2016 Snapshot

A couple of weeks ago, we all sat around the couch as I read the entire blog to the kids. We sat there for about 2 hours reading and we had so much fun listening to our memories. The kids are begging me to start up again. So for now I will try to do our family snapshot for 2016.

In General Conference in October 2010 President Uchtdorf gave a talk called, “Of Things That Matter Most”. I need to do better and follow the counsel he gave to us in it. He said, “We would do well to slow down a little, . . . focus on the significant, lift up our eyes, and truly see the things that matter most. . . . Strength comes not from frantic activity but from being settled on a firm foundation of truth and life. It comes from paying attention to the divine things that matter most. . . . Diligently doing things that matter most will lead us to the Savior of the World.”

With 6 kids I sometimes feel like I am running a million miles an hour (but getting nowhere). So I need to sometimes slow down and focus on the things that matter most. A lot of times I get tunnel vision and can only focus on what is right in front of me and what I am trying to get done at the time. These days it is get up, make breakfast, do school, clean up, do dinner, get everyone to bed, clean up, go to sleep and then start all over again tomorrow. I need to slow down and truly see the wonderful things I have been blessed with. One of my blessings is my, healthy, adorable, happy, energetic, crazy, beautiful, fun, weird, loving, goofy, amazing family. 

With that being said, here is us in 2016:

Luke has been learning to read and is doing great at it.

Quinn never stops talking (he only has one setting on his volume – loud).

McKinley is reading better – keep practicing :)

We got chickens last year and they have kept us busy making a chicken coop, frostbite, mice, etc.

Grant loves doing scouts, so far he has earned his 1st and 2nd class.

Jackie HATES math, but she is GOOD at it.

Quinn interrupts school every 98 seconds. Approximately 581 times a day.

Hannah loves to dance whenever she hears music. She has some sweet ballet moves already and dances with her eyes closed when she is really “feeling” it.

Luke won't eat anything if it starts with Dinner.

Jackie likes to cook.

Grant, McKinley, and Jackie are taking piano and are getting better.

McKinley and Jackie have fun at Activity Days.

Luke gets up around 5:30 or 6:00 every day – we try to finish his school before breakfast.

Everyone else gets up around 7:00 or 7:30.

Grant loves chess and he kicks mom's trash every time.

McKinley shares her testimony quite frequently on Fast Sundays.

Bart is the Young Men's President – he is a great example to them.

I am the wolf den leader and I also teach Relief Society once a month.

Bart is still working even though the economy is struggling badly right now – things are slow, but we are thankful for the work.

McKinley and Jackie are working on getting along together.

Hannah steals our hearts with her cute smiles and kisses. Don't take something from her though or you will hear her ear piercing scream.

Hannah calls most everyone “mom”. She calls mom, “mom, mommy and mimi”.  My favorite is "mommy".

Jackie is still and will forever be independent and courageous.

Family scripture study is done at the breakfast table – while everyone's mouths are full and they are somewhat sitting still.

We try to be done with school by lunchtime, but usually go until 1:00 or 2:00 most days (we start around 9:00ish). Sometimes we are lazy and don't finish until 5:00 or 6:00. :(

The kids like to listen to each others read aloud stories even though they have already heard them before. There is nothing like a fun book.

Jackie did my hair while I was doing her school.

Everyone had to get in the picture.

We have cleaning zones, but we need to change them up so we can add Quinn.

The boys room is a challenge to keep clean.

We need to get a bunk bed for the girls so we can kick Hannah out of mom and dad's room.

Hannah falls asleep in weird places.

We take baths/showers once, maybe twice a week (GROSS). One bad habit from homeschooling.

Quinn still likes to rub out ears when he cuddles.

9:00 church is hard when we aren't used to getting everyone up and out the door for school every morning.

We have pajama day at school about 4 out of 5 days a week (at least it starts out that way).

We need to do better at writing.

Hannah is trying to mimic everything we say, it's like having our very own parrot.

Hannah knows most of the animal sounds and loves to be a kitty.

I don't go to bed until 12:00 at the earliest most days and am usually up around 6:00 or 6:30.

Hopefully this shows what we are like in our day-to-day life. President Gordon B. Hinckley said, “It is not so much the major events . . . as the small day-to-day decisions . . . that map the course of our living.” So these are the things that make up our day-to-day in 2016.

For a little bonus, here are some pictures we took last fall:

Quinn was being a pill that night and we only got 1-2 pictures WITHOUT the faces.

Quinn said this was his "fiercest" face.

2011 Snapshot

So I am a little behind on blogging but I am going to make more of an effort. I am about a month and a half behind on things and can't seem to get caught up. I still haven't done a post about our vacation in August. Hopefully one day. There are just a lot of pictures and we did so much that it overwhelms me just to think about how to do a post about it. I will soon though (hopefully).

Anyway, I figured I should at least stay up to date as much as possible, so I will do our 2011 snapshot.

I have to start by saying that one of my favorite quotes from President Hinckley is, "Life is to be Enjoyed, not just Endured." So here are some things that I enjoy (and some that I don't).



Jackie stands on a step stool to eat. She doesn't want a bar stool or a chair. (That is good because we are in the market for some new chairs anyway.)

Luke would stay outside wandering in the backyard or a week if I would let him. (Aspen kisses / attacks and all)

Grant loves to read the scripture stories (I love that he loves them).

Jackie is always singing songs. (Not always the right words, but does that really matter?) Follow the Prophet and Gunny Bag are her favorites.

McKinley's hair is finally long enough to do pigtails since she cut her hair 2 days before Christmas.

I would rather read a book than watch a movie most days. I just need to stay awake longer or maybe I need to read at lunch rather than when the kids are in bed.

Grant loves that he is able to read more. (I love that I taught him how and I love to see hem get the words right and be able to read new words on his own.

I still haven't finished mending Barts work pants that have been waiting for a good 7-8 months for me to get to them.

McKinley likes to "surprise" mom and dad by setting the table for breakfast every morning. We have to pretent to not notice until we sit down, then be way surprised when we see what she has done.

The last 2 weeks I have not seen Jackie in anything other than McKinley's BYU cheerleader dress (aka. Jackie's Cougar dress - she also has to wear it with a pink t-shirt with horses on it. We wash it when she is sleeping or in the tub.) If we go anywhere I force her to wear pants under it.

Most days when she is not wearing the cougar dress, Jackie can be found wearing a skirt - SHE HATES PANTS. She will occasionally wear shorts "short pants".

Luke feeds Aspen everyday - twice a day. He cries if you do it without him - which rarely happend because he comes running when he hears us pouring her food into the cup to take it outside.

Bart has been doing a lot of reading as well, but is about to do nothing but watch basketball for the next few weeks (NCAA tournament).

McKinley loves ballet and is doing well in it.

I STILL yell too much, but I am working on it.

Bart is still in Young Mens.

I am the secretary in Primary. (I still don't know how I lasted 71/2 years in this ward without having a primary calling.

Grant asks about 5, 382 questions a week.

I have cried when I couldn't answer a few of his questions. (Satan's B-Day - It was a really long week and about 33, 682 questions OKAY!!!)

McKinley loves let Luke wrestle her to the ground - which Luke also loves.

Jackie quotes movies like they are going out of style.

Grant, McKinley and Jackie play really well with each other most of the time.

The kids love to play board games and card games. We even play imaginary go fish quite frequently. :)

The kids like to play "Evil Dr. Luke" or "Luke Monster". (They all run screaming while Luke chases them everywhere growling and "tickling" the air.)

When we say our prayers soeone usually prays for another to sit still or stop eating the food during the prayer. Apparently we need to work on closing your eyes during the prayer.

Luke still waves with his hand way above his head - it looks like he is really happy that you are coming - - - or going for that matter.

Well, I better stop for now.

P.S. Sorry for the lack of pictures, I have about 3 memory cards that need to be downloaded to my computer.

Laughter Adds Length to Your Life

Today we went to dinner at the Grill with Bart's family to celebrate aunt Jeana almost becoming the "champion" in her volleyball tournament. We were magically able to squeeze Grandma, Grandpa, uncle Ryan, aunt Jeana, uncle Wayne, baby Kaelyn, and all of us into a corner booth. Ryan was not allowed to sit on the bench and Jackie and Luke were sitting in high chairs next to him blocking the rest of us in.

Jackie was being a great big sister and wanted to help me feed Luke her french fries. While I was handing a french fry to him, she started to stick one in his mouth, he opened up wide to eat it and she pulled it back (DENIED). Apparently she forgot to put some ketchup on it so she dunked and plunged. Luke shaked and bobbed and the fry was inserted into his nose. Right then the waitress came by and asked if we were all doing okay. Grandpa busted out and said, "We're fine, but he's got a bloody nose". The horrified waitress sprinted off to the rescue and came back with a stack of about 20 napkins. Sadly, none of us could gain enough composure to tell her it was just ketchup.

Eating Habits of a Two Year Old

Just a thought - How can a two year old think that every breakfast, lunch and dinner that is put in front of her is yucky and proceed to spit it out - - - yet dog food is considered yummy and is completely refused to be spit out no matter how much coaxing is involved???

No actual picture of the event, just of the culprit.

Slim?? Pickin's

It feels like I haven't updated this thing since Valentines Day!!! I have about 5 other posts started, but I run out of time before I finish them . . . . blah, blah, blah. So now that I am so behind, I will just try to keep up with what we are doing now and then go back and play catch up one post at a time.

Bart has been working like a mad dog trying to get this job done so that we can go on our trip next month and there have been days that the kids only get to see him for about 15 - 30 minutes(maybe). Anyway, it has started to show in everyone's demeanor. WE MISS HIM!!!!

Anyway, last Saturday Bart was going to go to work and we were going to go up the canyon and have a picnic with him just to spend time with him. Then as we were going to bed Friday night he said he wasn't going to go to work and that he wanted to stay home with us(and sleep in of course). So we got up, ate breakfast, then went to work. We weeded and cultivated the garden, picked raspberries, gave Aspen a bath and just hung out with each other working all day long. It was great!!!! Even though we were working all day, it was nice to do it with Dad home!! :)

While we were picking raspberries, I was in this "life is wonderful" mindset as I was sweating like a pig in the heat, and I had to run in and grab my camera. Here are some pictures of our yummy raspberies - - - and our cute raspberry pickers. :)

I went out yesterday with the kids again and picked even more than we got on Saturday, Grant was a BIG helper and stuck with me the whole time. Jackie just filled her bowl and went and sat on the sidewalk and polished them off. McKinley just wanted to ride her bike and run around. So THANK YOU Grant for your help!!!

"MMMMMMMM"

Jackie is the "raspberry thief" because she sneaks out the garage door to go eat all she can pick before she gets caught.

After we were done, we made fresh raspberry milk shakes - even more YUM!!!!! I was going to take a picture of the actual shake, but apparently I was to hungry to do that so you only get the picture of the bucket of raspberries by the blender. :)

Milkaholic

Jackie has a serious addiction to MILK!!! I didn't think it was a problem, but looking back now I have to admit I was just in denial. I mean, who wants to admit your two year old is a milkaholic?? (tear - sniff)

I guess what brought it to my attention was the incident that happened last week. I was in playing with Luke and Jackie asked me for her milk. I told her it was in the fridge so she went and got her cup and came and sat next to me on the living room floor. She took a few sips, then dropped the cup from her mouth and said, "AAAAAAH - thats better!"

Bart tried to tell me to get rid of those blasted sippy cups months ago, but I just didn't want to do it. I can only blame myself.

Needless to say, Jackie will be going to milkaholics anonymous in the coming months where she will undergo a serious demilkification.

Perspective

Starting late Sunday night and early Monday morning a head cold snuck into our house and by Tuesday morning ALL of us had it. We have consumed approximately 6 - 8 large cans of Campbells Chunky Chicken Noodle Soup and about 16 - 20 quarts of Orange Juice. Needless to say it has been a LLLLLOOOOONNNNNGGGGG week.

I kind of feel guilty saying this, but it needs to be said. One of the good things that I liked this week was that the kids were sick and wanted to snuggle more than they wanted to make messes and get into things. It was kind of nice to see them just lay there. Sorry I am a horrible person, but it was a little nice. Mainly it was nice because for a couple of days all I could do was just lay there most of the day too.

But after wiping noses 976 times, being showered by 5, 381 sneezes and hearing 26,782 coughs, it got a little tiresome (not to mention the numerous "reminders" to COVER YOUR MOUTH). I am sorry to say that I did not have very much patience left by yesterday morning. We were actually supposed to go to Provo today to support Tyler (Bart's cousin) going through the temple, but we ended up just sending Bart as our representative. Last night I announced to Bart that we were all going no matter if we were sick or not, we needed to get out of this house so I didn't strangle one of the children. Then this morning I think Bart was having second thoughts about going because he was afraid to leave me alone with the kids again because he might come home to one or two less than what he left me with.

Well seeing Bart struggle with his decision this morning made me think a little and realize that even though I am a little sleep deprived (understatement of the year), the kids are probably feeling the same way I am. In fact they are probably silently pleading their dad, "please don't leave us with this psychotic woman again". Anyway, I was just thinking that when I am up with the kids I need to remember that they are awake and missing out on sleep too. I also need to remember that when one doesn't let me go to bed until 1:30 in the morning and another one makes me get up at 4:00 for the day, it doesn't mean that they are ganging up on me and trying to make me get more gray hairs.

After I had this epiphany I decided that I needed to change ME in order to set the mood for the rest of them. I have to say I am still trying to be patient (even when McKinley washes her hair in the bathroom sink with 1/2 the bottle of shampoo - spilling 1/3 of it on the counter). But this made me think about the kids and their feelings a little. I know this week I have been a little testy when any of them asked me for anything like when Grant asked for the 14th time to type on the computer and when Jackie asked for her 8th cup of milk. Anyway, I decided to take time to play with them. So I gathered up Luke and we went into McKinley and Jackie's room, sat crossed legged on the floor, and had brunch. We ate eggs, hotdogs, hot chocolate, milk (which Luke kept spilling on me - I now know why sippy cups were invented - even though we were just pretending), turkey, grapes, secret ingredient soup and 3 different kinds of pie. It really helped me to remember that they are just kids and that I need to chill myself out and stop adding my temper tantrums to the mix.



I know that having herbal tea isn't going magically make me have more patience, but it helped me to have a better perspective on the things that are important to me - my kiddos and their feelings. Sorry guys!

Cheesy or Brilliant??

We have had a little trouble around our house lately when we say our prayers. Someone is usually yelling that they want to say the prayer ("but I want to , but I want to"), another is saying the prayer but twisting on their stool with their eyes open and arms flying all over the place, and the other is trying to sneak bites of dinner. I have to say that even mom and dad aren't too reverent because usually one of us is playing referee with all the kids.


Well the other day I saw an idea for a family home evening on reverence that I thought would help us with reverence during our prayers. And since our kids are suckers for playing dress up I just knew it would work (at least I hoped it would). Anyway, I made a reverence crown and wrote "King of Me" on one side and "Queen of Me" on the other. This is to show that they have control over themselves and are the only ones who can make themselves be reverent. Then whoever is the most reverent during the prayer gets to wear the crown during that meal.

When I was cutting the crown out of the posterboard, I asked Bart what he thought about it and he said it was kind of cheesy. UUHH!!! What support! :) Well the next morning at breakfast it was decided that I was BRILLIANT!!!! In fact it has helped us so much that sometimes I "forget" to give the crown and they forget too so they are reverent just for being reverent. AAAAHHHHH Nice!!!! Jackie usually only gets it when she is saying the prayer because she is the "but I want to, but I want to" girl. But one day she will get there. This morning we even let Luke wear it. He sure looked Kingly!! :)


I also have to point out that you can be stripped of your title as king or queen by not being reverent while you are wearing the crown, hereby renouncing the thrown to the next reverent subject.


Brilliant - I know!

2010 Snapshot

When I first started this blog, I did it with the intention of keeping a journal for my kids. I consider myself to have a pretty good memory, but there are still a lot of things about my own childhood that I wish I knew. My mom never kept a journal and she passed away when I was 18. There have been more days than I can count since I have become a mom that I wish I could have her here to tell me what it was like when we were little. I would love to know what she did when this or that happened. Most of all I would just love to know her thoughts on many different things.


I started keeping little journals on the computer for my kids a few years ago, with little stories about each of them. Then our computer crashed and I lost it, now I just put it all here and we can all enjoy it and we won't lose it. I am also going to print it off so we can have a hard copy of it too.


While I was at the store the other day I ran into an old family friend and she couldn't believe I had four kids already. Then we were talking about how fun it is to have kids and how it will be gone before I know it. She then said something that I thought was pretty profound. She said, "The days are long, but the years sure fly by". How true that is!!! I hope that some day when I blink that it won't be completely gone. I am hoping that I can look back at this and remember what things were like.


Anyway, I saw this on a blog a few weeks ago and I am totally going to copy their idea. There are a lot of things and events that we remember such as vacations, holidays, etc. But it is the day-to-day things that we seem to forget eaiser so I am going to do a "snapshot" into our day for us to remember the little things. So when my kids turn into teenagers and we are all caught up in all the random activities I can remember what life was like when they still thought I was cool and wanted my attention. So here goes:

When Jackie takes a bath, we usually have to remove all the towels and clothes from the room otherwise they get sucked into the tub with her.


McKinley is 4 years old but she still climbs EVERYTHING! She has started to climb the door frames and hang from the center of the door. We are putting her in a ballet class this week so hopefully we can channel her energy elsewhere.

Grant is learning how to spell things. He can spell McKinley, Foxy, and Grant and he is working on other words as well. He loves to spell things on the computer, type them up, and print them out.


Grant and McKinley are learning how to make their beds and they are doing a great job at it too.


When we eat ice cream cones we have to use a spoon (I know - it's weird!).


This one has been going on for a couple of years, but whenever someone leaves our house, all the kids have to say (in this exact order) "Bye, See ya later, Have Fun, Be Careful", followed with blowing you a kiss.


When Jackie goes to the bathroom she has to strip down to nothing to do it. A week ago Sunday I forced her onto the the toilet at church WITH her dress ON. I won!! :)


Bart looses the remote to the TV about every 30 minutes or so.


When the kids see Bart going toward the TV they start yelling, "I don't want to watch football". He thinks I put them up to it, but he is WRONG! :) The fun thing is that when they want his attention, they tell him they want to watch football just so they can snuggle with him.


Bart is gone three nights a week (Young Mens, Young Mens Basketball, and His Basketball).


I am gone three nights a month (Enrichment, and Groceries twice a month).


We are finally at the point of not knowing how long we have gone WITHOUT having Family Home Evening instead of the other way around.


Our Family Home Evenings are between 5 and 15 minutes long.


I yell way more than I ever wanted to yell at my kids.


I teach Relief Society and I enjoy it more than I ever thought I would.


Bart is the 1st Counselor in the Young Mens Presidency.


We have about a million unfinished projects around the house.


We are outgrowing our house - our bedroom is our storage unit.


Luke just started to play with toys and the kids think it is fun to see him doing something other than just sitting there. He always gets a smile on his face when anyone talks to him.


Aspen sleeps in the garage at night and freezes in the back yard during the day - luckily it has been a relatively warm winter.


McKinley attends pre-school twice a week and is learning how to spell her own name.


Grant is attending Pre-Kindergarten class Monday - Thursday. He loves learning.

Grant loves to draw and is getting pretty good at it too.


We drink 6 gallons of milk in a week - Jackie is probably responsible for 1 1/2 - 2 gallons by herself.


The last few days the bus driver has to sit at our house for a few extra minutes because Grant stands there and yaks with them.


We wake up around 6:30 and 7:00 most days, but there have been 5:00 and 5:30 days lately.


We read stories every night on Grants bed - Scripture stories and another book of choice.


We rarely see the corner of the the bar, sometimes the bar itself.


Jackie has about three different laughs that I adore.



Luke loves to watch the kids play and loves it even more when they talk to him.


We are working on being reverent during our prayers.


McKinley won't give Bart a hug or a kiss in the morning because she thinks he is dirty when he is in his work clothes.


Grant, McKinley and Jackie are very good at saying please and thank you.


Luke likes to wake up in the middle of the night and talk and sing to us.


So there we go, us in 2010. :)

"Frosty the Snowman Kid"

Grant has been after me for about a month to build a snowman, so when it snowed so much last week, we went out and built one. I didn't get a picture of the finished product, but he was pretty cute. I say was because after it snowed, we hit a little warm spell which melted Frosty's face off. Grant cried on the way to church because we didn't have time to fix his face.

Here our some pictures of our venture in the snow: