Will's Birthday

Sunday we celebrated Will's b-day. We had all the grandparents over for a birthday dinner and party. He was so stinking cute. He loved being the center of attention and getting SPOILED Rotten! Just finished my pages for his book and wanted to post them.

I can not believe my baby is 3 YIKES!

10 things I did this week Nov. 5th - 12th

Tuesday Scmusday... Let just skip to Thursday and call it a week. LOL

1. I finally got my card reader fixed so that I could upload my pictures. I have this stupid fettish about not being able to post unless I have pictures. I am demented and I know it.

2. I did activity days this week and it was boring but necessary. The girls just came over and practiced a song for the primary program which was on Sunday. Then this week are taking Thanksgiving baskets to the Widows in our ward.

3. I had a SUPER COOL AWESOME FUN Girls weekend road trip. Yep again! WOO HOO! I went down to my friend Amy's house from Thursday night till Sunday night. We stayed up late, shopped till we dropped, went to Scrapbook USA, Spent more money than I am worth, ate junk, made a mess of Amy's house, slept in till like noon everyday, and just over all hung out chatting and havign fun together!

These girls ROCK! I love my UT Scrapgirls!

I drove down with Heidi. We had fun just getting time to talk. There is just noghting like a good road trip with friends. It is theraputic.

We really make a mess when we scrapbook. Seems like we haul everything but the kitchen sink on these trips.

And eafter hauling every scrapbook item we can find.. I look up and here we all are on our laptops doing digital scrapbooking. LOL

Though you can rest assured even with all the digital scrapbooking going on we still made our fair share of a mess. Look at the path of destruction that we left in Amy's Kitchen. LOL

And proof that I did get at least some regular paper scrapping done.

The only group picture we got was out in Amy's Hot Tub, in her Fabulous yard! But Emma isn't in it. We never think to get everyone at once. Dang it!

4. While in St. Geroge we went out to eat together. Our service was not the best and we finally asked for our checks.... 20 mins later we have no clue what had happened to our waitress so we find someone else to help us. She ends up getting the manager and he ends up comping our meals and giving us a $50 Gift Card to use next time we all get together. I kinda feel guilty that he gave us so much free stuff. But I also felt a lot better that he went out of the way to make a bad experiance so much better. Yea, we will for sure be going back there again.
MaryLynn and Amy at dinner

MaryLynn's cute baby girl. We went all kid free this weekend but we let Jenna come but only because she is soooooo darn cute and little. LOL You have to admit she is a doll. And she's a pretty good baby too.

5. On our way out of town Heidi, Subrina, and I stopped to take some pictures with the Red Rocks. Needless to say we got a little silly. LOL

6. While I was gone Jesse and the Kids went to lunch with his sister. They met her at her house and then loaded into the cars to go to the resturaunt. All the kids jumped into the other cars and left Jesse as chopped liver. LOL So when he got to the resturaunt they were amazed to discover that Garyn was missing. OOPS! So Jesse jumps back in the car and runs back to find poor Garyn crying on the curb.

Poor kid was in the bathroom when they left and they all thought he was in a different car with someone else. But they got him and it was all soothed out over a nice meal. LOL He did learn a few things like next time don't go stand on the curb instead grab a phone and call dads cell phone. And just for the record I have never left one of the kids behind this only happens on dad's watch. hehehehe (knock on wood)


7. This week we brought over all of our Baby kittens that my mommy cat so nicely had at my mom and dads house. Garyn has been having a blast chasing them and catchign them and sneaking them into the house and hiding them in totes. UGH! I have to keep rescuing them. He has finally understood that putting them into containers to keep them in one spot isn't such a great idea since they can't breath but he still puts them in upside down laundry baskets. And he loves to see how many he can catch and hold at once.


8. The night I got back from my trip and was putting the kids to bed Jaden tell me "Oh yea, wake me up early I have to make a mummy mask." I am like ok what is that and he tells me it needs to be paper mache' and etc. I swear boys have no clue! Does he think I am an art supply store? Well Monday morning we made a Mummy Mask the best we could with what we had in my scrapbook room. And it actually turned out pretty good. What do ya think?


9. On Tuesday I woke up feeling like I truck ran over me. I worked but got off 2 hrs early so I went upstairs and slept for the 2 hrs. And when I woke up I was tired and sick. Sore achey body, etc. I was so stinking tired. But Grandpa to the rescue said that he would come over and take Will for a bit. Little did I know that he was going to end up with Garyn after school to and I slept from 9:30 am till 3:30 pm. The sleep was great but it still took me several long tired days to start to feel better. When Will heard me on the phone with Grandpa he was so excited he ran and got dressed and waited by the back door to hear the 4 wheeler comming. Here's a picute of him eating a pop tart and waiting... you can tell by the finger prints on the door that he goes here a lot. LOL





10. Wednesday I got to go to a Stamp Camp Card Class with Heidi. We made 8 cards and it was a blast. I haven't been to a stamp thing in years. I think I am going to start going once a month with her.

Izzy the Transvest Dog

(page credits made with Memory Mixer and template from TopLine Creations)

The words here say:
Uncle Thad kept calling about us getting a new dog. I kept saying NO. He finally decided to bring the dog over. Smart! The kids loved it and the begging began. Part of the begging process was Samantha deciding it would be hers and that she would take care of it. She was very excited about her new "girl" puppy. Off we ran to Wal-Mart to get pink puppy bling bling. Well Mantha had a blast dressing up Isabella in her pink harness and pink diamond studded collar.

Until a few days later Grandpa came over and took a look at the dog. Turns out that Isabella is a HE! She had a cow and for a while decided that she didn't want him if he was not a she. After a lot of tears she finally has embraces his transvest-dogness and has decided to call him Izadore or Izzy for short. He is a mix between a Mini-Pincher and a Chihuahua so he is supposed to stay small. He is actually really cute and extremely playful. The kids love him. Mom and Dad are still not so sure about the joys or potty training an 8 week old puppy in our new house. Oh the crazy lives we lead. Welcome to the family Izzy!

The part I left out of the scrapbook page is that we told her it is just fine for a boy dog to wear pink (especially since I spend a small fortune on doggy apparel) and then when she decided that was true she got him all dressed up in transvest-dog style and we took him to the Family Memorial day BBQ. My stupid brothers made so much fun of the dog. They are MEAN!!! They told her that her dog is gay and told her that he hates pink and that he is crying because she made him wear it. I am still mad at them!! They made her cry and wouldn't just stop. She finally took the dog walked home and took off all it's clothes and almost threw it out the window. But Jada my niece went with her and was great to comfort her and tell her to just ignore them. Big Meanies picking on a 9 yr old girl and her cross dressing dog. Jesse yelled at them and they said "we didn't pick on her we made fun of the dog" whatever like that makes it ok. grrrrrrrrrrrr..... stupid brothers never grow out of picking on the girls! I don't pick on their kids and try to make them cry. But maybe I should. They are butts they use to call Jaden gay too when he was the only grandson with like 9 girl cousins and would play in the dress ups with them. See they are mean huh?

Today is my kids last day of school and tonight Samantha is having a huge Luau to celebrate. It is going to be a crazy day getting it all ready but she is so excited and I know it is going to be so much fun. She has invited like 25 girls and I know some already have plans so I am not sure hoe many we have coming but it should be a houseful. Next year Jaden gets to have the party but this year he gets to be the party slave. Wish me luck. A huge party on no sleep. It should be great. How many times will I loose it today? HAHAHA Yesterday on my 3 hrs of sleep I totally cried because Will got gum on the couch. Yeah when I am tired I cry at anything and everything. It is fabulous!


p.s. totally stole the word Transvestdog from Missy. Thanks Missy!

When bad days go bad-er and then end up being good

Page Credits: made with Memory Mixer with elements from Banner Women Little Tike Tyrone Bonus

The words on the page say: Tonight we watched the last American Idol for the 2007 season. I haven’t even been following it but I guess the kids have been. This year there was a really talented 17 year old boy from UT and he made it to the final 2. His name is David Archuleta. The kids were so cute and so hyper watching this and cheering for him. They called in and voted for him last night. For dinner I made green chili enchiladas and when I was getting them dished onto the plates Samantha said “Hey mom we are having David Enchiladas for dinner!” She figured I had planned it all along. HAHAHA She is funny. In the end he didn’t win but it was very fun to watch him do so well with his great talent.

Have you ever had one of those stupid days where you just knew everything was going to be bad you had already planned on it and then it just all went worse? This was one of those days. It started before the day even started or ended or whatever you call it. Yesterday we had the dog neutered and so he is supposed to stay close and not get wet for 10 days. But he needed to go out and do his thing so I told Jesse to take him our and the stupid thing ran straight over to my dad. Mind you this is at 1 in the morning when I was working and couldn't got get him and Jesse was just plain mad and then of course it was my fault since I had suggested taking him out because I didn't want to clean up dog crap off the floor. Yea I know I am evil for sure! So when I finally got of work at 4 am I jumped in the car and had to go get the stupid thing and bring him home. UGH! So I didn't even get to bed until 5:30 and I knew that I was not going to get much sleep because some Wed. we have meetings at work.

So since Will and Gary fell asleep so early the night before they were up and wild and crazy by 7:30 am. Lucky Me! So being as that I am running on 2 hrs of sleep I am a bear. So the meeting I was supposed to go to was at 1 but I wanted to go at 10 and get it over with. And I knew I wasn't going to get any sleep but what then the day got worse. Within 10 minutes of Jesse leaving all the fire alarms so off. I look around no fire no smoke. Figure the batteries are dead and reset them. All is quiet for a minute. When I was trying to get ready I went into the kitchen an notice that there is water by the back door. The nice weather was blowing the rain in under the back door. The kids have already messed up the weather stripping. Yes we are all so shocked NOT!

So then I go to the laundry room to get a towel and notice water on the floor back there. My 1st thought is that the kids did it or that the stupid dog peed there (since he is now grounded for his 5 am antics to the house unless he is on his leash) But as I was cleaning it up water dripped on my head. Yes water dripping on my head in my house that is only 2 months old! ARG!!!!!!! I look up and it is coming from the little hole in the smoke detector. Ding ding ding. AH HA no wonder the detectors were going off. So then I call Jesse and the contractor and lucky work told me I could call into the training instead of driving into SLC which takes me all day. So then the stupid smoke detector does off again. This time I know why and I reset them knowing someone is coming to fix it all. or maybe not?

So I go in and try to get logged into the conference call and they are having phone problems. Of course and at this point I am just plain tired and don't want to deal. So they tell me to try again at 1. Ok fine... So what do you think the boys did in 10 mins while I was trying to get logged in and on mute. Everything. Mess mess mess and more mess. Including spray bottles of water and kitchen tongs and dry spaghetti noodles. grrrrrrr kids. So then they get into trouble and I try to start cleaning up and Will is a snotty little pill and starts crying and wanting to be held and Garyn is picking on him making him cry and chasing him and blah blah blah. So we finally get settled and I think hey maybe I can take a little nap before I have to call in again. SO I get Will all settled on my lap and of course the dang smoke alarm goes off again. This time it will not reset. And duh it is freaking out because it is wet and I am such a chicken I wasn't about to go in and pull it down because I don't want to get electrocuted. So I sit and listen to it and now I am intense and the kids are intense and then Garyn come up and says "wanna know what I think of this day?" and I say "That its' a bad one?" and he says "no it is the worst day ever" so then we sang the best day ever song only made it the worst day ever song and we at least go a good laugh out of it. We made lunch and then I went in to get logged on to the call. With the detector going off every few minutes by now. LOVELY!! I swear I was about to start having seizures.

Thank goodness for mute. I was able to shut the door get logged in and on mute in under 5 min. This time the boys were nice enough to not get into to much trouble and then I walked around with the phone listening. 1/2 way through Jesse came home. He isn't a chicken and had that thing ripped off the ceiling and the batteries out before I could say boo. UGH what a day. But then I was able to get off the call have a 2 1/2 hr nap WOO HOO and the rest of the night wasn't too bad. We ate "David" Enchiladas and watched American Idol. It was nice to have a mellow sit in the house and watch tv night after a crazy pull your hair out day. Thank goodness Jesse came to the rescue and I forgot to mention he brought home a harness for the dog so that I can take him out to pee with out him going over to my dads to see his doggy pals. :) That is the icing on the cake. Oh and another positive thing I found a candy bar that I had stashed away now that is one way to make a bad day that was a bad-er day a better one right?

This was the longest post from hell but I do feel better now.

Crafty Goodness and Girl Fun

OOH LA LA!: OK so I am like what almost a month late? But I really wanted to post these pictures because we had so much fun back in April at Scrapbook USA in SLC. We have this little group that gets together every time the expo runs and we keep adding people each time too and that makes it even funner. :) We are loving this tradition. This time we stayed at my house and I loved, loved, loved being the host, since I finally have some room to do it. I know you totally missed sleeping on the love seat huh Amy? I kicked the kids out of their rooms and they slept in the bonus room for a few nights so they were loving it too, thinking it was an extension of spring break. (we got home from spring break Thursday night and the girls started arriving Thursday night too so it was pretty much an extension of spring break) And then we took over the bedrooms and house. It was great. Poor Jesse.

This was such a great way to beak in the new house and I loved taking some time off work to just hang with the girls. Here are the pictures so that I have proof that I actually did get some crafting time. WOO HOO!!!

My total favorite purchase this year was these card kits from Creating Keepsakes. LOVE THEM! I bought a lot of them since I planned on using them as gifts. I am not creative but I love to create and this is a super cool way for me to go. Any time it is pre-thought out is good for me. And each kit makes 75 cards so I was uber impressed. Wishing I could get more actually.

Here are some of the other cards I made that weekend and the bags that I put the cards in for the teachers. These cards were from kits by My Minds Eye. Super Cute Huh? Then the night before mothers day I thought of an even cuter card holder so my mothers day gifts were mondo cutsie. I will try to find the picture and add it too the bottom.

After the expo and after we had shopped till we dropped we stopped of to eat. I took Samantha with me to the expo and she had a blast I found her a great kit that had a 12x12 book and all the matching papers and sticker and etc. for $15 she was in heaven but she got sooo tired and said she couldn't shop any more (after like 3 hrs) and since Nikki was leaving early she was nice enough to take her home. It is along drive that was very nice of her. Here are the ones that when to eat. Subrina, and her Niece, Trissy, Amy w/Trissy's little girl, Marylnn with her tiny baby, And Heidi.
Here is Marylnn and her tiny baby she wasn't even 6 weeks old but ML brought her and came and had fun anyway. We all loved taking turns holding her, and I think mommy had a fun time, and that she really needed the mommy break too. There is no therapy quite like girls nights especially sleep overs, right? Especially for a mom that just had her 3rd baby. It is exhausting.
And here we are just hanging out, scrapping, crafting, playing and eating. I actually had room for 5 fold up tables I was shocked. It was nice we could all fit together in one room area. It was smoochy but nice.
I don't know what possessed us but we were nice and let the kids hang with us this weekend too. Well on Saturday night for a bit anyway. Here are some of my kids and Nikki's kids. Yeah they are bored can you tell? NOT! They loved it. I have to admit having the extra kids around was actually easier because all of my kids had someone to play with. Well, except for Will, but her just loves the chaos. Very true too he never is hard when I have him in a big group. It is when we are trying to deal with him at home in the quiet that he turns into a monster. Strange o kid.
Garyn and Kenzie. They had a blast running around and playing. Now don't they make a cute couple? Yeah, I am thinking Subrina and I should arrange a marriage.... LOL I am sure the will love to hear that in 20 yrs. But he already knows I am nuts.

As you can see it was a pretty successful weekend. Lots of fun and lots of crafting. My kids made tons of scrapbook pages and Samantha's looked better than mine. Another of her many talents. She just can do anything. No fair. Jaden thinks she hogged up all the family talent but he has talents they are just not the kind you can see or win awards for. But they are still very important and useful. I felt the same way growing up I was smooshed in between 2 brothers that were 4.0 students, with lots of abilities. But they (and they will disagree here but it my blog so hahahaha) they were smart nerds and I was social (lucky to graduate too busy dating) so I just pretended I didn't know them even though I was impressed will all that they could and still can do. They stole the talent jeans in our family. Mean of them huh? But really, they did leave me the grand copy-cat, crafty jean and the party planning jean so isn't that all the talent I need? ;)

Samantha New Track Star, Missing in Action.....

One of those weeks: a ride on the emotional roller coaster of life... Mostly centered on Samantha

First off I have to say that I am not the only one enjoying my birthday present of the Cricut Machine. Samantha made this cute sign for the door to her room. I love that I actually got her to show some of that cute personality of hers on camera. (she is shy)

Now for the scary story of the day. I had a very busy day with lots to get done. Finishing up my mothers days gifts. And I was sitting here making them around 10 am when I get a phone call from the school. My 1st thought was that Jaden better not be calling to tell me to come get him because my car is still in the shop and I just knew it wasn't Samantha because her class was on a field trip today. It was the school secretary saying that she was calling to see how Samantha is doing. I am like "?????Huh???? what are you talking about?"

So she said "Well isn't she sick? Isn't the why she isn't as school?"

UM so my heart does a leap. I reply in a somewhat panicked voice by now "She better be at school I put her on the bus this morning."

Yeah at this point you can imagine I am starting to think the worst.

So she says "Well, she probably just got marked absent. I will run to her class room and check on her."

Only problem NO ONE is in the class room because they are gone on a field trip. So she assured me she would find out. I told her she better call the bus depot and get the drive on the intercom ASAP and make sure my kid is there. So I hang up start pacing and thinking what the hell happened to my kid? I kept telling myself she is there, she is fine, if anything happened after she got on the bus someone would have seen and would have ran for help, wouldn't they?

So then ah ha I remember the teacher is one of her friends grandma's so I call the mom to get the grandma/ teachers cell phone and guess what she isn't there she is on the field trip too. So then ah ha number 2 call Nikki she may be there she goes on field trips.

So I call her cell phone and she answers.

Me: all calm "are you working or are you on the field trip?"

her: "I am on the field trip"

Me: "Is Samantha there?"

Her: "Ya, why do you need to talk to her?"

Me: wah, wah, wah, boo hoo, hysterically crying "no I am just glad she is with you and alive and safe"

Nikki again: "take a breath! What is going on?"

So I tell her. At that point the school calls back. They had called another teacher on her cell phone at the same time.

See this is how I am. I totally held it together thinking OK I am sure she is there but I want to confirm it. So I take care of that, figuring out how I am going to make sure she made it to the field trip. I didn't really get too worked up until Nikki confirmed that she was fine at which point I lost it, totally bawling hysterically. Once I get the yes she is fine then I cry because I was so glad that she was ok. Just to realize that she is ok and how fast things can happen. Man being a mom sucks. Kids can be such a worry and you just want to lock them up where you can keep them safe, but you know that they have to have a life and that you have to let them go and be on their own sometimes, but it is so hard and so scary. So needless to say this was on hell of a scary day and I don't mind saying that I had the shit scared out of me. You bet ya, I was so damn happy to see my baby girl walk in that door after school today.

And in other news.... she kicked some butt at the Hershey Track Meet on Tuesday:

Running shoes $20

Sun Screen $5

Home lunch $4

Finding out you can kick major A$$ and that you have a real talent: PRICELESS!!

This was Samantha's 1st year to do the track meet. She has been so nervous about it and has been saying things like: I will look so dumb when I run, so and so said this, what if my foot hurts, what if I don't want to run, etc. you know just being her total normal stressed out self. She get all worked up over everything. She totally stressed until she makes herself sick. Now we knew she could run pretty fast and that if she would actually get past the nerves and past her being so self conscious that she would do pretty good in her races and that she would find out for herself that she can do anything she tries. We didn't really know that she was going to kick some major butt and find out that she loves to win and has a little competitive streak to her.

So when I get there her teacher tells me that Samantha is really nervous and that she says she isn't going to run. The teacher will not make them run if they don't want to. But I was determined to get this girl on the track. I love her to pieces but she really stays in her little bubble way too much. She has a very hard time getting out and trying new things or meeting new people. She is SHY very SHY and she is very hard on herself and totally a nervous person. I knew I had to make her at least try this. So I sat in the stands and talked to her for a long time about how she needed to just pretend that she is the only one on that track and that really no one would be watching just her. And she pointed out just how fast it is over and that you aren't on there in front of everyone for very long and then you get to sit with your friends again. So she decides that she is going to give it a try and lines up for the 1st race. 50 meter I think.

WOO HOO GO Samantha GO! She crossed that finish line and didn't have anyone even close to her. (probably figured the faster she ran the less people could see of her. LOL) But oh boy once she caught a taste or victory she was thrilled. She came off after that 1st race and was like "WOW that was fun! I like winning!" uh oh not only have we found a new talent but we have unleashed little miss competition. She finished her other events 1st place too. Then moved into the semi-finals where she finished those races all 1st place too. And then they did her relay and then finals. She did great! She was so exhausted by the end. She came up and told me that she had ran 11 races. (I don't think it was quite that many) But even exhausted when she ran the finals she was amazing. She came in 3rd place in one and I believe 4th place in the other. She has been so proud of her self and keeps telling us. "I am the 3rd fastest 3rd grader in the city" Cute huh!?

I know I am being a bragger mom, but I have to just tell you what I am bragging about.. I am so proud of her for not making up any excuses, for not getting so scared that she either quit or puked or fainted, for not letting other people get into her head and convince her that she couldn't do it so why try. I am so proud of her for getting out there for trusting in herself and for trying. For not just trying but for really going for it, for giving it her all and for really really being brave. This was one of the best experiences and self confidence builders that she could ever have and she really needed it. Way to go girl!! You are a rock star! Looks like there is one crack in the shell and we may get her to come out of it after all.

Friday Funny!

This sums up the existence of Will.

Notice the missing clothes?

Notice that he has replaced his clothing with self imposed pen tattooing?

Notice that he is also donning a pair of Garyn's boots that Garyn is not very happy about?

Notice the boxes all stacked up in the background?

Notice the bruised forehead from climbing up the drawers?

Notice the mess all over his face and his hands?

No wait there is no mess on his hands... Oh he must have put that mess onto the couch!

Notice that he is extremely happy with his current sate of being?

Notice that if you could see mom she would probably be half laughing and half crying because this kid drives her nuts but also is so adorable that you just can't help but love him!

Notice that it is just all plain funny?

Awwwww Our Silly, Willy, Pilly, we love you!

p.s.

OK so I took this picture last week and was saving for my Wordless Wednesday and never got a chance to put it up so now it is my Friday Funny. LOL But, he is funny, and you know it! hehehe

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