Summer, your leaving already?

A few weeks ago, we actually left the house to have some fun. We haven't done anything this summer besides go to friends houses and Mcdonalds. So I figured I should post the one time we did get out and do something summerish. The only way I knew I could manage my kids was to bring help. I called this cute girl "J" and her friend came and followed Tanner around all day long. We were there for 4 hours. I felt bad. I am sure they didn't realize how long, but they said that they were having fun still! Then to top it off, they wouldn't let me pay them at all! What normal preteen doesn't want cash? They said they just love kids and like to do it for free! What???? I may or may not have changed the initial so no one will figure out who she is and try to steal her. I am protective of all my new good babysitters. They are mine! It has taken me 3 years of living in this ward to finally get them to watch my kids! I still made them take 5 bucks each. After I dropped them off, I got back into my car, and what is sitting on my front seat? Two five dollar bills! Wow! They are both keepers!

Cute little Cohlee. The water was the perfect amount for her to crawl around in.

Tanner is such a cool dude!

Here are a few of my friends. Diana, Tara and Kristy. Bethi was there also, but she was sitting right next to me taking pictures.

This is Bethi's little man Malachi. I told him to show me how fast he could run and I would take some cool pictures of him. I didn't have my shutter speed high enough, he was soo soo fast! Bethi and I were laughing cuz as you can see, he got really into it!

Diana's cute girls Talia and Kaitlin

This is the part you may want to skip, cuz its me going on and on.....

I can't believe that the summer is almost coming to an end. Soon we will be back to a routine. Hopefully the transition will go smoothly for me. I am not worried about the kids transitioning, I am worried about me. I was so nervous about having the kids home all day long, everyday during the summer. I thought I might go crazy (well, more crazy). Before school was out, I was expressing my concerns to my mom. I said, "Holy cow, how am I going to survive and not have my kids hate me by the end of the summer?" My mom said, "I always loved summers. It is nice to not have a schedule to stick to, and to just RELAX." As soon as I heard her say that, I looked at summer in a different way. I think I might have taken the RELAX a bit far. Now I am worried. You see, I hate leaving the house now. I have gotten way too used to this laid back life style. I have gotten so bad, that I don't even do my own grocery shopping. My friend Tara is my personal shopper. I thought of this genius idea a few weeks ago. I said, "Tara. I have a plan! How about when you come into town to do your shopping (she lives in Diamond V.), you bring your 4 kids to my house. I will watch them while you do your grocery shopping....and mine!" Is that not the best idea? Its a win win. Who wants to go shopping with 4 kids? Not me. Think of the money that I will save. I am not good at sticking to just my grocery list. I have to walk around the whole store to browse. I will seriously go to the store to just buy a birthday present and $100 later, I have bags full of stuff I am sure I could have lived without. So now, I just send her with a list, and she delivers it to me. I love my idea. She is out of town for the next two weeks, so I think my cupboards might go bare. So if anyone wants to fill in for her, let me know! I just throw the kids in the basement. If you are OK with that, give me a call!

Another thing I have discovered lately that has made my life better, little girls who love to play with my kids! I have pretty much always used my little brothers for babysitting. It has been a great way for my kids to have a close bond with their uncles. Well my main bro Brad has decided that he likes to hang out with friends now. He has finally reached the point were it isn't really that much fun to hang out with your sister and her kids on a Friday night. I know! Who wouldn't want to come hang out with us? Anyways, it was hard for me to come to terms with at first. I might have called him to tell him my feeling were hurt and started bawling to him about it. My poor brothers. They have to put up with their crazy sister. Patrick, who is 17 has a lot of friends in my neighborhood. Its been nice because he has been spending a lot of time here. I'm going to pretend its me and not his friends that has him coming over so often.

So back to the point. I have found more then five different super cute girls in my ward that for some reason love to come over to hang out. The main one, T is 10. She loves Cohlee. Her and her friend L came over a few different times last week. On the first day they came over, they got here at 11:30 and left at 9:30pm.! Awesome don't ya think. They even came over the next morning too! I have a craft room that is full of supplies that never get used. I told them they could help themselves to whatever they want. So while Cohlee napped, they crafted. Works for me! So I was super excited when T texted me this morning wondering if her and her little sis could come over to play! Don't ask me for their number because I am not sharing! Why couldn't they have realized my house is "so cool" at the beginning of the summer? Better late than never.