Taking it easy

This week has been the quietest Christmas break we've ever had. Ashley didn't end up coming at all because of a basketball tournament on the 27th. That made the week much more quiet because we're usually doing things with her. Then, Megan didn't end up coming for the few days she was going to come, either, because she's been sick. That made it even more quiet! All three of us have just been taking it easy, relaxing and enjoying the break from work. I still wish we had the girls here, too, though.

Nathan's been spending lots of time just playing with his new toys that he got for Christmas. He had a sleepover at Grammy and Grampa's this week, too. Dan took him and Branson and Kaedon to see the new Alvin and the Chipmunks movie earlier this week. Then I took him to see the Adventures of Tintin yesterday. Last night, we drove to Auburn to use a gift certificate we had for Applebee's. That was really yummy. I've been craving steak lately, so that's what I got. Nathan got two mini cheeseburgers and he just loved them. It was so cute because he was just enjoying them so much. He kept saying, "I can't eat anymore. I'm so full. Well, maybe one more French Fry." On the way home, we stopped at Petco and got 4 new fish. We only had one fish left, and he was pretty lonely. Nathan chose 2 white mollies and one orange platy and I chose a cute, chubby little goldfish. Unfortunately, one of the white ones died already. Nathan was super excited to get some more fish, though.

Oh, another thing Nathan got to do this week is try out Dan's paintball gun. Dan just got it repaired, and Santa put some paintballs in his stocking, so Dan took Nathan out into the woods and showed him how to shoot it. Dan said he had fun.

Nathan's also been playing a lot with Branson and Kaedon. They played for a few hours inside today, and I overheard the funniest conversation while they were in Nathan's room. Nathan had recently got a picture of Maisey in the mail, and it was on his desk. Branson noticed it when he went into his room:

Branson: Oh, Maisey?
Nathan: Yeah, she sent me a picture in the mail.
Branson: I see why you want to marry her. (Reading what Kris wrote on the back of the picture, he sees she is in first grade) Uh oh, she's in first grade and you're in second grade, so you can't marry each other. You have to be in the same grade to get married.

I was cracking up!

I've been working on scrapbooking stuff a lot this week. I'm almost finished with my Project Life 2011 album. I'll probably finish it tomorrow. I also printed out little thumbnails of all my digital scrapbook kits and put it in a binder. It's awesome! Now I won't forget about all the elements and background papers I have.

Nathan and I have read a couple of books this week, too. We read a book about amazing animal tales and a Pony Pals book. He loves to be read to and I love to oblige him.

Resolutions

Here are my resolutions for 2012:

• Have date night at least 2 times a month


• Give more service and reach out to others


• Exercise at least 3 times a week for at least 20 minutes


• Have regular scripture study as a family

To do List

Okay, I thought it would be helpful to write down my list of things I want to accomplish while I'm on vacation.

• Organize school bag and pocketbook


• Organize new Franklin planner stuff


• Get digital scrapbooking elements printed out


• Make new Primary binders for Nathan and I


• Read Calkins book for school


• Finish Project Life 2011 book


• Catch up on Nathan's scrapbook


• Make a meal for Juli


• Plan 2 week menu

December pictures!

Olivia was in a car accident about a week ago. Some deer ran out in front of her, and she ended up swerving and going into a ditch. Mom and I went to see her that night at the hospital. She cut her lip and sprained her ankle. She also did some other damage to her lower leg, but they aren't sure how much yet. Poor girl!

We have five baby girls at church now! All of these little girls have older brothers, so our Primary is full of boys. In fact, these five girls have 10 older brothers combined! So it's so fun that we are finally getting some baby girls. They are, from left to right, Harper Smith, Eva Gay, Cambryn Rodriguez, Sophie Atwater, and Madeline Jackson. They are all so adorable!

These are some of the cookies I made for Nathan's class party. I also made presents and snowflakes. The kids seemed to really like them.

Here's Nathan and his teacher, Mrs. Stevens, at his class Christmas party. She is such a good teacher. She's very patient and calm. All of her students love her.

Here's Molly with her adorable Santa suit. She didn't like it. It fact, you can see her ears flying around because she kept shaking herself. She sure did look cute!

Christmas

Here are some more fun pictures from the past couple of days:

Santa came a night early because we had to have Megan back to her Mom's at 8:00 on Christmas Eve. Here is Megan with her $100 bill! She kept saying, "I've never seen a 100 dollar bill!" She was pretty excited. When we asked her what she was planning on buying, she said she didn't know.
Here they were after opening their stockings and their Santa gift. It was really strange to have just the two of them. Ashley didn't end up coming because she had a basketball tournament on the 27th. It was going to cost $500 dollars to get her ticket changed. We were all really disappointed.

Here's Nathan with all of his presents from Santa, us, and his sisters. He was super excited!

I got Nathan another LEGO advent calendar this year, like last year. He really enjoyed it. It gave him something to look forward to every day. Here he is with all of the pieces displayed.

On Christmas day, in the evening, we had our party with Mom, Dad, Olivia, Felicia, Emily, Gram, Mike and Hilda. Mike and Hilda also brought a friend of theirs from church. She is from Singapore, and we had a great time asking her questions and hearing about life in Singapore. It was super interesting. Anyway, the party was really fun. Emily gave Nathan these cute antlers. It was so fun watching Nathan open his presents. Mike and Hilda gave him a debit card with $25 on it, but his face was so funny when he opened it. It was like they gave him a card with unlimited funds. He kept saying, "I can't believe I have a debit card, and I'm only 7!" The other present he really loved was a Woody doll from Mom and Dad. He'd been wanting a Woody for a long time, so he was really excited.

Recent pics

These are the adorable cookies I made last weekend. I love them!

Nathan with Santa at the Cooper family party last night

All the children at the party last night. It was pretty wild, but fun!

Three brothers with their grandsons at the Record party today! All of the grandsons were born within a couple months of each other.

Megan with her cake today. Happy 13th birthday Meggie!

Parties, parties, parties!

This weekend was so busy! On Friday night, I went to a Stampin' Up party at Kathy's house. On Saturday, we had the Cooper Christmas party. Then today, we had the Record family party at the Silver Spur, then a birthday party for Megan. I love the Christmas season, but this was a little busy. Luckily, I'm feeling better. I'd been sick for a week and a half before I called the doctor. I was having symptoms of a sinus infection, so he put me on antibiotics. I'm still not back to normal, but I'm definitely feeling better. I have never had a cold like that one! I was completely stuffed up for over a week, with no relief in sight.

I gave a talk in sacrament meeting today on bringing the spirit of Christmas into our homes. I got a few compliments, so hopefully it was okay. I felt pretty good about it.

I feel bad for Megan each year when it comes to her birthday because it's so close to Christmas that we have to squeeze in a little party. I always feel like she's getting gyped. She seemed happy today, though with our little party. We had my mom and dad come, along with Gram, Emily, Felicia and Jake, and Mike and Hilda. She got $75 in all, plus some gifts from us that she picked out herself (she's getting to that age that is difficult to buy for). I can't believe she's 13! She was only 1 1/2 when Dan and I started dating.

Ashley called tonight to say that she has to fly back to Texas on the 26th for a basketball tournament. She's only coming on the 24th! I could tell that Dan felt really hurt (I'm hurt, too). I'm not sure why we just can't seem to get really close to Ashley. I don't understand.

The kids got to open gifts at the Christmas parties we went to. Nathan was super excited about some Lego Ninjago stuff he got yesterday. Today he got a Mater Operation game, which he was excited about too. After Megan's party tonight we put together the Lego Skull Motorbike. Megan got a couple of CD's yesterday and a Justin Beiber calendar today. They both seemed happy.

For the Cooper party yesterday we met at Russel Park Manor to sing to the residents there. This was Nathan and Megan's first experience doing something like that and they were pretty nervous. It went really well, though, and the residents seemed to love it. I was so glad that Megan and Nathan got the experience of giving service like that.

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas!

I haven't written in a while, so I have a lot to catch up on. I'm just going to write about whatever pops into my mind.

We had two Thanksgiving dinners, which was really nice. We had one at my parents on Thanksgiving day, and then one the next day at Jeff and Sue's. They were both delicious and it was fun to visit with both sides. We celebrated Maddi's 5th birthday that night, which was fun. She's such a little cutie. She was so excited to open her presents. At one point, she handed me my camera, I think she was hoping that she could get things rolling. So funny! We gave her a LaLaLoopsy ferris wheel with a couple little dolls. She and Sydney both loved it.

We had our first snow day the day before Thanksgiving, so we had a nice long weekend. On the Saturday after Thanksgiving, we went to see the movie "Arthur Christmas". It was so cute! We brought Emily with us, too. The week before, we had seen "Happy Feet Two" with my mom. It was cute, but not as cute as Arthur Christmas.

Dan put our Christmas tree up on Thanksgiving morning. It looks awesome. He let Nathan put the blue candy canes on. I'm happy to let them do all the work. I love the tree, but I don't like having to put it up or decorate it. Speaking of Christmas, Nathan started his Lego advent calendar on December 1st. It's the first think he does every morning. So far, he's gotten a robber, a catapult, a policeman, and part of the jail. Not very Christmasy so far, but I'm sure there will be some decorations eventually. It's a Lego City one, so there are all sorts of different objects from the city. I also have another advent calendar up, and it has a Lindtt chocolate for him to eat each day.

Mom has been really sick lately with a really bad cold and cough. She always has a hard time getting rid of coughs. I've been sick this week, too, although not as bad as her. Each day of the week I was feeling worse and worse. I was supposed to go to a workshop in Orono on Friday, but I was feeling so badly that I decided not to go. Luckily, someone got to go in my place. Anyway, I was feeling a little better yesterday, probably because I could sleep in and just hang around the house. I started feeling worse again last night, and now I feel horrible. I stayed home from church, which is really unusual. I could have gone if I could just sit there, but I had a class to teach, piano to play, etc.

Yesterday, when I was feeling better, I made the cutest Christmas cookies! I'm so proud of how they turned out. They were sugar cookies, decorated like penguins with big sweaters on. I'll post a picture soon. I think I may have just found a new hobby. I used a new sugar cookie recipe and an icing recipe and watched some tutorials so I'd know how to do it. It was so fun.

Halloween

I just realized that I never wrote about Halloween. We went to a Trunk or Treat activity at church on Friday night. Then on Halloween night, Nathan and I went with Branson, Kaedon and Tannon down to the village to go Trick or Treating. Gus and I just walked them around. They had a blast and got lots of candy.

Trunk or Treat!

Home Sick

Today has been a restful day because Nathan and I have been home all day. He came down with a fever this weekend. Dan stayed home with him on Sunday from church. He seems to be feeling better, but I just looked in his throat and it looks horrible. Really swollen tonsils with white spots all over them. One of his friends had strep throat recently, so I thought he might get it. His throat doesn't hurt very badly, though. We'll see how he does tonight. Yesterday, he said, "I notice that when I'm sick you and Dad soften up a little." That totally cracked me up. He doesn't miss anything. I let him sleep in my bed the past couple of nights. He's been tossing and turning and moaning and talking in his sleep. I haven't got much rest because he keeps waking me up. He says the strangest things in his sleep. It's pretty funny most of the time. He said the other night, "We're gonna put frosting on that one."

I got lots of things done today, which was nice. I cleaned out my scrapbook room, which really needed it. That looks much better now. I also took pictures of a whole bunch of art projects Nathan did last year, which were too big to put in albums. I love getting stuff accomplished. I also balanced my checkbook, wrote out two checks, called a friend about an art project she wanted directions for, washed bedding, gave Nathan a bath, prepared for family home evening, got out the Thanksgiving decorations, did homework with Nathan, etc.

Nathan has been really into Legos lately. He just discovered a new Lego line, Ninjago. There are four little Ninjas and a Sensei. They have to defeat their enemies, who are skeletons. He even found a Ninjago game on my itouch. He loves it.

We've been reading a lot lately. He likes Pony Pals books, which is kind of funny because it's about three girls and their ponies. He really likes them, though. We also recently started reading Matilda. He watched the movie recently, and loved it, so I figured he'd like the book. After all, the books are always better!

No Gymnastics Today

This morning we were planning on driving to the Portsmouth ward, going to church there, then going to Megan's gymnastics meet in Dover. It would have been fun and we were all looking forward to it, but it snowed last night! We got about a foot, I'm estimating. We decided to still got to her meet, but a few minutes after we left the house Megan called and said she wasn't going today. She said the coach changed her beam routine this week and she wasn't ready. What a bummer. I don't blame her, though, because she's not one to do something unless she's confident.

So we headed back home. There was no church here because of the snow, so we are just hanging out for the day. We've read books, played games, worked on counting money, watched TV, etc. It's been a relaxing day.

Last week, I watched a movie called Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead. It was about this guy who totally changed his health by drinking juices made from fresh fruits and vegetables. I bought a juicer and gave it a go. Yesterday was my first day, but it was quite a shock to my body. I drank the juice for the morning (it was kind of gross, but I'm hoping I get used to it), then a fruity drink a few hours later. By early evening, I was feeling really nauseous and I ended up throwing up. It was just too much at once. So I ate some crackers and some soup and felt much better. Today I ate Cheerios for breakfast, a juice for lunch along with a carrot and celery with peanut butter. Tonight I'm having a regular supper of chicken tenders, mashed potato, and broccoli. Tomorrow I hope to do the two juices again, and if I'm really hungry I'll eat a snack of fruit. I'll eat a regular supper. I don't know if I'll ever do the juices all day, but in the meantime I'll alternate.

We had Gabby on Friday night and all day Saturday. She is so adorable. She talks all the time now. She was so funny. She has such a great sense of humor for only being two. She gets a kick out of a lot of things, and just goes with the flow. She loves to play with my itouch, so I let her play for a little bit while I'm holding her. I don't want her to accidentally delete something. She also likes to help me do the dishes now, which was really cute. She wanted to rinse everything with the sprayer so water was going everywhere and she put everything into the dish drainer right side up, so a lot of water stayed in everything. It cracked me up, though. One time, she walked into my room, saw the fan and said, "Nice fan you got there." I totally cracked up. When we were eating supper, she was laughing at Nathan who was being really silly. She said as she was laughing, "Nafan is trazy. My dad tells me that every day. Nafan is trazy." We were laughing so hard. We took her to the ward Trunk or Treat on Friday night, but we didn't have a costume for her. She had a great time anyway. She carried around a pumpkin and got lots of candy. She loved it.

Dan and I did some more Christmas shopping yesterday. We are almost done with it. As soon as we get home from shopping, Dan wraps everything we bought. I haven't had to wrap any presents for 10 years now, except for Dan's. He's awesome. I don't actually mind wrapping, but he always does it, so I don't complain. We try to get it all done by Thanksgiving, so we can enjoy the Christmas season.

Nathan is a vampire this year for Halloween. This is his first year being something scary. I put white makeup on his face, black around his eyes, and red under his mouth so he looked like he just drank some blood. It was a pretty cool costume, although I still like the cute and innocent looking ones better.

Matt & Margaret

Yesterday we went to Jeff and Sue's for a get-together because Matt and Margaret are here from Utah. They ran a marathon in Bar Harbor last weekend and have been here since. We had a Thanksgiving type meal, which was so delicious. It was really fun to visit with them. Nathan wrestled with Uncle Matt for quite a while. It was so funny.

On Thursday night, I finished my last class for my Masters in Special ed. I'm so excited! Now I can get back to normal life.

Mom, Olivia and Felicia are in Florida right now. I'm so jealous. They are using Mom's time share in Pompano Beach for the first time. I'm really happy for them. I bet they'll have a great time. I heard from them yesterday and they were having fun so far. I can't wait to see pictures when they get back.

Amber and Dave's wedding

Amber got married on September 23rd in South Dakota. Dan was able to go out and "give her away", but Nathan and I weren't able to go. I was really disappointed because I would have loved to be there. I'm glad Dan could go, though. He had a great time and was really impressed with Dave and Dave's family.

Happy Birthday Mom and Dad!

Yum!

Sydney, Maddi and Paige

On Saturday, Kristen and I took the girls and Nathan apple picking. Then I brought the girls home with us for a few hours. It was so fun. The girls are so cute!. We went down to the barn and tried to catch the kittens (it was pretty hard). Sydney was so funny. She kept whispering because she was trying to sneak up on the kittens. She would tell me where kittens was, but just as I'd get over there, the kitten would disappear. She kept trying, though. She has the sweetest little voice. Felicia finally caught a couple, so they got to pet them a little.

My parents birthdays were on Sep 27th and Oct 4th, so Dan and I had them over for supper last night to celebrate. We had lasagna, garlic bread and salad. For dessert, we had apple dumplings. It was yummy, except I forgot to make the sauce for the dumplings, so they weren't quite as sweet as they were supposed to be. Oh, well, they ate them anyway, so they couldn't have been too bad.

I was so glad there was no school today. I got caught up on some school assignments and it's just nice to be able to stay home. Dan's birthday is today. I asked him what he wanted for a cake and he said banana, so I made him one. It smells so yummy.

September

September was such a busy month! Nathan's soccer season was in full swing. He's had practice on Wednesday nights from 5:30-6:30 and games on Saturday mornings at 9:00. His favorite position is defense. He loves it. Anyway, tomorrow morning is his last game. Aside from a few moments of "sillyness" he's done a great job. Dan has been an assistant coach, too, which has been fun.

General Conference weekend! I love these weekends!
Megan and her friend Taylor made a fort between the chair and stove and watched conference from there. I always love conference, but the music seemed especially uplifting and beautiful this time.

A neighbor's cat had a litter of kittens in the barn a few weeks ago. There are three tigers like this one and three black ones. They are so cute! I want a cat so badly lately, but I haven't talked Dan into it yet. Nathan loves to hold the kittens when he goes to the barn.

This is Bryce, a little guy that stayed with us from the 17th to the 26th. We got a call on a Saturday afternoon from DHS saying that they had a 3 year old boy. We were so excited and went to pick him up right away. Megan was with us, too, and she was super excited. I was joking around on the way down to Lewiston, saying, "Wouldn't that be cool if he was African American?" Dan and Megan know how much I've been hoping to get an AA child. We said, "Bryce isn't an AA name, though, so I'm sure he's white." I was picturing a child with blond hair. When they brought him out to meet us I couldn't believe it. I loved his hair! He was so cute, but had a lot of needs. He wasn't potty trained and was basically nonverbal. He also had some behaviors that were challenging. Things went kind of up and down throughout the first few days. It would seem to be going okay, then things would get hard, and back and forth. After a few days, I let the case worker know that I didn't think it would work. It was almost a week before they found a place for him, though. He actually went to his grandmother, so hopefully that will be good for him. I was not impressed at all that DHS took so long to find a place for him. I kept calling her every day because he didn't do well at day care (They were basically having to use one staff for him all day) and Dan was going out of state (for Amber's wedding, which is another post). Anyway, it was very stressful, but I made it through the weekend. It really wasn't his fault, so I didn't blame him. He actually had lots of really cute qualities and I could have bonded with him so quickly. He tugged at my heartstrings for sure. He was more like a toddler than an almost four year old. He was so cheerful when he woke up in the mornings. He loved to be played with. He had the cutest way of talking when he did try to talk. He tried to sing, which was really cute. I loved doing his hair! He loved to be sung to. My heart really went out to the little guy. He definitely needed some structure and discipline, though. If I was a stay at home mom I could have kept him, but that's not the case. I hope we were able to make his life better for the week he was with us.

The Oxford County Fair was in September. We went for one evening when we had Megan. The kids got bracelets so they could go on unlimited rides. We got candy apples, fried dough (the fair always has the BEST fried dough), and taco salad. After the kids were done with the rides, we looked at all the animals, then went home. It was a fun evening and definitely a tradition.

What I did on my summer vacation...

• Swam a lot at Mom and Dad's


• Spent 2 1/2 weeks with Ashley


• Went to Willard Beach with Nathan and Ashley


• Went on family vacation to Pennsylvania


• Went to Crayola Factory with Nathan


• Spent 2 days at Hershey Park


• Went to a pretzel factory


• Played mini golf twice


• Celebrated July 4th at Strawbery Banke


• Ward activity in Bethel


• Had a Mary Kay party


• High Priest activity at Silver Spur


• Went shopping in Kittery, once for Ashley, once for Nathan


• Drove down to Boston temple with Ashley, Dan, Allyson, Nathan


• Lots of reading and math with Nathan


• Went to Stamping Up party at Pam Farnum's


• Taught Sue Nason about scrapbooking


• Visisted with Kristen and the girls


• Visited with Shelli, Allyson and Josh


• Went to DaddyO's a couple times


• Hleped give AJ and Mac a bath


• Rode AJ


• Had Steve and Lil over to play cards


• Went kayaking a couple times (once with RS, once with Mary Ann Z.)


• Went to Splashtown with Olivia, Felicia and Emily


• Went on trail in Bethel with Smith's


• Crocheted baby booties


• Read a lot!


• Brought Nathan to four LOOK classes


• Went to RS meeting on Photoshop


• Went to Record Family Reunion


• Went to New England Acquarium with Hilda, Emily and Nathan


• Saw Smufs in the theatre


• Made a Ukranian meal with Tanya


• Made a train pillowcase for Nathan


• Had Gabby overnight


• Had Maddi and Sydney over


• Fed the missionaries


• Went to Storyland with the Smith's


• Bought a new vehicle, a Subaru Forester!

Recent pics

Nathan with his school supplies!

Look, we can play the piano with our feet!

I made these cute owl bookmarks for the special ed staff as a welcome back gift.

Nathan on the first day of school

My second grader

Hurricane Irene

Last week was an interesting week. School was supposed to start on Monday, but due to Hurricane Irene, we didn't start until Wednesday. We were without power for about 50 hours, but it didn't feel like it because we had a generator. We just had to be careful to not use too many appliances at once. We were really lucky. A lot of people had to weather it without a generator. We did have to cut a tree down because it was leaning towards the house, about to be blown over. I happened to look out the front door and noticed it looked crooked, so Dan and Dad went out and cut off some limbs, then pulled the whole tree over with Dad's truck and a chain. It was a weird tree anyway, and always drew lots of bugs, so I can't say we'll miss it much. I would like to plant another one, of a different kind, there.

School was pretty easy this week because the special ed. staff is working on schedules for our students. We won't be taking kids out of the classrooms until next week. I'm pretty excited about this school year. I know most of my kids from last year, and I only have 5th and 6th graders on my caseload. This means I have less teachers to coordinate with.

Nathan started second grade, but he wasn't really excited about it. He was nervous and anxious. He tends to be like that with new things. He does like his teacher, Mrs. Stevens. I'm sure he'll get used to it and be fine, just like he's done the past two years.

Last night we had the Cooper family get together here. It was Mom Cooper's first one since she got back. It was a lot of fun to visit with everybody and play games. We played Apples to Apples and then Hand and Foot. Lil's birthday is today, so Megan made her a cake and decorated it. It was really cute. Lil loved it. We had lots of little ones running around. We had Gabby, Maddi, Sydney, Paige (she wasn't running around, though), Joshie and Nathan. Megan did a great job of keeping them entertained and busy.

I started my two classes last week. One of them is called Literacy Processing (through UMO), and the other is Diagnostic Reading (through NEC). I think I'll enjoy both of them, but it will be nice when they are both done. I like learning new things and taking classes, but I've been taking classes for quite a while now. Which reminds me, I finally got my Masters of Education diploma. It was great to actually hold it in my hands.

End of summer

I can't believe it, but there are only 2 days before I go back to work. I've really enjoyed this summer, actually, but I'm ready to get back to a routine. Routines are good. Anyway, the last couple of weeks have been really busy, so I wanted to write about all the fun things we did.

Last weekend, my mother in law came home from her mission! We were really excited to go see her so we drove over on Saturday afternoon. It was so good to see her again. We've missed her a lot! We visited for a little while and then we went to bring Gabby back (we had her over night on Friday night) to Ben and Nina's. After we dropped Gabby off we stopped at Office Max to get a couple things I needed. As we pulled into the parking space, the car lurched forward. Dan couldn't get it into drive or reverse, so we had to call AAA. We knew it was probably the transmission because we'd seen some signs that it was not good. My mom came and picked up all of us except Dan and Dan's mom came and followed the tow truck to the garage and then brought him home.

We didn't really want to put a whole bunch of money into the van because we've had a lot of trouble with it. So Dan started looking into other vehicles, especially crossovers. We don't really need a van anymore since Amber and Ashley are hardly ever here, but I don't want a car. Anyway, Dan found a Subaru Forester that he really liked. We went and test drove it last night, and I absolutely loved it! Nathan was really excited about it, too. Luckily, the salesman accepted Dan's offer, and even gave us $500 more for our trade in than we had asked for! It worked out great because our payments will only be about 5 dollars more than they are now. I'm so excited! We're going to pick it up on Thursday night.

As I already mentioned, Grammy Cooper came home from her mission, which was really exciting. Also, we've had a lot of the little great nieces over lately. I had Maddi and Sydney over one afternoon for about 5 hours. It was so much fun. We did art projects, watched The Little Mermaid, went and looked at the horses, played in the water table, etc. I just love those little girls. They are so sweet and cute. It's nice to have little girls around again. It brings back memories of my nieces when they were little. Then on Friday, we had Gabby over. She is so much fun, too. It's fun to hear her language improving each time we have her over. This time, she kept asking, "Why?" about everything. It was so cute. She has the sweetest little voice.

Megan brought a friend with her this past weekend. I really like her friend that she brought. She's come several times with Megan now. Her name is Taylor and we all really like her, even Nathan, because she's nice to him. The only problem is that Megan is not as nice to Nathan when she has friends around. During the past few months, it seems like Megan and Nathan are constantaly arguing, or she's being mean to him. I know part of it is that she is getting to be a teenager, but it's really annoying me that they aren't getting along. About a month ago, when she came for the weekend, she didn't bring a friend, and she was so much nicer to Nathan. I think we need to tell her not to bring friends for a while.

Mom, Nathan, Megan, Taylor, and I went shopping in Kittery on Monday. I love the outlets in Kittery. I needed to do Nathan's school shopping, and time is running out. It was fun to shop for him. I always love buying clothes for him. We found everything we needed. We brought Megan and Taylor home partway through because they weren't really into the shopping. I'm not sure why they wanted to come with us in the first place

Nathan started soccer last Wednesday. Today will be his second practice. He did a good job in his first practice and seemed to be enjoying it. Dan is an assistant coach again, which is really neat. I think it helps Nathan a lot to have Dad there. Plus, Dan is so athletic.

We went to Storyland on Thursday with the Smith's. That was so much fun. Their little boys, Hayden, Coy and Grady are really well behaved. It was fun for all the kids to just go on rides together and have fun. They all got along really well. The weather was perfect, too, which made the day really enjoyable. Nathan's favorite rides were the Polar Coaster and the Bamboo Chutes. My favorite is the circus. It's always a great show. I shared my Italian ice with Grady, which he loved. He is such a cute little guy. Coy and Hayden are really cute kids, too. Coy was my partner on the new battle spash ride. It's a new Egyptian themed ride where you can spray other people and they can spray you. You get completely soaked!

New England Aquarium

Nathan had his first piano lesson today. Rachel and I are swapping lessons so that Jared can learn violin and Nathan can learn piano. They both did a good job today with their first lesson. Jared was shy, but I think he'll come around. He's a quick learner.

Last Monday, Nathan, Emily, Hilda and I went down to Boston to go to the New England Aquarium. It was a really fun day. We drove down to Kittery, and then Hilda drove us the rest of the way. After we parked the car, we walked to the aquarium, and we stopped on the way at a little restaurant. It had little tables outdoors, where we sat. I tried something new, lobster quesadillas. I love lobster, but it doesn't really go with mexican food and spices. It was still good, but I prefer lobster with butter or in a lobster roll. After lunch, we went to the aquarium. There was a long line, and we had to wait for about 25-40 minutes just to get our tickets. We had fun looking around. The only problem was that it was really crowded. I was surprised that it would be so busy on a Monday, but it sure was. Nathan's favorite exhibit was the penguin exhibit. He absolutely loved it. His favorite part was seeing them poop in the water. Gross, I know, but he thought it was hilarious. My favorite part was the penguins, mostly because I got such a kick out of Nathan's amusement. I also loved the big tank with the sharks and the big sea turtle. We went to an IMAX theatre show, too. We saw Sharks, which was so awesome! The 3D effects were so real that I felt I could touch the jellyfish floating toward me. Everyone loved it. It was so nice to spend the day with Nathan and Hilda and Emmy, just doing something fun. The only regret I have is that I wish I had called Olivia and Felicia to see if they wanted to go, too. I feel really bad that I didn't call them in time.

Last Wednesday, Nathan and I went over to Shelli's for the afternoon. Kristen and Scott came over with the girls, too. It was fun to just visit with them, play games, and hold Paige. She's such a cutie. We played Acquire, which JJ and Allyson love, and Scattergories and Imaginiff. It was a really fun afternoon. I love those kind of days, when you can just drop everything and have fun.

I'm starting to prepare myself for going back to school. I'm actually looking forward to it in a way. I've been doing some reading this summer for school, and I got some new math workbooks for my students that I'm excited to try. I love shopping for school supplies, and we've bought Nathan's supplies that were on his list for second grade. Now we just need to buy his clothes, which I have to wait for Friday (payday) for. I also have to wait for Friday to buy more gas for the van, so I have to stay close to home with week. Dan lent me 20 dollars the other day for gas,and I have to make it last until Friday.

I've had Nathan doing math and reading all summer. Most days, he's not happy about it, but that is one thing I'm firm about. I always knew I'd never be one of those moms who lets their kids just waste away the summer without doing anything academic. He participated in the Norway Library summer reading program. He had to read or listen to books for at least 20 hours, which he did. We actually went over, but I don't know by how much. He does love to be read to. That's my favorite thing to do with him, read and enjoy book and after book.

More pics

On Tuesday, Nathan and I went to Bethel to walk/ride a trail with the Smith's. It was really fun and Nathan loved the trail. The kids rode their bikes, while Shannon and I walked behind them. Afterwards, we went over to the Smith's house for lunch. Here they are, looking so adorable with their bikes: Nathan, Hayden, Grady and Coy

On Monday, the girls and Nathan and I went to Splashtown. It was so much fun. We went on a whole bunch of slides and went in the wading pool. The weather was perfect, although the water was kind of cold. Nathan's favorite part was the pirate ship maze of slides and stairs and fountains, etc. Felicia wanted to do something fun with Nathan during summer vacation and she thought Nathan would love Funtown Splashtown. She was right!

Pictures from this summer

Paige Ryan Baker Isn't she the cutest?

I love this picture! Nathan, Maddi, Josh, and Sydney

Olivia and Felicia turned 19 on July 14th!

Megan on her way to her first Girls' Camp. She loved it.

Felicia just recently became a Mary Kay representative. Here she is after the party she did at my house.

LOOK

Nathan took a couple of LOOK classes last week and he's taking two more this week. This is the first year that he's taking two classes both weeks. Last week he had "Wonderful Watercolors" and "We Love Worms." He enjoyed both of them and was delighted to go home on Friday with his paintings, his nice set of watercolor paints, and his container of Red Wiggler Worms! This week, he is taking "Lego Technics" and "Superheroes." He's enjoying both of them a lot, although he was disappointed to find out that he can't bring any of the Lego's home with him at the end of the week. He is designing his own Superhero and is really excited about the costume he is making.

Megan loved Girls Camp! I had a feeling she would. She was so excited about it before she left, and she talked a lot about it when she came back. She took lots of pictures with a couple of disposable cameras I bought her, and then we had them developed when she got back. It was really fun to hear her describe the fun things they did and the friends she made. She is really well liked by kids her age, so she was quite popular. She said everyone wanted to sit by her at lunch.

We've been swimming a lot this summer. I finally convinced Mom and Dad to use the solar blanket, which makes it so much warmer. It's been heavenly, almost too warm. The kids have been having a great time swimming a lot. Now, I just need to get another set of goggles, so they won't have to fight over the one pair we have.

I've been doing lots of reading this summer. Right now, I'm reading Prairie Tale by Melissa Gilbert. I'm a little bit over half way through it. It was interesting to hear about her real life, but it's also been kind of disappointing to me. Little House on the Prairie was one of my favorite shows when I was little and I've been watching lots of the old episodes through Netflix recently, and I guess I kind of thought of Michael Landon as the character he portrayed, Charles Ingalls (good, honest, high moral standards, etc.) so I was really disappointed to hear that he had quite a temper, he drank and smoked, and he cheated on his wife! I was less disappointed to hear about Melissa's simply because I had seen previews for movies over the years, where she wasn't portraying the "Laura Ingalls" look, so I guess I was more prepared to hear about her shortcoming. But Michael Landon?

I just read a book called The Boy From Baby House 10, which was about a little boy in Russia, who had cerebral palsy and spent most of his first 8 years in a baby house and mental institutions. It was really heartbreaking to read his story, and to think that this happened in the 1990's. The conditions of the baby house were bad enough, but the description of the mental institution was almost too hard to read. The book was about several people who intervened in his life and tried to save him from a life in these horrible places. Finally, they succeeded, and he was eventually adopted to America. It ends well, but it brought it to my attention how bad things are in some orphanages, especially when the children have any special needs.

I've always wanted to do something big, like start a foster care program for orphans like these, or hire nannies to take care of a certain number of children, so that they can bond and have lots of interaction with loving people. This is what they don't get in the orphanages. So last night, after thinking more about this book, I did a search of orphanages run by LDS women. I just wanted to see what was out there. I found a program started by two sister missionaries who had served in Bulgaria. They were back home, married, with children, when they started One Heart Bulgaria. Among other programs, they hire elderly women to go to the orphanage and provide the nurturing interaction and love that these children need. I was so excited to find this. I really want to give to this organization. I found another organization that funds foster care for children, to keep them out of orphanages, called Bridge of Love, also run by an LDS family. It sounds like just the thing I've been wanted to do. I already knew about an orphange in China that is run by an LDS woman. I want to go volunteer there some day, too. Aaaahhh, so many worthy things to do, so little time (and money). I AM determined to help some of these children, though.

Olivia and Felicia's birthday

I am totally enjoying my summer vacation. It's so nice to sleep in in the mornings and just not have major plans every day. We've been spending lots of time with the Cooper side of the family lately. We had Steve and Lil over to play cards a few nights ago. I've gotten together a couple times with Kristen and Shelli, Josh and Allyson to go swimming. Kristen's girls are so adorable and Nathan has so much fun helping Maddi and playing with Josh. Yesterday, while we were all at the pool, while Allyson was watching all the little ones, we helped Mom assemble her new gazebo. It actually came out really cute and she was thrilled.

Last night we celebrated Olivia and Felicia's 19th birthday. We had taco salad, three bean salad, and cake and ice cream for them. Yum! Nathan and I gave them homemade coupon books. Nathan gave them coupons for a hug and a kiss, spending time with him, playing trains, having fun at Funtown, and watching a movie with him (they both got a kick out of the playing trains coupon). I gave them coupons for a Niece Night, dinner at Auntie's, a dessert of their choice, frozen custard, and a movie at Flagship. They seemed happy with them.

After the girls' party, we all had facials with a Mary Kay consultant (meaning Olivia, Felicia, mom, Gram and I). Felicia just signed up to become a consultant, so she was trying out the products and learning how to give parties. It was really fun, and it felt nice to pamper myself a little. I haven't done much with makeup and all that recently.

Strawbery Banke

On Monday, to celebrate the Fourth, Mom, Dad, Gram, Nathan, Emily and I went to Strawbery Banke in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. It's kind of like Old Sturbridge Village, but it represents several different time periods. They were having their tenth annual "An American Celebration." It was really neat. I just love these kind of places anyway, plus they had a lot of extra stuff going on since it was the Fourth.

Mom, trying on a new hat

Dad and Gram

We got to meet Abraham Lincoln and hear all about the Emancipation Proclamation.

They had a lot for children to do, like gunny sack races, a cake walk, and a treasure hunt. For the treasure hunt, they had to find answers to questions at certain historical houses. Nathan came home with lots of prizes.

They sold these delicious lemonades with half a lemon and a lemon stick candy in it. They were so delicious, especially since it was a hot day.

Happy Independence Day!

I made this cute patriotic bow tie for Nathan on Saturday night. He looked so cute!