Meatballs

We took the kids to see Cloudy with a chance of Meatballs. It was a good movie. I laughed, mostly at James, he so gets into movies. It's so much fun to sit next to him during a movie.

The last gift was made today. All the kids hand made their gifts for eachother this year. Except for James. He got to cheat. I am amazed at what the kids came up with. They really pay attention to eachother and made some pretty cool gifts.

sledding

Courtney built a snow man
Dave and the kids coming down the hill

Courtney on her belly

Justin after spinning down the hill

Jordan coming down

David, Justin and Noelia
Everybody headed back up
Courntey, Alijandra, Noelia in a train
James, He actually had fun this year
Everyone on the hill.

It was fun. We took the girls across the street with us. Everyone had a blast, the kids built a ramp. James tried to go over it several times. So Dave got him all lined up and going fast, he was headed strait for it. When he hit it, his sled came to a compleat stop and he went flying out. It was so funny. I so wished I had, had the video going. He loved it. He tried again and just blew through it. The kids wouldn't let him go over it anymore.

Everyone had a blast and come home frozen.

Christmas shopping

Is done. Except for stockings and a couple of kids have to finish making their gifts. And I will be staying home for the next 3 Saturdays. At least, staying away from the corner of State Street and University Ave.

Dave and I finished tonight. I love having kids old enough to babysit. This is the first year Dave and I did all of the Christmas shopping together. I love shopping with Dave he gets so excited, he loves trying to figure out what the kids will like. He does a much better job than I do.

I took James and Noah to the library for story time on Tuesday, they weren't having story time. So the wonderful librarians gave little gift bags to the boys. James missed the part where the librarian said no storytime. He looked at her and said, "I need my name tag." She said "Sorry we arent having story time today" He shook his head and said "Dang it" I don't think the librarians have ever laughed so loud in the libray before.

Germs

So next week Mythbusters will test what germs are on the surfaces you touch daily and how they compare to the germs on a toilet seat.

About 7-8 years ago a morning news shows followed one of their anchors and tested all the surfaces he touched during the day to find out what germs were on them.

Just last month there was a study done showing that the germs on purse handles were the same if not worse than in a bathroom. (no surprise there, what is the first thing you grab after pulling up your pants in a public bathroom.)

But Surprise Surprise we are not all dead, nor are we walking around sick. We were given a wonderful thing called an immune system. It fights all the germs we pick up and keeps us healthy. We get germs in small amounts and we don't even know it. But our bodies take care of it all on their own.

Did you know that the percentage of childhood allergies has steadily gone up over the past 20 years? Not only that, the severity of the allergies has gotten worse.

So do you want to know why? Because children are living in a more sterile environment. Their immune system has nothing to fight. So it goes after what would be a small allergy, and hits it full steam ahead because it has nothing to fight.

I have never sterilized my home, it is clean, and except for flu and cold season we do not sanitize hands or use Lysol on all household surfaces.
My daughter had an allergy to squash when she was younger, ut having been exposed to it in small doses she no longer has an allergy.

I am not saying that all allergies are the fault of sterilization. My boys all have dust allergies. I have spring allergies. It does happen. I am just saying, Don't let it get out of hand.

Shapes

So as my niece said, "I am back to my pre-pregnancy weight, just not shape." That is where I am, It just took me 4 years instead of the 2 months it took her.

So with the last 4 pounds I lost, my belly changed shape. So now my pants and undies don't want to fit right. So that means I get to go clothes shopping. Only not quite yet. I want to see if I can change the shape of my belly a little bit more.

We put the Christmas tree up last night. The kids have such a ball, and James was able to help this year. He loved it. He had so much fun. Last year he was recovering from having hernia surgery. Only no one was tall enough to reach the top so I got to rearranged a bit when they were done.

I have to say Thanks to Linda for the snow shovels. Yesterday instead of only 2 out shoveling there were 4 out there. They got it done so quick they even did the neighbors. I love my kids they are such great kids.

Justin

Justin is going on a camp out this week.
Yesterday we were teasing him with all the things we were going to do with out him.
Today when I looked at the calendar, he had written Justin gone :( on the day he leaves and Ya Justin is home :) ya, on the day he comes home.
I love that kids sense of humor.

Thankful

I am grateful for so many things.

My Family, The wonderful parents who raised me, my siblings who love me, My husband who loves me and never says no, my children who love me even when I say no.

The gospel, The guidance is has giving me, the comfort it has given me, the knowledge that I am so much more than I can ever imagine, The knowledge that I have a Father in Heaven who loves me unconditionally.

The stability in my life right now. My willingness to put things in the Lords hands and trust that he knows best.

The roof over my head and the food in my cupboards. The fact that I have more than one pair of shoes.

That I live in a country where I can roll my eyes at the president and say what did he do to deserve the Nobel Peace Prize, and not be put in jail or worse.

I am grateful for all the people I have meet over the years, people who have made me see things in a different way, people who have made me laugh, cry, and love. I am grateful to all of you. For teaching me, befriending me, talking to me, listening to me, and caring.

I am grateful for my life, the hardships, and the easy parts.

I am Thankful.

Americas Funniest Videos

My children want a trampoline, Really, really want a trampoline. Dave and I keep saying no. They keep on asking, we keep on saying no.

So we watch AFV every Sunday, Dave has started saying "see that is why you can't have a trampoline"
Because every week there is at least one video involving someone getting injured on a trampoline.

Now the kids say "see that is why we cant get a ________ " insert what ever was involved in the video.

Or Dave will say "never taking you guys _______" Insert activity.

It is quite funny. They get a kick out of it.

Sick

I have a head cold. I have had it for several days but it wasn't to bad. It hit hard today. Poor James got way more TV time then usual today. But no matter what I will be well enough to go to see New Moon tomorrow. I am excited, I wouldn't have gone to see it this soon except a friend won tickets so we are going. The first one made me laugh, I don't think it was suppose to, but it was fun to watch, and after seeing a couple of trailers New Moon looks to be a better movie.

Sewing

Okay, I got a skirt pattern, got the fabric. Measured my fat belly and according to the pattern I was a size 12, so I sewed a size 14. Because with me and cutting and sewing it will end up not quite right.
How is it that the skirt is tight? I even measured my self with my jeans on. The difference bettween a size 12 and 14 is and inch and a half. I don't get this. This is the second time it has happened.
This is why I will stick with elastic waisted skirts. No more fitted skirts.
Pictures to come I am having problems with the memory card and uploading the pictures.

How is it..........

That the nights no one gets up, no one is sick, no one has to pee at 2 in the morning, is the night I sleep horribly?
And the nights some one has to throw up at 3 in the morning is the night i am so deep it takes me a min. to realize what is going on?
Just wondered if anyone out there has the answer.

I learned something new today,

Okay so most of you already know this, and while I have been a girl for 33 years, I haven't cared what I looked like for 30 of those years.
So now that I am doing more with my hair, I learned today the reason the hair that frames my face on the left side always looks better than the hair on my right side. On the left I curl it back on the right I curl it forward.
I know something simple and that every girl knows. But I just learned it. So today I curled the hair on both sides back.
I am just so smart sometimes.

Life

Okay, Justin is over strep and no one else got it. I love blessings like that. We took a can of lysol to his room yesterday and washed everything washable. The boy's room is very clean now. Except the dresser, we forgot to dust it.

We are not renewing 102 uses so I will start putting them up here randomly.

I made pancakes using powdered eggs, this morning. James didn't seem to notice and I only made 3 so there are no left over pancakes lying around the house. I am excited, I can cut a whole lot of recipes down and not have to worry about how i cut an egg in half. I know it seems like I should already know this stuff, but I am not a chef, cooking is low on my list of things I want to do.

James went to school with the 7th grader across the street yesterday. He came home with some stick puppets with monkeys and puppies on them. He spend the evening singing 3 little monkeys, puppies, jumping on the bed, he did the whole song, the only part he messed up was "momma called the dr said, no more monkeys jumping on the bed." So cute.

Sick again

So far this fall we have had 4 different illnesses go through the family. On the up side only one person has gotten each one. We haven't had any sickness transfer.
Justin is home now. He insisted he was well enough to go to school this morning because he needed to take a test. I informed him his teacher would give it to him when he was better, He didn't believe me. So I got the call at 9 this morning to come get him. But the only reason was because his teacher gave him the test early.
He has a sore throat, we are trying honey and vinegar.
1 cup hot water
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon vinegar

We will see how it does. He was terrified of gargling it. He was afraid it would taste horrible. But he said it wasn't to bad.

Sick kid

Baby James is sick. Throwing up, tired, but no fever so far. If he is running one it is very low. I feel sorry for him. He just lays there not moving, he was rested enough to talk to the tv during Diego, for 2 shows but that was it. Dave went to get him some pedialite. Hopefully he will be able to hold it down all night.

Why?

"Why do we need palms?"
Can any of you answer that?
I said we needed them to hold our fingers.
James then reminded me "Our thumbs too."

Raking leaves

The tree in the front yard dropped all its leafs in about 4 days. Here are the kids trying to clean up and play in the pile all at the same time. There are 2 extra kids in the mix. Noah and Matthew.

Yes that is Jordan reading while sitting in the leaf pile.

"Why do we have 2 hands and arms and only one nose" James asked the other day. I have to admit I was stumped for a min. Then I replied. "Because it is more helpful to have 2 hands then to have 2 noses." He was quite happy with that.

Happy Halloween

Okay, Here are the Halloween pictures, also carving pumpkins.
Justin and Courtney are Zombies, Jordan is a hunter, and James is an army guy, David is dressed in black so he can hide behind the black leaf bags and scare the trick-or-treaters. He loved doing it and even scared a couple of kids. A couple of friends came by and he called them by name while hiding. The girls loved that.
This is our grave yard with the carved pumpkins. The kids loved coming up with things to write on the grave stones.
Carving pumpkins.


James had a blast trick-or-treating. But gave up after the first street. We went with the neighbors and the kids had a blast.

Justin Is 12

So My Justin is 12, I have a teenager and a preteen. And no one is grounded. Lets just hope it stays this way.
Dave drove to Logan yesterday, he comes home late so he misses the traffic in Salt Lake. But Justin was positive that Dave was late because he was picking up his birthday present. He wanted a basket ball hoop.
I tried to explain that it wouldn't fit in the back of the convertible. But Justin was just positive Dave could do it.
So this morning after following the yarn all over the house and out to the garage and outside to find the Basketball stand, Justin came running in saying "I told you dad could do it."
Granted Justin has no idea that the stand come from down the street, Dave and I wheeled it home last night. :)
But it is good for Justin to believe his dad can do anything for a while longer.

My oldest

I love my oldest, he is a smart, caring teenager. He loves to play with his brothers, takes time to make sure everyone is happy, and likes to cook. Which helps me because I don't like to cook. So how is it, that this wonderful child is so scatter brained. He forgets things, his mind wanders during homework and it takes him hours to do it.
How do I help him become more responsible? I have hit a road block. I have tried giving him list of things to do. I have tried grounding. He has a dedicated, clean desk, in a quiet room for doing homework. Nothing helps.
This is my issue for the week. Maybe the month.

My Baby Boy

This is my baby, James, He is all boy. He loves to play with cars, guns, legos, blocks, and anything that requires an active imagination.

He loves to wear this baseball hat. He usually doesn't get to wear it to bed, but he put himself down for a nap, without me knowing. If he does it again i am gong to leave it on, using the reasoning that it is winter and wearing it to bed will help keep him warm. Dave is very pleased with James, none of the other kids will wear a baseball cap. My oldest is just now wearing one and it is sporadic.

Okay here it is. Pictures of Courtney and My hair.
To my sister, You need to do this. With your curly hair it would be cute. My hair cut not Courtney's.
The back of Courtney and my hair.

Here is the front. Told you, you wouldnt be able to see the difference. I just got some layering. Courtney on the other hand got a very cute hair cut. I love it.

Justin's Birthday Party

Here is a picture of Justin with a couple of friends at his party. 10 boys showed up, more than I expected but they were a good bunch of kids and behaved themselvs.
The only hard part was keeping enough homemade pizza on the table

So here is the cake I made for Justin's Birthday, he wanted a Transformers Graveyard but the more we talked about it the more I realized he wanted a battle ground. I think it turned out pretty well. He was excited to see it.

Random

After watching the second Transformers movie with the kids, I came to realize that it is quite crude, I still like the movie but the first one is still my favorite.

On a completely different note. James asked me the other day how you keep an eye on your self. I have to admit I didn't have an answer. I said you just know where you are. He was happy with the answer.

I am building a Transformer graveyard cake for Justin's birthday. Pictures tomorrow.

Cupcakes at Grandmas

While at Grandma Wrigleys last week the kids got to decorate cupcakes to look like spiders. It was fun. James had a blast poking the legs in. The older boys even got in to it.

Justin's cupcake

This is James Cupcake

Courtney's Cupake

Pretty sure this is Jordan's

The trip to Idaho was fun. No one was sick and the cousins had a blast playing together. They stayed up late Saturday night playing in the dark. Grandpa found flashlights for the girls and little boys, making it hard for the older boys to scare them.
My brother and his wife went out to scare the kids but they were having to much fun to be scared.
I have no idea what kind of games they were playing, the girls and little boys mostly ran around shining the flashlights and the older ones tried to scare them.

Lazy Day

Transformers 2 Came out on video yesterday. I love the Transformer movies. They are just so funny, and entertaining. So Dave and I with James playing with toys, watched both movies today. Talk about lazy. 5 1/2 hours of movie watching. But it was fun.

Okay, I have been asked several times if I have my own blog. I figured I could do it because my mother is doing it. Granted she has been forced by a professor to do it. But she is doing it. So here It is.