Stuff

Lots going on around here these days. Here is a a small snippet of our week.

 

Travis bought me a new crockpot. We got, literally, a half dozen when we got married...all different sizes and types. (but none were the wide oval ones) Well, after 18 years, all but one are gone...so, when I saw the big oval crock pots on sale at Walmart...all I had to do was express a slight interest and Travis had that thing on its way to the registers. I never buy things for myself because I hate spending money and always find a w ay to convince myself I could do without. So, when Travis sees a chance to get me something he knows I really want...he seizes the opportunity. I have had lots of fun trying new recipes. This picture is of my chipped bowl...I mean of Cheeseburger potato soup. Oh my heart clogging goodness! It was divine! So, yay for new crock pots!

  

Thanks to "The Avengers" and Nick Fury, Connor REALLY wanted to know what it was like to wear an eye patch...so I sewed him his own. He wore it all day. Funny kid.

Elizabeth decided that she didn't want to eat anymore and we don't know why! Some of us have colds and sore throats, so I thought maybe that was what it was. I took her to the doctor...which is what this picture is...at the doctors office. They have no clue why she's refusing ANY food! She was even refusing drink, which was why I took her in. Her throat is fine...her ears are fine...no tummy problems....so frustrating! All she has consumed for four days is Kool-Aid! Today, I told the boys not to make any punch. Her only choices were milk or water. (yes, she even refused chocolate milk!) She cried and cried, but wouldn't give in. Finally, I put ice cubes in her sippy cup with milk and a dash of vanilla. I shook it and shook it and told her I was making ice cream. Then I set it on the counter and walked away. She took the bait and drank the whole thing! So, she has so far consumed 2 sippy cups full of "ice cream". It's the most nutrients she has had in her body for a week. What the heck? We'll keep you posted...she needs to eat soon...she's almost 4 years old and weighs just over 30 pounds!

We had an inspection of our house. It went well...we passed. I had to snap a picture of Joseph and Connor's room, because, well, it's CLEAN! Plus...I wanted to document how cute I think their "decorating" is. Lots of moms make up their kids rooms to look like an amazing out of the magazine room. I get jealous, briefly, but then I know my kids. 1. They would totally destroy the cuteness in a day. and 2. I love that they are expressing their own styles and likes. Just out of the picture, on the left, you can see the very corner of one of Connor's hub caps that he has hanging on his walls. Yep, hub caps and monster truck posters and pictures hand drawn galore! I love it!

This is just a silly picture of me and my girl.

 

Also...in the Nelson news...Travis was standing on the garbage container trying to smash down the garbage, when the big can slipped and he fell on his face. Seriously. Knocked himself out! He had a big old goose egg on his head and is now suffering from some bruised ribs, but seems otherwise ok. It was kinda scary at the time.

 

And...on my way home from taking Little Miss to the doctor, I was stopped at a light, when my foot slipped off the brake and I bumped into the car in front of me! The girl insisted on calling the police cause her bumper got a little dent. (I asked if we could just exchange info beings that I had four kids in my van and one was feeling crappy...but nooooo) Needless to say, when the officer arrived and saw that our van, I now call "the Beast", had 0 damage and her damage was minimal...he seemed totally annoyed that he had to respond. He gave us each others insurance info and left. I got no ticket and our insurance already called me and told me it was all covered. Phew! It was a weird day!

 

So I will wrap it up because Spencer is sitting here watching me type, patiently waiting for his computer turn back. Thanks, Peppo, for loaning me the computer.

As Promised...

As promised...a picture of the Halloween kiddo's.

Spencer was a computer nerd. (recycling his costume from last year)

Joseph was a zombie.

Elizabeth was a kitty cat.

Connor was a foam brush from a car wash...or most people just said he was a car wash.

Daddy and I wore our pumpkin shirts...but didn't take pictures.

And...here they are all spruced up.(Connor's baptism night)

I have cute kids!

 

Punkins

My oldest lil punkin went to his weekly Young Mens activity tonight. They carved punkins! Joseph absolutely loves going to mutual...and waiting for something so awesome as pumpkin carving was practically unbearable! When i picked him up, he was waiting for me. He was so excited to show me his masterpiece. Of course he took the green pumpkin.            On our drive home I totally embarrassed him by telling how proud I am of him and how lucky I feel to be his mom. He is such a blessing...and our miracle. 

 

Now...while Joseph was gone to mutual, the other three kids and I carved our big pumpkin. I took pictures, but I'm too lazy to get them off the camera at the moment. But, a good time was had by all and after I cooked the seeds, they were devoured with much enthusiasm. 

Tomorrow is the ward chili dinner and trunk or treat. Pictures will be posted soon. (I hope)

Connor's Baptism

Tonight Connor got baptized! We didn't have any family that were able to come, but our awesome ward family showed how to represent! Here are a couple of picture to document the super awesome occassion!

A Couple of Pictures

We took like a hundred pictures the other day, but I can't find where Travis put them on the computer! I wanted to get a few on the blog, just to have some extra documentation of our family. 

I took this one at Travis's parents house last month. I love, love, love it, because it sums up pretty much my entire life and reason for living...all in one shot. (I know, I posted this picture back in August, but I just love it so much!!)

 We took Travis on the trail section that we discovered a few days ago. He took the good camera and snapped a lot of great shots. We set it up on a pile of rocks and took this impromptu family shot.

 I absolutely love this picture of Joseph. It's so him. I can't believe that he is 12 years old...and is only 3 inches shorter than me...and goes to Young Men activities! My baby!!!!

Kinda random, but I took this picture. They were a block down the street from our house. They are such beautiful creatures!

So, when I find the pictures, I'll probably post more. I'm trying to get the kids out more and we decided to use the Olympic Discovery Trail as our main objective. There is a lot of trail to tackle...so lots of pictures to come. Here is a link to the site for the trail. It's super awesome! http://www.olympicdiscoverytrail.com/

Hiking and My Deacon

I am posting this from my tablet, so...please excuse any weirdness.  It auto corrects when it is not supposed to and puts pictures where it wants to...haha. But, I can at least update my blog with pictures I took with my phone.

Joseph starts going to Young Men activities tomorrow. They are concentrating on healthy living and fitness right now. We decided that our family is very out of shape, so to go along with Joseph's YM theme, we started our own health and fitness week. (and we can count it as P.E. for school) Day one activity...we hiked along a piece of the Olympic Discovery Trail. Here are a few pictures...

This is actually where we stopped for snack and turned around. I love where we live. We start out hiking in the forest and ended up looking at ocean water after walking just 45 minutes.

They each packed their back packs with food, water, and a first aid kit. Even Little Miss.

Connor brought a notebook and tried to take notes of what he saw, but got tired of that after about 5 minutes. haha

Yes...Spencer is wearing a white shirt and tie. He does every...single...day. It's because a character in one of his favorite book series does, I think. And he likes looking nice. His OCD has gotten more prominent lately. Perfection is something that he MUST have. He hates the word "the" because it's too vague. Can make for interesting days. But, he was a very well dressed hiker today. (o:

In other news....check out my 12 year old! I can't believe he is that old!  Sunday, the Young Men came and took Joseph out of Primary. It was so touching. He's so excited to go to his first activity night. He will receive the Priesthood this Sunday. It's so exciting! (but..I feel so old!)

18 Years!

I think I don't blog very much any more because, yes, Facebook...but also because I take so many pictures with my phone and then post them directly to Facebook. I have no pictures readily available on the computer. Hmmm...better figure that one out I suppose.

But~ until then...I would like to document that we have survived absolutely enjoyed another year of wedded bliss! 18 years! Our marriage is a legal adult! It has had it's serious rough patches, plus some serious joy, but the ride has all been so worth it! Travis and I still talk about how when we first met and started talking, neither of us could believe that the other was interested. Our 4 1/2 week courtship and our really super long engagement of just over 4 months...our Temple marriage in the Idaho Falls Temple...

 I went from having this.....

(which is bliss in itself)

To now having all this...........

Our life is far from perfect, but we are happy. I never knew my heart could hold so much love as it does today. I am eternally grateful to my Heavenly Father for causing two paths to cross at the perfect time, 18 years ago.

 Next year, will mark exactly half my life spent married to Travis. I can't wait!!!

FINALLY!

Finally! I'm finally writing another post. It's finally summer! I'm finally feeling a bit better!

Summer here on the Bluff's is different than any other place I've lived (which is a lot of places in my lifetime). It is very...uh...cold! It's summer and I'm in a sweatshirt as I type. The cool, moist air that blows off of the ocean from the Strait blows (a lot) right on to us. It is literally like having an air conditioner. Then, on the other side of the house we have forest...forest that creates lots and lots of shade. So many people in the world love the hot weather and living in heat. Luckily...Travis and I are NOT those kind of people. I LOVE having to drink hot tea in the morning to warm up...during the entire summer!

Also, all our little friends are around us more now that it is summer. Our robins are back and the sweet little baby deer with their adorable spots are back (instead of their way ugly winter coats)....

 This is Robbie the Raccoon. He comes by every evening to eat the scraps we leave out for him. (and if I forget to take the bag of garbage to the shed...he loves to shred the bag and make a mess!)

This sweet little deer was hanging out on the edge of our front lawn. She was there for a couple of hours. We see lots and lots of deer during the summer.

Travis loves robins. He has taken some amazing pictures of some of the robins that have come to visit. (and of a lot of other gorgeous birds that didn't make it to this blog today cause I'm lazy)

 (slightly random) All my married life I have wanted a kitchen that has a window. I wanted to be able to look out the window while I cooked and did dishes...I finally have one! I really really love my kitchen window!

This day it got to about 65 degrees, so the kids ran through the sprinkler. Notice Connor ran through with his blankets? It was still a bit cold for them, but they had a blast anyway.

Notice Elizabeth wearing a diaper???.....

 One week later...notice Elizabeth's stylish underwear???....Another Finally! This girl is 3 years and 5 months old. For the past 6-8 months, I have tried to get her to potty train. She said NO! She would take off her underwear and actually try to put her own diaper on! Drove me crazy! But, I have learned through the years not to force things like this. I don't know any adults that aren't yet potty trained. Plus, she's my baby. I'm not going to rush her if she's not ready. Needless to say, we found ourselves last week with only about 4 diaper and 3 days until pay day. So, I hid the four diapers and showed her the empty diaper packaging. I told her the diapers were all gone and offered her the underwear. She immediately put them on. Then I took her in her room and had her feed her Baby Alive while the doll was sitting on Lizbets potty chair. Baby Alive peed in the potty...then she got cheers, hugs and kisses. Little Miss thought about that for a while, pulled down her panties and peed. That was that!

She still requires "night night diapers", but doesn't request to wear them during the day. I put a diaper on her for church because she is terrified of the church toilets...BUT...we have made huge progress this past week! I'll take any progress. Although...it sure makes me sad to see my little baby girl getting so grown up already.

One last photo...my little helper helping to make homemade brownies.

So...that is all I have to report. Oh, I am now in the Nursery in church...they called me there because I was already hanging out in there quite a bit with Elizabeth. It's great. We have such an outstanding Ward and those little kids are just awesome!

Also....looking really really really a lot forward (Connor's words) to the 4th of July this year!!! Travis has the whole day off this year! Woot! The kids are super excited to go to the Ward 4th of July breakfast and then bbq at home and do fireworks. This weekend we are going to go buy just a few fireworks at the closest reservation. Yay for our country's birthday!

I Hate Getting Old!

Lately, as I gaze upon the magnificent gorgeousness of a little one like this...

my heart hurts a bit...because I want another to add to this...

but alas...Travis says no, because my body said whoa! (with our last one)

*sigh* Oh well. For someone that was told 13 years ago that I had less than 5% chance of having any...I am pretty dadgum lucky! My heart could just burst with the love that I have for these cute, kissable, somewhat strange, definitely goofy, totally lovable children! Thank you, Heavenly Father, for my special gifts. 

(ps...i wrote this entry using my Galaxy Tab. Somewhat tedious, but kinda cool! Maybe next time, I will try out Travis's iPad) *grin*

One Tiny Step

I'm finding that my life goes considerably better if I take things one tiny step at a time. As soon as I begin to think of all that needs to be done...I freeze and get nothing done. (I'm sure I have described most everyone on the planet) And nights...ugh! Dad was right...Satan's best time really is night...when I'm laying in bed...thinking...and thinking...and thinking...(can we say...Thank you Melatonin!)

Anyway...I'm not a real go-getter. I have always been the one that was told I was kinda lazy or didn't apply myself. Truthfully...I just would rather daydream or read a good book than do most anything...but...that isn't what a mommy can do. So...today I started eating my elephant...one bite at a time. I went through all of the homeschool junk that was piling up on and around the table and got it all sorted and the table area is now all pretty again. The thing that makes me so sad...the kids were thrilled with the cleaned off table and immediately all sat together and did their own things side by side. Why does this make me sad? Cause I didn't get my behind in gear and do it earlier. How on earth did my parents raise such a pack rat? I understand why all of our kids are that way...cause both of their parents are...but seriously? My parents are both sooo super clean! What the heck? I'm figuring that Heavenly Father has his own ideas of how to use me and what I should be...I guess I'll keep trying to figure that out and keep on keeping on.

Here is a picture of the kids doing their activities. Connor was coloring, Elizabeth was using my tablet, Spencer was watching "Arthur" the cartoon on his Nintendo 3ds, and Joseph was watching a documentary about monster trucks on his 3ds. It was so peaceful...I did dishes.