input and insights for a friend

My friend is doing research for one of her class pertaining to gender roles. She's trying to get opinions not just from this area or religion.  Please leave a comment or email me your thoughts.  Thank you for your time. “Does gender roles define who we are and if so why?”

It's been a while...

I realize it's been a long time since I've written-we've done a few fun things this summer, but I probably didn't bring the camera-phones are so much better these days, but then I have to remember to get the pictures off of Eric's phone which I never remember to do-but I'm sure I can find some good pictures of us doing crazy silly daily stuff.

The kids did 2 sessions of swim lessons this summer, and Brandon and Tyler are jumping off the diving board and loving summer life!  We went to the pool a couple times, and that has been wonderful-and we went to Rigby lake as well, first for me-keeping 4 kids happy and know where they are in a big lake, but it was good.

Currently the boys are both in Flag Football, on separate teams-I believe they are both really enjoying it.  However I know I don't have any pictures of this..but that's just an update.

The girls mostly play well together-Marie takes Katelyn on walks and helps her get things, but often helps too much and wants to pick her up all the time and Katelyn cries-but this is part of life, part of growing up!  She's finally getting a big of hair-which is nice and can be fun at times!

Brandon has been asked to sing a duet in the primary program, the second verse of I am a Child of God..I know he'll do great if he takes time to practice!

Tyler is having sort of a hard time adjusting to the new school. I think he feels left out and without friends, I'm not sure how to help him with that-but he's in my prayers.  I hope he can work something out in the next few months.  The boys have been riding their bikes to school, which I like-but they aren't riding together and it is causing contention between the boys..I guess my little play mates are slowly growing apart. :(

Marie is doing really great in Preschool, she's counting all the time-she could count before but she didn't want to do it a lot and such, so she's practicing with enthusiasm and it's really good.  I'm enjoying my time doing errands with 1 child-it's so wonderful!  Katelyn doesn't really like riding in the car alone..but hopefully she'll get used to it!

Some pictures so you can remember what my kids look like-I'm only in July but I've already spent an hour saving them to the computer-got to run for now!

 here's the boys swimming this summer at the splash park

 -Having fun with water balloons-

 Got Brandon's scary zombie costume out and everybody wanted to wear the mask-even Katelyn but I missed the good picture-

 I got a picture of Katelyn holding a sparkler!!  Yeah!

 -We LOVE olives at out house-Katelyn too!-

 -This is a drain thing Eric put in to help the water drain away from the house-Katelyn Love to play with it, watch the water when it rains and just play with it other days..she's fascinated!

 -This is a really shiny blue bug me and Marie found-so we had to take a picture!

 -Tyler actually smiling!-

 -This is Tyler the Lion!-

 -The kids and a good neighbor friend-they all squished in the recycling bin!-

 -Is it really snowing in Idaho Falls in the summer????  No just Styrofoam-yeah that was a pain to get out of her hair and off her body..it was fun for a few minutes..

Life for me..

 Well I feel like SOOO much has been happening-mostly embarrassing things!  That just don't really lift my spirits-but life does go on!

We found a buyer in Boise for our truck-we're on our way meeting him half way-in Burley.  On the way there our truck over heats-so we're not selling it, make it back to Pocatello to a repair shop, visit Grandma and Grandpa Carter they are going to bring the keys to the mechanic in the morning.  It was a good surprise visit with them!  But it's touch and go we can't figure out what's wrong with the truck..oh well.

First up-Katelyn likes taking the lids off my flour and sugar in the laundry room and playing with it-yay-NOT  Guess I have to go back to taking those lids on and off again-the hard way.

 A few weeks ago-the boys have been going to the canal that's behind our neighborhood but on this side of the railroad tracks, they had so much fun. They went every day for several days, then begged me if they could bring home a snake-I said sure but it stays outside and only for 24 hours then they had to take it back.  Look how proud they are of our very first pet..well sort of-but the look on Brandon's face is love and joy.

 

 Well the day it's time to get rid of the snake the kids are just dying to go over there, Marie wants to go and I let her because she's with the boys, there is water over there but I wasn't concerned.  About 10 minutes later Brandon comes home alone..he says the others wanted to stay-it's maybe a 2-3 minute bike ride over there-so I think I'll just drive over there in a few minutes and bring them back.  Well about 5 minutes later Tyler comes busting through the door informing me that there is a cop dude out front waiting for me.  So somebody had called the police concerned that there were some young children alone playing near water.  I was informed that the canal is fuller than normal right now and is dangerous-which I wasn't aware of, so I guess I'm grateful-but it's embarrassing because he's in the front yard with the lights on, and the other officer is escorting Marie home-she's biking her little tricycle while he walks right by her..just embarrassing..we no longer play over there!  Also the previous week I get pulled over by an officer, because inside a residential area I apparently didn't make a complete stop at a stop sign!  So I had to pay a $90 ticket!

 This is the boys swinging spider style-not sure where they learned but they think it's great!

 This is what Katelyn will look like with glasses-not too bad!-they are glasses of a friend that was at our house.

Last Wednesday-I'm in a crazy hurry because I'm late!  I'm a cub scout wolf den Mom and it was the day to go to scout camp!  I'm 5 minutes later than I should be and I still have to drop the kids off and head over to carpool at the church-I hate being late, I'm just crabby and mad that I'm late-well while backing out of the garage I totally forget Eric isn't at work because I was so frazzled he stayed to help get the kids ready and I'm gunning it out of the garage and smash right into our beautiful red sports car..I'm so sorry car-we love you!  Eric was upset I could see it in his face and eyes but told me to just go, he'd be okay.  I text him how sorry I am when I'm at the church and he responds by saying they are just things I love you-which made me shake it off while I had to drive 5 boys in a vehicle to scout camp!  But when I got home it was so hard to face Eric even though what was done was done-and he'd moved on and forgiven me-all I could do was cry and think about how stupid I was, because I was late it would have been okay-we had planned for plenty of time to get the boys to the camp.  It's all I can think about-it's just horrible, I had to pray and get help to forgive myself.

Here's the damage of our van, I mean the bumper is totally busted..it's just bad!

On a happier note-Marie got a new bike!  She said she didn't want one for her birthday-that she liked her tricycle, but then a week later reminded me she didn't get one for her birthday-so I caved because I'm sick of toting her around in the child carrier trailer thing, she loves it!

 This is my garden!  My Dad made these gardening boxes while he was here this summer-the strawberries are doing awesome!

 I was fortunate enough to get some good tomato plants that were already big, cucumbers, cantalope and watermelon-have NO clue how they grow in Idaho..but it's exciting.

 And our peas are doing great-feels so good to actually be growing something!

Here's the girls having fun in the tub!

 Katelyn gobbling her oatmeal!

Just an update

Nothing new is really going on here, Eric got home last night after being gone for 10 days and he commented on Katelyn in the airport and said that she is just walking everywhere-I thought she was for a few weeks, I guess being gone for a while puts things in perspective when they are so little.  Katelyn is walking everywhere-like she's been doing it for years!

Eric had his birthday-Eric and I went out on a surprise date!  It was a lot of fun, just getting away from the kids, then we were given cupcakes from a cupcake cafe and that was his cake for this year--YUMMY!

And the kids sang Happy Birthday so good, I wish I took a video it was cute!

Brandon has been baptized!  I think he had a very wonderful day that he will remember forever!  I'm so proud of him!! I'm so thankful that we were able to have some family here for this day-it was incredible, and I'm so glad Eric baptized him-such a wonderful memory for both of them.

These are other pictures that wonderful day!

 This is my Dad helping the kids plant peas, it's my first garden (that my Dad built for me when he and my Mom visited before Brandon's baptism!), and my first planting from seed-they are doing great!  I feel like a little child watching them grow..it's so exciting!

 Marie has had her final dance performance and she did awesome!  Hopefully some movies will load for you all to see.

 

 They all got a trophy she was so excited!

 

Here is her hair from the back, Tiffany did a totally awesome original way!

 

 

 This week Tyler has had his Kindergarten Graduation-and he did a wonderful job, and wore his suit coat-and was sweating up there but just did incredible!  It's sad because we won't be seeing these teachers anymore because we are going to a new elementary school next year.  I got a yearbook so hopefully when we're older we'll remember some things about our teachers and this school.

 This is him ready to go perform!

It won't let me upload any videos!  ANNOYING!!

Today is Tyler's last day of school, Brandon has a half day tomorrow and then it is summer!  What am I going to do with these kids all summer long?  As sad as it sounds I think I'm going to have to transition Katelyn into 1 nap so we can have a bit more time to be out and about this summer..we'll see-right now she still sleeps 9-10:30 and in the afternoon for 1.5 hours!

Idaho Falls has a lot of free park games and running this summer but I was too selfish to sign them up because I didn't want to make a commitment to bring the kids-and both girls were too young to do any of them-so hopefully we'll have fun on our own this summer.

On Sunday Katelyn cut her pinky finger on her left hand pretty badly, I was with a good friend and she looked at it when it was really bad so I didn't have to!  She thought I should take her to the ER to have it looked at, it was a deep gouge.  She has a friend that works at the ER but was at home, so she looked at it-it finally stopped bleeding so she glued it and bandaged it and since then it has been doing really great-I'm glad I didn't have to take her in, Katelyn has been doing really well with it-obviously she cried but she was also really good about it!

 This is the only picture I have of Katelyn with her pinky wrapped in her big bandage.

These are just pictures of everyday life..

 Katelyn looks like she can ride Marie's tricycle but she can't.

 Marie hanging from the tree!

 Marie just playing inside one day-but it looked so cute, I had to get a picture!

 We've just started recycling, it's now in our area for $5 a month, being picked up every other week-totally worth it!  The kids think it's a play land and they like to get in it, smash all the stuff down-tell stories with flashlights and the lid down-yes I know they are weird!

Oh yeah one day, I let Marie put make up on me, I really just laid down in the truck and took a nap, but this is what the result was, Marie was so proud she said I looked beautiful!  Eric thought I had a black eye, and had to remind me to wash my face because I just forgot about it.