Containing the Chaos

Thanksgiving

2011-11-28T20:45:00.000-08:00

I know that this post is a long time coming but I haven't seemed to get it together to blog. I have now started to get it together. Thanksgiving was good. I had hernia surgery the week before and my Mom thankfully came out to take care of me. I didn't realize it until she was here, but I really needed her here.

So I had the surgery and then I slept for about a week. My Mom left for Indiana on Tuesday and we had Thanksgiving with just the family. We still made everything, Turkey, stuffing, potatoes, rolls, and green beans. Clif made an apple pie and a pumpkin pie. I loved it. We just spent all weekend eating, and eating, and eating. We were more stuffed than our turkey was by the end of the weekend.

That morning while I got the turkey ready, Clif went and played foot ball with the ward. He had a great time and was really nasty by the time he got home. He wasn't supposed to play tackle ball but he got tackled and then tackled everyone else. I think he was the player that everyone wanted to take out before he got too good. He loved it. Clif was sore for the next few days but he had so much fun.

The rest of Thanksgiving was a weekend of playing outside and just hanging out. I love weekends like this.

Liam is thinking for the future.

2011-11-18T20:55:00.000-08:00

While we are getting ready for Christmas to come, the kids ask for a new Christmas story every night. We have a book that goes through all of the Christmas items. So the book talks about the North Pole, the elves, Santa, and everything else that goes with it.

Liam was wondering what the North Pole was like. He kept asking Clif about all the different jobs there was there, what the weather and people was like, and more. Finally Liam decided "I am getting a job so that I can earn money and go to the North Pole." I am so glad that he knows how the world works.

Like brother like twins.

2011-11-13T21:32:00.000-08:00

MyraJean followed in Evelyn and Liam's footsteps. She hit her head on Liam's opened dresser drawer and split it open. I was not home and Clif had to take her to the urgent care. They were able to close it by shaving it and then gluing it together. She recovered pretty well. It was pretty dramatic but it wasn't too bad. Thankfully the hair falls over the spot and hides it well.

Halloween

2011-11-13T21:08:00.000-08:00

When I was in grade school in California I remember having a Halloween parade. Liam got to experience one this year. He wore his Storm Trooper costume to school and then they had a parade and a party in his class. He had a great day and it was super fun.
Liam was so excited to see me. He said "Mom, you surprised me and came." Like I have ever missed something that he participated. Funny kid.

Here is Liam at his table in class. He is sitting next to his friend from the neighborhood. He was so excited to see that we came to visit him.
Liam posing with is guns. He must have been practicing for his trick or treating attitude.

Here is all the kids on the way out to trick or treat. We had Evelyn: the pirate, MyraJean: the cowgirl, Liam: the Storm Trooper, and Adele: the Princess Fairy. They had a great time around the neighborhood trick or treating and it was a good night for the family.

Liam lost his first tooth

2011-10-30T11:42:00.001-07:00

Last Saturday, Liam came downstairs and said he had a loose tooth. By Sunday it was ready to come out and so we wrapped a piece of string around it and gently pulled. Out it came.

Here is his tooth.

The tooth fairy brought him a dollar, a new toothbrush and his own toothpaste. Liam was quite pleased.

New Lace pieces

2011-10-30T10:43:00.000-07:00

This is the latest Torchon piece that I have completed. I am putting a white contrasting linen in the middle and putting it on my Great Grandmother's sewing table. I think it turned out really nicely. I am getting a little faster so this was fun and I think there were less inaccurate stitches.

This is a new style of bobbin lace. It is called Bedfordshire lace and the pattern is Ninepin and it is fairly difficult. It has plaits and picots (the little loops on the outside) and a windmill stitch that I have never encountered. By the end of the piece I gained an understanding of those concepts but there was a bit of anger and frustration at the beginning, I have never tried to make this before so I think that is came out nicely but I have a lot of practice to do. My Mom got me some new patterns so I am really excited to work some more and increase my skills.

Tomatoes and more Tomatoes

2011-10-29T21:53:00.002-07:00

We had the opportunity to pick tomatoes this past week. So Monday I went and picked some but I felt like I didn't get enough and so Clif and I went back and picked some with the family for family night.
This is the tomato field. It was probably 10 acres of tomatoes. It was nuts.

Adele with her tomato bag. She loves tomatoes

We are not sure if she picked more or ate more. All of the kids said they had belly aches at the end of picking the fruit. It was sad and yet funny all at the same time. It was a great night and we all had such a good time. The kids were surprisingly good at picking the good tomatoes and not eating all of them.
Most of the tomatoes were about this big. The kids had at least one this size. At one point MyraJean had one in each hand and was commenting about how the orange ones were not as good as the red ones.

We might have over done itBy the time we got home we realised we had close to 300 lbs of tomatoes. So I spent Tuesday, Wednesday and part of Thursday canning my hinney off. We got tomato sauce, spaghetti sauce and canned tomatoes. We ended up with 84 quarts and 38 pints.

MyraJean said "Next time Mom, can we just buy some tomatoes and not pick them". I totally understood what she meant, because I only buy a couple of pounds not 300 and so I don't spend 3 days ignoring the kids.

But it will be good to have the food storage.

Pumpkin Patch

2011-10-29T21:53:00.001-07:00

This year we went to a new pumpkin patch, well because we live in California now. This patch was almost a carnival, there was so much for the kids to do. We were only there for the pumpkins and boy there were pumpkins.
When we got there the kids were so excited. I made everyone stop and take a picture in front of the sign. Clif was pretty tiffed but I thought the kids made quite the picture.
So instead of going into the field to pick the pumpkin, they have them already lined up for you to pick out. The kids were running and jumping all over the pumpkins. Liam picked up every other one saying that it was his. I made him get one that he could pick up by himself. Hence the mildly reasonable sized pumpkin.
I just thought this was a cute picture of everyone.

In years past, I haven't let the kids actually make jack o lanterns. This year I was told that they needed to make jack o lanterns. I let Clif be in charge of it. It was so good. He did a great job and the kids loved it. Liam was so excited to actually carve his and put the light in it.

Here's the kids with the finished products. Adele spilled the matches and it was quite a struggle to get her to look at the camera not picking up the matches.

Need Help?

2011-10-29T21:48:00.000-07:00

On the way to the Dr. two weeks ago to have my procedure, the kids wanted to know why I was going to the baby Dr. since I wasn't having any more kids. I told them I needed to have the Dr. fix it so we didn't have any more kids.

Liam said "Why do you have to go to the Dr.s? I thought you talked to Heavenly Father already."

"I did, but we need some more help". Don't know if that fixed it but I couldn't come to explain it any more explicitly.

My Birthday

2011-10-29T21:40:00.000-07:00

This year was an eventful year. I had a great 31 year but was glad to call it to a close. Clif was such a good husband and got me Paula Deen's Southern Cooking Bible. It was awesome, I read through it for a week straight. Everything from red beans and rice to green tomato pie. There is so much to look through to eat. He also got me a Janet Evanovitch book, she is so delightful to read when I need a good laugh.

My family was great too. The kids all made me cards and I got whatever food I wanted. We had biscuits and gravy, and chicken pot pie for dinner. For desert we had Rum Cake and it was awesome. I think Clif and I ate the enitre thing by ourselves in 2 days. It was so fun.

My parents and siblings always make me feel so special. I got lots of bobbin lacing items, a new Sharon Kay Penman book, and lots of family heirlooms. It was so great to look though things and remember all the past years.

Definitely a good year to remember.

New Delsa Pictures

2011-10-29T21:39:00.000-07:00

I can't believe she is 5 months old but she is. She is smiling and cooing. She is starting to laugh and is extremely ticklish. We love her sweet spirit but she is a demanding little thing and loves to be held and carried all over the house.

Don't they look so angelic. We all know who terrorises this family, but she does love Baby Delsa. She always keeps me updated with all the latest happenings. "Mom, Delsa crying" Mom, Delsa thirsty". Adele is so cute and we love her so much.

The girls always want to hold the baby. By the time Evelyn got to hold her she was spent. But I needed a picture of the kids holding her for posterity. I figure I need to prove that Delsa didn't get mobbed all the time, just some of it.

MyraJean is always such a help. She is always willing to help bounce Delsa or get her a toy to keep her happy. I don't know what we would have done without her and her helping hands.

Liam is a big help too. He is constantly trying to keep her happy and to talk to her.

Adele is funny

2011-10-16T07:34:00.000-07:00

The other day I came into my bathroom and Adele was on the counter. I asked her what she was doing and she replied "Picking up".
"Your picking up?" I asked
"Yes, your bathroom is always messy!" (Which is funny since it is pretty much always clean)

I told Adele to go to the bathroom to go potty the other day. "No thank you" she said.
I told her that I wanted her to go I wasn't asking for her to go, she said "Don't bother me, I am busy, Mom".

Clif told Adele to stay in bed the other night. He went through the whole speech on how he would lock her door shut or spank her bum. He then proceeded to finish putting her blankets on her and realized she had stuck her fingers in her ears so she didn't have to listen his speech. We all laughed...

New hair cuts

2011-09-05T10:15:00.001-07:00

Remember what your mom said? If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all. I guess Liam is not the only person not allowed to have scissors too.

Delsa is 3 months

2011-09-05T10:12:00.001-07:00

Isn't she so cute?

Clif is 32

2011-09-05T09:56:00.001-07:00

I just want to say, Clif has a great life. He got some new great clothes. We made him steak sandwiches, potato salad, watermellon, and chips. He also got a plate of "decked out brownies". He wanted them to have lots of extras so I put nuts and chocolate chips in them and then frosted them and put caramel sauce on top too. It was so decadent and super yummy.

Clif is old... it took all the kids to help him blow out his candles. Funny!

Another year of Kindergarten

2011-08-19T09:42:00.000-07:00

Liam started Kindergarten again. I am very pleased. I wanted him to have another year since we moved into 3 different classes last year. Hopefully, this year will be a little more stable for everyone. He is very excited to be back in school much like the rest of the family. The whole family needed a little more structure than what summer brings the family.

This is his friend Sabreen from down the street. She is also in his class. He wants to play with her every day when he gets home. Unfortunately there is more to life than just play dates.

Liam has a friend, Maya, that has this rad car. The girls wouldn't get back into the car after seeing what Liam got to play with for the afternoon. It was crazy trying to herd the kids back into the car so all I could do was take a picture. Yes, as you guessed, Liam wants to play with her all the time.

Here is Liam outside our house on the first day of school. He really was excited. Now, we need him to stop being so social and learn a little more. He sure takes after him mom. He thinks school is total social hour. He is very excited and it is so much fun to see him so excited about being in school again.

Baby Blessing

2011-08-14T09:03:00.000-07:00

When Clif and I went to Seattle to help my parents and visit with friends, we also blessed the baby. I was able to use my baby blessing dress and my mom was amazing and replaced the lace. She had to hand stitch some of it so it was a real honor to have my mom let me use my old dress. It brought sweet memories of me being able to use my Mom's wedding dress too. I am so blessed with my family. Here is Delsa. She is so calm and sweet most of the time. There is a hint of red head temper... fun times ahead.
Pretty, isn't she?

2 months old

2011-07-27T11:55:00.001-07:00

The other day I came up becuase I heard Delsa crying and then she stopped. This is how I found her. Liam had gotten her back to sleep. What a great kid.

How cute is this....

She looks like Clif so much it is crazy.
I love this picture. She is this cute and sweet all the time.

Crab cove with five kids

2011-07-27T10:44:00.001-07:00

On Friday we took Clif to work and then took the kids all over Oakland, Alameda, and Berkley. Since the day starts for Clif at 7 am, we had to kill time. So we went to McDonald's for breakfast with every homeless man in Oakland. The kids were so thrilled to have sausage sandwiches and to be able to get out for breakfast. They were so well behaved and I felt like it was such a succes.

They were so good. They sat at the table and since there wasn't a play area they were fine with just eating and talking to each other. They were so grown up.

Here are the girls at the Temple. The fog had not burned off and so we headed to visit the temple grounds. The Oakland Temple was closed to patrons so I didn't worry about my kids bothering people as they went about their business. The kids ran around the grounds and while I tried to feed the baby, they were bouncing off the walls.

After a while of visiting the grounds, the kids and I went into the visitor center. Liam hammed up the cute British Sister Missionary. She was telling him how to say his prayers. He looked at her and said a little astonished "We already do that every night". Like, hello doesn't everyone? She was also talking about Jesus resurrection and was using words like he woke up, which was confusing Liam. He turned to me quizzically and I said what happened to Jesus after he died? Liam replied "He was resurrected". Things are really sinking in.
After the temple we went to Crab cove. The kids had so much fun. They got fried but they had so much fun looking for crabs, and playing in the sand and water.

This is Delsa in her beach bum outfit. It was awesome.
A pretty picture of Adele. It took forever for us to get a good picture of her.

Liam and Evelyn with a dead crab. It stayed at the beach... thank goodness. The last one that came home was rotting and smelled up the whole backyard. Pleased to say I learned from that.

After the beach we had a picnic at the park. The kids are enjoying their peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. They also got juice boxes... they had a lovely time.

We took the long way home and went to Rohnert Park where my cousin Heather and Jared live. We got to play with their kids, visit and eat pizza. It was a lovely time. Their 10 year old, Maggie was such a doll and played dress up with the kids. Here is Liam in a dress with a wand... Cute girl if you ask me.

Myra Jean with the hat from Spain.

This is beautiful Maggie with Delsa. She was so great. I love that family.

It was a great but LONG day. The kids were so well behaved that it would be fun to do it again.

Who made me do it?

2011-07-27T10:30:00.000-07:00

Two weeks ago, Liam led the family with the stomach flu. He came screaming up the stairs and the vomited all over our carpet... multiple times. At one point he was crying and asking Clif "Who made me sick Jesus or his bad brother?". Then later, "Why am I so sick, I am just a little boy?"

So glad I had something to laugh about because two days later Adele and I got the flu. Then the twins the next day. Unfortunately, I never knew who made us sick Jesus or his bad brother, Satan.

Liam isn't 5 anymore!

2011-07-10T21:42:00.000-07:00

Liam had an awesome birthday this year. I was worried that he wouldn't feel like he got a good birthday since his friends and cousins live so far away that I took matters into my own hands. I called Liam's great buddy Maya and asked if she would be able to spend some time with him so that he didn't have to take a nap on his birthday. Her mom was absolutely amazing and offered to take him to Chuckie Cheese for lunch with Maya. Of coerce I took her up on the offer but I didn't say anything to him about going. I wanted him to be able to go and I thought that if he knew before hand he might get too excited and not be able to handle it.

So at dinner on Wednesday, we asked him what he wanted for dinner for his birthday. He said he wanted to go to Chuckie Cheese. I told him he couldn't go, and he had to pick something else. He very sadly said "Well, I guess I will JUST have chicken nuggets and french fries, but I really wanted Chuckie Cheese". I just ducked my head and smiled. I don't get many situations to surprise him and so it was really fun.

The next day, Liam had bacon waffles for his birthday breakfast. Then I told him to go play. A little while later he came up and asked if we were going anywhere for his birthday. Nope, we weren't and he was so upset. At 10:45 I told him to change his shirt and get his shoes. He asked if we were going to pick strawberries, which is the other thing he wanted to eat on his birthday. I just told him to hurry up.

When Maya and her mom, Malia came to the door, Liam was really confused. He kept asking if he was going to pick strawberries and I told Malia that he had no idea where he was going. She smiled and took him with her.... Three hours later, Liam came home with a giant smile and prizes. He had a great time.

We then had chicken nuggets and french fries for dinner. I had made a pirate ship for his cake and Liam was so excited that he got all his toy pirates and put them on top of the cake. We also made pirate shrink idinks.

Lastly Liam got to open his presents. He got 2 Lego sets, a movie, a shirt, books, and lastly a Transformer helmet. He had an awesome birthday. We are very pleased with him. He is such a big help and always wants to give loves and is very sensitive. He is still into Lego's, and pirates. He loves to play war and to play with swords and guns. He is so funny and very smart, he makes us laugh and sometimes cry. We are very blessed to have him in our family.

The pirate cake with pirate gold around it. The candles ended up being the canons and Liam loved blowing them out.

Our very fancy dinner of chicken nuggets and french fries.

Liam opening his gifts and his Transformer helmet. Watch out, I think we have another obsession coming...

4th of July

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

For the 4th of July our neighbors asked us over for a barbecue with her cute family. We had fantastic ribs, potato salad, watermelon, and brownies. It was really fun for everyone. The kids played with the neighbors and rode their bikes around the street. Then we started a water fight, most of the adults also joined in on the fun. It was a great day.

Some of the highlights was that Evie started to ride her bike without any assistance and without her training wheels. She is very proud of herself.

The older kids found a plum tree and Adele was able to store some in the fridge in the garage. I have spent a week cleaning plum juice out of the garage and off the floor where the kids spit out their pits. Pretty nasty if you ask me.

The kids watched the fireworks that my neighbors bought and successfully stayed up until 9:30 with minimal meltdowns. They loved the fireworks even the loud ones. Delsa surprised me and slept through the whole time. It was so pretty.

All in a days work

2011-07-03T22:15:00.000-07:00

The past Saturday, Clif had to work and so we dropped him off in Oakland at the office and I took the kids to see their Aunt Mo in Pleasanton. While we were there, we got to see some family friends as well.
Grandma Marsha told us of a water park that had a stream that the kids could play in. The girls and Liam had a ball and I kept the 1, 2, 3, 4, mantra going successfully. For those that don't understand that, all I do when I go into public is count the kids over and over, so that I don't loose track of one. I must look like I am slowly going crazy, oh wait, I am...

The twins walking down the stream from the water park. Don't they look so big? I can't believe they are so old and so smart.

Here is a picture with all 4 kids in it. They wouldn't stay still for me so that I could get a good picture of them all smiling at me. So you get a picture of them while they were playing.
Did I mention I have a small paranoia of my kids near water? This was a huge thing for me to do without Clif. Thankfully Aunt Mo was there to help me count the kids and help me take them to the bathroom. It was a success and we all had a great time.
Liam and Evelyn in their dad's work outfits. Clif has to wear these items when he goes on the bridge. The kids loved seeing the bridge and Clif's office. They thought it was so cool to wear all the different items of Clif's work attire.
Evelyn and MyraJean with such sweet personalities

Manteca

2011-06-30T21:54:00.000-07:00

When we were here as little kids, my family lived in Manteca which is about 15 minutes from our current house. I have a lot of memories here since this is where we lived until I was ten. The neighborhood looked the same and I could pick out some of the houses I visited. We would walk to school from our house too and so it was fun to see the places I remember so well.
This is the house we lived in. They have painted it and replaced the windows. My mom had strawberries in the front and they put grass there instead. I still remembered a lot though. This is the first house I had my own room, the first house I remember, and I was really nostalgic after seeing the house and neighborhood.

The parking lot is new here. This used to be where we played on the playground. The older buildings in the back are the same that I went to school in.
Liam climbing the ropes at the park. I think he is learning so he can do it when he joins the local pirates.Our family on the picnic at Shasta park. My Dad used to golf on this park and we would play all the time here. I really loved seeing it again.
More of the old school. I still have my brothers shirt that says Shasta Hornets and they haven't changed the school mascot.

The girls and Clif on the play area, these are all really new. It was a great park though.

Delsa - 4 weeks

2011-06-30T21:50:00.000-07:00

New times

2011-06-21T17:12:00.000-07:00

Our street had a block party. Eveyone had a great day. There was lots of food, games, and water slides. How fun for everyone.

Evie with a huge grin on her face

MyraJean and her slide grin. So cute

Wall stickers that the girls loved and my mom was nice enough to give the girls. They still play with them.

Adele and her new creative outlet. I am going to scrub the skin right off of that girl.

Fun times

2011-06-21T16:58:00.001-07:00

While my Mom was here we played dress up and pretended to be pirates, princesses and moms.

Liam in his Super Liam cape and pirate gear. Yes, he wears them all the time.

The twins painting their Popsicle stick creations. Aren't they so cute?

Liam and MyraJean in the background at the park. There is a nice park nearby where the creators added a dinosaur bone discovery area, a boat and lots of room to run. My kids really like the park.
I know they have funny looks on their faces but I really thought they were so cutely dressed I had to take a picture.

This is the first stage of the paper mache. The kids loved it and my mom was so good with them all. I really thought the kids were in heaven.

This is them painting their paper mache bowls. They loved their bowls and also made turtles and caterpillars for their dad for fathers day. Happy Fathers day to Clif!

Delsa is here.

2011-06-09T21:02:00.001-07:00

Right after Liam's graduation I was having contractions on and off. I went to the hospital at 8 Friday night and Delsa was born 4 am on Saturday morning. She weighted 7 lb 7 oz, and was 19 3/4 inches long. She has light hair that looks almost red in the light. We hope that it continues to be red.

End of year.

2011-06-09T20:44:00.001-07:00

Liam graduated from Kindergarten two weeks ago. It was a big day for the whole family. He sang 3 songs and performed a small poem with the other children in his class. He was extermely thrilled and waved the whole time his class was perfoming.

Liam also had his training wheels taken off. Here he is zooming around the backyard. He is a speed demon.

Here is his certificate of Kindergarten completion and his book that he got with the class.

Liam and his 3rd Kindergarten teacher this year, Ms. Squires.

There was a fun party for all the kids after the program. I actually got all four kids in one picture. It was such a fun time and the kids were so well behaved the whole time.

Adele- the new monster

2011-05-16T10:14:00.001-07:00

You have heard of the sock monster that eats socks in the dryer? Well this is the boot monster who takes your boots and hides them around the house.

Happy Easter

2011-05-16T09:42:00.000-07:00

HAPPY EASTER!!!!

The Easter bunny came and pooped Easter eggs all over the house. There were wonderful eggs to find, baskets to go through, and cute bags holding treasures for the kids.

Here are the kids smiling for the camera in front of their Easter baskets and bags.

MyraJean was on the hunt for Easter Eggs. She was following the trail from her basket to her special eggs. Each of the kids were left a cadburry egg and a kinder egg to keep. It was a fun tradition from Clif and the kids really seemed to love it.

My Mom sent some baskets and bags for the kids. These are the ears each of the kids got. MyraJean looks a little possessed but it is all in good fun of getting and eating candy right?

Here is Liam with a couple of eggs that he found. I think these are some of the ones that he dyed himself. He had a lot of fun dying the eggs and coloring them to make fun designs. Clif really seemed to love showing the kids how to color them with crayons and then dying them to make them extra special.

Here is Evelyn with 3 eggs. She had fun just collecting the eggs.

All in all, it was a great day. The kids got new Easter clothes and loved wearing them to church on Sunday. I don't have a good picture since we were running behind, it was a great day though.

We don't live in Harry Potter's world

2011-04-27T16:44:00.000-07:00

Last Thursday I was having more problems than normal and decided to get checked out by my perinatalist. I had to drop the kids off at the neighbors and take Liam out of school 30 minutes early.

Explaining to Liam why I didn't feel good without getting into nitty gritty details is a challenge because if he thinks he is being railroaded he won't give up until he gets all the details. So I gingerly told him that the baby was trying to get out earlier than we wanted and I needed to go see a Dr. for some different medication. He looked at me and said "Mom, the baby is not magic, it just can't come out of your belly".

Nope, Liam is right, it won't just drop out.... although some days I would like that to be the case.

Why I am the nap drill sargent

2011-04-27T16:36:00.000-07:00

I am always amazed by those that offer advice to me about the various reasons that I do not need to put my children down for naps. I must say that I get a little upset after a while with everyone elses opinions but then realize that I am the parent not them.

Adele was moved from a crib to a toddler bed and even though there are not many toys in her room, some days she still manages to play for 2 hours instead of taking a nap. She did this one afternoon and 10 minutes after all the kids got up to play this is what I found.

As being the best Mom ever, I promptly woke her up and made her stay up until bed time. Any wonder it only took her 15 minutes to fall asleep that night?

Father Son Campout and Growing Up.

2011-04-23T14:31:00.000-07:00

Liam and I went on our first father/son campout last night. It started out kind rocky. We got all our things in the car, went and bought the most important camping equipment (snacks and drinks) then started out. The rocky part was about 15 miles down the road when I realized that dough-head of a dad forgot the sleeping bags and blankets. So we turned around and traveled the 25min (to begin with we traveled against rush hour traffic, but went home with it. Kinda slowed us down) back home to get something to sleep in. Luckily Liam just laughed at the whole thing. I guess when your 5 anything can be an adventure.
So, Liam and I were in safeway buying camping equipment and we picked up some beef jerkey, crackers, cookies, and drinks. When we got out to the car Liam started asking me about the burned turkey. I had to ask him what he was talking about, burned turkey. He said, you know, the burned turkey we just bought. I thought I had put something in the cart by mistake. I must have realized the question on my face and pulled it out. He was almost right. Not burned turkey, but beef jerkey. What a sweet kid. anyway, we were talking about the snacks on the way down (before I realized-no sleeping bags) and we talked about what we were going to eat and I mentioned that the ward was providing dinner. We had bought potato salad for a side. Anyway, I said that we had the salad for everyone. Quickly Liam pipes up, yeah, for everyone and we are one of the everyones. Glad he gets it. We really had a great time. Liam was thrilled to do all the camping things; roast marshmellows, sit by the fire, steal my hat and run, go for a hike, sit in a tree, sleep in a tent (oh my goodness the boy doesn't shut up. Its a wonder we got any sleep at all,) AND STAY UP REALLY REALLY LATE.

It was really fun. Liam and I really had a good time "teasing each other" as he puts it. I don't know if it is all the stress from the last three months gone or that we really enjoyed each others company, but we sure laughed a lot at all the stupid things men do on campouts. And just being together in general.

The twins are 4

2011-04-15T16:01:00.000-07:00

The twins turned 4 this year and it has been an exciting time for them. Not only did they move to 2 different states, they were reunited with their Dad, got their own rooms back, and had a birthday 2 weeks before Easter.
For their birthday, we dropped the baby off at a babysitters and went to the mall for some girl shopping time. We went to Target where the girls got to buy their choice of a toy, just our luck to have summer toys out. The girls both chose orange flower spray bottles that they have had hours of fun water time. They also got to choose their own bag of candy, Evelyn got wrapped chocolate eggs, and MyraJean got unwrapped chocolate eggs. Funny how similar yet different both girls are.
While we were at the Mall the girls stopped to visit the Easter bunny. They talked and laughed about the large bunny suit and told Him not to forget to visit our new house. You can see Evie in her favorite shirt (would she wear anything else on her birthday) and MyraJean pretty in pink.

The girls wanted chocolate cupcakes and had been planning on them for months, reminding me every few days that on their birthday it was to be chocolate with sprinkled frosting. So that is what we had. They were pretty funny about wanting the same thing but knowing which half eaten cupcake was their own the next day. Birthdays would not be complete with out presents and presents they got. They got lots of clothes, Barbie Princesses with their own Barbie Castle. They also got cards, stickers, some birthday money, and lots of love. All in all, they were very pleased 4 year oldFor their birthday dinner we convinced them that we could go out to dinner. Chevy's has half priced appetizers until 7 and so we took advantage of the cheaper food. The kids loved it, and were so well behaved. They had crayons and paper to draw with, balls of tortilla dough to play with similar to play dough, and ate enough chips and salsa to not need actual food. I was so pleased to say there were no meltdowns, no orneriness, and no tears for over 2 hours. Clif and I were able to enjoy the evening with the kids.

The staff also brought out ice cream Sundays for the girls and cones for the rest of the family. It was a really nice time.

I can't believe how fast the last 4 years have flown. Evelyn is still a little more quiet than her sister, plays in the dirt, and enjoys playing with her siblings. She likes her routines and her family all together, sitting and drawing, working on her letters, and doing puzzles. She amazes me all the time with her smarts and her dazzling smile. We are so lucky to have her in our family

MyraJean is just a happy go lucky chatter box. She loves to tell you all about her days and her adventures. She is very into princesses, pink, and all things girly and will waste the days singing and pretending. She is very sensitive to her and her family needs and is a wonderful addition to her family. She will love anyone and everyone and is so willing to do all that is asked of her.

We love our twins.

Fun times

2011-03-19T20:02:00.000-07:00

This past week has been harder for me to handle than normal. I think it has to do the stress of being separated from Clif for almost 3 months, the girls are almost 4 (and know it), and daylight savings time has thrown my family for a loop. So there has been more tears, time outs, and early nights than normal and lets not talk about my children's behavior.

So today I bribed the kids. That is right, I bribed them with going to ice cream for their good behavior. There is a local dairy here that makes really great ice cream. The kids love it, and I don't mind it either. So they behaved beautifully and we met up with some friends and ate a ton of ice cream.

This is the back of the ice cream shop. The kids love going to see the cows and I have to laugh because they kept saying how bad it smelled. Still, it is an adventure for these city kiddos.

Here they are with the cows and you can see the disdain of the smell on their faces, especially Evelyn's.

Later we went to our friends and played with their Wii and I have to admit, it was so much fun. Shannon got better pictures than I did and some video so I will post them when she sends me some but it was fun to be out and about with friends. The kids loved the dancing game and the Wii fit board. I don't know who had more fun, the kids, or the adults (who spent most of it taking pictures and laughing at the kids).

Here is MyraJean with a huge glass of Poweraid. Can I tell you that they will never drink this stuff again since they had to go to the bathroom every five minutes. Cute face, though.

Evelyn jamming out on the guitar.

I do have pictures of Liam but my friend Shannon has them and is formatting them for me. She is AWESOME to host us and take such great care of my kids. We had a lot of fun and will post more pictures when they come.

Technicolor body

2011-03-19T10:58:00.000-07:00

When I had purple highlights put in my hair, I panicked the twins. They kept asking why my hair was STILL purple. To add to my children's confusion I creeped them out even more. I was given a very much needed pedicure/manicure for valentines day and I took advantage of it this past Thursday. Well, the hair has faded (and I am planning to do it again) but now I have red nails and blue toenails.

When I went to pick the girls up from their babysitters, Evelyn and MyraJean kept asking "Will the red and blue come off like the purple hair?" I guess I missed my heyday of the 80's. Either that or I need to paint my nails more than once in 5 years. Funny!

What a man

2011-03-15T08:38:00.000-07:00

Liam got a new fishing pole from Santa for Christmas. He has been talking about going fishing with his Grandpa since he got it. All the way from Seattle to Idaho Falls, it was all I heard about. So Bruce took him fishing a couple of times, and I was assured by Sheryl that they would only be gone an hour. Two hours later, Liam comes walking into the house grinning ear to ear. He loved going fishing, not they caught anything, but he loved the experience. Here are some cute pictures that Bruce was able to take of him.

I know that Bruce got some night crawlers before they left so I am a little unsure whether Liam didn't think Bruce had enough, or he just couldn't resist playing in the mud. I am leaning toward playing in the mud and looking for rocks to add to his collection.

Here he is with his pole prop since his arms MUST have been tired from holding his pole still. I don't know if they don't catch anything because Liam talks non stop and it scares the fish or he gives up before they catch a fish. Still, I am so glad he got to fish and create memories with his Grandpa.

Another name for Heaven

2011-03-14T17:00:00.000-07:00

MyraJean was in the family room with my mother-in-law and I. I had just folded all the laundry and wanted the kids to put their clothes away. I had a very small stack of my own and was too "lazy" or tired (however you want to look at it) to go up the stairs one more time and put them away in my room. So I asked Evelyn and Liam to both do it, they both said no to varying degrees. I then asked MyraJean to do it and she said "sure" with a giant smile. I said to MyraJean "I don't know where you came from, but I sure love you". She replied, "I came from upstairs".

Oh so true.

Yay, a place to call home

2011-03-14T16:12:00.000-07:00

Clif found a house for the family. It is close to the size of our old house in Arizona. It has 3 bedrooms and 2 1/2 bathrooms, a formal family room and another room for a playroom. On the first level there is the master bedroom, master bathroom, and the kitchen, frontroom, dining room. On the ground floor there is 2 bedrooms, a living room (see playroom) and bathroom.

This is the close up of the front yard/front house. When you walk in the house there is a small landing and you either go up the stairs to the kitchen area or downstairs to the kids area. I am very pleased and I haven't even seen the house.

What a present for me in 2 weeks!

This is the back yard and I have a balcony. I haven't had one of those before, so it is going to be nice.

And.... the best part? There is a lemon tree out back with lemons on it now!!! Yay for me. I am so excited.

Positive discipline

2011-03-08T22:15:00.000-08:00

The other night the three oldest kids were out of bed for the millionth time and I was past loosing my patience. Then MyraJean came down with her p.j.s wet on one arm. At this point I am about to take away all thier toys and make them eat with Max outside in the back (I was so mad).

So I asked her what happened and she said that Liam threw water on her while she was going to the bathroom. I told her to go get Liam and tell him that I needed him and then she got a confused look on her face

"Mom", she said, "Are you going to pull his hair?"
"No"
"Mom, are you going to pinch him?"
"Nnooo" (At this point I am debating between being confused on why she would think I would do that to him or contemplating whether maybe those techniques would work)
"Mom, then what are you going to do?"

Like seriously, what other punishments would be appropriate for the crime? She should write a book.

Not up to testing standards, where is the local tutor?

2011-03-01T10:23:00.000-08:00

Adele was sitting on my lap smashing my stomach over and over again. She was hurting me and after repeatedly asking her to stop, I put her on the floor. She started to cry since I put her down roughly (to make a point) and I felt bad. So I picked her back up and put her on my lap again and told her she had to be soft with Mom.
She softly began to feel around my belly and said "Boob?"
"Nope", I replied, "belly, baby in my belly".
She said "Baby out".
"Baby in, in for a long time", I said.
"Baby out now!", she said.
"Nope".

She looked around my belly for a while and pushed and then with both hands pulled the top of my shirt out and looked down my shirt while shoving her hand down there to feel around. She began to touch the top of my belly and very confused at this point, said "Mom, where's boobs?".

Like the moment I get pregnant EVERYTHING is eclipsed by the gigantic belly.

To this day she refuses to call it a baby belly instead saying baby boob. Funny for everyone else and a little disheartening for me.

Yes I am a girl

2011-02-20T17:09:00.000-08:00

On the way home from Reed's Dairy, the 4 kids and I were trying to keep Adele from falling asleep in the backseat. Liam started to bug her and was making her cry, but really, I didn't care as long as she was awake.

After a couple of minutes I started to hear laughing from Liam and Adele and was just tickled. Then I felt something crawl down the front of my shirt. I looked down and saw a baby mouse crawling down my shirt. Did I mention I was going down Highway 26 at 60 miles an hour and I HATE mice, rats, pretty much any rodent?

So I screamed, screamed, and screamed, brushed it off me only to find out it was one of those tiny very soft plastic mice that look like they're alive. Liam was laughing hysterically and was encouraging the other kids to laugh and said "What Mom? Are you scared of a little mouse, it is only a small mouse!"

I don't know what was worse, the fact Liam obviously thinks I am a wimp (which I am when it comes to rodents) or that he was smart enough to pull a practical joke on me at 5 years old.

Like Father like Pirate

2011-02-16T10:38:00.000-08:00

Liam is obsessed with Pirates. He loves them, he has books about them, and watches movies about them. I dream at night he is going to run away from me to a pirate ship and I will have be all alone....

He has been building these cool pirate swords out of his Trio blocks and even making his sisters some so that they will play pirates with them too. One of the books that Liam has tells the history of pirates and all different aspects of pirate life. (I know, I have encouraged this obsession, but he loves them)

One Saturday, Clif was at work and Liam and I were reading about his pirates. He turned to a page that explained that most pirates were bored most of the time and so they drank and started fights. I tried to explain this by telling Liam most of the time they had too little to do but sometimes they also had too much to do and got grumpy. The following conversation took place.

Liam: "So they were too tired"
Mom: "Yep and no one told them to clean up and take naps so they were usually gross too".
Liam: "You mean their Moms didn't tell when bed time was and they DIDN'T take naps?!"
Mom: "Yes, that is why they were so grumpy"
Liam: "Maybe that is why Dad is always grumpy, his mom doesn't tell him to take a nap and he is probably still really tired all the time"

The funny thing is Clif never does take a nap and he is almost never grumpy. I, on the other hand, am pretty rigid about taking a nap and am still usually grumpy. I thought this was so funny, Clif didn't think so......

Love, hope, and Valentines day

2011-02-16T09:39:00.000-08:00

So I am not the best with the smaller holidays but my parents have always made them so special for us, and continue to do so for my children. We got a care package for Valentines day for the kids and it was 4 days of fun filled activities. If my children look sick, while cupid visited, so did the influenza bug. So Valentines day was pretty fun with things to do while the kids weren't feeling well.

These are those window rubbers. You may not be able to see them well, but there are cupids, hearts, LOVE, and many others. Adele has had fun rearranging them over and over again. One day she got a whole stack of letters stuck in her hair. It looked like red Jello.

MyraJean on her Grandma's lap. Remember what I said about her not feeling well, well this is what most of them looked like for about 3 days. The flu hit my kids hard even though they had the flu shot this year. If you notice the wadded pillow case on MyraJean's lap, my mom made each of the kids really cute pillow cases. She also sent the kids little plush animals and MryaJean made us tie hers up in her pillow case so it didn't run away.
The next day she took the Panda bear out and we couldn't find it for naps or night time. MyraJean kept saying "My Panda misses me, Mom! She is crying". I never heard her crying but MyraJean was convinced. It was pretty cute.

These are those balloons that you can torpedo through the house. When the kids got tired of that we just tied the ends shut and launched the balloons through the house. They love these things.

There was a package of beads and foam to make their own bracelets. All the kids but Adele had a ball and are still wearing their bracelets. Adele likes hers too, but she had more fun yelling at me that she could do it than she did making her bracelet.

I made her mad by tying the two ends of her bracelet together. She was so ticked, for about an hour. That kid is so independent but what a sweet heart.

I loved this picture, yes she is drugged but look how happy she looks. She loves wearing it all the time and she color coordinates her jammies to match it. MyraJean is such a sweet sensitive thing.

How do you like that? Not only does he like to do hair but he loves to do crafts too. Good thing he is the oldest of sisters, lots of things to do with the girls

Here are the kids working on the bracelets together. They really had fun.

There are move things for the kids to do out of the box but I need to buy a hot glue gun for the kids to finish the projects. So keep a look out for Valentines day, installment two.

Purple hair

2011-02-16T09:33:00.000-08:00

The gal in town agreed to put purple streaks in my hair. I am so excited. It isn't blue but actually purple, but I like it. Just something fun to do while I am in Idaho.

New Lace

2011-02-13T20:16:00.000-08:00

This is the latest piece of lace I have done. It came out pretty good, I didn't think I would finish it, so wonders never cease.

Check with the In laws before you leave the house

2011-02-13T19:54:00.000-08:00

So Liam missed the bus the other day. I quickly knocked on my in-laws door, said "I would be right back", loaded my son up in the van and drove quickly to my sister in laws house. She lives a few blocks away and her kids will walk Liam to school. So that was the plan.

I took Liam in the house and chatted for a few minutes. I found out that my other sister in law had her baby that night and the thought keeps going through my head, my mother in law is not at home then. Well because it was the middle of the night when Sheryl had left, I didn't know if Bruce was gone too with her. So I had left the 3 girls home without supervision..... Oh my HECK!

I drove back at fast as possible on ice laden roads back to the house, ran up the stairs. and.... the house was still standing. I had horrible ideas of what those three could do in the ten minutes I had been gone. I threw open the door, and everything was fine. (My father in law was home and had heard me threw the door). Adele had no underwear on, but that is pretty normal. I asked her what happened to her underwear, "Yucky, peed". I told her to come on and went up the stairs to get her some more underwear.

Evelyn met us at the top of the stairs. "Mom", she said, "Adele peed on me right here (she points to her pants).
"On those pants?" I asked.
"Yep". "Go change them then", I said.
"But Mom, tell Adele not to pee on my, pee in the potty".

Words for all of us to live by.

Wake up call on Saturday, not the average alarm

2011-02-13T19:37:00.000-08:00

Before Sheryl and Bruce came home off their mission, the kids and I took over their house. The Saturday they were coming home, Evelyn burst into my room out of breath and said "come quick, MyraJean needs you". I groggily get out of bed because it is barely seven in the morning and I go downstairs.

Since it is really hard to understand a 3 year old at that early hour I asked MyraJean to come see me. She was crying and I told her to calm down and tell me what happened. She told me she had a shoe in her nose. WHAT? You have to repeat that one a couple of times. In the previous posts, you will have read the twins got poly pockets for Christmas. Well for some reason, MyraJean was inclined to shove a shoe up her nose from that present. I didn't see it and even had her tip her head back into my lap to look all the way up it, yep you guessed it, no shoe.

I asked her again what happened and she said she had a shoe up her nose. So I got my very slim crochet hook out and stuck it up as far as I felt comfortable in doing and pulled down. Then I saw something, so I did it again, hoping it wasn't a giant booger. Nope, it was a hot pink high heeled Poly Pocket shoe. She had shoved it so far up there I never ever saw it. I would have taken her picture but I was torn between being grossed out and laughing really hard.

Never thought I would tell my 3 year old to keep all shoes out of her nose. At least she wasn't 13....

Evelyn and her blue shirt.

2011-02-13T19:28:00.000-08:00

Evelyn has a blue shirt and shorts that we used to wear to the beach last summer. It has been horrible to explain to her that in 10 degree Idaho weather she can not wear that shirt. Now the good Mom would try to explain it in details that she would understand, I just wish I had the guts to burn the shirt or have my Mother-In-Law throw it away. But if I do anything, that kid will see right through me and I will have heck to pay.

So the other day the conversation came up that we would be heading to California, land of the eternal sunshine and you guessed it, the beach. Evelyn knows this and said, Mom, California has Dad AAAANNNNDDDDD the BEACH!

You ask where she gets the obsession from the beach from, ask her Dad... I plead the fifth.

Onward to California and quicksand

2011-02-13T19:21:00.000-08:00

The kids have been missing Clif and my parents something fierce. In the the car the other day MyraJean was saying how much she missed her Mimi and Pop. I kept saying that we could go and visit but it wasn't helping. Then she would say how much she missed Clif while he was working in Cali.

At this point I have had this conversation with each of the kids a million times and didn't know how to respond. So I said, soon we would go to Cali and see Dad and then see Mimi and Pop. MyraJean started bawling in the back of the car and I was speechless. So I asked her what the problem was, and she said "But when we go to California, we will be stuck and never see Mimi and Pop".

See, I keep telling the kids that Dad is "stuck" in California at work since trying to explain why he is there and we are here is getting very difficult. So MyraJean thought we would be stuck like her Dad if we went to Cali, I still don't have an answer for her.

Merry Christmas

2011-02-13T18:23:00.000-08:00

I know that we didn't blog about Christmas, but read the previous post and you will know why. Hence, in the middle of February I am getting around to posting our Christmas post.

We fell into a windfall this year for Christmas and because of the move, we cleaned out the closets of the saved presents, IE, the kids got a TON of stuff. Not that they lack for anything, but really? I over did it by far this year.

So Santa had some help, with Kohl's running an amazing sale on toys this year, the twin sale, and the generosity of garage sales and a few friends getting rid of items, Santa didn't do much shopping at all. Liam got a new fishing pole, which all he talked about for weeks is going fishing with his Grandpa. He also got a bunch of Magic Tree house books and Captain Underpants books. He has really grown to love to read, or the love of being read to. I found some Trio blocks on killer sale (Kohl's) and his Mimi also supplemented him another set. If you have a small one who loves to build, these are big enough for a 3 year old to do but challenging enough for an older kid to also do. He loves these blocks. He also got a marble mania building kit, a skateboard van transformer, and more Gears Gears Gears.

The Twins got just as much stuff. Santa found some horses to ride ( the stuffed kind) with hats and new pants. They also got a ton of Poly Pocket stuff from the Mimi, even a Poly Pocket resort. They also got a couple of bags of horses and ranches where they build their own ranch and add the horses to. The girls also got some Trio blocks too, which were a big hit with them too. Oh yeah, and some my little ponies. Must be the year of building and animals.

We did not forget Adele. She also got a baby and cradle, riding horse, some new books, and some good puzzles for her to manipulate. She also got some my little ponies, a couple of new clothes, a ranch with a horse and farmer family from her Mimi and Pop.

Santa found a complete of the set of Illustrated Old Testament for the whole family. We also were bestowed a new camera, since ours quit totally a year ago, so it was an amazing year for us for Christmas. The kids loved it, it was relatively easy... at least the Christmas was. Can't vouch for the laid back next week.

The Pre-Christmas Season of Change

2011-02-13T16:04:00.000-08:00

To catch up with the last post, I need to back track up to two months ago. Clif had gotten word through work that he would be out of work by the beginning of Dec, three weeks prior. So Christmas was quite crazy at out house, with our family not knowing whether we would have work by the end of the year.
Well, the closer we got to Christmas the more worried both Clif and I were. So imagine our surprise when Clif's work came through with a transfer to the Oakland office with a guarantee of 2+ years. This may not mean much to others but with a husband that works projects like, roads, bridges, and buildings, with the end of each project comes fear of losing work again. This has happened twice in the last 5 years and it still makes me giddy to know that we have work for longer than six months.
Now, as good as this offer seemed, it did come with a couple of hitches. Clif had to start in California at the beginning of January. As in two weeks of the offer, we had to be packed up and left. The problem was there was no way to move the entire house in two weeks so.... Clif and I left Seattle Jan 1st, and went to Idaho. Then Clif continued down to California while the kids and I got reacquainted with Clifs family, which we don't see much at all.
I know this is a big announcement for a little post but I haven't had time to do much blogging in the last month and a half. Hopefully we will be reunited in Cali by March.

Adele's Birthday

2010-12-15T16:17:00.000-08:00

So Adele actually made it to her second birthday. She thought she was so special....er wait, she has always thought she was so special. I guess extra special is the correct way to put it. We had cupcakes with my Mom and the family, and opened girfts. She got this great doll that was big for her to dress with hard plastic clothes. She also got a pretty princess dress. My Mom always picks the best things for her. Here are a couple of pictures of her opening her presents and the dress on her. Pretty cute if I say so myself.

Christmas tree by the Koon kids

2010-12-06T12:18:00.000-08:00

This year for Christmas I gave up. I decided that I could mostly control Liam, Evelyn, and MyraJean but there was no way I could control the master of deception otherwise known as Adele. So there are Christmas ornaments from my childhood, and from Clifs and my early Christmas's but no breakable items were going on this tree. Hence, the tree was decorated for the children by the children. Still a very happy occasion by my kids if you ask. I needed a nap after the tree celebration. Here is the cute picture of my kids and their handiwork's.

Christmas pictures

2010-12-06T11:36:00.001-08:00

My sister and her husband took some great pictures of my family. She should quit her day job ad just take pictures right! Thank you so much Sumer and Stephen!

I had to post some of them. Enjoy!

MyraJean and Evelyn (in that order)

My sweet son that took such great pictures and posed well

What can I say, her smile says it all!

A cute one of them all.

Thanksgiving and Snow

2010-12-06T10:36:00.000-08:00

So this year with all the crazy drama that seems to envelope our house, we decided to have a very private and small Thanksgiving. It was nice though, there was snow the entire week before Thanksgiving so the kids played in the snow and we had a nice time.

I am so glad that I bought the kids new snow coats this year. This is Evelyn in the garden playing with her siblings. She is wearing my thick socks on her hands like the other girls. I didn't really believe that we would get any snow so I just got coats this year. Next year they will get mittens too.

MyraJean in her pretty pink coat. Once again, notice the cute grown up socks on her hands

I had one pair of gloves, Liam got to use them. He played in the snow every day while it was here. I think his highlight of his Thanksgiving was being able to play with Clif on Thanksgiving in the snow.

This is the only other thing my kids wanted to do during the Holiday. We had paint on the kids, walls, floors, paper, ceiling, and any other place in throwing distance. It was so fun for them but really crazy for me.

Here is a good one of Evelyn. At least I had enough foresight to not let them wear their good clothes while painting.

Does he look like a painting Master?

This doesn't show the aftermath but they all had a really good time while they were warming up from being outside.

And I wonder what therapy is going to cost

2010-12-06T10:32:00.000-08:00

The picture quality isn't the greatest, but it is so funny. I know that we will never have enough money to fix the damage we have done to this kid. Still, she is so funny.

Funny stories before I forget

2010-12-06T10:03:00.001-08:00

This is a collection of stories that I have been trying to remember to blog, life has been busy, so sue me.

Story 1: MyraJean came and told me Liam was getting into stuff he wasn't supposed to get into. I got after him and this is what I heard.
Liam to MyraJean "You have a BIG mouth".
(Funny to anyone knows him, since he has no control of the amount of words that come out of his mouth)

Story 2: Liam came up to Clif and I after church and was talking about some old teachers in Primary class. Now for the background, church would not be complete without Liam asking Clif if he was going home teaching that Sunday. Liam looks forward to the Sunday Clif needs to take Liam with him as a companion.
So Liam gets into the car and asks if Clif is going home teaching. Clif says no. Liam proceeds to tell Clif about these Sunday school teachers that he once visited (One of Clif's families are a couple that teach in the primary). I am trying to listen really closely because he gets hard to understand when he talks fast. But he kept telling Clif that he tried to ask this couple if they were going to be home for home teaching. They didn't understand him and so he told them he would get Clif to call and explain our schedule. Basically my 5 year old was trying to set up his dad's home teaching appointment, since Clif was not doing it quick enough. It was really funny.

Story 3: Liam was in my bedroom last week watching TV when I was trying to get kids down for a nap. It was really quiet and I started to panic. So I hollered at him about what he was doing. He said he was watching someone talking to God on TV. Obviously I was seriously confused and concerned and rushed back to my room. He had changed the channel to 77 and was watching a TV Preacher. I explained that the preacher wasn't really talking to God and we didn't watch those shows. He got confused and I told him the only people that really talked to God on TV was President Monson. He got wise and said "Oh so he just thinks he is talking to God and it is all in his head ?" What else could I say but "Yep". Glad to have cleared that up.

Story 4: Liam was at his friends house the other day. His friend didn't want to wear his shoes with socks. They were going outside to play with snow and my friend Kathy heard Liam say to his friend "Well if you get cold and you won't wear socks, then don't come to me whining and crying when your feet get cold." Wonder where he got that?

Story 5: Last night I was taking what I felt was a very much needed hot bath. My bathtub is really old (like 70 years) and has no insulation around it. So I fill it a little bit, like less than an inch in the bottom, with the hottest water, let it cool down and then let it out. I then redo the process. I know it sounds crazy but I need a hot bath occasionally, like 3 times a week.
I was irritating Clif and so as a joke, Clif went down to the basement and turned off the hot water. I yelled that he wasn't funny and you could hear him laughing all the way upstairs. Well Liam had come into the bathroom to see what the fuss was about. I told him that his Dad was not funny and played a joke by turning off the hot water. Liam very serious said " What do you mean it isn't funny, Dad is laughing". Touche.

I am sure there are more, but I can't remember. I am lucky that I could remember these.

Pumpkin patch

2010-12-06T09:47:00.000-08:00

The pumpkins in our garden was being mauled by the squirrels so we headed to the local pumpkin patch with the kids for them to pick out their pumpkins.

I know this didn't come out well, but it is one of the only ones with all of them holding their pumpkins and as you can see they were thrilled to get their own.

The cute twins trying to figure out where to go first to pick out the perfect pumpkin for our front porch.

So this one is my favorite since their personalities shine through the picture. Happy Halloween and Thanksgiving.

Halloween Pictures and stories

2010-12-06T09:13:00.001-08:00

No, I did not forget Halloween this year. But it has been a rough couple of months. The day that we were supposed to get the kids all dressed up, happened to be the same day that Clif had his appendix out.

This is how is all went down. Imagine a day with me, my Mom, and my sister all going clothes shopping for my birthday. It was like any other Friday that Clif had off, except that for two days Clif kept saying that his stomach really hurt and he wasn't hungry. I know that would mean nothing for the lay person, but in Clifton speak, it meant he was dying. The first and second day I just kept at him saying he needed to go to the Dr. since I thought he might have an ulcer. He had had these pains before but never this severely and not this long. By Friday he was hardly moving around on the couch, and I left him with the kids while I went to shop for my birthday.

It was a great day and I really had fun. I enjoyed my family and getting a ton of very much needed clothes for my birthday. I called and checked in with Clif a couple of times and he was just sitting around. By the time I got home at 4 to take Liam to soccer practice, Clif really looked bad. Still he just said he was ok and he was feeling better than he had in the last 2 days. So the whole family got in the car and went to the park, while we were there Clif thought about looking up the symptoms of appendicitis. He had all the classic signs and decided to call his Dr about what to do. The Dr. recommended him to get to the Dr's. in the next 24 hours, and Clif didn't tell me any of this until we got home, close to 6 that night. So I started to panic and started calling friends to see who would watch the kids while I took him to the ER. Finally I got smart, called my Mom who agreed to watch them and headed to the hospital at 8 pm.

Once there Clif said, "I am fine, I just want to go home". I did not believe him, he would turn completely white when people touched his belly. A couple of hours later and some tests revealed that not only did he have appendicitis but it had started to rupture which is why it didn't hurt as bad as it had in the first couple of days. So Clif spent the entire weekend in the hospital and I took the kids to the Halloween party without him. It was to be a relatively easy procedure, the Surgeon would go and pump him up with CO 2 gas. Then laporscopically go through his belly button and two other places with a camera and pull the infected appendix out. It went longer than they thought since the infection had started to move outside his appendix. But we were also blessed since Clif was in good shape, the infection was kept in a small enough place that the surgeon did not have to open him up completely.

I got home to my kids at 2 in the morning. Liam did not get to go to his soccer game and I was tempted to not do anything else either. My mom convinced me to take the kids to the yearly Twin Halloween party. Needless to say, the kids wore whatever costumes that I could scrounge from my sister and Mom. Clif did recover well and was back at work by Wednesday but I was pretty traumatised and so Halloween was not a large deal this year. Hence the one picture of the kids.

So it is like I fell off the planet- yet I aged again.

2010-11-08T15:24:00.001-08:00

You know those people that write a long blogs and then take 2 month hiatus's. Well you can now count me with those crowds. I have had quite the last 2 months.

I turned 31 this past October and Clif got my wedding ring fixed, and a new band with sparkly diamonds. Clif and I went to dinner at a little Italian restaurant with friends and had a great time. My Mom and Sis, took me clothes shopping all day and then out to lunch. I had such a great time and it was so nice to get things that I have been needing like fixing my wedding band and some new clothes that we bought because they fit me.

I don't have any pictures but I do love my family. They treated me so well and I had such a great time.

Little bits of everything

2010-09-29T08:29:00.001-07:00

Liam had a circus at school. He was a trick pony rider (or cowboy). He was able to borrow the chaps and horse from his friend Mathoe. He was so cute and I had to take pictures. He says he was also a farmer and so do the girls. It was truly funny and he had such a good time. The circus had a parade around the school and ate popcorn while they watched the other kids perform. It was a good experience for him. I loved it too.

So Adele was at my mom's house while Clif was mowing this past weekend. I had run out of things to keep her occupied with, so I bribed her with chocolate. Have I ever told you that she doesn't eat food but will consume her weight in chocolate. I wonder where she gets that from....

Cute picture of Evelyn. She is pretty funny and just a smile to be around.

Couple of pictures of the type of produce we are getting out of our garden this year. It has been really rainy and not very conducive so I am pleased we are getting what we have gotten. I didn't think we would get anything but the carrots did well, the Brussels sprouts are doing fine, and my squash and cucumbers did OK. Really can't say it was horrible but not great either.

Liams new bed- I am not cheap but an opportunist

2010-09-29T07:51:00.000-07:00

We have been needing a new bed for a while now. The cute house that we live in is not big enough for all six of us without some serious storage capabilities. So I have wanted bunk beds for all the kids with the built in shelving. You know the ones I mean, the drawers and cubbies, maybe some places to put books. Those kind of bunk beds. They never seem to get cheap enough for us to afford so when the twins bunk beds came up I jumped on it. They love their new bed and I loved having them in beds where they don't kick each other. But Liam wanted a new bed too, and I kept telling him that I would look for him. And guess what?.....

It has happened again, I found a loft bed. It has enormous storage capabilities and it is in pretty good condition. Since it isn't solid wood, there are some scratches and dings. But I paid way too little to care about the scratches. Liam loves his new bed and I am very pleased, really really pleased. It makes the room so much easier for me since there is more space for me too move Adele around in and it has a place for almost all of his toys that are in his room.

These are the drawers on the left side. Clif has to replace one drawer bottom and I need to replace all the handles. It was missing quite a few, but other than that, not a lot of stuff to do to the bed.

This is the desk. You can see the places for his leap frog computer, his puzzles and games, and his books.

These are the cubbies for all of his toys. It really looks neat and tidy and I feel much better about toys in his room. Lets just say, my kids will probably be the most organized due to genetic disposition.

Who kidnapped Liam?

2010-09-01T11:32:00.001-07:00

Liam started school today. Half day Kindergarten, that is. I am so not ready for this. We have been working for this day for so long and it came way too soon. So we have been explaining what was going to happen at school. But I have been so worried, especially since we decided that he should ride the bus. I was so expecting for him to bawl and cry and to at least make a little scene. He was so good about getting on the bus, just waved and smiled at me. Then I met him at the school and we walked to his class room together. He didn't even cry, he was a little nervous but that was all. I was the one that was getting all choked up (even now). When did he get so big? Who kidnapped my little boy and gave me this beautiful brave kid setting out to conqueror the world?

Here he is after riding the bus all by himself to school. So far he looks happy? Crazy!
Here he is all ready to go with his jacket and backpack.

Don't focus on me, just on Liam and his cute smile!

Here he is with Clif, I don't know who was more goofy! Here he is after school. Take a guess on how it went? He hasn't stopped talking about it since he got off the bus. He was tickled with school. He ate ginger bread cookies for a snack (he even brought me a bit home), drew a couple of pictures, and made some new friends. The best part is he (according to him) is bringing show and tell on Friday and he has already started to stuff his paper bag with items. I am just amazed on how much he has grown.

Clif's 31st Bday

2010-09-01T11:00:00.000-07:00

Yes, it is true! Clif is finally an adult and has the "gray hair experiences" to testify to it. They may not be truly gray yet but this last year has had some character defining moments that would turn any one's hair gray.

This past year Clif has lost 40 lbs, ran in the Hood to coast relay, retained his job in a horrible economy, laughed and played with his 4 wild kids, and cared for his crazy wife. He tackled the unknown and took us all camping at the SFOM camp out. He survived a very wet and weirdly dreary summer, and most of all... triumphed in Liam's first day of school. If those crazy events don't create gray hair, I don't know what would!

The kids and Clif wouldn't sit still long enough to get a good picture. So this is what I could come up with. This is a fancy schmancy shirt with cuff links. He loves these shirts so I guess it is a good thing that he looks so good in them.

Getting help from everyone to open his presents.

New cuff links. Clif is giving me the evil eye because he didn't want me to take any more pictures. I also don't have the picture of the beautiful tie my Mom also got him. She has such impeccable taste in clothes.

Here is the new ensemble. How hot is he?

He wanted carrot cake, so that is what he got. He loved it. In case you are wondering he got 3 candles to represent 30 and then 1 candle to represent the 1. I am not wasting 31 candles when symbolically 4 can represent 31. Nice logic, huh!

Silly grin and still breathing

2010-09-01T10:44:00.000-07:00

The "Hood to Coast" relay is lauded as "The Mother of all Relays". Though there are others as long, like the "Ragnar" relay series, the Hood to Coast relay is said to be the largest in the world.
The entire course is a distance of 197 miles. This is not a race for the faint-hearted. The race starts at the Timberline Lodge on the slopes of Mount Hood in Oregon through the city of Portland and along the Oregon coast to the beach town of Seaside. It consists of 1000 teams of 12 people, plus 3000 volunteers and additional official staff. It sounds like a lot to fill, but when you consider that all slots are filled within the opening day of registration, and that our team applied three years in a row before we got in, it could be much, much, larger. It really is an amazing race and is put on primarily as an American Cancer Society fundraiser.

Anyway, we had an amazing time. Each team splits up between two vans and take turns running. We would drop one runner off, race ahead to the next exchange point and pick up the previous runner and drop off the new. Of course we would spend time at each exchange point for a bit and had fun on the way to each. Our rental van, the one I was in, gave us a bit of problems during the race. The transmition started going out. We traveled most of the 197 miles in second gear. Good thing we weren't traveling much faster than the runners. Also, it gave us an excellent opportunity to "steal" a car. We borrowed the PB Portland (most of us work for Parsons Brinkerhoff) company Ford Escape, after hours and without letting anyone know, at first. So here is how it went:

First van exchange. I don't believe there was a single space for regular customers at this Fred Meyer.

Our team at the Fred Meyer (minus Kevin Sakai, a friend who consults with PB but not a PB employee taking the picture, and Eric Forsyth from the Portland Oregon office) John McMillan, Melissa Stowe (friend from Microsoft), Laura Wojcicki, me, Kelly Kozdras, Mike Colyn, Mari Dougherty (Murry, Utah office) Eric Kelley, and Sunny Rose.

A few of us before the runner before my first run. My first run was at about 9:00 at night and dark, so no pics.

Just after my second run at 6:30 in the morning. It was about 40 degrees. Not my first choice in running temperature.

A simply decorated van at the race. There really were some extravagantly decorated vans, one team put wings, missiles, and jet engines on theirs, as their name was Top Gun.

The exchange points were often a little small, so the lines to get in were a bit long. I think we waited for 2 miles here, the runners were a lot faster than the vans.
We got a little bored.

This is the end of my last run. My legs were as follows, #1, 4.39 miles, #2, 4.18 miles, #3, 7.28 miles uphill. Aside from the distance and being uphill, the last leg was by far the hardest. We had been going since the previous morning without any sleep. We tried once while the other van was running, but with all the excitment and runners coming in and out, it was just impossible. This was the second to last leg of the race.

The finish line and finish line party. It was an amazing time.

SFOM Campout

2010-08-25T08:38:00.000-07:00

My family had the opportunity to go on the SFOM campout. It was awesome and a huge success for the group. Sometimes I don't realize how much I am blessed to be apart of things that are bigger than just my cute family. So there were about 7 families all with multiples and these sweet families kept my children so busy I hardly saw them all weekend. I am definitely signing up for this next year.
The group rented out a great family campsite up near Mt. Vernon and it was so much fun to see everyone had a great time and relax. It was enclosed and so I didn't worry much about the kids escaping the campsite. I did however worry that Adele would go home with someone else, she seemed to cling on to other adults over me or Clif. I hope that she didn't bother anyone, but everyone seemed to really enjoy her.

Super cool tree to take a picture in, the kids didn't seem to want to cooperate but I think this one turned out mildly well. This is near the beach trail that we hiked down to on Saturday. I really loved the weather and sunshine. It was supposed to rain but it hardly did all weekend.

Cute Adele, she always had this cheesy grin on her face and says CHEESE when you pull the camera out. It is super fun for us t0 take pictures since she is always so agreeable. The twins, not so much.

On Saturday we went down to the river about 1/2 mile away. There was a great little path that we hiked lined with ripe blackberries. We took twice the amount of time to walk to stop and eat the blackberries. It was a dream. My kids were not even hungry for the snacks since we stopped every 10 feet to get more handfuls of them. So much fun for our family.

Near the river was a sandy beach that the kids got to played in and threw rocks with their dad. Clif enjoyed it too it seemed, and he doesn't particularly like the beach. He showed the kids how to skip rocks. The kids kept picking up rocks half their size but it was the effort that counted right?

Cute one of MyraJean.

This is Evelyn, she looks like she was talking. Either that or she was telling me that her hands were dirty. Breakfast on Saturday, pancakes and syrup with sausage. I thought Clif and the kids were in heaven they had so much fun.

Whenever we go camping the main thought is there enough food. Hence the pictures showing us what we ate. This year as in years past, we succeeded in bringing enough. I made blueberry muffins and foil dinners. There was a pot luck dinner on Saturday and Clif and I made a dutch oven dump cake. Everyone seemed to enjoy it. I think we will do that again the next time we go. Over all we brought enough food and snacks that I didn't worry about the kids starving for the weekend.

Aren't the twins cute? If you notice, Evelyn has a cup in her hand. She and the other kids carried these cups around and collected dirt and rocks to play with. I am so glad that I "remembered" to bring these toys for the kids to play with. I have never seen kids have so much fun with used plastic cups and spoons. Adele was the worst though, and she screamed anytime we took the cups from her. She also ate every huckleberry she could get her hands on, which was a lot. I am glad that Clif knew they were OK to eat though, since I couldn't keep her out of them.

He has so much of his dad in him. I thought this was such a great picture. I loved going camping with my little family. It was so relaxing and we just played. We ran around and did nothing but played. Warning to those that play tag with my kids, Liam is FAST, and you don't want to be "it" from Evie, she whacks on the back hard. Still we had so much fun, scrapes, owies, tiredness, and dirtiness aside. I will treasure this opportunity and the sweet memories that we got from it. Not to mention, we made some awesome new friends. It was so fun and I can't wait to do it next year.

Manna from Winco.

2010-08-19T12:32:00.001-07:00

As an LDS mom with 4 kids 5 and under in today's economy, I have a really hard time budgeting my family on 400 dollars a month. This 400 dollars includes diapers, food, clothing, gas, and any family extras. This includes any holidays, vacations, gifts for others, or taking my kids out for treats. Did I mention that I live in the Seattle area, where food, clothing, and any extras are really expensive for me and I feel the money crunch most of the time.

I have become the most frugal person I know. I shop only garage sales, use the local Freecycle (like crazy), accept hand me downs graciously and shop the local Tukwilla trading company and Winco for groceries. Why would I travel 30 minutes by van since both of these stores are on the south side of Seattle and we live on polar opposite side and use my gas to grocery shop? Because I can make my money stretch to the point of hilarity. The picture below is a typical shopping trip for me and I spent only 120 on that trip. I do only shop once every 2 weeks and it not only must last us those 2 weeks but it must replace our food in our storage.

Did I also mention that I have a huge garden that is not producing well this year but I have canned like crazy out of our garden in years past. We do home canned pinto beans (large bags from the store), green beans, carrots, beets, pickles, relish, tomatoes, tomato sauce, salsa, pears, peaches. I make freezer jam after picking the berries (raspberries) or getting a crazy deal like 88 cents a lb (strawberries). I freeze the rhubarb out of the garden and store the winter squash for the winter and can the pumpkins after Halloween. Our prophets continually tell us to be diligent with our finances and to store for times of need. In this economy I know this has become so important but we do it since we were hard up in AZ.

So that was the explanation but here is the reason why. I want to brag, I may not be talented with fashion, or can sew, or musically inclined. But I can be crazy frugal and keep my storage up. So here is my weekly blog, my ability to live off of 400 a month, ready?.....

This is what it look like on a typical Winco run. What you cant see in on the bottom there are 6 gallons of milk as well. This one cost my 120 for the two weeks. Have to say I am pretty proud of myself. I don't use coupons, I find that I don't generally eat snack items or name brand items. That leaves me with sale items or shopping certain things that are only in season to get the lowest price.

These are the two freezers and refrigerator in my basement that are filled with the food that will not fit upstairs in my cutesy 1940's era house.

This is the meat freezer that has all the pig and beef bought from Clif's relatives and brought back to Seattle and also all the good deals on chicken that I can find.

This is my dairy, fruit, and veggie freezer. What you don't see is that it is filled to the bottom. I also keep the lunch meat and extra turkey in here.

This is my fridge that we brought from our house in AZ. We decided that our very older model fridge upstairs didn't have enough room for the 5 dozen of eggs or the 6 gallons of milk so we plugged it in and use it extensively.

So this is my dry storage. I keep all my store bought items here. This includes also our cleaning items. Upstairs in our closets keeps our hygienic items that we have. I think I have about 6-12 months storage of those items but it is not very impressive since the closet is also our linen closet.

Like I said, I am not crafty and I am not good at the typical motherly things, but this has to count as a talent. I have really enjoyed learning how to be frugal and have realized that I have talents that I was able to hone. I love to garden and can my veggies and fruit. I know how to balance a budget and to make good financial decisions. Hopefully this doesn't come off as total bragging, I promise that I will not post this again, but I want to blog it once for record.

Sleepwalker or Frankstein, you choose

2010-08-19T12:22:00.000-07:00

Liam fell out of his twin sized low to the floor bed last night. Can you believe the damage? We're not quite sure if he was totally awake or not. He sure was after he fell... oh my what a night.

I know the picture doesn't show it, but his eye is bruised, we are really lucky it is not a black eye.

So now that I see this, it really looks fine but in reality his upper lip is totally still swollen. His right eye is not black or swollen but has a nice blue and green bruise that is pretty. Wish I could wear eye make up that was that pretty.

This shows the damage. What is crazy is that the last time he fell and hit his lip on the girls crib he hit the other front tooth. I guess that I need to say is that we are lucky we weren't in the emergency room. Crazy what damage happens when they fall 1 1/2 feet off the bed to the floor. CRAZY!

I am amazing. Look at my new beds!

2010-08-15T16:42:00.000-07:00

This is what I found on freecycle this week. I am so amazing.. Yes, yes be amazed!

Dentist

2010-08-15T16:40:00.000-07:00

Got my kids and I dentist appts. This was too cute not to blog.

Summer time and activities

2010-08-15T16:00:00.000-07:00

The other day I went to water the garden and I found to gnomes sunning themselves on my front door step.

We also had the twin annual summer picnic. My sister co presidents the club with my good friend Carrie. It was a smashing success. We had lots of families, crazy amounts of food, and a bouncy house. It was a lot of fun and the kids had a ball running around. It was like 60 degrees though, so if it looked cold it was because it really was.

Ok, this is so pretty of her, and she is never still so I had to add it to the collection of picnic pictures.

This is V-R. She is a super cute baby, she challenges Adele in personality and I love her strong character.

There was this super cool fountain thingie, I tried to get all the kids to look at me. It didn't quite work but it was super cute anyhow.

Did you ever see such a cute family... urg and a cranky Adele? Just thought I would brag.

At least she is smiling in the picture even if she won't look at me.

He is the cutest kiddo ever. Don't you love his cheeks? He wasn't even feeling good but you sure can't tell.

I have a bajillion of these where I have 2 kids in the way and one coming down the slide. But usually I don't have a good one of Evelyn so I was pretty excited

No need for Kindergarten here

2010-08-15T15:50:00.000-07:00

Overheard conversation at the dinner table the other night.

Liam: So when you are dead you get buried. Then you get your body back but when you get your body back, people take your bones. Then they send the bones to the factories to be cleaned. When they are cleaned and dried, people package them and put them in bags. So that is where dogs get their bone treats, understand? Now you know because I am older and I already told you, so now you know.

And I lay at night wondering where I am getting the money to put my kids into medical school. Guess I can retire instead.

Can't wait

2010-08-03T09:55:00.000-07:00

Clif ran the girls bath on Sunday night. He got the bath filled, got the twins undressed and went looking for Adele to undress her. This is what he found, I guess she just couldn't wait. Dude, she is funny!

family fun and raspberries

2010-08-03T09:39:00.001-07:00

We went to pick raspberries with my Mom last Tuesday. It was a ball and the kids were so well behaved. My Mom treated us to McD's afterwards and the kids got the largest icecream cones I think they ever saw.

I made 8 batches of freezer jam and adding that to the last 10 batches of strawberry freezer jam, we have a ton of jam. I don't have a picture but I wish I did. This year has been so cold that I have not had pictures of our canning (since it hasn't produced much). Thankfully the only thing I really wanted was squash and I am growing it. Now if I can kill the squirrels that are eating it, I might just be happy.

What pallet sophistication

2010-07-30T08:07:00.000-07:00

As I was cutting veggies for stir fry last night, Liam was asking what I was doing.

Liam: "Mom what are those?"

Mom: "Zucchini"

Liam: "I don't like zucchini, Mom"

Mom: "Well that is what dinner is, so you either eat it or don't, just don't complain to me about it"

Liam: "What are those Mom?"

Mom: "Mushrooms."

Liam: "Mom.... I really like the taste of mushrooms. I really, really like the taste of mushrooms, but not the texture."

Oh my heck, the kid cracks me up!

Same friends, great new times.

2010-07-26T08:13:00.000-07:00

My friend Emily brought her kids up to Seattle to hang out at the beach. I had such a great time, so did my kids. It was pretty shocking since my kids hate the cold water and they were all over in the water with Taylee and Rohne. I am so sad they live so far away, it was great to have my kids get along with Emily's kids so well. We will have to make a habit of playing with them more often.

Unfortunatly, I don't have a picture of beautiful Emily, if she sends me one I will post it (hint). It was so great to have a friend that I have known for over 12 years and it seems like no time has past. I am so blessed by those that love me.

Garden pictures

2010-07-26T07:58:00.000-07:00

So people are amazed at my love of gardening. I know that my grandmas would be proud of me. They taught me everything I know. And Clif thought he was getting a city wife.... ha!

These are tomatoes, and in the right corner potatoes

On the left are zucchini and crookneck. In front of those are one row of carrots and 6 cucumber plants

Bush beans and 2 rows of carrots. There are rhubarb behind those.

Pumpkin and butternut squash. I really have such a love for winter squash and last year we got so many great pumpkins so here is hoping the same for this year.

Not really able to get pictures of the onions, Here are Brussels spouts, one cauliflower, and the huge amount of lettuce.

Please pray with me for the heat, we so need it to grow our veggies. Yes, I do home can all September and August. I love it!

Not anything important.... just small treasures.

2010-07-19T16:07:00.001-07:00

Before I forget. Here are some smaller stories that I have been carrying around.

Last night for FHE, we chose a lesson on home cleanliness. I have been frustrated that I always seem to be cleaning for everyone. Liam is so my kid...

Clif: Why do we have a clean house? (He wants a spiritual thought, like if the house is clean the spirit can be felt here)
Liam: So our friends will be comfortable when they come over to play. So we clean up our house for our friends

I was laughing, cus I have NO idea where he got this from... ha ha ha

Liam hit his lip and teeth on what we think was Adele's crib. Not quite sure since when we asked, he kept saying "I don't remember. Huh, he seems to never remember what happened when he was doing something that we would have objected to. He is super cute though. It was pretty traumatic since he bruised his adult teeth in his mouth. Hopefully they don't come out damaged.

I made raspberry sorbet. Adele thought it made great finger paints. I had to bleach it out of the plaster. She only got one small spoonful... it seemed to be enough

What can I say, cute kid pictures

Humor

2010-07-18T18:01:00.000-07:00

And you thought I married a farm boy from Idaho! Like these genes came from me.....

Did you ever wonder?

2010-07-17T06:48:00.000-07:00

So if you ever wondered what I do during the summer let me enlighten you. Notice any recurring iamges?

Liam;s Birthday

2010-07-17T06:13:00.000-07:00

I don't have magic power, I always thought I did but I don't. Liam turned 5 this year and no matter how much I tried to stop time, I couldn't make that happen. He had an awesome birthday if I say so myself. This year was full of fun things, he got a birthday dinner, his first birthday party, a birthday lunch, an extra play date... and I didn't even mention the cake, friends, and presents.

To start the festivities off, I asked Liam what he wanted to eat on his birthday. For breakfast he wanted, waffles. but not just any waffles. The conversation follows.

Mom: What do you want to eat for breakfast?

Liam: Waffle, but not the kind from the mix. Mom? You know how you make waffles not from a mix, just the other kind. That is what I want. But Mom, not from the mix, ok?

Mom: Yeah, I know what you are wanting, homemade waffles?

Liam: Yep the homemade kind, with strawberries on top, and MAYBE some whipped cream?

Mom: Sure I can do that.

Liam: But Mom, not the normal waffles that you make, the kind that doesn't come from box, ok.

Mom: Yep, I know what you are talking about.

We never did have waffles, even from the mix. He ate a candy bar instead. Pretty good substitute if I say so myself. Then we went to a friends house and home these homemade donuts that were divine. Liam got to play with his friends all morning. After naps, yes he still takes a nap, we hung out and then dinner time with cake.

Because one of his closest friends was not going to be here for his birthday, we let him have a friend at his family birthday dinner. Liam wanted taco salad and Trey came over for that and cake. I had asked Liam what kind of cake did he want and he told me chocolate decorated with strawberries in the shape of a smiley face. I did the best I could with that. It was pretty funny especially when Clif but eyebrows, goatee, and mustache on the cake.

We opened lots of gifts, Liam then had his birthday lunch with me and Mimi. He got his own pizza, got to go pick out a toy from Target with his birthday money from Grandma, and got a sundae. Did I mention he still had a birthday party as well? I want birthdays like this too one day. He got to bring 4 friends over for his party, the drew a banner, rode bikes, and ate hot dogs and cake. Do you see a recurring theme, lots of sweets... so fun and crazy at the same time.

the words keep coming

2010-06-22T22:09:00.000-07:00

At breakfast the twins were fighting on who's turn it was to say the prayer. I told Evie she could say it and so we began. I would say a sentence and she would copy what I said. The problem is that the twins share so many things that they have a hard time when it is the turn for one of them to do something and not the other. So Evie would say it after me and then MyraJean would try to quickly say it also. Evie stopped the prayed on two occasions to shush MyraJean. At the end of the prayer Evie looked at MyraJean and said "Were you helping me?" MyraJean said "No, I was just talking". They certainly are funny.

Keep on planning

2010-06-10T21:26:00.000-07:00

On the way home from Winco today, the kids were trying to convince me to let them to play at the park after naps. I kept trying to explain that in Seattle it might be storming in two hours and we would "see" if it was ok weather to go to the park. Liam got fed up with the arguement and said "You see, but I am going." Guess the "wait and see" plan got thrown out the window. It was raining after naps and I told them bright and early tomorrow we could go.

The bug has bugs

2010-06-09T16:43:00.001-07:00

Liam has been lovingly called "bug" since he was under a year. At first I called him "boogers" for the immense amount of boogers he seemed to constantly have when he was an infant. That got shortened to "boogs" which also got shortened to "boog" or "bug". So Clif came up with the explanation that Liam was the size of a bug and so we affectionately call him bug. So the Bug came into my room this morning and said he itched. I wasn't quite awake and mumbled something like "oh, you are?" through half closed eyes. Liam said "yes" and pulled up his shirt. This is what I saw....

So.... after long conversations with family, friends, and pediatric Dr.s I took him in. He is allergic to bugs, which we knew but I needed to have clarified and reinforced by a Dr. The Dr. said it was bug bites other than that, is up in the air. Yep, the Bug has bugs.

The Zoo

2010-06-07T21:12:00.000-07:00

Clif wanted to go to the zoo this past weekend. We never seem to get through the whole zoo in 2 hours so we tackle different parts on each visit. This past visit was particularly eventful. At the end of the 2 hours, I was ready to call it all in. Liam was asking to see the elks and I relented with the firm response that at the end of the elks we were heading out. The elk were elk, nothing special and it took no time for us to finish with them. Clif then steered the kids to the big brown bears. I mean BIG bears, they were so cool but I was ready to go again. So I headed out and thought Clif was right behind me, he wasn't. He went into the fishery area which is on the back side of the bear exhibit and it is solid glass. So there is a pond right next to the glass where you can see the fish swimming around and as I am trying to get Clif to help me round the kids up to leave one of the bears comes over. He was HUGE and really beautiful. He started to swim in the water and then came and brushed his back against the glass. Then the other bear came over and did the same thing. It was so cool to be so close to the bears with just a couple of inches of glass in between them and us. But the best part? They started to wrestle/play/fight (pick the word you think best fits) right in front of us in the water. I have to say I was even amazed. It was one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen in the wild. So cool...

Next I tackle potty training

2010-06-07T21:03:00.000-07:00

Adele hits, a lot. It drives me batty. This is the consequence to the hitting.

Next obstacle is potty training.

Control isn't for everyone

2010-06-04T19:51:00.000-07:00

Clif was supposed to be getting the kids ready for bed. This is what I found.

Does Clif have total control or what!

Puberty at almost 5 years old

2010-06-04T19:42:00.000-07:00

While I was gone to the temple this morning, this was emailed to me by Clif. What graphics!....

(Written by Clif) Liam got into the stamp pad when the kids where drawing and doing crafts this morning. I guess he needed whiskers. I must admit, I was a little upset with him at first, but finally found the humor in it. I suppose this really is a small thing in the grand scheme of things. Good gracious.

OCD anyone?

2010-06-02T11:13:00.000-07:00

Before Liam would let Clif put home canned green beans on his plate he had to rinse the chef-boyardie ravioli sauce off. Clif asked him why and Liam said he didn't want his food touching. And they ate all the raviolis , a second can of them and half a quart of beans. Crazy eating!! Yet underneath the shame of OCD, I am glad to know that I have rubbed off on those kids somehow.

Old college friends and a whole lotta kids

2010-06-02T10:53:00.000-07:00

My great friend from college and her family got to come up for a couple of days. It was so fun, Clif and I don't seem to do much with other people so having old friends in town is so great for us. I loved it since it was like no time had passed in the last nine years. Here is to great friendships!

I made Indian food (I love my cookbook), the kids played non stop, we went to the park and to the beach. Naomi was very sweet and took some great pictures of the kids.

Big retirement, here I come

2010-06-02T10:32:00.000-07:00

Over Memorial weekend, Clif went to a cousins wedding with some of his sisters. I was not able to go and so I stayed home with the kids. By Sunday the kids and I were a little testy with each other. Liam came into my room early to try to convince me to let them have cold cereal for breakfast. Now, Clif lets them eat it and I don't say no but I don't reinforce it either. It is not my favorite for breakfast plus sometimes I throw 3 bowls of not eaten cereal away. So this is the ensuing conversation

Liam: Mom, Dad always gives us cold cereal for breakfast for Sunday
Mom: I don't care
Liam: But Mom, it is Sunday and I really want cereal
Mom: I don't care, I am not making cold cereal
Liam: Mooommmm!
Mom: Yes?
Liam: If you don't let me have cold cereal for breakfast today, then I am not feeding you when your older!
Mom: Good thing I have 3 other kids then, huh!

Made for a really funny morning.

Mothers day wishes

2010-06-01T12:47:00.000-07:00

I love Mothers day, or I thought I did last year. Each year my only expectation is that I get to sleep in. Clif once again surpassed my expectations. This year, I got to sit on the beach for a couple of hours with Clif. He doesn't enjoy lazying around on the beach and I do so this was very special for me.

Sunday, Clif made blueberry cornmeal pancakes with blueberry syrup. It was FABULOUS! Definitely a great way to start off the day after being able to sleep in. Then we had my mom over for dinner, steaks, veggies, and strawberry shortcake for desert. I loved it.

I got to open my presents. Clif kind of gave me two. He got me a bunch of new items for my droid and he got them at a huge discount (I am a sucker for a great bargian). I love them, now my phone won't die in the car, we have a mount for the car, and a display mulitmedia station. Wooyoo!

Here are some cute pictures of the kids at the beach.

This is not about my kids- remember planet me?

2010-05-06T01:13:00.000-07:00

I know that I use this as a way to record my kids and the funnies, but sometimes it needs to be about me, "planet me" remember? My college friend Naomi totally inspired me with her description of herself. I need to clarify something. I went to a Jamie Cullum concert, the best concert I have ever seen and I don't LOVE jazz either. I realized that I have forgotten to love myself in the midst of being a Mom.

I love that I have impressioned my children to choose AFI or Lady Gaga (just the songs- never the videos) over other "children" music. I love that I have short hair and will keep it short no matter what the fashion dictates. I am that crazy person who listens to crazy loud music to fuel enough anger to get through 9 miles of running. That by the 8th mile, I am dancing on the tracks. I can spend thousands of hours reading and or watching cooking books and shows to get more recipes. I am inspired with food and hope that I might run my own kitchen one day. I love getting deals at garage sales or second handed stores and pride myself to never pay full price on anything. I take pride in my home canned food storage and 2 full freezers of food. I love that I miss my kids and return home if I have forgotten to have family prayer with my family. I appreciate the fact that I don't see eye to eye with most of my contemporaries and I don't need to be validated in my life. I love the imperfections and embrace those that I can not fix. I love that my son, asking to play with me said "I am sad when you don't play with me". I love my daughters who teach me patience, love, and acceptance. I love my husband who lets me stew when he knows things are not quite right and gives me space when I need it.

I am saddened by the loss of myself given up by the hustle and bustle of life. I vow today to remember who I am and who I want to be. And most important to be appreciative of my life, my family and my Savior, who without I would be nothing today.

The twin turn 3

2010-05-06T00:41:00.000-07:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY EVELYN AND MYRAJEAN

The girls birthday was a great day. Clif and I made cupcakes for their birthday and the girls helped me deliver them to the people they like to visit the most. That took pretty much the whole morning. Then, my Mom and I took the twins out to lunch at California Pizza kitchen. MyraJean got mac and cheese and Evelyn got a pizza, they ate almost all of it. It was pretty unreal how much those two can eat. My Mom gave them a pre present, tutus and boas, I don't think they knew what to do with them. A couple of days later they discovered them and I was picking up feathers off the floor. After lunch I wanted to let them have a great time all by themselves so we went to Clairs and I let them pick out one item each. MyraJean got a collection of necklaces and rings and Evie got rainbow colored bracelets. They both seemed to gravitate toward items that had multiple items in them, guess they thought if they were all bunched together that counted right?

After a very exhausting trip, we dropped my mom off at home and headed home to relieve the babysitter. The girls were so tired so I was surprised that they took a while to get down for naps. they did though, and after naps we went to the park to play. For dinner we had hot dogs and chicken nuggets with cupcakes for desert. To top off a very tiring day, we went to Liam's soccer meeting to find out what we needed to do to get him enrolled. The girls had a great day and so did the rest of us.

I know, you are asking what about the presents? Well I was able to find one bike but was waiting for the annual twin sale (only 10 days later) to find a second bike. So after the twin sale, we gave them the bikes, the flashlights, a lot of new clothes, and headed off to the park. The bikes were an amazing deal and they loved them. We are still waiting to open the gifts from my Mom, maybe after Mothers day?

Easter

2010-05-06T00:22:00.000-07:00

I know that I am behind the times but it has been quite the month. Easter was great, we used one of our butchered hams for dinner and my sister with her family and my parents came over for dinner. It was a great dinner if I say so myself. The kids had their twin Easter egg hunt with our twin club and my mom also did her annual hunt. Lets just say, I just threw out the rest of the candy 3 days ago. They had a ball and Adele was so adamant that she could find her own eggs and put them in the basket all by herself. It was pretty awesome.

My Mom totally out did herself this year once again. Egg hunt at her house, with egg salad sandwiches, and gift baskets. My kids were so spoiled, but they loved every minute of it. In fact, they didn't fight and shared most of the goodies, mostly.

My Mom made this awesome bunny cake, so we had rabbit and pig on Easter... It was so fun to have all the kids together too. They seemed to play well with Liam and the girls and I really loved having my family over at my house. We didn't see conference though, Clif and I have got to do something about the Internet access in our house.

The real experience of Easter

2010-03-29T09:49:00.000-07:00

My children missed church on Sunday due to illness, but Clif and I had to make it to the last hour to teach our lessons. So I knew what the kids missed in their classes and thought I would try to reinforce the quick Easter lesson. The following conversation ensued.

Mom: Kiddos, do you know what Easter is?
Liam: Yep, it's happy day where everyone is happy that day.
Mom: It's a happy day? How come?
Liam: 'Cause it is happy day (as in Happy Easter), and everyone is happy to get presents.
Mom: You might get a present or two.

Dad: (Trying to steer the conversation into a real lesson) Do you know what happened on Easter after Jesus died?
Liam: They went to the cave, and Jesus was gone. I learned this already.
Mom: So do you remember how Jesus was resurrected? Do you remember what it means to get resurrected?
Liam: Yeah! That is when your dead for a long time and then Jesus puts your body back on you.
Mom: Jesus puts it back on? (I am totally imagining Liam as a paper doll and Christ putting Liam's skinny body onto a card board cut out)
Liam: Yep, you are dead a long, long long, long, time.... and then Jesus puts it back on you. I learned that at Church in my class.

Well, as far as resurrection goes, he got the main points down. I just hope Heavenly Father sees in more than 2 dimensions.

Random Sayings

2010-03-22T10:32:00.000-07:00

My Mom reminded me that if I don't write this down I will forget so here it is.

Liam everytime he sees my Mom says "Mimi, how you doing today? You doin' good today?"

My girls, if you ask them if they are good MyraJean will say, "No, my sholder hurts". (It really doesn't but my mom has a hurt sholder and I think they feel let out without a serious owie) Evie will show you every bruise she has on her legs- even the invisible ones. It is pretty funny some days.

Adele- smiles so cheesy that her nose smooches all up and her eyes go shut. It is a beautiful cheesy smile!

I love my Kids!!!!!

Dr escapades

2010-03-22T10:15:00.000-07:00

So I had a Dr. appointment and my Mom was so kind to watch the kids while I went. I thought that I had it planned out perfectly. The kids would sleep while I went to the Dr.s and my Mom would just need to make sure they stayed in bed and didn't burn the house down. I had a check list going:
Speech therapy- check
Lunch and clean up- check
Kids potty before bed- check
Adele changed and put into bed- check........
Chase Evie out of the bathroom, again- check.
My kids refuse to stay out of the bathroom, Evie and MyraJean is the worst about it. So I had had it with chasing her out of the bathroom. Evie had been going potty when she got distracted with the sink and was playing in the water with a bare bum. As a good mom, I pinched it and told her to get out of the bathroom, Mimi was going to be here any moment and I needed her to go to bed.
MyraJean went out the front door to throw a dirty diaper outside. When she went out there, my Mom pulled up. MyraJean went to my Mom panicked, "Mimi, Evie needs you, she needs you!" Evie must have also seen my mom outside and she ran down the sidewalk pulled down her pants and showed my Mom her bum crying, "Mom did it". So I got told on, it was pretty funny. Evie doesn't need to worry, she has a great advocate in her little sister.

It must has been traumatic for Evie. She had to go to the bathroom again after I left. She started to cry and said "Mom...". My Mom calmly told her that I was gone to the Dr. to get medicine. Evie started to laugh and said "Mom get a shot in her bum." I thought it was pretty funny, maybe a little vindictive but really funny.

Liam has been a little worried about all the different Dr. appointments that I have had for the last couple of weeks. I told him that I was getting different medicine so I wasn't so cranky and mad all the time and that I wouldn't yell so much. He said, "That would be really good, Mom"