First Day of School!

Beautiful, right?

The ever-photogenic Mr. LeFevre

Trying a little harder.
Mr. LeFevre has 27 kids, but they're all good!  They're smart and well-behaved this year so he's happy.  He had a good day, but as always, that first day really kicks his butt!  He was so hot, sweaty and exhausted when he got home.



First day of 8th grade! 



Emma came home happy from her first day of 8th grade.  Her favorite class will be yearbook!  There are only 9 or 10 kids in the class and she is only one of 2 8th graders.  She gets a "press pass" that allows her access to taking pictures during school events and they get to walk 3 blocks to Arctic Circle every Friday during class for a treat.  Who wouldn't love that?

First day of 6th grade!  She was very worried in the morning, afraid she wouldn't like anyone in her classes.  She put on her shoes and said she felt much better.  She knew her shoes made her look cute so she wasn't worried anymore.  A very Lauren way of thinking. 

Lauren came home so happy!  When she arrived at school she saw a girl who was crying, so she sat down by her and soon she had 2 other girls sitting with them at their table.  Now they're all friends.  She loves her science teacher, Mr. Hyde.  She said he looks like a hairy monkey because he has a lot of arm hair, and he's like a hippy because he doesn't care if anyone raises their hand and he just wants everyone to have a good time in his class.  He likes to joke around a lot and make the kids laugh, so you know Lauren is in heaven.

I spent the first day of school cleaning the bathroom, the kitchen, the living room and picking up clutter.  It was so nice to clean up and have it stay clean for hours until they all came home.  I decided that no matter how uncomfortable and tired I am right now, I'm not tempted to get induced early because I'm relishing these last days of peace and quiet before I have another one needing me all day. 

More Large Marge Photos

My 3 kids!

I went to the doctor today.  I had a non-stress test, which is just a test where they monitor both me and the baby for a 30 minute time period.  Apparently I'm having regular contractions, and the baby is super healthy.  The placenta is great and providing whatever it needs to provide to keep him happy in there.  My doctor doesn't do cervix checking unless I request it, because he doesn't think it provides relevant information unless he's planning to induce.  He said he'd be happy to check if I want him to, but otherwise he doesn't find the information helpful.  I was surprised to hear this, but on the other hand, kinda happy about it.  Call me old-fashioned, but I don't need anyone up in my business unless there's a good reason for it.  So now I'll be going to the doctor every week and having the non-stress test until the baby shows up.  Should be around 3 weeks from now!  Hopefully not much longer than that! 

Cake Pops and a Diaper Bag

Emma made cake pops for mutual Tuesday night.  The experience turned into an expensive nightmare, but at least they tasted good.

I found a diaper bag that I can live with!  It was only $14.99 at Kmart.  I had originally envisioned something super sophisticated and non-diaper bag looking, but then I realized how little I care about that.  I prefer a good deal and functionality over anything else.

Lauren enjoying her lop-sided, but delicious cake pop.

Me, Pregnant

This is me, looking surprised and delighted that I'm 36 weeks pregnant with a baby boy.  (I thought I should have one pregnant picture to represent all 3 kids...I'm not aware of any other pregnant pictures of myself.)

Some Recent Summer Highlights

Landon got a phone call from an old guy in our ward to see if he would like to go fishing (in a boat!) with him and another old guy in the ward.  Landon was sooo excited!  He was like a little kid.  He left at 4:30 a.m. Tuesday morning, met the old guys, and went to Island Park Reservoir to fish.  He came home around 2:30 or 3:00 with several big trout.  He had so much fun!  Maybe the old guys will call him again.  

Butchering the trout.

I bought this bouncy seat for our baby for only $8 on a local facebook garage sale website.  Pretty cool!

Lauren won a Kobo E-Reader from the library summer reading program!  She was one of the grand prize winners (from a drawing).  She stayed up until 12:30 a.m. one night and told me the next morning she had figured out how to access the Internet on it.  (We have new rules for using it in her room now.)  I think of it as an IPad that you might buy at the dollar store.  She can buy books on it, download apps (her favorite is a whoopee cushion app that lets out farts every time she touches it), read her email, play games, etc.  I think you can buy this particular e-reader for about $100 or $150 online.  Pretty cool prize though!!

Grilled Pizza!!!

This is a pizza we grilled on our pizza stone outside on our propane grill!!  It was so good you couldn't eat it without moaning.  It had a smoky, grill flavor in addition to the yummy pizza flavor.  I don't think we'll ever make pizza in the oven again!  (Plus, it doesn't heat up the house!)

We ate our pizzas with fancy cream soda...a new craving I've had lately.  I can't imagine how this meal could have been any better.

Pioneer Day Parade

We went to St. Anthony for the Pioneer Day parade on Saturday the 28th.  We went with the Bates family this year.  Emma stayed home because she was sick.  This parade is always fun because so many entries create actual floats and the quality seems higher than the Rexburg 4th of July parade. 

There were lots of floats done by wards.  The theme for the parade was "They the builders of the nation."

This is the float done by BYU-Idaho.  It was simple and I liked it a lot. 

Lauren gathered lots of candy with the Bates kids.

This may have been my favorite float.  The crane was swinging around with the state of Idaho.

This is an old-time rock and roll band that Mr. Shirley (the guy who originally hired Landon to work at Kennedy and now works at the Middle School) plays in. 

Vacation Week

This week was the only week of the whole summer that Landon didn't have committments, work, meetings, etc.  (So much for having a teacher's schedule!)  We had talked about going somewhere for a few days to have some quality family time, but in the end we decided to stay home, sleep in our own beds, save money on hotels, eating out, etc. and just do whatever we wanted to do. 

I didn't actually take any pictures, but we did do some fun stuff.  We bought a new Wii game one day (Mario Carnival Games). 

We went to Heise Hot Springs and swam for about 5 hours.  We haven't been there for about 2 years, so it was really fun to go back.  There's a water slide, a normal big swimming pool with diving board, a warm pool and a hot pool.  We went with the Bates family, which made it even more fun!  We had a picnic lunch and just hung out in the water for hours.  The three of us girls all got sunburned, and the next day I was so sore!  I felt like I had run a marathon and all of my muscles just ached.  

Yesterday we went to Costa Vida for lunch then went to see Diary of a Wimpy Kid (the most recently released one) at Fat Cats, which was a treat in and of itself because we rarely see movies that aren't at the cheap theater.  We even got popcorn, candy and drinks...luxury.  It was a funny movie!  We laughed a lot.   

One day Landon and Justin Bates took all the kids fishing at the Nature Park while Jenny and I stayed at our house and watched the Olympics.  The kids all caught fish and Caroline even reeled in a TURTLE!  It swallowed the hook and she reeled the whole thing in.  Another night Landon and Emma went fishing while Lauren and I stayed home and watched the Olympics.  (We've spent a lot of time watching the Olympics this week.)

One day Landon and I were laying on our bed watching TV, it was almost noon and we hadn't even showered or gotten ready for the day.  I asked Landon if we should get moving and do something productive, but he said no.  This is how he wanted to spend his vacation...just being lazy and doing whatever sounds good at the time without feeling guilty.  It's been awesome.

Today we got up around 8:30 or 9:00, made breakfast, then went back to bed until 1:30.  I love that Landon's been able to match my pregnant energy level without any struggle at all.

Fruit Pizza

The girls wanted to make a fruit pizza the other day, so we bought some kiwis, raspberries, nectarines, and grapes.  They did all the decorating and it was delicious!! 

Lauren's Trip to Las Vegas

The week we went to Girls' Camp,  Lauren went to spend about 10 days with Nana, Christina and Lorina.  Justin's family was on a vacation, so Lauren was disappointed not to spend any time with Lincoln, but she was still excited to go to Las Vegas and have an adventure.  Christina and Nana had arranged a surprise trip to San Diego for 5 days, so Lauren was able to go to Sea World, go on a harbor cruise, go to the beach, and do a lot of sightseeing.  She had a great time and took no less than 278 pictures.  I had her edit them down to 73, but it still makes for a challenging blog post.  I put the 73 pictures into a slideshow (sorry, no music), and the 5 videos she took into another slideshow that only included 2 of her videos.  If you want descriptions of her pictures, give her a call and she'll tell you all about them. 
After a week, Landon flew down to Vegas to spend a few days with his mom and sisters, then flew back with Lauren.  Lauren enjoyed swimming in the backyard pool with Lincoln's cousin, Emery, who is a little younger than Lauren.  She also enjoyed spending time with Aunt Lorina and was happy when her dad arrived.  She's got a great independent, adventurous spirit and didn't get homesick until about day 4, then talked herself out of it until Dad got there.  She made some incredible memories and we've enjoyed hearing about her experiences.