It's been a BUSY Summer!!!!

I must say I've been a slacker--not blogging all summer!!  I plan on re-capping our summer once school starts & I get back to a more "normal" routine.

It's our County Fair this weekend.  Zane has been helping a classmate with an extra lamb.  He showed it last night at the fair & earned a Blue Ribbon.

Almost every morning & evening he has helped catch, feed & walk the lamb.

This was his first time showing an aminal at the fair.

I am so proud of him!!

Here he is holding the lamb as the judge checks & judges the lamb.

The Clark Co. 4-H lambs.

Emmalee's Primary Song

Last month, Emmalee learned a new primary song:  "The Golden Plates"

(It is a song about the history of The Book of Mormon--find more information at HERE)

So for Family  Home Evening, she decided to sing it for us.

She started singing into the microphone (when she sings--she likes to get the karaoke mike out).

♪ ♫ ♪ ♫ The Golden "Eggs" lay hidden--deep in the mountain-side ♪ ♫ ♪ ♫

We had to explain to her exactly what the golden plates were.  She had seen pictures of the golden plates, but in her mind, she thought a golden plate should look like this:

It certainly was cute, and if I had thought about it, I would have videoed her singing it with the "golden eggs", before correcting her ☺

Ben's Entertainment

The last blog was about the kids' entertainment--so this one is about how Benjamin entertains himself.

He looks innocent enough--

sleeping (resting up so he can get into more mischief) so peacefully

He can even play nicely with Emmalee's doll

Although it looks like he is hugging the doll, he is actually getting ready to throw it.

Is he actually saying "Ha, ha, Emmalee!!!  I have your dolly!!!"????

Now, back to the other day when the kids were entertaining themselves.

As soon as I walked in the door, Brienna said, "Mom--Benjamin got into the paint."

While they were helping Emmalee clean up, Benjamin took the opportunity to grab the bottle of green paint--and paint the carpet (remind me not to let him pick new carpet!!). 

Brienna started to clean it up, but found that she was just smearing it into the carpet & making more of a mess then Ben did.

I had already started scrubbing the carpet with soapy water & got 2 of the biggest spots clean when I remembered that I was supposed to be documenting Ben's adventures.

So this is just a "drop (of paint) in the bucket" of what kind of mess he really made.

I love how he just sat by me & watched me scrub.

I scrubbed & scrubbed, & then scrubbed some more--until my arms were quite sore.

And I still have a tint of green in my carpet :(

After my arms were rested up, and we had said family prayer, I decided to work on the dishes while Rusty was putting Emmalee to bed.

So while my back was to Benjamin, (and Ethan was sitting 10 feet from him--facing him), Benjamin decided to help himself to the sugar--

The bench was pulled out just far enough to make the perfect step-stool for him.

I'm surprised he just didn't dump it all into his mouth.  Thankfully, he just spread it all over the table & played in it.

Bedtime didn't come soon enough for him that night!!!  (Although I don't know why I let him rest up & dream of other "adventures" he can get into ☺)

Another day, another adventure!

I sure love my Benjamin!!!

Kids Entertainment

The kids are usually pretty good at entertaining themselves.

Brienna is really good at helping to entertain the younger kids ☺ (thanks)

Here she is the horsey to the 2 cow-kids on her back

So the other day, I asked Zane to put the paint away that he had left out on the cupboard for about 3 weeks.

But he decided he wanted to paint some of his cars.

So of course, the other kids wanted to paint too.  So I dug out some of my wood scraps/projects & let them paint.

Meanwhile, Brienna decided she wanted to make "Muddy-Buddies" (Chex cereals, peanut butter, chocolate & powdered sugar)

After everyone was settled into their projects, Rusty & I decided to  steal-away to our land for some peace & quiet (really, we hadn't seen each other more than a few minutes in passing--and dinner time--all week).

So we left the kids to their projects, instructing Brienna & Ethan to watch the 2 youngest.

Brienna took pictures for me--Emmalee is painting a little wooden heart stool I found at DI.  She started out with pink, but changed to green (Sherrie--you would love it!)

Callum is painting a bigger stool (that I found at DI), but it isn't put together yet.  He picked blue, since it is my favorite color, & one of his favorites too.  (Because I told all the kids that both stools were to share--not just for Emmalee & Callum)

So I came home & everyone seemed happy.

Benjamin doesn't usually stay still long enough to sit on anyone's lap.

But he is starting to become a "ham" whenever I get my camera out now.

So you would think that we had a nice, relaxing evening following the projects???

NOT!!! 

Laundry

I made the mistake of saying the other that I was "caught up" on laundry.

I am NEVER going to say that again. I scrapbooked all weekend (so no housework got done), the boys "cleaned up" their rooms (about 6 loads of dirty laundry--I kid you not!!!), sheets were changed & towels tossed into the hamper. YIKES!!! I don't think I'll ever see the bottom of the hamper again ;)

Benjamin's "Business"

by "business" I mean:  BUSY-NESS

Benjamin is by far my busiest child.  He loves to get into everything that he isn't supposed to.

I even keep rotating his toys, so that there are new ones out, but he is rarely interested in them ☺

And so when the gate between the kitchen & back hall is left opened, he has "gate radar" & escapes quickly!!

He got into all the Easter eggs I put in the girls' room (for "safe keeping")

And Emmalee is notorious for leaving the gate opened--so one afternoon I hear a big crash--and this is what I found in the back hall where I store my plastic containers, lids & water bottles

Coloring on the fridge

A close-up of the masterpiece (I forgot to take a picture of the coloring on the girls' door)

Getting to the roll of garbage bags

"Here, Mom"

"Do you need one......or 10?"

"I'm just helping!!!"

I walked around the corner to do a load of laundry

And found this mess ☺

climbed up on the table

and got mad when I tried to get him down

Benjamin got into a big, full container of oat/granola mix I just made & was getting ready to add the peanut butter & honey to it. (do you see him back in the corner by the fridge--he knows he did something "really" big this time)

he's running to me to give me a hug. (how can you resist that??)

look at this mess, mom!!

and here he is helping me clean up--at least he usually helps clean up the messes he makes

I used to laugh at all stories my friend Jennifer (Parry) Lewis tells of her little boy, but now I have a lot of sympathy for her!!!

Benjamin is sick again this weekend.  I really hoped we were over all the sickness!! 

He hasn't eaten much, has a fever of 102.4, and has thrown up a few times.

Rusty stayed home with him today while the rest of us went to church.

here are some pictures of him when he wasn't sick--his happy, go-lucky, get-into-everything self.

eating chocolate from Easter

This is his great-grandma bowhay.  she lives in IF

The weather has turned so nice, and we played outside a lot.  We found this "Gilligan's" hat so he wouldn't get sunburned.

I combed his hair after we played outside for a while--it has a lot of sunblock in it.

I decided to give him a hair cut.  Maybe it was the haircut that got him sick.

or the gates & fence we put up in the back yard.  I told Rusty we absolutely had to get something up so I could hang up my laundry & have a gated area for Ben to play.  So we got a temporary fence & gate up for now. 

so now I can go outside & hang the clothes up tomorrow :D

Still to come.......the mighty adventures of Benjamin.