Cousin Camp

Cousin Camp 2008

Every year my mom holds Cousin Camp at her cabin. All the grandkids come if they can and we have great time every year. Parents are optional - how great is this deal?! My sister Allyson came just for the fun. It's one day and one night with tons of activties jammed into it. This year she kicked it off by taking us all to Starlight Mountain Theater to see Cinderella. She made the kids all matching Cousin Camp t-shirts that the kids wore proudly to the theater. The kids loved the show. Then we all headed back to the cabin where we tried to get kids to sleep. My mom has a big bonus room with 4 twin beds and one queen - she lovingly calls it 'the bunkhouse'. So we sent 7 of the kids in (Logan opted out of that craziness!) and told them to go to sleep - are you laughing yet? My theory on the situation was as long as they stay in there I don't care. Eventually they did go to sleep - I think . . .
The next day we started the day off with a bang, or a hiss - breakfast was snake pancakes. Then we made bird feeders, tin foil boats, water gun games, 4 wheel rides, playing in the river (of course a movie or 2 so the adults could catch our breath!) and tons of fun. That night the kids who were still there went to bed a little easier. We had a great time at Cousin Camp - and my kids are asking how long until Cousin Camp next year (hint, hint Mom).

Thanks Emmy!

Today I got pretty fancy in doing Emmy's hair for church - I did a ballet bun (braided hair in a bun) for my first time. Emmy went to primary and I heard her tell her teacher, "My mom did my hair. She did the best she could." She's totally right! Maybe it wasn't as fancy as I thought . . .

Farewell 3:00 Church!

Today my family went to our last day of having church at 3:00 - that's right . . . we've had church at 3:00 all year. It's been rough having church so late - our first day of 3:00 church in January we blessed Logan. The rough time paired up with Mother Nature to dish out some meanness that day. We had company here from Utah and Eastern Idaho who had to go home that day, 3:00 church, and a snow storm. My family had to leave right from sacrament meeting to get on the road - leaving me with one big dinner (that my mom did all the work for!) and not many eaters! Oh you're mean you 3:00 church! This 3:00 church also had us coming out of church in the dark throughout the winter - literally totally dark coming out of church. I remember being in Primary and when the kids were dismissed they were told to go home and go to bed! All we had time for was dinner before bedtime. So what glorious time did we move to?! 1:00 - normally a time I'd also complain about, but now I know it can be worse. So to you 3:00 church I say good riddance!

Twin Falls Temple

Yesterday our family took a road trip to Twin Falls to see the new temple and go through the open house. We also met my two sisters and their families. The kids had a great time meeting their cousins there. It was such a neat opportunity to take our kids through the temple - something they hear a lot about but aren't able to fully understand because they don't get to go there. The tour started with an 11 minute video about temples throughout history and their importance. Then we had a 40 minute tour of the temple. The tour was really good - I loved that everywhere you turned their was someone bearing their testimony of the gospel. This was awesome to be able to show my kids things they've heard about. They loved the baptistry (especially the oxen), the celestial room (because of the giant chandelier) and the sealing room (or the marrying room as Emmy calls it). The kids certainly noticed how beautiful it is inside the temple and what a reverent place the temple is. The Twin Falls temple is beautiful! What a great way to spend the day.

Twin Falls Temple

Dollar Store Delights

Anyone who thinks slavery was abolished in 1865 (and yes, I had to wikipedia that) is wrong. Slavery is alive and well at my house this summer. I have three little slaves who call me Mom, and I'm one mean slave driver. This summer my kids have really worked - making their beds, putting away their laundry, taking out trash, washing cabinets, cleaning windows, and watering flowers - they've really worked this summer. So of course every good slave driver has to have some sort of enticement for their little slaves. My kids have earned different things like treats, snow cones, dates with me or Derek (all three picked Derek . . . maybe that has something to do with him not being the slave driver . . .), rent a movie, and the reason for this post: going to the dollar store.
The up side to the dollar store is to hear your mom say - you can pick anything you want in this entire store. So Tyler picked a plastic mean-looking gorilla. You'll notice no picture of this gorilla because it literally broke into many pieces while we were still in the parking lot - the poor kid hadn't even buckled up yet! That's the down side to the dollar store . . . it's junk.
Well Bay and Emmy picked out something that cracks me up every time I see it their room. Emmy picked the dog - his name is Smelly (I had to ask some follow up questions on his name so I wouldn't be confused - his name is Smelly because he's good at smelling things, not because he stinks). Bay picked the cow - his name is Cow (no follow up questions were needed). So thank you Dollar Store for thrilling 2 out of 3 kids and one mean slave driver.
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Fourth of July pictures

Mutton Bustin'

Over the Fourth of July weekend we went to my brother's ward rodeo. He lives in a little town where EVERYONE has horses, cows, pickups, boots - you get the picture. So every year they have a ward party that's a rodeo. And it's a real rodeo - everyone brings their horses, sheep, bulls, and other rodeo necessities. We might have stood out as outsiders - look at Tyler in shorts and sandals - and the kid next to him. (feel free to sing 'One of these kids is not like the other . . .') Then they hold events - pole bending, barrel racing, steer riding, (I couldn't even name a rodeo event before this), and of course, mutton busting. On the way there Derek and I were asking the kids if they would want to mutton bust - we of course had to explain what that even was! Tyler says he's game, Emmy says no way, and we're all set for our family's first mutton busting.

I'm all excited for Tyler to ride this sheep as he's line with other kids. When he's 20 kids back, I'm all game for this idea. I got to see a lot of other kids go before us and they had cowboys clowns (I'm sure just Preists from their ward!) run alongside with the kids, so when they fall off the clown makes sure they don't get trampled. When he's 20 kids back, I'm all game for this idea . . .but as he inches closer I'm starting to rethink the intelligence of this. Then it's his turn. I told Derek I wanted him to run along with Tyler - trusting Derek more than cowboy clowns who don't love Tyler, but Derek assured me that he in his sandals wouldn't really work out. So Tyler mounts this sheep and is waiting in the chutes (are you proud of my rodeo terminology?). By now I'm starting to have a heart attack - I'm sure this is a bad idea now - but way too late for a mom's intution. And he's off . . .
Tyler held on so good while that sheep went the entire length of the arena. He even stayed on longer than any other kid! I was completely hyperventilating until I saw him get off his sheep and walk back to us in one piece. When he got back to us we asked him a hundred questions about how it went - all he told us was that he wondered if the ground was hard or soft if he fell off. He also told us that while he was walking back with the clown he said to Tyler, "nice work pal". Our first participation in a rodeo was a hit. Consider that mutton busted.

Fourth of July fun

We had the best Fourth of July. We headed to the mountains to my parent's cabin. We got there in the early afternoon and went straight to the river to play. The kids and Derek had a great time playing in the water. When the kids were done playing they headed to the cabin while my parents tended them and Derek and I got to float the river. Then we had a BBQ and headed into the small town for the parade. This parade is the funniest parade there is - the whole route is maybe a mile and anyone can be in it - there's lots of trucks, motorcycles, and a few horses - there aren't however many actual floats. Because it's so short the parade goes up the street, then turns around and comes back! Who's ever heard of that?! What they lack in floats they make up for in water. Everyone in the parade comes armed with water balloons, water guns, even fire hoses. The spectators also come armed and it becomes quite the town water fight. I was holding Logan so I thought it was understood that babies were off limits - apparently not . . . we were getting it from all directions until I got out my big shade umbrella for some protection. My kids kept running to our van - I'm telling ya, it was save yourself. The parade was a riot. After the parade we went back and rode the 4-wheelers, made a campfire and had s'mores, and watched the fireworks from the cabin. Saturday was a repeat with 4-wheeling, hiking, swimming, sleeping in, and eating. What a great way to spend a holiday weekend.

Happy Birthday Tyler!

Tyler turned 7 yesterday and we had such a fun day with him. We went out for breakfast (our family tradition is to go out to breakfast on everyone's birthday). Then we headed to swimming lessons - where he informed his teacher that it was his birthday. She made him be in the middle of the circle where everyone was around him, sang Happy Birthday, and then followed it up by splashing him - it was pretty funny. Derek took him to the water park in the afternoon, we had Poppy Seed Chicken - his fave - for dinner and then we had a big family party. He had a great day.
Because he turned 7 I thought I'd give you all 7 things you might not know about Tyler - here they are:
1. He is an awesome reader. The kid can read like crazy!
2. He has turned into a fish in the water. His first year in swimming lessons (probably when he was 3) he cried 9 out of 10 lessons. Now he is the last one to get out of the pool everyday and does all the big scary rides at the water park.
3. He is the most bribe-able kid there is - he'll do anything for a treat. If there is something unpleasant that has to be done and you have a bag of M&M's - he's your guy.
4. His favorite holiday is Halloween (there might be some relation between numbers 3 and 4).
5. He has a continous Star Wars battle going on in his head at all times. Out of the complete blue you can say, "So who's Darth Vadar fighting?" and he'll have a very thorough answer for you.
6. He analyzes everyhing. There isn't such a thing as just telling him something and having him take it at face value. Case in point: last weekend my sister took her family to a Burn football game and invited Tyler to go with them. At the game he asked Jen what team the Burn were playing. She told them they were playing the Fever (hot match up or what?). Tyler then asked her if sick people cheer for the Fever.
7. His favorite cereal is Reeses Puffs.

Smokin' Party

We had Tyler's birthday party last night and it really turned into a smokin' party - quite literally. He picked a pirate birthday cake so I spent most of the afternoon creating a ship suitable for the most pillaging pirates.
The first thing you need to notice is the adorable paper sails in this ship. The second thing you need to notice is how the candles go in the side of the ship to give the illusion of cannons. Very adorable idea . . . and the website where I got this idea did give me the warning that I shouldn't have anything flammable under the candles because of the melting wax - they didn't however warn me about the flame going up and having paper sails on top of my cake and the chaos that could ensue.

Now notice where Tyler is sitting - front and center for his cake. We lit the candles and started into a rousing rendition of "Happy Birthday" - we were halfway through when my mom started yelling "fire! fire!". None of us had noticed that the candles had lit the sails on fire and the pirate ship going up in flames! I start yelling, "Derek! Derek!" and Derek and Toby start blowing the fire out.

Now look at my pirate ship - you can still the smoke coming from it! It looked like it came under enemy fire - and lost! Also, notice that Tyler is nowhere to be seen -as soon as the fire started he high-tailed it into a completely different room! It really turned out to be quite hilarious. We ended our party with fireworks so it was hot all the way around!

Thumb Sucker, Thumb Sucker

I've never had a thumb sucker before. My other three kids have all been huge passey babies - they love it, I love it - then the day after their first birthday I go on a big passey round-up and throw them all away (I do it the day after their birthday because I want them to be happy on their birthday).
Then along comes Logan . . . he's certainly always liked his passeys but lately he's been trying out his thumb. At first it was cute . . . he'd suck his whole fist, or just some random fingers, and then he got good at just sucking his thumb. Then I saw him actually take out his passey and stick in his thumb - now we're scared. I have no problem with passeys because I'm ultimately in control of them - when I say they go, they go. Not so with the ol' thumb - can't throw it away, can't cut it off, that baby's got control of that thing. So whenever I see him sucking his thumb I plug him in with his passey - hopefully that works. Time will tell.

Family Campout

And the "Father of the Year" Award goes to . . .

drumroll please . . . Derek! I'm late getting this post out but Derek deserves his kudos. A few weeks ago was my family's annual campout. It started several years ago where my dad, brother, 2 brothers-in-law, and Derek took the oldest grandkids camping for one night. At the time we had more boys and it became our own version of the Fathers & Sons. Since then, the girls have caught up and now it's just turned out be a family campout. Derek took Emmy for the first time last year and this year he was undecided about Bay. I mean, who would want to take a 2 year old camping by themselves? She has to go to the bathroom every 20 minutes! The day of he decided to take her. She was so excited as she packed her own little backpack.
The weather that night was chilly so Derek packed a ton of blankets and off they went - as the weather got colder I got more nervous about this decision - but Derek was undeterred. So off they went - Derek, Tyler, Emmy, and Bay.
That just left me and Logan - now you know how great this was! My sister had come from Utah for the campout and so it was just me, Logan, Allyson, her baby, and my mom (my other sister and sister-in-law were on the campout). So we went out to dinner and hit several stores Friday night. Saturday morning we were out shopping again. The campers didn't come home until 4:00! Twenty four hours of eating out, shopping, and sleeping - hard to beat eh? My friend called and I told her where my family was and all she could say is, "wow, it's not even Mother's Day".
The campers also had a great time. They got up there for dinner (Bay ate 2 hot dogs!), had s'mores and set up camp. The next morning they hiked, rode the 4-wheeler, had lunch, and had a great time. They came home covered in dirt and exhausted - and all smiles.

Summer's Here!

Tyler has started basesball this summer again. He's an Astro this year - #3. There are 8 boys from our ward on his team (out of 10 players) so it's been a blast so far. It's coach pitch/t-ball (they get 5 coach pitches and if they don't hit any of those than they get to use the tee) this year. So we're starting to look like actual baseball - kids are hitting, kids are fielding. It's been really fun and Tyler's doing great.


















This is Logan's first swing - he was all smiles too! He can be outside forever - we can put him in a swing or bring out his bouncer and he can be there all day (comes in handy when we're outside doing yard work!).

Last Day of School

It's official now - Tyler's done with first grade and summer is here (despite the cold and wet weather!). Yesterday was his last day. At his school every year they have a family picnic on the last day. So I loaded up all the kids and we headed to school with our lunches. The atmosphere at the school was so fun - all the kids bouncing off the walls and saying their goodbyes - it was hilarious. We got to say goodbye to all his friends and his teacher. Are you ready to hear how great his teacher is? Here it is - she gave us 2 folders full of worksheets - he has to do one page from each folder every week day throughout the summer. I love it so much! I was going to make my own math worksheets for him but hers are already done, plus their are different pages - telling time, tens/ones, etc. so hers are a thousand times better. She also gave me a mug with Tyler's individual picture and his class picture on it for volunteering. But my favorite thing was this magic hammer she brought in. She tapped everyone on the head and if it beeped then you got to go to second grade. So I say to Tyler, 'did it beep for you?', he says 'yeah, but guess what! She did it to herself and it didn't beep - she has to stay in first grade!'. I think that is the cutest thing ever!
We ended up bringing our lunches home because it was so cold we didn't want to eat outside - lots easier for me. Tyler was on cloud nine to be done with school.

Camp Learn-a-Lot

Tyler's school has done the cutest thing the last week of school. All of the first graders have gone to camp - Camp Learn-a-Lot. They shuffled all of the first graders into new 'cabins' with a teacher as the camp counselor for each cabin. Each cabin got a matching tie-dyed shirt that the kids wore every day (don't think about the cleanliness of this decision). They also got wooden badges they wore every day along with bandannas. The kids got to pick a mascot (Tyler's cabin was the Wolverines). They were encouraged to wear camp clothes - hats, boots, etc. - the whole nine yards. They went to 'camp' every day for a week. I think this is such a great idea for the last week of school where the kids have got be restless in class. They did the cutest things every day - every morning started with the principal leading them in a flag raising ceremony and exercises. They had camp songs and stories before they broke into their own cabins. One day they wrote postcards home telling us what a great time they were having at camp. I'll admit, I loved getting it in the mail! Then I sent a care package to camp for Tyler full of goodies. One day all the campers rotated through stations. I was there helping in the Flubber station (and all the kids told me it was the coolest station too). It was so fun to see all the kids wear their shirts and badges. They ended the week with a BBQ for all the campers. Tyler had a great time going to camp.
I've said it before but here it is again - I love Tyler's school. I think they go above and beyond so much. Tyler's teacher this year had been so great. I've gone in on Mondays and have just loved being in her classroom. Her patience is endless - I've seen her tell the same boy to sit down 100 times and still be nice to him (I would have throttled him long before!). She brought in 20 eggs and an incubator and let the kids watch the eggs for 21 days until they hatched. Then she had a 'chick night' where families could come and see the chicks. She also brought in 20 cocoons that the kids got to see the butterflies come out of. One day when I went in to help she had a bag full of owl pellets (if you don't know what this is consider yourself lucky) and she had me dissect them for groups of kids and find mouse bones, and other delicacies. Not my favorite way to spend a Monday morning, but awesome for the kids. She has taught Tyler a ton of sign language which he loves - for a while there Tyler gave up talking and only signed (only problem, no one else signs in our house). She has been so awesome - I've just loved her. We were talking about her retiring and I told her I need her to stay until Logan has her - then feel free to retire! I'd love all of my kids to have her. We've had a great year in first grade.

First Food

Well Logan's a real boy now - eating rice cereal for his first time. The kids were so excited for him to eat food - he was practically smothered. He was excited too, it was like he could tell he was the source of excitement. I'm pretty sure after his first bite I heard him say, 'bring it on' - he loved it. The first time we fed Emmy rice cereal she burst out bawling - it was like we'd fed her lava or something, so this was much more pleasant for all of us! It won't be long until rice cereal isn't cutting it anymore!

Last days of Preschool

A Preschool Grad Lives Here!

It's official - Emmy graduated from preschool. She's had a great year going to school and has really enjoyed it. She's gone to a gal in my ward and neighborhood - what could be better than preschool in the neighborhood (I'll tell you what can be better - the fact that I carpooled! How awesome is that?!). She's had lots of friends in her primary class in preschool so that's been fun. She's done great and had lots of fun field trip - Albertsons, a pizza restaurant, fire station, and the nature center (that's where some of these pictures were taken).
Her graduation was really cute. They sang lots of songs and showed us how they do the pledge, calendar, weather, etc. Derek is out of town this week so he missed it. She told me that she'd sing loud enough for him to hear it - did anyone in Texas hear some cute songs? The best part was when each of the kids showed a life size cut-out of themselves showing us what they'll be when they grow up - ol' Emmy is going to be a dog seller (does that mean she's got a life of the Humane Society ahead of her?). The whole graduation was really great and everyone thinks she's ready for kindergarten (no one's asked me though!).

Dance Recital Pictures

Dance Recital

We had Emmy's dance recital this last Saturday. For those who need a recap let's just pause to remember her last dance recital . . . it was last Christmas and the dance recital was at her regular dance place. They'd just added a bunch of chairs but it was ultimately the same. Emmy was all smiles when she started, then it turned quickly into 'deer in the headlights' then it dove directly to crash and burn status - tears streaming, Emmy fleeing. It wasn't pretty (hilarious . . . yes, pretty . . . no). She sat through the rest of the recital on my lap and I was happy I didn't see any long term damage. So with this dance recital we had very low expectations - I figured it couldn't be worse - only room for improvement.
But this dance recital was held at our church. The girls were on the stage and the gym was full of chairs (there were 4 classes all having their recital together). This was a lot more intimidating so I even had lower expectations. When her class was up for their first dance I'm sure both Emmy and I were holding our breath. But she did awesome! Ok, at times her nervousness turned into giggles and all she could do was cover her face and laugh - but she wasn't crying! Her first dance was ballet and then her second dance was tap (to the song Locomotion which I have been singing all week!). She did great - and scored herself a rose and a Krispy Kreme.

Race Day

Becca, Stacia, Kim, Becca, Lisa, me

A few months ago a few friends and I decided to do a 10K race (6.2 miles). We started training and ran quite religiously to get ready for it. We followed Hal Higdon's training program and for a 10K he has your first run be a 2.5 miler. I couldn't believe I had to start at 2.5 miles! I hadn't run since early last summer. Nonetheless, I spent the last 8 weeks training for this race. Saturday morning 6 of us went down to the race together. The race started at 8:30 so I started picking people up at 7:00. We parked, shuttled to the start line, and promptly got in the line for the bathrooms. We almost missed the starting gun because we all were in the bathroom! The race started and was a great morning for a run. It went by the river so we had shade and some cool air from the water. At the finish line I was totally surprised to see my parents standing there! I didn't know they were coming so it was totally surprising to have someone cheering for me at the end.
My goal for the race had been to run in it an hour - I finished at 1 hour and 8 seconds - ah . . . so close!
Afterwards we went to breakfast. I told everyone that breakfast was the real reason I ran it. We had wanted to go to a place downtown I've heard is really good. So we went in and there was a 90 minute wait for a table - FOR BREAKFAST! Have you ever heard of such a thing?! That is insanity! So we settled for a different place and had a huge breakfast (we deserved it right?). We all had lots of fun running and eating.

Back to Normal

Monday morning found us back to normal much quicker than I wanted. Dentist appointment, laundry, cleaning - back to normal I tell ya. As I was getting Tyler ready for school he said, "I wish we were at Disneyland." Me too Tyler! Then that morning my sister-in-law Rainie called and asked if we were so sad it was over - YES! Then later that week I talked to my sister-in-law Megan who asked if we were ready to go back next week - YES! I guess that's a sign of a good vacation.
We had such a great time thanks to all the help we got with our kids - taking 4 kids under 6 to Disneyland isn't for everyone - make sure you go with tons of family to help. So here's my shout-out to Megan, Angey, and Rainie - thank you so much for all your help (your husbands and kids too!). Derek and I really could have had our hands full without your help. We definitely wouldn't have had as much fun. We had a great trip - I'm ready to start planning the next one!

Days 4 & 5

Ok I promise this is vacation blog is coming to an end - but we have to blog about our last 2 days! Saturday morning we slept in - yeah!! We had a leisurely breakfast - it was pretty great. Then we picked up our rental cars and headed to Huntington beach. It wasn't really warm but most of the kids ventured in (the moms didn't go in, and the dads couldn't get out!). The kids loved playing in the water and sand - no lines, no crowds, no nagging - we all loved the break! The ocean was really fun.
Then we headed to Riverside to see the mission stomping grounds of John and Sandy. We got to see their mission office and spend some time at their apartment. Sandy gave all the kids 4 dollars and we headed to the dollar store to spend their money. The kids loved it - and we got some great toys that helped on the flight home.
The next day we got to go to church with them. It was so fun to see them with their missionary tags! After church we went to their mission president's house and met he and his wife. They sure love John and Sandy.
Derek and I headed to LAX to fly out. The kids did great on both flights there and the way back (though Bay got a little too comfortable and began running around the plane like she owned the place - and those seat belts don't do anything as far as containing her when she can unbuckle so easily!). Derek did have to bounce Logan at the back of the plane for a while - and then once he got Logan asleep has was worried that sitting down would wake him up so he stood up a lot that flight!
The kids did awesome traveling - Tyler and Emmy both had their rolling backpacks and carried their own stuff. Derek and I needed all the help we could get - we took 4 suitcases, 4 backpacks, 3 car seats, and 2 strollers - thank heavens for sky capping!

Day 3 - Disneyland

Day 3- Disneyland

The kids didn't wake up quite as early or quite as eager this morning - but we were still ready for more. We had breakfast at the hotel and then back to the park. We were there by 8:30 and the park opened at 9:00. We hit a few more big rides - when we did Space Mountain we had 4 kids and 3 adults so we put Tyler and his 7 year old cousin together - and they did awesome! I rode with Emily and covered her ears the whole time because Emmy was more scared of the speakers blaring the loud scary music than she was of the huge roller coaster in the dark! The kids did great and she we headed to Autopia (the cars where you drive). This was Bay's favorite ride of the three days - was she big stuff!
After those we went to the Jedi Training Academy. This is out on an open stage where they have Mace Windu come out and tell the kids that he's going to pick kids to teach how to fight should they encounter the Dark Side. He picks about 30 kids from the audience. We were on the front row and Derek had Tyler on his shoulders (Derek was a man on a mission here). Tyler and his cousin Zack both got picked. They put these brown jedi robes on the kids and teach them a sequence for fighting the Dark Side. They first activate their light sabers and then they hit left leg, right leg, left arm, right arm, head and then the kids duck - and then back to more fighting. They practice this lots of times with the help of Mace Windu and other jedis. Then out run these storm troopers - and they look as real as it gets. Then the stage starts to rise and there is standing a 7 foot Darth Vader! He talks to the kids and tells them that he's got more help coming. Then out comes Darth Maul - red and black face and spikes all over his head. The kids then each get their own turn to fight one of them. Tyler got to fight Darth Vader - who said, "oh, the force is strong with this one". It was really fun to see such a production and have Tyler get picked. At the end he got a certificate telling us he's now a Jedi with the force.
Friday we let the kids pick out a souvenir. We'd told them just to look around the first 2 days and then we'd shop on Friday. Emmy knew just what she wanted - Minnie Mouse ears. I didn't even know what she was talking about until we went into the Mad Hatter store and she beelined for the Minnie Mouse ears. I got them for her with 'Emmy' stitched on the back. I was beaming while I was checking out - the ultimate Disney purchase. She wore those ears and was as cute as could be. Sadly, after 5 hours of wearing them we realized they were missing. We looked around for them but no ears could be found. I was a lot sadder than she was. For Tyler's souvenir he needed lots of time to shop. He looked all around and finally decided on a stuffed pirate Mickey. He'd just finished riding Pirates of the Carribbean and was all stoked about pirates. For Bay's souvenir we got her the cutest baby Minnie - she has a pink blanket that wraps around her - it's adorable.
We spent the afternoon in Toon Town with all of Derek's family. Then we watchted the Disney parade - the floats are just amazing.
That night was Fantasmic. I didn't know if my kids would be going strong for the late show but I ended up having 3 kids asleep in strollers during the whole thing. It was an amazing show. The grand finale was when the big white steamboat came out and there was every Disney character you can imagine was on it - Buzz, Woody, Pluto, Mad Hatter, all the Princess, and even chimney sweeps from Mary Poppins. It was the best!
At the end of the show Derek and I had to get the sleeping kids back to the hotel. Tyler, however, was still going strong. So we left him at the park with Megan and family while Derek helped me get kids back to the hotel. Megan told me that they did Big Thunder Mountian Railroad and Tyler was the only 6 year old doing it at 11:00 (with arms up the whole time!). Derek met back up with them and did a few more rides until the park closed at midnight. Then they all dragged themselves back to the hotel. It was a great last day of Disneyland.

Day 2 - Disneyland

Day 2 - Disneyland

Thursday we had early entry tickets so we could get into the park and hour earlier than regular tickets (that sounds neater than it is because everyone gets early entry tickets!). We were at the park at 8:30 to hit the 9:00 opening. Derek and I had the four kids in (and on) strollers so we could hurry to the new Nemo ride. We saw Rakelle, Steve, and kids early that morning too - it was so fun to see our friends at Disneyland.

We spent a lot of the morning doing the rides in Fantasy land and then headed to Splash Mountain. Both Tyler and Emily did it - they say they loved it, I don't quite believe them.

That afternoon we went to Adventureland and did the classic Jungle Cruise. Another highlight of the trip was when Derek and my brother-in-law, Lance, took all 7 kids so my sister-in-law, Megan and I could do Indiana Jones with no kids. That was awesome - awesome ride, awesome break, awesome husbands. When we went to meet back up with Derek and Lance they weren't there so we ran as fast as we could to Pirates of the Carribbean (don't tell Derek!). Lance and Derek took all the kids over to Tom Sawyer Island to do the Pirate's Lair - everyone had a great time (well maybe not Derek and Lance).

That evening we went to the Disneyland Hotel and ate dinner at Goofy's kitchen. This was one of my favorite things of the trip. They had a great buffet (the kid food was exhaustive - mac and cheese, pizza, nuggets, rolls, even worms in dirt for dessert). Then you get great character encounters. They just go from table to table doing autographs and pictures. The characters we had were Goofy (it was his kitchen after all), Pluto, Chip, Minnie, Jasmine, and Sleeping Beauty. I loved it - they came to our table and the kids just ate it up! My kids loved the characters way more than I expected so it was even more fun for them than I'd planned on.

We ended the night with Matterhorn and again stayed until the park closed. That night I had gotten the girls in pajamas, brushed their teeth, turned around and they'd both crawled into bed and fallen asleep! Icing on the cake . . .

Day 1 - California Adventure

Day 1 - California Adventure

Our first morning there we went to Californa Adventure. We thought it was fun even to be standing in line to get into the park. The weather all three days we were there was a bit overcast, we wore jackets off and on, but I think that helped keep the crowds down so it was great with us. Early on Wednesday we saw our friends Angela and Rod and their kids - it was so fun to see them there. We ran into them throughout the day. At that park we hit some of the big rides - Soarin', Monsters Inc., Tower of Terror (Emmy even did that one - though only once!), Grizzly River Run (just Derek and Tyler - they got absolutely soaked), and all of A Bug's Land. We watched the Aladdin show, Disney Playhouse, and the Pixar Parade. I absolutely loved the parade. It had all of the fun Pixar movies in it - Cars, Incredibles, Ratatouille, Toy Story, and Nemo. During the Nemo part bubbles started coming out of the street lamps. That is what is so incridble to me - there is so much over the top detail. The Nemo part was at the end of the parade and then I went with my sister-in-law, Angey, and her family to another part of the park. We ultimately just followed the parade through the park - with bubbles all the way. I just walked through the park with bubbles everywhere thinking how amazing Disneyland is.

California Adventure closed at 6:00 that night so we headed over to Disneyland which was open until 8:00. Right as we walked in the gates there were Mickey and Minnie to greet us. We got in line to meet them and Bay was a bit hesitant to stand by them for a picture. Mickey came over and with his giant mouse head gave her this kiss on the top of her head - maybe my most favorite Disneyland moment. It was adorable!

We walked right on to Star Tours and Buzz Lightyear that night and then walked back to our hotel. The kids went to bed thrilled to be doing it all again the next day.

Mickey Mouse Magic

It's true what they say about the magic of Disneyland - no one does it better than Disney. We had the best vacation - it really was the happiest place on Earth. Even with tired, hungry, crying kids - it was still completely magical. I loved every minute and soaked it all up - even though we're home now, I'm still gushing about how great it was.


We started talking about going to Disneyland when Derek's parents got their mission call to Riverside. It's about 40 miles from Anaheim so immediately the idea of visiting them included a trip to Disneyland. In January, we blessed Logan the day before his parents entered the MTC so with lots of Derek's family here, plans started flying. Soon we had 4 out of Derek's 5 siblings (including us) all ready to go. Over the last few months we've had a million phone calls and emails planning this trip - and then it finally came!
We all stayed at the same hotel which was really fun - we would have had more fun if we weren't completly exhausted every night! Derek's parents got special permission (Anaheim is out of their mission boundaries) to come with us to the park for a day and a half. The kids loved being with their cousins so much - I always had at least one kid off with another family - which was a huge help! We had 5 families, 12 kids (all under the age of 9!), 5 strollers, 2 missionaries, who knows how many diapers, granola bars, and fruit snacks and 3 great days at Disneyland. We had a blast.

Another Call from the School

I've said it before, and I'll say it again - I hate getting calls from the school. I just cringe when I see them on Caller ID. So this morning when I see it's them at 9:30 I'm gritting my teeth as I answer. As soon as I answer I'm relieved to hear it's Tyler's teacher, not the school nurse again. So his teacher says to me, "Tyler told me that for lunch today he thinks you heard him say he wanted hot lunch but he really wants cold." Are you kidding me?! He thinks I might have heard him say that?! Probably because this morning when I said, "Tyler, chicken sandwich, lasagna, or cold lunch?" He said, "chicken sandwich". I'm pretty sure that's where I got it. So basically he changed his mind once he got to school, had his teacher call me, and then got me to take in a cold lunch for him! Another reason to hate calls from the school . . .

Happy Anniversary!

Today is our anniversary - 9 years for Derek and I. I've always loved that our anniversary is on May 1st. I love that it is just the height of spring. The temple was beautiful the day we got married with tulips everywhere. We've accomplished a lot over our 9 years together - we've each gotten bachelor's degrees, Derek's gotten a Masters, bought our first house, changed jobs, done several triathalons (ok . . . just Derek) and filled a minivan with kids!

It's great to pause and think about how great I've got it with Derek. He's the most patient, caring and fun dad and husband I could ask for. He never complains about nights with no dinner, drawers empty of clean clothes, or 'since you're out, could you just stop at Walmart for me?'. Also, he's the world's best omlette maker. Just this week while I've been thinking about our anniversary something happened that sums up life with Derek. Monday night I went running with 2 friends - it was hot and we were running 5 miles. We were out running some mile-long streets out of our neighborhood. We'd run more than 3 miles when I see a van that looks like ours parked to the side of the road. As we got closer out pile our 3 kids and Derek - with each kid holding a glass of water for us and cheering us on. That's so Derek - being a great and supportive husband while also being a fun dad - the kids loved waiting for us and discussing who was going to give who their water! That is life with Derek - I couldn't be luckier.

Look what 9 years will get ya!

New Friends

I know I seem to be on Tyler kick with my blogging but the kid is cracking me up lately. Today he comes home from school and tells me that at school today he played with a new friend named Alex. He tells me he met him yesterday and they played together and then the played together again today. I say, "how did you meet Alex?". He says, "Yesterday we just bumped into each other and started playing together." I think that's hilarious - isn't that what first grade should be? Can you imagine having this great friend and when someone asks how you met saying, "oh we bumped into each other at Walmart". I tell ya, he's cracking me up lately.

My Sweet little Blackmailer

I have only found one thing in the world that bugs Derek - spilled water. This is especially unfortunate for us because with little kids spilled water is about as common at our house as breathing. For some reason this is Derek's pet peeve (Derek's the only person who only has one pet peeve!) - it really pushes Derek's buttons. So this afternoon Tyler is doing homework at the table and I'm setting the table for dinner around him. I grab a cup of water and drop it on the floor. Tyler says, "did you just spill that water?" I say, "yeah, don't tell dad". He answers immediately with, "if you put my put my homework in my backpack for me I won't tell dad." Can you believe it? What a sneaky little guy! I just look at him and say, "I'm not putting your homework away - so go ahead and tell him." It really disappointed him that it backfired so quickly. Should I be worried?

Adalpe Conquered!

Derek ran the Race to Robie Creek yesterday. It's a 13.1 mile race up Robie Creek Road to Adalpe Summit and down to Robie Creek. They start at Fort Boise and then it's 8.4 miles to the summit - with a 2000 foot gain in elevation. Then the rest is downhill - steep downhill, not fun downhill.

He ran with his brother-in-law, Tate, who has done it before also. This is the first year they've run together, and they seemed to have a much better time running together.

Every year they have a theme that the whole run is based around. This year it was a Scottish theme - complete with lots of bagpipers throughout the course (even at the summit), and lots of runners in kilts.

Derek did awesome in the race - and totally deserved it. He's trained really hard since January, including running up the actual mountain every Saturday. It's a killer of a race - and he did 'totally kilt it'!

Tyler's trip to the E.R.

In the middle of the night on Thursday Tyler woke up crying and saying his heart hurt. Your heart hurts? Can that be right? He was dying in pain and Derek and I just didn't know what to do. We gave him some Ibuprofen, calmed him down, and then he went back to sleep. Friday morning he wakes up and everything is fine - off he goes to school. Derek and I talked that morning about what it could have been. We talked ourselves into the idea that maybe he's slept weird and pinched a nerve or something. We could talk ourselves into thinking this was a one-time freak thing.

Then that afternoon I hear the bus come home, I wait the 30 seconds it takes Tyler to walk the one house down from the bus stop. I wait for him to come in the door and instead of hearing him walk in, I hear knocking on the front door. There's Tyler, bawling, and Michelle (my neighbor), and her 2 kids. She said that Tyler got off the bus crying and saying his heart hurts. She was so worried about him that she walked him home. I get Tyler inside and ask him a million questions. It hurts just the same as the night before.

I call our doctor to ask what we should do (a.k.a.: we're coming in so get ready). I talk to the nurse and she says she really recommends that we go to the ER so they can do any monitoring that might need to be done. So I call Derek who'd gone into the office that afternoon and give him his choice: Tyler at ER or kids at home. He picks Tyler. To save time I loaded up the kids and met Derek at the hospital. By the time we get there Tyler is acting totally fine - I mean, completely fine. Isn't that always how it is? If you have a sick kids, just drive them to the doctor - they'll be fine by the time you get there.

So Derek and I are looking at him in the parking lot, and I'm starting to rethink this visit. Derek says no, we've had health professionals tell us to take him the ER! So in Tyler and Derek go. This leave me at home with three kids (read that as: out of the loop!) I tell Derek to call me every 30 minutes to give me the update. Derek did better than that - I started getting texts on the way home and Derek kept them coming.

The texts looked like this: "We're in" "Tyler in hospital gown" "waiting" "chest x-ray ordered" "waiting" "x-rays done" "waiting" "results back" - on and on they go. Derek did a great job of keeping me in the loop. Through texts I found out that at first they did a chest x-ray and that came back showing something - to find out what, would take a CAT scan. So Tyler had a CAT scan and then they could see what was there. Turns out he has pneumonia.

They gave him an antibiotic prescription for 5 days and sent him on his way. He hasn't complained once since he's been home about any pain. In fact, he's been acting like his completely maniac self. He played and played outside on Saturday, has slept fine, and is completely fine (which makes the fact that I stayed home with him on Saturday night while I wanted to be at my sister-in-law's house so badly for a great get-together much worse! I just thought we needed one more day on the antibiotic to make sure we weren't spreading this.).

I was convincing my mom that pneumonia couldn't really look like this and she told me it's probably 'walking pneumonia' - I informed her that this isn't 'walking' this is 'run around and be completely normal pneumonia'. So in short, may all of you who have to have pneumonia have 'run around and be completely normal pneumonia'.

The hospital gave Tyler a popsicle for his bravery!

Sick Day

This morning I'm enjoying myself at the 88-cent sale at Penney's (as much as you can when you have a double stroller that won't fit in between anything and you ram the tables around you so much you think your kids might have whiplash!) when I get a call from Tyler's school. I hate when I see his school on Caller ID - they're never calling to just tell you how pleasant your kid is. So I answer it and they tell me that Tyler think's he might throw up - I've found this announcement gets their attention (espcially coming from Tyler because he's kept his word before!). So I call Derek and tell him to go pick him up and I'll meet them at home.
At lunch time I ask him if he'd like anything to eat or if he's not hungry - he says he'll try something little like a graham cracker - graham cracker it is. After he eats that he tells me he still wants something to eat but this time he'll have 3 vanilla wafers because that last graham cracker was too big - I'm sure that makes some sense to a 6 year old. After his 3 wafers he's still looking for something to eat - he asks if he can have a roll - do I look like a bakery? I mean, I'm sure there are people out there who made rolls during the 30 minutes he was actually at school, but I'm not one of those people (and those people make me suspicious anyways). So the poor kid had to settle with a toast.
He's run around like a maniac the rest of the day so his sick day was spent just like a sick day should.

Let the Countdown Begin!

I'm so excited for our trip to Disneyland! For our FHE activity we made our paper chain until we leave for California - we're so close we can have a paper chain! I'm way more excited than the kids, sad to say, but nontheless true. I'm always asking them what characters they want to see, what rides they want to do - they're beginning to turn a deaf ear to my endless excitement. I've been reading my Disneyland book and going to a million 'how-to-do-Disneyland' websites with a ton of people overwhelming me with information. I'm completely on Mickey overload. But I just can't wait. This will be the first time we've taken the kids to Disneyland and Bay and Logan's first plane ride.
We're going with 3 of Derek's siblings and their families. It's going to be so fun to go together - we're staying in the same hotel (can you say 'circus'?), and doing the park for 3 days and then we're going to spend the weekend in Riverside with Derek's parents who are there on a mission (they got special permission to join us at the park one day). The kids will love being with their cousins and grandparents.
One night we're doing a character dinner at Goofy's kitchen - that should be really fun and then I'm hoping that the kids have enough energy to do Fantasmic and the fireworks one night. We're going to do Califonia Adventure one day and Disneyland 2 days - that should be enough to completly wear us out. The weekend in Riverside will be the relaxing part of the vacation. We'll mostly be hanging out at their apartment complex and enjoying the pool and warm weather.
Two families from our ward are going to be at Disneyland the same week as us so I'm hoping we run into them too.
I can't wait to go - maybe it's just the change from the day-to-day here, but I'm thrilled to be going - bring on the mouse ears!

Track Day

There are lots of things that I love about Tyler's school - they really seem to go above and beyond on a lot of things. They have lots of things at night for families and lots of dress-up days at school One of things that I really like though they do on Wednesdays during lunch recess. Every Wednesday the PE teacher has begun a track day. All the kids who want to can walk or run this track that goes around the playground. Four or five times around the track equals a mile. So the PE teacher stands out there and puts a dot on the kids' hands every time they go around. Then at the end of recess she records how many laps each kid has done. Every time a kid hits a 5-mile mark they get a little foot token that they string on a necklace so they know how many miles they've gone throughout the year - she calls it the 5-mile club, 10-mile club etc. and the kids gets recognized for different achievements. Tyler really likes it and every Wednesday he comes home with a hand marked up with dots. This topic was made blog-worthy yesterday when Tyler had his personal best and he came home so excited. I think it's such a fun way to get the kids active and also gives them a sense of accomplishment and also belonging to something. I love teachers who go the extra mile (pardon the pun!).

Round and Round

You know how every CD player comes with the feature of Repeat? Well I've often wondered who ever would use this? I mean, who wants to listen to the same song over and over? Well, I realized today that the person who invented it and then got it to be a standard feature was a parent of a 2 year old. Today Bay and I were driving around and I had 4 kids CD's in the car and Wheels on the Bus comes on. I know it's a fave of Bay's so she's happy and then as soon as She'll Be Coming 'Round the Mountain comes on she says, "Round and Round" (2 year old talk for, "Can we listen to Wheels on the Bus again please?"). So sure, again with Wheels, back to the lady still coming around the mountain, and more "Round and Round", so we go through this probably 6-7 times and finally I think of the Repeat button! So we drove all around listening to Wheels non-stop and everyone was happy. Yes, necessity must be the mother of all invention.

FHE Funny

Here's my funny FHE story for the night .- Derek is out of town so FHE was pretty casual at our house. Tyler was the activity and he decided that we were going to play Superheros. What, you might ask, does that consist of? Well, everyone gets to pick a super power and then we run through the house using our powers to escape all of the aliens that are trying to destroy our planet (I told you it was casual tonight!). So we all pick our powers - I pick invisibility, Tyler picks about a million powers, Emmy picks to be able to make poisonious treats, and Bay just picks to make cookies (she must have a soft spot for aliens). So off we go through the house defending our planet and Emmy says that she's just hit an alien - I say, "why don't you give them one of your poisonions treats?" and she says in the sweetest voice to an alien, "Would you like a cookie?".
On a completley different topic, I hope I'm not jinxing anything but I think it's safe to say that spring has sprung. With our crazy winter this year I've really been looking forward to spring for 2 months! But I think it's here - my daffodills and tulips are several inches tall and I love being able to just see something green outside. Logan made his first trip to the mailbox last week so spring must be here!

Ode to Grandpa

This is my ode to my dad - he's really gone above and beyond lately for me. I signed up to take Carleen Tanner's parenting classes Thursday nights knowing that I would miss several due to Derek being out of town or coaching the YM basketball team (of course they would play on Thursdays!). But I really would have been able to go to one class so far (out of 7) if it hadn't been for him. Derek's just been gone so much lately - the YM haven't seen much of him either. We seem to have a standing date Thursday nights. He reports for duty at 6:30 every Thursday, I run out the door to class, and when I get home I have all sleeping kids - it's pretty fantastic isn't it? I try to not think about how many fights he's had to referee, Wii controllers he's had to taken away, how many drinks he's gotten and all the rest - I just focus on the sleeping kids! The kids are getting pretty used to it to - last week Bay could tell that Derek and I were getting ready to go out without them and she ran to the window saying, "Papa Papa!" And then this week I was calling around to find a babysitter and I said to Tyler, "who should we get to babysit you guys?" - of course he said, "Grandpa, he's the best!". And then just today Bay was talking on her toy phone to Papa for a good 20 minutes! So there it is - my ode to my dad. Hopefully I'm a better mom due to these classes and he's made it possible for me to go. My kids shoule really thank him!

Bumbo Baby

So here's my Bumbo baby - Allyson was telling me about Bumbo seats since way before Logan was born - how great they were for babies and how she was sad Paisley had never had one. So I went on the hunt to find one (pink and purple were abudant, finding blue required more hunting). I wouldn't say Logan loves it by any means - but he's getting better at keeping more upright in it - though sometimes I do find him in more of a slump than he's inteded to be!
Logan's had some other firsts too lately. He's started cooing which is the single cutest thing ever! He just looks at you and talks like he's got something to say! His sleeping is getting better and I'm starting to get some hope that some time I will get some decent sleep. In one week he slept through the night 3 times - we haven't repeated that yet, but the fact it happened once is something isn't it? His sisters sure love him - Emily picks out his outfit almost every day and Bay spend the day pulling off his socks much faster than I can put them back on. He also went to his first movie last weekend. I wouldn't say "27 Dresses" is exactly his kind of show but he did great (he must have liked it better than my parenting class last night where I spent the whole night in the hall!). He also got to go to kindergarten orientation with Emmy this week and got the whole tour of the school - how many 3 month olds can say they've had a tour of a school bus?

Tyler's Valentine Concert

Tyler had his first grade Valentine concert a few weeks ago. It was absolutely adorable! They sang lots of Valentine songs and the kids looked so cute all dressed up. Tyler was all excited for his big night (he even told his teacher that he'd need fast homework that night!). For one song they had dancers go up on this stage and Tyler's partner was so adorable - she just drug him through that dance - when one kid had to spin the other under their arm - Tyler went under HER arm - I guess it was just the shorter of the two goes under - but it was hilarious! She didn't seem to sense his reluctance at all - basically grabbed him by the hand and said, "let's do this!". My mom almost laughed herself silly. Afterwards we took him out to get a treat for such a great first grade concert.

The picture of Logan in the slideshow is just because it was way too cute not to put in!

Emmy's Birthday

For Emmy's birthday Derek and I got a babysitter for the other kids and took her out lunch and then to Build-a-Bear. She had so much fun picking out what animal to get. There were probably 30 choices and she had to change her mind a few dozen times before she picked the monkey. After she picked him she got to put the heart in, stuff him, dry him off and brush him. Then you get to make him official - a birth certificate for Banana. She had a great time and takes Banana with us everywhere.

It's hard to believe that she's already 5 - but it's so fun to see her grow up. She's such a fun girl -always happy and such a peacemaker in our family. She's always easy going and gets along great with everyone. She's such a helper with Logan - she loves to pick out his clothes and is so great to be my little gopher for passeys, burp cloths, and all the rest. She continually cracks us up with her obsessions (right now dogs in a major way!) and her sense of humor. She's got her own personality and quirks - like how she wants to wear shorts and short sleeve shirts every day - to the point that she rolls up her pants and sleeves EVERY DAY - she's done it for so long I don't even notice anymore until she gets a comment. We're so blessed to have little Emmy in our family.

Snow Day

Tyler had his first snow day today. It's actually the first snow day we've had in our distric for many years - I had to explain to him what it even was. At first I had grand plans for our free day - this because I know what my sister does. Jen's kids had their first snow day a few weeks ago. Jen pulled out all the stops to make her kids day a fun one - they sledded, played in the snow and then warmed up by making homemade doughnuts - that's a fun snow day. Then today her kids got out again - what did they do with their fun day - they went out and bought a snowballer - think giant salad tongs that make cup-size snowballs. Then they were going to use their recycling bin (I think this falls under the 'reuse' part of recycling) to form giant blocks to make a fort! Then they were going to come in and watch a movie - get all warm - and then head back out for more fun. This is the vision I had this morning - this is not what happened.

It all took a turn for the worse when Tyler realized that he'd left his gloves and hat at school - I could fix the hat problem but I don't have any extra gloves for him. This pretty much eliminated all outside options. That left us with inside options - these aren't as fun. I started out by saying lets get our work done and then play - so we did a spelling test, math problems, and read. Then the day just got away from us - you know those days where after you put the kids to bed you think, "where did my day go? what do I have to show for it?" Well this picture is what we have to show for our free day - Tyler and Emily colored all day and hung all their dog pictures up on the wall. A giant dog family picture - that's what I have to show for my day. Who knows - there's more snow coming, maybe I'll get another chance.

Blessing Day

Photobucket Album

We blessed our little Logan this past Sunday. Doing it in January with the all of the snow we've gotten lately made me think we might not have a big turn out for the weekend - but we couldn't have been more wrong. We had so much family come it left us amazed. We had lots come in from out of town - John and Sandy, Angey's family, Allyson's family, Robb's family, and even Rainie all the way from Texas came to support us! It really meant a lot to me that people would go to such effort and expense to share our special day with us.

The whole weekend was great. All of Derek's family was here by Saturday morning and we were able to spend most of the day with Derek's family. Saturday night I spent it with my family because Allyson and Paul had come in earlier that day. On Sunday we got to spend the morning with Rainie and Allyson. The blessing itself was great (despite having church at 3:00!). All of my siblings were there and Derek was only missing one sibling - that's pretty amazing. Afterwards Allyson and Angey both got on the road to get home before it got too late and roads got bad. The rest of us went back to our house for dinner. We had such a fun evening and then John and Sandy said their goodbyes as they left for their mission. It was great timing to be able do both the same weekend.

All in all, it was wonderful.

Christmas at the Cabin

Our family had a great Christmas at my parents cabin. Robb and his family were there for Christmas Eve dinner. After dinner we did the whole Santa ritual - cookies for Santa (with a letter that asked him to save one cookie for Mr. Peeps) and the magic reindeer dust so they could find us since we weren't at home. The kids got their traditional pj's (picked out exclusively by Derek) on Christmas Eve and were bouncing off the walls. Tyler was just staring out the window looking for the sleigh. It was so fun to have all the magic of Christmas. The next morning was fun as Santa certainly delievered. Robb and family came back in the afternoon and spent Christmas night there. We had a great time with them. It was fun to spend Chirstmas there because of all the snow. It was also really fun to have Logan with us for Christmas.

Wish Bone Wishes

I cooked my first turkey this week -ok, so it wasn't technically a full turkey - but a 15 pound turkey breast counts in my book! So I pull out the wish bone and let Tyler and Emmy do it. Tyler wished that he could wear shorts and short sleeve shirts every day and Emmy wished for a dog. When I told her that dogs are a lot of work she said that was fine. I asked her who would feed the dog and she answered "you can", to the question who will walk the dog she said, 'I'll hold the leash!' (not a big surprise since every stuffed animal in our house currently has a yarn leash), and then I asked her who would clean up after the dog, "oh, you can" - needless to say I'm not rushing out to buy a dog any time soon! I'm happy to report that Tyler won the wish bone - I prefer short sleeve shirts too!

My new favorite Christmas traditation

We've started a new tradition this year and it is absolutely my favorite. I got the idea from Carleen Tanner and I love it. It's called Mr. Peeps. Mr. Peeps is an elf that comes to your house the night of Thanksgiving with a poem. The poem explains that he is there to watch your house so he can tell Santa who's been good or bad. Every night he moves to a different hiding place and watches you throughout the day. If anyone touches him his magic leaves and he won't move any more. On Christmas Eve morning the kids find him in the Christmas tree waiting for Santa. Then on Christmas morning he's gone - he fills Santa in on the happenings of your house and Santa has takes him back to the North Pole.
I looked everywhere for an elf but didn't end up finding one here. My friend had her sister on the lookout in SLC and she found some elves for us. You really want them to be flexible - even have wire in their arms and legs is best so they can hide in different spots. Derek and I have had the most fun hiding him every night. He's been in the lights, on the ceiling fan, in all of our closets, high and low throughout our house. It's been hilarious to hide him every night. One night Derek was out late playing basketball so I hid him and went to bed. Derek got home and went to hide him. When he saw he gone from his hiding place Derek started searching the house to find him himself!
Our kids have loved it - and told everyone about the elf that lives at our house. Evey morning it's the first thing they do - find Mr. Peeps. Even Bay is way into it. She's found him herself first a few times too. She makes visitors to our house come and see him wherever he's hiding. The kids have even found a a few friends who have elves too. It's been so funny for me to talk to my friends about their elf adventures too - we have a friend who have 2 elves (one's in training), and one friend whose elf fell from their shelf in front of their kids - her husband came to the rescue by putting socks on his hands and putting him back up so the magic wouldn't be gone. It's been so fun - it will definitely be a yearly tradition for us.

I've been tagged

Ok, I'll take my turn of answering these questions:


Five things I Was Doing Ten Years Ago
1. Living in Royal Crest #216 at Ricks College
2. Dating Derek for 2 months - and now we have 4 kids!!
3. Becoming more comfortable skipping class
4. Applying to BYU Provo and Jerusalem
5. Loving the fact the Broulims groceries delievered because I had no car


Five things on my To Do List:
1. Collect all the Dr. Seuss books
2. Go back to Jerusalem with Derek
3. Take kids to Disneyland
4. Gain patience
5. Do Race to Robie Creek - WALK, not run


Five things I would do if I were a millionaire:
1. Buy Derek a truck
2. Buy a house with a guest room
3. Travel
4. Eat out a lot more often
5. Hire an interior decorator


Five things I'd never do again - I'm a 'never say never' kind of person, I think that's just asking for lighting to strike, but here are a couple nevers for me:
1. pump breastmilk
2. dye my hair myself
3. do sweat equity on a house
4. can fruit

Five Favorite Toys:
1. sewing machine
2. laptop
3. new van
4. the free huge rolls of paper you get from the newspaper office
5. rubbermaid under the bed boxes (not so much a toy - but I'm buying them like crazy and my house is looking much better because of it)


Five Things I've Read Recently:
1. Gifted Hands
2. Conference talks
3. Brown Bear, Brown Bear
4. All the Kit Allen books - Bay is OBSESSED!
4. 5 million other kid books

Five People I'm Tagging:
1. Allyson
2. Angela
3. Megan (you'll have to start blogging first!)
4. ok, so I don't really 5 people!

New Look

The new look of my blog is all because we're completely boy crazy at our house with Logan finally here! Boy oh boy!

I Stand Corrected

The other day Tyler and I were walking through the store. He told me that we needed a globe. Instantly I thought that he's right. Oftentimes he asks where things happen or where countries are and we're left to use our Map of the World plastic placemat as our best option. So while I'm thinking he's right I'm also thinking what a little Einstein I have - how many 6 years olds want a globe - so I'm having all these warm fuzzy feelings when he says, "yeah, you know, one where the snow falls". I stand corrected . . .maybe our placemat is good enough for our family's needs.

The Stork Delivered!

Our baby Logan is here! Everything went smoothly and he's absolutely perfect. Everyone loves telling their delivery stories and I'm no different - so here it is: I was really picky about what day he'd be born - I had a whole 'black out' week where I didn't want him to be born from Nov. 22-28. If your birthday is one of those days every seven years your birthday is on Thanksgiving. I really didn't want my baby to have to share with a holiday - just have their day be their big day. So on Thanksgiving Day we entered into the black out week. I made it through Thanksgiving but was certainly not feeling good - and feeling bad enough I didn't want to make it through a whole week. Well a week we did not make. Friday the 23rd at about 1:00 a.m. I woke up with contractions. I tried to get them to stop by walking around but couldn't get them to stop. At 3:00 I woke up Derek and told him we had to go in. We called my mom to come and stay with the kids and in we went. We got there and got all checked out - I was 90% effaced and only dialated to 1 1/2 - when I died that I was only 1 1/2 cm the nurse said 'well, I could call it a 2 if it makes you feel better' - not really now that I know I'm really only a 1 1/2! My contractions were really close together so they called my doctor and told him and he gave the green light to get me all prepped for surgery. Things then got crazy: I had one nurse trying over and over to get my IV in, one nurse asking me a thousand questions, and one nurse making me sign who knows what! All the while having contractions for no reason! Once the doctor got there we rolled right into surgery and things just move so fast there. I got the spinal block (a little piece of heaven I call it!) and they went to work. At one point I asked Derek if they'd started yet and he told me that I was totally cut open and they were almost to the baby (heaven, I tell you). When they first saw the baby the doctor said, "that's a big head" - not the best words for a mom to hear but happy to hear they were at least to the baby. When they took him out the doctor told us he was a boy - Derek and I were totally surprised - we'd both thought it'd be a girl the whole pregnancy. It was so fun to be surprised!

Then they got to work on him and got to sewing me up. He weighed 7 pouonds, 4 oz. (absolutely huge at our house - that's 3 pounds bigger then Emmy!) and 18 3/4 inches long and born at 5:13 a.m. He has lots of brown hair which is also strange at our house - we're used to bald!

The worst part of a C-section is that they wheel the baby off and take me to recovery. I make Derek stay with the baby so that leaves me in recovery by myself. They won't let me out until I can move my toes (which really can be hardere than it sounds!). I just sat there willing myself to move my toes to no luck. I really took almost 2 hours before I could be moved. Usually they bring the baby to me while in recovery but Logan was breathing a bit too fast for him to be brought to me. With c-section babies they don't get the benefit of being squeezed through the birth canal so their lungs get all dried out - so Logan didn't get that extra squeezing and it was causing him to breath too fast. So we each had our issues - one of us can't catch our breath and the other can't move their toes! I ended up beating the little guy and met him in the nursery. They just wheeled my whole bed into the nursery to nurse him - it was pretty funny. I was so tired that while I'm having this sweet moment of the first time nursing him I was actually falling asleep!

The rest of the weekend was pretty calm. My parents had our kids Friday and Saturday - they took them to their cabin to see Sam be baptized and came home Saturday afternoon. Derek stayed in the hospital with me Friday night but I did the rest of the nights alone (a first for me too - that's pretty impressive considering this is our 4th kid and with c-sections I'm there 3-4 nights each). It was nice though for Derek to be able to put our kids to bed at home and have some routine there.

We had lots of visitors which was really nice. Of course my parents brought the kids every day but we also had Al and her family (great timing with Thanksgiving eh?), Tate and Angey and kids and John and Sandy drove all the way to see us even though they had to go home the same day! We also had a few friends stop by on Friday and Saturday. We came home Monday afternoon - and it is so good to be home!

The baby is doing great too. We spent the first 4 nights sleeping together but now everyone is in their own bed and doing lots better! You forget how good you feel when not pregnant but I feel so good right now - no more back ache, heartburn - the list goes on and on! My friend told me that most people glow when their pregnant but I glow now that I'm not pregnant! It is so true too!

Sorry so long - gotta get it written down though!