soooo cold

Isaac and Linh were married today. It was awesome. It was also SOOOOOOOO COLD! They were married at 9:00 and it was in the 40's but the wind was CRAZY. Cortney and I have done pictures for a lot of winter weddings. This was worse than a nice snowy day that is for sure.

We went to the temple last night for Linh and Michael's endowments. All seven of my siblings and all of their spouses were there in the temple. What a feeling that was. Plus both of my grandma's and two sets of aunts and uncles. I loved it. My dad was seriously in heaven..."it doesn't get any better than this"...as he always says.

All in all the wedding was great. I am so happy for them. I am also glad to have Linh in the family. She is going to be an awesome sister. They left this afternoon for Disneyland (she's never been). We had a nice luncheon at Cali's and then we went home and took a long winter's nap. We were soooo tired (I was up at 6:30 to do linh's hair, and two of her friends too). Then at 6:00 it was back to Cali's for the BYU game. Ohhh what a great game...it sure makes things easier when we win. When we lose everyone is really grumpy, and no fun. It was a great weekend...filled with family and friends. I loved it.

It was too cold to get very many pictures. Cortney will take some more later when they get back. Also we had to rent a camera while we wait for his new one to come in....that was interesting.

Here is the whole group...minus Cort (man there is something about extreme cold and wind that makes people not very photogenic)
Ike and Linh trying to stay warm.
It was so hard to get her whole dress in a picture and still get his head. He is 6 foot 7 and she is like 5 foot 2 or something like that.
She looked awesome.
I just put these on...but Cortney is the one that edits pictures so these aren't edited yet. We should have some good ones...despite the weather.

grown

Today we woke up and the house was pretty freezing. I personally looooooove it when it gets cold out. But...today it is in the mid 50's so that means for a mom...warm clothes and shoes with socks. I tried to get Oliver dressed and he didn't have any pants that were even close to fitting him. No shirts either. Rob on the other hand has tons of Oli's old clothes. So after I dropped the boys off at school (a whole new concept for me) I stopped by the mall for a little fall time shopping. (ohhh I love shopping for kids...that means no trying on for me...yay) Oliver has a total idea of what is cool and what isn't. He picked most of the things that we bought. (with in reason of course....i found the good deals and let him pick colors and graphics) Then when we got home he told me "take a picture of me mom". So I did. He is so grown up. I can't believe it. It really seems like yesterday that he was born. (I know everyone says that but it is true). I had to put on some pictures of him when he was little. (he looks exactly the same to me.) I wanted to put a cute picture of him crying but he didn't want me to put them on.



And here he is today. 4 years old. So grown.

four

We are watching a Stone and Nathan for the week (we used to live in their parent's basement...don't worry they make it worth our while). I actually love watching them. They are pretty good...and we are so used to eachother, since we did live in the same house for 2 years...so things are always relaxed. Everytime I watch them I always think...I can't wait for my family to be like this. I can't wait to have old kids and young kids and lots of them. It feels like it will take forever to get there. Stone is 12...he is so good with my younger kids. He takes Rob wherever he wants...he gets him drinks and helps him do stuff. I know that if they were real siblings that maybe they would fight more and such. But...I remember loving my little siblings...I used to love to take Mike everywhere with me. I still do. Today we played outside for a while.
It drives Rob crazy that he can't do all of the big boy things everyone else can do. He begged me to put on his shoes so he could ride the scooter...once he got out there he couldn't figure it out. Cort took him for a ride.
The cruised all over the neighborhood.
Oli is starting to learn to ride a skate board now. He has the scooter down (and has since he was two) I really need to go buy some kneepads and elbow pads.
Nathan riding the 4-wheeler
Here Rob is crying because dad is too tired to give him any more rides.
Stone took Rob on rides after that...notice his big tear on his cheek.
Stone and Oli.

So I am watching them until friday...It will be a long week mostly because...
1. I am not used to getting up and getting kids dressed, lunches made and on the bus before 8.
2. I am also not used to HOMEWORK...I hated it when I was little...I think I still do. It is hard for me to make them do it. They like to whine a lot.
3. Piano practice...they have to do it everyday. Man...I thought getting them to do their homework was hard.

We are happy they are here though. And for a week I get to have a big family.

book club

Last night we had book club. I was going to take a picture but I forgot my camera last minute. We met at Macaroni Grill. It was so fun. We were all dressed up and sans kids. What a great feeling. We talked and laughed for two hours and then it was time to get back to the real world. I love my girls. It is crazy because I have known the three of them my whole life (cali, celeste and tiffany). We are lucky right now to live by eachother...we know that. It was a wonderful evening though.

Once I was home Cortney and I watched Survivor...yeah for survivor. I love that show.

one week

Isaac and Linh are getting married...
Here is their announcement...Cortney took the picture and I did the editing with the words and such.

I am very excited for them. She is a really cool girl. It is going to be great going to Mazatlan this year because we have Angelique and Linh, who are new to our family. Vacations are the best way to get to know someone...they really are. I love them both already though.

It is weird having Isaac around because he looks SOOOOOO much like me. When I look at him I feel I am looking at what I would look like if I were born a boy. Weird. My friend Sarah met him yesterday...she said "he looks exactly like you".

Poor Rob

Today I had one of those "bad mom moments"...you know the ones where you feel like, man I should have been watching him a little closer. Cali and I are having a stressful day for some reason. 1st we woke up early and went to albertson's for their quaker sale. They have cereal and granola bars for a dollar. I spent $50 and saved $148.00. Yay for me! Then we came home and I worked on Isaacs wedding invites that I have to get printed today. Ahhh that is stressful for me. Then we also are working on ORIGAMI for Cali's activity days tonight. All of those things combined equal...a lot of crazy kids running around partly dressed (they REALLY wanted to go swimming)...with their moms semi ignoring them. I heard Robbie crying and went to check and he was behind one of our cars....this is what I saw....
I freaked when I first saw him. I thought his leg was cut off or something. Ohhhh, thank goodness he had just semi fallen into a hole we have on our driveway. Once I saw that he was okay...I ran into get my camera. Cali wiped his nose because he had some super snot from crying and having a cold. I know I should have gotten him right out but I know later in his life he will appreciate this picture.
Here is the picture of the hole.

millcreek

AHhhhhh...I can't stand having a crappy camera. For the last 4 years we have had a sweet one. Now we have just a crappy old one since Cortney sold his d100 and is waiting for the D300 to come out . It doesn't come out until Nov. it is going to be a long wait. That is one of the main reasons I haven't posted. No camera...no pictures.

Tonight we went with some of our friends (everyone grew up in Rexburg but me) up Millcreek canyon. It was so fun. This here is the best picture I got with my sucky camera.
We are waiting for the prayer. What a bad picture. I might have to buy just a regular point and shoot to last me until November.

These other pictures I stole from my friend Rachel's blog. She was super speedy and had them posted by the time I was out of the shower rinsing off all of the smoke from tonights fire.
The girls. Rochelle, Kanani, Rachel and I. I was holding Rob and he was sad so I couldn't put him down....this however was a girls only picture so notice him upside down...I was trying to hide him. hahahaa.
Here is the whole group. It is crazy...how many kids we have collectively. I met most of these guys when I was 19 years old...I think for the most part we didn't have kids...(I think Rachel had 1??) now 8 years later there were a million kids....all so cute, mind you.

We are going to try and have family home evening once a month all together. I love that idea...and I hope we pull it off. I think we will though because all of these girls are really on the ball (minus me of course...man why do I never remember when stuff is??? maybe because I never have a calandar...much less remember what day it is...it is so nice to be so unschedualed like I am!!). Today though I got a nice email reminder of tonights canyon picnic. That is exactly what I need in my life. I loved tonight it was so much fun. I am really glad that all of Cortney's friends have always been so nice to me and always included me! I really love them.

oops all berries

My little boy Rob...who is 22 months old...only eats the berries out of captain crunch!! I can't believe it. It is totally something I would have done as a child. 2 days in a row now I have given him Captain Crunch Berries for breakfast and when I come to wash him up when he is done the bowl is full of the yellow pieces.

pee

Well I know I haven't posted all week, which is not my usual style but...I've been busy...and nothing interesting has happened. I am going to get back on track. For now though I wanted to say that Robbie got undressed (he loves being naked right now...it is really irratating). I needed to grab his pj's so I put him on the toilet (on oli's dora potty seat) really fast to sit there while I got them. While on there he went pee. How exciting is that. I am not going to potty train him anytime soon but...it was still cool.

silence

I can hardly believe it. Rob and Carolina have both been napping since 11:30 it is now 2:31. Yes!!!! During that time I managed to...shower, clean the whole main level of the house (including loading the dishwasher), check all my blogs, and finish reading a book. Oh it is wonderful the only sound I hear is grace cooing to herself and the delicious sound of the dishwasher. Oh wait...I can hear Carolina she is awake now. Rob too is just waking up. Oh well it was a great 3 hours. It is amazing what I can get done while they are sleeping...it is also amazing how fast they can undo it.

Reverently, quietly...

So we did it. We made it through church. We were actually at the church house 15 minutes early!! We are NEVER early. I didn't want to go in yet and the kids were being soooo good all buckled in their seats and watching a movie so we drove around for 10 minutes. We got in and sat down and before the sacrament even started Carolina and Rob were fighting LOUDLY over everything we had. After a while I took Carolina out because she was crying...and I just thought we would separate the two problem children. But no, R.O.B. threw such a loud tantrum that someone from another family came over to Cortney and told him that they would watch Oli and Grace so Cortney could take Rob out. Hahaaa. Cortney was so embarrassed. He was really flustered when he got out to me. So I just kept Rob and Carolina out for the last 20 minutes and we spent the time walking around the outside of the church. Then we dropped them both off at nursery. And I got to enjoy 2 hours with just Grace. She is so adorable one on one. When we went to leave both Robbie and Carolina were bawling their eyes out in the nursery. I think Rob started crying when non of the parents coming were his and Carolina was crying because he was. I asked her why she was crying and she said..."I don't know". I was pretty proud of us. That was a lot of babies. It actually made me feel relieved I can't get pregnant for a while more...and sad at the same time because it will take forever for my family to grow (okay so maybe forever is a little bit dramatic).
When Cortney got home from his meetings he was surprised we were already ready. So he shot a picture to document it. (I hadn't actually done anybodies hair yet...although I will say the finished products weren't much better) I don't know how we all ended up wearing red white and blue. Almost all clothes for boys are red and blue and my sister just happened to pack something that matched my kids church clothes.

miguel

Michael got his mission call yesterday morning. Asuncion Paraguay!!!!! How exciting. I am soo happy for him. He had put his availability date as Jan 1st and his call is for Dec 12th...it is like the week before finals, so he will have to get that figured out. I love that boy. He is such a good brother. I thought somehow since mike was born in Peru that he would be going back to his homeland. Paraguay is close enough. Photo by Nena Earl

We went to Cali and Joey's last night to watch the BYU game...sigh...we lost. Mike and some of his friends came too. It was fun. I will say this whole 4 kids under 4 is pretty hard...well actually it's the 3 under 2 that is hard. Don't get me wrong...nothing I can't handle. Just different from my life of hardly having to do anything...hahaha. It is hard in the night with so many babies. And at dinner because 3 of them can't really feed themselves very well. And we will see how church goes today. Cortney has meetings before church so I will be bathing and dressing all four. I am excited however to do the girlies hair. That should be fun. i also want to say that I love being able to watch my sisters kids, and I love that she watches mine. We both know that there is nothing like a little vacation time away from kids. I have to go know...gracie baby doesn't want me to type anymore.

full house

Cali and Joey are out of town with their two oldest boys, so we are watching their 2 girls. It is nice to have more ladies in the house. They have been really good so far and we have them untill wednesday morning.
I couldn't get them to hold still long enough for our ghetto camera to work.
They started a tickle fight during the picture...Gracie was not amused. I got her out of there stat.
So the final picture no Grace...she wasn't so sure about sitting by them and all 3 were fighting over who got to hold her.

now i get it

I never understand when people say they hate shopping. I love it. I would say shopping is one of my best things. Tonight though...I think I got a clear understanding of the evils of shopping. I went swimsuit shopping. Cali and I both went. In a couple of months I am going on two different trips. 5 weeks of vacation. On the book of Mormon tour there will be a lot of swimming...and of course the trip to Mazatlan. In Maz we spend about 80 % of our time in swimsuits. Since I have spent the last couple of summers (not including this) pregnant or nursing, I don't have a lot of swimwear...let me rephrase that...I have no swimwear. Now as most of you know I am a tall lady. Now I love being tall but it is times like this I just wish my torso was half as long and wouldn't make every swimsuit super french cut...and every tankini more like a half shirt. Nothing fits. Arrrrghhh. Cali and I didn't even find one suit that didn't make us burst out in hysterical laughter. That is sad. I mean don't swimsuit designers know that they are supposed to be flattering. I am pretty skinny...how can I not find something that looks good?? Another problem is all the swimsuits out there are soooooo low cut. I just think it is too immodest for a woman like me with "huge tracks of land" to wear any of the swimsuits I tried on. I mean...I have to go on this trip with my parents...and my brothers for crying out loud. So we returned empty handed. I don't know what to do. Have swimsuit designers ever met women before??? I seriously could make really cool swimsuits...if I only knew how to sew.

Even though we didn't find a thing, it was still great to be out together. We were so giddy! I don't think there is anything like trying on a bunch of ridiculous (another one of the words that is hard for me to spell) swimsuits with a sister. Cali and I are NEVER EVER together without our six kids...so we felt pretty footloose and fancy free. So thats all. I know I am one of those people that gives too much information. Hahahaa. Sorry.

blue skys from pain

Today I went to a funeral for a newborn. One of my young women's little brother. It was sad. I talked to her for about an hour tonight. Her dad also died when she was little. I wish I knew the exact right thing to say to her. She thinks God is trying to teach her something. I hope she will be okay. I feel lucky that I had parents that had such strong testimonies. Parents that helped us keep going after Zac died.

On a less serious note...the power went off last night for 4 hours. From midnight on. It was scary...it stormed so hard here. It is crazy how dark it gets when the power goes off. I woke up the second it came back on...the noise of things powering back up. It is amazing how much we depend on electricity.

I just got done watching Newport Beach on MTV (I think I am allowed to watch that show now...sorry mom if I am still not allowed to watch MTV...hahaa) I am sorry but today on the show it was a first date between two kids on the show. I seriously felt embarassed watching it. I was covering half my face as they hinted to each other that they wanted to go to prom together. Oh my goodness. I love reality tv. Now my friends obviously weren't rich like that but...watching them there in that restaurant...that is just how it was for me. How funny. As an adult I don't ever have to hint around to someone about something. I always say how I feel. That is something as a teen I was usually scared to do. The show really made me remember how nervous, I always was in those kind of situations. It was the funnest ever then but I am so relieved I don't have to do that forever. I WOULD DIE if my first date was recorded and played on national TV...I don't know how those kids do it.

Oli and Rob stayed at the house of another lady in my ward while I was at the funeral. She had parakeets and 5 baby hamsters. My kids were so excited. Oliver now wants a pet hawk and a pet eagle.

rainy days

It is raining right now. I love the rain. My poor little Oli can't sleep though because of the lightning and thunder. I just moved him to sleep on my floor. (i can't blame him...i was always scared when i was little...luckily i had sam to share a bed with) Summer rain storms are the best. Tonight as it really started raining hard, I just stood out side in the rain taking it all in....the smell...and the feel. Ohh so great. Oliver was so scared that I was going to get hit by lightning and was freaking out for me to come in. There is something so romantic and cozy about a good rain storm. Plus...sometimes that means my husband might not have to work. Which is always a bonus.

labor day

it is too late for me to think up a cute title for tonights entry.
So today was Labor day...of course. Oliver saw that the boy scouts had come and put a flag up in our yard and he ran in to me so excited. He kept calling it "American flay day". I know it sounds silly but everytime I see that flag waving in my yard it makes me so happy. I am super patriotic...and it feels nice to be living somewhere and know you are going to be there for a while. We have moved so many times (12 to be exact). I know it's silly but some how that flag waving out there makes me feel settled. Like I am a grown up. Cortney worked so for me it was just like any old regular day except my girlfriends husbands were home...and Costco was closed.

We did however get an invite to go up and hang out at our friends Ben and Briar's house in Draper. Ben has been cortney's bff since he was a little lad. We live so close and but we only see eachother a couple of times a year. Maybe that is going to change though because we have been up there twice this month. We love seeing them, and all of our other SLC friends that come over too. Our kids played sooooo great too. It was great adult talk almost the whole night.


here is the group...darren, rachel (thanks for the pictures!), briar, ben, me, cortney. our friends steve and candice were also there but left pre-picture.
me, rachel, and briar...I feel totally comfortable around these girls and they are super fun to be around.

All in all it was a good day. I love going out and being around other adults. It was nice made today feel like a real holiday.

finally

And so it is finally here...the start of another BYU football season. Yay!!! And to start it off with a win that makes it even better. I will say I always miss Emily and Jared Palkenski when the season starts. It isn't the same without you guys here. I am looking forward to this season. I really need to go get my kids more BYU clothes because when I went to get them all BYU'd up this morning I really had a hard time finding something for them to wear. Being a BYU fan really makes living here fun. I love seeing all of the Y flags up on game days. Feels good. BYU football was SUCH a part of my childhood....it really was. In fact my dad was here today for the game, Joey hooked him up with tickets standing by the players...man he is so lucky.
Running back Harvey Unga produced 194 yards of total offense and two touchdowns in the Cougars' 20-7 win over Arizona. (BYU Photo, Mark Philbrick)

And to all of you non football fans...don't worry I won't blog about every game. Well I might blog about the food we had while watching the game...that sounds way more likely.