Future Memories

- One day, last week, (I can't believe I forgot to post about this!!!  It's SO phenomenal!!)  Erika snapped her cute little fingers on accident!!  I totally jumped on it and made a big deal, so she got all shy, but then the next day she did it again, TWICE, while pointing to the blanket she wanted.  It was SO COOL!!!  Since then she has done it off and on, just for my reaction I think :)  It's the coolest trick ever though!  If only I could get her to do it on command better.  She's really not a circus monkey.

- We made it to Park Day- Monday; Movie Day, How to Train Your Dragon- Tuesday; Wednesday I went and helped at the Care Center while Charity babysat everyone else for the hour and 15 minutes (a VERY long hour and 15 minutes for her); another Park Day-Thursday with my Mom, Sarah and her boys, and Steve- we got to pet and feed some horses while we were there, and the girl that owned the horses looked really familiar, but it wasn't til a few days later I realized she was one of my swimming students :)  How crazy that I even recognized her when it's been almost 15 years, she looked EXACTLY the same, and her mom actually did too... older, but the same.  I remember her and her little brother so well for some reason..... anyway....; Friday was our lunch out with Steve, shopping for Father's Day gifts, and then Kelly's dress rehearsal.  So much to do, so little time to blog about it.

- Saturday was so weird.  Nate and I had had a VERY long night with Erika.  Much like one I had with her earlier in the week, and things just seemed to add up with having the cramps of death, plus allergies, plus the lack of sleep.... just not a good combination.  So anyway, we were just done by Saturday, and somehow managed to sleep in til 11:00 (I say sleep in, but we were awakened hourly at least :) just for all you crazies out there that took that as actual SLEEPING), it was still nice though.  The girls surprised us with breakfast in bed.  Though it was ham sandwiches, apples, and fruit salad, so I think it was more like lunch in bed, especially considering the time of day :).  It was very nice.  We were both pretty tired though.  We had a hard time getting going, and the kids seemed unmotivated as welll, but we FINALLY got out of the house around 3:00, and we headed down to Boondocks for some family fun.  That place was a TOTAL blast!!  I had no idea how much fun we could have there.  Next time we go, we will plan for more time, aka: get our rooms cleaned quicker so that we have more time to play, leave Noah and Erika with someone who will provvide them with more fun than that place does, and.... well, that's all.  We really all had a great time.  Couldn't have asked for more.  Charity kept telling me that "this is the most exciting day of my life!"  Who needs Disneyland.... I mean really :)

Future Memories

- Our ward did a little "Neighborhood Walkabout" where everyone goes to one of two houses, eat goodies, talk, and then mosey on over to the other house for more eats and more visiting.  I was unmotivated to go, but I had signed up to bring cookies, so we went.  It turned out to be a lot of fun!  And a good time to visit with our ward.  I still feel like we're newbies.  We got to talk a lot with the Summers.  They were the other family at Kelly's baptism.  So that was nice.  I really like them a lot.  The kids ran around like crazy, probably not keeping the Sabbath day holy, but we all had a good time.

-Monday, the first day of Summer, was a little rough.  It's always a little tricky to figure out how things need to go in the morning.  I'm always torn between wanting to let the kids relax and veg, but wanting them to still do their jobs and keep their rooms up.  It's hard for me for some reason!  So anyway, we finally got going around 12:00 and took our "walk to the candy store" that Luke had been planning for 3 days.  Ace Hardware has a candy section with really cheap candies that little kids can buy with the change they find laying around the house :) so that's a pretty fun thing to do now.  Charity and Brad are still doing the no candy thing so they got to have donuts from Dick's.... fair? probably not, but whatever...  Anyway, it was a lot of fun.  Brad rode his bike, Kelly rode Luke's scooter the way there, then let him ride it the last half of the way home.  Luke walked and held my hand.  Charity pushed the stroller with Noah in it and I helped Erika.  She walked for quite a while and then got mad that Noah was in the stroller (I would have too!) so I ended up carrying her on my shoulders.  It's really a lot closer than I had thought, and if only I'd thought about the rainbow slushy stand that is just a little further, it could have been a REALLY productive walk!  jk.  We stopped at Tolman Elementary's playground on our way home.  It started getting kind of stormy and really windy while we were there, so the 3 boys needing to go poop was kind of a relief.... we were able to go home.  We got honked at a few times so we must have some fans out there :).  After our walk home, Lukey got invited to Carter's house.  That was pretty exciting!  He seldom gets invited to his friends' houses.  I walked him up there and got to talk to Sarah and Tina on the way.

- Tuesday and Wednesday were both filled with nagging and having friends over.  Still no car.... but we're still alive....

- Wednesday night around 7:00 Erika threw up.  Always a bummer.  She was totally sweet and cuddly all night.  Around 11:00 Luke came down and blew chunks all over the place.  He was a sweetie all night too.  We watched about 20 episodes of Phineas and Ferb.  Somewhere in there, I sneaked off to bed.  Nate was my hero and took care of all the clean up from all of the vomitting.  He's so good at that.  It's always really devastating when I have to take care of that stuff on my own.  He's so good to me. 

- Thursday was a lay around and veg day for sure.   I was tired, our two sickies were tired, and everyone else was just taking advantage of the opportunity to skip out on all of the regular responsibilities.  We watched a lot of TV and I forced everyone to go play outside about 20 minutes before it started raining, so we came back in and watched some more TV and played some more games.  It was actually really a nice day.  Luke fell asleep around 1:00 and didn't wake up until around 7:00.... he obviously needed some sleep.  Erika was pretty cuddly and needed to be held pretty much every second.  Not different from other days except that I felt the need to really hold her.  I can't help but wonder if she gets sick so that I will stop everything and just hold her because she really does need that..... hopefully it's not all that..... Thursday night, I started feeling really weak and tired and shaky, then Charity too, and then Kelly came down around 11:00 sobbing about her legs hurting, so we watched Tangled.  Hopefully she's not too sick.  Might be one of those illnesses where the younger ones handle it one way and the older ones a different.  We'll see I guess!

- Friday night, still feeling like crap and wondering what in the world this bug is!!!  I haven't thrown up like Luke or Erika, but my energy has been completely sucked out of me!!  It's been nuts.  And I have this dumb screaming headache that gets worse everytime Erika screams which happens to be quite a bit tonight.  Luckily Nate is having mercy on me and took on getting her to sleep tonight so that I could come down to the cool basement and.... well, I was going to lay down, but got stuck sitting here.... so blog I guess.  Anyway, I wanted to tell about what the kids did today.  Starting with some maracas that Kelly made from some plastic cups, and an oatmeal box drumb, they made a band.  They did their band off and on today and then for the last half of the evening worked on a "show" and making tickets and popcorn and all that jazz.  So they passed out the tickets and we all went to the show.  It was mostly drumbs, but they had put it to music, so it was pretty well thought out.  I was impressed.  The drumming probably wasn't the best thing for my head, but anything for my kids.  It's been a while since they did this (probably because of the busy school year) so it was a fun change.  I love to watch the little ones clap for them and get all into it.  Noah took it very seriously and held onto his popcorn ticket for dear life.  Lukey got upset because he wasn't allowed in the performance room until it started, and so he came late, but he was very respectful during the show and loved sitting on Daddy's lap.  Erika danced around.  Brad got into it all with the girls and they really made him feel welcome and part of it all.  Kelly had even hurt her heel and her tailbone, so she was limping and grunting everytime she would move a way that hurt, but she stuck it out!  If you know Kelly you know that had to take some serious dedication to the performance!  She was a wonderful announcer!  I'm thinking we need to get Charity a drum set!  She would be an awesome drummer.
As a side note, before the show started, we were all downstairs waiting, and at one point Erika came walking down the hallway toward the Family room, holding her baby doll and her blanket in her arms, and I realized that she was totally bouncing her baby.  And rocking her as she would sway.  It was SO cute!  THEN she totally started singing to her.  Not words I know, but a very sweet little tune.  She grabbed the little doll bouncy seat, set her baby in there, smothered her with a blanket, and then turned to me with her finger up to her lips and said, "shhhhhhhh".  I just about died!!  She looked like such a cute little midget mommy!  I love it when kids can grasp something like that, and show that gentlness and love that they hopefully feel from us.  Makes me feel like they feel that from us anyway, and that's always very reassuring.  Anyway, I thought it was sweet.  Had to share it.

- Saturday was a lazy day.  We did get out of the house though, finally!  We had been needing new chains and swings for our swingset, so we got some chains at Lowe's (and walked around and dreamed about what we will do with our future house.... something I am feeling less and less enthusiastic about as it seems to be farther and farther away....), they were out of swings, so we are still swingless.  But we ran to a couple more stores, grabbed some food to barbecue and headed home.  Kelly was anxious to get home to play with her friend Jaycie, and it was such a nice day!  I thought it was time for haircuts for the boys, so as Nate grilled, I stood there just a few feet away and cut the boys' hairs.  Maybe that's gross?  Not sure.  But anyway, as we were outside, Grandpa Hatch showed up with some things we so carelessly left at his house, and stayed to play with us for a while.  It was a lot of fun to have him over.  And out of nowhere Steve showed up too!!  So we all visited til grandpa thought of an acceptable excuse to leave (apparently his lawn is more important... HA!  just kidding!).  As we were walking Steve to his car, a little later, the sprinklers all came on and the kids took that as an invitation to get soaked!  Even Erika was braving the sprinkles.  It was SO cute!!  They all have their own style of having fun.  It always brings back memories of past years when the sprinklers are on.  Lots of good times.  Noah was especially cute this time, he came out by us, to put his feet in the gutter, then slipped, fell on his knees on the edge of the curb, rolled around, got back up and then as he ran past me, back to teh sprinklers, I heard him mummbling, "didn't stop. didn't slowdown."  Like he was checking off a list.  It was really really cute!!  And I was REALLY proud of him, he totally could have milked that one, it looked bad!  But he was so tough!!  Erika fell a few times in the gutter as well, and the one time, Nate ran over and grabbed her up so fast, I think THAT scared her more than the fall, and she got really mad until he put her back down in the water.  Kinda funny.  Such different little people we have :).  The girls had to keep showing me the new wet spot on their clothes, and Brad and Luke were just off doing their thing, I hardly saw them.  Noah came back out after going in to get dressed (probably realized he didn't have any jammies out) completely naked!  You don't realize how much of a farmer tan your kid has until their out in the middle of your driveway, with nothing but their tanlines on!!!  SO CUTE!!!  I think every one of our kids has done that too :).... so they're not so different afterall :).  Anyway- fun night.  Good times.

The big kids are home!!!

As much as I feel like this first week of Summer has been less than ideal (with no car, sick kids, etc.) I have LOVED having my big kids home!!  They add a whole new element that has been missing since August of last year!!  I appreciate their constant help with their younger sibs, and the fun ideas that they come up with to entertain each other.  I LOVE that my girls will play board games and card games with me.  It's like having girls camp all over agian ;).  Thursday was a pretty boring day, with all the sickies and rain and so on, so this break in the clouds really brought the kids outside and lots of fun ideas.  This particular one was their "Spy Fort Camp".  It was similar to an obstacle course, but with a spy element and club meetings and stuff.... very creative if you ask me.  The big kids focused on that, and the little ones just ran around getting in the way :).  Luke was dead asleep on the couch so he is not in any of the pictures.  I probably should have changed my lens, I was too close to really get a good picture of it all, but I mostly just wanted to get some pictures of the big kids being home again!!  They're so fun!

 

I don't know how Erika has survived without Kelly and Charity to round up all the neighborhood animals for her enjoyment.  It's been really fun to see her with them.

Kelly Dressed in White

Kelly's big day, June 4th 2011, was a really special day!  We spent the morning getting things all ready. I tried really hard not to be stressy or let Kelly feel any stress.  I hate the thought of them remembering their big day as Mom being totally stressed out.  So anyway.  We got to the church a little before 3:30 and took our pictures and got all situated.  When we went into the dressing room to put our stuff in there, Kelly accidentally stepped her barefoot into the font!  We got a good laugh about her trying to get baptized early.  She loved that she had done that :)  It was cute.

There were some problems with Jocelyn's clothes, so we got to sit there for quite a while, just waiting.  I LOVED the time to relax and take a few deep breaths so that I could just enjoy the baptism.  I was really grateful for the blessing in disguise.  All the moms with little kids to entertain probably didn't like it that much.  All the Grandpa Hatches with little Erikas on their laps too for that matter!!  Which I might add was REALLY nice!  I got to sit by Kelly and Nate and enjoy the whole program from the front row with very little distraction.  Grandma Ruthie gave a talk about Baptism, then we moved into the baptismal font room, Jocely went first because she is older.  Then Kelly!!!  The Spirit is SO strong when someone gets baptized, but even more so when it is your own daughter.  She was so cute and sweet the whole time.  And she really just seemed so innocent.  It's hard to believe she is at the age of accountability.  She will do so good with her new responsibiliity though.  She has taken it very seriously and I love that.  It was fun that Jocely and Kelly got to get baptized the same day.  They're good friends.  I really loved our few little moments that we had, just Kelly and me, after she got baptized and was getting dressed.  I was worried that we wouldn't get that alone time, but it worked out.  She was so cute and giddy.  She was so excited about her pretty dress.  After she got dressed, we beat Daddy (by a long shot) into the Relief Society room for the confirmations.  So once again, we got to just sit and think for a little while again.  It was nice.  There was a talk by Jocelyn's Grandma about the Holy Ghost.  I think it was perfect that she talked about a stuffed kitty of Jocelyn's.... that had to really grab Kelly's attention I'm sure.  Then they were both confirmed.  I love listening to my kids receive blessings through the priesthood.  I tried to pay really close attention because I've always felt like it can gvie me some insight into my children.  I love the Spirit that is there during a confirmation especially.  The words are so powerful.   I think Kelly is going to take this seriously.  Hopefully we've taught her all that she needs to know and gotten through to her :)  She seems to get it.  What a neat experience it all is for Kelly and for our whole family.  She's setting the example for her little brothers and sister, that's for sure!

Kelly and Jocelyn Summers the baptism candidates

After the baptism everyone came over for food.  It was a lot of fun.  And such a relief to be able to have it at our own house, in our own HUGE backyard!  We're gonna be too spoiled by this backyard I'm afraid.  I think things went really well!  Here are

pictures of some of the guests.

Noah and Jarom entertained Becky and Darren.... makes me laugh just looking at this picture!  Funny little boys.

Erika's headband got turned around in this crazy position, and then she just pranced around looking like a little loon the whole time.  She made some hilarious faces while I was taking her picture.... those will be in the next edits post.

I'm hoping to have Kelly write about how her baptism day was for her.  She's asleep right now, but we'll get to that soon.  I want to have memories of her day from her perspective.

Problem kinda solved....

*** So Nate and I convinced myself to move the sidebar (I couldn't just get rid of it, I moved it to the bottom if anyone else cares :).  I figure I'm the only one that cared about it.  Now you don't have to scroll to the right.  BUT if there's anyone out there that knows a lot about the html code for the blog, and knows how I could widen it that way, I would LOVE your input!!!  I'm lame sentimental, so it's hard to change things.... I need to work on that maybe!!!***

Does anyone know how to widen my blog so that you don't have to scroll to the right to see the full picture?  I know i can make the template different so that the sidebar isn't there, but I'm too attached to it.  And shrinking it didn't seem to work either.  Is there a way to make the whole blog wider?  Just thought I'd put that out there, just in case someone reads this and knows ;)  Thanks!!