Hot, Hot, Hot

On the 19th, it was time for Ailey's 1st ever Field Trip!!! It was a trip to the fire station. We are lucky enough that we have one within walking distance. So early in the morning we head out and drop Lex and Nate off at school along our way.

I was worried that we would be late, as it was supposed to be at 9:00 and we dropped the boys off right about that time. However, as we crossed the street from the school and made our way to the fire station, we about ran smack into Ailey's 'boyfriend' Asher.

I was glad to see we weren't late. As Asher's mom and I get to the fire station we notice we're the first ones even there. I relaxed even more. Within the next 10 minutes the rest of our group arrived, but there was no one at the station!

The mom who arranged the Field Trip got on the phone to try and figure out what was going on. Turns out the fire fighters had something that had had to attend to, but were on their way back. As soon as they got back the tour started.

We were all super surprised to learn the inside of the fire house is a LOT smaller than it looks on the outside. The Chief's office also serves as his bedroom and is about the size of a kid's bedroom. The kitchen is an okay size, then the other bedroom is exactly like a dorm room. A small room with two beds and a small bookcase in the middle of the room sort of separating the room.

After the tour of the building we were off to see the trucks. We learned that there is a difference between a Fire Truck and a Fire Engine. I believe that the vehicles with the ladder are the Fire Trucks and the ones without are the Fire Engines, though my memory is faulty and I could have those completely wrong!

The kids were able to go through the Fire Engine, although Ailey was a stinker and wasn't in the most cooperative mood. She later told me the Fire Fighters were scary (even though none of them ever even put on their fire gear).

(These guys were pretty cool. The guy on the left didn't say much. The guy on the far right was the one leading the tour and was pretty awesome with the kids. The guy next to him was also kind of quiet, but did interact with the kids when they talked to him)

Overall, it was a successful first field trip. The firefighters sent us away with a hat for all the kids (including all our 'babies') and coloring books. After the fire station, we took the kids to the park to play for awhile.

Later in the day Jace became a firefighter and made a darn stinkin' cute one if I do say so myself!

What Happens Next...

Love Notes

Life has been difficult for me as of late. Nothing has really happened, I've just been feeling really depressed and it's taken it's toll on many areas of my life.

One night I was really having a rough night and just broke down. Eric and I sat talking for probably a good 2 hours that night. Okay, so Eric was doing the talking and I was blubbering. And just for the sake of clearning the air - our conversation wasn't an argument between the two of us. Eric was really just trying to help me feel better.

Well, the saddest part of me breaking down is that it was early enough in the evening that the kids were around. For the most part they just went about their business and they knew I was sad, but they also saw that Daddy was helping Mommy through things.

So when bedtime came, we all went to bed and I thought nothing really more about what had happened. Then I woke up to this:

The pantry door was filled with 'Love Notes' from Shaylyn (the apple was Ailey's 1st project she did in Preschool). Shaylyn had spent a good portion of the night writing these little love notes for me.

She had notes that were serious, some that were silly, some that were humorous and some she just drew fun pictures on. In total she had 40 something notes. (I only know that cause one of her notes said, "I thought I'd stop at 28...but I decided to do all 46."

It was hard to choose just a few favorites, but here they are:

(Not so much a love note, but it made me laugh anyway!)

I am beyond grateful for this girl and her words. It was refreshing to see that she cared so much about what I was going through, that she wanted to make it better. She didn't really do much in the ways of the world, but she did more than enough for this struggling mommy.

I'd be remiss if I didn't bring Tanis into this entry. While during the course of our conversation, Tanis wanted me to know that when he was feeling sad, he liked to look at Disney quotes. The next morning he sent me an email with this:

I so appreciated that as well. Probably most importantly the one about Harry Potter. I put way too much emphasis on what the world thinks about the way I'm doing things and not enough on what the most important people around me think.

If my kids feel like I'm doing a good job and they're happy - that is really all that should matter.

Around this same time, I saw something on Facebook and other things that brought home the fact that my children are MY children and while other people may do things differently, it shouldn't matter. I know my children and what they each need and they came to me for a reason!

I'm super blessed and thankful for these teenagers in my home and I pray they'll always be sympathetic to those around them.

What Happens Next...

My Baby's All Growned Up...In Some Ways

I was talking to my good friend, Yvonne one day. She mentioned how I told her that I didn't ever want to do a 'joy-school' type thing with my kids again. I told her I still kind of felt that way. She then told me that her and our other good friend, Heather were going to be doing one with their boys and she didn't want me to feel bad. 

I was thankful for her honesty and that she left it open for me if I changed my mind. I gave it some thought over the next day and decided that it would be best if Ailey joined in. I didn't want to do it if it was going to be real formal, but Yvonne assured me that it wasn't.

I figured it was a good thing for Ailey. She gets pretty bored without the older kids around and Jace can only do so much with her. It also opened her up to make new friends. The down-side is that I'll have to take my turn, but thankfully it'll only be every 6 weeks!

We decided we'd start our Preschool the Wednesday after Labor Day. Ailey woke up that morning super excited for Preschool and said, "Today I go to Preschool" followed by a nice scream. 

While I was leery of the 9:00 start time (I'm just getting Lex and Nate out the door), it was actually nice this day. She didn't have to wait all day to go to school and she was so cooperative to get dressed and get her hair done.

She was less cooperative to take pictures as she was just ready to GO!

Ailey is absolutely loving preschool. She loves that she gets to be with her friends everyday and she's even excited about the projects she gets to do. I've been loving it because she doesn't complain when I have to do her hair.

It's also been nice to have a couple hours of quiet every other day (Jace sleeps at almost the exact same time frame). Although I do gotta say, I kind of miss this spunky little miss too.

What Happens Next...

Labor Day 2014

About a week before Labor Day my older sister let the family know she was planning on taking her daughter to the zoo on Labor Day. She invited all who wanted to go, to go with her. I decided we'd go as it wouldn't cost us anything and we'd be with family. Also, because of our pass we could get 2 members of my family in with us for free.

My family wanted to meet at 9, but I knew there was no way I was going to get our kids and myself ready and out the door by 8 to get to the zoo by 9. So I said we'd be good at 10. 10:00 seemed to work for everyone else.

So we all met up at 10:00 and the zoo was already a zoo. We had to take a few minutes to decide how we were going to spend the least amount of money. My little sister had gotten discount tickets for her family and so we just needed to figure out who was going to get in with us. It was decided that my two little brothers, Donovan (who was in town from Wyoming!) and Logan would be the lucky winners. Logan's little boy was also able to get in with us as he gets in for free.

Eric had taken the car to figure out where to park and had Jace with him as he was still sleeping when we arrived. So we had to wait around for Eric to park and get into the zoo and the rest of the family to buy their tickets.

When everyone was ready to go, we got started. We kind of let others lead the way as we'd been to the zoo a few times already. Because it was so crowded it was hard for all of us to stay together and a few times Eric, the kids and I got separated from everyone else.

At one place in the zoo we actually ran into Eric's uncle. His family had also decided to come to the zoo that day. It was kind of fun to run into him.

While it was super crowded, we did get to see quite a few animals. In the times we've been to the zoo before we hadn't seen the lions. This time we actually saw the lioness.

A couple more animal shots:

And because it's me, at the zoo, guess what I saw? Some animals 'playing'. Every year I go to the zoo, I always end up at the zoo when certain sets of animals decide it's play time. 

It was getting hot and kids were getting ornery. We had decided not to have lunch at the zoo and to go back to my mom's for a bbq. So with hot, tired and hungry kids - most of us decided to call it a day and head back to my mom's. My older sister, husband, friend and my dad all stayed for the bird show.

While we were waiting for everyone to get back from the zoo, Jace and my older sister's daughter Emery had tons of fun playing. They are only 3 months apart and really seem to enjoy being around each other.

We eventually just got started on food and then had a nice night visiting. Tanis was anxious to play some games, so Donovan and I played a game with him. Then we played another game and I think we got Eric in on it.

We then decided we'd better get home as it was still a school night. It was a fun day and I was glad we had something to do.

And again, because I took too many pictures - I made a slideshow (and I didn't even include all the pictures I took). And yes, Ailey thought it was a day for her own personal photo shoot. Pay close attention to her shirt and one of the faces she pulls - no, it wasn't planned!

What Happens Next...