Scout Camp

Caleb had a lot of fun at scout camp.  They all camped out at Bellows Beach and had a huge paintball fight on the last day!  I "borrowed" these pictures from the troops facebook page.

Coast Guard Day

I took Brooklin, London, and Isaiah to Coast Guard Day today (Caleb is at Scout Camp and Darwin is off-island for work).  They had some PCC dancers come for entertainment, there was tons of food, and bouncy houses and games for the kids.  We all got cotton candy and spray on tattoos.  Brooklin and Isaiah each "won" a puzzle for trying out Tahitian dancing, and we won a 3D Blu-Ray player in the raffle!  What a fun day!

Here are some videos of the kids at Coast Guard Day.

http://youtu.be/WTi15PeQ2V4
http://youtu.be/ROuG9L-SlWU
http://youtu.be/3s-xAQi54wA

Soda Can Roses

B is headed off to girls camp this week and needed a few secret sister gifts.  The girl she has likes roses, so we decided to try out this craft we saw in a magazine.  The roses are made out of a Coke can!  We put them on a pair of earrings we found at Wal-Mart and then made a necklace out of the third one.  I think they turned out cute!  (The directions were in the February 2011 issue of Crafts 'n Things magazine)

Shopping with Dad

Phone conversation earlier today...

Darwin: I took the kids shopping last night. It was like shopping by myself... You should ask them about it.
Me: What did you do?! Leave them in the car?!
Brooklin: (who is listening to the convo) No, he bought us all ice cream and made us sit outside the store. He told us we had to finish it before he came back out or we had to throw it away.

!!!!! hahahahahaha !!!!!

Welcome Baby Ruby!

My brother and his wife have struggled with infertility for several years.  Nearly three years ago they adopted their first child, and then about year later they adopt their second child.  The Lord works in mysterious ways...my sister-in-law was able to get pregnant and today they had a healthy baby girl!  Welcome little one!!

Getting Real

I have an app on my phone called LDS Youth.  It has videos (Mormon Messages), articles from the New Era, Mormonads, and uplifting music on it.  I had a few extra minutes before we had to leave for church and was browsing the content of the app,when this picture caught my eye...

I clicked on the picture and it took me to an article titled "Getting Real" by Elyssa J. Kirkham.  The article is about a girl who played tons of video games but made a realization she was missing out on real life by playing too long in the virtual world.

This article hit me like a ton of bricks...and I saw it as a chance to make a change.

This morning I went in and deleted ALL of my facebook games!!  That might not be amazing to anyone who reads this...but it was a HUGE step for me!!  I have wasted SO MANY hours of my life playing FarmVille, CityVille, FrontierVille,Fluff Friends, SuperPoke Pets, Treasure Isle, Zombie Lane, Mafia Wars...etc.  As soon as I read this article, I just started deleting stuff!  I was scared that if I waited until after church, I wouldn't have the courage to do it later.  I am still kind of in shock that all my games are gone!

It was taking me forever to get my homework done each day because I would take a "5-minute" break to play my games and would end up wasting an hour or more.  I was not interacting with my family as much as I could have either.  The games start out only letting you play for a few minutes...but as you advance in levels, you get more "energy" and your playing time increases.  I have tried to cut back or quit before, but I always found some way to justify keeping the games open and available.  I hope I don't cave and reload one of the games!  I really hope that I can fill these hours with something more productive!

(Fast Forward two months...  Today is really Sept 27, 2011.  I am working on getting our blog up to current and I always backdate the posts to when they really happened.  I am so excited to tell you that I only missed my games for about three days!!  After that, I didn't miss them at all!!  School this semester seems to be going so much smoother for me...and not until I came to writing this post today, did I realize the connection.  Even though I have nine credits this semester, my school work doesn't seem to take up so much of my time!  I am so grateful for this article and that Heavenly Father helped me to kick my bad habit!  It is so amazing that the small act of deleting my facebook games could have such a huge effect on my life!  I have more credits this semester than I have for the last two semesters but I feel so much better this semester...stress-wise...it is amazing!  I am so, so grateful!!)

5K Fun? Run

Our stake hosted a 5K Fun Run this morning!  I took all the kids and Brooklin ran with her cross country team. (her coaches are in our stake and they had the team come and participate).  After the run there was a huge pancake breakfast, complete with rice, smokies, and eggs!  I was counting on running with Isaiah, but he wanted to sprint, so I ended up walking one of the two loops with a friend and not going the full 5K.  Isaiah ran only one loop, Caleb and London ran the entire race, and Brooklin did really well and received a medal!

HP7 pt 2

Harry Potter 7 part II opened last night at midnight!  We have been waiting for this all summer!!  I'm so sad that the books and the movies are over, but they are one of our family's favorite things to do together!  I took the kids this morning to the first showing and we all dressed up for the occasion...Caleb dressed in a Star Wars t-shirt because that is more of his favorite...but we still let him come.  Darwin is still in Kodiak, so I guess we will have to go and see it a second time next week. =)

Rubius Dell? You mean like Hagrid?

I just had this conversation in the car with Brooklin...

Me: Auntie Lila is going to the hospital tonight to have her baby.

Brooklin: Oh! Little Ruby Sue!

Me: No Brooklin, her name is going to be Ruby Estelle

Brooklin: {silence} then she says, "Rubius Dell? you mean like Hagrid?"

Me: WHAT!! NO!! R-U-B-Y. Ruby ESTELLE"

Brooklin: OH!!! I was wondering why anyone would name their baby Rubius...

Isaiah: I WOULD!!

I guess she has just a little too much Harry Potter excitement built up for this weekend...lol! (this weekend is the premier of the last Harry Potter movie!)

Volcanoes at the Bishop Museum

Took the kids to the Bishop Museum today.  We went to the volcano building and watched a lava demonstration, went into a huge indoor volcano, looked at things under a microscope, learned about wind, and the kids played dress up!  It was a great day!