AJ

TC

Dakota

Going away party for the Archibald family.

Playing in the kiddie pool!

Summer 2010!

I know this post should have been before my last post, but oh, well! This summer flew by, with so much going on. TC and AJ stayed busy with baseball practices and games. They had fun but we kind of wish they had been in a more competitive league. I think it got boring for them to not keep score. Yes, both of my boys are competitive. Steve stayed busy with work, which kept me busy with the kids. Needless to say, the summer was busy.

Thanks to my niece and her husband, driving to Colorado, we were able to make a trip to Tennessee. I wasn't about to drive across the country with four children by myself. I was tempted, but Steve asked me where the kids would go, when I had to use the restroom. That made up my mind fairly quick. Jared and Bekah came in on July 26th and we headed for Tennessee the next day. We decided that night to just keep driving straight through. Jared toughed that part of the drive out. I think I would have fallen asleep, but he did well. I arrived at my parents house the next morning around 7 am. I think they were quite surprised to see us at the front door so early.

Our time in Chattanooga was fun and went by way too fast. I loved seeing all the greenery that the South has to offer. Although being outside was extremely hot with the 100+ degree weather and 100% humidity. I think my makeup melted off of my face within minutes of being outside. It was wonderful to be there for Jessica's reception. I consider Jess as one of my own nieces even though she is actually my sister-n-laws niece. Our families have always been so close. I also enjoyed seeing friends and family while I was there.

When we arrived back to Colorado I somehow talked Bekah into taking some family pictures for us. Bekah minored in photography and she takes great pictures. So, I am glad she could do that for us. The kids loved smiling for her and Jared, anyway.

Now that we are all back in school, life is busy but as you can see, it always is. That is why I might as well finish school, too! It has been two weeks and I am loving my classes. I'm excited to be in the classroom again!!!!

First Day of School for so many!

Well, I am a little late posting this but it is better late than never. Right? Steve's first day of school as fifth grade teacher at James Irwin Elementary Charter School was August 11th, along with AJ's first day of Kindergarten and TC's first day of fourth grade. How exciting to have them all at the same school together. Dakota started her first day of preschool on Tuesday and I, yes, I started back to school on Monday. I am very excited to be back in school and think that it will be a great semester.

Enjoying what I have and being grateful.

Okay, so I have a confession to make. Please don't judge me. One of the reasons that I absolutely love Colorado is that we just don't have very many bugs. I love that! I hated growing up worrying about where the spider would be lurking...under the bed, under the couch, in the dark laundry room. Anyway, I have dealt with bugs enough in my life to know that I don't like them. We never had bugs in our house except the occasional spider but who doesn't get that. Anyway, about 4 weeks ago, Jaxon, who sleeps on the bottom bunk, woke up with spots all over his arms, ankles, and face. I took him to sacrament but decided it would be best to bring him home in case he had something that was contagious. The next morning there were more spots. I had heard of one of my preschoolers having the chicken pox and thought right away that was what Jaxon had. So I called the doctor and took him in. She looked at his spots and told me that he was getting bitten by bugs. She gave me a prescription and off I went. I kept wondering where he would be getting into bugs. I had not seen any bugs in our house except the occasional ant, that we would spray around the house for. Could he have gotten into a nest of bugs or fire ants outside in the backyard? So I just kept giving him the medicine and the red spots would get smaller but never went away completely. TC started getting spots on his arms at this point. When we went to Steve's parents house for the weekend all the spots went away. When we got back home, the following day, Jaxon had these red spots again. So I examined his bed and saw little spots of blood on his sheets. I took a closer look at the baseboard and saw, what I thought were chiggers. Very tiny bugs crawling along the baseboard. Steve and I started looking through the entire bunk bed. You know the ones with the attached chest of drawers and a nice desk on the other end. Yeah, the entire bunk bed was infested with bedbugs. I thought bedbugs was just something made up. I would always tell my kids, "Goodnight and don't let the bedbugs bite." GROSS! They actually did! So we sprayed the bunk bed down with a bug spray that was killing them on contact. The deeper into the bed we got, we realized that these bugs were coming out of cracks that were glued. The bed was made up of over 300 pieces of wood. How in the world would I ever get rid of all of them. Not only were they crawling all over it by now, but when we were unscrewing the bed, we could see tiny eggs everywhere. At this point we felt the best thing we could do would be to take the whole bunk bed to the dump. Yes, we threw away a $700.00 bunk bed, desk, chest, and shelves, along with 2 mattresses. We have since bombed the house to make sure there are no more friendly critters here. After this nightmare, I have come to realize a few things. #1 - There is always someone who has it worse than you do. I so wanted to just die, because I hate bugs that much. #2 - I came to appreciate the scripture in 3 Nephi 13:20. "But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither bedbug (J/K it really says moth) nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal." I just kept thinking of how nice that bed was but I had to throw it away. We still do not know where in the heck we would have gotten bedbugs but apparently they are growing in number in the United States again, so beware. I will be itching for an entire month now because I can't stand the thought of what I just endured. We are bug free as far as I can see as I get down on my hands and knees everyday to check with flashlight in hand, for any signs of these creatures of the night.

Easter pictures were taken, too! YAY!

I did take pictures!

I forgot that I had someone take pictures for me at TC's birthday party. I guess I am not a total loser! LOL!

Too Much Going On!

I can't believe that I don't keep up on my blog like I should. I will update what has gone on in the past month.

- TC turned 9 on the 12th of April. It was a great day. He enjoyed his day with a few close friends.

- Last weekend we went to Buena Vista and stayed with Steve's parents. We enjoyed our time by riding 4 wheelers, bike rides, going on walks, and just talking.

- Easter came and went fast. We enjoyed conference and eating our goodies from the Easter Bunny. I am having to work out twice as hard now, to make up for that.

I would post pictures but I have been so bad about remembering my camera. I wish that I could say that I am the best mother of 4 little children but I would have to admit that I am lacking at the moment. They are getting the best of me and I have to cut back in the areas that aren't as important to me....like blogging. SORRY!