Owen's Birthday...He's 2!

I took 59 pictures! He was soooo cute. Everyone was so excited for him to open his presents-as you can see. He got a Buzz shirt, A Cars shirt and a Wall-E shirt. Every time he opened one, he wanted to put it on. He would start pulling on his shirt to take it off and fussing about putting the next one on. He got Cars figures, Toy Story figures, the snake from Jungle Book, a Cars hat, and Buzz sunglasses. A Disney Birthday, eh? We pulled a "Mom and Dad" (that's my parents) and forgot to give him a bunch of presents the kids had picked out at the Dollar Store a few days before. (My parents were always forgetting to get all the presents out of their closet and if you'd peaked earlier-which I never did-and noticed one missing on your birthday that you'd seen in their closet, you'd have to wait until they remembered...IF they remembered. Or you'd find random things in their closet and ask about it, they'd say "Oh yeah! I forgot to give that to you on your birthday.") Anyway, he got those later and liked them too. We were all just too excited to give him things we knew he'd love. It was very fun. I wish you could hear all the sound effects coming from their mouths. Garrett and Owen played forever afterward.

and swimming...

We went to a lady's house to swim. It was very relaxing and fun. Their home was beautiful, surrounded by huge trees. You can see one in the backyard if you look carefully. Ian would have died to climb it. They are on a golf course too and very near a lake. I just sat and talked with her while the kids swam for a long time. It was actually not horribly hot that day.

She has one little boy Garrett's age.

Swimming

We go swimming a lot.
I've never really been much of a swimmer. Getting ready to go, all the sunscreen I have to put on (it takes a long time putting sunscreen on myself and 5 kids)...a BATHINGSUIT! But I'm getting used to it. I've stopped making it a big deal. We go in the morning a lot. There's usually no one (or very few people) there and I can take a shower afterward. Besides all that, it likes to storm in the afternoon. Thunder, lightning and big, heavy drops of rain and it's still very warm. Weird.

Skinner Lips

Daniel showed off his talented Skinner lips. He can use them properly now that the goatee is gone. (That's a straw, but he can hold heavier things like pencils and pens, too.) He has passed on his talent to his posterity, as you can see.



Well, Oh yeah? Look at this!

Happy 4th of July!

We went to our ward party. I've never been so hot and sweaty in my life. I should have just gone swimming. I didn't and so I almost died. The kids swam most of the time. There was a ton of food (meat provided, pot luck for rest), evidence this ward knows how to potluck! The rest of the day, we just lounged around inside our house recovering from the heat. :) Later, we watched fireworks from the shore of one of the many lakes here. This one's only a few minutes away. It was really pretty. I should take pictures in the day.

FHE Baseball

We were invited to play baseball for Family Home Evening with some other families in the ward. It was really fun (though kinda hot). Our sweat glands haven't stopped working since we got here (as Daniel would say). Didn't get a lot of time to get to know the people but it was still fun to meet them and felt great to be invited. Gotta love instant friends through church, eh?

Nothing exciting

Okay, I sort of feel like every time I post, I have to have something Disney related to report. I think I'd better get over that, because there's just not a lot to say on that topic from me. You'll have to ask Daniel about that I guess. I also sort of made his job sound like...well, less than a job and more like pure fun. Really I was just focusing on the fun stuff. He is also receiving quite a few projects (boring ones, if you ask me) that involve a lot of looking at spread sheets ...shrug. I don't really know.

My time is spent trying to get ready to register the kids for school, getting new immunization records on the special Florida form, getting the kids physicals, and worrying about everything. The kids are supposed to start school August 18th, but we'll be gone in Ut/Idaho until the 19th so they miss the first 2 days of school. Garrett's kindergarten is all day and I have to buy them all uniforms! @#%$# It's the first year for the school to have uniforms too. I don't think I'd mind them if I knew we were staying in these schools for years, but if it's temporary...that's annoying. I've heard a few times that these are really good schools though, so that's good.

The kids are learning to swim and doing well. Garrett is a little too daring in my opinion and has caused some late night worry for me. I just need to stay really alert and keep him close. I am so glad that everyone is learning to swim though. It's so good for them, and they are doing it on their own. I haven't taken any swimming pictures because I'm always in the water with them.