Today--

1. The kids are all getting haircuts...except The Cute. She needs her lucious locks to be a rodeo queen for Halloween. So later today I'll be washing her hair, braiding it, and securing the braids with sponge rollers so she has lots of curls under her felt hat on Friday.

2. Carving pumpkins. We have some real ones and we are going try some fake ones. We want to save them from year to year so we are kind of like "The Haunted Mansion" at Disneyland around Halloween time. You know...carved pumpkins all over. We'll see...maybe a bit ambitious.

3. Cooking and baking. We have no obligations this evening so I am trying a new recipe for dinner. We also have two bad bananas...so I'll probably make banana bread.

4. Chasing Mr. Big. I do this every day. I tire of it. Already I am ready for him to take a nap.

5. Updating my blog...gasp!

Top Ten Reasons I Never Update My Blog

10. Health issues. My thyroid is all over the place. After a little medication adjustment a couple of months ago, I'm still experiencing heart palpitations. The doctor said to take a half a pill on Sundays, but that still hasn't seemed to help. Plus, she didn't want to do another blood test to get an actual, measurement of my levels. Annoying...I think I need to find an expert rather than continuing with the OB/GYN. In addition, I've been recovering from some surgery. A skin tag was removed from my back by my very talented brother-in-law. It was an at-home procedure, which did require some local anaesthetic. He told me to keep it clean and covered and to take it easy. I did...and it has healed nicely.

9. Disclosure documents. I've just recently finished reading and signing 10 (8 for the 7th grader, 1 each for the 4th and 1st grader). I don't remember my mom having to do that.

8. Five kids. Really do I need to say more. They keep me busy and there are not even any sports that they are playing in right now.

7. John Adams. The book that is. I borrowed this book from my mom right after one of my brothers finished reading it and I have still to get through it. I enjoy it, but I need to get it done. I've been working on this for about 2 years. So, in the afternoons, when I get a little down time I begin reading. I'm not going to lie to you, I get sleepy and end up taking a 10 minute nap. That's about how much down time I have between when Mr. Big goes down for a nap and Schnips gets home from school. Some day I'll finish this book!

6. Peaches. We have 2 peach trees in our backyard and what to do with the fruit consumes some time. Jeff makes a really mean peach shake. We have one nearly every night. Last night, Jeff sent Slugger and Slim Pants around the neighborhood to give peaches away. They ended up making some money. Apparently, this is the line they used: "Here are some free peaches that we are selling." So some nice neighbors paid them for their free peaches. In addition, a 4 year old and a couple of 2 year olds enjoy being able to go in the backyard and have an "apple." One of the 2 year olds does not enjoy the fuzz. He picks this off. I think it makes him itchy. He was complaining of being itchy last night.

5. Child number 5. He's 2 and really hard to keep track of. So many things outside of our house and backyard (that I think is a spacious and fun area) intrigue him. Not to mention he can now unlock and open ALL of our doors...the deadbolts, the little twisty lock on the knob, ALL of them. So I spend much time fetching him from the neighbors that have dogs. I'm not getting a dog, the peaches will just have to keep him busy.

4. Musical instruments. Besides Schnips playing the violin, two other children have started instruments. Slugger is learning classical guitar and The Cute started the violin. So the guitar is Suzuki which means I had to learn how to play it first so I can help Slugger. That took some time and I was trying to go fast since Slug was chomping at the bit to get started himself. And a four year old starting any instrument just takes some time, but mostly patience. At least this time I didn't have to learn to play the violin...I can already to the "Twinkles" on it. I think that had something to do with my decision to start The Cute on the violin.

3. Computer issues. The internet is completely hit and miss at my home. Totally annoying. So if I sit down to blog or anything else computer related and the computer has troubles, it just gets me in a bad mood. So I'd rather just ignore the computer. Plus, I'm having photograph and computer isssues. I don't even want to begin to get into this one. I hope I get all this solved in 2008. Since, I've been living like this since July and nothing will be happening next week, while Jeff is attending a show.

2. Why is this blog here? Where is this blog going? My blog is having an identity crises. I just wonder sometimes what its purpose is. And does it even need a purpose?

1. Just to bug my brother. Because he lives away and I have so few ways to tease him anymore this provided an excellant opportunity. But it doesn't seem to be bother him any more, so I'll try to blog again.

Just for Bob

Hey, Bro....I updated my blog...do you like the new colors? Let me know what you think.

Apologies

I must apologize to all those who have had to read those junk comments. I left them there far too long. I haven't checked the blog in a few days...big surprise. Anyway, I changed some of the commenting options, so hopefully none of you will be tempted to gamble your life savings away any longer.

We went fishing again. Well, really crawdadding. Is that a word? The Cute liked the crawdads the best. She played with them as if they were action figures. And I quote her while she's holding a crawdad in each hand and they speak to each other--"oh...you need a haircut. Sit right here...I'll take care of that." And other such action figure type conversations. She makes me laugh...so girly and yet a touch of tomboy.

I have discovered Google Reader. Thanks Suey!! Such a great and fast way to check on those blogs that I like to visit. I highly recommend it!!

I cannot believe it is July 1!! Where did June go?

Token Update

So...this is my token update to my poor, neglected blog. We've been having a great summer. Really, we have. I was dreading all five at home with nothing to do, but we've been just the right balance of busy...just busy enough and yet not so busy so the kids can have that laid back feel of summer. We really have been having a great time. I mean, there have been the occasional fights and teasings, but so far it has been great fun!!

The picture above is our catch from last Friday. We have been doing quite a bit of fishing. Someone has the fishing-bug bad in our family, but I won't name any names.

Hope you are all having a fun filled summer, if anybody even reads this blog anymore.

Don't Blink...

...or this...

... turns into this!! Happy 12th K-shnips!! We love you!!

Happy Mother's Day

My good friend and brother is speaking in church today for Mother's Day. He needed some help. So I wrote a portion of his talk for him and these are some of my thoughts on my own mother this day.

In August of 1990, I was moving out of the home I'd spent the majority of my childhood. I had graduated from high school and was headed to BYU. It was my dream come true! I remember going to basketball games and football games and thinking that I wanted to go to BYU. I'd been working in the Special Events Office in the Marriott Center all summer long and was looking forward to moving into May Hall of Helaman Halls.

I packed all my clothes, and a few things to remind me of home. I found a small box with my things. It contained earrings and a note from my mom which read:

"Dear Amy, I'm so excited for you as you head into this new time of your life. When you wear the earrings, I hope you sparkle as much as they do. Have fun! And remember I am always here and I always love you! I'll miss you, but I'm glad you are not too far away. Check in as often as you can. Love, Mom."

This note is so my mom. She often left me little notes as I had important events occur in my life.

She was always there for me as I came home from school. I missed that at BYU as I would usually walk into an empty dorm room. Of course I didn't appreciate her being there at that time, but I do now.

She does always love me. Since I have had my own children, she has always been encouraging and positive with me. I love when she tells me we are doing a good job as parents and doesn't criticize or point out the things we are doing wrong because, of course, we are...what earthly parent is perfect. That's just what I need from her right now. Because anyone who knows me, knows that I am so much harder on myself than anyone else could be...and I'm pretty sure my mom knows this about me. Her positive comments give me the desire to work even harder at being a good mother and really doing a good job.

Thanks mom!! Love you!!!

Crib Climber

It is NOT a happy day at our home! The youngest, being only 20 months, has figured out how to climb out of his crib. Not good! I need to have the peace of mind knowing that he is sleeping safely in his crib at night...and for naps. He figured this out the night before last. Our solution was rocking him to sleep since we made at least 10 trips into his room to put him back in his crib. Yesterday at naptime, I also rocked him to sleep after 4 trips to put him back in the crib. The rocking took 10 minutes and then he slept for a half hour...sweet!! Super Nanny...apparently we need help!!

To My Family

I have been doing some thinking about events that happened on this day and I just want to tell my family that I'm so grateful for you...each one of you. Each of you are a blessing in my life!! Thanks for being the people that know how I feel and letting me talk about my feelings when needed and I hope that I've provided that same service for you.

As Hunter and I drove to St George, we were talking about the family I grew up in. That brought a conversation up about Tim. We talked about that day and how Hunter was told. His dad picked him up from Kindergarten Enrichment class he had two days a week. Jeff told Hunt he had some good news and bad news. I immediately knew the bad news, but wondered what good news Jeff could possibly tell Hunter...so I asked. The good news was that all the Lamoreauxs that live in town were over at our house.

Anyway, thanks for all of you and I love you!!!

PS...I enjoyed a couple of Jack in the Box tacos for dinner this evening.

GO COUGARS!!

We are all ready for the Cougars to play, are you?

Intense

Taft**Do you know what INTENSE means?**

Me**Yes.** But curious about Taft's thoughts I asked HIM what intense means.

Taft**It means really hard. I am doing this really hard {aka: intense} battle right now.** Gotta love the Lego battles.

My Monkey and The Class of 2014

THIS is how I found Monson earlier today. He is so busy with the most unusual things. Apparently, I did not polish the chrome to his high standards. I'll try harder next time Mons!!

In another unrelated matter, I had a pang of "time is moving too fast" yesterday. Kate brought home information on registering for Jr High. As I quickly glanced through, I noticed a bolded-outlined box that read "NEW FOR THE CLASS OF 2014!" YES...that is when Kate graduates from High School. That time already has a year assigned to it!! I paused for a moment and thought that the time is going way too fast. I admit...I did have to stop the welling up of tears. I just can't believe I'm at this point in my life with her. Gone are the days of her repeating things like *Don't cross that line,* *I want to see the broken bowl,* *Sarah burned the marshmellow...I was sad about the marshmellow* over and over and over again. Again...I just can't believe we are going to be starting Jr High.

PS

This should go after the last two posts, but I'm too lazy to move it or change the day. But here are my after thoughts. 1.) We are happy to have Jeff back. Especially me...and Millie...and Monson. 2.) I am over the snow. I'm done with it here in the valley. Thanks for visiting and goodbye.

Stages

I'm getting a little tired of this stage. You know...the stage where they get into everything under the sun and don't play with it...it's just fun to empty some cabinet out and move on to the next. It's getting old. The toilet paper rolls lasted on the hands for about a half hour though.

Blue and Gold

Here's Hunter's cake for the Blue and Gold Banquet. The theme was "Chinese New Year." So Hunt did win the "Most Like the Theme." Disgusting...I know. This was totally Hunter and his father's idea. You should've heard the other more revolting ideas. This was the most mild, but still disgusting.

Mil's 4th Birthday

Here are some pictures from the 4 year-olds day. She had a great day. Thanks to all who made her day great with presents, a trip to Chuck E Cheese, phone calls, and mail!! Despite all of that, there was still one melt down just before bed that her dad was out of the country. And I quote **I love Dad and Dad is the only one that can make me happy.** After talking about how we all missed dad and he missed us she felt a little better. I think she was mostly tired and needed a good excuse to cry.

Just so you know...

...this girl is 4 tomorrow!!!

This One's for you, Bob!!

I enjoyed this. Thought some of you might enjoy it...HeHe...

Disneyland '08!!

Last week we enjoyed fun and sun in Anaheim, California. Here are some photos of the good times. Just a little warning--there are quite a few...I tried to pare them down. Above--we are dining at Rainforest Cafe.
Monson and Millie loved playing in the sand at the beach...not so much the cold water. Monson got knocked down early on by a wave making him afraid of them...even when he was no where near them. The temperatures were great that day. Just what we needed after all the snow we've been experiencing.

A quote from Mils to go with the above picture: "I love cotton candy.......and HONEY!"


This pirate followed us off of Pirates of the Carribean


Kate and Hunter on the front row of California Screamer.



Grizzly Bear rapids. Notice Kate's poncho...no sense of adventure.

The results of Grizzly Bear Rapids.

Posing with Flick. Mils and Mons loved all the characters.

Breakfast with Minnie.

Millie fell asleep while waiting for dinner.

Kate, Hunter and Taft's first win with Disneyland's Year of a Million Dreams. They won these Mickey ears while getting off of Splash Mountain which was Millie's favorite ride. She LOVED all the singing critters. The 50-foot plunge didn't bother her.

Millie petting the sheep. Monson attempted to pick this one up. He was unsuccessful.

Kate and Monson at the Sword and the Stone.

Our second win with the Year of a Million Dreams. After the Winnie the Pooh ride, we received these passes to stay and go on rides for one hour after the park closed. Yippee...this allowed us to actually go on the new Finding Nemo ride which had a much too long line during normal operating hours. Then, Mils, Mons, and mom enjoyed Peter Pan over and over and over again.

Dad with a few of his Valentines on Valentines. The weather was quite nippy this day, but a least there was no snow!!

PS...Laura and Gage WERE with us, but somehow I ended up with no pictures of them. Thanks for coming!!

Today My Prophet was Buried

Today the prophet of my church was buried. He passed away at the age of 97. I loved him and the great work that he performed on this earth. I will miss his testimony and his positive outlook on life and the great work of my church. He always made me want to be a better wife, mother and person. He would ask that of us...just try a little harder...be a little kinder...talk a little softer. ~~ President Hinckley was the prophet during a very hard time in my life. During this time, I was mad at my Heavenly Father. I didn't want to pray, read the scriptures, or attend church. Those things were just too hard for me. My feelings were too tender to be touched by the feeling of the Spirit. I attended church, though. Mostly for my kids. I remember crying like crazy during sacrament meeting the Sunday before the 24th of July. All the talks were about pioneers and how they helped each other and how they endured their hardships. I didn't pray too much, and NEVER cracked open the scriptures. I just couldn't do it. Then in August of 2005 the First Presidency wrote a letter to be read during Sacrament Meeting. That letter asked the members of my church to read The Book of Mormon before the end of the year. How could my prophet know that I so needed to be reading my scriptures? I think Heavenly Father was watching out for me. Maybe, He knew I was stubborn enough that only my prophet specifically asking me, in a letter, to read was the only way that was going to happen. So I started to read The Book of Mormon. It wasn't pretty. There was much crying and pain, but I read. I finished. And I would have to say President Hinckley literally saved me from my own stupidity or stubborness. ~~ Today I cried tears of gratitude as I watched his funeral. I'm grateful to have been blessed by his leadership and vision. I'm just so grateful to be a member of a church that believes in continuing revelation and to have a living prophet here on the earth.

I'm Not Ready

Today my kids have some random day out of school. I guess making up for the parent teacher conferences that will be next week. Anyway, I just went to lay Mils down for a nap and saw a list of "Things to Do" written by Kate and her next door friend. Both girls made a list...they were just sitting out so I took a look. One of the items on the friends list was "gossip and talk about boys." Yikes! Then on Kate's list she had written "G and T about B." Isn't SHE sneaky? All I have to say about that one is I'm not ready!!

I'm It...I've Been Tagged

I had to include this picture of Mil's. I'm tired like her...that's why the blog has been neglected.
So a LONG time ago I was tagged by Robyn and then later Britt. I decided to go this route. May you enjoy.....



1. What time did you get up this morning? 6:30am.

2. What did you have for breakfast? A bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios, a piece of toast, and a glass of orange juice.

3. What is your favorite CD at the moment? The soundtrack from "Enchanted." Kate, Millie and I all enjoy it.

4. What kind of car do you drive? A Nissan Armada and may I say I love it in the snow. I've really been able to determine this the last month as we've received much snow.

5. What is your favorite sandwich? BLT.

6. What is your favorite item of clothing? Pajamas.

7. If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation, where would you go? Australia, Hawaii, or any week-long business trip Jeff goes on.

8. What color is your bathroom? All 2.5 of them are painted a sort of cream color or a really, really light tan.

9. Where would you retire? Somewhere near my family, or on a ranch, or near a tropical paradise.

10. Most memorable birthday? December 6, 2007...THE PHONE CALL from my dad...I always wonder how far he'll make it in singing to me...maybe when I'm 40 he will make it through the whole song before breaking down.

11. Are you a morning person or a night person? A morning person.

12. What is your shoe size? 8 1/2 - 9.

13. Pets? No, but Millie and I would really love some horses ;).

14. What is your favorite sport to watch? BYU Football and in case any of you are wondering I DO NOT have a crush on Brian Kehl...I am impressed that he can solve a Rubiks cube in 70 seconds though...I just learned that from my BYU Alumni magazine.

15. What did you want to be when you were little? A veterinarian...the James Harriott books completely inspired me. I LOVED those books.

16. What are you today? Wife and mother.

17. What is your favorite candy? Twix candy bar.

18. What is your favorite flower? Tulips and gerber daisies.

19. What is the day on the calendar you are looking forward to? Date night...whenever that happens to be in a given week.

20. What are you listening to right now? Hunter and Taft building Legos.

21. What is the last thing that you ate? Hawaiin Haystacks...that was dinner.

22. Do you wish on stars? No.

23. What faith are you? I belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

24. Who was the last person you spoke with on the phone? Jeff.

25. What is your hair color? Dark brown.

26. Name of your favorite teacher. Mrs. Beisinger.

27. Chocolate or vanilla? If it's ice cream...vanilla with Dove chocolate on it.

28. When was the last time you cried? Yesterday...I was watching an episode of Extreme Makeover Home Edition...their 100th episode...they built a home for a family from Minnetonka, MN...the parents of the family were named Vicki and Erik...funny...and heartbreaking...people sure do have to endure some crappy things some times.

29. What is under your bed? A box with a broken frame in it and some dust in places my vacuum doesn't reach.

30. What did you do last night? I went on a date with Jeff. We enjoyed Red Lobster and adult conversation. Then we put the kids to bed and I watched some television {while Jeff solved ward and work troubles and played a bit of basketball}. I was able to do this because my awesome babysitter, with the help of Hunter, did such a great job picking up the house. I also read from my Book Club book that I'm still not sure I am going to continue reading.

31. What is your favorite smell? Rain, clean laundry, fresh crisp mountain air.

32. What are you afraid of? Mice, snakes, and other creatures like them.

33. How many towns have you lived in? Three very exciting towns.

34. Do you make friends easily? Sure.

I tag: Everyone that is on my list! I LOVE to read every one's blog and it would be so fun to see what each of you say! So TAG you're it :).

And I would just like to congratulate myself for my first blog entry for the new year!