PROPS!!!

I just have to give props to my Devils. They killed last night and remain undefeated at 8-0. I was so happy to be able to watch the game-only the 2nd one this season, but I really wish I could have been there. This only makes it harder to be here and not there cheering on our Sun Devils. Good luck next week with Oregon-this will be an awesome game.

GO DEVILS!!!!!

Thoughts

This week has given me a lot to think about. I go through spurts of not really trying to think of much because it causes me way too much stress, but then there are times that I am given opportunities to put things into perspective. Ive had to take a good look at my life and the way that I live it. Ive come to the conclusion that it will never be how I picture it should be. I put way too much pressure on myself to try and "DO" it all. Im not one of those moms who volunteer for everything and people dont ever come to me in search of help and advice like I know so many people have to deal with and I am a little thankful for that. (I did volunteer at the school bookfair for 2 days, I felt pretty good about myself =) I just try to fit it all into one day and by the end of that day, I have not accomplished anything. I try to clean until its clean, but that never happens and I end up cleaning all day and ignoring my kids, husband, dinner, and everything else I should be doing. I have this picture of perfection and im so not a perfectionist. I did take on some traits from my Dad though, sometimes like when im cutting hair, it takes me way too long becasue it has to be perfect, or when I start a project (projects are my dads specialality) it takes longer than it should because I find more ways to organize. Its weird that I can be so picky about some things, but when it comes to my home, Im just not and I cant figure out why. I go to my sister in laws house and it is always perfect, Its clean even when its got toys on the floor, its way too cutely decorated and her kids are always the cutest. Im so the opposite. My house is always a mess and its always unorganized even though I spend hours organizing it. I really have no decorations at all and my kids are never clean. Tyson is a little obsessed with clothes and he thinks he knows better than me what matches and what looks good, so he is always a little mismatched. The second I put clean clothes on Caleb, they are no longer clean. (We dont call him pigpen for nothing). I for some reason think that everyone else has it together and I am just a mess all around. It gets really discouraging after a while. I am litterally making myself crazy. I want so much, but I cant do it all. I think I know that now. I have been praying for help in this area for so long and I felt that this was never going to end, but I think Ive had a revalation of some sort. Its like all of a sudden, my alzheimers temporarily left and I saw the truth (or my husband showed it too me, same thing right?) I really have to be happy with the person that I am and the situations that im dealt. I dont really know what anyone else is going through-they might be going through the same stuff but they are just masters at hiding it. I have 5 kids and in that is a lot to deal with. I am always going to deal with messes and laundry and dirty faces and pee all over the bathroom and food all over the floor and toys all over the house and a husband who likes to spend all day Saturday watching football ( i just had to throw that one in there) Lani will always cut her own hair no matter how many times we have to chop it, Caleb will always have a dirty face and runny nose and he will always make the biggest messes just cause he can. Tyson will always "attack" Caleb because he took his toy from him and in the process wake the baby from the yelling and screaming. Noah will always whine because he has to do chores or because the little kids got into his room and trashed it, and Avery will always be high maintance. And "ITS OK" It really is. Its ok if they are always the ones who are running through the house and screaming, or if they are the only kids talking and lauging when its supposed to be quiet ( church is a whole other post) and its ok if we go out to the store and they are straight out white trash, even thought I always said i would never be that mom who takes their kids out with no shoes or a messy face or dirty clothes, but I am that mom because I dont have the time to change their clothes for the 10th time that day or because I have to run and grab something fast or if I forgot the wipes to wipe them down after lunch. Its OK. My kids will never be the best behaved or the quietest or well dressed, my house probably wont ever be the cutest because I could honestly care less about decorations and I would way rather spend my money on something else. I will never be fully organized, I will always find something else to organize which will create more unorganization. Its how I roll, and its OK. As long as my kids are happy and as long as we teach them the important stuff and as long as they know how much their mommy and daddy love them, that is ok with me. I will do all that I can and that will have to be good enough. I love being a mom and wouldnt trade it for the world. I was sent these kids for a reason and for that reason I will keep on keepin on (We are all Brady Bunch right now) I love watching the kids play and laugh together. I love listening to Noah read to Lani her princess book. I crack up everyday because Tyson has the whittiest (sp) comments. I melt when little Avy smiles at me and gives me the hugest slobber kisses. I love when Caleb gives me a spontanioius hug or kiss or pinches my bum and says "tooshie" and runs away laughing. I love when Lani trys to save the little animals (like our little mousy house guest) or crys because she has the sweetest tender heart. I love how Caleb doesnt want to go anywhere without Tyson. I love when Noah laughes so hard because he just told a not so funny joke. I could go on and on. I just love my sweet kids and their energy and their different personalities and for who they are. I am so blessed to have what I have even thought its so dang hard and tiring and crazy and time consuming and so much more, but by far the good out weighs the bad. I know that with each stage comes different trials, but I want to enjoy them right now. I dont want to worry if my kids think im crazy because im dancing around like a nerd, I just want to have fun. I want to be more involved instead of cleaning (or blogging) all day.
Sorry if this was so all over the place, but I really just wanted to get this out for my own purpose, so when times get crazy, I can look at this and remember what I felt and why.

Ok, so on a totally unrelated subject, my sister told me that on the Tylenol website, you can download a $5 dollar coupon because of the whole cough and cold fiasco. So thats pretty much a free bottle-so take advantage.

FREAKY FRIDAY CARNIVAL

Friday night was the kids school "Freaky Friday" school carnival. All the kids dressed up except Caleb who was havin none of it. He did eat the food, though.

I think this picture sums up the night for Scrubs (Calebs nickname) I just love his blue eyes!!

This was not a normal school carnival. Things are always so above and beyond in this town-such a change from good ol Robson Elementary. They had game after game, a huge rock climbing wall, choo-choo rides, bounce houses, obstacle courses, a not so spooky haunted house and way more. My favorite part of course was the cake walk. You should have seen some of these cakes people made-they all looked so yummy (that ones for you, Bill) We all got together and all went in at one time so that our chances of getting a cake was better. Thanks to our lucky Ty-bo, we won, but not before our dream cake was snatched right before our eyes. Way to go Ty!!!!

Tyson and Caleb could have ridden this choo-choo 100 times. I even rode it with them-I thought the whole thing was going to collapse. Yikes!!
Sweet little Av's was our little devil for the night. This costume seems to fit because she has been a little devil lately. Teething is NOT FUN.

We were so lucky to have Barb, Blake, Sophie, and Ana visiting with us for the weekend. They came with us and joined in the carnival fun (as much fun as you can have standing around doing nothing. Its not the same when your kids arent involved. Thanks for being good sports !!!!) The kids loved having cousin Ana here to play with and to babysit. Thanks Ana for coming. We loved having you!!!

Im so mad that I didnt get any pictures of the weekend, but Barb is more of a camera phobe than I am. Us together ='s NO pictures.

Lani decided to be a girl pirate. She looked so cute. I will post some real halloween pictures after halloween. She will completly fit the part now because she just lost her front tooth. Hilarious.
The boys and Lani loved playing games with their dad. Im so glad he is a playful dad becasue there is nothing I hate worse than carnival games.
This weekend we are having a trunk or treat and then the kids have Monday and Tuesday off of school and then Wed. is Halloween. I better put on my creative hat and make this a fun, spooky weekend.

Happy Halloween!!!!

Random

I have a bunch of random pictures that I want to post, so this might be a long post.

We got school pictures back and I was pleasantly surprised. School pictures never, ever turn out in our family, so I was so happy these ones did. My kids look so old and grown up. Time goes by way too fast.

Noah was so proud of his picture. For some reason, he just cant smile normally, so we have been working on getting a natural smile. He actually did it and he just thought his picture was soooo good (and I thought it was too.)

Lani is our exception the the no smile rule. She always smiles and looks so cute in her pictures. Last year, right before christmas, she decided to cut her own hair and it wasnt just a little cut, it was the whole left side of her head all the way up above her ear. We had to CHOP off her hair right before our christmas pictures (of course). So I love that her hair has finally grown back-but this happiness is short lived because she got some tape stuck in her hair and thought the only way to get it out was to cut it out-so yes, she will yet again be getting a hair cut before picture time.

(No, her face is not dirty, she has had a rash for the last 2 months-I think she is allergic to Utah =)

There are a few things that I love about where we live, and one is that they are really into extracirricular activites. I signed the kids up for ice skating lessons, and let me tell you that it is pure comedy. Lani doesnt move anymore than a few inches at a time, and Noah thinks he's a pro. They were falling like every minute

This picture is kinda blurry, so sorry. When Noah saw that some of the kids were skating fast, he thought that it must be easy. He took off and then fell so hard. When we first got there, we didnt see any boys and he told me that ice skating was for girls and he wasnt going to do it. I told him that if he wanted to play ice hockey, he had to learn from the bottom. We saw boys when we got inside, and that made him happy. Notice the back of his shirt is soaking wet. This was only after about 20 minutes on the ice. The kids are having so much fun doing this. Next on the list, learn to ski/snowboard. The school takes them every friday during ski season and teaches them. Noah will snowboard and Lani will ski. I cant wait!!!

It was a semi-nice day, so I sent the kids out to play. Tyson is the funniest kid. He loves to make things out of anything he can find. He created his own drumset. We dont have drum sticks so he used my wooden spoons (which were both broken by the end of his jam session) I love the helmet and his glove with the fingers cut out. We love this guy.



This was the project that I did at my enrichment night. I havent got the ribbon for the sides yet, but you wrap in in ribbon and tie a bow on the top. I think they turned out so cute. I did each of the kids names in a different color. (it says "I am a child of God" in case you cant read it)


We had a lazy dinner night the other night and Bill made breakfast burritos. Tyson decided that he didnt want them and he was going to make his own. Caleb thought it looked so yummy.
I think he took one bite and decided the breakfast burrito was better!!


And last but not least....
Lani has had a loose tooth for like 2 weeks. This thing will not come out. We tried wiggeling it, tying dental floss around it and yanking it. It is the most stubborn tooth. Of course, now that I missed pictures with the changing leaves, she is going to have a toothless smile and short hair. (and a red nose from the cold) I guess I learned my lesson on why procrastination is not a good thing.

I guess it was only a matter of time...

I just got home from a super-fun enrichment night and I heard a horrible story about what yucky people can do with your pictures-especially your kids' pictures. I have been thinking about going private for a while but not really wanting to do it. What are your pros and cons, concerns and issues with blogging non private? I know the odds of something happening to me or my kids is way high, but ive just started becoming slightly paranoid. Honestly, my favorite thing to do is jump from blog to blog and I really would feel bad shutting mine off when I stalk so many people myself-but I know that im not a bad stalker-just a nosy one. Im going to give it a week and then switch over, so all you peoples out there who check in often, periodically or whenever, please leave your email address so I can add you to my list of stalkers. I really dont care who you are as long as you know me through some friend of a friend of a cousins brothers uncles aunts.....whatever. I know im so not cool in anyway, but if you think its worth it, leave your info.

Anyway...I just made the cutest craft at enrichment. Its a glass block with my kids names saying I am a child of God. They are soooo cute. I just need some ribbon and then I will take a picture and post it. They are too cute not to share. I also have some school pictures. I am really happy with how they turned out-for once. Have a good weekend!!!

Happy Eight Months!!!

My sweet baby princess is 8 months old!!!! I cant believe how fast time flys. She just started crawling about a week ago and she is already so fast and way too mobile for me.

She got her first tooth on Wednsday and her second one came in just 5 days later. I'll just say that one bite and she's done!!!
Avery is so animated. She has about 1000 different facial expressions. She has mastered the dirty looks. I was trying to take some pictures of her and she was not havin it. She just wanted to crawl around.
We have a storage closet in our house and I was rearranging it, I walked out for about 30 seconds and when I came back, this is where she was. The step ladder was closed.
Avery loves to put anything and everything in her mouth. She has figured how to pick up the small things with her fist, and then she puts her entire fist in her mouth and gets the prize. Her favorite....CHEERIOS. At least its healthy.

We know that Avery is tired when she falls asleep anywhere. She is such a habit creature that she can only sleep in her crib. Sundays are hard because we are at church during her big naptime. She is so cute when she sleeps. The second you give her her blankie, she puts it to her face, sucks her thumb and crashes.

When she wakes up, she wants to be picked up right then. She will cry and cry, but the second you walk in the room, she is all smiles. She loves when her brothers come in to play with her after her nap. One day, I went in first and she looked right past me looking for Tyson and Caleb to play. I love the way she looks at her brothers and sister. She lights up when they are around and vice versa.

We are so blessed to have this sweet angel in our house. From her big slobber kisses to her big, bright eyes, she is such a light in our home. I get so sad sometimes because she is growing so fast and I am really going to miss her sweet baby face and miss her cuddles. But I also really enjoy watching her learn new things. Happy 8th month sweet girl!!! We love you so much.

THIS IS NOT WHAT I SIGNED UP FOR

Is this normal??? Because if it is, I dont like it. Its only September and we have already had 2 snowfalls. It snowed all day on Saturday and in mid afternoon, it finally started to stick. You could totally tell we are not from the snow because we were the only ones out playing in the 1/2 inch of snow.

This is in our back yard-this hill will be so nice when it is covered with snow-PERFECT sledding hill.

This was in the morning when it was snowing but not sticking and before I MADE them get jackets on.




And Avery was just so happy watching them from the window in her nice, warm house

The part I hate the worst is the "after". Our little mud room was covered with wet clothes, gloves, jackets and shoes. I was left to clean up while the kids jumped in the hot bath. Fun for them,not so much for me!!!!