Flash back...

For curiosity sakes, I pulled out the last five years of first days of school.

When I have more time I'll have to pull out the rest of Andrew's firsts.

These tugged at my heart strings something awful.

Where did these sweet fresh faces go?  Why did they grow so fast?

2009

Andrew 4th, Carter kindergarten

2010

Andrew 5th, Carter 1st, Colby not pictured due to crying fest.

2011

Andrew 6th, Carter 2nd, Colby kindergarten

2012

Andrew 7th, Carter 3rd, Colby 1st

Saylor…just really little and cute

2013

Andrew 8th, Carter 4th, Colby 2nd

(Please note how much Andrew grew in the past year.  He went from being one head taller than Carter to two heads taller!)

2014

Andrew 9th, Carter 5th, Colby 3rd, Saylor preschool

(Testosterone is a crazy crazy hormone my friends. Crazy!  I will blink and Carter and Colby will be big soon too!)

First Day of School!

The best day of the year came yesterday.

It was the first day of school!

The kids were up bright and early, especially Colby who was up and kicking by 6:15.  

Beds were made, lunches packed, scriptures and prayer accomplished, teeth brushed, hair combed and shoes tied all by 7:30.

For some reason, they can do this on the first day…but never again.

Colby started third grade and has Mrs. Sailors just like Carter did.

She is fantastic and I'm thrilled for Colby to excel in her class!

This kid could hardly hold still he was cracking up so bad.

Fifth grade must be really fun!

Mrs. Dahlquist is his teacher (Hurray!) and Carter was rip-roaring to go.

Ok…had to include one more of Colby.

This kid is losing his little boy look and is growing up.

My heart aches a little.

And this one?

My oldest?

Well he started HIGH SCHOOL!

What in the world?

The younger two desperately trying to be a little taller.

Don't worry boys, your growth spurts will come all too soon!  Sniff Sniff.

 Moments after the last picture was taken, Saylor girl peeked out in her pj's sporting her blanket wondering what all of the early morning fuss was about!

She is losing her summertime buddies.  Andrew scooped her up for pictures.

Colby tried to eat her up she is so cute.

But he quickly learned if you try and eat someones toes…you might get kicked in the eye.

Accidentally of course.

My four oldest offspring.

Grady was eating Frosted Mini Wheats with Steve and missed out on the photo shoot.

I'm happy to report everyone came home happy and excited about their first day.  This year is looking to be great!

Every hundred years…or three times in the past week.

Our weather has been nuts this month.

We've had a mass amount of moisture.  A few weeks ago was the "100 year" storm…but it hasn't stopped raining since then.  As I type is is cloudy and has rained all morning.

I'm not one to complain about precipitation in Idaho but WHOA NELLY I think we have enough!

Last Thursday night we got rain and hail. (Or was it Wednesday?  All these storms are running together.)

The kids thought it was fun to see how tough they could be and how long they could stand the pain and cold.  Nice helmet Carter!

The silly pictures wouldn't turn, but you get the idea of how big the hail was.

Nothing to do with the storm, but this is how kids entertain each other while waiting for guitar lessons to be over!  Sorry about your window Steve and the mess that was left…Colby might have had a cold.

This little girl was a storm in herself this week.

She caught a cold which make her asthma flare something fierce. Wednesday night I was ready to take her to the hospital, but a good doctor friend in our ward was kind enough to set us up with the correct medications to bring her back down to normal.  I am so grateful for wonderful loving kind friends!

 Lots of coughing, wheezing, watching tv, resting, breathing treatments and steroids for Saylor!

Asthma stinks.  Steroids are useful.

And for the record, Saylor is a giddy steroid child.  I was told she would be either slap happy or grumpy.  I was grateful for the super lovey darling hyper Saylor that came out.  The grumpy one would have put me over the edge.

I conquered a personal storm this week,

It was the gluten free zucchini bread storm.

I FINALLY figured out a recipe that works, looks good and tasted amazing.

Bring on the zucchini because I'm ready to bake baby!

Nothing about anything…its just really cute.

And just when we though we were out of the woods...

A whopper of a thunderstorm hit Friday night.

Nope, its not snow.  

It's hail and lots of it.

There was so much of it it ran down our downspouts and made gigantic hail mounds!

And the hail was followed by rain.

And sadly, our street has a slight drainage problem when we get MASSIVE amounts of rain all at once.

I give you Lake Cobble Creek.

I was a ball of stress when the water quickly rose up our grass and driveway.

This drainage problem is fun when the kids can play in it and it stays in the street.

It is NOT fun when it comes towards the house!

The water didn't subside until after 11pm Friday night.

And it left a dirty mess of our driveway and street and our poor neighbors had that mess clear up to their foundation and garage.

All things considered though, it could have been much much worse.

Our house was dry and mud free.

All my kids were home safe.

Matching Game

Lets play a matching game of motherhood insanity shall we?

Here are my five children:

Andrew
Carter
Colby
Saylor
Grady

Here is a list of ailments that I dealt with today as a mother.  Feel free to try and match them with the correct child to which they belong:

Uncontrolled asthma
Hysterical crying
Extreme constipation
Explosive diarrhea due to antibiotics
Diabetes anger and frustration (kind of obvious)

Today has been a kick in the teeth as far as motherhood goes.  But it has also made me grateful for the fact that my children are for the most part emotionally and physically healthy.  It also makes me grateful for wonderful ward members who are willing to give their time and effort to help my sick children…during their free time.  I'm also grateful for a cute sister missionary, while at my house for dinner, expressed her surprise that I had a 14 year old.  She thought I looked way younger.  (I honestly believe she was inspired to say that because by the end of today I felt like I was in my mid 80s.)

Tomorrow is a new day.

I will be starting it early with a massive fountain drink.  I cope my way…you cope yours.

Neglected Garden

Begrudgingly I planted a garden this year, and mostly because I knew our house would be for sale and having a gigantic weed patch in the back yard doesn't look too hot for potential buyers.

I wasn't keen on weeding and nurturing plants all summer and I have had feelings of being overwhelmed with the entire gardening process.  Bah-garden-hum-bug.  We even made our garden smaller this year by bordering it with large shrubs so you would think I wouldn't complain as much. (Ok…confession.  We really planted the shrubs because our backyard neighbors made it clear how they felt about us at the last HOA meeting and since we don't want to put in a fence, shrubs that will make a privacy barrier in a few short years seemed like the next best thing.  I found the shrubs on clearance this spring for $8 a piece.  They usually go for around $30 or $40 each.  Score! Fences and large shrubbery make good neighbors.)

So back to the garden and my complaining...

I planted low maintenance vegetables and was doing the minimal amount of work to keep them alive.  The garden was small and "surviving" until a few weeks ago when the RAIN came.

The large amount of water was exactly what my garden needed because

 Shazam!

This is what my little neglected garden looks like today.

It went insane!

Saylor and Grady helped me water today for the first time in weeks.

4 inches of rain is good for a garden!

Grady stared posing for pictures and this is his new favorite look.

Hilarious.

It's been a really good year for my fruit trees too.

My pears are HUGE and almost ready to pick.  I'm going to give them one more week before we ripen them up and enjoy.

My poor apple tree looks like its about to break in half its so loaded with fruit.  I thinned the apples on the tree more than once, and the tree is still overflowing.   When the first freeze hits we are going to be swimming in apples.

We have a few pumpkins and squash starting to grow and my kids have already called dibs on which pumpkin will be theirs to carve come Halloween.

The random sunflower seeds I dropped on the edge of our property went absolutely nuts with the rain too.

(Sunflowers make good neighbor barriers too- just saying)

I love the pumpkin vine crawling through everything.  It's taken over my potatoes and is moving onto the shrubs and corn.  I've had to move multiple vines off our neighbors property and snake them back into our garden.  

Finally, this is how our yard looks as of today.  The tent trailer and car were finally both gone so I snagged the chance take a picture without vehicles.  

Pampering, High School, More Pampering and a Little Tooth Pulling

Andrew registered for his freshman year at Canyon Ridge last week and part of registration included yearbook pictures.  Andrew was weeks past needing a haircut and Steve cried uncle.  He asked that I take Andrew to get his hair cut.

I think Andrew got a little too pampered...

and might ask for this service again.

Dad's hair cuts are free…but Brandi's haircuts are really cushy.

End of the story being, Andrew was successfully registered for high school and he looked snazzy doing so.

His activity card is handsome too.  (He will kill me for typing that!)

Friday night Steve took 4 out of 5 kids camping so I stayed home and played with my mom and sister JaNae.

We chose to have our feet pampered.

Grady hung out with Grandpa…and if eating mass quantities of chocolate chips is being pampered, then Grady was pampered too.

We finished the night with a little peach pampering.

Fresh peaches with pineapple filling is delish!  Thanks Mom and Dad!

This morning, Steve called me to have Colby come into the office.

Colby has had a snaggle tooth to challenge all snaggle teeth. 

Colby started out being pampered at Steve's office.  Cushy chairs and big tv's!

The snaggle.

The numbing!

The apprehensive little bother.

The pulling.

The bloody aftermath!

How often do you get to hold your own tooth pulling instruments?

(Those look an awful lot like our tool box pliers Steve!)

True story!

Even more of a true story!

I spent the rest of my afternoon making treats and playing card games with my oldest boys.

Happy Monday!