Back to School!

Back to school today. :( I am sad. I even teared up a little when I was following their bus to school. You would think this w

as my first time or something. As much as I love watching them grow up sometimes it seems that it is going to fast. Summer definitely went too fast! We didn't do nearly as much as I would have liked to have done as a family. Now the kids are back in school where they are gone ALL DAY! By the time they get home, get their homework done and dinner ate...it is basically time for bed. :( I miss them when they go but I know it is good for them too. On the upside, it will be good to get to spend a little more time one-on-one with Abigail and Asher.

The kids looked great on their first day. Especially my little Allison. She is so photogenic and it doesn't hurt that she LOVES getting her picture taken either. Austin is a little more camera shy.

Austin - Grade 4

Allison - 1st grade

I couldn't decide which pictures I liked of Allison more so I included all of them. :)

When we walked into her class she had about 10 little kids say "Hi, Allison." It was cute. I don't think I should worry about her making friends. ;)

They fight but I know they love each other too!

We always have a little back to school party before school starts to get the kids excited for school. Here are the treats I made this year. I always find some kind of fun school treat to make. Its fun for the kids (OK, and me too).

My little Man turns Two!

Wow, I can't believe my baby is turning two. The old adage "the older we get, the faster time flies," seems to ring more and more true.

Asher is very fun but he is such a handful. He is still the best talker of all my children. He can hold full conversations with people. It is really cute to listen to because he is still very young. He loves getting into trouble. Every time he gets caught in the act of doing something wrong he looks at you, smiles and does it anyway. This scares me and I hope it isn't a sign of things to come. When I tell him to stop doing something he looks at me with those puppy-dog eyes and says "o-tay momma." It always melts my heart. Several of his words sound like swear words so he keeps his siblings and father entertained. He LOVES to be outside and will do anything for us to take him out there. Unfortunately, we are in the very SLOW process of putting concrete around our entire house so there are lots of dangerous tools out there so he doesn't get out much. Every week there is a story to tell of him doing something crazy. Here are a few of the most recent ones that I can remember off the top of my head...

• Dumped out almost an entire gallon of milk and proceeded to splash it around the entire kitchen (see pictures below)
• Tore Austin's scriptures up (see pictures below)
• Flushed some of my expensive make-up down the toilet, got it stuck and Chris had to take the toilet off to fix it
• Flushed a rag, battery and some wrappers down the basement toilet which in turn broke the sump pump and Chris had to clean it out...and that is a very disgusting job and made my whole house smell like the worst poop you have ever smelled!!!
• Has taken up the lovely habit of removing his diaper and spreading whatever happens to be in it all over his bedroom (we spared you the photos)
• Dumped an entire bottle of lime juice on the downstairs couches
• Throwing cups at the people in front of us at church every week. (Having a cup is a double-edged sword...it helps to keep him calm for about 10 minutes but he always throws it when he is done...and he has a really good arm for a two year old and usually doesn't miss hitting the back of someones head...any advice would be much appreciated!)
• Oh, and every time I put a new kid shampoo in the bathroom he dumps it out even when I try to hide it from him or put it up high he still manages to get a hold of it (usually with the help of a sibling) and "make bubbles" in the bathtub.

Nonetheless, he is such a great little kid. He is funny and happy and very cuddly. He is a great sleeper and eater. He makes everyone around him laugh. He is very playful. And I love him!


Although, I should be very upset with Asher I was more upset with Austin for leaving his scriptures IN ASHERS ROOM! HELLO!

This WAS a FULL gallon of milk...just barely opened. But once again, I blame myself for leaving him within reaching distance of it while I went downstairs to get church clothes out for the girls. Chris had just left for his meetings. All alone and nothing else to do...

It took me over a half hour to clean it all up because he had splashed it ALL OVER the kitchen. It was on the couches, the cupboards and even soaked up underneath the glass on the table.

It is kind of hard to tell but in this picture he is fake crying. Stinker!

Here he is playing in Aunt Gail's laundry basket.

Here is the monster cake I made for his birthday. I thought the monster theme fit him perfectly! :)

It was also Kody's 18th birthday! Happy birthday Kody!

Annual DeMille Family Camping Trip

As soon as it starts to get warm the kids always ask when we will be going camping. They love to be in the outdoors, eating dutch-oven, getting dirty, climbing, fishing, hiking, roasting marshmallows (and this time, Starbursts) and probably not having to do chores too. Unfortunately this year we will probably only have one camping trip. We are really sad about it but we are trying to make it up to the kids in other ways.

I forgot my camera this trip so my awesome sister-in-law, Anna, took pictures for me. So if you notice the improved quality of pictures in this post it has nothing to do with me. :) You can see more of her mad-skills here.

Fearless Allison climbed about 30 feet up in this tree - TWICE! the scary thing about it was that the branches were all really small so they really could have broken at any time. You can see her in this picture climbing up...when the rest of the kids stopped she continued to climb another good 10 feet past where she is in this picture.

No fear at all...

This small branch was what was keeping her from her death...

I love how my sister-in-law really captured my pleading with Allie to please come down...safely!

Allison: "But Mom, I like it up here...it's fun.!"

Mom: "I don't care, get down before you break your neck!"

Finally she got to the ground and I was a much calmer mom.

Abigail pouting...I don't remember why.

Abigail and Ella...best cousins and best friends.

Abigail knew Anna was trying to take a picture but someone kept walking in front of her so she improvised. :)

Abigail and Ella eating together.

Abigail helping Ella put her shoe on...

Abigail and Ella laughing together...

The designated chefs at all campouts...but I don't think they mind since they get to "taste-test" the food.

Aunt Anna got lots of cute pics of Asher...dirty face and all.

Notice, he has a different color cup in this picture...hmmm, I wonder whose it was.

Asher pleading with his Uncle...

"Yes...I want to go up"

"I'm flying"

"Thanks, Uncle Robert...you're the best!"

And this is everyone's favorite...Asher completely mesmerized by the fire!

Austin roasting a starburst...mmmmm.

The end...of a great camping trip!

Allison and Emma BFF's

I love that Allison has a BFF! I love even more that it is her cousin and that she lives down the street! I always had a BFF growing up...Michele. We did everything together. We stayed up late, made up dances, prank called, had food fights, recorded ourselves singing and talking, and sometimes we even fought like sisters, but mostly we giggled! When I look back at those memories they really are priceless! When I look at these pictures, they remind me of those happy childhood memories that Allison is now creating for herself. She loves her cousin Emma. She loves doing everything with her. Sometimes they see each other on their back porches and yell to each other until one of their parents says, "just go over there already."

I took these pictures one night when Emma was sleeping over. I let them take a bubble bath in my big tub and they loved it. I loved listening to them giggle and giggle for over an hour. They just didn't want to get out.

Catching Up...Post 5: 4th of July

The 4th of July was pretty uneventful this year. We did what we do every year. The kids rode the train and got dirty at Chris's grandparents house. We ate lots of food. And watched the fireworks from our backyard. Have I mentioned that is the most awesome part!?

I like this picture of Chris!

All the kids wanted to grab the flag when they passed it.

Austin is playing football with Uncle John and some of the cousins.

This is some orange soda, mixed with some dinner, red vines and a little bit of dirt!

"Momma, kiss me!"

Last Trip through Diagon Alley...or maybe not!

So, call me sentimental but I am really sad that the last Harry Potter movie is here and gone. Ten years ago, in October, I was nursing Austin ALL DAY and starting the Harry Potter series. I read the first four books within two weeks...and it only took me that long because I was fighting with my sister over them. :) I remember when book 5 finally came out, being poor college students, we couldn't really afford it so I put myself reluctantly on the library waiting list...I was number 22! I was so disappointed but my dear husband who loves me so much surprised me with a copy he pre-ordered for me. He hid it in the fridge. Hehe! Then book 6 and book 7 came out and Chris and I read them together (I had him hooked by then) completely neglecting our children for the next 48 hours. Now Austin, who was newly born when I started the series has read every book at least twice and some of them more than that. He is almost 10! It has literally been a decade of our life reading and going to see the movies. I am sad that it is over but we are already planning our trip to Florida to go to Harry Potter land in three years!

Because Austin is a big Harry Potter fan, we thought it would be fun to take him to the midnight showing of the last Harry Potter movie. We had so much fun! We went to see the double feature: HP 7 part 1 and then HP 7 part 2. Austin dressed up. Chris and I were going to dress up as well but Chris REALLY didn't want to and his brothers threatened to sit somewhere else if we did. So just Austin dressed up and he made a super cute Harry Potter. There was a costume contest but "Voldemort" won. Nonetheless, Austin did win some free popcorn during the trivia contest. The final movie was everything we could have expected! It was really great and I actually want to go see it again. We had a great night and it was absolutely worth the loss of sleep!

Thank you to J.K. Rowling for making such an entertaining book. You absolutely deserve your billions!