Diving Board Fun

Friday is always the day that they have the kids go off the diving board at swimming lessons. We bought the girls an inexpensive toy they wanted to share last night and told them they had to go off the diving board before they could play with it.
Here is Elizabeth's second of three jumps.

And Olivia's drop-off-the-diving-board-by-the-teacher. She is a lot more nervous of the water, but she still did it.

Yea for swimming lessons and double yea that we don't have to go to them anymore this year!

Hair

This week has been sort of busy, but not too bad. We have swimming lessons every day again, but they are over after today. After swimming, we come home to eat lunch and Vincent and I take a nap almost every day. Yesterday I didn't take a nap because I was reading a book and it was exciting enough to keep me awake. I finished it just after Andy got home from work.

We went down to Hermiston to visit my cousin and get our hair trimmed nicer a few days ago. The girls like to have her fix their hair the opposite of how it normally is, so Olivia has curls and Elizabeth has her hair straightened.
Olivia's Farrah Fawcett hairdo...This is Elizabeth with her tangles brushed out. I forgot to take a picture of her with her straight hair.My cousin fixed my hair too, but it was mostly all just a trim. Our hair looks the same.

In gallbladder news, I went to see the surgeon again and planned a day to go and have it removed. August 12th is the day. The trouble with leaving it in is that it could cause Pancreatitis or just hurt every time a stone passes out of the gallbladder. And if I were to get pregnant my uterus could cause extra pressure there too and to remove it when the uterus is big would not be laparoscopic surgery, but would be way more intense, so I'm opting to have it out now. It's full of gallstones and not doing me any good anyway, so I feel pretty good about it. It is a day surgery and I should come home that night to rest and relax. Andy will take good care of me, since he will be back from North Carolina before my surgery. Yeah, he gets to go to NC for work. How cool is that?! I want to go there....Maybe another year or 20.
Tonight is a dinner for my 10 year reunion for HS. I'm excited to see my old classmates and what they are up to. Tomorrow is a super busy morning and afternoon with the girls going to a ballet day, I am going to a funeral for a classmate's dad, and then Andy is picking up the girls and meeting me in my hometown for our reunion BBQ with our families. Should be a full day.

Childhood Family Pictures

I just scanned in some old pictures of my elementary school ages. I think I was pretty cute despite some of the strange outfits and horrible haircuts (mostly 8 and up).
The family pictures are the best.
1987-I know I just posted this one, but it fits in here too.1988- This picture was right after I cut my hair. I loved that velvety dress.1989-This is my all-time favorite picture. It could be my favorite on the basis that I look nice alone, but everyone else (with the exception of Brant) just look so funny! Milton's mullet, Joe's big hair, Jeff's drool-covered shirt, and Janessa's hair in her eyes (not so bad). It's almost like getting a picture with six kids is kind of hard.
First day of second grade for me. Brant was starting Kindergarten. Joe was going into fifth grade and Milton was starting Middle School in sixth grade. Do you like my knot tied in my shirt? I loved that Krazy Kats shirt.Looks like another fun Sunday afternoon. We must have gone up to visit my dad's parents for Easter. Wow, my bow is HUGE! My mom made those dresses for my sister and I.
1990-I was baptized this year and my grandparents left on a mission soon after that. This is my special baptism dress that Elizabeth will wear in February next year. One of the best family pictures, except for my poodle haircut.My scanner was needing a break after all the pictures, so maybe I'll post those fourth and fifth grade pictures later.

More Swimming

Summer is fun. The girls are doing well in their swimming lessons and enjoy the fun games there. Vincent has a special toy bag that has fun things for him to play with while he sits next to me on the bleachers (lucky for me-I guess-he doesn't like the water and never tries to go out to the pool.) That is just about all we are doing. Swimming lessons are at 11am and only for a half an hour, but that is still almost the only place we go every day. Then we just come home to eat lunch, nap, and play. Pretty boring lately, but nice.
Olivia's class went to the real pool one day last week, so Vincent held my hand while I took pictures of the girls. Olivia loves her class, even though she won't dunk her head all the way under-just her face. I'm pretty sure she'll get to do this class again.Elizabeth is becoming a little fishy. When it's not her turn with the teachers, she dunks herself under and practices holding her breath. I watch her because that kind of freaks me out. She can hold it a long time. Last week there was a girl next to her who would look at her under the water and they'd make faces at each other. She is trying really hard and I think that she just might be ready for the next level next year.On Sunday Elizabeth wanted to wear this dress that my mom made for me when I was her size. She's almost getting too tall for it. Her puffy slip shows a little. On Sundays after Primary, the girls come down to the basement where the nursery is to join us while we wait for the parents to pick up the nursery kids. That's Vincent playing in the background on the floor.And this is what I looked like in it when I was five and a half. I like all of these pictures of myself. It's the teenager ones that are awkward...

Summer Fun-Having a Blast

The girls started swimming lessons this week. It's only been two days, but all that sun wipes me out for the whole afternoon! I just want to come home, make some lunch, put Vincent down for a nap, and take a nap myself! It's really lazy of me especially since I'm really on a set of bleachers with a shaded top. No excuse. I get tired just being outside. Maybe all that getting up earlier does it for me too.
Olivia and Elizabeth all excited for the first swimming lesson! And maybe a little nervous in Olivia's case.I finally caught up on my garden weeding last Monday. I weeded for a few hours each the week before on Monday, Tuesday, and Friday and then last Monday totaling somewhere close to 10 hours for weeding the garden, maybe more. Way too much time, but the weeds were big and I worked really hard to get the roots up all the way so they won't grow back. This was the initial weeding to find all the plants that were growing. This Monday when I weeded, it only took my one hour. Much better. Now I have to make myself weed every Monday morning. I'm excited for all the cucumbers, tomatoes, and lettuce I have growing, and I'm optimistic about the cantaloupe too.
We went to a free movie this last week. I met a lady I know there with her day care kids and so between us, we had ten kids. I just took care of mine. They did great. It was the Ice Age Dinosaur movie, so Vincent was enthralled. He kept saying Dinosaur Train (like the PBS cartoon by that name). It was funny.Elizabeth did ballet with my friend's daughter, who is there in the pink shirt.One of Elizabeth's classmates had a birthday party at the park last Friday that we went to.
The birthday girl asked the ice cream truck to come to the park where she handed out popsicles to all the kids.The kids with their ice cream.
Vincent was the messiest, but I expected that. He dripped that ice cream all over his little arms, legs, and shorts. I love my Shout stain spray!
Elizabeth was a close second for messiest kid, but her mess was all on her face, so Vincent won. Look how messy and how much is still left for her to eat!
Olivia doesn't like being messy. Can you tell? The little girl behind her is the birthday girl.It was at the park with a wading pool, so the girls had a blast swimming and splashing around. I ran into a friend whose son was born at the same time as Vincent and chatted with her (I had plenty of time since Vincent just sat on the edge of the cement most of the time.) I always run into people there.
Olivia talking to Vincent on the edge.
Olivia talked Vincent off the ledge and into the water. He wouldn't hold my hand in there, but I followed them around in case he tripped or something. The whole area is only 18 inches deep.
Vincent was a little nervous of Elizabeth. I think that's when he came back to the edge with me.
I've been catching up on my scrapbooking, which is one of my goals for the year, and Vincent is IN the book now. Here's one of the pages. These are hospital pictures. See, I'm not all that fancy in how I decorate the pages. I just want to get the pictures and story of the pictures in the book for our family history.

The Great Bus Adventure 2010

We don't ride the bus very often. The last time was when my brother's youngest baby was born a few years ago. It takes a long time to get anywhere and it's confusing to me every time we go. I have to call the bus place's number to figure out what times and which number bus to get on when we switch and it's annoying, but we try it out every once in a while because the kids like it. It's much easier to just hop in the van to go anywhere we want.
This summer the library had a deal in the summer reading program where kids can ride free from home to the library. It cost me $1.25, but I got a transfer pass that was good for two hours when I got on the first bus. Olivia and Vincent were free because they are less than 5 years old.So, at 11:20 this morning we walked down the block and around the corner to where the stop is and waited for the bus to come. The sprinklers were on at the school leaving puddles in the road. Vincent stepped in one.
The kids waiting at the bus stop for our bus.Sidenote: How come city governments always have their sprinklers on during the day (parks, schools, fairgrounds) when they send letters in our utility bills every month that you should water at night or early morning because then the water isn't wasted? I'm not that green about stuff, but really? It just doesn't make sense.
Playing in the water and trying not to get hit with the sprinkler watering the road.The bus came and we all got on. Elizabeth liked showing her library paper with the bus pass to each driver.
Olivia and Elizabeth on the second bus at the big bus station. It took us about 20 minutes to get to the library (normal time is 5 minutes, so not too bad). We spent 30 minutes in the library and left just as the bus was about to be at the stop. Good unplanned timing since the buses only stop there about once an hour. Vincent loves that hat. He turned it around when he saw that I wanted to take his picture.
We left the library on the second bus route that wraps around Richland again, but the library is the first stop because the bus station is just a few blocks away (we could have walked, but the kids wanted to ride longer). It took us 20 minutes and then dropped us off at the bus station where we had to wait another half hour for our bus to go home.
Here are the kids waiting at the bus station for our last bus to take us home.
My mom called my cell phone (I got one for my birthday, but it's mostly for emergencies or really short calls) and asked where I was. I talked to her yesterday and she said she was coming to our town today, but I forgot, so she was on our front porch at our house with our van in the driveway trying to figure out where we were. She let herself in and dropped off what she was bringing me (coupons and old jeans to make into quilts) and then came over to the bus station to say hi to us. Lucky for us we had plenty of books to look at to keep us busy while we waited. We visited for ten minutes or less and then our bus came. It took another ten minutes to get home.
It took us an hour and 45 minutes to go to the library for 30 minutes (the 30 minutes is included in the hour and 45 minutes), but the kids enjoyed the adventure and I like taking pictures of the adventure, so all is well.Does anyone else have a two and a half year old with this much hair on their legs? I don't even think Elizabeth's leg hair is that long! What a hairy kid! He has little owies on his legs from scratching his dry legs. Oh, and yesterday I went to Albertson's to use the doubler coupons that came in the mail on Sunday. My friend offered to watch my kids while I went, so it was pretty fast.
I spent $1.49 at Albertson's for all of this. I love having good coupons and doublers.
I don't even do the things on the coupon blogs I look at that much. Here is what I do. I cut out my coupons, get them in the mail, or print them out and then when the doublers come, I go through my stack of the ones that are about to expire and pull out the things that look good and have close to a dollar off (because doublers work for up to a dollar off and I want to get the most I can). I put those in an envelope and then wander around the store looking for the items that cost the least (or less than a dollar or just a really good deal). These are really just extra things that we can eat for fun to try out new products. I used my one strip of three doublers and two more coupons for $2 each. $1 for the wipes with $2 off coupon, free Yakisoba noodles ($1 off coupon doubled), free Dryers ice cream (they were $1 each and I had a $2 off of 2 coupon that worked on the tiny cups), Minute Rice was $2.39 and I had a $1 off coupon and doubler, so it cost $.39, and the Uncle Ben's was on clearance for $1.59 and I had a $.75 coupon and doubler, so it cost me .09 cents.
Most of the time when I go to Albertsons with doublers, I still end up spending 15 bucks, so this one was great! The Minute Rice made a print out coupon for $1 off another one, so I'll have to use that with the next doublers.
If you are confused about coupons, go to fistfulofcoupons.com. She is a lady from Kennewick and is awesome at showing you just what to do on her blog and she also teaches classes to groups in Tri-Cities.

Who's the Mom?

Inspired by my sister in law's post about being a mom, I started thinking about my kids and the ways that they take care of me in their own sweet ways. (This is not all the time, but occasional glimpses into the real people they are becoming.)-Elizabeth will cover me with blankets and tuck them in and give me hugs and make sure I don't need anything else when I'm reading a book in the living room. She's very precise about it and even uses two blankets to make sure my toes are covered.
-Olivia and Elizabeth are both little mommies to Vincent and help him to build his train tracks to keep him happy or link his magnetic trains together when they are the wrong way and are making him mad.
-Even Vincent will come over to me if I'm napping on the couch and kiss my head or poke my eyes (alright, so poking my eyes isn't so good, but it's not hard or anything).
-Elizabeth and Olivia both get out the books in the morning when they are the only ones up and "read" as quietly as little girls can without waking us up.
-Elizabeth gets all the kid toothbrushes ready during their "brush teeth time".
-Olivia likes to put all her babies to bed and cover them. Elizabeth still does this sometimes too.
-Elizabeth is the moderator in the car when we go places as a family and sits between Olivia and Vincent making sure that they aren't crying or whining in the car bugging us. She will help them sing songs (the kid favorite is always "Jingle Bells" even when it's July) or distract Vincent by pointing at something out the window.
-Vincent will make sure that every baby has their pacifier in their mouth if there is one to be found. He did this even when he was just barely getting over having his own pacifier at 18 months. He always squats down to baby level to say hello to them too. (But he also tries to put Mr. Potato Head glasses on his baby cousin almost poking her eye out.)
-Elizabeth loves to help Grandma in the kitchen every Sunday and is sad when there isn't anything she can help with.
-When Elizabeth was at school, Olivia was very good at keeping herself quiet and playing nicely in the family room while Vincent slept and I got dinner ready, cleaned, or did anything else.
-When I send the kids in the backyard (sometimes I am in the garden weeding like last week and this week-I'm finally caught up!), both girls will make sure that Vincent is included in their games.
-Elizabeth helps Olivia and Vincent take their bath sometimes, even if it's just watching them for a minute while I load the dishwasher. She always makes sure the bath is fun for them.
-When it's Vincent's turn to pray (every third day), he gets to choose who helps him. He'll often pick one of the girls instead of Andy or I and they will sweetly tell him to fold his arms and repeat what they say. He will scoot his little knees over in front of them trying to be as close to them as he can and it's so sweet. He usually will only repeat the last word of each phrase, but Elizabeth sneaks in a lot of words he knows how to say well, like all of our names and he will say those.
-There are so many other things that they do that make me smile and appreciate their kindness, but that's all for now.

Of course, I am the mom. I do all the mom things. I am nice to them, but try to make them be independent and helpful. I do my best to teach them manners and how to be polite. I feed them, clothe them, and teach them. I read to them, sing with them, and pray with them. I also take a lot of breaks and do other things. It's important for kids to be able to entertain themselves with their toys and not need me to be in the same room as them every minute. From this post, it may seem to you that I'm lazy because I take naps when I can. Maybe I am. Or maybe it will teach my girls that even moms get tired after doing so much and they will remember that when they are moms and they are tired. Of course there are days when I'm overwhelmed with their messes or attitudes, but it's days like that that I can think about all the nice things they do for Andy and I and for each other and relax my ideas of a perfectly clean house or cleaned up toys. (They do clean up their toys at least before they go to bed and most of the time before dinner. I can't have them all out all the time.)

It is very nice for me to see this tender, sweet side of my kids and foresee in the future the parents that they will be or at least the babysitters that they will be in much less time (less than five years for Elizabeth! Yea!) Children truly are a gift from God and I'm so happy to be a mom to them. I feel lucky and blessed.

Goal Update

With more than half of this year already past, I want to look at the goals I set for myself for 2009. I try to set only goals I know I can do, so I don't put on there that I want to be an astronaut or anything that will obviously not happen by the end of the year (or in my lifetime for that matter.)

Ransom Family Goals for 2010

1. Attend Temple as a couple monthly.
We haven't been very good about that. We have only been twice so far, but that was in May and June. I went with some friends in April. We will do better the rest of the year.

2. Be Financially FREE by:
a. Eat out as a family only once a month. -Doing pretty good on this.
b. Keep an agreed budget. -Always a challenge...
c. Buy things we need on sale and in bulk to prepare. -I'm good at buying clothes on sale, but not food so much. I have been doing Albertson's coupon sales though and stocking up on cold cereal more.

3. Work harder on Fasting and Prayer. -I have been, a little. Not hard enough.

4. Missionary Work as a family by reaching out to neighbors and people we see daily and talking about the gospel and how it helps our lives. -Always trying without being pushy.

5. Make healthy and frugal dinners nightly and lunches for Andy and Elizabeth daily.
-I guess I don't cook super healthy dinners, but they have all the food pyramid most of the time and I do make something most nights. The menu on the wall for the week really helps. I made a lunch for Elizabeth every day but one of her first grade year. The one day she got to have hot lunch. I was better at keeping up with Andy's lunches when I had to make Elizabeth's too, but still doing pretty good on that.

6. Scrapbook 2008 and 2009.
-I finally started on Friday night!!! Vincent is born and is now three months old in my scrapbook, which means after three nights of scrapbooking, I have done all of January to the end of April 2008. That was 53 8 1/2x11 inch pages (15 for January, 20 for February, 6 for March, and 12 for April.) I like to do a month at a time. I sorted out all the pictures in order and cards and paper stuff last January when I wanted to do 2008, so everything was set up and ready. I also put each month in a photo envelope with the month written on it and the pictures all have the date written on the back to make things go easier. It's fun to scrapbook and I'm glad I started blogging then so if I need to, I can refer to the blog to see what else happened.

7. Continue to make cross-stitch gifts for weddings and babies and help Elizabeth and Olivia make gifts for friends' birthdays in addition to small store bought gift.
-Crazy busy cross-stitching this year again. So many weddings and babies that I have to limit myself a little more than I used to. Elizabeth and Olivia like making cards or pictures or little crafty things for their friends.

8. Keep adding to food storage supply.
-I've been adding more spaghetti sauce, but that's about it. I need to go to the next Dry Pack day for our ward, but then I have to find a new place to put it. I'm just about out of room.

9. Help our family GROW and be happy together.
-We'll let you know when our family is growing. We try to be happy and have fun. Of course there is still plenty of yelling (from me and them...)

10. Continue to read scriptures and other books with kids.
-Done! We are working on Elizabeth's reading skills a little more and try to make her read the easier books during scripture time. She memorized her scripture for Primary last week including the reference. Ask her sometime about that scripture in Luke.

Obviously I am FAR from perfect, but these goals are mostly to help keep me on track with the bigger picture. Then I don't feel quite so weighed down by all the monotonous mothering of everyday life (you know, the cleaning, cooking, errands, childcare-which is SO many things, and everything else.) I really love my family and enjoy being a mom though. Now I just need to get caught up scrapbooking before I forget how fun it is to be DONE with it.

I heard a great quote in Sacrament Meeting yesterday that doesn't really have much to do with this post, but it is a great thought.
"Faith is not what we demonstrate to get what we want. Faith is what we demonstrate NO MATTER WHAT WE GET!" I don't have a source on that, but I didn't write it.

Ransom Reunion

***Edited to add in bubble gum blowing contest pictures.***

We had an family reunion with Andy's family (parents and siblings) last Friday and Saturday. Friday afternoon we had a BBQ and then Andy's parents and sister's family from Utah went up to the mountain to spend the night. The rest of us went up Saturday for fun and games and visiting and food.

This picture is from Friday at Andy's parent's house. Vincent found the butterfly net and wore it on his head. Silly kid. Meanwhile the other kids (mostly mine probably) picked the unripe fruit off of the trees and ran around the backyard.On Saturday-George and Shirley with ALL of their grandkids. Age 14-8 months.One thing we did was make some fun bracelets with Shirley. The girls liked it, but so did a few of the boys.Elizabeth's final products. These were made with 10 clothespin springs and 40 pony beads. The open wire part goes into the next spring. 10 was the right amount for kid wrists, but not grown up wrists.Olivia's bracelet is "rainbow" colors, but I think she left it in the car.
Andy's sister, Sara, brought some kid fun too. She gave each kid a candy necklace, bubbles to blow (or dump like Vincent), and bubble gum for a bubble blowing contest.
Elizabeth's best bubble held for the camera.My best bubble.
Elizabeth was the winner of that. I think I came in second. You be the judge.
Andy's mom set up a fun scavenger hunt outside while we started our lunch. There were seven or eight clues to lead us around their property and to a new treat each time and there were four teams divided up in order of age. It was a lot of fun.
Andy brought our Guitar Hero game and set it up downstairs for anyone to play and Torrie brought the makings for Italian Sodas.
We stayed later than we've ever stayed there, which was only like 9pm, but it was a lot of fun and totally worth it.
This past week we have been hanging out at home a little more and resting more. I like that too. Next week swimming lessons start for the girls.
I went to the doctor this week and had to give them blood for them to test for things and had quite the trouble doing that the first day, but went back the next day and they took it fine. I drank more water and wore my sweatshirt in the middle of summer to help them find my veins. The plan is to see the surgeon the end of the month and then have my gallbladder out in August now.

Crowther Reunion

We had to get together with my side of the family (just immediate siblings and parents) this week because my sister and her family are moving to Arizona on Friday. My brother who lives in Idaho Falls came over with his family to see everyone and to say good bye to them. They stopped in Tri-Cities first to see a friend be sealed at the Temple (one of Tina's friends from Pocatello who married someone local) and then stayed at my house for two nights. We went to a fun park that I'm thinking about for the big McClellan reunion that I get to be in charge of in two years to play with our combined five kids. It was a lot of fun. I took extra pictures because Brant's camera broke.
This park has so much space right by the river. I think it will be perfect. I'll tell you about it, but only if you don't go to it when I'm in charge of the reunion there in two years. Leslie Groves in Richland is not too crowded, it has separate bike and walking paths, soccer field, baseball field, swings, playground, two covered eating areas that you can reserve on the city website (I think), good bathrooms, shade!!!, river access (but nicely separated from the eating and playing areas), volleyball net, space to throw a frisbee or ball around, sandboxes, horseshoes, and plenty of parking.
Elizabeth's first grade picnic field trip was there. It was great.
Back to what we did there on Tuesday.....the kids played on the playground until it was time for our picnic and then we played in the water a little.
Brant is the funny uncle (That's what my girls decided.) He is a third grade teacher in Idaho and knows how to have fun. He and Tina both play on all the toys with the kids. I just like to walk around and take pictures.
Brant and Tina spotting Caleb.Christopher climbing up and then he climbed right back down.
Tina and Caleb on the slide.
Brant with Vincent on the swing.
Our kids loved the swings. Uncle Brant gave them underdog pushes too!
Elizabeth with Brant.Olivia stayed on the swing almost the whole time we were there. She loved it.
During the picnic. The kids sat on the blankets while we enjoyed the nice picnic table. They kept stealing each other's food. See Vincent eying Elizabeth's food?
Elizabeth in the swimming area. The other section seemed quite a bit deeper, but we mostly stayed in this part with our little kids.
Brant with Caleb. Christopher, Olivia, and Vincnet (way back there by the wall playing in the dirt) kept close to the edge.
Wednesday morning was Tina's friend's sealing, so I watched their boys while they went to that and I made some treats for Wednesday night at the park and then when they came back, I had a doctor appointment with the surgeon for my gallbladder (I'll let you know when that is in case you want extra kids hanging around your house.) so they watched the kids then. The three little boys took naps and Brant and the girls cleaned up the back patio while I was gone, including rearranging all the toys and sweeping and clearing the branches that always fall from our tree and filling up our yard waste garbage can. I guess I'll just take that as payment for their stay. =). Tina made her salad for the picnic too.
My mom (her blog is here.) took these pictures during our family picnic on Wednesday night. I was too tired to run around.
Vincent on the slide. I think she probably asked him to take his hat off. He loves his hat!
An attempt at a grandkid picture. 13 kids on a slide-what could go wrong? Notice that you can pick my kids out pretty easily?
This tire swing was a lot of fun at the park in Walla Walla. Olivia stayed on it almost the whole 2 1/2 hours we were there, taking a break for some pictures and food. Pictured are Coy, Colby, Elizabeth, Olivia, and Jared.
The only sibling not there was Jeff who is in Kansas. Brant, Milton, and Joe are in the back with Janessa and I in the front and Sam back there by Joe's leg. It was close to bedtime.
The final grandkid picture product. 13 kids on a playground bridge. Don't move! Ha! My kids are there in the front-two girls and Vincent's wearing the green shirt next to Elizabeth. My mom's only missing one grandson-Jeff's who lives in Ohio with his mom. There are 11 grandsons and three granddaughters total. 10 and 3 in this picture. I can at least say that I've done my part to contribute to the girls with my two.
It was a lot of fun to get together, even though it's a little bittersweet to see Janessa and Jes's family move to Arizona. We will miss them, but Jes has a great opportunity to gain the elusive experience that every job asks for. He is going to be a paramedic/firefighter in Yuma. I hope they enjoy it there. We'll go visit them some winter when it's cooled down a little.