far and moving slower than I'd like. I better be able to find what I'm looking for after all this! So while I've been waiting, I've had my bowl of ice cream, I love ice cream, watched some of "So you think you can dance", and cleaned up my kitchen. Trying to find more to do to keep me awake, so here I am blogging.



I know it's well past the 4th of July, but I just started my blog, so I'll share a little of what we did. I took the kids to the 4th of July parade here in Fremont for the first time since we've lived here in 12 years. We met up with our good friends the McGlothins, who have 5 kids also. We had fun hanging out and watching all that was in our parade. There were a lot of old cars, bands, and boy scouts. My favorite part was the bag pipers! There was a cool pirate ship, and all of the crew was dressed for the part perfectly.After that was over, we went home to get ready for our church picnic. There was a great turn out. Lots of food and fun. The kids got to launch rockets, which were made out of 2 liter bottles, and filled with water. That was a hit. I even got to play a little softball, though it didn't feel very soft when I stopped it with my shin. Ouch! I still have a big bump from it. I learned to use my glove the next time it came my way, that's for sure. :) The kids had fun running around with their friends having water fights, climbing trees, playing softball, and entering watermelon contests. Bruce and I had fun visiting with friends and watching our children from a distance. Ashley and Celeste got to go with some friends to Livermore to watch the fireworks while Bruce, Devin, Lizzy, Payson and myself stayed home. I took the little 2 on our porch roof to watch the fireworks being set off around the bay area. Devin joined us for a bit and then went over to his friends house for a while. It was a fun day.

Talent Show

Ashley got to sing in the talent show this past school year. She sang Leave the pieces by the Wreckers. Country song for those of you who don't know who the Wreckers are. She did a great job for her first time singing solo in front of a lot of people she didn't know.

First Try

O.K. Here I go. I've got a lot of freinds who are blogging so I thought I'd give it a try. After all, we have a lot of things happening around our home to talk about. They may not be super exciting to most, but they're happening! We are smack in the middle of summer. I must admit that it has been nice getting to sleep in when I want to, or at least stay in bed longer than usual. During school I don't get that opportunity. There has been quite a bit more noise though, and that is still taking some getting used to. I am enjoying not having to deal with all of the homework, and being in the car all day. Especially with gas costing what it does. The kids and I have just been hanging out around the house mostly. It's nice to have a little more help with cleaning up around the house.
Devin just got back from a week at scout camp. He had a great time. Bruce got to go with him for the first couple of days. Devin was the senior patrol leader. He went to meetings every morning to find out what was going on for the day, and then took that info. to his troop, and made sure all went well with them. He completed 3 merit badges while he was there. Way to go Devin. It's nice to have him home now.
Ashley and I will be off to girls camp on Monday July 21. This will be her first year. She seems very exited. It will be fun to see her experiance camp for the first time! She has had time to play with freinds, and go swimming a few times this summer. She was a big help to me while Devin was gone to camp.
Celeste is hanging out with Lizzy and Payson trying to keep them busy. She has had some play dates with her freinds too.
Lizzy and Payson run around the house chasing each other a lot. They love to play outside and jump on the trampoline together. Lizzy draws pictures once in a while and likes to do some school work her teacher gave her at the end of school. Payson watches her and learns a little too.
Bruce is still working hard. He is having fun with the scouts, and loves to go on campouts with them. He's a great scout master! It's fun for him to be able to work with Devin.
All in all, everything is going well. I will try my best to keep this blog updated. Only as time allows.