Curby "kazoku"

2011-04-08T09:53:00.002-04:00

Visited Nana Pat and Paco the bird. These are the only two pictures I got. Of course I got down there with a dead battery. As always we had a great time visiting with Nana. The first day there I had to jump in the deep end of the pool with all my clothes on to save Mason. He saw his brother jump in and without thinking just jumped in right after him. I hesitated for a second or two hoping I could get CJ's attention to turn around and get him. Poor thing he was kicking but couldn't get his head all the way above the water. I could see the whites of his eyes under the water, he was scared. As I was jumping in and swimming to him, he did finally remember to turn around and started grabbing for the side. I was proud of him. We did some yard work for grandma, picked lots of oranges and grapefruit. We walked the pier one day and saw a dolpin in the distance and watched a guy catch and reel in a king mackrel all the way from the pier. It was pretty big, about as long as my arm. The last day there we stayed on the beach. I love just laying there and soaking in the sun and watching the kids play. They buried treasure (fruit snack) and marked it with an X. Macey couldn't get enough of the water, she was the last one out everytime.

My Sweet Girl is now 2 ! ! !

2011-03-14T08:41:00.002-04:00

We love her so much. We love her big eyes and her many funny expressions.

2011-02-25T11:57:00.003-05:00

Macey had to give a talk in Primary and it had been awhile since I had a chance to be in there so I stayed to listen to all of music time and sharing time. The teacher asked the question to the kids "Why do you want to see Heavenly Father again?" (something like that) I see Cade raise his hand and he's got it stretched as far as he could, sitting on the edge of his seat so happy when she calls on him. Cade's reply: "Because I have some questions to ask him."
Man O man that kid cracks me up.

Arrow of Light

2011-02-14T10:14:00.003-05:00

C.J. earned his Arrow of Light! I can't believe I have a son old enough to earn one. I think I hold him back a bit because he just doesn't seem old enough to me. I've got to work on that. That same day Cade got his Bobcat. It was a fun night. The only bummer was that Chris was out of town for work and had to miss it.

"WOC Night" Wrestling Of Curby's (CJ's suggestion)

2011-01-16T21:22:00.004-05:00

We sometimes like to kid with Cade because Macey who is two years younger and very competitive, can every now and then beat Cade. They were both in funny moods and started a wrestling match with CJ as the ref, calling the match. Cado the Crusher vs Macey the Monster. Then it went onto Cade on his knees vs Mason (Dubby the Dinosaur). Next came Samuri C.J. vs Gorilla Dad(on his knees he really did look like a gorilla). By this time, boys being boys and full of testosterone, all had their shirts off. First one to five wins! Then came Mom vs Gorilla Dad, poor little Maddie got a little worried. At about round 3, Mason trying to pep Mom up yells out "Mom you need to take your shirt off too!" We all just busted up laughing. It was absolutely hilarious, he said it so innocently with not a clue and stared at us with a blank face wondering why we were all laughing. Priceless

2011-01-10T23:46:00.004-05:00

I was never able to pull it together and get a family picture done for Christmas cards. This is all I was able to get in December. At least I got a picture of all the kids together for the year of 2010. (sigh) They do grow up fast.

2011-01-10T23:46:00.001-05:00

Macey and Mason's Birthdays

2011-01-10T23:26:00.002-05:00

I can't believe our little Dubby is now 4 yrs old. He is the sweetest, most tender hearted boy and a little ruffian on the flip side and lovingly beats up on his little sister a lot. The stinker. We sure do love him and his sweet funny personality.

Macey turned 6. Crazy to think we left Arizona when she was 10 months old and now she's 6. She was so excited to go to Build-a-Bear! She requested to go there more than six months before her birthday and every month she would remind me.

Macey Mo is such a ham and has us rolling sometimes with her funny faces and theatrical gestures. Oh my goodness and I am not used to the drama that comes along with girls. Thank goodness for Chris that can reason with her. She has always been such a big helper and so motherly to anyone that is hurt in anyway. Love you two.

A surprise I'll never forget!

2010-11-22T21:22:00.003-05:00

My husband surprised me with a trip to New York City! I flipped my calendar to November and noticed Chris had marked off 4 days and it said Britt not available. That is all he would tell me. Then the night before he pulls out our carry on suitcases

and says pack for NYC. I could hardly believe it when we flew over Manhattan island and saw all the buildings, it just went on and on.

Then we got a shuttle to Grand Central Station which is beautiful inside and started walking to the WALDORF HOTEL. Then I started really freaking out, because there is no way we can afford the Waldorf, I kept asking if he won this trip and the little stinker wouldn't say a word.

Then as Chris is standing in line to check in, I see my brother-in-law Jon, walk across the lobby. I bolted out of my seat and ran to hug him then immediately asked where's Michelle?, just then she hugs me from behind. Who could not cry with that kind of a surprise. Jon had to come to New York for some seminar and him and Chris pulled off this wonderful surprise for their wives. How awesome are they!
This picture is of us on a huge billboard in Times Square! It was the American Eagle store board and all you had to do was go in and buy something, then they would take your picture and post it on their huge billboard outside.

Michelle and I in Central Park. It was so much fun to be able to spend that time with my husband, sister and bother-in-law. I loved it all. We saw the Statue of Liberty and Times Square, saw a show on Broadway (Mary Poppins!), Central Park, visited WTC, toured through some amazing old churches and ate some delicious food. Thank you Chris for doing this for me. I love you.

Halloween 2010

2010-11-01T15:52:00.003-04:00

I never was able to pull all the kids together for a Halloween picture. Man O' Man it gets crazy around here trying to come up with so many costumes. Then on top of that the kids have "Book Character Day" at school. The children get to bring in their favorite book and dress up like the main character of the book and they conveniently do it the day of Halloween. Usually it's great except, this year my two oldest did not want to bring in or could even find a book on the Mario and Luigi Brothers, which was their Halloween costumes. So overall I had to come up with 7 costumes.
Here's my kidos in their cute costumes

CJ and Cade came up with the idea of doing a Frankenstein pumpkin. They are so much more imaginative than I am. We had a blast thinking of how to pull this off. I'm pretty proud of our finished pumpkin.

Crook's Visit

2010-11-01T15:26:00.002-04:00

It was such a treat to have my sister Lori and her family come and visit all the way from Arizona!
We took them up to Amicalola Falls so they could see what Fall looks like, you don't get that in Arizona. The morning we were getting ready to go, Lori called out "wear your red shirts" thinking only her kids would listen. I didn't realize until we got there that my three oldest assumed they had to put on red shirts as well.

My favorite picture of Lori and I.

I love this picture of the kids, they are so cute.

My kids had a blast having their cousins come and stay. I was so sad to see them leave. Thank you Crook family for making the effort. We love you guys. Double Rainbow All the Way!

Maddie K has learned to smile for the camera

2010-09-20T10:05:00.002-04:00

Our sweet and sour girl, brings us so much joy. I wish I could capture all the funny faces Maddie makes. She had the frowning and scowling down for a long time, but when she's in a good mood, she has us rolling with her funny faces and now she loves the camera. As you can see she is still quite the mess maker as well.

2010-08-09T21:06:00.002-04:00

2010-07-29T23:22:00.002-04:00

1. I can't believe I'm showing these pictures for all to see. I didn't even show the kitchen.
2. Seriously Kids... Really?... WHO IS YOUR MOTHER?... oh that's right. Me.
3. Does it have to look like this Every Monday Morning?
4. I can't tell you how many times I have thought... I should not be a mother of five. I'm drowning, I'm drowning.
5. And Chris wonders why I like to close myself up into a room and open a book. (He doesn't really say that, it just sounds good)
Somebody please tell me you have days like these.

There's a new mess maker in town.

2010-07-29T23:17:00.000-04:00

Maddie's 4th of July outfit!

2010-07-23T11:31:00.002-04:00

Cade's birthday/baptism

2010-07-07T09:12:00.003-04:00

Here's pictures at his baptism and some of my favorite pictures of Cade.

We celebrated Cade's birthday in Florida with his grandma and grandpa and his great nana. We went and saw Toy Story 3 - cute movie!

I forgot my camera so I don't have any pictures of his birthday- argggghh

Then all of us drove back to Georgia and had his baptism. Poor Nana Pat fell the day before we left and she was still willing to come even though her hip and elbow were pretty sore. She's so amazing she still played the piano for us at the baptism.

Cade had his brother give the talk on baptism and his cousin Connor spoke on the Holy Ghost. They both did a really good job. It was very nice. We love you so much Cade.

2010-07-07T08:26:00.002-04:00

Father's Day

Chris got a special treat for Father's Day. Not by me- mine was a flop.
We got a call the day before Father's Day from a lady in our ward. She was assigned to speak in Church and was wondering if she could come over and ask our kids some questions.
She (Kathryn) pulled the kids one by one and asked them a few questions about their dad and thanked us and left. We were a little curious to see what we would hear the next day, but hadn't thought about it for to long.
Sunday came. (way to early in the morning, we have to leave the house at 8am)
It was Kathryn's turn to speak and she started off with saying how she had interviewed some families in the ward, see if you can guess which family it is.
Then she preceded to tell us the questions she asked the kids and their response. It was the sweetest thing and immediately brought tears to Chris' eyes when he recognized the responses of his children.
After sacrament she gave us a typed up paper of their responses to keep. Here's some of them
CJ - 10
What's great about your dad?: He's a hard-working dad. He just got back from Arkansas for a week and he worked that hard for us and when he's not working he's always with us.

Does your dad have any special privileges?: At the dinner table, there's this chair that's the biggest and you can see everything. That's his. And he serves everyone.

How is your dad different from other dads?: He's fun to be with and he makes sure everyone gets a turn and has fun.

Cade - 7
Is your dad your hero?: Yes, he lets me play my fave. videos games and wrestles with me. He's gonna baptize me!

How does your dad set a good example for your baptism?: He let me choose the program.

What do enjoy doing with your dad?: Wrestling, great big hugs, getting on his back and He remembers turns.

Does your dad get any special priviledges?: He gets free time

Macey - 5

What's great about your dad?: I just love him

How does your dad set a good example for you?: He works for us, we really like that. He gives us great big hugs.

What do you enjoy doing with your dad?: He plays with me, he watches movies with me.

How is your dad different from other dads?: He's so silly. He's funny. He makes me laugh.

Busy Busy

2010-06-29T12:17:00.002-04:00

It's been awhile since I have had the chance to sit down and "blog".
I've been busy with planning and going to girls camp. Which was awesome. I loved it as a girl and still do.
I had a couple weeks break and then I spent a week getting the house decluttered before my parents came to visit. It's good, gets me motivated to do stuff I would probably never get around to. I spent a day cleaning and organizing the garage while Chris was out of town a week with work. I put up a cupboard with the help of a friend and a lot of chucking stuff.
Then poor Chris came home from Arkansas got to rest a day and then spent Father's Day driving down to Florida to catch up with my parents and visit my Grandma. The kids and I love the pool and going to the beach.
We spent a week down there and then all of us including my parents and my Grandma drove up here to Georgia so we could baptize Cade. I'll post more about that later with pictures.
Funny story: My mother bought the movie "Ever After" for Macey. If you can't remember that is the Cinderella movie with Drew Barry Moore [total chick flick] Macey insisted on watching it and Chris and my Dad were nice enough to let her put the movie in. I walked in later after the movie was about half way through to find that Macey had lost interest and left. While Chris and my dad were intently watching the movie. It was hilarious. Chris, I'm sure would disagree and say that they were NOT intently watching. It was funny to see them sitting there with no one else in the room watching a chick flick. My mom checked on them later and said they sat there and watched the whole thing.

2010-06-01T08:25:00.002-04:00

Bitty Black Eye

Maddie has a bit of a black eye. CJ was jumping with her on the trampoline when one of his jumps bumped her up and she landed on the bar. It popped out like a little egg on the side of her eye, but she was a trooper and didn't cry for too long.

2010-05-10T15:38:00.004-04:00

Cade can say the funniest things, but not trying to. It's also the way he says it that cracks us up. You just have to be there, but this is an example.
CJ was teasing Cade, holding up a toy he just made with misc. junk. CJ was holding it like he was going to throw it down and break it. Cade's reply in a stern voice: If you break it, I'll try my best to break your bone!"

love ya Cade

2010-05-03T14:26:00.002-04:00

The kids were outside riding their Jeep around and they decided to give Maddie a ride. She loved it! She was having so much fun and just taking it all in with her cute scrunchy smile.

My kids are growing up. :(

2010-04-17T08:38:00.003-04:00

I revamped these cute pair of flip flops with ribbons and stuff. (I totally stole this idea) They came out so cute! Macey wanted to do her flip flops too! When we were finished I excitedly told her that I had extra ribbon and I could make a pair for me so we would match. Her reply was uummm NO. I asked her why not. She said I want to be different.

Then that night Chris had taken the kids to the dollar store while I had the Beehives over for a movie night and Chris tells me CJ's choice of toy was not a toy but cologne.

What in the world is going on?

And they're out!

2010-04-12T09:03:00.005-04:00

Chris and I have been wanting to take out two trees in our front yard for a couple years and finally got it done....with some help. Yeah! The roots were coming up all over the front yard even busted our lawn mower. Yay and no more leaves, they dropped a ton of leaves in Autumn. We had the whole family out there working and loading up wood. A friend in our church chopped them down for us. I didn't know or really think it through that he would have to climb the tree. Man that made me nervous. He is such a good guy and sure did appreciate his help. Here's some pics, sorry they're not in order.

He got even higher in that tree, past those bottom three branches and he wasn't tied on to anything. He was up there sawing with one had and the other holding onto the tree. Scary huh?

2010-04-01T18:51:00.002-04:00

Cade's Market Day was a success! He sold out! It's so fun as a parent to see your child come home so happy and proud of himself.

Funny story about Macey:

There was a knock at the door and Macey answered it. It was one of CJ's friends down the street asking for CJ to play with him. CJ however was playing with another child in the neighborhood already and so Macey began to tell him that he was already playing and then she started to stutter and fumble and just finished real quick with who CJ was playing with. After the little boy left she shut the door and sung out aaaaawwkwaaaard and giggled. (She felt bad for telling the boy that CJ was with his other friend.) It caught me so off guard I bust out laughing. Chris and I had a good laugh when I told him.

2010-03-31T08:49:00.002-04:00

Signing Macey up for Kindergarten today!!!! I am so excited for her... she is going to LOVE IT. I'm worried about what I am going to do about Mason. I have literally had to drag him back into the car at the school's drop off drive thru. He tried to jump out real quick and follow the boys. He tried to do the same with Chris as well. He screamed at the top of his lungs the whole way home saying he wanted to go to school and that he is big enough.

I am now in Young Womens over the Beehives. I am scared but excited to have the beehives.
As an activity we had a lady in our ward who teaches at the YMCA, come do a Zumba class. That was a blast. I would love to do that again. I seriously need to work on the booty shaking part. Just imagine a robot trying to shake his backside. Thankfully there were others in the same boat with me. ha ha I have lots of good memories doing Jane Fonda workouts with my sisters growing up. It's so much fun doing that stuff in a group!
Chris is becoming Mr. Mom. He has had to watch the kids a lot lately... a lot. I can't help but to enjoy it just a little as I listen to him vent about frustrations I have had for a very long time. I'm always the mean bad mom that throws everything away. I came home from a long Saturday activity to a beautiful clean house but a fed up husband that was ready to chuck every toy we have in the house.

Cade has his "Market Day" today. Last time was a flop so I really hope today goes well. He is selling "Worms on a STICK" Gummy worms and Gummy Bears. Cade and CJ came up with it!

2010-03-22T08:28:00.004-04:00

This weekend I made homemade strawberry jam. Chris had to "test" the product to see if it was good. He was looking for butter in the fridge and it reminded me about a time I heard someone saying they had made butter in primary while she gave her sharing time. She got little baby food jars for each child and put in a little whipping cream in each one. She had the children shake their jars while she continued with her sharing time. I think the subject was on/or around Pioneer Day. By the end of lesson each child had a little ball of butter in their jar and then they got to use their butter on a small roll or something. I was telling Chris about this and he couldn't believe it was that easy. He thought there had to be more to it than that. I had the RARE pleasure of doing my "I was RIGHT, happy dance", when Chris looked it up on the internet. Then I just happened to remember I had some leftover whipping cream in the fridge! We all took turns shaking the jar as we walked around the house and sure enough about 15 mins later, we had a ball of butter! The kids had fun putting homemade butter and jam on their toast, it was YUUUUMMY!

2010-03-15T10:47:00.001-04:00

I can't believe how big my sweet little girl it getting. She's growing up so fast. I just love her to pieces. She has a very fiesty personality coming out. Oh no

catch up time

2010-03-08T11:26:00.003-05:00

I finally got pictures downloaded off of Chris' phone. The next couple of entries are pictures we had taken over the past few months. This was sometime in Feb. We had a good time making our first "real" snowman. I think we've attempted it before but there was never enough snow. This is the most snow we've seen since we moved out here 4 years ago. (Michelle do you recognize my colorful pj pants?)

2010-03-08T11:21:00.002-05:00

We took the kids to Steak n' Shake! (Where we got a lot of stares walking in with our brood) The kids looked so cute with their hats on. I just want to pinch Mason's cheeks every time I see his picture.

2010-03-08T11:15:00.002-05:00

The kidos received these Christmas pillowcases from the Crook family. The kids had a blast in them. They did sack races across the family room. I heard Megan did a lot of the sewing. Megan I am impressed, you did a good job. We love them. Thanks so much. (Maddie K looks so cute sitting in the pillowcase with Mason.)

2010-02-27T23:04:00.002-05:00

Chris pulled off his first Blue and Gold banquet. I think it went well. Chris had each family decorate a cake to be judged. Chris and CJ did a derby car. I was impressed, they did a good job.

Our last first birthday!

2010-02-27T22:57:00.002-05:00

Maddie K turned one on the 16th of February! Poor little thing was sick with a fever and slept the day away. She still enjoyed the cake though and gave us one of her sweet smiles. I can't believe she is already one.

2010-02-02T06:11:00.004-05:00

My son Cade loves choc. milk (just like his dad) and he decided to be a sweety and offer to make everyone chocolate milk last night. As we were all sitting there drinking milk with our straws, (Straws are a big thing over here. Ya gotta have a straw with choc. milk.) Someone let Maddie K try their's - she loved it! Then she kept going to everyone hitting them and squaking wanting another sip. It was so dang cute. Finally we just decided to make her a bottle of it! OMG! She was in hog heaven. I wish I could explain how cute it was. She plopped down to sit with the rest of us and squealed and smiled, legs kicking, drinking her chocolate milk (imagine that being said like Bill Cosby) "Dad is great, gives me chocolate cake(milk)!" Do you remember that episode? I still go around singing that. Anyways it was really a sweet moment. We tried to get a picture of Maddie guzzling down her chocolate milk(say it like Bill Cosby would) in her bottle, but everytime she saw chris hold up is phone ,to take a pic., she'd take it out.

I gotta tell you this story about Cade and straws.
We had been invited over to some friends house, I can't remember the details but Cade had some sort of drink that was special enough, he thought it required a straw. He asked Ms. Jenny if he could please have a straw. Sadly she replied I'm sorry we don't have any. Cade kind of put his head down and paused for a minute and looked up at her and said something like "Okay, but next time you go to the store, do you think you could get some straws" Ms Jenny thought it was so funny and told him okay.

I spoke to soon....now CJ has it. yuck yuck yuck

2010-01-18T12:05:00.000-05:00

2010-01-15T09:51:00.005-05:00

Last Sunday we had an Eight is Great! Which Cade was excited to go to. I can't believe he's getting baptized this year. It was nice driving in the car on the way there, being able to give our full attention to just Cade. Except that he said he had a stomach ache so he wasn't too chatty.
I had a little part in the program of running a little game for the kids. I was just announcing the game and what they would be doing when Chris bolts out of his chair holding Cade as he's puking. Poor Cade, it just fits him to a T, to have something like that happen to him. I stood there like a dummy trying to figure out if I should continue the program or be rude and just walk out. I didn't realize that it was on the floor and chair- I know nasty huh. So yes, everything was stopped and put on hold while we cleaned up the mess. I felt bad, but was really surprised to see how helpful everybody was. His teacher took Cade into the bathroom and cleaned his hands and clothes and got him a baggy for the ride home and people were helping Chris and I clean. It was very nice of them. About an hour before the meeting he started saying his stomach hurt and he explained it like it was going to explode or full, something like that. Then he burped and he said, that felt better. So a light bulb went off in my head and I thought Oh he feels bloated with gas. I gave him a tums and we walked out the door. Boy was I wrong. Chris took Cade home and by the time I got home, Cade was showered and asleep in bed. All is good now and somehow amazingly no one else has caught it. knock on wood. Love you Cade. Is that a graphic enough picture for ya. Ha ha ha

Latest Read

2010-01-09T10:54:00.002-05:00

I kept hearing about this book, so I thought I'd check it out. I really liked it. Really uplifting. Starts out sad.
By the way if you haven't seen the movie "Blindside", you need to. It is a very good movie and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I love getting cards

2009-12-29T16:48:00.000-05:00

I saw this idea somewhere and thought it was a really cute idea. My very own Christmas Card Tree. You just kind of have to wait awhile to get enough cards. I would also like to say that, for anyone who is reading this, I still like to get Christmas letters. It's slowly becoming a thing of the past and I miss hearing about you all. Even though I don't do one myself. Don't follow me - I've got 5 kids. ( I use this excuse a lot )

I also took a picture of our beautiful clock. This was Chris' gift from his Sister and Brother-in-law. He is very talented and is always trying and teaching himself new things, like how to make big beautiful clocks. It stands 4' tall. The picture doesn't do it justice and Chris and I absolutely love it.

This better be the last time.

2009-12-14T22:43:00.000-05:00

These chairs used to be Chris' mothers and I recovered them and got to enjoy them a little over a year when my little boy decided to take a permanent marker to both of them. So here's a Before and After and another After. There better not be anymore afters.

2009-12-02T12:36:00.000-05:00

Chris and CJ got up early Thanksgiving Day and went and played at the ward turkey bowl. Sounds like they had a good time. A friend caught a couple of pictures of them. The first one is of Chris intercepting the ball away from his OWN SON. Chris said he didn't know it was meant for CJ. sure sure whatever helps you sleep at night. ha ha

Latest read

2009-11-30T07:54:00.004-05:00

This was a cute fun book, I enjoyed it. I think I liked it even more just because of the color of the book. If anyone has any suggestions to a good book, I would love to hear from you.

Leaves Leaves go away, come back another day

2009-11-14T02:11:00.000-05:00

The boys were grounded from the T.V. today for playing in the morning instead of getting ready for school. (They won't like it that I said that, ha) So I decided we better tackle the front yard and rake up all the leaves. We all made an estimate at how many bags it would take. CJ was the closest with six. I said 5, Cade said 3, Macey and Mason said 4. EIGHT bags later and three bags from 3 weeks before. Yeah the kids fell asleep early that night. They were troopers and stuck with it and did a good job and poor Maddie has a belly full of leaves. She sat in the grass and tried to put anything and everything in her mouth. She loved being outside and crawling around.

Happy Birthday Macey!!!

2009-11-14T01:55:00.001-05:00

Macey turned 5 on the 4th. I can't believe how big my kids are getting. We moved to Georgia when she was only 9 months old. Now look at her, sniff sniff. We had a gentleman at church pull Chris and I aside and said he was watching us during sacrament and knew that we had our hands full, but wanted to tell us to enjoy every moment of it because before you know it they are grown up and gone. He began to get really choked up and went on to say now he has great grandchildren and still can't believe it. My little girl is now my big helper. Every day without fail or even a prod, she will get Maddie from all her naps. She pulls down the side crib, picks up Maddie K out of the crib and carries her down the stairs. Sounds scary I know, but she absolutely loves doing it, in fact she gets very upset if somebody else tries to. She loves to make her daddy laugh. She LOVES gum. If anyone has gum she sniffs it out and has no fear asking if she can have some. She loves purses and has plenty of them, but if you look inside, it will be filled with cars, guns and action figures. Can you tell she has older brothers? And of course she loves her little sister Maddie and is her second mom.

She can be quite the ham. Love you Macey.

Homemade apple pie!

2009-11-14T01:30:00.002-05:00

The last couple times Chris went to the grocery store for me, he would come home with a big bag of Granny smith apples. He likes them but the kids don't really; to sour. I had to think of something to do with all these apples. I decided I would try and make a real homemade apple pie. I made one once when I was a little girl at my friend Keely's house, with the help of her mom of course. If you know me you know how I love sugar, so to make it even sweeter, I did a crumb top of a little flour and lots of sugar.

Turns out that it didn't appeal to the kids and Chris doesn't really care for sweets so CJ had one little piece and I ate the rest of it all by myself. I had it for breakfast, lunch and after dinner one day. Ha how's that for eating healthy.

Pictures of Maddie K

2009-11-05T19:37:00.000-05:00

I wanted to get some pictures of her in this dress before she grew out of it. Doesn't she look so cute. I just love her so much, she brings an instant smile to my face.

Character Day

2009-10-30T09:06:00.003-04:00

Can you tell who they are? We had fun deciding what they would be for "character day". They have to choose a character from a book and go to school with their book and dressed as that person.

We had him walking around saying "Four score and seven years ago our fore fathers" Gosh he is so darn cute.

CJ came up with his idea all on his own- I was impressed! For Halloween CJ wants to be a Zombie Albert Einstein.

Market Day

2009-10-27T22:49:00.001-04:00

Cade's first Market Day! One of the wonderful things about being a 2nd grader at Vaughan Elementary is to participate in Market Day. Each child has to come up with a product, or service to sell. Then decide how much to charge and make, if it's a product or buy supplies and have a sign or display as well. They all gather together in the cafeteria and COMMENCE to buy and sell with their tickets they have earned. They even make little open/close signs, so they can leave their booth and do some shopping.
Our first thought was to make the rattlesnake egg trick, but that was a bomb. Dad thought of making Fruit Loop Treats. Sugar and bright colors to attract your attention. Sounds good to me, sounded good to Cade. Cade did an awesome job making the treats! I walked him through the first batch and he made the second all on his own, while I sat on the couch feeding the baby. It made me a little nervous watching him standing on a chair at the stove which is gas, so yeah blue flame coming out around the pot and my son leaning over looking into the pan. For my own sake I had to keep saying "watch your shirt" and "don't get to close", but he did it perfectly without any mishaps. Good Job Cade! Good Luck tomorrow.

Happy Birthday Chris! You are loved.

2009-10-19T10:39:00.000-04:00

Chris' birthday was last Thursday. We went out with his sister and her husband and another couple. The plan was to do a movie and dinner. We got the movie in, which was pretty good and a real nice treat for Chris and I. We couldn't remember the last time we had gone to a movie for ourselves. Then we called to check on the baby and found that she had been crying almost the entire time, so we rushed over to the babysitters house and picked up Maddie. (Thank you Ali, I owe you big time)

Some of the things I love about my husband:

- he often brings home chocolate just for me!

- he makes the kids and I laugh

- he reminds me of my appointments, because he knows that's a weakness of mine.

- he makes us delicious Sunday morning breakfasts

- he loves to feel the spirit and go to all his church meetings, whereas I need a nudge from him sometimes.

- he loves cologne, and smells so yummy

and now my kids are bugging me so I have to go, but those are just a few random things I love about him.

Go HOYAS!!!

2009-10-09T08:07:00.002-04:00

We usually do a Friday Family Fun Night, but on this occasion we decided to do a "boys night" and "girls night". Chris took the boys to a Harrison Hoyas football game. Mason's shirt came down to his ankles, but that's okay, because he's so dang cute. What I wouldn't give to have a picture of Chris walking around with his three boys, in Curby football jersey's at a football game. Love it.

Can you guess what us girls did. It involves popcorn and m&m's and sitting on the couch.

Ding Ding Ding. Your right we watched a girl movie! We had ice cream too!

Yummy Pizza

2009-10-09T07:47:00.000-04:00

Chris and I took the kids to this little restaurant called "A pie in the sky", known for their huge pizzas. This is our 30" pizza and I think there was two sizes larger than this. It was cute watching the kids as they brought it out. Bummer we didn't get Chris in the picture with us.

Service Project

2009-10-06T08:57:00.001-04:00

This is regarding the flooding we had here in Georgia. There was a service project set up on Saturday Sept. 26th to help those that had their homes flooded. I think the main goal was to be passing out cleaning kits. As the day went on though, it was realized, it was a little premature and that many people still needed help gutting out their homes. This is where I think it gets neat. It was a approved late Saturday night that more needed to be done, therefore setting up a service project throughout the stakes of north Georgia for the following day on Sunday. They were hoping to get around 25 men from each ward and in turn having a turn out of around 400 men. Around 9pm Saturday night we got a calling post asking, if possible the brethren to come and help the victims of the flood. The service project was scheduled to be from 8am-4pm. When Chris arrived he recieved a shirt and then they were assigned in groups and they went from house to house gutting them and pulling down all the wet drywall. The turn out was amazing they estimated about a thousand men there helping. This first picture is to show the car on the left was completely covered in water and the people in the backround were bowing earlier, expressing their gratitude for the help.

This is one of the homes Chris helped gut.

Chris had a coworker that came down from north Georgia to help. He was assigned an area that still had couple inches of standing water in some homes. He said he was sore from all the dry heaving. He had to help clean out rotting refridgerators and mud and sludge. Chris said it really was an amazing experience and he loved being a part of it. I wish I could have been out there with him. He tried to get a good picture of all the trash and furniture lining the streets pulled from the homes.

Poor Mason

2009-10-02T23:13:00.002-04:00

This is a reoccurring event lately. I go upstairs to put Maddie down for her nap. Sometimes I stop and tell them where I'm going and that I'll be right back and sometimes I just try and sneak away real quick. But no matter what I do, Mason (also being very tired) goes to the bottom of the stairs and just cries for me to come downstairs. This is how I found him the last couple of times. Cade used to always fall asleep in the wierdest places as well.

Yummy

2009-09-22T09:56:00.000-04:00

I was in the middle of making dinner when Maddie K started fussing so I put her in the bumbo seat right next to me and gave her a licorice. Oh my goodness. She devoured that thing. It kept her very busy and happy. she was just smacking away, sucking on it and making all sorts of funny noises.

Oh yeah, yum, yum, hmmm, yum, smack. I could hardly get her to look at me because she was so busy enjoying her licorice. And yes I know I am a terrible mom I gave my 7 month old a licorice. Funny what you start to slack on, I never would have done that with my first. At least not this early.

2009-09-21T12:03:00.001-04:00

All last week it rained off and on and the ground was already saturated. Then it rained last night almost 13-14 hrs straight. Its supposed to be like this a couple more days as well. It was a little scary this morning watching all that rain come down and it couldn't drain fast enough. Here's some pictures, they're all blurry. Guess my camera doesn't take pictures in the rain that well.

That white stream is water coming down from the top hill of our yard. Their was a couple of those coming off the hill.

We finally had to pull a board off to let the water drain quicker.

Here's a picture of the other side of our fence. It's at least a foot deep.

2009-09-14T19:24:00.001-04:00

Last weekend my parents flew into Jacksonville to visit my dad's mom in Panama City. They rented a car to drive the rest of the way and as they were getting on the road. Dad and mom decided to turn around and make the long drive up here and visit us for the day! Dad called 9 o'clock in the morning and said can we come see you. They were here by 3 I think. Dad hadn't seen Madolin and he said it just killed him to be this close and not take the opportunity. Our kids were so excited when we told them Grandma and Grandpa were coming to see us! Of course I was too. Usually we meet them down in Florida, but with the baby, school and church, it would be just to much for me.

It was sooo nice to see them. We went out to dinner that evening at "Jim and Nicks" My mom loves their cheese muffins, who doesn't, they are so incredibly good. I enjoyed the conversation and the chance to just sit and visit. It was nice, Maddie K was all over the place and made herself known but that's okay. Then Chris made an awesome breakfast the next morning and they were off.
Thanks so much mom and dad for making the long drive, we feel loved. Love you

my opinion - she is so flippin cute!

2009-09-11T12:40:00.001-04:00

Maddie K is sitting up all by herself and doing the military crawl all over the family room. It's amazing the stuff they find. Makes me vacuum a lot more often.

I remember my sister Lori always saying how much she loves felt and can make anything with felt. I thought that it would be cute to make a felt flower head band. I love it! (So yes I'm showing off my felt headband)
Thanks Lori for the idea!

I love her little tongue sticking out. Poor thing is just smothered with kisses and squeezes.

2009-09-08T15:10:00.002-04:00

This is my latest read! It was my reward to myself for finishing writing the Primary Program. (Yessss it's Done) It is the sequel to the Hunger Games. I loved it, stayed up until 2:30 in the morning reading until Maddie K woke up ready to eat. Although it is the second book in a trilogy and now I have to wait another year until the next one comes out. uugghhh I don't like that.

update: The family is doing well. I'm looking in to having Macey's speech evaluated.
CJ started up football again. We're trying to figure out what Cade would like to do for a sport. Mason is a mess making fool. Maddie just learned to sit up and has the sweetest smile. Chris' employers are trying hard to win some bids so keep us in your prayers and I'm doing loads and loads and loads of laundry it is fuuuunn stuff!

2009-08-30T03:07:00.000-04:00

Tyler came back from school for two weeks. Sure was nice to see him again. He came over several times to play with the kids and hold the baby. It was very nice. We won't see him again til Christmas. Sniffle. I still can't believe how old and grown up the Weeks boys are.
Does Maddie have the biggest eyes or what? That's a common look on her face.

2009-08-30T02:59:00.000-04:00

I came home from the store and this little dude was scooting his way up the wall. Freaky looking isn't he. Then a couple days later Macey came running in the house screaming, she was really scared and I ran up to her asked her what's wrong and she points to her leg and she had one of these little guys on her leg. She DID NOT like that at all.

crazy huh

2009-08-18T09:59:00.000-04:00

Yay! The Zweifel family came to visit! Michelle is my sister and her hubby Jon. They arrived the day of his birthday, so we had a cake waiting for him and sang Happy Birthday! Our kids are the same age and she just had a baby a few months after I did. My kids had an absolute blast playing with their cousins.
We also traveled down to Florida with them to visit Nana Pat. I forgot my camera so I don't have any pictures of us in Florida. Bummer. We had a wonderful time visiting, swimming and catching up. I was quite sad to see them leave. We miss you already Zweifels. Love ya

2009-08-18T09:38:00.000-04:00

This is our day trip to American Adventureland with the Zweifel family! I thought I took a ton of pictures and I guess I didn't. These are some of the cute ones.

2009-08-17T13:49:00.000-04:00

Thought we should get some pictures of the little babies, together. Isn't that cute their holding hands.

And now Maddie being a meaning and pulling Emma's hair.

C's First Pinewood Derby Car!

2009-08-14T08:31:00.000-04:00

CJ was so excited about getting to build his first derby car. Us parents...we were a little nervous. WOW, I love the internet, we found all sorts of helpful hints about how to make your car and to WIN. Maybe a little too much info. This can be serious buisness. On the first car, Chris and I had to walk away just after two cuts, to calm ourselves down. ha ha
Here's CJ's finished product. He talked about it for days and days later. He had a blast. We didn't win, but that's okay we came in a close second. Chris is the cubmaster and was running the whole thing and I was helping, which means I didn't get a single picture at the event. We have a small group which was perfect since this was Chris' first time at having to run this event. I'd say one of the hightlights for the boys was when we had the "Suns" entry music playing as Chris called in each kid and announced them. It was so cute watching the boys pump their arms and jumping up and down as they were announced and the crowd was clapping. (We got the idea from a sister... thanks for your help.) It was good experience and CJ and Chris did a good job on the car. CJ has his car proudly set up on his shelf.

My favorite show ever

2009-07-31T12:49:00.003-04:00

Wasn't last night's show AWESOME!!! except for the part when Ade got sent home. BOO.

I'm sorry but Evan is just not as good as Ade and Brandon are, I can't believe he stayed. I absolutely loved the dance routines last night I was so excited when they did "bleeding love"

I loved Mark from last season. JABBAWOCKEEZ ugh that was sooo cool!!!

Now if they would just come out with the seasons on CD my life would be complete. ha ha just kidding. Then I could watch the one with Lauren and Neil when she was in white and he was the villian. I could also watch the Paso Doble with Sabra and Neil, when she wraps herself like a doughnut around him and he drops her to the ground! I could also watch the one with Neil and Sabra danced to the music "Sweet Dreams are Made of These" can you see a pattern.

Freebie!

2009-07-27T19:33:00.001-04:00

I was just pulling out of our neighborhood when I noticed this little beauty with a "FREE" sign leaning against it. OH Yea I'm all about the free stuff. The kids are having a blast. It is so nice being in a cul-de-sac. They have lots of room to drive it around.
Nothing better than driving around and enjoying some licorice!

Our Quilt Block

2009-07-27T13:01:00.003-04:00

Our Stake is having each ward make a quilt and then we're going to display them when all are done. Then someone special in our ward gets the quilt. Our ward decided to divide us up in groups and have each group make a 12x12 quilt block and then they will put them all together. The material was chosen but we got to choose a pattern. So this is our quilt block we did. We had a good time sitting and chatting as we sewed and snacked. It took us almost two hours although we did start late come to think of it. When we showed Chris he was a little surprised. I don't know what he was expecting, but he thought it would be more than just one little block for two hours of work. ha ha
I'll have to be sure and get a picture of the whole quilt. I'm curious as to how its going to turn out with so many hands that worked on it.
Starting from the left is Sara, Ali and Carrie

Our Night at the Museum!!!

2009-07-13T15:44:00.005-04:00

Chris discovered this event going on and thought it might be fun for our family. It was a blast! Downtown Kennesaw Museum ran a "Night at the Southern Museum".
It was so cool, having all these different characters coming to life and talking to the children. They met a lot of historical characters and got to interact with them. We got held up by a mobster, sniffed by cavemen, given stolen treasure, put in jail, Signed up for war. (CJ chose the south and Cade chose the North.) Macey played poker, CJ danced a jig and many more things. I got a lot of pictures but, still I missed a bunch of them. Some of the ones we didn't get a picture with was: Albert Einstein, Atila the Hun, cavemen, Abe Lincoln, Pirates and a few more. Here's a bunch of other pictures. Enjoy. He was a cute Roman soldier. ha ha

Colonel Mustard. He was looking for Sackajuweha. I have no idea if I spelt that right.
Storm troopers and bat mobile.

2009-07-13T15:31:00.000-04:00

The kids absolutely loved seeing Star Wars characters there!! They all dropped their mouths, it took them awhile to get up the nerve to ask to have a picture with them.
R2D2 was pretty cool. Look how big he is. He just strolled around the Museum letting kids take pictures with him. Do you like our cool headbands.... they were free.

Mason was a little nervous being so close to Darth Vader. The kids were so STOKED! I think Daddy was too.

2009-07-13T15:25:00.001-04:00

I thought it was so cute that Mason even played along and held up his hands.

This guy is in the second movie. My kids love going around saying "Boom Boom FIREPOWER"!
This guy really scared Macey. The room was kind of dark and he was sitting so still. When she walked by him, he turned and started talking to her. She jumped and let out a little scream/giggle. She thought that was pretty funny.

continued pictures

2009-07-13T10:09:00.002-04:00

Macey got right in there and started playing cards, I thought that was kind of funny. Of course CJ and Cade were all into having the cowboys show them their GUNS.

While we were inside I had a pirate offer to cut off the "growth" I seemed to have on the front of me. ha ha
I still can't believe I had all these kids....really they're all mine?
We had an awesome time, I'm so glad Chris saw the advertisement for it.

Our latest, self inflicted hair pulling project

2009-07-12T21:31:00.000-04:00

We decided to fix up our downstairs bathroom. The floor was wood and wood and water don't go well together especially in a bathroom used by children. We had water damage and in the summer months when it warmed up, it would not smell so good. I know it's grose, but Macey during her potty training had several accidents on the wood floor and it soaked into that wood and need I go further, yuck I know. Which is why we pulled it up and decided to put in tile. Here's a few pictures. It's a very small bathroom.

What started out as just floor and fixtures became a little more. We put in bead board and painted that and after at least 5 trys we finally got the toilet set. That was an absolute nightmare. You have to notice the faucet, Chris saw it and fell in love with it. I think that's his favorite part.
Note to self: clean mirror better

Cade's Birthday Party

2009-07-12T11:04:00.000-04:00

Cade turned SEVEN in June! I have been promising for quite awhile that I would do a party for him. He was very excited. Too bad his class is so small it would have been fun to have had a few more there. I say that now that it's over and done with. We did a Transformer theme, starting from the left we have Jazz, Optimus Prime, Ratchet and Bumble Bee. We did an obstacle course, a couple water games, decorated cupcakes, lunch and then a hunt for the cube. They had a blast running around finding the clues and trying to figure them out. I wish I had made it a little longer. Here's some pictures.

I had them make a funny face. I think Optimus wins. Her mom will get a kick out of this picture.

The kids decided they wanted to show off some of their dance moves. I don't know where Cade is in these pictures.

continued pictures

2009-07-12T10:36:00.000-04:00

It's a nice way to use up time, by letting them decorate their cupcakes! And they have fun doing it!!!

Present time!!

Venting Session

2009-06-28T22:53:00.002-04:00

It is 11pm right now and I'm irked. Just as I was about to jump into bed I had to grab one thing out of the guest bedroom. As I walked in there I noticed Cade's hooded jacket lying on the floor around in the corner. Okay that was the last straw. I have been asking him for 2 days to pick it up and take it to his room, instead he hides it in the guest bedroom, wadded up in the corner. We had the kids clean up a room they trashed earlier and as I was walking around doing my nightly routine I kept noticing items that I had asked them to put away were NOT put away but hidden in some corner, under some bed, in some dirty laundry basket. WHAT IS UP WITH THAT? And what really cracks me up is, more than half the time they to go the same distance or even further to hide it then if they had just put the item where it belonged. AAAGGGHHH okay I feel better now. I'm going to bed

2009-06-23T08:26:00.000-04:00

Father's Day Crash (CJ named it)
I think Chris had a good Father's Day. He got a good breakfast and had steak and salmon for dinner. He was pretty excited about that. Steak is a rare thing around here.
At church all the men were given a tie colored by the primary and a snickers candy bar. That went over pretty good with them.
Here's a picture of the kids with dad holding up the plate they made for him.

And here's a picture a few seconds after I took the first picture of it in a hundred pieces. I guess Mason didn't relize it was glass and he had to be careful with it, because as soon as I took the picture he just dropped it as if it was a ball. Shattered right at Chris' feet. sigh..... oh well. HAPPY FATHERS DAY CHRIS.

Our trip to the Atlanta Botanical Garden!

2009-06-12T22:44:00.003-04:00

Ali and I braved it out and made a trip to the Botanical Garden. It was neat, I had a really good time. I would love to go again. I am so glad Ali came with me, she had been there before and knew the way. I would have definately gotten lost. We were a little worried with both of us having a new born and then the six you see here.

I love looking at those glass art pieces, they are so cool looking.

They loved sticking their hands in the water, We could have sat there forever just letting them put their hands in the water, oh and coins too gotta have coins. I didn't have any thank heaven Ali did. Macey, Porter, Mason and Boston.

They had a beautiful wall of orchids. Here's proof I was there!

2009-06-12T22:31:00.001-04:00

Just a cool looking flower

This plant was really cool looking, I wish I had gotten a closer picture. If you look close the stems of the leaves are tiger striped. The plant right below had awesome leaves. They actually looked and had the touch of velvet.

2009-06-12T22:21:00.000-04:00

Porter, Mason, Boston, Macey, CJ, and Cade

This palm leaf was huge, the picture doesn't do it justice

That was so cute to turn around and see them holding hands .

Madolin was such a trooper, she was an absolute angel and didn't fuss at all. She was worn out.

Yay!!!!

2009-06-11T12:25:00.004-04:00

I'm so excited! I just found out that the sequel to the book "The Hunger Games" will be coming out this Sept. I can't wait!!! As you can see it's called Catching Fire. I just hope it's not like a four book series. I hate waiting for each book. I'm doing my little happy jiggy dance!!! yay can't wait.

2009-06-11T08:35:00.001-04:00

See this old chair. I had two of them and about a 18 months ago I tried my hand at reupholstery (sp ?) I thought it turned out not to bad for my first try.

Here's my finished product. I even put on a cute little button. (It was hard just to do one button)

Now look and see what my son just did to them yesterday. With permanent orange marker.

He couldn't just stick to one chair he had to do both and the little stinker even ripped the button off. ha ha ah
I'm laughing as my eye and cheek are twitching and I'm holding my hands together so I don't reach over strangle the kid.

slip n slide

2009-06-10T16:38:00.000-04:00

My friend Ali came over with her kidos so we pulled out the slip n slide to keep them busy.

A First for my babies

2009-06-10T16:20:00.000-04:00

Madolin found her fingers. It has saved me a couple of times now, since I can't get her to take a binkie. We were in the doctors office with one of my other children and she was screaming because she was soooo tired and just wanted her bed. First she started sucking on her chubby wrist and then eventually found her two fingers. This is a first for any of my kids to suck on their fingers. She looks a little freaky in this picture, usually it's very cute.

Productive Day!

2009-06-04T09:15:00.004-04:00

I'm proud of myself I had a very productive day yesturday with the kids. I got myself ready for the day, did the dishes and just went outside to water the garden. Next thing I know I've got the lawn mower out and I'm teaching the boys how to mow the lawn. Cade could hardly push the thing so I had to walk with him. We found a turtle while mowing. Also raked and spread out grass seed on several sparse areas in the yard and watered.
Then it was time to feed the baby. After that I sat down with the kids and had them do schoolwork. They weren't so trilled about that. I got my menu and grocery list all written out, while they worked.
Let's see, then Mason wanted to play catch. It's so cute how excited he gets. When I told him yes. He runs out to the garage and grabs his glove and ball and then comes back in and says I have to have one. So then he's on a mission trying to find a glove for me. We just played in the family room, but I felt good spending time with him.
Got several loads of laundry done and folded and fed the baby throughout the day.
Then in the afternoon we set up the slip and slide outside for the kids and they had a blast doing that.
That's about it for my day. Dad was on his way home. He got dinner for the kids and I crashed on the couch for the rest of the night.

Vacation to Florida & Nana

2009-05-25T23:55:00.000-04:00

Sorry it's been awhile since I posted. Chris had to go check/work on a jobsite down in Florida and wanted to see if I wanted to come knowing it wasn't far from where my Grandmother lives (Nana). Which is funny because just a week prior I had told him I was eager to get down there and see her and spend time at the beach and I didn't want it to be for just a day or two. But in order to go the kids were going to miss the last week of school. They don't really do much learning the last week right? So off we went to Florida for a week while Chris worked on this house. I was going to spend everyday at the beach or in the pool getting an awesome tan! Well it didn't quite work that way. We arrived in the evening about 7pm, the pool was the perfect temperature and the kids swam until dark. But by morning a front was coming in and this cold wind was blowing continuously. It cooled the pool down so quick the kids couldn't get in by afternoon. So the next day I decided we're going to try the beach, a little wind won't bother us. I was wrong. It was blowing so hard it felt like someone was hitting you with a sand blaster. We turned around and went home after 5mins on the beach. And then the rain came and stayed the rest of the week, needless to say we watched a lot of movies and got on poor Nana Pat's nerves. Mason was into everything and I need to work on CJ and McCade's Manners. That was a bit of an eye opener. These pictures are of the last day there the rain and wind had stopped with just a couple hours of daylight left and I knew this was my last chance to get to the beach.( I am so a beach bum.) We drove down there and stayed for a couple of hours until the sun went down past the horizon.

Do you like Mason's Nemo "speedo". That wasn't planned, somehow his swim trunks didn't make it to the car.
All in all we still had a good time and I was so glad to spend time with my Nana Pat. We sure do love her.

Pool Day.

2009-05-25T23:24:00.000-04:00

These are the only pictures of the kids in Nana's Pool. The kids had one good day of swimming and then the wind became too cold.

I love this picture of Mason and Maddie.

The pool became too cold to swim in so they sat there one early evening with their feet in the pool playing I spy.

The Turtle

2009-05-25T23:17:00.000-04:00

Chris was coming home and noticed a turtle going across Nana Pat's yard.

All the kids wanted to hold the turtle or at least at first they did, but then when it came to actually picking him up, that was a little scary.

Mason wanted to keep "petting" him. I thought that was funny.

2009-05-25T23:12:00.000-04:00

Madolin with her Great Grandmother. We call her Nana Pat.

She would be upset with me if she knew I put this on my blog for everyone to see, because she didn't have her make-up on. We love her very much and she is a wonderful Grandma.

T's Prom Pics

2009-05-14T07:49:00.000-04:00

Tyler had his prom last weekend and we decided to go "check'em out". Sure is fun to watch them and the memories it brings back. Tyler's date was Kelsie. She's a sweetie

Here's the group picure

I liked this one of all the guys

We've gotten to know Kelsie and her family and Macey just loves her. Kelsie doen't have any sisters so she is really sweet with my girls and loves to give them attention, which Macey just absolutely loves. Kelsie will let Macey hold her purse and to pretend to talk on her "pink" cell phone and use her lip gloss ... etc. Macey just loves it. Did I mention Macey loves her.

Madolin's Blessing Day

2009-05-04T00:03:00.000-04:00

Madolin was such an angel today. She didn't cry when I put her in her dress. She didn't spit up on her dress. She smiled for me and for the camera and didn't make a peep as being blessed. Then she took a wonderful long nap all through the rest of church and made it home before waking up. Her blessing was beautiful and other than being late to church (oops) everything went smooth enough for me - not perfectly, I do have 5 kids, but smooth enough.
,

I can't tell you enough how much we love her.

This is the only good picture we got of her afterwards, once we got home and woke her up she was very very hungry and wanted to eat rather than to smile.

How cute is that

2009-05-03T23:39:00.000-04:00

I can't remember what we were watching at the time but it must have been interesting. Chris and I thought that was just too cute.

Help Needed

2009-04-28T22:53:00.002-04:00

I'm looking for some ideas. I'll explain first though.

For the last 3 years in this ward it has been the Bishopric that get some special gift for the women on Mother's Day. Twice we've gotten really nice church music cd's. (It's late excuse my weird writing) Back to the story...... When it came to Father's Day nothing was done because of course the Bishopric isn't going to do it for themselves and none of the other auxillaries have volunteered to do it. I will feel terrible if that happens again. I'm the Primary Secretary so I thought maybe we could have the kids make something or do something. So I am looking for very, very simple ideas as to what we could give to our Fathers. For example.... I remember one time the kids all colored ties and put yarn around them so they could wear them and it had a cute poem on the back, but I don't know the poem. Please please if you can think of any cute ideas let me know or a site to find cute ideas.

Thanks

My Latest Read

2009-04-20T13:09:00.002-04:00

I really enjoyed this book and it was quite fitting for just celebrating Easter. If you don't know anything about this book, the author took the real story and then added to it by giving them personalities and filling in the blanks since the scriptures don't give much detail. Yes it is fiction, but I loved it because it made them seem so much more real to me and really opened my eyes to all their struggles even though it was such an honor to be chosen to be the parents of the son of God. Loved it!!!

Madolin's Easter Dress.

2009-04-14T22:35:00.000-04:00

I had so much fun getting Madolin ready Sunday morning! I love this dress. She's so precious.

I could not get her to look at me though.

Easter Morning

2009-04-13T22:48:00.005-04:00

I don't have any pictures, just a journal entry of how my Easter Morning went.
One thing that I love about my hubby is that he loves to play Trivia games, watch trivia based shows and give trivia games. In fact our favorite show right now is called "Cash Cab" it's this cab that drives around New York and asks people trivia questions as it drives them to their destination, if they answer correctly they earn money.
So Easter Morning Chris decided he was going to play with the kids and ask them questions all about Easter and what it is all about. The questions started out easy and they would so excitedely raise their hand, bouncing up and down hoping dad would call on them. It was soooo cute to watch. Then the questions started getting a little harder and Chris would give hints or they would run to me to whisper in their ear. Finally Chris came up with the question, name the 12 original Apostles. Silence. uhhh I don't know. I came up with two, that's a little embarressing. Chris couldn't name off all 12 either, made me feel a little better. Chris went and looked it up online and then we sat around trying to learn and memorize the 12 apostles. It was lots of fun. For example one name is Bartholemew (spelling ?) and we were coming up with different ways to help the kids remember how to say it. ie. what sound does a cow make. I really enjoyed our Easter Morning, it made an impression on me.

I think I enjoyed it so much because it is something I would never think to do with my kids, I just don't think that way. Makes me think of the whole YingYang. Because Chris and I are quite different it can be a struggle sometimes but then I see something like this happen and I am so glad that we are different and he has qualities that I lack and hopefully our children will be more well rounded because of it. Hope that makes sense. As I am writing I'm still trying to figure out what exactly I'm feeling.

To all my friends and family in Arizona...

2009-04-07T11:20:00.002-04:00

It is April 7 (i think)11:20 am and I was just updating my blog when I turned around and looked out the window and saw little snow flurries. How bizarre is that? I have lived here for 3 1/2 yrs now and the weather still is amazing to me. To have such cold weather in April just blows my mind.

New Hair Do!

2009-04-07T10:38:00.000-04:00

I decided to go short for the Summer! Having 5 kids sucked all the nutrients out of my hair. It was frizzy, dry and no shine to it. Looked like a rats nest if you ask me. So off it went!

It sure is nice and easy to get ready in the morning.

Oh no another Fundraiser

2009-04-03T11:15:00.001-04:00

Usually I say NO to all school fundraisers and I was not happy when my kids came home totally PUMPED with a CD around their neck for parents to watch!!....OH JOY
But they made it so cute and fun for the kids, I couldn't say no. The kids have to call for pledges for a dollar amount for how many laps they run. And they send home a little script they can read. It's called the the Boosterthon Run and they try and get pledges from all the states. So yes Poor Grandpa Vining, Nana and Aunt Lin all got calls.

Cade took it real seriously we could hardly get him to look at us.

They make it quite fun for the kids and encourage parents to come out and cheer them on. They have the music playing loud as they run and Boosterthon people there to pump the kids up and do different activities as they run. I have to say it was cute.

Chris finally got a high 5 from Cade as he was coming around the track!

The last lap the parents get to walk with their kids.

Here's CJ's run

2009-04-03T10:59:00.000-04:00

They have the kids do different things on laps. This was find a friend and put your arm around them.

The Boosterthon People did a good job staying pumped and keeping everybody else pumped. This guy was using the flag as a guitar.

Love that stride. GO! CJ GO!

I think that's a smile!

2009-03-28T19:26:00.000-04:00

Do you think I can claim this as a smile. Chris and I have been having a little contest to see who could get Maddie to smile first. The little traitor smiled for daddy first. "Hey little girl, I'm the one that feeds you every 3 hrs 24/7" I still can't get her to smile for me, this is the closest thing I've been able to get.

I just love baby cheeks!!!

These pictures were all taken the same night, this was the last one I took. Poor thing I wore her out, she looks bored and done with the photo shoot.

Our Little Baseball Player

2009-03-28T19:14:00.000-04:00

Baseball season started and Mason watched his brothers practicing outside and now I can not pull that bat and hat out of his hands. He crys and crys when he sees his brothers leave for their games. I told Chris next time he has to take this boy.

He is soooo cute walking around dragging this bat everywhere he goes. Last night as I was heading up the stairs to go to bed. Mason ran around the corner and then came back and I heard thump thump thump coming up the stairs. I looked down to see Mason with his hat on dragging the bat up with him.

We had a couple days of beautiful weather so I would take him outside and for over an hour he just played hitting the ball around and asking me over and over and over to WATCH!

Chris just beams with Pride!