Simply MOM (and lovin' it)

Cree's Birthday/ Valentine's Day

2012-02-14T18:06:00.000-08:00

I am to pregnant this year to give Cree a big birthday party so she had two minature parties. We had cake and ice cream over at my parents sunday night. It was just us and the grandparents. Here is the Barbie my mom gave her!Today she got to invite one friend to walk home from school with her. They made the cake and cupcakes all by themselves. Then they did their own makeup. They created their own balloon families too. Somehow i didn't get pictures of this. I think overall she had a good birthday!!! I can't believe how grown up she is getting. Both time she had the hardest time blowing out the candles i guess 8 was to many for her. ..When they did makeup they got the boys too!! There was alot of goofing off with the camera too!

Getting Cree's Ears Pierced!!!

2012-02-12T14:07:00.000-08:00

Creedance is going to be 8 on Valentine's day. This is the age me and Tyler decided that she would be old enough to have her ears pierced if she would like too!!! What 8 year old girl doesn't want her ears pierced????? Anyway since her birthday is Valentine's day and I really didn't want to be going to the mall big and pregnant that day we decided to let her do it a couple of days earlier. So me and Cree headed to Claire's on Friday evening!!! She was sooooo excited and a little scared. We had people stop to watch, and others that were really worried she was going to start screaming so they left quickly. Well She was soooo brave. They did both ears at once and she still had a smile on her face the whole time. Didn't even flinch once. She did tell me that one ear hurt more than the other but that it wasn't bad at all. So now she gets to take care of her new holes. So far she is doing a wonderful job and is constantly wanting to clean them!!!! We also had a girls haircut night were we went out and had our hair cut for her birthday. She says she feels like a whole new woman (ok girl!!!) Anyway i love having these special moments with her and am way glad that she is my daughter.

LOVE YOU CREEDANCE!!!

Trying to get things done!

2012-01-24T17:33:00.000-08:00

I have alot of lists of things i need to get done before the baby gets here!!! I should be writing everything down because I have a tendency when pregnant to forget things! I know i have accomplished alot of it and can't always even remember what it was i have gotten done. Man i hate pregnancy brain.

Most of the time i think i am completly ready for this baby, but then i remember things that i don't have. I have been trying to stock up on diapers, but i just remebered to buy wipes. He has lots of clothes but i have managed to buy a couple more things. This last week i was making up the crib and remembered i only had one sheet. So had to run buy more of those. I did remember to get pacifiers, mostly because i found one of Pearson's old ones when moving around the little boys room. All in all i can't wait for him to arrive!!! I have even painted the room and put up cute monkey decals. And this last weekend i even put up the changing table! I also thought i had gotten all the blankets out and washed until Tyler reminded me that we have lots of blankets that we like to swaddle the babies with so i luckily found most of those and got them washed!

I am pretty sure i have finished up most of my primary work!!! I mean i know things pop up all the time but i have all of the begining of the year stuff done and the talks, scripture, and prayers assigned through June. Hopefully it is enough!!!

I am also trying to get all the things ready for Creedance's birthday and baptism. I can't believe she is going to be 8!!! She won't be baptized until closer to the end of March, which means the baby will be here. She is actually suppose to get baptized the 3rd of March, but with the baby coming on the 2nd I can't really pull it off. We have been shopping for dresses. Sad thing is most of the white dresses we find don't have sleeves, and the ones that do she doesn't like or they really don't fit right. So i think we will be adding sleeves to the dress she likes the most!

I am also toying with potty training Pearson some more, but so far if i even think it he gets diarhea. I think he is mostly ready especially after today when he announced, "I am poopy mommy change me now!!!" Guess we will see what happens with that.

Anyway, i am sure there is more i am trying to get done but of course right now i can't think of it!

3D Ultrasound

2012-01-06T12:48:00.000-08:00

So i had a 3D ultrasound yesterday! Was kind of fun i have never had one before. The baby wasn't in a very good position though so that stunk. He is already head down, but he kept his arm up in front of his face the whole time!!! We tried multiple things to get him to move but he wouldn't do it. He was way cute though!!! Maybe you can see him. It is kind of hard with his arm there! This is my favarite one! So much fun can't wait until he gets here!!!

Major update!!!!

2012-01-02T12:21:00.000-08:00

Wow, I can't believe it has been so long. I guess i just got so busy that blogging ended up on the bottom of my ever growing list!!!! We had a great Thanksgiving!!! Didn't get a whole lot of pictures this year though!! We had actual Thanksgiving day dinner with Tyler's family. Both of his Sisters from Idaho and a Brother from California and all their family's were there!! My kids just love spending time with their cousins. We then went up to the cabin with my family for the post Thanksgiving dinner and fun!!! My kids love going there!!!

Most the beginning of December was spent preparing for Christmas, and trying not to become to tired and grumpy!! I love being pregnant but man do i get a little crazy sometimes(Tyler would say most of the time!!!!) Seems that my mom has started a tradition of getting hats for my brothers and brother-in-laws. This year I made the hats and decided the girls needed some too!!!!

The hats were fun to make but took up alot of time!!! Which helped me stay off of my feet so that they didn't swell up to big!!!! I was happy that i was able to finish them all!!!

On Christmas Eve Santa ended up visiting us at my parents. I hadn't really thought or worried about taking them to see santa because no one seemed very interested, but the day before christmas eve T.j. started getting worried that he hadn't told santa what he wanted for Christmas and was begging me to take him to see him!! There was no way i was braving the mall to see santa and thought T.J. would just have to survive, but santa texted Tyler and said that he would be willing to make a visit to us!!!! Tj and Pearson were soooooo excited!!! Creedance on the other hand had to be dragged upstairs into the room while he was there and was not happy about the pictures. Toph is smart and figured out who "it was" right away and had to be talked to so as not to ruin it for the other kids!!! I am not sure if he still believes in santa or not but definatley knows this santa was a helper. My dad this year told his yearly "why santa might not be coming story" too!! It is so fun to watch the kids faces as he tells this story. We didn't take any pictures only video of this!!! This year santa drank to much bad milk and ended up in the hospital. Toph was very upset with China!!!

Christmas morning was spent opening presents. Toph set his alarm clock for 6 because he knew we had to be at church at 9 and wanted to make sure we got the presents opened and played with before we had to go to church. They all ripped into the presents pretty fast and did get some time to play before we started to make them get ready for church!!!

After church we had a big breakfast and played with all the toys until it was time to go to grandma's house to open presents there. Some of my siblings and families had already started to get there!! By the end of the week we would have all of us together but only some were there for christmas. At grandmas we had to rip into more presents.

Poor kids!

We did alot of playing and getting together the whole beginning of the next week. Even tried taking the kids ice skating at the out door rink, Toph had the most fun, Ava i believe had the least as she fell on the ice hit her mouth and started to bleed. She did not want to stand on the ground very bad after that!! We headed for the cabin, some on wednesday and some came up thursday!!! We had the whole family together, (except for my brother-in-law Sean who got sick at the last minute! no fun) We did alot of things together. Swimming, the Imax, shopping, playing, sledding, snowmobiling, they even made an igloo!! I think we all had a pretty good time!!!

Toph's Birthday

2011-11-06T12:38:00.001-08:00

So Toph is 9!!!! It is kind of crazy how fast they grow up!!! This year he decided instead of having family and friends to our house for a party that he would rather have one friend and go to Leo's place. I think he had a great time, but sadly we got no pictures! Tyler said he got some but i can't find them anywhere!! But here is a picture of the cake before we went out! Toph got to put the lego men on and for anyone who doesn't see it, this is a lego cake! It is suppose to be a lego piece! Didn't go exactly as planned.

Overall we had a great day!! Toph got tonz of lego sets and can't wait to put them together! His dad got him a technic lego motorbike and hopefully it will keep him busy for awhile!!!!

Finally found the picture with him in it!!! Tyler had taken a picture with my camera but it didn't have a memory card in it. Luckily the camera saved the picture anyway and i was able to figure out how to get it on the card!

It's Halloween time!!!

2011-10-29T10:34:00.001-07:00

Halloween is such a fun time with kids!!!! There are so many activities and fun times to be had!!!This year we started the fun more than a week early! The school Halloween carnival was more than a week before so the kids got to dress up and play at this! They even got to go over to my parents before and have a bbq and play with their cousins. The carnival was pretty fun. Toph got sick after eating a cupcake and we bought to many tickets and there wasn't time to use them all. Luckily we were able to use them at the bake sell and the kids got cotton candy, soda, and some cookies. T.J. also won a cake in the cake walk!!

The next night (Saturday), we went to the redbarn looking for some pumpkins with some of our friends. The kids loved the straw maze!!!! We didn't do the train to much wildness for me!!! Although they did get to ride behind a tractor in these little box things so i think they were happy with that! We finally got a picture of them all together but Pearson would not look at the camera! We do think that T.J. may be allergic to straw because he was covered in a rash later that night!!! We picked out some really good pumpkins and then had a bbq with our friends at our house. Fun night!!!!

Of course things during the week around here always get a little hectic so i was a little worried about getting the pumpkins carved. Luckily Tyler skipped out on one of his meetings so we ended up with an open Thursday night to carve us some fun pumpkins. Toph did his own face! Cree drew hers right on the pumpkin and i cut it out. T.J. drew Tyler a picture and then Tyler cut it out. Tyler also did both the family pumpkin and Pearsons. Yes we do alot of pumpkins.

We also got our scare crows ready for the trunk or treat. This is only a pic of the big one the little one didn't get till the next day and i don't have a picture of it!!!

This week at school was also red ribbon week so the kids were able to do crazy hair day, wear hats and team jersey's. We are not big sports people so they just wore jerseys from previous years when one or the other played!!!

Last night was our ward trunk or treat. So the kids got to dress up again!!!! Toph was Harry Potter! Cree was a Masquerade Princess! T.J. was of course a Pirate with the sweetest peg leg! Pearson was a gnome, he isn't wearing his hat or beard yet because he had to eat before trunk or treating and i didn't want him spilling food in his beard!!!

I really think they would dress up everyday of the week if i would let them. I think they had a great time and it is hilarous to hear Pearson say trick-or-treat!!! We came home and the kids put on a light show with glow in the dark sticks in the basement. It got really intense when Tyler jumped in with them! we had glowing interlocking circles galore!! It was so much fun to watch!!!

Maybe the sad part of all of this is we haven't even made it to Halloween yet!!! We still have all day tommorow to get through the primary program. Then it will finally be Halloween. The kids get to dress up to go to school and have a nice little parade and then on to the real trick-or-treating.

My son's symes amputation and life with a prosthetic limb (extended)

2011-10-23T20:37:00.000-07:00

Me and Tyler felt like we left alot of stuff out of the last one that would be good to have in there, so this is a longer version of his story. oh and Tyler says the music doesn't skip. This one shows more of what happened with his wound when it got infected so be prepared. Tyler says it isn't to gross, i am not sure i was sooo used to it when it happened it doesn't throw me but i worry about showing people the photos anyway. Hope you enjoy it!!!!

My son's symes amputation

2011-10-21T21:47:00.000-07:00

So here is the video we took to T.j.'s class and showed them! We did alot of stopping and explaining but can't bring ourselves to write anything on it because it kind of ruins the feel of it! Anyway let me know what you think!!!!

It's a ............

2011-10-18T08:51:00.000-07:00

So life around here has been pretty crazy!!!! But I had my ultrasound last Friday afternoon!!! We were afraid Tyler wasn't going to be able to come because his work has been sooooooo crazy but he was able to!!!!!! I usually have my ultrasounds done at Rosemark. I didn't with Creedance and it was kind of wild. So that is where i wanted to go this time. But there was a different lady at the front desk of my doctor's office and when i told her I wanted to go to Rosemark she said "you mean Mountainview" and set up for there!!!! oh well it went really good. The lady was a little worried because i wasn't 20 weeks yet but she was able to see everything just fine and it all went well. We were a little sad it wasn't our regular lady but at Mountainview i guess they offer a free 3D ultrasound if you get your regular one done there. So in a couple of weeks we will be able to go back and have a 3D ultrasound which is really cool because I have never had one!!!

So anyway....... It's a BOY!!!!!!! Hopefully i will not regret putting this pic up but it was soooo obvious this time that i just had too!!!!

After the ultrasound we rounded up all the kids and took them over to my mom's. They all got to sleepover!! Me and Tyler ran away to Jackson for my birthday. It was so nice to have some us time!!! I always miss the kids though and want to get back! This time i came home to some extra onery kids. They had woken my mom up at 5:30!!!!!! Then Pearson only took a half an hour nap which is NOT good. We survived though and had a GREAT weekend.

This is Tyler out by the Tetons! He worked on a visitor center putting windows in a couple of years ago and had to show me all the stuff they did!! He also took me to some way good restraunts! Sorry honey that i wan't able to eat at Bubba's it really was good!!!!

The other big thing we have been up to is, T.j. wanted us to come and talk to his class about his amputation. We have a slide show that Tyler made a couple of years ago and we planned on taking in some of his old feet, and to basically give these kids a condensed version of what happened to T.J. It was a good thing Tyler was able to come with me because every time I watch the slide show i cry and not just a little i sob!!!! These are the picture that always starts it!! I can't help it! I love all my little people but T.j. has always been able to wrap me around his little finger, and touch my heart!!!!

Birthday!!!

2011-10-12T11:05:00.000-07:00

Things have been a little crazy around here, and of course nothing can really change for my birthday, so we kind of played it by ear this year!! Work is kind of stacking up for Tyler so he had to go out of town for most of the day!! I was happy that he didn't have to stay overnight so I didn't complain.

Tyler left early before anybody was up! So it was just me and the kids. I got up and got everyone ready for school. And off they went. Me and Pearson cleaned house, and got me ready to go teach dance. We also started my cake! I decided i wanted to try this ice cream cake that my friend Natalie put on her blog. Doesn't it look delicous!! Took awhile to get it made but in the end it was way worth it. Our good friends the Jones's invited me and the kids over for dinner! (They knew Tyler was going to be out of town!) We ate wonderful chicken noodle soup! MMMmmmmm....

Tyler made it back just in time to have cake with us. Then it was off to bed for the kiddos! And off to bed for the mama!!!

Lately i have been wanting homemade snacks galore this is one i got from my sister Rachel and her Husband. They are yummy. Kind of stinks that i take a couple bites of anything and i am done. Oh well everything still tastes good!

Canning

2011-09-27T13:13:00.000-07:00

So this Year i got 2 boxes of peaches and 5 of pears!!! I am not sure what i was thinking about getting 5 boxes of pears but Holy cow i must have been crazy or not quite understood that they all would be ready at the same time and that i would be doing them all by myself!!!! Well here they are!!! Atleast most of them i am missing 7 jars of Pear halves!(and 7 jars of jam that were being water bathed at time of photo)
A very few where ready on saturday and they did not make it in the picture!!! Oh and none of the peaches are in the picture i canned them on saturday too! But my wonderful mother-in-law came and helped me and things didn't seem so bad on Saturday!

And here is what put me in tears yesterday. Remember that i am pregnant and emotional and after a whole day of canning and standing and running, i ended up having pears left over. I was going to make more jam but ran out of pectin and couldn't find anymore at the store! So i cried and put the rest of the pears in the fridge and have been hoping they will disappear, or that after teaching dance today i might find some reserve energy and be able to pull off something with them! I only have a couple jars left and am not certain i have any energy left!

I do enjoy canning but think i might have overdone it while pregnant. I have also canned salsa and pickles. And have done freezer corn! oh and there might be more crying and complaining because i have a lot more tomatoes, and probably more cucumbers that i have to do something with. Oh and i am crazy because i told my mother-in-law that i really wanted strawberries this year for jam. And lo and behold she ended up finding some this late in the season so me and my strawberries will have a good old time too!!!!

Being behind!

2011-09-21T14:48:00.000-07:00

I seem to be doing things lately but they never seem to get done when they should. Was going to make salsa on Monday, ended up making it today!

My favorite one lately was the boys haircuts. Any responsible/good mom would have gotten their haircut before school pictures. Nope i wait for my boys to come home from school the day of school pictures and then get their haircut. I think they look cute now but you think maybe i should have done it before school pics.

I am also late getting all my dance stuff done this year. I picked out some songs on time but decided i wasn't going to do them and switched. Then showed up late to pick out costumes(had to run to Shriner's on the day i said i would be there). Then to top it all off even before i got my music onto my ipod, i managed to wash my ipod(forgot it was in the pocket of my sweater, which Pearson had wiped snot all over). Needles to say i have got to start getting back on top of things.

Labor Day Weekend!!

2011-09-13T15:40:00.001-07:00

Tyler went mountain Climbing at Redfish!!!

So this past labor day I took the kids to my parents cabin. Tyler had other important(see pic above) fun things to do for the beginning of the weekend so it was Me, my kids, My Dad, and my little bro's Jake and Dave. My Brothers and Dad are awesome and in between all of their adventures they played with my kids and kept them busy!

For fun on Saturday me and the kids drove up to Hebgan Lake. Sadly i forgot to pack a camera so our first part of the weekend has no pic's. The beach there looked quite a bit different than i remebered it the water was so high that there really wasn't to much beach. But we found a spot and staked it out. O.k. we were the only one's on the beach! It was a kind of chilly day. This did not stop T.j. or Pearson for running straight into the water!!! Toph was skeptical at first but was soon in the water playing too!!! Creedance however opted out. She just doesn't seem to have enough body fat for her to stay warm and getting wet was not in her plans. Anyway the boys had a great time.

Sunday was church and then off to Yellowstone. My kids have been into Yellowstone but have not seen Old Faithful erupt. Ok Toph and Cree were there when they were 3 and 2 but do not remember it so i thought it would be great for all the kids to see Old Faithful. They loved it!!! Even Pearson was sooooo excited! Tyler did not enjoy it that much he had just returned from his trip and was really tired.

The boys getting ready to ride.

Monday was spent playing with daddy on the four wheelers and Toph was on his Motorbike. Tyler took them on quite the ride, while me my mom, and little Cree went shopping in West Yellowstone. Jake's wife Stacey opted to head out with Tyler and the little boys. While dad and the bro's went on a real manly motorbike ride! Pearson didn't last to long into the ride before he was asleep.

Overall we had a great weekend! It so nice to have somewhere to run away too when i need a break, and my parents are so awesome to let us use their cabin when that time comes around!!!

Shriner's Trip and Back to School!!!

2011-08-29T08:21:00.000-07:00

So we went to Shriner's last week, but since today was T.j.'s first day of school I'm going to start with that and then back track to last weeks adventures.

T.j. has been looking forward to school for awhile. We weren't actually sure if we would send him this year or wait. But in the end we decided to just send him and then deal with problems as they come our way.

So Toph is a 3rd grader this year!! Creedance is a 2nd grader! And T.j. is a Kindergartener!!! It is so strange sending all three this year!! T.j. had no problem going to school he ran off to do all the the chalk drawings and to talk to everyone. I on the other hand am not sure how ready i am to let go. He has always been my snuggler and the one to tell me he loves me and it was hard to leave him there!!!!

Anyways, I better move on before the crying starts.

The Shriner's trip was very eventful this time. T.j. got a new doctor since his old one no longer works there. We are suppose to be seing a dr. every year and haven't been able to before now. He got all new x-rays. He also got crutches and walker this time. He is sooooo in love with them. He doesn't want to wear his foot just use his crutches. Hopefully they novelty wears off soon and we only have to use them when he needs them. He also got fitted for a new foot since his is falling apart!!! But we won't be able to get it until they have time to make it and right now they are really busy. So we will be making another trip down in a couple of weeks hopefully!!!

Waddoups Family Pic's and Jake's Wedding!!!

2011-08-29T08:03:00.001-07:00

We finally have gotten all the Waddoups kids together, and actually got a photo!! It was sad that we didn't have all spouses and children. But i consider us lucky just to get all 7 of us and our parents in one place long enough to take a picture. And what better place than in Mom and Dad's back yard.

And what Waddoups get together would ever be the same with out a little football!!! Tyler climbed up on top of my parents playhouse, walked all the way out on the edge so he could get some pictures of the game.

The next day was the Wedding!! Jake and Stacey are so cute together!!!! The Temple was great, the lucheon was great, and the reception was great. We did alot of visiting and playing with all the family that came. My kids found they have "cousins" other then Jen's kids that are their ages. They are actually my cousins but my kids loved playing with them!!!

American falls camping and some climbing!!!

2011-08-29T07:45:00.001-07:00

A couple of weekends ago we went camping and climbing with some of our good friends the Hansens. We had a good time, wait other than the bus did not want to make it to American Falls for the camping trip. As we were driving along, it kept just completely stopping. We gave it a break and eventually made it!

The kids love camping, and they love camping even more with friends. They played and helped set up and eventually we made it to bed that night. The next day they went down to the lake and Toph managed to fall in twice!! No one else got wet. We even took a little hike out onto the Jette(Spelling?).

Next we headed to Pocatello to do some climbing. The kids had a good time running around and they all tried to climb the rock. Though i only seem to have pictures of Toph doing it. After the kids climbed the men climbed. These Pictures were nice but you can't really tell whose climbing so no point in putting them on here. Anyway we had a great time with friends!!!

Pearson turned 2!

2011-08-15T12:30:00.000-07:00

Ok so this post is really late!!!! And is going to be quite pathetic but i have to still write about his birthday because i love him sooooooo much! He seemed to have a great day!!! He had his bestest friend over all day! (Ryan's mom had just had a baby so it worked out great to get to have him over!!!) We played all day, and then let him make a huge mess out of Spaghetti for dinner. Pearson loves to make messes but HATES to be dirty which never seems to work out!!! Then we moved on to cake and ice cream and from here on out you will see that I was not a great mom for this birthday!!! I usually make the kids a themed cake, i buy the special pan, and then star on all of the icing. This did not happen he got a plan old regular cake, but there was candles. And this next picture even shows how much i didn't doo.......... nope no wrapping paper even. We left the gifts in the bag and just let him pull them out!! wow looking back makes me feel even more guilty. The good thing is he had such a good time and loved it all. Loved the toys, loved the cake, hated having to share with his brothers and sisters. I am so grateful for my baby!!! And can't believe that he is already 2!!!!! Happy Birthday Pearson!!!

redfish and other fun

2011-07-27T14:15:00.000-07:00

So Tyler was able to move the pictures to this one but not the words so until i have more time to write more words, everyone can enjoy the pictures!!!!Pearson at the Hopkins reunion! The only pic i was able to find on my crazy computer! We had such a good time with Tyler's family! The kids got to see all of their cousins, play in the frog pond, they all loved the playmill theatre!(even Pearson which suprised me!!) We all stayed in a big cabin together so pretty much it was non stop fun unless you were asleep! First Day at Redfish. Alot of the family had gone to the gold dredge when we arrived but Jake, Stacey, Mom, and Dad were there, and the kids made a killer good Sand castle with some help!!!The Next day we skiied some and played on the beach but then some of them ran up to the other end of the lake. There was hiking to the Lily ponds and cliff jumping. Toph and Cree went with all of their cousins and others, and had a glorious time!! Dad gave driving lessons to a bunch of the grandkids. I think they had alot of fun!!
Pearson was not a very happy camper. He ran a fever part of the time. He did make some trips to the beach and would have spurts where he didn't screeam the whole time. Yes I waterskiied! Yahoo i am so excited that i was able to get up!!!

Fun!

bad time

2011-07-27T13:50:00.000-07:00

Just posted a blog about Redfish and Hopkins Reunion but did it on the wrong blog. Trying to figure if i can move it but not looking good. GRRRRRR

Catching up!!

2011-05-28T11:44:00.001-07:00

Sorry about the space. I am having the hardest time with blogger!!!!

So we have been up to alot lately which hasn't left a whole lot of time to blog. (OK i have had time but I have been using my spare time for other things). Anyway now I get to try to play catch up!!! Just have to pick where to start. Since I didn't get any pictures of Creedance's Dance Recital maybe I should start there. Her whole team did soooo good! They are just so stinking cute! She did her regular two dances and then her Ballet class did a dance! I know i should have taken pictures, but Tyler stayed home with all of the boys, and recitals are sooooooo crazy for me. I always seem to be like a chicken running around with its head cut off! Anyway since dance is done for the year, things should be a little slower for me! Oh wait the kids are out of school so things will probably be more crazy!

We have been working on getting another room done in the basement! I am attempting to help but not doing so good! I can sand the walls just fine but i am not very good at mudding! Tyler also has other helpers who don't really help!

The kids watermelon juice stand!

Toph had pack meeting a couple of weeks ago and recieved a bunch of awards. I think is favorite being the pocket knife one! The kids love builing forts! They are trying to come up with all sorts of fun plans for this summer!

Oh and T.J. graduted from Preschool he is very excited about this and keeps asking me about when Kindergarten starts. I was a little bummed at the graduation. They forgot to call his name and he had waited so patiently through more than 30 kids. I took him up to get his stuff though, so in the end it all worked out!

Crazy Weekend!!

2011-05-02T14:06:00.000-07:00

We had a Dance Competition and a baby blessing this weekend. We thought Cree would dance in the morning or the afternoon on Saturday, but alas she ended up dancing saturday night. Nate and Kim's ward meets on Sunday at 9am. Now this might have not been to bad but Cree danced in Twin Falls and Nate and Kim live in Spanish Fork. We left Twin about 8:30 pm and made it to Spanish Fork about 12:30. Which isn't to bad considering stopping for gas and slowing down in some spots for construction.

Anyway we left IF Saturday morning, stopped in Pocatello so Tyler could do a little work, then stopped to check out Shoshone Falls. It was way pretty. There is alot of water going over right now. The kids loved getting out and running around(it was actually warm enough to get out!!!!)

Then we drove in to Twin. We stopped at Artic Circle which was way to wild and the food was not at all good!! Then off to the College campus for the competition. Things ran behind and we ended up dancing around 6 and 8ish. The Girls did so well though. They got Superiors on both of their dances, and get Highest Score in their division on "Music Box Dancer". Then came the driving. Which was better than i thought it would have been. We then got to crash at Rachel's Place (what a good name for Sean's grandparents house). She even waited up for us. What a nice sister! We Love YOU Rachel!!!

The next day we were up bright and early. Yes Toph started getting out loud toys at 6:30!! The only good side is we got ready in plenty of time for the blessing!!

Lily is an adorable baby. She was good through the blessing, and Nate did a great job!! After they had a luncheon and me and Creedance got to hold Lily. I think we both would love to have another girl around our house!!! Kim made wonderful (breakfast) Luncheon food. We all ate way to much. Thank You Kim!! I know having us all over is stressful but we love you guys!!

After all this fun we went back to Rachel's for a much needed nap! Although i don't think i got much sleep it was enough to revive us a little bit. We hung out with them for awhile and then decided we should attempt to go home. We stopped a couple of times and in the end didn't make it home until 10:30!! We all fell straight into bed!! Me and Creedance are having a really hard time waking up and fuctioning!! She ended up being an hour late for school cause she was just to tired to stay awake. Hopefully tomorrow we will all be rested and ready for another crazy week!!

Birthday/Easter Weekend

2011-04-27T11:40:00.000-07:00

So T.j.'s birthday and Easter were the same weekend this year! Putting two things on the same weekend always makes things a little more crazy around here. But we wanted to have fun anyway!!! T.j. decided that he wanted to camping, and swimming at Green Canyon. Thinking it was warming up me and Tyler both agreed. Although we did have a good time it was REALLY COLD! Our Firewood was still to wet so it didn't burn very well. When we got there the kids played for a little bit while Tyler was cooking dinner, but in the end we all ended huddled up in the bus trying not to freeze.

We had to sing and eat cake in the bus, but none of the kids seemed to mind. I think that T.J. thought it was really cool.

Easter was a bit warmer for us at Home!!! The only down side is we had church at 9am and we stayed up to late the night before. We did get our eggs colored the night before, i was really worried we weren't going to get it done with the way life has been going!!! The kids loved hunting for their baskets that the bunny had hidden. And all the stuff we found in the baskets was great too!!!

I'm not sure Pearson really got it, but he thought it was great to get to have candy for breakfast!!!

What we have been up to lately!!

2011-04-21T09:58:00.000-07:00

Actually I am not a hundred percent sure what i have been up to lately. It seems like everything is going to fast and that i am trying to cram to many things into the next couple of months. I mean some days we are fine and laid back but i usually pay for this later because i won't be prepared for whatever is coming next!!

Creedance is on the competing dance team this year. She enjoys it ok but seems to get tired really easily while the other girls just burst with energy. I am not sure if she even will try out again for next year but really want to leave it up to her. Anyway, we have done two comps and have one left. Then they have to more performances still coming up in the next month or so! These are some pictures of her and Pearson while we were in Logan for the competion. We ended up performing friday night instead of saturday which was a little crazy but worked out fine in the end. Tyler and the other boys didn't come since Tyler had windows to put in on Saturday and i can't help the team and watch all of them we left the older boys with him. (It did drive from Logan to Rexburg to get them and then we came back home). I found these pictures and also remembered that we went up to my parents cabin for confrence!! Funny thing is i didn't have any pictures of toph or tj. This is cree and pearson in a cubby hole above the tv room there. My brothers use to call it the farting lounge though i don't think that is what my kids call it!! We had a great time. The kids love spending time with my parents and brothers. And getting to play in the snow up there!!

Let's see what else are we up to. Toph loves scouts and attends once a week. T.j. loves preschool but is on spring break this week, since his teachers daughter had a baby and of course grandma has to visit.( What girl wouldn't want grandma around to help and keep her sane!) I also have been doing other performances with my non competing dance classes. We just did our nursing home performances last night. Oh yeah my friend Jessica has invited me to come and play tennis with them on their team. I haven't played in almost 9 years but am way excited. Now if i could just get pack meeting, performances, and tennis practice to be on seperate nights(unlike last night) Then maybe i might eventually be able to figure this all out!! Oh well I'll try to stay on top of it.

It is a good thing that i have friends and family to remind me that easter is THIS week and that T.j.'s Birthday is Friday and not just some day in the future or i could be in ALOT of trouble!!!

The Weekend

2011-03-30T13:31:00.000-07:00

To Start the weekend Friday was crazy hair day at school! The kids thought it was great getting to get to do their hair up however they wanted!!

After getting the younger kids off to school. I got to do the frantic pack a bag for overnight for the all of the kids. They went to my mom's house for the night while me and Tyler went to Salt Lake for the Blue Comedy Tour Show. It was the first time I have ever left Pearson over night, and I was a little nervous.

When we got down their we went to out to dinner with friends. We went to the Mayan where they do cliff diving and a little show while you eat. Was pretty fun, and Tyler can barely wait until he can take the kids. He think that they will love it! After dinner we headed to the show. Most of it was pretty funny, atleast i understood what two of the three guys were saying. Larry the cable guy sounded very mumbly to me. Tyler loved the whole thing, and laughed a ton!!! The next morning we went to temple square. We went to the south visitor center and checked out the cut away replica of the temple. It was really cool being able to see all of the rooms. After that we went out to eat and then to Kirkhams. Tyler got me a new pair of Chaco Sandals which i loooooove!!!

After that we headed to Ikea!!! Man that store is always fun to go through. We wanted to get a new table, a bed frame, and a new dresser. But in the end even though we found one's that we really liked we decided we didn't really need them right now and will wait since we can get them any time we are down there for T.J.

We also stopped at Smith & Edwards on the way home. And Tyler really enjoyed walking through there and finding more fun stuff for him.

The weekend was great, but i missed my kids.

Creedance's Dance's

2011-03-19T13:17:00.000-07:00

So I got Tyler to upload the video from Cree's dance competition! Need to have him teach me, but atleast I have it on here!!! Oh and we found my camera!!! Tyler had set it up on top of the fridge when he took the last pictures of cree's birthday. He is the only one tall enough to really see it up there: ) I'm glad to get it back and will try to get picture's from it when i get done figuring out these video clips!

So her Music Box Dancer is my favorite. But they are really cute in my boyfriends back too! I didn't get the beginning of either of the dances since i had to help get them on the floor and then try to find a spot to do it from. Oh and i was holding Pearson too!!

Sick! and I'm overwhelmed!

2011-03-16T08:44:00.000-07:00

So Pearson's ear is infected again. His tube fell out of his right ear when he got bronchitus a little while back. It was quite gross but i won't give details. He seemed ok for a couple of days but all of the sudden he has gotten mean. He hits bites and screams, screams, screams. So during my rather hectic day yesterday. (Broken dishwasher, wet bed, teaching dance, kids having friends over, and a primary meeting). I managed to get him to the doctor and yes it is infected.
Thus begins the medicine. Which gives him diarhea. Which came out of his diaper and he wiped on his brother and several chairs before i caught him! (Sorry was trying not to make the post gross, but i think i am failing). And for one of the other clinchers this morning i forgot about the glass bottle throwing he did yesterday. He threw when of cree's favorite glass dishes. Thought we got it cleaned up. Then he managed to get a hold of a candle. Big mess right before meeting and asked Topher to pick it up. While he is supposedly cleaning T.J. let Pearson in the storage room downstairs. He picks up a jar of salsa and throws it. While i am trying to help Toph and clean up salsa and more glass, i start to notice what i think is blood (hard to tell at this point with all of the salsa).
So i grab Pearson and he is bleeding everywhere. He managed to cut his foot. Oh and he is a bleeder so I'm trying really hard to get it to stop and the Primary Presidency is going to be here any minute. I grab a handful of bandaids and ended up putting on four before it stops bleeding. So this morning after his tub, where he gets the band aids off, i put a diaper on him and he runs and jumps back in the tub with his brother. So i pull him out again, rediaper and get him dressed. While i go to get a band aid he runs to the basement. And we start more blood. I finally get three more band aids on. And he starts screaming and attacking his brother. He is now in his bed, and hopefully sleeping!

Anyway, I was having a bad day until i looked at my sisters blog and she said she liked the present i sent her! Sometimes the smallest things make moms feel so much better!

Life!

2011-03-10T10:20:00.000-08:00

I hate trying to post without pictures but if i don't post something soon it won't happen for a long time. Everything around here is busy!! We have a ton of things coming up!! And finished alot of things last month.
Cree turned 7 on Valentine's day. She is such a beautiful little girl! ( Would love to put a picture here!) She had two seperate parties. My family (Mom, Dad, Jake(and girlfriend), and Dave) came over on Monday. Early so they didn't miss their Valentine night. Cree got to open her presents, and loved them all. My mom got her an American Doll and she was sooooo excited. We had a heart cake!(which i took a picture of and is probably still on my camera were ever it is!) All the kids had fun!!!
That wednesday was the Scout Banquet in our ward! Tyler and Me are pretty involved in scouting in our ward. He is the scout master and i'm the person in the primary presidency over scouts. We did alot to get it ready and i wish we could show a picture of the gym after setup. We had lots of awesome friends and ward members that helped!!
On Sunday Creedance got another party. She had to share a little though because Tyler's parents were being set apart for their mission that day too! We had dinner here at our house with both Tyler's sisters families, and his parents. Then we went to the setting apart! It was really good! Afterward we came back and had cake and ice cream!!!

Coming up we have Creedance first dance competition this weekend. I am hoping to get both of her dances on film since i don't have a camera for stills. I hope she enjoys the competition because dance lately has been really hard for her.
And next week is the pine wood derby. Tyler helped both Toph and T.j. make a car, although T.j. won't really be able to race his! Toph's is pretty cool and I think he is excited. T.j.'s is a glass truck with real glass on the back. Maybe I'll try stilling Tyler's camera to take a picture. But it might take a while to figure out how to get it on here.
I feel much better now that i got this done!!!!!!

Netflix

2011-03-03T10:29:00.000-08:00

So i am suppose to be posting more but have fallen behind because of netflix. I haven't watched a whole lot of TV since i have had Toph. I try to catch something here or there, but never really stay to caught up in anything for very long. But i have decided t.v. is addictive. I just can't stop using all my spare time to watch it!!!
I should be blogging about valentines day and cree's birthday. Which were both awesome. I lost my camera though so i have no pictures which lowers the likely hood of blogging about them. Anyway, now everyone knows my excuse!!

How do you know when they are ready?

2011-02-09T08:25:00.000-08:00

With all of my other kids i knew when they were ready to be done with the bottle, binki, and needed the side off of the crib. Most of them were off the bottle at 12 months we gave T.J. two extra months so that he could have the comfort of the bottle while he was going through his surgery. They all just walked away from it like pro's. Except Pearson if he even saw a bottle for months afterward o.k. even cree's baby doll bottles now he still tries to drink out of!!!!
As for the binki all of my kids right around 18 months threw them away and were fine. I always worried but they did great and we never have much problem. Well i totally don't feel prepared to take Pearsons away we started letting him have it less around the time he turned one but right after he went through a phase were he had to have it all the time and i should have said no but didn't. I finally started phasing it back out last month. Trying not give it to him but at nap and bed time. But we are all dealing with the fall out of that. He screams high pitched all the time and you can' t figure out what he wants it just gets worse and worse.
Well yesterday i couldn't take him ruining the computer room, and truthfully i don't like keeping him in a pink room(can't change the color since i'm not allowed to move the computer desk, i did add blue and brown dots around his bed on the wall). Anyway we had been talking about moving him in with Creedance since she should be moving downstairs hopefully some time soon. So i moved him in there and decided to see if we could take away think binki and leave the side of the crib, so it is sort of like a day bed.
The no binki ended as soon as Tyler showed up with the scouts to stain and spray paint flag holders in the basement. I tried not to get mad but 10 boys all in the basement got very loud upstairs and Pearson couldn't handle it sooo out came the binki. I only had to lay him down the once, once he had the binki and he went straight to sleep. He did fall out once in the middle of the night but went right back to bed once i put him back on it. We did have a problem around 4 when he decided he wasn't tired. He didn't get out but kept getting louder and louder.
I decided i need a three day policy and shouldn't change anything until i had tried it that long. But at nap time today i almost caved. I had to put him back in his bed 5 times. Before he finally fell asleep. I am glad i stuck with it, but am wondering if i should put the side back on let him get used to the new room for a couple of weeks. Then take away the binki. And then in a couple of months try taking off the side again.
I HATE DECISIONS!!!!!

My Night!!

2011-02-04T07:36:00.000-08:00

They look cute right!

So Pearson started sleeping fairly well through the night a couple of months ago when we had gotten him on a new schedule. He still occasionally wakes up once or twice but normally goes back sleep once he gets a binki in his mouth. But he has managed to get sick/is allergic to something again. He constantly has a runny nose. At first i though it was a cold but it has been going on for over two weeks now with no other real symptoms and no one else is getting sick. Well since it has started he has been waking up alot during the night. Sometimes screaming sometimes he is just in there playing. Most of the time i just give him his binki and hope for the best.

Last night he really did not want to sleep. He woke up atleast five times before midnight. And here comes the best part of the whole night! I had just got done with Pearson when i hear T.j. screaming from the basement(this almost never happens!!). I go down to see what the matter is and when i walk into the bathroom it and him are covered in poo!!! I mean it was everywhere on wall on the toilet, up his legs on his clothes and he is screaming that his bum hurts! He is sitting there with clorox wipes and i thought he was trying to wipe his bum with them but no he was trying to clean up the mess. I took everything off and decided the only way to clean him all the way up was a shower. Neither of us really wanted this since we just wanted to sleep but in he went anyway! I ended up cleaning and throwing away all his clothes and a whole roll of toilet paper since there was poop all over the side and i knew that no one would want to use it. We finally got him clean and back in bed by 1!!!

And of course he got to go right back to sleep while i got to try and sleep while Pearson sang to me from his bed. This might not be so bad if he wouldn't scream "mom" as loud as he can every couple of minutes to make sure i'm still listening. It is a really good thing my kids are cute!!! Or they all might be in trouble!

Jake is Home!

2011-01-27T14:37:00.000-08:00

Yes it has been two years! It is hard to believe! I have not been the most faithful letter writer. But i did miss him a ton and am sooooo happy that he is home! I'm glad he was able to serve and hope that he did all the Lord had for him. Anyway, here are a ton of pictures from the airport!!!

The Kids were so excited to show him the sign and look for him through the window!

All of us waiting at the airport!! We are soooo excited!Even Pearson knew something was up he was extra hyper and i had to chase him everywhere. (To be fair my sister-in-law Kim did more chasing of her son than than i did of my son and she is pregnant!)First hug always goes to MOM!!!Then of course DAD!!!Everyone was sooo happy!!

WE are so happy to have him home!!!

Our (long) Weekend!!!

2011-01-19T11:03:00.000-08:00

We had alot go on, on Saturday but nothing compared to the rest of our weekend. We had Church on Sunday, and then a scout meeting right after. Then we finished loading up and headed to Salt Lake!! T.J. had an appointment at Shriner's Monday morning and since the kids didn't have school we figured we could take a little family trip! It wasn't to bad of a drive down other than the fact that Pearson had a really hard time sleeping and he was beyond exhausted. Once we got there we found a hotel. Let the kids get some wiggles out and then decided to walk around temple square for awhile. The kids love the visitor centers, but they run from thing to thing and me and Tyler would have loved to look at the replica of the temple longer. We would actually love to go inside and check out everything in person but we are never there with just the two of us we always have atleast t.j. with us. Monday morning we went swimming for a little while, and then Tyler ran some errands for work while i got everybody ready for the day and all of our stuff packed up. When he got back we all went up to Shriner's. T.j. loves "his Eric" , a.k.a. as the guy who makes and fixes his prosthetic. It didn't take long to determine that T.j. had completley worn out the leg and that it was to small. Thus we would need a new one. This always works out differnetly once we know we are getting a new one. This time they gave us the option of coming back in a week or so, or staying over night and he would get us the new one by the next day. It was kind of hard to decide since the kids had school the next day, Tyler had work, and i was suppose to teach dance. But in the end it made more sense to stay. I would have to drive back down next week and start messing up the schedule for then. Anyway since we were staying we decided to drive to Spanish Fork and visit Nate, Kim, Boston, Rachel, and Sean. That is after playing upstairs at Shriner's and outside on the toys there. By the way Pearson went down a slide and was dripping wet by the time we left!!!All of us at dinnerThe Kids just Looooove Aunt Rachel!Me Trying to keep Pearson from terrorizing the whole restaurant!!!!!

Rachel and Sean were ssooooooo very nice and let us spend the night at their place Monday night. I just want to tell her thanks like a million times. The kids Loved the House. It had all sorts of cool toys, and even little tiny doors that went from one room into the next, perfect size for them to crawl thru. T.j. loved the fact that he got to sleep in his own room. He has always had to share since he has been born!!!

The next morning Rachel offered to feed us but i knew she had to be to work and so did Sean so we packed up the kids and went to McDonald's! They had a great time there!

Then we were headed back to Salt Lake to wait from the call from Shriner's to come get T.j.'s new foot! First off we stopped to go on a tour of the confrence center. The kids love to hold Pearson's hand when he is walking! I'm not sure he likes it though!!They even let us go up on the roof. Tyler had fun telling the kids all about when he proposed to me ten years ago up there. I can't believe we haven't been able to go out on the roof again since then. It was really nice!!We also went to the church art mueseum, but all the pictures of that ended up on Tyler's camera. After we were headed back to Shriner's of course all of the pictures of T.j.'s new foot aren't on my camera either. The trip home was long, with fun parts and way to much screaming.

It was nice to send the kids off to school this morning, but Toph is already home 'sick'. Oh the life of a mom!!

Saturday!!

2011-01-15T14:50:00.000-08:00

Everyone is suppose to love Saturdays! Right! Well at our house they don't usually turn out how we plan them. Our plans were suppose to go like this: Me and Tyler were going to work on the basement all day, and Toph has a basketball game at noon. Hoping we would get alot Done!!

As you all know that is not how it turned out!!! My friend aske last night if Tyler might be able to help them move for like an hour in the morning. Tyler loves to help people so we were o.k. with this. But the hour he was suppose to be helping turned into three since the guy with the other truck never showed up!!! And if Tyler doesn't start early on a project we normally don't get to it!

Anyway while Tyler is gone I get the kids up and ready! Creedance has wanted one of the hats a crochet with a ball on the top and ear flaps and i started working on it yesterday. And since i knew Tyler was going to be gone for a bit i finished the hat. And ended up having time to make me one too!!!Well all of this would be great if it didn't come with our everyday trauma!! Pearson takes two naps everyday and becomes really grumpy if he doesn't get them. So i put him down about 10! Then asked the kids to play quitelly in the basement while i mad the hats. It lasted ten minutes before T.j. was crying. Fix that then they all come to sit by me while i am making hats. I let them get out yarn and work on their own little projects. Of course after a little while they start bickering! I stop it quickly so they won't wake up the baby!!! Then i decided i wanted to take a shower since they were being sooo good! MISTAKE!!! By the time i am out T.J. is trying to cut Topher with scissors Creedance is screaming because Toph is trying to get something from her. Well i figured out it was Topher making everyone crazy and tried to stop it. He started crying screaming kicking throwing things. Needless to say i sent him to his room for starting everything, the fit, and waking up the baby!!! He got really mad when he got to his room and did this to his brand new robot!He did not make it to his basketball game!! Eventually Tyler made it home!! We all relaxed a bit! And eventually made it down to the basement to kind of start working on it!! oh well! It is a good thing i love them all soooooooooooo Much!!!!

Hectic Day!!!

2011-01-12T19:12:00.000-08:00

So the kids had a week off for school and i decided to have fun with them and help Tyler on the basement! So i didn't do a ton of cleaning. When they went back to school i decided i would catch up. Well i caught up on laundry and decided i wasn't ready to do all of it one day on the first Monday back. I did pick up a little but then T.j. had preschool, and i help in Cree's class on Mondays. Then after school Cree has Ballet. Anyway lots of stuff and i have never really caught up on the major stuff!( I have been doing dishes, laundry, and basic pickup!!!)
Anyway, Today i decided I was going to clean. I got Toph and Cree out the door to school. Put T.J. and Pearson in the tub to get them clean. Then I started on MAJOR pick up upstairs(so i could still be close to the boys). Ten minutes into starting, T.J. starts screaming i rush quickly into the bathroom to find that Pearson has Pooped!!!! So i have to pull out both boys, wash the tub, wash all of the toys in the tub, make sure it is rinsed out really well since my kids sometimes have reactions to certain cleaners, then rerun tub to clean both boys. Of course after they get out i feel like i need to clean the tub again.
So I haven't gotten far on my cleaning, i decide to have T.j. watch a movie and i will put Pearson down for a nap. Then i decide since i am already cleaning in the bathroom i might as well just clean all three and be done with them. Of course i ran out of cleaning supplies by the time i had two done. So the third will have to wait until after a trip to the store. I start picking up again, and 1 hour later i feel like it is time to start vacuuming!!!!! This last all of 5 minutes before the vaccum stops sucking. Alas, at this point i decide to completly give up for the day. T.j. has to make it to preschool and i'm sure all the mess will be there tomorrow!!!
I do have a somewhat uncluttered house(the kids, and Tyler came home and have left a lot of things around), and Two sparkly clean bathrooms!!!!

Christmas!!!

2010-12-29T06:18:00.000-08:00

So Christmas was alot of fun this year!!! It started early this year since my brother Sam, His Wife Emily, and their daughter Ava came the week before Christmas and left to see Emily's parents on Christmas Eve.

We headed up for the cabin on Wednesday. Tyler had to put in a shower door so we left around noon when he was done working. The kids love going up to my parents cabin. They love the snow, the love the family, and pretty much everything they can do up there they love. I think the thing they love the most is having the aunts, uncles, and grandma and grandpa up there to play with. I must get boring sometimes because these people always seem like soooooo much more fun then me!!!!!! The Boys out snowmobiling Mom, Dad, Dave, and new puppy Hailey Sam, Emily, and Ava US Nate, Kim, Boston, and baby girl Sean, and Rachel

We all had a great time sledding down the hill, snowmobiling, swimming, going down the slide at the swimming pool, talking, talking, talking, and playing games together. Oh, and opening up presents from grandma and grandpa is always sooooo much fun!!!!!

Heading home is never much fun but we all came back on Friday anyway!!!! Which for me always leads to cleaning out the car and then doing tonz of laundry!!!! Our christmas morning was awesome!!!! The kids loved their presents. And even though like every year my dad wasn't sure Santa would make it. He used his regular magic and suprised us all by making his way out of all that snow and coming around anyway!!!!!!

This week everyone is out of school and Tyler is Home!!! This does not mean he is not working though!!! He makes phone calls for work, And most of important of all he is working on the basement!!!! It is always great to get more of the work down there done!!! It does always mean a ton of work for Tyler, and some work for me though!!!!!! Tyler always does an awesome job on projects like this!! So hopefully i will get around to posting pictures along the way!!!! We are hoping to get as far along as we can on Creedance's room. Finished would be nice but I'm not sure if that is practical or not since we like to go off on side tangents and work on other things along the way too!!!!!

Pearson trying to help!!!

Anyway, I hope you all had a GREAT Christmas, And hope that you have a wonderful NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!!

NO Real Excuse!!!

2010-12-18T10:34:00.000-08:00

So all the people I know have really good excuses when they don't blog frequently. Me I have no real excuse!!! There are tonz of things i could blog about, I mean I have 4 wonderful children that do things all the time that would be wonderful to blog about!!! My life is always crazy and i have wonderful stories that i could tell about all of the stupid/crazy things i do all of the time! I don't always have a ton a time to get on but i really could do it when the kids are napping and i am suppose to be cleaning but am usally reading a book! So am i going to push myself and blog more? I truthfully hope so, but i know me pretty well and if i can remember that i want to i will but if i fall a little behind in other things or uhmm... lets say i might forget because i'm really bad about things that way, then i will probably slip! But here is for hoping that i can get going again!!!

Soccer

2010-09-30T20:22:00.001-07:00

So here my boys are in all of their soccer glory!!! We have had a lot of ups and downs with this soccer playing. Their first day they were suppose to practice it was cold and so we tried to meet coaches which didn't go so great since they didn't have enough coaches for all of the players. Both of our boys started on teams that had coaches but we only got to meet topher's. Practices are suppose to be tuesday and games are on Thursday. So we went to the field again on thursday and there was very little practicing going on. It took almost the whole time trying to figure out where we were suppose to be. We finally found Topher's coach. We couldn't figure out where t.j. was suppose to be though. They had actually moved him teams and he has two teenage girls coaching him. This wouldn't be so bad, but they don't really know at all how to work with children or even very much about soccer. T.j. doesn't really notice but sometimes it makes me crazy. I guess i could coach but I'm not sure what to do with Pearson and Creedance, so i guess i just let it go!!! Topher didn't really like his first game last week. He played his cousins team which wasn't really the problem. He had to guard a kid his cousin calls the midget. But what this kid lacks in size he makes up for in aggresiveness. Topher got hurt twice and decided he did not like games. It all ended up being better today at his game though. He scored five goals and is in love with soccer again!!!!

T.j.'s game started 20 minutes late, do to the coaches and most of the kids on the team being late!!! He did awesome though. He usually doesn't run very much(harder for him than most). But today he was all over the field. He even tried to get to the ball, which i have been trying to get him to do since the beginning and he has not seemed interested at all. He was very excited when his Grandma and Grandpa Hopkins showed up to watch him and maybe that is why he tried harder!!!!

In my last post i wrote that Toph is riding a motorbike by himself. I finally got Tyler to switch the pictures from raw to jpg so i can put them on!!! So here they are!!!

Oh were to begin!

2010-09-24T13:26:00.000-07:00

Obviously i am not good at staying caught up on my blog!!! We have done so much since the last time i stopped to blog. Thing is, I don't seem to have any extra time to actually sit down and blog! I will be lucky if i get most of this one done since the kids will be home from school soon and Pearson will be up from his nap!!! Atleast we don't have a list of things to do today like we do most days.

Lets see i probably won't keep things in the right order but we will start with T.J. starting preschool!!! He loves school and wishes he could go every day. He has come up with a solution and thinks that if he can't go to his teachers house she should just come to ours. He will not let me tell him the reasons this won't work so i will let him pretend i guess! Pearson thought he should be able to go to school too and was so excited, though i'm not sure he knew why. It's a good thing he was content to stay with mom!We went up to my parents cabin for a weekend a little while ago. We played hard! Topher can now ride a motorbike all by himself. We stained one side of the cabin. We went into Yellostone Park. We even went on a hike with all of the kids. This is us at Fairy falls. Pearson and Tj didn't do to much hiking but i think they had a good time anyway! Thanks to my dad who ended up toting T.j. most of the time!!!!

Tj at one of the times he was actually walking on the hike!!

Oh we have also taken another trip to shriners to make it so T.j.'s foot doesn't move so much. It was going side way and flipping everywhere so they have added a strap to hold it on tight and now it can't move!!! That is when me and t.j. don't manage to break it off!!!!

Oh here is a picture of T.j. riding his bike without training wheels. We are so proud of him for doing it since it is alot harder for him then some of the other kids!!(Sorry about the weird line on some of the pic's something is wrong with my camera!)I have been canning like crazy and taking the kids to all of their functions! oh yeah we went to the Pocatello Pump last weekend and we camped out for a couple of nights!!! it was alot of fun! Here is a picture of me and pearson on a little hike we took. I took a ton a pic's of kids and tyler climbing but i took them with his camera and will have to wait to down load them or more correctly until Tyler downloads them onto the computer.

Back to school and lots of others!!!!!

2010-08-30T07:59:00.000-07:00

Ah... Back to school i thought i would be so excited that they were going back since they were making me absolutely crazy last week with torchering each other but alas, i'm at home crying missing them!!! Some times i wonder if there is something wrong with me!!! I'm sure they are doing fine and having a good time so i will try to chill out and play with the kids i have at home still. This year Creedance got Mrs. Stanger as a first grade teacher! We hear she is awesome and Tyler knew her when he was younger, so her year should be great! Doesn't she look so cute in her new outfit! Topher is in Mrs. Andrus' class this year! We hear she is kind of strict but that she really pushes the kids and Topher really needs to be pushed so that school isn't so boring. So hopefully he does well in her class. It was raining this morning pretty good so we started are pic's inside!But the rain stopped just enough to get some pictures outside! Then they threw on their jacktets, and they are still young enough that they let me walk them over to the school and get them into the gym to find there teachers! First day of school must always be crazy!!!Ok, on to a different topic than school so that i will think about something else! Topher is in scouting!!!!! He doesn't turn 8 until November but the scout leader invited him to start coming this summer! He loves it, and has already earned a bunch of the awards or whatever you would call them!! He has a great leader and i'm sure he is learning alot! He thinks that now that he is a scout he should get a pocket knife for his birthday!One of Pearson's new hang out spots is in the dryer! He thinks it is soooo cool and and a great place to hang out. He loves to climb in and out and in and out. And i am left trying to get the dry clothes out inbetween and then have to fight for it to get the wet clothes in and be able to close the door!! It is sure a good thing he is sooooo cute!!!Now on to Pearson's Birthday! Yes i found the pictures and am actually getting around to blogging about it. Although it will now be hidden under the back to school name, i'm just excited that i am getting it done. The day of Pearson's birthday he was quite happy and fun. We put him down for a nap though right before his party and he woke up quite the bear. He kept crying and pulling at his ear and did not want me to put him down at all. The presents seemed cool but i was not allowed to go very far and he would growl at the other kids if they got to close!!! He loved all his gifts!! Thanks everyone!This year i did a monkey theme for him!!! The cake turned out pretty good, if i do say so myself. Pearson thought it was good to! I had to keep putting more and more on his plate or he would scream if there was not a piece there that he could grab!!!This was probably his favorite part of the whole night!!! He loves baths!!! And the new bath toys just made it that much better!!!!The next day I was able to get a picture of him in his monkey birthday hat!(this was after taking him to the doctor where we found out he did not have an ear infection)The kids thought the monkey hats were the greatest and i had a bunch of monkey clowns running around for the next couple of days.

T.j. doesn't start preschool until the middle of next week so i'm sure i'll post about that and creedance's dance stuff as soon as i get some more pictures.

Bad Mom!!!!

2010-08-17T19:03:00.001-07:00

So to start out with i have to tell you about a conversation that i overheard with some kids T.j. was playing with today!
So t.j. was walking up the stairs at dance tech and i was at the top! this is what i heard.
Little Boy 1: "So what is wrong with your foot?"
Little Boy 2: " Well his dad was kind of mad and he cut it off like this" Said while acting if sawing off T.j.'s foot!
I laughed so hard! Most people would think that is horrible but i loved the smile on T.j.'s face as the other kid just stared amazed! I hope T.j. set him straight but i'm not sure he did. Hope the kid doesn't have nightmares! Hopefully he is just really good for his dad from now on!!

So the plan was to post the rest about Pearsons Birthday and other fun things that we have been up to but Pearson won't stop screaming and i can't get the pictures to load onto the computer so alas as a bad mom would do would be to keep postponing and hope to post the pictures of his birthday before he turns two!!! I'm off to put kids to bed!!

Redfish

2010-07-27T06:39:00.001-07:00

I was so excited to be going on vacation this year!!! Tyler has been soooo busy that we haven't done a whole lot of camping this year! I forced him to leave a day early for redfish! He did work in the morning but was home around noon and we finished loading the bus! I can't believe how much we fit in there! It was way weighted down.The kids are all ready to go.Our first stop was the seventeen mile cave. There wasn't very much light down there but the kids thought it was pretty awesome to go into a cave anyway. They were already for a break by then because of the road construction out that way. We stopped that night just after sun valley the bus decided it was tired and didnt want to work.No worries though because it made it to the top of galena with no problems the next day. Tyler was really sad that someone had stolen the summit sign though because he wanted people to see that his bus had made it that high!!

The rest of that day was filled with putting up camp, playing at the beach and making sure all the grandkids made their first trip to the "lodge" to buy treats with the money some earned from grandma Waddoups! My dad can hardly believe the rate at which the grandkids could earn money he decided to make his own work chart and tried to make $5 for taking a nap! I'm pretty sure that he didn't get the money in the end!

One of the craziest things about the beach is the amount of ash that has gotten into a select part of the sand. My kids were basically black all week. Pearson i wasn't sure if he actually had legs under all the ash! Everyone thought it was rather funny and i hated trying to put sunscreen on them when i wasn't even sure if it was getting to their skin?

The kids loved the beach though they played there whenever they weren't on their bikes or at the lodge(which happened daily if not more than once a day!!!!) Some where brave enough to be buried! but watch out for sand in your face because Pearson was always near by. The kids did great at going behind the boat tooo! Topher and Cree both tried skiing! Cree actually did it for awhile but then let go of the rope! Cree kneeboarded with her cousin and T.j. started kneeboarding but didn't want to go out very deep so he just let go of the rope!!! Alll three kids also road in the tubes. Another fun adventure of redfish is going to the fish hatchery!! Some would perfer not to go but the kids love it! Grandpa always brings enough quarters to make sure the kids get to feed the fish and they just love it!!!!The aftenoon hike is always fun to grandpa drives us to the other end of the lake in the boat we hike up to the lily ponds and the waterfalls come back down and jump off the cliff!!!! I stayed back at camp this year with Pearson and T.j. so they could take a nap but the others had a great time! Sadly i can't access the pictures of the cliff jumping but it did happen!!!We sat around the fire alot!! It was always cold in the morning and evening but plenty warm during the day!!!!!! Oh the hot pots are always so much fun the water is warm and we have to soak!!! I did not get to participate because my awesome baby camper lost it there!!! He loved campiing and playing in the lake but when we got near that warm water he cried and screamed and i finally took him back up to the car while the others enjoyed!!!

Crazy Summer!!!

2010-07-13T14:22:00.000-07:00

So far this summer things have been a little busy!!! The kids all played baseball which they loved but just added up to a lot of games!

Creedance has done one dance camp and has another one coming up in august and is also taking ballet. Here she is with a friend from dance camp getting ready to perform!!!!

Christopher loves friends and is doing work to earn his new bike! He is mostly weeding the garden for this but it is alot of work to keep up with our garden! He is also buliding this really cool car from his Kinex toys. All of the kids got a new tent that they can't wait to use but we haven't had time to go camping yet! Don't worry we are making tyler take off all next week to go camping!!!!!! He also started going to scouts today!! He doesn't turn 8 until november but the person over his age group said that he could start coming a little early and of course he was way to excited to say no!!!T.J. just loved T-ball but he loves swimming lessons even more! Yes now all the kids are signed up for swimming lessons(well not Pearson). And we go everyday for two weeks for an half an hour! He loves riding his bike and terrorizing me and Tyler!! He is figuring out how to bend the rules and making sure he does it well!! We can never find remotes he keeps cutting things up like the pack'n'play and he climbs in the front seat of my van and manages to destroy things that i didn't even know could be destroyed!!Tyler and the kids have been working alot on the bus! O.k. tyler works and the kids play either way it takes up a lot of time!!! I think they all enjoy it though since they do it quite frequently and the only complaining to be heard would be from ME!!!!!

Oh and i guess we have been camping once this summer!! We went up to Downeta Hot Springs with my parents for my dad's family reunion. We got to stay in a Tepee which the kids thought was sooooo awesome! Me and tyler had a good time to since most of the kids slept in grandma and granpa's tepee! OH and we love swimming in warm water and the kids loved the slides. Here is Cree and T.j. in grandma's tepee. We have been doing alot of eating and playing with friends to!!! Tyler has made new game for us to play were you throw the golfballs which are attached to rope and if the land on one of the three poles you get so many points. Anyway it is way fun to play! We also have got to play in a friends bounce house, and then they let the kids play on their climbing wall! Pearson is doing really well!! He loves to sing and make noises he thinks it is soooo great! I'm not sure if his hearing was really well before the tubes but he can definately hear us now and he loves to be sang too! We are having problems with milk and him. He throws up whole mik, and 2% seemed to be working but alas there was more throw up, i thought lets make this easy and decided to see how he did with T.j.'s rice milk, thought it wa going to work and then major diahrea!! Don't think i want to do that so we are going to stick with Formula for awhile longer since he can have the Enfamil brand with out any problems(Similac makes him throw up big time:( can't figure out the difference though)! I'm sure he is going to be walking in no time but for now he crawls like a wild man and he is loving it!!!!

so life stays extremely busy! We have cousins from out of town here and are headed to redfish next week! So i keep plugging along and trying to enjoy as much as i can!!!

Pearson has teeth!!!

2010-06-17T07:41:00.000-07:00

It has taken awhile but it is true!!! Pearson finally has teeth. They started to push up and make him cranky right after we finished getting tubes. They both came all the way out about a week ago they were only two days apart. He does not like to show them off though so i am having a hard time trying to get a pic but as soon as i do i will add it!

The NEW Do's

2010-06-10T07:34:00.000-07:00

So i decided last night it was time to cut the boys hair again! So as often as i can remember growing up dad liked to give my brothers their summer hair cuts! He would just plain buzz off all of their hair. Both Topher and Tyler did this last summer! (Though Tyler went a little more extreme and was actually shaving his head!!!!) But i couldn't stand to cut off all of T.J.'s hair and every time i give him a hair cut he brings up how mean i am that i wouldn't buzz his hair all off too!!! Well this summer both Toph and T.j. now officially have buzz's!!! Couldn't Tyler into cuttting his all off again, though. Anyway here are some before, after and even some inbetween pics!!!

T.J. and T-ball

2010-06-02T12:28:00.001-07:00

T.J.'s first T-ball game was today!! I forgot to take the camera with me to the game although i was planning on it life always gets crazy on me! We were lucky we had his mitt and bat! I put them in the car yesterday so we would have them and he took them back out when i wasn't looking so we had to hurry back home to get them good thing i asked him where they were before we were to far away from the house! He loves playing and even though he wasn't sure what was going on some of the time he stayed happy and willing to do whatever his coaches asked of him! We are having a hard time figuring out which way he is going to play right or left handed he can bat both ways but it is really hard to put the mitt we bought him on his right hand so he can throw left so i'm trying to convince him only to throw with his right hand and to keep the mitt on his left has. This is the reaction i normally get!T.j. going what do you mean it isn't suppose to go on this hand!!!

THE TUBES!!!

2010-05-26T12:41:00.001-07:00

We got the phone call on Monday that we were to show up at 5:30 this morning for Pearson to get his tubes at 7. I remember how much of that time is waiting for when i took T.J. in to get his tonsils and adenoids and was not looking forward to a cranky Pearson. Luckily they changed the time since the doctor couldn't come in until 8 so we didn't have to be there until 7. Which was fairly nice, but he did think he was starving and kept trying to eat my hair like it was the best breakfast he had ever had.

We were checked in by 7:05 and had to wait in the waiting room until 7:40. Pearson was good after he finished attempting to eat my hair he fell asleep. Once back into the room he just wanted to get down and was starting to get stir crazy! At about 8:40 the anesthesiologist came and took him back. Me and Tyler sat down in the waiting room he started doing a little work and i started reading my book. By 8:50 our beeper went off which meant the surgery was over and the doctor would come talk to us! We waited in the room for a minute and i could hear Pearson screaming not amazingly our beeper went off again and a nurse came to take us back. Pearson was just fine after a bottle and a little luv. He is already on the go! Talk about an easier one for me anyway!!!!!Trying to get into everything

Then trying to attack me because the camera looks like fun!!

Pictures at Palisades!!!

2010-05-19T11:56:00.000-07:00

So for awhile now i have been trying to get family pictures taken! Well we(i mean I) have gotten the kids already a couple of times and nothing has worked out very well. The first time it was cold and windy and the family pic was blurry. Then we just didn't do it! Finally this last weekend we went for a family drive up to Palisades. It was sunday so we already were dressed up pretty nice!! We dragged along my younger brother Dave and turned him into our Photographer! They turned out pretty well, but we will have to do a little photoshopping of heads to make everyone have their eyes open but over all i love them!!!

Here is one of the Whole Family!!Then the Kids all sitting together!!

Then i love this one of them holding hands while they are walking back to the car!

I have to say that i think T.J. is a stud sometimes

I love this one of Creedance that i made Tyler take last week for a mother's day present too so i just thought that i would throw it in!!!!

Pearson is Crawling!

2010-04-30T12:02:00.000-07:00

I have been enjoying Pearson being a baby and there hasn't been much pressure on him to grow up quick. So when he started moving backwards a couple of weeks ago. I felt like screaming no! He soon got very frustrated with only being able to go backwards and would get stuck in the strangest places and someone would have to go save him. So last week i decided he needed to figure out how to go forward! He picked up pretty quickly and now follows me around the house whimpering!!!HaHa thats what i get!

Here he is chasing me into my bedroom

Then here is mad at me since when i walked out of my bedroom i did not pick him up and take him with me!!!

Oh and here is a picture of my last cake i made for T.J.'s Birthday. It isn't starred like the other cakes i have made but it was alot quicker this way. And i have to say for as little of time that i did have it turned out alright. Well i guess in the end as long as the cake tastes o.k. nobody really cares what it looked like before anyway!!!!!

More of T.J.

2010-04-26T11:37:00.000-07:00

I couldn't resist putting more pictures of T.J. on in his cowboy hat. Some of them were just sooooo funny. He seems to just loves the hat and wants to wear it everywhere! And he is way to persistent lately!

T.J. the cowboy!!!

2010-04-22T12:31:00.000-07:00

So for his birthday T.J. wanted cowboy boots and a cowboy hat. He only got the hat since we couldn't find any boots to go over his prosthetic! He decided that he could just wear his work boots. "because cowboys do a lot of work"

And what cowboy we be any good without his gun

And of course with T.J. a sword.

And T.J. doesn't go anywhere with out his "other" Guns!

Topher

2010-04-16T20:44:00.000-07:00

This morning i woke up very tired and had a lot to get accomplished. Sent Toph to go take a shower and ten minutes later he comes back holding his lower stomach saying it really hurts. Tyler said he was probably faking so he didn't have to go to school, and then tyler headed to work. I thought maybe if he ate something he would feel better so i got him breakfast. He started moaning really bad and sad the pain had moved to his side. I started to believe he was really in pain. But decided he probably just had to go to the bathroom. That didn't work either he was on the coach moaning and holding his side. He couldn't even stand up with out starting to cry. I proceeded to give him Tylenol and to see what would happen. After a little while when it still didn't let up, I went to my back up plan of calling my mom. She said to watch him for awhile and if it didn't get better to take him in. So i waited and it only seemed to be getting worse. I finally decided i better take him in just in case it was his appendix. Dropped T.J. and Pearson off at my mom's. Oh yeah Topher had to practically crawl to get to the car. By the time we pull into the dr.'s office he says it might not hurt quit as bad anymore but still kind of hurtss. We go in and find out that it was GAS!!! Still amazes me everytime that gas pains could be that bad. He didn't even really cry when he broke his arm. So he has a pretty high pain tolerance. All i have to say is that was some really bad gas!!!!!

Pictures

2010-04-12T11:04:00.000-07:00

So for Easter the kids all got new church clothes!!! I thought since we were getting all dressed up to go to church we should take some family pics! I was so excited since we haven't had a real family pic with Pearson in it yet. We drove up to the hills to try for a background i think we found a fairly good one but in the end it didn't work very well. It was windy which not only was messing up me and creedance's hair but Pearson couldn't breathe very well and kept gasping. OH yeah and both Topher and T.J. decided it was to bright and kept squinting!

T.j. looks so stinkin cute in his suit!!!!I just love this one of Topher

One of the two attempts at the family picTried shooting them in front of the bus which got better but t.j. still covered his face and we couldn't get pearson to look at the camera!

The kids really did like it better when they could sit in the bus!!

Shriners, The Cabin, and Easter!!!!

2010-04-07T14:47:00.000-07:00

Last week was spring break for the kids, and T.J.'s foot started hurting him right after we got the bigger foot three weeks ago. So we decided we would try to take the whole family down to Salt Lake to get T.J. a new foot. We started this all out on Wednesday morning after the kids played hard with their cousins on Monday and Tuesday. We left town before nine and barely made it to Shriners in time for T.J.'s appointment(Pearson picked this trip to tell us how much he hates the car, and not everybody could go to the bathroom at the same time!!!). The kids laughed and played in the play land at Shriners and thought it was really cool that there was an Alvin and the chipmunks life sized Chipmunks there!

We then drove down to Provo to our hotel room we got there. We then headed down to Spanish fork so that we could go out to dinner with my sister Rachel, My brother Nathan and his family. We had a really good time, the kids love their relatives. After dinner Nate, Rachel, and Boston came to the hotel and went swimming with us. It was a lot of fun!!!!!!

We asked for fun ideas for things to do in the Salt Lake area since little kids don't really like to go shopping like i do!!! But alas it snowed the night we were there and our options got a whole lot smaller! After the T.J.'s first appointment first appt. in the morning we headed to the aquairum which was a lot of fun! We then went to another appt., stopped at one mall for me on the way home. And ended up not getting home until 10 that night!! What a long day!!!!

Friday we got unpacked and then packed again to head up to my parents cabin for the weekend! (I can't believe how much laundry i had to do when we got done with the weekend!!!) The kids were very excited! They love going to the cabin and having Grandma, Grandpa, and Uncle Dave around the whole time. It was my dad's birthday on Friday so when we got there mom had dinner and cheesecake ready. Yumm!!! I love cheesecake!!!

Saturday the kids played in the snow and decorated eggs, the men went snowmobiling, all in between confrence sessions. Then we drove into West Yellowstone so the men could go to the Priesthood session and Mom, me, and the kids went to the hotel with the swimming pool and "Swirly Slide". The kids wore me and mom out pretty quickly and we couldn't wait for the men to get back and let them play with them. When it was time to head back it was snowing really hard and you couldn't see very far in front of the car. We made it back safely, though our van didn't make it up to the actual driveway of the cabin!!!!!

Easter morning was great!! The kids found all the eggs they had decorated the day before. They each found their baskets. I also got the boys new black suits, and Cree got a new black and yellow dress. I can't wait to take pic's of them in there new outfits!!! I can't believe we didn't get any pictures' up there!

Oh Yeah quite funny that the kids got their first snow day yesterday. Everybody thinks it is quite funny how much it snowed in April in one night!!!!

The ear infection from ....

2010-03-25T15:45:00.000-07:00

We are having the hardest time getting rid of Pearsons ear infection!!! He is now on his third type of antibiotics, for the second time. I had taken him in last week and they decided the second antibiotic had not done any thing. So we started him on another kind that you take for five days and it works for ten. When i took him back in today they said his ear was starting to look better but to stay on the safe side we will be doing another five days of it!!!! I'm starting to get rather sick of giving him medicine constantly. I constantly have to give him ibprofen and tylenol so that he isn't in pain on top of the antibiotics that we are giving him, with my luck if we get rid of the ear infection he will decide to start teething the day after!!!!!!!

Tyler's Birthday!!

2010-03-13T11:58:00.000-08:00

Yesterday Tyler turned 31!!! We had a really good day. He suprised me by taking the day off of work, which is actually a gift for me not him but it was really nice. He decided that it had been way to long since we had been to the temple, so he got his mom to watch the kids and we got in a nice temple session. Afterward we went to lunch and then came back home.

Tyler wanted headlights for his bus this year for his birthday! So my big gift to him was to give him time to put them in. Our life is always so busy that he doesn't get around to doing most of the projects he really wants to do, and the fact that his project list his very, very long and is never cheap!!!!!!!!

The kids enjoyed wrapping up various things and giving them to him. Or they just drew him pictures, it is quite fun to watch them give him things like old books and pages that say, "I love you, Dad!" Tyler likes cake but perfers brownies so i made those instead. I put icing and melt crumbled Twix bars on them for his birthday! The kids think it is funny and kept asking why i wasn't making a cake. I kept telling them that Dad doesn't really like cake for his birthday, and they kept telling me that they had seen him eat cake and it sure seemed like he likes it!!

Me, Creedance, and Pearson headed over to Cree's performance after dinner, giving Tyler more time to work on his bus with his boys. Cree did a very good job performing and looks so cute in her costume, which i forgot to take a picture of! oh well i'll get a picture at the next performance!!!!

Pearson is at it again!!!

2010-03-09T13:31:00.000-08:00

I can't believe it Pearson has another ear infection and bronchitis this time!! I swear that baby can't stop being sick!!!! Started coughing on Thursday, got bad on Saturday. Started throwing up on Sunday. Hardly able to breathe last night. Back on Albuterol for breathing and mor antibiotic(not amoxicillian ) for the ear. I hope it goes away soon!!!!!

Kids

2010-03-05T14:53:00.000-08:00

Topher my inventor

Creedance my Princess!!!

T.J. my night in shining armor

Pearson-my happiness

Better not forget my naughty rotten dog

Cree's Birthday

2010-03-05T14:46:00.000-08:00

Cree and her new bike

I didn't write much about Cree's birthday up at the cabin because Pearson was sick when we got home and we got quite wrapped up in all of that. Creedance got a brand new bike for her birthday this year. The one she has was getting way to small for her because she is getting so Tall soooo quickly. She has grown and grown this past year.
She was so excited to spend her birthday up at her grandparents cabin and talked about it for the whole week before. We took her presents up there and we decorated, we also had cake and ice cream. She had a great time.

She loved opening her presents

OH what a week!!!

2010-03-05T13:42:00.000-08:00

This past week has been fun but a little crazy. Monday and Tuesday are always a little crazy because of dance. Cree and T.j. dance on monday night, then i teach Tuesday during the day. Then Cree dances again on Tuesday night and afterwards we like to go out with our dance friends while Tyler is at scouts. This past Tuesday we also had to get the older two kids to my mom's house so that we could leave early Wednesday morning for Utah. (oh yeah tyler also worked in Jackson on Tuesday which is a long day thing and was exhausted after he got home from scouts.)

Me and Tyler were up Wednesday morning at 5. We got ready and then put the younger boys in the van with us. Pearosn slept pretty good for a while but T.J. was to excited and kept asking us why we were leaving in the middle of the night and not waiting till the morning.(it was still dark outside, so he was convinced it was night time!!). Traveling was alright but we forgot the dvd player and T.J. was mad and near the end Pearson just wanted out of his carseat but if we stopped we would have been late for T.J.'s appointment at Shriner's.

This is T.J.'s favorite person at Shriner's we just call him Eric! He makes the prosthetics for us!

Here are the boys playing on a toy upstairs at shriner's

Things went well at T.J.'s appt. he got a new foot that is the right size his old one was two sizes to small!!! Was causing a lot of problems with the way he walked and it was getting hard to keep some of his shoes on the old one!

T.J. fooling around

Me trying to keep Pearson happy at Shriner's

We stopped at a couple of places on the way home. We got T.J. and Creedance new bicycling helmets and Topher some more clothes that fit. Then we were headed back home! T.J. and Pearson slept most of the way home, which was really nice. By the time we got back home though me and Tyler were both exhasuted. We picked up the older two from my parents and came home. Everyone else was grumpy too, and it didn't turn out to be a good evening!

Everyone got sleep that night and we mostly felt better but we just aren't running quite right yet. Some friends came over games last night though and we had a pretty good time. But were ready to crash again by the time they left.

Swimming

2010-03-01T12:31:00.000-08:00

Decided since Tyler was going to busy doing scouting things on Saturday that me and kids could hang out with my good friend Jess and her kids. We wanted to get together for lunch and then go bowling. We are really bad at planning things and were excited that we had set plans.
We met up and had a great lunch but when we got to the bowling alley they told us there wouldn't be any open lanes until later that night. The kids were sad but we couldn't help it!! Like i said we aren't good at making plans so it took us a while to decide to go swimming.
We headed up to Green Canyon, which is one of my favorite places to go swimming even if it isn't as nice as some people would like it! I have never taken all four kids somewhere like this without tyler though. It got a little crazy but we all survived the older kids would have swam all night if we had let them. Pearson thought the water was great and splashed and splashed. He got hungry a little after an hour and all i have to say is it is hard to feed him and keep up with all the other kids. We all made it out though and were so glad to get to do something fun!!!!!!!

Sleeping

2010-02-23T14:11:00.000-08:00

This morning while getting the kids ready for school, and getting me ready to go to work the kids decided they would keep Pearson busy. I started on Creedance's hair while Toph sat on the floor playing with the baby, he decided that my bathroom was boring, and decided to take Pearson into T.J.'s room. A little while later he returned with the baby in the laundry basket. It was filled with pillows and they had put blankets over him.
Pearson loved this he laughed and laughed as they pushed him around the house. He even thought it was fairly funny that i kept yelling at them "to be careful", and "make sure that he doesn't fall out". Eventually the kids left for school and Pearson was still content to sit in the basket so i took him into the bathroom with me so i could do my hair. T.J. did not want to leave him in there and kept pushing him out. Eventually i just figured get my hair done quick and then go save the baby. Two seconds later T.J. walked in and said, "Pearson is tired mom." So i told him i would be there in two seconds to put him to sleep. When i walked out to get him i found him like this..... Guess he was so tired he just fell asleep in the basket!!! Silly Boy!!!!!!!

New Hair Cuts

2010-02-17T17:33:00.000-08:00

So around our house it has been time for haircuts for awhile. I was getting sick of my overly thick long hair that was getting really gross on the ends. So last week i went in for a cut and color. I really like the way it turned out!!! I wanted before and after pictures but truthfully i don't really like to have my picture taken so that wasn't really a picture of me that i could find that would work as a before.

For the last couple of months I have been cutting Tyler and the boys hair but after mutiple months it is starting to need a professional to cut it so that we have their basic cuts again. I think they look so cute!!! I am a little sad that they cut so much of T.J.'s long hair off but the girl he got wasn't very good.( i do still think he looks cute,but i'm wondering how they GIve you a gaurantee on a hair cut when you think they cut it to short!!!)

I couldn't put pictures of everyone else and not put one of Pearson and Creedance. Plus Creedance was crying to have her picture takin too!!

Oh yeah Pearson started getting a rash yesterday, when i called the doctor he said to give him benadryl. Amazingly enough the benadryl started to get rid of the rash but Pearsons cough almost went completely away so we are thinking that he might just be allergic to Amoxicillian like Creedance. He has been feeling a ton better today!!!!

Pearson has RSV!!!

2010-02-16T09:21:00.000-08:00

So last Monday(8th) I took Pearson in to the doctor, he had an ear infection and maybe a slight cold.
We start antibiotics, Pearson sleeps a little bit better for a couple of nights but i still think 6 times a night is to many!

Friday night once we have reached my parents cabin.(Yes we went to play!!!!!) Pearson starts coughing a lot harder and it doesn't sound good. I think well they told me had a cold he'll be just fine. So we stay up there and the kids go sledding and on Sunday we go to church in West Yellowstone. But every time my mom holds the baby she tells me i need to take him back in he sounds horrible.
I'm still thinking they told me it was just a cold and i hate being embarrassed at the doctors office but if she still thinks i should take him when we get back i will. Well we decided to leave a little early from the cabin Monday. Pearson screamed and was not a happy camper on the way home, I even stopped twice to feed him, change him and play with him and he still screamed and coughed and did not sound good.
So i decided to call the doctors office assuming that it would not be open since it was President's Day. So when they answered i was a little surprised. They only had one doctor in but when i told them he was sick they said they would squeeze me in, but it would be quite a wait!! So I decided if we are going to have to wait i didn't want to take all 4 kids with me.
Enter my very awesome mother-in-law who not only watched the other kids but came to my house to do so!
So I'm stressing myself out that I'm taking Pearson to the doctors and they are squeezing me in and that the doctor will look at him and say, "He has a cold!!". Well we wait an hour and a half and finally get into a room were Pearson begins his screaming coughing routine very, very loudly!!!!
After we wait another half an hour the doctor comes in(I'm not upset because i knew we were going to have to wait). He looks at him and says that is a real bad cough, so after looking him over he says that Pearson has RSV!!!!!
This freaks me out because you hear about all those babies that have died from this. Since Pearson is over 6 month(whew!) and seems like he is still breathing alright on his own, he shows me how to break the mucus up in his lungs, gives us albuterol to help his airways and says bring him back if he doesn't start to get better in a couple of days!!
The albuterol has been awesome he doesn't sound so bad when he sleeps, but I'm still a little stressed. I decided not to teach dance today and got substitutes for my classes(a first for me this dance year!!!!!) Now we just have to focus on getting him better, oh and hope my sister-in-law will not hate me forever for exposing her little boy to it! I'm soooooo sorry Kim!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh and i thought i better throw this pic of topher with his snowman before i forgot he loved making this.

2010-02-08T12:14:00.000-08:00

I am such a pathetic blogger!!! If i don't have a picture than i think i shouldn't post. Well my camera is at the dance studio and I can't find the plug that hooks it to the computer anyway so if i want to post a picture it will be an old one but i should write anyway!!!

We are having one of those days today. Pearson did not sleep last night he went between wimpering and bloody murder screaming all night. At some point during the night i decided that i was done and we were going to the doctor in the morning. He finally dozed off at about six so i jumped into bed and was think i could get a little sleep. Tyler wakes me up at 7:30 to tell me that Christopher doesn't feel good and is staying home. Today was only a half day so Creedance didn't even have school. I really wanted to redecide the whole doctor thing i didn't want to take four kids!!!! Alas, Pearson started screaming again and i decided to go.

All in all the doctor's office was quite quick Pearson has an ear infection in both ears! YUCK!!!! We also finished up the last of the infant's Tylenol last night so i needed to pick him some up on the way home. Normally we would be able to do this while picking up his prescription but if you take all four of my kids into walgreens together you can not leave whithout going insane for some reason they think walgreens is a place were they can throw things on the floor and run up and down the aisles.

So i opted for running into target!!! Found tylenol and ibprofen and was headed for the door when i noticed they had there storage bins on sale. Our basement has had falling apart boxes of toys in it for forever and i really wanted to organize so i grab four and hand them to Topher who really wanted to hold them. Well that lasted for ten seconds. so i am trying to hold the bins and push the kart and of course none of the check out lines are open so we head to customer service were my older kids(i made t.j. sit in the cart because he can't keep his shoes on that he picked today) began to play on the computers they have there. Proceed to check out but the bins are getting harder to carry. Oh i forgot to mention that i'm still in my pajamas and the kids are not dressed nice. A lady i know from the dance studio i know decides to take pitty on us and helps out to the car which i am grateful for but also verrrrrrrry embaressed!!!!!!

We did organize the basement and I found out topher wasn't really sick he just wanted to stay home because he thought his grandma was coming over to watch them and he wanted to play with her!! I have now put them all down for a nap and will attempt to take a bubble bath!!!!

Cabin

2010-01-22T13:25:00.001-08:00

Me and the kids went up to my parents cabin this last weekend. Tyler needed to go to work on monday so he stayed home. I packed up for kids and drove myself up there. My mom, dad, and brother are awesome and played with the kids quite a bit. The kids had glorious time my dad and dave drove the fourwheeler up and down the hill so many times so the kids could sled. They can't wait to go back and do some more sledding. Pearson didn't get to go this time but i'm sure he will get many chances later on.

Topher and T.j. love to attempt to play ping pong. they try to talk everyone into playing with them but can't hit the ball back and forth very well! Creedance loves to color and cook with my mom. They all love watching grandma's movies at the cabin! It was nice to get away for a little while.

Mall Adventure's

2010-01-08T12:24:00.000-08:00

So yesterday i finally got sick of having the brand new pair of jeans i bought sitting on the bathroom counter and decided to go exchange them for the right size. Sent Tyler off to work and Toph and Cree off to school. I have to admit i was a little worried about taking both T.j. and Pearson into the mall myself especially since there wouldn't be time to play on the toy! I brought Pearsons stroller and T.j. walked(which i was also worried about because he doesn't walk for really long times yet!) We made it to vanity with no problem got the pants exchanged and made it back out to the car. Other than the fact that it was only 3 degrees outside we did awesome i was so proud of myself, we even went into target ( they didn't have the baby magic lotion i love i will be so mad if they stop carrying it) and both kids did just fine!!

So i have been needing a new nursing bra and i really don't want a new walmart one since they don't hold up very well. They worked fine for the other kids but the other kids all switched to a bottle after a couple of months and i don't think Pearson will because he HATES bottles. Well i was so proud of myself yesterday for going to the mall with the kids i thought i would try again. Of course we didn't get nearly as early of a start since T.j. had gymnastics at 10 but i thought that if i could do it with 2 i could definately do it with three because Creedance is usually such a big helper. Wow was i in over my head.

We head into sears since it is the closest one to the store i'm going to. I have cree on one side t.j. on the other and Pearson in the stroller. Before i had even walked ten steps i lost both t.j. and creedance to the fitness equipment. After prying them off of there we continued ten more steps and the both started begging for more thermal pj's, i said we would see on the way out. We made it to the store without any more miss hap. As soon as we stepped in though cree had to go to the bathroom. Good thing they had one in the store!!!! I quickly looked at bras and of course the didn't have my size in the color i wanted but i found two that were a different color anyway. While looking the kids found things to play with then proceeded to make pearson scream while pulling him out they both started climbing under tables, of course while trying to check out the lady proceeded to ask me one billion questions while i'm trying to get the kids out from under the table and talk to tyler on the phone. ( we will now own two more windows that we have no where to put.) I finally get off the phone with tyler and get the kids out of the store. We have to stop to put Pearson back in his snowsuit( the sales lady decided he was to hot while he was in the store and cree tried to get him out, thus the screaming) While putting Pearson back in his carseat with him screaming even more the kids started running around and pushing buttons on a pop machine. I told them not to and they did it again.

So i start to leave, Creedance jumps in front of the stroller with Pearson screaming in it insisting she needs to get her coat right then she falls on her knees and is proceeding to try to dump Pearson out. I tell her to wait until we get to the door on the way out so i can get pearson calmed down she then starts pouting. On the way out they see the thermals again since they are on sale and they really do need them with how cold it has been i pick out a pair for each of them, while they run back to the excercise equipment. Ugh!!!!!! I pull them out and try to check out. Pearson starts screaming again and while i'm turned around trying to pay and listening to sales lady go on T.j. proceeds to climb on the tread mill and start it. It of course throws him off and a different sales lady comes running while giving me a dirty look and telling t.j. to get off. Well t.j. wasn't hurt but he started screaming at the top of his lungs that that lady is Mean!!! I finally get everyone out of the store and into the car! While pulling out the parking lot we almost get hit, i'm not sure were the car came from because when i looked two seconds before it wasn't there but i was lucky it was going slow and i got out of the way. Both kids started screaming again when they figured out we were headed home and not to walmart to buy their cousin a gift, because there is no way i was going into another store especially in to a toy aisle after that adventure!!!

Christmas

2009-12-31T11:23:00.001-08:00

So we had a pretty good Christamas this year. On Christmas eve we had dinner over at my parents house which turned out to be pizza instead of ham, since we couldn't get the ham to cook when there was no power. But we all love pizza and the kids loved it. Every year my dad reads the nativity scene(see pic above) This year he told us the reason santa probably wouldn't make it on christmas eve since none of us were going to be there christmas morning. He said that at the global warming convention they decided that reindeer emit more than cows and santa could no longer use them, then he showed us a picture of santa on a four wheeler decked out like a sleigh with what was suppose to be reindeer heads but were just deer heads. This was suppose to be santa's mode of transportation thus making it so he in no way could reach everyone since getting on the roof could be a problem!!

The boys got light sabers and t.j. was a little sad that they were not real since that is what he asked santa for. I have tried explaining that there are no real light saber's but he doesn't believe me since he has seen them on t.v.

Pearson thought that christmas was great!!! He loved getting things that he could shove in his mouth that i didn't instantly take away from him!!! He didn't however like me to take the wrapping paper away so it was sort of a trick getting him to take the toy over the paper. I'm still not sure why we wrap the gifts for babies they don't even know the difference!

So we had story time a little more frequently with the kids home from school. It seems like i can get more done with them home sometimes than having to get them ready to go and trying to accomplish everything while they are at school. It also helps that i'm not constantly running to the studio.

Creedance's new favorite obsession is Pearson. She thinks she has to be holding or touching him at all moments. Which for a while Pearson can tolerate but if she gets to pushy he will scratch her or pull her hair. O.k. so he does this if he can reach her all the time it is kind of a baby reflex, but he will scream if she becomes overwhelming so that i come and get him.

Overall our break has been great!!! Tyler is finishing up Toph's room in the basement. I had to find something to keep him busy but not put to much pressure on his foot and this seemed to fit the bill. The kids are fairly happy and i'm staying busy.

Our Christmas Tree

2009-12-09T12:16:00.000-08:00

We went up to my parents cabin to cut us a Christmas tree last Friday and Saturday. I had to stay behind to clean and take care of Pearson but managed to get all the kids into their snow clothes. Tyler decided once they were outside that he couldn't carry T.j. all the way up the mountain to get the tree so he left him by the cabin playing. I didn't know this though so we T.j. started crying i couldn't hear him but Tyler did. So he ran back down the mountain to bring him into me then had to go back up to get the tree and the other kids. Well in the process of going up and down he managed to find out that there is still another piece of glass in his foot. Two years ago he managed to put a rather large piece of glass in his foot, they thought they had got it all and sewed him up. Two weeks later he went back in with problems and they found another piece, we are all quite suprised that there is still another piece and that he has been walking on it for two years without noticing. Anyway we did get our tree and had fun decorating it. The kids love to hang ornaments and Tyler loves wrapping it with a ton of lights. It always turns out beautiful.

We had a wonderful thanksgiving and all the kids loved spending time with both families. We had Dinner with Tyler's family on thanksgiving and had a great time. My family goes out for thanksgiving dinner and we really didn't want to attempt that with our Four kids. The next day my mom made a wonderful turkey dinner and we got to spend some time with my brother and sister that live in Utah. So overall things have been very fun!!!

Pearson's first ear infection!!!

2009-11-23T10:35:00.000-08:00

So it wasn't just a cold. After three days of pearson screaming for hours i decided to take him to the doctor. So saturday morning i ran him over. The doctor was really suprised that a baby that young could have such a bad ear infection. The have him on antibiotics and he will have to go back in when it is gone to make sure everything is okay. I'm just so excited that i have my happy baby back!!!Yah!!!!!! He even slept in his crib last night!

Trying to be Thankful( I might need some help)

2009-11-20T12:20:00.000-08:00

So this last week was not a very fun one!!! Pearson has his first official cold and he thinks that means some one needs to be holding him at all times, and i mean all times. He has to sleep all night with me. Some nights i am afraid that my arm might fall off!!!! To make things crazier Tyler has been working lots of extra hours this week, he has been out of town most days spent one night away and didn't come home until 1 o'clock last night!
We also had festival of trees on wednesday. I didn't even get a chance to take a picture of creedance in her costume because everything was just to crazy. We did survive and Tyler got to help his mom with Pearson who decided even if the milk was breastmilk he was not going to drink from a bottle. Good thing my mother-in-law is patient!!!!!!
Anyway hopefully Pearson will get better tyler will be home more and the kids can all be happy again. I think we really do need this Thanksgiving break and that is what i am going to be thankful for. Oh wait and i should be thankful for all of my family, even if things are crazy atleast they are mine!!!

Halloween and Topher's Birthday!

2009-11-02T10:16:00.000-08:00

So we started our halloween off with attending Ammon Elementry schools halloween carnival. Me and Tyler didn't love it but i think the kids had a really good time, though Creedance and T.j. may never go into a spook alley again in their lives. I ended up having to leave early because Pearson decided he was starving and was a little suprised when everyone else made it home right after me. I guess someone pulled the fire alarm and that seemed to end the whole evening.

The kids loved trick-or-treating. We started of trunk-or-treating at the church, which they actually do inside the building and just let people decorate the doors. The kids then walk around the building getting their treats. Next we were off to grandma Hopkins house. Were of course the kids showed off their costumes. Tyler took the kids to a couple more houses before T.j. got tired and me and the little boys went to my parents while tyler walked the kids there while trick-or-treating. They all got way to much candy, but i think they can't wait to do it again next year!!!!!

On Sunday we had a party for Topher. We invited family over for cake and ice cream. This year Topher wanted a WAll * E cake. so i was up late saturday night icing the cake. Topher got wonderful presents and enjoyed having all of his cousins over.
I'm ready for my short break this morning and then i am sure things will go back to crazy as always.

Pearson is here!

2009-10-28T12:49:00.000-07:00

O.k. i just wrote a really great blog and then managed to loose it while trying to add pictures of the kids! So atleast i updated even if i can't come up with all the info that i put in before. There may just be a whole lot of pictures without a whole lot of info, but atleast you will be able to see what we have been up to even if you don't get to hear about all of it!!!!

We have a new baby. Yeah for Pearson Dean Hopkins!!! He is the cutest funnest baby!!!! Weall love him so much. He keeps me busy but i think he is a fairly easy baby! The kids love him ann we haven't had any jealousy problems which is a definate plus.

Topher and cree have started school! And of course now i can't get it to upload the cute pictures of them so they may have to come later.

Cree's first day of kindergarten Topher's broken arm

so not only topher get a broken arm but he also got bit by my parents dog.and has some added scars on his face now. we also got to go to redfish which was a lot of fun!

Family

2009-01-16T13:50:00.000-08:00

So it has been over a month since i have gotten on here! Sometimes i am just such a slacker, that and the fact there has been a lot going on! Yeah!!!!! I'm pregnant and due Aug. 6!!!!!! We are all really excited and can't wait. o.k. so t.j. isn't sure what he thinks yet but i hope will be o.k. when we get there. Christmas was really great!!! Most of my family headed up to the cabin were we spent a week together(was kind of hard for my sister Jen to get there since she has four kids and lives in Kansas(we missed her tonz). It was a great week my kids loved the fun of having aunts and uncles to play with and i enjoyed trying to relax a little bit.
We have managed to loose our point and shoot camera were i get my pic's for the blog since i struggle to get them off tyler's with out alot of help so I might not have pictures for a while!
We headed down to shriner's on wednesday of this week and got t.j's foot fixed it was getting to short and was almost pinching his leg! it will be nice to not have him screaming everyday that his leg hurts!!!
Topher started basketball this past month and it is hilarous!! If you have never watched kids try to play basketball when they have never done it before you should because they are FUNNY! His last game was kind of late and he had to force himself to try to stay awake and finally we just had to take him home.
Well that's all i can think of right now so hopefully i will blog again soon!!!

The Dance Tech Benefit

2008-12-05T20:46:00.001-08:00

Tonight was the Dance Tech Benefit. It was at Hillcrest again this year. I really like it that they have an auditorium Both Cree and T.j. danced and i just thought i would show you how cute they are up there on the stage.

Creedance did a really good job. She is learing to follow so well

T.j. also did fairly good most of his class didn't move. One little boy was all that did the whole class. But everyone loved him!!!

Picture Tag

2008-12-05T20:23:00.001-08:00

So here is a picture of Redfish in 2002. It is my Brothers Sam and Nate, my husband, and my uncle Devin. aren't they studly. I think you can see me in the back. I'm starting to look very pregnant with Toph.

If you want to be tagged. go to your pictures and post a picture from your fourth folder the fourth picture!!!

First Performance of the Year

2008-11-19T15:09:00.000-08:00

So tonight is the Festival of Trees for all of us at Dance Tech. Creedance is very exicted to be performing again she has been asking to put on her costume all day long!!! T.j. is pretty excited just because Creedance is, it will be his first time ever performing. I hope he does well, but if he doesn't i'm sure it will be just as entertaining. I will post pictures of the performance if i can get them but i'm not sure they would look very good from the side slash back since that is were i will be. Tyler may make it but he has been to Jackson again so who knows. Toph is a little sad that he can't come to the performance but i'm not sure how to take care of all three of them and help with all my classes it will probably be hard enough with the two kids. Well i Just thought i'd show before pic's of the kids.

We have GRASS!!!!!!!

2008-10-30T13:11:00.000-07:00

I didn't think it was going to happen but it did. This last weekend we decided just to go for it and laid grass. I have to say that this is not a very easy task but is well worth it in the end. Now we just hope that it takes!!!!!!

The kids absolutely love it. WE go outside everyday and play on the toy and they actually come back in clean!!!! I really think i can get used to the fact that we won't have mud and dirt everywhere all the time!!!

Crazy kids

2008-10-23T15:45:00.000-07:00

So i have decided that my kids love to crazy things. A couple of weeks ago while i was at wal-mart i saw some cute raincoats that were only a dollar. And since you never know what the weather is going to be like in Idaho i though why not!! Well the kids picked the sunniest day last week to get their rainboots and raincoats on!!!!

Today they decided after being over at a friends house that they wanted to watch Christmas movies! Not being one to fight i went downstairs and dug through the boxes until i found the one that held all of our christmas stuff sure enough all the christmas movies were in there. So i popped one in for the kids. The next thing i know they want to color!! And not just anything they want to color Halloween pictures. So they are downstairs right now coloring skeletons, bats, and spooky ghosts and watching rudolph the red-nosed reindeer.

I'm just sticking with being happy because they are!!!!!!

Reading

2008-10-18T20:56:00.000-07:00

So tonight Tyler had a friend that he went to college with call and ask if we would like to go to dinner. And if you know me at all, you know i love to go out to eat so i told him that would be great!!!!!!! So i called my mom and she said she babysit, Yeah again!!!!!!! So we packed up the kids and took them over. I'm not sure Tyler was to excited because we were going to the Olive Garden and we had just been there last Saturday but he must love me because we went again. It was good but not the best going out experience. We paid waaaaaaaay to much for a slice of pie!
Anyway on with the reading story. My kids love the comics. Every sunday when we go over to either of the grandparents they beg to be read the comics. And on occasion(So almost every time) The grandparents cave and read them to them. We got a picture of this a couple of months ago when my dad was reading the paper to them.

So, right now Toph is on a kick to get ten books read to him so that he can get a personal pizza from Pizza Hut. He has been begging everyone to read to him. Every time i turn around he has a book in hand. Some of the time i stop and read others i really just can't. So when we were picking up the kids he was begging everyone to read to him. I was talking to my mom and attempting to ignore him when my dad got home. And of course Toph got grandpa to say yes. This is what it ended up looking like as Grandpa Waddoups read to them.

Aren't they all just so cute!!!! Sometimes it is so much fun to see your parents with your kids. I think that Creedance got the best seat in the house!

Snow in October

2008-10-12T08:26:00.000-07:00

So Yesterday things were getting pretty cold around here so we decided we better get our garden all pulled up before the ground got to frozen. So me and Tyler were out pulling corn stalks and trying to get things moved around and ready for this winter we were only out there an hour before it started to snow. It snowed on and off most of yesterday!!!!! When we woke up this morning this is what it looked like!!!

Neighbors back yard

our backyard

our front porch

So I got snow for my birthday this year!!!!! That hsan't happened since I was little. Anyway, my birthday was great on Friday night we had some friends over for dinner. Tyler got a cake and then gave me my presents. I got a new Wii and Wii fit. I'm pretty excited because we have really enjoyed playing with my little brothers. Then yesterday we got to go out for a date. My husband must really love me because he took me to see Mama Mia (which i have wanted to see for a while but i never have gotten time), then he took me to dinner at Olive Garden which he doesn't really like since the last time we went there he chipped his tooth and was not impressed. Ahhhh to be pampered every once in a while.

Well i better go help Toph get ready to play in the snow and then get all of us into our church clothes.

Crazy weeks

2008-10-09T20:19:00.000-07:00

So i'm not very good at blogging frequently and i can't even say i will try harder because sometimes it just isn't a high enough priority. But i will when i can!!!!

Every once in a while we should all look up. (Especially when there are fish on the ceiling)

These last couple of weeks have been crazy!!! We planned a trip down to Utah two weeks ago. T.j. had appt.'s with his doctors there and we thought it would be a good family time since Tyler has been gone so often lately. We wanted to leave here wednesday night and get there before to late and try to make it a long weekend. That didn't last very long because Tyler wanted to be home Saturday to work on the sprinklers( which i have to say are moooovvvvving so slooooooooooooowwww!) So Wednesday morning i wake up not feeling so hot. I'm nauseaus all day and trying to help my mother-in-law with the apple pie filling she is helping me make. By about 2 o'clock i start to feel a little bit better so me and the kids get everything pulled together for the trip.
Tyler got off work a little early so we were set to go at 4. We made it less than a mile on the freeway when the van will no longer speed up. So we pull off and head back to our mechanic. We can't just bail on the whole trip because t.j. has to be there by 10 the next morning they really frown on missing your appt's and it could take forever to get another one. So we call Tyler's parents and they said we could borrow their car. So by five o'clock we are headed back to the freeway and the kids are screaming that they are hungry, so we make a pit stop for dinner.
We did finally make it to Utah and the hotel. We all went to bed with out to much screaming. The next morning we swam in the pool and then headed to the dr. appt. Which went alright but i always feel frustrated when we go. They didn't really know why he was limping they tried to fix his prosthetic and it is a little better but the doctor wasn't worried about the way his bones are kind of turning to the side. And told us the only thing he could think of to fix the limping would be to file off a section of his bone that kind of sticks out we will only go with that option as a last resort!!!!

Going for x-rays!

Playing ball with dad.

Trying to clown around.

By now the mechanic has called us and told us the transmission on our van is dead!!!! Yeah just what we need right after buying our house. So then we are faced with the decision to fix it or get rid of it and truthfully i just wanted to have a nice trip and not think about it. We did have a good time on the trip. We went down to provo and visited my sister and brothers.
But the stress kicked in on the way home. The only car we have that works is an old VW bus, and me and it really don't get along very well. I have driven stick before and have never had a problem but me and this car do not see eye to eye, so there is no way i am driving it until we decide what to do. My dad must love me alot though because he is letting me drive his truck around until we have something figured out. He even let us drive it up to his cabin last weekend to watch generel confrence with him and the family.

Playing at the park in Provo.

My kids had a great time up there. They love all the attention the Aunts and Uncles give them and just want to get more every time they see them. They got to play at the pool while the men went to the priesthood session. And loved getting rides on the motor bikes and the four wheeler.
We have finally made a decision to buy a new van. But i'm still stressing out way to much. I've been doing preschool here and had book club here last night. Tonight i was a silent person in a play. And I have been trying madly to help with all the canning. I hate to have my mother-in-law do all the hard work when i get all the benefit. I even burned myself trying to make jelly. I hope it taste good anyway.

Dance starts again!

2008-09-09T17:09:00.000-07:00

Today was our first day back to dance. We are in the new studio, and it is very, very nice!! It has three different dance rooms and is alot bigger than we were in before. Creedance is in the J/B/T 1 class. She is so stinking cute. I am sorry i am still trying to figure out how to turn the pictures i think there is something wrong with me i keep trying to turn them and they still come sideways. Yes and creedance started preschool and is so excited that she keeps asking me how to write things.

Any way i teach ( o.k. so i just assist i'm still not up to the task of teaching my own classes yet sometimes i just get to overwhelmed and need not so much stress) four classes. So far it has been great only 2 criers in the Toddler class which is amazing we have had classes were all of the kids cry through the whole first time. This year is a little bit crazier with getting the kids places since toph is at school in the morning and then i have to pick him up to take him to my mother-in-laws. By the way is so great to watch the kids when i am teaching.

Kindergarten

2008-08-21T12:31:00.000-07:00

Yah! We all survived Topher's first day of kindergarten!!!! The morning started out early. I had told Toph that he could shower and dress when he woke up and then to come and get me to make his breakfast. I didn't know that he would wake up at 6 o'clock. All was well though. He had his favorite breakfast(one-eyed sailors) got his teeth brushed and still had plenty of time to make his bed, get pictures taken, and to become nervous!!! I think he is trying to get back into the house in this picture. He ended up doing just fine though!

He got a little scared when he didn't recognize anyone but when we found his teacher and he saw the other kids waiting he went over and got in line. He walked right into the school without looking back.

He got to lots of fun things and the other kids were excited when he got home. I offered to take him out to lunch to celebrate. Somewhere like burger king or artic circle. He asked if we could go to Texas Roadhouse because he loves the peanuts there. We didn't go for lunch though because i wasn't about to take all 3 kids into a nice restaurant by myself so maybe dad will be able to go with us tonight. What a spoiled kid. Oh yah he is very proud of his kung fu backpack.

Summer

2008-08-18T13:37:00.000-07:00

Well i can't believe how long it has been since i have written. We have gotten t.j. a new leg, been to redfish, had all my brothers and sisters here at seperate times. It so nice to see family. We have done lots of swimming. And swimming lessons for the older kids. Oh and my brother Nathan and his wife had a little baby boy, his name is Boston Jay Waddoups and he is adorable and i am just now realizing that while they were here i didn't get any pictures of him.

in front of the lodge

Redfish was wonderful. We had the greatest time. We didn't get to stay at our regular campsite, but the only real downside to that was there was no flushing toilets. We played on the beach all day, we skied and tubed to our hearts content. Christopher and Creedance even both kneeboarded. T.j. thought he wanted to try to but he didn't like the cold water very much and i wasn't sure he could hold on!!!

Christopher
Creedance

The kids loved going to the store and getting treats and trying to make sure they all got something good while they were there with some of the toys that they bought they decided to make a band and decided my brother jake would be the band conductor. I have to say it was really cute watching them play with their cousins. I threw in a couple more pics of the vacation.

The drive up was long.

T.j. really seemed to enjoy just being there And here are my crazy brothers cliff jumping

This week Topher starts kindergarten and Next week Cree and t.j. get to start dance lessons. So i guess we are coming to the end of our fun summer!!!

The House

2008-06-23T15:24:00.000-07:00

Well life has been busy lately. We are having a great time being in the new house. The kids seem happy most of the time and even though Tyler is still doing more than he can handle it is starting to feel not so hectic. Of course i'm not so sure i should say that since me and t.j. get to go back to Salt Lake tommorow to hopefully get a new prosthetic. His is to tight, he has ripped off the big toe and the strings that hold it on are falling apart. Anyway i thought I would post this family pic we had taken this weekend. I also thought i would send some pic's of everything when we had finished but hadn't moved in yet!!

The Kitchen

Living room

Master bathroom

boys room

creedance's room

Laundry room.

I can't find the pictures of the master bedroom or the basement. So when i figure out where they went maybe i will post them.

We are moved!!!!

2008-06-17T12:40:00.000-07:00

So we didn't get to move over the weekend but we did get to move in on Monday!!! It has made it a fairly crazy busy week. I don't seem to be able to get enough done in a day, and it seems that i just keep finding more and more boxes, and more and more things that have to be done. but i'm so excited about being here that it all seems worth it. I'm not sure Tyler agrees I think he is still stressed out to no end. Well i got a ton to do, just wanted to let you know that we are in!!!!!!

2008-06-04T11:41:00.000-07:00

So this weekend is suppose to the weekend to move hey i have been saying this for forever and i'm not even sure i believe myself anymore. Tyler finished the bathroom and has finished most of the little things in the house i'm suppose to finish touch up paint and clean up today. But the problem is we still have no cement, and if you don't have steps into your home they will not let you have your certificate of occupation. Which of course you need to move in!!!! We have been waiting for weeks for the cement people to come. They only ever show up on days that is poring and tell us there is nothing they can do. But of course on the nice sunny days they are no where to be found they always wait a couple more days again until it rains and show up again and pretend it is our fault that they can't lay the cement. Anyway enough of being mad at the cement men.
Topher had his first t-ball game yesterday. Of course it was beyond hilarous because of all the little kids out there that don't know how to play not to mention don't have enough of an attention span to pay attention so they start playing in the outfield. Plus our coach didn't show up instead he sent his mother who acted like the kids were ten ( they are 5-7) and was yelling and telling us all our kids need to go to the batting cages. I actually thought we did great since the majority of the team and only played t-ball at the previous 2 practices. Anyway topher loved it and is very excited to get to play more.
Creeedance is looking forward to getting to do a cheer camp next weekend in Rigby. This of course is going to cause problems if we end up not moving this weekend and we have to do it next weekend. Anyway they go to camp for 4 hours on friday. Then there is a parents performance. The next day they get to be in a parade. Cree is excited but i'm not sure understands what a parade is!!!
T.j. continues to be more and more wild!!!! Every time i turn around he is terrorizing something or someone. He has figured out how to open doors and things just tend to get more and more crazy. But we love him and he sure seems happy most of the time now.

Summer begins

2008-05-22T12:51:00.000-07:00

It is almost here!!! We should hopefully be moving in next weekend. I am going to just stick with hopefully still for now. Tyler should be finishing up the bathroom and trim this weekend. And the plumber and electrician should be there to finish up next week. We may not have a driveway right away but hopefully it isn't to far out. I am very excited to move can you tell!!!!

The big dance recital was last week. It was fun but also overwhelming, there is always so much to do and not enough time to do it. My good friend Jessica got married on saturday. Creedance was one of the flower girls and she was really cute!!!! Then me and tyler's anniversary was on sunday. We got to spend a little time together which is always nice since it has been so hard to come by lately. Overall last week was great.

So far this week we have had the last dance parties were the kids get trophies and prizes. Creedance and Topher loved it!!! Christopher had his last day of preschool yesterday and was kind of sad about it. He wanted me to call his teacher after we got home and see if he could come see her again. Hopefully starting t-ball tonight will get his mind off of that!!! It will have to stop raining though for the little guy to be able to play. Then tomorrow my father-in-law is taking me and T.j. down to Shriner's. His leg has been to short for awhile now and we need to get that fixed.

So life stays busy as always, and hopefully it will stay happy!!!!!@!

Life goes on

2008-04-10T13:14:00.000-07:00

Wow I can't believe how long it has been since i have written. We have been keeping very busy around here and it doesn't seem like i get a whole lot of time at the computer.
The house is coming along great we have drywall, paint and cabinets. Things are getting close to the end and now it feels like it may never get done. The siding is on but the yard is still the same as before the snow so we have all the outside stuff left to do. Tyler and I have layed the tile floor in the bathroom and our next project is to tile the shower and around the tub.

Topher is still loving preschool. He has really gotten into legos lately, which means i am really getting sick of stepping on legos and finding them everywhere while i am trying to get things packed up. He has also decided that he needs to help me more and had me make him a chore chart that he carries around all day until he gets it done!!!!

Creedance turned 4 in February!!!! She is growing like crazy. We went up to Green Canyon for her birthday. She loved swimming ,playing, presents, and her strawberry shortcake Cake that i made for her.

T.j. is getting even wilder. He falls down all the time. He has figured out how to get to everything we try to hide from him in the house. So i know to run like crazy if i even hear a tiny squeek of a chair because that means he is getting into something. I'm constantly finding him on the counter with his mouth full of chocolate. We did get rid of the bottle a month and a half ago. I'm so proud of myself!!!! He also loves to shove dvd's into the vcr. He thinks he can watch shows that way and gets really upset when it doesn't work.

Tyler is soooooo busy all of the time. I can't wait to get to spend some more time with him eventually!!! O.k. so we did take a weekend off for his birthday and went down to Utah to get some photography stuff that this guy gave to him. I think he is more excited about the photo stuff then alot of the things on the house.

I've been sick off and on. It hurts so bad to breathe sometimes, that all i can do is lay on the couch and try to relax. I try to help as much at the house as i can but know that sometimes me and the kids just need to be out of the way more than anything. I'm starting to get tired and stressed out , but can't wait for warm weather so we can go outside and play. Can you believe we had snow this morning. Crazy, huh!

All the fun

2008-01-12T12:50:00.000-08:00

Christmas turned out great. The kids loved their toys, and haven't broken any of them to much yet!!! We got to spend alot of time with family and Tyler was home for almost a week and a half so we got some much needed family time!!! Our house is moving along well. It is almost completely framed in!! Tyler has been working all day today to get the basement floor defrosted in hopes that we wil be able to lay the floor by the middle of next week.

We have been down to Salt Lake to get T.j. fitted for a new leg. We took Jake's friend Andrew Mack down with us to drop off there so he could head back to New Mexico. The kids loved having him in the car, and hopefully we didn't scare him too much!!! We are hoping to be able to go back some time in the next couple of weeks and get t.j's new foot. He has been growing so much and really needed a new one!

We lost our dog yesterday! Tyler had taken her over to the house while he was working and she ran off. We looked for her all night last night, made posters this morning and were putting them up when we saw her down the street. An extremely nice guy found her last night and kept her with his dog and was walking them around in hopes to find her owner. We are so excited to get her back. We realized how much she means to us and Tyler is definate that he does not want any other dog.

The Sickness

2007-12-17T14:05:00.000-08:00

Today i finally took T.j. and Creedance to the doctor. T.j. was suppose to be going to Shriner's on Thursday for a prosthetic fitting and i wanted to make sure he would be o.k. by then. I thought the kids just had a cold but we couldn't seem to kick it. Creedance started getting a funny rash last night so i was a little worried. I didn't take Topher because he seemed to be feeling a bit better but he could not get rid of the cough that he has. Well the doctor said that they have STREP!!!! I can't believe it! So now we are getting them all on antibiotic and hoping they get better soon. Anyway, I have to get back to helping all the sick kids. Oh Yeah Tyler has it too!!! I'm sure we are going to have a fun week!!

Back to being CRAZY!!!!

2007-11-28T14:24:00.001-08:00

Well things around here can not settle down. First off when Tyler had that glass removed 4 weeks ago. They left a very large chunk of it in his foot. They had to cut open the bottom part of his foot and remove it. He was on crutches again for a few days, and is now in a walking boot!!! That boy is having a hard time staying put together.
T.j. has started screaming constantly again. I don't know if it is because he is teething or if he has an ear infection, but we were just at the doctors office last week with him and i really don't want to take him back yet.
Creedance is suppose to be getting her cavities taken care of. But they won't put her under without the approval of her pediatrician, and with her heart troubles when she was little the pediatrician wants to make sure she is o.k.(which i am extremely glad for!!!!) So she had to have an echo cardio gram. We haven't got the results back yet but we are hoping they come back good.
Topher looks like somebody beat him up. While we were at my parents cabin last weekend, i sent him outside while i got the other kids ready. I usually don't let him go out alone but Tyler couldn't go out because of his foot and i was getting the other kids ready. Well he was fine at first i got Creedance ready and sent her out too. I had told topher to only slide on the little hill. And he is a really good listener. Well while i was pulling mine and t.j's snow clothes on i hear a blood curdling scream. I rush outside with no shoes on to see what's wrong. At first i just see toph crying, but on closer inspection his face on the left side is scratched. well when he was sledding down the little hill he went farther than he thought he would and went under my parents suburban. We are lucky he only scratched up half of his face, and didn't get hurt worse!!!

Other than that Thanksgiving was great. WE ate a Delicious dinner with Tyler's family. And then headed up to the cabin with my family afterwards. It was a lot of fun even though it was crazy.

We got a puppy!!!!

2007-11-13T14:10:00.000-08:00

Last Saturday we were running around doing errands and while we were down in shelley we saw some puppies. Well Tyler has always said that we would never get a dog. And i told him one day i would just show up with one and he wouldn't have a choice. Guess which one of us ended up deciding to take one of the puppies home. TYLER!!!!! The kids were begging and he just gave in and picked the one he liked best. So now we have our little Star. I think she is adorable and the kids just love to play with her. The fight over who gets to feed her and i'm sure if it was warmer atleast topher would stay out all day to play with her. I've wanted a dog for our family for forever, but of course i never had to take care of a dog by myself before, my mom always did that so i'm sure it will be an eye opener eventually. Right now she never barks, she whines occasionally but doesn't make any noise through the night. Of course i already have to clean up her poop but it isn't any worse than doing a poopy diaper so i've been fine with it so far. We will see how a feel in a week or two but right now I love it!!!!!

Birthday Boy!

2007-11-02T20:23:00.000-07:00

Topher turned five today!!!!! I can't believe he is so old. I didn't plan a big party ahead of time like a meant to, but it turned out pretty well anyway!!! Alot of family came and some friends too!!! We did presents and a pinata. Topher loved everything he got and can't fall asleep because he keeps thinking about all the things he gets to play with. He keeps coming out of his room to tell me the order that we will have to play with them in tommorow.

We sort of had a spider man theme this time. Every birthday i let the kids pick out a cake tin and then i bake and decorate them. We borrowed a spider man pan from my friend Liz and so theme began. We couldn't get normal birthday plates they had to be spiderman and the napkins and instead of hats they had face masks. Anyway, i hope everyone had fun.

The kids were pretty good today. We did gymnastics and then we went out to eat at Artic Circle. Some of Toph's friends were there and he was excited. I love my kids but they seem to be growing up way to fast. They are sure fun when they are big but i'm starting to miss that baby stage!!

Halloween

2007-10-31T14:30:00.000-07:00

Yeah it is Halloween. We have done pumpkins and parties. The kids loved the trunk or treat we did at the church last Friday night. This year Toph and Cree are Thing 1 and Thing 2. T.j. is the cat in the hat. Topher has to make sure everyone understands who and what they are and I'm just happy that people listen to him and tell him that he is cute. Hopefully trick or treating will be fun tonight.
Tyler has hurt himself again!!!!!! He got a piece of glass in his foot last week at work!!. It took 8 stitches to get him closed. Hopefully no more accidents for us for awhile. It gets to be really hard when something like this is always happening.

Home

2007-10-17T15:16:00.000-07:00

Lately we have just been hanging out. Topher goes to school three days a week. We do dance on Tuesdays and the therapist usually comes once a week. Tyler works everyday and is constantly working on the VW Bus, which more often than not drives me crazy. I swear he is more attached to it than he is to his family, but I'm sure that will eventually wear off. It is nice to slow down, and read books for me. To play with the kids and not feel like so much is sitting on my shoulders. My next big project is to try to get t.j. off the bottle, not sure if or how that will happen without me losing all my hair!!! I'm not sure how hard i will try either, it is kind of nice to have some peace at our house.
We had a problem with t.j.'s prosthetic. Every time we put it on, he would scream(which actually I'm not sure is even abnormal), and it would turn a very dark purple color(which scared me pretty bad). So started the rounds of phone calls. In the end we didn't have to go back down to Shriner's. It was discovered that we were pulling to hard on the tether hooked to the sock he wears. It was making all the blood come to the bottom. Now we push on the prosthetic, and we aren't having any purple, and he only cries half as often.
The newest thing is for the kids to try to help him walk. Which the older two think is great but it usually just makes t.j. scream. Today though he let Creedance help him to the pantry door from the living room. It was so cute to watch. But then he proceeded to go down on his knees screaming and then to fall back and hit his head. Boys!!!!

Nose surgery for Tyler

2007-09-28T20:12:00.000-07:00

Last week instead of calming down Tyler had to have his deviated septum fixed!!! We found out last Monday what was wrong and they had him in for surgery on friday. The funny part is we went in because of his nose bleeds, but the surgery does not seem to have stopped those. He does say he can breath now.
Anyway, he has decided to keep the bus and fix it up. Not what i would have picked but he is in love with volkswagens. He puts the engine in tommorow. I just hope it actually runs after we put all this money into it!!!!
Life for me and the kids is full and crazy. Topher likes school and loves his friends there. Creedance loves dance, and they both started gymnastics. Today the were kissing each other and hugging each other during class. All the other moms thought it was cute.
T.j. is just a ball of fire. He has to have what he wants when he wants it. He still has a bottle and don't tell anyone but he takes it to bed with him. I really hope this doesn't make me a bad mom, but he needs to be happy atleast twice a day!!!! He is getting use to his foot and can take 4 or 5 steps. though, when we take it off the bottom of his stump is purple. So i have to call and see what they can do about that.
Well that is what has been going on around here.

Slowing down( I hope!!)

2007-09-06T13:39:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Topher started Preschool. I always thought i would be one of those moms that was easy going and wouldn't worry to much when her kids went to school. Well i was just fine until we started toward the preschool. Then i got nervous. I was taking my son somewhere to have someone i didn't know watch him for two hours!!! Was this really a good idea! I got over it quickly though. He had a great time. His teacher is really nice! Everything went fine. I'm happy that we are doing preschool and hope tomorrow i won't even be nervous.
I'm hoping things are ready to calm down a little after this summer. T.j. has his foot, Toph is in school, and Creedance starts dance next week. I'm really hoping for an organized schedule, but won't be to upset if things stay wild like they normally are.
We had a fun weekend up at my parents cabin. We went into west Yellowstone, to church, to feed the fish, to quake lake and even played at the river for awhile The kids love it up there, even if we are making my family crazy. We sold our car. Tyler wanted to sell it and fix up a bus. Not sure if that is going to happen or not. Don't think he has made up his mind.
Oh yah, Rachel is married. The wedding and reception were great. We are having one her in Idaho Falls on Saturday night. I'm sure it will be great to.

Life is Crazy

2007-08-21T13:21:00.000-07:00

I can't believe how much running around we have been doing. Between Redfish, swimming lessons, and trips to Salt Lake, it seems like i just run, run, run.
T.j. officially has his prosthetic. We spent the beginning of last week at Shriner's getting his foot and doing therapy, we ended up coming home early though. Topher had burnt his hand on an iron and i wanted to be home for that. Not to mention i was having horrible headaches and t.j. could not seem to stop crying!!!! He would scream non stop it seemed like for hours and as soon as i calmed him down he would either fall asleep or start crying again. He doesn't really like his prosthetic yet, kind of holds him back from moving around as easy but we are hoping he gets used to it soon.
Toph and Cree took another two weeks of swimming lessons. They loved it!!! They were in the same class as their cousins. Topher has turned into quite the little fish and passed his class that he got bumped up into!! He will be ready for the deep end next summer.
Redfish was wonderful!!!! The only regret was that Tyler didn't get to come with us. The kids loved the beach and would play for hours. I got to waterskii and Topher even knee boarded. I couldn't get any good pic's of him though because of all the smoke from forest fires( that and the fact that he wouldn't let me in the boat, i had to help him start). T.j. loved the canoe, I can't believe the smiles you got from him when you took him out.
So the last couple weeks have been interesting!!!!