By the numbers

Numbers tag, you're it. . .

1 Thing I'm looking forward to:
Starting our gym membership to Apple Athletic

2 Things on my wish list:
ipod
trip to Disneyland

3 Favorite restaurants:
Red Lobster
El Herradero
Texas Roadhouse

4 Things that happened yesterday:
Had Luke's Birthday Party
made some bows
made Dinner in a Pumpkin
weighed in (it was not pretty)

5 TV shows I love to watch:
My Name is Earl
Chuck (He's such a cute geek!)(I agree with Shelley)
Grey's Anatomy
Pushing Daisies
America's Next Top Model

6 people I'm tagging:
Jill
Amy
Natalie
Andrea
Mary Anne
Briettney

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LUKE!

LUKE IS 4! We had blueberry muffins for breakfast, hamburgers and purple french fries for lunch, and TONIGHT, dinner in a pumpkin. All delicious! He also went to Toys yes (Toys R Us) and Barnes and Noble with dad.

Here are a few of the fun gifts he got!





We love you buddy! Hope you had a great day!

CRAZY Hair Day

The girls have been having Red Ribbon Spirit Week at school to promote the D.A.R.E. program. Tuesday was "Use your head, don't do drugs" crazy hair day.

Here are the styles they designed for themselves.

Ally went for the bizarre while Emma stayed on the non traditional hair style by adding a third ponytail.

10 for Tuesday--Hubby Love

Ryan will be home soon--like less then 3 hours soon. So I thought after the missing him, I would tell you 10 reasons why I love him.

1- He loves me for who I am. I am everything to him, as he is to me, but I love that he lets me know that. He is always telling me how "hot" I am, especially on those days when I really need to hear it. He seems to just know. He gets home sick for us. I think leaving is harder on him than it is on us. He is my best friend and will call me in the middle of the day to tell me about something funny he just did. I love it!

2- Ryan is an awesome dad! The kids look forward to the time when he gets home each day. Most of the time he tries to never have meetings at night because once he is home, he doesn't want to have to leave. Having him on the same schedule as the kids is a major blessing. I wish everyone could have the time off that he gets. We get to do a lot more as a family then most people because of it. We are super lucky to have him around as much as we do. All the kids have a special name from daddy that makes them special to him.




3- He enjoys cleaning and finds a lot of pride and satisfaction in making the house look great. And I do have to admit, he is better at it then me in a lot of ways. He also loves to take care of the yard and the garden.

4- He is 100% committed to anything he does. If he doesn't want to be part of something, he won't. But when he commits you can bet he will see it through and make it amazing and way more than anyone expected.


5- He LOVES, LOVES, LOVES to teach. He has a real passion for his work. He is the kind of teacher we all want our kids to have. Moving had been the best decision we have ever made. The district here respects him for who he is and utilizes his talents. They recognize his fire and have put him to good use in the system. In CO he was under appreciated and looked at as bump that needed to be fixed.

6- He loves to be a kid. Sports don't mean much to him, but Saturday morning cartoons, oh yeah! The kids love that he knows as much or more about them then they do. He has been teaching them to appreciate all the "old school" stuff from when we were kids. It is all on the Internet just waiting to be watched. You Tube resurrects it all for us. Oh and the Star Wars Lego collection is out of control.

7- He is sensitive and sweet in the way that everyone wants their husband to be. He sends me flowers and writes sweet notes for me to find. He knows it is important to spend time together just the 2 of us, and tries to create opportunities for that. Date Night, but other things too. Let's be realistic, it doesn't happen every day, but he is great about making me feel special. He gave me the best gift after Clark was born. A massage! See he knows whats up. There are a lot of occasions when he lets me leave and have time for myself. A rarity with 4 kids, but he knows I need it and makes sure I have it. He helps out around the house without having to be nagged. I hate nagging and try not to do it so it is nice that he doesn't make me do it.

8- He honors the role of father and husband. He honors his priesthood authority. He is the head of our household and I appreciate it. He can get action from the children in ways I cannot. I have a lot of respect for his opinion when it comes to our family. I have learned on more than one occasion that he knows what is the best for our family, as it should be. It gives me such a feeling of strength to know I can rely on his judgement.

9- He sacrifices a lot for our family. Ryan likes his toys and he loves new technology. (yes he is a little bit of a geek) Things like that cost a lot of money which we don't have. (refer to #5) I know he wants new things and to be up on the latest, but he knows what is more important and gives up having what he wants so the kids can have things they want. This has been a hard thing for him, but he never complains.

10- He is an eternal optimist! He says I am pessimistic, but I say realistic. He loves to dream and talks about our future and the limitless possibilities it holds for us. It is my natural reaction to bust out the realism and tell him why it would never happen, but I think I am getting better at dreaming with him. Who cares if we never own our own Leer Jet, we can still think it could happen someday right?

Purple Flurp

First off, do you know where the title is from?

Ok so check this out. Do you know what this is?
They are probably not what you think.

They are POTATOS! Honest. And they are not colored.
They grew in the ground this way.
From the outside they look like a normal potato
but when you peel them.

and cut them up they look a little different.

When I boiled them for mashed potatos the water was all kinds of colors.

Amazing enough to share. I had never heard of them until last week. My moms next door neighbor grew them in her garden and was kind enough to share.

And I thought eggplant and blueberries were bright.

If you know the reference, leave me a comment. I might send you a purple potato!

8 weeks

Clark is 8 weeks old. This past week he slept through the night 2 nights in a row! He is smiling at people and he is talking to us. I had to share this pic because I can't seem to capture the smile yet, it is too quick, but the crazy stare I can get.

Best Meeting Ever

Music is inspiring. I love it. Nothing can bring the spirit to a meeting better than the hymns. Our bishop decided to have a musical sacrament meeting yesterday. They asked people from the congregation to share with us a significant hymn and why it was special to them. Then we sang the hymn. It was amazing. A few people were called ahead of time, but I found out from a few that they were not given any advanced notice. The spirit was strong, people were singing (which is rare in our ward) and the kids were engaged. I am so happy I decided to venture out with all 4 kids alone and go to church. I would have been very sad to have missed it. I have not stopped thinking about it since yesterday and I wanted to share. It was a great idea you could pass along to your ward if you feel so inclined.

Haunted Houses are for kids

Ally and Emma came home from school the other day with an invitation to a haunted house sponsored by the D.A.R.E. program. (not sure what it means. Drugs Are Really Eicky?) They were super excited and REALLY wanted to go. It said they were making it fun for kids "infants to 9 years old" was the age group invited with "nice monsters"(creepy clowns, fairies, angels and smiling vampires) and scary stuff covered up (which meant really dark in most places). "The best part is it's FREE!" I don't do scary. I don't enjoy it AT ALL. I have a hard time watching Supernatural with Ryan. So my first thought was NO WAY they will freak out, (which they did) but they persisted so we went. (I already ruined the visit the cousins weekend. Yeah I didn't go to SLC but that is another sad story for another day.)

When we arrived at Dr. Slaughter's House of Terror, (Scare for D.A.R.E.) we got a parking spot right near the door. The best part was the 3 block line of people waiting to get in--we parked at the wrong end and got to walk the whole way to the end. We saw lots of friends from school and got to admire all the costumes. Emma went as Snow White and I think we saw at least 4 others, including one who held hands with Emma the whole way through. ("I will stay right here with you, it's going to be ok." She's bigger so she was protecting her. She's 6.)

It was long and seemed pretty empty. There must be some seriously scary stuff going on for it to seem empty. The mother of Snow White had been there in the evening a few nights previous and kept me informed of what was supposed to be there. yuck. Then it kept going and going and getting a little creepier and creepier. At one point we were walking through a snow cave tunnel with big thick icicles hanging down that I swear looked like upside down body bags. We went through a corn field with a missing scare crow. We saw a zombie in a bed with an empty spot for someone else. We saw some jagged claw slashes next to the letters FC. We saw a frozen yeti. We saw a lot of old time pictures that changed to creepy pictures that were hung too high for the kids to really see.

The worst part was a black "wall" that was 2 big air filled things you had to squeeze in between to get through. Think moon bounce. I went around because I didn't dare take the baby in there, but the kids went through "the squishy thingys" and did not like it. I think that was the worst part for them. I can see why.

It took us a good 30 minutes to walk through the whole thing. Needless to say I don't think we will ever go again. Even on fun kid day. It was the first time I had been in a place like that. Luke informed me that we are not going to a haunted house ever again. It was too scary and he did not like it. It was classic. Ryan would have created his own terror for them so in a way it is a good thing he is out of town. He has a scare-them-every-day-until-Halloween goal that I am not participating in. This would have been a great opportunity. He will be sad he missed it.



ps I did not take the camera. But we have 3 more things to dress up for coming up and you can bet there will be pictures later!

I can't sleep without my heater

I am having trouble getting to sleep. I didn't realize it was a big deal, but I have a hard time going to sleep without Ryan next to me. Even when he isn't in bed yet, I know he will be soon so I can sleep. Anyone who knows him, knows he is not a super tall man, but he does have nice broad shoulders. When he hugs me his whole body folds me in and I get a little buried for a minute. It is nice. He smells good. I get cold when he is not next to me in bed. I used to laugh at my mom for wearing long sleeves and long pants with socks to bed and still be freezing cold. I have never had that problem. Until I got married and started sleeping with a heater next to me. So here I sit with socks, long sleeves and long pants on, freezing and not wanting to get in my cold bed because nothing is going to help me warm up. I wonder what my mom does when my dad is out of town. I bet she is a popsicle!

Luke's 1st Field Trip

The Pumpkin Patch was the location of the very first, very fun field trip in Luke's school experience.

He got to ride a bus.

He got to play with his school friends outside of class.

He got to pick out his very own pumpkin.

He had a blast!

It was a nice day and a fun trip. I hope he gets to go on lots more throughout his life, but reality says he won't so we are documenting all the fun we can before they are outlawed all together.

Widow for a week

So it happened. Ryan left me for 5 whole days to go to his conference. I knew it was coming. It just felt like it would be later. Later is here. I know it seems dumb. He has been gone before. But that was when we had less children. I don't know why, but having 4 makes me scared. I have yet to go anywhere with all of them alone (besides dancing, but that doesn't count as "public"). They want to go to a free kids haunted house on Saturday afternoon. I am not super excited about that, but I told them we would go. Is it silly for me to be nervous about taking them in public? Then there is church. Oh brother. I can't go inactive just because he is not here, but seriously? 4 kids in sacrament meeting. As it is now we sit like this.

* child * mom * child * dad * child *

Take out my other buffer and there is going to be some fighting going on. What if the baby gets hungry? I can't take 4 kids in the mothers lounge, that thing is tiny. But what is the alternative? Leave them in the chapel unattended? I am seriously thinking of skipping, at least that part of church. I never premeditate skipping church. Having 4 kids is turning me into a crazy person.

Ok so wish me luck. The biggest benefit to him being gone is this. When he gets home, late Tuesday night, Luke will have the joy of knowing his birthday (on Wed) is finally HERE! If nothing else he has good timing.

Give me 10!

1- The Dr. visit was yesterday. I am ok. Just thought you would like to know.

2- I am super excited for this weekend and visiting my friends from college. A couple I have not seen in over 10 years! I am nervous about the 4 children and traveling aspect though. Wish me luck with that.

3- Ryan is leaving Thursday for a conference in Boise. He will be gone 5 days. That is a long time to have 4 kids by myself. I hate it when he leaves. I am not one of those people who can't function alone. Trust me I can do it. But I like it when he is here and I will be happy when he gets back.

4- My sister keeps getting new furniture and giving me her other stuff. SCORE! It is a lot better than what we had so I am happy.

5- I added a little weight loss counter in the side column. I have a friend who said I was brave to talk about it on my blog. I am a talker. I like to get things out, let others weigh in, chew on it for awhile. It is how I deal. I figured, I am never going to be successful at this without support from friends and family so I am talking about it just like any other thing in my life. Brave, stupid call it what you will. It is me.

6- Clark is getting chubby. He is sleeping lots at night, which I love. He is fussy in the evenings , which I don't love.

7- I need a new phone. I keep getting things from verizon saying it is time to upgrade. I just never have time to go take care of it. And when I do have time I have no money to pay for it. Go figure.

8- I get to go grocery shopping today. Take it how you want.

9- My little buddy keeps trying to close the window so I have to end quick....

10- There is no 10.

10 more

1- Clark is 6 weeks old. Next week I get to go to "the doctor"- you know the one with all the letters. Try not to be jealous.

2- I joined LA Weight Loss. Ok so I joined like a year ago and then found out a week later that I was pregnant. I know huh? So yesterday I rejoined after the baby everything was done. I am super excited and will probably talk about it a lot on this blog. Mostly because I have to keep myself psyched up as much as possible to make this work! Here is the best part. When I originally joined I was at 215. Yesterday when I weighed in I was at 204. AND I just had a baby. I hide it well.

3- One of Ryan's colleges was doing a fund raiser for his kids to Apple Athletic Club--3 months membership for $30! Needless to say we joined and will be spending A LOT of time in that awesome pool and hot tub of theirs. Not to mention, now I have a place to work out! (see #2)
Super excited!

4- Saturday is Super Saturday in my ward. (ie Day Of Crafts) I am not in charge, but helping a lot. We are doing simple and easy projects that I am excited for. I will be making Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls for breakfast. Doesn't that just sound so good?

5- The snow was gone by noon yesterday. We knew it would be. The girls were disappointed though because their plan was to make a snowman after school. Oh well, there is plenty more where that came from. It is only 24 degrees outside right now though.

6- The Dow went up 900 points yesterday! Yes this is good news. It means our economy is not completely flushed down the toilet. It tried. The handle was pushed. The water went down. But then came back up because it didn't make it past the U bend. Anyway it is a reason to sigh a little bit of relief.

7- We made Halloween Cookies yesterday. I forgot to take pics, but we still have some dough left and they will need to be frosted so I will take pics of round 2. The kids are funny. Luke lost interest before he had 1 cookie frosted and took off with a hand full of candy corn. Ally thinks she is decorating a cake and has frosting all down the sides of the cookies with every inch of the cookie covered in some type of decoration. Emma poured out half the bottle of sprinkles on the first cookie and then kept eating them. Her hands are now stained orange. Also, she licked the frosting off her knife in between each cookie. Yum.

8- The snow storm this weekend prevented us from traveling so we missed Avery's baby blessing. It was terrible. Cars were sliding off the road like crazy the whole way to Twin Falls. Sorry Sam!

9- My kids don't have chicken pox. (my brother's kids do)

10- Looking forward to the RAW girls reunion on the 24th. Old friends from BYUH getting together in SLC for the weekend. So EXCITED!

HERE IT COMES....

It is SNOWING! Right now. I kid you not. Check it out. Now, all of you in warm places can feel sorry for me: ready.....GO.




Sunday morning, snow is still here. (He is so handsome.)

(original time of this post was Saturday afternoon. The video would not download though so I scrapped it.)

#9 on the list

Here are the kids fulfilling yet another of their fun list items. They went outside and did the raking themselves. Only after an hour or so did dad come home and help them finish it up. They have so much fun giggling and laughing. My carpet paid for the fun though. I think I need to vacuum. (Those are leaves in case you can't tell. They are EVERYWHERE!)

Ahh, Luke...

The other day Ryan had a funny conversation with Luke . Here is how it went.

Luke: Emma is stretching me out dad.(said in his pouty voice)

Ryan: She is doing what to you?

Luke: You know, she is making me angwee(angry)

Ryan: She is stressing you out?

Luke: Thats what I said, stretching me out.

(insert Ryan laughing here.)

I love Fall!

I love it when the trees begin to change color. This is a giant tree on the corner of our yard that is almost completely yellow and it looks so neat. Most of the neighborhood trees have yet to start turning, but ours is all done, and the leaves have started to fall as well. Time for big piles to jump into!



Luke's birthday is coming up, but not until the end of the month. When I changed the calendar to October the other day, he got all excited that it was his birthday. How do you tell a 3 year old they have to wait 28 more days before they can have the fun? I should tell him it is in November since it is closer to the beginning of that month. Anyway to help him "FEEL BETTER" about the situation, we made a list of everything he wanted to do this month while we waited for his birthday. (When the girls got home from school we added a couple more at the end for them.) Here is what he came up with, with only a little prompting from Mom.





TO DO IN OCTOBER



1- Make Pumpkin Bread
2- Make carmel apples
3- Make Halloween cookes
4- Have Luke's birthday party
5- Take cookies to the neighbors
6- Buy candy
7- Go Trick or Treating
8- Go visit Silas, Lucy, Grace and Ivy (out of town cousins)
9- Rake leaves and jump in the pile
10- Go to the library
11- Figure out our costumes
12- Buy Egg Nog
13- Go to Avery's baby blessing
14- Go see "Igor"



Can you tell this little boy is ruled by his stomach already? We are doing pretty good on the list so far. We have already checked off 3 items. I am happy with that considering 4 or 5 of them we cannot do until the later part of the month anyway. We are going to make a countdown to his birthday today. Probably a paper chain so he can rip one off each day. Birthday's are so fun! Anticipation is the best part for kids though and we are doing our best to keep it exciting!

10-4 Little Buddy

Clark is 5 weeks old today. Here is the little fatty! As of Friday afternoon, he weighed 10 lbs. 4 oz. and is 21 1/2 inches. He is growing more than an ounce a day. So cute when they get chubby!

Pumpkin Bread

This is my very favorite thing about the fall. Technically, I could make it any time of the year because pumpkin comes in a can, but I still don't. I wait until the weather turns cold, but when it does it is one of the first things I make. I love to bake so it is not a huge switch from what I do anyway, but this is my weakness. Try it, you will love it. I promise.

Pumpkin Bread

3 1/2 cups flour

3 cups sugar

1 cup oil

4 eggs

1 15 oz. can pumpkin

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp soda

Mix all dry ingredients together. Make a well in the center and add all wet ingredients. Mix until well combined. Put in 2 greased and floured loaf pans. Bake at 350 for 50-60 minutes. Make sure it is done in the middle. Let cool for 10 minutes. Take out of loaf pans and continue to cool.

You can add 1/2 cup of nuts if you prefer them. It is also good with chocolate chips. Cream cheese frosting makes it a sweet treat, but I am a purest and love it all by itself. It is just that good.

1 Month Old

Clark turned 1 month old yesterday. As I said, my camera died but Ryan was nice enough to bring one from school so I can post some pictures. So here you go.

I have been tagged!

Not much to get excited over, but it is my first time. It makes me feel like I am a part of the blogging world now.

My 8

8 Favorite TV shows...
1. The Office
2. Grey's Anatomy
3. CSI
4. Chuck
5. Heroes
6.Survivor
7. Fringe
8. Lost

8 Favorite Restaurants...
1. Red Lobster
2. Bajio
3. Rodizio Grill
4. Texas Roadhouse
5. L & L's Diner
6. El Herradero Taco Truck parked outside the Westwood Mall
7. Carino's
8. Mandarin House

8 things that happened yesterday...
1. Took Luke to preschool
2. Passed on knowledge of Disneyland to Jill and got a twang of jealousy.
3. Did not have to cook dinner.
4. Freaked out on Ally unnecessarily.
5. Sold some Mary Kay.
6. Got a little lost while driving.
7. Almost fell asleep at 7:15 pm.
8. Did some laundry AND put it away.

8 things to look forward to...

1. Trip to SLC to see old friends.
2. Luke turning 4--finally!
3. Super Saturday
4. Losing weight
5. Pumpkin everything!
6. Visiting Sam and seeing her new house.
7. Fall colors changing
8. Watching Clark grow

8 things I love about Fall...

1. Orange& Red leaves
2. Wearing a jacket in the crisp air
3. Baking
4. Getting ready for the holidays
5. Family get togethers
6. Halloween
7. Thanksgiving
8. Raking leaves

8 things on my wish list...

1. New jeans
2. New camera
3. New car
4. Own a house
5. Vacation to Disneyland with kids
6. Vacation to Hawaii with NO kids
7. A clean, uncluttered house
8. New shoes

8 people I tag...

1. Amy
2. Jill
3. Liza
4. Becky
5. Robyn
6. Sunnie
7. Briettney
8. Andrea