Labor DayWeekend

Yes, I'm barely blogging about Labor Day.  Sorry, but our computer broke down.  We have a new computer now, but all my old pictures are still on the other one.  PAIN!!!  Let this be a lesson to me about keeping up on my blogging.  I've decided to write what I can and go back with pictures later.

We had a fun, busy Labor Day weekend.  On Friday afternoon, the kids and I went to a neighbor's house to pick apples from her tree.  This basically meant that I picked apples, entertained Bronson in his stroller, tried to keep Josh out of the road, reminded Nicki about a million times to stop throwing apples and to get down from the high branches, and tried to keep Alison motivated and confident in her apple picking abilities.  Seriously.  I ended up with three boxes of apples for us to make sauce with and one box of apples that I picked up off the ground to feed the chickens (the kids would pick one apple and about ten would fall onto the ground).

That night, we took Grandma and Grandpa Gee out on a group date to thank Grandpa for mowing our lawn almost all summer.  We went out to eat at Gringo's.  It was very good.  They put us in the back room, which is a good idea in theory, but it's so tile-and-cement-y that it made our already noisy group kind of echo throughout the whole restaurant.  Oh well, at least it's happy chatter.  We ate about a million chips before our food came.  Literally. A million, I tell you.

After the restaurant, we split up.  David and the girls took Grandma and Grandpa across the street to watch "Kung Fu Panda 2."  They ate treats (don't forget, we ate a million chips and a full Mexican meal just moments before), got to stay up way past their bed time, and had a wonderful time.  They all loved the show.  Grandpa Gee really likes cartoon movies. 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I put the boys to bed.  Then, an old friend from my banking days came to visit.  Her name is Marcy McQuiston and she lives in Layton.  She's the one I went on a cruise with years ago.  She just wanted to do something fun for Labor Day and she'd been meaning to visit, so she decided now was the time.  It was great to sit and visit with her in a quiet house for a couple of hours before the girls got home.  We got all caught up on each other's lives.  She's a great person.  The kids all liked her (especially because she went shopping and brought them all toys). 

That night, Marcy slept in the girls room and the girls slept in the hide-a-bed.  What an adventure!  Marcy stayed with us until mid afternoon on Saturday, then headed home.  I spent the rest of the day making applesauce.  Really, really good applesauce!  Bronson wasn't a huge fan of being kept away from me while I made it, but he survived, and the applesauce was ALMOST worth it.

On Sunday, David taught in Elder's Quorum and I had to speak in Relief Society.  Bronson came with me, of course.  It was a pretty difficult topic for me to talk about and I ended up totally loosing it.  I bawled!  Really.  It was pretty horrible.  That's all I'm gonna say about that.

David had Labor Day off.  I woke up and started a new exercise regimen.  It's tough - I loved it.  It was about time I started getting active again!  Still didn't have the diet under control, though.  Dang it!  I love food!!!!  After I finished exercising, we all went to Idaho Falls.  We went birthday shopping at Toys R Us (4 of the 6 people in our family have birthdays within 30 days of each other) and to Winco for groceries.  I never tackle Winco without David, but we really do save a ton of money when we shop there.  And that's what we did for Labor Day.  Sounds like a lot of labor to me.

The giggle

I know I tend to exaggerate at times, but I'm absolutely serious when I say that Bronson is a rock star at church.  I walk down the hall with him and all his adoring fans are reaching out to touch him and tell me how much they love him.  It's like fighting against the paparazzi.  Every single person in the ward, regardless of age or gender, stops to tell me how great he is.  There's one lady in particular who keeps threatening to kidnap him.  She's in the RS presidency and last week, she stared me down from the front of the room where she was sitting and mouthed the words, "Give me that baby!"  I thought she was kidding, so I just smiled at her and kept singing the opening hymn.  Next thing I knew, she got up, left the rest of the presidency in the front of the room and walked over to sit by me and take Bronson from me!!!  I'm telling you, if her husband wasn't the police chief, I'd be worried.  Bronson has that effect on people.

Your thinking, "Yes, he's cute, but not THAT cute.  What makes everyone so crazy about him?"  Well, I'm glad you asked.  It's his laugh.  He has the world's best laugh.  Some people describe it as vibrato.  Others say it reminds them of an elf or a machine gun.  Still others say it sounds hilariously wicked.  I've had lots of descriptions of his giggle because, as I've said, everyone stops me in the hall and tries to tell me how much they love it.  One thing I know for sure - it's very contagious.  Every time he giggles everyone who hears it giggles back.  It's a little distracting to our church lessons.  Poor teachers are probably wondering why half the class keeps laughing at them. 

Bronson also has an ear-piercing banshee squeal/scream that he often interjects at times of extreme joy (if he finds a lady in RS who will play with him) or anger (if the snacks stop comin').  It makes for a loud church experience.  Only six more months until he can go to nursery.  Then our Sunday School and Relief Society teachers can finally get the attention of their students again.

Cats Are People Too, You Know...



 No.  Actually they're not, but that doesn't stop us from celebrating Cookie's birthday every year!  Happy Birthday Cookie!  Who knew you'd live a whole five years with that busy street out front?  (I sure didn't, or I'd never have gotten you in the first place!)  You don't look a day over four to me!

Five years ago, little kitten Cookie.  We celebrate her birthday on September 1st.  We don't know the actual date since we got her when she was a few weeks old, but its close enough.

After a celebratory dinner of creamed tuna, we ate this mouse cake in honor of our cat.  Noticeably absent from this picture is the birthday girl, who apparently doesn't care much for birthday parties.  She did, however, enjoy licking the empty tuna can.