Too fast

I tried getting Mohamed to kiss his wife. Didn't quite get to her face. She couldn't understand what he was doing. Still cute.

Sam and Sara....my niece and nephew. Looks like Sam is getting ready to eat some pie. Is that a fork I see in his hand?

Caleb purposely getting messy while eating chocolate cream pie.

Nadia and Don and Mohamed. Just sitting around gabbing.

The kids are getting ready to play some games. Or maybe eat. I can't remember. There is Zach, Rachel, Sam, Mayah, and Sara.



Zach got hurt on the trampoline and her is Sue helping him get an ice pack.

Rachel is so proud that she licked her plate super clean.

Here is Leila (niece) with Mayah.

My nieces and nephews. Sam, Sara, Leila, and Nadia.

And best of all....LOL....my sister and I. Can we all see how much taller I am than her. I love to rub it in. I mean she is the oldest sister and I am the youngest. HEHEHEHE








Here is the Thanksgiving crowd. All ready to eat good food and enjoy fun times.

Here is the 22 pound turkey. All the other food is still being placed a little at a time to keep it hot.

The baby pictures that were used for name tags. Going across the top from left to right is Sara, Nadia, Mayah. The second row is Rachel, Caleb, Zach. The last row is Leila, Ethan and Sam. SO CUTE.

Why is it that vacations go soooo fast? We had a blast spending time at my sisters house for 4 days. My kids have so much fun with their cousins. And it is so fun to get together and play games and eat good food and enjoy great company. It has been tradition at Thanksgiving and Christmas for us to play Pinochle. It is something my parents taught us when we were young and it is something their parents taught them. It is now time for us to teach our kids so that this tradition will continue on. It is so fun. We are crazy and end up staying up way too late. I think I only went to bed at a decent hour one night. The rest were 1 and 2 a.m. CRAZY huh? It isn't as easy to stay up late anymore. My nieces have no problem doing it because they can sleep all the next day. But WE have kids. And kids get up early no matter what time they go to bed. But....so very worth the late night talks with my sister and nieces. So worth the late nights playing games. So worth the late nights just being together. It was fun. Now have to get all ready for our Christmas games.

We played games with the kids. There was a little of everything. We played Spoons, Qwich, Picturequa, Four in a row, hide and seek and Kadub (Arabic for liar). SO FUN.

I failed to post on Thanksgiving and I missed the day before I think too. But I am most grateful for family and for my Savior/gospel. There isn't anything really more important than those two things.

I will post pictures of our fun times. I can't find my camera at the moment but will have hopefully have it tomorrow and I will just add the pictures to this post.

For our Thanksgiving feast I made some homemade name tags. I got a picture of all the kids (OK I guess Nadia and Leila aren't really kids anymore. You know when you get to be 18 and 20 they make sure you know they are ADULTS now. SO I made name tags for all the kids under the age of 20. I scanned pictures of them when they were babies. I then put the pictures on some cute stripey paper and then on some construction paper. I put all the pictures on a table and they had to find which picture belonged to them. It was pretty easy for most of them. It was kind of funny when Sara grabbed Mayah's baby picture and as she was walking back to her seat she said, "I am pretty sure this is me". Then she held it up again and took it back to the table. By that time Mayah had grabbed her picture. When Sara went back and didn't see any other choices she went and sat down. You could tell she was a bit confused yet she thought there was a chance it could be her. Finally, they worked it out and everyone had their baby picture.

We also went around the room a few times and said what we were thankful for. And then played a game where one person says what they are thankful for and the next person has to start their word with the last letter in the word that came before them. For instance....if I said I am thankful for the suN then the next person would have to start their word with the letter N. The kids loved that.

Now we are all reading to think about Christmas. Caleb brought out the boxes and has already started decorating. We normally save it for the first Family Home Evening right after Thanksgiving but we let him put up one of the Nativity scenes and some of the candles and garland. The rest we will save. Don is going to put up all the outside lights and I can't wait. Last year he was overseas for business and I eneded up putting some of the lights outside but Don didn't think me getting up on a ladder when he was gone was a good idea so this year we will be able to do more lights. So fun.

Man this year has just gone so fast. I can't even believe it is close 2010. Just seems that time flies by no matter how hard I try to stop it. :)

togetherness

Our FHE last night

I wasn't able to post yesterday because something was wrong with the computer so I will put two things for today so I can make sure my goal has been accomplished.

The first thing I am very grateful for is FHE. Family Home Evening is a very important time for our family. We rarely forget this special time. In our church we have been counseled to set aside Monday nights as a time to bring the whole family together to learn gospel truths, have fun together, sing, read from the scriptures and my childrens favorite......to enjoy treats afterward.

Last night we made homemade wassil and homemade hot cocoa mix. As we were adding the ingredients we compared it to our family. The wassil had seven ingredients and just like us we have seven people in our family. And EVERYONE of us bring something special to the family. If one person is missing or if one ingredient is missing in a recipe it will not taste right or be the same. Our family would not be complete if there was one of us missing. It was fun and then we got to enjoy the drinks after.

The second thing I am grateful for is this morning. Caleb wanted to have a candle light breakfast. He lit a candle and then turned all the lights out. I made scrambled eggs/sausage and put them into tortillas and then we all had hot chocolate. I had The Hymns Collection by Paul Cardall playing. And it was so quiet and peaceful as we listened to that music while watching the flame from the candle flicker. As we sat there and as I watched the flame the scripture from Matthew popped into my head.....Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in Heaven.

So we went around the room. Each kid took a part of that scripture. It was amazing how fast they knew their part.

Caleb: Let your light so shine

Ethan: before men

Rachel: that they may see your good works

Zach: and glorify your Father which is in Heaven.

Mayah was still asleep.

We went through this about 4 or 5 times and they were able to do it on their own. Now Caleb has memorized it. The other kids are close. I explained to them the importance of letting our light so shine. I gave the example of Zach and his friend saying Hi to a disabled child and playing with a him at recess. The other children have things that they can be very happy with that is an example of letting their light shine. I am so thankful for mornings like this. It is a blessing to have time with my family that helps bring the spirit into our home. It really is a blessing. I just need to do it more often and make sure that happens more than the fighting and yelling. It is a work in progress. I will take what I can get. :) I love this gospel.

The sound of music....not the musical

I am not at all musical. I can turn on a radio and that is about it. I do love to sing and you can find, more often than not, the car cd player on pretty loud. Lately I have been listening to cd's like Hilary Weeks and Doug Walker. These songs have wonderful messages and no bad language. I play them in the car and sing to them. I have to put the music loud so I can't hear my horrible voice. But that never stops me from singing. If Rachel and Mayah know the songs they will sing too. The boys don't usually sing much. It is like pulling teeth with them.

I also really like country music. I really like Rascall Flatts, Tim McGraw, Sara Evans and Taylor Swift. Something that I really love about the country stations around here is that everyday at noon they sing the National Anthem. Also they have the most patriotic songs. But there are a lot of country songs that don't sing about the best things or give the greatest messages. So lately, I have been changing the station. The music didn't start bothering me as much until I had kids. Now I pay better attention to the words and the messages.

So today I am very grateful for music. It reminds me of things from my past. There are certain country songs that I can actually see my family dancing or singing. Or it helps me to do better in an area I may be struggling with. Some of the music helps me to feel the spirit more. And some music makes Rachel and I move from a sitting position to a dancing one. Maybe it is a good thing our living room has no furniture. It was meant for dancing and singing.

I am in the primary now and I REALLY enjoy singing the songs in there. I love that I am learning the same songs that my kids are. In January Mayah will be a sunbeam. At that point, until next year, I will have all five kids in the primary with me. They will have a hard time acting up when they know I have eyes on the back of my head.

I appreciate the musical talent of others. I have ALWAYS wanted to have a beautiful voice. But I am just so thankful there are people that share this wonderful talent.

UH OH

I was talking to Don about my blog and telling him how I was posting all the things I am grateful for a week before Thanksgiving. He then said, "Better have made me first." OOPS.

But I was actually planning on saying how grateful I am for him. He is a great husband and father. He is very concerned about my feelings and what is happening in my life. He works hard to provide for us and even after work continues to help and do things around the house. He gets up at 3 a.m. to beat traffic so he can be home at a reasonable time in order to be with us. He helps put kids to bed at night and alot of times only gets 5-6 hrs. of sleep at night. If only he would cook more though. HEHEHE No, he is very helpful. Today he cleaned the carpets. I used the carpet machine and forgot to empty it. WELL, it sat for quite some time so Don had to take it apart and it took awhile but he finally got all the gunk out. AHHH the carpets look new again. So nice. He did laundry AND folded some of it too. He ironed the boys' shirts for church. OH thank you...cause I don't iron. Good man.

I am so grateful for our almost 14 years of marriage. There has been bumps and bruises along the way but there has been alot of wonderful memories as well. I am thankful for his dedication to the gospel and to his country. He is very patriotic. There are times when I want to go somewhere or do something that he doesn't really particularly want but he will anyway. What a sweet guy. AND wait for it......wait for it......he even sleeps in the pretty bright fushia sheets I put on the bed. He rolls his eyes and makes fun of them and jokingly asks, "isn't there any other sheets in the closet?" YES, but I like these. And without further complaining he lays down and falls asleep. And guess what? He probably sleeps better in those than the ugly blue ones. :)

I am blessed and thankful for my wonderful hubby. LOVE HIM.

more thanks

I am going to try and post every night until Thanksgiving for the things I am grateful for.

Today I am grateful for kids that laugh. I am thankful for the funny things they say.

Ethan and Mayah love for me to chase them so today after I exercised I chased them around and around and around. They loved it and it is so funny to hear how hard they laugh. They get to laughing so hard they end up falling down. It is much easier to catch them that way.


SO the other day I picked the kids up from school. Rachel was telling me about a song they were singing in music class. She was concerned because it was a bad song. I had to laugh when she sang it for me, "Oh satan you see, by the dawns early light". Don't you just love the funny things kids say?

I really need to be keeping track of all the things they say. I used to be so good at it and it is really fun to go back to their baby books and pull out all the funny and interesting things they say.

Time to express thanks

This is how I feel most of the time.....like my kids are running around me so fast that it is all just a blur. READ ON.

Well it is only one week away from Thanksgiving. I love Thanksgiving but I hate that it gets overlooked because of the excitement of Christmas. I am one who likes to take things a step at a time. I couldn't believe that the stores started putting out their Christmas items around Halloween. NOW THAT IS JUST WRONG. I love to celebrate each holiday for what it is and not to rush them so we can get on to the next. There is a time for everything (in my opinion).

The other night as we were eating dinner we started talking about why we celebrate Thanksgiving. The kids all knew that it was to give thanks. But only the older ones knew why it was now considered a holiday. I love taking this time to reflect on all of my blessings and all of the things I am grateful for.

I have so much to be grateful for and sometimes I get so busy that I tend to only reflect on the 'things' I have to get done or this and that. That only leads to frustration and my gratitude turns into negativity. OK so does that even make sense?

1. I am grateful for my healthy and loving kids. OK so an example of my gratitude turning into negativity. This is a bit long and probably doesn't even make sense.

I have been blessed with five kids. Who could ask for anything better right? Well, at one point, when it was so hard for Don and I to get pregnant in the first place and with two miscarriages, I wondered if the blessing of being a mom would ever come. It seemed, in my eyes, to take FOREVER. And now we have five. So with five young kids under the age of 11 can be alot sometimes. And as most of you know with the ADD/ADHD in our family it seems to mulitply this by five thousand 2 hundred fifty 8 times. And this noise can get to me sometimes (ok more often than not). BUT how can I not be grateful. I always prayed to have a large family. And God blessed us with such. There will always be chaos in our home. That is truly us. I don't like it. But it can't be helped. Don and I attended a meeting tonight at the school. They had an ADHD coach come speak. The example he used was imagining yourself in a really fancy restaurant with white carpets and beautiful china. As you are enjoying your meal you notice a mom come in holding her childs hand. The child breaks lose and starts running around knocking chairs over and causing a huge scene. What do most people think? What is wrong with that mom? Then he said, imagine that same scene. A mom comes in with her child and he starts to run around but then abruplty falls to the floor in a seizure. What do people think now? They think, oh that poor mom.

The difference? The child with ADHD is a silent disorder. NO ONE knows that someone has it. It isn't like being in a wheel chair where people can actually see that there is something 'wrong'. It isn't like being blind where people can see that there is something 'wrong'. It isn't like having a missing leg where people can see that there is something wrong. When you see a child acting up and running around in a store or unable to sit still in school it isn't always a result of bad parenting. This coach told us to be sympathetic to those around us because you DO NOT always know what is going on. And he said that it is not always a result of a parent not doing their job. And no matter how many times someone thinks a child with ADHD should just try harder...they can't. They cannot help it. And the coach said that if you don't have ADD/ADHD or live with someone who does...you don't understand and probably never will. I am sure this is with any struggle or disorder that someone has.

SO when it gets crazy around here and I start to get frustrated I am not actually thinking, at the time, that I am grateful for these five wonderful kids. But now that it is midnight and they are all alseep I can say that I am thankful for them. LOL.

2. I have a wonderful family. I was blessed with two very loving and caring and amazing parents. They have been together for many many years and even though there has been tough times they have gotten through it together. And they have shown that marriage works if you stick it out. It isn't always roses but it is always worth it. I am thankful for them.

3. I am grateful for a warm house. I am grateful for a soft bed. I am grateful for a vehicle that gets me around. I LOVE to go places.

4. I am extremely grateful for my Savior. I truly am. I am in awe of what He did. And I know He did it for me and everyone else. His unconditional love is amazing. The gospel has brought me a lot of joy and alot of understanding. I know that it makes good people better and what a blessing it is to KNOW of it truthfulness. I have no doubts. It is peaceful. It is right. It is real.

Thief

I am surprised that I haven't been arrested yet. You see this paper? Look closely in the yellow circle. What do you see? Well when I lived in Washington we had a similar paper called the Nickel Saver. And it was FREE. Every Thurs. I looked forward to getting it and scoping out all the garage sales and other interesting items for sale.

Well this morning I was talking with Don and he wanted me to see if we had any extra newspapers hanging around for something he has planned for scouts. I told him I could get a couple of these papers in town. Then he said, "Do you know that those cost?" I HAD NO IDEA. I couldn't even believe it. I go to this certain gas station in town and pull up to the door and jump out and grab one of these every Wed. morning. The cash register is right there and never once has anyone said anything to me. I just grab and run.

So today when I picked it up I embarrassingly (is that a word) told them what I had been doing. I paid for what I could remember getting. Sometimes Don would pick it up so I think it was four or five times that I have STOLEN this paper. The cashier had me pay for four.

Now that I think about it I think there is one more gas station that I may need to go in and talk to and pay for a couple more. Well I am so glad we got that taken care of. I can just see it right now. Me running into the gas station grabbing this paper and running off and having a police officer stopping me. Excuse me, maam....but can you step out of the car. Maam....were you just at the gas station on main street? UMMM yes, why? Well you see. I just received a call from them.
They gave me your license plate number. They saw you run in and steal a newspaper. NO. I didn't steal it. It's free. LOL.

Adios

We just got attached to these Elders. The one on the left is going home and the one on the right just found out he is being transferred. He is sad to leave the area because he said it is his favorite so far and he has only been here 6 weeks. :(

Here they are being crazy. They are fun and I know they will do great at whatever and wherever they go.

Going home. His family is going to be sooooo happy Thurs. That is the day they will see him. He actually had gone home ealier for open heart surgery but was very committed to finishing his mission. He has had 6 open heart surgeries and he is only 21. He is a neat guy and our family really really loves him.

Here we are doing a fun picture that the Elder wanted. I suggested a pyramid. Worked our quite well.

Well we had the missionaries over again. They actually were just bringing the pie plate back and one missionary that is going home wanted to get pictures with our family. Their dinner appt. couldn't have them so they stayed for dinner. So glad Don was making homemade chili and it was mighty fine. In fact it was the best he has made so far. He also made his homemade bread but that didn't get done in time but we had some other homemade bread in the freezer.

We ate dinner and took pictures. That night we were joking about one of the Elders getting transferred and how funny it would be if they were both leaving. Well the Elder called us letting us know that, in fact, he really was being transferred. TOO FUNNY. Once the one Elder knew he was leaving they had to come back the next day to get more pictures with him and our family. I do not have any of those. My batteries were dead. We had to use Don's camera.

They will be missed and now we have to get to know two new Elders and I hope they are just as fun and I hope we can get close to them too and that they will feel just as welcome as the other two. It takes some special people to come back into our crazy, noisy home once they have been here once. I wonder if that is why we don't get any visitors? LOL.

WE are grateful for such hardworking and dedicated missionaries. Our kids really enjoyed having them come. Mayah even knew their names and knew who was who.

Happy B-day Zach

Here is Zach opening up one of his gifts.

The hunting cake. This is pretty funny. I couldn't find a hunter type person anywhere. SO I ended having to buy an army guy with a machine gun. LOL. Then I super glued an orange hat on him. But I am pretty sure he would have to have a machine gun to take out that LARGE deer. I looked and looked for a regular four legged deer but at the last minute I saw this at Kmart. It worked. For the rocks I found this chocolate covered coal at Big Lots. It was perfect. As soon as I saw it I thought it looked like rocks. This was after looking and looking and thinking what I could use for rocks. The green is the grass and it is just icing. The water was some blue crystal candies I found. Zach loved it and it was a pretty easy cake to do. That is what I like.

Here is Zach lighting his own candles. The sign in the back is a large piece of cardboard I found and 'tried' painting with spray paint to make it look camoflauge. Does it even look like that? :)

Zach is chillin while we sing him Happy B-day.

Zach still waiting to blow out the candles.

His bow and arrow. He was so happy and this is all he really wanted for his birthday.

Here is Renee and Don. Nana was inside because Renee felt sorry for her being outside.

Renee talking with Mayah. She was like this the whole time. She was so loving and sweet with all the kids. She is amazing.

Here are the kids with Renee.



Don and his sister, Renee. She is a blast.

Zach opening up a present.

The funny happy birthday sign. I tried making it look camo.



Here is Zach doing his scavenger hunt. Funny look on his face.

Renee with Rachel.

Here is Renee and Don and Rachel. How do you like the window there? I couldn't think of anything else to make it look like a hunting theme so the kids brought down Zach's comforter. TOO FUNNY. So we hung it up where the curtain goes.

Zach is now 9. WOW. I can't believe how fast my kids are growing up. It just seems to pass by so quickly.

Don took the boys hunting for his birthday. They went out on Friday to the shooting range to site in his rifle. The boys were able to shoot (not the rifle). And they LOVED that. Then they came home and had lunch and set out to do some scouting before the big day. They took their sleeping bags, some food, camo clothes/boots. And they headed out on a cold and rainy day. They slept in the Expedition (seats taken out...ofcourse).

They got up early Saturday morning at 5:30 and instantly went out to hunt. They saw a few other hunters and talked to two of them. Neither of them had seen anything. They hiked quite a bit and didn't see a thing. BUMMER.

They got home at about 2ish and we were waiting for Don's sister to arrive. She was coming for the first time. It was my first time meeting her and she is AMAZING. She is very fun and she laughs ALOT. And our family LOVES that. She fit right in with our noisy crowd. They kids absolutely love her to death. In fact, my own sisters better step it up a bit because I think, she is now considered the favorite aunt. The kids hung on to her and didn't want her to go home. She did Rachel and Mayah's hair. She put make up on them. She did their toes and fingers with polish. She played games with them and was just super fun to be around. She only has one child so I am sure our energy was a bit overwhelming but you could never tell.

After she arrived we had pizza and then cake and icecream. I tried so hard to decorate and put together a hunting theme party. We just pretty much used things we already had around the house. It was fun. Caleb put together a scavenger hunt for Zach. And the younger kids found things from the toy box and wrapped them up for him. Most of the things were already his anyway. It was pretty funny when he opened them. There were pieces of paper under everyones plate that had a hunting item on it. Each person had to try and get the other people to guess what it was by giving small clues. We ran out of time but I also had planned to do a relay type game. We were going to break up into teams and have Caleb and Zach each put on their camo coveralls. Then with balloons each team had to try and see who could stuff the coveralls with the most balloons. That would have been fun. But after Zach opened his bow and arrow the night pretty much stopped with him playing with it and checking it out. Then it got dark. He was VERY HAPPY with that.

It was a fun night and I am so thankful for Zach. He is a wonderful addition to our family as well. There are alot of things that I love about Zach and some of them are that he really tries to be obedient. I remember when our bishop interviewed him for baptism and said he was the most prepared out of all those he interviewed. He is a happy go lucky kind of guy. He has his moments but for the most part he is fun to be around and kids like to be around him. He is a born leader. The kids in his class want to do what he is doing. He is always talking. It was such an eye opener for me. Caleb never talks. And Zach...well lets just say he has a lot of things to say. :) He likes to crack jokes and be the center of attention. Zach also loves the outdoors and has found a new love with his BB gun and now his bow and arrow. He is truly his father's child. He does well in school and is a straight A student.

I love you so much Zach and am so grateful you are a part of our family. Hope you had a super birthday.

We enjoyed our night and we were so grateful that Don's sister, Renee, was able to join us. Mayah kept forgetting her name and calling her Ranona. It was quite funny.

Thank you Renee for making this such a fun time. We are going to miss you and Rachel has already said, "I am never going to forget her". Thank you for spending time with the kids and bringing memories into our family. We love family and are grateful you had a chance to come. Love you.

Family photo shoot

http://denisebeattyphotography.blogspot.com

I should be cleaning and getting ready for a birthday tomorrow but I am feeling a bit sick. Woke up with a sore throat and headache and body aches but am feeling a little bit better. Don told me to rest but he knows better than that. I just cannot sit still. But I am very thankful that I am not so sick to keep me in bed. That is a blessing.

We had family pictures taken a couple of weeks ago from a friend in Manassas. I am so grateful to her for being willing to drive to our area to do this. And for taking on the task of our large family. You would have thought it was the younger kids that were having trouble looking at the camera and smiling. BUT NO. It was Caleb and Zach. Hello....they are 9 and 11. Not a hard thing to do boys!!!! LOL.

A mother always knows

OOPS these were supposed to be loaded at the end but oh well. Here is Ethan after opening his gift. He loves anything with cars and even better with a track. Caleb is off to the right. He is holding the wrapping paper and pointing to it. He did all the wrapping and is letting everyone know it. We had to use Christmas wrap. That was all we had. LOL.

Here is Ethan dressed up like G.I. Joe. This costume is one of his gifts. He actually picked it out at the Walmart clearance and I hid it until his birthday. Not really very secretive but it worked.

Here is Don helping put the track together. So thankful for him. I never know how to do these darn toys.

Ethan playing with his fast track. Pretty cool toy. He loves it.

Ethans birthday is not until tomorrow. But after we go home from getting the kids off the bus he was getting ready to play a game that one of his friends at church got him. His sisters had the game and wanted to play too but he sat on the rug crying and whining about wanting to play it on the rug and not on the table. He didn't get up but just sat there and continued to whine for awhile. I was wondering if maybe he wasn't feeling well. Don came home right after that and took him upstairs to take his temperature. Sure enough he had a 100.7 temp. I knew it. I think mothers can almost always tell when there is something not right with their child. I felt bad and figured I better hurry and make his cake and celebrate tonight just in case he feels worse tomorrow. The cake below is our 'hurry and make as cute of a cake as possible in less than 1 hr.' Here I just quickly carved out the number 5 and put a bunch of dinosaurs all over. He LOVED it and that is all that mattered. Who cares that it looked like he made it himself. :)

Here Ethan is all excited to celebrate. Poor guy....You can see that he doesn't feel well here.

Blowing out the candles.

Pulling all the dinosaurs off the cake.

Opening up the gifts. He was so excited as soon as he saw a car. He tore that wrapping off fast. He loves anything with cars.

As I was making his cake the darn beaters froze up and quit working so the cake wasn't completely mixed. OH WELL. Then I had just mopped the bathroom and put the freshly washed rug back down. Mayah came to me as I was scraping the last bit of batter into the pan and said that she had just pee'd on the rug. You mean the rug that I just washed and put down like 5 minutes ago?

Got the cake in the oven and started dinner. Had a quick meal of homemade sloppy joe's and tator tots. Ethan loves tator tots and thankfully we had some. Only had 3 candles to put on the cake and forgot to buy icecream at the store on Saturday. Had to run to the little store at the end of the hill to get some. Paid over $4 for half a gallon. WORTH IT. Ethan didn't care about any of it. And I am thankful for him. He is one sweet boy with alot of love to give.

Each year for the kids' birthday we always go around the room and say something we love about the birthday person. It is a great way for the kids and for Don and I to really focus on that one person. And it was so funny when we got to Don. He was taking a bit longer than Ethan thought he should take and Ethan said, "go ahead Dad, say something. Say anything." But Don loves to really think of the perfect thing. He doesn't just want to blurt something out. It has to be perfect. :)

Then after everyone has a chance to say something I always tell them their birth story. They always love to hear it even though it is the same thing year after year. It never gets old to them. And it never gets old to me either. Ethan is the only one of my kids that literally squirted out. The DR. caught him but it was close. He had the umbilical cord wrapped around his neck and he was a little blue but thankfully the DR. said he was surprised and said that the cord was extra long. Do you think that was a blessing from up above? I like to think so.

I am very thankful for Ethan. He is such a loving sweet boy and has very lovable personality. He is hilarious and has Don and I laughing quite often. I am truly grateful for him and so thankful he is a part of our family. I can always count on him to say I love you. He is the one that ALWAYS reminds us to read the scriptures each night. He is one special little boy.

Each year makes me a little more sad thinking it is one less year I have with my kids. In only 10 more months he will be going off to Kindergarten and that makes me sad. I am such a baby when it comes to this. Happy B-day Ethan and I hope you feel better soon. You are an amazing blessing to us.

Just a bit stressful.....but worth it

So the missionaries know that they are welcome at our home ANYTIME. We live quite a ways from town and one evening they were near our home and were bummed because no one was home and they were waiting for a dinner appt. They came over and thankfully I had just gotten home from the bus as they were about to leave. I had just made chocolate chip cookies and they were very happy to indulge in those. I think they each had about 10 or so and then I even sent the rest home with them. They used the bathroom and played with the kids for a bit and were on their way. We always make sure that they know if they are in the area and are hungry to just stop by. And we made sure they knew that if they didn't have a dinner appt. to let us know and we would always accomodate them. Take not in that first picture. See the chair rail? Don put that up a few weeks ago but hasn't had time to finish the rest. Well time he has..... but that time is spent hunting with the boys. LOL. Time much better spent in my opinion.

Well some nights I don't plan well for dinner and then have to hurry at the last minute to get something (as healthy and balanced as possible) on the table for everyone. I used to really enjoy cooking but ever since having super picky kids I don't really like it anymore. So that is the reasoning behind not being as prepared as I should. Well last night I got a call about 4:30. It was the missionaries and they didn't have anywhere to go for dinner. They were wondering if they could come over. OFCOURSE. Then after I hung up I started stressing. They would be here at 6. Don was out hunting with Caleb and I wasn't sure yet what we were even having. I was getting a little uptight and running around like crazy trying to clean and decide on something to eat.

Rachel saved me. She made some M&M cookies with a little help from me. Then she put the table cloth on. Set the table. Got ice water in the pitcher and filled up all the glasses with water. We used our beautiful and very special china that we only use for our favorite guests......PAPER PLATES.

Thankfully hunting is only allowed until sun down and Don and Caleb got home about 2 minutes before the missionaries. I don't do well with last minute meals like this. Plus I always fear they won't like what I make and I stress about a few other things. But I LOVE these current missionaries we have and I am sad that one of them is leaving in a couple of weeks. We are feeding them one more time before he leaves and it makes me sad. WE were just getting really attached to him. But I know that his family is probably getting super excited to see him. He gave me his mom and dad's email and phone number so I can call and get his favorite meal to serve him for his last time with us.

I had some left over taco meat in the fridge and then I cooked up some chicken breasts and put taco seasoning in it to use in the tacos too. I also made some homemade spanish rice. We also had applesauce with cinnamon. And ofcourse the famous cookies that they love so much. Each Elder had about 7 or 8 this time. They are so awesome and Don loves it that they can eat so much.

I feel so blessed and enjoy having the missionaries in our home. Our kids love it when they come and I feel grateful to be able to serve them and I pray that when my kids are old enough to go out and serve a mission that they will be well taken care of by the members also. It is an honor to have them in our home. They really bring a special spirit. And these missionaries are funny and we had a great time laughing through most of our meal.

Parent/Teacher conferences

Monday was parent teacher conferences for Zach and Rachel. I had already had a chance to meet both their teachers at an ealier time so Don went to the conferences. When he came home he talked with each child about what the teachers had said and he started with the negative.

Zach: At the beginning of the school year Zach had to walk laps. This school has a great way of disciplining. When they get into trouble they have to walk around the track. GREAT. I love that. It is so much better than taking away THE ONLY RECESS THEY GET. That is another issue that annoys me. But he is doing a lot better and does quite well in all his classes. He is a good reader and is getting mostly A's. His teacher had sent home a not asking the parents to please help the kids study their economics because alot of them were just NOT getting it. Well I didn't help him study and he came home with all A's on his test. I hope he will continue his good grades and work hard to deserve them.

Rachel: She just loves to talk. HMMM wonder where she gets that. That wouldn't be from Don. LOL. He is quite the quiet more reserved. ME? Well I love to talk. And I refuse to go hunting with Don because I can't stand the thought of having to be quiet for so long. That is absolutely just torture. Plus Rachel's teacher said she sometimes, but rarely, will give the teacher a certain 'look'. Almost an attitude I guess. So she got a good talking about that. BUT...the positive is awesome. She is at the top of her class and she reads way above and beyond her age. So that aspect of her is more like Don. I am the talker and Don is the thinker.