New Year...I'm not ready!

I can't believe a new school year is about to start tomorrow. It just seems like I was celebrating by myself in the kitchen yesterday making the last of the school lunches. I don't even know if that last sentence made any sense and honestly I'm too tired to figure it out. I really don't feel ready for all this yet. How do people do it? I have laundry everywhere...seriously everywhere. Some of it I can't remember if it is dirty or clean. Every room is a nightmare and if you tried to walk through in the dark, it could be hazardous. I should be making a grocery list, but instead I'm blogging. I thought I might even make it to the store tonight, but our daddy never came home from work and is now out playing volleyball (which I don't mind, at least some of us get to relax and he does need it). Oh did I mention I am suppose to be starting a class on Wed. night, sociology, I don't think this is going to help me at all, but I need to take it. I hope somewhere between taking kids to school, laundry, grocery shopping, meal making, that I can actually try and can some more salsa, I have one more batch of tomatoes I would like to use. They are ripening fast and may not be able to make it much longer. Did I also mention that I am afraid to touch my own garden. There are huge creepy spiders all over, my neighbor tells me, oh those are just garden spiders they won't hurt you. Anyways, obviously right, they are in my garden, the problem is they are large and yucky! I also discovered that a green horned tomato worm has probably moved in, and I really don't want to find him, but he is eating my fruit!! They are so disgusting, last time I found one of those I screamed my head off! Maybe Brody will get it off the plant...is that mean?

We went to the zoo today, after we visited Cambree's kindergarten classroom. It was a free day, so worth a trip, because really the zoo is not worth paying that much for. The kids had a good time, it was hot, but they have these cool misters all around to help cool you off. I was glad we could spend our last day of summer together doing something other than being at home. At least the girls were able to cool off at swim practice tonight. Landry had the coolest snot string hanging from his nose today and I wish I could have taken a picture of the look on his face....maybe not of the snot, not sure how to do that though. He was so confused what was touching his lip, it went clear down to his shirt. I thought it was pretty funny.

My kids are great, I will miss them when they head off to school. These years are busy and they are growing up so fast. As I'm typing this right now, I can hear Emery and Kelci chit chatting in there room. They are so excited for school to start. Outfits have been laid out, pencils are sharpened and bags are packed. They really are good, they did this all on there own. I'm glad they can pick up the slack where I slack off. Well I have to go and figure out how to lace a converse shoe that has two tongues...who designed this thing, it should come with instructions. I hope everyone has a great start back to school.

Meet my baby Landry...all grown up

Landry is 16 months now, and for the last 4 months or so was in desperate need of a haircut. I just couldn't do it though, I'm not sure why, he really did look kind of crazy. I guess we feel like we are cutting some of that baby off for good. Well I finally took him to my hairdresser (why does that make me sound so old). She did a great job.

Look how worried he was, it was apparent from the start when I took a seat and placed him on my lap that he was not going to cooperate. So Lauren gave him a lollipop, awesome who wouldn't love a hairy lollipop. It worked for Landry!

Look how cute he is with his new haircut, I love it! Unfortunately I didn't get to keep a real "curl". Because his hair was a little wild from his nap and would have needed to be wet in order for the hair to curl, so now I just have a pile of chopped, blond baby hairs....bummer. Another one of those things I don't know why we keep. At least after Emery I decided to not keep anymore umbillical cords (don't be offended if you like to keep those things, I get it).

Carter Joe Retherford

Carter Joe Retherford is our newest little nephew. Isn't he cute!! He was born to proud parents Jenna and Cragen while they were finishing a semester at BYU Idaho. They are back in California for a short time while on break from school. I wish So bad that we could have been there to welcome him into the family, but at least they were able to be home about a week later. Couldn't be better timing if you ask me. It's so fun to cuddle at this age.


Taking pictures of newborns is actually pretty tricky and takes some patience. We did get a couple of cute pictures, but he kept wanting to be awake, which also make taking pictures a challenge.


The girls couldn't wait to meet him and couldn't get enough of him. Congratulations Jenna and Cragen, he is wonderful and so sweet.

The same day we met Carter, we also met this little guy. He belongs to Olivia and Garrett, his name is buster. So while Carter was eating, I decided to try and get a few snaps of this cute puppy. I think everyone on Bryan's side of the family, except Jenna and Cragen, have a dog now.

Gridley Swim Meet

Some of our summer we devoted to swim team of course. This was a smaller meet, it is held in the evening and only last a couple of hours. The races are short and there are not as many swimmers.

This is Emery waiting her turn in the relay. She would be swimming the breast stroke, which is her favorite.

Kelci and her best bud Chloe, they love it when they can spend time together.

Emery and a couple of her swim buddies, I'm glad that the kids have a few friends on the team now.

Tahoe Part 2

Here are a few pictures from our afternoon picnic at a park in Tahoe. It was perfect weather in the shade.

I should have cut my babies hair a long time ago, he looks crazy.

I have so many memories of my grandpa swinging in trees like a monkey when he was little, this picture just reminds me of those days.

Landry loves to swing, he would stay there forever if we had that kind of time. Have I mentioned how much I love his smile, it is the best, and swings make him smile. I really wish he would stop growing up so fast.

I just wanted to see if I could still fit down a twirly slide...a little awkward, but it worked. I love how Brody is trying to sneak by me. He was fascinated by the Lake and insisted that there were dolphins in there.

I'm so blessed to have such great sister-in-laws. It was a lot of fun spending a couple of days together, playing games, swimming, and eating of course.

I love this guy, look how he is still smiling even though he threw if back out right when we got to Tahoe. He didn't have a great golf game that afternoon, but I know he enjoyed just being with Garrett and his Dad.

Lake Tahoe

This picture if just for my posterity purposes...haha. I am finally getting around to sharing some of our summer. It seems like the weeks and months just keep getting faster and faster. We have a had a pretty quiet summer really, but of course we took time for our annual Collins family trip to Lake Tahoe.

Things were quite different this year though, because my Mother-in-law Karen was with Jenna and Cragen in Idaho awaiting a birth. They were all missed of course! Thank goodness for cell phones, we were able to get hourly updates the whole time. More on that later ;) I do have to say that my father-in-law, Ron did a great job holding down the fort though and always had a plan, he is awesome.

The first day we headed out to the beach with Craig and Chrystina, because they were getting ready to head home that afternoon. Tyler thought it was so cool to run back and forth through the water as fast as he could...pretty fast there.

All of the kids had a great time playing in the sand and in the water. We even went on a little crawdad hunting trip. Luckily there was a little boy willing to catch one for us....I wasn't willing to stick my face in the freezing water and they were a little deep where we were at.


Here is Grandpa with 8 of his 10 grandchildren.