Us at the Ferguson Reunion

Saturday the 28th was the Ferguson Family Reunion. 

Right after we got there Luke tasted the sweet victory of slinking across the monkey bars all by himself!  We had to get some pictures.

he fell a few times, but we were all VERY impressed with his ability :)  He stuck with it pretty well too....

Luke's sisters know how cool it is to master this art, they were really proud and excited for him.

I love having a picture of this face of Luke's.  That's the face he makes when he conquers something.  Doesn't want to look TOO proud, but still bursting at the seems with a new found confidence.

And of course, Kelly clapping for him :)

Susan and Allan were in charge of the reunion this year and they did a really good job especially considering the wind!  The wind really was insane.  It actually blew over cans of pop while we were trying to eat.  The plates were just flying all over the place.  Garbage cans too.... it was a little frustrating.  Especially since it put an end to the "Minute to Win it" Games idea.  My kids were totally bummed when they found out we weren't doing games and prizes.... me too.

But for the drink they made homemade Root Beer!!!  Pretty fun.... can't ya just smell the root beery flavor pouring out of the cooler!!!  mmmmmmmmmmm

I wish I took more pictures of everyone there, but here are a few. 

This family is so awesome.  They all love each other so much.  And it's crazy to think of what they've all been through together and apart, and yet they still manage to get together every year and enjoy one another's others company

Showing off babies.... love that.

I had an interesting conversation with Ione this year.  I was asking her what she thought about me doing my Nana's temple work now that it's almost been a year.  I have been meaning to ask Nana's siblings, the few that are still here, and her kids and until the reunion I had only asked one kid.  And that hadn't gone so well, "no, I think she would be really mad at you if you did" wasn't exactly the answer I was hoping for.  But Ione was cute about it.  She said that she thought Nana would be okay with me doing it because I wanted to, and she would want me to do what I want.  Kinda funny.  I've still got a few more people to ask, and then wait for the one to change their mind..... but I think that I'm okay with it taking a while.  I hope the nagging need to get it done can subside just a bit since it's out of my hands, but I think that it will happen when she is ready and when it is time.  Another chance for me to learn patience.

I've always felt so privileged to say that "I'm Dan's daughter" at these reunions because EVERYONE knows my Dad.  Everyone loves my Dad.  He's really one of the family favorites.  It's always made me feel like I'm in the popular crowd kinda :) 

this is Kelly's talent :)

I know it's cheesy of me to say this (or feel it for that matter) but I just LOVE reuions!!!  I look forward to them so much.  I know you're supposed to pretend like they're lame and boring, but I just can't.  I was telling Nate how much I like reunions, trying to figure out what it is, and realized that there really isn't much that would keep me from a reunion.  I've only missed the ones that happened while we were in Alaska, and I don't ever plan on missing it.  But I still don't know quite what it is.  I love to see family.  I love that we have family.  I can't say I didn't miss and think about Nana the ENTIRE time we were there, and wish that she was there showing off my kids to her family, but that time is past.  I loved that Gloria and Ike still remember that our Noah and their Noah are only a couple of weeks apart, and it was fun to find out that Kiera adopted another baby whose birthday is only 2 days after Erika's :)  Fun stuff.  It's always good to see Helen and marvel at the fact that she remembers everything even though she's almost 90.  And then reminisce on that drive up to Bambi's wedding and down through Yellowstone for hours on end :)  She cracks me up.  Everyone there is just cool to me because they're related.  That's all there is to it.  I'm glad that we still do the reunions and that my kids can be a part of the awesomeness.

Future Memories

- Erika got her 3rd tooth Sunday 8-22-10, the top left.  It's big!  I'm sure she'll look adorable in it :)  I love baby teeth.  She's getting really active and crawling all over the place now.  It feels like there wasn't a day where she "started crawling" it's been like a whole week or so that she's been kind of testing out and not sure if she liked it.  Today 8-27-10 was actually the first day I've seen her crawling with a smile on her face, so I think things will be looking better for her here :)  She will be able to get around and do a little more on her own, which I think she will embrace.

- The second day of School, 8-24-10, Kelly got a BLUE SLIP!!!!  She's number 8 on the Principal's 200 Club.  It was pretty exciting and pretty darn cool to be getting one on the SECOND DAY!!!  Kelly's teacher really likes her. 

- 8-26-10 was Back to School night.  For some reason it's still bugging me that they had it AFTER school started.  Seems off, but whatever.  It was a lot of fun to go see the girls' classes and meet the people they have spent the last 3 days under their care.  They both have really great teachers.  Mrs. Rice said that Charity is already just more than she can handle as far as finishing her work early and needing more to do :)  It's funny because I have the same problem at home with her :)  She has a lot of fun things planned for the kids this year, I'm excited for her to experience 3rd grade.  They have their own class money and plans for auctions, the claw, lots of good stuff.  Charity's loving it.  Kelly's teacher, Mrs. Rafferty, is brand new to Holbrook and is really sweet!  I love her.  She too is struggling to find things for Kelly to do.  She said that she felt bad because Kelly came up and asked if she had to keep reading (since she had been reading ever since she finished whatever it was they were doing) and because Mrs. Rafferty wasn't planning on anyone being done so quickly, she just didn't know what to tell her and said that yes, she had to keep reading.  It was a funny story in person.  Anyway.  They have a lot of fun ahead too.  Kelly's lucky because she sits in direct line of the cooler fan.  That school is SO HOT!!!!  I don't know how they all do it there.  I would be so irritable just from the heat if it were me.  Somehow they manage!  We learned too late that the Kindergarten teachers weren't going to be there for Back to school night, much to Bradley's dismay.  I did get a chance to meet Mrs. Savage, his teacher on the first day, but he had wanted his Dad to meet her.  And I'm sure he wanted to show of his classroom that he had been in all of 2 hours :)  We'll have to get over there again soon for him.  I love the feeling that we are going to do better this year and get our homework done on time and have all our reading minutes recorded, and go the extra mile on all the projects!  It's just fun to think that's even possible :)  I'm hoping for a really great year though.  We've really gotta get some structure back in our lives.

- For the last couple of days I have been typing up a journal I stole of my Grandma's.  It's been SO NEAT!!!  I don't know what it is, but I LOVE reading her journal.  I find myself just craving it!!  I finished the one tonight and it's just killing me to have to wait to get more.  She was just so amazing.  And even though a lot of it is kind of mundane, just day to day stuff, it's SO FUN TO READ!!!  I keep catching myself wondering what will happen next, when I know full well where Uncle Frosty is going to get called on his mission :)  It's really fun.  Plus Grandma was a good writer.  She knows how to phrase things just right and get all the important details in without being too wordy (something I know NOTHING about!!).  She's just cool.  I hope to be able to print it all in a book sometime soon. 

- The boys' fish Water died the other day.  Someone (we won't mention any names, but we'll just say it starts with an N and ends with an OAH) left the lid off the fishy container, and tricky little Water jumped right out!  We found him dead and dried out on the counter next to his home.  The poor little guy committed suicide.  Luckily our kids are okay with it all and I don't think a tear was shed.  We replaced him promptly the following day with Fire Twisty Maynes our new red betta.  We'll see how long he lasts :)  I"m really surprised Water and Swimmy went as long as they have (or did).  Fun stuff.

- Today 8-27-10 Charity won the Watermelon Spitting Contest in her class.  I have to say as funny as it is, I'm proud of her!!  That's my girl!  She won a bag of "Lightning Bug Candy" little gummy candies that "light up" when you pinch them with the tweezers they came with.... Charity has been talking about them all night, they must be pretty cool :)  I love stuff like this :)

- It's been way too long since I made any kind of update on Nate and his job.  Everyone always asks how it's going and I'm afraid I'm always a little negative in my response.  But really, things are going well!!  We really couldn't ask for better.  Nate passed his big Eval last week, and stressed and strained his brain to pack in one last map for his map test this week and of course passed that with flying colors.  He's doing great!  It's been hard to start over, and to feel so setback, but really, the blessing of having another chance here in Utah is just huge.  I really am grateful, and it feels like things are going to go well.  He just got his new schedule for when he goes back on the floor.  We have mixed feelings about this new schedule, but overall I think it will be an interesting change for us.  I guess the hardest part will be him working Sundays.  He will have to be to work by 3:15, so he will not really be able to go to much of church.  It's really a bummer.  As much as I dread doing Sacrament meeting on my own, I really feel like he's the one that will suffer the most.  I'm hoping we can get him to another ward at an earlier time or something.  I don't know if that's something you can do or what.  But hopefully it won't be too bad.  I'm totally planning on depending on people in the ward to help me with my kids, that's kind of a given at this point.  I think we'll do fine.  We will need to change our Family nights to a different night as well since he will be gone Monday nights too.  But we've done that before and it's totally fine.  It will be nice that he has Fridays and Saturdays off, and he will only miss out on time with the kids on Mondays, unlike his schedule last year, where he missed a few days a week, going to work the same time the kids got home from school and not getting home until they were in bed.  We'll see how we like it here in a few weeks :)  I'm anxious to try it out.

The new exhibit at the Zoo!

We went to the Zoo with Annie and Lillian on Friday.  That was so much fun for me!  With the Zoo pass we've really been to the Zoo enough times now :)  The boys like it, but I think we mostly go for me.  I like the exercise and some different scenery and it usually involves someone for me to chat with :)  This time turned out to be especially fun for the boys though, because they had started on the remodel for the bear home.  We stood there for about a half hour watching them tear down some trees, move some broken up cement, the man driving the big scooper even made it wave at us!  How fun is that!  They should really make an amusement park or something for boys with just a bunch of these "working".  You could do all sorts of cool rides and exhibits.  I'm going to call Caterpillar now and tell them my ideas.

As we were leaving I realized I hadn't gotten any pictures of Lillian (nor did I hold her :*(  how sad is that!), so I made Annie walk back and get some real quick.  Gotta have my proof that we were there together :)  Actually I think of pictures as memory jerkers.  If I don't have pictures, it's harder for me to remember it happening.  Look at this cute little girl's lips!!!  She's just a doll!  I can't decide who I think she looks like most.  Annie's the cutest mom ever, but apparently people are actually reading this, so I won't go on about that and embarrass her :)  I love Annie.  I'm so happy to see her being a mom and loving it.  K, that's all I'll say :)  We got to run into my friends Ashleigh and Rachel from HS too, that was a fun little coincidence! 

And this is the ONE picture I got of all of our kids together, pretty pathetic I know, but that's it.

I feel like I should mention how out of it I feel lately without my girls here to keep me in order, this Zoo trip especially.  I'm normally a little scatterbrained, I'll admit it, but for the most part I can keep things under control.  And I do fine most of the time.  With 6 little ones that's saying a lot, so I'll give myself that :)  But Summer comes and I get all relaxed and comfortable with the girls helping and doing things for me, and organizing things, and then all heck breaks loose when they go back to school.  It's a little crazy for me.  It's like I've had a chunk of my brain removed.  Or at least it's just gone dormant or something.  I find myself wondering why nobody's told me that that's happening or that that person's missing.  They really are helpful.  I hope I haven't made them that way against their wills, I hope it's just the way they are, but either way, I do love it and rely on them so much!  I need to get adjusted back to the whole being completely in charge again.  It will happen just in time for the girls to come home for summer break again :) jk.  The boys are great, and helpful, they just don't do things on their own, they have to be told, and they're definitely not as good at keeping tabs on each other :)  But in my defense, I didn't lose anyone (for more than a minute :)), and we all had water, food, and a good time, so I think we'll make it. 

Play dough

Brad's homework involved using playdough to make his name.  So we made some playdough.  Noah and Charlie were funny with theirs, I wasn't in the room when they decided to mix their two colors together, but they sure thought it was cool :)  they were very proud of it.  It's funny to me that Charlie doesn't know how to use playdough really.  I forget how much I had to teach Charity to do when she was little and how little I teach my little ones to do now.  All the teaching is done by the older siblings.  That's what they're good for :)  I think Noah was trying to teach Charlie what to do with it, but he wasn't interested, so maybe it's not just knowing it's wanting :)  They had fun regardless.

Brad's had an interesting week, waiting to go back to school.  It's been hard on him I think.  He's struggling with that whole being a big kid in the little kids' world.... I think it will be better for him once he really starts school.  He's very anxious to go and learn how to read :)

Lukey loves play dough.  Look how happy he is :)  And his is orange of course.  His favorite color is actually "colorful" but since that is rarely an option, Orange is usually the one he chooses.  It's pretty bright, I think that's what he likes about it.  I think it's perfect for him :)

I took a million pictures of Erika since she was in the mood to smile for me :)  I love her eyes.  Can't get enough of her eyelashes and her cute new teeth.  She loved the leftover brownie crumbs I sprinkled on her tray :)

We've been watching and waiting for that tooth on the top.  It showed up Sunday-ish.  You can see in this next picture how close those other ones are to coming in as well.  She's actually done really well with the teething.  I'm surprised she hasn't been harder to deal with, she's already such a handful though, we're lucky I guess :).... she is well worth the trouble though.  I mean really, look at that face!

Noah was so tired and you'll have to ignore the boogers.... I'm not sure why I didn't notice them and wipe them off before permanently engraining them into our history.  They're gross.

It's been interesting having 6 kids, I find myself comparing them so much lately.  I've always said I wouldn't compare or group my kids into stereotypes at all.  And I still don't think it's something I should focus on, but lately it's really come in handy I think.  I've noticed a LOT of similarities between Erika and Luke (Charity fits in this group as well, but she was the first so remembering what we did then is difficutl).  They have VERY similar personalities.  It's really been beneficial to me to think back to what it was that helped him.  Luke cried a lot, needed to be held a lot, and was very frustrated with life until he was about 2. It let up a lot though, I remember, when he finally learned how to crawl and then again when he learned to walk.  He really needed to be able to get around on his own.  I remember thinking that anyway when he finally could crawl and go where he wanted.  So I have been trying my best, and spending as much time as she would let me, to teach Erika to crawl.  She FINALLY picked it up this last week, and is actually SO much more fun to have around.  She loves getting around on her own now.  And she'll still come right back to me if she gets somewhere, looks back and sees me smiling.  But she definitely has more to entertain her.  It's been nice.  And I'm really grateful for the chance to have learned from Luke.  I've also started telling her "no" when she does things that she's not supposed to.  I remember that being a difficult concept for Luke and took him a while to actually listen to.  So I'm hoping that by starting at a really early age (in my opinion) with Erika that I might be able to catch her before she gets too determined to not comply.  So far so good.  I'm sure some people would laugh at me saying, "no" to a 9 month old, but I'm willing to take that chance.  Anyway, I just think that I need to take advantage of the fact that I have all these little experimental subjects walking around and that they could really benefit from each other and the mistakes I've made with them all :)