I think I need an Advil...

Wow. What a weekend.

Jeff (and Craig) were so nice to drive my brother and sister-in-law's stuff down to their new home 12 hours away. He left me for the weekend. It wasn't a big deal - I've done it before. We would have a nice, quiet weekend watching movies, eating popcorn and attending the German Dinner.

All hell broke loose Friday night. I stayed up late digi-scrapping (the first time for weeks) then I went downstairs to change the laundry and check on the children.

I entered the laundry room: Squish. Squish, Squish, Squish. S*&T.

I had a major leak from the washer. It was now 1:00 in the morning. The very last thing I wanted to do was deal with a flood. So, I put a few towels down, stomped around a bit and went to bed hoping the flood fairies would take care of it.

When I awoke in the morning....the water was still there. (No fairy?) I got out the shop vac and spent the entire morning praying it wasn't as bad as I feared.

Then I noticed the clock: 12:50? Crap. I had to speak at a baptism at 1:00! I was late, frazzled and embarrassed because I was so late.

Dad called because we were riding to the German Dinner together. I asked if he wouldn't mind stopping by because the washer leaked. He was nice enough to come on up...and sure enough, it was as bad as I feared. The entire floor had to come up. It wasn't a "quick" task as I had promised. Now, with the help of the neighbor's fans, it is drying out. This is exactly the home improvement project I was hoping to accomplish this month. (Sarcasm.)

The bright side of Saturday was the German Dinner - the annual dinner honoring our incredible heritage. I always leave the dinner very thankful for the family I was born into, as well as my legacy my Great-Grandparents left us as they moved to America. This year was no different. The food was great, the program great and the company is always great. Sadly, I took no photos of the actual dinner - I was too busy chatting. But I did ask Cousin Brian to take this photo of a couple of cousins (I have over 100).

He got yelled at by his loving wife because he didn't frame us quite right (notice the head room?). After his chastisement, he took another photo, but I was laughing too hard. Apparently, he isn't the artsty type! (HA HA!)

One cool addition to the German Dinner was stopping by Uncle Art's home to view his increidble village in his garage. He has (to my memory) over 100 houses, two trains and a pirate ship! Amazing!
Here are some fellow German's looking with Uncle Art at Uncle Art's photos of his car collection. What a guy - he totally reminds me of my grandpa.
At one point, my camera was missing. I found it and I found a fellow German cousin modeling. He ought to stick with welding...he's better at that.Onto my weekend from you know where...

Sunday morning was nice and peaceful until around 12:00. I was determined to be on time to church today. I had all the children looking charming and put together (if you call white socks with black pants put together..I didn't care. Just get your shoes on for the MILLIONTH time!) I was yelling at Jake to listen and get his shoes. Instead, he starts jumping on my bed with Addy right next to him.

Me: "Jake, get your shoes!"
Jake: Jump, jump, jump....

Repeat..
Repeat...
Me: Yelling and threatening
Jake: ignoring and Jumping.

Then, KA-Boom...

Adalyn fell to the ground. I had my "told ya so" face on and rush around getting ready. Adalyn cried and cried to be held, but I was just too busy. (Stike 1 against me.)

We finally made it to church on time and that's when I realized things weren't quite right. She cried and whimpered and held her arm, "Arm hurts Mommy" throughout all of the meeting.

I had "the feeling". So when I took her to nursery, I asked the ER nurse what she thought. She said that those babies can't fake it and if they say it hurts, you need to believe them. (Take away strike 1 - I listened!)

So, again, I am on my own faced with yet another crisis! I called my Dad, who miraculously was near my house. We went to Urgent Care and found that yes, Adalyn had broken her arm. And - get this - she had strep throat! When it rains, it pours.
(It's hard to see, but the second arm shot has the uneven line near the wrist.)
I find it interesting that both my girls broke their leg/arm three weeks before their 2nd birthday. Both girls were doing something they shouldn't have (and, ok, were unattended) and both have pink cast (a given, I guess.) Do you see a pattern?? Keep a close watch that 23rd month - it's a doosy.

I was happy when Jeff arrived home at 7 pm. It's his turn to deal with the drama.


Luckily, the rest of the month wasn't like this past weekend.
I am teaching Jake piano lessons. Practicing is difficult for him. He can't understand how 15 minutes can fly by in front of a TV, but take an enternity in front of a piano.
Adalyn before the broken arm at the park.
Jake lost his first tooth this week! It was hanging by a thread when I took this photo. He lost it sometime during the day. The bad news was he couldn't remember when and he couldn't remember where. Nor do we have the tooth. We wrote a note to the tooth fairy and she honored it. Juliana was terrified that a fairy was coming in her room. I had to write another note to leave upstairs instructing that NO FAIRY'S were allowed downstairs.

I took the childre to the Draper Temple Open House. Jeff had to bail out at the last moment due to work. I thought I could handle all the children. I also thought it would be a spiritual experience. Wrong on both accounts.

Adalyn lost it when she saw the "HOT TUB in Jesus's House." The entire tour she screamed, HOT TUB over and over. I scanned for an exit, but couldn't find one. I ended up hauling her through with her under my arm like a football. All Jake and Juliana were interested in were the cookies at the end of the tour. I think they asked me where the cookies were as we entered every room. I was exhausted and ready to get out 5 minutes into it. Learn from my mistake - let me take your kids while YOU tour the temple...
And finally, Jake participated in the storytelling competition. He made it through the classroom and grade competition and ended in the school-wide competition. He didn't win but sure thought he ought to...

"Mom? If you were a judge, would you have voted for me?"
"You bet Jake, you are my son - I always vote for you!"
"Good, Well, I would have gotten ONE vote!"

I was sure proud of him!


This is the grade-level competition video. It's about 2 minutes long.

It's About Darn Time...

My avid followers (ok, only TWO - Shout out to Scott and Summer!) have requested that I update this blog. I do so hesitantly because I am still unsure about how the amount of time I dedicate to this blog. I may or I may not quit blogging. I haven't decided. Which probably means I will continue...

January flew by. Zoom. Looks like February is following suit. Here is a list of things I accomplished this month:

1. Finished the children's beach room (pictures to follow)
2. Organized the food storage room. (Thanks to Jeff...I mostly watched.)
3. Was the keynote speaker for Young Women's Winter Camp (Certainly not my choice)
4. Spoke at a baptism. (What I get being married to the Ward Mission Leader)
5. Am speaking next Sunday..WHAT THE?? WHY ME? WHY NOT SOMEONE ELSE??
6. Got permanent makeup eyeliner. (Thank you Jeff!)
7. Packed up Scott and Karalee (Tear. Tear.)
8. Went to Las Vegas and won a couple dollars. (Wahoo!)
9. Finally burned Family Home Video DVD's.'
10. Celebrated Jake's 7th Birthday. (How is he SEVEN?)

Yeah, it's been a crazy, busy month. But I better get used to it because it doesn't look like things are changing any time soon.

We decided to move the kids to the basement because their little closet they were living in was overflowing. They decided on a beach room. We had a blast creating the palm trees and surfboard. Jeff is a little artist! Who knew? He's the artist behind the art. (Profound!) He also created a cute little surfboard mirror, not pictured. As I was putting the finishing touches on the surfboard, Juliana came in and looked around.

"Where is the beach?"

I started to point out the sand, the sun, the sky and the water. She looked at me all disgusted and said, "THAT is not the beach. THAT is the wall!" She's no dummy!


Jeff and I (mostly Jeff) spent a Saturday organizing our food storage. It's awesome. I know where everything is! Thanks Jeff!
We celebrated Jake's 7th birthday. He got breakfast in bed, of course. Remember the new room? Yeah, well, they don't sleep in it. They spent their nights on the floor of the den in sleeping bags. Had I known...

Anyway, back to the birthday party. We went to the Nicklecade in the afternoon. After that, we went to the Mayan restaurant. We had a great time, but I spent the entire day wondering where these seven years went.

Jeff and I escaped to Las Vegas for a couple of days. Well, I escaped, Jeff worked. I shopped, read and slept in until 10 am!! We had a nice retreat. We ate at the Bellagio, my favorite. I tried almost every dessert, although I did make Jeff carry most of them so that people wouldn't think I was a pig!
I tried my hand at a table and I won!! I walked out of there with a little extra cash, but then I felt guilty about it. It's still in my wallet...

Jeff got laser eye surgery this month. He was the first person who actually came close to death after laser eye surgery. Ok, he just thought he was dying. You also need to remember that his drama level is off the charts. He's doing much better.

This is a classic story: One night Addy was fussy. I brought her into my room and laid her on the floor. She literally cried EVERY half an hour. She cried, "Owie, owie, owie" ALL. NIGHT. LONG. I tried to hold her, rock her and give her tylenol. But she wouldn't stop. I assumed it was her ears. But she was fine the next morning. I took off her jammies to give her a bath and out popped an INK PEN! Poor girl had slept with an ink pen stuck between the back of her knee and foot. Everytime she moved, it would jab her. The funny thing is, she can communicate. I would have taken it out, had she said something. And had I thought, "hmm...I bet she has an ink pen stuck in her leg of her jammies." What a terrible mother I am!!

That's January in a nut shell! Here's to another post. Enjoy it; who knows when the next one is! ;)

Christmas Came Early!

What a magical week! We decided to join my parents and brother in Disney World the first week of December.

We surprised our kids and told them of the vacation the morning we left. While we didn't quite get the "Wow - you are the greatest parents in the world" response, it was close. Sort of. Well, we were excited for our magical adventure!

We actually chose to leave Adalyn at home - she still need naps and has a tremendous fear of large, dressed up fictional characters. It was hard to leave her, but we made a good choice. She had more fun with her cousin anyway.

We were so excited to see the children's reactions to Disney World. They loved every minute of the adventure - and they were good sports too. We pretty much spent every waking minute at one of the parks.

Meeting the characters were their favorite thing to do. (If you haven't seen this movie - go. It's hysterical.) Dad had to work every day, but he was able to sneak off on Monday to come to Excot and Hollywood Studios.


Everything about this place is magical - even the $12 churros! Jeff kept looking for someplace to buy one. We finally found a spot on day #4. Jeff spied a child carrying one and criss-crossed the throngs of people to "ask" the child where he purchased one. The child parent's, seeing a full-grown adult racing toward their child, protectively grabbed the child and pointed to the nearest churro stand. Elated, Jeff ran to purchase a churro. I had no idea he loved them so much!
Jake only liked riding with Uncle Daren. This was Thunder Mountain Railroad. Looks like Jake is enjoying himself!
Juliana absolutely loved the Magic Carpet Ride.
Jake was chosen by Captain Jack Sparrow to be a part of his pirate crew. After much training, he passed! I do think, however, that enjoying Pirates of the Carribean is a requirement. Jake doesn't like that ride, so I doubt he joins the crew!
I had never been here during the Christmas season. The castle was breathtaking at night! Add fireworks, enchanting music and the smell of popcorn and you still can't capture the beauty of this castle.
Here is the castle in the daytime. Apparently, for a few thousand dollars, you can rent a room here. Also, they have a little Princess Boutique. For about $400, you can get a "princess make over" complete with Disney Princess Dress and hairdo. Yeah, neither of those were in my price range! But there were sure a lot of little princesses walking around. I was happy with my $12 Snow White dress. I thought she looked like a princess and it wasn't nearly as expensive!
Daren quickly sneaked a kiss from Minnie. Mickey wasn't too happy!Disney World is expensive - flights are expensive - food and hotel are expensive. But I would do it all over again to see the look on Princess Juliana's face when she was able to meet the Princesses for the first time. We had a tragic potty accident minutes before this and she is missing something...but I won't say what!

Her face is priceless.

Look how happy she is!
Showing Belle how well she can spin her dress.
Here we are sporting our cute Disney attire. Now, before you judge Jeff, Donald Duck himself left this cute shirt for Jeff one morning. (Disney characters left little presents every morning for the children. Their plan worked - they didn't ask for ONE thing in the entire park!) How could he NOT wear it?! We were in Disney World!! Truth be told, he fought me tooth and nails. He didn't want to wear it. Every time I saw him in this shirt, I laughed. At one point, he was wearing his backpack like the old 80's style. That bugs me. So I told him, "You look like a dork when you wear your backpack like that."

He turned to me and said, "You think I look like a dork with this backpack? What about THIS SHIRT!!"

What a good sport! Hmm, I haven't seen him wear this shirt since.
He. He. I still think it is funny.
Juliana on her favorite ride: The Magic Carpet Ride.
On MY favorite ride: Splash Mountain

Juliana was simply devastated that she wasn't big enough to go on most rides despite the fact that she is "growing bigger every day!" In fact, she was milla-centimeters short of the required height. One teenage boy was watching her cry after been told she couldn't go on something and he came up to us and said, why don't you stuff her shoes with something? So we did - we stuffed them with fruit snacks. And it worked!! She was tall enough!!

But after she went on Splash Mountain, she said she was done with the "tall"rides!Pluto and Juliana showing off their "ears."



We decided to try Magic Kingdom on Saturday - WRONG day to try that! Saturday was the day they filmed the Christmas parade. Several celebrities as well as THOUSAND of girls were there to perform. The park hit capacity at 10 am. There were so many people there that I got extremely irritated. You couldn't' even walk an inch without waiting. That was the worst day. All other days were short waits and no crowds. Plus, with child swap and fast passes, we never waited more than 20 minutes on any ride.

We had a wonderful time together! We ate plenty of popcorn, ate plenty of Mickey Nuggets, ride plenty of rides and no one got lost!

We had plenty of Disney magic to last us another, oh 5 years!

The Holy War

Yep - this is over also. To avoid inflicting more pain on those who do not bleed red, I will spare you the details. Ok, I'll give a few - you twisted my arm!

Let's just say my team slightly mangled the other team by a substantial amount. It was as glorious to me as it was as painful for those who cheer on those cougars...

We watched the game at my parent's house - they have HDTD AND the MTN (I have neither.) Mom set up the snack table with a half BYU/half Utah table cloth. She wasn't biased at all!

We also partook of the "fourth quarter" sundays. Jake's eyes are bigger than his stomach, that's for sure!It was a great way to end off the college football season! Go UTES!