a P.S. for my previous post

Last night while finishing up my cupcakes, I just had that great feeling that doesn't appear as often as I would like. You know the one, all is right in the world. Dinner was a little crazy, kids still doing homework. As I was working in the kitchen, I had one of those - looking down on your life moments. Happy kids swirling around my legs as I mixed batter. Young girl wanting to learn how to use the mixer. Two kids both talking to me at the same time. The smell of cupcakes wafting around. Hearing daddy and babies in the other room excited to brush their teeth. Then it all quieted, everyone drifted away to do their own thing and get ready for bed. I got to settle in and read a few more chapters of my new book.

Life here is definitely not perfect. I won't even begin to list all the things that could be different or better. Those things pop up way more often than do the good feelings I had last night, but I'm so grateful for the times that I do get the good ones. A great reminder that family and the simple things are way more important to your state of happiness.

Another Catch Up

Today, Robyn and I went to visit Cyndi in the hospital. Cyndi is my teaching and Activity Days partner. She is 26 weeks pregnant and her amniotic sac started to leak. They are trying to keep her from delivering for at least another week and a half. She is in really good spirits and looked good. Her husband has been keeping her good company and taking great notes on all the statistics. They have tons of family to help with her little boy so there's not a lot we could offer her. I just hope and pray all goes well with her little Lucy. So cute. Thanks Shellie for all your help today!

Dalin finally woke up without a fever so we sent him to school. About 1 pm the phone rang "come get Dalin, he has a fever." Grrr, this makes 6 days. I'm getting a little worried just because it's very low grade and sporadic. I hate doing the doctor thing: Probably a virus. He seems to feel fine most of the time, just tired by afternoon. I don't know.

I started another book yesterday. I know, I'm not a reader, but somehow it's caught hold of me. I so enjoyed Mary and Joseph that I went and got the book called Master. It's a novel about the life of the Savior. I don't know much yet, I have only just begun. I have liked the way I feel much better when I read these kind of books. I think Tennis Shoes among the Nephites are next on my list. My kids have loved them so maybe I will too!

Tomorrow is Halloween! It has been so great having all the costumes ready and done. I spent exactly $2 on costumes this year - Nice! I think we have eaten about a third of the candy I bought to pass out. It's supposed to be 90 degrees tomorrow and that totally stinks. Nothing like sweating to death in a costume and eating Chili in shorts. It's just not right! I'm sure I will have lots of pictures for tomorrow. Gotta go make 3 dozen cupcakes for Brooklyn's class party. I love that kind of stuff.

Undefeated Champions

Stephen played the championship game tonight and they won, keeping their undefeated status. Yeah! Stephen's abilities grew substantially from the start of the season. This is the first time ever that he has played soccer. He didn't even know the rules when he started. He's not the quickest guy out there, but he certainly holds his own. Great job Stephen!

The "huddle jump" as the final whistle blew and they new they were champs

Behind the Red #1 is Stephen. This is right after he bumped the ball with his head. I missed it by one second!

Trophy in hand

Bo saw a little dog across the way and wanted to pet it. I told him to go ask the lady if he could pet her dog. He went screaming over "CAN I PET YOUR DOG!!" The dog ran right at him and he started jumping and squealing. He wasn't quite sure if he like it or not. Glade went over with him and showed him how to calmly play with the dog. Every time the dog would head in Bo's direction, he would turn away and squeal.

Katy, my little independent one, says "bye mom, I'm off to the park!" (she didn't really say that, she doesn't really talk much)

Katelyn has the BEST big brothers. Rhett followed her around and helped her on the slide and held her on his lap while they swung and then pushed her on her own swing. By the time we left, she just wanted Rhett.

This is what Bo did for like the first 25 minutes we were there. Back and forth, back and forth.

Katy got a glimpse of Stephen at half time and went running and pointing till he scooped her up. Did I mention BEST big brothers??

Christmas Jars

Yesterday I found myself at home again with sick kids. Dalin is going on 5 days of off and on fever. Bo and Katy are finally getting back to normal. With all this time stuck at home, I decided to get out my Christmas Book I bought last year, A Christmas Treasury, and see what's actually in it. It is a wonderful book with a section for each day until Christmas. Each chapter is an attribute: charity, hope, gratefulness, etc. Tells stories and quotes about each one and relates it to Christmas. I can't wait to get started reading it to my family.

While digging it out, I found another book that I think was sent for free when I ordered the previous. It's called Christmas Jars. I think I thought it was about making cookie jars or something. Then I noticed it said novel on it or something. I decided to read it. I won't tell the whole story, but it is inspiring. This year I have decided to make my own Christmas Jar and try to get my family involved as well. I think it will be a great tradition and prove to be very rewarding. I would tell you about the book, but for a short book, it's a long story. In retelling it to my mother, it brought both her and I to tears. I lent it to a friend who called me a few chapters in to tell me she was already crying. Very touching story. There is a website http://www.christmasjars.com/ that explains it a little more. The book is short, a one day read, if anyone would like to borrow it.

Reflections

This is the slideshow for the exhibit Reflections I didn't get to see it when it was here but the photos are absolutely beautiful.

Pizza, Pumpkins, and Caramel Apples

We started with a little of this:

Then made some of these:


Made a BIG mess with these:



And ended like this!



Family Home Evening (FHE) tonight was all about making memories. I made their very favorite homemade pizza. While we were eating, Chelsey took a bite, paused, and said "This tastes so good!" I thought for sure whe was going to make a complaint. When Stephen asked what we were doing tonight, I told him and he was very excited. As he noticed what we were having for dinner, he exclaimed "This is the best night ever!" Now that is what I like to hear.

The caramel apples are always more fun to make than eat. Katy started hers before we even put them in the oven. Many even took just a few bites then resorted to cutting them up. Bo still has a sore mouth so eating them pretty much just made him whine. Poor Whitley couldn't eat any apples (braces) so she just had jello. Dalin struggled a little as well since he has no front teeth. Katy got really grouchy and just wanted to be held. In most pictures, just imagine her clinging to my leg crying.

The pumpkins went really well. Usually I get stuck finishing them. I didn't carve a single thing this year, except getting the lids off. Some years we have painted, some we have carved, and others we did nothing at all. I guess it's been a while since we carved cuz they all did so good. There was a little contention as the beginning designs were being planned, but I nipped that pretty quickly and they all got on board together and made it work. It was a really fun night.

Katy, Whitley, Dalin making their apples

Dalin trying to bite his with no front teeth

Bo getting the courage to stick his hand inside

Katy waving her hands and yelling "ewww"

Very cool, Stephen and Nick

Whitley grouchily eating her jello

Serious business. They were struggling to get it all the way through the pumpkin.

Brooklyn taking her turn to carve

Bo frustrated that his "tinker sord" still hurts (canker sore)

Rhett's feeling about cleaning the inside of the pumpkin, not the apple!

Dalin really wanted his to have horns, even had a few tears over it. Whitley suggested they take the ears and make the punched out part the horns. Dalin was OK with that.

I thought if I put Katy on the table, I might have a few minutes without her on me. A few seconds was more like it!

Chelsey didn't waste any time cutting her apple up, much too mature to have caramel hanging from her teeth.

This is Rhett... well.... being Rhett!

Stephen was finally able to distract Katy long enough for me to get things cleaned up. He, Katy and Bo were dancing in the living room.

Nightmare

Nightmare. That's what my last 24 hours would have been if I had actually been asleep! What ever is infecting my babies is about to make me crazy. I stayed home from church with them yesterday. Fevers have been very sporadic, but yesterday Katy turned up with a rash and her tongue is all raw looking. She hardly eats and complains all the time by sticking her finger in her mouth and crying. Bo has just been up and down, grouchy. Last night after a nice family dinner, we put them to bed. Katy slept for about an hour and then just started screaming. This of course started Bo crying. We took her out of her bed and into ours. She just wouldn't go to sleep. Every time we thought she was asleep, we would take her to her bed. She would start screaming again, leading Bo to more crying. This went on until about midnight. She was actually asleep and stayed in her bed, for an hour. Every hour she woke up crying. I would give her a Binky and she would go back to sleep, for an hour. About 3 am Bo woke up crying. His mouth hurt. He ended up spending the rest of the night in bed with us. Nothing like sleeping with a 3 year old's head jammed into your spine or his little toes digging into your thighs.

Today has been just as bad. I made the mistake of taking them to the store. I really needed to go. I was that "walmart mom'. At one point or another one of them were always crying. I just zoomed through and kept taking deep breaths. I have now decided to change the way I pray. No longer will I just pray for the "sick and afflicted" but also for "those who have to live with them!"

HSM3

My review will not be what I thought. I was a little disappointed. It was much more serious and Lovey Dovey than I had anticipated. Not that that is bad necessarily, but just not what I was expecting. Dalin and Bo were very bored and both almost fell asleep. That would have never happened in the previous movies. The music was also disappointing. I have several of the songs on my MP3 from the other 2, but none of these stuck with me. It was like they already had the scenes made up and tried to fit a song into it. The others it seemed like they had a really great song and made a scene to match. I don't know, it was OK, but by far my least favorite. My kids all liked it so I guess that's what matters.

Saturday night while I was at the movies, a couple in our ward invited us out to dinner. I dropped all the girls from Brooklyn's party off and jumped from my car to theirs and away we went. This was a perfect ending to my already go, go, go day. We have never spent much time with them so it was nice to get to know them a little better. It was also nice cuz we are usually the callers, so to be called was kinda nice. Not that I mind being the caller!! I should wear a tag entitled "Cruise Director". It's what I love.

Fevers, Oh My!

Yesterday morning both Bo and Katy woke up with fevers. Gave them both medicine and they felt better quickly. Sorry playgroupers, hope we didn't infect. I really needed to go to Costco, so I let them both rest and let the medicine start to work before I hauled them out to the store. I knew we were OK when Bo anounced "I'm really sweaty!" I know, but if I really thought this germ would come to a halt if I stayed home, I would have. Really. Anyway, they were great at Costco. We had our traditional pizza and then ventured to my mom's to drop off a few gifts for Christmas. She's my storage. I had been planning on this particular gift for Glade for months now, but I hadn't gone online to find it yet. Lucky for me, Costco had it!

Came home for naps which obviously both kids wanted and needed. Katy was a nightmare the rest of the day and all morning. She didn't appear to have a fever today, but still really grouchy. I went to the school to help set up for the Fall Carnival which we won't be attending. I was able to offer doughnuts for an activity so that made me feel better about not supporting the event. Glade and I went out for dinner and then to pack doughnuts. Not exactly a romantic night, but still nice. Both girls went to the football game so my boys were in charge. They did a great job. While we were gone, we got Phantom-ed! This is very exciting because we are never sure if we will get such a treat. We understand that goodies for a family this size is a little bit of work. We are always grateful when someone goes the extra mile for us. The kids called me as soon as it happened. I love this tradition.

Today is officially dubbed "crazy day". Started off with an early wakeup, crying Katy. We got up and around, the kids had doughnuts for breakfast. Glade and I decided to run outside this morning. I decided I'm just a big baby about the elements. My legs felt fine, but my chest hurt from breathing in cool air, which I'm not complaining about. Then my allergies were starting to act up. Had to blow my nose in my shirt...ewww! Then my head hurt from all the smells: hay, diesel fuel, horse manure, burning grass. We made it 4 miles though. Not too bad for having done nothing for 2 weeks.

Whitley had to be to play practice at 9, the other kids at 10. Doughnuts delivered around 9:15. Chelsey to work by 11 and some of the play kids picked back up by noon. Whitley picked back up at 2:30 and Chelsey at 3. Hence the reason for skipping the carnival. Brooklyn's friends are due to show up at 2:30 for her birthday party. We are going to see HSM3. I'm also taking most of the rest of my family. Thankfully Glade was available to do some of the running. I was able to squeeze in getting my nails done in between pickups. When I picked up the kids at noon, I was informed that Dalin had fallen asleep. Uh-Oh, you guessed it...Fever. We brought him home, gave him some Tylenol and he is resting. Glade is out trying to reestablish our mail box that keeps falling down. The day is half over and the rest is sure to be quite exciting. Let's just hope for no more fevers!

Easy Mac

Bo said he wanted Easy Mac for lunch. I dug through the pantry and found a packet. I said "Here's some Easy mac!" He replied "That's not Easy Mac. That's Hard Mac. It's not easy till you cook it!"

Evening of Excellence

A couple of weeks ago the girls had their Young Women's Evening of Excellence. Each girl is asked to complete a 10 hour project and then share what they did that evening. The theme was Royalty - Daughters of a King. They asked all the girls to dress up as princesses and then when they introduced them, they crowned each one with a tiara. Chelsey did the bread and peaches thing and Whitley read her scriptures, wrote notes about what she read and then compiled them into a short folder. It was a very nice evening and the girls all looked beautiful. My pictures are not much to write home about but nonetheless, here they are:

Whitley being introduced donning my senior year prom dress

Chelsey being introduced wearing a gown borrowed by her Aunt Amy

This is Chelsey rolling her eyes as she announces that her mom made her do this particular project because "she wanted to domesticate me".

Whitley with two of her friends Rachel and Becca - all in pink!

Chelsey with Alex

They lined the girls up so we could see their beauty!

Emptying my Brain

Biggest Loser

To start, I have to say there are some really nasty women on it this time and I would love to see them go. The one nice girl on there gets sent home, what is wrong with this situation? I haven't been to the gym in a week, crazy. Lots of different reasons and it won't be until Friday that I can go back. During the show last night, I did jumping jacks, ran laps through my house and went up and down the stairs during commercials. While I was watching, I did dumbbells and sit ups. At least it's something. But really, these two nasty women are ruining the show for me. I used to turn it off inspired and emotional. Lately, just kinda ticked.

My Economic Car

Another $300 today. That makes $800 in the last two weeks. This is an '03 with 50,000 miles on it. A piece of crap is what it is. I so regret buying it.

Outings

While my car is getting fixed, my mom comes and picks me up and we go have some kind of outing. Isn't it sad that there is tradition are regularity here? Anyway, today we went to the mall, Bo's favorite place. I did manage to get through the day and spend less than $20. I can't believe Mervyn's is going out of business! Don't rush over there or anything, no big sales yet. Still disappointing. After we ate lunch, Bo and Katy both noticed the carousel so I thought, what the heck. That was until I got over there and got ready to buy a token. Three dollars! Are you kidding? To ride around on a horse for 2 minutes? No thanks. I took them down to the 75 cent bull downstairs. Shopping is getting much harder, Katy does NOT want to stay in the stroller.

Bo's funny

On the way to the mall, we were discussing how Katy is pretty stubborn and Bo pipes up from the backseat and says "She IS a stinkhead!"

On the way home, we were discussing why milk had to stay in the refrigerator. I explained that if it gets warm, it can make you sick. He paused and said "I like fresh milk." The reason this is funny is because when he was little and used a sippy cup, he might find one and I would take it from him and say "Don't drink that, let me get you some fresh milk." From then on, he would always ask for "fresh milk". He hasn't said it in awhile, but he still remembers that's what he likes.

Finally, and only pictures could really do this justice. My mom and I were looking at bras and we turned around and there were Katy and Bo both with enormous bras, Katy's blue, held up against their tummies. Katy was so proud. She was definitely aiming high!

Playing Catch up

The last few days have been pretty busy trying to get settled from our camping trip. Sunday I even cancelled dinner because my house was a mess and laundry everywhere. Monday morning came around and it wasn't much better. I made the responsible choice and skipped the gym to stay home and get laundry finished and find my kitchen. I spent basically the whole morning in there scrubbing down while making a fresh batch of bread. My bread was pretty hole-y this time, a little too soft. Any suggestions? By noon it looked like my house again and was filled with the aroma of fresh bread. I dressed the three of us (barely) and headed out for milk. We have gone through a ton of milk lately. Got home just in time for a short snooze and finished the day with homework, soccer games, dinner and FHE. I was definitely ready for bed. Although I stayed up a little longer to get in another chapter or two of my book.

Was up and at 'em by 6 am. Had playgroup at my house today so I needed to be ready. Katy loves when we have it here. She gets so excited. Bo was a little weird. Very possessive of his stuff. He is not usually like that. He didn't even want the girls going into his closet. He made it through the day with only some minor tears and drama. Stephen has soccer games everyday this week and they all have play practice as well tomorrow. Thursday is Bunko and I always love when that comes around, especially this time of year. Saturday we have about a million things going on. Most exciting is Brooklyn's belated birthday party. We are going to see High School Musical 3. Yeah!

Family Circle
Last night while making dinner, I kept having to shoo Bo out of the pantry. Finally he comes out and says "do the pans live in there?" Pan-try....

I'm Reading Again

I ran across this at the bookstore Saturday night while trying to locate some books Chelsey had to have for school. It is a novel about the lives of Mary and Joseph. While it is fictional, the author stays as close to scripturally accurate as possible. There is little about the couple in the scriptures so he tries to convey what their personal lives may have been like. While I have to keep reminding myself it's not real, I find it very intriguing. It's certainly not riveting or suspenseful, (we all know how the story goes), I keep wanting to go back. His idea of them as people, as a couple, the things they most likely struggled with, make them so much more real and the story of the birth of the Savior much more than a picture of a stable with a big star over it. I'm only half way through so I don't know how far the book takes you, Mary has just given birth. I'm sure in the next few days I will know!

scarred for life

So Bo, Katy and I stopped in to Chick Fil A for lunch today. We were the only ones in the restaurant sitting quietly enjoying our meal. I went to get a refill and when I came back, Bo was asking me:

Bo: Ya know that girl with the blue shirt?
Me: What girl?
Bo: The girl with the blue shirt with lines on it?
Me: (I say "sure" even though I have no clue who he is talking about)
Bo: She was hitting me a lot! She was very mean.

This is the first time we have been there since the little girl attacked him and I had completely forgotten. Obviously he hasn't. He even remembers her blue shirt with lines on it. Very sad.

Camping Details

What a fun few days! An adventure, that's for sure. Me and 6 of the kids headed out camping without Glade and the oldest 3. Chelsey and Whitley had school and Nick found himself in some pretty good trouble so he got left behind. We left without a hitch, other than the struggle with our hitch. The journey there was uneventful, the kids all got along well and the cars ran smoothly. The area was a little rough, it had burned before and there were lots of little prong like stumps everywhere. Made it rough for little ones walking around. OK, so a few of us big ones tripped a couple times too! The ground was a little uneven so we had a "fun" time trying to get the jacks under the camper to level it. Eventually we used a car jack, which none of us knew how to use, to get it up high enough to make it all work. Lucky for us we had Stephen. He was very helpful. After getting it level, we quickly got camp organized and the kids were off exploring.

It was pretty chilly when the sun went down so we got a fire going and broke out the hot dogs for roasting. Normally this is one of my favorite things to do while camping. Because there were only 3 s: Me, Julia and Shellie, the kids way out numbered us. It was a little stressful having that many kids around a fire. They just don't think. We got through dinner and started getting the little ones ready for bed. My kids go down really easy so I was back out at the fire in no time. It was just me, Stephen, Rhett, Dalin and David for the rest of the evening. I don't know how it came about, we ended up trying to teach David the Macarena around the campfire. That was fun. We all turned in early. Shellie let me borrow a little heater for my camper and I was so grateful! It got cold! The heater did just enough to take the chill off. Unfortunately, it ran out of propane in the middle of the night and I was too cold to get up and get more. In the middle of the night, Bo let out a huge belly laugh. I was waiting for more, or for Dalin to say something, but nope, nothing else. I guess he was having a good dream! In the wee hours of the morning, I was dreaming that I was at the mall and I was having a stroke. When the paramedics arrived, I told them my nose was paralyzed, I couldn't feel it. Sure enough, I woke up and my nose was numb! Funny how our minds and bodies work.

The second day was great. The kids played and hiked all day. It got a little warm, but not too bad. We did happen to see two tarantula's while we were sitting around. Julia didn't think that was so great. Especially since the first one had it's front legs reared up at her two year old. Rhett and Stephen found a little hatchet in one of the bins and spent the whole day chopping stuff up. I never thought they could get through anything, but they did. At one point we heard a huge crash (tree falling) and all the kids came running. "Did you see that!" We put a stop to that. Rhett tried three times to build his own fire outside the fire ring and was successful at one point. I wanted to ring his little neck! Us s sat around and talked and giggled and probably shared way too much information. It was nice. The second night, I stayed out by the fire by myself for a while and listened to my mp3. Very peaceful. I made sure to take enough propane in the camper with me this time so we stayed toasty warm all night. It was a good night's sleep except for the elk who was looking for some action. I'm guessing since he howled all night, he was not successful.

Katy woke up bright and early that morning. Still dark and freezing. She was wild, wouldn't stay still, kept talking. Eventually we were all up. The kids ventured out but were back with purple lips and freezing hands in no time. We decided to turn the heater back on and have breakfast in the camper. That was fun. The last day there was almost as good as the previous. One little problem - BEES! Not just a few bees while you were cooking, but swarms of them. OK, I've never seen an actual swarm, but I have also never seen this many bees at one time. The kids out hiking and playing in the trees weren't too bothered by them, but anywhere around camp it was awful. The women stayed holed up in Shellie's camper. We kept the little ones with us as long as we could. The kids kept wanting in then out, in then out. There were always at least 5-8 bees on the door of the camper. Shellie was really good about swatting at them to try and keep them out while kids got in or out. Eventually one went up her pant leg and stung her. I felt really bad. Katy just walked around shooing at them around her head. She got stung right above her diaper. Jared just walked around with a ping pong like paddle swatting at them. About 2 pm, I just called it quits. I was hot and having no fun and the bees were terribly annoying. Julia agreed but Shellie was a little frustrated I think.

We packed up in about an hour and then spent the next 40 min trying to hook the stupid camper up to my van. My camper was free ($) and obviously so. The little wheel that you crank up and down to get it on the hitch doesn't work. We had to lift and pull. This took all 3 s and Stephen to accomplish and even then, it wouldn't completely hook on. I'm sure on hidden camera we could have provided all with a great laugh! We finally got it to hook and then came the really fun part, backing it out. I could NOT figure out which way to turn the wheel. Frustrating and funny at the same time. Back and forth, forward, backward, over and over and over. We finally got it done and were so excited. She told me to lead so I did. After I pulled out on to the main dirt road, she turned the other way and says "where are you going?" I pulled out the wrong way. Here we go with the backing up again, grrrr. We got out and the trip home was mostly quiet, except the two babies who were way beyond tired. We met Stephen's scout leaders half way and he jumped in with them and went back up. They had a camp out this weekend so he is still gone. I'm sure I could go on and on with more funny stories and silly things, but I'll wrap it up now. If this was way too detailed for you, sorry. It is, after all, my journal!

Memorable Tid-bits

-Katy lifting her shirt, and sticking her belly out to all the trees. (Copying all the boys )
-Shellie rethinking "tree hugging" due to the aforementioned. (boys all over them)
-Lainy and her "crack house" - she says her r's like ow "crackers" We copied her all weekend
-As long as we're talking about Lainy, she has a thing for "cracks". We saw hers all week.
-Dalin going on and on to David about Pokemon and David staring blankly at him till he paused and then he would let out a funny little laugh.
-9 boys sword fighting for 3 days
-Hiking with a baby on your shoulders who doesn't want to be there
-Trying to dig a hole with a square shovel
-Forgetting the propane tank for the stove.
-Every kid gnawing on rock hard donuts
-Playing cards with my friends protected from the bees
-Warm peach cobbler
-Watching Stephen and Rhett create a bond
-Roaming around with a cell phone held high in the air searching for a signal
-Chapped lips
-Two good friend agreeing to accompany me on this trip!

Bo and Lainy, practically inseparable


Me following Katy around picking her up and dusting her off


Stephen taking a rest from hacking up logs


Dalin with his walking stick


"What?" Bo says after me calling his name several times.


Jayce, Dalin, David and Jason hauling logs


Rhett taking a whack


Victory over the log!


I'm sure he was saying "you can't get me!" to Lainy



Pretty Brooklyn was so helpful with the little ones


Katy kept getting in the van and taking my Dove chocolates


The boys walked up and down this log a lot (it was really long)


Breakfast in the camper


The other kids went upstairs to shower and left the TV on, this is how we found Katy. She tucked herself in.