Cleaning out Files

My body has left me home from work, sick in bed with a laptop and digital pictures to hang out with.   It hasn't been too bad of  a day minus, the many trips to the restroom.  My parents took the girls and the boys and I have just been hanging out.  It has been nice. 

Eric took G-Man to get a much needed haircut this morning. This is a picture of him earlier this month. His bangs were in his eyes this morning. 

 I must say though, I am a MEAN MEAN HORRIBLE NO GOOD VERY BAD MOM.......not because I let him go several months with out a cut, or a brush most days, but because I laughed so hard when he came in.  Not sure what they stylist was thinking but he gave him more of a bowl cut.  With my advanced degree in haircutting, OK I watched the video when I got my clippers, I trimmed him up a little more, making his bush look more like a boy hair cut rather than a Dorothy Hammel Cut...He is much happier and now has stopped crying and said he will go to school now. 

This is taken after I fixed it!

I am not normally so mean with laughing at my children, but it really was bad and he had every reason to cry and I should of been more loving, but glad he let me kind of fix it up.  I tried to take the roundness out of his bangs. And the fullness off his back.  He is a darling little boy. And so glad he let me cut his hair, but a friend just stopped by and said....LAUGHING...."you got your hair cut!"  hope he doesn't change his minde about going to school and being teased.  Though I assured him that it was more shoking to see his handsome face than anything.  He then said "well after we played he didn't say anything more about my hair, I guess people will just get used to it, like he did."   Yes they will and you do look handsome!

T-Rex, I must say is a much happier boy with out his sisters around, well besides the fact that he is crying right now, but he has just been playing and doing his own thing.  Granted he did take the girls dolls, and bring them to me in bed to babysit, while he drove his train to "mcdonalds" to get me some fries and a coke.  He has also enjoyed pushing around a stroller with out someone taking it from him.  

Thanks Mom and Dad for taking the girls. 

And while my insides have been flushing themselves clean, I have been downloading and organizing all my pictures....

Its hard to believe this was a year ago....my birthday!

And here I am this month.....

And look at little T-Rex....last year

And here he is today:....

Time sure is flying!   Here I am with G-Man last year at this time too...

G-Man Stands Alone

Here in the great state of Utah, they do what is called Reflections...not sure how many other states do them but they didn't do it in Hawaii or Texas.  Anyway its a state wide art contest.  There are all kinds of different categories.  Bee did an amazing floral picture using dried flowers, she got a recognized award and stood among crowds of other young budding artist.  Though I am saying this not just because I am her mother, but her picture really rocked and I think the judges didn't know what they were doing. 

Well Eric took the kids a few weeks back for the awards night at their elementary school, and as I had stated Bee stood in a crowd of many, so it wasn't so obvious that her parents didn't bring a camera to capture the award ceremony night. 

When it came to the 3D art, guess who was the only one in the WHOLE school that submitted a 3D art??  Yeah G-Man....so he walked up to the stage as Eric chased down T-rex,  and when he noticed the silence, G-Man standing alone, and the principal asking if he had gotten a picture, Eric felt as a deer in headlights. Not only did he forget his camera, and his son was standing alone, and there was a large silence over the audience but he was chasing down a two year old.   

So tonight as he took the older three to the ceremony, I made sure he walked out with a camera, because what if G-Man is the only one in the district that did 3D art....can't have another one of those awkward bad parent moments again. 

BEAUTY is snow fallen on a castle.....or something like that was his title.

April Showers bring May Flowers...

At least that is how the saying goes right? I really feel like that is true for my life, though it would have to go more like January and February storms and March and Aprils showers bring forth May Flowers...or something like that.

The last few months have been busy, hectic and a little tumultuous to say the least, with moving several times, several hospital incidents, job insecurity, financial instability, emotional down turns, yeah I'd say it was pretty stormy in my life lately. I know some have had it and have it worse than I do, and I am grateful for all that I have, but it still doesn't make the last few months easy on me.



However during these past few months, where I think I lay hidden in shelter from the storms, not even venturing out much to check email or blog, many wonderful flowers have sprung from my experiences, or rather during my experiences.


And because it is almost two in the morning I won't write much but will share some fun pictures that showcase the flowers of my new season of life....does that make sense?? I am tired so with out further adieu....ok not sure that is a correct phrase either......man I am tired...so my few months in photos!! About time!!
G-Man turned 8! What a major mile stone for him. He was baptized, and we are so proud of the boy he has become. He also started scouting and took second place in his first pinewood derby, and he made his car all by himself. Such a great kid!!!

Two, who I think just really needs a new nickname turned four!! I can't believe she is four years old. We love having her and she has the biggest smile that warms up any room she is in. She also today had a bad accident, milk that had been in the microwave for 2.37 minutes spilled all down the front of her. She has a few blisters and a red streak from chin to bottom of naval but is doing well for the most part, thank HEAVENS!!!



Bee our little Beauty has graduated from Kindergarten!!! It is so hard to believe that she will be going into first grade. Where does the time go?!!!


We moved!!! After living in,what has it been, four places since December, we are finally settled in a cute little bungalow close to the restaurant. It was like Christmas opening all our boxes and such that have been in storage for over a year!

T-Rex despite several hopsital stays and what turns out to be not so great lungs has lived to turn Two on Friday, I find that to just be an amazing blessing and miracle considering how active the little guy is...isn't he just the cutest?!


Eric and his Best Friend Greg are realizing their dream and opening up their own BBQ restaurant in Huntsville, Utah, come out and visit us! Starting tomorrow...umm today they will be open! We are so excited and nervous all at the same time.

Picking My Brain

Picking my brain and getting information about my personal feelings and thoughts can be very painful and as easy as turning a piece of coal into a diamond by squeezing it in my fist.

Life has been crazy and so many things have been floating around in my brain, and begun getting clogged up there....so much so that I haven't even been able to write much, which is usually my mental laxative.

so this entry may be long, it may be short and it may remind you of a terrible stomach ache after eating a seven day old hot dog from the convenient store...but none the less I am sitting here picking my brain, hoping to not make it bleed, like when picking a scab because I think most of my thoughts and brain activity have scabbed over the past little while.

----I totally didn't post and didn't mean to not post, but my little baby, my first born just turned 8!! G-Man is such a wonderful, sweet, caring, active, funny, social guy. He surely has blessed my life, keeps me on my toes and always willing to challenge my ability to parent. The poor kid has moved quite a bit in the last little while, and has fared fairly well and made some great friends. He had a wonderful Lego birthday party with eight of his eight year old friends. He even spent the weekend with his eight year old "twin" cousin (born a few days a part) and they had a blast building Lego projects one after the other.

AND the two of them will be baptized this Saturday...I can't believe my little G-Man is going to get baptized. He is so excited and ready for it. I wish all our family and friends could be there to share this special day with him.

----Maybe I haven't mentioned it but Eric and his best friend Greg are opening up a restaurant in Huntsville, UTAH...they found an awesome BBQ restaurant, with all the fixings that they pretty much can just open and run. They both have wanted to do this since forever and well things just keep falling into that direction. I AM SCARED and EXCITED all rolled up in one.

I think it is going to be a huge stress but will for sure be something that at least Eric really enjoys. And I am always up for party planning and stuff. But am not sure how it is going to work. We are on our last few dollars and well it SCARES me....I have no idea where we are going to live, and how we are going to live. I do know that the Lord seems to keep blessing us, and well I figure as long as we are doing what is right he will continue to bless us...and it just feels so right but yet I just can't see the whole picture....and worry if I am emotionally stable right now to handle the challenge a head of us....I have to be right?

----We need a car so bad....our car right now is wonderful and so glad that we have it, but every time I drive it and see a cop I pray he won't pull us over, besides the fact that it is still registered in Hawaii, I don't think we have our kids legally buckled....they all have a seat belt but one has to sit squeezed in the front and well anyway, its cramped and I know it can't be the safest thing for a family of six. But what can I do, we don't have any money to buy one...Anyone have a cheap reliable family van of sorts?

---I am tired....I am happy...I have hope....and I know things will work out. I just am not sure how well I will fair on the ride right now...

Anyone know of anyone renting in the Ogden area??? We need to find a place to live soon....Argh...sorry about this post you probably are glad I haven't written for awhile.....


Oh ok one last thing today while we were driving in the car, Two after coughing said "Coughing and farting is funny." followed by a cough and toot at the same time.

"Did you toot and cough at the same time?"

"yeah it is funny." followed by her trying to force the combination again.

It just made me laugh...I laughed really hard, I think I am tired, or maybe it was the way she said it...but anyway.......

On the Fourth Day Of Christmas....

So, I am just on day four and I am having a hard time finding something of four that I am grateful for....my first thought was...

On the 4th day of Christmas my true love gave to me...
FOUR hours of sleep!...Yeah not a lot and yes it was a miserable night.

You know one of those nights, you get everyone in bed, you straighten up a bit. Then you check some email, catch up with your DVR and then think I need to get to bed, kind of night. And then the second you log off your computer, turn off the TV the baby starts screaming.

So I think to myself, I will just brush my teeth and he will stop. And he doesn't. So instead of waking up the whole house at 10:45 I decided to go for a walk. After about an hour I decided to come back home, actually ran into some neighbors and talked for a bit, I came back inside with a screaming child.

I did what I could to try to get him to go back to sleep. Then I passed him off to the hubby. Who T-Rex wanted nothing to do with. After a few tosses back and forth he finally left with his dad to watch the Lifetime Movie Network! Things got a little quiet. I snoozed a little. Then the little guy came running in screaming!! Anyway at some point I fell asleep. At some point he fell asleep.

And all said and done, I got four hours asleep. Better than none! (I took T-Rex to the doctor, no ear infections, but a sinus infection, so poor baby.)

And then I thought what kind of Gift is just four hours of sleep.


Then the thought occurred to me:

On the Fourth Day of Christmas my True Love gave to me
Four healthy beautiful babies!

Yes that is it! Four Beautiful Healthy Babes!

I love my kids. I have my moments of frustration, some days more than others. But I am so grateful I have these wonderful little kids.

G-Man: He is so compassionate and sensitive to others feelings. Sad, funny and true story. Today Two went to work with her dad. After school, the three other kids and I were in the elevator.

I looked around and said "Oh my goodness, we are missing one."

G-Man "Missing one..what?...TWO??? Where is she?"

Me: "Oh my goodness, I must have left her at the store."

G-Man with tears in his eyes and true sadness in his voice "Oh Mom we have to go back! Quick."

I was getting all teared up and sad even though I knew where she was...and then I apologized to him for teasing him. I had know idea how upset he would become.

He is also very smart and has developed a keen ability for art.


Bee: oh she is quite the observer. Often she will just sit and stare and watch people. She notices things and on top of it she remembers it. She when she wants to can be very helpful and sweet. And some how she always gets me to take her on my girls night out. She is a fun little buddy for me. She is imaginative and loves to just talk on her phone....to no one.

Two: She is so happy and friendly. It is hard for her not to have a smile on her face. She is three and has developed that ever so contrary personality of typical three year olds, but she sure is fun. We have a great time hanging out during the day. She loves to get away with things by say "but mom me love you!"

Then there is T-Rex, he is so busy and active and so gosh darn cute. He is a climber! I spend most of the day getting him off of counters. He is easy going but has learned the great trick of squatting on the floor when someone tries to pick him up. Though he is slow on his speech, he understands so much. Like if someone in the next room says "let's go swimming," he will show up with swim suit in hand.

So there you have it.

Four Beautiful Healthy Kids! I am so lucky.

Pictures of me and kids??

One of my friends from Austin came into town to help her grandmother in a singing competition. And yesterday she had some free time, and so the kids and I "kidnapped" her all day, taking her around the north shore, passing by BYU and the temple grounds (so beautiful there), we hit the Dole Plantation for some really yummy Dole Whip and then we headed to Teddy's Bigger Burger for yes some of the best gosh darn big burgers. After the older kids got home we hit the beach. Jennifer was so wonderful and took pictures of me and the kids, something that rarely happens, since I am always behind the camera. And after seeing me in the photos I know why I hide. But besides my dislike of seeing me the pictures turned out really cute, if I do say so myself.

Jennifer thanks for taking these and thanks for hanging out with us. It was a lot of fun to get reacquainted after so many years. We made her go back to our house and have dinner and go swimming in the pool, well more like sitting in the hot tub and saving little T-Rex from jumping into the dark cold well not that cold pool.

Just Ask Mom

Tonight during dinner, G-Man was asking me questions like "Were Adam and Eve ever babies?" and then he asked me "Are the scriptures true?"

To which I responded, "I believe so."

Then he asked, "Are you sure they are real?"

"Why don't you pray and ask God?"

"No, I will just believe you because its faster."

School Pics

The kids brought home their school pictures yesterday.

G-man pulled his out. As soon as I saw the envelope I knew what it was. Excited to seem them, I asked him to show them to me. As cute as he looked in the picture, I almost didn't recognize him.

Was it that he didn't have his glasses on? No.

Was it because we recently just cut off all his long hair? No, not totally

....what was it?.....

His smile, yeah that is not his smile. So I asked him: G-Man why didn't you smile?

"I guess I just wasn't happy that day!"

Then I picked up Bee from Hula and dug through her back pack to find her picture envelope. I commented to her as I was pulling them out "You got your pictures today. I can't wait to see how cute you look."

A panic stricken five year old, obviously repeating the sacred words of her teacher, screams out to me "Don't open them, you must keep them in the envelope and never take them out."

"It is really ok, I want to look at them."

"Ms. D said we must never take them out of the envelope."

Oh the trust of the five year old in the words of her beloved teacher. At least I know she listens in class.

Hula Bee!

Eric took the two the girls down town to Waikiki with her Hula Class. They rented a bus so no one had to worry about parking. She enjoyed another night of performing.

Two got to sit down with the gold man (there are men-street performers who paint themselves either gold or silver even one is in all newspapers and when you pay them they do a little performance and pose for a picture.)

While the girls were dancing the night away with their dad, the boys and I took a walk to get some ice cream and G-Man worked on writing a story.

Argggghhhh....

Ok since this is so fun to do, can you find the errors in the teacher's comments?





I was thinking maybe she could have just said, "G-Man when you do your spelling words in sentence please number them." or how about "Great sentences, next time please number them, or if you want to turn it into a paragraph, don't space them individually on lines, making a list of sentences like I asked you to do."



Ok Dude I am just bugged...and man where is her proper punctuation? If you are going to ask a question please put a question mark? Use proper tenses? I don't know, how about following your own criticism in your marks!

Out of the Mouth of Babes

Seems like G-Man has been front page lately but well he is kind of like that.

This morning we were eating breakfast and he was getting his daily reading in. Well I asked him some questions and his answers were as general as "because he is nice." And then I asked him if he even read it. And he says to me "Mom I did, but my brain is so full of knowledge from Texas I just don't have room for all this new information. My memory can't hold anymore information." I wonder if this is something he would say to his teacher??

Then just a few moments ago I said "I better got check on T-Rex he has been asleep for awhile." G-man pipes in "What if he is dead? He could be." I am like thanks! Nice thought. Geez!

Tuesday night he asked me if he could rearrange his room, he gets this gene from me. I told him not tonight. Then he mentioned he had already moved his bed and would like to put it under the window. To which I replied "No you can't put it under the window, one of you could be knocked out of it, and fall to the ground and die." (so maybe the dead idea came from me.) He goes back to his room and then comes running back to me.

"I can't sleep in my room, I am afraid I will jump on my bed, and then jump out the window and die."

"Is your bed by the window?"

"no."

"You should be ok. Just don't jump out the window."

"Okay. But now that you said it, I am afraid.

"Sorry. I love you go to sleep."

Wordless Wednesday: Well not so wordless...

If you can't read it section B says write two telling sentences about your school:

G-man writes : I drive my teacher crazy.

(wonder how often he hears that)

If your are going to grade my son harshly....

You may or may not know that I am a teacher by trade and degree. It has been awhile since I have been in my own classroom, unless you count teaching the 5 year old Sunday School class-which I am surprisingly liking the bunch and thought to myself for a brief moment that I think I might like going back to teach- for a very brief moment that is. I try hard not to complain about teachers because I know it is hard work. I so far have been really happy with the education my children are getting. I am for the most part content with the teachers my two have this year.

BUT I do have a big beef about G-Man's teacher and her grading and comments. I should be saving more of her comments on his homework and assignments but I have gotten so upset with them that I have thrown them in the trash. Maybe I am getting a little too emotional over some minor school work but when a teacher writes in bright red "Did you even study?" after we had spent many long painful hours trying to finish all the homework, oh a whole other post, I get a little frustrated to say the least.

Anyway so today this came home.

Now I understand circling the misspelled words especially when he had already written the words. I am not concerned about that one.

Yes he could have elaborated more on how the boy is nice, but I tell you what sometimes just being a nice friend is enough, isn't it??

But what gets me is her miss use of the word to...she should have written too...and I so wanted to take out my red pen and circle her misspelling of too and send it back to her. But I contained myself and just posted it here on my blog for all you to read.