family of 7

Nikki & Wyatt had a chance to spend a couple of days in Vegas for a Concrete convention, so our little family of four quickly turned into a family of 7 plus one mini-van. On the morning they left Nikki called to remind me that they had 3 kids meaning 2 kids + 1 dog. I had forgot about little Nala and I hardly knew she was there. She spent most of her days laying on her favorite sheet in my kitchen. When Nikki dropped them off I opened the back door so that Nala could meet her 3 (lab)cousins. As Nala ran out to make friends, our giant dogs greeted her with loud barks and teeth. She was back inside with-in a matter of seconds!
As for having Two sets of twins, it turned out to be pretty easy! I don't know if I would want to do it for 18 years but all the kids cooperated and helped out which made every thing a little easier.

Yes, that is marker on Halle's face.

This is the boys working out before going to wrestling practice. I made arrangements with my mom to take the girls so me and Casey could take the boys to their first practice. I hurried and fed the kids, dropped the girls off, and we headed up to the school. That's when we realized that we didn't know where to go. So we started at the Jr high gym which was having a basketball game. As we headed back to the car we noticed cars down at the old middle school. We thought maybe that's where they have it. During all this walking the boys are whining and Gavyn kept loosing his shoe. When we finally made it to that gym all we found was the boys baseball team practicing. Well the only place left is the high school, so we made it back to the car pulled around to the high school and was just getting ready to get out when we saw Kalee standing inside. We called her instead of making the boys get out and walk again. She said all that was going on was the high school basketball game. We couldn't figure where else they could be so we finally called the people who were over it. They informed us that it was at the high school wrestling room.....in two weeks. Go figure. A whole night wasted because we forgot to get the details!

The best part of having a family of 7 is being able to drive the sports wagon. I loved that Van! It's more like a living room on wheels with a TV and all! I even shed a little tear when they came to pick it up. Maybe some day I'll have a lot of money and can afford one (Cael once told my mom that she didn't have as much money as Nikki, because Nikki drove a van! it's been an inside joke ever since!)

Drill Team Comps

The past couple of weekend I've been able to go with my Mother-in-law and Sister-in-law Jakoye to support the JHS Drill Team. My sister-in-law Kalee (who was 4 when me and Casey started dating!) is on the team and I've loved going to cheer them on. They did really well and had several 1st place wins. GO JUAB!

Girls Road trip!!!

Pepperbelly's-yummy!

Marlo, Jen, and me
I was able to spend the day after my birthday with my scrappin buddies! We've been scrapping together for years and we always have a blast. This time we went to Richfield (Jen's hometown), so we decided to make it an all day road trip. She picked me up around 9:30am and made it to Richfield around 11:00. We stopped at Christensen for treats and some quick shopping, before going to PepperBelly's to eat. My chimichanga was Fabulous and I made the mistake of going to the bathroom which left Jen the chance to inform them that it was my birthday. They gave me a yummy bowl of fried ice cream which came with a picture of me wearing a Nacho hat. It was pretty humilitating, but that's what Best Friends are for. We spent the rest of the day scrappin and didn't get home until late, but it was so worth it! Thanks Jennalou for the great birthday celebration...love ya tons!

28 on the 28th...

After many months of being in DENIAL I did in fact turn 28 on the 28th! Yes I still feel like I just graduated from High School and Yes I am still offended when the high school bagger boys at the grocery store call me MAM (sp?) and Yes my baby will be going to kindergarten in the fall and Yes the kids I use to babysit are now in college! How is this possible? I just turned 18-right? No, that was 10 years ago! I may in fact still be in denial that I'm now much closer to 30 than 20, but I just keep telling myself that you're only as old as you feel. The bad news is that most days I feel 100!

The big day actual turned out OK. The day started off with my dad trying to have a heart attack and being transferred to UVRMC. After several test they determined that it wasn't a heart attack, but a electrical problem that could be easily fixed. We were already planning on going up north for the day so we spent some time at the hospital before going to Olive Garden to eat with my mom. We then took her back to the hospital and then headed to the mall. Casey let me buy some cute shirts and a belt at GAP. He always spoils me and I rarely get him anything for his. This year is his 30th and I'm really going to try to have him a present. We then went and picked up the kids so we could head home. It was a good day and Casey tried his hardest to make me happy on such a depressing day. *side note* my Dad ended up have heart surgery by Dr. Hwang the next day and did really well and came home that night. They sent a tiny sensor up two arteries and placed it by his heart. The sensor then read his rhythm and determined what was wrong. It then fixed the rhythm by doing an ablation. It's way over my head, but I'm thankful for modern medicine!

The good news is that everyone keeps saying that by me turning 28 on the 28th that it makes this my best year! Wahoo for Old Wise Tells! Anyway, since this is suppose to be the BEST Year I decided to make a list of things I'm going to accomplish this year. One of the only good things about having a January birthday is that you can make New Years Resolutions and Birthday Resolution in the same list....so here it goes!

1-Be more patient with my kids
2-Be more patient with my kids
3-Be more patient with my kids (i could do this for at least 20)
4- Get organized! my house, finances, & schedules.
5-Cook more
6-Decorate my house. I always seem to get started and never finish.
7- Learn how to sew. I have done a little sewing, but I'm horrible so I want to take a class to learn the basics.
8-Stick to a budget....ugh
9-scrapbook more
10-be more diligent in my church calling
11-Video more, I take a ton of still photos but rarely video.
12-Play with my kids more.
13-Exercise regularly
14-Go camping more.
15-drink LESS Dr. Pepper
16-Eat healthier
17-Start taking college classes again. {it's too easy to talk myself out of it}
18-take better care of my car.
19-get our home remodeling projects completed.
20-get a our fence up.
21-get a playground {for my summer sanity!}
22-Keep my house cleaner, since no one ever seems to visit when it's clean only the days I've let my kids take over!
23-Read to my kids more.
24-Teach Kensie all the animal sounds. She has really struggled with talking and answers Moo to every animal.
25-Get Kensie Potty Trained.
26-Be better at giving gift for special events {weddings, showers, graduations, and family deaths.}
27-Be a better Wife
and finally....
28-Update my blog more!!!!!

Cael's Birthday Bowling

Since we celebrated Cael's birthday the night before I thought it would be fun to do something special on his actual birthday. A couple of months ago he was invited to a bowling birthday party for our neighbor Dallin and he's not stopped talking about it. So he chose to take his "friends" bowling. Well since this was a last minute thing he wasn't able to take all his friends, just Dad, Mom, Kensie, and Dallin who just happen to be over playing at our house when we decided what we were going to do. This year his birthday fell on a Monday and I thought it would work out perfect to go bowling on a Monday because it would be family night; right? No, when we walked in we soon figured out it wasn't family home evening night it was Ladies League night! Lucky for us they keep 2 lanes open for families that are daring enough to be humiliated in front of the die hard pros. Nikki's mother-in-law, Debbie, was there with her team and came over to see the kids. She warned us to keep the kids away from some of the older ladies because they didn't like it when kids were there! (Note: Debbie is the sweetest lady and is so good to my kids, I know she doesn't feel that way, but just wanted us to know that some of the ladies did. Which was nice of her to warn us, but still upset me that some of them would feel that way about a family being there!) What should that matter? It's not like I'm going to ask them to babysit! We were assigned to the last lane and we luckily had a family in between us and the "Pros" (who's game may be interfered by a child 10 lanes down!) We hurried and started our game so we could get out of there, before one of the kids sneeze and fowled a "professional". The kids loved it and I think we all got a strike even the birthday boy! This is something we will defiantly do again, just not on league night!

in a galaxy far far away....

The Star Wars obsession started a couple of months ago when we rented the Star Wars Saga for the first time. At first Cael didn't really seem too interested, but after playing the Star Wars Lego game on the Wii he was hooked. We have pretty much watched them non-stop since. When it came time to choosing a theme for his party there was no question what he would choose. I love planning themed b-day parties and Cael's have been fun every year. I have noticed that boys interest change quickly and this has made it so he has had a different theme every year. The last couple he has even wanted the same birthday theme that he did for Halloween. I had a blast finding the paper to do his invites. I love it when I find what I want! :) We actually celebrated this year on the Sunday before and invited everyone over for dinner. We did Roast, potatoes, jello ~ the works. Nikki made his cake which turned out awesome! Cael opened tons of cool gifts. We gave him Star Wars Lego (which he had wanted for Christmas, but we thought we would wait and give them to him at his Star Wars party. Thank goodness his birthday is only a couple of week after Christmas because he kept asking why he didn't get them.) Grandpa & Grandma Jarrett gave him a star wars Lego game with light saber wii controllers and star wars shirts. Grandpa & Grandma Smith gave him a hunting wii game and clothes, he also got some money for his savings. We love having Cael in our family and enjoy his funny sense of humor. He has definatly made the last 5 years entertaining! We love you little Jedi!

King of the Jungle..

Today Cael was the King of the Jungle at Wilde 4 learning. Well he was actually suppose to be on Dec 15, but his mother totally spaced it. (In my defense it was 10 day before Christmas!) Mrs. Jenny said it would be fine to send it the first day back to school from Christmas break. We made this poster with pictures of things he loves to do. We also sent a pillow case full of his favorite toys. He ended up taking his tractor legos, Han Solo figure, track hoe, Batman, and his favorite book "On the Moon" which his teacher read to the class. She also read his all about me paper to the class. It had questions like...
favorite color: Blue
favorite thing to do with dad: sledding
favorite thing to do with mom: putting legos together and cooking
favorite tv show: Phineas and Ferb
favorite Hobbie: play with my legos and act like I'm luke skywalker ( I forgot to write this on the one his teacher read and didn't think nothing about it until I picked him up and the first thing he told me was "My teacher never read that I like to be luke skywalker". I guess he considers it to be a true hobby, sorry bud i didn't know it meant that much to ya.

favorite thing to do at school: play with the costumes
favorite sport: Wrestling
I also wrote a little story about him going to the farm and telling all the guys to "get ta Work!"