Katers says...

My favorite Kate quotes:

Whenever I give Kate a no answer her reply is "Later?". This cracks me up but got even funnier Tuesday when she handed me a DVD as I was picking her up for bed. I said no and was expecting to hear "Later?"but was surprised to hear "Friday?".

The other day Kate was frustrated with Andrew and suddenly yelled, "No, Anrew Reed!". She had never used his middle name before. Andrew and I looked at each other and just started laughing. He kept asking how she knew - she doesn't miss much.

We have been talking a lot about how mommy has a baby in her tummy but lately if you ask Kate, "Who has a baby in their tummy?" she will respond, "me".

Mack Is 6

For Mack's Birthday we stayed home and watched conference, but I think he loved it because it was a birthday party all day long. He opened his first present before conference started and spent the whole session drawing on the marker board from Grandma Dame. (She also gave him a large pad of paper that he had filled up less than three weeks later- most pages front and back.) Then after the session was over he opened more presents. He loved his hammer and Bakugans - I can't really figure out what these are but he loves them.

When conference was over we had dinner of his choice - cheese rice - to Greg's horror. Then he decorated his cake. I'm sure his skills with a pencil are better than with a tube of runny frosting but you can still tell it is a football field. But sadly you can't really see the 'Y' or the symbol of the Mountain West Conference that he took great pains to include. He had a great day but it is still so hard to believe that my little Macky is really 6 years old. We love you Mack!

My Office

Before I got sick with this pregnancy we moved the boys room around to make room for their new dresser (with drawers that actually worked). Their room has a totally bizarre long narrow space it it and after moving the furniture we ended up with nothing in this space but an old night stand. Mack looked at it, pulled up a chair, and claimed it at his office. He moved all his prized possessions into the space and it has been his office ever since. He sits back there at night before lights out and draws and draws. In fact I don't think that he can actually get to the desk anymore because the floor space has been filled with drawings. I love how he immerses himself in his drawing. He will get an idea, go to his room, and come back an hour later with little 5 inch football players made with paper and tape dressed in the colors and helmets of different college teams. He is so amazing.Well it came as no surprise that Andrew needed an office of his own. So we brought in the folding table and another chair. He immediately piled his table with books. While Mack draws Andrew makes trip after trip to the bookshelf. (Too bad he hasn't learned how to put them back on the shelf.) Although, he has started to ask Mack to draw him pictures and then he will color them.

Their offices are usually in a state of disaster, but it sure is fun to watch them each at their own desk enjoying themselves so thoroughly and peacefully - it can't last long.

Fall In A Flash

Well fall has almost come and gone and I have spent the best of it indoors. Baby number five has proved to be a little more difficult than the previous four and has sucked most of the energy out of me, along with the usual meals. But thanks to a wonderful mother, sister, and extremely patient husband we have all managed to get through the first trimester. The kids have been somewhat deprived of attention as evidenced from comments from Natali, "Mom, why don't you move anymore?" or from Andrew, "How does the baby tell you that it is going to be sick if you don't eat soon?" We are all grateful to put the last few months behind us.

In the meantime school is off and running. These pictures are a little late in coming but they were actually taken on the first day of school. Natali's 1st grade teacher moved up to 2nd grade with her and that has been good. She is doing great and loving school as usual. She even started reading Harry Potter tonight- I can hardly believe she is old enough. Mack is loving kindergarten. He goes in the afternoon but spends most of the morning asking if he can go to school yet. He doesn't say much in class because he saves it all for me; when he gets home I love to hear all about everything that happened. He is doing wonderful and soaks up anything his teacher offers. She even said that he has started raising his hand in class, a good sign that he is getting comfortable.

Andrew has started preschool and it has proven wonderful. Last year he had no interest in letters, numbers, or writing/drawing or any kind. Suddenly he recognizes letters other than A, tries to make rhymes, and asks what letter words start with--he also tries to count to 100 and can actually be found coloring and trying to write. I guess he just needed more time and I am so excited to see his new interest; but don't be too worried he still corrects everyone in class if they say anything about animals that isn't correct.

Kate in the meantime has learned that with everyone else gone she can usually do whatever she wants, which usually means watch a show. She misses the big kids and is often asking if she can "go too". Since I have been sick she really hasn't bee out much, and misses it-especially the bike rides. Toward the end of summer Mack surprised us all but learning to ride his bike with very little effort from the parents. So I got a bike and trailer for my birthday and we spent the early part of fall enjoying the nice weather and taking a lot of rides. Andrew and Kate loved it. Greg even bought a bike. Now five or so flat tires later we are still loving it. So with baby, school, bikes and football fall has flown by and we are all excited to try and figure out where we will put the baby when we ride next fall.

McCall - One Last Time

Before school started we were able to go to McCall one last time. It was nice to be up there with just my kids. I find such peace up there and I just enjoy my kids. There are no calls to make, no errands to run, and no pressing vacation must-do's, it is just me and my kids doing whatever they want. It is good for all of us.

We got there late Thursday night and the kids played while I chatted with my Aunt Kalleen and Uncle Jed. Most of my memories of McCall have them in it so it was wonderful to spend some time with them. They also took us on a boat ride to Ice Cream Alley, something I could not have accomplished on my own.

We took a walk with our berry picking buckets and in no time found huckleberries. The kids were busy filling up their buckets, all except Kate who ate every berry she found. We soon discovered that only Andrew and Kate even like the berries, so those two feasted (evidenced by Kate's purple tongue).

The kids built forts which became cages while we pretended Zoo. We swam in the pool, built sand castles and interesting water ways, and the kids all swam from the shore to the end of the dock over and over (with life jackets) but as usual I took no pictures.

Greg came up Friday night and enjoyed a day of vacation, played some tennis with the kids and took the boys hiking. It was such a nice way to end the summer. I love that place..

Basketball

Mack played on his first basketball team this summer. Watching a bunch of 5 year olds learn to dribble can be pretty amusing. Greg and I were out of town for his first game but my sister took him. After the game he told them exactly what the score had been (the coaches and ref don't keep track). Is he Greg's son or what? Then he said that he thought he was going to have fun playing basketball because the boys on his team had "nice faces". So cute.

Well he never touched the ball the first game and rarely did so in the games after that. I started getting ready to sign him up for fall soccer but he said he wanted to do B-ball again- I'm thinking why? He just didn't seam to be catching on - until the last game. I guess he had just been observing before to make sure he understood what to do. He stole the ball once and played good defence. Then he actually shot and made his first two baskets! Afterwards he was so excited and told me, "I made 2 baskets. That's why I want to do basketball again."

Lellowstone

We wanted to go to Glacier National Park this year but as the summer came to a close 10 hours in the van didn't sound very exciting to anyone, so off to Yellowstone. We all love Yellowstone, though most of us call it Lellowstone.

On the drive there the tire pressure light kept coming on but we managed to make it to our campground where I ran the battery dry shinning lights so we could set up our tent in the dark. Luckily, after a few minutes, we got the van to start again. After a cold but decent nights sleep we woke to a flat tire. It didn't slow us down much though. It was patched and we were ready to see some carnivores.

The kids were so excited to see wolfs and bears. We saw tons of bison. So many that after the first day even Kate could spot them. I will spare you the pictures.

But, we did take an amazing hike. The kids managed to go for three hours all through bear territory. I'm not kidding the trail head said don't go with less than four people (I don't think they meant kids). No bears, but the sights were so beautiful and Natali did spot a weasel (the only carnivore they saw in Yellowstone).

The kids did great on the kike but their favorite was the geysers. So much so that in every picture we tried to take in front of one Andrew wouldn't look at the camera because, "I just want to see the geyser".

We tried to see Old Faithful, but happened to arrive at the same time as The President, so we found ourselves a nice little stream to explore. The grass was super long so the kids hid and I tried to find them before they jumped out and ate me (they were usually some kind of carnivore - big shock). We had such fun, even after Natali put both feet in a hidden fork of the stream.

Don't you love Kate's outfit. She insisted on wearing her favorite dress over her pants and turtleneck. And the red jacket was the perfect touch.

We all had such fun exploring Yellowstone, but the kids were disappointed not to see the big carnivores again (we didn't see any last year either). However, we drove through Grand Teton National Park on the way home and a grizzly bear ran across the road just a few cars in front of us. All the kids watched it run across the meadow. We couldn't have asked for a better end to the trip.