Went to lunch with these two girlies...

 The boys and I went to lunch and had Pizza! It was fun and I learned something new about each of the girls. Violet loves to go outside and play so she has very little on her plate, the bare minimums and then eats them as fast as she can and then runs outside to play. She was trying to be polite by staying in a while but then to her relief I told her she could go outside. 

Shell however sits with her two bestest friends and introduces me to them and then has not only pizza but a salad, some fruit and to my amazement she even loves cherry tomatoes ( I didn't know she liked them!) She eats her food slowly and enjoys lots of fun conversation with her friends.

I learned lots today about my two girls!

My Twins!

Look at these two, they look so much alike that if they were even close to the same age people might think that they are twins. My two red headed girls look alike and because they are close in age, People think that they are twins. These two even have similar personalities, they are both very sensitive, demand attention and if they don't get it they throw fits, they are both strong willed etc. We love them both very much! Lately EB has been acting up a lot  and doing little naughty things so I thought maybe he just needs more attention. So I tried reading to him, showing more attention etc. Nothing has been working! I had the impression today while we were happily making sandwiches together that I had hurt his feelings somehow, so I asked him if I had hurt his feelings and he said yes and I appologized and gave him a hug and ever since then he's been the best kid! He even came out to greet JR at the bus and gave him a big hug, he's never done that. So I thought about what I could have done to hurt his feelings and the thought came to me that geliousy with JR might be the reason, but all he needed was an "I'm sorry," and a hug, how simple, that's why Jesus says become as a little child. 

JR's Amazing New Chart..

 JR has amazing Preschool teachers and we love them! I was venting one day to his preschool teacher about when I would get the time to make him a chart for home, because he uses one at preschool all the time and I knew it would be helpful for him at home too but when do I have the time to make him one, Never! So she said that she would make him one for home and all I had to do was make a list for her. He came home with it yesterday and it has been a huge blessing! He immediately started using it and put his own coat, shoes and backpack away, it was great, he was so proud of himself! He has a hard time transitioning from thing to thing and he throws fits, but if we show him what comes next and point to the picture, he's ok and doesn't throw fits and he feels empowered, it works like a charm;)

She works hard for her money!

I love that she loves to help her daddy with work stuff and earn a little money too! It's so nice that Sloane has things for them to do to earn money because we don't pay them for doing their chores. I have a couple of reason's why I don't pay them: 

Reason #1: I knew a family that payed their children for doing chores and then when they became teenagers and got jobs they stopped doing their chores or became really lazy at them and told their parents that made more at their jobs, so why do them.

Reason #2 (my favorite reason): We don't believe in paying our children to be part of our family, because we all make messes. 

 I made this decision a long time ago when I was a teenager watching other families and comparing because I didn't have younger siblings to compare to.

 I love our children and that they are all hard workers, I feel so blessed!:)

I did nothing today...

Ok so I would normally not blog about what I do for the day but since I am doing this "Challenge," I will! I did something extraordinary today, I did nothing...well I never do just nothing but I didn't clean, I didn't exercise(but I will later), I didn't do anything but, give kisses, cuddle, rock my baby wipe runny noses, get bottle after bottle, changed lots of diapers, wipe bums, watched Lilo and Stitch for the hundredth time, tried to feed my very picky eater and then watched as he refused the banana I was trying to feed him(which he normally loves) and prefer to eat crumbs off the floor, answered emails and texts, talked to a friend and to my mom and took a shower, ok I did do something.  All I have to say is it's exhausting doing nothing, maybe I will do nothing again tomorrow!;)

Faith of a child...

Yesterday as we were driving home from getting groceries at Winco, our van started acting up. We were kinda far and all the way down in Eagle and the van wasn't going very fast at all. I was worried that we wouldn't make it up the big hill in Eagle so the kids said a prayer and it was a good prayer too! We made it up the hill but we had to put on my hazard lights but we made it. Then of course all those thoughts ran through my head of how much I depend on this vehicle and how we need it to work to fit all our children in the car, ect. Well needless to say we made it home, barely and I had my hazards on the whole way home because I couldn't get it up past 35 or 40 miles an hour and it would shimmy a little, it just wouldn't go. Then when I got home I turned it off and Sloane then jumped into the van and drove it around the block to see what was wrong with it, he came back and said "What's wrong with it again?" Apparently what ever was wrong with it had stopped. So the faith of my two little girls had made our prayers answered. I am so grateful for children, you truly can learn from them.

We made it back!

Sloane and I took a quick buisness trip to Idaho Falls and Hired Erin Ferris, our good friends daughter Who is 19 to watch the kids. Yes, she even watched our precious baby! She is such a good baby that we weren't worried and Erin did fantastic. She is pretty amazing to be able to handle all eight children and the house was in one piece too! She even handled getting up in the middle of the night to feed the baby and getting up early this morning, that's the hard part about watching them all, getting up in the middle of the night and then Danny boy waking you up at 6:30 or 7:00 and is sometimes cranky, which makes me cranky sometimes and then to top it off he's a picky eater!! Good job Erin, you did fantastic!!
Sloane and I had a great time going out to dinner with his associates and then we went back to his amazing 6 thousand square foot home and stayed up late talking and he kept making me Hot chocolate and making me laugh at how much whip cream he would pile on top of it, it was too funny!  Then Sloane and I stayed up really late and watched TV, that was fun. Then he was generous enough to let us stay the night. It was a fun little get away, thanks honey:)

HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY!!

IT Was Hailey's Sixteenth Birthday last week and I missed saying Happy Birthday to her. We love you! What we love about you is that you are thoughtful, sweet, loving and too fun and wonderful to talk to. As you can see we love lots of things about Hailey! Happy Birthday Hailey! I can still remember taking naps with you when you were a little baby, all curled up on my chest and we would both fall asleep, and then when you were a toddler, having me read stacks and stacks of books to you until I got Horse from reading them too you. Have a great day!

Sweet Kids...

Ok, so my new years resolution is to not be grumpy on Sunday mornings, I am trying to keep that but it's hard, I pile by thinking of all that I have to do and then get overwhelmed. Well this Sunday the kids wanted to make sure that i kept that resolution good, they decided to bring me breakfast in bed. My favorite too, Cheesy eggs and my favorite bread Dave's Killer bread and they sang "Good morning too you!" It was cute, it worked for the most part, I was only a little grumpy which is an improvement. Maybe next Sunday I won't be grumpy at all!:)

My little Angel

She is our angel for sure. After dealing with two hard boys, I got this wonderful baby. Don't get me wrong I love my two hard boys but I have been trully blessed to be able to deal with life because of this sweet girl. Ok, I am not bragging or anything, I am just counting my blessings...she sleeps five and sometimes six hours a night, Huge blessing because none of my babies have done that! I am grateful for all the help I get taking care of this baby and Danny boy. I can't believe she's almost two months old and she's getting so big!

Service!

We have decided that as a family once a month we will do some sort of service. Today we have been making Lasagna for the Toleman's who just had their baby girl. We all did something weather it was babysit the younger kids, make the salad,  help make the cookies with dad or retrieve ingredients, ect. We are hoping it will help our kids think of others more often instead of themselves all the time. So far it was fun, we'll keep you posted on what we do for next month!

Looky, Looky Jenny!!

This is my Christmas present from Sloane, it's one of the best! I was doin' a dance when these came yesterday, Sloane thought I was nuts because it's still five months away. But I haven't seen a musical in a long time and I love them! The last one I saw was when I was living at home and I went with Betty, Hailey's mom, I take that back I saw Fiddler on the Roof a few years ago, our stake in Washington did that musical and it was amazing for a church musical. I am also excited that our friends the Guthries get to go with us! Now I am thinking of a way to talk Sloane into going to Salt Lake to see Les Mis. 

Sliding fun!

~ EB wanted me to take a picture of them sliding down the stairs. He's been bonding and playing more with Danny boy since we are having JR go to preschool three days a week instead of just two. He's really taking on the role of big brother very well and is really cute with Danny Boy, and he loves his big brother!
~ I have been moling over in my mind weather or not I want my little barely three year old taking the bus in the morning, he takes it home in the afternoon but, it's me I know it's me that has a hard time with the fact. Well this morning I took JR to preschool and I pulled up at the front of the school where the buses stop and I left the car running like I always do and I got out and ran around the car to let JR out and pulled the handle and it was locked so I went back to the drivers side and it was locked too, the dumb car locked on me! So yes I was locked out with the car running and all my babies inside, what do we do best, PANIC! So, my visiting teaching partner was parked infront of me and asked her if she would run to my house and go through the garage door and go inside my house to get the spare key. Well, she drove off in haste to go retreive that for me and while I was standing them calmer, the thought came to me to have EB boy go and unlock the car door for me, lucky for me he was able to, Phew! With the preschool teachers watching all this in anticipation and then we all cheered when EB unlocked it, I came to the very hard conclusion that I will have JR start taking the bus starting next week! 

How many many, Feet you meet!

I was so proud of myself, I didn't throw away SIXTEEN pairs of pajamas just because I didn't know how to fix the holes in the toes. So I called my good friend Gale and she said that you could make stretchy cuffs at the bottoms instead. So the holy toes in the feet went from 

this.....

Too THIS! Isn't that great! I saved a lot of money! You could even make the cuffs longer so that they have more room to grow in and by doing so, you save even more.

Thanks Gale.

The Hawaiian Princess

When I was pregnant with her, I went with a friend to get her Patriarchal blessing and as we were walking out of the patriarch's house he told me that he felt that spirit that I was carrying in my belly and he said that she is a very special spirit. I love this story because it is true, she is a special spirit. We must have been friends in the pre-existance because she knows when I need her and she's always had issues with others baby sitting her because she told me that they didn't do things like Mommy, we had to try to teach her that everyone does things different and now she gives me lectures as if I am not doing it right (humm, that reminds me of ME with my mom, Yicks!). She has always kept me on my toes! Thank you for all your help you give, in more ways than one.

He makes us smile:)

We just love this little Midget boy (what we call him) cause he's so small and looks so cute walking around.  We will be reading scriptures and he starts distracting us with his cuteness!

Enjoying the morning at Great Harvest Bread Co.

 EB and Violet enjoying their pumpkin bread and Hot chocolate!

 Danny Boy Helped daddy eat his BIG cinnamon roll

 JR enjoying his Big cookie

Daddies first time at Great Harvest and he's asking questions and checking out the great selection!

We had a great time going there as a family this morning, Most of us love their Scones and Cinnamon rolls, I personally love their Turkey Pesto sandwich and their blond brownie with white chocolate chips and pecans, Yummy!

We've had a great week with the kids we even went to Chuck a Rama this week too with the kids, we figure it will be a while till we get to do fun things with them since we are heading for the busy season for Sloane's work. We just love our kids:)

Bowling night at BSU

 This was the girls' first time bowling and they both got a strike! Naturals.

 They put up bumper rails for the boys and me:) 

 These two boys had such a blast bowling and it was super fun watching them!

 

Dad and mom trying it out, Dad did great as usual, mom well....she tried!:)

 Dash had fun trying it on his Knees! These two also for the second time bowling got strikes also!

Waiting Patiently!:)

We went down to BSU as a family (Except for Danny boy and Baby sissy, they were at home with Grandma Karen) They have the best bowling ally there. It was super clean and non smoking. They also had a great arcade and Pool tables and a ping pong table. Ok, one funny thing that happened, when JR went to bowl, his ball was going too slow so silly me went out on the lane(not knowing that it had oil on it) tried to move the ball more and because the lane was oiled, fell and slid down the lane, yep just like funniest home video's! I bet I was a fun sight, what we mom's do for our kids! We had a blast and want to go back again!

How do I do it, Well....

Lately I have had this question posed to me a lot "How do you do it?" To answer, I have awesome help! Shell and the other children, not to mention My Wonderful Husband who gets up with the boys every morning which is a huge help! That's how I do it, I am blessed with helpful hearts in my home and that's how a family should run anyways, right? I have been truly blessed this time it feels like, I am sure I am blessed everytime I have a baby, but it really does feel like I am blessed even more this time. I had my wonderful mother come for two and a half weeks, to relieve me and my husband. I have also had my husband and kids home for the past three weeks to help(Sloane did work from home) so in essence I have had a whole month to recover, regain strength, and renew myself, what a blessing!! Thank you everyone for being so wonderful, you make my life full and enriched!:)

Goal's for 2011

We had a wonderful lesson in Relief Society about making and keeping goals. One of the things that stuck out to me was not just the things that we want to do in our goal making but what we want to Become. So this year my goal is to become more Loving (which I think covers, not judging others ect.)
These are the things I want to do...
~Finish the Book of Mormon (I'm almost done)
~Stay faithful on the Wellness Challenge and to see it all the way to the end which is in March!
~Learn how to cook more Chicken dishes that my family will love
~Learn a new recipe each week
~Stick to my daily chores (I've been really slacking)
~Finish any projects that need to be finished
~Be in a better mood on Sundays (I think I stress too much about the whole thing, I just need to learn to Chill out, because really "WHAT'S THE BIG DEAL?")
~Write in my journal daily
~Enjoy my four youngest and my four oldest more, for they grow up too fast!
~Exercise Daily
~Eat Healthier

Happy New Year!

Today was our little girls baby blessing. It was a really neat blessing.  He first started off by saying that she has been waiting a long time to come to earth (that's when I started to cry) I know she's been waiting a long time to come to earth and gain her body. He also talked about how she will be a "Shining example to her siblings," and a "Shining example to others around her." Those are the things that touched me the most about her blessing. It was a great fast and testimony meeting the spirit was strong and it seemed like the testimonies were strong about families even our ward family which I felt for the first time a strong bond to today, it was neat.

This blessing dress is now officially special and an antique to my girls because each one has worn it for their blessings, yes it's thirteen years old. I told the girls that I would love to make something special with it and give it to each one so that they can remember their dress. I am still thinking of what to make. If any of you out there had any good Ideas, it would be welcomed! 

Our big Boy goes to Sunbeams for the first time!

He is getting so big, literally! He's saying a lot more words and is comprehending a lot more, his preschool has been a huge blessing in helping him with speaking and comprehending.  His preschool teacher told me before Christmas break that if he reverts back a little than he may need more help and may need summer preschool, but he's doing so well that we have high hopes for him, we just love this sweet little Big guy!