Maturing Kids

 Last summer, our oldest two both hit puberty in August. There has been a lot of change and emotions and growth spurts and hormones. They are both in the phase where despite becoming more like adults, they are still VERY much children. 

Today they are practicing a youth musical number that they’ll sing in sacrament meeting next week. Leroy is sitting next to his best friend Callan and when they aren’t singing, they’re goofing off, rough housing etc, but when it’s time to sing, they focus and engage. It reminded me how juvenile I sometimes act around good friends. 

Messes

Afton really likes to climb our toy storage container. Problem? I store toys on top of it. 

Not a problem. 

It takes approximately 10 seconds to make our house totally messy. 

But it only takes me 5 minutes or less to clean it up again! I will be teaching Afton this skill soon...

Carrot Dip

I gave the kids carrot sticks for a snack today. It was Afton's first carrot stick, so I didn't expect her to eat it really. She just chewed on it for a while and carried it around. 

We went outside, and she started playing in the dirt. She was drawing in the dirt with a stick, then switched to using her carrot to draw with. Then she put the carrot back in her mouth. Repeatedly. 

I guess dirt is the new Ranch. 

Toys

All of the toys and shoes are piled in the corner to hide from "the monster."

(I'm pretty sure Afton is the monster.)

We love the zoo

And Leroy loves getting his picture taken. 

"Take a picture of me eating my banana ON the hippopotamus."

"Mom! Take a picture of me!"

Afton got to relax and eat her banana while Leroy ran around. 

Leroy got to see the lion walk right by his face. "It's the papa lion!!"

We stopped for a while at a playground in the zoo. "Mom, I'm good at hiding."

I forgot to bring my Ergo to the zoo - oops! Normally I use it at the end of the day because Leroy is too tired to walk out of the zoo without crying several times. It just takes longer than I like. Normally I put either Leroy or Afton on my back in the Ergo and the other child goes in the stroller. After carrying Afton in one arm and trying to push Leroy with the other, I finally convinced Leroy to hold Afton on his lap. 

She really did like it when we were moving. 

Leroy's toys

Apparently Leroy doesn't want Afton to play with his toys. Can you find them?

Yup. Ronald, Teddy Bear, and Lightning Car are his favorite toys. But Afton's shoe? I guess he claimed it for the evening. 

My boy Leroy

Leroy: "I'm holding my sword to fight people and my tennis racket to play golf."

And yes, he is wearing no clothes. 

"Breakfast"

I went to Panda Express for dinner tonight. Leroy was delighted to get noodles. "Mom," he says, "this is the best breakfast ever!"

Bloody noses

On Saturday Leroy crashed at a full run into a shelf at the store. It was one of those shelves that holds sale-priced shirts and pants in the middle of the aisle. I checked his face for broken skin, but didn't see any, so I picked him up and kept walking through the store, trying to comfort my screaming child. I glanced at his face and discovered it was covered in blood! He had a bloody nose and was crying it all over me. I turned around and made my way to the bathroom to clean him up.

He calmed down and agreed to let me clean him up when I offered to let him wear the new shirt we had just picked out to buy. He was fascinated by the red on his face and even helped me make sure I got it all cleaned up. (He even kept looking in mirrors later to check to make sure there was no red on his face.)

This is Leroy modeling his new shirt in the changing room:

This morning I got a bloody nose (I sometimes get spontaneous ones). When he learned that I had a bloody nose, he asked, "Mom, what you crash into?"

Leroy's Hero

Leroy just adores his uncle Brian. Whenever we visit, he is frequently running down the hall yelling "Brian! Brian! Brian!" So since my baby brother is leaving in a month to serve a two-year mission in Brazil, I thought I should prepare Leroy for his upcoming absence.

Me: Leroy, in one month Uncle Brian will be a missionary and move to Brasil for two years.

Leroy: I am one! I will be a missionary and move to Brazil!

Me: You need to be 18 to be a missionary. 

Leroy: Oh! I am 18! So I will be a missionary and move to Brazil with Brian. 

Me: You are moving to Brazil?

Leroy: Yes. 

Me: What am I supposed to do?

Leroy: I think you can move to Brazil too!

Clothes

I told Leroy that Afton's fuzzy pants used to be his when he was a baby. So he promptly put them on. Size 3 months. 

Leroy

Leroy discovered he could reach our toaster oven. So he started turning the knobs. We had to unplug the toaster...

Pics

Leroy discovered that electricity is fun.

Cutest piglet.

Leroy loves to read.  I keep catching him reading quietly.

Even in his cute rocking chair!

Flowers!

I've been landscaping our house this summer. I finally got to a spot that I could buy annuals to add some color! It was only $20 for all that we need to fill out the bed.

Top: front of the house - the new flowers are in the pots. 

Bottom left: an established pot that I hope all the pots I planted today get to. 

Bottom right: my favorite pot so far. 

The front bed used to be full of grass. Neoma dug out most of the front, but I've been keeping it clear and taking care of the plants there. It is so satisfying to flower garden! And I am so glad that I have a dad who can help me when I need it. 

Dancing baby

Leroy likes to dance to music.  Sometimes he sings along too.

More flooring

We decided to take the leftover flooring and put it in our basement. We just had a cut carpet edge and poured cement flooring. Now, we have this beauty:

We ran out before we could finish. But that's okay because our stairs really need some help. 

So I figure that once the stairs get finished (by a professional because the drywall is also wonky and the stairs are built over the carpet and some other weird things) we may order more flooring and finish the whole thing! But for now it is so awesome. The picture of our new flooring makes me so happy. 

Also, I had the "opportunity" to clean our carpet yesterday. I left out a blue sharpie. Which Peter (2 years old) found and colored his hands and carpet with. You can't see it easily, but if you look just in front of Peter you can see scribbles from the fireplace to the white car. 

Rubbing alcohol just made the blue spread into splotches. Hairspray was somewhat effective, but I didn't want to scrub that hard for that long, so I borrowed Mom and Dad Gould's carpet cleaner. 

I finished off with a spot cleaner spray that I went over again with the cleaner machine. And my results? See for yourself:

New flooring

Our neighbors are redoing the flooring in their house and they gave me their old flooring. We have had linoleum in our garage to keep it warmer on our feet in front of the washing machine and food storage. I have been wanting to redo the flooring in the garage because it was starting to look shabby. Well, I used their flooring to make it awesome!

I am waiting for Hollis to get home from work so he can use a saw to cut the boards to the length I need to finish it. 

This week at our house

We lowered Leroy's crib and now it is the perfect height for standing. Which he loves.

Also, it warmed up to a balmy 54 degrees Fahrenheit, which is warm enough to play in water outside (according to my nephews). 

We also went to the doctor for a well baby visit! And Leroy did not have any ear infections! Or need any shots! Hooray! He did like playing with the toys there though. 

We also got Leroy eating food again. He likes crunchy things and doesn't like soft things. 

Yum! Apples and Cheerios!

We also had a ward pinewood derby. Hollis and I made cars for the event and Leroy got to use one that Hollis made when he was in Cub Scouts. Jason and Sam made one too. Benji didn't want to be left out, so he brought his Lego Francesco car. He turned his in and it got a number too!

We are numbers 6-10. Michelle = #6. Leroy = #7. Hollis = #8. Jason = #9. Benji = #10. 

Jason took second place overall. 

And in closing, this is Leroy playing for the first time at the giant step in his room. 

Project week

We did a lot while the Goulds were gone. First, I repainted the boys room. It used to be overpoweringly neon green (a rather nice green, but just way to much when the walls and ceiling were all that same color). I started out with the goal to paint the ceiling white, but ended up repainting all the walls too.

And then removing all the old baseboards and door wrap. Then painting and putting in new ones. And painting the doors.

Then we put baseboards in the family room (which was actually the original project I talked to Hollis about doing).

Oh! And I primed and painted over a retextured portion of the living room ceiling too! You alsmot can't tell where it was.

I was still putting the house back in order when Hollis picked the Goulds from the airport, but I managed to get it done. Yay!

Also someone came over to watch Leroy a couple of times so I could work and my mom came and helped for a day too.

Home beautification project

When Hollis and I moved into the Goulden Nugget, we planned to repaint parts of the house. I painted the walls and ceiling of the family room, entryway, stairs, and upstairs landing in January/February. I don't have any "before" pictures, but this is the after:

Hollis replaced the light fixtures too. We are in the process of replacing the baseboards and doors. (Neoma made all the decorating decisions. We are just providing the labor.)

Next Neoma said that she and Jason were considering hiring a landscaper to take care of their yard. I suddenly remembered that I have a lot of job experience in landscaping, specifically lawn care maintenance. So I volunteered to do it. While they are in Hawaii I reseeded the lawn so it could go a week with no one stepping on it. However, before I could seed, I needed to get rid of the moss. I had put down some moss killer a week ago, so I raked out most of the moss when I de-thatched the grass. It filled an entire garbage can.

Yesterday I found this cool scrubber for sale at Target. It has an oscillating head to power scrub the areas that normally need a toothbrush to get clean.

My plan is to attack this grout in our bathroom. I will make the grout much whiter.