Day after Christmas sleding

We went sleding the day after Christmas. I was pretty excited about it but it turned out not to be as great as we hoped. By the time that we actually got out and were able to play. The kids Lilly was too cold and Cameron crashed on the first time down with grandpa. Daddy and all the kids ended up sitting in the truck while I went down twice.  I had taken a couple of pictures of Jackson and Sarah while on the hill before we left. Zander looked pretty funny  they he was hanging out in the sled.

Well I wish I had more time to explain a little more but I have got things to do. The pictures should explain a bit.

Christmas 2008

What a wonderful time of year and here, it is already gone. With sales going on and me wanting to spend money left and right. With Doug getting upset every time he heard the I bought something new. Oh, what emothions go on through this wonder season. 

Well shopping was not the only thing I thought about. I know that it is a time to be thankful for what you have, a time to do service of others and a time to think about the great birth of our amazing brother, our Savior Jesus Christ. It is a time to think about His life and the example he was and then to thinkof his sacrifice he made for us. 

Yes, I did think of all those things. I am thankful for all that I and myfamily has been blessed with.

Christmas eve Doug had to work and  I went to my parents house to hang out for the night. We ate food and played game. The kids got to play wiht their cousins and over all it was an enjoyable time. Then the battery in Doug's car died so I had to go over to the Walmart where he was working and he jumped the battery. It was probably 10:15 by then. Doug was talking to the kids and told them that we had better get home fast before santa passes by our house. "Santa will skip our house if you are not in bed," he told them. 

So we got home and Cameron raced in the house. I had to grab things from the car and while I was doing that Cameron grabed the plate of fudge and a couple cookies. He found some paper and a pencil and wrote "FORSADU. " And put a box around the Words. to highlight them. Then he grabbed a cup and filled it with water and almost forgot the fork for the fudge. 

I was soo impressed. I did not say one word, just watched. 

Such a funny kid.

Then that night I waited and watched Pride and Prejudice. A good night for me. 

The next morning we opened presents and ate french toast for breakfast. We spent the rest of the day with family.

   

Another attempt in making dresses

 I wanted to make Christmas a little more special this year by making the girls their own christmas dresses. I was excited to get started on another project and to continue improving my limited skills in sewing. 

I bought some material that I thought would not be too Chirstmassy so that they could wear it more than once and found a pattern that I thought would be cute. 

This pattern looked cute on the girl on the cover of the pattern so I thought it would work. The patterns were a little courtryish but I thought that as long as I got material the was pretty and modern then it wouldn't look country. 

So I set about cuting out the material and trying to make sense of the directions on the pattern. No such luck. I begged my mom for help and to my utter satisfaction she came. She looked at it and helped me figure out what all the little pictures meant. I thought I had a pretty good idea about how to make the dress when she left. I also had to get more material and that is why she couldn't help me start on it when she was there. 

The next week I made the top of the dress and worked on making the pockets. I spent 2 full days just on two darn pockets just to later on find out that I put them on in the wrong spot. I was at a point the I did not now what to do next.

My mother saved the day again when I went over there to finishe things up. We worked on the bottom white ruffle then we got the skirt parts together, then we were trying to attach the skirt to the top but the thread kept breaking. Upset, I left and returned the next night with new and expensive thread that I accidentally got and paid for because there was a long line and I didn't want to have to wait any longer in that store.

So I was back at my parents house to finish the dress. The new thread was on and we tried again to gather the material and attach the top. Even with the darn expensive thread it would not work, the material was too thick. So My mother just sewed the gather on and we tried the dress on Lilly. 

I was horrified. The dress was way too big. Way too much fabric. It was like she was the top of this humungous tent. I did not want my mom to think I was upset so I was just like," I don't know." 

What to do, What to do? I could not take her to church like that. So, I worried about it and finally just told mom that we need to cut out some of the material. She agreed to let me do that and I proceeded to cut up each side of the dress and then pined the side to cut out about 5 inches of material on each side. Then I had to ripe out the pokets that I had spent two days on. We still could not finish the dress, but in all the bustle I took a pattern for a previous dress I had made for Lilly and used that for Miah's dress. There was no way that I was going to attempt the country dress again. 

Mom finished both dresses for me and the girls wore them on the Sunday before Christmas.   

Miah's dress fit her pretty well considering I had to cut the material a half inch short on all sides of the pattern pieces. 

She did look pretty cute.

Then there was Lilly. As much I did not want it to look country, there was just noe escaping it. It was as country a dress as ever I did see one. It did at least look a million times better than what it did before.

Well, I'd say that was another lesson learned. At least Lilly is so cute that she did not look that bad. 

I'd day that I will remember this Christmas for a long time. I will remeber how hard of a time that I had with that dress and that in the end you can not trust the picture that is on the cover. 

Daddy finally working as a reserve officer

 So, this isn't the greatest picture in the world but here he is. Finally wearing that uniform and pretty much accomplishing his goal. 

Getting hired on as a police officer has been a dream of his since we were married. He had tired to go through the testing several time. I think the the testing stuff was attempted like eight times through out a 5 year period. 

The first time that he had his public safety testing, Cameron was born. The second time he forgot the very important have or don't test paperwork. The third time the public safety people rescheduled and didn't tell him. The fourth time he tested and did not get a passing grade on the written. The fifth time he got through the physical and written tests, then didn't make it passed the oral boards. The next three times he tested he didn't make it passed the oral boards for Meridian, the Ada county and Nampa again. Then he decided to test for the reserve program for Nampa and very much relieved he was able to make it completely through the testing and follow up stuff. He got to start training in November and he officially wore the gear and was able to ride the third week of December. How very nice it is. To be so close to something that you have been waiting and working so hard for(I sure many people have faced similar ssituations). 

He is so close but not quite there because hello he is working for free. Now he just gets to work three jobs instead of two and from what we here it is pretty scarey that he might not be able to get hired on full time for another year. 

I don't know if I can handle that. Him gone all of the time, working three jobs and never being home and then when he does get home he is too exhausted to do anything. That scares me but it is what he really wants. He wants to be a police office so bad that he is willing to sacrifice working three jobs so that he can live his dream and so that I can stay home. I am amazed by his stamina. I am impressed with his willingness to work so hard for us. Yes, I am thankful for that. I am also thankful that he has a job in the first place. 

Our hope is that in April even though he will not be a level 1 reserve( they told us you have to be a level 1 reserve in order to transfer over) maybe the chief will allow him to be hired on full time any way. Maybe if he pleads with him. We'll see :\

He is happy to wear that uniform though and does not shy from being able to tell people that he is a police officer. For now that is o.k I think. As long as he is happy doing it, then so am I.

Girls night out

So we had girls night out at my Aunt Jolene's house on Saturday. It was fun. We each brought a finger food( I asked everyone to bring something they wouldn't normally make or something different or exciting).

I was going to bring this really easy appetizer but I thought it wasn't exciting enough. So I looked on the internet and found something on the Food Network. It looked easy, exciting and different. It was definitely not something I would normally do so I thought I would give it a try.

I bought all of the ingredients including aged Gouda cheese and prosciutto both of which I have never used. It called for toasted white bread and green apples with some honey mustard on bottom. It looks so fancy in the picture and if it looks that pretty it just has to taste good, right? Well I brought everything and assembled them there. I don't think I did everything right either but it was a good try.

After everyone got there and it was all ready we each grabbed a plate of food and one of these grown up ham and cheese finger sandwiches. We we sat down Katie was like," OK lets all try this". After I couple of bites we decided it wasn't the worst thing we had tried and it wasn't like a really strong flavor so we didn't have to spit any of it out.
Well I tried something new and it wasn't a complete disappointment, great. Oh, and Gouda cheese is really good.

So the rest of the night was enjoyable. We watched 27 dresses and made some hats on a loom for the humanitarian aid(I really wanted to learn how to make hats) and ate ice cream. We also watched Fly Boys because Katie just could not stand to watch Pride and Prejudice. The night ended with honey facials(I love those honey facials, it makes your skin so smooth.).

I love hanging out with my Aunt and it was great getting away for the night. I'm just glad that it won't be my turn to plan the next one.

The Trans Siberian Orchestra

So a couple weeks ago we went to the Trans Siberian Orchestra. It was at the Idaho Center on Monday the 11th. We were pretty excited about it because last year we went when Doug had won tickets to it and it was pretty fun. It was a wonderful show on Monday. They have a lot of new stuff in their program and it makes for an interesting experience. 

The first part of the show is where they tell a christmas stroy of a guy in a bar and it is very hookie but the music and lights make up for it. It is fun and I would recommend going sometime. 

The bad part about it is that people are jam packed in there and they sell beer at the consession stands. So you are pretty much sitting next to a bunch of people with bad breath drinking beer and if not already, on their way to being drunk. Well I think it is like that anytime their is a show at the Idaho Center. Just sit close to the person you go with.

I got this video off the internet. It is from a concert in 2004. They have made a lot of changes to the equipment they use but it is still the same fun music. Enjoy.

A new tag

So my friend tagged me like last month and I just saw it, so sorry Heidie it took me so long.

5 T.V. Shows I love to watch
1. House
2. Biggest Loser
3. Designed to Sell
4. America's Next Top Model :)
5. Life

5 things that happened yesterday
1. Took Cameron to Preschool
2. Went to the store and picked up a lot of milk
3. Went to the library and dollar store
4. Sat down and read all the books we got from the library to the kids
5. Made dinner and actually staightened up the house before bed

5 favorite places to eat
1. Mongolian BBQ
2. Costco
3. Olive Garden
4. Sonic
5. McDonalds, just because it is cheap and the kids like the play area, my husband is going to be shocked

5 things I look forward to
1. financial stability
2. More time with my husband
3. My husband only having one job
4. I always look forward to Christmas( I like holidays)
5. Cameron starting kindergarden

5 things on my wish list
1. I want to travel, I want to go on a cruise
2. To always know what to make for dinner without all the planning( Oh, that I was a good cook in the first place)
3. To have more self control
4. That my kids will grow up healthy and happy, for the most part making good decisions
5. That I had a better memory, wait what was I saying?

5 people I tag
1. Sarah Gray
2. Lizzy Harward(there will be more for you because you are a newbi)
3. Mom( though I know she probably won't do it)
4. Carley Picket
5. I can't think of any one else

Okay, if you're on the above list-or not-copy and paste it with your answers. I double-dog-dare you.

Fall fun

I took the kids on a bike ride to the park last week. We had played in the back yard first which is where I took these pictures. It got pretty chilly but the kids needed out. So I dressed them nice and warm and we went. The kids were doing fine until the wind started blowing in their faces. I asked them if they wanted to keep going and they did, but I had a feeling we should turn back. So we kept going to the park and just tryed to get there as quickly as possible.

Lilly has been getting so much better at riding her bike. She used to stop and go stop and go as slow as possible but now she keeps a pretty good pase.

Then we got to the park and the kids raced for the swings. They got to swing and go really really high until I picked Miah up and let her slide down the minny slide. I didn't realize ituntil she got down that there was a puddle of water at the bottom. The entire back of her pants got all wet. I made me worry because it was too cold for her to be wet like that and she already had purple lips.

So I got the kids together and rushed them home. Miah kept trying to push off her blanket and then I saw that her tiny little hands were purple. It scared me some more and little was not in the mood to rush. The 15 min that it took to get home seemed like forever and I think that next time I try and do something like that I will be a little more careful.

Cameron's birthday

Cameron's birthday was two weeks ago but I was waiting to blog about it until I got some of the other pictures taken at party from my sister-in-law :) Since I don't have those I wanted to share the video that we got of him the morning of his birthday. Instead of cake I shoved candles into his pancake and we sang to him. He still had a little bit of make-up on him from Halloween the night before. It is really short because my flash card is old and holds hardly any memory.

For his birthday he got to play his new Lego Batman game all
day long. Then he worked on his new humongous preschool erasable workbook from grandma H. He has also enjoyed the webkinz froggy that Sarah and Jackson's family got him. He gets upset at me because I make him wait till Friday to play on the computer. He also got a spriderman fun book with markers in it from Jeremy and Molly( Thanks Jeremy and Molly for the ice cream that you brought to the party. We really appreciate you guys.) . He loves spiderman. Cameron also loves Happy meals and Corin, Hyrum and Nathan got him a $10 gift certificate to McDonalds. That was great. He loves having the excuse to get out of the house and going to McDonalds. Thanks everyone for going to Cameron's birthday party and celebrating him reaching the big number 5. He was very happy and had a good time. Thanks

Halloween

Halloween

- Mary Jane Carr

Witches flying past on broomsticks,
Black cats leaping here and there,
White-robed spooks on every corner,
Mournful moaning in the air,

Goblins peering out of windows,
Spirit-things that rap and run-
But don't be scared-it's just October,
Having one last hour of fun!

Halloween is always a fun time for us. Doug just loves those scary movies and I love dressing up the kids. I was surprised that by 6:30 that night no one had come trick or treating to our house. 

We left and went to what we thought was Doug's families' trunk or treat. We walk around and the kids got some candy until Doug realized that he did not recognize anyone. So we went for grandmas house instead. Grandma H always has a wonderfully scary Halloween party. She fixes up her house with ghosts and spiderwebs, makes rootbear, donuts, pigs in a blanket and pizza, and she dresses up in some kind of festive outfit. Halloween is really one of their favorite holidays.

This is from top across to bottom: Sarah, Jeremy, Lilly, Jeff, and Cameron. Wow Jeremy looks really good in this picture, just like an old man. Jeff I think ate off someone else's leg. Cameron's doing the batman pose and lilly is just trying to be cute. Sarah really rocked the fro and later had changed the wig which made her look like a hooker. All great costumes. Loved them. And we had fun. 

There were not a lot of trick or treaters out around their house either. It felt so good outside, so for the first time, Doug and I took all the kids trick or treating and walked around the block with them. Usually I let doug take them because it is normally so cold out. Lilly would run up to each house and pound on the door. When someone would open up Lilly would poke her head inside and look around the house before putting her pumkin basket in the air to catch the candy. 

We tryed going to the houses that seemed no one else was going to and it worked out. The kids completely filled up their baskets and by the end Lilly just could not walk any further and she could barely hold up her pumkin.

Now there is too much candy in the house and I fear for my overindulgence. The candy tax always takes over and I'm sure that the candy will be gone in the next month or two. I really try to not buy much candy and treats because I seem to eat them more than the kids do. So I will have to find a hiding spot to get them out of sight so that it won't be as tempting.

Cameron will probably eat all the chocolate out of his basket and Lilly's. He is a choco holic. I will have to keep the candy out of his way too.

We really do enjoy Halloween though and it was a good night.

Doug borrowed this wig and glasses from Sarah. He looks pretty goofy. 

Miah just could not stand him wearing this. She would hide her face and would not allow him to touch her. Miah just wanted everyone else to hold her except Doug.

Miah was really cute in this monster costume because she would walk up to people's doors with her ears flapping up and down while her tail would wag side to side. 

This was before going to the trunk or treat last Saturday. Jeremy and Molly came with us and the kids were pretty excited. Jeremy did the make-up on them because I was running late on making the taco soup for the soup feed. 

This was the serious pose

And then there was the happy pose. 

Now Halloween is over and November is going to be a busy month. More to look forward to.

Finally done

A million apples peeled, cored and cut.

Around 150 jars filled and processed.

And 2 full days to get it done. Wow, I'm glad that is over. 

It is nice to know that should anything happen to me or Doug; should Doug loose his job or if the stock markets crash and money is scarse, we will have plenty of peaches, applesauce and apple pie filling to live off of. Peaches and applesauce are great for kids and they like them  so it is a plus. 

I know that I have tried. I have put in effort to attain a food storage for my family. I have done my best but I am so thankful that the canning crap is over. I am sick of it for the year. 

It is good for me to get the experience in it and I am thankful to Katie, Kyle and Mariah for all their help.

Next year I will have to try making jelly and some other different things, but this canning year is over.

climbing

Miah is definitely in the climbing stage. She gets onto and into everything. She climbs on the chairs and onto the couter and on the table and into the drawers in the bathroom. She trys to climb up the metal fence to the doggy area and onto the little table top by the swing outside. She climbs on the kids' beds and all over the couches. She manuvers herself this way and that way which eventually gets her stuck somewhere. I had to put the bar stools in the office so that she would stop climbing on the counter and possibly hurt herself. 

Oh, the climbing stage is not the only thing she is into right now. There are many, but what I will be most happy to get through is the toilet stage. The time in these precious kids lives where the second a bathroom door gets left open is the second they are sticking their hand in or stuffing a new toy down into the porceline white bowl of fascination. They are so amazed by it and why it is so exciting, I may never know.

The funny thing she is into also is the pulling the diaper off stage. She loves to pull off her diaper and run the jiggly bottom all around the house. She will pull it off and think she is so funny the she just has to show me what a wonderful thing she has done. Thankfully it is not and every day occurance, but whenever she gets a break between putting on a new diaper and getting her clothes on, that is what she is doing.  

bunny ears

Miah was playing with these bunny ears the other day and it was so cute. I got these bunny ears from the women's run that we went to.

 What an experience that was. It rained the whole time and we froze. The running didn't help to make our freezing bodies to warm up much, but it was beautiful outside and that helped. I enjoyed doing the women's run with my family and having a prettty good morning that followed with a long nap to rest my muscles since the cold made me all stiff and achy. I wish I had gotten pictures of that.  

grandma's house

I love that my kids enjoy everything about grandma and grandpa's house. I love that they have to have grandpa hold them and play with them. I love that there is always something to play with that makes them happy. I love that we can go over there and I don't have to worry about them hurting things, much. I love that even though when leaving grandma and grandpa's house they are usually sopping wet or a horrible mess, they have a good time and grandma and grandpa don't get upset about the little things. I feel that they just enjoy us coming over and that we don't have to worry about being judged in any way. I love my parents and my kids love their grandparents.

Hyrum's birthday

So these are pictures from Hyrum's big  4th party. Corin called it a pirate party and a few people dressed up. Corin obviously dressed up in a creative little number here(No Corins bum did not recently get huge, that is part of the costume. I didn't know pirate's had big bums.). It was fun. A big group did show up so that was great. 

We ate Corin's creative and spicy soup that she normally makes and the cake was decorated pretty well with piratey stuff. It was cute. Hyrum was dressed in his spongebob costume with pirate make-up on. They did a pin the X on the tresure game and Hyrum had lots of presents to open up. They did the present opening before the cake because it was taking a while to finish up the cake and people had to go. So instead of singing happy birthday before the presents, we sang "For he's a Jolly Good Fellow". That is supposed to be a pirate song. Hyrum opened up a cool transformer toy and I was trying to get him to say thank you to the kid that got it for him and all Hyrum would say after I told him to say thank is," your welcome".

I was the one in charge of taking the pictures and it is funny that Corin didn't bother to tell me about the party until 10:30 at night the evening before. She's a funny girl. Oh and Corin be careful calling my house at that time It doesn't make doug very happy when he is around.

The cake tasted great. I don't know if it was made from scratch or not but she added these apple slices to it and it worked out. Wonderful cake. 

By the time the cake was eaten Corin's house was sufficiently messed up by all the kids and everyone packed in there, so we tryed to straighten things up and headed out.

Hope you had a great party Hyrum

Family gatherings

So last wednesday Jolene had a get together at her house. Aunt Barbra and Uncle Van were in town and she wanted everyone to have the chance to say hi before they left.

 When Jolene called to invite me I was so excited. We haven't had a family get together like that in I can't even remember. I haven't seen Aunt Barbra in forever, maybe since my wedding. They had been on a mission and Uncle Van just recovered from hip surgery. 

We got to the party and I was surprised by how thin Barb and Van were. They looked good though. We sat and ate a good meal, the crazy amount of kids ran and played every where. Delmar sat around talking about everyone's weight and bringing up old childhood stories. I love listening to all of them talk and relate funny past experiences. 

I had been wanted to talk to Barbra about something for a while. When I was 16 or 17 Bardra invited me to her house in California for a week to hang out and have fun. I was a little nervous to go alone and Corin was pretty upset that she wasn't asked so I set it up for Corin to come along with me. We got there and had a great time. We hung around and played in the pool, went shopping and ate out at a nice resturaunt. She offered to take us to San francisco for a day and we declined, opting to go get our hair done and pampered at the spa. It was a wonderful time to experience and get to know Barbra a little more and get to do some things I definitely would not be doing otherwise. 

Ever since we went there I have been wanting to tell Barbra that I felt bad about having her spend so much money on us. We were there to hang out with barbra and get to know her and when we go the chance to do that more we wer just thinking about things she could do for us. I felt selfness and greedy. I feel like I had taken advantage of her.

I did get the chance to talk to her about it but I don't think that she undstood what I meant. She told me that it was the only time that she was able to get to know me more and she was happy for it. I am glad she felt that way but I still feel like I was way too selfish during that time. I guess I need to get over it. I just didn't want her to think I normally am that greedy and self centered. 

I am impressed with Barbra that she was so nice about things and I have always felt that she is such a nice, honest and humble person. I am greatful for the wonderful role models I have had in my life and there are many others in my family and friends that I take a lot from by their example.  

The night ended pretty quickly. I wished we could have sat around and talked for hours more, but that really isn't possible when you have a full load of kids to get to bed. It was the night that we were going to put up our halloween decorations, so we couldn't stay too long. 

I do enjoy my family. They are fun to be around and Jolene is just so hilarious when she gets in a wacky mood.

So I was also put in charge of setting up a girls night with Jolene and her girls, and Mom and her girls. We will watch a movie and paint nails, wax eyebrows, talk about funny things, maybe play cards and eat yummy food. It should be great fun when I actually plan things out and set a time.

Thanks Jolene for a great night.

Gavin Degraw Concert

So on Saturday Oct 4th we went to the Gavin Degraw concert and Listener's louge. Doug won tickets by texting Gavin to Mix 106. They happened to choose Doug's text and yahoo we got a free date night. It is great doing different things other than the normal dinner and a movie thing. This was my first time going to a concert like that to. 

The Listener's lounge was great. It was in this small room with a bar in the side of the knitting factory( formally known as the Big Easy). They had a buffet for us which consisted of cheese and crackers, veggie platter, baby shrimp cocktail, meatballs, taquitos, and nachos. All items to make up the most least expensive buffet ever. I'm not complaining though, at least it was free. They came around to each table and took our picture and gave us a signed picture of the lady from Charlotte Sometimes. She started the night off for us. She came in and sang three of her songs which I did like. Her music was a little different but interesting. 

This is Charlotte Sometimes. They played three of their songs right before Gavin came out. They were great and I like the way that she trys to interact with the crowd and and talks to everyone. She seems like a fun lady.  

This is when they went around and took pictures of everyone. It was just so exciting, I was so happy to be there.

This is Gavin Degraw. He came out and and told everyone a story of how three people in his entrage were fellons and they were not allowed to pass into Canada unless they paid a $200 fee. Two of them paid it and the other refused and had to stay in the motel 8 until the concert was over.  Then he played and sang his Chariott song which I really enjoyed. It was so much better with out all the background music and instruments. He did a great job. 

Then we got to meet Gavin and take a picture with him. Doug thought that his was a real genuine guy. I thought he seemed like any other guy with a life like that. He seemed like he had a life of only thinking of himself and a lot of free time hanging around with his groupies. He was very laid back but everyone was also particular in trying to do every thing and anything to please him and make him happy. 

I guess that is how life is when you are famous. Everyone is very careful to take care of your needs and make you happy. Everything is pretty much done for you and you just get to lay back, do your thing and get out of there. So great for him.

I

I actually got to meet a famous person, Wow. Fun. 

So the concert didn't start until 8:30 and by the time that we got there, there were no seats left to sit on. So we had to stand in the mosh pit area. It was definitely crowd by thime it all got started but exciting nonetheless. Doug's brother Jeff also won tickets to the concert and we got to hang out with him and his sister Sarah for the whole thing. 

I thought it was funny that when both Charlotte Sometimes and Gavin would talk to the crowd about things I mostly could not relate. I didn't have the same experiences as he did. My life was so different than theirs. 

I really enjoyed the music. Not dirty and up beat so that you really would want to dance to it. It took me back to the time that Katie used to take me dancing with her. I loved to go dancing. It was fun and I got to interact with people and guys that were older than me. I also really enjoyed going out and hanging around Katie because she was such an out going person who I wanted to be like.

As the music got loud it would make your whole body vibrate to and your ears shake until they would start to tickle. I would stand there and close my eyes and some times I could not even take in a deep breath because the music was making my lungs struggle to take in air. I had a space around me that I was very happy for where I did not have to bump up against or be pushed by others. It was just enough room to be comfortable and dance a bit to the music. 

Gavin played several songs that I recognized from off the radio and several I've never heard. I really don't listen to the radio all that much when where ever I go the kids are usually with me. I don't like leaving the radio on for the kids to listen to. 

At the end of the concert Gavin and his band left the room real fast and a constant roar of screaming voices sounded until Gavin came out a did an oncore. I thought my ears would never recover. The ringing in my ears did not go away until we were out of the building. 

Before leaving I saw a lady that I used to work with  and I went up to her to talk. I asked her how things were going and how it was at the office. I had seen her husband when I did the camelsback Duathalon and I stupidly asked about him. She reluctantly explained that she was no longer with him and that he cheated on her and had an affair. Now these people are LDS and I was a bit surprised and now I feel even worse that I brought that up and made her feel uncomfortable. It is really sad, I have heard of a lot of people getting divorsed lately because of infadelity and most of these people are LDS. What the heck is up with that. Why can't people just stay with the person they've got and married to. Why do they have to do such awful things as that and many of them do it for a long time before it is actually found out. Like I mean not just a one time mistake but having actual girlfriends while having a separate family and children. Crazy buisness I tell you, Crazy buisness. 

Other than embarrassing myself in front of my former coworker I had a great night. It took away from my own reality and day to day life. I got have a good time with my husband and it was all free. Can't get much better than that.

Yipee

So my computers are working again. Hoorah. I've missed bloging and my bloging friends. So I decided I would add a whole bunch of new videos and pictures I've taken lately. They are random yes I know, but oh well. I like videos like I've said before. Now you will have something to look at.

These kids love to dance. We are barrowing Katie and Jake's key board because hopefully we can in the future get Cameron some piano lessons going. For right now though the kids us it as a juke box and they rock out to the loudest beats as possible.

This video is just of the kids playing around on th

e trampoline together. We like to go out side on our No TV Tuesdays and play together on the tramp. We started the No TV Tuesday a month or two ago because Cameron is addicted to the TV and he needs to learn to fill his days with something other than the TV.

We had fun taking pictures. All the kids got to take a turn with the camera and these are just the ones I took of the kids.

They are great kids.

Miah loves to dance. She was in her dancing mood and was gettin jiggy with it for a little while before I took this video. She really has fun and I wish the camera would have kept recording for another 10 sec. because she was having fun with the music.

Lilly is good at pouting those likes and trying to prove her point. She gets upset a little too easy sometimes and can get into some pretty rough quarwls with her brother. She had gotten upset this time because Cameron accidentally ran into her on the tramp. I just had to take some video. She was poking out those lips and I thought it was so cute. She is just a 3 year old and most people can relate to experiencing the wild emotions they have. What a funny girl.

And that concludes the last week. Everything before that from the time my computers messed up til last week, I'm going to not try to catch up on. It would take too long and I didn't take as many pictures since I wasn't able to blog. I do have to say, thank goodness for the blog because I would have lost some of my most treasured videos and photos after losing everything on both of our computers. I had also put  a lot of our old photos on our walmart account  and that was great. I would have missed all of the kids' newborn pictures. So All I really miss now is a couple documents we had and the recent 

pictures that I had taken. I definitely recommended getting any family photos and pics that you have saved on your computer onto an online account. 

computers

I am tired of stupid computers. My husband is never home to fix them and they keep breaking. I was really liking the time that I spent on the computer working on my blog, checking out face book, watching movies, and checking my e-mail. Now every time I get on the computer I end up getting mad at it and leaving it. The big one that we have has problems with the speakers and won't let me download my pictures. It keeps telling me that there is low disk space and very low virtual memory.

I am sick of the computers in our house. So I'm sorry to those of you that have been checking out my blog and nothing has been changing, but I just can't handle this computer and its messed up ways. I will just have to wait to continue my blog until the computer is fixed.

Salsa

So I got ambitious and afraid of wasting tomatoes from my garden, I decided to make some salsa. I was excited for that refreshing taste of home made delicious salsa, the kind that mom makes. I looked up on the computer how to make and can salsa and choose one that sounded alright. I just knew it had to have cilantro in it(I love the smell of cilantro).




So I pulled out as many ripe tomatoes as I could and got several from Katie's garden. I also bought some from the store and picked a day to get the job done.




Friday was my day. I followed the directions on how to peel the skins of the tomatoes and then core and seed them followed by chopping them. It was a long process but I was doing it. All by my self, no help, just me.




There is a certain satisfaction in doing something new and with your own hands. I really felt that, I did not imagine that I'd be doing this at least by myself, but here I was, hurray for me, I'm learning something new. I feel that it gives me a little more confidence in continuing to try things that I normally would not.




So I got through the 22 tomatoes that I had and it didn't even come to half of what I needed. The recipe called for 7 quarts of tomatoes and I think I had almost three quarts down. So I packed everyone up and went back to the store. I picked up about 24 more tomatoes and started the process all over again. My back was hurting and I was getting tired, but I could not back down now and there was no time to sit back and relax. I finished cutting up the tomatoes and realized that I still did not have enough tomatoes. So I added two more cans of diced tomatoes and only ended up being a quart and a half short.




I continued with the rest of the ingredients finishing up with the five jalapenos. I cut them in half and dug out the seeds with a spoon. I used the electrical chopper to chop it up( thinking it would be safer that way). I mixed everything up again and washed my hands real fast. I was in a hurry to get to Joseph's birthday party.




I took the pot of salsa with us to boil it and process it at Katie's house while getting the kids in the car. On the way my thumb started burning on the side of my nail. My first reaction was to suck on it to try and make it feel better, but the second I took my thumb out of my mouth, my tongue started burning. "That was real smart ," I thought to myself. I got to Katie's house and rushed the kids in. I related to story to Brenda , Katie's mother-in-law and she told me that I should try to soak my finger in a mixture of baking soda and water. I tried it and the burn went away the second I put it in the water. The relief only lasted for about 5 min and the burning returned. I continued to put ice on it for the rest of the night. The burning sensation continued to all of my fingers right at the cuticle and under my nails.




Man, I learned my lesson. I will use gloves next time I cut up jalapenos or be very, very careful to not get it all over my hands. Lesson learned.

Zucchini Bread

I like this receipe for zucchini bread. I've tried like 4 others and none of them are as great as this one. Mom also really wanted me to post this one too, so here you go.

3 eggs
1 c oil
2 c sugar
2 c grated zucchini
1 tb vanilla
3 c flour
1 t soda
2 t cinnamon
1/4 t B.P
1 t salt

Beat eggs; add oil, sugar, zucchini and vanilla. Mix, add rest. Grease and flour loaf pans. Cook at 325 for 1 hour.

Dress finished

Yeah, I completed the dress. My real first dress that I made all by myself. I had to figure out the machines and learn how to put the pieces together but I did it. Mom did help with the colar and the ribbon by everything else I did. There are plenty of errors on it but if you don't look too close you won't see them. Now I've got to find something else to make.

I had to do the zipper by myself. It was a bit scary for me because I not very good at keeping a straight line on the stitch. As you can tell my worries were lagitamate. The stitch line is wavy and when I got to the ribbon it would push outward. I will try and make sure that next time I have a zipper, I need to stitch it with a zipper foot. I'm sure it would make it much easier.

Dogs

We dog sat 3 extra dogs over the weekend, a beagle and two dotsins. They were my in-laws dogs. They were going on a cabin trip with their parents and needed somewhere to house their dogs while they were gon. Molly brought them over Thusday and I was surprised that they were doing so well with Triger and Jessie. I think it was a bunch of fun for them.

One of the dotsins was an 8 week old puppy. She seemed so fragile and it kind of scared me. It scared me because I have a 3 year old that loves animals and could not keep her hands off that poor dog. Thursday night Lilly ended up throwing her pretty hard and she got hurt. She was limping really bad and it freaked me out. I felt her paw for a little bit and then decided to drive to doug's work to have him check it out. Doug felt that it was anything major and that it was probably just bruised, so I felt a little better after that. Dotcha is the puppies name and by the end of the day she was running all over the house.

The rest of the days I had to really watch out for Lilly and the puppy but things were alright. It was not easy at times with five dogs all around but the weekend is over and they are safe and sound with their parents.

Hope you had a great trip Jeremy and Molly.

Doug's birthday cake

This is the superman cake that I made for Doug. It is a superman cake because he is my "superman". What would I do with out him, or what would it do if he wasn't such a hard worker and provider for our family. I am so thankful for him, that he is willing to do so much to take care of our needs. It has definitely been a hard road for him and I want him to know that I am here to support him and love him.

I made fondant for this cake. I got a great receipe for it from my friend Amy in our ward. It is basically made with marshmellows, and powdered sugar. I attempted to roll it all out and design it after we finished fixing up the garage. I really should have done it all on friday but I just didn't prepare well enough. I was really rushed and felt stressed out by this time and the kids got the brunt of it. Sorry kids. I had to roll out the blue fondant like 5 times because I didn't put enough cresco down in order to lift up the fondant after rolling it out. Once i got that part done the rest took another hour probably but I was happy with the out come. It is not perfect but how cares. It was my first attempt with fondant and it care out alright. I will have to try it again some time.

I had the cake laying out on the table when Doug got home and he liked it. All he really does is smile and say that you but thats ok. Since Doug got home late we didn't have a whole lot of time for dinner. We had to rush to get out of there so we weren't able to share the cake with the kids on Saturday night. We went to Smokey Mountain Pizza and Pasta for dinner and our friends joined us. It was a great night.
We sung Happy birthday to Doug at Grandma H's house and ate the cake there. Cameron was really excited to eat the cake and it did taste alright. I only put three candles in trying not to destroy the look until we were ready to eat it. Miah enjoyed the cake too.