Ward Camp Out

Tonight was the ward camp out up at Camp Atoka. It was fun...we hiked around a bit, had dinner, played some ping-pong, visited with friends. But as you can tell by the time of this post we didn't stay for the over-night part of the camp out. The girls have their dance rehearsal tomorrow morning so we came home tonight. Which probably works out best because I'm not sure how much sleep everyone is going to get up there! Everyone was staying in the Lodge and the party was still going strong when we left at 10!

FUN with snacks!

I was making dinner tonight and the girls are starving (of course) and dinner isn't cooking fast enough (of course) so I gave them some pretzels to try and hold them off until dinner was ready. Wynnie called me over and told me she had made her name, and sure enough she had taken bites out of the pretzels to make all the letters in her name (who said food wasn't fun?)

Hannah's Books

Hannah's school had an authors fair last night (and we totally missed it!) Long story-short version: it was supposed to be last Thursday but they rescheduled it for Tuesday but since Monday was a holiday and there was no school Tuesday didn't feel like a Tuesday...(I guess this is not quite a short version the short version would actually just be "mom blew it!") I felt terrible! Hannah has been looking forward to this for months. She has been making books at school (and at home.) We decided to take her out to Farr's ice cream to try and make it up to her. We brought all the books she had made and she got to read them to us as we ate our ice cream cones. (I think it turned out much better because I don't think the school served ice cream!) Anyway here is a slide show of some of the books she made (I say some because she made a ton and I didn't have time to scan all of them in but you get to see her cute drawings and phonetics!)


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Memorial Day Weekend

We had a great weekend. Sunday we spent the day with family. We had a Henderson get together up at my grandma and grandpa's house. It was nice to be with everyone and have one last family party before my grandparents house goes up for sale (my grandparents moved in with my parents back in January.) It was kind-of sad...I have so many fun memories of my grandparents house. They have an amazing yard (thanks Ryan.) It was always fun to go up and see the fish in the pond and watch for deer and all kinds of birds that would come to eat from grandpa's bird feeders. The kids had a fun time painting and it was great to visit with everyone. On Monday it rained (and rained, and rained....) so Jeremy and I continued our "spring cleaning." We cleaned up the scary basement and came up with another BIG load to donate to the DI. It is nice to have a little more order to our basement as it is functioning as our laundry room, garage, Jeremy's workshop and stroage space. After that the girls and I went and visited the graves (yes in the rain) with my parents, my grandparents, and my aunts and uncle. I didn't have my camera so I am hoping to get some pictures from Holly or Mechelle to post...so look forward to that (hopefully)

Sophie and the Binkie!

Sophie has discovered the pacifier! It's funny to me none of my kids (except Esther) have wanted anything to do with a pacifier when they are babies but once they hit about 2 they decide to give it a try (it has always been short lived--mostly to get a reaction out of me I think!) Anyway, we were watching Bruce and Preston on Friday night and Sophie found one of Preston's binkies and she started sucking on it then when I would come into the room she would just laugh and suck even harder and she definitely wasn't going to give it to me! Then yesterday she found one of Esther's binkies and she started sucking on it only it is the kind that had a rubber handle and she had the rubber handle side in her mouth--very funny looking...Sophie running around the house with the blue nipple of the pacifier sticking out of her mouth! She definitely keeps us laughing!!

(Ok, so I'm an idiot...I took the video sideways and apparently we don't have the software to flip it the right way...oops! So just tip your head to the left and enjoy!)

Spring Clean up

Today I decided to try and get a little more order to my life. I started with my closet (believe me that was a massive job!) and I am proud to say I have rid myself of the 90's (why is it so hard to get rid of things--I'm pretty sure it's genetic in my case.) Anyway, there is 1 big box and 1 garbage bag of clothes, also 1 bag of shoes (I know I'm actually getting rid of shoes...amazing...it is for the better good, my closet is more at zen now!) I probably have a little more to toss out but I didn't want to push myself too far over the edge so I will stop for now and then re-evaluate in a couple of months. Also, I still haven't lost all the weight I want so I figure once I reach my goal I'll just chuck everything and start over--cute thin clothes!

After being a little crazy of staying in the house I went out with Jeremy to plant our tomatoes and peppers (I know LONG overdue...but it has been cold up here.) I was tired of looking at them on my kitchen counter, plus I don't think they were getting enough sun (I actually think I might have killed a couple--oops!) After we got our little "garden" planted (by the way, I'm sad to say our raspberry bushes didn't make it through the heat of last summer :( well one did but we had 6 so we are kinda bummed about that...but once we get a handle on the backyard we WILL be planting more!) we found the table Gary and Nancy had given to the kids a couple of years ago (I know, I know, we are bad parents for not putting it together for them 2 years ago but I am not pregnant this year so I plan on getting a lot done!)--the box had decomposed a little but everything inside was good. Jeremy and I put it together and the girls love it!

Hannah and Wynnie enjoying the table...Thanks Gary and Nancy!

Our pathetic little garden. And yes we already know we planted our plants too close together but we are not about to go and dig 'em all up to re-plant them so this will have to do...we never claimed to have green thumbs (truth be told they will probably all die anyway!)

The Difference a DAY makes

On Monday Hannah was out "mowing" the lawn with Uncle Bobbie.

The temperature was in the 90's!

Here is Sophie today with her coat on (and that wasn't keeping her warm enough so she went around and grabbed two blankets to cuddle up in on the floor.)

The temperature is 50!

I think we blinked and missed the rest of spring and summer and it has just went straight to fall weather!

Twins?!?!?

Let me start off be saying I am not making an announcement (although a lady at church on Sunday did ask me if I was pregnant--ouch!) Anyway, a lot of people in our ward can't tell Mechelle and I apart-they think we look like identical twins (even though there are obvious differences--I have long brown hair she has short blond hair, most of the time we have lived in this ward I have been pregnant Mechelle has not...there are a lot of other differences because while I think you can tell we are sisters I don't think we look that much a like.) Some people just have a hard time telling us apart. Once when I was like 8 months pregnant with Esther Mechelle and I were at the grocery store and this lady came up and was so shocked she told us that we looked exactly a like (never mind the 100 lbs weight difference! I apologized to Mechelle after the lady left.) She just keep looking from me to Mechelle and then back to me and she told us "You have to be twins." When we told her there is 6 year age difference between us she didn't believe us! Yesterday we were in the car and I was driving (because Mechelle hurt her ankle.) and Hannah said "Mom could you raise your hand?" So I put my hand up thinking she was going to make me do a trick or say some funny thing she had learned from school but she just said "OK, you can put it down now." I asked her why she wanted me to raise my hand and she said "I just wanted to know where you were sitting." So I guess even our kids can't tell us apart some times ! It's a good thing our husband can :)

Dive for cover!!!

On our morning walk today (it is finally warm enough for us to walk outside and not in the church gym) we were fighting the sprinklers in the cemetery and I wasn't doing to good at keeping myself or the girls dry (Esther was the only safe one because her seat in the stroller has a cover.) We walked through a heavy sprinkler and I heard Sophie scream then the girls I walk with started laughing and asked if Sophie had been in the stroller like that or if she was protecting herself from the sprinkler. When I looked she was on top of Esther in the back seat of the stroller (under the cover) I think she had crawled up there after she got wet trying to keep herself dry! It was really cute and Esther didn't seem to mind the company (she was still sound asleep!)

Spring is FINALLY here!!!

Actually it feels more like summer but at least it's not cold! This weekend was in the 80's so we took the opportunity that the good weather brought to go to the duck pond (since by the end of the week it is supposed to be in the 50's and rain.) The girls (and Jeremy) love to go feed the ducks. We packed a lunch and went up to Beus' pond. It was a fun day. When we first started feeding the ducks they would come right up and take the bread from our hands but then I think they may have got bored (or they may have had too much bread) because then they went back in the water and we had to throw the bread at them!

Saturday Morning Ritual!

MONKEYS in our bed!!!

Every Saturday morning Hannah and Wynnie sneak downstairs (at least they think they are sneaking, but our stairs are so creaky that we hear them coming a mile away!) Jeremy and I lay in bed either pretending to be asleep or we pull the covers over our heads and try and “hide” from the kids. It doesn’t take long for them to burst in our bedroom and attack us on the bed (then we know our plans for sleeping in on our Saturday morning have been ruined—as this usually happens at about 7:00 am!!) We lay there trying to catch the last fleeting moments of sleep until the jumping, pushing, and elbows to the face get to be too much then we reluctantly get up and go and get Sophie and Esther so they can join in the “fun”. This will get us at least another 15-20 min of lying in bed (but trust me there is NO sleep happening!) And this is how we start most of our weekends. I love those cute little monkeys in my bed!!

4 in our bed

and the little one says...

I'm outta here!!!

Family Update

I thought I would share a little about what we have been up to lately. Jeremy is working hard trying to make the real estate market work for us--it is a little shaky these days, but we are hanging in there and hopefully things will turn around soon. Jeremy is currently going to school to get his brokers license. He is also running for the state legislature (I never knew I married a politician but the republican party called him and said they needed a good man to run in downtown and I couldn't think of anyone better!) So between work, politics, his church calling, and us Jeremy has more than a full plate to deal with-I am so thankful for all his hard work.

I am busy being a mom (I think that says it all!) I have 4 of the cutest little girls that I get the privilege of taking care of!

Hannah is busy finishing up kindergarten. She loves school and has become quite the little reader. She loves to learn and takes every opportunity to ask us how things work, why things are the way they are, and anything else she can think of (some times it makes my brain hurt!)She loves to draw, dance, draw, sing, draw, and did I mention draw? She tells us when she grows up she wants to be an illustrator (or a jungle explorer.) She is a great big sister and is always willing to help. She is in girl scouts (she is a daisy) and has a lot of fun at her meetings. She is very compassionate and concerned for others (she has the biggest heart of any 5 (almost 6) year old that I know!)
Wynnie is 4 and she is always making us smile. I told Jeremy since we don't have any sons Wynnie is stepping up to the role. She loves superman, burping, farting (the other day she was chasing Hannah-who is a complete girly girl-around and she would tackle her sit on her and fart. She must be learning this behavior from her dad.) But she also loves being a girl. She loves to help take care of Esther. She loves to dance and sing, she loves playing with her "High School Musical Star" dolls. She has a terrific imagination (if I could just be in her head for one day I don't think I would stop smiling!) She is also all about the drama-she is VERY theatrical. She might just be our little actress.
Sophie is almost 20 months and she is trying hard to keep up with her big sisters. She is Wynnie's little shadow. If Wynnie is doing something (it doesn't matter what) Sophie is not far behind trying to copy her every move! She is a very happy kid and very good natured (as long as we keep her fed and give her her naps.) She still isn't talking much (at least not English) but she has her own little vocabulary and does a pretty good job of communicating (she knows some sign language, I have pick up on a couple of her "words" and she is good at pantomiming.) She is at the copying phase so if you are doing something you can look over and Sophie will be trying to mimic your every move-it is VERY cute!

Esther is just as cute as a baby can be! She is growing WAY to fast! She is almost 4 months old (I can hardly believe it has already been that long!) She is starting to smile and giggle (mostly at her Dad-it seems he can always get her to laugh!) She loves to watch her sisters play and I know it won't be too long before she is running around the house with them!

Happy Mothers Day!

Let me start by telling all the mothers happy Mothers Day! I feel so much gratitude to my Heavenly Father for the opportunity I have to be a mother! It brings such complete joy to my life (don't get me wrong every moment isn't complete joy-in fact some are quite the opposite-but I wouldn't change my life for anything!) Mostly I feel the awesome responsibility we as mothers have to shape and teach our children. Often times I feel overwhelmed but I have 4 wonderful daughters and all it takes is a smile, hug, or kiss from them and I'm reminded how truly blessed I am-I wouldn't want to be any where else doing any other thing. Not only do I have great daughters but I have great examples that remind me while being a mother may be hard it IS totally worth it.
I am so grateful for my mother she is such a strength to me (I wish she could she this in herself more of the time, but that is another thing I admire about her--her humility.) She is quick to see the good in others and is always willing to help (however she is needed) even if it means putting others needs before her own. Often I think she fails to realize the good she has done and the good she continues to do--after all she has raised 4 wonderful kids (if I do say so myself) and this is QUITE the accomplishment (I can say that because I grew up with my sisters and brother--Mom did great things with us, we all turned out OK!) I am also amazed by her faith. I know taking all four of us kids to church every week by herself was NOT easy, but she did it! I'm sure I never told her while growing up so I'll take the opportunity now to say THANK YOU! Thank you for making sure we were taught the gospel, thank you for being a good example to us, thank you for helping all those you help-it has left lasting impressions, Thank You for having the courage and strength to fight your cancer because I am not ready to lose you! Thank you for being YOU!
My mother-in-law is also a great example to me. For starters she raised a wonderful son that I am madly in love with. I am so grateful that she took the time to be a mother. I'm so thankful she was involved in her children's lives. She raised Jeremy to become a man of character and faith. I have known Jeremy for almost 9 years now and I can't think of a time that I've been with Nancy that she hasn't had a smile on her face-she has an upbeat and positive attitude about life. She is also very caring and willing to give of her time and talents (which she has many!) Not only are these two women great mothers but they are terrific grandmothers. I am so thankful my daughters have such great examples to look up to.
The other day Hannah asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up (I tried explaining to her that most people would consider me a grown up already!) I told her all I want to be is her (and Wynnie, and Sophie, and Esther's) mom. She said "Oh, you mean you want to be a baby sitter." So then I got to explain to her that being a mom was SO much better than being a baby sitter! I am so glad that I get to have my family-not just now but for forever! They are the world to me!

I love to SEE the Temple!

Last week for family night we went down to the temple to walk around and take some pictures. We had asked the girls & Bruce if they wanted to go to the temple and they all very excitedly said "Yes!" so we loaded up in the stroller and headed down. When we got there the excitment level quickly fell once they found out we could not go "in" the temple (I know, you'd think I would have learned after the train incident; however, here I was disappointing my kids-again!) We were able to talk to them a little about the temple and we got to look at the pretty flowers and the fountain (this one actually worked!) so I think they ended up having a good time. They stood at the fountain and told me it was the ocean and that the water coming up was from whales (they have GREAT imaginations!)

All Aboard!

Mechelle and I got brave (I think Crazy was the other word people kept using when they saw us with our 6 children under the age of 5--we just call it being a mom!) the other week and took all our kids on the free FrontRunner train to Salt Lake. I will start out the story with this comment: The road to a childs broken heart is sometimes paved with a mothers good intentions (at least thats how I hope our kids see it when they are old enough to understand that the way our day turned out was NOT at all what Mechelle and I had pictured when we started our "fun" adventure!) Just so some of you moms might learn from our mistake(s) when you say to a child "Do you want to ride the train to Salt Lake?" and they answer excitedly "Yes!" they are a little excited for the train ride, but mostly excited because you are going to go to a lake--and what's better on a hot day than going to a lake? In a childs mind a lake is a lake-not a city- and I agree it is a little confusing. So when we arrived in Salt Lake CITY there was more than a little disappointment from our little ones that there was no water in sight! We did however find a small mud puddle on our long hike to the gateway (more about that later) that we told the kids they could play in...luckily none of them took us up on the offer! So after the whole lake mishap we thought we needed to make it up to our kids so we told them we could go see the jumping water at the Gateway (we were under the impression that the drop off for the FrontRunner and the Gateway were closer than they actually are--they happen to be about 8 blocks apart!) But we couldn't disappoint our kids again-could we? So we set off for the Gateway: Mechelle, I, one umbrella stroller, two snugglies (carrying two babies), and 3 disappointed kids (walking.) When we finally made it to the jumping water we noticed it was roped off and there was no water--they were working on it so it was shut off for the day! STRIKE TWO! I'm no baseball fan but we were not doing well (our kids were doing worse!) So we thought "What could fix a mess like this?" We figured the answer was: Ice Cream (it fixes everything, right?) So we made a stop at the local McDonalds and got everyone an ice cream sundae. Ice cream + Chocolate = smiles!

There was some good that came from our trip:

1. We were one of the first people to ride FrontRunner. And the kids did have fun on the actual train ride (playing "I spy" and watching all the horses and cars go past.)



2. Mechelle got to meet a "real" vagabond (although I still have my doubts as to his authenticity--he was WAY to clean and didn't have a smell to him.) She sat by him on the way down to SLC (it was way too crowded for us to sit together) and he told her of his adventures on the rails (I think he was mostly pulling her leg!)



3. Hannah and Wynnie made a new friend. On our way back (Once again it was much too crowded for us to sit together--only this time it was like 50 times worse because people were on their way home from work--I really expected that the engine would give out on the train because we were over the maximum weight limit yet at every stop more people just kept getting on! The train, however, did just fine pulling us all (I guess they are really made for that kind of thing)) there was a nice man who was on his way home from work that entertained them practically the whole way home (they played rock paper scissors and had thumb wars!)



4. Mechelle (and the back of my head) made it on Fox news at 9 as we waited to get on the train to come back home.



5. and, of course, we got ICE CREAM!!
   

I guess the day wasn't a totally loss! I just need to be more careful when explaining things to children!

To Blog or not to Blog?!?!?!

This has been my question. There are a number of reasons I can think of for the "not to Blog"

1. Time-I'm not sure if I can spin another plate in my circus act of a life without letting something else come crashing down on my head. I've asked how people have time to blog-Jeremy assures me it doesn't take too much time (but I'm pretty sure he doesn't get sucked into reading everyone else's blogs--last night I spent WAY too much time doing that...I would just click on peoples links and I found myself reading about people I don't even know! I'm just going to have to keep it in check!) My friend Suzie told me that she blogs after she puts her kids to bed (since her Husband is away and she doesn't have T.V.) I got to thinking I don't have T.V. either and Jeremy is usually gone at night so maybe I can spare some time to blog then (because I'm not really sure what I do now!)
2. Technology has gotten a little (o.k. A LOT) scary and overwhelming for me. I guess what I’m really saying is I’m getting old…all these “new fangled” contraptions. I don’t even have a cell phone. So last night as I was reading about twitters and widgets and all the other crazy blogging terms I seriously thought my head was going to explode! But as you probably noticed (because I am typing this today) it did not. Suzie has been very helpful in teaching Mechelle and I the ways of the blogger (she is our little Yoda—“do or die there is no try” right) So here I am doing. You can teach an old dog new tricks…right?
3. Safety-How safe is this thing we call the web? There is a voice in the back of my head that keeps asking me this question (it is the same voice that tells me to shred all my junk mail, burn all my old bank statements, and not buy anything off the internet…it sounds a lot like my dad!) Hopefully my dad won’t be too upset…I’ve determined that it is probably OK to blog. I'll just make sure I only post things I want the world to know…besides everyone else is doing it (I saw so many cute blogs last night when I was lost in the “wonderful world of blogging!”) Now I hear my dad's voice saying “If everyone else jumped off a cliff would you jump too?” (answer: probably if it wasn’t too high.)

I won't bore you with the other reasons because as you can tell I have decided TO BLOG! If for no other reason than my kids are too cute not to! It will be nice to have a record of all their cuteness and now the family will be able to keep tabs on us. As my journey as a blogger begins I hope I have the determination to stick to it (and I hope Suzie doesn't get too tired of Mechelle and I calling her to help us understand the world of blogging a little better.)