The Home Front

Now that school’s in session, my life has changed dramatically. Instead of lazy mornings, they are chaotic and crazy. But after the whirlwind dies down (the three kids go to school), I am left with only a breakfast mess and the three little ones.

The first week was tough as we all adjusted to a new schedule, but I am hopeful that as we get into the groove, things will get easier.

The first day of school went something like this:

Get kids dressed, hair done, pancake breakfast, lunches packed, pictures taken, CARPOOL….the girls are in school, Colin starts tomorrow.

At home:

Beau took the stick out of the rolling pin, dipped it in the gallon of pancake syrup that was still out from breakfast and started flinging it around the kitchen.

I asked Colin to bring Beau new clothes (since his were all sticky) and he brought me a clean outfit….fresh out of the washing machine.

Camri ate four chocolate cupcakes….well, she ate the tops and crumbled the rest on the cushions in the front room.

I found a new pantyliner cut in half by scissors and stuck to the dining room table.

Beau spilled chocolate milk all over his chair.

Found several plum pits stuck to the carpet surrounded by nice, red, plum stains.

Went through one whole box of Capri Sun, even though we only used two for school lunches.

Went grocery shopping and lost the coupons when my child set them down on a shelf. Thankfully, we found them after frantically backtracking (saving me $61.22).

I asked the kids to clean up the family room and watched them “clean” by shoving everything under the couches.

Found a new bag of gluten-free cookies in the front room, opened and half-eaten. FYI, gluten-free cookies aren’t cheap.

The girls did the dishes and I was very grateful until we realized that they used dishsoap in the dishwasher and there were suds all over the floor.

Beau took the salt shaker and poured it all over the couch, licking his fingers and tasting the salt.

That’s it. A taste of my new school-year life. I find that my mornings pretty much consist of running around, trying not to let Beau out of my sight, and cleaning up. After-school-hours are filled with homework, signing papers, making dinner, and trying to get some family time in before bedtime.

But, oh those naptimes!! I just might get used to those sweet afternoons when Beau and Annie sleep and I get my one-on-one time with Camri.

It’s going to be a great year, I can tell!

School!!?!

Well, it’s back to school.

Dakota’s in Fifth Grade. FIFTH!! Emma’s in Third Grade. THIRD??? Colin is in First Grade…gone all day. ALL DAY!! Beau wanted in on the action. The girls started one day before Colin… Their second day, Colin’s first day..

Good grief, when did they get big? Didn’t I just barely take this picture on the same porch, in front of the same door? Love these kids!!

HSP

…or Heugly Summer Program.

This was such a fun summer! Because I did not just want to waste the Summer months away and I did not want to go crazy listening to “I’m boooooored!” all Summer, we did a homemade Summer program. How many times can I say Summer in one sentence? Joe and I are both believers in education, so we fashioned the program to earn Associates, Bachelors, Masters, and Doctorate degrees. The school-age kids had to pass stuff off in four categories in order to earn their degree….Educational (reading minutes mostly), Physical, Spiritual, and Service. We printed it all up, put it on a posterboard and hung it on the door.

They each had their day-to-day duties, we called those the Daily 5. They also had a few extra assignments during the week, but mostly they could work towards their degrees. We listed some fun things and some service ideas we could do as a family. It worked out pretty well this summer. I think we’ll tweak it a little bit to make it better for next year. They were able to pick what they wanted to do, no pressure. I watched my kids do some pretty amazing things…reading, letter writing, service for each other, run with Dad, learn how to ride bikes and swim without floaties, read the scriptures, and take responsibility for their free time, just to name a few. It also allowed me to get things done because I didn’t have to play cruise director. It sounds all structured and Von Trapp Family, but it wasn’t a strict program, more like a basic structure to build our activities around.

With the six kids, we were able to do a lot of fun things because Mom wasn’t stuck doing all the work at home. We worked as a team, we played as a team. Colin earned his Bachelors Degree and Dakota and Emma both earned their Masters Degree. Their “graduation” gift was a new pair of sunglasses, because, kid, you’re so bright, you gotta wear shades!

The real prize, though, was a Summer that we’ll never forget!

Sister, Sister

Last weekend was my time. We had a little surprise on Monday night…Joe had to go out of town for three days, leaving on Wednesday. First thought when I found out, “I better not miss my fun girl’s weekend!” Second thought was, “I’ll sure miss Joe!” :) Fortunately, everything worked out just fine.

Friday, the kids and I got up and at ‘em pretty early. Even then, it took us almost two hours to get out the door, but every kid was fed and dressed so I was pretty happy about that. We piled in the car and headed down to Orem. My sweet nieces agreed to watch my kids while I went to Education Week with my sister. I even left Annie with them and I didn’t even cry (too hard).

Cheryl and I went to BYU and met our Mom and Dad at the Marriott Center for a fabulous talk by Sheri Dew. Mom and Dad had been volunteers all week, but their shift didn’t start until later so they came down early to hang out with us. My brother and his wife also came…clear from Colorado. So, the six of us joined together after Sheri’s talk.

The next talk we went to was simply amazing. Brother Robert Line spoke about justification and sanctification. Truly an incredible presentation, if you ever get a chance to hear him speak, do it. He’s even funny.

We were in the Tanner Building (in the same room where I had choir when I was a teeny tiny baby college student back in the day) so we decided to have lunch at the deli around the corner. Perfect! No crowds and yummy salads – what else do you need? We even had room to be silly. After lunch, we hit the Bookstore. It’s such a cool store! I got a few little somethings for my darlings and even met a few artists and authors. I got Joe the new Porter Rockwell book, signed by the author…Jerry Borrowman… After shopping, Cheryl and I reluctantly said goodbye to Kevin and Lorchin (who’s son got engaged later that night, congrats Brian!) and to Mom and Dad. We drove back to her house and visited for a minute while I fed Baby. My kids had so much fun and were a little bit mad at me for ripping them away from their awesome cousins. It was a fun, fun day!!

Oh, but we’re not done yet! I got home and very quickly fed the kids so I could leave them again… Brandon came over with his kids to stay with my kids until Joe got home from his trip. Heather and Amy came to pick me up and Joe called to say his plane had landed but they were just sitting on the plane waiting for the gate to open up. We left and got to Grandma’s house a few minutes later, meeting up with Sue and Liz, then we were on our way to Park City before Joe ever got home. I’ll just see him tomorrow…

We went straight to dinner at Baja Cantina…YUM!! Of course, we had a little detour to the Chocolate Factory right next door. It is girl’s night out after all. Liz brought Bridger and I brought Annie, but those were the only kids allowed on this trip.We checked into our hotel…oh yeah, we got the honeymoon suite!! It had a whole room with just a bathtub, it was very romantic. Amy and Heather were having a little too much fun… Laying in the tub, you could see the stars through the window/roof, there was also a king-sized bed, a kitchenette, a dining area, a sleeper sofa, and two chairs that pulled out into beds. We stayed up way too late and just enjoyed each other’s company (and some chocolate and gum drops). Fun, fun, fun!! A few hours later it was morning. Not a restful night, but whoever heard of sleeping at a slumber party? We had some yummy breakfast, in the restaurant, in our jammies, thus, no pictures. After breakfast, we got dressed and checked out. Time for some shopping at the outlets!! Goodbye Best Western, you treated us right! Hello Outlets, thank you for all the cute things you had waiting for us.

And A Big Fat Thank You to Sue for our Christmas/Birthday Present Weekend!!!You know we love you and we’ll always be your girls!!

Yes we can!

We can salsa,And jam,And we make brownies, And laugh! The End.

Welcome to America

There are a lot of advantages to serving in the same mission as your husband. For example, you get to teach the Gospel together, you get to speak French in front of your kids when you don’t want them to know what you’re saying, you both love the same mission President. AND, you have some of the same mission friends.

Elder Broadhead was in the MTC with me, then served with Joe on splits during the mission. So of course his family had to stay with us during their visit from Canada. We crammed as much fun as we could into their four-day visit.

First up: the dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving Point. There was an exhibit by NASA, so we went to take a peek. Beau found a friend in Mason, the two-year-olds hit it off right away.

Water, sand, and mess is a recipe for a jolly good time…Even a little something for the techno-geeks of the family… The cool dads with their wheels… This is how the Mom’s travelled…cute Amanda with baby Maggie. There were many attempts to get a good picture of all the kids… We got the whoooooole world in our hands…. You can’t go see the dinosaurs without digging for their bones! The Girls (minus the two babies): The Big Boys…Grayden and Colin. When we were walking to the museum, Grayden said to Colin, “I wish you lived by me.” Colin responded, “I wish YOU lived by ME!” Then Grayden said, a little wistfully, “I wish we were twins.” A romantic moment by the waterfall… Later that night, we set up the outdoor projector to watch a movie. When it started to rain, no worries, we just moved it inside. We couldn’t find the “Pirates of the Caribbean” DVD, which is what everyone wanted to watch. So after looking and looking Joe picked two other shows. Everyone voted and picked one of the two. Joe opened the DVD case, and there it was! Pirates of the Caribbean! Argh matey, ‘twas meant to be!

The next day, we all headed downtown to see the sights. We got to Temple Square at the same time as a tour bus…love the name! We packed a little picnic and ate lunch on the plaza. It was shady and the kids had fun feeding the birds. Then we set out on our adventure, taking a few pictures on the way. Even in Utah we got a few looks with our big crowd (10 kids and 4 adults). As we walked by one sweet lady, Amanda overheard her saying, “Oh, it looks like Zion is growing!” First stop was the Church Office Building. We took a little tour and ended up on the top. Very cool! We saw Temple Square and the Great Salt Lake on one side. And the State Capitol on another. Next, we went to the Beehive House. This is where Brigham Young lived with his family, plus had offices for his positions as President of the Church and Governor of Utah. He was a busy guy! No strollers allowed, so Joe carried Beau. Brigham Young expected a lot from his kids. He made their bedrooms small, so they didn’t want to just hang out in there. He had a dedicated space for their studies, complete with desks, and he had a play room. Every day he expected his kids to sleep 8 hours, work 8 hours, and study 8 hours. Hmmmm, not a bad idea!Next, we went to the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. We saw the movie “Joseph Smith”. If you live anywhere near Utah, or you can drive here, or fly here, I highly, highly , highly recommend you go see this film. It is a well-made film about one of the most important events to ever happen on this earth. Whatever your beliefs may be, I promise you will be touched by this film! It was time for a little snack break, so we ate our fruit and watched all the pretty brides walk by. Cute girlies Amandine and Emma… The water was very inviting and there were a few wet feet (and heads) when snack time was over. They recently produced a scale model of the Salt Lake Temple, open at certain cross-sections to show what it looks like on the inside. I couldn’t really get a clear shot because it was a very crowded exhibit… Here’s some random cuteness for you. Beau, show me your smile! We visited the Christus..More random cuteness:It was a marathon day downtown. When we got home, the boys took the kids swimming and the moms took the babies shopping. As it should be.

The kids went to bed, the dads went to a movie, and the moms visited until the wee hours. The next morning, everyone slept in, then we got ready to say goodbye to our friends. Babies Annie and Maggie will surely be BFFs when they grow up. We went to Italian Village for lunch then parted ways. Thanks Broadhead Family for letting us be a part of your vacation.