What life is all about!

Megan's first level 7 meet

2011-12-08T19:55:00.000-08:00

Megan participated in an in-house meet last night. It was her first level 7 meet. She did wonderful!! Not a great night on beam, but easily fixed for the next meet!

Bars- 9.15
Vault- 9.15
Beam- 7.4
Floor- 9.3
AA- 35

Hermie's latest sightings

2011-12-08T19:36:00.001-08:00

Hermie found a great hiding place in our Christmas tree. Took the kids a long time to find him!

Then he decided to try gymnastics...

What a crazy little elf! :)

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Elf day 4-6

2011-12-05T22:42:00.001-08:00

It's so fun to see what our elf is going to do. Especially if he actually moves. He likes to stay in one spot more than one day lol

He stayed here two nights in a row. On the second night he drew on another picture (real quick while the kids were getting ready for school)

Tonight he went into the refrigerator. Turned the milk green!!! (kinda hard to see in the picture)

I'm hoping the kids don't notice this....

Here are a few cute pics of the kids lately.

Ok, so maybe just Heidi for now!

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Elf on the shelf day 2 and 3

2011-12-03T21:16:00.001-08:00

Hermie decided to sit amongst the pumpkins two days in a row. Oops! I think he wants me to bring out the Christmas decorations.

Then Hermie found my willow tree figures and decided to make it a group hug! So cute!

The kids are loving finding him in the mornings!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Elf on the Shelf

2011-11-30T20:53:00.001-08:00

Well, last year was the first year I ever heard of elf on the shelf. I was really excited to go get him and start that tradition with my kids. So we got our elf, named him Hermie, and the kids woke to him sitting on our mantle.

Guess what. After all my excitement, I FORGOT TO
MOVE HIM THE FIRST DANG NIGHT!!!!! How lame am I??? I won't forget that again. Ooops!

I am going to document all Hermie's adventures until he goes home to the north pole on Christmas day. I'm hoping this will help me remember LOL!

Gaylord Texan!

2011-07-29T21:44:00.001-07:00

Megan and I are off on a mother-daughter weekend. We went to the Gaylord Texan with another mom and daughter. We are loving it! More pictures later, but here is one of the girls in front of a pretty train in the atrium.

Looking at the cool water!

The atrium.

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Disney World!

2011-04-11T11:00:00.000-07:00

I don't know how I can even post something worthy of our wonderful trip to Disney World. Megan and I went for a competition in January. It was incredible to say the least. Here are a few of my favorite pics...

First sights of the castle in Magic Kingdom. Brought tears to my eyes!

Megan and I

TEACUPS!!!!

Castle at night. The fireworks were the best I have ever seen!!!!

Trying on the different ears you can get. The assortment was amazing! It was so hard to choose. Especially since they are $20 a piece!

Megan and Layla with Tigger

Megan wit Walt and Mickey. Love that man!

Megan and Morgan. They became quite the buddies!

Epcot!

Love the candidness of this pic with Daisy!

Uhh, Bruce, you might want to spit them out, they are SPOILED!

Pooh tied Megan's sleeves together LOL!

Tree of Life

The best roller coaster! (besides the aerosmith one and tower of terrors!)

Beautiful Megan

Loved the 3-D Bug's Life glasses!

Megan and Tina outside the gymnastics competition!

I can't wait to go back! It was the best time of my life!!! We are going on a Disney cruise next year, and I can't wait for that. I wish I could put all my pics on here, but that would take a million years. I can't wait to take the whole family in a couple years. January is definitely the time to go. There was hardly anyone there and the weather was great. Perfect trip!

Dinosaur World!

2011-04-11T09:59:00.001-07:00

Our neighbor gave us some tickets to go to Dinosaur World in Glen Rose. It was a fun day for us. The kids really liked it.

We had fun with the photo op T-Rex Head. Heidi hated it. Christian was too scared to get in it :)

Heidi LOVED swinging!

Ethan riding the dinosaur LOL!

Christian too!

Looking for fossils.

It was fun walking through the trail and seeing all the dinosaurs.

Pretending to run away LOL!!!!

Halloween and Heidi's 2nd Birthday!

2010-11-05T17:57:00.000-07:00

I love Heidi's birthday! I don't really love that she is getting bigger. I want her to stay a baby even though it is fun to celebrate the milestones!

Some things Heidi is doing lately...
Lots of copying!
Asking WHY???
Saying NO
Saying sorry and kissing owies
Causing owies
struggling to share
running away from me
talking A LOT!!
Being the SWEETEST little girl in the world!

I love this girl SOOOOOOO much!

I took some pictures before church...

Sweet!

Showing attitude!

I LOVE THIS PICTURE!

Nanny and Papa came for a quick visit!

We had a monster meal with lots of friends before we went trick or treating...

Severed Toes

Troll Boogies

Troll Mouths

Coagulated Blood

Zombie Vomit

Mummy Scabs

Frog Eyes

Chicken Entrails Sandwiches

Goblin Toes, Phantom Phlegm, Frankenstein Bones

Monkey Brains!

Happy Birthday Heidi!

Halloween! Time for Trick or Treating!

My little Fairy!

It's MARIO!

Megan the ladybug and her sweet friends.

Who you gonna call? Ghostbusters! And his friends the scarecrow and princess, and of course the cutest fairy in the world!

What a fun and exhausting day! We all had a blast! The kids also went to a trunk or treat at church while Jared and I were at SIX FLAGS! We had so much fun. I wanted to take pics of us there on the rides, but there were strick rules about not getting your phone out. Not that I could have anyway, I was too busy holding on and screaming for my life! It was a really fun date, and now I am wishing we would have gotten those season passes....

Life in the last 5 months...

2010-11-05T16:43:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I blogged. I have just not felt like doing it. Mom, this is for you :)

Megan moved up to level 6. She is doing well. Hoping for a great state meet coming up in Austin, TX!

First Day of SCHOOL!

Christian is in Pre-K

Megan is homeschooled and in FIFTH grade!

Ethan started 2nd grade!

Heidi started gymnastics and LOVES it. She loves her class and loves getting to see her big sister there. The older girls spoil her and take her in the big gym and play with her. I love that! It's fun to get to be up there for a while and see the amazing things Megan can do, too!

One day when I picked Christian up from school, we went to a park and had lunch with some friends. Almost everyday when I get him now, he asks if we are going to have a picnic! I guess we should go again :)

Going back further, we sure did enjoy our backyard and pool this summer!

Even further back, Ethan turned 7! He had a great birthday at school and at Chuck E Cheese's. We had a great time celebrating!

Heidi loves to paint her face and body. Sometimes it is markers, sometimes it is food. Almost everytime Heidi eats, she does something like this...

Ethan got to go to the Dr right before Halloween and the whole staff was dressed up! It was fun! Ethan has had a really hard time focusing at school and getting his work done and was falling way behind his classmates in reading and math. He had specialists helping him and one on one help with his teacher everyday. I went in for a conference and was shocked by how far behind he was. At the end of the conference, I asked her if she might think he had ADD, and she was so glad I said something. We talked about it and I went to his dr and got the paperwork. At this appt, his dr put him on the lowest dose of an extended release Ritalin. It is wonderful! His teacher is so excited for him and so are we. I can't wait to go in and talk to her next week!

* Ethan doesn't have any hyperness, just the attention part. Dr said it was an easy fix!

I recently got to meet BAKERELLA! It was so cool. I love her, she is so creative and artistic and genuine! It was great.

The 2010 Level 5 TAAF State Champion is.....

2010-05-05T13:52:00.000-07:00

MEGAN WALTERS!

Beam: SECOND PLACE 9.650*
Floor: FIFTH PLACE 9.525*
Vault: NO PLACE 8.350
Bars: FIRST PLACE 9.450*

AA: FIRST PLACE 36.975*

*personal best

You can see her videos on my youtube channel.

Ethan rides his bike!

2010-04-27T12:23:00.001-07:00

Ethan took his training wheels off on Saturday and practiced all day and he finally rode it!!!! He was preparing for his scout bike rally which was last night. He had SO much fun. He got lots of awards... 5 belt loops and his tiger badge :)

Ethan did so well!

Christian had fun, too!

Megan pushed Heidi around the whole time, so cute!

Megan ROCKS!

2010-04-27T11:24:00.000-07:00

We had our last meet last weekend and Megan got first place all around! Woo hoo!

We also got to meet another gymnast named MEGAN WALTERS! How fun is that. Aren't they cuties???

Our team won SECOND place!

Here is her floor performance. You can see all her videos on my youtube channel.

Easter with Friends!

2010-04-27T11:00:00.001-07:00

Easter Sunday we got to stay home and watch General Conference. We colored Easter eggs and got ready for our friends to come visit. Josie's family came for Easter Dinner. We had so much fun and enjoyed the beautiful day.

Coloring eggs...

The Peters' brought some cool baseball stuff. Ethan loved it!

Josie and Mason and Heidi

Jared

Michael batting

The littles

Getting ready for another egg hunt.

Every had fun hunting the eggs.

Megan :)

Ethan found a football egg.

Heidi was done hunting early and had fun with toys.

Mason had a good time hunting with mom.

Cutie Ahren found lots of eggs!

Easter with cousins and grandparents!

2010-04-27T10:01:00.000-07:00

My mom and Gary brought my sister Amber's kids up for Easter. We had a really fun time and the kids loved playing together. It was great! Except when Maleah fell off the bunk bed and had to get 7 stitches.

The Easter bunny came!!!

Khalil

Megan

Maleah (see her bandaged face?)

My boys

Heidi getting her yummies

Kite Flying

Waiting for the egg hunt...

Maleah found lots of eggs

Heidi was a great egg hunter! Maleah was so sweet!

Christian only picked up eggs that had something inside them. If it was empty, he threw it down!

Khalil found lots of eggs, too!

My sweet Ethan!

All the kids!

So fun getting to see cousins!

Valentine's Day with my sweeties.

2010-02-14T17:10:00.001-08:00

I get to spend Valentine's Day with out my hubby, unfortunately. But I decided to make the most of it and plan a special dinner with my little sweethearts.

First, here is the Valentine's we made for school. I hope they reschedule the parties so we can hand them out. Otherwise, my kids are using them next year...

Our dinner. First it was going to be russian chicken in the crockpot. Then lasagna, then we decided spaghetti. Very beautiful heart-shaped spaghetti.

Ready to eat....

Yummy sparkling apple cider, our FAVORITE!

Why is it so fun to eat spaghetti?

You can see Heidi's tongue inside the bowl.

Messy!

OHHHHHHHH Chocolate fondue! We had bananas, cheesecake, marshmallows, and DONUT HOLES to dip. They were out of my favorite at the store last night...strawberries.

Heidi enjoyed it all. So did the rest of us. It was a really nice dinner.

Oreo truffles for friends. They are YUMMY! I was too full of fondue to eat them.

We sure missed Jared. I can't wait until he comes home. Our 11th anniversary is coming up! Woo hoo! He better be here for that ;)

Snow Day!

2010-02-11T16:15:00.001-08:00

We got a foot of snow!!!!! It was absolutely beautiful. I love the way the trees look covered with snow. I could just stare out at it all day.

The kids didn't have to go to school or gymnastics so they spent most of the day outside.

Snow buildup on the pool chairs, this was about noon and it kept snowing. It was much higher later but I didn't go out again.

The pool.

Inside the trampoline

Eating snow. They are weird :) They are in the trampoline.

The sad snowman. No help from an adult. No good things for eyes. One orange peel eye fell off. LOL!!!! So cute that they made one though!

Taylor

Ethan

Megan

Sweet kiddos

Christian didn't last long in the snow. I was crocheting inside and he wanted to try it out. He is so adorable!

I challenged the kids to build a bridge out of legos. They had to be able to stand on it. Ethan won. Here he is on the bridge he built :)

Heidi just loved having the kids around. I didn't bring her out in the snow. Maybe next time. She has a little cold. What a fun snow day!!!!

The Pinewood Derby

2010-02-03T08:29:00.001-08:00

Ethan is in Cub scouts. I wasn't ever really into it, I never take him to his activities, Jared does. I grew up with all girls, I have no knowledge of the scouting program whatsoever. And I really wasn't interested. That was before the pinewood derby.

I didn't know what to expect at all. I have never been to one. I heard sad stories of poor sports and sadder stories of cars not winning a single race. We got our little blocks of wood and had to make them into racing machines. I thought to myself... how is a little kid supposed to do this? This isn't for the boys, this is for the dads. Then I saw my boys and their dad carefully sanding the cars together and talking and laughing. Then I knew it was for dads AND their boys. Together.

Jared of course couldn't be here to help the boys finish the cars so I got to help, too. Ethan, Christian, and I sat at the dining room table and painted the cars together. They were both SO excited about the race. My friend came over and told me tips on how to make the cars go faster. When Jared came home from work I said to him, "you have to polish the nails, and use graphite, and make sure the wheels are on perfect and the car has to be weighted a certain amount..." He said, "I KNOW!!!!" I forget he has done this before :)

We got the cars all painted pretty and Jared came home in the middle of the night the day before the race and weighed the cars and put the wheels on. We were a little light. The cars have to weigh 5 oz or less. You want them to be exactly 5 oz so they will be fast. Ours weighed 3.7 oz. Jared was gone. He told me not to worry. I worried. I wanted my boys to have a chance at winning. My neighbors just had a pinewood derby at our church the night before so I called them for help. We went over and they weighted our cars to be perfect. I was so thankful! We barely got to the race on time we were there so long :)

The car had to get registered and weighed. Then they placed them on a table. Check out all the fun cars!!!

Ethan had such a fun time with his friends!

The boys putting their cars on the track. It was a really sophisticated thing!

When the cars went down they hit a backstop at the end of the track and when they touched it, it put their times up on a display. If you look closely, you can see E.Walters with his time and place. That's a 1 if you can't tell :) His car did well! He got 2nd place in the cubs division!

Christian was really excited to race. He kept asking me when it would be his turn. I had to tell him in a little while so many times! Finally it was the siblings turn. YAY! And Jared finally got there, YAY! Christian and I waited by the table while lots of kids raced and we kept waiting for his name to be called and they never called it. Finally they said the sibling race was over. WAIT!!!!!!!!! We had to tell them they missed Christian. They saw their mistake and he got to race his car. IT WAS THE FASTEST ONE THERE!!!!!!!!! All the dads around me couldn't believe how fast it went! They wanted it weighed again! (jokingly) It was so fun! He won the fastest car of the siblings and everyone was glad he wasn't in the real competition :) Now if we could just figure out what we did right with his car so we can repeat it next year.....

Heidi was a major pain in the rear for the first half hour. I had asked a friend to watch her, but I couldn't get ahold of her that day so I got to take miss priss along. She just doesn't sit still for one second. She ran all over the place. Everyone loved her though. They rescued the track from her several times because I couldn't get to her fast enought. Caution tape does not keep a one year old away LOL!!! The den mom was talking to me and I couldn't get Heidi when she ran away so I just figured someone would get her for me if she was getting to the track and when we were done talking she was sitting sweetly on a nice lady's lap. I just left her there. LOL! Don't mess up a good thing. The lady and her husband had asked me to trade them their teenage daughter for her earlier. Such nice people, they had a lot of fun with her.

The scouts and their cars and trophies.

Afterward, the den mom invited us and another family to go to Nizza Pizza with them. It was such a fun dinner. I really got to know them and I love them! It's fun to get out and make new friends. The boys had a great time eating and talking.

The boys and their trophies. Can't wait for next year! They have parent races and I am TOTALLY making my own PINK car :D

Christian's Playgroup Birthday Party

2010-01-10T00:25:00.000-08:00

Last year I had a birthday party with my playgroup in Tyler (MISS YOU GUYS!!!!) and it was so fun, so I wanted to do that this year. We did a reindeer theme and I think it turned out really cute!

Reindeer cupcakes, SO CUTE!

Eating lunch together...

the BIG 4

Blowing out the candle

Opening presents

I also made cute little packages of Magic Reindeer Food for all the kids to take home. I think Christian had a really great time and I am so glad we had friends to celebrate with.

Catching up....

2010-01-08T09:53:00.000-08:00

I haven't been blogging lately. I guess I am just having too much fun reading everyone else's blogs... But we have been busy having fun around my house and I want to put all my pics up.

Thanksgiving

Way back in November we had a wonderful Thanksgiving with my Nanny and Papa and Rena and TJ. It was so nice and relaxing and the food was to die for. I love anything my nanny cooks and she made almost everything LOL!

Jared and I

Nanny and Megan

Heidi eating her first Thanksgiving meal... last year she was only 3 weeks old!!!

TJ and Papa

Christian and Ethan. They really liked using the glasses and having sparkling juice!

Decorating the Christmas Tree

We bought a new tree this year because our old one was too big for our new house and frankly, it was starting to look like crap. We got this one at a bargain price of $35 bucks at wally world. We couldn't find any of our special ornaments this year OR my awesome crocheted stockings that I made. I packed them special and didn't put them with the rest of the Christmas stuff and then the movers packed them also and we don't know where they are. I hope we will find them next year.

Jared and Heidiboo

Megan, Christian, and Ethan

All done (Heidi went to bed)

Since I couldn't find my sentimental Christmas things, I really had a hard time getting into the spirit of things. We were supposed to go to Utah for Christmas and we were so excited, but Jared wasn't able to get off work and ended up being gone a lot before Christmas and after. I was glad he was home for the important days though. We were really disappointed about not getting to go. Maybe next time. We have lots of Christmastime traditions we do every year and I didn't do any of them except out advent calendars and tree. I hope next year we can get back into the swing of things.

SNOW!

I didn't take any pictures of any of our Christmas activities, but I got some of us in the snow.

Out our front door Christmas Day

The Backyard

The kids on the trampoline.

Christmas Present Fun

We got some cool presents from Santa. Megan got a balance beam and Heidi got a little kitchen just her size. Christian got a little red bike and we had to take it out in the snow for a test drive Christmas morning.

Christan riding his bike

We really LOVE the Christmas Story movie and we watched it a million times. Santa brought Ethan a Red Ryder official 200 shot BB gun. It is so fun to shoot!

A lesson in gun safety. Don't want to shoot your eye out!

Learning how to hold it and shoot!

Squinting the WRONG eye LOL!!!

I have lots more! I will save that for another day. :)

A new taste...

2009-12-10T10:10:00.000-08:00

Heidi found a candy cane on the tree and opened it (how, I don't know) and started eating it. She looked like she just ate a lemon! It was so funny. I got my camera just in time to capture the last time she did it before she got used to the taste. SO FUNNY!

the cleanest laundry room EVER!

2009-11-27T14:13:00.001-08:00

I got the HUGE bottle of he liquid Tide, the kind that lays on its side and you can use a spout to get out the soap... I just opened it today. I did ONE load of laundry. I set it up on top of my washer and left the laundry room while the wash was going. A little while later I was outside with my mom and the kids came running out and said there was blue stuff all over the floor of the bathroom and the phone was in it. My first thought was, where is my iphone! The next thought was, hmmm, it must be some comet or something. I came inside to investigate and there was nothing on the bathroom floor. As I walked out, I saw the laundry room hidden beneath a sea of Tide. Holy crap. I froze. What do I do? That stuff is expensive!!! I got my dust pan and a Pampered Chef scraper and the glass mixing bowl and I got to work. Look how much I saved!!!!!!!

I can't believe it. The washer must have gotten off balance and the Tide fell off and busted. Lesson learned. The good news is I now have the cleanest laundry room floor EVER!!!!!!!!

12 MONTHS and my COWBOY!

2009-11-11T06:15:00.000-08:00

Heidi is one. There, I said it. I guess it is true. My baby is one. She is the cutest one year old ever. She makes everyone in our home smile all the time. Everyone loves to watch her do new stuff. Here are some new things she has done...

*CLIMB. On everything. She climbs up the kitchen stool. On top of this big block toy. On chairs. On the couch. I can't believe her. We have to really watch her and be carefull.

*Boy does she love the toilet. If the kids' bathroom door is open, she makes a bee line right to it. She is pretty fast, too. The other day I thought Megan had taken her outside and I let my guard down a little and then I heard splashing. She was having the BEST time playing in the toilet. I am just glad the last person in there flushed.

*WALK! She is walking everywhere. A week or so before her birthday she started walking. She loves it. I could tell how proud she was of herself when she figured it out and how determined she was to do it.

*She is starting to understand prayer. I love it! When we kneel together each night she at first started becoming still and quiet in my arms during the prayer and now she likes to sit next to me on the floor and she semi folds her arms. It is the cutest thing.

*KISSES! She has started giving kisses. This is the milestone I look forward to the very most when my babies are born. There is nothing better. Although, she always shakes her head no at me when I ask her for a kiss.

*She is a smartypants. Last night Jared got her some pajama pants and she saw him coming from across the room and she held out her leg! It was so funny! She is adorable! She does things like that a lot, it's so cool to see her understandingness. Is that a word?

*She has 6 whole teeth now. I think I saw a molar coming in back there, barely.

*Still working on the hair. It is getting thicker and longer... in the back.. We need some on top, Heidi!!

Here is a video of Heidi and Papa...

ARE YOU READY FOR SOME FOOTBALL???

Ethan just finished his first season of organized sports. He played flag football for the Cowboys. He learned a lot and I think if he keeps working he might get the hang of it. He spent a lot of time on the sidelines. I actually never got to see him play. I am not real happy about that. I did see him have fun being part of a team. He had a great time! He is one cool kid.

Halloween and the little pumpkin turns ONE!!!

2009-11-03T15:30:00.000-08:00

Oh how I love Halloween! It's my most favorite holiday. I love fall, the crisp cool air, the changing colors of the leaves. I am so excited I got to have a baby on Halloween. It is so fun to celebrate!

Decorating on Family Night...

bats, idea from good ole martha!

Jared putting up the decorations.

Our Family Night Treat

We put up lots of decorations, but I didn't really take any pictures. We had a fog machine, spider webs and spiders, and awesome spooky eyes glowing from our big arch window. So fun!

Halloween Night Feast!

Josie, Michael, Ahren, and Mason came over for dinner before trick-or-treating. We had....

Mummy Hotdogs and Spooky Broccoli Salad and Homemade Salsa and chips

And a cute pumpkin PIZZA from Papa Murphy's

We also had a yummy bloody punch that had an ice face floating in it, but I couldn't really get a good picture or it.

The Trick-or-Treaters...
Goth Claire, Princess Heidi, 80's Megan, Cowgirl Keldi, Officer Christian, Scooby Ahren, and Snow White Jaeli

Notice who is not in the picture... Ethan left and went trick-or-treating all by himself. Heather, Jen, and Jared all split up and ran up and down the street to find him. It was a little crazy for a while. He was found and said he told Jared he was leaving. Hmmm. Mason and Braeson went on their own, too.

While trick-or-treating, Megan had a blister pop on her foot and she bled everywhere and Keldi trick-or-treated for a bandaid! Love it!

Josie and her sweet Mason. He is so cute! He was a scarecrow and he wore a cute pumpkin hat that I made! I love that baby!

Heidi the princess. She was so regal and beautiful!

PRESENTS TIME!

Heidi didn't really know what to do, so she had lots of helpers :)

So many fun things! After she opened the first gift, she really wanted to play with it, but Jared had to get it out of the box. Heidi was about to get upset until another gift was placed in front of her.

Love Megan's hair, those were the days!

There's Ethan! Batman Ethan, that is :) Heidi loved the baby bottle I got her to feed the baby doll Nanny and Papa got her.

Tea anyone???

Time for cake! Happy Birthday, Heidi!

Yummy!!

Let's have cake on top of all that Halloween candy! Next year I think I might make her a veggie tray LOL :)

Jen is so cute! Mason the ghost and pretty Heather. Oh, there's Jared, too.

Time for a bath, PEACE OUT! LOL

District Championships

2009-10-25T20:48:00.000-07:00

Megan started at her new gym in August and they put her in level 5. She learned the routines and started getting the new skills. She is getting better and better all the time. We are so proud of her. I can't believe all she has accomplished in so little time. This competition season has been full of fun times!

Her best event is floor. She really does well. She got a 9.5!

Bars... what can I say... it is coming along. She is getting better! She actually got her high bar kip twice in a row during practice but missed it during the real deal. Still, she is competing and not scratching. :) Score 6.7

Beam. She fell twice. DARN IT! :) She is so cute on the beam. Not her best score... 7.5

Vault. She is continually doing better on vault. Here is one of her runs. She got a 7.35

We have one more competition this season and then we start a new season early next year. She will compete level five again next year and really excel. We are so excited! This season was such a great learning experience. We are so proud of our little gymnast!

Heidi the Climber

2009-10-18T19:31:00.000-07:00

Heidi loves to climb on EVERYTHING! If there is something on the floor, she will get on top of it if she can. It is cute and a little scary! Very entertaining! Isn't Megan cute, too?!? I love those girls so much!

A Bump in the Night

2009-10-16T13:03:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I laid Christian down for a nap and Heather and I kept hearing a knocking noise and thought he was rolling around on the bed and hitting the wall with his legs or something. I went in to check on Christian and he was in the middle of the floor playing. Hmmm... Later I heard the noise when I was in his room and I quickly looked out the window to see if I could see anything. Nothing. Just our fence, a street, and grass. I forgot about it. Last night I got up with Heidi about 3 a.m. and after I laid her down I started to hear a crazy sound within the walls of my home. I started getting scared. I forced myself to close my eyes and try to sleep. Bump. I heard it again. Bump. Again. Bump. CRAP!!! What is in my house!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So I called Jared (he was alseep in the living room) and told him to come in our room and listen to this sound. He sat on the bed and sure enough we heard the sound again. Bump. It was quite loud, too. Neither of us could think of what it could be. I rapped on the wall and the noise seemed to go away. Great. I scared the big scary monster in the wall. Jared got up and said he was going back to sleep. I laid there visualizing all the horrible things it could be. A raccoon? A giant rat? A large bird? A ghost? AHHHHHHHHHHHHH! I eventually fell asleep. Then, this morning we were getting the kids ready and I heard it again! Jared heard it, too. Jared said he was going to check something outside. Soon after I heard the noise a bunch of times in a row! Christian came running out of his room and asked me what was happening in his room!!! Jared came in and asked me if I heard the noise five times. Yes, I suppose it could have been five times....

It was the gate to the privacy fence. It must not have latched properly when Jared closed it after mowing and he never checked it because he planned on finishing the yard and I made him come inside. (it was CRAZY dark!!) Anyway, the gate was slamming open and close with the wind. Phew! No rat or scary monster!

But here is a picture of the new addition to the pool area in the back yard. We put an iron fence in to close off the pool from the rest of the yard so the kids can play safely and give me some peace of mind :) It wasn't a cheap investment, but worth every penny!

11 MONTHS!!!

2009-10-09T07:26:00.000-07:00

Heidi is getting way too big, I can't believe she is already 11 months old. She is the most precious baby girl, I love her so much!

Things she has done in the last month...

* Got her first tooth, then another, then another, and 3 more cutting through... all in one month! Poor girl!

* Taken her first steps. She isn't totally walking, but really close. Most steps in a row: 6

* Played in the toilet

* broke MANY dishes trying to help me unload the dishwasher

* got a big girl car seat, still facing back

* got a flu shot, not fun, but had to protect her from all the crap my kids bring home from school

* still NOT sleeping through the night

* STILL nursing :D

* still NOOOOOOOOO hair!!! (well a little fuzz, it is getting better)

Won't be long until she is ONE! Halloween. Can't wait... CAN wait. She is the light of my life!

lollipop

2009-10-03T12:26:00.000-07:00

Heidi had a lollipop for the first time at the school carnival. I gave it to her so she would leave her hat on. We were selling the hats in the gym and she was our advertisement out where all the people were. We actually sold a lot of stuff, it was exciting! But Heidi was so cute eating the sucker I had to take a million pics. Here are some of them...

A Conversation with Ethan

2009-09-25T19:56:00.000-07:00

Ethan has been talking about death lately and asking a lot of questions. He is going through that phase of being worried about it. Tonight right before we said our prayers, in all sincerity, he told me he wanted his head to stick out of the ground when he was buried so he could get some air. I couldn't help but giggle, but I told him we would do that for him LOL.

I pray I never have to worry about that.

A Conversation with Christian

2009-09-23T20:06:00.000-07:00

Christian and I had a funny little conversation this morning... It went something like this...

(I am nursing Heidi)

Christian: You have two of those.

Me: (I think I know what he is talking) Two of what?

Christian: Those. (He points to my boobs)

Me: You're right, I do, and so do you.

Christian: (He pulls up his shirt to reveal his chest and points at his nipples)Ya! I do! I have two "nurses". These are my nurses.

A couple seconds go by...

Christian: You have big nurses. I have little nurses.

Ya, thanks.

A minute goes by.

Christian: My nurses are up.

(Please don't say what I think you are going to say!)

Christian: Your nurses are down.

Great. It's even obvious to my 3 yr old that I have saggy boobs.

The other day he walked in on me in the bathroom...

Christian: Do you have a penis?

Me: NO!

Christian: Do you have a butt?

Me: Yes.

He is so interested in everything right now. It is NOT FUN taking him in public restrooms. I wish the stalls were sound proof, I don't know how many times he has asked me at the top of his lungs if I was going poop. No, I am not. Then he tells me I am a good boy when I am done. Cute kid, but embarassing at times LOL!

little helper

2009-09-14T09:33:00.001-07:00

Jared was setting up the tv and Heidi got right in there and helped. It was so cute!

Our First Pool Party

2009-09-08T17:31:00.000-07:00

We invited some neighbors and friends over for a pool party for labor day and it was SO fun! We cooked hotdogs, sausages, and brats and everyone brought sides to go with it! The kids had a great time and the adults, too. I think this will be the first of many parties to come.

*I only had my camera out for about 5 seconds and I didn't get pictures of everyone. I am sad about that. I was a little busy though :D

Jumpin' in the pool

Jared the grill master and Alli and Claire (future babsitters!)

My boys and neighbor Chad.

Old friends and new friends...

Megan and some cute new friends she met on our street!

People diggin' in the awesome eats...

Jumping on the trampoline.

What a great time! I am so glad to have so many great friends and neighbors!

Proof Megan is a Brat Sometimes....

2009-09-04T10:45:00.001-07:00

Rescue 911

2009-09-03T17:32:00.001-07:00

We have only one set of keys for our van. That's all we got when we bought it. I have always been really paranoid about locking my keys in the car so I am VERY careful about making sure it doesn't happen. Until last night...

When we came inside from an errand, the door on Heidi's side didn't close. Jared locked the car and we went in the house. We didn't know the door was open. When I went to get in the car to pick Megan up from gym, the door was open so I walked right up and put Heidi inside. Usually I have to push a button on my key that opens the door for me and also unlocks the car. I didn't have to do this since the door was already open. My usual habit is to drop the keys in the driver's seat before I buckle her in. I did this and shut her door. I went to open my door and it was LOCKED!!!!!!! I couldn't believe it!!! My worst fear, locking my baby in the car, happened. I just kept trying to open the door, all the doors, circling the car and praying for some weird reason a door was unlocked. No such luck. Heidi was crying for me. That is the worst feeling, not being able to help your child when they need you. I called to Jared who was in the pool with the boys and he came to help me. He told me to get a hanger. Ha ha. Our house is in such disarray how will I find one. Well, I did. And it was PINK. I wondered if Jared would say something about it. He tried to use a screwdriver to pry the door open and I tried to slip the mangled pink hanger in the door. We couldn't get it in. We kept trying for a couple minutes and I was worried he was going to break the door. At least Heidi would be out, but I really didn't want to deal with that. I made Jared call the police station. They said they would send someone right away. Meanwhile, Jared kept trying to get in while I played peek-a-boo with Heidi. She didn't like it. Everytime I hid for half a second she screamed louder. I decided that wasn't going to help. Poor baby. Then Jared stabbed me in the eye with the pink hanger. That freakin hurt! Finally a cop showed up. Did I mention he was kind of cute? He came up and looked in at Heidi who was still upset and then he walked around the car. I wonder if he noticed our inspection just expired. He told us that the fire department had to come to get her out. Hmmm, weird. I wonder why he couldn't do it. He said they should be here soon and then said, "Oh, I think I hear them now." Sure enough I heard SIRENS off in the distance. Are you freaking kidding me???? We just moved on this street a week ago and already we have the cops and fire dept at our house. I was so embarassed! Thankfully they turned off the lights and sirens when they got in the neighborhood. Phew! The boys got out of the pool and we so excited to see the fire truck pull up. That was kind of fun. They got out and walked up, made me sign soemthing saying they weren't liable if they scratched the car or had to take the door off, and then popped up the lock and I got Heidi out. Then the thought entered my mind while I was thanking them profusely... I have to blog about this! I really like to have pictures with my blogs so I asked them to hold Heidi and pose for a picture. They thought that was so funny and they were great sports. Ethan made it in the picture, too. Christian was inside changing into dry clothes and was too slow to get outside. And poor Megan was stuck at gymnastics until the fiasco was over. I don't think she minded much.

Heidi and her heroes... I love firemen and cops!

I might as well add the first day of school pics... I have been slow to get on the computer.

The kids in the hotel the morning of the first day of school.

Ethan in his first grade class. His teacher is Mrs. Smith and she is awesome!

Megan in her fourth grade class. Her teacher is Mrs. Dunn and she is SO nice!

And my little boy is growing up and FINALLY lost his first tooth!!! He is SOOOO cute! He was proud. He pulled it out at school and the nurse gave him a cute little treasure chest to put the tooth in. The tooth fairy let him keep the treasure chest and also gave him a dollar! He said he would never spend it. I believe it!

Did that really just happen? Really?

2009-08-20T11:57:00.000-07:00

Jared came to get us to go out for lunch today. He wanted to go somewhere fast and cheap. He chose Schlotzsky's. I love that place. I don't love going to fast food places for lunch, during lunch hour, with 4 kids. I just don't like it. There isn't ever a place to fit all my family. There might be 6 chairs open in the restaurant, but none near each other. I really hate trying to figure it all out with all the drinks, the food, the kids running around, and all the people staring at us. OK, maybe no one really stares. Today they did.

We get to the restaurant and walk in. I immediately scan for a table to fit us all. There is a table for 4 empty and a few scattered 2-person tables. Crap. Well, ok, Jared is with me so I don't have to do this alone. We order our food and get the cups and I suggest we go try to figure out our sitting arrangement before we get drinks. We head to the 4 person table and there are no other tables near it to spread us all out. Jared grabbed a high chair for Heidi and we CRAM ourselves around this tiny table. I knew this would happen. The nice lady at the table next to us offered up an empty chair so two kids wouldn't be sharing a chair. Six of us crowded around a little square table. Not fun. The people in a 4 person table next to us left. THANK HEAVEN! We started moving the kids to the other table and I left to get them drinks. While I was at the fountain, our number was called. I look at Jared and he is on the phone not paying attention. So I went to get what I could carry and a guy helped me carry the rest. Upon getting to the table we set out the food and I gave the kids their stuff and went to get lids for the kids drinks (the ones who got their own drinks). I came back to my sandwich laying on the floor. I asked WHAT HAPPENED!!! Jared answered... Your daughter. Thanks Heidi. Thanks. Jared picked it up off the floor and left to get me another. He made sure his sandwich was out of reach. I was begging Christian to give me some of his pizza to give to Heidi when I saw another sandwich meet the floor out of the corner of my eye. Jared's sandwich bit the dust. I just buried my face in my hands in disbelief as I heard both gasps and laughter from the crowd around us. Crap. I got up and walked over to Jared who was getting his drink and I told him about his sandwich. He was flabbergasted. He had put his sandwich out of her reach! She is just too good. The onlookers were having a great time watching our lunch time freak show. The nice lady who gave us a chair loved the entertainment. She told me so. I was crying and laughing at the same time and a nice grandma told me not to worry about it, that it would be easier in 40 years. Thanks. Jared had to go tell the cashier that yet another sandwich was thrown to the floor by his baby and needed another one. I wish I could have seen her face! When she brought his new sandwich, she said, "Here you go baby" like she was going to give it to Heidi. Jared said to Heidi that it was a good thing she was so young or she would have been in trouble. I heard the older couple next to us giggle when they heard this. I was a bright shade of red for almost the entire lunch. How embarassing! I told you people stare. I guess it doesn't help we give people reason to. In the end, we all got to eat, everyone was happy, and no more sandwiches hit the floor.

I learned a lot from lunch today...

I think I am officially done having kids.

And going to fast food restaurants during lunch hour.

And I probably won't ever go into that Schlotzsky's ever again.

Heidi... 9 months!

2009-08-12T16:26:00.001-07:00

I went to get pics done with my friend, Josie, and her baby Mason. I was doubtful Heidi would do well taking pictures because she was kind of fussy and tired, but when the camera came out she really hammed it up!!!

My favorite!

Glamour Girl!

Don't let her angelic face fool you...

Sassy pants!

I love this one!

To see all the pictures click here.

Our new home...

2009-08-05T09:49:00.001-07:00

Here are some pictures of the house we are going to buy. I took these during the inspection. We can't wait to move in! I am ready to get out of this hotel...

The front.

Close-up of the front.

Kitchen, stolen from the mls page online. (looks a lot like my old kitchen!)

Kitchen and dining.

Kitchen and you can see into the 2nd living area.

Entry and 2nd living with doors closed.

Living room with built in entertainment center. you can see to the master there...

Living room windows to backyard. Don't you love the stain glass stickers? ha ha ha!

View of bathroom from master bedroom.

Big shower with 2 shower heads and a seat to sit on! No tub though.

Master bedroom.

Laundry room. There is space on the right with a bar to hang clothes on. It is pretty decent.

Ethan and Christian's room.

Megan and Heidi's room. I hope they can be good little roommates!

Back of the house.

Backyard. Love it! Beyond the iron fence is our property, too. It is a dry creek. The kids will love going in there. I on the other hand don't like it much because there are tons of big bugs!!!

Stairs going down to the wooded area.

Looking down into the dry creek.

Cabana with outdoor kitchen.

The pool. It is awesome!

I love the waterfall!

I am glad it has a hot tub. We can use it all year!

Stairs and tanning ledge.

Better pic of ourdoor kitchen. I would call it more of a built in grill with a countertop and little fridge LOL! I love it!

We'll be having lots of backyard BBQs so everyone be ready to come over for swimming and food and FUN!!!!!!!!!!! I can't wait to paint and decorate and post those pictures. We hope to move in soon!

Our super awesome terrific hotel room....

2009-07-31T07:31:00.001-07:00

Life is good. We are in the most exquisite hotel money can buy. It has everything! We have a nursery, a kitchen, a living room, a bedroom, a bathroom, a computer area, a closet, and a window with a view! Let me give you a tour...

The Nursery. Heidi sleeps here... When she actually sleeps, which isn't much.

The nursery magically turns into a kitchen when it isn't bedtime or naptime. It is complete with a refrigerator, sink, dishwasher, oven and stove. Lots of cabinet space and a bar to eat at complete the room. Isn't it adorable? I bet you can spot my scentsy... Oh and the pots and pans our movers forget to pack...

The bedroom. Beautifully decorated with designer colors and artwork. I love the lamps. I share this bed with Megan. The boys and Jared sleep across the hall in a room very much the same as this one, without a woman's touch. That's our window with a wonderful view of the nicer hotel next door on the left...

The blessed TV. I love the tv with all it's nonexistant channels and the remote that won't let you go down the channels, just up. We are really enjoying cartoon network with all the awesome cyborg, mutant, violent shows my kids haven't seen before. Thanks for not including Disney or Nick, we don't want to be spoiled. Can you see the nursery and the kitchen? And aren't those flowers beautiful? Josie gave them to me for my birthday coming up! Thanks Josie! They really brighten up the place!

The Living Room. It is so cozy! I grinned to myself as I watched Jared, Megan, Ethan, and Christian all snuggle together on the couch.

The computer area. I love this spot. I am grateful for internet. The hotel is so cool to give us high speed! And there is Heidi's bed when the nursery is in Kitchen Mode. (Thanks Josie for letting us borrow that!)

The dresser and bathroom. Our sweet fish, named Reddy-Bluey-Swimmy, is a nice edition to the room.

The closet. Well, half of it. It is also home to Zippy the hamster! If I close the door at night and have my fan on high I can't even hear him running in his wheel.

Life continues as normal. Megan finds room to practice gymnastics.

Well, that is the tour, I hope you enjoyed it! Come visit us soon! We have loads of room to accomodate everyone! Thanks, Weatherford, we really appreciate the lodging and I do mean that... really.

Moving Day

2009-07-28T13:19:00.001-07:00

I finally got back on my computer, YAY!!! I have lots to post...

We moved Saturday. Friday the moving people came and packed our stuff. It took 3 guys all day to do it.

My bathroom and closet...

Kitchen...

Megan's room...

The Boys' room... all the way to the ceiling! (what are they going to do with the bat?)

Loading up the stuff in the huge truck...

On the road. We stopped at place to eat and ate in the car because we had a hamster and fish along for the ride...

The boys...

Our car was packed to maximum capacity!

Everything but the kitchen sink!

Heidi ate some banana from the wrong end of the fork LOL! yum!

We made it to Ft Worth and settled into our hotel room. I will be posting pics of this place soon. We are waiting for our check from the company so we can close on our new house...

WW update

2009-07-18T07:29:00.000-07:00

I met my 5% weight loss goal today! YAY! I had a bad week a couple weeks ago, gained a pound that week, but back on track now. I have to really work hard since I am going to have a pool in my new backyard so I can get in that little bikini. HA HA just kidding. But I do want to look good in a swimsuit next summer.... :D

Fun in the pool...

2009-07-16T11:49:00.001-07:00

When it is hot outside, you'll do just about anything to get cool. Megan had her friend Macey over and they went swimming in our "pool" with Ethan and Christian.

Megan and Macey

Ethan and Christian

CUTE!

CRAZY!

Heidi watching from inside. The water was too deep for her...

I can't wait until this is our pool!

mmm... donuts

2009-07-13T19:39:00.000-07:00

My Nanny and Papa came to visit recently and the last few times they came, they have been stopping at a shop and getting donut holes for the kids. (I hope they realize the kids may begin to expect this and if they forget one time there could be some extremely sad kids LOL)

They fed one to Heidi. Of course she loved it!

Heidi likes to eat anything but baby food these days. If it is too smooth, she doesn't want it... well, unless it's icecream ;)

Replacement Daddy

2009-07-08T08:24:00.001-07:00

Christian came up to me crying the other day. He wanted his daddy. Since Jared only gets to see us on weekends, it gets quite hard for the kids sometimes. I tried to console him. I told him we were going to go visit daddy this weekend and he can see him them. Christian cried and cried, "I want my daddy!" Gosh, I felt so bad for him. How do I make him feel better? So again, I told him we would go see daddy soon. Then he told me, "No, I want my lego daddy!" I could NOT stop laughing! I found his lego daddy and he was completely happy. What a kid! The lego daddy has a hard hat and bristly beard just like "real" daddy does. He also has a lego mommy that he seldom plays with. :D

What a blessing....

2009-07-07T17:48:00.000-07:00

We got two offers in one day. I couldn't believe it. After 3 months being on the market (which isn't very long in these days) we had 2 people look and both made an offer. One of the couples were the very first people to look at the house. The other wanted the house and upped their offer to full price. We chose them. I hate that it is about money, but it is. Not to mention their offer was better... more earnest money, more option money, they paid for the survey, and they wanted less for a warranty. See, all about money. They did want us to leave our washer and dryer and refridgerator. That was easy. Darn. I have to get that awesome front loading washer and dryer set I have been wanting forever. I really hope they enjoy the house as much as we did. Now we are going to look at houses in the Ft Worth area this Saturday. Exciting stuff...

Weight Watchers

2009-06-27T19:49:00.000-07:00

I started Weight Watchers online 3 weeks ago and I wasn't sure I would actually stick with it, but here I am TEN POUNDS lighter! Woo Hoo! It's been kind of fun counting points and changing my food a little here and there to make it healthier. I weigh in every saturday, so I will post my progress on here and hopefully it will always be going down... slowly :)

Walking everyday has been fun, too.

Watermelon is my best friend.

Nie's birthday

2009-06-26T13:22:00.000-07:00

If you don't know Stephanie Clark Nielson (NieNie) check out her blog here . I wish I could go to Provo and get some vanNIElla squared cupcakes (named for her!) at The Sweet Tooth Fairy bakery. All proceeds from the purchase of those cupcakes go to the Nie Recovery Fund. There is also a place to donate money to this fund. Go here for information. Scroll through the post and you will see that if you email Brooke with your donation amount and email address she will email you back the recipe for NieNie's birthday cupcake. I had to do it, I love NieNie and I love cupcakes and since Provo is a little far for me to drive and overnighting cupcakes from UT to TX would be crazy expensive, making a donation was the best way to show my support.

All you lucky people in Utah, I hope you can go to this bakery! It looks amazing!

My view of breastfeeding

2009-06-25T17:25:00.000-07:00

This is my view of Heidi breastfeeding :) I love how she sort of hugs my boob. LOL

Heidi is a great nurser. She loves to be on the boob night and day. Sometimes I wish I had a detachable boob to send her to bed with. I love breastfeeding. There is something so sweet about it and rewarding, too. Whenever someone tells me, "She is SO big!" or "Look at all those fat rolls!" or "I can't believe her cute chubby legs!" I just swell with pride because she got that way from me. I haven't ever nursed a baby this long so I am feeling quite accomplished. Heidi just really loves to nurse and I am so glad. Sometimes late at night I wish she would take a bottle, but really I am glad she prefers me. My goal is to make it a year. We'll see if it happens...

my no good, very bad day

2009-06-22T19:47:00.000-07:00

It all started last night. My husband and I were nestled in bed playing Yahtzee on my iphone, he beat me, and when we were through it was about 12:30 or so. I rolled over and got comfy and just as my eyes closed, Heidi woke up. This is not unusual. In fact, she does this pretty much every night. How she knows when I am ready for sleep, I don't know. I even try to trick her by going to bed at different times. She always knows. I have left her to cry and see if she will go back to sleep. She just screams. I turn off the monitor, shut my door, turn on a loud fan. I can still hear her. Actually, I can't hear her, but her crying fills my head and I just think I can hear her. Basically, I can't sleep if she is crying and the girl just doesn't give up. If I go get her and nurse her, I can usually be back in bed in 20 minutes. So I do this. I am back in bed by about 1:10. Jared is snoring. I can't sleep. I kick him out at 2:00. I go to sleep. Heidi wakes up at 5am. I nurse her. Back in bed at 5:20. Then the worst sound happened. It is almost like scraping nails down a chalkboard. It was Jared opening our dresser drawer to get clothes out. Ever since we painted the dresser it is so hard to open the drawers and it makes the worst sound. So I am awake again. It was about 5:45. He showered and kissed me goodbye. My alarm went off. 7:00 I am TIRED! I got all the kids up and ready and took Megan to gymnastics and then went walking and came home and cleaned up the house. Went back to get Megan and came home and fed everyone lunch. I timed it just right. I got Heidi and Christian down for a nap at the SAME TIME!!! Yay! I can take a nap. I got Megan and Ethan occupied and I went and got in bed and laid there.... For TWO HOURS!!! I couldn't go to sleep! What the heck? What is wrong with me??? Then Heidi woke up. Megan went to get her and I just laid there frustrated and MAD! The kids wanted crush cup yogurts. They got them out by themselves. Megan called to me to tell me that I needed to look at something funny with Heidi. I said no way. She brought Heidi to me. All the kids were laughing. I looked at Heidi. Her head was covered in purple yogurt. Why. Why. Why. Ethan did it. I asked Megan to get her cleaned up and I am madder now. Kids do such dumb things. I am getting my butt out of bed when Ethan comes to me. He says Christian spilled yogurt on the carpet. WHAT?????????????????????? Dang it! There was purple freakin yogurt on my carpet. I spanked him and sent him to his room. Yelled at Ethan for putting yogurt on Heidi's head and sent him to the room, too. I cleaned up the mess and picked Heidi up who had been crying while I was dishing out the punishments and the poor girl had dried on yogurt film all over her face. If I wasn't so frustrated I would have laughed. It was pretty funny looking. As I am typing this, it seems like I left them alone for hours, but seriously it was maybe 5 minutes. A lot can happen in 5 unsupervised minutes. To make a long story short, the boys remained in their room playing legos until their nutritious meal of ravioli was served, Heidi took another nap, I ate something I would rather not have for the sake of saving my weight watcher points for later (I really need some chocolate) and Heidi had her first ritz cracker...

So now Heidi is covered in yogurt, cracker, applesauce, and ravioli and needs a bath. Oh how I love the smell of clean babies! I got her in the tub and washed her all up and she was playing with her cute little bath toy when she POOPED! I screamed. By now I am way too tired to even get frustrated and I just start laughing. I let the water out and stand her up and she just keeps on poopin. It was really quite disgusting, but what do you do? I washed it all down the drain, rinsed the tub real well, filled up the tub, washed her AGAIN, and got her out quick before she could dirty herself again. Of course my bad day has to have a poop story in it :D This day doesn't seem so bad as I read over it, but couple it with no sleep, being stressed trying to sell a house, not having a husband home, and calorie deprivation and it is a downright mess of a day.

Now the kids are all tucked in their beds fast asleep and I am ready for that chocolate.

Blogging and chocolate... A good way to end a bad day.

Hopefully I can sleep tonight and tomorrow will be filled with fun with my sweet kids....

My little Heidi

2009-06-19T09:38:00.000-07:00

The other day I was drinking some water and Heidi watched me very intently. She was really studying what I was doing. I let her try to sip some water from my cup and she LOVED it! She wouldn't give it back to me. It was very entertaining. Of course I decided I had to have pictures of this so I pried the cup from her clutches and gave her to her dad and I grabbed the camera. Here are a few cute pics we captured. There are also some of her blowing raspberries. That is her favorite thing to do to entertain herself. Her face is priceless when she is doing it. I don't know if I really caught a great picture that does it justice. She is so cute!

Notice how red she is around her mouth from cramming the cup so hard on her face.

What's the best thing on a hot day?

2009-06-16T15:04:00.001-07:00

CHOCOLATE CHUNK CHEESECAKE ICE CREAM FROM BRAUMS!!!

a view from my porch...

2009-06-14T21:14:00.000-07:00

I was walking through my house and from between the blinds I saw the most beautiful colors in the sky. I called my family out to see it. The sunset was amazing. I had to capture in on camera. Of course my pictures don't do it justice, but you can see the beautiful pinks. It was a great reminder Heavenly Father put us on the earth to enjoy life.

Summer Fun!

2009-06-12T19:28:00.000-07:00

The spray park here is a really fun, FREE, place for kids to get wet. We love to go there. There are all kinds of ways to splish, splash, and spray. There are always lots of kids there, but it never seems too crowded. My only complaint is the lack of shade for the parents. There are plenty of benches, but you are sitting in direct, HOT sun. I have to go get my legs and arms wet to be able to stand it more than 5 minutes. I am not sure Heidi really enjoyed it much. She liked to watch all the kids have fun, but I had to get her wet to make sure she wasn't getting too hot. She complained a little about that. I slathered sunscreen on everyone, I sure love the smell of that stuff. No one was very happy to leave (besides me). At least we can go there often!

The kids after the fun.

Heidi in her new swimsuit

Another shot of chubby, sweet Heidi

I can't stop taking pictures of her!

Cutie Christian, he loved it this year.

Megan and Ethan getting Heidi wet

Click on the picture to enlarge it and see if you can find my kids :)

shoppin' cart mama

2009-06-12T08:12:00.000-07:00

I got Heidi one of those things you put in the shopping cart seat to protect the baby from all the gross germs covering every inch. Jared was quick to point out that I never used one with any of our other kids so why is she so special. Well, for one thing, she is sitting in it a little earlier that the others and another reason is I just want her to have one! Besides, what is wrong with a little disease prevention even if it is my fourth kid that I really make an effort? I went to babies r us and they didn't have any PINK ones so i got this one. I have to say I am unhappy with it. It fits walmart carts perfectly, but it doesn't fit in Target ones and it definitly doesn't work in restaurant high chairs. So I am returning it tonight and I will either exchange it for the black and white one or look online for a pink one somewhere...

ROLLERSKATING!

2009-06-10T09:47:00.000-07:00

Megan went to the Skateplex for a field trip the last week of school and she has been begging to go again. So last Saturday we packed up the kids and went as a family. We got there, paid, and got everyone's skates on. Megan chose rollerblades and we got regular ones for Ethan and Christian. My kids can't skate, I just have to say it. I think they spent just as much time on their feet as they did on their bums. It was great fun though. By the end, Megan actually looked like she was skating a little instead of carefully walking in skates. I rolled Christian around on the carpet because he had no hope on the wood floors. Ethan kept trying. I think after a few more times he might get it. We enjoyed crap for dinner courtesy of the concession stand... nachos, corndogs, candy, soda. It was great. I think we might go again, but eat dinner at home first.

Ethan fell about 5 times before I could get the shot above LOL!

Megan "skating" Her arms were out working so hard she kept coming to sit down saying her arms were tired LOL!

Dad helping. I made Ethan stay on the wall after I found him sprawled out on his belly in the middle of the path everyone skates. At least there weren't many people there.

Christian mostly stayed by us at the table. He got brave and walked around on his skates near us. He only had to be rescued by a stranger once.

Heidi played in her stoller for a few minutes and then wanted to be held. She fell asleep in Jared's arms and slept through the crazy loud music. Cutie pie!

Megan's Awards

2009-06-09T10:07:00.000-07:00

Megan had her 3rd grade awards on June 4th. Awards she got...

A Honor Roll
Good Citizenship
Choir Participation
Third Grade Achievement

She also was commended on the Reading and Math TAKS tests.
Reading 94%
Math 100%

She also participated in the TARGET program for the gifted and talented.

I am so proud of her. She is a very bright and disciplined student and I hope she keeps it up through the years.

Notice how short she is amongst her classmates LOL!

Ethan's Graduation

2009-06-08T17:21:00.001-07:00

Ethan graduated from Kindergarden on June 4th. I am so proud of him! Kindergarden isn't like it used to be when I went. I can't believe he can read and do math. It is crazy. He really did a great job this year.

Ethan getting his diploma.

My handsome grad.

Yummy cake. I love it that they got them a cake to celebrate.

Struttin' his stuff...

Ethan and his friend Brianna.

Ethan and Mrs. Abston

Ethan, Heidi and Me

And of course, Christian and Cassie :)

I really am proud of Ethan and his accomplishments. He had a great Kindergarden year and he learned a lot. He is so excited for First Grade!

End of the Year Parties

2009-06-06T09:25:00.001-07:00

Ethan's end of the year party was a beach theme and I remembered my friend Valerie had made the cutest cupcakes that looked like a beach so I signed up to bring cupcakes and copied her. I think they turned out so cute! Please notice the waves I made in the blue frosting :)

All the little cupcakes. Another mom brought some pudding with graham cracker crumbs on top with an umbrella, too. The kids loved all the fun themed food. Someone brought leis, too.

The room mom did such a great job, she had a lot of good ideas. She brought beach balls for all the kids and they passed them around the room and signed them. Everyone got to take a fun momento home with all their friends's names on it.

Ethan and Mrs. Pruitt. She took over when Mrs. Abston had her baby.

Ethan and Mrs. Abston. She was such a cute teacher and her baby is so sweet, too.

Christian and Cassie. How lucky are these two! They get to tag along and enjoy all the fun!

Ethan and his friends.

Megan and her 3rd grade teacher, Mrs. Walker. She is very pregnant. Due in 2 weeks.

Megan and Leah. The 3rd graders got to enjoy the courtyard and have blizzards for their party. There were games and face painting. I think they mostly just enjoyed hanging out with eachother.

Good friends everywhere.

Eating their Blizzards.

The third grade.

Christian brought his cupcake from Ethan's party outside to finish.

Ethan was being silly pretending to use his miniature umbrella, so cute!

Heidi was perfect as usual. She went along in her stroller and enjoyed watching all the kids.

Heidi.... 7 months!!!

2009-05-31T21:22:00.000-07:00

Heidi has been busy lately. Busy growing. Busy learning. She is an early achiever in my family. None of my other kids could do half of what she can do by this age. The one I want to stay a baby is determined to grow up faster than all the rest. I will say it is so fun to watch her figure things out and try new things. She is my heart. Here are some of her very recent achievements...

SITTING!!! (she can sit herself up even!)

CRAWLING!!!

ATTACKING BIG BROTHER!!!

PULLING UP!!!

PULLING UP IN BED!!! (a whole new bedtime problem)

And here she is eating cheesecake at The Cheesecake Factory.

THE HAPPIEST BABY!!!

Still no teeth! Or HAIR!!! LOL

I love this little girl so much. There is no greater joy than children, unless my papa is right about grand and great-grandchildren...

Another Milestone

2009-05-28T16:30:00.000-07:00

I was sitting on the couch crocheting, what else do I ever do, and Heidi crawled over to me. Yes, crawled. She isn't quite a pro yet, she looks a little drunk when she is crawling. She even does an occasional nose-dive into the carpet, you know the kind where your feet fly up in the air and almost hit you in the back of the head. But she can do it. I felt her hands grabbing at my legs. She wanted in my lap. Then I looked down over my cute flower I was working on, and she is standing up!!! She totally pulled up! I couldn't believe it. Jennifer witnessed it, too. I was so excited for her and I cheered and clapped for her and gave her the biggest hug. Then I thought, dang! I need a picture of that for my blog! Babies don't usually pull up on demand, so I posed her up on the couch for this picture. To be honest, she fell over the first time I stood her up there. But she held on long enough for me to snap this picture the second time. So it is a fake picture, but she really did pull up on her own.

I am so excited for all the new things she does, but a little sad, too. Every new thing she does marks her growth towards toddlerhood. I want her to stay my baby forever. She will always be my baby. I hope she doesn't hate me for it. :)

O Canada!

2009-05-25T10:13:00.000-07:00

Jared just got back from a 3 week long class in Canada and he had a nice visit. He got to go to the West Edmonton Mall, where he found the Dollarama. He spent a whole seven dollars and got souveniers for everyone but ME. My family looks good in Canadian red, eh?

He didn't bring home any Canadian Bacon.

Little Peeker

2009-05-22T14:38:00.001-07:00

This is what I get to see each morning when I go get Heidi out of bed...

I love her peeking over the edge of the bumper! She is SOOOO cute!

Teacher Gifts

2009-05-20T22:11:00.000-07:00

I am really excited about my teacher gifts this year. Karalee showed these to me and we made them together. It was SO fun. I am definitely hooked, I want to make millions of them :D

SCRABBLE TILE PENDANTS!

Isn't it adorable?

The group of them.

And just so there is no confusion because of my "store-bought" looking packaging, this will be on the back of all of them ;)

Click on any image to enlarge if you want to see it up close :D

Moron? I think not.

2009-05-19T13:07:00.000-07:00

What do your kids do when they are home sick from school? Megan perfects her skills at taking the Moron Test. It is the number one app on iphones. It is a pretty cool test that basically tests your ability to read and react. If you have an iphone or and ipod touch, I recommend it. (Thanks to Laura for telling me about it :) Here is Megan and her mad moron skills...

She has done it even faster since this video. I think 80.9 seconds. She did it at 90 seconds and I told her I could do it at 85, just guessing that I had to be better at it than her. She did it again and got to 84.5 secs. I tried to do it fast and I was half way through it and already her time was long gone and then I failed. So she is probably at least twice as fast as me! Get the app, it is fun to play and funner to watch your friends play it after you already know all the tricks.

Things that make you go hmmmm...

2009-05-18T12:08:00.000-07:00

Today my house was shown to a couple. I was down the block and I saw them arrive and enter my house. I circled the block waiting for them to leave because I hadn't showered yet so I really couldn't go anywhere. People usually aren't there more than 15 minutes. Well, 30 minutes later they leave and I go in my house. I sat in my recliner and my foot touches a wet spot on my carpet. ??? I touch the carpet with my hand and do the dreaded sniff test. Great. It smells like PEE! What the heck! Heidi wears a diaper. Christian is in a pull up. How did that happen? Weird. I never saw an animal go in or any kids. Plus, there were drag marks in the carpet, too. Wider than a vacuum, like maybe a wheelchair. But there definitely was no one in a wheelchair in my house. Kinda wish I could have had a video recorder going on while there were here. Hmmmmm....

My Ethan is SIX Today!

2009-05-12T09:29:00.000-07:00

I can't believe six years ago I gave birth to my first boy, a whopping 9 lbs 14 oz!

Ethan is such a special little guy. He is so sensitive and loving. He really cares for others. He is really smart and funny and he is all boy. I think he gives his teacher a hard time sometimes, having to pull his pin (change color) a little too often. But hey, I think overall he has had a pretty good year in Kindergarden. He surprises me with how much he really does know. I was excited to honor him all day. He got to wear a ribbon that said "my 6th birthday" on it.

I went to eat with him at school. That was really fun. When I got there his class had just went to the cafeteria and I was worried that he would get food from the lunch line, I brought him a special lunch. (Subway, there aren't many fast food restaurants that sell lunch at 10 am!!) But there he was sitting at the table next to all his friends with no lunch in front of him... waiting patiently for me :)!!! I was so impressed! He jumped up when he saw me and ran to me and we sat down together. We had a good lunch. He has some talkative friends I tell you!
Then a little later I went back up to the school and brought cupcakes for Ethan to share with his classmates. That was fun, everyone was so excited and Ethan felt so special handing out the cupcakes. Another little boy in class had a birthday today, too, and he brought cookies! Those kids were all sugared up!

When we got home from the school, Ethan's presents awaited him. He had fun tearing into them, even pausing a second to notice they were wrapped in Star Wars wrapping paper. He got a DS game, an Indiana Jones lego set, a regular lego set (these are the tiny legos, we are trying those out for the first time!) and his favorite gift... a bow and arrow.

We had a dinner of German pancakes and fresh fruit and sausage and then we headed to Chuck E Cheese's. Ethan got 20 tokens for free (coupon) and then I bought 100 tokens and we had fun! It wasn't crowded so that made it even better! And even though we had cupcakes earlier, Ethan needed a cake. I bought a candle for him to blow out and I had been eyeing the chocolate cake sold at CEC's for a long time and I was ready to try it out! So we showed Ethan the cakes, a boring unappetizing vanilla one and a decadent delicious awesome chocolate one. Look at what he picked...

Can you see the disappointment in Megan's eyes? Mine are much the same. But the important part was Ethan's happiness and he was happy with his choice.

A Birthday Collage, I love this little guy so much!

Happy Mother's Day!

2009-05-10T19:17:00.000-07:00

I have to say that spending a Mother's Day cooking, cleaning, and taking care of four kids by myself is not how I would picture my day of supposed recognition, especially when my husband got to relax and read a book all day. (You shouldn't tell on yourself, Jared!) I wouldn't change poopy diapers or wipe up spit up from my shirt. I wouldn't take four kids to church alone or break up fights or listen to endless whining over what I made for dinner. I wouldn't make sure my house was immaculate and ready to show to prospective buyers making me 45 minutes late to church only to come home and see that no one came.

But that isn't all that happened today. I was showered with cards and love notes from my kids. I got slobbery kisses from Heidi, she grabs my hair and pulls me close and smashes her mouth on my face. Megan helped me get breakfast for everyone. Christian snuggled with me while we watch a few cartoons. Ethan told me I was the best mom ever. Oh, Megan did, too. I got to go to church with my wonderful, well behaved kids and get the cutest handprint momento/potpourri pillow. Instead of a carnation, all of us mothers got an awesome spiral bound collection of gospel pictures which is the best gift I have ever gotten from church for Mother's Day. A sweet friend who I teach with made chocolate covered strawberries for all the ladies in primary (my kids ate them, I did get one). I got to share a nice dinner courtesy of Stouffers with my kids filled with fun conversation and lots of laughs. Megan helped get dinner cleaned up so we could have our traditional Sunday Sundaes while we watch America's Funniest Home Videos. I got to kneel with my sweet children and listen to their prayers. All in all, today was filled with lots of happiness. Yes, I had to do everything myself, no husband to help. Yes, I had to do lots of things I don't consider pleasant or fun, but I am a mother, it is what I do. It is what I find joy in. It is the most important thing in my life. I wouldn't change a thing.

Aren't these so cute! Karalee is amazing as always...

My kids and all the wonderful things they gave me. Heidi is sleeping so she didn't get to be included in photos :(

A close up. I love it all, sweet thoughts from them to me.

Megan made this for me last week and it sat on my desk all week. I won't say if I read it before today or not ;) I love the sticky note on it!

Ahhh, what I made myself for mother's day.

Happy Mother's Day to all of my friends and especially to my mom, Nanny, and my mother-in-law. You all inspire me to be a better mother. I watch and learn from you and my kids benefit greatly. I am glad to have you all in my life.

And now I am off to my strawberries. I just might eat them all... Tomorrow the dieting begins.... LOL!!!

UPDATE: I only ate 4 strawberries before I thought I would die if I ate another LOL. That just means I have some for tomorrow :D Maybe that can be our FHE snack...

Ethan the Cowboy

2009-05-09T20:03:00.000-07:00

Ethan had a Kindergarden program last Tuesday at school all about the great state of Texas. It was really cute. Here are the songs they sang...

I love Ethan's face in the fourth video and the words in the second, but the last one is prob my favorite. He is such a cute boy! I love him!!!

poop anyone?

2009-05-03T07:36:00.001-07:00

I made quesadillas for dinner the other night with chicken, cheese, and black beans inside. If the beans weren't secured in with the cheese they fell out. When Christian picked up his quesadilla a couple beans plopped onto his plate. His face was total shock! Here is the conversation...

C: My food pooped!
me: It's not poop, they are beans.
C: oh, they are beans, *smile*
megan: no, Christian, it really is poop!
C: (terror on face) It's POOP???
Me: NOOOOOOOOOOOO Christian, they are beans! Megan, shut your mouth!
C: Oh, they are beans. (relief)

He didn't eat a bite.

talk about stress.....

2009-04-29T05:40:00.000-07:00

I couldn't take it anymore, I had to go inside....

This morning when I walked the kids across the street to school we saw the CUTEST thing! There was a mama bird and FOUR cute baby birds in the driveway. She would run a little and they would follow. She would go a little more and they would, too. All the while she is chirping and they copy her. I think she got nervous when we came out, poor dear. One of her babies ran inbetween the houses and one ran ACROSS THE DANG STREET! I was freaking out. She was, too. The chirping proved it. It almost sounded like psycho bird marco polo. You can just imagine her yelling, "GET YOUR BUTT BACK OVER HERE THIS INSTANT MISTER OR NO WORMS FOR DINNER FOR YOU!!!!!!!!!" I sympathised with her, ever had your kids run away from you at walmart or in a parking lot? She chirped from the yard and the baby across the street would chirp and run a little in one direction. She would chirp again and he would chirp and run a different direction. She flew across the street and started digging in this hole. Looking back, I wonder if it is her nest or something. Soon after she did this another bird starts trying to help herd the baby back to mom who is now back with the other babies trying to get them under control. Hmm, I bet that other bird is the father and he was sleeping through all the chaos, letting mother try to take care of four babies alone. Typical. I am watching all this just wanting to run over there and pick up the confused baby, but I refrain. How will he ever learn. So, there isn't much traffic at the time I bring my kids across, but there are a few cars coming here and there and this poor little guy is stuck across the street. She keeps trying to get him to cross the street and here comes a car. I wanted to scream at the cars and warn them about the poor stranded baby bird and the frantic momma bird, but I didn't. I just covered my face and hoped for the best. The other baby birds were following mom right by the curb and I could tell they got scared when a car came by. The mother finally got all the babies underneath her. The mom and dad birds were working together to try to get the one baby safe. She chirped from one side of the street and dad was on the same side as the baby and he would chirp and they finally got the baby over to mom. I think he learned his lesson. He went straight under her wing. I bet he is grounded. I am SO glad they are all together, but I hope they stay put for a while because the morning rush to school is about to happen. I think I will go check on them in a little bit. I hope I don't see them. I hope they are safe somewhere. Here is a picture of the mom with the 4 babies under her. I wanted to get a picture of the babies out, but there was no way I was going to disturb them and risk another fiasco. As I was slowly walking towards her, she started chirping loudly at me. If I could understand her she would probably be saying, "Lady, please get the crap away from me, I can't take any more stress right now." I wasn't even that close yet. I stayed back pretty far and then zoomed as far as my camera would go and I still had to majorly crop the picture so you can see the babies and you still can't see them well.

I just went outside and they were in my yard! I scared them. Oops. Must be some good worms in my yard. Here are some pics... (check out the long legs on those babies!)

Here is a video. Ignore me on there and listen for the little "beeps" the mom makes. Sorry for the shaky camera, I obviously can't walk and film at the same time even when I am trying to hold it steady LOL!

I could watch them all day, but I better keep an eye on my own little chickies.

I love this girl!

2009-04-27T21:34:00.001-07:00

I know whoever reads this is probably sick of me saying over and over how perfect my baby is, but I can't help say it again! She is the most perfect baby anyone could ever hope for. She has the sweetest personality, she is patient and easy going, and is she ever cute as can be! Every second I am not playing with her or holding her or nursing her I feel like I am missing out. Maybe it is because she is the last baby, who knows, but I am totally smitten by her. Isn't she cute in the headband I crocheted? The boutique I am working on getting my hats in wanted me to try a headband and this was my first attempt. I still have a few things to work out, but I think it is pretty cute. Well, Heidi could be wearing a walmart sack and still be cute so maybe it is just her... :)

Baby toes taste good!

2009-04-22T07:27:00.000-07:00

I love Heidi's toes and so does she! This is her new favorite past time, eating her toes LOL! She is getting so big, almost 6 months! Gosh, where does the time go???

AFV material???

2009-04-17T19:44:00.000-07:00

We love to watch AFV every Sunday night as a family and we always wish we had a video to send to the show. So I am trying to capture the right thing on video to try to win some money, or even just having it on the show would be cool. Megan asked me what Heidi's food tasted like and I told her I would give her a dollar if she tasted it. She agreed so I ran to get my camera just in case it ended up being AFV worthy. Then Ethan wanted a dollar, too, so we had him do it. I was feeding Heidi prunes and she made the awfullest (is that a word?) face and I turned on the camera and she didn't make the face again, but it was still funny. Are any of these worthy of AFV?

Megan

Ethan

Heidi

I love it when Heidi sucks on her lip. Christian didn't want to participate... too bad.

Easter Celebration

2009-04-12T17:09:00.000-07:00

This is my 100th post, wow! It will be a good one...

Today is Easter and what a wonderful reason to celebrate! We of course had a visit from the Easter bunny and had an egg hunt and all of the fun activities, but my favorite part was talking about Christ and the resurrection. We had a lesson this morning about the last supper, Garden of Gethsemane, the betrayal, the crucifixion, the burial, and the resurrection of Christ using the Gospel Art Picture Kit (love that). After the picture of the burial, we went into the kitchen and made resurrection rolls. It is so neat. Here is what we did...

Everyone got half of a large marshmallow. It represents Jesus.

Dip it in melted butter. This represents annointing Jesus in oils.

Then you roll it in cinnamon sugar. This represents the spices put on Christ's body.

Place the marshmallow on a crescent roll and wrap it up, sealing the edges well. This represents the linens wrapped arounf Christ.

Place in oven. Represents the tomb.

When they are done baking, open one up. It is hollow. The marshmallow is gone. Christ has risen!

A yummy breakfast with a very important lesson!

Here is a slide show of our other Easter festivities.

Heidi had her first Easter bunny.

Here is a video....

My four beautiful kids all dressed up :)

Happy Birthday Nanny!!!

2009-04-12T17:04:00.000-07:00

I tried forever to load a video on here and it never worked, so I had to use you tube again. We hope you had a wonderful birthday, Nanny!

It's Official

2009-04-08T15:17:00.000-07:00

We are moving.

Again.

I can't believe it. But, we go where we are told to go. This time to the Ft Worth area. I hope this time we can stay more than 2 years. Jared works in the oil field and he is usually gone a lot and this move will mean he gets to be home at nights and on the weekends. A life we have never known as a married couple. He will be there every Sunday for church. I think that is the best part about it for me. He can be involved in sports and other activities with all the kids. I can't tell you how many things we have missed out on because he is gone and I just can't bring myself to take all the kids by myself. The bad part is selling a house in this market. I am slightly worried about it. Only slightly because I have a great house in a great location and we are pricing to sell. I hope our house is the answer to someone's prayers and they will be the answer to mine! I am sad to leave this place, I really feel at home here and it is a beautiful place to live. I love it. I love my friends here most of all and it will be so hard to leave them. I really hope they stay friends with me and come visit, I will only be about 2.5 hours away. I am sad for the kids and the friends they leave behind as well. Especially Megan. She is in the best little activity day girls group ever and they are all such good, sweet girls. She will be in her 4th elementary school next year. She seems good at adjusting to each move. It helps that this time we are going to an area we already have some friends. That eases things somewhat. I am excited to have Jared home more and all the blessings (and frustrations) that brings and I know the kids will benefit greatly from this. So, please keep us in your thoughts and hope our house sells quickly so we can be a complete family again and I can be done with being a part time single mom.

April Fool's Fun

2009-04-02T06:13:00.000-07:00

I love jokes. And I love April Fool's Day. I got my kids good a couple years ago by freezing their cereal. It was awesome. I haven't really done anything since and I wanted to do something this year. I have been looking up ideas for about a week and all I could find were food tricks and I wasn't sure I wanted to do that. Then the day before April 1st was hard and that night Heidi kept me up all night, so yesterday morning I wasn't up to fooling anyone. The day went on and no one pranked me and I pranked no one. Then I talked to Karalee and she told me all the fun things she was doing to her kids and I couldn't let the day be wasted. So I set out to get my kids. First I short sheeted Megan's bed. For those of you that don't know what that is (I didn't) it is where you get the top sheet and tuck the bottom of it under the mattress at the head of the bed, smooth the sheet down and then fold it back up so that it looks normal and when they get in bed there is no where for their legs to go because the fold it there. So funny. I was too lazy to do the boys' beds, I didn't think they would get it anyway, maybe next year. Then I sewed the bottom of one of their pajama pants leg shut. When I got the boys out of the bath, I had Megan get in the shower right away so she wouldn't hear what happened to Ethan's pajamas. It was so funny watching Ethan try to figure out why he couldn't get his shorts on!!! I was recording it all, but you can't see much because Christian was getting right in front saying cheese a million times. Then I heard the water turn off and I knew Megan was about to find my surprise. I sat on the couch where the bathroom door is visible and I started recording. I wanted to capture what happened when she came out to show me the pants since I obviously can't record her dressing for 2 reasons, one being she is 8 and I can't show her dressing on the internet and two she would totally know something was up. So I hear her make a noise and I knew she had discovered my prank. It took a couple minutes for her to come out so I started interview Christian so the video would not just be of a door LOL. She came out and walked up to me and here is the video of it... Ethan first and then megan under it...

After Megan got dressed for bed she must have gotten in bed and discovered her sheets were wrong. She came out and sat down in the chair next to me and said, "Mom, there is something wrong with my bed." I started laughing and asked her what was wrong, she said the sheets were messed up. I laughed so hard and I could see the recognition in her face. She yelled, YOU DID THIS TO ME! I said yep! She laughed and then said, "Hmmmm, I wonder what I am going to do to you?" LOL!! It was a fun April Fool's Day.

A sweet story from Walmart???

2009-03-24T12:06:00.000-07:00

I shared some crazy stories that have happened to me at Walmart before, but today I have a sweet one. I ran to Walmart with Heidi earlier this morning and she had just fallen asleep when I got in the parking lot. She was crying previously so I was thinking my shopping trip would have to be short and possibly miserable for us both. Thankfully she fell asleep. I carefully carried her to the store and set her carrier in the cart. I pushed it along, very gingerly on the carpet that is there at the front of the store, she still slept. Then I got on the hard floor. KA-CHUNK KA-CHUNK KA-CHUNK!!!!!!!! I said out loud, "Darn it!" and I proceeded to turn around to get a new cart as Heidi opened her eyes. The sweetest Walmart worker lady, I didn't look at her name tag but she was the one working on the flowers, must have seen my dilema and she asked me if she could go get a new cart for me. I said oh yes, that would be wonderful! She went and got me a new cart and even checked that it rolled silently! How nice!! I put Heidi in that cart, she had fallen back asleep when the ka-chunking ended, and we had a very relaxing shopping experience. Thank you flower lady at Walmart, you totally made my day!

Pretty Pink Piggies

2009-03-23T22:16:00.000-07:00

Why are babies toes so darn cute? I can't even put into words how much I love Heidi's toes. I hurt my teeth when I look at them, do you get that? I could probably bite through a penny at all the cuteness LOL! When I nurse her, I play with her feet. She doesn't mind, usually. She likes it when I kiss her tosies and pat my cheeks with them and play peek a boo. She makes me laugh when she grabs her feet and plays with them. I think one day soon she might get a toe in her mouth. I always love my youngest kid's feet and just when they are starting to get too big, I have another baby and get those tiny toes once more. What am I going to do now that Heidi is the last baby??? I hope I am not wanting to kiss her toes when she is 10, that is just weird! LOL!!!

yum!

2009-03-21T16:28:00.001-07:00

Strawberry Spinach Salad

I know this isn't a new recipe, but my friend Josie made this a few weekends ago while we were visiting and I can't stop making it. It is so fresh and delicious and beautiful. We had it with grilled chicken last night. Here is the recipe.

Dressing
1 lemon
2 tbsp white wine vinegar
1/3 cup sugar
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tsp poppy seeds

Salad
¼ cup sliced natural almonds, toasted
8 oz. (1 ½ cups) strawberries, hulled and quartered
½ med. Cucumber, sliced and cut in half
¼ small red onion, sliced into thin wedges (1/4 cup)
1 package (6 ounces) baby spinach

For dressing, zest lemon to measure ½ tsp zest. Juice lemon to measure 2 tbsp juice. Combine zest, juice, vinegar, sugar, oil and poppy seeds in a bowl. Whisk until well blended. Cover; refrigerate until ready to use.

Preheat oven to 350° F. For salad, spread almonds in single layer over bottom of a small bar pan.

Bake 10-12 minutes or until lightly toasted. Remove from oven; cool almonds in bar pan. *I toast mine in a skillet.*

Meanwhile, hull strawberries; cut strawberries into quarters.

Score cucumber lengthwise; remove seeds. Slice cucumber; cut slices in half/ Slice onion into thin wedges.

Place spinach in large serving bowl; add strawberries, cucumber and onion. Whisk dressing; pour over salad, gently tossing to coat. Sprinkle with almonds. Serve immediately.

Meet my amigurumi bunny

2009-03-21T08:37:00.001-07:00

I made this cute bunny for my friend Karalee's little girl. She went to build a bear and made a bunny and I thought this would be a cute baby for her bunny. Build a bear sells little babies of the animals you stuff. Anyway, I thought it would take me about an hour to make it so I started about 10:30-11 pm. The crocheting didn't take me very long. It was the darn sewing. I didn't finish until almost 2 am. I was tired the next day! We gave it to her the following morning. I didn't have time to look at it enough. So I took a picture. I think I might have to make another one so I can make Jared tell me how cute it is a million times. I only got to make him tell me about 5 times with the first one. All my kids are begging for one now. Maybe I can surprise them for Easter... Isn't this bunny the CUTEST???

The following image is rated G

2009-03-19T19:43:00.000-07:00

FOR GROSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Poop everywhere! It was so disgusting. It took Jared and I both just to get her clean enough to go into the bath. Yuck. I just had to share, I know you wanted to see it :)

The answer is...

2009-03-16T15:35:00.000-07:00

FROZEN BREASTMILK!!!

When Heidi had the flu she didn't eat much. I needed to pump to survive. I had all this breastmilk and since Heidi won't take a bottle, I wanted to freeze it in 1 oz servings to mix with cereal when she started to take solid food. We didn't have an ice tray in the house. I did have a silicon heart shaped baking mold. So I poured it in and froze it. When I took one out to mix with her cereal it just looked so funny so I had to take a picture.

Here is Heidi ready for her first taste of solid food.

I mixed a little applesauce in, too. She liked it and did well eating. I think she actually swallowed some of it.

We fed her on a video call with my Nanny and Papa so they could see her eat for the first time. I love the internet!

You can see us all looking at them on the computer.

Megan took a turn feeding her. She did a pretty good job. Heidi didn't make it easy. Her legs and arms were kicking like crazy. She was pretty excited.

I love to feed babies, it is so fun.

Take a guess...

2009-03-15T09:57:00.000-07:00

Any guesses what this is? I will post the answer tomorrow.

ok, I feel better!

2009-03-13T08:36:00.000-07:00

Thanks for making me feel better!!! Don't be intimidated about having to post and make things for others... You could bake some cookies or something easy! It could be anything. It does say you don't guarantee they will like it. It could be something funny!

I am just glad I have friends again. I thought I was abandoned :)

wow!

2009-03-12T12:39:00.000-07:00

I am surprised no one wants a homemade gift from me. My feelings are a little hurt. Oh well. Makes my life easier.

Homemade Gifts Giveaway!

2009-03-05T05:43:00.000-08:00

I got this on my friend's blog. In order for me to receive a handmade gift from her, I have to post it on my blog as well. I am a little excited to play this game!

So, if you want to play, leave a comment but read the whole post first, because there is a condition.
The first five people to respond to this post will receive something made by me to you. There are some restrictions:

1. I make no guarantees you will like what I make.
2. What I create will be just for you.
3. It will be done sometime within the next couple months.
4. You have no clue what it will be, but it will be made with love.

The catch is you must post this on your blog and offer the same to the first five people who post it on their blog. The first five people to do so and leave a comment letting me know they did will receive a homemade gift from me.

Happy Anniversary Nanny and Papa!

2009-02-25T13:54:00.000-08:00

It was my Nanny and Papa's 51st wedding on February 15. I forgot it!!! I am so ashamed. So Nanny and Papa... I am going to try to make it up to you with this blog tribute from me and the kids...

FIFTY ONE REASONS WE LOVE NANNY AND PAPA
in no particular order, by the Walters Family

1. They are so sweet.
2. Papa makes chairs for cute little kids and hands them out when he sees one.
3. Nanny makes me boston cream pie even though it is a pain.
4. They come see us a lot.
5. They bring us presents.
6. They are nice.
7. Papa has a cool truck.
8. Nanny sings the hoppa hoppa rider song.
9. Nanny can teach me German.
10. They love us.
11. They like to come to our house 100 times.
12. I got to go to Georgia with them when I was little.
13. Papa took me fishing when I was little.
14. Nanny can make better chinese food than any asian restaurant.
15. Nanny taught me to knit.
16. They bring me little newspapers to solve.
17. I love they have a garden every year and bring me green beans.
18. I love that they met in Germany.
19. I used to love going boating with them.
20. Papa plays on the nintendo ds with me.
21. For our anniversary last year, nanny and papa brought me a cake just like the one they had at their anniversary party... It fed 25 people. I ate it ALL! (not at once)
22. I love that they quit smoking.
23. Papa can build almost anything.
24. Nanny can knit anything. I love everything she makes us!
25. I love that they get in the car just to drive somewhere.
26. I love that Nanny hid a sandwich from papa under the sink because she wasn't supposed to eat it while she was pregnant. He needed some cleaner from under the sink so she didn't get away with it LOL! Ask her to tell the story some time!
27. I love the story about papa when he kicked the rooster and thought he killed it and was afraid his mom would be mad. It was still alive :) just knocked out!
28. I am proud papa served our country.
29. I love that I can call Nanny everyday and we can just chat.
30. I love to watch Hyacinth with Nanny when she visits.
31. I love watching Papa hold my babies. He is so tender and sweet.
32. Papa and Nanny have fun together.
33. Papa and Nanny serve eachother.
34. Papa gets Nanny the most beautiful roses.
35. Their anniversary is the day after Valentine's Day.
36. Nanny likes to fold my clothes when she visits. I have 7 loads for you, Nanny!
37. Papa is such a good example of honesty.
38. They do things for eachother.
39. I love the story about papa taking care of my mom in the night once and he changed her sheets and clothes a million times so Nanny wouldn't ask him to do it again. lol
40. I love that papa takes my blanket and plays with me.
41. I love that nanny plays with my hair.
42. I used to love spending the night with Nanny and Papa when I was little...
43. Friday night homemade pizza at their house.
44. When I spent the night with them, Nanny would rub my arms and back, it was so relaxing.
45. Papa babysat me when I was a baby and he tied a stuffed animal to the ceiling fan and laid me under it.
46. Nanny loves to hold babies, she is so sweet with them.
47. I love that they have a computer.
48. Papa can do ANYTHING on the computer, he just plays with it until he figures it out.
49. I love being able to video call with them.
50. I am proud they have had such a long, sweet marriage... it is rare these days.
51. We love you, Nanny and Papa, SO much! You are the best! I thought it would be hard to think of 51 things, but it was easy! They are such special people to me!

We made it!

2009-02-21T08:11:00.000-08:00

Heidi and I both survived the night apart. She woke up at 2 and then at 7. It was nice to see her. When I went to bed, it was weird to be able to talk freely and not tip toe around. I have to say I was lonely though. When I laid down, I couldn't see her in her little cradle and I was a bit sad. Good thing I fell asleep fast. I was too tired to dwell on it. Tonight will be easier. I love that sweet girl, I can't say that enough. She is such a perfect baby!

I don't know if I am ready...

2009-02-20T18:05:00.000-08:00

I just laid Heidi down in her crib for the night for the very first time. I think she is getting a little too big for the cradle since she is rolling over. I just don't know if I can handle being away from her for that long. The whole night... that is a looooonnnggg time. She probably won't miss me. Part of me wants her to cry for me right now. It will get easier. I just don't want her to grow up.

Young love

2009-02-20T07:29:00.000-08:00

Megan came home from her Valentine party at school with a very special Valentine... from a BOY! It was a BIG pink stuffed bear, a HUGE chocolate heart, and a musical card. He called Megan over to him and said he had something special for her and gave her the gift. It was in a bag. He asked her when she was going to open it and she said on the way home (she didn't want anyone to feel bad because they didn't get a special gift. I think he was disappointed.) Jared was at the party with her and the boy told Megan he hoped her dad doesn't kill him. LOL Then he talked to her a lot and told her how much he loved her project and that if he was the principal he would give her an A on it. I asked Megan if she liked him. She said no. Heartbreaker. Poor guy. She did carry the bear around all weekend and took it with her when we went out of town. I told Megan she had to write him a thank you note. I mean, he must really like her. He got his mom to take him shopping for her! He would give her an A!!! So I got a chocolate bar for him and wrapped it in cute designer paper and attached a thank you tag and she wrote a little letter and we stuck it to the back. She gave it to him. He asked her to sit with him for lunch. She said no. Poor guy. I love this little innocent exchange. What a sweet boy, if he keeps this up he is going to make a woman very happy later in life.

I wanted to wait to post this until I had some pictures, but Megan left her gift at our friends' house out of town and I don't know when I can get it back. I asked Megan why she didn't sit with him for lunch and she said she didn't want to be the only girl there. So funny. She said she likes him as a friend and I told her that is the only kind of liking of boys she can do right now. I love kids getting older. It is so fun to see them grow and experience new things.

heart pizzas

2009-02-17T18:02:00.000-08:00

We were out of town for valentine's day and we didn't get to make the little heart shaped pizzas I had planned. So, we made them today. Unfortunately Megan was sick and didn't feel up to making them so just the boys did. They turned out SO cute and were yummy, too.

another cute hat

2009-02-11T06:28:00.001-08:00

I crocheted another hat yesterday, I love it! Heidi looks so cute in these hats.

3 months old!

2009-02-10T10:28:00.001-08:00

Heidi is three months old now, I can't believe it. She is still the very best baby ever. She loves her brothers' and sister's attention. She is SO sweet all the time, I enjoy her so much.

Here she is in the bath, I love bathtime with her. There is nothing better in the world than the smell of a freshly bathed baby.

She fell asleep sucking her finger. She hasn't found her thumb, but I am sure she is still looking for it. I will be surprised if she doesn't start sucking it soon.

All dressed up for church. She is adorable.

check out the cute...

2009-02-09T22:08:00.000-08:00

Recently my friend and I have come across these amazing cute hats for babies and I just had to make one. Problem is I don't have a pattern. I had to study the picture alot and try to see what I could do and I think it turned out pretty cute. Here is Heidi, asleep (the poor dear, it was midnight), wearing my first try. There is supposed to be a crocheted flower instead of a bow and I am going to fix that as soon as I get to Hobby Lobby. Then I will have her model it awake. I tried it on her 4-5 times while she was sleeping.

Here is Megan and her glasses. She has had them a month, I am just slow to post.

My cute kids...

giggles!

2009-01-27T07:38:00.000-08:00

I caught Heidi's first REAL giggle on camera! How lucky was that??? We had made some videos for family night and I happened to have the camera right next to me. Here she is...

My very bad day.

2009-01-19T08:20:00.000-08:00

I wanted to write this day down in a journal so if I ever think I am having a bad day, I can read about this day and know my day is probably going a lot better than I thought. Problem is, I don't have a journal at the moment, so I am going to put it on here so I won't forget details. And, you can see what a horrible day I had.

It started out like a normal Wednesday. I got up and got the kids to school and then started cleaning/reading/watching tv/nursing a baby/and POTTY TRAINING. I needed to get ready for playgroup which started at 10:30, but I was nursing Heidi, so I had to wait to shower until I got her asleep or settled. Then, Christian pooped a little and peed a lot in his pants. I hate poop in underwear! It wasn't gross enough for me to throw them away, so I started them soaking in hot water in the wash machine. I was heading for the shower. Heidi cries. I go check on her and she is poopy. Ok, so 2 poops down, now maybe I can shower. Nope. Christian pooped and peed his underwear again. DANG! how frustrating. So I know he needs to have a big poop, and the kid holds it in and won't go and it builds up and then he can't get it out. So I brought him into the bathroom and made him sit on the potty. I go start the washer because all his pants are now soiled. I go back to the bathroom and read to him some Franklin books. Ten minutes later, he still hasn't gone, so I get out the suppositories. He HATES them! He started crying as soon as he saw them and yelled, "put them back! put them back!" I made him bend over so I could insert it and then sat him back on the pot. I keep reading these same 3 books over and over. He tries to go a couple times, I can tell he is trying, but nothing happens and he is crying. I feel sorry for the little guy, I know how frustrating that can be. Well, we sit there for at least 30 more minutes and then he exclaims, "I did it mom! I pooped!" I look into the toilet and what do I see? Poop? No. It is the suppository. Now what? I applauded his minute victory, and let him off the toilet. Let's see, what time is it. 11:00. I am late for playgroup. Heidi is crying and has been for a few minutes so I leave her in the swing and take a rapid shower. I am still trying to get to playgroup, I need adult interaction! I get out of the shower and put the clothes in the dryer and go get Heidi and nurse her. By the way, Christian is in a pull up now, to heck with underwear today(2 poop and 2 pee accidents are enough)! Now it is 11:30 and I guess I am not going to playgroup. No one is dressed still, not to mention, I am a little put out with kids already. I got Christian down for a nap and then try to relax a little before the big kids get home. Too bad Heidi wasn't going to nap. I did enjoy holding and talking to her though. Also, as a side note, I am having serious stress issues going on so I am pondering those this whole time. Namely maybe moving and taking Megan out of gymnastics. The kids get home from school and I get Megan ready for gym and we head out the door. When I get to gymnastics, the coach begs me not to take Megan out and tells me how great she is which is all very flattering, but we have pretty much made the decision to take her out and maybe she can start again later. Then I sell Megan's expensive warm up suit to a girl who just joined the team and of course I cry my eyes out. It is super hard to give it up. I am really depressed by this point and we head home. It is a little after 5 when we get home and I call Jared to see if he is on his way home and naturally he is going to stay late. Great. I start dinner. Potato soup. If I ever needed comfort food, it is now. I lay Heidi on her play mat and start chopping veggies and bacon. I start the bacon cooking. Christian comes in and says he is poopy. ARG! (I had put him in underwear again...STUPID ME!) So I get him cleaned up, my bacon still is cooking and Heidi begins to fuss. I tell him to go get a pull up on, he can do that on his own, I don't want the bacon to burn. I continue cooking and add the veggies to cook with the bacon(Christian comes in the kitchen with no pull up on and I yelled at him to get one on.) Heidi starts to cry. I can't hold her while I cook, there is splattering going on and it is just dangerous in general, right? So I have to just hurry and ignore her the time being. Then here comes Christian. He still has no pull up on and now he says he is poopy!!! CRAP!!! I look at his booty and there is a little turd stuck to it. I run him to the bathroom and sit him on the pot. I run back to the kitchen, passing my poor crying baby who I am longing to hold and comfort, and I continue cooking. It was almost time to put the potatoes in and water which is when I can leave the pot unattended and tend to my baby girl. I get the soup going and I go check on Christian. My plan was to make him sit there while I nurse Heidi, she is now screaming. When I walk in the bathroom, I see him trying to wipe his own butt. His hands are covered in poop. I feel defeated. Now what!? I try scrubbing his hands. The poop won't come off. Ok. Bath time a little earlier in the evening than planned. I start the water and get both boys in. I call Jared and ask when I can expect him. He says he will pick Megan up from gymnastics. Phew, a little stress gone. I go and pick up my sweet baby and nurse her finally. It was probably the best time of the whole day. She probably cried a good 30 minutes, poor thing. The soup is simmering nicely, the boys are in the bath, and my husband is picking up my daughter and coming home. Everything seems like it will be alright. Heidi is satisfied and I put her in the swing so I can get the boys out of the bath. I wash them and get them out and tell Ethan to go get jammies on. I am getting a pull up on Christian when Ethan comes out and tells me that there is poop on the floor in his room. Oh my gosh, I never even thought to check since it was stuck to his booty earlier, I thought that was all there was. I walk in the room and there on the floor is a huge 8 inch long turd. Wow. I start crying. I go get a walmart sack and some paper towels and wet wipes and clean up the mess all the while crying to Christian, why couldn't you do that on the potty??? Now I am really defeated. Well, Jared gets home with Megan and we all eat dinner, it was good. Then Jared's phone rings. He has another job to go to during the night. Great. I am glad for the work, but I could have used him home a little more after this day. Jared gets the boys in bed while I nurse Heidi and help Megan with her spelling. She also has math so Jared makes up a times test for her and starts timing her doing it. It is 9 pm. I tell him I could really use a blizzard from DQ, it is 2 minutes from the house and I ask him to get me one. He started yelling and saying he has to get some sleep since he has to go during the night and I don't respect his sleep and blah blah blah. I cry again. It will take less than 10 minutes. He quits talking to me and continues timing megan, not getting the sleep he yelled at me about. He is watching his watch. I tell him I could do that. I can help her with her homework. He continues on watching the watch, still not getting his precious sleep. Finally the homework is done and put away and he tucks her into bed and walks out of her room. It is 10:02. Jared says to me, "Now what do you want from Dairy Queen?" I look at him and say, "It closed 2 minutes ago." He went to sleep. I wanted to smack him so bad. I got Heidi to bed and went and poured some chocolate syrup on a banana. I needed a treat after this day from hell.

side note- Jared is usually not like that, he gets me a treat if I really want one and he is such a great helper when he is home. maybe i just needed a banana this day for some reason lol!

2 months old!

2009-01-12T08:31:00.000-08:00

I can't believe Heidi is already 2 months old. She is growing so fast! She weighed 11 lbs 11 oz at her check up. She smiles so much and we love it! I couldn't get her to smile for the camera, she just stares at it in amazement. I took a little video of her, she is so cute.... I think you can hear my other kids in the background talking. lol Heidi loves to lay under these toys and kick her legs like crazy and talk. She is such a JOY!

A great Christmas!

2008-12-27T11:01:00.001-08:00

Heidi didn't get much for Christmas this year, but she did get some earrings! Aren't they adorable?? That is kind of my gift to myself as well. Jared is a little mad at me for this...

Christian and Ethan got incredible hulk hands and masks. Christian was really scared of the masks at first, but he got used to it!

Megan got a cool gymnastics DS game. Her favorite gift this year is the dry erase board and markers.

My mom brought gifts in huge sacks and I stood Christian in one. He is so cute!

Ethan got a batman costume, he loves it! I asked him what his favorite present was and he said EVERYTHING!

Megan got a spa factory, it is pretty cute, she made some lip gloss and perfume.

Heidi liked to watch the kids open presents and look at the lights on the tree. I think next year will be a little more fun for her!

We also had a great Christmas with my Nanny and Papa and we didn't get out the camera! darn it! The kids love what they got, but I think the winner was the remote control car Ethan got. My mom also got Christian a trike for his birthday and he is on that all the time, I don't have pics of that yet. And worst of all... Christmas morning I slept in until 10:00 am (that part was pretty nice) but I missed the kids seeing the Santa stuff and of course no pictures were taken. Next year I will have to be awake. I was grateful for the rest, I must have needed it. And thanks to Heidi for that wonderful gift, the best thing she could have gotten me :)

new glasses

2008-12-22T20:18:00.000-08:00

Megan has been telling me she needs glasses for a couple of months and I didn't believe her. She has WANTED glasses for a long time. Well, the school sent home a paper saying she failed a vision screening at school. I took her to the eye dr today and he said she is a little near-sighted and she could use some glasses. She was so excited. These are the frames she picked out. They are kinda bold and they have a leapord print on the inside. They do really look cute on her. It was hard for her to take them off and leave them at the store. The real glasses won't be in for a couple weeks. She can't wait to get them!