Wowie Kapowie!

One of the favorite gifts recieved was a marble shoot made by grandpa Bubbles for the kids.
The kids got quite a few gifts thanks to family and DI. They loved their logo sets and gameboys. They also loved their new jammies.
#1 Man loves his new Jacket and white shirts.
A little excited?

The binoculars were made by boy#2 and given to boy #3. I thought that was sweet.

I love my new painting from my mom. Thanks so much! I will post a picture of it when I get a frame:) Boy # 5 Loves his new Starwars millenium Falcon toy. It makes awesome noises!

Boy #6 loves all his new toys too. I don't know why we don't have more pictures. We took a lot of video. Maybe I'll post some of that later.

I made a huge Christmas dinner complete with three layer jello salad. We had a wonderful ham, Mashed potatoes, yams, stuffing, apple cider, and egg nog. We forgot to have desert which was pumpkin pie. Oh well. It will be just as good to eat today. We snacked on chips and dip too. Yum Yum!! Too bad there was no one to share it with. It was the best dinner I have ever made (if I do say so myself). Everything turned out perfect. Well writing about how good it was has made me want to eat it again. One good thing about it being just us is that I can. There are plenty of leftovers. ;) Hee Hee! Hope your Christmas was just as great!

I'm almost ready...

We went to see the lights at Willard Bay campground. They do a big show every year. It was fun. I took some video but it is a little nauseating.(I can't spell that) I used my camera on my phone and I forget I can't move around with it. Everything gets fuzzy. I'll post it anyway so you can see the fun lights. The sound doesn't work on my computer. I don't know if it works on anyone else's.

I got all the presents that have arrived wrapped. I'm still waiting for three things we ordered online but they should be here either today or tomarrow. I don't know if one of the items will be here before the big day or if it will arrive the day after. I'll just keep my fingers crossed. It's for Nick so It would be ok if it's a day late (he already knows). I'm a little sad that we are doing the big dinner alone. We tried to find someone who we could share it with but everyone we know is going to their families houses for dinner. Oh well. #1 man is kind of excited to be starting our own traditions. We are going to watch a nativity cartoon before we open gifts to set the right tone for the day. I got a living scriptures one for a dollar at DI. They are normally 20 bucks! I love DI. I also got lots of books there for 50 cents a piece and more movies and games. I think the day will be filled with lots of fun and cooking. I'm excited.

Now I'm the sneaky one...

I love shopping for Christmas and hiding things everywhere around the house. My kids don't have a clue about a few goodies. HEE HEE HEE!! I love having a suprise Hidden just bursting to come out! My little 4 year old knows about a couple large items in the garage. He has forgotten about them I think. I found a great deal on KSL which is like craigslist for UT. $10 a piece for almost new bikes! I'm thrilled because we don't have much by way of funds this year but thanks to the wonderful generosity of a couple of family members the boys will still have the best Christmas ever! Thanks!!!!!!!!

Sneeaky Sneaky!!

I was in the living room Saturday morning and my 4 year old pulls out a backpack from behind the couch. This particular backpack is one that has been missing for a couple of months. One that I thought was lost at school. So with great eagerness I looked inside this pack and to my suprise it was filled with incomplete papers. My little 7 year old has been Caught! He pretended his backpack was missing to avoid doing his homework. So although his work is well overdue he will be completing each and every paper I find.

His latest confession is that There is a folder in his desk that holds the more recent assignments. Yikes!! The first pile totaled 44 sheets. I can only imagine how many are in his desk. Oh well. He'll learn someday I guess.

Tree trimming!

So these are the pictures from #1 man's phone. We all got decorated along with the tree.
It was so fun! We had great Elvis Christmas music playing so we all got dressed up and danced around. We love dancing here. It is so much more fun when you are trimmed like a Christmas tree. We took video too but I haven't uploaded those yet. I'll be posting more recent adventures soon. Bye Bye!

Money is so lame!

I guess it's only lame when it is scarce. We had to pay our rental's mortgage last month and we are still catching up. Living in this house is nice but having extra money to set aside would be nicer. We have been looking for a cheaper place to live. Haven't found anything yet but I'll keep you posted if I do. Yes we might move again. I am the moving girl after all.
I have been going through the boy's old clothes today getting ready for the big clean out before Christmas. I never get all of the rooms done. I only get about half way and get tired. I am hoping to at least get all the toys sorted and old ones thrown out. I hate clutter and a messy house.
Sorry no pictures. I'll post the ones of the christmas decorating when I download them from #1 Man's phone. Hope money isn't scarce where you are.

Whew!!!!

I thought I would post some pictures of sis's visit. This is Breakfast. Yummy!!!!

This is a video of part of our Dance party. It was so much fun!

I don't know how it's possible but I didn't get any pictures of Thanksgiving. I guess I was a little busy catching up with all my family. I had so much fun at both family parties but I must say I was exhausted by the end of the weekend. These are some pictures I took of my grandparents with my mother in law. They came by just before we skipped town to give Boy #2 a hat and scarf. Barbara made them in two days. Thats impressive!

Doesn't he look cute. He loves them. If you look in the background you can see Shirley's decorations for Christmas. She is fast. They always put them up the day after Thanksgiving. They boys loved seeing them. Where she gets all her energy is a mystery. I can't keep up and I'm pretty energetic. Per request I posted a picture of my completed bathroom. I wish I had taken a before picture so you could see how truly awful it was.

I hope all of you readers had a great holiday weekend and avoided the black Friday crowds. I need to go relax.

So Tired... Can't ...zzzzzzz

I finally got up only once last night. I'm still so tired but I think it might take a day to feel it right? I painted the frog bathroom today. It was green splotchy ugly and not clean around the edges. I just painted it the same brown as most of the house. Huge improvement I must say.
Sis is coming over tonight. I'm excited to see her. We haven't really hung out in a while. It is supposed to snow tomorrow so we should have lots to do. Well I'll try to get some pictures of what we are doing for next time. Hope all is well.

OK so this is real snow

All the other snow was just wimpy. The ground was bare this morning. Now we have at least four inches of snow! It's only 4:30 and It's still snowing. The kids were sledding on the hill behind our house. They had so much fun!
I'm singing the Alto solos for the Messiah here in Brigham. I went to play the cello at our local orchestra and discovered that I sing better than I play. I already knew that. Actually they were desperate for an alto to sing to two arias Oh thou that telest good tidings to Zion and He will feed his flock like a shepherd so I voluntered. Now I don't have to learn those two songs on the cello. YAY! If anyone wants to come it's on the 10th. Its a Thursday, at the brigham city tabernacle. I'm excited. I hope you are all well.

Trying to fly again.

So, a few years ago I tried to do flylady.net. How to rid your life of chaos. I miserably failed. I was not ready to change. I just wanted a quick fix to my chaos. I also found that the way they were doing it with all the cards didn't work for me. (too structured) So I am trying again. I have shined my sink and gotten dressed ready for action. Just doing that makes a huge difference in how much I get done every day. I am not doing any less work. I have found that expecting to not have to do as much with a magic routine isn't realistic. I am still tired and busy but I'm not stressed about whether my house is clean or not because it is cleaner than usual more consistently now. I had a friend show up for lunch without warning yesterday and I was fine. I had a clean kitchen and food to feed her. It was so much fun. If I was wallowing in my overwhelming mess just whining about it I would have been so stressed. I need to get habits in place to help remind me to keep up on the mess instead of ignoring it for a week and then catching up. Well have a good day and go shine your sink!

Missing the ocean

Sometimes I just need to look at it. I really don't know what it is about the ocean but I love it. I could live on the water. Maybe someday I will.

Call me Crazy... Everyone Else Does!

So I guess I'm still not busy enough. #1 man and I have been feeling like we need to do foster care lately. In UT it takes about three months to qualify so I would be able to get things ready before we would actually have more children in our home. I don't know why this is something we need to do. I am terrified. My parents did foster care for about six years while I was growing up and I remember how hard it was. The children need lots of extra care and love and they are challenging to dicipline because of many instances of abuse and neglect. They can have physical problems because of parent's drug or alchohol use during pregnancy and because of physical abuse in early development. In UT they also expect that if a child needs a permanent home you will become the adoptive parents for those children already in your home so they are very careful about placement. The police do their recording of the case in a seperate place so you don't have to be present when they document the abuse so that will be good. I always hated that process. The compensation is better than Idaho so I think money wise we'll be fine and if we have a child under the age of five which we probably will they qualify for WIC so that will also help. In order to qualify I have to take 32 hours of in class training. I'm glad because I don't think my parents had to do those classes until later. Hopefully they will help.

Well I am sure I will need lots of encouraging words as this is a very daunting idea. I have no idea how we will juggle it all but I know that it is what the Lord wants for our family.

I can do hard things with the Lord's help!

And with all of yours as well. Pray for me. I'll need it!

Here was Halloween!

So, first of all we had carved pumpkins about a week and a half ago and... They melted so...

We did some more. They were just as cute as the first even though we rushed through the process the second time around.

Here is the big day! We went to the trunk-or-treat first and took pictures. I never get good Halloween pictures because I always forget to take them before it gets dark. I like this one. Boy #2 likes being a vampire can you tell? They all liked their costumes this year for the most part. I did try ro paint boy #3's face for him but after two attempts, and him still not satisfied, I made him wear the mask. They got a ridiculous amount of candy again which the Halloween fairy took care of right away. Thanks to whoever told me about that idea. I let them each pick out their 20 most favorite pieces of candy and then the rest goes into one big bag for all to share.

This picture turned out really fuzzy but I only took this one, the rest are videos. Our good friends came over for family night and we had doughnut races. Way fun!!! Hope you are having a great day!

Let it snow...

Snow again! It's not even Halloween yet. Are ya kidding me? This was yesterday. It didn't stick but it is supposed to snow all week long. Crazy! I love the snow though I just can't believe it is here already.
I've been having fun all day planning a trip to CA in Jan. I looked at all the local things to do and had fun looking at pictures of the beach. I haven't been to the ocean since 06. I get a little crazy when I don't see it for awhile. I was really ment to live in Hawaii I just know it. Far cry from snow in October!!!!!
I have a student now for cello. I have taught three lessons. It is really fun. I know a lot more about how to play than I thought but I need to learn how to convey that information without getting overwhelming. I tend to try and say everything about a topic instead of just saying what they need to know now. Oh well I'll get better at it I hope. Hope you're having a good day.

Isn't this the funniest picture? He took it himself. That is a toy phone by the way. The boys borrowed my camera when they were bored one day and filled the memory card with pictures of toys and furniture and dizzying videos of the world ending and monsters jumping out from behind the couch and stuff like that. It was hilarious! I remember doing the same thing with my siblings growing up. We are all better and the older boys went to school today. It was nice to have them home for a few days. I miss them when they go to school.

There's a new Destructo in town!

To my suprise Little man found a pen behind his chair in his room. He decided to make beautiful art on his face!I didn't know he was old enough to hit the destructo phase. He also drew on the wall. He is one talented nine month old. He still is no match for Dr. Destructo boy...

This is his latest work. His is in his toothpaste period. I just need to keep a better eye on my children I guess. Oh well. They are obviously feeling better. They have been playing transformers and making lots of noise which is a good thing after all those movies! I think we are caught up on them for awhile. They are still not well enough to be out and about. I don't want to spread whatever they had. I think we might be able to do something fun by FHE. Yeah, I can't waith to get out of the house. Hope you don't catch what's going around.

The sick season started!

So it has begun again. We all have the flu. Don't know which one because the doctor didn't want us to come in and spread it. Most likely it is influenza A or swine flu. Those are the two we have been exposed to. All the boys except boy #6 have it. Of course boy #1 doesn't have it because he is at his moms. Doc gave us tamaflu for the three younger boys because they are at the highest risk for complications. So I just get to be nursemaid for everyone. So fun. At least I don't have to get up early to get them off to school. We have caught up on all the movies we have been wanting to see because no one feels like doing anything else. So sad. #1 man came home early today to help. I love that man! He knows just when to swoop in and help. Well back to watching movies. Yay!

Yay for family!

My sister came to visit with her boys last weekend. My parents came too. Here are some pictures. I took lots of video but for some reason it won't transfer from my phone to the computer. Oh well, the boys all had so much fun playing whatever this was. Starwars/ avatar/ goblin/ zombie?Who knows what it was. It was just a lot of fun! My nephew will probably kill me for putting his picture on here but I had to. He is getting to be so grown- up. We went to the old spaghetti factory and the joseph smith memorial building. Then everyone got tired so we came back to my house to play. Sunday we went to church and spent the day playing with the boys. I had a great time with all of them. I love having company. I just love having people around, especially my family.

Here is one of the latest meals. Witch's hat soup. It was so good. It's a lot more colorful in person. It just looks brown in the picture.

I finished book 6 of work and glory. I really feel like I know a lot more now about the history of the church than I ever did. I also have a stronger testimony of it's truth than ever before. It's a good feeling.
I am happy to have such a wonderful life.

I hope all is well with everyone who reads this. I think I'm going to go take a nap...

(Yeah right!!!)

Forgetful me

I keep forgetting to take pictures of all the fun food we are having. We ate bar-b-qued worm sandwiches, pumpkin crunch parfaits, and eyeball cookies just to mention a few. I get going and I just forget to stop and take some pictures. Oh Well.
I have been reading book four of the work and the glory. Wow! what a hard book to read. I have heard of all the stories but reading them from that perspective just hits you a bit harder than it does when you hear about it in church. It documents fictionally the events surrounding when the saints were driven fron Far West Missouri. I will forever be grateful for those who gave their lives and I mean while living for the freedom to worship that I have. I don't have mobs surrounding my home trying to do vile things to my family. I live in a huge house with room to spare. I feel blessed to be living near where some of those great people did.
I hope all is well with you and your families. Keep them close and cherish every moment you have with them.

Conference and more great food

Here's dinner last night. Funny face pizza.

Here are some goblin eyes. Here are some spider cookies. Really easy and yummy.

This was dinner tonight. Chili cauldron with breadstick spiders. It was really good.

Conference was today and yesterday. We try to keep the kids busy and happy during conference. The rule is they have to be in the room and quiet. we made special conference folders last year, The kids love them. They are just binders with thier pictures on the front. I fill them with fun church related activities. I also get construction paper, markers, glue, scissiors, and our favorite pipe cleaners. The kids love to make glasses and bugs with the pipe cleaners. We also had some yummy treats :)

This is what I do to keep our two year old busy. He loves it. I think it's pretty fun too! If you missed conference I suggest one talk in particular. Jeffrey R. Holland gave his testimony of the Book of Mormon. It was the Sunday afternoon session. He was the first speaker. It was so neat to hear his powerful testimony. Of course all of conference was great. Hope everything is great with everyone out there. Hug your family!! Tell them you love them.

Fun fun fun!

Here's breakfast. Pumpkin Spiderweb pancakes with cranberry apple cider.Here's lunch. Can't go wrong with mummies. The kids helped.This was our fun day at the zoo on Thursday. I didn't have the pictures until today. I look a little insane don't I? There is another one too. He's taking the picture.Here he is.The zoo was busier than I have ever seen it. There was a members carnival. We were going to participate but decided to wait until the crowd wasn't so bad. We went back to it too late and they were out of everything they were using as prizes. So they gave us carrousel tickets. #1 Man met us there and we had a blast!We also rode the train.Then we went out for dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory. It was so fun! I was exhausted!