superbowl

Tomorrow's super bowl holds more importance then any other I have been to. Usually I love the excuse to plan what fried foods we will serve, or what kind of desserts we will whip up. Or just to get together with all my loved ones for a party. Usually I don't even know which team I want to win. This year is different because my brother in law Joey is obsessed with the Cardinals. He has always been a season ticket holder even though he doesn't go to the games (sunday)...their whole family always makes the trip down to watch their spring training camp. My boys always talk about the cardinals non-stop because their cousins love them so much so so do they. So it is a very exciting day for us tomorrow. I have been cooking my little arthritic fingers to the bone (seriously my hands hurt so bad now I can barely type this...it is probably taking 5 times longer then usual.).

I love sugar cookies and it has become a tradition for me to make them for the BYU games. Cali mentioned how good they would be for the big party...but she knew it would be a lot for me to do with my hands and said I didn't have to make them. After that though I couldn't get them out of my mind so I went to walmart to get some red food coloring and look for some football cookie cutters. All they had was a box of 101 cookie cutters but there was a football and a football helmet so I decided it was worth it to buy (they were pretty cheap anyways). When I got them home today and got them out to make my cookies there were only 100 cookie cutters in the box. Out of all 101 shapes the one that was missing was THE FOOTBALL. Ohh I was so mad. How frustrating is that?? Anyways I put it behind me and ended up with these...

The helmets turned out pretty cute if I do say so myself. I got for christmas a frosting bag...but I still prefered just my little plastic ziplock bags.


The best part of the day spent making these is that Cortney helped do almost all of the frosting. I did the A's but he did most of the other stuff. How nice is that? (so cute)

The worst part...you should seriously see my kitchen right now. It looks like a powdered sugar and icing bomb went off in there.

GO Cardinals!

crazy

I have had nothing to post about and we have taken no pictures since we have been back. I think we just have wanted to relax.

Cortney has been sick (forever). It is one thing after the other. Right now he has the stomach flu...with lots and lots of hot sweats and chills. I wish he would get better.

We are getting closer and closer to finishing the siding on the house. Yay. I can't wait for it to be done.

Man...that is all. I will hopefully get the camera out this weekend.

Gun safety

Cortney has guns...

Now we try very hard to keep them away from our children...trust me...we work very hard at it...there are a lot of safes involved.

Along with that we are trying to teach them what to do if they see a gun that type of thing...

Cortney: "rob...what do you do if you see a gun??"

Rob: "shoot it"

Cortney: "Nooooo"

Rob: : "only at people"

Man...I guess that just reinforces that we have to be extra extra extra careful with guns around rob.

School days.

This is what Oliver brought home from school today...

Yoda...self explanatory. Or as Robbie would say "yo yo yo yodaaa"

R2-D2

R4-P17

Luke before he was a Jedi

TIE fighter pilot

I love that Oli loves star wars. I love even more these drawings. These to me are as good as it gets. I love them. I want to frame them and put them on his wall.

Mmmmmm

Cali and joey are back. Man, there is nothing like coming home to your own house...to my own bed.

golf trip

Here are some pictures I stole (sorry) from Ethan's blog of Cortney's golf trip.

Brian, Scott, Ethan, and Cort. I love that Ethan and Cortney are doing a prom pose.
All of these guys worked at the golf course together. Matt was also there just not in this picture.

I guess Cortney decided to wear funny joke clothes golfing?? At least that is what I am going with...I don't know what he was thinking.

He's back

Cortney walked in the door last night around 7:30...and let me tell you...I just sighed a huge sigh of relief. When I saw him I just felt like, yeah I can do this. Let me paint the picture of what was going on before he came...

Late in the afternoon Oliver, Tyson and Jack needed some help getting past a certain level on lego starwars. Those games are my kind of games...easy, and you don't get killed. So anyways I got sucked into passing a long level. Now...there is something I have (I must have gotten it from my mom...you know what I am talking about if you have ever seen her play free cell) where I become totally engrossed in whatever video game I am playing. I can't stop or see or hear anything going on. Meanwhile...Robert and Carolina were up to no good. They took every pillow, every blanket, all of the couch cushions, tons of clothes, and toys and threw them over the stair rail. It was the biggest mess ever. Wow...I really learned my lesson...don't turn your back for 15 minutes...because those kids can cause total destruction in that amount of time. After I helped the boys...I couldn't face the mess the babies had made so I started dinner. Grilled cheese and tomato soup...fast and easy.

So when Cortney came in we were just finishing dinner the house was a total wreck. I was so glad to see him. I honestly don't know how single mothers do it. Wow...it is hard to take care of kids alone. Cortney had the best time too...So I am so glad he went.

Here are some pictures from when we took the kids to jump on it. I am not home so I don't have my regular computer and for some reason these aren't loading right. they look real grainy. But...they are just fun kid pictures so I am not going to worry about fixing it.

Grace getting ready to leave.  She's constantly running away from the other kids screaming.  

Grace doesn't like jump on it.  She had to held and was near tears the whole time.  But she did love the horse rides.  She wouldn't get off. 

A picture of all the kids...Cortney is jumping with Grace, then Tyson, Jack, Rob, Oli, and Carolina behind him.  

This is what I spent the night doing

Jumpin' Jack

Oli

Ty

Rob

This is as close as grace got to jumping

Ty had gone to a birthday party earlier that day...and since they are having a constant sleepover with Oli...He is pretty tired.  I had to get this picture because he had fallen asleep waiting for everyone to get their shoes on. 

CC...she has huge eyes.
I thought I should include a picture of Grace not crying.  She really hasn't been sad this time her parents are gone.  She is a little doll.

lazy days

Today Cortney left to go golfing with his friends from the golf course. Now I know that some people out there might think I am crazy for letting him go (and by some people I mean me). He didn't even ask me if he could go. He told me about the trip and never brought it up again because he knew I would be too stressed out for him to go. Well the thing is I wanted him to go, I wanted him to get a chance to be with his old co workers. He couldn't believe it when I told him he should call his friends and tell them he was coming with. So he will be gone today and back tomorrow late at night.

Today...was crazy because I lounged around the whole entire day. I didn't do anything. The kids dressed themselves. And pretty much for the most part just played the day away. Oye...the house is a mess. You wouldn't believe the disaster that it is.

We were going to go to the McDonalds play place for dinner...but the kids kept whining, they wanted to go to Carl's Jr. instead. Grace, though...is too little for the play place at Carl's Jr...so that is a no go until she can really climb. As we were all cleaning up getting ready to go I thought to myself....what am I thinking??? What was I thinking? I quickly asked the kids if they would rather go and rent a movie and then have dino nuggets and cookies at home. Every single one of them ecstatically said "YES!". So now they are finishing their movie and I just had a deliceous steak with some mango couscous (yummm I love couscous...I have a boy from college named Shay to thank for introducing me to it...he made it for me during a romantic dinner for 2...I think of him every time I eat it).

Mostly I am just bored...and my hands and wrists hurt. I need a good book...I haven't read anything since thanksgiving...what??? I know.

umm

So, so far so good. The kids have been really good so far. Carolina and Rob are playing like they have never played before. Usually they fight non stop. But honestly I don't see them at all, all day long. They have been playing Mickey and Minnie, Tigress and Tylone, they have going to school and playing house. Every once in a while Rob will come out saying "CC's about to kill me", but besides that they have been great. The older boys have been playing good too...right now they are all grounded from the Wii which is where all the problems stem from.

GG just wants me to her self all of the time. She is happy if I am laying down with her and she has a bottle. She just wants to lay around all day. It is crazy. She keeps rubbing her cheek on my cheek and staring into my eyes. She puts her little hands on the sides of face and just stares into my eyes. She is seriously so funny. She tries to kiss me so much and so romantically that I have to just laugh to lighten up the mood a little.

Cali's house is crazy hard to keep clean. So that is probably my biggest stress. I seriously sweep like 4 times everyday...but still there is a crazy amount of crumbs to sweep up everytime.

Cortney had a friend over that he was helping learn how to use his camera. So I didn't notice when he snapped this picture. WARNING....this picture is scary....

I had to put this picture on because it totally depicts what it is for me to have 6 little kids. I haven't showered in like 3 days (GROSS) I know. But I just hadn't had the time and Cali's shower is one of those glass ones and if I try to shower when the kids aer awake they, the little ones just stand outside of the shower crying for me to get out. Also for some reason I didn't pack anything to bring over here. I do this every time. So since Cali has been gone I have been wearing this bullysports sweatshirt (Cali also wears this quite often). Today I am wearing a diamondback t-shirt. Anyways I just look a wreak, I am cleaning the kitchen and talking to Sam on the phone. Yikes. I did shower today, so at least that is something.

While I was getting dinner ready CC spilled THE ENTIRE bag of sugar puffs. They worked for a while trying to clean it up. If this were my house the first thing I would do is put a child lock on the door of the pantry. The kids are in there all day. I probably swept up a whole box of cereal today.

Hopefully I will take some pictures so I have things to post about.

and so it begins

Today we start a 10 day "adventure" of watching Cali and Joey's kids while they are in Peru.

It started out awesome with us being totally locked out of Cali's house (which means there are 8 of us to fit in a 5 passenger car). We all sat outside while Cortney tested every window and door. All comepletely locked. CC cried the entire time. Luckily...along with all of Cortney's many talents come ones like...

opening doors with credit cards.

Seriously who knows how to do stuff like that? I am so glad he does because otherwise we would have had to break something.

Well...wish us luck. We will see if I have time for things like typing on the computer. Who knows??

lonely

So lately Oliver has been telling me that he doesn't play with anyone during recess and that he just sits by himself by the stairs. When I mentioned it to one of my friends she thought I should talk to the teacher...I brushed that off though because I have been to class with Oliver. I don't know what the teacher would even do. And what do I say "make my son more likable and popular please"? No that doesn't work. I just keep thinking that it is just a hard thing that kids have to go through...I remember sitting by myself sometimes at school. He has cousins that are his good friends...I have been telling myself things like that, that make a mother's heart feel a little better.

So anyways some days pass and Oliver and I are having a conversation about it and it turns out. The only reason he isn't playing with anyone or playing at all is...

HE DOESN'T WANT TO GET HIS TWO FAVORITE PAIRS OF PANTS WET ON THE BOTTOM!!

Can you believe that?? Oh he is such a diva about his clothes. How can I have a son that won't play at recess because of wardrobe issues. Holy smokes. I don't know what to do...this brings up a whole new set of even more troubling problems.

You know...I guess with Cortney and I as his parents...this kid had no chance.

ahhh

I just went downstairs to find Cortney telling Robbie (who was scared and awake) a long story about gumballs. Man...my kids are lucky (and of course so am I).

the awesomeness of our house

Cortney has been slowly slowly slowly residing our house. We both got really bad head colds around Christmas and are STILL trying to get over them. So he will spend a day outside working and then the next day in bed trying to get better and so on. It is getting done though even if it is slowly. I can't wait.

I love our house. It isn't some mansion or anything (exactly the opposite in fact). But it is cozy and bigger then anywhere else we have lived. The outside of the house though, is absolutely crazy. In fact when I had a home depot guy come out and give us a quote...he laughed...yes he laughed at our existing siding. When we bought the house it wasn't for the curb appeal. That is for sure.

So I have been meaning to put up pictures forever. And hopefully around next week or so we will have some finished pictures of the house. (if anyone wants to come down and help you are welcome to hahaa)

Okay....Now this is kind of embarrassing. But soon our house won't be this crappy.

This is our house right after we bought it. It was crazy overgrown with weeds and the tree branches hung so low you couldn't see the house.

Another picture of the house when we bought it.

The side of the house after we got one of the layers of siding off.

the other side (I don't know what we are going to do with the green and white chimney. Maybe paint it...any ideas????)

The front

In this picture you can see the white siding used to be a garage. The brown part is an addition.
All of the additions are pure crap. It should help a lot with our heating and air to have them re done.



This next picture is scary.....

The brown part is the kitchen addition. Seriously the boards were so rotted you could have broken into our house with your bare hands. Cortney put new plywood up on all of that part.

Here is a picture I took today you can see Cortney has started the new siding on the front of the house. I love whoever painted the house before didn't even take down the shutters they just painted around them.
I had to post this picture again so you can see how much better the trees are now. Cortney trimmed tons off.

Here you can see the new plywood up on the side. Pretty much the whole back looks about the same. New plywood.

And lastly the new siding closeup. It is going to make a huge difference.

Thank You...

I have been meaning to post about this for a couple of weeks. But it is a little overwhelming...and makes me wish that I was a writer. A writer so I could adequately relate the feelings that I am trying express. Man...even that makes my head hurt.

It is a scary time of the year to be unemployed. I love the Christmas season. I really do every minute of it. From Halloween on it just feels like a magical time of year. I was a little stressed out this year (obviously). It scares me to not be able to plan how things are going to play out. Luckily we only have a couple of kids and Cortney and I have never needed a lot of presents.

But this Christmas, I learned a lot. It is a very humbling experience to be on the receiving end at Christmas. I saw generosity from so many people...from all walks of life. I hope I always remember this holiday season that we had and try harder to be a generous person.

We had some secret Santa's....

Someone left little presents wrapped for my children on our doorstep and ran...two nights in a row. One night it was tootsie roll tubes (you know the kind that turn into banks), and the next night life saver books. My kids thought it was the most amazing thing that ever happened to us. And whoever it was RAN away so fast. I was right there when they knocked on the door.

Then the morning we left to go to Rexburg there was a present with a remote control airplane thingy left inside our car. My kids swear that an elf must have left it there himself.

How magical for a 3 year old and a 5 year old (and I think even more so for a 28 and 32 year old...plus it was just what Cortney wanted).

Anytime someone knocked on the door for the rest of the season Rob screamed "PRESENTS!!!"

There were gift cards from beloved friends, free doctor appointments, and money in envelopes from someone unknown.

It was very overwhelming...and heartwarming.

Thank you. For those anonymous things left, I wonder who you are....so I can thank you. Do you read my blog?? I hope you know just how grateful we are. I hope you know how much you've helped us. I hope you are receiving blessings like crazy.


Thank you....

oh man

Oliver just said...

"mom, I kinda want to be one of those guys that can't stop talking about Jesus and lives forever"

Me: "you mean one of the three Nephites?"

Oliver: "yeah...that would be awesome"

I love that. 

just some pictures...

I was just scrolling through some of the pictures cortney took over break. These were some I liked and am putting on just because. For some reason when I post pictures on here they aren't as vibrant as they are in photoshop. If anyone knows how to fix that let me know. In the meanwhile it is driving me bonkers. Just imagine these looking even better then they do. ***Adri told me to change my color profile. The second one definitely looks better but it isn't the same as it looks in photoshop.**** I have been playing around with different color profiles. Maybe I finally got it. But I also have a mac and then when I see stuff on other people's computer's I think it looks wierd. Ahhhh I think I am going crazy.

Kelton....he is so photogenic. We have some AMAZING pictures of this kid. He really is a photographer's dream come true.

Oliver is really funny. He seriously thinks he is a male model. He has poses and faces and positions he always wants to do. Hahaa. The other day he made Cortney take pictures of him fake sleeping with a teddy bear. He thought they would make some pretty sweet pictures.
A happy picture of Rob. VERY rare around these parts. What a cutie. (in full disclosure...he has a small wart (I think it is a wart...I asked his doctor and he didn't know) on his forehead...gross I know...and I edited it out...does that make me a bad mom? Or does just the fact that my kid has a wart on his head make me a bad mom. Hahaa...really I am going to take him to the dermatologist.) sorry about the parenthasis in parenthasis.

Now this picture is much more Rob...and totally reminiscent of this picture of me. Hopefully his scowl won't make people think he is glaring at them....it sure has for me. People I can't help it...I was born with a scowl. ( I think I just need botox)

New Years Eve and a million photos

Sorry beware so many pictures on this post. But they are all so hilarious and typical that I have to have them preserved for the eternities...in my blog book.

Last year at new years Cortney programed his camera to take a sequence of 10 photos to record what we were doing at midnight. It turned out funny so this year we did the same.

For the Eve of New Years we didn't have much going on...Joey was sick and everyone else seemed to still be out of town. Cali and I decided we would still get together even if it was just the 4 of us. We sat around sans makeup in pj's and ate fried foods and sipped hot cocoa, along with some gourmet popcorn that was given as a gift to Joey. We played some games and had a pretty fun time. My favorite though was the photo capture of the new year.

We just sat around until we heard the camera clicking and then we would jump in the frame.
the first time the camera went off we were not quite ready. I love Joey getting up in the back round...oh and notice it is like 10 minutes to midnight (yes we did our happy new years 10 minutes early)...we were ready to get the show on the road and go home. Joey was so tired.

Cali hears the clicking and tries to jump in...

Along with some cheesy faces and poses (we can't help this stuff it must be genetic)

Then here I come...and we start the crazy chicken dance elbows. Dad would be proud.
Then Cortney comes in. I love it when he does stuff like this...(it isn't so much in his genetics...but it has rubbed off on him somehow over the past 10 years)
Let me tell you about the puff paint shirt Cortney is wearing. He found it earlier that day at Savers...it is a total grandma shirt...he says it is his "celebration" shirt. Any which way it is awesome...and I think he wore it for 3 days straight.
This time we tried starting in front of the camera. Cali being some sort of gangster.

Look at me leap. Amazing. And of course Cali never breaks out of character.

Okay last try...this time we will be ready when it goes off.

or maybe not...but here is Joey trying to push Cali into the picture

haha

Oh man...I can't believe I am posting these crazy face pictures. Oh well...this is my life...it really isn't glamorous.

Heaven knows what Cortney is doing here with his hands. Karate moves of some sort. And lastly a nice group picture.


HAPPY NEW YEAR!