The Perren Pack

School Photos

2012-01-12T15:22:00.004-07:00

Holy cow my kids are growing up so fast!!!

I know that I didn't look this cute in 8th grade. Sam is gorgeous!

Justin only has one more year left with braces.

Devyn is so sweet.

Not much irritates me more than when my kids make goofy faces on purpose when it isn't time to be goofy. If I have to go through the effort of retakes, then I will post your obnoxious photo.

Luckily the retakes turned out much better. Hopefully Tanner learned his lesson this year.

Fall Football

2012-01-12T15:00:00.007-07:00

We spend a lot of time, energy and money for football.

This was Tanner's first year playing tackle football.

He is a Blue Sky Bagel Charger

Devyn is a TetraTech Titan.

This is his second year of tackle football.

I can't find his pictures, but I will upload them when I do.

Justin is an RST Fundraising Viking. This is his third year of tackle football. He thought he would be super funny and pretend to be asleep in his group photo. He should know by now that if you annoy me by messing up your photos, then I will post them on-line and show everyone that I possibly can so that you never do it again.

Here is a close up in case you can't see it properly

My afternoons were spent watching volleyball games, my evenings were spent at football practice and my Saturdays were spent watching three football games. Since they all wear different colors, I had to pack a bag with all three shirts and change in between each game. We were really lucky when they all played at the same location, it was very difficult when they were all playing games in different towns. Luckily it is over for now. It takes me most of the year to gear up for the next season. Only nine years left of Optimist Football!

What did we do the rest of the summer?

2012-01-12T14:22:00.002-07:00

We bought a raft and spent most of our time on the river.

It is a really big raft.

The Rest of the Vacation . . . Jared was scared

2012-01-12T13:11:00.015-07:00

We rode the dinosaur train to SIX FLAGS

Jared loved riding the airplane

Jared hated this ride so much that it took all of my coaxing to get him to ride anything else the rest of the day. The other boys didn't seem to mind it so much. Jared still hates this ride.

The swings were fun

Sami and Chris spent the day going on the scariest rides they could

We had loads of fun here, we just wished it stayed open longer.

The Academy of Science was very cool with scary dinosaur bones

an albino alligator and albino snapping turtles

and according to Jared, the scariest of all, a presentation with a diver about fish. He hates the loud noises from the microphone during any presentations.

He spent the whole time asking, "is it over yet?"

The aquarium was very small, but the star fish were fun to touch

Maybe we should leave Justin under water? Our world was much quieter

We took the kids to the Rain Forest Cafe

They sat us by a really scary elephant, Jared hated it

Granted it looked kind of evil and when it blew out air and stamped its foot, it looked even creepier

By the end of dinner, he liked it a little better and realized that it wasn't that scary

We had a great family vacation

Muir Woods and the Pacific Ocean

2012-01-12T11:22:00.008-07:00

The Redwoods were beautiful at Muir Woods. The trees were very large . . .

Never fear, we had Batman there to protect us

My kids were really tired of having their picture taken

It was still a great place to visit

Jared put on his glasses and was trying to figure out who the winner will be.

The kids were racing in a grassy area by the San Francisco Bay.

We found an amazing beach by the Muir Woods

The boys found lots of interesting things in the sand

Like dead jelly fish

Despite these signs

Justin and Devyn spent all of their time playing in the ocean

The tide really freaked Jared out, he kept running up the beach when I tried to take his picture.

I was finally able to bribe him into taking this picture. He kept telling me,

"I do not like that water"

Tanner had fun burying himself in the sand

Sami really enjoyed sitting on the beach.

I think she was having a Six Flags hangover from the day before.

I didn't spend any time in the water either, because remember these signs.

Me and sharks don't mix.

The beach was gorgeous. It was my favorite day on this vacation.

Summer Vacation

2011-08-22T08:42:00.013-06:00

We decided to take the kids on a vacation this summer, our destination: San Francisco

We stayed in an amazing hotel that had a great pool right in the middle of the hotel, with real trees and waterfalls with koi ponds.

Did you catch the nightmare part, the pool was right in the middle of the hotel and half of the hotel windows face the pool. I'm not sure about your kids, but we love hotel pools so they can get some energy out. Trying to keep them quiet is almost impossible. I'm pretty sure most families are this way because you could hear the kids yelling in the pool from 6 am to 10 pm. The hotel was very pretty, just not very practical.

Our first destination: Alcatraz. As we were waiting for our boat ride, 200 plus bicylists rode past us, they were all naked. They had some live free ride happening. It's pretty hard to shield your kids from the sight when there are so many of them. Holy cow, not what we wanted to see. We rode a boat to Alcatraz.

The kids thought the boat was great!

The view was amazing

They thought they were cool

Until they were locked up

Tanner voted thumbs down

Solitary confinement

Can you believe that random people kept making comments about Chris's BSU sweater, but they didn't say anything to Sami. I think her orange Broncos stands out way more than Chris's blue sweatshirt.

Back to the boat we go.

What Do You Do?

2011-08-16T19:16:00.001-06:00

What do you do when you are in the woods and you don't have any toilet paper?

It's sad that I have to learn these things.

Newport, Oregon

2011-08-16T18:52:00.011-06:00

When I quit working back in April, Chris was working on the Oregon coast. He had a couple of days off, but it wasn't really enough time to come home. Since I finally had some time off, I decided to join him in Oregon for a last minute vacation.

It was really cold, this was the closest that we wanted to get to the ocean that day (we are standing in the parking lot next to our car. I know it's pathetic).

We went to the aquarium, which is amazing. This is one of the smaller crabs. Holy cow they were huge.

I loved these Puffin birds. They waddled across our pathway and I thought they were adorable.

This octopus freaked me out. She lives in a dark cave and when you peak in you see this crazy eye staring at you. I know it's not a great picture, but you can see the eye in the middle of the photo. Imagine her head upside down taking up the rest of the picture.

We also went fishing in the ocean. It was so much fun but it was so cold. We were both shivering when we finished so we didn't take a picture of our loot. Fear of hypothermia overtook the need for a photo. We limited out on sea bass and I also caught two Lincod, which are crazy ugly looking fish.

It was an amazing last minute vacation.

Devyn Doodlebug

2011-08-16T18:11:00.013-06:00

Some of our kids are unfortunate to have nicknames that stick. Devyn Doodlebug happens to be one of them. Sometimes we just call him Doodle or Do. I know, it's not the name your child wants to be called in middle school. At least he isn't the only Doodlebug in the world.

We found this store in Newport, Oregon.

Devyn loves to fish. He was pretty happy when he caught the first fish with the scouts at Cabela's.

Earlier this summer, Devyn had his appendix taken out. He really liked the cool bed in the hospital. He thought it was awesome that he could page the nurse and that the hospital delivered food to his room like room service. Modern medicine is so amazing that he doesn't even have a scar from the surgery, only a picture. He thinks that he is very cool since he is the only one in our family missing an appendix.

We love Devyn Doodlebug and I am glad that he still lets me call him that.

Spring Break

2011-08-16T18:05:00.005-06:00

Where did we spend our spring break, oh yeah, we went skiing. It was so hot that none of them wore their coats and they all complained that it was too hot. I can't wait until I make them ski and it really is cold.

Brains v. Speed

2011-05-25T23:04:00.003-06:00

Justin is super smart, but not super athletic. He decided to join track this year, because it is a big social event and he is a big social kid. He really wanted to qualify in an event so that he could go to the next level at Timberline. He knows that he isn't much of a runner, but he calculated that they take the top 8 and there were only 5 people entered in the 800 race. He knew that if he ran the race that even if he came in last he would still get to move on.

So he ran the 800 and just as he was coming in dead last, he slows down at the finish line and takes a puff of his inhaler and tosses it to his buddy on the sidelines and finishes the race. He was super happy because he knew he made it.

Unfortunately, he didn't do enough research. He thought if he made it to Timberline, he could participate in any event that he wanted to, he didn't know that he would have to run the 800 again. He was a good sport and ran the 800 again. He wasn't too disappointed that he didn't move on that time.

Mommy, I Sure Love My Toes

2011-05-25T22:51:00.002-06:00

We haven't been to the ER in a couple of years so I guess it was time. Jared caught his foot in a bicycle tire and ended up with three stitches and a big patch of skin and muscle to regrow. The stitches are finally out, now we just have a chunk of foot to regrow. I am not so good at wound care, especially on my baby. Gayle had this amazing Coban with bumble bees on it and Jared loved (put up with) getting his foot rebandaged because he loved the bees. I started to panic when we ran out because the kid is all about the bandage and less tears is always better. Most stores carry ugly brown Coban that can get very expensive. My new favorite thing is Coflex (Coban for horses found at D&B) it comes in a huge variety of colors and is only $1.99 a roll. Love it. Jared has a variety of colors that he picked out and then he gets to pick out his new bandage color. When we are done, he always tells me "Mommy, I sure love my toes." I respond, "Jared, I sure love your toes too."

I really hope his foot heals soon because our pool is about to open :)

Books I love

2011-04-08T23:41:00.004-06:00

I love, love, love to read. It is my happy place and helps me relax and find my sanity again. Now that I don't have to rush to work, I can tell you about some of my favorite books.

I recently read "Saving CeeCee Honeycutt" by Beth Hoffman. The more I think about this book, the more I love it.

This book is about a young girl who has a mother that is completely crazy and a father who can't deal with the situation so he travels for work and leaves her to take care of her mother. I love the relationships between the characters and the zany things that happen. It is really touching to see all of her hopes and dreams and figuring out life.

One character talks about how we all have life books that are written in our hearts. Some people are written in our books and they are meant to come in our lives and they will play an important part. At times our books take us in different directions, but we will never forget our old friends and we shouldn't be afraid and shut out the new opportunities.

I know there are certain people who have thousands and thousands of friends written in their life books. Mine isn't that extensive, but the ones that are written there have meant so much to me over the year. They each played an important part in my life and will never be forgotten.

This book has given me a lot to think about. I highly recommend it. If you read it, let me know and we can laugh over my favorite parts. I loved the slugs and the traveling bra, it was super funny.

I finally made it!!!

2011-04-08T23:10:00.003-06:00

Today was my last day at work!! I am so excited for my life to slow down and have a chance to hang out with my kids and do my laundry.

It will be big changes for my family and we are so excited. Justin said "I won't have to wait for you in the rain anymore, you can actually be on time."

I started at the prosecutor's office almost thirteen years ago. I was nineteen years old and Sami was three months old. I spent four years there and had three more babies. I left for a year after Tanner was born. I went back to school. Crazy as I am, I went back to work full time, went to school full time and had four kids under five years old. A year after being back at the office, I was offered a supervisor position and took all of that on. That was almost seven years ago and I don't think that I have stopped to take a breath since then.

Last year I decided that it was time I spent more time at home, so we have been working to make that happen. I was originally planning for my job to change this summer, but things worked out earlier than expected and today was my last day. It feels so strange to realize that I won't be typing Complaints on Monday morning, instead I will be baking cookies with Jared and Lauren. I will probably be back at the office working on part-time projects. But for the next couple of weeks, I am taking it easy. Well taking it easy from 9:00 - 3:00 until the kids get home from school. Then I will run around like crazy driving kids to scouts, track, volleyball, tutoring . . . yeah the list never stops when you multiply it all times five kids.

Maybe I can finally sleep in tomorrow . . . I was going to celebrate tomorrow, but sleep sounds awesome.

Chris said, "we are closing a chapter in our lives. I think it was called 'chaos.'" I told him our new chapter is called "organization." Karen-I may need to borrow some labels :)

Whatever it is called, we are all ready and excited for it.

Cereal

2011-04-04T22:34:00.003-06:00

In preparing to quit my job, I decided to see if I could become a fabulessly frugal couponer. I did good tonight. I spent $33 and we have 24 boxes of cereal, 8 gallons of milk, 3 big bags of M&M's, a bag of my favorite easter candy and enough UPC's to send in for a $10.00 gas card. It may not be the $600 worth of groceries for $10 that Devyn is trying for but it was over $200 worth of groceries for $30. At least we have breakfast, dinner and late night snack covered for the next week.

Too bad I will probably blow all of my savings at Costco this weekend. Some days are good saving days, some days not so much.

Adventures of a Bathroom Door

2011-03-21T14:10:00.002-06:00

If you read my previous post, you will remember that back in December my bathroom door was smashed with a sledge hammer. It was blocking me out of my closet and toothbrush and I was late for work. What can I say.

Well the door has been sitting in my garage and has been attacked by a sledge hammer a few more times. It sat patiently waiting for the day when my boys could take it out and use it for target practice.

The happy day arrived last Saturday. My door was tied to the top of our Suburban and the boys headed to the hills with the neighbors to finish off the door. Well it was cold and windy and rainy and the boys had a few other things to shoot at and the door was forgotten.

The Suburban was very muddy after the shoot out, so Chris took it to the car wash before he came home. He completely forgot about the door until his friend pointed it out half way through the car wash. The poor door met its end by a car wash rather than a shot gun. It has finally been put to rest.

Luckily Justin's Keeping me on the Straight and Narrow

2011-02-13T17:24:00.004-07:00

So I was at Costco last week and bought a lime flavored mix. It is really yummy to mix with ice cream and I thought it would be fun to make for the kids.

Justin saw that the label said "Margarita Mix" and he thought that I took up drinking. He gave me a really nice lecture and showed a lot of concern for my new habit.

Finally when he was done, I showed him the label that said "non-alcoholic" and explained that I haven't started drinking and I really don't have a plan to start drinking ever. In order to make a margarita alcoholic, you have to add alcohol.

I told him that I was really proud of him for being willing to stand up to me when he thought I was doing something wrong. He told me that he was really worried about what those people at work were trying to get me to do. I told him that luckily nobody has ever made me doing something that I didn't want to do. He is safe from me becoming an alcoholic. He thought that if I was going to start drinking that he would hide all of the alcohol from me.

Luckily my ten year old is there to watch out for me and keep me making good choices, ha ha.

Potty Training

2011-01-26T21:17:00.001-07:00

Me: Come on Jared, please go potty in the toilet so you can be a big boy.

Jared: Or else I will be a girl.

I guess we still have a lot to learn.

Life with Boys

2011-01-19T22:44:00.002-07:00

Being the mother of four boys has taught me so many things. Some days I have to sit back in a stupor because the whole experience is so messed up in my girl brain. For example:

*Farting is always funny.

*Obsession with guns and shooting things. Jared even carries his Wii gun to bed.

I just don't get it. Tonight we were putting together their pine wood derby cars. I have been finding the nails to hold the tires on for the last two months all around my house and it has been making me a little nutty. But tonight could we find them, not so much. So how do boys solve this problem? They go to the garage and find the metal detector to search the carpet for the nails. It is amazing what you can find under your couch with a metal detector.

I made the boys proud last month. I was blocked out of my bathroom and my closet. Something had fallen behind the drawer in my bathroom and had pushed the drawer open, successfully blocking the bathroom door. After an hour of trying to get in, I finally took a sledge hammer to the bathroom door. In my brain it was the cheapest option and it was blocking my way to my shower, toothbrush and clothes. There was no way I was going to work in my pj's with morning breath and crazy hair. In their head, smashing a door with a sledge hammer is the coolest thing ever. I may end up figuring out how to live with boys one day after all.

Thanksgiving

2010-11-18T22:16:00.003-07:00

November is a great time to express the things that you are thankful for. Many people are posting every day. I am not good at the daily thing, so here is my list of 50 things I am grateful for:

1-Tanner working super hard at school this year and getting almost straight A's.
2-My super cool kitchen table that Chris and Devyn made for me for Christmas last year.
3-Diet Coke, total lifesaver.
4-Books, ditto total lifesaver.
5-Chocolate.
6-Jared telling me, I love you mustard, eyeballs, hamburger, or whatever he is calling me at the moment.
7-Devyn bringing me breakfast in bed, especially when he has Jared help him bring it to me. Devyn makes really great crepes.
8-Justin rubbing my feet while he watches tv and I read my book.
9-Sami painting my toe nails.
10-Super greatful that my kids can cook and make me dinner.
11-When I have a chance to go away with my sweet hubby.
12-Wednesday lunches with Shanna.
13-Bread, I really love good bread.
14-Becky coming to clean my house.
15-Rare moments of peace and quiet.
16-Football is over, until next season!
17-My job, I know it's a surprise.
18-The super amazing primary kids in our ward.
19-Sweaters.
20-Really soft fuzzy socks.
21-Coming home to a clean house and happy kids.
22-Knowing that my 12 year old is going to be a fabulous mom, because she is typically the one that is responsible for the clean house and happy kids.
23-Fake nails.
24-When my family laughs and is happy.
25-The funny jokes that Jared and Justin tell to make us all laugh.
26-My Savior.
27-My dad.
28-Pedicures.
29-Mobile car detailers.
30-My testimony.
31-My sisters.
32-Even my brothers.
33-Freshly washed Egyptian cotton super soft sheets.
34-Days I get to sleep in.
35-LASIK surgery enabling me to see without glasses.
36-Weeks when Chris is home.
37-Weekends when I have absolutely nothing on the schedule.
38-Morning texts and nightly phone calls I get from Chris when he is gone and the lunch dates we have when he is home.
39-The snooze button.
40-The pool in our subdivision.
41-Vacations.
42-Cirque du soleil - the two performances I have seen are really amazing.
43-Phone calls to Karen to tell her my crazy stories.
44-Summer.
45-That I don't have to live through Wyoming winters anymore.
46-Ice cream.
47-Watching Sami play basketball and seeing how aggressive she plays.
48-Sweet hugs from my family.
49-Watching my kids succeed or make good choices.
50-When my husband makes dinner.

I have many other things that I am grateful for, but this is already really long. Thanks to my family and my old friends and my new friends. I am grateful to all of you for helping me become the person I am today. I hope that you all have a great Thanksgiving.

My husband, the mighty hunter

2010-11-18T22:04:00.004-07:00

Chris went deer hunting

with his friend, Doug

They both came back happy hunters.
I ended up with a gross big deer in my garage.

Chris left his camera up on the hunt. He was very sad and was frantically searching for it, while I was frantically trying to get ready for the primary program. Chris didn't have time on Sunday to go back and look for his camera, so he phoned a friend that was still up there to see if he could find it. His friend found it and then lost it. He told Chris I think it fell out of my pocket in a flat spot by the river next to a tree. The following Thursday, Chris drove up there to see if he could find his camera. He actually found the flat spot by the river next to the tree and found his camera. It had been sitting there since Sunday, in the rain, and it still worked. Chris took this picture to test it out. I am still amazed that not only did he find it, it still worked.

Halloween 2010

2010-11-18T21:49:00.004-07:00

Lauren, Jared, Tanner, Justin and Devyn

Lauren and Jared (tigger thinks that something is funny)

Tanner the Ninja

Devyn our biker rebel

Justin our nerd
(we are still debating whether he actually dressed up or really looks like this all of the time)

Sam and Jared as a caterpillar on day 2
(one of the benefits of being the youngest is that you have lots of costumes to choose from
he was also Bob the Builder at one point)

Samantha, Brynn and Brooklyn (barbie likes to pose)

Chris had to work and missed Halloween, but one of his friends was kind enough to dress up as Chris Perren, the Hunter, so at least Chris was with us in spirit

Beautiful Problems

2010-09-22T11:34:00.003-06:00

I have a friend who was sharing an experience where she was frustrated and she called her mom for advise. Her mom basically said sweetie, you have beautiful problems.

I have thought a lot about beautiful problems since then. I am amazed at how often I am frustrated with things and when I think about it, the problems are beautiful. Things will work out and I don't need to stress about them. Luckily at this point they aren't nasty problems.

It has really helped me put things in perspective and I am grateful that my problems are beautiful.

September 11th

2010-09-14T20:46:00.002-06:00

September 11th has always held a lot of meaning.

It is my dad's birthday

It is Ryan and Devona's wedding anniversary

It is Jenalee's dad's birthday, the day she called to tell me she was pregnant with Halle and later her son's birthday

It is the day the twin towers fell

It is Tanner's baptism day

Sadly, most people only know about the twin towers and they remember the day with sadness or horror. This year as I was planning Tanner's baptism, I wanted to do it on my dad's birthday and I ran into a scheduling conflict. Now September 11th is a day of service. It made me happy that people are doing good on this day rather than just focusing on the destruction. I know it would make my dad happy that people are using the day to do something good for someone else.

As for the baptism, Tanner just wanted to make sure we had good dessert. His happy memories are the baptism and the 4 1/2 donuts that he ate.

Tanner really wanted to spend the night with his Grandma Gayle. So Chris drove out to her house to pick him up on Sunday morning and they were late coming back. I also didn't have a chance to see him get dressed and it wasn't until we were at the church 10 minutes late that I realized he had one short sock and one long sock on. Since he could sit by the bishop and we were late he had to hurry up to the front before the sacrament prayers started. So Tanner ran as fast as he could through the chapel and sat next to the bishop a second before the sacrament prayers started. I have many memories about the baptism, but I will never forget Tanner sprinting through the chapel with mismatched socks on with the biggest smile on his face.

Boys . . .

2010-08-03T12:29:00.003-06:00

I was mocked and laughed at today by my two year old because I don't have a pee pee. He actually pointed and laughed.

Daddy Daughter Campout

2010-07-19T13:48:00.003-06:00

Chris and Sam try to go on a summer campout

with their friends every year.

This year they had a late start and drove up to the

trail head to spend the first night.

The second day, they hiked in to the lake and stayed there.

Aren't the dads and their daughters so cute . . .

Bernt and Tessa

Gordon and Brooke

They hiked and made funny faces

They fished and made more funny faces

They ate and made more funny faces

Sam really likes to make goofy faces, if you can't tell by now

They hiked to a waterfall that still had snow around it

And they came back smelly and happy

They also took pictures of their dads asleep

and they took the camera in the middle of the night and took some high quality blackmail photos, but I will wait to post those for when she actually starts dating or her wedding or something.

Sam's Sixth Grade Graduation

2010-07-19T13:36:00.002-06:00

Sam graduated from Sixth Grade

I think Chris was a little sad she is growing up

This is her teacher Mr. Blume, he rocks by the way

Sam's friends all received the presidential award, go girls!

Lauren came to show off her new princess dress

This is the boy Sam likes. Chris embarassed them both by taking their picture although they both really wanted it taken. Now I will embarass her by posting it on our blog :)

~ I love you Sam! Good luck in middle school ~

I know, I know, I'm a loser

2010-05-12T12:56:00.004-06:00

I am really not so great about updating my blog. I keep thinking about it, but that is as far as it has gone. Maybe one day . . . Here are some highlights on how the last two weeks have been at our house.

We just moved again, I know it sucks. Our new house is great and I love our new neighborhood. Moving is always eventful for us. This time, Justin set down a heavy box on another box and all of this smoke started to fill the U-Haul. Justin ran to Chris and told him about it. Chris thinks "Great, there is a fire and I opted out of the extra insurance." Chris investigates and finds out that Justin put a heavy box on top of the fire extinguisher. So lucky we had no fire, and no chance of fire, but they still had to evacuate the U-Haul for thirty minutes waiting for the smoke to clear.

In March, Shanna had scheduled an appointment for Sami to have her hair done at a fun salon downtown and of course it happened to be right in the middle of when we were moving. I went to the school to pick up Sam and of course she is in the middle of ISAT testing. I am one of "those moms" who not only ignores the notes that come home telling you to pay attention to when the testing is and make sure that your kids eat and sleep well before the testing, I schedule a move and a hair appointment during the ISTAT testing. My kids were sleeping on matresses on the floor and certainly did not get a great nights sleep and probably didn't get breakfast either. Do I win mother of the year award yet? The school looked at me like I am so messed up. Luckily Sam had time to finish her test before her appointment because I needed to use the next hour hunting down Chris's mom's dog that we were dog sitting and ran away. There were two other dogs in the neighborhood that it ran after and a sweet lady down the street picked up Bella so that she wouldn't get ran over. It just took so much extra time to find her when she would have been able to just walk home.

Finally we are moved and I am back at work and the school calls to tell me that my son has been suspended from school because he had fireworks in his backpack. He has had them in his backpack since Spring Break - thanks again to his counsins for supplying my son with fireworks. One just happens to fall out of his backpack and a kid found it and showed the duty, who asked my son if it was his and luckily for him he was honest. I would have been more angry with him for lying, but did it really have to happen now. The poor kid felt horrible and I am really shocked that the school would suspend him for fireworks, but whatever.

Jared really likes to play with suitcases and they are all stored under the stairs. The crawl space door is also under the stairs and he thought it would be cool to pull it up. I thought under the stairs smelled funky, but I thought it was maybe the paint because it doesn't have any ventilation. Not so much, there is a dead rat in my crawl space. I decided that some days are just dead rat kind of days.

My mom ended up finally closing on her house at the end of my moving week. Karen came up with her four cute kids and stayed with us so that she could paint my mom's house and possibly help move. We worked all week painting her house and I had to work at my real job too. Finally Friday we finished painting and Saturday we were able to move her in. Yeah!!! Her house is cute and the painting turned out great! My sister is a master painter. I really really wanted to paint her hair so that she looked like a candy cane, but it would have been really rude, so I kept my paint to myself all week long. Maybe I am growing up a little after all.

My niece Lauren really loves playing at my house and she thinks she needs a minimum of eight hours if not a couple of days before she has to go home. Then it takes her a while to unwind once she gets home. My sister calls my house the baby crack house.

Mother's Day was great because I was able to finally take a day off and sleep in. Chris and the kids made a fabulous breakfast and sang Happy Mother's Day to the tune of Happy Birthday. They were very sweet. I even had lunch in bed. It was great.

Monday we went to the Nickelback concert and it was awesome. Chris wanted to go really bad, so I bought him tickets for Valentines Day and the concert came at a great time. We both needed a night off. We were on the floor and it was super fun until this hoochie girl pushed her way up in front of us and made some very hoochie like comments. I didn't mind any of that so much, it was her stupid bag that was driving me crazy. She had this mondo bag that she brought with her. We were all squished on the floor at this point and didn't have much room to move around and she thought that she could dance a lot from side to side with this huge bag and she kept shaking her hair on me. She was making me nuts and I elbowed her a few times. I really wanted to throw my gum in her bag and I am still regretting that I didn't. Luckily for me she liked the boy standing in front of me, so she kept eyeing him and started shoving her bag into him instead of me. She must have ignored his wedding ring because she is a hoochie. The rest of the concert was amazing and I am so glad that we went.

He's Turning Into Justin

2009-11-11T20:12:00.002-07:00

The other day Jared kept grabbing Sami's papers and laughing at her. She was annoyed and said you are starting to turn into Justin.

Later he was trying to get grandma backpack to laugh. He tickled her and she laughed. He scared her and she fake screamed. Finally he took some kleenexes and got them wet and put them on her back. She shrieked and he thought it was hilarious so he did it again, and again. Finally we started to wonder where he was getting the water from. All I have to say is that grandma is lucky it came from Sam's toilet rather than the little boy's toilet. Sam said, he really is turning into Justin.

As I am typing this, he is farting on my lap and laughing about it. I think I have to agree. Jared really is turning into Justin.

Cell phone trauma

2009-08-19T19:54:00.004-06:00

Most people have problems with their cell phone because they drop it in water or simply break it. My problems aren't quite the same. I put my last phone in salsa. It toasted my battery and didn't survive. On my way home from Wyoming this weekend, I dropped my phone in my melted vanilla shake. I took it apart and put it in rice and hoped that it would survive. I could make calls and text, however, ice cream was stuck in the speaker so nobody could hear me. Chris took it in and the phone guy was able to fix it - my phone just smells like vanilla now. I can handle vanilla, I am just crossing my fingers that it continues to work.

Father's Day

2009-08-12T20:17:00.008-06:00

For Father's Day, (Yeah I know I am posting a couple months late) Chris really wanted to go fishing in the Columbia River. So he brought his two work sidekicks with him.

Travis caught a fish.

Greg and his daughter Jessica caught a fish.

So what did Chris catch?

Wait for it.

Yeah, there's no picture, because it is hard to take a picture of NOTHING.

But never fear, we took care of him and made him a really yummy dessert pizza.

You probably can't tell but it tasted really good.

Well at least Sam thought it tasted good anyway.

Trust me, fruit pizza tastes way better than fish on any day.

I know I like to tease my husband and he takes it really well - just ask him about what I did to him at Red Robin. He really thought it was hilarious, well I thought it was hilarious anyway. All joking aside, we really are grateful that he is such a good dad. Here are some of the things that I appreciate about him.

I love it when he takes the kids fishing while I am at work and I come home to an empty house with a free evening to myself.

I love it when he teases Sam and gets her to smile when she really doesn't want to.

I love it when he gets really worked up about our kids playing sports and he is trying really hard not to jump off the bench, and he cheers really loud (even though it is almost to the point of getting kicked out). He always makes sure the team has gatorade or powerade. It is really sweet to see how well he takes care of his daughter's basketball team, his son's football team, his nephews basketball game (where he really did get kicked out), or his cousin's sons' baseball game. He is very supportive and he actually likes going to practice.

I love how he can make anyone feel good about themselves.

I love it when he stays up all night with my sick babies so that I can sleep.

I love it when he holds me and rubs my head while I am sick too until I fall asleep.

I love that he laughs at my jokes even though they are really dumb and he listens to me talk and talk and talk even though he is really tired.

I really love it when he hides me notes or sends me e-mails or flowers or cards in the mail when he is gone.

I could probably go on for a while about what a great dad Chris is, but I will let the experts tell you how they feel.

Jared says: Daddy is awesome.

Devyn says: Dad buys me stuff when I have a football game. He brings me to the football game. He buys me powerade and krispy kreme donuts and other stuff. He gave me my first gun out of the whole family and it is really cool. He takes me to boondocks and fishing and let me skip school to go hunting. I love him but I too embarrased to say it.

Justin says: Dad is the best dad ever because he gives us awesome presents and he cares about us alot, and I love him very much.

Tanner says: I love Dad because he's nice. I really miss him when he's gone, but at least I get to sleep in his bed because it is really big and I really like it. I like it when he lets me ride in the front seat and takes me to the store and buys me candy. I like it when he takes me to ride on a jetski.

Sam says: He takes me on daddy daughter campouts with his friends and their daughters. They are really fun. He let me drive his truck twice after we went fishing. He takes me out of school one day a year so we can do something fun like skiing or going to gameworld and go out to eat. Sometimes he brings lunch to me at school so that I can have something better than school lunch and we can spend time together. He is really silly and likes to play jokes on my mom. He tried to take me to put toothpaste under her door handles while she was at Wal-mart. Too bad mom came home before we had the chance to go. It would have been really funny. I think he is the best dad in the whole universe and I love him very much.

Rub-a-dub-dub

2009-08-12T20:07:00.002-06:00

Rub-a-dub-dub, there's a naked baby in the tub

Bikes Schmikes

2009-08-12T20:01:00.004-06:00

Who needs a bike when you can be pushed around on a dolly instead

Our Good, Bad and Ugly Week

2009-07-30T13:32:00.004-06:00

There are things that I love about being a mother and other things, not so much. We have had a crazy week and I will let you decide which is good, which is bad and which is really ugly.

*I got sick on Wednesday and thought I had the swine flu. Luckily I don't, but I had kept the kids away from me until I was sure. Once I figured out I didn't, Justin came in my room and told me how grateful he was that I didn't have it. I thought he was worried about me and he acted concerned, but the more he spoke about it, I figured out that he was really grateful that I didn't have the swine flu because he didn't want to be quarantined for the next week and miss out on all of the fun places that they were planning on going.

*I had Justin rubbing my head, because my head hurt really bad and he is amazing at foot rubs, back scratches or head rubs. He tells me, "Mom I really like your forehead it is really nice." I say, "thanks bud that is really sweet." He follows it up with, "yeah I really like all of the wrinkles in it."

*My sweet sister-in-law Becky stayed at my house while I was sick and had made me soup for dinner. I finished the noodles and left the bowl on my bathroom counter. On Day 2 of her being at my house full time watching a truck load of kids, she had just bathed Jared and was about to leave. She bent down to grab toilet paper from under my bathroom sink and Jared walks in the bathroom and says "soup" as he pulls my leftover bowl of soup on top of both of them.

*Jared is learning lots of new words and how to do lots of new things. It is typically quite sweet. The other night I was talking to Chris on the phone and he tells me "mess." I follow him in the kitchen. He has just learned how to open my fridge and pull out the eggs and crack them on the floor. The good point as Sam points out is that at least me admits when he makes a mess.

*When Chris is gone my kids really like to sleep in my bed and as long as they don't get under my feet or kick my back while I am sleeping, I don't mind. However, it isn't so much fun when you are woken up at 3:30 in the morning with Tanner puking in the bed. I realized that I had chunks on my clothes. I send him in the shower and change my clothes and send Justin upstairs to his bed. He obviously wasn't too disturbed by the commotion because he crawled back in my puked bed and pulled the puked blanket on top of him. For some reason, he came out of it clean though so I sent him to bed a second time. My amazing daughter helped me with the cleanup process so that we could have a puke free place to sleep and put Tanner on the floor with his own blanket, towel and puke bucket. He felt much better last night and was trying to find a way to be sick so that he could have more sprite, gatorade and special treatment, but not too sick to be able to play and do the fun things he wanted to. It is a pretty fine line to figure out.

So it has been a fun week. Luckily Chris is back in town and we are feeling better and on board to baptize Devyn on Saturday.

We are back on-line

2009-07-05T20:30:00.003-06:00

As you probably noticed, I haven't blogged in a while and now there are tons of them. We moved at the end of May and it has taken Qwest forever to get our internet working correctly. So we are finally back on-line!

Happy 31st!

2009-07-05T19:27:00.006-06:00

I turned 31 this year and it was much more traumatic for me than last year. I am getting old and running out of time to do the things in life I want to do. I have never traveled on a plane with my husband. After twelve years of marriage and five kids, I decided we were going on a trip for my birthday. We ended up going to Vegas.

And I actually won

So did Chris

I guess if I can't take Chris to Paris yet, Le Paris will have to do

We were waiting to watch the Criss Angel show.

It was very late and we were already exhausted.

We stayed at the Bellagio. The gardens there are very beautiful.

They made some pretty cool creatures out of flowers.

This is at the Flamingo after watching the Nate Burton show.

New York New York/Excalibur

We ate at The Top of the World. It is the rotating restaurant at the top of the Stratosphere. This is the view from the table.

I don't do too well with heights and I was too chicken to get too close to the window, so Chris took a picture for me so I could see it.

We had a really great trip. What I learned:

1. There is too much to see in Vegas to fit it all in one trip.

2. I need to travel more often, I totally love it.

3. I love lounging around by the pool, I need to do it more often too.

4. Criss Angel's show is called Mind Freak - yeah it is pretty trippy, the name fits it well.

5. Loved La Reve and Excalibur.

6. The Bellagio is way over rated.

7. The Mirage has the best virgin pina coladas I have ever had.

8. It has been twelve years since I have spent 4 solid days with Chris alone. We had a lot of fun together.

9. Really high restaurants that rotate really aren't my thing, they kind of make me want to throw up.

10. Turning 31 isn't so bad if you can live it up.

Random things we have been up to

2009-07-05T19:05:00.006-06:00

Tanner lost another tooth

Chris found his dream car - it is some type of Ferrari

Justin earned his wolf badge

I got a new hair cut

Justin got a new goofy grin. Yes, we are so proud.

Then he got glasses.

Jared made a new friend from Build-a-Bear

Sam learned how to blow bubbles from soap.

Devyn was a plant in a Life Cycles Play

Jared's Growing Up Way Too Fast

2009-07-05T19:02:00.001-06:00

Jared was being too quiet, so I sent Sami to check on him. She found him on the love seat in the play room watching iCarly. She asked him if he liked iCarly and he responded, "hot." He is way too young to get girl crazy.

Devyn's Birthday Continued

2009-07-05T18:56:00.002-06:00

I am not so good about having a cake with candles to blow out. Our family tradition is more along the lines of breakfast in bed with candles in your breakfast, while you family sings a horrible rendition of happy birthday. Devyn was lucky enough to get donuts in bed.

Happy Birthday to Sam & Devyn

2009-07-05T18:29:00.003-06:00

This was the first year that we looked at Sam's birthday list and said "Holy Cow!" We are certainly getting closer to the teenage years. Here is her list:

1. Cell phone ($10 per month, plus cost of phone = $170 for the first year)
2. Nintendo DSI, so she can text message, have internet access take pictures and play video games (cost $180)
3. Clothes from Abercrombie or Hollister
4. I can't remember the official name, but basically it is a minature movie player ($100 plus each video $20)

Her dream was that she would sit in her newly decorated room and talk on her cell phone while she was wearing her new clothes from Abercrombie and play her DSI while she was watching a movie. Yeah, it so did not happen. We were able to down grade a little, but she was still happy.

Devyn was much easier. He just wanted Mario Cart Wii. Lucky for him, Chris was going to be gone for his actual birthday so he was able to open some of his presents early. I don't think that Chris could have waited another week for Devyn to open his BB Gun. I am not sure who was more excited about it Chris or Devyn.

As you can see Devyn was really happy.

Justin wasn't quite so happy. He thinks that he needs to be the coolest person ever with the coolest stuff ever. It isn't very fair that Devyn has a cool game and a cool gun. Even though Devyn shares, Justin thinks all things cool should be his.

Tanner

2009-07-05T18:15:00.001-06:00

Tanner is such a ham and he loves to jump on the trampoline. He is pretty proud of his moves.

Lauren

2009-07-05T17:57:00.003-06:00

I am in love with my niece Lauren. She has made several trips up here lately while her parents have been looking at houses. I am surrounded by boys, so it has been really fun having more girls around. Lauren loves getting her toe nails painted. She also loves getting make up on, fake earring stickers, bubbles and the slip and slide. We have had a lot of fun playing with her and teaching her new things. She is really sweet and I can't wait until she is back from vacation so I can spend more time with her.

Tanner's Jokes #5

2009-05-20T14:17:00.003-06:00

Tanner thought it would be really great to add water to my hair spray because then there is more of it. My hair has a tendency to become very curly or frizzy when it gets wet. My freshly straightened hair didn't look so great after I sprayed water all over it instead of hair spray.

A Few Things My Kids Still Need to Learn

2009-05-06T13:37:00.008-06:00

Apparently Devyn is still struggling with genetics. Back when I was pregnant with Jared, we saw a tv show where this white lady delivered twin African American babies. We also had cute little African American twins that lived across the street. Devyn was obsessed that I also was going to deliver two black babies also. I kept trying to convince him that wasn't a possibility. But he was obsessed, he kept saying, "well what if it happens." I finally had to tell him that it isn't going to happen, but if it does, then mommy would be in a lot of trouble. He finally dropped it when Jared was born and looked just like him. I thought he learned but I guess not.

Devyn's birthday was yesterday and he thought that he was part Mexican because his birthday is on Cinco de Mayo. I tried my best to convince him that he isn't and kids take after their parents, but he doesn't believe me. For him it is all about the birthday. I wonder what June 6th makes me, part summer?

Tanner told me yesterday that "there are two no fairs" that happened to him that day. Apparently he is keeping track of the "no fair" things that are happening to him. I guess I haven't done a very good job teaching him that life isn't fair and if only two "no fair" things happen, he should feel lucky.

Sam loves . . .

2009-04-15T20:02:00.006-06:00

Sam loves playing basketball.

Sam loves getting ready and the number 3. She was very excited to pick the number out for her uniform.

Sam was way excited to finally get her ears pierced and she loves earings.

Sam loves her daddy.

She also loves her baby brother.

Sam loves getting awards, this one is for compassion.

These are for track.

She doesn't love touching dead fish.

And she doesn't love me taking pictures of her all of the time.

But we all love Sam, she ROCKS!

If you think this is bad, you should see what the other guy looks like

2009-04-14T20:30:00.004-06:00

Don't you hate the phone calls from the school that begin with, "don't panic, everything's okay, but . . ." I received one of those calls last week and wasn't worried until she repeated that statement a couple of times. Justin had a run in with another boy and ended up getting a huge bruise on his cheek. Luckily for Justin it wasn't a fight, they both weren't paying attention and they just ran into each other.

Stress Relief

2009-04-14T19:55:00.002-06:00

You have all heard the term, there is no such thing as a stupid question. I disagree. I answer a lot of really stupid questions. At times, I reach my stupid question limit and I have to put a huge effort into not throwing my pen at someone or saying something that will get me fired. My sister was sensing my frustration and sent me a dammit doll. So when I get frustrated I can close my door and whack her around until I can get back to my happy place. She is by far the cutest part of my stress relief collection. I also have a stress ball and a worry stone, but I have huge urges to throw them at people also. I think the dammit doll just might work. Thanks Karen!

2009-04-03T20:26:00.006-06:00

Jared has found a few new things that he loves. He is obsessed with ketchup. He scoops it up with his hands and tries to eat it. He just ends up getting it all over his face and his hair. I guess we could call him ketchup face instead of syrup head.

He also loves to go outside. He tries to escape out the back door. When he realizes it is locked, this is what happens.

Followed by this:

I think I have seen that face before. I guess some things it takes a while to grow out of.

If he gets to go outside, he is all smiles. Let's hope that it warms up soon so that he can have more happy days outside eating ketchup.

April Fools Day and Tanner's Jokes #4

2009-04-01T13:02:00.011-06:00

In honor of April Fools Day, I thought Tanner deserved the spotlight with one of his pranks.

One night Chris rolls over and his hand hits something soft and gooey in our bed. Early in the morning, when you aren't too coherent what would your first thought be that it is - yeah pooh. Chris smells it and it doesn't smell like pooh so he is brave enough to taste it. Did I mention that he wasn't coherent yet. Luckily for him it ended up being yogurt. Only Tanner would dump yogurt in our bed in the middle of the night. I guess it could have been something worse like eggs or pooh, but it was still gross.

My kids have been giggling and whispering about what kind of joke they are going to play on me this year. I haven't figured out what it is yet, but I think it has something to do with toothpaste. Tonight is Grandma's night to babysit, so maybe they will forget by the time I get home, or maybe I will end up with toothpaste or something disgusting in my bed.

Spring Break

2009-03-30T20:38:00.012-06:00

I had to work most of spring break. My kids went bowling on Monday without me. Can you see how happy they were playing while I had to work.

Aunt Becky took them all to Game World on Wednesday. I was actually very happy to avoid that that trip. Aunt Becky is amazing.

On Thursday we headed to Utah. Look at my cute husband driving me there.

I was able to meet my best friend from high school, Jenalee. It was great to catch up with her I haven't seen her in years. I decided to torture her and make her get a pedicure. Most people wouldn't think this is torture, however Jenalee is recovering from a broken foot. Me being an idiot forgot. Luckily she was a good sport about it and we both ended up with really cute toes.

We ate lunch at Kneaders, my favorite place in Utah that I don't have in Boise. Then we took our kids to the dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving Point. Chris has better pictures on his phone, so I will have to download them later.

Sam was very jealous that she missed out on having a pedicure. I sent her to Theron's house to hang out with her cousin Jessie. I was hoping that she would forgive me for leaving her out. Aunt Gena needed a pedicure and thought it would be fun to take the girls. I had the choice of going along or watching a hunting video with Chris and Theron. I obviously opted to go with the girls. There was a lacross store next door, so my nephew Adam and Justin came along to hang out at the lacross store. I didn't want to just sit there, so I had my nails done. I have never had fake nails before, so this is a fun new experience trying to type. This picture is our nails and I have been forgiven. Justin ended up with a lacross stick. It has become his new apendage. I think that he even takes it to bed with him.

My cute nieces were blessed - Ann Geddes eat your heart out - this is Emma and Chloe.

Chris had to leave for Nebraska on Sunday for work. The weather was pretty bad when I dropped him off. I thought that I might stay one more day. Being from Wyoming, I am not scared of a little snow. What scares me is a ten hour drive with five kids in the snow. Luckily for me the weather cleared up so I was ready to head home. My kids had their hopes up, they really wanted to stay one more day. After much begging and pleading I decided that it wouldn't kill us to stay one more day. Some of my kids were convinced that it would kill them if they had to leave on Sunday. So we stayed. The biggest perk to staying was that I was able to eat at Kneaders again on Monday. This time with my mom and sister. It was very good, I really need one in Boise.

Here is a close up of the girls. Chloe is in purple and Emma is in pink.

We are back at home ready to back to school and work. I only forgot to turn in two videos to the library (which is a $6 late fee), get snacks for Tanner's class tomorrow (which means a super early trip to Winco in the morning), a meeting I was supposed to go to with Tanner's teacher today, Devyn's spring break diary, Justin's talk in primary and whatever I needed to do for work and completely forgot about. At least I made it home safely with all of the kids, oh wait, Karen did I leave one of the boys down there, it is unusually quiet here. Nevermind here they are crashed out after all of the excitement.

Tanner's Jokes #2 & #3

2009-03-24T09:41:00.004-06:00

Tanner is known as a chick magnet or a girlfriend stealer. He is very cute so my older nephews like to take him along because all of the teenage girls think that they are so sweet to have such a cute little nephew. So one day TJ takes Tanner along to a girl's house and tells everyone that Tanner is his little brother. All of the girls are in love with Tanner and think that TJ is so great because he has such a cute little brother. So Tanner tells them "my brother wears girls underwear, he really does." They all think that TJ is the one that wears girls underwear. He isn't really. One night a really long time ago, Sam and Justin thought it would be funny to swap underwear. Justin got in a lot of trouble for wearing girls underwear. Last week Tanner thought it would be funny to plant some of Sam's underwear in Justin's drawer, hoping that he would get in trouble again. Behind that cute smile is a very mischevious little boy. Jared has become the new chick magnet. He hasn't learned how to talk yet and he doesn't give away any embarassing secrets.

Tanner's Jokes #1

2009-03-24T09:30:00.005-06:00

I have mentioned that Tanner likes to pull pranks. One night he thought it would be very funny to get some brown play doh and squish it into a ball and put it down his brother's underwear while he was sleeping. My poor son woke up and said there's play doh in my pants. He was very confused. Now who likes to wake up with play doh in their pants that looks like poop. Tanner thought it was hillarious. I have to admit that it kind of makes me laugh as long as no play doh ends up in my pants while I am sleeping. I just don't think you can teach this kind of humor.

Devyn Doodle Bug

2009-03-23T22:14:00.004-06:00

I love Devyn. He is such a sweet kid and most of the time he is okay if Chris or I call him Devyn Doodle Bug, but his brothers are not allowed to. If you ask him though he prefers Devyn, just Devyn. He does not like nicknames. He does not like to get in trouble and he gets embarassed very easily. Most of you have heard this story, but it is my favorite Devyn story. . .

Pink slips from school are not a new thing in my household. I think that Justin brought home 14 his first two years in school. I typically get several phone calls on my cell phone and work phone to let me know that Justin was in trouble. So when I get a call from the school about my son, I automatically think that Justin got in trouble again. Not so much.

Devyn had been throwing wet paper towels on the bathroom wall at school. As I drove home trying to figure out what kind of punishment he is going to get and try to perfect my lecture on respecting school property, I call Chris for advice. His first response is doesn't he know that he should throw them on the ceiling not on the walls. It was very helpful. So I go home and get ready to start in the lecture until I found out that Devyn had actually gotten the pink slip two weeks before hand, but he was too embarassed to tell anyone. He sat on the wall at school during his recesses rather than bring the note home to sign. Finally his teacher was gone one day, so he thought he would pull one over on the substitute because she didn't know me. He had his friend sign my name to it, since his friend knew how to sign my name. The forgery was pretty obvious when they had signed it "Roobie" It turned out to be one of those mom moments that I just had to shake my head so that I wouldn't laugh and I honestly didn't know what to say.

I did learn that Devyn can keep a secret much better than Justin.

Saturday

2009-03-21T22:33:00.002-06:00

Our Saturdays are typically filled with basketball, volleyball or football. I have hit the short few months that I get with no sports! Lucky me gets a couple of Saturdays free. So what do I do - I punish myself with a trip to Costco with four kids. There must be something wrong with me. Why do I do it you might ask. Because my desk drawer is completely out of sweedish fish and my fridge is out of diet coke. At least I got to sleep in this morning so my free day wasn't a complete waste.

It's Spring Break!!! What Do We Think?

2009-03-20T18:37:00.005-06:00

Tanner's Photos

2009-03-20T18:21:00.008-06:00

Tanner likes to "borrow" my cell phone and take pictures. I usually end up with silly pictures like this on it:

or random pictures:

However, I am actually impressed with this one:

Maybe he has the knack after all, but more likely it was pure luck.

Advice from Dad

2009-03-19T07:50:00.005-06:00

I always think about my Dad alot in March, he passed away nine years ago this month. I was listening to one of his tapes a little while ago so that I could hear his voice. During part of the tape he was talking about a trip he made to Boise. He was driving along with my mom and hit this huge snow storm, there were cars pulled over to the sides of the road for miles. But my dad being my dad went slow and just kept trucking along. Then he said that two miles down the road, the weather cleared up and it was bright and sunny. He said those people that had given up and pulled over to the side of the road had no idea that two miles ahead the weather was bright and sunny and the roads were clear. It hit me how our trials in life are like this. The storm hits and we have the urge to pull over, but little do we know that two miles up the road the weather is bright and sunny and the roads are clear. If we just keep going things will work out, the key is to just keep going.

I usually hit the storm or my trials with white knuckles gripping the steering wheel - I dig in my heels and don't want it to happen. Once I have accepted that it is going to happen I handle it fine and then something will throw me over the edge and I get irritated and want it over again - the storm keeps pressing on and I keep going on - sometimes I repeat this cycle a few times but eventually the roads become clear again. The thing that has been amazing to me is that I can actually find peace during the storm if I go to the right place. It was great to receive a message of hope from my dad so many years later when I needed it.

I have learned a lot from my dad, so I thought I would make a list of just a few of the lessons I learned from him:

1- You are responsible for your own actions - it doesn't matter who else is around, you know the rules, you decide if you are going to follow them and you will live with the consequence positive or negative.

2-My dad taught me how to truly love. If I made a mistake my dad never said I told you so, he always wrapped his arms around me and said I am so sorry that you are hurting right now.

3-You can do anything if you want it bad enough, even if you are a girl.

4-If your plans don't turn out the way that you want them and they usually don't, try to find another path - there is almost always one there, but always find happiness in the situation you are in.

5-Cookies go a long way.

6-Just because you are a girl doesn't get you out of changing your oil, or your tires or setting up camp. Just because you are a boy doesn't get you out of dishes or grocery shopping or cooking. You need to know how to do it all to be prepared.

7-Be patient and kind, be full of love and be strong - stay true to yourself.

8-Work hard.

9-Intregrity and being honest is more important than being rich. He would rather lose a dollar than cheat someone out of a penny.

10-You are going to have trials in your life and it is not fair, but you can learn a lot, you can still be happy, you can find peace just keep your eyes on your ultimate goal - where do you want to be at the end of this life.

11-Giving up is never an option.

12-You can have fun and still be good - always stay true to yourself.

13-The way the world measures success is different than the way that Heavenly Father measures it - and it is His opinion that matters the most.

14-It is important to show love to those around you and be supportive.

15-Take time to listen to those around you - they might have something interesting to say, they might not be around tomorrow, and if you spend time building those relationships today they will be strong tomorrow when you need them to be.

I miss my daddy and I love him like crazy. I am so grateful for the lessons that he taught me and the person that I am today because of him. He inspired me to want to do better out of love rather than force and I always had his support. I can't wait to see him again one day.

just call me syruphead

2009-03-18T13:42:00.003-06:00

Jared has had many nicknames in his short life. So far the only one that stuck is stinky, or some version of it - stinky pants, stinkster, mr. stinky - you get the idea. Lately his favorite thing to do is get his hands disgusting while he eats and then rub the food in his hair. Yesterday he thought it would be fun change it up a little bit and dump a plate of syrup on his head. It was a much faster way to make his hair disgusting. I'm thinking that syruphead might be his new nickname. At least it's a step up from stinky.

Shopaholic

2009-03-17T18:19:00.002-06:00

I typically think that books are way better than movies. I usually see the movie out of obligation to the book and then I am way disappointed in the movie (Twilight for example). Not so much with Shopaholic. I love Sophie Kinsella's books - she is one of my favorite authors and I loved the Shopaholic series. The book doesn't really follow the movie at all, but I loved it. It is totally dumb humor, but I am happy that I found a movie that I like as much as the book.

Silly Faces

2009-03-16T22:46:00.011-06:00

When the camera is out the boys think they need to make silly faces. These are some of my favorites. Okay, so Sam is just grossed out, but I still like it.

Here's to the Boys

2009-03-16T22:26:00.006-06:00

Chris thinks that our family website has way too much girly stuff. So this post is dedicated to the boys. Here is one of my funny boy stories. Chris shoots his first elk. He is very proud.

Chris: Isn't this cool boys.

Justin: I've seen bigger.

Chris: Where have you seen bigger?

Justin: At Cabella's.

Chris: You little fart sniffer.

This video is of Devyn - it is very funny but made me glad that I wasn't there. I think that he could make America's Funniest Home Videos.

I finally made it

2009-03-14T01:01:00.004-06:00

Hey family and friends. I have finally decided to join the blogging world because as you all know I really stink at calling or staying in touch with anyone. I also really stink at scrapbooking - so I thought this would be my shortcut attempt at scrapbooking but it is taking way longer at setting up this blog than I thought it would. Maybe when I figure out what I am doing it will go much quicker.

For those of you that I haven't seen for years - here is an update on my life. I just passed my twelth anniversary in January. Wow I can't believe I am that old. I have lived in the Boise area most of those years and I love it here. It is pretty tough for me to want to go back to Wyoming at all because it is way too cold. I love, love Boise! I have five pretty cool kids. Sam is my favorite girl - she happens to be my only girl but she is still pretty amazing. I wish I was only so cool when I was her age. She is coordinated and beautiful and very girly (she obviously didn't get that from me). I have four boys that keep me running all day long. They make me tired just watching them run around in circles. They are a lot of fun though. Justin is 9, Devyn is almost 8 and Tanner is almost 7. Jared is our cute baby and he is super fun. I work full time and my official job title is a mouth full - I am a legal assistant supervisor at the Ada County Prosecutor's Office - the easy version of that is that I supervise a group of girls and we do the paperwork that keeps the bad guys in jail. It is a pretty amazing job and I am really grateful for it. I have been there almost ten years and it feels like my second home. Chris works for the railroad and travels a lot. It is super great when he is at home.

I am really excited because tomorrow if the first Saturday that we don't have anything going on in so long I can't remember and I have a whole month until volleyball starts! Sam is pretty sad that she has to wait so long in between sports, but I can't wait to sleep in tomorrow.

I hope to be good and post often. I feel like I have a lot of catching up to do. In reality I probably won't do so great - but I will give it a good effort.