The Hall's

Do Re MI Fa So and so on

2012-01-17T12:06:00.003-07:00

The end of September there was auditions for the play The Sound of Music, to be performed in Raymond in March 2012.

NJ wanted to try out. I reluctantly said sure, but deep down I was nervous for her.

When the time came I took her right after her dance class and there was already a line up. When the started handing out slots she got #35. She was trying out for Marta.

The first 5 auditions took 1/2 hour and it started at 6:30pm By the time they got to #11 NJ said she was hungry so we went home so she could change out of her dance clothes and eat.

We got back up there at about 8:15 and they were at #29. Wheew. She sang The Emperors Underpants and read a Barbie School Days book. She did great and was enthralled with all the other performers and made us stay for another 1/2 hour because she wanted to watch everyone.

In October we received an email saying they had cast every one for the major roles and would contact her in the future if they needed her. She was disappointed but we reminded her we would be going to Cali again in February and at the auditions they specifically said they needed everyone there in February for rehearsals and such. (I made sure at the auditions they knew we would be gone for 2 weeks in Feb).

Then we recieved this email:

From: Michelle Dick

Subject: Sound of music

Date: December 7, 2011 7:10:26 PM MST (CA)

To: asalarae@telus.net

Reply-To: Michelle Dick

Hello Nevee. I apologize for the late notice as an error was made by me when contacting my cast. We would like to offer you the role of Gretl B in our production this spring. If you accept please let me know as soon as possible. Thanks!

Michelle Dick
Sent from my BlackBerry device on the Rogers Wireless Network

She was ecstatic and for sure we replied with a "She'd love to! We'll be waiting for further information."

So my little NJ was now going to be playing Gretl B in Raymond's The Sound of Music!

Later on when she realized it wasn't Marta she threw a tantrum and told us she wasn't going to be in the play anymore. We encouraged her and told her Gretl was the "baby" of the kids and therefore she would be the most fun to play. She warmed up quickly to being Gretl and was getting her few lines and solo's down real good.

On January 11th Kirk took her to her practice where they made a change. NJ was now going to be Marta A because her and Marta B were the same body size for the costume, whereas Gretl A and (the previous) Marta A were the same body size too. So Marta A became Gretl B. Confused? It doesn't matter my little NJ is now Marta A in Raymond's productions of the Sound of Music. I am so excited and nervous and scared and PROUD of her!

New year New age

2012-01-17T11:13:00.000-07:00

It is now 2012 and I am now 34 years old.

This is my 2012 goals for the year post. None of them will be done perfectly everyday, but I will strive to try.

So in no particular order:

Don't eat after 8pm
Drink 5 glasses of water before i can have my diet pepsi
Call my siblings once a month (at least)
Invite a family for supper once a month (at least)
Read scriptures every night before bed
Go to the temple once a month (at least)
Get up and ready first thing in the morning
Blog once a week (at least)
Make a "healthy" Supper every night
Pray every morning
Wear a necklace every day
Say at least one nice thing to each of my family members every day.

Out of all of them #7 has been the hardest but I really want to master it. Getting up in the morning and getting ready, hair, make up and all. I really like my pjs and no bra wearing mornings and especially on days like today, -40 with windchill! I just want to lounge around in my comfy clothes and wrap up in a blanket while the bread dough is rising/baking. But I also want to be ready for whatever may need me, outside of my home, at a moments notice. So getting ready for the day, first thing, will put me in that place of "ready and willing".

The easiest should be #11 wear a necklace everyday but in fact I found how hard it was to clean the toilet wearing one. Any cleaning really was a tad more difficult with a dangly thing around my neck, getting caught on something or falling into something. I may have to add something to it like "when all my chores are done" or something.

The easiest one is probably # 9 as I have been doing that for that past year. By healthy I mean making sure a garden salad, fruit salad or steamed veggies are with it. I try to plan the whole month for supper meals and then purchase anything I need on 10% Tuesdays (1st Tuesday of the month). I also make double of some things to put one in the freezer for next months meal or whenever I'm in a pinch.

2012 here I come!

CHRISTmas TIME

2012-01-05T13:10:00.000-07:00

What a wonderful Christmas we had this year! I really tried to keep it more about giving from the heart with the kids and I think we did alright.

Christmas EVE day was spent at my parents with the fam.

This year me and my siblings drew family names rather than all of us putting in names. We got Dennis and Robyn. We found some old Disney records for their record player. And a gift card to Timmy's. Julie and Niels had us and we scored a gift card to Boston Pizza! MMMM can't wait for that date!

Opening their new to them Disney records

As always the kids get spoiled by their aunt, uncles and grandparents.

PL love zebra print, grandma surprised her with some more fun zebra things.

We have a wonderful dinner and fun visiting and relaxing. We got home around 8:30pm just in time for the kids to get ready for bed.

Christmas Eve tradition open PJs and new Christmas tree ornament. The girls got fancy shoe ornaments and ASH a Buzz Light Year ornament.

On Christmas morning we videoed everything and didn't take one picture. Hopefully we can get those videos up here one day. Anyway this year was the first year ever the girls got up at 5am! WHAT! So we drug our butts out of bed and enjoyed watching them open their stocking and gifts. They were done by 6 so we went back to bed. At 9am I heard little pitter patter of feet, ASH was up. We watched him open and play with his gifts and then got ready for the day. We got to Kirks parents at 10:20ish and had breakfast. The kids played and then we all got ready for church. We enjoyed the spirit of the meeting and being with family. We got back to the inlaws at 2:45pm and then got ready for the kids to open their gifts. We still have the cousins draw names so they were all supper excited to open. Again they all got spoiled!

LL loves unicorns and got one from Taza.

ASH loves Cars and this little racetrack.

Another tradition, take a picture of everything the kids get.

NJ and her fun gifts.

PL and her gifts

ASH and his fun toys.

LL and her gifts.

This is what they all got to share!

Christmas Time was a great celebration and we know we are truly blessed!

Family pics

2012-01-04T16:06:00.001-07:00

The night of December 22nd I made my family get all dolled up to get a family pic to give at Christmas, cutting it close, eh?! I only needed one and that's what I got. Not exactly what I wanted but it works.

The Halls 2011

Grade 1 Skating

2012-01-04T14:47:00.002-07:00

Here is NJ going skating for the first time ever fro grade 1.

size 11 skates

cute ASH

A little help from Mrs. Smith

Help from her teacher Mr. Jensen

Help from the wall

blowing a kiss

hangin' on tight

She was very nervous but by the 2nd week of skating with her class she ventured out on the ice on her own. But I got no pics of that, just a video but I don't have it load to the computer to share.

Deja Vu

2012-01-04T14:47:00.000-07:00

On October 24 this NOT happy reality/memory began. Basically and simply, I had another miscarriage on October 26th. I was 14 weeks. I was due April 29th, 2012, a few days earlier than my last pregnancy in 2010. This miscarriage was 19 days earlier than last years (November 14th 2010). Thankfully this time I didn't have vasovagal syncope or a D&C. This makes 4 now. My heart hurts a little still, when I think of what could have been. But I have leaned on my Heavenly Father and I am okay. There is a plan just for me and this is apart of it. We all have trials. and I know there are worse things people go through every day. I just keep counting my many blessings.

Finally

2012-01-04T14:20:00.004-07:00

One of my kids showed interest in playing some basket ball. NJ wanted to join the 8 week mini Comets Basket Ball camp. Kirk and I were happy to let her join as neither PL or LL ever wanted to. The first day she can home mad because she was the only girl on her team. I reassured her that there was other girls they just couldn't make it that day. But I was wrong. She was the only girl but she realized that made her team even more special! lol

Jodi

2011-12-31T19:50:00.000-07:00

Kirk's oldest sister came to visit us in October. It was a nice weekend with her. We went bowling had had a movie night at Kirk's parents and had a great Sunday dinner with her and the weather was beautiful!

Halloween

2011-12-31T19:37:00.001-07:00

I told my kids I wasn't going to buy costumes this year and that they could come up with something for Halloween from our dress up bins. But PL reminded me that I hadn't bought her a costume for forever so I found a wedding dress at Catholic Charities and this is what they came up with:

PL the Bride

NJ a Comet Cheer Leader

ASH the Skeleton LL the Poodle Skirt Witch

Cute Kids!

Crazy thing: the jr high .... Yes PL is in grade 7..... had a Halloween Dance Friday Night! So she went. At least it was over by 10pm.

Happy Birthday

2011-12-31T13:45:00.001-07:00

October 14th 2011

LL is now in the double digits!

She had a sleep over party with a friend. But first we hit the Fun Factory (like build a bear but cheaper).

LL Monster High birthday cake.

opening gifts at home

opening gifts at grandmas

10 things you love:

pepperoni pizza
animals
snuggles
family movie nights
early mornings
playing the wii
friends
playing on the computer
slushies
making people happy

10 things about you:

you have thick blonde haira piece in front that won't grow out because you cut it when you were 4.
you don't really tan you turn a pink color
you have hay fever in the spring/fall
you let your little sis sleep with you every night
you are patient
you hate cleaning your room
you are a friend to everyone
you are tender hearted
you wear a size 12/14 in clothing shoe size is 6 (like your mom)
you are in grade 4

Look whose.....

2011-12-31T13:10:00.001-07:00

TWO

All about this past year

2 things You Learned:

learned to walk
how to say NO

2 things You Love to play with:

Toy Story anything
Cars anything

2 things You Eat:

any fruit
meat

2 things You like to do:

watch movies
play outside

2 Places You've Gone:

Desert Hot Springs, California
Whitefish, Montana

2 things You just LOVE:

your flannel blankets
your mom

Happy Birthday

Look what I found

2011-12-31T12:38:00.000-07:00

Pictures of ASHs first day of Parent Preschool. They were celebrating everyone's birthday! So decorating gram crackers with icing and sprinkles was in order. Love this little man!

I'm bad

2011-12-31T12:23:00.000-07:00

First day of school pics were ......................

FORGOTTEN!?

Yes, I kept thinking, I need to take some pics of the kids going to school on their bikes and posed in front of their schools. But I didn't and now it seems to be too late.

These are the first pics we have of the kids in September, thanks to the Harvest Fun Day the stake put on for our town.

Love them!

Summer 2011

2011-12-31T11:30:00.004-07:00

I love summer holidays! I love no real schedules! I love warm weather! I love the sun staying up 'til 10pm! I have loved going for walks every morning with Rachel! This summer was full of sun, swimming, water sliding, laziness, walks, bike riding and playing with neighborhood friends and cousins. We had a lot of fun as you can see in the picture collage below.

Lot's of water fun, butterfly catching and playin' in the neighborhood. Love this place in the summer!

Kirk worked some Saturdays to lay our rock. He did a great job! A couple of trips to Whitefish Lake to Sea Doo and play in the sand. I was spoiled and got a beach cruiser bike. Love it!

Kirk's business is busy busy this time of year.

Lots of water and rain everywhere too. Echo Lake in Kalispell MT, was a NO WAKE zone for the whole summer. So no Sea Dooing there, or boating and such. And the campground at Ridge was flooded with the reservoir rising so much.

Many people's basements flooded too! Yikes. We too had that "fun" in April.

Last days of School

2011-12-31T11:29:00.001-07:00

Here are highlights of the girls last days of

grade 6, 3 and kindy.

School's out let's scream and shout!

Stone Soup

2011-08-05T14:11:00.000-06:00

NJ's kindergarten class was making "Stone Soup" one day and it just so happened that NJ was sick that day. I remembered we had a book like "Stone Soup" so I found it and read it to her and then we made our very own ....

"Button Soup".

Ratatouille

2011-08-03T20:25:00.000-06:00

We don't have cable, satellite or even peasant vision. We watch movies and today the kids watched "Ratatouille" and then asked if we could make it for supper. So I found a good looking recipe and went in to the city to buy the veggies that our local grocer doesn't carry and came home and made it.

not my picture but it looks really close to ours.

I also made couscous, which we've never had before, and bake chicken breast and goat cheese to top off the ratatouille. I loved it all, the girls liked the couscous and mostly ate the ratatouille, next time we will omit the red peppers and do carrots instead, at least that's what the girls want to do. It was super easy, especially with the use of my MILs Bosch slicer attachment. I will make it again!

6 years ago

2011-08-02T14:00:00.000-06:00

Our little NJ arrived on February 18th, 2005 at 3:15am weighing 7 lbs 11 oz and 20" long with lots of silver like hair. Our 3rd child and 3rd daughter. Kirk was in school at the College and it was almost reading week so he got to be home with us for an entire week!

Since Kirks parents bought a place in California we have taken advantage and headed down there, during reading week, for the past 3 years. Because NJ was born on the 18th her birthday inevitably lands in this week, so she hasn't been able to have a friend party. This year we were determined to have one before we left but it didn't happen to on APRIL 1st we threw one for her. This is no joke!! lol

The decore

She wanted cookies instead of cake.

opening gifts

She had 10 friends over and you can tell!

The girls played PLACE THE KISS ON THE FROG but I didn't get one picture of it. But they had fun putting on bright read lipstick and kissing the picture of the frog prince.

We also played some balloon games, opened presents and then had some birthday cookies.

On her actual birthday her grandma Hall took her shopping at the outlet mall so we could set up for her birthday party and surprise her. We used napkins for the puff balls and xtra large cupcake liners for the streamers. A little wrapping paper and a boughten "happy birthday" sign from Old Navy and we were set.

Birthday decor in Cali

NJ's birthday brownie cupcakes

blowing out 6 candles

Opening gifts from family

6 things about NJ

she loves stories
she remembers EVERYTHING! even if you don't want her to
she loves snuggles
is determined to learn what ever she wants, eg. she taught herself how to ride a 2 wheeler, to swim (doggie paddle) and now to read.
loves to play dress-up and do her hair and make-up (the fake stuff)
she is always willing to say prayers, family, food and her own personal ones

our beautiful 6 year old
weighing 52lbs, 54" tall with blond hair, blue eyes. Wearing size 13 shoes and size small or 6x to 8 clothing, and growing up so fast!

12 years ago

2011-08-02T12:48:00.000-06:00

Kirk and I welcomed our first baby girl, On April 2nd, 1999 (Good Friday) PL was born at 10:52am. She weighed 7 lb 9 oz and was 19 inches long and had lots of DARK hair.

Now she's 12 years old and weighs around 85 lbs and is 5' 1" tall and has dirty blond hair. Her birthday this year was on a Saturday and we threw a friends party for her. A SPA party to be exact.

opening gifts from us

She found this Lilo and Stitch picture holder in DownTown Disney store but ran out of $.
So we sneakily got it for her for this day!

She'd been wanting a hoodie with the finger holes and we finally found one her size.

We played musical nail polish.
Each girl had a color and they passed them around until the music stopped and they had to paint one toe nail with that color and then pass around again until all nails were painted.

Spa facials with homemade sugar scrub.

Such fun girls!

She got a lot of make up and spa stuff.

12 things about PL

She wears a size 7 1/2 shoe (I wear a size 6)
The last time she wore jeans was in kindergarten - only yoga pants for her.
She only likes long dress socks, if she has to wear them.
She loves Stitch
Her favorite colors are baby blue and lime green
She loves long flowing skirts (even if they look like pioneer ones)
Hates really tight clothes
She chews her finger nails
Just started to wear training you-know-whats and she hates it
She loves to spend her $. It's like it's burning a whole in her pocket to save it.
She like to eat pasta and sauce and Caesar salad
She's now a beehive in YW's and loves it!

Why I blog?

2011-07-29T15:20:00.001-06:00

I have been wondering lately why I even blog? I haven't posted in 2 months and I feel a little bit guilty when I see others have kept up to date on theirs. So as I opened my blog I decided to read way back in 2008 and seeing if this is something I really need to keep up with it? I had a great time reading things I had totally forgotten about and see pics I haven't seen for awhile. The memories are captured and I have them to keep. So yes I will be keeping this up!

Just the other day I was talking to my mom about the things I have forgotten. Like when something funny happens, I think to myself, "I'll remember this and post it on my blog" but I procrastinate and I have forgotten, or my kids say or do something cute and I think, "I'll remember this to share at their wedding" and again what I thought I'd never be able to forget because it was just so dang cute, I forgot. So I hope to starting filling this with more memories of NOW and especially of the kids cause they just grow up way too fast!

Like my 12 year old, Wow is she growing so fast.

Awhile Ago like MAY 18th 2011

2011-07-29T14:57:00.000-06:00

Today has been so fun and very busy! First thing this morning I was asked if I could watch a good friends little girl from 8:30am to 10:20am, to which I said yes. Yesterday I was asked if I could watch a little friend of my kindergartner this afternoon, to which I said, sure. Yesterday night we took our van to the mechanics for a banging noise we heard when driving, so I didn't know when I would get it back. A couple of weeks ago I was asked to teach a 15 minute "how to start a blog" for the week day Relief Society, to which I said, I guess. A few days after that I was asked to sub teaching the Relief Society lesson for the Assisted living group on the same day to which I said, okay..... Which all was for TODAY!

Thankfully my van was just fine, got an oil change. I dropped the my friends little girl off to the next person in line to watch her and I picked it up my van on my way to teach the RS lesson. Then everything else went like this:

Pick up my baby boy (from my MIL who thankfully dropped me off to my van and took him while I taught)
Came home 1 minute before for my Kindy girl and her friend from school (they invited the neighbor girl for lunch)
Got lunch started and served to them
Got my other to kids for lunch and fed them
printed off the step-by-step guide on how to start a blog
put little boy down for a nap
rested
From 4:30pm to 5:30pm I took kids to and from piano lessons
made subs for supper
Hubby got home we all ate
7pm I went to RS to give my little 15 minute how to
Home by 8:30.

I have to say it was a bit of a stress but I'm glad for the learning I did and sure am glad it's over.

FAST

2011-05-11T13:47:00.000-06:00

14 years later!

Time has sure gone by fast since Kirk and I got married. So how fitting is it that we celebrated by seeing Fast and Furious 5. It was awesome, might have even been the best one yet, and you have to wait 'til the credits are 1/2 over to catch a clip of what the future may hold?! So good!

On another note as I mentioned before I made some updates to my blog and one that has totally changed

and made things so much easier to add a post and picture. here's what you do if you haven't already:

go into your DASHBOARD, then click into DESIGN, click on the

SETTINGS tab, and scoll to the bottom of the page where it says:

Global Settings (Applies to all of your blogs.)

Select post editor	Updated editor (Recommended) - Check out the latest features! Old editor Hide compose mode - Select only if you typically do HTML editing instead of WYSIWYG text editing

I was clicked on OLD EDITOR but changed it to UPDATED EDITOR and the lasted features are wonderful and easy to use, thus far, anyway. I think the PREVIEW and UNDO buttons are my favorite so far.

Make sure you click save settings or apply to blog or both when making changes and updates.

WOW

2011-05-10T12:22:00.002-06:00

I've been doing a little research on how to start a blog. Funny since I already have one, but I am to teach a 15 minute lesson on it in Relief Society next week. It's been over 4 years since I myself began this blog journey and I am so happy to find that Blogger has added many new template designs and colors, not to mention fonts for post headings and Blog Titles! I have taken advantage of such and changed my blog up a bit. Thanks Blogger! Now to see about printing off my first blogged year. Does anyone know how long it takes to get back? Anyway, Happy Blogging!

14 Years!

2011-05-10T12:15:00.003-06:00

I married my best friend, high school sweetheart, favorite person in the world!

For Time and all Eternity! May 10th 1997

Please Help Me

2011-05-03T21:14:00.005-06:00

I am such an amateur at this whole blogging thing and need some help, ideas, tips etc.

because I was asked to teach a little 15 minute class on starting your own blog.

I will be researching stuff myself but if any of you have some suggestions, on anything

dealing with blogging, then PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE send me your comments! It

has been over 4 years since I started... did I just say 4 years? I did! Wow! Time has

sure flown by. Anyway, as I said I'm very basic and haven't updated anything, too

much, on my blog, not even sure if I can as 4 years is probably 100 in technology years!.

That being said I am learning all the time about this way of contact and I realize

I have not given acknowledgment where it is due... So here are some great Blogs I have

enjoyed reading and have used their knowledge and information. Please check them

out!

http://beinglds.blogspot.com/

http://www.rufflesandstuff.com/

http://tatertotsandjello.blogspot.com/

http://cuegly.blogspot.com/

I look forward to hearing from you!

surfing

2011-05-01T13:39:00.005-06:00

In the past couple of weeks I've been surfing, or maybe it's snooping, through blogs of people I don't know. I guess if it's not private they want you to come check out their lives, right? Anyway, I've found so many fun ones on transforming items into something new and improved. I've added them to my "I love Creativity" link. So here's what I've done and remember I'm just a beginner at sewing.

My mother-in-law gave me this skirt and I don't know how she wore it cause she is shorter than me. I tend to only get it out on freezing cold Sundays to keep me warm at church so I thought why not try to give it an update.

So i cut off the bottom and made a ruffle out of that and added it to the bottom.

I had some extra ruffled material so I made a flower and sewed it on.

There you have it a newish skirt for me.

memories

2011-04-30T23:44:00.004-06:00

* NJ calling and saying sorry to a friend she was SO upset with, after she calmed down.

* mopping my floor and ASH following me and leaving little footprints in the wetness. Along with a little slipping and sliding.

* Waking up to ASH with one eye swollen shut.

* being sent to PEDs, for ASH, in Leth just to start an IV for antibiotics, to no avail, and then being told they want us to stay the night. I was so not prepared.

* Easter Bunny coming on Saturday even though ASH and I were still at PEDs and the girls out at my parents.

* Coming home after school and finding water in our basement. 3-5 feet from the wall into the room around the whole basement but 1 room. Having family come and help and neighbors put in a new sump pump and lend a floor fan.

* Playing cover your ACES with great friends.

* going through everything, because of the water, and purging lots.

* Kirk taking us to Marble Slab because we worked so hard to put our basement back together.

* PL working so hard on her Faith in God to get it done this week because the Bishop challenged her. I can't believe I have a YW in my home.

* LL practicing her piano without complaint and reading more and more.

* Kirk giving ASH a horsey ride and me teaching him how to hold on.

L.O.V.E.

2011-04-19T13:18:00.004-06:00

For the last 2 years the girls have missed their Valentines school party, but they alway make some for their class before we leave for Cali. This is what they did this year for their friends.

We improvised, as I was going to spray paint them white and make red heats with their thumb prints. But I misplaced the spray paint, and the thumb print just didn't show up very well on the cardboard. So we went with the natural look. They had fun decorating with makers, crayons, stickers and such, and filled them with a few valentine candies.

Lost

2011-04-18T22:12:00.006-06:00

NJ lost her first tooth, way back in January, just a few days before we went to Cali. It was wiggly for a couple of weeks. One day after school we were driving around, doing last minutes errands, and she pulled it out, all on her own, just sitting in the back seat.

teeny tiny bottom tooth

She lost the one right beside it when we were in Cali eating at the local DEl TACO. She was pretty happy but worried the tooth fairy wouldn't find her in Cali. But the tooth fairy did and because we were in the US she left NJ american $.

close up

So this post is titled LOST so here are some things we've lost:

Just before our trip we had the breaks serviced in our van. A couple days later I noticed the back hub cap was missing, so I called the people who worked on the van to see if they had it, they didn't, Dang it! So I guessed I lost it somewhere on the high way. We had quite a bit of snow piled up around the town and then got some NICE weather and low and behold, under that now melted snow, not a block from my house, was my hubcap. I pulled over and picked it up and when Kirk came home he put it on. I can't believe how one missing hubcap can make your vehicle look so white trash. lol

Pacey lost her red DS somewhere back in October 2010. She remembers playing it when we went to Dennis and Robyn's and since then we can't find it.

And then there's a little T-Rex, off of Toy Story, that we got in a 7 pack of Toy Story characters, that went missing somewhere in Cali. We hope Kirks parents can find it when they go back.

When we were packing for our Las Vegas trip Kirk got out is bathroom kit and there he found all the trailer insurance papers they had been looking for, for about a year. Too bad they had just paid for some replacements a few months ago. lol

Keeping Christ in Easter

2011-04-17T21:06:00.001-06:00

The other day Kirk told me of his dislike of the whole Easter Bunny hopping through houses to drop off treats. I feel the same about Santa, minus the hopping. So I found some awesome ideas on keeping Christ in Easter.

First this:

To learn more about any of the ideas shown click on anything in RED.

2nd:

RESURRECTION ROLLS

(Each ingredient represents something used to prepare Christ's body for burial.)

-Large marshmallows

-Melted butter (less than 1/2 stick)

-A mixture of cinnamon/sugar (yum!)

-A can of refrigerated crescent rolls (makes 8)

to learn more click here

3rd

Walking Children Through Holy Week by Wendy

Sunday: Plan of Salvation review and what Christ's role in the plan is.
Monday: Triumphal Entry
Tuesday: Purging the Temple and the Widow's Mite
Wednesday: The Last Supper and Washing the Disciples' Feet (Also can be taught are the parables)
Thursday: The Garden of Gethsemane and Christ' Arrest
Friday: Peter's Denial, The Crucifixion and The Burial
Saturday: No Picture. We talked about the Spirit World and Jesus' teaching. Also we read about the darkness in the Americas.
Sunday: Christ Visiting Mary, The Empty Tomb, Christ Visiting the Apostles

I'm so excited about starting this and really making Easter a great spiritual learning and reflecting celebration about our Savior Jesus Christ!

Digging a little deeper

2011-04-17T19:20:00.004-06:00

I am wanting/ready to dig a little deeper in the many areas of my life. I want to learn, ponder, create, make time, make memories, be productive, teach what is truly important & change. Sound like a lot?! IT IS! But I'm ready to try and make many important changes in my life that puts me on the straighter path of JOY.

This last week was a week of pondering for me as I have been called as a Relief Society (RS) teacher in my ward. I teach the 3rd Sunday lessons (from the manual), which was today, hence, my ponderings were about my impending lesson.

HONESTY - what does it mean to you? What would it be like to live in a totally honest world? What does it mean to be honest in ALL things? Who would have thought this one word would be LOTS to ponder? Some of my favorite passages and quotes from it are:

President Brigham Young said, “If we accept salvation on the terms it is offered to us, we have got to be honest in every thought, in our reflections, in our meditations, in our private circles, in our deals, in our declarations, and in every act of our lives”

When we speak untruths, we are guilty of lying. We can also intentionally deceive others by a gesture or a look, by silence, or by telling only part of the truth.

When we are completely honest, we cannot be corrupted. We are true to every trust, duty, agreement, or covenant, even if it costs us money, friends, or our lives.

It was great being in RS today! I learned from and throughly enjoyed being with the sweet sisters in 7th ward. It was brought up, "what do you do if someone asks you how you like their hair do or outfit, etc. and you don't particularly like it?" That brought many comments and thoughts. This is what I realized with honesty in those situations, we need to live our lives in accordance with the standards and commandments our Father in Heaven has set for us, then we will be prepared so we can act and respond with honesty, however the spirit directs.

On another note, I've been surrounded by sickies. Yup, our family have finally succumb to the pukes, or at least 3 of the 6 of us. It all started with NJ who was sick for about 5 days and then it hit ASH a few days ago (he's now on the mend, I think) and today we have LL who began yesterday morning with the upchucking. Our tv and dvd player haven't ran for this long for, who knows when?!

Last week was a full week for me, Monday I had one extra sickie at home, Tuesday was lice check at the school and I was set apart as a RS teacher, Wednesday was PAC meeting, finished up lice check and cookie dough distribution at the school and girls piano, Thursday was no power for 4 hours so I brought the girls home from school early and then there was singing and dance and a Epicure party at a neighbours. Friday Kirk stayed home and we went in to Leth to get some groceries and Easter stuff and then a movie night with the kids and getting their hair in sponge curlers for their dance pictures on Saturday. Saturday was also a clean the house day and get my lesson finished day and thankfully some great friends invited us over later that night to play some games and visit. Sunday Kirk and NJ and PL went to sacrament meeting while I stayed home with LL and ASH until he came back so I could go teach RS.

So to end this post I'm going to ask a question ... How do I look in these glasses? Honestly!? I just got them through clearlycontacts.ca and I just don't know if I should sent them back or keep them.

2011-04-04T09:22:00.005-06:00

There has been so much going on around here that when I want to Blog, there just hasn't been enough time, today is the same. However, today I am wanting to just stop by and list some things we've been up to (pictures may come later).

Went to California for 18 days (including traveling)
Went to Disney Land (still Kirks favorite place to go)
Came home to SNOW!!!! March 1st
Helped girls catch up on missed homework
Was released as Primary president
Got ASH in for his 1 year shots (yes we are late)
Our Stake went through some boundary changes, I'm still in 7th but we did get a new Bishopric
ASH turned 18 months on March 27th (here we come nursery)
Took PL to her first YW conference
Watched LL in her Wackadoo Zoo concert - so cute!
April 1st I finally had NJ's 6th birthday bash with 10 of her little friends (No Joke either)
April 2nd at 10:52am I officially have a 12 year old!???!
PL turned 12 and had a spa birthday party with 6 great girl friends!
Watched an amazing General Conference and learned so much!
As of today getting ready to take the girls out of school at 10:30am so we can watch NJ in the Kawanis Festival. She is singing a solo "So you wanna be a Pirate".

Here we are at a great Park near the College of the Desert in Cali.

Hope to get some longer periods of time so I can post about our latest Cali adventure and show pics of my, ever so growing fast, kids.

Take a deep breath

2011-02-07T13:17:00.004-07:00

It snowed! Again! A Lot!

I take a deep breath and try to go to a happy thought. I am reminded of what a friends take on snow was. She said "beautiful", "magical", "so sparkly". I think I have to agree! The Lord makes this happen for reasons we may never know and some we do. It is really amazing to see and really look at. I know it's cold and a pain to get around in but it really does "SPARKLE"!

Another thing I've always noticed is that if I had to choose rain or snow, I'd go with snow, at least you can still go shopping in and out of stores and not get soaking wet, but with rain you're pretty much in for a soaking wet day unless you want to pack an umbrella, and a wet one at that. But that's me.

My dishwasher sucks! Really I hate it! It doesn't get my dishes all that clean and it takes FOREVER, like 5 hours for a normal load. I've tried all the trouble shooting tips and all sorts of different detergents and make sure it's right full of Jet Dry. Yesterday I went to use it and it stopped and had 3 blinking light come on to say that there is a "low water level error". I'm doing dished by hand which sucks too but at least they they won't have any stuck on food and spots. I called it in and because we are going on a holiday for 2 weeks they can't come until March 3rd! They only work one day a week in my area. Guts!

Guts is my new "bad" word. Have any of you watched Ramona and Beezus? SOOOOO CUTE! I love it and that's where I get "guts" from. Rent it for the kids and watch it with them!

I'm a nail biter! I have been my whole life and I can only think of about 5 times I really stopped long enough to grow some seriously beautiful nails. Well this is number 6 and hopefully the final time. Yay me, now I can feel relief when I scratch and itch and washing my hair feels even better and no more hang nails and cracked finger tips. Love them!

I mentioned we are going on a holiday. We hope to leave on Friday but it might be Saturday. We are headin' south baby, to California. I'm ready for some sunshine that will give me a bit of a burn. We've done this now 2 times, this being the 3rd. We drive it so it's not too bad on the wallet and with Kirk's parents having a place to stay at it really helps keep the wallet padded. That is until we go to the outlet mall and use it up! This year we hope to just relax and will most likely go to Disneyland for 2 days. I was showing my hubby something on a friends blog and he noticed her using those big bags you vacuum suck all the air out of for storing clothing not in use. Great idea, so we are going to pack all our clothes that way for this trip. I will only have 1 outfit per each of us (maybe 2 for ASH), swim suit and pj's, packed in a luggage bag, for the one night in Utah, on the way down. I hope it gives us more room in the van! We have a topper and we usually take out one of the middle seats and put 3 rubber totes there, filled with clothes, activities and food. But with the clothes being vacuumed sucked maybe we'll eliminate a couple of totes? We'll see! Now to start packing and getting the van ready.

Speaking of the Van, we took it in to get an oil change and the break pads and something else fixed a couple of weeks ago. The next day, I washed her up, at the local car wash, and notice we were missing a hub cap. I called into the shop, where we had her fixed, to see if they forgot to put it back on or something. They didn't know anything about it. So several days later I'm driving down the street to get home and there, on the side of the road, was my hub cap. Yay now we don't look so much like white trash. Seriously hub caps make a vehicle look good!

January 2011

2011-02-02T14:23:00.007-07:00

IS GONE???? What!? I can't even believe it!

This new year we started out with Kirk getting our back splashes on in the Kitchen and Master bath. Yup he worked at it all New Years Day! He still has a few things to finish like, the master shower and tub surround and behind the stove. A couple more cold days and he should get it all done.

Due to sickness and such PL and LL's Christmas piano recital was held in January, instead of December. They did great and after, we met the cousins for a night of bowling in Leth. (I put a pic of Nevee, in the new dress I bought in Las Vegas at The Rack for $11 and the cardigan for $12, instead of a pic of my big butt bowling. Seriously Kirk could not have gotten a worse shot of me. lol)

Did ya notice I mentioned Vegas? Yup I got to go to Vegas, on my birthday even. We left on Sunday the 16th at 1pm, so with a lay over in Seattle it was a full day of traveling and airports but it also gave me a 25 hour birthday because of the time change in "the city the never sleeps".

Kirk's company always goes to the World of Concrete show in Vegas. I've now been twice and have to say it is interesting to see all the new and innovative products and technologies that deal with concrete one way or another. It is however getting smaller than it was a few years ago because of the economy in the US. We ran into a guy Kirk went to school with and asked if things were looking up down there. He said nope. In fact he and his wife were approved for a $350,000 mortgage (with her working) and went to buy a house a few months later but at that time she was on maternity and they were no longer approved for that amount but then found out that the house they wanted to buy dropped in value by $50,000. I guess this house was originally a $750, 000 house. Crazy eh?

Anyway, we were with Brandon (Kirk's brother) and a home builder they work with and we met Kirk's parents there. We stayed in the Luxor, which was ok but not ok for where it is located, not really near anything. We went to 2 shows, both of which I liked and really enjoyed. The Lion King was excelent and the Blue Man Group was so entertaining.

I got some shopping in at the Outlet Mall and a few other stores like The Rack and The Bass Pro Shop. Good thing we brought another luggage bag that was pretty much empty, so we could get it all home without paying for another bag to be on the airplane. lol We were gone for 5 day, home Friday night at 9pm. a BIG THANKS to my sis Julie and her hubby Neils and my mom for watching the kids for us. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!!!

Here is our little man with some mile stones and some just too cute not to post pics: 1.He loves to be naked! 2. and is starting to play with his toys more and more. 3. He loves to watch movies on the Touch. 4. making a mess eating ravioli. 5. & 6. Getting his first hair cut, so cute. 7. & 8. He rarely falls asleep anywhere other than in my arms or in bed. 9. 10. & 11. A little photo shoot of the outfit gramma Hall got him when he was first born (size 18 months) it now fits.

Also this month, but pics haven't been unloaded from the camera, NJ lost her first tooth, on January 26th.

Finishing up 2010

2010-12-31T09:56:00.001-07:00

2010 was a great year!

Sure we had some ups and downs. Fun times and not so fun times and

a lot of RAIN!

2010 at a glance

January:

* I turned 32 and went up to a local hair dresser and had my hair colored and cut.

* For one of our Family Home Evenings the girls made a "I am a Child of GOD" mirror

* There was lots of snow, so snow women were made

* I made mini pizza's with a great crescent roll recipe

* I learned PL likes to do some chores

* My little man is growing up so fast as are my girls

* PL got new glasses

February:

* NJ turned 5 at Disney Land

* We made the trek again to California and had a blast

* Ash got 2 teeth while there

* It was so cold at home

* My Orchid bloomed again, the girls gave it to me when I had ASH

* No more swing for ASH, now he gets to use the high chair

March:

* We mostly had pictures of our house that we were building this month

* We tried ASH with some rice cereal, he didn't like it much

April:

* PL turned 11 this month

* More house pics

* Still trying ASH with some solid food

May:

* We celebrated Mothers Day and Kirk and My 13th Anniversary

* It was pretty warm so we took out the Sea Doo's to Ridge Park

* Had some pretty sunny days and wet ones too

* MOVED IN TO OUR NEW HOME!

June:

* Celebrated my Grandpa Irvine's would be 100th birthday with almost every one on the Morton side

* Fathers day was nice, the primary honored the dads in the ward with GIANT cookies

* Cousins having fun on the home made tram and dressing up

* ASH loves tubs in the new sink

* Organized a heart shape with all our Primary children in our ward (missing about 15 though)

July:

* Cousins in the Parade as Clowns

* Lots of water fun

* Camping, Hair buzzing, Concrete drive way and popsicles filled up our summer

August:

* Waterton Park for a Bowlby Reunion

* Climbed Bears Hump with our little family....awesome!

* Made a scarecrow for the Fall Ag Fair and got 1st place ($20) woot

* Made pizza buns in my new convection oven....love it!

* Major frog central with all the rain we've had

* Park Lake with the cousins

September:

* Made the girls a "wipe" board with materials seen in the collage

* Schools IN and my baby girl NJ is in Kindygarten, PL grade 6 and LL in grade 3

* Baby Bronson was born (Nephew)

* ASH turned 1 and got 4 molars

October:

* Turkey dinner at the Morton's in Ponoka.... HAPPY THANKS GIVING

* LL turned 9, WOW

* Spent Halloween with a mad scientist turned wizard, Skeleton girl turned wizard, Skeleton boy turned bunny and Jessie from toy story

* I made mini cheese balls for a Halloween party Kirk and I were invited to, they're suppose to look like eye balls

November:

* Kirk turned 33

* Weather was kind of nice in the beginning and great for flying kites on one day

* Baby nephew was blessed

* Got some cute pics of the kids one day

* Baby blessing (nephew), ambulance rides, cold days for Kirk to stay home

December:

* Full of Christmas Cheer

* Kids seen Santa twice, ASH didn't like so much

* Kids in Christmas PJ's

* Kids got sooooo spoiled

* Had Christmas at our house with the Morton Clan

* Oh Christmas Tree, mine spins, what does your so? hahaha jk

* ASH was so sick with a fever for 5 days, now he has 3 eye teeth

* Family is what's important, Kirk took our family pics

* THE NATIVITY

So there it is 2010 at a glance. I think I'm ready for 2011 now!

ready or not

2010-12-08T13:32:00.003-07:00

Christmas is in 17 days and we're not ready! I wish we were. We still have a few more family members to get something for, namely, my brother-in-law, and sister-in-law and both my parents and then of course something for Kirk and my grandparents, oh and friends and neighbours, and I guess we really haven't finished our kids. Wow it looks like we have a lot to do now that I've actually listed it!

CrAzYnEsS

On my families side, Kirk and I are the only ones with kids, so far, and so we still pick names. This year we decided to go with initial gifting. With the person you chose, you take their initails and buy a gift starting with each one, so 3 gifts if you have 3 names. Get it? Anyway, I have the initials RDM for our SIL and Kirk has NHJ for our BIL. Should be fun to see what we can do with this! But does anyone have any ideas? Kirk already hates the idea and is thinking he'll just buy some Nerds, oh Henry bar, and Jersey milk and then buy what my BIL really would like. lol We'll see though.

My parents are not easy to find something for but then they are. A couple of years ago I wrote them each a letter, thanking them and sharing with them what I've learned from them and bore my testamony. They both showed more love and thanks for that then any other gift I've given. But I've done that, so now what? Any thoughts out there?

Grandparents will be pretty easy - mixed nuts anyone? and a new family picture! (which we haven't done yet)

Friends and Neighbours will get either a Christmas treat or ornament or May your Christmas be Merry and "Sprite" or.....?

The kids are mostly done we just have the dreaded S.A.N.T.A. gift to get which may be a new DS game but PL can't find hers, so now I'm not so sure it's a good idea. But then if she can't take care of things it's her loss and she'll get what ever else S>A>N>T>A has for her, right? I try to get what they ask for when they write their letter's to the Jolly ol' Soul but LL keeps asking for a laptop (sorry not happening) second choice was a DS game and NJ is asking for a Zuzu pet (which she is getting from a cousin)and second a DS game and PL was asking for an Art Easel (which her grandparents are giving her) and second art supplies. So I guess I should just go with art supplies for her, right? And DS games for the other 2? ASH is getting a Wheel Pal that moo's when it roles forward.

Ya know sometimes taking the time to just type it out you can really work it out!!

Oh and then Hubby, dearest, decides we should have a

S{A{N{T{A family gift consisting of books, Wii games, treats, movies, board games etc. I like the idea, just wish we didn't need to get every one an individual gift from Chris Kringle himself!

I really do love the Christmas season! I just hate the expected gift giving. I love to give and think of special things to do to see a joyful smile but the expected thing really erks me. I try to be simple and, somewhat, thrifty every year but it doesn't always work that way. I hope this year works the way I plan!

So all you who may read my blog, please let me know how you celebrate the Christmas season!

maybe not my favorite

2010-11-30T15:00:00.005-07:00

Growing up I had a lot of favorite things:

favorite color, green

a favorite pair of jeans

a favorite hair style,

a favorite number, 9

just to list a few. All of them have changed over the years, my favorite color now is grey, and of course my fav jeans don't fit anymore, and I don't do my hair like I used to (thank goodness), but my favorite number has remained the same .... 9. Any form of it 99 9999 999999 and so on. I've always liked this number ... it was how many kids I was going to have, you seen I wrote was right? It was my basket ball number in Jr. High and tends to be the number I always pick when I have to choose between 1 and 10 or even 1 to 100.

Yesterday, however, I was called by the clinic to let me know that my Dr wanted me to start taking iron pills because my hemoglobin was at 99. I asked what that meant, the nurse informed that it was low and at that number they sometimes start doing blood transfusions. But they wanted me to try getting my numbers up by taking iron before going that extreem.

This got me thinking so I looked up Hemoglobin and this is what I found:

Women's normal ranges should be in 120 g/l to 160 g/l (12.0 g/dl to 16.0 g/dl). Mine is at 99 g/l (9.9 g/dl) which means:

I found this on a site that gives you info about giving blood, so it shows the acceptable lowest level to be able to donate.

Do you see what I see? I guess I'm leaning towards being anemic ... hopefully not or for long as I am now trying to build up my hemoglobin with iron pills.

Not loving seeing the number 9 in this result but I still think it's my favorite number.

Odd Hall

2010-11-17T13:14:00.004-07:00

Happy 33rd Birthday LOVE!

33 things I know and love about you!

your favorite color is green
you are good at mathematical things
you love to give the kids whisker rubs
and wrestle
you like to eat roast beef with mashed spuds and gravy but you also like sushi
and will eat salad every time it's on the table
you are tender hearted
you love me
you like expensive things and quality things
you like to have free time but don't get it very often
you are a hard worker
you know so many things about computers, programs, construction, horses, mechanical things, electronics, plumbing, building things and such
you like to play
your favorite place to go is Disney Land
you love to spoil your kids
and me
you are a kid at heart
when you find something you like you research it and start a collection of its memorabilia
you are a peace maker
you forgive easily
you love the gospel of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints
you are a leader
you don't swear
you are patient
you love to take pictures
you enjoy bird watching
you are strong
you love kids and they seem to be drawn to you
you adore and love your own children
you are my best friend
you take care of us with much sacrifice and love and no complaint
you give me strength and a listening ear
you tell me you love me 10 times or more a day

I hope you know how much I love you! Hope you have a happy birthday today!

Things Change

2010-11-17T12:38:00.001-07:00

I had been planning an exciting post for a few weeks now but then something unexpected happened and now I'm posting about the crappy day that changed that exciting post.

What was so exciting you may ask?

I was 15 1/2 weeks Pregnant! Due May 3rd, 2011.

I had a miscarriage on Sunday, November 14th at 7:30 am.

This is now my 3rd miscarriage in the past 6 years. I have learned to lean on my Heavenly Father in these sad times and find peace in knowing the plan of salvation and the comforting feeling that, I have, that one day I will get to raise those 3 little ones.

This time around was different though, have you ever heard of Vasovagal Syncope?

At about 8:30 am I experienced this and never want to feel it ever again. It all started when I sat down and started feeling hot and light headed and like I was going to puke (which I did). And in a matter of seconds I had the most awful feeling, like something was even more wrong, like some impending doom was coming, and then my vision went very fuzzy, and everything was in greyscale . All I could say was "I don't know what to do?" "I don't know what to do?"

over and over again. And my hearing was like tunnel hearing, very distant. At this point my loving Heavenly Father stepped in and through the Holy Ghost I seen and heard the word "Blessing". I said the word out loud once and then said "I need a blessing now!" Kirk was right there and gave me one. All the symptoms were still there but the impending doom seemed to lessen but I was non responsive to Kirk, although I could see and hear him and did understand what was going on, I just couldn't react.

He was pretty freaked out and yelled for LL to bring him a cell phone and he called 911. In about 10 mins they were by my side. I was now laying on the bathroom floor and they were trying to put in an IV (3 attempts and they couldn't get one in because my vanes kept collapsing) as they were asking questions and taking my vitals. All the vasovagal symptoms were gone but I was weak.

I was ambulanced to the RG Hospital where the ER nurse tried twice (which is the magic number, if you can't get blood or an IV in with 2 tries someone else is called into try) to get an IV in and couldn't and had to call another nurse in, who was able to get one in on her first try. Then lab came and took some blood. I was feeling ok by then just freezing, so nice hot blankets were laid on me (I think they went through 20 hot blankets on me through out the rest of the day/evening).

The Dr on was sending me to LRH to have a ultra sound but the OBGYN there wanted me to first try this medicine to help my uterus contract and hopefully get rid of the rest of the contents left. But the RGH Dr was leery of just giving it to me without some pain meds so was going to give me Morphine. Well this freaked me out even more, I was already having contractions, seriously not just cramping but labor contractions and as I had never had Morphine before I was stressed I might be sick to my stomach too. I started saying how I didn't want any of that and then the vasovagal set in again and I was back where I never wanted to be.

The ER nurse was taking my vitals and I heard her say "69 over 47", and I seen her worried look and I thought what is going on? She kept touching my head with a cold cloth and saying "stay with me, stay with me". I guess I looked bad but in my head I thought "I am here, I'm looking right at you!" Mean while the nurse that got the IV in was able to put in another,but in my other arm.

And that was that, the ambulance was called to get ready to take me to the LRH ER. We had 10 minutes to which Kirk called his dad to come and give me another blessing, but this time with consecrated oil, before I was transferred.

From this point on everything went better. The OBGYN came in an spoke with me and told me about vasovagal and explained that the meds she wanted me to take back in RGH, would not have given me more pain (why the other Dr didn't know this is beyond me) and gave me 2 options, to stay in the hospital until everything had passed (with meds) or have a D&C ( Which I found out was a surgery and that I would have to be put under. I had never been put under before so I was a little concerned). But I still chose the latter. I wanted to get it over and done with. By this time it was 1 pm ish.

At 2 pm I was taken to the room, where I would wait until they were ready for me in the OR, which was located in the maternity ward. I do have to say, with some one who has just miscarried, this might not be the best place for them, baby posters on the wall and the distant crying of new born babies is the last thing what you want to see and hear. I was okay though, I just thought, I want to get home and hold and snuggle my 4 "babies".

By 2:45 ish I was on my way to the OR and was in by 3 ish. I have to say being put under was pretty nice. I woke up and felt like that was the best sleep I had ever had even if it was only for an hour or so. I was finally taken back to my room just before 5 pm where Kirk was waiting for me. He was pretty worried. We've never doubted our love for each other but I have to say it grew even more for the both of us that day.

We finally were able to head home at 6 pm and I got my snuggle time with my babies!

I feel blessed to have 4 healthy, happy kids in my life and of coarse a husband who loves me so much. Miscarrying is sad but I have been able to look at the positive or at least can see the many blessings I already have. I am so thankful for the gospel of Jesus Christ and the plan of salvation. I have amazing family and friends who love and support me and are willing to lend a hand or bring a meal or give a hug. I had wonderful nurses and doctors through it all! I know I am truly blessed!

My "babies"

taken November 13th, 2010

LL is 9

2010-11-17T10:44:00.005-07:00

On October 14th, 2001 Kirk and I welcomed a chubby, 8 lb 2 oz baby girl into our lives. We hope you know how much we love you LL!

She wanted an "Artist" party so we found blank canvases at the Dollar store with paint and brushes in the back. We got out Kirks work shirts for them to all wear and away they went painting up their own creations to take home. I didn't get a picture of them dang it.

So to go along with the theme I made a cake to look like a painters pallet. Not too bad looking anyway.

Kirk and I only had one thing for her on her Birthday and that was a Columbia pullover sweater. So we wrote her a letter of our love for her and that we would take her out on a date, just her, Kirk and I.

LL reading our letter to her.

So a week later we took her to the movie, Despicable Me, and then to Marble Slab for an ice cream treat! We made the night all about her. Listening to her and talking about her. I know she loved it and the other girls can't wait for their Birthday now so they can have a date with us.

Turkey and Teeth

2010-11-17T09:50:00.004-07:00

For Thanks Giving my brother and his wife invited the whole fam to come to their house for Turkey Dinner. My mom, however, had already booked a hiking trip through the Grand Canyon that same weekend, not realizing it was Thanks Giving. However terrible weather, flash flooding and tornadoes came in and the trip was canceled so they all flew home just in time so we could all enjoy a great Thanks Giving weekend and Dennis and Robyn's hospitality. We had the BIG dinner on Sunday, after church, and Robyn's brother and wife and Sister and kids came to join us. It was excellent!

Before we headed to their place we went through PL and LL's Faith in God Books and decided to so work on the first service goal. We read the scripture of the Good Samaritan and then were challenged to plan a service project to help some one out. We decided that Den and Roy would probably need some help raking the leaves at their place as they have a lot of trees. So that was the plan. We let the rest of the fam know and on Saturday at about 4 pm we headed out with our rakes and got their whole back yard done in about 1 hour. We just piled it onto a big cement pad in the middle of their back yard and then the girls jumped in it and we got some cute family pics, except that PL was in a mood and only looked up in one of them, the little stink!

Roy also planned to clean our and the girls teeth, she is a Dental Hygienist, so on Monday we headed to her office and 4 hours later we were all descaled and florided up! What a sweet thing to do and she wouldn't even let us pay her anything. She saved us like, $1000, I swear.

June to September

2010-10-18T11:36:00.011-06:00

We celebrated my grandpa Morton's, would be, 100 birthday at the homestead. Here are some of the grandkids imitating a picture we had taken 25 or so years ago.

See what I mean....too funny!

Here are all the Morton Grandkids.

June 6th, 2010

Cousins Clownin' Around! Some "Hall" cousins wanted to be in the

Raymond Parade so.... this is what we came up with.

July 1st, 2010

Love him!

August 16th, 2010

First time we ever climbed Bears Hump with our little family!

Not one complaint, it was nice.

August 16th 2010.

Little Boy Blue learned to crawl ... finally!

August 28th 2010

Schools in and I don't like it.

Well I'm getting use to it but man it's a lot of work for me!

PL grade 6

LL grade 3

NJ Kindy

September 1st, 2010

We are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and are so greatful for Forever Families! My Uncle Brian passed away at the age of 53 (i think) He has a great family that is his forever and he is theirs forever! I love that!

Me and my girls!

September 6th 2010

Daddy and his little boy!

September 6th, 2010

ASH turned 1

September 27th, 2010

He was a not too happy that day and after a couple more days of unhappiness I checked his mouth and there were 4 molars popping through! My poor boy!

LL has a natural talent for many things:

piano, spelling, math, reading to list a few. She has many friends and doesn't complain too much when I ask her to do something. She loves getting up early and even takes ASH in the morning (if he's awake) and feeds him and changes him.

She is our peace maker! Love you LL!

PL is now getting into doing her hair and is wanting make up!? We've told her not until she's in YW's but now that I've said that, it's only 6 months away! WWHHAATT! PL loves crafting and playing with friends. She loves to go to school but so far school work isn't her strong suit. She also has a great talent in piano but lacks to confidence to tackle something hard, or long. I hope I can find a way to help her. PL has babysat for us while we've gone to supper in the city. She is awesome and I love her to bits!

NJ is a crack up! The other day I said we should name our blow up Turkey decoration Tommy or something. She said "no, we should name him Dude." "Why?" I asked "Because boys are dudes." "oh and what are girls?" I asked "Womens." she said. Too funny. She loves school and has such a memory for things. She is loving singing again this year and remembers everything she learns. She loves to play and pretty much has a friend over after school every day. Man I love that "womens"!

LeT tHe CrAzInEsS bEgIn!

2010-09-08T21:28:00.004-06:00

It seems that I lost my mind! I have my girls signed up for more than 1 extra curricular activity this year. PL and LL are in Piano and Jazz while NJ is in singing and rhythm kids! On top of that I am on Parent Council (PAC)(this is my last year), the Family Night Live (FNL) committee, and have signed up for some craft/cake decorating classes! What was I thinking?

Yesterday it all began with a PAC meeting at 10. I am the "volunteer finder" this year, hope I can get the job done. Then a meeting for FNL at 1 today and piano for the girls starting at 4:30. And to top it all off when I got home from my FNL meeting I got out of the van opened the door for NJ to get out, shut the doors to walk around and get ASH out and "Click"!? The van locked all the doors with my keys, purse, cell phone and most important ASH inside!!!!! Luckily I had already opened the garage door. I rushed inside to see if the spare set was on the counter, no such luck! (I was pretty sure I had both sets in my purse) I quickly found AMA's phone # online and called:

"are you in a safe place?" was the first response I got

"yes!" I said.

"What assistance do you need?"

" My keys got locked in my van with my baby!!!!"

"That is high priority, where are you located?"

I gave him the info and he dispatched a truck from town to come immediately.

15 minutes from the time the doors locked the tow truck was here to my rescue! Thankfully ASH thought it was funny to watch us make faces at him through the window. I have only had AMA for a year and a half and haven't had to use it until now and how thankful I am for the speedy service it provided!

And as I said before LeT tHe CrAzInEsS bEgIn!

Freezer meals

2010-09-07T16:39:00.002-06:00

I love freezer meals! I made A LOT of them last year, just before I had ASH and let me tell you how easy they made life when in a rush or needing a day that required little thinking. I just used up the last of them (yes they were 1 year old and tasted great still). Now I need to pull out my apron and make up some more. It's 10% Tuesday at our local grocery store so I'm headin' up there once I post this to get me some meat (I think they have the best hamburger and meats). I think I'll make up some Meat Loaf tonight and of coarse like always make enough for 3 or 4 meals and freeze them for a later date. So tell me some of your favorite freezer meals you make or where you find great recipes. Got to go!

ASH

2010-09-02T10:38:00.006-06:00

I realize I haven't written too much about my Ash boy so here are some things about our little boy blue!

* He started to sit up on his own at about 6 months

* He finds it funny when his sisters hide and then jump out and say "boo"

* He's only had about 6 "blow outs" if ya know what I mean ;)

* He's a weekly "pooper"

* He can drink out of a straw cup but sippies still baffle him

* At his 7 month check up he wasn't moving around as much as the health nurse liked so she set up some meetings with children's Physio. I realized that his lack of rolling and such was because he has "mommies" that will bring him anything and everything he could ever want.

* At 8 months we met with Jenny and she gave us some things to practice to help him have more tummy time. It helped a lot!

* By nine months ASH was rolling all over but she still wanted to see him try to get on his knees. More exercises.

* 1o months ASH could pivot and climb up on lower things and wiggle his little body forward. I stopped any more assessing with Jennie because he was and is progressing but he likes to do it at his own speed.

* ASH is now getting on his hands and knees and taking those sweet crawling steps.

* He still gets frustrated if he can't get what he want NOW and will have a little cry fest.

* He loves his flannel blankies and suckey to go to sleep.

* He likes a pillow in his crib

* for the first 9 months of him in his crib I had to raise one end so his head was elevated because he breathed better that way

* 8 teeth appeared in his little mouth in a matter of 3 months, beginning at the age of 4 1/2 months old (got his first 2 on our trip to DisneyLand)

* He loves his mommy the most!

* He gets excited when he sees his daddy home from work!

* His sisters still fight over holding him

* Right now (11 months) he still can't sit up on his own

* He never liked baby food

* We started him on table food .... He loved it and still does

* He gets excited when he sees a banana or a fruit cup .... he loves fruit ... and meat

* Not into breads or crackers or Cheerios

* He's in a size 4 diaper and between 12 and 18 month old clothing

* Sadly for me he wakes up at least 2 but usually 4 times in the night just to get his soother back

* He just learned to click his tung

* When he was younger men scared him ... now he's not to bad around them

* He is very loud when he "talks" to you

* He loves to play with things other than toys

* He can find the smallest piece of lint and pick it up

* He likes to try to stick his fingers in your mouth ... the girls say he's

going to be a dentist ... let's hope!

* He's 23 lbs

* He loves to stand on our deck holding on the the rail slats and just yell happily

* When he sees a dog or cat he starts to make a "ooowoooow" yelling sound and tries to move toward it.

* When he gets excited his whole body tightens and he balls his fists and shows his crocked teeth

* He is ticklish if he's in the mood

* He generally hates getting wet ... occasionally he has liked swimming in the pool but bath time in the tub ... forget it. The sink however he likes ... wonder how long this can last?

* When I carry him face forward he sticks his arms out in front of him as if he's flying

* He ride my shoulders really well ... and he doesn't even pull my hair!

* He's totally and completely loved by our family!

Catching up

2010-09-02T08:57:00.004-06:00

I have found some time to catch up on things that need to be blogged.

On February 12th 2010 we headed south for 17 days of winter sun.... California.

Kirks parents bought a single wide trailer near Palm Dessert and Dessert Hot Springs and invited all of the family to come for a visit. So we packed up our girls and 4 1/2 month baby boy and caravanned with Kirks brother and sister's families. Kirk had a terrable head/sinus cold but still managed to get us safely to our first stop over in Provo for the night. The next morning we headed the rest of the way stopping at Cabela's and the Bass Pro Shop and of course potty breaks and Wendy's in St. George, to eat lunch.

We arrived at M and D's around 10pm and got settled into our sleeping quarters. We got to stay in Powelson's Arizona room which was a room off the house with 3 bunk beds and a shelving unit. It worked great for us.

In the next days we took a look around at all the neat flowers, trees, rock formations, we even had a humming bird in it's nest right next to our bunk house, and went to the Market. Took the kids swimming in the trailer parks pool (sadly "kids" can only swim from 10-11am and 2-3pm), they did have fun! Every night us adults would take turns going to the hot spring hot tubs. They actually have to cool the water down rather than heat it up. There were 3 BIG hot tubs at 3 different temps. It was nice and relaxing except that some old bitty got mad at us for not leaving on time! We left at 10pm (when you're suppose to) but she wanted us to be gone 10 minutes to. So she changed the clock ahead for the next day but we still stayed till 10. Seriously I hope when I get old I'm not a cow to people, trying to find wrong in everything. We also sent the guys and the kids off on a quading adventure in the sand dunes and then got ready for our next days adventure ... Disney Land!

We opted to buy 5 day hopper passes (hop between California Adventure and Disney Land) this year as they had a bit of a deal on so we split them up in the 2 weeks we were there. The first week we went 3 days the 2nd week we went used the remainder 2 days. We had a blast! It was nice to have that many days so you didn't feel rushed to see it all. Here are all the characters we met this year. Nevee was so excited to meet Princess Tiana and Jessie. Pacey was in heaven meeting Stitch and Max (Goofy's son) and Laina thought it was cool to meet both Chip and Dale! She even picked out chip and dale earrings, Pacey picked dangly tinker bell ones and Nevee chose minnie mouse.

They each we allowed to choose a "stuffy" too, Laina picked baby Bambi in a blankie, Pacey another Stitch and Nevee picked Minnie Mouse in a pink dress! We sure had a lot of fun and even more special we celebrated Nevee's 5th birthday there too!

Kirk went shopping on the 17th at Down Town Disney when it was open late with his brother and fam and sister and mom, I stayed with the tired kids in the hotel room (that was literally across the street from the Disney Land entrance). He found a cute Minnie Princess hat for her and his mom bought her some dangly pink minnie shaped earrings, and a cute little out fit while his Brothers fam got the matching necklace, all for her birthday the next day.

It was so exciting for her! She went to the Disney Land Office and got a "Happy Birthday" pin to wear (and every character or DL worker that passed her all made sure to say "Happy Birthday!"), she felt so special! She wore her hat and the Princess Tiana outfit I bought her. She even got a phone call from Goofy wishing her a Happy Day! We ate at Ihop that night, where she opened her gifts from her cousins and grandparents. On the week end back at the house I made her a cake. I don't think she'll ever forget this birthday and I don't think we can ever top it either!?

Before we took our fam back to DL we hit the beach! It was a bit windy but still sunny and a few of the kids braved the cold ocean. I was the creator of beautiful mermaids while the other built sand castles and collected sea shells. Pacey loves the beach and was off on her own so I didn't get a close up of her this time around.

We had a fabulous holiday and the kids only missed a week of school. It's hard and might even get harder when they are in older grades but this is the best time for our families to take long vacations. Work is slow in the winter for us so that's when we get to go. Most people ask how our summer is ... well it's just hangin' at the house or pool or spray park or lake near by as we just can't leave for longer than a weekend in this busy season. But our winter is always full of Adventure!

we own a ...........

2010-07-20T17:40:00.002-06:00

Kawasaki JET SKI

ours is the blue one.

We went out to Ridge park not 10 mins from our house to take them for their first spin.

So Kirk and his brother have been contemplating and looking for a good deal on a "personal water craft" for about a year or so. Well "B"randon found a set in Idaho, USA so off they went (with B's 7 year old boy taggin' along). An adventure for sure, as the trailer's bill of sail was still in Utah for some dumb reason, so they took a few hours longer than expected. Oh Well.... now we are ready for some serious summer fun.... if only summer would come?!

2010-07-20T14:05:00.003-06:00

Christmas TIME 2009

NJ before her performance.

on stage singing "I want a hippopotamus for Christmas"

Serious snow falls and drifting were in December.

Sno-woman being built by these lovely ladies.

Ginger bread cookies were fun to make.....

together.

Best Ginger Bread Men Recipe:

From the kitchen of Maria Olson

Approx 30 men

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup margarine or butter/softened

1 cup molasses

3 eggs/beaten

4 cups flour

2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp ginger

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp salt

1 tsp cloves

Cream sugar and margarine, add molasses and eggs, cream well. Combine and mix all dry ingredients in separate bowl and add to creamed sugar mix. Dough will be sticky so chill in fridge by wrapping dough in saran wrap for at least 1 hour. (Dough may last for 1 week in fridge). When ready take out and roll ½ the dough with lots of flour to ½ inch think and cut into men, or whatever you want. Place on cookie sheet covered with parchment paper and bake in a preheated oven @ 350 F for 7 -8 minutes.

And

BEST Soft Ginger Snaps

1 cup brown sugar

¾ cup margarine or butter/softened

¼ cup molasses (Domolco cooking molasses)

1 egg/beaten

2 cups flour

2 tsp baking soda

½ tsp salt

1 tsp ginger

1 tsp cinnamon

½ tsp cloves

Cream together brown sugar and margarine, add molasses and egg. Combine and mix all dry ingredients in separate bowl then add to the creamed sugar mix. Roll into 1 inch balls and cover in white sugar. Bake in preheated electric oven @ 325 F for 12 minutes OR in a gas oven @ 300 F for 10 minutes.

Christmas Morning.

Ward family Christmas Dance and party. Look who showed up for a visit!

But the most important part...

Celebrating the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ!

What a great Christmas we had in 2009!

House progress

2010-07-16T15:37:00.010-06:00

This is a major picture overload....34 to be exact.

Here's the process of the house from Sept/09 to April/10.

Thank goodness for the Picker Truck the guys own.

It made things a lot easier and faster with large walls and trusses.

This was the biggest wall they put up. NJ and ASH's outside wall.

More walls built and up.

North side view of the house. Just missing the dinning room and kitchen walls.

My hard working handi man. Love this guy sooooo much!

NJ's bedroom window to the left and ASH's to the right.

Dinning room wall and back door in the kitchen. Fire place to the very most right of the pic.

Pic from the front entrance. Stairwell and hall walls still to be made.

Putting up trusses. Niels, Mark, Brandon and Everett came to help this day! Thanks and hey sorry for the hammer falling on your head dad... Kirk still feels bad!

Just gotta love the Picker!

My Lover!

Look at the progress!

Sheeting

Shingled and some windows in.

Drywall stage and mud and tape. Master Bath.

Master bedroom

I'm looking through the door of our walk in closet. In front of me is the hall way to NJ and ASH's rooms (to the right), and mainfloor bathroom (to the left).

Looking into the kitchen/dinning room from the front living room widow.

Looking at the living room, front entrance from the kitchen patio doorway.

Pantry and place for Fridge and range.

Looking to the hallway to garage entrance (first door on your left and NJ's bedroom straight ahead. Stairwell right below.

Getting the garage floor ready for concrete. You can see we have 2 entrances into the house in the garage, one to the main floor and one to the muddroom in the basement (just under the the door above.

Primer any one?! Yes! Kitchen area.

Doors anyone!? YES!

You can see some decking done through the windows!

Master bedroom with some color! Looking toward the Master bath.

Color in the hallway and you can see in NJ and ASH's rooms.

Color in the main kitchen/dinning room.

Main room.

Cabinets in and hardwood being laid! LOVE IT!

Well that's ALL I've got so far. I'll get some more pics taken and posted soon. We just love it! Thanks to my hard working hubby and all his knowledge, he literally did 80% of the work on this house... if not more! Love you so much Kirk!!!!

October 2009

2010-07-15T22:49:00.004-06:00

What a busy month this was!!!!!!!

LL turned 8, I planned her baptism and ASH's blessing for Oct. 25th

(which was stake conference Sunday and it worked out awesome!) and Halloween, all with a newborn and house building.

Whew, I was sure glad when that month was over!

LL opening b-day gifts

She had a birthday party with a few friends. Theme: HaLlOwEeN!

Gingerbread Haunted Houses!

Spoiled!

October 25th getting ready to be baptized by her dad.

LL now a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints!

The great men in her life!

Family picture with grandma and grandpa Bowlby.

Family picture!

Can't forget...Nevee lost her earring while running around but luckily after a few prayers we found it.

I finally found the kind of outfit I wanted ASH to be blessing in... a simple white sleeper found at our local pharmacy! and only $13.

Given a name and a blessing by his dad on October 25th.

Such a sweet babe!

Grandma Bowlby saw grandpa holding ASH and said that was the first time she'd ever seen grandpa hold such a small baby, so I had to snap a picture of them.

4 generations

Lot's of Catching UP

2010-07-15T19:06:00.009-06:00

Hopefully I can get caught up on all the memories and moments we've had, last and this year, in the next week or so, now that I'm more settled, in our new surroundings. In case you've forgotten... we built a house and moved in on the Long weekend in May 2010. Yay!

Any way as I up date from let's see.... October 2009 'till now.... I will be doing it at random.

So here is my little man, ASH, in California, USA February 2010.

1. Having fun in California Adventure.

2. Somewhere in CALI.

3. At the San Diego Zoo with dad.

4. In line at the Toy Story ride with mom.

5. First day in Disney Land ever for ASH. Doesn't he seem so thrilled?!

6. First toe dippin' in the Ocean.

California Charicatures

2010-03-07T10:16:00.004-07:00

Here are the paintings that we had done in Disneyland.

Quick little post

2010-01-19T14:52:00.004-07:00

Me: "Look NJ there's a little dog running around on our lawn."

NJ: "Do you think that is my friend Shayla's dog?"

Me: "No Shayla's dog, Rex, is a BIG dog."

NJ: "Maybe Rex burped and now he's small!?"

LOL she makes me laugh every day and I love it!

Christmas Family Pic'ss

2009-12-07T23:09:00.005-07:00

Finally I (Kirk) had time to set up and take some family pictures for my wife to send out for Christmas. Here are a few of my favorites!

getting stuff done

2009-11-12T10:49:00.006-07:00

I've been getting stuff done and out of the way. A good friend of mine threw me and ASH a baby shower. These are the "thank you"s I gave to all those who thought of us.

Then we had LL's baptism and ASH's blessing on October 25th. It was such a special and spiritual occasion. My dad was even ordained a High Priest, by his brother, at the end of it all. We are so blessed! I also made a "thank you" for LL to give to all those who gave her gifts and participated in her getting baptized, similar to ASH's but with a pic of her, of course. I would show it but it's in a tiff file and blogger doesn't support that file.

This is the Primary Presentation Pizza Party invitations I made. It went well and we are excited for it tomorrow!

On Nov 6th we, on parent council, did the Character ED assembly on the word INTEGRITY. We went with a rainbow theme and prompted everyone to dress in rainbow colors... this is how I looked. you just can't see my pink knee high socks and yellow and orange striped leg warmers and green flipflops.

It was fun! Just hope the kids remember what INTEGRITY stands for...

Be Honest ... don't lie, cheat or steal

Be Reliable ... keep your promises

Have Courage ... even when no one is looking

I like this better

2009-11-11T15:29:00.004-07:00

The last post I used the smilebox which was neat but not what I was really wanting. Thanks to Ang for letting me know about this site!

That's what I wanted! Love this little boy so much! he's now 6 weeks so here are 6 things about him:

1. he eats about every 2.5 to 3 hours during the day.

2. at night he goes to bed at 11pm and wakes up at 4:30am to eat and go back to sleep until 8am to eat again and back to sleep, to then wake up at 10am and eat and stay up for an hour or more.

3. he weighs 11 lbs 4 oz and is 22 inches long.

4. it only takes him about 10 minutes to eat and be full.

5. he's now focusing on us rather than around us and he's smiling a little more when he hears me.

6. when he cries... he screams... no little whimpers from him...when he's hungry or has a "bubble" he let's us know.

We are all doing great and getting back into routines and such.

Our primary presentation is this Sunday, thankfully I have an amazing 1st counselor who takes it on and plans it all out. She made 97 parts, for the 97 children we have, plus we have 8 music numbers and a "switch-a-roo". What's that you ask? Well because our primary is so large we came up with the idea of having the Jr. primary start on the stand and the Sr., plus the sunbeams, start in the first 4 rows in the congregation. When they sing the sunbeams stand on their bench and turn around to face the congregation with the Sr. Then after the Jr's. are all done their parts we have our pianist playing a song while only the Sr.'s. rise and walk out the back doors, into the foyer and to the front doors to the chapel. Once their rows are empty we have the Jr's. come down off the stand to sit in the congregation for the remainder of the presentation. and the Sr.'s fill in the seating on the stand... so a "switch-a-roo" it is called.

This Saturday we have our Primary Presentation Pizza Party. I think the name speaks for it's self.

That's what we have going this week.

All about ASH

2009-11-06T21:31:00.002-07:00

I can't believe that it is November...November?!

Kirk finally was able to find some time to upload and edit pics. so here are a few of our ASH man

Make a Smilebox slideshow

I hope to find some more time to post about all the things we've been up to in the last month as there have been a lot with birthdays, baptism, blessing, Halloween and the house update.
Hope everyone is healthy and well.

The Story

2009-10-02T17:49:00.002-06:00

Saturday September 26th was a day of putting up interior walls on our house. No I didn't lift anything that heavy but I did help out here and there but mostly sat and kept Kirk company while he built the walls and put them up. At 5pm I went home and showered and got ready for the Relief Society General Broadcast. Kirk came home and I went up to the church. The broad cast was great. After I was invited to go to Moxies for White Chocolate Brownies but opted to stay home and get a good night sleep and finish my Sharing Time and LL's primary talk. When those were finished I went to lay down at 10:30pm and fell asleep by 11. Kirk came to bed at midnight and I swear as soon as he laid down the first real contraction kicked in. I timed them and they were 9 minutes apart until 12:30 when they became 5 minutes apart. I laid there and prayed that I could just sleep through them and maybe go to the hospital after church. At 1:30am Nevee woke up and came in asking for a drink of water so Kirk got up and when he came back he asked how everything was, sensing that I was not really asleep and that I must be uncomfortable. I told him I was having contractions 5 mins apart. His response "are you serious?" He then convinced me to get ready because he was taking me to the hospital. He called his mom to come over and we were at the hospital by 1:50am.

2pm was checked and 4 centimeters and 80% effaced. Put on the fetal heart monitor and was in active labour and now 3 minutes apart with each contraction lasting for a minute. Dr. Steed came up at 4pm and checked me again and I was 5 cm and 100% effaced. Now at this point with my last 3 labour and deliveries he would break my water, I however wouldn't let him because I wasn't mentally ready for the "real" pain that would happen if my water was broke. He agreed to let me be and would come back up in a few hours unless I progressed to 10 sooner. Now these contracts, although hurt, were so manageable and I was able to just hang out with Kirk watching reruns of Seinfeld, King of Queens, So You Think You Can Dance Canada and some TLC. Dr. Steed came back at 8am dressed in his suit and tie, checked me and I was only 6cm. Kirk and I were so tired having been up, really, for 24 hours, with 1 hour of sleep in there so I said "break my water and lets get this over with".

8:30 my water was ruptured and the "bad" stuff began. To my worst fears, back labour again. I have now had back labour for the last 3 deliveries and this felt the worst. Maybe because I still wasn't mentally ready as I was 9 days early and was still preparing myself for "this" pain, maybe because I was anticipating it to be bad so it was...I don't know but it was hellish. By 9am I felt like pushing so was checked and the baby was right there so the Dr was paged. He came in and asked if he had time to change, the nurse said "if you hurry". I swear he left the room for 1 minute and was back dressed in scrubs. The bed was disassembled for delivery and it was not comfortable for me. My lower back killed with every pushing contraction. I had a hard time controlling myself as I broke down twice, sobbing that I couldn't do it. I truly had thoughts of "how am I going to do this?" "How is this baby going to come out?" I was so tired and had no energy to even press my chin to my chest. Now this happens to me every time but the 2nd year resident that was attending Dr. Steed commented how odd it was that I had a good 3-4 minutes in between each contraction, where most women have constant pushing contractions until babe is out. So initially I only pushed 5-6 times but before that last push I requested Dr. Steed use the Mighty Vac to help. He said if I gave a good push he would so I did and he attached the MV and pulled while I continued to push. Out came babe's head facing sideways and seconds later the shoulders in which I'm pretty sure I screamed. It was over! And Asa Stranton Hall (aka ASH) was born to our family at 9:25 am on Sunday, September 27th, 2009.

So here we are 5 days later and he is the best baby! I get worried that he may not stay this good but I have to take each day at a time and enjoy it. It really is crazy that life doesn't just stop when you have a baby. Kirk still has to go work on the house every night, which I feel bad that I can't go help because I can't take ASH. The girls still have to go to school and need me to help them get ready and out the door. Thankfully I have a neighbour who is willing to take them in the morning. But we are managing and taking it day by day.

Excited that this weekend is General Conference. Not excited that it's suppose to snow/rain though.

Oh and if you were wondering what happened with Sharing Time and LL's talk...Kirk's mom took the girls to church just for LL to give her talk then took them home with her. At 7:30am we had called my 1st counselor to let her know I wouldn't be there and to either go pick up the Sharing Time I had planned out or do whatever she wanted.

Hope to get some more pics up soon but I need Kirk's help. Anyway all is well and I am so thankful for all I have been blessed with!

He's Here!!

2009-09-28T13:30:00.007-06:00

I will let Tina update this post when she get's home from the hospital, but here is the low down. His name is Asa Stranton, he weighed 7 lbs. 14 ounces. He was 20.5 inches long and came to us at 9:25 AM Sunday September 27, 2009 (9 days early). All is well and they will be home soon. The girls are ecstatic!

1 year

2009-09-25T22:38:00.003-06:00

has gone by since I joined Weight Watchers. Sept 24th, 2008 it was. Now 1 year later I sit here 38 and 1/2 weeks pregnant and still weigh less than that first weigh in. Nice! I'm excited that there are only 11 days left (if babe comes on it's due date) and I can start again with the program. Just for those who want to know I got down to 143 lbs got prego and now 9 months later weigh 160 lbs. Only 17 lbs gained, which I must say is the most I've ever gained in a pregnancy but it's less then last years weigh in, which was 166.6 lbs. Hope to have some pics up in the next day or 2 of the house progress and baby bump.

Finally I got Pictures

2009-09-14T10:19:00.007-06:00

This will be a picture overload

of the first day of school, the progress of our house and a trip to the temple.

NeStInG

2009-09-02T09:45:00.003-06:00

I guess that's where I am...in the nesting stage of this pregnancy. I say this because I have all the neutral sleepers, onsies, and outfits washed and ready along with my nursing bras and burp pads. I got the baby monitor, breast pump tested and ready and the cradle washed and made a space for it right next to our bed, oh and the baby tub scrubbed and waiting to be used. I also started packing my hospital bag but soon quit because although I want to meet this little one I am not that ready.

The other reason I guess I'm in the nesting stage is that I got myself into getting some freezer meals for our fam. I cleaned out the deep freeze on Monday and decided to cook the HUGE turkey I had in there. Thought it would take a couple of days to thaw but it was ready to cook yesterday. However I had a round roast already in my BIG electric roaster, outside, for supper so I had to wait until that was ready and so the turkey started at about 6pm. Thankfully my eclectic cooker cooks faster than my oven so it was done by 11pm. But then I had to start dismembering it so I could get it into the fridge to cool. I was all done by 11:45pm and it was off to bed.

This morning I got up and thought about getting some turkey casseroles/stews ready to freeze but then decided to just cube it all up and freeze in small freezer bags that I can just throw into what ever I'm making. Now I have the carcass simmering in the roaster outside to get some turkey broth made up and the drippings on the stove to make gravy. I'll freeze them too. And the roast we had for supper was large enough I froze 2 small bags of the sliced roast beef and a bag of gravy. My fridge freezer and deep freeze are so full I'm not sure what I'm going to do because yesterday was the first Tuesday of the month so it's 10-20% off at certain grocery stores so I went shopping. When I do this I always stock up on bread at McGavins bread basket. This time I bought 23 bread items for $28 and forgot I needed to have room to freeze it. I also bought a huge pack of hamburger I thought I'd make a meat loaf with some and fry up the rest for things like tacos, lasagna etc. I fit all the bread stuff in the freezer but I'm not sure where I'm going to fit the ground beef.

Anyway I'm excited to get thing done but wonder it I bit off more than I can chew? I hope to get all this nesting stuff done so I can just put my feet up and enjoy just being home with NJ and wait for babe #4 to come.

PS sorry for the boring no picture posts, I'll try to get some uploaded soon.

not even 2 hours

2009-08-31T16:20:00.002-06:00

go by and I have my LL coming in the house with tears steaming down her face because her "best friend" told her they weren't "best friends" anymore. What to do , what to do? I sat with her and tried to get the whole story as to why these words were said because I'm not going to assume LL was an angel in the situation and nothing could be her fault. Girls can just be mean and take things so personally. I asked her if she thinks she's only allowed 1 "best friend"? She thought yes, I told her no and that we just need to be friends with every one and that our "best friends" should be the most important people in the world...our family. I don't know maybe that's too much for a almost 8 year old to understand but I really don't want my girls thinking they have to have a "best friend" outside our family but to just be a friend and treat everyone with kindness. Is that so much too ask? She's now gone back over the the "best friends" house to apologize...I asked for what? did you say or do something you need to apologise for? She said no but that she just wants to. What do I do with that? First day back in school and my biggest worry has begun. Friends?Girls?Mean?Why?

a post

2009-08-31T14:48:00.002-06:00

that's all I can think of for the title...it's kind of sad isn't it! But what isn't sad is that the girlies are back in school. *PL is in grade 5 and *LL is in grade 2 and my main concern this year is FRIENDS... I am so worried about that, girls can be sooooo mean.
*NJ will be doing one more year with Parent Pre School because 1 I didn't want to pay for 4 year old preschool, 2 it was booked so fast I don't think I would have got her in anyway and 3 I need a little helper when this baby comes. So last week when getting school supplies I picked up a few PreK books from the dollarama for NJ to do at home with me. She was so excited this morning after we dropped the girls off to get our her homework. So we did. We are starting on the letter Nn this week (for working on her name she prints it backward every time) and the number 1. She has a bin with all her work books, pencil bag complete with scissors, crayons, markers, glue stick, pencils and construction paper. We're just going to have some fun together for the next 5 weeksish at least until babe #4 comes, then things may change a bit but I hope to continue to work on this PreK stuff. My baby NJ is growing so fast, I put a pair of size 6slim jeans in her drawer because I was too lazy to put them in the bin down stairs and yesterday after church when she change out of her dress she put them on and guess what... they fit great. My 4 1/2 yr old is getting too big for my liking but like I said previously she'll be a great little helper when babe #4 arrives.

As for PL she's excited to have Miss Olsen as her teacher. This year Kirk and I decided that because of PLs pickyness we weren't going to buy her any new school clothes. Sound mean? I don't care... 2 months ago she begged for this skirt/shirt set that matched LLs so we got it for her... she wore it once I washed it and now it doesn't fit right!? WHAT!? You've got to be kidding me. So when I seen the Parent Link Center was have their annual Clothing Exchange I told PL that's where she would be getting all her school clothes and shoes and guess what she did and she's happy as a clam and it didn't cost me a thing. wootwoot

LL is just excited for now to be doing something new. LL isn't a school lover even though she is an excellent student and has so many friends. She got a few new school clothes but not many as 2 years ago I bought PL lots of cute stuff from Kalispell, size 8, and she didn't wear any of it more that twice so I packed it up and when I went through my many bins of clothes to declutter before the baby and the move and for the clothing exchange I found them and they all fit LL. I swear she has 40 tops and 20 bottoms, and 10 skirts and sweaters. She has 3 huge drawers and it all barley fits. I tried to purge some of it but they're all just so cute and practically brand new. Same goes for shoes, PL lives in crocs and flipflops so any other shoes she got years ago where barley worn and LL is fitting them.

Also not sad is that we are moving right along with the building of our home. The weeping tile and gravel is complete as is taring the basement. Kirk has back filled about 3/4s of the outside basement and the floor trusses came on Friday. The electrical line will be trenched out today so we can run a temporary electric line for Kirk to use to build and the Truss company says the roof trusses will be delivered this Friday. Also we got all the bank stuff signed on Sat so we are doing quite well for things moving along, for now anyway. Hope it stays that way.

Babe # 4 is a mover. Not really a time when I don't feel this little one doing acrobatics, I only have 5 weeks and can't believe how much the little one can still move in such a limited space. I am ready to be done but don't want the pain so I'm really not ready. Yes, I've decided to still have this babe in Raymond and sadly they don't have an epidural option so pain is inevitable. Any suggestions for pain relief send them my way. Thanks.
*PL-Pacey LaRae, LL-Laina Louise and NJ-Nevee Jane from now on will be initial in posts

Been upto

2009-08-19T12:45:00.009-06:00

... lots and nothing at all, really. On the nice days the girls and I are at the pool.

Pacey's back stroke

Pacey's Class

Laina's front stroke

Laina's Class

Nevee'e back float

Nevee's Class

By the way this is our new Aquatic Center. Nice eh!?

Nevee coming off the Red slide.

Here's the lot we bought.

We had it dug on August 12th and the footing forms were put in on August 13th.

On August 14th they poured the footings in the pourin' rain.

This guy here amazes me everyday. He does so much and is such a wonderful father and loving husband. I just can't put into words how great he is! I love him to pieces and am thankful he's in my life everyday.

Here's some new baby bump pics. Me at 31 weeks (August 3rd)

So that's all I have right now, hope to get more posted in a few days. And just so you know I am so not looking forward to school starting in 12 days plus I'm not ready I haven't done any school shopping yet.

1 year Survived

2009-07-22T18:27:00.003-06:00

So you may or may not remember this past post. Well it's been a year and I'm still breathing and smiling and learning. Here are some FYI's about our Primary:
1. We have 89 primary Children
2. Our Jr. Primary is Sunbeams to CTR 7's in which each group has 2 classes (except the Sunbeams) and our Sr. Primary is from CTR 8's to VAL 12's, 1 class in each group.
3. We have 28 Nursery kids
4. We now have 2 nurseries
5. My Second Counselor is prego and due the middle of August
6. My Chorister is prego and due the middle of September
7. I'm prego and due the first week in October
8. My second Counselor is prego and due in February
9. My counselors and I take turns doing sharing time for one month with a class doing it on the 3rd Sunday
10. We will be having our Primary Presentation on November 15th this year because of the baby boom we are having.
11. Sometimes I go up to the church Saturday evening and set up the chairs for Primary so I don't have to in the morning.
12. We have our Teacher Improvment meetings during Sharing Time. Works great!

lazy summer

2009-07-20T10:22:00.002-06:00

I love summer! Especially when the weather is nice. Every day we've been up to the new pool, well at least every day that it hasn't rained and it's open (closed Sundays). The girls and I are there for at least 2-3 hours and today we will be doing the same but going again for FHE when Kirk is home. I wonder how many other families will be doing that this Monday evening? Oh well, we have a pass and we are using it!

Truly I have much I could, should do around the house and even outside but I have NO energy to even start them.

Tonight, after our FHE swim we are dropping the girls off at my mom and dad's for a few days so maybe I'll get some stuff done while their gone. We'll see.

So I just want to know what are you making for suppers on these hot days? We haven't got AC through out the house, just one of those Costco Portables but I still can't do any baking/cooking. Even boiling noodles and frying hamburger can be unbearable on these hot days. And our BBQ is out of propane and we can't refill it in Raymond so it has been an non BBQ season thus far.

So please send me your ideas for suppers on a hot day!

Week 28

2009-07-15T13:38:00.002-06:00

I feel so BIG and I still have 12 weeks to go. What am I going to do?

Lay around at the new outdoor aquatic pool, here... that's what I'm going to do!

Trying again

2009-07-15T13:22:00.003-06:00

cross your fingers!XXXXX

They worked Hallelujah!!

Our Kids

Some other "kids"

These were taken at the advertised "goat lick" just 1/2 hour out of Browning. This was the first time we actually seen any goats and had daylight and time to stop and check them out. We were only about 10 feet away from the littlest one seen here. If it's a hot day know that the goats go under the bridge to keep in the shade. That's where we found about 10 of them sitting there lazily.

get away

2009-07-14T21:03:00.009-06:00

Last weekend we went down to Kalispell for a little R&R and price checking on things for the house we are getting ready to build. Didn't I mention that before? humm I guess I haven't. We bought a lot in one of the new sub divisions here and are hoping to have a hole dug in a week or so.

Here's the only pic that would upload in the hour and a half I've been waiting.

More to come when I have more patience and time.

Time and Eternity

2009-07-07T10:43:00.013-06:00

The past 2 weekends have been ones of celebration for Julie and Niels. They were married for Time and all Eternity on June 27th, celebrating with family. On July 4th they had their reception to celebrate with friends and more family. Here are lots of pics Kirk took on their wedding day.

pacey

laina

nevee

just coming out of the Temple

family dinner was out on the ranch.

dennis and robyn

kevin

See I told you lots of pics.

lkdshfalsidthalkrgha

2009-06-11T11:33:00.003-06:00

I just felt like posting something, anything and this is it:

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Don't you just sometimes want to do that!? Hit every key on the board and not have to think about what to type!? I do, and it's kind of fun! Trust me, you should try it! Okay who can find any REAL words in that mess up there? post them in my comments, if you want too.

baby bump...

2009-06-01T13:52:00.006-06:00

20 weeks on May 19th

Can you tell

2009-05-29T12:04:00.007-06:00

s some of you have seen and may follow I have a weight tracker on my side bar. To recap I joined WeightWatchers the last Wednesday of September 08 and weighed in at 166.6 lbs. The last weigh in I had a WW was the last Wednesday in February 09 and I was 148.2 lbs. So in 155 days I lost 18.4 lbs!!!! Not bad. In that 155 days I celebrated Thanks Giving, Christmas and a 2 week trip to California. In that 155 days I gained back, here and there, a total of 3.4 lbs so really I lost 21.8 lbs as I lost the 3.4 twice. Right!? Does that make sense?

Anyway I lost it all by just following the flex points system and didn't get into the activity part of the program really. Which reiterates what one fitness instructor told me 3 years ago "weight loss is 80% diet (food intake) and 20% activity."

So now that I have control on my eating habits I now need to master some activity in my life as I know how important it is for overall health not to mention for your heart, lungs, energy levels and just plain life!

You may say to your self "Tina's weight tracker says she ended with 143 lbs not the 148.2 lbs she has written in here? What of that?" So here it is....

in February I found out I am pregnant! Yes prego! and WW doesn't endorse weight loss during pregnancy so they kicked me out! Jokes, but really, told me to come back when the baby is born, which will be the first week in October or so. So at my last DRs appointment (May 15th) I weighed in at 143 lbs. I realize the weigh scale is a bit different than those at WW but I really do loose weight in the 1st trimester so I'm sure it's pretty accurate as with all my pregnancies I've lost between 18 to 20 lbs in the first 14-16 weeks.

So here are some pictures of me from July 2008 and April 2009. Can you see a difference? As I said before there is a 18.4 lb difference but can you even see it. True I am 3 months prego in the April pics but is there a difference? Let me know what you think.

July 2008 April 2009