A small glass of lemonade

So today was not my favorite day. I'm not sure why it felt the way it did, but I was not a happy camper. I don't want to go into any details mainly because I don't know any :) but no sympathy needed, just one of those days. But just like always, when I was having this crappy day, Heavenly Father sent me a few cute little things that made me smile. A few cute little things to be grateful for and end my dumb little pitty party. I just wanted to share these :)
One the way home from taking Nate to work this morning, Charity and Kelly were singing (which is actually pretty cute in and of itself, but that's not what made me laugh) but they were trying to each sing a different verse of the same song, at the same time. The started with I Am A Child of God, and did really well, it sounded really pretty. Then they tried I Love To See The Temple. This is the funny part. Charity was singing the first verse, Kelly was singing the second. Everytime they would get to the part where Kelly would say "to covenant with my father" Charity would yell, "Stopstopstop! Kellykellykelly....You're doing it WRONG!!!!" (she talks pretty quickly, and really hyper-ly if that helps you picture it) They did that like twice and then Charity said, "KELLY! You're supposed to say, 'I love to see the temple, I'll go inside some day. To....' OOOPPPSSS!!!! uh....I guess I was the one singing it wrong....." (all humbly). Then she proceeded to mumble through the first verse to figure out what she did wrong and then tried singing it with Kelly singing the second. She messed up again. At that point she screamed out "AAAHHH!!! I don't know how it goes! This is SO HARD......let's do a different song". Now that I'm typing this all out I'm not sure if it is all that funny, but if you know Charity..... She's just so funny because she is the first to tell you when you're wrong, but she's also really good at realizing and admitting that she is wrong. And she's just so hyper and full of energy (even at 7:00 in the morning) that it just makes me laugh. All the while Kelly is just giggling and going along with whatever she tells her to do :) SO CUTE!
So then, a little later in the morning, I was coming back to the car after running something that Charity left home in to the school. I had left the boys out in the car....shame on me probably. But anyway, I got back and we were pulling out of the school driveway, and Luke says to me, "you were fast mom!" I agreed with him and he said, "did you run?" I chuckled a little and said, "yeah I did run! Pretty good huh!" Then Luke, with his cute little pouty voice says to me, "I was sad mom. I was going like this *sniff sniff* (he actually sniffed his nose twice, not speaking the words)" I just about died!!! SO CUTE!! He just sounded so sweet and so patient. I apologized for making him sad and he replied all happy now, "That's okay mommy!" Funny little boy. Made me smile.
And then a little later I was getting overwhelmed with who knows what and I just sat down on the couch and cried a little (hopefully I'm not the only one who does this). I try not to do it in front of the kids a lot, and Noah was the only one in the room, so I figured I could just let it out. But one little glance at me from across the room and my cute little one-year old Noah came crawling over and stood up to my lap and laid his cute little head down on me. He kept lifting his head up to look at my face. I know that he knew I was sad and he was doing his best to console me. What a sweetheart! Heavenly Father sure has some cute little helpers when it comes to answering my prayers. I love how he does that for me sometimes!
Then when I was dropping the boys off with my mom to go to McD's (she was playing fun-grandma) I was giving them the "be good for grandma" speech, and telling them that grandma was going to need their help and sweet little Bradley interrupts me to say, "I going to use my muscles to help grandma. I will tell her that I can use my muscles to help her." So sweet!! So thoughtful. I loved it. Made me smile.
And last, but not least, my sweet Kelly. When I came home from running an errand and walked in the kitchen, she jumped up, ran over to me, wrapped her arm and her cast around me and gave me the sweetest little hello hug. The way she said, "MOMMY!" when I walked in too, was just priceless. She is so sweet to me. I love her cute little voice and her sweet hugs. It's nice to know that I was missed too :) She's a sweetie.
I just have to say that I am really grateful for my kids. This day would have completely sucked if it hadn't been for my little friends. They are such blessings. I try to make sure that when I find myself being dealt lemons, that I at least try to look for even a small glass of lemonade, so there ya have it :)

Perfect Chaos

Sunday night, we had Nana over for dinner, and then afterwards the kids had planned to do a Talent Show for us. They WOWed us all with their AMAZING talents (I'm being sarcastic :)). Kelly started with a "standing on one foot on top of the upsidedown laundry basket" feat, then Charity followed with her amazing hoola-hooping abilities (which, she's actually REALLY good at it). Then Bradley copied Kelly, but with a "hold a ball in each hand" variation, and Luke followed suit and copied Bradley :) They were so cute and starving for attention, that we just cheered them all on. Afterward (completely unrelated to the talent show-go figure) Luke showed us his amazing Basketball talent....the kid is amazing! He makes like 90% of the shots he takes. It's cute. And he's really cocky, so that's even cuter :). I call this kind of evening perfect chaos because it's the whole family, just hanging out, making noise, bouncing around all together. I love it no matter how crazy or abnormal it is, thus I take pictures :)

This is Nana conjurring up an excuse to get the heck out of here. :) HA! jk. Nana was very sweet and humored us all :) We love Nana.

Bradley tried the hoola-hoop and did pretty well!

cute little basketball player! (sorry about the blurry picture folks....the lighting is not the best for this.

Cute little Noah loves it when we're all together too. He crawls around getting everyone to look at him and smile. It's fun.

And this was supposed to be of his funny little mouth thing that he does....his lips are just so cute....I don't know if anyone would really appreciate this as much as I do (mainly because you can't really see it) but I love it.

I'm obsessed with him okay :)

Okay, so it took me like 2 hours to upload these videos, so you BETTER watch them! HA! I'm kidding. I think the only reason I post video is so that when my kids are scrolling through the blog they have something else to get really excited about. They love the videos and will play them over and over again. This is also the reason for putting Brad and Kelly's "talents" on here :) They would be devastated if I didn't include theirs no matter how strange they were :) Where do they come up with this stuff :) But if you're bored, here they are....

So I'm not sure how these will post, but I will explain them. There are two of Luke "makin' shots" He makes two baskets in one of them. I just think it's cute how good he is. Granted he is standing on a laundry basket, but he does this well without it too.

Then there's Charity's Hoola-hooping one. She had already been going for like 10 seconds before I got my camera on and recording.....she's really good!

And of course, Kelly and Brad doing their standing on the basket talents :) They're cute kids. I just love it when they get all excited about these things.

This last one is the perfect example of our perfect chaos. It makes me laugh no matter how many times I watch it. At the end of the Talent Show, Charity and Kelly wanted to do a little encore and were trying to pick a song that they could sing all together. This is how it went. Charity hoola-hooping, Kelly singing a Christmas song (in February, how cute! :)), Bradley starts out pouting on the floor because he had wanted a different song, then gets up to steal Luke's basket, and then tries to mess Charity up (which he actually makes the ball go through the hoola-hoop without stopping it....now that's talent!). Luke is in the background shootin' hoops, and then to top off the whole chaotic mess, he gets hit with the hoola-hoop at the end, then realizes that I'm getting it all and camera and runs over to see himself. I just love it! If you've ever wanted to have 5 kids (Noah was just sitting by me being his angelic little self btw), here's another good reason to!

Could you wipe your bumb with this???

I reached for the TP and this is the message that I beheld. "I Love Mom!!" Charity is so creative in the ways she expresses her love. I couldn't get myself to use it, so I took a picture of it instead. Charity is a sweetie
I tried a fun little game with Brad and Luke (trying to get Luke interested in the potty) where I drew a little bullseye target on a square of toilet paper (hence the permanent marker use in the bathroom), and then let Bradley aim at them. I told them they could get points for hitting the center. They liked it and were really excited about it for about an hour and a half. It has since died out. I'm going to try it again soon, I think it's a cute idea. Everyone tells me to use cheerios, but I just think my kids will start to think it's fun to put food in the toilet, so I am going to pass on that one. But I thought I would ask if anyone has any other creative ideas for getting Luke interested in the potty. Just a little background....he was really into it WAY back when Brad was learning, and I SHOULD have jumped on that, but I was too lazy. But NOW he is just SO against going in the potty, sitting on the potty, and even getting changed in the bathroom makes him cringe now. It's really just starting to bug me. He's 3, so he's not TOO old, but he's getting there! He totally has the personality where he will not do anything until he wants to. It takes some serious persuasion to get him to do anything. I think I'm just up for some fresh ideas if anyone's got any. I know that it's best to wait until they are ready, but is there something I can do to speed that up??? IDEAS???

Noah's laundry

One of Noah's big things right now is "helping" mommy with the laundry. He likes to pull all the clothes out of the baskets (dirty or clean) and then bury himself in them. It's mostly fun to watch him, unless it's clothes that I've already folded (but then that's probably my fault since I wait forever to put them away.....that is the WORST part about doing laundry). He's also really big on handing me the hangers. This is something that dates back to Lukey's pre-walking days, where he used to sit there and hand me the hangers and I would say "thank you" for each one and he would get all excited. Well, Noah does the EXACT same thing only he's got this cute little lip-smacky-thing that he does after each one too. It's SO CUTE! He gets all excited when I come in the room with a big handful of hangers. Then he comes scurrying over to be the first one to pick one up. It's adorable. And I must say, it does make doing the laundry slightly more enjoyable.
He has been really good at emptying containers lately too. The other day I walked in the room and saw Noah sitting in the middle of all the diapers with the empty bag in his hand. It looked kinda cute, but it hit me that that was the first time he had done anything so distructive. I really hadn't noticed it though until he started making the messes. It's funny how much I forget about these kids....it's a good thing I have them close together or I'd really be a mess. But anyway, since then, he's become a pro at tearing up toilet paper and pictures from off the fridge, emptying the wipes package, and simply emptying the toy boxes and drawers. I have to admit that it takes me a minute to get annoyed because he's always so proud of himself he makes the cutest little faces. He just loves life. I love how enthusiastic he gets about things. Just now he was standing up by the tv and figured out how to turn it on. All by himself! He was SO THRILLED. And who wouldn't be! He made sure we both saw him do it and that we were just as excited. It's so fun to have him around. I feel really bad for him because he seems to be teething. I'm not sure because it looks like there are THREE teeth coming in at the same time, but none of them have cut through, so who knows. I hate those darn teeth....they're so deceitful! Always tricking me....and in the meantime, I'm drowning him with tylenol and Motrin just trying to keep him happy.........who knows. So anyway. Just wanted to do a little update on my cutie. He does do the cutest little wave now, and on command which is fun. He even did a "come here" kind of wave to Charity when we picked her up from school.....very adorable. I just love my little Noah.

You learn something new everyday!

I learned so many things today that I am going to share them all with you....

1. if I sleep in Saturday morning, I miss out on Nate's yummy eggs (but I do get to sleep in :))
2. when I do the laundry I need to remember to include my own dirty clothes and not just the kids'
3. if I put all the books on the bookcase, it looks like less books
4. if Nate bribes the kids with a fun surprise, their bedrooms can get clean a lot faster :)
5. Bradley's idea of "cleaning" the bathroom (even when it's HIS idea) does not include picking up any of the scraps of toilet paper, picking up the toys, getting the toothbrushes off the floor, straightening out the rugs, wiping the windex off of the glass, or wiping off the toothpaste from the toilet, sink and floor
6. no matter how mad I get at Charity for complaining about having to put her folded clothes away, she still has the love to write me a note telling me what a good mom I am
7. when you put all of the girls' stinky shoes in one closet you can smell them from a room away
8. if you offer Luke a treat, he will do just about anything (except go potty)
9. it is "common sense that if you betray someone's trust in you, you have to EARN it back"
10. if I get on facebook, I will be on there too long
11. my husband will cater to my every desire when it comes to my pants and their need to be laundered
12. when Nate wants to do something fun as a family, he doesn't settle for anything less- and spoils us all like crazy
13. no place is too family oriented to keep a full on brawl from breaking out in the middle of the room (there were like 20 people including the ones holding people back, fists and blood flying everywhere!)
14. no matter how much I try to keep cool in tense situations, my insides still don't
15. if we are ever in an emergency and need to leave somewhere quickly, I don't want Luke to have his choices be between coming to me and a playing on the playground....
16. Charity is almost as indecisive as me especially when it comes to going on a scary ride or not
17. no ride is too scary for Bradley to try.....and talk about how scary it was later
18. a cast is not going to stop Kelly from going on the hot air balloons
19. if I forget my camera when we go on family outings, I not only have a pictureless post for my blog, but I miss capturing Noah's first time on a Merry-Go-Round! :(
20. when Noah starts a game of peek-a-boo, you will leave him hanging if you end it
21. the merry-go-round animals that my kids choose to ride on will not be all together, in the same spot.....I will need to run around like a crazy person to buckle them all in
22. Hollywood Connections will not always be the cheap place to hang out.....and really isn't anymore
23. there's no holding back for Kelly on the bumper cars! Good way for her to take out some of her pent up frustration maybe
24. Charity will choose ice cream over just about anything
25. Luke will choose a gumball now over some ice cream later
26. Noah chooses fry sauce over ice cream, and will hand me back the same fry over and over for just to suck off the sauce
27. Bradley can eat a lot of ice cream if he's dishing up his own
28. ice cream is WAY more fun to eat when you're all diggin'-in to the same banana split
29. Kelly can get rid of her grumpy attitude faster than it takes for them to bring us our fries and ice cream at Leatherby's
30. my kids sure know how to make me laugh
31. if there's music playing, even if it's in the middle of Terriyaki Grill, my kids are dancing
32. no matter how much fun he has in one day, it's just not complete until Luke has watched his show in the car :)
33. my kids are finally getting old enough that we can have a FUN family outing with very few discouraging moments
34. my husband thinks of EVERYTHING when it comes to our family and our Saturday nights
35. family outings are more fun when I keep a smile on my face
36. a little dose of fun family time can relieve a lot of stress

Girls night out/ Girls' night out/ Girl's night out....

I'm not sure how the grammar goes, but we had SO MUCH FUN!! If only I'd brought my camera*!!! Charity, Kelly and I all went out last night. They chose Chuck-A-Rama as their date**. They were like two giddy little school girls***. They kept loading up their plates and then only eating like a third of it and then running back to fill up some more :). It was really fun. I try to kind of turn off the naggy-momness when we're on our dates **** so that I can relax, and they can have some un-ADULT-erated fun. We played the question game while we ate. Charity asked me what I like about Daddy*****. Kelly asked herself what her favorite animal is******and then laughed her head off. We filled up on slurpees, ice cream, scones and rice krispie treats*******. In the middle of our dinner some guy across the room started blowing his nose. And it wasn't just blowing his nose, it was the HONKING kind of blowing. Charity couldn't help it and turned around at looked at him and then turned back and started laughing********. My first thought was to tell her it's not polite to laugh, but then Kelly started laughing too, and I just couldn't help myself! We were all cracking up!! Like rolling on the floor cracking up!! Our waitress tried to ask me a question and I couldn't answer her. It was so fun!!! Then for the rest of the night we kept doing our impression of the honking nose blower and then laughing.......what fun. We had a total blast. I just love these times with my kids. I say this all the time, but I really do cherish those moments. Makes me feel like time is just going too fast and I'm just going to get to the end and wish I had done it more. I want our date nights and stuff become more of a tradition and something we do regularly.
After our dinner we went up to the hospital for my x-ray*********. Charity and Kelly had fun whirling around in the waiting room, narrating the Nemos in the fish tank, and watching Fineas and Ferb while we waited. I love my girls. They're such fun company.

*we decided, half way to the restaurant, that the boys would probably start crying again if we turned back and went and got it.
** they're still infatuated with the place since Sydney's baptism....they love the all-you-can-eatness of it
***I guess they are.
****not too much of course! I still have to guide them in the right direction!
*****how cute is that! I went on too long for Charity even, and she cut me off to say that it was my turn to ask a question :)
******I'm pretty sure someone slipped a little something into Kelly's drink...I've never seen her quite so looney :)
*******had to get our money's worth!
********there's no way he knew we were laughing at him...he never even looked over, just so you don't think we're all a bunch of jerks....it was REALLY loud for a restaurant, I mean really, go in the bathroom!! But we do realize that this is Bountiful/land of the senior citizens, and we were at Chuck-A-Rama/home of the senior citizen discount.
*********Found out my doctor prescriped "chest pain" instead of a "chest x-ray", so I'll have to go back for that one....but we might be making some headway in all of my hypochondriacness.....we'll see if it's more than just in my head :)

I Got Tagged

Meg tagged me. You're supposed to post the 4th picture in the 4th folder. I had to go to my 2003 folder and then in my June folder (4th folder) and this was the 4th picture in that folder. I usually don't do these tags, because the picture that comes up is lame or I am not in the mood to post it, but this time it was this cute picture of Kelly. She was about a month old, and I wanted to get a picture of her in her blessing dress. (It really drove me nuts that I never did that with Charity, and I knew it would drive me crazy to have spent $30 on a dress that she only wore once.......) So we went to Kiddie Kandids. She was so sad while we were trying to take her pictures and so I fed her thinking that might cheer her up, but in the process, she fell asleep. She was un-wake-able. She would not even crack her eyelids open a little. It was cute though....turned out to be one of my most favorite pictures ever :) And how nice that I get to post it :o)
I'll tag: Charity, Sherry, Shannon, and Heather

Have you ever been around a kid for more than half a minute?

Nate had this sent to him on Facebook and I just couldn't help but share it :)
I would tell this girl to stop complaining about her friends with kids not calling her, and start being grateful that they don't sit and complain about it all to her!! I thought all moms did enough complaining about it to not leave it wide open like that. Her friends must be good moms and make it look easy. It's sure not one of my friends!!! HA!!lol. And like it said....if you're NOT busy doing all that stuff, then you are busy dealing with all the GUILT that accompanies neglecting your kids!!!! And I know this one for sure (I do have a blog, so that should tell you something)!!
And just as a sidenote, I wanted to say sorry if I've ever rambled on about my kids or being a mom to you for more than an annoying amount of time. I'm pretty sure that's all I do, so sorry :)

Valentine's Day- I totally forgot to post this!

I just love my cute family!

We had a really nice Valentine's Day. Nate and I actually got to go out Friday night as well. Two dates in two nights....that's like some kind of miracle or something!!! We were supposed to go to the Adult Stake Dance here, but our tickets were given to someone else because we didn't answer our phone.....lame. But it was actually kind of a good thing because I was not feeling well. We ended up hanging out at the mall and then getting dessert afterward. It was SO NICE. It's been a LONG time since we just walked through a mall, kid-free. I loved it. And I love the time to talk with Nate, uninterrupted. So then Saturday we all just bummed around for most of the morning :) another favorite of mine. I was able to finish the pajama pants I was making for the kids. My friend (and former Young Woman Leader) Kim had some leftover fleece that she had bought for way cheap and didn't need anymore, so she taught me how to make pajama pants. SO EASY by the way. I've never sewn anything with a pattern, and I was always nervous to, but she made it look so easy and it really wasn't all that difficult. They're obviously not perfect mind you :) But I love them! And the fabric was "SO soft" (screamed Charity) that it doesn't matter to the kids what they look like either :). I was really happy that they were so excited to wear them to bed that night.

So we left in the early afternoon to take the kids to Nate's sister's house. She watched them for us so that Nate could surprise me with dinner at Rodizio Grill (we've both been wanting to go there for so long). It was SOOOOOOO Good. My awesome husband made reservations too, so we weren't among the millions who had a 2 hour wait. That place is SO stinkin' good though. It's going to be hard to not want to go there for everything now! I loved it. Then we were able to get home at a decent hour and have a nice peaceful evening to ourselves with kids in bed. So nice. I just love Valentine's Day. I wish I had been feeling better and done more with my kids and stuff during the week. I still want to make heart cookies, just because. But it was a fun day. The girls really loved doing their little Valentine's for their classes too. I LOVED that when I was little. It's fun that they haven't removed that tradition from the schools. So anyway. That was our Valentine's day.

8 years ago today

February 17th, 2001 was the day Nate proposed to me!!

That was such a special day to me!! The anticipation started building up weeks before. Nate had surprised me with flowers on my bed, and with the flowers was a little handmade puzzle telling me to keep February 17th open. Then a few days after that I got balloons with a box of chocolates with more directions for the date hidden in the balloons. And then the last few clues were inside of some chocolate balls. I can't tell you how LONG those weeks were!! I was so anxious. And so excited. I guess I was assuming that he wouldn't make such a big deal about a date unless he was going to propose. So the morning of, I think it was 7:00 am, my mom drove me to the Flying J (as per instructions), where I was picked up by my brother-in-law Mark, and then driven to Nate's house. He had prepared a cute little candlelit breakfast. Complete with heart waffles. He had music for us to dance to, and he kept giving me gifts the whole time...a jewelry box, and a cute little clock. It was just amazing. I have to admit it really surprised me that he didn't propose then....but I still knew it was coming :) So we hopped in the car and started driving. You can imagine my curiosity of what we were going to do next!! And you can understand my disappointment when Nate asked, "so what do you want to do now?" lol It still makes me laugh. We stopped and got a car wash, and then went back to my house to finish watching the Truman Show that we had started the night before. I was really starting to worry that he really wasn't going to propose afterall :) I was very bummed. And I was really bad at faking like I wasn't bummed :) I totally got impatient and asked him if he was ever going to propose. I still regret saying that. But he answered with, "just take that little bit of patience you have left and stretch it just a little further" (I should probably mention that I had thought he was going to propose the Christmas before. It wasn't time then, but my mom had read into something and gotten me all excited for it :)--- so I had been "ready" to be engaged for "a long time") So anyway. I still wondered if it might be that day, but I wasn't sure. The next thing we did was stop at the mall to "pick up something from Beth's work(Nate's sister)". I really couldn't believe he wanted me to sit in the car while he ran into the mall, but I have to admit that it did get me really excited thinking he might be getting the ring while he was in there. :) When he came back out he didn't have anything with him and I just got so excited :). So after the mall we went to Subway. Again, I couldn't believe how unromantic and hoped he wasn't planning on proposing there :) (are you noticing my pickiness about when and how, and yet the urgency to do it that day? I'm so weird) So anyway. We drove around for a while. Ended up at Temple Square. We went and sat at our spot. After a few questions (we used to play the question game) it was his turn, and he asked me, "What knee are you supposed to kneel down on when you propose?" And I told him that it depended on waht side you were on and that I would have to see it. He got down on his knee, and I told him it was the other one :). Then he did it!! He said he had another question, and then pulled out the ring that he had picked out himself just for me, and asked me to marry him!!! Still gives me chills when I think about it!! I just love that moment.

I'm sure I missed some details. And I probably should have put more emphasis on how grumpy I got in the middle of the day. I really was bummed when I thought he wasn't going to propose. Nate would probably add that the reason he didn't get to propose after the romantic breakfast was because the ring place had messed up with the ring, and he didn't find out until the night before, that he wasn't going to be able to get it until 5:00 PM. So all the other plans he had had to go share the news with everyone and get pictures and stuff, were thrown out the window since we were not engaged yet :). He did such a good job though, and made it a fun little story. It's very symbolic of how we are :) Nate knows how to surprise me and I know how to have the hugest mood swings ever :) jk. But really he made it very memorable and very special to me.

I just have to say that I am SO grateful for that day, and for the fact that I get to spend the rest of eternity with such an amazing man. I remember our engagment and the whole time we were engaged as being such an awesome time. We were totally on a cloud. I remember the day after he proposed was Stake Conference in my ward and I just couldn't stop thinking about Nate and the fact that we were going to be husband and wife. I sat and drew a picture of us sitting on "Cloud 9" (way cheesy I know, I really haven't changed :) always been cheesy). I remember driving to his parents' house and then to mine and my grandparents' houses. It was SO fun to tell everyone the news. Everyone was so happy for us!! I didn't want the night to end. It was such an incredible feeling to know that he was the one I would be with, through everything else. It felt so amazing, like a load had been lifted and a comfort that I would not have to go through anything else on my own from that point on. It was just incredible. Nate is just incredible. I'm so glad I have him. I'm so glad he asked me to marry him, and I'm so glad that the last 8 years have been so good. Well, just wanted to get those feelings down. I keep thinking about him today and about that day and I just want to make sure that I always remember what an amazing thing that was.

Happy 8 Years Since Our Engagement Sweetie!! I love you!!

(my dad took our engagement pictures...I still just love them!)

My Little Brother's Legal!!

My little brother just turned 21!!!
He has his last Provisional License (I just learned that while taking the written test to get my Utah Driver's License.... do you know what a Provisional License is???)
We celebrated his birthday on Thursday (I haven't been able to get online since then, that's why this is so late :)), I made him a Chocolate Covered Oreo Cake (yes, just like Nana's, because he changed his mind about the car cake after he tasted Nana's- and hopefully this time the link works)...


The Party Guests:

(if you zoom in on Kelly's cast you can see where "Rockstar Steve" signed it)

(Noah sure makes our parties look boring with his napping)

The Birthday Boy!! Steve had a hard time deciding which picture he liked best of himself :) so I just put them all.

Steve was the entertainment....of course!

We tried to let Steve be the center of all the attention (since he hates it being stolen by the children), but......Charity and Charlie did steal the show for a few minutes :)

We roasted Steve for a little while. It's really hard to try to embarrass someone who likes to be embarrassed :) HA! jk.

(it looks like I'm leading the music in this picture, but I don't think I did)

I had to fight off the kids....he really likes the attention all to himself :)

Well, I think Steve had a good birthday. Hopefully.

I like writing down all the things I love about people on their birthdays, so here goes:

Steve has always been the cute little brother. He's really good at making me laugh. He's good at making me feel good about myself. Even when he was really young he would tell me I looked good, before dates and school and stuff. Such a sweetheart. Steve has the biggest heart! He has a pretty big head too, literally. He's very humble. He is very loyal, and VERY forgiving. I love how he comes down in the mornings pretending to make small talk when he's really just checking out what we're having to see if he wants to try to get me to offer him some :) He's VERY generous. He always offers me some of what he's eating. Even if it's his beloved Hot Fudge Sundae Pop Tarts. He always offers to get me food when he goes out for his late night cravings. Steve is SMART!! He retains information really well. And he has got to be one of the nicest tech support receptionists there ever was, because if I had some of the callers he does....well, I wouldn't be as nice as he is. Steve is a good guitarist and makes it look so fun and easy. Someday he'll teach me to play the guitar I hope. Steve is just overall very talented. When he puts his mind to something he does it. I sure love my little brother. He's one of my best friends. Thanks for everything you do Steve!! Happy 21st!!!

Nana is 79 (oops did I say that out loud??)

We had a really fun birthday party for Nana on Sunday. Bambi and her girls came down from Idaho to make it really special. Nana just loves to have all of her family together. And we were only missing a few, so that was pretty cool.

I didn't take very many pictures because Matt was freaking out about the flashes, but hopefully I can steal some from Bambi and my Dad. I had such a good time talking with Loni, Shalise and Nickole too. Feels like it's been so long since I saw my cousins!! I got to hear Loni's infamous getting hit by a car story that makes me laugh my brains out. She's hilarious. And when she becomes a stand up comedian, I am going to be right there on the front row just dying laughing. Loni and I worked at a pool together one summer. That was the funnest summer there. (if funnest was a word) Shalise's little baby is SO ADORABLE. It's not a very good picture but that's who Nana is holding in the picture. She has the most beautiful eyes!! Nana loves holding the babies, and we all agreed that she is the best at it. I think it's because she shakes so much, it's just like the little vibrating seats that they make for babies now :) I still can't get over how big Nickole's boys are too. It scares me to think that my kids could grow up that fast too....nah!!!! I'm so glad Bambi and everyone made the trip down here for the party. It would have been lame with just us and Nana.

I made Nana a dice cake (she likes to go to wendover :)). I don't think she does any of the dice games, but it was easy so that's what I made :) I also made her an Oreo Cake. This is the one Christy made for my birthday a few years ago, and it's the best thing ever!! Here is the recipe if you want to try it. Loni liked it and she "doesn't usually like cake" :)

Yeah, so I wanted to take this opportunity to write down some of the things I love about my Nana. Nana has taught me so many things. She's taught me the importance of family and being close to family. She has taught me the (or maybe I should say IS TEACHING me) importance of being on time for things. I think we call this punctuality. She's ALWAYS on time. And Nana is one who never goes back on what she says. If she says she's going to be somewhere, she is there. I love my nana. She's always been really easy for me to talk to. She doesn't judge me and she's very accepting of my shortcomings. And she always lets me teaser her :). In fact she's really good about teasing, and she takes it really well. I'd like to say that she dishes it out too, but she really doesn't, she's always very nice to me and generous with her compliments. Nana is one of the most generous people I know. She sacrifices so much for her family. She has always gone way out of her way to make things special for me. I love how Nana always has chocolate on hand too :) I'm grateful for my Nana. I'm glad that she lets me barge in with all my kids at any time of day with no notice, and just invade her house for hours. It's fun to live closer again. So anyway. If you're reading this Nana, I love you!! Happy Birthday!!

"Kelly is getting SO MUCH ATTENTION!!!" ***pictures added

Thursday afternoon Kelly was in the other room (yes, I was posting something on my blog and neglecting my children. I keep trying to make myself feel better about it saying that "I could have been doing anything, my kids will never be able to have CONSTANT supervision". But it's not really helping, I still blame myself.) she was trying to slide down the cushions off of the back of the couch and fell and broke her wrist!!! She cried and I assumed it was another one of those "Brad took my ball" or "Charity won't let me play with her" kind of cries (this is Kelly we're talking about), so I didn't jump up (again, I feel terrible!), but when she came into the room all it took was one glance at her arm and I just knew! In the back of my head I really wanted to get a picture of it like that just because it was SO BENT! (is this confirming anyone's belief that I am the worst mom EVER!) But I refrained. It looked SO BAD though!! So anyway. Luckily Steve was home and he was able to watch the other kids while I took Kelly to the Instacare. What would we do without Uncle Steve!! He's really been a lifesaver since we moved in. Hopefully he lets us repay him soon. And can I just add right now that I am SO GRATEFUL for a husband who is so in tune to the Spirit! I was frantic, trying to figure out how to call him and see if there was any way he could get a ride home with someone, but I don't have a number to reach him, and then right as I'm about to just risk it and go-- HE CALLS!!!! Not for any reason other than he just felt like he needed to call me! I LOVE IT!!! He's so my hero. Okay, so back to the story :) Kelly and I headed down to the Instacare where they did the X-ray, and said she had completely broken her radius (wrist in lame man's terms- they obviously thought I was lame) and that she would need to go to Primary Children's Hospital and have her sedated to set the bone. This came as a huge shock to me because the whole time, I'm thinking that they would just splint it and have us come back in a few days to cast it and planning what we'll have for dinner when we get home...... Luckily Nate did have a ride home (and that was another cool little miracle, the guy was only going that one day to teach, so it was a HUGE "coincidence"- I don't really believe in coincidences in case you didn't notice). So..... long story short....we were in the waiting room for about 3 hours.....then we sat in the little tiny room for another 2 or 3 before they finally started on her proceedure....and then it was another 3 hours before they let us go. We got home around 1:00 in the morning!! It was nuts!!

a list of random things and thoughts from this experience:
- I really wasn't sure I should take her to the Instacare right away since before, I've been told to wait since they can't cast it till the swelling goes down anyway, but this time, it would have been harder for them to set if I had waited any longer....good thing Steve and Kelly were so persisitant.
- It has really been a long time since I've had to take someone to the Instacare OR the ER. I decided to be really grateful for that so that it can be a long time again :)
- I really don't like how nurses and doctors give you the grilling eye when you are trying to explain what happened. And all the writing down when I mention that "I wasn't in the room" and that "I didn't jump up and run to her when I heard the crying".....I understand why, but it's annoying.
- When we were at the Instacare, I had asked if they could give her some tylenol. They came back with 2 TABLESPOONS of Tylenol in this HUGE cup. I was confused and asked before giving her the whole thing, but "nope, that's what the doctor said....2 TABLESPOONS". So I gave it to her. Later at the hospital I find out that 2 Tbls is a toxic amount for a 5 year old and they're all looking at me like I'm crazy and they didn't believe me, because the chart said that they had only given her 2 tsp. I was SO ANNOYED!!! I am not an idiot, I know how to read 2 Tbls. AND I know what 2 TEASPOONS looks like!!!! It was NOT 2 teaspoons!! I understand there could be a different concentration or whatever, but the fact remains, whatever it was that I gave her at the Instacare, it was 2 TABLESPOONS. Can you tell I'm still irritated?? They had to draw some blood and test it to make sure she hadn't received a toxic amount and it did come out okay. It's either going to show up later with liver disease, or turn out to be yet another miracle, but I'm sticking by my 2 Tbls. I'm hoping it was just an answer to my prayers.
- The directions they gave me to Primary were incomplete and I got lost :) I don't think I've EVER driven straight to it though. Why is it so hard for me to find??

- I took advantage of the Valet Parking at the hospital....never done that before.
- Kelly was in SO much pain the ENTIRE afternoon. She could not stop crying. Everytime she moved she would let out this ear piercing, wailing cry, and it would take me 5 minutes to calm her down. And once we were in the room, she would cry everytime a new nurse or doctor would walk in the room....before they even said or did anything!! It was awful. I felt so bad for her. Especially because she's generally a pretty tough kid unless it involves someone getting in more trouble the louder she cries (if you have kids you've seen this I'm sure). I ended up just holding her in my arms as still as could be the whole time.....we decided it was some good "Kelly time with Mommy" which she loves so much. I think it was some much needed cuddling. Good thing I've got lots of padding on my rear.
- The people in the waiting room were very interesting. I didn't need to watch tv, or read a magazine, they were entertainment enough! AND it made me rethink the "bad mom" thing ("maybe I'm not that bad afterall") ....there are some pretty strange parenting techniques out there :) Not to mention the lady who let her 9 month old play with the cigarette she was MAKING.....
- One Nurse told me I could be in the room during Kelly's procedure but then the orthopedic specialist said no and kicked me out after she went to sleep (and can I just say, I get REALLY emotional when I watch my kids' eyes close!!). I had to watch her from the hall through the tiny crack in the closed blinds on the door. The nurse out in the hall said that that was better because then I didn't have to hear it. Gross. I can't believe how brutal they had to be to get that little bone back in place!! Very surprised they didn't break anything else in the process...seriously!! You should have seen it! I'm glad they knew what they were doing though...I saw the X-ray afterward, and it looked good as new! My poor little Kelly though....that's gonna leave a mark!
- Kelly had wanted to color, but with the IV in one hand and the cast on the other, she decided that watching ME color and choosing what color everything was, would be just as good :) I colored for about 2 1/2 hours!!! Holy moly :) But I did love every minute of the time I got to spend alone with her....as crazy as that may sound (I don't wish these awful things on my kids, just enjoy them for what they're worth I guess :))
- Kelly had wanted a purple cast, so ALL of the Docs and Nurses did EVERYTHING purple :) The cloth to rest it on, any utensils that had a speck of purple was pointed out....anything they could think of, and even the popsicle afterward was purple :) They are so good at that there....makes me tear up just thinking about it!! Unfortunately they didn't have the stuff for a purple cast, so they did a pink one with a "purple (coban) overlay" :) They reassured Kelly that if she still wanted a purple one on Monday they had some in the office and she could get one then :) So cute.
- The book BAMBOOZLED (I think that's what it was called) is a REALLY fun, cute children's book. We read that one like 20 times....very fun pictures!
- Kelly was SUPER shy to everyone there. If she wasn't crying at them, she certainly wasn't talking. Poor little traumatized girl!
- The Doc that did the sedation was SO nice to answer all my silly questions and gave all of my concerns so much attention!! I was really appreciative of that. I'm such a baby when it comes to putting my kids out....I just hate it! But he made me feel really good about things.
- Amazingly, Kelly showed no sign of fear when I explained the sedation to her. She's way tougher than me.
- Even though Kelly had been sitting and waiting in pain and poked and prodded and twisted and bent and questioned all night, not once did she even mutter a word of complaint about being hungry, thirsty (she hadn't eaten or drank anything and couldn't since 2:00 that afternoon) or tired, or bored. I was very proud of her for that!
- Kelly picked a 3 for her pain level :) from the pictures of the sad and happy faces. The little sweetheart....I haven't seen her cry more about anything in her whole life, but she still said 3 (on a scale of 1-10, 10 being the worst!) "Say 8!!!" (brian reagan, sorry :))
- The not so flowery smell of Kelly's cute little feet filled the room the minute we took her shoes off and didn't go away while we were there. It was a little embarrassing for both of us :) But it does make me laugh :)
- Why can't I buy Motrin at the Pharmacy drive-thru?? I had wake up Kelly and haul her into the store to get her meds. Annoying. But we did find a Slurpee machine to make up for it :)
- The crazy-haired Pharmacist at Wallgreens was a complete jerk to me until I showed him my Alaska Driver's license (don't tell anyone I haven't gone in to get a Utah one yet, I'm bad, but the DMV isn't open on Friday and that's the only day I think about it ;)). As soon as he thought I was from Alaska we were best friends.....is that not strange? I guess it's not the first time someone's been more interested in me after finding out that I had lived there, and I know Alaska IS pretty cool...... but come on people!!! I guess it's a good thing that people are friendly to outsiders....how about I look at it that way. Kind of like how ya treat guests better than your own family......or something.....
- I'm really judgemental when I'm tired :)
- My husband is the sweetest husband....he did all the obvious feeding and getting in bed for the night with the other kids while I was gone, BUT he also waited up for us, and was there to greet us when we got home! What a sweet Dad and Husband! I just love him.
- Kelly's teacher is amazing!! Today (this is SATURDAY) her teacher came TO OUR HOUSE with a stack of letters from Kelly's class and a cute, little, stuffed, get well doggie. Can you believe that!!! What KINDERGARTEN teacher does THAT?!!! Amazing....do we love her? YES!!!
- I missed out on donating blood Thursday night, DARN IT! (sarcasm included) Crazy how things just work out sometimes :) lol
- Eventhough Charity is green with envy with all the attention Kelly has received from breaking her wrist, she has been such a big helper. She has just babied Kelly to death (almost too much), which has taught me a lot about Charity and her maturity level. I love it. But what mom wouldn't!

Kelly will go back to the Doctor on Monday for a new cast and then have that one on for another 3 weeks. She's already taught herself how to color and write her name with her left hand, so I think she will be okay :)

***Follow up- she picked a RED cast at the last minute because she wanted it to match Valentine's Day :) I was shocked :)

Happy Birthday to Luke (WARNING: lots of pictures on this post!)

A little trip down memory lane (of course) Here's Luke on his BIRTHday.


First Birthday, eating his choo choo train cake.


2nd birthday cupcakes.

And now for the BIG THREE!!!

Luke's special day started out bright and early when we woke him up to take Daddy to work (hence the coat :)). Here he is noticing his birthday decorations and sign for the first time :), still a little groggy, but I just love his cute little fingers, I should have zoomed in on them....they're a dead, excited giveaway :)


This is his first good look at his present. It's crazy, but we made him wait until the evening to open it. He was surprisingly not too interested in opening it until WAY later in the day :) must be the age because that has always driven my older kids crazy.


Here is his sign (crazy tradition that started because we had a laminated poster with Nate's airspace map on one side and we were able to use dry erase markers on the other side...this is a fun little EASY tradition that my kids love). Luckily the big huge roll of butcher paper my mom gave me a million years ago was still here at my Dad's, so we were able to use it this time. I forgot to do it with the kids earlier the day before, so I made it all by myself really late the night before. I like it :)

Luke's present was too big for the birthday wrapping paper we had, so we used the butcher paper (lots of good uses) and I thought it would be fun for the kids to color it :) They were obviously in no hurry to take their coats off :).

Everyone had fun decorating it all day.

So after we dropped off the girls at school we (Steve, my boys, and I) were all going to take advantage of the "Free Grand Slam" at Denny's, but apparently EVERYONE had the same idea. The place was insanely packed. Steve had work too soon, so he treated us to McD's instead :) It turned out to be a lot of fun for the boys. They played basketball with Steve. And got to break all the rules about not climbing on the thing because there was no one else there :) It was fun to watch Luke play. He's really good at basketball. That's why we got him the gift we did.

this was right after his slam dunk. I thought I had gotten a better pic of it :(

This is how Noah enjoyed McD's. Snoozing away......so cute!

I think Luke enjoyed having his way with just about everything all day :) He got to bring the balloons with him to go pick up Kelly, and he got to watch a show while we waited :) What more could a 3 year old want :)

Here is his "Spider Cake" that he wanted. I liked it. I still wonder if I would have liked it more if I had made the whole cake into one big spider, but anyway :) I love birthday cakes :)

Nana was the first person here for the party. She had put Luke's present in a gift bag and just set it on the floor next to the couch. Well, Luke got curious and asked if he could hold the bag. I told him he could hold it, but not to peek :). He had told me earlier in the day that he wanted to eat the cake and ice cream and THEN open his presents, so I reminded him of that and told him he had to wait until after we ate the cake and ice cream. Well, his curiosity really got the best of him :) He couldn't help but peek in the bag (that's what this picture is). Nana thought I was being mean, so she told him he could just open it up. It was just so cute to see him trying so hard not to open it, but still trying to see what it was. "What is it?? Is it mine?? Is it my special game??" Just a funny little kid :)

FINALLY!! :) It had been a few seconds of pure torture!

He is very content with his new "special game" as he calls it :)

Noah got to hold the batteries :)

And a big thank you hug.

Then we played "pin the spider on the web". Luke refused to be blindfolded, but he enjoyed watching everyone else play :) he's more of an observer anyway.

Here's Kelly, don't you just love how kids tip their heads back.....hmmmm.....I wonder why??

Here's Luke doing his (these pics are out of order apparently)

and bradley :)

and Kelly

Then Charity had a second try as "Nana's turn". She's such a goofy little girl. She totally kept peeking out of the bottom of the blindfold :) I wonder where these kids get their urge to cheat!

Oh, maybe from their Uncle Brent! HA! totally kidding :) Brent was a really good sport, playing the game with the kids :) Nate did it too....and Charlie- sorry no pics.

CHarity really went all over the room pretending she was confused :) what a goof.

The old comparison of the 6 months apart cousins :) Charlie really is catching up!

I love this picture :) Noah's bending down to make him feel better :)`

Kelly made up a fun little musical balloons game....everyone had fun playing that one.

Even Charlie.....although I don't think he had much choice :)

Luke felt really special all day and I LOVE that. I really do love that my kids have a whole day to feel like the coolest thing alive :) (hopefully they have more than just one, but at least this one :))

cute little "Chawlsly" as Brad calls him :)

getting ready to get the cake.

All the lights were turned off when I took this one....you really couldn't see a thing, how cool is that!

Blowing out the candles! He did so good!!

ya have to lick the candles!

And the big present! He was so cute while opening this. It's like kids can't even begin to look at the box or tell what it is until every little scrap of paper is off :) He was way cute opening his present. I love how he gets all shy when everyone's watching him or singing to him.

He felt pretty special to have a whole plate of brownies for himself as well....thanks again Brent and Sarah...

we were really happy that Luke liked his present. The kids all played basketball for at least an hour....it's so fun to have a basketball hoop again. It's just like the one we had to sell before we moved to AK.

Love this :)

Well, I thought Luke had a pretty special day. I love that he is getting so talkative these days. We ran into the Primary music person at the grocery store and even though Luke (since he's in Nursery) has only seen her a time or two, he remembered her and shouted out to her "Hey! You're my teacher!" Then carried on a whole conversation with her about his birthday and his cake and everything else he could think of. I just love that about him.

Some more things about Luke that I want to remember:

He is very loyal to his family members...no matter what, if anyone is being picked on (unless he's doing the picking of course :)) He is right there to defend them....no matter what the cost ;)

The other night after Nate had tucked the boys in, I was walking past their room and saying good night, and Luke shouted out "wait mom! I didn't give you a hug!" He had never done that before, so it was just way cute to hear. He gave me a big squeezy hug and then told me that he loved me and giggled :) I loved it.

He loves his Nursery class. There are only a few other kids in there with him, and they are all really young and basically just cry the entire time. Luke's teacher has said a number of times that Luke is like a little ray of sunshine in that class because he is just so happy :) I love that! I guess he just bounces around playing with everything showing no sign that the constant crying might be bothering him :) (maybe a result of all the training he's had with Noah, who knows) But I think it's nice that he is so happy there and loves to go so much.

He's really REALLY good at basketball. He makes about 90% of the shots he takes. It's fun to watch him play. He's very excited for himself and very confident. He says, "I'm so good at dis!" about once every 5 seconds.

He LOVES to watch people cook. Anytime he sees me in the kitchen he comes running in to watch (and taste test) every step of the way. I think it's cute that he is interested in it.

He's very good at climbing and good at taking initiative when something is not getting done in the time frame he would like :) Sometimes it is annoying, but overall, I think it's a good quality :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LUKE!!! He's three!!!