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December part 2 :)

2012-01-13T14:33:00.003-07:00

December fun!! One of our favorite new traditions is to make and decorate gingerbread houses and trains. I love seeing how creative everyone can be! Word of advice, though. Don't eat the frosting. Bleh bleh bleh.

Apparently our frosting was not up to building standards... an hour later they looked like they'd been through an earthquake. Haha :)

This is what the kids left out for Santa and his reindeer. Popcorn, carrots, goldfish, pistachios, a snickerdoodle cookie, a mug of milk, and a cup of apple juice. Surrounding the plate of goodies were notes from the kids explaining the snacks and asking Santa questions about how reindeer fly, what he does during the summer, and how old he is. :)

Christmas Day. All dressed in their finery for church :) and then back in jammies after church to open presents.

The three older kids got Kindles from my parents. As you can tell, this was a MAJOR excitement factor. Haha!

A few days after Christmas we went down to see the lights at Temple Square. They were absolutely amazing!! My favorite were the blue ones. They made everything pop!!

We hope your Christmas was just as fun! Here's to 2012!!

December craziness part 1. Probably to be continued :)

2011-12-23T10:50:00.006-07:00

The craziness of December - in parts. And probably to be continued. :)

Isabelle turned six at the beginning of December. Wow that went by fast!! She got some crazy leggings, a Belle wig, and a Tangled barbie that sings just enough of the song from the movie to get it stuck in your head for the rest of the day. :D

This gorgeous girl got her Christmas, birthday and graduation presents for the next several years all wrapped into the gift that will just keep giving - braces!! Yay!! She only had four put on top and four on the bottom - the ortho said he wants some teeth to move around first to give a little more room. She looks so grown up and teenagerish with them!!

Wade was part of the "Pay-it-Forward" committee this year at work. It has another, more professional title, but I can't remember it for the life of me. He and some co-workers each took separate groups to help out at Christmas time, and Autoliv gave them the money to help. Like one lady took a battered woman's shelter in Kaysville, one guy helped out with Christmas box house, places like that. Wade had two groups - one group that takes non-perishable food items into people that need food, and the other group is the Frodsham family in Farmington that have been helping homeless people at Christmas time for over 20 years. They set up their backyard with campfires, trees decorated with hats, gloves, socks, and scarves. Last year there was over 700 homeless people that they helped. They feed them soup, give them a coat, let them pick stuff off the trees, and give them a gift. And all of it is donated. It was amazing. The two pictures at the top were 40 pairs of sweats, wrapping paper, boxes, and toys that we donated. The pic on the left bottom is the food, and the pic on the right is their warehouse full of donated items. Toys, clothing, blankets, hats, scarves, etc. I wish we could have been there to hand out items, but we had other engagements. We decided next year we want to spend the year making blankets to hand out, and raise even more money to help out somehow. It was awesome!

These are my new three dancing queens. :) They had their first dance recital and did awesome!!! I was so super proud of them and my new calling in life is that of "crazy dance mom". My new goal in life is to get them into Miss Dede's advanced dance class when they're in highschool. They were so good!!

To be continued I'm sure!!!

Happy Halloween!

2011-11-10T11:03:00.009-07:00

We had a great Halloween this year! The kids carved pumpkins for the first time EVER and had a blast. Wade took them to Black Island Farms on Halloween Day because I had school that day. Then lots of fun trick-or-treating! Hope yours was just as fun!

Stop the day, I wanna get off!

2011-09-21T15:43:00.010-07:00

Oh my lands. It started out with me getting sassed at by the 12 year old daughter, then the 8 year old decided she was still sick from the day before and wasn't going to school. I have literally- LITERALLY, FOLKS- been on the computer ALL DAY LONG doing homework for my EMT class, therefore sadly ignoring the Quote, Unquote sick child, who has been complaining that it's too boring to stay home and be sick cuz there's nothing to do. What, did you think we were going to the movies?

I pick up the other two elementary children at the end of the day only to find out that the 10 year old was apparently stung by a bee, and that the 5 year old, brand new kindergartener has not eaten anything since breakfast because her teacher couldn't find her lunch box, thus forcing her to attend school lunch where all she ate was a piece of cheese because she is so damn picky.

The afternoon ends with a resounding fight again with the 12 year old because I have the audacity to inform her nicely and with much tact that it's probably not best to wear a blue bra and patterened underwear to the temple to do baptisms for the dead. I don't know.... call it personal experience.

Not my personal experience, of course. ;)

Turning 8

2011-07-25T19:14:00.013-07:00

My beautiful Olivia was baptized in February! Can't believe she's already 8!

Disneyland 2011

2011-07-25T11:32:00.017-07:00

Way back in April we made the insane decision to go to Disneyland over Spring Break. I know. Apparently 799,000 of our closest friends from Utah decided to do the same thing. Haha :) We flew there which was honestly, the best decision we made out of the entire trip. Never will I drive. However, we will NOT EVER get a hotel that's farther than a block away. So totally not worth waiting 30-40 minutes for a shuttle with hungry, tired kids.

The culminating moment of this trip was waiting in line with my five year old for 45 minutes to see Princesses. You didn't get your pick of princesses, you get what you get and don't throw a fit. ;) The entire 45 minutes she's saying "I hope we see Belle. I really hope we see Belle. I will be so so so SO happy if we see Belle." I had chatted with the Charming Princes and found out that it was Jasmine, Tiana, and Ariel. Sigh. We saw Princess Tiana, came around the corner, and there, in all her princessliness beauty, was Belle. Oh my lands.... I literally saw the magic of Disneyland through my 5-year old's eyes. :)

To go or not to go, that is the eternal question

2011-01-20T09:09:00.002-07:00

So my 11 year old daughter this morning is complaining of a stomachache and doesn't want to go to school. ALL MORNING she is fighting me about going to school. I give her ibuprofen and say give it til ten thirty... if the medicine hasn't kicked in and you still feel like crap then call me and I will be more than happy to come get you. More fighting and yelling (her, not me). Her sister stayed home yesterday complaining of a sore throat and I should've doped her up and sent her on her way but I was tired of listening to her cry. And yes, she ended up running errands with me and was fine and got an icee at Sam's Club. Ah..... now I see..... So I say to the 11 year old, "ok, you're more than welcome to stay home. However, I am not running any errands today. I'm not taking you to the library or the store or anywhere else cuz today is my stay at home and get things done day. You're more than welcome to lay on the couch and read a book or watch tv. It's your decision."

She got in the car and went to school.

*sigh*

I will never understand this child.

A reflection of 2010...

2011-01-06T09:47:00.003-07:00

Well the year 2010 has come and gone... did anyone else feel that rush of air as it raced by? Geez louise!! Haha This year was great :) Wade went to Germany, I got into great running shape and accomplished a goal of running two half marathons and some other races, we went on a cruise and had a ton of fun, and Wade survived his first year in the Stake Presidency (what are we saying, he was born for this stuff!!). I had a blast in Scarlet Pimpernel and had some really great auditions, the kids started piano lessons, and we got a puppy! Ethan had surgery and Wade trekked Pioneer Trek. We went on a really fun family camping trip and floated down a river, and stayed overnight in Park City which the kids thought was fabulous even though the swimming pool was freezing!! I got a job as a CNA at an assisted living facility close to home and I love it. :) Looking back I love how busy we were and how much time we spent together as a family!

Here we come, 2011!!

Running, puppies, and lost teeth

2010-12-10T15:59:00.015-07:00

Thought I'd take a second and update a little!! SOOOO much has been going on, it's been crazy!!

I ran the Layton half marathon with my running buddy/coach Dave and it was AMAZING!!! I took 15 minutes off my Top of Utah time running it in 2:03!! It was so much fun and I felt totally more trained for this one. This race is a definite keeper. :)

Ethan and Wade went to a Real Soccer game with Ethan's scout troop.

Playing in the leaves.... I love this picture!

Halloween- Izzy is a D.I. princess (cuz we got the dress at the D.I.), Livi is a devil, Ethan is a vampire, and Abby is a drama queen..... I told her she didn't have to dress up for that, she could wear her everyday clothes.... cuz she's a drama queen already.... Hahaha

Livi lost her first tooth only to be followed by the second one two days later. :)

We added to the family..... her name is Chloe and she is seven weeks old in this picture. She's now nine or ten weeks old. She was the runt of the litter and was tiny!! No, I don't know what I was thinking when we bought her.....

Proof that my kids actually CAN shovel the driveway.... no more shoveling for me!!

Isabelle turned five!! I can't believe she's already five....

Some other stuff that's been going on- I was in 'Scarlet Pimpernel' at the playhouse, in the ensemble. It was seriously the funnest cast I've ever performed with and was the best show I've ever been in. Our leads were FABULOUS!! Sorry, I don't have any pics!

I also recently got hired at Country Pines Assisted Living down the street from my house. I'm working as a CNA (yay!!) and I only work one night a week. The Saturday night grave shift!! Yeah, it's a little rough on Sundays trying to stay awake in church, but I figure one night a week I can handle. :) We'll see what happens when another show rolls around I guess!

Blood, sweat, and a few tears

2010-08-30T08:30:00.004-07:00

Well, I did it. I ran the Top of Utah half marathon and survived. Barely.

Let's review the goals I made for myself, shall we?
1- to finish the race without dying
2- to run the entire course without walking
3- D wanted me to run it in under two hours

Now I realize that hindsight is 20/20. But PUHLEEZE!! Those goals were set WAY too high!! ;) lol I think for the next race my goals are going to be 1- put shoes on the right feet 2- don't spill red gatorade on myself whilst running cuz it stains and 3- just be happy that you didn't trip :)

I'm not saying I didn't put my shoes on the wrong feet, mind you. The goals are going to be a little easier to attain next time. Gotta start small.

The race was.... a LOT harder than I thought it was going to be, and totally different from training. I wish someone would have told me this. I had people mention that it was going to be harder, but they should've sat me down and drilled it into my brain. Haha It was SOOOO different!! My neighbor and I drove up to Logan at 4:45 in the morning, arriving at 5:30. It was pitch black. I should've brought a flashlight with me. We recieved our packets (with t-shirts, coupons for stuff and other paraphenelia. you also put any clothes in this bag that you don't want to haul down the canyon while running) and got in line at the rainbow colored porta-potties. Have you ever used a porta-potty in the dark?? It was a first for me! I seriously felt like the stupid thing was tipping over. lol Then we jumped on the school bus to head up the canyon. The bus ride took forever and I kept thinking 'this sure feels like a lot longer than 13.1...' We got to the starting point and it was FREEZING. We couldn't wait for it to start!! Finally the starting pistol sounded and we were off, like slow little turtles, there being 2300 of us... haha

The canyon part of the run was actually not bad. It was super humid, having rained all night, but every once in a while the Lord blessed us with a reaaalllly cold breeze that froze the sweat on my body. The first six miles went by quickly. Going downhill for that long was starting to hurt but I kept pushing. So far I was keeping my 10-minute mile pace which I was happy with. I got to the bottom of the canyon and started seeing people on the sides of the road, lined up to cheer runners on. It was so emotional, I started to get choked up a little. Then off to the side I saw two of my running partners and really good friends and I started to cry! It was so nice to see a familiar face! They started running with me for about 1/4 of a mile and then gave me hugs and sent me on my way, heading back to find my neighbor I had driven up with. That was so cool! The rest of the race from here on was pretty flat, which was nice. My thighs were hating me for all that downhill crap. :)

I ran most of the way til just after mile 11. I had walked a little here and there, mostly to catch a breath and give my legs a rest. Suddenly at 11 my body started shutting down. I couldn't catch my breath, my thighs were literally on fire, I had to pee like you wouldn't believe, I had a pain shooting down my right leg into the arch of my foot, and my knees were hurting so bad I could barely hobble, let alone run. So I walked. Well, attempted to walk. And I cried. Cuz this wasn't how it was supposed to be! I had trained for this! I thought I was ready! Clearly, I had gone into this way too cocky. So I was knocked down a couple of stripes. As I walked and cried the song "Big Girls don't cry" came on, I was listening to the Broadway recording of Jersey Boys, and I thought 'good thing I'm a little girl and I can cry' lol . But I stuffed the tears away, had a good little pep talk with myself and started a slow jog. By this point I was passing mile 12 and I could see the finish line. I remembered seeing a lady with a sign earlier in the run that said "Don't think. Just run" and that became my mantra. I picked up my pace and really started running through the pain. The finish line was a wall of people on both sides, cheering on their loved ones. I saw my dad and mom-in-law, my parents, and then Wade and the kids. I high-fived them all as I ran past and crossed the finish line at 2 hours 18 minutes and 33 seconds. It was a personal record for me. ;) As I did the math in my head I realized that yeah, I was 18 minutes over my goal of two hours. However, I kept a ten-minute pace for the entire race until that life changing mile 11. Had I kept my pace through to the end I would've finished at 2 hours 10 minutes. I was only 8 minutes over!! To me, considering everything I went through, I was THRILLED.

I learned a lot from this race. I learned that it's ok to not keep up with everyone else, even though it's tempting when people pass you. It's kinda fun to pass other people too. haha I learned that A LOT of people run into the bushes (in the canyon, not in people's yards, gross) to answer nature's call cuz they don't want to wait in line at the porta-potty. I learned that I would probably prefer to run with someone next time. It's a little lonely being surrounded by 2300 strangers. And I learned that it's totally ok to walk. Other runners totally don't care and they totally understand. You think that everyone's looking at you, they're not. They're concentrating on putting one foot in front of the other just like you are.

I loved and hated this race at the same time. It was by far the hardest thing I've ever done. But I can't wait to do the next one!! :)

Top of Utah here I run!

2010-08-27T17:59:00.002-07:00

Well tomorrow's the big race. 13.1 miles. The course is down Blacksmith Fork Canyon and into Providence. I'm super excited that it's finally here and just a little nervous! I'm nervous about the unknown, the weather, and the fact that I have to get up three hours before the race even starts. Yeah. Not so much used to that.

I have three goals, two of which seem pretty attainable.
1- finish the race without dying. I'm not so much worried about that.
2- run the entire course without walking. Yeah, that one I already know I'm going to fail on. haha
3- D wants me to run it in under or very close to 2 hours. I think I can do that as long as the miles are marked so I keep my time.

I'm not nervous about the 13, I got that. It's the .1 that scares me. ;)

Summer... it's a wrap!

2010-08-19T11:36:00.005-07:00

Ah!! So many things to blog about so I'll try to sum it up in a few short paragraphs that will actually be quite longish and then you'll spend half your day staring at the computer screen wondering what put you here in the first place until you finally realize that your left leg has fallen asleep and your children have ended up eating poptarts and koolaid for lunch. No... that's not from experience. ;)

Summer has been FABULOUS!! Weird right? Usually I hate summer and can't wait for school to begin again. Not so this year!! I'm so not ready for school! We've had a blast! I don't know if it's cuz I've been way more active and so I'm trying to get the kids off the couch and unglued from the tv, but whatever it is, it's been fun! We swam a lot, got multiple sunburns and great tans, and Ethan even had an almost-almost-drowned story. Every kid's gotta have one, right? I still remember mine... Any rate...

We went to Island Park with Wade's family and camped in the new tent, came home with a thousand mosquito bites each (not kidding, I think Livi had 12 on just her legs), floated the river and came home with an appreciation for NOT packing the coolers at the bottom when it's snack time (I was not smart enough to figure that part out... it's for further reference). We spent the night at Park City and went school clothes shopping for like a hundred hours with 4,000 of our closest friends. We went to multiple shows and learned things from each show- like don't sit on the front row if you have to sneak out during the last song before intermission in order to work the concessions, don't sit on the same front row with a four year old who always has to pee at the most inopportune moments... don't take four gazillion snacks to an outdoor show, nuff said.

Wade participated in Pioneer Trek with the Youth and loved it. Came back and promptly bought new hiking boots. haha Ethan had his surgery on his lip and realized that Yes, IV's suck. (he was a total trooper, I was so so proud of him!!) He also went on two scout hikes after which I had to throw away his socks... bleh... Wade and I both had the honor to speak at different Youth functions- he spoke at the Special Needs Youth Conference and wow... those kids are amazing. You can really see the light of Christ in their eyes. And I spoke and sang at the Stake YW medallion dinner, what a great opportunity to share in those wonderful girls' spirits and attempt not to lead them astray. ;)

Wade and I had the opportunity to clean the temple one night from nine to midnight. It was a total and complete blast. Man that place is spotless!! I guess if I started vacuuming and dusting and wiping down my entire house every night it would look amazing too! We went to countless reunions and shook hands with countless relatives and I started rehearsals for my upcoming show, "Scarlet Pimpernel"!! We even put some veggies in at the Stake Fair and our anaheim peppers (wade's actually, I have nothing to do with them except eat them) took first place! Ethan put in some of his drawings, Abby put in her business card collection (450 and counting!) and I sang for twenty mintues or so, knocking everyone's socks off finishing with 'The Wizard and I' from "Wicked". IT WAS AWESOME!!! I'm running like crazy getting ready for my Top of Utah race in a little over a week. Aack!! I'm not worried though cuz D has been running my legs off - today we ran 12 miles for the second time and this time I actually ran a little faster than Superman. ;)

So that's been our summer! Tons of fun, lots of laughs, and some great memories! Let the school year begin! :)

Watch it...

2010-06-30T12:25:00.004-07:00

Isabelle told me this morning that this is how she's going to deal with a bully:

"I'm going to walk up to him and say 'Look in the sky! There's Santa!' and then I'm going to walk away and LAUGH!!"

:)

Surgery

2010-06-16T08:52:00.002-07:00

Ethan had surgery on Monday and did so well!! He had that pyogenic granuloma on his lip removed by a plastic surgeon this time- last time it was just our GP that did it. It kinda sucked cuz we had to be there at 6:45 in the morning and he didn't get operated on til 8:20. That's hard for a little kid who was told not to eat anything after midnight the night before.... Oh man he was STARVING!! But he handled everything so well- I was super proud of him! He cried a little with the IV, but then so do I... I seriously wondered if I have the stomach for being a nurse cuz I almost passed out when the nurse missed the first time and said they had to try again.... ;P

The surgery itself went really well- he had a hard time in recovery but once I got him dressed and outside he started feeling a little better. He came home, laid on the couch and watched a marathon of Star Wars for the rest of the day. :) By the time I went running that evening he was playing outside like nothing had happened. Kids are amazingly resilient, aren't they?

Wade went on Pioneer trek last week with the stake and had a blast. They got rained on the entire second day but he said he stayed pretty dry, until they walked through a river on the third day. He came home so dirty and wet I made him change in the garage. Hehe

I ran eight miles with D (my partner) last week- it was surprising easy!! We ran 8 in an hour and 20 minutes, so we were going about 10-minute miles! When I run by myself I do about 11-minute miles, but I have a tendency to walk a little more when by my lonesome. I have some friends trying to talk me into the Top of Utah half.... I'm thinking about it. Gotta ask coach. ;)

Run joey, run!

2010-06-07T15:05:00.006-07:00

I've fallen in love with something. Something I never in all my wildest dreams thought I would fall for. Something I mocked other people for. Something that I hate more than anything whilst doing it, but look forward to it every time the next day. Do you want to know what it is??

Eating ice-cream sundaes. Hahaha No, not really. It's RUNNING!!

I know, right?? I'm as shocked as you are!!

I can't even remember how it started- I think it was when I decided I wanted to run the Susan G Komen Race for the Cure 5K this year. We always walk it as a family on Wade's side- his mom and sisters and some of the kids. But this year something made me want to try running it! So I started training a month before. At first I could barely run a half mile.... so sad.... haha Within three weeks I was running 3 miles on my treadmill in like 50 minutes. Then I got strep.... I literally had to take a week off. The day before the race I tried running and couldn't even go a mile and half! I was crushed!! The day of the race I was determined to run the whole thing, no matter if it killed me. I figured there were a lot of people there, I'm sure someone in the crowd would know CPR. ;) I ran the whole 5K in forty minutes, cutting 10 minutes off my time!! I was so pumped and excited!!

That following week I found I had a really hard time running. I talked to a friend that had just run the Ogden half-marathon and he said that it was cuz I didn't have a goal to work towards anymore. Then, being the brillant friend that he is, he invited me to run the Layton half-marathon with him in October... I decided what the heck!!

So now I'm training for a half-marathon!! I have a running partner (the same that started all this torture by inviting me) and he tried to kill me on my first 6-mile run, the first mile and half being straight up a mountain. Lol Most of the time I run by myself, and run with him once a month. I'm up to running 5 or 6 miles a day and I love it!! I seriously can't get enough of it and hate days that I can't run. LOL Oh man.... NEVER thought I'd hear myself say that!! I probably should've stuck with the ice-cream sundaes. ;)

Easter weekend and then some

2010-04-19T11:04:00.015-07:00

This was the Easter egg hunt with Wades' work- Ethan won a bike and Olivia won a dvd!! A lot better than what I remember getting as a kid..... Hahaha

Ethan got stitches after he had a pyogenic granuloma removed from his lip. We just told people he got it from kissing too many girls!!

Easter finery:

Family picture!! This was Ethan's birthday actually. :)

My parents with all the grandkids- the boy on my mom's lap is my sister's son Brock. They live in Idaho Falls (Ammon actually) and we went to visit them over Easter weekend. It was really just cuz they have a giant flatscreen tv and we wanted to watch General Conference and feel like we were really there. :) Hehehe

Killing, I mean Dyeing Easter eggs. Can't have an Easter weekend without killing a few dozen eggs, eh?

Checking out the goods, seeing if there's anything worth stealing later on.

Setting up the new trampoline that my wondrous parents gave us for Christmas!! (this was a couple of days ago actually)

I had to be the first one to try it out. Yeah, I had to pee afterwards.

Two buddies :)

It's all in my head

2010-04-15T18:55:00.008-07:00

I wish you could read the blog that goes on in my head all day long. I have all these ideas I want to blog about and by the time I finally find time to sit and blog about them, they're gone. And I speak so eloquently in my head too. Everything makes sense, is super hilarious, and flows naturally. Yeah, not so much once I start typing. Lol

Things are crazy and busy as ever in the Page household. Wade's new calling (second counselor in the stake presidency for those of you who are just joining us) is keeping him a lot busier and gone a lot more than we thought it would. I'm going to be super-duper-lay-it-all-out-for-you-here: I'm having a hard time with it. I thought it would be so easy to get back into the routine of him being gone again, but I'm not. I really enjoyed those three years of freedom that I had.... probably too much. Haha And even though the kids are older and it should be easier, it's not. It's harder cuz they understand that he's doing what the Lord wants him to, but they don't understand why he can't sit with us anymore in sacrament meeting, let alone come to church with us, and really? he has meetings again?? Yeah... I know the schpiel, the blessings we receive are ten-fold, but sometimes it's just hard. I'm good now. Thanks. :)

Other stuff going on- I'm trying to be a better mom and get the kids more active. I get so frustrated when all they do is fight over who gets to play on the computer and what show they get to watch on tv. I tried teaching piano lessons.... that's a SLOW and frustrating process.... We did really well for a little while but again it's really hard to try and teach/sit by a child while they practice, get homework done, and get dinner on the table all at the same time. The kids did really well though! Livi is going to be my sightreader- she could just sit down and totally fake her way through. Ethan is my 'everything has to be perfect before I start playing a note' child. Abby loves to play, but LOATHES to practice. Lol To each his own, eh?

The kids have been loving this nice weather- they're riding their bikes like crazy and playing outside as much as possible! Even now as I type this it's ten minutes past bedtime and I can't get them to come in. :) I've been loving it too cuz I've started jogging!! I know!! Shocking!! I started last week and could only run about half a mile. Yesterday I did two and a half miles!! I love it! I can't believe how good I feel afterwards and how I love getting away for that 30 minutes or so. I want to run a 5K this summer- hopefully a bunch of them. Lol Any rate- thank goodness for nice weather!

I don't really know what the point of this blog was.... maybe just to get some stuff out of this steel trap I call a brain... :) Thanks for listening.

Famous last words

2010-03-25T13:27:00.006-07:00

Isabelle's newest guilt trip: "Jesus is in my heart, and when you get mad at me you're hurting Jesus's feelings."

Ethan's excuse for not wanting to go to scouts the other day: "I'm paralyzed. I WANT to go, but my body just won't let me."

Isabelle's words of wisdom (notice my little play on words there) to my 86 year-old Catholic grandmother: "You know, that coffee is gonna kill you."

Back in my day....

2010-03-14T14:18:00.005-07:00

I teach the 7-turning 8 year-olds in Primary. It's never a dull Sunday. Haha

A couple of weeks ago I was teaching how Heavenly Father protects us and gave the example of how He protected baby Jesus by sending Joseph an angel to take his family to Egypt. I was supposed to give an example of Heavenly Father protecting me. I shared with the class of the time when I was in highschool, dating a kid that lived literally over the mountain, and my car broke down on the side of the mountain, in the middle of the night, two or three miles from civilization. I explained to them that we didn't have cell phones back then (you should've seen the disbelief on their little faces). I told them that I prayed (I really did! Not making this up!) and that a few minutes later a young woman came driving by that took me to her house so that I could call my dad.

Several hands went up at this point.

Me: "Yes?" calling on one of my favorites (you all have a favorite. don't deny it)
Kid: "I thought you didn't have a cell phone."
M: "I didn't"
K: "But you just said you called your dad. How did you do that without a cell phone??" Other kids voice their agreement.
M: "I used a phone at the girl's house. Don't any of you have phones attached to your walls at your house?" Receiving completely blank stares now, like I'm asking them how many of them have elephants in their back yards. I try again. "Do any of you have.... cordless phones?"......

"OH YEAH!!! We have those!!"

Oh. My. Lands. Yeah. Felt my age that day. Hahaha

Ah do dehclair

2010-03-05T12:25:00.001-07:00

Don't you hate it when you can do the most amazing knock-your-socks-off Southern accent, akin to 'Steel Magnolias', and the only one around to hear it is the four-year old who asks why you're talking so funny?

Cruise, ah how I miss thee

2010-02-27T15:00:00.016-07:00

I thought I better blog some pics real quick about the cruise so I can still make people jealous about how warm and loverly it was.... whilst it's still somewhat cold here.... haha :) Last month we went on a cruise to Grand Cayman Islands and Cozumel with all of Wade's brothers and sisters and their spouses and mom and dad to celebrate Mom and Dad's 50th wedding anniversary!! It was tons of fun and well worth the wait. :) I have to say, a cruise is well worth the money cuz you're waited on 24/7, there's a 24 hour ice-cream and pizza bar, you don't have to worry about transportation, and you stay in the same room the whole time. And they leave the cutest towel animals on your bed at night!!

We went swimming with stingrays in Grand Caymans. I was so mad cuz when we got home we got our water-proof camera developed and had about 30 pictures of stingrays. I don't know why. A little excited, I guess. Haha

This is me saying, "no thanks, I don't really want to hold it." ;) I did touch one, though. They felt like gravel on the top and smooth and slimy on the bottom. The rays were so big and easy going and beautiful to watch in the water. I could have stayed there all day!

Fish we saw whilst snorkeling. No, we didn't touch any. Haha

The next stop (different day) was Cozumel. OH MY LANDS I COULD LIVE THERE. Lol It was so warm and colorful and gorgeous and laid-back and easy going...... when you see pictures of beaches with white sand and gorgeous blue/green water, yeah, those aren't doctored up at all. They are for real!!

Going kayaking and getting ready to snorkel!!

I loved loved loved our cruise!! So much fun and so many other fun things that we did on the boat- we won a Scattergories contest, competed in a bean-bag contest, Wade won a "name that TV theme song" contest, and I tied for first place in a Karaoke contest, but told the judge the other guy could have the prize cuz it was a bottle of champagne, and I'd be happy with a plastic trophy that looked like the ship. :) Our waiters were both from the Philippines, which Wade was thrilled with cuz then he could brush up on his Tagalog. It was so much fun to spend so much time together and nice cuz the day after we got home Wade was asked to be second counselor in the Stake Presidency.... Yeah, we should have moved when we had the chance. Lol

Bedtime.... yawn.....

2010-01-21T22:18:00.003-07:00

Oh my lands I hate bedtime. Actually, hate is too nice of a word. I LOATHE bedtime. If I could hire someone to come and put my kids to bed every night and deal with all the bedtime drama and shenanigans, I would take out a second mortgage on my house right now. I put my kids to bed at 8:30 tonight and they all finally fell asleep at about.... ten. Yeah. You know who the worst one is? Yeah, you all know exactly who it is. Little miss Izzy. hahaha

Over the Christmas break we decided to switch the kids's bedrooms. Abby and Ethan were downstairs together, and Olivia and Isabelle were upstairs together. A & E were getting to the point that they were fighting every single night, every single day, Ab wouldn't sleep in her room anymore, yadda yadda yadda. So we switched Ethan and Olivia, and now Liv is downstairs with Ab, and Eth and Izzy are together. NOW none of them will go to sleep cuz they're all too busy talking like they haven't seen each other in twenty years! Lol So back to Izzy- she has now found a gossiping relief society lady in Ethan. As long as she keeps him talking, she can stay awake. And she has to have the lamp on cuz she gets scared, according to her. Hahaha Poor Eth got the short end of the stick, I'm thinking. :P

So tonight I had them all in bed, settled down and quiet. Long story short, (Too late!!) an hour and some later Iz was still talking Ethan's ear off. I finally went in and turned off the lamp, and turned on the night light. Oh man, all heck broke loose. She starts hollering that she can't see, that the shadows are too dark, yadda yadda yadda. I climb into bed with her and try to make her see reason that it's SOOOO late, Ethan has to go to school tomorrow, etc etc etc. She doesn't care. Lol Now, with Izzy, all you have to do is literally get her to hold still for about two minutes and she's out like a light. But getting her to hold completely still is the trick. I told her that I would start counting quietly (and slowly!!) to see how high I could get before she settled down.
I got to 21 before I realized she was mouthing the words..... started again.
I got to 11 and she started singing... started again...
I got to 14 and she complained that this was taking FOREVER!!!
I got all the way to 60!! And just about started to cry when she opened her eyes and told me that she could mouth the words if she wanted....
I kept going and she actually yawned at 79..... she rolled into her favorite position at 120 and was sound asleep at 134.....

Pick your own punishment day!

2010-01-14T19:41:00.004-07:00

Tonight Ethan got in some trouble (yes, dad. YOUR grandson) for something I'd already warned him about twice, and consequently got computer privileges revoked for tonight and tomorrow (I was ready to sell him to the gypsies. He's lucky I decided to keep him). He proceeded to get a stool from the kitchen, set it in the hallway, and set the timer on the microwave for ten mintues. He then sat down on the stool with an innocent look upon his angelic little face.

"Whatcha doing?" I asked, pretty much already knowing the answer.

He replied, "I thought I would sit in time-out for my punishment instead".....

I told him if he'd like he'd be more than welcome to do both. Aren't I the nicest mom?? ;)

Good morning to you too!

2010-01-12T22:20:00.003-07:00

The other morning Izzy climbed in bed with me at about 6:30 due to a bad dream. We laid (layed? lain? layeth?) there for a while talking quietly and trying to get back to sleep until she piped up with, "Mom.... you look creepy. And you have stinky breath."

Honesty from the pulpit

2010-01-03T20:53:00.003-07:00

I heard the best testimony in sacrament meeting today. It was this seven-year old boy in my primary class and he got up and said, "I love my mom. I love my dad. I love my brother...... *BIG PAUSE*...... AND my sisters....."

Weird dream Grand Central Station

2009-12-24T09:16:00.004-07:00

I have by far the strangest dreams when I'm really really tired. Considering last night was strike for "Christmas Carol" we didn't get to bed til about one this morning.... Hahaha

Ok, so I dreamt that I had to have some surgery, and for some reason I was at South Davis Community Hospital, and they don't do surgeries there. Any rate, so I check in and the lady says, "Do you have someone to come pick you up after?" and I'm like "No, I just thought I'd wait til the anesthsia wore off and then I'd drive myself home." She then gives me the address of where I'll be recovering.... I drive there and it's this furniture store, but they only sell lumpy matresses. And they're in the process of setting up for a wedding in the side room. And everyone there was a member of this weird "New Worm World" religion, and they had to get into the worm pose, which was like being bent over as if you had a really bad stomachache. And supposedly I was to wait there until the EMTs came and picked me up for my surgery. So there I sat, with my Mary Poppins bag on my lap, watching all these people sit in the worm position....

I must've rolled over cuz the dream changed and now I was in my mom and dad's house and I was in my old bedroom and people kept stacking shoes on the window sill. The doorbell rang and it was these two ladies carrying huge trays of little bowls of ice cream that they were giving out to everyone. And my dad sat and talked to them for so long that the ice cream started melting, and all I could think about was all this melted ice cream.... Then I was on the phone with my "Bob" (my counter-part-hubby in "Christmas Carol this year) and my mom talked to him for like 20 minutes and then Abby talked to him for 20 minutes and then I got back on the phone and he was asleep. Haha And at the same time all this was going on I was sorting out DMC floss for cross-stitch, and I couldn't tell the difference between all the colors..... LOL!!

"Beauty and the Beast" pics

2009-12-09T11:20:00.008-07:00

I thought I'd finally share some pics from "Beauty and the Beast"- sorry I've been a little slow on the uptake! This show was so much fun to be in- I made a ton of new friends and am so grateful for my director for casting me! A lot of the people that were cast are some of the "Playhouse elite" meaning they've been doing shows up there forever and are some of the best!! It was so fun to rub shoulders with them and get to know them better. :) And it doesn't hurt to get my name in with theirs, eh? Hahaha :) Enjoy!

The person at the bottom of the stairs is me, in a vase costume. Yes, those are flowers on my head. Haha That costume was so awkward to walk around in! I had to literally walk like Morticia Adams (the Adams family, c'mon people!) and couldn't see my feet AT ALL. On closing night some people who shall remain nameless (yes, my director was one of them) tipped me over to see what would happen. LOL! Yeah, I had to lay there til they picked me back up. ;)

This is me dressed as a napkin- on the far left. We had two fabulous women that played Belle- the one in this pic happened to be Annie, whom I was privileged enough to play Maria with in "Sound of Music". Love that lady!

My friend Kristi- a fellow napkin!

Going on a mob hunt- we never actually killed the Beast, though kudos to us for trying every night for 26 shows.....

Me dressed as a napkin (seriously LOVED that costume- I felt like a Las Vegas dancer!!) with my friend Bree- I think she's a rug, or a table runner.... not totally sure on that one. Hahaha

Gaston attempting to swan dive off the bench whilst singing about decorating with antlers. :) I think I'm looking at Lefou, since he's not in the pic but was on stage.... either that or someone had ice cream.... ;)

This was one of our cast pics- the other Belle, actually! (love ya Jordie!) Funnest show I've ever done!! Really! :)

Izzy....isms

2009-10-14T08:52:00.004-07:00

The other day the kids were discussing what it would be like if we used real wolves in my production of "Beauty and the Beast", instead of the safer version of people dressed up in wolf costumes. Izzy's comment to that was, "That would freak me out. Like REALLY freak me out!"

I picked her up from preschool one day only to notice her crazy hair. I commented on it, knowing full well that I had styled it quite stylishly before school, and asked where her barette was. Her exasperated answer was "that barette was driving me crazy!"

One night she was playing with the Polly Pockets (smaller version of Barbies, just for your gee whiz file) and after getting one dressed commented matter-of-factly to Wade, "These clothes are not modest. They're not going to cover her garments at all." :)

Cleaning alien

2009-10-07T16:24:00.003-07:00

I knew it had been a while since I had cleaned the house when my husband, coming home and finding me vaccuuming asked, 'Who are you and what have you done with my wife?' and then looking deep into one eye as if searching for his lost wife in this alien cleaning body shouted, Last of the Mohican-style, 'You stay alive! No matter what occurs, I WILL find you!!' :P

"Christmas Carol" the third

2009-10-04T18:40:00.003-07:00

We were cast in "Christmas Carol" at the Terrace Plaza Playhouse! I am playing Mrs. Cratchit, Abby is playing Sarah Cratchit, Ethan is playing Tiny Tim, Olivia is playing Kathy Cratchit, and Isabelle is playing the cold girl ("I'm so cold, sir!") and a baby ballerina. :) We're super excited to start rehearsals!!

Beauty and the Beast and some other stuff thrown in

2009-09-22T13:32:00.004-07:00

Isabelle and I were playing Beauty and the Beast the other day. Cuz, ya know, I don't get nearly enough of it every single night!! She of course was Belle and I had to be the Beast. I told her I wanted to be Gaston (cuz he gets to belt in his songs), or Mrs. Potts (English accent, duh!) , or even one of the silly girls (they have the best costumes). She said no, I HAD to be the Beast and I had to be mean at first and then I could be nice later on. We did pretty much all of Act 2- from where the Beast saves Belle in the forest from the wolves (Izzy doesn't like the wolf part at the playhouse. It's too scary, even though she knows all the people in the costumes) all the way to the end. She was hilarious and knew all the lines. After the part where Beast sends Belle away to check on Papa she called to me from the other room, "Ok, now you have to fight with Gaston and then start to die but then I will come cry on you and you have to sing to me". So of course I fought gallantly with Gaston, taking a knife in the back and unfortunately losing Gaston behind the couch, and proceeded to start the dying process. I was in the throes of death when I was interrupted by Belle saying,

"You're doing this wrong. You're supposed to be laying on your stomach with your head turned. You need to be on the floor so I can cry. You're dying on my dress! Get off my dress!" So sorry. I died correctly and then was transformed into a handsome prince. I know. Shocking, really. She then told me we had to dance. So of course, being as excited as I was to have skin and get rid of that horrible back hair I started a jig and did a dance of joy.

"NO! You're doing it wrong! We're supposed to dance pretty and look into each other's eyes! Then you have to sing 'Look into my eyes' and we have to get married!" Sheesh! Alright! I tried to explain that Belle and the Beast don't actually get married cuz that would require more costumes and a few more dance numbers, but she wouldn't budge.

Can we all say, Prima Donna?!? Hahahaha :)

In other news, Wade had a chest CT and they found nothing. His dr decided to start him on some physical therapy to see if that helps. We'll see....

We were fortunate to be able to have one of Wade's mission companions from the Philippines with us for the week. It was so much fun! Wade and Jovel drove all over Salt Lake and Provo rekindling old friendships from the mission field- he came home every night exhausted but thrilled! This morning he told me he's started dreaming and thinking in Tagalog, he's been speaking it so much. Lol :) I love my hubby- he's such a great guy.

I passed my CNA tests!! Yay! Now I'm a Certified Nursing Assistant! I have to get a job to keep my certification, but with everything going on I'll probably have to wait til next year. We'll see. Things keep coming up... Hehehe ;)

I'm having an absolute blast with "BatB"! I don't know how else to put it. It's a fabulous cast, everyone is so fun and friendly, I love my costumes, and I really look forward to going! It's Hell Week right now and I'm already exhausted... three more nights of dress rehearsals and then we open on Friday, running until the week before Thanksgiving. Saturday morning we have auditions for "Christmas Carol" which will open Black Friday and run til the 23rd of December. Here's to living at the playhouse!

Hold on to your butts!! :)

Furst dae of skool!!

2009-08-26T15:22:00.001-07:00

Look at those gorgeous kids! Aren't they great? Love them to death!! :)

I have to tell you a funny story- yesterday I was walking the kids to school and we got stopped by a train. While we were waiting three other neighbor kids caught up with us and walked with us to school. So I had two fifth-graders, three third-graders, a first-grader, and a preschooler with me. As we were walking I could see people driving by in their cars literally counting the kids I had with me! You could see them- '1, 2, 3, 4, 5..., 6....., 7!! Whoa lady!! Talk about a glutton for punishment! And they're all in elementary- that's like one per grade!' Ha! It was hilarious!

A day in the life of Isabelle & did I just?? Nope...

2009-08-12T09:30:00.003-07:00

I was sitting in the front room the other day and Wade was in the kitchen when Isabelle came walking through the kitchen singing a song... with only one not-usually-spoken-in-our-home-except-by-me-when-in-pain word in it. We dubbed it "the dammit song". Hehehe :P

On the way up to rehearsal last night Isabelle asked me if 'Belle' would be there. "Cuz if Belle will be there then I will hug her and she will be my best friend. I love her." Sadly, Belle was busy learning her blocking. ;(

The other day I caught Isabelle and Olivia coming out of the storage room after pilchering (just made that up!) some cookies.
M: "Did you ask if you could have some cookies?"
I: "Yep."
M: "You didn't ask me. You always need to ask mommy if you can have a cookie." (yes, mommies can speak in third person and get away with it)
I: "Nu-uh. We just asked ourselves."

And lastly, when I'm in the truck I sometimes get "checked out". Hahaha I know, most of you are surprised, as am I when it happens, but it HAS been known to happen! (they're probably just checking out the truck, but let me live in my own delusion for a moment, eh?) ANY rate, so yesterday I was driving around in the VAN and I was sitting at a stop-light and a guy to the right of me kept looking over at me. So I glanced backed and smiled. I'm a nice person! I noticed he kept looking at me. I was like "Sheesh man!!" Until I looked over to my left and saw a beautiful blonde in the car next to me. Yeah. HAHAHAHA!!!

Quick update of July! Sorry! It's all you're getting! :)

2009-08-06T15:44:00.022-07:00

Hey all! July flew by! Some quick updates and then you can get on to the pics. I was cast in the ensemble for "Beauty and the Beast" at the playhouse! I'm really really excited cuz I get to be in all the big numbers and that's always my fav thing about a show. :) I'm also the rehearsal accompanist, so I have my work cut out for me. As for Wade's medical issues, he's had an ultrasound, a hida-scan, an endoscopy, and a ct-scan, and according to the dr's there's nothing wrong with him. He's tried about six different medications, all of which have done nothing for him except one made him sicker and one makes him fall asleep. Good times. :P SO, I guess we'll try a colonoscopy next. Any rate- this was our July in a nutshell. Enjoy!

1- Making delicious hot schmoes on the grill. Livi, your hair is on fire.

2- A trip to the zoo and Gateway on Wade's b-day.

3- We took a real vacation with all of Wade's family (bros, sisters, their kids, everyone!) to Bear Lake!! We had so much fun!!

4- On our way home from Bear Lake we stopped at Minnetonka Cave. It was chilly!

5- In the middle of July we moved my sister and her family up to Idaho Falls. :( We made a weekend out of it and visited the zoo there and fed the geese at the Falls. We thought these pics were hilarious cuz in the show I did last summer I was a mama duck and had to sit on a nest full of eggs.... Get it?? My little ducklings!! Hahahaha :)

Fin. :)

Never again

2009-07-16T15:15:00.004-07:00

Never again am I shopping at Walmart with my children. Never. Swear on my grandmother's fudge. And that's tantamount to swearing on the Holy Bible. I know I've made this threat before, but this time it's sticking. Today I bravely trekked to Walmart (who, by the way, is trying to take over the world, one city at a time. Think about it. You know it's true) with all my ducks in a row. We'd been to the dentist, a quick stop at Roberts (why do they NEVER have what I need??), a quick stop somewhere else to get a b-day present for my dad and bro-in-law, and I'd even taken them out to eat because they were being so good. Yeah, they sucked me in with their little innocent faces. I figured we could do Wallyworld in 30 minutes, max. After all, they were fed and everyone had pottied. HAHA!! Yeah. An hour and a half later, we were finally done. And I can't blame it all on the children. My Walmart is chaos right now while they remodel- nothing's ever in the same place. There's a little sign out front that says "only 26 days til your new walmart!". That number hasn't changed for three weeks. In fact, I think it's increasing. You walk back and forth and back and forth and back and forth again trying to find plastic straws, not realizing that you've passed them four times, and they're now in the hardware section next to the milk and sleeping bags. I can't blame my kids on the 4,000 other lost souls who were there with us, wondering where the eggs are now hidden. Which really bothered me- it was a Thursday afternoon. Does no one work anymore? I can, however, blame my children on climbing on the pyramids that they make out of the tp, and stopping to play every single Wii game they have advertised. I can also blame them on writing on the inside of every single door in the frozen food section, 'I was here', and jumping on and off the empty shelves, and bringing 47 things to me "Can we get this?" and then leaving it on some random shelf for some poor schmuck to pick up and wonder when they started storing frozen pizza rolls next to the finger nail polish. I can't blame them for being grumpy cuz I was grumpy, even though I think I walked a full 5K trying to find things. The kicker of the day was when we were on the way home, and Izzy was mad cuz Livi's balloon was in her face, so instead of politely saying, "Olivia, my dear sister, could you please move your lovely blue balloon out of my face? Thank you.", she decided to throw the rest of her chocolate milk from lunch at the balloon. Yes, the milk was open. And of course, I just vaccuumed and clorox wiped the entire van. So that's why now all the kids are banished in front of the tv and I'm holed up in the den on the computer and eating Ben & Jerry's right out the carton. And no, I'm not sharing. :)

Once you get behind, you can't ever catch up...

2009-06-23T07:36:00.003-07:00

Hello all! Yes, we're still alive. :P I need to apologize to the couple of people that actually read our blog- I could say that I've been extremely busy, which is totally true for those of you that know how crazy things have been lately, but in all honesty, I could have more than likely found some time to update. Blogging, to me, is like journal writing. And I SUCK at journal writing. I do really really well when I first make the goal to write in my journal, and I'm solid for about a week. Then it slams to a halt cuz I can always find something more interesting to do, and nine years later I try it again. Do you have any idea how hard it is to catch up after nine years?? Hahaha :) So I sincerely apologize and won't make any promises, but will certainly give it a good effort. :)

Just a quick update, and I'll try and post some pics at a later date- Let's see, I finished my CNA class and did my clinicals. That was so much fun! I think I found my calling in life when I was working with rehab patients. They have such great attitudes and are really trying hard to get better. When I worked with long-term pts who were there until they die, it just made me sad. I promise I won't get on my soap-box about this. :) Anyrate, now I am just waiting to take my state tests and then off to find a really part-time job! I'm heading out for Girl's Camp this week- I've had a ton of fun preparing for this! I have some great YW and awesome fellow leaders; I'm sure going to miss them when I have to just be in Primary again! ( i know, primary is a wonderful calling. But I've been in for so long I now have tenure.)

What else? Wade's been having some medical issues; they thought it was his spleen, and then they found an ulcer, but now they think it's his gallbladder. Poor guy's been in pain for so long, and to be honest, it's starting to worry me a little. He goes in for a hyda-scan this week and hopefully they'll find out that it is his gallbladder and they can get it taken care of. If not, he has to have a CAT scan. Thank goodness for good insurance! :)

The kids are doing good. Not much to report there. They're trying really hard to have a fun summer with a mom that's as busy as I've been lately. If they hear the phrase "i've just gotta get this stuff done for camp" one more time they might start packing their bags and move in with grandma. :) LOL Oh! I did audition for "Beauty and the Beast" up at the playhouse last Saturday! This week are callbacks, of course when I'll be at camp, so I'll be putting some miles on the truck. ;) Wish me luck!

Loves to all! :) Thx for your patience with me!

Race for the Cure

2009-05-20T15:36:00.013-07:00

Way back on the 9th of May Wade and I participated in the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure down in Salt Lake. We've been doing this for a few years now as that Wade's mom Dorothy is a breast cancer survivor of 8 years. The first year we did it there were six of us and this year there was 21! Maybe someday we'll have all 60-some of us. :) Any rate- wanted to share some pics. Enjoy!

They have booths set up to walk around before or after the race and you get all kinds of free stuff. Free stuff is good!

The pink piece of paper on Lauren's back is a way of walking in remembrance of someone- either someone that has passed away or a survivor.

This was at the beginning of the race and literally the last time we saw Wade's parents. Lol (they're the ones turned around facing the camera) They hustled through the race while the rest of us took our sweet time.

Me, Wade's sister Crysty, and her kids Wyatt, Brianna, and Courtney. We picked them up at 6:45 in the morning! What troopers!

In front and behind us. Yes, as far as you can see up the road, that's people. We really felt bad no one came. :P

Out of all the great things I saw, this was the sweetest. :) I'm sure there were lots more stories like this, they just happened to be the people who had to put up with us. Haha

Literally being "corraled" into Gateway. We felt a little like cattle.

Wade and his mom. Wade made his t-shirt, by the way.

The whole gang!

Questions

2009-05-13T18:46:00.002-07:00

Olivia is my question-asker. There's one or two in every family. I'm sure part of it comes with age, but Livi is mine. And it's always the really hard questions, too, like- why do we have trees, why do noses have boogers in them, how come we only have two arms and legs, why does she have to have two sisters, who is Heavenly Father's father, that sort of thing. (the answer is Grandpa God, by the way) Today was nothing new, but always interesting. :)

O: "Mom, wouldn't it be so weird if there were twins that were a boy and girl?"
M: "Livi, there ARE twins that are a boy and a girl."
O: "NO there's not!"
M: "Yes, twins are just born on the same day at the same time from the same mommy. They can both be boys, or girls, or one of each. Isn't that cool?" (thinking I'm doing such a tremendous job of explaining this)
O: (thinks for a sec) "Wouldn't it be weird if Ethan and Isabelle were twins and were both in Sunbeams?"
M: "Yeah, that would be weird."
O: "What would happen if they were like teenagers and they got separated?"
M: "We would probably be really sad."
O: "Yeah. I would sure miss Ethan."

LOL!!

In the doll crib. Again.

2009-05-06T08:41:00.000-07:00

Why did I even buy this kid a bed?

Ethan's baptism

2009-05-06T08:30:00.007-07:00

Abby had her first choir concert last week. The first of many, I'm sure. :) She did such a great job! I was so proud of her! She's been such a trooper- she had to be to school at 7:30 in the morning on choir days and was always so excited to go. Ethan leaned over to me in the middle of the concert and asked if he could do it next year. YES!!! Raising these kids RIGHT!! Hahahaha :)

On Saturday my sweet little boy got baptized! Ack!! Crazy! When do these kids ever slow down in the up of the growing? LOL It was a great day and he looked so handsome. What an awesome kid. :) Thanks Julie for taking some great pics for us!

Olivia just being Olivia. :) Love that kid!

Hold on to your butts

2009-04-27T08:17:00.004-07:00

This morning I was driving the kids to school and as usual we were crossing our busy street and I hollered out "Hold on to your butts!" (yes, I say this quite often when we cross our street. It's from 'Jurassic Park', for those of you that wanted to know). Pretty soon Izzy piped up in the back:

I: "I held on to my butts, mom!"
M: "Your butts?"
I: "Yep! All two of them!"

Later on I was sorting the laundry and she saw the toliet plunger and wanted to play with it.

I: "Can I play with that and pop things?"
M: "Um... no, we don't play with the toliet plunger. That's gross."
I: "Well, I'll just have to get my own at the store and then I can pop things."

'Wicked' was... Wicked!

2009-04-21T08:08:00.006-07:00

Last week I got to go to "Wicked" with Wade! It was so awesome and I was planning on blogging about it the very next day, but had to wait until SOMEONE (who shall remain nameless) downloaded the pictures from his phone onto the computer. Sorry, that's the only camera we had with us so the pics are probably not all that great. Nonetheless, I intend to share with you. :)

Wade surprised me at Christmas with tickets (Aack! How great is that?) that he'd gotten from his cousin Rob (THANKS ROB!!). When we found our seats we were SIXTEEN rows from the stage!! SIXTEEN!! I think the closest I've ever sat to the stage at Capitol Theatre is WAY up in the balcony somewhere. It was incredible! I can't go on enough about how amazing the show was, and if you get me started, you'll be sorry. :P So I'll give you the highlights- Glinda (Galinda- with a 'Ga' haha) was incredible. She had so much energy and was ping-ponging all over the stage. I've made it a goal to be that energetic in the next character I play. I came out with a whole new respect for the song "Popular"- I've played it at a million auditions and heard it sung by countless teenagers and had gotten tired of the song. Watching it actually being performed was amazing. Fiyero (the male lead; handsome prince if you will) was dashing and swanky and everyone fell in love with him immediately. Until he sang. OH MY LANDS!! His tenor notes literally had me melting in my seat. WOW. But the best part was when Elphaba (the 'wicked' witch) walked out onto the stage and the audience went nutz. I got a big lump in my throat and started to cry- I was so excited that I was finally there! The music was incredible, the costumes and special effects were fabulous and the story itself was so touching- I of course was crying at the end. Wade was like 'sheesh, can't take you anywhere without you crying at the end' Hahaha :) All in all, a wonderful, music-filled night that re-inspired me and energized me to keep doing shows. What a great experience! Thanks for a fun night Wader! Love ya!

Escaping bird and exploding dough

2009-04-20T19:18:00.003-07:00

Today was one of those days. Lol I was on the computer this morning and heard the flapping of wings. Not a big surprise, since we have two parakeets. The surprise was that the flapping noise was coming from the hallway. No, I don't keep the birds in the hallway, silly. I walked into the hallway and there on the floor sat my yellow parakeet, Sparkle. Recently she has become our little Houdini. Fortunately she's very tame and I was able to pick her up and get her back home. :)

Later on in the day I was fixing dinner and wanted to make some crescent rolls. No, I do not make them from scratch. Dough scares me and so I totally get them out of the can. I'm ok with this and Wade has learned to live with it. I had unwrapped the thing (can? canister? tube?) and was banging it against the counter to get it to open. Clearly there was too much pressure cuz it exploded and dough went shooting everywhere! Across the kitchen, all over the counter and floor, even in my hair. Sadly, no crescent rolls for dinner. :}

We wrapped up the day by playing outside and having Family Home Evening on the trampoline. I even jumped for about an hour with the kids without peeing my pants! Quite the accomplishment, wouldn't you say?

Easter eggstravaganza

2009-04-15T15:45:00.019-07:00

The age-old process of Family Home Evening Fun involving coloring Easter eggs. Izzy's pretty much done, don't ya think?

The Easter bunny hid egg-shaped gumballs all over the family room. I didn't know kids could get so excited over gum. Lol

This is the annual Easter egg hunt on the Page side, usually held at Wade's sister's house in Paradise, Utah. This is most of the cousins. I think we were missing nine kids.

Izzy getting help from cousin Maicee. :)

Now you can see why we do this at Cathy's. Look at that gorgeous view!

Ethan's hat hair. Nice. :)

Easter Sunday finery and goofing-off apparently. Don't they look fab?

Egg hunt at Great-grandma Rosie's with my sister's little boy Brock. What a beautiful day for an egg hunt!

Salt Lake fun

2009-04-15T15:03:00.007-07:00

The last couple of days of Spring Break Wade took off of work and we went to Salt Lake and played a little. We went to the Clark Planetarium and saw the 3D "Under the Sea" movie, and bought season passes. Now we can head down and see any IMAX movie or Laser Show in the Dome for free (Laser Pink Floyd and U2! I'm so there!)! How awesome is that? We walked around Gateway, rode Trax and played at the Church Museum (my kids seriously love it there!). We went on a tour to Mrs. Cavanaugh's chocolates and got free samples, :) and had lunch one day at the Harmon's in Brickyard Plaza (not really a highlight). We visited with some friends that Wade knew on his mission in the Philippines, the kids made new friends, and we toured just about every bathroom on the Wasatch Front! All in all, it was a fun weekend. Here's a couple of pics to share. :)

Waiting for the trax train. I'm not really sure what Ethan is doing. Lol

Wearing 3D glasses and getting ready for the "Under the Sea" adventure!

My kids on the moon and on Mars (they felt right at home! :P). I didn't know balloons would float on Mars, but I've never actually been there.

Visiting with Roque (pronounced Rocky) and Amalia Lumacad. They lived in the Philippines when Wade was there on his mission and Roque was the branch president. Wade baptized Roque's brother. Roque and Amalia have 13 children, one of which lives Utah, all the rest live in the Philippines. She has three children and is waiting for her husband to obtain his visa so he can move here too! The kids were so cute together- they were total strangers and yet within minutes were running around laughing and playing. What a great family!

Bicycle!

2009-04-12T19:36:00.004-07:00

Sacrament meeting in church with Isabelle is a kicker every week. Today was no different. She and I were quietly looking at a book (I was being quiet. The people sitting in front of us may beg to differ whether or not she was quiet) and it was an abc/first picture dictionary book. I pointed to a picture of a bicycle and said "Bicycle starts with B". Isabelle decided that repeating what I had said was not enough for her and started SINGING in her not quiet enough for sacrament meeting voice, "I want to ride my bicycle, I want to ride my bike.... I want to ride my Bi-CYcle, I want to ride it; BI-cycle, BI-cyle!!" (a song by Queen, yes.) To Tara and Preston who were sitting in front of us, I sincerely apologize. :)

Wild and crazy!

2009-04-03T11:05:00.020-07:00

Oh my lands what a crazy couple of weeks it's been! I thought I'd just update a little all the stuff that's been going on!

Ethan was inducted into Scouts! I became a true mom when I gallantly sewed his patches on his Scout Uniform. Please don't look too closely- the sewing machine got away from me a little. :) Just admire from a far.

On Sunday (the 29th) Ethan turned the big 8!! (where does the time go??) It snowed all day on his birthday and so we blamed it on him cuz it snowed all day the day he was born. Hehe :) His favorite present by far was the Darth Vadar's ship Lego set. Mainly cuz he picked it out at the store. Yes, I had to force myself not to help him put the whole thing together.

Monday morning San Francisco 49er's football player Alex Smith came to the kid's school for an assembly. Lots of excitement and I'm sure nothing got done in any of the classrooms for the whole day. Some of the kids got to ask questions during the assembly and Abby was one of them! She asked him "What's your favorite book?" Haha- of course, only MY kid would ask a question like that! He gave her a t-shirt and she got him to sign it! The great part about it is, I think it'll even fit me! HAHA

Monday night all the kids were in bed (supposedly), I was running on the treadmill, and Wade was upstairs working on something or another. Suddenly I hear kids yelling "MOM! MOM!" over Rascal Flatts blasting in my ears. Apparently instead of being in bed, Abby and Ethan were both in the bathroom pulling out VERY loose teeth!! The kicker was that they were the same exact tooth- just on opposite sides!

Sometime during the week Wade caught this on camera. Yes, that's my three-year-old Isabelle in a doll-bed.

And to top it all off- yesterday in class I learned how to take radial pulses and blood pressures, along with a myriad of other vitals. They even gave me my first stethoscope! I'm sure that means that I can save someone's life now. Or at least look like I can. :)

School

2009-03-23T14:36:00.002-07:00

One of the reasons we started this blog was to journal my experience of going back to school while being a mom, wife, and actress-extraordinaire (ok, mediocre... sheesh. tough crowd. haha). I'm doing a great job of that since I started TWO WEEKS AGO and forgot to mention it! LOL I started school at the DATC and am taking my CNA course so I can eventually slap on Hello Kitty bandaids and actually get paid for it. :P So far, I'm loving it! Wade is being super supportive and taking off work early on my school days so that I can go without having to worry about the kids. At first I was feeling really overwhelmed, especially when they started telling us how quickly the course will go- three months of bookwork, a month of clinicals working in a nursing home, and BAM! You're a CNA! But so far I'm handling it. I'm actually a little ahead of schedule! I was feeling a little down after I took my first test, like 'what in the world did I get myself into' when I needed to score 80% and only got 76%. It really made me wonder if I could handle all this- school, family, church callings, etc. But then I retook the test and got 95% and then scored 100% on my next two tests and 96% on the one after that! I felt much better and excited again. I had to memorize like 300 medical terms and abbreivations in five days- it was easy with kids to quiz me! :)

It's so interesting to see the different people in my class. We range from juniors in highschool (a couple of them even go to school with my nephew) all the way to a couple of ladies that are 10 or so years older than me and all their kids are grown and out of the house. When we were learning some skills the other day (we were learning how to wash our hands correctly. I should make my kids take this class) we went around the group and introduced ourselves and told why we were taking the class. A few of the kids said "I want to do something in the medical field when I grow up". I leaned over to the lady next to me and said "you realize they mean our age, right?" LOL All in all it's a lot of fun. I look forward to doing my homework (my dad is saying 'who are you and what have you done with my daughter?) and can't wait to start my clinicals. I think I eventually want to be an LPN and work at a hospital, but we'll see how things go after I'm done with this stint. I still gotta do my shows, ya know! :P

Dreams...

2009-03-20T08:56:00.004-07:00

Ok for those of you that know me really well know that I have incredibly off-the-wall dreams. For those of you that don't know, I have incredibly off-the-wall intense psychotic what-in-the-world? dreams. Haha :) Last night was no different. I dreamt that my mom and I went to see "Music Man" at the playhouse. (They're doing it for real at the Terrace Plaza Playhouse right now- it's great! Go see it if you can!) Well for some reason my mom brought her refrigerator with her so she could clean it out. Yeah, the great big one that goes in the kitchen. Now i understand wanting to do something while watching something else, I'm totally that way- I can't just sit and watch t.v., I'm always doing something at the same time. But really, cleaning the fridge in the theater? And to make matters worse we were like on the third row. And the fridge is sitting next to me. And it's running cuz everytime my mom opened it I could feel cool air on my arm. So I'm watching the show with this open refrigerator next to me and the absolute worst happens. Jacci (owner of the playhouse, director of "Christmas Carol", good friend- kinda like a mom/grandma that you don't want to ever disappoint) walks up and says so sweetly- "could you please close your fridge cuz the people behind you can't see around it. Thanks so much!" I wanted to die I was so embarrassed. Well the show is still going on and as my friends are coming out on stage they're waving to me and saying "HI!" (a really bad theater no-no) and I'm trying to wave discreetly so I don't get them in trouble. Then the kicker- they start having technical difficulties- either lights or music, I can't remember. So the cast starts milling around on stage and talking to each other and the audience. Next thing I know my mom is out on stage wandering around and checking things out. And I'm like "mom! get off the stage! you can't be out there!" Thank goodness I woke up before I was any more mortified. LOL

Magic words

2009-03-15T11:03:00.002-07:00

Today Isabelle wanted me to open a Ziploc bag of goldfish for her and was asking in a very grumpy do-it-now tone of voice. So I said "Could you ask nicely please?" She changed her tone of voice to sickly-sweet, totally sarcastic (this is my three-year old, mind) and said "can you open my bag of goldfish?" It was nice, but still not what I was looking for, clearly. So I leaned over and said, "what's the magic word?" (looking for please, obviously) to which she replied, "Meeska, Mooska, Mickey Mouse!" :)

Smokin'

2009-03-14T17:15:00.007-07:00

Today we went to a health fair in Layton and our kids had drawn some posters to take to the fair depicting why it's bad to smoke. So this is the conversation I had with Olivia this morning:

O- "I'm so excited for today!"
M- "Why?"
O- "Cuz we get to go to that smoking party!"
M- "Um...what?"
O- "You know, that smoking party. That we drew the 'don't smoke' pictures for..." (as she's rolling her eyes and thinking 'sheesh, mom, get with it already')
M- "OH!! You mean the Health Fair!" Hahaha :)

It cracked me up even more when we got to the actual health fair and they were serving ginormous doughnuts from The Hole and Sunny Delight. My kind of healthy!! :)

Vote of confidence

2009-03-10T10:29:00.003-07:00

This morning's conversation with Izzy:
Iz: "mom, can I comb your hair?"
me: "no, it's already done"
Iz: "well somebody did it weird"

Bookworms

2009-03-08T13:10:00.005-07:00

I'm turning my children into bookworms. I'm so excited! :) On Friday I needed to go to the Weber County Library in Roy to update and renew my library card. I took Livi and Izzy with me and they had a blast! Honestly, it was because of the fish and the legos and the fact that they could play on a computer of their own, unmolested by other siblings, for a full half-hour! It was so funny to watch Izzy cuz they wear headphones so as not to disturb other kids, and she would talk out loud to me about the game while everyone else was being really quiet, it being a library and all. We went to pick up Abby and Ethan from school and then headed to the Syracuse Library to pick up a book I had on hold. I just had Ab and Liv run in for me cuz Izzy was zzzzzing. :) We got talking about the big huge library I went to as a kid- the main Weber County Library in Ogden- and they got all excited and were begging to go. Haha I hadn't been there in a dinosaur's age, but the place hadn't changed a bit! Aside from all the technology, of course. :P Back in the day when we actually had to look up the book in the card catalog to see if they had it? And then got a stamp on our card saying when the book was due back? Can you believe we even survived??

I've never seen kids so excited to go to a library- they couldn't wait to play on the computers, and play with the dollhouse, and do a puppet show. They all groaned when I said "only four books each, cuz you all have a million from the davis county library" and were so excited when we got "PeeWee's Playhouse" on DVD. Yes dad, I'm subjecting my children to the same noisy kid's show I grew up watching! Oh lands, now I know why my parents would never sit down on Saturday morning and watch PeeWee with us. Haha :)

All in all, it was a great day- we had a fun time together, we got a lot of fun books and I was inundated with memories from going to the library as a kid with my mom (it even smelled the same!) and sitting and looking at books for what seemed like hours while she did research for something or other. We even made it all the way to the car and were buckled up ready to go before Someone said he had to go to the bathroom (he shall remain nameless to protect the innocent). Why do they ALWAYS wait until we're buckled up and ready to go?

Bonding time

2009-03-05T14:16:00.010-07:00

I've figured out how to get out of cooking dinner. Just offer to sit in the lobby and office of the insta-care for two hours with the child that's been stabbed with a pencil. You heard me. Weapon of mass destruction.

So last night was insane! Ethan was getting ready to do his homework and he and Wade were playing a little rough and I still don't know how it happened, but Ethan got stabbed by a pencil. Yeah. It went in right above his collar-bone and then broke off, leaving the lead and a little above it in his skin. Wade and I hauled him into the bathroom and I put some pressure on the bottom of it and was able to pull it out. He wasn't bleeding too bad, but we slapped a Spider-Man bandaid on it and Wade stayed home with the girls while I ran Ethan to the Insta-care in Roy. Cuz of course all of Layton was shut down with a power outage. :} We sat in the lobby for 45 freaking minutes waiting to be seen. They only had ONE doctor on call. How retarded is that? In the winter? After five? Yeah. So stupid. We finally got called back and then sat in an exam room for another thirty minutes. Good lands, I'm glad we put a bandaid on it! So he doesn't bleed to death! Luckily I had prepared and brought him some books to read and a notebook to draw in. It was completely retarded. The doctor finally came in and looked at the wound and after determining that he had feeling in both arms she decided to just clean it out really good and super-glue it back together. Sound familiar? Remember me doing this about a year and some ago when Izzy cut her head open and they glued it back together? Hahaha yeah, gotta invest in some of that glue. :) Any rate, he had a great time- they loaded him up with suckers and a toy and lots of praise for being such a wonderful patient. And he really was. We had some good bonding time (get it? bonding time? cuz they used glue? LOL) and I got to see that side of Ethan that I love. The funniest part was when the doctor accidentally glued her glove to his shoulder. HAHA!!

Things are about to get a little busy around here...

2009-03-01T14:45:00.002-07:00

You know it's never going to be good when you're sitting in primary (I teach the 7-8 year olds) and the second counselor in the bishopric asks to meet with you for a few minutes during Sharing Time and he's wearing a bathrobe over his suit. He was playing King Benjamin in another primary class. :) And you know that Young Women's was just re-organized and you're frantically racing through the callings that are still open. LOL Today I was asked to be the Young Women's Camp Director for our ward! I'm SO EXCITED!! I haven't been in YW since I was pregnant with Livi, and she just turned six! I have to admit, I've never been the camp director- served as an assistant before, but never in charge! It's funny cuz for months I've been telling Wade I've felt like I was going to get put into YW, I just didn't know when or how. This'll be fun though. My mom has been in YW roughly her whole life and my sister served as camp director (or maybe an assistant) last year and I can't wait to pick their brains. The only thing I'm worried about is that the week we go to camp falls on the same week as my last week in school. Hopefully I can take my final early and be done before we head up. We'll figure it out. I'm still just so excited! Wish me luck! :)

It's a Loser thing

2009-02-25T09:44:00.007-07:00

We all have our favorite shows that we're endeared to, right? Ones that we can't live without, that we have to record (yes, some of us still have and use VCRs) if we're going to be gone, that we cry about and laugh about and heaven forbid anyone get us talking about? Well, mine is "Biggest Loser".

Ok, I need to vent about last night's show for a second. I just need to talk it out. Lol I've been watching this show since the very very beginning and every single season I'm filled with awe and inspiration to watch these total strangers change their lives. I feel as if I know them by the end of the show. I usually cry in every episode, always in the first, and always in the last. I'm a dork, I know. I've only had one season that I didn't like and that was last season's, and it was ruined for me by Vicky, Ed and Heba, the biggest game players the Loser house has ever seen. ANY rate... (I have the tendancy to ramble. Sorry. You'll get used to it. Either it will become endearing or annoying.) so last night was a love/hate show. I hated hated hated that the teams got switched around. I bawled (yes, literally was bawling. Ask Wade. He didn't know what to do with me Lol) when Bob was consoling and comforting his lost team members. I've never in all my years of watching this show seen Bob so lost like that. And yes, I understand that things need to get shaken up (is shaken even a word? maybe it's shook) now and then to get everyone out of their comfort zones, kinda like a bishop suddenly deciding to reorganize all his auxilaries, but last night was a killer. But then during the 24-hour challenge on the bikes- when Sione pulled both exhausted teams together and said "Let's DO this thing!" (I may have ad-libbed a little) I knew that things had been done for the right reasons. Wade pointed out that it was a team-building challenge. And it totally was. I can't wait to see what happens tonight at the weigh-in and see how much shaking things up has affected them.

Thanks for listening. :) You can go back to your lives now.

So so sick...

2009-02-22T18:42:00.003-07:00

Oh what a weekend this has been. Three-fourths of my children are sick. And this isn't "oh my tummy hurts and I don't want to go to church" sick. This has been 102 degree fevers, laying on the couch for two days doped up on Motrin and cough syrup sick. My poor kids have been living on popsicles and Gatorade for the past few days. It all started with Ethan on Thursday night/Friday morning and it's been so interesting literally watching it cycle from kid to kid. I've lost track of the number of movies we've watched. We even watched the original Hayley Mills "Parent Trap" today. What a great show! Either I'm really tired or really sentimental cuz when the twins both told the dad they found each other and he was so touched, I started to cry. Hahaha Yeah, I think I need some sleep. :) The funniest thing about all this sickness is that Isabelle (the three-year-old) is healthy as a horse and totally making everyone crazy running around and wanting someone to play with. Lol

Bring lots of casseroles. :)

Sound of Music

2009-02-20T11:21:00.017-07:00

A year ago, this same weekend, we opened "Sound of Music" at the Terrace Plaza Playhouse. This show was a complete blast and I just wanted to say Happy Anniversary to all my "SoM" peeps! Love you guys! Enjoy the pics!

Me as Maria. This was honestly the hardest role I'd ever played. It was my dream role!

The nuns rocked the house and could sing like you wouldn't believe.

Meeting the kids for the first time. :) Aren't they adorable? The Captain was played by Russ Murdock, and this was his first show! He was great! And yet, a little scary... Hehehe

Attempting to fake-play the guitar, remember the words to "Do-Re-Mi", not fall off the couch, not bang anyone in the head with the guitar, and sit modestly so no one on the front row saw more than they came for. :P

I'm really praying to help remember all the words in the prayer...

This was one of my favorite scenes, being "My Fav Things", ironically enough, cuz we got to jump on the bed! Thanks for the brakes, Brent!

In "Lonely Goatherd" the kids worked all the puppets- they were awesome!

Kudos to Annie Ferrin (in the blue snazzy dress in the front, dancing with El Capitan)- she played the other Maria and she was phenomenal- Love you Annie! Thanks for putting up with me!

Russ was hilarious- he'd either eat BBQ chips right before this scene, or put a mint in. Hahaha Thanks Russ. :) And the blushing bride... Those shoes were too big and I felt like a Clydesdale clomping around on stage.

Me with Jane and Aaron- two fantastic actors! I love them both a ton and literally bawled the last night realizing it was my last night to sing with Janey. Oh lands, knock your socks off, that girl! And singing "Cuckoo" with the kids.

So hard saying goodbye- I cried every night when the nuns started to sing "Climb Every Mountain". It was a great show!!

Valentine's Day fun

2009-02-17T11:14:00.014-07:00

We had a fun Valentine's Day! The kids got some great big stuffed animals:

(didn't you always want one of those as a kid?)

While Abby and I went to see "Beauty and the Beast" at Woods Cross Highschool with some friends, Wade and the kids took advantage of the newly fallen snow!

Watching kids watch the sunrise

2009-02-13T20:37:00.005-07:00

Well... I was trying to come up with something exciting to be my first post and all, but I didn't break a toe or anything - so this will have to do. This morning as I was fixing breakfast, I mentioned to the kids that the sun was just about ready to rise over the mountain. They all ran to the front window to watch this amazing event. I know - it's something that happens everyday, but watching their fascination with this is something only kids could cherish so much!

Valentines... to fast and pray or not?

2009-02-13T09:01:00.007-07:00

I had to laugh at my kids while they were making valentines for the kids in their classes. They would look at the child's name, go over each separate valentine to see which message was best, and appropriate, taking the friendship into consideration. Don't want to give another elementary student of the opposite sex the wrong idea, or anything. You want them to know that you can be friends, but yes, you still have cooties. And then I remembered doing the same exact thing when I was in elementary! Except back then we would put our valentines in little envelopes and put in candy hearts with the messages on them. I remember specifically putting ones in David Hadley's envelope that said 'I love you' and 'hug me' and 'UR the best'. I even remember one year being so bold as to put one in that said 'kiss me'. Alas, he was a boy, and never even probably read them. So here's to unrequited elementary-school-crushes! Cheers! And Happy Valentines!

It's the little breaks

2009-02-11T20:45:00.014-07:00

So yes, my toe is broken. Monday morning I was hurrying through the kitchen and smacked my toe against a chair leg. Usually I can walk this off in a few minutes (yes, it happens quite often. I actually can't go throughout a day without smacking toes or fingers or something...) but this time there were tears and a few muttered phrases which shall not be repeated, and I found that walking on it or moving the pinky toe made me flinch in pain. And of course, it's the pinky toe. I was tough, of course, cuz that's how I was raised, and yet the pain wouldn't go away. By Tuesday it was a lovely assortment of colors- black, blue, green, purple, and so swollen that I was doing the "Quasimodo-walk" (walk this way.... sorry, only funny to me and my dad). Today I decided to have it looked at cuz it still wasn't feeling better. Long story short (too late), the large bone in my pinky toe is broken. Guess what they do for broken toes? Pretty much nothin. Haha

They did give me some pretty purple tape to "buddy-tape" it. He almost gave me baby blue. Ick. I said "after the day I've been through I think I deserve the color I want." Haha I'm such a stink. Notice how cute my other toes are, by the way. :)

He then gave me a cute little boot to wear (out in public!!) to help my poor little toes not arch so much when walking. Yeah. Today. In the snow. And slush. That's not helping my poor little toes stay dry! I can't believe how sexy it is and how great it'll look when I go dancing. :P

Good times. :)

In the eyes of a child

2009-02-10T08:06:00.006-07:00

Last night we watched To This End Was I Born for Family Home Evening, which is a story about the last days of Jesus Christ's life. It showed from the Last Supper, to the Garden in Gethsemane, to His crucifixion and resurrection. During the parts where the Roman soldiers were placing the crown of thorns on His head, when they whipped Him, and placing Him on the cross, my sweet little 3-year old Izzy kept saying, "How could they DO that to Him?" We didn't have an answer.

Abby and the Bee

2009-02-09T16:18:00.004-07:00

Today was Abby's spelling bee at her school. We studied all weekend and she did great! She made it to the fourth round- we were so proud of her! I was very impressed by how well the kids could spell. I think I'm going to start going to spelling bees... it was really exciting!

First blog :)

2009-02-09T16:10:00.004-07:00

Hello one and all! Yes, we decided to jump the band wagon and start a blog! Hopefully this blog will make you laugh, put a smile on your face, and help keep you updated with our lives. I (Lindy) will mostly be blogging but Wade (my sweet hubby) will be adding his two cents now and then. :) Enjoy and feel free to drop us a line!