Friday, July 18, 2008

Dead Battery and Spilled Spaghettios

Yesterday morning we were going to go visit my grandma with my siblings and mom and my van wouldn't start. Rick jumped it with him truck and we left. Then we had to use my mom's van to jump it again. The kids kept begging to go places, but I didn't dare go anywhere else. I got home and Rick hooked it up to a battery charger at our house. Ugh. Frustrating but not the end of the world. Then I was making lunch for the kiddies and the spaghettios can fell off the counter and splattered ALL OVER! It was on the ceiling and just about everywhere in the kitchen. It was more than I could handle at that point and I had Rick come and clean it for me. He thought it was a great laugh. I didn't. Oh well. I should have taken pictures, but I didn't think of it then. Its a good thing I'm not a drinker because I needed a stiff drink last night. I settled for a root beer with dinner. My battery still won't take a charge so we'll probably have to replace it. Oh well.

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Birthdays, Parades, & Family Fun

There seems to be one month in every family where there are a bunch of birthdays all together. July is that month for us. Combine that with a visit from my sister's and my brother's families visiting from out of state, plus the 4th of July and its been really busy. I have a hard time leaving out pictures, like my sister, so I've put them in slideshows. Sorry, this is long, but since this is mostly for me...

It all started on the 3rd of July when we went to the Riverton parade to support Rick in his float duties. **(tangent) Our stake has a float this year and its been a lot of work for Rick. He's in charge of the sound and he took his job seriously. He also just helped in general and has been a motorcycle escort to the parades because it is a flippin huge float. (Pictures to follow) We won 1st in Murray and Sandy and there was no judging in Riverton.** Rick's mom always sits at a friend's house on the route and then they have a BBQ afterward. So we joined them. (I should say the kids and I. Rick was there for most of the parade, but duty called.) It was SUPER hot and windy too. Aunt Teri kept buying the kids popcicles and we drank a ton of water too. They called Rick because someone had bumped the mixer and the sound didn't work. He jogged in the heat for a half a mile to flip a switch and jogged back to sit with me and the kids. What a man! Anyway, we had a great time and the kids got tons of candy. Then Rick's mom, sister, and friends came to our house and did a few firecrackers. We got here about 10 and Annie said to me, "Mom, I'm tired. I'm going to bed." I asked if she wanted to stay up for firecrackers and she said "No. I just wanna go to bed." She took herself down and got ready. I just gave her a kiss. Carlyn on the other hand wanted to stay up as late as possible and was up til after 11.
We woke them up about 8 on the 4th. The days of going to the breakfast early morning are gone for now :) Instead, I made pancakes and we ate them while waiting for the parade to start. We always meet our friends Joel & Jessica and their daughters at a certain spot. Carlyn and Jensyn have done this since they were little and I'll be sad if it ever stops. They are 2 weeks apart and good friends. We love the Murray parade and especially enjoyed the overcast day. Rick took off to escort the float to another parade so we chilled at home. I know they have fun stuff at the park, but we've never made it, and while I feel a little bad, we have a really fun family day starting at 2, so I don't feel too bad. We went home for naps instead. We always go to my aunt Emily's house in Kaysville for my Grandma Potter's birthday party. It is the one family party that keeps going every year no matter what. As many family members come as possible. I have a lot of cousins and most of us have kids now. There are a lot of great grandchildren (70 or something.) We always have a big potluck and my Dad cooks BBQ turkey. Mostly we just eat and visit. Next we headed to my house and were getting ready to go to Murray Park for the fireworks. It ended up that we ordered pizza and watched from across the street. It was fun, but I did miss going to the park.

The 5th is my other grandma's birthday. Grandma Hilton loves to go out to eat so my Dad took the whole family out to eat at Village Inn for breakfast. That's 12 adults and 12 kids! Thanks Dad! Every one else went to my parents house, but we stayed home for Sunday, spent time with Rick, and prepared to go camping. The first picture is Annie teaching Lindsay to cut pancakes. Then Gma Hilton saying her pie is too much. The last is the 4 cousins that were born within 4 months. So cute!

The 6th is my mother-in-law, Linda's birthday. We enjoyed visiting with her for awhile Sunday evening and I stupidly forgot to take any pictures, but we had fun anyway!

The 7th is my Dad's birthday. We went camping at a tiny lake called Boulger Lake up Fairview Canyon. It was so cool and nice up there. If not for the mosquitos, the tent ripping, and the kids screaming all night it would have been a perfect trip. (I'm NOT exaggerating. They would take turns crying or screaming all night until 3:45 when I gave up because we were freezing and I hadn't slept anyway. I loaded them in the van and drove to my parents house.) We had a combined birthday party for him and Anneliese. Annie really got all the attention though and Dad didn't seem to care because he got his cupcake. :) She was very gracious and loved each present.

We did survive the night by finishing sleeping at my parents house and made it back in time for lunch. Then we piled in the cars and drove to Electric Lake where we took turns in the rafts. Annie was the last grandchild to not have a turn and ended up with Grandma and Grandpa. Grandpa wanted to fish and took his time so she got a long turn and was very chatty, according to Grandma. We had dinner in Fairview and headed home very dirty and tired.
The next day we visited the grandma's with my sister and then she flew home. I miss her already. But I'm really glad she got to come. A year and a half is too long!

We took a day to recover, then went back to my parent's house where all the kids had a "carnival." They had a hose on the slide with a pool at the bottom, a blow up pool, the ladder ball game, and horse shoes set up. It was a blast. The next day we went swimming at Snow College which is always a favorite of mine. Darren was a little fish. He floated by himself in his lifejacket and kicked and splashed. I couldn't believe it. The girls were fish too, but Darren's not done that before.



I came home again for Sunday and we celebrated Anneliese's birthday starting off with pancakes and eggs. At her request we had lasagna for dinner. In the evening, we had Rick's family over and went to the park for cupcakes and presents. The kids had a blast and Darren showed off how well he walked with the walker toy.

We like to drag birthdays out as long as possible so we had a little friends party for A the next day. It turned out to be sets of sisters at the party. Each older one was 4 and Annie was the oldest younger sister turning 3. She had requested a Brown party, so I put out a brown tablecloth, got pink & brown streamers and balloons and tried my best to have a Brown theme. We played a couple games then had a story about the color brown and had a bear hunt and decorated chocolate cupcakes and did snaps and had presents. The kids all played in the play room at the end and there were no fights so I consider it a success. :)

Here are a few other pictures of family fun.

Thursday, July 3, 2008

A fun site about Hairdos

I am always fighting with Carlyn about doing her hair. My sister in law emailed a blog to me that has cute hairdos and now Carlyn wants to try new things. Of course, I just cut Annie's hair way off, but it'll grow out. Here is the link. Have fun! http://shedoeshair.blogspot.com/ Look to the left for a list of hairstyles.
This is the lattice ponytails.

I couldn't get a good picture, but her hair is so curly in back and very cute.

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

First Haircut

Be patient with me. I haven't been on in a long time and I'm way behind on posts. I have several here. Thanks for reading and spread them out if you have to :)

Here is baby D. His hair hanging in his eyes and over his ears. You can't see it well, but it was driving me crazy. It flips over his ears like Rick's when it gets too long. So I braved it tonight and cut his hair. Myself. I put him in his highchair and put on the Wiggles. He was great until I started trying to get it straighter. It isn't perfect, but he's 10 1/2 months old. I feel pretty good about what I did! Here is the before picture...And the after picture. He wouldn't hold still for the picture, but you can see it isn't in his eyes or over his ears. Mission accomplished. :) I'm surprised how well he did. What a good boy!
Anneliese had a little mullet going on because her hair grows faster in the back and not much on top. It was driving me nuts so I decided to cut it. I was sad to lose the long curls, but it still curled up nicely. I hope the top will start growing sometime too. She is the one who chose the Wiggles and sat great except when I stood in front of her to try to get it even.

Cousins

My sister Emily and her kids are here from Texas. It feels pretty cool to them, but I think its plenty hot. I'd never met my niece, Samantha, since she was born in February (on Valentine's Day & 3 days before my birthday.) She is so cute and chubby. We are happy to meet her. Because they were at my parent's house, the kids and I went down Thursday. We had fun visiting. They played on the swings, in the water, and we all went to a ward party and to see Wall E. The kids were all getting along pretty well, so we stayed over and came home Sunday evening. We really missed Rick by then. Charlotte, Evynn, & Darren in the baby pool. They had a slip and slide set up too.
Annie, Emily, Samantha, Caleb, Charlotte, & Carlyn reading bedtime stories.

Annie, Charlotte, Caleb, Carlyn, Darren, Jordan, Samantha, & Claire on our porch swing. Its hard to get that many kids happy and smiling at the same time. My brother, Barrett, and his family came from California this week too. They are staying in SL until this weekend and we've seen them twice. Carlyn & Jordan were babies together here in Utah and have a special bond. We did a slip and slide & kiddie pool here today and had a blast.

Daddy's motorcycle

One thing Rick really loves is riding a motorcycle. Its not my favorite thing, however and I really have to make myself be cool with it. I don't necessarily mind him riding, but I get a little nervous every time he takes my children for a ride. I got over that some a couple years ago when Carlyn was little and Rick grabbed my face and said, "Honey, you know that I love her more than anything. More than myself. I'm not going to let anything happen to her. I promise to be safe." I still know accidents happen, but it did make me understand his point of view. He didn't get it out at all last year because it needed a little work, but he pulled it out recently and its running and registered. Darren loves riding it, despite the picture. That was the first time sitting on it and the noise scared him. Annie & Carlyn aren't scared at all and love rides. He goes really slow and stays on our little street. The love honking the horn too. The other night Rick took me to a movie on the bike. We got back and all the neighborhood kids swarmed around on their bikes. It was so cute. Rick gave our kids and their cousins rides and they all were beaming afterwards. Its a fun thing, even though it makes me nervous.

Busy Saturday

Not last weekend, but the one before we had a primary party, visited Grandma, went 4 wheeling with Rick's sister, Belinda, and went to my cousin's wedding reception all in one day. We had a blast. But we were sure ready for bed that night!Here is Carlyn with Aunt Bee. The helmets were so funny because they were so huge on the girls and tight on me and Rick. We weren't very smart and had shorts on too.
Annie couldn't stand up on her own, the helmet was so heavy. :)
I think Carlyn was not wanting to be done and that's why the sad face, because she was grinning the rest of the time. Rick even took Darren out for a slow ride and he loved it. He kept grunting and reaching for Rick when he took the girls out. Rick took me for a ride too. We were really dirty so we stopped at Belinda's house to freshen up for the wedding. You'd never have known we'd just been riding 4 wheelers.


It was really fun to see my cousin and his cute bride. I'd never met her. I also loved seeing his family who is mostly from out of state. Annie really enjoyed the cupcakes and otter pops. She must have had 4 otter pops. It was at a house and they had a toy that spins you around and around. Carlyn came to me and said, "Mom, I don't feel so good." I asked if she ate any of the sandwiches and she said no, just the cupcakes and then spun around a lot. I told her to stop spinning and eat a sandwich and she said, "Yeah, I think that's a good idea. You are so smart, Mom." What a kid!

A Big Step

Ok, so this happened about a month ago, but I promised Carlyn that I would put a post up about her Big Girl Bed. She's so proud and shows everyone that comes over. I had to tell her that the air conditioner repair man didn't need to see it! She was just so happy about having it that without being told, she would wake up and make her bed every morning after she got it. It was so cute. Annie was almost as excited as Carlyn. It was really cute. Where did my little girl go?

Father's Day & Camping

I haven't put a post up for a long time because when I tried to do the pictures of this the first time the pictures wouldn't work and I've been busy since then. I want to dedicate this post to the Best Dad in the World. Argue if you must, but you'll be wrong. :) The kids and I just love him to death and love spending time with him. This is one of the times we had fun playing on our bed in the morning. The kids don't care what they are doing with him, as long as he's there. I know its belated, Rick, but we love you so much. Happy Father's Day!!! Father's Day weekend we went camping with my family. It was fun but crazy. We went to a campground near Huntington, UT. It was a lot of work for a 1 night stay, and we stayed until late the 2nd day. Darren & Annie both cried a couple times in the night and it was a long night for me. Rick slept right through it and didn't hear a thing. :)
This is D just before 6 am. He woke up and would not go to sleep. It is off the highway and everytime a vehicle drove past he'd sit up and say "up." Not fun, but he was really cute. Rick got up about then and I put D in his sleeping bag. He fell asleep soon and it was cute.
My clever Mom made up a song for the kids to sing to their "Pops" for Father's Day and then they gave their Dad & Grandpa soda pop, pop tarts, & popcorn. It was so cute. I don't know if you can tell, but the kids were so dirty at this point. Their clothes are caked in dirt. You should have seen them at 8 that night. Just dirt from head to toe. We washed them off and changed them before we left. It was really fun to go camping for the first time this year.

Friday, June 6, 2008

Calling all WOW widows

If you aren't one, chances are you know one. I'm sick of sitting around on Friday night while my husband, though great, is totally addicted to a stupid game! I made a new blog just dealing with that specifically and the website is http://wivesagainstwow.blogspot.com/

It may sound like I'm grumpy, and while I really don't like it, I'm not angry. I just don't get the stupid game!

Thursday, June 5, 2008

Thank goodness for Carlyn

When I came home early evening yesterday, after running errands and a run in with a particularly unpleasant ex-employee, I came home and wrote a rant. It felt really good; I was really upset. Then I emailed it to Rick and deleted it! :) About the time I was finishing it, Carlyn came in and said she was hungry. It was after 6 and I was so upset I couldn't cook. We went into the kitchen and I still couldn't decide what to make. She brought me a dish she'd used for lunch and asked if I would teach her how to wash it. Well duh, what mom would say no to that? So I filled up the sink with soapy water and some dishes. I did one to show her and she went to it. She even asked for more to do. We were working together, she washed, I rinsed, she sat it to dry (or I would have gotten a picture.) I have to say that scrubbing actually did take away all my anger too.

Rick was sick yesterday and ended the day with a migraine, which unfortunately is worse today. I hate it because I feel helpless, only able to get him hot packs or medicine every once in awhile. Carlyn knew just what to do. She went in and as softly as she possibly could she laid next him and snuggled him. It was so cute and sweet. She laid there with him for quite awhile. I've never seen her so still. What a sweet girl! That makes a much better post than my rant anyday!

Tuesday, June 3, 2008

I hate it when that happens

It wasn't enough that Carlyn barfed in the night and then Anneliese early in the morning. Carlyn then had to fall on her face and her teeth (or tooth-we're not sure) went through her lip. She's fine, but it looks bad. They are so hungry and cranky, but don't have an appetite because they feel sick.


Today started the same way. Darren barfed in the night (luckily nobody else.) That wasn't enough and he fell on his face and cut the inside of his upper lip. Carlyn's lip quit bleeding really quickly, but Darren's just kept bleeding and I was trying not to panic. Finally it stopped and he had a huge fat lip and it hurt him to eat baby food, so he just ate a lot of cheerios and nursed a lot. Poor kid. He was so clingy. But that wasn't enough so he pinched his fingers in a door and hurt it worse when he put his weight on it to try to stand up. Luckily it wasn't as bad as it could have been and that was minor.


I'm not complaining though. I could have been much worse and for that I am thankful. Unfortunately, because Carlyn got the attention yesterday and Darren today, Anneliese felt the need to act up and hurt them to get attention. Silly kid. I keep trying to tell her that all she needs to do is come sit on my lap. I hope tomorrow doesn't end up the same as the last two days. :)


On a brighter note, I got my copy of Eclipse today. I hurried and read the first chapter of Breaking Dawn at the end. Then I called my older sister and read it to her in between the chaos. It was fun because we laughed at all the same parts and afterwards we talked about it . I'm finally ready to read the 3rd one again, but if you've read them you may understand what I mean when I say that I've had a very different reaction reading them a second time. I still like them, but I'm not so sure Edward is quite as great as I thought him to be the first time. Just my personal opinion.

Monday, June 2, 2008

Fun stuff

I didn't get a picture of Carlyn, but yesterday was her very first talk in Primary! She did a great job and talked a little too loudly into the microphone. It was about how the temple blesses our family. She gave the scripture once and 2 other times when she was supposed to give the talk she was sick. Anneliese looked like she was going to the prom yesterday before church. She and Carlyn were wearing matching dresses and they looked beautiful. Anneliese found a hair thing that matched, but it wouldn't stay in her hair so she wore it like a bracelet. It reminded me of a corsage like you wear to the prom. Then we were late and she was sitting so cute in the chair in the lobby. I couldn't get a better picture because of Darren, but it was darling.

Last weekend we went to my parent's house. Grandma is a great lover of books and has many for the kids to enjoy. Darren loved this huge book.

Last week we went swimming. I forget which day. It was warm enough but windy. We went to the Cottonwood Heights outdoor pool. It was great except the splash area puts out cold water. Then the wind would blow and tiny freezing droplets would spray us. We discovered that another part was much warmer so we just enjoyed floating. I got burned because Carlyn put on my sunscreen. It was funny and splotchy. I should have taken a picture, but I didn't want to :)

Rick thought this was so cute that he hurried and took a picture during
Sacrament meeting last week.


D was funny trying to balance and not touch the grass.

Memorial Day

This year we spent Memorial Day with Rick's family. Grandma White had a party at her house. She misses her husband and enjoyed this chance to honor him. We had a nice dinner and visited for awhile, but since it was so wet we couldn't go to the cemetery as easy with little children. She likes to have us release balloons. The kids LOVE it. We did it from her back yard this time, which worked out better as they didn't get caught in the trees like at the cemetery. Everyone takes their balloon and writes something on it. Their name or the name of someone they've lost, or a little note to them.


Rick especially misses his Dad now that he's married and we have children. He just wishes that we could have known him. I wanted to put pictures of his dad and our grandpas who have passed away but I don't have any on the computer, so I'll have to do that another time. Hope you all had a nice Memorial Day.
This was toward the end Darren pulled himself up to this touch lamp. Notice him smacking his lips. He was hilarious and we missed the funniest part, but you get the idea.

Cousins

My parents & sister's family came up for my cousins wedding recently. These are some cute pictures.
Sharice doing Darren's hair. It lasted for about a minute. :)
We love a party! I had to put this one in because of D's cute smile!
He's a true boy, appreciating being the only boy with 8 girls!
(The only boy cousin in Utah.)