No 3 Arms

In case you were interested in a picture that does not have 2 kids with three arms/hands- here one is- just in case you are into that kind of thing:)

The Rest of October

I had some fun with Photoshop and the Pumpkin Patch

This photo is a collaboration of 4 photos merged together.

Decorating for Halloween

A Halloween party with my Ghoul, Skeleton, Fortune Teller, and baby that was too big for his costume

Good Fun!

Wanda and Zelda

I need to back track a bit on my blog. I have been wanting to share this party since we had it but I waited for pictures and then when I got the pics I slid away from the blogging world. So with out further adieu. . . I hosted a Wanda Witch Party. I have mentioned a website I LOVE before called Meckmom.com. No? Sheesh, I should have. On her site she posted a Wanda Witch party tutorial 2 years ago. I was interested but did not embark. Last year I really wanted to do it but with all the Prop 8, Lights on Broadway, Trunk or Treat, and such, there was no possible way but I did ask my good friend Amy of she wanted to co host with me. Being Amy, she of coarse jumped on board. We bought some things for the party at the after Halloween sales and kept it on the back of our brains. Come July this year, we were ready to get the party started and here it is in its abbreviated form. 50 couples from our newly organized ward received this invitation (BTW- when I converted word docs to pdf to jpg to put on the blog they came out blurry- of you click on them they will enlarge)

If you can't read it, it is an anonymous invitation to a Wanda Witch party. That's right! No one knew it was us.
After we had the couples RSVP we had around 23 couples including us because remember, no one know it was us so we were able to play along. We divided the group into teams really trying to put people from each of the wards that were put into our new ward into 1 group. Mix it up right? We also selected a Team Captain and gave them instructions. We challenged the groups to pull pranks on other groups to win points


Some pranks were Vaseline under door handles, bird seeds,

writing on cars,
saran wrapping cars,
and my group made caramel onions.This was a fabulous way to get groups together before the party to get to know each other better. The Orange Group, the Menacing Monsters pranked 14 people, 1 of which was not even coming to the party to get them back for not coming to the party.

We then all met at a nearby gazebo to start the race.

Then the 46 of us jumped in the cars and took off.

In the cars we worked on clueslike these
and looked for hints at each location


and looked for ingredients to our witches brew

Our group went to the wrong pumpkin patch (I might have led them astray)
but we made it to the right one- Martha, you are too cute!

Each group had to take a creative picture and the winner got an extra point. Unfortunatly the winning picture is lost on the taker's computer. They were unique and the rest of us basically had the same idea






The group that made it to the ending location 1st took a picture showing how "bored" they were waiting. Might I add here that this group lacked a certain amount of honesty :). My co host was in this group and was powerless in controlling her group with out giving it way that she was the boss.
They surprised the groups that came after them.



Then we had a PaRtY! By this point, everyone new who Zelda (my co host) was because the party was at her house. They had to vote to decide who Wanda was. Sadly for me, almost everyone knew it was me. One person used my computer at my house and saw my emails (we switch off babysitting and she had brought my kids home). Martha knew because she thought she could not come anymore and I told her but then she decided to join. There were a couple more like that but the rest were just guessing. I guess it had Kelly written all over it.

Even though the 1st place group were clear winners, we had a tie breaker anyway. A person from the 1st 2 groups had to eat the caramel onions. Again, the orange team were clear winners


This was such a blast that really helped a new ward unite a little more. I know of more pictures that have not been sent to me that were hilarious but I could not wait any longer to post about my party. Too Fun!!

HIs Look Says it All

6 months

I know this is typical but I can't help feeling shock over Levi already being 6 months. All of his yummyness has been around for half a year. He is the normal, grabby, drooly, hungry, suck on my chin, screechy, smiley baby that I gush over multiple times daily. I am so grateful that instead of having 4 sassy children, I have 3 sassy children and 1 baby who lives off my attention. Here is my babe (with drool on his chest- if I waited to post these until after I figured out my new program that can remove that, it might have been another month:)





My BFF made this splendid hat for my stud. Love it!! Its on sideways but doesn't that make it supa dupa cute??
Can I just how much he crazy looks like Joshy.

I don't know why he was so giggly but he was so easy to photograph tonight- sorry its sideways

Disney Expo!

My kids were asked by a friend who works for Disney to participate in a fashion show at the Disney Expo. They had so much fun but they also knew they had to work hard for the $$ they earned. By working hard I mean being quiet and listening to instructions. It was even more fun to be there with friends.

Josh really liked looking at himself in the mirror.

In all, it was I who had to work hard especially for Simeon's quick change into his Buzz costume in 1 min. Because I was helping him I was never able to see Josh and Rory on stage in costume. Total bummer. This was so my much fun!! If you want to see the video of Simeon at the rehearsal go here. Here is the rehearsal for an end of the show song. Simeon was killing me!

Simeon Plays Soccer!

Double Goal!

The Best part of soccer is playing with friends! He was so excited and then sooo tired. Wish us luck in having 3 kids in soccer!

This is Not a Hard Life

Enjoy

I missed posting Levi at 4 months so here are some videos of him.

I have heard that my 25 year old brother will laugh from across the room when my mother starts buzzing like a bee like she is going to tickle him. Here I am not even touching Levi and he is laughing like he is being tickled.

This one is for my friend Amy. She says her 4th kid is a screamer. All of mine have been screamers. Levi has found his voice. He is well on his way to be a screamer. He screams when he is happy mad sad glad. Here he wants me to pick him up.

I explain this one in the video. His Doctor suggested that he is ready for food. I resisted but he loves it!

The Adventure Continues!

I am guessing half of you have seen this picture and half have not. This is Roger and my engagement picture. 10 years and 4 kids later and we are still having a blast. At the very tender age of 20 and 23 we became mature- er, I mean adults- er, responsible people. We knew we were young (and still are) but we knew we had found something great that we did not want to pass up. Roger has exceeded my hopes and expectations 100 times over. He has taught me so much about loving, respectful relationships. We do all we can to make each other happy and feel loved. This was the best choice I ever made in life. I love you Roger! Thank you for being you!

Yea, well

I am kind of feeling over blogging. I don't know if I will stop but I am finding life is calm and there is not much to report about. Other than Roger taking the older 3 for a week of fun with family of which I have no pictures, we have just been playing. School doesn't start for us until Sept 10 so the next 3 weeks will be more of the same. Here are the pics of what I have made from the last month.

Its reversible. And it is a cover for my sewing machine if that was not obvious:)

still in the works:

Feeling Different Part 2

I think I must have come off as having a harder time then I really was in my last post. My drowning wasn't the depressed there is no way life is going to get better than this kind. It was the I am sick, my baby is sick, my kids are fighting, I can't get to my house let alone my hobbies until who knows when kind. I am much better now. Levi is going through 2 bad nights of sleep for every good night of sleep so I am a bit on the sleepy side but good things are happening here none the less.

Most of you will recall my spinach smoothie from last year not because it was oh so memorable but because my drinking smoothies everyday for a year came up in conversations. Well, that blasted smoothie! I attribute it to too much weight gain during pregnancy and then the giant child that came forth from that. Not that it was unhealthy as much as it started me out on a sugar high every morning which kept high through out the day thinking "oh- I can eat this cookie because I had spinach smoothie today" and then I would eat the whole row of oreos- in one sitting- on top of all the other sugary things I was eating. I had the best intentions. Really I did. I thought I was eating healthy with a few bad things a day. I never got a cold from all the Vitamin C too and I felt good except for the weight gain.

So then I had Levi and stopped drinking the smoothie because of the orange juice and the other fruit's acid. Then I got an infection on my ta tas that thrive on yeast so I cut out sugar to help the pain. Pain is a GREAT motivator. Anytime anyone had ever said they were cutting out sugar I thought they were CrAzY!! But then I had a great reason to cut out all sugar including natural sugar. I felt better and I lost another 15lbs in 9 days (the first 20 were childbirth and water gain losses). Since I want another baby soon and was told by the doctor that I had to lose my pre prego weight first I decided to go off sugar until after the next baby!

It has been almost 3 months since I have had sugar including most natural sugar. I only eat 2 sevings of fruit and have a little dairy which has natural sugar. Here's what I have noticed

-although weight loss slowed down I did lose that 1st 15 pretty quick and am still losing
-being hungry is not as bad because I am not hitting a sugar low too
-Levi's fussiness went away- might have happened anyway though right?
-my belly fat is smaller than it has been in years
-its no where near as hard as I thought it would be
- I HAVE SELF CONTROL!! Who knew! Now I just need to transfer that to other things like spending money :)

This week I also switched to eating only whole grains instead of refined. We will see how that goes. I guess my diet is basically like the second phase of South Beach Diet.

I also came up with a new spinach smoothie recipe that has a lot less sugar and is hopefully healthier. If you know better than me, please tell me! I won't pretend to know what I am doing. Sometimes I regret not continuing with the Dietetics major I started on. Darn Microbiology! I tried taking a picture this morning but couldn't wait to drink this "Blueberry Milkshake". My kids love it

1 cup frozen blueberries
1 1/2 cups skim milk
2-3 cups spinach
snippings of wheat grass
1 frozen banana (I just invited this sugary fruit back in my diet for smoothies)
1-2 Tblsp Fage Greek No fat yogurt (from Costco)
1/4 cup protein powder (unless Rory and Simeon are sharing)

Feeling Different

I don't feel much different from this:



but I have felt different lately. There was some drama going on in different areas of my life that effected me. Growing up there was a lot of real and pretend drama and I did not know how to survive without it. Even in college I still created drama. When Roger and I married, I swore off drama and for the most part that has been successful. So when drama came from different angles, I wanted to run far far away. Instead I dealt with it the best I know and became a peacemaker as best I could even though I was standing ground on my convictions. Vague enough? I don't like drama. Roger says that makes me more mature. Imagine, me mature. You are laughing aren't you?

Something else seems different too. I am feeling less able to express myself through words, spoken and written. I am less willing to say much for fear of sounding like a big dork. I wonder if I have always sounded like a dork and did not know it and am just now realizing it or if I have digressed with time. Its not that I am not talking as much as usual. Its more in writing, speaking to large groups, or when there is something really important to say.

Also, I reached a point of feeling like I was drowning this last week. Hero Camp took everything I had two weeks ago, then I came down with a cold and Levi came down with roseola this last week. There were days where I held him all day and he woke up every 2 hours at night. The big kids still needed to do things active and engaging and the house was out of order for me. I did not know how I was going to do anything. One night in the middle of it, the Bishop knocked on the door. I am so relieved to say no kids were fighting, the house was descent(except for the dinner dishes and the little piles I had not been able to clean up yet) and we were reading scriptures. Yep! What better thing to be doing when the Bishop comes in. It made me think about how the important things were happening in our home. Unfortunatly, it did not help wth the drowning feeling. Some of you know what is helpomg. The rest of you will find out later.

Thanks for listening- I needed it.

She's Mine!

We are so glad this beautiful girl is in our family. She turned 7 this week. She is definitely a tough girl who can hold her own in this house of boys or even out on the field at park day. She is developing a romantic side so keep your boys hidden! She is a daddy and mommy's girl. WE love this one!


For her birthday we went to the Seal Life Aquarium with friends. One of her presents was not being made to brush her hair before leaving the house.




Then we went swimming with Roger. It was Levi's 1st time and he loved the pool and a little dip in the hot tub.

WE LOVE YOU RORY!!!

He's Mine!

All this 5 month. . .er 4?. . .3 month old is mine. Mine all mine. This tongue. . .

is mine. Sure Roger and the kids borrow him

just about anyone can hold him

most people can even get a good laugh out of him

but I claim him. I love him. All of him.