July 25

I went to girls camp this week. My mom came to stay with the kids. They did great with her. She flew in Monday night and I left Tuesday morning. The kids all loved their time with her. I got home Saturday morning and I got to do a little shopping with her and take her to see Debbie Lewis's house before she left Saturday night.

Camp was great. It was so good to get to know all the girls better. The weather was great. The port-a-potties were yucky, especially since I have to go extra while I'm pregnant. And I got more tired than normal, being pregnant, but other than that I didn't have any problems.

Things seem to be coming together for Debbie's house. The realtor thinks we could probably get the house for what we can afford. And it looks like we'll be fine to come up with the down payment in time. It'll make things a little tighter for the next few years. But I think we can handle it as long as nothing really big happens. And we both have contracting work and are willing to work hard. But we're praying about it all the time and so far haven't felt like it's a bad idea. We meet with the realtor on Tuesday to really talk it out and then we have to talk to her lender and make sure we can get pre-approved for the loan we would need. Then they'll start the process at the end of August. The realtor thinks it could go through, if it all works, by the end of the year, but I don't want to move until spring; I think it'll be too hard to move earlier than that with a new baby.

July 18

We just got back from Lake Tahoe. We had such a great time. We left Tuesday around 1:00 and got there at 9:00. The kids were so good even though the trip was longer than our usual 5-6 hours. Amanda's rental house was perfect. It's a furnished vacation rental on a golf course in Truckee. It had a guest room for Bob and me and seth. And the kids room had enough beds for her kids and ours. And it was so great to spend so much time with Amanda and her family. I'm so blessed to have such a great friend!

Wednesday we went to the beach for several hours. It was great. The water was shallow for quite a ways out and the weather was great. Even Seth liked to play in the water some. Thursday we went to Sutter's mill where they first discovered gold. The kids got to pan for gold, which they all thought was awesome. And that night we got a tour of the Truckee airport where Amanda's husband, Kevin, works. Friday, we just had a family day and went to Carson City to a train museum, which all the kids liked, but Seth loved. And we went and saw the capital building and all the other important state buildings and had lunch on the lawn there. I realized that when my kids study state history and government, this will probably be what they study, since we're thinking we're going to stay here. Saturday we all went to South Lake tahoe. We went to another beach and had a great time. And we went on a little "hike" and saw a stream profile where you can see the river from underneath. It was great.

The weather was perfect and every night Bob and Kevin took all the kids and walked around the golf course looking for lost golf balls. They loved it and they always found several balls. Then after the kids went to bed, the adults would play games. It was such a great vacation!

Seth is starting to use words a little more. Bob and I have been making more of an effort to encourage him to talk. He's been saying things like fish and cookie and step. He still only says them when he feels like it, but he's doing it a lot more.

July 11

Last weekend we were in Utah for 4th of July. All of Bob's roommates had a reunion. It was fun to see all of them. We stayed at Linda's house. Everyone had a good time. We saw Casey at BYU, I got to see Wendy in Salt Lake, we had dinner and picnics with Bob's friends.

Rachel was sick for about 10 days. She's finally been feeling well for the last three days. She would be fine all morning, but then in the afternoon until bedtime, she'd have horrible cramps. We took her to the doctor and he couldn't really do anything for her. Bob's friend, Jeff, thought it was probably from when Rachel had the stomach flu and it stripped her intestines and she just wasn't able to digest food very well. It was horrible. She'd just writhe and cry for hours every day. We're so glad she's better.

We leave for Lake Tahoe on Tuesday. We're going to stay with Kevin and Amanda. I'm so excited to spend time with her and to be at Lake Tahoe with the kids.

Yesterday our air conditioning went out. I woke up at 5 am and it was 86 in our house and the air conditioner wasn't blowing. So we started calling people at 7 and got someone to come around 10. The problem was with the circuit board on the furnace--and the furnace is what blows the cold air from the air conditioner. Luckily they had the part in stock and they were able to fix it by about 2:00. By then it was really hot in our house! The kids were good sports about it, though. We went out and played in the sprinklers for a while and that helped. It cost almost $700 to fix it.

We are looking into getting a bigger house. We think that if we're able to save up a down payment in the next year, we'll be able to buy a bigger house. We'll keep the one we have now and we'll rent it for a loss, but the rent we do get on this house will almost pay for a mortgage on a bigger house because the houses have dropped in price so much. We wish we could just sell the one we have, but it's probably worth $200,000 less than we bought it for at this point. The Lewis's in our ward are selling their house. It's huge and has a big yard on a cul-de-sac and a pool. We just love it. And they are short-selling it so it'll probably take at least six months to get through the banks, which makes it possible because we don't have enough of a down payment saved up yet. She's talking to her realtor this week. Then she'll get an idea of how much they'll sell it for and if it'll be in our price range. It would be so great if it worked out. A lot of things would have to come together just right for it to work, but it would be so great. It's bigger than we'd need, but they've taken such good care of it and it has such a great yard and it's still in our ward, but different elementary school. We'll just see how it goes and if we can even afford it.

June 27

I'm having a baby girl! We found out on Wednesday. We got a babysitter for Seth. And took the three older kids with us. They thought it was great. Danny was the only one who said he was a little sad at first about it being a girl, but now he’s excited. Aaron predicted it would be a girl because “Seth needs someone to dance with”. And Rachel is ecstatic. The first thing she said was “Yes! Now I’ll get a bunkbed.” Bob and I are also very excited. I'm excited to watch Bob with a baby girl again. He was so cute with Rachel. He was great with the boys as babies too, but he was just different with Rachel; he was wrapped around her finger. I think we'll name her Ruby.

We've all been sick this week. Rachel started last Sunday. Then it cycled through all of us throught the week. It was a bad stomach flu for about 24 hours, and then just some nausea for a few days after that. Rachel's has been on and off all week. I'm so ready for us all to be healthy!

Bob and I went on a date for our Anniversary last night. We went to the baptism of a new Beehive girl and then we went to PF Changs for dinner. It was nice. We already did our big celebration at the coast a few weeks ago.

June 20

Last weekend we were in Visalia again. We went almost two weeks ago and dropped the kids at my mom's. The Bob and I drove to San Luis Obispo for two nights to celebrate our anniversary. We stayed at the Apple Farm. We slept in and ate breakfast in our bed. We went to the grocery store the first night and Bob found 30 day-old donuts for $3.00. He was so excited. We ate at good places. We went to Morro Bay and Cayucous and the Montanna de oro state park. It was pretty cold and windy while we were there. It was a good relaxing trip. And the night before we left, Bob and I went up to St. George to see Cats at Tuacahn. That was really fun too. We had a lot of driving that week.

The kids did swimming lessons last week and will do one more week this week. Rachel is really figuring it out and can go in the deep end now. Aaron still refuses to do much, but at least he likes it. And I thought Seth would be really hard on the side, but he's been great. Seth really likes to wander off. The other kids would wander, but when they got so far, they'd know to come back. Seth doesn't have that. He just runs and runs.

I've been working a lot on my websites. I have a pretty good schedule down. I play with the kids and do the housework and then the kids all know that while Seth has his nap, that's when I work on my websites. It's been working really well so far. We also started a new job system. The kids still have to get dressed and make their beds and brush teeth, but now they have 2 house cleaning jobs a day since it's summer and they have more time. They get paid $.50 if they do all their jobs. We used to pay $.10 for each job. Their new job is that they have to pick up one assigned room every day. I'm loving it. I just can't keep up with the clutter and toys of four kids. So it's making such a difference to have them help.

I took Aaron back to see Paula at LDS services. Aaron really likes to go. He really seems relieved that there's someone who can help with his tantrums. He realizes that they are really bad things and he doesn't know how to stop them. I think he's been getting a little better since going. The biggest thing that helps is having talked about what's going on in the tantrums beforehand and then being able to have words Aaron understands when he's having the tantrums.

We went to the Circus yesterday. The kids all thought it was great. They'd seen the commercials and really wanted to go. It was a little long for them, but other than that it was fun.

Today is Father's day. We made bacon and eggs and sausage for breakfast. Then Rachel was sick, so Bob stayed home with her and I took the three boys to sacrament meeting. I just chased Seth around the halls the whole time. Then I brought him home to have a nap and went back and taught Beehives. We got Bob a fondue pot for father's day. The kids wanted to get him a chocolate fountain, but I didn't want to have to clean it up, so we decided on a fondue pot. So we'll use that later today.

June 6

The kids are all out of school for summer! They had their last day on Wednesday. Danny and Rachel both got awards for getting all A's all year. And Danny got the Library award for having the most AR (Accelerated Reader) points in the whole second grade. They're points for reading books and taking tests on them. He got that award in first grade too. He had so many points this year because he read five Harry Potter books this year and those are really more of at least a 4th grade level book. We're so proud of both of them. They're also keeping up piano lessons for most of the summer. Danny likes it, but Rachel loves it. She sits down at the piano for at least an hour a day. She's doing really well.

Aaron and I went to LDS services this week to talk to Paula about his tantrums. He was excited to go. He recognizes that his tantrums are bad and he'd like help to get rid of them. We had a really great session talking about things he could do to fight the "Anger Germs" as he calls them. But, in practice it's so much harder to fight those tantrums than when we were talking to Paula about them. So he's still had plenty of tantrums this week, but it does seem to help talking about what Paula told him when he's in a tantrum. He's better able to calm down since we've talked about it more beforehand. Hopefully we'll continue to make progress.

We introduced the bucket system last week too. We're using dimes for good and pennies for bad. The kids seemed totally on board and it worked like a dream that first day. Until Danny got his first penny. He went ballistic. He's had tantrums every day--I hope it's just him adjusting to being out of school and the heat or something--but they get worse when I tell him he gets a penny. But I think in the end the system will be good. Either way, I'd need something or I think Danny's tantrums could get worse.

Bob and I are going on a trip to San Luis Obispo this week. My mom is going to watch the kids and we're staying for two nights. We're really excited. And we're starting out our celebration early by going to see Cats at Tuacahn before we go. I've always wanted to see Cats, so we thought this would be a great way to see it.

May 30

We're in Visalia right now. We came Friday night. The weather has been great. Yesterday we went to Rotary playland and storybook land in Fresno. The kids all loved it. And they've been playing in the backyard most of the rest of the time. We'll stay until tomorrow afternoon.

I went to LDS Family Services on thursday. I made an appointment to get some help with Aaron. Some days he's ok, but some days are so bad. I just wanted to get some new ideas for things to do to help. I met with Paula Wood. I think she'll be very helpful. She gave me a great idea for a system to work with all the kids to help them get along better. And it'll help with the tantrums. We'll intruduce the system Tuesday night when we get back. It's great timing too because school gets out this week and I hope it'll help with fights and arguments while we're all home together. Then Wednesday I have another appointment to take Aaron to. She's going to talk to him about his tantrums and help him work on them too. I hope he's interested in talking to her. And I hope she can help without having to go too many times. I don't want to take Aaron to counseling really, I just want some advice for us. Plus it's quite expensive.

Here's the system. Each kid gets a bucket. Then every couple of hours when there's been no fighting or tantrums or anything, they each get to put in a blue chip or marble or something. If they tantrum or fight, they get a red one. Then whenever they want me to do something for them or they want a snack, they'll pick a chip out of their bucket and if it's blue they can have it, but red means no. So they have an incentive to have more blues in their bucket. And then I think when they all get a certain amount of blues in their bucket we'll go to the park or to ice cream or something. It seems like a good system. Kind of a lot of work for me, but if it works, it'll be worth it.

Aaron finished preschool and t-ball this week. Danny has a few more games left. Danny and Rachel have a day and a half left of school and then they're done too.

Bob got another job this week. He's doing some programming for a company in Henderson. He'll work there on Fridays. We're hoping after a little while they'll let him just work from home. He thinks he'll like the work. And it'll help us save up money faster. I can't believe how blessed we are with opportunities. Just a couple of years ago, money was soooo tight and stressfull. We had zero savings. But now we've both been able to work extra and we've been budgeting really well. It's not like money has just appeared, we've had to work for it, but we actually have a chance to buy another house sometime in the near future; one with a bigger backyard and a little more space for 5 kids.

I think I felt the baby kick this week. I have another appointment in a week and a half and from there I get to schedule the ultrasound. The kids were asking about it the other day. Danny wanted to know if they could go. I said I think it might be a little crowded but we'd show him pictures. Aaron said he wanted to go when I lay on the table and see the baby. I couldn't believe he remembered that. We took him with us to Seth's ultrasound. He was so little. That's when Bob and I both thought it was a girl and Aaron was absolutely sure it was a boy. Aaron wasn't surprised when he was right. So we might let them go if they still want to when the time comes. I think we'll just get a babysitter for Seth because he'd be the only one that would be difficult in that little room.