Yes we are still here

My camera on my phone isn't great sorry about that. We are now in Oklahoma! That is why I named this blog the moving girl. We are at it again. We are here to go to OU. I am finishing a degree in Radiation therapy. I really love my medical classes. Randy is planning to get a law degree when I finish mine. He has a new job working for Citizen's bank of Edmond. He is loving it. It is a smaller bank so he has a lot more influence on policy which he loves. I just finished my first semester at OU and I have another class starting in Monday. It is a music class so I am pretty excited. The kids are all in school which is really weird. Right now I am sitting in a silent house. I hate it!!! I love the sounds of my family. (Good and bad). I will be glad when school is out.
Jacob is doing great at his new school. He says he thinks he is in the cool crowd but he's not sure. Kids (girls) are paying him a lot more attention because he is new and that is cool. :)
Nic says he has made a ton of new friends and they are all exactly like him. He is so cute. He bought an Ipod for his B-day and he has turned into a zombie. I think we may need to hide it once and awhile.
Josie has discovered her passion. She loves to run. She competed in a track meet for the district and got third overall for the 200m. She wasn't even going as fast as she could. She had so much fun. I think I see many track meets in my future. She is excited for summer break.
Caleb is very into minecraft. I keep losing my ipad or phone and mysteriously find it under his pillow. I still don't know how it keeps happening. He assures me he doesn't either. LOL! He is loving scouts and school and has lots of new friends.
Hunter is doing awesome! We are sticking to his new diet. Avoiding all the foods on his allergy list and his behavior is great. We are noticing we are having to retrain his way of thinking. He still has bad days but they are fewer and fewer. He loves school, especially music, and he got to be the red pepper in a school program a few days ago.
Matthew and Naia are two happy twins. They both love school and their assistant teacher Miss Tasha. They run up and give her a big hug every morning. I am so grateful for good teachers that help my kids become independent. It has been so tough letting them be there but I know I need to go to school so I'm glad for the opportunity.
We are still getting used to the storms here. They sometimes keep the kids up and they are the best shows I've seen ever. People here are the friendliest I've ever met. Randy said I have found my people. He is so right. I no longer feel loud or too happy. I love it.

Church... Try it you may like it.

    So my little sister came to church with my family yesterday. It was so nice to have her there. She brought her kids which helped my kids be good during sacrament meeting. It is the first meeting and it is for the whole family. I lead the music and Randy sits in front so I leave my kids usually with a younger girl who sits with us. Having Liz there was so much easier. I hope she comes every week!
     I am not much for talking about religion because it is such a personal thing but I should at least let you all know that I belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I am a Mormon and I love it! It has helped me in ways I can't even express. Speaking of which Randy gave me a blessing last night because I have been needing some guidance about what I am doing with my life. It was awesome. I feel better and I feel like I now know exactly what I should be focusing on. Believe me with eight kids focus is essential  or nothing gets done.
     If you are saying to yourself, "what is she talking about?" just go to mormon.org it is the best source of information that comes from members themselves. I don't like learning about something from someone who is a former member or someone who has never been to my church. It usually is a bit jaded because of hurt feelings or other misconceptions. I like to go to the source.
   Have a great day!

Pictures from the last year

So I didn't have my pictures downloaded onto my laptop until now. Here are some good pictures from the last year of all the fun stuff we did.

Dinner at Joe's crab shack. Yummy!

 The dredge at Sumpter Oregon.

 Josie had a thing that whole trip she kept catching butterflies.

 Kim's wedding. :)

 The pumpkin patch.

 Maze at pumpkin patch.

 More pumpkin patch.

 And more.

Here is midnight, one of our horses.

This is Buttercup, our mare who is about to have a baby.

We also have her Philly Ginger. I didn't have a good picture. She looks just like her Mom.

 Our new addition Cookie.

 Baby chicks

 Caleb's baptism and birthday season for everyone.

 

Yellow belt in Kung Fu.

Super fun year! There are a couple more but my blog won't let me post any more pictures on this post so oh well. :)

 

Wow a year goes by so fast

I can't believe a year has gone by! I usually blog once a month but I have been crazy busy. I'm always busy I know but I have been even more crazy busy if you can believe it.

We are still in Wilder Idaho which we love and it has been nice to be out in the middle of no where again. We bought horses and chickens and another dog so that is lots of new fun stuff to do. We have been fighting with the weeds again because that is what you do in the country. In the suburbs you fight with your neighbors and in the country you fight with mother nature. I also started back in school. I am studying International relations with an emphasis in African cultures which is what I wanted to study in the first place so I'm doing that now. It's so much fun to learn about stuff I actually care about. It is a huge contributing factor in my busy life though.

Everyone is doing well. All the kids keep getting older even though I strictly forbid it at home. (They do it at school when I'm not looking)

 Ricky is living in Boise with his sweet fiance' Brooke. They are blissfully happy. We are so glad. They plan to marry next summer or whenever anyone has enough money. :)

 Jacob just turned 12 and is now passing the sacrament. Weird that he is so big. He is going on a week long leadership training camp in Washington DC next month by himself on a plane and everything. He is terrified and so am I but he will love it and I will get over the fact that he is growing up too fast. He also loves the kung-fu class he, Nic, Caleb, and Randy have been taking. They all love it.

Josie is so helpful and sweet. She is always looking for ways to be given more responsibility. She can't wait to get older. I remember those days. She wants to start dancing which I am really excited about. I just need to find a dance company that is good and not too far away. Unfortunately I'm picky because I have cousins who are professional ballet dancers so I know what dancing should be. She is still young though so maybe I can compromise.

Nicholas is as sweet as ever and loves to do cartoons. He is really good at it. He is having a little bit of a lesson in hard knocks this year with school but he will figure it out. Assignments are not optional for a good grade. You have to actually turn them in. He is usually pretty jovial but he takes Karate seriously.

Caleb is very compassionate and always concerned with others. He is also a good friend to our neighbor and they love to jump on the tramp and play war or something like it. He just switched rooms and now gets to be with the big boys. He is so excited. He thinks they are like rock stars. So cute. He also loves Karate and he gets to be in the Adult class.

Hunter continues to be a lot of fun to watch grow up. He is so curious and always asking questions about why the world is the way it is. He feels very passionately that things should be a certain way and lets us all know when we are not living the way he thinks we should. Any time life isn't fair or just he has a very hard time coping. I think it is because this life isn't fair but maybe the one in heaven was. I remember my Aunt saying life isn't fair to me at about the age of eight and I was shocked. I thought well it should be. Ha

Matthew and Naia are the best of buds. They really are twins. They do everything together and love to spend time playing together. I'm so glad we have the girls. They fit so perfectly into our family. I didn't even know there were holes but Heavenly Father did. So glad I listened. Matthew is so cute it's really hard to punish him. He has a way of making our hearts melt and we just start to laugh. It's terrible the things he gets away with. Naia has a very infectious laugh. Anytime she starts to laugh we can't help but join in.

Well enough gushing about my perfect children:) I really do have it good. I'll just gush about my perfect husband. :)

Randy is loving his job at Zion's bank here. He is also loving Karate with the kids (although I think he wishes it was a little cheaper to take them all). We celebrated our 13th wedding anniversary last week. Wow! Lucky 13. He is awesome. He likes being in the bishopric but I think he has a different opinion about those leadership callings now than he did before. He is busy.

Overall we are good. We are loving life as always and are living it to it's fullest as much as we can.

Settling in

We are starting to come out of the unpacking marathon that has been going on this past month. We really are almost done unpacking thanks to so much help from friends and family. Randy's new job is great. He is traveling a lot more which I don't love but he loves his work which is always a plus.

Here is another great photo from our session with my good friend Eva Barnett. Her website is evamelissaphotography@blogspot.com. Check it out. She works anywhere in the Boise area of Idaho. I just love that picture.

The girls are doing great. Josie has started in her journey of becoming a young woman... (girls you know what I mean) It was a very hard day for her. She was totally freaked out. I guess all our talks about what was coming didn't quite get through. She is definately not 8. I'm guessing she is at least 11. We still need to have a dental exam to really know.

I am starting another grand adventure. We are homeschooling all the kids starting in the fall. I have enrolled them in idahoidea.com it is an online charter program and it looks like just what we are looking for. My friend Janet is involved with it and it sounds great. I am really excited.

We continue to get the house closer to all cleaned up and usable. There are still quite a few weeds to battle with but I know by the end of summer it won't even look like the same yard.

I hope all of you are doing well and enjoying life. I know I am.  :)

Guess What!!!!

We really are moving!!!! Randy finally got a job in Idaho. We leave on the 26th of May. Woo Hoo!!!!!!

Yeah... Birthday Season is Over!

We had our last birthday of the season on Sunday. Thank goodness! I love birthdays but seriously 9 in a row gets a little old. I'll post pictures from each if I remember to load my pictures from my phone before I post next.
I just got back from women's conference in Provo. I love going, and this year I got to bring a dear friend. It was her first year to go and we had a blast. I also was there with three of my sisters and my mom. We got to run around BYU and get spiritually filled. What better way could you spend a couple of days. SO fun!!!
Randy has yet another interview on Thursday so wish us luck. It is going on ten months of paying for two mortgages and things are a bit tight. We are still trying to get back to Idaho so we can rent the house here and live in the gangsta house in Wilder. Hee Hee. Look to an older post about it getting shot up if you aren't sure what I'm talking about.
The thing I remember most from conference besides not getting any sleep was that God appreciates the things we do for him. I had never thought about that before. If you are feeling under appreciated just remember that the eye in the sky that watches all you do also is thankful for your efforts.
Have a great day!!!

Crazy moments in mothering!

Here is a crazy video. Enjoy!
Caleb got stuck!

Don't worry he got unstuck but he had to eat milkshakes for a week!

Birthday Season

In the dead of winter after the holidays when everyone else has nothing to do till spring we are busy with our family holiday season. All our birthdays except 1 are from Jan until April. We have at least two each month. That makes for a lot of cake and tablecloths. Here are a couple pictures of the first Four that have happened in the last month and a half.

Randy's was Jan. 13th I don't know why we have no pictures of his but oh well.

Here is Matthew's Jan 22 

 Naia's Feb. 5

And Josie's Feb. 22

It was so fun to have Josie's party. She had a few friends over and they played pin the tiarra on the princess and drop the hairclips into the jar. We also had a piniata. I love low key birthday parties. Luckily we don't have friend parties for the babies just the kids in school so it's not too crazy yet.

Our next round of birthdays starts next week with Jacob's on the 6th and mine on the 7th. Wow I'm seriously going to gain 10 pounds just from all the cake.

Oh the Places WE Go

 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

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.