Cora is 12!

I was thinking about her birth and feeling really bad for my friends in North Jersey who have been without power for 6 days.. Thanks to snow. Cora was originally due October 28th. She had no real desire to be born at that time. Unfortunately her father was headed to VA to start a new job on the 6th of November. Her mommy wanted daddy to be present for Cora's birth since he didn't make it in time for Myra's. So the doctors agreed to induce her a week late. She made her appearance and answered her mommy's prayers for a dark haired dark eyed little girl. She was 9lbs 4 ozs. and 21 & 1/2 inches long. She had the shimmer of hair and we decided it was brown. For the longest time she had what people thought was a bleach spot in her hair. She still has a blond streak. She grew hair that went ringlet curly and had a mop of curls til she turned 4/5. Then her hair started to grow very fast and heavy. For a while we would turn her strands to ringlets as it dried. Eventually the curl went away. She was afraid to cut her hair for a long time because she thought people only liked her for her hair. She loves school and does well. She tried learning the piano, but her mom kept asking her to play when she was teasing others. Now she is learning the Violin at the middle school. She is excited to have a birthday party this Saturday with lots of friends. Oh her curls are growing back now too! We love our Cora Dora! We are so grateful that she is in our family.

I think it must have been before I had children...

There are days I dream of openning my pantry cupboards and finding the food and other things neatly organized the way I put them in there. I dream of putting things away and being able to find them there when I need them as opposed to Holly rearranging them. I dream of putting my emergency car pack in the car and finding all the things still in there. I dream of Holly helping instead of taking everything apart. A shallow dream I know. I love this girl, but I get tired of waging battle with her over every thing and losing most of the time because I don't stay focused on her every minute.

missions and money

My siblings have all had missionaries go out before me. I have my oldest son out right now and it is challenging. I heard all about the blessings, no one mentioned how challenging it was. We thought we would get prepared by adjusting our finances so we paid out a bit more per month for this son last year, than we would have to this year. It didn't help. In fact it only meant we thought we were prepared. We weren't. I guess that the Lord wants us to feel as though it is a struggle. We thought that we had it all set and ready to go, it was going to be less money going out after all. It has been years since money was this tight. If something even thinks about breaking down it means big money. I don't quite understand. We are monetarily very responsible people. A friend mentioned her plan that as soon as her son turned 12 she started saving $200. a month so the funds would be ready for a mission. It would be great except my boys are 19 and almost 18.

I don't quite understand why the money plan didn't work out. On paper it should have been good. We paid out $427. a month last year for the boy and the finances were okay. But now the $400. a month feels like $1000. and it is painful... I get that reality doesn't always function the way we expect. I recall volunteering to feed the missionaries once a month in NJ because somehow it made my food budget go farther and I could afford to feed them without a problem. So why is it that everything has to break down, and I have to drain my savings and it makes it so that our $400. a month is impacting our finances like $1000. ?? I don't really understand. Any ideas?

Excitement

Sometimes our adventures are far away and sometimes they are close to home. Today is a school holiday. So my 3 older kids went into SLC to go to the temple. The youngest three are here at home with me. I am presently doing laundry still in my pajamas and I read a book today. Think this is an excellent start to a school break! I am soaking my jeans from yesterday in cold water in my bathtub in the hopes of removing the Raspberry stains. I had NOOO idea how penetrating raspberries could be. My favorite jeans from the knees down are covered in pink stains, and my undergarments are also vibrantly pink in spots as well. It should be a good adventure!

This evening the kids and I are headed down to Provo to see AMAHL/Globolinks at the Harris Fine Arts Center. The Character playing AMAHL tonight is a friend of the family. She used to be Bruce's Girlfriend. She has spent most of the year working on this, and it all comes down to 3 performances. We skipped openning night, and we are going to see it in the middle! I hope she does well, she is a nice girl and she has a fabulous voice. After her performances are over she is planning on heading home to CA. She is going to be working with her old music school-Colburn, and working with the LA Philharmonic. She is hoping to learn how to drive and save money for a car. Best wishes!

What do you think it means?

Holly's adventure yesterday

Holly had a play date yesterday. She had to live with me during the morning as we sat at the car dealership getting a car fixed. She stared through the glass from the children's play area towards a baby in the other waiting room. She decided the the colorful shelves in the playroom were red, green, and blue, people sitting on each others heads. (I liked to think of them as colorful interlocking puzzle pieces). She played and we read stories for a while, then we got numerous drinks at the water fountain. She decided to be done playing.She started organizing. She stacked the puzzles all on the blue shelf. She decided to put all the mega blocks on the green shelf. SHe decided to bring the blocks to her by pulling the table rather than slide the blocks across the table to herself. She then had to proceed to pick them up from the floor. After that she decided to organized the books on the red shelf into 3 piles based on size of books. We read a few more books, Then she finished. We came home and she announced it was time for a nap. So I laid down in the recliner and she said she had changed her mind. So I took a brief nap on the chair and she watched Sesame Street. When her older siblings came home she proceeded to harass Rachael until she invited her friend John to come over to play with Holly. She then helped Rachael get her room cleaned up and colored pages with her while waiting for John to come play. When he finally got here she took him outside to play on the swings and they tummy swang for a while, then they colored with chalk and played with her beach umbrella. After an hour plus Rachael had to go to a volleyball game and John quietly snuck out with Rachael and Spencer. Later that night, Rachael complained that she was jealous and she wanted to talk with her friend. Obviously he had done a good job of playing with Holly while he was here. I told her I loved the friends of my big sisters who would play with me and make cookies for me, so I figured it was perfectly normal. SHe said you need to watch out mom! Holly was holding his hand!!!! Oh Holly! Some boys just need the education of how to play with girls, it doesn't matter if they are 17 and raised in all boy families. John obviously is good at adapting. Last time he came over here she made him dance like a princess with her.

Happy Adventure Pictures

The Redwoods


Crater Lake

My man and I at Crater Lake

Washington

South Willow Canyon - Utah

Our Adventure to Thanksgiving Point Gardens

Interesting Flower name made us think of Uncle Rex!




You might notice the kids who know they have grass allergies are not rolling down the hill...

Hannah's

We had a family reunion around the 4th of this month and my cousin's daughter took a picture of all four Hannah's that were at the reunion. We are by far the most popular name at our reunion! A far cry from when I was growing up and I only knew one teacher with the same name.
SO I am the old Hannah, to my right is the cute Hannah, in my arms is Sweet Hannah, and on the left is Happy Hannah.

How does the garden grow?

I was able to take my three oldest daughters to a Concert on Temple Square. We went to hear their music teacher - Helena Johnson Baird. She did a lovely performance.

I wanted to show the pretty pictures of our first crops this year. They are mostly all harvested, and replanted now but they were just so beautiful before the bugs came!
Our lettuce, Spinach, and beet greens.


The Sugar snap peas, Broccoli, and the red onions


One more shot of the peas... We had 6 containers of them. We even had Grandma helping us shuck the peas!

Unfortunately the miners have found our second crop of beet leaves and they don't look so yummy. Hopefully the beets still will! We now have beans, and beets, and Brussel sprouts, melons, more onions, and squash growing. The onions I have shared with neighbors - you know the phrase misery loves company? If I'm going to cry, I'll let them cry too!

Summer time...

I know I have friends that Home school their large families. I can't do it. Sorry. I am doing the best I can to keep up with my family, especially when everyone is home and there is no way I could do school on top of that. I have no idea how you do it, and I am in AWE!

During the summer my family has specific responsibilities. They have charts they are to check off. If they finish the whole day they get a quarter. I know a whole quarter - big whoop. That is what some of them are saying right now too. That is the point it usually goes up to a dollar. Just because I want the stuff done...

Holly at 4 gets things like putting her pajamas away, making her bed, exercising out side, and a family chore. Lilly has to read 20 pages of a book - this can be absolute torture for whomever has to listen to her. The older girls put all sorts of things on their lists, like journal writing..

It started out as a way to cope with Summer and my ocd kids that needed structure. They still do. (I wonder some times how I ended up with my organized efficient sister in law's kid...)

I recall weeding as a kid, and reading books if I could get away with it. Then I had assignments like sewing projects..

Now I just hope to make it through. Summers are tough after you have had kids go away to school for a while. On the plus side I get to sleep in!!!! I can sleep till 7am or sometimes 7:30am!!!! This is nice since I have rough nights, and don't always go to sleep well.

Holly says it is time for me to go and play with her ;) bye!

Preparation...

I have spent most of the last 4 days sewing to help prepare my daughter for an interesting opportunity. She is headed out on a Trek with her brother and cousins in a couple of weeks. She needed a pioneer/prairie costume. They wanted her to have a flannel nightgown - she has never had one before! I've sewn an apron, and dress, and slip and nightgown and now we have a bonnet and extra skirt still left to make. I am pretty sure it isn't something she will want to wear for fun beyond this event, but I think I did a pretty good job. I know my body is sore from sitting.

I took my boy out to try on hats this afternoon. It is important to be prepared and I had no idea how big his head is!!! Do you know he needs a Large hat? I also bought Bandanna's this week - 4 of them. You never know when you might need those to protect you from dust storms in Washington State??? I am not quite sure what they are needed for but my kids HAD to have them. These children are now the proud owners of 5 gallon plastic buckets. Very exciting since they are suppose to pack all their gear in these buckets.

My boy also had to check out the running shoes at Big 5... You know as a runner it is important to have at least a couple pairs of shoes broken in already, at least that is what he tried to convince me this afternoon. He also agreed to pay for a new pair of running shoes. That combined with the fact he selected a pair super quick and the salesman gave us a great price cut, meant he walked out of there with new shoes, and inserts. Happy Spencer, He even bought me a Slurpee to celebrate. I really think he needs to take a date out for Slurpees, not just his mom...

The oldest three Girls sang at the Daughters of the U Pioneers picnic at the Grist mill today. They sang three songs together while wearing their Easter dresses. The Gingham fit right in! The ladies in bonnets loved the girls outfits. I enjoyed hearing them sing, and I was pleased they did so well. I love to hear their harmony.

Today's adventure! Sweets!

Today being adventure day we had an appointmet to tour the Sweets Candy factory. It is actually located in West Valley City area. We called two weeks ago and made an appointment. This morning I unfortunately got lost! I was wandering along listening to the GPS and it had me in the totally wrong area. I eventually turned around and headed off on my own and found the general are when I go a call from the factory wondering where I was? I was a street and a half a way at that point. I found them and they let us go on the tour even though we were very late. It Was fun to see their warehouse, and then tour the taffy area, and the jelly bean bins, and see the cinnamin bears in the cornstarch molds.We got a sample of the jelly sours bases, and then we saw a video about how they make orange sticks and cover them in chocolate. Grandma liked the smell of that room!!! We saw the packaging area, and watched them rolling the taffy into tiny pieces and wrap it up. Pretty amazing and then there were taffy samples and out in the lobby more samples to try. Grandma was able to enjoy an orange stick !

Excited!

My Mommy is coming today! Is my house clean and my life in order? Get REAL! Of Course not, but I am really happy to see her again!

grass cutting

Last Friday, we had Fox 13 news crews camped in out culdesac. KSL was in the next street over. This is really the first time it has happened since we've lived here. News has to happen on a golf course eventually but this was not what I expected. A ground keeper, 73 yrs old, mowed too close to the embankment of a pond and the mower tipped over and pinned him under it in the water. They figure he was stuck for at least a half an hour. So now this morning I hear the mowers on the golf course and when they stop I wonder. The first sign that drew our attention was a police car on the golf course, then the fire trucks, and the ambulance...

Today's Adventure in the Big Blue Wet thing

Today I took the 3 girls I had at home and went swimming.. You know the big blue wet thing! We found it odd to just have 4 of us, but it was a lot faster to get out of the house. Although I admit threatening Lilly, that if she asked when we were going to leave one more time I'd slow down! We swam for 2 .5 hours and I could see the exhaustion in Holly's eyes. Noodles, Snacks, sunscreen, missed skin, towels, and seagulls dropping gifts. It was a fun event but no photos.. I can tell you are really broken up about it..... Okay you can imagine two of us playing in the water and two others stalking them as sharks and crocodiles. If we throw a noddle over you, you have to play dead and you got captured. Holly is soooooo good at playing dead it scared her mom the first time!!! We kiss the dead people better! See fun image in your head :)

The Reptile Gardens in S. D.

Oh Dear, the Snake at Reptile Gardens is squishing our Daddy! Rachael and Lilly are enjoying being Squeezed to death! Cora does not appear concerned...

Look it is the boy in a bubble!

Prarie dog - no relation

We were observing the prarie dogs and found this strange sight!

This is Maniac. He is HUGE, and politely smiled at us while we were trying to take his picture.

This Rattle snake was part of a show. He was very nervous and his rattle was going the whole time!


This snake was in the show and it would puff out it's neck to scare away predadtors. It certainly scared Holly. She scooted back a row after this. This gentleman was showing us different snakes and explaining them to us.

The largest snake they had on display, and the albino it rooms with

A rather large and stinky tortoise we found in the outer houses.

"Pretty Bird"

This bird would mock us as we walked away. He wouldn't do it to our faces but if we weren't looking he'd yell at us..

Looking down on us! We were still wandering through the tropical bird sections and they were already headed to the snakes!

A friend we found at the reptile gardens. He got to wander freely through the tropical bird area.


I just love looking for trees. I thought the wooded areas in S.D. were quite beautiful.

Crazy Horse Memorial, We have never paid to go in but you do get a great view from the road if you know what you are looking for. Otherwise you just might miss it!

M.R.N.M.

Our family visited this back in 1998 as we drove across the US. Unfortunately they didn't remember it. So we made another trip! We have individual shots near the end of this post for the little girls to PROVE they really were there.


A major parking sturcture, new museum, and excellent viewing area have been added since we were there last. I loved this leaning flag pathway to the viewing area.

I took this shot as everyone was just getting out of the car - I loved the randomness of how they were each looking at different things.













Honest it wasn't a green screen! We really were there!

New arrival

We received this photo in an email that proves our son truly did arrive in Texas and met with President and Sister Sagers.

I got to talk with him on the phone yesterday morning. It was 7:30 am and the phone rang. Someone said who calls this early? Another replied "Missionaries"!

I had a brief chat with him and he said that he had really enjoyed his time at the MTC. He says he doesn't feel as though he has Mono anymore. He says since day 2 at the Mtc he has felt really good, but has avoided contact sports due to his mother's request. He seems to think he has more energy than most of the rest of the Elders he was leaving with.

We hope that he adjusts well to the rigors of mission life and that he will be able to reassemble his bike that I disassembled to ship to Texas :)

Mission home address is listed on the side of my blog! Love ya!

South Dakota #1

So this was the beginning of our trip to South Dakota.


This is our first "BACKSEAT GIRL" Rachael! Followed by MYRA!!!

Nifty Trees growing out of a rock face in Wyoming.. we saw a lot of Wyoming..

On our way to Wind Cave we passed this sign about Elk Mountain. I found it amusing due to the elk that were all out grazing on the mountain. They were everywhere as I was driving. Lucky me!

Lillian helping Holly see the natural opening to Wind Cave. so glad we didn't all have to climb in through there.

Down the stairs we go, don't look down Rachael...

one of the tunnels that branch off the main tour.

Hey ! That's my family! I know them!


Interesting cave formations



The tour guide allowed Holly to hold her big flashlight with the hope that Holly wouldn't shine it in any ones eyes, and that she would be quiet while the guide was talking.. nice try!


Proof we really were here.

In case you haven't seen enough "Turkeys" here are some wild ones we found outside the cave.