August

Starting the month off with a painting Molly made of a fox.  She liked it so much that she found a frame and is displaying it in her room on her dresser.

Ivy got a manicure from Molly.  She held still long enough for all her fingers to be painted, but only just.

For visiting teaching in August, my partner and I (who is just Nicole next door) invited a couple of our sisters to go down to Provo for a temple session.  We drove down together and did an evening session on a Tuesday night and then drove home after.  It was a nice change for the month's visiting teaching and I enjoyed the chance to get to know all these ladies better. 

Michelle Hansen, me, Julie Wood, Nicole

  

When I was at the temple, Justin was cleaning up outside with the kids.  Ivy tripped and fell on something and ended up with a cut on the outside of her eye.  It scabbed over for a week or so but it wasn't very deep.

No matter what I do, I cannot stop Ivy from growing up.  She rarely sits in her booster seat anymore and she insists on feeding herself.  She wants to be just like the older kids (although they always wear shirts when they come to breakfast).

She also loves daddy's drinks that he brings home from work sometimes.  We don't usually just let her have the whole thing!

Painting Olympic rocks.  We were very excited to watch the Olympics and this is one way the kids prepared.  Heber soil is full of rocks and we've uncovered plenty of bigger ones for the kids to paint.  Molly made an Olympic flag, Stocky made a Korean flag, and Brynn just painted.

 

Ivy is never one to be left out!  If she's awake, she's right in the middle of the action.  Not sure how much paint she actually got on her rock though.

In conjuction with the Wasatch County Fair, there was an outdoor movie being shown at the fairgrounds.  The kids had picked both to go to the fair and to go to the movies from the bucket list so this was one activity that checked two off the list.  Plus, an outdoor movie is much more fun (and even cheaper than the dollar movies).  Plus, dad got to go.  Plus, I got to stay home with Ivy-I really wasn't sure how she'd do at a movie.  Plus, they got to play soccer before the game started.  Plus, they were showing Inside Out.  See how many pluses there were?  Bottom line is that it was lots of fun.  I'm sure we'll be doing this next year and many years after that as well.

Ivy and I went and played for a little bit before it got started.

I love summer rainstorms!  And the kids love jumping in the puddles.

The kids showing off some mad skills on the swingset.

Molly had a soccer tournament the first weekend of August.  It was the Park City Cup but, as luck would have it, all of her games were right here in Heber at Old Mill Elementary.  It was so nice being close.  These few games were her first with the new team and new coach and it was hard for her.  She was intimidated by the higher level of play, she was shy around her new teammates and coaches, and they had her playing in a position she'd never played before so she was confused.  She struggled with her confidence and she didn't get a lot of playing time.  My mom came up on Friday to watch her two games and brought some cousins-Chloe, Abby, Tessa, and Grace.  They came to the morning game, played at our house all day, then went to the 5:00 game as well.  I was so grateful to have them there-they were the much needed distractions Molly needed so she didn't dwell on disappointments.

Chloe, Abby, Tessa, Grace, Stockton, Brynn, Molly

Abby, Molly, Chloe, Tessa, Grace

**More about Molly's soccer season later!  An update will definitely need to be posted!**

I put the littler kids to work in the afternoon.  My mom had already taken Molly over to the field for warm-ups and Chloe and Abby had gone with her.  I was getting ready to head over there but needed to quickly change the water pipes in the pasture.  Stockton did this all summer so he knew the drill but Brynn, Tessa, and Grace got out there and helped as well. 

Brynn, Stockton, Tessa, Grace

Grace, Brynn, Stockton, Tessa

Molly's completed report on King Tut.  This was completely voluntary, all Molly's idea.  She wanted to learn more about King Tut so she researched and compiled everything in a report, including pictures.

Our washing machine had a few glitches this summer.  First it was leaking-I went into the laundry room after putting a load of wash in and the floor was completely flooded.  So Justin took it apart and figured out the problem.  Second, it started to smell funny, like burning rubber.  So Justin took it apart again and figured out that problem.  He just needed to replace a small part.  When he took the part to the appliance store the workers there couldn't believe that he would do that without a professional.  But his diagnosis was right and he got the part and put the machine back together.  Third, the machine would fill up but then wouldn't spin.  I don't think he had to take it all the way apart this time but he was successful in fixing it a third time.  Man, I sure am glad this guy knows how to work and that he will take the time to learn what's wrong and how he can fix it.  He saved us from either paying for professionals to charge us a ton of money to diagnose and fix a problem or from buying a new washer all together!

Brynn always falls asleep with random things next to her...this time it was scissors and toothpaste. Not sure what she was doing with either of those items.

I love to watch Ivy when we gather for prayers.  Her kneeling consists of laying down on her belly and planting her nose in the carpet.  Many of our prayers have been interrupted by fits of giggles from all the kids (and parents) laughing at Ivy's antics.

Justin taught Stocky how to flex his muscles and say, "Welcome to the gun show!"

This kids found this caterpiller out by the fire pit one day.

We finally got around to putting the sprinklers under the tramp.  This is a must for summer.  It was on the bucket list and someone (I think Brynn) finally picked it, although I would have made them do it regardless of whether or not someone chose it.  You gotta have some spontaneity in life.

More Olympic crafting.  This time they made flags and torches.  Molly-Olympic torch, Stockton-American flag, Brynn-Brazilian flag, with help.  Ivy-didn't make anything, she's just cute.  Notice their outfits and how they coordinate with the craft they each made. 

And here is Stockton in his Olympic swimming gear.  Goggles and an improvised cap made out of...a ziploc baggie, I think.  And the USA Olympic shirt.

We didn't get around to planting any zucchini in our garden this year but my neighbor brought by a big one for us from her garden.  So I turned to my trusty cooking/baking source and was able to make chocolate zucchini cake, whole wheat zucchini chocolate chip muffins (put them in the freezer for later) and zucchini cornbread from it.  We like the muffins the best, the cake was yummy with powdered sugar on top (we didn't really like the chocolate whipped cream), and the cornbread was great fresh but wasn't very good the next day.

The Wasatch County Fair is pretty lame, or from what I saw when we went to the movie, it looked pretty lame to me.  So we didn't do anything there besides the movie.  We did make it to the Weber County Fair, which is totally not lame, although I may be biased since I was there every summer with a lamb from the time I was 8 until I graduated high school and then I worked there in the summers when I was home from Utah State.  We hadn't planned on making it but we met my mom to go school shopping in Farmington and then we just stayed overnight at my parents and went to the fair for a few hours in the morning.  We didn't get to see Chloe in the pig show but we did get to meet her pig, Wilbur.

Tessa, Molly, Stockton, Grandpa, Chloe, Grandma, Brynn, Harper

Stockton and Harper

Chloe, Harper, Stockton Brynn, Tessa, Ivy, Molly

It was kids day so we were able to play all the library games and have lunch before heading for home.

Tessa, Brynn, Stockton, Chloe, Molly

Molly, Chloe, Stockton

Tessa, Brynn, Harper

A candid from our family pictures that Justin took.  I had a different outfit picked out for Ivy but Justin picked out this one and I'm glad he did because she looked adorable.  My mom found those shoes for her for $4 when we went school shopping with the kids and they couldn't have been more perfect.

We made it back to the skate park-with Brynn this time.  Molly was having practice but she joined in the fun when it was over.

The kids were dying to do a lemonade stand all summer.  I kept discouraging it because we really don't have a lot of traffic on our street.  But they still wanted to try it so one day they did.  They walked up the street a little closer to the highway in hopes of catching some of the truck drivers.  I don't think they got anyone actually pull off of the highway but they did get a few from our street.  And they got some really great tips!

Ivy, Corbin Anderson, Molly, Easton Anderson, Stockton, Maive Pauley, Brynn

That one time Justin let Ivy lick his plate clean.  She was pretty happy about it.

The kids put their heads together and made a couple Olympic events at home one night.  They did the long jump first.  They used Brynn's mattress and they would run and jump off the end.  They used pens as markers to see how far they jumped.

On another night they made a high jump with a string that they strung from the TV stand to a chair.  They pulled Brynn's mattress out again for that one too.  The idea was to run and jump off of the mattress over the string. It didn't work quite as well because they kept getting tripped up on the string and then they would have to fix it.  I took pictures but they were all too blurry.

Ivy is already starting to get into the dress-ups.  Okay it's just when Brynn dresses her up but if she's anything like our other girls, we have a lot of years ahead of little girly dress-ups.

Stockton and Brynn are always making up games to play.  This was their food truck.

That playhouse is still in the house-the kids play with it all the time and it will probably stay in for the duration of the winter and then we might move it outside.  We just know it will get dirty once it gets out there and I guess we wanted to keep it nice.  And we have the space for it so I hardly even notice it.

Molly took these selfies one night while they were brushing teeth.  That bathroom is in a sad state and desperately needs to be redone.  It's on our list...but our list is long and getting longer every day!  And we are constantly rearranging what we want to do next.

We finally got around to making an Olympic cake on the very last day of the Olympics.  Molly wanted to do this the whole two weeks but we never found time to do it.  She actually wanted to make cupcakes and decorate each one but she was happy with this.

Justin was able to fix most of the washing machine problems quickly, except once when we had to wait for a part to get delivered.  I waited as long as I could but one morning I had to go to the laundromat and do a few loads of wash.  I washed three loads (all at once in different machines) and then put the wet clothes in the car and took them home to dry them.  I would hate to have to do that regularly but it really wasn't too bad.  Except it cost 4.25 for one load!!

Brynn didn't start Kindergarten until one week and two days after Molly and Stockton went back to school.  She was so excited that we could start doing our "plans" again.  We painted nails on the first day.  She is now old enough to paint mine, although she hasn't gotten over her fetish for painting every nail a different color.

We've spent a lot of time swinging.  Or I've spent a lot of time pushing her and giving her underdogs.  Her giggle is the best sound!

We have been rollerblading together a lot.  She doesn't have roller blades but she is so good on Molly's.

And Stockton wears mine...do you think there are a couple of kids who need/want/might get rollerblades for a certain upcoming holiday?

I took a picture of our summer "command center" as proof that we didn't just play.  The top left is our schedule...we didn't follow it that well.  I should know better than to think that we will stick to a schedule in the summer!  That paper also had our cleaning zones.  I made them rotate one zone each week.  In the top right was our bucket list, where I had put down anything that I thought sounded fun for the summer.  I always put way more than we will ever get to just so there is a variety of things to choose from.  Bottom left was their daily chores.  They had to get them all completed if they wanted to have any screen time and if they wanted to keep their money for the day.  We gave them a set amount of money all up front at the beginning of the summer and then they had to give some back to me if they didn't do their chores.  It worked better last year...I think we'll have to try something different next year.  Summertime is the only time we actually give them any sort of allowance.  Molly did her chores every single day without complaint.  Stockton and Brynn missed some days, especially toward the end of the summer.  The bottom right had a chart for them to write down any chapter books they read (I used to love keeping track of all the books I read each summer-they didn't really do it) and a column for memorizing the Articles of Faith.  For each Article of Faith they memorized, they could earn minutes towards staying up late.  Molly was the only one who did this-she did the first 9 in the first week and then didn't do it the rest of the summer.

On the back I wrote down our calendar and one paper as a "what to do when I'm bored" list that I had them write their own ideas on.  I wrote a few as well.  My favorite is to "go look for rolly poollys."  That made me smile all summer.

Justin brought doughnuts home on the Saturday morning after school started.  A good way to celebrate a successful first week.  I made them eat outside.

Stocky is so tender-hearted towards Ivy.  I love their relationship.

I usually try to save the messier activities for when Ivy is asleep but Brynn pulled out the paints one morning and Ivy was right up there in the mess with her.

We were able to go back to Lagoon for America First's summer social.  The kids love this night and look forward to it all summer long.  Brynn ended up spiking a fever while we were there so neither she nor I enjoyed it quite as much as we would have otherwise-her because she wasn't feeling well and me because I was worried about her.  She was a tough cookie, though, and kept riding rides.  We finally had to call it quits a little earlier than normal.  She told us the next day that every time she went around a corner on Bombora it hurt her head but she didn't want to tell us because she didn't want to miss out on the fun.

Despite Brynnie not feeling well, we were able to have a fun time and get to the rides that everyone wanted to.  In the days leading up to our going, Stockton talked a lot about riding Wicked.  I wasn't so sure that he would actually do it because he's never been our bravest kid.  But he followed through and did it.  Justin and Molly were with him.  Justin said he made the funniest scared face at the very beginning of the ride and he couldn't stop laughing about it but Stocky loved it enough to do it again and then begged me to take him on Colossus which he also loved.  Our boy is growing up and conquering so many of his fears!

Justin asked him to recreate his scared face

Ivy also loved the rides.  She couldn't get enough of them and would cry when we would take her off of them!

We always look forward to playing with the other Goodriches...the two Molly's just keep growing up.  Wish we could get them together more than once a year because they really do have a good time together.

Brynn spent the next couple of days recovering from that night.  She never really got sick sick but she did have a slight fever a few times.  She took naps two days in a row (the two days leading up the first day of Kindergarten) which is a big indicator that she wasn't feeling completely herself.  Luckily she was great on the morning of the first day.

John Grisham isn't interesting enough for her, I guess!

A box is always the best toy.  We got something shipped in a long skinny box and Stockton and Brynn decorated it and turned it into a rocket ship.  Gotta love their helmets!