Bullies of the Park

We decided to go to the park last month to feed the ducks and have a pick-nick. The kids loved it and we had a lot of fun. We took our grill with us and cooked steaks. The whole time the kids kept asking to feed the ducks. We told them we needed to eat first. Finally we went to feed the ducks. There were four big swans or ducks there, not quite sure which they were. Anyways, they were the meanest ducks I have ever seen. They chased all the other ducks off, bit us when we weren't feed them, and chased Riley and Abbie. At the very end, they started chasing Abbie. The next thing I knew they had bit her on her bum. Which was showing a little because her pants didn't want to stay up. It was so hard not to laugh. In fact, I am laughing now just thinking of it. I know it was traumatic for Abbie, but it was so funny at the same time. I so wish we had a picture or video of it, but Terry had put the camera away by than. We did get a picture afterward of her crying.



You will notice the big white ducks in practically every picture.
Riley sharing his bread because Abbie ran out. What a good big brother.
Abbie crying because the ducks bit her on the bum. Notice I am smiling, because I am having a hard time not laughing.

Haircuts

I took the kids to get their hair cut the other night. I was hesitant to cut Abbie's hair because I knew I wouldn't be able to do all the cute things with her hair anymore. At the same time it, her hair is just to fine for it to be long right now. It kept breaking off when ever I would comb it and it was getting ratty to much. She really doesn't like me playing with her hair anyways. The hair cut turned out way cute. She loves it, and it is a lot easier to comb.
Riley really didn't need a haircut. He just need his bangs trimmed, but we ended up getting it cut anyways. He has pictures coming up and I wanted him to look good. I am pleased with the results. Unfortunately, you can't see how it turned out to well from this picture. It is spiky though and mixes well with those crazy cowlicks he has.

Phase 2

As promised, I am posting more on our summer doings. I have gone through all we did and determined that it will take about 6 phases to get everything up to date. Please bare with me as I try to find time to do this. I broke them down into this many, so they won't be to long. Also, it won't take me to much time to do one every once in awhile. With this said here is phase 2.
Sorry about the difference in front size. I don't know what was going on. I tried everything that I know to fix it, but it didn't work.

Lick
Just over a year ago this stray cat showed up in our neighborhood. My kids took an immediate liking to her. Needless to say we sort of adopted her. We would feed and hold her whenever she came around. Which was a lot in the winter. We even let her come in the house and sleep during the day and than put her out at night. The kids would have kept her in the house all the time if they had their way. Unfortunately, we are not suppose to have pets and their mother isn't the biggest fan of pets. Especially in the house. Well it seemed she was getting sick. She wasn't gaining weight and she throw up all over my house one day(this is why I don't like pets in the house). I went and talked to my neighbor about it because they do a lot of rescue work with animals. They sounded concerned as well. We decided to take her to the shelter. My kids were devastated. We didn't know what else to do though. We didn't want her to die, and they were having a free day at the shelter, so if she was sick she would get the help she needed. We knew she would get adopted by a loving family because of her sweet disposition. I even got a little teary eyed. To pacify our kids we took a picture of her. We went the whole summer not know what happened to her, until one day when we got back from vacation, and she showed up on our door step. She had a collar and an owner. We called the owner and found out that Lick actually belong to her since Lick was a baby and had ran off. The kids were excited to know that she had a home to go to.





CAMP OUT
At the end of June we went camping to a fun campground not to far from are house. The campground is on the bank of the Snake River. We took the fishing pool we got Terry for Father's Day, and bought little kid fishing pools for Abbie and Riley. We had a lot of fun, but found out fast that we are not very good a fishing. I think we will need to take a How to Fish for Dummies coarse. Abbie refused to go to sleep that night so everyone was a bit cranky the next morning. I look forward to visiting this campsite again. Hopefully, next year.


Playing at the playground. Riley insisted that everyone have a turn with his Indianan Jones hat. Notice how it is way to small for Terry's head, but fits my head almost perfectly.

Riley trying out his new fishing pool.
Abbie showing off her pink fish bat.

Trying to fish from the dock. This dock separates the SnackRriver from a little inlet that you can swim in. We didn't have time to go swimming though, so we defiantly will have to go back again.

Family Doings

Everything has been quite hectic here. As can be guessed by the lack of posts. I actually should be doing something else right now, but have a few things I wanted to post before I forget them.

Riley has been enjoying soccer for the past month and we have a few more weeks to go until the season is over. I have learned this year that he has inherited the Bott competitiveness. There has been a couple of time at practice that his team wasn't winning and he had a complete break down. It actually happened last night. Thank goodness it has only happened at practice and not during the middle of a game. I was worried it would happen during the first game when he was put in as goalie. He is very hard on himself and expects perfection. Well the other team scored on him and he threw the ball. I looked at Terry and said here we go. Terry said he would go talked to him. The next thing I knew Riley was smiling and actually doing a pretty good job. Later I asked Terry what he said. He told me, he said, "Riley don't worry about the times when they score, just focus on all the good things you are doing. You stopped the ball twice before they even scored on you." I felt so humbled after this because I probably would have gone over there and lectured him or yelled at him for throwing the ball. It was a good lesson on positive reinforcement.

Abbie is turning four soon and very excited about her birthday. She gets to have her first birthday party this year. She has been going through a temper tantrum stage. She spent about an hour crying and screaming in her room the other night. She did sleep well that nigh,t however. She tries to be the little mother and tell everyone what to do. It is so cute to watch her. Her love for music is still going strong. She has now high jacked the radio in the van. We have to listen to one of her CDs whenever we are out and about. If I have to hear the song 'If Your Happy and You Know Clap Your Hands,' one more time I will scream. I am just joking. I love listening to her sing all the songs in the van. Riley has even started singing some of them. He has a very beautiful voice, but I don't get to hear it very often because he doesn't like to sing.

Terry, as usual, is running at top speed. He is still the Head of the Science Department, and has picked up a new position to go along with that, Computer Tech. He was doing a lot of the Computer Techs job anyways, so it isn't to much more. He just gets paid for it. He also is busy trying to inventory the chemical store room at the school He is supposed to have it finished by October 16th or 15th. He is getting paid for it as well. It is just a lot of work.
Terry got called as the Ward Clerk a few weeks ago. He is pretty busy on Sundays now. It is a different story trying to get my kids to church by myself. At least I only have two to get ready, I can't imagine how mother's do it with more. The good thing about it is we are guaranteed a set up front and don't have to sit on the folding chairs in the back when we are late.

I am busy with my daycare and being a mother. I love being with my kids. They are growing up to fast. I just want to hold onto them and keep them from getting older. At the same time I love watching them learn and grow. I just picked up another girl in my daycare. That makes 3 girls that I am watching. Yesterday was my first day. She is a doll, but keeps me running. Unfortunately I have her until just after 6:00. I have learned that once you go past 5:00 it gets stressful. I will only be watching her temporally though, so it shouldn't be to bad. After she left yesterday. I was feeling pretty tired and stressed. I was trying to get a hold of Terry at work to ask him to get something at the store for me, but couldn't. I don't know why, but this made me even more stressed. Finally, I packed the kids up in the van and went to the store myself. By the time I got home it was 7:00, and we hadn't had dinner yet. Terry had just gotten home right before us. I walked in the house and said, "I am so stressed." He replied by saying, "If it makes you feel any better so am I." While we were fixing dinner Terry and I decided that we were not going to do FHE. It was to late and we were both just to stressed to worry about it. Than Abbie proceeded to give the dinner prayer and thanked Heavenly Father that we were going to have FHE. Terry and I looked at each other and said, "It looks like we are having FHE." I am so glad we did. Riley was in charged of the lesson, and he did a wonderful job and we had a good time together.

My children love anything that involves the family. They love FHE, family prayer, family dinner, family movie time, and especially family hugs. Somehow we started this tradition, don't asked me when it started I can't tell you, but basically what it is; is anyone can call, "family hug" and everyone stops what they are doing and we hug as a family. They also love 2 minutes. What we do is give each child time in their beds each night. Terry with one child, while I am with the other child, and than we switch. It is about 5 minutes with each child, but we call it 2 minutes. This can be tedious at times. There are just some nights I wish I could tell the kids to go get in the bed and that is it. I was having one of those nights about a month ago, when Riley reminded me why we even do this. During the middle of our 2 minute time Riley said, "Do you know why I love 2 minutes so much mom? Because 2 minutes are so exciting." Whenever I have one of those nights were I just don't want to do 2 minutes I remember what Riley said.

Knees

Well I just got back from the doctor's office. I have been having trouble with my knees since last summer when I tried to train for a half-marathon. I ran a 10k on the 4th of July and my knees hurts so bad afterward that I decided I wasn't made to run a half-marathon. Well my knees have hurt off and on since than. I finally decided to go and see the doctor about them. Basically the cartilage is wearing away in the outside of my right knee and a little bit in my left knee. No more running for me. I was told to stay with low impact exercises. I hate low impact exercises they are so boring. I will do my best to listen to the doctor though because I need my knees to last. At least I don't need to go back to the physical therapist.