A month in pictures

This past month just seemed to fly by in a flurry. I don't want to miss documenting all the fun and since pictures is the only way I know how here is A month in pictures! (also because in my current state of sleepy I can only remember the things I took pictures of.

I got the rest of my cement poured. It is so nice to have a sidewalk and patio to off set my dirt yard. But things are coming along nicely even if a little slow and I planted flowers in pots out front to bring in some green. Also a big adjustment is that my shifts got changed at work and I am now working 10:30 pm to 4:30 am and though this means less sleep it also means more time at night to get things in the yard done. Before Jesse would get home most days around 6 and I had to be in my office and logged in by 8 so we had time to do dinner and that was about it.

I am looking forward to having more time at night after the kids go to bed. Tonight we actually got to have a kid free few moments to talk and got to watch a movie together. I work from home which is really nice but since I work on the phone I hibernate into my office were it is distraction and noise free. Some of the girls I work with can work in their family rooms but I am too much of a worrier for that. So instead I choose to work in the middle of the night. But once school gets out Jaden will be able to watch the kids in the mornings and let me sleep in. That will be good and it will also be a great way for him to earn some money (he keeps asking for a money earning job around here) And since I will only be a few rooms away I will not have to stress about the trouble they will get into... well to much... oh crap YIKES!!! Today my dad was a doll and took the kids across the street to his house to play and I got to sleep for 4 straight hrs. It was bliss!!! What I am going to do when school starts again and we have to bet up and on the bus and etc.? I have no idea but for now I will just be thankful that I can work at home with only a few little inconveniences. Because truly this is a sweet gig and I am very blessed to have my job.

Another fun event of the past month was going to Grandpa J's house for a Birthday dinner. The kids love getting together and spending time with the cousins. Look how sweet grandpa is indulging Will with a ride in the gator since all the big kids kicked him out of the other one. If you look close you can see them all crammed in together getting jealous that Will gets his own personal ride. Grandpa is so cute with the kids. He is the type of guy that acts like a tough guy but once you see him with the grand kids you just know he is really a little kitten. Know what I mean?

The 3 famous 11 yr olds. Jaden is in a group with 3 cousins his same age on this side of the family and on my side also. It was really fun that year to be pregnant at the same time as my sister and 3 sister in-laws. And as you can see the kids have loved growing up together. Here they are thinking the rule the roost as the drivers of the buggy excursion. Yea, now you are understanding just how it was that Will got kicked out huh?

Here are all my boys looking SHAGGY! We have a tendency to let the hair get a little out of control before making it in for hair cuts. Lucky for us we have a very patient hair dresser and friend that understands out crazy ways and can come to the rescue with her magic Nikki Scissor Hands.

And Nikki, today the only thing you are going to get blamed for is for making Will look this darn cute!

This was my attempt at catching his after shot in her salon.

The kids aren't letting the lack of grass stop them from having fun in the yard. They have set busy to work making mud rivers and waterfalls. I think they just like building dams and saying "dam" because the think the are getting away with something. They love to build a reservoir then make paths for the water and then destroy the dam and let all the water enter the channels to see how far it will get or how far it can push things. I love that the weather is good enough for lots of outdoor play but I hate the muddy clothes every day!




And with all the outside play and working on getting the garden ready comes some tuckered out kiddos.... and dogs. :)

One quick snap of the pre-garden preparation. You saw the finished results already. Yes this was pre-millions of tomato plants.

And for Activity Days with the little girls from church, we made these fun treat plates for the moms. Yummy and also something that the moms could just eat and not have to find a place for. It was a clutter free gift.


The side effect however was a not so clean kitchen. This is the result of 9 girls and pans of melted chocolate. I won't even start on the amount of chocolate scraping I had to do.

The boys playing with Grandpa's puppies. And more dying animals stories. The long made short 2 of the puppies got sick started throwing up and ended up dying. What is up? And we also lost yet another calf. UGH! What is up? Is this more of Mother Freaking Nature hating me? I guess my kids are learning to be tuff. Right? grrrrrrr!!

And here is Samantha trying to look excited about the 7 mini frogs in the bucket. They have been catching frogs. Lucky they put the back into the wild and don't get to attached since they would just die too. Seeing as that seems to be the theme around here.

And this would be poor Will sporting a nice sized fat lip that Garyn decided to give him. Garyn is a good kid and he is so cute with Will, but lately they seem to be playing way to rough with each other. I have had to hide any long hard object (aka club) and also any ribbon rope or cord (aka whip). Ever since Garyn saw bits and pieces of Indiana Jones that dad was watching he now wants to whip everything and everyone in site. Yea, NOT funny! and NOT cute! This is him trying to look all innocent after giving Will the fat lip. Grrrrrrr. Don't even get me started on the day he found the pet chain in Samantha's room. You know the ones that are supposed to hang from the ceiling so that you can hand your stuffed animals? Well guess what? They also make a very painful whip. OOOH KIDS!!

And another very expensive trip to the dentist. Jaden had to get a crown because he has a tooth that is broken off and Samantha had 2 cavities filled. Thank goodness Garyn had a clean bill of tooth health. (for now)

She seems to be enjoying the laughing gas to much doesn't she? HA HA HA HA HA HA!

This was another proud mommy moment brought to you by Hersey. Jaden's track meet was this past week. He did not want to run. He tried everything to get out of it including not telling me it was the same day as the dentist appointment. Jaden bless is little heart has a hard time a school sometimes. He is a bully magnet. This year has been much better than years past but some days he still gets more than his fair share for crap. And I guess some of the kids have been teasing him about not being a super fast runner. I am sure that Samantha doing so well at her meet didn't help him in that area. But after much coaxing I was finally able to convince him that he needed to run his race to prove to himself that he could do anything he wanted and that he wasn't going to let the bullies get the better of him. To be honest the final and last straw I used was that if he didn't go down and get lined up they would probably read his name in the speakers. That was enough of a motivation for him to go get in line. He was in heat 37 so he was waiting for a long time. I really thought he might bail out but he didn't he actually ran. I was so proud of him. And to tell the truth he didn't do half bad. I couldn't tell from where I was standing if he had taken 2nd or 3rd in his heat. He says it was 3rd. That isn't the point though. The point was he tried he actually just tried. He put all the voices in his head to rest by doing his best and to tell the truth again I was more proud of him for taking 3rd in his one heat than I was when Samantha took 3rd in the whole city, because he really really overcame such an obstacle. It was probably one of the hardest things for him. He is a very timid personality and he lets things really get to him, he never stands up for himself because he doesn't want the teachers to get mad at him so he just takes it from these bullies all the time. And I mean even physically! Last week one kid slapped him and last year they kept "white washing" him, which I guess means shoving you in the snow and putting snow down your shirt. But this was his own little way of standing up to them. You know I am just really proud of him and really lucky to have a kid that is such a good kid. He just always wants to do the right thing and he says "being mean back isn't right" God bless his heart he is an absolute angel! A little lazy but such a dang good person! with a heart of GOLD!



For mothers day we had 3 different family events. 1st we took Grandma S (hubbies mom) out to dinner. I didn't grab m camera on the way out the door so I didn't even get a picture. And grandma was such a doll she gave me the cutest watering can! I love it and it is next to my plants on the fire place. For looks only. The kids better keep their hands off. The next event was on Mothers Day Sunday we went with my family for Grandma N's picnic. We went to a park behind the temple and it was very nice. The food was easy and yummy (sandwiches) and the kids had a blast on the big hill ice blocking. The funniest part was when Will dumped out his drink and was trying to ice block on the little ice cubes. LOL He just wants to be big. like the others. It was darling but the picture I got didn't even really show it. He is hilarious. Also just to top of the day my mom gave each of us a necklace and earring's to match. It was very sweet of her.

And then this Sunday we had a belated Mothers Day Dinner at Grandmas J's (hubbies step mom) She did a fabulous dinner as always. And she didn't even let us help. She made it fairly easy on herself by buying catering but I still felt guilty that she did the whole dinner and it was her mothers day dinner. Anyway here is a great shot of the kids on the gator again. Yup the love that thing. Gives poor grandma a heart attack too but they love it. And she also gave each of us mom's 2 scrapbook kits including the albums and all the papers, embellishments, and etc to match. AWESOME! now to put it to some use. The only crafting I have done lately was to make the card boxes for the mothers day cards. Very last minute and one didn't even get decorated because I thought of it too late. Here is how cute they turned out. I am loving that little cricut machine. I also used it this week to help Jaden's class with their state reports. AWESOME and lots of fun! Still need to go to the school and get my machine back.

And so there we go a month all at once. But now I can sleep in peace tonight er uh I mean today, knowing that my goal to keep a record is actually happening. And after all this is for my peace of mind anyway. And all in all not a bad month. Crazy, busy as always but filled with fun moments together, and that is what matters.