Ring around the roses (or tulips & daffodils)

The girls in my Grandma's back yard. Posing, of course.

Sleepy head

Do you ever catch your kids sleeping in funny positions or funny places. I do all the time. These are just a few to give you an idea of what its like at our house to find them asleep. D asleep in his crib hunched over his bear.

I would call her Sleeping Beauty, but she insists that she's Snow White.

On the couch cushions on the floor

Annie fell asleep at Marie Callendar's with her head in my hand, but I was feeding the baby so my mom picked her up.

Carlyn pretending to be asleep, but she did sleep here one afternoon

Twilight and a bad back

Last week I woke up and my back was out. I was in a lot of pain and couldn't stand up straight. Its done that before, but not for about 7 years. UGH. No wonder, my little 8 month old is a hefty 19+ pounds. That just made it worse. It was torture taking him from his crib to the changing table and then into the kitchen. After some debate I decided to pack up (well, Rick packed up because every tiny thing was painful to me) and drive to my parent's house. My sister and her chiropractor husband live there because he's just opening a chiropractic office there. Convenient, huh? The only debate came because sitting was terribly painful and its a 2 hour drive. I stuck an ice pack behind me and took off.

We went to the office Wednesday night and he started to torture me. JUST KIDDING! But it did hurt because I was in so much pain. His treatments were aggressive and he used electric stimulation, accupuncture (helpful, but I hate needles), decompression (a contraption that stretches out your spine), adjustments, and a massager. All with state of the art equipment. Very nice. He stuck me in a brace and told me to use ice often. I felt much better by Friday, but stayed til Saturday. Thanks Dallin!!!

While on my bedrest my sister lent me Twilight to read. I admit that I was hesitant, but naturally I got sucked in and LOVE the book. I finished it Saturday night just after I got back so I called around and found a friend in my ward who let me borrow the next 2. Thanks Heather for lending me your babies. I was functional, but still in pain so I decided to come back Tuesday (no Tuesdays with grandmas.) I still feel a little uncomfortable sitting too long but I'm so much better. I'm also done with New Moon and Eclipse. Finished this morning. I kind of wish that I'd waited until closer to when the 4th book comes out. UGH! I wish I could put a couple pictures of the kids, but not tonight. I've got to get some sleep. My kiddies are done sleeping at grandma's house and didn't sleep well last night. When I went for a treatment today the girlies cried and said they wanted to go home. They are home bodies, no matter how much they love grandma, grandpa and the "tousins."

Sweet laughter

Keep watching. It gets better. Darren playing with Grandpa Hilton.

Conference

I love to listen to conference and I always love the Saturday sessions and believe that some of the best talks are on Saturday. I'm sad to say that I didn't hear much from any of the sessions, but I did hear a little more of Sunday afternoon. My kids are bored out of their minds during conference and I tried the coloring thing, sending them to the other room to play, etc., but they would always end up right in front of me being a less than a year old, 2 year old, and a 4 year old. I was saying to Rick that I loved President Monson, but I was having a hard time in my mind transitioning him from "story teller apostle" to prophet and that I hadn't heard a dang thing yet. Not 10 minutes later Elder Ballard came on and said he wanted to talk specifically to young mothers. I ran back in front of the tv and magically the kids were quite so I could listen. My friend highlighted the points and I stole them from her. They are:
Recognize that the joys of motherhood come in moments.
Focus more on doing and less on getting it done.
Don't overschedule. Have unstructured time.
Find time for ourselves.
Pray, study and teach the gospel.
Thank you Elder Ballard. That was just what I needed. I love being a mom, but its really hard right now. I loved President Monson's talk at the end of conference. He was still the story teller, but now he's the prophet instead of the apostle. I felt that strongly and am thankful for that. I also heard Elder Bednar's talk about praying with faith and really appreciated that too. I learned a lot. Thank you Heavenly Father for hearing my cries and letting me hear that if nothing else.

Fun night

I got movie premiere passes from Utah Family magazine and we decided to go. After the drama of a long day with 3 kids and chasing down tickets, standing in line, spending the time between at Rick's grandma's house we finally saw Nim's Island. It was a cute show and we did have fun, though Annie fell asleep in line and Darren's diaper leaked and I ended up with pee all over my shirt. Oh well, I'm a mom, what are you gonna do?

Happy Birthday dear Daddy...

Yesterday was my sweet husband's birthday. I decided to make our night out at our house and do a fun "trip" there. First the girls gave him homemade cards with $60 play money. Then we "drove" to the Dansie Grill (not my name of choice, but Carlyn insisted on it. I wanted Bonny's Bistro!) The special of the day was steak served with onions or mushrooms with salad, baked potato, & corn. The waitress (me) was very attentive to our family's needs and we all had fun pretending. The girls wanted to waitress, but it was too much work. I was afraid the girls were going to set the tablecloth on fire, but we made it through without incident.

After we were done eating the waitress brought out this delicious chocolate cake and we all sang, Rick too, as you can see. Annie would randomly sing "happy birthday dear daddy" throughout the meal. It was funny. Yes, its a little cake, but it was plenty for our needs especially once you consider our next "stop."

Then we went to the Birthday Movie Theater. The girls chose movies that they thought he'd like to see with them from our DVD collection and we wrote them on the board so he got to choose. Carlyn told him the choices and he chose Narnia. She sold him the tickets and offered him a floor seat or a couch seat. They called him sir and everything. It was a hoot.

At the concession stand Anneliese sold him all the candy and popcorn for only $10. Its sad to think how much that would really cost at a real theater!

There was a little incident earlier about Rick being late from work and the BBQ grill being at his store and he went there to grill up the steaks, but it ended up really fun and the girls didn't spill the beans to him about what we were up to. That was a miracle in itself!

Yeah, we got a swingset!

Thanks to Ann, a random person from KSL classifieds who told me her daughter was getting rid of her swingset. Thanks to Katrina & Luke for the swingset. They said that someone had given it to them and they wanted to give it to someone who couldn't afford one and really needed it. I fit the bill and, after a phone call in need of a truck, I went to American Fork with Belinda & Josh and we brought home a used, free swingset! Thanks to them for their help too. The kids love it and so do I, except that its been very cold and snowed twice since we got it. The first day it was in pieces in the back yard and they would open the blinds to look out at their swingset. They would just sit at the kitchen table and talk about how much fun they would have playing on it. I think I was as excited as they were. We look forward to warmer days when we can really use it. Darren was really great in his bug while the girls played and I worked on the yard. Please don't notice how bad our yard is. We're working on it. I don't know why the pictures are so small, I'll try to fix them, but until then...

They really were having fun, but stopped so I could get a good picture.

Isn't it awesome?

Annie is a little scared of the regular swing, but she loves the one Carlyn is on in this picture. What a good & happy boy!