June

Jaxon had one more week of school. which means that he only went when he absolutely had to. He turned in his last homework on Tuesday and Thursday he attended the graduation because his choir sang for it. Here he is in his choir tuxedo. Such a good looking kid.   We have a neighbor in the choir. She said that all the guys in the choir wish they could sing as low as Jaxon. He is really a great bass voice.

He absolutely hated the graduation ceremony. He says it was boring. Now he does not want to go to his graduation.

We had a bunch of lazy days- just doing nothing. But I did take the kids a few places.

Andre is such a handyman- he switched our water heaters out. It was a ton of work. Tanner was a ton of help and Jaxon used his manly man muscles to carry the heavy things.

We went to a motocross race- as part of our "pass of all passes". It was pretty cool. We have not been to anything like that before. Chase really really wanted to do ride the motorcycles.

We love our Hale Center tickets. This time it was Chase and Alex and Mom. We LOVE Joseph!

We made homemade ice cream. Of course the boys made it gross color green. It was root beer flavor.

Chase has been having swimming lessons. He loves it. It's kind of weird that I only have one kid in swimming lessons now. He is really a great swimmer all of a sudden.

We helped Joanna pack up her school room.

Chase found lots of fun things in her first grade classroom.

We went to Lazer tag and mini golf.

I said, "Look like a golfer". This is what I got.

Jaxon feels like he is too old to do these things now. I told him, "too bad!"

The younger boys stood in line forever to get wet.

Andre took the younger boys fishing.

Here is a clue to what Tanner's Eagle project will be. This was started this month.

Jaxon has been in heaven doing his Magic the Gathering and his new hobby- War Hammer. He wants to play D and D, but most of his friends are busy. It is a good thing his brothers Love playing with him. He is a really patient brother.

We started our summer "making stuff" with a big dud. It was supposed to be silly putty. It was NOT.

 But it did make a big mess.

Alex's friend Bronson wanted him to do the swimming merit badge with him. So they are! They are cute friends.

I went down to visit with my Aunt B. She is so awesome. We are trying to get lots of information from her. Did you know that she remembers almost everything from her life! She is a gold mine of information- plus being fun to be with. I am working on my dad's life story that he didn't complete.

Saturday was an awful day. I found out that my amazing friend is going to die from cancer. He has been fighting and I thought he was getting better. I found out that I was wrong. This was devastating to me. I basically stayed in bed and cried the whole day. Besides the fact that I don't want him to die, I think it is bringing back a lot of the feelings I had last year when my dad died. The difference is that this is a young guy with kids- and my dad's body was old and worn out. I hate cancer. I did try to go out and do something. I was trying to be productive. But it didn't help my mood.   

Fathers Day! We love our dad!

We had Andre's favorite dinner- my version of Café Rio!  My mom and Joanna came over, and of course we had ice cream. That is his favorite!

Then we showed him the cool thing we had been learning-- The "Cup Song" cup thing! We didn't tell him that we were learning it. We wanted it to be a surprise. It was.

 We had to put a blanket on the table because it got way too loud.

 ...way too loud.

 I can't believe how awesome we are at it.

 The only problem is that some of our kids got way too fast and sped up the rhythm. If that didn't happen, we could have done it a long time.

Then we had game night with Joey!

I love this old picture of Andre- and we had to recreate it.

They are slightly bigger now.

 We went bowling- Always a fun activity. (Tanner was hanging with friends)

The library has fun (non booky) activities for teens! Who knew?

Other things that there are not pictures of:
-We started the library reading program and the Barnes and Noble reading program. They give out free books. So we do this every year.
-We have done a few jobs that I've saved for the summer. Like taking everything out of the kitchen cupboards and wiping them down. It has been a few years and they are dirty.
-Helping Grandma with her lawn.
-Lots of Young Women activities. I am enjoying getting to know the girls in our ward. Andre has been doing missionary things.
-Jaxon has been working at Wendy's
-Everyone has been to the dentist and orthodontist.
-Today we started a fun project that the 3 younger boys are excited about- building a fort. Chase keeps saying, "Not like a normal fort- it's like, made out of wood!"  Today it was not so exciting because it was work to go through a wood pile and see what wood is usable. There were lots and lots of spiders but these are the first steps.
-We are going on vacation next week, so I'm trying to do all the research for this and start gathering the things we need.
-I've had lunch and breakfast with great friends. This is needed!
-Tanner was at scout camp last week. I have lots of fun pictures. That will be a future blog.
-Weeding! I hate it.