USU Homecoming Parade 2012

Last night this is where I found Caleb:

Yep, pjs & shoes.  And yes, he's asleep (totally out cold) under the foot rest of the couch).

This morning was the USU homecoming parade.  Sam was there bright and early to get her spot on the trailer.  She informed me on the way there that when she's in 6th grade she gets to dance behind the trailer for the entire parade.  What?!  That's only 2 years away.  I'm so not ready for this (not the dancing in the streets part, the growing up & going to be in sixth grade part).

We had a good 20 minute wait for the parade to hit us (we were in front of Angie's).  Poor Caleb.  He was so patient to wait but was so, so bored.  He kept being semi naughty.  By the time Sam's float went through he was DONE with the parade.

This little girl loves her some parade!  She was waving to everyone that went by and every time there was music she got her groove on.

Waiting to get candy.  The candy throwing in this parade is quite ridiculous.  Seriously, people would throw one, ONE tootsie roll to the group of like 9 kids that was standing in front of us.

Little sister has a killer tractor lip!  She was pouting because I didn't give her all the tootsie rolls in my pocket so she was pouting.

The first trailer (Sam's on this one).

Sam was sitting right next to the cab.  When I left her at the drop off she was facing the same side of the road I was on.  When she drove by she was facing the other side of the road!  Dang kid!

The big girls dancing behind the trailer (most of the girls that were in her class last year went up to the next class so they are the ones walking).

The second trailer full of girls

I love the dads that ran right up to the trailer and snapped pix of their girls.  Made me smile.

The boys (Tumbling Tigers)

This was Caleb by the time Sam's float went by.  Laying on the ground and playing with pebbles!

These crazy kids....

Little sister is loving her big girl bed.  Mom however is still having a hard time dealing with the fact that the baby is no longer a baby!  Each night I go in to check on her before I go to bed.  I find her like this without fail:

 Every time I find her on the very edge of her bed I pick her up and scoot her over.  Not five seconds later she scoots right back where she was!  Little stinker!  Luckily she's only fallen out of her bed once (that's I have heard).

Dad came home on Sunday to get ready for deer hunting.  It's rough for sister when dad babysits:

 The brothers told me she got these battle wounds by falling off the trike.  Their dad disputes that and says these ones arrived because he watched her and I quote "nose dive off the front porch".  He admits she did fall off the trike.  She has a bruise on her lower back to prove it too.  The day after I took this picture she ended up with quite a nice looking scraped knee as well.  I'm afraid she's as accident prone as her brothers and dad!

The other night we went down to Grandma Terri & Grandpa Larry's house so Grandpa could help Sam finish up her boat for the Raingutter Regatta.  Cousin Sunny was visiting with Grandma when we got there.  Sister is not so sure she knows quite what to think of cousin Sunny.  When we are at their house Sunny is quite possessive of her things and kinda puts the smack down on B.  When we are at Grandma's house B gets pretty possessive though and kinda puts the smack down on Sunny.  Grandma and both moms get a pretty good laugh out of it!

I managed to help Sam get her boat painted.  When we went to put the keel and rudder in there weren't any grooves in the bottom of the hull like the directions claimed there were.  That's why we had to take it to Grandpa.  Good thing he was scoutmaster for so many years!  Grandpa's comment to me was "I thought I got rid of all these projects when I got rid of you and your sister."  Oh dad, little do you know....

Sam with her finished boat:

Sam's boat got Most Futuristic.  Not sure how they came up with that since it was just all red, but hey.  Sounded like she had a good time.  It wasn't until I read her certificate a few times that I noticed the error.  Can you see it?

On Thursday night my brother watched Brookelyn and Caleb while I went to craft night (so needed!).  When I got home I cut Zack's hair again (shaved it down to an inch).  Caleb decided he needed a hair cut and since I hadn't taken him to "that place we go to cut my hair with that girl we like" he decided that we needed to shave his head too.  I made sure to tell him that once I started it I couldn't stop and that we couldn't put the hair back on his head.  He said he was ok with that so we got him ready:

And shaved his head (to an inch long).  I haven't shaved this kid's head in a long, long time.  I think he likes it and it makes him look quite a bit older.  Not sure that makes me happy!

 This morning when I got up and went in to wake Sam up for school I realized B wasn't in her  bed.  I knew she had woken up at midnight when I went to check on her before I went to bed.  But I didn't remember hear her getting out of bed after that.  I kinda freaked out because I couldn't hear her up and moving around.  I walked out into the living room and found her like this:

This summer the kids did the Governor's reading program.  Today their certificates of completion arrived.  They also got coupons for free kids meals from Chuck a rama, McD's and AppleBee's.  Fun!

We got school pictures back this week too.  I can't believe how old my kids are getting!  I am not ok with this!

I know this picture is kind of gross, but I laughed so hard.  Sister had been fighting a nap all day long.  We had been back and forth to Logan once already and were on our way home from our second trip.  Sam and Caleb were hungry and I knew B was too.  I stopped and got them kid meals to eat on the way home.  Sam was sitting next to B and was feeding her fries and chicken nuggets every few minutes.  Not too long before we got home I asked Sam if B needed another nugget and she tells me "No, she's asleep."  I looked back and could see she still had nugget in her mouth!  That little girl was SO tired she fell asleep sitting up right eating a chicken nugget!  When we got home and I got her out of her car seat she kind of woke up.  She thought she still had a nugget in her hand and kept trying to eat it!  Too funny.

This week I also went back to see the Rheumatologist.  I haven't seen him since my first appointment in May.  I've been taking the Plaquenil that made me break out in a horrible rash but it really hasn't helped much.  When I went back the dr. said he felt like all my symptoms were consistent with Rheumatoid Arthritis but my blood work I had done in the spring had turned up a negative RA marker.  My mom and grandma are also negative on the RA marker.  He ended up doing an ultrasound on my left hand.  I had been so bad the day before that I spent, literally, the entire day in bed (seriously, until 5 pm).  Putting a blanket on top of me hurt even.  The day I had my appointment I was doing a little better (I had been able to walk and drive so I could go to work) but I was still in a lot of pain.  The decision he came to was this: go off the Plaquenil and begin taking Methotrexate.  Methotrexate is a cancer/chemo drug.  In high doses it has many bad side effects.  In small doses the side effects tend to just be nausea the day after you take the pill.  He is starting me on one pill a week.  Each week I will add another pill.  In a month I will go back and see him.  In conjunction with the Methotrexate I will take Folic Acid to try and counter the side effects of the Methotrexate.  I had to have blood work done to check my liver because the Methotrexate can damage your liver.  I worry that I'm just one step behind my mom.  My mom started the Methotrexate this spring and it didn't help her.  She's now beginning a weekly shot in addition to the Methotrexate and her Methotrexate dose is 6 pills a week.  I guess we'll just cross our fingers and wait and see what happens.

Meanwhile Travis and Nash left to go deer hunting on Wednesday.  Last night I got a text telling me they had killed two deer and a four wheeler.  Uncle Glade and Uncle Robbie killed the deer and Travis killed the four wheeler.  Why am I not surprised by this?

A long, but productive, weekend

On Friday I ran up to the grocery store in Hyrum and just so happened to see that they had a flat of raspberries for $14.99/flat.  Seriously?!  Week's wanted $45/flat this summer and I just couldn't bring myself to pay that price.  Sam LOVES raspberry jam - she ate it by the spoonful when she was B's age.  Since it was a screamin' deal I couldn't pass it up.  I bought me a flat of berries (and later I went back & bought one for my sister).  The berries were HUGE and so, so tasty.

I knew if I didn't get the jam made before the kids got out of school that there wouldn't be any berries left to make jam out of!  The fact that my sister's flat was here Friday, Saturday & part of Sunday and not one berry was eaten out if it speaks volumes of the threat I made to my children!

With one flat I got two batches which resluted in 5 pt jars & 3 3 cup containers.

After jam was made & kids were picked up from school I began the project that is pears.

There has been a LOT of this:

So, so, SOOO glad I have mom's apple corer to use this year.  It has made the process a million times faster & easier.  I MUST buy one of my own for next year.

There have been many of these filled up:

An entire container of this has been used:

I've filled 21 of these:

 I've made a quadruple batch of simple syrup to add to these:

And, in between filling jars and water baths there has way too much of this:

Good thing she's so stinking cute!

 I've done 3 of these:

 I was able to haul all 21 pints downstairs & find a place for them in the storage room.

I've also run 12 trays of pears through the new dehydrator.  I did a batch of cinnamon/sugar, a batch with sea salt & a batch of plain.  I currently have an attempt at fruit leather in there.  Not sure how that's going to turn out - it's not looking too appetizing!  My mom did try one of my cinnamon/sugar pears and said they were awesome though so that's promising.

 The two week old craving for cinnamon rolls won out this weekend too.  We made a double batch actually. Put raisins in one batch just for Travis (frosted them green and the rest white to be sure I didn't get any nasty raisins in one I ate!)

 Brooke adventured out back while I worked and was pretty good to stay right where I could see her.  She has (as I have posted pictures before) discovered the dirt pile behind the fence.  And let me just say, Sister loves that spot just as much as her brothers do!  Worst mistake ever was putting grass in!  If we had just left our lot dirt I'd be able to keep a really good eye on kids!

 Notice how much dirt is on this one? 

 Here's why:

 Yes, he's WILLINGLY letting her do this to him and yes, she does it often!  Unfortunately, they hauled the dirt from behind the fence in the back yard all the way to the road out front and little sister wanted to follow! Note to self - keep the dirt behind the fence!  Sister can roll in it there much easier than by the road!

 And surprisingly, Charlotte has decided that little sister is ok to snuggle with....as long as she's sleeping!

Projects left for the next few days include: finish the dang pears!  (Seriously, I have nightmares about them the last few nights!)  Get cookies made for Travis to take on the hunt (he & Nash leave on Wednesday night).  Once baking is done I have GOT to work on Halloween costumes!  I got them cut out like three weeks ago & haven't touched them again since!