Happy Birthday Big D!!!

Dallin is 6 today! We've always called him "our little tax break." :-) Almost 2 years ago, he fell while climbing on he bathroom counter and hurt one of his teeth that Drostan ended up having to pull out at his office so he's had a space there ever since. Well, last night, he had a tooth that has been VERY loose and he decided he wanted Daddy to pull it so the Tooth Fairy could come on his birthday. I decided to take a video of it. Talk about a brave little guy! He did great!

The red washcloth is a tip I learned from my Mom. You use that after a tooth is pulled and the child never has to see any blood. Works like a charm! Thanks Mom!!!

Christmas 2008

We had such a nice day. Christmas Eve, Drostan's Mom and her husband Mike came over for dinner. Of course I had to have a blonde moment and as I was buying the last minute things for dinner, I locked my keys in the van, clear across town and Drostan had to come and bail me out so needless to say, we didn't eat until almost 7. We read the Christmas story from the Bible and wore the costumes my mom had made for us last year and then got the kids in bed so Santa could come. We finally fell into bed around 12:45am and got woken up at 7 to go open presents!

We always line up on the stairs, youngest to oldest...

The kids had a lot of fun. Kyle's favorite gift was a huge Dinosaur Lego set...

Dallin got a HUGE stuffed tiger...

...that he had on his back the rest of the day.

And Megan got a dog that barks and rolls over. She was in heaven!

Jaron had so much fun opening the presents...

...and playing with his new blocks.

Drostan got a new trainer for his bike so he can start doing some spinning in the garage during the winter and mom got a bunch of books and some money for some new clothes. 

Last year, we started a tradition of putting some presents for Jesus into some little golden boxes. They were things that we would try to work on during the year and it was fun to see how we did. We made some new commitments for this next year and I hope we do a bit better this time.

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!!!!

Closet doors and little hands don't mix

Megan's hand got smooshed in the closet door when Kyle was trying to keep her out so he could get ready for bed. Poor thing. She could bend it and straighten it just fine after the initial screams so I don't think anything is broken but it sure looks sore. These pictures don't do it justice at all. Seriously, no matter how many times you tell a child not to close doors because someone's hand could get smooshed, they still don't listen. I know he didn't mean to. I just wish kids didn't have to learn through trial and error sometimes.

Late night hair cuts

The older boys and Drostan are a couple weeks overdue for hair cuts and even though it was 9pm, we decided to try to get them done. Dallin went first and then we sent him up to shower. About 20 minutes later, Drostan went up to check on him and he was just barely getting out and getting dressed.

Drostan: "Buddy, that was a long shower."
Dallin: "Yeah, I kind of fell asleep for a while."

Poor thing. :-)

Edit: This morning, I asked him about it and he said he decided to lie down in the shower for a minute and that's when he fell asleep. lol

Jaron's words

I've been meaning to keep track of the words Jaron can say since he's been a little slow in that department so I thought I'd just make a blog post of it. He's 19 months now and has just finally started to mimic us when we try to get him to say something in the past 2 weeks. So, here is our list so far. I'll probably add more as I think of them:

Mom, Dad, Doggie, Dallin, Kyle, Megan, baby, all done, more, num nums, cheese (for pictures), cracker, kuh kuhs (dirty bum), bath, hand, hug, shoes, socks, no, don't, please, Amen, go, nana (banana), bread, up, down, bye bye, ouchie, "drink" (it's a strange throat noise but I know what it means), truck, phone, ball, yogurt, hot, cold, I want, coat...

That's all I can think of for now....

Kyle's piano recital

These things are just so cute. His teacher (our great friend Jocelyn) has about 15 students and at least half of them are beginners. The recitals are so fun and actually, pretty short since all the kids' pieces are pretty short. lol He was so cute tonight, I just had to share for those family members who couldn't make it.

Here he is introducing his piece...

And here he is with his teacher Jocelyn. (lookin' pretty hawt for being 20 wks pregnant with her 4th!)

The decorated tree...

I really need a new camera. This one just doesn't do the tree justice. Oh well. Here is our lovely, rustic tree. The kids had a ball decorating it... oh, that was after it fell over once and got water everywhere. It's now tied up and tacked to the picture hooks on the wall. lol

Adventures in Christmas trees

We've been wanting to start the tradition of cutting down our own Christmas tree for years but one thing or another has come up and we've always just ended up at the tree lot down the street. Well, today, we finally got to go and do it! After basketball games for the boys in the morning and a baptism, we were finally leaving at about 2pm. A little later than we wanted but we were excited to go. We drove for about 2 hours and decided on a spot to start hiking.


We had brought snow boots in case of snow but it's been a pretty dry winter so far. We went up over a little ridge and thought we spotted the perfect tree. Of course it was WAY up high on the mountain and I didn't think there was anyway to get it down but Drostan and the boys wanted to check it out.

You can barely see the guys on the hill under the tree I've pointed out. Yeah, kind of crazy. It ended up being 2 trees together so we kept looking. I put the baby in a hiking back pack and I was trying to help Megan on the steep ups and downs. We spotted a couple more trees and hiked around for about 1.5 hours before finally finding the perfect tree. Of course it was on a VERY steep hill and it was pretty scary getting everyone down. Drostan and the boys slid down first and then he came back up half way to take Megan down since I was still trying to balance the baby and myself and her and I am not as experienced as he is in mountain climbing... oh, and remember, I have SNOW boots on. Not the best idea. This picture doesn't even do it justice but you can see the road below them to the right. Crazy steep!

After another trip up for Drostan to take the baby so I could get down, we finally all made it to even ground. We had brought some soup and hot chocolate and a camp stove so we tried to make a little dinner but it was almost 6 at this point and the sun was down and it was getting COLD! Poor Jaron just didn't understand why his hands were so cold. We ended up with the truck on and Jaron and Megan staying warm in there and the rest of us trying to pack everything up and get down the mountain.

All in all, it really was a fun and memorable trip and we have a beautiful tree to show for it! Drostan ended up cutting off about 2 feet from the bottom and about a foot from the top to get it in our house and be able to put a star on top. I'll have to take another pic when we get it all decorated!

"5" Tag...

5 Things I was doing 10 years ago:

*Dancing on the folk dance team at Weber State
*Preparing to go to the temple (no mission or marriage, just going)
*Dating up a storm and becoming "the last girl quite a few guys dated before they met their wife"
*Having a blast with my roommates and sorority sisters. I loved college!
*working at Coldwell Banker


5 Things I have to do today:

*Drive home from Oregon
*Unpack
*A bit of cleaning
*Go to choir practice
*Get to bed!


5 Snacks I love:

*UMMMM CHOCOLATE!
*Fruit
*Nuts
*Popcorn
*ice-cream


5 Things I would do if I were a Millionaire:

*Pay off my debts
*Help my family
*Secretly leave envelopes with $100 on the windows of random people at the store who look like they need a boost and hide and watch them find it.
*Create savings for my kids' futures
*TRAVEL with my hubby!


5 Places I have lived:

*Ridgewood, NJ
*Sandy, UT
*Ogden, UT
*Powell and Columbus, OH
*Idaho


5 Jobs I have had:

*Accounts receivable at a horrible telemarketing place (creepy boss)
*Baker
*Sales at Taylor Made Beauty Supply
*Receptionist/Listing Coordinator at Coldwell Banker
*Manager at photography studio


5 People I tag:

*Erin
*Kierste
*Marie
*Laurie
*Amy E.

Have fun!

Boys will be boys

Kyle and Dallin LOVE to wrestle with Drostan. I just had to get a video of it. They were having so much fun!

The sweet prayer of a 3 year old

Drostan is starting to feel pretty sick tonight so I was putting the kids to bed alone and after I had put the baby in his crib and tucked Dallin in, I went into Megan's room to tuck her in and I found her on her knees and she was already saying her prayers. This is what she said, totally non- prompted from me.

"Heavenly Father,
Thank you for my family. Thank you for my babies and my doggies and my toys. Please bless my Daddy to feel better. Please bless Nana and her knee to feel better. Bless us to stay in bed and not be scared and no monsters and we get a stuffed animal to sleep with and we won't be scared. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen."

I need some of your ideas!

That's right, I want lots of comments on this one. I know there are some great ideas out there and we could all benefit from them.

I'm struggling with my home right now. I feel like a Maid and I'm spending so much time picking up after everyone that the good deep cleaning is just not happening. There are NOT enough hours in the day. So, help me out, what do you do to motivate your family to pick up after themselves? I'm not perfect at it either, but if I wasn't doing it for all 6 of us, I know I could be better with my own stuff.

Here is what I've done lately: I bought these from Target (blue for the boys) to organize the kids' clothes for the week. It lasted about 2 weeks and they have been empty since. If I could keep up on the laundry, we could fill them on Sat nights like I had planned. I also build these shelves in the laundry/mud room to contain the shoes/backpacks/coats. That is helping... when they use them.
I've had a friend suggest a "toy time out box" where if I find a toy where it's not supposed to be, I put it in the box and then they have to do an extra chore to get it out again. I think I'll also implement a "fine" for certain things. I'll give them each the chance to earn $2 a week allowance but if I find their bedroom lights left on or beds not made or dishes not cleared from the table, then I'll start taking 10 cents from that $2.

So, what are some other ideas? What has worked for you? What have you seen that has worked for others? Help a tired mom out here!!!

:-D

Track star in the making...

Last Saturday, I was going out for a run and Kyle said he wanted to go with me. We did a loop around our neighborhood that is 1/2 mile and I thought he'd want to go in after that. He decided he'd try to keep going. I told him i was going to go far and he said he was ok so we pressed on. I kept giving him options to turn down different streets to walk home but he wanted to go where I went. After a while, he did decide to turn and head home and I finished my run. When I got home, we got in the car and clocked where he went. He ran 1.9 miles! I was so proud of him. He wasn't complaining or lagging behind, he really wanted to keep up with me. I was very impressed and we decided we are going to try to see if he can train to do a 5K with me this Spring.

The next day he must have told me at least 5 times that his thighs were hurting him. I told him that was great! That meant his muscles were growing. He liked that. :-)

Megan Strikes Again

So this is what happens when Mom gets to go to the adult session of Stake Conference and Dad is home with the 4 kids.

In Drostan's defense, he said he was having fun wrestling with the boys when they realized they weren't sure where Megan and Jaron were. Yeah, you can't take your eyes off that girl for a SECOND! :-S

Happy Halloween

The kids had so much fun wearing their costumes this week to school and preschool and to visit Grammy at work and Daddy at work and to our ward Trunk-or-Treat tonight. There was a chili cookoff and Drostan's chili won for "hottest". :-) It was very tasty, Mountain Goat meat and all. Drostan was carrying Jaron around as the older kids were trick or treating to each trunk and after a few cars, he figured out that the other kids were getting things in their buckets so after that, Jaron wouldn't let Drostan leave without him getting something too. How quickly they learn. :-)
So, here are our costumes:

Jaron was a little Ninja

Megan was a princess (I had a lot of fun with her hair)

Dallin was Indiana Jones (along with 2 other kids in his class, one being a girl)

Kyle was Batman

Drostan was Edward/vampire

I was a tiger/Edward's dinner :-) 

Kinda freaky with that red eye, huh?

Jaron's newest thing

 Jaron will be 18 months on Monday and he is just really starting to grow up and do some big kid things. The other day, he was trying to get into the bread box as I was making dinner. It's in a low cupboard, just his height and I was trying to keep him out of it. As I picked him up and set him outside of the kitchen for the 50th time (it seemed) he got really frustrated and started crying and ran off. A second later, I heard his crying a bit muffled and I wondered where he went so I went around the corner and this is what I found...

When the older kids are in trouble and sent to the corner, Megan and Dallin always throw a fit and just wail and cry when they are there. So I guess he's decided that when you cry and are upset, that's where you go! LOL He is so cute!

Catch up post!

Soccer

The boys did soccer again this fall and I was terrible at remembering to take my camera to the games but I did remember at Dallin's last game. He really improved a lot this season and seems to have a knack for it.

With coaches and Dad

He really loved having Dad be his assistant coach

PUMPKIN PATCH

We finally went and picked some pumpkins on Saturday after Dallin's game. It was a lot of fun. I wish I had taken more pictures.

I'm sad this one didn't turn out very well but he's still so cute that I had to post it.

And here is how they turned out. I still haven't carved my big squatty one yet. Any suggestions?

LASIK

And, "Thank you Wheel of Fortune!" Because of my fun little jaunt in L.A., I was able to get Lasik surgery last week! Overall it went really well. I had a little panic attack when I first got on the table and under all of the machines but they were great and calmed me down (and gave me a teddy bear to hold) hehehe It only took about 7 minutes and it was done! I took a nap when I got home and when I woke up, I could see the clock across the room. It's been a great recovery (1 week tomorrow). I am SO thrilled with the results.

Drostan thought that I just HAD to have a picture of me post op. That I would want it down the road to remember. Um, not really. I told him it isn't as cool as his leg picture was :-) but I guess it's funny to see me in my lovely goggles they make you wear until the next day and drugged up on Valium. I was just about to crash and take a nap.

Our trip to the corn maze

Last Thursday, we decided to take the kids to the local corn maze after Drostan got home from work. It was cold and windy but once we got into the corn, it wasn't so bad. Since we would be walking for a few miles, we decided to put both Megan and Jaron in back packs. Thank goodness we have 2.

Here is a pic of the maze. It's amazing what they can do! (no pun intended) lol The kids are still trying to get the names right though. Dallin keeps calling him "Okabama." :-P

Ready to go!

Now which way?

Getting chilly! (sorry for the extreme close up. I took this one while he was still on my back)

We made it through!

The kids had a lot of fun. We would race through different areas and see who could meet up at a certain point first. The boys had a good time trying to keep up with where we were on the map. It was a fun impromptu family night!

Here's a link if you missed it!

My friend just sent me a link of the show if you missed it. I'm going to type up a nice long post about my perspective on the show when I get a second but for now, here it is if you missed it!

UPDATE:
This link should work.

Just a REMINDER!

Watch Wheel of Fortune on Tuesday, October 14th! That's in 2 days!!!! I can't wait to be able to talk about it once everyone has seen it!!!!

My parents got a mission call

About 2 weeks ago, Elder Rasband of the Seventy called my dad to be the 2nd councilor in the temple presidency in the Jordan River Temple! My mom will be the assistant to the Matron. I feel so blessed to have such righteous and faithful parents and I know they will do an amazing job! Lucky for them, they live right next door to the temple right now so they don't have to move. It just is going to force Dad into a bit of an early retirement. :-)

I AM tag

I've been tagged and this one, I haven't seen before. That makes it fun. So, thanks RaNell. :-)

I am: a daughter, a wife, a mother, and one busy lady!
I think: about how I can be better
I know: I am a daughter of a Heavenly Father who loves me
I want: my kids to grow up happy
I dislike: apathetic people
I miss: my Ohio friends
I fear: I'm not doing the best I can raising my kids
I feel: happy with my family
I hear: Drostan snoring on the couch. :-)
I smell: nothing right now... allergies :-(
I crave: ice cream, every night... thanks Dad for that habit.
I cry: very easily!
I search: for answers online a lot
I wonder: if I will EVER be able to lose these last 20 lbs
I regret: not losing the weight from each baby before I got pregnant with the next
I love: my husband. He's a hottie! Have you seen him? :-)
I care: way too much about how other people see me.
I always: stay up way too late
I worry: about finances
I am not: able to say no very easily when people need help
I remember: the feelings I had when Drostan and I met and were dating. I'll never forget it!
I believe: that anything is possible if you just try.
I dance: to Janet Jackson CDs when I clean
I sing: whenever I get the chance
I don’t always: go to bed with a clean kitchen
I argue: my point of view probably too often. I'm kind of strong willed.
I write: very little in a journal. That's why I started blogging!
I win: a lot of arguments with Drostan... just don't tell him.
I lose: most of the time when we play games
I wish: I was a more patient mother. I'm trying.
I listen: to 80s rock whenever I get the chance. I love it!
I don't understand: why some people hold grudges or take offense so easily
I can usually be found: at the computer
I am scared: of what Megan is doing if I can't hear or see her. Little mischief maker! :-)
I need: to get more sleep!
I forget: What it was like to sleep in on the weekends.
I am happy: with my family and my life. I couldn't ask for more!

Now I'd love to tag: Janeal, Jocelyn, Erin, Jamie H., and Aimee

One of the sweetest women I've ever known

Drostan's sweet grandmother Vella Orme passed away yesterday. She was such a fun, generous, kind, selfless, thoughtful, and feisty lady. She accepted me into the family immediately and I truly loved her like my own grandmother. She was so cute with the kids and loved having them around her and watching them. She was a very independent lady and up until only about 3 months ago, she lived alone and took care of herself and her home and yard at the amazing age of 90! We will miss her so much. Go here if you'd like to see her obituary.

We love you Grandma-Great!