Thanksgiving

This Thanksgiving we trekked to Denver with all of Dave's family for a long holiday weekend.

Thanksgiving Day we got family pictures taken. We went to this really pretty area with a pond and hundreds of geese. It looked amazing until we realized that those hundreds of geese had been producing thousands of poops for us to walk across in the grass.

But still, it was rather picturesque and provided for some nice pictures.

Livs and her daddy checking out the geese.



I just think this picture is so cute of these girls- Liv, Katie, Emma, Marissa, Hali



Awwww.... cute cousins.



Taylor was running around chasing the geese everywhere. He accidentally fell down and got goose poop on his sleeve. Just in case you didn't know, goose poop is green. And as I know now, it doesn't come out very well in the wash. So convenient that we were all wearing white. Anyhoo, T freaked out and wasn't cooperative for pictures after that. Kids don't really buy into the "pretend it's not there and smile" thing.



Did I mention it was a little cold out?



This was the final shot we got of the entire family. It's a darn miracle we got a picture this good with all the little ones. Or maybe I should just say- with my family. I have the majority of the 6 and under crowd. How would it be to have children that just sit and pose? Hmmm... maybe one day I will know.



As always, Thanksgiving dinner was fantastic. And we laughed until we cried at this picture during Thanksgiving dinner:



So maybe I was the only one crying but for some odd reason, it made for a good laugh. That's what family is all about. Laughing. For no good reason. And then laughing some more. We really were just seeing how close-up we could get a picture with the camera. Is that so wrong?

Spencer had a great Thanksgiving. Not only did he get to eat his first jar-ful of veggies (sweet potatoes, how appropriate), he was probably held every single waking (and sleeping) moment. The girls loved every minute of this guy, especially Katie. Thanks Katie- you're the best!



We spent our vacation eating, watching movies, eating, playing games, eating and of course, shopping at Costco (where we were eating) . I had no intention of getting any of my Christmas shopping done on Black Friday but somehow I managed to take Walmart, Costco, and Target by storm and got most of it done! Get out of town! No really, I guess I did have to get out of town to get things done. It helps to have a bunch of cousins around to play with and babysit my kids. Love that! Thanks to Mike and Amy for driving the majority of our treasures home!

Can you just see how much fun is going on here? FuN! fUn! FuN!



We woke up Sunday morning ready to roll out of town but found out that I-80 was closed. Darn Wyoming! Always causing a weather raucous. Finally around 12:30 p.m. the roads opened and we headed out. Our drive home looked a little something like this:



Eeeeeee gads! Driving 10 mph over a mountain pass in a huge line of traffic is a long process. We made it home safely around 10:00 p.m. that night. Yay! I was quite happy with our decision to buy new tires for our van right before we left on this little vacation.

This was a fun trip. We love love love visiting Jeff and Lori in Denver. It's always so much fun. Thanks everyone!

The Birthday Hook Up

Sunday was the official end to Taylor's week-long birthday extravaganza. Whew. What a week.

Wednesday was his actual birthday so we took him out to dinner at the Mayan. And I guess when it's your birthday, you don't have to cooperate for pictures...



I wrapped three presents for him. One was a Razor scooter and the other two were clothes. I wasn't going to wrap the clothes but then I figured "what the heck".

We gave him the first gift to open:



That is the face a parent likes to see when a child opens a birthday gift. The Razor was a success. And sorry Dave, I couldn't crop your face out of that picture.

As for the clothes:



Not so much. See my sister? She is laughing because he is so mad about getting clothes for his birthday. Note to self- Never give a 6-year-old boy clothes as a gift. Not exciting. "Clothes are boring" he told me. Not to Sara. Not to me. Boys...

Dave told me that I should have given the clothes to him first and the scooter last. Information that would have been good to know before I gave him the gifts.

He still had gifts to open from my parents and those were a hit! It appears he recovered quickly.



Sunday we had a November birthday party for my side of the family. Taylor was born on my brother Micah's birthday. Good times. I still remember sitting in the delivery room all by myself and making that first phone call to my brother to tell him that Taylor was born on his big day.

Back to the party, we celebrated with fruit and chocolate pizzas and homemade icecream. It was SO GOOD.



I have been looking forward to this party because Russ and Nat let me in on a little secret- they got Taylor the display case of McDonalds Star Wars toys!! We just knew this gift was going to be a hit. And let me tell you, it did not disappoint!

Check out this face:



Happy Kid = Happy parents!!



Look how cute Taylor is! (And Russ & Dave too)



The girls- our assessment was that we all looked awful and didn't want pictures of ourselves but Kristina is going on a mission and seems to be a little family-picture-crazy lately. Kristina is also super photogenic. I missed out on that strand of DNA.



Happy Birthday Micah and Taylor! Thanks for giving us a reason to partay!

Baby Shower

Saturday was Aunt Nat's Baby Shower. It was a fun event.

I would have to call it my most successful baby shower yet- only because Natalie's mom offered to make all the food. Can you imagine? It was difficult for me to relinquish any control but I turned the food over to her and the result was amazing. We feasted on chicken noodle soup (the one with the big fat homemade noodles), homemade bread, a gigantor salad, and yummy peach cobbler. All I had to do was decorate and put some games together. Suh-weet!

Since I didn't have the responsibility of making the food, I directed all my energy toward decorating. My motto is, "With Hobby Lobby, all things are possible." I do have to mention though, remember last year when I had that debacle at Hobby Lobby with the paper-licking cashier? As luck would (not) have it, she was my cashier again. Apparently she has learned a thing or two over the year about paper handling. She didn't count a single sheet of paper- she just asked me how many I had. I wonder how long it took her to figure that out. I was totally relieved but then when she called me "hon", I had to reconsider just exactly how much progress she was making with me. Listen woman, I'm old enough to be your mother (not really)- don't be calling me "hon".

Anyhoo, I had fun putting decorations together. I went with a hot pink and green theme. It's kind of nice decorating for events around Christmas time. The possibilities are endless at the craft stores! Who knew that pink is now the new red? Yikes.

I hung hot pink (almost purple, what can ya do?) balls from the ceiling, made a banner in photo shop, decorated my little pine trees with pink & green ornaments, purchased helium balloons (they just make me happy), made a diaper cake (which was to-die-for cute) and made some funky hanging thing to dangle from my chandelier. There were other things here and there but I won't bore you with the details. Needless to say, it was fun! fun! fun!

Here is Nat holding the diaper cake. She is so cute and finally starting to look pregnant (although she was hiding behind things all day so I don't have any pictures of her belly). She was telling us that she told her doctor, "I can't imagine getting any bigger". Hello- still two months to go! I think her dr just started laughing. Being pregnant is bliss, especially the first time around.

Natalie's shower was fun! She is amazing and I am so grateful that she is part of our family. Russ picked a good'un. Haha! Love you Nat!

Five months already?

Yes. Spencer has already arrived at 5 months! It's awesome! We love our little Spenny!

One big FIRST for Spencer: Rice Cereal.

He wasn't too pleased.



Not pleased at all. Look at that little face- it clearly says "I trusted you and this is not what trust looks or tastes like!" (aka: where is my mama with my milky?) We have since worked out the problem and he actually does eat the cereal better- if I'm not the one feeding him. Funny how that works.



A typical day for Spencer includes chewing on his hands and fingers. ALL DAY. He loves them. He has found his thumb but doesn't suck on it- just uses it as a chew toy. And when one hand won't do...



He brings in the reinforcements- hand numero dos! And no, we haven't seen any signs of teeth yet.



A few things about my little buddy:

• Spencer is my first baby who really lets me know when he wants his diaper changed.
• He likes to jabber.
• His right eye still has a clogged tear duct. It drives me crazy- especially right now because the little guy has a cold. He is really so cute and so happy- every oraface of his face can be running snot or spit and he's still all smiles.
• He is BIG. Chunky thighs and "rubber band wrists" as some random stranger called them.
• Ticklish. Giggles like crazy when I wash in his neck cracks.
• Hearing mommy sing quiets him almost instantly.
• He has started enjoying time on the floor. He rolls and moves around.
• He is grabbing his toys and loves to chew chew chew them.
• He most definetly knows and adores mommy above and beyond all others. (I think it has a little something to do with the milk factory I am running)
• We often find him laughing at nothing. It is delightful!
• Spencer sleeps in a bouncy chair. When I put him down to sleep, his little left hand immediately comes up to the side of his face, he turns his face to his hand and then proceeds to make funky grunting sounds for a few minutes until he falls asleep. Funny baby...
  

Spencer was having a tough time falling asleep one day. I had so much stuff to get done and couldn't just sit and hold him for hours. He wasn't happy if he couldn't see me so I put him in his jumper in the bathroom doorway and got busy cleaning the bathroom. FINALLY after a while he fell asleep. I really did mean to grab him and lay him down before this happened but he was out like a light before I could get to him. He transferred easily to his bed, but not before I snapped a couple pictures. What a little sweet heart!

Blessing Tree

Tonight for FHE we talked about Thanksgiving- the whole Pilgrims and Indians schpeel. The kids were actually kind of interested and paying attention. I think it had something to do with the pilgrim/indian/mayflower/cornacopia stick puppets (that they fought over).

My ultimate goal was to talk about the things in our lives that we are grateful for. You know, "count your many blessings, name them one by one". Right. I wanted the kids to understand and be grateful for all that we have been blessed with. Which really, with the age group I am dealing with, it's comical. Comical, I say. I first tried to explain what blessings are. Then I pulled out this tree and a bunch of puffy foam leaves for us to write our blessings on.

They grasped the concept... sort of.

Taylor pretty much figures the correct answer to any FHE question is "and we love eachudder". So, pretty much that was his answer for the evening, with a few Wii games thrown in, and a lot of "n stuff" said after random thoughts and blessings.

Sara, on the other hand, was listing every toy she could think of and the color pink.

And Liv, well, she was just trying to confiscate all the leaves and steal my marker.

So maybe they didn't quite get it but hey, there's always next year. Or I guess I should say ALL year- since we should be grateful all the time, not just in November. That is something I will be pounding into the kids this year. We are blessed! We are grateful! We'll see how that goes.

Treasures

Friday afternoon I took the girls to my grandma's house. They were excited because they knew we were going there for them to choose an apron made by great grandma. My grandma has always been a sewer. I don't think I can recall her being without her sewing bag, loaded with towels to crochet. She's always crocheted towels and made aprons. Years ago I went and chose an apron of my own. I have decided that now is the time for my little girls to have that very same opportunity, even if they are only 4 and 2.

Here is what they chose:



These aprons have my grandma written all over them. The fabric she chose isn't what I would choose but I think that is part of their charm. It is fabric she chooses. They are aprons she has made. They are a reflection of her and what she loves. Years from now when my grandma is no longer here, the girls will be able to put on their aprons and have a piece of their great grandma with them.

This is a picture of Sara, Livvy, Emma, and Eliza with their great grandma on Mother's Day.



It's important to me to help my kids create a connection with all of their grandparents. If grandma gives one of the kids the ugliest shirt I've ever seen well guess what? Who cares!? The kids don't know the difference and they usually LOVE it. It's a gift and an act of love from grandma and so we embrace the shirt, we love the shirt, and my kids know that they are loved by grandma. Of course that situation is only hypothetically speaking...

Friday night we also had the opportunity to visit Grandpa Jerry. It always breaks my heart to visit poor grandpa. I wish the kids had been able to know him when he was all there but since that isn't an option, we go and visit and always take a laugh or two home with us. Seriously. The things that go down at the Alzheimer place are hysterical.

Tonight, for instance, grandpa was followed around by a woman we lovingly refer to as his girlfriend. She follows him, talks to him, taps on him and he just ignores her. Because you know, grandpa can't exactly talk. Not to mention that he isn't interested in anyone who gets in the way of his pacing. Mike used his stealth photography skills to snap this picture of gpa and his lady friend. I'm not exactly sure why we were trying to be stealth... It just seemed appropriate at the time.



Another lady was enamoured with Livvy. At one point during the evening, Livvy ran into the dining room- she was out of my view for a good 30 seconds so I got up to go check on her. And yes, Livvy had instantly made a new 80-year-old friend who was lifting her onto the table. Hello. Hazard. I could snap this little lady in half and here she is lifting my kid. Crazy. Livvy spent the evening running through the halls with this lady chasing after her, laughing and shrieking for joy (not Liv, the little old lady). Balloons were put up all over the place and naturally the kids wanted them. This same lady pulled off her shoe and was using it as a knife to cut the balloons loose. Right lady. No ballon for you! But thanks for the good laugh.

Here is Sara eating by grandpa. Look how cute and festive everything is! The kids had a great time. They each took home a balloon and a mouthful of candy, compliments of Mike and Amy- they somehow managed to win every drawing and contest they had that night. They won two candy jars and a gift basket. Three items and there was only two of them. Last time we were there they won a gift basket too. If we keep this up, they might stop inviting us bosshogs.



Here is our little fam with grandpa. Check out Livvy's face- always a crack up.



Jerry was doing pretty good. He was actually more calm then he usually is. He usually just paces but he actually sat down and ate with us. No matter how hard we tried, he wouldn't look at the camera.

Saturday night me and the kids spent some time at my parent's house while all the boys went to the Real Soccer game. After they came back we hung out and played some Settlers. Once again, good times with the fam.

And last but not least, Sunday night we had Dave's grandpa Vern over for dinner. It was so nice to have him at our house. He's such a great guy. We chatted about his life and he shared stories of his childhood, how he met his wife, how she was converted to the Gospel, and how he started up his own business as a butcher. It was good times. We love grandpa Vern and feel so blessed to have him in our lives. 100 and going strong, can you imagine?! We love our gramps!

It was so fun being surrounded by people we love all weekend long!

May The Force Be With You

I am old! Old I say! How do I know this? Taylor is turning 6! Six. I should just go out and dig my own grave right now. I remember thinking that it was okay to have a five-year-old but after that... all bets were off. Old. Old. Old. And here it is, Taylor's birthday party, and I'm yabbering on about myself.

Changing direction...

Yesterday Taylor had his 6-year-old birthday party! It was awesome. I was originally pretty freaked out to throw a party because it's not warm outside. I couldn't figure out what to do with 12 little boys in my house. Lucky for me, I have friends (stop laughing) and the internet. Neither of those things lead me astray. Ever. Always reliable. And so, we threw Taylor a very successful and very FUN Star Wars Birthday party!

We decided to serve lunch. We served pizza and yoda soda. Yoda soda is sprite with a scoop of lime sherbet in it. I made sure to give each boy a green straw. Kids love straws. They drive me crazy. But that's because I'm the mom and I have to clean up all the mess from all the bubbles they blow. But yes, this was a party and so straws were a-go!

After lunch I told the kids that an asteroid had exploded in our backyard and they were to go out and collect pieces of the asteroid. Me, Taylor, and Sara made the asteroids. I bought three different things- mini play-doh, army guys, and match box cars. We wadded up each gift in tin foil until they looked like asteroids and then put colored dots on them. Each boy was to go outside and find three asteroids, one with a red dot, a green dot, and a yellow dot. It was perfection! They loved coming in and opening up their gifts.

We then played "Rescue Princess Leia". I blew up 30ish balloons and put a picture of Princess Leia in one balloon and a picture of a Clone Trooper in all the rest. The kids stomped on all the balloons until they found Princess Leia. Once again, a hit!

I have to say though, the biggest hit of the party was the light sabers! We made light sabers from PVC pipe and this foam stuff that is used to insulate pipe. Dave cut a piece of PVC pipe for the handle. We shoved that into the foam and then duct taped the whole thing- regular grey duct tape for the handle and then colored duct tape for the glowing sword part. Don't you just love my Star Wars lingo? Sorry peeps- I am not a sci-fi-star wars junky. Anyhoo, they were a total hit! I had them play one little lame game with them (keep 4 balloons from hitting the ground) but really all they wanted to do was play Star Wars and have light saber fights- a slight hazard with only one incident involving a couple tears that only lasted for a minute. Whew. I guess that goes with the territory, you know, when you make weapons at birthday parties. Oh yeah, we know how to party.

I love love love this picture! These boys are absolutely hilarious. I told them that I was going to take a picture so they posed themselves. It was so funny. I didn't have to do a thing. They were so into it. Look at all the different poses and their fierce faces. Don't mess with the force.

All in all the party was a success. Things were a little rocky before the party started. At 11:40 (party started at 12:00) I still didn't have a birthday cake. And Dave had to go back to Lowe's because we were short on light saber parts. And someone had to go get the pizza. And my baby was asleep. Lucky for me our cute babysitter who lives around the corner was able to come last minute. She was awesome and stayed for the whole party, holding Spencer the entire time. Such a life saver! I tell you what, with parties you can never do enough planning. It's inevitable that everything will hit the fan right before the party starts.

Here is Taylor with his cake- the cake that I bought at 11:40 at Smith's. It had clowns and streamers on it. I came home, pulled them off, replaced them with Star Wars guys, and it was a hit. Yikes. Funny how things just work out sometimes. In my infinite wisdom (choke choke), I only put 5 candles on the cake. Dave was lighting them and noticed. I had to add another one. See, my subconscious is getting the best of me. Six years old. I tell ya, it's killing me.

I also convinced all the kids that Mint Chocolate Chip Icecream is Yoda Icecream. It brings me back to my younger days when I went to a sleepover where we watched Gremlins and ate Mint Chocolate Chip Icecream and were SO.FREAKED.OUT. Oh the drama.

Taylor is a lucky boy because he had his friend party the Saturday before his birthday. This of course means that this entire week will be jam packed with birthday festivities, the lucky dog.

Making the connection

You know when you have those aha! moments? Those moments when things just connect? Well, good news for me, I had one of those just the other day.

A couple months after I had Livvy my neck went all wonky. One minute I was fine and the next minute it was kinked and it hurt. When the pain didn't go away I decided to make my way to the chiropractor. After x-rays and oohing and ahhing over me, my kids, and my problems (probably just seeing dollar signs because I had BIG problems) the chiropractor told me I had degenerative disc disease (or something like that). According to him, my neck was curving the opposite direction that it should and I (lucky me) was the worst case he had ever seen. He couldn't say what caused it and I couldn't think of any major incident in my life that would cause such a weird thing at such a young age. I'm such a young whipper snapper you know.

After way too many trips to the chiropractor (every day, then every other day, then twice a week- seriously- it got out of hand with me and my three kids going to every appt), things were improving. And then after a while, things weren't improving. I was sick of going there and sick of paying him money and sick of all my exercises, and sick of laying still for a half an hour every single day with my head strapped down so I stopped going and decided to find myself a physical therapist. I never did. But they don't have to know that. Shh...

But anyway, the other day my neck started hurting again so I was toying with the idea of going to Dave's physical therapist. I'm just afraid he's going to tell me to come in 10 times a week and guess what? Don't have the time for that, not to mention I have 4 little extensions to my body that never seem to go away. Ever. For which I am grateful, of course. However, they can make excessive trips to anywhere slightly complicated.

After talking to a friend of mine about how core strength (or the lack thereof) is indicative of so many problems in the body, a light went off! And yes, this leads to yet another story.

Eight years ago this month I had major surgery. I had a cyst the size of a baseball in my bile duct. Since the bile duct is a necessary organ, they couldn't just take it out and toss it. They went in and removed the cyst and then took part of my intestine and made it into something that would compensate for my missing bile duct. I would say "good times" but the truth is, it was not good times at all. It was hellish and awful and it hurt. Bad. After a week in the hospital and a couple months of not even being able to stand up straight, things were better. Life went on except for one thing- I lost my core strength. To this day I can't do a sit up. On a couple occasions my brothers and sister have sat around me trying to get me to do a sit up and we have laughed and laughed watching me try. It's ridiculous.

For your viewing pleasure, I thought I would add a couple pictures of my surgery.

Tube in my nose and morphine button in my hand. This is what 3 months of marriage looked like for me and Dave. Yikes.



See my face? I'm really not happy. Not at all.



Extreme close up. Those holes are where the drains were. I have never experienced anything worse than when they pulled those out.



I would like to think I made the connection (finally!) that a lot of what might be causing my neck problems is that I have a weak core. It has given me the purpose and motivation to exercise my body and build my strength up again. Maybe I'm wrong and there is no connection but hey, if I think there is a connection and it is motivating me to be better, I'm all over it.

There's my story people. I am motivated and I am exercising. So while right now I may be a fabulous mother of four, I am looking forward to the day when I can say I am a fit and fabulous mother of four. So much better!

I will keep you posted as to when I can actually do a sit up. It's my goal. One of my many many goals.

My kids

I went to Target tonight with Taylor. He was more or less kicking and screaming because the child HATES to go shopping but wearing floods, white running shoes, and a Tony Hawk shirt (it did have a collar- give me some credit) to church isn't exactly appropriate.

Anyhoo, our shopping trip turned out to be rather productive. It's amazing what I can get done bringing only one child along. He may be my least cooperative when it comes to shopping but still, only ONE child. It's much easier to shop and whisper-scream threats at only one child. Things can get out of hand when I am whisper-screaming at three.

I only intended on buying clothes for Taylor and Sara but once I was there, I realized Spencer needed new things too. Livvy didn't need a thing- until I came across this:



I believe that this shirt was manufactured with one child in mind. Her name is Olivia. And she is trouble. Couldn't pass this one up. And as validation of my purchase (like I really need more of that), when I got home, she was covered head to toe in marker. Perfect Fit!

Livvy really does keep things hoppin' around here. It is very hard to keep her in the house especially when the other kids are going in and out and back and forth to their friend's houses. The other day she came up to me and asked me for a sippy cup of milk. I got her her drink and she ran off to play. Minutes later my phone rang. It was my friend letting me know that Livvy was at her house- her house that is around the corner and down the street!! Maybe I should also mention that it was freezing outside and she was only wearing a diaper and a shirt. Would it be bad of me to also add that this actually happened twice in the last week? I should stop, if nothing else, for fear of a phone call from social services.

In other news, Sara chose this hot outfit to wear out to dinner on Saturday night. I like to call it her "holiday" outfit. The jacket is from her birthday. The shirt is from the 4th of July. And her pants- Halloween. Aren't all the patterns amazing together? I tried to talk her out of wearing this for like 30 seconds and then realized I may as well be talking to a brick wall. Not happenin. See the tears streaming down her face? I can't recall what was going on. Just know that this is a common every day occurrence.



In other other news, my sister let me know today that 2 people (2 separate people on separate occasions!!) saw a picture of Taylor and thought that he was black! Maybe that funky baby I made the other day isn't so far from the truth.

And Spencer, cute as ever. I bought him 9 month and 12 month clothes at Target. He's not even 5 months old yet. (sigh) He's easy peasy to please- I pick him up by his sleeper and swing him back and forth. He giggles and smiles and I resist the urge to swallow him whole. He is so cute and so fun that I can barely contain my joy.

the truth about genetics

My sister-in-law Natalie did this thing on her blog. She is pregnant with their first so it's funny to see what putting their faces together would create. Me and Dave, on the other hand, already have 4 so I thought it would be fun to see if there would be any likeness to my kids.

Um, apparently NOT. I tell you what, if I had done this thing before I had any children, we just might have had to shut down the baby factory before it ever even opened. Wowza!

The first problem- this child is rather, uh, ethnic. I mean, we always laugh that Taylor and Livvy were Mexicans when they were born but this might be taking it a little too far. I made three more after this and they actually turned out looking a little less weird, if you don't factor in the baby combover look.

This baby, believe it or not, is a boy.

It looks like he does have Dave's hair line though. How's that for looking like your parents? This is just too fugly not to share. Go try it out and give yourself a good laugh.