vet

Yesterday, Maggie had to go to the vet for her final set of boosters.

I informed Luke that Maggie needed to go get her shots, and he immediately scooped up Maggie and told me no.

blurry...argh!

I told him that it would not be until later that day, so he promptly put Maggie down and went about doing whatever he was doing at the time.  I believe it was hammering one of his old toys into millions of pieces, in order to "fix it."

Later, in the afternoon, I told Luke to go get Maggie, so we could go to the vet.  Luke disappeared, and so did the dog.

After a few minutes of searching, I found them both, hiding in my closet, behind my hanging shirts.  Luke was telling Maggie all about how terrible the vet would be.

After much persuasion and some tears, we finally made our way to the vet.

It was a wonderland to Luke and Molly.  They completely forgot about Maggie, and went about exploring.  The favorite thing seemed to be the giant scale for dogs.

As you can see in the picture, Molly also grabbed a bunch of bottles of dog vitamins, and carried them around the whole time we were there.

When all was said and done, and Maggie had her shots, I began shuttling my little humans and dog back out to the car.

I got Molly and Maggie in the car, and then I went back for Luke, who was shoveling snow into his mouth as quickly as he could, from a snow pile near by.

This snow pile to be exact.

Notice anything???  Like maybe that huge yellow spot in the snow pile, right outside the door of a vets office.

Um yea, I noticed it too.

Rock on.

bored

Mary had her ssp last night.

Her teacher was really behind, and we got a little bored.

In other news,
  Her SSP went really well.  She is improving in each subject, and her anxiety with Math is getting so much better.  She has a wonderful teacher her genuinely cares about her.  I am so grateful for good teachers.

the littles

For the past 11 years of my life, I have always had at least one "little" with me here at home.  It is usually two, the youngest two.

Luke and Molly are the littles at the moment, and after the craziness of getting the older three out the door to school, we get right down to business, doing little people things.

As usual, we went to the gym, where they go to the kids club, while I have my daily therapy session with the treadmill, the weights, the elliptical, or whatever my body and mind so desire.

Today, after my workout, I got a free pass for a smoothie at the gym's drink bar, so I got the little people, some little drinks.

They LOVED it!

Then we went to the store to grab a few thing, where the little people, got the little shopping carts, just their size.  It is so adorable watching them push these all over the store.

Then it was home, for the little-est to take a nap, and for Luke and I to do about a million puzzles, read some little people books, and snuggle up for some little people shows.

When Molly wakes up, we usually have a little people snack, play with toys, and await the arrival of the older siblings.

Sooner than later, there will come a day where I no longer have a little person here with me at home all day.  A little buddy to spend my afternoons with, doing little people things.

There are days when part of me looks forward to that, but then there are days like today, where I am just happy to have little people in my life, and don't want this phase to end.

smells, good finds, and blessings

I love good smells.  When I smell something good, it literally makes me happy, and can put me in a good mood.

When I am running outside, and I smell fresh cut grass, fresh earth after rain, someone's dryer sheets blowing out their vent, or a nice perfume or cologne, I go to a happy place.

I am also paranoid about bad smells.  I worry all the time about my home smelling badly.  With a guinea pig, a lizard, a cat, a dog, an active family and the never ending smelly socks that seem to appear in every nook and cranny, I am always worried about the smell of my house.

I have a Scentsy wax warmer, actually, I have 3 of them.  Every single time I go to the store, I will go down the isle with all of the smelly wax, and smell away.  I get so excited when I find a good one, and each Friday, when I clean the house, I change to a new "smell of the week."

LONG story short, one of my favorite smells ever is fresh laundry.  I have tried for years to find the perfect laundry smell combination for our clothes, and today, I FOUND IT!!!

I pulled our clothes out of the dryer, and my nose was in instant Disneyland!  I immediately put on my jacket, straight out of the dryer, and wore it all day.  I honestly think I smelled myself once every 10 minutes the rest of the day.  Heaven!

Her is the amazing combo.

Yes, I was THAT excited.

The soap, the dryer sheets, and the beads are all different smells, but combine them together, and whamo!  Amazing!

In other amazing news of the day, I found my pants.

ignore the other laundry piles on the floor.  I have yet to get to that massive pile of clean socks to sort and put away.

I have a favorite pair of pants that I have only had for a month, and they have been missing all week long!  I have looked everywhere.

I finally found them today, in Mary's clean laundry pile.  I was THRILLED to find them there.

You know why....

I must have seen my pants when I was folding laundry, and thought they were Mary's.

This means, that my pants were small enough in my eyes, to fit Mary's teeny tiny little legs.

Rock on!!!

Last, but not least.  A neat moment of the day.

Ben walked William to the bus stop today, and when he came back home, he had a neighbor with him.
This friend had asked Ben to give him a blessing.  He is going through some incredibly heavy stuff.

It was really neat for me to see that this man, who we don't know extremely well, saw something in Ben, and trusted him enough to wait until after the bus was gone, stand by Ben for a minute, and then finally ask him to give him a blessing.

This man has not been in the neighborhood long.  He and his children are  living with our neighbors, in their basement for the time being.  He usually keeps to himself, but is friendly if you talk to him.  He definitely seems a little shy, and he has a big weight on his shoulders right now.

Ben, being his usual self, introduced himself to this man, say by him at church one week, and somehow, became someone that this man felt he could trust and confide in.

I love that someone else saw this trait in Ben. It is a trait that I have always seen in Ben, and that most people recognize as well.  He is very caring, trustworthy, and easy to talk to.  He also is friendly and genuinely cares about people.

It warmed my heart to know that my husband and best friend, was able to use his gift as a good person, and his gift of the priesthood, to bless someone today.

It left a very neat feeling in our home the rest of the day.

today

Something funny today:

Conversation of 5 year olds.

William: All of the girls in my class love me, they always try to kiss my cheeks.  I have lots of girlfriends.

Camden (Williams friend):  I have lots of girlfriends too!

William:  Well, I have 6 girlfriends.

Camden:  Well, I have 10 girlfriends.

William:  Well, I have 100 girlfriends!

Camden:  Well, I have 1,000 girlfriends!

Me:  Wow Camden, that is a lot of girlfriends!  How did you accomplish that?

Camden:  I started when I was young.

Something ironic today:

I signed up for this...

Cedar City 1/2 marathon

While I was on the couch doing this...

icing a strained IT band and hip flexor

Ha!


Something Luke-ish today:

We went to Walmart today.  As usual, when we arrive at the place where the toy isles are on one side, and the tools are on the other.  This is where I find Luke.

He was so, so excited when I let him get a $1.00 "measure."  (tape measure)
Luke the builder is his name, fixing everything is his game.

Later dudes.

sunday shenanigans

It was pretty interesting going throughout the day today, always keeping in the back of my mind to look for blog worthy moments. 

It really forced me to focus a little bit more on all that goes on in this hectic home of ours.

Here is a low down of our Sunday.

Wait...back it up.  I should mention that my hot boyfriend took me on a date last night.  We went to a new Italian restaurant on Main Street that just made the top 10 best Italian restaurants in Utah.  It did not disappoint!  Dates rock.

So, this morning, we got up bright and early, and I made our traditional Sunday morning muffins.  Believe me when I say, the muffins are a MUST.  The kids act like the world is over as we know it, if we happen to miss the Sunday morning muffins.  Good grief, what have I created.

I ventured out about a month ago, and made waffles one Sunday morning, instead of muffins. 
Oh the wrath!  It was ridiculous.

Muffins it is...and probably always will be.

 Then the usual Sunday morning mayhem ensued.  Getting ready for church around here can pretty much be described as trying to get a herd of wild cats bathed, dressed, fed, and smashed into a car with one hand, while trying to do the same for yourself with the other.  All the while, trying to beat a timer that seems to speed very quickly.

Somehow, we usually make it to church on time, but by golly, we are sweating bullets, out of breath, and half crazed by the time we walk in those doors.  Someone is almost always crying, at least one person has no shoes on, and you would never in a million years be able to guess that I had actually combed my children's hair that morning.  Gotta love the Sunday morning madness.  OK, not really. 

Sacrament meeting was the usual wrestling match, but today I swear it was 100 degrees in there!  I welcomed the chance to take a kid out to the hall, just to get some air!

I sit up front of the primary room, because of my calling, so I get to watch my kids and see their cute little mugs do singing time, sharing time, and all of that great stuff during primary.

Today, little Lukie slipped out of his chair, and quietly walked over to his friend Evelyn's class and say by her.  A few minutes later, he ever so slyly grabbed her hand.  And there they sat for the rest of primary.

It was THE CUTEST thing in the world.  I was beside myself.  What a man...what. a. man.

Mary and some other kids, sang in the Stake Children's Choir last week for Stake Conference, and our singing leader let them sing their song in front of the primary today.  They sang I Am A Child Of God in Spanish.  It was awesome.  Miss Mary has some guts.  You could not have paid me to do that when I was her age.  You could not pay me to do that now.

Down the hall, Molly accomplished her first week of nursery, being left alone, and not crying!!!  And the angels rejoiced....seriously.

After church, mayhem ensued, Sunday clothes were thrown off, as if they were on fire, the pantry was completely raided, and the bathrooms were all occupied.

I got to work on the roast.  Another Sunday staple.  Why is it always food???

yes, there is a roast and carrots and onion under that massive pile of potatoes.

Then, once the roast was cooking, it was on to my favorite meal of the day....Shakeology.

Guess what!  I got Molly to drink it!

Molly eats pretty much nothing.  She is the worst eater on the face of the planet.  Sometimes I wonder if she even has taste buds. 

I was so happy that she was chugging this mug full of nutrients, that I got out my phone to record this moment of molly consuming something...anything, into that belly of hers.

She was being a total ham, so I just kept on clicking away.

until she pulled my hair.

Then we were done.

The rest of the day consisted of naps for some of us, lots and lots of wrestling for the boys, eating dinner, or in Molly's world, throwing dinner on the floor, playing board games, playing with the dog, going on walks in the snow, and making a fun dessert.

This week, the dessert was cake pops. Again, food.  What the?!?!  We need some new Sunday traditions.  Geesh.

My friend dropped some cake pops by the week of Christmas, and I tried one.  Holy Moly were they good!  I ended up hiding them, and eating all of them.  Yup, my family had no clue we even had any.  I am the mom, I can do that.  hehehehehe

Since then, I got the recipe from my friend, and I have been waiting for the right moment to make them.

I have been on a 3 week sugar fast (minus one mess up day), so I figured this would be the perfect treat to break the sugar fast with.


They look nothing like the beautiful ones my friend made, but who cares, food is food is food is food, right?!?!

uuummm, yeah.  The ones on the left totally slid down the stick.  My bad.

OK, actually, looking at this picture, they looked terrible!  Did I make those, or some preschooler, with his hands and a pot of frosting. Wow.  Go me.

Anyway...they tasted exactly like the ones my friend made!  Perfection to the taste buds.

However, due to my sugar fast, after 2 of these bad boys, my body was freaking out.  I got all shaky, dizzy, and sick. 
Not fair.
 I even tried to pretend my body wasn't flipping on a massive glucose overload, and I ate another one, just because.  Bad idea.  If brains could explode from sugar...this would have been it baby.  See ya later.

I still have not decided if my body's new aversion to sugar is something to celebrate, or something to mourn.

And now here I sit.  In my bed.  Molly snoring in her bed. (she is still a little croupy).  The dog just quit protesting that she is stuck in her bed.  Scripture and prayers are done.  Kids are tucked in.  Lights are off. The house is finally quiet and still.  It is snowing outside, and a new week is about to begin.

This is the part where I hunker down in all of my down pillows and blankets, flip on Netflix, and zone out.  YYYYEEEESSSS!!!!!

Until next time....

dare

I am pretty sure Timpanogos Intermediate School had the coolest D.A.R.E graduation ever.

 

Two BYU football players (one of which was on the movie Meet The Mormons, and whose dad is now the head football coach at BYU), as well as BYU's mascot, MC'd the whole event.

 

They had the kids, jumping, yelling, laughing, and really excited about making good choices and not doing drugs.

 

There was a stage, lights, music, movies, and the whole works.

 

It was awesome!

 

I am very proud of Mary, and the good decisions she is making in her life.  Life right now is so hard for these kids.  I pray every day that she will listen to the right voices and stand her ground when necessary.

 

Congratulations Mary!

 

boys

This is William after sitting in Stake Conference for two hours.

 

He is wearing his brand new Sunday clothes. Yeah, nice.

 

I guess, in all honesty, I was about ready to climb a giant muddy snow pile, in the church parking lot,  to the very top, and throw my arms in the air after a 2 hour Stake Conference, as well.

 

Maybe just for a different reason.

 

Boys.

 

transformer

Lately, at any given moment, Luke will transform into an animal.  He will no longer speak words, or walk on two feet.  It is all animal sounds, and walking on all fours.  He gets a kick out of me trying to figure out what animal he is.  Believe me, it is really hard.

 

I did not know there was such thing as a flying mean yellow cat, or a growling gold fish, or a purple dinosaur with 500 teeth and no legs.

 

It is pretty funny, and amusing. 

I just figured it was something he did here at home.

 

Nope.

 

This is a picture his preschool teacher took of him, when he transformed into a Bobcat right in the middle of reading time!

 

I die every time I see this!  hahahaha

 

say cheese

 

This is what I get lately when I ask Molly to smile.

 

I love it!!!

 

 

story of my life

This is a very normal scene in our house.  So normal in fact, that I walked in the kitchen and saw this, and didn't even think twice. 

 

Then, I stepped back for a minute, and really realized how true this is of what goes on in our house in the winter.

 

Luke rummaging through the nick nack drawer, looking for tools,  and Molly pulling out Tupperware.  I was off somewhere cleaning up the last "treasure hunt."

 

Silly kiddos.

 

 

january

 

 January pros and cons.

 

 

 

 

 Cons:
croup, RSV, sickness

cabin fever
freezing
grey
cabin fever
no sun
kids trashing house out of complete boredom
no holidays
31 LONG days
dark mornings, dark evenings
did I mention kids going nuts with cabin fever?
blah, blah, blah


Pros:
uh
nothing. I got nothing.

Go away January.

oops

 

I do a lot of laundry.  Let me rephrase that...I do a crap load of laundry every single day of my life.

 

5 active kids, 2 active adults, one potty training puppy.

 

Yup, that's us.

 

I kind of have a problem though.

 

I tend to forget one basic, but necessary thing.

 

Changing the dryer filter.

 

Such a simple thing, but this head of mine can't seem to remember it.

 

One of these day's I am going to blow this mother ship up!

 

oops.

 

ssp's

OK, so I am trying to keep my goal of a blog post a day.  Since I didn't think of this resolution/goal until yesterday, I didn't do any posts this week.  Looking back though, there are some blog worthy things.

For instance, SSP's were this week.  Back in my day (oh, that sounds creepy), they were called Parent Teacher Conferences.

Rewind a few months ago to the last SSP's.  They weren't great.  In fact, they were down right frustrating.

Sam's grades (which are usually well above grade level) had dropped a lot, and I was talked to about his behavior, which has never happened before, with any of my kids.  He wasn't being bad, but he was being way too silly and getting off task.  I was pretty upset.

We came home and set up a system with Sam, where he would be held accountable for his behavior each week, and be rewarded or punished, depending on a report from the teacher.  We also made some changes with his homework.

William's conference was ok, but he was too shy during testing, so his test scores were low.

Mary had a good SSP, but she got a B in math and completely fell apart.  We also had to talk a lot about her anxiety with school.  Her teacher was concerned, and so was I.

I came away from those conferences feeling very low as a mother, and very frustrated. 

We have all worked very hard these past few months to make some changes.
Sam had his behavior changes, and I did a TON of homework with him.
Mary got a math tutor, and has been working through her anxiety better.
William has been doing more homework at home, and I have talked to him a lot about how to take an oral test, and to not be scared.

SSP's this week proved that hard work can pay off.

Sam's behavior percentage went from 76% up to 91%!  His grades had gone up almost triple, and he had passed off over 4 levels with reading.

Mary got straight A's, and the highest marks for behavior and responsibility.  She is even going to run for 5th grade president next week!

William took his oral tests the right way, and we found out that he is already at 1st grade levels in every subject.  He got a 33 in reading and writing.  Grade level for kindergarten is 17.  He can also count to 40 in Spanish, and have a small conversation.

This was a big lesson to all of us about hard work, being willing to make changes, and sticking to it.

Good job kiddos!

resolutions

I am a goal setter.

I am a resolution maker.

I am a follow-througher.

I almost always am working toward something.

Naturally, I made some New Year Resolutions.

Lucky for me, I usually keep them. It is in my DNA to do so.  Good ol' type A.

So, here they are.

1.  Add in interval weight training to my weekly workouts, twice a week.  This has actually been really fun, and a nice change.  I invented a 60 minute interval work out that kicks my butt!  It is seriously amazing and crazy hard!  I LOVE it!

2.  Add abs into my weekly workouts, three times a week.  After 5 babies, I am pretty sure my abs do not even exist, but I am determined to see if I can salvage something. 

3. Eat sugar one day a week ONLY.  (this one is flipping hard, but I am doing it thanks to Shakeology and it's craving busting powers)

4.  Do a blog post once a day.  This is going to be challenging, but I think it will force me to look for the little things my kids do, or something funny that happened that day, or something good, bad, and anything in between, and to record them.  I think my life may be a lot more amusing than I realize, if I sit back at the end of the day and think of the blog worthy things that may have happened.

5. Better with visiting teaching and temple attendance.  I am terrible at both of these.  It is HARD with 5 kids and a crazy busy schedule to fit this in.  It's all about priorities though, right?!?!

6. Be more patient with my life. 

My life right now is probably as chaotic, loud, busy, and nuts as it ever will be.  With 5 young kids at home, there is always noise, messes, chaos, places to go, food to fix, things to do, and so on.

 I am a creature of habit, order, and cleanliness.
Change, messes, and lack of order can throw me into a tailspin of emotions, blubbering and freak outs!
I have a hard time with a lot of chaos, messes and commotion.  I get anxious very quickly with messes and chaos, and I handle the anxiety with snapping at my family and getting overwhelmed and upset.  I am going to try to mentally relax and push through the crazy moments a little better.  This will be a work in progress, but I am going to try.

7. PR at a half marathon.  I REALLY want to get under 1:45.  If all of the stars align this summer, and I am injury free, I am pretty sure I can do this.  I missed it this year by only a couple minutes.

So there it is. 

Good luck to me 2016!

poor pooch

Maggie has definitely had baptism by fire joining a family of 5 children that love her...a lot.

Luke and Molly especially "love her" and I seriously panic when I see the ways they carry her around and put her in things, on things, and under things.

Thankfully, Maggie seems to be fine with most of it.  I think she is just happy to be held and played with.  She is a good sport.

Yesterday, Molly had yogurt all over her hands and face.  She was looking for a towel when Maggie walked by.  Molly seized the opportunity and wiped her hands and face all over the poor pooch!  Maggie just licked herself for a while, and went on her way, a sticky, gooey mess.

About an hour later, Maggie came running out of the bathroom with toothpaste all over her face, head and feet.

Molly and Luke came tearing after her, toothbrushes and toothpaste in hand, demanding that Maggie stop and get her teeth brushed.

Poor pooch.

Soon after that, Molly decided to pet Maggie while holding a sucker.

The sucker got very stuck in the fur of Maggie's neck, and Molly continued to roll it around Maggie while trying to get it off of her.

I ended up having to use scissors to get the sucker out, and I locked Maggie in our room for a nice long break from the chaos.  Maggie had no complaints.

She had a nice long bath this morning, where it took me over 10 minutes of scrubbing like crazy to get everything off of her.

Welcome to the family Maggie.  Poor pooch.

luke-isims

Luke is pretty much crazy.  He is also adorable.

He is completely obsessed with tools, building, fixing, and anything to do with machinery.

He has to be watched 24/7 because of all of his "projects" he assigns himself.

Like, hammering 7 nails into the walls upstairs, "re-painting" our white banister with a red marker, using an entire roll of tape to tape a DVD to the wall (he was hanging a picture in his mind), shoving a huge stick through a tiny hole in the bathroom door to "fix it," spraying the entire kitchen with our sink sprayer in order to "wash the kitchen,'

 

 

and the list goes on and on and on.

This can be so cute and funny, but it can also drive me absolutely nuts trying to save our house from complete and utter destruction every 5 seconds.

This is what Luke did during breakfast the other day.  He had no malice at all, he truly thought he was just doing a cool project.

Iron anyone?

Oh, and when I do get upset with him.  One glance up at me with his construction glasses on, and it is all I can do not to roll on the floor dying of laughter.

 

Oh Luke!

the anniversary "dedication"

On our Anniversary this year, Ben decided to ski off the roof.

 Then...he decided to dedicate it to me for our Anniversary.

How sweet?!?!

The kids now agree that he is officially Superman, and he has become a neighborhood legend.

And yes, I do have a pretty cool boyfriend. :)

 

the aftermath

    The week after Christmas is normally my favorite time of the Christmas break, because we go visit family, and we get out of our house for a week.
   By this point in the Christmas break, we ALL need to get out.  I am usually completely done for after Christmas day, and it is a welcome reprieve to get out, travel, and change the scenery a bit. This year, the kids were out of school the entire week before Christmas, so we were all more than ready to bust out of here.
    Unfortunately, as we were packing and getting ready to head to Boise, we got word that it was not going to be a great time to come.  The circumstances were completely understandable, but it was a big bummer, especially for the kids.  Ben and I kind of panicked at the thought of three more days trying to hold the fort down here at home, with no plans.

We worked it all out though, and it actually turned out to be a good thing that we stayed home.  I had A TON of stuff going on with my church calling as primary secretary, getting ready for the New Year and all of the changes coming up.  I have been swamped for months preparing for everything, and it all came together that Sunday.  It was a good thing we were here.

We entertained ourselves the best we could until Tuesday, when we headed to Pocatello to see my family.

The temperatures were well below freezing, so we were once again stuck inside, but at least the scenery was different, and we were able to see my parents and visit with them.  We also went roller skating one day.

It ended up being really fun!  William worked so hard to get skating down, and by the end, he was doing it!  I was so proud of him.

Luke pretty much had us push him as fast as we could like this this entire time.
I thought my back was going to break, but his laugh of pure joy and yells of "faster mom" made it all worth it.


We also went to a local tumbling gym and let all of the kids get their wiggles out.  It was a lot of fun as well, and Mary even got in some good practice. 


Luke zooming down the slide at the gym

Before we went skating, Ben hiked up some runs at Pebble Ski Resort and skiid down.  He said it was fun.  I can't believe he went out in the freezing cold!  He got an awesome picture though.

After roller skating, Mary and I went shopping! I had some moneyfrom Christmas, and I desperately need new clothes.  We had a great time, and had some great finds!

Grandma Sylvia instantly fell in love with Maggie, and snuggled her and held her almost the entire trip.  Maggie was spoiled rotten and loved every minute of it!  The kids said that Maggie smelled like grandma when we got home.  I think grandma needs a puppy!


New Years Eve was pretty low key.  Normally, we burn the tree with gas and fireworks, but it was -17 that evening, and no one wanted to go out.  So, we bought a bunch of junk food, my mom made the best Italian Soda's I have ever had, we watched a movie, and everyone was sound asleep by 11:00.

My dad and I huddled in blankets by the fireplace in the living room and welcomed in the new year quietly and enjoying the moment together.  To me, it was perfect.

Aside from that, the break was pretty much full of the kids playing with friends, lots of setting up and playing with new toys, potty training and crate training Maggie,

 snow skiing, skiing off the roof, and lots and lots and lots of chaos and messes.

Good times. Good memories.  I can't lie though, I love my family, but I am thrilled that school is back in session!