long time...

No see. Well this has been a very exciting month here at the Draper home, we have had lots of outings, meetings, trips, books to read, school, work, aba, plays, movies, and well you get it; a LOT to do, and so my blogging has suffered, as if it were flourishing before(ha)!
We had an impromptu event at Luke's parents house to do some family pictures, his sister Anna was in town and it had taken us 5 years to meet, and almost 10 years for her to come back to Fresno for a visit. So Carol wanted desperately to get a family picture together, with almost all of her children present, photoshop will fix the rest; Leia being on her mission and all. So I tried desperately to fix what I could and get to the church on time so to speak! Leia's "friend" Aaron took our pictures and I can't wait to see how they all turned out! It was a great time for all of the siblings and cousins to get together, and Carol was beaming. So happy to finally meet Anna!
Next Luke had a Technology conference this past month as well to Yosemite and the boys and I had to forge for ourselves, or the boys really, I was reading(get to that again soon enough). I have had a really hard time in the past whenever Luke leaves, I get really nervous and scared being by myself, old habits die hard, and so I was very plaesed with myself this time, he had to leave really early to register in time for the conference, like 5am and there is no WAY I am going to be awake, sad, and by myself that early in the morning! So I slept in when he left, and he woke me enough to get in a kiss, and I didn't Cry, no a single tear! For those of you who REALLY know me, I am NOT a crier and so when I do it is a big deal, and when Luke leaves to me it is a BIG deal, and so I am proud that I didn't! It was only 1 night that he was gone though, But he did leave again for the Father/Son campout the very next day with 3 of the 4 boys! Still no crying, I think it could have been from the pure excitement that there would just be me and carson which I am totally used to, but woohoo! Oh and I was reading!
So I am part of the Enrichment committee at church and we had not too long ago a boundary change that affected 4 wards in our stake. We decided to make our next Enrichment to be a get-to-know-you night for the wards that blended. So we came up with a Brady Bunch theme! You know his, hers, ours....makes everything MUCH better in the end. I am still very sad that my parents went to Sierra ward in the end, but it will make us stronger in the long run right?right?I keep telling myself that! So i went and took pictures of the women in our ward who hold callings in the auxillaries, some new to the ward and some not, and here is the result of the poster I came up with...... It was a FUN night with games and dessert to boot!
so then at the end a few of us were talking and I see this book, that I had heard about sometimes, and thought Oh, okay, whatever, book. My life is never going to make time for me to read, and well VAMPIRES????? You all are crazy mormon women with too much time on your hands! Where are your children? Well These mormon women that I was talking to I KNEW that they weren't crazy and they all have read or are reading this vampire book and LOVE it, RAVE about it, and so I decided to think a little more about it. The very next night I went out with Audie to see "Made of Honor" (stupid movie don't waste your time) great night to spend with the best-friend, horrible movie and these women from her ward are all talking about this dang vampire book! So I looked at her and we both said, FINE.....enough is enough! and I bought the book the very next day! Oh my heavens, how unfortunate for my family to find out that their mother had just become enthralled into the life of vampires and their lives ceased to exist in her world! Yes it was that bad, and OH YES were the books THAT good! I was reading, living, dreaming that stupid book Twilight! When my dear sweet husband went on the business trip, took my beloved children to their campout, and could not wait for them to leave, why you may ask...so I could read and finish the second book New Moon! That bad, Carson's teachers were staring to notice how bad, normally my home is smelling quite tasty of homemade foods, it was not that way anymore; pizza and mcdonalds had come to replace it! Then I took another few days to break the cycle and do laundry before I started reading the third Eclipse! I averaged about 2 days per book and read all of the 500 page books with ease, Luke is leaving again this weekend, and so I bought her newest book The Host; and hopefully I can have him leave this weekend without crying!
We bought another car this past week to offset the gas prices that our large family cars bring to us, and so it is our everything car, groceries, the mall, work, Jax exchanges, anything that we don't need to bring the whole family in car, is that car, 35+ mpg baby!
I registered and paid for my Chemistry 3 class for this summer, it is a 6 week course that will be held Monday-Friday from 6-9 pm, All Luke asks for is that I don't become the vampire needing crazed woman I was during the Twilight series and he says that he will be fine, oh and dinner would be a bonus, idea preferred, made....well they are boys, you get the drift! I also registered for this Fall for three classes; Psy 2 online, polisci m.w.f. mornings and Bio 20 m and w nights! yay for college! Luke might just be calling any one of you poor souls to help him, or maybe I just feel like I do so much for him that he will, he is an amazing Husband-father and I am blessed each and every day I have him. I still have no idea why he wants me for his wife.
I am still volenteering at the older boys' school and that has been wonderful and a blessing for me to get to know my children in an education based setting and not just at home. To see how much they have grown is still a hard road, but seeing the men that they are becoming has been well worth it! Carter was an understudy in a school play rendition of Willy Wonka. He is sure a cute kid. Jaxson never stops amazing me, and the girls are already becoming a problem, he is definately a heart-breaker! Tanner is asking more questions in class since I told him he will get a special treat for participating more in class. He the other week said that he saves all his talking for when he gets home so he won't get in trouble at school! Carson is still doing leaps and bounds when it comes to improving at what he has a hard time with normally, we all are so proud of him.
Yesterday we went to the Zoo with a family in our ward and had a blast! The boys all enjoyed themselves and then we had a picnic lunch when we were done at the zoo; only to notice that Playland was open as well, so we went there too! Who would have guessed that Audie her kids and parents would be there too! Fantastic day, all 6 hours of it! Then Jazz came over and watched the boys while Luke and I went to see Indiana Jones, and were surprised to see Anna using the computer when we arrived home, and were able to say our goodbyes because she is leaving back to Montana tonight!
Overall that is what our month has been, crazy crazy in a nutshell, plus you know, the day to day having 4 boys and all, oh and we went camping! Here are some of the pics of our Great first outing to Pismo in the new trailerokay i need to update this more with pics and there is more to tell but....off to Occupational Therapy with Carson!