The usual.

We had such a nice almost-Fall weekend!

 We spent the weekend in Pocatello.  Dal and Lan had a game at Holt Arena on Friday night and Rustin's cousin Alex had a wedding reception on Saturday so we took the whole family and stayed at Grandma Geisler's house.  Darren and LoaLee came up with Jotham and Jamie's kids and Aunt Jill and Uncle Terry joined us at the game.  We lost to the very formidable Highland team (#1 5A school in the state) but the kids all played well and we had fun watching.

As for the injury report:   Landon's un-injured knee took a hard hit and is still swollen and bruised and his un-injured shoulder has been hurting all weekend.  We hope he didn't injure it trying to spare his injured shoulder...  Dallin had a great game.  No injuries--just the usual bumps and bruises.  Rustin and I were chuckling as we watched the players come out of the dressing room to load onto the bus. Almost every player had an ice pack taped to a body part--knees, shins, backs, elbows... Football is ridiculous.  But fun.

The weather was in the mid-seventies with  a soft breeze the whole weekend.  I love Fall! We went down to Ross Park where Rustin and I spent many a Saturday in our dating years!  When we went out to load everyone up in the suburban, we realized we made the critical mistake of leaving the boys football gear in the back of the suburban all night.  Holy locker room!  Thankfully Grandma had some febreeze...

The rock here is as slick as a slide--I'm sure generations of playing children
(including toddler Dallin and Landon!) have polished it like nothing else can!

Ross Park was perfect.  The kids climbed around on the rocks and we laid in the grass. Rustin laid with his head on my tummy and Jackson could not stop jumping on top of us.  The kids sat around and talked and laughed like only cousins can.

Austin is missing from this picture because he had just split his brand new shorts from waist to hem...

The big boys chatted with Grandpa Hatch about who to take to the Homecoming Dance and how to ask them.  Thankfully Dallin's phone died so he would quit texting long enough to chat...

Rustin and I watched Jackson play on the playground equipment.  I think he's only been to a park twice... Poor youngest child!

We had a great weekend!

That 's my girl

Jenna wrote an awesome essay about Fall in school.  I completely agree with her!  As soon and the end-of-summer---my-kids-are-leaving panic subsides I completely embrace the cooler nights with the hot days.  Maybe I'll stick this up on my mirror at the end of next summer...

Don't you love the curly q 'h's?!

I have accomplished quite a feat this week--I am almost completely caught up on the laundry.  Fifty thousand dirty camping blankets, jackets, sleeping bags and all!  I even organized and re-stocked the storage room.   I have Jason Borne to thank...  

And I am working on big plans to make my evenings easier.  I hope to complete it by next week!

Exciting changes!

 School started again!  

We start late here--Tuesday was our first day of school.  When budgets got tight in Idaho a few years ago they cut the school days by three or four so they could pay the teachers less.  It was really a big sacrifice by all the teachers so that our district extra-curricular classes could all remain intact.  Drama, chess, soccer, choir, football--we still have them all!
Along with three recesses a day for elementary kids.
I love our schools!

 High School

 Elementary

However, I don't love sending the kids back to school.  I really, really hate when school starts.  I get this physical reaction.  My heart beats faster and I have this constant subtle feeling of impending doom.
I like having the kids home.  I think having them here helps me stay focused and on task.  The start of this Fall was better for me though.



I have been excited for all the great activities the kids have and I am a little more confident in my ability to manage all the crazy schedules all by myself.  

Middle School

My driving life is a little easier this year because---
We bought our own optometry practice!!
Rustin is no longer an employee!!
Rustin's new office is right up the road from the middle school and they both start at 8 AM so Austin gets to ride with his dad instead of on the bus.  That gives him enough time to get piano practicing done before school.  Yea for both of them!
We bought into Gary and Jared Walker's practice--Eastland Vision Clinic.
 Rustin and Jared both work four days a week and Gary will come in on Thursdays and Fridays when Rustin or Jared is out. The office is brand new and beautiful with an on-site lab and a fantastic optical shop.  Rustin's schedule is already packed.  What a blessing! 

So Jack and I are home alone until 3.  

Jack MISSES his kids. 

 He drags me all over the place trying to get me to play with him.  

'C'mere Mom, C'mere.'
All. day.
But he smiles and giggles and snuggles so all is well.

Sunday.

We had the yummiest muffins today!  

Zucchini banana muffins.

Jackson randomly takes bites out of the muffins... 

 A neighbor gave us an 18 inch zucchini and that sucker was enough for TEN dozen muffins!  

In an effort to get my kids to stop eating super healthy snacks (as pictured below)...

I have been searching out and testing some healthier recipes. 

I especially want to find some non-cold cereal options that are quick and easy. Maybe frozen?

I have seen a recipe for blender pancakes but haven't tried it yet.  

Has anyone tried pancakes made from wheat berries?  

I'd really like to have a freezer full of good breakfast choices so Dallin and Landon don't eat toast and hot chocolate every. single. day. for the next school year.  Once school starts those boys will have 12-13 hour days every day of the week until wrestling is over in March.  They need some good healthy food!

We checked an item off our summer list and went to the drive-in a while ago.  We saw Planes.  I'm sure it was good but I pretty much spent the entire drive-in trying to get everyone comfortable.  By the time the kids settled down on our two gigantic bean bags and stopped jostling each other, the second movie, Monsters University, was half over and I fell asleep.  But it was still fun anyway!

We start our last week of summer tomorrow! Yee-hah!

Cool off

It's been hot this summer!  

I think we've had an entire month of near 100 degrees every day.  

Jackson figured out his own air conditioning method. 

Isn't Sadie the cutest puppy ever? I don't know if I have ever introduced her here in BlogLand. 

She is a first generation English goldendoodle.  Her mom is a black and white poodle, her dad is an English Golden retriever.  She will be a great mom for us in a year or two when she has her own adorable puppies!

Speaking of puppies...all the puppies have been gone for a couple of weeks and I must admit it is nice not to be a resident doggy day care!  They ended up all over the country--from New Jersey to San Francisco! We have been getting the nicest reports about the puppies we sent off.  So far they are all very mellow, easy going little guys.  And smart.  We get lists of tricks the new owners have taught their pups. 

 It makes me happy! My goal has always been to raise dogs that I would want to live with. 

Tomorrow begins our last week of summer break.  I'm handling it really well this year.  Sometimes the end of summer really, honestly gives me anxiety attacks.  I like having everyone home and I hate the crazy cycle of homework and constant activities.  I always feel like we didn't accomplish enough in the summer. This year I am excited for everyone and their fun activities.

Dallin and Landon have been busy with two-a-day football practices.  They are playing the SAM and MIKE positions this year.  That is strong side linebacker and middle linebacker.  I looked it up on the internet so I would sound educated! 

They come home and drink a gallon of milk and eat all the bananas and pineapple they can find.   It seems to be helping with the painful leg cramps that both boys were having at the beginning of the week. 

Dallin was released from physical therapy for his knee this last week.  Yea! So far he is totally healthy and doesn't have any knee pain for the first time in a long time.  He actually wrestled all last year (5th in state!) with the meniscus torn so I think it is a relief to practice without knee pain!

Of course Dal finished just in time for Landon to start therapy for a shoulder injury.  

Actually, it is not so much an injury as shoulder instability.  Apparently the humerus slides around in the socket more than expected. They think he is having subluxation rather than full joint dislocation so we are hopeful that physical therapy will help.  Lan first injured the shoulder when he took a really hard hit in rugby last spring.  It has been kind of 'popping' randomly during swimming etc., but this last week of linebacker practice really exacerbated it to where he doesn't want to move his arm and he is telling us about the pain.   Based on past experience,  if Landon complains about something hurting then it is usually injured...not just sore. So I have good reason to be paranoid, right?  

Anyway we have some fun plans for the last week.
 Actually they are just fun for me!  I'm going to make the kids help me with a bunch of projects.
Can't wait!

Tick-tock

I am sooo glad that we still have three weeks of summer left! We still have temperatures in the triple digits nearly every day but the nights have started to drop down to the 50's/60's--first sign that fall is on its way! Which means.....It's that time again....

School shopping.

I swear half my clothing budget goes to my kids' shoes.
Not kidding!
Football cleats, wrestling shoes, church shoes, regular school shoes, sandals, hiking boots, PE shoes...
And of course each pair last approximately 8 weeks...

On the bright side--Dallin and Landon haven't had their feet grow in the last year or so.  Maybe their toes will stop poking through the end of the shoes and a pair will last longer than a few months!
I can't say the same for Austin!
I predict that he will be the tallest of the Hatch boys.

How is it that our only girl is the LEAST expensive shoe wearer in our family?!

Shopping for Jenna's shoes is the most fun.  I'd rather buy shoes for Jenna than me for sure.

I make her try on all the crazy shoes in the store.

I don't really care much for shoes myself.
I don't know why.
It probably goes back deep in my psyche from when my size nine/ten 4th grade feet couldn't fit in the shiny little girl shoes they so desperately wanted.  It was traumatic. Now they make cute 'young' shoes in all sizes!  Yea for my large-foot-destined daughter.  Actually, the other day the shoe store guy told me that the average size shoe for women now is a 9 1/2.  I really didn't have that big of feet!

Today I have a big project planned that will make my future mornings infinitely easier.  At least I hope it will! I'll try to finish it and post pictures tomorrow!

snapshot

This is just an few seconds of my life.  I'm sure I'm the only one who has kids that are ridiculously noisy in the car.  Right?

We are happily surviving our 100+ temperatures this week.  Our poor little air conditioner has a hard time keeping up with the heat but we are glad that it hasn't quit all together yet!

A few things we are thankful for:

popsicles

puppies that use the dog door

good carpet cleaner for the times that they don't use the dog door...

swim team in the evening (evening swims are actually working our well!)

Dallin's healing knee--he can start working again.

Boys with drivers licenses so they can drive themselves to work next week. (big smile here...)

Big cardboard boxes from the DI (Rustin seriously cleaned out the un-worn laundry yesterday--husband of the year!)

Big brothers who teach little brothers to walk like a monkey and fall down dead when shot. (don't tell the Obamas that my kids pretend to shoot each other...)

Family reunion July.  Can't wait to see everyone!

Ho, Ho, Ho

I just read an article that made me laugh until my cheeks hurt.  

In fact my laughing made Jackson laugh right along with me.  

Have I mentioned that this child is attached to my leg lately?  

When the kids leave for school he stands by the door and cries pitifully "go, go, go..." then he runs into the kitchen and does his "hot chocolate dance."   

Once we get our hot chocolate we get to work recovering from the daily morning tornado.  

Except for the last two days when I have been running from one appointment to another.  Which means that today I have three tornadoes to clean up after.  

I am going to lock the doors, shut down the computer and go restart the pilot light on the water heater {again--hopefully it will get fixed today...} in preparation for the Mt. Wash-more pile of laundry that is ready and waiting for a long hot bath. 

Until then I highly recommend a visit over to the pioneer woman for a good hard chuckle.  

The Pioneer woman--All I wanted was a doughnut.

Falling

Sometimes it is just nice to get out of town.  We don't do it often enough.  There seem to be a million things that keep us here but last weekend we left all the unfinished projects and bishop duties and went to Franklin.

There is no place more beautiful than Franklin in the Fall. And the Spring, Winter and Summer for that matter...

Landon and Darrin and Sam went on an early morning ride.  Morning temperature? 22 degrees.

By the afternoon things were warmed up to the 70's.  Crazy Idaho weather...

We got to spend the weekend watching and listening to General Conference--one of my favorite weekends of the year.  We took a break and went for a walk in between Sunday sessions up Crooked Canyon.  My favorite fall walk just 5 minutes from the Hatch home.

On Saturday we loved the perfect fall weather.  

Austin helped clean Starglow's hooves.

 Jen and Ben helped get the horses saddles and brushed.  Beau ran around like a city-slicker with a goofy grin on his face while eating horse hooves .

 MissQuito took Jen and Ben for a ride in the cutest buggy ever.

What a great weekend.  

Fall, twins and other random thoughts

Today is a perfect Fall-ish day.

I always feel panic when I realize that summer is coming to an end.

But then, just as I begin to despair in earnest, the mornings and evenings turn crisp, the afternoons are nice and warm (hot?), the garden doesn't need to be watered or weeded anymore, the grass grows like crazy,  I get to watch the boys play football and I can make beef stew and baked squash...suddenly I can't remember why I was so worried about summer ending!

Dallin grew an inch this summer and gained thirty pounds making both Dallin and Landon 6' 1 1/2".  Dallin is 204 lbs and Landon is 205 lbs.  How's that for being twins? They have always, always gone through spurts when one was bigger or taller than the other and then they have always evened back out.

Speaking of being twins, last Sunday everyone sat down to play Settlers of Catan and they rolled the dice to see who got to go first.  Dallin and Landon rolled the exact same number FIVE times in a row.
Hilarious.
What are the odds?
Seriously I would like to know...

Landon got to play in his first football game last week.  He has recovered from surgery well but has some tendinitis in his knee.  Wearing a patellar strap helps a lot.  Oddly enough, Dallin's knee hurts in the exact same place.  It is swollen and painful which means that he, too, needs an MRI--for the bargain price of $1500. There is a good chance that he will need surgery as well.  We have already tried a bunch of physical therapy. Is this a genetic thing?  Seriously how 'random' is it that both boys randomly tore the meniscus in the lateral left knee at the same time?!

Both boys are playing offensive line and Landon plays defensive end, strong side and Dallin has been playing linebacker.  I think.  They all make fun of me when I get the positions wrong.  I'll have it down by the time Jackson gets in there.

Austin is playing football at the middle school this year and he loves it. Of course.

Jackson and I are home during the day.  I spend a lot of time trying to keep Jack from terrorizing the chickens.  He crawls out the dog door and climbs in the chicken coop and picks them up by their tails or wings or whatever else he can grab.  Little stinker. Between Jackson's snatching and Beau's habit of herding the little chickens all over the yard, I'm sure we will never get a single egg.  But it's fun anyway.

I'll have to post a picture of the cutest chicken coop ever.
As soon as it gets its final coat of paint.
Which might be a while...

Football...

Football season is here.

I am resigning myself to the fact that the chaos has already started.  Summer is coming to an end.

I spent the better part of the morning driving: dropping off, picking up, running across town to get the sports physical that was lost and had to be turned in my 11 this morning, running to get new football cleats before the afternoon practice, dropping off again...

My house looks neglected.  I hate when everyone is busy and they leave and the place looks like a tornado blew through even though it was totally clean when I went to bed.  There's got to be a better way...

For the last two weeks of summer we have some serious playing to finish up.  The kids requests?: go to a water park, stay in a hotel and do nothing. They are serious about the do nothing part. "Mom we can't do jobs, summer is almost over! We have to play the Wii, summer is almost over..."

I have a million projects that I need to get finished before all my helpers are gone and I have no one to distract Jackson. Blah.

Speaking of Jackson...

This boy thinks he's a big kid.  When we go swimming he jumps in the water as fast as I can put him back up on the edge.  He goes all the way under and comes up laughing for more.  Sometimes he backs up and runs so he can fling himself into the water.  Dallin and Landon were like that.  We hope he doesn't follow his big brothers in the injury category.  I think their first ER visit was at 15 months when they ate a bottle of Claritin and had their stomachs pumped.

Jackson can now open the fridge and the dishwasher.  He also climbs onto the table and rips apart anything I attempt to put out as a centerpiece. Right now he is dumping out the boxes of butter from the fridge for the millioneth time today and he is trying in vain to smash the cubes back into the box saying "tatdooo" (thank you) as he smashes each cube back in place.

He also goes through the bread drawer and dumps the bread out and takes a bite out of every piece and then stacks them back up very neatly.

This morning he has also nibbled a hole through the chocolate chips, the brown sugar and the baking soda.

Good thing he is cute!

Bouncy.

I love spring.

I almost bought chickens today.  Soooo close! I have the cutest little playhouse that my children have abandoned.  {Actually they never played in it.}  

I think the playhouse is begging to be the cutest chicken coop ever. 

But what if my neighbors get mad?  

Would you be mad if your neighbor put five or six chickens in her yard?

  

Or what if I totally regret the decision in a few months when it's cold outside?

Rustin will have nothing to do with chickens.  Mostly because he CANNOT stand the smell.  He spent many, many childhood weekends and summers working in chicken coops so I guess I can't blame him.  

I think he would change his mind once he saw his lovely children skipping merrily with their little aprons filled with piles of corn to hand feed the sweet and totally tame birds.

I did buy a climbing rose bush today.  That's a big step for me.  I never buy perennials because it requires too much commitment. Planting perennials means I am planning on staying in a house long enough to see the plant thrive.  And perennials will come back every year in the same place.  I can't start over every spring from scratch.  Commitment...

So I bought the rose but I haven't planted it. Baby steps.

I've got a million projects going and a thousand things to write about.  Maybe I'll get it done after I plant the roses. Happy Spring!

Track.

Today we went to a track meet for Dallin and Landon. 

It's Dallin and Landon's fifteenth birthday today!  

Jenna and Jackson and I mostly hung out on the grass... 

...where we held our own version of a track meet:

READY!

SET!

GO!

 Do you suppose we will ever stop thinking this baby is the cutest thing since apple pie?

I doubt it.

making me love my bed

Last weekend Jenna and I had our own Night at the Museum.  We got a group of girls together (thanks Shelly!) and packed our pillows and blankets and spent the night at the Herrett Center.  We looked at stars and tasted all kinds of chocolate and made banana bread at midnight.  Rustin kept Jackson and he had (and took!) his first bottle ever.

We slept under the jungle display.
I use the term slept liberally.
 I don't think adults are meant to sleep on hard floors.
Adults are absolutely not meant to sleep on hard floors.  I hope she remembers this forever.  Over and out.

Plain old summer. August 8-14

We had a great plain old summer week. We ate lots of purple potatoes from my dad's garden and lots of raspberry jam from my mom's raspberries.

We had a visit from Trevor and Ashlee and Collin and from Emily and baby Sam and of course Beck,Jer, Ethan and Mia..

We went to our favorite water park..er..canal {the drops in Shoshone} and we went to see the movie "The Help" which is still making me chuckle.

Summer is wrapping up way too early.

Jackson is rolling all over the place which makes me sad for some reason. Little pill bug.  Is it just because he's the last that I feel this way?  We are still loving nursing which is a big milestone for me.  I have always lost my milk at about four months with the other kids so this little guy is going to have to nurse until he's five to make up for lost time!

Sometimes the thought of backpacks and papers and homework makes me hyperventilate.  I am in the process of reorganizing all our school stuff and I have a million plans to organize all the closets in the house.  I'll report if we actually have success!

Neglected.

I have been less than energetic lately. I admit it. I got over the horrible 'morning' sickness only to be bombarded with a massive wave of fatigue. Or maybe I'm just lazy, I don't know. But I think a couple of months of frozen meals and paper plates has convinced my children and husband that they are terribly neglected. Apparently this Halloween weekend they decided that they had had enough.

They teamed up and began the appeal--"why don't we ever get to have a good costume?" and "Gandalf's staff is white not brown" and "I thought you were going to make me a cape" and "we never get to do anything fun" and "Froto has to have a vest and SHORT pants mom." (Nicole Martin in Page Arizona, this is entirely your fault. They would never have expected me to make costumes if you hadn't introduced me to the art of costume creation!  But I still miss you every Halloween...)

So Saturday morning I headed to the fabric store and here's what we got...

This is Gandalf the White (Dallin) and  Raistlin (Landon--a character from one of their favorite books).  For Dallin I just had to make a white cape--we already had the robe.  For Landon I sewed the robe--we already had a red cape.  Thankfully I've made a million capes and robes so I kind of had an idea of what to do.  Obviously these weren't high fashion but they made everyone happy.  Rustin did makeup (as always) and staffs.

Austin is just a wizard.  I cut his robe too short so I had to add a big hem which was off center and drove Austin crazy. 

Rough life.

Jenna is the easiest ever.  A purple and black witch.

Benson gets the easy award also--Froto.  I made this costume a couple of years ago.  

I am hoping that I have earned myself a few brownie points so everyone feels well cared for for a couple of weeks.  I think I'll go take a nap.

horse hoofs, sunflowers, swamps

We spent an awesome weekend in Franklin.  There's nothing prettier than Franklin in the spring I think...

I don't have most of the great pictures we took--they are all stuck on LoaLee's camera.

The kids had a blast riding horses, trimming horse hooves, and cooking breakfast on the porch.

Beau hung out with Mosey--the best dog on the planet and Clancy  (who thinks he's the best dog on the planet...).  He slept out in the tent with the boys, rolled in manure and chewed on horse hooves.  yummm.  Unfortunately, today Beau is recovering from surgery to remove Jenna's very tiny stuffed animal (what do you do with a teething puppy...) that was lodged in his intestine.  We are glad he didn't have any terrible illness or twisted intestine but this is a seriously expensive chew toy. 

Rustin and I got to sped Friday night in SLC city with my parents.  We went to Utah Symphony's performance of Mahler's 1st symphony--Titan.  It was really stunning.  While (embarrassingly) the Mozart piano concerto in the first half nearly put me to sleep, the Mahler symphony was amazing the entire time.  The symphony doubled in size size from Mozart to Mahler.  The Titan symphony calls for more instruments than almost any symphony (so the program said...)  The horns and tympani were amazing.  We loved it all.

On Monday we visited the cemeteries.  I'll have to write more about that later.  It was a cool, clear beautiful morning.  Sam played  his bagpipes at the cemetery as we visited the resting places of Rustin's fourth great grandparents and down. 

In the afternoon we went canoeing at Johnson's reservoir where the boys "accidentally" swamped the canoe three times.  It wore them out.  Actually I think we are all still tired.

Tomorrow is our first official day of summer so we will sleep in and then get organized.  Positive thinking's important right...?

T and A

Otherwise known as Tonsillectomy and Adnoidectomy.

Austin had surgery this morning.  We are hoping this will end several years of untreatable sinus congestion/infection like it did for Benson last year. 

Austin did great even with the IV start--his most nerve-wracking part.  They sprayed his skin with a numbing spray and then a little bubble of lidocaine and Austin really didn't feel much of anything.  When he got back to the room, he just turned from side to side while we listened to the wailing children in the rooms around us. 

Once we got home, the soreness kicked in and even a chocolate popsicle couldn't help.

They gave us a new medicine that we haven't ever used before.  It is VERY concentrated Oxycodone hydrochloride--Austin only takes 1/4 of a milliliter.  That's about 10-15 drops.  And it has no taste at all.  Awesome!  Once the medicine kicked in we (Austin and I) took a long nap.  

Hopefully tomorrow will be better.