Sleeping Beauty

The other day, I was sitting in the school pick-up lane, waiting for Charity. Usually she is right out there and we don't wait too long. Some days she is a little late because she is down at the office picking out another prize from the treasure basket. Well, this time it was neither, and after waiting for a little too long I looked over and saw Charity's friend Maya standing next to our car. I rolled down the window and she came over and quietly, politely said, "um.....Charity is......asleep....." At that moment I was just really confused and tried to pry some more information out of Maya as I got out of the car and started walking toward her classroom door. I'm thinking, "how did she fall asleep? am I supposed to wake her up? why doesn't the teacher wake her up? HAS SHE TRIED?" It was just really bizarre for a minute there, and then right as I got to her door she came moseying on out. Carrying her backpack in her hands all hunched over and just really slowly making her way out of the school. I could totally tell she had really been asleep! Later on I got the details. She had been reading under her desk, and just konked right out. Her friend's mom had been helping in the class that day and had whipped out her cell phone and caught this picture for me. I just think it's too funny to not share- this will definitely be in our blog book 2008. I can't look at it without laughing :) Poor little girl. I guess she was being a little bit of a pill that day as well, so she probably wasn't feeling well. (my perfect little Charity wouldn't just be naughty for no reason! HA! jk.)

My cute Noah (and too much of my messy living room)

I know it's probably just because he's my baby, but I think this little boy is SO STINKIN' CUTE! I just love this face especially :)


"let's see how can I make mommy fall MORE in love with me :)"


That's how!


cute little piggy toes


what a perfect little person

I'm Selfish

This is main reason I teach my children to write.....I love the love notes!!

(it says: "To: Mom I: (not sure why the two dots :) but how cute!) I hope that you are okay and that you are feeling good and you are having fun with your kids I love you Mom Love: Kelly")

I don't think I'll ever get sick of these. I love you too, Kelly!!

Random Pictures

Nate's Job

Okay, so he said I can't take a picture of it, but Nate brought home a HUGE (it's the size of a large poster) I'm talking REALLY HUGE map. It has like a million little lines, numbers, words, who knows what the crap it all means, but it's the air space that he has to memorize!!!! He had to memorize a smaller one in AK, and I saw the one for Oklahoma that he memorized there, and his test- they totally handed him a blank piece of paper and he had to recreate it from memory, and he did pretty darn awesome on that one. THIS one seems even WORSE! He says he has like a week or something to memorize it. Not that there's a lot of pressure to get it exact, only a few hundred lives are at stake if he doesn't have it just right.... THANK GOODNESS it's Nate hat has that job and not me. Not to mention his millions of 3 letter abbreviations he's been memorizing for the last 2 1/2 weeks- not millions, that's an exaggeration, but honestly it's like 400. His brain has got to be SO FULL!! I have no idea how he carries on doing what we need him to do here at home with all that crammed in his head. But somehow he does. And he doesn't just do it- he does it well! Yesterday he was outside playing tag with the kids and their friends for like an hour. It's so my favorite thing when he does stuff like that with the kids- he's such a good dad. And of course he takes care of me as well. He's amazing. I just love him.

(by the way, this isn't his map that he told me not to take a picture of- it's a picture I found online that looked similar just to give you an idea of what I'm talking about. Although you'd have to times this by 20 to get the idea of how complex Nate's is!!! This would be like a small corner of his.)

Bubba

I know I've posted a bunch of random lame posts this morning, but this one is WAY cute so bear with me-
This morning while I was pretending to be asleep I could hear Bradley playing with Noah in his room. Here's their conversation:
Bradley: (karate chop noises, and some cute little babytalk about his "widdo brudda" (little brother))
Noah: goo goo ga ga doo da bu bu da....
Bradley: (interupted Hi-yah) HI-Y---- You sayed 'Bubba'??? Bubba my name!!! You sayed 'Bubba'!!!! You sayed my name you cute widdo Noah!
Noah: more jibberish
Bradley: you stay right here (Noah's in his crib lol) I going go tell Mommy
(Then I could hear him walking into the kitchen looking for me I guess, then he ran back into his room...) Noah say Bubba!! Say it again! Buh- Buh
Noah: more jibberish
Bradley: I knowed you sayed it!!
(then he came running into my room)
MOM!!! Noah sayed my name!!! He said Bubba!!
Me: That's so cool! Who taught him to say that?!
Bradley: I... he just taught it himself!
Me: That's so awesome- he must think you're a pretty cool brother huh!
Bradley: YEAH! I going go hear him say it again!!! (and he ran back to his room)

How adorable. Bradley really is a fun big brother to Noah. They've got a cute little relationship.

"I YOOKEY!"

Luke's been really obsessed with his name lately (he calls himself "yookey"). He keeps telling me "I not _____ I yookey!" No matter what it is I'm calling him. Whether it's "Mr. Polite", "Sweetheart", "Bud", "Buddy-boy", just plain old "boy" even ticks him off. So it's kind of funny to just play with him and call him random things, just to hear him say, "I Yookey!!!"
Yesterday was extra funny though because this time it wasn't him and he was really mad about it. Kelly was doing something helpful and I said, "Thank you so much little helper-girl" and without a pause Luke screams out, "HE NAME NOT HEWPER-GOO, IT KULLY!!!!!!!!!!!!" (and he was really bugged). We all got a good laugh, and then Brad started telling Luke that Kelly is a HER, not a HE, so Luke quickly yelled back, "HE NAME NOT HER, IT KULLY!!!!!!!!!!!"
(Luke's really got the know-it-all thing down- he's all set to be a teenager :) I have to laugh!)

Helpful Hints- Garbage Disposal

Here are some helpful hints to save yourself from a week of an unusable garbage disposal... (and can I just add how grateful I now am for a garbage disposal- it's definitely one of those things I have taken for granted)...
#1- some garbage disposals are made so that if something gets stuck in there it will just shut off (kind of like the reset button on some of your electrical outlets) so that you don't completely distroy the disposal. When this happens it will completely shut off so that you don't hear a thing when you flip the switch. (this is what ours was doing)

#2- if it shuts off- there is a little reset button on the bottom of the disposal- push that and the thing can regain power and now you have sound. (in our case there was sound, but it was still not turning/working)

#3- if this is the case, then down at the bottom of (some) disposals there is a little hole that you can stick a key, screwdriver, in our case it was an Allen wrench (also called a "hex key") and you just stick it in there and turn. This cranks the disposal manually and can sometimes help to dislodge whatever it is that made it stop working in the first place.

#4- Now once you've managed to turn the thing manually you can reach your hand down in there (make sure Luke and Brad are no where near the switch) and you can remove whatever it was that ruined your life in the first place- and it should work just fine!!!

helpful hint #5- Don't let your kids play with pennies near the sink- they're really hard to fish out of there. It was completely destroyed- should have taken a picture.

Who knew a real estate agent/landlord could be so useful. Now I know how to fix a disposal if a penny gets in there and jams it all up. And now thanks to me and my all-knowingness- so do you :)

Just do it

A while back, I had been struggling with trying to understand whether my thoughts were my thoughts, or promptings from the Holy Ghost. Nate gave me some good advice, he basically said to just follow those promptings even if we're not sure. And show Heavenly Father that you are capable of listening. That sometimes we need to be trained. And we need to show Heavenly Father that we are willing to listen to those promptings no matter how silly they may seem, just to show him that we will. That way we get in the habit of listening and can be prompted more naturally.
Well, I have followed this advice off and on since then and most recently have worked on following those little promptings that I have almost ALWAYS ignored. The "I should grab that before I go" or "maybe I should check and see if I really did turn the curling iron off" ones. So that has been my goal, and I have had some really interesting experiences with it! The first one was a time that I DIDN'T listen, when I had the "idea" to bring my scriptures with me to church (this was my last Sunday without Nate, and I had not been taking my scriptures with me since I was holding Noah the whole time and couldn't use them anyway- seemed like extra baggage really), but so anyway, I chose to use my lame logic that I couldn't possibly need it and didn't take them with me. So of course halfway through Sacrament meeting Sister Timmerman took Noah for me, he fell asleep and slept all through Sunday School, so she had him, the whole time!!! I totally could have used my scriptures in Sunday School! Really it wasn't that big a deal- I still got to enjoy the lesson and it was a wonderful Sunday- but in the back of my mind I KNEW that I had not listened to that prompting. It was something to think about.
Okay, so I have had a number of times where I listened and cool little things happened!! If only I had written them all down! But here's a little one- on Tuesday night when I was loading up the kids to go get Noah's prescription (which, by the way- am I the only one who feels weird when they just call in a prescription for you without seeing your child?? I mean, in a LOT of ways it's nice- I don't have to haul all my kids down to the doctor's office at some random, unscheduled time, hoping it's something so that I didn't waste everyone's time-- but in a way it's just weird.....I mean what if I'm just being a paranoid mom- not uncommon!- and they're really fine! Well, with Noah it was because I had ALREADY taken him in and it had been "nothing" but the Dr. left a note in his chart that said if it got worse or didn't get better it was probably a bacterial infection. So I understand that this is pretty standard procedure. I think it just kind of drives me nuts to not know exactly what kind of infection!! Was it sinus, ear, something I have never heard of???? UGH!! And it's lame because you totally treat them all the same- a bottle of pink amoxicillin, so why do I care- I'm not sure.) Anyway! where was I- man, I totally went off on that one! Okay, so yeah, we were leaving to go get Noah's medicine, and I had this "idea" or "thought" to bring my camera. How weird is that! Who takes a camera when they go to the store to buy medicine? (Well, in AK I took my camera everywhere just in case I saw a moose :)) But how weird! So while I thought it was strange and couldn't imagine why I would possibly need it (well, I guess I tried to imagine what I might need it for- a car accident, weird animal, the kids do something cute....whatever, still seemed strange!) I grabbed it and threw it in the front seat. So we went, got the medicine and some groceries, and came right home. Nothing happened. And I had completely forgotten about my camera at this point. So why was it so wonderful that I had taken it with me?? WELL!! I'll tell you!! Because I had put it in the car....it was in there when we went to Bradley's field trip!!!! I had totally not even had a second to think about the camera THAT morning. I ran around like a chicken with my head cut off trying to get ALL of my kids ready before school started so that we could meet the Joyschool group at 9:30. It's been a while since I had them ALL ready that early- I usually take the girls to school with at least half of us in jammies! So it was WAY cool when we got there and I realized that I DID have the camera with me! (I know I sound lame, but that's because it's the PRINCIPLE of the matter!) I was SO EXCITED that I listened to that prompting (as insignificant as it had seemed). I just love the opportunity to show Heavenly Father that I CAN listen if I just stop trying to know it all. I just want to be able to understand the promptings of the Spirit so that I can be sure to do what is best for my family. You know how you always hear those stories about someone who was prompted to do something and ended up saving their kid's life bla bla bla.....well, that's what I want to be capable of, and right now I don't think I'm there. I'm working on it though. So there ya have it, the rambling mind of an crazy woman :) Thanks for reading :)

Brad's Field Trip

Yesterday was Brad's first Joyschool Field Trip. So Bradley, Luke, Noah and I got to go to Cornbelly's down at Thanksgiving Point. We got in on the group discount, so it was really cheap and really fun. My boys had a blast.

They had this huge Jumping Pillow which we all played on (including Noah) for quite a while, it was way fun.

some cute springy toys


here's Brad sliding down the pillow- I totally couldn't get him to take his hood off. If there's a hood, it's on his head.


This was funny because Luke almost slid down the slide face first!



This was a fun little train the boys climbed on



They had this huge stack of hay bales with ladders, stairs, climbing nets, and then all sorts of slides coming off the top of it. It was so fun for the boys to play on. It was interesting watching Luke climb up on his own- this is the part where the girls usually come in handy


but he did pretty good and made it up there.



This was kind of a boy's heaven in my opinion (girls would love it too)




Here's Abby and Isabel. They just walked up behind the thing and stuck their heads through :) So cute! Abby is one of Kelly's friends (she got to skip school- the lucky duck!). Isabel is one of the kids in Brad's Joyschool class- she's such a cutie. I wish would have gotten more of a group picture of all the joyschool kids, but oh well.


Here's Noah trying to enjoy things. It was really cold when we left- and then I had to take off his jeans to get him in the little snow suit. Then I left the pants in the car, so he was stuck in this thing all day- even when it got pretty warm. One of those dumb-mommy moments. But whatever- at least he wasn't cold. It's funny because I wouldn't have even thought to put my kid in something like that in AK in these temps, but here we are- CLIMATIZED back in Utah! Noah did really well the whole day. He wanted to be held a little, and was a little fussy before we went over to Farm Country, but once I put him back in his seat, he was out. (course it was then that we finally sat down and had our picnic lunch :) and could have fed him, but what that's a baby for ya) He liked the change of scenery I'm sure.


This is the mechanical Chicken Show. The boys absolutely LOVED this thing! It was hilarious! We totally had to drag them away from it when it was actually even over! Funny boys. You can see Luke, Brekken, Caden and Bradley just mesmerized by the talking chickens :)


This was the Cow Train. We waited in line for a LONG time (well, I shouldn't say "we"- thanks to the pig race, I got out of that one- thanks Leah!) for this ride. The boys loved being off on their own I think :) It was pulled by a tractor going no more than 3 miles an hour, so I can't imagine it was all that exciting otherwise :) Kids are funny.


There's Brekken and Caden in their cow too. What fun.
After our train ride we headed on over to the Pumpkin Patch and Brad picked out his pumpkin. I'm learning that Bradley is clearly a middle child when it comes to making decisions. I know I was a lot like that too when I was younger (Well, what am I saying "WAS"?). But I'm trying to think of ways to help him make decisions quicker. I guess some need to be more thought out than others, but anyway-


Here's Lukey in jail with Marly- looks like he's trying to break out.....


This was our wagon ride in Farm Country. That's Leah in the back, her son Brekken, and Brad and Caden in the front. We love the Wests. It was fun to ride up with them and be able to have so much fun with them. And I'm glad Caden was so excited to ride in our "truck". Brad keeps asking me why we didn't ride in a Truck like Caden said?


still got the hood on..... Brad was a cute boy the whole day. And it was funny that up until the day of, he had no idea what a Field Trip was, but he was still so excited when I would talk about it :) What a fun little guy.


Here's Luke and me on the wagon ride. I like this picture- Luke looks like a big boy in it! Luke had a fun time too. They both did so well at listening and staying with me. It was really fun to be able to hang out with my boys. They don't get to do a lot of things like this without their sisters so it was definitely a nice little change. Can't say the girls wouldn't have had a blast though and I totally missed them!
I wish I would have taken more pictures in Farm Country- we got to see so many animals. Luke thought it was weird to have a fence around the little duck pond. I had to drag him away from that.


After Farm Country we headed back on over to the Jumping Pillow- Brad's request- and then had to climb on the wood train some more :) Cute boys!



What a fun day though! I had such a good time. Thanks for coming with us Leah, and thanks Natalie for arranging it all!! Good times.

Could it be more than a rumor???

We live next door to an empty lot that until now contained only a pile of rocks and a myriad of weeds....oh and some Sunflowers that Luke and Brad had become quite fond of. Well, a few weeks ago a guy came by and was doing some measuring and walked around the spot for a while. Bradley was quite uncomfortable with this, so I went out and asked him what he was doing. The guy said that "they are going to be putting in a PAVILLION right there" and he had to make some last minute measurements (or whatever). I thought "a pavillion???" And immediately asked, "playground too????" But no. He said it was just a pavillion (kinda lame if you ask me- a water retention pond with a PAVILLION!!). But whatever, we're renting, it's not like we're going to be here forever, bla bla bla....I got over it. But THEN, just last week, they began working on the place. First came a guy who bulldozed "OUR ROCKS!!!!" and "OUR SUNFLOWERS!!!!" and made a nice smooth spot. This took him about a day to accomplish. And then took Brad and Luke only an hour to destroy (not really, but it did have some rocks thrown on it). And then, like Thursday, they started pouring cement!! BUT it wasn't in the shape of a pavillion??? it is more the shape of...... A PLAYGROUND!!!! So we got more and more curious!! And THEN SUNDAY, Nate heard the rumor that this REALLY IS A PLAYGROUND!!! So what do you think??? Could this really be how they pour the cement for a pavillion? or is it really my dream come true...a playground right next door????? How nice would that be!! Maybe we WILL stay here forever :) (I'm kidding, I think this commute would kill me- notice I say me and not Nate- I hate knowing that he's off work, but not with me :) jk. he's not all that fond of it either.) It does look like a playground area right??? Maybe they screwed up and that's why they haven't come back since :) I'm voting for a playground :) of course.

Saturday Morning

Saturday morning brought a nice little surprise.....SNOW!!! There wasn't a whole lot Saturday, but then Sunday we had a few inches- it's of course melted now (this is Utah, not Alaska), but it's been fun for the kids. Charity and Kelly have already pulled out all the snow stuff and broke it in for the season. They're not sure what to do with the cold weather without the bugs and such, so snow is a nice little incentive for them :) we can't wait to go sledding!

Little moments like that

Sunday night at my Dad's house Bradley was sitting by Noah, and Noah started grabbing at his tie. Bradley scooted himself around so that he was then facing Noah and began playing with him. Nate and I sat there just watching them- it was SO SWEET!!! He kept leaning in and putting his arms around Noah. SO CUTE!! After a few minutes Bradley pulled his tie off all cute and handed it to Noah and said, "it okay you suck on my tie". I just LOVE the kids playing with and loving each other.... just one of those moments.

Then last night it was Luke's turn- he was holding a balloon in a toy wrench and making noises and motions that he was eating the balloon and Noah just totally started cracking up!! He was laughing so hard he kept bending over to his feet. Luke was laughing pretty hard too- it really lightened the mood it was sweet. I think these moments are so precious.

This morning Kelly and Charity got together and made a list of bugs they were going to catch. They were being so sweet to each other and ran outside to check them all off. A few minutes later they both came in and quickly ran downstairs (I got a little curious, but just listened) and I heard Charity and Kelly asking Bradley to come out and help them to catch a grasshopper because he's "the BEST at catching grasshoppers!" And only a few seconds later they ALL came running up the stairs and out the back door (Luke followed). And then the cutest thing was when a looked out the window and saw them all RUNNING back to the house- and they were totally hauling butt back to the house! I wasn't sure if they were running for a pretend reason or a real reason, but as they each jumped in through the door- Charity and Kelly were first and then they stood there by the door cheering their brothers on and urging them inside- I found out that there was "A BEE, A BEE, A BEE!!! HURRY HURRY HURRY!!!!!" It was way cute. Just the thought of them all working together and helping each other out was a happy thought to me. This is one of those times that I am thankful I have the kids I have, and I realize that regardless of how "crazy" or "irresponsible" we are for having 5 kids under 6, I am SO BLESSED to have the family that I have and that we just wouldn't be complete without each one.

Working out

On Friday I was feeling chubbier than usual (must have been all the homemade rolls I ate) so I decided we needed to get out and get some exercise. So I strapped on Nate's rollerblades, Brad hopped on his bike, Luke jumped on his scooter and we tossed Noah in the stroller, and off we went. Well, not even a whole minute into it I realized that it would be time to pick up Kelly and her cousin Marcus pretty soon (not sure why I hadn't thought of it before, but you know how getting ready to go for these kinds of outings can sometimes take WAY longer than you thought it would). So I got really ambitious and decided that we should just ride to the school to pick them up! (I say ambitious only because I didn't really think it out) So anyway. We rode to the school. The ride there was... interesting. I still regret letting Luke take his scooter (I really thought he would just give up on it as he usually does), but no, he was set on riding it most of the way- and would have ridden it more if I hadn't forced him to sit in the stroller- I was afraid we would be late--of course we way early. It was actually a pretty nice little ride though. Bradley really surprised me with his bike riding abilities- he can go pretty fast considering he has training wheels. I was impressed. And tired. He kept wanting to race :) Yeah, so we got to the school, I had to take off the rollerblades so I didn't kill anyone on the school grounds- I'm not very good with the brakes- and I usually rely mostly on the stroller's brake- kinda crazy when the kids are walking in front of me and such. So we sat and watched Marcus' class do their little Bear Party, and then the bell rang. Kelly was somewhat disappointed with the idea of walking home- and kept telling me reasons why she didn't like to walk. But at least she was civilized about it. Marcus zoomed ahead of us on his bike once we had crossed the street and gotten the rollerblades and everyone's helmets on. Bradley followed. Kelly and Luke took turns changing their minds about who would ride in the stroller and who would push the scooter. We stopped and started about 91 hundred times (that's Brad's favorite number :)) before finally reaching Marcus' street. He was pretty sick of having to stop and wait for us, and told me he knew the way from there, so we watched him ride home and then turned around to head back home ourselves. It was a very interesting ride home. More of the stop and go with Kelly and Luke, but it finally ended when I strapped Luke into the stroller. He cried a little, but not surprisingly fell asleep- he had to have been exhausted! So Kelly sat in the back of the stroller- in the little basket, and Brad and I raced home. It got pretty cold, but Brad was a trooper and stuck it out with me with almost no complaint!! I love it when that happens. So anyway- I felt really worked out when we got home and was all excited to keep this up and do some more rollerblading with the kids on their bikes, but then I took the rollerblades off and I had these HUGE, bloody blisters on my feet (I need wide width rollerblades apparently), and they have been killing me all weekend. And killing all my hopes and dreams of using the rollerblades as my work out. :( So anyway. I really want to workout though! There are no gyms out here in Eagle Mountain and it's starting to get cold! So I keep wanting to buy a new workout video of some sort, but I hate buying them without knowing if it's going to be a good one. I have been doing a lot of Pilates, but I need something aerobic. Something that gets me sweating. Something I have to take a nice warm shower after ya know!
Does anyone know of a good workout video??? or have one I could take for a test drive??
I'm getting pretty desperate. Nate got to lose all this weight while he was working out like crazy in OK, and I'm really itching to get rid of this baby (and then some) fat. IDEAS??????

Things to remember for our next rollerblade/bike ride:
- no scooter
- no scooter
- more water (so that when Luke dumps out one of our bottles it's not a complete devastation)
- no food (total distraction for Luke)
- no scooter
- Don't take the bike trail the WHOLE way, because the little hill going up to the road was next to impossible to get over and then keep from dangerously rolling out into the busy street. Take the neighborhood streets on that part.
- no scooter
- Give Noah more kisses (felt like I went 2 hours without even looking at him- oh wait, I did!)
- make sure we put Kelly's teddy bear from Bear Day in her back pack (how do I get the dirt off the non-washable care bear???)
- wider rollerblades- ouch!
- no scooter!

The Number 8

I was tagged by my somethingth cousin (what are we anyway Heather??) so here goes:

8 tv shows I like to watch
1-24 on DVD
2- The Office
3- Law and Order SVU (although it's been a while)
4-Jon and Kate Plus 8
5- Deal or No Deal
6- Any makeover shows (people or homes)
7- Whose Line is it Anyway
8- Curious George

8 things that happened yesterday
1- Nate got a day off
2- The girls were late for school
3- Nate cleaned the kitchen (wahoo!)
4- BBQ with Nate's friends
5- Charity played with the dog
6- Bradley played with Nate's friend Chris
7- I bawled like a baby (poor Nate)
8- I went to bed late

8 favorite places to eat
1- Olive Garden (all-time fav)
2- Panda Express
3- Arby's (just for the jalepeno poppers)
4- Tepanyaki
5- Carl's Jr. (just for the playground)
6- anywhere that I don't have to cook
7- in the mountains with a campfire
8- at my table with my whole family


8 things I am looking forward to
1- Nate coming home
2- When I lose all my weight
3- Christmas
4- well, I guess Halloween first :)
5- Buying a house
6- Settling down
7- life
8- seeing what my kids do in their lives

8 things on my wish list
1- a house (as I said before)
2- a workout DVD
3- new scriptures (mine are falling apart- kids!)
4- clothes (but not till I lose weight- man I'm starting to sound obsessed, sorry)
5- new shoes
6- some new pots and pans
7- more time with my honey!
8- a printer

8 people that I tag
1- Sherry
2- Wendy
3- Sarah
4- Jen
5- Julie
6- Meg
7- Beth
8- Cally

Charlie's Blessing

We had the privilege of attending the blessing of Charles Wain Hatch. It was a really neat blessing and a really neat experience to watch my brother bless his first child. I love any event where we get to hang out with family as well. Lots of goodies, and lots of love. Congratulations to Brent and Sarah and their sweet little baby Charlie. We are so happy to have a cousin on the Hatch side!!!