The Laders

There's a new sport in town

2011-12-02T08:30:00.001-08:00

I have been having a blast watching Conner wrestle! He's always been very athletic and I've always been involved in whatever he's doing at the moment. He wrestled way back in 2nd grade, but I don't know if you can really count that :) I talked him into signing up for the local public school's middle school wrestling team. It's actually the same coach that he had way back in the day. He's been practicing for about a month and has gone to 2 meets so far. He has wrestled 4 opponents all and a higher weight level. He's won all 4 matches!

Here's some video of his first match. He's the kid in the red shorts and black shirt.

The loss of one great woman

2011-11-28T19:02:00.000-08:00

Today my family is in mourning. One of my favorite aunts finished her mortal life and returned to live with our Heavenly Father. It was very sudden. It is very sad. She was a remarkable woman. One who gave selflessly of herself to her family and her callings. She loved me and treated me as her own daughter. She opened her home to my family and made us feel welcomed and loved. This is a sad day for me. I know I will miss her very much.

However, my grief is only a selfish one. I know where she is. I know that she will be with her family again. She is rejoicing right now and I should be happy for her. She was valiant. She endured to the end. She is a wonderful example to me of a woman of service. She is a faithful daughter and angels are rejoicing in her honorable return home.

Aunt Connie, I love you. I'm blessed to have known you. To call you Aunt. Thank you for your wonderful example of pure love to me and my family. I know that I will see you again.

Happy Thanksgiving 2011!

2011-11-24T21:00:00.000-08:00

Today was a wonderful day. I love my family and am so blessed to have so many of my family members live close by. Mike and I decided to stay at home this year for dinner and had invited 2 of Mike's sisters and their families over for dinner. There was a cousin for each of my kids to play with and us adults had a great time. Dinner was good. Friendship was better. I'm thankful that they all took time away from other members of their families to have dinner here with us!

To rewind a tad... Yesterday was the first quarter awards assembly for St. Luke. I knew that Adrie would be awarded with an MVP (most valuable panther) award, so I was ready. I also knew that Conner and Alia would be awarded for achieving Honor Roll for the first quarter of the school year. I also knew that both Conner and Alia would be recognized for playing soccer and volleyball for the fall season. What I didn't know was that Alia would receive the award for the Most Improved Player on her team. I was so proud of her and her willingness to work hard and continue to improve. She had a great season and I'm excited to watch her play again next year.

I also didn't know the Conner would be given the award of the Most Valuable Player for his soccer team. His coach, when talking about him, kept mentioning that the MVP would play hard where ever he was needed, even if it wasn't a position he wanted to play. I thought it sounded a lot like Conner, ya know, to complain about not wanting to do something... But she was very complimentary to him and it made me so happy for him. he had an awesome season and it's nice to have hard work recognized in a public way. Way to go kids!!!

This is all you get to see from Conner. That kid WON'T take a picture!!!

Thankful Pot #7

2011-11-22T21:02:00.000-08:00

Today I am so thankful for 5 amazing kids! They are all so different and unique. It definitely keeps me on my toes!

Conner: Conner is very athletic. I have enjoyed so much being able to watch him learn and compete in sports. Tonight was his first wrestling meet. It was VERY long! Out of the 3 hours we were there, he wrestled a total of 4 minutes. He did however win both matches :) He pinned the guy in the first match and won 12-3 in the second. I'm very proud of him. Oh, and he was bumped up a weight group, so he was against boys that were about 10 pounds heavier than he is.

Alia: Alia is my spit fire. She wears her heart on her sleeve. You don't ever have to wonder where you sit with her! She is an amazing helper with the younger kids, even if she doesn't want to be. She is very creative and loves to cook and do anything involving arts. She is a great story writer and artist. She also loves to sing.

Ann-Elise: Leise is your typical middle child. Quiet and obeying. She just goes with the flow. She has a pretty even temperament and is a huge help to me with the little girls. She is a great student and a really good athlete, although spending time with friends determines which sport she is wanting to participate in. So she hasn't really found anything permanent yet. She's tried softball, basketball, swim and, currently, tap dance. She's fun to watch and is great at whatever she is doing at the moment.

Adrie: Adrie is a little dolly. She is happy and bubbly. She loves school and LOVES to tell you stories. I don't think she knows how to tell a short one. Hmmm, not sure where she gets that! She is great in school and just adores her teacher and her friends. She also can turn on a dime. If things don't go the way she wants them to, you can count on a big blow up. Luckily she gets over it quickly and is easy to talk.

Caile: Hmmm, what do I say about this lively one? She is a tyrant. A drama queen. A stubborn elephant. But she is also a beautiful princess with a tender heart. She has grown up so much the past few months. It is amazing to see her develop into a warm and friendly girl. Oh, don't get me wrong, she is still not one to let others take advantage of her. I guess that's one thing she's learned from being the youngest. She can sure get her voice heard! But she is a love and I am so glad she's part of my family.

So there you go. My amazing kiddo's in a nutshell.

Thankful post #6

2011-11-16T09:00:00.000-08:00

Mike's work is having some sort of party tonight. It doesn't happen often and I really like to go when it does. I've known about it for a couple weeks. For the past few days I've been trying to work out the schedule for the kids so I can be gone for 5 or so hours tonight. Here's what I've got...

*Drop kids off at school in the morning.
*Visiting teaching at 11.
*Bank run at some point.
*Clean kitchen/house.
*Pick up Conner, Adrie and Caile from school, along with a wrestling pal of Conner's.
*Drop the boys off at NM for wrestling practice
*Ann-Elise goes home with Ali to get a ride to Activity Days
*Alia has basketball, so she gets a ride to basketball with a friend.
*I leave at 4:15, so neighbor girl comes over to watch Adrie and Caile until Conner gets home at 5:15.
*Conner gets a ride with a wrestling buddy and home at 5:15
*Alia gets a ride home with a neighbor from basketball and home by 5:45.
*Ann-Elise (after 7 phones calls trying to find someone) gets a ride with a neighbor and at home at 5:45
*Conner and Alia get picked up for mutual at 6:50
*Ann-Elise, Adrie and Caile run over to the neighbors when the big kids leave
*neighbor has to run to pick up her daughter (the one's who's supposed to babysit) at 7:30
*Conner and Alia get home from mutual at 8:45
*Little girls come home from neighbors and everyone gets ready for bed.
*I'm home by 9:30

However, I just got a phone call saying that Alia's basketball game is now at 5:10 instead of 4:00, which leaves me needing to:
*find a new ride for Alia straight from basketball to the church for mutual
*find a new ride for Conner to Mutual because he won't go with the lady who's supposed to pick him up by himself
*Call and let Didi know that I only need her to bring the kids home tonight, not pick them up

AND, I still have to work on my carpool for tonight. Although, at this point, I may just say forget it and drive myself. Who cares if it's 15.00 in gas to get there!

whew. I'd better win the big raffle prize!

So, today, I'm very grateful for NEIGHBORS! Those who selfishly serve others (me). I'm so blessed to live in a place and be surrounded by a community who truly cares for others and serves willingly and selflessly.

In the midst of this chaos, I see many blessings. Thank you!

Thankful post #5

2011-11-09T08:07:00.000-08:00

I'm thankful...

For the Beauty of the Earth

I LOVE that song!

But I am truly thankful for the beauty of the earth. I was blessed to spend the past weekend at Lake Tahoe. Wow. What an amazing place. It was cold, as it's the start of the snow season, but clear and gorgeous. I'm so thankful for the changing leaves, the falling pinecones, the clear blue sky. How much we must be loved by our Heavenly Father to know he gave these things to us.

Thankful post #4

2011-11-09T07:59:00.000-08:00

So, I'm a little behind... again.

It happens. Let's get over it.

I've been out of town, and I (gasp) didn't take my computer with me :) It was SO nice to spend time with my amazing husband and not feel tied to my computer. And this brings me to my post #4.

I'm thankful, grateful and deeply blessed by the love of the most amazing man I know. 16 years ago, last Friday, I said "I do" to my wonderful husband and my best friend. He has loved me through thick (waist line) and thin (not waist line). Through hard times and easy times. Through 0 kids and through 5 kids. Through no money and (still no) money. Though we're working on that :). He is my rock. My mountain. My life water. My sunshine. My comfort blanket. My kleenex. My shoulder to cry on. My self esteem booster. My everything.

How blessed I am to be loved by such a strong and supportive man. He makes me such a better person. He loves me through all of my quirks and mess-ups. He supports me when I'm needing it and let's me know when I am wrong, but never in a condescending or abusive way. Just through his love and support.

I hope some day I feel worthy of his love. Until then, I'll just enjoy him and work on being a better person everyday.

I love you Michael Lader.

Thank you for the past 16 years of my life. I'm looking forward to an eternity more!

Thankful post #3

2011-11-03T19:52:00.000-07:00

Today I'm grateful for the sun. What a beautiful day we had today. The temps were't very high, but the beautiful sun was out. Sometimes, just seeing that big bright thing in the sky makes everything better. I hope it's memory lasts as we have only rain in the forecast...

Thankful post #2

2011-11-03T19:49:00.000-07:00

I'm a day late, already... Oh well! Today (yesterday) I'm thankful for a wonderful extended family. My mother-in-law is in town and staying with us for a couple days. We went out and met Mike at his work for lunch. We shared great food and great company. I don't get to see her all that often, but I'm so thankful for her willingness to serve our family and share herself with us. I see so many of the wonderful qualities that I love in my husband in his mom. I'm grateful that she has a desire to spend time with us :) I love you mom #2!

A Thankful Post- Day 1

2011-11-01T21:30:00.000-07:00

I'm going to try to post something I'm thankful for every day this month. We'll see how far I get ;)

Today, as every day, I am grateful for my redeeming Savior, Jesus Christ. I'm grateful for my knowledge of him and his love for me. Through him, I have a purpose. A reason to be better. To do better. To love more and judge less. To think of the eternal perspective, not just the day to day trials.

What a wonderful blessing it is in my life and to my family to know of a loving Heavenly Father. To know of his plan and my place in it. How blessed we are to have the truthfulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ. To serve others. To strive to become more like him.

I'm thankful for my membership in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Yes. I am a Christian. I am thankful for an eternal family. For the ability to live throughout eternity with my family and chosen sweetheart. How much my Heavenly Father must love me to provide such abundant blessings for me.

I know I'm not perfect and I have quite a way to go until I am. But at least I have direction. And not just on Sundays. I strive to live a life that mirrors that of Christ everyday. Does the advisory win? Sometimes. But at least I can repent and try again.

What an amazing blessing.

www.mormon.org

A day saved

2011-10-27T20:16:00.001-07:00

Today's been a day. Just busy and busier. Award day for Adrie. Cooking day. Soccer Party day. phew. I'm just tired. Busy week. Busy day. By Thursday night, I'm just exhausted and looking forward to a do nothing Friday. However, tonight, Conner decided to watch "Colin & Brad". It's a break off comedy tour based on the old "whose line is it, anyway?" show. I forgot how funny this is! Totally took a hard day and turned it into a fun family (with some skipping parts...) evening. Mike was crying, he was laughing so hard. What a great end to a trying week. It's these silly, fun moments I need to hold onto!

Starting over agin

2011-10-26T12:08:00.000-07:00

Now that facebook has lost it's excitement, it's time to get back to blogging. I've decided that even if I have no readers, I need to do this for me. Most days I feel like I'm losing my mind and at some point all of this craziness will be behind me. Knowing me, I'll forget I even went through it. So I'm going to be better at chronicling our crazy family adventures!

Right now we are winding down fall sports. Soccer just finished up yesterday and Volleyball has their last game today. One week of down time before we start up with Wrestling and girls Basketball. Tap is continuous, but it's only once a week, so I think I can handle that.

School is back in full swing and I've decided to take on 2 days a week of school lunches. Makes my week very short and I have no interest in doing anything around the house on my few spare minutes at home, but I'm trying to get it done. Even if it doesn't look like it!!!

Now, off to netflix, err, I mean clean the kitchen :)

A day to remember (or forget)

2010-12-01T15:27:00.000-08:00

It started with the alarm going off at 4:30. Not that I had any real intentions of getting myself out of bed at 4:30. There was no way I was going to go to the gym today... I finally made myself get out of bed at 6 and hop in the shower. I thought I'd get a head start on the crazy busy day called Wednesday. After waking the kids up and getting them started, I finished getting me dressed. Adrie and Caile were up and moving SLOW! Now, I hate when I have to give them very specific instructions that they still don't follow. Trying to get out the door and Caile has no shoes. I must say that I was impressed that instead of taking my frustration out on the kids I decided to kick the front closet door instead, breaking it. Grrr! I guess they don't make 'em like they used too! Oh, and we found her shoes. In the suburban. Isn't that where they're supposed to be?

Off to school we go. It's 7:40 and we're running 10 minutes later than I like... Get to school, get the kids out the door and I head to the kitchen with Caile to start my Wednesday lunch prep. After starting the chopping up of stuff for the chef salad, I zip out to take Caile to school. Here is where my luck kicks in. She actually got out of the car, happily, and was on her way. Btw, whoever decided to stop, park their car and then leave it in the middle of carlane during drop off needs to rethink the logic of this. Just saying...

Back to the school I go. My first helper showed up as scheduled at 9am. Amazing woman, that Rosie :) We get going and talking and bakin' and chopping. All is well. At some point, she looks at the clock and asked if we were going to have any other help today. It was well past the point of the next shift starting. I guess they decided not to come. Fine. We can handle this on our own. I mean really, how hard can it be to serve lunch to 140 students with 2 adults and 2 middle school helpers?

Next, my phone rings and it's the front office. Adrie is sick and is complaining that she's going to throw up. UGH! 10 minutes until the first wave starts, I truck off to the office to check on the little monkey. She feels up to eating, so I walk with her over to the cafeteria. When I get there, no middle school helpers. I'm off to find them. I drag them out of PE class and throw them (after they wash up!) into the line and tell them to start dishing up. They are amazing! So helpful! Rosie is a work horse getting everything done in the kitchen while I'm trying to run the kids through the salad bar as quickly as possible (which is not nearly quick enough for the back of the line!). Btw, Adrie was just fine after eating. Guess she was hungry. Bad mom didn't pack a snack for her...

Next lunch goes through, a little (or a lot) slower than the first, but we make it! YAY! Now, it's my "down time" for the day. I have 1 hour until the crazy life starts back up. I head to the outlet mall to pick up a Christmas gift that I purchased that they had shipped from another store. It made it with no problems which was probably the best part of the whole day!

Back to the school to pick up the kids. Ann-Elise gets a ride with a friend who is willing to take her to Activity Days to save me a trip (Thank you, Lourdes!). I drop Conner and Adrie off at home and head back to the school to watch Alia's team play basketball. Alia isn't playing because she jammed her finger on Monday, right before her game and still can't use it. But I'm a good mom and make her dress down and support her team, so I guess I'd better support them too. They actually played a great game and ended up winning :) YAY B-team!

Head home. Dinner consists of Egg Salad sandwiches with leftover eggs from hot lunch. However, only 3 of us eat. I have no idea what the other ate. Not my problem!

Conner runs down to his buddies house to get a ride to Scouts. I grab Ann-Elise and take her to her first basketball practice. Drop her off and visit with a few old friends that I haven't seen in a while then head out for mutual. I get to mutual 20 minutes late and NO ONE is there. Just the other adult. Oh well. Didi and I sit down for a fun little chat with yummy goodies and some wassail. Mmmm! Then 2 girls show up and we visit for a few minutes. Then I head home. Ann-Elise got a ride home from basketball right after I got home. Whew. Luckily Alia put the little girls to bed for me, so I didn't have to deal with that.

Now I'm sitting here writing this. Exhausted. Tired. Spent. Dead.

HOLY CRAP!!! I forgot about Conner! Ding Dong. Luckily the neighbor didn't forget to bring him home. I just totally forgot he wasn't here. Luckily we have a very loud and working door bell!

So, now I'm off to bed with Netflix and the joy of getting to do it again tomorrow.

I SO miss my husband!

Tis the Season!

2010-11-28T07:46:00.000-08:00

It's been quite a while since I've taken a few moments to put anything down on the blog. I find it so much easier to just add a quick "status update" on facebook. However, I really like the achive quality of the blog. Plus I can put a lot more thought into what I write. So, after a very long absence, here's my attempt. Again...

We have had a very fun year. We spent a long weekend camping out for Conner's state baseball tourney. We spent a very fun (and hot) week at Eagle Crest in Central Oregon. We spent 2 weeks at my cousins house in Southern California and were able to visit with many relatives and get some much needed sun.

The kids have started school this fall with Conner in 7th grade, Alia in 6th grade, Ann-Elise in 4th, Adrie in Kindergarten and Caile ready to finish her last year of preschool.

Mike is traveling monthly right now. He had the opportunity to go to Bangalore, India this past February. He's heading out for San Jose, Costa Rica soon and will travel to India again in March. He has also had a trip to Chicago and mainly travels to Atlanta. With the kids getting older, it's much easier to survive the time that he's gone. A big plus is that IKEA is right by the airport and about the only time I get over there is on those airport trips, so it's not too bad :)

I'm keeping busy with the kids. My good friend and I have taken over the hot lunch program at school. I plan, shop and cook the school lunch every Wednesday. I LOVE IT! It's so fun to meet new people and get to know the kids. I also watch a couple little kids on Fridays. It's fun to have little ones around again. It's even better to give them back to their parents after 6 hours! I also work with the young women at church. I have been very blessed to have such great girls to serve.

As the holidays are upon us (YIKES!), I'm forced to stop and think about all of the blessings that I have. I have been blessed with a very charmed life. My trial are so small compared to many. I know that my Savior loves me and in that knowledge, I know wo I am. I hope that your holiday season brings you closer to those you love and is filled with joy and happiness!

We're back

2009-08-28T15:58:00.000-07:00

and life is starting again. School starts in a few days and I'm excited but also not willing to let summer go!

We had an amazing vacation in Southern California. I have the best extended family! We packed so much into our 2 weeks, it's no wonder that I was exhausted when we got back!

We drove down on a Saturday morning. We arrived at my wonderful aunts house around 9 that night. We spent Sunday just trying to recoup from the 16 hour drive.

Monday Mike flew to Costa Rica for work, so I was on my own for a few days with the kids. We spent Tuesday at Huntington Beach. It was amazing! I loved playing in the water. There were so many of my relatives there, that I could leave the little girls on the beach playing and I could go play in the water with my cousins or with the older kids. Such fun! I think that was the first time they had ever been to a beach that they could actually play IN!

We spent a lot of time visiting with family. We were fed well and loved seeing everyone. I also had all of the older kids get their hair cut while we were down there.

We spent 1 night at a Dodgers game. That was a blast! They ended up losing by 1 run, but the experience is on to remember!

We also went to Raging Waters one day. We took Adrie with us but left Caile with my dad. Adrie didn't really enjoy the rides, but she loved the lazy river that they had. I was very proud of Conner. He went on every big ride and even took a spin on the "Drop Out". Good for him!!!

My cousin is one of the "Ariel's" at Disneyland and when we learned that she was working on one of the days we didn't have anything planned, we headed to Disneyland for the day. We just went for the day, but it was a blast. There were a ton of people there and it was warm, but I loved it! To watch the little girls faces as they experienced things for the first time was well worth the tired and cranky kids at the end of the night!

Well, there were a ton of other things that we did, but I need to get dinner going. So that will have to do for now!

It has come to my attention...

2009-08-14T07:54:00.000-07:00

That it has been exactly 2 months since I last blogged. It just seems that facebook is so much quicker and easier to do updates on! But since I'm here in beautiful sunny California, I don't have any pictures to post. So, I'll do a quick update on what's going on in our lives...

Conner finished baseball season with Mike coaching him. We had a great year. An Awesome team. And fabulous parents! I always have a bit of depression when the season is over and I don't get to see my baseball friends for a while. They finished their season placing 5th in county. Not too shabby! We missed the state tournament by 1 game. Oh well. Maybe next year!

Ann-Elise finished her softball season and had a great time. She is turning into quite the player. However, she is still undecided as to whether or not she'll continue to play.

Alia and Ann-Elise (well, and I) am gearing up for cheer season which starts in just over a week. That should be a lot of fun.

Adrie is signed up for fall micro soccer for the young kids. She is pretty excited about that. I'm sure it will be quite comical!

Caile and Adrie both will be attending preschool in September. Adrie will be returning to her same teacher and Caile will be starting with a new one. They are both VERY excited!

Alia and Ann-Elise are starting school at St. Luke this year. They are really excited and it's fun to see them work through their anxieties about going to a new school. I know that they will do great and make some great friends.

Mike just got back from a trip to Costa Rica. Maybe next time I'll get to go with him!!!

Well, that's us in a nut shell. I'll post pics when I have them!

Tomato plants

2009-06-14T18:27:00.000-07:00

Mike has been asking me to post some pics of our hanging, upside down tomato plants for a while now. These have been hanging for about 6 weeks now. They are beautiful (if I do say so myself!) We love tomatoes here at our house and when we saw this idea, we just had to try it out. There is a place down the road from us that sells the white, 5 gallon buckets with the lids for $1.00 each. We bought 5 of those and just some inexpensive soil at Bi-Mart. Each bucket holds about 3/4 of a bag. The soil was 2/$5.00. We hung the buckets with basic closet shelf holder things. They were about $2.50 each. We bought small starts for around $2.00 each. All total, with everything, they were about $7.00 each. And that included the hangers and buckets that we can reuse next year! So far, we are really impressed with how these are doing. I'm looking forward to some awesome tomatoes in a month or so! I also added a picture of one of my Calla Lily's. LOVE THEM!

Up close of a couple of the tomatoes already growing.

One of the buckets

A BIG bucket. It will be interesting to see how the different types do.

Another bucket

My pretty Calla's

Another bucket

Ann-Elise's school paper

2009-06-11T08:24:00.000-07:00

Ann-Elise wrote this paper back in the beginning of April. I wanted to post it when I read it, but it had to stay at school until the end of the year. Just remember that she had just turned 8 when she wrote this. And, other than a few spelling helps, she did this on her own. I'll type it the way she wrote it, just so you can get the full effect of a second graders writing!

On the day of the Husky Pup Fun Run I threw of my covers and quickly climbed down the later of my top bunk. Throwing out my black bourder different colerd skull shert and my comfortable jeans I sprinted down the stars and heated up a cup of water. Pord ots in my bowl. I walfed down my otemeal. I shuved my foot in my convers high tops, grabed my cote, snached my backpack off the couch and sprinted to the bus stop. Finily the Fun Run began. I stuck with Pascal most of the time. We started out jogging slow. We pased the blue and yellow stashon all most back agin, meeting Aidan and taking realy made time fly. Then a parent make our green card and our first lap was down. We doged kindergardeners and first graders. Finily we made it to the green tent agin. Then Pascal's mom said good job and marked my green card. A side ake apeard in our stumic, so we streched. Then we were at the bleachers and we saw Mr. Mangan. He gave us a comlament. he said that we were jogging at a nice steady pace. I said thanks. That made me feel more confident in running ten laps. Then he paced us. We tried to keap up but we just couldn't. We make it back. We had 3 laps done. Pascal and I were aching in pain. Jogging tridly around the track, more marks on my card. Looking at it I hade 8 laps done. Finily the horn blew. We were kind of confused at first but we looked around and mostly everyobody was still jogging I know it was the last lap so I jogged quickly. I made it. I passed Pascal and another parent marked my green card. 9 laps were done. Every one stumbled back to the primary school. I could hardly feel my legs. After we were inside, there were apples and carrots. There was also an anounsment rewarding everyone who jogged and extra lap. I drank a lot of wother. Mr. Mangan caled tabels to grab snaks. I enjoye my appels, carrots, and the rest of the day.

How amazing is that? I love that little girl!

Happy Happy Birthday Adrie!

2009-06-06T08:14:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was Adrie's 4th birthday. I can't believe it!!! Where does the time go? At some moments it seems like it was yesterday, but then at others, it seems like it was WAY more than 4 years! She is an amazing little girls with an awesome personality. She's smart as a whip and gorgeous. She's the total package deal! We are a very blessed family to have her.

Last night we had most of her preschool class and a few kids from church over for a "pretend sleep over". She was so excited (as were her friends, from what their parents told me) to have a party. The kids were adorable! Everyone arrived in their pj's and with a sleeping bag or blanket. We read a few stories and then played "musical sleeping bags". After that we sang the popcorn song and then pretended that we were popcorn and jumped around. Next came cake and ice cream followed by gifts. We had just enough time to get it all in before parents came back to pick everyone up. Each child left with a goody bag that contained a ring pop, a little book and a toothbrush. We had a great time (me included) and now I'm actually looking forward to Caile's party in August!

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Yes, I'm still alive!

2009-05-28T16:05:00.000-07:00

It has just been a crazy month! Baseball is in full swing, therefor, we are gone 4-5 night a week with that alone. Add in church and school activities and I just can barely keep my head on straight!

I'll post some more stuff later, just wanted you all to know that I'm still here!

Another beach trip

2009-05-05T08:47:00.000-07:00

We spent the weekend at Seaside. The kids LOVE Seaside. There is so much for them to do. Now that they are getting older, it makes it more fun to walk the promenade and visit stores and arcades. Here are a few pics from the weekend. Although kite flying and beach walking was involved, I didn't have my camera when we did those things. Oh well!

Pinewood Derby

2009-04-28T22:36:00.000-07:00

Tonight was Conner's last pinewood derby race. He has been racing cars for 3 years. It's always a last minute car. We forget when the derby is or we just have so much other stuff going on, that it gets put off until the last minute. So, again, we knew that the derby was coming up. In fact we've even had the "block" for at least a month! However, it wasn't until Sunday that we decided to OPEN the box! We found a design on the internet that looked pretty easy to cut and Conner liked the design. Going off the pictures on the internet, the boys designed the car. They had picture graphs and lines drawn on the wood block. On Monday night, they went over to a friends shop and made the cuts. Then they spent some more time sanding and working out the final details on the design. Conner started painting it last night too. He wanted to paint it orange and black (shocking, I know). I told him that if he got it all painted that I would paint the Beavers logo on it for him. However, the space was WAY to small to paint it, so we just printed one out and glued it on the car (about 2 hours before the race!). Mike came home from work with the weights for the car. They melted them down and had the car ready to go, oh, only about 45 minutes before it was time to leave! Talk about cutting it close!

I had a meeting for Conner's school tonight, so I wasn't able to make the derby. Mike took the kids and they headed off. I got a call from Conner when he was on the way home saying that he had fun and that one of the other boys had a "Duck's" car and he beat it. He was pretty excited about that.

When I got home from my meeting, there was a note on the front door telling me that I needed to go to Conner's room. I headed up there and the first thing I did was look for his certificate. Every boy gets a certificate with some crazy award. They give places for the first 3 cars and then the rest get goofy awards. Because Conner had an OSU car, I was looking for something having to do with that. When I found the certificate I saw that he had FIRST PLACE!!! Yeah. I guess he won every race but one! I'm so sorry that I missed his big night, but it was so fun to sit with him for a while while he replayed the evening. It was nice to see him so exited about something. Now, you have to understand that he usually doesn't fair very well! So, this being his very last pinewood derby before he leave cub scouts, this was awesome! Way to go Conner!

Mike and Conner working out some kinks.

Conner working on his car.

Goofy pic of Conner at the derby.

And no, Mike took pictures and didn't get any of Conner actually holding the finished car! The video shows it a little at the end. I'll try to take a pic of Conner with his car tomorrow.

Pom Cheers

2009-04-23T16:14:00.000-07:00

At cheerleading sign ups the other night, they had some small poms from the local Dollar Tree. As we were tearing down the stuff, I was asked if I wanted to keep them for my little girls. Knowing that they'd jump on this, I took them home.

Adrie wanted to bring them last night at baseball practice. She insists that they are called "pom cheers". Not only did she bring them to practice, but she actively cheered for her brother while we were there. Now, if this isn't a sign of a cheerleader in training, I don't know what is, but this is the cheer that she made up (all by herself) and used to root her brother on as he was batting:

Come on Conner,

You can do it

We love you

Cause you're the cutest

How stinkin' cute is that? I suppose with 2 older cheerleading sisters there was no hope for her!

"Trauma", life at the Laders...

2009-04-16T16:38:00.000-07:00

Last month St. Luke School held their annual auction. Now, I don't own a business or have any real skills, so I decided that I would donated 1 dessert a month to the highest bidder. It wasn't until AFTER I had committed myself that I found out that the person who had done this for the past few years is an actual trained chef. Great.

The first item needed to be ready to go the night of the auction. I worked for about 3 weeks to come up with a yummy key lime cream torte. I, of course, forgot the cake at home the night of the auction and Mike had to run home and get it after we got there. Such is my life, right?

So, my friend Laura informs me that my item is in the Oral auction. Oh, and it's first on the block. GREAT! It went for $450.00. OUCH. Guess brownies and rice crispy squares are out of the question, huh.

I have spent the past month trying to come up with a new dessert for April that tastes great and looks nice. The first thing I tried DID NOT work well, so I scratched that one. Next I came across the recipe for a fresh apple cake with home made caramel topping. I have made this cake about 7 times in the past month. I LOVED the taste of the cake, but you cook it in a bundt pan and how do you make that look nice? Plus you have to poke holes in the cake for the caramel sauce to soak into the cake. I took one to my friend Lisa's house and she showed me how I could make it look "pretty". I was hooked. This was the one to do!

Fast forward to today. Today's the day I said that I'd make it. Of course, I'm super busy and I'm just going to have to fit it in! I get the cake made and the topping on before I pick up the St. Luke carpool kids. I run home and whip up the cream cheese frosting and quickly frost the cake. It's all set to go. Of course, the base that I used was too big to fit into my cake carrier, so I ask Conner to hold the cake in the car while we pick up the other kids from school and then deliver the cake.

The finished product. Isn't it pretty?

He had a travel pillow that he wanted to bring with him. OK, whatever. Apparently, as we were driving, it wasn't at the right position, so he pulls on it and the velcro breaks loose and the momentum drives it right into the cake. Yep. The cake that we're on the way to deliver!!!

Smashed cake.

OK, I can deal with this. I didn't even yell at him. Nor did I cry (yet). I had to go get the girls from school, so we couldn't just go home. As I was driving I was trying to come up with ways to fix the cake. The first thing I needed to do was put the cake on a smaller tray so it would fit in my cake carrier. Then I figured I could try to scrape off the frosting and refrost it. Great idea in theory! However, the caramel sauce had hardened enough that it was stuck to the original plate and in the process of trying to pry it off the cake broke in half. Now I was crying! I had no idea how to fix this. I called Bob (the guy who bought it, nicest guy in the world, btw!) and I asked if I could bring one on Monday because this one was destroyed. He insisted that I just bring it the way it was. That it wasn't a big deal. So, I loaded it up and took it out to him. When I got there he asked if I wanted my cake carrier back and I just told him that I couldn't even look at the cake, so he'd better just keep the carrier!

My hideous cake (I still can't believe that I actually gave this to someone!)

And that's the story of "Trauma, life at the Laders"!

Boys will be Boys

2009-04-10T07:46:00.000-07:00

Conner's school is out for Good Friday today, so yesterday he invited a couple of his good friends to spend the night. When Mike got home they decided to wrestle. Now seeing as how I only have 1 boy, I really enjoy these kinds of interactions. I really take for granted all of the "sisterly" things that my girls do, but I thrive for the normal boy stuff. I know it's totally unfair, but that's just life in my world! Here a couple shots of the boys...

She may really be a rock star!

2009-04-04T10:27:00.000-07:00

North Marion School District had their annual student talent show last night. Alia decided that she wanted to sing. She picked the song and we helped her download a karaoke version and Mike even edited to fit the time frame of 1:45. She practiced for a month and we even picked up some new clothes for her to wear the night of the performance.

So last night was the big night. She did amazingly well. She was the 3rd performance of the night. She was awesome! I'm so proud of her!!!

Happy Birthday Mom!

2009-04-01T09:26:00.000-07:00

Today is my mom's birthday. No joke!

I just want to wish her a wonderful day. She works so hard for everyone else that I hope she can take a few minutes for herself. We love you mom. Thanks for all that you do for me and my family!

Love you!

Life's a beach!

2009-03-26T17:50:00.000-07:00

So, with all the rain around here for spring break, we haven't had a ton of things to do. Today was the first nice day all week and so I loaded up the kids (all by myself, I might add) and we headed to Lincoln City.

The girls were pretty excited about it, but Conner wanted to stay at home with friends. I didn't give him the choice. Because, well, quite frankly, I really didn't want to go either! I don't like sand. I don't like wind. And I don't like cold. ALL of those are at the Oregon Coast!

However, it turned out to be a really great day. The drive was fairly quick (about 90 minutes each way) and we spent about 2 hours in Lincoln City before coming home. Just enough for the kids to have fun, get cold and cranky, and then sugared up before heading out.

And, get this, I even remembered to bring my CAMERA. So I have PROOF!!!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

I've been found!

2009-03-25T08:41:00.000-07:00

As usual, I woke up this morning and checked my email. Of my 17 messages, 15 of them were junk. BUT there was 1 from facebook.

Someone was wanted to be my friend. I was a little unsure of the name, but I had an idea. Could it really be? Really?

Guess what. It was my very very very bestest friend ever growing up! She lived across the street from me from the time I was 12 until I moved away. She was the kind of friend that let me pretty much live with her. I have SOOO many memories that there is just no way I can narrow down a couple favorites. Although, there are quite a few that bring a smile to my face trying to go over them all! She was the friend that I loved to live life through. She was always off on some mission or another and always had the best stories to tell! I probably spent more nights in her big bed having sleepovers than I did in my own! WOW. She was my teen years! I remember her as being an amazing writer and super creative. She made me want to do better and be better. Well, most times. We did enough not being so good, too! She was on of the bridesmaids in my wedding and then we pretty much lost touch. I missed her.

I have spend a lot of time trying to find her again. Well, this morning, there she was! And she's close! She still lives fairly local. I'm so excited to get the chance to connect with her as an adult. She is amazing and I can't wait to rekindle our friendship.

Thanks Tara, for taking the time to look for ME! And thanks to facebook for making it happen!

My birthday gift

2009-03-17T15:10:00.000-07:00

Before we left on Friday afternoon, Mike planted my new birthday tree. It's a weeping cherry tree. The plan is for it to "grow up" and kind of cover the beautiful utility boxes that we have in the front of our house (wonderful planning on someone's part... to put them there!). This is also where the kids LOVE to play, so the thought was that the tree would also be a "fort" for them when it gets bigger. I love the shape and can't wait until it has some blooms on it!

Happy Birthday... to me!

2009-03-16T08:12:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was my birthday and Mike and I went out of town for the weekend. We went over to central Oregon to stay at Eagle Crest Resort. It's a fun and close getaway. My sister lives about 30 minutes from the resort, so we took Conner with us and dropped him off her house for the weekend. On friday night, after we dropped him off, we went out to dinner with her and her husband. I don't know if we had ever done that before. We went to a little (very little) mexican restaurant in Tumalo. Then we headed back to the resort KID FREE!!! Yeah. We had a good time on Saturday playing tennis and hot tubbing, watching movies and just relaxing! Sunday we slept in!!! That's nice! Anyway, it was a fun weekend and here are some pics from our drive back.

Oh, did I forget to mention that there was a snow storm over the pass on the way back?? Yep. There was!

Mike putting chains on the Honda.

The view of the side of the road. Very pretty.

Still working on chains.

Conner just HAD to get into the action!

More pics of my yard

2009-03-12T12:49:00.000-07:00

So, as we should all know by now...

I get completely obsessed with something for a couple weeks, then I lose it and start something new...

Well, lately it's been my yard.

I have really enjoyed finding new plants and shrubs for my new yard. Here are the latest pictures that I took yesterday.

There Rebecca. Are you happy now??? Thrilling isn't it!

Daytime pics of my new yard

2009-03-05T19:20:00.000-08:00

So, I'm learning that this is a work in progress. I have been down to the local plant shop everyday this week. Luckily it's pretty close by. But I think I've spent a small fortune buying bulbs and perennials and annuals flowers. But I've totally been enjoying myself and it's fun to see something new everyday. The grass definitely needs some work. A lot of work. But that will be fun to work on too!

Anyway, here are some pics that I took today.

Notice the backpack and uniform. Conner hadn't even walked in the door yet, and he was planting some new ground cover.

Corner of the yard. I LOVE this tree. I have no idea what it is, but it is all red. It looks like it's glowing in the morning.

More of the side of the yard

And still more of the side of the yard.

Side yard and the fence.

Front window and porch thingie

Front walk from the house looking down to the street.

Cute little planter box that I picked up yesterday.

There really are cute flowers in there, just hard to see 'em!

Another of the walkway. From the driveway this time.

Standing back view of the front yard from the driveway.

Conner, hard at work.

Front yard from the road.

"Mom, it's ok that I have a duck on my face"

2009-03-04T19:10:00.000-08:00

HUH?

This is what Adrie came down and told me tonight. Conner had been spinning her around in his room and of course, the second that he put her down she stumbled into his desk. She now has a huge goose egg on her forehead. Guess that's close to a duck, huh?

A family night to remember!

2009-03-03T07:50:00.000-08:00

We had plans to have family night with our good friends, the Allens. I forgot that Ann-Elise had her doctor's appointment too, so I was in a mad rush to get everything prepped and ready early in the day so it would all get done. So, as I was sitting in the front room reading last night, waiting for dinner to finish cooking, I looked out the window and saw my friend Lisa drive up. I thought it was odd. She hadn't mentioned anything about stopping by and it is unusual for her to just "stop by". She wasn't getting out of her vehicle very quickly either, so I walked out to her. I asked her what she was doing "Oh, just feeding Charlie (her baby). " Um, ok. I asked her what she'd been doing and we chatted for about 10 minutes at her car. All of the sudden, here comes a red truck with trees in the back. I just looked... "What is Todd (her husband) doing here? And why are there a bunch of trees in the back of the truck?" Then, here comes another friend, Scott. With bark. They came to "make over" our yard! Trees, plants, bark and all! The Allen's got here soon after and they unloaded and Joe started to help Todd, Scott and Mike. Then Scott's wife comes with a big bowl of cookie dough (Bridget is known for her amazing cookies!). All together, we had 18 kids here. However, you'd never know it! The guys finished the yard in about an hour! It was amazing. How cool is that?

We ate dinner (a little late) with the Allens and had a great meal. Then we had our family home evening lesson on choosing the right. It was amazing. It was one of the best nights I've had in a long time in many different ways! I feel so blessed to have such amazing friends. Those that come and donate their time and resources, and those who are my friends! Thanks to you all!!!

Once again, these pics are in the wrong order. Sorry!

The finished product on one side of the front yard. You can't really see all the cool little plants. I'll have to take some more pics to day, in the light.

My lilac tree and some plants under my front window.

I'm not sure what these are called. But it's all cool!

The front walk way.

Kids playing and the guys almost done.

Getting the last of the bark.

The kids working hard. They were a great help!

Spreading bark.

Are these girls cute, or what? Chloe, Adrie and Lucy.

The kids all played so well together!

Calie's a little helper girl. What a little trooper!

More bark!

Digging holes and more holes and more holes...

Todd planting my "friendly neighbor" tree

A nice shot of Mike's back end!

Planting, digging and bark what fun!

Work, work, work. But man, it looks great!

ballet

2009-02-24T08:26:00.001-08:00

Adrie started ballet last month. My old dance team coach is her teacher. However, Adrie doesn't like to be told how to do something and she won't try something if she doesn't know how to do it. Needless to say, ballet has been a trying experience for ME! Here are a few cute pics from her class last Saturday.

Warm ups. Shaking out her legs.

Peek a boo, I see you!

More stretching.

And MORE stretching...

blurry stretching.

Cutie girl.

"I know you're trying to take a picture of me"

basketball

2009-02-23T08:56:00.000-08:00

Oh, I forgot to post about Conner's basketball game on Saturday. His team has done really well and he's had a good season. This is all new for him and he has taken very well the fact that he doesn't really have any idea how to play basketball. Believe me, that is HUGE for him! To put himself out there in front a ton of people playing something that he's not super good at and doesn't really know the basics is very hard for him. But he has done great and it's been really fun to watch him play.

Conner getting ready to take a shot.

I think this pic is so funny. #4 was looking at his coach and saying "I got this one". Notice Conner comes about mid tricep on him.

Another shot of Conner and #4 side by side.

Although the Huskies put up a good fight and stayed in the game, they ended up losing. But they played hard and did great!

back to hair!

2009-02-23T08:49:00.000-08:00

I did a couple cute do's on the older girls today that I just love! For Alia I just did 2 4 strand braids (I didn't know how to do these and just learned this morning. LOVE them!) but I think it looks so cute on Alia. Ann-Elise did NOT want to cooperate and didn't even want me to do her hair, but I told her she didn't have a choice. I think her hair may be my favorite that I've done on her. SOOO cute! Although, you can tell by the pics she wasn't happy with me!

The proper way to "write a wrong"

2009-02-18T18:32:00.000-08:00

My mom and I went shopping on Saturday. We took Alia, Adrie and Caile with us. The younger girls were tyrants! They were horrible. I was exhausted when we left the store and Adrie was just being obnoxious. My mom was trying to talk with her on the way home about how disrespectful she was acting towards me. Well, we had already made an agreement that Adrie and Alia would spend the night at my parents house and my mom didn't really want to take Adrie with her acting that way. She sat her down and, once again, tried to explain to her that she was being very mean and that she wasn't going to let her go to her house if she didn't correct her behavior. My mom told her that she needed to "right the wrong" with her mom. At which point Adrie turns to my mom, and with her most sad voice says "but I don't know HOW to write my mom's name"! Oh my goodness. Does it get any cuter than that? She walks over to me and (again in the so sad voice) says, "mom, Grammy said I need to write your name, but I don't know HOW to write your name. I told her that maybe we could just talk about the way she acted and how she was being disrespectful and she didn't need to write my name. So we spent a few minutes talking about that. When I gave her a hug and told her that she could now go to Grammy's house, she got all pathetic again and told me "but I didn't write your name, and I don't know HOW to write your name". So we grabbed a pen and I helped her write "MOM".

And that class, is how you "write" a wrong!

Ann-Elise's big day

2009-02-14T16:48:00.001-08:00

Today was Ann-Elise's baptism. Here are most of the kids as we were entering the building.

These next pics are for my sister. Side view of her hair.

Front view. Pretty girl!

The back of her "heart" hair for her Valentines day baptism.

Leise in the outfit Grammy made her for her baptism.

Leise and Daddy before the big event.

Totally unrelated, but this is Caile as she fell asleep at the table while she was coloring.

Just more proof that is child will sleep anywhere BUT in her bed!

Back to Ann-Elise: She was baptized today with 3 other children from her church class. It was an amazing day and we were thrilled to be able to spend it with so many people that we know and love and how special for her to share with her very good friends!

OK, now I'm just looking for praise!

2009-02-13T09:29:00.000-08:00

Not really! But if you know me at all. I DO NOT DO HAIR! Seriously. You can probably count on 1 hand how many times I've actually done something nice for my kids hair. It just doesn't happen. With that being said, I've been having a blast this week! However, knowing my ADD, this little "hobby" isn't going to last long, so lets just ride the wave. If history is any indicator, you won't have to bear this much longer! BUT here are the pics from todays hair:

The back of Ann-Elise's hair

I know this is blurry and we still have the problem of her not being able to keep her eyes open EVER when I take a picture of her!

Front of Alia's hair

Alia's double hearts. Apparently she had told everyone at school that she was going to have hearts in her hair today. So this morning, she came to me asking me to do her hair!

As for yesterday... My amazingly wonderful friend Mary took the little girls for a few hours and even did their hair for me. Mike stayed home from work (well, he worked from home) so that I could get some rest. After I woke up, I felt amazing. Still not 100%, but at least alive! Also, on Wednesday night, another of my amazingly wonderful friends, Lisa, brought us dinner. What an amazing treat. It was great to know that I didn't have to move and my family would still eat! Thanks everyone!

Shocking news...

2009-02-12T08:47:00.001-08:00

I DID THE GIRLS HAIR 2 DAYS IN A ROW!!!

And not just in a pony tail. But really cute/time consuming do's!

Here's the proof.

The ones of the little girls are actually from yesterday. I haven't done their hair YET today, but I will. Even being sick, I'll get to it!

Ok, you'll need to sit down for this (especially Pony). Sitting? Comfortable?

Ann-Elise's baptism

2009-02-11T17:00:00.000-08:00

For any of you that are interested, Ann-Elise will be baptized this Saturday, Feb. 14th at 11am at the Woodburn chapel. If you need directions, please let me know and I'd be happy to get them to you. Hope to see you there!

My big sis will be so proud!

2009-02-11T07:27:00.000-08:00

I did Leise's hair today.

My sister was going to come over this coming weekend, but because the pass looks so bad between here and Bend, she probably won't make it. The problem... Ann-Elise is going to be baptized on Saturday and my sister is the "hair genius" and was going to do something cute for Leise's hair. So, I have taken matters into my own hands. Literally! This is what I did today:

It's not perfect. You can't really see the ribbon woven into her hair very well and the heart is a little lopsided, but it will be better next time. I promise! Oh and I took about 5 pics of the front and in EVERY one she had her eyes closed. UGH!

Just playing around

2009-02-09T21:49:00.001-08:00

Happy Birthday Leise!

2009-02-09T09:33:00.000-08:00

I know I'm a little late, but it's been a crazy weekend.

Ann-Elise turned 8 on Saturday. We started the weekend by having her friends come over on Friday night for a "girls night out" with a movie and pizza. I honestly didn't know that 12 girls could make that much noise! But they all had a blast. She spent Saturday playing with friends so I didn't really even see her on her actual birthday, but she had fun, so I suppose that's all that really matters!

I can't believe that it's been 8 years. When I was pregnant with her, we thought she had a genetic disorder, so half of my pregnancy was spent trying to deal with all of the unknowns. Turns out she was absolutely perfect when she was born and I think that's one of the reasons that she is so special! She beat the odds and is my walking miracle. She is beautiful and funny and happy and helpful!

Happy Day Princess!!!

No, Seriously, WAY too much Wii!

2009-02-05T19:35:00.001-08:00

So, I'm driving down the freeway with Adrie. I hear "pull the trigger, mom, go faster, faster, faster". What???? Pull the trigger? Umm, I don't know what kind of tv she's been watching because it hasn't been on MY tv! Then it hit me. Pull the trigger. That's what we say when we're playing Mario Kart and someone has the speed boost. Then as I pass a truck on my right she sits up in her seat, looks out the window at the trucks and says "Na na na na na"! Oh heavens. We may have to cut her off!

Almost in my good graces!

2009-02-05T06:45:00.000-08:00

As you know, it's been a rough couple of days. Yesterday didn't really go as smoothly as I had hoped and last night was a night mare again. Caile got into our bed again, and I think at this point I'm just setting myself up for the fact that she'll be with us until she's 18!

Anyway, I spent WAY too many hours trying to figure out how photoshop works. UGH. NOT something I'm good at. All I wanted to do was black and white a photo and then enhance blue eyes. Sounds simple enough, right? Well, when you have a Mac, it isn't! After spending hours downloading free trials and trying to play with them, I got it to work on 1 picture. However, for the life of me, I don't recall how I did it! Oh well at least I got 1 good one!

Only if you were worried...

2009-02-04T07:39:00.000-08:00

I thought I'd let you know that I survived the day yesterday. And probably more importantly, so did all 5 kids! Man that was something! If Caile wasn't screaming at me, then Adrie was. NOT good on very little sleep. Last night Caile only woke up once at 10:30 and after screaming for 1/2 hour, went back to bed in HER bed!!! YEAHHH! I think she's still sleeping now. That poor girl was tired! So, I'm looking forward to a great day.

Oh, and here are a couple "they can sleep anywhere except their own beds" pics

I don't want to hear it..

2009-02-03T09:12:00.000-08:00

from any of you that is. I'm going on a rant. Just let me!

I AM SO SICK OF 2 YEAR OLDS!!! I want my bed back. I want to have non poopy underwear (on her, not me!) and I DO NOT want to be screamed at. I'm sick of it. I'm exhausted from 2 weeks of hell at night with her crawling into my bed. Screaming at me and banging on the door if I've locked it to keep her out. I'm done. Done. Done. Done.

AAAGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Carry on.

It's done!

2009-01-25T16:55:00.001-08:00

Here's the finished product:

More room pics

2009-01-24T20:28:00.001-08:00

The are the logos that I used for my sketches. Although, the Benny Beaver one is really orange, not red!

You can get an idea of what this is going to look like. Still a lot of detail work to do, but it's coming along!

The finished product!

I can't stop! I keep saying I'm done for the night, but then I go back up and do more. I LOVE the way the OS came out! His ceiling/wall thing is REALLY bumpy, so it's not a super smooth line, but it still looks great (IMO!).

My latest project

2009-01-24T17:13:00.000-08:00

A couple weeks ago we (I) decided to switch all the kids' rooms around. We (I) feel the need to do this every year or so. We decided to put the older girls in Conners room with the bunk beds (thus the stitches) and the little girls in Ann-Elise and Caile's old room. That left Conner with the "little" room over the garage. Because it has super crazy walls/ceilings, it's hard to find a way to organize and decorate it.

A little history needed.

When I went to the hospital to deliver Adrie, my good friend Julie spearheaded a project to surprise me when I got home. She and a few of our friends totally painted and decorated the room over the garage complete with flower and bug murals. It was sooo cute and so it has stayed this way for over 3 1/2 years. As hard as it's been to come to terms with, Conner just COULDN'T live in a room with pink, yellow and purple walls, not to mention the pretty flowers. I just wasn't going to do that do him. So, part of the plan was that AS SOON as we got the rooms switched I'd paint and decorate it for him.

After school last Thursday, I took him down to the paint shop and had him pick out a color. Any color that he wanted. As long as it was tan or grey or taupe or tan... I wanted a very neutral color. I've fallen for the "any color you want" trap and ended up with a fuschia room that is STILL haunting me! Anyway, he picked out "mushroom taupe". It's a good color, a little on the dark side, but I liked it. So, last Friday I spent the day painting. I HATE PAINTING! But by then I had an idea. Conner LOVES the OSU Beavers. He is his father's son! So I thought we could accent and decorate with the gorgeous colors of black and orange. I also thought that I could paint a mural on the walls of the OSU logo and the Benny Beaver logo.

I spent about an hour in Alia's classroom yesterday with their projector. I'll just add right now that I LOVE her teacher! Anyway, I blew up some logo's and sketched them onto larger paper. Last night Mike and I went to Office Depot (they suck, btw) and picked up some old fashioned transfer paper. I copied my blown up sketches onto his wall last night and just started the painting today. Oh My Gosh! I love it!!!

Enough already, here's the pics of what I have so far. I'll post more pics as I finish, hopefully tomorrow.

Oh, and don't let there be any doubt about the lengths I go to for my kids! This has been a pain. But, I think in the end, it's gonna totally be worth it!

You have to look really close, but you can see the outline of the Benny Beaver pic

Far away of the Oregon State Logo, half done

Closer of the Oregon State logo

On a side note, Conner played in his first basketball game (ever) today. His team won 37-25 or something like that. He played about half of each quarter. It's been very hard for him. He's used to being good as a sport and this is definitely a challenge for him. But he had a great time and it was very exciting watching his TEAM play. Way to go Huskies!

WARNING* Pictures**

2009-01-22T20:06:00.000-08:00

Here a "clean" picture of Ann-Elise's "ouchie".

Don't say I didn't warn you!

All because of Idol

2009-01-22T08:29:00.000-08:00

My kids LOVE American Idol. I mean, who doesn't? Mike had a church meeting last night, so I let the kids stay up for an extra half hour to watch half of the show last night. Needless to say, they were a tad hyper when they were sent to bed. Not to mention NOT happy about having to go to bed! As we were listening to the girls yell and scream, I was getting ready to go tell them to be quiet because the babies were sleeping, and Mike was just saying how "he" would not let them stay up the extra half hour because they NEVER go to bed after that, Alia screams that Ann-Elise fell and has a huge bleeding hole in her knee.

Mike is out the door and on the floor with Leise in the blink of an eye. I hang back for a sec and grab a cloth to cover the wound. Get in there and take a look. GROSS! It wasn't huge, but probably about 1/2 inch wide. A slice on her shin (not knee, guess we need to cover anatomy with Alia!). It looked like it had been sliced, but it was gaping with tissue popping out in the middle. Now, this is where you can thank me for my lack of brain waves because I DID take pictures on my cell phone, but apparently, I didn't save them after taking them and now I can't find them. Otherwise, you'd be looking at pictures too. So, you'll just have to use your imagination instead!

After trying some butterfly stitches (didn't work) and just wrapping it with a big gauze pad, and much deliberation, I made the decision that it needed stitches and I was taking her in. Mike loaded her in the car and we headed to the nearest emergency room. Of course, the urgent care had closed at 8, so we missed that one and we're off to the hospital. We got there at 9:46 and we were able to get right in.

After the screaming from the injection (oh man, there has GOT to be a better way than that!) she did great! 6 stitches and we were home by 11:30. Now, I must say that I think the reason she agreed to even go to the hospital and get the stitches was because I told her she wouldn't have to go to school today if she had stitches.

Even though it was an eventful night, I am glad that I insisted on taking her in and am so grateful for the wonderful staff at our local hospital. They were great and I feel so blessed to live somewhere that is so close to great hospitals!

Oh, and when I clean it out tonight, I'll take some pics. Something to look forward to!

Sometimes thing just DON'T go as planned

2009-01-20T06:54:00.000-08:00

Mike and I had a "romantic" getaway planned. OK, really we just wanted to get away from life for a couple days.

Now, let me start by pointing out that finding places for 5 kids to go for a full weekend is not nearly as easy as it may seem. Conner was pretty easy. We have amazing neighbors (who just happen to have a son a little older than Conner, (who he just loves to play with) who quickly volunteered to take him. I set up someone to take Conner to church Sunday morning (as much as Conner didn't like that idea) and he was set.

Alia was a little more difficult. She wanted to go to her good friend Jessyca's house. I called and left a message. However, I never heard back from her parents so I made other plans for her. Mike talked with Jessyca's parents when he saw them and apparently, their phone hadn't been working, so they never got the message, but they'd be happy to take her. So, I had to cancel the other place I had set up for her.

Next was Ann-Elise. She wanted to go to her friend Janey's house. I asked her mom and it was all set up. Then I got a call last week letting me know that Janey's grandma was in the hospital in Utah. They weren't sure what was going on, but it didn't look good. Janey's mom was going to drive down there with her sister and make sure all was well, so she wasn't going to be able to take Ann-Elise. Now, I have NO problem with that one! Of course I wanted her to go. Now I need to find another place for Ann-Elise to go. OK, I can do this...

As for the babies. UGH! I had originally asked my parents to watch the little girls. My mom told me that my dad had been having some medical problems and she would probably be gone on Monday, so she didn't feel super comfortable with that. I told her to let me know if she was for sure going to be gone on Monday, and if so, I'd make other arrangements. About a week later, I was chatting (on Facebook) with my sister-in-law, Martina, and asked her if she was available in case my mom couldn't take the girls. She jumped at the chance to take them and demanded that I let her have them. They don't get to visit over there very often, but always love it when they do, so I let me parents know that I wouldn't need them. However, Martina let me know that they were going to the mountain on Saturday morning, so they would have to get that girls after that. Could she pick them up from my parents and then keep them for the weekend? I'm sure I ruffled quite a few feathers trying to set that up! But I was able to get it done.

Ok, back to Ann-Elise, now I have no where for her to go. I call up my mom and ask if Ann-Elise could come over to her place for the weekend. Seeing as how she didn't need a "baby sitter" on Monday when my mom was gone, I thought it might work. Yep, my mom needed her to get some stuff ready for Ann-Elise's baptism anyway, so they could just do it over the weekend.

PHEW. I think we're set...

Then comes the call. Jessyca's dad calls to tell me that their septic tank is totally out. They can put NOTHING down their drain. He tells me that they have been showering at grandparents homes and catching and boiling water for dishes. Ummm, where do you go to the bathroom. Oh, they have a portapotty. Perfect. She can pretend she's camping. She'll get over it! It's a go (oh and they should have their septic back up and running today, fingers crossed!)

So, on Saturday, I shipped Conner out around 1:00 and Mike takes Alia out to Jessyca's for her "adventure". I jump online to double check the confirmation for the hotel. Guess what? NOT THERE. NOPE. NOTHING. WTHECK??? We have no reservation. Upon further investigation, there is NOTHING available throughout Oregon or Washington either. Needless to say, I spent about 3 hours in tears. SOOOOO typical of me. Really. This is the kind of stuff that just sends me over the edge, but something that I tend to do often.

Well, as soon as Mike got back I told him, but we decided to ship out the rest of the kids anyway. I got a call from Martina and they were almost home. I told her that we would just wait and bring the girls out to her. We drove out to Mike's work in Hillsboro and picked up his cell phone (that he forgot at work!) and then took Ann-Elise to my parents. Then we headed to Martina's. It was really nice to not have anywhere to be and so we stayed and visited for a while.

We stopped in Canby and ate dinner and then headed home. We spent the evening reading and playing Mario Kart. I love Mario Kart! On Sunday, we spent the day in bed. Literally! We woke up around 7:30 and I stayed in my robe until about 4! I did finally shower... I finished the 6th book in a series I've been reading and Mike knocked out half of Breaking Dawn (700+ pages!). Oh, we also watched both football games. That was fun. No kids, no where to be. I could get used to this. The funny thing was that Conner was right next door and spent most of the day outside playing football with his buddies, so I was able to watch him through the window with him not even knowing we were there. I was kind enough to let the parents know that we were there, in case they noticed movement in the house. I didn't want the police called!

Really, the only "glitch" we had was when we got a call on Sunday morning saying that he had gone down to get his ride to church. After knocking on the door and ringing the doorbell for 5 minutes, and no one answering, he came back to Jarod's. Should they send him down again and have him try again? I just told them not to worry about it. He'd tried and that was all I asked. I'm sure his ride just forgot about him...

On Monday, we were lazy for a few hours, and then made the rounds to pick up all the kiddo's.

Ya know. It was nothing like we had planned, but it was amazing. My husband is the best and I love knowing that we don't have to do anything special, but just being together is enough to make a memorable time. And the lesson learned today, class, is to double check your reservations well in ADVANCE!!!

oh how time flies!

2009-01-09T19:57:00.000-08:00

I have totally been in a zone. Unfortunately, it hasn't been in a "clean the house" mode. So, what have I been doing, you ask? Well...

I've been making beanie caps for my niece and nephews. It's been so fun. I've knit them before, but I've never crocheted them before. I spend way too much time finding some cool patterns and then I've been a crochet machine!

Here are the 5 hats that I've made (since yesterday morning!)

This is actually for Adrie. Oops, it's a little big!

This is for my 10 yo nephew

This is for the Oregon State Beaver's fan!

For the little princess (my niece)

And we can't forget the L.A. Laker's fan!

If this is important to you...

2009-01-07T10:52:00.000-08:00

The following is my sisters blog entry for today. I felt it was just easier to just cut and paste hers than try to articulate the same thing. If you feel this is something you would like to support, please click on the link at the bottom and sign your name and send an email to your senators.

Thanks!

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 7, 2009

Please read & sign...
I'm really getting scared. I have been hearing about the lead testing for a few days now & the more I read, the more concerned I'm getting. This is beyond ridiculous. Yes, I'm all for my kids being safe. I'm all for making sure there is no lead in the toys I'm buying for my children. But seriously, now they're going to ultimately shut down & STOP ALL used children's clothing?! SERIOUSLY?! With the economy the way it is right now esp. WHO can honestly afford to buy new clothes every month or so? Since the manufacturers are going to have to do testing, obviously, prices are going to go up for everyone. Personally, I LOVE shopping at the consignment & thrift stores. I have gotten some GREAT deals. I love being able to take my children's gently used & too small clothes & "trading" them for something that will fit. They grow so fast, this has been a wonderful blessing.

I can't imagine just throwing all of these clothes away. Hokey Dina (thanks for that phrase Coffee) this is scary & ridiculous!!!

Ok, I'm getting off my soap box before I really say something I shouldn't. Here is a petition that talks more about the new law & if you go to the bottom, you can add your name to it. I honestly don't know if it will do any good at this point, but I like to think we have voices that WILL be heard... before it's too late! Here's the comment my sis left when she signed the petition, I love it. Wed., Jan. 7, 2009 11:40 AM link Becki L. | Hubbard, OR

"Isn't it just like our government to, in the face of a national financial crisis, add even more of a burden on everyday people? At some point, we're going to govern ourselves out of a profitable society. Oh wait. I think that is already happening."

Here is the petition. ***CLICKY*** Here is an article in our local news today about it (& where I got the petition link). ***click***

POSTED BY BRYNN AT 9:44 AM

Sometimes...

2009-01-06T16:48:00.000-08:00

So, I was chatting with my sister this morning. I was telling her about all the crazy things that had happened already (at 8:45) with the 2 little girls. ie: Caile's attempts at potty training (not going well) and the fact that the girls decided to be "pirates" while I was loading the dishwasher.

What exactly does being a pirate entail you ask? Well let me tell you. Adrie and Caile got ahold of a teal Crayola marker (NOT washable) and decided to color themselves EVERYWHERE with it. Did you know that pirates are teal? Me either! Anyway, to make it even more convenient for them, they decided to strip down naked before the art session began. They had teal marker EVERYWHERE. I don't need to say more about that! Anyway, I put them in the tub and started the water. I ran out of the room to grab a couple towels. When I got back into the bathroom the water was seriously the color of berry blue Jell-o. No joke! I drained the tub and tried again. And again. It took 3 fills before the water was *almost* clear. And we scrubbed and scrubbed and scrubbed. Guess what? There is a reason they sell WASHABLE markers. Apparently it's for little girls who want to play Pirate, because the regular ones DO NOT come off! Anyway I did the best I could and called it at that. I don't even want to know what Adrie's teacher thought when she got to school today!

So as I was informing my sister about the fun we had had she asked what I did. Well, I told her that I just told the girls that markers are for paper, not for their bodies. End of story. I wasn't worried about it. It washes off (eventually). She was kind of amazing at my "whatever" attitude. I told her that on Sunday, as I was driving to church at 8am in a huge fog bank and thinking back to where we were the Sunday before (in sunny Arizona) I wanted to go down the "If I lived there, life would be so much better. I'd be so much happier..." and I stopped myself and decided right then and there, at the corner of Boones Ferry Road and Country Club Road, sitting in my Suburban, that I had nothing to complain about. I need to be happy right where I am. I am very blessed and I need to appreciate all the blessing that I have.

I had the best day at church. I felt so good and I was happy. Everyone seemed to act better. I don't know if I just didn't really pay attention to how awful the kids were being in sacrament, or if they actually were better, but I sure had a great day. Little things that would usually set me off were actually kind of fun. It totally changed my day.

As the week has progressed I've found it much easier to keep that attitude. I have really enjoyed spending time with my family and actually enjoying my kids, instead of getting angry or upset, I've just laughed with them.

Anyway, as I was chatting with my sister, in a very condensed version, I told her how I was just going to be happy with where I am. Not worry about the "what ifs" and the "if only"s. I was going to be happy where I am. Right now. Today.

So, to make my story even longer, she decided to blog about our conversation today. It was a really sweet post and I got teary just reading it. Anyway, I checked back later and read the comments that had been made to her blog and am so touched that something that was just mentioned in passing has had such an influence on her and her friends. What a small world. For just a few minutes I felt that I had maybe made a difference in someone's life.

Thanks so much for sharing, Pony!

If you want to check out her blog it's www.momentsofmajicandmayhem.blogspot.com

She likes to move it, move it

2009-01-03T20:11:00.000-08:00

Adrie and Caile LOVE to sing to the song "I like to move it, move it" from Madagascar. While we were driving to Ontario from Yuma last week, the song came on the radio. This is them singing "along". They both start about 2 seconds after the singer, so it's just hilarious to listen and watch them!

My Christmas gift

2009-01-01T22:03:00.000-08:00

I totally forgot to mention that Mike bought me a new Flip video camera for Christmas. Of course, he got to the store right as they closed on Christmas Eve, therefore, I had to wait to get it until The day AFTER Christmas. But that just made the surprise all the better! Here's the reaction of the kids when I brought it back to Grandma and Grandpa's in Yuma. To put some of the comments into context, their uncle Mike had just left the day before with his Flip camera that looked just like my new one, so they were a little confused about it at first. I think Adrie's comments are so funny because she's trying to ask me if Uncle Mike left his at the house. Too cute!

Goodbye 2008!!!

2008-12-31T20:59:00.000-08:00

I thought, as I'm sitting here watching the ball drop in New York, that I might add some pics of fun things about 2008. However, I just realized that I only have pics on this computer from the past few months. So you just get those! And you've probably already seen some (most) of these, but they're cute, so too bad!

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!! I hope you have a wonderful 2009!

The sunset from the mirror of the car in Yuma AZ

Mike and the kids at the Yuma Prison (we were just visiting, I swear!)

Adrie and Caile running to the playground. They actually are the best of friends!

Conner on the peak of the mountain on the Yuma climb.

A very rare sight. Conner rarely smiles in pictures. He must have liked the guns!

Yep. I'd say he liked the guns!

Always photogenic, Alia at the Yuma Quartermaster Supply Depot.

What's better than presents???

Alia on the first day of school.

See, once they did like each other! I have proof!

Is she gorgeous or what???

HELP! Me and the kids in "jail" at the Yuma Prison.

There's the 'tude I know so well!

I'm speechless. She's so beautiful!

In a few years...

Cheese!

Hmmm, that's just Adrie.

Peek a boo, I see you!

Love her!

Merry Christmas

2008-12-26T15:10:00.001-08:00

Such a big girl! Caile opening one of her presents.

Conner hiking with dad (taking the pictures), Uncle (big) Mike and Uncle Chris.

The kids posing themselves at the Yuma Quartermasters Supply Depot. Cool place!

Uncle Kenneth arrives!

Aircraft is all over the place down here. Mike could tell you what this is.

I hope you all enjoyed a wonderful Christmas. We have had a wonderful week and love visiting with long lost family and friends!

The Camel Farm

2008-12-22T18:05:00.000-08:00

We went out the the Camel Farm today. It was really cool! They have a bunch of desert animals. Fun stuff. The kids loved it!

Make a Smilebox photobook

The first few days of vacation

2008-12-21T16:57:00.000-08:00

Ann-Elise on the cool dragon slide

Alia taking a minute to pose

Adrie

Adrie again (oops, I thought one of these were of Caile, my bad!)

A rare pic of Conner actually smiling!

One of the visitors that we see in the back yard.

Caile, the water baby

All the kids at the rest stop outside of San Diego

Alia and Ann-Elise burning off some energy.

Our carry on luggage for the flight. Looks fun, right?

We flew into Ontario California on a late evening flight, stayed the night at my cousins house and then headed out in the morning for a 4.5 hour drive to Yuma. We stopped at a rest stop along the way, just outside of San Diego and let the kids burn off some energy. Of course, as soon as we hit grandma and grandpa's house, they were in the pool! As were they every afternoon after! Yesterday Mike and grandpa took the kids to a really cool play area by the Colorado river. The kids LOVED it and we're looking forward to going again!

Of course, we're missing the 8 inches of snow at home, but we're loving the sunshine here in Arizona!

I'm such a cheater!

2008-12-19T19:16:00.001-08:00

I have had SO many compliments on our Christmas Scrapbook that I have to make a confession. My friend, Coral, had this really cool book on her facebook. I just followed the "make your own smilebox" link and signed up for the service (it's free for 14 days, then like $30/year). You pretty much just pick the format that you want (anything from 1-400 picture options are available) and then add your pics. I really liked how well smilebox woked with my Mac. I was able to just open my iphots and then drag the ones I wanted into smilebox and add them to the book. Way easier than other programs that I have attempted to use. Honestly, it took me a lot longer to cut and paste all the email addresses than it did to actually make the scrapbook. You can import your addresses, but it didn't work the first time I tried and I didn't want to mess with it, so I just did it individually. I really loved making the scrapbook and love that I could email it, put in on facebook as well as add it to my blog or even print it out. I loved all of the different themes that they offered and can tell you that you'll be seeing a lot more of these picture books on my blog (and in your email box!). Ok. That's my plug for www.smilebox.com. Check them out! And I know, I'm such a cheater, but honestly, you know you thought I rocked for a minute there!

Merry Christmas from us to you!

2008-12-16T15:01:00.000-08:00

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

An early white Christmas

2008-12-15T13:28:00.000-08:00

Because we are going to be away for Christmas, we decided to open our family gifts early. We weren't sure when exactly we would be able to do it. However, we woke up yesterday to beautiful snow falling. We missed church and decided that after the kids had played outside all day, it would be nice to spend a quiet evening at home opening presents.

Mike with his new digital frame

Conner got a new Nerf accessory that he had to try out. Looks like it works pretty well!

Alia got the digital camera she's been begging for.

Adrie with her "Fancy, Fancy Nancy" doll.

Caile with her new baby doll. She can take it in the bath. It's so cute.

Conner got 3 new air soft guns

Ann-Elise with her American Girl doll.

Caile ready for the snow.

Caile out in the snow. She was good for about 10 minutes!

The scene in the morning. Just as the sun was rising. Beautiful! I love it before all the tire tracks and foot prints!

Ward Christmas Party

2008-12-12T22:21:00.001-08:00

Alia and Ann-Elise with one of their good friends.

Adrie with her buddy Deacon

Caile and William enjoying the show.

It's the Grinch!

Ann-Elise playing "cat's cradle" with Allysia.

Tonight we had our ward Christmas Party. It was a lot of fun. We had a great turn out and awesome food. The theme was "The Grinch who Stole Christmas". There was a cute play and everything. I'm including some pics of the fun night.

Grandma's German Cookies

2008-12-11T22:00:00.000-08:00

I'd like to think that I'm a good writer, and actually when I phrase things in my head, they sound really good. Then I go to put them down and my fingers just aren't able to keep up with the thoughts, so they seem to come out very rushed and probably don't make a lot of sense. With that in mind, I'm going to try to explain something that I hold very dear to me.

My grandmother died when I was about 13 or so. She lived in California for a while when I was little. I have pictures from when we lived down there too, so I know that I had a relationship with her. We moved to Portland when I was 4 1/2. She went on to move to Oklahoma. I'm sure that she would come and visit, but I don't really have memories of her until she came to live with my family when I was about 12.

Unfortunately, when you're 12 life isn't always (well, is very rarely) sunshine and roses. I'm sure that I wasn't the easiest kid to be around. It was very easy to resent having Grandma live with us. She took up a whole room (all to herself, that used to be OUR room!), she could be very harsh and she made stinky cabbage. Thing were much better once she moved into her own place that was still pretty close to us, just not in our house. I really enjoyed getting to know her when I didn't feel like the relationship was an inconvenience to me.

So, that's the background.

Anyway, Grandma used to make these cookies. I'm sure they actually have a name, but to us they are just Grandma's German Cookies (sometimes Grandma's German CHRISTMAS Cookies). I think the recipe was actually my great grandma Sattler's, but I maybe mistaken on that. Anyway, There is something about the smell of those cookies that bring all good things to mind.

I decided today that I would make up some. Now, I HATE rolling out cookies. Seriously, I don't think there is anything WORSE that I can do in a kitchen with my kids. Hate it! But I was going to make German Cookies. I missed making them last year, and I think that because I won't be around that side of my family this year for Christmas, I needed that link to MY childhood.

I put all the ingredients into the KitchenAid (I know, I'm supposed to hand mix, blah blah blah, time constraints!!!) and as everything was mixing, I just rested my head on the mixer and inhaled the scents of MY Christmas. It was so calming and joyful to smell the lemon and cinnamon. I must have stayed like that for about 5 minutes. But let me tell you, it totally felt like a connection to my past and to my ancestors. So, thanks Grandma. I know that the relationship that we had was a little rocky, but I want you to know that you did good! All of your sacrifices were for a good cause. You have a legacy that you can be very proud of! Love you!!!

Ahh, so much to do

2008-12-11T08:47:00.001-08:00

So, today I've started feeling the crunch of things to be done before the big trip. It seems that we spend an eternity waiting for the big day to get here, and then panic the week before. Crazy. Anyway, we have my friend coming to dinner tonight, so I need to clean up the house and go shopping. Plus my teenage friend is coming over after school to bake cookies with the kids.

So on the list is:

*make the cookie dough (mmmm, Grandma's German Cookies!)

*clean the house for vacation.

*Make sure all the clothes are cleaned and then pack for 5 kids and myself (plus double check to make sure Mike has everything HE needs!)

*Pack all gifts still needing to travel

*Grocery shop

*Last minute gifts for people we didn't think we would see before the holiday, but now we are...

*Oh and I need to get my house ready for a "house sitter". UGH! Wash sheets, make sure basic food is on hand.

And I'm going to try REALLY hard to NOT forget that I'm supposed to watch my friend's kids on Monday (like I forgot last week) and to get Conner to scouts on Friday.

Ya, something's gonna slip. I just hope that whatever it is isn't too important!

On a fun note, Mike and I went to dinner last night at Huber's in downtown Portland. We carpooled with Mike's buddy Chris and his wife Shelley. We had a really good time. We sat with another couple that I had met once before and another of Mike's work friends. We had a great time. It was fun to feel kinda grown up. I also love to watch Mike interact with others. I don't see that as often as I like. He's a great guy and everyone loves him.

Ok, off to get ready to go to the store.

Again, nothing...

2008-12-10T06:47:00.000-08:00

Same old, same old.

I haven't blogged in a while because it seems that life is just the same. Other than a few dental appointments and a baby with a cough, life is just life.

We are getting ready to head out for our big Christmas vacation. I'm looking forward to that. It will be nice to fly this time instead of spending hours and hours and hours in a car. I shipped the gifts down yesterday, so I don't have to worry about trying to pack all of that on top of the clothes that we need for our 2 week trip. I keep checking

the weather reports and I'm SO looking forward to 75 degree weather. Who doesn't love opening gifts and then jumping in the pool on Christmas morning? Although, all the locals think it's WAY to cold to swim in that weather, we're not picky...

I do have a couple pictures of the kids "playing" with our friend Steve. His family came for dinner and while Mike and his wife were talking computers, he entertained the kids (all 5!). The kids totally loved it and I think he was having some flashbacks of when his 5 girls were little. Great people and great times.

Oh, and last night was our Enrichment Christmas Dinner. I am on the Enrichment committee at church as I was able to go and help. My friend Mary did an amazing job and it was a great success. I love visiting with all of my friends and catching up. I was also able to sit and visit with my new friend Rebecca. She is a hoot! Oh my goodness. She is a riot. Love her!

Tonight is a dinner for Mike's work. It's not a Christmas dinner, but still... It will be fun to visit with old friends and make some new ones. Oh and I love the outfit that I bought for it. I'll fill you in tomorrow if anything exciting happens!

Oh, and here's a picture of the turkey made for school. The kids had to cover the turkey in any way they wanted, but not with "typical" art supplies. Alia used a little yarn, beans, feathers, rice, pasta, split peas, almonds and a penny. Too cute. We did it together and had a blast!

I believe in miracles!

2008-12-05T06:14:00.000-08:00

I have a wonderful friend who was divorced about a year and a half ago. She has 2 young children. She has a jerk of an ex. She has gone through hell and back in the past 6 months. Without going into detail, I have been able to sit through a few court dates with her. Yesterday was the latest. She has really been given the run around. Her ex is a smooth talker. She is emotional. However, yesterday the judge was able to see through all the "stuff" that the ex was slinging (in a very eloquent way) to the heart of my friend and actually see what was really going on. Now, as I was sitting there, I was NOT objective. I wanted her to see justice, but after listening to him talk, I didn't know how that would be possible. He made his case sound sooo good. Luckily, through answered prayers and nothing short of a miracle, she was able to walk away with more than she could hope for (for now). I know that the judge was inspired to rule the way she did and am so grateful that my friend finally can see things move in her direction. Her situation is far from settled, but for now, it's more than she could hope for! As we walked out to the car, both of us with tears in our eyes, we knew that we had just witnessed a miracle!

I'm DONE!!!

2008-12-02T08:58:00.000-08:00

My Christmas shopping is done!

Well, maybe..

We're heading down to Arizona for Christmas, so we aren't doing a huge Christmas. Plus everything needs to be small enough to actually ship down there and back without costing more than Christmas alone! I'm very excited about the gifts for all the kids. I think they are going to love them. We're doing one big family gift and then each of the older kids get 1 item and the babies are getting a couple nice (but small) things. Mike got his blu-ray player and something else (I'm not telling) and I got my ipod player (and maybe a Cricket, not sure about that yet). We're done! Other than a few things for my parents and family down in AZ I'M DONE!!!

Man that feels good!

Black Friday

2008-11-28T17:20:00.000-08:00

I LOVE LOVE LOVE Black Friday! It's so much fun to get up early and fight crowds and get what you want. Ok, I don't really enjoy getting up early and I hate mean people. But it's still tradition and I do love it! This year I went all by myself. I actually enjoyed it.

I started at Walmart. I got there a little early. I found what I wanted first (after wandering the store to try to locate where it was!). Unfortunately, it was something that I was getting both the little girls and I was only able to get one. Then I headed to the electronics. Score for me. I picked up a Blue Ray Player.

Next I headed to Target. Apparently their sales started at 6 and it was just 5:30, so I left there and headed to Fred Meyer for the half price socks! I love half price socks! I also picked up a cool ipod alarm clock for me and another of the things for the girls that I only got one of at Walmart (get that?). They actually had an even better deal than Walmart. Oh well. I found a cute jacket for Alia too. She's the only one who didn't get a new coat this year, so I thought that I'd bring one home.

I finished up got home by 6:50. Mike and Adrie were the only one's awake, and they were still in bed. Soon after Alia woke up and I had her try on the jacket. Too small. Of course! I decided to take the girls into the Fred's in Canby and return the jacket and try to find another one. Adrie just HAD to go with me. UGH! Never again! Anyway we picked up a few more pairs of socks and a new jacket. Back home we went.

Conner earned some money for good grades and he wanted to go to the store to spend it. I jumped at the chance to go somewhere else! We headed back to Walmart. I picked up a few more small things for the babies and Conner got this really cool Nerf gun thing. Then back home.

I decided to go to Target to see what they had going on there, even though I missed the early bird sales. Conner and I went under the pretense that I needed cough medicine and he could get some more Nerf darts for his gun. I found a cool doll for Adrie (love Fancy Nancy!) and a few more things.

Then I took Conner to pick up his new glasses and we headed home. Whew.

Oh, and I forgot that in between shopping Adrie had a request. She wanted her hair cut like Cailes. OK! Here're the pics!

The last pics from Florida

2008-11-26T05:33:00.000-08:00

View from the grounds at our hotel in Tampa.

Our last full day in Florida, we drove to some outlying towns. We stopped and had lunch in Dunedin. Cute little town right on the gulf coast. Had a great Mexican lunch and then headed over to Honeymoon Beach. There we caught a ferry to Caladesi Island (voted the best beach ing 2008). It was beautiful. A little windy, but pretty warm and sunny. Gorgeous white sand beaches and tons of shells!

After that trip, we headed into Tampa for our hotel for the evening.

We chose something a few minutes from the airport, but still on the bay for our final night. It was actually a pretty nice place with an amazing view. After a nice dinner in a funky

part of Tampa called Ybor City, we headed back to the hotel for the evening. We had to wake up bright at early (3:30) to catch our 6am flight back home.

It was an amazing vacation. I'm so glad that I had the opportunity to go with Mike and make some new friends. I honestly had never really thought about Florida or if it was somewhere that I would ever like to visit. However, I fell in love with St. Petersburg and look forward to the day that I can go back.

Oh, and we found no evidence of ghosts in our hotel. Maybe next

time...

I know these are a bit out of order, still trying to perfect this!

A gopher turtle that we saw as soon as we landed at Caladesi Island.

The view of the bay through our hotel window the last night in Tampa.

Mike walking on the beach on Caladesi Island.

Cool bird perched as we took the ferry to Caladesi Island.

St. Petersburg Florida and Busch Gardens

2008-11-22T14:22:00.001-08:00

Here are a few pics from the past few days. Enjoy!

The Shiekra ride at Busch Gardens. Notice the people on the drop? Awesome ride!!!

Mike chatting with the kids at Busch Gardens. (I totally missed them there!)

Who can go to Florida and NOT get a picture of pink flamingo's? I took this one for Ann-Elise, who insisted I take one for her.

We ate lunch at the small little hole in the wall pizza place. Loved it. Anyway, this crane was just walking around right outside. How cool is that?

I love this picture of Mike. He had just finished his conference and joined me down on the veranda of the hotel. He just looks so relaxed. I must have sat down here for a good hour and a half yesterday. It was awesome!

For my sister...

2008-11-20T09:29:00.000-08:00

I went out for a walk this morning. Mike was gone before I even woke up (what's new there?). I needed breakfast. Even though my the clock said it was 9:30, my body was telling me something different! I headed out to find a nice little cafe that I could have a muffin and a steamer (shh, don't tell the girls, they love those!). Picked up my food and headed down to the water to eat. Just a short walk across a small park.

Here's the view right across the street from our hotel.

And I know that this pic is blurry (gotta love this camera! My new one did come, btw, just YESTERDAY after we left for Florida. Oh well!) but I thought this little squirrel was so cute!

And she's off...

2008-11-19T17:14:00.000-08:00

After a 6.5 hour flight and more smells and people than I can count, I'm here! Mike and I arrived in St. Petersburg at 2pm our time and 5pm Florida time. We were able to enjoy an amazing dinner (lunch) with his coworker, Brian and his wife. Fun times. I'm not really sure what I'll be up to tomorrow, but if it's fun, I'll let you know. Have a fun week! Ohh, and I'm in the haunted hotel, but not on the "haunted" floor, so I'll let you know if anything exciting happens!

Alia's fun day

2008-11-18T07:38:00.000-08:00

Last Friday Alia had an amazing experience. Every fall, her school does a fundraiser. The highest sellers are awarded a "Limo Lunch". The kids are able to pick one friend and they all travel to the posh, 5 star restaurant called McDonalds and are treated to a happy meal.

No, Alia was NOT the high seller, but she does know how to pick her friends and her good friend Madison invited her to come along. So, they were picked up last Friday in a stretch limo.

Me, being the bad mom that I am, didn't go to take pictures. But I also know how to pick my friends and was able to have some pictures given to me by the good parents who did go.

Beautiful Girls

2008-11-17T07:28:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we had some visitors at church with us. My mother in law, Janet is staying with us from Arizona for a few days and my parents decided to come out and visit for the kids primary program. My brother, Bryan, is moving to Hawaii next week so we were planning on a nice family dinner. Anyway, regardless, I had found a really good deal on a couple dresses for the older girls on Saturday and thought I could dress everyone up. Adrie and Caile both had older dresses that matched what the older kids were wearing, so they were able to wear those and feel special too! Here are a couple pics from our little "photo shoot". Notice that Conner is no where to be found. He was NOT cooperating, so I kicked him out! Why is there always one to ruin the fun???

explanation...

2008-11-15T15:41:00.000-08:00

I feel the need to explain on of my 31 things things.

The first thing I put was that I HATE public schools. While this is true, I didn't mean for it to be so bold by the space after the first line. I still haven't figured out why that happens every time I post. So the explanation is...

I don't have anything against any school in particular, and definitely NOT again any teacher or assistant that works in the public school system. Not even against any administration or school board members (ok, I DON'T like the principal at one of my kids' school, but that's more of a personal issue. I just don't like HIM).

I feel that our school systems are totally mandated by state and federal regulations. There are so many benchmarks that need to be met to make sure that "no child is left behind" that ALL the children are being left behind due to a need to "teach to the test". To make sure that tests are passed, not lessons learned.

This was blatantly apparent last year when Conner was in 4th grade I was amazed at the amount of state testing that was performed. They would spend time learning what was going to be on the test, then taking pretests, then the real tests, if they didn't pass, then they would test again. Oh and then in February they have the big writing test. UGH! I NEVER saw homework that didn't relate to whatever subject they were "cramming" for for the next test.

Do I feel that this is because of bad teachers? Heck no. And I love the principal at Alia's school. She's very open and honest and very easy to talk too. She's also the first to admit that the system isn't made for every child to succeed. Also, while I wasn't impressed with either teacher that Conner had last year, I couldn't be happier with the teacher that Alia has this year. Her name is Michelle Leishman and she is one of the best teachers that we've ever had at North Marion. She loves what she does and she is trying to help each and every child succeed.

In Conner's situation last year, I felt that the school (no fault of their own) was spending all effort to have the lowest level of students rise up, however, if you were an average or above student, you were doing just fine. If you're passing the state tests, it's all good. We felt that Conner was totally overlooked. Is he a perfect child? Nope. Is he motivated to work to his full potential? Nope, not even close. But he wasn't expected to do any better than the "average" that he was doing.

As parents, we felt that he needed to be in an environment where he could have the attention that he needed and that he needed to be mentally stimulated at the level he was working at. I can't even tell you how much he is succeeding. I love the small feel of the private school that he is at. I love that his teacher takes it upon herself to find ways for him to succeed. Is he tested, yep. But I'll tell you what, that kid has learned more in the first 10 weeks of school than he did all year last year.

We are blessed to be in a situation that through sacrifice we will be able to send all the kids there next year. I know that I'm on my soapbox and I hope that I didn't offend anyone with my strong opinion, but I felt that I needed to clarify my position.

Off my soapbox now, carry on.

31 Things I Know... (thanks Rebecca!)

2008-11-14T10:55:00.000-08:00

1. I HATE public schools

2. I love private schools

3. The state of our country honestly scares me

4. I know I could be better

5. At everything

6. I love my husband more than myself

7. I'm looking forward to my kids being gone and it's just Mike and me

8. I love the gospel

9. I need to be more diligent

10. In a lot of things

11. I'm not a very good mom

12. I want to be a good mom

13. I love my kids

14. I don't deserve the life I have

15. I'm not a very positive person

16. I really don't like that about myself.

17. I try to be a good friend

18. I want to be a better friend

19. I am totally spoiled

20. I like being able to help others

21. I wonder what I'm going to do with myself when my kids are all in school (next year!)

22. I wish I knew my mom better

23. I have a lot of issues

23. I like being good at things

24. There aren't very many things I'm good at

25. I love to laugh

26. I don't do it often enough

27. I love to travel

28. I have an amazing (and huge) extended family

29. I know that Jesus Christ is my personal Savior

30. I love teaching my sunday school class

31. I wish I was a better teacher

Just another average day

2008-11-13T09:45:00.000-08:00

6:15 wake up. Make sure Conner's showered and ready for school. Homeworks in his bag and teeth are brushed. Oh, don't forget breakfast and a snack.

7:25 carpool comes. He's out the door. Alia's up and showered. Has even eaten breakfast. Love that girl. I'm very proud of myself because I remember that she has activity day girls today, so I need to write a note for the new bus stop. Leise comes downstairs and isn't feeling well. Great! I get her some tylenol hoping that kicks in and I can send her to school. Adrie's up and screaming for something/or everything. Cailes up and acting like Adrie. Demanding sippy cups, breakfast, a bath, clothes...

8:20 Alia leaves for her bus stop. Leise's back in bed. I have a few minutes. Let's see... Conner has a half day and I need to take a dessert and a salad to his school for the teacher conferences. I need to get that done this morning, or it won't happen.

9:00 start salad stuff. Easy enough. Get desert done and cut into pieces so I don't have to take me good pyrex pan. Girls are now bathed, however only one of them is dressed. Oh no. Caile decided to use the family room floor as her new potty (can you guess who wasn't dressed?). I find this amazing because that child WILL NOT go potty in the toilet for the life of her. Great. Another bath for her, scrubbing of carpet and more laundry. Really, what's a little more?

9:30 kids are quiet, salad's made, dessert's ready. Shoot, Missionaries for dinner. Ok, when do I have time to get that ready? Oh and one can't eat white flour (WTH?) so I have to make whole wheat noodles for the chicken noodle soup. Uh, OK. Never tried that, but what the heck?

10:00 Leise pops her head up and comes to eat some food. Poor thing. And I think the Tylenol is FINALLY working. Although a little too well! Finish getting Adrie ready for school. Caile totally dressed and me showered and dressed.

11:45 load everyone, all food plus report card in the Suburban and drive Adrie to the bus stop and wait for the bus that is, of course, late! Then rush to St. Luke's to do the afternoon pickup. Wait in the long car line get 4 kids and take off. Drop Caile off at her friend Zach's house and run back to town to drop the extra carpool kids off. Rush to our house so Conner can grab some lunch then back to St. Luke's.

12:40 arrive back at the school. Oh yeah, they have a book fair, let's go check it out to kill a couple minutes until it's our turn for conferences. After picking up a book for Conner we go down the hall to his room. His teacher is just getting back from lunch and can take us early. Whoo hoo! Conference went great. He's great, school's great...

1:20 back to pick up Caile from her friends house and back home. I neglected to grind the wheat in the morning, so I need to start that. Dang it. I need more spinach for the salad. Quick stop to the store before running home. I just love going to the store with children! It's awesome! After 400 can I have this, or this looks really cool, and 400 "mom glares" we're out the door with our spinach.

2:3o back home and I get Leise grinding the wheat. Ok, so it's just an attachment to my kitchen aid, so all she has to do is watch, but it kept her entertained! I start the dough for the pasta. Easy enough. But I'm not sure how well this is going to turn out!

3:00 I'd better start the soup so I don't have to rush it. Chop all the carrots and celery and my very favorite thing in the world to chop, onions. Seriously, this is the worst thing for me. I do this "onion dance" and cry. My kids think it's the funniest thing. Next time Conner can do it.

Oh, and did I mention that as I'm trying to cook, I'm also helping Conner with his homework? Multi tasking, it's what moms do best!

3:45 the soup is cooking away at the stove, Conner's still working on homework and Leise is out waiting for Adrie to get off the bus (they won't let her off without someone to get her). Caile decides that she doesn't need a nap today, so she's a little whiney, but doing ok. I get the salad ready for dinner with the missionaries. I spend the next 30 minutes picking up the house some so it looks presentable.

4:2o I get a call from Mike saying that he left work late. Umm, will you be home by 5:30? I can't let the missionaries in if you're not here! Hopefully, but traffic's bad. Great!

4:50 shoot. I forgot about Alia. Do I really want to load everyone up and drive over there? Usually Mike just picks her up on the way home, but that's not gonna work today. I call my neighbor who's daughter is there too, yep, she's just heading out to get her. Can she pick up Alia too? Yep. Perfect!!! Conner sets the table for dinner. Gotta love that!

5:10 Mike gets home, dinner's ready, tables set. Just need the missionaries!

5:30 missionaries get there, we sit down for a nice peaceful dinner (enter sarcasm here. Have you ever tried eating with 5 kids 10 and under? Peaceful DOES NOT describe it!) Whole wheat eggs noodles are ok. The soup is still really good. So, I suppose that's a good alternative, however, I'll stick to white flour when it's just us.

6:15 dinner's done, now it's clean up. I spend the next 30 minutes getting dinner dishes cleared, rinsed, loaded and counters and table cleaned off. Conner helps with the table.

7:00 Joe comes over to go out on visits with Mike. We chat for a few minutes then the guys are off. I send the kids to get ready for bed. It's gonna be an early night for them! They go upstairs and are pretty quiet.

8:00 I get Caile into bed, tuck Leise in. Head to Alia and Adrie's room. Adrie is full of something! She is NOT going to go to bed. UGH! Get Alia tucked in and work on Adrie again. I head back downstairs.

8:30 Adries up and down. Finally I just yell at her and tell her to go to bed. I don't see her again!!! However, I keep hearing all these weird noises. Bumps and slams and movement. Honestly, at this point, I don't really care what it is!!!

9:15 Conner comes down and tells me that he's cleaned his whole room. What??? Who are you and what have you done with my son??? I go upstairs to check it out. Sure enough. Perfect. Amazing. To "reward" him, I take the time to read with him. Usually, if he's not in bed at bed time, then I won't read to him or tuck him in. We read a couple chapters in his book report book and then I hear Mike.

9:45 Mikes in our room, I get ready for bed and spend the next hour watching tv and surfing the net. Ahhhh, what a fun day. If only I didn't have to repeat it again tomorrow!

Is there anything exciting?

2008-11-10T14:53:00.000-08:00

It seems that a lot of things have been happening around here, but it just doesn't seem very "blog worthy". How's that for a boring life? I've been in a bit of a funk since the election last week. It's been really good for me to do some research and a lot of thinking. What do I believe, why do I believe it? How does it fit into my daily life? I don't really stop and think outside my little box very often. It seems that the life of the world is lived inside the walls of my house. It's not often that I take the time to really figure out what's really going on out there.

Anyway, Conner got his report card on Friday. I was a bit apprehensive. New school. New curriculum. But he did great! He had a 3.3 average. That's amazing considering this was a kid that was basically getting c's and d's from school last year. We are so pleased with his progress. I love that he belongs to a school that is a family as well.

Another cool thing this past week was that our family went to Conner's schools Harvest Dance. It's a DJed dance for the whole family. We had a blast! Conner was off playing football with his buddies, but the rest of us were jamming inside. We brought our babysitter, Kynna, with us. She kept the kids around and showed the older girls some fun new dances. They loved it. And I don't think I've ever seen Caile so happy. Really. She was in heaven jumping and dancing all over the place. Even if she was all by herself and we were sitting down at the table, she'd be off by the DJ jamming. Too cute! I'll post some pics as soon as my friend gets them to me.

I also took some super cute video of the kids wrestling with Mike. It's one of their favorite things to do. As soon as Mike walks in the door, they're asking them to wrestle. I had a couple minutes of great stuff. However, I went to download it today and it seems that it's been replaced with Conner taking footage of trying to get our friend Trischelle to look at the camera. I stepped out for a couple hours and she was watching the kids for me. Seems that it turned into a game for Conner. I can only assume that he figured out how to delete what was already on there to get more stuff. Which, in itself, is amazing to me. I still have to go through a bunch of stuff before I can remember how to do that! Oh well. Maybe next time!

Oh, and I'm just about finished with a cool blanket that I'm crocheting for Conner. He picked out the yard on Saturday and I've been working on it ever since. As soon as it's done I'll post a pic. I really like it. It's hard for me to find a pattern that isn't too hard, but isn't so easy that I can only do 2 rows before I'm bored out of my mind!

*update - my sister was getting on my for not having pictures, so I took a couple of the blanket. It's not done but you get the idea of what it looks like.

The dawning of a new day

2008-11-05T07:46:00.001-08:00

Regardless of your political beliefs, we will have a new president.

I truly hope that it's all roses as many think. Really! However, the beliefs of our new president don't mesh with mine. That being said, I will support him.

As I was talking with my kids this morning and explaining to them that even though the candidate that we wanted to win, didn't, we still needed to be gracious and respectful to those who's views are different than ours.

(OK, now I get religious, so close me down if you don't want to hear about it, but it is my blog!)

I was telling Conner that our Heavenly Father has a plan. We need to have faith in HIS direction. He will have people placed in positions in the world that will allow for the second coming of Christ. Even if we don't see the big picture, it will be ok.

Conner, bless his heart, said, "Mom, why doesn't Heavenly Father have things get REALLY bad and then when Jesus comes people will see him and believe him?".

I just said, that's a great plan Conner! I think that's just what Heavenly Father has planned for us.

So, there you go, the pure faith of a 10 year old!

Happy Anniversary

2008-11-04T07:20:00.000-08:00

Today is our 13th anniversary. It's hard to believe that it's been that long, and that short! It seems that we've lived a few lifetimes in 13 years. I don't think I could have ever envisioned what my life was going to be like when we took those vows. I look back and can only count my blessings. I truly have the most amazing husband. And my children are blessed that he's their dad. He loves me in spite of all my faults. He only sees the good in people. I learn from him daily. I love you Mike and look forward to spending eternity with you!

Happy Halloween

2008-11-01T13:33:00.000-07:00

We like candy. A lot. So we trick or treat 2 night instead of 1! Our ward always done a big, fun Trunk or Treat the night before Halloween. So on Thursday, we took 4 friends with us and headed to the church for the awesome chili feed. After that, and a few games for the kids, we headed out for the trick or treat part. This year was a lot of fun because it was the first time I didn't have to go with the kids. I was able to send them off on their way with each of the older girls hanging onto one of the babies and I hung out with Mike in the Suburban. It was fun to spend time with him and meet some new people. I didn't get a picture of Conner on his own, but here are my little goblins!

Conner was actually the Tasmanian Devil (very fitting). Alia was supposed to be Tinkerbell, but I think she changed her title at the last minute to just a fairy. Ann-Elise was supposed to be a hula girl, but ended up being a bit of a "goth" hula girl. Adrie was a princess. And Caile was a very grumpy lady bug.

On Halloween, Conner took off with 3 of his friends. I took the girls out with a couple of my friends. We had a great time. The weather was perfect and the kids held up really well. Even the little girls! Mike stayed home to pass out candy (or watch the Blazer game...).

I can remember when I was a kid and my mom would take us kids trick or treating and my dad's job was to stay home and pass out the candy. Apparently, tempted by the idea of a whole hour of uninterrupted tv time, we'd always come home to the porch light off and the candy bowl full and dad in the back bedroom watching tv. Oh my mom would get mad! It may have only happened once, but to me, that's my childhood Halloween memory.

Anyway, I came home to an almost empty candy bowl, so I knew that Mike was doing his job! Actually, he enjoys seeing all the kids in their costumes. I'm glad that he enjoys that, because I don't!

The kids ended up having a great time and getting a ton of candy. And I think most of them have their costumes picked out for next year!

Adrie's pumpkin patch field trip

2008-11-01T06:42:00.001-07:00

Adrie had her school pumpkin patch trip on Thursday.. I was able to go with her and we had a great time. I think this is honestly the only field trip that I enjoy going on. Not because the trip itself is fun, but because they go during their first year or two of school and it's so fun to watch the kids experience their first field trip.

Adrie is in afternoon preschool this year. It's my first experience with afternoon school. I didn't think I'd like it and I probably wouldn't request it, but it's been great for her this year. She only has 9 kids in her class as opposed to the 17 or so that are in the morning class. That alone make a bus trip with preschools bearable!

We went to a place that the older kids had been when they were in preschool. It hasn't been open for a few years. It was totally different than it was before, but it was really cool. The lady that runs it it trying to purchase the land and turn it into a wild life sanctuary. Cool idea, but I'm glad I don't live too close! She had a baby tiger and a baby lion. And by baby, I mean the lion was probably only about 50 pounds and the tiger was only 150! There were also a lot of other exotic animals that I don't remember what they were.

They also had a reptile exhibit. And let me say this. There is NO way we are getting any creepy crawly animals! No way, no how! Sorry, but they are just totally creepy to me.

They also had a petting zoo and some fun inflatable slide and obstacle courses.

Other than the "ouchie" Adrie got on her knee after falling in the gravel, we had a great time! It was so cute because she was wearing her Halloween pants that say "BOO" on the butt. Her teacher thought they were the cutest thing and kept taking pictures of her back side! In fact they had all the kids sit on a bench to get a class picture. After they got the nice picture, they had Adrie sit up on her knees and turn to the back so they could get her boo butt. Adrie had no idea what was going on or why she was the only one asked to turn around. But she did it like a trooper. She's so cute!

After the mad rush to get the pumpkins because we were running out of time, we made it back to the school. We had a great time and I am so glad that I was able to spend the time with Adrie!

A fun little story:

On Thursday, I filled the candy bowl in preparation for trunk or treat. After I did that, I ran upstairs to fold some clothes. When I cam down, Adrie and Caile had taken EVERY stuffed animal they could find and set them out around the dining room table. For the animals that didn't have chairs, they were set up on top of the table. In front of each animal was 1 mini kit kat bar and a spoon. All placed perfectly. Too cute! I know, I should have taken pictures of that one, but I was too focused on getting the table cleaned off and I didn't think about it until half of it was put away. Oh well, maybe next time. And it looks like Adrie has a new job home!

My little Cheerleader

2008-10-27T08:22:00.000-07:00

I know that this is very overdue, but I finally got some pictures of Alia cheering. She had her last game on Saturday. Unfortunately, it was the only game all season that they cheered at that the NM team lost. There are 4 teams that they take turns cheering for. It has been nice because they always cheer at the home field. She had a great season and loved it. I'm really proud of her for doing something so "out there" and not only sticking with it but really excelling at it. I tried multiple times to include some video, but I can't seem to get it to post, so pictures will have to do!

The race pictures are here

2008-10-26T08:18:00.000-07:00

Here are the picture from the 5k/1k race that we did. Conner and Ann-Elise ran in the kids 1k race and Mike, his buddy Peter, and I all ran in the 5k. However, I thought I'd spare everyone and didn't buy the picture of me!

The Fall - And not the season!

2008-10-22T09:06:00.000-07:00

We've already had quite a week. On Monday, as we were waiting for the preschool bus at the corner, Adrie fell and hit her ear on the stop sign pole. She hit right on the tip. You know that part that HURTS and BRUISES??? Ya, that part. She decided that she still wanted to take the bus to school, even though she was crying. I thought she was being quite a trooper. As soon as I got home I called her teacher and told her what had happened so if they needed me to come get her, they had my number. She made it through the day, no problem.

Then yesterday about 20 minutes before we were to go to the bus stop, she was running up the stairs. The same stairs that she has run up a million times. Well, this time her foot slipped and she went down. Hard. I was sitting close by and figured out what happened as soon as I heard it. She was crying and I, being the wonderful mom that I am, very calmly told her to come over to me. Well, as soon as she turned to me I saw the mouthful of blood. Great. That got me up! I went over to her and picked her up. We went to the kitchen and grabbed a paper towel. In the mouth it went. I just needed the bleeding to slow down enough so I could see what the damage was. HUGE hole in her lip. Huge. It was about the size of a pencil eraser. Gross! Her teeth had cut through her lower lip almost through to

the facial skin on the outside. It was so deep that you could actually see the teeth imprint and bruise on the OUTSIDE! She also had a rug burn on her chin. Poor thing!

I called the advise nurse, just to make sure that my initial diagnosis was accurate (nothing can be done. We don't stitch the inside of the mouth...). Yep. I must have done this before because I was right! So I kept her home from school and gave her some tylenol. That seemed to help the pain. She is such an amazing sport. She very rarely will complain! Here are some pics. The first one was about an hour after it happened yesterday. Pretty fat lip! The rest are from today. Sorry my camera is so bad. Maybe for Christmas I'll have to get a new one (hint hint Michael!)

And actually today, the outer part that was just bruised yesterday is scabby and crusty so I'm thinking that it did cut through the whole lip. Yuck!!!

A beauty

2008-10-21T07:55:00.000-07:00

So, I just finished my "quirks" post and thought that I HAVE to post this picture of Adrie. She is such a little dolly! I took her to her tumbling class last Saturday and Brenda, you'll be happy to know that I even took my camera!!! Because of the light in the gym, only 1 picture turned out well, but it was perfect!

Becki's Quirks

2008-10-21T07:42:00.000-07:00

Well I've been tagged twice now to list 6 of my Quirks. So, I suppose you are all dying to know what they are. So, here goes...

1) When I travel, I'm compulsive about having a clean hotel room or condo. Seriously. EVERYTHING has to be put away. No living out of suitcases for us! Kitchen has to be spotless and every dish done. Funny thing is that my own house is NEVER clean. Doesn't matter how hard I try, the kids mess it up faster than I can clean it, so at this point, I've pretty much just given up.

2) As much as I complain about all my kids clothes, I can't stop buying them more. I HATE the laundry, but I love to get cute/cool stuff for them!

3) I'm obsessive with my computer. If I sit for a minute, I want my laptop to check my email accounts and the few sites that I visit regularly.

4) Can't sleep in an unmade bed. Ok, I stole this one from Mary, but it applies to me too! Even if it's midnight, I need to make my bed before I can sleep in it. Luckily I think this has rubbed off on Mike and if he goes to bed before me, he'll do it for me!

5)I obsess about 1 thing. It doesn't really matter what it is at the moment, but it's all consuming. It could be a new craft, a book, an activity or, one of the worst, planning a vacation. Oh man, that one's a nightmare. Making sure everything is going to be perfect! It's all I can focus on.

6) When I fold laundry, it has to be on my bed. And the bed HAS to be made (of course). The funny thing is that if I don't feel like making my bed, the laundry will wait.

I know that there are many more things I could add to the list, but we'll just call it good at these!

Thanks to Brenda and Mary for "motivating" me to do this one!

A day in the sun

2008-10-18T14:53:00.000-07:00

So, after our fun day with my niece, Chayli, our family headed out to a local farm for their annual fall festival. I think that one of the great things about living in a rural area is the great fresh farm foods and fun! I took the kids to this farm last year and let them run a muck. They have been begging for the past month to go again. So, with all of the amazing sunshine yesterday, we headed out. Mike even came home from work early so we could go as soon as Conner got home from school. As soon as we got there and we all got our tickets, we were off to the fun stuff. The kids wanted to go through the kids maze first. That was fun. It was really nice to see all the kids getting along and taking turns helping (and actually enjoying) the littler girls. After the kids maze we headed to the dark maze. Oh my goodness. Talk about insane! I think we spend 40 minutes in there, in the dark, and it's HOT! After finding 20 different ways to get to the same spot in the maze (and NOT the exit) we decided to come back out the way we came in. That was a bit discouraging, and Conner was NOT wanting to give up, but alas, there was much to do and we were running out of time. Next we were off to the obstacle course. Again, the kids were amazing. Totally cute. Next was the corn maze. We walked in and decided that we weren't up to another maze and backed back out. Mike took the kids to play in the big pirate ship made out of hay while I headed into the store to buy some apples. After buying about 30 pounds of them, I headed back out to the family. As soon as the kids saw me coming, they stopped what they were doing and came over to help load everything in the Suburban. How cool was that? No one complained about wanting to stay. It was awesome. It was a fun day and I really enjoyed spending the time with everyone. Once again, I'm sure they'll be anxiously awaiting next years trip!

Enjoying a cousin

2008-10-17T19:30:00.000-07:00

My sister went out of town and left her daughter (2.5) with my parents. Because my sister lives in Bend, my girls don't get to spend a ton of time with their girl cousin very often. But because she was close, my parents brought her out to our house to play today. We decided to take all the girls to McDonald's for lunch. All of my girls were home today because of an inservice day. It was so cute to watch the girls giggle and laugh. And the older girls were so sweet with the younger ones. I forgot my camera (what's new?) but snapped a couple (really bad) pics from my phone.

One Word

2008-10-16T17:12:00.000-07:00

*Use the first letter of your last name to answer each of the following with ONE word...*they have to be real places, names, things... nothing made up! Try to use different answers if the person in front of you had the same 1st initial.

1. What is your last name?............................Lader

2. 4 letter word................................................Lips

3. Vehicle.........................................................Lexus

4. City/Neighborhood..................................Laurelhurst

5. Boy Name..................................................Liam

6. Girl Name..................................................Leise

7. Occupation.................................................Lawyer

8. Something you wear...............................Lingerie

9. Food.............................................................Lasagna

10. Found in a bathroom..............................Lysol

11. Reason for being late..............................Listening

12. Something you shout.............................LISTEN!!!

13. Animal........................................................Liger

14. Body Part...................................................Legs

Race Day

2008-10-13T09:30:00.001-07:00

On Saturday we took the younger girls to my friend Mary's house (thanks Mary!!!) and Alia had to cheer at a game. Mike, Conner, Analyse and I all went out to Gresham (like the new spelling? I'm tired of her being called Ann, so we're going to try it for a while...). It was a FREEZING cold morning! We had all preregistered, so we just had to get our numbers. They also outfitted us with some "cool" running gloves. The grown ups got white ones and the kids got some stretchy blue ones. Time to go line up for the kids 1k race. Conner was in top form. He did a little warm up run with dad and got set to go. Leise (or would it be Lyse?) was a little more reserved, as was her mom who was running with her! We got set to go. Conner worked his way up to the front line. Analyse and I hung out towards the middle. We weren't in any hurry! After a little pep talk from the race organizer, the kids were off. Conner was off like a bolt of lightning. You have to give it to that kids. He's FAST! Analyse was more reserved. In fact, about 5 steps into the race she was in tears and ready to quit. She doesn't do so well when it's something that is new to her. And especially if it's something that she feels pressure to finish (umm, like a RACE! Hadn't really thought that one through!). I just grabbed her hand and we ran together. She was really wanting to quit. But me, being the good mother that I am, wouldn't let her. I didn't care if her side had a cramp. She was going to finish! Conner passed up before we even hit the halfway mark! I actually think Mike was having a hard time keeping up with him! Anyway, as we turned the last corner, Analyse was ready to sprint. She let go of my hand and ran as fast as she could to the finish. I think she finished in about 8 minutes. We caught up with Conner. Little man was first!!! He finished in about 4 minutes. That was cool. Both the kids were enjoying themselves now that their part was over! But we were on the the big people next!

The 15k races started 10 minutes ahead of the 5k racers. It was still pretty cold, but we shed our outer layers to get ready for the run. The first racers were off. Now countdown for the rest of us. Mike and his buddy Peter were close to the start line. I, however, was towards the back. No point making the fast people run around me more than they needed to! Whistle blew and we were off. It was a nice course. Mike and Peter passed me on a little out and back that they had at the start of the course. They were at a pretty good pace. I knew that they'd finish well. I however, was passed by the oldest guy running and then later in the course an old lady WALKING with a CANE! Seriously! She smoked me. Oh. Did I mention that I was RUNNING??? Now that's a good one! I did see Mike and Peter again as they were coming around, almost done. As I was coming to the end, I saw Conner and Analyse waving to me. They wanted to finish the run with me. That wasn't nearly as much fun as I thought it would be. They never stopped talking or asking questions. Oh, now I remember why I like to run. The silence!!! I finally finished. I ran 14:40 miles. UGH! But I didn't really train so, I was willing to take my time! Mike however, finished 3rd in his age group and his buddy Peter finished 2nd in his. By then the sun had decided to come out and we were able to enjoy the beautiful day. We had to stick around for the awards for the guys to get their ribbons. They also had a raffle and Conner won an Adidas basketball jersey and Analyse won a shoe wallet. Now it's time to get ready for the next race. November 15th we'll be doing a 10k. Guess I'd better actually train for that one!!!

Where does the time go?

2008-10-08T13:40:00.000-07:00

So, here I sit. Quiet. Ahhh, now that's something I could get used to! If it wasn't for the annoying sounds of Nemo in the background all would be well! Anyway, I just can't believe how quick time is flying by! It seems that I just posted something and it's already been a week.

I keep thinking that as soon as something "exciting" happens, I'll post about it, but nothing "exciting" seems to happen around here!

So, let's see...

Conner got his first progress report from his new school. He did really well. Out of 10 grades, he had 5 A's, 3 B's, 1 C and 1 D. The C and D are in heath and reading. Reading has been a huge struggle for him forever. Not surprisingly the Health class requires a lot for reading and then testing on what you read. So in my mind they kinda go together! We were very impressed with the work that he's doing. There is definitely some room for improvement, but for the most part, we were thrilled with how well he's getting along.

Alia is still knee deep in Cheer. And she LOVES it. I am so impressed with how dedicated she is. And she's GOOD! I mean REALLY good! Makes me (the old cheerleading captain) very proud! She ended up not cheering at the game last Saturday due to standing water in the "cheer" section of the field. Lucky us! I really didn't want to be out in the pouring rain anyway!

Ann-Elise is amazing. She is a fabulous student. Really! Every subject. It amazes me how easily everything comes to her and just how well she's able to do in all subjects. I feel very distanced from her again this year as I have yet to spend any time in her classroom. I should probably try to fix that... But I do enjoy those 2 hours a week that I have of quiet time. I don't know if I want to give those up for some time with 25 7-8 year olds!

I'm not sure how Adrie survived prior to preschool. That kid LIVES for getting on the bus to go to school. This week we've added an even more exciting element to school. HOT LUNCH! Oh yes. Not just pb&j from home anymore! But real food too. She loves to come home and talk about all of her friends and is just in love with both her teacher and her aid. What a little dolly. She is getting so big. It amazes me how quick they grow!

Caile hasn't been feeling well the past 2 days. That makes life pretty difficult for me. She's already a hard kid, but add a fever and not wanting to be put down on top of it and it's horrible! I'm not sure wh

at's wrong with her, but hopefully it will be short lived. Other than that, it's been fun taking her out for outings while Adrie is in school in the afternoons. In fact today she became very upset with me after I put Adrie on the bus and told her that we didn't have to go anywhere today. She was pretty adamant that we go SOMEWHERE! I'll have to plan more fun things to do with her while it's just the 2 of us!

Mike and I have a 5k run that we're doing on Saturday. I haven't been very good at running lately so Mike made me go out on Monday with him. I'm STILL sore! But I need it for Saturday, so I'll be out there again tonight trying to better my time. I'm excited about this run. It should be fun. They also have a 1k kids run that both Conner and Ann-Elise are signed up for. Alia's cheering, so she's off the hook. Still not sure what I'm going to do with the ba

bies, but I'm sure I'll figure that out before Saturday (well, one can hope! Any volunteers?) Conner's pretty excited about the run. I think he'll do pretty well. He's quite a quick runner. Hopefully the short distance will be good for him. He has asthma, so long distances are pretty hard for him. But this should be just fine...

I also started making cute little hair clips for the girls. I love them. The girls seem to like them too. They are

really easy to make and pretty quick. It also helps when the older girls get excited because

I can use them to help!

Oh, and on a purely fun note. Mike and I are headed to Tampa for 5 days next month. I booked the airfare last week and just finished by booking the hotel today. YEAH. It's really going to happen! A funny story: Mike is going for a business conference. Therefore, his company is paying for the hotel the first 3 nights that we're there. It's actually a really nice hotel (too rich for my blood! When we have to pay, we'll be moving to another, not so nice hotel!). Last Wednesday night I was online showing Conner the hotel. Looking at the pictures. Drooling over the really nice beds and awesome view. Then I sent him to bed and headed upstairs to check out one of my favorite shows "Ghost Hunters" on SciFi. I'm not paying a whole lot of attention because I brought up my laptop to do some more research. On one of the rare moments when I was actually watching, they gave the name of the hotel in Florida that they were going to be checking out. For ghosts. Real ghosts. Guess what? It's the same hotel that Mike and I are going to be staying at. The really nice one that his company is paying for. And they found PARANORMAL activity. Oh my. Now let's add to my fun vacation the GHOSTS that live in the hotel too. So, this should be a fun trip! I'll let you know how that goes when I get back!

A fun day with friends

2008-10-01T20:57:00.000-07:00

Today was school picture day for Ann-Elise and Adrie. Seeing as how Adrie doesn't go to school until the afternoon, I had time to get her all dolled up. Ann-Elise is, as always, gorgeous, so I wasn't too concerned about her pics. However, Adrie has freaky hair, so I asked my friend Mary to do her hair this morning. So, after the older girls headed off to school, I loaded up the younger 2 and we went to visit Mary and 2 of her kids, Jeb and Kaze. Jeb is about 9 months older than Adrie and they have VERY similar temperments. They are crazy monkeys! And they LOVE each other. And now that I think about it, even though Jeb is older, I think they'll be in the same year of school. That's cool! Anyway, after Mary did Adrie's hair and her and I visited for a while, I took the girls home. But while we were visiting, she told me that I should bring Caile back in the afternoon so she could play while I had a dentist appointment. Never one to turn down free babysitting, I took her up on the offer. So, we got Adrie on the bus and then headed back to Mary's. Jebby (as the girls call him) was so excited to see Caile to play with her, so I jump at the opportunity to head out the door. After my dental appointment and running some errands, I picked her back up. Mary had to be at Activity Day Girls at 4 and she didn't have a sitter so I told her to bring over the 3 of her kids that she had at that time. So, I had Kaze (almost 1), Jeb (almost 4) and Seth (6ish). Oh my goodness. What fun my kids had! Adrie and Jeb were jumping off the walls (literally!) Conner was LOVING having 2 little boys to play with. Seriously, I don't think I have ever seen him so patient and considerate with ANYONE like he was the Jeb and especially Seth. Too cute! Ann-Elise and her buddy Brooke were enjoying keeping Kaze entertained. The boys spent a lot of time flying a kite. Then it was more fun to take the broken one and just glide it back and forth for a while. Anyway, here are some super cute pics of the kids while they were playing!

Adrie and Jeb just chillin'.

Big hug

Group hug! I love Jeb's expression here!

Seth with the "glider"

Conner playing with Seth

Alia striking a pose

Janey. As adorable as her mom!