Toothless!

Graigry has been walking around with a very wiggly loose tooth for a few weeks. The tooth next door is gone so sometimes, if he'd been wiggling it too much, it would point sideways, which looked weird and I'd have Graigry go straighten it.

Yesterday, right after family home evening, Eric told Graigry to come to him. He wiggled it and tried to just pull it, but Graigry backed down. The second time, after a short break, Eric pulled that baby right out. Graigry walked around saying: "TH-TH-TH-TH" proving that even without his two front teeth he could still make the 'th' sound.

Without further adieu:

It  makes us laugh looking at our newest the toothless wonder! Nate can't wait to loose his teeth.

Graigry's baptism

Graigry had been asking for over a month "How many more days" and FINALLY the day arrived!

It's been our luck that the kids' eighth birthdays have fallen on a day that is convenient for a baptism. November 4th happened on a Friday which worked out well. My folks flew out late Thursday night to spend a little time with family. Patrice and I visited with them Friday morning and then we went to the Children's Museum, where we ran into Eric and Aurora who were on a school field trip. I was hoping we would, but didn't know where they'd be.

I was a bit of a putz in that, for the girls, I'd had Amy make them each a special baptism dress. For me, it's different with a boy. They aren't going to wear it again and you can't really pass it down, I don't think, so I didn't do much about it, much to Eric's dismay. After expressing his frustration at not having something special for Graigry to wear and keep as a rememberance, I remembered Eric had two white temple ties. So, I pulled out one of Graigry's nicer white shirts and called around trying t get some white pants for my little man. No luck in stores, so the thought came to me to call Courtney Turner. She had some karate pants that would be just perfect. Graigry wouldn't be able to keep his clothes. However, I think the white tie is a good compromise. I told Graigry, after he was dressed in whites with the tie on and at the church, that he could wear that tie when he went through the temple and when he got married. That is even better than the dress, that the girls will never be able to wear again (if they have girls then they might be able to).

Anyway, Friday night, everyone had dinner at our house and then it was get dressed and go to the baptism.

We got our usual pre-baptism pictures.

Father and Son
Following the Savior's steps

Mom, Dad and Graigry
smiling with the Savior

Scott Family
Three of five baptisms

Scott family with Grandparents Hibbert
Grandma and Grandpa gave the talks at the baptism.

And then, Graigry got one with the substitute Grandpa (Bishop) Scott.

After the baptism, Patrice and JT with boys went home and Mom and Dad came over for presents, brownies and chit-chat. I would have taken some pictures of the presents, but my camera had dead batteries and my phone is not a good camera.

It was a good day for all involved, I think!

Tradition!!!! Pumpkin Patch

Our fall pumpkin patch tradition continues. It was the kids' fall break and the day before I started work, so for a Family Home Afternoon we went to Waterman's Pumpkin Patch. It was warm, uncrowded and a good time with the family.

We played on the "amish trampoline" for a while, which appeared to be new. It looked uncut and round from what I remember from years before. It seemed a lot taller as well.

Xela lifting herself up onto the "trampoline"

Nate the Great!!

Graigry the Grand

Eric chilling and watching the monkeys

Neta hiking up the haystack

The smaller hay maze was fun. It's dark and I've never really wanted to be crawling on plywood, in the dark and crashing into walls of hay. This year I decided to follow the kids through. All the kids, except Neta really, went through it a few times.

Nate crawling out of the maze.

Eric blocked the exit, and the light, to confuse the kids.
We got a good laugh; so did the kids.

This year they had a petting zoo, with a buffalo, llama or alpaca, sheep, pony, cow and goats. The kids loved it, especially Aurora our "animal whisperer."

Maybe it's a camel.
Neta and Graigry enjoying the goats.

Before going into the corn maze, we took a picture of...

our little farm animals.


After our little photo shoot, we headed into the maze. This year it took us a little longer to find the exit we didn't enter. Kids had fun, but feet got a little tired after running through the first time.

They're off!!

Taking a short cut through the corn.

"This way!"
At every fork, the kids take turns deciding which way we go .

Where in the corn are the Scotts?
(some hide better than others)

Daddy and Neta finding their way out
of another short cut.

After getting ourselves out of the maze, we worked our way toward the hay ride. In route to the hayride, we stopped at a combine the kids could climb into.

Neta testing her steering skills

Next stop was the bumper cars. I have fun with these, but am always the one behind the camera. Nate is big enough now that he can pretty much steer himself and I'm small enough that I fit. Eric got in one and tried to chase me down. Good times!

The Scott Train with the caboose leading the way.

Xela makes the turn with Nate on her tail!

After the race track, we did the bouncy house for a few minutes and then had our own barn raising.

This piece of the barn weighed 100 lbs,
if I remember correctly.

The kids had to put each piece in the right place
in order for the barn to stand strong.

Xela hammering the peg into the hole,
locking the pieces together.

Neta securing the bottom peg.

Working together on the other side.

Nate's turn to pound a peg.

Lifting the cross brace
Again, I think it was 100 lbs

With the barn raising complete,
we had to get a photo just like the "old days"

Because Mommy likes to and it follows tradition, I had each of the kids stare into the sun so we could get their "How Tall This Fall" picture.

She's almost as tall as me.
Not cool!

I felt a little bad about the sun, but not too bad, obviously.

Finally, we were off to pick our pumpkins! The rule is still, you can keep the pumpkin you pick if you can haul it to the car.

Neta picked a pretty little pumpkin pretty quickly.

Xela makes her claim after trying a few on for weight.

Graigry on the hunt, ready to pounce.

Nate the Great lifter of pumpkins.
I think he tried on a few before he made a final decision.

Aurora giving her arms a break on the way to the hay ride.

Graigry worked his way around the carry it
to the car and rolled it.
I'm not going to slack on this next year.

Back on the hay ride to weigh our pumpkins, I had to get the annual picture. Unfortunately, no one was paying attention to the camera. This is probably the worst wagon picture we've ever taken.

Thanks, Xela.
At least someone was ready for the picture.

I found another one.
Xela is not paying attention in this one.

After pumpkin picking, and paying for our heavy load, Eric bought pears as a snack for the kids. By the time we left it was between six and seven, so they were getting hungry.

Scott kids with their pumpkin chairs and pears.

Neta with pumpkin and pear

Graigry looks like he's had one to many and
it was just one pear.

As you can tell, they enjoyed them.

We didn't do Anderson Apple orchard this year, but I couldn't let us not go to the pumpkin patch. We've done that every year for the last nine years. It's one of the things that I hope my kids carry with them as fond memories from their childhood.

Summer's over

Seems like summer came and went and now we're into fall. I was so diligent at writing my blog, that I will have to spend some time doing catch up here, with a few snapshots of family history accompanied by words that hopefully aren't too scattered in their recreation of facts.

SO... JULY:
We swam a lot in the pool and had a few cook outs. Not as many as usual, but it's been a crazy summer. I think I mentioned that Eric and I rode the tandem to the Louisville Temple, but I don't have the blog up in front of me to verify my recollection. It was a different experience than last year, but that is to be expected when it's a youth trip and the youth are not your stewardship anymore and you're riding with your hubby. He will admit that, "the HILL" was about as tough as I said it was. This year we had more hills, which was rough, but we were able to conquer each one together.

That was the weekend after July 4th. On July 4th, we watched fireworks with Dunahees at Highland Park, which looks into downtown where they light off the fireworks. Kids enjoyed themselves; Eric could have cared less about the fireworks, but enjoyed being able to visit with the Dunahees a little.

Neta & I played fetch while waiting for the fireworks.

We did go on a couple family bike rides. Eric found an extra wheeler for $40, so now one of our three younger riders gets to help pedal a grown up. They seem to enjoy it.

Nate and Eric getting ready to pull out.

On the way to school with Xela.
Neta is all smiles.

AUGUST:
Kids went back to school the last week of July. That month went by in a bit of a blur. I can't say there were many great events worthy of recording. Neta got her first haircut in four years on August 8. I love her long hair, so of course, I told the Great Clips gal to only cut off the split ends. I went with her, as I wanted to get my hair cut as well. Neta didn't want to go first, so I went and she watched from the booth. Then it was her turn. Once she got in the chair, she seemed to enjoy herself.

Ready for a trim
(Mom didn't want a total hack of hair gone.)

Got the cape, now for the scissors of a professional
(Neta already gave herself an amatuer cut-about 1 yr ago)

She had to stand out of the chair because she was so short
and her hair was so long.

All in a straight line

All smiles with her first cut souvenir

The neighborhood has this, I think 300 gallon tank that is used to collect rain water and then water the neighborhood garden. Well, it had been taken over by algae, so Eric brought it home to clean up. After filling it and doing what scrubbing we could, he emptied it and then let two anxious children get in and get the hard to reach places as best they could.

Down in the depths of stinkiness.

Coming up for fresh air as they climbed out.

GROSS!!

We spent a good part of August fixing up rental houses. One so it could be rented. We redid the bathroom of one, fixed two toilets, air conditioner, blower, sink, kitchen floor, kitchen sink, cabinets and I can't remember what else. If you have rentals, you have to fix them if you want tenants and you have to keep them up, mostly, if you want to keep your tenants. Whether or not you have a job, so our credit card is carrying a heavy load at the moment. Oh well.

The kids were really good at helping and being patient with our crazy schedule.

Kids with their sandman outside of the St Clair house.

I'm glad Xela and Ro were so willing to be "in charge" and that the house are close, so we could leave them at home sometimes, to have their own fun.

SEPTEMBER:
The kids had been dying to go camping and I kept thinking we would and hoped that we would and then July turned into August which quickly brough about September. I decided we were going for Labor Day weekend. The kids had a four day weekend, so we left after school on Thursday and camped through Monday, coming back for church on Sunday. The camp spot was less than an hour away, so it worked out well.

Thursday was quiet as all the holiday-ers had not arrived. It was nice to have the campground basically to ourselves.

Playing in the sand at the park as the sun set.

The road completed by top notch engineers

Friday morning, we went to the lake. I made sure we had a campground that had water stuff, because we love playing in the water.

We spent about two to three hours at the lake Friday morning and went home for lunch.

Creating a castle with a mote

Nate enjoying the cool lake water on a HOT September day.

A sand covered sun bathing beauty

The kids walked up and down the beach counting dead fish.
I was a little grossed out, but they had fun.

Fun in the sun and water.

De-sanded, potty break finished and ready to load into the car.

Friday, everyone else showed up in the afternoon and evening. Our campsite was treeless and therefore shadeless and Labor Day weekend was HOT!!! Eric opened the hatch of the car and put his camp chair under it's meager shade. Luckily, the site next to us, whoever was supposed to be there just put their car or boat there so the kids played and naped in the shade of it's one small tree.

Playing all day can wear you out!

The campground had a trail that we explored. It had a nature center that was air conditioned so we went in there and escaped the heat for a little while. Eric dominated in checkers.

Aurora everso confident got squish by her dad.

On Saturday we went to the camp pool that had a water slide and diving boards. The kids LOVED the water slide. Aurora enjoyed that, but preferred the diving board and spent a lot of time there. As we were nearing two hour limit, Nate and Graigry, who were just about at the height requirement (and I'd seen a girl Neta's size go down alone) asked if they could go down unaccompanied by an adult. I asked Eric what he thought and he was hesitant, but decided if Xela was in line behind them and we waited at the bottom of the slide, we could save them if they started to drowned at the bottom (it was only as deep as our pool, but had the gushing water and drop off which was the nervous part).

Nate was a little nervous as he stood at the top of the slide, you could see it in his face and I wished I'd had a picture of it. He slid down just fine and said he liked it. When I asked if he wanted to go down again by himself, he shook his head and said no. Graigry loved it and went down by himself again. After Nate saw his brother do it, he wanted to do it again.

As a parent, it was a little hard to let the kids take off the floatie and go it alone. It was a good parental moment in trusting the children and what they think they are capable of doing. I assume that's what Heavenly Father felt when we headed out to Earth.

After the waterslides and Eric turning into a lobster, we left for the ice cream social at the nature center. We got a cup of vanilla ice cream with chocolate, carmel and strawberries and whip cream. It was very tasty in the hot weather.

We went back to the site, made lunch and dinner. Kids and I made tin foil dinners, cooked them and then took them to the beach. There were fireworks at "dusk" so we told the kids we would eat dinner at the beach and play in the water until the fireworks started. Dusk apparently meant pitch black as the fireworks didn't start until almost 9:30. The beach was packed with people and we started chanting "Fireworks!" "Fireworks!" because the signs said something about around 8:30ish and we were all getting impatient.

Xela and Ro wearing the glow in the dark bands.

It was a good show, for being a state park beach front. It was cool to watch the firework reflection in the water too. The kids had a blast and then when it was done, we sat in the car and waited for most of the people to leave. Thankfully I had some cookies which we munched on while waiting out the crowds. We were all tired, but kids were patient in the buckles and soon we were able to get back to our site and sleeping bags.

Enjoying cookies & a story while waiting for traffic

We were one of the first ones there on Thursday and we stayed as long as we could Monday and were one of the last ones to leave. We all had a good weekend. Next year, I hope to go camping a little more, but we'll see what reality brings.

Since then, there hasn't been much action. School, home, church and life in general. Nothing too exciting, at least that I can recall at the moment. If I find a picture that sparks a memory, then I'll add something.