Divis-licious

Happy Birthday Abby!

2011-05-02T22:01:00.000-07:00

Abby has been such a wonderful friend to me. She has especially recently done so much for me and has been a great friend, and I wanted her to know that I really appreciate it. She always goes above & beyond for everyone. She is thoughtul & generous & kind. So for her birthday this year I wanted to do something special for her. With Kate's & Lacey's help we organized a surprise party. The "plan" as far as Abby was concerned was to go to Bullhead for dinner with friends, but most of the friends "couldn't go." But really we all waited at Kate's house (and even parked up the street around a curve in the road!) for Abby to get there so they "pick Kate up."

We had some of Abby's favorites to celebrate: Cafe Rio salad (everyone brought part of it which is awesome & totally the way to do it since it's a lot of work to make it all yourself!), mango Sprites (Sprite with mango syrup in it - sooo good!), and Cold Stone ice cream in waffle bowls for dessert!

Kate making place cards before Abby arrived.

Party decor. No this is not typical of our friend-birthday celebrations! Usually it's meeting up somewhere for lunch trying to talk over the noise of a pack of kids. Kate did a fantastic job decorating her house for the party! Even her daughter Kiera made some decorations that were so sweet!

Hanging out waiting for Abby to arrive.

Abby was totally surprised! Well mostly. Little detective Abby had thought it was strange when Lacey picked her up that Lacey's carseats were still in the truck if they were picking anybody else up & going to Bullhead. But overall she was still surprised! LOL

Happy Birthday girl!

Wunca Kenny

2011-04-27T23:29:00.000-07:00

I love this picture of my brother Kenny (wunca Kenny cause that's what the other kids used to say & it stuck) with Adelyn. It's so weird that I had a baby while my brothers were gone. I'm sure it's strange for them too. Not that tons of people don't have babies and their family lives far away & don't get to see the baby for a while. But my brothers lived here before & have been a big part of my kids' lives, so that's what was different. I was good about sending them pictures & stories of the kids while they were gone, but it's a lot different seeing how kids have grown in real life than it is to see them in pictures. I'm glad they're home. For now. I mean I'm glad they're home for the time that they're home until they leave to go do bigger & better things :) Like get married & have their own adorable kids (who will probably never be as adorable as mine I'm sure)!

Easter {2011}

2011-04-25T21:34:00.000-07:00

It was a big Easter for us this year! We had lots of family in town since my brothers just got home from their missions: Grandpa/Grandma Green; Uncle Brian/Aunt Lorie, Caroline & Annie; Chris & Jayda; Jeff, Rivka & Bray; Grandma McCombs; Tabby, Sophie & Isaac; Ryan & Chelsea; and Tara & Kayleigh.

On Saturday we helped the little kids dye Easter eggs.

Well some of us did. :) Others enjoyed Super Mario Bros on the patio!

Later the grown-ups hid candy-filled eggs for the kids & they had the ultimate egg hunt. Seriously ridiculous! Each of their baskets were completely full of eggs. Lorie, Rivka, my sisters & I had all got candy & plastic eggs. It took us quite a bit of time to fill them the night before!

In the afternoon Chelsea & I had snuck away so that I could go get the chicks I'd talked Jeremiah into! :) I kept them in my parents' garage until later that night so that I could surprise the kids with them in the morning. When I took them home I had to stop at the store so I left them with their little feed tray & their water in the truck while I was doing my shopping. When I got home 45 mins later & got the box out of the back seat of the truck I realized it was pretty wet & I knew immediately there was a problem.

I got the box into the garage & opened it up to see 4 basically dead chicks. 1 was pretty wet but moving around a little. The other 3 were soaked with what little down they had matted to their tiny bodies & they were not moving at all. They were barely breathing. I went in the house just about in tears & got Jeremiah. He came & looked at them said they were definitely not going to make it & that he was sorry. He told me to put them in the garbage. I felt terrible that I hadn't thought about their water sloshing around during the ride to the store & home, and it definitely had made matters worse that they'd stayed soaking wet in the cold truck while I went into the store. I was just sick about it! And I felt so guilty. But I wasn't giving up.

I was very anxious & feeling so terrible about what I'd done as I went & got some wash cloths and Jeremiah plugged in their heat lamp (at my request). I very gently tried to dry their bodies, then I'd hold them cupped in my hand 2 at a time up to the lamp. After a while their feathers began to get a little fluff in them and the chicks started to move a tiny bit, but they still took shallow breaths. That gave me encouragement though so I kept rubbing & heating. My sister Tara got my blow dryer for me & I put it on low & took turns blowing the down of each chick. After doing that for several minutes they were getting more fluffy & even started to peep a little bit. I sat on the garage floor tending my little chicks for an hour & a half. When I went to bed at 1:30 I knew I had done all I could do. I said a heartfelt prayer & pleaded with Heavenly Father to let those chicks live. Not because I wanted my kids to have chicks on Easter morning- saving the chicks was not about that. I kept thinking how could I have been so careless with God's creations?

When I got up in the morning the first thing I did was run out to the garage to check on my chicks. They were still alive! All four! It was a miracle! Jeremiah was completely shocked. I'm not exaggerating when I say they were practically dead the night before! He could not believe I'd brought them back to life & that they'd lived! My heart was filled with gratitude that Heavenly Father had spared these little insignificant creatures' lives. I don't even really like animals but I just hadn't wanted my stupid mistake to needlessly kill those chicks.

After the kids looked over their Easter baskets I took them out to the garage for their surprise. They weren't freak-out excited, but they did think the chicks were pretty cool. They each picked out a chick & named it. Jack named his chick Muffin, Callie named hers Buttercup, Ellie named hers Lola (I gave her suggestions but she made the decision :)), and Adelyn's chick is Dot.

Happy Easter!

Return{ed} with Honor

2011-04-25T20:52:00.000-07:00

I am shamelessly stealing this post right off my sister's blog!

{Chelsea} My two brothers are the youngest in the family. Both are strong, diligent, and faithful members of the Church and chose to serve missions two years ago. By some crazy luck/coincidence, they both left on April 15th, 2009, and both served in Mexico {in different missions}. This week they returned with honor; one on Wednesday, one on Thursday.

Unfortunately, ~~my sister~~ Kayleigh and I Chelsea were running SO late we they had to RUN through the airport to make sure we they were there to see Stuart get in on Wednesday so I Chelsea didn't have my her camera. Luckily, we had a do-over the next day and I Chelsea got pictures and even had time to make some signs for Ken. We had signs for Stu but I Chelsea didn't get any pictures of them. (But Tara did!) Here are some great pictures of their arrivals - one at lunch with everyone and one at the airport. Stu picked Chili's for lunch. {/Chelsea}

Okay, that's funny b/c I thought we'd be the last ones to the airport & that we'd miss Stu walking through his gate because we'd left late & then had to take the long way to Vegas because of ~~damn~~ dam construction. And then, as if I wasn't stressed enough about getting there, I got a big fat ticket in Boulder for going 65 on the way up the hill before you get to the first stop light. The speed limit is 45 and it's a major highway! WTC?! I hate you Boulder! But we STILL beat Chelsea & Kayleigh there. Who'd stayed the previous night in Vegas! And don't have kids to get ready! But we all made it there and still had a little bit of a wait before Stuart came.

{Tara's pictures}

Waiting for the excitement to start.

Chelsea

Thing 1 & Thing 3

Stuart's arrival!

{Now back to Chelsea's post - captions included :)}

Stu picked Chili's for lunch

Ellie was exhausted from all the excitement an hour earlier.

{Stuart is so handsome, isn't he?!}

Thursday was Kenny's arrival

{Callie is crazy-pants}

{Hillary} This is a funny picture because my self-portraits have pretty much become a joke! I took lots in Hawaii & on the last couple of days I thought I should have taken more the whole time so I could do a whole funny book about me in Hawaii. haha {/Hillary}

Here he is! {With practically a frame-by-frame walkthrough! lol}

Two brothers after two years!

Aunt Kayleigh laughed at Jack and he cried. Boo Aunt Kayleigh.{hehe}

Easter Party

2011-04-17T23:42:00.000-07:00

My friends Cambrea Corbett & Kayla Nichols hosted a fun Easter get-together with lots of friends up in the Hualapais over the weekend. Cambrea & Kayla went up early in the day to reserve our rec area & hide all the eggs for the kids- and there were a ton! Of eggs. And kids.

Once all the families were there, Cambrea & Kayla gathered up the kids for the big hunt. They lined them up & then let the youngest kids go first, with two groups of older kids following.

All the moms were doing this: (this mom is Miyeko Kelsey)

Jeremiah got to do this: (I helped Ellie)

Ellie had a great time looking for eggs!

Callie & Jack both got too many. We made them put some back & give some to younger kids.

After the big hunt we had a great time eating hot dogs & sides & hanging out together. Thanks Cambrea & Kayla for organizing such a fun evening for all of our families!

Cousins

2011-04-10T22:39:00.000-07:00

It was so fun to have Jason, Richelle & Triston visit us! It was a little bit of a hectic weekend because I was also co-throwing a baby shower on Saturday, but I loved that they were able to come from California for the weekend! We hadn't seen Triston since he was born in December. He is so cute!

Adelyn & Triston on Ann's & Jeremiah's Mom's laps

Jeremiah's mom getting to play with her 3rd grandson!

Our SIL Richelle & Triston

Cousins!

Adelyn - 10 wks; Triston - 4 months & a week

April Fool's!

2011-04-06T22:01:00.000-07:00

It wasn't until after the kids were in bed on the 31st that I was browsing Family Fun and saw some cute lunch ideas for April Fool's. That I hadn't been looking for. But they were really fun so I stayed up way too late working on Callie's trick lunch, and I was so excited for her to open her lunch box at school the next day! I gave her a normal sandwich & some mandarin oranges, but then I swapped the contents of her Gold Fish & fruit snack packages & I stuffed her Juicy Juice into a Yoo-hoo drink box. Which was especially funny since she doesn't really like Yoo-hoo! I also gave her a note that said she'd been pranked by the baby, and a word search with no solutions (both from Family Fun)! I loved it! And so did she! Funny thing is when we were talking about it after school she told me that instead of just sticking her straw into the Yoo-hoo and finding out she was drinking Juicy Juice instead, she noticed the bottom was a little funny (because the flaps didn't stay down all the way. Oops! I didn't glue it b/c I thought there was no way she'd notice it! I should have glued it!). She and her friend Emily worked really really hard to get the Juicy Juice back out of the Yoo-hoo box! LOL! I can't believe they were even able to do it!

It wasn't until I pulled back into my driveway in the morning that I noticed my star missing from it's usual place in our porch entry. I thought it was so awesome that I wasn't the only one who'd realized & taken advantage of April Fool's Day this year! Then I thought about who might have been so funny and plus who might have had an ugly sun with a coyote in the middle (haha!) on their house. I texted my friend Kate and asked, "Do you have my star on your house?" Yes she did! I knew it! PS they're renting and the coyote-sun was already on the house so I can say out loud that it's ugly. Bahahaha! I waited a few days before swapping back. And then I thought I was funny too because I backed up really close to their house so I could stand on my bumper & get my star, and then I put the coyote-sun upside down when I replaced it. :p Let me just mention how else Kate was funny (and Abby since they were partners in crime). They put a wishing well thing from her yard in someone else's yard, and they also put a little pond from her front yard in another person's front yard. With water in it! LOL

End of March wrap-up

2011-03-31T20:52:00.000-07:00

The other day some old friends from our last ward, the Chipmans, came over to see our new baby and to make balloon animals for the rest of the family. Michael Chipman made balloon animals to make money during college. Now the Chipmans visit friends after a baby is born to make the other children balloon animals. He lets the kids choose their animal & color.

A shark for Jack

Working on Callie's...

Unicorn!

And Ellie's...

Kitty Cat!

And his daughter Lucy's...

Unicorn!

And a motorcycle for Jeremiah! I even got a flower!

Here's what I mean about Ellie thinking she's big enough to roll our little baby up onto her chest!

Jack didn't notice anything strange when he got himself dressed today. Silly boy!

Couch-tastrophy!

2011-03-26T20:56:00.000-07:00

Seriously?!

Okay, I guess it wasn't actually a catastrophy. Not like this time. Thank goodness it was washable marker on a microfiber couch. It still took a good amount of elbow grease to clean up. And guess who the guilty party was?

Yep. Same as last time too.

They're After Me Lucky Charms!

2011-03-19T21:01:00.000-07:00

For the last couple of years a leprechaun has snuck into our home & hidden clues for our kids to find "gold" on St. Patrick's Day. Callie and Jack really wanted to see the leprechaun this year so we decided to make a leprechaun trap. The kids were totally into it & had a great time painting the box green and painting the stripes on our rainbow tube. Jack made the "leprechaun ladder" at preschool, and Callie made the "Come get The Gold" sign that would tempt any leprechaun!

Sadly we were outsmarted by leprechauns again! But he must have just barely gotten away since no clues were hidden this year for a chocolate hunt. Instead he left behind gold coins (he had to in order to escape from our trap!), and a note saying he'd hidden our Lucky Charms. The kids looked all over before finding them in the dryer. Maybe next year!

This was the funniest part of my morning. A day or two before I'd been in a hurry to get something from the pantry & caused a ton of stuff to fall to the floor. I didn't have time then to clean it up and the kids must not have noticed. When they opened the pantry door to check for the Lucky Charms and found the disaster, Callie couldn't believe that the Leprechaun had been so naughty & made a mess of our pantry! Uh yeah, it was totally the leprechaun... LOL

Adelyn - 6 weeks

2011-03-11T20:25:00.000-08:00

It's hard to believe that 6 weeks has already passed since Adelyn joined our family! She is so sweet and perfect!

My aunt Lorie made this quilt for her. I love it so much! It's going to replace the quilt that I bought with the crib bedding for Ellie when she was a baby. I love how the fun colors will add a little pop to Adelyn's bedroom (when she moves in). I also love it because Aunt Lorie made it just for Addy. She is always making things for others. I'm so lucky that we're the recipients!

Ellie is very sweet with Adelyn. We worried that she would have a really hard time adjusting to having a new baby since she has been the baby of the family for so long. We have been amazed at how much she loves her new sister and how kind & loving she is. Not that we thought she'd be mean! But we thought she'd be very jealous & she has been anything but!

This little guy is just as smitten as his daddy is with our adorable angel baby!

Life is good.

Adelyn's Blessing Day

2011-03-08T23:48:00.000-08:00

We are very {blessed} that so much family was able to be here for Adelyn's baby blessing! It was really fun and awesome that so many of our family came from out of town to support us. After church we had a luncheon at my parents' house with our family & some of our close friends. Jeremiah smoked a brisket & a turkey for the occassion! We had beans, potato salad & freshly baked french bread, cucumber punch & great white punch to go with it, and strawberry shortcake for dessert (important details, cause you know it's all about the food!). All the kids had a great time playing outside despite the wind & cool temperature, and it was really fun passing around our precious little baby & visiting with our family & friends.

March 6, 2011

Jeremiah is a stud. He's got it all - looks, sense of humor, & mad brisket smoking skills! :) But really, I'm soooo glad (and lucky) that he knows his way around the kitchen & is a great cook. It's pretty awesome that he can take over in the middle of a recipe & he knows what he's doing. I always have pictures of him cutting/preparing food at big family gatherings! lol

My sister Kayleigh with Adelyn.

On Monday when things were quiet and calm & I had gotten Callie off to school I went to my m/d's to visit again with my grandparents & my Aunt Lorie & cousin Annie before they had to leave. I love that I could get these pictures of each of them with Addy.

I love my little girls! (And you too Callie. And Jack.)

Jack the Photographer. He loves taking pictures when I'll let him. Center picture is a self-portrait! :)

Jack the Boy Who Can't Handle Disappointment. I love it! Except the times when I don't. My mom got these really cute {looking} mini Lincoln Logs from Cracker Barrel but they are very difficult to build with. Really he did great getting as far as he did.

It was such a fun weekend! It was lots of cooking & lots of decorating, but also lots of partying & tons of laughing. :) Thank you again to all our family who came to spend this eventful weekend with us. We love you so much & having you here made the weekend perfect!

Birthday Ballerina

2011-03-07T20:37:00.000-08:00

Ellie's 3rd birthday was quite the event! Her birthday was on Saturday & we were blessing Adelyn on Sunday so we had lots of family in town. I wanted to make Ellie's birthday special for her because she's old enough to enjoy pretty things & plus we hadn't had a big party for her yet. We had everyone come over for a late lunch/early dinner since Callie had a dance recital later that evening. We had chicken salad on croissants, a fruit & a vegetable tray, and pink punch.

Jack made Ellie this birthday card completely by himself! I couldn't believe it! He's quite artistic! He used cupcake liners I'd cut, he punched the head out & came up with the body on his own, he used a tutu from the ballerina cupcake picks, and stole my glittered number 3 that I'd made for Ellie's birthday hat! I had to make a new one because I just couldn't take it from his amazing birthday card made with so much love. I think it's the sweetest thing ever!

The birthday ballerina enjoying her lunch.

Most of her party guests. My Grandpa & Grandma Watkins aren't pictured but they got there after lunch.

I feel really bad that I didn't remember to take any pictures of Callie in her recital costume! I'm glad I at least have her in these pictures. She looked so beautiful! (She also did a fantastic job at her recital!) Callie & Jack were very helpful to Ellie as she opened up presents.

Proof that I was there :) The only picture I'm in her birthday.

Ellie was exhausted though because of all the excitement + not having a nap. After opening the first presents she became very unenthusiastic/tired and showed very little excitement as she'd open a present, merely glance at it, set it aside, & move on to the next. I was sad that I hadn't made her take a nap. She got really thoughtful & fun gifts & I was looking forward to seeing her reaction/happiness at some of her gifts. Poor sleepy birthday girl!

The ballerina cupcakes! I saw the inspiration for the picks online & cut out the leotard with my cricut. My sweet friend Abby stayed up one night making & assembling most of the picks for me. Not only that but my first batch of icing was an epic fail. It's an exact recipe (which I hadn't made before) and it required a candy thermometer & mine was broken. After my icing didn't turn out Jeremiah & I had to leave to take Callie to her recital so Abby came to my rescue - again! She came over before going on a date with her husband & made a new batch while I wasn't even there! Yeah, she's amazing! Thanks again Abby!

The day didn't end as well as it began. Callie's recital went on forever & it was close to 9 when we finally got home. Our poor birthday girl who had already been exhausted had gone to sleep without us ever singing happy birthday & letting her blow out candles. :( The next night after we got home from our busy day from Adelyn's blessing & luncheon our little family (of SIX!) sang to her & let her blow out her candles. Again she hadn't had a nap & was exhausted! Too much excitement for a brand new 3-year old! She had a couple bites of her cupcake & was ready for bed. We love you so much Ellie-girl!

How to have fun: step-by-step plan

2011-03-01T22:31:00.000-08:00

1. Order something that comes in a big box with lots of packaging.

2. Invite Uncle Jonny over.

3. Provide tape.

4. Watch & enjoy.

{2/26}

Adelyn - 1 month

2011-02-28T22:48:00.000-08:00

I didn't think about taking pictures until late in the evening when good natural lighting was gone. At least I took pictures!

{baby love}

2011-02-28T17:36:00.000-08:00

Everyone in our home is loving having baby Adelyn.

For Jack being so upset about not getting a brother, he sure loves to cuddle & snuggle with Adelyn. He loves to talk to her in a high sweet voice. I adore him! He's the best big brother! The top picture I took after I went into my bedroom one afternoon where I'd left Adelyn napping. He seriously loves this girl!

Callie is a fantastic help to me! She is great about trying to calm Adelyn down if she gets fussy & I can't get her right away or if she needs entertaining. She often sits across from her in the car (we have captain seats in the middle) and she's great about giving her a binky or anything Adelyn needs when she's in her carseat. Callie has been picking Adelyn up when she thinks I'm not looking. I finally told her today (Mar 31) that it's okay so she has taken full advantage of being allowed to & she's carried her & held her a bit today!

Ellie is also very sweet with Adelyn. She loves to show her toys & I have to remind her (and Jack too) to not put the toys right in Adelyn's face. Ellie asks all the time if she can hold Addy & I try to let her often. She usually is only interested in holding her for about 45 seconds before she's ready for me to take Adelyn. She talks about the differences between the things she can do & the things Adelyn can do, since Ellie's a big sister! :) Yesterday & today I've caught Ellie laying on the floor next to Adelyn & then rolling Adelyn up onto her (Ellie's) chest. She's quite proud. I'm quite nervous. I did have a talk with the kids the other day about being very careful with Adelyn & I compared her to an egg after a friend gave me the idea. I shook an egg up so it would scramble to teach them not to shake her, I squeezed one really hard so it broke to teach them not to squeeze her too tight, and I dropped one to teach about not dropping a baby.

Jeremiah is smitten with his newest girl. He says how cute she is all the time & I love to see him kissing on her & cuddling with her. He has sweet & funny conversations with her, and the kids all love it when he makes Adelyn "dance." He loves his girls. He's such a great father!

Adelyn's first bath

2011-02-26T22:21:00.000-08:00

[Sat, Feb 26] 2 days shy of 1 month after she was born, she finally got a real bath! Her umbilical cord fell off a few days before, but it was pretty gooey still so I wasn’t sure that she should have a real bath yet.

Adelyn never got real upset during her sponge baths & she did good for most of this one, but when she got mad that was it! The only thing that calmed her down was getting her out! Thankfully she’s pretty great about baths. I usually bathe her in my bathroom sink – it’s just the right size. The tub in the pictures is super cute (it was a baby gift for Ellie), but the sink is just so much easier. She really seems to enjoy having her hair washed.

Up to no good

2011-02-24T22:08:00.000-08:00

I walked into the kitchen after changing Addy to find the freezer door wide open. Ellie was MIA. I was ironing a couple mins later & glanced over at the couch where she was now sitting eating a fudgesicle. I told her to get in the kitchen just as Jack was knocking on the door, getting home from preschool. I got him in the house & saw that she'd set the fudgesicle on the bar chair & it was making a huge drippy mess. But no worries - she was licking it clean! A little while later I realized there must have been a wrapper so I asked her where it was... in her room between the bed & the window wall (completely out of site). And yes, there was fudgesicle in the bedroom, on the couch & on the living room floor!

DIY Rambo

2011-02-22T21:37:00.000-08:00

Jack is SUPER creative. For realz. He's always getting in trouble for making a mess of craft supplies & leaving the mess out. Or using things he shouldn't. When he saw this empty box of mine the wheels started turning & he started collecting stuff to turn it into a gun. I didn't help him at all! He did everything on here 100% by himself - even plugging in the hot glue gun & gluing! I love the Sid Pez in the back so he can cock his gun!

Love this boy! Tell me you don't love him too.

Valentine's Day

2011-02-20T20:24:00.000-08:00

I was talking to Wendy a few days before Valentine's Day. I think she said something like, "I think it's so crazy how some mom's go completely overboard with the valentines. What's wrong with going to Walmart & buying a box of valentines & putting a couple pieces of candy in the envelope?"

Hmmmmm. And to think we've been friends for almost 10 years. I thought you knew me!

Anywhooo...

Here's the valentines Callie took to her class this year. Except it wasn't these ones. Because I forgot to take a picture of the finished product! Oops. Our straws weren't as cute - just plain pin-striped red/blue bendy straws from Walmart.

Thank goodness Jer's mom & Ann were over on Sunday afternoon so that I could be the slave driver I am! Really, I'm so lucky to have them here! They helped Callie & me whip those babies out. Otherwise it would have taken forEVER!

I didn't make Jack's valentines until Monday afternoon because he didn't need them until Tuesday (preschool day) for his party. Oh shoot, forgot to set the self timer & photograph myself. So here's the ones I copied. I remember these from when I was a kid. Love them!

Over the weekend the kids had been sick. On Valentine's Day Jeremiah was super sick. IN FACT I went to Smith's at like 2:30 in the morning to get him some Pepto! Talk about LOVE!

So on the day AFTER Valentine's Day we had our Valentine's breakfast (crepes this year). I gave treats to each of my Valentines. The kids each a dollar tootsie roll bank & a book. And a little marshmallow chocolate heart that I'd got from Smith's at 2:30 the previous morning.

Jeremiah got Ghiradelli Squares & I gave myself Lindor Truffles. I LOVE them!

Jeremiah & I don't exchange gifts and I LOVE it! Instead we have a tradition. Every year he makes me fruit dip & he washes & hulls strawberries. And I always make him sugar cookies. It's a fun tradition & something we both really look forward to. It's also great because it takes any pressure off of buying each other gifts. But since he was so sick I didn't make him his sugar cookies until Thursday (the 17th). I barely had them made before he got home from work so he took over helping the kids decorate while I fed Adelyn.

Our friend Warren arrived that afternoon from California to hunt with Jeremiah on Friday, so he was able to enjoy our sugar cookies too. :) He was so sweet with Adelyn! And not afraid of a fussy baby either - I like that!

Hopefully next year we'll all be healthy enough to enjoy our treats on Valentine's Day!

It's Raining, It's Pouring

2011-02-19T19:13:00.000-08:00

When it rains here, often times it pours! Jeremiah's mom brought over lots of stuff for everyone to make boats with to have a boat race in the flooded street! Everyone had so much fun crafting their boats! Except me. I had to go to a baby shower. :(

Callie & Ellie

Callie, Jonny, Jeremiah's Dad, Ann (you can only see her arm) & Whitley (Jeremiah's cousin).

Jeremiah & his mom helping Ellie with her boat.

Jonny worked so hard on his boat. Too bad it wasn't air tight! haha

The kids all found toys to attach to their boats. You know, to steer them!

What Callie learned at school

2011-02-11T16:11:00.001-08:00

I asked Callie after school today what she'd learned. First she said nothing. Then after a moment of thought she said:

"I learned that if you bring popcorn money on Friday you don't get popcorn. I had to share a bag." (Popcorn money's due by Thursday to get your own bag. But what a bunch of crap! We send extra money almost every single time! Apparently there's no rollover!)

Another minute later she shared another thing she'd learned today:

"I learned that our ham isn't good any more. I ate a bite of my sandwich and it tasted disgusting."

Awesome. And as a side note I've changed 5 - that's right FIVE - poopy diapers in the last hour & a half! From the same kid. I'm not complaining - I'm just saying! That's $1.25 in diapers. And it's drying out my hands. :)

Seriously So Blessed

2011-02-10T11:17:00.000-08:00

Seriously.

Because of these 2.

Thanks to this little one:

It was the best weekend ever! (Feb 5)

For starters, my sister Tara came into town on Thursday night to hang out with me on Friday. On Friday evening she went to dinner with my parents & when she came back that night she had my sister Chelsea with her! All the way from Kansas! It was such a fun surprise! The funny thing was I'd talked to my dad while he was in Vegas that afternoon & he'd said something like "we're just on our way to Costco" & I'd said "We? Who are you with?" He said "Oh nobody, I just usually have your mom with me so I wasn't thinking." Liar! He had Chelsea with him! I never suspected a thing!

On Saturday morning I got up & got ready & headed to Abby's house. She & Summer were throwing me a "little" baby shower - yep, for my FOURTH baby (and 3rd girl!)! (It was mostly with the people I'm closest to.)

Abby & Summer threw me {and Adelyn} the most amazing party ever! Here's some of their awesome party stylin' (you'll definitely want to click to enlarge these!):

So people had been showing up & Abby got up & welcomed everyone to the shower & said before we got started they had a little surprise for me. In walks these girls!!!:

I tear up just looking at this picture. (Nope, not cause it's a bad picture of me!) Abby had arranged for my dear friend Wendy & my sister Kayleigh to come all the way from Utah (Highland & Sandy) for my shower! I teared up when they walked through the door - I was completely overwhelmed with emotion! I can't think of a more amazing surprise! (Wendy and I have been close friends since Jeremiah & I got married - almost 10 years! She's a sister to me!) I still can't believe that Kayleigh & Wendy drove so many hours to spend a few hours with me - there's a lot of love there!

So these are the people who worked their butts off for my fantastic party: Abby & Summer of course, my mom made cupcakes, Kate made a fruit tray, & Lacey was in the kitchen cleaning up forever afterwards! They all did more than what I just listed. They are all so good to me!

The tablescape was of so beautiful & Abby & Summer paid attention to every little detail! We had a chicken pasta salad on croissants, fruit w/my favorite dip, veggies w/dip, water (all dressed up in cute wrappers), and jumbo coconut cupcakes!

We played a laid back candy/candy bar guessing game. The prizes were delicious Rocky Mountain Candy Factory caramel apples! And lucky me - I won! I LOVE caramel apples!

Adelyn and I were completely spoiled by everyone! Crazy spoiled! Super cute handmade blankets, adorable outfits, crazy cute hair accessories, tons of diapers, lots of other stuff and even a pedicure for me & a frozen yogurt gift card for the family!

To wrap up the party everyone got to get their sugar on at the candy bar.

After 4 kids I've had a few showers - this was amazing!

Me with my sisters/mom: {Chelsea, Tara, mom, Kayleigh}

Most of my besties & my family: {Kate, Wendy, Summer, me, Abby, Chelsea, Tara, mom, Kayleigh}

THANK YOU Abby & Summer! I know how much work it is to throw a party like this - I truly appreciate it! I'm grateful for everyone else's help with the party too. Thank you to my parents for flying Chelsea in, and thank you to Chelsea, Kayleigh & Wendy for traveling so far to make this party even better than a girl could've ever hoped for!

I'm seriously so blessed.

It's exhausting being my friend! LOL!

Adelyn

2011-02-01T14:40:00.000-08:00

Here's some pics of our little sweetheart (we're totally in love with her!).

We have been stumped about where she got her dark long hair & her darker complexion. These pictures don't really show how dark she is. Jeremiah keeps joking about a paternity test :) We know she's ours though because she definitely looks like our other babies - especially Callie!

Mini Vacay {how to have a baby}

2011-01-31T16:40:00.000-08:00

I told Jeremiah the night before my induction that I felt kind of bad that I hadn't gone into labor on my own. He said, "What? Like you're a failure as a child-bearer?" Yeah, something like that. But let me just say, being induced is totally the way to do it! It was like a mini vacay because I got to relax, I never felt a single labor contraction, the nurses were awesome, I was waited on hand & foot, and there was some alone time with my hubby! :)

I got up just after 5am on Friday morning to get ready to go to the hospital. We had to be there at 6. Here's the final belly shot (39 wks 1 day):

After I got all checked in at the hospital my Dr. came in to check me & break my water. I was still only dilated to 1.5 & the baby was still -3 (pretty high). Oh & I was only 60% effaced! So I could have easily not gone into labor for another week!

At 6:45a my Dr. tried but wasn't able to break my water since baby was still too high & my cervix wasn't thinned enough, and it hurt like heck while he tried twice! He'd told me at my appt that I wouldn't get my epidural until after he'd broken my water, but at 7:15 the Dr. who is said to give the best epidurals was in my room! He was quick & getting the epidural was only a little uncomfortable & 10 mins later I was on my way to numb! :) It was a little more than an hour later I think that I got hooked up to Pitocin. I hung out & relaxed while Jeremiah went to get some breakfast (and go to work! - he didn't tell me that till later). At 10:10a my Dr. came in to check me. I was dilated to 3 & he was able to break my water. He went back to work (building next door) to see patients, & my nurse didn't come & check me for 2 hours! I was pretty surprised that she let me go so long w/out being checked since with Ellie I'd dilated so quickly. Of course with Ellie I'd gone into labor so my body was more ready. Anyway, during those 2 hours I napped, played Angry Birds on my iPhone, watched part of an episode of The Bachelor on the iPad, and just relaxed. It was awesome! When my nurse checked me around 12:15 she was pretty surprised to find that I was complete. Who knows how long I'd been done! The baby was still high so she called my Dr. to let him know I was fully dilated but that there was no hurry since the baby was still high. He came right over anyway. He came in & chatted w/Jeremiah & I while he put his booties on & I finished my Italian ice :) and then he checked me & said I was ready. It seemed kind of casual so I didn't take it that seriously. Jeremiah & I have talked about how the whole thing was pretty anti-climatic! The nurse got everything ready & 3 pushes later we had ourselves a baby! Okay, so actually the first push was pretty half-hearted since like I said it seemed kinda casual. But after the 2nd one the baby's heartrate was dropping (it was down to 50) & my Dr. had his game face on. He said I had to get the baby out on the next push (or he was getting the forceps). I did it!

When I heard "it's a girl!" I teared up. I could feel the spirit with the birth of this sweet new baby. They cleaned her a little bit & set her on me & kept working on cleaning her up. It was a great experience!

Official data:

born at 12:38pm

8 lbs 2 oz

20" long

This is about 10 mins later after they took APGAR scores, weighed & measured her (from Jer's iPhone b/c he wouldn't get the real camera out...)

(...until I got annoyed & insisted)

So my mom had the kids in the morning & Jack had been giving her a hard time (as in he was being a total punk) & had just had a time out. When he heard the news that it was a girl he was completely undone & bawled! I know bud, your dad was a little bummed at first too. That's why I LOVE this picture. It's sad & sweet to me. My 2 guys looking at this sweet little baby GIRL a little unsure since they badly wanted her to be a BOY. :( Thankfully they've both come to terms. Of course Jeremiah absolutely adores our daughter, but he's still bummed for Jack to not have a little brother. And Jack is already fine I think with having a sister. He's very sweet to her & loves to hold her.

Callie was at school when the baby was born so as soon as I could I called the school & they announced over the speaker in her class that it was a girl! Callie loved that! She said everyone in her class cheered & gave her hugs & high-5's. Totally cool! She said she was a little disappointed it was a girl because she was hoping Jack would also have a little brother, but she was still happy it was a girl.

And sweet Ellie! She has been SO excited to be a big sister! She loved coming to see us at the hospital & see her new sister! In fact when Jeremiah's mom took her home afterwards she threw a huge fit because she'd wanted to go back to the hospital & be with us.

We gave the kids a gift bag of movies & treats when they came to see us at the hospital. We hoped it would help them to not be sad at home. Ellie, who we'd thought would have the hardest time was so excited about the goodies! :)

So last but not least, her name. It was a big decision! I was pretty sure her name would be Quinn but Jeremiah was just not a lover. He didn't have any better suggestions so I told him to get online & look at names. When we went to sleep Friday night he called her Amelia (which I loved) & so I thought that was it. Then on Saturday morning we went back & forth between Quinn, Amelia & Adelyn. After a call from his sister he was suddenly pretty much decided on Olivia, which I thought was humorous since I'd LOVED that name when I was pg w/Ellie, and he hated the name. If he'd liked the name then, Ellie probably would've been named Olivia. Anyway, the final choice was down to Adelyn & Olivia. I finally just told him to choose since he seemed pretty set on Olivia even though I wasn't loving it. I'd learn to love it. He left to go switch cars & get the infant seat & when he got back he said we should both write down our choice & then we'd show each other. He looked at mine first. I wrote "you choose." He threw his choice in the garbage since I wasn't playing fair. I finally got out of him that he'd written Adelyn. So that was it. That's how to choose a name Divis-style! :)

Adelyn Jeanne Divis

Adelyn (pronounced Add-a-lin) because we like it. Jeanne (pronounced Jean) after my middle name. Jeremiah pretty much insisted (I've never really liked my middle name). It's sweet of him.

We love our sweet baby girl!

31

2011-01-27T17:01:00.000-08:00

I had a great birthday this year! Summer wanted to take me to lunch but she had to work on my actual birthday so she took me the day before. Abby joined us too & they totally spoiled me! Abby brought the cute cake platter & together they got me a custom return address stamp that Abby has that I love!

On my birthday (Jan 26 - TWO days before Addy was born!) Jeremiah made me french toast - my favorite - for breakfast. The kids had all made me sweet cards.

Callie took this picture of Jer & me :)

My friend Katie arranged a birthday lunch for me some other friends at pizza hut. I got some gifts & we had cupcakes & chatted while all our kids tore the place apart! :) That evening Jer's & my parents & Jonny, Ann & Whitley came over for chicken fettuccine alfredo & cupcakes. It was a great day!

Fireplace

2011-01-24T10:33:00.000-08:00

Just before Thanksgiving our fireplace got finished & I never shared pictures. We absolutely LOVE how it turned out! I think the transformation is amazing & I love the way it changes the look of our living room. You see it right away when you walk in our home.

(The inspiration fireplace is from a PB catalog)

Before

After

Jackson-isms

2011-01-24T08:58:00.000-08:00

Doesn't he look like a little Hugh Hefner? He LOVES the robe that Jeremiah & I got him for Christmas & wears it around the house often in the morning & evening when he's in his pjs.

12/15/10:

Jack was drinking a Starbuck's Vanilla Bean Frappaccino for the first time & he said, "This drink is sooo good. I would say so darn good, but I'm not allowed to say darn, am I?"

Me: Yeah you can say darn.

Jack: Oh yeah, i forgot. It's frickin i can't say.

Me: Nope you can't say frickin.

Jack: But maybe if nobody was around & it was just you & me & you said that it was okay then I would say 'hey mom, this drink is so frickin good.'

Me: Jack, you can't say that.

Jack: Is it cause I'm not old enough?

12/15/10:

Jack was asking about the chocolate bunny on the Nestle Quik container & I said, "That's the Quik bunny." He said, "And the other one, the pink one, is the slow bunny."

12/15/10:
We were listening to I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas. The song says "I like hippopotamus's & hippopotamus's like me too."
Jack said, "Hippopotamus's don't like any people, right?" I said yep. He said, "Except for people with big fat butts!"

9/16/10:

A friend of ours passed away & I was talking to my kids about it. Callie & Jack pointed out sadly that the children won't be able to see their dad again or even call him.

Jack said, "When I'm a grown-up & I know somebody who's a loved one who dies, I'm gonna call their number & see who answers. Mom? Do you know Jesus' number?"

our Tiny Dancer

2011-01-24T07:38:00.001-08:00

Ellie had her first dance class on Friday morning! She was SOOO excited about going to it. A family in our ward gives dance lessons out of their garage to younger kids, starting at age 3. Since Ellie will be 3 in just over a month I asked if they'd let her join them for their spring session. The girl dances & prances around our house all day long. One of her very favorite things to do is put on her princess dresses or tutus & dance along to our Bella Dancerella DVD! My only concern for the dance class was how well Ellie would follow directions.

When I picked Ellie up afterwards, the dance class mom said that Ellie did a great job & that she's totally ready for dance. Okay, this mom is an extremely positive person so she may have made it sound like Ellie did better than she actually did :), but I do think Ellie probably follows directions from other people much better than she does from me!

On our way home from dance class we called Jeremiah so she could tell him about it. This is what she said:

"I learned about fruit snacks, and I learned about goodies, and about pretzels, and about water, and about marshmallows, and I made a new friend, ...and I learned about dancing! And I got a stamp!"

She did show us her new moves though - very cute! She can also do her butterfly stretches perfectly!

Way to go tiny dancer! :)

Lame

2011-01-19T11:08:00.000-08:00

Had a Dr appt this am. I was so sure/hopeful that I'd be getting my membranes stripped and having a baby in the next day or so, but nope, baby is still just as high up as last week. It's just not meant to be. Bummer! Baby, you'd better be adorable to make me wait & suffer! :) My Dr scheduled an induction for next Friday morning. If this baby waits that long maybe I should hold out for a few more days so that we can have a Feb birthday!

GroopDealz

2011-01-17T09:34:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite little breaks during a day is going down my blog reader to see who's posted. Today I am STOKED because one of the craft blogs I like (Make It and Love It) talked about today's GroopDealz offering! I've bought something before off of GroopDealz & I think it's a pretty cool site. So for today's deal: dah dah dah dahhhhh......

Capture My Heart Hand Stamped Necklace!

I'm super excited about this because a necklace this type was on my Christmas/birthday (next week!) list. I know Jeremiah didn't really know where to start b/c if you look at hand stamped necklaces on etsy it's overwhelming! There's a huge range of prices & styles. And if you look on non-etsy sites they're pretty pricey. Plus since we don't yet know what our last little name on the necklace will be that made options difficult. So the awesome thing about this is that a] it's 1/2 priced & b] if I understand correctly, what I'm buying is a 1/2 priced coupon that I have to redeem by a certain date, so I can order the necklace in a few days (crossing my fingers) when I have this baby! :) Yay!!!

Go buy one!

this week

2011-01-15T09:32:00.000-08:00

Today I'm once again a hunting widow. Boo. Normally I'm totally fine with it because it's one of Jeremiah's loves & so I fully support that. And also he works hard & has stressful weeks all the time so I realize he needs a break & it's nice for him to get out & do something he enjoys. But I need a break today too. I need them a lot more lately than I usually do. Hmmm, could it be something to do with all the pregnancy hormones? :) Luckily tonight I'll get one. Hopefully Thai food (or something equally delicious) and a movie.

It's been a stressful & sort of crazy week. Wednesday was the only day I didn't have something in particular to do so Jeremiah's mom, my sil Ann & I (along w/Jack & Ellie) went to Bullhead to go to Target & a couple other places. One thing I was looking forward to shopping for at Target was some Valentine's decor. Amazingly enough, there was none! They're not putting it out for another couple of weeks I was told. What?! Christmas stuff was out before Halloween! WalMart has had a teeny tiny little section with some Valentine's candy in it since before Christmas, but now that Valentine's Day is actually a month away neither WalMart or Target have their main stuff out! It was disappointing.

I cooked breakfast for the first time in weeks for my kids this morning (if you count pancakes as cooking!). Today we had snowman pancakes. They wanted faces so after I smeared some peanut butter on the snowmen I gave the kids each a little handful of m&m's to create their masterpieces. It's the simple things that make life great! :)

Oh, Ellie just came up to me with a play necklace on & said, "Mom, do I look like a jerk or do I look pretty?" Where does she come up with this stuff? Time to go referee the hooligans & try not to yell too much when I see the mess they've managed to make even though their rooms were all clean when they got up this morning.

Baby stuff

2011-01-15T09:15:00.000-08:00

I'm 37 wks now & I can't wait to have this baby! Except I'm super nervous to go through the pain of labor. I don't know what's scarier - having your first baby & not knowing what to expect or having your 4th baby (or any baby after #1) & knowing exactly what to expect! I'm not into being a hero & doing natural childbirth, but I didn't get an epidural with Ellie because she came too fast after my water was broken. I hated every second of it & it was a terrible birthing experience. I'm so nervous that's going to happen again!

I was talking to a girl yesterday who's due in a couple weeks. She told me that she wasn't going to any of the weekly checks this month basically because it's emotionally stressful & it's not like it makes a difference whether or not you're checked. Amen! At 36 weeks I hadn't dilated at all. At this week's appt (Thurs) I was 1.5, 70% effaced, but the baby's at -3 station so too high up to have my membranes stripped. I would almost bet money that next week it'll be about the same, but maybe the baby will have moved down to a 0 & then at least I'll be able to have my membranes stripped. That's about how it's gone in the past for me anyway. So yes, it's emotionally stressful because you show up for these appointments hoping to hear that you're about to have a baby and then nothing. And even if you did hear that you were about to have the baby it's no guarantee that your body will change much in the next week. This waiting game is a killer!

On a great note my belly has stopped growing! I finally don't feel insanely huge anymore! At least not any bigger than I should be at this point in a prenancy. I'm normal-ish (I think anyway)! And oddly enough people have stopped commenting about my size! It's weird, because it's not like anybody knows how far along I am. But I haven't been assaulted by rude comments in a couple of weeks. It's been great! :)

My 1st Blurb Book!

2011-01-14T13:48:00.000-08:00

I'd wanted to turn my blog into a book for a long time & I'm so excited that I finally did some of it! It took HOURS & HOURS but it's totally worth it! I'm so glad to 1] Have my blog backed up. It's unlikely that it would happen, but I have heard of people losing their entire blogs! That would be devastating to me since the MAIN reason I blog is so that my family has a history (don't get me wrong - I love the social aspect of it). 2] My family will be able to look at this book years down the road & be able to enjoy this "scrapbook" chocked full of memories & pictures. I haven't printed copies for my kids yet, but sometime I will. That's one thing that's awesome about Blurb (the printer I used). You can go back & order additional copies of your book at any time. I highly recommend Blurb to anybody who is thinking about printing your blog. But like I said it took me a really, really long time to make a book. If you're into a simpler look (and I mean MUCH simpler) check out Blog2Print. I think you could probably get your book done in a matter of minutes! Here's my 1st book:

Divis-licious Make Your Own Book

Embellished Tee: with Multi-Layered Flowers {I made it!}

2011-01-04T08:19:00.000-08:00

A blog I follow is Make It & Love It. I look at a lot of crafty blogs & keep all the good posts in my reader, but I rarely end up actually making the stuff that I love. I saw this shirt a little bit ago on MI-LI & when I saw it again the other day I decided I was going to do it! I'm so excited about how mine turned out! It's such an awesome feeling to end up with something that looks good that you've made yourself! The only bad thing about it is that I would normally wear a M but I got an XL to cover my gigantic belly, so the top/armpit area doesn't fit like it should. I have to do more adjusting than I would ever do if I were wearing a normal fitting shirt. Ah, the joys of pregnancy!

Blog Comments tip

2011-01-03T11:57:00.000-08:00

My sister had this on her blog & I think it's a great tip so I'm reposting her repost. Basically I'm saying you should all change your blog settings because we all ask each other questions from time to time in comments or say things that the blog owner would love to comment back to just us on & it would be nice for the person you're asking to be able to just hit reply. I know I'd respond to people's questions if I could do that. But since I haven't been able to I usually just ignore them.

You can see the original post here:

Do you all receive notification to your email when someone comments on your blog? Did you know you can just hit reply to that comment? If the email address is not connected it will show the address of noreply-comment@blogger.com. If they do choose to show their email address you can reply directly to their comment!

Here's how to do it: (if you're using the blogger platform)
Go to Dashboard
You should see your profile on the left hand side.
Click Edit Profile
Under Privacy go to the 3rd choice down from the top
Check the box that says 'Show my email address'

You got all that? Now please go change your settings!

Happy New Year!

2011-01-02T11:01:00.000-08:00

When our tentative New Year's Eve plans got cancelled we decided to have a family game night at home with the kids. To start the evening off we made pizza. All the kids got to help put the cheese & toppings on. Unfortunately the pizza was disgusting, due to a last minute pizza sauce I threw together! LOL Not a good recipe. We had sparkling lemonade with it since that's what we had in the fridge & I'd forgotten to get Martinelli's, even though Jeremiah had been at the store & had Welch's sparkling stuff in hand (the Martinellie's was sold out at WalMart) & I'd said I'd get the Martinelli's from Target! LOL Oops! We also had Cool Ranch Doritos - Callie's request! I'd told each of the kids they could choose an appetizer for us to have on New Year's Eve & that was Callie's! :)

While the pizza was baking Jeremiah lit a bunch of fireworks outside with the kids. Fireworks have just recently become legal in AZ so this was a first. The kids LOVED it!

Onto the game portion of our evening. First up, Trouble.

Jeremiah & Ellie were on a team. I love how Ellie has to lay on the bubble to pop it!

Unfortunately there was a lot of crying during the game. Callie was being a major poor sport & would cry if she got sent home or do a mean laugh if she sent someone else home. She spent part of the game in time out. It was a test of patience for Jeremiah & I.

Next we played Toy Story Yahtzee. That went much better than Trouble had & no tears were shed.

For a treat we did fondue with the kids. We dipped gummy bears (Jack's appetizer request), pretzels, marshmallows, bananas, & PB Oreos.

At 9 we did our countdown with noisemakers & the little bottle confetti poppers. Callie mouthed off & was acting especially bratty & the evening ended in tears. Callie's. And mine. Because I was so frustrated with my 6 year old.

We put the kids to bed & Jeremiah & I watched tv together. We watched stuff like Myth Busters, American Pickers & Pawn Stars (Jeremiah was driving). A show ended & I happened to see that it was exactly midnight. We said Happy New Year to each other, did a quick kiss, & watched another show before going to bed. I hope your New Year's Eve was as exciting as ours! LOL

It was really sweet of Jeremiah when he thanked me for planning a fun family night. I thought he was joking in light of all the tears & time-outs, but he wasn't. That stuff just happens in a family & there are still plenty of good things to cancel out the sadder or angrier moments. I just have to remember that. I love my children & my husband so much!

Happy New Year!

Christmas {2010}

2010-12-31T09:12:00.000-08:00

I really wanted to better enjoy the holidays this year & I thought I was well on my way when the month started, but as it went on the usual stresses set in. Okay, stress. The thing I hate the most about the holidays is neighbor gifts. There, I said it. I'm a terrible person. I love our friends and "neighbors" but I stress out every single year about having to show that love.

I'm always trying to figure out a frugal way to do lots of gifts without having to slave in the kitchen or on any one thing for days and still give out something nice or cool. Pretty much not possible. I was honestly in tears the weekend before Christmas. I had wanted to be done with neighbor gifts by the 2nd weekend of the month, but it didn't happen. Thus the usual holiday stress because it was now the "last minute." When you wait till the last minute (the 21st) to deliver neighbor gifts it adds stress (for me at least) because there are people who are going to feel bad that you're giving them something & they didn't include you on their list. And since it's a few days before Christmas there's no time to graciously reciprocate. And I certainly don't care if I give something to someone & they don't give something to me, but I still don't want them to feel bad. I love to overthink everything. I agonize over who I should include on our list. Like this: if I give something to family A then do I need to give something to family B since A & B are good friends & we've all hung out, even though we wouldn't probably hang out with family B on our own? But I do like family B. But maybe it would be weird if I included them. Or lame since it's 4 days before Christmas.

SEE? I care way too much about other people's feelings I think. I actually had a few of our treats packaged & ready to deliver & was even on my way to one family's house but turned around & decided not to because of above-mentioned reasons. They & the other families got crossed off my list at the last second because I was too embarrased!

Next year I swear that by the 2nd weekend of the month I will have my neighbor gifts done. Of course I swore that this year & it didn't happen. But maybe if I'd written down how bad it sucks the previous year I could have read it this year & got my butt in gear. So here's to timely, stress-free neighbor gifts in 2011!

Oh, what was the neighbor gift? I came across this brilliant inspiration here for hot chocolate on a stick and took it one step farther by using a candy cane that I cut the crook off of for the stick. I used her printable directions too & changed it to Merry Christmas (I just like that better). My pictures are of course nothing like the inspiration pictures, but the final product was WAY cute irl! It was really fun when a couple people called to tell me how much they loved it. Everyone loves a pat on the back, right? :D

Okay, moving on. A few years ago after spending enough Christmases with Jeremiah's family to adopt their traditions, I made my family change theirs. Growing up, Christmas Eve was nothing special. If we had a tradition it would be ordering Little Caesar's at 7pm while my mom was locked in her bedroom till all hours of the night wrapping presents. My mom was a working gal then & that's just when she was able to get to it. But now we're all grown up & things are different.

So what I love about Jeremiah's family's traditions: They ALWAYS go to Grandpa & Grandma Divis' for Christmas Eve dinner with as much of the extended family as possible. Grandpa Divis always reads the Christmas story from the scriptures. Once Jeremiah's family is back at home they open up the sibling exchange presents (as well as pajamas, a tradition that I like but modified). On Christmas day there isn't a huge meal. My first Christmas with Jeremiah's family was strange because of that - I've ALWAYS had a big Christmas dinner. I thought it was just so wrong! :) They will still cook a ham but it's to snack on & not for a formal sit-down. But guess what? Now I love all those things & have forced my own (as in my parents/siblings) to embrace these things.

Our Christmas Eve dinner the last few years has been prime rib, instead of the turkey & ham I grew up on for Christmas. I LOVE prime rib, and it's a treat because it's crazy expensive I think. Only because we haven't ever found it in normal sized portions to buy. Sure it's only $3.99/lb but when you can't find smaller than 17lb portions it gets spendy! So the only issue with dinner this year (and it was sort of a big one) was that I didn't buy the meat ahead of time & I didn't look over my recipe ahead of time. I tried to buy the meat on the 23rd while I was at WalMart, but I couldn't find it. I'm assuming WalMart doesn't carry prime rib. So as I'm looking at the recipe on Christmas Eve at about noon I see that the prime rib is supposed to be in the oven for 5 hours! Crap! I wasn't ready to run out to the store so I asked Jeremiah to grab it, but it was a while before he could leave work & it was 2 before we got it in the oven! So that moved our dinner back at least 2 hours right off the bat. But then our prime rib was a lot bigger than what the recipe called for so it wasn't done anywhere close to on time. We ended up feeding the kids around 7 & doing the nativity, and then the adults all ate around 8:30! Lame, huh?! Again, next year I need to be reading all of this so I can BE PREPARED!!! Thank goodness we didn't invite anyone over this year!

So here's my favorite picture from our little family nativity. Joseph & Mary had bad attitudes. And then there's our angel, happy to be in a "princess" dress! I love it!

Before the kids went to bed we let them open up their gifts to each other. Callie chose a mini Etch A Sketch for Jack and a little bag of Toy Story army guy LEGOs, Jack gave Ellie a pink bouncy ball & a bag of Skittles, & Ellie gave Callie a little Shrinky Dink set & a container of gum. As far as pajamas go, I decided years ago that instead of doing Christmas Eve pj's we'd give our kids Christmas pj's on Thanksgiving night. That way they could wear them throughout the holiday season. I know I could do everyday pj's for them to open Christmas Eve, but come on, I want them wearing their Christmas jammas on Christmas morning, not plain old everyday jammas! :) And it would be a waste to not give them Christmas themed pj's until Christmas Eve when the season is over. So that's my pj tradition modification.

Onto Christmas morning. I considered taking pictures, but in the end I decided to stay where I was & enjoy the moment with the kids & just write about it later. I regret that.

When Jack went to bed on Christmas Eve he asked Jeremiah if Santa might really give him coal for Christmas. Jeremiah said we'd have to see. Jack was being an optimist & said that even if Santa did give him coal it would be okay because he'd add it to his rock collection! Jack was the first child up on Christmas morning. He saw his wrapped present from Santa & was SO excited & did a little laugh & said "Santa brought me a present! He didn't bring me coal, he brought me a present!" It was absolutely priceless! I love that boy so much!

Santa brought Callie an Easy Bake Oven, the one thing she'd been pining over since before her birthday (Jul 1)! She was ELATED! Very very sadly, Santa forgot to bring her a lightbulb & we seriously did not have a single lightbult that would be even close to working :( It wasn't until a few days later that Callie & I baked her first Easy Bake masterpiece. Okay, not really a masterpiece. We didn't set the timer & lost track of time so it overbaked by a couple of mins. Instead of a yellow cake with chocolate frosting she had a yellow crunchy cookie with chocolate frosting! :) She still loved it & is excited to use her oven some more.

Jack really wanted this toy Spike the Dinosaur. He's a big remote control dino with a big price tag to match. If it were a toy that I feel he could have had for years to come I would have gladly encouraged Santa to bring it for him, but I know my kids. So when Jack asked Santa to bring Spike I explained to him that when toys are that expensive at the store, the elves have to work extra extra hard to make that kind of toy, and they just can't spend that much time making one child's toy. I had to tell him that several times during the season. One day close to Christmas he said, "Yeah, but I asked for Spike last year too & so maybe the elves could work on part of it last year & part of it this year so that it won't be too much work at once." He's so clever! Early in the season though I encouraged him to ask for a Hot Wheels set he'd played with & loved at a friend's house. So Santa brought Jack a Hot Wheels Dr. Bones Color Lab, and guess what? Jack loves it! And he wasn't sad about not getting Spike.

Ellie wanted a "baby doll just like Callie's." Early on I'd planned on asking Santa to bring her a Bitty Baby of her own, but then I got practical & decided she already had a baby she loved so why spend $45 on a Bitty Baby? I was really proud of myself for coming to that conclusion! So instead Santa was asked to bring her some more Snap N Style dolls & stuff. She loves Callie's old ones so I figured she'd be thrilled to have some more of them. But as the days to Christmas grew closer she kept talking about the baby doll that she wanted. She climbed in bed with Jeremiah & me one morning & we were talking about it & she was very adamant that she wanted a baby doll just like Callie's. That did it. I caved & sent in her order to Santa as soon as I got out of bed! She was VERY happy to open up her Bitty Baby from Santa on Christmas morning!

I tried to keep Christmas simple this year because last year was ridiculous. The only other thing that Jeremiah & I got our kids was a robe & a pillow pet (yes, you read that right. I bought my children a stupid pillow pet). But with gifts from grandparents & aunts/uncles, they were still spoiled & had lots to open.

Ellie got these sunglasses in her stocking from Santa & wore them around for quite a bit Christmas day. It didn't bother her at all that her hair was in her face!

Santa put a bunch of dart refills in Jack's stocking for his dart guns he got for his birthday, so Jeremiah & Jack had an all out war in the afternoon!

The rest of the day was spent snacking, napping, relaxing & playing. It was also really fun being able to talk to my 2 brothers, both on missions in Mexico (Veracruz & Mexico City West). In fact my Veracruz bro's mission pres let him do Skype! I couldn't believe it! I thought it was fun being able to see him for the first time in almost 2 years! They'll both be home mid-April. So despite my bad attitude earlier in the week from the tree & neighbor gift stuff, it was a great Christmas.

Oh this picture is from a few nights later, but here's our redecorated Christmas tree!

And that wraps up our 2010 Christmas! I'm so punny, I know!

handprint snowman ornaments

2010-12-24T08:57:00.000-08:00

Last year I used the kids' handprints to make snowman handprint ornaments for the grandparents & for me. The kids' only involvement was their actual print, & I did the rest. They were super cute, but I didn't put the ornaments on the tree this year since they are GLASS & therefore very "Fra-gee-lay. That must be Italian." (name that Christmas movie!)

When I saw this post from one of my fav blogs I knew I wanted to make new & improved hand print snowman ornaments - this time on little canvases! And this time I let the kids pretty much do it themselves. It was very hard for me to let them have total creative control, but we all made it through it. Of course I had to help Ellie a bit, but really she did a lot. She did most of the buttons on her snowmen, most of the carrot noses, some of the snow, & some of the mouths. She also "helped" me with some of the other parts (I controlled her hand).

Here are the final results (tdf cute if you ask me!):

Jackson's

Callie's

Ellie's

Oh {dead} Christmas Tree

2010-12-23T07:42:00.000-08:00

I'm not even kidding, although I wish I were.

Last year we threw out our artificial tree b/c it was a piece of crap & we figured we'd buy a new one this year. Then this year came & Jeremiah decided he'd rather buy a live tree each year than deal with storage of an artificial tree from year to year since we're really out of space for something like that. Plus it seems that year after year I have issues with the lights on artificial trees working.

I loaded up the kids Thanksgiving weekend while Jeremiah was on his elk hunt & went to good ol' Home Depot to pick out a tree. They cut a bit off the bottom & I bought a new tree stand with big metal teeth on the bottom that would bite into the tree to help it absorb water.

Fast forward a few weeks. Our tree is DEAD. Dead, dead, dead. I had noticed a week or so before that the tree wasn't sucking up water. I haven't had a lot of live trees, but I seem to remember the ones I did being water hogs. We could go DAYS without adding water to this tree. Jeremiah wondered if drilling holes near the base would help. This was before it was completely dead & he didn't do it. So then once he determined it was officially dead, he brings in the drill. Silly Jeremiah. It was of course too late. At first I said I didn't care - I didn't want to deal with undecorating & redecorating a tree a week & a half before Christmas. But as the days went by our tree began to look like this: (see how the left side is shriveling into itself?!)

Until it got to this point I was ready to ignore the problem & take it down the day after Christmas. But Jeremiah had already said we were getting a different tree, and once it got this bad I knew we had to do it. So FIVE (5) DAYS before Christmas we undecorated our sad tree! Jeremiah took it back to Home Depot since they guaranteed it, but they only had 2 trees left & they were both shabby looking. They gave us our money back & very fortunately we were able to use a pre-lit artificial tree that Jeremiah's parents had just inherited but not put up since they were spending the holidays in Washington. It sucked redoing a tree. It sucked the first time I did it & I was swearing half the time then (issues with the stupid new base, issues with the the lights, pine needles everywhere, etc.). Imagine take 2! Fortunately Jeremiah was awesome & set up the artificial tree & helped hang the garland (the tree is usually all me). He started to hang ornaments but gave up after about 15 mins. I was feeling quite scrooge-ish by the time I finished! Bah-humbug!

Christmas is coming!

2010-12-20T00:39:00.000-08:00

And Santa's ~~sweatshop~~ workshop is in full swing at our house! Christmas card addressing, neighbor gift baking, school teacher & classmate treats, etc.

Just look at the little elves wrapping up packages for Christmas day! {love it}

Callie was upset with me the other day because I wouldn't let her do something or I was getting onto her about something - I don't remember. I was being a mom. She got real quiet & thoughtful for a minute. Then she says, "Mom, would Santa ever put coal in a grown-up's stocking?" I started laughing & said, "I guess he could. Why? Do you think he should put coal in my stocking?" She said yes.

I'm still laughing.

Australian/Austrian Costume

2010-12-19T22:57:00.000-08:00

I'll be honest - I'm looking for a huge atta-girl here. Callie's teacher sent home a note from school last week saying that for their Christmas party they were going to do a celebration of countries around the world. Callie's assignment was Austria (which Callie kept telling me was Australia before I actually saw the paper), and the teacher wanted the kids to come to school in a costume that represented the country. Seriously?! This is 1st grade! I was feeling quite put out but I didn't want my kid to be the only one to show up without her country's costume!

I did what any awesome mom would do and put together a costume. My total cost was about $5.50 & tons of frustration! I bought a yard of black felt for her "vest" - whatever it's called, & a few yards of ribbon. We had the skirt. I used one of her shirts to trace the basic size/shape for the vest, then guessed on the neck. Turns out the shoulders were way too wide but oh well. I was going to just sew up the sides & attach the eyelets for lacing it up & call it good, but I sort of got into it & decided to see what some extra stitching would look like. Before long I was committed to a bunch of decorative stitching! And then I had all kinds of eyelet issues. I have an eyelet setting plier tool made for fabric eyelets & snaps & it didn't work. I gave up after ruining all but the eyelets I definitely needed plus 2 extra. I had to get creative & go through Jeremiah's toolbox to find something that would work to set the eyelets, but I finally got them done.

Callie was so excited about her costume. Even with the extra wide shoulders on her vest she looked cute. I even braided ribbon into her hair & we practiced saying "Merry Christmas" in German for a couple days before. Turns out the teacher never had the kids say Merry Christmas in their languages. Oh well. Anyway, don't I totally rock as a mom for throwing together a freaking Austrian costume the night before her Christmas party? I mean, seriously!

Fröhliche Weihnachten!

snowman snack

2010-12-17T00:15:00.000-08:00

I saw this snack idea here & had the snowman head picks ordered within minutes! Jack had snack at preschool this week & I knew he'd love them. I got enough picks to take the snack to Callie's class next month too. I got the picks in the mail super quickly, and then of course I had the hardest time finding donut holes in this town! I called every grocery store & none of them bake their own & they were all out from their suppliers. I finally ordered some from the donut shop in town. They were huge - not the traditional donut hole I've ever seen/eaten, but they worked out in the end. And yes, Jack loved them!

The Nutcracker! {2010}

2010-12-12T23:50:00.000-08:00

I love traditions. A few years ago we took our kids to the Polar Express for the first time. I wanted to also do The Nutcracker, but let's be real- the streets are not paved with gold & it costs a lot of money to do all the extra stuff there is to do at the holidays. So a tradition was formed. One year as a family we do the Polar Express, and on the alternate year I'll take Callie (and next time Ellie) to see The Nutcracker. (If Jack wants to go sometime we'll have to talk about it then.) For now we're seeing a local community production. Someday I'll take Callie to a professional production, but for $20/ticket & some narration, the community production is perfect for kids!

The Nutcracker was on Friday night in Boulder City (almost to Las Vegas). I picked Callie up early from school (she was just a little bit excited about that), and she, my friend Abby & I headed to Henderson to do some shopping! I let Callie choose where she wanted to go for dinner. I made a few suggestions, one of them being Pei Wei. She said no to that since that's where we ate last time. Two years ago! Crazy that she remembered that, since we've eaten in Henderson a billion times since then. When I suggested Red Robin she asked if that's the place with balloons. Again, how does she remember this stuff? It's been a LONG time since she's been to Red Robin. Anyway, after a great afternoon of shopping, we headed to Red Robin in the mall & met up with some other friends.

The Nutcracker wasn't as great for me this time as it was last time. For one I didn't get to sit with Callie for most of the show. I would be happy to sit through a professional production of Nutcracker, but most of the enjoyment for me seeing this community production is watching Callie. She LOVED it last time & decided she wanted to be a ballerina. It had been great seeing her excitement. So this year I missed out on that. That combined with the embarrassingly revealing tights on the nutcracker. Seriously! It was like a bad train wreck you can't take your eyes off of! I was so distracted! Plus for some reason all the little girls ended up sitting together & I was cringing in my seat for the first 2/3 of the show because of their {lack of} theater ettiquette. I finally couldn't take it any more & I crawled down the row & made the girls scoot so I could sit by Callie & control my kid!

Callie really enjoyed The Nutcracker & still wants to be a ballerina. She loved taking pictures with some of the cast afterwards & also her friends. We ended the night with a stop at McDonald's. Since none of our friends joined us this time I got Callie a milkshake to go & we headed home. Callie was asleep before we were truly out of Boulder, I think. It was great spending the day with my Callie-girl! It had been a fun day hanging out with Abby too & getting our shop on!

This is the house that Jack built

2010-12-10T23:34:00.000-08:00

I had been telling my kids we'd decorate "gingerbread" houses but I just hadn't gotten around to it yet, so I can't tell you how happy I was that my friend Kate invited us over to decorate houses! Awesome! The kids had a great time working on their houses, and I didn't have to deal with the mess. Unfortunately for Kate, she did! She had to leave to get her oldest from school so there wasn't time to do a thorough clean-up. Sorry girl!

Callie's house. On the roof is a skittle "snowflake." I also love her snowman - she did it by herself!

Ellie had a little help. Okay, maybe a lot. I just might have enjoyed decorating the houses ~~as much~~ more than my kids! :) There was a crazy cute mini snowman I'd made standing at the corner of the house. Ellie got into the front seat & had it eaten before I could get the other kids loaded in the car to go home. There was also a very lovely "thatched" dinner mint roof. Ellie destroyed that too. She's such a home wrecker!

Does this belly make me look fat?

2010-12-07T09:12:00.000-08:00

I jokingly say that to Jeremiah, but can I just vent for a minute?

I can't tell you how sick I am of people telling me how huge I am. I KNOW I'M HUGE! I really am & there's nothing I can do about it. It's my 4th baby & I've been big with all my pregnancies, but this is by far the biggest I've been. I'm embarrased about it. I'm having major self-esteem issues about my size already- is it supposed to make my day better when you ask if I'm SURE I'm not having twins? Or that I look miserable? Or say wow! with popping eyes? Or tell me that I look like I'm about to pop even when I've just answered your question & you now know I have 2 months to go? If I really was "about to pop" maybe I could handle it, but I'm not. Why is it okay to comment about somebody's size? And surprisingly women are WAY worse than men! I just want to slap people. I'm to the point where I don't want to go to church or the store or anywhere public pretty much because it's inevitable that at least 1 person will make a stupid comment to me. I would NEVER go up to someone, stranger or not, & say, "wow - is this a bad hair day?" Or "whoa, those pants make your butt look huge!" Or anything at all to make somebody feel crappy about themselves. So why does everyone do it to me & other preggos?

On Sunday before church I was teary & Jeremiah asked what was wrong. I told him how I was dreading going to church because I was feeling so crappy about myself & I was sure people would say something about how I look. Sacrament mtg was miserable because it was super hot, my back was aching & my sausage feet (because of all the walking the last few days maybe?) were stuffed into my shoes & hurting but I couldn't take my shoes off or they wouldn't fit back on. And then sure enough after Sacrament mtg I'm in the hall & this woman, who I really like & is a nice person, comes up to me & says "How much more time do you have?" When I said 2 months she said "Seriously? And it's just one baby, right? You're sure it's not twins?!" I said yeah, I'm sure. She said DANG! I didn't respond. She made another comment about twins. Maybe she knew I was trying really hard not to cry then because after that she told me about all the weight she'd gained with her final baby. Oh good, that just smooths it all over.

And just the day before I was checking out at a store. The cashier asked me when I was due. The beginning of February. She said wow! really? (with wide eyes of course). I said, I know, I'm big. She said yeah, you are - and you're not having twins? I said nope, just one. She made another comment & I lightly asked her if she was trying to make me cry. But she plowed on ahead. Then the lady checking out next to me says to her friend, "look - she still has 2 months to go!" Then those ladies talked about it. And the cashier went on & on.

Why would I NOT be sensitive about this when people go out of their way to talk about my size? Jeremiah was pointing out Sunday night that at least I'm not super sick & pukey all the time. Yes, I'm glad I'm not & I'm glad my baby's healthy & everything's perfect, but just because I don't have one of those trials doesn't mean that it's easy to have people constantly making me feel worse about the way I look than I already do. Most of my shirts aren't fitting anymore & there's not much I can do. If I buy bigger shirts they'll be too big in the shoulders/chest so that's not really an option. Somebody bore their testimony on Sunday & I was especially touched & had a hard time not bawling when she said she knows that Heavenly Father knows & loves each of us & understands our trials & pain. I know that too. But as I thought more about that on Sunday night I also thought about how I know that Jeremiah loves me & I think can understand that I'm having a really hard time. But what does that change? Nothing. Glad I'm loved but it doesn't change stupid people & clothes not fitting. I'm just bummed.

Farewell Disneyland

2010-12-06T10:22:00.000-08:00

We take our kids to Disneyland once a year - usually in October or December when it's decorated for Halloween or Christmas. Last year because I'd accidentally bought the wrong tickets online we paid the difference & upgraded to annual passes. I was with my mom & dad & they LOVE Disneyland so when my mom suggested it I went right along with it.

I hate to say it, but I am officially Disneylanded out! We will definitely be skipping Disneyland next year! :) Maybe we'll give Legoland & Sea World a try instead. We only went 4 times with our passes, but that's plenty - especially when Jeremiah thinks of Disneyland as the most miserable place on earth instead of the happiest place on earth! LOL

The kids & my parents & Jeremiah's mom drove over Wednesday night. I wanted to get to DCA right when they opened on Thursday to get tickets to the World of Color show since we hadn't seen it & I'd heard it was awesome & it would be our last chance & tickets are handed out first thing in the morning & you can't get them after that. So I had everyone drop me off at Downtown Disney & I booked it to CA Adventure with everyone's passes & waited in a pretty long line for the World of Color fastpasses. You'd have thought it was a line ride for the number of people in the line! I got to the front & found out that since the rest of our party hadn't entered the park & had their passes scanned I couldn't use their passes to get the fastpasses. My dad's pass has free parking so he'd gone to the Grand Californian lobby to wait for me to bring him his pass. I had him go through the entrance (lucky guests of the Grand Californian have their own entrance to DCA & we were able to use it), and then I went back to the car with him to get my mom & the kids so that all of their passes could get scanned, since they won't scan passes without the person being present. After that I booked it back to the fastpass distribution place where luckily the girl working had said to not wait in line again & just go to her since she'd also said I needed to be back w/in 30 minutes or they would probably be out of passes. She was cute - she was asking me why I was the runner for the group since I was pregnant. My dad had actually said I should let him go but I told him I thought I would still be faster, preggo or not! :) Anyway, I got the fastpasses, my mom took the kids to do a couple rides while I took my dad his pass again so he could go park. Then I was sent to get Jeremiah's mom's ticket to get into Disneyland. I knew it'd be a while before they got parked so I took advantage of the time & booked it back to Downtown Disney to the Lego store so I could look for a particular thing for Jack for Christmas. Of course they were sold out in the store & online! So if you're familiar at all with the layout of Disneyland & Downtown Disney, you'll understand how at this point I'd already walked a couple miles at least in the 45 mins that I'd been there! I thought I totally deserved one of the best treats of all times: a Hagen-Daazs Rocky Road Dazzler! It is SOOO good that there's not a Hagen-Daazs anywhere near my house! You think I'm big now... (and if you don't think I look gigantic in this picture then I'd say it's a flattering picture cause I am BIG).

After a busy start to our Disney day we went on Buzz Lightyear (less than 5 min wait - gotta love Disneyland during the week this time of year), and Small World. Jeremiah HATES this ride more than anything so it was good that he wasn't with us this day! :) Ellie hadn't been on it since she was a baby I don't think so it was pretty awesome for her. She was completely captivated the entire time - pointing & smiling & just staring, trying to take it all in.

The rest of the afternoon for me went by quickly. Jeremiah's mom & I had to leave Disneyland by 3:30 so we could get ready for my niece Katelyn's concert - she's in the Primary choir of the Orange County Mormon Choral Organization. Kind of like MoTab (Tabernacle Choir if you're not hip on the lingo) on a smaller scale & with some youth choirs. Katelyn's concert was great & Katelyn was adorable. My sil Richelle was supposed to be singing in it too, but instead she was in the hospital with a brand new baby born that afternoon!

After the concert I left Jeremiah's mom with Jeremiah's bro, Justin & raced back to Disneyland to make it to the World of Color show at 8:15p (& pick up my m/d/my kids). It had been an eventful afternoon for my poor mom - she'd tried taking Ellie potty a few times & Ellie refused to go because she said it was too yucky in the bathrooms. She'd finally peed her pants once or twice. So between the concert & getting back to Disneyland I stopped at the hotel to grab pj's to change her into. Jeremiah & his dad drove over that night.

The next day we went to the hospital to see our brand new nephew, Triston Adam. Ellie LOVED getting to hold baby Triston! I hope she enjoys her new brother/sister as much.

After the hospital Jer & the kids & I went back to Disneyland. Our passes expired this day so it was our last time to go. The park was packed & not so enjoyable so we didn't get much in. We got fast passes to Buzz Lightyear (Jack's fav besides Pirates), then tried to go on a couple other rides but the lines were ridiculous. Not summertime ridiculous, but I would NEVER go to Disneyland in the summer so to us they were bad.

We ended up going to the Reindeer Roundup where the kids got to see real reindeer while I waited in line to see Santa.

After probably an hour wait (stupid, I know. But where else are we going to see Santa this year? Walmart? Blech!), Ellie cried & Jack refused to go anywhere near him. I had to get down on Jack's level & growl threats in his ear to get him to even stand by Jeremiah for a picture. Ellie stopped crying when Jeremiah promised he wouldn't make her sit with Santa. Callie soaked it up.

After seeing Santa we stopped at the shooting arcade because Jack had been dying to shoot. I love his face in this picture!

We finally headed towards Tomorrow Land to use our Buzz fastpasses & we saw people lining up already for the parade. I don't think we've ever really watched the parade with our kids. We'd already decided we'd watch it & leave after, & since people were lining up at 4:20 for the 5:30 parade! I let Jer & the kids go to Buzz & I looked for a place on the curb. Of course I didn't find out until I'd been in my spot for about 10 mins that once the parade route was roped off my spot would be completely blocked from view. So Jer & the kids got back & we had to watch for the Disney people to come out with the rope so we could dive to the rope & sit along there. It was ridiculous & Jeremiah said it's that kind of stuff (besides the amt of people there on Friday) that makes him hate Disneyland. Luckily we got a great spot, right at the rope along the parade route. I'd promised the kids they could pick out a souvenir since it was our last Disney trip for a long time, so once we had our place secured I took Callie to the Main Street Emporium to make her choice. She chose an Ariel music box so I set it aside & took her back to Jeremiah to get Jack & Ellie. Ellie said she needed to go potty and I asked her if she had to pee or poop. She said poop & she also said she didn't need to go right then. So I took her & Jack into the Emporium & Ellie picked out a Minnie Mouse polly pocket toy right away, while Jack browsed a while & finally settled on a Toy Story 3 Hot Wheels toy. We were in line to pay & I was holding Ellie who was basically sitting on my belly when all of a sudden my belly got really warm. Oh yeah, Ellie totally peed all over me! She rarely full-on pees her pants (except it seems when we're in CA). She sometimes will dribble a little cause she waits too long, but when she does that her jeans are still dry. But oh no, this was soak city! There was even a trail of pee on the floor. I was beyond exasperated! I paid for our crap & we made our way back to Jeremiah, Callie, & my parents who'd joined us by then. I was not happy to say the least. Thank goodness I'd thought to take the kids' pj's again so at least when we got to the car we could change Ellie.

During the parade all the kids waved & called out to the different characters. In this picture Callie was waving & saying "Hi Minnie!"

It's very difficult to tell, but those are big snowmen in the picture. When they came by dancing Ellie got up & danced for a second, then turned to me & said, "Mom, can I hug him please?" Also when Buzz went by she said, "Hi Buzz! I love you!" She was so fun to watch during the parade!

The kids LOVED the parade & it was worth the hassle of getting a spot to watch it. It was the perfect ending to our year of Disney. 8:)

On Saturday we got packed up & went to Justin & Jamie's to visit again & to get Jeremiah's parents. Justin was really sick so the kids & I quietly played Pretty Pretty Princess with Katelyn. Even Jack got in on the fun! :)

Jeremiah's parents decided to stay in CA for a few more days so by the time we got a vehicle figured out for them & things taken care of it was late afternoon. I hate the drive to/from SoCal! It was nice to get home & have Sunday at home before starting another week.

The End.

Here Comes Santa Claus

2010-12-06T09:08:00.000-08:00

And she's dressed in backwards pink lounge pants, a backwards red shirt, & a sock for a beard.

Jeremiah's 1st Elk!

2010-12-01T08:50:00.000-08:00

We've lived here for 6 years now & Jeremiah finally got drawn for bull elk! Not only did he get drawn, but for a great area too - one of the best in the world (for trophy elk). He & his dad left on Thanksgiving night with the trailer to do a couple days of hunting. On Saturday night they came back after having no success. They left again Sunday night so they'd be able to be up bright & early Monday morning. There was lots of excitement here when Jeremiah called me mid-morning on Monday. I asked how it was going. He said pretty good- did you get my picture?! I was sooo happy for Jeremiah! Jack was whooping & hollering - so excited for his Dad! :) It took hours for Jeremiah & his Dad to haul the elk back to the truck/trailer & they didn't get home until about 7 (they were a couple hours away). The thing is massive (respectable in elk terms but massive in everyday animal terms), and we will be having a freezer dinner week for sure (when we get back from CA) to make room for all the new elk meat that we'll get back from the butcher! Congrats Jeremiah!

Thanksgiving 2010

2010-11-29T09:01:00.000-08:00

Ahhh, Thanksgiving. We started the day with my m/d, Jeremiah's m/d, and my 3 sisters & b-i-l doing breakfast at our house. It wouldn't be a holiday breakfast without my dad making egg sausage casserole. Jeremiah's mom got a recipe from her sisters & made the most delicious ever french toast casserole. It's definitely going to be included in future holiday breakfasts. And breakfasts in between too! We had fruit & oj also & gorged on our delicious breakfast while visiting & watching the Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Later in the afternoon we headed to my m/d's. Jeremiah's mom made a cheeseball, I made a relish tray, my sister made shrimp dip stuff that we always have at the holidays, & I got chips & salsa from Chili's for snacking on between breakfast & dinner.

Callie made this sign for my m/d's front door & she was VERY proud of it!

We had a decent sized crowd at my parents' for dinner & lots of food! My 3 sisters & my b-i-l, my grandparents (mom's side), Jeremiah's parents, friends Kevin & Dawn & Dawn's son, and a couple from my m/d's ward, plus my crew. My mom did a turkey in the oven & Jeremiah smoked one (which was AWESOME!).

We had a billion desserts & I'd been looking forward to a sugar high for days, but ended up not even eating any dessert because I was having stomach pains similar to the ones I'd had when I went to the ER when I was 16 weeks pg. They weren't as intense or as often & thankfully I woke up Black Friday morning after a nap feeling fine. I guess it's better in the long run that I skipped the 5,000 calorie intake I'd planned for the evening.

Jack really wanted a turkey leg so we let him have one. Then my dad told Jack that if he could eat the entire thing in one hour that he'd give him $10. Jack was stoked b/c he wants to save his money to buy a new hunting game for the Wii so he went to work, but after about 20 mins hadn't made much progress. Uncle Ryan had finished his turkey leg so everyone at our table told Jack to give Ryan his leg & take Ryan's eaten leg to Grandpa to get the $10. My dad didn't believe that Jack had eaten the leg but everyone at our table was in on it backing Jack up so my dad gave him the money. Of course we were just messing around but Jack didn't understand & was upset when I said he had to give Grandpa his money back. Since he was upset about it I let it go & mentioned to everyone at my table that I'd sneak it out of his pocket later. My kids don't keep good track of their money so it wouldn't have been a big deal. But then Aunt Kayleigh took it upon herself to regulate & got the money from Jack & he was really undone. It was a big scene & Jack was bawling & when Kayleigh realized what my plan had been she felt really bad. Then the lady from m/d's ward that was there totally let us all (at our table with Jack) have it for doing that to him. She was completely out of line to be talking to us like she did but nobody said anything. It WAS nice of her to be so concerned about Jack, just not cool that she was telling us off - Jack's parents, grandparents (Jeremiah's m/d), aunts & an uncle. That was our dinner excitement.

I wish I had a picture of my 2nd favorite part of Thanksgiving (the 1st of course being the eats): pouring over the Black Friday ads & making lists of stuff to shop for. We do it every year. I think even if I were terribly wealthy I'd still do Black Friday shopping - it's so fun! My sisters & I always sit around for a long time passing the ads back & forth & planning our excursion. Almost every year I consider skipping the shopping since there usually isn't any one thing that we have to have, and every year I end up getting up & shopping.

And that was our Thanksgiving.

Black Friday 2010

2010-11-27T12:26:00.000-08:00

And to think I almost decided to skip it!

I got up at 2:30 am (!) to put on fresh makeup (I didn't want to feel disgusting all day) & throw on some clothes & drive to Bullhead. Tara wanted a tv from Target (an hour away from us) & they opened at 4 am. We didn't get there early enough to get a good spot in line so she missed out on the tv. I got stuff I could have gone home without & waited in line for an entire hour to pay for it while my dad & Tara dropped Kayleigh off at Walmart & they ran to Sam's. I went to Kohl's & spent another 35 mins in that line, then met up with everyone at Walmart. From there we all went to Sam's (Tara's final tv place) & had complimentary yogurt & juice (the muffins were gone) while we finished our browsing/buying. After a sub-par breakfast at McDonald's & a quick stop in Home Depot we split. My dad drove back home & Tara, Kayleigh & I went to the outlets. 2 hours later (maybe?) we were on our way back to Kingman. I've been working on a top secret project that had to be finished by midnight tonight and although I went a little over deadline I still got what I needed to do done. Christmas is in the bag!

And now that I've been up for almost 23 hours & only 3 1/2 hours of sleep before that, I'm off to bed. I love the holiday season!

Hello, Santa

2010-11-26T20:16:00.000-08:00

I just finished singing my kids songs & putting them to bed. On the request list tonight by Ellie & again in Jack's room: barking dogs jingle bells. And that's what they got. And then I sang up on the housetop & did the actions at the end for Jack. Afterwards Jack said, "I wish it was Halloween & you could be Santa, because Santa has a big tummy - it's fat. And your tummy is fat, huh?" Callie piped up from her room that I could be Mrs. Claus. :D

1 Easy Bake Oven, please

2010-11-24T16:56:00.001-08:00

I noticed that Jack's Christmas list has an Easy Bake Oven on it, which seemed suspicious since it was in Callie's writing & Callie has wanted one since at least July, if not earlier. I said, "Oh really, Jack wants an Easy Bake Oven?" to Callie. Jack piped up & said, "Yeah, cause I like to eat pie. And cupcakes."

Well okay than.

Random Happenings

2010-11-22T07:19:00.000-08:00

Here's what we've been up to the past couple of weeks:

I made this super cute banner with my friend Katie. Thanks girl for letting me do this with you - I love it!
Last weekend was Jack's last soccer game of the season. He so badly hoped he would get a trophy & Coach had mentioned something about scoring a goal & getting a trophy so of course Jack thought he had to do the one to get the other. The night before the game he was saying the blessing on the food so he blessed himself to score a goal. He also asked us as he & Jeremiah left early for the game on Saturday morning to please say a special prayer for him to score a goal. Well he didn't score a goal and although he wasn't acting all bummed out I don't think he was expecting a trophy when we went to his end of the season party at Pizza Hut with his team afterwards. It was so cute - he's number 10 & Coach started at the beginning & went in numerical order calling up each player & handing them a trophy. When he said "Number 10 - Jack!" my boy had the biggest grin ever on his face. He was honestly surprised to be getting a trophy & so elated. I wish I had the moment on camera. I almost cried seeing him so completely happy! Of course I tear up about EVERYTHING. Stinkin' hormones! :)
The kids & I were listening to a Raffi Christmas cd (I know - it's not even Thanksgiving! I've broken my personal rule this year!), and there's an upbeat, Bible-belt, gospel song on there about baby Jesus & the kids just LOVE it! Throughout the cd they'd ask me to pause the music so they could comment on something so we listened to the baby Jesus song once through & then the second time through (they always ask to listen to songs again that they like) Jack asked me to pause it. He said, "Mom, if our baby is a boy baby I know what we should name him. Jesus. Because Jesus is a good name." They named the baby Jesus, oh my Lord, way down in Bethlehem!

Good thing I don't let my kids name my babies!

And by the way that was big of Jack because until then he'd thought we should name the baby Jack if it's a boy. Ellie's going strong with Jack in the box for a boy & Ellie for a girl.

On Friday, after MONTHS (seriously) of waiting for our mantle to be painted (sprayed), Jeremiah brought it home & he and our friend Tim set it. And the guy who did the stone work on the bottom was able to come on Saturday to cut & set the stone on the top part of the face of the fireplace. In fact he should be here any time this morning to do the bottom part & grout it all! I can't tell you how excited I am to see this FINALLY getting done! We demoed the old one in JANUARY! I'll take a picture of the finished firplace as soon as it's finished - hopefully today or tomorrow! :)
Jeremiah's parents are MOVING TO KINGMAN! Well, maybe Kingman, maybe Lake Havasu. We have been wishing for years that they lived closer & it's happening! They'll be here tonight & will stay with us for a few days until they can get settled into the house they're temporarily renting. Jeremiah's dad will be working in Havasu so I guess he'll have to decide if he can handle the commute from Kingman every day (an hour each way). If he can handle it I think they'd be happy living by family since they've lived away from all their family for the past 6 years. Before then they'd never NOT lived by family. Anyway, we're SO excited!

all in a day's work

2010-11-08T07:44:00.000-08:00

Literally.

How lucky are our girls?! My sister Kayleigh asked if they make this in her size. It's so fun!

We'd been letting Ellie sleep in Callie's bed with her on the weekends for the past couple months & the bed sharing wasn't going well. Which is too bad for me since when we bought Callie's mattress & bedding Jeremiah thought we should go with a twin so we could eventually do bunks or 2 twins. I didn't ever want bunk beds since they're so hard to make & plus I thought it would be nice to have a full bed for our occassional guests (which I was also wrong about - a queen would have been better for that). And my argument was that I shared a bed with my sister growing up so our girls could do it too. Yeah, well what I didn't take into account was that my sister & I were a lot older than our girls when we started sharing a bed. Big difference. So after having problems with the girls sharing a bed we decided it wasn't going to work. Jeremiah has said "I told you so" several times! Enjoy Jeremiah - you don't get to say it very often! haha!

On Friday morning I was checking out bunk beds online even though I thought we'd wait another month to buy & officially move Ellie in with Callie, but after a lot of searching both new & Craigslist I came across the doll house bed by Tradewins. It was $400 from someone in Bullhead (45 mins away) who claims they paid $2500 in 2005. I checked it out a lot online & was able to find it new for $1100, but honestly if I'm going to spend that much on a bunk bed (which I realize is what you can expect to pay for a new set) I was going to go with a well made traditional set. I forwarded the info to Jeremiah who at first asked if I didn't think that seemed like a lot of money for bunk beds (he lives under a rock). I told him about all the bunk beds I'd found on Craigslist - metal or corral fence looking wood ones - & assured him this was a great find. He agreed to it & he was able to pick up the bed that evening.

So the all day part is because the guy we bought it from is a complete jack-a & totally screwed up & ruined the bed in so many ways! He drilled all kinds of holes all over in it that were completely not necessary. Not only were they not necessary, but he apparently didn't know how to use a tape measure either because in some places his first hole wasn't in the right place so he drilled a 2nd one close by. He also didn't know how to use a drill bit because he didn't pre-drill any holes before screwing stuff in. If you've ever worked with wood you'll know that that's a big deal because otherwise your wood splits from the screws. So yeah, total jack-a. Jeremiah said on Saturday night that if he'd known before we bought it how badly the guy had screwed it up he wouldn't have bought it. During the construction process he had to make 3 trips to town for supplies (because of course it was missing half the hardware). We also had to get creative for a lot of fixes. And I have to make a trip to Frazee (Paint store. That's not open on Saturdays.) with a part of the bed to get it color matched so that we can patch the billion screw holes from the idiot & do touch-up paint. I also have to call the manufacturer today to buy a new hardware set since none of the hardware stores here had a couple of the pieces we needed. (Don't worry, it's safe for the girls to sleep & play on for now.) So even though it's put together it still needs a bit of work. I think if we'd bought it new we could have had that baby up in an hour. For reals!

But the girls LOOOOOVE it! It's awesome! I just wish we'd been able to get it for $200 instead - it would have been more worth it. But I am stoked cause I found the matching bedding I need for the twin mattress that I have to buy on eBay. Not only is the auction for the quilt & sham, but also the exact sheeting that I have had a hard time finding. Yay!

bad mom

2010-11-01T07:58:00.000-07:00

I was folding laundry this morning & didn't really feel like stopping to make Callie's lunch & since she was being a brat to Ellie & she hates hot lunch I got "creative" shall we say & told her if she didn't start acting nice (and this was after she'd already had a time out) & if I had to talk to her again about her bahavior I'd make her eat hot lunch.

She hates hot lunch because it's still a little scary for her AND she doesn't get to sit by her friends if she buys it. Because the school directs the kids where to sit & if her friends aren't in line next to her for hot lunch she sits by non-friends. Like this one little girl who she considers a "bully" b/c she is constantly messing with Callie's hair or pulling on her clothes or just being annoying & in her face. She even pulled the flower embellishment off of one of Callie's shoes one day. This girl seems to lack attention at home.

So after some more bratty behavior this morning I declared Callie was having hot lunch. You would have thought we were giving away her puppy. Not that she has one, but you know what I mean. She threw a crazy huge fit, acting like a total psycho and cried & cried and was stomping her feet & screaming that she wasn't going to school. I think Jeremiah had to carry her outside to leave. Then I felt bad because of the whole thing. My entire motivation for coming up with the punishment was not wanting to make lunch. But then again she did have a couple of warnings and punishments are supposed to be hard, right? But she already doesn't love school so maybe I should have thought of a different punishment instead of torturing her like this.

I called Jeremiah after he'd dropped her off. She had settled down because he'd talked to her about how embarrased she'd be if he had to drag her into her classroom screaming & crying. I asked if he thought I should drop off a lunch. We considered it because of the whole bully girl thing (who Callie's had to sit by a couple times when she's had hot lunch), but then again there's the thought that Callie needs to learn to cope with situations that aren't ideal. Not to mention that it would be a major parenting faux pas to renege on a punishment after such a huge fit was thrown! What's that saying? If you freak out enough over a punishment we'll change our minds? I'm not afraid to say sorry to my children if I've overreacted & there have been a couple times where we've rethought a punishment because maybe it was a little too severe for the crime, but like I said, she threw a crazy psycho fit & to go back on this one could be detrimental. I'm not dropping off a lunch. And I feel crummy. I hope she doesn't have a total meltdown at lunchtime. :(

It's hard being a parent.

Should we be saving our money to put our children through counseling as adults?

Halloween 2010

2010-11-01T07:57:00.000-07:00

Halloween weekend was jam-packed with FUN this year! It started with a rockin' Halloween party hosted by some friends! It was a seriously great party! Lots of super delish eats, fun games, & good company.

We had our babysitter snap this picture before we left for the party. I have to add that Jeremiah didn't like dressing up as a kid & he has not once dressed up for the holiday as an adult. So he was pretty good with this "costume" - didn't take him too far out of his comfort zone! :) Thanks to my sister Chelsea for suggesting the idea. I thought it was so brilliant & after I started making it I was looking online to see how other people finished it & I found out it's a $50 mass-marketed vinyl costume. Who knew? Not this girl. In case you live under a rock our costume is "bun in the oven & the baker." And no Jeremiah wouldn't wear a white chef's hat - which is fine because what cool chef's do for one? And for two, he's a baker, not a chef! LOL

It had been a really busy week & here in the land of sun you can't carve a pumpkin more than a couple days in advance - it's just not cold enough so they get nasty & rotted very quickly. So on Saturday morning we finally let the kids get creative. This is the first year in I can't remember how many that I haven't gone all out & used a detailed pattern. I love carving pumpkins! But I just wasn't feeling it this year & I decided to let the kids have their own fun since when you do a pattern they can't do much more than pick it out & watch! To add to the simplicity of this year's pumpkins, Jack & Ellie opted to use the potato-head type parts on their pumpkins instead of carving. I wasn't going to try to talk them out of it - fine with me! :) They LOVED it!

Ellie trying to push & pound in the pieces

Both sides of Jack's creation

Callie wanted to actually carve a pumpkin. After we got all the guts out I let her draw on her own face. It didn't turn out quite like she'd hoped so she asked me to help her. She cut out most of it & insisted on using the bat pumpkin cutter to pound out a bat-looking hair bow!

After a late soccer game I brought the kids home & got them ready for a tri-ward trunk-or-treat. Thank goodness the wards skipped the chili & hot dogs before the trunk-or-treating this year. It's an insanely chaotic ordeal with canned chili & boiled fake meat hot dogs (blech!) and cheap buns.

I was happy that the kids had been happy to repeat last years' costumes (except Ellie since she's grown the most). I was glad because I worked dang hard on that mermaid costume last year! The devil cape wasn't difficult but it was still nice to see my labors pay off for two years & get plenty of use. Ellie wore a witch costume that Callie wore a few years ago. Each of the kids loved their characters.

The devil

The witch

The mermaid

The trunk. Thanks to my dad not being afraid to ask for stuff (his example has helped me score a few things too)! The giant inflatable spider had been over the produce section at WalMart but got a hole in it. He must have been there when they were taking it down. He asked if he could have it & then he took it home & patched it & borrowed a blower from a friend with a jump house business. He & my mom brought their spooky halloween trees too & we set up a great trunk :)

The great candy sort on Sunday morning

Since Halloween was on Sunday we didn't take the kids trick-or-treating on Halloween night. Instead they wore their Halloween pj's over to my parents' house who hosted a small get-together. We had 4 types of soup, homemade rolls & lots of desserts. We hung out & visited while my dad & the kids handed out candy to trick-or-treaters. Callie absolutely LOVED getting to pass out candy to everyone!

It was a perfect Halloween weekend!

Spooky Halloween Dinner

2010-10-29T11:56:00.000-07:00

Our great friends, The Haws, have a tradition to have a spooky Halloween dinner every year. Usually it's just them but this year since we've reached the "like family" status they invited us to join them! :) Summer knocked herself out preparing a fun and totally spooky meal. I feel bad that my only contribution was witches' fingers!

On the menu:

Frankenstein's brain with veggies &...

rat dip

creepy crawlers

witches' fingers

And not pictured is bats! Summer roasted some ~~bats~~ game hens & used black food coloring in the butter to get a nice gross bat color. She even used toothpicks to prop out the wings. They looked just like bats. Of course I would know - I've roasted tons.

The table. There were even fun straw cups with worms on the side for the kids.

Part of their tradition is wearing Halloween hats during the dinner. We almost cancelled because of this! jk

Jeremiah tried on a couple options (this one is from Jack's devil costume)...

And decided on this.

The kids LOVED the creepy food. Sadly I haven't been doing this with my kids, although before they came along Jeremiah & I had a few Halloween themed meals. I'm going to have to start making it a tradition in our family too. Thanks so much Brit & Summer for including us this year in your family Halloween dinner. You guys are the best!

Mummy juice

2010-10-28T13:16:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I'm a bad mom, but today I'm a good mom! Look what Callie's going to have in her lunch box tomorrow! I found this idea (2nd picture) from a new favorite site One Charming Party (LOVE it!). I got a 50 cent bottle of Minute Maid at WalMart (sometimes I like that place) and I didn't have any cream colored streamers so I got some dried out diaper wipes from my car (LOL - it's in desperate need of a good detail job!), cut them into connecting stips and went to work! I love it! :) I've also been putting these cute Halloween lunchbox jokes in her lunch for the past 2 weeks. She loves them! See what a good mom I am today?!

Barnyard Boo

2010-10-25T09:36:00.000-07:00

While we were in Utah we went to the Barnyard Boo at Thanksgiving Point (in Lehi). For $7 the kids got a punch card that allowed you to do 7 different activities out of a variety of choices. It was right next to Cornbelly's which looked really fun too, but this was cheaper & there were pony rides, which Katelyn (our niece) was very interested in. Barnyard Boo turned out to be an excellent choice!

First punch: pony rides!

Second punch: spider toss with spider rings for prizes

No punch required: checking out the animals. Feed was 25 cents/handful. Uncle Justin bought a few handfuls & let the kids all feed the animals. Jack was hilarious - after he'd had his turn feeding the llama he sat on the ground & patiently picked up the kernels that fell to the ground during the other kids' turns. By the end he had a new big handful. He fed the llama again, picked up the kernels that got knocked out from its tongue again, & went in for one last turn. He makes me laugh!

Third punch: face painting

Fourth punch: monster bowling with stickers for the prize

Fifth punch: cookie "decorating," although it was really just smearing a glob of frosting on a cookie w/a popsicle stick. No sprinkles or real decorating. Prize: eat your cookie.

Sixth punch: making mummy pops

We were there for an hour & the kids had a great time! We gave our last punches away & headed off for pizza. What a fun time! It makes me bummed that there's never seasonal fun stuff to do here in Kingman. One of the major downsides of living in the desert :( I need a corn field & a farm!

Jonny got married!

2010-10-25T09:08:00.000-07:00

This weekend we went to Utah to see Jonny (Jeremiah's youngest bro) & Ann get married in the Mt. Timpanogos Temple. It was a quick weekend but so good! We got to our hotel in Sandy on Thursday afternoon & had enough time to get settled before Jeremiah went to "Wintervention" in Orem with friends & some of the family. My mom & sister Kayleigh were kind enough to watch our children (my mom/dad were staying in the same hotel & Kayleigh lives up there) while Jeremiah's mom, Grandma Divis, & I went to Ann's bridal shower, where we got to meet her awesome family!

Friday's activities included:

Bowling = Jeremiah, Justin (Jer's bro), Jonny, Ann's brothers/bils. They needed some guy time since some of the guys had been watching kids the last few days.
Shopping = Hillary, Jamie, kids. Nordstrom Rack to look for cardies for the next day. No luck but ended up with a cute umbrella & some cheap pearls for the kids.
Lunch at Cafe Rio = Our fam, Justin's fam, Jeremiah's dad, Wendy & 2 of her kids. Can you say yum?!
Shopping = Hillary, Wendy & 2 kids. Old Navy. No luck still with the cardi hunt.
Barnyard Boo = Our fam, Justin's fam. Loved it! (it got it's own post since it's the only time I whipped out the camera on our trip)
Incredible Pizza = Our fam, Justin's fam, friend Rich & son, friends Mark/Soph & 2 kids.
Late night table setup for luncheon the next day = Jeremiah & Justin.

Saturday was a foot-killing day for me in my new sassy shoes! We had to be at the temple at 10:30 for the 11:00 sealing, so that meant getting up early enough to get myself & my kids ready (Jer helped but he can't do hair), feed our slow eaters (thank goodness the hotel had the BEST breakfast! I highly recommend staying at Residence Inn!), and drive 30 minutes to the temple. And this was where the rest of the day went:

Temple, 1.25 hours
Pictures at temple, .5 hour
Finish luncheon prep, .75 hour
Luncheon, 1 hour
Clean up luncheon, 2 hours!!!
Break at Wendy's house, .75 hour
Getting lost finding country club, .25 hour
Pictures at country club, .75 hour
Eating myself sick at the reception, 2 hours

The luncheon: I have to give mad props to my mom & my family! My parents & some siblings have gotten to know Jonny really well since he's lived with Jeremiah & I off & on over school breaks for the past couple years & worked for Jeremiah & my dad. He's like family to them now. So of course my parents were invited to the wedding & would go, but my mom is crazy awesome & loves to be a busy beaver working her butt off in the background of stuff like this so she called up Jeremiah's mom a few weeks ago & offered to take over the luncheon food. Jeremiah's mom had planned the menu & my mom shopped for most of the groceries & executed the lunch. We had ham, mashed potatoes, steamed carrots, parisian salad & homemade rolls. Yes, homemade rolls - my mom made rolls for over 100 people the night before & morning of the wedding while overseeing all the other food! She rocks! And Jeremiah's relatives are all awesome too! He had aunts & a grandma that made almost all the apple cake & pumpkin cupcakes for dessert. They also all helped in the kitchen during the luncheon & stayed after with Jonny's parents, my parents & sisters & aunt/cousin, and Jeremiah & I until everything was totally cleaned up & done! My sisters Tara & Kayleigh helped & Kayleigh even was able to recruit 2 of her friends (both really cute girls named Ashley) to help. I still can't figure out why they agreed to do that other than that they are just super awesome girls! And my aunt Lorie & cousin Annie came from Mapleton (we were in Pleasant Grove) to help with it all too! Jeremiah & I are so blessed to have such amazing families!!!

The reception was great too. I can't remember the name of the catering company but they served 3 soups (clam chowder, chicken noodle & creamy tomato) that were all SO good! I wasn't expecting them to be that great since often at this type of thing the food is just okay, but these soups were delicious! Plus there was really awesome breads & giant croutons to go with the soups. And that's why I ate till I was sick!

Well since the only time I pulled out the camera was at our visit to Barnyard Boo, here's a couple pics of the happy couple from their photographer's blog:

Engagement

Wedding (although these were taken a couple weeks before the wedding which I think is an awesome idea since the wedding day is busy enough. Plus it worked out really well since it rained off & on all day on Saturday)

And the 2 pictures we got with Jeremiah's phone on the wedding day:

Ellie & Jack with Papa (Jeremiah's dad)

Jack totally tired & needing a nap during photos at the reception site (this is how his face looked in most of the pictures I think)

The end. It was nice getting home around 7 last night so that Jeremiah & I could relax for a while before having to go to bed & start another week.

Happy 5th Birthday Jack!

2010-10-18T09:14:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was the official birthday day. I can't believe Jack's 5! We started the day with Jack's breakfast of choice - crepes.

Normally the kids can only play Wii on Saturdays, but of course we can make an exception on a birthday! :) This was Jack. All. Day. Long. He had a break for church, a break to get ready for church, and a break for dinner, presents & cake/ice cream. He was a total zombie by the end of the day. Jeremiah said he can't do that again. It's once a year - I think it's fine.

Jack got lots of great presents. Lots of Legos! Other favs were an Iron Man mask from Aunt TT (my sister Tara), a grabber from my mom & dad, & Martian Matter from his awesome mom & dad (he's begging me right now to finish up on the computer so I can make an alien with him).

He wanted chocolate cake for his birthday party but I told him if he wanted the Lego cake to be colored that it couldn't be chocolate. The compromise was white cake for the party & chocolate cupcakes on his birthday. Earlier in the day I'd asked if he wanted me to decorate them Halloween-ish. He said oh yeah. But while I was decorating he said he'd wanted a Lego guy on his cupcake. Okay birthday boy, whatever you want.

Happy Birthday, Buddy Bear!

{now off to make aliens}

A Lego Party!

2010-10-16T08:10:00.000-07:00

Funny that I always wanted to have a baby in October. I had visions of awesome halloween birthday parties, of course. But Jack REALLY REALLY REALLY wanted a Lego party! Okay, honestly his first choice was Mario Bros, but I said no (I LOVE playing Mario Bros, but Jack & Mario Bros is a whole nother post). Once he realized there was no way that I would do Mario Bros he was set on Legos. Once I realized he wasn't going to change his mind I went to work on the party (meaning lots of time checking out other people's lego parties on blogs) and got excited!

Of course as I was up till I can't even tell you what time the night before the party b/c I'm the queen of procrastination, I kept thinking why am I doing this? What's the point? The kids would have a fun time if I bought a dollar pin the tail on the donkey game at WalMart & had cake & ice cream, right? And that led to how silly birthday parties really are. I mean you invite all these people that wouldn't normally give you a gift on your birthday but then they are suddenly required to. I was telling this to Jeremiah yesterday morning before the party & he looked at me funny & said "who are you?"

It made it worth it while I was getting ready for the party. First Jack was going through some Legos since I'd bought a ton on eBay to fill the pinata with. There had been some minifigs in the mix and he was asking if I was putting them in the pinata. I told him I wasn't because I thought he'd want to keep them & if I put them in the pinata he would most likely not get them. He said, "Oh thanks mom! I do want to keep them! You're the best mom ever!" Then he came up to me & gave me a hug & said, "I love you mom. Thanks for all the hard work you're doing for my party." Awwww! He's the best!

Well onto the deets.

Party setup.

(door sign idea from here)

The table centerpiece is a big lego pinata that I made. I forgot to take a close-up of it! Total bummer since you can't really tell what it is in most of the pics! Plus it would be nice to have a momento of my labor :) The party was from 3-4:30 so I kept the snacks simple: grapes/apples & cucumbers/tomatoes on skewers, cheese & cracker lego bricks & juice box legos.

(Juice box idea here, cracker idea here, green lego base idea here)

The party.

As the kids arrived they got a set of Legos to build their own race cars. I saw on someone's blog to check the Halloween aisle at Target for little packages of Legos - score! I was so stoked to find them b/c I'd been watching eBay for days & days & nothing at the time was working. Thank goodness it's Halloween time! Once the kids had their cars built they could choose some stickers to personalize it (since all the cars were the same). I'd planned on a Lego race for our first game but the first several cars couldn't even make it down the ramp. They were WAY out of alignment! LOL They'd turn to the side a little bit down the ramp! One of the boys must have figured out how to adjust them b/c later they all seemed to be going straight, but we never ended up having an official race. The kids loved the ramp & came back to it later during the party also.

After the "races" it was snack time. I was so glad to have Kate at the party to help - from this point she took the rest of the pictures during the party. Thanks Kate!!!

Next we played "pin the head on the minifig." Each kid got a minifig head that they drew the face on. Funny note about Jack's: The new minifigs have a little more detail to the faces so when he was going through the previously mentioned bag of eBay Legos (that were definitely older) & found the minifigs he commented that he really liked the heads. They were like the faces on some of the guys that his friend Tyler has. So I love that that's the face he decided to draw on his (and I have to say he did a GREAT job of copying it)! The little boy at the bottom L in this collage, Spencer, was the winner - he got his head dead on!

Next we had a Lego relay. The kids were divided into 2 teams & had to use a spoon to get Legos from a bowl to a jar. If they dropped their Legos on the way they had to put them back in the bowl & hand the spoon to the next kid. Everyone got several turns but it wasn't a quick relay at all! I thought that this was an age appropriate game when I planned it, but these kids were probably the youngest it would work for because there was mass confusion going on! LOL Even Ellie & Nixon (Kate's little boy. He & Ellie are both 2) played & did really well. They were both very careful & didn't drop their Legos.

Onto the pinata! Always the highlight of a party. Because we're moving into major candy season I was sold when I was looking for party ideas & saw that a few other people filled their pinatas with Legos. Brilliant (although more expensive than candy unless you could find a bucket at a yard sale, which I didn't).

And finally cake & presents! (The white stuff on the cake is powdered sugar b/c I'd read a few years ago that you can give cakes a nice smooth finish by patting them down w/powdered sugar. I've done it before & it worked out, but it didn't work this time. Most of it got dissolved into the cake like it should have, but it left a mottled appearance. Combine that with the ugly shade of blue frosting and what you have is a kind of gross looking cake.)

As his guests left Jack gave them each a goody bag with Lego candy (called Candy Blox by Dubble Bubble), a little coloring book I downloaded from this girl & put together, and a set of 5 minifig crayons that I bought all packaged & ready to go from eBay. The kids also got to take home their race cars & a cello bag w/their legos from the pinata.

Yay! It's over!!! My feet looked like hobbit feet as my sister Tara said at the end of the night. Even my toes were swollen! But Jack has thanked me several times & said what a fun time he had.

Worth it.

LEGO party invites

2010-10-12T05:05:00.000-07:00

Guess what I'm working on this week?!

(Invite inspiration came from blissbloomblog & livinglocurto.)

Ketchup

2010-10-12T03:53:00.000-07:00

2 weeks ago Jeremiah headed to San Diego on Tuesday afternoon to go deep sea fishing for a day & 1/2. He'd been watching the fish count for a while & since the numbers can change daily you can't really plan a fishing trip too far in advance. He was SO glad that his brother Jason who lives in Huntington Beach was able to also go with him at the last minute! The limit was 6 tuna so Jeremiah was pleased that he ended up with 4. From the pic the fish might not seem huge, but I can't even tell you how much fish we have in our freezer, & that's after we had a bunch of friends over to eat some!

(Thanks for the pic Jas!)

Jeremiah wasn't going to be in from fishing till Thursday morning, so the kids & I and my m/d drove over to Orange County on Wednesday afternoon. My poor dad - I'd told him make sure you're ready by 11 because I wanted to leave after I picked Callie up early from school - around 12:10 (b/c my parents are notoriously late). So my dad was ready to go & pretty annoyed I think when I finally got to his house around 1:30! I don't know what went wrong since I was basically packed the night before! And of course once I'd actually left the house I had to turn around to get the stroller, beach toys, and to print out tickets! Also in getting ready Jack thought he was being helpful by taking out the Wii controlers & the Super Mario Bros disc, since I'd said we could take it to play in the car. I can't tell you how many times I've told him to not touch our dvd player in the car w/out permission! But he tried to put the game disc in, not knowing that it wouldn't even work in the dvd player, and when he met resistance since there was already a movie in there he just pushed harder! So I do have to say that another part of the delay was trying to get that dang game out when it was time to leave. I was unsuccessful & my dad was able to finally get it out, but not without the game being ruined. I figured better to ruin a $50 game than have to pay for a shop to get it out & still possibly have it ruined. Huge bummer though & Jack was in big trouble - not for ruining the game - for touching the dvd player!

We stayed at a place that had really good cook to order/continental breakfast (breakfast selection is always the deciding factor for Jeremiah in hotel choices!) & had breakfast with our friends the Porters then headed to Disneyland for the day.

The kids had a good time as always. We hung out with the Porters & in the afternoon Justin, Jamie & Katelyn (Jer's bro & fam) joined us for a few hours. Towards the end of the day my sister Tara, Ellie & I were lagging behind the group to get to a ride & happened to catch the near beginning of the line to see Mickey & Minnie. I was really surprised when Ellie actually wanted to see them & I had to tell her a few times in line to come back to wait our turn since she was scooting closer & closer to them. Because Ellie is a very shy girl! Unlike Jack & Callie who I've had to tell scary stories too b/c I think they'd go home with anybody, when strangers approach Ellie she'll stick her tongue out at them, make mean pouty faces, give dirty looks, or just turn her head (with a dirty look on her face). She doesn't like strangers. I was completely shocked to see her run with open arms up to Minnie when it was our turn! She spent a couple of minutes with Mickey & Minnie, getting lots of nose kisses from Minnie. She ate it up!

(Thanks for the pic Tara)

On Friday we went to the beach, and on Friday night we went back to Disneyland with the kids in their Halloween best for Mickey's Trick or Treat Party. Let me just say that when Jeremiah & I lived in SoCal & had annual passes (pre-family) we'd go to Dland for date night & around Halloween I'd see families w/their little trick or treaters lined up to go to this Disney Halloween party (then at DCA) & I always thought that someday I wanted to do that with our kids. It was a complete splurge to take the kids this year b/c even though we currently have annual passes, this is a special event so you have to buy separate tix to go to it. My justification (oh, I'm the freaking queen of justification - if you ever need validation for something ridiculous I'm your girl) was that a) I've wanted to do it for years! If it's not worth it we'd find out this time & I won't be longing to do it for the rest of forever (and if it is then sweet - we'll do it again in a few years); b) because of reason a, we should do it this year while Ellie's still free & before we have a 4th child to take; c) if we spend the money going to this then I'll have the kids wear their costumes from last year (gasp!).

So we went.

Totally not worth it!

Sorry Disney. I love you so very much, but this was a rip! Here's what was advertised:

Don't miss out on:
•Exclusive viewing of the boo-tiful Halloween Screams fireworks spectacular Okay, cool for a fireworks show, but would it have been super sad to see a normal Disney fireworks show instead of this one? No!
•Exclusive access to nearly all Disneyland Park attractions, including all the Halloween-themed attractions such as Space Mountain Ghost Galaxy and Haunted Mansion Holiday Exclusive b/c only the people in the park during the party can go. But you can also go during regular hours. Which were much less busy!
•Earlier access to the Park beginning at 3:00 p.m. for Tuesday 6:00 p.m. events and 4:00 p.m. for Friday and Halloween 7:00 p.m. events Who cares since we have APs. Although if you didn't have APs then maybe, just maybe this would make the cost worth it instead of a regular priced ticket. Depends on how long & how late you can handle being at Disneyland with your little kids. But like I mentioned, the normal park hours were less busy it seemed.
•Lively music so your bones can boogie Who cares? (Except Ellie, our little dancing queen)
•Even more special treat stations offering both candy and healthy goodies 7 areas around the park where they had employees in orange sweatshirts stand at a little kiosk & give you candy. Sure, the candy was the kind of stuff you wish everyone gave out at Halloween & they were very generous with it (even every adult had been given a trick or treat bag at the entrance to get candy), but for the price of one ticket you could have bought all of the candy for your family. I think. I mean, I know candy's expensive & we did get a TON...
•Creepy crafts and activities for the whole family I'm sure there were creepy crafts & activities there if it was advertised, but I didn't see them
•Plenty of costumed Characters to meet and greet When they say costumed do they mean that there are people wearing disney character costumes? Like on every other day of the year? B/C after getting in the super long line to see the princesses we heard they were just regularly dressed princesses so we got out of line. Maybe we heard wrong, but the line was insane.
•Plus, lots more entertainment for little boys and ghouls! ???

So no, I would not ever pay for Mickey's Trick or Treat Party again. But at least now I can say that I did it! :) Total bummer though that I forgot to take a camera w/us to CA & since my phone doesn't have a flash there are no pictures of our expensive evening!

On Saturday we met up w/Jason & Richelle & took the kids to McD's for lunch so they could play on the toys. Afterwards we took the kids to the beach again & then had dinner at Olive Garden w/Jas, Richelle, Justin, Jamie & Katelyn. And except for Ellie pooping her panties for the 2nd time that day dinner was awesome! So much for the same kind of potty training success & ease I experienced w/the first 2! (Although she I think it was just b/c we were on vacation b/c we're not having many mishaps now.)

On Sunday we stayed to go to our niece Katelyn's 5th birthday party. Jeremiah was whining that we were going to get home so late, but how often do we get to be there for Katelyn's birthday or much of anything? I'm really glad that we stayed! The kids LOVED being able to be at Katelyn's party! I loved that Jamie filled the pinata with awesome candy! I think it was all chocolate? Jeremiah & I have some good candy to fatten us up & get the holiday season started out right! :)

The end. Sorry for the super long travel log!

Happy October!

2010-10-01T09:12:00.000-07:00

Yay! It's October! My favorite month of the year!

You know when you ask your little kids, "What does a ______ {chicken} say?" And they say ______ {bock, bock}?

Last year at 1 1/2 Ellie had it down with the witch thing. What does a witch say? Hee, hee, hee.

This year at 2 1/2:
Me: "Ellie, what does a witch say?"
Ellie: "I'm a witch!"

Love it!

{Happy October!}

It's a . . . . .

2010-09-29T09:05:00.000-07:00

Your guess is as good as mine.

Okay, this picture isn't really even revealing anything - except the fact that our baby does indeed have a head & arms! (I think that's the top of the head looking down but who really even knows. It looks like an alien to me.)

{We're not finding out!!!}

1st Grade Scrapbooks

2010-09-28T09:17:00.000-07:00

I enjoy reading Becky Higgins' blog & last year I saw this scrapbook project that she did with her sons's class. It was too late in the year then to do it with Callie's kindergarten class, so at the beginning of this school year I approached her teacher with the idea. Her teacher loved the idea! I'm totally excited to be doing this project with Callie's first grade class!

Following Becky's lead, each month we'll focus on a certain theme. I'll go in one day & take pictures of the kids. Then another day during the month I'll go back in & help the kids do a scrapbook page with their picture/s.

Because I didn't get the ball rolling before school started, and because August was a shorter school month I'm trying to play catch up. I haven't gone in yet to put pages together, but I've gone in a few times to take pictures (once for each theme + twice for retakes of some kids that were missing on the original picture days).

We couldn't do a first day of school picture since I didn't set this up in time, so we're doing a beginning of the school year theme for August.

And for September we're doing a lunchtime/cafeteria theme.

It's fun going into Callie's classroom where I have practically celebrity status! LOL The kids are very excited about the project & they're all ready to get to the scrapbooking part. And btw, when I say scrapbooking I'm not talking your traditional tons of paper & embellies scrapbooking. It's a very simple format where most months they'll glue a couple strips of precut paper to a designated spot on their page & they get to complete the pages with writing prompts. Some months they'll even draw a picture of something in particular. Check it out! Becky Higgins is brilliant! :)

Potty-training Success!

2010-09-27T10:09:00.001-07:00

Ellie is totally potty trained now (day & night) and it's awesome! I'm so proud of her! It was like we flipped a switch & one day she just decided she could be potty trained. I'm a big believer that kids will potty train when they're ready (Ellie's 2 1/2).

I tried with Callie when she was 18 mos because she showed a couple signs & I was really excited about the cute Princess Pull-ups :) It didn't work out & after a month or 2 of spending lots of money on Pull-ups (which IMO are the same as a diaper to a kid - just more convenient for the parent) I went back to diapers. I tried again when she was just a little over 2 & she got it right away. That sort of made me feel like parents can only push it so much, but the child has to be ready or it won't happen. Besides, everything I've read (from professional opinions, not overzealous mothers) says that their bodies are not physically ready to be potty trained that early (18 mos). My SIL's little girl has recently seen a urologist & the urologist said that a good age now is closer to 3 (and of course boys are normally a little later). Anyway, there are a ton of potty training philosophies - that's just mine.

To celebrate Ellie's success we had a big girl party for her for Family Night last week. We've had a party for the other 2 also with cake & party plates. I also give them a little toy as a reward. I think I chose for Callie & Jack, but I let Ellie pick one out on her own. Polly Pocket. :) She requested chocolate cupcakes & we ate on Tinkerbelle plates. :) My mom & dad also came for the party & brought her a little present too - a set of little Tinkerbelle figurines.

Good work Ellie!

wash your microfiber couch

2010-09-14T18:30:00.000-07:00

After tearing apart the couch Tuesday so that it was light enough for preggo to lift it up for Jack to look under (for the lizard) & clear out the toy store that had collected under there, I was inspired to finally clean my cushions. They were long overdue.

I just wanted to share with any of you who have microfiber couches & may not know this that you can unzip your cushion covers & wash them in the washing machine! A few years ago after getting tired of scrubbing my couch only to end up with water spots after all was said & dried, I was frustrated and wondered if I could just wash the cushion covers. I started with the throw pillows that came with the couch as a test since I didn't really care if something happened to them (like shrinkage). After a successful test I just went for it with the other ones. The results were amazing. It was a total pain in the A to get the chaise cover back on, but it was worth it! It was like I had a new couch!

That being said, definitely test a throw pillow before you ruin your whole couch! I don't want you blaming me if you wash your cushions & it doesn't work out & you have to replace your couch.

Like the time I told Wendy she could adjust the depth of her Kitchenaid paddle. I never told her to turn her Kitchenaid upside down to do it but she did & oil started leaking out all over and she had to pay to get it repaired. I think she blamed me for the bright idea. :)

Lizard is lost in house & Ellie burned the couch

2010-09-14T18:17:00.000-07:00

That's the text I sent Jeremiah this morning when he didn't answer my call.

He called back 30 seconds later.

I was exercising (how irresponsible of me to assume that I could do something like that & let the kids play around the house). Jack came in saying something about a cup & the lizard (oh yeah, we got a "pet" lizard a few weeks ago) & Daddy's big chair. I hopped off the eliptical to investigate.

The lid & the light were both on top of the lizard tank as they should be, but Jack said that Ellie had put the lizard in the cup. But then again the reason he was in the bathroom when the lizard went rogue was because he was washing his hands since he didn't want to get sick from touching the lizard. I also heard something about it tickling Ellie's shoulder & wriggling down her neck & running under Jeremiah's chair.

We started a futile search for the lizard. I noticed a burning smell but nothing was smoking, nothing had flames, and I couldn't see what could be burning. As I went to the couch to remove the chaise so we could search under the couch for our friend Jack (Jack named the lizard), I saw the source of the burn smell.

Ellie (says Jack) put the light that goes over the lizard cage on the chaise & it burned the couch! I almost wish it had burned a hole - I would of course have to run to Costco right away & buy the sectional that would fit just perfectly in our living room! But no, instead my cushion has a big orange burn spot! Use it up, make do, all that stuff. Right?

It's 6:30pm. The lizard was never found. Goodbye Jack (the lizard).

stuff I've been meaning to add:

2010-09-13T10:51:00.000-07:00

Callie:

(2/22/10)
She wanted to know what the title of a song was & asked if it was "Once In the Middle of a Table." Actual title: "Once Within a Lowly Stable."

(5/12/10)
At Subway after lunch I offered Callie a cookie:
"I decided I don't want a cookie cause I've had enough sugar & stuff like that & I don't want to get fat."

(5/14/10)
Callie was watching Enchanted in the car & at the end the bad lady is a dragon & falls off the building. Callie all of a sudden took off her headphones & said, "Well that's lame! Can't dragons fly?! That lady shouldn't have died. The movie makers did a bad job since dragons can fly so the lady should have lived!"

(5/17/10)
"Papa seems like an old man cause he's just quiet & likes to be bored."

(5/24/10)
After stopping by Jeremiah's office (it's a recycling center so the current price of cans is always up on a sign outside the yard):
"Mom, I forgot to ask Dad if he's really selling work, because see? It says cent 5-5"
She'd also talked about it a couple days before when she'd first noticed it & said, "He's trying to sell the business. It's for sale cause there's a price outside of it."

(6/17/10)
Callie: When you get more babies, Mom, after you get all your babies & you think you have enough you can be like, "I need to sell these ones."
Me: You think I should sell babies if I get tired of the babies?
Callie: Yeah.
Me: How much money do you think I could get for selling a baby?
Callie: I think you need to pay.
Me: You think I need to pay somebody?!
Callie: No, I think they need to pay 100 bucks. That's a lot of money.

(6/29/10)
We were getting a "party-in-a-box" package ready to send to Uncle Stuart on his mission for his birthday:
"Are you sure we can send him a party without people?"

(8/19/10)
"Mom, did you know about the tricks Kaelene (her fish) can do? Well one trick she never does and the other trick she can sometimes balance the food on her nose. I'm going to teach her another trick someday - a swimming trick. I'm going to teach her how to backstroke."

Jack:

(4/7/10)
To appreciate what he says next you have to check out Jack in this Splash Mountain pic while we were at Disneyland in mid-March (he cried at the bottom).

Jack: Next time we go to Disneyland & go on Splash Mountain I'm gonna try & not be scared."

Me: Really? You want to go on that?
Jack: Yeah.
Me: Why?
Jack: Cause I wanna be brave & I'll say woohoo!

(4/7/10)
"I can't drive to Utah to visit Spencer & Preston whenever I want because I don't know how to drive because I might bonk into a human or another Jeep or maybe a bicycle with a child on it."

(4/9/10)
It was a warm day & Callie had told Jack that he should have worn shorts:
"That's okay cause I have a hole in my pants so if I get warm I can just feel the air from the hole. It's better if you have a rip in your pants because if it's hot & you have a rip in your pants your knee can feel the warm."

(4/9/10)
"Heavenly Father made me a handsome boy, huh? He's great at making people, huh?"

(5/12/10)
On the way home from school Jack was practically giving me the silent treatment:

Me: Why don't you want to talk
Jack: Because I want to go to sleep. Cause I'm tired. Cause I worked my butt off at school today. And I played hard outside.

(6/29/10)
After I took a picture & was reviewing it on the camera:
"Are you gonna put that in your camera trash?"

Ellie:

(5/19/10)
Me: Are you a sweetie?
Ellie: No I'm not a sweetie! I'm just Ellie!

(9/10/10)
Ellie: I hate going to bed! Do you hate going to bed mom?
Me: No, but I don't like going to bed.
Ellie: Well I hate it!

Labor Day Camping

2010-09-13T10:27:00.000-07:00

After Jack's soccer game on Saturday morning, we headed to Williams, AZ to spend the rest of our Labor Day weekend breathing in pine-scented air. It was SO nice to get away even if just for a couple nights. As we were leaving town my parents decided to go with us so they loaded up their trailer & were a couple of hours behind us. Labor Day activities included:

Fishing = Jeremiah, Me, Callie, Jack, Ellie, Grandpa. Jeremiah's not a super patient guy so I was amazed at his patience with the kids. Over & over: "Jack, stop throwing rocks into the water. Ellie, get back from the water. Callie, be careful with your pole." All said in mostly patient tones. :) Two big thumbs-up hon! Especially since he's taken them by himself a few times other times too.

Rhino Rides = Jeremiah, Me, Callie, Jack, Ellie, Grandpa. Not all at the same time though. To & from the lake & around the woods just for fun.

Nature Hike = Jeremiah, Callie, Jack, Ellie. While I took a glorious nap! Jeremiah's great about pointing out stuff to the kids & they love to get hands-on with nature.

Eating = All. Even though this time we totally kept it simple, we had really good steak & ~~baked~~ microwaved potatoes for dinner one night, and grilled chicken, cheese bread & salads the next night. My mom made a big batch of chocolate/butterscotch rice krispie treats & we ate them all. I think I ate 3 s'mores the first night & Jack had a hundred marshmallows + a s'more.

Ellie

2010-09-13T09:55:00.000-07:00

This girl cracks me up.

My sister Tara said it perfectly on a recent blog post: "This girl has the cuteness of Callie and the antics of Jackson. It'll be amazing if Hillary and Jeremiah can keep their sanity with a 4th!"

Callie & Jack have been copying each other a lot lately. Without the older two starting it first, Ellie started copying Callie at dinner the other night. It amazes me that my 2 1/2 year old has the wits to do that. But then Callie said, "Mom! Ellie's copying me!" And Ellie copied back, "Mom, Callie's copying me!" Can you believe it?! Her sense of humor, or the fact that she has such a sense of humor & is capable of teasing her older siblings at such a young age is crazy to me. Does everybody else's kids do that too?

Ellie is potty-training & is doing fantastically well! I casually started a couple weeks ago, even though she's shown hit-or-miss interest for a while. Last Wednesday we were going to be out of the house all day so I had her in a pull-up (aka diaper) and I wasn't a good mom & didn't ask her a million times if she needed to go potty & she never told me she needed to. So obviously she was soaked when we got home. I changed her & we went to a friend's for a get together & Ellie did end up coming to me about 45 mins before we went home & saying she needed to go potty. Way to go Ellie! We got the kids home 2 hours past bedtime (on a school night!) & put them right in their beds. Ellie even slept in her clothes. So total 180 the next day. She woke up around 6:30 & came in saying she needed to go potty. That was a first, and guess what? She was dry! Amazing! She also stayed dry all day long (wearing panties) and has been dry since then - morning & night! I can't believe our luck! I think we'll be having a big girl party this weekend!

Yesterday at church I was taking her potty & when she leaned forward for me to wipe her she didn't reach out to hold on to me and I hadn't assumed wiping position quite yet so she did a total face-dive right on the tile floor! So ~~funny~~ sad! Luckily she had hardly peed since I had to pick her up unwiped & comfort her. The whole right side of her face was all red. It wasn't until a couple hours later that I saw the actual damage:

This morning as I was emailing my missionary brothers Ellie came up to me like this and said, "My brain is this big":

She's learned that from Callie. So then I asked her if she knew where in her body her brain was & she did this:

Yep, her brain is in her butt. She also sometimes asks if the baby is in my boobs. For as smart as she is about many things, she's a little confused about her brain & babies. She insists she has a baby in her tummy too (oh, she does recognize most of the time that the baby's in my tummy), and she'll say her baby's hungry as she has a snack. That is not immitative behavior. That is just my 2 1/2 year old being stinkin' cute!

tooth fairy strikes again

2010-08-30T10:50:00.000-07:00

Callie unexpectedly lost her 2nd tooth Saturday morning while chewing on something. She acted a little put out with me since I'd recently told her it wasn't loose enough yet to pull out with dental floss again!

Can I just say, thank you SOOO much to all you parents (and you know who you are), who's tooth fairies give your children obscene amounts of money for their teeth! It would be fantastic if there could be a nation-wide standard (same goes for our winter friend), instead of this tooth fairy giving a $10 bill b/c that's all they had in their wallet, or this one giving a 5 b/c they think that's what a tooth is worth. COME ON! Our tooth fairy gives $1. My friend Wendy's gives $2. I could possibly entertain the idea of 2 (although I still think that 1 is plenty), but not 5!

Because Callie is old enough (which most tooth-losing children are) to think rational thoughts, she is upset about the variance & feels like her teeth are worth more than what she was previously given. So then her Aunt Chelsea eggs her on & promises to write a letter to the tooth fairy in Callie's behalf:

So at that point I'm damned if I do & damned if I don't. How rude if the tooth fairy completely ignores the letter, but how the heck should the tooth fairy diplomatically reply? (The little print is: "Aunt Chelsea- Please tell Callie that I would love to give her $30, but teeth are only worth so much! I will put in a good word to my friend Santa Clause, although he may feel she is too young still for that toy. Best of luck to Callie, and thanks for the tooth! - The Tooth Fairy")

BTW, the Easy-Bake Oven issue is this. I'm a fairly big supporter of age suggestions on toys. There are some exceptions, but for the most part I think the recommendations are pretty accurate. Easy-Bake Ovens are 8+, but we see our friends the Taylors at Walmart one day birthday shopping for their little girl's 4th birthday & Callie sees that they're getting said girl the Easy Bake Oven. So now she is totally annoyed that I won't let her have one (as if I let my kids just have a toy simply b/c they want it anyway) because she's not 8, even though Tatum is only 4 & she gets to have one. I told Tatum's mom about it & she said that one of her older boys is the one who really enjoys it the most. Too bad for Callie not having an older brother who would love to spend all afternoon supervising and easy-baking.

Back to the tooth. Callie woke up at 6am Sunday morning and checked under her pillow right away and then promptly started crying (I know, ungrateful little girl) about only getting a dollar since so & so got $5 or $2 or $10. What's a mom to do?

First Soccer Game

2010-08-30T09:40:00.000-07:00

This year Jackson is old enough to play soccer so he was very excited for us to sign him up. Last week he loved trying on new cleats & shin guards at home & kicking around his new size 3 (very small) soccer ball!

I went to his first practice last Wednesday and was able to see that our little guy has a long way to go to soccer stardom, but prior to this his only exposure to soccer has been kicking a Diego bouncy ball around the backyard. Oh, & he can identify a soccer ball! :) (I think we used to have a tiny one)

When Jeremiah was helping Jack get all ready for his game he was talking to him about all the goals he was going to score. I mouthed for Jeremiah to stop over Jack's head, and then when Jack was getting in the car told Jeremiah about the soccer practice & told him Jack probably wouldn't score a goal so don't pump him up too much. Is that bad of me? I'm a generally positive person, but I'm a realist. Of course when I told Jeremiah that he said, "Oh great!" and was immediately bummed. I told him give me a break. Jack's 4 and he's been to 1 practice, so his dreams of an all-star kid don't have to be dashed yet!

Before the game started Jack was blowing grass off his hands. I was thinking, awesome, I've got a dandelion picker. But once the game started he kept up with all the other kids & even scored TWO GOALS! Yay Jack! He was pumped about scoring twice & had a great time playing!

Scoring his first goal!

After he scored he just turned around as if nothing cool had happened & walked over to his team. His coach gave him a high-5. We're gonna have to work on a goal dance or something! lol

Enjoying a little half-time snack

Look at that hot assistant coach! That's right, my very own Mr. Divis!

Most of the kids (at least on Jack's team) didn't really know how to do the whole high-5 lineup. I'm sure they'll get the hang of it soon (since there's a game like every weekend for the next couple months).

Goooo team!

ER visit

2010-08-23T09:38:00.000-07:00

Due to the update overload & the extremely long Hawaii post, it's likely that most of you missed the cryptic message about Jeremiah & I adding to our family. That's right, baby #4 - Due Feb 3!

So last Wednesday morning Jack went to play at Tyler's & I took advantage of the time with just one child & spent the morning shopping. Around lunchtime my stomach was having some sharp pains that I attributed to hunger, although I noticed as I was eating that my stomach was still having the same pains. By the time I picked Callie up from school at 2 I was feeling pretty uncomfortable. After we were home I ended up calling Jeremiah in tears because my stomach was hurting so badly. I called the Dr.'s office & left a message. As many of you have had babies & have had to call & leave a message, you can relate to what a wonderful experience that can be. Yes, that is sarcasm. I see a Dr. who's part of a group so it was one of the other Dr.'s assistants who returned my call. She told me that I must be having round ligament pain. I told her this was my 4th baby & I realize that every pregnancy is different (which this one really has been for me), but I just couldn't believe that this much pain was round ligament pain. She insisted that it was & told me I could go to the ER to get checked out if it would make me more comfortable. Thanks a lot. I was pretty ticked because that Dr. has never heard of me before, but I've had 2 babies with my other Dr., and he's in my ward! He would realize that I wouldn't have called the office unless I really was concerned.

I was in pain just being perfectly still, but it really hurt to walk or move in any way at all. And then my stomach would clench up and hurt even more. But I wasn't sure what to do because it seemed kind of drastic to go to the ER and what if I just had super bad gas or the stomach flu or something? Jeremiah had already come home by this point because he was really worried. He reminded me that I'd already met our deductible for the year with my hernia surgery in January, so if that's what was holding me back from finding out that I might have the stomach flu to not worry about it. But to me it wasn't just the cost of an ER visit - it's the time that it takes to be in the ER & like I mentioned it seemed a little extreme to have to go to the ER. But at 5:00 we got to the hospital to begin our very long night.

It took almost 2 hours to get a bed. After I was in a curtained area in a hospital gown with an IV in my arm a woman on a rotation or maybe she was a resident came in to find the baby's heartbeat. She said as she was getting out the little machine that this was probably her third time doing this & she hadn't ever had success so we shouldn't be alarmed if she couldn't find the heartbeat. She didn't find it. Then another guy (he might have said he was a Dr., but if I had to guess I would say first day as a resident) tried to find the heartbeat. He kept putting his ear closer to the little machine that projects the heartbeat & someone pointed out to him that there was a volume dial on the side. So we're feeling like we're in pretty good hands at this point. Oh, sarcasm again. Then my nurse tries & she can't find the heartbeat either. I'm still not really worried because it seemed like when the first woman was trying the baby squirmed from the prodding. But Jeremiah's freaking out inside I think. Finally another nurse came in who knew what to do & found the heartbeat in 2 seconds. Every resident, nurse, or person who was coming into my little curtained area at that point seemed dubious about my pain until they found out it was baby #4, not #1. So maybe I was legit.

After this I called my Dr. I knew if by chance he was on call up in OB he'd come down. No such luck but he talked to me for a little bit & assured me that I was NOT having round ligament pain. I'm only 16 weeks & he said that doesn't even happen to people who are less than 20 weeks or more than 28 weeks, and besides, the type of pain I was in wouldn't be round ligament pain (by this point the pain was just like almost constant labor contractions). We talked about the possibility of miscarriage, but he didn't say it definitely sounded like that. He didn't know what was going on but assured me there were great Dr.'s in the ER. So then I deduced it was either stomach flu or maybe I actually was miscarrying. Jeremiah dismissed stomach flu since I wasn't nauseaous, I hadn't thrown up, & I was in fact starving. So of course we thought that I must be losing the baby & Jeremiah started calling our family to say that the Dr. said I most likely was (which is actually not what the Dr. said!).

After 5 hours they finally did an ultrasound & found that I had a cyst on one of my ovaries that had ruptured. An ER Dr. said that usually if people are in pain from that, the pain is really intense until the rupture and then if the pain isn't relieved immediately it would be within a few hours. An hour before I left the ER they gave me some morphine (which didn't help the pain much at all), and just before midnight I hobbled out of the ER.

The next morning I was still in a ton of pain. Not as much as the night before, but I was not okay. I got in to see my Dr. that afternoon & he said he didn't think all of my pain was from the ruptured cyst or the low-lying placenta the radiologist had noticed in the ultrasound. He just didn't know what was wrong with me. I asked him if that was his official diagnosis. Yes it was. He said I should take it easy until I felt better or until I was far enough along to do anything more (b/c at 16 weeks the baby isn't really considered viable). So I was a little frustrated when I went home. Oh & he said I can't run any more. Boo!

Fortunately by the time I went to bed that night (Thursday) I was feeling better than I had been in the morning, and when I woke up the next day (Friday) I was 80% better. I wasn't in pain at all if I was motionless, and it was only a little uncomfortable to walk and a little more uncomfortable to bend or twist or get up/down. And by Saturday I felt pretty much normal again. And now it's all just a bad memory.

First Day of School!

2010-08-23T08:49:00.000-07:00

Thursday, August 12, was Callie's first day of school. First grade! The afternoon before we went to meet her teacher. When I asked Callie what she thought of her teacher she said that she looked different than what she was expecting - her face, her hair, everything. Callie's new teacher is an older Asian woman & I think Callie was probably expecting a young Caucasian woman :)

We were worried about Callie crying about going to school on the first day & not getting out of the car since she was so apprehensive about being at school all day & eating lunch in the cafeteria. But everything was fine (the crying & not getting out of the car didn't happen until the 2nd day of school!). After school I asked if she had a great day & she said yes, but when I probed a little more it didn't sound to me like her day was very great. She said her teacher was kind of grumpy. She also said she mostly walked around (by herself - to check things out) at recess.

Then there was lunch. Like I said she was really nervous about lunch & guess how it goes down? She had to sit in between 2 boys she doesn't know & she says she tried talking to them but they didn't want to talk, so my poor little 6 year old is basically all alone eating her lunch with no friends & no socializing. She barely even nibbled her lunch. After talking to another mom that evening who has older kids, she told me that whoever the kids are in line next to when they walk into the cafeteria is who they have to sit by to eat lunch. An adult is standing directing them to places. That ticks me off that they can't choose to sit by their friends! As it's turned out for the past week + the first 2 days, Callie has been in charge of taking the basket that the kids deposit their lunch boxes into down to the cafeteria so she has to be at the back of the line, meaning she's not been able to line up to go to the cafeteria next to her friends. Hopefully her turn's over & this week will be different b/c she comes home most days with almost all of her lunch in her lunchbox. She says she's too embarrassed to eat it at school. I'm almost positive it would be different if she was sitting by friends! So frustrating!

Jack's first day of preschool school was great!

He loves doing what he thinks are rock star poses. I asked him a million times to just stand normal & give me a nice smile, but this is what I mostly got:

Jack is going to the same preschool that he went to last year. He LOVES his teacher and her 3 year old son who participates in class. Also his best buddy Tyler goes to preschool with him. There are only 6 kids in his class, not including the teacher's son, & this year they are all boys. One of the other boys is also in our ward so Jack knows him a little. He was totally stoked to go to school last Tuesday morning and was going to just hop out of the car & go in since that's what he did the last part of last year. Since it was the first day I went in with him though & he walked right in & made himself at home while I said hi to his teacher & some other moms. After school he said he'd loved it.

I asked him what he'd had for snack that day. The teacher's son is assigned to bring snack the first week of school so when Jack told me he had ice cream for a snack I thought how lucky/fun for a first-day-of-school snack! I asked him what kind & he said vanilla. And chocolate. And blueberry. I asked him what kind he chose & he said he had them all. I doubted that! A minute later after we'd moved onto other topics he said, "I was just kidding about having ice cream for a snack today mom. We had carrots & celery." LOL My 4 year old is a little trickster! Then we had a little discussion on tricking vs. lying. This time it was tricking & it was fine (and funny). I told him to make sure & tell the truth when we ask him things like, "Did you make your bed? Have you picked up your toys?" etc. You know, the important stuff. Good times.

beginning of the school year surveys {2010}

2010-08-11T22:01:00.000-07:00

Callie

Age: 6
Height: 45 1/2 "
Weight: 41 lbs
Hair color: light brown

Favorites:
Animal: Baby penguins. And peacocks. And dogs & fish. Pretty much all animals.
Food: Pasta Carbonara
Game: Bear Trap with Daddy
Toy: Baby Doll
Thing to do: spend time with my Mom doing crafts
Book: Quite Enough Hot Dogs (Rookie Reader book by Wil Mara)
Color: Pink. And all the colors.
Movie: Barbie and the 12 Dancing Princesses
Song: Bella Note (from Lady & the Tramp)
Primary Song: Come, Follow Me

My best friend is: Corinne, Kenadee & Kaelene
Other friends I like to play with: Alexis
Things I like to do with my friends: "I like to play with them & do crafts & stuff"
If I had a pet it would be a: dog (she actually has a fish)
named: Kaelene (named Kaelene)
What people like about me: "That I help and care and share, and I'm nice. And that I'm so cute."
Things I can do really well: "I'm really good at making people feel better. And I'm really good at helping. I'm good at doing crafts, playing the piano, singing, listening (not), following, being brave, math, baby-sitting, and pretty much everything."

Jack

Age: 4 1/2
Height: 40 1/2"
Weight: 36 lbs
Hair color: dark blonde

Favorites:
Animal: shark
Food: Pasta Carbonara
Game: Piranah Panic
Toy: "Imaginext dinosaurs. Or Legos. Or dragon castle stuff (also Imaginext). All my toys!"
Thing to do: Play Mario Bros (which he's been grounded from for 6 months and rarely gets to play anyway)
Book: Dinosaur Book (Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs [and Other Prehistoric Creatures] by John Malam)
Color: blue
Movie: Peter Pan
Song: Apples & Bananas
Primary Song: I Am a Child of God

My best friend is: Tyler
Other friends I like to play with: Isaac, Kenadee, Kiera, Collin
Things I like to do with my friends: Play Mario Bros (he's only ever played w/Tyler a few times)
If I had a pet it would be a: sea turtle
named: Jack-in-the-box
What people like about me: "I'm always nice. I don't know what else they like about me."
Things I can do really well: "I'm good at playing Mario Bros & I always smoke aunt Kayleigh on playing. And I'm good at playing with my toys & writing."

whoops!

2010-08-10T21:48:00.000-07:00

Callie ran in the kitchen today after spending some time exploring my medicine cabinet and proudly held up her baby tooth that she lost 3 weeks ago! She was really really excited about finding it & said something like, "Look what I have! My very first tooth that I lost! Now I can put it under my pillow again & the Tooth Fairy can bring me another dollar!"

I was on the phone with my mom when she made the discovery so I paused for a moment (for effect) & let Callie know that Grandma had just told me that the Tooth Fairy always gives the first tooth back to the parents so that they can keep it forever to remember their child's first baby tooth that was lost. I told Callie the Tooth Fairy must have just forgotten to tell us about that & where she'd hidden it!

She still wanted to try for another dollar but I told her the Tooth Fairy can't be tricked so it would never work & for her to go put it back in the medicine cabinet.

Not really sure why I kept it anyway.

Visiting the Condies

2010-08-09T13:05:00.000-07:00

The kids & I headed all dirty from the sand dunes up to Highland to stay with the Condies for a week! Even though Wendy & are are just great friends, our kids are like cousins & sometimes we'll say Aunt Wendy or Aunt Hillary. We're just one big happy family together!

The kids all played really well together the whole time. We had the best, laid back week just hanging out. Usually when I visit Wendy I have a whole list of places I want to shop. I didn't have a single place this time that I was dying to go to. That helped things not be chaotic. It's insane trying to take 7 kids (between us) into a store!

On Monday we got ready at a super leisurely pace, took the kids to Costco for a late lunch, and did some shopping/meal planning for the week. We got home from Costco & let the kids play while we threw a quick dinner together. My sister Kayleigh came over all but one of the nights we were there. It was awesome to spend time with her. Plus she was super awesome & kept doing dishes while we tried to get kids to bed. She's great!

Jack LOVED playing with the boys! The order of the kids in age are Spencer (almost 7), Callie (6), Preston (5), Tanner (almost 4), Ellie & Emily (both 2 - just a couple weeks apart). It was interesting that Jack & Spencer especially played well together, & Callie & Preston played a lot together.

One day we took the kids to a little dinosaur museum at BYU. They thought it was awesome!

The Condies have lots of scooters & space to ride. Callie loved playing on the boys' scooters!

We had a hard time keeping the kids out of the sandbox!

After the first couple meals we decided to move the kids outside! There's seriously a lot of cleanup when you're feeding 7 kids!

Besides Costco & the dinosaur museum, we took the kids to a splash park one day, a cool regular park & also a water park another day. Wendy & I got a babysitter one night since her husband, Mike, was spending time with his brother who was moving across the country. We went out to eat, saw a movie & got yogurt afterwards. Another night after the kids went to bed we went to the dollar theater with Kayleigh. And the last night I was there Mike babysat all the kids while Wendy, Kayleigh & I went out to eat, did a little shopping, and got yogurt again.

Thanks for such a fun week Wendy! I wish we could see each other more often!!!

Our drive home was great except for the 2 1/2 hours we were in St. George! I'm a really slow person by myself but throw kids in the mix and it's just pathetic! I took a half hour nap when we got to St. George since Wendy & I had stayed up too late the night before watching a movie & I was feeling really sleepy. I gassed up & then took the kids into Costco because Jack had to poop. Have I mentioned how that just kills me?! The kid takes like 20 minutes average to poop. Sometimes longer! When we're at home doing nothing it's all good. Take your time. But when we're in a public bathroom I just want to bang my head on the wall. Except that public bathroom walls are generally filthy! And because of public bathrooms & their lack of cleanliness I usually hold Ellie while we're in there since she isn't really old enough to just chill in one place without touching everything. After holding a 25+ lb kid for almost 20 minutes I was having to really work at staying calm & nice. So this was Jack in the bathroom. Just making himself at home!

By the time he finished we'd been at Costco nearly an hour & the kids wanted to eat hot dogs. We sat & ate them & there went another 45 minutes. Next time we're going through a drive through. I ran up to a redbox & made one other 20 minute stop & that was how we spent 2 1/2 hours in St. George. Aughhh! It was great to get home!

Family Dune Trip

2010-08-09T12:31:00.000-07:00

Over Pioneer Day weekend (which also happens to be Jeremiah's birthday {July 24th}) we went to Coral Pink Sand Dunes near Kanab, UT with family & friends. It was hot & dirty (thank goodness for luxury camping = air conditioning & showers), but we all had a really good time!

Jeremiah

Playing travel Kerplunk - worst travel game ever! I wish I had the receipt to take it back! lol

It wasn't very crowded so it was great. We didn't worry as much about our kids being run down by quadders. See that little black speck in the middle? That's Nixon Westbrook (he's 1). Don't worry - he was being closely watched! When he walked far enough away from camp my sisters took the Rhino out to pick him up. LOL

The birthday king!

Homemade german chocolate cake. I forgot to bring candles so I improvised :)

Jonny & Ann (recently engaged - yay!)

Part of the "fleet" at our campsite

Ellie refused to put pants back on. What do I care? We're camping & dirty anyway.

Jack kept asking me to take pictures of him being a rock star! LOL

This little boy is a pyro! He sat by the fire most of one of the days!

Is it called camping if you don't roast marshmallows?

It really was a good weekend. Thanks to everyone who went to add to the fun!