Livin' the Dream

My boys had the day of all days today. It was packed with the best kind of boyish fun. First it was off to soccer. We are lucky to have a friend who volunteered to coach and organize the whole thing, we just get to go and enjoy! As an added bonus it coordinates with our scout night. Drew and Parker so far have gotten to play on the same team which they love, and tonight they won! Afterwards it was off to pack meeting for bottle rockets. Here is Parker with his finished rocket. Don't judge any design flaws, it was my first ever bottle rocket, and more importantly, his. We had fun making it.

 It was his idea to paint it white and plaster it with Halloween stickers. It was then christened the "Boo Blaster."

 The Boo Blaster worked just fine, in spite of Parker's worries that it wouldn't. The kids had a great time. Andrew was even lucky enough to participate as the boys' scout leader had made a few extra rockets just in case. Here is Parker holding it steady for Drew while he pumped it.

 And the Boo Blaster in action.

I think the funnest part for the boys was running to retrieve the rockets and crashing in a pack around the boy who managed to get it first. The girls were also excited to get to go. They hate the weeks when only Parker gets to go! Emma was so funny. Because soccer was at the church, we didn't even have to go anywhere for the rocket launch, so all during the pack meeting she kept asking when we were going to go to scouts. We kept trying to convince her that we were there, but she wasn't sure. Finally when the rockets were done, they announced treats at the pavilion. She took off running yelling, "Yay! We're going to scouts!" Except it was ''Lay!" because she still doesn't make the 'y' sound. ;) 

I have really been enjoying all of these little moments with the kids lately and feeling so grateful for them all. With a new school year starting and life just in general being so busy with 6 kids, I've got to admit I've felt overwhelmed. It's hard to see past the to-do list and the fact that it never gets done. But over the last week, every time I get feeling bogged down, one of them does something adorable that reminds me why it's all worth it, and that even if all the to-do's never get crossed off, there is joy to be had in trying.

Boys' Night

As much as I hate to see my boys grow up, it has been so much fun to hang out with them lately. Every once in a while we give them the opportunity to stay up late with Mom and Dad. Sometimes it's to watch a big kid movie; the new Karate Kid was a big hit, (and I personally can't wait to have a Back to the Future night). Other times it's to play games that the sisters just aren't big enough for yet. Their absolute favorite is Monopoly. It is a miracle that this game has made a reappearance in our house; Brandon and I played it once as newlyweds and I vowed never again! My husband is a bit cutthroat about his games. But for these two....well that's a different story. 

Yes, that is a tupperware of raw cookie dough to snack on! 

These two are hilarious!! They're sure to call out, "Chancellors!" when a chance space is landed on, to tell you that, "Things are getting hairy in here!" when the game is getting serious, to remind you that you own the "Body Odor railroad" if you have the B&O, and they each have their favorite spaces that they will always hold out for. Parker loves Boardwalk and Park Place to a fault. He'll get most of the way through a game with only a few properties holding out for the big ones. If those can't be had he loves Tennessee Ave, (pronounced tuh-KNEE-tsee, don't ya know?) and Marvin Gardens, (MAH-ven GAH-dens).  Drew loves S-T Charles place and S-T James place. He also loves to be a railroad man.

They can also be persuaded to play Apples to Apples Jr. but this game is the clear fave. They're so much fun to play with that I don't mind it too much anymore. I love that they're learning to win and lose nicely, (for the most part) and to handle tasks like being the banker. I've been thinking it would be awesome to come across the old version of the game PayDay to teach them some money management skills as well. Life skills aside, just having a good time is great too!

Visiting Grandpa Murray

Let's do some catching up, shall we? Our stop in UT on the way to TX was a whirlwind visit. We tried to pack in as much fun as we could and see as many people as possible. It's pretty much a 24 hour drive from TX to see our families, so that won't be happening often.

We wanted for sure to see Grandpa Murray. I had been waiting for this visit ever since Noah was born, because Noah's middle name Macks is for this grandpa. We didn't go out to UT the summer he was a new baby, so this was the first time we had opportunity for a photo of the two of them together. Also, we lost Grandma Murray not too long before this visit, and we were really looking forward to checking in on Grandpa. 

This right here is my favorite photo ever of Grandpa. I know it's nothing flashy, but this is how I always want to remember him, and highlights my favorite things about him. Grandpa had heard that Parker was reading the Book of Mormon, and wanted to chat with him about it. He asked Parker how it was going, commended him for working so hard at it, and then started talking about the scriptures telling Parker about the 12 tribes of Israel. Grandpa loves the scriptures and makes an effort to study them every day. When he started losing his sight to macular degeneration, even that didn't stop him and he now listens to them on tape every afternoon. I don't know the particulars of Grandpa's story, but I know that Brandon remembers lighting cigarettes for Grandma and Grandpa as a boy. He says that when Grandpa decided it was time to follow the gospel, it has been with exactness ever since. He wouldn't even drive one mile an hour over the speed limit because the gospel teaches that we should obey the law of the land. He served as a faithful temple worker until his health no longer allowed it, and even now attends as often as he can get a ride. This man shows the light of Christ more than anyone I know. His countenance glows, and he overflows with Charity. I never feel as uplifted, loved and encouraged as I do in his presence. I am so proud to carry on his name and memory in our Noah Macks.

Again, not a great picture, but one I wanted to have for memory's sake. Grandma always loved having a porch swing for the kids to sit on and I think it would have made her so happy to see these girls swinging out in the sunshine.

This is Brandon's dear Aunt NaDean. She and her sister Aunt Sandra have always made an effort to be part of Brandon's life and to be supportive of him, and just as I always felt so loved by Grandma and Grandpa for being Brandon's choice, I feel the same outpouring of love and acceptance into the family from them. They are always so happy to see us. When Aunt NaDean heard we were coming for a visit, she opened her home to us and allowed us to stay the night and fed us delicious food. I wish I had a picture of Sandra as well, because she also came to see us at Grandpa's but I didn't get one. Also, I must say that I think that Brandon's aunts are stunningly beautiful and I hope that our girls inherit a bit of that.

It made us so happy to see our dear Grandpa Murray again!

Grandpa lives about 30 miles away from the home we left in Vernal, so while we were there we also made a quick trip out to attend church at the ward we lived in. We got to see many of the faces that we love so much there and it was almost odd how little had changed while we were gone! It still felt like home. It was a visit that was too short but one that we are so glad that we had opportunity to make.

Parker's Baptism

Yesterday my biggest boy was baptized. I am so proud of this boy. Brandon and I really made an effort to help him take this important step seriously. To know what he was doing, and why. He rose to our expectations and even exceeded them. I think this boy is what I like to call an "old soul." I feel that he was sent to our family to help me along far more than the other way around. He understands so much for his young age, and seems to know when I don't quite know what I'm doing. But he is patient with me.

Brandon and I challenged Parker to read the entire Book of Mormon before his eighth birthday to help him prepare. At times we wondered if we would have to help him along, but all on his own, he reached a point where he was determined to accomplish his goal. In the midst of our crazy move he had gotten off track of the schedule we had given him to follow by quite a bit. Rather than give up, or wait for our prodding he started reading two days worth, then three, then four. At the end of it all he finished four days ahead of schedule. All along the way I'd ask him questions about what he had read. There were a few times when it was hard for him to comprehend, but I was amazed at what he did understand and learn, and we had some really enjoyable talks about it. Now that he has built this great habit, I hope he keeps it up and really learns to love the scriptures.

The big day was so special. He was somber and a bit shy, typical of his personality, but he was also extra affectionate, which I hope was his way of showing that he was feeling something special.

I of course was an emotional mess. I am loving these wonderful people that our kids are growing into, but I also think it is happening way too fast. I tried to keep it together to give a talk on baptism, but I'll really just have to know that hopefully we taught Parker everything he needed to know before that moment.  

 Brandon gave a talk on the Holy Ghost before the confirmation and did a great job of relating the topic to Parker individually. I think Parker really understood what was taught there. Brandon is a great Dad, and a wonderful example of a priesthood holder for our kids.

This is the first time we've had a picture taken with all eight of us in it. After two days of lots of fun with family, they were tired and missing naps. But I still love this picture. It shows our real life. Our crazy busy imperfect, wonderful, always entertaining full of love life. I love these people with all of my heart just the way they are.

Birthdaypalooza 2013 Part 1

Sorry for the delay in birthday posts, but BIRTHDAYPALOOZA is so intense around here, I have to get through it before I can blog about it.  ;)  We just have a blast celebrating our kids' birthdays.  It's such a fun time to bond as a family.  I really feel like this is a time to strengthen their love for each other, and celebrate each kid in a way that can be hard to do sometimes in a large family.  I really want my kids to know how special they each are to me.  Also, these young birthdays are just so fun and I know we only have so many to celebrate like this.

As per the norm, the birthday kid gets to wake up to decorations of their favorite color - for Parker it was blue balloons and streamers.  This is such a simple and maybe silly tradition, but it's amazing how excited my kids get over it.  I think it's one of those little things that they really appreciate.  One thing I didn't get around to this year was birthday crowns, and my homemade sign was sadly damaged after two years hard use and wouldn't stand up to another.  Maybe next year we'll get back on that.  ;)  We also had a steady stream of birthday cards pouring in all month from great grandparents and they added a fun touch to the decor.  Some of them even sang and added party music to the festivities!  This photo was actually at Andrew's birthday and by then some of the cards had just plain been loved to peices...this isn't even all of them.  Pretty crazy huh?!

Parker as the man of the day got to choose the meals.  For breakfast it was fried egg sandwiches and smoothies.  We spread the presents out over the day, opening presents of clothes and rockets from Grandpa and Grandma Morgan in the morning, Wii games and a board game from Grandma and Poppy in the afternoon, and after a dinner of lasagna we opened some books, (Homer Price, The Indian in the Cupboard, and My Father's Dragon - which he finished the very next day by the way) SkipBo cards, and Duck Tales on DVD from Mom and Dad.

Parker is getting so so big, and is in the stage of not really loving to have his picture taken, so there were a quick few snapped while opening some presents.

 Are you getting as big of a kick out of Drew's face in this one as me?  The whole fam was excited to finally own some Duck Tales.  It's a favorite around here.

And in this one, note Floody trying to get to his brother's presents.  He has been a scooter for quite some time now and we had to keep moving the presents and wrapping paper out of his way.

 ....and coming back around the other side.  Isn't he cute?  I should also mention here that Parker is the WORLD'S BEST BIG BROTHER.  He just loves baby Noah and dotes on him in the sweetest way.  Even when Noah is getting into things he shouldn't, Parker always has a smile for him and something nice to say.  He's told me we should have ten more babies in our family. ;)  He added that he would say a "million-dy" except that he thinks we only have room for ten more in our house.

 One thing that made Parker's birthday really fun was making his cake.  I usually let the kids choose their cake.  In the past we've done dump trucks and pirate ships, but Parker is a more traditional man.  He specifically requested a tiered cake.  Seeing as how we are up to our eyeballs in cake by the end of July, I didn't go for fancy from scratch this year in an effort to conserve my cake making strength.  And since he'd chosen a simple design I let him come and pick out the flavor of the mix with me.  Oh boy!  He was thrilled with all the choices.  He chose a strawberry cake mix for the top and bottom tiers and a pineapple cake mix for the middle.  Then he went hog wild with the frosting.  There was some choose your own flavor variety of plain frosting where you just by the can and mix in a powder, (of which there were tons to choose from!) for flavor and color.  The blue you see was cotton candy flavored, and the purple was a white chocolate raspberry.  It was a bit of a flavor overload. :)

We had a lot of fun making the cake together.  Parker is such a big independent boy and loves to help me cook and he wasn't about to be left out of this!  I pretty much assembled the cake and let him do the rest.  I don't think he's ready for Cake Boss yet, but I think it was pretty awesome anyway.  And I loved that he was willing to pose for a picture with me when it was all ready.

 After cake and presents we got the kids to all line up for a picture.  You can imagine what it was like to get a semi-decent shot out of six of them.  I actually think every single one of them was hilarious, but maybe in a 'only a mom could love' sort of way, so I'll only post one.

So how do I feel about my big boy turning 7 you ask?  I don't like it one bit!!  :)  Okay, okay, he's really super fun to be around and I love having real talks with him and he's a great helper, but could somebody slow this growing up thing down please?!  You'd think with five others around I'd be happy to have some of them grow up, but it just makes my Mama heart ache all the more.  In a good way of course.

A few things about Parker right now......as I mentioned before he is super serious.  I love this about him.  He really listens to what he is taught and takes it to heart.  He tries so hard to be good, and his role as big brother and example is always on his mind.  He has learned to be patient and kind.  He's the kind of kid that keeps me on track.  He is often the one to remind me that we haven't done our scripture study for the day, or reminds me of a prophetic quote if I lose my temper, or otherwise make a mistake.  He makes me want to be a better Mom.  He loves to learn new things and has such a good attitude about our homeschool most of the time.  I just can't say enough good about this boy.  He was definitely meant to come to our family as the oldest.  And if all of this wasn't high enough praise, Paige has decided she wants to marry him when she grows up!  Of course, no seven year old is without a silly side, and one of his favorite things to do is play video games with Dad.  Or do anything with Dad really, as he is the hero around here.

We all love our Parker Dean Machine and hope that he felt just how much on his birthday!

Baseball

The boys have been playing baseball this summer with Daddy as their coach.  It has been a hoot to say the least.  Drew is technically not old enough to play, but because Daddy's coaching, and because the t-ball team and the machine pitch team game schedules would have made it a near impossibility to do both, we put him on the older team.  He has done so great to keep up with those bigger boys!  I've been so proud.

 The first game both boys got hits and got on base.  It was so fun to see!  Ever since Parker has been a consistent hitter and is also fast to boot, and gets on base the most often.  He's the lead-off hitter for the team most games.

 Drew struggled a little more with the machine pitch, but was a great fielder, and has gotten a few great hits here and there.  The best was last night.  Final inning, we're down 4-0.  One runner on base, but 2 outs, and Drew at the bottom of the order is up to bat.  He gave it all he had and got a base hit!  Then Parker got up and hit a triple to drive in two runs!  I was so excited and so proud!!  Sadly, the next hit was an out, so we didn't get a chance to come back for the win, but I was so excited to see our boys play that way.

Isn't Drew adorable in that giant batting helmet?  I'll need to update the post with a few more pictures of him before the season is over.  It's a little crazy when I'm left to manage the other four alone.  A ring pop from the concession stand only keeps them occupied for so long. ;)

Needless to say, I never thought I'd be such a big baseball fan before I had boys of my own to watch.  I'm looking forward to many more summers of it!

Post Edit: The very next game Drew got his own triple hit!  Sadly, I didn't get any more pictures but it was a great season.  We're now on to swimming lessons but once in a while Drew will stop me and say, "Mom, you remember that time I hit a triple in baseball?!"  I sure do Drewbie!!

We Are Soccer Monsters!

Anyone else as big a fan of the Backyardigans as me?  No?  Well let me treat you to one of our my favorite songs.  "We are soccer monsters, we have a soccer ball!  We'd rather play soccer than do anything at all!"  That's been our theme song for the last several weeks.  Two to three soccer practices a week between two different teams and games alllll day on Saturday.  One of the joys of being in such a small town is that there are only enough kids to form one to two teams per age group.  So that means we have to meet up with the other small towns for games, driving up to an hour away.  Might as well make a day of it, hmm?  The nice part is, to entice the kids to play there was no fee to join the team.  We'll take it!  The boys were so excited for soccer this year.  It was their first season of it.  Here they are trying on their new shorts, shin guards, socks and shoes.  By the way, normally I think Parker looks more like his Mama, but in this shot, he is SO his Daddy's boy.

 Both of our boys surprised us a bit.  After one game day Brandon and I came home laughing that we should never label our kids because they will always surprise us. Our usual mama's boy/daddy's boy ideals were reversed.  We usually think Parker acts SO much like his Dad, and that Andrew acts SO much like his Mom.  But this threw that completely out the window.  Andrew was upset when the coaches asked him to take a turn rotating out so everyone could play.  And he came off the field in tears after one game, "We LOST!" he sobbed.  Andrew was aggressive and not at all intimidated by the other team.  He got right into the scrum and handled the ball right down to the goal over and over and over.

 His little team was adorable and the coaches did a fantastic job.  They taught them good sportmanship and that the most important part was to have fun. Something we're still trying to reinforce with Drew.

 The team shot.

 Parker did a fantastic job.  But, he surprised us by being much less aggressive and more unsure than we've ever seen him.  To be fair, this was his first year playing, and the other kids had all had one or two under their belts.  I think he was a bit intimidated.  It was also his first time playing with a group of kids who have grown up playing every sport together.  He's shy like his Mama.  The coach was great though and played to everyone's strengths. Parker played defender in the backfield and did a great job.  He understood his role really well, and not having to be attacking all the time really boosted his confidence.  By the last few games he was ready to take a turn on the front end and almost scored a goal or two.  Next year Drew and Parker will be on the same team and I think we'll have a fantastic duo in them.

Team shot.

I have to say......all those years I whined and complained about watching my brothers teams, I had no idea how much I'd relish the role of soccer mom.  I absolutely loved every minute of watching my boys play.  My heart hurt when they had overlapping games and I had to choose to watch one or the other.  For now, I'll gladly take the role of their biggest fan and cheerleader.  They are some fantastic boys and I am so proud of them!

Transformers

Parker recently discovered the old Transformers on Netflix. Needless to say the boys are hooked. They can even sing the entire opening theme song. ;)  They've also for some reason been getting really excited about Halloween for over a month now.  So when we saw some Transformers costumes on sale online?  Forget about it.  You all know I can't resist my online shopping!  Parker insisted that his Bumblebee costume be from "Transformers Prime."  He wasn't even willing to look and see what the others were like after he saw that line.  So if you need help fighting decepticons, give us a call!  Optimus and Bumblebee would be glad to help out!  I know I feel safer already.