First Day

Well, it happened. 2/3 of my children are gone to school ALL DAY. They woke up for the first day happy and excited and I even got Bryce to eat breakfast (which is huge!). They carefully picked out their clothes and packed their bags. We walked to school which was a big mistake since it was 90 degrees at 7:30 in the morning.

We arrived. I walked them to their teachers and walked away. Hoping that the unknown staff at this school takes care of these little boys that I love so much. That the other little precious children at this school don't make me hate them by being mean to my boys. That they have fun.



So now that the boys are gone all day, it's just us girls hangin out. It's eerily quiet in the house. Makayla and I kind of look at each other like "Now what?". I've been thinkin about potty training her. I'll get around to it soon. Maybe. Probably. Fine I'll do it. Ugh. I hate potty training!

The next morning:

Me: Boys, time to get up.
Bryce: (rubbing eyes and saying groggily) For what?
Me: Ummmmm, school? (said in a question more because I'm trying to understand the confusion in his voice)
Bryce: AGAIN?! (complete shock on his face)
Me: Oh buddy. This is for probably the next couple decades of your life.
Bryce: (mostly just looking at me like I'm speaking French)
Me: Yes Bryce. Every day.
Bryce: (shoulders slumped) This is just so early.
Me: (sigh) Tell me about it.

Vacation Bug

We recently went to Oregon to visit the Bell side of the family. Almost all of my family has moved away from Oregon and everyone was making the effort to get there so we just had to go. I was SO excited! I get to see my family and leave the 115 degree heat and stay for 3 days at a beach house and wear jeans without sweating.

SO excited!

I should know to expect the unexpected. Our awesome vacation was put on hold while the little miss was visited by the vacation bug. You know. Where you plan a getaway and look forward to it for MONTHS and someone gets sick? The throwing up with diarrhea sick?

Yeah. That.

My poor girl was sick for almost the entire time we were there. She so happily passed it to me for a couple days. Sharing the wealth I guess.

She spent 98% of the trip in her pajamas snuggled up to me and watching some movie...preferably a princess movie.


But as with most bugs, the vacation bug left Makayla....the day we got home. Gotta love vacation!

Jam

Erik and I felt very "special" and domestic as we made our first batch of jam ever. And to make it from something growing in our very own backyard was pretty cool too. Well, maybe not cool but at least neat. :)

These are figs. We pluck them from a tree in our backyard. Personally, I'm not a fan of figs straight from the tree so I was crossing my fingers the jam would be better.


This is our equipment we scurried around Wal-Mart to find.


It looks gross. Probably tastes gross at this point too but I didn't try it.


Erik stirred and stirred the concoction. It seemed to take forever!


We followed directions faithfully and hoped that it all sealed.

It looks good and tastes better. Although we sweeten our jam with apple juice instead of sugar so it really tastes like fig/apple jam. Maybe that's why I like it. Oh well. I have to eat it since we're overflowing in jam at this point.

Soccer

We got Preston signed up for soccer and he's been having a lot of fun playing. He has some trouble remembering where he's supposed to be and is content to just run wherever the ball is and steal it from his own team members. But I've found this to be a the common denominator with the 6 and 7 year olds so I don't worry about it.

Here's some pictures from his latest game.

He likes being goalie and he's pretty good at it.






His first injury. Preston walked away with a couple skinned knees but the other boy didn't fare so well. Maybe the boys should wear a cup.


Just hangin out with a buddy.

Oh yeah. Did I mention Erik got roped into being the coach?

CAPTURED

Okay. Everybody can rest easy. Mr. Squirrel has been captured. I repeat, Mr. Squirrel has been captured. He has been held for the past week without bail or any visitation rights. While I'm still kind of fuzzy on what he's being charged with, you can all rest easy and know that he is being treated as inhumanely as possible.

FYI: The tie is the calling card of the two little bounty hunters that put Mr. Squirrel behind bars. They wish to remain anonymous.

My Husband Likes To Hike

It's been a while since I've posted something. We have been doing some things so it's not for a lack or anything to blog about....just honest and pure laziness. But I decided that we can't go the whole month of June without one post. Here is our first hiking adventure since our move to sunny Arizona.

On Memorial weekend, we were trying to think of something to do. Erik's first response (always) is hiking or camping or a combination of the two. I've been fairly opposed to such outings until recently due to consistent whining and crying and wanting to be held by two little boys when we used to attempt to hike. Notice the word attempt.

This time I thought, why not. They should be old enough to last through a hike and then we'd just have to carry Makayla. I gave my approval of a hike and sent Erik off to plan it.

Now I've learned that around here, there is really no variation in weather. It's either hot, hotter, or I'm the freaking wicked witch of the west melting. And by Memorial Day weekend we were to hotter ( a high of 101 degrees for the day).

We gathered our supplies (food, water, sunscreen, water, hats, sunscreen, hiking shoes, sunglasses, and oh yeah water and sunscreen) and we got up early to set out for our hike.

Erik decided on a little place called Picacho Peak. Here's some fascinating info about Picacho Peak: It is the where the most western battle was fought during the Civil War and Erik informed me that it's pronounced Pee-ka-choe and not Pikachu as in the Pokemon character. I don't know why I kept calling it that.

Our journey begins. I think our trail was about 1.5 or 2 miles.

One of many rests up the trail.

We didn't make it all the way up since it got pretty steep but we were soooo close.

Climbing back down. This is just to show that I was actually there and to show off my awesome pastey white legs. :)


Even though she was carried the entire time she was still exhausted.

Untitled from Rachel Witbeck on Vimeo.

And Preston lost his mind.

All the kids did awesome! No one cried or fell or made me want to pull out my hair. I'll definitely be more inclined to do this again....just don't tell Erik.

The Graduate!

Isn't he the cutest little graduate!

This has been a rough year for my sweet Preston. To start off, he started school in Portland in September. It was only "half day" but it was more like "we'll babysit your kids for a couple hours and send them back". 8:30 to 11 am was a total joke. Not to mention he NEVER had any homework of any kind. I had to come up with my own homework for him. I think the last thing Preston needs is me in charge of his higher learning! :)

Right before we moved, I had a parent/teacher conference with Preston's teacher. She told me that he's doing really good....a little behind in his reading and sight words but he's catching up really fast. Okay. Sounds good.

Fast forward to our move to Arizona. We get him enrolled in his current school, which we have to drive 20 minutes to get to since we were living with Erik's sister for awhile, and he's immediately at a disadvantage. Not only is it a full day, which I love by the way, but they started in August....a full month before Preston. But I was told that he was doing good, right?

Wrong. The second day he was there, his teacher comes up to me and says "I'm concerned". Uh-oh. She then proceeds to tell me that he's not even registering on any level. He doesn't know anything. Now I feel like a total failure as a parent but I'm also ticked at his teacher in Portland. What the heck was all this talk about doing great and catching up?

Okay. Get over it and work on the problem. Preston then had homework every night. Books sent home with him. A lot of tears of frustration. A lot of high-fives for his successes. One very sad call from school begging me to come and get him. So many prayers for him.

It's hard to watch your child struggle and all you can do is push and pray.

At the end of the year all the kids are given a test to see where they are for the next year. We were all nervous. Me, Erik, Preston, and his teacher. He took the test.

Here we have Preston starting school not even registering at any level in reading, phonograms, and sightwords to not only surpassing the benchmark in all the areas but scoring the highest in recognizing phonograms! We were all so excited!

Preston has worked so hard and came so far in such a short amount of time. He's reading so well is doing first grade work like a pro!

Congratulations Preston! You are a force to be reckoned with and you have proven that there isn't anything you can't do!

Bryce's "Friends"

So Bryce has a few "friends". I'm not opposed to Bryce having his "friends" but they can be a very bad influence at times.

Like when I ask him to clean up his room and his "friends" decide to take all the clothes out of drawers and mix them with dirty clothes and then jump in and throw clothes around.

Or when I hear Makayla crying. There is no explanation other than "Bryce being mean" and Bryce saying his "friends" did it.

Or maybe when I find him in the family room with DVDs and video games scattered around because his "friends" want to watch something.

They even make Bryce hit kids in his primary class sometimes.

Do you want to meet these "friends"?

Here's Bryce with his "friends". What? You want to see them up close? Okay.

Meet Tenney. He is skin colored, mischievous, short spider.


Meet Razey. He is also a skin colored, mischievous, short spider. He is Tenney's twin.


I'm hoping these twins move away soon.

For You

I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where.

I love you straightforwardly, without complexities or pride;

so I love you because I know no other way in which there is no I or you;

so intimate that your hand upon my chest is my hand;

so intimate that when you fall asleep it is my eyes that close.

~Pablo Neruda

Happy 8th Anniversary. I love you!

31

That's right. Erik turned the ripe old age of 31. And let me tell you I poured my heart and soul into this cake. Can't you tell by my awesome cake decorating/bakery skills? :)



And the kids got really into buying him presents. They put a lot of thought into what Dad should have. And this is what they came up with:

Makayla said "Numenem's". I had to translate but I think I got it right.


A blue tie from Preston.


And Bryce HAD to get him this Star Wars t-shirt. I think it was more for Bryce than Erik.

Happy Birthday Erik! Know that this little family loves you more than anything!