SUMMER TIME!

It finally feels like summer has arrived and boy is it HOT!!! I'm not quite sure if we will be able to handle much more of the 100 degree weather but we've been having fun regardless. Here are some of the things we've been doing:

 

 My younger sister, Kiera, joined us here in Iowa on June 19th. The kids were (and still are) thrilled to have her stay with us for a while. She's probably going to get some different experiences staying with us. She's a senior this next year and it's hard to believe. When I left the house she was only 8. I guess I can get payback for all the times I changed her diaper, fed her, and cleaned up her messes...hehehehe! In preparation for her coming we did a little craigslist shopping for a mattress so that she didn't have to spend 6q weeks on an air mattress. I ended up with 2 from a lady that was moving and needed to get rid of all of her stuff. They were FREE! I loaded them up in the back of the van and the 4 kids were crammed together in the front. Probably not going to win mom of the year for it but we made it.

We have also done lots of fishing. We found a pond in Urbandale that  has so many little fish that all you have to do is drop your line and you get a fish right away. It's great for the catch and release with the kids but the fish are really small. We've even done fishing in the rain. This one was in Ankeny over Father's Day weekend. Caelyn thought that just running around in the rain was fun. I made them finish up when the lighting started.

 

Almost two weeks ago I threw out my back giving the girls a bath and was out for 4 days. I missed church and work and it happend to be the week that my sister had secured a temportary job so I didn't have her help but had some really great friends that brought in meals, prescribed me great meds and arranged for my kids to play so that I could take the time to get better. I love them all soooooo much!!!! But while I was just laying around and not really able to pick things up well, the baby decided that it was her opportunity to learn how to crawl. She is only 7 months old but is getting around and standing up on everything now. It's very cute!

Forth of July being in the middle of the week has been fun too. Tuesday night was hot but we decided to head out and go camping anyway. The Church owns a property in Boone that has restrooms, cabins (not the comfy air conditioned kind but nice wooden structures that have a free flow of air but netting over to keep bugs out and wooden plank beds stacked 3 high to fit 12 people), firepits, and is by a creek. We got breaks from the heat with lots of water and juice in the pavilion with ceiling fans and in the hose attached to the back of the restroom. There is also an area with a tire swing that the kids loved. They also loved walking along the creek and seeing the different animal prints. More evidence of animals was seen and heard after we went to bed so I'm glad we were in a cabin and not a tent. We were the only people there and it was a quiet night. No wind in the trees, only a faint chirping of frogs, makes for a pretty creepy feeling when you hear the scratch and crunch in the leaves at 2 am.

Our Fourth of July holiday consisted of a fabulous breakfast of eggs, bacon, and pancakes on a campfire, heavy duty clean up on both cars and the house, a good time at the Waukee city parade, Jason got to play some golf, grilling out for dinner, and a great time in the front row for the Waukee city fireworks. 

We literally had to lay down on our backs in order to see the fireworks. A couple of times Carter got nervous that they were going to fall on top of him. Carissa enjoyed tagging along for all of it and especially loved the fireworks when there were fountains or at the end for the finally when everything was really bright. We got to sit next to friends for the fireworks so that made it even better. At the parade, every float had treats of some kind and we placed ourselves at the very beginning  when the kids on the back of the trucks are excited to throw candy and we ended up with as much candy as we usually get on Halloween. It was again REALLY HOT (temp was 100/heat index 110) and there were also a few floats that were handing out waters or icees and squirting with squirt guns. Those were much appreciated! Being with the family and celebrating our country made me appreciate all that we are blessed with and hope that we will still be able to enjoy those blessings for many years to come!

Living room

Anyone that has been in our house knows that the main level has a really open floor plan so I was hoping to use my painting to help distinguish a difference between the two rooms. I'm pretty sure that it is mission accomplished. Although Charly keeps telling me that the two colors don't match, I think it looks great! You can see the edge on the right of the pciture. It's more green than the picture really shows. I'd take a picture of the rest of the room but the kids broke the big mirror on the opposite wall from this the other day so it looks incomplete. My painting for now is done. I haven't decided for the master bed and bath, the nursery and main bath.

T-Ball

Carter started T-ball this last week. We missed his first practice because I have an awesome memory but it' wasn't a big deal. He caught on really quick and had a absolute blast! I was so excited just to see the huge smile he had on his face the whole time. All of the kids are 4 or 5 and it is co-ed. Each of the kids gets a chance up at bat every time and they just get to run to the next base everytime their teammate hits. When the last person comes up they pretend that they hit a homerun and they all just run through to home. Carter was real happy to hit the ball but when he would he'd just look at hit and took so coaxing to run to 1st. They also rotate positions in the in field everytime so he got to do a little catching the ball at short stop and throwing the ball back to the "pitcher" (since there really isn't a pitcher just a guy that stands in that position) from first. I snapped as many pictures as I could a did a couple videos so Jason could see since he was out of town. Carter had also insisted that we all hold signs up for him and the girls liked that part too.

I'm pretty sure that there were moms around me that were annoyed with all of our cheering but I really didn't care. I clapped and cheered for their kids too. Nothing wrong with a little enthusiasm. Midgame he really had to use the restroom and I him dancing in the infield but it doesn't seem to want to download right now so maybe later.

When the Cat's Away....

The mice will play.....(insert evil laugh) hehehehe!!!

Every year for the last few years the guys (Jason, his dad, brothers, brothers in law and sometimes uncles) have taken a few days every summer to head up to Minnesota to fish. In past years all of us girls left behind have gotten together to go horseback riding but this year it rained and we had little girls that couldn't go so we didn't do that. I will sheepishly admit that I always feel kind of jipped. Where's my kid free week every year? But this year Carter go to go and it was so amazingly quiet and easy with just the three girls that them being gone actually was a break for me. We ended up doing all kinds of things. And it did make it a little bit sweeter that Jason came home from work early on Tuesday and told me to get dressed because we were going on a date. Suprize date ended up being whacking some balls at the range (which I probably haven't done in years) and some great Chinese food at a local place. My wonderful sis in law Jenny was great to pop in at the last minute to babysit.

On Wednesday we went around running errands. I did a search for free stuff on Craigslist and was just a little too slow on getting a free piano and free unused matresses. Kind of a bummer but if anyone would like to get rid of a piano or matress let me know :). So instead of going to pick those things up we went to Home Depot to get paint, then to the salon to get haircuts from the lovely Lindsay Sprague, then to the YMCA pool to wash things off and finally finished it of with some McDonald's for dinner.

That night I painted Charly and Caelyn's room. We moved Caelyn's bed to Carissa's room and Charly slept in my bed and I got this done while they were sleeping.

Thursday, my mother in law came over and we made a trip to Costco, followed by a pizza lunch at Costco, and then we headed out to the Science Center for the kids to play. We were at the Science Center for a few hours and the girls had a blast. We started out our trip with a frantic search for my bag that I had ended up leaving by the car instead of puting it in the stroller. Luckily it had gone untouched. For dinner that night we met up with my sisters in law, Becca and Jenny, at Red Robin and then went to our house to watch War Horse. If you haven't seen it, it is a great war movie just very long. don't start it at a late hour. When the ladies all left my house I went back upstairs and painted Carter's room. It was a late night.

On Friday, I worked and took some time to work out at the Waukee YMCA. When we came home we all had a nap. Mom needed it after all of her painting. When we got up we headed to the salon again because they were having a 10th anniversary celebration. We had a good time running into old friends and we also got a great hook up of free samples of hair products and cookies. Subway was right next door so that's where we went for dinner. Friday night the painting continued but with a smaller room..the half bath downstairs.

Saturday started a little too early as I tried to get all of  us dressed and ready to go to the Y early in the morning so I could teach Tiny Tumblers and Movin' with Music. I was a little late but am so glad that was the last Saturday that I will have to be there so early. Hopefully I will be able to use my Saturdays to work out now. After working we ate lunch and went swimming again. We had a relaxing night and all 4 of us ended up falling asleep in the living room while watching a movie. I woke up at around 9:30 and put each one of the girls in their beds then went to work again. This time I really needed to do some clean up (laundry, dishes, vaccuming) and when that was done I went straight on to painting again. This time it was the kitchen.

I again went to bed late but slept like a rock. We had to be at church by 9 and we were just a tiny bit late. We only came in just as the opening song was starting. It was fast and testimony meeting and I don't know why but I really felt like I should get up but of course I was alone so ended up taking the baby up there with me. I realized that I probably could have handed her off to someone real quick and that would have been better. It's too bad that Jason wasn't there tough.

All in all it was a pretty busy week and this next week will likely be just as good since Jason is going to be leaving yet again. Good times!

Birthdays

My big girl is a definite princess!

This is my birthday cake and yes, I did make my own cake!

All of the girls and their pedicures

Charly got to pick a couple friends just to come over and play. Not an official party but it was a wild time!

May is a busy time for birthdays in our family so it's been kinda hard to keep up. Charly's birthday is first at the very end of April and then my birthday follows 8 days later, along with Mother's day real close to that and then Caelyn's birthday is 2 weeks after that. And that is just the birthdays in our house. There are many other May birthdays amongst the Aunts and Uncles. We only do big birthday parties for certain years to kind of keep costs down. With lots of kids it's the only way to stay sane.

This year Charly got to just have a couple of her friends come over and we ate pizza,watched a movie, and painted nails. The girls must have been a little excited because all of the kids were crazy and I ended up being by myself most of the night because Jason came home late from work. It all turned out pretty good though and I'm pretty sure they all had a good time.

For my birthday Jason took all of the kids out of the house and I had a couple friends over for Mary Kay and yummy food. Our Mother's day date was a night out to dinner and a movie. We saw the Avengers movie in 3D. It is the first time I've done a 3D movie all the way through and it was pretty cool.

Caelyn's birthday was on a Tuesday which is 'kids eat free' night at Pizza Ranch so we took her out for her birthday. Our friend Kelsi met us there and it was so great to catch up with her. We don't get to see her as much as we used to but every time we get together it's like she's part of the family.

I am so grateful for my big girls and for the opportunity to be their mother. They both have very special personalities and talents. And as we've been thinking about mothers this month I hope that we get to have the same great relationship that I have with my own mother. We faught at times when I was a teenager but it didn't take too long before I really saw her as a great friend.

Sandwiches

In our school system here anything containing any kind of nut is not allowed at school. When Charly first started school I was sending her with cold lunch and when you can't include simple PB&J your kind of left with just turkey or ham and cheese. So to mix things up a bit I started cutting the sandwiches into different shapes. Charly loved it but so did the other kids and they soon started demanding different shapes. Now there is no such thing as a simple cut in half or quarters sandwhich. The most popular creation so far is the "C" sandwich. Since my kids are all so lucky to have the same initial it makes things quite easy but Carter noticed the other day that when you take out the middle it makes the shape of a "T" so it's their first and last initial. Kinda fun I think and cool that Carter recognized a letter without me telling him. These will officially be Thrap kid sandwiches.

New Calling

On Sunday I got a new calling to work with the Activity Day girls. These are the girls from church that are 8-11 years old. We get to meet on the 1st and 3rd Wednesdays of the month and just do different activites with them to help them grow in their developing testimonies of the Savior and to learn new skills. This week we get to focus on motherhood and work on Mother's Day presents for the girls' moms. I am so excited for this calling. It is right up my ally and I hope that I am still doing it when Charly turns 8 so that we can do it together. I'm not gonna lie; i struggled with my last calling to be the visiting teaching coordinator. It was not that it was a lot of  work but it was administrative stuff  and woman drama that I just didn't like. I'm glad that I got to see that side of things but I am way more excited about this new adventure. Here is what we are making this week.

It's funny though. It's been about a month since I was released from my  visiting teaching calling and I was really starting to miss having some kind of responsibility.  I'm so thankful for all the opportunites to serve and for a Heavenly Father that knows just what I need when I need it.