2011

I decided earlier this year that I was going to try and blog every day...  I guess I don't need to blog today, because I have already posted 366 blogs (not counting this one).  But I sadly did not make my goal, because when I went to blog one evening (it was even early in the evening, not close to midnight) Blogger was down.  I blogged a couple times on a couple different days though... It has been a fun year blogging!  I wish I had blogged when my older kids where younger.  I know that I have forgotten so many fun things that they did...

2011~ What a great year 2011 has been.  I know that there have been days that have totally sucked, but looking back at the whole year all I can say is wow!  It has been great!  I thought I would highlight a few of the great things from the year...

Josh and I took a trip to Estes Park with no kids (thanks Aunt Jodie)!!!

Pool ran great this year with a wonderful staff (lets just hope that there will be a next year)

Myra had her first birthday and has celebrated many new first this year
Brooklyn turned 8 and was Baptised

Josh Jr. turned 12 and got the Priesthood

Won a cruise (excited to go soon)
Made some really great new friends

2011 has been wonderful!  I am so excited for 2012!!!

Zoo Pictures

Here are some pictures from our fun night at the zoo!

What do you need?

Bag one... 
What is that in there?

My middle two girls are spending the night at their grandparents tonight.  They "packed" their things them selves...  And it got me thinking about what you NEED to spend the night at Grandma's... Here is some of what Catalina NEEDED!

That would be a
ball of tin foil!

Too cocky!

Josh and I played his new game again tonight... And I finally got a turn to be Mr. X... It is so nerve racking!!! From my first reveal (where my piece is finally put on the board) until almost the very end of the game, it was move by move for me... I finally got through their defense and was home free! I was so excited! The closet person to me was out of bus tickets (the fastest way to catch me), and I only had to continue moving away from the "detectives" until they ran out of moves! There was no way to catch me... As long as I didn't do anything stupid... Maybe it was all the noise from all the kids that invaded our game area... Maybe deep down I didn't want to win... For what ever reason, unconsciously I moved right onto a underground pathway that my friend was connected to... And sadly I was caught! I guess I just got to cocky...

Scotland Yard

Josh got a new game for Christmas...  One we had played once or twice a LONG time ago!  It is called Scotland Yard.  Way fun!  One person is Mr. X and everyone else works together to as a team to catch Mr. X...  Not the easiest...  We have played it four times now, and Mr. X has only won on the first time... There were less players that game though...  I have yet to be Mr. X...  So fun!

Earrings!



I started wearing earrings again yesterday!  Boy do my ears hurt!  I'm almost not sure if it is worth it to have pierced ears ;)  But there was a time in my life that I would have given anything to have pierced ears!  My parents made me wait until I was 16 to get my ears pierced.  And I hated it.  I was not a happy teenager waiting (and even less happy that my younger sister got her ears pierced just a couple months after me on her 14th birthday)!  I think because I had to wait soooo long to get my ears pierced I went crazy with earrings after.  I wore all sorts of crazy BIG earrings!!!  A few months after I finally got my ears pierced I cut my hair WAY short (like 20 inches off...  and by way short I mean that it didn't even come CLOSE to touching my shoulders)!  Because I had such short hair I didn't have to worry about the crazy earrings getting caught in my hair, so I went crazy!  I even had a teacher my senior year offer me extra credit if I would give him a pair of my earrings (I didn't do it, they were my favorite pair, but I did think about it).  I thought I would share a few of my crazy earrings with you (this is just some of them)...



Turned another one :(



Made this one myself!



Not sure why blogger
turned this one...








<>

Notice these ones are not
 even the same size!



These were the ones
 my teacher wanted!

I am sad because I had a special pair (actually I only had one half of the pair, the other half was my sister's) of earrings that looked like a computer chip, and it had two blinking dots on it, one red, and on green.  But I no longer have my half :(

Merry Christmas!

Great day with Church, friends, and family!  Merry Christmas!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

It's Christmas eve! For us that means a candle lit dinner of ham, mashed potatoes, and broccoli! After dinner we go as a family and look at lights! It was so much fun tonight with Catalina! She was so excited to see the lights! She pointed them out ALL night long!!! The whole drive consisted of her saying... Mommy look at those! Did you see that one, mommy? I like those ones... And so on. She was excited! It was fun to look at the lights through her eyes! It was almost like being a kid again :)

White Elephant Gifts

At what age should kids take part in an white elephant gift exchange?  We took part in one this evening, and while it was fun, there is always someone that gets hurt.  I hate for someone to be hurt, but it is even worse when my own child causes the hurt.  It doesn't matter that when the hurt child stole the gift, it was from my child, and hurt her.  It still is hard to see a hurt child...  I have to say though, that it was way cool to see the teenage kids taking crappy gifts from the little kids, so that the little kids could get something better!

Conversation with Catalina

When you get older mom... Well you are already old... You're a mom...

Catalina the photographer

Here are few new pictures!

Shoes!

My baby LOVES shoes!  If you leave your shoes anywhere in my house that she can reach, she will try them on...  We had a party at our house the other night, and she was in heaven!!!  The were hundreds (not really) of shoes to try on!

Dates

Dates...  There are many of them...  A lot of times they are floating through my head...  Some I remember...  but many I have forgotten...  But I hope that I remember this date always!  14 years ago Josh and I met at a young adult dance...  It was a great night then, and great years since!  I am so thankful for more wonderful husband!  Love you Josh!!!







*** I mentioned a "lame" pickup line in my blog last year, but never shared it, so here you go***
Guy ~ So what do you do?
Me ~ I'm a paramedic
Guy ~ Oooooh! SO you must be good at mouth to mouth!

18 months of sweet baby

My baby is 18 months old today...   She could have gone to the nursery today, if she wasn't sick :(  She is growing up way too fast.  A very independent little girl!  One who can do just about anything any of the other kids can do, and you had better not try to stop her.  I am so thankful that she is in our family :)

 

 

*Still has red hair and blue eyes!!! Can we have a blue eyed girl???

First Night!

This is what I found after we put Myra to bed for the first time in her new bed...

That would be the door
was a sleep next to...
I had to move her with
the door to actually get
in her room!

Kids

I love my kids!  They can be so cute!  And sometimes they just make my heart melt!

It has been one of those days.  There must be something in the air, cause it wasn't just my kids...  And to top of the whining and fighting my kids did, they also did just crazy stupid stuff...

Myra ~ Spilt milk and soggy cereal (that she found in the trash) all over my recliner and (carpeted) floor
             Decided that she wanted to open a Christmas present today!!!  Unfortunately it was her cousin's

Catalina ~ Not her fault, but still ~ Sent to the "nurse's" office after being at school for all of 20 minutes for eye boogers

Savannah ~ Decided that the little jewel that fell off her paper would probably fit in her ear...  She was right!!!  Threw a HUGE fit because she accidentally kicked her sister!

Brooklyn ~ Actually, except for fighting with her brother, Brooklyn was actually really helpful today!!!

Ben ~ Thought that picking at the "loose" skin on his thumb (where the stitches were) was a good idea... not sure why we bothered stitching it down

Josh Jr. ~ Actually, except for fighting with Brooklyn, was actually really helpful today!!!  It was cute to watch him help Catalina make her gingerbread house (that she didn't get to make because of her eye boogers)!

I am so thankful for each and everyone of my kids...  And them keeping me on my toes...

Reason 472

Reason 472 for why you need a ride... anywhere... "My legs are cramping, because I ate too much pizza!"

That would be Ben's reason for needing a ride home from school today!

**Please don't go back through my blog looking for the other 471 reasons...  You wont find them :)**

Memories...

Life is so busy these days, that it is hard to keep up!  I even blogged twice yesterday so that I could get in both things before my memory kicked them out.  I was going to blog about Ben tonight, and the fun conversation we had this afternoon, but right now it is hidden deep in my mind :(  Hopefully one day it will come back to me...

Instead tonight I will blog about a memory from long ago, cause I'm sure you are all tired of me blogging about winning, which I did again today!  This memory is another one from my college days...  It was brought back to my mind by a movie we watched the other night, The Eagle. 

We didn't have this much snow,
but it sure was cold!

It was the last Thursday in September... I was in Idaho at Ricks College (now BYU-I)... I was out on Search and Rescue (class ~ not actually searching for someone...  OK searching for someone, just not someone REALLY lost, just a classmate).  It was a COLD fall day...  In fact it pretty much snowed off and on ALL day long.  This wouldn't be a BIG deal if it wasn't our Swift Water Rescue final...  It was a little after noon, and I had already swam the Snake river TWICE!  We had been out there for many hours already (the day started before the sun was up).  I was part of the ADVANCE search and rescue class.  We had already finished our final, and were there to help with the final for the beginning search and rescue class.  I was mostly dry, when I learned that it was my turn to be the one of the ones "lost"...  OK I actually volunteered, because I wanted to get it over with while the sun was still up (we were told that we would ALL have a TURN of being LOST).   So I quickly swam across the Snake river (for the THIRD time that day) and found a place, hopefully not to hard to find, in the sun to wait.  As it started to snow again I was grateful for the black wetsuit I had on...  And the little bit of sun peaking out from behind the clouds...

I could not say how long I laid there on the ground before my "Rescue" team found me...  It felt like hours!  It might have been hours!  I could not tell you how long I laid there...  I just know that I went though the stages of Hypothermia, and that by the time the "rescuers" found me I was no longer shivering (not a good thing)!!!  The rescuers decided that they needed something from the other shore, and set off to go back across the Snake river in their boat...  Now in my mind the following things flashed through...

1. I was REALLY cold!
2. The rescuers boat really only holds three people max!  There were three "patients" and three rescuers... It would take at least three trips to get us all back!
3. It would be at least a half an hour before the rescue boat would be back.
4. I was REALLY cold!!!

It was at this point that I helped this rescue team out a little... I "suggested" that since they had already "found" me, that they might want to take me back across the river, and save them selves an extra trip...

They JUMPED on this idea!  They quickly came back to get me!  At this point they asked me if I could walk...  A little back ground on the whole Search and Rescue class stuff ~ or any Paramedic class stuff...  We did scenarios ALL the time.  And we would take turns being the patient for these scenarios...  We would have our "symptoms" that we would give the "Paramedic" when they preformed the right tasks...  Like when they would take your blood pressure, then you would give them what the blood pressure was for that scenario...  So back to the shore of Snake river...  I had already told the rescuers that I was unconscious (our instructor had not giving us our symptoms, so I made mine up...  and I thought that if I was unconscious that they would "save" me faster)... My rescuers asked me if I could walk...  Knowing that I had already said I was unconscious...  But hoping that I would walk to the boat to help them out...  It was at this point, having laid on the ground for who knows how long, that I realized that I actually couldn't walk...

The rescuers carried me to the boat, and quickly rowed me across the river.  When we got back to the other shore they went through the steps to finish the scenario...  Which included rewarming me...  And then I was free to go...  I was no longer a patient, I was just me again...  I was told to go change out of my wetsuit (and swimsuit) and to get in dry clothes and get some warm food in me...  Thank goodness I could walk at this point, but I lacked the fine motor skills needed to open my backpack ;) 

I look back on this memory with fondness, but I am grateful that my bout with Hypothermia turned out well!  I am also thankful that I didn't have to get back in that river again that day (that is a story for another blog).

Catalina's punishment!

Catalina decided that she did not want to finish her dinner to night, and tried to "sneak" it in to the sink with out me noticing...  She did not succeed.  She then tried to lie and say that she did not "throw away" her food...  After she admitted that she had thrown her food away, I asked her what she thought her punishment should be...  Her answers cracked me up (so hard not to laugh at her)... 

Answer number 1 ~ "Swat my butt!"
Answer number 2 ~ "Tie me up!"
Answer number 3 ~ "Bite my teeth!"

At this point I had to stop and talk to her again about this being a serious mater, and that I was looking for a serious answer...

Answer number 4 ~"Make me eat more ham."  (That had been what she had thrown away). To which I responded that that might work... I then suggested that maybe she would have to go with out snack tonight.  She responded with "But you said I could eat more ham for my punishment!"

We talked briefly with Daddy, and he agreed that her punishment should be no snack.  I told Cat that she would not get snack tonight (expecting a fit from her) and she quickly said "All right!" And ran off to play!

A big kid now!

Myra wont stop growing!  I know that that is a good thing, but it still makes me a little sad!  We decided to move her out of her crib today.  She climbs in and out of it as she pleases, so we figured we might as well move her up to a "real" bed...  But we thought we'd start slowly!  And since Myra insists on feeding herself, we gave in and borrowed a high chair (of sorts) for her to use.  I am hoping that she will stay in "HER" seat, instead of leaving a trail of food everywhere she goes.  Here's hoping!

Cat has been at it again!  Here are a few of my favorite!

Concerts! Concerts! Concerts!

'Tis the season to by busy! Falalalala la la la la!  I guess that is what we should expect with 6 kids, each with extra activities!  As of last night we had been to 4 choir concerts in 10 days!  And this week to come has a band concert, another choir talent show (both on Tuesday night), Josh Jr and Josh Sr. are suppose to go caroling on Tuesday with mutual, and Ben and I are suppose to go caroling Wednesday with Cub Scouts...  Friday night I have a baby shower to go to, and Saturday morning Josh Jr. has a piano recital...  And to top it all off, Josh want to throw in a party for our friends on Saturday evening!!!  I think we are crazy!!!  But hey, busy is good right???  So come on by Saturday evening for some fun...  Why not?  Crazy is good!

Love that kid!

Myra LOVES shoes!  Especially those that are not hers!

Addictions!

I am the first to admit that I am addicted!  I can not help myself.  I here call now, post now, guess now, etc. and I have got to try!  I really should seek help on this, but I'm not to that point yet.  In case you haven't heard, I won again today!  I know you are thinking "Didn't you just post last week about going to a play you won tickets too???"  And you would be right.  I did. See what I mean by being addicted?  I can't help myself.  Today I won $50 towards dinner at an "fancy" restaurant (and by fancy I mean EXPENSIVE)!  But the catch was, that you had to use it TONIGHT!  I knew when I entered to win the $50 that Josh and I could not go tonight.  Ben had a choir concert (great job tonight Ben) at 6:30...  The earliest we could possibly go to dinner was 5pm and the latest was 8pm...  The restaurant was a good 45 minutes away...  I figured that there was NO way for us to go, but I still had to try to see if I could win...  And sure enough I did!  In being picked, I had 30 minutes to respond or they would pick someone else...  I responded and asked if I could give it to someone else...  The restaurant said yes, so I had to find someone else to go (can't let $50 go to waste)...  I made several calls, and sent several texts, and finally posted it to Facebook.  Friends of ours got to go on a nice date night tonight, and I still got the "high" from winning!  I really love to win!....  Maybe I need to get some help...

Advent Calender

Myra discovered the joy of Advent Calenders tonight...  Her response was "Momma more!!!"