The Sly Fox Seven

Happy Valentine's Day!

2012-02-14T22:15:00.001-08:00

Valentine Cookies Cookies the kids decorated with way too much frosting and candy.
Bailey's masterpiece.
Addie's creations.
Cam's breaking heart.
Emery's art work.
Joelle's cookie licked clean of frosting.
Me and my hunky hubby :)
Beautiful Bailey.
Sweet Cutie Pie Addie.
Handsome Cam.
Silly Emery.
Serious Joelle.
Crazy Like a Fox :)
Fabulous Fox Fam :)
Happy Valentine's Day Everyone!

Christmas Eve and Christmas 2011

2012-01-22T21:50:00.000-08:00

Well, I can't get this to type above my pictures. I also couldn't change any red eye. I will try to come back and journal about everything later, right now I just wanted to get the pictures up, it's late.

Eating candy canes on Christmas Eve.
Sharing music and movies on Christmas Eve
All clean and ready for Christmas
Cute clean baby girl
Cute clean Emery
Kids and Trigger(temporary pet, we were trying to see if he would be a fit for our family)
Pretty Tree
Presents and Tree
Kids and tree again
Christmas morning breakfast
Homemade hot chocolate, cinnamon roll cake, and breakfast ham, egg, and hashbrown casserole
All dressed up for church
Cute Christmas kids

Being Silly
Cam and his laughing shark
Bailey getting her smoothie maker
Cam and presents from Grandma and Grandpa Beebe
Bailey and present from Grandma and Grandpa Beebe
Cam with his drums
Addie and doll from Grandma and Grandpa Beebe
Joelle with her baby from Grandma and Grandpa Beebe
Kids with cool bike from Grandma and Grandpa Fox
Excited Cam
Addie with her new I-Pod charger/alarm clock
Happy Bailey with art supplies and voucher for ear pearcing
Joelle loves her new laughing Cookie Monster.
Joelle a little afraid and not so sure how she feels about Cookie Monster, now that he's laughing and rolling around.
Bailey with presents from Grandma and Grandpa Beebe
Emery and her cool elephant
Joelle trying out the cool bike
Emery's little feet poking out from under her huge present
Emery excited about her barbie dolls and camper
Addie teary eyed over her new pet shops. She'd been hoping for a giraffe (her favorite animal) forever.
Joelle with clothes from Grandma and Grandpa Beebe.

Cool rug from my parents.
Addie opening up games from Grandpa and Grandma Fox.
Emery holding her new baby doll that Grandma Beebe made.
Chase happy with his new wallet, I'm glad he made the effort to look surprised :)
Emery excited about her Agent P slippers.
Cam and Chase flying Cam's helicopter.

Cool helicopter that lit up. Unfortunately, the batteries wouldn't hold a charge after a week, so we took it back. We got our money back and used it along with the Christmas money Cam got and other money he'd saved up to buy a Nintendo 3DS.
Jello Pretzel Dessert
Overcooked Ham
Yummy Green Bean Casserole
I love these rolls :)

So, as you can tell we had a pretty good Christmas. I was fortunate to have found some presents that we had in storage for 3 years which helped on Christmas costs this year. I also am thankful to family for helping make our Christmas fun with fun presents and Christmas money. Thank you Grandma and Grandpa Fox, Grandma and Grandpa Beebe, Great Grandma Fox, and Great Grandma Black! The other presents from us and "Santa" came from good deals at Costco and Goodwill. I was amazed at all that I was able to get with some great deals. Chase gave me my present a little early on Christmas Eve. He wasn't supposed to get me anything else because he'd already gotten me a Zumba Wii game for an early Christmas present. He got me a really nice camera! I even cried a little, I think the last time I cried over a gift was the song he wrote for me when I was pregnant with Addie. I really needed a new camera. The old camera was spazzing out and I had already lost several pictures, which made me sad. It's important for me to capture memories for my family.

Anyway, so this is basically how the day went... woke up very early on Christmas, ate breakfast, and went to church. When we got home we opened presents and then later that day ate dinner. We got to skype with Chase's family which was also fun. It was great to finally have our own Christmas again in our own home. I had a lot of fun getting out all of our decorations and putting them up with the kids. In fact, I just barely took down all our decorations this week. I was tempted to leave the tree up and just decorate for every holiday. I also think we need to put in carpet in the living room, I lost count of how many decorations we lost from falling and breaking on the tile. We hope everyone else had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year too!

Chris Madrid's and River Walk

2012-01-22T19:31:00.000-08:00

My favorite Burger Ever!!!

We received some Christmas money from Chase's Grandma Fox. So, over Christmas break we decided to take the kids to San Antonio. We explained that it was Great Grandma Fox's present to them. First we went out to eat at one of our favorite restaurants, Chris Madrid's and had some awesome burgers and cheese fries. I'm normally not much of a burger person, but I love the cheese burgers at Chris Madrid's. They are delicious and huge! Then we drove over closer to downtown and parked and walked over to the River Walk. It turned out that the night we picked was right before one of the play off games being held in San Antonio, so it was crazy crowded with football players, band members, cheer leaders, and fans. We walked down the River Walk and enjoyed all the beautiful lights. I was paranoid that we'd lose a kid or that someone would fall into the river. We had to wait a little longer for the boat tour because they had taken football players and band members on VIP tours. It was kind of cool though because one of the bands performed while they were on the boat as we were walking by. The kids had an awesome time and it was fun to be able to get out and do something as a family that we normally wouldn't do. Thank you Grandma Fox :)
Bailey getting ready to take a bite.
Addie, a little blurry, taking everything off that she doesn't like...as usual.
Cam in serious concentration mode, digging in.
Not sure what this expression is about.
Chase and his mammoth burger.
As you can see, Emery likes to dissect her food, and will usually eat everything on the inside first, then eat the outside bread. You can't tell very well from the picture, but it looked like she was sporting a beard because her little mouth was poking through the middle where she bit.
Messy Joelle enjoying her yummy food.
On one of the bridges on the River Walk.

Kids on the boat tour.
Chase and Joelle on the boat tour.

Kids looking at lights on the boat tour.
Emery and Joelle playing and being silly.
One of the buildings on the River Walk tour all lit up at the top with the flag. It didn't turn out as well as I'd hoped, but it looked pretty cool.

Listen

2011-12-02T21:33:00.000-08:00

Well, this was going to be a post of our Yo Gabba Gabba concert, but our camera is on the fritz so I don't have access to the pictures right now. Chase took the card out of the camera and put them directly onto the lap top which he has at work. He was able to save those pictures, so I will post them later. Until then here is a story and/or lesson for y'all...

About 3 weeks ago I went into our youngest's room to check on her. I wanted to make sure she hadn't thrown all her blankets out of her bed which she likes to do; it was supposed to be a cold night. As I went in through the adjoining bathroom door, I was only using the light from our bedroom so it was dark. I noticed something on the floor by the door and thinking it was a toy I decided I should probably pick it up before someone stepped on it. Right before I bent over to pick it up, a thought pops into my head... "Turn on the light". Well, I reasoned back to that thought in my head that that would be stupid because I would risk waking up the baby. As I'm bending down, and looking closer I'm not sure if it's a toy or something wrong with the carpet, but I kept going, never turned on the light, even though that prompting came again. Well, my finger made contact, not with a toy or the carpet, but with a scorpion. I screamed and immediately as it stung me I knew what it was even though this was my first time being stung by a scorpion and I couldn't see what it was. I flipped on the bathroom light and saw it scamper away out of the corner of my eye.

Chase came running in to see what happened and as I tended to my wound he flipped on the baby's light to try to find the scorpion to no avail. All, the screaming, and rummaging, and lights shining never woke her up. Well, a panic set in because I have had really bad reactions to ant bites here and I thought for sure I would stop breathing or lose a limb. I immediately took some benadryl and tried to ice away the pain in my finger. The whole time I'm doing this, I know very well that I had been warned. How stupid could I have been to just dismiss such a blatant prompting and warning. I have no doubt that the spirit tried to warn me, but I obviously knew better. I couldn't have felt more stupid and humbled. Well, I was blessed that nothing but some temporary pain occurred. The sting hurt really bad immediately, and dissipated into a dull throbbing, but by morning I felt nothing, only a barely visible bump was at the sting site.

I began to wonder how many other times had I just ignored a prompting that would have saved me so much grief and pain. I also wondered how many times a "thought" popped into my head that was an actual prompting that I had followed that had helped me or someone else. I hope that I have followed more promptings than I have ignored. Sadly, I think often times, being the humans that we are, there are lots of times where we think we know better or because something doesn't make sense to us we ignore it.

My scorpion sting was a big wake up call. I need to remember to listen and not think I can handle things on my own or don't need the help of my Savior and Heavenly Father. I need to realize that my Heavenly Father knows what's best for me and He can and will help me if I allow Him to and if I will take the time to stop and listen. This life is so crazy and busy, it's very easy to get caught up in the bustle and forget to stop and listen. I think of my own children and how I try to keep them safe and warn them of dangers and how sad it must be for our Heavenly Father when we don't listen. He's there to guide us and protect us, even if it's to prevent me from a stupid scorpion sting. I just hope I'm paying attention to the bigger promptings no matter how strange they may sound that may have eternal consequence for myself, others, or a loved one. I started to think how many times does Heavenly Father use us to help someone else, or uses others to help us. I started to think, what if I was lazy on one of those days He needed me to follow a prompting and I just dismissed it, I really and truly hope not.

On Tuesday night I took my youngest to the doctor for what I knew must be another ear infection, which it ended up being. As I waited at the drive up to pick up her medicine I had texted Chase about it and slipped my phone back into my purse. Almost immediately, my phone rang, so I fished it back out. It was my friend from church who I also visit teach. She asked if I had tried to call her, I said no. She said her phone rang, but then no one answered and/or it went dead after she picked it up. I apologized but couldn't understand how I would have dialed her number. Instead of just ignoring it though, my friend decided to call me back. I explained that I was in the drive up getting meds for Joelle and that she had an ear infection again.

My friend is a nurse and she asked if they gave her the pain drops for her ears as well. I answered no, and she was shocked because it was a common thing to do for the pain. She then told me that she had an extra bottle at her house that I could have for Joelle. Even as "coincidence" fell on "coincidence", it never occurred to me that she had possibly followed the spirit by calling me back. My friend then said, "Well see, you may not have called me, but the spirit called me for you". I laughed, but looking back she could have just ignored my call and assumed I'd call back if it was important. It may be just a little thing, but it shows me that my Heavenly Father loves me and He loves Joelle and is mindful enough of her that He would care to ease her pain, even just a little.

I am going to try to be more active in listening, even when a thought or an idea seems a little strange or even uncomfortable. I'm going to try to pay attention and try to create more opportunities for me to be able to receive and recognize the promptings in time for me to act on them. I hope I have learned a valuable lesson from all this and that I will not be foolish or stupid in the future and always listen.

p.s. Sorry about my blog background, I just realized it covers some of the text on the top. I will try to look for a new one tomorrow.

Thanksgiving 2011

2011-12-02T21:10:00.000-08:00

Well, I had a whole bunch of cool pictures to share of Thanksgiving...until the camera decided to get rid of them all. I have a sneaking suspicion that Joelle played a part in the camera acting up. She had climbed up onto the piano, retrieved the camera, and pushed some buttons. One of the older kids discovered her with it and brought it to me. The camera was set to some strange setting and after looking at it Chase was able to put it back to normal. However, when I put the camera into the computer to charge it and transfer pictures, the computer said there was an error and then poof all the pictures were gone, Chase couldn't save them.

So, take a minute and close your eyes and now imagine a beautiful spread of yummy food :) Imagine my beautiful table centerpieces that I made for the first time ever. I will try to describe them to you later.

I brined the turkey the night before, then buttered and salt and peppered it before throwing it into the oven. I had made 3 pies the day before...french silk, pear, and apple. Our good friends brought a pecan and pumpkin pie and also some really delicious mashed potatoes. I made creamy peach jello, rolls, veggie tray with dip, and a lime slush punch. I utilized my crock pots for the first time for Thanksgiving this year, it turned out perfect. I had one big crock pot with my stuffing. I had gone to Jimmy John's and purchased 4 loaves of their day old bread, it made the best stuffing. My mom gave me a triple pot crock pot, if that's a name for it. I put corn in one, green bean casserole and gravy in the others. I followed Ken Black's (Chase's uncle who makes the best gravy ever) gravy recipe, and to my utter delight this year it turned out :) . I also made cranberry sauce, but had a store bought can on the side for Chase just in case the homemade kind didn't do it for him. I don't think I left anything out, it turned out pretty awesome. I had 4 new recipes that I tried this year so I was nervous they wouldn't turn out, but everything was great.

For my centerpieces, I took 2 small clear vases, and alternated layers of acorns and cranberries. Then I tied some raffia around the vase. I put one vase on my fall table runner with 2 small pumpkins (leftover from Halloween bowling). On the other table I found some leftover fall material scraps and layered them and put the other vase there with 2 more pumpkins. It was pretty, I'm sure it wasn't that impressive, but I was excited about it. The kids weren't too happy though because I made them go out and collect acorns for me. I had leftover cranberries from the cranberry sauce.

We had a fun dinner with just our family and friends and we hope everyone else had a Happy Thanksgiving as well!

Halloween 2011

2011-11-25T16:41:00.000-08:00

Joelle the Peacock

Emery the Poodle

Girls getting ready to go to the Trunk or Treat

Cute Halloween girls

Emery and Joelle

Cam the Scary Skeleton

Addie getting her dance moves on

Addie the Disco 70's Girl, her trick or treat bag was her orange purse

Addie and Cam

Bailey the Dresser Drawers

Me as a bunch of Grapes

This Halloween we got to celebrate a couple of days instead of just one. Addie had a Halloween party, then our ward had a Trunk or Treat. The trunk or treat was put together last minute, so we volunteered some games at our car while the kids came around. I used all the games I had put together for Cam's Kindergarten class when I was home room mom. I knew those games would come in handy again, I'm glad I kept them. We had pumpkin bowling, pumpkin broom races, cauldron toss, assemble the skeleton, and monster match. We had a ton of fun at the ward trunk or treat! On actual Halloween day, the kids were not allowed to dress up in their costumes at school here. Previously, we had dropped Bailey's costume off at her friend's house so she could ride the bus home with her friend and trick or treat in her friend's neighborhood. The rest of us dressed up and headed over to our friends' house from church. We ate a yummy pumpkin dinner and then went trick or treating in their neighborhood.

This was Joelle's first time walking and getting treats. It was pretty funny to watch, she was very in to the trick or treating and it was all serious. She was very possessive of her candy bag which was only a grocery sack. Joelle wouldn't let anyone hold it for her and she would drag it along. When we got home there were holes in the bottom of the bag and some of the candy had been worn through the wrappers where she dragged it. We went and picked Bailey up and then headed home where the kids dug into their candy. I was very impressed this year that Addie didn't inhale all of hers in one night and actually made it last about a month. In fact Emery was the first to finish all of her candy, but of course she didn't go as long or get as much candy as the others did. Cam just finished his a couple of days ago, and of course Bailey still has a ton of her candy which she has added to her bucket. I wouldn't be surprised if she still has some of her candy when Valentine's Day rolls around next year.

So, this year's costumes were mostly finds from Goodwill. At the beginning of the year, when we first moved here, I found the poodle and peacock costumes at Goodwill. I decided to purchase them because I had no idea when or if we would get our stuff from storage in UT which included all our Halloween stuff. As Halloween grew closer Cam had already called the skeleton costume I got for really cheap after Hallween the previous year. I got Addie her costume from Goodwill as well, except the wig which I also got on discount after Halloween in UT. All I had to do was take in the pants a little which were too big. Bailey had the idea of being a dresser drawer. We had plenty of boxes, but I really didn't want to get involved with her project, but she begged and begged and finally sucked me in. I guess she gets her crazy costume ideas from me, I have always tried to find unique and fun costumes. So, she took one of the boxes, made "drawers" for the front and colored everything. I got some dresser drawer knobs and a tiny alarm clock from Walmart. We went to Goodwill and tried on a bunch of lamp shades, I'm sure people thought we were nuts. We finally found a lamp shade that wasn't too big and Bailey found a necklace chain to attach for the light switch. We positioned her toe sock as if it was hanging out of the drawer, and lastly, I stuck her little baby picture on top as well. It turned out to be a fun costume and she had people give her extra treats because they liked her costume. For myself, I stole Emery's grape costume that we did a few years back. I could only find green and red balloons so I was a bunch of green grapes. I squeezed her little hat that I made on my head and we were all set.

We had a pre-Halloween dinner by ourselves, since we were invited to dinner on Halloween night. We made mummy dogs of course, with eyeballs(grapes), and witch fingers(carrot sticks). I was a little lazy with the Halloween dinner this year, but the kids had fun. Hope everyone had a Happy Halloween!

Carving Pumpkins

2011-11-03T11:15:00.000-07:00

A few days before Halloween we finally carved our pumpkins one night while watching the Charlie Brown Halloween special. Chase was working, but he's been working a lot, so I couldn't keep putting off the pumpkin carving or it'd be too late for Halloween. I forget how creative and crafty my kids can be though and it took me forever to carve out all the pumpkins by myself. Luckily, Joelle was content with just coloring her pumpkin. She has discovered coloring the last couple of weeks and LOVES it, a little too much. I had her on a place mat and was watching her, but I guess not closely enough because some sharpy did get on my table. I guess those spots will be there to forever remember my little crazy girl happily coloring her little pumpkin to her heart's content.

Joelle coloring her little pumpkin.
Emery coloring the back of her pumpkin too.
Bailey carving the top of her puppy pumpkin.
Addie and Cam gutting their pumpkins.
Bailey and Joelle cozy on the couch watching tv.
Emery getting in on the cozy action.
Kids with their pumpkin creations.
Oooooooh, spoooky!
Blurry pic I tried to take with the flash off so you could see the lit pumpkins and the kids' faces...didn't really work well.
Cute pumpkins.
Bailey also drew a pig vampire on the back of her pumpkin.
Back of Emery's pumpkin that she drew.
Joelle and her masterpiece.

Church Chili Contest

2011-11-03T11:00:00.000-07:00

Bailey showing all that was left of her chili. After the judging, everyone gets to eat the chili.

Our church had a chili contest back at the beginning of Sept. As soon as Bailey found out about it she begged and begged me to let her enter. I tried to explain to her that she would be up against many Texans who had a lot more experience making chili than her. She didn't care, she fancies herself a chef among many other things... an artist, a writer, etc. Anyway, I finally relented and told her she'd have to start the chili as soon as she got home from school in order to have it at the church in time to be judged.

First off I need to clarify that Bailey has never made chili before, she has cooked very little actually. Bailey cooked everything, I helped drain the fat off the beef and maybe chopped some stuff, but this was Bailey's baby. She told me what she wanted to put in and I would give some suggestions as to not put in too much or too little of a certain spice, but that was all. We took the chili to the church and I was not expecting anything.

It was a blind judging, so no one knew who made which chili. The winners were announced, and the top 3 won a prize package. Bailey kept bugging me to find out how she placed because she was afraid to ask for herself, but I was busy with some behavioral issues of another child at that moment. So, she got her little brother to go up and ask. Surprise, surprise...Bailey placed 5th out of 15 entries! I was completely shocked! So, I guess next year she's gotta up the anty and try again. I was very proud of her and also learned a lesson that day to not discount anything and always let my kids try even if the odds are against them.

Crazy Sock Day

2011-11-02T22:10:00.000-07:00

So for Red Ribbon week last week the kids had a different day every day that they had to dress up differently. Here are some pictures of them dressing up for crazy sock day. I didn't get a picture of Emery, she just wore some Halloween socks that lit up. Both Addie and Bailey won first place for their grade. Cam won second place. The girls won some water bottles and I can't remember what Cam won.

Sea World

2011-11-02T20:47:00.000-07:00

We had season passes to Sea World that my parents bought us when they came to visit. I somehow lost my pass so up until this last visit to Sea World, Chase had been taking the kids by himself. My mom mailed us her pass to see if they'd let me use it. The morning we decided to take them a few weeks ago, Chase called to make sure they'd let me in. They said I had to show my ID and for $5.00 they'd print me a new pass. Well, we hadn't even tried before to get another pass because if you read on the pass itself it says they are not responsible for lost or stolen cards blah, blah, blah, so I figured they wouldn't do anything. I went and stood in line to see guest services while Chase took Joelle on the carroussel and the other kids stood in line to ride the Shamu roller coaster.

I got up to the counter and explained I had lost my pass and needed a new copy. She asked for some information and then asked if I was the only one who'd lost the pass. I answered yes and she said ok, printed me a new pass and that was it, she didn't even charge me, like it wasn't a big deal. So, this whole time I could have been going with them...whatever, I guess they just try and scare you into keeping your passes safe.

Anyway, so it was a special Halloween Sea World, so we decided to go. We really didn't participate in anything special though, we didn't go to any of the shows and we didn't do the trick or treating. Most of the Halloween stuff was at night too and was too scary for the kids, so we went on a few rides and looked at some animals and went home. It was perfect weather and surprisingly wasn't that crowded. Joelle actually got to go on some rides this time around too.

Riding the carroussel with Dad.
Bailey and Emery on the Shamu coaster. I was surprised Bailey got in the first car since she has a problem with "drops" on roller coasters, but I guess this one was pretty tame.
Cam and Addie in the tail section.
Joelle up high on the Big Bird egg ferris wheel. I was riding with her and she got bored and tried to climb out freaking me out until they finally got us off. She kept fighting me when I tried to hold on to her and the seat belts weren't all that secure. I think we'll be sticking to rides that are low to the ground from now on.
Emery afraid to take a picture with me and the alligators.
Kids standing in front of some spooky skeletons.
Emery and Joelle waiting for the big kids and dad to get off their rides.
We got pretty close to the dolphins considering we weren't in the massive crowd paying an overpriced $6.00 for fish to feed them.
Bailey, Joelle, and Cam with the sharks.
I believe a Sand Tiger Shark, or Black Tip...not sure.
Joelle all tuckered out after a busy day.

Little Girls Dancing at Sea World while waiting for the others to get off their rides.

Ant Bites

2011-11-02T20:27:00.000-07:00

I know y'all are excited for this post, but like I said this is a journal for me as well. So I'm documenting stuff...the good, the bad, and yes...the ugly. This summer I had several run ins with fire ants. Now, I had been bitten before by red ants in CA, and fire ants are a whole new story. First off they just swarm you and your whole limb, appendage or whatever just feels like it's on fire...I guess that's where they get their name from. Of the 4 times I was attacked, 3 were in or near my garden. I had a fairly good reaction to the first bites and with each preceding attack my reaction to the bites worsened to the point that the attack documented below drove me to the doctor. The doctor almost gave me a steroid shot, but thought it was infected so gave me antibiotics instead. The pharmacy was late filling the prescription and I thought I was feeling a little better so I never got the prescription filled and opted to let it heal on its own. After every attack it took weeks for me to heal, it was so annoying. With this particular attack I was barely able to walk and couldn't put on my shoes. I took benadryl which wiped me out and ice packed my foot all day for about a week. I started wearing my snow boots with my pants tucked inside and keeping a distance any time I had to water the garden. I'm hoping next year we can take some precautions to ensure we don't get as many fire ants... they are evil. I don't want to have to be getting an epi pen just so I can garden.

Fat foot compared next to my normal foot, you can see some of the scars on my normal foot though from when I got bit on that foot before.

Grandma and Grandpa Beebe Visit

2011-10-30T20:35:00.000-07:00

My parents came to visit back in the middle of May. See, I told you I was way behind and these last few posts are out of order, but at least I'm getting them done. The kids were still in school, but we took them out for 2 days, which was supposed to only be 1 day. The 1st day we took them out of school we were on our way to Sea World, but a huge crazy storm hit literally on our way there and they closed down Sea World. We were lucky to make it back home safe, it was a crazy doom and gloom type of storm. We ended up getting off the freeway and stopping at Big Lou's and getting pizza. The 2nd day we took them out to try to go to Sea World again and it was so hot and humid the day after the big storm. The kids had a fun time though. My parents bought our family season passes.

We went to Landa Park in New Braunfels with the little girls and my mom. We rode the train, played on the cool playground, and fed the really ugly ducks. I took my mom to a doll shop just around the corner from us and she bought the kids some dolls and some pots to go on Joelles cooking station.

We went on the river walk on the non-touristy part, and took my parents out to eat at my favorite burger place Chris Madrid's. We had to wait for a really long time on a Friday night, but it was worth it. So much cheesy, juicy goodness...yum! For me to talk about a burger like that, you know it must be good.

We took my parents to the Salt Lick, and I took my mom to the Dragon Place too. We went to Seguin Trade Days at the park as well. One day the kids got to go swimming for a bit in the pool, even though it was a little too cold. I think that was about it. We had a really fun time and can't wait for them to come visit again :)

Silly Girls

2011-10-30T20:26:00.000-07:00

The girls decided to try on their brother's and sister's shoes one day. Joelle is obsessed with shoes and loves to steal shoes and try them on. Emery was joining in on the fun.

Love this scrunched up silly face that she makes :)

This was how Emery originally dressed herself for the day until I found the shirt that goes with the shorts.

Squished Scorpion and Neighbors

2011-10-30T20:17:00.000-07:00

We've had 33 scorpions since moving here back in May, 9 of those were outside. We've had an influx of them this past week. I was hoping with the weather cooling down there'd be less. We finally met and talked to our neighbors about a week ago. They say they've been killing them every day. Their parents live just down the highway from us in virtually the same type of area and they don't get them...weird. Our neighbors seem very nice by the way, they have 3 kids...a girl just younger than Cam, another girl the same age as Emery, and a boy the same age as Joelle. The husband teaches and coaches at the high school and the wife owns The Grain Bin, a restaurant down the street from us. It's hard to meet people out here because we are so spread apart...people always wave as they drive by, but this was the first time we actually got to speak with them. It turns out they just bought the rest of the property behind and around us, so they were clearing some trees, etc.

Sleeping Beauties

2011-10-30T20:10:00.000-07:00

This is Joelle's favorite way to fall asleep. When she gets grumpy or tired she likes to bounce. She's been known to come and ask us to bounce. She holds her blanky and lays across your legs while you bounce her up and down. I thought she'd outgrow this, but she still likes to do it and is getting heavier and bigger and taking up more of my lap to the point I have to hang on to her sometimes so she won't fall off, especially if she's squirmy. She also talks giberish, makes sing song voices, and loud noises while she's bouncing...I have no idea why, she's a weird kid. I guess we should video tape it some time.

Yummy, Yummy Chicken Dinner

2011-10-30T20:03:00.000-07:00

I have a ton of random food pics that I took in hopes of blogging about some different recipes I've been making. This was a long time ago, I can't even remember the name of the recipe, but I know it is from America's Test Kitchen slow cooker cook book that I won a while back. It turned out really great. It was split chicken breasts, carrots, onion, and spices, etc. My favorite thing about it though was the broth that you end up with to serve over the chicken. It's pictured in the bowl next to the chicken. It was so good and I had a ton left over that I froze. I've whipped it out of the freezer later and thawed it and served it with vegetables and one night with veggies and ribs...so good!

Frozen Pudding Pops :)

2011-10-30T15:45:00.000-07:00

My mom used to make us frozen pudding pops when I was a kid, it was one of my most favorite things. I found some popsicle molds from unpacking and finally got to use them. The kids loved them as you can see from the pictures. We sure ate a lot of popsicles this summer!

I love this pic of Joelle, as if she can't believe she actually gets to eat something so yummy and messy.
Pudding Pop Kids :)
Love this one too! My messy little monkey :0)
Bearded Emery

Good Time at the Park

2011-10-30T15:41:00.000-07:00

This is a short movie I took when I saw Emery dancing to the band music at Kids' Day in the Park. Joelle was dancing too, but stopped when I started video taping it. You might want to turn down the volume in advance, the music was really loud.

Zeke and Cam

2011-10-30T15:35:00.000-07:00

So it's no secret that Zeke and Cam are special buddies. I shouldn't have been surprised to find this one night when I went to check on Cam.

Garden Update

2011-10-30T15:25:00.000-07:00

I was so excited to go out one day and discover 3 big zucchinis growing in my garden! They hadn't been eaten either. Something has been getting into my garden periodically and munching on my beautiful zucchini and ticking me off! I go out every day and try to block places where I think they might be getting in. I have put stacks of wood and rocks around the chicken wire, but they are digging underneath or squeezing through. My other garden was a square foot garden and in a planter so it was off the ground and I didn't have this problem. For the 3 zucchinis to have survived was a miracle. I went out just tonight and discovered another one that had been chewed on, grrrrrrrr, makes me so mad! So, this time, I picked one even though I wasn't sure if it was ready and I wanted it to get bigger, but I decided I didn't want it being eaten too. I have several more growing out there, we'll see if they survive or not.

Poor zucchini :(
My 3 big, beautiful zucchini, 5 beans( I have now harvested about 60, enough for everyone to have a small helping for 1 meal), 1 sad little pea, and some cucumbers. I had a ton of cucumbers.
Joelle modeling my zucchini :)

What the Heck is This???

2011-10-30T15:19:00.000-07:00

I have been finding these piles of "whatever" all over my yard. On first look, it looks like some kind of feces, like maybe rabbit pellets, but it isn't. I scraped at it with a stick and it appears to maybe be chewed up soil that a bug spit possibly spit out, I don't know. Someone told me they thought it was an ant hill, but trust me that's no ant hill. Unless, it's some freaky TX ant I don't know about. I asked some friends that had them in their yard as well, they suspected some insects. I found fresh ones in the garden as well. If you know what the heck this is please tell me, I have enough unknown variables that I have to deal with, I'd like to know what this one is please.

Freaky long, fat snake skin

2011-10-30T15:03:00.000-07:00

Zeke went balistic one day out behind the shed. I found him attacking this snake skin. It was huge, luckily though it wasn't as big as the other 5 ft skins I've found, including one by our back porch. He's been going crazy trying to dig under the shed for a while and now I know why. Before we thought it was the rat that Chase had seen months ago, but now we know there are a few snakes living there, including a big one. I'm pretty sure there might be a den there because I saw some baby snakes out there when I took some trash out. The baby snakes were garter snakes.

This skin I couldn't tell what it was, so I went online to research and from what I researched and asked friends it appears to probably be a rat snake. Garter snakes don't get this big, and are brown or black. I also found out that it's not poisonous, which was my main concern in trying to identify it. You can tell from a snake's skin if it's venimous or not by looking underneath near the anus opening I guess, not sure exactly where that might be, I didn't venture that close to find out. I took the pictures and examined it on the computer later. Anyway, if you look at the scales where they change to tiny double side by side scales then you're ok, it's not venimous, if it stays in one singular section almost like a "v" then it's venimous. I figured because it was so big it probably wasn't a copperhead, which is really the only venimous snake with that coloring it could be. I was worried though because the other night while dropping off Bailey's friend, Bailey and I got out of the car and almost stepped on a snake just sitting there in the driveway. I ran back inside for a flashlight to identify it and it had already started to slither away into the grass. I freaked out, because it looked like a copperhead. It was probably a rat snake though, it was dark and I didn't get a very good look. I've been told if we have a lot of the nonvenimous snakes around, which we do, then it's a good sign, because they actually help to keep the venimous snakes away. I HATE snakes by the way!

Kids' Day in the Park

2011-10-30T14:38:00.000-07:00

October 15th was our city's Kids' Day in the Park. I took all the kids and decided to check it out. It was very well planned with lots of fun activities for the kids. They had a live band (teenagers playing music that I grew up to in high school oddly enough) that was actually pretty good. They had a ton of prizes and free food for the kids. My kids got the following stuff...cotton candy, books, stuffed animals, candy, ice pops, twinkies, brownies, balloons, etc. The kids had a blast and thankfully, this was one of the times I didn't regret taking all of my kids out by myself in public.

Joelle eating her first sucker! She also let me put her hat on and kept it on-yeah :)
Bailey helping Emery at the fishing pond.
Cameron reeling in his fish.
Girls at the cotton candy stand with the clown.
Bailey with her friend Lauren from school.
All the kids with their loot and eating cotton candy.
Emery splashing in the fountain.
Joelle crashing in her stroller.
Bailey playing golf.
Emery modeling her face paint and prize of a package of Tampico ice pops that she won.
Bailey and Emery in their face paint. The 4H people that did their faces asked to take pictures of Bailey and Emery, so I took some too.
Emery golfing.
Addie golfing.
Cameron and his crazy glasses.
Addie with her drink and face painted butterfly.

Zeke Finally Catches a Snake

2011-10-30T13:13:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago while waiting for Emery's bus Zeke got all excited and started barking. He only barks at snakes and snake skin and occasionally at other dogs. So, I figured it was another snake skin, because he had proven useless the other time there was a snake a few feet away from him and he just rolled around in the grass like a big idiot. Well, I instructed the girls to wait a distance away while I went to see what it was. There in the grass, sure enough was a snake, I was fully expecting just some snake skin again. I put Emery on her bus and then went in back to do some gardening and let Joelle play. I was pretty sure it was just a garter snake, but it was hard to make out in the grass. I went back inside when I was done and grabbed the camera. It was a checkered garter snake which I have seen plenty of on our property, usually smaller, this was good sized, but I've seen one bigger. Zeke must have barked at that stupid thing for an hour. I finally told him to leave it and come inside. I was happy that he was actually able to corner it and keep it at bay, before I just thought he was all bark. I went back out though to see if it was dead, I didn't think it was dead, but injured and sure enough it was gone. I think it was playing dead. I don't understand why it didn't just get away, it was by all this shrubbery and rocks and probably could have escaped. I'm just hoping now that the weather is cooler and we don't see our snake friends around any more for a while. I posted a video of me coming out to get Zeke, it was really windy, so there's a lot of back ground noise.

Joelle and her Geometric Hat

2011-10-30T13:09:00.000-07:00

Bailey made Joelle a hat out of some plastic geometric shapes.
Making a silly face.

Grandma and Grandpa Fox Visit

2011-10-30T12:49:00.000-07:00

I'm backlogged on blogging again, it quickly gets away with me. I have a ton before this post as well, but thought I'd at least go back to this point. Chase's parents were able to come and visit us the end of Sept./first week of Oct. It was so nice for them to make such a long drive and spend the week with us. It's rare for us to have visitors so we really enjoyed it. The kids were very excited and had a lot of fun. I didn't take very many pictures, so sorry.

Oddly, enough I'm starting out with a picture of our first produce from our garden, after the basil. These cucumbers were rescued by my mother-in-law. Chase's parents' first night included a "welcome to TX storm" that ended up blowing our trampoline from the back yard into the front yard and right through my smaller garden. Luckily, I told my father-in-law he could park under the carport where Chase usually parks or the trampoline would have hit the car.
Emery showing off the cucumbers.
At the Alamo...4 oldest kids still in school.
Joelle examining the cannons.
Grandpa and Joelle resting under a pecan tree.
The green pods have pecans inside them. Probably my favorite nut, which is a good thing because Seguin, where we live, is famous for the pecans and they're everywhere. This past weekend was Pecan Festival here in Seguin.
Grumpy Cam, Grandma, Emery, Bailey, and Addison playing Aggravation.

Joelle Swings and Flies

2011-09-18T19:40:00.000-07:00

Sun Oven

2011-09-17T09:35:00.001-07:00

Many of you know I like to follow some food blogs. Not too long ago I won a membership to Deals to Meals website that lists all the local deals for groceries each week and which is the best deal and also compares them to Walmart and Costco, etc. They also include recipes using items that are on sale that week. I also follow the Deals to Meals blog which offers great food storage information and recipes. I was able to get the information I needed to start our very first garden. The Deals to Meals blog had everything I needed to know about building a square foot garden. Gardening intimidates me, so this was very helpful and our garden is actually growing, which is very exciting for us. My son goes out to the garden frequently to report what is happening. He excitedly came to me this morning to inform me that he can see zucchini and cucumbers growing. I have also learned how to grind beans and use them in substitution for flour in baking as well as substituting bean puree for fat or oil.

It has been very exciting to learn more about being self reliant and more prepared from Deals to Meals. If you haven't heard of this blog or website, I highly recommend them. Currently, they are running a contest to win a Global Sun Oven, hence the title of my post. I have read about sun ovens and seen them before. I've wanted one for a while. It would be the perfect addition to my family's preparedness inventory as well as saving on electricity for cooking. I figure what better state to have a sun oven than TX, especially this year with the drought. What I liked about the sun oven before we moved here though was that you can use it in all types of weather. You could stick it out there in the middle of winter and use it as long as the day wasn't too cloudy. I love that this particular sun oven also comes with a built in thermometer, which was one of my concerns when researching this product earlier. I'm so excited about this product and it is on my Christmas wish list, birthday, anniversary, Valentines, St. Patrick's Day, Easter...whatever holiday, you get the picture. I've already informed my husband this is what I want! Anyway, until we can afford one, I'm entering the contest by posting this blog about this fabulous website, blog, and product! You can read more about the give away and product by going to this link... sunoven@dealstomeals.com

Emery's 4th Birthday!

2011-08-31T14:28:00.000-07:00

My crazy Emery turned 4 yrs old on Sunday. We are very proud of Emery and her recent accomplishments of potty training which I feared would never happen. Also, she has been better about being more independent and being more helpful. Emery is quite the character and has an infectious laugh and smile. Emery loves all things pink and purple and nearly always insists on having the pink/purple plate, cup, utensil, etc. She loves music and dancing and singing, as you can probably tell from the previous post. She is a good sister usually, when she's not teasing or taking away toys, she's getting better about that as well. Some of Emery's favorite things to do right now are ride her bike, jump on the trampoline, and play with her siblings. Emery has also been a big fan of play dates where we have been able to go swimming at least once a week at friends' houses over the summer. Emery is also enjoying preschool learning lots of new things , riding the bus, and making new friends. She keeps telling me she has a friend named "Sochee", I still don't know if that's really her name, Emery is saying it wrong, or if she made it up, because it sounds like one of her made up names. When Emery gets in trouble, she is quick to reply with a compliment for you. An example of this is..."I like your shirt, Mom!", as if this is going to keep her out of trouble. Emery is a very sweet and funny little girl who surely keeps us on our toes. We love you Emery and we hope you had a very Happy Birthday!

For Emery's birthday we took her out to eat at Cici's Pizza on Saturday since her birthday fell on a Sunday this year. Emery got a cool "monster" birthday card with birthday money from Grandma and Grandpa Fox, Rapunzel from Mom and Dad, birthday card and money from Great Grandma Black, and silly bands, books, and princess toy from Grandma and Grandpa Beebe.

Emery spent most of the time drinking her soda.
Modeling with her pizza.
I'm not sure what that face is, but she loved her Rapunzel doll with Maximus the horse. We let her open her present from Mom and Dad early since Chase would be at work on her birthday.
Silly bands and books.
Princess carriage with people and accessories.
Instead of a birthday cake, we made birthday cupcakes. This is our school of fish :)
Blue fishy.
Emery with her fishy cupcakes.
Making a fishy face.
Getting ready to blow out the candles.
Eating her fish tail.
Eating her drumstick-yum!

Emery Sings

2011-08-25T16:14:00.000-07:00

Back to School!

2011-08-22T10:54:00.000-07:00

It's back to school again already, I can't believe it! This summer just went by way too fast. I have mixed feelings about my kids going back to school. On one hand, it's nice to have a little more peace and quiet, but on the other hand I am paranoid and really do miss my kids. We packed up everyone's back packs the night before and Chase gave each of the school aged kids a blessing. This morning was way hard to wake up, especially with a summer full of very late nights. We ate puffed pancakes and drank Nesquick for a yummy send off breakfast and then took pictures.

Bailey is a big 6th grader now and out of all the kids, she was the most nervous. But thanks to a Father's blessing the night before, she told me she was feeling much better. Addie is going into 4th grade and will be in the same school as Bailey which will be nice for them to be together, well not according to Bailey, but I think it's nice. Cameron is going into 2nd grade and is still in the elementary school and will have Emery there also attending as a pre-schooler. Our new school district has all the schools right next to each other, it's kind of different but nice. When we had back to school night, I had a hard time finding a parking place, but all I had to do was walk from one school to the next and didn't have to worry about reparking the car. There are 4 schools...elementary, intermediate, junior high, and high school. The schools are smaller and the class sizes are smaller, so I'm hoping for a good year for the kids. What I'm really excited about though is that the kids will get to stay in the same school the entire year! Last year they attended 3 different schools, not fun for any kid to have to do.

Now, I would be lying if I didn't confess that I'm kind of excited about Emery going to school, more so than any of my previous children. Emery is a sweet kid, but this last year has been kind of rough and I know she's had some excess handicaps with living and moving everywhere with Chase's layoff, so I'm trying to cut her some slack. I think preschool will be very good for her and will offer me a nice break. It will be just me and Joelle for half the day, and Chase when he's home. Out of the 4 kids though, I'm most nervous about Emery. It wasn't until about 3-4 wks ago that Emery willingly went to the potty on her own consistently. She's been doing very well, but has occasional issues. I'm just praying she doesn't wait too long to go to the bathroom and then doesn't yell for the teacher to come help her wipe her hiney or pull up her underwear. I must have repeated to her over and over again until the bus came...."Now, Emery...who wipes your bum?"...answer Emery: "Me"... "Emery, who pulls up your pants?"...answer Emery: "Me". Then I went over all the different situations where she might be tempted to wait to go potty and try to hold it when she shouldn't. It's almost 2:00 now and I haven't gotten a phone call yet. I pray she is also behaving herself. She is an extremely stubborn child with attitude and I just want her to be good for her teachers and not cause any problems. The only other problem today that I didn't foresee is Joelle. She has been fussy and clingy ever since Emery left. She won't let me do anything, even when I got her to fall asleep in my lap, she'd wake up and cry when I tried to put her down. I think she misses the kids and doesn't know what to do without them. Well, here's hoping for a good year without too many issues.

Bailey ready for 6th grade!
Addie all dressed up and ready to go, they picked out their outfits the night before.

Handsome Cam all excited for school. He was most nervous about not finding a bathroom.

Heading out the door, it was still dark outside.
Going down the driveway.
Watching for the bus... we waited a long time. The first day is always unpredictable, we could've gotten a little extra sleep.
Silly kids waiting for the bus still.
Here the sun is finally starting to come up. I went down the driveway a bit as to not embarrass them...well not too much that is. I'm sure that's how every kid wants to start their first day...with their mom snapping pictures in her pajamas of them getting on the bus. They kept telling me to hide behind the bush....ha ha, but I didn't :) What else is a mom for if not to embarrass her kids once in a while. I really wanted that first day of school bus shot, thank you very much :) But seriously, they were ok, I don't think anyone was permanently scarred. I was wearing a t-shirt and capri type lounge pants...it's not like I was out in a nighty, slippers, and a robe. Besides, they were joking about me jumping out from behind the bushes with the camera when the bus pulled up. I think they secretly love it :) I won't follow them out there tomorrow.Kids getting on the bus finally.
Emery showing off her Dora back pack. Now, I don't like Dora...it's not a secret, but I got this back pack for only $4.00 at Goodwill and it was in excellent condition and much cheaper and better quality than what I paid for at Walmart. So, I took all the back packs I bought from Walmart back and returned them for about $40.00 back on my card. I found the other kids back packs for $4.00 each there also, and I was amazed at how much better quality they were than the ones for full price at Walmart. I love Goodwill, sometimes you have to hunt for good stuff, but sometimes like this time... I scored big time, only $12.00 for 3 really nice back packs! Cam still had his new back pack from last year.
Emery, ready for school!
My cute, big pre-schooler!
Heading out the door.
Down the driveway accompanied by Joelle and Zeke...Joelle is always up for an adventure.
Emery waiting for the bus and getting concerned about Zeke going into the fields and getting bit by a snake.
Emery trying to get Zeke to get back in his yard.
Still concerned about Zeke and snakes...this time Zeke was sniffing in a drainage hole. I told her he was fine if he wasn't barking. I've only heard him bark at snakes, snake skins, or another dog.
Emery's bus coming.
Emery hopping on the bus. I was very surprised that she had no issues with this and hopped right on without even a look back.

Happy Birthday Cam!

2011-08-19T21:28:00.000-07:00

My sweet, silly boy Cam turned 7 on Wed. ! It's hard to believe he is that old now. We are so thankful to have Cameron as part of our family. He has a tender heart and is so loving, helping, and teasing. Cam is so thoughtful and loves to help others and is a good friend also. He loves video games and playing on the computer. He has also been taking a Hip Hop class and hopefully will be able to start some team sports here in the near future. Cam is a very active boy and is a good helper and takes good care of our dog Zeke. Cam loves to hang out with Zeke and ride his bike around the property and jump on the trampoline. When he's not playing outside you can find him inside usually either running around making "fast" noises with his mouth, or playing bejeweled blitz, zuma, the playstation, or the wii. Cameron is such a kind boy but can be a big tease as well. I guess being smack dab in the middle of 4 sisters you kind of have to be a tease. I love my "Bubba Cam" so much and sure hope he had a good day!

Here's the run down of the birthday... Cam came in and woke me up really early (he's our early bird, no matter what time he goes to bed, he's usually the first one up and about). I wished him a groggy happy birthday since I'd been up late the night before with the baby and asked him to give me a few minutes to wake up. I then told him I had to go outside and water the garden and he of course wanted to come and help. So, I walked over to the shed and opened it and asked Cam to go inside and look for a shovel for me. Previously, Chase and I had gone and picked out a bike for him since his bike was too small for him, the kid grows like a weed. Chase had put the bike in the shed. At first he glanced at the bike and even put his hand on it while he looked for my shovel (which I didn't really need of course). He kind of did a double take, but seemed a bit confused and continued to look for my shovel. He then looked at it and back to me a couple times, so I finally asked him "Whose bike is that?". He got a big grin on his face and asked if it were his. I told him it was his bike; I guess he thought it was Chase's bike. It was very funny, I should have video taped it instead of just still shots.

Then after riding the bike around and falling a couple of times because he's not used to having a bike that size, we went in for some breakfast. We had puff pancakes with strawberries and orange juice. Later in the day we went to the library for a magic show. I had no idea that it would be Ronald McDonald doing the magic show. I didn't know Ronald even put on magic shows. The kids had a fun time watching the show and checking out library books. One of the kids' most favorite places is the library. I have to limit how many books they check out, because we run out of room on our card and some of the kids over estimate how fast they'll be able to finish everything and I end up having to renew the books over and over.

We came home and the kids played and then Chase took Cam to the store to get stuff for burgers. Cam requested Chase make his hamburgers for his birthday dinner. They turned out really good and really big! After dinner we cut Cam's shark cake which was a white cake with vanilla pudding, white chocolate chips, and a white chocolate orange frosting and ate homemade strawberry ice cream.

Happy Birthday Cam, we love you so much, thank you for being the best son ever!

Cam trying to figure out what was going on with the bike.
Realizing that the bike was actually for him.
Very happy to have a new bike!
Cruising down the driveway.

Eating breakfast.
Opening Grandma's and Grandpa's presents.
Ronald McDonald performing a magic show at the library.
The kids minus Emery with Ronald after the magic show. On our way in, Addie kept saying how creepy and scary Ronald McDonald was, so of course Emery freaked out and refused to go in and sit down with the kids. She hid behind me up against the wall, until I had to take out Joelle when she started to act up. We spent the rest of the magic show in the bathroom and outside in the hallway. Emery, of course, refused to be photographed with Ronald as well. I'm actually shocked Joelle humored me with a picture, but as you can see she didn't take her eyes of him.
Cameron assembling his delicious Chase burger :)
Sizing up the burger and trying to fit it into his mouth.
Delicious! I'd say "yummy", but then I'd face the wrath of Chase who made the burger and would detest that word used in any type of association with any of his food.
Look how huge this thing is!
Cam's shark cake with fish. I was going to pipe on some star fish as well, but thought it might look too busy.
Shark cake without fish.
Cam with his shark cake.
Anticipating blowing out the candles.
Blowing out the candles.
Cam with his cake and ice cream. Isn't he so handsome!

Chase's Fingers...

2011-08-07T23:01:00.000-07:00

This picture was actually a couple of days after the accident. The other pics I think were the day after. His fingers actually started to look worse several days after. These pictures don't really do it justice though, they look much worse than the camera leads on. I think they also look worse now.

So, I got a phone call at midnight a couple of days ago from Chase. I immediately get this little panicky feeling, and the first thing that pops into my mind is ..."Oh no, he lost his job again!". I guess I'm still not over the 2 yr lay off and have some issues still. It surprised me that, that is what I first thought happened. I guess I'm just as bad as the kids. Occasionally, we have conversations with the kids where I'm reassuring them that Dad isn't going to lose his job. The questions and concerns pop up randomly, brought on by different things.

Chase had actually called to tell me he was on his way home after smashing his fingers with an axe trying to break into a locked apartment at a fire. They sent him to the med clinic to get x-rays to make sure they weren't broken and he was sent home. He was told to come back in 2 days to see if the doctor would release him to be able to work again. He was barely allowed to go back to work, but has been in a lot of pain all week. He followed his dad's (who is also a firefighter) advice to drill into the fingernail to relieve the pressure. He had previously tried to break through it with a needle, but it didn't work. I came home from a Relief Society activity to find all these tools and drill bits on the kitchen counter. I asked Chase what he had been doing and he showed me his gross fingernail now sporting an oozing pussy whole in the middle. He had drilled part way through and finished it off with a needle. Later that day while waiting in line at the store he showed me a new development of a tiny air bubble floating around under his fingernail...lovely. He will most likely lose the fingernail. I guess the most positive thing from all this is that he hasn't been able to give kids baths or change diapers. Positive I should say for him, not me! Also, the next time he tried to drive his car to go to the doctor, it started, but the clutch wouldn't work. I guess it was a blessing he got sent home early or it could have died on him on the freeway somewhere.

More Hair Cuts...

2011-08-07T22:27:00.000-07:00

Addie with her scalp, not sure if it's quite long enough to donate.

Bearded Addie.

Dog Days of Summer

2011-07-26T13:52:00.000-07:00

One of the kids' favorite things to do is play dress up, especially during the summer when it's too hot to go outside. Cam had found this hat in the dress up box and had been wearing it, when he decided to try it on Zeke. I don't think he much enjoyed it, but Zeke went along with it patiently. He looks so regal. Some of the pics are a little blurry, but it was either have blurry pics or pics where his eyes made him look like evil dog. I don't know what it is about my camera and the flash when taking pics of Zeke, I can't even change it with red eye removal.

Sticky Buns

2011-07-26T12:17:00.000-07:00

I first tasted these after I had my 4th baby back in UT 4 years ago. Our home teacher Porter Rockwell (yes, named after his ancestor, the original, famous Porter Rockwell) brought us dinner that his wife had made for us. I'm trying to remember her name and I think it was Julie. Sorry, "Julie" if I'm wrong. They had 2 kids and were a sweet family, but ended up moving before we did, so we didn't get to know them for long. I remember the meal Julie made for us was delicious, but the main thing I remember was the dessert. I had to get the recipe from her. It is very simple and easy to make. I had a ton of leftover dough the other day from making Mummy Dogs(basically hot dogs wrapped in pieces of dough and baked), so I ended up making 2 batches of these yummy Sticky Buns. I don't use biscuit dough from the store that it says in the recipe, but I make my own from the Lion House Roll recipe that my mother in law uses and I just break it into little dough disks like the store kind does. I will include that recipe as well. Now, the picture I took doesn't do these babies justice, trust me you will love them if you give them a try :)

Sticky Buns

2-3 cans homestyle buttermilk biscuits (separate pieces of dough and place in a circle inside a bundt pan) *I also recommend using 3 cans, it makes a lot of sauce.

1 cup Sugar

1 cube butter

1 orange juiced or 1/3 cup orange juice

Boil sugar, butter, and juice on stove until foamy and bubbly for 1 minute and pour over rolls in pan.

Bake @ 350 for 15-20 minutes

Can dump out on a baking sheet to cool, but I prefer to let mine cool inside the pan as to not lose any of the gooey sauce.

Lion House Dinner Roll (recipe as done by my mother in law)

In bottom of a mixer(or bowl if done by hand) pour in 1/3 cup white sugar, 1 Tbsp. Kosher salt(or 2 1/2 tsp. regular table salt), 2/3 cup powdered milk, 4 cups bread flour(or regular flour if you want). Mix ingredients with dough hook attachment for your mixer, or I prefer to mix it with a whisk.

Get your tap water as hot as possible and add 2 cups hot water. Start mixer or stir until most dry ingredients are beginning to incorporate and looks like paste.

Dump in 1/3 cup butter (cut into smaller pieces so the hot water will melt it, I sometimes will soften my butter a bit in the microwave depending on how hard the butter is if I pulled it out of the freezer or not.)

Add 1 egg

Mix until dough forms, then add 2 Tbsp. of yeast.

After all combined, add more flour a little at a time, 1-2 more cups equaling a total of 5-6 cups total flour for the recipe including the 4 cups you started with. Dough should start to form a ball and pull away from the edge of the bowl. Since it's really humid here some days I will have to add more flour. Mix dough for about 10-15 min.

You can use this dough for just about anything. I prefer to use it for Mummy Dogs, Sticky Buns, and Monkey Bread. You could just make rolls with it if you wanted to or for pizza dough, but I have other recipes I prefer to use for that. If you'd like baking directions or recipes for other things for this dough, just let me know and I'll post them up later.

Now this Lion House Roll recipe will make about 2 good sized pizzas on 2 baking sheets if you decide to use the dough that way, to give you an idea of how much it makes. When I made it for Mummy Dogs, I actually made the full recipe plus halved it because my kids have been eating more. I used enough dough to wrap 3 pkgs of hot dogs and then had enough dough left over to make 2 bundt pans of Sticky Buns. In the past, when my kids ate less, I would split the dough about in half and wrap 2 pkgs of hot dogs and make 1 batch of Sticky Buns. Happy Baking Everyone!

Hair Cuts

2011-07-26T11:59:00.000-07:00

I finally cut the girls' hair. Emery had 10 inches cut off and I cut 12 inches off of Bailey. They look so cute and I am happy to say I didn't butcher anyone like I did with Addie's hair cut a few years back. We are sending their hair to Locks of Love. I think it is awesome that they want to do this for other kids. Addie wants to get her hair cut now too, but it's not quite long enough to donate, so I'm trying to convince her to wait a while before cutting hers again. I think it's a waste of hair, if we could wait a little and have it benefit someone who needs it. Bailey wanted to wait until next summer to cut hers, she was trying to see how long she could grow it out. But after cutting Emery's hair, she decided to get hers done too and is happy she did.

Emery and Joelle Dance

2011-07-13T19:27:00.000-07:00

Mowing the Yard with Dad

2011-07-13T19:06:00.000-07:00

Gets a little dusty out there mowing the grass during a drought. Dried out dirt patches are everywhere. All the green corn in the back is all dried up and brown now, but we've been told it's probably being grown as feed corn.

Joelle will Sleep Just About Anywhere, so will Emery

2011-07-13T18:40:00.000-07:00

Iron Star Wars Underwear Man

2011-07-13T18:25:00.000-07:00

This is what happens when a crazy boy full of too much energy runs out of things to do in the summer.

Zeke Taking It Easy

2011-07-13T17:52:00.000-07:00

Creatures Among Us

2011-07-12T13:40:00.000-07:00

Every time I freak out about something new that ventures into our yard or house, Chase reminds me that he told me I'd have to get used to things like this if we lived here, particularly the country. And I tell him, yes I know, but I don't think it's unrealistic to create protective barriers to limit these encounters as much as possible. We've killed 5 scorpions so far, and countless huge spiders, earwigs, silver fish, and other annoying bugs that I don't know the names for. We've been seeing baby geckos in the house as well, which I don't mind at all, they can eat all the bugs for us. I don't have any pictures of the before mentioned creatures, but for your viewing pleasure enjoy the ones below.
This little guy I found hopping around by the computer one night. I got a cup and scooped him up and tossed him outside. I don't know why I bothered, he probably just got eaten. He was probably safer inside our house. Should've put him in a jar or something, or just let him hop around and eat all the plentiful bugs that venture into our home. I'm waiting for a special delivery of insect powder that is supposed to be safe for people and pets. Will update you later with that.

So, this is my most least favorite creature that lives with us. Well, it's probably a tie between this and the large rat(s) that live out by the shed. Chase has been the only one to see it(them). Within the last week or so we've woken up to find large (about 5 ft) snake skins in our yard. One Sunday morning I found one by our back porch right by the door. Cam and Emery have been the only ones to see the snakes alive. Cam nearly jumped on one and Emery just saw another one slither into the bushes. Well, everyone has seen the smaller garden snakes. I unfortunately encountered a Hog Snake (that's what Chase says it is) by our front porch mat hiding under Cam's bag of soft balls. I had opened up the door to let Zeke out before church. I'm surprised Zeke didn't notice, I guess he was just too excited to go outside. I don't know what it is about Sunday mornings and unwanted things visiting me. I think I kept my composure, I didn't scream since kids were still sleeping, I called for Chase to get it away from the house so it wouldn't get inside. We haven't heard the snake in the attic since the last time. I just wish they'd do their jobs by eating vermin and then skeedaddle away into the neighbor's cornfield or something and only do that at night so I never see them, oh and shed their skin in the neighbor's field as well. Not too much to ask for is it? Addie took the following pictures, NOT me! You're lucky I even put them on here.
Bailey catching chickens at pool play date at a friend's house from church.
One night Cam had run in to tell me he found a dead rodent in the water shut valve tube. I don't know what else to call it. This is where we had a leak previously and we've been trying to find a cover for it, but the one we bought was too small. We will probably need to make one of our own. Anywho, I went out to investigate and indeed there was a very large dead field mouse. I assume it had somehow gotten in and possibly drowned from a previous heavy rainstorm. I texted Chase and informed him he'd have to take care of the thing when he got home since I wasn't touching it. The very next morning Cam and Zeke went out and found what you see in the pictures below. Zeke was all very excited as he is whenever he finds something moving and crawling around in the yard, bushes, or trees. Cam came in this time telling me a large rat or possum was in the hole this time. I'm like are you serious, what the heck! So, I ventured out to cautiously investigate again. Sure enough there was a possum, pretending to be dead. It had crawled inside and eaten the dead rodent and got stuck. So, I texted Chase and told him you have to get rid of a live possum now when you get home. I suggested he stick something in the hole so it could crawl out on its own, but Chase scooped it out with a shovel and flung it across the yard. I guess it was snarling at Chase when he did it. But, yeah, we really need a cover for that stupid thing.

How Many Kids Can You Fit At A Piano?

2011-07-12T13:18:00.000-07:00

Crashing on Mom & Dad's Bed

2011-07-12T13:10:00.000-07:00

Joelle, the Hair Stylist

2011-07-12T12:51:00.000-07:00

One day after church Joelle found a tiny doll brush and decided to do Bailey's hair as she sat on the floor watching a movie. I was surprised by how long this entertained Joelle and by Bailey's patience in letting her little sister pull and play with her hair.

Sweet Kids :)

2011-07-12T12:41:00.000-07:00

One morning, I woke up to breakfast that the kids had made for me. They took the couch pillows to make my chair soft for me. I love the smiley fruit face and plastic flower in the toy pitcher.

4th of July

2011-07-10T16:00:00.001-07:00

Happy Birthday Bailey!!!

2011-06-28T21:20:00.000-07:00

Bailey turned 11 today! I can't believe she is that old, it seems like she was little like Joelle not too long ago. Bailey is such a great kid, she is my go to helper with the kids and things around the house. She is such a smarty pants, too. Her teachers this year just raved about her and how much they loved having her in their classes. She was able to test at 100% on many of the practice and official state tests in school, so she got to skip a lot of the extra testing and studying the other kids had to do. She spent most of this time reading of course.

Bailey loves to read and is testing at almost 9th grade reading levels. She also enjoys crafts, cooking, video/computer games, board games, swimming, crocheting, writing, and drawing. Bailey has many ambitions that she wants to fulfill in life and has started writing stories and books, and drawing many pictures and cartoon strips. She also designs clothing. She wants to own a restaurant, a museum, and be a marine biologist (just like I did :) ) I'm sure I've forgotten something in there that she wants to be or do. Bailey is awesome though and I don't doubt she'll be able to accomplish anything she sets her heart to.

Bailey has grown so much and is such a joy to have in our home. She is a silly girl too and loves to joke and laugh and has a strange sense of humor some times. She actually reminds me a lot of myself when I was a kid. Tonight, she secretly clipped some hair bows to my pants instead of returning them to the hair basket. When I got on my computer, I discovered my wallpaper picture had been replaced by a very unflattering picture of myself. Apparently, her and Chase got on and changed everyone's pictures. Bailey is a sweet, loving, intelligent, beautiful girl and I am so glad I get to be her mom. We love her laugh, smile, and her hugs! We love you Bailey!

So, recap of Bailey's special day... Earlier in the month Bailey had a birthday party right after school got out, since we were afraid that it would be harder to get in touch with everyone during the summer break. We had snacks, ate hot dogs, made fluffy flip flops, played "Minute To Win It" games, then jumped on the trampoline with sprinklers, threw water balloons, and had a water fight. So, Bailey's actual birthday was a little bit more low key.

Bailey had bacon, and cinnamon chip pancakes with whipping cream for her birthday breakfast. Then she opened presents and played with new toys and video games. Bailey's birthday dinner was chicken, broccoli, cheese, and rice and fruit with fruit dip. After dinner we played the dance game and then watched "The Voice". We ended the night with Bailey's cake pants and rainbow sherbet and a sleepover in the play room.

Restaurants

2011-06-23T20:07:00.000-07:00

Somehow at dinner tonight, the conversation turned to restaurants, in particular restaurant names. I believe one of the kids wished that what I had made for dinner was served in restaurants. I laughed and asked why would you wish it to be in a restaurant, when you can already eat it at home for much cheaper. Then Bailey told me I should open up a restaurant inside our home and that way I can become famous and then help her when she has her restaurant. I explained that I could still help her with her restaurant without turning our home into a bistro. She has a dream to own a restaurant among many other things. Here are the names of restaurants the kids wanted for "their" restaurant and some other commentary...

Bailey: Roney's, Bailey's All You Can Eat Buffet, Bailey's Wonderful Mountain of Food, Bailey's 6 Floors(6 Floors)

Addie: Addo's(because she wanted it to sound close to her name but not actually be her name), Addie's Yummy Food, Addie's Great Food, You Had A Bad Day at McDonald's, I Wanna Eat

Cam: Butt Cheeks, Spiderman Popsicle, Throw Away McDonald's Food and Eat My Chicken!, Pink Ponies...He also went on to take a bite of his food and made an exaggerated, excited face and told us this is what they will say when they eat our food "Oh, wow! This is good!"

Emery: Dora Popsicles(tends to copy what she hears), Emery Beth's, Joelle & Emery's, Joelle Emery Addie Bailey & Cameron's Restaurant, Eat My Jello, Eat My Noodles, Eat My Corn, Welcome to Forks...Emery also told me in a very serious tone "It's just as you like, we're gonna build it. We need tools. I'm going to have bathrooms. I'm going to have one floor."

Yes, my children are a bit strange.

Second Coming

2011-06-03T10:46:00.000-07:00

I found this clip that I thought was very appropriate for our time. A couple of weeks ago I had no idea that it was supposed to be the "end of the world" until I started reading some posts about it on facebook. Every once in a while my kids ask me about things happening in the world such as wars, natural disasters, etc. My oldest often wonders when Jesus will come again, and has told me she thinks he will come when she is around 21. Interesting, I told her, but nobody knows for sure. I think the world is a scary place and I try to protect my family from the influences of it, but it's impossible to shield my children from everything. I try to teach them what's right and give them the tools to learn and grow and be spiritually prepared. I try to make our home a place of peace and safety away from all the chaos of the world. I think if we read our scriptures and study the teachings of our prophet, leaders, and teachers then we can be prepared and at peace. Knowledge can banish fear if we let it. Sometimes that is difficult for me, since I am paranoid and would put my kids in a bubble if I could. I just need to have faith and trust in my Heavenly Father and every day try to be better than the day before and teach and love my kids the very best that I can. Here is the link...
http://www.ldsliving.com/story/64764-elder-oaks-talks-about-the-second-coming

Zeke

2011-05-21T10:02:00.001-07:00

Yesterday we welcomed Zeke as a new addition to our family. He's about 3 yrs old and is a boxer mix. We had planned on getting a dog when we got our own place again. We wanted to be careful though and make sure we got the right dog for our family. We had been looking on line at several different dogs. Chase called on one but the lady was never there that could help us with it. Then we found Zeke and really liked his profile, so we emailed and set up a day that we could meet him. Anne, his foster mom, was kind enough to drive him here from Helotes (probably spelled that wrong) which was about an hour away. We had purchased dogs from a rescue shelter in the past and had a horrible experience with it, so I was very happy that they were being careful about meeting us and seeing if the dog was a good fit for our family. Also, I was excited that he had been placed in a foster home so we would know about his personality from the foster family and know what kind of dog we were getting. Anne talked to us for quite a while and answered any questions we might have and explained Zeke's personality to us more.

Zeke roamed our property for a while and let us all pet him and then we took him inside to investigate the house. He is such a sweet and well behaved dog. He was a little nervous about going to bed last night, especially since there was a lightning and thunder storm, so we brought his bed into our room. He got up and paced around a couple times, but eventually settled down and slept the whole night. Even after I got up in the middle of the night to help Emery who was screaming for a tissue and get Joelle who had been woken up by it, he stayed in his bed. So far the only problem we've had has been with Joelle. She was all excited and happy and petting him, until he full on licked her in the face and ever since then she has been leery of him and fusses if he gets up and walks around. Joelle has also taken a liking to his dog food. Anyway, we're very excited to have Zeke as part of our family and hope to have many fun times with him!

Freaky Bird

2011-05-21T09:53:00.001-07:00

We pulled up to our new house to move in and found this weird looking bird on our front yard after it had just caught something. I'd seen it before at the rental, but from a distance and wondered what the heck it was. This bird is freakishly big and very different looking. Chase's mom looked it up and was able to find out what it was. I guess it's called a Crested Caracara or a Mexican Eagle.

Dead Hog

2011-05-21T09:36:00.000-07:00

This is what we found near our house on the way to the park a few days ago. Wild hogs live around here, and I'd never seen one until this day, unfortunately it was dead, maybe hit by a car. These disgusting birds though take care of everything dead around here. They are huge buzzards or vultures, and are very ugly. Our friend told us the hogs bed down by the creeks and rivers and then usually come out at night and eat corn in the fields. Some people go hunting for them as well.

More Stuff...

2011-05-14T14:39:00.000-07:00

Well, this post was supposed to come before my last one, but I can't figure out how to change that. So, if you're confused on any references, just read the previous post. By the way, can you tell I'm having a hard time coming up with more titles for my blog? Anyway, been trying to stay on top of my blog, but it's been difficult with crappy internet, moving, illness, etc. Hopefully, I will be better in the upcoming weeks. We have more reliable internet now, hopefully. We just moved into our new home and are still unpacking, but hopefully once we get more settled I'll be able to knock out a whole bunch of posts. So a quick update on us...

Cam got sick right before we moved, then I felt crappy, then Chase got sick which delayed further moving, and Joelle has been sick for over a week so it has been really hard to move and get anything done. We are still trying to put things away, but it's hard to do that with a sick little girl and trying to keep up on laundry and everything like that. In fact things would have been much worse if my visiting teacher hadn't come over to help me pack and then brought us dinner the next day. Joelle is on her 5th ear infection since Thanks Giving of last year. Our doctor said they usually refer for ear tubes when you've had 3 in 6 months and Joelle's on her 5th. The pattern is she usually gets sick and then gets an ear infection, this time was no different. Since she's been on so many antibiotics and her fever seemed to go down, we both decided to wait and see if she got better and was just on the mend. I had waited several days before actually taking her in to see the doctor in hopes that the fever and crankiness was just teething from molars coming in. Well, the next morning her fever was on its way back up and she was miserable so the Dr. called in a prescription and she's on antibiotics again. Chase and I need to figure out if we want her to get tubes or not or give it a wait to see if it's just bad luck and living in a filthy mouse poop house and that she might start doing better living here...I hope that's the case. I really don't want her to get tubes.

My parents flew in on Wed. to visit with us. My dad has a conference in Austin next week so they came in early to see us. The first day here we decided to go to Sea World since kids would be in school still and the weather was supposed to be cool because of some rain. We've had a drought here forever and every time they warn us of a storm, the sky gets dark and then it sprinkles a little and is done. I had seen the forecasts for rain in the morning and that was supposed to be it, so I wasn't worried. We headed out and the skies were dark, and it was raining a bit, but I wasn't worried. As we got closer to San Antonio, the skies started to get darker, and more rain... still not worried, it was supposed to blow over soon. Then as we were almost there it got darker than I had ever experienced in a storm. It was about 9 in the morning and it was completely dark like it was night time. Huge dark clouds loomed and the flood gates opened... we're talking scary stuff, like doom and gloom apoccolyptic storm stuff. I have never been in a storm like that before. Then my friend texted me and said there was dangerous wind and storm advisory in effect for where we were going and we already were in the middle of it so we decided to turn around and go home. I am so thankful Chase was driving, it was pretty scary. The freeways and roads were flooding. We saw an on ramp where cars were backing up because it was flooded and they couldn't get through. At one point we were off the freeway and a truck drove by hurling a wave of water on our windshield temporarily blinding us, so thankful that didn't cause an accident. Chase got us safely home and we ended up making the Sea World trip yesterday.

When I took the kids and my mom today to get away from the house during the snake hunt we went downtown to check out "market days". It was pretty fun when the kids were behaving and not doing anything stupid like blowing on horns with their mouths that we ended up having to buy because they contaminated the seller's item with their saliva, or fighting, etc. Then we went to a chocolate gift store and we were almost done when the kids decided that the free samples of soap were candy and began to eat them. I looked over as my mom was checking out and noticed the kids taking bites of something. I asked what they were eating and the cashier and my mom said it was soap. So, some of them finished eating it, I think Emery and Cam, Bailey spit hers out into her hand and what does Addie do...runs out the door and spits up everything on their porch right in front of the entrance door. So, I grabbed some tissues from my mom and mopped up Addie's mess while profusely apologizing to the store owner. I love my kids, but some times I think I'm raising 5 monkeys instead of 5 children. I've decided I can't take my kids anywhere any more. Every time I try to take them somewhere, especially by myself, something stupid or embarrassing happens. I'm a walking circus most days. My mom just laughed and said she thought it was funny and that we'd laugh about it some day, probably. But I told her it was only funny because they weren't her kids. I'll laugh about it some day I'm sure.

Well, not much else left to update. I have some pictures later I will put up. Just trying to unpack and will be driving the kids to and from school every day now. It's a sad day when the bus doesn't come any more, but no point in traumatizing the kids by starting a new school a month before school gets out.

Unwelcome Guest

2011-05-14T13:42:00.000-07:00

We lived in the nightmare rental house and were finally able to get out of there due to health reasons and were able to break our lease early. We were very blessed to find the perfect home for our family. It will need some work, but it was the perfect size, location, school district, etc. that we needed. We moved in about a week ago. We would have moved in sooner, but we cleaned out the house since it had been vacant, but it was so easy to clean compared to the monster poop house we just came from. If I didn't have kids and sick kids at that, I could have knocked out the house in one day. I still have to do a little deeper cleaning like windows and light fictures, but for the most part I'm just trying to put things away. Also, the day after we signed on the house Chase had to work, so I headed over to do some cleaning with the kids. I pulled up to the house and the whole front yard was flooded with water pouring out of our connection in the front. So, I panicked and texted Chase and tried to figure out what was wrong. Finally our friend came over and helped me turn the water off, so we had no water until Chase fixed it, which delayed our move in as well. So far we love the house, it is very quiet and dark at night which is really weird. The corn and wheat fields that surround our house are beautiful and awesome. Except for the random dog in the distance barking or a cow mooing, it is very quiet during the day as well.

My biggest hang up right now is stressing me out. We seem to have a resident snake that lives in the attic, pretty good sized too it seems. When Chase met with the guy who installed our internet he was told that he found an unusual amount of snake skin in our attic and that we might want to be careful and hire an exterminator. Well, I was all on board to call someone asap, but Chase seemed to think it was old and probably gone and we couldn't afford that right now, so we didn't do anything. All seemed fine, until last night. We got home late after spending the day at Sea World with my parents who are visiting. Bailey said she heard something crawling around in her room. It was shrugged off at first, but I told Chase to go check it out. I heard some repeated banging by Chase as he tried to see what might be in the ceiling. I came down the hall and he informed that something was definitely in the attic and that we might want to call someone. He told me it was definitely bigger than a mouse. After questions of..."Does it sound like a squirrel?", etc. I could tell from the look on Chase's face it was much worse so I went over to have a listen for myself.

After some banging on the ceiling to initiate some movement on the intruder's part, I could tell it was probably a large snake up there slithering around. I can hardly bring myself to type this part as my fingers are becoming numb and jello like. I'm getting chills up and down just thinking about it and a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. Let's just say it was very hard for me to sleep last night. We let Bailey sleep on the couch. For those of you who don't know I have had a primal fear of snakes all my life and used to have night terrors as a kid. Well, so we called animal control this morning. I was going to let Chase and my dad head up there to take a look, but felt more comfortable with someone who did this proffessionally, especially since we didn't know if it was poisonous. The animal control guy came and I left with my mom and the kids, I didn't want to be any where near the house when they caught the thing. Well, they couldn't find it, but Chase told me he saw the snake skins and they were good sized which was a good thing because then it couldn't get through the vents. I'm still trying to figure out how this is a good thing. I guess it's better that it's up in the attic and not down here, but it doesn't help me sleep at night. He said it's most likely a rat snake and has been living up there taking care of rodents. There was evidence of mice and squirrels.

When we bought the house some roof panels underneath had fallen off leaving a huge gap, our home inspector fixed it, but anything and everything could have crawled in to make a home for itself. The animal control guy said if we saw it again, call and they'd come out. Supposedly, it's not poisonous and is probably a rat snake which Chase told me can get about 2-4 ft. long, again chills and stomach convulsions. I love my house, but is it too much to ask that we have no animal residents, especially snakes in my attic?! I don't care if it was taking care of existing vermin, it can live outside far away from the house and eat the vermin before they get to the house, that's how it should be anyway for my sanity's sake. Oh, the same night Bailey found a scorpion on the toy chest-super! I guess I should be grateful Bailey, the sensible one, is the kid that discovered it instead of Addie who probably would have wanted to collect it and keep it in her dresser, or Joelle who would have tried to pick it up and play with it or eat it.

I knew when we moved here I would have to deal with more wildlife stuff, I just wish it was the type of wildlife peskiness like deer, squirrels, birds, and rabbits eating my garden or pooping on the car...stuff like that. I know that even if we had lived in town we'd still have issues. Our friends in the ward frequently get possums, and also had a snake in their business' attic. It's the nature of living here I guess. A guy at church mentioned mothballs keeping snakes away,at least I think that's what he said, maybe we'll try that. Where the heck do you buy moth balls? Well, this post has gone on entirely too long, I feel ill just writing it. Any suggestions on getting rid of or keeping out animals like our little roommate are more than welcome! I really need a nap now. I still love our home, I know Heavenly Father blessed us by helping us get into this home and I know he will help me keep it together and keep our family safe. Maybe, I'm supposed to grow and learn something from all of this. I am trying to keep things in better perspective, just like everything I went through at the nasty poop house. That house was disgusting, but it was cheap and big enough for our family, which was extremely difficult to come by. Also, we were able to get out of our lease early which wouldn't have happened in a normal house and we would have missed the opportunity to get into our current home, so in other words the nasty poop house was a blessing. I don't like some of these trials I've been given, but I know I wouldn't want anyone else's trials either, so I am going to try to make the best of it. I am blessed with a beautiful home, wonderful kids, and an awesome husband who has a terrific job, I'm focusing on that.

Random Joelle

2011-04-26T14:08:00.000-07:00

April Fool's Day

2011-04-01T22:34:00.001-07:00

I had a whole bunch of stuff I wanted to pull on the kids, but got lazy and didn't end up going to the store, etc. So, I guess it will have to wait until next year. I've never really been a big fan of April Fool's Day. When I was I kid I remember doing some stupid tricks here and there. I am a big fan of Family Fun, so I was reading and got a lot of fun stuff from them. I guess April Fool's Day is more fun when you have kids to mess with :) When the kids came down for breakfast I had put blue food coloring in the bottom of their cereal bowls so that when they poured the milk on top it changed to blue. This was pretty funny to watch, especially since the kids were still kind of waking up and trying to figure out what was going on. Bailey took a few minutes to even notice her milk had changed colors. They started telling me that their milk was blue. I told them that was pretty weird, maybe the milk was bad. Then they suggested that the cereal might be bad, or even something wrong with the bowls. Finally Bailey confronted me about it being an April Fool's joke. Later that day I printed out a fake brochure for Chore Camp for the kids. I placed the brochure on the table for the kids to look at when they got home from school. I told them a friend's kids were going to be attending the camp this summer and thought they might want to go as well. Bailey flat out told me she thought it sounded like a camp for bad kids. Cam said he didn't want to go because it sounded like it would be full of a bunch of jerks. Addison however, was ecstatic and was all on board to go. I guess that shouldn't have surprised me, my kids like to clean. After Chase read the testimony of one kid who had to clean up the mess the camp next door made while making smores, Bailey and Cam were mad, but Addie was unphased. Chase in fact had asked me what I would do if it backfired on me and they actually wanted to go. Well, we let it go on for quite a while with Bailey and Cam still protesting it and Addie all excited to weed, wash cars, and make her bed. We finally let them in on the joke at dinner time, it was pretty funny. Addie was dissappointed that it wasn't real, we told her she could do all the weeding and chores she wanted to around the house.

St. Patrick's Day

2011-03-21T13:12:00.000-07:00

So, for St. Patrick's Day the kids and I made a Leprechaun trap. We failed to catch him, so we woke up to a bunch of mischief the Leprechaun had caused the night before. He toilet papered the house, placed our cereal all over the house and replaced it with toilet paper, drew a silly face with lipstick on the bathroom mirror, hid my keys in the toaster oven, turned our milk and toilet water green, put diapers in the fridge, and the kids' underwear in the freezer. It was a crazy and fun morning!

We had green pancakes for breakfast. For dinner we ate cornbeef, cabbage and potatoes, with green grapes, kiwis, Bailey's green punch, and green sugar cookie bars. Chase also made the kids banana splits later that night.

Birthday Pics

2011-03-20T19:41:00.000-07:00

More Birthdays...

2011-03-08T14:27:00.000-08:00

Joelle turned 1 on Feb. 26th and Chase turned 34 on March 5th! Since Joelle was fighting a double ear infection on her birthday and Chase had to work, we kept things pretty low key. We were originally going to invite a few friends over, but had to cancel because of sick kids. I made puffed pancakes for breakfast for Joelle's birthday, hoping she'd eat something. Her appetite has been lacking for a while since being sick, but she did humor me with a few bites and then threw the rest on the floor. After breakfast we opened Joelle's presents and she played the rest of the day, that is when she wasn't feeling too sick or her sisters and brother weren't stealing her toys (seriously, I don't understand why older siblings do this, especially when it's baby toys that are involved). I didn't bother making a cake, because she wouldn't have eaten any of it. We ended up having Chase and Joelle share a Costco Red Velvet cake on Chase's birthday.

It has been a crazy year, and I can't believe my baby is already 1, time just seems to fly by sometimes. I won't lie, Joelle has been a challenge, but also a joy. She is a crazy girl who is too chicken to walk and instead walks around on her knees, I guess I need to get some video of it. She loves to play with her older siblings and lights up when they come home from school. She loves to dance to music and unfortunately has developed a liking to a certain Youtube video that Chase played one too many times. Fortunately, she's liking a few other songs to take its place, I hope. She is growing up so fast and I'm sure will be walking soon, since she has taken a few steps, but is just too afraid right now to fully commit. She also loves to climb on things and will push chairs around to get to different places. She's a sneaky little booger and almost made it over the stair gate, she has a great love of climbing stairs. We love our crazy Joelle, especially since she's been recently sleeping through the night more consistently. Happy Birthday Joelle!

Chase's birthday was the week after Joelle's. He had to work the night before so we didn't see him until later the morning of his birthday. I took the kids to the store the night before and they picked out candy and paid for it with their own money to make him a candy bar poster. We hung up balloons and also made him a special breakfast, which was served in courses since I wasn't expecting him as soon as he came home, so for that I apologize Chase. I tried to get Chase to have friends over or something and I'd cook, but he just wanted to relax. Unfortunately, not much relaxing happened since we looked at houses that day as we're looking for a new place to live, but Chase was a good sport. We ordered Domino's Pizza and Wings and watched Netflix movies the rest of the night. We also enjoyed the Red Velvet cake. I'm so very thankful for my awesome husband, and I hope that he had a good birthday even if it wasn't spectacular. I'm so happy to have him for my best friend and eternal companion! Happy Birthday Chase!

Pictures to come later.

Addie Turns 9!

2011-02-22T11:15:00.000-08:00

Addie's birthday fell on President's Day, so she got the day off from schoool. We started out the day by sleeping in, followed by crepes and homemade jam for breakfast. Addie opened her presents and then we went out to eat at Cici's Pizza. She spent the rest of the day playing with her new toys and playing the Wii with her brother and sisters. We ended the day by eating her super cool ladybug and bumblebee cake.

We went to a church spaghetti dinner with a cake auction for the Young Women girl's camp on Sat. night. We donated a flip flop cake like the one I had made for Addie's birthday last year. We planned on just getting a Costco cake the following Mon. for Addie's birthday. We were going to maybe bid on a cake, Chase wanted to bid on mine, but the bidding started at $50. I thought for sure the prices would fall as we went along because there were far too many cakes for the amount of people that were there to bid on them. My cake was one of the last 3 to bid and it sold for $32.50, still too pricey for our liking. When the auction was over a dentist in our ward who bought close to half of the cakes brought over the 2nd most expensive cake and insisted that we take it home. I think it sold for $80. or more. I finally relented and said we could save it for Addie's birthday. Addie of course was more than thrilled. All the kids had been dissappointed that we hadn't bid on anything. Addie later found out that her primary teacher had been the one to actually make and donate her cake.

We are so happy to have Addie in our family. It's hard to believe she is 9 already. Addie proclaimed this to be the best birthday ever, but I've heard that before. Addie is such a sweet, silly, happy, and fun girl who's easy to please. We love our Addie Mae! She is always thinking of others and is such a big helper and a super sister and is always making things for everybody. Her smile and giggles can light up any room. Happy Birthday Addie!

Making Cupcakes

2011-02-21T21:27:00.000-08:00

Valentine's Day!

2011-02-15T19:37:00.000-08:00

Taking pictures in front of the house since everyone was all decked out in red and pink Valentine gear.

Valentine card I made for the kids and Chase.

Joelle enjoying her jello heart.

Bailey helped by making the special Valentine punch.

Jello Hearts.

Cantaloupe Hearts with Orange Arrows. I was supposed to use watermelon but couldn't find any.

Hot Dog Hearts with Cheese Arrows.

Bailey came into the kitchen with this battle wound on her cheek. I asked her what happened and she said she was injured by her candy when she was trying to open it. Of course mean mom has to laugh and then takes a picture.

Handsome Cam!

Silly Addie :) (She finally calmed down after freaking out about possibly falling off the 2 foot high porch railing.)

Looked over and caught Bailey deep in thought about something. I teased her and called this her model picture, so I had to put it up too.

Sweet Bailey!

Funny Joelle!

Crazy Emery!

My 5 Little Monkeys!

Chase Graduates!!!

2011-02-06T16:08:00.000-08:00

Chase with his dad Jack before the graduation ceremony.

Chase graduated from the San Antonio Firefighter Academy on Friday, February 4th! It seems like forever ago he was getting laid off and we were forced to sell our home and move in with family. What we thought would be a brief time of unemployment turned into 1 1/2 years. After being laid off, Chase began a more intense approach to actively becoming a firefighter. This was something which he had wanted for a long time, but due to different life situations was never able to do until now, so I guess you could say Chase getting laid off was a blessing.

So, after a lot of hard work and months of separation from our family, Chase was finally able to take the oath of a firefighter and walk across that stage to accept his well earned diploma! I can't express to you how proud of him I am, it warms my heart just thinking about that moment! I was so happy to see him all dressed up in his uniform with his name tag and diploma with his badge attached. I might add that he looks pretty darn good in uniform :) We are so blessed and excited to begin this new chapter in our lives. I am so grateful to Chase for all of his time, effort, and hard work put into providing for us and fulfilling his dream to become a firefighter and serve others as well.

Yesterday was Chase's first day of work. I proudly kissed my man in uniform as he left for his first day as a firefighter. I got a text later from him that night just plainly stating that things were going well. I woke up the next morning and was told by my father-in-law Jack (who flew in for Chase's graduation) that Chase got called to his first fire the night before and had posted it on his facebook account. So, I guess he had a busy first night and had about 8 calls out at the station he was at. He also cooked dinner for everybody at the station.

I've posted some pics of the night of his graduation. I have a really sucky camera and the lighting was bad, so not many pictures turned out. There are a few with us goofing around with the kids while waiting for the ceremony to start, and some posing by the stage. I tried to get one of him going across the stage and standing up for recognition as being a class Treasurer in the class Presidency, but they didn't turn out. I was able to get pics of a couple of his friends, but when I tried to get one of Chase, the camera was too slow.

I'd like to also mention that this day was very special for another reason as well. My new nephew Jace Emery was born to my awesome sister-in-law Ceri! I will never forget his birthday, that's for sure. Ceri is going to be the bestest mom ever! We are so excited to have Jace join the family and can't wait to meet him!Chase accepting his diploma and badge.
One of Chase's friends, Evan, who was awesome enough to come and help us move. Chase's friend Johnathon also came over to help us move, but I wasn't able to get a picture of him because that was one of the times Joelle started acting up.
Chase's friend Zach who was also awesome to come and help us move. Zach and his wife Jessica are actually the ones that helped us find a house so we could be here with Chase, Thank You!!! Zach's dad also was kind enough to come over and help us defrost our water pipes after they froze, Thank You! I might add, that this is how Chase's picture should have looked.
Chase's friend Jason. Jason was the class President and gave a really inspirational talk at the graduation. Jason and his wife Amanda were kind to have us over for dinner right after we moved here. Amanda made an awesome lasagna that even Emery ate and asked for seconds, a miracle in itself, so you know it must have been excellent.
Bailey, who stole my camera to take this picture of herself.
Addie (posing), Grandpa Fox, Emery (looking serious), and Chase being goofy of course.
Addie, Grandpa Fox, back of Emery's head, and Bailey.
Joelle and Cameron looking at the program and being silly.
Crazy Joelle
The Fam :)

What's Happening...

2011-01-26T21:48:00.000-08:00

So, real fast, since we don't have internet and I'm using Chase's phone that he got some cheap internet for. We moved to Seguin, TX, just outside of San Antonio and about an hour away from Austin. We drove here Christmas day and the day after. I have been cleaning every day since then with a few days off for my sanity's sake. I have faith that the house will be a good house for us once everything is cleaned up. The house is a rental on 3 acres just on the edge of town, enough not to get a lot of city services, hence the constant battle to get internet services out here, hopefully it will be resolved sooner than later. We have to hire out our garbage pick up, but really we are not that far out there, it's ridiculous really. We live across from some cows and next to a small pecan orchard, but there are houses down the road and a restaurant kitty corner to us and the freeway is just behind us.

The house had been vacant long enough to acquire some unwanted house guests. I have been cleaning up mounds of mice poop, cockroach poop and eggs, and recently found a snake skin, and skeletal remains of some animal, probably a mouse, or snake. Many of my days consist of putting on a face mask, rubber gloves, and grabbing my trusty spray bottle of bleach. I am slowly getting it done, even though it feels like it will never be done. I am trying to remember that we are together again, and that is something to be happy about. I am trying to remember my favorite motto which is written on a tile placed above my kitchen sink..."Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass, but about learning to dance in the rain." It's hard to be happy when you're cleaning up mouse poop and crying hysterically after finding evidence inside your house of something you fear so very much.

I want to tell Chase that I love him and that I know it's not his fault the house turned out the way it did, although I secretly wonder sometimes if this is how he's getting back at me for picking the Lehi house. I know he is working very hard and is doing the best for us. I want to apologize for my breakdowns (I've had a few). I am glad to be here despite the house conditions and nearly stepping on said feared creature mentioned above (see Chase's blog for details). I am freaked out no doubt, and will soon be making my visit to the closest hardware store to purchase a shovel. A family that invited us for dinner from church mentioned that we should familiarize ourselves with the local poisonous snakes and always carry a shovel..."Happy thoughts, think HAPPY thoughts!"

In all seriousness though I believe this will be a good place for our family. I am thankful for a wonderful, loving, hard working, husband, and I am thankful for fantastic, sweet, helping, brave children. I am thankful my husband has a job. I am thankful for my own house again, and will be even more so if I survive the clean up process. I am thankful for my Heavenly Father who is always mindful of me in spite of myself. I am thankful for the wonderful weather we have here and that Joelle getting off of her 3rd antibiotic and 3rd ear infection in 3 months and sick with bronchiolitis finally seems to be healthy and well. I am thankful that the bus picks my kids up right outside our house (Because the school they were supposed to attend was capped for 1st graders, they sent us to a school further away and ended up having to bus my kids.)

I am thankful for the beautiful creatures that exist here too, the deer outside my kitchen window, (even though they scared the crap out of me at 1:30 in the morning when I got up with Joelle), the squirrels, and pretty red birds that I think are cardinals. I am thankful that my car runs, and that I have a husband who could fix it. I am thankful for music and silly kids and a husband that dance to it. I am thankful to all the awesome thrift and second hand stores they have here since we couldn't bring all of our stuff (most of our things are still in storage in UT). I am thankful for a husband who after getting home from working all day comes home and realizes the crap I've had to do and cooks dinner for everyone. I am thankful for a nice tax return hopefully coming soon. I'm thankful for a library that provides cool books and free movies for my kids.

I am thankful to the friendly people who have invited us for dinners and make us feel at home here. People here are very friendly, I've had people help bag items for me at the store, and help me try to fit purchases into my trunk. I am even thankful to the crazy ladies who wanted to buy my hair at the Goodwill, it gave me a good laugh, still a little nervous, but a good laugh none the less. I am thankful to all of Chase's friends from the academy who showed up at a moment's notice to help unload the moving van. I am thankful for kids and a husband who put up with my grumpiness and craziness, and still love me, I hope. I am thankful that we can be together forever as a family. I love my husband and kids and hope to try to learn to dance when it "rains" and be a happier and better person for it. Well, better get to bed, finally got the baby to sleep and have another long day ahead tomorrow. Oh, and if I don't moderate your comments right away, I'm sorry, it will probably be a while before I can get back on here, but I will try to keep updating.

Colds, Croup, Ear Infections, Sinus Infections... Oh My

2010-12-18T13:34:00.001-08:00

So, I'm blogging real fast. I should be packing right now, need to be loading a trailer in 3 days and have absolutely nothing done. Since about middle of Nov. at least one member in our family has been ill in one way or another. We keep cycling through who is sick. It's like my kids have made a game out of it and say "tag you're it" to one of their siblings, or me. Emery had the croup, Joelle had a double ear infection, Cam threw up, all of the kids have had colds on again off again(I've lost count of how many each has had), I have been battling a horrible sinus infection for over a week now on one side of my head, and now Joelle has a "horrendous" (doctor's words) ear infection in her right ear again.

So, I have been on guard for Joelle's ear to burst at any moment, the doctor said it is bulging so bad to be prepared for such and that it will ooze and help heal faster. The doctor was shocked at how well behaved Joelle was for having such a bad ear infection. I haven't been sleeping at all for like a week because of my own illness and sitting in the rocking chair all night with the baby, poor thing can't sleep. Right now, Cam and Emery are the only ones not sick.

I went to the doctor for myself and they are treating it as a virus unless it isn't better in another week and a half, I will be in TX by then, hopefully. So, I am nasal irrigating (so much fun), steroid nasal spraying, taking mucinex, and ibuprofen for the pain. I've missed an entire week of exercise, but managed to lose about 1-2 pounds(I fluctuate) probably because I haven't felt like eating anything.

I need to take Joelle in and treat her ear infection with shots if this antibiotic isn't working by Tues. or Wed. They put her on a stronger antibiotic, but because she had diahrea for a week following her last round of antibiotics, he tried to put her on the one that was slightly less diahrea inducing, which I was told not to be alarmed will also turn her poop red (the doctor said it is festive). So, everyone cross your fingers that this antibiotic works and that the rest of us can please stay healthy, throw a few prayers our way please. Pray that I don't have a nervous break down and that Chase doesn't have to have me committed. So, sorry this isn't a happy, fluffy, Christmas letter for you all. Our Christmas letter will have to be delayed, hopefully, there will be some happier things to report. Merry Christmas everyone, and may the seasonal bugs pass you by!

Half Way There, Almost

2010-12-13T19:02:00.000-08:00

I've lost 3 more pounds making a total of 25 1/2 down and 26 1/2 more to go. I'm not quite halfway to my goal. Anyway, hopefully I'll find some time to actually blog about something else other than my weightloss update soon.

After Thanksgiving Weight Loss Update

2010-12-07T11:11:00.000-08:00

So, I gained a little less than half a pound according to the scale when I got back from Thanksgiving. I was happy, it could have been much worse. After this week I lost that extra little bit plus a little more for a total of 1 1/2 more pounds gone. The grand total of pounds lost since Sept. are 22 1/2 pounds lost with 29 1/2 more to go. Slowly, but surely! Christmas time will probably be my most challenging yet. With my dad as Bishop everyone and their dog brings treats by the house. My trick is to not deny myself completely, so I don't end up binging, but to decide what I really want to eat and then treat myself to a moderate portion of that. Nothing makes me more angry than indulging in something that didn't taste very good, was dissapointing, or that I could have eaten something much better. So, I'm trying to be more picky and careful about what I eat, especially when it comes to the plethora of treat options I will have before me.

2 1/2 more pounds lost!

2010-11-22T11:16:00.000-08:00

Here's this week's update. I guess I will keep posting them unless I had a really bad week. I'm a half pound away from my goal for this month. If I don't ruin it over Thanksgiving, I think I will have it made. So, that makes a total of 21 1/2 pounds lost since Sept. with 30 1/2 pounds to go!

Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy!!!

2010-11-20T13:55:00.000-08:00

I just got a phone call from Chase letting me know that we got the house we had applied to rent. We were unsure because they told our agent that we probably didn't meet the income requirements, even though Chase will be making his full pay after 2 months and we have no debt. Chase will be moving in Dec. 1st and we get to finally join him again at Christmas. We are so excited! While I was on the phone I told the kids and they literally screamed with excitement and tackled me with hugs until I almost fell over. It's been crazy and unbelievable how no one wanted to lend to us because of Chase's work history and income, then it looked like it would be difficult for us to rent as well. We did eventually find someone willing to lend to us when Chase graduated, but even then it was a low amount not high enough to find us a big enough home for our big family long term. We decided it has been hard enough being apart for this long, so we thought the best thing would be to rent and get out there sooner.

I would like to send a shout out to everyone who has helped us these last 2 years... my parents, Chase's parents, Chase's grandparents, anyone who has given to us of their time, services, monetary help, etc. We are especially eternally grateful to my parents for putting up with us for so very long and allowing us to live with them. Also, without my parents so kindly subsidizing some of our rent for 2 months and a letter stating they would do so, we wouldn't be able to get into this house. So, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU everybody!!! We are so thrilled to finally be able to be together again!

Emery Misses Her Dad

2010-11-19T13:10:00.000-08:00

Emery has been struggling lately with some emotional and behavior issues, which I believe have stemmed from our last 2 turbulant yrs, but most recently from the absence of her dad. It got noticeably worse when I left to visit with Chase for a week back in Oct. as well as for some other children.

Emery has been really sick the last couple of days with croup and a possible ear infection. She's been more clingy than normal, but has appeared to be happier the last 2 days and a little bit more well behaved. Today while I was trying to eat lunch and read my scriptures while the baby was napping, Emery decided that she needed to climb all over me and sit in my lap. So, I finally gave in and let her sit on my lap while I tried to read. After a few minutes of me trying to read and asking her if she wanted me to read out loud, I decided it wasn't working. I figured that maybe this was one of those moments where family obligations need to come before church/spiritual obligations. So, I closed my scriptures and decided to talk with Emery.

The following conversation occurred...

Emery: "Mom, a long time ago, you left, and I was sad." (This was the first time she had talked to me about how she felt.)

Me: "I'm sorry, but I came back."

Emery: "It was a long time. I was happy when you came back." (Then she proceeded to make up some stories about her siblings while I was gone, at least I'm pretty sure they're made up. Something about Cam saying he was going to be bad and then he gave Addie and Bailey presents but not her.)

Emery: "I want my dad!"

Me: "I know sweet heart. We get to see him real soon."

Emery: "I want my dad now! I miss my dad, I want my dad, I want my dad, I want my dad!" (I lost count of how many times she said that. She couldn't be consoled or distracted. It started to break my heart.)

Me: "Emery, next week we get to take a trip to see Daddy. It's only 5 more days!"

Emery: "I want to go on a trip! I'm getting my shoes."

Me: "Emery, we're not going today it's not for 5 more days."

Emery: "I'm getting my shoes. Mom, go get your shoes!"

Well, a couple of more times trying to explain to a 3 yr old why she can't go see her father and then we eventually were able to distract her by playing a game of Uno Stacko Jenga, well I tried to play the real way, but we ended up building different things instead.

But before we played the game Emery told me the following story...

"There was a woof (wolf) and there was a baby woof. The mommy woof left and made the baby woof sad. The mommy woof came back and the baby woof was happy. The daddy woof was gone and the baby woof was sad. Then the daddy woof came back and the baby woof was happy."

I've been trying to give Emery the positive attention that she's been needing and trying to cope with her behavior issues in the right way, which can be difficult. I've been trying to reinforce her positive behavior while trying to deter her negative behavior and channel it in different direction. Today, I saw a glimpse of the old, happy, silly, and sweet, but still slightly sassy Emery that I have missed. It has been hard having Chase gone, but I think it will make us stronger and bring us closer together as we have learned to truly appreciate eachother as individuals and as a family. I have deffinately seen how not having one parent or the other in the home can have a very real and devastating effect on children. I am so thankful for a loving and righteous husband and father who is only going to be temporarily absent. We are very blessed to have Chase and we are not the same without him. Hopefully, we will be together soon. We are so very excited to see him for Thanksgiving, hopefully with everyone healthy and well again. We're counting down the days!

1 1/2 Down!!!

2010-11-15T10:44:00.000-08:00

So, 1 1/2 more pounds gone from last week. Making 19 down and 33 more to go. I think I can, I think I can. Now I just need to get my Zumba instructor to stop playing Grease Lightening and Jive and I will be a happy little camper :)

Community unites to celebrate at religious festival | Universe.byu.edu

2010-11-14T21:45:00.000-08:00

This is the link to the article I was interviewed for. See how famous I am, he he :) Anyway, it has better pictures of the festival and explains it a little better if you're interested. Also, I guess we just missed the cow, it came after the dancing and Joelle was getting fussy so we had to go out. We were over by the pond waiting for the lighting ceremony when the cow was brought out, darn it.

Community unites to celebrate at religious festival Universe.byu.edu

Diwali Festival

2010-11-11T17:08:00.000-08:00

On Saturday, Nov. 6th, I decided to take the kids at the last minute to an Indian celebration being held at the Hare Krishna temple called the Diwali Festival (Festival of Lights). Diwali is a combination of words "deepa", meaning lamps, and "wali", meaning row. Homes in India are decorated with rows of lamps in the windows and places of worship to bring in the best of the New Year. This is what I read that morning in the newspaper about the festival. Part of the Diwali feast is in remembrance of Krishna lifting a mountain and using it as an umbrella to protect his people from devastating rainfall. Part of the ceremony was honoring a live cow, which symbolize abundance and the sanctity of life. We never saw that part of the celebration, not sure if we missed it.

We were able to participate in one of the rituals which I am not very familiar with, and they didn't explain it to us and I didn't read about it in the paper. They had this wooden cart with a wheel attached that steered it and a rope on the other end for people to pull. It was decorated with flowers. We followed the cart around with others in the crowd and clapped along to the singing and music. Every once in a while we would stop and they would sing and dance. Then we would follow it around again, around and around the temple. We did this for a while before venturing off to explore other activities and the temple grounds. We enjoyed traditional Indian dancing and music also.

At the end of the festival we gathered around a gated pond with a statue, that I believe is of Krishna(not sure though), for the lighting ceremony. They lit tiny lamps of cotton balls placed on leaves and then placed them in the pond and made a wish. The kids really wanted to do this, but it was just too crowded and I didn't feel like ushering 5 kids in the small confined space and most likely have one of them end up in the water, so we just watched. Then we watched the fireworks which were pretty cool. They were set off just on the opposite side of the pond directly across from us, so they were very close, loud, and smoky.

We had a really fun time and I enjoyed having the kids participate in another culture and religion. It was exciting to have something like this so close in our own backyard. I think it's important for them to understand and experience different people, cultures, and religions. We also got interviewd by a BYU reporter, so we may be in an article there. She probably was wondering who this crazy lady with 5 kids is and what she was doing there. We did get a lot of stares and many offers to help us, especially as I'm trying to carry the baby and stroller up the temple's flight of stairs and then traversing down the steep hill back to the parking lot in the dark. It was a lot of fun and it was a great experience for our family. I hope my kids learn to appreciate other people for who they are, despite our differences.

On the stairs at the front of the Hare Krishna Temple in Salem, UT.

Part of the temple.

Side view of the temple. It was lit up really pretty, but as it got darker my camera started to rebel.

This is Pedro. He could say "Bye, Bye" and something else in their religion. Some boys from the Hare Krishna religion came over and were telling us about the parrot and the llamas, they were very nice. There was also a smaller gray parrot in a cage next to Pedro, but the poor thing was largely ignored, or maybe lucky for him Pedro got all the attention.

Pedro showing us is pretty blue feathers. He kind of made me want to get another bird...almost, but then I remembered our psychotic pet bird "Crispy".

Ok, so it was dusk again, so you get some pictures of the llamas looking evil eyed and some spots as well. I really need a new camera.

The kids petting the llamas.

Addie petting the llamas. They kind of lost interest once they realized we didn't have food and the people with the carrots next to us left.

The boys that talked to us though had insisted that the llamas don't spit, unless they are scared or angry or something like that. We were fortunate not to have any spitting. They were very friendly and the kids were able to get really close and pet them.

Kids looking into the pond with the "Krishna" statue behind them. There were these huge fish in the pond, not sure what kind, they were orange and white and humongous. I couldn't get a very good picture of the fish because of the lighting and my stinky camera.

Elephant statue at the foot of the stairs of the temple.

The decorated, wooden cart that was driven around the temple that we followed behind.

Following the temple leader (I think), as he drove the cart around the temple.

The cart driver, maybe temple leader, not sure.

Bailey, and Cam following behind the cart.

Emery clapping along as we followed the cart.

Addie clapping along.

Kids up at the top of the temple.

Top of the temple.

Kids overlooking the balcony at the top of the temple. Addie dancing to the music being played. Again, everyone looking evil-eyed, my red eye editing couldn't even save this picture and a few others.

Inside the temple on the top floor. This is a picture I took from outside, since it was so crowded we could not get inside.

Another picture looking in from outside.

16 yr old dancer, she was very good, and her costume was exquisite.

Performers in traditional dress.

Lighting ceremony.

Weight Loss Update

2010-11-08T11:03:00.000-08:00

So, I went to Zumba this morning which totally kicked my trash, but was awesome! I weighed myself when I got back. I am trying to weigh myself only once a week, and weighing myself first thing Monday morning can be daunting, especially since I tend to eat worse over the weekend. I was pleasantly surprised though. I am down 4 1/2 more pounds! Which means I have lost a total of 17 1/2 pounds since September-yippee!!! So, only 34 1/2 more pounds to go-yikes! I proudly survived Halloween, so now I just need to conquer Thanksgiving and Christmas :) .