Hunting the Eggs

Each Easter the kids come home from church and sit at the top of the stairs to await the Easter egg hunt.

When Gabriel was 2 and Katrina was a baby I filmed the hunt. Now it is "required" that I film the event each year. The kids like to see how they have grown each year through watching these little home movies. Of course I cannot watch them. The combination of kids running around and the camera trying to catch them gives me motion sickness...

Some of the kids suggested that next year we come home from church, eat a healthy lunch, and then do the egg hunt. They realized (FINALLY) that candy on an empty stomach doesn't feel all that great. - Hmmm, maybe mom and dad do know a thing or two. They also commented on how little candy they got this year. We found toothbrushes, fruit snacks, crackers and a little candy.

Worked for me.

Musical Musing

We are having our nightly devotional. It is Simon's turn to pick the song. He chooses "Joy to the World", goes over to the piano and plays for us as we sing.

It was so cool.

All the older kids like to pick songs they can play on the piano. I would so much rather hear them argue over whose turn it is to play the piano then whose turn it is to play on the computer!!! Music to a mother's ears.

Maybe someday we will be able to do piano lessons...unfortunately, the teacher has to be paid. Until then I'll enjoy listening to the children plink away.

Two Words...

Into EVERYTHING!

If someone wanted me to describe Ameila in two words those are the two I would choose today. She has reached the stage where she unloads the laundry baskets, clears out kitchen cabinets, takes all the books off the lower bookshelves, opens the DVD cabinet and empties it out, tries to check out the trash can (no luck yet - thank goodness!). She crawls around the house leaving a path of destruction in her wake.

Now, I have encountered this stage before - 5 times. I knew it was coming...that doesn't mean I'll enjoy it.

She has also become much more vocal. At least I know where she is in her path of destruction...it is accompanied by loud "Ah, Ah, Ah, Ah, Ah, Ah, Ah..." She especially enjoys standing at the gate at the top of the stairwell and listening to her "Ah" echo loudly back to her.

Two other words to describe Amelia: absolutely adorable! She is standing at my leg, smiling up to me (tongue out of course). I do love my little girl.

Hang Time

On any given day - at any given time - I always know where to look for Simon.

He is always outside "swinging" on our swing set (note: the swings are not on...)

He has callouses on top of callouses - better than when he would come in each day with bleeding hands and cry because they hurt - then right back out the next day...

Amelia's New Room

Sweet Amelia has been sleeping in a corner of my room since birth. She has done very well - as long as she can't see anyone. As she got older I put a red blanket over the rails so she wouldn't know if anyone was in the room. This helped her sleep happily through the night.

A couple of months ago Amelia began to get wise. She discovered that she could move this "red thing" and see people on the other side. She began to wake up at night and peek out at me. Once she was starting to pull herself up she would pull the whole blanket down. At night she would wake up, remove the blanket and cry at me until I woke up and picked her up. This began to happen multiple times a night. Even when the room was completely dark - she still knew that I was only a few feet away. (See unhappy baby photo below.)



Now, I knew my baby. I knew that if she couldn't see me she would go back to sleep, happily, all by herself. It was time she got her own room. The problem was that with six kids in the house, there were no empty rooms to be had.

It became so bad we couldn't even sleep in our room anymore. I was tense thinking that every time one of us coughed or made ANY noise she would wake up. Our room had become totally off-limits during Amelia's naps and bedtime. After about a week of Allen sleeping on the downstairs couch and me sleeping on the upstairs couch I knew something had to change - quick.

Then inspiration struck. Allen and I have a rather large walk-in closet. If we were to rearrange it (and seriously clean out the junk) there would be enough room for a crib against one wall.

I went to work the next day. Now Amelia has her own "room". Amelia is happy, Allen is happy, and I am happy - and we are all sleeping through the night again. (See happy baby photo below.)

Conference Weekend with Cousins

Two times a year my church has a General Conference weekend where meetings are broadcast via satellite or internet.

This particular Conference weekend Allen's brother was moving so all the big boys went to help out. The young cousins came over to watch conference together and play in between sessions.

I thought it was so great that the four girls, Katrina, Abagail, Karoleena, and Manissa, were so intent about working on their Conference packets - church themed coloring pages and activities that related to Conference. The four boys, Simon, Oliver, Tomas, and Ryan, were more interested in playing together. That was ok though; they worked really hard to keep it quiet so we could hear.

In between sessions the kids got out all kinds of things to do...castle, Lego's, dinosaurs, trains, games, puzzles, marbles, balls...you name it - it was out. They also played outside and spent time in one of our larger trees.

It was a fun way for the kids to spend a Saturday.

Prepping for Idaho

Prepping to go to Idaho...

Let's see...
ticket - check
transportation arrangements made - check
kids arrangements made (babysitting) - check
back-up kids arrangements made - check

packed - no
laundry even done - no
figured out what I want to bring, so I can wash it, so I can pack - no
schedule for dad - no
prep all stuff for kids school activities so dad doesn't have to worry about it - no
even looked at calendar to see what kids activities/school schedule is - no
house clean - no (was on Saturday, not so much today)
quick food in kitchen so dad doesn't get pizza or McD's each night - no

feel like doing any of the above - not really, a bit of a brain fog today.

LOVE going to visit...don't look forward to prepping for a visit.
Can't wait to leave though!!!!

April Fools!

April Fool's is much anticipated around my house. When the children were young I told them stories of pranks my family would play on each other...like the time we created a web of string over my little sister and brother while they slept, or replacing salt with sugar, or writing "April Fool's" on all the bathroom mirrors in my mother's nice lipstick, or setting clocks to a different time...

We have started a rich tradition in our family of pranks as well. The kids are old enough to get in on the act too, which makes it really fun. All day long I hear random comments followed by shouts of "April Fool's!" and peals of laughter.



This year I procrastinated (forgot) to come up with a prank until April 1. A quick search at Family Fun brought some ideas - this is one of my favorite sources for kid-friendly pranks. Oliver and I went shopping for dinner.

I dished up the kids plates with the following:
fish sticks (sugar creme wafers covered in peanut butter and coated with corn flakes)
mashed potatoes and gravy (ice cream with carmel sauce)
mixed veggies (starburst candy cut in shapes)

The kids were delighted with the concept of eating dessert first! The catch was that they had to eat the real equivalent of their faux dinner. I have not seen the kids eat veggies so readily in a long time. The prank received 4 thumbs up...Abagail gave it a thumbs down that was immediately followed by, "April Fool's!" Simon even licked his plate clean.


Not to be outdone...Abagail and Katrina painted (smeared) football stripes on their faces to surprise me. They were originally going to try to pass them off as bruises but realized I might not buy that...

Gabriel also dabbled in tricks. He tried to hide rubber spiders in his sisters beds - but got caught. Then he attempted to set my clock off an hour - caught. Finally he did set my clock, but it was back an hour. I was surprised to glance at the time before falling asleep and seeing that it was an hour earlier. Glad I caught it though or we would have been late, late, late this morning...

Abagail's Talk

Abagail had a talk for Primary today. She sat down 10 minutes before church and wrote it. I really liked hearing her take on our family so I asked her permission to share it on the blog:

I know my family has important responsibilities. All of my family has to work together to get through the day.
My dad is the head of my family. I know he has very important responsibility. If I did not have my dad it would be hard to live. My dad has to work to make our living.
My mom has responsibility also. She makes our food, buys our clothes, and takes care of us. My mom is usually dealing with Amelia but she still has time for us!
Gabriel also has responsibilities. One of them is watching the boys when me, Katrina, and mom go somewhere.
Katrina's responsibilities are going to school and taking care of the kids when mom and Gabe go running, and dad is asleep.
My responsibilities are similar but not the same. Of course I go to school but I do not take care of the family. I have to go to church and learn the gospel.
Simon's responsibilities are going to school and church. He also plays with Oliver to keep him happy.
Oliver's responsibilities are going to church. He is not old enough to go to school but when we are at school he helps mom around the house.
Amelia has responsibilities too. She makes us happy. Without Amelia life wouldn't be the same.
Now you can see all the family has responsibilities. Even if you don't know it.

I thought Abagail did such a cute job with her talk. I loved how she included each person.

Since writing her talk we have discovered another one of Amelia's responsibilities...
Now that Amelia is mobile, she has become our "human vacuum" getting all kids of nasty stuff off the floor if I don't see it fast enough... Guess it's time to deep clean.

Surrounded by Bookworms!

So here I sit on a Saturday night. I look around and my kids are all reading - except Oliver and Amelia of course.

Gabriel is reading some series about an apprentice (huge books) after completing all 10 books of Tennis Shoes among the Nephites in less than a month.
Katrina is on a new series (huge books) - after just completing the Harry Potter series for the 3-4 time.
Abagail has just finished the Harry Potter series for the 4th time and is starting over.
Simon is starting in on the Magic Tree House series. (He tried Harry Potter but it was a bit much for a 1st grader to tackle on his own.)

Oliver is a bookworm too. He loves to have me or Simon read to him, over and over and over.

Allen just shakes his head at all of it. Of course I know exactly where my children get it from -- ME! I would join in if I didn't always have so many other things to do. It is really fun to read the books they read and then have these detailed conversations about them. (Plus they are juvenile books so there is no trash - hooray!)

All too soon Saturday night will be date night - until then I will enjoy every minute of these simple, innocent nights.

Katrina - super science chef

Katrina and her friend entered the science fair this year. They decided to make pancakes and rank them according to taste and nutrition. The original project would compare "from scratch" recipes with store bought brands. Unfortunately time ran short so they settled for "What flavor do you like best".

Worked for us - we got to be the test group. Winner was blueberry pancakes.

She's mobile!

Life as we know it is about to change...
Amelia is mobile! She learned to crawl. It took a day or two of scooting and then she was off.
I guess it's really time to clean my carpets now...
(She love it too. No more being left behind. I used to be able to put her in one room with toys and go work in another room - not anymore.)

Random Photos

Just because I think they are cute...

Spring Break #2

More photos from the Witte Museum during spring break...


Checking out the dinosaur exhibits. Unfortunately this was pretty much all they had...just one room. After taking my first few photos I was instructed that we were not to use flash in this exhibit. Oops. Hence the photos where the kids are all blurry...they think it's a cool effect.


The kids spent a good amount of time building the wall of King Tut's tomb. There was a red button that would cause the earth to shake and tumble the wall. It was soooo funny at first...after a dozen times of the wall crashing before being finished the kids were guarding that button with their lives. We also saw a mummy replica. Abagail appreciated the inclusion of this display about as much as the taxidermy (see comments in post #1).


Making music. There was a large outdoor area where the kids could basically make lots of loud noise. It was all about sound and I'm sure scientific but I didn't get close enough to read any of the information. It sure was loud. The kids loved it...all but Simon. He is a bit sensitive to noise. Simon did explore the area at a rare moment when he was the only one over there. Otherwise he stayed far away. Amelia wasn't real impressed either. She was ok as long as I kept her ears covered.

All in all it was a fun way to spend a day of our spring break.

Spring Break 1

This year during Spring Break we headed to the Witte Museum in S.A. with cousins Ryan & Manissa Coleman and their neighbor, Tamara.

The museum was soooo crowded due to it being a free day during spring break. We did a lot of waiting in line.
We had never been to the museum before. It was a cool place.

If I had been more successful at keeping my six children in a group - separate from the other hundreds of children - it would have been less stressful. The rule was "You need to be able to see mom at all times" and "Tell mom if you want to go somewhere else". Oliver and Gabriel had the hardest time with this; the others did very well. After a few lectures they all "remembered" to stick together and we had a good time. My sister-in-law, Yaw, was an absolute life-saver helping me out. Apparently I am not yet ready to solo my kids in a SUPER crowded outing. (Or more accurately, THEY are not ready yet.)


Exploring the activities in the children's section. Lot's of hands-on fun. I loved the picture of Katrina looking at a big, hairy sand crab (top of collage). She was pretty freaked out. Abagail kept her eyes closed through the entire exhibit featuring the taxidermy animals. "Eww, gross, that's disgusting, I can't look". We were there for quite awhile too. Should have got a picture of that...


Discovering in the river area.

Oliver's New Chore

Oliver has joined the ranks of the "Big Kids". He has received his first kitchen chore assignment. (Previously he was a roamer...helping me with any chore I was doing.)

Oliver has the task of wiping down place mats, cleaning off the table and wiping down the chairs after each meal. Sounds like a lot for a 4-year-old. I offered to help him the first time to teach him how to do it. Oliver was upset with me. He told me that he knew how to do it and didn't want help. He was very excited.

Today the novelty has worn off. After lunch he grumped and complained about how hard it was to do the chore. He did a very thorough job though proving that he knows how to do it and without help too.

Fast forward to now. We just ate dinner. I mentioned that everyone was to do kitchen chores. Oliver groaned, "But I just got it all clean...now it is dirty again. Now it's going to be hard!"

I thought, "Welcome to my world".

P.S. Oliver is cleaning as I write this. He is singing away at his version of "Called to Serve". I hear singing and things tumbling to the floor - I assume from the table as he cleans. I hesitate to check on him since he is working so happily now...

(Love his expression in the photo - he is scrubbing hard.)

Our Blurr

Gabriel had his 1st track meet of the season. It started at 3pm after school. The younger kids and I left around 7pm, before Gabriel had even run. It was too cold and windy - and Simon was sick. Allen brought the older kids home after 10pm. The track meet wasn't even over yet. I had no idea they went that long or late.

Gabriel did great! He ran in the 200 meter sprint and the 1600 meter (1 mile). There were 7-8 Jr. High Schools competing. Gabriel got 4th place in both his events, earning points for his school.

Amelia and Company

More random shots of my cutie pie. She's 6-7 months old in these.

I love how she is all bundled up in one photo, except she has bare feet. (That was the day of our fire alarm mishap. It was cold with all the doors and windows open.)

Birthday Celebrations!

We celebrated Simon (7) and Abagail's (10) birthdays at the local bowling alley.

It was crazy with 15 kids and only 1 adult - me - supervising. Allen stayed to help get things going. Then he thankfully took Amelia with him which was a HUGE help.

We had a great time.

Some of My Family

I snagged these photos off of Christina's facebook...

Just some additional photos of my mom, sisters, and our kiddos from the Missouri trip.

Beautiful Blooms

Such a sweet husband and dad we have.

For Valentine's day Allen ordered me these beautiful flowers and fuzzy bear. It was a huge surprise. Abagail sat there and admired the bear - just shy of glowing green with envy. Little did she know that dad had a surprise in store for his daughters too. They both received cute fuzzy bears that they lovingly dressed up in Amelia's clothes. (Coat, hat, scarf, etc.) The new bears, Valentine and Kelly came to the airport to welcome me home. Huge smiles all around.

The kids and I dried the rose petals for potpourri.

Missouri Photos

This is the final batch of Missouri photos. I thought I had taken much more, turns out I did, just with other people's cameras.

So we have a couple of photos of Christina and Nathanael at the reception. They look so very nice. It was a lovely wedding and reception. I was so grateful to be able to be there.

There is a couple of random pictures with Amelia at the reception - since she is my star. Cousin Lauren took such great care of her while I was busy helping out.

There is a shot with the babies on the couch. Stacey looks tired. Perhaps because she and Christina stayed up til 4 a.m. or later perusing music for the reception.

Then there is a cutie photo of Cindy, Christina, and Stacey. The photo doesn't show it but they were swaying and singing along with the music. It was very cute.

It was a great weekend. Lots to do; not much sleep. Flew out Friday a.m.; came home Sunday p.m. It was quick and a bit crazy at times but I wouldn't have missed it!

Hanging out with the Babies

The three big cousins with the three baby cousins. Another photo group from our Missouri trip.

Packed in like Sardines

Amelia and I went to Missouri in February for Christina's wedding.

At the airport we met up with some members of my family. There was my mom, my sister Stacey and her son Benjamin, and my sister Cindy and her son Canyon. So we rented this minivan. In it we squished four adults, three infants, three car seats, three strollers, 5 suitcases and 4 baby bags/backpacks. At first look (when empty) I was thinking how roomy the interior of the minivan was compared to my own. Once packed in I quickly realized that it was pretty cramped.

We spent many hours in that minivan. I was very glad to have been the designated driver. I had the most comfortable spot in the van.

I can't remember why we were laughing in this particular photo. It was Friday after setting up for the reception. I do remember it had something to do with finding a dumpster, in the freezing cold, in the dark, being instructed to drive around to find it...when it was 3 feet from the car. Then laughing again as we found it to be locked. It must have been one of those "had to be there" moments. I do know that we thought it was hilarious. Then again, we had been giggling together the entire evening - I guess we just enjoyed being together.

I do remember why I was laughing and Stacey was not-so laughing in this photo. We had joined Christina at Walmart at midnight to purchase food items for the reception and other last minute things. After spending a couple of hours we went to load everything into the van. It was COLD...VERY COLD for this girl who is used to Texas. Stacey was carefully placing the grocery bags into the now organized minivan. Did I mention that I was COLD. I began taking the bags and tossing them into the van. Again - it was probably a "had to be there" moment. We were still giggling but I think by this time it may have been more due to lack of sleep. Stacey's look is the priceless one.

Missouri Visit

Here are some pics from setting up the reception on Friday night.
I don't know where Benjamin is, must be hanging out with Stacey.
But...here are cutie pictures of Canyon and Amelia getting acquainted.

Boys Night

Last weekend I got to share a special night with Simon and Oliver (and Amelia - that just goes without saying). Allen and Gabe were camping; Katrina and Abagail were at a birthday sleepover.

We had our evening all planned out.

1st stop - drop off girls so we can PARTY

2nd stop - get video from library for "movie theater" - bummer, library was closed. I forgot it closes early on Friday nights. Plenty of videos at home though.

3rd stop - Little Caesar's Pizza

Head home for pizza and movie theater - where they get to eat in front of a movie...

The highlight of the night was our trip to the Pizza Store - as they call it.

We walk in and Oliver is just full of giggles. He is talking to Simon as I am preoccupied with noticing the 10 people in front of us and calculating how long we will be standing in the tiny lobby. Oliver points at a lady and says loudly to me, "Mom, look at that funny dude!" My mind races to think of what he really said - I assume I misunderstood him. Then my mind races to think of a polite reply. Due to the absence of my reply Oliver repeats himself, louder, and laughs. I realize he is pointing above the lady's head at a picture of the Little Caesar's guy - or dude as Oliver continues to call him. As we continue to wait the boys point out all the MANY pictures of the "dude".

They are interrupted by the cashier belting out "PEP OUT!" Simon is shocked into silence. The cashier repeats himself. Simon looks at me with huge eyes, "Mom, is he supposed to be yelling?" I explain that every time the man takes a pepperoni pizza from the warming oven he yells "PEP OUT" so the bakers can make more. We spent the remaining 10 minutes we were there with Oliver and Simon taking turns mimicking the cashier, yelling "PUFF OUT!" every time he did. (PUFF OUT is what they were hearing - they did tone down the volume when I told them not to yell.) Giggling, giggling boys all the way home.

They made plans to shout this each time I take a pizza out of the oven from now on. They thought this would be hilarious and couldn't wait to see the reaction of the older kids.

Amelia photo update

Just some fun photos of Amelia - 6 months old.
She's the baby so she gets more press time...

NOT Funny

This post is not intended to make anyone laugh because what I am about to describe is NOT funny.

It was 5:22. I know this because I had just checked the clock to set the timer for the dinner.
Kids were scattered through the house, I was busy in the kitchen trying to supervise homework, mediate disagreements, figure out a new recipe and keep Amelia happy long enough to complete dinner before she lost it.

Then I hear it...the first beep of the smoke detector...and my heart sinks. Not because I think the house is on fire - Oh no, that would make sense and probably not make me so insane. No, my heart sinks because I flash back to a week ago when the alarms went off. Every adult and child in the house opened windows, turned on fans, and took jackets and fanned the detectors only for them to continue on their merry noise for 30 minutes - all six of them.

So tonight my heart sank as I anticipated all the fun (and noise) we were in for. I had no idea...

As I continued to prepare dinner I had the kids go around and open windows and turn on fans. After about 20 minutes I sent them with dish towels to fan around each smoke detector. I reset the breaker, hoping that would help. It didn't, it got worse. I removed a few batteries, they squealed louder. I replaced the batteries figuring it was almost over anyway.

Another 25 minutes pass. The kids had enough, they all got on coats and hats and deserted the house. By this time neighbors were finding it convenient to take out their trash, check their mailbox and discretely peek at our house - probably wondering why it had been 45 minutes and we still hadn't shut off the alarms. I was still naively thinking that perhaps some fumes or smoke from the dinner (that I wasn't even burning) might be trapped in a bedroom...that had windows open...and the ceiling fan on...yea, for some reason I still thought it was a ventilation problem.

I isolated the smoke detector in Simon and Oliver's room. As I fanned it with a towel the alarms finally silenced...Ahh... I jokingly called down to Abagial, "Don't breathe." She grinned and blew out air. The alarms began to scream again. I sent Gabriel up to fan the alarm. For the next few minutes the process repeated: 1 second of silence before all the chaos started up again. Eventually everything was quiet. The time was 6:21.

By now I realized, FINALLY, that this was not a ventilation issue and I emailed Allen to have him pick up a new smoke detector on the way home. He walked in the house 10 minutes later, not having received the email since he was driving home. As we were filling him in the alarms began to sing once more.

It took Allen 2 minutes to shut off the breaker and take all the batteries out. The alarms still were making a weird whining sound but it was much quieter. He then began to disconnect the alarms til he found the offending one. Once it was disconnected all the noise quit for good.

Hooray! So now he is off to purchase a new smoke detector. And I am grateful that this didn't happen in the middle of the night.

Katrina's Funny

This is just a quick funny...
Katrina is in the bathroom, washing out a shirt in the sink that she wants to wear to school tomorrow. (Mom doesn't do laundry on Sunday so it was up to her.)

Allen and I are in the kitchen talking.

Katrina calls out and says - Dad, don't ask what I am doing.

Allen's quiet.

Katrina says - Translation, ask what I am doing.

Allen chuckles and says - Translation?

I think - Oh great, I'm dead. I am not good at this whole "translation" thing. Hopefully the kids will always be so straight-forward about cluing us in. For all our sakes.