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Saturday, December 29, 2012

A Wonderful Christmas Gift!

This was the present we surprised our parents with this Christmas. Yep, that last spot says 'Baby'! I found out the day before my birthday a few weeks ago that we are expecting baby #6. It was really fun to surprise the grandparents with these cute ornaments (got at Bronner's Christmas Wonderland, love them!) and see how quickly they caught the change. So far I'm feeling pretty good. I've started to get a little bit of nausea this week, though it didn't interfere with Christmas. The boys are really excited about the baby. I told Jakey when we were at the inlaws and he went out of the room to Grandma Cindy and said, "Guess what Grandma? In August my mom is going to have a baby! Or maybe two!" I burst out laughing at that. We don't know yet how many there are, guess we'll see lol. And Jason told me today that he really wants it to be a girl because four brothers is enough. I'm so excited for this baby and can't wait to start feeling it move and see it on ultrasound.

Friday, November 02, 2012

Could be worse

It's almost winter here. Not officially, but weather-wise. The weather has been getting colder, we had some freezing temps and a dusting of snow last week that killed off the rest of my garden (I have 2 boxes of green tomatoes inside that I hope will ripen). Amazingly we had temps in the 70s on Halloween which was awesome for trick-or-treating, but I know that won't last. I'm really dreading the cold and snow. Though I'm not going to complain too much about our weather after what the East coast is going through with the destruction of Hurricane Sandy. It affected millions along the East coast. Awful seeing the pictures from areas like New Jersey and areas of New York. It may have even affected business contracts attorney raleigh nc. No matter how much I dislike the cold and snow, I'm very glad to live in an area with very few natural disasters. Although we live by a big fault line we only have rare minor earthquakes. Because we are surrounded by mountains we rarely get tornadoes or other big storms. We are landlocked so no threat of tsunamis or hurricanes. I may have my complaints about Utah, but the lack of major natural disasters is a plus lol (*knock on wood*).

Sugar overload

We had a really fun Halloween. The boys got way too much candy and had a long busy day. Started out with a costume parade at the boys' school. Then I checked them out a little early to go to Nate's work for trick-or-treating. They got tons of candy there, over half of their whole stash. Then we headed to my mom's and did a little more trick-or-treating, and while I went to class Nate took them home. When I got home we took them out to our neighborhood, which didn't last long. The babies were really slow and had a hard time getting around in their boxes lol. So after just a few houses I brought the twins back, and about 10 minutes later Nate returned with the other 3 because they were done. So we let them pig out on candy and watch a show while we passed out candy.
I weighed the candy the next day, and we had 13 lbs of candy! Not including what we'd pigged out on the day before. Yikes! So I've been eating way too much, but I've also started exercising, so that will hopefully counteract the junk lol.

Saturday, October 27, 2012

Winterizing

It's that time of year. Cold. We're getting the house and yard all prepared for winter. Hubby already got the swamp cooler covered and the sprinklers drained and all the outdoor toys like scooters and dump trucks and custom frisbees stored in the shed. The heater has been coming on. I'm hoping the weather will give me one more week of non-freezing temps (we had a few freezing nights this week I covered them with a tarp) so the tomatoes in my garden can ripen a bit more. I've also been pulling out the long sleeved shirts and need to finish switching out the kids' clothes.

Halloween MineCraft Costumes

For Halloween this year my oldest son wanted to be Steve from the game MineCraft. A few weeks ago I barely even knew what MineCraft was, but we got the trial game on our Xbox and the kids have been loving it. So about 2 days ago I decided to go ahead and make his costume, and to make it even more insane I decided to make all the boys things from MineCraft. It took waaaaaaay longer than I expected to make their costumes. I literally did hardly anything the last few days but work on their costumes, staying up until 2am the last two nights even. And they had to be done by today because my niece's costume birthday party and the twins club trunk-or-treat. Using lots of scissors, construction paper, paint, boxes, and tape, this was the final- totally awesome- product:
And the pictures of the characters/objects they were based on:

The costumes were a huge hit with anyone who recognized MineCraft. The babies weren't too fond of being stuck in a box but we were able to distract them with candy. They loved the trunk-or-treat and were so excited to be given candy.

Sunday, October 21, 2012

Jason's Baptism

My oldest son Jason turned 8 last month, which means that he was old enough to be baptized! (We are LDS [Mormon] and children can be baptized once they are 8). It was an amazing day and made me cry. Grandma Laurie gave him his own set of scriptures, which he has been reading out of every day. Here is a picture of my family before the baptism.

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Selective hearing

Some days I think my children must be deaf. For one, they like turning up the TV or games way louder than necessary, and secondly they just plain don't listen. I'll be standing right in front of them and talking and they will just look up and say, "What?" I think I need a loudspeaker in my house, like a bose l1 compact musicians friend system, to be able to get there attention anywhere in the house. Maybe they would hear me better if I was talking through a microphone lol.

Nom nom nom

My garden this year actually hasn't done too bad. Getting lots of tomatoes (mostly little cherry and juliets) and some zucchini and squash. The other day I picked a zucchini that had gotten pretty big and decided to have one of the babies hold it to see how big it was compared to them. So I handed it over to Isaac and he thought it was a snack for him.

Then he ran off with it and I had to chase him around the table to get it back. Little stinker. :)

Saturday, August 18, 2012

Just like riding a bike

I just realized it has been probably over 12 years since I've ridden a bike. The last time I remember riding bikes was when I was maybe 16. I may have ridden a couple times since then (because it's hard to believe anyone can go that long without riding a bike once?!) but I don't remember. I don't even own a bike, and neither does Hubby. Jason and Jakey have bikes but that's it. One of these days we need to get us all bikes so we can go on rides. We'd probably need to look on cracksandracks.com for car bike racks for the van too. I'm pretty sure I'd still be able to ride a bike after all these years, right?!

More cuteness

Here's another little video of my cute kiddos. Now that Caleb is on his feet more, Isaac likes to go over and give him hugs, but because Caleb is still a little wobbly usually one or both of them end up falling over lol. Now that Caleb is understanding the word "hug" he is starting to do it too.

Getting into it

When I was watching football a few days ago I noticed that they don't really treat the preseason games like they do regular season. The players didn't seem as into the game and neither did the announcers. It sounded more like college press box talk instead of pros, with more random chatter and sometimes they ignored the game altogether. It's more exciting when the players and announcers are more into the games. I've gotten used to the Sunday Night guys and their knowledge of the game and great commentary.

Ashes, ashes, we all fall down!

A few days ago Jakey decided to teach the babies how to play Ring-Around-The-Rosies and it was just so dang cute! They loved it and were laughing their heads off. They were pretty worn out though by the time I pulled the camera out, but got a few rounds recorded. :)

Safety first

This year when we have gone to busy public outings, like the park on the 4th of July and Lagoon themepark, we have made sure to put contact info on them. A few years ago on the 4th we lost Jakey and it was the most terrifying 15 minutes of my life. So I got some labels, kind of like ul labels, that go inside the children's shoes with our contact info, as well as put some bracelet type things on their wrist or leg with our phone number. Luckily nobody got lost but it was a relief to know that if somebody found them (and we talked about them looking for a police officer or nice mommy with kids to ask for help if they got lost) that they would be able to quickly reach us.

My sweeties

These little boys make me so happy. :) And they definitely are going to be great friends. Now that Caleb is walking around more it is so much fun to watch them run around after each other. And Caleb is just so proud of himself for finally getting it. So glad to have my adorable, cuddly boys in my life.

Blog-splosion

When I first started blogging (almost 6 years ago!) most blogs were just like personal journals. Places to update about family life, kids, hobbies, etc. The majority are still like that, but you can also find many other types of sites using blogs. There's businesses, like raleigh wedding photographers, church groups using them to post about meetings, and many devoted entirely to posting about great deals and coupons. It's quite amazing how much the blogging community has grown in the last few years. Of course this comes from someone who just today was reminiscing about my families first computer that ran on MS-DOS prompts.

Pretty pink


I finally finished my sister's baby blanket today. By the time I was done I was having major cramps in my hands and could barely crochet, but I really wanted to get it done. They were over here visiting so I was trying to get it done before they left but they had somewhere to be. I did finish it about 10 minutes after they left though, and they will be coming over for dinner tomorrow so I can give it to her then. I joked that with my last 3 kids I went into labor within a few days of finishing their blankets, so hopefully the magic extends to her baby too lol.

Evolution of phones

Over the last 9 years Hubby and I have gone through a variety of phones. We started out with one of those indestructible Nokias, and have since moved from flip phones, to slide phones, to smart phones, and now have our awesome iPhones. We have most of our old phones lying around somewhere too. The kids love to use them to play with. Whenever we clean up the playroom we find motorola batteries, random antennae, and mostly flip phones. I'm not sure what happened to our first Nokia, it must have been tossed during one of our moves, so it's probably sitting in a landfill in one indestructible piece lol.

Are you ready for some football?

One thing I love about this time of year, is the start of football season! Of course right now they are still doing pre-season games, but at least it's football! We love spending Sundays laying on the couch watching games, rooting for the Patriots, and eating junk. The boys are even excited. They came inside the other day and saw us watching a game and said, "Is that football?!" and sat down to watch. It's nice that we can enjoy it together. :)

Friday, August 17, 2012

Trucks

The other day I was driving and saw a big truck jacked up so high the bottom of the truck was about level with the top of our car. How do you even get into a truck that high?! Ladder? It's usually teen guys I see pimping out their trucks with jacked up suspension, roll bars, and all that. I admit that I do like trucks, but just regular sized ones are good enough for me lol. Hubby would love to get a truck one of these days, nothing fancy, but just something that he can use for hauling stuff and looking macho and all that. :)

Bedtime

Ever since the boys started this new school year we've been trying to be better about regular bedtimes, but haven't been doing so good. Here it is 9pm and Jason and Jakey are still up. It's hard to remember how late it's getting when it is still so light outside. When we go to put Nathan to bed at 8 he starts to cry if it's still "sunny time". And I end up staying up too late too once we do finally get them all in bed. Hopefully as the days get dark sooner we'll be better about getting everyone to bed at a decent hour.

Tanless

Because this summer has been so hot I've been avoiding going outside, which means that I haven't gotten very tan. Which is ok, just sad compared to last summer when I was nice and tan from the light treatments for my psoriasis lol. Wish I had my own tanning booth. A fake tan would probably be a bit healthier though, and something convenient like a van with mobile spray tanning equipment would be nice. My arms are a little tan, just from regular light, but my legs are so so white lol. Not that anyone ever sees my legs since I always wear pants.

No spare

Half of this week I did not have a vehicle to get around. When we went up to Idaho last weekend Hubby accidentally left the car keys there, which meant he had to take the van to work while we waited for his mom to mail us the car keys. Luckily I usually don't have anywhere to go during the day, I only missed a moms of twins club meeting. We really need to get extra keys made for the vehicles since we only have 1 for each, but we'd have to get them special ordered from the dealerships which is expensive. We are planning to upgrade to a larger vehicle some time next year, and I think when we do we will make sure there's at least 1 extra key included lol.

Upcoming semester

My next college semester starts next Wednesday. I'm a little nervous because of my calculus class, from reading reviews of the teacher, he is very hard. I really hope I can manage to at least pass the class. I'm also taking 2 computer classes. One class is from a teacher I've had before, which is a relief but also worries me because he's not the best teacher all the time lol. Hopefully I'll at least know some students from my previous computer classes. I don't know most of their names since we don't have desk name plates or anything, but a lot of us have been in the same classes for similar majors. Class is always more fun when you know a few other students.

This makes me sound like an old lady

I'd forgotten how much crocheting makes my wrists and fingers ache lol. I haven't really done any crochet since before the twins were born. The other day I started making a blanket for my sister's baby girl that will be arriving any day now. It's getting close to done, but my hands are starting to complain about it. I was hoping to finish it tonight, but just typing this is hurting my right wrist so I think I'll have to work on it tomorrow. I really want to have it done before the baby is born.

Monday, August 13, 2012

Anniversary gifts

For our anniversary this year we really didn't do much. It was our 9th anniversary. We didn't really do anything on the actual day, but the following Saturday my brother came over and babysat the kids while Hubby and I went to the temple and then to lunch at Olive Garden. Maybe next year I will think of a fun gift for Hubby and he can find mom wedding anniversary gifts. We've talked about doing a cruise for our 10th, so we'll see if that happens. Just getting a little time alone is a great gift for us.

Fun at the park

While we were in Idaho Saturday we went to a local splash park. The kids loved cooling off and getting wet. Well, most of them. Caleb was not that excited about it and only got a little wet before deciding he was done. Isaac loved it and Hubby's little cousin Alexa was sweet enough to take him down the little water slide a few times, which he really enjoyed. Then mother-in-law bought some tickets for the kids to ride the carousel at the park, and then she bought them all cotton candy. The twins loved their first taste of cotton candy and were soon pink sticky messes as the gobbled it down as fast as they could. Here are a few pics from the fun:

Much needed time off

This last weekend we took a trip up to Idaho. My friend was having her baby blessed Sunday so we went up Friday night to stay with my inlaws. The kids adore my mother-in-law (because she spoils them rotten lol) so they always love to go see them, but the twins sleep horrible anywhere when we don't have 2 cribs for them. Friday night was awful with them, but we were lucky enough to talk my mother-in-law into watching all the kids Saturday night so Hubby and I could have a night away, oru first night with no kids in over 2 years. I always worry about leaving all the kids overnight, because they are a lot of work, and because of sneaky little Nathan who has no fear of running into busy roads. I almost wish I had some spy gadgets, like video cameras on each kid that I can check from my phone or computer lol. But all went well and Hubby and I enjoyed some much needed alone time.

Waiting impatiently

My little sister is due with a baby girl in a few weeks. She has been miserable this pregnancy, especially with the awful heat. She dealt with a little preterm labor problems too, and now is very anxious to have her little girl. I admit I am also very excited to see my new niece. I really hope that she is born soon, for my sister's sake. I've made her a few cute little dresses and shoes, and I can't wait to see her in them. It's going to be so nice having a new baby to love on. And my sister-in-law is also having a baby in a few months, a boy due in November. I love new babies!

Time

I was cleaning up my bathroom drawer the other day and found my old watch. It's not a TAG Heuer FORMULA I, but it's special because Hubby gave it to me for Christmas when we were dating. Its very pretty but I haven't worn it in years. It needs a new battery though because it's been dead for a long time. One of these days I will remember to bring it to the store and get a new battery put in.

Too hot!

The weather lately has been soooo hot! I think we had the hottest July on record. I've been avoiding going outside as much as possible, and letting the boys play out in the water more. I am really looking forward to the weather cooling down. Fall is my favorite season because of the cooler weather and the changing leaves. It will be so nice to be able to go out more.

Sunday, August 05, 2012

Home decor

I've been seeing so many cute home decor ideas on Pinterest. I love the playroom ideas for kids, like a slide going into the playroom (not possible with our layout unfortunately) or reading corners with large bean bags for chairs. And I LOVE looking at kitchen ideas. Even though I know I'll never get around to using most of the ideas it is so fun to see the creative ways people organize and layout and decorate their living spaces. Maybe if I look at the ideas enough some of the craftiness and creativity will rub off on me lol.

Friday, July 27, 2012

Choo choo!

Nathan loves lining up chairs, bins, and baskets to make a train lately. It is so adorable. And it's perfect for the babies because they love sitting in any kind of bin, basket, or tote lol.

All aboard!
Cheese!
Peek-a-boo!

Commercials

I really don't watch much TV anymore. Usually when I do it's just because Hubby has it on watching reruns of Friends or Office or America's Funniest Videos or something. And there are commercials because it's on regular broadcast TV, instead of Netflix like I'm used to. I always get surprised by commercials since I'm not used to seeing them. And they never really change much lol. There's the commercials for car dealerships, toronto lawyers for car accidents, fast food, and of course all the "as seen on tv" products. The kids obviously aren't used to them either. Once they see something they are like, "We need that!" I've had to start telling them we don't need everything they show on TV lol.

4th of July

For the 4th of July we joined my family for a picnic at the park and fireworks. I didn't get too many pictures because keeping track of all the kids in a very busy park is pretty time consuming, but here's a few.

The babies enjoying a games of throw the sippy off the chair and see how many times we can get people to pick it up.
Ice blocking! (Sliding down the big hill on blocks of ice, a family tradition)
Watching fireworks
And then a few nights later, we did some fireworks at home. Here's the boys watching daddy light them off.

Flower power

I can never figure out what older people would want for their birthday, like grandparents, uncles, aunts, etc. By that point in life they have most of what they want or need. A Facebook friend recently asked for advice on what to give a grandparent for her birthday and somebody suggested plants for 60th birthday. I thought that's a pretty good idea. Some nice live flowers or plants that do well indoors. Or a beautiful fresh cut bouquet of colorful flowers is always appreciated. I know I love having some fresh flowers brightening up my kitchen. I'm not so good with live houseplants and flowers, they get killed pretty quick, but a fresh bouquet is nice for adding some beauty to a home.

Lagoon

Last month we went to Lagoon with Hubby's employer. They had their company Lagoon day like every year. It was so much fun.

Bumper cars, the boys' favorite
Lunch time
A few rides

Exhausted babies
Train ride
Completely soaked after Rattlesnake Rapids
Playing in the fountain at the end of the day

My little boy band

When people find out I have 5 boys I get the funniest comments. Stuff like "your own basketball team!" (not with our short genes lol!) or "almost enough for a baseball team" and many other team related comments. A few months ago I got a new one, "they could be a boy band!" I thought that was funny. Sure, that would be cute, but probably not very likely. I started thinking about who would sing and who would play what instruments. Let's put Nathan on the keyboard, Jason on lead guitar, Caleb on bass guitar, Isaac gets the gretsch drums, and Jakey as lead singer. Perfect! LOL Though that would require them all learning and practicing those instruments, and I can't imagine the noise that would create in my house, especially drums! Kind of funny how people think having a group of kids means they should all end up doing some team or group thing together, they are still individuals. :)

Like shoveling snow during a blizzard


This is what happens when I leave my children alone for a few minutes. This is why my house is never clean. For every mess I clean up there are 2 more being made. A few weeks ago when I was cleaning out our office to make room for my mom staying with us, the babies decided to trash the kitchen for me. They got on the table and threw everything around, knocked stuff over, and pulled stuff off the counters and desk. And then while I was busy cleaning up that mess they went into a bathroom and started making a mess with everything they could reach in there. The only time any of my cleaning gets really done is while they nap lol.

Xbox

Jason's birthday is coming up in a few months and one thing he has asked for is an Xbox 360. Now, normally something that expensive is never even considered. But... Hubby kind of wants an Xbox too lol. So he made a deal with the boys- if they do certain jobs every day they can each earn a dollar a day towards an Xbox. Jason's job is to clean the playroom and Jacob's is the living room and family room. So far it's going ok. Many days they whine and complain but still get it done eventually. They've only missed a few days so far. It has decreased some of the stress of getting them to clean, those some days I still end up so frustrated I feel like I'll need a holter monitor to track my heartrate so I don't give myself a heart attack. Getting kids to clean can be frustrating.

I think the main reason they want the Xbox is because when we were at Bear Lake, one of the condos had one and they played Monopoly on it a ton. Monopoly is now one of their new favorite games. So if we do get the Xbox I think we're going to have to find the Monopoly game to go with it.

Distinguished Cub Awards

For some reason Blogger does not want me to put these pictures in the correct way. It keeps flipping them sideways lol. So, I guess you can tilt your head to get a better view. :)

Anyway, here's my boys receiving their Distinguished Cub Awards at the end of last school year. They earn these by completing academic goals throughout the year.



Giving the perfect gift

This time of year I always have a hard time thinking of gifts for Father's Day then our Anniversary then Hubby's birthday, all within about 6 weeks of each other. I sometimes read those gift giving guides for men, but most of the stuff doesn't seem useful for my Hubby. Like those shaving kids that have shaving brushes, straight razors, sharpener, etc. Supposedly those give a really good shave, but I cannot imagine my Hubby using it lol. Power tools are always recommended, and a pretty good choice for my Hubby because he likes tools like most guys, but we have most of the tools we need and don't really use what we already have very often. I have an idea for his birthday next week, just have to see if it'll work out.

Sew cute

One of the things I've sewn for my sister's baby girl is this adorable car seat canopy. She picked out the fabrics (which look even cuter in real life) and had me put it together for her. Adding the bows on the straps and front really completed it. The inside is nice soft minky fabric.



Kids activities

It's about time I start getting Jason and Jakey involved in some kind of sport or music lesson or something. They did soccer last spring, but they didn't really get into it. They may like it more now that they are a little older though. I would love to get them both in piano lessons. I think that's a valuable talent for anyone to have. I need to check with some local ladies who teach it to see how much it would cost. I don't want to get them into something that's going to end up costing a bundle if they continue it, like sports that need a lot of specialized gear like HJC RPS-10 helmets, or dangerous sports like football (my tiny kids would get squashed!). I think soccer or baseball would be good since size doesn't make as much difference in those sports. I need to check the local rec center for more info on those. Or, I know Jason would love some type of art class. He loves art and is always saying he wants to be an artist when he grows up. I wonder if the rec center has something like that?

More Bear Lake

I realized I missed pictures from out 2nd time up there. I actually preferred the smaller condo that time because it was much easier to keep track of Nathan lol.

At the lake again
Ice Cream
Inside the condo
Playground
Wagon ride

A girl... but not for me lol

Another exciting thing that happened a few months ago was my little sister finding out she's having a baby girl. She has a little boy who is 6 months younger than Nathan and now a little girl. I'm so excited for her! I've been making a few little dresses and things for her since I never get to make cute stuff like that with all my boys lol. And since she needs girl stuff I am throwing her a baby shower next week. I need to figure out food and stuff for that. I'm sure she'll get lots of cute stuff like dresses, baby phat coat, blankets, headbands and bows. Now I just need to hopefully have a girl next time I get preggo to give her a little girl cousin to play with. :)

Bear Lake 2012

This year we got lucky and got to go up to the Bear Lake condos twice. We had it reserved Mon-Fri one week and then a spot opened up the following weekend Fri-Mon and Nate got it. It was really great. The boys had a great time playing in the lake a little, going to the pool, playing mini golf, and playing video games. And I love the pool there because it's heated a little so it's not freezing. Nate's mom came with us and it was nice having extra hands to help with the kids, especially when every 5 minutes we were going, "Where's Nathan?!" That little stinker snuck out every chance he could get, and with no childproof doorways and 4 exits, it was a bit scary. He got most of the way to the lake a couple times. Hopefully by next year he will have outgrown his sneaking out. Here are some pics of our time up there.

At the beach
At the playground
Being cute
At the pool
Twinners holding hands on the way home, so cute!