Let It Snow......

I am so excited for all this snow!!!! my girls were being so lazy sitting inside the house because it was cold outside and I had to go shovel our driveway because we had up to 3 feet of snow in some spots. Jeff had been pulled out by our neighbor 3 different times (thanks joey) and I was pretty sure he was tired of it. So, I told my girls they weren't going to sit around and I wanted them to get their snow clothes on and come outside. They weren't very happy about it but within minutes they were having a blast. We tried to build a snowman but the snow wouldn't pack very good so they moved onto the next. They made our road into a ski hill since the plows hadn't been by and there was plenty of snow on it..... They went and got mine and Jeff's ski equipment and started going down the hill. It was so fun to watch them and see them having such a good time. We live on a pretty good hill and I was impressed how they could walk back up carrying the skis and walk in those boots......... They were pretty sore the next day.

2 down 1 to go....

I did Mikaiah's class Christmas party last week and have the Valentine's one left. I was scheduled to work on that Friday so I figured I would get everything ready for it and just get enough parent volunteers to go help that I wouldn't need to be there

Well.......... I call this entire page of people who have signed up to help with parties and get ONE parent that says she will be willing to help. Why do people sign up to help with thing if they really aren't going to follow through with it.

I guess it's one of those things that makes you believe you are a good parent if you do. So, luckily I have a really good boss and he let me take the time off long enough to go throw a 2nd grade Christmas party. It all went really good and I wasn't too stressed out but I am SOOOOO thankful it's over and I only have one party to go.

Why do I let myself get too busy?

Yesterday morning Mikaiah and Ty came upstairs and said that Mikaiah had had that "funny" taste two times which means she is having a seizure. Ty said she got into bed with her and she held her until she felt like going upstairs. Instantly I think of the day before and realize I never gave her medicine to her. The morning before, I had picked up my girls from their dad's and her step mom had called me during the day because she had forgot to give her the morning dose before I picked her up. So, of course I say I will go ahead and give it to her but for some reason or another I'm caught up in doing all the other things I need to do and completely forgot about it then I put her to bed without giving her evening dose. WOW!!! I'm feeling like mother of the year. I gave her a dose of medicine and within an hour and a half she had 5 seizures but then the medicine kicked in and she did much better. In all 3 1/2 years of her having those I have not forgotten her medicine for an entire day and it makes me feel so bad. She gets so confused when it starts to happen. First she starts to complain about the funny taste and her belly and head start to hurt, then her pupils get so big that her eyes almost look black and she goes into her siezure. I always try to talk to her about it because I want her to feel safe and to know that we are there and will always take care of her. She is getting better with describing it to me at first she was so confused and would tell me her mouth tasted like celery and now it's like "eating fizzy go-gurts" she use to get really scared because she felt like she was all alone during them but now she tells me it feels like she is having a dream. For a long time we didn't let her know that she was having siezures when she felt that way because she is quite the drama queen and we didn't want her to use that as an excuse to get out of things but when it started happening more often over the summer we talked to her about it and it has been nice for her to be able to tell us she is going to have one and to talk to her about it afterwards. I just couldn't even imagine how frightening that would be and just breaks my heart that she even has to deal with that and have no answers to know if this is something she will have to deal with the rest of her life. Yesterday when I was giving her her medicine she asked me, "will I have to take this when I'm a mom?" The only answer I had for her was, possibly. With as hard as her medical issues have been to deal with I feel incredibly blessed that she recovered with such minimal problems. She may be the craziness in my life but I wouldn't trade it for anything. I'm hoping this is a lesson for me and I will remember to take care of the important things first during my days and not get so caught up with the things that can wait.

Sick little Beckham

We had a pretty crazy night last night. Beckham hadn't been feeling all that good today. He wasn't real sick, but had been cranky and grumpy for most of the day. We went to the church because we had to meet with the bishop and afterwards our little neighbor girl was there so her and Beckham were running chasing each other and he would come over and be having the hardest time breathing and saying his throat hurt. We went home and were just laying around watching t.v. and he started running a fever and was crying and started the most awful cough I have ever heard, he sounded like a sea lion. So we decided to get ready for bed and decided I would take him to the Dr. in the morning. After about 30 min. he was crying and having the hardest time breathing so Jeff said I needed to take him to the ER. UHHHH!!!!! That's when you know you're in for a long night. I HATE THE ER!!!! So I go up there and within 10 minutes they had him checked in and hooked up to a breathing treatment and giving him steroids. They told me he has croupe. It was only about a 3 hour period that it all happened, from when he started not feeling well to being really sick, it was all so fast. After all of that and and some hours in the ER we have a much happier baby and we are so grateful it was nothing more serious.

chicken nuggets.....The convenience food

I'm one of those moms that love the convenience of fast food especially when I'm out running errands and have starving kids. And what kid doesn't love chicken nuggets? Well it was one of those days and Beckham was wanting some so I run through Wendy's drive thru get some but he doesn't want to eat them because he was wanting fries. (this will be a day I'm thankful for his stubbornness) So....... of course since we are with grandma she goes through Burger King's drive thru and get him some fries. At that point he forgets he has the chicken nuggets in his hand and drops them as he is reaching for his fries. When we got home I start picking his nuggets up off the floor and notice some "lint" on one of them so I go to take it off and out comes a feather the length of the nugget. I seriously thought I was going to throw up. If you notice there is still the end of the feather still inside the nugget. I get in the house and call Wendy's.......

Me: May I speak with a manager please?

Her: yeah I'm one

me: I just came and got some chicken nuggets for my child and there was a feather in one of them

Her: (higher voice) A feather? *giggle*

Me: yes a feather

Her: Well bring it in and we will gladly exchange them for new ones

Are you kidding me, do you really think that I'm going to get some new ones after that? I told her I would like my money back and she seemed surprised and a little put out by it. WOW!!! are they really that desperate for workers that they wouldn't think anything about a feather being pulled out of a chicken nugget? Yes, I do realize they are made from chickens but be a little embarrassed or sorry that someone found that in their food.

Thanksgiving

We were able to go to St. George for Thanksgiving this year to visit Jeff's family. It was really enjoyable and relaxing. Eric and Julie are always so kind to let us stay at their house and put up with us. We went to Tuacahn to see the live Nativity, what a great way to start out the holiday season and to see Beckham so excited with every part of it.

We also had a Dodge football game that involved a little bit of everyone, even if you were pregnant, a senior citizen or just had no idea what you were doing.(me), I'll admit I had to ask what I was suppose to say when I was quarter back before I threw the ball. But Eric and Jeff LOST, let me repeat, LOST to all of the awesome players that had their own personal challenges. :o)

We were also able to go and check out some petroglyphs (markings made on rocks by Indians many years ago) I think the kids really enjoyed that.

Ashley and sage were pretending this rock was their bunkbed. Thankfully we had Julie with us to explain things since she is so knowledgeable on so many things. It was just a great holiday break in every way and we were so happy that we were able to spend it with family. Thanks everyone for all that you do for us.

fun at the park

We had to get one last time in at the park before the snow comes. The kids love going down slides and lining up in size. They were giving us a good laugh while doing this because the slide was so steep the they were crashing into each other really hard and would just laugh. Beckham did it about 2 times and decided he had enough. Of course with that much fun there always seems to be an accident, Katie and Morgan bonked heads leaving Katie with a really sore bloody nose but Morgan was nice enough to take her undershirt off and let Katie use it. Sorry about the quality of the pics but I never have my good camera so I end up doing it with my phone.

Should I be worried?

Beckham is such a joy to our family. He is always making us laugh and puts a huge smile on our faces. I can't imagine any other little boy being loved and spoiled as much as him (by 6 older sisters) and have such a calm and relaxed personalitly. But........ is there a point when he needs to be roughed up a little bit and made into a man? Such as ........

• The time you ask him if he is going to be a hair stylist and he says, "yes"
• or the time Jeff finds him painting his nails at the table when nobody else is around and he is doing an excellent job
• or the fact he wants you to massage his back with lotion before he goes to bed, with 3 different kinds
• he prefers the disney princesses over other boy toys
• he LOVES playing dress up with his sisters
• brings you a comb and elastics for you to put them in his hair.
• Carries a pink Dora purse on his shoulder all through Wal-mart

These are all the fun things that make us laugh and smile and make his sisters worry but we can also not forget the times he goes to Jeff and says, "Let's wrestle PUNK" or when he says, "wrestle me pansy." So I'm pretty sure there is nothing to worry about, we will just be very well rounded.

My day of catching up.......

It's been a while so I figure it's time to update

Just for Jeff........(love you honey:)

We have been having this ongoing discussion for some time now and he finally told me today, "you need to change our profile on our blog because it's not true."

Now the story........We have had season tickets to the professional soccer team in Salt lake for 2 years now which I mentioned how much we enjoy going to the games as a family, which of course we do, but also remember this was written about half way through the season.

Now that it is the end of the season and I'm completely burned out on the games, the drive back and forth, plus having church at 8:30 in the morning we usually miss sacrament so we can sleep a little longer, oh and lets not forget that we don't have to purchase a ticket for Beckham so I get to enjoy the game with a child on my lap and whatever else he wants on there with us. So, I mention to Jeff, "why don't we pick 4 games that we really want to go to during the season and purchase tickets for only those games, that way we aren't gone every single Saturday from April to August and it will save us TONS of money (since we don't have it anyhow).

I feel as though it has taken the fun out of going, "because we have to" and because the kids don't get to enjoy their summers at home playing.

Of course Jeff was very unhappy with this request and thinks that I need to remove my comment from our profile. Now, I'm sure that might seem kind of Naggy and unappreciative of me that we get to go do that together but please remember there are about 18 home games and we go to all but a few. So that's about 15 times to Salt lake and back in a 6 month time span. Can anyone else understand what I am saying? I'm sure if you're a mother you can understand completely.

GO REAL!!!!

I apologize Michelle..............lol

It wasn't until today that I decided to take a look at different blogs when I noticed I had the same layout as you. :) I thought it was pretty funny because it was just Thursday that you showed it to me and I was thinking how cute it was but didn't even notice when I was picking a new one. Thought I would apologize incase you thought I was a little bit nuts. I mean, more than I actually am.

2nd grade party....

Like I mentioned before in another blog, I was informed on back to school night that I was Mikaiah's room mother for second grade. I have no idea how my name was picked since I really try to avoid that kind of stuff and never signed up to be it since wearing myself out with it early on with the two older girls. I did however happily agree to it because I owe it to kia. That was before finding out the expectations of this teacher. She goes all out with her parties and goes to extremes with every little detail. She gave me a nice big "room mother's handbook" and a list of instructions for the Halloween party

1. homemade rootbeer with dry ice
2. halloween napkins, plates and cups and table cloths
3. buffet style with meats, cheeses, crackers, fruits and veggie tray
4. individual bags full of candy to put in the pinata
5. sugar cookies with toppings for the kids to decorate

I look at this, take a deep breath and keep telling myself I can do it. I called a few other moms to help me out including Mikaiah's stepmom. We pulled it all together and ended up having a great time. Even Jeff and Beckham came and partied with us, they were actually only helping me get things there and decided to stay for the whole thing. I was so busy getting everything ready that morning, Beckham went with us still in his pajamas (buzz lightyear) and his hair standing straight up. Luckily it was halloween and nobody thought anything about it

(I even made a veggie tray into a pumpkin face)

Halloween 2008

We had a really nice night and were able to have all the kids here for this Halloween which usually doesn't happen. We went trick or treating around the neighborhood and ended up at the house of some people in our ward (Campbell's) where we sat around and talked,then after that went to Jeff's aunt and uncles house to visit his grandma Palmer and a bunch of cousins. I think all the kids had a really good time. They all looked so cute in their costumes, Morgan was on her 3rd of 4th one that night. Katie decided not to dress up but looked beautiful because she had just got done with a dance at her school.

I love........

Having all our kids here lately. They have added so much fun and excitement to our home. There is never a dull moment and all of them have been having such a good time together. I'm sitting here in the office and can hear every single one of them playing together downstairs. They are playing "The Suite Life of Kia and Lacey." their own version of "The Suite Life of Zack and Cody." They even have the older girls playing along with them, doing their hair and dressing them up. Listening to the things they are saying and acting out would surely get them an Oscar. It is so nice to have them get along and be able to play together so good without any problems at all. (Candy thief caught on camera) There is always so much entertainment when they all get together that it completely wears out Beckham by the time the weekend is finished. We went in and found him sleeping on his "Cars" rug after Katie, Ashley and Lacey had gone home. He loves having all the girls here.

I did it!!!

HELLLLPPPP!!! I feel like I'm dying and my big toe is going to fall off. It is officially known as the Fred Flintstone toe. It is really swollen and chubby looking. Today was the day of the race and it went pretty good. We beat our time from last week by 17 minutes so I'm pretty happy about that. I was so excited to post some pictures on here as proof for everyone to see so I got new batteries in my camera, put it in the car and completely forgot about it. There were people taking pictures all along the way though so i will try to take them off the site when they post them and put on here. We had a really good time doing it and feel such great accomplishment from it. Plus I need to apologize to Jeff for my little remark in the last blog because about 9 miles into it him and the kids drove by cheering us on out the windows. It felt so good to see all of them and have them yelling for me telling me, "you can do it Mommy." That was the biggest energy boost for me and was so happy he did that. They went by about 3 different times and I love all of them for that.

What in the world was I thinking?!?!?!?!

Some of you know I had been training for a half marathon but was unable to run it because of an injured leg. Well, I ran into my ex sister in law at the homecoming parade (2 weeks ago) and she told me about a half marathon that was on the 1st of November and begged me to do it wth her. Me, being the brainless person I am agreed to do it. Remember, I haven't been training for about 3 months but said I would do it anyways. We decided we should run it last Saturday (1 week before) to try it out and know what to expect. We did really good until the last 2 miles when we started getting really tired but we finished and felt good about it, at least until the next morning when I tried getting out of bed. I felt every ache and pain possible, in places I didn't know existed. I think I might even lose my big toenail from it because I had a blister form underneath my nail. Now that I am almost fully recovered from pure stupidity I get to do it again in 2 days, the morning after Halloween which I'm hoping I still have a sugar high. Wish me luck and if you don't see any posts with results make sure to check the obituary for the date of my funeral. Plus, if you talk to Jeff, make sure to give him a hard time because he won't be there cheering me on because he thinks I'm NUTS (which maybe I am) or because he wants to save himself the embarassment of cheering his wife on an hour after everyone has crossed the finish line.

Our pumpkin carving adventure....

We have missed many years of carving pumpkins (which I'm sure has to do a little with Jeff hating when his hands get dirty). But we decided it was time to try it again. Everything was going good, the girls were cleaning out their pumpkins and Jeff's job was to seperate the seeds from the "guts." I tossed a seed at Jeff and it stuck and fell off the side of his face with a reaction of the "I'm not impressed look," but a second later I see some guts flying through the air right at me so I grabbed some and threw it back, that's when it all broke loose. We had Beckham in one corner sqealing like a little girl, Mikaiah in the other corner crying that we were going to get it in her hair. Jeff took the bowl and dumped all of it in my shirt and on my head so of course the other two girls start fighting back for me but in the end we have pumpkin guts in the dinning room light, down Ty's pants, sliding down the cupboards against the window, It was a mess. I thought Jeff was going to break his other leg the way he was sliding around on the floor. We did finally get the pumpkins finished and they looked BOO-tiful.

We have finally got all the kids back to school and getting settled in our everyday routine of things. Of course Beckham is completely lost without his sisters here to entertain him. He has taken on the roll of being our second puppy in the house. He thinks he needs to drink out of a bowl on the floor and crawl around with his tongue hanging out and of course we can't forget his sweet doggie kisses.

This will be our first Year that none of the kids wanted to play soccer which was kind of sad but in a way a huge relief of stress. But that has also left it open for other activities that they want to be involved in and have wanted to try.

Jeff and I each play on a co-ed soccer team. We were suppose to be playing in different leagues since I wasn't wanting to play competetive but they combined it so we were left on different teams but same league.

I was also made the head room mother of Mikaiah's classroom at school so there will be quite a bit of time consuming activities there, but I'm very excited to have the opportunity to be involved with her class.

Here we go

I'm once again trying to do this to help keep everyone informed with our crazy life. We'll see if I do any better this year