When I grow up I want to be a stay at home mom.

Here are some things I have encountered lately as I carry out my life's ambition to stay at home.

Huge wads of toilet paper (thankfully clean) have been randomly showing up in the kids bathroom and the hallway. This started approximately November 18, 2010. We aren't sure of the culprit yet. :) I did suggest to one of my children that it's a good idea to stop playing with the TP. We'll see how it goes.

I helped Matthew clean his room today. I found a casket a key, an ID tag for a dead person (which Matthew made for himself last time he went to work with Ken, including his day of death - which thankfully has already passed,) and the top half of a sock. Apparently there was a big whole in the sock so he cut the bottom off and said the top part fit perfectly on his arm. There were several other 'gems' but those I thought deserved mentioning.

I am not a psychic. I don't have eyes in the back of my head. BUT, I know when you are sneaking out of your bedroom to play in the water in the bathroom. How do I know? I can HEAR you!

Nicole can almost play 'I Lived in Heaven' perfectly. She's been practicing it a lot. I'm so excited for her!

Matthew brought me a polaroid of him at age 1 at the Mexican Restaurant in a sombrero. He asked me if he was a Mexican. I told him yes. He started counting in Spanish but couldn't remember 10. (Diez) I told him he was a dumb Mexican. He called me a racist.

Being a stay at home as a child meant I got to stay home from school and watch TV all day, even though my mom did A LOT more than that during her life as a stay at home mom. The laundry was always done! folded and put away too.

Being a stay at home mom as a stay at home as the mom means cleaning up the same messes over and over again, day after day. Always having 2 more loads of laundry to do and wanting to take a nap way more often than you actually get to. It means hugging your child goodbye in the morning, missing him all day when he's gone and being so excited when he gets back home at the end of the school day while working on 7th grade at home and learning everything you can about fractions, number lines, graphs and grammar during my school day. Recently I've re-added teaching the alphabet, musical alphabet, counting and coloring in the lines to my list of requirements.

I'm so tired I can't keep my eyes open. It's 100 times more work than I did when I worked full time in the classroom. It pays A LOT less.

I'm pretty happy with my position.

While we were gone:

*Ken turned 35 on the 15th.
*My mom would have turned 63 on the 16th.
*My kids missed a week of school. (and they are still hoping for a snow day tomorrow.)
*I ran 2 minutes straight on a treadmill barefoot. I'll start my 'running' again tomorrow as long as the roads are clear.
*My testimony of personal revelation was strengthened 100 fold.

Two quotes from Anna:

I need to take a bath because my toes are dirty.
I have a big tongue.

One quote from Matthew:
Now you can't call Nicole your best girl because you have two girls. But I'm still the best boy.

One quote from Nicole:
Having a little sister is even better than I thought!

That being said, it's a little after 9 and it feels like it's midnight. I'm going to bed! My goal for this week is to find my rechargeable batteries. I don't have any for my camera and it's dead.

Holy Pictures Batman--at the park

Today I am thankful for beautiful weather and no school. We were able to go to a park close to our home with some good friends. Here are 18 pictures for your viewing pleasure. My most favorite favorite picture is the very last one. I my opinion, it's totally worth the wait!

Matthew and Jake on pogo sticks. They were getting about 18 inches in the air. It was pretty awesome.

 Matthew jumping.

 Nicole scooting.

 Nicole riding a bike.

 Nicole and Jessy just sitting around.

 Tyler on a bike.

 Next we 'played' tennis. I use the term played very loosely. We actually swung the rackets and chased the balls. A. Lot. Be sure you notice how often the ball was not where it was supposed to be when the rackets were swinging.

 This is Nicole honest to truth 'pose' while she waits for the ball to make it to her side.

 Next the boys got tired of running for tennis balls so they decided to climb the fence.

 And now, for my MOST FAVORITE picture of the day....I LOVE IT!

I'm also thankful for children who like to have their pictures taken. It was a super fun day!

November 3, 2010

Right now one of my children is sitting in their room crying. I interrupted their story to tell them to put pants on. They're too old to be walking around the house in their underwear. Can my one thing I'm thankful for today be doors and pillows to cry in? GOOD GRIEF!

Today Matthew only had a half day of school because of parent teacher conferences. He also has tomorrow and Friday off because of said conferences. I went to his conference today. He's doing really well but they said he gets easily distracted and he talks too much. I'm pretty sure he got that from Ken. (or me)

The thing I'm thankful for today is $20 coupons off of purchases that are even under $20. Because of said coupons I was able to buy a Christmas present for one of my children and 3 pairs of crazy knee high socks today for nothing. That's right.  It was free. I didn't have to add stuff to meet a limit so my purchase of $19.51 cost me nothing...except for all the shoes I bought at famous footwear to earn said coupon. So worth it though!

In other news...Nicole continues to be doing really well learning at home. She's found her niche and I'm just trying to provide her with enough information because she can't seem to get enough of it! (except for history. We seem to fall asleep during movies.)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my Sister in Law, RHONDA!!

I couldn't find a picture of her but she likes pickles so this is for her. :)

and now for the TMI section...
I need to buy new deodorant. I think mine is betraying me.  If I'm around you and I stink, please tell me in a way as nice as possible. gracias.

Lastly, but not least-ly...
Will you pretty please with sugar on top help me earn my Personal Progress Medallion and Honor Bee by participating in my PP blog? I'd be most grateful!  http://honorbee.blogspot.com/.

scripture study from my point of 'view'

Right before we started reading scriptures, this is what my family looked like from my view. Ken's phone he was playing on is on his knee now. Nicole was 'conversing' with her magic 8 ball as opposed to the scriptures sitting on her lap. I'm not really sure about that face...She's funny...and 12.

 Matthew was just taking up far more than his 1 cushion. He did turn 180 degrees before it was his turn to read.



Good Times! We read Mormon 5 tonight. We should finish the Book of Mormon by Christmas...very exciting!

Halloween 2010

For Halloween this year the kids had their first party then we went to the 3 ward + a branch Trunk or Treat at the church.

Here is Nicole in her wedding dress...a beautiful bride.

 Matthew was an army guy.

 Ken was Charlie Brown.

 For our party we celebrated a lot of the holidays through out the year. First we made rest of the year resolutions.  The kids had to think of something they could do for the rest of the year to serve their families.

 For February they made valentines and put them in the stockings that were hanging off the kitchen counter for each of the kids. I forgot to take pictures of them.

For March we decorated shamrock sugar cookies. The recipe is AWESOME. I'll post it soon.

 Next we dyed Easter Eggs.

 For the summer months we talked about our love of camping and outdoors and then we roasted marshmallows on the stove.

 September was hunting season. They shot inflatable pumpkins with a nerf gun.

 November was thanksgiving. They are their cookies, eggs and we made bean dip with chips and salsa.

 We took random breaks between each activity to break out into random dances such as:

The Hokey Pokey

The Bunny Hop

The Cha Cha Slide

The Macarena

The Electric Slide

 More pumpkin hunting.

 Here's our group shot.

 Halfway through the party Nicole decided to change costumes. She'd been wearing the same thing for almost 4 hours! The horror!

 Here they are at the trunk or treat. It was the biggest one I'd ever seen. The WHOLE parking lot was full! Ken says maybe 150 cars. There is certainly no need to go trick or treating after that!

It was a fun day and I'm glad we have tomorrow to recoop from it before starting back to school on Monday! Happy Halloween!!

My kids are bloggers!

These pictures bring my heart joy. I love to blog. Whether my 6 readers enjoy it or come back as a form of masochism, that is to be determined at a later date, but for me--I love it.  Nicole and Matthew have caught the same bug I have. Nicole more so than Matthew. These are pictures of them both working on their blogs last Saturday...at the same time. I was a little jealous that I wasn't blogging too, but I had to capture the moment anyway.

Their blogs are available to read over on the side bar. ------>

Would you like any pie with that?

We just got home from the temple. Would you like some pie with your whoopcream? Poor photo quality do to cell phone photograph. My nephew, Zachary, called whipped cream whoop cream, so we do to.

Nicole made pie...

Yesterday for Nicole's math lab she needed to bake or cook something, to practice measuring and adding fractions. She chose pumpkin pie. She's never baked any kind of pie before--this was her first experience. Scooping canned pumpkin out of a can kind of grossed her out and we did lose an egg but who hasn't dropped an egg at some point in their baking career. Over all she did a very nice job.

Here is the event in pictures...

It tasted just like pumpkin pie. Well done Colie!