The Rest of August

Now that Richie's masters degree is complete, he is officially qualified to teach online courses at BYU-Idaho! This is his first semester teaching "Doctrines of the Book of Mormon", but he hopes to add more classes as they allow, specifically business ones because they pay more. :) He was required to have a "professional" picture to put up on their website etc. Instead of taking him in somewhere, we decided we'd try and work something out at home first. Luckily they accepted the photo, and he's all official now. :) He starts teaching next week.


Our ward had the fathers and sons camp-out last weekend. Miles was really looking forward to it, and as an added bonus, Uncle Ross and Uncle Jacob were able to come along also! They had such a good time! Gwen knew that once the boys were gone, we were going to have our girl's weekend and she was ultra excited about that. Good thing they are pretty easy to please still. We made brownies and painted toenails, and watched not one, but two princess movies! The next morning, as a bonus, I took the girls out to breakfast at a restaurant. We've only done it a handful of times, so it was extra special. It was just a diner here in town, but Gwen thought it was so fancy because they brought our food out on a tray. :)


The other Sunday, I snapped a few pictures of the kids in their church clothes because they looked so darn cute. Plus, these might be the last pictures I get of these 3 kids before we add another one to the mix! See the ouchie by Gwen's eye? It should be noted somewhere that the night before, we had friends over and as Gwen was swinging on the tire swing (really high), the rope snapped and she hit the ground pretty hard. She was completely freaked out, which made Richie and I nervous because she's usually pretty tough. Once we realized there were no broken bones, then we moved on to worrying about a concussion etc. After our friend helped Richie give her a blessing, and Grandma Garner came over to assess Gwen, we felt much better. She was fine the next morning besides the scrapes on her arms and face. Whew! Could have been a major disaster, so we felt lucky the effects were minor.


Some friends gave us this old bookshelf the other day. We didn't have a specific place to put it, but when we had our carpets cleaned, it ended up in the kitchen. Turns out, it's pretty handy having it there to hold all of the fresh produce we've been getting!! All of that food, minus the bananas and oranges, is from our garden. Cool huh. Our garden isn't big enough to produce as much as we need to put up, but it gives us plenty to juice, and freeze and munch on.


This didn't really happen in August, but I'm just getting around to documenting it. And it must be documented. Ever since we've lived here, all of the boxes of kids clothes have been stacked in this closet in our storage room. I told Richie that for my birthday this year, I wanted shelves to put them on, so that when I want to pull out one box, I don't have to un-stack everything. He delivered, and then I proceeded to organize every single item of kids clothing that we own. Big undertaking. I pulled out every piece of clothing, made sure it was in the right box, purged a bunch of stuff because when you lay it all out, you realize you don't need 20 (literally 20) pairs of boys 6t shorts. We're so lucky to get so many hand-me-downs, but it sure start accumulating quickly. The bins are SO organized now, and so easy to access. Plus I got rid of at least 5 garbage bags FULL of clothes. Ahhh...


We started school at the beginning of August, knowing that once baby gets here we'll be taking a big break. We slowly eased ourselves into it, for everyone's sake, and it's been going so well. There were some attitude problems at the beginning, but nothing that couldn't be solved with some minor bribery. The kids are now more self-motivated and capable than ever before. It's amazing. I still have to be there every step of the way pretty much, but there are these glimpses that are showing me that one day, they will be able to work more independently, and those glimpses are so welcome! This year, instead of choosing a family theme for the school year, we let the kids pick out their own individual ones. Miles chose "Be a good steward", and Gwen chose, "Make Good Choices". They hung them on their doors and I hope they prove to be an inspiration to them throughout the year.

First Half of August

Lindy is growing up.
During the summer I bought some school supplies for the kids. On a whim I bought some for Lindy. Well I put them in her very own box just like her older siblings, put her name on it, and she was SO thrilled. Completely over-the-moon about it. I loved her reaction. I can tell I'm going to have to incorporate her differently this year with school. She actually wants to participate and be big. If the kids are reading me a book, she enthusiastically shouts, "MY TURN!" and then she proceeds to "read" to us. We have to give her our full attention, otherwise there is shouting. If the kids are spelling their sight words for me, she starts "spelling" hers. She wants to be grown up so badly, which is super exciting, but also sad for me. It's all happening so fast! :)



Kayaking
I had the strangest weekend last week. On Thursday I was feeling unusual. I actually thought I might be going into labor. I didn't know how to describe the pain, it just felt odd. By Friday morning, I knew I had to call Richie to come home from work because I wasn't functioning super great. At that point I realized I wasn't in labor, just sick. So he came home and took over while I slept. When I woke up, he told me he was planning on taking the kids camping in Grandma and Grandpa's backyard to reward them for awesome school behavior the past couple of weeks. So off they went. And I had the entire house to myself all night. It was so awesome and weird. The next morning, I was expecting them home anytime, when he called and said, "Hey, we decided to go kayaking. See you in a few hours!" So again, I had an entire Saturday morning/early afternoon all to myself. I tried to take it easy because I still wasn't feeling great, but when you have that kind of time, it's hard not to want to get everything done you usually can't with kids running around. It was so odd, and so wonderful. Mostly I was so glad that my husband is so awesome and proactive and gives our kids these cool experiences.



Karate
Gwen has now had 2 of her 4 rec center karate lessons. She is loving it! Only girl in her class, smiles the entire time, totally capable. It's a fun activity for her and for me to watch her.



Sunflower
The first year we lived here, we planted giant sunflowers outside our front window. Every year since then, we get about a million sunflower volunteers. I was getting a little tired of them, so we've since pulled the front ones out, but not before I snapped this picture. At night and in the early morning, the bees would all congregate on a few flowers to sleep. I found that so interesting and beautiful.



Swimming lessons
Well the kid's swimming lessons finally came to a close. Lindy was my little buddy, waiting it out in the heat every day. She handled it like a champ. She knew that as her reward, once the kids were out of the pool, she was allowed to go put her hands or feet in the water. Ha! Maybe next year she'll get to participate. Miles and Gwen impressed me so much with their abilities and improvement. Not to mention their "go-get-'em" attitude the entire time. I am a proud mama. I now feel fairly confident about them being in pools without floaties! Hooray! They can't wait to do it next summer.




Eyelashes
The other day, there was a mysterious pile of what seemed to be black hair on our bathroom sink counter. No one in our family has black hair. So we asked the kids if maybe one of them gave Ozzy a little trim, which they all denied. The next day, I was looking at Gwen thinking, "Hmmmm, something is different about her...whatever it is, she looks tired." Then she had some sort of problem and came crying to me and when I held her close, I got a front row seat to the eyelash trim of 2016. 2 years ago she cut off about half of her hair, this time I guess it was only her eyelashes? Ha! It made me sad. She had such pretty long eyelashes. Good thing they'll grow back right? After I took a picture to document this momentous occasion, Lindy request I take a picture of her eyelashes. Her eyelashes are insane and so pretty! I'm jealous of my girl's eyelashes.

The rest of July

We found an apricot tree that was loaded and the owners were willing to share. We picked tons and froze most of them, jammed some, and then made a few fresh apricot pies. HOLY YUM! It's my Grandma Crosby's recipe, one of my Dad's favorites, and a first time for me to make it. They turned out delicious. It almost made me want to go pick more apricots...almost.


The kids have desperately been wanting to do a lemonade stand. And a yard sale, and, and and. Anything that makes money. Miles specifically is motivated by money. They were both excited to do it, but when it became hard work...there was some whining. :) Thankfully people were generous and the kids came away with some serious lemonade stand money. It was a good experience.


Miles had his last soccer game of the short season. Even though the season only consisted of 4 practices and 4 games, I'm glad it's done. It's a hot time of year to be outside and pregnant. Miles LOVED the experience and has asked to do it again and again. He was not the most aggressive or skilled player, but he did awesome for a first time soccer player. He put all of his effort into the game and cheering on his teammates. His sisters were awesome supporters through the season. :)



It's the end of an era. I have had this Toyota Corolla since I was 17. It has been with me through SO much! It has been Richie's main car now for 5 years. I tell you what, this old beater has been the most reliable vehicle. It never gives us any problems and just drives. When it came time for us to think about buying a truck, we knew the perfect place for the Toyota. We couldn't sell it just anyone. I mean, it was practically part of the family. :) My niece Taysom needed a car, so we gave it to her and are glad it's in good hands. :)

Crosby Family Stay-Cation

Our Crosby family vacations alternate between large scale get-aways, and smaller ones where we typically stay in SG and hang out. This year was a "small-scale" vacation, but we opted to have it in SLC because the Iowa Crosbys would be in this neck of the woods already, to pick up Izzy from her dance camp. It was a win for us, because that meant we didn't have to travel at all! It was so fantastic to see everyone!
We met at Wheeler farm on Wednesday, and then made an impromptu visit to Nickel-Mania. Now, that's all Miles can talk about. He asked everyday if we could go back there. :) We had to hustle back to Riverton for Miles's last soccer game, but then we went back up to SLC to take advantage of their hotel pool. Which is really the highlight of any vacation for a kid.


The next day we met up at the church history museum, walked around temple square, and then had lunch at "The Garden" in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. Fancy eh? Afterward, Mom and Dad had reserved a conference room at the hotel. So we spent time playing games, doing crafts, watching a movie etc. until dinner and our family FHE/talent show. Miles and Gwen even got to go swimming and spend the night in G&G Crosby's hotel room that night!


The next morning we met up Big Cottonwood Canyon to hike Blood's Lake. Poor Richie wasn't feeling great, but I knew I wouldn't be much help on the hike, so he had to power through. I'm sure lots of cousins helped with our littles, thankfully. I set up a camping chair in the shade at the beginning of the hike and read until everyone started coming back. :)
After hiking, some of us met at the Olympic Park up in Park City. I had no idea how expensive it would be (shoulda guessed, right?). So we didn't do any of the big "rides". It was hot, lines were long etc. Instead we watched skiers practice their jumps into the water, and then took a free ski lift ride up the mountain a little ways. The kids seemed satisfied with that. :)
That night we met at liberty park to play in the canyons splash pad and picnic. After which we headed to my Uncle Lon and and Steph's house for activities. They have a slide and swing set like the ones that used to be at Hinckley Farm, so Mom wanted all the kids to be able to experience them. This is no regular slide either. It's massive and fast! The kids were in heaven playing in their backyard, Richie and I loved perusing their lovely garden, and everyone loved the homemade ice cream and chatting. Such a fun night.


On Saturday, before everyone went their separate ways, we took some professional family pictures. I don't know if I can get them on the blog at this point, but eventually I will. It's quite the occasion to have EVERYONE in the family there for pictures. It all started with Mom and Dad, and has ballooned to 10 siblings and spouses, and almost 22 grandchildren. Nieces and nephews are starting to enter that marriage phase, so the numbers are really going to be exploding exponentially here soon. I was so happy that we were able to make pictures happen. Maybe next time we do it, I won't be massively pregnant. This swelling...No fun, I tell ya.

Silly us thinking that because the vacation was in SLC, it would be a piece of cake for us. And while that made some aspects easier, we finished the trip exhausted just like any other family trip. Totally worth it though. Love this family of mine.