4 weeks down

for real? Almost a whole month of summer gone. I really can't believe it. I also am having a hard time remembering what we did this last week.
My parents came up on Thursday for my Dad's Dr. app on Friday. They brought Diesel, my Dad's new 7 week old puppy and the kids were in heaven playing with him. He's super cute and tiny and spunky.
Sam and I took my parents to the Melting Pot for dinner on Saturday to celebrate Father's day and my Mom's 60th birthday, which is today! It was fun and delicious but my Dad wasn't feeling well, which was kind of a bummer, but we still had a good time.
On Wednesday and Thursday night we had the tent set up in the back yard for the kids to sleep in. The girls had friends over on Wednesday then Bryce and Gracie and McKay slept out there on Thursday. That is likely the only camping that they will be doing this summer because Sam hates camping...always, and I am in no shape to go camping right now.
On Saturday we did some landscaping and cleaning up of our back yard and it looks really nice. However, as usual I did more of the manual labor than was good for me, which isn't hard to do because the amount that is good for me is NONE, and I was in lots of pain for the rest of the weekend. I can't wait to not be pregnant anymore. I just want to be able to move without hurting. It's nice to have the yard done though. Done for now anyway, there will always be more we can do.
Sunday of course was Father's Day and I being in my weakened state (see above) did pretty much nothing special for Father's Day. Sorry Sam. In fact, Sam and the kids got up and made a big breakfast for everyone, eggs, bacon, pancakes. He rocks!! The kid's gave him some Father's Day gifts earlier. Nate's gift to Sam was Nate getting a hair cut. Bryce gave him a cool Bronco thing that he got at the Sunshine Festival and McKay gave him a picture frame that he made at school with a picture of him in it. My gift to him was helping to get the yard finished which is something that he has wanted for a long time. I even let him through away some stuff that I wasn't sure I wanted thrown away. That's big for me. I know, overall pretty lame on my part as far as making it a special day goes, but it is what it is and Sam seemed happy anyway.
So 7 more weeks of Summer! We still need to go to Pirates' Cove, and The 24th of July Celebration, and Breckenridge, and.... I can't remember. What else was on the list?

Week 3

I have all of my kiddos home! We had a great block party on Saturday that included a huge water fight. The kids filled 300 water balloons and I tied 300 water balloons the night before. Unfortunately we did not get a single picture the entire day. It was super hot outside so the highlight of the day for me was when one of my neighbors filled up a tub of water and brought it to me to soak my feet in. Another neighbor added bath salts to the water and the little girls got spray bottles and a brush and started fixing my hair. I was very pampered, almost to the point that I was a bit embarrassed... almost.
We went to target and got most of what I still need for baby and yesterday Heather came over and we got the baby's room mostly set up. Last night I went into the room with Sam to show him what I had bought and what we had accomplished. I was pointing out different things and when I got to the diaper bag that I had just packed he got this "look" on his face and said, "We have a diaper bag! This just got real for me."
That kind of cracked me up.
Today the kids and I got the house all cleaned up and looking pretty so I feel much calmer now. They also have been asking for extra ways to earn money. We have tried different systems of allowance over the years and haven't stuck to any of them. The kids have their daily chores, and actually do quite a bit of work around here, but I feel like that is just part of being a family and taking responsibility of our home, so they don't get paid for those things. How ever, I love that they are wanting to earn their own money, so I came up with a list of extra jobs that need done and last night Sam and I sat down and assigned a dollar amount to each job. This is what we came up with:


Clean and Organize Kitchen drawers $1/per drawer
Fold Socks for 15 min $2
Dust $2
Clean Trash Out of Car $2
Wash out Trash Cans $2/per trash can
Sweep Front Porch and Side Walk $2
Organize Towel Closet $2
Clean and Organize Kitchen Cupboards $2/per cupboard
Clean and Organize Bathroom Cupboards $2/ per cupboard
*Wash all Light Switches $2
*Wash Hand Rails On Stairs, (including basement) and upstairs hallway $2
Clean Bird Cage- $3
Pull Weeds for 15 Min $3
Cleaning Coat Closet $3
Wash Upstairs Doors $4
Wash Downstairs Doors (including basement) $4
Vacuum Under Couch/ Chair Cushions $5
Vacuum Car $5
Cleaning and Vacuuming behind and under couches $5
Pick up/ Sweep Garage $5
Wash Window Sills and Tracks $5
Sweep Back Patio and Side Walk $5
Wipe seats and all Surfaces in car $5
Clean Kitchen Refrigerator $7
Clean Garage Refrigerator $7
Clean Kitchen Freezer $7
Clean Garage Freezer $7
Mow Lawn $10

*These Jobs are for McKay only



All jobs must be approved by a parent in advance. Dollar amount is subject to change depending on the level of work the job requires at that time. All jobs must be recorded and signed off on by a parent at time of completion.

Then I also made a record sheet so that jobs could be recorded and payment could be made at the end of each week. I'll let you know how it goes.
That's about it for week 3. I am officially in my 3rd trimester and feel very pregnant, but all is going well.

Summer Week 2

Last Friday my dad called and said to meet him half way that day and give him the boys. So we did. Well, Sam did. My parents built a new garage this year and had to have their giant wood pile moved. They had someone come in with a bulldozer and just push it all out of the way. They offer the boys the opportunity to earn some money this summer by coming and moving/ stacking all of the good wood and separating out the old, bad wood to be burned. I think the job took them all around 11 hours to complete. They did two big days and then about an hour today to finish it up. They are tired and sore and I hear they worked very hard. They also got to have some fun. They spent a day at the Sand Dunes, and some time playing in the canal. They went to a festival and saw a firework show and tomorrow they are going swimming. They will be home on Friday and I really can't wait. I have missed their cute faces so much.

We have not worked quite so hard here but we did work. On Saturday we had a garage sale and finished cleaning out our garage. Then  hauled away all of our extra junk. Our garage has never looked so good. It's kind of awesome.

Abby and her friend had a lemonade stand on Saturday and sold $44 dollars worth of lemonade. After expenses and splitting the profits Abby made $15. They also started a weeding and watering business and had their first client last weekend. They are great little business women.

The Girls also started a Literacy Program this week and Gracie starts being tutored in reading tomorrow. We've had some fun too though. 5 hours at the pool, trip to the library and today a movie and lunch. We saw Chimpanzee, then ate at CB&Pots. Tomorrow we'll do another pool day if the weathers nice. Right now we are under a tornado warning.