Craziness

This week has been rather insane.  All week, I've had extra kids in the house, which has meant extra mess all over the house.   Monday, we had a friend of Eileen and Anna's over to play for the day, then the girls and I spent the evening cleaning up their room - it only took like 3 hours.... 

Tuesday, Eileen's friend Morgan came over to spend the night.  The girls were up chatting until at least midnight.  I gave James a bath on Tuesday night and at one point he picked up a handful of bubbles and put it on his face and said "I'm Santa Claus!"     

Wednesday, We still had Morgan over, we had the girls friend Nyveah over again and we had James' friend Adeline over.  It was rather crazy - and the house was a disaster by the time the day was over!  Wednesday afternoon Dan came home early so Becky and I could go to our long-arm quilting class!  We had tons of fun and I can't wait to get to work on getting Kai's quilt finished!  After the class, we went out for some dinner at a Vietnamese place next to the quilt shop.

Thursday, Morgan got picked up after lunch so that I would have enough room in the car to take all the kids and Addie to piano lessons. Piano lessons went well - then we headed home only to sit in stop and go traffic the whole way!!

Friday, we had Nyveah and Addie again.  After lunch, we headed to the church for a friends birthday party.  We had a great time hanging out with friends and eating junk!  We walked there since we didn't have room in the car. Dan met us there from work and so he drove some of the kids home while I walked home with the others.

Saturday we got up bright and early to drive down to the Pueblo area and to visit Bishop's Castle.  This fun and crazy place kinda makes me think of the Winchester Mystery House - but for hippies.  It was all built by one guy and it's kinda crazy to walk around (not for anyone with serious issues with heights) I think it would have been kinda neat to explore it with Dan, but with the 5 kids to look out for, it was nerve wracking!!!  There were TONS of very steep stars with little to no railing and none of those windows on the towers have glass - the tops of the tower had no guard rails or anything, so we wouldn't let the kids go up the tallest one.  

 Here's everyone else in a large chapel like room in the castle - it was really a cool room with all the iron work and wood.  The kids had a fun time though, and we enjoyed hanging out with the Guinn's.  In the afternoon, we got some work done around the house and in the yard while Dan went home teaching.

Sunday was wonderful - wonderful talks and lessons and the kids were mostly well behaved.  We gave Heather a ride to and from church - she fell and messed her knee up again.  In the afternoon, we played games, I made dream catchers with Eileen and Anna and we chatted with Grandma and Grandpa Jones.  Then I made pancakes for dinner and Eileen played 7 Wonders with us - and beat us (she only beat me by 1 point though!!!)

Girls Camp

Where to begin when my heart is full.  This week I am seriously lacking in pictures of my own kids - instead I have a few photos of my adopted girls from girls camp.  

Monday I spent finishing preparations for girls camp and for my kids spending the week at Tina's.  We dropped the kids off at Frank and Tina's that evening, then I got stuff packed up and ready to head out bright and early Tuesday morning!  

Tuesday morning, we met at the church at 6AM and headed to the camp ground.  We got there, and got to setting up camp - a couple hours later we had everything set up and we were checking everything out and making ourselves comfortable.  We managed to get some crafts and activities done before the first bout of rain set in and we ran for cover under our tents and shelters.  The rain finally cleared in time for the evening program (sorta) and we had fun singing and goofing off.  

Wednesday was the hike day.  Since our ward didn't have any second years, I went with our first years on their hike, which ended up being longer than the intended 3 mile hike due to park rangers re-routing us.  We got to our stopping spot and had lunch, then as it started sprinkling, we headed back - we hadn't gotten more than a couple hundred feet when the downpour started.  We all arrived back at camp drenched!  To warm up, we all crowded around a heater in one wards tent and had a sing-off - two teams trying to come up with songs that fit a certain word/genre/artist etc.  We spent our afternoon working on cheers in the rain and then we all headed to a local church building to do our evening program in a dry warm place.  While there, a girl from one of the other wards had an allergic reaction and was sent to the hospital.  This was followed by a different girl from a different ward going missing.  That evening was filled with prayers, worries and eventually gratitude for answers to prayers.  

Here we are working on a cheer! 

And here we are in garbage bag ponchos at the church building!

Thursday was our final day of camp - we spent most of the morning at the lake doing crafts, going in the canoes, and enjoying a few hours of sun before we started back to get out of the approaching rain.  That evening was the testimony meetings.  Dan and Bishop Ker came down for the evening program - it was SO GOOD to see Dan!!  He sweetly (and not very truthfully) said that when he saw me walking up to meet him, I was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.  - I hadn't showered for 3 days by that point.... but it was nice to hear :)

Here are the girls again in what became our traditional dress for the week - trash bags and ponchos.  It rained hard for nearly half of every day, but we still all managed to have a great time, learn and feel the spirit together and make new friends.   The testimony meeting was wonderful - as I expected, I cried through most of it, but it was wonderful to hear their testimonies and their faith strengthened.

Here is our ward - ready to head home on the Friday morning.   All eagerly looking forward to a hot shower and a warm bed!

We got back to the church building to unload and send home around lunch time, then I went home and took a wonderful long shower!  Dan and I went out for dinner and enjoyed a quiet evening - with me going to bed early.

Saturday morning, Dan went to run some errands then picked up the kids.  I ran some errands too and then was excited to have the kids home with me again!!

Church today was wonderful - James had been running a fever the night before so we kept him out of nursery - which did NOT make him happy.  I took him while Dan did some setting - aparts, and he spent most of the time trying to run away from me and telling me to go away and telling me that he didn't love me anymore.  Then 10 minutes later he cooled down and was all sweetness again.  Our evening was nice - Dan and I played Killer Bunnies with Eileen - she's been loving it lately.

Girls Camp Preparations

This week has been crazy.  I've been trying to get everything ready for girls camp next week.  Tuesday evening, I was out collecting supplies, Wednesday evening, I was at mutual helping with camp certification, Thursday, we were going through supplies that we have and trying to see what we were still missing. I've also had to try and get yard work, doctors appointments and stuff done before I go too - but didn't manage some of it because of the holiday.  

This week was a rough week especially for Eileen.  One of our chickens died.  Eileen has always been very sensitive and caring when it comes to animals and she was heart broken.  Dan dug the chicken a little grave, and let the kids all say good bye.  Some of them even wrote good bye cards.  Anna's was very sweet and all about God having a plan for everything and that she was sure our chicken was happy in heaven.   We found Evie and James trying to dig the chicken up later that day so that she could come back alive.  We obviously didn't explain this well.... 

The next day, Eileen came in panicking that the other chickens were going to die too, so Dan spent his day doing a major overhaul of the chicken coop which had become infested with bugs.  The chickens seem to be doing better and we have learned some lessons about chicken care.  

Part of the overhaul included painting over the untreated wood that wasn't infested to keep it from becoming infested.  The kids (especially James) had fun painting - though I think James got as much paint on himself as he did on the wood.  

We were also finding the bugs in the house, so we did a vacuum of the furniture, and shampooed the rugs (well - Dan did this while I was outside mowing the lawn.)  

Saturday, we went to our ward's 4th of July Pancake Breakfast.  We had lots of fun, weather was beautiful, so we rode our bikes over - unfortunately one of Aaron's tires blew while we were there, but we all had fun enjoying good company, good food and good weather.  

Saturday evening, we had Jeremiah and Becca over again for dinner, games, fireworks and a movie.  The kids loved getting to watch some fireworks outside our house and the grownups all had fun watching "The Three Amigos" after.  Becca had fun beating us all at the game... again.... :)

Today was wonderful but crazy.  We had a wonderful fast and testimony meeting, a wonderful Sunday school and a wonderful Relief Society lesson.  After church, I spent a lot of time trying to nail down just how many girls I will actually have with me at camp this year....  My visiting teachers came over for a bit which was nice.  After dinner, we talked with Dan's parents on the phone then we put the younger kids to bed and Dan and I played Killer Bunnies with Eileen.