It's Great to be 8!!

Our little "Tooter-Poops" is 8 today. I cannot believe that we have a child old enough to be baptized!

Ty-you are such an amazing kid. You are so smart, funny, silly, caring, thoughtful and soooo good with your brother and sister. We are so thankful that you are ours! Love you buddy!

He won't be whistling Dixie for a while!

After a traumatic evening, Tyler officially has no front teeth. He sounds so funny and I love it. We got video of us pulling out his tooth, but since I don't feel like posting it I'll just list some things that were said during it.

"Wait-don't do it! I'm not a big boy. I'm a baby! Goo goo ga ga. A little baby girl!!!"

"I'm not a man, I'm a woman! I'm a scared woman!"

"Save me, save me! Call 911" (our windows were open)

"Calm down, my dad did this to me every time and I'm not emotionally scarred from it!" (I was now sitting on Tyler and holding the camera. My shining parent moment.)

"Phil, just freaking do it already!"

"I can't do this to him!!You do it"

"I can't-it freaks me out!"

And then suddenly he was calm, opened his mouth and Phil ripped it out. He then said, "why didn't you do that earlier? It didn't even hurt!"

Being a parent is so ridiculous sometimes.

Service Project

Our church organized a large group of almost 200 members to help with disaster relief after Hurricane Irene. Phil's mom came to watch our kids and we were off to North Jersey. We spent the day cleaning out basement after basement that was flooded during the storm. These homes had up to 6 feet of water in them and it was soooo humbling. We were literally taking shovel-loads of peoples posessions to the trash. These houses have such mold problems now and thank goodness FEMA has been in contact with them to replace their things. I am so thankful that we had the opportunity to help these people that really really, needed it.

And on a lighter note. We looked over at Phil snuggling his car calling his mom to check on the kids. Not sitting curbside, but in the street! It just cracked us all up b/c he was having a secret nervous breakdown all day w/ dirty people in the car, dirty shoes, etc. It looks like he's reassuring his baby that it's all going to be okay. :)

The Bus did me in

I drive and pick up the kids from school for the first week. And then the party is over and they take the bus. And for whatever reason putting my little Chasey onto that bus just broke me. I was bawling and an emotional wreck. I took video of him getting on and off the bus, but no pics. But he again looked and felt so grown up getting on. He told me after school he loved how bouncy it was and he was proud he could do his seatbelt by himself. I'm so thankful that my big boy Tyler is so responsible. He knows to sit with him, get him to class and is teaching Chase the ways of bus-riding. it's only a matter of time before the weird bus tales begin again.

Off to school!

The first day just crept up on us. Ty had strep throat and Chase was starting to feel junky, so we weren't really prepared-but by the looks of them they didn't mind! My Chasey started Kindergarten and he was very nervous. But I think having a big bro there really helped him feel comfortable. And I wasn't bawling my eyes out this time, so maybe that wasn't freaking him out!

 Making the silly faces. I love the height difference. I don't ever notice it b/c they aren't standing still very long.

 In front of their school. I think Chasey felt like such a big boy walking up to his classroom. So cute!

 At his little table. I found a table w/ a little boy that lives a street away, so maybe they'll strike up a friendship. Don't mind the shine on my face. It was maybe 400* in there and I was crying.

 We have video of this as well. I stood up and this is him telling the boys, "I'm really funny." And then he rubs his spiked hair and says, "look at this hair!" almost as if to say-only comedians have this do! So hilarious!!!

 Some deep convo. He looks unsure of this kid next to me.

Picking him up from school! He was so happy with his day which was such a relief. 

 And two seconds after that pic he melted down. His head hurt, he was feverish, his throat hurt. But he toughed out the day and I'm so proud of him. This was how he spent the rest of the day!

Our final trip to the beach

Firstly let me say that we only live 45 minutes from the beach and we never go. Lame. Anyway, this was our last summer trip to the beach. And the day started out looking like this. NASTY!!!

 But luckily Ty got a little too close to Aunt Jenny and she took care of the problem. The tooth fairy was good to him later. Done and done.

 Chase was pretty solitary this trip. He enjoyed being by himself and burying himself. That's normal, right?!

 Lucy is making this face as a reaction to seeing Chase doing this. It was priceless.

 Because of the hurricane or tropical storm or whatever you want to call it, the ocean was crazy. The tide came up really far and then receeded  leaving this little river stretching a few hundred feet. It was perfect for the kids to splash around in, especially b/c the waves in the ocean were nuts!

 All day the tide kept bringing in sticks and lots and lots of trash. Kind of gross, but the kids made the most of it. We referred to Chase as Moses.

 This kept kids of all ages busy.

 Even a tree washed up to shore!! They had to close the swimming area off for a while to get rid of it. Good entertainment for all!

 Buds.

 Ty has an obsession with Crush of all flavors. Yuck.

 Keeping cool.

 This is Alex Gruber and yesterday he left for his mission to the Dominican Republic. He has been such a good example for my boys and I'm excited to have a missionary for my kids to keep in touch with. Look at how much they love this guy!

Princeton Battlefield

We've lived in the Princeton area for almost 8 years and I've never gone to the Princeton Battlefield. There isn't a ton to see or do, but it's still really neat. There is still a house and small carriage house that was in the battle in 1777. This is the carriage house. It's been converted to the bathrooms! Weird!

The house in the background. it's in really great shape!

My cute kids. This may be the only time Eliza was happy. Not her best day!

Checking out the lock on the smokehouse. It fascinated them!

They've converted the house into a museum. It's totally free and low-key. That's my speed! The kids loved all of the gun-involved displays.

A model of the battle. Ty loved it and requested this photo be taken.

Loving the coins found in the fields.

Phil's stepdad's house was built in the 1700's and the original part of the house has all the old doorknobs and handles and it was fun for me to see the kids recognizing that in this house. It even smelled like his house! Very weird!

Eliza pitching a fit.

Eating some grub. Picnic-style.

The kids then ran like wild animals.

Eliza preferred to sit w/ mom and be cute.

She started to run off and then came running back crying. A true hot mess.

I tried to do some reading in the history of the battle.

After a small walk we called it a day.

Eliza kept lagging behind and I got video of her doing what she was doing here. She was smacking a stick around singing "Baa Baa Black Sheep" for a good 10 mintues. So cute!

Hurricane, er, Tropical Storm Irene

Phil taunting the Hurricane. This was the calm before the storm!

We all slept downstairs b/c we were afraid of...

These beasts in our backyard falling on our house! Luckily none did. But at about 3am I sat by a window (really safe I know) watching these suckers blowing sideways. Creepy!!

After the storm. We made out really well. A few big limbs and lots of small sticks to clean up and that was it! Our power never went out and we didn't get water in the basement. We were pretty blessed! So many others in our ward adn in our area didn't fair as well. The next day I went to a friends house and helped her suck water out of her basement and i felt so lucky that we were dealing w/ such stress!!