4 Posts in One Day?

Sorry to throw up on my blog like Geoffrey that one night (when he ate an entire box of Kroger brand frozen shrimp at 2 in the morning after a hockey game). Sorry, that was gross and I can't believe I would admit to having a box of Kroger brand frozen shrimp in my freezer - but Geoffrey bought them, so I think he totally got what he deserved with that! I have an excuse - I have a TON of trek stuff to do, isn't wasting hours blog surfing the natural reaction to having too much to do?

Anyway ...last thought for the night is really a question - what do you do to keep organized during the summer? Man, we struggle with keeping bed times and keeping up with family scripture study. It's so much easier during the school year!

I'll share what we're up to this summer, but it hasn't solved either of my previously mentioned dilemmas, so I hope you all have some good ideas!

We have summer books -

The kids write every morning a list of what they "have to do" before they can play. The list has some stuff that is the same everyday - make beds, clean rooms, read for 30 minutes. It usually has one or two other small chores (vacuum a room, wipe down the walls in a room, that kind of stuff). Then I try to put something fun on the list too. We have a Summer of Fun banner hanging up downstairs that has stuff we sat around and said we wanted to do this summer on it. After we do something at least once, the little guy gets to jump in the water. It keeps me mindful of the things we want to do. Hope we get to most of it before summer is over!

You can always find photos of what we've been up to on Smugmug.

So please share! What are you doing this summer for organization? Or for fun?

I Do Have a Daughter

I know she doesn't make a lot of appearances here on the blog. She's so on her way to adulthood now! We're glad to have her in the house for the brief amounts of time she is around - we know those moments are precious and fleeting!

Sara's been dancing her little heart out. You can catch a glimpse of her now and again at The Ballet West Blog. The summer schedule has been 8:00 - 5:30. I always worry that she will burn out, but the more she dances, the more she seems to know that is what she wants to do - good for her!

She had the 4th of July off - lucky us! We had a super day - our friend Lesa knows how to throw a party like no other! That women has some serious skills and party throwing is near the top of the list. Here is Sara playing with the Mac camera with Kali and Nic -

And here she is at Deer Valley for the big 4th of July symphony:

We love what a great person she has turned out to be. We got to go and hear her talk in the singles ward last month - what a treat! She has a calling she is going to be great at (organizing Family Home Evenings)! Love you Sara!

So Sweet!

I had to record this sweet talk Nixon gave in Primary today ...isn't this sort of thing the reason to have a blog in the first place? I'm so sad I didn't do the same thing for the talk Easton gave on the Resurrection a few months ago, and I know we didn't save the paper he wrote his talk on! Lesson learned! I took a picture of Nixon's cute written out talk and the picture he held up.

Have you ever thought about what you would look like on your mission? I have. I think I will look just like this. (hold up picture of dad). This is my dad on his mission. Have you ever thought about what kind of missionary you will be? I have. I want to be a good missionary like my dad. To prepare myself today I can read the scriptures and pray. Alma the younger and the sons of Mosiah prepared for their mission by studying the scriptures (Read scripture in Alma 17:2-3). Bear Testimony.

He did bear a sweet testimony and it was a tender little talk he wrote. This is his last talk in Primary - can you believe he will be a deacon next month?

Little Businessmen!

Nixon and Easton had this "great" idea to make and sell swords and bows and arrows at our local Farmer's Market. Being the super supportive mom that I am, I explained to them the economics of how once you pay for your booth and your supplies you probably wouldn't actually make any money. Clever monkeys decided to inquire about booth prices on their own, explained their product, and were offered a booth for free. Yea boys - you've created another calendar item for your mom!

What could I say but "Sure, you do all the work and we'll have your booth." Come on, two boys? They generally have the combined attention span of a chihuahua! I gave it two days to go away. WRONG. Those two planned, made a materials list, went to the store, and spent two weeks designing a banner and making product. So this week, we had the debut of:

Toys by Boys - 2 Yahoos, Inc.

It was pretty successful. I got to wander Farmer's Market for a few hours - they sold their little hearts out, made a profit, and already invested back into more materials so now they are debt free and will have 100% profit next week. They are going to add marshmallow shooters to the inventory and even though this week will be another short one (we have to leave for hockey again), after this week, they can stay for all of Farmer's Market and reach an even larger audience.

I love these cute boys!

Sorry! I couldn't resist!

What Celebrities Would Look Like If They Moved to Utah - Upload a Document to Scribd

Read this document on Scribd: What Celebrities Would Look Like If They Moved to Utah

Welcome to Summer

Our first full week of summer is behind us! Let's take a trip down memory lane of summers past ...

June 28, 2003

School has been out for one week. Easton breaks his collarbone running and Superman leaping from our front sidewalk to roll down the hill. (sorry, no pictures!)

July 5, 2004

At least we got 2 weeks of summer in. Nixon and Easton are leaping down the stairs in our house trying to touch the ceiling. Nixon can't fight his impulses anymore than his father on most days and reaches out and grabs Easton's ankle mid air. Result: Broken arm

June 26, 2005

THREE days after school gets out! Easton attempts to Tarazan swing out of a tree after church and it doesn't work out like he planned. Our worst break by far ...painful, requires "reducing" in the emergency room, only to slip so that our poor baby needs to have surgery to re break the arm and pin it. Pretty much the whole summer in a cast!

In 2006, we moved to a new way to torture mom. After all, it was our first winter in Park City, and those ski passes were begging to be used. Oh wait, Easton broke his arm the week after Thanksgiving and exactly 4 days after the resorts opened. This was accomplished by "grinding" on an icy balance beam on the playground in his tennis shoes (now against the rules at Trailside Elementary):

Just to be sure we killed the whole ski season and not to leave 2007 out, after the cast had been off for a few weeks in January, he re broke it. Here he is celebrating his cast coming off the day before we leave for Lake Powell for spring break:

Oh, did I mention Lake Powell? Well, we'd hate to leave Nixon out - the FIRST day at Lake Powell he fell off of a CLIFF and we were grateful that the only damage was a broken arm. Never mind the part where it took about 16 hours to drive to a hospital, get fixed up and get back to the Lake.

After all that, I deserved the summer of 2007 off, didn't I?

Well, boys and girls ...I'm sure you've already guessed the only place such a post could be headed - not fun notes about:

Our trip to Bryce with lots of friends AND my sister!

Nixon's 5th grade Clap Out and Movin' On Celebration

Our End of the Year Field Trips

Sara's Seminary Graduation

No ...

Welcome to Summer 2008! (Nixon, Easton, and Noah getting ready to bust through the Welcome to Summer sign on the last day of school):
June 16, 2008 - 10 days after school gets out:

Easton. Thumb. Baseball.

Looking forward to Summer 2009, where we can try, try again!

(PS We have been assured by medical professionals that this child does not have weak or brittle bones. "You SHOULD break a bone when you do this stuff.")

Blog is Back (in Black)

What could bring me out of blogging hiatus? How about Nixon rocking the (elementary school) house? Yes, that is my cute, quiet, reserved little boy as the toe tapping lead singer. We tried to get him to head bang a little, but no luck. We think he'll be pretty awesome once he hits puberty. Geoffrey kept telling him to get his voice lower - he said "Dad, I'm 11. This is as low as it goes."

This video is of their encore (I didn't even know they had practiced more than one song). So the crowd was pretty wound up already - their first number was TNT, this is Back in Black in case you can't tell. They also performed at the end of year BBQ and they added Long Way to the Top. What a bunch of cuties!

Oh yea, so one of my summer goals is to update this baby every Sunday. My paranoia has passed and I'm not on private setting anymore, but I did have to change my address, so if you have a link, please change it to http://www.jenniferannbarber.blogspot.com/. You can always see what we've been up to on Smugmug, but I had 2 main goals for this blog - recording stuff that was important to me and keeping in touch with friends. We'll see how I do!