Summer Fun

Check out our new swimming pool!!! Doesn't it look fun? In this pic it has been filling up for about 7 hours!! Not looking forward to the water bill!@!

I Love Having an 8 yr Old!!

This is why!! She loves taking care of the baby and the baby loves her!!

Eat Dirt !!

That's what Asher decided to do yesterday! He's never attempted this before and by looking at his reaction, I don't think he'll do it again. He didn't really care for the taste! While I'm talking about crazy things that Asher is doing, I have to mention his recent attempt to taste a jelly bean through his nose!! A couple of months ago I was helping a friend at her home and he was sitting on the couch watching a movie and out of the blue he started screaming his head off! When I got to him I realized that he had a black jelly bean stuck up his nose. I managed to pull it out. It had to hurt because there was a little bit of blood on it! Maybe it's a boy thing, but my girls never tried either of these shenanigans!! He's only two, I guess I have a lot more of this to look forward to!

School Mascot

So, everybody at my kids' school thinks that their mascot is the Lion. But, in reality it's Andyn!! I took this picture of her the day that PSO served lunch to all of the teachers and staff (for Teacher Appreciation Day). She was a gem that day! She was so happy and took her nap without much fussing! For a while she even sat on the floor and cuddled with the lion! How cute! I really enjoyed helping make that day happen. I appreciate the teachers and the staff for all they do - not just for my kids but for all of the children up there!

Two in Diapers!!

Fair warning to anyone who might not like to hear about poop: Do not read this post!!!

As you can see, I have 2 children in diapers. This is not anything new to me. Aspen and Ainsley were 18 months apart and were both in diapers for......ever! But I really think I'm going to loose my mind if Asher doesn't potty train soon!!! Today, had 4 poopy diapers (with 2 changes of clothes) and Asher had 3 poopy diapers (with the last one 'secretly' getting all down his leg)!! I am SO tired of poop!! I really just want to scream! So that's what this is - me SCREAMING!!!!!!!!

Sleeping Beauty!!

These 2 pictures were just taken in the last couple of days and I just had to share them. She is so cute!!!!

Adendum to 'Mother's Day'

So, I read Ashley's post about her Mother's Day and felt slightly shameful that I hadn't mentioned my mother or any other mothers that have influenced me as a mother. So here goes. For as long as I can remember my mother and I have struggled to have a meaningful relationship. For several reasons (of which I will not go into detail), now I am happy to say that I feel like my my mom and I have a great relationship. I feel like we have both come to a place in our lives where we can love each other unconditionally and without unattainable expectations. Whenever I truly need her she is there for me. Thank you, Mom. I love you. It would be impossible to acknowledge all of the mothers that I love but here are just a few: My mother-in-law. I love her. She is an amazing source of optimism and she cares deeply for her children and even more so for her grandchildren. My best friend Shelley. Now she might be embarrassed that I'm saying this, but I think she is one of the best mothers on the planet. She would sacrifice anything for her children and their happiness (even her sanity) . One day, after doing something truly spectacular for Ainsley I asked her "Who's the best mom in the world?". Now surely she would have said me because of the great thing I had just done for her but she didn't. She resolutely replied "Shelley". There you have it. Finally, my sister Terra. She has been a great mother figure to my children for years though she only just recently had a child of her own. For years, now, she has helped me construct beautiful birthday cakes, put kids to sleep, teach a child to twist her tongue, and various other motherly type things. Her influence on me is unmeasurable. She is a great mother! I love you all!!

A Thousand Miles

A Thousand Miles..... That's how far away I wish that I was last night! We had gone to eat dinner at the local Chinese restaurant with my mom and her husband after I had spent a really long day putting on a garage sale. Unfortunately, my favorite son (for there is no other) did not get a nap. Well, as you probably guessed, he threw THE biggest fit (this is what Ashley would call a wall-eyed fit)!! I did manage to inhale a plate of food before I had to take him out to the van and just buckle him into his seat for the remainder of his tantrum. It was so bad that he totally lost his voice and it sounded like his throat was hurting! But I stayed the course and put on some music (for my own sanity). I had a CD in that they gave us at church for Mother's Day. I actually didn't really care for it when I first listened to it but Lolly convinced me to listen to more than just the first 2 songs and I decided that I really did like it after all. So.... Asher's tantrum lasted several minutes until I put on this music. The song that was playing was titled "A Thousand Miles". Halfway through the song I looked back and he was out! I've been told that some day I will miss these times. To that I say - not a chance!

The day I had 8 kids!!

I watch the 2 neighbor girls after school until their parents get home and today I watched another 2 kids for a friend of mine!! Am I nuts!? When you have 4, what's 4 more?!

Andyn is probably screaming in her crib!!

Mother's day!

Finally had a few minutes to jot down a few words! For the last 4 years my friend Jen and I have gone to the huge Scholastic warehouse sale in Arlington, Texas. The first year we took our kids out of school (she had 2 and I had 2) and took them with us then went to the Dallas Zoo. Now, that was a day!!! Now we go on the first Saturday that it's open and leave the kids (she still has 2 and I have 4) with their daddies and that leaves a whole day for shopping and playing around. It just happens to be Mother's Day weekend, too, so it isn't as difficult to get them to watch the kiddos! This year our mutual friend Beth came with!

Well, we spent all day in Texas and I have to say we had a great time! We spent two hours in the book sale then had lunch at Don Pablo's (yum!) and after that went to IKEA in Frisco for an hour or so! As we're walking in to IKEA I felt something itchy on my back so I reached up under my shirt and pulled out one of Andyn's bibs!! Now, maybe you had to be there but I thought we were going to die from laughter!! Beth had tears rolling down her face! All these people who were walking in the door with us thought we were crazy! After IKEA we went to a really fun shop called 'Sam Moon'. I had heard of it but never been there. They sell tons of women's accessories (handbags, hair dillies, jewelry, etc...). It was a lot of fun! On the way out of Frisco we stopped and got outrageously expensive cheesecake from The Cheesecake Factory!! Very yummy but oh so expensive!!!

THEN...because we hadn't already had enough to eat we stopped at Culver's Frozen Custard in McKinney and had some very scrumptious custard!!! To top off the day we decided to spend some time in Target before finally heading home. And this is where the real fun begins!! After trying on some clothes I met up with Jen and Beth in the shoe dept as they were trying on all kinds of high heels. Since none of us are experts at the heel thing this turned out to be a real fun pastime! I thought I would have a go at it with some really sexy leapord print 8 inch heels (okay they were only like 3 or 4 inches but they felt like 8 inches!) and of course - you guessed it - I FELL! Flat on my face!! And I almost took down the entire shoe rack with me!! It was hilarious!!! I asked the cashier on the way out if we could have a copy of the security camera tape - I could really use $10,000 from America's Funniest Home Videos!

Now for the best part of Mother's Day!! Sunday I woke up to breakfast in bed!! I love that!! Eggs, toast, milk, flowers... you know the usual things you might expect for breakfast in bed!! As a bonus Aspen made me a tiny two-tiered pink cake (out of sandwich cookies). It was beautiful!! Then I was showered with beautiful gifts! I really felt like they loved me - for a moment! I made my own corsage (I don't let Geoff buy one cuz they're so expensive) and I must say that it turned out really pretty. It stayed that way... for a few minutes. It was quickly destroyed by munchkin #4. I've included a picture of mine that she destroyed and because I didn't think to take a before picture I took a picture of one of the extras that I made. (I always make extras for some other great mom!) Church was...churchy and the rest of the day was pretty laid back. Geoff didn't really have to do much (he really needed a break from the previous day's events), I even bought a frozen lasagna the night before. I will say this - I was really sad that he didn't make me any dessert! And isn't it really all about the dessert!!! Aaahhh..... I love being a mom - sometimes.

Beautiful Corsage:

Something Bigger Than Myself

Last Friday night the girls and I went to the Relay for Life here in our hometown. I've been waiting for a quiet moment in my life to share my thoughts about my experience - ha! I figure that I better go ahead and just do it or I will forget what I want to say! For a couple of weeks Aspen has been asking me for $10 to be on Mrs. Hazell's 'walking team'. I didn't really know what she was talking about but I knew it had something to do with Relay for Life. Once again, I didn't know what Relay for Life was or what it was for but I knew a couple of people that had mentioned that they were going to this function. Geoff and Asher went to the Father/Son camp out with church so I thought that it might be fun to have girls' night with Aspen, Ainsley, and Andyn and we went to this Relay for Life thing. So, I found out right away that it was a fund raiser for the cancer society. (So shoot me because I had never heard of it!!) It was held at the multi-sports complex which has a football field and track. There were tents and little portable gazebos set along the inside of the track. At first I was confused about the tents but my friend Dottie filled me in. These 'teams' walk from 6:30pm to 6:30am taking turns walking around the track. Each team tries to keep at least one team member on the track at all times. The tents were for sleeping and the gazebos were for small scale fund raising events (i.e. face painting -.50, ice cream - $1, and even a jail -for $1 you could have someone arrested - this was popular among the W.I. students and teachers!). Well, since everyone (but me) knows what this is I'll just share how I felt. They kicked it off with a lap around the track from survivors of cancer as we all cheered them on. Go ahead, call me a big boob, but I really struggled to hold back the tears. I could not stop thinking about my grandmother who recently finished up some treatments for breast cancer and my mother-in-law who is courageously battling a very nasty form of cancer. Even now as I type I struggle to hold in my emotions! The next lap was for everyone and let me tell you I'm just glad that I had sunglasses on. It was a little overwhelming. The girls had a great time getting their faces painted, eating hot dogs, visiting various people in 'jail', and basically just running around the field and track with their friends. I enjoyed visiting with teachers and staff from the girls' school in a more laid back setting. Then when my friend Lolly showed up we took the baby for a few laps around the track for our team. This was an experience not easily to be forgotten and as for me and my house - we'll be relayers for life! Aspen's teacher (Mrs. Hazell) in jail and forcing her students to do the time with her!

THE CAMPOUT

(The father/son campout commemorating the restoration of the Priesthood this past weekend) I (Geoff) took Asher on a campout this weekend. This was not his first campout, since he and his sisters went deer hunting with me last fall (more like deer watching, really - no actual animals were harmed in the making of this blog). However, this weekend was a great time for him since he had his two little friends Liam and Garret to make trouble with. They mostly enjoyed hitting each other with sticks, crying some, and then laughing as they did it again to each other. Another event was the concussion and amnesia of my friend PJ. During a rough game of midnight capture-the-flag, PJ managed to hit the ground with his head a few times and started acting confused, at which point we stopped the game and discovered that he was disoriented and having a hard time. We stayed up with him as he recovered and he seemed OK later that night...but was still having some problems today. Go to the doctor, PJ!!! Personally, I was lucky...all I did during the game was fall down in the mud a few times and get really tired as I was outrun by young men from the ward. (This will not happen again...I have one year to train before the next year's campout and game. I will be lean, mean, and hopefully PJ and I will be there together, with night vision goggles and camo, waiting to pounce upon unsuspecting players.)

Great to be Eight!

Aspen turned 8 today! I can hardly believe it! She has moments when I think she has been possessed by a 16 yr old but most of the time she's a gem! She had a skating party yesterday and even though only a couple of people came I really think she had a great time. I think I felt bad more than she did. Afterward we took her to eat lunch/dinner at this Asian grill buffet place (really yummy-really fun) and our waitress brought her a huge piece of ice cream cake with a candle in it! She was really happy about the candle because stinky ol' mom forgot the candles for her skating rink cake and made her pretend she was blowing them out! She was happy that she actually got to make a wish! So here's the cake I made her. It was red velvet (horse meat). And below is what they brought her at the Chinese place.

I think they are equally as beautiful!!

One last picture of Geoff, Asher and Aspen skating!!

Andyn's grunting phase

Really, I'm just trying out my new toy (blog). I wanted to see how easy it was to add a picture using picasa. This is a picture of Andyn making a really funny grunting noise!

The day I grew a gray hair.

I've been reading a blog that my good friend is writing and got bit by the blog bug! I've never been exceptionally good at keeping a journal (except on my mission - I never missed a day!) so I'm sure my entries here will be neither spectacular nor numerous but hopefully I'll be able to keep the special people in my life up to date on what's going on in our lives. Now, to the title of this post: This weekend was spent in my home town where everyone on my side of the family lives. Friday my sister Terra and I decided to go to Big City 30 Miles Away (the nearest 'city' if you want to do anything) with all of the kids. That would be my 4 kids and her baby. It was a little crazy but I'm pretty good at blocking things out. Not so for Terra. I thought I saw her head spinning in Old Navy when the kids could no longer be quietly corralled. I told her that as long as they weren't destroying anything it was fine with me. By the end of day I was feeling the weight of the craziness and I'm sure that my head did a few rounds of its own! The next day on our way to a family party my sister reached over and yanked a big ol' fat gray hair out of my head!!! She looked at me and said "You grew this yesterday!". We both busted out laughing but inside I just wanted to cry! I'm only 33! AND I'm a red-head! Gray hairs now would be premature! I keep telling myself that it was just a fluke thing