Changes around here

I haven't much time to keep up on my blogging. I have been working more and I am finding myself with less free time. A few years ago it would have killed me to go to work, but it must be what I am suppose to do because I am really at peace with it. The weeks where I have lots of days gets a bit tiring, but it really has worked out so great for us. Brad has been able to be home with the kids. I told him today he is going to have to learn to cook or Mac and cheese is going to get pretty old real quick so we might be having a cooking 101 class tonight =). Really, he doesn't cook, not even on the grill like most men. I think he will be able to do it though. My blogging is going to be sporatic for a bit. We have a family trip planned to Bear Lake next week. In 3 weeks we are going to take the kids camping for a few days with some neighbor friends. July will be fun and full.

Quarter slot

Aleena came to me with a pair of holy panties and said very seriously "Mom, I think I need to throw these away or my quarter slot will show." At home Brad calls out "quarter slot" anytime someone bends over and there is a bit of crack showing.

Dishes Girl!!!

Savanna got her first taste of the real work world on Tuesday night. Grama called and asked if she could come and be the dishwasher at the restaurant. The regular boy called in and wouldn't be there. She came in with me at 4 and I got off at 10. She wasn't so sure she wanted too, but was looking for some extra money. She had to wash the dishes and rinse and put them through a sanitizer machine. She was exhausted by the end of the day. The dishes are those heavy duty glass dishes. When it started to get piled up she started wondering if she would ever get done. She did, and survived and even got some yummy chicken wings to eat for break. She made about $35 with tips and hourly, so was pretty excited. She came home and we both walked into the kitchen at the same time and she said, "Wow, mom, it makes our dishes look like not very many." I was very proud of her night of hard work.

Old Fashioned

Saturday was a bit of a crazy day. We decided to join in on the subdivision yard sale and got one together ( still don't love having them, luckily Brad was here to be in control). I helped him haul the big stuff out and then I had to decorate a cupcake cake for a baby shower. And if I haven't told you before that always tends to take over my kitchen with making frosting, melting chocolate, trying to hurry, and kids trying to help, oh yeah, I think I burned out my $4 mixer, yep, another one. I swear, that frosting recipe is a true test on any mixer. Plus Savanna and Hallie had some friends over Friday night for a sleepover. I had to work Saturday night. We got up and dashed to church Sunday morning and when we got home from church, I think every dish in our house was dirty. My biggest pet peeve about dishes is that the kids pile everything in the sink, but then they will dump their food on top of the dishes. So it was a big ugly stinky mess. So we had a "family dishes party". My kids hate when I refer to any cleaning as a party. The exciting part was is that I was out of Dishwasher detergent, so we got to do everything the old fashioned way. I started to clean out the sinks so we could actually use them, and can I say disgusting. I made each kid retrieve 5 dishes out of the pig slop of a mess that was in the sink. It was pretty funny. I think Jase thought he was going to die. Then he got mad at me because I held his hand in the water trying to tease him. I was hoping to show them why we don't dump our stuff in the sink unless it is empty. They know that, but...I don't know why they do it. So, I got everything rinsed and put in piles and got the sinks ready with the wash water and the rinse water. I was the washer, Hallie and Jase were the dryers and Savanna put away. It actually probably went faster then if we were to use the dishwasher, plus everyone had a part. I am truly considering giving my dishwasher a break and trying it by hand for a week. Seriously, it takes longer time to rinse the stuff, load, wait for it to get done, unload, put away, and when the kids do it, they never get all the way done because the pots and pans don't fit in the dishwasher so they figure they can save them for later. I also noticed it gave us some great together time. My kids will be thinking "whatever mom" when they read this, but I love to see my kids doing something together and actually getting along. It took the first 10 minutes or so for them to realize that yes, I was serious about making them do this, and I had a few yelling moments, sorry neighbors, my windows were open, but after that they really got in the groove. After dinner last night, we did them again by hand, except this time we rotated who did what. They did a really great job. The whole dishes process was done, washed, dried and put away. That's the dishes scoop. I will keep you posted on if we stick to it or not.

Finally happened...

They finally made the digital signal switch to television which means we are without tv now. We weren't able to get our converter box, so here we are without tv. It hasn't been as bad as I thought. It is quieter around here. I went over to my brother's house and borrowed some movies. We tease and call them our local movie rental store. They have a great movie collection. Brad and I watched Enchanted last night. I just love that movie. Aleena will be so excited to watch it today. She will be singing and singing and singing all the songs. I think we have a coupon for our converter box, but have to find it and see if it is expired and then we have to justify spending money on one. I think they still cost about $20. Plus with internet we still have connection to the world. Anyways, did anyone else lose their tv?

Sentimental Sunday

I almost forgot to post my Sentimental Sunday pictures. I pulled out my photo box from 03-04.

Jase is about 9 months old. His hair was so cute and still is. This is his first buzz cut.

I love this one because you can see his red upset face. He did not think it was very nice to give him a hair cut. He still hates them to this day. He gets all sweaty, upset, mad at the hair that sticks to him, itchy, wiggly. It is just pure torture.

Jase has always loved to help his daddy. Here he is helping build our fence. He has a screwdriver trying to find a spot to use it. Brad is always patient and very willing to let the kids help.

Jase has this little evil smile on his face here. He is such a little midget.

Here we are in Bear Lake trying to get a family picture. Jase would not stop crying for anything. He didn't feel good, I think he was starting to get some cold sores, he was tired, and it was not a good time for pictures. Hallie has a blob of treats in her mouth, and Savanna is trying a little to hard to pose. What a great picture. I think there might be a hint of slobber coming out of Jase's mouth.

This is one of my very favorite pictures ever of my 2 boys. This is right after the family picture episode. He had his favorite Barney blanket and Daddy. What else do you need. Jase isn't really sleeping but knew I had the camera in my hand and was not about to let me take his picture. To sweet.

Here is Hallie giving Daddy a ride on her shoulders. Brad has done this to all my kids. He will hold his weight up and have the kids hold him up. They all think it is so funny and want a turn. He can only do it until they are so tall then it doesn't work anymore. And then at the end of the turn he wraps his legs around them and lifts them off the ground. He is such a cool dad.

The kids love to climb all over Daddy and he lets them. He gets on the floor and just lets them beat him up. Well, sort of. They are all getting bigger and have to be a bit more careful of the wrestling.

This is Jase's 1st Birthday. We were at Dave and Anna's. Kayla has a birthday around the same time. He had his own cake and we were out on the deck. He started out real nice and neat and by the end he had made quite a mess. He started flinging his hands trying to get the chocolate off and it ended up getting on everyone around. I remember having to give Hallie and Jase a bath shortly after that. He loved every minute of it.

Road Rallie

Brad and I were invited to the funnest activity this last Saturday. It was our first Road Rallie. It was a bunch of couples from our ward and neighborhood. We started at the church where we were put into teams. We were grouped with the Knox couple and Kiersten, her husband wasn't there. After we were given our first clue, we were off. Each clue was a riddle about where the next clue was at. Some of them were tricky, for example, the first clue talked about getting older, and it being grave, and something about those below us pushing up flowers. So we assumed the cemetery, and it wasn't there, and then we realized there must be an older cemetery in town that we didn't know about. My brother saved us on this one, thanks man. There is a small 15 or so person cemetery in Kuna. Who knew. At that stop we had to do 2 headstone rubbings. Our next clue pointed us to the library where we had to check out a book that had a dog in it. Oh, did I mention we were with the Knox couple and Brian drove. I say this in the nicest way, but man he is a crazy competitive driver. He was out to win. He made it so funny. Our 3rd clue was our trickiest. We couldn't figure it out, so we took the 5 min. penalty and called. It led us to the Church where we had to do a Sudoku puzzle while the other couple had to hula hoop and jump rope. Then we headed to the high school. We had to pick a black bag which had a costume in it. We had to put the costume on, and have a 3 legged race with our spouse 1/2 way around the track to where the other couple was waiting for us in their costume to go the other half. I was so glad at that moment that I decided to wear tennis shoes and not flip flops. Then we were off to a house in our ward that is moving just down the road. So we had to move 5 boxes to the new house. Off to another house that had a kid pool in the back. We had to either jump in the pool or throw water balloons to get the message. Brian and Brad didn't even hesitate, they were in the pool in a flash. That was our final clue that led us back to the church where we had a Hoagie Bar and some yummy brownies, which I am hoping Marissa would be willing to share =). It was tons and fun and I am glad we were invited. We did end up with the fastest time. Could be our driver wasn't afraid of driving=). Plus we sort of blocked in the Johnson car at the library, I know, not very nice, and we got to use the 1 and only road block at the church which we chose to use on the Johnson couple. We thought they were close behind us. Hope to do it again. If anyone is up for a fun couples event, this is a great one to plan.

Mystery Ladies

I was walking home today from lunch at the school and had an interesting encounter with a sweet older man. He lives on Bay Owl, I think his house # was 380 or 360. I saw him and his wife sitting out on the front porch and the next thing I know he was crossing the street coming to approach me. I have never seen nor talked to this man before. He proceeded to tell me a story, it went a little something like this: My wife suffers from dementia and last week I woke up in the night about 3 am and I found her on the floor of the bedroom. I reached over and touched her and she was freezing cold, and I'm pretty sure you know what I thought had happened (meaning she might have passed on), but I couldn't lift her up into her bed. She was against the wall. So by then it was about 5 am and I could here outside some ladies walking or running. I could here their thumping. I went out and stopped them to see if they could help me and they came right in and helped her get back in bed. Their sound of them running was music to my ears. That is my sweet wife over there on the porch, she doesn't know who I am. She has had that for about 5 years. So I just wondered if you had heard anything about who these 2 special ladies are, I just really want to thank them, but I don't know who they are." So I told him I would keep my ears open and pass it on. I walked away holding back tears because he was so sweet. So if any of you ladies know who helped him, know that he is truly grateful.

Gardening

I am not sure if Gardening is really what I am doing. I am really still learning a lot, and hope to keep improving on my garden each year. Up until this year, I just haven't put a ton of effort into the gardening thing. Between being pregnant and having babies, I just have not had the energy, so this is the year I am starting. The spot we used for gardening was just covered in weeds, and some grass. We tilled it up, but there are lots of weeds starting to grow. So we got out there and are trying to get the weeds out. They are little baby ones and come out pretty easy. I did find quite a few ants and some baby earwigs, so I am pretty sure that is why some of my seeds never grew. The dang bugs probably ate them. Where money is real tite this year, I will grow what I can, and just try to improve every year. I have some tomatoes doing really good, pumpkins, zucchini, corn, a few beans came up, and a couple strawberry plants, oh and a rhubarb plant that survived Brad mowing it every year for the last few years. I know a lot of you really have some incredible gardens and I love to look at all the ideas. It gives me hope that someday I can have a beautiful yet yummy garden.

Boys & Girls Club

Yesterday was the first day of Boys & Girls Club for my kids. They were pretty excited. They got up and we got jobs done, had piano lessons. It was a great motivator. I think I am going to change up our piano lesson schedule because 3 in a row in one morning makes it hard on my baby. Anyways, we walked down there, to the school, around 11:15. I had my 2 extras, but Aleena and Hallie walked and Parker and Livee got the stroller ride. I didn't stay with them. I just checked them in and off they went. I noticed the school is offering the free summer lunch program for 1yr. old-18 yr olds Monday - Friday , so I took the 4 little ones over and fed them lunch. I will be doing that most days. It is a great way to get me out walking, plus it will help us save a few dollars, plus it is a nice change from PB & J =) Aleena & Amy thought it was really cool to eat lunch like the big kids. Livee thought she was quite cool too. She had to sit on the bench like the big girls and she actually ate really good. I will be taking a sippy cup next time for her. They served them a chicken/cheese burrito, corn, applesauce, choc. chip cake, and choc. milk. The older kids in B&G club get lunch there also. It is just really awesome.

I picked up the big kids around 4:30. They were outside having a snack. They all like the lounge room which has big screen, couches, Savanna thought the huge stack of board games they had will be fun. They have a room with hockey, fuz ball, and different games that Jase can't wait to play. They did a lot of touring and learning the rules yesterday so there wasn't a ton of playing, but they are excited. THey all saw some of their friends there too. Hopefully this will be a great program to keep them from being bored.

Gratitude #11

I am so thankful that my husband is not demanding. This might be a repeat from before but you get to hear it again. If I don't feel like cooking or cleaning or doing anything for that matter he is so cool and calm about it. He'll just fix himself a PB&J and call it good. He has always done his own laundry since day #1. He knows when I need my space, and doesn't take it personal. I love you Brad.

Flower Beds

For Mother's Day, Brad's mom wanted us to build her some flower beds. She supplied the goods, we just built them. They look so good on her patio. She was wanting a bit of privacy with her hot tub, so she has planted some climby things that will eventually grow and cover the latice.

Swimming with Grama Lisa

Here are a few pictures from swimming at Grama Lisa's Hotel pool. There aren't very many or very good ones. I ran out of battery after only a few shots.

Livee is not afraid of the water. She would just jump right in if I wasn't watching her. She would just cry if the kids would take her out of the pool. Aleena spent most of her time in the hot tub. She would go and cool off and then head right back to the hot tub. The older kids just can do their thing so that was nice. Although Jase makes me a bit nervous at times. He can swim for a few feet, but isn't the greatest swimmer yet, so I have to watch him close. He needs to work on his big arms this summer instead of trying to doggy paddle the whole time. Savanna and Hallie do pretty good watching out for him.

Jase vs. Escalator

When Brad and the kids went to the airport to pick up Lisa, Jase decided to battle with the escalator and here is the battle wound. The front of the step has those jagged teeth and he tripped and fell. I guess it was bleeding a lot, and he cried a bit but was pretty tough. He was having a hard time bending his knee because it would stretch it open. Luckily the neighbor boy who breaks a bone at least 2x a year, had some crutches that Jase thought for sure he needed to borrow. He used them for the night but ended up taking them back the next day. I think it was slowing him down too much. It was pretty sore for a few days, but it has almost healed up. What a tough kid. Oh, I forgot to add earlier that Hallie said a funny. When he did this and they got it all cleaned up she said "Ooh, that is gonna sting." That is so so so something that Brad would say. It made us laugh.

Sentimental Sunday

Okay, so I am going to be a copy cat with this. I saw this on a friends blog and I just love it so I am going to attempt my own version of Sentimental Sunday. She always has a post on Sunday of some random pictures and tells the story behind it. These pictures were taken with my old video camera that took really bad pictures, so sorry if they are a bit blurry. Hallie is looking like she is in a daze. They are making gingerbread houses. They figured out that it went much quicker by spreading the glue with their fingers all over the house then putting the candy on. They had quite the mess, but it was fun to lick it off. That is Kayla in the picture with her. I babysat her full time for about a year so the kids were together a lot.

These two made a tiny little mud hole and Jase got so muddy. He has a big long metal rod in his hand. He must have been stirring with it. I am not sure how he got mud up to his knees. The mud is only about an inch deep. Maybe he was kneeling in it. Hallie has some mud on her, but it has dried.

This is my beautiful baby boy. I just laugh at this picture. It almost looks like I photo shopped his eyes in this but I haven't touched this picture. He looks a bit surprised. All of my kids got these big beautiful eyes. Maybe he was trying not to blink=).

This is back in our younger days. This is at our house in West Boise. Savanna is 1 in this picture. I am pregnant with Hallie. I was probably about 5 months along. I remember trying to take our picture with the remote control on the camera. It kept taking when we weren't ready. If you will notice, Savanna is holding Barney it this picture. She really loved Barney when she was little. We sang all his songs, and watched him quite often. I was pretty sick during this pregnancy for the first 3 months, and remember Barney saving us a lot. Thanks, Barney.

Jase is always a ham in front of the camera, just like his dad. He is holding Aleena in this picture. I was trying to take some of Aleena in her cute outfit, and he kept begging me to get pictures of him. It seems when I want pictures of him he isn't ready, but when I focus on someone else, he doesn't want to miss out.

Going to the Vet

Aleena doesn't like to be wrong, so she will manipulate the conversation until she is right. For example tonight she said a funny doing just that: A little background, I noticed a few cavity spots in Aleena's teeth and told her we need to go the dentist so he can fix the cavity bugs.

Aleena: "Mom, member I have to go to the Vet", smiling like she realized maybe she said that wrong but doesn't want to be wrong.
Mom: Chuckling, "Honey- not the vet, the dentist."
Aleena: "Yeah, When I got this ouwie (pulling up her bangs showing her split head scar) I had to go to the vet."
Mom: "No, you went to the Dr. for that one, A vet is a dr. for cats and dogs and other animals."
Aleena: "Remember when I was cat?" And then she dashed out of the room before we could say anything.
Brad and I just started laughing, Brad said "I can't believe you don't remember when she was a cat."

Where does she get these things?

Fun With Grama L

We have been having a great time getting to spend time with Grama L. We got to spend some time with her at her Hotel yesterday and the kids got to go swimming. They loved being able to swim with Clayton, Brie and Kayla. I have pictures but they are on a dead camera, so those will have to be posted later. Today we hung out at the house for a while. We watched some home videos, and played a couple games, got to do some talking and reaquainting. I had to head to work so I am not sure exactly what happened after that. They got to go swimming again, and Savanna rented Mall Cop with her money. They were all alive when I got home, what more can I ask for=).
I got some good housecleaning done this morning. I need to have people over more often, maybe that would keep me on my housecleaning. Now I have to really try and stay on top of it. I think I actually can see the carpet in my closet. I guess I know which parent my kids get that from =). Work went pretty good. The rain today made it so muggy that I was a sticky mess, with fuzzy hair. I am not sure how I would actually handle a real humid climate. It is the only night I have to work this week so I am pretty excited about that. We have Kayla's graduation tomorrow night-which I am stumped as to what to get her. Friday night is the graduation party, and Saturday is the Road Rally Date Night. It will a crazy week, but a good.
Now that I am done venting and my Diet Coke has worn off from work, I think I am going to try and sleep.

Family Dinner

Our good friends the Browers invited us over for dinner. We saw each other all weekend at the soccer tournaments and why not finish off the weekend with a dinner, some swimming and some smores. We ate some yummy spaghetti, Justin made delicious bread sticks, and I brought over some of my family's favorite fruit roll-up sauce. It is like applesauce, but I take my canned apples, pears and nectarines and blend them up. My kids will eat it till their tummies hurt.

Our families are very similar so it is a fun time for all. They have 5 kids about the same age as mine, so everyone usually has a buddy to play with, except Justin was feeling a little left out because he was the only one with out a playbuddy. Hallie was cute and came to me and said, "I know how Justin feels, that is how it is at Kayla's house." Hallie is the only one without someone her age over their. The girls are getting better at letting her be a tag along.

They got in the pool. The sun kind of got hidden by some rain clouds so it wasn't super hot, so they all got out just freezing. It was so funny because their dog, Sammy, is just like one of their kids. She jumps in the pool and swims with the kids just barking away like she is so excited to be swimming. She plays soccer with the girls. It was just really fun to watch her. Livee thought she was fun because she was little.

Hallie being silly with Bailey.

Sammy is getting ready to jump in the pool.
Savanna & Page playing soccer with Sammy.
Aleena got water up her nose and was freezing when she got out.
Justin and Page playing with the pool box. Gooey sticky marshmallows. Yum.
The boys playing in the fire. Jase in his marshmallow stance. I think I see a hint of crack=)

Savanna got the "Most Talented Marshmallow Roaster" of the night. She ate a bunch, but she kept roasting them and giving them away because she really liked roasting them. Not a great picture but this one was her best one. She put the chocolate in it before roasting
Livee kept laying down on this railroad tie like it was a bed or something. Aubrey is definitely not camera shy. She kept saying take a picture of me. She is pretty cute.
Another Aubrey pose.
Here is Livee loving Sammy. Sammy was very patient and would wait for one of the marshmallows to drop.
Livee thought this rock bed was a fun jungle gym. She would climb up and down, and then do it all over again.

It was a great time and we thank you for inviting us. We need to do it again, only next time our house.

Presidents Cup

Savanna's Soccer Team had the President's Cup Tournament this weekend. They had 4 games total. Their bracket was based on a point system because of the # of teams they had. Their game Friday night, which I didn't get to watch because I was working, they tied 0-0. Saturday morning they lost 3-1 (I think) The next game was that afternoon, and we won 3-1 (I think) Sunday morning we played again and won 2-1. That was the best game of them all. It was a team from Pocatello, and for some reason we took out about 7 of their players. Our team is not a dirty team. They are usually very mild but for some reason they decided they weren't going to be the ones getting beat up and really stepped up their game. They started dropping like flies. Our girls were on top of their game. They went for the ball and we really played as a team. Savanna had a really awesome score off of a foul kick. Right over the goalies hands and right in the corner.

According to points I think we got 3rd. The reason we aren't sure is that there was a funny mix up. The red team we thought were playing for 1st and they went up to get their medals thinking they were 1st. They gave them their medals and then said "Oh-wait, they aren't the 1st team, it was the white team." So they gave them both 1st place medals because they felt bad about taking them away from the wrong team. So I guess we got placed 2nd, but according to points we were 1 point behind the 2nd place team and got 3rd. They still did awesome.

Sunday we ended up staying the day watching a couple of the other teams. We had lunch, lounged around on blankets, ate snacks (thanks Aunt Michelle-she is the snack master) and got way to much sun.

Here is Brad's coaching stance. Isn't he cute.
This guy was showing the kids some soccer tricks. They had them all mesmerized. He gave Savanna some change because she hit him in the goal box.

Livee loves climbing in and out of her stroller. She doesn't care if it is right side up of not. Aleena was trying to get Livee to come back, she was wondering a little far and Aleena was worried about her.
Livee didn't think that was very nice of Aleena to boss her.
Livee and Zane thought it was funny to sit on the girls and try and wrestle them.

The main tent had these really cool official size 20 balls. They are real soccer balls, just huge. The kids thought they were great fun. They thought they would be a fun Bear Lake ball.

Kaisey and Livee kept fighting over who got to touch the handle on the chair.

Jase didn't make it into many photos. He doesn't hold still long enough for me to get a picture. He was there, but busy playing and running around.