Happy Leap Day

We hope you had a happy leap day.  Mine was spent cleaning house, taking care of a 4 year old with a nasty cough, taking 2 kids for an EKG and bubble study, doing laundry, hair cuts for 4 boys (thanks again Suz), curlers on the girls,  I guess I could go on, but then you would be bored.  

I really wanted super bad to take photos of our family jumping on the tramp today since it is leap year, get it?  Leap, jump.  ha ha I know, I am super clever.  But sadly, when I finally had the whole family home there was this outside.  

 So we got creative and did it in the front room.  I will apologize for the bad photography.  The lighting is horrible, but since these are just for fun, I didn't really care.  I hope you enjoy.  We sure did.  

 Go Banana!!!!!

 Awesome James

 Rock on Becca

 Wow Cass, how high are you?

 The babies didn't work so well.

 My irish twins.

 Go Elly!!

  

Jonah thought he was so dang funny.  He would stand there, laugh and and drop down.  Then crack up at himself.  He is so entertaining. 

I hope your day was more like Jason's and less like Mia's.  ha ha 

My facebook status today. . .

Happy Birthday yesterday to my big sis, Amy. Crazy to think that she will have been gone for 6 years in June. To celebrate her birthday, this is a photo of us when we were little. I still can't believe she is gone.              We miss you Aim.

yeah for me!!!

I did 2 bags, now 38 to go.  Yippee Skippy!!

So, I am doing Lent. . .

Wait, is Lent even something you do?  I am coping other blogs.  I wanted to last year, but well, that was so last year.  So what, you may ask, am I giving up?  One word.  Stuff.  I am doing a 40 bags in 40 days challenge.  I  will be either throwing out or donating 40 bags of stuff.  I guess that is not technically Lent, right?  But it is amazing how less stuff makes everyone happier.  I have tried to declutter in the past, but I get going and it either becomes overwhelming or my inner hoarder kicks in.  I am not a complete hoarder.  But I tend to save everything, just in case.  Like half used lotion bottles or basically anything given to me.  I keep things for the day that I will need them.  Even if that day never comes.  I clean daily.  Sadly, I really have to.  But it is the decluttering that kills me.  The closets and drawers.  Sometimes I do great at decluttering only to finish something and then get burned out and all my hard work goes right down the drain.  

You can google 40 bags in 40 days and get inspired from quite a few people who have done this before or in years past.  There is just 11 people living in this house and with 11 people, comes a lot of stuff.  

I love Peter Walsh.  I totally agree with this quote of his.   

"[Stuff] robs people of so much," he says. "If your house is full of stuff, all the blessings that could fill your house can't get in. The stuff takes over. It robs you psychologically. You can't be at peace."

 

So I am going to give it a whirl.  I was supposed to make a list of my 40 places to clean out last night but that was the only time I could visit my mom.  I could probably make a list of more than 40 things.  Trying to do this now in my life might seem a bit insane.  My mom has been in the hospital since last Thursday and she will stay there until probably Saturdayish. So needless to say, raising 9 kids and trying to spend time with her is a little on the difficult side. I might have to get creative and skip some days but fill in on other days.  Oh, and my husband has yet another knee surgery in 2 weeks.  That will also suck up my time,  but I hope to get at least 40 bags out.  Some bags will be the big garbage sacks and some will be grocery sacks, but I am determined to do it.  

So, there you have it, want join me?

I wish I liked holidays.

Here is my attempt at making something out of Valentines day.  I managed to blink and bam . . . valentines was here.  In January, I found some cute cookie cutters I had wanted to use.  They were I heart you ones.  As of Monday, had I used them?  nope.  I was grateful none of the kids needed valentines boxes.  I tend to go over board with them.  But not win a prize creative.  Just more work for me creative.  So Monday, I ran some errands with the 3 oldest girls.  Right before, James tells me he needs a box.  Ugggggg, then about 10 pm Monday night, Annie throws on me that "Oh, by the way, I need a box tomorrow."  Double uggggggg.  So at 11 pm that night, I was able to start on 2 boxes.  I am happy to say that I did not go overboard.  I didn't even cricut anything.  I just covered them, put stickers for their names and let them add stickers in the morning.

Not too shabby.

Also, I usually make pink pancakes for valentines day.  For us, it is not about how much money you spend, but that we love each other.  But the bad news is that I didn't want to make dinner Monday night, so we had pancakes.  uggggg.  So, brilliant me made french toast and used the i heart you cookie cutters.  Yeah for me.  I didn't even need to make cookies.

I was late taking the preschool kids to school because I had to braid hearts in the 4 year olds hair and forgot that we had taken then car seats out.  I hate that.  

I couldn't leave out Annie.

Sadly, the Jr. High girls didn't want me to do their hair.  I guess you have to grow up at some point.  boo hoo

But they did do something fun for their friends.  We did a craft from the family fun magazine.  They even did it in the car as we drove around running errands.  

Can you tell what they are?  They are diamond rings made with pipe cleaners and hersey kisses.  They passed them out at school.  Too fun.

So, there you have it.  My attempt at a fun Valentines day.  Oh, and we had dance class and the I was running around all day, so we cleaned house all evening.  Awesome day.  How was yours?

We are young . . . .

It is no secret that I love music.  I really do.  I love singing and dancing around my house.  I won't do it in public.  My children would never forgive me.  Yes, I am that embarrassing.  Okay, back on topic.  I love music.  So, during the super bowl, there was an ad that had the musical group Ok-go in it.  You can refer back to this post  http://mom288.blogspot.com/2011/09/i-love-ok-go.html

(Keep in mind that I do not expect you to watch every video.  You can just watch snippets if you would like.  I don't blame you one bit.  That is what I would do.)

I don't know if I have linked to this yet, but I also totally love this video



How cool was that?  This is the same group that did this well known video.





Ok, once again, back on topic.  So during the superbowl, there was a cool commercial that OK go was in.

Here is the commercial.



So we looked on youtube and this is the awesome music video.




Did I mention that I love this group?  Why couldn't I be so clever.  But now, on to why I love music.  The commercial had a different song playing.  I am totally in love with it.  It is a bit '80's ish.  It is awesome.





Now, keep in mind.  I do not condone getting high.  I am sorry they mention it.   (This is the acoustic version.  If you watch the official video, note that I do not condone the getting high, ripping up stuffed horses, spitting out your milk, or hitting people with bottles.  But the video is still cool.  I want to be the person that got to whack the watermelon.)

The cool part is that Janelle Monae (that gorgoues woman with perfect, white, beautiful teeth) sings a song that Becca danced to for school.  Not my favorite song, but I have heard it so much that it is growing on me.
Okay, there you have it.  One of my new favorite songs.  "We are Young"    Now to go buy it on itunes.

A day of Thanksgiving

In response to the Joshua Powell situation, I thought I would post some Thanksgiving photos.

I feel so horrible for those boys, their Grandparents and the case worker.  I feel like you would have to live under a rock to not know this story, but we hear a lot about this since she lived very close to us.  So you can read about the story here.   KSL story on the Powells

Those boys went though too much in their little lives.  I wish I could take away all the crazies and sadness in this world.  My heart is breaking with this depressing news.

I thought I would celebrate life and love in this post with some old photos.  

Here are all the little kids my mom and I piled in the bus to take to the candy store.  We love Grandma's candy store.  They have penny candy.  Well, it cost $.02.  But still I love the looks on their little faces when they have a handful of quarters as they try to make hard decisions on what candy they should destroy their teeth and get hopped up on sugar with.  But hey, it is Grandma's house.  You can do whatever you want.

Cousins, Yeah, I am speechless.  But nerf gun wars are the bomb!!!

Pretty Girls

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh  Sisters.

Wow Wes, way to  show off your guns!!

Now that's a motley crew.  

It is not thanksgiving with out a kids table.  And we have enough kids no adults needed to sit.  

The grown-ups table.  Awesome!!!!

Then we have the rug rats who napped through dinner.

Grandpa's little baby birds.  Poor Grandpa couldn't enjoy his pie without a few beggers.  

Lady Gaga, look out.  You have competition. 

Wow, amazing.  

I hope you spend some time playing today.

Sweet Grandpa let the kids drive the tractor.  

They thought that was amazing!!!!

Who cares how cold is it..  We love the outside.

Modeling the latest treat on her face, just lovely.  

I heart self-portraits.

We watch too many Ghost Hunter and Ghost Adventures.  We took this photo of Wes blowing out his candle and all we see is the orbs and wondering what dead people they could be.

Nothing is as fun as the spanking machine.  Woot Woot

 I hope you all hug your loved ones today.  And my prayers and thoughts are going out the the families and people involved in this case.  

As the family mourns this horrible loss, I hope they can feel comfort in the fact that at least those baby boys and their mother are back together, forever. 

College? What? She was just in diapers.

I had the scariest meeting the other day.  Becca's school counselor wanted to discuss college.  ~GULP~  Okay, okay, so  she is only 14.  But high school is so busy, I am afraid it will go by too fast.  14-18 has so many fun things.  She will learn to drive, date, get a job.  So many grown up things.  It is too crazy.

So in this meeting, we learned about high school credits and what she needs to do and focus on to get in to college.  What? college?  I loved college.  The only problem is in my 2 years of college (Ok, so I really did 2 1/2 years,  I started before John so I took less credits so we finished at the same time.) I had a great time.

I had some really fun roommates.  I have great memories with these gorgeous girls.

I met a really great, good looking, sweet, wonderful (I could go on all day) man.

(No making fun of my mad scrapbooking skills.  I was scrapbooking before scrapbooking was cool!!!)

We got married . . . 

(Cut me some slack, there wasn't very many, or cute scrapbooking stuff as there is now.  Stop judging.  ha ha)

And we had a baby.  

All in 2 years at a junior college.  So yeah, when I am supposed to start thinking and planning for my baby, I think I deserve to get a little freaked out, don't ya think?