so happy

So I have been in a real funk. I have been stressed about the ticket Cortney got. The ticket for not having your car registered in Utah is 1,000 dollars. So that has been REALLY stressing me out. Man. But then tonight I watched "so you think you can dance" and...man I don't want to write about this show every time it is on but... I LOVE THIS SHOW. It makes me so happy. I was smiling and barely breathing the whole time. It really has gotten me out of my funk. I can't believe how happy it made me. I sometimes wish that I could be an amazing dancer. But really it would bring me nothing. Especially with my Rhuematoid Arthritis. I wouldn't even be able to dance. Not to mention what do you need to be a really good dancer for when all you are doing is hanging out at home with your kids. In my mind I can just see myself dancing like they do...it just never translated to my feet. Don't get me wrong I can throw down at a family dance or something like that. I am just not making it on the show before I am too old to audition. How great. Thank goodness for this show or my summer would be so boring. PLUS Cortney loves the show too...so we get to watch it together. That is all for tonight.

Memorial Bliss

Aside from all of the bad stuff from my previous post I had a pretty wonderful Memorial day weekend. My parents, Michael and Sam (including Kate and Owen, her twins...not the celebrity couple) were all here. We had a great time sitting around at Cali's just chatting. All of my brothers and sisters were there except IKE. We all got babysitters on Saturday and went to eat at the Riverside Country Club. It was so fun. Joey rented out a room and it was a huge square table that fit 4 people on each side so we all could talk and hear each other and we could see eachother. Usually when you go to dinner with a big group you can't hear anyone but the person next to you and the couple across the table from you. It was perfect...any other restaurant here would have been PACKED. It was fun and the food was so yummy. We were together the whole weekend until my parents went home yesterday. I don't know what I will do when they go on a mission. I see and talk to them so much it will be so hard when they are gone. SIGH....

Of course whenever we are together on Memorial day we always think of our brother Zachary. He died May 28, 1982. We talked and thought a lot about him over the weekend. He would be 29 on June 8th of this year.

Samantha drove home today. She has twins. I can't even imagine how hard that would be. The babies are so good though. Either one would be a dream baby if you only had one or the other. But put them together and it makes it hard. I was so sad to see them go. It is hard to have them living away. Thankgoodness for modern day technology that allows me to see pictures of them all the time. Pictures to come...maybe tomorrow.

Oh...I took my boys to get their haircut today. I had them cut it as short as possible. They (Evan's Hair College) used the smallest attachment on the clippers. Oliver keeps saying his hair is the same as daddy's. Hopefully that will keep them from looking scruffy for a while.

WARNING!!!! gross pictures ahead

So you know when you have those days. Those days that just keep getting worse and worse. Well starting friday at 12:00 p.m I had a pretty rough 24 hours. I was on my way to watch some kids as a favor for one of my friends and I pulled out of our driveway not noticing that Cortney was kinda parked behind me. I scraped his car pretty bad on the way out. Dang I was so mad.
So this first picture looks pretty bad. Cortney INSISTED that I put these on my blog. I personally like this second picture because it makes it look like a little dent. I hate cars. I am so glad we don't have really sweet vehicles.

So after that it seemed like my luck was going to improve because my parents and brother Mike and my sister Sam and her twinies, were coming to town for a visit. I headed over to Cali's to see them at 4:00 and we had a YUMMY dinner from Kneaders, Justin brought a huge sandwich platter and soup. A couple of hours later Oli landed on Jack's foot and he was crying so hard for a long time. They ended up taking him to instacare because we all thought it was broken. It wasn't though so they came home and wrapped it in a ace bandage. Then on Saturday on our way to see the family we decided to go in Cortney's Suzuki....
About 2 blocks from our house we were pulled over and got a ticket because we still have Idaho Liscence plates. ARGGHHH. I was so mad. I hate stuff like that. We had a great day talking to family and just hanging out when Oli went to get a sippy cup out of one of Cali's kitchen drawers. Usually the drawers don't come out but for some reason it came all the way out and SMOOSHED his big toe. It was horrible so much blood and crying. I hate seeing my baby in pain. And of course our kids are in between insurance right now and they won't have coverage again until July so I didn't know what to do. We decided to go into instacare and what happened there was amazing. When they heard he wasn't insured they had a nurse come look at it and clean it and bandage it all up for FREE. I couldn't believe it. She said it was probably broken but even if it was there isn't anything they do. So here is a picture of his toe this morning. It looks WAY better than yesterday. It is going to take a long time to heal and it is going to be a huge pain trying to keep it clean. Man...right in time for summer. Well that is my horrible 24 hours. Here is to the next 24.

Workin on cars

Today was a good day. We went to KaeLynn's this morning and had a good visit. She has been Young Women's president for like 9 years and she is just so full of wisdom. So I went over and got all I could out of her about going to girls camp. Her ward goes the same place as ours so she had a lot of helpful advice. She babysits a couple of kids a couple of times a week. One of the kids is 1 year old as of March and I would say he is a full baby's head shorter than Rob. As I have written before Rob has a major problem with biting. Today though I think he maybe learned a lesson. I heard him crying down stairs in KaeLynn's basement. I ran down there and sure enough he was some how hurt. I took him upstairs and he was hysterical. Usually this kid cannot get hurt. He never cries it doesn't matter how bad he and Oli wrestle he usually is the one that hurts Oli. So anyways I surveyed his body and I could tell right away that he was bleeding from his mouth. All of the older kids that were down there were telling us that the little baby had bit Rob. Then I found a wet circle on his shirt, which is ofcourse an obvious sign he was bit on the back. Then I found he was also scraped up on top of his hand. So the little kid bit him on his upper lip, on the inside and outside of his upper lip. I am surprised a big chunck didn't come off. He had little teeth sized cuts on the inside of his lip. Also on the back and badly on the hand a whole bunch of times. KaeLynn felt so bad. I didn't. I wasn't mad at the kid at all. He is tinsy. Plus I know what it is like having a kid that bites and it is horrible to have your kid bite someone. All day Rob kept opening his mouth really big and saying "ohhhhhh ouch" I explained to him that biting really hurts and so he should never bite. We will see if this has scared him out of biting. I doubt it...wishful thinking.

We came home from KaeLynn's and had a nice peaceful day. Rob took a 4 1/2 hour nap. I dozed off (only for a second) and woke up with a start. I knew that Cortney was driving up to SLC at 2:00 to pick up a back seat for his suzuki. And it was already past 5:30. Where was he? He should have been back already. I was so worried that something was wrong. Everyday (okay so not everyday but...) I see news stories of people dying in car accidents between here and SLC. I just kept thinking he should be back by now. I tried to call him three times in a row, no answer. I was freaking myself out. I told myself I will try to call the police or something by 6:30. I don't know why I thought that I was trying to get a plan in place I guess. About 10 minutes after I started freaking out Cortney walked in the door. He couldn't answer his phone because Brian (his superentedent) and he were talking about grass or something like that. Phew what a relief.


When Cortney got home he and the boys stayed outside and worked on his jeep. I love the boys helping Cortney working on the car. Cortney has a family legacy of love for cars. I wonder if it will continue on to our kids. Notice how dirty their hands are. You can also kinda see where Rob was bit on his lip. Cortney's favorite candy are those disgusting circus peanuts so the boys are all eating them (of course before dinner...Cortney doesn't quite get the concept of why they shouldn't eat candy peanuts before dinner). Oli (yes I am trying out Oli...feels weird. But I think I will come around to it.) is wearing a sweatshirt on backwards in preparation for the season premier of "so you think you can dance". Last year a couple did a dance wearing all their clothes backwards with masks. Oliver remembered that they had hoddies over their faces. He was pretty dissapointed when they didn't have people doing that exact same dance this year but he was always ready to tell me if the people were good dancers or bad dancers. Hahaha he is so cute.
I had to include this picture because Oliver is always making this face to me. Anytime I tell him something he doesn't want to hear he shakes his head back and forth while making this face. Plus just look at those mountains. I try to tell my kids all the time how lucky they are to live somewhere so beautiful.

My little hillbilly

Here Rob is with you know those gag teeth in his mouth. It was really hard to get a good picture of him but it was so funny. I love that boy

gone so long

I haven't had anything to post. Cortney has been sick for three weeks but it feels as it it were three years. He is non functioning when he is even just the tiniest bit sick (no offense Cort, he knows it as well as I do). I kept telling him...Cortney go to the doctor. He just I guess has been so used to not having insurance that he doesn't know what to do now that we do. So finally today he went (I called and made the appointment). And PRAISE BE he has a sinus infection. I thought he would go and they would say...yup you have a cold. But no he left there with 3 prescriptions and already the antibiotic is kicking in. He felt better even after his first dose. YEAH for all of us. It has been hard because he just has been sleeping and sleeping. I could already see good old Cortney thought tonight. Antibiotics are amazing.

I am headed to girls camp two weeks from tomorrow. I am starting to get scared. It is going to be crazy. I have no idea what it is going to be like and I think that is why I am scared. So all day today I have been trying to think of something cute and clever to do when I am in charge of "night time scripture study/story time" at camp. Any ideas??

That is all. Nothing new here. I have to go watch Bachelor season finale (yeah).

Goodbye my friend...

I am so sad. One of my favorite shows Gilmore Girls is now over. Tonight was the series finale. I feel like I can't breath. I was so sad the whole episode. I was on the verge of crying the whole time. I have watched faithfully since episode 1. I never and I mean never miss it. I can't believe it is over. It is crazy how attached I feel to this show...I know that. It was a really good show. Now my Tuesdays will have a gaping hole. Reminding me of what used to be. Sigh.

On a lighter note tonight was book club night with my dear friends. We read..."A Great and Terrible Beauty" by Libba Bray
It was my turn to chose the book and this was recommended to me by one of my Young Women. It is the first book in a trilogy so it definatly was building up to lead to the second book. It was good though. I definatly like the sequel better though. I have been reading like a mad woman. A new book every other day. I have never been much of a reader...thanks to being A.D.D. But now that Cali and I have so many kids together I am pretty homebound so I have been reading. Book club was so fun. We met at TGI Friday's and had a great old time. It is one of the things I look forward to the most in my month. We decided tonight that we are going to start taking a picture at everybook club meeting so we can remember this time in our lives when we were so fortunate to live close to each other. I also read "East" by Edith Pattou this month. It was recommended to my friend Laura by her friend marlies. It was very good. I mostly read books that have been recommended to me. So if anyone has something the LOVED let me know.

Oli vs. Ollie

So Oliver has always been Ollie. I felt strongly that OLLIE was the spelling. I don't like it when things aren't spelled the way they are supposed to. But.....I have been thinking a lot about changing the way his nickname is spelled to OLI. For starters it is the first three letters of his name, my sister CALIsta was Cali, my brother ZAChary, was Zac. It makes sense to me to just drop the ver in his name. Plus on top of all that he can write OLI and has been for a while. Ohh...every journal entry and baby book entry I have ever written I put OLLIE. What do you all think??? Can I suddenly change the spelling of his nickname???

Mother's Day

So I have been meaning to post for the last couple of days. I don't know why I haven't lazy I guess. I have been having the worst allergies and it just makes me feel...icky. I don't know how else to describe it. SO anyways back to mother's day. It started off nice, sleeping in. Then Cortney and the kids brought me fried eggs and toast with bacon. I was really sleeping hard when they came in so I swear it took me like 2 minutes before I could get my eyes all the way open. Cortney had pre ordered a book for me that I have been WAITING to read (it comes out in August), he also got me a huge symphony bar (my fav) and some sun ripened raspberry lotion. It was a cute gift. I had finished a book on friday and really liked it so he memorized the name and tried to find another by the author. Borders didn't have any other books by that author though. I thought that was really cute especially since he knows I don't need a gifts. The fact that he still tries is really sweet. He did a great job. We got ready for church and once there it was crazy. We had to go early because Oliver was a reverence child. No one was there to tell us what that even meant though. I said the sacrament opening prayer...then Oliver had to go up to sing with the primary (well, STAND with the primary), then I sang a musical number with the Young Women...and Cortney said the closing prayer. Everytime we went up there ROB freaked out. He just kept going up there, I followed him onto the stand probably four times. Everytime he thought it was so funny. Ahhh...perfect for mother's day. Cortney took him home after sacrament because he had the greenest runny nose and needed a nap. I got to sit in Sunday school with no distractions and the lesson was sooo good. YEAH. I taught the YW lesson on Journaling...I had alot to say since I have always kept a journal. Then I had to hurry over to help Oliver with his first prayer in primary. HE ACTUALLY GAVE THE PRAYER. I about died. I thought he would be up there just too shy to do anything. It must have been his mother's day gift to me. All in all it was a BUSY Sunday. We came home and headed over to Cali's for SURVIVOR finale and shane made us the most delicious Mexican dinner. It was a great mother's day. WIth an added bonus of Tyler and Nicole (brother and sis in law) coming to stay the night at our house. They were only here a couple of hours because they were headed to salt lake city for a doctor's appointment. I had a great mother's day. I always of course think of my MOTHERS. I love them both, so much. It is crazy how much I have come to realize how much my parents did for me, since I have become a parent. I am so lucky.

Just a note...

Conversation between me and Oliver;

Oliver: "mom, I have a crush on Princess Leia"
Me: "how do you know what a crush is?"
Oliver: "Jack told me...he has a crush on R2-D2"

Another great mother's day gift from Oliver...He learned to take a shower all by himself!!!!! Yeah. He has always hated taking a bath and honestly it is torture for me to just sit in the bathroom. I usually clean the bathroom while he is bathing. My attention span is just too short for baths. He loves showering. YEAH. Special thanks to Cali's kids Tyson and Jack for helping him learn that showers are "cool".

good mommy

So today was a "good mommy" day. I woke up early (okay okay EARLIER than usuall) even before Oliver woke up. He slept in untill 9:00. I got showered dressed. Fed Robbie...Emptied the dishwasher. I even put all the dishes in the dishwasher as I used them. I had straightened the house the night before so I only had to keep it clean. By 10:00 I was already bored so we loaded up and headed to the library for story time. After the library we came home for lunch and I put Rob down for a nap. I straightened the house again. Sat down and ate a salad. Then Cali came over to play for a while. At 3:00 it was time to pick up the kids (by that I mean cali's kids) from school so we all got in the car and picked them up then we went to the park. After an hour at the park we loaded up and headed down to the soccer fields to watch Tyson (cali's oldest) play in his last game. So that day sounds so perfect and fun. But...my kids fought at the park, and in the car. At the soccer game Rob got his head stuck in the goal NET, and I spent the ENTIRE game chasing him. And my kids hated the library. They didn't want to sit and listen, they didn't want to sing old mc donald, they didn't want mommy to find a book, or go to the bathroom, they definataly didn't want to wait in line while I checked out the books and then Ollie didn't want to put his shoes back on before we went out to the car. I don't know who decided that the library is a fun place to go with kids. It isn't. Just the fact that you are supposed to be quiet in the library should be enough reason why. So "good mommy" will just have to go back to being "mommy". I even think she is just as fun. I think my kids fought and whined way more today then they do in their normal life. Maybe it was a little too much "good mommy" for them to handle in one day. I don't know. I think I like it better when we are hanging out...talking about star wars. Or reading a book while Oliver plays Darth Vader. It was a crazy day.

Sunday Best

Today was Rob's first day of nursery. YEAH for me. I sat all through Sunday school, so happy. Being spiritually fed. I even commented once. That never happens. Usually I am chasing ROB up on to the stand while everyone laughs and then I leave the room with him in my arms kicking and screaming. They joy was short lived when I went to pick him up and his face was all puffy from crying. When Rob cries he breaks out in hives. His whole face! I always tell him that he better never cry in front of his girlfriends when he is older or he will be a mess. It is crazy even if he cries for one second he has hives. So after a lot of crying his face was really puffy. Poor baby. Why are my kids so shy??? Why is this always so hard? I thought for sure it would be different with my second child. Why do I see some kids playing with not a care in the world on their first Sunday in Nursery? Our nursery has little peep holes to look in and I could see some guy holding him almost the whole time. I did look in once and he was chasing bubbles. Ahhh. Maybe next week will be better when he realizes that we are coming back for him. I think that is a problem my kids have. They never have babysitters unless it is Çali and they KNOW her. I need to start leaving them with some Young Women.
Here we are getting ready to go to church. He is wearing the cutest Grandpa outfit (handme down of Ollies) I love him so much in this. :) I say grandpa outfit because my grandpa Earl had a blue and white striped suit just like this. I was once with him walking into church and he took out his pocket Knife and cut off a yellow rose and put it in the lapel of his blue and white striped suit. It takes quite a man to pull that off. I think of him every time my kids where this outfit. (oh don't you just love the real looking gun in the picture...I promised myself no guns...this was a gift. I am way more relaxed on this rule now but I still think it is my only gun. Swords on the other hand I have probably 1/2 a dozen. Am I ever going to have girls??)


After church we went to my brother in law Cameron's house. I love going there. He is quite the cook. He always has a delicious spread for us. His daughter Leah (8) and Ollie play so great. He lives right by this awesome pond/park so we took a long walk (long for me). It was a wonderful Sunday. Everytime we go up there I feel "that is how Sunday's should be".

funny husband

Last night when I got in bed Cortney was fast asleep. He yelled out "get away you...dumb...stupid stealer person!" I started laughing so hard but at the same time I kinda was scared he would try to fight me thinking I was the "stealer person" he was dreaming about. I never ever hear him talk in his sleep, so I thought this was really funny. I have only heard him one other time and he was saying something about sprinklers.

why???

Why oh why do I stay up so late??? It drives me nuts. I am such a night owl. Especially in the summers because Cortney works SUPER early so he is always in bed by 10 (at the latest). Because of that I have no one to make me go to bed. So I just stay up. I always pay for it when Oliver wakes up around 7:30. Tonight it especially sucks (sorry for the work suck, mom) because I didn't get anything done. I didn't watch any great shows...or clean the house (which I usually do), I didn't do anything. Except sit her on the internet and some how the night just passed on by. 1:30 in the morning. Oh well at least it isn't 2 yet. I need to make a goal to go to bed earlier. I just love the peace and quiet. No one is whining at me...no one is hanging on me. Oh well I have always stayed up late my whole life. I remember being 8 or 9 and reading little house on the prarie in secret until the very late hours of the night. Goodnight.

Wednesday

So Wednesday is my Mutual day....except they don't call it mutual anymore it is Young Women's now. I grew up with Mutual on Wednesdays and here I am again. I don't feel old. But I am. Wednesdays are the day of the week that make me feel the oldest. I go along all week feeling around 21 then bam Wednesday comes and I am 40 again (I just figure everyone that reads this knows I am 27, you all do right?). I don't know why the young women make me feel old. They do. I have to accept the fact that we are all getting older. Everyday...just getting older. I always just wanted to GROW UP. I just always wanted to be older. I was in such a hurry. This is what I get....to be older.
Here we all are tonight for Young women's we had Cortney come and take pictures of us. It was like you know taking senior pictures...except the girls are 14 and 15. It took them a while to break them out of their shell. Man I used to love posing for a picture. You couldn't get me out from in front of the camera.
Here I am in my old glory....hahaa. I NEVER like pictures of me but hey I decided to post it anyway. It is my blog. I always look at pictures of me say from a year ago and say to Cort..."man I looked so good then. I don't know why I wouldn't let you take pictures of me" So I know that a year from now OR 10 years from now I will think, "I looked good then".


Cali got the flu (so sad for her) right before mutual started. She was going to watch the kids for me and was still willing even though she was sick. I told her no way though I would take them with me. The last thing she needed was 6 kids standing around her while she threw up. So we took the kids. I had to dress them fast in pj's...because Cortney and I have Scouts right before mutual. And since I didn't know they were coming with me I thought they were just going to bed, they had to come to mutual dressed like orphans...with no shoes on. No offense to orphans. I just realized that isn't very nice. I don't know how else to describe how they looked. Like they didn't have anyone watching out for them...is that more politically correct? They loved that we went to the park though. I think they really like the Young Women too.

Cute Ollie. He tries to do so many faces in pictures now that it is hard to get one with just a normal sweet look on his face. When we do get one it is worth it, he is sooo cute. (biased I know) Oh....Oliver said "my bum's nervous" when I was swinging him real high. I don't know what that means, exactly. But I know he was trying to explain that feeling you get when you are scared of heights.
I love this kid. I am obsessed with him. He always has a serious expression on his face so to see him smiling...ohhh I love it.
What can I say even dressed like he is he is still adorable.

One last story for the day. Oliver said in the dinner prayer last night "thank you so much for Target and Costco and that we can go there" . He is growing up and starting to be so curious about the gosple. He learned about the Holy Ghost on Sunday and ever since he has been pretend playing with the Holy Ghost. He just keeps say "over here Holy Ghost" and stuff like that. They are fighting storm troopers together! I tried to tell him that he wasn't really a ghost (I didn't want him to be scared of the Holy Ghost) He said to me..."yes mom he is like a ghost...He's everywhere...I can feel him right now." What do you say to that. I am so overwhelmed by the thought of being a mom. I am the person that will effect my children the most in their lives (whether they know it or not). Well that is all.