Draper Temple Open House

Yesterday we had the awesome privilege to attend the Draper Temple Open House. We decided to go ahead and take the time allotted for our ward, even though it was in the middle of the day of the work/school week, and boy did it pay off!!

There was hardly anyone there, we could actually take our time, really enjoy everything, talk to the kids, and not worry about losing them!!

Obviously they've done this a few times because they are getting it down to a science! You arrive at the church house ( they have 3 different ones for crowd control) where you watch a 12 minute video about temples and about the Draper area. Then we board a nice Tour bus and head up to the temple. We went through a self guided but "follow the yellow brick road" kind of tour through the building where we got to see the baptistry, dressing rooms (including the Bride's room), ordinance rooms, celestial room, waiting rooms, chapel, sealing rooms. etc. They have signs and information all along the way so you know what is what and what happens in each of these places. I thought it was cool because we got to be real up close to the baptismal font and got to actually go inside the sealing rooms and sit down and look through the mirrors that show us eternity!

Some of the kids favorite parts were the Baptismal Font, Aaron said he loved the sealing room and mirrors, Tiff said she loved the room where you get dressed up to be married! (The Brides Dressing Room).

As we exited the Temple, they guided us to the Stake Center across the parking lot. There, they had the Cultural Hall beautifully decorated and served cookies and water bottles. It was very nice. Then they had us board the appropiate bus to head back to our cars.

It was very nicely done and we had a nice experience. The only thing missing, were two of my kids. Shawn never showed up or answered his phone, and Beth decided she couldn't miss math and she got the chance to go with the Laurel's & Priests in our ward so she didn't need to see it again. The thought crossed my mind that I hope one day we ALL will be in the celestial room together in a dedicated temple. I just don't know if I could be happy missing even one or two!!

I feel very blessed to have the family I have, and hope we can achieve that one day!!

The Open House runs through February. If you haven't already planned on going, it's worth the time and effort!

Duck, Duck, Goose!

Here we are again another Family Home Evening, what to do. While last week was totally geared to the older kids, this week was totally geared to the little kids!!

We played Duck, Duck, Goose. It's great how the big kids can adjust and actually have a little bit of fun doing something that the little ones so enjoy!

Natalie is just learning how to play...We've been playing in Nursery at church, so she kind of had the idea. Soon she was doing it all by herself!! She wasn't exactly saying Duck, Duck, Goose but you could tell when she meant Goose, she would start running around the circle. It was pretty funny to witness. But as most pre-two year olds, she really had a hard time understanding the concept of waiting her turn! It's was easy to just let her keep going, but we know for nursery sake (and everything else) she really needs to learn. So in between the squeals of laughter, we had the screams of let me go!!!!




I couldn't resist putting both in, they are short and fun to watch!!

Another Favorite Blog to Visit!!

In my blog hopping I came across another blog that is truly an answer to prayers!

http://www.myfoodstoragedeals.blogspot.com/

I have been really wanting to really work on my food storage more. With 14 people to provide for, this is quite the task. I worked hard this summer and think I'm close to a slim 3 months. Which I think is good, but not good enough, I want that year supply!! I just have been struggling with how, what, where???

I have been praying a lot about it because I just wasn't sure if how I was going about it was the best way. Wouldn't you know it, I came across this site several days ago and have been reading, reading and reading and I still have a ways to go, but I already have some good ideas and have decided to go ahead and try her service. (You can go and read up if your interested)

Anyway, I just wanted to share in case anyone else is interested. You don't have to sign up to benefit from her blog, it has an amazing amount of ideas, recipes and information that will make your head spin!!

She also teaches how to use and rotate your food storage! I am so excited, and very hopeful!!

PS - Pam if your reading this... You said to keep in touch, I would love to read your blog too, but need you to send me an invite to be able to!!

Fugitive!!

Wow, what do you do for Family Home Evening activity when you have all 11 kids and their ages vary from 21 months to 21 years???? It's such a trick each week, but we try!!

We all were off from school and work Monday for Martin Luther King Day. We spent most of the day just hanging around, reading, playing games, computer games, Wii, Doug even worked a little on genealogy (good for him). About 7pm we decided we better get to FHE. The kids really didn't want to do a "formal" one because it was a holiday, they just wanted to do something fun together, but what to do......

We sat around for about 40 minutes trying to decide...we were thinking we could watch a movie, but that's hard because we have different ideas of what is a good movie, play a game again, what to play? Someone came up with the game Fugitive. I have been avoiding this game for sometime, but knew it would happen sooner or later. As we were trying to decide whether we would go for it, the kids started to get ready. Jon looked at Doug and me and said I guess the kids have decided.

Here's the game... We took everyone up to the temple and dropped off the "runners" (Shawn & Ben, Jon & Steven, Melanie & Beth & Emily). Their goal was to get back to the house without being spotted by the "seekers" ( the rest of us). The seekers drove around the area trying to spot the runners. The seekers aren't allowed to get out of the car, and the runners aren't allowed to go into any backyards. So when we spot them, we honk and wave our flashlights around, they come and get in the car. We gave North and South Parameters but forgot to give east and west. Anyway, for those that don't know our area that is about a 2 1/2 to 3 mile square area. Yes, it was dark and cold, but they didn't care. We dropped them off at about 8:30pm, gave them 10 minutes and then started driving around looking for them. They had to check in by text every 20 to 30 minutes (paranoid mom, here)

After about an hour the little kids were done, of course. Natalie & Tiff were screaming almost the whole time. Kim and Aaron were complaining that we hadn't spotted anyone!! We started out in one car, our van, because we thought being together would be better, but figured out it was nearly impossible and needed to split up. My mom was home, so by 9:30 we took Nattie home and put her to bed and switched cars to two smaller cars and took different areas.

Eventually we caught the girls in the church parking lot, probably only because we changed cars and they weren't expecting to have me be in Ben's car and were out in the open. They were good sports about it, once they got over being caught. So they split up and helped us look for the boys.

Melanie and I spotted one set of boys and tracked them down to 4 houses, but couldn't quite pin point where they were after they hid, and they wouldn't come out. We didn't want them to get away, so I kept going up and down the street in front of the same 4 houses, waving our flashlight and tapping on the horn here and there. Eventually a cop came up behind me, so I left and headed home. He followed me and pulled me over before I got there! "Is there something wrong, officer?"

I had to admit to the cop I was playing a hide a seek game with my kids at 10:30 at night (real grown up, huh!). He said that someone had called them and reported suspicious activity, so they had to come out. Yeah, 3 cop cars! I had to convince him we never got out of the car, but yes we had flashlights. He did verify that what we were doing was alright as long as we stayed out of the back yards, but could get stopped again if people get worried about flashlights and people in their yards.

I don't know if we'll play it again, but we definitely learned we need more rules, like you have to come out if we SPOT you, not necessarily find you after you dart away and hide. Set a time limit on the game, they have to make it to the safe zone by a certain time. We have to do something else with the little kids, they did not like seeking. Definitely need 2 cars!

After being stopped by the cops, I told them game over, come home! I said I was never playing this game again, but after listening to how much fun they had...I'm wondering if it wasn't such a bad thing. The police verified that it wasn't against the law, and they were doing something physical, no one was vegging playing video games or watching movies. Most of them were very sore the next day and are actually feeling it today still, and are still talking about how much fun it was!! I don't know, Maybe???

Happy Birthday, Melanie!!

Seems I like to do things in two's...half of my kids birthday's are only days apart. Beth and Melanie are the 15th & 18th of Jan, Kim & Emily are the 6th & 9th of March, Shawn & Ben are the 21st & 23rd of September. Seems we have crammed all of our birthdays in 8 months instead of spreading them out through out the whole year. We have absolutely no birthdays in May, June, July, & Aug! I guess it's a nice break and a chance to gear up for Christmas!


Anyway...Melanie turned 19 on Sunday!


I decided to help with the paper route as a present for her. So I got up at 1:45am and headed to the depot with them. We folded & loaded their 500 papers by 4:30 and they were off delivering. She came home in time to attend church. Right after church we did our Visiting Teaching. They made us partners, we love it!! She gave a great lesson.


We ate her special dinner of potatoes and rolls. Then let her open her present, we got her a nice digital camera. We also did her cake, she picked a yummy Costco cake! Dad is good to help them figure out how to use their electronics and get the software on the computer so they can do stuff with the picture they take. We were a little worried about this camera, it seemed to take blurry pictures. (The next day, Doug realized it was blurry because they had not taken the protective strip off the screen!! So glad that was such an easy fix!!)

Then she went off to bed, at around 2:30pm! (No, she didn't sleep on the couch, she was playing while she was waiting for us to open her present.) She slept until it was time for papers again! Part of me was sad that she had to sleep away her birthday, but then part of me was glad she could sleep. She actually did the paper routes and went back to bed on Monday morning and slept some more. She was feeling pretty rested and good that afternoon!!

I sure have been missing her since she started doing papers. She has been our Mommy #2 for some time now. She is so busy with both jobs and trying to catch up on her sleep in between that she hasn't been around as much. I guess I better get used to it, since being 19 she won't be around forever!!

I just wanted her to know how much I appreciate her willingness to help out when ever she can, and sometimes when she can't. She's a hard worker and genuinely cares about her family and shows it.


We love you, Sweetie!!

"Sweet 16"

Happy Birthday, Bethanie!

Bethanie finally made it! I'm sure she thought this day would never come! Well, on Thursday, the 15th, it did! Now she can date, drive, work, and have a little more freedom! Yikes!!

Usually I let the kids stay home on their birthday if they want to, but being the last days of the term, she had two tests that could not be made up, so she had to go. She took it in stride. What a trooper!

She asked for pumpkin pie for her birthday and Chinese. Aaron was so excited! The Marie Calendar pie tins must be small and shallow. When ever I make pies and try to double the recipe to make 2 I almost always get three! So I ended up with 3 pumpkin and 3 apple. That's a lot of pie when we have another birthday so close. I think my family loved it though, I kept telling them to eat the pie! It needs to be gone by Sunday! They were very happy to oblige!

Anyway, back to Beth...She should be able to get her license in a month or so, her 6 month permit will be fulfilled. She's not that interested in driving though. She was at first, and was doing alright, but after they started showing videos in drivers ed, she decided it wasn't that exciting to be able to drive.

Emily made her this cute bouquet of tissue paper flowers.

Dad got her a Sony Walkman, which is similiar to an ipod, to go with her camera. She can put pictures, videos, music and even movies on it... Fun, Fun. Dad seems to know her very well.

She's been so excited to get a job, she's been talking about it for a year. Now that she's 16, and can, she's really not doing much about it, but I think she will. She wants to attend a cosmotology course that she needs to come up with about $1200 by Aug. She better get cracking. We'll see how bad she wants it.

This last year, she has done a lot of growing up. I want her to know that I truly appreciate her efforts in trying to conform to rules and standards that she doesn't always understand. I appreciate her willingness to help and do what she is asked, her resolve to build trust with her parents and her determination to make a better life for herself physically and emotionally.

We love you, Baby!!

Terrible Two's, already??!!!!

Oh my sweet baby girl is swiftly turning into a "terrible two"!!! And she's not even two yet! But I have learned that the terrible two's are not just while they are two, it can be anywhere from 4-6 months before and possibly into the three's!!

It is always amazing to me how sweet, fun and loving they can be one minute and an absolute brat with temper tantrums the very next minute!!

Yes, that's where we're at these days. She screams and squeals, throws tantrums, hits, torments, takes things and runs for all she's worth, pulls hair, she's definitely testing her boundaries. "What exactly can I get away with???" She even scolds us when we spank her hand or don't let her do something. She gets her little finger up there and really balls us out! Sometimes it's really hard not to laugh, because it's really not funny. But you probably know how that goes. In this picture she's not mad, but she's sure got her finger up there!

And yet, she is so good at saying and signing "please", "thank you". She goes to bed real good (at least while she's in the crib, I doubt that will last once she's in a bed). Sometimes she minds so good and can be quite reasonable. She's even learning to share.

It's also amazing to me how much learning and developing happen these months. Her vocabulary grows by the day. She seems to understand more and more every day. She loves to skip down the hallway and around the house. She actually is starting to potty talk!

I have found thru the years that I need to do a lot of potty talk before I actually potty train. First of all, it was amazing to me that she is old enough for this. My baby is just growing up tooooo fast. Anyway, I have been taking her into the bathroom with me, not every time, but a couple times a day. When I catch her filling her diaper, I tell her what she's doing. Most of the time, she tells me she's gone poo poo. Yesterday, she peeks in the bathroom door at me, and says, "poopoo in the potty?" . Later that day, after she tells me poopoo, we're changing her diaper, she keeps saying poopoo in the potty! I know I have to resist the urge to start too soon. I can safely say we have officially entered the prepotty training stage. If I play my cards right, just maybe she'll be as fast as Tiffany was...one week from diapers to self initiation! I can hope, right??

Hopefully, these terrible two 's this time around won't last too long. But on the other hand I really don't want to wish away this time of her life, either. She is truly a joy to have around, she brings such joy to all of us. It's so fun to watch her older siblings light up and eat up all the attention and love she gives them and she's the same with them. I had to put this pic in again, it's one of my favorites!

It's a great time of Life!! When she just gets to be too much, I can always plop her in her bed! Can't do that with teenagers!!!

New Baby!!

I got a phone call this weekend from my niece, Heather with her news!

She had a brand new baby Boy on Dec 30, 2008 at 12:07am!

She named him...

Kaleb Ashton James

He was 7 pounds, 20 inches long!!

Both are doing well and are residing with her mother for now in Buena Park, California.

Some ribbing goes to my brother, David, this makes him a GRANDPA!!!!

We love you!!

Shawn's New Apartment!

Shawn finally did it, he got himself a place all to his own! This is much a better way for him to leave than the last time. I really wish he would have tried harder to get along with us, but I know he's not only old enough, but independent enough, we all really needed this!

He found a little basement, furnished, studio apartment just 5 minutes down the street. He's even closer than Jon was. Too bad he couldn't afford Jon's old apartment, it would have gotten him out of his lease. Oh Well!

I went over with him today to help him get some of his stuff over there. I don't think he's going to be able to get as much of his stuff as he thought, and I also think it will take him a couple weeks to actually go thru a lot of it to decide what he wants in our loft and what he wants with him.

I probably should have waited to take pictures until he was all moved in, but I didn't think of that until now. Maybe I'll take more later. Here's what I got today.

I am standing right inside the door in the corner. Remember this is a studio apartment so it's one room except the bathroom. This is the kitchen corner. No stove or oven, just microwave. I 'm hoping to find him a hot plate, that should be all he needs.

This is the Bedroom corner, I'm standing in the same place. He didn't notice until today that he doesn't have a dresser. I left him to figure that one out. :)

The door is to the bathroom. He has nice shelves behind the door.

Now I am standing by the kitchen counter and here he has a nice closet with lots of shelves and space.

Now I am standing in the corner by the bed & bathroom where you can see his "living room/eating area.

It's small, but I think it's perfect for him!

I think we're both excited for him to not be under my thumb all the time! It seems to be easier for me to be "okay" with how they spend their time when they don't live under my roof.

Good Luck, Shawn, We love you!!

New Year's Resolutions

Every year I sit down and make resolutions or goals about what I want to do to make myself a better person. I don't always wait for New Year's though. It could be any time of the year, I also will take time to evaluate and re-evaluate where I'm at with the goals I am currently working on. For instance, I will often try to make a schedule for my day, so I can get certain things done every day, or every week. Through the years, I have found that I can't be too strict with those schedules because kids play a huge role in making my day not very schedule like! So I try to make a loose schedule. I have also learned that I really can't plan too much to do while the girls are awake, because I sometimes will get caught up in trying to get my stuff done, instead of be a mommy to the girls, which is the more important job, most of the time, anyway!

I started keeping my journal more regularly the beginning of December. For some reason, I love it more this time. I really look forward to writing, and I usually will write pages and pages. One of the things I write is a list of things I have to do that day. I love crossing things off the list that I have finished and I feel so accomplished when I can look over the list and see all that I have done that day on top of being a mom, wife, & caretaker. It also helps me to remember what I still have to work on. I find I waste less time than when I don't have a list. I do, however, have to remind myself that getting the things done on my list, aren't necessarily the most important thing to do! I am such a silly goose sometimes.

Anyway, I came across an article on New Year's Resolutions in the DNews paper last week by C Rappleye. (My kids throw the paper now, so I sometimes get a paper to look at.) Anyway, I liked this article because he/she tries to help us make better resolutions and how to decide what goals to make, and how to be successful when we finally choose. Here are some thoughts from that article...

A social worker from LDS Social Services said, Goals are usually more successful if the internal motivators are what primarily drive desire. For example, the goal to lose weight may be externally motivated by wanting to look good at the high school reunion. But internally it's to feel better, protect health and have more quality time with family members.

He offers the acronym for more successful goal setting... SMART

S - specific
M - measurable
A - ambitious
R - realistic
T - timebound

I really like this because I've learned this to be sooooo true. We can't just say we want to do something and not make a plan. It just won't happen. We have to plan how we are going to go about it. I also like that it has to be realistic and timebound. We have to set a time limit and evaluate and re evaluate, adjust and readjust to make it work.

The article quotes Elder Joe J. Christensen who served in the First Quorum of the Seventy from 1989 to 1999 from a Jan 1994 fireside,
"While many of us take seriously our New Year's resolutions, some of us may not have made any because of our prior problems in keeping them. We must not overlook the power that making good resolutions can have in helping make our lives happier and more successful - regardless of our past performance."

I want to add one more thing I find helpful in this process, that is PRAYER. Seriously, I couldn't do anything without prayer. I rely A LOT on my Heavenly Father to not only help me accomplish my goals but also to help me decide which ones are most important. He also helps me through when I stumble or fall and have to pick myself back up and start again. Remember, we can't fail if we never quit trying!

Candy Houses

I guess I should make a post about our Traditional New Year's Eve Candy Houses. We've been doing candy houses for years. They started out to be our Christmas Eve Candy Houses once upon a time. Don't know what I was thinking! But, one year it was just too much for me and we moved it to New Year's and it has stuck ever since. I was curious just how many years...well, the earliest I could find was New Year's 1997! I thought it was earlier than that and I couldn't find any Christmas Eve ones, so maybe my memory isn't right, or I just didn't take pictures. I really don't know. Here they are!

This one is of Shawn and Jon, remember this is 1997 so they just turned 9 & 8!

Then we have Ben & Beth, that would make them 5 & almost 4!

Then Melanie is here with our neighbor Jeremey, she would have been almost 7! I had fun finding these and thought that it would be fun to put them on here.

Back to the present...Here are some pics of them having fun building their houses...

Of course the best part of making candy houses is eating the candy houses. It was funny because little Tiffany just wanted to eat! She kept tasting and looking to see if I was watching her!!

Anyway, I am amazed at how intricate the house have become with the older kids. Like I said on the side, Ben had a fireplace with a mantle.

Steven's also had a fireplace, a tree with presents, & and if you look close, you can see the stockings hung.

You can see the finished houses on the side bar thingy.

Bethanie worked hard on hers. She was having trouble carving the graham crackers, but finally got a great looking staff for her shepherd!

Finally, We can eat!!

Aaron's Bday!!

In all the hullaboo of the holidays, I forgot to post about Aaron's Birthday!

Happy Birthday Aaron!

He turned 7 years old on the 19th of December. The very last day of school before Christmas Break. It was a huge party day for all.

We had our traditional chocolate chip waffles with vanilla bean ice cream and chocolate syrup! Our favorite Breakfast!!

I went to school to celebrate with him, then home to get ready for him to come home.

He asked for Chinese food for his special dinner but we were hit with a huge snow storm, and the only good chinese is down town. I was so surprised for that choice. He insisted too, until we told him we would do chinese another night, but for that night he had to pick something else, he picked pizza.

He got to stay up almost as late as he wanted!

He opened his spiderman jammies first, he ran to put them on right away, I think they were a hit!! Here he is making his web!

Imaginext Dinorsaurs were a hit, as well!

I usually make him a Christmas tree cake, this year he asked for a Christmas present cake. Melanie helped and this is what we came up with...

This last picture cracks me up, you know I'm taking too many pictures when the kid looks like this, "Are you done yet?"

It was a great way to start our Christmas Break!!