The Best Things In Life Are....

My New Cruiser

2011-05-17T10:00:00.000-07:00

Yea for Me! I've been kind of wanting a bike for a while now but just couldn't decide what kind to get. every spring I think of how fun it would be to have one so that I could go out and enjoy the nice weather before it got hot. Now that I am doing this Iron Week and wanted to get some of the biking done outside the gym, I started looking around at beach cruisers.

They are crazy expensive here. I went to just about every bike store in Bakersfield and for what I wanted, which was a 3 speed cruiser, they wanted like 550 bucks! And there was no way that I could justify that much money for a bike. So I decided I wanted a beach cruiser for my mothers day present. My friend was going to get one for her and one for her husband. So we started looking online and found that they were half the price or more than they were here. So we made a trip out of it and last Saturday we went down to LA and picked up 3 beach cruisers and all together they cost us about $600. FOR 3!

Before we picked up the bikes we visited the Garment/Fabric/craft/flower District. That was fun! And let me tell you. Just as one store owner put it, just after we were privileged to witness road rage, This is LA. Not Beverly Hills, or Hollywood, this is LA! So true. One wrong turn and we were walking down a street filled with makeshift tents people lived in and vomit and the smell. So sad for those people, so glad it was the middle of the day and not the night, but like I told my friend, Just keep walking, and breath through your mouth! Other than that...

It was fun though. There was SO much cheap fabric and So much else. Mostly blanket making fabric and home decor fabric. It was kind of fun to barter with the shop owners and see how low they would go. You would go to one place and they would say 15 a yard and you would leave and the next place would be 10 a yard and you would say how about 8 and they would say no and as you were leaving they would continue to drop their price.

One place tried to sell us a fabric for 10 and so we left and went to one next door and he told us 3! We were like Awesome, that guy just tried to charge us 10. Then he was like oh... then 9. And we laughed and said too late now.

These are of the Flower district.

More Flowers

So there was lots of fun to be had and we only covered about half of it. Next time we will go with a plan and conquer it all! After all this we went and picked up our bikes.
Here is my friend on hers.

And here is mine!

Its so fun! So far it has about 30 miles on it. :)

New Frames

2011-05-16T16:24:00.000-07:00

Here they are. Little A's new frames. She had a change in her prescription and so she was eligible for new frames. And I'll take new frames whenever I can get them. Kids are so hard on them. So anyway here they are... They are bright pink on the sides and have sparkles too.

I am a little skeptical that these are wrong for some reason. I don't know why but when she put them on and looked at me her eye started to turn in. (which is the reason that she has them. To keep it from doing that) So I asked if it was right. The lady acted like everything was fine. I will have to call the Dr. and make sure that its okay that its doing that. Maybe I am just paranoid. It's not like they just gave her glass for the lenses right? So I will call the doctor anyway just to check.

Great to be 8!

2011-05-15T16:30:00.000-07:00

Little D is eight! I can hardly believe it. Soon he will be baptized and be an official member of the church. He is so excited. Today we let him open his presents before church and he was loving it.

Little A gave him 2 GIANT water guns! I kinda think that he will have a hard time holding them up once they are filled with water.

Little C gave him a DS game. Nijago. Or something like that.

Big J and I gave him a New bike! It has 6 speeds. He tried to race me the other day. I let him win. (that's my story and I'm sticking to it)

Grandma and Grandpa Moss gave him his first very own set of scriptures. He was so proud of them. He carried them around church today and showed them to everyone. He was thrilled that they said his name on the front. Now I will have to look into getting him a scripture bag. They also sang to him in primary today and he got a pencil to mark his scriptures with. Next month he will be getting Baptized and we are excited to have my parents and his friends come and watch him do that.

Here are some cake shots!

Daddy lighting the cake!

Dark, glowing cake.

Got them out in one breath!

Father and Sons Campout 2011

2011-05-15T14:42:00.000-07:00

This weekend Big J was able to go on the Father and Sons camp out. He has taken Little D once and this year he was able to take both boys!. They were very excited to be able to go. They went up on Friday and came back at about 2 on Saturday. Big J said that they all had fun and that it was a good trip. Little D agreed and showed me his bite!

Apparently he was bitten by a lizard that he caught. Little C was so exhausted he fell asleep in the car on the way home, about an hours drive, and then I couldn't even get him to open an eye for about 3 hours after they got home. And then Big J and him took another nap! He was soooo tired. But even he said that he had fun and he made sure to tell me, " Danny something something bite!" I knew that he was telling me about the lizard bite. I said I know, its Okay. So it was a good trip.

Meanwhile I was up at 5 am looking for the missing bolt to my new bike. I had lost it the day before after putting the child carrier on the back and then deciding that it was not going to work. when I got done taking it back off the bolt to tighten my seat was gone. So all morning I searched for a suitable replacement. Finally finding one on Little D's old bike. The reason that I needed one so badly is that its Iron Week again! Yep I'm doing it again! We were set to go on a big bike ride that morning to kick it off and get a chunk of our biking done early. So I had to have a seat! Before I could go on the ride thought I had to go sit in the cold on a side walk at 7 am and wait for tickets to go on sale for Little A's dance recital next month. I would never think that you would have to wait in line 3 hrs just for tickets to a little girls recital. But the seats are assigned and so if you want a good close seat then you have to get in early. We ended up in the center of row 9. not too bad. Needless to say we only got a 20mile bike ride in between the chaos of finding something to tow a child in. But it was a fun ride and I will probably go again. We saw tons of butterfly's, squirrels, rabbits, lizards, ducks, and even a snake.

next post will be of little A and I's Girls night!

Girls Night 2011

2011-05-15T13:00:00.000-07:00

Since the boys were all camping we decided to have fun on our own. And we did! First we went to a few stores and got some things that were needed.

Then Little A said that she wanted to go to get ice cream. She said that she wanted to get some just like Fancy Nancy. In one of the books we have she orders a "fancy sundae". So we went to Cold Stone and she ordered a waffle cone covered with sprinkles and then vanilla ice cream with sprinkles and a cherry on top. So Fancy! I ordered my usual, my own awesome creation! Best that you'll ever eat. At least I think so. After that we looked for a suitable redbox movie but found none. So we went home.

Little A then said that she wanted to play a game. I asked her what game and she said, with a ton of enthusiasm, "Rock, Paper, Scissors!" I was a little surprised, but thinking that this was the fastest, and simplest games ever quickly I agreed. So we played twice. He He.

Then she said that she wanted to play Go - Fish. So we played that too.

After our games the last thing that she wanted to do was color. So we colored. Here are our pictures.

Then I looked at the clock and seeing that it was 10pm told her that it was time for bed. She had a hard time staying in bed though. She kept coming out and saying that she couldn't sleep because we had done "such fun things!" That made my heart happy! I'm glad that we were able to spend some quality time together. Hopefully I filled her "Love tank" up a little more with that.

Productive Day

2011-05-03T15:38:00.000-07:00

I was pretty productive today. At least "craft" wise. I finished 3 projects that have been waiting to be finished. The first 2 were made per Big J's Request, I made Big J a Surf board cover, so the racks wont make black marks on it.

I still need to find a cord or string to put in for the drawstring closure

And then I used left over fabric to make the Strap covers so they won't scratch the back of the boat while in transit.

Finally I was able to make a project that was on my list. It was in the works(on the list) for quite a while. My kids love to take my kitchen towels from where ever they find them and dry their hands and then drop them on the ground. The when Big J or I go to find one to dry our hands there are none to be found. (Secretly I think that Big J just thinks that I never put any back in the drawer.) So to solve this problem I made these...

I had to go to the spendy yet totally adorable fabric store to find one that matched my newest kitchen towels. But now they are done and I don't have to search for something to wipe my hands on anymore. I used this tutorial I found online. I made the ties and inch wider mainly because I couldn't gather them together that close. The towels were too thick. And the ties are a little long, so next time I will modify it a little more than I did this time.

It's only 3 pm so I might even be motivated to finish even more projects today. Yay Me!

Only for a moment...

2011-04-27T07:28:00.000-07:00

I get a kick out of this picture. Its not the best picture but I think that it is totally Little C. He set the 2 cars, that occupy his little hands, down just long enough to play a little tune.

Trust me he was checking to make sure that they were still there.

Our Spring Break

2011-04-26T12:32:00.000-07:00

Started with a Baby Shower for my littlest sister. My sister and I made her this gift.

A Onesie Cake I wanted to make something a little more unique than a diaper cake. Plus she is going to use cloth diapers instead of disposables. It is made up of Onesies, Receiving blankets, burp cloths and a few cloth diapers. We decorated it with pacifiers, hair accessories, teethers, socks and shoes and a few toys. It was fun! Babies are so FUN!

The main event was Sara and Brad were getting Sealed in the Logan Temple. The Sealing was awesome and I was so glad that I was able to attend. So happy that they were able to be sealed to each other.

Here is most of the Family.

Later that day we were able to go to my Uncle Mikes house. The kids had a blast. They got to ride horses and hold baby bunnies and get eggs from the chickens. They had a great time.

Little A was "chomping at the bit" to get onto that horse. I told Grandpa that if she didn't get a ride she would have been devastated.

Little C was excited too, he kept saying "Hee Haw! My turn!" When he finally got his turn I was a bit nervous. he wanted to hang onto the reigns and I thought that he was going to fall off. I made him hold onto the saddle instead.

Little D did not want to ride. I made him. After his turn he didn't want to get off and said he wanted to ride a horse all the time.

The next day we went to a giant arcade type of place with laser tag, go cars, bumper boats, bowling and tons of games. Little D was tall enough to drive the go carts. He said "Now I am like a real race car driver!"

Some more pictures from Boondocks!

Bumper Boats

Little A and Grandma

Merry-Go-Round

The rest of our Vacation was spent in Arizona. While there we just hung out with family and had good times together.

To sum up, it was a Great Spring Break.

Kids are funny little people

2011-04-04T19:19:00.000-07:00

Today at the dinner table the kids were arguing over what a rectangular prism was and weather or not that is the shape of a gas tank. Little A was drawing it in the air and Little D was correcting her. She had it just about right

Also and interesting conversation about staring contests.

Then there was talk about Justin Bieber, wherein Little A says, "I can't say his name cause it freaks me out!"

There was also talk of who Little D was going to marry, which I must say is a much better choice than his last one. This one is at least a member. He said that they already had a "conversation" about it. I didn't realize he knew the meaning of the word conversation.

Where did these kids come from?

Our Dairy Farm Adventure

2011-04-01T14:58:00.000-07:00

And it was an adventure! It started off rushed this morning when we woke with only 30 mins to get 2 kids ready for the bus and Myself for a field trip and then another to go to a friends. We made it though. But then we were sitting on the bus (Which was the most exciting thing for most of the kids) and I realized that we were going where there are COWS! Lots of cows! Which means lots of Cow POO! I was so not dressed for that. I wasn't wearing tennis shoes like the other Moms. Nope my nice green flats. Little A wasn't wearing old pants and rain boots or tennis shoes. Nope She was wearing a new shirt with new tights and a WHITE skirt and dress shoes! What was I thinking? The only thing that was calming me was that the skirt was almost 2 years old so I figured it had paid its dues. I told her to just stay on her feet at least and not fall over.

When we got there we had milk and cookies while we were waiting our turn to go into the milking barn. If I had known what that was going to be like I would have stayed out and watched from the windows. Little A could hardly contain herself she wanted to see where the cows were milked. So in we went. Her teacher had told me on the bus about how when the cows poop it kind of spashes because they have to keep washing the floors. I had no Idea.... You are in this Isle probably just as wide as the isles in the grocery store, only there aren't groceries on either side. Nope, COWS! Not just cows but cow BUTTS! All hooked up to milking machines. The kids and parents slowly filed in and I thought that we were going to walking through and around. So when the line quit moving I gave it a couple seconds. But as the cows got more and more nervous so did I. When cows are nervous or scared they poop and pee! So I told Little A to go up to the front so we could get through faster. Once I reached the front I realized why we had stopped moving. THERE WAS NO WHERE TO GO! IT WAS A DEAD END! I was like you have to be kidding me! I could have just stayed by the door looked at the first couple cows and been fine! Now we had to fight the crowd and go back. Meanwhile dodging the pooping cows. One would start and we would have to stop and wait until it stopped splattering. Even once they were done I was scared that it would start up just as I was going by. It was like a mine field. There were quite a few people that got some splattered. I'm sure that I didn't make it out unscathed but I want to fool myself with ignorance. Little A had some on her shoes and socks. Like I said I'm sure it was elsewhere but we decided to ignore it. Needless to say we changed as soon as we got home.

After the milking barn we went and saw the Baby cows. That was fun, they were all within on day old. One was only a couple hours old. It was kind of sad that they don't get to stay with their Moms. They take them and raise them somewhere else until they are eating grains. But the littlest one took its first couple of steps right there. Probably only because it was terrified of all the kids.

After that we went and saw all the things that they feed the cows. Then we went home. It was quite interesting.

Little C is 3!!!

2011-04-01T14:15:00.001-07:00

I can't believe that he is 3 already! Time goes by so fast. I guess I have to stop using him as an excuse for the extra lbs. Oh well....

Yesterday was his birthday and it was my turn for our little play group so I decided to do a little party for him.

Nothing major just friends playing outside and a pinata and cupcakes.

Little C had this for about 2 seconds and it was already in his hair!

If you think that this is bad look down....

This is one of our newest little friends and this is what she can do with a cupcake in about 10 seconds! (Take that Little C)

They had fun.

There were 8 extra kids here.

It was a little crazy. But fun. He loved all of his presents. He was very protective of his car's that he received.

In fact after this shot there is one of him elbowing his friend back. He was just too close.

All the kids wanted to look at them and he was not too happy about that Idea.

Later that evening once Big J had gotten home he was able to open his presents from us.

I made him a Car's blanket

I love this picture even though its not very clear. He is in Car's Heaven

Grandma and Grandpa Moss gave him this little Lightening McQueen rolling suitcase. He puts all his little cars in and pulls it around. He will be using it for his trip to Utah soon.

Now he can even take "Light Queen" on the boat with his new swim suit and shirt!

Here is a video of his big present! (coming soon) Followed by one of his cake.

Waffle Brownies

2011-02-27T16:32:00.000-08:00

Last Monday for FHE treat I made these!

They were pretty cool. I saw it one the Rachael Ray web site and thought that I would try it. You basically use a box brownie mix and prepare as normal except you omit the water. Now her site says to keep the brownie in the waffle iron for 10 minutes but mine burnt if I didn't take them out when my waffle iron light went off.

Don't forget to grease your waffle iron pretty well and taking them out can be tricky because they are soft until they cool for a min. But all I did was flipped the waffle iron over and they fell onto the plate. Then I topped it with A scoop of Ice cream and choc. syrup. Yummy!

Out with the old...

2011-02-26T16:21:00.000-08:00

(here it is, my new fridge)

In with the new Refrigerator! Yay! I finally got one. It came on Thursday. They even came earlier than the time window they gave me which made me even more happy.

I find myself looking in it just cause its so pretty. At least compared to my old one. It was a little tricky to get everything in. Even though this one is bigger than our old one I didn't know where the best places were for everything. I'm sure in a little while everything will have a certain spot.

I also often find myself forgetting that I now have water and ice that I can eat and drink. Like the other day I was talking on the phone thinking to myself how thirsty I was. Then I remembered that I had nice filtered water that I could drink and that made me happy. I even put crushed ice in it. Yay! Happy day.

When to say enough?

2011-02-17T17:16:00.001-08:00

After our weekly outing to Costco (yes I said weekly. Its so sad) We came home and put everything away. I hadn't seen Little C in a while and started searching. I went into his bedroom only to find him sitting patiently on the top bunk with his arms folded... waiting.....

What and Who was he waiting for?
When I entered the room he said pointing to the T.V., "Mom wace ON!" (which means race car, which means Cars) He had already watched it twice today. He is obsessed. I reluctantly turned the movie on and left him to it.

He will sit there there the whole time and not move. If it were on replay or whatever I would probably never see him.

We went shoe shopping for him the other day because his shoes broke. While there I learned 2 things. First I had been cramming his feet into a size 6 when he is apparently an 8. Second that you should never show a 2 year old a shoe with his favorite character on it if you don't intend to buy it or until you check if they have his size!

We walked in and I foolishly said,"Look. McQueen." Little C looked and it was all over. Every other shoe I tried to get onto his foot was met with tears and screams for "MyQueen". They only had them in 7 and a half and up. I thought that he needed a 7 at the most. Then once the lady told me that he needed 8's I was relieved. So now he has light up McQueen shoes and never wants to where anything else.

Needless to say I will probably be throwing him a Cars themed party for his Birthday.

A Year of FHE

2011-02-07T15:01:00.000-08:00

Done!

I just recently participated in a FHE Group. It was a lot of work but will be well worth it. There were 7 of us so we just divided up the year, made a calendar of topics and went to work.

We each made 7 FHE lessons. They all had to have a story, coloring page, activity and needed to be printed on card stock, colored and laminated. We set a deadline and tried to stick to it as much as we could. It's hard when you are working with so many different people though. But I have gotten almost all of mine from everyone and all mine are finished and given out. Now I can work on the list of unfinished/new crafts.

I am glad that I participated in the group and I am glad that it worked out. Now I have a year of lessons all prepared, I would like to get one more though, but this time I think that I will be doing this.... Club FHE. Then I can rotate lessons and they (the kids) will never know. I heard about this group from a friend and just read the web site and now I am in love. I will be ordering the year kit all at once although I do like how if you do it every month they send them with that box that is labeled and everything. Would be much more organized. I guess I will have to make those myself.... Add it to the list!

Yard work

2011-02-02T12:13:00.001-08:00

Today I mowed the lawn! ... I KNOW! Its the first time since we have the new grass. It was getting so long and Big J never has time to mow so I decided today was the day.

It started when I just wanted to go pick up Cheyenne's "presents" but it was hard to pick them up when the grass is about a foot tall. So I thought that if I try and keep it short it will be much easier to pick it all up.

So when I got the mower out I tried to start it like 5 times and couldn't get it going. (I tried moving the choke and all that but it was hard to figure out which way to move it and then if I was to leave it like that or what) I knew that I had to admit defeat and call in the "Big Guns". I was not thrilled with having to call Him but there was no other way. I knew that he was first going to make fun of me and then going to say, "I can't believe you don't know how.". And I also didn't really want to admit that I was going to do it because once I do it then he is going to make me do it all the time. I don't know maybe I should just do it once a week but I don't want to. (but does anyone, really?)

After getting the mower going I mowed half the yard and realized that I wasn't holding down the lever to make it "drive". Here I was actually pushing the thing when I could have just been steering. Needless to say that the second half of it went much faster.

By then I was on a roll and kept going, I cleaned the patio off too. Ours seems to get so dirty. Mostly because the do has a hole that she digs right next to it and then it blows all over. Soon I will fill it and the grass will grow over it. Until then, children, don't fall in the hole.

Now that its all done it feels so nice and fun out there. The kids are out there right now. (they are never out there)

All you need is a Jeep

2011-01-27T11:21:00.000-08:00

I guess if you want your garage cleaned/organized all you need to do is get your husband a Jeep. That's all it took for my husband to clean ours.

He recently got this Jeep from his father when he passed and ever since he has been what I call "Jeeping". He is a member of 2 online Jeep forums and has taken the Jeep out a few times. The first time he went on a real "run" he broke something called a Sway Bar. I told him that he can't buy any Jeep parts until I has a new Refrigerator in my kitchen. (We have needed on since forever and he keeps putting it off. I can't live any longer without water and ice!) Needless to say, if you know Big J then you know that he has not been listening.

This guy above put a huge dent in the back and ripped out his tail light. This rock dented or scratched just about every jeep that went by it.

Last Saturday he drug us all up to Gorman for some Jeep party. The kids and I stayed for a couple hours and watched "Crazy" people put a lot of dents and scratches into their jeeps. When Big J got home around 11 or so he told me that he had flooded the jeep. He got stuck in a big puddle of muddy water and it all came inside.

(I told him to stay out of the mud)
I guess he got some water in his transmission and now he has to "work" on his jeep to fix it.

So yesterday he cleaned the garage. It would have been great if I could say that he cleaned it out for me to be able to park in there again. But no. only for his broken jeep to sit until it is fixed.

What did you do with your fog day?

2011-01-27T07:04:00.001-08:00

We just had 2 fog delay days in a row. The first was Tuesday, I woke up and looked out the window and said hmm... pretty foggy but no foggier than other days. But I decided to check the website anyway.

After about 10 minutes of tying to get the page to load I gave up and got the kids up and ready to go. Needless to say they came back from the bus stop and said that it was a fog day. I was so mad that I had woke them up. If their lame website would have worked I would have been sleeping! Even though I watch a little girl on Tuesdays and she was coming even if it were a fog day or not. But I could have probably gotten another 45 minutes. Anyway, all I did that day was sit around on the computer. The kids just watched movies.

Wednesday we had another fog day. I was able to check the site and didn't wake the kids up and went back to bed. But then I talked myself into getting back up and getting everyone ready and going to the Gym. I should have just slept in.

So this morning I was really excited to sleep in. Because I didn't have anything else to do today, because, if it were a fog day I wouldn't need to work in the school. So I woke up to come and check the website, took a look outside and my heart and my dreams of going back to school were crushed. Not a bit of fog outside. I can see all the way down the street! Boo.... This was the one fog delay day I was looking forward to.

January Enrichment: What's For Dinner MOM?

2011-01-14T12:58:00.000-08:00

Last night went very well.

It was called What's for Dinner Mom? We had the ladies sign up in advance to bring dish that they liked from the Ward cookbook that we made last year. Since most of us have one, we thought it would be a good way to "taste test" recipes that we might not normally cook if we couldn't try before hand. For those that didn't have one we are emailing all the recipes that were featured last night to those who wanted them. All the dishes were labeled and we had little recipe type cards at each place so that they could write the name of the dishes that they liked best.

For the game we played a candy bar game. Each seat had a place card with either a Snickers, Almond Joy, Kit Kat, Milky Way, Mr. Goodbar or Crunch Bar. When they came in they chose their favorite candy bar out of those 6 choices and sat in a seat with the same place card. Then after we were done eating we all had to share a story or something about us that went with our candy bar. For example Snickers people had to tell a funny story about themselves. Milky Way people had to tell of a dream or goal. Kit Kat people had to tell of things that they like to do in their spare time. Almond Joy people told of what brought them joy. Crunch bars were accidents, either car of physical. And Mr. Goodbar were stories of a Date they went on, either an awesome date or a horrible date.

All the ladies said that they had fun. If only we had taken some pictures.

Is it Spring Yet?

2011-01-14T12:51:00.000-08:00

I am soo ready for Spring! I feel like I am frozen and I need to thaw out. If it could just be warm when the sun is out that would be awesome. It always looks warm but then you go outside and freeze.

Now I know that some of you have much colder temps around but I am not in the mountains so I expect warmth. And I'm sure that all too soon I will be complaining about the heat. 110 is no fun either.

I would be nice if it would be in the 70's and 80's all year.

Big J's Work Party

2010-12-16T17:37:00.000-08:00

This is the dress that I bought at JCPenny for the Schlumberger Christmas Party last Saturday. It was so fun. I got this dress for $30 can't get much cheaper than that. Well maybe it could have been $10 cheaper had I not forgotten my coupon in the car TWICE! But hey $30 is good too. There was only one problem. The dress had a slit in the back that was too high.

So I sewed a little "fun" in the back. Here it is.

The seams matched up perfectly so it was hard to tell that it wasn't there the whole time. Which is what I was aiming for. Little D took these pictures ...

First Hair Cut

2010-12-16T16:41:00.000-08:00

At age 5! Yes it took us 5 years to get it just past her shoulders and its so thin. She has been begging me to cut her hair for a while now. Every time I cut the boy's hair she wants hers cut and she has only ever gotten a trim. I didn't want to make her have long hair, its just that it took so long to get any hair at all.

So I finally gave in.. I figured that the hair she cut a while ago would be the same length faster if it was shorter and maybe it would get thicker faster. Who knows? All I know is it was a little hard to sit there and watch my friend cut it all off. She wanted to go to Cool Cuts but I told her that for the first cut we had to go to someone I trusted. I told her once we had the style we might be able to go there for a trim. It turned out cute and she loves it. She flips it all over. SO... what do you think?

The little bits of bangs u can see are from her self given hair cut a while ago.

Ward Christmas Party 2010

2010-12-16T10:29:00.000-08:00

We recently went to the Olive Knolls Ward Christmas Party and ate and sang and saw Santa. Here are some pictures of the kids with Santa.

Little D Asked for a Computer

Little A asked for a Kitty (its one of 2 things on her list. the other is a pillow pet)

Little C asked for something that no one could understand. (I'm sure that he was trying to say RC train)

Craft Fair 2010

2010-12-15T12:00:00.000-08:00

The craft fair has come and gone. Which is sad and great all in one. Sad because its fun to have your things displayed and great because its always crazy around here before and during the fair. Here are some pictures of my things.

I made some dress forms this year to display my things on. Which I thought was a much better way to show of all my stuff. It was a pretty good turn out this year.

Even though the last day was painfully slow. I will still be doing it next year. For me its just fun. My mother even sent some of her stuff this year.

It was so fun to try and sell her stuff. Everyone just loved it and was amazed at her talent. She sent things last minute too and so next year hopefully we will be more prepared. My plan is to prepare throughout the year. So let see how that goes.

Happy Birthday to me!

2010-12-15T07:12:00.000-08:00

Tanks everyone for all the birthday wishes! It was a good day. One of my good friends took me out to lunch. That was fun. We went to the Olive Garden because our husbands don't particularly like going there but we LOVE it!
My kids cleaned their room as a present for me.(And if any of you know us, you know how much of a challenge that is!)
Big J bought me a little camera that I can carry with me in my purse.
My parents bought be Miche bags which have been awesome!
And my darling sister bought me a custom cake from Cold Stone.
BEST ICE CREAM CAKE EVER!! You can create your own ice cream and put it in your cake. And of course I had my usual in there which I still have yet to name. It is french vanilla ice cream with raspberry and Oreos as the mix ins. Best thing ever!

My friend was asking me the other day what made me think to mix these together and I couldn't remember. But now having had time to think about it I remember. It was all because of an Oprah episode so long ago, where they featured Cold Stone. They were naming all the mix ins and I hadn't realized that there was a raspberry mix in. Then they mixed Oreos with peanut butter and some fruit and I thought about raspberries and Oreos. So the next time I went there I asked for that and get it every time since. The original order had nuts in it also which I get every once in a while but the main flavors are still awesome. I have always been thinking of a good name to call it and still need one. If anyone has any suggestions Ill take them.
My visiting teacher brought me these pretty yellow roses. So nice. Sorry about this pic. my son took the picture and I am too lazy to take another one.

Anyway we had pizza for lunch and then some cake and then I called my nail friend and she was able to fit me in, so I got my nails done too! So it was a pretty good day. Thanks!

Trunk-Or-Treat

2010-11-20T15:42:00.000-08:00

Little A carved the cat, Little D carved the toothy one and I carved the ghost.

When I first started this post it was October 29th. I was waiting to get a picture of Little D in his costume but I have given up on ever getting one and decided to post it without one of him. you will just have to imagine what he looked like.

This past Wednesday was our Ward's Trunk-Or-Treat. It was a lot of fun. We invited some friends of ours who have 2 little girls and it was fun for the kids to be able to bring a friend. Little A was a Witch, Little D was Batman, and Little C was Robin. He was so cute. He hated the mask though.

He cried and pouted for this picture and would not sit with Little A for a picture.

When we first got there we ate and played games in the gym and then went outside for some Trunk-Or-Treating. They got a ton of candy and there was a haunted house. I asked Little A if she was going to go in there and she said no. (No surprise there) But then when we got around to it Little A insisted on going in. The man at the door told us to be sure and get some candy out of the box. Little A and her friend put their hands in to find no candy, just something grabbing their hand! They jumped a little. Once we were in all the way my friends little girl was screaming her guts out! I felt so bad. We went around the corner and a man jumped out and yelled at us. I swear that Little C jumped about 3 feet backwards. He wasn't crying though. Once we were through Little A and her friend said that it wasn't that scary. I was surprised. But the other little girl is probably traumatized for life. She was not liking it for sure.

In all I think that they had a good time. There was this one trunk that had this awesome bubble machine and the bubbles, when they came out, had fog in them. They were awesome. When you popped them the fog would go, Poof! It was cool. Little C had a favorite trunk, it had a scary looking head in a glass ball and it would move and talk to you. He just stood there and laughed. Every time it moved or talked her would laugh and laugh!

Little D ran around with his friends most of the time and I hardly saw him at all. I guess I had better get used to that.

Reason's for the lack of posting

2010-10-30T15:27:00.000-07:00

I have been so busy getting everything ready for our Tremendous Thursday Activity that I haven't had an extra second to sit down and post. Here is what I have been working on. I am in charge of 3 crafts.

First is the Snow Family...

Next is the Gift Ornament...

Which accordion folds out and is the story of Christ's birth as told in the bible.

and then finally the 25 Stories Until Christmas Book which is not pictured because the sample I made took a beating while it was on display. It is a book of 25 different stories with coloring pages and songs. The ladies will be scrapbooking their own covers.

And then when this is done I will have a few weeks to get things ready to sell at the Annual Craft Fair, we put on in December. So I will be busy for sure. Hopefully I will be able to post about some of the things I am making for that.

GOAL!!!

2010-10-30T08:24:00.000-07:00

Little D scored his first GOAL last night! It was the last game of the season and we were starting to think that it wasn't going to happen. Which would have been fine too. It was the first Goal for the team, he was standing in front of the goal when it was thrown back into play. As it was rolling by he kicked it in. He was so excited! You should have seen his face! We were cheering so loud! He put one fist in the air like Yeah! I did it! It was so cute. We had told him that if he scored a goal he would be able to go out for ice cream, so after the game we took a trip to Cold Stone for victory ice cream. His coach also told the team that they would get a dollar for each goal. So he also received a dollar. His team has the tournament games this next Friday, where they will play 2 games and then if they win those they go to the Sunday games I guess. We are going to be going out of town and wont be able to participate so I'm glad he got the goal last night.

Their practices are on Wednesdays and this last practice is where they told us about the Tournament. Big J had taken Little D to practice and he told me this story after they were home. After hearing about the tournament Little D was talking to Big J and said, "So they have games on Sunday?

And Big J said "Yes."

"Well Sunday is the Sabbath day and should we play soccer on Sunday's?"

Big J said, "Well, I don't take the boat out on Sundays."

And Little D said, "Yea, I don't think that I should play soccer on Sunday. Dad do you think I should skip those games?"

Big J said "probably" Followed by Little D with "That's what I thought too."

I was so proud of him when Big J told me this I almost cried. He is such a smart boy and so sweet. I do feel sad that we won't be able to be here on Friday to play in his tournament, but he already decided to skip Sunday so we might as well skip Friday. I told Big J that the only other option would be for him to stay home with Little D. He said well you should just go by yourself. I was tempted but told him that if I were to show up without kids my parents would freak out and tell me to go home! I had to take at least one. So far the plan is to all still go to AZ, but that could change I guess.

Post Pumpkins

2010-10-05T14:16:00.000-07:00

Here is what Kathy and I have been up to for the last 2 days. We had to split it up between 2 days because of all our kids. But this project cost us about $14. It would have cost less but we bought a ton of paint. Way more than necessary. (Oops) But it was fun. We purchased the lumber peelers from Home Depot for about $8 and they cut them to our measurements for free. That was nice. All the other wood we needed came from my Garage/Yard. I have a vast amount of tree branches and scrap wood lying around. I also had all the raffia and leaves from various different projects. Anyway it was fun and I am excited to make all the other things on our list. Next up... Wood Pallet pumpkins.
Sorry about the poor picture... It was dark and rainy when I took this.
Little D keep trying to sell these to his friends when he gets off the bus I hear, "Pumpkins! 5 cents!"

"I've been singing since I was 2...

2010-09-21T08:46:00.000-07:00

Even before I could talk.... " Is what the video spot will say when they are interviewing the newest American Idol. And this is the clip that will follow.

Double Vision

2010-09-21T08:45:00.000-07:00

Everyone keeps saying how much Little C looks like Big J. But then they also say that Little D and Little C look the same. Well Little D looked just like Big J for a while too. He has the stronger genes. Anyway I got to thinking that I would post a blog with a picture of each at the same age, to see if people could tell them apart.

So here is the first one.
Baby pictures.
Which one is Little D and which is Little C?

Next is 2 and 1/2 years old.

This was actually hard for me to do. Just because all the pictures that I found I could totally tell who was who. I'm not sure if that is because I knew which was which or if its just because I am the Mom. But Big J couldn't tell them apart so I guess these are good. Its also harder to find a pic of Little C without one of his siblings in it also.

So there you have it can you tell them apart?

Another Project Completed

2010-09-17T14:40:00.000-07:00

Well it's done! I've always wanted to start doing this. Taking old furniture and make it look new. I got this dresser from a good friend who didn't need it anymore. Here is what it looked like before.

The missing drawer is there I just had to glue the track a little so that it why I don't have it in this picture. And this was after I had sanded it once. If you look closely you can see that it used to be a yellow-ish cream.

I just painted Little A's room and she needed a dresser the most so I new that I would paint it white. I used the same color as her bed (that I will post as soon as her room is clean) and the tree on her wall. First I took off all the hardware and sanded the whole thing. Then I painted it white with 2 coats. Then I went to the expert on the matter and asked My Mom what I should do next and she told me to get some gel wax and put it on the top to give it a smooth feel. So I did. Then I put back on the hardware and VOILA!

Perfect dresser for Little A and matches her room perfectly! Oh and she also told me that she would be getting rid of the matching side table too!

As soon as she digs it out of her Garage. I can't wait to finish that one. Then Little A's room will be done. Then to start on the boys' room. Ugh...

Your American Idol 2029!

2010-09-15T18:46:00.000-07:00

You saw it here first! Little C is going to be a vary famous singer! Last night I was watching a T.V. show and there were people singing. All the sudden I realized that there were 3 people singing instead of 2. Little C was belting out some sort of tune. I didn't understand one word but he seemed to know what he was doing. I watched him for about 5 minutes, the whole time wishing that I had a tape for my video camera. Then I thought that maybe I could sneak up on him and take some pictures. The minute I stood up he noticed and stopped singing. However I grabbed the camera anyway and waited... It only took about a minute before he picked back up his make-shift microphone and started singing again.

One of the funniest parts is that I don't think he has ever seen anyone sing with an actual microphone.

When I am singing in the car or at home I don't ever pretend to have one so it was funny to see that he had picked that up somehow.

(Here he is in mid note... after this shot he just about fell over and off the couch! He was getting a bit carried away I guess.)

I always thought that he would be more of a singer than the other 2 just because he is the only other one singing with me in church.

So American Idol, if you are still around or to whatever singing show follows yours, here he is! He has to go on a mission first that is why you will all have to wait until 2029!
Soon after smashing the competition on the show he will be buying his parents a nice house.

First Ever Soccer Game

2010-08-30T09:33:00.000-07:00

Well as most of you know we signed Little D up for soccer this year. His team name is The FIREBALLS. He has been loving it and is excited every Wednesday when he gets to go to practice. He has a great Coach that seems to be pretty easy going about the whole thing which is nice since its his first year. They have had only 2 practices so far and he is still a little awkward but he will get it soon I'm sure. He wants to be able to bounce the ball off his knees. He thinks that is pretty cool. I told him that he just needs practice.

So Friday was there first game of the season. He was pretty excited.

He is number 4 and made me take this picture of the back of his Jersey.

Here he is practicing stopping and kicking the ball.

And here are a few pictures of the game. It was dark so these aren't the best.

(He is in the middle)
My camera wanted to use a flash but that didn't get me anywhere so I turned it off but then It wouldn't take them fast enough so this is as good as it gets this time.

(Here he is in the front #4)
His next couple games are earlier in the day and should mean better pictures.

He did well for his first game and is still a little timid and unsure when he gets to the ball he is not sure what to do yet. He was able to kick it a few times. I told him to just be more aggressive and when he gets the ball just kick it to his goal. He was proud of himself for getting the ball a few times.

So this Friday is another game and I will post about it then and hopefully have some better pictures.

First Annual Mossy Cup

2010-08-26T10:26:00.000-07:00

I was in charge of the game this year and ever since first seeing Minute to Win It I have wanted to play it at the reunion. So I also wanted to start a tradition of sorts also. Not for the game but with the prize. I wanted to be able to have the prize be something that we would compete for every year. I wanted people to want to compete for the Mossy title every year. So I searched for just the right trophy. We found one at a shop in Portland and even engraved it for free! So here is the Mossy Cup....

We divided into 2 teams of 6, Blue and White. We played 12 rounds, and the winning team had to compete against each other for the Cup. First was Hanky Panky. In this game each player has a box of tissues. When the timer starts each player pulls out the tissues on and a time. The team that empties their box first wins. There was a little cheating from the Blue team because they were not supposed to reach in and grab out the pile of tissues. But we gave them the point because it was our youngest player and everyone was telling him to pull them out.

Next was Bobble Head. In this game each player has a pedometer strapped to their head. When the timer starts they start head banging. At the end of the minute whoever has the most steps wins. I wasted everyone on this one. First the Blue team went and only got 4 steps.

His head shaking motions were to small and quick. Next I went and got 50.

Since I won by such a large margin. I let the Blue team try again with a new strategy. Jason went and had more of a Chicken pecking motion and only got about 9 or so. You had to jerk it. Not good for the brain but so funny to watch!

So we won that round.

Next round was Junk in the Trunk. This is where you take the empty tissue box and strap it to the players backs. Then you put 8 ping pong balls inside and whoever gets all the balls out first wins. This was a close call but in the end I think that we gave it to the Blue team.

Next we played Roll With It. In this each player has 2 rolls of toilet paper on rods. Each player winds the toilet paper around their arms and whoever unrolls both their rolls first wins. Blue team won this one also.

Then came Moving on Up. Its played with each player getting 39 red cups and one different color cup. Each player must take the top cup and move it to the bottom of the stack alternating hands with each cup. the person to move their odd colored cup from the bottom up to the top and then place it back on the bottom is the winner.

This Blows was next. Each player had to blow up a balloon and use the air inside to knock 15 cups off a table. Fastest time wins. This was funny because Jason went first and got done with only having to blow the balloon about 2 times, Janessa however was a different story. Watch and see....

Elephant March was on of the funniest. Each player had 2 rows of water bottles the same distance apart. Each player had a pair of panty hose on their heads with a base ball in the end. Each player had to swing the ball using their body motion to knock over all the water bottles. There is also a line that their feet cannot cross.

Next... Sticky Situation. Each player was to toss ping pong balls across the deck making it bounce at least once and then landing on a piece of Peanut Buttered bread.

Face the Cookie was next. Each player started with a cookie on their forehead and had to use their head and face to work the cookie into their mouths.

Paper Dragon was a fun one. Each player had 2 rolls of streamers and when the timer starts you have to try and wind the streamers around your arms. First player to get them all unwound first wins. I totally won this one. Kylene wasn't even close.

Sticker Picker Upper made me nervous. I was sure that they were going to drop these eggs. Its played by placing 3 sticky side up stickers on a tray then placing the egg in the middle. When the time starts they pick up the tray with one hand and have to get all the stickers to stick on the egg. First one to do this wins.

Penny Hose was by far the funniest. So funny watching these guys try and get the pantyhose off. Its played by each player placing their hands in the hose and when the time starts they have to try and get down to the pennies in each leg and then get them out. So funny...

So the white team ended up winning. So we all competed against each other in the same challenge and the fastest player won. The game was called Nut Stacker. Its played with a chopstick and 5 nuts. Each player lifts their chopstick at the start of the game and has to stack all 5 nuts on top of one another with out toppling the stack.

Alas. I was beaten by a fraction of a second. Next year mom better watch out! I'm coming for the CUP!

Moss By MossWest 2010

2010-08-25T08:17:00.000-07:00

So we recently had our 2nd annual Moss family reunion. This time it was in Portland Oregon.

The Moss Family

Grandma and Grandpa Moss

The Moss 6

The Grand Kids

We started off with pictures of the family and a trip to the Japanese Gardens and channeled our inner Heiwa, which is Japanese for peace. It was very pretty but would like to visit in the spring to see all the blossoms and in the fall to see all the colored leaves.

Wouldn't this be amazing to see?

Once we were done with that we went home for a BBQ back at Starlings and a late-night showing of North By Northwest.

The Portland Beach (not very "beachy")

The next morning we piled into cars to drive 1 hr to the beach but before we go there we stopped by Camp 18 for breakfast and it was awesome. So much good food for a decent price. It was fun and rustic. It was an old logging camp that they turned into a restaurant. There was a ton of logging paraphernalia and pictures all over. The kids thought that it was awesome. There was THE BEST HOT CHOCOLATE EVER! It was like the best I've ever had. So good. MMMM.... It was very much needed since it was freezing cold in there.

Little C in the Time-Out hole.

We then went to the beach where there was the coldest water ever. We rented these beach bike things and everyone had fun riding those. On the way back we stopped at a not so good seafood place where at least one person got sick from their choice. I played it safe with salmon.

The Last Day was Game Day where we played Minute to Win IT. I will do a whole post on that later. Then we headed to a local park for a Movie in the Park showing of, one of the best movies, The Princess Bride. It was kind of fun to see it with a ton of people. When the funny lines came people would laugh. When the most known lines would come everyone would say them. And when the old lady is booing so was most everyone else. So it was fun. It was late though and we had to get up early the next morning and go home. But we had a great time.

Thanks to Kylene and Brian for planning a fun reunion.

Another First

2010-08-24T07:23:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was the first day of school. I was so excited! I can't believe that Little A is in kindergarten already. She was very excited. When all the other kids showed up she started to act shy though. Once I was able to leave I think she did just fine. She was very happy when she got home and I think that she thought that she was a big girl. She was able to ride the bus home and she thought that was cool.

She is also excited to ride the bus to school today. Even Little D is excited to get to have her on his bus. Little D had no problem getting back to school. We dropped his backpack at his class and he was off to play. I stayed with Little A until her class got started. She said that her teacher read her stories and sang her songs. Little D is harder to get things out of and would only tell me that all they did was do a word search and play bingo all day. But I think they had fun. There were no tears today about having to go back so I would consider that a good sign. Well the bus just drove away so I guess I had better do some cleaning or something...

We just had to jazz up this backpack with some bedazzle jewels!

Little D 2010 2nd grade.

What can I get for you?

2010-08-03T08:39:00.000-07:00

So I have been in Oregon for the last couple days and have decided that there is one thing that I surprisingly don't like about it. I drove up here with my sister and her husband and once we got into Oregon we stopped to fill up the car. I stopped at the gas station and my brother in law said I pump it for you. So I was getting my card out when my sister says quietly, "There is someone at the window" I immediately thought that he was going to tell me that the pump was broken, so I opened the door. He asked what he could do for me and then I remembered...

In Oregon they have a law that says that you CAN NOT pump your own gas. Now to most of us that would be awesome and to some extent it is. The thought of not having to get out of your car when its raining or really cold is nice. But not having the option has really started to bother me. We were at Costco the other day getting gas and you still had to get out to put your card in. That seems to defeat the purpose to me. The gas station attendant said that they put it on the ballot every 5 years or so and they always vote it back in. Lazy Oregonians.

I am totally fine with having that law but I at least think that it should be an option. I think that it should be a law that you have to offer the service but I think that one should have the choice to pump their own gas. Right?

I couldn't find what the odds were that your car would explode if you were to pump your own gas. But since I have never known anyone who has had this happen or no anyone who knows anyone who has had this happen. I'm sure its low. Also if it were not I think more states other than New Jersey and Oregon would have this law.

Boat trips

2010-07-26T19:46:00.000-07:00

Wow! Well its been a crazy couple of days around here. We have taken the boat out 3 times already. Its been a ton of fun already. Its fun to watch people learning to wake board and try to wake surf.

I hadn't wake boarded in about 6 years but it is a lot like riding a bike. Once you've learned to get up on the board you will be able to get up again. Since I knew how to wake board it was easier for me to wake surf. It still took about 3 tries to get up and stay up.

Right after this shot he tries to do a 360. He only made it about 90.

Today we went out and Big J was actually able to throw the rope back into the boat and ride the wake for a while. We found the "sweet spot" on the lake and he would be able to ride it, but as soon as we left that area he wouldn't be able to find it until we got back. It's crazy that we are even able to surf the wake because it is so small compared to all the videos I have seen online. But we don't have any water tanks yet to weigh the boat down any more than this. I was telling Big J that getting down over the wake onto the wave when we have the big tanks is going to be the tricky part. The other guy that we took with us was also able to find the "sweet spot" a few times too. They wanted me to try again too but I was done for the day, and didn't feel like going back out.

The kids just love going to the ends and swimming off the end of the boat. They are always bugging us to go take them to the swimming spot.

Once we have a tube and a knee board it will be a lot more fun for them I think. Although, Big J was able to get up onto the surf board with all the kids. With the exception of Little C, of course. Little D was terrified you can watch the movie here,

Sorry about the video cant figure out how to get it to rotate. Just tilt your head.

and Little A only got to try 2 times because Big J was tired by then. So far the boat has been a lot of fun and hopefully that we all will enjoy and will give the kids some fun memories. It was a lot of money but we will get a ton of fun and memories out of it.

Here are Little C's 3 moods that he has had lately...

Happy

Upset/Cranky

Asleep/ Tired

New Arrival

2010-07-23T11:49:00.001-07:00

Big J did not survive his case of Boat Fever. We have lost him. We towed the boat home yesterday. He is so excited. He couldn't even sleep last night he was all worried that someone would steal it. kept getting me up making me go out and help him back the jeep in front of the boat so no one could take off with it. It like his little baby.

I told him that he could just sleep in the boat if he needed to. I told him that in stead of making him sleep on the couch when he is bad that now he was going to have to sleep in the boat. He said that he wouldn't listen to me. Which is no different than now. I wish that I could make him sleep on the couch when he is in trouble but he never does. Is it just on T.V. that wives can do that or do other husbands actually get banned to the couch?

Anyway, I'm sure our lives will be centered around the lake now. So if anyone wants to go to the lake just ask Big J and I'm sure he would be more than thrilled to take anyone out. He is super excited to try Wake Surfing. Click on the link to see a YouTube video of it. He says its actually easier than wake boarding. I have no balance so we will see.

He had to get this boat because it is made for wake surfing and making big wakes for wake boarding. Anyway...

Here it is our new arrival...

Out Of Town... Again.

2010-07-15T16:13:00.000-07:00

So now that we are all caught up I will say that we will be going to Oregon soon and that should bring a lot of fun posts. We are having a family reunion up there and plan to go the beach, play minute to win it, have BBQ's and lots of other things. So it should be fun.

Little A's Birthday celebration(s)

2010-07-13T15:36:00.000-07:00

Little A is now 5! I can't believe it. We celebrated in Montana this year. It seems like we are always traveling around her birthday. But its also fun to be able to have the extended family around to celebrate with us. This year I had planned a party at Pump It Up in Bakersfield but since we had to make an unexpected trip to Montana it didn't pan out to be there. So we decided to celebrate on July 4th.

Little D was so funny about it. He was more excited about it than Little A was I think. He came into the bedroom and told his dad that this was an exciting day because 3 exciting things were happening. There was church, A birthday party, and FIREWORKS! I thought that was cute. I loved that included church in there. So we invited Big J's Mom, Sister and Grandparents. We had a BBQ planned and then we had Cupcakes and Ice cream and presents. She was pretty excited about all her gifts and has played with all of them a lot. Here are the cupcakes that I made for the party. Keep in mind that we planned this party on Saturday and so there wasn't a ton of time to come up with too much.

First we made the cupcakes and baked them and then let them cool. Next we started on the flowers. Now this was the trickier part. I needed colored sugar but didn't have any. So my mom said we could make some. I didn't know that you could do this I just figured that if you put the food coloring into the sugar it would dissolve the sugar. But no. We had raw sugar and put a couple drops of food coloring into the bowl and mixed until it was all colored.

To make the flowers all we had to do was take mini marshmallows and cut them in half on the diagonal. After you do this it makes a petal shape. When we cut them in half we just let them fall into the sugar. Once in the sugar we mixed them around until we were sure that the sticky side of the marshmallow was covered in the sugar.

To get the flowers to stick together we took white chocolate chips and put then into a zip lock bag and melted them. Then we snipped the tip so we could squeeze a little bit out at a time. We did 3 at a time so that we would be able to assemble them before the chocolate cooled too much. So we made a circle of chocolate on the wax paper and then placed 5 petals in the chocolate. Then we took one green one and added it as a leaf.

Once they cool you just frost your cupcakes and pick off a flower and place it on top.

Here they are aren't they pretty.

I was way more excited and thought that they were way cuter than anyone else.

After the party we lit a bon fire and roasted marshmallows and waited for dark. After it was dark enough we lit a few fireworks and then just sat back and watched the rest of the valley light theirs. My parents have the best view of the valley. You could see fireworks all over. But the best show was down the street from my parents. It was awesome to get to see them so close but to not have to spend the money on them.

Little A actually had about 3 parties/celebrations. One on the 4th and then after we had done the placing of ashes for Rob we went to Aunt Sue's house and had a BBQ there. This was on Wednesday, and she had gotten a cake that said Happy Birthday Audrey on it. This was her actual birthday. The 7th. So we sang and had cake and ice cream. Then later that night we went to Rob's other sisters house and she had made birthday brownies and so we sang again and had brownies and ice cream. So much ice cream and treats that day!

I think that between them all she had a great 5th birthday. Not to mention that when we got home she had 3 presents from friends. So nice, Thanks everyone.

In Montana they had a 4th of July parade on the 3rd since the 4th fell on a Sunday. We took the kids and they had fun collecting all the candy that was thrown at us. And seeing all the horses and other animals.

Grandpa Rob

2010-07-11T13:57:00.000-07:00

Rob rarely smiled in pictures.

On our way home from Big Meadow I checked my messages and found one from Jeremy's Aunt. She never calls and so immediately I knew that it wouldn't be good news. We pulled over and Big J called her to find out that his Father had passed away that morning. We were about an hour away from home, tired from working all day and hadn't had much sleep from the night of camping. The rest of the drive was hard. When we got home there was a lot of phone calls. All while trying to figure out what we should do. His dad had said that we shouldn't come home and disrupt our lives there was to be no funeral. But in talking with Aunt Sue, it sounded like she was overwhelmed and needed some help. Rob was no longer married and Sue had no one to help her.

So we unpacked the car of camping stuff and repacked with suitcases and at about 9:30 pm we were on the road. That was about the longest car ride ever. I'm sure that it was longer for Big J. We drove 22 hours non stop. We stopped only for food and gas. We arrived in Montana at about 7 pm on Sunday. While it was nice to see everyone it was bittersweet.

Rob was always sitting in this La-Z-Boy Recliner

The first week was all about getting things taken care of. Big J's sister wasn't able to come until a week after we had gotten there, So the second week was all about cleaning out his home and dividing up things we wanted to keep.

We were very blessed while we were there. Things were worked out with little effort. When we thought that getting his bank accounts and things switched was going to be a long battle it just worked out. And when we were worried about selling his home he had which was a 2 bedroom trailer, we were able to sell it to the owner of the trailer court. We were able to get everything done so that we could come home and Big J could get back to work. Big J is the only member in his family, and I know that Big J was able to have some missionary experiences with his Aunt and I know that it was good for him to be able to explain to her what we believe happens in these situations.

Rob had chosen for no funeral and wanted to be cremated. He had specified a spot that we were to place his ashes. So we did that, and Big J said that he felt like a pioneer, when they had to bury their loved ones. He was able to dedicate and site and that was a neat experience and his Aunt and Great Aunt who was there thanked him so much for doing it. It was a beautiful day, following days of clouds and rain. We were a little worried about people stumbling upon our little service and ruining the spirit as to the popularity of the spot to the locals, but none came. We were able to do it uninterrupted. Little D acted as a pallbearer and took the job very seriously. He was so responsible and picked up all the things we had used and placed them back into the backpack without even being asked. Afterward we all went to Aunt Sue's and had a BBQ. It also happened to be Little A's birthday and so she had gotten a cake and some Ice cream. That was nice for Little A.

Everyone we would talk to in his neighborhood would tell us how much they loved him and that he was always so kind and would help everyone. He practically built everyone's porch in the place. He was always willing to help. He had a great sense of humor and had some bets going about the Vikings and another team. He was obviously for the vikings.

Rob when the Vikings would win!

When the Vikings Lost

He was a great Father and Grandpa. As well as brother, friend, and in-law.
We will all miss him terribly.

Rob was very good at wood working. He made this rocking motorcycle for one of his grandsons.
He was smart, much like the boy he raised.
How he always cried when he said Goodbye. I remember when he told me that and I told him I was the same way.
He would laugh at the dumbest stuff. He had a funny laugh too. More of a Ho Ho Ho actually.
He hated to be called Donald or any form of the name. (Donald was his given name) We asked his sister why everyone called him "Rob" and she said that she didn't know and maybe he got it when he was in the Military. Who knows why.
He usually had a beard all winter and would shave it off in the spring.

Catch Up

2010-07-11T13:19:00.000-07:00

Well its almost been one month since my last post, and a lot has happened since. The next couple of blogs will be catch up posts. We will start with Camping!

We went camping for the first time in 3 years! Our ward had a ward activity up at the Stake Camp site Big Meadow. (It really is BIG) Big J was able to Take that Friday off. It was a lot of fun there were only 2 other families there but it was still fun! I was like, now this is camping!
Last time we went camping it was bad there wasn't any grass or anything in the campsites it was all just 3 inches of dust. But this was nice it was a lot like Montana. We realized on this trip that we needed to be more prepared and should beef up our camping supplies. And perhaps more fully think out our meals.

It was a little chilly but not too bad. We mostly hung out at the campfire Friday night and then during the day on Saturday the men chopped all the trees that were down and stacked it at the campsite so the girls would have fire wood for girls camp. The men (and all the kids) worked really hard while the women mostly talked around the fire! The kids were all a great help.

For breakfast Big J made chocolate chip pancakes and another family had made scrambled eggs. So we all had pancakes and eggs. It was yummy.

Little C's favorite part was sitting by the fire, drinking Hot Chocolate, and throwing things into the fire.

The kids' favorite part was probably riding on the trailer! Here they all are getting on to have a ride.

Here is where they were cutting the trees into big stumps and then splitting it into smaller logs and then they would load them onto the trailer behind the jeep. The yellow thing is the splitter. It was pretty cool. I had never seen one before and thought that it would be nice to have if you lived somewhere that you had to cut firewood. Like Montana.

Here is Big J and all the kids riding in the Jeep to take a load to a campsite. It was good to see all the kids helping unload at just about every campsite! In all it was a good trip. I'm glad we went and look forward to next year.

I MADE IT!!!

2010-06-18T12:16:00.000-07:00

YAHOO!!!!
I made it!
I'm done!
I finished my biking yesterday with a 29 mile bike and then I Swam the other mile last night and then today I only had to run 5.2 miles. SO NOW I AM DONE!! It feels great and I am really glad that I did it. It made me realize that I can be working a little harder at the gym and be OK. At least until I reach my goal weight and then I can go for an easy hour and maintain.

So to recap. I Swam 2.4 miles, Ran 26.2 miles, and Biked 112 miles in 6 days and it took me a total of 16.5 hours.

I am so excited to see what the weight loss for everyone competing in the BL competition is this week. I bet we have some great numbers!

Day 4 and 5

2010-06-17T11:41:00.000-07:00

Well after my last post I then swam 88 laps in the pool that is 1.2 miles and now am halfway done with the swimming.

So then on day 4 it was much harder to get out of bed. I've had to force myself to the gym. Once I've been moving for a little while I feel better. But it is so hard to get out of bed.
Today was hard to get moving too but I had a light at the end of the tunnel because I am almost done. I keep telling myself only 2 more days. My poor family and house. My family has had some pretty lame dinners and my children are at the gym for 2 hrs at a time. And as soon as Big J gets home I have to leave to go run/walk/swim. But it almost over.

Today I finished my biking! I was only going to do 20 out of the 29 left but after 20 I thought. I can do 9 more and just be done with this part! So I did. And I'll tell you I actually feel like I have more energy now that the biking is done. Just knowing that I don't have to bike anymore made me feel so much better. After tonight when I run to the pool and finish my swimming I will only have a few miles left to run on Friday and I will be done! I am so excited!

Total I have run 19.5 miles, Biked 112 miles, and swam 1.2 miles.

My body however is freaking out because of all the calories I have been burning and so its holding on to everything. Hopefully after today I will start to see some weight loss. But It has to come off eventually so even if I don't have a big number this week. Watch out next week!

Day 2 and 3

2010-06-14T15:37:00.001-07:00

Well its Day 2 of the Iron Week and Day 3 of the Biggest Loser. I think that all this biking is going to kill me. Saturday I did my 20 mile bike ride in 76 mins and today it only took me 66 mins. So I improved there and actually shave about 2 mins off my run as well. I had to go slower with the 2nd part of my run because I split it in 2. I ran 2 and then biked 20 and then ran 2. So maybe tomorrow I will just run 4 and then bike 20 and not have to worry about my jello legs having to run after.

I usually work out for an hour a day on normal weeks and in that time I can burn usually 700 cal if I am really going. But Sat and Sun I have been at the gym for 2 hrs and I have run a total of 8 miles and biked 40 miles. CRAZY!!! I have burned at least 1300 calories per workout. I know that's insane. I've only ever done that one other time. (Back when I was skinnier and could run 5 miles at a time)

Some of you might not think that is too insane but it is for me since in the last couple weeks I have only burned about 600 per workout. I'm kind of liking it though. I feel like I'm gonna lose this weight in no time. And after I complete the Iron Week I know that I will be happy that I completed it. I'm gonna try and get it done in a total of 24 hrs or less. (which is what the real Iron Man is done in) I don't know how they can do that. I will probably be able to do it in 24 hrs but that's with sleeping at night and being able to eat all my meals. Those athletes that do it in 24 hrs are insanely fit!

The diet is going good. I haven't been starving and I have made myself a menu for 2 weeks and plan to make the other 6 weeks worth of menus soon. probably after this Iron Week is over. So far I've been too busy to be hungry so that is good.

Journal Jars

2010-06-09T17:43:00.000-07:00

Last week I completed our Journal Jars. I wanted to do these so that we could get into the habit of writing in our Journals and also for the kids to be able to practice their writing and spelling skills. We have written in them 4 days in a row now and it has been fun.
The kids for the most part enjoy doing it. I told Little D when he was complaining one time that he was doing it so that his kids would have something to read about his life and things that he felt and thought. So now every time he makes a mistake he says "great now my kids will see this!" And get upset. I told him that it was OK because they might read it when they are 7 and say hey dad wrote just like me. He is the one that is having a hard time. He hates writing because he is not very good at it. I told him that he just needs practice. Hopefully he will be writing much better by the time 2nd grade starts.
Little A thinks its great and wants to try and write every word all by herself. She does pretty good but I end up writing most of what she tells me to write. Then I have them draw a picture to illustrate their entry.
I have also been making Big J do it too. He only does his on Sunday's but at least its better than nothing. He really doesn't have time to do it more.

Getting Ready

2010-06-09T15:34:00.000-07:00

Well I am going to be participating in what we are calling an Iron Week. What is that you ask? Well, you have all heard of the Iron Man right? The race where they have to run 26.2 miles and swim 2.4 miles and bike 112 miles all in 24 hours. Ya well I'm not doing that. I am doing it in a week.

There is a big group of us that are going to try and tackle this race in a week. 24 hours just seems crazy. A week seems Do-able, hard but Do-able. I am not a biker or swimmer, or a runner for that matter but I am going to try my hardest even if I have to spend 4 hrs a day in the gym. I will complete it. The biking is the only one that worries me at all. I don't even have a bike so mine will all have to be done at the gym.

At the same time I am starting a Biggest Loser competition. So I think that the Iron Week is a great way to start my weight loss. The weight comp is going to be for 8 weeks and I hope to lose 20 lbs. Anymore than that is icing on the cake.

Wish me luck!

Butterflies

2010-05-21T10:33:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned in Little D's birthday post he got bug stuff from Grandma Moss. But before that Big J had brought home 5 caterpillars that a friend from work had brought him for the kids. So it worked out perfectly. We watched them make their cocoons and then when they were done I transferred them into the butterfly habitat. Now they have all hatched and we have 5 butterflies fluttering around in there.

Here you can kind of see them through the mesh one is out and the other 4 are in cocoons still.

I have been wondering how long we are supposed to keep them before we let them go.

We made sugar water and put it on flower heads and then cut up a strawberry and put it in the bottom. I don't know if they eat strawberries but I do know they like oranges so I figure that they are close to the same.

So anyway, Its been fun for the kids to watch and we have a coupon for more caterpillars if we want to get some later. It came with the butterfly habitat.

Do you smell Gas?

2010-05-20T16:36:00.000-07:00

So today was interesting...

Started out the day getting ready as usual, packed up the kids and headed for Costco. I had to go because we were out of Dishwasher stuff and it is the cheapest there and it was $3.50 off. So we did that, bought more than I should have because, well, lets face it, its COSTCO. And you cant go in there and leave with one thing. Its virtually impossible. We came home and I left the kids in the car and just brought in the groceries and put what needed to go into the freezer away. Then hopped back into the car and ran to the bank and Kohl's to find 2 shirts to match what I bought at Costco for Little A, pictured here...

They are the cutest tutu's I have ever seen. I wish she demanded to wear one everyday. Instead I am practically forcing her to wear them.

So anyway, we get back from that and Little C is just about asleep. We go inside for lunch, when Little C falls off his chair, so he is crying and cranky and Little A tells me that she is not hungry but instead wants to watch the Butterflies all day. So I start to get Little C some macaroni salad before he freaked out. Then Once that was done I got the trash and closed it up to take outside, when I smelled something.

I couldn't tell what it was at first. So I stood there for a min and decided that it was definitely gas. I was like what? It smelled like my oven had been turned on. (cause whenever my oven is turned on I can smell the gas before it lights) I thought to myself that this was strange because I wasn't cooking anything or had cooked anything since dinner yesterday. I looked at the oven and it was off. I even pushed the off button just in case and it didn't do anything. So I tried to call Big J. He didn't answer and so I called my Dad. I said "Dad I smell gas." He said "Open the windows and get out of the house and call the gas co." Easier said than done i found out. He said to just get the phone book and I told him that I didn't have one (I always just look up numbers on the computer) So I tried to look for a statement from them and my dad said to just get out and call 411. So we hung up and I tried 411, I said "The Gas Company " and then they connected me to PG&E. I was like there was a 411 call wasted. (That will probably cost me.) So then I called Kathy. She gave me a number and I tried to call that, I got a message of some lady and she said that if it was residential that I had to call another number. I tried calling that one and got some other weird place.

So frustrated and not knowing who else to call I called 911. I said "I'm sorry to call this number but I have a gas leak and I don't the gas company's number." He said that it was fine and transferred me to the Fire Department. When the fireman came on he took my name a number and address and I told him that it was maybe a gas leak and I didn't know who else to call. He said that he would send someone to come check it out.

After hanging up the phone I got in the car and pulled out to the street. Just in case it was gonna BLOW! And we waited in there. Meanwhile I was thinking man I hope they don't come with their sirens and lights on, its no big deal I'm sure.

This is where it gets embarrassing. I

start to hear sirens and I'm like oh Man! Little A is going "Where are those sirens going?" I was like, "Um ... here." And then like 30 seconds later I see one rounding the corner. I was like turn your lights off there is no emergency. I would have been fine with one of those little fire department trucks that the captains usually drive. But no... OH NO... They came with the cavalry. 3 Fire trucks and a Police Car!!! They went inside to check it out and then one of them came out to talk to me. He asked me If I had cooked anything and I was like not since yesterday and he was like, "Did you know that your stove burner was on?" In my head I was like "If I had would I have called you?"I was like "NO, I haven't used it since yesterday" He asked if someone else could have done it and I was like well one of the kids could have I guess. He said that it was on and that's probably what it was coming from. He said that there was a lot though and that they would fan it out and then see if that really was the problem.

I was so embarrassed. The neighbors of course were outside watching and wondering. I kept saying that this was so embarrassing and Little A kept saying STOP SAYING THAT! I was like sorry but it is!

Also when they were going inside I was a little embarrassed at the shape that my house was in. It was messy and we had been gone all morning and didn't have time to clean it up yet.

When they were done I repeatedly thanked them and told them how sorry I was. The Fireman was like "Don't worry, that's what we do. You did the right thing, there was a lot and you never know." But still I swear I looked at the stove and it all looked normal. They said that it was right in between where it would be off and lit and so it was harder to tell. But I bet he was just saying that to make me feel better.

Big J will now have fun with this incident. He is already joking about it. I asked how his day was and he said "It was alright, not as exciting as yours was!" Yea whatever! That's what I say.

Playing in the Rain

2010-05-16T19:16:00.000-07:00

The kids are always saying, "Why don't you ever let us use our umbrellas?"

Its not that I don't LET them use them, its that we never need them and if we do we never have them with us or we forget about them. So the other day it rained and we were just hanging in the house. I remembered their umbrellas and told them to go outside and play.

I think that Little C thought that it was the coolest. He only used his umbrella for the first couple mins though. Then it was just playing in the rain.

Pool Party!

2010-05-15T19:29:00.000-07:00

So today was Little D's birthday. He is now 7 years old. Man! That's crazy! So for his birthday he asked for a Watch and and Alarm Clock (which he has been begging me for for months) and Lego sets. He got all those things and more.

Little C thought that he was so cool posing just like his big brother!

We had a pool party for him and it was great. I bought him 2 disposable cameras so pics at the party will follow later after they are developed. He had about 8 other kids show up there were about 6 girls and only 2 other boys. So all Little D's girlfriends were there. We swam from 10:30 to 12 and then we had pizza, cake and opened presents. The party ended at 1pm so after presents I let them all play until their parents showed up.

The cake said Use The Force Danny! And I couldn't find anywhere that had Lego Star Wars cakes so I had them make me a cake that looked like outer space and I added some Star Wars Lego guys on top.

I also found an awesome alarm clock that looks like a GIANT Lego piece. Its awesome! Well at least I thought so.

He also got 2 models that he can build with his dad. A few books to practice his reading. A Bug catcher set that has already come to haunt me. I wish I had never suggested it to Grandma.

His watch was from Little A and she was very adamant that this was the watch. I tried to get her to chose a Transformer watch but she insisted that this was the one. But Little D loves it and so that's all that matters. His friends gave him a Lego set, gift card, dart gun, motorcycles he can paint, Nerf basketball set, marshmallow shooters, Iron man figures, and money.

** A POST INSIDE OF A POST **

DON'T BUG ME!

About the Bug Catcher Set. I thought that this would be fun for the kids to catch butterflies, ladybugs, caterpillars, and earwigs and rolly poly bugs.

In fact Little A opened it all up and was all ready to go catch bugs. She was gone about 10 mins and came back with nothing.

However fun I thought this would be for the kids, I was not factoring in their father....

Within minutes of going outside Big J comes back in with a big jumping spider! YUCK! He puts the spider into the container. After which he says to me this is the best present EVER! Then goes out to try and find food for the spider. He comes back no more than 3 mins later with a BEE!!! A bee he caught with a net and sucked up with the bug vacuum included in the set. I just about died. This was the almost cool part but still gross. After about 10 seconds of the Bee being in the canister the spider had caught him and killed him. The spider is now just sitting with the bee in its mouth. We have been waiting for him to wrap him up but so far no go.

Guys are so yucky!

Teacher Appreciation

2010-04-30T16:10:00.000-07:00

It's teacher appreciation week and this is what Little D will be giving to his teacher.

I found the idea for tissue paper flowers on One Pretty Thing. (If you don't already know what that is you should definitely go there and check it out. But only if you want to find like a billion projects that you have to do just because they are so cute.)

After finding it there I looked some more on the Internet for different variations and this is what they turned out to be. They were so cheap and easy to make. I made them a little more fun by adding Hugs and Kisses as the flower center.

I found a little dollar vase at Target and added a ribbon and there ya go.

I love right now!

2010-04-27T17:48:00.000-07:00

It is the perfect weather day. I Love this time. Late spring, when its no longer cold so no need to use your heater and its not too hot yet so there is no need to use the air. Right now it is about 77 degrees and mostly cloudy. Its perfect. I can sit in my house and have all the windows open and feel the cool breeze. I wish everyday was like this.

I also love this time of year because it is perfect for PICNICS!

I just finished my picnic basket and I am so excited to take it out on its first official picnic. I told the kids that we could go on Saturday.

I found the basket at the Home Goods store in Phoenix. I made the lining and also made a coordinating blanket and napkins. I found matching plates at Target and I was lucky to find ones that matched.
I only wish I would have put the elastic in a casing of matching fabric. But oh well. It holds forks, knives, spoons, straws, and napkins on the top. (the side that doesn't have anything in it is for the other 3 napkins that I will finish tonight.)

Here is the inside complete with a pocket for a trash bag and wipes. (cause you always should have them handy) The lining is able to be removed and washed if needed. My sister has redone a few picnic baskets and they always turn out great. You can check hers out here.

What did you do with your Saturday?

2010-04-24T18:35:00.000-07:00

What every other LDS woman does.... Ready the Garden!

Big J and I spent all day getting things ready for our Garden. We are a little late in getting things ready this year. But better late than never. So today we put up a fence to keep "Chew-bacca" out. BTW I am now referring to Cheyenne as Chewbacca because she will chew up anything if left out. And she actually looks a little like Chewbacca. Its funny because she will sit outside the gate now and whimper because she wants to be in there with everyone else.

Anyway. Big J was good enough to get that put up. Then he tilled the dirt for the 3rd time in the last month. We never seemed to get to it fast enough and soon it was rock hard again. So once that was done I started shoveling and shoveling and shoveling. Big J wants to try rows this year so I made rows by shoveling little pathways in between. Big J said that I should have made the paths smaller but I refuse to have to squeeze through the corn and other veggies. I wanted to be able to walk through without having to worry about stepping on anything.

And I am so sore from doing all that shoveling.

We also got the sprinklers hooked up and a new timer so that hopefully we wont have a repeat of last year, when the batteries went dead and killed about all my plants.

I have some seedlings that are just starting to come up and the kids are very excited to look at them each day and see how they are doing. I am going to have to plant most things from starter plants because I am starting so late but that's less work for me so its all good.

I can't wait to get my garden signs put in.

Garden Signs

2010-04-22T15:28:00.000-07:00

They are finally done! I have been wanting to make these since last summer and now they have been done. My sister Samurai Mom gave me the idea last year. All that is left to do is to coat them with a finish so they will last and then nail them to a stake.

Hopefully this weekend we will have our garden fence put up so that I can actually plant the garden and have something to put these signs in.

I printed the wording using my friends Cricut machine. And painted the veggies and flowers by hand (obviously). They are not that great but at least all the kids could tell me what were. With the exception of one..... The Pepper. I should have done beans or something easy.

Oh well. They are finished and that is all that matters.

Little A's first Graduation

2010-04-15T13:17:00.001-07:00

Yep today was the last day of Pre-School for Little A. (her teacher is having a baby in 10 days.) So today they had a little graduation. They sang the ABC's and The days of the week song. It was cute.

Miss Michelle had made them all little graduation hats and gave them all a diploma. She also gave them each a bucket filled with little toys. Little A has been outside since we got home playing with her sidewalk chalk.

I am sad to see it end. Now I will no longer have an excuse to miss Tues and Thursdays work outs. But mostly because that was the only time that I had to be able to go to the store or somewhere with only 1 child. I decided the other day that I can no longer take all 3. They all just end up fighting or something. So now I will have to only go out when Big J is home. Which might be better because it will save me money. (he is hardly home before 7pm) and then I won't feel like going out. This will work probably until Little A starts Kindergarten. She starts in the fall and I can't believe it. CRAZY!

That's one way to group date!

2010-04-12T14:32:00.000-07:00

Today Little D came home and said, "Mom, I have a meeting with the girls at Cold Stone, and I have to go."

I said, "What?"

His reply, "And dinner too so... I might be late getting back. So can I go?"

"When is it?"

"5 O' Clock" (and yes he said O clock)

"Where else are you going?"

"Lillia's Grandma's house and then Cold Stone"

"What day is this happening?"

"Saturday, every Saturday."

I think that I just went into the future 10 yrs!

A Crazy 3 Hours

2010-04-07T18:17:00.000-07:00

This evening was crazy, Little C decided to stop eating his dinner and have a good cry. A 45 minute break down over apparently nothing. After he finally stopped crying we had to rush out of our house to take a meal into a fellow sister, stop at the store for bread on the way and on the way home, pick up cookies for a funeral tomorrow. After we got home the dog decided to race across the busy street to freak the neighbor kids half to death. Then just when I thought that I had her on the way inside she spotted the birds that have been nesting in our bark and decided to chase it half way down the block. Then Little A got her fingers pinched in a door, and I found Little C's bowl of popcorn thrown in his little potty. And its only 6:30pm.

Is it bed time yet?

And even after they are finally in bed I just know that Little D will come out about 5 times to "tell" me something. However once he comes out and I say what? he will say,"hmmm.... let me think".

Is it tomorrow yet?

Hair too...

2010-04-07T18:04:00.000-07:00

Along with putting food in his ears he has been also doing this.

I looked over after dinner the other day and saw that he had put his noodles on his head. I know that a lot of kids do this at times but it was just funny the way that he would apply the noodles.

After I saw this, I watched him discretely (I pretended to be looking at the pictures that I had already taken) for a little while and saw his technique. He will slowly pick up a noodle and gently place it on his head then the next noodle would start to go on his head, only he would change his mind and put it up to his ear. At this point he saw me watching and put the noodle back into his bowl. And flashed me this smile.

Little stinker. Yesterday we had Dutch Puff and he had rubbed his syrupy hands all over his head. It looked like he has slicked it down with oil or like his hair was glued to his head.

There is a first time for Everything

2010-03-25T13:00:00.000-07:00

I guess. I have never actually done this before.

I always washed this with the reds. Never had a problem until today and I think that the items pictured below were the culprits.

I thought that I had washed these once before but apparently not. Oh, well. He was probably getting to big for it anyway. And Little D's neckline of this shirt is now pink too. But I know that he was too big for this one.

Do I have mascara...

2010-03-24T18:58:00.000-07:00

On my head? YES!! I caught him putting on my mascara yesterday. He missed by a mile! In these pictures he is sad because he knew he was caught and was not happy about it. Come to think of it Little A did this same thing, only she was about 3 and actually got it in the right vicinity. Typical male, doesn't have a clue as to where mascara goes.

When will it end?

2010-03-21T08:23:00.000-07:00

This faze of stuffing his ears? Last night I found ground hamburger in his ears. That was a little more concerning, only because it can break up easily. What if pieces of food get stuck in there. Or if they are too far in to come out?

Little C

2010-03-19T08:04:00.000-07:00

Little C has just realized that running is cool and fun. He had been able to run for a while now but its like he just got it. It just clicked in his head that this is fun and fast and I can keep up.(for the most part) So now he runs everywhere.
He also is in to putting stuff in his ears. No just stuff, but bread. Yep when I give him a piece of bread to snack on he ends up breaking off little pieces and tries to stuff it in his ears. The other day I was holding him and glanced at his ears and they were full of bread. I thought what in the world happened? Then the other day I caught him trying to fill his ears up. Silly boy.

Is he in there?

2010-03-18T08:03:00.000-07:00

Wanted.... Suspect is tricky, naughty, and considered to be the most allusive of creatures. There is speculation as to the size of this suspect. He has a beard and a green suit and top hat. He is attracted to shiny objects and a certain cereal. There will be a reward if found and caught. WARNING! He may play tricks!

I hope everyone had a fun St. Patrick's day. We did. We don't really celebrate this holiday but today on the way home from swimming at the gym Little D asked if we could try and catch a Leprechaun. I told him that maybe after dinner we could. So at 5pm here I am whipping up a Leprechaun trap. I found this trap idea on Family Fun's website. And no matter what Big J thinks, I knew that saving these lemonade containers would come in handy.

So in about 15 mins this is what we came up with.

Here is the sign that we used to trick that naughty Leprechaun into our trap. Cause everyone knows that they love to do things that are against the rules.

This is our bait. Lucky Charms of course.

We set our trap at the top of the slide, and went inside to peek out the blinds and wait. Later we saw that the bait was gone and went out to investigate. Little A reached the top of the slide first and was scared to look in. When Little D got up he looked and found that there was no Leprechaun but instead a note that read, "He, He, He you can't catch me!" and a gold coin.

Then Little A found more coins leading away from the trap. We decided that he must have gotten a hole in his pocket and as he ran away the coins were falling out. We followed the trail that lead to a hole in our fence.

Here is our loot! We decided that next year we will make a better trap and try again.

Updated

2010-03-13T13:24:00.000-08:00

I added pictures to THIS post.

Did you call a plumber?

2010-03-12T08:52:00.000-08:00

***This post is not for people with weak stomachs***

So every time something breaks I wonder if we are going to have to call someone to come out and fix it. Like when the hot water on the washer wouldn't come out or when the shower wont unclog. But every time I call Big J and ask what to do and he just says that he will fix it when he gets home. And he usually does.

So yesterday the kitchen sink clogged up. This has never happened before and I hadn't put anything big in it or anything. All I did was start the dishwasher and later saw water rising in the sink. When I called Big J he told me to plunge it. I tried but had no success. So I just left it for Big J. Later when he got home he tried to plunge it and also couldn't get it. So he went to the store and bought a 25ft snake thing. ($40) And tried to get the clog out. But still couldn't get it.

While talking to a friend (who happens to be a plumber) he was told that he would need at least 50 ft. So he offered to come and fix it for us. While we were waiting for him to get here Big J just couldn't help to keep trying. He said that our friend said that a lot of people try to get a plug thing off and end up breaking it because they don't know how. So what does Big J do? He tries to get it off. I kept telling him that he needs to wait and let the professional handle it, but that only made him try harder I think. Men are so funny.

This is Big J NOT being patient. Waiting for the plumber.

Big J's Plumber butt! He He

This came out when He opened the Plug thing. GROSS!

When our friend arrived he brought in, what I call, the BIG DADDY SNAKE! He did say that there was an even bigger one but thought that this would do. But compared to Big J's this was much bigger. He had the drain unclogged in about 10 mins.

Here is the Big Daddy Snake compared to Big J's

Big J was a little upset that he spent $40 on a tool that wouldn't even work. I guess you can't always just go out and buy the right tool. I know I know Big J has just about every other tool in the world. (Every time he has to fix/make something there is another special tool that he needs) And the one that our friend used was like $1000 or so. So I wonder if buying the tools evens out to the amount that the service repair people and others would cost.

BTW

2010-03-12T08:04:00.000-08:00

I was a part of my first garage sale the other day and earned a little extra cash. My friends neighborhood was having one and asked me if I had some things to add. So that is why I cleaned out the attic. After we packed up the unwanted items and headed home I saw a sign on the entry to the neighborhood that read "Block Garage Sale"!

So I had just hauled all this stuff over to my friends and back when I could have just stuck it in the driveway. Why was I not informed? Oh well no big deal. It was more fun to sit there with a friend than to sit by myself anyway.

I plan to take all the "unwanteds" to the Goodwill some time. Hopefully it doesn't sit there for years until the next garage sale.

It's like you're flying!

2010-03-11T15:50:00.000-08:00

Little A learned how to swing all by herself today! She came home from school and just started swinging. I didn't even have to get her going. I asked her how she learned and she said at Pre-school. So Thank You Miss Michelle for teaching Little A how to "pump". She must have been daydreaming whenever I tried to teach her. I was tired of pushing her in the swing for all of our park trips. As I'm sure you were tired of pushing all those 4 and 5 yr olds.

I went to take a picture of her swinging and the camera battery was dead so now I'll have to try and remember to get one on here later.

Also needed is a picture of Little D and his toothless smile. He has now lost both his front teeth. He looks silly and talks with a lisp/whistle now. And before I know it he will be in braces I'm sure. They grow so fast and now all Little A talks about is when she will lose her teeth.

(This is Little C's favorite place lately. He sits there and eats right from the pretzel bag)

As for Little C, he has been wanting to sit on the potty. He doesn't ever go, but at least he isn't afraid of it. Hopefully in the next couple months I will be diaper free!

Cleaning Out!

2010-03-05T16:30:00.000-08:00

I cleaned out the attic today. Found some interesting things up there. First I found an ice cream maker that I thought we had, but could never find. Then I found all these board games. We have 2 of a lot of games. Mostly because they were in the attic and forgot we had them. Some of the ones in the attic still have the plastic on the box. Never been opened. But the funniest thing I found was A box labeled Bathroom Misc.

Now I had seen this box a couple of times up there but it was so heavy, I gave up trying to get it out. But today I was determined to see what was in that box. I knew that I wouldn't be able to get it down, so when I was able to pull it close enough to me to get it opened I was excited. I opened it and this is what I found.

I was like What?

There were 16 bottles of perfume/cologne/body sprays,

8 bottles of sunscreen, Like 5 different lotions,

6 different shower gels,

A bunch of baby lotions and shampoos, Epsom salts, Empty bottles, Toilet bowl cleaner, and other misc. things.

I have no idea why this box was put in the attic. It was clearly labeled Bathroom. When we moved in why didn't we put all that stuff under the counter where it belonged. Instead 6 years later we have it taking up space in the attic. Well at least we did. I have thrown away some of it and the usable stuff I kept and put under the sink where it will probably stay for 6 more years. Well, hopefully not. Hopefully I use it.

Little A's Tree

2010-03-03T18:03:00.000-08:00

Is finally done! I just finished moving all of her stuff back into her room. This was a major undertaking. It started when I saw a blog where a lady had painted this in her guest room. Her tree was perfect but nowhere to be found so I went to the best artist I know, My MOM! She whipped me up this tree in no time. I first painted her whole room light green. Its called apple slice. Then I decided that there was too much green. So I painted one wall cream. It totally soaks in the green from the other 3 walls and looks great. Next came the hard part.

How to get the tree from an 8x10 to the wall? The lady who had done this on her blog said that she borrowed one from the local school. (I don't know where she lived, but they done loan those out here!) So I searched high and low for an overhead projector. No where rents them. On place said, "Well, we sell them." I was like I only need one for about an hour. I was about to call my mother and tell her that she was gonna have to come down here and re-draw it on the wall this time. Luckily for her one of the kindest families I know said that he had one that hooked up to a laptop and projected it on the wall, and he was willing to lend it to me.

Little A was the Photographer. This is me tracing the tree onto the wall.

After I had the projector it went so fast I was done tracing it in about an hour. I was so excited and relieved that it was done that I started calling everyone. I was so grateful to Mr. Fordham for letting me borrow his projector. I painted the first coat the next day.

This is painting the leaves. Every once in a while I would step back and squeel!

Here it is after the first coat.
It took a little while because to do the leaves I had to use a small paintbrush. Then I had to let it dry and painted the second and final coat today.

Second coat.

Here is a picture of her bed under the tree. I will eventually get her a white bed. But for now she is using the top to the boy's bunk bed. Until Little C is ready for a "Big Boy" bed. He could probably use it now but then I would "have" to buy Little A a new bed.

I am so grateful to everyone that helped me get this project done. I am still working on her room though. I have 2 white shelves to hang and some wooden butterflies that I need to repaint. Then, it will be finished. Oh and some sheer curtains to go with the purple.

Thanks Again!

Completed!

2010-02-20T09:30:00.000-08:00

Finally! I have had this stuff hanging around for about a year. I finally made Little A her Bow holder. It was so easy and quick too. I don't know why it took me so long to finish. But at least it is done now. It help us remember to use the bows too. We would always forget that she had them before but now we can see them all and thus we remember.

Also done is....

I have wanted to put flowers in pots out front for a long time, and I finally did. I was at Costco the other day and they had these awesome pots. They were only 20 bucks. So i bought 2 for the front and now I think that I will buy a few more and plant my herbs in one and maybe a tomato plant in one. Or maybe just more flowers. But to get pots that big are not very cheap, so when I saw them I had to get them. So then Monday Little A went with me to Lowe's and helped pick out the flowers.

This one looks pretty sparse but it will fill in eventually. That is if I don't kill them before it has a chance.

In the works.....

Little A's newly painted room. (which is going to be awesome! I hope)
This years Garden prep

Happy 100!

2010-02-19T09:47:00.000-08:00

Its my 100th post on this blog!!!

I know I have had this blog a while and I should have way more than 100 posts but hey. What can you do. I have been in a rut as far as blogging goes, but I think that I'm free of that for a while.

So more exciting news!

Big J and I are thinking about going on a Cruise!!! I have never been on a cruise and think that it would be awesome. It will be our Honeymoon. We have been married for 8 years this June and we still haven't taken a Honeymoon. I know lots of people are the same way. And since we are not going to be going to MT this year. We need to find somewhere else to go. I asked Big J what he wanted to do for vacation and he said maybe a cruise.

So now we have to find Cruise that we want to take. So if there is anyone out there that has been on one and has any suggestions that would be great. We have only 2 criteria that has to be met. One is it has to be Tropical, that way it will be warm and we can snorkel. And 2 is that it has to be relaxing! So I am open for ideas.

I hope that by putting this out there it wont be ruined and that we will end up going. Maybe this will help us to actually do it. Since its on the net now, we have to go right?

Febuary so far...

2010-02-18T09:02:00.000-08:00

So our February has been nice so far. For Valentines day Big J bought me a Serger! Which is greatly appreciated. I have been taking a "break" from sewing lately but I am glad to have it for when I start up again. It will get used a lot over the years I'm sure.

Aunt Nessa made the Valentine suckers this year and it was really nice of her. She probably made about 100 suckers. And as the families get bigger it will be an even bigger task. They are a tradition in our family and have been handing them out to our friends since I can remember. I don't remember a Valentines party where the suckers were not looked forward too. I remember my mother making suckers for about a week or so before Valentines day non stop.

Here is a picture of one. They are marshmallow on one side and cinnamon on the other. Its the perfect mix.

The kids love them. THANKS NESSA-FACE!!!

I've noticed that some of the funnest times in school are taken away these days. Like the Valentines day party. Poor Lil D had only 1 hour for his party. When I was in school it was a whole day event. We would make our shoe box mailbox at home and bring it to school and some years we would have a reading day we would bring our pillows and blankets and get to lay on the floor and read all day. Or we would get a movie day and watch a movie and eat popcorn and candy. It was so fun! We would walk around and pass out the valentines. Most were home made. It was always so fun and we looked forward to it. I'm not saying that kids still don't look forward to it. Its just not the same. Now they are barely willing to give up an hour. Where is the fun people? Maybe its just here in California. Maybe in my Montana its still the same. I can hope.

It's been over a month!

2010-02-17T08:37:00.000-08:00

I know! I have been awful at blogging lately. But to be fair neither is anyone else. But no I have thought about it but every time I get on here I just didn't feel like doing it. So here is what our January looked like.

We went up to the snow again. But this time there was TONS of snow! It was past our knees. It was so pretty on all the trees that I couldn't stop saying how pretty it was. Big J was saying that it was like I had never seen snow before. But to be fair it had been a long time since I had seen this much pretty, white, fresh snow.

So we played for a while and then we had a BBQ. Here is Big J using a Popsicle stick found in the glove box as a spatula. We brought everything except one of those. Don't worry it wasn't some old used stick. It was one you can get for crafting. So it was all good.

And I have to mention that all the people that were there before us were telling us that you couldn't sled because the snow was too deep and you just sink. They were wrong. You just needed some guys paving the way a couple times. We made an awesome hill and by the time we left everyone was using it.

When we decided it was time to go home we loaded up the truck with snow. It seems to be the thing to do. When you are driving up you see all these trucks with snow in the back, on their way down. I'm not sure if it was fun to have all the snow or how long it lasted, since it went to our friends house. But I'm sure that their girls had fun playing in it when it. Since it was much warmer in town than it was in the mountains.

And the rest of January was just another month. Not a lot happening.

New year! New Goals!.... Maybe not.

2010-01-06T12:20:00.000-08:00

(Get a Wordle Here)

Yes it is a new year and yes there are goals but I don't think that they are much different than last year. I was looking at my post from last January and was surprised at how much I didn't get done last year. Like my goal to lose all the baby weight. I lost most of it but then gained some during the Holidays. So that is one that is the same. To lose the last 20 lbs.

Also going to bed at 10 and getting up at 6 is super hard for me. I am a night owl. I am so not a morning person. Maybe I will try that one again. We will see. However, it would help the scripture study goal.

Also to be more diligent in having F.H.E.

Reading the scriptures to my children. (If anyone has any tips on how to keep a 6 and 4 yr old interested let me know)

Be a better house keeper.

Be a better wife and do more "wifey" things IE; Iron, make lunches, make dinner all the time, get the clean laundry in the closet and drawers before they are worn again.

So there are just a few. But there are about a million ways I can think of to work on. The list never ends.

Sometimes its so simple

2010-01-06T11:40:00.000-08:00

I was talking with a friend at the gym yesterday and telling her how I was having a hard time getting Little D to want to read. I think that he knows more than he thinks/shows because if he gets mad enough at me telling him to read it he will read it just fine. It always ends in a yelling match or me getting tired of trying and saying "OK fine. I'm done." Which only ends in more tears because if you know Little D then you know that he is a pleaser. And he will cry more because he wants to do it. Anyway, its been hard and I don't even want to sit and have him try anymore. Sometimes I wonder if he is dyslexic or has some other problem that I don't know about. My friend said that its normal for kids to switch letters around until about 3rd grade and I knew that because I've told it to friends before. But I was trying to find some reason that this was so difficult for him.

She told me that her daughter was the same way and that she hated reading because it was so stressful. Then she did the following and it was a lot better. She asked me if I read to him. I told her yes but not the books that he was trying to read. She suggested that I first read him the book and make it fun with voices and other things. And then give Little D a turn to do the funny voices. She said to try and make it stress free and fun. And if he came to a word he didn't know to just tell him and move on. (I always make him try and sound it out) I thought... How did I not think of that? Its so simple. I guess I was just focusing on getting it done.

So last night before bed I told him to go get a book and he did. Not without yelling at me telling me that he was NOT READING ANYTHING! First I read the Curious George story and used voices and tried to make it sound fun. (Big J is better at voices and fun than I am) But it totally worked. After I said, "Now its your turn." At first he was telling me no and throwing a little tantrum but then I told him that when he got to the parts where people were talking he could make up a funny voice he was more on board.

He read the entire book. There were times in the story that there were 2 or so pages with no talking and I thought for sure he would give up. But he didn't. There were also times when I thought maybe I'll just read this page and let him read the page with the voices. But I didn't. He loved it. When he was finished he went back through making up the story and voices trying to make it funny.

I also told her about how anytime I tell him to do something he yells and says I KNOW!!! Or I CAN'T DO IT ALL! I'll ask him to change his clothes and get his shoes on and he will reply I KNOW! To which I want to say, "Then why aren't you doing it?" She then suggested that I try not to make it a command. And basically to phrase it differently and let him be more responsible.

So this morning I said to him after he was done eating, "I know that you know what you need to do to get ready for school right?" He said yes and I said "OK then." He came out later and had his shoes and socks on but hadn't changed his shirt. I asked him if he forgot anything and he was like, "No." I said, "Didn't you wear that shirt yesterday?" He then went to change it. I went by his room later and noticed he still hadn't changed his shirt. (he was looking at a Curious George book) I told him that he still needed to change his shirt and I got, "I KNOW!" So it didn't work perfectly but it was better. Maybe a few more times and he really will be able to get ready all by himself.

He did say that he had never read the book he was looking at before. So I told him we would read it tonight. And I didn't get a tantrum.

Its funny how sometimes all it takes is for someone to say, "Hey! Try this" In order for you to see how simple it can be.

The "Incident"

2009-12-29T21:10:00.000-08:00

Well this year I have been crazy with making all sorts of goodies for friends. Like today I made Almond Joy Balls. I thought that since it was almost time for my diet to start that I would make them today. They made so many I was looking for people to give them to. And I still have more. So watch out you may be getting a plate if you live near by. BTW here is a picture of them. Don't they look yummy?

Left is the Double Chocolate Oreo Truffle, Middle is the White Chocolate Almond Joy Ball, Right is the Chocolate Almond Joy Ball.

So anyway back to the "incident". Last week before Christmas I made a whole bunch of different goodies and divided them up for some of Big J's work friends and some other families in our ward. Well I had 10 plates to take around and I had the kids delivering some to houses of people they knew. We went to on of our friends we know through Jeremy's work and I told the kids to wait in the car.

We had never been there before and we were all admiring their Lights and Lawn ornaments. IE; a Blow up Santa and light up candy canes. We parked in front and I got out and went bounding up the lawn. Just as I got to the sidewalk... The next thing I know is that my foot is still on the lawn and my arm is in the air and I am going DOWN!. It was like a slow motion movie clip. So I crash and burn on the side walk and the cookies and treats go flying. I turn around to see what I had tripped over and realize that it was the Blow up Santa's cord that I tripped over. I thought,'They should tape that down! Someones likely to trip!' But then quickly realized that it was clearly my fault because I went through the grass and you can't tape cords down on grass.

Luckily I had covered the cookies with wrap so none of them came out. (that would have been horrible) But they got all jumbled up. So I unwrapped them and re placed them on the plate. Then knocked on the door like nothing had happened. No one (that I know of) saw me go down. Except...

When I got to the car I asked the kids if they saw me fall and Little D said, "Yes! I saw the Santa shake too!" Needless to say my knees hurt for a while and I still have 2 big bruises. One on each knee. I haven't been able to wear short skirts to church for 2 weeks.

Later I got to another friends house and they had shoes all over the front door step. They were like, "Sorry about the tripping hazards". And I was like, "No big deal, already tripped once." Then told them the story. Told my husband later and he eventually told the friend who's house it was. I was later teased for tripping over Santa. But that's OK. I would have told them right after it happened but I didn't want my friend to feel bad.

Anyway, I do clumsy stuff all the time. Its no big deal. Just another funny story to tell.

A Whole New Cheyenne!

2009-12-29T13:18:00.000-08:00

WOW! I new she needed a haircut! I have been wanting to take Cheyenne in somewhere and get her hair trimmed and nails cut for a while now but I just hadn't done it. But today I got fed up with not being able to see her eyes that I had to take her in. I called a few friends and they suggested Petco. They said that they are fast and good and that the dog always smells yummy afterwards. So I took her in and MAN you would not believe the difference.

They kept asking me what I wanted to do to her and All I could say was make her look cute. We had never had a dog let alone one that needed its hair cut. The lady was probably not used to my indecisiveness because everyone else in there was telling them exactly what they wanted. She asked me about a beard and eyebrows and how short and I was just like HUH? I told them that I wanted to see her eyes and so I left hoping that when we got back she wouldn't look silly.

(I can't believe that she looked this bad! I hope that this is just one of those pictures where they are trying to make you look bad)

Luckily they took pictures so I have for you these before and after pictures. It was so funny there was a lady in there that after looking at the pictures didn't believe that it was the same dog. They even gave me a framed picture of her and put little bows by her ears! SO cute! It was nice to once again get complements on how cute she is. I might just have to do it sooner than every 4 months!

She is now six months and is officially able to go on walks. Even though she has been running with me a few times already. Shes grown a lot and now weighs about 31 lbs. I hope she stops growing now.

2009-12-28T10:26:00.000-08:00

Saturday Dec 26Th was our first Official trip to see the snow! We have lived here for almost 7 years and have never been to the mountains to see the snow. So Saturday we got all packed up borrowed some sleds and started up. We took Cheyenne cause we thought that she would have fun. I just want to say now. Note to self: Self, don't take your dog to the snow! When going up the mountains on curvy roads they get sick! Yep. Anyway, All the way up there I was thinking where is the snow. When we finally got there there was snow. It was pretty crusty but it was snow. There were a lot of people there so we walked into the woods a little bit and found our own little spot.

The picture doesn't do this hill justice. It was a little bigger than portrayed. The kids had fun on this hill though. It was just the right size that I didn't get tired going up it over and over.

Here is Little D going down!

Little C was the only one not having a good time. It could have been the fact that the smallest boots I had were size 9 and he is in a 5.5. I thought that I had smaller ones but I guess not.

Here is Little A on her first trip down by herself. She looks a little scared. But she had right to be cause this is what happened next.

She went back down though.

See, its all good!

Little C cheered up too. He hated the sled ride up. Funny kid, maybe he can pull me up. I would've loved it.

Later I found a bigger hill but we needed to pave the way down. And as you can see Cheyenne was having plenty of fun chasing us.

Here is Big J making a path.

Now that there was a path Big J was giving rides down. Little A was not scared but Little D was.

Cheyenne chasing Little A and Big J.

And of course we made Little D go down. Later when we asked him what his favorite part was he said riding on Daddy's back.

Little D ready to go back.

Little C liked the ride down back to the car better for sure.

I got Cheyenne to sit in the sled for a picture but immediately jumped out as soon and pictures were done.

It was a pretty fun trip to the snow. I told the kids that we will have to go back after it has snowed a bit more. Maybe then we can make snowmen.

Christmas Time Was Here!

2009-12-27T18:51:00.000-08:00

Twas the night before Christmas... We were invited over to a house of our friends for dinner. (just happened to be the scene of an incident a week earlier. I will tell at the end of this blog post) It was nice to be able to go over there and celebrate. The kids decorated cookies, they were supposed to be for Santa but we found it hard to get any to save for him. They all just wanted to eat them. We ate and watched a little of the "Christmas Story" and ate some apple pie. Then we took the kids home, spread out the reindeer food, set out the remaining cookies and sent them to bed. We had to wait a while to make sure they were asleep for Santa to come cause I know how Little D likes to get up 10 times to tell us something. Once Santa had come I snapped this picture and went to bed.

Little D woke up first at 6:30 am which isn't bad considering some kids get up at say, 4 am. Once the other kids were awake we let them go to town. They were all happy with their gifts. I took a picture of Little D and his excitement when he opened his present from Santa.

It was Star Wars Clone Wars Wii game with light saber controllers.

Little A got just about everything Tinkerbell and has been very happy with her dress ups she got and make-up that Santa gave her.

Little C got 2 ride on toys and has been very protective of them. He is getting better at no crying when on of his siblings gets on them. Big J received 2 ties one was a reindeer tie (Little D picked out) and the other was black and blue (from Little A). He also got a CTR tie tack that Little A picked out also. I received a iHome Alarm clock to go with my Ipod touch that I got for my Birthday.

Later we invited some friends of ours over for dinner. I took a picture of the tables cause they looked to pretty.

We had a good time together and again it was fun to spend the Holiday with friends. Well I hope that everyone had a wonderful Christmas. We had a good Christmas here. And we are grateful for all the gifts that we received from everyone this year! Love You All!

Little A's Song

2009-12-23T16:51:00.000-08:00

Watch Little A sign her first Christmas Carol!

Craft Fair Turnout

2009-12-20T19:49:00.000-08:00

Well there was a pretty good turn out for our annual craft fair. It was 3 days of fun and then a whole lot of headache. Only because I was in charge of finding out how much everyone made and dividing up the money. I had done it so many times. I was going crazy when Big J comes over and says (in not so many words),"Why don't you just add this and this and then divide it all by this?" I was like GET OUT OF HERE! Here I had been working on it for like ever and he marches in with his "why don't you do it the easy way" attitude. Which poses the question. Why do Women complicate things so much? I'm sure not all women do, but I certainly do. ARGGGHH! But no in all seriousness I really was grateful that he was able to look at it and find an easier way. Cause I was going nuts! So next year I nominate Big J to do that job. And I'll work on the crafting.

I didn't do super well. But no worries. I have lots of ideas for next year and now that I have one under my belt I know what to expect. Here are pictures of most my table. We tried to take pictures in between customers looking at the tables and so there isn't a picture of all my stuff.

This first one is of most my things. There are the nursing covers and the purses. Not pictured are the Tutu's or the key chains.

The next picture is on more nursing covers and purses but mostly my friends bows that sold pretty well. She does have pretty cute ones. So you will have to stay tuned for next year because I have a lot of new ideas. A lot of people have actually been talking about wanting to do one in the spring or summer months. We will have to see about that.

Craft Fair 2009

2009-12-02T16:00:00.000-08:00

So I am going to be in the 5th annual craft fair! I'm really excited. I hope lots of people come and I hope that I sell some stuff. So if you haven't heard from me in a while its because I have been madly sewing and sewing and sewing! My dining room table has been covered with all sorts of sewing paraphernalia.

Before we left for AZ Big J asked me if I was going to clean it up and I said "When we get back I only have 3 days of sewing left before the craft fair! I don't have time to get it all back out." So now I am pretty much done. I have a few things that I can still sew but I'm taking a break. My house has been a disaster! With all the Christmas boxes out and the house half decorated. With stuff all over the place I hope no one stops by. Today I was able to clean it up a little bit so that is nice.

So the craft fair, for those that don't already know, is Thurs. Dec 3rd from 5-9 pm. Fri. Dec 4th from 10 am to noon. and then Sat. Dec 5th from noon to 5pm. So tell everyone you know to come. There is no entrance fee and there is going to be a lot of good stuff!

Thanksgiving

2009-12-02T15:10:00.001-08:00

This Thanksgiving was spent at my brothers house in Arizona. Queen Creek to be exact. If you don't know where that is there is a good reason. ITS OUT IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE! Well.... almost. Its past Phoenix, past Tempe, Past Mesa, Past Gilbert and Chandler then Queen Creek. I remember the first time we went there. We got to Phoenix and I remember thinking "Yes! We're there!" But no. Once you get to Phoenix you still have to drove about 45 mins to and hour to get to his house.

But every time we go its cool. We saw some old friends from when we were first married. That was cool. Also this year my parents and my little brother were able to come down too. It was nice to be with family for the holiday.

One night we went to a Birthday BBQ that one of our old friends threw for his son. While my family went to some theme type park to play. Only they didn't leave us anyway to get into the house. I called to see if there was a spare but they said no. Then Jessica, my bros wife, said that my brother always breaks in through the upstairs window. She said that he climbs on top of the patio and that the window was open. So here we are at about 8:30 pm and no way in so we decided to try and break in. The patio was higher than I remembered and found myself wondering how in the world my brother gets up there by himself! But then I remember that my brother is insanely extreme. He probably gets up without any difficulty at all. So we decided that Big J wouldn't be able to climb up himself and decided that I would climb onto the BBQ and Big J would push me up the rest of the way.

Well it worked and found myself on top of the patio trying to get the screen off the window. It took me about 5 mins to get it off, all the while freaking out because their neighbor was in his backyard and I am sure that he could see me. The Kids were so funny. They kept saying "Why are we trying to break in?" we kept trying to quiet them not wanting the neighbors to hear and call the police. So once I finally got up to the Patio Little A was crying and Little D said to his Daddy, "That's Dangerous!"

Getting into the window proved to be a little harder than expected too. There were a whole bunch of books and other stuff stacked up next to the window and the blinds were down. I was a little scared that the neighbor would hear that for sure, even though he was already probably watching me, anyway... I got in and let the rest of the family in. Little D said that he was scared that the helicopter was coming to get me. I guess there was a helicopter flying around that he could see off in the distance. Later I noticed that I had 2 huge bruises on my thighs from climbing in the window. They still haven't gone away. They were pretty bad bruises.

Its funny cause every time we go to Phoenix I always want to move there. I don't know what it is. But I always feel like if we packed up and moved there I would be OK with that. Which is funny since its no secret that I want to be closer to my family, and that isn't any closer. Well it is closer to my Brother and Sister, but not the Grandparents.

On Thanksgiving when we were eating we all went around the table and said what we were thankful this year. I said I was thankful my husband had a good job. Big J said that he was grateful for healthy kids. The kids didn't say much.... they were too busy chomping on turkey legs!

Well I think that this post is long enough and I will stop there. I only have one more thing to say and that is "WHY ISN'T THERE A HOBBY LOBBY HERE?!? ITS LIKE MY MOTHER SHIP!"

It's Handy, To Have A Handy-man Husband

2009-11-12T23:07:00.000-08:00

Look what Big J built me! There used to be 2 empty indents there. Now there is tons more storage! There is still not enough storage in this house. Which makes me wonder if ANYONE ever has enough storage? Or no matter what size house you have, you find more than enough to fill it? Either way I'm grateful for a husband that spends his days off trying to improve our home.

On the left is most our food storage. On the right is the entertainment equip. ... and our vacuum and shampooer!

The Amazing Little C!

2009-11-07T09:38:00.000-08:00

Here is a trick that Little C has mastered. The art of sleeping upright. He will be sitting quietly in the shopping cart or eating lunch/dinner at the table and without warning you will only turn your head for a second and..... this is what happens.

(This picture was taken by my Dad while we were in Ross)

He does this all the time. Most of the time when he does it at the table he is mid bite and has a whole mouth full of food left.

(This picture was taken today at lunch)

In this picture we were in the WinCo parking lot. 2 mins. earlier while I was loading the groceries from the cart onto the cashiers belt the lady behind us told me that he was asleep! He was sitting straight up like the earlier picture, so I put my purse there to use as a pillow.

ANOTHER HALLOWEEN!

2009-11-06T09:29:00.000-08:00

This year we had a Clone Trooper, Tinker Bell, and a Dragon! But I must admit that my enthusiasm for Halloween wasn't as it should have been. I only made Little A's costume and by the time I was done with that all my Halloween Spirit was gone. Plus Little D was insistent on being a Clone Trooper and I didn't want to make one of those.

But the kids had fun and we were able to go to the church Trunk-Or-Treat. First they played little games and there was food to eat.

Little C had colored chocolate dripping down his chin and onto his costume. That was my first mistake, letting him have that first bag of M&M's. I was very grateful for Bro. Krumm for handing out Cheetos instead of candy. I would rather give Little C Cheetos than candy.

This was the first year that we let Little D run around with his friends by himself. He was pretty excited. Big J took Little A around to all the cars.

Needless to say we now have too much candy hanging around and all the kids are addicted. Little C brings me candy after candy wanting me to open it. We have caught him a few times with a candy bar eating and squeezing it through the wrapper. He must have a hidden stash somewhere.

Lost Treasures!

2009-10-27T08:45:00.000-07:00

So while clearing a space for the baby clothes in the attic I was wondering what was in all the boxes up there anyway. I opened 3 while I was up there and was totally surprised! I found one was full of dishes like 2 casserole dishes, 2 bread pans, 3 cake pans, a set of tart pans, a snow cone maker, a little food processor, and a nice set of glass serving bowls. Not to mention in the other boxes were stuffed with candles and towels and stuffed animals!

I have no idea what I am keeping all this stuff for, so I will probably be having a garage sale in the near future.

There are 2 big suitcases up there that I'm sure that there is stuff inside. I didn't get them down because I am terrified of spiders and I just knew that there were probably spiders on those. They were the closest things to the wall. So maybe one day I will get someone to go up there and look for me. It will be just my luck that once they do they will find that all that is in there are BABY CLOTHES!!!! Maybe I will be lucky and it will be clothes for me. And they will miraculously fit me too!

Space Bags

2009-10-26T08:22:00.000-07:00

(Oh and I have never gotten a space bag to be that flat. Its always got bumps and lumps!)

This last Saturday was spent cleaning out Little A's room. Before you couldn't even open the closet doors. But Now I have cleaned it all out and have her book shelf in there. I re arranged her whole room. Now she has a little more room to play around in. So what was taking up all the space in her closet and in Little D's closet as well? BABY CLOTHES!!

Its so frustrating because I have all these baby clothes from Little A but no where to put them. Little D has a lot too but at least I am using them for Little C. When I'm not sure when or if we plan on having more kids it frustrating. So I'm just not sure what to do with them all. If I keep all Little A's stuff and we have another and its a boy. Then what? Do I still keep all my girl stuff in case of another or by that time is the gap too great?

So I was trying to figure out how to store these and thinking that I needed them to take up less space so I thought that I would try space bags. Has anyone ever tried these before? I bought some like 2 years ago and only like 2 of them held the air out. The others seemed to slowly refill with air. I don't know what that was about. but its an awesome concept. So I thought that maybe I had just gotten a bad batch and went and bought another set from Costco. I noticed that the valve thing is different. So I am hoping that they would do what the others have done and re fill. After having them sealed for a day though it looked like they were getting air back in again. I re vacuumed them and now they seem fine. So I am wondering? Is this common practice to have to vacuum them and then wait and then do it again? Or am I doing something else wrong?

I'm hoping that they will work because now I have all Little A's clothes under her bed and all Little D and C's clothes will go in the attic. By the way, I cleared a space for them on Saturday. And I found a gold mine of stuff that I don't even remember having!

Are you 6 or 16?

2009-10-20T11:23:00.001-07:00

(Photo by Kim Anderson)

So when my Mom was here we asked Little D how school was and he gave the usual answer,"Fine". Then we asked him who his friends were.
He named a few and then said, "Oh and Isabella" I was trying to figure out who she was when he followed with, "I'm going to marry her!"
Mom and I both started laughing and then I asked him why he was going to marry her.
He said, "Cause she's so cute!"
We were still chuckling and said,"Oh, O.K." We told him that since she wasn't a member he was going to have to baptize her so he could marry her in the Temple. He said," I know."

Then fast forward to Yesterday when I asked him how Isabella was doing. He says with a sigh,"Oh, alright." Then there was a long pause. Then he said,"I think she has another boyfriend".
I asked why he thought this and he says,"Well, she doesn't do anything with me."
I asked what she was supposed to do. (wondering what the girlfriend responsibilities were for a 1st grader)
He said,"Well when we get to chose partners she always chooses someone else! She never picks me!"
I told him that it would be fine and that he had a lot of years before he could marry her. Then I thought that I really needed to go volunteer so I can find out who this girl is.

Little A asked if she was a "Kissy Girl" (which is what Little D normally calls girls) He said."No that was last year when I was in Kindergarten."

Vacation to Montana

2009-10-20T08:07:00.000-07:00

The Bride! (My youngest Sister Sara)

We're back after a long trip to Montana and Oregon. We went because my sister was getting married and you cant miss a sisters wedding. We went up a week before the wedding to help with the prep. Unfortunately I was not of much help.

The first day we were there Little D got sick with a fever and a little cough. It only lasted a day but then Little A got sick. Still no big deal. Then I got sick and it was no 24 hr fever thing. Apparently I had Strep Throat. For about 3 or 4 days I had a fever that would come and go. A sore throat and fever so bad one day that my parents even almost took me to the hospital. I could barely talk. My Dad gave me a blessing and sent me to bed. The next morning I felt much better but still wasn't 100 percent. But my throat was better and that was the worst part. I felt bad for my Mom because in the midst of planning a wedding she had to take care of me and my 3 kids. But she was able to pull it off and everything was fine.

Here they come as we threw rice in their faces!

I didn't think that Big J would be able to make it since he was over in Washington for work, but his job got done just in time and on Thursday he caught the train and rode through the night. He was only in Montana for a short time he got there on Friday and flew back to Bakersfield on Monday. But I was glad he was able to come.

The bride looked so beautiful! The reception at the church was decorated so well. 2 of my Moms sisters came a few days before the wedding to help and Oh man! Things would have been so bad had they not been there to help. With me sick and Mom overwhelmed it was so good of them to come and help. I hope they at least were able to enjoy themselves a little.

After the wedding was over and we had all somewhat re cooperated the kids and I went over to Portland with Mom. We stayed there for about 5 days and then Mom traveled home with us. It was a long drive but we mad it. It was nice to have my Mom here even if it was only for 2 days. She got all her Christmas shopping done for the kids so now she wont have to mail them down. Now I just have to store them until Christmas. It made me want to get all my Christmas shopping done right then. It would be so nice to have it all done by Thanksgiving.

Well sorry there isn't more about our trip but at least I blogged something. I'm still trying to get back to normal from being gone and being sick. Now I can blog about more fun things. Like funny things that kids say. Stay tuned.....

P.S. It was fun to see all our family and friends while we were up there! I hope that it wont be too long before we can come up again. But you know.... you can come down here too! :)

Nothing a little Fabric can't Fix!

2009-09-21T23:42:00.000-07:00

So my good friend Megan and I were talking the other day and I mentioned that I was looking for a Double Jogger Stroller. She said that she had one that had been sitting in the yard for a year or two and that I could have it if I wanted it. I was like, "Are you sure?" She insisted that she didn't need it and she did tell me that it probably wasn't in the best shape after sitting in the sun for so long. But still I was interested so I went and checked it out. Sure enough it was a little faded and the buckles had basically disintegrated. They fell apart and all that was left was the buckle. She rinsed it off for me and I took it home.

After staring at it for a while I decided that it wasn't too bad. I was thinking that all it really needed was a new tire (because one of them looked like it had melted)and to make a shade thing. I was thinking about making a shade for it when I thought that if I did that then it would just look silly because the shade thing would be bright and the rest would have been all faded. So then I started wondering if I could make a slip cover of some sort for it.

After looking on the Internet for on and coming up empty handed I decided that I would just have to do it myself. So I went to Walmart and bought some canvas type fabric and some straps for the buckles and came home and went to work measuring and cutting and measuring and fitting. It was tricky but I finished it!.

And here it is! It is far from perfect but hey it works, right? And I still have not finished the shade part but the hard part is done. The shade thing should be easy. And as for the tire that looked like it had melted. Turns out all it needed was a new tire tube. I have to thank Megan, not only for giving me the stroller but for getting the buckles out of the trash for me! I am excited to get out and start running!

Early Birthday for Big J

2009-09-20T13:09:00.000-07:00

So It was officially Big J's Birthday yesterday. But he had to go to Washington for work so we celebrated on Thursday. I labored all day to make his requested cake, from his Grandmothers Recipe. Its a very time consuming recipe in that you have to mix by hand and sift it 3 times.

Now I don't know how important those 2 things are but Big J wouldn't let me do it any other way. I have made this cake only one time before so I didn't have all the kinks worked out. However I did, after the last time making it, go out and buy a sifter. This helped the process a lot! I also only have one 9 inch round pan which gave me the perfect opportunity to mess it up. After the first layer was done cooking I was too impatient and tried to take it out too soon and it just crumbled up! So then I was upset because who wants only a single layer cake? So I grabbed the box of chocolate cake mix that I had in the cupboard and made that too. So now It was only half homemade.

I had the bottom and the top layer dark chocolate cake mix and the middle was Big J's Grandmas recipe. The frosting was also homemade and then I put some white chocolate shavings on the top and sides. It turned out OK I guess but it wasn't all the "Greatest Chocolate Cake ever" which his Grandma's recipe is. (according to Big J) Little A watched me put the candles on and when she saw the 3 asked when he was going to be 4 like her. I thought that was cute.

So I hope that you had a great birthday Big J! We love you and are grateful for all you do for us. We are so blessed to have such a kind, hardworking, self-less Father and Husband.

Big J's New Calling

2009-09-13T16:00:00.000-07:00

So Big J is now the new Ward Clerk! It was a total surprise. It was also a surprise to hear what that entailed. We went into the meeting thinking it was something to do with Stake Mission Prep or Elders Quorum. They said a lot about how he gets to see and know the inner workings of the Bishopric. They also said that when the Lord wants to tutor one of his children he gives them this calling. They said a lot about trust and confidentiality and how he couldn't share details with me (which I knew and expected) but that he could share the feelings and testimonies that would come from this calling. I knew that he would love to give me a hard time about the fact that he can not share details. So I told them about how he ALWAYS says that he can't tell me things because I am not in the "Circle of Trust"! They all laughed. No doubt I will hear that a lot in the coming months. He was sustained and set apart today and the outgoing Clerk was more than happy to pass the keys and get him "logged in" to the computer today after church. So there you have it.

Ice Cream Creations!

2009-09-12T13:56:00.000-07:00

I have probably talked to most of you about the creation that I make when I go to COLD STONE. Even though I am sure that I am not the first person that has made this creation before I think that It is SO good. Some people that I tell about it are surprised by the combination. I am always like really? And then tell the that they have to try it. Most people say that they will but I doubt that they ever do. Anyway, I have been trying to come up with a good name for it for a while.

Having said all this, last night Big J and I went out to Cold Stone after the fireside at the Stake Center. (Given by Pres. Carter on Power Tools for Faith) And after we were stunned by Big J's new calling. (Pay attention on Sunday) While we were sitting there I thought of a name and I couldn't believe that I had thought of one so easily. Now that I have it I can't believe that it wasn't one of the first that I tried. Because naturally when someone goes to name something they automatically try to mix the words of the things that they are naming.

The name is Razzoreo. And from that you might guess that the 2 main ingredients are raspberries and Oreo's. Yes when I go to cold stone I have them take French Vanilla ice cream and mix in raspberries, oreos and sometimes nuts. It has just the right amount of chocolate to vanilla ratio and the raspberries give it tart and sweet. So you have Chocolate, Vanilla, Tart, Sweet, and if you add nuts then the salty of the nut and the crunch. What more could you ask for? It is the perfect Ice Cream Creation.

And now that I have made a whole blog about it I am feeling a little silly but oh well. Its good and maybe just maybe I'll tell Cold stone about it and they can put it on their menu. Its a far reach but who knows!

Cheyenne Update

2009-09-12T13:30:00.000-07:00

So It has been 2 weeks since we brought home Cheyenne. She has been a great dog so far. The first week I was a little frustrated with her because of the potty training. But now I think that we have that mostly under control. I still don't trust her at night so I keep her in her cage. I don't know when you are supposed to trust them enough to leave them out all night.

The kids just love her and she has become much more active in the last week. Little A wants to be in charge of her all the time and she tries to make her do things, which earns her a little growl every now and then. At least she has stopped trying to carry her around everywhere.

We have been able to teach her how to play ball, so that is fun. I was beginning to worry that she would never learn but she does pretty well now. Although she has a very short attention span. Everyone that meets her asks about her and says that she is so cool. All I can say is I KNOW! She is totally different. She has a look about her that make you think that she wouldn't be fun to pet but she is totally the opposite. She has fattened up just a bit. When we brought her home she was so bony and it kinda worried me a little bit. But now when I pet her I cant feel her bones as much. So that is good.

Now I am just wondering what I am supposed to do with her when we go to MT for my sisters wedding. I think that I want to take her with us but I am still trying to figure out if that is reasonable or not.

Our newest addition.

2009-08-30T13:50:00.000-07:00

Meet (unofficially) Cheyenne!

She is a 3 mo old, brown, terrier mix. We picked her out at the SPCA Saturday. She is very calm and puts up with all of Little A's commands. She also just moves to a new spot whenever Little C gets too close. Since she was recently fixed we are not supposed to take her on walks or give her a bath which makes Little A sad. She asks about 5 times a day when we can walk her. She has one ear that is floppy and the the other stands up. She looks a little scruffy but she is actually pretty soft. Little A keeps telling me that she is glad to have a dog. I have a very low tolerance for poop in my house, so hopefully we will be able to housebreak her quickly. I am grateful that I don't have carpet anymore for her to stain. Its much easier just to wipe it up. The only other thing is that I hope she gets a little more playful once she is used to us.

Bouncy Curls

2009-08-25T09:25:00.000-07:00

They other day at Walmart I made an impulse buy and bought Little A some curlers! I know that I shouldn't have bought them cause we didn't NEED them but every little girl has to have curlers right? We have already used them twice and each time she looked adorable.

I have thought about cutting her hair into a cute A line cut or something like that but then I think if I did that I wouldn't be able to do her hair in curlers anymore. Or do her hair at all. Maybe if I have another girl someday or maybe just when I'm sick of doing hair in a few years.