s"P"ring Break

Our sPring break is brought to you by the letter "P".

We had a Picnic at the Park

We Played Pickleball

(the kids took Pictures with my iPhone)

 We hit the Pool

~I don't have a Picture to Prove it, but we saw a Prophet when Elder Bednar 

walked behind our van while we were Picking up our Pizza for dinner~  

We got free Popcorn at the RV Resort Parade

After arriving in a shiny, black Honda Odyssey, the Grand Marshals sat on a leather couch under a tent.

 Grandma standing while they played "Anchors Aweigh"

The Bike Brigade

(or should I say the "trike troop"?)

What's a parade without a horse?

These water aerobics gals are wearing their suits over their clothes.  At one point during the 100 meter parade route, they got out of their golf cart, and showed us their exercise moves!

It turns out that people with gray hair throw good candy.  

Like chocolate. 

It was a very entertaining and fun parade if I do say so myself.

 I didn't get a picture, but we also Pulled a little Prank on Grandma for St. Patrick's Day.  While she was at church, we decorated her trailer with shamrocks, hearts, a rainbow wind sock, and a sign that said, "We are Lucky to have you for a Grandma!"

Today, the kids are back in school, and I am enjoying the Peace and quiet!

It feels like Christmas...(on Q__)

Thanks to a tip from my sis-in-law, I discovered this morning that when you read my last blog post on an ipod (or I assume on any other similar device), some of the words didn't get crossed out like they did on my blog, so the first line reads, "Last night I got a bee up my butt wild hair".  Nice. Sorry for those of you who had to deal with that mental image. If it happened to you, go read my blog on a computer for heaven sakes, and while you're there, leave me a comment. I could use some love...

I gotta admit, it's starting to feel like Christmas around here.  The tree is lit 24/7, it snowed last night, the van doors were frozen shut this morning, the laundry is piled high, the kids are barfing every other day, there's not an ounce of milk or bread in our house 'cause I haven't had time to go shopping, I still have packages to mail...wait, finish, then mail. I haven't wrapped a single present, the garage has to get cleaned for one of our Christmas morning surprises, I'm trying to finish a quilt that's past due, we ordered pizza for dinner at 8:15 last night, and Christmas George is missing.   I just realized, through typing this, that he's probably hiding.  I can't say that I blame him. 

He was last seen in the following locations:

Cleaning our very dirty french doors (I was hoping the boys would be inspired by this, but no such luck.)

On Sunday, I heard Dillon exclaim, "George is adoring baby Jesus!"

And on Monday, he had a snowball fight with Mr. Potato Head.

The kids and I searched everywhere this morning and we cannot find Christmas George. We are offering a reward if you can find him (a nasty flu bug that you will no doubt go home with if you enter our house).

I'm pretty sure he spent some time practicing his longarm skills on this quilt last night, but there is no other trace of him.

 So, in all seriousness, we have the flu that keeps on giving. I'm going to try to re-construct a timeline for my own records:

Tues. Dec. 4th:  Justin was throwing up all day long.
Wed. Dec. 5th: Justin threw up again after eating breakfast.  His tummy is not used to food, right?
Thurs. Dec. 6th: When we tuck Justin in at night, we discover fresh vomit all over his "best lovie".
Sat. Dec. 7th: I come inside from trying to organize my quilting studio, to find vomit on the livingroom carpet.  Justin again.
Mon. Dec. 10th: I wake up in the middle of the night to my least favorite words:  "Mom, I threw up."  Caleb is the winner this time.
Mon. Dec. 10th:  Dillon finishes breakfast and announces he doesn't feel very good. Within 20 minutes, he's down too.
Tues. Dec. 11th: Caleb and Dillon stay home to recover, but don't seem to feel well all day.
Fri. Dec. 14th: Again, I wake up to those all too familiar words, "Mom, I threw up" from Brayden.
Sat. Dec. 15th: Grandma graciously agree's to tend the kids while Todd and I attend one of six Christmas parties we have on our calendar. We come home, only to find that Dillon threw up all over the bathroom (I'm still finding chunks from this one.)
Sun. Dec. 16th: Todd and I made an executive decision to keep all the kids home from church and just rest. He went to his morning meetings, and then I went for the 3 hour block to teach my primary class.  I got home to find that Brayden had thrown up again.
Tues. Dec. 18th: At 4:30 AM I woke up to my "favorite" phrase, "Mom, I threw up...on the carpet". Dillon... round 3.
Tues. Dec. 18th: At 6:30 AM I woke up to Caleb saying, "Mom, my tummy hurts."
Tues. Dec. 18th: At 7:05 AM I discovered that Brayden is doubled over with stomach pain.  Luckily, Caleb ate breakfast and felt better, so I only had two kids home from school.
Wed. Dec. 19th: Dillon left breakfast for the bathroom, but decided he was okay and went to school anyway (crossing my fingers).  Justin has had three NASTY diapers, but I'm staying positive....and blogging my woes.

*Update:  the carnage didn't end on the 19th.  
Thurs. Dec. 20th: I spent the day with stomach pains, and since I HAD to finish up some last minute shopping, I visited the bathroom in every store. Twice.

Fri. Dec. 21st at 2:30 AM  Caleb woke me up because he had "a heartburn".  I gave him some tums, but his heartburn turned into vomiting and horrible stomach pains.  He didn't know it, but I was watching him closely for signs of appendicitis.  At 4:30 AM, he broke out into hives. Yeah. Hives. Huh?  I rubbed his tummy and back with lotion, told him to try not to scratch, and went back to bed.  At 7:00 AM, I found him watching TV and when I asked how he was doing, he threw his hands in the air and said, "Great!".  He went to school. I figure he's already exposed his class anyway.  

Through all the sickness, I'm grateful to my mother-in-law, for watching our kids while we attended some our Christmas parties.  Please join me in praying for her continued health. She deserves it. Last weekend we had a party with all the therapists (and their wives) from Todd's work.  For the white elephant gift exchange, we gave the following:

a Sigmund Freud bobble-head doll...

 ...and plush "Syphilis".  Wish you could've
 been there when Todd's co-worker opened the gift and Todd shouted from across the room, "I just gave you syphilis!"

We came home with juggling balls, and a package of Bull Elk Urine.  I've always wanted some of that.

And lastly, I'm less than proud to tell you that when Todd accidentally reset our TV to it's factory settings, and for a few minutes we didn't know if we'd be able to watch Netflix Instant ever again (Dillon and his drama...) Justin surprised us with his newest phrase:  "Holy Crap!" which he either learned from Todd, or Frank on Everybody Loves Raymond.  Either way, there's room for improvement.

I'd better get quilting. So I can get it in the mail, and get to the laundry, and the shopping, and the wrapping, and the cleaning.  Did I mention I have company tomorrow night 'til New Year's?  Well, I do...and and the napkins are not freshly pressed. No wonder my left eye keeps twitching.

Thanksgiving

 We had a nice, quiet Thanksgiving at home this year with Todd's mom (Linda) and sister (Elizabeth).

Every year I get better at getting the meal done on time and on the table, and this year was by far the easiest.

(...except for the fact that when I checked the turkey the night before, it was still frozen SOLID.  It turns out some curious little hands turned the dial in the fridge in our garage and everything was frozen: broccoli, milk, sour cream, and the turkey.  I put the turkey in the sink in some water, and got up twice in the night to make sure the water was still cold.  At 6:30 AM, I turned the water to hot, and wrestled with that naked bird until he was thawed, and stuck him in the fridge.)

Apparently, Butterball turkeys do not come with string to "truss" the turkey. In case you were wondering, 

using blue dental floss instead will leave a blue line on your turkey.

 Linda ordered our rolls from Golden Corral, which freed up the oven for the stuffing and sweet potatoes, 

while I made the gravy and snitched the "guts".

  

I love the "guts". The liver is my  favorite.

I set the table the night before, and Elizabeth and I came up with the "turkey" napkins all on our own, 

with no help whatsoever from Pinterest.

Linda brought that cute turkey shaped butter, and the boys had lots of fun slicing its head off.

 We also had pumpkin pie, and this cake:

 No, I didn't make the cake.  I don't make pretty cakes.  Costco made this pretty cake. 

 I just transported it to my pretty cake plate (which was no easy task). 

We spent the afternoon watching White Christmas.

A few days later, Linda taught the boys to crochet.  They've been chaining up a storm, and even though he's not pictured, Caleb has the longest chain so far.  It's at least as big as a full size afghan.  In their next lesson, they'll learn to attach row 2.

(Brayden is wearing his PE uniform, hence the reason his name is broadcast in large letters on his shirt)

Easter weekend

We had a wonderful Easter weekend at our house.

It was filled with church, ham, Reeses PB cups, egg dying and hunting, naps (for the adults), 

and plenty of family time.

It took Justin a while to get into the egg hunting thing...until he realized there was candy inside!

Dillon chose to hunt for eggs in his pirate hat.

We color-coded the hunt to make it more fair.  Each child was assigned a color (or in Justin's case, a character).  They had to leave the yellow, green, blue, and Elmo eggs for the assigned person.

The pink, orange, and purple were free for all.

The golden egg had a coupon, "eggs"changeable for a Wii rental from Redbox.

Other "prizes" included coupons for extra computer time, ice cream, and getting out of dinner chores.

Todd took a spin on Caleb's bike

Our camera batteries died, so I didn't get any pictures of our egg dying activity.  A neighbor girl joined us on our patio, and after every egg had been dyed 2 or 3 times, it got dark so we turned on a light and set up cones for the kids to rollerblade/ripstik/ride scooters around.

Todd and I secretly wish we could ride the ripstik. 

We watched in awe as the kids wove through the cones.

We finished our celebration by watching Easter Bible Videos on Sunday night, 

with the air conditioning on, since it was at least 80 degrees in our house.

Climbin' the walls...

Spring Break is in full swing over here.

After we spent our morning watching the Blue Angels practice their stunts (from our backyard), 

we decided to go climb the walls at a trampoline arena.

They were too quick for me to get a picture, but the Blue Angels flew over our house today (all six in formation),
and they were so close I could read the writing on the jets.  I'm not into airplanes, but I have to admit, it was kinda cool. 

 Climbin' the walls

 I need this in my basement...

 After fifteen minutes of this...

 We had this...

 ...and this.

 After a short break, they were right back at it...

 Justin had the kiddie area all to himself.

After an hour of fun, I took four sweaty boys to Maverick for frozen yogurt, 

and we rented Wipeout for the Wii.

It's so fluffy I'm gonna die!

Name that movie.

This is the tree in my front yard.  It's so fluffy I'm gonna die!  I had a tree like this at my old house, but more years than not, the wind would blow the flowers off the minute they bloomed.  I am LOVING spring here! 

We've eaten out on the patio twice this week, and we've been getting our planter boxes ready for seeds.  I'm told we can plant tomatoes by the end of next week!

We have a fun yard for an easter egg hunt, so I'm trying to come up with a really cool one this year.  If you have any idea's for prizes let me know.  I've walked up and down the easter aisles at the store and I do not want to waste my money on all those dumb "party favors" that are just going to clutter up the house and end up in the garbage.  I also don't want a huge amount of candy around.  So far all I've come up with is homemade bookmarks.  If you have any other idea's I'd love to hear them.

We're planning to celebrate Easter on Saturday (at least the "fluffy" stuff), so that Sunday will be more spiritual.  I've never done it that way before, but it's making me more excited for Easter than I've ever been.

 (I think my green grass and fluffy tree helps, too).  

Looks Like Santa's Been Here Again

This means more to me than it will to most of you, but I didn't want to lose the link, and putting it on my blog means I'll be able to find it again whenever I want.

My brother and his wife wrote a family Christmas song for their gift to us this year.  He took our old home movies and included clips throughout the music.  I get choked up every time I watch it.

For those who don't already know, I was raised on a dairy farm.  Every year on Christmas, we had to wait for my Dad to finish milking the cows before we could open presents.  We waited by the kitchen window and watched for the lights of his truck to come down the road.  When he got home, Dad would go downstairs and light a fire, take pictures of the "spread", and then finally we were allowed to run down the stairs.

It's funny, but after all these years, my favorite memories are not of the gifts I received, but of that time in the kitchen window while we waited for dad...the anticipation.  Thanks, Ben and Carrie, for portraying the magic of our Christmases in such a beautiful way so that I can share it with my own kids.  You have inspired me to be better about taking pictures and video of my own family.

And thanks, Mom and Dad, for "the magic".

Merry Christmas from sunny Southern Utah!

(Thou shalt not covet thy neighbors weather...)

We are slowly getting settled, and so far we are loving our new house, neighbrhood, and ward.  

I managed to get the kitchen, living room, and dining room unpacked (and decorated), but in the bathrooms and bedrooms we are still living out of boxes.  Hopefully I'll be able to post pictures soon.

This picture makes me laugh. It may take awhile to "grow into" our new house.
(We have our projector downstairs for movies and Wii, but our only TV is a 17"-er)

We are enjoying our holiday (and break from unpacking) immensely.  This morning (before church) we went through our stockings and saw what Santa brought us, then we attended a wonderful sacrament meeting (I love Christmas on Sunday). Now we're relaxing and waiting to skype with Grandma before opening the rest of our gifts.

Dillon has mentioned over and over (and over) how badly he needed a red scooter now that we have such a scooter-friendly yard.  Taking turns with Caleb's blue scooter was such an inconvenience.  He was thrilled  (and very lucky) that Santa got the message on such late notice!

Caleb got a ripstick.  These pictures give the false impression that he actually knows how to ride it.

He doesn't...but I have a feeling that it won't be too long before he's "rippin'" it up out there.

Santa brought Brayden a new bike.  It has hand brakes and 21 speeds.  With this gift, his brothers each got a "new-to-them" bike handed down, and now they can all ride bikes together.  They haven't been able to do that ever since "nobody" rode Dillon's bike into the middle of the driveway and parked it behind Dad's truck...

Justin got new sand toys, and some sidewalk chalk.  We haven't tried the chalk yet, but the sandbox has been a raging success since the minute we arrived in the moving truck.

Christmas with a 16 mos. old has been one adventure after another.  We re-decorate the tree daily, and we are dilligently trying to teach Justin to take the candy OUT of the wrapper before he eats it.

After Brayden rode his bike for awhile, I caught him out on the lawn trying to figure out his new maze game, "Perplexus".  

Have I mentioned that I love the weather here?

This helicopter arrived from Amazon a few weeks ago (to Todd; from Todd) and I wrapped it up before he had a chance to see it.  After a mad search for batteries this morning, he was finally able to get it off the ground.

I don't have a picture of it, but Todd surprised me with an ipod touch!  Someone (who already had an iphone) won it at Todd's Christmas work party and gave him a deal.  Now if I can just figure out how to use it...

I can't even begin to name all the blessings we've had this year, especially in the last couple months, but I hope to somehow convey my gratitude in a future post.  It's just too hard to think right now with all the unpacking/Christmas chaos/kids out of school.

I didn't get Christmas cards out this year (again), but we've loved hearing from many of you, and wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a blessed new year.

Halloween

Harry Potter, with Fred and Ron Weasley

The boys wore their suit pants and church shoes in the evening for Trunk or Treat, 

but I made them wear jeans to school. 

Close up of Caleb's scar

I had planned to make Jusin a golden snitch hat, but I knew he wouldn't wear it so I didn't waste the time making it.  Instead, he wore his glow in the dark pajama's.  

His favorite part of Halloween was discovering Dum Dum suckers, and Rice Krispie treats.

We attended the Halloween Carnival at the school, and Brayden won this cake at the cake walk.

Random happenings

Today is crazy hair day at school.  I had to run to the grocery store at 7:30 AM to get orange hairspray so Caleb could be a jack-o-lantern like Dillon (who had to be bribed to wear his jack-o-lantern hair).  Brayden was much too cool for crazy hair.

Caleb wore a spider in his orange hair

Last week I sent Brayden and Caleb to the store (alone) for the first time ever (we live a block and a half away).  Their assignment was to get a chocolate bar so we could make chocolate curls for the pie Brayden made.

They were gone for quite awhile and I was starting to get nervous when I finally saw them walking home.  It turns out that after their purchase, Brayden realized that the cashier had given them 6 cents too much change...so they turned around and went back to return the money. I was one proud mama!

Too cold for a popsicle?  No way.
Dillon just ate his otter-pop with gloves.
(I should have given him a bib)

I had a gallbladder attack last week, and I don't have a gallbladder.

When I took the kids to the clinic the next day for their flu shots, I asked the Dr. about it.  He said that sometimes there is a stone in the common bile duct between the gallbladder and liver.  He looked up my surgery info on the computer and said that the surgeon had tried to check the common bile duct, but the opening was too small and he couldn't get the instrument inside.

Lovely.

 If I continue to have problems, I'll have to have some kind of a scope done that will irritate my pancreas.  This is the first time anything like this has happened since my surgery, so I'm hoping it's just a weird fluke.

The sale of our house is final.  We made a whopping $3.28 on the deal, and I feel pretty darn lucky just to get out of it.  I told Todd we'd have to be sure to put the money in savings to go towards our next house, or we'll get heavily taxed on it  :o)

My friend suggested we go to the local restaurant and celebrate with baby ice cream cones.

I love a baby in new dinosaur jammies...

Justin is walking/running everywhere these days.  He took his first courageous walk across the living room on Conference Sunday, about 10 minutes before Todd left to go back to the trailer.  I can't even tell you how glad Todd was that he was here to see it.

Now, a couple weeks later, he's getting more brave and starting to climb to get wherever he "needs" to go.  He has four teeth and one more on the way and loves to eat off the floor. He'll throw his food down from his high chair and eat it off the floor as soon as we let him out.  Hopefully he's building immunity...


In other news, we found the perfect house and got all excited about it just in time for it to go into foreclosure and be sold on auction last Thursday.  Unfortunately, we can't compete with people who have cash to buy a house.

We made an offer on another one this weekend.  I don't care for the look of the outside (it was built in the 80's) but the inside meets our needs perfectly.  We will spend the next few days haggling over the price and I'll be sure to post pictures if it works out.