What we've been up to!!!

**Goober got a new phone*** The cell phone industry drives me crazy! Isn't everyone always looking to upgrade to the latest and greatest in phones. I hear every day what kid has what phone and who just got a NEW cooler phone. Taylor... aka Goober(in the most loving way), was harping for months to get a new phone. He changed his mind 3 or more times on what was the "it" phone for him. Finally things worked out for him and he is happy with his phone and since he's happy, we all get a little peace around here. I am learning that teenagers can be irritating! (I can hardly wait to live YEARS in the teenage state!)
Here is a picture of him proudly holding his phone. (He actually asked me to blog about this momentous event) Yeah Taylor!

I love little kids and the things they do! Noah finds a pair of goggles and he'll wear them for days. Summer or winter, it doesn't matter. It's mostly just a hair accessory for him. We did actually just get these new ones for the pool and these two boys wore them for days. They make me smile when I walk in and both of them are sitting on the floor watching television with their goggles on their heads!!

Summer Fun! We have had this jump on our sidewalk for months. It's now just a regular fixture at our house. Kids come up and down our street on rip sticks, scooters, bikes and our neighbor with her daughter in her stroller even used the ramp. These boys were having the best time!
(my photo don't...Satchel looks like he has a skitter coming out of his head. I need to pay more attention to the background)
Later that day....something happened to Noah's shirt so he took it off and didn't want to put it back on. Then Joe ripped his off. So, we layed down a thick layer of sunscreen and let them have their fun! They are so cute when they play together! And.... well, they're just plain CUTE!!

Now...for some of what I've been up to! I needed some sewing therapy and this blanket did just the trick! For one thing, I love to sew these blankets, each one is unique and always ends up adorable. Second, it was for some incredible neighbor friends that were bringing a daughter home from China! It was great to meet 3 year old Lilly and give her this as a welcome home gift.

If I love one thing, it's Mod Podge. I even Mod Podged decorative paper ON the bottle of Mod Podge!!!!!! This is what I just did to a black star that has been hanging on my porch for over a year or so. New and improved. And.....if I love something else, it's black and white. Oh, and gingham and polka dots!!! (any color actually). Anyway, I'm heading in the black and white direction with some decor and this star will (I think) eventually come inside and hang above the mantle. I am working on some drapery panels in the damask pattern. Anyway, easy to do, and the thing I love is that the possibilities are ENDLESS!!!!!! Have you seen all the cute scrapbook paper!

Who doesn't love a gooey cookie now and then? I'm sharing our favorite recipe for one of our favorite treats.
Chocolate Revel Bars
Mix:
1 C. Butter
2 C. Brown Sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. soda
1 tsp. salt
3 Cups Quick Oats
2 1/2 Cups flour
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a 9x13 pan, press about 2/3 of the mix in the bottom (save the rest for later.
Melt together:
1 can sweetened condensed milk
12 oz. chocolate chips
2 Tbsp. butter
1/2 tsp. salt
after melted, add 1 tsp vanilla.
Pour chocolate mixture over cookie mix. Crumble on top remaining cookie mix.
Bake for 25 - 30 minutes. (I go on the low side, 25 does it for me..)
Cut when cooled. We usually store ours in the fridge, something about it being cool.
Enjoy!

And lastly, today I got my first Vera Bradley bag!!!!! It's the bowling style bag in the yellow bird print. Next I want the super tote in this print. I needed a new purse more than a tote, but who can just stop with one, so many cute ones to pick from. Right now there are some discontinued patterns and styles on the website that are a great deal. I got mine from my local retailer, but might order it next time!
I also went to IKEA with some fabulous friends!!!! (Actually I've gone twice this week) LoVe, LovE, lOvE IKEA!
Now Saturday will all be about the WORK!!!!! Won't the kids be happy about that!
Love y'all!!!!!

Where does the time go?
I finally transferred pictures from the camera to the computer so I will start with some of those. Hunter earned his bear from his 2nd grade teacher for earning at least 200 reading points. He was the first to earn his in his class and 1 of only about 5 who accomplish this. He also qualified for Spectrum. (the gifted/talented program in our District) for next year. He will change schools and will be with Cole next year. Way to go HUNTER!
The chicks! Every year in Mrs. Roy's 2nd grade class she hatches eggs. It is super exciting for the kids to watch as they hatch. As a matter of fact, that is one of the very reasons children want her for a teacher (great for parents because she is outstanding) Of course they are taken care of by the children during the week in class, but on the weekend a child's name is drawn for the opportunity to take them home! This is the second time we have had this opportunity. (Cole also got the chance when he was in 2nd grade) After the first, it's surprising that I'd give my consent again, I guess it's a little like having a baby, you forget .

Although they look like they're dead, they are not, they're just sleeping. All of them made it back safe and sound on Monday morning.....what a long weekend that was! (She did tell me though, that one year at a students house a cat was kept in the bathroom all weekend to keep it away from the chicks...except it got out once.............Now nobody with pets gets put in the drawing for taking them home. It was just so RARE that they were all laying down and quite. We got them the 2nd weekend so they were starting to try to fly and get out. They pecked at the box NON STOP! We had a lot of visitors that weekend. Word traveled fast whose house they were at!

Cade graduated from Kindergarten!

It's hard to believe he's going to 1st grade! Kindergarten is still comfortable for me because he goes in the morning until 11:25 and we still have the rest of the day to be together, we do lunch, go to the park, shop, and play. It still feels like he's my little boy. When he goes to all day 1st grade, it's a very hard adjustment and for the first few weeks I'll miss him terribly.

Noah will go to 2 hours of preschool in the fall twice a week. I will actually be ALONE for 4 hours a week. That hasn't happened for 13 years!!!!! I'm very excited, even though it isn't really enough time to do anything....I'LL TAKE IT!!!!!
Another huge event in our life is Noah is finally potty trained!!!!!!!!!!! He protested and was the oldest of all of our children to potty train, but when I said today was the day, that's all it took and he was potty trained that day. And he's dry at night consistently! We're really, really excited to be out of diapers!!!! I have been buying them for 13 years solid! Sometimes there have been 2 in diapers.
I have to admit I get baby hungry still, but then I realize what we have just accomplished and I couldn't go back. And there's the fact that I already have 5 kids, I couldn't handle any more, I'm maxed out! And there's the fact that I'd just have ANOTHER boy ( I really believe that would happen). And we don't need one more mouth to feed, we're out of room in the house (we were actually out of room like 3 kids ago), wait a minute...Shawn has a little input on this subject...we're out of money, we'd have to get a new car, (and a house), we have 2 too many as it is :), we can't stand any more noise.....And we're too old!
I guess I'll just have to get a puppy! A girl puppy! I tell everyone it has to be a girl because we already have too many weenies in the house as it is. Sorry! (we really are puppy hungry though.)
School is out!!!!! Yeah!!!!!
We are looking forward to swimming (I love to work on my tan, I sent for some Maui Babe browning lotion that's going to make me goddess like (skin color only... no lotion for the other stuff), and just mellowing out. We love summer!!!. Oh, yeah, I am requesting everyone only wear sandals of some sort. We are having a sock free summer (as much as possible anyway). Socks really are a hard thing for our family....there's just TOO many!

Going into this blogging thing I had great expectations for myself. I was going to be a regular daily blogger, I have some great blogs I read and have been extremely spoiled because they are updated daily. How hard could it be, right? Now I know what monumental effort that must take. First of all, my life just doesn't have the content to warrant daily updates. It's just the same stuff, different day really. So, I'm OK with it now to hit it every once in awhile. I do have to say thank you to the blogs that are updated daily, during the long winter months when I deal with SAD anyway, then you add my supersized life stress of late, sometimes reading my daily blogs were the one thing I looked forward to . And, I am grateful for SPRING and these!These have made me happy every day since I received them! You know you have a good friend when she knows the perfect thing to do for you!!!!!!

Utah has a new Frontrunner commuter train. It runs from North Ogden to Salt Lake. Last Saturday was the first day it went online and the public has been able to ride it free since that day through today Wednesday 4/30. We wanted to take our kids to ride it, and as life happens we were scrambling tonight to get our ride since regular fare starts tomorrow. We boarded at the Woods Cross station and rode north to Roy. We then had to get off and wait to get on a southbound train to return. At Farmington (the station is just west of Lagoon) they came on the intercom and said that due to unforseen circumstances the train would not be allowed to continue south and everyone would have to get off and the train was heading north again. We were told they were dispatching UTA busses to pick everyone up to transport them to the Woods Cross Station. We waited for about 20 minutes and so I called my dad to come and rescue us, while I was talking to him they said the trains were running again and we could go wait again for it. So we went back to the platform to wait another 25 minutes. Tonight was cold, the wind was blowing and Hunter and Noah were only wearing shorts with a sweatshirt and even though Cade was covered in clothes, he is so skinny (it's hard to imagine he's our kid)that he was freezing. Hunter, Cade and Noah were crying because they were so cold....you can imagine the fun WE were having! FINALLY the train came for us and took us to the station and we got in our warm car..after warm showers everyone went to bed. The Woods Cross station is RIGHT by several refineries and there was an explosion at one of them, all the roads were blocked off and that's what shut the train down. You know how you feel like whatever you do can't just be simple, something dramatic has to happen to make it even more memorable than just normal. Everything we do turns into a fiasco so I don't know why I'm ever surprised.
When you're in SLC you'll have to take it for a ride....it's pretty fun.

This morning Shawn joined !10,000! other people at the Deal or No Deal casting call in SLC. He was number 2720 in line and that was approximately 8:40 am. They were seeing all the people that got into line by 1:00pm. the line went !FOREVER! You had 20 seconds to say what you wanted them to hear. He didn't get "held up" for a second or third interview so he'll just chock it up to a fun experience!

So..... I got a new pair of shoes!

Really, you don't know what a big deal that is! Really!Big! Deal! I just don't buy shoes... hardly ever! I was thinking what shoes I bought last year, a pair of $12 wedge flip flops and a pair of slides (only because I met up with my good friend CLEARANCE SALE and they were $13... not that cute... just cheap!). So, I haven't had a pair of athletic shoes for like 3 years now. Right after I had Noah I went walking and came home with blisters on my toes (the foot growing thing with each pregnancy is true) and so I threw them away. Yes, I have walked since then, I just wore crocs. Not great for the feet I know... So now we have passes to our recreation center and my friend and I want to go use the track and exercise machines so that means I needed a decent pair of shoes. So, I rarely shop anymore! (GASP! ....I KNOW!!!) But last week Kohl's opened right by our house and so Shawn MADE me go buy a pair of shoes! They feel AMAZING!!!

Do any of you have a Zutter bind-it-all? Well, you should get yourself one!

I have made the cutest little mini books with these. I made all the YW a little quote book for their birthday gift, and I made a little mini book of President Hinckley's quotes for each of my Laurels shortly after he passed away. Really cute! So the other day Cade was asking me if I knew where this little tiny notebook of his was and of course it could be one of a million places. I told him I could make him a really cool book though. So with 3 sheets of copy paper cut 2x2.5 and some chipboard for the cover I made him a very cute, tiny (just how he wanted it) and may I just say better book than the one he was looking for. (he was impressed) It was for SPELLS you know! And that is his tomagotchi he has drawn on the cover. How cute is that!

He is so SIX! I love that kid!
I saw this quote on a plaque last night.
"Make time for the quite moments because God whispers and the world is loud."
So true!

April Fool's Fun

Who doesn't have cupcakes, fries and sushi for dinner. Geez! We threw the kids out of the kitchen while we prepared our little fool's dinner. Cade heard a little of me talking earlier about what I was planning so he spread the word we were having at least sushi. The kids weren't thrilled!



Just a little fun from Family Fun magazine. The cupcakes are meatloaf in a foil cupcake cup, with pink tinted mashed potatoes. The fries are little bread sticks with ketchup (strawberry jam) in stolen McDonalds ketchup cups. And the sushi is rice krispie treats with gummy worms rolled in the middle wrapped with fruit by the foot. (prominently displayed on my ALL TIME favorite plate that I protect with my life and would DIE if anything ever happened to it, I have and will always LOVE polka dots). Thanks Nicki!
The teenager gave me some crap about the dinner, however at YM activity he told a few friends what his "lame" mother served up for dinner. Hah, I knew he liked it. The next day Cade asked if we could have the same dinner we had last night! I knew it was worth the trouble! And it was good!

I'd like to thank my good friend Kayla who is my digital scrapbook hero for prodding me FOREVER to do this (and if you want to learn anything about digital scrapbooking she has phenomenal turorials you can link to from her blog). I'd also like to thank my college roomie, Cindy for beating me to the punch with a blog of her own and making me want to get out there too.

I have had the worst time getting started. (I have had this set up for months ) I am not the journaling type and I guess I just can't get comfortable with putting myself out there. Not that anyone will really read this anyway. I'm just a dork I guess.
Anyway, these are my boys....

they are my life and I'm still just trying to figure "it" out. Whatever "it" is.

So there you have it, my first post. And I promise not to delete it like I have like 10 times before. I told you I was a dork!
Now I must go fold the sock basket......7 people........2 socks each.......per day.....a couple weeks worth.......man I gotta fold a lotta socks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!