One Year Photo Shoot. . . 4 months late.

Love, Love, Love our 'Sweet Cakes'.

Fall Break

We are just returning to school from almost 3 weeks of Fall Break. Here's the highlights that I don't want to forget:

Friday EARLY morning, we loaded the kids in the car and drove the 10.5 hours to Utah just in time for the BYU football game. The boys went with John, Grandpa, and a few uncles. I hung out with Shawnne and my mom and watched the younger kids.

Saturday EARLY morning-we left for SLC where we attended General Conference. My brother watched our three youngest, and we took the three oldest into the conference center. Taylor loved going to Priesthood session.

Sunday- we watched GC with my Bennion grandparents, then had a great visit that evening with lots of extended cousins that I hadn't seen for a while. It was good to catch up.

Monday-John flew home for work. I took the kids with my parents and a few siblings to Provo Canyon for most of the day. Loved seeing the Fall colors. Taylor and Mason enjoyed a tour of BYU's football facilities where James works with the team as an assistant trainer. They came home with BYU hats and couldn't be happier.

Tuesday-spent the day with Grandma and Grandpa Bennion, both into their 80's. Grandpa spent a lot of time helping the oldest kids make leather crafts, and he spent more time making bows and arrows out of metal hangers for Andersen. Grandma taught the kids how to play Chinese checkers and a few other games. Fun, memorable day.

Wednesday-drove to SLC and spent the day with my parents at Pioneer Village and other church museums. Cold and rainy, but still fun to be together. During the day, Andersen started doing the potty dance and my mom asked if he needed to "go number one or number two". His response cracked us all up. "I need to go a THOUSAND!!!" Enjoyed dinner at Denny's with both of my parents.

Thursday-headed to Alpine with all the kids and spent the afternoon and into the late evening with a favorite friend and college roommate. The kids had a great time playing with her kids, and I could have visited with Nicki forever. Wish we were neighbors!

Friday-spent the day with my Aunt Marcia and her kids, who happen to line up in age with a lot of mine. She and her family provide great role models of how we want our family to turn out. (Theya re about 10 years ahead of us in the parenting aspect). So every time I'm around Aunt Marcia, I ask lots of questions and observe how she does things as a mother. Very impressive! John flew back to SLC, just in time to drive us all home . . .

Saturday- long drive back home to make the 6pm soccer game for Taylor and Mason. Barely made it! Lots of laundry and unpacking.

Sunday-more laundry, church, and repacking for another full week at the cabin. We left a few hours after church.

We spent the following Monday-Saturday at the cabin with most all of John's siblings, their families, and parents. A few activities we did were: hiking, exercising, lots of visiting, work projects, horse riding, tractor riding, fishing, minute-to-win-it games, compass challenge, family feud, campfire sings, smores, board games, more hiking, mountain biking, eating, and more visiting.

It was a blast. One thing I pride myself in is that I married into an AMAZING, super fun, hard working, talented, and rock-solid family. Love those LeSueurs, and proud to carry the name.

Here's a few pictures of our second week:

Mason was insistant on catching AND cooking a crawdad. He ate it and said "tastes like chicken".

Kate enjoyed the freedom of walking and doing things by herself this time around. And needless to say, I enjoyed it too.

I thought this was a cute shot of Abby. She doesn't have very many girl LeSueur cousins but enjoyed herself nonetheless. Thank goodness for Kinsey, who's just a few years older.

Notice the PINK cowboy boots. I think she was more excited to just wear the boots than she was to ride the horse. She had a hard time giving them up when it was time to take the boots off. And my mind was yelling, "christmas present. . . consider it done!"

Andersen spent some time riding with Papa on his tractor. I couldn't tell who enjoyed it more-the little boys or Papa.



Taylor, giving thumbs up while playing minute-to-win-it games with cousins.
Andersen continued finding more and more sticks. But if I dared call it a "stick", he would get after me. "Mom, I've already told you. . .it's not a stick. It's a gun". This particular "gun" became very handy when he was riding horses because he could shoot all the 'elks' and 'badguys'.

He's 12!

Hard to believe, but our miracle baby turned twelve years old last week. The week prior to his birthday, we had a lot of great visits about changes that are going on/physical development , the priesthood, and being a good example and leader in our home.

Watching his "try to hide it but I can't" smile while he passed the sacrament for the first time last Sunday put a great big lump in my throat. He's such a good boy and has always had a strong inner desire to please and to choose the right.

And a few weeks ago while swimming with the kids, I noticed armpit hair. Only four hairs, but they were long. What in the world?!? I pointed them out, and Taylor couldn't have been more proud. He's always wanted to grow up and to be treated as a grown-up. Since then, I've heard him tell his younger siblings that he's a real man now because he has armpit hair. Funny.

What he wanted most for his birthday was to ride horses in St. David with Mima and Papa, which he got to do. He also invited over a few friends and cousins for a swim/dinner/night games party. Then a few days after his birthday, the youth in our ward got to go to the temple and do baptisms for the dead. I think it was a wonderful experience for him, as he has asked numerous times since when he can go back.

He also got to attend Teen Elect, a youth activity in our church that gives the kids opportunity to practice social interaction with the opposite gender, manners, and dancing. He was SUPER nervous and didn't want to go at all. The whole week, he kept bringing it up and saying how he didn't need to go. John drove him and a few other boys to the activity, and encouraged them on the way to dance with girls even if they didn't want to. He said, "Taylor, you have to dance with a few girls. You don't have to like it, but you have to do it". One of the boys in the car said, "Bro. LeSueur, you're making me really nervous" to which Taylor responded, "guys, I've been nervous for a whole week just thinking about it." John had a good laugh about that one.

He ended up having a great time and has been using a napkin and cutting all his food with a knife and fork ever since.

Happy Birthday Taylor!

My Buddy

Yesterday morning I drove the four oldest to school. As they got out of the car, we all said our "love you's" and "have a great day" and "don't forget to smile" and "eat all your vegetables at lunch before eating your treat" . . .and the list goes on. The kids jumped out, waved goodbye, and I started to drive out of the carpool lane.

I looked in my rearview mirror and saw Andersen, the only one left in the car, with a lonely look on his face. To cheer him up, I started singing a song about how Andersen is my buddy--one of those made-up songs that just come out. Then I said, "Hey Buddy, what do you want to do with me today?"

The response I got wasn't what I expected. He said, "Mom, . . . . (pause), I want a buddy . . .. (more pause). . .that's. . . . NOT you."

Ouch! What? My little three year old doesn't think I'm his best friend?

Then he went on to say, "I want a buddy that's little like me, I want a buddy that is my same age. I want Davie to be my buddy." (Davie is a super fun cousin that's his same age, same size, and great friend).

So we came home and called David to play. Too bad he was out of town.

Thank goodness, Andersen didn't mention it again that day. And I tried hard to redeem myself. We played Old Maid, Memory, the matching game, we read books, we went swimming, snuggled, and worked together. All in all, I think he was satisfied with me being his Buddy.

But really, there's nothing cuter than watching him and his buddy, Davie, playing together. They are true Buddies!

First Day of School

It has come all too soon. EmmaClaire could hardly let herself fall asleep the night before that first day. And she was the first one to wake me up, much eariler than she needed to wake up. She gently touched my arm, I opened my eyes in bed and saw her fully dressed, hair done (to a 5 year old's perfection-beautiful!), shoes on, backpack on, and lunch box in hand. She whispered, "mom, it's time!"

Time to go to kindergarten. Something she's been waiting for and thinking about for a long time. And now she finally gets to be with the big kids and do big things.

After she came home that first day, I asked her how it was. "Boring" was her first comment, but I could tell by her smile that she absolutely LOVED going to school. And she was proud of herself for making a new friend already.

Mason loved being able to switch teachers half way through the day. He said it felt like going to jr. high. Abby said everything was good except that a few of her favorite friends were in another class. Good opportunity to make new friends this year.

Taylor had a bad first day. He forgot his lunch on the bus and lost it. Because of the new bus route, he got home much later than he did last year and ended up sitting on the bus for almost 45 minutes. Way too long for a 6th grader. He decided that on his way to school, he would use that time to read the scriptures. On his way home, he would use that time to get his homework done. Good plan!

Cheers to a new school year!

Summer Fun 2011

Here's a few things my kids did this past summer that I don't want to forget!

Lots of beauty parlor with cousins. It didn't matter where we were or what we were doing. If there were girl cousins around, they wanted to fix each others hair.

A new game my boys made up. . . out of sheer boredom. They set up about 75 paper cups, then stood on the opposite side of the kitchen island and went for it. Ready, aim, FIRE! Rubberbands are a boys best friend.

One afternoon after chores were finished, Mason decided he wanted to have a "snow cone" stand. Being well over 100 degrees outside, I talked him out of it. But every day after that, the subject came up again and again. . .so I finally said, "go for it. You set it all up, and you clean it all up." The first time he attempted (without any shade, without any signs), he made a few dollars. But that was enough to motivate him to do it again. The second time, he set up shade tarps (notice that the kids aren't exactly hitting the shade-ha), he made a big sign, and he made some cookies and homemade Popsicles to sell alongside the snow cones. Since no one was out-it being SOOOO hot, he sent the girls door to door to publicise. He ended up pocketing about $12 this time. That's BIG money for a 10 year old. And more than that, it gave him the opportunity to work and think about how to make more money. We had some good talks after that first encounter, and he came up with some good solutions on how to improve and make his business better. Mason is becomming quite the entrepanewer. All those games of monolopy are finally paying off!

Summer Awards Program

Tonight we had our annual "Summer Awards Program" for family home evening. It's something I grew up with and am passing on the tradition. Right before school starts, John and I congratulate each of the children for their accomplishments and talents during the past summer, then present them with a few gifts and items needed for the following school year. It ends up being somewhat of a 'Christmas in July', and the kids look forward to it year after year.

So tonight, after handing out all the loot and watching the kids organize, then reorganize it in their binders and pencil boxes, we sent them up to bed and told them to put all their things in their backpacks for safe keeping.

A few minutes later, Mason came down stairs with two Tupperware containers in hand that he had found in his backpack. . . . . from a school lunch. . . . . . 8 weeks ago. Totally GROSS! Lids were still in tact, and we could see hair growing all over inside. We laughed, then I told him he needed to wash them out since he was the one responsible. He went outside, turned on the hose, plugged his nose, opened the lid, and started spraying. I watched from the window, totally cracking up.

Then he came back inside and said, "Mom, those things need to go in the trash. . . I'll pay for a new one". Then he returned to the backyard and, with nose plugged and rubber gloves, he disposed of the Tupperware into the dumpster.

The funny thing is, that's such a "Mason" thing to do. As disgusting as it was, I wasn't the least bit surprised.

And hopefully he'll be a little more diligent at cleaning out his lunch box (on a daily basis, not a bi-monthly basis) this coming school year.

Gotta love that 10-year-old boy.