This Week at Our House #21

1. John and I had our 16th wedding anniversary on Friday. We are at 16 years with 9 kids. He is a good dad. He spends a lot of time playing with the kids. They are lucky to have such an attentive father.

1. On Saturday, I walked the half marathon that I did not train for. It took me 3.5 hours. There were a good 200+ walkers with me. Some had trained and some had not. The first 8 miles were pleasant and I kept a pretty good pace. The next 2 miles were more difficult, and I slowed down some. The last three miles were a bit grueling and many of the other slow joggers/walkers that I had passed earlier in the race, passed me. I only decided to go through with it on Thursday. After that I felt pretty nervous and frightened. In the end, I was glad I did it. John's  65 year old Dad and Brother Jeremy began the race with me. John's dad finished the race in 2:15 minutes and came in 4th place for his age group. He's pretty awesome. Jeremy came in under 1:45 for a new personal record. My friend Christina Bartholomew, a mother of 9, ran it and came in just over 2:15. I think I will walk some more half marathons, but actually train by walking long distances ahead of time. I do not plan on running anything so long until my little kids are older or all of my kids are much older. Running is not a stress reliever for me. I would run, come home tired and then feel grumpy that it was time to start the days labors. However, I think I may run a neighborhood 5K in a couple of weeks. I will make my 3 oldest run it too.
2. Ruth had a busy and a fun week. She finished the 9th grade off with some fun school activities. On Wednesday, Ruth had service day. They walked along the Legacy highway cleaning up the garbage. Ruth shocked a bunch of kids when she bagged up a dead snake. On Thursday, Ruth and all the other Davis County 9th graders spent the day at Lagoon. Ruth had one friend willing to go on all of the fun roller coasters with her. Friday was the last day of the 9th grade. I am glad to have Ruth home for the summer. I feel like summer vacation gives my older kids a time to detox from all of the friend drama that occurs in this age group.
3. Kate got into Legacy Preparatory Academy for the 9th grade. She is down right excited about getting to wear school uniforms. She has spent some time online looking at all of the options for her school. Kate is also glad about Legacy Prep because the education is a classical education, she gets to take art year round, and a lot of the kids that go to Legacy Prep are the calmer more studious kids.
4. Johnny and Kate spent the week playing outside and building legos. They spent a lot of time trying to catch the babies of the rabbits that ate our peach and apple trees last winter.
5. Adam had school all week. Adam got to be a part of the 200 hundred club. I am not sure what the name means, but it is a group of just 12 kids that had a party and were awarded for excellent behavior throughout the school year. 
6. Rachel had a good week. I am grateful that she is reading better and better all of the time. I am also grateful that even though it has been hard for her to learn to read, Rachel loves reading and can be found sitting with a Magic Tree House book.
7. Anya got accepted into Legacy Preparatory Academy as a kindergartener this week. I signed her right up because that is where I would like all of my kids to attend school as soon as there is room for them. This will make Rachel the only child at the public school and on a year round schedule. But, I need to put my kids into Legacy Prep as soon as the opportunity arises. I am hoping that Rachel, Adam, and Joseph will all be in Legacy Prep together in 2014. This school year will be a bit rough with one homeschooled 3rd grader, one kindergartener at one school, a second grader at another school. An 8th and 9th grader at another school, and one kid in the 10th grade in High school. I will still have the 3 littlest at home and will give Joseph a pretty structured pre-school to prepare hime for kindergarten. Anya is excited to attend school. She starts Aug 19th.
8. Joseph is definitely behaving better every week. I have been trying to remember to praise him when he builds things or cleans up after himself. The more I remember to praise the good, the less damage he does to the house.
9. Joshua seems to have switched from his sole love of cars to trains. He loves trains the most now. He plays with trains all day long. Joseph and Joshua build some intricate train tracks together. They are pretty clever little boys.
10. Arwen stood up for the first time this week. She's more vocal and has a couple of words now. Arwen is pretty friendly with people and still very adored by her family. One of the fun things about having such a big family is seeing the adoration my children have for each other. It must be great growing up with so many people thinking everything you do is cute.

This Weeks Pictures

Joseph hardly ever sleeps in his bed. He either sleeps on the floor or the bean bag.

This is the first time Arwen ever stood herself up just after she removed a bunch of books from the shelf.

I promised the kids a picnic dinner at a park where we could feed ducks.

Ruth made an annoyed face at me when I first took a picture of her. Then I reminded her that she would want a nice picture.

All of my girls have worn this little Old navy dress.

Once upon a time, I said that I would never have kids with messy faces and dirty shirts because you know, it only takes a little effort. Bwahaha