Annual trip to the Park

I think going to the park is about as much torture as going to church. The kids love it and E bugged me so much, that we went for our annual visit.

E has great expressions. She took the baby on a ton of slides.

Hay tried to take the baby down the curly slide and this is the result.

Peanut loved this bouncy thing. The problem was it was too cold to sit on and hold. Who ever thought of making things out of metal for a park? It must of been a man.

This is the only picture of Hay's face I got. She is growing into quite a pain. I still like her anyways.

More Fall

B's boyfriend came to play today, so we decided to play in the leaves.

He is a cute little monster. But is all boy. He has to pound on everything and touch everything that is naughty. (I mean that in a clean little boy way....)

halloweenie

We had a fun filled Halloween this year. We got invited to a fun fun party at my friend Traci's family's arena. There was so much food, a jump house, a treasure hunt and a couple pinatas.

Hay and her friend Dr. Camille.

Hay decided to be Avril Lavigne. She looked super cute, complete with pink streaks in her hair.

E and Isabel. E was a friendly witch with black lips.

This is my BFF Traci. The picture is so blurry because my camera sucks. We decided to be cowgirls. We raided her mother in laws closet for some fabulous western wear. We were laughing so hard while we tried stuff on. Fun times.

Gotta love that wrangler butt! (I think I must have a butt obsession. This is the second post in a month with the picture of someones butt. Hum...)

Giddy Up cowgirl. I had the most high-waisted wranglers on with some gold cowboy boots and this fabulous shirt. I looked awesome! My sweet little P was Little Red Riding Hood. She looked mighty cute.

We went trick or treating in a neighborhood down the road on Saturday night. It was a super fun holiday.

Dropoff with a side of breakfast sausage

This is probably really mean, and I shouldn't admit it. I am probably teaching my kids a bad thing. BUT....
I get so much joy when I drop off my kids in the morning and get to see the crossing guards hair. She has the PERFECT sausage roll bangs. Do you remember those from the 80's (maybe early 90's too!) Curled under tight! But every morning, they say, "Mom, there is your breakfast sausage" and I smile and laugh. Its the little things, right?

A hitch in my giddy-up

I am having left hip pain every time I run. It doesn't hurt while I am running, just when I am done and hurts for weeks later. It is on the outer side and hurts up clear by my hipbone. Does anyone know any good stretches? It is soo frustrating!

Numero Uno

Wow this year has gone fast!

The Cabin

For my Mom's 60th birthday, my Dad rented a cabin up by Morgan, Utah. All of my siblings and their families, packed into this beautiful cabin for three days and two nights. We all took a meal so that my Mom would have a break and we ate like kings. We did have to keep telling her to sit down and that she was not allowed to help.

It was such a beautiful drive to get there. We went the long way through SLC and then up by East Canyon Reservoir, but it was so worth it! The trees were so pretty!

This is my Momma with my Baby P.

My sister Raney brought some craft things for the kids to do. This is E's prized door hanger.

This picture is kind of blurry, but I like it anyways (including E's grimace) Steve didn't come and I was grumpy all weekend (but what is new on both accounts!) Look at my beautiful long hair (sigh!) Oh well, it will grow back, right?

While we were there we went for a good run and a walk with the kids. It was quite a hike to get back up the hill to the cabin. Hay decided she need a photo.

What a cute butt my Sister in Law Amber has! She was so sweet to carry my baby part of the way back up the hill. I love Amber. She is such a kind and loving girl. She is such a good example to me of patience. She fits in our family so well. I wish I lived closer to her so that I could annoy her all the time!

Again, blurry picture (Maybe it is time for a new camera???) I caught P in the act of pulling out all the wipes and everything else she could get her hands on.

Mom and all the Grand kids. This was such a fun weekend. I love that I am from a big family and that we all get along so well.

Grateful....

I have been given a big ol' slice of humble pie. We have gone from having what ever we want to having barely enough. It is hard to live the barely enough way. I know some are experts at it, I am not. I have been angry about this for quite some time. I am finally humble. So I'm listing my top 10 things I am grateful for. This is my therapy.

1. My children. They give me purpose and keep me going in this world. Without them, I would of quit long ago.

2. Health. I have been working downtown this last week in Breast Imagining. Every time I work there, I see ladies who are diagnosed with cancer, or are fighting it. I am always humbled. I am so thankful for my health.

3. My Family. My family is so awesome. I am grumpy. They love me anyways. My parents are wonderful. They are the reason my kids have school clothes this year.

4. My home. It isn't much. It is too small for our family. But we still have one. We have friends that are losing theirs and I feel so bad for them.

5. My food storage. Without it, we would be hungry.

6. My friends. They give me a reason to smile. They tell me my new hair cut looks good, even though I know it is not true.

7. The seasons. I am so grateful to live in a place where we have fall. I love the warm days and the cool evenings. I love the smell of fireplace smoke in the morning. I love the color of the trees.

8. My Husband. He is in constant pain and he still goes to work. He could easily be on disability (and probably should) but he never takes the easy way out.

9. My job. I am grateful for it. So many people are out of work. I am not. I am thankful for that.

10. My babysitter. I hate leaving my baby. It is so hard. I am grateful I have a place to take her where I know she is loved and cared for.

Hay...

I may be biased, but I think Hay is beautiful! I love the pictures my sister in law takes. She does such a great job!

Dishes

Every time I turn around and put dishes away, this is what I find.

Fall is my favorite

First day of School...

.....Only a month later.

My Baby Rocks!

My sweet sweet baby has woken up every two hours at night since she was born. She is a little stinker. I finally decided that it was time for her to sleep in her bed. I am going to start working nights and knew that Steve would not put up with getting up every two hours. So I decided to give it a try. I told myself that I wouldn't nurse her until 2:00 am. Well, she went all night and has ever since! She still wakes up and cries 1-2 times in the night and I have to rub her back so she will go back to sleep, but she is doing so well. The real dumb part....I keep waking up every 2-3 hours. Hopefully my internal clock will go back to normal some day and I will sleep 5 hours straight. I am so proud of her! The next dilemma....how to keep covers on her. Anyone got any suggestions?

Vacation Part Two.

I know. There was much anticipation for me to finish. Here it goes.







Aunt Tami's house is awesome. There is lots of room to run and play. The best part, the pool outside. My kids couldn't wait to go swimming.



E cracks me up. She adopted this dancing suit as her swimsuit this summer. Why? I never found out the answer, but the nice part is she doesn't have to use as much sunscreen.



I love the mountains in the background. That is what I miss most about Utah. Southern Utah is very desertish. Tami said there haven't had any rattlesnakes in their backyard, but they have had a few scorpions floating in the pool.

Hay and her older cousin Savannah. Savannah is such a cutie. She is so sweet to my kids and is such a peacemaker. I don't think Hay or E had one fight the whole time we were down there.

Both my kids were scared to go off the diving board at first. E of course was the braver one of the two and went off without her life jacket. Hay figured out that when you jumped with a noodle, you don't sink to the bottom. Silly girl!

One night we went and crashed the hospitals party. My brother in law delivers lots of babies there, so they let us come. Yep, the hospital has a catered party for all its employees. They had a rock wall to climb, some bouncy houses, a big slide, all the cotton candy and snow cones you could eat, plus they had a big raffle with lots of good prizes for their employees. I think my hospital gives me $35 at Christmas and tells me to stick it. It could learn a lot from this hospital. Oh back to the picture. I was trying to take a picture of E going down the slide with little E and Hay thought I was taking a picture of her. I did get a good smile from her.....

Grandpa Bob reading a story to Little E, Baby P and Great Grandma. Steve's dad lives in a town close by and Great Grandma (who is in her 90's) lives with Aunt Tami. My kids love their grandpa. He lets them paint his toenails, do his hair and reads them tons of stories.

Baby P loved loved loved this toy Aunt Tami had. She would sit down on it and play. She also loved this sippie cup with the straw. She sucks up the water and then spits it out. I'm gonna have to buy her one of those for Christmas I think.

This is our 4 year old cousin. She is so cute. Her and E were quite the buddies. The girls were making hair bows and she decided to put them all over her. She is quite the swimmer too. She would jump off the diving board and swim the length of the pool. It gave me quite a worry, but she swims like a fish.

When Aunt Tami gave us directions, one of them were turn left at the haunted house. I saw this house and immediately knew where to turn. The more I look at it, the more it grows on me. It really does look haunted though.

The drive home was a little better. We put Baby P forward facing in her car seat and fed her lots of lollipops. We stopped at Grandma Jill's for a pit stop and the kids decided they needed their picture taken in her wishing well.

We then headed to Salt Lake to meet my sister Raney and went out to dinner at a place called Mimi's. It was a cute restaurant. We stayed at her way cute apartment and then headed towards home. We all decided that we need to go on a permanent vacation because it was much more entertaining then reality!!

Vacation

We went to Southern Utah this summer to visit my sister in law and her 7 kids. I have never driven farther than Salt Lake with my kids, so I had a lot of anxiety about this trip. It took us three days to complete the 9 hour trek (I am a super big wimp when it comes to traveling!) We first stopped in good ol' Salt Lake City.

We had some school shopping to do, so we decided to try out Gateway. The parking was horrible!! We circled that *$@% parking lot for 20 minutes and after a few colorful words out of my mouth we finally found a spot. Gateway is heaven. We decided that it was the best "mall" we have been too in a super long time. I am already planning a trip to go back and shop.

Hay stuck in Ruby's car. Ruby is in the back looking quite concerned.

Next stop, Auntie Amber and Uncle Lew. We love love love to stay with them. Hay and E love to play with Ruby and Zane. They had invited a few more of my siblings, so I got to see My sisters Margot and Raney, and my brother Joey. We had smores. Amber took some pictures of Erika and Brynn. Lew and I traded stomach problem stories. It was a good time!

Zane is so cute. Whenever he gets embarrassed, he hides. He was about to duck behind his truck..

Raney had just got back from camping. Oh, how I love Raney. She is always so happy and has such a good attitude about life. She loves to hold Baby P because "she is super chunky and wont break."

I love this picture because you can see her little teeth.

(Not to mention, those FABULOUS arm rolls.)

This is my super cute nephew. He has huge blue eyes and has the sweetest voice.

We woke up the next morning and did the last leg of our journey. The baby hated the driving! She cried and cried. We stopped about an hour down the road for an hour, so that she could stretch her legs and not be so sad. The drive was long and boring. It is about 3 1/2 hours from Salt Lake City. We did see a wild fire burning on the way, but that was about the most exciting thing.

Next stop, Aunt Tami's.

Aunt Tami is Steve's sister. We love her. She just had baby #7. Last November after I had Baby P, she left her then 6 kids and flew in and stayed with me for a week. It was wonderful. It was my turn to return the favor. She has such a wonderful way with babies. She knows all the tricks to quiet them down. I was excited to be able to come and help her. I am not so good with babies and really don't get the hang of them until they are around 9 months or so. She let me come anyways.

She is also an amazing homemaker. She bakes her own bread, makes her own granola, composts, gardens, has the most impressive food storage I have ever seen, cleans, cooks, and takes care of 7 kids, her great grandma, and is a wonderful wife to her hubby, who is a family practice doctor.

This is her Sweet E. She is two and loves to sing. She will be playing or watching TV and all of the sudden she will start singing at the top of her lungs. It is usually Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. She was my little shadow while we were there.

Baby P's favorite past time is playing peek-a-boo with herself. Give her a shirt, blanket, or dishtowel and she is content for about 10 minutes, playing. Unless she gets it stuck on top of her head and can't get it off.

Well I'm sure you will be waiting for part two of this exciting adventure. I hope you don't lose any sleep because you are so excited to hear the rest of the story.

Oh and I am so sorry for all the people I didn't come and visit while I was in Salt Lake. When you have 3 sisters and 2 brothers, a mother in law, and 3 brother in laws that live there, well that takes up most of the visiting time. Maybe next time!

Sweet E

My Sister in law Amber took E's 8 year old pictures. They turned out so AWESOME!
I am so excited, I had to share.