Happy Birthday Dawnyel!

Happy Birthday Dawnyel!! I have had SO much fun getting to know you as your "virtual" visiting teacher. Hope you have a great day and do something fun!!!!

Happy 30th Justin!

I had a hard time finding pictures of Justin to post. Apparently I don't take many of him. I need to be more concious of that. I have a bunch of side shots and back of the head shots, lots of his kids, and a few with he and Amber, but none of just his face.

Anyway, happy birthday Justin. Welcome to the thirties!! We hope you have a great 30th year!!

Mimzy's turn to go to school.

Alyssa loves nothing more than to bring her pets for show-n-tell. Thankfully she has a teacher who actually enjoys animals and doesn't mind pets coming to the classroom (as long as the parent brings it and takes it right home). So today was poor little Mimzy's turn to go to school. I think she was a little bit scared, but she did pretty well. She was making lots of squeeks, and the kids thought that was "so cool". They all LOVED her and got a turn to touch her and ask questions. Alyssa just loves to be the center of attention.

Who's got the brain today?

Back when I was a kid my grandma made a comment and said, "Elena must have the brain in the family." Being the cynical family we are, this comment has become a running joke for us. On occasion we'll ask who is using the one and only brain in the family. Today I am wondering exactly who's got it because I really need it.

I tried to get a packet with a take home assignment ready for Halle's kindergarten class. (I am the morning room mom.) I thought I was doing so well, getting the note written and the packets stuffed last night. Thankfully before I stuffed them I realized I had written my mom's home phone number down instead of my own. Mistake number one. I was ready to take them to the school, when on a whim, I looked at my calendar and realized that I had gotten the dates wrong. A whole week early. So I changed the date, emailed the afternoon room mother whom I had already emailed the wrong letter to and asked her to change it on her letters. I got ready to reprint my letters, (and restuff the packets), when my phone range. (Primary stuff...)

Once I got off the phone, I went back to reprint and realized there was one more wrong date written. So I changed that one, emailed the pm mom again with the new revised letter attached, or so I thought. Sure enough, I had forgotten to attach it, so I had to send a THIRD email to this lady I don't even know, explaining how come I am so crazy.

Finally I got the correct letter written and printed and tried to start stuffing the envelopes. An impossible task with Kate and Carter around. So I got them entertained downstairs with a cartoon and went back upstairs to finish. Now I KNOW better than to leave Kate unattended, but I only had 10 minutes before kindergarten was over and I had to get the letters there today.



I finished the packets, ran downstairs to shove the little kids in the truck and THIS is what I found. WHY ME?????

Grabbing the camera to click a picture shouldn't have been my first priority, but I am keeping all of these as blackmail. Someday when Kate is a mommy and calls to complain about how her kids are making her crazy, I'll just pull all these little mishap pictures out and say, "It's only payback."

Well, by this point I had missed getting the packets to the kindergarten before school got out, but I figured it would be okay if they went home tomorrow with the kids. So I stick Kate in her car seat so that I can clean up the mess, then jump in the truck to get Halle. That's when I remembered that somewhere in the midst of the phone calls and million emails, I faintly saw Kate lugging around my car keys. Not to worry I found them in my bathroom and managed to pick up Halle on time.

Would somebody PLEASE send the brain my way??! I am in desperate need of it.

Poor little Kate

This morning Kate was trying to climb onto Jarom's desk and knocked a box off that had some plastic sticks in it. Of course she went down with it and came up with a bloody face. The sticks apparently scratched her. As ugly as her eyelid looks, I am so glad she had her eye closed. As you can see it hasn't slowed her down much.


I told her to close her eyes so I could get a picture of the eyelid, but instead she folded her arms and got ready to pray. She's so cute and learning so much, it just kills me.

Motherhood

This is why I TRY to shop with the least amount of children possible.

Yesterday, I dropped Alyssa off at dance and thought to myself, "I will run to Wal-Mart and pick up a few things for dinner, ant traps (to rid my house of the massive amount of ants we have), and laundry detergent (Jarom was getting ready to go to Boise and didn't have any clean pants)." So off I went, ONLY 3 kids in tow, with 45 minutes MAX to get in and out of the stupid store. As I rushed everyone in, Carter lost his flip-flops about 3 times, so once I finally got a cart I stuffed him in the basket and Kate in the seat, Halle trailing along beside, and headed down the isles. Lettuce, apples, beans, olives, everything was going great. Then we hit the freezer isles and every 10 seconds Halle would say she was cold. Carter was tired of the milk and popsicles touching him and kept trying to climb out. "Allright guys, we're done. Let's go check out."

I looked at the jam-packed lines in every checkstand and decided to go to the self-serve lane. I HATE these when I have kids with me. They all want to swipe the food and load it on the conveyer belt. One time, Kate grabbed gum out of my purse (a brand new one from a different store) and swiped it. And more than once I have had items double scanned and just paid for them twice because it's such a pain to have the checker come delete it for me.

Anyway, this is the point where Halle started whining and doing the potty dance telling me she couldn't hold it. Carter was "helping" by placing all the items on the conveyer belt and Halle kept throwing candybars and gum on. ("Maybe Mom's too dumb to notice.") So to keep her entertained and to distract her needing to go to the bathroom I let her help scan. Next thing I know, I looked up and low and behold, KATE is coming down the conveyer belt! She had climbed out of the seat and onto the belt and was just going for a joy ride down the grocery belt.

I finished up by holding Kate under one arm and we all took off out the door. We only had 7 mnutes to get back to the dance studio to get Alyssa, and probably less time to get Halle to a bathroom. I looked in the cart and realized I DIDN'T get laundry detergent!!! ARGGHHHH!!!

Now the cart was too full to stuff Carter in so we just had to run back to the detergent isle carrying his stupid flip-flops. We grabbed the closest kind we could find, rushed back to the check outs and chose the one with only one person in front of us. (They only had TWO items!) Of course, something wasn't right and they had to get a cashier to come help them. Halle was now VERY uncomfortable, so I sent her to the bathroom alone. (Inside praying that some nutcase wouldn't grab her.) After what seemed like an eternity, the people in front of me were finally done and I was able to swipe my stuff, meet Halle at the bathroom and pick up Alyssa 10 minutes late.

The joys of motherhood......

Meet Mimzy!

Well, we did it; Carter filled up his smiley face chart . We got a guinea pig instead of a hamster. The pet store guy said that these are much more friendly and better for kids. So far it has proven to be true. She's pretty good about letting the kids hold her and when we let her walk on the floor she'll come right up to us. She's not so sure about us catching her in the cage, but once we've got her she's nice. The poor thing has been through several names, but I think we've all settled on Mimzy.

The girls, especially Halle, are LOVING the fact that we have a guinea pig. It's been hard to make them leave her alone. Carter loves her too when I get her out and he gets to hold it. I think this is going to be fun. We'll see how much fun after I have to clean the cage, but so far we are all enjoying her.

Twin Day

It's twin day at school today. Of course Bailey is a triplet with my girls, but she wasn't here for the picture. We took them all to Old Navy and let them pick out an outfit to wear. They had SO much fun and thought they were so old. It was really cute and I think their outfits turned out great. Do I not have the cutest kids on the planet???!!! (Hey, it's my blog and I can think and say what I want. I know all your kids are cute too. :) )

Status Report

Well, the report on Carter isn't as productive as I had hoped it would be. He does have 3 smiley faces on his chart, but that's all. We are being pretty strict about giving them to him. If he doesn't stay in his bed until atleast 5 or 6 am he doesn't get one. He is doing better about laying in his bed and trying to fall asleep, but he only stays there for about 2-3 hours. He'll come into our room and need a drink and then refuse to get back in his bed. I'll try to talk to him about the hamster or smiley face, but he doesn't care. I think he's lost motivation. (Kind of like me on a diet. I do good for a day or two (okay an hour or two) and then lose all motivation.) So today we are going to go to the pet store and just LOOK at hamsters to try to get him excited again. Alyssa and Halle are getting very frustrated with him, but Jarom and are saying, "The longer we can put off the stupid pet, the better."

Happy Birthday Payson!

Payson in 2000.

Payson in 2002.

Payson now!
Look how big you are getting!! And so handsome too. Happy Birthday Payson! We had so much fun seeing you this weekend. Hope to see you soon again.

Oops, forgot this one.

Somehow I left out the picture of us dying eggs Friday night. My mom boiled the eggs for us and we set up a table in her kitchen. The kids all had a great time creating masterpieces with their eggs. We dyed 6 dozen eggs and took them all home. My fridge smells just wonderful now.

Easter Weekend

FRIDAY
My friend, Angela, took us to her uncle's house to see his baby goats and lambs. They were adoreable and my kids had an absolute blast. Halle left declaring that she will own a farm someday.

This one kept sucking on Carter's pants. He thought it was hilarious.

Nothing was more fun than feeding the babies' their bottles. Even Kate enjoyed it.

SATURDAY

We had a bbq and Easter egg hunt at our house with Jarom's family. It was a lot of fun and such a beautiful day for it!

All the kids gearing up for the hunt.

All the little grand-daughters, minus Katie's girls.

Some of the silly grand-sons.

Ogden

Chubby Bunny, wait that's just Kate.

A very cute picture of Justin and Amber.

Anna

Halle, Ellie, and Anna after the hunt.

Owen and Carter enjoying some of their loot.

Jamis working hard to discover his treasures.

After lunch, we all helped Brandon and Emily move into their new place in Shelly, then headed back to Gregg & Anna's for sloppy joes and Charlotte's Web (the new movie).

SUNDAY

The Easter Bunny found us, we enjoyed church and had a great dinner.

She's willing to hand her binky away if there's candy involved.

Checking out what the Easter Bunny left.


Sunday evening my folks and Emily and Bryon came to our house for a yummy ham dinner. We had all the fixings (ham, potatoes & gravy, salad, rolls, corn, jello-beans, relish tray, deviled eggs, and rocky road for dessert) and WAY too much, but it was great way to end the weekend. After a quick visit to see my grandma, we lighted the patio fire and enjoyed the chilly night for a little while.

Kate....AGAIN!

My mascara and MY toothbrush. Ai-yi-yi! This kid!!! (To be truthful, I was a little bit angry when I first saw this mess, but she was being so funny how could I stay mad at her?)

I was trying to get her to say cheese, but she said, "Mmmmmm" instead.


Is she not just SO proud of herself??!!

Classic!

So when I took that picture of Alyssa and Bailey playing in their swimsuits, Carter also wanted a picture of himself taken. So I just quickly clicked one to appease him. It wasn't until today as I was going through my camera deleting and filing stuff that I happened to view this picture FULL size and saw what I actually took. I about fell off my chair laughing. I am still sitting here laughing out loud by myself. This is just a classic I will keep forever!!

Be sure to blow it up big to see what I am talking about.

Noodle heads!

The top number is the temp outside, bottom is inside.


Oops, I think these girls thought it said 82, not 62! It's been cold for so long here that as soon as it starts to get a little bit nice the kids think it's summer. They've been begging for me to turn on the sprinklers. Try as I may, I can not convince them that it is really NOT warm yet.

Miracle of Miracles!!!!

Carter slept in his OWN bed last night for the very FIRST time ever!!! I got a FULL 8 hours of sleep. (I think I can count on one hand the times that has happend since I had kids.) HOORAY! This past week we have been working with him on it. He has improved each day. We bribed him with "getting a hamster" and he's been trying hard. Of course it's been killing the girls, they want a hamster SOOOOO bad. They've been great cheerleaders. Every morning they come running into my room like it's Christmas morning, to see if he's in my bed or not.

Monday night Carter laid in his own bed and watched a movie. (I know it's not Super Nanny's bedtime technique but it works for Carter, so sue me!) But then he came out and had to fall asleep sititng by me downstairs. I put him in his bed and he stayed until about 2 am.

Tuesday was a bit of a fight. (He was starting to get wise to the game.) He watched his Little People movie 3 times and still came downstairs to see what I was doing. When I tried to get him to go back, he started crying and fighting, etc. He had found Alyssa's bubbles she got from the dentist wouldn't put them down. Finally I told him that I bet if he went and got in his bed that the Easter Bunny would see and bring him bubbles in his Easter basket. So off he went and got in bed all on his own. Again he got up at 2 am.

Wednesday night I asked him if he was going to sleep in his big boy bed and he hopped right in it and said "Yeah, I gonna get a hamster." He stayed until 5 am. I was excited that he went to bed on his own and stayed for so long, so we made a smiley face chart and he got to put his first sticker on it the next morning. He was pretty proud of himself.


Last night we had no problems tucking him in. He wanted his Teddy Bear and Little People movie, but stayed in bed and fell right asleep. He didn't wake up until 7:30 am!!! Halle came into my room to wake me up and said, "Mom! Carter slept in his big boy bed!" She was SOOO excited about it.

So I think we might be on the right track. He has to sleep in it all night for 3 more nights before we can get the hamster. (What are we thinking!!!???) But this is the BEST it has ever been for him to go to sleep. KNOCK ON WOOD! Here's hoping the trend will continue.

"No fair!"

I was looking through my pictures to see if I had anything new to post. I saw this cute one of Carter and Kayson and said, "I wish I knew how to fix the red-eye in this." Then I just kept browsing my pictures.

Carter kept asking me to show him different pictures at random. He would name all the people in the picture and then ask for new one. So when I pulled up the picture below, (I know I have already posted this one, but bear with me, the story is funny.) Carter said, "HEY! No fair!" "What's no fair Carter?" I thought he was going to tell me he wanted to play the game or something but he said, "Natawee can't have red eyes, only me!" It totally cracked me up. I don't even know how he noticed them, but it was the FIRST thing he saw. ( You might need to click on the picture to make it big if you can't see them.)
Sorry Natalie, I know how much you would love to have the red-eyes, but Carter has claimed them. :)

Cowboys!

Over the weekend we were privileged to have the company of our friends the Eakins. Our kids had a ball playing together. Here's Carter, Halle, and Torbyn playing cowboys. Alyssa cut out paper hats and boots, and wrapped toilet paper bandanas around their necks.(The inguinity of kids!) They looked a little bit like "Pope" Torbyn and "Pope" Carter, but they thought they were rootin-tootin cowboys. It was hilarious.


Notice the "unicorn" stallions they are riding.

Crazy kids

Remember wearing olives on your fingers? The joys of being little. Now my fingers are so big and fat the poor little olive splits in half.
Halle's static hair!! WOW!

Happy Birthday Jamis!!

Happy Birthday Jamis! What a big kid you are. We miss playing with you. Hope you are having a GREAT day!