Max's birthday

Max was born on Pioneer Day. That means as long as he lives in Utah, he gets fireworks for his birthday. We do a friend party every other year so this year it was a family party year. The kids really like that too because they get to pick anywhere they want to eat. Max picked Boondocks which means he also got to play Laser tag and video games, he worked the system. His one and only present from us was a motor scooter. Maddie bought one with her own money a few months ago and he LOVES it. Since it is Maddie's scooter he would have to ask her before riding it and she doesn't always say yes. It goes 15 mph and is nice to go back and forth to Grandma's house a block away. We told him he could open his present at 8 am (because we knew it would be charged by then.) He woke up 3 times before 8, it felt like Christmas. He was very happy to have his own scooter.
He picked out an oreo cake at the store, that made my job easy.
That night we got together with lots of neighbors for the "cul-de-sac of FIRE."
Max waited until Monday to go to Boondocks so the Krumholz cousins could go with us. Jon's mom was also in town so she got to go. We called Jon's brother's family and Ryan's family and my parents and Gram all came. It was a fun, big group. Yay, Max. Happy 9th birthday!!!

Cabin Fever

My Grandma has a cabin in Kamas that we don't go to enough. We scramble through the calendar trying to figure out 2 to 4 days when we can get away. We always have to miss some event but don't regret it once we get to the cabin. Something about being in the mountains and away from day to day life that makes us relax, ahhhhhh. We let Tanner bring up a couple of the neighbor boys which was really fun.
Max got a little marshmallow on his chin eating a smore. Must've enjoyed it!Jon's brother Joseph and his wife Bethany came up for one night with their 3 kids. Seth and Elisabeth are the same age and get along great!

A few years ago we bought a canoe because there's so many lakes around us. The kids think it is so fun to put their hands in and look for fish. Ah, the great outdoors.

Elisabeth and Seth in a field of wild flowers, so cute.

The boys' room, ARRRGH!

I decided to do Max and Seth's room in a pirate theme. It's taken me pretty much a year to finish because I keep getting distracted, but today I think I'm done. Hopefully they haven't outgrown the theme yet. So first I painted it a very bright blue, which is almost too bright but I like it. Then I got them a pirate chest toy box and glued gold coins to a cork board.
Jon's mom made really cute quilts and matching pillowcases for their bunk beds. Then last week Jon's sister gave me all these cute (or I should say scary) pirate sayings to put around their room. I just finished with the vinyl letters and am officially done with their room! Now, if they'd just keep it clean.

4th of July

I asked Jon when he was going to take the kids to go buy fireworks. He didn't seem that enthused about it. I wasn't that enthused either. I joked with Jon saying we should just put a $20 bill

on the ground and burn that, but it doesn't emit sparks or blow up so I relented and took the kids.

Last year we went to an Orem Owls baseball game on July 3rd because

after the game they had some

great fire works and we didn't have to fight traffic. We decided to do it again this year. The kids were a little baffled that we were going to ANOTHER baseball game. They're fun but a little long for their attention spans. Here's Donovan and Paige entertaining Seth, yay. The fireworks were great.

On the 4th of July we pretty much swam at my parent's house the whole day. Poor Lincoln got burned the most, he should probably wear sunscreen or something.

Then that night we did our few fireworks and Devin went and bought a little box. It was just right. Yawn, time for bed. What a great weekend. I'm so grateful for this country and all the wonderful freedoms that come with it.

Max's shiny smile

Max got braces yesterday and boy is he feeling it. He's had soup for three meals, poor guy. He was the one kid that I thought would not have to get braces because he had gaps between his baby teeth and the dentist mentioned to me that that was good he'd have lots of room for his permanent teeth. But apparently he has a cross bite so my hopes were dashed. He only needs them for a short time. Now Seth is super sad because he wants braces and he hasn't lost any of his baby teeth. Maddie lost 3 teeth last week and he just hangs his head in depression. It's hard being the youngest. It's got its perks too, but he seems to forget those.

Tanner got braces on again last week because the orthodontist didn't anchor his retainer to a tooth that turned. It is free and only for 3 months so Tanner was okay with that.

Beach vacation 2009

Every summer we go to California with ALL of the Dewey family (unless they're on missions or in school). This year we had 22 of us. It is a lot of fun and a lot of chaos. The cousins have a great time being together and being on the beach they never run out of things to do.

Max was a little too tall for these monkey bars
Jon bracing himself for this huge wave...and it was cold!
Tanner loves the water, he gets way in lots of times a day.
Seth got pretty cold pretty fast. He would try to get warm or just go inside to take a hot shower.
Katie and Maddie spent a couple of hours making menus for "My Sister's BBQ" then pretended to be our waitresses for dinner. They did say tips were welcome.

Grandpa Bill

We've been going up to Idaho a lot lately. Jon's dad had been fighting cancer for 6 years and was not doing very well. It was nice to cherish those moments with him knowing we didn't have very much longer. At the end he couldn't get out of bed so we and the grandkids could just lay beside him and hold his hand. It was very tender and

very sad. Two weeks ago, Jon's mom called and we knew it was the dreaded call. We drove up that night so we could all be together. The kids took it very hard even though they were expecting it. It was comforting to be together as a great big family and talk and laugh and cry. I'm so thankful for my knowledge that we will all be together again someday and that I can comfort my children with that knowledge. We will miss Grandpa Bill so much. He was a great Dad and a great Grandpa.

Watching a slideshow of Grandpa with his grandchildren

Maddie, Olivia, and Sam thrilled to sleep on an air mattress

Lots of grandchildren watching cartoons in the kitchen

Maddie and Calli bought the same shirt without planning it

Dad standing with his boys a couple of months ago

Bees baseball game

For Mother's Day, mom wanted tickets for all of us to go to a baseball game together. It's not that she loves baseball, it's just fun to go to a game as a huge family and it was.

Max really likes events for the first hour then he gets bored fast. Jon and Max
Here mom is talking to Lyssa in Denver. Her family couldn't come because of the distant thing so a phone call is second best. Lyssa e-mailed everyone and got the baseball info. for Mother's day, so she did all the "leg" work. This is Max, Seth and Joshua.

Maren is just too cute eating her hot dog. I think between all of us sharing food, we ate everything they had. The kids love that part. We had peanuts, churros, nachos, popcorn cotton candy etc. UGH.This is Tanner closing his eyes on purpose because he knows I'm taking a picture of him.
Here's Donovan and Gram (kinda), Dad, James, Joshua, and Maddie. Fun times!

Maddie gets her braces OFF

Maddie only had braces for 8 months. She may have to do phase 2 after all her permanent teeth come in. They're looking good. You can't even tell when she has her retainer in and she only has to wear it at night and 4 hrs in the day. Her orthodontist doesn't want her taking it to school when school starts again because it's too hard to keep track of. I wish they did that when I had a retainer. I remember searching through the McDonald's trash when I accidentally threw it away!

Seth plays t-ball

Seth started t-ball last month. It's either really boring to watch or really funny..depending on the moment. The kids are 5 and 6 years old so this is their first year playing baseball. They sometimes run around the bases the wrong way or skip bases. One boy was charging to first and then he stopped to tell his team mates how he swung twice and missed the ball then he finally got it. In the meantime, the first baseman got the ball and was waiting at first which didn't concern him at all, he had a great tale to tell. If you're any position besides 1st, pitcher, or catcher, you basically just stand around, that's the boring part. Seth has enjoyed it for the most part and has learned a lot about the great American sport of baseball.
Maddie and Max were very "supportive" of Seth playing his game. The park had some great trees so they played in those most of the time. Tanner was actually sitting beside me really supporting him but I didn't get a picture of that. Poor Tanner.

In this video, Seth is the "pitcher" behind the coach who is pitching the ball. All he needs to do is throw it home since it's the last batter. Good try.

Early Father's Day

We called a tree man to haul away our big tree that blew over. It was so nice to talk to someone that had a vast knowledge about trees because I know nothing. Apparently our tree blew over because it had a disease which means probably the other 3 trees that are the same kind out there also have that disease. Sad news. We've had a dead tree in our front yard for a couple of years now so I started asking him what kind of tree would look good there and how much would it cost? Jon thought about it and said, "I think I would like to get a tree for Father's day." That made me quite happy because it's a practical gift and I'm a practical girl. There's something exciting about planting a tree. Maybe because you know it's going to grow up with you in the house (Hopefully). The kids were very excited too. Happy Father's Day Jon!

The beach without the water

Last weekend we went to Idaho to be with lots of family. While there, Calli, my 10-year-old niece convinced us we needed to go to the sand dunes. I didn't even know they existed. The kids had so much fun. They had sand all over (their pockets, ears, car) to prove what a great time they had.

Thanks, Aunt Bethany for burying Max.

Tanner and Uncle Joe had a contest to see who could get to the bottom of the dunes in the fewest leaps. Blogger isn't letting me load a video again.

Mayed out!

The month of May is crazy at school. Everything has to be put off until the end of May which means life gets very busy. Yesterday I helped with Max's "times table ice cream party" which was really cute. For passing off 2's you get a bowl, passing off 5's you get a scoop of ice cream and so on. As I was elbow deep in ice cream the room mom asked if I could help with field day all day on Friday. I said I had something that day which I thought I did, but when I got home and looked at my calendar, I didn't. But I still don't think I'll get back with her because other moms need the great opportunity to help in the school. Maddie has a major State project and test on all the states and capitols in the U.S. Luckily she is very self-motivated so that's not too bad. She needed a snack for her "poetry cafe" today which meant I needed to go to the grocery store because the cupboards were quite bare. Max is walking to a park and needs to take a lunch tomorrow and Seth goes to kindergarten from 9-12 on Friday instead of 11-2. There's a lot to keep track of. Tanner has a big band concert tomorrow night and needs to stay after school to practice for it so I need to go get him when he's ready. Max is also getting an award at an assembly on Thursday that parents are invited to and he told me this morning, "btw, mom I need to bring a birthday treat for the class on Tuesday since I have a July birthday." IS MAY ALMOST OVER???

Tanner's soccer game

I've been trying to take a picture of Tanner playing soccer this season but it seems to always be snowing or raining for his games...or I forget my camera. Tanner likes the cold weather because they're working up a sweat, but us on the sidelines like the spring-like weather. Today it was finally a beautiful day. Both teams actually had to forfeit because they didn't have enough players. Usually his team has tons of players but maybe because it was a make-up game, or because it's May and there's a million things to go to, or because it was too spring-like for the players. Tanner is a great soccer player and likes getting in shape. He did mention at the beginning of the season this might be his last season of soccer but now that he's almost done he's rethinking that. He really enjoys his team.

kindergarten graduation

So, Seth is now a kindergarten graduate. He had a great year. It started off teary and is ending a little teary because he has "Kindergartenitis." He may have a hard time next year going to school ALL day. Something about that first year of school with their sweet little baby faces. This is Seth's friend Sabrina "Beanie". So cute! Their hats are made out of paper bowls and paper, pretty creative.

Book signing

Last Saturday, Maddie and I stood in line for an hour to meet Brandon Mull. He was signing books at Costco and I needed to buy his fourth book of Fablehaven and The Candy Shop War. I just finished the Fablehaven book and really enjoyed it. I think I like that series more than the kids even though it's a "Children's" book. What can I say? It was neat for Maddie and me to meet an author. The other family members ate lots of samples, shopped then had a greasy pizza, fun times at Costco. The picture's pretty blurry because I used the phone and felt a little pressure to hurry.

Max gets his blue belt

Max is doing an amazing job in karate. He's actually more than half way to getting his black belt.