The First Day

The middle schooler , the kindergartner, and everyone in between


Everyone had a great day today. Had a few morning jitters and Ethan had the back to school blues. And of course, as anticipated Jessi had her meltdown as I left the school, but when I picked her up she was all smiles. I really feel like we are going to have a great year. The kids said I said that last year too. Maybe I did. And it was a great year last year too!
So, here we go again! Between all the school schedules I'm either dropping off or picking up 5 times every day! But we are starting a car pool soon so that should ease up a bit. And Zac is not to be forgotten (actually Zachary means "God remembered") :) has had a blow out every SINGLE day this week. Yes, up the back, out the legs, etc. Yesterday he even had it dripping from the middle of the car seat! So he topped all his sibs with that one! We were at a friends house and about to leave. Then I noticed yellow goo on their tile that looked an awful lot like baby poo. Yes, it was leaking out the bottom of the car seat! There is NEVER a dull moment at the Teare home. I was sad to see almost all my little friends leaving for school today. It always takes me a few days to adjust to them not being around as much, but that hour between when I dropped Jessi at kinder. and picked Brayton up was oh so quiet. ah, peace and tranquility.

Zachary's first camp out

Okay, I guess we did have a couple of happy moments during the camp out. These are the only 2 pictures I took. It was cold. It was windy. We didn't sleep much, but we survived. See below for full details.

The End of Summer

I have finally posted some of our summer happenings. If you want to read it in order, go down and start with "the summer begins" and work your way up and it will make more sense.

We had a grand summer this year. We spent a lot of time playing with friends and family, working on cub scout stuff, practicing the piano, and just relaxing. I can think of only 2 things that really were REALLY not on my list of favorites. Number one was going to the dentist. Ethan had 3 cavities - I felt so bad for him the day he got his fillings. That same day the girls and I went for a cleaning. Jessi flipped out and had an all out tantrum. PLUS I found out I have 3 cavities and my root canal needs to be completely re-done. And by the way, I HATE going to the dentist anyway. Not my favorite day.

Number 2 on the list was our overnight camping trip. The kids really wanted to fish this year so we went to the lake. Drove around for 30 minutes trying to find a spot to camp - no good spots. So we went to our regular camping park and decided we'd go back to the lake in the morning. It was pretty cold and windy by the time we got there. I was really hungry. And one of the kids started whining, oh so loudly to go home - you guessed it, it was Orion. He carried on for awhile while Shawn and the other boys set up the tent and made a fire. Finally hot dogs were done. Some friends from the ward stopped in to visit us so that was fun. Had smores. After they left it was dark and time for bed. Then the crying really started. Orion, Meri, Jessi, and even Ethan started bawling about going home. Lasted about 30 minutes, felt like hours. Thankfully Zac was calm and so was Brayton. After much carrying on we finally got everyone bedded down. If Shawn hadn't spent so much effort to get the tent up I would've just packed it in and headed for home. Everyone konked out pretty quick except for Ethan and I. He's been going through a really afraid of the dark phase and I always let my imagination run away with me too so every little noise I'm wondering what wild animal has wandered over to our tent ready to pounce. Of course I'm telling him there is nothing to be afraid of when really I'm terrified myself! It took a very long time for the 2 of us to get to sleep and I was terribly uncomfortable sandwiched between Meri and Ethan. I really felt like the night was NEVER EVER going to end. I had forgotten my phone in the van so I had no idea what time it was. And I would have no phone to call 911 when the wild animal came! Ethan and I were up on and off all night. Around 3am Zac woke up so I fed him for awhile. I could not get comfortable with him at all so I had to rummage around in the tent trying to find a flashlight to find the keys so I could go sleep in the van with him for who knew how much longer the night was going to last. After stepping on a couple kids and waking Ethan up yet again, I found the flashlight and managed to find my shoes and get in the van. Zac stayed awake for about an hour staring at the moon and then we both finally got back to sleep for about 2 hours when morning FINALLY came. Oh blessed morning! We made our pancake breakfast and headed to the lake to fish. Didn't catch anything, but the kids loved it. Next year, I'm wondering if we really need to do the camp out. We've done in 4 years in a row now. Maybe this year will be our last!
I am hoping...

So here we are mid- August.
I always have mixed emotions at the end of summer time. This week the kids go back to school. I took Brayton to the middle school orientation on Friday -"sniffle, sniffle". My baby is going to middle school and he's practically as tall as me AND his shoes are now bigger than mine. He's excited for school to see his friends and he'll start learning how to play saxophone. He has a list of classes on his schedule and I'm wondering where my little boy has gone. And then there is Ethan, he'll be 5th grade this year, top in the elementary school. He's almost as tall as Brayton. And then Orion the 3rd grader. He can't possibly be in 3rd grade, can he? Will he be able to handle 3rd grade? My little strong willed, emotional, free spirit, son. And Meri, in 2nd - she was so lucky to get her 2 favorite friends in her class again- she is very excited to start school! And then Jessi, a kindergartner. I'm bracing myself for a melt down on Wednesday after what happened at the dentist last week it's inevitable. She's been excited all summer about starting school, but the last few days she's been kind of melancholy and saying she doesn't want to go. I know she'll do great, but just getting past those first few days.

I AM really excited to have time to clean my house and have some peace and quiet during the day, but I'm really going to miss those little nuts. I remember when they were all really small when Jessi was a baby. When we'd go places I felt like Pooh Bear pulling his little honey pots behind him all tied together. But they aren't little honey pots any more. It's so exciting to watch them grow and yet I want to hang onto them all at the same time.

Well, I better head to bed. I hope you all have had a wonderful summer too. Happy Fall.

Water War

Here we are at Amanda and Matthew's having the water war. Notice Amanda in her giant purple coat! I loved it! Thanks so much for having us!

At the tea party Andy made sure that everyone called each other "darling" and kept their pinkies up. She used her best British accent and yes, she's only 5! It was adorable!

Cousin Swap

This summer we decided to swap kids with Amanda and Matthew for a week. We met at the Fresno temple which is the half way point to San Ramon. They took our 3 big boys and we took their 2 girls. The boys got to do lots of fun stuff like climbing walls, tubing, and swimming. And here we did dancing, tea party, hair salon, and made puff paint t-shirts. What a grand time it was! The next weekend we drove up to San Ramon to trade the kids back. When we got there the boys were making cardboard forts, sewing bean bags, and getting water balloons ready for a battle. So the big battle was that night - my favorite part was when Amanda came out in her giant poofy coat to protect herself in the war. It was awesome. What a week it was! Thanks so much Amanda and Matthew for taking the boys and giving them such a great time. And thanks for sharing your girls with us.

Trip to Mesa

We got to go see Cody and Shannon and their kids in July! The kids loved hanging out with cousins, swimming, and playing vids. And Zachary had his first swim! We had a great time there and man, was it hot! Thanks so much for having us Cody and Shannon!

Osh Kosh Airshow

For Father's Day this year we sent Shawn to Wisconsin for a week to see the OshKosh Airshow with a friend from church. My friend who's husband Shawn went with calls it a "mancation". And that is definitely what it was. Airplanes, 24-7. They camped nearby and Shawn loved it how people were camping right next to their own planes. Anyway, we missed him terribly, but I'm so glad he got to go. He definitely deserved to get away for awhile. Happy Fathers Day Shawn!

America the Beautiful

When we got back from Legoland our Pederson cousins still got to stay for Meri's birthday and 4th of July. What a time is was! We got all decked out for the Tehachapi Children's Parade. Nicole rode in the stroller and played tunes on the keyboard with Dave pushing her, Meri and Nate, and Brayton rollerbladed around throwing candy, Orion and Derek rode scooters throwing candy, Jessi, Lauren, and Shawn pushed the guinea pigs in the wheel barrow, Krystal pushed Kurt in the stroller, and with Zac in arm - Ethan and I carried our United States banner(my arm was dead from carrying Zac by the time the parade was over and Ethan kept walking at crazy angles not keeping the banner facing forward so I was so glad when we reached the end of the parade!) But we were quite the party and everyone loved the guinea pigs at the end of the parade. We watched the fireworks from our driveway that night. I think next to Christmas, 4th of July is my favorite holiday. Meri turned 7 the day before and loved having her cousins there for it. She's my kid that makes me feel like maybe I'm a decent mom. I love being her mother. She's bright, beautiful, full of life, and happy almost all the time. Gosh, I love her.

San Diego Temple

These kinds of pictures always crack me up because when you try to get 11 kids to smile for a photo at the same time it's pretty much impossible. This is the best we got. Mostly, everyone was really excited to get to the beach, especially Brayton - and he could see no point in taking pictures at the temple. But it was so worth stopping there. I love temple pictures and this one is so beautiful.

After have our Disneyland passes this year and being pregnant for most of the year I couldn't go on the big rides at Disneyland. So I was really excited to go on a roller coaster at Legoland. I will just say, I will never ever ride this roller coaster again!

legos, and more legos

The water area at Legoland is so much fun. Here's Jessi and Lauren playing in the water.
Meri sitting on a Lego camel in the adventure area. The next picture was Shawn's favorite part of the trip. You are riding in this boat and next to the ride are these water guns you can spray at people as they ride by. Here are Shawn and Meri on the ride getting soaked. The people getting soaked have no way to shield themselves and usually no idea that they are about to be soaked (it's near the end of the ride). Shawn and Dave laughed and laughed spraying the people going by. At the end of our Legoland time, Jessi and Lauren kept hugging and hugging as we were leaving the park. I think it was possibly the cutest thing I've ever seen.

Here's the rest of our fire engine run at Legoland. Such a fun memory.