60 years already?

I swear my dad has been in his 50's FOREVER! Or so it seems. I guess the older I get it feels like everyone else has slowed down-maybe also dad reminding me that he was forty when we lived in Iceland and we reminisced about the over the hill balloons and gifts we showed up with at his office. That seems like a million years ago! Anyways on Saturday, mom planned a morning breakfast birthday surprise for Dad. Our family arrived first and got to see the surprise on his face as I handed him hash browns and carrot cake. He just kept smiling and saying what is this. Oh not to mention the bathrobe he was wearing totally showed how unknowing he was to the surprise-what fun! So this blog is for Dad- really -and he seems to think blog pages are for bragging so here you go Dad- MY dad is sooooo old- he is probably older than your dad and better as well. He is the most spiritual and patient person I know and is a great grandpa too. He gardens better than anyone I know and his raspberries taste the best!!! Did you read my blog about his english toffee -oh man I need to get me some more of that- who needs to wait till christmas?!!! Oh and he can beat your Dad at anything! Do I need to go on???!!!! Love you Dad! Happy 60th!

Hickory Dickory dock.....

Today for Jocelyns preschool she was to dress up as a nursery rhyme character. She wanted to be a mouse from Hickory Dickory Dock. So last night at oh- 9:00pm- after blue and gold banquet, I remebered this! Aarrrghhh! So luckily - after searching through all my fabric- I was able to find grey and pink fabric-perfect! Needless to say by 11 o'clock I was exhausted and ready for bed! But I think she turned out to be a pretty cute mouse and she loved it.

Sunday Laziness

Jocelyn and Riley wanted me to take their picture on Sunday while they ate their snacks so I thought I would do a blog about our typical Sunday- nothing really exciting but hey I work every Saturday night so Sundays are low key for us. Of course we go to church and manage to survive a chaotic hour of sacrament meeting- am I suppose to actually be able to hear what the speaker is saying?! After church usually we're greeted as we come home by the amazing smell of crock-pot roast (Ben says this is the reason he married me- funny thing is he is the one that makes it now that we're married- he makes it better than me!) or whatever we find in the fridge. Usually games, Legos and movies follow lunch- this week the boys played Pirates of the Caribbean Life and then Cooties with Jocelyn and Riley.

Most sundays I make chocolate chip cookies or some sort of dessert and we have fruit smoothies and popcorn. This week after all the valentines candy over laod, I thought we had had enough sugar so we just popped about 5 bags of popcorn and settled in to watch the Amazing Race. Somewhere in the middle of all this family calls on the phone- Ben's mom- without fail, and the boys tend to start some kind of wrestling. I really like our Sundays once we get everyone to church and make it through Scarament Meeting. I realize that one day I will be able to make it through all of my meetings and will miss all the chaos of getting five kids ready for church but for now we somehow manage to make it mostly on time and presentable- so what if the boy have wrinkled shirts under their sweaters and I'm putting earrings in while we're driving to church and I have been known to do or redo Jocelyn's hair in the parking lot- yes one day I'm sure I will miss it all but for now I'm just trying to survive and be happy!!

Jocelyn just after church. She woke up this morning saying she didn't have any dresses to wear! She is turning into such a diva! I just made her this one a couple weeks ago! What a spoiled girl!


Jocelyn and Riley eating a snack-let me explain those hideous sponge bob pjs- I bought them on clearance for Ethan and Jake years ago when they were 3 and 4 years old and we were desperate for jammies. We didn't even watch sponge bob then and the boys had no idea who he was. Not so for Riley- sponge bob was one of his first words! and he practically sings the theme song. Thanks to older siblings!


Owen just chillin and playing with his toys.

Oh for the Love....!

Years ago when I was in grade school I remember valentines day with excitement. Our class would have a small party and we passed out our valentines we had so carefully signed our names on and place them usually in some sort of large paper envelope hanging from our desk. In those days we decorated those envelope the day before as part of art class and the valentines which by no means were characters from disney or any other name brand- we had to go with the generic- no name "be my valentine" kind. I guess with 6 siblings thats the way it is and no way did we ever give out candy and rarely do I remeber getting a whole lot of candy. (Ben informes me they didn't even get to buy thier valentines- they had to hand make them- he always has a story to one up mine on being poor! He will always win at that!) Boy how times have changed! Ethan, Jake and Jocelyn are the kind of kids that I wish I could have been when I was in grade school. The cool kids who have the cool valentines and give out candy with them. The only difference is this is just the norm now days. I don't think there was one single valentine that didn't have candy on it! The kids have been on sugar over loads- it's like halloween all over again and I've just let them eat as much as they want. The faster the better- get it over and done with and I won't find wrappers or hear Riley beg for candy anymore. A few weeks ago I had purchased the valentines while at walmart and the boys seemed happy with my picks, then a couple days later Jake asked "Are we going to give out candy?". When I said no I don't think so - his face just fell. Arrrgh. So needless to say Ben headed to Smiths friday morning to purchase sugar cookies for Ethans class and 2 bags of candies! What spoiled boys! I also remeber in highschool buying valentine grams to send to friends in school- their school did this! Elementry School!!!! Ethan and Jake were on a quest to get the most in each of their classes and I admit I kinda helped out- they did chores to earn quarters and ended up buying each other and themselves the most in their class! Oh to be a kid- they were not ashamed at all buying for themselves and all I could say was -"I could've bought you a whole bag of suckers for that price" which they informed me was not the point of the whole thing!Crazy boys! Ethan even had a secret admirer which he thought he knew who it was but now is not so sure! How cute!
As for thier valentines boxes, Jake just wanted his shoe box covered with paper so he could draw on it- I had to stop him when he started drawing some kind of scary monter with blood on it- for goodnes sakes- valentines is about love!!! So for Ethan, his class was having a contest and I really wanted Ethan to win so after long debate I came up with the idea of it looking like a valentine monster eating the valentines as the kid dropped them in. Well when Jake saw the results he wanted his the same. I wish I would've gotten a picture of his before we covered it with crete paper. Needles to say Ethan didn't win- sponge bob reigned over his and he was a little bummed although quite a few kids voted for his. Nothing a little candy won't solve!

Jocelyn had a fun party on thursday with her preschool class and loved signing her name on her valentines although after about five we traded off and on with writng her name-"Jocelyn is a long name" she said. She gave out tinker bell valentines with pencils. Riley got into it all also. He had a box to decorate and him and Jocelyn made valentine pictures to give to AmyLyn. Jocelyn tried to convince Riley to give his to Andy-"he's a good guy,Riley" But no way Riley just wanted to color for himself! Funny guy! As for Ben and I, we went out friday night-thanks to AmyLyn and Andy for watching the kids- they had a blast and Ben and I needed the break. Even if it was only dinner at chiles and a walk through Target(without kids!-Heaven!!!) Other than that Ben bought me my favorite chocolate-dove darks and hopefully tomorrow we can use our gift cards at see's candy!YUM!

Breaking News

Breaking News

For some odd reason I cannot get Ethans news clip to post with my explanation! So anyways above is Ethans book report. Let me just say he did a great job improvising. His book was based on a soldier who took part in the invasion of Omaha beach. He really liked it and I could tell- he gave me play by plays on what was happening in each chapter. I was happy that he had found a book he liked- it's not easy for him to get into a book which is hard for me to understand - I love to read. I get excited when Owen is hungry and I have a chance to sit and read. Although Riley and Jocelyn have started to climb on the couch next to me with their own books to have me read to them. Oh well! Anyways Ethan did great and we're looking forward to next months book report a biography on Mr. Rogers. He can either dress up as his character or make a scrapbook. I am all for the dressing up- how easy would it be to find a cheesy cardigan-DI has plenty- and some sneakers?? But no Ethan wants to do the scrapbook. Urgh! Well this month we will be a little more prepared and hopefully less busy and actually get it done earlier than just the night before!

Stretched to the limit

Last week was sooo busy for us. Between many doctors appts, visiting teaching, piano lessons, tutoring, dance class, young mens, church meetings, pack meeting for the boys, and Ethans book report. It was a crazy but fun week.
Owen and Riley both had well check visits on the same day at 2 different doctors and preschool for Jocelyn also in the middle of it all. Owen had his 4 month check and is a whooping 14 lbs. Actually this is average but for some reason those fat rolls and chubby hands just make it seem like he should be more. He's pretty much average all the way around. The poor thing got two shots in each leg and whimpered and grunted most of the day. As long as his legs were still he was happy-yeah, right! He's still working on rolling over but last week found his feet which I'm not too sure he's happy about. He likes to grab them -hard - like a death grip and then he starts to cry and squeeze harder. Poor guy probably thinks it's one of those crazy siblings again but no it's himself. We think it's funny but kinda sad to watch and he just does it over and over again. Hopefully soon he'll learn who the real culprit is!


Riley's well check was actually his 2 year check -so I'm about six months behind! His ear infection he had a couple weeks ago is gone but the runny nose has returned. I'll have to get him in again if it continues so we can avoid the ear infection again. Poor guy hates his runny nose and the rest of the family grosses out when he slims everything-YUCK! As for his growth chart he is doing great also-average. He's also up with all the milestones that a 2 year old should do. He also got shots one in each leg. Jocelyn was so cute, she had to go out in the hall because she didn't want to see him get hurt. Good thing she was at preschool when Owen got his!
I love these pictures I took of Jocelyn and Riley last week. They played babies so nicely together. Riley loves to play babies and luckily Jocelyn has plenty of everything to share.


Ethan had his monthly book report due last friday and I had been dreading this one! He had to do a news cast complete with weather, sports, traffic, commercial and an interview with the person from his book. Needless to say this was put together the night before it was due because of the busy week we had. It turned out great and he is an amazing improvisor and a cute anchorman. I'll have to post the real newscast as soon as I have Ben make it a smaller file. But for now here's a picture of my cute anchorman complete with styrofoam/flashlight microphone!

My true loves...

Monday when the kids were out of school for some obscure reason-teacher inservices or something-I made sugar cookies. The kids were so excited, probably because I haven't made sugar cookie in about a year! I guess when I'm pregnant I just try to keep the kids alive and happy and sugar cookies didn't fall into those categories. I'm also not a huge fan of the whole rolling out and cutting out and the mess that goes with it. So this time Ethan and Riley helped me make the dough and while they were all out trying to play in the snow(it is now hard as a rock!-we need new snow.) I rolled and cut them all out. So nice to just get it done. I probably would have let them do it but I had just mopped the floor and my patience the day after a graveyard shift is not the best! They didn't seem to mind. So for family home evening we frosted and ate and then frosted and ate again! YUMMY! Cream cheese frosting and sugar cookies how can you go wrong. Now I am wondering why it took me so long to make these again and yet maybe right after having a baby is not the best time to have such temptations around! Anyways Happy Valentines Day early!