I know I need to be better

I have had such a crazy last few months. I started working at Target in January and just quit last week. I was working the graveyard shift on the presentation team and it just got to be too much. But let me go back a bit. I got in a car accident on Valentines day in the jag-Bought for next to nothing off my parents cause it's Gary's dream car. I was driving up to Sundance to go skiing with my hubby and kaleb and was almost to the park where I was going to switch vehicles to make it the rest of the way. Anyway, it was snowing and the roads were covered. I came around a corner and began to fishtail. I was able to correct myself but then started going the opposite way. This time I couldn't get out of it and there just happened to be a car stopped on the side road waiting to cross. Of course he had time to back up because he watched the whole thing happen and his father even suggested to do so- but no he felt I would make it out of it. Nope, I didn't. Anyway, I was going half the speed limit, thank goodness, and only did minor damage to his jeep but my car being lower had a bit more damage. The police officer gave m a ticket for failure to stay in my own lane. Duh! It's snowing, they were about to close the canyon and my car didn't function well in the snow. I am fighting this ticket because it is rediculous! Anyway, a couple weeks after this, Karly was at school and a boy fell on top of her from a rope bridge on the playground. She received a spiral fracture to the Tibia from this incident and my husband was furious! He was already frustrated with all the problems we have been having with Kaleb's first grade teacher and now with this happening, he decided our kids were not learning anything (Kaleb) and they were not safe. So I was now a homeschool parent on top of being a mom and working graveyards. I had to quit. We went to California, the kids and I, after my last day and spent time with Garndma and Aunt Jen and cousins. It was a lot of fun. Karly got to show off her cool camo, full leg cast and her rockin wheelchair. Hopefully she can get it off tuesday. Last night we did an amazing race at our ward building that Nicole Drake and myself put together. It went really well!! The only thing is next time I need to shorten it a bit. It was just too long. Everyone seemed to have fun though! Evan is walking!! He is so much fun and so cute. Tanner is working on potty training but it is not going so well. Hopefully something will click soon for him and all will go smoothly. I am loving having the kids home and they are learning so much!! We've studied whales and ancient egypt and cave men. It's been a lot of fun. Karly is getting better at reading and Kaleb is improving on his writing. They seem to enjoy it a lot as well. Hopefully I will get my printer working well enough soon to be able to download my pictures from my camera!

Oh Crap! (Literally)

Funny story I thought I would post very quickly. Sunday was a fun day at our house. I stayed at home with the three boys due to runny noses and coughs, while Gary took Karly to church with him. I was exhausted and decided a nap was in order. So I knew Gary would be home in about an hour, and asked Kaleb if he would keep an eye on Tanner and Evan for me. Of course, every mom knows that we pay a price for our "alone time" and I definately did. I woke up many times before Gary got home and at one point noticed tanner streaking across the hall. I asked kaleb to put a diaper on him for me and then went back to sleep. When Gary got home, I was still pretty exhausted so I continued my nap. When I woke up, I hurried through the house cleaning up the disaster the kids left behind. My sister and her man was coming soon and I promised to make them dinner. As I neared the kitchen, I spied a poopy diaper and threw it in the trash. Then I saw my son Tanner streaking once again through the house. I asked him where his diaper was and he said he didn't know. Then I asked if he was poopy and he said yes. I went to get him and smelled something so awful I wanted to puke. I immediately ran upstairs-one of the few places carpeted in my home- and walked into his room to the horror before me. There was squishy poop-remember he had been sick- not in just one place, but several. I think he decided to have a parade through his side of the room and poop along the way. As I was cleaning it, my sister arrived and very chivalrously offered to help. She and I scrubbed and picked up glops of poo for about 25 minutes. Meanwhile, I had my husband give Tanner a very cold shower-which he screamed through the whole time-to disuade him from ever taking off his diaper again. Hopefully I haven't screwed up the potty training in the future. Anyway, it gets worse. As we are cleaning Inotice small fragments of poop everywhere like a trail towards the door. Evan was standing against the train table in the room and I asked Kaleb to come get him before he got into the mess. Well, my sister notices he looks a bit strange with the mess around his mouth and inbetween his fingers. I asked Kaleb to smell it-there was no way I would do that-since he's a boy and easy to entice. Yep, my baby had crawled through the poo and wiped it on his face-I am still not able to allow myself to play with the idea that he may have eaten the poo. Anyway, we cleaned him up and he seems to be fine. YUCK!!YUCK!!YUCK!!! What we go through as moms.

Is it really the most wonderful time of the year?

As the song goes,"it's the most wonderful time of the year", I have to wonder if this guy was smoking something when he wrote this. Every year we seem to get sick on the holidays. This year started out the same. I know I said I would post a picture this time but I am still in Cali and not at my home computer. Still, this needs to be told for all to laugh and feel grateful that they are not in my family right now. I know the last post seemed like I was complaining and I hope this one doesn't come across that way. Anyway- The Holiday season started out with Karly cutting off the side tip of her middle finger. Thankfully our Bishop is a Doctor and he pulled it off for me. Her finger is now healing but will always be deformed. Kids-don't try to cut your own apples!! Moms are happy to do it for you. The following week, just before Christmas, Evan decides to push through his top three front teeth. He fevered for a few days and once they pushed through I realized it wasn't just teething that he was suffering from-All together now mom's -he had an ear infection to top it off. Well ain't that dandy!! So we drove to Cali and arrive in time to find out our two nephews had the flu and had been at our parents house the night before. Well, wonderful-oh, and they are coming back tonight-GREAT!!!! Not that it is in anyways they're fault nor do I blame them. I blame my luck. So we decide to just hope they don't get sick. So Tuesday comes and I am still exhausted from the trip but feeling happy. We go to the tide pools and then head to Old Town for Dinner in San Diego. Once there, I am trying to squeeze past a plant and my Bro.in law and Tanner decides to go the opposite way. As he insists that I pick him up over this very large pot to put him in his chair, my diaper bag snags the large, heavy, wooden chair and pulls it down on my foot. Of course I am in flip flops- what else would I wear? As I am leaning over another chair, squeezing my eyes shut to keep the tears and screaming in, a guy taps me on the back cause apparently the fallen chair is in his way and he is not capable of assessing the situation-or picking it up himself. As I hobble around to sit, my husband asks me to move to a different seat-twice and for some reason everyone else wants to ask me questions or talk to me at the same time. You know when you are in a lot of pain and people want to talk to you how you just want to rip off their heads to stop the noise? Anyway, I got some ice, apologized for snapping at my husband and limped through the rest of the week in California. Oh, but this dinner had much more in store for us. My loving and considerate younger brother, Michael (who is only 17) offered to take Tanner to the bathroom because he said he had to go. Now, we aren't really potty training right now but encourage him when he prompts it. Well, he brought him back and neglected to tell us that he no longer was wearing a diaper. We found this out when he pooped. Yes, liquid and smooth poop all over at the restaurant. Unfortunately I was in the bathroom when it happened and Gary had to deal with it; and we all know how well most men deal with poop and public places. So that was Tuesday and we were supposed to go to Disneyland the next day-Did I mention it has been raining most every day we've been here in "Sunny" San Diego? So we decide that since there is a 90% chance of rain on Christmas eve, we should move it to Christmas day cause there is only a 70% chance. Well, it didn't rain on Christmas eve but let me tel you about the rain and wind on Christmas day. None of us were prepared for that downpour. But I am getting ahead of myself. Christmas eve my mom and I make dinner for everyone and right after everyone left and just before Santa come, Evan begins to vomit. He continues through the night. I finally went to bed about 3am when he was only dry heaving every 20 minutes instead of throwing up. At 5am, we got the kids up to open presents and get ready to leave. We get to Disneyland just before 10am and Evan throws up outside the gates. It's cold and rainy and I tell my mom to buy him a hat for his Christmas present instead of the sweatshirt she wanted to get him. I didn't know she told everyone else to go to the Matterhorn. So when we get out we make our way to meet them and just find Gary waiting for us. He informs us that the ride is down and they all took the kids to some kiddy rides in Tomorrowland. When we get there, I look around and realize Tanner is not there. I ask where he is and no one seems to know-all casting blame on the other-"I gave him to you" and so on. So we dart off in different directions looking for him and calling his name. My two year old comes to Disneyland for the first time and gets lost in the first 15 minutes. I will say that Disneyland has an awesome security system and they are on the lookout always!! I think I looked and searched for 15 minutes before I heard that he was found. For the rest of the day he was not allowed to go with anyone else. I was too afraid of losing him. Although he did get lost kind of in the peter pan ride line. He was only 15 ft. from us-making his way to the front. The rest of the day was spent trying to stay dry and warm, dealing with lines and crowds and Evan throwing up. He threw up outside the haunted mansion, in the peter pan ride and once again outside the gates. I smelled awesome by the end of the day. Today is Friday, the day after Christmas. As I write this I am fighting hard to not get any more sick than I am. I got the flu too. My other sisters are suffering from it as well as a couple of nieces and nephews. Hopefully Gary won't get it since we are driving home in about 36 hours. Merry Christmas to all- I hope your holiday season was the "happiest season of all!!" It will be interesting to see if anything else happens in the next 36 hours.

Such a slacker!

So I am just updating without pictures because I am a slacker! It has been crazy! Four kids is not any easier and I don't care what people say. Each child just makes life more "interesting" and stressful. So I will give you the rundown of the past couple of months. We have been sick. Like a horrible game of telephone, we keep passing it along but changing it slightly as it goes down the line. Flu-got it; cold-got it; screwed up shoulder from falling down the stairs (twice I might add)-still have it; Head cold and sinus infection-got it; husband with kidney stone-unfortunately got that one too. On top of that I keep having this fear that someone is missing all the time and since I am still not regular-sorry, I know T.M.I>- but it makes me jumpy and stressed to think that there could possibly be another one coming. Please not one more right now. . . .or ever, if possible. If it's meant to be than I will do it but it will take a lot more spacing and much more convincing. I think when you get to the point in your life that you screw up your kids names on an hourly basis, you know that's the stopping point. Now that the holidays are here, I am getting excited. I am done shopping pretty much, my tree is up and decorated and all the presents are wrapped under the tree. Now I am working on dejunking, organizing and trying to live happily in this tiny home with no storage or closets to put anything in. Gary and I are contemplating putting it back on the market after Christmas. We'll see if it feels like the right timing. We finally ripped up the driveway and fixed the sewer line so we feel like we can leave now. I will be sad to leave but I need some way to keep sane. Love my children, adore and utterly cherish my husband, I have wonderful friends and sisters close by- I am so grateful for my many blessings. Started running today and am feeling great! If I don't post for a while it may be because I am cleaning up yet another mess of glitter and baby powder all over the floor or saving my baby form his oh so "loving" older brother. Hope all have a wonderful holiday season. Love all of you-especially those that leave comments and don't give up on me even when I lapse the blogging for months!

More pictures from Maui

My parents have a time share that they own for a month every year in Maui in South Kihei. We finally got to go this year. We've been invited quite a few times but schedules never meshed or I was pregnant. This time Gary was able to find some time to take off and jet away with me and the babe. It would have been even better sans baby but you do what you gotta do and he was pretty great! Thanks mom and dad for an awesome time!

On the road to Hana we stopped off and went to this peninsula to get some banana bread and use the bathroom. I didn't realise I had a huge palm shadow across my face when Gary took the picture. Oh well!
Shaka Bra! Thanks for getting a great picture of us mom!
Gary is a swinger for all of you who didn't know. I would be to, but I don't believe in such practices. Ha HA HAA! This Banyan tree was at a church where Charles Lindberg's grave is.
So this is my dreamhouse. If I ever build my own home, I will model it after this house right here. There will be some differences but style wise, I love this.
Oh, so beautiful! By the way, the beach is across the street and down the cliff a ways, but you can see it from the porch!!

Aloha Oi, Maui

Early morning with Evan. The time in Maui is 4 hours earlier than Provo so he was getting up every morning at 5 am like clockwork. This morning he was up and Gary got up with us. We were getting him to smile and laugh for us. What a cutie pa tootie!
Gary striking a pose at the IAo Valley. We came here the day after we got in. It was really beautiful. The clouds came in quickly but we didn't get rained on. There is a bridge that spans over a river with a large pool below the bridge. Some kids climbed over the bridge and jumped in. I decided not to make them jealous with my mad tricks and just watched instead of participating.
This is a view from my parents condo lanai(patio). There were turtles just off this point everyday. We would watch them surface for air. The afternoon was always windy due to the trade winds so we went snorkeling in the morning when the ocean looked like a lake. It is so clear and warm in this water!
This is a photo from the opposite direction going towards the condo. If I moved my camera over to the left you'd be able to see the condos. This was at sunset time. I miss the weather in Maui but I really miss the ocean and swimming all the time.
Gary took this photo of an african tulip. It is actually a tree that these bloom on. There are so many beautiful plants and trees in Hawaii. This was taken on the way to Hana or more appropriately on the "road" to Hana. Just ask Gary about this trip.

Birthday fun! Dad gets in on the party!

Karly turns 5!!

This year we are doing family birthdays and allowing the kids to invite 1 friend to their party. Karly chose to invite Brooke and Mady and we let her pick 2 because we were going out of town on her birthday and felt pretty guilty. She changed her mind three times as to what we were going to do. At first it was chuck e cheese and then it was color me mine and finally, on the morning of her party, she wanted to go swimming. We were supposed to go to the vets pool but they conveniently changed their hours for that week to 3pm instead of 1pm. So we improvised and had the kids play with water on the trampoline and eat popsicles and drumsticks. I let them pick out a toy at the dollar store before we got to our house and we had happy meals from mickeyD's for lunch.
Karly in charge of the hose! They all had turns spraying one another.
Karly with her friends. Notice how much taller she is and she's crouching down a bit behind them. She is going to be a big girl!
Silly faces!!
Good friends, Good times, Great memories!!