Prima Ballerinas

All of our girls have been begging us to take ballet lessons for YEARS! Finally this spring we consented after finding a studio that we really liked for several reasons, BUT one big reason- FAMILY RATE. They only charge us $10 more per person each month.

Kennon and Savannah started in May and Camille is old enough for lessons this fall. We don't do the pre-ballet stuff. Cute but definitely a money waster since they do very little ballet.

The two young girls come with me every week and watch the instruction through the open studio door. They plie' and releve' (Does anyone have a french dictionary?) right along with the students and the hour passes pretty quickly for them. And of course we have lots of ballet lessons for the two younger from the two older once we get home.

These were taken after their recital last week. As you can tell Caroline is really progressing with all this free training.

Kennon is also giving Camille two piano lessons a week this summer. We figure we will just pay for the oldest to be taught and then she can teach the younger ones. So far her $1 a lesson sessions have gone pretty well. She has more patience than I do.

Biking, Boards, and Baby

Marcus is kind of (actually WAY) too small for this trailer seat. But Caroline rides next to him and keeps him propped up.

This is how they ride to the bank, grocery store, library, Target and the other places we like to go. The more I pack in there the more exercise I get. I really do love it. The only thing I hate is waking up a content baby every stop. Portable Infant Car seats are way easier for napping on the go at this age. But besides that . . . I am really hooked on biking in the city. It is so fun. The other day I met a few ladies for lunch about 8 miles away. I biked there and back and felt great about both overeating and overspending since I was so smart about my travel. I keep thinking I always want to live in a city and bike. But then I remember the farm waiting for us in Washington. That is going to be a big adjustment. On the farm, Every place I go there is at least 10 but usually 20 miles away. So right now I am just enjoying this phase of life and hoping it doesn't pass too fast. There are so many things to do in the city in the summer. And so many of them are free and within biking distance. I think it is going to be a fun summer.

And Summer Officially starts this afternoon when Brent comes home from taking the dental boards. He is at the testing center all day long today. I really hope he comes home and gives me a thumbs up.

He has been going mad for about 2 weeks now stuck in the closet studying all day long. (And I have been going mad with 5 kids and SUMMER downstairs!) It was so nice of him to get it over with at the beginning of the summer so we can forget about dental school for about 6 weeks and SAIL . . . or whatever else we want to do.

Anyway, Brent thinks he is the worst memorizer in the whole class and will be the only one to fail. It's hard for a 38 year old to keep up with brains many years his junior. But I am getting so used to the whole "I am going to fail!" speech. I have heard it so many times before. And he is always wrong so hopefully he will be wrong again and pass with flying colors.



Here is our son showing off his strong neck muscles. He has so much more strength than our girls did. Marcus has been doing this since he was first born. He also started rolling his first week. Now he rolls all over the place.

But isn't always smiling. He keeps banging his face or head against the wood floor. He would like carpet I am sure, but I pause to appreciate the absence of carpet about 50x a day when he spits up on it and I just mop it up quickly. He is the wettest baby I have ever had. You hardly ever seen him without a bib. I bring about 5 with me everywhere I go so I can keep him semi-dry.

And the award goes to . . .

We have so much stuff on here that makes us look bad, I figured it was okay to brag just a little once in a while.

When Savannah came home the last day of her state tests for 3rd grade earlier in the school year I asked her how they had gone.

"So easy, Mom. I got them all right."

Whatever! She really thinks she is all that! ( I thought to myself)

Well today at the school awards ceremony we found out she really did get a perfect score in all her subjects (reading, math, and english)!

Teachers give out two awards for three different categories per class.
Academic, Most Improved and Citizenship.
Also the art, music, and gym teachers give out two awards per class. Here's how our girls fared:

Kennon: Academic Award, Music Award,Physical Education Award
Savannah: Academic Award, Music Award, Physical Education Award
Camille: Citizenship Award, Physical Education Award

For some reason we got shafted by the art teacher.

Besides that I'd say they pretty much cleaned everyone's clocks. It was almost embarrassing. But, we are of course quite proud of them.

Isn't it so late to still be in school? Aren't I so lucky? It all ends tommorrow.

The only award I ever remember getting was at the end of a pitiful year of 7th grade softball. I was stuck in right field all year and only touched a ball during practice. They gave me the "Most Improved" Award. Gee, thanks!

I wish I had a scanner so I could post a picture and show you where these girls get it from. It's of a cute little kindergarten boy, beaming at a camera, completely covered in Field Day Blue Ribbons from Basin City Elementary.

Don't Rock the Boat Baby!

We found out this Sunday that the buffalo primary really can function without a casper in opening exercises. The streak finally ended this week when for the first time in the last 5 weeks our children didn't have to give a primary talk. It was quite a thing we had going there. Caroline actually got her name drawn again last week to give a talk today, but Brent and I were there, of course, listening to Kennon's talk and we pointed out, "She gave the scripture last week, and a talk the week before, Can we have a little break?" That's what you get for perfect attendance. You are always there to get your scripture/talk mail. They pull plenty other names out but my kids are just the first ones that are present. How about a schedule primary president? But we are only the better because of it. Kennon's last talk was more like a sharing time than a simple primary talk. There were musical numbers, audience participation, and the best part: She's so experienced now she writes it all on her own.

This next bit, I don't know if I want to mention, but I know you are all dying for sail boat updates. I'd hate people to think of me or my husband as irresponsible, because we really do love our kids and try to keep them safe and sound. But the thing is . . . Brent and I are a little at odds after our Niagara adventure yesterday. A combination of circumstances had us rocking so fiercely that I was amazed that my 3 children hanging onto the bow (or whatever you call the front) were still there once the situation was remedied. Caroline apparently has amazing grip. Brent downplayed the whole thing.

"The worst that could happen was a kid would fly overboard and we would just pick them up again. We never were going to tip!"

Well, I sure thought otherwise and children being thrown from boats is enough to get me fairly excited.

Brent swears that he will always have the keel down from now on and it won't happen again. But I am thinking our boat may need an age requirement, at least for river adventures.

Still . . I am trying to stay positive about everything, (because I know Brent is in love with his new boat and I hate to be the party pooper wife) while at the same time prevent injury or possible loss of life. I used to be an emergency preparedness merit badge counselor and used this phrase a lot with the scouts. I think it is a somewhat important thing to keep in mind with children. Brent used to be a motorcycle man taking month-long trips through Mexico camping out in a little pup tent at night, and also once drove a pickup home 40 miles from town to help his brother out WHEN HE WAS 11 AND his family didn't even wear seatbelts but would ride with the youngest just standing up next to momma in the car. So don't judge me and think I am a bad mother. In a marraige you just make comprimises to make it work and keep everyone happy . . . but also ALIVE.

"Ain't she Yare!"

Just about 10 days to go until Brent takes his Boards. Then the summer really begins. He finally decided he needed to crack down and spend most of his days studying. He usually hangs out in his study shack (a long dark hallway behind our bedroom wall.) But with a sailboat just waiting out his front door. . . he gets antsy and tired of family interruptions, and often comes running down telling me he's heading out with his sail boat to anchor in the Niagara River and study away.

Just about then we hear a crack of thunder, dark clouds roll over and he realizes he is stuck here. That is how the weather has been for the last week. He has only managed to take the boat out twice.

We live in an extremely convenient location for taking the boat out. We have two marina's on each side of us. It was only matter of time really and we just had to get a boat living where we do.

The first sailing adventure was one week ago after school. Camille volunteered to go with him for the trial run sailing. He needed a first mate and he didn't want one with a small baby tagging along for this first time. It took them about an hour to set up the mast and sails and get in the water. We rode down on our bikes and I could see them out in the water, Brent scrambling all over the place. Camille in her swimsuit started complaining about when she was going to go swimming. There hadn't been much wind anyway for sailing so he anchored next to a small island and they both jumped out.

On both sides of this little piece of land called Strawberry Island, the Niagara River rushes by, about 10 miles above the falls. If you stay on the upper side of the island there isn't a current and you can swim. Just about then I was watching the news and heard about a weather advisory for our county. I called Brent on his cel phone and let him know. He got Camille back in the boat right away but then found after pushing off he was going to have to do the pull up of his life to get up in the boat. So here is Camille ready to float off down the Niagara and Brent holding onto the side straining like crazy, (and realizing a boat ladder is just one more thing we need to buy for the boat!)

He makes it in by sure grit. The dark clouds are rolling in and they start motoring back to the marina about 5:30. Now the wind has come up like crazy and I haven't heard anything from them since I called with my warning. I head off down the street to take a look and the wind about blows me over.

Ten minutes of wild winds and then a huge torrential downpour starts in. Luckily I get a call just as it is starting from Brent. They just barely made it in and now they are down in the cabin of the boat waiting out the rain. Another family that was also out at the island after he left is later brought in by the Coast Gaurd. Good thing I was watching the news. The weather changes so suddenly here.

Anyway that is how it has been all week. We get a storm or at least a big rainfall everyday. It has been great for my vegetable plants, but horrible for sailing.

We risked it again on Monday for Family Home Evening. First we stopped at the marina and made a few purchases: a ladder, adult life jackets and FLARES! Then we watched the clouds roll in AGAIN! We had just got the mast all rigged up but decided with so many dark clouds we better wait. So we walked down and had dinner at the nearest McDonald's and Brent hoped for some perfect weather. By this time a couple hours had gone by and I was ready to go home. But I didn't say anything. When we returned we sat and debated for another 20 minutes. A couple drunk fisherman came over and laughed at the sailor and all his children. They assured Brent that this storm was going to blow over us and we should go for it. Brent agreed with the drunks and off we went into the water about 6:45 p.m. with dark clouds raging all around. (Later we heard that much of the area just 10 min away got golf ball size hail during this time period.) We just barely got out in the water and it started to pour on us. No big deal, the sailor told us since we have a cabin aboard.
We all hunkered down and I thought about how bad this cabin and future sleeping quarters needed to be cleaned. As soon as the sun came out, the wind died. So Much for Sailing. Instead we stopped again at Strawberry Island. Everyone was scared to get out into a freezing river. It became a necessity however when the sailor accidentally got our rope wrapped around the motor. He made some joke about maybe we won't be able to motor back after all. And if we can't sail I guess we camp here for the night. After a few minutes of coaxing we got Savannah into the water and she untangled the motor. By then she was enjoying the water so we threw all the girls in and they swam over to the sandy shore. But no sooner did we get them all in and we heard thunder booms and we were yelling for them to all get back in the boat.
I won't tell you the rest of the motoring back and taking down the mast story. Just know that it is only a mile but it was almost 9 by the time the mast was down again and we were all back in the car soaked with rain.

So how do I feel about the sail boat now? I was amazed by Brent and his attitude about all the work it takes to sail, especially with a family. It takes a 1/2 hour to take the mast down and we didn't even have the sails attached. I know now that I am completely naive about sailing (even though we never got to sail) and my husband has a different sense of fun than I do. Not that I didn't enjoy our little trip, but if I had been in charge of all the decisions, work, and disasters, I seriously would have had a breakdown. I am really good about those. But when I am with this sailor I always just let him worry about the problems and feel completely safe. I have learned from experience that with him we always sail safely through. Even with out a sail or a motor and above the Great Niagara Falls, he will bring us home.

The two pictures above are:
Caroline swimming safely in her life jacket staying far away from the rushing current.

Camille and Savannah towing us back in so we don't float away from the island in the current. I'm glad I didn't wear my suit or I would've been out there doing all these jobs.

Our boys

Here are father and son a couple months ago. We had just gotten back from our trip to Washington. Brent hadn't seen Marcus in 2 weeks and these are also his first smiles for Daddy!

Still thinking about Fathers

Jeremy, Kashann, Alainna, Dad, Mom, Grandma Delores, Grandpa, Candice, Ciana, Spencer
Summer 2007 in La Grande, OR

My Grandpa is a jack of all trades. In an earlier life when I was a kid he lived in a nice house over looking the Columbia River. In his spare time he golfed, built wooden toys for his grandchildren, and took us fishing.

Now many years later he is a 80 year old rancher and cowboy poet. He has gone back to what he loved as a boy, being with his ponies. He married a wonderful woman who yodels and plays the guitar. He stays busy with his horses, building miles of fences, playing chess with anyone who stops by, Kissing Every single bride, reciting his poetry, telling his "questionable" jokes, and Trying to keep the rest of his digits. Grandpa, We Adore you! You are a one of a kind grandpa!

Summer 2007 Reunion

My parents with their 13 grandchildren (now 14)

And their grown up children. My brother Spencer on the left is a handsome fellow in real life and is not retarded, as he may appear here. He just is always really retarded about taking pictures. Look at the camera, buddy.

We have so much fun when we get together! This is why I keep having kids. So my children can have as much fun someday as I get to now. I love all you guys. Thanks Mom and Dad for giving us each other!

We All Miss you Grandpa Fielding!

Even Marcus is upset about it! Happy Father's Day!

Dad, you missed my little father's day tribute during my talk at church today. Said some great things about you. Just thought I would say Thanks for:
-Putting up with kids way worse than these.
-Footing the bill for all my accidents in the suburban, cordoba, blue truck, cavalier, neighbor's snowmobile. . .
-The visa at Ricks
-Insisting I read my math book every time I had homework and refusing to give me any help
-Throwing our TV off the cliff for the sake of good parenting
-Endless piano concerts of Malaguena (sp?)
-Building me those monster closets so you could point out every night that every single door/drawer was open
-Teaching me to swing dance on Daddy Daughter dates
-Planting a 6 acre lawn so I could work full time and earn all my spending money in the backyard
-Finally installing monkeybars for your daughter after many years of begging and being stuck with only circle pivots for all my tricks
-Constantly replacing the garden hoses I chewed up while mowing
-Also calling the cable guy after I cut through our satellite cable while pruning
-Never doing any laundry or housework so no matter what Brent does he looks good
-Enduring my boring ballet recitals
-Encouraging Brent to take me off your hands

Reliving Christmas 2006

These Christmas gifts have just sat around gathering dust for the last year and a half. Around our house a karaoke machine is way more exciting than battery operated cars. Thank goodness for Marcus. Brent and I have probably spent an entire week of our lives just sitting on our couch being entertained with homemade plays, ballets and musical programs.

So for Father's Day Brent dusted off some old toys and took the kids to the empty parking lot at the end of the street. Camille is riding the 3 wheeler we picked up for $2 at the thrift center. Brent hooked it up to the battery for his cordless drill and it was as good as new Christmas morning. Runs for about 30 minutes.

We also gave them 2 race cars that same Christmas. They have been out of the house only three times since then. Today we did them all at once and had lots of collisions. After about 10 minutes of being chased by a 3 wheeler and being rammed by her sister's race cars Caroline went running for the safety of home.

And then we all came home and sang "Happy Father's Day". We have an awesome Daddy at our house.

He is all about having fun. Every day is a party with him around.

Someday when these ladies all grow up and quit driving him crazy with all the girly stuff I think he is going to be one spoiled Papa.

Too many Kids?

After getting the other four children to bed last night, it was so nice to just feed and cuddle Marcus. When you have 5, it is a rare and wonderful luxury every time you get to have some peace and quiet with just one. Marcus has been spitting up like MAD lately and leaving him and I completely soaked constantly. The last hour of his day he spent in a wet onesie screaming for some food/love/attention as he was carried and dumped from room to room as we got the other kids into bed. Such is the life of the 5th child. Brent was also helping with teethbrushing etc., but anyone who has several kids knows that there are never enough hands when it comes to this nightime ritual.

Kennon had been sick with a fever and moping about all day, taking her temperature hourly and giving me regular reports.

First Savannah got stuck with dinner dishes and thought it was the worst thing that could ever happen to her, and if someone loved her they would help her. Then she burnt her finger on the hot pan of vinegar taffy we made for family home evening and spent the last 2 hours of her day screaming in pain.

And then the youngest two, Camille and Caroline were so frustrated that we skipped the FHE game because of the late hour, and then they didn't get their good night story because there were 3 others hollering for me.

How come even when I am really making it a priority to reach out and be there for my children I still can't keep them all happy with their mother all the time? There are just too many. Every single one of them told me that I didn't care about them last night!

By the way, I am not saying that I had more children than I could raise correctly or that my children are suffering from neglect. From time to time they each have to just wait their turn and in the end I think it's going to be a good thing for them, right? I know that I have never wished that my parents had 2 instead of 7 so I could be more of a priority. Big families are so much more fun but definitely a lot crazier at bedtimes and from my experience subject to way more contention.

And I don't have all the answers when it comes to being a wonderful parent. There are so many times when both Brent and I just throw up our hands and think, "What are we doing wrong?"

We have great kids that we love them so much. But they don't always make parenting easy on us. Did we raise them this way or were we just dealt some tougher kids?

This Sunday Brent and I will be speaking for the Father's Day Sacrament Meeting. I am grateful to be reading about becoming a better parent because I can always use a brush up course. Brent hasn't got to the grateful part yet. He is still muttering about his Father's Day being ruined.

Here is something I read this morning while studying for my talk. I hope it is a good reminder for other parents out there.


President Gordon B. Hinkley, " You need more than your own wisdom in rearing your children. You need the help of the Lord."
and "Never forget that these little ones are the son's and daughter's of God and that yours is a custodial relationship to them, that he was a parent before you were parents and that he has not relinquished his parental rights or interests in these little ones. "

So there is help available, we just need to ask.

Our Day at the DairyAg Festival

Yesterday was so fun! Who knew small towns could put on such a great party? We especially liked the battle of the local churches to give out the most freebies. We had roast beef sandwiches thanks to Faith Assembly, face painting and dozens of water bottles every time we passed by courtesy of New Fellowship, snow cones/ popcorn/ crafts/ balloons thanks to the generous parishioners of Faith Baptist Church. I apologize if I got some of those mixed up but either way you were all great. There really are a lot of very nice people in small towns . Maybe we 'll find a little town like this and settle down after we get through the next 2 years.

One of the highlights of the day was entering our girls in their first track meet.

Camille and Savannah on the starting line of the 55 meter. Camille was pretty proud of her second-place ribbon. Lucky for her there were only two girls in her age group. Savannah ended up with a first-place in the 400 and a second in the long jump.
Kennon scrambled for second in the 100m. She was reluctant to run on a hot, humid day until I told her I'd give her a dollar if she won. Luckily she lost by a hair.

Judging from the way the local girls could run I could tell they must go to schools where they believe in recess. After not having recess for 2 years our girls were at unfair disadvantage.

Free Ice cream!

Brent doesn't like to toot his own horn, but you are looking at the 2008 Springville Ice Cream Eating Champion! Lucky for him his sister in law Andrea wasn't in the challenge or he'd have to settle for 2nd place.

In about 3 minutes Brent consumed 3 times the amount that his ice cream machine puts out each time that it feeds our whole family. And with absolutely NO Brain Freeze. What talent! And even more impressive, he still had room for his prize- A gift certificate for a local restaurant. Somehow he was able to consume his fair share of the $10 worth of fries we ordered at the drive through on the way out of town.

And just in case you were wondering I am the woman behind the camera, not the woman behind the champion above.

Brent was too anxious to be clean and I missed the white face shot. He left some on his nose though and I decided not to tell him and let him walk around showing off for a while.

Our girls are all about free ice cream too! Kennon had already got her white face from Marcus for the week and decided that she would forgo the competition.

Caroline wasn't officially signed up but threw a fit once she figured out what was going on and got her own plate.

They ate it all, but not fast enough. Better get a few more ice cream machines Dad so we can have enough to practice up for next year.

After the competition the man with the scoop filled Caroline's plate again. Even then she wouldn't share any of it with me or Kennon!

Hey honey, I'm home!

Just keep the great bloggin' material coming baby! You really are the BEST!

Many of our neighbors happened to be hanging out on their porches yesterday evening when Brent brought this beast home. They watched with dubious expressions most likely muttering under their breath, "This family is insane!" as Brent sweated trying to maneuver a 25 foot boat onto our tiny driveway. I just had to break out the camera for this event. It really looked like the Niagara flooded over and carried a boat right up against our porch. He kept telling them all he had to bring it home so his wife could start buffing and painting it.

Three cheers for Dad!

My girl's think they have a giant new playhouse. Who needs to rent a bounce house when you have a 25 ft. boat on your front porch? And it even has beds and a toilet.

Unfortunately for them we decided it wasn't safe enough for playing house in the front yard. They could easily fall out and drop to the driveway below. So they'll have to wait till we get them lifejacketed up and safe in the water. Get to work buffing, MOM!

And as for Caroline, she is ready to go sailing!'

Springville Festival

If you happen to live in Western NY you might want to take a drive out to Springville for this. Mapquest says that it's 45 min. south of Buffalo.

One of Brent's dental patients this week recommended it. We are taking the kids there tomorrow. Brent is excited about the ice cream contest and the kids are looking forward to getting their faces painted. It better be good because Brent made us choose between the festival and Crystal Beach today - and we know we love that.

Rolling in the Dough

Savannah launched a new little business to our lucky neighbors this week.

Savannah's Secret Recipes
Freshly Baked Bread
$2.50 a loaf

Savannah has always been somewhat of an entrepreneur and has all the guts to go with it.

She reminds me of her Dad.

So Brent thought he would help his little protege along and out of the blue I hear them coming up with these plans Monday afternoon. They created business cards and she distributed her business cards up and down the block Monday and came back with orders for a dozen loaves -All to be delivered today!

Now keep in mind this is Just For Savannah. It is going to #1. Teach her the fundamentals of business #2 Create some allowance for her so we don't have to fork it out so often

I wasn't exactly consulted concerning this business venture, so naturally I was a little concerned today about how our 8 year old was possibly going to go to school and still get all this bread baked and delivered before bedtime. So Brent and I got the Bosch spinning early this afternoon. We figured that we needed to make sure we knew what we were doing before we taught the techniques to her.

The bread turned out AWESOME! Savannah gave me a $1.25 a loaf for my supplies. If we do this next week she is going to have to get up early and start baking though or I am changing it to Kashann's Secret Recipes.

We'll see where this goes. I think she got a little worn out with the deliveries. I can't imagine she can handle the baking too.