Farley Smiles!

Young Minds

2012-01-20T00:36:00.000-08:00

Sometimes I am amazed at what the kids come up with and sometimes I wonder where it comes from. Here are a few recent projects...

When Jordan went back to school after the break his teacher did a little unit on goals, this is what I found in Jordan's papers, a few things to notice....he wishes to try bacon covered donuts, and a strange talent to pick up reads "dangling a loogie"!

On the front of the paper he talked about somethings from the previous year...the one to notice (especially to the family members that were in Arizona at the time of this event) "Never give a wet willie to a sleeping bear a.k.e my dad." Obviously he has a bad experience with this in AZ!

Brady just finished an Egyptian unit and got to pick from a list of projects. He chose to make the cartouche and carved a symbol out of soap. He decided to copy the style from my bookmarks from Egypt so we got paper that looked like papyrus and he painted them. His teacher was very impressed because none of the other kids had a design around the oval and there was not a lot of color. He wanted to know where Brady got the idea. You can tell the size compared the nail clippers in the side of the picture and the soap was a normal bar of soap.

I painted this frame with chalkboard paint while I was making chalkboard necklaces for Christmas. It is just one of those cheap 8x10 plastic frames. Eden loves to color on it with chalk and this is what I found the other day!

A sunbeam

2012-01-18T08:16:00.000-08:00

It is so weird to no longer have any kids in nursery! Tucker is officially a sunbeam. He has been excited to go to the big primary with Eden and enjoyed visiting it the last few weeks in December but when the actual day came he said he wanted to go to his old class. He still went to his class and loved it. His teacher said he did great and he was so proud to hang onto his Book of Mormon from his nursery teachers. Below is his first picture from class, I was amazed to learn he actually knows how to draw a person now. I asked him about his guy and he said "that's ME! and I have a hat on!"

Hollywood, check!

2012-01-17T16:17:00.000-08:00

With Laura and Jessica here, we realized that it would be a good time to check Hollywood off my to do list! We did have a good time, but I have to say that one time is enough and I don't really need to go back again! We had to take pictures at the theater of course!

We had a nice lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe

Horrible picture with my eyes, closed but the best picture we could get of us with the Hollywood sign way in the background. Laura and the kids went up the stairs higher to get a better picture but we stayed at this level with the stroller.

We also made a stop at the Universal walk. Sam and I had fun showing them the It's Sugar store that is the same as the one in Arizona.

Yes again

2012-01-15T09:47:00.000-08:00

Yes of course we had to go again when Laura and Jessica were here. They spent most of the day with the boys and we met up with Deveren and Kiara who were also still in town. It was a bit crowded but I think we all had a great time! Eden went on Splash Mountain for the first time and loved it!

Tucker freaked out during the Bugs Life 3D movie and I had to take him out but Eden and Bailie had fun!

And notice my score below....one of the top scores of the day, Deveren taught me some of his tricks! (and it didn't hurt that the ride stopped for a minute near a very high valued target!)

I'm sure there were more fun things that day, but I've totally forgotten, so I will just say it was nice to get to spend time with everyone that day!

Tintin

2012-01-13T13:36:00.000-08:00

Laura and Jessica took Jordan to see the Adventures of Tintin for his birthday. He LOVES to get to do things on his own without the other siblings!

Piper

2012-01-12T13:29:00.000-08:00

We found a new career for Jessica! When she was here she was very excited to help out with piper...at least this part of it!

Balboa Beach again

2012-01-10T20:53:00.000-08:00

We made another trip out to Balboa Beach again when Laura and Jessica were here and it was another gorgeous day. Beach pictures are always fun and I enjoyed messing around with my camera settings again, I couldn't actually see what I was taking because of the glare so I just took a ton in all the different settings and these are my favorites so warning, long post with too many pictures, just scroll through fast!

I love that I caught his "working" expression in this next picture!

And of course we had to end with some shakes on the top of Ruby's diner!

As we were walking down the pier Tucker started laughing and said it looked like we were holding hands. I finally realized he meant our shadows because our hands weren't actually touching!

And after a great day at the beach everyone was worn out....especially Tucker!

Word of the year

2012-01-09T18:48:00.000-08:00

I've been putting of this post because I wanted to put more thought into what I write but I'm giving up and just getting it on here before it never happens! I decided to pick a word of the year again. I typed out several words that sort of fit with some of my goals for this year and than I clicked to the thesaurus for each word. One word kept coming up and that word is:

DELIBERATE

I've decided that I want to make my actions, my words, my plans and my thoughts deliberate this year. I'm a planner by nature so that part is not hard but I don't necessarily always plan for the things that are most important or I don't follow through on my plans. I intend to work on that this year, there is more to it and more specific applications, but I'll leave it at this for now. I actually tried to find an acronym like The Middle-Aged Mormon on one of my new favorite blogs (you can check out his article called "Gap>Pig" here or his article called FHE: "Acronym Night here") but nothing just fit or was too far of a stretch from my word so maybe I'll try that next year. We had a recent Relief Society activity where we talked about our everyday choices. Part of the activity included giving some different people some simple everyday choices we have to make that can be a challenge and almost every situation came down to the fact that if the person prepared ahead of time, it wouldn't be as much of a challenge. I think that if I can focus on being more deliberate it can get me to where I intend to be and to who I intend to be.

Upside down, backwards puppy party

2012-01-08T16:13:00.000-08:00

Tucker has been saying for months that he wanted an upside down, backwards puppy party for his birthday. Since he didn't really have a full out party, he ended up being happy with a puppy cake! It had been so crazy with all the company for the previous three weeks and Laura and Jessica came on the day of his birthday so it was nice to have another mellow relaxed birthday day like Jordan's the day before. I really through this cake together last minute, Jordan had told me he wanted the cake that we do for first birthdays but we didn't have a chance with everything going on so I got it for Tucker and turned it into a puppy! For first birthdays we do angel food cake with chocolate whipped cream for the frosting. Right before we went to dinner that night, I ran into the store and grabbed the stuff without even being sure what I was going to do. I also grabbed some black jelly beans and black decorating gel so this is what I came up with:

Nothing fancy, but it worked for Tucker! He was very excited to open all of his presents and wanted to play with all of them until he got to the last one which was from my parents...a tool bench. Once he saw that, he wanted nothing else, he didn't even want to stop to eat the cake!

We did finally talk him into the cake and he loved having everyone sing to him!

Before our little celebration we went to the KFC buffet, yes, it is an actual buffet of the KFC foods plus some other stuff. We had driven by it so many times and always wondered about it but then when Tucker said he wanted drumsticks for his birthday dinner, we knew it was time to check it out!

And finally, he was worn out! He was excited to get this new bedspread/blanket like the big boys and happily went to sleep all propped up on his 3 different pillows! Isn't he a cute little 4 year old?!!!

The aftermath...

2012-01-06T22:29:00.000-08:00

There is a cost to staying up until midnight on New Year's Eve....this is what a lot of the day was like for Eden! I had to take a picture to show her because she didn't believe she was tired and acting differently!

During Jordan's requested birthday dinner of mash potatoes and gravy and steak, Tucker just started laughing hysterically for no apparent reason, it is hard to tell from the picture but this was during that moment...quite the opposite reaction to Eden's tiredness! Then we sent them to bed and were watching a movie with the older boys. Jordan got up to do something and found Tucker sitting in the chair watching with us and started to ask what he was doing and Tucker just put his finger up to his mouth to say "shshsh!" We don't know how long he had been sitting there but we laughed so hard at his reaction!

The First...

2012-01-05T20:39:00.000-08:00

As soon as midnight hit, we began the celebration for Jordan and Grandma Borgia's birthday. Jordan has always been fascinated by the fact that he and his great grandma have the same birthday so he couldn't wait until they had their party together with all of the family around! And of course he loved opening presents at midnight and we intended to have cake then too, but everyone was to stuffed and tired for it so we saved it for the morning. The poster is Jordan's favorite Harry Potter character, he was really excited to get it!

And his main present was a kindle! Grandma got a chance to open a few things too!

They shared a cake in the morning but then Grandma had her own special cheesecake! This was after a breakfast of biscuits and gravy. We discovered too things with that breakfast, the first is that it is Jordan's new favorite breakfast because he loves gravy and it was Grandma's first time ever having biscuits and gravy in her whole life...we were shocked!

The little kids took over the table so the big kids found their own place to eat cake.

Most of the family had to take off that morning and the ones that didn't had other plans so we got to just relax and enjoy the rest of the day and we remembered later that we still had Jordan's gift from my parents. He was super excited to get lego sets!

(notice the third arm holding the legos for display!)

and I actually remembered to take the Steve Young Jersey pictures on his actual birthday! Overall, I think he had a great birthday. It's hard to believe he is 11 now!

New Year's Eve

2012-01-02T22:24:00.000-08:00

I don't know why I only have these pictures, but this was during our third wave of visitors. Actually Sam's parents got here a few days before and Mandi ended up with some car trouble and coming a little bit later than expected at the same time as Nicki, Grandma Borgia came for two days and Deveren ended up surprising us and showing up as well so we did all get a couple of days together and we had a great time even though it was too short! We all headed to Wood Ranch Grill for a date night and the adults also managed to head over to Tom's Farm on Saturday. The rest of Saturday was spent getting ready for our New Years festivities! We did the usual Christmas Eve foods since some of us didn't have a chance to do all of them for Christmas Eve although we felt bad for those that had it twice!

Nicki and Mandi made these cake balls or oreo truffles or whatever you want to call them that were really good and Kiara introduced us to the pickle dip! You can see Grandma there working on the deviled eggs!

The kids loved to use Grandma Farley's ipad whenever they could get their hands on it.

And the little girls could not get enough of Deia!

The big kids couldn't wait to dig into the food.

And the kids that managed to stay awake watched the ball drop on TV.

It's Deia turn to get involved in the sfinci process.

And Eden and Olivia loved that they had matching pj's from Grandma Farley

The girl's found time for a game of duck, duck goose!

And Tucker found a willing uncle to play with

Everyone was ready for the countdown with their cider in hand

We really had a fun New Year's Eve Party. The most fun was when we played games while waiting for the New Year to come. First the older kids came down and did some improv games. And then we had a hilarious game of "Things!" I won't go into detail here, but we will just remember a lot of answers about cats and on particular part of the game where we laughed so hard we cried!

December Facebook Status Updates

2011-12-31T23:58:00.000-08:00

12-2-11

I was reminded last night about how fragile life is and how one can be taken at anytime, I hope I can remember that and be more grateful in my life.

12-5-11

At michael's with two 3 year olds and they both fell asleep in the cart...one in the seat and one in the basket!

12-8-11

Just got back from a quick trip to Disneyland with Tucker and our friends, I know we are so lucky! — with Natalie Brown.

12-13-11

Christmas card and most packages mailed today with a sigh of relief, but please let me know if you get our card and what kind of condition it is in, I tried and experiment this year (and if you don't get our card and want one let me know)!

12-17-11

We had a great time at the ugly Sweater/White elephant party tonight! — withSam Farley.

12-19-11

Disneyland is packed today!

12-23-11

Family day...ice skating and pizza!

12-24-11

The beach on Christmas eve might have to become a new tradition...it's beautiful today!

12-27-11

It stinks to have your vacuum break right before you have a bunch of company coming to stay for a week or two! I apologize in advance to those staying with us!

12-31-11‎

21 kids (all but one 12 and under) + 11 adults + 3 days + 1 house = craziness (and fun!)

San diego

2011-12-31T23:48:00.000-08:00

Sam's parents came a couple of days after Christmas and we spent one day down in San Diego. We had fun visiting the Mormon Batallion Museum again and the kids loved being a part of the demonstration.

They discovered these horses just before we left (for some reason the two other pictures would only load at the end of this post!)

Next to this museum is a big grassy hill, Tucker insisted on this picture on a rock and then most of the kids tried to roll down the hill. When they were done, Tucker decided to run down it as fast as he could and Jordan went to run with him!

We also made a stop at the San Diego Mission for Kolby to earn some extra credit and then we stopped to visit Sam's Grandma and have dinner with her....nice ending for a nice day!

A slice of Christmas...

2011-12-31T23:40:00.000-08:00

Just had the thought that I've never really taken a picture of all of our Christmas decorations and want to remember these in years to come....

The two Nativities that I made are pictured above and below and not only am I thankful for the good people that shared their talents for the RS activity a couple of years ago but also it reminds me of some great friends from that time period!

Above is our Christmas card wall and below is the advent Sam had as a child and now our kids are just as excited to use it!

Pictured below was our very first Christmas decoration, we picked it out at a craft fair when we were first married!

Some of my special nativities, the middle one is the from Mexico that Deveren brought back for me from his mission and on the right is one that I picked up in Hawaii!

I loved the perspective of how the kids set up these next two nativities, especially in the Jerusalem one from Sam's grandparents where they have everyone circled around baby Jesus!

And the last one is very special to me, it is the one I chose while I was in Jerusalem and is also a music box that plays Silent Night! (plus I think it is cool that the book "The Road Less Travelled" stands out behind it in the picture!

Big Chess

2011-12-31T23:11:00.000-08:00

Tucker gave Brady this big chess set for Christmas so they kids had a lot of fun playing with it and Brady had fun playing against Grandma as well (and I had fun messing around with my new camera's settings to take these pictures!) Oh and read the title of this post like "Big Trak" as in the Kid History Christmas videos on youtube, those videos were quoted constantly during this Christmas break!

Sam's present

2011-12-31T22:42:00.000-08:00

Sam has always wanted one of these, they are called "Love Sac's" and I found him one on Craigslist. It ended up being a lot bigger than I expected and it was quite an ordeal to get it home, get it hidden in the garage by myself and then get it into the house before Christmas so I could wash the cover. I ended up wrapping the cover and he was really confused when he pulled it out, but very excited when we took him to what it went with! This is his first time trying it out,

ready, set....

go!

and everyone piles on!

Kolby really enjoys it as well, he is constantly jumping into it or sitting on it. This is him putting the scripture stickers from his stocking to use!

Christmas morning

2011-12-31T22:36:00.000-08:00

Christmas morning (out of order)....just to name a few things but definitely not all...

...lot's of barbie things, some craft projects and a cardboard house to color...

....lots of things to be comfy like a robe and footed pj's, Harry Potter lego game yrs 5-7 and gravy in his stocking!

some Monopoly and Chess items and Madden 2012

some of the loot when it was all opened and you can see my jewelery box/mirror in the background below!

he loved his drums from Santa and she loved to join in and sing into the microphone headseat

the hexbug track was a huge hit and also the glasses straw from his stocking

we had a great Christmas and I know there is a lot more to tell like all of my BYU gear and my new camera and more games, clothes and pj's for the kids but these are the things I remember for the moment plus our traditional surf 'n turf for dinner and fun game of Sour Apples to Apples and a really nice Christmas Sacrament meeting at church! We realize we are truly blessed!

Traditions

2011-12-31T06:58:00.000-08:00

Ornaments and pj's...

Kolby's is a little tiny dog that looks a bit like Piper in a stocking because we got Piper this year and Kolby just loves her to death!

Jordan's is a snowman holding a computer because Jordan began emailing with friends that we moved away from this year and he constantly asks to check his email. He also declared that it is a white snowman because Jordan loves the Weird Al song "White and Nerdy" and is always singing it.

Eden was completely fascinated by ice skating this year as I mentioned in a previous post.

Brady's is a bag full of chess pieces, I didn't realize I was ordering him a whole set so he just picked two to put on the tree, but this is also obvious from previous posts.

Sam got me a BYU ornament when we were newlyweds for the year I graduated from BYU but it broke early on and I've always just kept it in the box to remind me even though we couldn't put it on the tree. This year he finally got me a new one and it is unbreakable!

When I found this Purple motorcycle ornament for Sam I knew it was perfect because of his big move to work for Purple Communications this year and also soon after we got here he got a scooter to take to work. For the family we got a bucket with sand a shells because of our many beach trips this year!

I didn't really take many pictures of the pj's because they didn't match this time and they didn't all put them on at the same time, but Tucker was dancing with Sam's on his head and it was pretty funny!

Balboa beach

2011-12-31T05:12:00.000-08:00

My parents came down for the Christmas weekend and we had a lot of fun heading out to Balboa Beach. It was a perfectly beautiful sunny day so that was an extra bonus! We ate in Ruby's diner, there wasn't room on the roof so we started on the deck but then ended up inside. From inside we saw one of the fisherman working on something he caught that seemed to be pretty big. We were amazed as we finally saw him pull up this big starfish! Of course we had to joke about him catching Patrick from Spongebob!

We also had fun playing on the playground, walking around the beach, testing the water and watching some guys with their skim boards.

And of course we walked over to the little shops and the kids had a great time with Sam playing in the arcade and collecting their tickets! After the beach we headed back for my dad and Sam and the kids to see the muppets and my mom and I to walk around to all the shops. It was a really nice, relaxing Christmas Eve!

Ice, Ice Baby!

2011-12-30T07:10:00.000-08:00

Eden has been especially fascinated with ice skating this year so when I saw this deal on groupon I had to get it (especially since we had credit on groupon anyway so it ended up being free for the whole family!) We had intended to go around her birthday but other plans got in the way and we finally went the day before Christmas Eve. I don't think it was all the kids hoped it would be but they still had a great time. Brady had been one time with the youth but other than that little bit of experience it was totally new for all the kids. We bribed the boy to get off the wall so basically Jordan did the minimum to get his treat...he actually went to the middle to get his two times around the circle faster but of course it was harder to get up when he fell. Kolby and Brady has a pretty good hang of it by the end. Eden and Tucker were the most brave, Tucker had someone's hand the whole time but he was not afraid to get out there and Eden was going off on her own, very slowly but still on her own and not hanging on to the wall and in the end everyone said they enjoyed it. I was also a bit wobbly at first, I hadn't done it since high school but I got the hang of it and got going a few times around when I wasn't helping Tucker. It did make for a fun family memory and I would like to make it an annual family event!

At one point I was showing Tucker the people in the middle that were really good and he said "I'm good too" and I said "yes, but they can also do tricks and stuff, see how they lift their leg" and Tucker said "I can lift my leg too" and so these two pictures are where Tucker was trying to show Sam his trick by lifting his leg!

Yes it is Disneyland again!

2011-12-29T23:08:00.000-08:00

These are out of order because I just got these two from Sam's phone....all Tucker talked about the whole time was going to see Mickey's house so he was really excited to make it there, but we were especially shocked that he was willing to go take his picture with Mickey, he had been totally freaked out by the characters and didn't even want to go in the room with him.

I'm sure you will be sick of all our Disney pictures by the end of next year but I just want to remember all the fun family memories. This time Sam's mom, her friend, and Deia and Eli came and we spent two days there. It was packed because it was the beginning of Christmas break but because Sam's mom and her friend had canes, we got to go to the disability line on a lot of the rides. We did do a few things together like Small World, but mostly the boys were off on their own, the first day with Deia and Eli and the second with just Eli. They loved that!

Meanwhile, Eden, Tucker and I went to fantasyland with Sheri and Cindy. Eden kept asking to go on the carousal so she finally got to go with grandma and Cindy!

Sam was able to leave work a little early and join us. Tucker was crying because he didn't want to go on the teacups so the worker asked him to give him a thumbs up when it was time to start. He wouldn't do it, but then halfway through the ride he was grinning ear to ear. The worker came over and said that Tucker should go again and he let them stay on (Eden joined them!)...what a great worker and this time Tucker did give a thumbs up!

This picture was Eden the first time around, she had such a huge grin on her face! We also enjoyed spending the second day with Deia!

Ugly Sweaters...

2011-12-29T11:06:00.000-08:00

If you know us at all, you know we love a fun party and we have done a white elephant party every year for the last 7 years. Well, this year someone beat us to it! I already had started working on the evite so I was a little sad to break our tradition, but it was really nice to not have to worry about any of the details and just relax and the people who through the party were a whole lot fancier than I would ever be, so it was all good! Besides the white elephant gift exchange they also had an ugly sweater contest. I guess I was too late in the stores because this was all I could find for me, a bit ugly but there was definitely a lot worse! I couldn't find anything for Sam so I made this one for him instead. I actually did sew on every single one of those pom-poms but it was still only enough for third place, we'll have to go even bigger next year! We had better success in the gift part, I think the shirt we brought that said "I pooped today!" was a big hit! It was also a lot of fun just to get together with people from our ward and get to know them better and I can't wait for more!

Friends

2011-12-29T10:56:00.000-08:00

It seems to be taking me a while to make new friends since we moved. It's not that there aren't a lot of nice people, because there are a ton, but it's probably due to my own awkwardness and maybe a little bit of my lack of interest in running and the fact that my kids are getting older so there are less opportunities for hanging out on a weekday. I think, in the past, a lot of my close friends from church became that way because of park day, at least for me that is one of the best ways I get to know people. Enter Natalie, a seemingly somewhat unlikely friend, but yet I tell her she was my first friend here! She has been home off-track from BYU-I and took a job as a nanny for someone in the ward. One day after church we starting chatting and realized that we ought to get the kids together on the days I babysit. That led to every Tuesday for about 4 hours at the park and this fun trip to Disneyland with Tucker and the kid she watches (all these pictures are from that day). I'm really sad that she is going back to school, it was nice to have someone to chat with and to sort of relive my BYU days through her roommate stories and homework tales but I'm glad I made a good, even if unlikely friend in the process!

Christmas cards

2011-12-29T00:38:00.000-08:00

Just found this draft that never got published...I attached a ring to all the Christmas cards we got this last year. It is a fun way for the kids to look through them after we took them all down!

Crazy Hair Day

2011-12-28T23:07:00.000-08:00

Wordless Wednesday

2011-12-28T11:03:00.000-08:00

After the pictures...

2011-12-27T05:01:00.000-08:00

The kids were so excited to go to the mall food court after the pictures and get to pick whichever kind of food they wanted....it's the little things I guess!

Family Pictures 2011

2011-12-21T23:36:00.000-08:00

We went back in December and had our family pictures taken. Sam was really not into my color scheme for the pictures so I loved it when I heard that when he took the picture to work everyone complimented him on it! We really were pleasantly surprised on how well these turned out!

Wordless Wednesday -Eden singing at Barnes and Noble

2011-12-21T06:08:00.000-08:00

Picture this....

2011-12-20T12:37:00.000-08:00

There was a living social deal last month for the picture people so we decided it was about time we updated our family pictures! Just before Thanksgiving a dressed the kids up and headed to the mall, Jordan decided he must have sunglasses to complete his outfit! After a lot of waiting and the kids playing restaurant in the waiting area we finally got in and got some fun pictures! Eden loved the picture of the boys holding her and Brady loves the one where he is the center of attention which is saying a lot for Brady since he doesn't usually love being the center of attention! Enjoy the pictures!

chess mania

2011-12-19T19:31:00.000-08:00

Chess is the thing around here lately! Kolby and Brady both go to the upper grades chess club and Eden goes to the lower grade one where Brady works as a volunteer. Many mornings I come downstairs to find them playing chess before school I took these pictures because they were all wearing the same clothes for twin day that day and then I realized I had a very similar picture from a few weeks before as pictured last!

Wearing them out

2011-12-18T22:10:00.000-08:00

I guess I worked them too hard helping me peel, core and cut apples in the morning (actually they begged to do it) because this is what happened when I took them to Michael's in the afternoon....

it didn't last long, but at one point I had both boys asleep in the cart!

Surprise Disney

2011-12-18T13:00:00.000-08:00

Through various methods and Christmas gifts we were finally able to get Disneyland passes for the family (we are very grateful for those of you that helped us make it happen!). We got them right before we left for Thanksgiving but we didn't tell the kids. During Thanksgiving dinner we were talking about it with the adults and then we started talking about how we were going to let the kids think we were just going to Downtown Disney since they had never been there. Kolby came in when we were talking about that part and we let him believe he was in on a secret about going to Downtown Disney. As predicted, he eventually ended up telling his brothers the supposed "secret" and the older boys all thought we were headed to Downtown Disney for family night the Monday after Thanksgiving. When we were getting close Eden said "that street says Disney" and the boys said "no it doesn't, you read it wrong, it says dishy" thinking they were keeping Eden from their secret! I wish I had taken a picture of Brady's face as we started to walk through the ticket turn-style, he just looked at me like "is this serious?", the rest of them really didn't seem to be aware of all that was happening but of course we all went on to have a great time at Disneyland.

This was Tucker's first time going ever and Eden's first time since she has been old enough to remember so I had to include the above picture even though it is dark.That is their first ride, Casey Jr. We actually tried to do Small World first but it was closed so this is where we ended up. It is so nice to not have to be pressured for time and to just go and do what we feel like. We actually only went on three rides that evening, but we did also enjoy the Christmas lights on Small World and the snow when it came down. We all went on Buzz Lightyear and then I took the two little ones on it again while Sam and the boys went on Star Tours. Tucker was scared of almost everything he saw but the more the night went on, the more he loosened up. I think this is going to be a fun family Disney year!

Amazing Croutons...

2011-12-16T23:48:00.000-08:00

We have so much fun with Sam's siblings when we manage to sneak in a date night without the kids! These are out of order but we went to this Marketplace in Tempe and found this really fun store called "It's Sugar," and got a kick out of all the giant candy.

Our first attempt for dinner was at a restaurant nearby but it was packed so we decided to give in and head to where the chain restaurants are. When I saw Ruby Tuesday I said "Sam, you could get the croutons you love!" and that led to a lot of teasing for Sam from the rest of the family for the rest of the evening. We ended up eating at Cadillac Ranch and got to see several people attempt the mechanical bull and also had a nice dinner even though Sam and Chad positioned themselves across from the giant screen with the football game on!

As we were leaving the marketplace Sam suddenly stopped and pulled up at Ruby Tuesday. He went in and asked the host for some croutons and they actually made him a whole fresh batch. When he came out with the croutons (and found us since we had moved the car and hidden from him) and everyone tried them, they admitted that they are good (Nicki is trying one in the picture below)! I know this story sounds a bit lame now that I am typing it, but it was really funny for those of us there and I have to type it for memories sake!

We then headed to sub zero to try out our own concoctions of ice cream! I had a really great time that evening and wish we could all do date nights more often!

Mesa temple

2011-12-15T08:30:00.000-08:00

When the extended family came over for pie on Thanksgiving, we learned that Sam's cousin was going through the temple for the first time the next day. We decided to join in although I realized later that night that I didn't have my recommend since I hadn't planned on it, I hadn't thought to bring it with me from CA. I knew they could call from the temple so I decided to try anyway. When we got there Mandi remembered that hers was still in her purse which she had forgotten at home and then when Nicki went to check in her recommend was missing a date. I'm sure we looked fairly pitiful with all 3 of us needing to be checked into and Sam waited patiently with us! Needless to say, it took a little bit longer than we hoped and we didn't make it into the session but we were able to do some other stuff and still meet inside the temple with the rest of the family that day and we are really glad we were able to be there with all of them. We also had a really fun time visiting during lunch afterward!

Wordless Wednesday - Mesa Temple

2011-12-14T07:55:00.000-08:00

Arizona cousins

2011-12-12T12:49:00.000-08:00

Our kids have so much fun spending time with all of their cousins. It is especially fun to live closer to Arizona now and to have so many cousins around the same ages and when we get them together we hardly see them because they are all so busy together! I caught a few of the fun moments while we were in Arizona for Thanksgiving. They sort of naturally divide into two main groups, the older kids and the younger kids. The older kids love taking off on their own whenever they get a chance and they would either walk to the park to play soccer or to McDonald's and the grocery store. The little kids were really wanting their chance to go somewhere to so Mandi and took them on a walk to the park one day and they were really cute together!

While the adults were gone for a date night, Kolby enlisted the help of the older cousins with his science project. He is doing something similar to what Jordan did last year by seeing which fruit flavored gum lasts the longest. His cousins were more than willing to help chew gum!

Of course with 17 kids running around in one house, we had to start early in getting everyone ready for church. The older kids spent their time after they were reading playing there sitting soccer game around the room.

I was really impressed by the older kids on Thanksgiving Day, they made the day more special for everyone!

They made a treasure hunt for the little kids which ended with this huge treasure trunk full of popcorn for everyone to munch on. They also surveyed all the little kids about what they were thankful for.

Then they set themselves up their own fancy dinner table in the backyard for Thanksgiving dinner. Kyren made sure to get all real dishes for them and they decided to all wear blue shirts so they could match! They even had classical music playing, they wanted to have Jacob bring out his cello and play for them, but when that didn't work they just blasted the classical music in the backyard from the CD player. I'm so glad that they all get a long so well!

Thanksgiving food time

2011-12-11T23:50:00.000-08:00

Just a few words and a few pictures...amazing food, amazing company, more fun family in the evening for pie, and gratitude for so many wonderful blessings!

Caroling or not....

2011-12-10T19:42:00.000-08:00

We were supposed to meet the cub scouts at a shopping center for some caroling. We got there early and looked all around but couldn't find anyone so we waited by the Christmas tree. That was actually the wrong spot and we totally missed them but we did have some fun hanging out as a family that evening and Eden insisted on a picture with the big ornament!

apples to apples

2011-12-09T23:05:00.000-08:00

Remember when I posted about the day we had some managers over for dinner from Sam's work....well here are the pictures. We had some great food and a fun game and Brady played a lot of ping pong with Sam's boss and the little kids attached themselves to the newest manager (who wasn't even officially hired yet at that point!) and then the older kids joined as he formed a team with all of them for Apples to Apples!

Awards

2011-12-09T10:39:00.000-08:00

I've been holding off on this post because I've been trying to get some better pictures that another parent took but since Kolby already got another award today, I figured I better just get this up here and add the pictures later if I get them! These are awards for the end of the trimester, all three boys got high honors and Brady and Jordan actually got highest honors for getting straight A's. Brady also received the Academic Achievement award for the month of October for his class (the same award that Kolby recieved today for November). I really feel lucky to be the mom of such great kids, they are all driven to do well and succeed and all of their teachers had such great things to say about them at Parent Teacher conferences.

Wordless Wednesday - scarecrow dancing!

2011-12-07T11:06:00.000-08:00

Eden's family

2011-12-04T12:22:00.000-08:00

Eden's sweet schoolwork...I especially like the extra curly "y's"

out in the country

2011-12-02T07:04:00.000-08:00

When we went to see the movie with our friends the kids had fun hanging out on their property....I don't know if it is really far enough out to be considered the country but it is a lot more spacious and country-like than where we live! I started out just taking a picture of Eden because she looked so fitting with her brown boots on but Jordan and Kolby would not let themselves be left out of the action!

November Facebook Status Updates

2011-11-30T23:38:00.000-08:00

Thursday, November 3, 2011

Having a nice lunch date with little T at a hole in the wall mexican place while I wait to spend an exorbitant amount of money on new tires and brake pads!

Thursday, November 3, 2011

shared a link.

A Book of Mormon Story

www.youtube.com

A young bishop in England describes how the Book of Mormon came to life for him and changed his perspective forever.

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

This sweet daddy took his little girl a rose and lunch for her birthday during her lunchtime at school! &

This little girl was so happy to show everyone at school the birthday flower from her daddy!

Monday, November 28, 2011

surprise Disneyland trip for family night!

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

There is not much better than fresh homemade bread with homemade jam! (thanks Nichole Farley Kitchen for the jam!)

camping

2011-11-30T12:03:00.000-08:00

I've got a lot of things to post about but it is that busy time of year so these will probably be out of date order and instead will probably be the easiest to post first!

This is from the night the boys camped out in the backyard so that Jordan could finish his Arrow of Light. They had a blast!

Hollywood

2011-11-29T22:15:00.000-08:00

I found this draft that I guess I never posted from a few months ago. Sam's company was a sponsor for a movie about a Deaf fighter, the same fighter that Sam interpreted for at the UFC fights, and so we got tickets to go to the Hollywood premier. I kept asking Sam what to wear and he could never really give me a good answer so I sent him pictures of possible outfits because I would be meeting him at the Long Beach office to head to Hollywood. The picture above is the one I went with (plus jewelery, make-up etc.) but I ended up bringing my black dress with me too! I got nervous when I got to the office and the other ladies were all dressed up but I'm glad I didn't change because I was much more comfortable and there were people in all levels of dress including a guy with yellow short shorts, pink gloves, blue tights a cropped jacket and a purse (or something like that, I should've taken a picture!) After driving two hours for just around 30 miles we were happy to finally make it there and it was fun to see the movie. After the movie they had a meet in greet with the directors and actors and they didn't plan to have an interpreter when they had deaf actors and it several Deaf in the audience so luckily Sam was wearing his Purple shirt and was able to jump in and interpret everything. It was hard to get pictures but this is the best we got!

So cool!

2011-11-20T15:37:00.000-08:00

We took my car to get new tires one day. Tucker wanted to go out and see the car raised up. He just stood their for 10 minutes staring and saying "wow, that is so cool" over and over again!

Completely princess

2011-11-18T12:10:00.000-08:00

Growing up with older brothers, Eden has not ever been super girly. She enjoyed the princess stuff when she played with other girls but otherwise didn't put much thought into it. Well, all of a sudden lately she has turned all girly and wanted everything princess and barbie for her birthday so that is what we did! She turned 6 this week and had a great time being a princess for two days! We actually celebrated the night before her birthday because we new we would be at pack meeting on the actual night. We invited three of her friends families to join us for cake and ice cream. It turned out that two of the three families had a sick member so only one could join us and Eden said" that's OK then I get a playdate with just that one! but if SHE decided not to come then I would be sad!" Just before our friend's got there she was talking about how this was a princess party and she suddenly stopped and said "I know what I need to wear" and ran upstairs to change into one of my ballet costumes from when I was a kid along with a tiara!

She had quite the loot as she also had gifts from grandma's and an aunt in the pile! She was of course excited to get the barbie scooter that she asked for but also loved among other things, her light up shoes and her matching pajamas for her and her baby doll!

She was determined that she would have a princess cake but with everything going on that week plus my lack of cake decorating skills I just couldn't make that happen. In the end I found a couple of princess topping things at Michaels and then just made different cakes with different molds and stuck them together. It is a bit sloppy but it worked!

After the party I still had to get the princess cupcakes ready for school the next day. Thank goodness Kiara was there to help me frost because that is not one of my favorite things to do! I do think they turned out cuter than I expected thanks to the toppers and the little pearl candy sprinkles that apparently fascinated all the kids in her class.

For breakfast she wanted pancakes which is usually Sam's department but he was already scheduled to get to work early that day and cook pancakes for his staff and he took the skillet with him. Also, since his car is dead, I had to take him to work so luckily in all the rush Brady volunteered to cook the pancakes if I prepared the batter for him. He's such a great helper and all the boys helped/had fun by decorating the house with streamers and balloons for Eden to wake up to that morning.

My favorite part of her birthday was that Sam took her a rose and Chik-fil-a for lunch at school. She loved it and especially loved showing off the rose to all her friends.

Just a week in my life....

2011-11-17T12:02:00.000-08:00

We had a super crazy week this last week, some really fun things and a few challenges and now that it is calmed down I told my sister I would blog about it to say what has been going on but it is probably pretty boring to most of you so you might want to skip it, but here is the list in order during the week of November 8-November 15:

Sam is in the middle of a huge project at work, he is the project manager for opening a new center about an hour away, we are not seeing him much
the dryer breaks, it is under warranty but the first time I can match up a schedule with the repairman is the following Monday
my first night of cub scouts but it is also one of the days I babysit so I'm not feeling as prepared as I would like to be
Sam mentions that he might be going to lunch with his mom the next day, he texts and she says she is on her way to our house from Disneyland, he then remembers that he forgot to tell me she was spending the night at our house! It's OK because we are happy to see her but we do need to clean up the room she will be sleeping in a bit!
Sam gets ready to leave for work Wednesday morning and his car won't start, he is supposed to head to long beach that afternoon (an hour away) and stay there for 4 days straight so I take him to work here first (his scooter battery is also already dead so that is not an option either) and we decide to think about how to figure out the rest later
Tucker and I go with Sam's mom to Tom's farm and then meet Sam for a really, really nice lunch! I also find out that he forgot to tell me that Deveren and Kiara are staying at our house that weekend! He really has been that busy...we hardly get a chance to talk during this project!
We decide that I need to take Sam to Long Beach and just hope that I make it back in time to get the kids to piano and ballet
I think of a friend who could take the kids and thankfully when I finally get a hold of her she agrees to help because once in long beach I realize that I need to drive Sam around to take care of couple of things and get him checked into his hotel
We meet Deveren and Kiara for dinner, it was really nice that I got to join them since I ended up being out in Long Beach, Tucker and Bailie were so cute together chatting the whole time and gave each other hugs when we said good-bye (pictured above)
I drive Sam back to his hotel and head home to the boys who have set up the tent in the backyard for a campout so Jordan can finish his last arrow of light achievement
Thursday we meet up with some friends from our ward to see Puss 'N Boots, Brady's bracket from his braces pops off while eating his popcorn and we are stuck in major traffic on the way home but we did have fun going to the movie with new friends
I make it home just in time to head to the Relief Society dinner/activitiy, I tell the boys the each need to choose one part of dinner to make for all the kids, Brady opens a can of fruit cocktail, Kolby heats up meatballs and Jordan makes mashed potatoes and gravy
Friday I put the kids to work cleaning and Jordan has to do laundry even though the dryer is broken so he has his clothes spread all over the place to dry and then he goes to a new friends house and teaches him tricks with his wii and I take Brady to the orthodontist which he is very nervous because of his broken bracket but it is all fine
Saturday I brave taking all 5 kids to the big library. It is cool but a hassle at the same time.
I realize that evening, that I won't have a chance to go to the store again until Wednesday so I make my list and prepare to head to Walmart. Sam calls to say he is on his way home at about 6 and to just wait for him to go to Walmart. I'm surprised he wants to go since he is so tired.
At 8:30 I realize Sam is still not home and it turns out his phone has died and they stopped for dinner. I go to pick him up at his office and we head to Walmart and dash around trying to get everything we need as fast as we can. While there he tells me he has invited 5 more people for dinner than the one extra I was planning on. It's all good but a little more notice is always a little more helpful. We hurry home because Deveren and Kiara are set to arrive any minute.
Deveren and family arrives just before us and we all get to visit but Sam falls asleep within 5 minutes. I have fun staying up late visiting with them!
Sunday morning we get everyone ready and head off to church. While there, Sam gets a text from Deveren saying that our kitchen sink is clogged. Deveren tries to fix it but it is deeper than he can get to. They have to leave but they did clean up a bunch of stuff for us before they left...so nice!
We have Sam's boss, who is in town, over for dinner along with a few other people that Sam works with. Sam's boss is great but it is still stressful to think of having your husband's boss over for dinner, especially for the first time! Sam makes some great ribs and my salad fails but we still have a great dinner and fun playing apples to apples. (pictures to come)
Deveren gets back for the evening but this time he falls asleep in 5 minutes so we don't get to visit much that evening.
Monday the kids are off to school and we make Deveren take Sam to work. Tucker is playing with the kid I babysit and I am trying to clean up and get ready for Eden's party that evening but we can't do any dishes from our dinner party because of the clogged sink, however we do get the dryer repaired that day and I start getting to the piles of laundry.
We have Eden's party and that turned out well enough and the kids had fun playing with their friends. After the party we get the cupcakes ready for her to take to school the next day. Sam has had a situation come up with his project that he needs to deal with so he is working like crazy up on his computer.
Tuesday is Eden's birthday so you can read that post but I also babysit and we head to the grocery store two different times to get things I forgot, one of which is the treat I'm supposed to bring to pack meeting since Jordan is getting his arrow of light. We also head to Target because Tucker is insistent that he get Eden a present, he chooses squinkies.
I take Sam to work in the morning and then I have to go pick up the flower, lunch and him to enable his plan of taking these to Eden at school since he has no car available and then I take him back to work.
The plumber comes and fixes the sink although the price is a lot more than I expected, but at least it is done and I can get to work on the piles of dishes
Eden wants tacos for her birthday so we stop at Tom's farm for Taco Tuesday, however they are not crunchy tacos and she is very unhappy.
We pick up Sam and head to the church for pack meeting just a few minutes late, I do the skit with my bears and Jordan gets his arrow of light. We are proud of Jordan.
I finally feel like I can relax a bit and I fall asleep almost as soon as we get home, we don't even visit with Deveren and Kiara that night but we do get to say good-bye in the morning as they head home! We are really glad we got to spend time with them even if it was just bits here and there, and I especially enjoyed finding out how much I have in common with Kiara!

So overall it was a really good week, it was just a lot thrown together at once but I wouldn't change any of it except for the dryer, the car and the sink part!!! This last picture was just cute when one morning I came down and found Tucker cuddling with Deveren. I think Tucker and Eden had the most fun of all having their cousins around all the time. Tucker would ask every night when his cousins would be back!

Wordless Wednesday - haircut

2011-11-16T07:17:00.000-08:00

brothers

2011-11-12T22:17:00.000-08:00

Forts and video games = brothers!

Miguels Jr.

2011-11-11T22:07:00.000-08:00

I'm told this place is just a Corona staple! This was my third time going but the boys first. The second time I went (and Sam's first time) we saw 3 members of the church along with our missionaries within in the first 5 minutes of being there, now that is huge when we hardly knew anyone here yet! One Saturday I had a couple of errands to run with the boys and we had to work at a school carnival for a cub scout fundraiser so we stopped by and they loved it!

As I was telling the boy about all the church people we had seen there or had told me about it, I looked down at the receipt and saw the "CTR"...I'm not sure if that is on every receipt or just happened to be on ours for the day but we took that as a funny sign!

Reflections

2011-11-06T10:06:00.000-08:00

Apparently the PTA has an art contest every year, you can choose from a variety of mediums and Eden and Kolby both decided they wanted to participate. Eden actually wants to participate in anything offered no matter what it is and Kolby just loves art. The theme was diversity and Kolby chose to paint a diversity of food but then chose the title "Everyone Bring Something to the Table" to tie it all together. Eden made several drawings and paintings but ended up using this drawing which I think she called "Birds Flying" if I remember right. It ended up being a little more work than I expected to get the pictures mounted and labeled correctly and all the right paperwork but I'm really glad that they chose to use their talents and participate in the program!

Brace Face

2011-11-04T21:19:00.000-07:00

So it finally happened...these two boys got braces! They had both been pretty excited about it, the dentists have been telling us that Brady needed them for at least 3 years but this is the first time we finally had insurance to cover some of it. Brady got his first, before Halloween, and when he came home with the list of things he is not allowed to eat, Jordan said "nevermind, I don't want them anymore!" Of course that was not an option but he did realize that he would get to go to the trunk 'r treat before he got them on, even if he didn't make it to Halloween, he did get a chance to pig out on chewy candy for one night! They just have the top teeth for now and will get the bottom ones added in a few months.

Wordless Wednesday

2011-11-02T05:00:00.000-07:00

Skate park

2011-11-01T10:07:00.000-07:00

The kids had minimum days last week and some friends from the ward invited us to head over to the skate park with them. It was a little last minute so I threw everything together and made it over there, I think this is only the 2nd time anyone in the ward has invited me to do something so there was no way I was going to miss out! I was a bit of a downer I think (turns out I was getting sick but just didn't know it yet) but the kids had a blast. The were taking the scooters all over the park and Tucker loved sliding down on his bum and then getting stuck and getting someone to pull him up! I'm really glad we got to go!

October Facebook Status Updates

2011-10-31T23:57:00.000-07:00

Sunday, October 2

Why Mormons build temples

LDS.org - Mormon Message Gallery

lds.org

Friday, October 7

When I got him dressed like this on Wednesday he said "I look like a movie star!" (referring to the picture of Tucker)

Thursday, October 13

Is there anybody in my area that can help me with my garage door that is stuck? Sam is out of town and I don't know what to do with it!

Sunday, October 16

It's a good day, we're celebrating Kolby's 9th birthday, I'll be picking Sam up at the airport after and we got to here some great talks at Stake Conference at church....if you want to know more about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints check out the cool site called www.mormon.org even if you are just curious as to what we are about!

Tuesday, October 18

It was such a great day at the park that we stayed for almost 4 hours!

Tuesday, October 18

Just added up what it would cost to get my family completely up to date in all of our scout uniforms, books etc. and the total came to $205 and that doesn't even count the required parts that I consider extra like hats, shorts and socks!

Thursday, October 20

Guess who got Braces today!

Saturday, October 22

OK, I think I'm almost ready to give my talk at church tomorrow....I don't think your ever all the way ready, but I'm done preparing for tonight!

Wednesday, October 26

Yipee! I get to go to DMV today while I am sick and have a three year old in tow! (sarcasm intended!)

Thursday, October 27

First Hollywood movie premier-fun....taking 2 hours to drive 30 miles-not so much!

Monday, October 31

We had well over 100 kids this year and counting maybe even as many as 150....sure beats the 7 kids we had last year!

Dancing kids

2011-10-30T21:38:00.000-07:00

Not great pictures, but it was just so cute to come up the stairs and see these two doing "Just Dance" together! (and Eden had to get in at the end just because I was taking pictures!)

Wordless Wednesday

2011-10-26T09:30:00.000-07:00

Marshmallows!!!!

2011-10-25T21:36:00.000-07:00

If we had to pick a theme for Kolby's 9th birthday, the title of the post says it all! Kolby asked for bags and bags of marshmallows as one of his presents this year plus he wanted it on top of his cake! I think he had a good birthday, we went to Stake Conference that day and then mostly relaxed so that was nice, and then after I picked up Sam from the airport we had spoon tacos at Kolby's request and then did cake and ice cream and presents. He really had a hard time deciding what he wanted for his birthday but he was happy to get lots of lego guys and a Domo hat among other things. These pictures are out of order because Sam just sent me these first two from his phone but I think you can see that we had a fun day!

Wings

2011-10-24T09:34:00.000-07:00

If you know Kolby, you know he eats like a grown man! Of course it is fitting that he picked Buffalo Wild Wings for his birthday dinner...he had never been there before but he knows he loves wings! His birthday fell on a Sunday and Sam was out of town the few days up to his birthday so we took the family out the night before Sam left to celebrate although we are now realizing that our kids are getting to expensive with their grown up tastes to be able to take the whole family out anymore! We did have a lot of fun although Eden was determined to get a dollar for the video games (which she never get) and spent the whole time asking for one and then tried to get Sam to ask other people and the waitresses for a dollar! Anyway, Sam started taking some pictures and you can tell who likes to ham it up for the camera!

Halloween house

2011-10-22T09:31:00.000-07:00

Kolby's last activity as a wolf was to make a Halloween house and Jordan got to join in because he was already finished with what the Weebelos were working on. I think that it takes a pretty amazing leader to do this with the boys at the church and Kolby has told me a couple of times how cool she is! They sat as decoration in our house for a few days but have now been taken apart and eaten. Jordan made his with a friend so he had his friend over to help devour it! (Jordan's pictured above and Kolby's is pictured below)

Honus and Me

2011-10-20T21:28:00.000-07:00

Kolby and I had a fun little date for his birthday! Let me start off by saying Kolby is the kind of kid who usually starts off quite sure he is not going to like something and almost always ends up loving it and is exactly what happened this time around as well. I won free tickets online to a play called "Honus and Me" for a Saturuday afternoon showing so we headed up to the play and then stopped by 5 Guys for dinner on the way home and of course Kolby had a great time even though he was so sure it would be boring before we left. He thought the play was really funny and he always loves a good hamburger and I enjoyed getting to spend some one on one time with him!

Wordless Wednesday

2011-10-19T12:27:00.000-07:00

5 year old perspective?

2011-10-18T12:02:00.000-07:00

Child's Play

2011-10-14T23:54:00.000-07:00

There was a groupon for a 10 visit punch card to this place a few weeks ago. It is a bit of a drive so Tucker and I went to check it out before we take his little friend. He had a blast and can't wait to go again and I don't mind the drive because it put me close enough to stop by Great Harvest Bread and Winco!

He spent a good chunk of his time riding this car down the ramp and pushing it back up!

I want a trampoline like this for our house!

Obviously not a great picture, but I had to include it because the red slide was his favorite thing, the first time he climbed up he was too scared to go down but he finally tried again a few minutes later and couldn't get enough of it!

Pirate and Pan

2011-10-13T13:33:00.000-07:00

I have started watching a little boy 2 days a week. Having two three year olds can be a bit of a challenge as they both want to be in charge and right and have things exactly the same as each other all the time so that leads to a lot of fighting, but they also have a lot of fun together and the days that I don't watch him, Tucker is always asking when he will be coming again.

We've been having fun checking out all the parks in the area and one day they wanted to go with their pirate and Peter Pan costumes!

Wordless Wednesday

2011-10-12T06:51:00.000-07:00

Conference Weekend

2011-10-10T11:58:00.000-07:00

I really like to make conference weekend an event for the kids. I love conference weekend and hearing from the general authorities and especially our modern day prophet and I hope the kids will feel the joy and importance of this weekend as well. I saw an activity online where you print the pictures of the general authorities and put one picture on each of a bunch of separate activities that the kids get to open and use during that speaker, here is the link: http://www.sugardoodle.net/joomla/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=6724 so I thought I would give it a try. The kids loved it! We had things ranging from puzzles, to candy, to play dough, to printables from the church website. The picture above was of them painting with bingo dotters during one speaker. I'm definitely going to try this again!

We also have a tradition of Sam making pancakes for breakfast that Sunday morning, we often have people over but this year it was just our family and we started a new tradition of homemade pizza for dinner.

Challenge

2011-10-09T11:50:00.000-07:00

If you just ignore the paper plates in the background, I liked the way this dinner looked so I had to take a picture! We are doing a challenge with Sam's family that is a lot of fun. It started in the summer where most of them did a a 12 week health challenge that involved a ton of fruit and vegetable along with various other things (which Sam won!) but in the end some people felt like the challenge was missing some things and created a new one. I didn't participate in that one be because I was dealing with the move right in the middle of it, but I signed on for this one and the first week has been great. I'm particularly enjoying the push to have more scripture reading time each day and to focus on three hours of exercise each week. My favorite part of all is that Sam and I have been going on nice walks almost every evening, we're getting our exercise of course, but we're also having a great time just chatting and hanging out together! I'm really thankful that Sam's family is so close and so willing to work together to lift each other up and at the same time have the fun competitiveness to go with it!

A star!

2011-10-08T11:49:00.000-07:00

When I got him dressed this day he said "I look like a movie star!" I do think he is quite handsome!

backyard play

2011-10-08T09:32:00.000-07:00

Another not so great picture but I just wanted to remember this cute sight! Eden had her neighbor friend over and I looked out my bedroom window (hence the screen) and this is what I saw. They had all the barbies out there and they were making a sand bed or house or something for them and Kolby was helping them. At one point Tucker was driving his tractor all around the dirt too. I guess it is nice to have a great big sandbox/dirtbox for a backyard! The best part was they were pulling all the weeds from the cracks in the squares to make their barbie bedding! (check that chore off the list!)

BYU fan!

2011-10-07T10:29:00.000-07:00

She is quite the football fan and the BYU fan...so what if she does it to please us, we'll take it! When she found out it was the BYU/Utah game that weekend, she had to wear her BYU shirts to school!

Wordless Wednesday - sorry it is a dark picture!

2011-10-05T09:38:00.000-07:00

More snippets of Tucker

2011-10-01T22:28:00.000-07:00

Because the other kids are in school all day, I get to spend a lot of time with Tucker. It is fun to see his own little personality really shine through. He is a pretty happy, mellow kid.

He still loves puzzles. Lately he has been putting together this puzzle of the States. Sam and I got this when we were first married at a thrift store before we even had kids. Brady used to like to do it too when he was about 4 and 5 but Tucker is even more into it and I think it should be beyond his years and yet he knows where the states go better than I do! He sometimes gets frustrated when other kids try and do it with him because they don't know it as well!
He also loves to play games in the car as we drive like "I spy with my little eye.." and "what the clouds look like" as he would say.
He has been a little bit more whiny lately but I think it is all part of being three and being the youngest and I think it is just a stage...hopefully!
He wants to do almost anything by himself, he likes to get his own cereal and make his lunch if he can, but at the same he loves the have his big brother's help him with stuff.
He often tells Kolby (and sometimes others) "you are my best friend forever" and is so excited when Kolby gets home from school.
He loves friends and can't wait to see any friend he's ever met even just once before at church or at the park or when they come to our house and also talks often about a couple of friends that we moved away from even if he only played with some of them a handful of times.
He loves going to meet daddy during the day when we have occasion to and always has to point out daddy's office if we pass it.
When Laura was here he kept saying "your sister" to talk about her and we finally asked him why he didn't say "Laura" and he said it's because he can't say it right, but this week he has been working on it by saying "your sister Laura" which usually sounds something like "Lola."
He is wearing a great big soccer goalie shirt in this picture which he often spends most of the day in.
He loves to dance to any music he hears and he has taken to being the drummer for any kind of "rocking" music he hears. At the dentist he picked the spongebob sticker because he was "rocking" as he says to anything that he thinks of as "rocking out!"
With that sweet innocence of childhood he will be the first one to agree with or tell you anything he is good at and we just love him!

September Facebook Status updates

2011-09-30T22:01:00.000-07:00

I'm stealing this idea from a friend...she always blogs her monthly facebook status updates and I think that is another great way to document what has been going on with us, although I do reserve the right to leave out a few here and there! I'm also thinking that the people like my mom and grandma that aren't on facebook might enjoy it! (I may go back and add some previous months as well if I get a chance!)

Sept. 1, 2011

Happiness is playing "Just Dance" with my three year old after everyone else left for the day!

Sept. 2, 2011

just posted a pin to pinterest

Sept. 11, 2011

In light of all the 9/11 posts, I wanted to share one that really touched me this week, it is more about a lesson we can use to move forward, and if you think the beginning is not really related, keep reading to the end:http://beinglds.blogspot.com/2011/09/real-lesson-of-september-11th.html

Sept. 12, 2011

I have been blogging a lot recently, just everyday stuff but if you are interested, check it out

Sept. 15, 2011

(with a video of a cute old couple trying to figure out how to use their webcam)

So cute...I could see Sam and I being just like this someday!

Sept. 19, 2011

Does anyone know where in the scriptures is the part where Eve is chased by a T-rex?!!!! The kids were acting out scripture stories for us to guess tonight and that is what the little two acted out....actually every story we got from Tucker included a T-rex!

Sept. 25, 2011

We went to a deaf event this weekend and ran into the ASL missionaries (there are 3 in the companionship), I got a kick out of the fact that one was named Elder Mercy and one was named Elder Given and when I pointed this out they mentioned that they actually just had a third companion transferred out named Elder Moore!

Sept. 26, 2011

Just when your feeling a little bit lonely, that great friend calls that you don't get to see very often at all but can pick up where you left off and that totally understands your weaknesses and lets you wallow in them but at the same time makes you feel good about yourself and leaves you feeling lifted...I'm not very good at saying it in person, but I can always type it..thanks Danelle Fobert for being that kind of friend!

Sept. 30, 2011
Finally had a chance to spend some time on pinterest and now I get why people are addicted to it!

Pioneering

2011-09-28T21:31:00.001-07:00

We have a great scouting program and leaders in our ward and Brady has fun working on a couple of merit badges last weekend, this one was for pioneering!

Lately I've been...

2011-09-28T21:00:00.000-07:00

Eating...

Mango Sorbet, a little bit at the end of some days just hits the spot
Peanut Butter and honey sandwiches, weird for me, but also only after I toast it in the toaster oven
Lots of fruit, it's nice to have Tom's farm nearby
burnt peanuts, those red candy ones, I've been addicted lately for some reason

Listening to...

the school bell is a toucan squawk and I can hear it several times a day if my window is open
Eden singing songs from her ballet/tap class activities and from school
conference talks in the morning, they help me get motivated for my day
classical music that I try to remember to turn on when the kids are coming home from school

Missing...

friends that will automatically assume I would like to carpool to a church activity
a couple to go out to dinner with for date night
charter schools
my favorite thrift stores

Creating...

a facebook group for my ward ladies, I know I swore I wasn't going to be in charge of things this time around, but I needed it so I had to do it!
a new organization system for the kids lunch foods
plans for a park day
philosophical blog posts in my mind that never get written (let's see of this one makes it!)

Enjoying...

lots of Tucker time
Sam's 10 minute commute
the mountain views from our house
Eden having a friend right next door

Grateful for...

The person who noticed I was standing outside the circle at the RS activity and invited me in
Trials and when it is finally over, looking back at what I gained and learned
Sam's new job and the boss inviting me to join them for dinner when he was in town
The whole family belting out "Praise to the Man" as we drove in the car

What happens when I need to occupy the little kids at the church...

2011-09-20T11:30:00.000-07:00

a few of the many, many pictures that Eden and Tucker took when I gave them my phone to play with while we had to sit and wait at the church during cub scouts (and Eden was actually posing like that for the picture)!

snack bag

2011-09-18T14:21:00.000-07:00

Eden has to bring her snack each day in a separate lunch bag with her name on it. She told me she wanted to write her name herself and now this is what she always writes "Eden is prety and cut. The end" (if you don't read 1st grad phonics I'll translate: Eden is pretty and cute. The end!"

Beach again

2011-09-16T14:12:00.000-07:00

The one thing my sister really wanted to do when she was here for Brady's ordination was go to the Beach. We were actually getting a bit tired of the beach, if you can imagine, not really tired of the beach itself, just the effort of getting ready and getting there, ok, maybe not the kids, just me since the effort is all my part! Anyway, we had just gone the weekend before (pictured in the last photo on this post) with Sam's work. His center and the San Diego center planned an all day family beach day/BBQ for the employees which was fun but a long day. But my sister really wanted to go so we went again and of course it was fun. The boys wanted to go back to the same spot we went in April to build structures in the sand walls so we made the trek there but the walls were hardly there anymore! Instead they spent the whole time boogie boarding, especially Brady and Eli, they loved it and it was hard to tear them away to go home. Eden had fun going on a walk along the pier with Laura and I also taught her to right her name in the sand. She had fun writing the names of the whole family!

(Purple Communications Beach Day)

Wordless Wednesday -"nerdy tuck"

2011-09-14T12:10:00.000-07:00

Twelve!

2011-09-12T23:09:00.000-07:00

Sadly, this is the only picture I took at all for Brady's birthday, and it was a big birthday, he turned 12. I honestly can't believe he is old enough to be in Young Men's at church! He started celebrating his birthday early with Eli coming for the week and some of his presents arriving early. He really mostly just wanted everything monopoly or video game related and when I took him to Gamestop to pick his present he picked Monopoly for the Wii. He chose Burger King for lunch so I surprised him with it at school and he wanted Chinese food for dinner which made Sam happy. Of course turning 12 in the church means he was also ordained to the Aaronic Priesthood and is now a Deacon. We were lucky to have both our families come down and Sam's Grandma come up to be a part of that and then he and Eli were both able to pass the Sacrament together in our ward. I feel so blessed that I have another worthy Priesthood holder in our home. He is such an amazing, easy going kid, so genuinely good and helpful and we are lucky to have him in our family.

"Let me just tie a string..."

2011-09-11T14:09:00.000-07:00

Eden was very excited to discover her first loose tooth right before we moved. On Aug. 18 (Nicki was visiting that evening as well), she realized it was ready when it hurt to eat her dinner but she wouldn't let Sam get close enough to pull out so he convinced her that they could tie a string around it just to see how loose it was! Of course that did the trick and she was very happy to put her tooth under her pillow that night!

beach buddies

2011-09-09T15:57:00.000-07:00

Eden and Tucker were so excited to get to see there friends that also moved down from Lincoln but they moved by the beach. The older boys were just happy to get to go to the beach. We all had a really great time and Tucker and his buddy were especially cute playing imaginary games and chasing birds! We made this our last special outing the day before school started.

Wordless Wednesday (First day Aug. 10)

2011-09-07T06:56:00.000-07:00

For grandma

2011-09-04T09:48:00.000-07:00

I actually took these pictures because I thought my grandma would get a kick out of seeing Tucker set-up the little people toys, half of which used to be hers. We always played with these when we went to my Grandma Winkler's house and I've added more pieces that I've gathered from thrift stores and ebay over the years. I don't know if you can tell but he was lining up all the beds in the first picture and in the second he has a park set-up and was in the process of setting up a dining room. The houses were still packed so he was doing imaginary houses and schools!

I try to keep most of the toys in separate containers and we get out a kind of toy for the week. Tucker has been really into this since we moved here so I got a few pictures. The little people were played with constantly for several days and then we moved onto the "big legos" as the kids call them. Eden wanted me to take pictures of her structures!

Big Brown Comfy Couch

2011-09-02T15:10:00.000-07:00

(sorry about the pictures, my camera is broken so they are all cell phone pictures for the last month or two)

So just like my moving out post, I now have a bunch of random thoughts about moving in and this new house we are renting:

I actually really love the layout of the house, the builder really used the space well, the only thing I think is lacking is the kitchen, it is still really nice but the space is a bit deceiving but I do especially love the dining nook area, there is a ton of room for the table and every other house we've ever been in felt like the table was sort of squished in
Some of the kitchen cupboards have glass doors, sure they look nice, but I don't have many nice looking dishes and those are not what I wanted in those cupboards anyway
I miss the small charter schools the kids were at, the school here is good and their teachers are good, but I don't prefer having so many students around and having so much homework, not only do the boys have a lot but it seems like I have a lot, I don't remember having to sign and check so many things at any of the charter schools...on the upside, it is nice to have them in school with the neighborhood and ward kids and they school does have a lot of fun extras that the small schools just couldn't, in the end I would still choose the charter schools but if we have to do public this seems like a good one
Sam got a brand new washer and dryer on craigslist from someone that moved into a new house but already had their own, I went to use the washer for the first time and it wouldn't work, we had someone come look and they couldn't fix it and then we finally realized it would be under warranty so we had to wait another week for them to send someone out and then it turned out it just need to be reset because it had a computer program inside, so we were without laundry service for about 3 weeks, luckily Sam's grandma is only 1 hour away so we visited her one Sunday and got 2 loads done but I was never so happy to do laundry in my life as I was when the repair man fixed the washer
It is amazing to have Sam so close, he has almost always had 1/2 hour or more commute wherever we lived so it is so nice that he is home in less than 10 minutes! I have often had to take him his lunch but I don't mind because he is on the way to all the shopping and he isn't spending money eating out. One Friday he even arrived home at 4:30...I was almost in shock!
I'm still getting used to the idea of Southern California. The news has a lot more entertainment/Hollywood stuff and I can never actually tell what my weather is here because it covers such a huge area, I also haven't figured out where all my stores are and what is near, one time I went to check out something on craigslist and it turned out to be an hour away and I'm still looking for a good thrift store.
If you remember, we sold our sectional at a garage sale so my first Saturday here I set out to garage sales to find something replace it. I found this couch but they were charging $400 but I sent Sam back letter to see if he could negotiate and they had already dropped it to $300. Sam got their number and called them later in the day to offer $200 and they came back with $250 and we think we lucked out! Look at the size of the ottoman, that alone is probably worth $250! Needless to say the whole family is very happy with our new brown couch! If you notice, Tucker fell asleep on it the very next day!

Moving on out...

2011-09-02T08:25:00.000-07:00

So we did it...we moved again! 14 times in 13 years is a lot, but this is our farthest move, at least with kids (when we moved to and from Utah to finish school we had a lot less stuff!) Moving is a lot of work as anyone that has moved will tell you! As I'm writing this, we've actually already been here for a month so I can't remember all that I was going to record here, but I'll just bullet what I can remember:

I know I told everyone that it wasn't that hard having Sam down here while we were up there, but now I can admit it, it really was, and it was hard to pack the whole house by myself
I was proud of myself for pretty much having the house packed a week before it was time to move
We had a lot of great help from our ward and family that I can't even name everyone but we ended up having three different loading times and we had friends from our ward all three times
Our dad's (and mom's support) were amazing...my dad took down an initial load when Sam first got in our rental and it was no easy task with some truck issues, but they made it! And Sam's dad, very last minute agreed to drive down a load of stuff in my dad's truck and our bishop's trailer (a big thanks to the bishop as well) the night of the move when we realized it wasn't all going to fit in the truck...he literally hopped in the truck and drove all night with Eli while Sam and Jordan and Kolby drove in the moving truck, then he drove home the next day! Then my dad brought down our last load of stuff when he cam for Brady's ordination...we really have amazing families and we truly appreciate all their help
As mentioned before Sam drove all night, for some odd reason he scheduled to have the Elder's Quorum help unload at 8am on Saturday when we just finished loading at 9:00 on Friday night. He was also sick during all of this but thanks to a Priesthood blessing and lots of prayers, he made it safely here by 7am, barely, but he made it
I stayed back with Brady and the little two to get the house cleaned up for our renters that were moving in on Sunday, once again our mom's and sisters helped by taking care of the younger two. I also got to go to a wedding of family friends of ours which was really cool but the crazy part is that it was in Eddie Murphy's old house which I spent a lot of time in a few years ago and it was very surreal to be there, it all looked exactly the same...for those of you that were there too back then...the piano, the purple couch, the gold and black bathroom...all still the same!
Sam and the boys got some of the beds put together and then crashed (pictured above), they all slept most of Saturday, Sam said at one point he woke up and he found Jordan asleep on a blanket at the bottom of the stairs on the tile, when we asked him about it he said he went down to get a blanket and then just fell asleep there
I was so excited to finally get down here Sunday night but then was a bit overwhelmed when I walked into the mountains of boxes
We are all together again and pretty much unpacked now and happy to be past the craziness of the past few months!

Pioneer Day

2011-09-01T09:58:00.000-07:00

We made it to one last ward activity before we left and the kids had a great time. These pictures were taken my friend's husband at the activity.

I love Brady and Jordan's faces there in the background!

Eden cried because she didn't win the sack race, but she also had fun!

Had to get a picture of Brady's last primary performance!

Namesake

2011-09-01T09:49:00.000-07:00

I missed this one during the reunion, I stayed back at the hotel with a sick Tucker, but Sam's family gathered at the cemetery to remember his grandpa Borgia and it is also were Grandpa's mom is buried and Eden's middle name is after her so Sam got a picture of Eden at her site.

August Facebook Status Updates

2011-08-31T10:19:00.000-07:00

Backtracking to August...

8-2-11

Internet hooked up today, very little unpacking done today...could be a correlation there!

8-8-11

It seems like we've moved to a really great ward at church, we had a lot of fun getting to know people at the picnic tonight!

8-9-11

Enjoyed one last summer outing at the beach today with friends before school starts tomorrow!

8-9-11

Made homemade potato chips in the microwave for the kids' first day of school and they are actually really good!

8-13-11

If you want to feel dumb realize that you forgot your wallet as you check your purse to pay at the store....if you want to feel REALLY dumb do the 15 min. drive home to retrieve said wallet only to realize when you get there that the wallet is in your pocket!

8-15-11

‎6 out of the 7 of us ate it...I call the overnight oatmeal in the crockpot a success!

8-16-11

Never thought I would ever be so happy to do laundry!

8-20-11

Off to the beach again!

8-22-11

I can't believe I am the mother of a 12 year old today!

8-25-11

(an ap that goes through the church's family history website to see who you are related to)

has found more relatives!

My Relative: Jon Steven YOUNG

relation: 10th Cousin 1 times removed

Common ancestor: A LOVELL

From: England

Year: 1599

8-27-11

Are you tired of me saying this yet...I'm at the beach again!

Going away...

2011-08-30T09:44:00.000-07:00

*I've been holding off on this post because I'm waiting for some pictures from a friend but I guess I will just add them to this post when I get them.*

In the 14 times that we have moved in the last 13 years, I think this is the first time anyone has thrown us a going away party and they were really nice! These ones were actually "Girls' Nights" (one would have been couples or families but we couldn't find a time that Sam would be in town that would work). It's funny to me, because other moves I was a little bit sad to not have some type of special good-bye like this with my friends, but this time I wasn't even thinking about it and I had two such gatherings and it was really fun to see everyone. The first was with what I guess I could just call my Friday friends although there is a lot more too it than that, but they know what I mean. It was a lot of fun to sit and chat with them for hours! Most of those friendships got me through my early years with my kids and even though we've changed in some ways and moved on to different things and not needed in the same way, they will always be very dear to me.

The other was put together by some friends in my ward. Although several people were out of town we had fun with our small little group and one of them made this amazing cake. They had asked me what my favorite colors are and what my theme is beforehand and I thought that was a little weird because I wasn't getting married or having a baby, but it turns out that it was the basis for the cake. Isn't it cool? And it was yummy too! Thank you to everyone for making me feel so special!

the dance

2011-08-17T21:47:00.000-07:00

Tucker has this funny little dance that the older boys taught him to do and this captures it as close as I can in pictures!

Best Friends

2011-08-15T09:00:00.000-07:00

These two are so cute together. I wish I had thought to take more pictures of all the kids with their friends before we left but my friend did manage to capture these two in action at her house the last couple of times they got to hang out!

Cute pictures

2011-08-13T22:03:00.000-07:00

My friend takes such great pictures that I have to steal all the ones from her blog that include my kids! The first few are at the last day of school picnic. Tucker and his little friend look so old!

The rest of these pictures are from Tucker's little friend's party. My friend put on an amazing party even though she was moving away that next week, she had no family help and she had a newborn! Even though it was a little kid party, the older boys and Eli also had a lot of fun!

Random Sundays

2011-08-13T07:02:00.000-07:00

We had a lot of Sundays without Sam before we moved so they were a little slow and sometimes hard, but we made it through! Eden usually ask Sam how she looks before church so we had to take some pictures for her to show him. This first one had to include the three of us because we were all matching in orange!

After church one Sunday Jordan decided he wanted a hamburger so he proceeded to make hamburgers for all of us!

and Eden has to show some of her Sunday poses!