Moving Girl

Oh the Places WE Go

2011-11-27T14:59:00.001-08:00

Hey everybody. How's it going? Just thought I'd share some pics of what we've been up to lately.

We have been eating a lot of Ghanaian food like banku and okra soup. It's pretty good. I must say that Josie cooks it better than I do.

We have all learned how to wrap Naia. We have decided to call Nadia Naia just because Nadi is confusing when you are trying to tell a two year old not to be naughty and that is her name. So Naia it its and she loves it. Jacob Nic and Randy have all learned to wrap Naia although she isn't asking to be wrapped as much as she did the first few days she was home.

Here is our first snow of the season. Interesting that the season is fall. We have enjoyed the early winters that come with living here in Utah but will be glad when we move back to less snow.

We made our traditional huge snowman and forts for a big snowball fight.

Josie was soooooo cold. She still is. She is always wearing a jacket or sweater. I guess I am too with the cold weather we've been having.

This picture just proves I was there.

We got Josie's hair done. I love it!!!!! It's called a crochet for all the other white people out there. It's called that because they cornrow all of her real hair and then take fake braids and use a crochet hook to tie them into her rows. The things I never knew before. I'm just really excited we don't have to do anything but grease it for three months! Yeah!! I want to do it to my hair. I don't think it would be the same.

We went to the Layton Surf'n'swim. I love going there. During the cold months they cover the pool with a big dome. It is a wave pool and it gets really shallow just like the beach.

Here is my sweet hubby. So CUTE!

It's a great place and it's cheap!

Another of our favorite places is the treehouse museum. We bought a season pass because for all of us it is only $100 for the whole year.

Everybody loves going. I love that they can make a mess and it isn't at home. Ha!

They have so many different themed places on two floors with a huge tree in the middle that you climb through.

My kids love the dress as heroes station and the western area.

Yee ha!

Howdy.

Naia loves the hospital station because there are baby dolls. Josie and Jacob love the art room.

This music room is great but really loud!!!! We will be spending lots of time there until we move. Well we will keep doing fun things and taking pictures.
By the way our Thanksgiving was awesome! Although it was just our family we still had nine and it was loud and great. I made everything that we traditionally do. I was fun to make all our favorites like layered jello salad and candied yams. I miss my family lots though and we are looking forward to Christmas when we will get to see most of them.

Ghana getting the girls

2011-11-02T15:00:00.000-07:00

Just warning you there are lots of pictures... sorry if it takes a long time to load.

Here we are at the airport on our way. I think this is the JFK Airport. Ricky thought all the "Duty Free" signs were really funny.

Here he is on the first flight notice he is still smiling.

This is what you see when you enter the airport in Ghana after 14 hours on the plane... Akwaaba!

First things first we had to go shopping. We go to this shop everytime we go to Ghana. It is at the Shangri-la Hotel. The shop owner is very nice and always gives us a good price.

This is in the Airside hotel with Josephine's Aunt Victoria and Nadia's mother Mary.

We had some more show up to have some fun. We were going through the donations that I brought and they had a great time trying some of the dresses on.

Here we are the next day on the way to the wedding! I am in the back.

Here are the other two "new moms" they both have other kids too.

Having fun with crayons while we wait.

Nadi lost a shoe.

This is Kofi's sister she helped to translate during the wedding. We are taking gifts to the bride's home.

She accepted the gifts and they were married. It was a beautiful ceremony and a great party afterwards. We all danced and drank lots of soda.

Here we all are before we left.

Here is our awesome driver Eric. He drove us all around Cape Coast for the weekend and took us back to Accra when we were done there. And now for the Biriwa Hotel....

Isn't it the most beautiful place ever? It is only $50 per night. This is the view from our room.

This is our room.

We went to the restaurant in the hotel. This was on the ceiling. There were probably about 6 scattered accross the ceiling.

Nadia didn't last long. She was so tired.

Josephine loved their fried rice and fried chicken.

The next day we decided to hit the beach!

So much FUN!!!!

Then we went to Cape Coast Castle.

It is the youngest Slave trade fort in Ghana. There are three. I thought it was important for the kids to see. Randy and I went there on our first trip to Ghana and it is really something to see. We are taught all about slavery in school but it is different to be there and stand in the places where it happened.

It was funny this lady stopped me and said she had never seen a white lady carry a baby on her back. I still hadn't gotten the hang of it yet. I can do it the right way now. It's actually really comfortable and convenient.

Here is the beach at Cape Coast Castle. There were so many people swimming and there were so many piles of nets like this one.

After we toured the castle we went to dinner at the Beach Castle restaurant. It was really good and this guy sang the whole time. He was actually really good.

The next day we went to the Canopy Walk at Kakum National Forest. It was really cool but lots of hiking.

Then we went back to Accra and to my favorite restaurant there.

I of course had fried chicken and french fries. Yummy!!!

This is after our long flight home. Can you tell? The girls were so tired.

Nadia was glad to be outside looking for the car.

The boys love their new sisters.

Jacob loves playing soccer with Josephine.

Nadia loves the swing.

This was our first Sunday together. The girls loved church.

We managed to get our pumpkin carving done right before Halloween. The girls loved dressing up as princesses and getting lots of candy. The boys all were something different than I planned.

Jacob: Harry Potter, Nicholas: Knight, Caleb: Ninja, Hunter: Jack Sparrow, Matthew: Bee.

We were so busy having fun I forgot to take pictures. My good friend Eva took some that I will have to swipe.

All in all we are having fun and everyone is adjusting well. I'm not sleeping much because Nadia wakes up at night for a little while but it's just like having a new baby in lots of ways and I have lots of experience with that.

Hope all is well with all of you. I will try harder to post more often and more pictures.

We are finally getting our girls!

2011-09-30T22:15:00.000-07:00

We get to go and bring them home in less than two weeks! I can't tell you how excited I am. We have been waiting for this for so long it doesn't seem real yet. I'm sure it will when I have SEVEN little ones running around. YAY!!!
The boys love their school but it won't last long because...
We are moving again! I know crazy in the middle of everything else we are moving back to Idaho. Our rental got shot at and now no one will rent it so we are moving back into it. I know that sounds bad but it is in the middle of nowhere and it was an isolated incident so I'm not worried in the least. If I was we wouldn't move back into it.
Well hopefully this post will publish. I've been having trouble with my blog lately. Goodnight!

Hey everybody!

2011-06-28T12:46:00.000-07:00

Sorry It's been so long again. So what news?
My boys are enrolled in a great charter school for next year and I'm really excited about that. It's called Ogden prepatory acadamy and it is one of the best public schools around. Plus my friend's kids go there so that's a plus.
We got a swamp cooler. It is very cold. Yay!! I NEEDED the air in the house to be cooler and now it is. I'm so glad.
We are working on ripping out the back yard and making it beautiful. Randy is an expert after fixing up so many different houses. I'm sure it will be awesome.
We have the passport for Josephine but not for Nadia yet. We are still waiting for USCIS approval and then we can get visas for the girls and bring them home. Hopefully before the summer is over. Pray for us.
Well sorry for the short update. Hope all is well with you all.+

Easter!

2011-04-25T16:14:00.000-07:00

I love Easter. This year we had a few guests. Russell and Shirley were here visiting on their way home from Provo for Teresa's wedding and of course we had Ricky's girlfriend Brooke here to celebrate with us as well. I wish I had taken some pictures cause we had good food and awesome decorations and of course lots of chocolate. We bought way too much candy and I think I'm going to be in a sugar coma for a week. Yay!

Hey Everybody, I'm Back!

2011-04-12T08:44:00.000-07:00

Wow what a whirlwind last couple of months! Sorry it took so long to post after our trip but I had to finish school for this semester so that I don't go on probation! Yikes! I finished it though so now I have a little time for fun! like posting our awesome trip. I took lots of pictures so sorry this page will take forever to load. First here are the girls on the way from the airport. Look how scared they are. Here is Randy at the restaurant in the Congress hotel. Jet lag.

Here are the girls eating fried rice and fried chicken. We had that almost every meal.

Yummy!! I got french fries. Very American.

We got swim suits for the girls the next day and went swimming in the pool at the hotel. Super fun! Nadia loved this water bottle. She carried it around and poured water from the bottle into the lid and drank it like a little cup. So cute!

We went and got Josephine's hair done the next day at the mall. She wanted a ponytail.

She is so patient. She just sat there there whole time.

Nadia and I walked around the mall. She was not happy to be separated from her sis.

After we swam we were so tired.

Nadia witht he bottle again.

Here we are waiting at the passport office.

This is at another hotel we went to.

This family was trying to adopt a little girl named Mary. Mary didn't want to be adopted. They took her back to her family. It was really hard on the people who wanted to adopt her.

More waiting at the birth records office.

Josephine took my camera and was taking pictures.

This is the restaurant at the Airside Hotel. Wow they have good food.

This is at the Waggs hotel. We were playing catch in the room with a soccer ball. Hee Hee!

More pictures by Josephine.

This is the view outside our balcony.

The other way still on the balcony.

So cute!

This is from left to right Nadia's mother, Nadia, Me, Randy, Josephine, and Josephine's Aunt who is also the foster mother. This is at the foster home.

This little guy is only two weeks old. He doesn't have a name yet. The father hadn't decided if he wanted to claim him or not so they can't do the naming ceremony until that is decided. He was so sweet. I couldn't imagine ging birth and raising a baby in that environment.

Well that's all the pictures but I have posted all the videos too on youtube. just type in juliepuckett into the search bar and they will all show up. There are videos from our last trip too so look for new ones.

We are so excited to bring our girls home. I think it will be sometime in June or July. It all depends on paperwork. Yuck!

All the boys are doing great. We are almost done with the birthday rush. Just one more in a couple weeks. Our 11th anniversary is this month. It sure goes by fast!

I'll probably post a few catch up posts if I have time about all the other stuff we've been doing. Yes there is more to my life than the adoption. Although it sometimes doesn't seem like it, It is a bit consuming.

OK I'm posting :)

2011-02-21T15:25:00.001-08:00

I finally have a minute to post. I know it's been a month again but maybe I just only have five minutes once a month. :P Just kidding!

I just spent a very fun filled weekend with my sister Kim and my childhood best buddy Anna. We had a great time. I miss them and their kids. I got to see how this house feels with a few more kids and it was great (aside from the fighting) All the kids had so much fun. I think all five kids had a kid that was about the same age to hang out with so they had fun.

Well what has happened in a month? We are going to Ghana for our second trip on march 14th. Russell and Shirley are coming to watch the kids. I'm so glad they are able to do that. It makes this process so much less stressful. We just found out that while we are there the girls get to stay with us at the hotel. We get to stay near their village which is in the Kwahu Mountain region. It looks like it's about 3-4 hours from the airport. I'm so excited that we will get to spend the whole time with them. I can't wait. This is an extra trip that we just found out about. The law in Ghana has changed and we have to be there in person to file the passport application. Once that gets done we will have to go home and wait another two months until we can go back and bring them home.

We started painting. We are only doing a room at a time. We have done the Master bedroom and bathroom. I love the new colors. I especially love the white ceilings. I felt like the brown on the ceiling made everything look really dark. I don't do well with dark. I can't wait to do more rooms and then decorate the girl's room. Yeah! I am definitely painting it pink and putting flowers on the walls.

The boys are doing great. I have decided to stick with teaching for now. The hours are better and Nursing school takes a lot of time away from home and it costs a lot more money. So teaching it is. I've been finding out about a lot of non profit organizations that help volunteer in other countries with teaching. I think that would be amazing.

Well I'll try again posting more often. We'll see if I get any better at it. ;)

Post for the day.

2011-01-18T09:57:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone. I have decided again to try to post more often than once a month so here goes. Today I woke up tired because Hunter (I am going to start using their real names It's too confusing to use numbers with so many) who is #5 has decided that he is scared of everything especially his room at night. He has been waking up all night whenever he realizes I'm not still there. I think I am going to switch around the boys and their rooms so he will be sharing. That might help him to know that someone else is there. It will probably take longer to get him to sleep but at least I won't be waking up as often I hope. I'm crossing my fingers.

We are going to start painting the house inside. The people who painted it before we moved in used flat paint. With six boys flat paint doesn't work. I am excited because we are going to paint lots of colors like pale yellow for the kitchen and sage green for the starwell and light blue for our room. I think we are also going to paint the ceiling white which will help lighten things up here. This house although beautiful and prefectly laid out is kind of dark. maybe thats just because it's winter but I think lighter paint will help.

I think I'm going to switch what I am studying. Although I think I would like teaching and I think I would be pretty good at it it just doesn't feel right. My sister talked about being a phlobotemist and I think I would like nursing so I'm going to look into it. I already have all my general studies done so I don't think it would take me too long. I'll let you know. I may change my mind again. That's just how I roll yo!

Well that's all for now. Have a happy day!

I am so excited!

2011-01-12T15:08:00.000-08:00

We bought a huge crazy mormon van last night. We traded in our Tahoe and got the van plus $2,000. It is a 2000 chevy something 3500. It is great!. It is dark blue and has 12 seats. I am excited we will have enough seats for everyone with 2 to spare.

We are moving right along with the adoption. We still are not sure when we will be able to go get the girls but there is a light at the end of the tunnel. All our paperwork on our side is done except we will have to be fingerprinted one more time each for USCIS. They are supposed to contact us with details for that. The paperwork for court is all there minus one paper that should be there by Fri. via Fedex this time so it will actually get there. Don't ever send anything to Ghana US mail. It takes forever.

I am still in school but I think I might take a break after this semester just to make sure everyone is adjusting to the big changes. Everyone seems to be doing well. We had strep last week and when I say we I mean every one of us all tested positive in one day. 6 doctor visits and 6 bottles of antibiotic later we are all on the mend.

Here are recent pictures of the girls. Josephine looks really happy.

Bla di bla

2010-11-09T14:42:00.000-08:00

Life is good. I'm starting to feel settled in our new house. The boys love their school and their teachers. I got called into the primary presidency and #1 man is in the Elders quarum presidency. It's kind of nice to be in a ward where we are needed again. It's funny though, because most people around here are new families just starting out there is a lot of welfare need so we have already recieved new coats for the three boys in elementary school. I guess big retail companies donate coats to the kids at school who need them. I didn't sign up for anything so I'm not sure why the boys were given them. I appreciate it but I feel a little guilty because I know there are a lot of kids who might need a new coat more than mine do. Oh well, I'll just donate all the old coats we have.
Here are more pictures of the girls. This lovely lady just adopted two girls. One is the one she is hugging. Our girls are there. Josephine is holding Nadia.

Here they are up close. Josephine looks thinner than she did so I'm a little concerned. We finally got all our stuff done for our homestudy so It should be done in two weeks. We just found out though that our social worker's wife passed away suddenly and two days later his father also passed so I will not be expecting it to be done on time understandably.

I am enjoying or first snow of the year. It has snowed twice in the last two weeks. It's not enough to stick yet but I'm sure that will be happening soon. Hope everything is great with all of you.

The new house!

2010-10-13T21:50:00.000-07:00

Here is the new house. What do you think?This is the front porch. I love it! It also has one in back just like it.

Here is the kitchen. The only room completely unpacked. Here is the front room. I just bought those curtains and I love them!!!! Well there it is. I decided not to post the pictures of all the messy rooms full of boxes. It's just too discouraging. I need to stay energised to get it all done.

My sister Amy is here. It is so nice to see her. I miss her and all the family a ton. I'm still not used to being so far away from everyone. Five hours really isn't that far though. It just seems far. Hope you are all well and having excellent nights or mornings depending on where you are in the world.

Wow that was fun.....not!!!

2010-10-12T12:52:00.000-07:00

I am so glad that is over. I have decided I don't want to be the moving girl anymore! It used to be so much easier when we didn't have so many kids. Now it is horrible. It has been a week and several things have made it impossible to get any unpacking done. well except the kitchen that was a must. #1 Man's cell phone got dropped in a toilet just before the big move so he doesn't have one at the moment. #1 boy's truck stopped working and we were told there is no help for that beastly thing. Only 5 out of the 8 pistons are still moving Yeah!!!! I have had to drive everyone everywhere. There is no bus for our school and since we live on the edge of the district that means I get to drive there three times a day because I have a kindergardener. I have been switching back and forth between driving the man and the boy to where they need to be all day as well. WE NEED A NEW CAR YESTERDAY!!! I think I will buy one tonight. Hee Hee!

Well on to a sunnier note I got new pictures of the girls. Aren't they cute!!!! Josephine looks older than seven but I guess we have to keep her birthday what they made it. She loos more like 8-9 to me but oh well. She will need to be younger in order to catch up in school. You can't really see Nadia's face but she does look the age she is supposed to be which is about 1 and 1/2. We will be done with our homestudy soon. My background check finally got done we are just waiting for boy#1's to get done. He has to have one now because he is 18.

I will try to post the pictures of the new house soon.

Girls Update!

2010-09-23T11:02:00.000-07:00

Here they are! Aren't they so cute!!! They are officially in foster care so that means as soon as we get our homestudy done we can start the process of adopting them. Yes our homestudy is still not done. My fingerprints were not right so they had to send a second set and for some reason that has taken forever.
We are moving out on the 30th so I have been packing. It seems easier this time around. Either we have less stuff or I'm getting better at packing. Probably both are true. Well I've got to get back to packing.
Have a great day.

And Now For Something Completly Different...

2010-09-15T17:17:00.000-07:00

Well just a different house we are buying. Remember the last post when I said it was quiet around here that didn't last long. We are moving in two weeks. We should be moving into our new house but it might be one of those things where we don't have a place for a couple of days. We'll see what happens. We have to be out on the first of Oct. I love the house we are going to buy for sure. It is great!!! It is in Ogden right in the middle of things which could be really great or not so great. We'll let you know which it is when we've been there awhile. I'll try to get the picture I have of it to post but I haven't had any luck so far. Wish me luck again please. We really don't want this falling through too.

Wow it's quiet!

2010-09-09T09:58:00.000-07:00

Hey all. I am enjoying a very quiet house today. All therse cute boys are now in school. I can't believe it. To top it off baby is taking a nap. Most days it is just me and boy #5 and boy #6. Weird!!!!! I need a little quiet though so I will enjoy it until next week then I will probably be sick of it and need to go do something fun!
Boy #1 is now 18!!!! This is him at about 10. I can't believe it. We had a big party for him in Boise over the weekend. It was a total blast. We rented one of those big inflatable waterslides. It was 18 feet high. So much fun! His girlfriend has found a new place to live so she is moving out this week if she can find the time between the two jobs that she is working. Did I mention that she has been staying with us trying to move closer? She graduated and wants to stay close to her love. She is doing very well for herself. I'm sad she won't be here to hang out with me when everyone else is off doing other things but oh well this is good for her and good for #1 man's sanity.

Well have a great day!!!

New girls pictures

2010-09-01T08:23:00.001-07:00

This is Nadia The lady holding her is Holly. She just brought home her little boy Ari from the same village. This is Josephine. Aren't they cute? I hope these are the girls we really get and that we don't have to go through any more referrals.

First day of school

2010-08-30T16:41:00.000-07:00

Today was the first day of school for the boys. They were so excited. They all came home happy and well. I love school.
We didn't get that house after all. It turns out it was a short sale. Oh well. There is another house I like better anyway that we put an offer on today. Wish us luck with that one.
We got a referral for two more girls in Ghana. They are cousins. They live in the Kwahu Mountain region of Ghana. One is six or seven and has no parents. They died when she was very young. Her name is Josephine. The other is about 2. Her mother is very young and was in school when she got pregnant. She wants to go back to school so she can't care for her daughter and go to school. Her daughter's name is Nadia. Hopefully it works out with them. Pray lots for us. I'll post pictures in the side collum.

A home of our own again!

2010-08-20T16:10:00.000-07:00

They accepted our offer without countering. We are so excited. We will be moving in a month. I can't wait. To be in a home I own again will be so great! I love to paint and change things. It is so hard to just look at my red kitchen every day and not be able to paint it!!! I hate the red!!!! I don't know what I will need to do, probably nothing but at least I have the option if I want. Yeah! something finally to be excited about after a lot of disapointment. Also we will have the lowest mortgage we have ever had excluding our first house so that is way great and this house is in a great place. The kids will be able to walk to school and we will be able to walk to church. I've never lived so close to everything before. I hope it will be great. Did I mention I'm excited? 934054 is the mls # so if you want to see it look it up on utahrealestate.com

Super sad news

2010-08-15T20:38:00.000-07:00

I don't even know what to say. We have lost the girls. The cheif of the village decided that he wasn't going to allow any adoptions from his village all of a sudden. We don't know why. His decision halted seven children from being adopted. We are heartbroken. Sorry it has been so long since my last post but getting back in the swing of things was taking awhile and then we got hit with this news so I wasn't ready to face it just yet. I know all things happen for a reason and I am sure there are other children for us I just need to process it because I felt like these were my daughters. I still want to help their village but don't know how. Anyway pray for them.

We are probably moving. We got permission from our landlord to go ahead and find a place. We are trying to keep it cheap this time so we can be free to do fun things in the future. We found a house we like that we are going to put an offer on. Wish us luck because we have put offers on two houses already and have been out offered if that is even a term. We just decided to look at houses that are actually in our price range instead of a little over.

Well I hope things are well with all of you. Good luck with whatever adventure you are in the middle of.

I'm home

2010-07-15T21:27:00.000-07:00

So I still haven't been able to get the pictures off the phone to poston the blog but I uploaded about half of the videos onto youtube. Just type in juliepuckett into the search bar at the top and they all pop up. They are in the completely wrong order but oh well. It's amazing that I can share my experience at all. Hope all is well with you. Goodnight.

Akwaba

2010-07-12T02:02:00.000-07:00

That is a traditional greeting here in Ghana. I can't download pictures or video here due to the lack of internet speed. Just to get this post on here will take awhile. I have been forever changed. I had no idea how bad the conditions here are. I think I will set up a blog specifically for my experience here when I get back to the states. There is too much to tell in a few posts.
We have decided to adopt two girls. The girl in the picture and her little sister. We completely fell in love with them both and their family. There was a little mis communication about her name. She is called Mayvis (Mayvees). Her sister is called Doriti. I should not have been nervous meeting her mother we sat by each other and talked through a translator for a long time. She is a very strong good natured gentle person. She wants her girls to have the opportunity to go to school and get out of the village. There is no good food and water in the villages. Very few have wells. The village where they live is trying to raise funding to build a market where people from all over would come to trade goods. This would ensure that they would have healthier food and money to buy it. They eat mostly palm nuts which don't have many nutrients. They only need about 3,000 US dollars which is about 5,000 cedis to build it. I spent more than 3,700 us dollars just for the plane tickets to get here. The other thing that would help is a well which is another 3,000 dollars. They aren't even trying to get that because they think it is impossible to get 6,000 dollars. I mean we spend 6,000 on our vacations or recreation. All they want is water that is safe to drink. I know I'm starting to sound like a commercial for the peace corp. I just can't believe that this is a reality. In America we don't struggle like they do every day. Even our poor don't struggle like they do.
Well I'll get off my soap box now. I hope all is well with you and that you have a place to sleep and food to eat tonight.

Time for our big trip!

2010-06-30T11:09:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the delay in posting. I have been a little busy getting all out documents ready for our first trip to Ghana. We leave on the 7th of July which is a week from today. My arm is still sore from all the shots I got on Monday. I think we'll be protected from most things except Denge fever which there is no vaccine or medication for. I think I'll be going through a lot of bug spray! I had no idea how many illnesses there could be curtailed if they figured out how to control the mosquitos. We are packing two large suitcases full of notebooks and pencils, clothes, jolly ranchers, and toys to donate to the kids in the village and of course gifts for Stephani. I want to get her family something but I'm not sure what to get. Yes I will be meeting her biological family. I am totally nervous about that. On Saturday we will travel to the village where Stephani was born. I get to hand out the clothes, toys, school supplies, and the candy to the children there. I am looking forward to that. I am sure this trip will be life changing. The hotel we are stying in looks really cool. The only thing is that there are lizards that come into your room. At least it's not snakes. ;) There is little hot water and the beach that will be very close is too dirty for us to swim in although I've been told that all the locals still swim there on the weekends. We are not supposed to go anywhere at night. We have to keep cash on us and copies of our passports under our clothes. It's hard not to get a little nervous about all those things. We aren't supposed to eat anything from vendors on the street and of course we can't drink the water or have any ice or anything that hasn't been cooked that we haven't washed with bottled water. I'm not a very clean maticulous person so I am just expecting to get sick. I've packed a lot of imodium.
Well I guess that's all. Wish me luck. I probably won't post until we get back because I'm a little busy getting ready. Have a great day!!!!

Workin'

2010-06-15T08:38:00.000-07:00

I have good news. Boy #1 got a job! yeah!!!!!! He starts on Friday at Shopko. I am so glad. He is really excited too but a little nervous. He's going to do great!
I had a lovely morning with a quiet and yummy breakfast all to myself. The kids stayed up late last night and are sleeping in. It's kind of nice. I like having some quiet time in the morning to read my scriptures and pray and just think. It helps me have a better day. They are still sleeping =) I was a grump last night due to lack of sleep so I opted to not watch the movie. I think they stayed up till like 1. Crazy!
Well I hope all of you are having a good moment right now. If not make a good moment happen. =)

Baptism Day!

2010-06-14T08:34:00.000-07:00

Isn't this the cutest? Boy #3 always makes this face when I try to take his picture. We had a great weekend. A lot of the family came to celebrate with us. Both grandparents came and three aunts and uncles and their families. Even my father-in-law's cousin came. We had so much fun! I love having everyone over. We stayed up way too late, ate way to much and laughed until it hurt. I miss living closer but I love that people who come to visit stay for a few days instead of a couple of hours. It's quiet in the house now which is nice but I already miss the craziness of the crowd. Oh well I'm sure we'll all do it again soon.

Adoption update we will most likely be taking our first trip to Ghana mid July. I am working on visas. Yeah! I have to make us appointments to get all our shots. There are a lot!

I have to put in a plug for my sister's online store. it is designerchildrensboutique.com She just got it up and running so if you want to find awesome quality children's clothes check it out. I know I'll be buying one of the taffeta dresses with the bolero jacket. So cute!!!!!

Well hope all is well with you. Keep your chin up with an energy for life!

One step closer to many things

2010-06-09T07:11:00.000-07:00

Well I know I'm a bit obsessed about our adoption but I figure it's just like being pregnant. It is what is happening in my life so get used to hearing lots about adoption and the process. I mean if I was pregnant I'd be telling you about my weird cravings and my swollen ankles so just think of it like that. We have our personal interviews tonight with our social worker for our home study. I'm a little nervous just because I don't know what to expect. I think he is just going to go over the same questions that are on our questionnaire. I hope so. They are questions like what was your relationship like with each of your siblings during your childhood and now? How often do you have contact with each of them? Very personal but not horrible. Luckily we both have good relationships with our families so it shouldn't be to bad.

I've been working on my music again. I don't know if I've blogged about it before. I write music. It's mostly inspirational so I'm hoping I can do something with them. I love singing but I don't have a lot of free time right now so maybe I'll just try to sell them so other artists can use them. I figure God wouldn't inspire me to write them unless he wanted me to do something with them. I'll post more about that as I get more of them done. I'm working on 4 songs at the moment. I'm just trying to get the basic melody written on a program I have. I try to put accompaniment to them but I don't play the piano so it's hard. I will just keep tinkering away at them.

Hopefully I'll have more pictures soon I just always forget to take them anymore. Oh well. Hope everything is going good this morning for you all.

Hello from Hollywood!

2010-06-07T20:48:00.000-07:00

So all the boys with boy #1 as the leader have been making all these awesome movies. They are so great. One is just hilarious. I think he is seriously considering studying film which would definately be in line with what he loves. He is actually pretty good. He has been making these funny videos since he was little. We have lots of tape of him doing funny stuff. We keep it around as blackmail. =)
Well we almost have all the paperwork collected that we need for our homestudy. If anyone out there is even considering adopting make sure that you order extra copies of all the adult's birth certificates, marriage certificates, and any other certificate you may have (they take the longest) and get copies of any court procedings even if you weren't convicted. I don't know why but my birth certificate still hasn't showed up yet. Frustrating. I think I will order it again through one of those companies that promise to get it to you in two days. I'm tired of waiting.
Well everyone here is doing gret. Boy #3 is getting baptised on Saturday. It should be great. I will be sure to take lots of pictures. (hopefully I will remember) I am trying to get more done in school. Seriously WGU is the school for busy moms. It is awesome check it out wgu.edu. I am still studying to be an elementary school teacher but I think I would rather teach English. They don't offer it at WGU though so I will just stick with what I am doing for now.
I hope you ll have a great day pursuing your passions in life! (or finding out what they are) =)

Potty training again.

2010-06-01T12:26:00.001-07:00

Yeah Boy #5 decided he does like underwear and he's been doing great with the toilet today!!! Yeah that much closer to a diaper free world. Well not really I still have boy#6 and he's only one. I'm just so excited that I may not have to change and buy so many diapers soon.

Adoption update: We had our first home study visit last week and our second is on Thurs. We still haven't received my birth certificate. I am anxious to get it because that means we can start our passport work. I wish I could find my other copy. Oh well. I'm trying to not let it take over our lives because we still have six other children that need my love and attention but it is hard not to get overly obsessed.

Hope all is well with you!

P.S. Check out the blog nieniedialogues.com it will change your life!!!

Paperwork is fun to do!

2010-05-18T08:05:00.000-07:00

I have been having fun gathering all the papers for our homestudy. I am sure my husband is getting tired of the crazy lady that keeps calling him to remind him of the two papers he has to get. He keeps saying it's all going to work out and that I just need to calm down and take it one step at a time. I'm not doing that well. I try to get everything done all at once. It is hard knowing your daughter is in a bad situation that you can change if you just get all the paperwork done. A lot of it is out of my hands anyway. There is a lot of waiting for mail and thinds like that but I'm sure I'll look back on this time and think it all went by so fast. Funny how perspective changes with a little time.

Hopefully the new addition.

2010-05-05T11:34:00.001-07:00

Here she is we think. She lives in Ghana and we are going to start the process to adopt her if we can. Pray for us. Because she is on a waiting list the process won't take a year. It could be done in as little as three months! Can you believe it?All this waiting to rush to the finish line. Well to rush to the starting line I guess. Is there a finish line ever in this life? I don't think so. Have a great day whatever you are starting or finishing.

Prom!!!

2010-05-05T11:12:00.000-07:00

Here he is anxiously waiting for his sweetheart to come for pictures before they left.Of course they had to have the traditional exchange of flowers.I told her to just put the pin straight in and slam it hard to get it to stay. She didn't follow my advice. Here they are just before they left. Aren't they cute!!!

The BIG trip

2010-05-05T09:34:00.000-07:00

Yay!!! The beach is my favorite place in the world. It is one of the few places in the world I feel truly at home. This was our first whole day in Oceanside CA. It was a Sunday so we just walked up and down the amazingly beautiful beach.

We also walked down the pier.

And saw some pellicans (yes I was that close to it!)

This ws the next day. We spent the whole day just playing in the water and on the sand. Wow I wish we could live there. We were lucky our car broke down (sounds funny I know) We were going to go to Disneyland that day but it turned out to be the only really beautiful day we had there so thank goodness our car didn't work =)

Everyone was covered in sand.

I guess this explains why =)

Boy #6 thought that the sand was really tasty. Yum Yum! He ate a lot of it! Such a wonderful day!!!!!

Here are some pics of Disneyland. This is us waiting to go into the Tiki Room. I took the babies while the older ones went on Indiana Jones. I got to go on it later.

Here are the jedi training acadamy actors. They cancelled the show because of the rain but they still came out and took pictures with everyone. Did you know yesterday was Star Wars Day? May the force be with you!

Captain Eo!!!! I was so glad they brought it back and that we got to go with everyone. They all loved it even if it was just as cheesy as it was 20 years ago. I forgot that the seats shake and that it is so loud. It was a ton of fun. Of course we did all the other rides there I just didn't get pictures. =(

Here is Seaworld. We loved it! This is all of us watching the sea lion show which we got soaked watching because of a major downpour halfway through the show.

Here we are in front of the penguins.

Here is San Diego Zoo. The first thing we did was ride the tram.

And see the snakes... Have I ever told you I have a huge fear of them?

Isn't this neat? We were lucky to get many pictures like this because when we were there most of the animals were really active, probably because of the rain.

#2 Boy goofing off. There are so many more pictures but mostly of just animals.

Here is another night at disney.

#1 Boy missing his lady and texting her in the candy shop.

#1 Man looking more tired than I think I've ever seen him. Well we are home now and I'm missing the ocean again but I'm grateful we got to go. It was so fun!!!

Another eventful month

2010-04-06T09:05:00.000-07:00

This picture is of our super fun trip to temple square with the whole clan. #1 Boy's girlfriend came up for a visit during her spring break and we had a ton of fun. She is so sweet and so much fun! Sorry the picture is so tiny.
Well, life for the past month... hmmm... I'm not sure how to describe it. I don't get a lot of sleep mainly because of babies and staying up late with my teenager but I'm happy. I love having him here. I definately appreciate my parents more now. Homeschooling is going well but I'm starting to slack. I am just not the kind of person who is diciplined enough to make the kids do their work. It sounds way more fun to watch a movie or go to the store or go outside (outside counts as PE time). I think we will try to do public school again next year. I love homeschool but I am not doing well at actually teaching them anything. Plus it seems that because I am so focused on the two homeschoolers I don't spend as much time with the other kids. I usually just put them in front of a movie.
We are planning a family trip to ..... Disneyland!!!! I can't wait. We decided to not spend all of our tax return on debt so we could go. We will be staying at a beach house near San Diego and driving around to do alot of fun stuff like going to the san diego zoo, Disneyland and maybe even sea world. I can't wait to see the ocean!!!!
We are diving back in to adoption. #1 man and I both felt that we still need to look at Ghana Africa so that is where we will go to find our little girl. We have been planning on adopting since 2006 so it is about time we did something about it. Wish us luck!
We were able to attend the Sun Morning Session of General Conference with our teenager. It was awesome being there with so many people. He is investigating the church so any prayers for him would be appreciated.
#6 Boy is walking. Yikes!
Well I don't have anymore news not that what I wrote already isn't enough. Hee Hee. I hope you are all well and life is good. I look forward to catching up on everyone's blogs that I haven't read in a month ;)

I'm back! (sort of)

2010-03-10T12:10:00.001-08:00

Well I should learn that whenever you complain about being busy the Lord lets you know how busy you could be. My life has become a completely full time adventure! My sweet stepson has moved in with us full time. This is him with his cute girlfriend. I won't get into the details of why I'll just say that he and his mother need to be apart for awhile. Boy #3 has been doing home school along with my stepson which makes my day a non stop learning and teaching extravaganza! I am learning just as much as them. Between high school algebra and second grade history ( Romans! Cool!!!) I am getting a pretty good education myself.

We are going to live here for awhile I think. We need the space now. One room for school another for an extra person. Just a side note I have had to up our food budget again!! With all these people we eat so much! I have had to cook and clean like a feind in the evenings now instead of during the day. It's so crazy that I used to complain about cleaning when I had all day. I was just so lazy and I didn't even know it. Spaghetti, stroganoff, and roast with mashed potatoes have become weekly staples because I can cook a lot with little effort.

By the way it was my birthday on Sunday. I had a great day but I miss the big family parties I usually have. I miss being close to my families but there have been a few things recently that have made me think it is sure good that we are here. Boy #1 moving in for one. We have a great house with tons of space and he can be away from all the drama for awhile. My sweet sister can come here to visit her kids that live in SLC. That has been so fun for me and I hope for her too. I also think this job of #1 man's is teaching him so much. It's not always fun but he is definately learning how to deal with difficult people and circumstances.

Well I miss you all and hope to be able to visit soon. Have a stress free day and if you can send those stress free vibes my way. I need them!

Crazy is my companion

2010-02-08T08:51:00.000-08:00

I thought my life was starting to calm down. We had decided not to move and just do foster care. So much for that plan. We now don't know if we are moving or not (limbo again :P) We are going to put off doing foster care for awhile at least until we know where we are going to be in the next couple of months. We will probably move into an appartment again which I am looking forward to. We need to get rid of the dogs but in order to do that we have to wait until Cleo has her puppies (yes she is pregnant again). I guess the only thing I can do about it all right now is just start organizing and getting rid of stuff.
Boy #2 has been playing the piano and is pretty good. He loves it a ton!! I just found some beginner books at DI. He zipped through them both the first day. I better find some more books. Boy #3 started playing the guitar. He loves it too but the book I have is a little over his head. I need to find one for kids. He really wants to play the drums. I wish I still knew someone who plays. We will have to get him something to start on. I must admit I like him playing the guitar better than the drums. Oh well. ;)
Hope everyone else has their life figured out. I'll let you know when mine is if we ever get there.

Boise trip ect.

2010-01-25T12:43:00.000-08:00

Here are some highlights of our trip to Boise. Of course we went to the Cheesecake Factory. Yummmm!!!!!!

Then we had a party for #1 Man and boy #6 's birthdays. We went to Wahooz. I hate that name. I don't know why I didn't get pictures of everyone but oh well. I'm glad you all came. I had a great time. I know everyone else did too. This was on little man's actual birthday. We had a party complete with chinese food and cupcakes. It was a lot of fun.
I am missing Idaho today. I guess I am really missing my family and old friends. I'm glad I have your blogs to look at. It helps me feel like I've talked to you. Love you all.

Not moving after all

2010-01-07T09:09:00.000-08:00

Well our landlord has changed his mind and decided he is not going to let us out of our lease. I'm not too sad about it. I didn't really want to move anyway. We were just trying to find a way to make ends meet. Oh well, We are going to be certified foster parents by next month so that will help... or kill me. Maybe I will sell some songs or #1 man will finish the book he is writing. We'll see.
We started our training for foster care Tues. night. It brought back a lot of memories. I'm suprised that people are so shocked by the behavior of some of the kids in protective custody. Yes poo becomes a tool to test boundaries. I guess because I've seen what abuse does to kids and what taking kids away from their parents does to kids I'm not suprised by the stories I hear. I'm not excited to clean more messes and repair damaged things but the classes remind me why the Lord needs families who are willing to go through something hard to better the lives of those who need help. These kids need to know what a healthy family looks like. Most have never seen one. I remember when we got our group of kids that were a part of our family for years. It was two weeks before Christmas. We were so excited to give them a nice Christmas. The look on their faces that morning was pure shock and disbeleif. I don't think they had ever had a proper Christmas. The memories I have from foster care are varried. Some were awful. Some I will carry around with me my whole life. You don't forget your brothers and sisters even if they aren't biologically or even legally yours. Now that I will be in the parent role instead of the sibling role I hope I am up to the challenge. I really can do hard things with the Lord.

Such a fun weekend!

2010-01-04T07:56:00.001-08:00

Temple Square well actually the conference center. Can you tell how cold it was?

I sat right under this buffalo at Maddox on New Year's eve. I kept thinking I hope this is well secured to the wall. ;)

Here are the boys. They love Maddox! Thanks Grandma and Grandpa!

My sweet wonderful man enjoying his evening too!

My funny Daddy. I think maybe we were too hungry! Carnations don't taste so good.

My beautiful Mother holding up the menu. I don't always get the pictures to turn out with my phone. Sorry It's a little fuzzy.

We had such a great time this weekend. We went to Maddox for New Year's. The next day we went to temple square hoping to see the lights. No luck! We missed them by one night. Oh well. I love going to temple suare. The visitor's center is so neat with all the paintings and exibits. Dad got to see the Joseph Smith movie. He hadn't seen it yet. It's my favorite. We talked to some really cute sister missionaries. One was from Mongolia. We then had an adventure finding a place to eat on New Year's Day that wasn't closed. I wish the JSM building was open. Or the Lion House but alas we had to venture elsewhere to find food. Chillis is where we ended up after driving for awhile downtown. We were all still so full from our lunch at Floriberto's we didn't eat much. We mostly ate desert. Yumm!

The next day we ventured into Ogden to go to the Solomon Center. There we ate at Costa Vida while watching the indoor surfing. It was so funny to watch people try to surf for the first time. Most fall very hard. I guess I shouldn't laugh but it's really hard not to. Then we went upstairs to see the indoor skydiving. They put people in a huge wind tunnel and they can fly. It is so cool to watch. The instructor always does a little show at the end. That is the coolest part. Look it up and watch a video. It's called ifly. Then we went bowling at Fat Cat's. That was so fun but the kids were tired by about the sixth frame so we left early. To cheer them all up and get their sugar levels back up we went to Farr ice cream shop. So yummy and fun. It's a cute little old fachioned ice cream parlor. I love going there except that people come in waves. You can be sitting in a nice quiet parlor and then a rush of people come in all at once. Then it gets a little crazy. We got there during a little pocket of quiet.

Then we went home and rested up for a nice dinner in. We mad a wonderful rib roast. It was a little under cooked but still so good.

The next day we went to church ate lots of leftovers and then said goodbye to my sweet parents. It was so fun and great to see them. I was missing them a lot.

Well it's official we are moving probably by the first of February. Not sure where yet. We put an offer on a house that I love but we don't find out if we get it till tonight. People have been calling to come see this one though so I've had to start keeping it clean again. Yay! :( So easy with my crew. Acually it's not that bad. I am not excited about packing and moving again but I am looking forward to no longer being so tight with money. Well hope all is well in your lives. Have a memorable day!

Wowie Kapowie!

2009-12-26T14:36:00.000-08:00

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...

2009-12-23T11:22:00.000-08:00

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...

2009-12-18T13:55:00.000-08:00

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!!

2009-12-15T14:10:00.000-08:00

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!

2009-12-13T20:20:00.000-08:00

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!

2009-12-07T15:07:00.000-08:00

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!!!!

2009-11-30T08:28:00.001-08:00

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

2009-11-20T21:27:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-14T15:21:00.000-08:00

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.

2009-11-11T10:25:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-07T18:21:00.000-08:00

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!

2009-11-06T07:27:00.000-08:00

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!

2009-11-02T21:29:00.001-08:00

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...

2009-10-28T19:27:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-10-26T08:31:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-10-24T13:37:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-10-22T15:11:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-10-15T08:19:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-08T13:05:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-04T17:53:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-10-03T16:18:00.000-07:00

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!

Eeeeew!!!

2009-10-02T19:11:00.000-07:00

I told you I love Halloween. We ate broken back bones, boiled brains, mad scientist potion, and witch's fingers. We had so much fun! I will be making something Halloween related from now until the big day! If you would like any recipies or ideas let me know.

Snow!!!

2009-10-01T06:45:00.000-07:00

I know I just blogged last night and I am a Once a week blogger now but can you believe it? Snow on the mountains on Oct 1st! I took this picture from my backyard. There was also a sort of snow hail rain mix yesterday. I love Utah!!!!! Cold is not worth anything without snow to go along with it.

I only woke up once last night. I was up for an hour but that is still better than what I've been doing lately. Yee Ha! Life is going my way today. :)

Scentsy fun!

2009-09-30T22:31:00.000-07:00

So I had a scentsy party thinking it would be a good way for me to meet more people in my ward. Only one person came and it was my relief society president. You would think I would be upset or feel put out but I have made a new friend of the consultant. She is way fun! I'm excited to finally meet someone here that I click with.
I have to share a great mommy moment. Last night Boy #4 who is 4 came into my room because he had a nightmare. He dreamed that a chair ate him! It was hard not to laugh because he was terrified. He wouldn't go back to sleep for two hours and tonight when it was time for bed he still was afraid that he would have another chair eating him dream. That must have been one vicious chair. It is still hard not to laugh.
So it is getting to that point again when I haven't had a good night's sleep in over three weeks. I start to get a little loopy. By good night's sleep I mean not waking up more than once in a night. Waking up once doesn't really phase me anymore. I'm pretty used to it. I hope it changes soon or I'll have to take the day off. Hee Hee :)
Have I told you how excited I am for Halloween.

Passing Classes!

2009-09-28T13:35:00.000-07:00

Yeah I just passed another class. That makes five so far. Woo Hoo! This school is so easy! WGU.edu look it up if you want to go to college online.

So, do you ever feel like the world is crashing down on you? Sometimes it litterally does. luckily no one was in the room when it fell but it sure made some noise and a bit of a mess.

Boy #3 stayed home sick this morning but by 9:30 he had made an amazing recovery. Really he just got bored because I told him to go to sleep instead of watching T.V.

Thank you Aunt Shelly! The boys love their game! Hunter is doing so much better and gaining weight still. They ate all the candy and also love the toys and books. We love You!!!!!

By the way have I told you how great my hubby is? Well here's more proof. It's not my birthday or our anniversary but I have flowers.

Aren't they beautiful? He said he just hadn't gotten any for me in awhile. Go get some for yourself. They just make you smile.

Broken "A" string

2009-09-24T08:20:00.000-07:00

So I've become a little obcessed with playing the cello. I bought a new "G" string and thought I would do a little maintenance while I was replacing the string. While I was retuning the thing I pulled too quickly on my "A" string and snap!!! It broke so I have to wait till a new string arrives to play many of the pieces I've been working on. I try to play them lower but It just isn't the same. Boo Hoo.

I'm feeling a little overworked. I really think it is because my kids get so much homework at their new school. It takes them at least an hour every day to get it done. I feel like I'm in high school again. They are only 7 and 8. What is the point of homework at that age anyway? Oh well. A bit of happy news this community has so many activities coming up for the next couple of months. They have a community trunk or treat on the 24th of Oct. I'm so glad it's not on Halloween. I am excited to live in a real neighborhood again. My kids can actually go trick-or-treating for real! How Fun! Boy #2 wants to be the grim reaper ewww! Boy #3 doesn't know yet and boy#4 wants to be a green skeleton. I love Halloween.

Every little boy should be Peter Pan

2009-09-21T20:53:00.000-07:00

Can you believe what a little man he is turning out to be. I tell him every day he's not allowed to grow up. He of course doesn't listen. He won the pine wood derby in his wolf pack and he won third overall. He is very proud of his car.

My Mom and Dad came to visit this weekend. I wish I had pictures. It was so fun to have them here for a little while. It was especially nice to have a few extra hands at church. How we survive that every week is beyond me. It's a good workout!

I've decided I don't have enough to do with raising five boys and going to school full time so I'm going to start teaching cello. I put flyers in the music shops around here so hopefully I will start getting calls from new students. It is actually quite calming so I'm excited to have more excuses to play.

This is the picture I put on my flyers. #1 man said it looks like I chopped my hair off and slicked it back because you can't see my bun. I tried to have #4 boy take the picture but ended up just doing it myself. Some of the ones he took are very good. ;)

I hope you are all well and good. I think everyone needs to eat some chocolate cream pie. Just a thought. Hee Hee :)

OK I Know I've been busy!

2009-09-16T21:28:00.001-07:00

Sorry It's been so long. Let's start with family reunions both the same week. So fun!! I don't have pictures of the other one because we got rained out of McCall before I could take any.

Next was the High school reunion, also a blast but yet again no pictures. Oh well.

This was the Box Elder county fair. Way fun and cheap!! Only $1 a ride, any ride. We almost didn't use all our tickets. Way fun.

We had a parade that #1 man was in. That was cute!

And of course dr. Destructo made another mess! Wow!!

The puppies are gone!

2009-07-29T19:04:00.000-07:00

Caleb misses the puppies but I am glad they are gone. I haven't had to mop the laundry room in two days. Wow!!! I would not make a good breeder. They are cute for a little while but they are so much work.

Caleb wants to say "Eye patch, he is gone. He was here just three minutes ago and then he was gone! Nick and Jacob and me and you and dad play golf. Thats it."

He is so cute!Shelly and Zane came to visit on their way to a big national mountain biking competition. It was so good to see them. Miss you guys. My mom and two sisters also came to visit the same weekend. I love that we have the space now to have people over. My other sister is coming next month.

My sister Amy has this awesome web site with free shopping lists and menus on it. Just click her link printable shopping lists. It is awesome!

I am still trying to find time to take a better current location picture. Oh well.

Hello Again

2009-07-08T20:14:00.000-07:00

Well I can't say things have calmed down but they have gotten better. All the puppies now have homes. I posted them on ksl (utah thing) they were all spoken for by 3:30. Sis here are some pictures of your sharkbait. I told you he's like a little baby. I'm so relieved they will all be taken care of. Boy #5 is so much better. He had his first follow up appointment today. His tube in his eardrum fell out already which isn't supposed to happen but the doctor said it is probably ok. He has many more doctor visits in his future though. Poor kid.

Emergency Surgery!!!!

2009-07-06T08:04:00.000-07:00

So I have learned that anytime I complain about being busy God lets me know what my priorities are. My sweet little two year old was complaining about ear pain so of course I just thought he had an ear infection. Since we just moved and switched jobs our insurance didn't kick in until the first of July so I decided to just wait it out and see if his ear would get better on it's own. A week later he developed a large bump on the back of his neck which scared me to death. We looked it up on the internet and it looked like swollen lymph nodes which are common with infection although I have five children and have never seen it happen with any of them. So a couple of days later His ear started to stick out like Will Smith but just on one side. Luckily that was the day our insurance kicked in. I waited until my hubby got home and took him to the urgent care center nearby fully expecting them to write us a prescription for antibiotics and send us on our way. When we got to see the doctor he looked at his ear and paused for awhile. Any time that happens that is a bad thing. He went Hmmm... Well.... and then I knew something was wrong. He said, "This is not an ear infection. I'm sending you to the hospital emergency room." I said, "Right now?" He said, "Yes right now I will call them and let them know you're coming." So we drove home and picked up the baby because I'm still nursing, told #1man to put the kids to bed and try to get some sleep, because he had to work the next day, and we headed off for the E.R. We got there around 8:00pm. When we finally got in they did a c.t. scan (cat scan) and gave him I.V. antibiotics. Once they got the surgeon to review the scan he came in and said, "Your son has an abscess behind his ear and pus in his mastoid bone. We need to drain them both. I don't feel comfortable doing it here so I am sending you to Primary Children's medical center." This was midnight. I was in Ogden. Primary is in Salt Lake so we started driving. I was so tired that it took me 20 minutes to find my way back to the freeway and then another 40 to get to Primary. We arrived safely at 1 am. When we were finally showed to a room it was 2 am. When the doctors finally were able to talk to each other from both hospitals and send the scan images it was 5 am. It still hadn't dawned on me what they meant by draining the abscess until one of the doctors came in and said I'm the resident ENT and we are scheduling his surgery for this afternoon. We were finally admitted at 6 am. After more antibiotics and morphine little man finally slept peacefully. I however did not. I have never had surgery and none of my kids have ever had surgery so I was petrified. Needless to say #1 man did not go to work that day. He got to the hospital that afternoon around 2 pm. His mom and step dad were coming to visit for the fourth so they decided to come early to help watch kids and anything else we needed. I'm so grateful they were here. #1 man and I just sat and worried for a couple hours until they told us we would be going to the OR and starting the surgery at around 5 pm. We walked him down and waited with him in the OR unit until the surgeon and anesthesiologist met with us. We kissed him goodbye with a few tears and went into the waiting room. I couldn't sit for long so we went down to the cafeteria to get some dinner. We went back to the waiting room and waited. He was supposed to be done around 6 so when we didn't hear anything we had the nurse call to get some news. He was fine. They finished around 7 pm and the surgeon came in to tell us everything went great. They put two tubes in his ear. One behind his ear to keep draining it and one in his eardrum for the same reason. We went back to his room at 7:30 pm and I had #1 man take the baby home for the night while I stayed with boy #5. I finally slept for real at about 10 pm. We had a few moments in the night when Little man was in some serious pain but by morning he was doing great. All his blood tests came back with great numbers and they told us he might be able to come home that day. By 10 am the resident came in and took the tube out from behind his ear and the nurse had finally taken out his two IVs. He was cleared to leave by noon and we got to leave for home at 2 pm. I was so glad to get home. Since then he has made an almost full recovery except for the lovely railroad tracks on the back of his ear but he is happy and playing so I think he is doing fine. He'll have to follow up with a couple different doctors in the next few months but I'm so happy we went in when we did. Hopefully my next blog will be able to show you the new house and funner things like that. Until them keep your kids close and take them to the doctor if they need it.

2009-06-18T10:03:00.000-07:00

Suprise suprise! Guess what happened the night we moved in? Any guesses? Come on. OK I'll tell you. Cleo had puppies. Aren't they cute? Still haven't unpacked because I have tonsilitus. Yeah so just to catch everyone up. Puppies the night we move in and tonsilitus. My life truely was ment to be lived by more than one person.

Fat Cats and more Fun!

2009-06-08T19:09:00.000-07:00

We all went to Fat Cats in Ogden for some glow in the dark minature golf. So fun! It's a pirate theme which the boys loved. Lot's of skeletons and swords! What could be better?

We pretended to play a few games too.We also went to the Oquirhh temple open house. It was so neat to see. It is such a beautiful building. My kids were facinated by being able to see every room. They especially loved the baptisimal font.
This is #1 man's new location. It is the coolest old building. The upstairs used to be used as a theatre. The wallpaper is from 1900 and is a red velvet stripe. So awesome!!

We also went out and ran in the rain.

Running in the rain makes you feel alive! Try it you'll see.

Time for an update

2009-06-02T11:53:00.000-07:00

One week to go here in the appartment. I am so excited to get my hands on that house. It needs some serious cleaning.

Here are some photos of what we do to keep busy around here.

We take luxurious baths, so relaxing...

We get plenty of excercise...

And of course we combat the forces of evil!!! What else would we do?

Doesn't that picture look like we're squatters. So sad. Oh Well one more week.

We are all happy and healthy. #1 Man is loving being a manager again. He really missed it. His branch is in a really cool old building. I'll have to take pictures of it. His office is nice. It's a little bare. He needs to put up some pictures and trinkets and stuff. Maybe some plants would help. I am doing school online and I've already passed three pre-assessments which means I get credits for doing nothing but taking tests. It's great with my crazy schedule. I think we have explored most of the parks but I'm sure there are still some we don't know about yet. Our ward is nice. It has a good mix of all ages which is always better I think.

Well I hope everyone is doing well. Please leave a comment so I can feel like I've talked to you. See you soon.

Appartment Living!

2009-05-22T11:53:00.000-07:00

OK time to update everyone on our crazy past two weeks. First Man #1 got a job in Brigham City UT. Yeah! I love Brigham City. Next we decide to go there and find a house. Mission accomplished. Next we decide to go down togeather instead of me staying behind until the house is ready. We find a month to month appartment. YEAH! Rush rush rush to pack the house and put our stuff in storage. Crazy mad dash. Now we are here.

Our little two bedroom appartment is a little cramped with all seven of us. Boy #1 lives with his mom so he doesn't get to share in the joys of appartment living. We have three boys in one room, one in the huge pantry and the rest of us in our room. It actually works pretty well. We don't have any furniture so we don't need a lot of space right now. We will be moving into our awesome house on June 10th. Needless to say I can't wait.

I am pretty bored because I don't have to do much here in the appartment and I don't know anyone here yet. There are so many parks here that we have been exploring one a day. Our favorite so far is Perry Park. It has huge trees and lots of shade. It also has an awesome new playground. Our realtor is letting me borrow her daughter's college dishes so I got to make a yummy dinner last night. I'm so tired of microwave food.

I'll try to post more often since we are so far away now. Have a great day!

Boy #2's first school project

2009-05-05T17:59:00.000-07:00

Isn't this cute. You can probably tell that this was a collaborative effort. It turned out awesome.

So we are really moving again! Man#1 got a job!!!!!! I'm so excited to move out of the rental and have more than 3 rooms for these crazy boys! I have loved living here though so I will miss all the great friends I have made. We have to move to a different state in two weeks as soon as the kids get out of school. YIKES!

School is fun but makes me a little crazy when the boys all start screaming. I don't mind one at a time that is just the way it goes. With five odds are that one will be screaming. I don't enjoy the chorus of miserable screaming.

I will post a picture of our new location when we get there.

Wish us luck!

I guess I can share him now.

2009-03-10T20:30:00.000-07:00

Our sweet little one was born on January 22. He weighed 8, 10. It's been 6 weeks already. I can't believe it. I am starting school on April 1st. I'm going to be a teacher. It's something I think I will love doing and even might be pretty good at. I think I'm going to try to teach 2nd grade but will probably have to settle for whatever is available when I graduate.

Hooray for boring normality!

2009-01-12T12:46:00.000-08:00

Well I guess this picture doesn't illustrate the boring part but this is pretty normal around my house. Don't you love the rust stains in the toilet too? YUCK!!! I got some stuff for that I hope it works. I'm so grateful for Christmas break to be over and to have a little time to get ready for this baby to come. I have two and a half weeks left unless I actually go into labor which hasn't happened before so we'll see. I was starting to go a little crazy with all the festivities since I don't get much sleep at the moment due to my pelvic joint being separated by about 2 centimeters wich I have been told by my doctor is because I have had five kids fairly close togeather. He also told me so kindly that there is nothing I can do to make the pain go away. I went to the chiropractor for the first time and he pretty much said the same thing. I guess I will just have to stick it out until the end. I will be trading getting no sleep because of pain to getting no sleep because of a hungry baby. I'll take the hungry baby any day.

We are not moving at the moment. Suprisingly Man#1 didn't get either job which has never happened before so I guess the timing is not right yet. I can't say that I'm too dissapointed I wasn't looking forward to moving right after having a baby. Been there done that. I'm excited to stay put for a little while so we can save money. I'm a little worried about fitting six boys in our three bedroom place but at least most of them are still little enough that they don't care about sharing rooms.
Why is it that every picture of this little guy is of him getting very messy? I guess we'll never know. We did manage to have Christmas through all our craziness. Here are a couple of cute shots. The one of the tree is before the baby got to it. The bottom third of the tree was bare most of the time it was up. That's pretty normal. The only time our tree looks pretty is the first moments after we put it up and the first moments on Christmas morning after Santa has fixed it and put candy canes on it. I am looking forward to a day when I can get glass ornaments again only to get rid of them again once we have grandkids which won't be that far away considering Boy #1 is 16. It could be as soon as like 7 years. Could you imagine me a grandma at 35? Wow, How fun!

I hope all is well with all of you. Next time I write I will hopefully be done being pregnant forever!!!! I'll be sure to get some cute pictures to share of the new little man. See you in a month.

OK so its been yet another month

2008-12-04T10:18:00.000-08:00

Let me tell you about what we have been up to lately.
Man #1 has had two interviews and it looks promising that one of them will stick. We found a house that just got put on short sale so if we get it it would be one heck of a deal! It is five bedrooms three bathrooms, 2500 square feet with a huge backyard. I even has a little playhouse in the back. If the bank accepts our offer we would get it for 160,000. The owners first listed the house for 267,000. I really hope we get it. It just means we of course will be moving again.

We put the house we just moved into a month ago up for sale and have had someone interested in it already. I guess when God wants you to do something he will make the path clear in front of you. If we don't sell it we will just rent it again and own three houses. Scary!

Man #1 also just got in a car accident so we aren't selling the other car we have anymore because his car is totaled. He is very lucky it wasn't worse than it was. An older lady came out from a side street and plowed into him because she hit her gas intead of her brake. Both his airbags deployed and his window was smashed out. The front of it is pretty crunched. He missed a pole by about three inches. It took out his side mirror. She wasn't hurt as far as we know. We luckily got back the money we just put into that car because we had a reciept for the work that was just done to it. Man #1's back is completly out and he has been bedridden for about a week. He has been going to a chiropractor for the last four days and it seems to be helping. He was determined to get some work done this week so he decided to go to work today for a few hours even though I very much tried to talk him out of it. He is still in a lot of pain.

I am still huge and getting bigger every day. I think the baby may have finally dropped because I can breathe today. I still have two months to go. I am a bit nervous about the timing of this move, but I have faith that if we do what the lord wants we will be blessed.

I hope you are all staying close to the spirit in this crazy world. Study your scriptures and really pray sincerely. So many I know have decided that these things just don't matter any more. Before all else we should put the relationship we have with the Savior. The only way to spend time with him is to pray and read the scriptures. I hope all is well with you all. See you next month.

Another Month Gone!

2008-11-04T14:29:00.000-08:00

So I am officially a once a month blogger.

Well, we moved into the rental. The first week has been quite the adjustment. Going from a four bedroom 2000 square foot house to a three bedroom 1600 square foot Manufactured house definitely takes some getting used to. We have decided that this will be more temporary than we had previously thought. A new baby will be just what splits the seams in this house. The house itself is great overall. The size makes it a whole lot easier to keep clean and we have ironed out the few kinks that we're keeping the smallest of our clan from sleeping. Mainly putting the T.V. in the front room away from his door. The water is not good so we bought an industrial strength filter. The water from that is so good! I am almost done getting the old house ready for our renters. They will be here tomorrow or Thursday. Our dogs are happier with a fence and a dog house. We also inherited a chicken from our last renters. It lays eggs but we need to contain it to find them. The boys are planning to build a tree house when things calm down and Man #1 has decited to take a break from school until January. Thank goodness!!! I was starting to feel like a single mom.

Moving here has taught me that we really don't need that coveted 5,000 square foot mansion in the fanciest neighborhood. I like my little house in the country and it suits our needs just fine. We will look back at our time here and miss it a whole lot when we move again wich will probably be next year so I'll keep you posted.

The unborn one is getting bigger and I still have three months left. Some of my maternity clothes don't even fit. Better to have a big healthy baby though so I will try not to complain.

Even through the move we did manage to go trick or treating but I forgot to take pictures Oh Well I can't do it all.

Flag Football!

2008-10-06T14:50:00.000-07:00

Aren't they cute? I love flag football because they don't get hurt. In a couple of years they will probably want to play with full pads. YIKES! They haven't won a game but they have so much fun.

So we are moving the week after next into our rental house. I'm excited because it's a lot cheaper than the house we're in now and it's next door. I can just grab some stuff and walk it over there. No truck no packing no movers. It's a bit smaller than the place we're in now but it has a family room. The renters for our house came last week and they are so cool! I'm so glad that we are always so blessed to have such awesome renters. They have two little girls so maybe I'll get to have tea parties with them!
I reluctantly taught my older boys to play Monopoly last Sunday because we had some time to kill. Three hours later we were still playing and no one was even winning yet. I could stand it no longer and told them the game was over. We counted up all our money and property and boy #2 won of course! They have been asking me to play again but I think I will wait a while before diving into that endless game again.
Man #1 and his brother decided to say goodbye to an old couch that belonged to their late father. It's been passed around for the past ten years. No one wanted to throw it away because it was sentimental. They have lots of pictures of their dad sitting on this couch and it needed a proper send off. We decided to burn it to honor it and say goodbye yet again. I have never seen anything light up and go so quickly. It was kind of amazing. Well here's to you MD.

And then there were six!!!

2008-09-24T16:55:00.000-07:00

Thats right for all of you well wishers keeping my hopes up for that coveted girl I'm still lost in the sea of testosterone. That's right we are having another boy! This is my fifth boy and our sixth boy togeather. Help Me!! All of you that could use a break now and then fixing hair and playing tea party send your girls my way. I need the reminder. Maybe I will just buy myself some princess dressups and make my boys rescue me from now on. I deserve it!

2008-09-16T14:14:00.000-07:00

Here is the party. We had a lot of fun! Sis and fam and other Sis came. Boy #1 got an Ipod. The Monday after I went to his house to help him ask a girl to Homecoming. We got her favorite color roses (pink and orange not easy to find) and put little papers in them asking her to the dance. It was so much fun! It was also his idea which I thought was awesome. He really didn't want me to document it (as you can see by his face) but I did anyway. What kind of mom or stepmom would I be if I didn't embarass him every once and awhile.

While he was here we went to see Grandma who is doing so much better. She got to go home yesterday so she is glad to be out of hospitals. She still has a long road to recovery but at least she gets to do it at home.

I finally got a picture with all the boys. Aren't they cute! We rented our house we have to be out on the first of Nov. I'm so excited to move again! I actually am. We haven't done it for awhile and I was wondering what I should call my blog if we ever stopped moving. Tell me if you have any good ideas.

Birthday Boy!

2008-09-08T08:23:00.000-07:00

Yeah to boy #1! He is finally 16. He is truly an independant teenager. I'm sure he would much rather be 18 graduated and on his own but hey only 2 more years( well 2 and 1/2. He has to wait till he graduates). His real b-day was on Sat. We will be celebrating this weekend when he comes over. It should be Lots of fun!
Here's an update on Shirley. The clot in her leg is 75% dissapated. The one in her lung is still there. The internal bleeding in her leg seems to have slowed and her blood count is going up which is good. She may be able to go home today but I haven't talked to anyone over there today to check. We all appreciate all the prayers from everyone. I know she is getting better because of them. Thank you!

Millions of Peaches...

2008-09-05T19:06:00.000-07:00

Here are step by step instructions on how to can peaches...

First contain all the children in a safe and orderly manner.

Next figure out how to blanche peaches properly before you start.

Then magically you will end up with finished jars of peaches on your counter.

How easy is that?

OK so it's not that easy but it was so fun!! We had to stop early so I could jet and visit my mom in law. She fainted today and needed a pick me up. I think it helped her to see her grandbabies. She hadn't seen them for a couple of weeks and missed them. She is doing better. They found some internal bleeding in her leg and drained it. I hope that will help. We want her well so she can go home and rest. It's so hard to be in the hospital. We appreciate all your prayers for her and I know she appreciates them too! Thanks.

It's that time again!

2008-09-03T15:43:00.000-07:00

It's almost Haloween!! You know what that means...Time to Move!!
So I put an add on craigslist last night to rent/sell our house and I've already had someone look at it today. Is that crazy or what?? Boy #2 stayed home again today but hasn't thrown up at all. Yippee!! He is going to school tomarrow. I have had some questions regarding this pregnancy so here's the scoop. I am due Feb. 3rd and I already don't fit in anything. I accidentally gave all my maternity clothes to Goodwill. That included all my sister's clothes as well because we all pool them togeather. So, if you have any donations you can contact me and I will tell you where to drop them off ;) Just kidding!!Since I never go into labor I am expecting to be induced at the end of January but since we are moving I may not get such an understanding obgyn. I better look far and wide for someone good. I hear they have pretty good doctors where we are going. If you want to know where that is ask my sister.

My Crazy Life!!

2008-09-02T14:36:00.001-07:00

So to catch you all up on what is new I just start where I left off. Our cute puppy Freckles was hit by a car so now we have Spot who as you could probably guess is a boy! Cleo and I are outnumbered still. We have a baby on the way and we don't know if it's a boy or girl until the 17th. We are moving again this time for real, and my mother in-law is in the hospital with a blood clot in her lung. Please pray for her.

The picture above was the day of the flood. There was a crazy rain storm that flooded our property. The kids had a ball in the mud but boy #3 lost his shoe in a sink hole. We never found it.That was so much Fun!!Next was the local carnival. The boys went on a crazy ride. Boy #2 got a little scared and screamed for them to stop the ride. They did.

Next was the big family campout. We loved all the snakes. The rest was pretty fun too.

Yeah more camping!!!We got to go on an awesome Steam train ride. Then we visited the dredge that you saw in an earlier blog.This was inside.

That was one crazy catch-up. I will try harder to blog more often. I know I need the outlet. I hope you are all well and happy. Try to keep up on your blogs. It's easier than trying to catch up.

I forgot I got tagged.

2008-05-30T19:17:00.000-07:00

1. What was I doing 10 years ago?
I was 17 and starting summer break. Wow I'm young!
2. What was on my to-do list for today?
Wait for air conditioning repair man, Have V.T. over, Clean for V.T. Take care of the puppies, and care for feverish baby.
3. What would I do if I suddenly became a billionaire?
Go to Africa and help!!
4. 3 Bad habits.
I bite my nails. Sing really loud when I clean. I say stinkin Junk and Yo!
5. Places I have lived.
California, Idaho, Utah
6. Places I have worked.
Home, Dina's Deli, Taco Bell, Limited Too, C.P.I., Picture galleries.
7. 3 Things people don't know about me.
I have to change the furniture around in my house about every 3 months or I start to loose it. I have down days just like the rest of you I just don't go anywhere on those days. I want to be an LDS music writer/ singer.

OK I hope I did that right. I've never been tagged before. I know, I'm not that exciting. I guess I'm supposed to tag other people but everyone I know on these has already been tagged. I tag anyone who reads this who hasn't done this one yet. Come on take a chance. It could be fun!

Finally some estrogen!

2008-05-30T11:31:00.001-07:00

Aren't they so stinkin' cute? These are my girls since I don't have any human ones. They are our new puppies Cleo (the black one) and Freckles. #2 boy Loves the girls. He kept saying this is the best day of my life!! You gotta admit they are pretty cute.

Where did I go?

2008-05-06T08:36:00.000-07:00

So sorry it's been so long but as you can see I've been busy. All the boys that I've given birth to were born in the spring. We get five birthdays in a row if you count mine. I couldn't find a good picture of that.

Then we went camping at bruneau sand dunes. So much fun!!!! Number 1 man and I went on a romantic getaway to a dredge! HEE HEE! Actually we went to The Geiser Grand Hotel. It was gorgeous.

Last but certainly not least I went to Women's conference. I have to put all these pictures on here because they rock!Don't you just love Mary Ellen Edmunds? She is so cute!Hello, can you say sunshine? Birthday time!! Spiritually Sassy!! A mother with her daughters. Isn't that sweet? Well at least it's funny!

Kitchen Suprise!

2008-02-19T20:18:00.000-08:00

How do you like my new kitchen? I painted it green and put the lettering on the wall while my husband was at work. I am pretty spontaneous. I didn't tell him I was going to do it. I didn't even know I was going to do it until I pulled out the paint and decided to go for it. Luckily it turned out really nice and my husband didn't mind. He's used to me doing crazy things like this. That's a part of me he knows well. Sometimes he comes home and all the furniture is moved around and I've switched bedrooms for the kids and he just smiles and says great. I always say this is so much better than we had it before. It always changes again about six months later. I love it that way. I hate things to stay the same. So boring. Try something new!! You may just like it.

Thoughts on a great day.

2008-02-09T21:10:00.000-08:00

Don't I live in the most beautiful place?

My two older boys began wrestling for a league this week. It is something they are suprisingly good at already. They have had a lot of practice. They had their first meet today and they both did very well. although they are only 5 and 6 I am already thinking this could be a good way to get scholarships later. Not bad. They both got medals today for participating. In the future they will need to win their matches to get medals. They are all of a sudden very motivated to win. I should have bought medals at Zurchers a long time ago. Maybe I would've been able to get them to clean their room. Oh well.
My Grandpa's birthday party was today and I got to go for a little while. I didn't stay because of the above wrestling match. I love going to family parties. I love to see everyone and just have some time to smile and talk. We used to have parties about once every two weeks it seemed about 8 years ago but it has been a lot less often as all our own families have been getting bigger. I really miss being a kid at my Grandma P's house and smelling the wonderful smell of Christmas dinner coming from her kitchen. I have made turkey dinner plenty of times since but I've never been able to reproduce that smell. I also loved being at my Grandpa W's cabin and sitting on the floor playing marbles. Their T.V. did not get the clearest picture. I never would've learned to play marbles if they had a better one. I'm grateful it didn't work well.
After the party ad wrestling we went to the temple store and I bought my first temple dress. It is gorgeous. I'm so excited to go to the temple and wear it. Yeah!! I also got a temple bag. I've never had one. It's always fun to get new things.
We decided to go out to dinner to celebrate the boys first match. We went to Golden Corral. I'm still full four hours later. Yikes the food never ends there. The kids loved it but The 6 year old ate too much Ice cream and was sick all the way home. When we got home we practiced wrestling and watched Princess Bride to balance out the hormones.
I had a great day. I hope tomorrow will be just as fun.

Biggest snowman ever!

2008-02-08T15:04:00.000-08:00

Isn't this the coolest snowman ever? We had so much fun that day playing in the snow and just being together. We also made a huge slide on a hill by our house. So Fun!!

Dance Night

2008-01-23T21:29:00.000-08:00

Man, I wish I had a digital camcorder so you could see how much fun we have doing our dance nights. Whenever we have some time together without any plans we turn on some crazy music and dance and lipsync. Sometimes we even get it on tape. It is a great time together. Try it!

Potty Training

2008-01-15T14:41:00.000-08:00

Potty training is in full swing in our household. My 2 year old decided yesterday that it was time for him to become a big boy. He insists that he must wear underwear and refuses to wear baby diapers. I'm so excited that he wants to do this. I hate buying diapers and changing them. He gets a little medicine cup of chocolate chips when he sits on the potty. He is still figuring out how to put underwear on correctly. So funny.

So I have been sick again. I can't do it anymore. I've decided to launch a strike against my immune system and not accept any illness ever again! I hope I win. I will give you more details as the negotiations get finalized.

Hope none of you are ill. If so contact me and you can join my union of fed up sick people. Have a great day!

Snow Day!

2008-01-09T09:11:00.000-08:00

No school today! Of course my body decides to make me sick. The only day I won't get any kind of break I get a nasty cold. Oh well. I can sit and watch my kids play but as you can see they are not interested in the snow right now. They are watching Star Wars! Can you see it in the background? I say "watching" but this is what they do. They are true boys.

I hope you don't get sick on the only snow day we will have like me. Have a fun day!! I'm going to go to sleep if I can.

More Snow!!

2008-01-08T16:10:00.000-08:00

Yeah!!! Finally we get some amount of snow. I am so excited to play in it when it calms down a bit. We are also supposed to get more in the next few days. Yeah! I can't wait.

These two beautiful boys are my cats whom I love. The one on the right is Cyber, short for cyberspace. The one on the left is Dusty,short for dusty king tut. They are so sweet and good. I never knew I was a cat person until we got these two and I can tell you litterboxes are so much better than house training a puppy.

If you ever need something for boys to do get a tent. This one is from Christmas. Isn't it something else? I just love it, and so do my boys. They also got a ladybug one that they love just as much. They also love magic wands. Can you tell? I just thought these tents were so cool and I never knew they existed. How fun!

We are still selling our house...Not sold yet. It will happen. It has to. We have faith. It will be so nice when it is not our responsibility anymore. We will probably just move into the house behind us that we have been using as a rental. It will be a bit cramped space wise but oh the freedom of being way under budget!! I can't wait.

I hope all of you are enjoying whatever weather comes your way. If it weren't for the snow I would live by the beach.

Ode to a good man

2008-01-07T09:38:00.000-08:00

I have been married to my sweet love now for almost 8 years. I am so happy that I found him and made the decision to marry him. He is truly a good man. Of course I also think he's hot and sexy but what I really value in him is that he cares about all of us and wants us to be happy before himself. Our marriage only works though because he knows I try to do the same for him. If one us us started worrying more about our own happiness than the others then someone's needs won't be met. Marriage is all about selflessness. Selflessness, not the other person's selflessness. I know we are not perfect in it but we are both in it, committed to making the other one blissfully happy. Through service comes true love! I love you sweetheart!

Snow snow, I love snow! I'm so glad for it. What is the point of cold without snow. My two older boys went back to school today and I am bored again. I loved having them home. They really are good boys. They try so hard to do what is right. They may not always understand what that is (like that hitting someone with a lightsaber even if they are the bad guy is still hitting), but they try hard to do what they interpret as the right thing.

I guess I'm just really happy with my life, not because I'm doing what I always dreamed I would be but because I find myself excited to wake up in the morning and see what is going to happen. As I was planning my life I never would have guessed that in the middle of being completely exhausted endless diapers along with endless demands I would find my true self. I don't always love everything I have to deal with in this place in my life but I can honestly say that I am happy. I am happy because I choose to be. I choose to only acnowledge the good things in my life and hope for the bad to get better. May you all find good in the bad today and recognise it!

No More Decorations!!

2008-01-02T10:39:00.000-08:00

I love this time of year when there are no plans. I get so uptight with so much to do in December. I love waking up and knowing I can do whatever comes up during the day. I love to just wing it. I hate too many plans!

I don't know why but it is such a relief to put away the Christmas decorations. I love them at first but after awhile I just want them gone! It is so comforting to see my house put back togeather and clean.

We cleaned out our creepy basement yesterday and found some old He-man toys. Isn't that so cool? My kids of course are extatic about our discovery. I was really happy about getting the basement clean. We did come accross one little snag. There is an old water heater down there that we could not get out. Even with the truck helping us we just couldn't get it to work. It is still down there taunting me. I hate that water heater! My back hates it too.

We tried to go sledding this weekend. We got up and got the kids dressed, which took like three hours, and piled in the car. We decided to go to some "mountains" that are closer to us than the real mountains that would have ensured our success in finding snow. We drove around these foot hills and never found enough snow to really sled. We did find a road that had a thin layer of snow on it. Our attempt to sled down it was a complete failure. It was so funny though to watch the kids all bundled up trying to slide on a grassy rocky hill. They gave up on the sleds and started rolling down the hill about 15 minutes into our adventure. Instead of getting really annoyed we decided to hike up to the top of our "mountain". It was really fun sitting at the top with all the kids. All through lunch they talked about how they climbed to the top of a real mountain. We ate lunch at a great local restaurant complete with hot chocolate to top off the trip. We really did end up having a great time. So sometimes making mountains out of mole hills is a good thing (At least when you have four little boys counting on finding snow for their sleds it is). Maybe you will be smarter and go sledding where there is actually some snow on the ground. We will be taking another trip I'm sure very soon.

Regis and Kelly

2007-12-29T18:24:00.000-08:00

Isn't this the cutest picture of him? I entered him and the baby in Live's Beautiful baby contest.

I know everyone thinks their babies are the cutest but come on these guys are adorable. We have been having so much fun with the kids home from school. I love having no schedule.

Have a great holiday!

So much to write, so little time.

2007-12-26T15:38:00.000-08:00

Well I've been busy, well really sick but that kept me busy so it's the same thing right? Christmas is always a fun time with the kids. It's so great watching them get so excited about something as simple as new ribbon on the tree. Wow!

This gingerbread house is so cool! It's from my neighbor.

The bears are sledding and having a snowball fight. My boys thought it was so cool. They destroyed and ate the whole thing about five minutes later. It was awesome destruction!

Next is candy making day! Woo! lots

of fun. Those boys got so hopped up on sugar it was insane. My sis and I cooked everything too soft.

It still tasted good though as you can see. The boys didn't mind. Neither did sis and I.

This picture is of all the candy my son got from school. They sent him home with three bags! Can you say enough?

I think this picture sums up the whole holiday experience. Lots of fun! No stress at all!

This is my awesome uncle. The kids all think he is Santa. I think so too.

There isn't time to write or read all that happened this last week. I'm sure you all had your own great holiday with your own great stories so I will just wait till the next entry to share more fun stories. Merry Christmas!

Poor baby

2007-12-14T10:42:00.000-08:00

My little one with allergies had his first bloody nose again since we started giving him allergy medicine. It probably happened because I forgot to give him his meds the day before. Oops! At least he's a good sport about it. He's happy no matter what (well, at least if he gets to play his x-box).

Does Christmas make anyone else go Ugh!!? It seems like we have plenty of money all year round until Christmas. Thats when it all goes away and hides until we get our tax return in Feb. I wonder where it all goes. I have a theory that all the dollars get togeather and take a vacation in Hawaii. Wouldn't you? Oh well. It does make us appreciate what we do get to give our kids and others for Christmas.

So, we've been eating less meat lately. Not no meat just less. I don't even notice now when a meal doesn't have meat in it. Last night we ate a yummy creamy cauliflower soup. It was so good. Perfect for a cold day. You just saute some onions in butter. Add flour and boil. Then add 2 cups of chicken broth. Boil till thick. Add 2 cups half and half and a little worshtershire sauce. Then add 1 bag of frozen cauliflower. Boil again then add 1 cup of cheese. Serve with more cheese on top and yum. If you have some good bread to go with it then more power to you. Sorry I don't measure. If you like it thicker add more flour at the beginning. It's that easy.

I hope your money doesn't go on vacation and that this season finds you happy and well.

Sick yet again!

2007-12-10T13:06:00.000-08:00

My older son who is six has strep throat again!! How can that be? We have spent so much time lately sanitizing their hands when they come home and sanitizing the dishes and countertops. What else can I do? This is the third time that he has had strep in the last 2 months. My other boys have all had it twice except my oldest who doesn't live here most of the time. I just want to take them all out of school forever but I don't think I have the patience for homeschool. More power to all of you who do.

Last Satutday night was my husband's annual Christmas work party. We always have so much fun because my husband is a dance addict. He only gets his fix once a year so he makes the most of it. We are always the first ones on the floor and the last ones to leave. I get tired but it is a great workout! It is a lot of fun and we always get to go home with a centerpiece.

Well I better go get a big bowl of ice cream to make up for all the dancing this weekend. Hee Hee! Rasberry sherbet with chocolate sauce. Yummmm!