stuff

So let's play catch up...

Thanksgiving was fun! I love a good holiday w/ good food!

We took family pictures. I wasn't really excited about this and even debating doing them but it took about 15 minutes for us to get an excellent picture of each kid and a good family picture. So I was happy we went ahead and did them!

Then last thursday I finally got to have the surgery on my hip that I had been fighting for!! I have had weird hips for a while now but for the last 2 years they have been hurting. I found a dr. that was willing to help me out. The MRI wasn't conclusive w/ a labrum tear but that is what it was looking like. There was also a bump on my bone that could cause the labrum to tear if it hadn't already so he was going to shave that off. The good news is that the labrum was great but there were several bumps all over the top of my femur. So the ball and socket weren't sitting together properly so he had to shave the bumps off and reshape the ball. Sounds creepy but hey if it works then it's okay! And he said he was confident that it would relieve my pain.

It was kind of a long surgery. It took about 4.5 hours and an hourish of that was spent manipulating my body into a position so they could get into the joint. man was my body sore after all that! Luckily I was out for that part.

The recovery is no walking on that leg for 3 weeks. Which made it difficult for the first couple days because they must have pinched a nerve and I couldn't feel my good leg at all!! It was a bit difficult trying to get to the bathroom!! Eliott had to wheel me in a computer chair!

But the feeling is back and I can get around on my crutches!

I am lucky to have awesome friends and a fantastic Mother-in-law who have been soooo willing to help w/ food and kids so that I can recover quickly!

So I spend my days hanging out on the couch and watching Monk! It is going to feel great to be able to take care of my family and do things soon!

And Seth had his piano recital last night and did a great job!

And that my friends is my recap!

halloween!!!

Better late than never....

Lydia the super girl!

Lexi the princess! Belle to be exact!

Riley the princess! Cinderalla was her princess of choice

and last but not least we have Seth the baseball player!

I know the pictures are small but I was trying to upload them a different way. Obviously it didn't work but you get the idea

weekend update

Friday - was a poopy day. I can't even tell you why, it just was. So I talked my fab sis in law in coming to the valley early and we went to dinner and a bit of shopping. First time at cheesecake factory which was good and yummy!

Saturday - would have been great if I had actually watched General Conference. As it was I knew we wouldn't be able to see all of the sessions uninterrupted so we had it on but were recording it and Eliott and I plan on watching it this week. So I made yummy frozen cookie dough balls dipped in chocolate. Seriously they are as good as they sound! I will post a picture of them and the recipe soon. I went to kohls to use my $10 off coupons and my 30% off coupons and got some christmas gifts for the kids which makes me almost done w/ their stuff! Whoo hooo! and I got a cute shirt and a pair of shoes and all of that for about $30 w/ my awesome coupons!! Then we went to a friends house to eat yummy food and attempt to watch conference.

Sunday - should have consisted of more conference but the youth in the ward were assigned to go visit Randolph. So up at 6 and outta here by 7. I have to admit I had kind of a bad attitude about it due to missing General Conference but I was trying to change that attitude. I had never been before and wanted to make it a good experience. And it was! it was actually amazing and I am so grateful to have had the chance to go. Next would come where I ran over my Ipod Touch. That was a sad moment. But it is still usable and doesn't look too bad. Then for 2nd session of confernce I slept. It's true I did! I was sooooo exhausted and again I am watching them all this week when the kids go to bed! Then we got to go to a Family Birthday dinner. which is always delightful. and the day ended w/ some craft blog hopping and a good night's sleep!!

And that my friends is pretty much my weekend. Not terribly exciting but that's life!!!

the truth is...

The truth is I don't have any truths for today. cuz the truth is I am having a rough week and seriously missing this lady....

It has been 7 years on Saturday.

Weekend update

Friday- Jammie day, finished yw invitations, end Jammie day when the nurse called to tell me Riley was sick and should come home, load girls into eliott's crap car only to have it die on me 3 times before I made it into the street, best neighbor ever offers to let me borrow her car, get Riley and reinstate jammie day( yes I really put my jammiea back on), costa vida salad, made snickerdoodles and didn't even eat one, then eliott went totals night with his bro and I watched lots of tlc and hgtv

Saturday- slept in a bit, had a lazy day with the fam. , went to hobby lobby with kelli, annoyed the hobby lobby lady w/ my 14 different colors of satin for flowers, had a yummy costa vida salad. made handouts for my lesson, watched movies with eliott

Sunday - church, then meetings, then a twice interrupted nap. surprise cookies dropped off! thanks Carly!! Brinner (breakfast for dinner) then bed for kids and movie for us. Lazy sunday! Love it!

Kind of a boring weekend but sometimes that is nice!!!

Look what I did...

So I am going to start another regular post. I am going to post some of the projects I have been working on are have already finished.

I saw this on a blog forever ago and have no idea where I found it but thought it was cute! You just buy $store plates and candle holders to make this cute party tray.

I got the clear candle holders and spray painted them white and then used E6000 glue to to put it all together.

I think it is way cute and it was fun to have but here are somethings I would do differently next time. And there will be a next time! I need a pink one!!

First the top of the candle stick holders weren't level, so when picking them out check them to see if they are level. Next double check that your plates aren't warped at all.

I made this the night before Seth's baptism so I was busy and my dad was just sitting here doing nothing so I put him to work. So the next thing I would do differently is tell him not to make his "sharpie' marks so big when marking the center of the plates!!! Thanks Dad!! Also if you make one I like the bottom candlestick holder standing right side up and the next one is upside down.

Okay next up are these cute ctue flowers!! I have seen them everywhere but have yet to make them. My sis-in-law Jess showed up the other day w/ some in her hair so I quizzed her on her technique and away I went. I was making some invitations for a Young Womens activity and thought they would be cute on there. So now I have tons of practice and am ready to make lots of colors for my hair!!

And here is the cute invitation!! (see I told you I love making them!)

They were fun and I think they turned out cute. They are going in a clear 5x5 envelope!

I love love love crafting!!

the truth is...

The truth is I don't mind going to the dentist. But some where in that 6 months between visits I completely forget how uncomfortable it is to have somebody scrape sharp metal things against your teeth. Seriously!! Ugh! I went this morning and I am pretty sure I will forget the yuckiness of it in about a month so come March I will not mind going again!

The truth is I love making cards. I mean I really love it! Cards and Invitations! They are so fun to me and they are so pretty and I love to look at them. But I am soooo not the send out a card kinda girl. I often forget thank you cards. I mean come on I said thank you several times when you did whatever it was you did for me. Do I really have to send out a thank you card? (I know sometimes I still have to, but I don't like it) So since I never send cards out I like to make batches of them and give them to friends who actually do send cards out.

The truth is I have really long finger nails and I like them. They grow well and they look nice when I make sure to take care of them. But since starting piano, my teacher makes me clip them. I don't like this. I don't like feeling the very tip of my finger it is weird and sensitive. But I like piano so I suffer.

The truth is I am really really excited for my girls to be teenagers. I mean really excited!!! But mornings like this morning remind me that it won't be all fun. Like when lexi was sobbing one second and smiling the next. Oh man it's gonna be rough for the 2 boys in my life when all of us get to have "that time of month"!!

weekend update

Friday - lots and lots or prep work for seth's luncheon. mango salsa, snickerdoodles, yummy homemade "costa vida style" ranch dressing, guacamole, sweet pork, mopping, cleaning... hair coloring.

Saturday - up at 6:30 to finish the pork and start the rice. Had everything ready to go for luncheon (seriously smoothest luncheon ever!!) Seth's baptism (deserves a post of it's own) lots of family and friends over for the luncheon, clean up, dad stayed the rest of the day so there was alot of sports on tv with him and eliott. Scriptures, where seth grinned ear to ear with his new set. kids bedtime, more football. lesson prep

Sunday-church (we made it on time!!) and then I had meetings. Came home and napped while Eliott watched football. Read for a bit. had a yummy dinner and then went over to a great friends house. The girls played games while the boys watched football. and the kids ate goodies and ran around outside. Then i stayed and helped her w/ some price tagging on her jewelry and came home w/ a super cute necklace.

So all in all it was a fantastic weekend!!

Seth got baptized today!

My big, sweet, serious, silly, kind, loving boy got baptized today!!

Eliott took him out shopping for his snazzy suit and then took pictures for an invitation.

He picked all the people he wanted to come celebrate with him. He even helped address the envelopes and will send out thank you's to the people who gave him gifts! He is sooo big! When did this happen!

He is such an amazing kid!

I have decided I really like the stake baptisms! We didn't have to do anything. We got to focus on Seth and how he wanted to celebrate his day instead of worrying about talks, and prayers, and pianist. It was a beautiful day! Our stake has gone to a lot of work (I assume) in getting the day to be a well oiled machine. It flowed so well! And was so wonderful!

My dad went in on a set of scriptures for him and he was sooooo unbelievably excited! He was excited when we gave them to him, before we left for the church. But when we it was time for scripture reading before bed, he ran upstairs to get his scriptures and came back down w/ this smile on his face! I have a hard time getting a real smile for pictures but this one wasn't forced at all. He literally could not stop smiling while we read. In fact when it was his turn to read, you could hardly understand some of the things he read because he was still smiling sooooo big! I hope he keeps this excitement for scripture reading.

He is such an amazing guy! I love him to pieces! And guess what..... HE IS MINE!!! (Jealous? you should be!!!)

The truth is I turned Eliott down the first time he asked me out. To my credit, I didn't actually hang up the phone. Before our conversation ended my roommate was silently yelling at me to go out with him! It wasn't that I didn't want to, it was that I already had plans. So i broke those plans and went out with Eliott instead! Thanks Julie for the silent yelling!!

The truth is i really don't like running. I am not good at it. I am really slow and I look like I just ran 10 miles right when I start running. How I managed to go 4 years through cross country in high school and a 1/2 marathon a few years ago, I will never know, cuz really i don't like running.

The truth is I am really enjoying not having any shows that i "have to" watch. It has been nice! Yet I am sooo excited for my shows to start in a few weeks! This year I have dvr so I don't have to be home when it plays! Ah the freedom!!

The truth is I hate loud eating. It isn't necessarily the crunching, it's the extra saliva going on in there. Seriously people why is so sloshy in your mouth. I sometimes feel like a bad mom when I don't want to sit next to my kids when they sound like this. The worst culprit of sloshy eating would be my mom! Seriously she was so loud!!!! Love her though!

weekend update

bet you thought I forgot huh?! well with it being a 3 day weekend I decided to wait until today.

Saturday - we had to prestons over. The one I watch on a regular basis and the most adorable little redhead ever! Trip to the grocery store - solo! Then I got to go hand out a friends house for the rest of the day. While there I got to snuggle a sleeping newborn for 1.5 hours! Seriously it is my favorite thing in the world to hold a newborn on my chest with them all curled up and sleeping. It is so relaxing! After that sweet baby went away my friend and I sewed all afternoon. I made 2 skirts and a dress! So cute. The dress is too wide so I need to alter that a bit. Made the dress w/ a pattern! go me! fyi i still hate patterns. I would rather figure it out myself. another friend came over and made yummy stuff to eat! sooo yummy. Then I came home. I read for a bit then it was off to bed!

Sunday- Lexi woke up feeling yucky so we had to play the "who will stay home" game. Well I was assigned to say the prayer in church and open the library for my librarian friend who was out of town and Eliott was supposed to teach 3rd hour. And I wasn't feeling terribly fantastic anyway. But Eliott had counted on 2nd hour to finish lesson prep. So I had to go for the 1st 2 hours. Then we switched. I got to sleep for 2 hours got up for 1/2 an hour and then back to bed for 2ish more. It was sleepy sunday. Then dinner. After kids were in bed Eliott made a cake and we played the friends trivia game! It has been forever and we were a little rusty on our trivia!! Then to bed by 9:30. Seriously that is a lot of sleep.

Monday - Eliott had to get up and do flags for labor day. So it was another non sleep in day. So we decided to tackle the kids disaster of a room! So we cleaned and cleaned and cleaned. And then rearranged them a little. Then we hung out and watched a movie then dinner. Eliott went to do more flags. And then Eliott and I got to watch a movie. I got started on my laundry which makes tuesday laundry day easier and then to bed!

not terribly exciting but it was fun for me! I just might have to take some pictures of my projects!!

the truth is...

So my sis-in-law also does this fun one. The truth is wednesdays. So basically I tell you random things...

~The truth is I can't hear or say the difference between and "i" or an "e". Especially when it is in a 3 letter word. Eliott says it is kind of a combo between the 2 sounds. So if I need a pen I will usually say "can you hand me that P-E-N?" and spell it out for you. Yep I get looks but I get them when I try to just say it then I have to spell it anyway. This issue always makes me wonder how I say my name... when we go to eat I always have them put Eliott's name down cuz I have seen more than one person put Gin or Jin. As a result of this little defect I have to turn the kids over to Eliott when they are trying to learn those sounds!

~The truth is I still haven't decided if I want my girls saying boobs or breasts or what. So I still call it my chest. Seriously though, I can't imagine either of those words coming out of their cute little mouths so my theory is to just avoid!

~The truth is I hate blue lights on electronics. Seriously why did they switch from red numbers on your alarm clock to blue. I have a stereo in my room that has a blue circle display. I can't sleep if it isn't covered. So I have a polka dot gift box lid hanging off the front of it. That blue is soooo blasted bright. I have had the same alarm clock since I was about 10 and I hope it never dies cuz they all come in stupid blue!!

~The truth is I hate word verification thingys on blogs. I can understand them on public blogs. But come on people if you switch to private take away the verification!!

~The truth is I don't ever know who sings what, or what songs are titled. (with few exceptions) I just can't remember all that detail. I can usually sing along to it, but even then I have been known for some pretty awesome made up lyrics. But oh how I LOVE to turn up the music and belt it out!

~The truth is growing up my brother made a rule in his truck that I couldn't sing along unless I knew the artist. So that pretty much guaranteed I couldn't sing along to pretty much anything. Which I don't really blame him since I am pretty sure I sounded horrible!

~The truth is because I pretty much sounded horrible and have always felt self-conscious singing, I now take voice lessons from a good friend. It is so much fun! I will never be fantastic but I do feel much more comfortable just singing in church settings.

weekend update

In an attempt to blog more regularly I am going to follow in my fantastic Sis-in-laws steps and provide my few readers (if that!!) with a weekend update.

~friday we had seth's birthday party. I decided a year or so ago that I wasn't throwing birthday parties every year for every kid. So they get a friend party at 5, 8, 12, and 16. And every year regardless they get a family (meaning grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins...) party. So he was pretty excited this year. He invited a few friends and they went swimming at our community pool.

It was hands down the easiest party I have every thrown. Eliott went and sat at the pool with them and I was going to get little ceasars pizza but my friend was on her way to get some for her family so she picked up mine as well. So all i had to do was walk the food over to the pool! It was great and he had a blast!!

~saturday I went on the youth lake trip! we had sooo much fun! I came away with lots of funny funny memories, one really awesome bruise and lots of sore muscles! So I am gonna go with, it was a success!!

~Saturday evening Eliott and I got to go on a date! WE went to red Robin which was absolutely delicious!!! I think it was perfect after a day at the lake! Then we went errand running and to kohls. I love kohls!!! We got a new church shirt for Eliott and a pair of sunglasses for me (since I dropped mine in the lake!!) for $13ish! Thank you kohls cash and coupons!

~sunday we had church of course. A tired lyddie crawling all over me for the first part. Not fun! A really cranky afternoon. I make no apologies for my crankiness. I did make a texas sheet cake from scratch before. Did you know you have to boil stuff to make that? I had no idea!! And of course I had to make the goody for seth's class so we had funfetti cookies all over the kitchen. And then we had his family b-day party. He chose teryaki chicken. I'd say other than the crankiness seeping out of my skin it was a successful party.

back to school, back to school

It's that time of year....

This year I have Seth in 3rd grade, Riley in 1st and Lydia is still in Preschool for her speech. So that leaves Lexi and I home together.
My 3 school kids

These girls love each other so much and have tons of fun! Lexi was sad at the thought of being left out but she has since changed her opinion. She is so excited for the fun that the 2 of us can have together!

My big baby girl!

Interesting pose she's got going on here!!

Such a handsome guy!

The summer seemed way to short for me. I wasn't nearly as ready for school to start as I normally am. But I am excited for all the fun and new things that this year will bring!

riley turned 6!!

Little Riley Rae turned 6 this week. I can't believe she is that old!! I just love that little munchkin!! So here are some pictures I loved of her and thought I'd share
I love love love this crazy bed head picture!!! It makes me laugh everytime! If it was just the hair it would be awesome enough but she had to add the crazy eyes and tongue!! (1 year)

This is on her 2nd bday (i put all these pictures on here and then they all disappeared and I wasn't about to fix this one, it took way too much time as it was) I love how excited and happy she is!
She had crazy eyes so a few days after her 2nd bday she had eye surgery to correct it. She was such a sad sad sight, but when i scrolled through it I had to post it. Such a sweetie, I just wanna snuggle her. Look at those cheeks!
Here she is just being riley at 3 years old

On her 4th bday she wanted to help make her cake. She is as excited as can be!! Love it!!
She has had a pool party for several years and this was at last years family party. Such a pretty girl!
And this is at the spring concert for Kindergarten a few months ago. I love her sassy pose!!

She is seriously such a fun amazing girl!! And ALL girl. For her bday she requested clothes, shoes, (high heeled ones, not wedge) and make up. I love how girly she is. I don't think a day goes by that she doesn't ask to do a craft or put on makeup or paint her nails. We are gonna have us some fun!!

happy father's day...

So I was looking around for a picture of my dad so I could do a father's day post. But, alas, a good picture was not to be found. So I did this one instead! Doesn't it rock!!! It is pretty much one of my most favorite pictures simply because of the awesomeness that it is. (that's my great grandpa over there by my brothers) Anyway Happy Father's day. I would do a whole tribute thing to my dad but frankly he doesn't care. Love ya dad!

But for Eliott... Man he is amazing! I had surgery this week on Wednesday so he knew that Father's day wouldn't be some magical lazy day for him. Now let me just say on Mothers day I want everything to be allllll about me and I don't want to have to do anything at all for anybody! And he delivers he gives me all of that and more so on Father's day I try to do the same thing for him but not so much this year. He did anything and everything for me all week and even made his own father's day dinner. I sure love him!!

He is an amazing dad and I am soooo glad that my kids get to have him as a dad!

To all you other father's out there (cuz I am sure so many check my blog!!)

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!!!

laundry day

So I am unbelielvable tired of washing laundry that is already clean! So we have talked about making sure the clean stuff is put away and the dirty stuff goes in a basket. So after many of these talks I decided to take action! The kids had to do the laundry. Every last thing!!! The only thing I did was pour the soap and fold my understuff. They sorted, started, switched, folded, hung and put away 10 loads of laundry!!!

It took 3 days from start to finish (because of the time of use plan) But they finished and they actually did a pretty decent job. I was really proud of them. They didn't even complain alot. At first they thought it was fun but by the end of that last load they were soooo done. We have a standing thing on Wednesday morning and that was the last day and I told them they couldn't go unless they were finished. They had 1 load to fold and one to put in the dryer and then fold. So Seth got up at 5 a.m. that morning to make sure that he could get it done!!

So we will see how well they learned come monday or tuesday when it is laundry day again.
One of my favorite parts was watching riley try to get the last of the stuff out of the washer!!

one of my favorite things...

I love when I ask a kid "are you tired" and the answer is "no" and then I come in to find this....

notice the unfinished sucker!

Good Morning!

Last night we told the kids that we didn't want to get woken up in the morning. They could come get us at 8. So at about 8:20 there was a knock on the door and this is the scene that greeted us!! I love love love these little goobers!!!

Piano Recitals

I have a fantastic friend who teaches piano. So Seth and I started taking piano lessons from her in March. I have absolutely loved it. I think it is such an amazing talent and am soooo excited to learn to play. Seth is having almost as much fun as I am. He loves it and is constantly practicing his songs. Well last night we had our recital! He did so good! He had to go first which would have been intimidating to me but he didn't even care. And he did such a great job. I was last. And by last I mean that there were about 10 kids in front of me. I felt a bit stupid being the only adult. But I will have to say I am glad Idid it and hope the next time I play in front of somebody that my hands will be steady! They couldn't stop shaking. (and we didn't intend on matching here it just happened!)

a new post

so I needed to post something and since I don't have my most recent pictures on here I thought I would post a couple things that you missed while I was on blog hiatus...

Did you know that lyddie goes to school? ya she has what we like to call a "little bit of a speech problem" (we actually don't say that but for some reason chris farley jumped into my head) Anyway after all the testing and what not she was finally accepted in the preschool/speech program. She loves it, I love it, it is a win/win, except for sad little lexi who feels like the odd man out. So here she is on her first day of school.
The bus picks her up at my door and brings her back everyday. It is most fantastic!!