The 7 Things I Love About You....

I went to a Jonas Brothers concert last week (Yeah) and then after reading Sarah's 'venting' blog, I thought I would share a couple of thoughts. Miley Cyrus wrote a song about Nick Jonas (the curly haired one and the cutest, I have been told) called the 7 things I hate about you. At the end of the song, to be fair, she lists the 7 things she likes. Thus, my title (beefing it up a little). The things a mom learns by going to a concert with a 13 year old!

So, I thought I would list the 7 things I love most about my kids, starting with the oldest (although Sarah needs it the most).

Amanda
1. I LOVE Amanda's creativity. She can do so many things well and will try most anything (sewing, quilting, card making, photography, projects). She amazes me in this area.
2. I LOVE her dedication to her family. She does so much with her kids and husband. Things she might not love, but she learns to love it by doing it with them (rock climbing, kickball, concerts, tv shows, etc).
3. I LOVE Amanda's humor. She doesn't bust loose all the time but she really enjoys a good laugh and loves to share funny things with others.
4. I LOVE her desire to do right. She had this even as a little child but still strives to do what is right. She studies her scriptures, has Family Home Evening, works faithfully at church, teaches her children.
5. I LOVE her beauty. Inside and Out! I think Amanda is so pretty and has pretty actions. I love to watch her talk and read and sleep.
6. I LOVE her kindness. So often, after talking to Amanda, I feel so good about myself because she has asked my opinion about something or when I suggested something, she always says, "Thats a great idea." She is so kind and it makes those around her better.
7. I LOVE her children. She has blessed me with three of the sweetest, loving grandkids. She is a great mom to them and it shows.

SARAH
1. I LOVE Sarah's laugh. She has a laugh that makes you want to laugh. It is genuine and cute. Sarah's laugh makes others want to be around her.
2. I LOVE it that Sarah is so loving. As a small child she would hug me several times a day, for no reason. She still loves to be hugged (mostly by Steven though) and have affection shown to her.
3. I LOVE Sarah's honesty. I never have to wonder if Sarah agrees with me, she lets me know. She has always been this way too. I always said if she were on the right track, she would never leave it but if she were wayward, she is so strong headed she would never leave that either. Thank goodness she chose the right path.
4. I LOVE her humor. This goes along with her laugh but is different too. She is like me, in that she does things that people like to tease her about. She is so good natured and laughs about past mistakes.
5. I LOVE her devotion. She is devoted to God, family, friends, and everything she does. She is so loyal and true and that is a great quality to possess.
6. I LOVE Sarah's electricity. Everyone loves to be around Sarah (when she has gotten enough sleep). She draws people to her and they want to be her friend.
7. I LOVE Sarah's children. They are both so much like her and that is why she struggles with their oddities but I love it. Many times it is like having little 'Sarahs' running around. They enjoy life just like she did when she was young.

I have three other kids but this is too hard and they don't read my blog anyways. I will share the 7 things I love about them when they start reading my blog.

You can all see why I LOVE being a mom to such wonderful women, mothers, daughters, wives, friends, sisters, aunts........... Thanks girls. You make my life worthwhile.

The End

This is the end of a great, exhausting, fun, stressful, busy, memorable, unforgettable, and rewarding week (I can say that now that it is over and I can sleep all night, nap when I want to, and have cleaned the week worth of crud off of the kitchen floor, doors, windows, cabinets, table, chairs, tv's, refrigerator, etc) I made a photo album for me to keep with about 300 photos in it and then I made a small photo album for the Elmer kids and one for Landon (about 100 pictures in each one). I didn't get all of the dialog written in them and just when I was wondering if it was worth it.........................................

Sarah posted this picture of Landon, asleep in this bed, with the photo album on his tummy. It was so very cute, and I realized it was worth it all!

Friday

Friday was an easy day. The kids swam at 10:00 AM, again at 1:00 PM and then again at about 7:00 PM. Before dinner, we got out the parachute and let the kids play with it in the front yard. I loved this activity. It is so fun to just watch them play.
Maya and Landon
Porter
They made their own mini-pizza's for dinner. They thought that was cool. They all gobbled them up.
You can tell it was a huge success. We just made them on English Muffins. After dinner, we went to the local ice cream place and got ice cream cones and sat at the picnic table to eat them. The cones were huge! It was so fun.

Some of my favorite pictures

I still have to blog about Friday but I thought I would put in some of my favorite pictures from the week.
I don't know if you can tell but Brad was running through the play ground and the Porter decided to race him. When they entered the tube, Brad was ahead of Porter. Somewhere in the middle, Porter decided to climb over Brad and came out of the tube in first place. It was so funny. I wish I had a video camera!
Who was the fishing trip for?? The kido's took a break and were playing in a boat.
Typical Landon.
Maya said, "Nana, take a picture of my shivering." I am sure you can all see it, right?

Thursday - To the Lake for swimming and fishing

We finally had a nice sunny day that we could use those new fishing poles. We went to a State Park that is fairly close to our house. As you can tell, the kids were quite ready for some fishing.... until they saw people swimming! Then they decided to swim first and fish later.

Wednesday - Fancy Nancy Day

Maya even told the people at Tumbleweed that she WAS Fancy Nancy.
Landon had to wear his pirate patch from the Dollar Tree. During dinner it ended up on his chin. Quite funny.
You have to know that Porter has a thing for gloves. When he saw these gloves in the dress-up pile, he grabbed them first. It was funny.
I have to say I was pretty fancy, and Maya was fanning me with her feather fan...
Grampy and Hannah were so fancy.

Wednesday we took it a little easy. Our big event was Fancy Nancy Day. Fancy Nancy is a children's book about a little girl that loves being fancy but her family is plain (normal). (Thanks Elaine for introducing me to Fancy Nancy, I have all of the books now) She ends up teaching them how to be fancy and they get dressed up and go out to dinner. We read the book and then we got dressed up and went to Tumbleweed. The pictures say it all, we got some odd looks, to say the least. Of course we couldn't be seated in the front, our table was all the way in the back so we had to walk by everyone. We actually saw people we knew there, and that never happens. The things you do because you love your grandchildren and want to create a memory.

Tuesday - Field Trip

Tuesday was a Field Trip because Grampy had to work and Brad and Hannah helped out. We went to the Louisville Science Center. The kids had a great time. They have a 2 hour Kids Zone for Members so the kids got their fill of the area that is just for them.
Porter and Maya at the Water Table. The kids loved playing in the water. They are so fun to watch.
Landon, being calm, unlike the next picture where he is driving the bus......
He was saying, "WHOA...."
In the Lowes building section Porter made a gun, surprise!
Maya liked the store area. She was the most calm of the grandkids. She loved the babies.
We got tickets to the IMAX and watched a Dolphin show. Landon fell asleep but Maya loved it. She and Porter both learned that dolphins sleep with one eye open so they can watch for sharks.
We ate lunch at Subway, hit the gift shop for a couple of little toys and got home around 3:00. We rested for the afternoon.

Monday it Rained

What else? Chuck E. Cheese!






We were supposed to do Bugs and Things but we couldn't go fishing because of the rain so our day went something like this. We went to Hobby Lobby to look for Bug cages. We came away with some dress up things too. We headed to Chuck E. Cheese and on the way there, Landon said, out of the blue, "I spy, with my little eye, something....... CHUCK E." It cracked me up. We spend about 3 hours in that place. Lunch and 200 tokens later, we left with a few suckers and stickers. We went next door to the dollar store and let each kid pick out two things. They thought this was great. How easy to please! We found Bug cages there for $1 so we bought them instead of making them. Porter wasn't feeling the best so he took a nap but Maya and Landon helped Grampy pull weeds and Maya caught a cricket. Later in the afternoon, Hannah caught a baby baby frog for them and I found a really small frog. They kept them in the cages until Thurday and then they turned them lose. They all took a little swim and played outside a little.

Grandparents Camp -

Okay, I really didn't have time to write all week. Having little kids is a full time job!! (as if I didn't already know that!) I will try to get the whole week blogged in a few days.

We planned on taking the kids horse-back riding but we had to do it on Saturday with the parents here. It was still mucho fun.

FIRST ANNUAL GRANDPARENTS CAMP!

Today I have been planning the first grandparents camp for my 3 potty-trained grandkids. We start on Monday. I have a fun week planned and am excited to spend time with the kids. Here are some of the days we will be doing:

Sports day: kickball, swimming races, yard games

Things to Ride Day: visit to the river to see boats, airport for airplanes, horses, skooters

Field Trip Day: Science Museum

Bugs and Such: Hiking, fishing, making bug catchers

Fancy Day: Read Fancy Nancy books, dress up and go out to eat, craft project

I will report back to let you know at what point I pooped out and cancelled the rest of the week!