August came and went

So my plan to try and post at least every month totally bombed. However, we are still not too deep into Sep, so I'll try and stay on top of it from here on out. Winding down summer and getting ready for school is always crazy, but I love how much fun it is getting with the kids getting older. We have a ton of hand me down clothes from my sister and sister in law so school shopping really isn't too difficult. Abby always gets to pick out one new out fit but other than that is completely clothed by other peoples stuff-yeah, I know, I'm totally lucky there. Usually this is the case for Coop too but since Missy moved to Seattle (tear, tear) getting the hand me downs from her has gotten tricky and I've actually had to buy him more than one or two things. Yeah, never had to do that before.
The first day of school came and went without too much drama. Abby was totally pumped to be in first grade and the following week when the "little kindergarteners" started she thought she was pretty hot stuff.She really is pretty cute in her SHOPPING IS MY LIFE shirt. Which by the way, is pretty true.
How about this little guy on his first day of school. He insisted on wearing his Jolley Plumbing shirt that day. Who am I to argue? He is so handsome in it.
Whitney and Shelby are going to going to school before I know it. Whit is already getting so big. We are currently working on sitting up and rolling over. Shelby wishes she could keep up with Abs and Coop and most days, by the end of the day, is pure exhausted from trying.Shelby loves to hold Whit. It doesn't last long but she still does it every day.
Here is my little man on his 4th birthday. We had to open presents before Rob went to work so here he is in his jammies still. Look at that physique!

Here is Abby with her two front teeth missing. She lost the second one yesterday. The tooth fairy did come on time this time where as last time she was a day late and I actually had to go down the morning after and put the dollar under Coop's pillow and tell her the tooth fairy must have made a mistake. I'm a rookie, I know.Here is my handsome man all rugged and ready for the trek. He went in July with our stake. He was an uncle in one of the families. He had so much fun. I'm sure all the ladies fell in love. How hot is he with that beard?!

And here he is clean shaven. Some of the people that were on the trek wore their clothes the next day to church. Who was the high councilman on the stand in trek clothes? Oh, that's right, it was Rob. What a trooper.

I have some time on my hands

So this sunday morning I find myself home with my three girls while Coop is at church with Rob. It feels like I'm in the middle of winter again with half of my family sick. The girls just have runny noses and are coughing, but still, who wants to be the mom to take that church. So we're all home in our jammies watching Enchanted, which by the way cracks me up. Let me just give you a brief over view of the last couple of weeks. Two weeks ago Shelby kept complaining that her throat hurt, I took a look and her tonsils were bright red, she had a fever the night before too. That only lasted about a day and then two days later Coop had the same symptoms, wonderful. Naturally I started feeling sick, but didn't pay too much attention to it because hey, I'm the mom right? I don't get to get sick. Well that started on Friday, by Sunday I felt like I had been hit by a truck and finally paid attention to my body and stayed in bed all day. It actually worked! I got better by Monday morning I was feeling great, but had a little cough still. No big deal. Well Tuesday morning (Rob's birthday BTW) the little cough got so bad that I couldn't talk or walk around to much without coughing up a lung. The fever started to come back and I made my own diagnosis of pneumonia. Well I had to work that night so I called in sick but still went up and saw one of the anestesia docs to confirm my diagnosis...yep, I was right. So after another day of antibiotics I was again on the up swing, plus had healthy kids...ahhh, that was nice to get that over with because we had McDougal family reunion coming up. We were all healthy for it. YAY! We went up to THIS IS THE PLACE MONUMENT for family day. It was really fun. We looked around, rode the train, did some crafts, played some games, rode horses, and of course ate some treats. Here are some pics




We really had a fun day up there and afterward headed over to my brother's house for a bbq, outdoor movie and sleepover. Here's some more pics

Here's the kiddos getting ready for the movie. Shelby is clearly excited to be getting her picture taken.
What a handsome little manSorry, but how cute is she? And eating a roasted marshmallows, mmmmm.
Yes, she was happy for most of the night. Who wouldn't be happy with a root beer float?

Anyway, so that was the long weekend and this morning both girls woke up with coughs and runny noses, so here I am able to update.
In other news, the house is finally for sale and the house next door is still getting finished. The sheet rock should be getting started this week. Hopefully we'll find someone to buy this place soon and we can start building the new one. Time will tell.

Monthly updates

Well, here I am again and another month has passed. I'm going to quit apologizing for myself because clearly this might be how it is for the next little while. Right now we are in the middle of finishing little odds and ends around our house to sell it, we bought the house next door and are fixing it up to flip it, and we are preparing to build our new home out in West Haven (YAY). So needless to say things around here are crazy...oh yeah, need I remind you that I also have 4 children. So I'll do my best to get on here every once in a while and give a shout out. These are all in kind of a random order so just try and keep up.

Right now things are actually feeling pretty sane because we just got back into town yesterday afternoon from Cedar City for the summer games. Rob played basketball with a team that we went down there with last year. It was totally fun and the team did OK too. We kind of counted this as our summer family vacation. We stayed at the Abbey Inn (Cooper decided that next time we go down there that we should stay in the Cooper Inn) and it was lots of fun with an indoor pool and yummy breakfast. We took the camera but it stayed safely in its case the most of the trip. Here is a picture of the kids in there sleeping arrangements. Whitney actually slept in her car seat, but the other three shared a bed, for most of the night at least. At about 2 am Coop fell out of be and that woke Shelby up. He, however, slept right through it. Then she came into bed with us.We took Rob's brother down with us so we had two rooms. The first night Rob, Abby, and Coop slept in with him but the next two nights we all stayed in our room together and let Brian have some space. He was a champ being with the kids the whole time. They love him so much. You'd think that I would have got a picture with them all together, however you are mistaken:(

Last weekend we went camping with some friends from the ward, the Bees and Aardemas (we so love our ward and are having a very hard time thinking about leaving). This basically the only picture we have of Whitney. That's my friend Sharon holding her. Yes, it was raining and Sharon is innovative and through the burp clothe on her head to keep her dry.



Here is Abby on her cool princess bike. She was the oldest one up there and was SO in charge. She is always trying to be helpful in one way or another. She really kept some of the kids taken care of.
Here's Coop and Shelb. Aardema's were geniouses in suggesting that we take up the kids bikes. They were all on them most of the time. We had the little 4-wheeler up there too and they loved it with the open space.
Here is Ms Whitney on her blessing day. I only took a few pictures but Barb is a champ and always takes her grandkids and does a big photoshoot with them with her own camera. Whitney, of course, was adorable and Rob gave a beautiful blessing. I'm so greatful to have a husband who takes his priesthood authority seriously and is worthy to take care of his responsibilities.
And here is Whitney today. She is loving her siblings so much. I was straight in front of her and could get her to smile but the minute I called Abby in she turned into a cheeseball. You can tell that Abby was sitting to the side. She looks so cute when she smiles. She's getting pretty chubby too. I love those cheeks!


And lastly, every summer we have shaved Coop's head. Last year we though it would be funny to shave his head into a mohawk, but he looked so cute that we let him keep it for a few days. This year he kept asking when he gets his mohawk again and finally, the day after Whitney's blessing I gave him one. I did it on a Monday morning so he could have it all week before we cut it for church.Well, that's about it for now. A few milestones on kids (because remember I count this as my journal)...Abby is loving being home for summer vacation, though she gets bored often and I'm on the countdown to school already. She is really a good reader, but isn't really thrilled about having to do it. She needs things to be her idea.
Coop got a big boy bike a couple of weeks ago and loves riding it where ever he can. Hopefully we'll have the training wheels off by the end of summer.
Shelby's new favorite word is "NO", and that is in capital letters for a reason, and "MY SELF". She is sooooo 2 years old. We still love her, but I'm really looking forward to her growing out of this phase.
And of course Ms. Whitney is doing the adorable baby thing. She just started sitting in the bumbo and is kind of a fan. Hopefully we'll start working on rolling over soon.
Rob is crazy busy with work (which is such a blessing in this economy) and I am trying to juggle 18 things at once.

What a crazy, wonderful life!