Temple Riders Association

I just came across this cool video put together by KSL on the Temple Riders Association.  It's a motorcycle "gang" that rides all over the US and Canada on motorcycles attending temple sessions! They meet together monthly for trip planning and firesides and then go on these temple excursions! 

I think it's way cool and we just might have to get us a motorcycle!!

St Patricks Day, Part 1

We started the Day with 4 leaf clovers on their heads!  Too fun!!  I got the idea on the hair blog I found a couple weeks ago!  I wasn't sure it was noticeable enough, but people seemed to see it and the girls had a few compliments.  I did do three heads that morning but was running late and scooted them out the door before I could get some good pictures! 

While we don't really do the typical irish dinner, we do have a traditional green dinner!  Funny how being green doesn't always make it look appetizing, I usually have to remind them it's only food coloring!! 

We had a green tuna macaroni bake, green vegies, green pistachio salad, green rolls and green milk.  For dessert we had green pistachio cake and mint chocolate chip ice cream! 

Stay tuned for hilarious dinner reactions!!

St Patrick's Day, Part 2

I just had to put these pics in as well!  These were taken during dinner!!

They sure look like my dinner didn't go very well, don't they?!! LOL

My disclaimer, all of them (except for Doug) were trying to eat the vegetables! Lol I guess the cake looked good enough to torture themselves enough to choke them down!!  What troopers!!

Yummy cake and ice cream, makes it all worth it!!

Being goofy!!

Like Father, Like Daughter!!



Giving my dinner a thumbs up!!



Another Teenager in the House!!

Chocolate Caramel Gooey Cake!

Emily turned 13 years old on Wednesday!  I can't believe we have yet another teenager!!

She asked for scrambled eggs, bacon and toast for breakfast, egg salad sandwiches for lunch, and chicken stuffed lion house rolls for dinner.  My kids loves these not only for dinner, but for lunch the next day in their lunch boxes!!

She had a donut party in her first period class and tried to get all her teachers to sing her happy birthday, some did, some didn't.  She even had one tell her there wasn't time??  What ever!!

She sure was wired and crazy most of the day, but it made for her having a fun day! She didn't ask for much, so she was pretty happy to have gotten pretty much all she asked for!  (All except for her own room!) 

Being silly!

Happy Birthday, Emily!  We Love You!!

Happy Birthday, Kimberly!

I'm running a little behind in posts.  Kim's bday was actually last Sunday!  She was so excited, she said she was waiting for this day for 6 months!!  I had to laugh!!

She made me a card, kind of like an invitation, that had her birthday wish list of things that I could choose from to buy her, as well as her bday menu.  It also had some activities she wanted do for FHE the next day. 

Breakfast - Poached eggs on Toast, I think she said she ate 5!!  She was stuffed!!
Lunch - She was too stuffed from breakfast!!
Dinner - Pizza was first choice (her bday landed on a sunday, so we ordered pizza saturday night)  Sunday we had her next favorite...Lasagna!

She also asked for brownies and ice cream instead of cake.  Most of my kids are not cake eaters!

We had her open her presents after breakfast and after showers.  She played for a little while, then we had to go to Stake Conference.  Then had dinner and brownies!

She was a happy camper!  It was fun to watch her excitement all day!! 

Deer

Look what we found under our tree house this morning!

If you look close, you can see 4 deer just chilling out!   The kids thought it was soo cool! 

Do you see all that snow!  We got walloped on Monday night!  We must have had nearly a foot of snow before it was over! We shovelled both Monday night until after 11pm, then again Tuesday morning!  My arms and back are sooo sore from all the shovelling!!  (It didn't help that I had strength training that day too! lol)  At least it's warm, it's been in the 40's so it's melting pretty fast!  I wish I would have taken a picture on Tuesday morning!  It was amazing!!  Too bad they didn't cancel school!  It was so warm, that as soon as the plows moved the snow, the roads weren't icy at all!  Oh well!  Happy March!!

Shawn Update

Shawn is working hard in Price!   (Sorry this is long, because I got behind)

I got this message from him on Feb 28th...

"I have a number of applications in at various companies. An additional work opportunity that came up is an IT Tech position. Funny thing about the position is that they have become so desperate to hire someone for this position that they're willing to hire anyone with any computer knowledge (interesting considering the economy). I'm told their a fantastic company to work for.

Talked to Russ Wilson (choir director). He listened to me sing and play my flute. After which he told me of a scholarship he wants to offer me. It's a joint Choir / Band scholarship so he said he's going to talk to Greg Benson (band director) and I'll have to play my flute for him. It's a cash scholarship of $3500. Then if I kept with programs the next year I'd be eligible for addition musical scholarships. This scholarship is huge specially when you consider full-time tuition is less than $1400, and the academic scholarship is a sure thing at this point.

I'm actually a member of four choirs down here now. The ward choir, stake choir, school choir, and institute choir. I showed up for the ward choir right after church. Which I am playing the flute for one of their songs. After, they told me about the stake choir which practices right after the ward does. When they finished I was told about the community choir which practices after them. They are doing a combined piece with the school choir. After practice Russ pulled me aside (this is when the scholarship came up) and offered for me to come to the rest of this semester's choir classes tuition free. So I showed up for the class today which starts at noon. After which one of my new classmates offered for me to go to Institute choir which is in need of male vocalists. They meet right after the school choir on Mondays, Wednesdays, and some Fridays.

Last night was a pain trying to cook using the stove. It was so windy it kept blowing out the flame even when I created artificial walls to block it. It was the coldest night yet (clear sky combined with crazy wind), but once in the car and under the covers I was fine."

As you can see he's busy trying to get himself established! :) 

I talked to him on the phone, and he told me this story.  This happened to him not long after he wrote this letter to me that night...  He had bedded down for the night in the car, when a police car came up behind him.  He said he was wondering if he needed to switch where he was parking, but didn't do it quite yet.  Anyway, the officer asked him lots of questions to find out what was going on.  He told him he couldn't "live" there, but instead of leaving it at that, he asked him more questions and started to give him options of where he could park his car legally.  Since he was enrolled concurrent enrollment at the school, he could park in the parking lot there.  Since he was a member of the church, if he talked to his bishop, he could park in the church parking lot.  I thought it was very nice of him to try to help him instead of just saying tough luck!  He then went back to the patrol car and ran the plates, not good, since Shawn neglected to register it in his name after he bought it due to lack of funds.  The officer came back and asked Shawn more questions of course.  He showed him the bill of sale to show it really was his car, and then the miracle happened!  The officer thought for a moment, then told Shawn he was going to drive away and come back in half an hour!  He suggested that Shawn wait until he was halfway down the street and then get the car onto the school parking lot!  If the car was still there when he got back, he would impound it!  He also suggested he not drive it around town, or they would impound it!  Wow!  What a miracle!!!  That would have been somewhat disastrous, if he would have lost that car at that point in time!  (hope you don't mind me sharing that honey, I just want to show the miracles that are happening in your life!)  Pretty Awesome, huh!?

He wanted so much to do it on his own, but he was getting some promptings to go talk to his bishop.  So after this situation, he decided he better make an appointment.  He had one that next day.  He's been working with him since, and it has reduced some of the stress for Shawn.  He's sleeping in the bishop's camper.  Nice!  They are working on getting him some housing!

This is the letter I got from him last night...

"Have had a lot going on and not much time to process. Thought I'd give ya another quick update.

Right now I have a large number of leads on jobs, but nothing solid yet. We'll see what happens over the next few days.

I'm meeting with a possible roommate tomorrow. If everything goes well this should open up apartment possibilities. There only seems to be two bedroom apartments around here, but if everything works out with this roommate I could be in an apartment by the end of the week.

Working on preparing for a number more scholarship auditions. I should know about most of the scholarships in next couple of weeks.

Anyway, don't have a whole lot of time. Hope your both doing well. Love ya tons."

He also mentioned that he should have his car up and running by the end of the week!  That will help tremendously in the job hunting!

He's working hard to get himself established.  It's exciting for me to hear his updates and hear he's doing well! Here's a link to his blog and his recent post!

Keep up the good work, Shawn!  We Love you!!
(PS Shawn, take pictures and send them to me!!)

Cute pics and More Hair "do"s, too!

I was going through my SD card and found a couple of cute pics to share...

I was looking for Nattie, I walked into her room, didn't see her, so I called her name and she answered, but I still couldn't see her.  I said where are you?  She said, I'm in the hamper!!  I just had to take a picture of her sweet smile.  Then she pulled this one, too!!

She thinks it's so funny to gross us out!!



I was playing around with that hair web site and found this fun "do" with hearts on the side of their heads.  I thought it would be good for Emily's play.  She loved it.  And so did the other girls they couldn't wait for me to put hearts on the side of their heads for school the next morning.  I did Nattie's too that day, but I didn't get it done before the girls left for school so she's not in the pic.



They like to pose for the camera!







They were so excited!  It's the first time in a long time that Kim let me "do" her hair!

It's hard to believe just how easy some of these are to do! 






For Church on Sunday I did one big heart on the back of each of their heads! 



Ready for church!



We're having fun, we're going to attempt the 3 and 4 leaf clovers for St. Patricks's Day!

Suessical Jr.

Emily decided months ago that she wanted to be a part of her Jr. High School play.  She was in the Jungle Citizen Ensemble.  She loved being a part of it even though it was only in the background.  She did have her one moment... She got to hand Horton the clover with the Who speck on it!

Final Bow

The only problem I had was that I was in the wrong place to be able to see her when she was on the stage!  She was always behind someone, or some thing!! Bummer, I didn't get very much video and only a couple of pictures.

Anyway, it was cute and she had a lot of fun.  The sets and costumes were pretty impressive for a Jr. High production.

Sickies!!

So only an hour before we were leaving to go to Emily's play...We had some excitement at our house!!  Might be a little graphic, so beware!  lol

I told the kids they needed to come eat so we could be ready to go.  Aaron came up from downstairs saying he must be pretty hungry because his tummy was hurting.  Kim was pulling out the left overs for them to pick from.  I was at the computer on the table.  When I heard a big splash!  I thought what did they spill???

Aaron had thrown up, hitting the counter, the top of the garbage can, and of course the floor!  We were all very shocked, including Aaron!?  As I was walking into the kitchen he just heaved again spilling it all over the floor and carpet, splattering his clothes and socks!  I'm in even more shock!!  And I'm yelling, in the garbage!!!  But by that time he was done.  I couldn't help but ask him, Didn't you have any warning?  He said, No!??  I just think he wasn't paying attention.  I'm trying not to freak out at the mess that's all over the kitchen floor and carpet and the fact that I have to clean it up.  Why is it that throw up messes automatically are Mom's job to clean up??  LOL  I did manage to ask him if he felt better! :) 

I'm cleaning up the throw up as Doug walks in the door.  Oh goody!  More sick kids!  Nattie goes in the bathroom crying that she doesn't feel good.  I figured she just wanted the attention too.  She went in and sat on the potty for a little bit, whining.  I was busy cleaning up after Aaron.  When she starts wailing, stands up and walks to the bathroom door (with her pants to her ankles still) and starts to throw up!  I look up to see her dribbling out of her mouth and I haven't put it together yet.  What's she doing??? Doug says she's throwing up!!  What????   I'm telling her in the toilet!  She turns around and heaves again all over the floor, then walks through it to the toilet, dragging her pants that are still around her ankles through it as well!  YUCK!!!  I was totally beside myself!!  She was a bit more traumatized by the event.  So I held it together to calm her down and get her cleaned up.  I put her in fresh jammies and sent her to bed with a bucket.



He doesn't look too sick, does he?



After all was cleaned up, I went in to check on her and maybe set her up with a movie or something so she can just stay in bed.  I found her curled up, sound asleep, with her face in her bucket.  I guess it took a lot out of her.  Should have taken a picture!  :)  It was pretty pitiful!  I got Aaron in bed and set him up with a portable DVD player.  (I love my portable players not only for travelling, but they are great for quarantines!)



Steven didn't plan on going to the play, so he was volunteered to keep on eye on the sickies while the rest of us went.  Nattie slept the whole time we were gone and threw up a few more times after I got home, in the bucket, thank goodness!  Aaron threw up several times while we were gone, but this time was very self sufficient (Steven didn't even know). 



She said the flash was too much "light".



I just had to take a couple of pics of my sickies hugging their buckets watching their movies!  



Fortunately for me though, once I got everyone settled and down for the night, we had no further incidences and we all got to sleep uninterrupted!!  That means a lot to me, seeing that Saturday morning is usually my only morning I get to sleep in til 8 or 9 and when I get up at 4:30 5 days a week, that means a lot!! LOL

They aren't 100% this morning, but it looks like we're over the worst!  I hope!  I also hope the rest of us don't get it, especially me, since I had to clean it all up!!  The (not so) Joys of Motherhood!!! :)

I'm a Copy Cat!!



So last week I get a text from my Niece who said she had just whacked off 12 inches off her hair!  I was so excited for her, because I had been talking about cutting mine for a while.  It's just getting thinner, and looking scraggly to me. Seeing how good hers turned out, I just had to copy cat!!



 So yesterday, Bethanie cut 11 inches off my hair and then gave me a cute cut!  It's shorter than I planned, but I think it turned out kind of cute.  I'm not sure why, but it always amazes me at how curly my hair gets after a haircut!  Seems to get more curly, the older I get!  I'm so glad it looks and feels more healthy now!




Looking at this picture, it's not as curly looking in the back as on the sides!  Oh well!

Smashed Thumb!



All wrapped up!



Poor Aaron came home from his long awaited field trip with a smashed thumb!

It wasn't just purple under the nail, but the whole tip of it was pink/purple.  It was giving him quite a bit of trouble, he was trying so hard to be brave.  I decided to go ahead and take him in just to make sure the tip wasn't broken and mostly to get a protective splint on it so he could go to school today and not worry so much about bumping it.

The xray showed it wasn't broken, great!  He felt much better with ibuprofen in him, and that splint on!

He only needed the protection for the weekend.  By Monday it was hardly sore, still purple but not feeling too bad. 

I'm so glad it's not sore anymore!

What a Trooper!