"The Joys of Motherhood"

Mommy log for March 1, 2011

-1 missing husband (he has clinicals on Tuesdays from 5AM-8PM)

-1 sick mommy

-3 of 4 sick kiddos

-1 teething baby

-6 poopy underwear messes, one of which was splashed throughout the bathroom (no I'm not exaggerating)

-1 leaky kitchen sink

-0 knowledge of how to fix sink pipes

-again 1 missing husband (who has already "fixed" the sink at least five times....anyone know a free plumber?)

-1 very full sink of dishes

-1 extremely messy house

-0 desire to clean the house

-0 desire to work out even though I need to because I am so not winning my biggest loser competition

-0 groceries in the house for dinner

-0 desire to go to the grocery store with 4 kids!

-1 easy (from a jar) spagetti dinner

-1 speed clean before Daddy comes home

-too many to count times Mom has yelled today and felt bad about it

-1 sleeping baby (yeah)

-3 sleeping kiddos (whew)

-1 sleep deprived hubby home

-1 exhausted mommy

-1 happy home!?

Maybe tomorrow will be better! Anyone else hate Tuesdays?

A scrapbook page

Normally I post these in galleries and on my scrap blog but this one has far too many credits for that. I don't feel like listing them all, but I wanted to share it somehow cause I loved how it turned out. I scrapped these pics a long time ago (it's James if you can't tell) but I was never satisfied with the result. So yeah I love this!

Valentine's Day and the Big 30!

Today is Pete's 30th birthday! I can tease him about it cause I still have a year to go! ;) I can't believe we are that old! But he's still got it, don't you think! Look at that handsome man! He may be missing a few hairs, but he still has those to die for dimples and beautiful eyes! I love my Petey! He is the best man any girl could ask for! I can't wait to grow even older ;) with him! What a hunk!

VALENTINE'S DAY low down: (the order is backwards, I don't feel like movin them all around)

For family night we had a cute lesson from living scriptures, on loving one another. The lesson included this cute idea of making a valentine for Jesus to hang up as a reminder that we are his disciples, and he loves us. The kids loved this idea. Here is the link to the lesson, and you can subscribe to receive weekly lesson plans http://www.ldsfamilyfun.com/fhe/lessons/fhe_loveanother.htm

Here are a few of my favorite Valentine's that are my world! James and Pete were at school, so I didn't get all of my valentines' pictures, but these ones are darn stinkin cute! (in my opinion ;))

As is tradition at our house, we had heart shaped pancakes and red cinnamon syrup for breakfast! I love this tradition, I think I'll get more creative with my shapes next year...we'll see

When I got back from the gym at 7am (Pete was up till almost 3am after work to do this) this was waiting for me. Each of the hearts said something he loves about me. This was especially meaningful to me, because I've been bugging him lately because he couldn't name anything he liked about me off the top of his head. We call it his emotional constipation getting in the way. Well in his note, he said he'd need to take an emotional laxative to name more than this! Too funny! I love my man! Thanks sweetheart you made my day, week, month, year! Love you!

Sunday night, we worked on school Valentine's with James and Ragan. They turned out pretty cute. I found the idea on http://www.meckmom.com/

A few other happenings that I haven't mentioned yet....

Ragan was able to get back in dance. She was beyond excited. I made a trade for doing a haircut day at the day care that is part of the Bravo dance academy in Clearfield. I love being able to trade hair for things I can't afford, especially when it makes my kiddos so happy! She's so darn cute!

James finally (after at least 6 months of loose teeth) lost his first tooth! It was drama, trauma and more drama to get him to let me pull it. I started to pull and it made that gross crack sound and started bleeding a little and he was done! (see picture below)

But once I got him to settle down enough to get my fingers in there again (it was hanging by a string) one pull and it was out and he said "OH!" and then was so happy (see picture below!)

(February 7th 2011)

Funny enough it must have been the week for teeth because Mayci got her first tooth, possibly even the same day! I would show a picture, but it's more in feel it than see it stage right now! She's been sick with a big time cold, so we didn't even notice any teething symptoms! Poor thing! But she's been happy as can be, she's such a good baby and such a sweet girl!

About Time

I know that it's been too long since my last post when even Pete is asking why I haven't posted! So here's my last two months. I think the reason I haven't posted is that December is overwhelming to post about, for me and for you who have to keep up with our craziness! So bare with me with all the pictures, I condensed them a bit so it wouldn't get too crazy...here goes in no particular order...

A sweet moment caught on camera, James is becoming quite a good reader.

Our sweet Mayci is growing up too fast.

Ragan got this cupcake kit for Christmas. She and Addison had so much fun making these cute mini cakes, and eating them of course!

These cupcakes are what I made for Ragan for her preschool birthday party.

This is all the fun details of Ragan's fairy princess themed birthday party. I forgot to get a picture of the streamer entrance at the bottom of the stairs...Ragan was so cute, whenever someone came to the door she would grab their hand and say as they went through the streamers, welcome to my fairy land! I wish I had remembered to get that picture! Oh well! The best part of the night that made all the hard work worth it was when she was laying down on the floor as the bubbles blew all around her, she said, "This is the best birthday ever!"

James' party was a hit too! He did a How To Train Your Dragon theme.

I painted the dragons from the movie on cardboard and made masks out of them. Each of the kids got to take a turn putting on viking garb and fighting their favorite dragon (aka Pete). They had so much fun! The cake was fun of course, but my favorite part about it was the insides. It was red velvet cake with raspberry filling, so it oozed "dragon blood" as you cut into it! It was a big hit! Thanks Chelsea Hulet for helping me with it. I am not quite adept at making fondant look good yet! I'll get there!

Of course, I can't forget Christmas. We love our ginger bread and tree trimming traditions! And I think this is the first year that I have actually gotten pictures of my kids with Santa. We had Santa at our Ward Christmas party, sadly the word got out through the older kids who it really was and they told all the younger ones and ruined the fun! I wish I would've had Mayci pay Santa a visit too, I think she was sleeping.

So that's our crazy December and our not so crazy January! Life has slowed down a little around here, I say a little cause it's always a bit crazy. It seems the older I get the shorter the days seem and the less time I seem to have to accomplish anything! Pete is in his second semester of Respiratory school and still loving it just as much. I think he'll probably keep his 4.0 status this semester too, although working has made it a little harder to find enough study time. But he's doing awesome and loving every minute!

James is doing well in school too, he's had a rough time getting back into the swing of things after Christmas break, but we've had a chat and he's back on task! Oh he lost his first tooth today! It was quite the traumatic event, but he survived! I'll have to post pictures later, I haven't uploaded them yet.

Hmm what else, I have been tinkering with the idea of going back to school for graphic art. I feel like now is the time, but it just doesn't seem to be working out financially, so we'll see.

I guess that's all the news I have from us for now!

Christmas Card

Okay so I crack myself up....I had so much fun making this card, I haven't laughed that hard in a long time. Here's the story. I can't afford family pics right now, and I don't really want any right now anyway (still have after baby weight!) So you get a little of my weird sense of humor this year. I will be sending some in the mail, but again I can't afford much so hopefully everyone will see these online, or get an email! SO if I miss you by email or snail mail I'm sorry hopefully you'll get a giggle here on my blog or on facebook! Merry Christmas!

(Click the image to get a closer look)

At Sarah's Request...Lots of Mayci pictures

Oh my goodness, it's been forever!

Sorry Dad! I've been out of the bloggin world for way too long. I just haven't been in the mood I guess, but now it means catch up. I've tried to combine pics so this post isn't huge! But it still is pretty long so ... hope you like it!

Back in September we decided we hadn't gotten enough campin in this summer, so we took a last hurrah campin trip with Dan, Heidi and Tag Goodrich, up Farmington Canyon. It was a quick trip and a little chilly but well worth it! I love campin. This was Mayci's very first camping experience! It was a bit of a rough night, I don't think I slept more than an hour or two!


James started piano lessons in September too. He LOVES it, I think it's mostly because he has a little crush on his teacher! But I do have to say she's pretty awesome. Thanks Sadie for taking on this challenge! James is catchin on quick, he'll be great if he sticks with it.

My kiddos discovered a new love. We went to fee the ducks up at Weber State for Family night one night. They loved it, and ask all the time when we get to go again. We've actually been two more times. It's a fun thing to take up spare time waiting for Pete to get out of class. We've downsized to one car recently, so we have to go pick up Pete from School and the timing doesn't always work out just right with picking up James and Ragan from school too, so we have to find things to keep us busy rather than make ten trips!

Mayci is growing up way too fast...she already grew out of her cradle and is in her own room in and in the crib. She sleeps through the night most nights, I think this is due to the fact that she is officially a thumb sucker. I never thought I'd let one of my kids do this, but...well I guess I'm a "sucker!" She has already rolled over both ways and she's starting to get up on her arms when she's on her belly, but it still makes her mad after a few minutes of tummy time. She is an angel baby, she rarely cries and she is always happy to see me. I love it, but it makes me sad that she's growing so fast!

Pete ran his first 5K. His respiratory class puts one on every year and he was required to participate by volunteering or running it. He chose to run. He and his group had to drag a respirator with them which ended up falling apart half way through. So their time wasn't anything wonderful, but they had fun! I'm just happy to see him so happy. He loves his program and all the people there!

This is an odd thing to post about but I just find it funny. Leave it to Pete to make gourmet Ramen Noodles! (They are actually really good)

And of course I can't forget Halloween! I L O V E halloween! We always have a lot of fun. We have lots of halloween traditions. This year we made our own decorations. We made a paper plate skeleton for our door that the kids named Rudy. They would say goodbye to him every time we left the house. They also made some cute little handprint spiders to hang in the window. These kinda things are so much more memorable than store bought! Of course we carved pumpkins. And then a really fun thing happened this year. We went to my mom and dad's in Heber for trick or treating and all of my siblings decided to do the same. We had all the grandkids there together to trick or treat (except Chloe of course :() It was a lot of fun! OH and we had a way fun witches party at Pete's mom's house with some of the neices and one of Pete's Aunts (Deon) We had a witch parade at Grandpa's work and then we went dressed up to Don Pedros for dinner. We were quite the sight!

So that is my update minus a lot of details, hopefully I'll keep up better from now on!