What do we do in the SuMmErTiMe?...we make "DREAMS" a reality!

As many of you are well aware-we have had our house on and off the market for quite sometime.

We have shown it a good 20 to 30 times with no real takers.

SOOO I finally consigned myself to the fact that I would be sticking around our house for a bit, and stopped looking at all the phenomenal deals that were out there. It was too disappointing~

Don't get me wrong...I have always LOVED our home down by the river. I will be sad to leave it

BUT 5 kids in 1550 sq feet it began to get quite squishy!!

I had contacted contractors and looked into growing the house.

I had gotten approved for a new home loan.

I had even gotten a quote to convert our garage, realizing that we deplete the re-sale value by doing it.

I felt a little "trapped' in a home with allot of bodies all day, and knew this WOULD cause problems all SUMMER.

With BIG boys and nappers, no room, and scrappers and fighters.... I was feeling a little overwhelmed.

So I dreamed about making our garage into a makeshift toy room.

Knowing if I did this I would take really the ONLY storage available.

WITH a tax return, ALLOT of prodding on my part to my hubby, and dreams of more room....

We recruited help of family in building, roofing and painting a new shed.
Capitalized on unused attic space above the garage (again with LOTS of prodding on my part).
We recruited more family who helped is clean out the garage, hose it down, and call in the exterminator.
Dan hung up blinds, painted chalkboards, sealed and insulated the garage door, installed a window a/c unit (thanks for letting us borrow it Ipsons), and plugged up some bug holes.

I moved, and labeled, and sold, and gave away, and used what we already had around the house to make it work.

BUT I am happy to say we have converted our GARAGE into a TOY/CRAFT/Wii ROOM!

AND I LOVE IT!!!

(after all was said and done, Dan even turned to me the other evening and told me it was a good idea)

Sure we still get a good cockroach showing, and it gets a little too warm in the afternoons

BUT It has given me space and a quiet place to send kids too.

This has taken up a good portion of our summer

THANK HEAVENS for Summer DREAMs!

What do we do in the SuMmErTiMe...we "play" it up!

(target dart shooting booth)

~

The last week of summer started to prove SUPER hard in keeping the kids from saying "I am so bored" and fighting

FINALLY, one day...the boys were happily occupied for quite sometime
(the prizes and their cost)
~
AND this is what I found!
A mini-carnival that I was invited to participate in, AND YES had to pay a penny or two to play (little entrepreneurs)
(disc throw booth)

(target arrow shooting booth)

AND then a few other days I found Colton outside doing this!

Sliding glass doors always make great targets for Nerf guns!

OF COURSE...what would our summers be without a MONSOON or two!?

We have had a very WET summer-it makes for some fun humidity and bugs (yeah, almost as bad as Houston)!

Aaah- the Days of SUMMER!

What do we do in the SuMmErTiMe...we birthday "PARTY"

So right smack dab towards the end of JULY (22nd) we celebrate COLTON RAY's BIRTHDAY

He turned 9 this year!!!

(so it was a year of no friend party...but a FAMILY ONE!)
He got TOy SToRy 3 SUGAR CEREAL for breakfast, MCDonald's Happy Meal for lunch, and pizza for dinner with Cake and mint chocolate chip ice cream for dessert!
(That should have been his birthday!)
He went to basketball camp, played video games in the game room at the rec center (while I worked out), and then went and saw a matinee showing of Toy Story 3 with mom on a date-with Toy Story Popcorn to boot!
Only to come home and have a party with his family!

He scored some pretty sweet gifts of arrows (for his bow), guitar lessons, water ball, Nerf gun, and Hobby Lobby gift certificate!

I decided to make some cupcakes with his FAVORITE video game character- SUPER MARIO!

The great things about families is that the siblings get as excited or more for each others birthdays!!!

Happy Birthday Colton!!!

What do we do in the SumMeRTimE?...we READ

One day I walked into Dacie's room to find this!
A captivated audience is what Dacie LOVES!

The boys certainly read their fair share of books too, especially on lazy and HOT summer afternoons during rest time!

They won prizes from the librarian- a watch and 20 questions game...pretty sweet!

Love Reading!!!

What do we do in the SuMmErTiMe?...we "SWIM"

Once again we filled up part of our summer with swim lessons!~
Since Sterling was now the eldest to take swim lessons-he took 2 sessions (4 weeks) of them.

AND that little kid worked his heart out trying to pass off 2 levels

which he did!!!

Next stop, swim team...we WISH, only if we win the lottery (for 140 dollars a kid)

Ryland was a little bit timid about how he would do since this was the first year out of the baby pool!

AND guess who passed his#2 level?!!!

He still struggles keeping that little skinny NO FAT body of his above water!

I guess I can understand since that use to be my problem back in the day! ha ha

AND Little Miss Dacie's teacher FELL IN LOVE with her!

She also passed the first level!

I always have a hard time forking out money to pay for something I did for 13 years...but it is what it is~ and I think my kids enjoy learning from SOMEONE else!

Dacie's level took lessons in the indoor rec center pool

WHICH since we got memberships and the kids frequent it at least 2 times a week, may have contributed to the best year of swim lessons yet!!!

We LOVE our new swimming pool!

Lazy river water slide and all!

Learning to swim is a MUST in ARIZONA with the HOT summers like we have... POOLS are a WAY OF LIFE!

OOOh the lazy swimming summer days!

What do we do in the SumMerTiMe?...we "BALL"

Last school year Colton began to take an invested interest in basketball. He was playing it at recess and during down time at home. My heart could not have been happier.
Soon as the summer camps began I regretted the decision of not signing Colton up for a basketball one.

Well, some friends of ours told us about a camp that was reasonably priced they were sending their kids too. Colton begged me to go. You DO NOT have to BEG for long when it comes to basketball, it has a special place in my heart (besides he did not do swim lessons this year as he tested out last year). So we signed him up last minute and carpooled with the friends.

We didn't know that one of Colton's best buddies, Dallin would be there-so that even made the CAMP BETTER!

Since we hung out sometimes while car-pooling it was kind of fun to watch. It was a camp purely built on drills. No game playing. Dan thinks that is better, that is how you learn to play!

So learn we did! The first day after running ladders and drills, Colton was pretty sore. He had never felt that kind of sore and told me he could not play because he was hurting. I told him it was a good hurt and to "work" out the pain. I never heard another complaint the rest of camp!

We {heart} BALL'ing IT!