Wordless Wednesday

Because I didn't get to do a Christmas Post here are my 2 Favorite Christmas Pictures:

OK so I am alive still.. I think..

I have been meaning to post and then I loose track of the time and then I have more to post etc. So instead of catching up I am starting fresh. Beginning with My Wordless Wednesday Photo's

Instead of grumping and complaining about what a crappy day this was I am just going to post my favorite pictures from the week.

Since Christmas and His Birthday Garyn has been in Puzzle Mania.. he loved puzzles and got a bunch of new ones to work with. This one is 550 pieces and it taking him a little longer. And we will not let us put it away till it is done!

Will has been enjoying his "big enough for me to ride on it, Clean up truck." aka "digger" to scoop snow with. This has been a really fun toy.

Way to go Santa!

10 in Whatever day or Month this is

I have been in a stupor lately. Lost my funk and still don't know where it is. hmmm. Anyway better start again somewhere: this past week, has been busy like the rest.

1 Jesse and I went to see Glenn Beck’s Christmas Sweater Program. It was different than I had expected it to be. But, it was really good. It was centered on the atonement and the importance of Christ’s life. It was a great reminder that the reason that the birth of Christ is so important is because of the life and sacrifice that followed. A great thing to remind the kids of too.

2 We had our Relief Society dinner at the church this week and they had me decorate one of the tables. Gave me a good incentive to dig into the Christmas Decorations that I hadn’t gotten out yet. Samantha came with me to put up the table and she did such a great job on it. She has a little designer touch. I put on the fluffy cloth stuff and put my trees and Santa’s and books and then she went back and added the little finishing touches to it. It turned out pretty good. I didn’t even get a picture of it darn it!

3 We have all had a cold going on and some kind of a stomach bug too. Or just the flu who knows but it’s been lot s of fun having everyone sick. Poor Will he seems to be the one that keeps these things the longest. He is still fevering and his nose is still running.

4 Jaden went Camping. Yes in December he went camping. It was a scout activity. And of course it was the weekend that we finally get lots of snow. Hehe But he had lots of fun. He was well prepared for the cold and he said it wasn’t too cold. Though the leaders were teasing them from the other tent saying. “Boy are we hot in here with our heater maybe we should open the flaps or something. “Making the boys jealous. They did lots of hiking and some repelling. Jaden loved it of course. Though I told him to quit giving me to many details of how scary the drop offs were where they were climbing. It was freaking me out.

5 I got most of my shopping done now. I did the after thanksgiving sales but wasn’t too impressed. I don’t really love that crowds and chaos. So I did almost all the rest online. Got some great deals so I should add.

6 Work has been busy so it has left me no time to do my emails or blog. Sad when I actually have to work while working huh? LoL It is slowing down a little this week. I work the weirdest hrs so when I am not working I am usually trying to sleep or clean or etc. So I hardly ever make it to the computer. I just walk around in a stupor most the time.

My Typical Day…~ WARNING Boring ~ typically I sleep from 10 or 11 pm then get up at 1:15am work till 7:30 jump off the phones run upstairs get the kids up and dressed and out the door to the bus by 8:10. Then if I am lucky if Will is still asleep I will try to nap till he wakes up, most the time he is up so we sit on the couch and be lazy and I cat nap while he watches tv or plays. Yup great babysitting mom does huh? Then we try to pick up the house Garyn gets home at noon we do lunch and play games and referee the fights and chase kids.. try to get Will to nap around 2. He use to nap for me but hasn’t been lately little stinker. Then the big kids get home at 4. Sometimes I have to sleep after they are home and have them babysit. I hate that. I would rather the boys’ nap but oh well. Then we do homework whatever even we have for the night and dinner etc. Then back at it again. I have to work extra hrs for the past month and so I have been working my days off and not getting any days to refill my sleep so at this point I am a walking zombie. I feel like a pile of goo. I can’t really focus well at this point. Hoping to get some sleep soon. Yup pretty boring life we have going on.

7 We have been having Christmas parties … at the church and with family etc. Those are always fun events. It is great to get together and reconnect and just to relax and enjoy time together. Also been making gifts the house looks like a glitter bomb went off in here. LOL but it’s been fun. Some are not going to get finished and I am not going to sit and stress over it, I am just going to go with plan b.. buy something and put them away to finish next yr. I am putting them into the Halloween Décor box so I will remember to start working on them again in Oct. hehe

8 Finally finished reading The Host it took a while to get going but in the end it was worth the read. Very different.

9 Garyn celebrated his Birthday at school today. He had me bring in donuts and he was such a hoot about it. He kept saying from the second he woke up. “I am not 6 this isn’t my Birthday”.. Then would look at me and say “Am I six yet?”He is such a doll. We got to make a page that shows some of the picts of him over the yrs and also a little questionnaire about his favorites. Turned out so cute.

10 My Nephew Chance and his wife Patrice just had their 1^st baby this week. I took dinner to them yesterday. And got to hold her. OH MY! She is precious! I can’t believe what a beauty she is. I will be posting picts of her soon. I just wanted to take her and walk right out the door with her. She is a doll!

11. Today we had activity days at me house and we made these cute Nativity Wreaths. That was a fun one. These are the cutest girls and I just love getting to do stuff for them. Especially Mantha, of course. ;)

What a great weekend! & I saw Twilight

Me and Jesse enjoying our kid free weekend together.

We decided to Celebrate our Anniversary by taking a trip. Without the kids! Yup finally. I hardly ever leave my kids overnight unless it is with Jesse. But since I have an awesome great friend that was willing to come and stay with my rug rats at my house we got a break. Thanks Heidi!! THANK YOU SO MUCH! Hum.. seems like last time I left my kids for a trip with Jesse was when you stayed at my house and watched the older ones when Garyn was a baby. Seems with out you we would never get away. I hope you have recovered. They are a handful!

We went to Moab for the weekend and it was so nice. We left Thursday and got back Sunday. I can not even tell you how relaxing this was. I was asleep by 9 on Thursday night and didn't even crack an eye open till after at least 10am Friday. OH THE BLISS of a kid free, work free night of sleep. I SLEPT and SLEPT and SLEPT. All I wanted for my Anniversary was some sleep and that is just what I got. Thanks to my wonderful hubby! We ate out at some yummy restaurants and we shopped and shopped and we also went to the new bond movie.. snore... snore.. oh I mean it was good. It was like any other bond film. Just not my thing. Jesse thought is was ok, but not all that it was cracked up to be.

I finally talked Jesse into listening to Twilight. So we listened to it all the way down in the car listened to it a little while while playing on our computers at the hotel and listened to it all the way home. He finished it up on his way to and from work Monday and we went and saw the movie Monday night. We took Jaden with us to the movie, since he has read the books. We all really liked it. I was not happy with the casting of Edward until after I saw the movie. Now I think it was great casting. He did a great job! I didn't like Bella as well. She just wasn't my Bella. But I do have to say: What was with the Edward Scissors Hands faces Jasper was pulling. He looked to strange for the part to me. Over all though a pretty good movie considering what I was expecting. Still the book is better of course, if you haven't read it.. then go read it.

So it has been a great couple of days! Here some fun Picts from our trip to Moab.

Yes folks it appears that I may have married a leprechaun. LOL Anyone who knows us knows this is just the silly kind for stuff we do. I left the Port a Potty pictures off the blog. hehehe Or did you want to see the funny things he does when he sees a sign that says Prairie Dawg.

Jesse enjoying the view thinking about how nice it is not to have to be worrying about keeping kids away from the side. We decided that it is much easier to take in the sites with out the kids trying to jump off a cliff.

They wouldn't let me take nay pictures inside of the house in the rock. SO LAME! So I am just posting a picture of the stupid sign on the rock.

OK so yes we think these cheesy thing are funny. The box says "Baby Rattlers... open with caution"

And inside the box were baby rattles. tee hee hee Someone is funny. You have to admit it is kind of a cute little think to have at a tourist attraction.

I hearts my litle hubby man! It was so nice to spend time together and talk and reconnect with out the kids all up in our faces. It's been a pretty good 14 yrs. I look forward to many many many more.

My 14yr Anniversary! WOW

Yesterday was our 14 Year Anniversary. I can't believe it has already been 14 yrs. We haven't really done anything to celebrate yet, since Wed. is our everybody has something night. But I spent a lot of time yesterday just being grateful for my hubby and for the wonderful past 14 yrs. I am a very lucky girl.

I don't have all my wedding pictures unpacked yet. But I found a few that my wonderful Aunt Margo gave me. And since we don't have a scanner plugged in I just snapped a picture of the pictures. They look like crap but hey at least they are in the computer now so you can see them. Right?

Wow we look so young.. well we were he was 22 and I was 18. Wow what would I give to have that body back? Well 1st off I would have to give back 1/2 of the one that I have now. hehehehe! Of course I didn't love it when I had it but would now love to have it back. Funny how perspective works. ha-ha

And for kicks and giggles

here are pictures from my Wedding Day back in 1994!

10 on Tuesday Week of Oct. 29th - Nov 4th

1. Wednesday night I went our RS Enrichment night. We have a new and awesome girl on our committee that is crafty and has been offering us the best crafts to do. I loved it! I sometimes feel like I am distended from the ward. Being in primary you kinda live in your own little world at the end of the hall. So not only were the crafts great, and I got several of my Christmas gifts made but I also had a super fabulous time with friends from my ward. And I can't not mention that I was the crazy one that ordered multiple items (for gifts) and I had several people help me to finish mine up. I LOVE LOVE LOVE my ward. I am so thankful for the friends that I have out here that make my life enriched!

2. Jaden didn't have Young Men's this week so he went with Jesse and his old troop to work on his swimming merit badge. He did all of it in one night. He came home sooooo tired. But he was also so proud of himself and had a ton of fun too.

3. We had a Halloween party at my moms the Sunday before Halloween, the kids had a blast of course. She makes every holiday so much fun! The highlight... the kids and the dads chasing the baby calf from my moms field over to ours. We had him separated from the mom so that we could uhm.. well change him from a bull to a steer. Know what I mean? hehe And the kids were all out there in full costumes chasing him down the road. Nikki (my friend) drove by just as we were doing this and I think she had her laugh for the year. LOL

4. I did the Halloween Party in Garyn's class. Which was so much fun. I love Kindergarten and Pre-K aged kids. They are so cute. I had arranged for 4 stations and had a couple other great moms that came and helped. It worked out great and I felt really prepared and organized for it this yr. I guess I am starting to learn something.... takes me a while this is my 3rd child to do parties for in school. LOL

5. I helped with the Party in Samantha's class too. I brought 2 of my games for her class and some bags for the kids to decorate. It was fun to be able to just show up with my games and not have to organize it. Lucky Nikki gets to be Head Room Mom for her class. It is Samantha's teachers 1st yr teaching and she seemed to be really taken with the support from the mom's it is great to be able to help. She has been such a great teacher so far. I think she Samantha has connected more with here than any other teacher before. Partly because they are both a little shy.

6. I didn't get to help in Jaden's class because his party was the same time as Samantha's so I send him with his class treat (eyeball woopie cushions) and then I ran back and forth between the classes a few times to get pictures. His friend had the funnest costume he was a Mummy holding himself as a baby.

Later at our Trunk of Treat at the Church Jaden won funniest costume, and his friend (the I love my mummy) won most creative. That was pretty cool since neither of them has ever won before.

7. After school I was picking up the kids and Jaden brought his friend home for a while. They were texting some of the girls from school and decided to go to their trunk or treat too. For extra candy. So I took them back to town for about an hr or so. They thought they were pretty cool to be trunk or treating with Girls. Funny how in 6th grade the girls don't have cooties anymore. hehe

8. Then we did our Trunk of Treat. That was a blast. Jesse hooked up the inverter in the van and had lights strung in the trunk and some pumpkins. So we were all festive to sit there and hand out candy. Will was so cute as he went from car to car he would say "trick or treat" then after they dropped in the candy he would go "oh! Thank You!" like is was the 1st time he had ever seen candy. Garyn was more like just walk up with the bag open and move on to the next. LOL He didn't say a word to anyone. The big kids took off and trick or treated with their friends. We even took Harley with us.. costume and all. hehe Can you even believe I have become one of those crazy dog people with the dressed up dog?

9. After the trunk of treat we went trick or treating to G-ma & G-pa S, and G-ma & G-pa J's so that they could see the kids in costume. They were so tired by the time we got home.

10. And Tuesday I went to get my prescriptions filled for my stupid ear infection and then stopped to look at Halloween shirts and ended up finding the best deals. I am totally a manic when I find a good deal. The t's were $2.25 and the hoodies were $5. So of course I had to get a million of each. LOL I am in so much trouble. Jesse wants to kick my butt and he should really. But they were such a good deal and some of them I can put away for next yr and some were not even Halloween but were just in the clearance section and are totally great hoodies that the kids can wear now and all winter. Yup, I am naughty!

10 on Tuesday

10 on Tuesday Sept. 30th - Oct. 7th



I know it has been a busy week cuz I feel like I have been drug under a bus all week, but I can't think of much that we did. hum....



1. We have taken lots of little day trips over to my parents this week to play with our baby kitties that are living there. And while we were out of town last week my dads dog had 6 puppies. OH SO CUTE! So grandpa has been getting lots of visits this week so that we can play with the animals. (Anyone want a baby kitty or puppy?)



2. Slug girl has returned.. I am a total slug again this week. I feel like a walking zombie. I haven't accomplished a single thing. Back to normal around here. Darn.



3. Oh but we did get some of our Halloween put up. We did the cutest dang lights on the porch and Jesse got a cute witch and attached her to be crashing on the roof. Now just to get the inside done.



4. The kids had friends over on Friday.. but the of course kept disappearing over to my moms to play with the kittens and puppy's.



5. Necia slept over on Friday. I work Saturday mornings at 2 am.. I went to bed at midnight they were "going to sleep now" I woke up to work just before 2 and they were still up there laughing and giggling and putting ice in their shirts to stay awake. Checked on them again on my break at 3:30 they were asleep. Little Stinkers!



6. Grandma and Grandpa S came over and the kids swarmed them with I did this and I did that and look at this and that and so on... They love visits from the Grandparents. Poor Grandparents though... it had to feel like being in a pool of piranha.



7. I love conference weekend and was really looking forward to it. But it was raining to hard so we didn't get our between sessions fall drive in and that was a bummer. And Garyn had his volume on mega loud so it was hard to catch much of it. That kid was hyper all weekend. grrrrrr... next time I am buying duct tape before hand. LOL



8. I loved President Monsons talk so much and I really do know that I will miss these crazy times some day. When life if slower and the kids are grown and gone I will miss running around like a chicken with my head cut off and I will miss being zombie mom. ;) It helps to have the reminder to enjoy it now.



9. Garyn had his 1st field trip for Kindergarten they went to Corn Belly's at Thanksgiving point. I didn't get to go.... they had so many moms that signed up to help that they had to draw names. I wasn't lucky enough. Bet I missed out on lots of fun and on some really great pictures. He loved every second of it and had lots to say when he got home.



10. I got all my stuff figured out and ordered for the kids School Halloween parties, and I even got my visit teaching done. This is very very early for me.

10 on Tuesday Disneyland Pictures!

I just got home from spending a week and a half in California and Disneyland so this weeks 10 on Tuesday is going to be 10 pictures of 10 moments with my Family in California. It was so much fun that we didn't want to leave. But I came home to the biggest coolest surprise ever so that was awesome. But I will post that separate because it really deserves is own post.

Here are 10 pictures to show the fun places we have been. It was hard narrowing my 1,535 of trip photos taken down to only 10 to post.

The family meeting Mickey

And Minnie

(We got pictures with them in their Year of a Million Dreams clothes and Halloween outfits as well as regular outfits. Our kids got to see a lot of Mickey and Minnie this time)

Jesse, Grandma and my Kids at the Wild Animal Park in San Diego

We also went to Sea World but none of those pictures made my final 10. LOL

Meeting Snoopy at Knotts Berry Farm

(This is my mom and dad with my kids.)

Jesse and Will at the beach... Jaden Samantha and Garyn are already out into the waves you can kinda see them in the background.

There was much riding of rides.

Jaden and Samantha are in the back cart of this roller coaster.

There was also much waiting.

This is Grandpa with Will and my nephew Gabe, waiting for us to get off a ride. Thanks Grandpa and Grandma for helping with the kids so much!

Garyn and Will in the stroller at Universal Studios in Burbank CA. Garyn with his favorite souvenir his Sponge Bob toys and Will bought a huge Dinosaur at the Jurassic Park Ride. It was almost as big as him. You should see him trying to carry it and walk. Too funny!

Something that we have never done before. The kids learned about the center spike so we made a point to go and find it. When Disneyland was constructed Walt Disney put a spike in the exact center of the park. It is under the walkway when you walk through Cinderella's Castle.

So here we are in the exact middle of Disneyland finding the golden spike!

The Goof with Goofy

And I know this makes 11 but I can't help it because it is Curious Will with Curious George and they both are just so cute and look so Innocent but are such little trouble makers. LOL

Weekend Wonders

So this weekend I attended a funeral. My Sisters MIL passed away. The funeral was beautiful and when I came home I told my hubby that people should attend a funeral once every 6 months just as way to really stop and appreciate life and reflect on how you are handling the truly important things in this life. I know it helped me want to be a better person remembering this great lady and all the service that her life entailed. You can read about her on my sisters blog it's a great post that makes ya think. Not that I want to have someone I know die every 6 months but you know what I mean.

Anyway ... I did ok until I saw my nieces crying. That just breaks my heart for them. These are my girls and I love them so much and know just how much they are going to miss their Grandma. She is in a better place but it is still so hard to loose a loved one and especially a Grandma when you are so young. My Grandmothers both passed away about 4 yrs ago and my heart still aches. I miss them so much too. I am so thankful to know that we will see them again and that a family will be together forever!

Then on Saturday we canned Salsa. I love canning with my husband. It is just a fun thing for us to do together. I ended up taking a few hrs off work so that I could stay in the kitchen and help finish it up and it was really nice to just spend time working and chatting and laughing together. We got about 30 jars done and every single one sealed. We decided the funnest part of canning is counted how many "pops" we hear so we know they are sealed. LOL Then they still didn't need me at work so I got to sleep a few hrs till the infomercials started and I logged in for a few hrs and then the best part... Jesse let me sleep till almost noon Sunday!!! Woo Hoo much needed sleep. I feel so spoiled.

We didn't go to church because it was stake conference and I needed my sleep and hate spending 2hrs keeping the little ones quiet. So when I finally hauled my butt out of bed we went to a family reunion for my Dad's family. It was a blast! It was at his cousins house and the kids got to swim. (pictures coming soon) I was exhausted after chasing the kids in the pool both Garyn and Will wanted to hang on me, until Garyn decided he could swim on his own. He is a pretty good swimmer actually. And I got hooked up with some of my cousins blogs and have decided to start participating in 10 on Tuesdays... You will see my 1st one this Tuesday.

Then is was home to get the last of homework done, kids bathed, fed and in bed and then I was off to the office to work and here I am at 5 am wondering if it will be worth trying to sleep for an hr after I get off before waking the kids up for school or it I should just stay up the extra hr and get something done so that I am not a zombie getting them out the door to school. hummm... The real question is if I miss the chance at an hr of sleep when will the next chance be? With my life and my 4 kids I never know when I will get to sleep. I think I will take the hr.

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Garyns 1st day of Kinderdarten!

Wednesday was Garyns 1st day of Kindergarten

He was so excited to start. This past week has been driving him nuts with the big kids going everyday while he had to say home another week.

He was so excited that he could not get to sleep on Tuesday night and yet Wednesday morning he popped out of bed like he had been asleep for 2 days.

Here he is on his way out the door. Bright eyed and bushy-tailed.

Chatty Chatty Mr. McChatChat.

He waited with the big kids for the bus to come.

You would have thought that the bus was a roller coaster ride as excited as he was to be getting onto it with them. Jesse snapped the perfect picture ... Off he goes my little boy is going to Kindergarten!

After the bus left I dressed Will and we jumped in the car and we headed to the school. We got stuck waiting for a train that was stopped on the tracks blocking the way into town. Grrrrr. I was totally stressed that we were late just sure that Garyn was going to be freaking out. (truth is I was lucky to get there alive since I was driving on 2hrs of sleep after working all night.) And when I did arrive at the school look at what I find. This smiling face working on one of the stations. He didn't even miss me. LOL

The first thing he does is pulls out a sticky note from his pocket to show me his lunch number. He doesn't get to eat lunch at school but he thought is was super cool that I put $$ in his account so that he could eat breakfast there. Jaden and cousin Necia took him to the cafeteria for a 1st day of school breakfast. He said it was scrambled eggs and toast, for all that want to know.

(Yes I totally pay for my kids to eat school breakfast, when they want it.... if you worked graveyards wouldn't you? Mornings are way tooooo hard!)

So we did the rest of his stations together and here is how I left him... concentrating really hard on drawing a picture of himself. How do I know he is concentrating? Notice the tongue sticking out? That is how you know when he is concentrating. Cute huh?

(The girl next to him is our neighbor that built a new house the same time we did this year.)

And this is him getting off the Kindergarten Bus and coming home.

Looks like a nice 1st day? I think YES!

He was grinning from ear to ear.

I know, that is just the cutest Kindergartner that I have ever seen!!

(this year..hehe!)

And after Garyn was off the bus in in the house Will was still trudging down the drive way wearing Garyn's back pack, pretending to go to school. Who wouldn't want to be like a big brother that is that cute? hahaha

Ok, well they are both cute, I know. And No, I am no bias!! LOL