New family Pictures

Hey,All,
Brandon commissioned a guy to do this picture for us. I think it will be our new family picture. . . What do you think? Some are obvious, but Lanae can go invisible. Sasha can produce fire, Tyler is like a batman, ninja type guy. I control the weather like storm in X men. . Sawyer can freeze someone. Coleman is super fast like Dash in Incredibles. Josh is "The beast" like on x men and Brandon is "The Hulk" that turns green. . . . I am liking the muscles!!
The other day, Tyler went to give Sawyer a kiss on his cheek, and he moved to the side and held out his hands and said, "Freeze," like his picture character. It was so funny.
Love you all. Kim

Nothing written in my planner

Ok, so, this is a rare and bizarre day. . . I looked on my calendar, and there is nothing there. Usually there is no more room left to write with all the football games and Lanae is a referee for the association soccer club. . . I usually have class parties and visiting teaching and when Ty has to mow our neighbors lawn and piano lessons and dentist appointments and scouting and activity day activities. . . I think I could go on and on about all the stuff that is in my calendar. . But nothing. That is very rare indeed. . . .
Just enough time for me to write another entry in my sad blog that gets neglected way too often.
So, some fun stuff is going on. Oh wait, I just actually looked at my blog to see what my last entry was. I am way behind. . . so, the rest of summer. . . We came back from Connecticut and went to our neighborhood pool just about every day of the week. 3 kids had summer school from the beginning of July to the Beginning of August. So that was a good break in the mundane for them. . . It was a good experience I think. And it was only until noon 4 days of the week. . . Manageable.. . Then August 13th Brandon's little sister got married in the Washington DC LDS Temple.. . It was beautiful. She married a guy named James. They are very cute together and will be so happy I am sure.
Only Brandon and I got to fly out for that one. We farmed all the kids out to friends in our neighborhood and ward for the night. We left on a Friday night and were back by 8 am sunday morning. Very quick trip. It had to be, because Monday morning of August 15 at 3:30 am, yes that is the am we took 9 kids plus our whole family up to scout camp.
Brandon is the scout master in our ward, so he got to spend a week with our fabulous boys at Many Point scout camp. Apparently it is the 2nd largest scout camp in the country. And on the other side of the lake was family camp. It was super awesome. We got a cabin to stay in, and activities planned for every day. camp counselors that supervised those activities and kind of took care of us. And it was super cheap. Especially for a Mom with her 6 kids. We brought our bikes and had a great time. I even saw a black bear running in the road in front of my van. Crazy huh! We were on the lake everyday either in canoe's, paddle boats, Kayak's , there was a water trampoline and swim lessons every day. We got to go fishing everyday. We roasted marshmellows everyday. That was the kids favorite part of course. I thought we would see Brandon more, but he was so involved with the boys getting their merit badges done, that we only saw him for one morning. That was on our anniversary. 15th I might add. . . But we had already celebrated by going to Europe, so I forgive him.
Bradon and I also started this new kettle bell class. There is a small gym type room a few miles from our house. It doesn't give me the cardio workout that I need, so I have been going 3 days a week , and then running 4 or 5 miles on the off days. . . But ooh, my muscles have been so sore from this class. It means I am doing something right. And I finally got new running shoes. My other ones have been giving me these nasty blisters on the ball of my foot for so long. I now have a huge callous on both feet, with blisters underneath. . . Ok this blog has taken me too long to do. Gotta get rollin. Love to all, Kim

Trip to Connecticut

Just as the school year ended, we all packed up the van, borrowed a trailer for our van from some dear friends of ours, and headed out to Connecticut. That is where Brandon's brother Justin and sister in law Megan live. We went to a campsite that had a bunch of cabins in a circle, and then a big mess hall type building at the head. Each family got their own cabin. We had a great time. Just being together with the cousins was great. We did family games of course, a 5K run. We hung out at the beach one day. Had a talent show and testimony meeting of course. We roasted marshmallows for smoores and played games until all hours of the night. We got to meet some new nieces that were born, and we hadn't been able to meet until then. They are soo cute. O f course.
We had a great time just hanging out with our family. We all took turns cooking and cleaning. It was great to reconnect with everyone and have some time to talk and see what is going on. . . It was so good to see everyone. The hardest part was saying goodbye at the end and head home. I don't think Sawyer wore his shoes at all the whole week. And I don't think he was actually clean the whole week. Just as soon as I would wash him, he would head out to the mud pit that is supposed to be a baseball diamond, and undo all the washing that I just made him go through. Ahh the joys of camping. It took me a week to wash all the dirt out of our clothes and bedding and umbrella's and camping chairs, and everything we brought basically.
The kids had a great time. Most of the week all the girl cousins got to sleep in their own cabin together, which they thought was fabulous, and the boys got their own. True to form, the girls cabin was well kept and tidy, while the boy cabin, smelled of boys by the end. Good memories though.
When we drove out to Connecticut, we got to stop off at my sister Sabrina's house. It was so great to see her, and her cute little house and her sweet boys. We had a good time looking around her town and attending a car show that was just down the street. I am so impressed with her and how hard she is trying to be a good mom, and to do what is right. I love her husband Eric as well. When you see them together, you can just see how much they love each other. It is so sweet!
The driving out wasn't really as bad as I thought it would be! The kids all did remarkably great! We took out the middle seat of our 12 passenger van, and put a fouton mattress down, so that Brandon and I could sleep while the other one drove. We took gas shifts. We would drive the van until it ran out of gas, then would fill up and switch. So, we weren't too tired at any time. He was gracious enough to take the midnight to 5 am shift both there and back. What a man!! We had a great time.

New family pics

We just got new family pictures at a park near our home. They turned out really cute I thought. take a look for yourself.

Now that's tired!!!

Tyler's solo choir part

Tyler's solo part from his school choir concert

fun winter pics

These people are crazy!!

Not really crazy per say, but If I had imagined that we would be ice fishing, ice skating, skiing, roasting marshmallows on a bon fire on a frozen lake a year ago, well, I would have thought they were crazy too!
We have done all of this in the last three months, and the latest was yesterday when a member of our ward hosted a breakfast on the ice of one of the lakes, where there was ice fishing, he had also set up 9 holes of golf on the ice. We brought our ice skates, but didn't skate this time. It turned out to be a little too cold for the little ones and we ended up going bowling instead. It was kind of funny, we had to get some eggs, and eat them , then go back and get a pancake and eat it before it froze, and then go back and get hash browns, and eat them immediately, because almost from the second it left the grill, it was freezing.
I brought an all weather umbrella that provided a little bit of relief from the wind, so all the kids where huddled under it while they ate their breakfast.
Last week we had a slight melt down, where the temperature got all the way up to almost the 50's. It seemed there was a river of water down our sidewalk from all of the melting snow. Of course then at night it froze again, so by morning it was the river of ice. We actually got to see parts of our grass in the front yard where show had melted off. We began thinking of spring and getting excited for the time when we could fling our doors open, allow the kids to run in and out and swat the mosquito's that try to suck our blood.
But alas, as we speak, another winter storm has come through, and our whole world is once again being buried in a foot or two of snow that we have to plow and force our way through.
I am grateful for people who are willing to go out and brave the elements anyways. . . It is hard being locked up in your house for months at a time. . . So, I am grateful for those who host breakfast's on the ice and host dinner parties and invitations to lunch. . .
On a totally different note, Our kids have been doing so fabulous! This has been a really good move for most of the kids. I think it was hardest for Lanae who had a really good base of friends that she was leaving behind. But, Tyler's grades have improved dramatically. There are some great guys here his age that will help lead him on the path of truth and right.
All of the rest of our kids are finding friends and doing well in school. Alia loves her pre-school, and along with Josh will be in a spanish immersion school where they speak nothing but spanish. Josh is in kindergarten this year and learning so much! It is so fun to have him come home and ask, Do you know the Spanish word for _______. . . . It is something different everyday. My favorite was, do you know what the word Cho-co-la-tae means? We were like. . . . Chocolate? Yea, that one is universal! Yum!
I love our house, and I love our neighborhood! We have a fabulous ward that are so kind and loving. Brandon's cousin's Barb and Brig white just moved here a week ago, and their first day at church got three dinner invites. Good people! Really good people here.
A week ago as well, we went skiing as a family. There is this little hill, that I would scarcely call high that they use for skiing. The bunny hill is a slight down hill grade. When we first got there I walked past it wondering where the bunny hill is, thinking it has got to be steeper than that! This place we went to is Called Highland it is maybe 15 minutes from our home, so we came home for lunch and dinner, but were skiing the rest of the day.
It was so fun to see how timid they were at the beginning of the day, and how professional they were by the end of the night. Their fist time skiing, and by the end were going down the really steep hills, off the jumps and through the skate park where the professionals were perfecting their skills.
It was so classic, before we left to see Sasha come and ski sideways close to us, stopping right in front of us,"Hey Mom, . . Did you see me catch some air on that last jump?" Their first day of skiing. it was so wild. Josh was even very good. Although he wasn't as daring as the older ones. He still did a good job and was gunning it down some of the slopes ahead of me.
Tyler got to go skiing with his school for a PE field trip, and then again with the scouts to get his winter sports merit badge. Lanae got to go to a 3 day adventure on Long Lake about 3 hours north of us for her school field trip where she cross country skied, did science experiments on the lake to see the effects of humans on the water.. . Stuff like that. It is definitely an adventure here.